Some people testing out our chair, to destress, relax and have some fun!
(Presentation sheets to follow!)
12.14.2010
Designingmaking
Our current project, designingmaking, has finally come to an end! It seemed like an endless project but we got there in the end, and to be quite honest im quite proud of the final outcome! I feel like we all worked well as a group and in the end came out with a pretty good chair, but i'm sure we'll find out if it actually is tomorrow in the presentation. Here are a small selection of images showing the process and of course the grande finale, the rocking chair!
(Presentation sheets to follow!)
(Presentation sheets to follow!)
Assignment 4
Timely Tactics: The Strategic Role of Participation in Community Design by Michael Rios
In this essay Rios talks about the case of 'Union Point Park'. The essays main focus is the importance of getting a strong, powerful group involved in order to make the building of the park possible.
In Oakland in the early 1990's a group of residents in the Fruitvale area began organising clean ups of local parks, trying to deal with local social problems. They later went on to form a community partnership named the Fruitvale Recreation and Open Space Initiative (FROSI). Around the time this was formed the City of Oakland and the Port of Oakland began planning a way to connect Oakland through its historic port area.
In order for a park to be built in the port area, specifically Union Point, FROSI received 3000 signatures and 100 letters of support from local citizens and organisations. Through this huge gesture of support the local government agreed for the park to be built. In order to gain all these signatures the group would have to network, and therefore need connectors and salesmen, to get the people, and to 'sell' the park to them.
The writer, Michael Rios, was the team leader of FROSI and therefore was responsible for gathering a team together. The team consisted of architects, landscape architects and artists. These people are all, in a way, mavens when it comes to park design. Also a part of the team were community organizers, such as the Unity Council, The city of oakland parks department, the trust for public land and the university of oakland forum. These people can work as salesmen within the project, they have the influencial power to get approval and funding for the whole project. The fact Rios gathered such a diverse team makes him a connector.
The Union Park project also included teenagers, an even more diverse group of people to be involved, offering a different point of view and also allowing different areas of the community to be more accessible. One teen even spoke at a press conference, gaining a lot of media coverage and also succesfully increasing the amount of funding allocated to the park.
In a sense, the FROSI group had a very different group of people working together, and knowing this, used it to the best of their advantage. They networked, petitioned, held events and meetings, and got the approval and funding that they needed. The success of the project is down to collaborative design and everyone working together, clearly a successful way to manage a project.
At the time of the publication of this book community design was becoming more and more popular, with over 30% of North American architecture schools running community design centres, in order to engage the public. This allows communications with architects and the public to flow more freely and allow a lot more people to participate in the design process. This shows how popular it was about six years ago, and popularity has only grown.
The New School collaborates: Organization and communication in immersive international field programs with artisan communities by Cynthia Lawson.
This article focuses more on making collaborative design more available. It talks about how currently with the current world population of about 6.5 billion 90% have little or no access to architectural services the other 10% take for granted. The article then makes the point that it is our responsibility to lower this percentage and to do this by educating current design students through collaborative design. The New School Collaborates(TNSC) is a cross-divisional and interdisciplinary faculty research group at The New School (TNS), a university in New York City. TNSC are particularly interested in how students working across other disciplines outside of their own and out-with their university surroundings. This not only allows students to work with other people with other expertise but also people from different backgrounds and surroundings, offering new points of views. A prime example of this is given in the article, when a group of people from the humanitarian group CARE and also representatives from TNS visited Guatemala, to work with a group of Mayan woman creating a business model with their existing handcrafted products. Although the products were of great quality, local people had little expertise with basic business skills therefore their products weren't as successful as they could be. A group of students from the local university were brought in to help work with the project thus building on their academic skills as well as allowing them to help the Mayan women. Through the collaboration between all these different organisations it allows the business to prosper in ways it wouldnt without all the different people together. Lawson also makes the point that the participants all have an equal participation in the process, all making valid contributions.
Ovidio Morales, Dean of the School of Architecture and Design in the Guatemalan
Universidad Rafael Landivar, where the students participating in the project came from, said that "...design professionals should be potential agents of change in society, to make it more human, more just, and more democratic."
