Designing With The Other 90%

Worldwide, close to one billion people live in slums, and that number is expected to double by 2030. When you're facing a problem like that, your solutions better be innovative. The exhibit, called Design With the Other 90%: CITIES, shows the way. The museum's curator of responsible design, Cynthia Smith, recently showed me around. For two years she traveled to 16 different cities, gathering the materials for the exhibition. I learned about some inspiring people she encountered, like a young architect named Mohammed Rezwan.

Rezwan grew up in the northern part of Bangladesh, where there is annual flooding that's getting worse and worse. He decided that he didn't want to design buildings that were going to be under water in his lifetime. As Cynthia told me, he started to work with local boat builders to modify traditional bamboo craft with solar panels, computers, video conferencing, cell phone and internet access. He's created a fleet of 50 boats that can serve as libraries, floating schools and health clinics. All over the world, people are being pushed out of rural areas by global warming and human conflict, but Rezwan's 50 lifeboats can help communities stay intact...