Edited by Daniele Pario Perra. Text by Emiliano Gandolfi, Daniele Pario Perra, Pierluigi Sacco, Francesco Morace, Beppe Finessi.

Low Cost Design is based on the principle that the most innovative design ideas are probably not the ones passing through patent offices. Functioning as a visual dictionary of everyday ingenuity and self-sufficiency, and spanning Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, Low Cost Design catalogues inspiring examples of the creative repurposing of detritus, and of overlooked land, by ordinary people—whether for reasons of subsistence, politics or sheer artistry. Thus, a flowerpot and a section of a fence become an improvised barbeque; a tree stump on a sidewalk is carved into a makeshift one-seater. The innovations are classified as either "objects" or "actions," demonstrating a decentralized but palpable European movement conscious of avoiding waste. Low Cost Design features an essay by the artist and designer Daniele Pario Perra, who in 2001 began the Design on the Cheap database.