This is very true, and is also very valid with this case. To me collaborative design is best utilised when the project is a worthy one, and helping out the Mayan artisans of Guatemala is more than worthy. Lots of problems had to be overcome, the women had little knowledge of basic business skills, and some technical skills such as sewing, to help finalise their products. Bringing in experts in all of these different areas helped get their business to its highest potential and overcoming all these problems makes the cause seem even more worthy in the end. The project is also even more worthy as the business model was specifically designed so it can be used in other environments and isn't specific to the Mayan artisans. This shows just how successful the project was, it could be used in any other country, involving any other organisations, any other university students can be involved. I think the main point Lawson was trying to make was that students should be more educated in collaborative design participating in more projects out-with the university environment and projects like these are perfect ways to go about achieving this.
In both Rios' essay and Lawson's article a case study is provided as an example, Union Point Park and the Mayan artisans. Both are worthy causes in different ways. I think that's what makes collaborative design work, many different people get involved because they believe in the cause. I am a big believer in design being worthwhile and think both cases were good examples of this and was very interested to read into them, just as I previously have with other design organisations and projects (i.e Design Corps, dott...). Both make a good point that all participants in the process have equal importance, without certain groups of people the project would just not be the same, for example with union park without local citizens the project may have never even happened as it was their support that got the project moving. The union park point project was a good example of showing the ways collaborative projects have a lot more power, more people being involved means more networking and more connections, which allowed more connections with politicians and other people with power to gain funding, planning permission etc.. Also having so many people involved gave the project a real identity and a sense of community, motivating people to get involved in whatever way they could. Everyone involved had skills and just had to utilise them in different ways, working alongside other people with different skills, all of these 'mavens' together built a strong team, showing that the connectors, mavens and salesmen theory in The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell works well with this kind of design. With Lawson's case study, groups of people were brought in to help out less skilled people, building upon their basic knowledge to make their business and overall product more powerful. The Mayan artisans of Guatemala had a good basic knowledge of hand crafted products but lacked some basic skills to create a high quality final product and skills to get the product out there and be a success. Bringing in business 'mavens' and also people skilled in the craft industry allows the Mayan women to learn about how to make their products a success, not just be pushed out of the picture and taken advantage of. The addition of students being allowed on the project also allows them to learn and get experience in collaborative design, which is steadily growing more popular with more architecture schools running community design centres, meaning our current generation of students are well prepared for participatory design and can keep on building and improving the process. The project prepares students to work with people out-with their discipline and also, citizens, local organizations, politicians... A wide variety, rather than the small world within their campus boundaries. I feel that this is the way forward and think many current design courses could benefit from projects like these. It allows students to network and meet a variety of people from different backgrounds, with different skills and different points of view, opening peoples eyes to the world around them that just cant be experienced properly from a studio.
Bibiliography
Gladwell, M. (2001). The Law of the Few. In: The Tipping Point. Great Britain: Little, Brown. p30-p88.
John M, Cary, Jr., ACSA Sourcebook of Community Design Programs, Washington, D.c.: ACSA Press, 2000
Lawson, C. (2010). The New School collaborates: Organization and communication in immersive international field programs with artisan communities. Visible Language. 44 (2), p 239 - p 265.
Rios, M. (2004). Timely Tactics: The Strategic Role of Participation in Community Design. In: Bell, B Good Deeds, Good Design: Community Service Through Architecture . New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
In this essay Rios talks about the case of 'Union Point Park'. The essays main focus is the importance of getting a strong, powerful group involved in order to make the building of the park possible.
In Oakland in the early 1990's a group of residents in the Fruitvale area began organising clean ups of local parks, trying to deal with local social problems. They later went on to form a community partnership named the Fruitvale Recreation and Open Space Initiative (FROSI). Around the time this was formed the City of Oakland and the Port of Oakland began planning a way to connect Oakland through its historic port area.
