Papanek, Victor

Papanek, Victor (1926–  ) designer, educator; born in Vienna, Austria. He came to this country in 1939, studied with Frank Lloyd Wright in 1949, graduated from Cooper Union (1950), and earned an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1955). He taught at the University of Toronto, the Rhode Island School of Design, Purdue University, and the California Institute of the Arts, among other places in North America. He also worked, taught, and consulted in England, Yugoslavia, Switzerland, and Australia. In 1981 he became professor of design at the University of Kansas. He specialized in design appropriate to local materials and technology. His best-known book is Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change (1971).