Fukushima Daiichi: Another lesson in 'fracture critical'?

Photo: The Line

In 2009 Tom Fisher, Dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota, wrote an essay entitled simply, "Fracture Critical," which has since achieved somewhat of a minor cult following. He has just completed a book, Fracture Critical: How We Design Our Way to Disasters (release date not yet available).

In short, Fisher looks at design failures like the devastation of New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina, the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis in 2007, the Wall Street meltdown in 2008 and the Haiti earthquake disaster in 2010 as canaries in the coal mine for the future to come: They are all examples of flawed design.

The ultimate "fracture critical" circumstance we are now facing, he argues, is the growing burden of human overpopulation on the planet coupled with the twin challenges of human-induced carbon dioxide pollution of the atmosphere and our over-consumption of natural resources.

To learn more about Tom Fisher's ideas, we recommend the following readings:

• "Fracture Critical," The Design Observer Group
• "Design Thinking: A Solution to Fracture-Critical Systems," Design Management Institute
• "Have we designed our way to disaster? An interview with U design dean Tom Fisher," MinnPost.com
• "The big picture 1: A conversation on designing the future with U of M Design Dean Tom Fisher," The Line

(Thanks to Linda Meschke, Rural Advantage, for the heads-up.)