In order for a park to be built in the port area, specifically Union Point, FROSI received 3000 signatures and 100 letters of support from local citizens and organisations. Through this huge gesture of support the local government agreed for the park to be built. In order to gain all these signatures the group would have to network, and therefore need connectors and salesmen, to get the people, and to 'sell' the park to them.
The writer, Michael Rios, was the team leader of FROSI and therefore was responsible for gathering a team together. The team consisted of architects, landscape architects and artists. These people are all, in a way, mavens when it comes to park design. Also a part of the team were community organizers, such as the Unity Council, The city of oakland parks department, the trust for public land and the university of oakland forum. These people can work as salesmen within the project, they have the influencial power to get approval and funding for the whole project. The fact Rios gathered such a diverse team makes him a connector.
The Union Park project also included teenagers, an even more diverse group of people to be involved, offering a different point of view and also allowing different areas of the community to be more accessible. One teen even spoke at a press conference, gaining a lot of media coverage and also succesfully increasing the amount of funding allocated to the park.
In a sense, the FROSI group had a very different group of people working together, and knowing this, used it to the best of their advantage. They networked, petitioned, held events and meetings, and got the approval and funding that they needed. The success of the project is down to collaborative design and everyone working together, clearly a successful way to manage a project.
At the time of the publication of this book community design was becoming more and more popular, with over 30% of North American architecture schools running community design centres, in order to engage the public. This allows communications with architects and the public to flow more freely and allow a lot more people to participate in the design process. This shows how popular it was about six years ago, and popularity has only grown.
The New School collaborates: Organization and communication in immersive international field programs with artisan communities by Cynthia Lawson.
This article focuses more on making collaborative design more available. It talks about how currently with the current world population of about 6.5 billion 90% have little or no access to architectural services the other 10% take for granted. The article then makes the point that it is our responsibility to lower this percentage and to do this by educating current design students through collaborative design. The New School Collaborates(TNSC) is a cross-divisional and interdisciplinary faculty research group at The New School (TNS), a university in New York City. TNSC are particularly interested in how students working across other disciplines outside of their own and out-with their university surroundings. This not only allows students to work with other people with other expertise but also people from different backgrounds and surroundings, offering new points of views. A prime example of this is given in the article, when a group of people from the humanitarian group CARE and also representatives from TNS visited Guatemala, to work with a group of Mayan woman creating a business model with their existing handcrafted products. Although the products were of great quality, local people had little expertise with basic business skills therefore their products weren't as successful as they could be. A group of students from the local university were brought in to help work with the project thus building on their academic skills as well as allowing them to help the Mayan women. Through the collaboration between all these different organisations it allows the business to prosper in ways it wouldnt without all the different people together. Lawson also makes the point that the participants all have an equal participation in the process, all making valid contributions.
Ovidio Morales, Dean of the School of Architecture and Design in the Guatemalan
Universidad Rafael Landivar, where the students participating in the project came from, said that "...design professionals should be potential agents of change in society, to make it more human, more just, and more democratic."
This is very true, and is also very valid with this case. To me collaborative design is best utilised when the project is a worthy one, and helping out the Mayan artisans of Guatemala is more than worthy. Lots of problems had to be overcome, the women had little knowledge of basic business skills, and some technical skills such as sewing, to help finalise their products. Bringing in experts in all of these different areas helped get their business to its highest potential and overcoming all these problems makes the cause seem even more worthy in the end. The project is also even more worthy as the business model was specifically designed so it can be used in other environments and isn't specific to the Mayan artisans. This shows just how successful the project was, it could be used in any other country, involving any other organisations, any other university students can be involved. I think the main point Lawson was trying to make was that students should be more educated in collaborative design participating in more projects out-with the university environment and projects like these are perfect ways to go about achieving this.
