Alternative Transportation

Throughout this semester, mass and public transportation systems have been on my mind in terms of exploring alternative approaches to getting people where they need to be, as well as the organization of major built systems around the world in correspondence with ecological thinking. I was having difficulty choosing a specific case study so I’ll compare and contrast Copenhagen’s Bicycle culture, the “Uber” Taxi alternative app, and the latest phenomenon of “driverless cars”. This part of human culture is intriguing, as it sets the stage for so much of the built fabric of our world as highways and streets are paved and buildings are spaced out along them in optimized ways for vehicular traffic. These 3 alternatives are making it less of a standard to own a car, and drive it every day – as is still the current custom in the united states.

Bicycle Culture, Copenhagen

Copenhagen, specifically, is world renown for their emphasis placed on bicycle infrastructure.

Every day, 750,000 miles are cycled in Copenhagen

36% of all citizens commute to work or school via bicycle

More people commute by bicycle in greater Copenhagen, than cycle to work in the entirety of the U.S.

The culture itself has accepted commuting by bicycle as a better standard than cars, as cars are less healthy, and sustainable. In the united states however, there is still a prominent stigma that discourages bicycle usage on streets.

Copenhagen includes 220 miles of curb segregated cycle tracks, 14 miles of on street cycle lanes and 27 miles of off-street bicycle routes.

The European bicycle culture has already begun to leak into cities in the united states such as Portland and Seattle, but major cities such as San Francisco (start-up location of my next case study, “UBER”) continue to be dominated by vehicular traffic.

The Uber App

The UBER smartphone app is a recently developed Taxi alternative where you can easily access a ride from ridesharing services for a realistic price. So it is both easier to obtain and easier to afford, as contrasted by previous taxi methods that has made hailing a taxi a worse option than owning a car.

A few of Uber’s publicized features include:

– ease of use (“one tap to ride”)

– reliable pickups

– clear pricing

– cashless and convenient

– importance of customer feedback

– ability to split a fare between users

All of these make it much easier to use Uber as a transportation alternative, and help push out the idea that every body needs to own their own car- hence reducing the overall amount of cars on the road.

Uber has also been given attention for having the potential to reduce the threat of drunk drivers on the roads, as more drivers will have easy access to a safe ride home, rather than getting behind the wheel of a car late at night.

Google’s Driverless Car

My last example of transportation alternatives is the recently emergent “driverless car”.  This concept is significant for it revolutionizing of the individual’s transportation system- further decreasing the expectation and necessity for everyone to own their own car.

Statistic: cars sit idol 96% of their life

This is the very definition of unsustainable, and the driverless car aims to confront this problem by creating a new kind of car-sharing network in which driverless cars provide public and personalized transportation. This doesn’t necessarily result in people relying less on the automobile, but it would significantly cut down on the amount of vehicles in circulation, which accounts for a major percentage of the overall environmental and ecological harm caused by car production.

This project also deals with ecology on greater levels than environmental related sustainability, as it would assist people with any handicap to live a more functional lifestyle as their transportation would no longer be as big of a problem.

 

Sustainability on College Campus

For my next case study, I wanted to identify an approach to sustainability on a college campus, as a place where every semester thousands of students and faculty relocate to live and learn to perpetuate the set of skills and knowledge they obtain there.

At the University of California, Davis campus at West Village, the community works in numerous ways to improve their ecological approach to campus design- A practice that still has yet to tap into many college campuses in the united states.

Some of the sustainable approaches include: 

Establishing the feasibility of a goal to exceed California building energy standards by 50%.

Electrical lighting that decreases energy usage (as compared to alternative lighting methods) by 60%.

Employing various new sustainable technologies such as occupancy sensors, day-lighting techniques, and dimming controls. 

Using heat-reflecting roof materials, heat-blocking roof sheathing, roof overhangs and exterior window sunshades; added insulation in exterior walls; and high-efficiency light fixtures, air conditioning systems and appliances. 

The campus also plans to utilize alternative energy sources such as photovoltaics and Ruihong Zhang’s Biodigester. 

West Village is significant for its wide ranging application of ecological design to this location on campus as it combines energy conservation with sustainable energy production, environmentally conscious site and landscape design, and providing access to sustainable transportation.

The project is also significant for the effects of building one example of a sustainable community that will radiate into the rest of the campus and all future construction on the site. This is an approach any university can take in the present day, since although large portions of most Universities were built over 50 years ago, and fail to utilize any current sustainability methods- they can still find ecological ways to add new sustainable projects to universities without necessarily having to tare down historic buildings.

The West Village community is also a new approach to residential urban planning on a University Campus. The project utilizes mixed use construction as it combines student housing with faculty quarters, retail and service space, restaurants, and research / development buildings. It’s a revolutionary concept, as University campus layout tends to greatly segregate each of these functions.

