Betaville

Betaville ..."is an open-source multiplayer environment for real cities, in which ideas for new works of public art, architecture, urban design, and development can be shared, discussed, tweaked, and brought to maturity in context, and with the kind of broad participation people take for granted in open source software development..."

collaborative design, effective design before, during the design process...not just after.


Urban Omnibus interview

Power Point - shooting bullets

We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint:
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
New York Times

 I have always been told the linearity of thought that powerpoint enforces can limit your thinking process and understanding of complex systems. This is not so reassuring that the people need the most clarity have discovered the same thing...

UPDATED: article:
"...Great presenters employ the basic narrative techniques used throughout history to connect with audiences and move them to action and new understanding. The presentations that work are not the ones with the most data or the most elaborate charts and graphs; the winners are those with the most compelling and convincing narratives.

We're a distracted, multi-tasking society. So presentations need to lure and re-lure an audience simply to keep their attention. Audiences are looking at the clock or fiddling with their handheld devices throughout a presentation. You don't connect with your audience by throwing information at them -- you do it by taking them on a journey toward your perspective..."

Excerpts: 

“PowerPoint makes us stupid,” Gen. James N. Mattis of the Marine Corps, the Joint Forces commander, said this month at a military conference in North Carolina. (He spoke without PowerPoint.) Brig. Gen. H. R. McMaster, who banned PowerPoint presentations when he led the successful effort to secure the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar in 2005, followed up at the same conference by likening PowerPoint to an internal threat.

“It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,” General McMaster said in a telephone interview afterward. “Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.”


In General McMaster’s view, PowerPoint’s worst offense is not a chart like the spaghetti graphic, which was first uncovered by NBC’s Richard Engel, but rigid lists of bullet points (in, say, a presentation on a conflict’s causes) that take no account of interconnected political, economic and ethnic forces. “If you divorce war from all of that, it becomes a targeting exercise,” General McMaster said.


Commanders say that behind all the PowerPoint jokes are serious concerns that the program stifles discussion, critical thinking and thoughtful decision-making. Not least, it ties up junior officers — referred to as PowerPoint Rangers — in the daily preparation of slides, be it for a Joint Staff meeting in Washington or for a platoon leader’s pre-mission combat briefing in a remote pocket of Afghanistan. 

(Thanks Lee!)

 

an essay for the economic deceleration

I like to tune into Core77 for some refreshing takes on the design field. This essay by Tad Toulis gives a nice overview of some emerging trends in the industry: Copy/Paste Creativity, Ubiquitous High-Fidelity and Links and Linkatures

Gated Internet Communities?

photo and related NYTimes article

“If you’re looking for a digital Pearl Harbor, we now have the Japanese ships streaming toward us on the horizon,” Rick Wesson, the chief executive of Support Intelligence, a computer consulting firm, said recently."

The internet is under attack. The existing structure of the internet has security gaps, allowing hackers to infiltrate corporate and military data...causing much fear. So the debate ranges now in creating a new internet, one with stricter identification measures and security blocks.

"What a new Internet might look like is still widely debated, but one alternative would, in effect, create a “gated community” where users would give up their anonymity and certain freedoms in return for safety. Today that is already the case for many corporate and government Internet users. As a new and more secure network becomes widely adopted, the current Internet might end up as the bad neighborhood of cyberspace. You would enter at your own risk and keep an eye over your shoulder while you were there."

"The idea is to build a new Internet with improved security and the capabilities to support a new generation of not-yet-invented Internet applications, as well as to do some things the current Internet does poorly — such as supporting mobile users."

Or does the strategy look not at recreating the web, but instead rethinking the structure and gradually creating new interventions...

"That has not discouraged the Stanford engineers who say they are on a mission to “reinvent the Internet.” They argue that their new strategy is intended to allow new ideas to emerge in an evolutionary fashion, making it possible to move data traffic seamlessly to a new networking world. Like the existing Internet, the new network will almost certainly have no one central point of control and no one organization will run it. It is most likely to emerge as new hardware and software are built in to the router computers that run today’s network and are adopted as Internet standards."