In both Rios' essay and Lawson's article a case study is provided as an example, Union Point Park and the Mayan artisans. Both are worthy causes in different ways. I think that's what makes collaborative design work, many different people get involved because they believe in the cause. I am a big believer in design being worthwhile and think both cases were good examples of this and was very interested to read into them, just as I previously have with other design organisations and projects (i.e Design Corps, dott...). Both make a good point that all participants in the process have equal importance, without certain groups of people the project would just not be the same, for example with union park without local citizens the project may have never even happened as it was their support that got the project moving. The union park point project was a good example of showing the ways collaborative projects have a lot more power, more people being involved means more networking and more connections, which allowed more connections with politicians and other people with power to gain funding, planning permission etc.. Also having so many people involved gave the project a real identity and a sense of community, motivating people to get involved in whatever way they could. Everyone involved had skills and just had to utilise them in different ways, working alongside other people with different skills, all of these 'mavens' together built a strong team, showing that the connectors, mavens and salesmen theory in The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell works well with this kind of design. With Lawson's case study, groups of people were brought in to help out less skilled people, building upon their basic knowledge to make their business and overall product more powerful. The Mayan artisans of Guatemala had a good basic knowledge of hand crafted products but lacked some basic skills to create a high quality final product and skills to get the product out there and be a success. Bringing in business 'mavens' and also people skilled in the craft industry allows the Mayan women to learn about how to make their products a success, not just be pushed out of the picture and taken advantage of. The addition of students being allowed on the project also allows them to learn and get experience in collaborative design, which is steadily growing more popular with more architecture schools running community design centres, meaning our current generation of students are well prepared for participatory design and can keep on building and improving the process. The project prepares students to work with people out-with their discipline and also, citizens, local organizations, politicians... A wide variety, rather than the small world within their campus boundaries. I feel that this is the way forward and think many current design courses could benefit from projects like these. It allows students to network and meet a variety of people from different backgrounds, with different skills and different points of view, opening peoples eyes to the world around them that just cant be experienced properly from a studio.
Bibiliography
Gladwell, M. (2001). The Law of the Few. In: The Tipping Point. Great Britain: Little, Brown. p30-p88.
John M, Cary, Jr., ACSA Sourcebook of Community Design Programs, Washington, D.c.: ACSA Press, 2000
Lawson, C. (2010). The New School collaborates: Organization and communication in immersive international field programs with artisan communities. Visible Language. 44 (2), p 239 - p 265.
Rios, M. (2004). Timely Tactics: The Strategic Role of Participation in Community Design. In: Bell, B Good Deeds, Good Design: Community Service Through Architecture . New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
11.23.2010
Assignment 3.
For Assignment 3: Looking up, Looking Down we were asked to find useful resources linking with our topic in assignment 2. As I studied mavens, salesmen and connectors I realised that these three people are all needed in many aspects in life, as well as in the design world. Collaborative design is a perfect example of this and here are some resources I found useful in order to understand collaborative design more in depth.
Devereux, J. (2004). Do-good Design. Available: http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20040201/do-good-design. Last visited 20/11/2010.
An interview with Bryan Bell who runs a successful non profit based architecture firm who specialise in designing houses for migrant farmworkers. An interesting insight to the way the people who run these companies think and why they do what they do.
Lawson, C. (2010). The New School collaborates: Organization and communication in immersive international field programs with artisan communities. Visible Language. 44 (2), p 239 - p 265.
Talks about designing for the 90 percent of the population some design services aren't available for. This is also spoken about in less detail in Good Deeds, Good Design by Bryan Bell. The article also discusses the need for students to now work collaboratively in order to lower this percentage.
Wates, N (2008). The Community Planning Event Manual: How to Use Collaborative Planning and Urban Design Events to Improve Your Environment (Tools for Community Planning Series). Earthscan Publications Ltd.
A how-to manual on collaborative design, how to run a successful collaboration project and who can be involved. The system is attainable by not only professional architects but also people of the community so a collaborative project could be started by many different types of people
Arias, E; Eden, H; Fischer, G; Gorman, A; Scharff, E . (2000). Transcending the individual human mind—creating shared understanding through collaborative design. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) - Special issue on human-computer interaction in the new millennium, Part 1. 7 (1)
Although about computer programming the article explains the benefits of collaborative design very well. It explains how how we need lots of people with different knowledge together to solve problems and get new insights, new ideas and new artifacts.