Projects such as UC Davis West Village will provide a new standard for Universities all over the United States, as we figure out how to treat our historic buildings while gradually developing campuses to become energy efficient and ecological throughout their entirety.

Educating Ethical Design

The Ethical Design Education article is interesting and compliments the Story of Stuff video very nicely. The video, in an organized and simple fashion- walks the viewers through the ideas behind ethical designing, and why its necessary today based off the present consumer culture that rules our lives. A few interesting notes: the idea of a “linear consumption process in a finite world” relates immensely with design. Rather than think of producing designs that respond to a single dimension of ‘need’, we should consider the life-cycle of everything involved. Also the entire concept of consumer culture as a primary function of humans in the 21^st century blew my mind. It’s so true: we have extinguished our evolutionary role to reproduce (the world is technically over-populated) and our new role as humans is to perpetuate the buy / spend cycle. This coincides with ideas from the article, in that we need to reestablish our ethical role to our world and offspring. The article plainly defines this as “ethical to choose fresh water, clean air, nutritious food- the bounties our home planet provides for us – and safeguard these for future generations.” The article also states that “acting on our obligation to our human family can result in rewards far beyond our expectations”. This concept is extremely important and can be elaborated on. We envision “reward” a lot of the time as a monetary value, or for design, something that simply looks good and is popular among the public spectator, but as part of a solution to this problem a sense of ‘value’ needs to be redefined in terms of its ethical impact on the world.

Discussion Questions:

1. As a designer, this weeks material resonates highly with me. I quite often find myself pissed off and admitting that it’s the wrong time-period to be an architect. Everything is so economically driven! I currently work at a landscaping / pool design firm in town (I won’t name names), and the entire design process is so grueling – the client wants a pool for AS CHEAP AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE, while we do everything we can to make a maximum profit. This system has nothing to do with design ethics at all and I’m not exactly chomping at the bit to go find another job that does the same thing on a larger scale. I feel, the entire architect / design profession needs to be reevaluated.

A lot of viable guidelines can be extracted from this weeks material. As I mentioned above, the article defines design ethics as using fresh “bounties of our home planet” while ensuring its survival for future generations. This is addressed in the video as well as – paying more attention to the complete cycle of production.

2. I think the website holds true to its mission. The first thing I thought when considering how change could be implemented is: designers everywhere need to feel a sense of belonging to a new and different phenomenon. It’s a change that we’re not going to find in the modern workplace. So “The Story of Stuff” website accomplishes this implementation, starting from the home page. It’s design isn’t bad… I think they could definitely start getting away from the whole cartoon-vibe, and take their graphics a little more seriously. But its not bad for now. It encourages you to sign up and to instantly get involved with the program: not only with resources to gain education and insight – but also starts you off with “ways to get involved”- with the ChangeMaker Quiz. This is a step in the right direction for sure- but it needs to be taken further. A program like this could integrate into universities, or even the professional sphere as soon as someone catches on to its importance. I think once this initiative finds a way to involve the real world beyond a simple e-newsletter or interactive quiz, it will be well on its way. For example- they could put together some kind of award to give sustainable buildings or products (similar to L.E.E.D. Awards – but this would be for any kind of design product that addresses all the dimensions of its presence in the world.

Response by Henry:

I enjoyed you saying,

“ I think once this initiative finds a way to involve the real world beyond a simple e-newsletter or interactive quiz, it will be well on its way.”

This is EXACTLY how I felt about the website. The ideas being presented were great, the formate wasnt all that bad, but who were they trying to talk to. It seemed that the only people posting were individuals like us who were aware of the problem and wanted to fin more. They were just preaching to the choir. It did a terrible job of trying to spread the word to people not in the know. They need to do a better job breaking from this bubble. But how?

I would be interested to see (maybe your blog post for Monday) what you think would be am effective means of spreading the word out into the “real” world. You mention universities, which is a great start. But what about facebook, twitter? How can they get more people to open there eyes to the problem at hand.

Response by Andrew:

I liked your point of view of the website, even though it was quite different from mine. I too think the layout and quiz are great but I just felt like it was plain, and not very visually apealing and thats what I focused my post on. I just saying how I found it interesting how you were able to note all the good things about the site while I mostly focused on what in my opinion needed improvments. I also agree with Henry’s responce, I think that they should implement social networks into their website to get the visitors to the site sharing the ideas. What about having a Pintrest account where people can post pictures of how they are helping. Or a twitter where they can tweet what they are doing to help and see who is doing the same things. And this one might be a little bit of a long shot but, a game? They have to find all the reusable parts in places? I don’t know something like that.

