Richard Saul Wurman | |
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| Born | (1935-03-26)March 26, 1935 (age 90) Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Pennsylvania (BArch,MArch) |
| Occupations | Architecture, information architecture, design |
| Known for | 19.20.21; TEDMED; WWW Conference; 555 Conference |
| Website | www |
Richard Saul Wurman (born March 26, 1935) is an Americanarchitect, author,information andgraphic designer. Wurman has written, designed, and published over 90 books and created theTED conferences andTEDMED, conferences on health and medicine. Wurman received the Lifetime Achievement award fromCooper Hewitt and theAIGA Gold Medal for his work in information design.
In his bookInformation Anxiety (1989), Wurman developed theLATCH principles, or "Five Hat Racks", offering a framework for organizing information. LATCH, an acronym, stands for Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, and Hierarchy. These principles provide a finite set of ways to structure information, regardless of the subject matter, making it easier to understand and navigate.
Wurman was born inPhiladelphia on March 26, 1935.[1] He received both his B.Arch. and M.Arch. degrees from theUniversity of Pennsylvania, completing his graduate degree with honors in 1959.[2]
After graduating, Wurman practiced architecture for 13 years including working forLouis Kahn in 1960–1961,[3][4]Charles and Ray Eames,[5] and independently.[6]
In 1962, he took a teaching position atNorth Carolina State University's School of Design.[7]: 198
Wurman chaired the IDCA Conference in 1972, the First Federal Design assembly in 1973, and the annualAmerican Institute of Architects (AIA) conference in 1976.[8]
Wurman is the founder of TED conferences[9] which later becameTED Talks.[10] He created and chaired the TED conferences from their creation in 1984 through 2002,[11] TEDMED from 1995 through 2010, the EG conference,[2] and the WWW conference.[12] He sold the rights to TED in 2001 to theSapling Foundation[11] for a reported $14 million.[13]
He works withEsri andRadicalMedia on comparative cartographic initiatives for mapping urban settings, which is planned to culminate in the creation of a network of live urban observatories around the world.
Wurman supportsSENS Research Foundation, a nonprofit biotechnology organization that seeks to repair the damages of aging and extend healthy lifespan.[14] He taught atUniversity of Cambridge,[15]North Carolina State University andPrinceton.[16]
Wurman has written, designed, and published nearly a hundred books on varying topics,[1] includingNotebooks and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn (1963)[3] andWhat Will Be Has Always Been (1986), a collection of words by Louis Kahn. Wurman met Kahn during his studies at UPenn.
Wurman's map-oriented andinfographic guidebooks include the Access travel series (starting withAccess/LA in 1980), several books on healthcare includingUnderstanding Healthcare (2004),[17]Understanding USA (1999),Information Anxiety (1989) and its second edition,Information Anxiety 2 (2000).[18]
Wurman is credited with inventing the term "information architecture".[19][11] His books about information architecture andinformation design includeInformation Architects (1996) andUnderstandingUnderstanding (2017).[20]
Wurman was awarded the Arthur Spayed Brooks Gold Medal,[16] several honorary doctorates, a Graham fellowship, a Guggenheim fellowship,[5] numerous federalNational Endowment for the Arts grants, and has served as a distinguished professor atNortheastern University. He is a recipient of the 2019National Design Award in Lifetime Achievement category fromCooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum,[19] an Annual Gold Medal fromTrinity College, Dublin, 2004 Gold Medal fromAIGA,[11] andBoston Science Museum's 50th Annual Bradford Washburn Award in 2014. He is also anAmerican Institute of Architects fellow and member of theArt Directors Club of New YorkHall of Fame.[18]
Wurman lives onBellevue Avenue inNewport, Rhode Island[13][21] and inGolden Beach, Florida, after having previously lived inManhattan in New York City.[21] He's been married to novelist Gloria Nagy since 1980.[13] They have four children and six grandchildren. Wurman isJewish.[22]
