Get with the times people  

Oh, yes Brother Simon, oh, yes...
The only thing we ban in the monastery is pedophilia.
There is the wine.
The bread.
The cheese.
The design.
The architecture.
The music.
The painting.
And soon the philosophy.

I agree DC Wilson
DC Wilson Perhaps the new design enlightement will be driven by a need to create environmentally sustainable products?
also...would it be okay if whitespike's girlfriend visits the monastery???

whitespike's girlfriend may live in the monastery...
if she wishes, but the brothers and sisters must respect the pre-existing relationship. 🙂

ahem
It's wife these days ... and the mother of my son!

Stephen
I have raised (along with others) the idea that the suitable purpose of design today is sustainability. It was a while back. If I could remember the thread or threads, I would certainly tell now. But alas, my head can be a bit of a sieve at times. Perhaps someone else can remember. But we have certainly gone there on DA.
Where sustainability contains ideas of reuse, There is certainly a contemporary component to an interest in vintage. My beginnings in this field were as a trash picker. I was unable to let a perfectly good object be scrapped when it still had a useful life. I slowly became became more thoughtful about my choices, and then stumbled into the art and design world. With only prior thought of "what a shame that this thing is being thrown out" and dragging it home, I had unwittingly started a small modern design collection. This was at a time when I was voluntarily in an almost complete commercial media blackout. So for me the modernist designer's works spoke for themselves. I have since endeavored to understand the appeal these objects have for me, and here I am now.