ABSTRACT
The concept-metaphor “design” has acquired both popular and epistemological provenance today, connoting a shift in the way individuals, firms, and academia know and do things. For people who title themselves “designers,” this implies an imperative to style aesthetic speculation after modes of financial speculation, displaying a new “pragmatic” or opportunistic outlook on their profession. Taking up key case studies in global real estate investment, this essay argues that notwithstanding this newfound spirit of acquiescence, such opportunism means little in terms of the shifting flows of flexible capital and investment. The rise of design paradoxically augurs the eclipse of the designer.
