I went to a talk by “legendary” designer Bruce Mau. I had never heard of him, but apparently, he’s a big deal.
He told us that he had even redesigned Mecca, the holiest city in Islam. I thought, wow, that’s cool. The authorities there asked for his help after a stampede during the Hajj killed 800 people.
That’s what he told us, at least.
Afterwards, I looked this up, and I found some news articles that said ultimately, his plans for the redesign were rejected.
I’m glad that they were rejected, because he didn’t talk about Mecca in a very nice way. The Hajj is a very holy pilgrimage, and he was talking about it with amusement. “Oh, heh, they first have to walk 7 circles, and then they go back and forth 9 times (pausing at key moments for comedic effect), then they go off to the desert, and they gather stones, then they come back and stone the devil.”
It was flippant and not very respectful. Listening to him, I thought, what a shame this guy got to redesign Mecca.
Then afterwards, I found out his plans had been rejected. Good. Because can you imagine someone redesigning Mecca who is then going to go back to the US and talk with amusement about the Hajj?
mejshasan.com 