How does the structure of our information relate to the physical built environments. Are the gated communities of suburbia, the super surveillant cities of post 9/11 the future of our communication networks?

"A more secure network is one that would almost certainly offer less anonymity and privacy. That is likely to be the great tradeoff for the designers of the next Internet. One idea, for example, would be to require the equivalent of drivers’ licenses to permit someone to connect to a public computer network. But that runs against the deeply held libertarian ethos of the Internet."

“As soon as you start dealing with the public Internet, the whole notion of trust becomes a quagmire,” said Stefan Savage, an expert on computer security at the University of California, San Diego."

Sandbag housing

MMA Architects and new housing strategies using sand filled bags, stacked...
related articles:
Treehugger
Dezeen

Google's Power Meter

Kicking the smart grid into motion perhaps is the doing of Google, which introduced new software service online that helps homeowners track their energy use. This requires additional hardware that would plug into your main circuit breaker and would "talk" with your computer, downloading your energy patterns. The Google platform would then map it, graphically showing your energy use...thus prompting many to limit and adjust their use...saving money and surges on our energy grid. Google foresees implementing this into a social network interface...your daily energy use on facebook anyone?


related articles:
New York Times
Bits

Virtual Deputies

Virtual Deputies is a new private/public program through the The Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition and BlueServo. In the past several months a network of surveillance cameras have been set up along the Texas/Mexico border. Now in the comfort of your own home, people can log in to the site and partake in the act of spotting illegal aliens with real surveillance video. Operating 24/7, the greater public can now survey and report directly to the Coalition any suspecious activies.

Groups can also form to turn the cameras on their own communities with the local Virtual Neighborhood Watches...

Building Landscapes

Academy of Sciences Museum in San Francisco, CA
The rooftop mimics surrounding hills, while planted with native plants
Mounds reflect the planetarium and rain forest exhibits within.

Enclaves of Inclusion & Exclusion: Seeking Broader Perspectives in the Design of International Development

Below is my 2008 William Kinne Fellow Traveling Prize Research Findings
(available in PDF format upon request)

In the fall of 2008, with the support of the William Kinne Fellowship Traveling Prize, I traveled to the sub-Saharan country of Malawi (see attached proposal, Wading the Waters: Exploring Malawi’s Fragile Infrastructure of Water and Health). The intent of this trip was to explore the fragile relationship between the infrastructure of water and health. My three week travel itinerary included accompanying the non-profit, Child Dental Relief, in their ongoing efforts in promoting basic hygiene and oral health care at two established sites, the Home of Hope orphanage, near Mchinji, and Consol Homes in the town of Nimetete – both situated in rural western Malawi.

While the non-profit has been focusing on basic oral health care for Malawi’s orphans and impoverished population, their desire is to begin to address the broader understanding of the larger structures effecting communities – especially that of water and proper sanitation. My time was managed between these two sites, assessing the issues surrounding water sourcing, quality, use and its discharge. To gain a better understanding of these centers, time was given to document the local vernacular architecture and building technologies, village layout and community infrastructural pressures. This multi-disciplinarian collaboration allowed me to meet with medical doctors and dentists, interview local stakeholders such as nurses, local chiefs and teachers, local architects, and Malawi’s Ministry of Water.

By introducing urban design as a tool in addressing the greater issue of extreme poverty, it became apparent that the need for a greater perspective in understanding the complexities of these two sites was needed. In designing solutions to the complicated issues of poverty reduction, the need for new perspectives (regionally, annually, in varying scales) in viewing the problem is essential. In contributing to the wealth of work being accomplished, my findings ultimately are in the form of questions.

The intention is for these key questions to provoke more resilient design solutions that mitigate what I intend to explain as existing designs of inclusion and exclusion. In understanding the current international development strategies encountered with this grant, designs of inclusion appear as responses that are local and native. They are solutions that come from the site, of the site, respond to topography, culture; the physical natural environment. Inclusionary design opens to the direct community. Designs of exclusion on the other hand, are outsourced, foreign, and external. These solutions tend to be recommendations applied to a site with regard to direct goals.