Response by Barry:

When would you say the right time to be a designer was?  I don’t disagree that this the wrong time, I’m just asking the question.  I don’t know.  Some interesting things are happening.  I think 3d printing is going to be a revolution.  With it being an additive process, it should eventually decrease how much we waste.  I don’ think its impact can be overstated.  That said, I don’t think it’ll reverse the attitude that you’re lamenting.  We’ll just have to build things cheaper with less fee.

Which leads me to something I do care deeply about:  beautiful spaces.  If designers can maintain their status as technicians, while enhancing their status as artists (creators of meaningful objects/spaces), we may be able to reverse the problems we’re seeing.  We need to tout the intrinsics of the beautiful.  To do that, well, I don’t know.  We’ll, first have to go back to the old fashioned notion that there is such a thing as intrinsics, rightness, goodness, universal ethics.  Kant maintained that aesthetics judgement, understanding of our world, and moral judgement were interrelated.  When designers skimp on aesthetics for the sake of economy, we discredit our mission entirely and reveal our ethical dilemma.  This may have started with modernism, and it certainly existed when Modernism showed it couldn’t fulfill its mission.

 

Case Study: Exo Disaster Relief Structure

For my case study, I wanted to elaborate on the ideas presented in my Citizen Designer post, regarding the Exo disaster relief structure.

 

In 2005 Michael McDaniel was prompted to use all his spare time designing disaster relief structures in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Where (in his words), “people crowd[ed] into the inhumane conditions of the New Orleans Superdome and Houston Astrodome (where families were separated from each other)”

 

 

For more in-depth descriptions and specifications you can go to http://www.reactionhousing.com

Or to see the indiegogo page go here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/give-shelter-help-reaction-deploy-housing-for-families-in-need

But for a quick version- the exo design can be constructed in a multitude of environments (on top of asphalt of in a field or pasture). It doesn’t require any special tools or set up instructions- it can be lifted and assembled by four people. It sleeps four people and can be arranged among other pods in a city-like grid, or in clusters to form areas of semi-public out door space. Another important feature is its “coffee-cup” -like design. 15 Exo’s can be transported on a single semi. So that’s 60 people who can be properly sheltered post-disaster per 1 semi truck. Or further broken down, 12 families of 5 per a single semi. The design of the exo itself contains modular elements so it can be easily assembled to be a living room, bedroom, bathroom, office, living space, or storage, as well as modular exterior features that can swap out larger window units if it is sufficient for a particular climate…etc.

This entire project relates to ethical design because the designer behind it all had to take a very different approach to getting his idea implemented. Both government and private corporations were unwilling to work with McDaniel directly, so he took to the internet and made an Indiegogo profile were he raised $25,000 more than his original goal of $50,000 and exo’s are already being shipped around the world. (Currently to disaster ridden areas in Syria)

This example of ethical design in the world provides a model for how design can work in the future, even beyond the scope of disaster or humanitarian architecture. It shows how designers can circumnavigate the system driven primarily by economics and take it upon themselves to initiate projects that they feel are important.

The class’s response was many and mostly positive:

From Barry: That is absolutely fantastic.  How much does one of those cost to make?  It’s amazing how the idea is not really earth shattering.  It’ really simple.  Yet there it is, a total “gamechanger.”  What’s really sad is there are others who probably thought of something like that but didn’t have the “new literacy” to make it happen.

Oh, and two kids is not sustainable.  Think about it.  If everyone had two kids, some of those kids would die.  The birthrate would be well under two.  If you factor in the people who can’t or don’t want to have kids the birthrate would be even lower.  But even if everyone could and wanted to have kids and all of those kids made it to adulthood, there’s still a problem.  The population gets older and older.  Soon you’ll have 1 working person for every 2 retirees.  I’m sure you know that most retirees are not living completely off the money they paid into the system. 

China, Western Europe, and Russia are trying to figure out how to deal with this problem now.
http://business.time.com/2012/10/04/why-the-falling-u-s-birth-rates-are-o-troubling/

From Erik: Yeah, Ive seen these before and they are awesome. There so easily shipped and can be used for a number of purposes making them ideal relief structures. It seems like such an obvious solution that you wonder why hasn’t it been done before, but like Barry said someone else probably had the idea but just couldn’t get it done.

From Fatima: “McDaniel’s idea relates in quite a few points with A Roof for my Country, the NGO I presented in my case study. McDaniel’s trigger was what happened after Hurricane Katrina. A Roof for my Country started with a group of people that sought to find a solution to poverty in Chile and later then in all of Latin America. Both housing ideas are emergency/ temporary housing. Families in a state of calamity, be it a natural disaster or the reality of a third world country can start to form communities with the help of these projects.

The Exo design is certainly much more efficient. It modularity and capacity to change according to the needs of the families is so smart. The houses built in A Roof for my Country come in a kit of parts but still, foundation has to be dug up and this is all done with the help of young volunteers.

