At the same time, other projects turn back the clock and embrace low-tech solutions to fundamental problems. There’s a large rolling plastic water jug to assist those who live without running water, and a simple drum-shaped clay stove to help those who cook with fire to conserve fuel. As a result of this divided view of technology, objects tend to have either a warm, hand-crafted feeling, or the abstract, no-nonsense look of appliances.
     If the selection of objects was intended to answer, “Why design now?”, it also asks us to consider, “What is beautiful now?” In the past, product-design exhibits like the Triennial have placed physical beauty on par with functionality. Designed objects were expected to uphold a clarity in their proportions and a fineness in their materials that elevated them from the realm of ordinary-looking, everyday stuff. Each object in Why Design Now? urges us to look once again before we judge. This ungainly pair of eyeglasses can help a man without other medical or technical resources see clearly. And this slight, banal-looking coffin decomposes underground without releasing toxins into the environment. These objects are aiming for a different, deeper beauty.