Speakers: Richard Saul Wurman - Design Research Conference, IIT Institute of Design

Richard Saul Wurman, Creator of TED Conference

Spurred by the dance between his curiosity and ignorance, Richard Saul Wurman has sought ways to make the complex clear. Although his 81 books appear to be on different subjects, i.e. travel, information theory, information architecture, healthcare, cartography, sports, children, finance, they were all about the same thing, the journey from not knowing to knowing. The journey both delights and allows him to create his personal map of interest.

Recently it occurred to him that no two cities in the world (a world in which 51% of people live in urbanized areas) ask the same questions of themselves which could enable them to compare one urbanized area to another. Maps are not scaled the same, legends are not identical, economy, power, water, health, religion, safety, the list goes on. Richard Saul Wurman and partners are going to use 19 of the largest cities that will have more than 20 million people in the 21st century, to develop the methodology of comparatively understanding planet earth for people. The project is called 19.20.21 (http://www.192021.org/).

B. Arch. / M. Arch., Chandler Fellow, Guggenheim Fellow, Graham Fellow, Chrysler Award, Kevin Lynch Award from MIT, Creator of TED Conference, TEDMED Conference, eg Conference, Chairman 1970 International Design in Aspen Conference, Chairman 1976 AIA Conference.