Both projects have a lot of thought put on to and I think they are amazing. But I also think that they are focused on different aspects of calamity. What would be interesting would be to see both of these projects come together. McDaniel Exo housing idea could contribute with A Roof for my Country’s idea of creating a community. A Roof for my Country could incorporate some of the design ideas that McDaniel Presents such as modularity.”

From Chloe: “I’d really like to see these implemented somewhere. I think it’s an amazing idea. I love the video you posted last time. Its horrible that implementation is the hardest hurdle for so many great ideas. I really don’t understand why it works like that. I don’t know if you wene to the Eric Cesal lecture last week or not, but hes an Architecture for Humanity guy. He talked a lot about design after natural disasters and how 9 times out of 10 we end up going back to using tents despite all these design competitions. We need someone to really push for design solutions. You should check Eric Cesal out though! Apparently his book is amazing, I have it but I haven’t started yet.”

 

 

 

 

Citizen Designer in Three “Built” Projects

This week our class was prompted to relate three built projects in the world to the Citizen Designer, an article by Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne.

I chose to illustrate the principles via 3 different design industries:

1. Product Design

2. Music Industry

3. Architecture

Article Take-Away

Citizen Designer calls attention to the premise of design as citizenship and the evolution of society to approach design as a “professional”. This is an interesting observation to me, because I feel like I see this tendency a lot in the university setting. The university and “having a degree” and everything is very often (more often than not most likely) attributed to the prosperity of “self interest” in the modern psyche. Luckily as arch or design students we are forced to take ecological concerns into account all the time, but I still feel we are pushed to consider and react to things professionally and without personal outlook sometimes. Simultaneously, this ability needs to be in-check of course, this is why I like the idea of the Bauhaus notion of “Objective Rationalism”, and especially the non-biased Cranbrook critique experiment from Pg. 8 . I think an important part to this article is to visualize this human tendency as almost as some kind of super power that enables awesome design, but must be identified / contained / and controlled to be a rational and logical designer at all times. (I believe I am paralleling Marvel’s Human Torch at this point)

AB ROLLER- INFOMERCIAL PRODUCTS

1. One example of obvious failed design is a lot of cheap products that could be found on late night infomercials. I haven’t come up with a great catchy word for it yet but it’s something like- once removed…secondary stage… product design. Where as primary stage would be the initial design that already works and the second design is based off. As a society we have developed an attraction to products and inventions that simplify everyday processes- but this cycle has gotten out of control with some of these cheap infomercial products. There are all kinds of examples of this but just for the sake of naming one everyone can recognize , let’s go with the “Ab Roller”. This product is a completely unnecessary “secondary stage” design as we have already found methods of exercising that are scientifically proven to keep you in shape, but we as a society get a thrill out of seeing these “too-good-to-be-true” inventions that claim to simplify a process that we are too lazy to do the right way- when really they are only unnecessary and can be identified as the Citizen Designer’s notion of “wasteful design” – operating of a business scheme mentality.

 

ARTURIA MINIBRUTE ANALOG SYNTHESIZER

2. On another level, in the music industry- products have been tailored so much to match the digital age of music production, relying on 100% on digital electrical signals (1’s and 0’s) rather than actual electrical current responsible for variations in sound . This is why I, as a somewhat self-proclaimed musician, am excited to see a new wave of analog synthesizers coming out. Such as the “Arturia Minibrute”.
http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/products/minibrute/intro.html

This product engages a few aspects mentioned in the Citizen Designer. Namely, the necessity to connect product design with something threaded deeper in society than “business success”. In the Minibrute’s case, this is the late struggle of digital/analog in the music industry.

The Minubrute takes some interesting approaches to these confrontations. Placing lots of emphasis on physical attributes- such as perfecting the feel and action of knobs and faders on the interface. This might sound arbitrary, but think about if you’re playing live music and your volume knob slips out of control and you fry some speakers or something. Not good. Also its a simple matter of putting comfortable control back into the users hands. They also put a lot of attention into the feel of the keys. This is what makes the design successful in the 2nd wave of analog instruments.

3. I wanted to pick something of a larger scale for my last example. I remember seeing this video for a disposable coffee cup-inspired disaster shelter. It approaches ecological design as a societal responsibility in a multitude of ways.

Awesome Video: http://vimeo.com/89316055

The structure is an insulated rigid structure known as the “Exo” Here are some design details:

80 square feet

sleeps 4 adults

climate controlled

digital door locks

remote monitored temp. and fire detection

under 400 lbs

It is designed specifically for economic efficiency, ease of transport , and ease of installation (can be moved by 4 people and set up in two minutes without tools)

This approach to design can be adapted my many different fields- that is, taking a cultural need and basing design around it.