Devereux, J. (2004). Do-good Design. Available: http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20040201/do-good-design. Last visited 20/11/2010.
An interview with Bryan Bell who runs a successful non profit based architecture firm who specialise in designing houses for migrant farmworkers. An interesting insight to the way the people who run these companies think and why they do what they do.
Lawson, C. (2010). The New School collaborates: Organization and communication in immersive international field programs with artisan communities. Visible Language. 44 (2), p 239 - p 265.
Talks about designing for the 90 percent of the population some design services aren't available for. This is also spoken about in less detail in Good Deeds, Good Design by Bryan Bell. The article also discusses the need for students to now work collaboratively in order to lower this percentage.
Rios, M. (2004). Timely Tactics: The Strategic Role of Participation in Community Design. In: Bell, B Good Deeds, Good Design: Community Service Through Architecture . New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
Interesting case study of a collaborative project designing a waterfront park. Discusses who is involved, how they got involved, and why they are needed to help the project work out. Also discusses why it is important to build a good base of local people, powerful people and people with an interest in order to have a sense of support and produce a project identity.
Toker, Z. (2007). Recent trends in community design: the eminence of participation. Design Studies. 28 (3), Pages 309-323.
An overview of community design, explaining the different definitions from different people in different places, the origins of community design and current practicioners. It also contains a list of publications written by infuential people in the community design field.
Wates, N (2008). The Community Planning Event Manual: How to Use Collaborative Planning and Urban Design Events to Improve Your Environment (Tools for Community Planning Series). Earthscan Publications Ltd.
A how-to manual on collaborative design, how to run a successful collaboration project and who can be involved. The system is attainable by not only professional architects but also people of the community so a collaborative project could be started by many different types of people
While researching I came across a few collaborative design firms that have done some interesting projects and are worth a look!
Design corps here
Pratt Center here.
In order to keep up to date with Interior Design related news i regularly check these websites:
And other non related websites to keep up to date with news, science... and fashion!
www.bbc.co.uk/news/
www.newscientist.co.uk
www.guardian.co.uk
www.guardian.co.uk/arts
www.style.com/
In order to keep up to date with Interior Design related news i regularly check these websites:
this website tends to have more 'out there' interior design rather than typical designs you see every day. It also has lots of other design aswell as art and interviews.
Freshome has a great mix of interviews with interior designers, furniture/products, existing interiors and even articles helping people design their homes.
MocoLoco has some really interesting posts with interiors, architecture and design in general. I also love the layout of this website! Its different to the usual generic blog.
Inhabitat has a lot of different articles, not necessarily to do with interior design, but as a lot of our projects have a sustainable side to them, as most projects will these days, the website is a great help when looking for some more eco friendly methods and materials.
An online magazine, with a little bit of everything and very modern, high quality designs.
And other non related websites to keep up to date with news, science... and fashion!
www.bbc.co.uk/news/
www.newscientist.co.uk
www.guardian.co.uk
www.guardian.co.uk/arts
www.style.com/
11.09.2010
Assignment 2: Thinking.
After our brainstorming we had to think more about how our specific area of the text can relate to design or be helped by design. As I chose the salesmen, connectors and mavens aspect of the book I felt it was fairly obvious how they related. We encounter people who are Connectors, Salesmen and Mavens everyday and this is the exact same in design. For example our tutors are Connectors, who get us in touch with Mavens who can provide information we need and we can then get in touch with Salesmen. For a successful design to work it needs all three types of people otherwise there's a break in the circle almost. We need connectors to get us in touch with other like minded people or even the exact opposite, but people who will be useful to the project/design. We also need Mavens to help us out a bit, for example say you were totally clueless on programming, touched on in our last lecture on make things|make sense, and although you know nothing about it, you are very interested. Mavens could explain it to you, as they are 'information specialists'. They are all about hoarding information, sharing and trading and helping out so would be the perfect people to help you understand a new concept. Finally Salesmen will help in the whole process and getting the idea across, to as many people as possible and making the design more of a success. Salesmen have lots of charisma and know the right way to communicate the idea in a 'likeable' way and persuade people its the right choice, thus helping spread your design and in the end 'sell' it. These three types of people are needed in every different kind of design, whether it be a professional design firm, a voluntary design firm or design students connectors, mavens and salesmen make the whole process work!
