Designing beyond idealism

Sometimes the amount of need for the urban and architectural condition is overwhelming...and the idealism and Utopian visions are numerous. I like this article from Core77 that invites us as designers to remain effective.

“Faced with a potentially inevitable catastrophic set of circumstances, the designers embodied principles of pragmatism over idealism in the artefacts they created, all the while working within a realization that some problems cannot be solved. This might be hard for us to come to terms with as designers, but Protect and Survive demonstrates that it's certainly a useful space for us to explore. When faced with an unsolvable problem, how can we still be effective?...”

“…By being honest in our design work about the imperfections of the worlds both outside and inside us, we might craft more products and services that speak to who we are in a straightforward way…”

“…I hope that with these few examples, I've begun to hint at how a design process that doesn't necessarily default to an optimistic view of our behaviour or our future can form a valuable and productive mode of enquiry, and lead to equally impactful outcomes. By being honest in our design work about the imperfections of the worlds both outside and inside us, we might craft more products and services that speak to who we are in a straightforward way, and, in doing so, offer more meaningful, true support for the way that we really live our lives—and maybe lead us to less artifical utopias…”

Rural design vernacular

Another nice essay from Core 77

I would ask, how could we look at this in terms of rural vs. urban? Design, planning and infrastructure?

"In an attempt to discover how rural habits of mind and making could inform a design practice, I've been investigating the qualities of agency in a project entitled Objects of the Rural Vernacular."

“There is a unique borrowing from the rural by the urban in design, both past and the present. At their roots, these projects exude a sense of self-sufficiency, informed by a romanticized sense of rural autonomy and resourcefulness. Still, objects that can provide the means to this self-reliance expose agency—the ability to deliberately and directly affect one's environment in an undisciplined, creative manner."

Feedback Loop Urbanism

Always a great read, Urban Omnibus discusses the issue of city and citizen responsiveness.

"311 provides an online point of entry, but its primary form of engagement is a phone call between a citizen with a question and an operator able to point her towards the proper resource or department. But once this connection is made, the caller is deposited right back into the big-city bureaucracy. Similar things are true of FixMyStreet, which collects issues on its users' behalf and then forwards the aggregated complaints to the relevant department of government.
How might we close the loop? How could we arrange things so that the originator, other members of the public, the city bureaucracy itself and other interested parties are all notified that an issue has been identified and is being dealt with? How might we identify the specific individuals or teams tasked with responding to the issue, allow people to track the status of issues they're reported, and ensure that observed best practices and lessons learned are gathered in a resolution database?..."

Build a Better Burb results in

And the results are in! Check out the finalists for envisioning a new suburban future for Long Island...

Making Mega Projects

The recent article from The Bay Citizen highlights the difficulty in cities handling growth management. On the one hand we hear that our cities our growing and that we must prepare for the millions more that will need to be housed in the global cities of tomorrow. But on the other hand, we have the millions already in the city, resistant to such planning, hesitant for such sudden mega-projects.

Some opt for more "small scale infill" projects - a less obtrusive, abrupt design procedure that operates perhaps more on the scale of our human comprehension, a better sense of security...

What have we learned from the mega planning projects of the Modernist? Where do we now stand in the forethought to prepare for the future while sensitive to the presence of "now"...

The "urban acupuncture" ideas throw into question a lot of the common place zoning, property rights and such that many would be hard pressed to allow (NIMBY - not in my backyard).

Is it the "master plan"? The large scale, cream colored shaded squares, tied together in a network of make-believe roads surrounded by green geometric shapes? Is the way we represent the future leave out the concerns of today and thus leave the viewer, the concerned citizen, out of the picture? (or the environment, the nature preserves...)

In times of emergency, we adapt to large adaptations...Massive planning is comprehended through massive loss or destruction. But when we have just a trickle of people entering the cities, the vision of massive planning is intimidating...its not for the city perhaps, but for the anticipated city...a plan for the others...

piecemeal development, renovation, in-fill allows the resident to feel the scale of self and its city in a comfortable relationship with the addition of the new, the other. What we as architects vision is a reality of the new, but perhaps we fail to create a vision for the old. 

Getting Around the Mega-Cities

related article: Envisioning a Small Electric BMW for the World’s Very Big Cities

In thinking about how we will move about the new more congested cities, several auto companies are preparing to introduce new smaller "people movers"...

" The Mega City Vehicle is imagined not simply as an in-city errand hauler, but as a commuter car. “In the beginning of the program we asked, what does ‘megacity’ mean?’” he said. “What kind of people will drive this car? What will they do everyday?”"