Comment from Classmate:

“1. Totally agree with this. Why people spend good amounts of time making these things blows my mind. I love infomercials just because they are so outrageous. I have never seen anything about the Exo before, but I love this idea. I love the fact that the idea came from to go coffee cups. It really makes so much sense though. If only we could take the people wasting their time making info-crap and put them to use making cool stuff like this. Or possibly if this idea got translated into dealing with slums or something? Theres a whole other level of problems there, but I could see it somehow translating.” -Chloe

Chloe and I share this vision of an application to different sectors besides disaster relief. There is a lot of territory to explore in applying this type of citizen design to low-income areas, or even correcting unsustainable practices of urban sprawl or high density living.

1/2 Baked Power Outlet Design

Nate Kaylor

Half Baked Design: Power Outlets

I used this opportunity to expand on something that’s bothered me for a long time. An everyday object that keeps getting overlooked as other technology evolves around it is: The Power Outlet.

EXHIBIT A:

Some general information can be obtained on the “AC power plugs and sockets” Wikipedia, and is actually quite fascinating.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets Power sockets were a late 19^th century invention that served as the interface between external energy and internal application. As consumer culture grew in the 21^st century, a dependence on electricity accompanied it- and now we have come to the point where every electric consumer device plugs into this thing that is essentially the same as it was 100 years ago.

The reason it hasn’t changed is obvious, it’s not really a ‘broken’ device. It works fine and we’ve just decided to keep growing as a civilization with these unchanging portals around our buildings. But when we look at the problems it causes us on a daily basis, we can start to consider a ½ baked design to replace it and implement a new way to harness electricity all over internal structures.

Problems:

• no standard international power socket
• Complication of trying to access power sockets
• The ridiculousness in the amount of battery powered devices we depend on wired power for when we primarily use them indoors anyway.

In a world without limitation: My ½ baked solution will take place in three stages in order to gradually wean society off of the concept of chords and power sockets altogether. 

Stage 1: Wireless AC sockets can be purchased which transmit electric power anywhere in a building and siphon electricity wirelessly from infrastructure built into the walls of every room (no more complicated than the troubles we go through currently to equip a room with power sockets.) From there devices can simply plug in to the wireless boxes anywhere around a building or structure.

Stage 2: This same wireless technology will start to be integrated with product companies so that they are manufactured with wireless electricity devices that plug into the same socket on the phone as an a/c power cord. This way users still have the option to use a/c corded power if they have no other choice.

Stage 3: In some glorious future I invasion a building interior, void of any sporadic power socket. All companies will have by this point adapted the wireless electricity standard so every device comes with internal hardware that wirelessly siphons power from the building infrastructure.

 

My classmate, Elliot, had an interesting comment regarding the current state of this technology in the world: “Im not sure if there is anything available yet in which power could be transmitted. Most wireless devices now are for sending signals rather than power and require an additional power source (batteries or cord).”

I think all the 1/2 baked designs are abstracted from current states of technology, but none the less  a lot of my project was inspired my recent developments of wireless power transmission that I have seen. 

One example of this is the wireless charging pads for personal electronics. 

Currently these aren’t all that great as they involve real funky attachments that you have to superglue to your phone battery and stuff like that. But I talk about this issue in my 1/2 baked solution: It’s not only the product that needs further design- it’s the 3rd party members of the equation that need to be addressed as well. How can we implement these designs into further mainstream product design, and ween companies and designers off of traditional methods of power supply. 

Ethical Thinking Week 6: Playing with Design

De Bono’s “3 intellectual ages of man” are-

0-5 yrs: “WHY”

5-10 yrs: “WHY NOT”

10-75 yrs: “BECAUSE”

This concept stood out to me because there is something evident presented to us through the childrens’ designs that contrast starkly with the design process of an adult. De Bono’s attributes this partially to a child’s ability to design in ideas rather than “things”. This is extremely true in adult designers to design in terms of “things” or concrete and tangible ideas that are meant to make more sense of things that already make sense. It’s a successful way to “design” in some respect. But it also is a narrow field of vision, the childrens’ designs utilized whatever they could imagine and were able to communicate it with broad imagery, where as a professional adult designer presents concepts with very firm imagery, showing exactly what will be accomplished and how, leaving nothing up to actual imagination, but mere forces of the world that have already been invented for better or for worse. For a quick example: designing a house out of non-sustainable materials – because its easy to recognize / understand / and implement. But in the end you still have a structure trapped in a viscous cycle of unsuccessful design practice.