Assignment 2: Brainstorming.
After reading 'The Tipping Point' by Malcolm Gladwell we had our mind maps to do, and our second assignment was to brainstorm further, not just the section we'd gone into detail but also those the rest of our group had as well. This was a great way for me to understand bits of the book i just couldn't get my head around! It was also a good way to bounce ideas off each other and get others opinions (This technique also worked well with our current project designingmaking in ied, but thats another story!) It was a quick way to generate some good ideas understanding the book more and also connecting the book with design. Here are a few pictures from our brainstorming lunch!
10.30.2010
Madrid
Spain Timelapses Series: Madrid from 3SENSES on Vimeo.
I thought since i've been posting a lot about world changing design and although important... it gets a little boring. Soooo, this summer i spent 5 weeks working in Madrid as an au pair, well, not in the city but a suburb just outside. I already love Spain but wow, I love it ten million times more now. I don't know what it is about the city but i just wanted to share some images i've come across, some I took myself, and of course the video above, which in itself is so amazing. Either you're also going to love Madrid after this, or think i'm a crazy person who needs to get a life instead of being in love with a country!
"Because Madrid is nothing special, it doesnt have a big river, or even skyscrapers, it doesn't have ruins, no beach, no sea. But it has the people, the unexpected corners, the constant bustle, the variety. Its worth getting up early for once, in order to live life in Madrid." (loosely translated!)
El oso y el madroño - The symbol of Madrid, seen all over the city and is a part of the flag, i think its meaning is something to do with the land of Madrid being owned by someone else but everything above ground was owned by Madrid... I was told the meaning in Madrid but it was in half Spanish and half English, so yeah, a little complicated.
El Palacio Real
Gran Via
How can you not love the Madrid sunset?!
Random doorway taken by me, i loved all the buildings, even the unimportant ones, very different to the design in Scotland where design sometimes seems to be forgotten when the building isnt of great importance, quite sad really.
The river in El Retiro taken by me.
Good Design, Bad Design.
Yesterday we had a lecture on Good Design and Bad Design which I feel continued on a bit from one of our previous lectures 'Think Big!'. I'm quite enjoying all these lectures, inspiring us all to do something meaningful with our degrees rather than just the obvious and expected. I'm glad our degrees are being taught the way they are, for example the last few briefs we have been given have had a sustainable and eco-friendly factor to them, almost forcing us to learn all of these new factors we will need in the future. It's also opening my eyes up a lot to how much you really have to think about things. For example we were told about the OLPC scheme (One Laptop Per Child). I personally had never heard about it and at first thought it was quite a good idea, the laptops are wound up to charge and have word processor etc., allowing children to work with them in school. But then as Jonathan explained, the children were only using them to play with and use the web cam. This doesn't really help them at all and the money used on the laptops could really be put to better use, catering to their basic human needs before allowing them to take pictures. Of course education is important in order to get these children out of poverty but surely there are cheaper and more effective ways to do this? There are many problems out there that we can help solve, we just have to think big and make some good design!
10.25.2010
Activity 1B/1C: Going into Detail
After reading The Tipping Point I realised the chapter I was most interested in was 'The Law of The Few'. I had never noticed before the different types of people that we need for social circles to work and after finishing the chapter I am beginning to notice the people I personally know who are the Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen. Even within totally different groups of people, for example my group of friends and family, who obviously don't spread important news like Paul Revere did, all 3 different types of people are important. I was quite fascinated by connectors and the incredible amount of people they know, if I were to sit down and count as many people as I know, I doubt very much I would reach the amount that any of the connectors that Gladwell met. Mavens also interested me, and I know a few family members who are quite close to being one! I however found it hard to believe some of the things written about Salesmen... Of course most are very persuasive and sometimes we do not realise this. However to go as far as saying the subtleties of the expressions on news reporters faces can influence the viewers vote in a national election, I find a little hard to believe!