As I hope to explain, ultimately it is a combination of both inclusionary and exclusionary design solutions that must address the boundless issues effecting sites in implementing design on many scales (technology, site layouts and site infrastructures) in the hopes of eliminating extreme poverty.

Two Sites: Dispersing and Collecting

In comparing the sites of Home of Hope and Consol Homes new perspectives can be gained in comprehending design as a strategy to end extreme poverty. Both sites are privately funded by foreign organizations, churches or governments, and both are situated within rural communities of need. But each begins to demonstrate examples of what can be seen as inclusive and exclusive relationships to their environment, creating varying degrees of enclaves of dispersion or collection. This new constellation of development work found throughout the country typically mediate their surroundings with a combination of dispensing vital needs (water, education, food) and collecting (staff, resources, funding). Through this understanding, new relationships with the diverse scale of design such as technology, site layout and infrastructure, become key in questioning current strategies of international development.

Technology:
The introduction of foreign financing inevitably introduces foreign technologies. To the benefit of the community, these new technologies advance potentials for new sources of energy, communication and ultimately health and well being. Home of Hope successfully makes use of a gravity fed water system, utilizing the steep slope it is built against to feed the numerous sinks and toilets, whereas Consol Homes depends upon tapping into its aquifer for sourcing its water. The latter’s strategy of a system comprised of complicated mechanics have, as of the recent visit, left all pumps inoperative due to its around-the-clock use. No local source of knowledge in repairing the pumps leaves the Center without water for weeks at a time.

Site Layout:
Topography, security and funding have all determined the site layouts and design of the two sites visited. Home of Hope while located upon a sloping grade makes use of a grid layout, with buildings located perpendicular to each other and the adjacent roadway. This is conducive to the natural flow of water into the site, as well as the flow of community into the site. Contradicting all this is the introduction of a perimeter wall enclosing the entire site, which restricts flow, but emphasizes security, cohesion and identity. Consol Homes, located within a spacious and relatively flat open field, is conceived as a radial layout with a central “green” and gazebo with surrounding buildings looking in upon itself. No perimeter walls are yet in place and numerous footpaths connect this site with area villages.

Infrastructure:
As discussed above, both technology and site layout have played a role in the current infrastructural strategies of the two sites. The present condition of local village water infrastructure is antiquated, with limited lines, most of which have collapsed. Home of Hope, making use of a naturally flowing spring, actually diverts a percentage of its water lines to its perimeter and beyond its site boundaries to neighboring villages. Home of Hope provides a reliable source of water to the immediate adjacent community. In contrast, Consol Homes, at the time of my visit depended upon the network and proximity of neighboring villages to bring the water in, add due to its failed pumps.

The observation of these two sites allows one to gain new perspectives through asking questions in the hopes of focusing the incredible amount of work already in place. Both Home of Hope and Consol Homes offer opportunities for creating new interventions and methods of site dispersion and collection. Through this lens of inclusion and exclusion, questions can be formulated to broaden the discussion of sustainable design development.

How can design begin to integrate sites with their surrounding environments?

Many times these privately funded initiatives are seen as closed systems with immediate solutions and goals. Rightly so, the breadth of poverty reduction is so vast, no single solution has the ability or finances to grasp the issue in its entirety. But how can these acts of development not be seen as operating only in isolation, but as a part of a greater infrastructure of the community, of the region? And how can these satellite enclaves of foreign financed infrastructures branch out, be plugged into or expanded? How can these centers of provide outreach and education thru a new infrastructure of utility?

How can new technologies mediate the local vernacular?

Appreciation and implementation of local technologies has become a focus in almost all forms of development work. “Less is more” when it comes to introducing foreign materials and technologies. How can development of improved infrastructures implement local methods while accessing new technologies? How can existing techniques be reinforced with new technologies? How can cultural conceptions of an “impoverished” material (mud) and a “developed” material (concrete) be mitigated with understandings and appreciation of tradition, environment and local knowledge?

How can a site’s resources be reworked through better design?