For my small scale example, I wanted to look at something musical because the new era of digital music is producing new products that completely abandon all traditional analog rules of music, resulting in a redefinition of musical instruments. Teenage Engineering’s Op1 “Portable Synthesizer” re-envisions the idea of a keyboard and transforms this into something that matches the digital era of music creation – with a plethora of interactive effects and computer compatibility. The entire concept and physical design is a way that product design blurred the idea for physical musical instruments. (I.E. the traditional “keys” have been replaced with buttons, still playable but not completely emphasized)

 

An example of playing with design in architecture is accomplished with the projects of Frank Gehry. Designs such as the Guggenheim quite literally play with basic elements such as light and shape to distort traditional architecture – creating something completely unique and new.

The first thing to come to mind in “playing” with larger scale urban design is the works of Kevin Lynch, and his re-envisioning of the way we analyze the success of city planning. Rather than envisioning the city as a one dimensional sole entity- Lynch came up with 5 “dimensions” to analyze urban planning as an integrated “organism” that grows and develops along with its inhabitants.

Response from Elliot

I was also intrigued by the concept that children design in ideas rather than things. However, I disagree that most adults design just things rather than ideas. In many of my classes for ID, we are told to get ideas down rather than to come up with a product right away. An idea is a very open concept where a solid thing doesnt allow for much more creative thought. I also included Gehry in my assignment, I think he has a very good approach to architecture and has a playfulness that can be very appealing. I wouldnt really be surprised if more people add him to their writtings this week. The keyboard is also an interesting product. I like how they try to move away from traditional keys but kept them in basically the same position, the white keys lower and black keys above and centered between white keys. It is an interesting concept and reminds me of a beat pad that can produce and unlimited amount of sounds.

Lateral Imagination in Urban Planning

Surrealism is defined as “a 20^th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind…” This is relevant  to John Mayows conception of the 17^th century “iron lung”.  The Idea of “Lateral Imagination” entails taking steps beyond tradition in order to conceive of things that are limited by traditional ways of thinking. Mayows transcended the traditional functions of objects which enabled the creation of a device that wouldn’t have been possible if he only used traditional ideas.

“Literal Thinking”, by comparison, uses this same principle to circumvent limitations of traditional thought.  Edward de Bono has been extremely successful in implementing new types of ‘thinking’ all over the world. He defines “Literal Thinking” as “the process of using information to bring about creativity and insight restructuring”.  This is extremely relevant to  Dan Barber’s ted talk. America’s agriculture industry is sidetracked by economic incentive: basically, trying to make things as cheap and easy as possible. Rather than building off this corrupt infrastructure, he proposes (similarly to de Bono) to rethink the framework of the agricultural system, “restructuring the insight” used to implement successful fish farms.  This is all a major part of ‘design thinking’, as finding new approaches to solve physical world issues.

Successful urban planning would greatly benefit from this kind of thinking.  As a design outlet largely dependent on its users, a design for a city plan needs to be extremely informed by actual information  and insight that will assist in successful implementation. There are instances around the world of citys that have been constructed and utterly failed for one reason or the other. 

For example: China’s ghost cities (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3XfpYxHKCo – if you’re interested in further information) China’s government built intricate cities on the premise of giving workers things to do, a.k.a. as a means to stimulate the economy, a.k.a. a completely ill-informed design implementation. So currently China has these ghost cities that exist void of any actual function. 

 

To contrast with this, the city renovations in Bogota, Colombia (Documentary: Urbanized covers this very nicely) The local jurisdiction of Bogota looked towards European cities like Copenhagen to inform their design decisions to renovate city transportation with both bicycle transportation and bus systems.  

 

Rather than just utilizing traditional thought and continuing to develop the highways and/or automotive industry, Bogota initiated a switch to a much more sustainable mode of transportation that will influence the area in a sustainable way for generations to come. This kind of “lateral imagination”, or “literal thinking” needs to be utilized in any instance involved the public masses, as urban planning does.

Response from Fatima:

It is interesting how you implemented lateral thinking to urbanism. After reading a couple of the responses I realized that lateral thinking can be implemented in all types of problems. Going of your central topic of Urban Planning I feel like there is a lot of mimicry and not a lot of thinking. Maybe a system of roads and organization works in one city but it might or might not work in another city. The pattern of a city mainly depends on the day-to-day living of the population and its culture.

An interesting example of lateral thinking in Urbanism is Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was a walled ungoverned “city.” It was originally a military for but after World War II its population extremely increased and it became something similar to a vertical slum. However it belonged to anyone. The population that lived there had to define and learn and think of an organized system of living that could work for the more than 35,000 people that lived there. This walled city had every they needed and the people that lived there did not have to leave the “wall” to get food, entertainment, etc. It might not look like a systematic pattern however there are orders of hierarchy that surround the premise.  