Annotated Bibliography
Hackett Fischer, D (1994). Paul Revere's Ride. New York: Oxford University Press.
Gladwell Used this book for all discussion of Paul Revere and was useful when finding out about all the different social groups and people he would have met in these groups, in order to be able to spread the word that the British were coming faster.
Tjaden, B. The Oracle of Bacon. Available: www.cs.virginia.edu/oracle/
This is the 'six degrees of Kevin Bacon' experiment, which is a good demonstration of how a connector works. It shows that actors can all connect somehow, and even more so when in different genres of films, just like the way the connectors in the book have had different careers/hobbies and met different people.
Feick, L F. & Price, L. (1987). The Market Maven: A Diffuser of Marketplace Information. Journal of Marketing. vol. 51, pp. 83-97.
Gladwell uses this book to explain exactly what a Maven is and the research defines what a Maven is interested in and what they do for society.
Mullen, B. (1986). Newscasters' facial expressions and voting behaviour of viewers: Can a smile elect a President?. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. vol. 51, pp. 291-295.
The Journal used for the argument that the news reporters expression had the ability to persuade the viewers who to vote for.
Activity 1A: Mind Mapping The Tipping Point
When reading the Tipping Point By Malcolm Gladwell I found it hard to get my head around some of his ideas, I reread lots of chapters because I kept confusing myself, as ideas within different chapters and sectors all join up. Drawing up a mind map helped me to not only organise the book on paper but also in my head! It also helped to make me understand a clear structure and the whole idea Gladwell is trying to get across, and it is a very well thought out, intelligent idea I'm glad to have read.
10.20.2010
Grand Designs
I've just finished watching this weeks Grand Designs, the first i've watched in the new series. I used to watch this programme obsessively but because they played so many repeats I lost interest, but i'm very happy i watched this weeks episode! The episode this week 'Lizard Peninsula' (still not sure why its called that...) was all about Interior Designer Kathryn Tyler. I have to say Kevin McCloud was a little patronising about interior designers (going with the stereotype I had a rant about in my first post). He seems to think that all of us are into fabric and light fittings and was so shocked that Kathryn was so detail orientated and had thought about almost everything in her self managed project. But i'm not getting into another rant, I just think that Kathryn is hugely inspirational and built an amazing house, which might I add came in under budget, the only programme I remember watching which did so. I loved the exterior of the house, however some of the interiors, for me, were a bit too retro. The house was totally to her taste though, which is much better than some of the cold interiors you see that have no character at all. Although the house was pretty cool, Kathryn Tyler was what interested me the most about the programme. Further researching her I found out she in fact studied Graphic Design and then went into Interior Design, quite impressive then that she managed to build her own house so successfully as well as apparently doing a few projects at once in her career. She is clearly very driven and its quite the inspiration, if in ten years i've achieved as much as she has I will be one happy Interior Designer!
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The finished house.
10.07.2010
Valencia Design Week
With all this talk of erasmus exchanges going on i've been thinking a lot about it, I know if I do go i'd want to go to Spain because, well I love spain and I really want to work on my Spanish. Dundee university has ties with the Universidad Polytecnica de Valencia, so ive been doing some research on Valencia, to see what life there would be like. Upon researching the university, the city, I found out that the Valencia Design week has just finished, running from the 27th of september to the 2nd of october. I found some really interesting stuff that was on show there and thought i'd share some. A post with lovely pictures this time instead of a rant :) haha.
Sofa Evening - Christina Serrano
This is such a cute, clever idea! Its basically a blanket with socks built in, to keep people warm in the winter instead of having to use so much heating. The wool used to make the blankets is all locally sourced from Spain making it even more eco friendly. I couldnt find an image of the blanket but heres an interview with the designer, its all in spanish but you can see the blankets in the background. I want one!