Single use” is a concept of the so-called developed world that has sadly been transposed onto cultures well versed in the ability of sustainably utilizing their immediate environment. Water, being one of the most valuable resources is underutilized. How can water be multi-programmed to fulfill numerous functions along its flow through a site? What are the seasonal, monthly and daily flows? What aspects of xeriscaping, permaculture, greywater, and rain water catchment can be incorporated into planning and architectural design solutions?

How can design perform at the scale of health?

There are immediate health concerns facing communities in poverty. From infectious diseases such as AIDs/HIV to mosquito carrying malaria and yellow fever and waterborne pathogens, design is just beginning to matter. There are a number of preventative strategies that can be achieved medically and thru better design of our living environments. What are the scales to consider when designing healthy environments? Scales of water (regional water shed, community infrastructures, personal use/discharge). Scales of disease (proximities to sources of breeding grounds, ceiling heights and beam spacing for ceiling hung mosquito bed nets, Scales of hygiene (locations of hand washing sinks, washing facilities).

Discovering Answers by Designing Questions

The two sites explored through this grant gave me the ability to compare and contrast the types and technologies of international development work occurring in Western Malawi. These sites exemplify the importance of creating varying degrees of enclaves of inclusion and exclusion that ultimately have altering relationships with neighboring communities, acting as points of dispersion and collection.

It is my intention and hope to share my discoveries in investigating the broad relationship of water and health by bringing questions to the discussion that help give new perspectives in addressing the issue of poverty reduction.

Related Articles:

Study Finds Pattern of Severe Droughts in Africa

Poverty + Self Sufficient Housing

Malawi - Sub-Saharan Africa:
Yes, poverty is determined by access to clean water, food, health care....death rates, illiteracy...and the list can go on. And what of shelter? Access to shelter verses architecture?

















Throughout the countryside of rural Malawi, people have access and the knowledge for creating their own shelter. Is it architecture? Does it matter?

As detailed below, the simple construction component of mud brick are procured, formed, cured, stacked, plastered and dwelled, all within or within walking distance of ones land.

How does agency to one's own housing solution help transform a community out of poverty? What preconceived notions of a nations "architecture" prevent it to sustain its local vernacular? (instead of resorting to concrete block, tile, heavy timber?)
What other elements of "poverty" could be re-considered in terms of self sufficiency and culture?

(All in perspective: Mud brick homes in Santa Fe, NM rarely sell for less than a million $US...hand plastered mud walls?... make it 1.5 mill)
















Mud/clay procured from surrounding land in varying degrees of consistencies. Mud rarely mixed with a cellulose like straw for strength. How could these new mined out holes serve the community? water catchment? fish pond? subterranean cold storage/housing?

















One of the only things purchased is the wood form used for casting the mud bricks


















raw bricks are stacked on site into (rather ceremonial looking) mini ziggurats.
















The stack becomes its own kiln, as it is covered in mud and fired by inserting wood into the bottom chambers. The villagers tells me they start the fire at 6pm and keep it roaring till the heat gets to the top of the mound. They estimate approx 12 hours of burning time. Issues of deforestation, quality of brick can't be forgotten.

















From "kiln" to home, bricks are mortered with mud or if able, cement is purchased. Bricks can also be sold for approx. 2 Mk each (approx. 1.5 cents each). A house costs about 10,000 Mk (or about 80 USD).
































Utilizing local sources of clays and muds of varying degrees of mineral content, personalized color and figurative pattens are adhered to the exterior and interior dwellings. The mud plasters help protect the structures (must be reapplied annually).

Q-box: for neighborhood fun and games

from the website

The Qbox is a Local Energy Network (LEN) Interface. It is at the heart of a building's infrastructure and it communicates with the surrounding buildings.

Sharing with neighbors: The Qurrent Qbox will handle this complicated task completely autonomously. It will measure all electricity production and consumption and will make it possible to share capacities with your neighborhood, or cluster. In that process it will take into account the energy rates, however varying they may be, government subsidies, your production and consumption profiles and personal preferences you might have. All without you having to look after it.

Its what technology was meant to be...completely transforms our life yet utterly, unnoticed. What happens to suburbia when we actually start sharing something...something as important as energy? Does this sustain our wasteful land use practices? Or will it ultimately promote greater community? More importantly, are we willing to share?