Response from Jerry:

Very interesting. I have heard of the ghost cities in china but never paid much attention to why they were that way. The video you posted explains that much of the rapid mindless urbanization done in china is due to governors being heavy headed in “one-upping” western civilization. They see what the western world is doing with urbanization, and rather than learn from their own patterns of living, they copy it. This introduces a different style of living to what they already are used to – Forcing their citizens to adapt to a new form of living. For example: the farmers on the video whose houses were being demolished to make room for high-rise apartments. This ties with what de Bono mention on the interview article; for his methodology of higher thinking (6 hats thinking) to be taken in effectively, the minds of the hierarchy need to open. In my opinion, open mindedness seems to be what is lacking in china’s new age urbanization. 

Response from Chloe:

When I first learned about those ghost towns in China it completely blew my mind. Crazy. So crazy. And I love urbanized. I think it shows some great examples of how governments can help with urban planning and change.

I completely agree that urban design needs an update. I lived in Copenhagen last semester and their urban planning is amazingly efficient. Over half of people bike to work, and bike lanes are just as big, or in some instances bigger, than the portion of the road for cars. And their public transportation takes you almost everywhere (working on it at least). BUT stemming off of what Fatima said, applying what worked there would not always work in other locations. Trying to push a biking culture in insanely hilly Lawrence just isn’t going to work. Designers need to be site specific with their urban planning, which seems like an obvious thing but its not. Identical suburbs all over the United States are a great example of this.

Using “Literacy” for a Wicked Problem

A wicked problem exists embedded in our world’s societal tendency to classify types of minds into specific categories. I have a specific problem with this as, I’ve never been a ‘straight a’ student, not that I don’t find ways to apply myself and work hard at things, but I just have never had great study / test taking skills. Instantly anyone like myself is placed into a category of a ‘sub-achiever’. To make this easier on everyone involved I was placed into a concrete category of “left-brained or an ‘’artsty type”. There’s a cultural tendency to segregate the mind into tangible categories and this pattern proceeds straight through grade school and into college. In college you have to pick if you want to be an architecture major or an engineering major. The distinction and the expected tendency to separate the two is somewhat ridiculous when considering they both are implemented in doing basically the same thing.

In terms of engaging tools based in technology, this phenomenon is seen mirroring issues from Shapiro’s article. The tendency to categorize types of minds has produced two distinctly different formats of interfacing with computers. One that is engineer based: CAD software, equipped with boring graphics but advanced computing and estimating abilities – and then a completely different set of tools for creating something that looks pretty. (3DS max or Photoshop) This example is a simple one but all the better for Identifying a concrete split in the way we identify categories for designing minds of the 21^st century.

Its like Buchanan’s article claims regarding ‘wicked problems’ as a “class of social system problems which are I’ll-formulated…[and] thoroughly confusing.” (pg.15) There’s not necessary an immediate answer to this problem, but it’s certainly worth throwing it out there, and recognizing it as a societal occurrence we should be aware of as it continues to shape systems we deal with on a daily basis such as education and professions. 

From Barry:

Ken Robison writes, in his book The Element

“So it is that we came to think of real intelligence in terms of logical analysis: believing that rationalist forms of thinking were superior to feeling and emotion, and that the ideas that really count can be conveyed in words or through mathematical expressions.  In addition, we believed that we could quantify intelligence and rely on IQ tests and standardized tests like the SAT to identify who among us is truly intelligent and deserving of exalted treatment.” 

He goes on,

“…Some educators and psychologist took-and continue to take-IQ numbers to absurd lengths.  In 1916, Lewis Terman of Stanford University published a revision of Binet’s a IQ test.  Known as the Stanford-Binet test, now in its fifth version, it is the basis of the modern IQ test.  It is interesting to note, though, that Terman had a sadly extreme view of human capacity.  These are his words from the textbook The Measurement of Intelligence:  ‘Among laboring men and servant girls there are thousands like them feebleminded.  They are the world’s hewers of wood and drawers of water.  And yet, as far as intelligence is concerned, the tests have told the truth… No amount of school instruction will ever make them intelligent voters of capable voters in the true sense of the word.’”

Those quotes are from the chapter called “Think Differently.”  He writes about the eugenics movement’s affect on categorizing people through standardized tests.  According to the Robinson, this fallacy leaves out people who are intelligent in other ways.  He states, “We think we know the answer to the question, ‘How intelligent are you?’  The real answer, though, is that the questions is the wrong one to ask.”  It should be “How are you intelligent?”

The eugenicists’ influence runs very deep and touches more aspects of education than many care to recognize:  Standardized testing, letter grades, GPA, Ritalin, etc.  The categories you lament were constructed by people who think liberty and democracy are too messy.  There needs to be systems to control people.

I’ll jump off my soapbox now.  