The Three Little Pigs - Sanserif Design Studio
This exhibit was a fun one too. For the opening dancers performed on top of the furniture the Studio designed which was all made of cardboard, showing the durability of the products. I know that cardboard furniture has been done plenty of times but some of their furniture is just so lovely. The whole exhibition is also eco friendly, with everything being used in the next events, meaning no waste and the leaflets being printed on recycled paper with vegetable inks. It shows just how much things these days are changing in terms of being environmentally friendly.
More info on Valencia Design Week here
Sofa Evening - Christina Serrano
This is such a cute, clever idea! Its basically a blanket with socks built in, to keep people warm in the winter instead of having to use so much heating. The wool used to make the blankets is all locally sourced from Spain making it even more eco friendly. I couldnt find an image of the blanket but heres an interview with the designer, its all in spanish but you can see the blankets in the background. I want one!
The Three Little Pigs - Sanserif Design Studio
This exhibit was a fun one too. For the opening dancers performed on top of the furniture the Studio designed which was all made of cardboard, showing the durability of the products. I know that cardboard furniture has been done plenty of times but some of their furniture is just so lovely. The whole exhibition is also eco friendly, with everything being used in the next events, meaning no waste and the leaflets being printed on recycled paper with vegetable inks. It shows just how much things these days are changing in terms of being environmentally friendly.
More info on Valencia Design Week here
10.01.2010
What could this have to do with design?
I've noticed recently that whenever people find out I study Interior Design a common reaction is 'oh that sounds like fun!' and don't get me wrong it is, but people assume its all wallpaper and cushions, which most home owners do on a regular basis, why would we need a degree for it? I'm not saying that people ridicule interior design to my face, but after sharing a flat last year with people on more academic courses, medics, lawyers, business studies students etc.... You sometimes do get a feeling people dont take it too seriously. Although my old flatmates are probably going to save lifes, win world changing lawsuits and build multi-national companies, okay maybe im being a little too optimistic on their behalf but im sure they will do some pretty amazing things with their lives. But whose to say that as interior designers we won't too? Its not all picking a colour and a nice pattern to match, we can really make a mark in the world too.
An interesting example of organisations doing just this is Project H Design.
Mission Statement:
In our first lecture for design studies we were asked to not think "Whats this got to do with design?" but "what could this have to do with design? People behind organisations like the Project H Design are asking this question finding wats to make design, fix, help and stop problems. Every single person out there can
find ways of changing the world, whether it be interior designers, doctors or plumbers, small steps from everyone working together will make a big impact. I'm very aware of this whole post sounding very pompous and a little bit Barack Obama-ish, but i'm not writing this expecting any person who reads it will jump out their seats and say I must go change the world through design!!!! Its just proving a point that it is possible!
An interesting example of organisations doing just this is Project H Design.
Mission Statement:
Design initiatives for Humanity, Habitats, Health, and Happiness.
Project H uses the power of the design process to catalyze communities and public education from within. We are a team of designers and builders engaging in our own backyards to improve the quality of life for all. Our six-tenet design process (There is no design without (critical) action; We design WITH, not FOR; We document, share and measure; We start locally and scale globally; We design systems, not stuff; We build) results in simple and effective design solutions that empower communities and build collective creative capital. Our specific focus is the re-thinking of environments, products, experiences, and curricula for K-12 education institutions in the US, including design/build Studio H high school program in the Bertie County School District, North Carolina.
WE BELIEVE DESIGN CAN CHANGE THE WORLD.
In our first lecture for design studies we were asked to not think "Whats this got to do with design?" but "what could this have to do with design? People behind organisations like the Project H Design are asking this question finding wats to make design, fix, help and stop problems. Every single person out there can
find ways of changing the world, whether it be interior designers, doctors or plumbers, small steps from everyone working together will make a big impact. I'm very aware of this whole post sounding very pompous and a little bit Barack Obama-ish, but i'm not writing this expecting any person who reads it will jump out their seats and say I must go change the world through design!!!! Its just proving a point that it is possible!
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