Architecture and Design: 2013 Year In Review

Kanye West, Harvard BoundMr. Yeezus himself Kanye West made headlines—and raised eyebrows—by delivering a talk at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. Though his comments were often platitudes—"I really do believe that the world can be saved through design," he said—they undoubtedly brought more eyes to the profession and more interest to the field.

A Rolling Stone story reports that urban planning student Tessa Kaneene invited West to speak. "[We sent him] a hand-delivered invitation in the form of a personal letter, written by all the members of our group," Kaneene said in the story. "It was very serious about issues of diversity in design and under-representation. Only one percent of licensed architects are African-American, and we make up 13 percent of the population." Diversity in design and architecture—as in all fields—is incredibly important and we're eager to see how West and his creative agency, DONDA, address this.

In related news, West also joined architect Jacques Herzog and historian Hans-Ulrich Obrist for a discussion during Design Miami.

(Tangentially, a spoof by James Franco and Seth Rogen of his Bound video tops our list for the year's most hilarious parodies.)