From Andrew

Nate, don’t feel to bad, I’m the same way when it comes to tests. No matter how much i study, when i get the test in front of me my mind goes blank and i sit there like, when did we learn this? Honestly I can’t remember when i’ve used anything i about the ACT test other than it has many strict rules about taking it, have to answer 40 questions in 30 minutes on I think the english section? and having to write a statement on the back of the test in 2nd grade cursive. It becomes who can remember the most information for the most stressful test you will ever take that will tell you how smart you are under stress. I’m in Industrial design and we have a similar problem with the engineers. Basiclally all the stuff we design looks great but would be impossible to create a real version of it and the engineers can make something that works really well but isn’t visually apealing. I have talked to other designer and friends in the engineering departments and we agree that we need to combine that way both of our creations look great and function great. Too bad the school won’t do it. 

Barry’s follow-up:

Andrew, I don’t recall if you’re an arch major.  If so, just wait until you take the ARE.  Those are brutal.  The vast majority of the questions, and the wording of the questions are created by some sadistic employee with a gift for torturous syntax, locked in a dungeon, who they only let out when they clean his dungeon. 

Wicked Problems & IDEO’s Design Process

Nate Kaylor

Week 3 Discussion Topics

I think one of the main ways design has evolved in the contemporary setting is in regards to the user’s perception. Buchanan’s article covers this basis in depth. He states that the new era of ‘communications’ , “…shift attention toward audiences as active participants in reaching conclusions rather than passive recipients of preformed messages” (Pg. 12) We live in a interconnected age of endless forms of “communications” both inputted and outputted form the public. I’ll take the point of view of businesses that gather intel via cell phones and computers to better target their clientele. An obvious one being, ads that are interspersed at the beginning and throughout youtube or hulu videos. Hulu asks you with each ad if it is a product relevant specifically to you. This information can be tailored both towards the individual user, and the user’s demographic (via information entered in when signing up for hulu such as age, and location) This new form of communication, as the quote from Buchanan states, involves the user in a way that was never possible before these forms of technology were implemented.

The fundamental philosophy of Buchanan’s article resonates on a significant level with me and my naturally multidisciplinary approach to design. The article speaks from a necessity to shift the public impression of design in the world. In the collegiate level this has gotten pretty bad in my opinion, as someone who is interested in something like architecture or engineering who also draws inspiration through art and design classes. It has been my experience that much value comes out of mixing the creative arts with the technical side of collegiate curriculum, and it seems the tendency at universities is to separate the two so that as an architecture student, you’re not necessary required to take any form of creative art classes. So I am in thorough agreement with Buchanan when he states “…that all men and women may benefit from an early understanding of the disciplines of design in the contemporary world.” (pg 9) We no longer live in a ‘tradesman’ society, were you make a living by a single specialization, I think the future at an education level needs to consider these ideas.

My immediate impression of the IDEO design process attachments was that is somehow was hypocritical of the company’s philosophies seen in last weeks video. The whole idea of the new age of design is to no longer confine it in traditional constraints, right?

 

This very specific (40+) page – document of design “instruction” seems like a very limited way to be creative and innovative with any kind of design discipline. This page specifically startled me. The idea of confining the actual creative process into a half page designated block is a scary thought. Especially in my experience with design, it seems like I approach the initial creative stages differently every time: I’ll do page after page of cat-scratch sketches, or a bunch of 3d model stuff on the computer. People need to have the freedom to start from anywhere in design. So now to play devil’s advocate: The IDEO process does do a successful job in promoting the kinds of tangible thoughts from last weeks reading materials. Such as considering the user’s needs. These kinds of steps need to be taken in order to trigger successful design, although I feel a better approach would look a lot less specific than IDEO’s manual.  

 

Chloe Lockman’s response:

1. Love the point about companies like facebook (personal experience) secretly taking your information online then tailoring your ads toward that. Its like forced active participation. We have no idea we are participating in this process. Weird.

2. I also totally agree about the architecture school thing. I think architecture students would benefit greatly if we were encouraged to take classes outside of architecture. I would love to take a marketing/advertising class, as well as graphic design and art or something. We are so tightly wound into this 5 year schedule that there’s no time for anything other than architecture, then they expect us to be well rounded when we graduate. We would be much better designers if we were pushed outside of our bubble.

 

Andrew Meier’s Response

I noticed how on Facebook, all the add on the side of the screen related to me somehow and at first i thought it was weird but then i noticed a pattern in what i looked up on my browser, if i looked up a part for my car, for the next week that part or the website would appear as a tab on my side screen. If i searched for a car i liked, i would see car insurance adds on my side bars. 
As far as the 40+ page IDEO book, i guess i kind of agree with you but i see it a little differently. I see the book as a kick starter; like once you fill out this page, you don’t just stop there, you keep going on another sheet or whatever medium you want to use. I’m also similar to you in that I like to do pages of quick sketches but for me, I can usually produce more stuff if i have something to work off of. But thats just how I work.