Hugo Palmarola, Eden Medina, Pedro Ignacio Alonso (eds.)

How to Design a Revolution

The Chilean Road to Design

A bold project for change unfolded in Latin America at the beginning of the 1970s. After an electoral victory in Chile, the socialist government led by Salvador Allende and his governing coalition, Unidad Popular, embarked on a mission to bring about a socialist revolution through existing democratic institutions to address the most pressing needs of the Chilean people. The result was an unprecedented alliance of socialism, democracy and design.

This book provides the most complete analysis of the graphic and industrial design projects developed during Salvador Allende’s presidency. The book’s twelve chapters tell some of the most remarkable histories of this innovative design experience, including histories of the powdered milk measuring spoons designed to combat child malnutrition, the posters that encouraged collective action and a state-of-the-art operations room built to manage Chile’s state-run industries. Through these and other projects we see how Chile’s designers worked to create a path to social and material justice.

Fifty years after the civil-military coup d’état that put an end to democracy in Chile, and with it these design initiatives, the book provides a reminder of Latin America’s transformative capacity and a source for reflection and creative inspiration.

A bold project for change unfolded in Latin America at the beginning of the 1970s. After an electoral victory in Chile, the socialist government led by Salvador Allende and his governing coalition, Unidad Popular, embarked on a mission to bring about a socialist revolution through existing democratic institutions to address the most pressing needs of the Chilean people. The result was an unprecedented alliance of socialism, democracy and design.

This book provides the most complete analysis of the graphic and industrial design projects developed during Salvador Allende’s presidency. The book’s twelve chapters tell some of the most remarkable histories of this innovative design experience, including histories of the powdered milk measuring spoons designed to combat child malnutrition, the posters that encouraged collective action and a state-of-the-art operations room built to manage Chile’s state-run industries. Through these and other projects we see how Chile’s designers worked to create a path to social and material justice.

Fifty years after the civil-military coup d’état that put an end to democracy in Chile, and with it these design initiatives, the book provides a reminder of Latin America’s transformative capacity and a source for reflection and creative inspiration.


“A new book examines the role of design during Chile’s Allende government in the 1970s. Its authors reflect on the iconic designs that have remained in memory, and the legacy of this fertile chapter in Chilean design history.”

Creative Review

“[The authors] analyze the everyday items designed and massproduced in this new era that promised prosperity, as well as the iconography used to foment the idea of a modern, more egalitarian Chilean society.”

New York Review of Architecture

«In zwölf Kapiteln stellt der Band  «How to Design a Revolution» nicht nur die Entwicklung in dieser kurzen Blütezeit dar, er fragt auch nach der politischen Funktion von Design auf dem Weg zu einer gerechteren Welt.»

Grafik Magazin


 

Edited by Hugo Palmarola, Eden Medina, Pedro Ignacio Alonso

Design: Yazmín Jiménez

16,5 × 24 cm, 6 ½ × 9 ½ in

336 pages, 403 illustrations

paperback

2024, 978-3-03778-733-5, English
CHF 50.00

Hugo Palmarola

Hugo Palmarola

Hugo Palmarola is associate professor in the School of Design at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and holds a PhD in Latin American Studies from UNAM Mexico. He was curator and editor of “Flying Panels: How Concrete Panels Changed the World” at ArkDes Stockholm, and “Monolith Controversies Pavilion of Chile” at the 14th Venice Architecture Bienniale.

Eden Medina

Eden Medina

Eden Medina is a historian of science and technology and a professor in the MIT Program for Science, Technology, and Society. She is the author of “Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende’s Chile” and coeditor of “Beyond Imported Magic: Essays on Science, Technology, and Society in Latin America.”

Pedro Ignacio Alonso

Portrait Pedro Alonso Ignacio

Pedro Ignacio Alonso is associate professor in the School of Architecture at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and head of the PhD Program in Architecture, Design, and Urban Studies. He was curator and editor of “Flying Panels: How Concrete Panels Changed the World” at ArkDes Stockholm and “Monolith Controversies: Pavilion of Chile” at the 14th Venice Architecture Bienniale.