surround

It was easy to get frustrated with the openness of this project, but after the presentations this week, I’m glad the criteria was broad, as it really gave groups the opportunity to do something unique with information. I was most impressed with the presentation and the concept of the second group, goal #7, Ensure Environmental Sustainability. As they tackled the same goal as my group, I found it particularly interesting to compare and contrast their strategies with those of my group.

While the group did not focus entirely on the actual research collected, their overall goal was to provide easy and usable ‘access’ to the information. In this way, their solution was very similar to ours: to provide appropriate information to build a knowledge foundation. Their package of material was very effective in making this information user-friendly, with large color-coded tabs and text coupled with large images. It seemed to me that it was almost a technological approach, similar to a web page, of title ‘buttons’ which would link you to more and more information. I also enjoyed that the booklet/package could be added to. Of course, it is titled tabs that the group created, but the idea of the interface was very effective for adding more information, even linking that information further.

The presentation of their research was obviously unique and interesting, but I wish they could have spent more time delving in a bit, telling us how, what, why they researched the topics they did. As I said previously, it would be rare that a topic I was searching for would match perfectly with the topic they’ve provided. So why did they choose these specific topics? Were they meant to be added upon in the future? Many of the group members talked about how their specific topics were ‘out of their league’ or ‘boring’, which leaves the audience doubting if they would want to read further. I do understand that this idea of ‘hard’ or ‘boring’ topics fit with their concept of making this information more obtainable to the average individual, but I’m still not sure I would want to read the ‘easy’ stuff. It could have been beneficial for the audience for them to share a bit about what they learned; maybe it would have been interesting after all.

To reject my own comment, I enjoyed that their presentation was different. It didn’t regurgitate a summary of the entire document of research, but instead twisted the information to make the users curious to learn more for themselves. In this way, a topic that I might find ‘boring’ someone else might find extremely interesting, therefore, we could separately explore the document to learn of our respective topics. The group livened the project to make use of its broad scope, which I appreciated.

Posted by carl1438 at 5:05 AM | Permalink

As I was in one of the two groups that presented this week….I will be commenting on the group presentation that focused on Goal 8: Global Development.

Because the project itself was so broad, I think, even without seeing the remaining presentations, that the interesting element will be the way in which each group was able to bring this very large idea into realistic, understandable, and relatable terms. Large concepts are often very overwhelming, and are often avoided rather than contemplated. Hearing phrases such as Ensuring Environmental Sustainability and Global Development can maybe even scare away action rather than welcome it. Without defining these broad ideas in some way further, some way smaller, the goals will always remain ‘too big’ and unachievable.

When ‘group goal 8’ began their presentation with a ‘common thread’ throughout global development, already their ideas were effective in defining this broad idea into a more manageable concept. Global development could mean a huge plethora of different things, could be measured in a variety of ways, and could be achieved separately. Introducing the common theme of ‘affordability’ or ‘low cost’ allowed them to ground their ideas before even explaining them.

Not only is affordability something we can all relate to in our own daily lives, but it presents a unique and ‘extra’ challenge for their research. It also addresses the thoughts of ‘scaring away action’ as it speaks to affordable solutions, which can often draw a much larger crowd of interest and availability. It was also a nice method of organization for them, as they all went in very different directions. It was helpful, from the view of an audience member, to keep remembering that ‘common thread’ for organization and understanding purposes.

‘Group Goal 8’s’ further ideas were also very interesting. Each member took a topic that seemed to interest them, but also which seemed to cover some of the largest areas of ‘global development’, including housing, medicine, sustainability, and energy. Each of these could have been great topics in themselves, but it was nice to see a breadth of information rather than more focused info. With each of these topics, I also felt the group was able to achieve an accurate ‘world view’, representing many, many different countries and solutions in their research. Although it might have been nice to do a more focused study on a few, again, the images and mentioning of several shifted the focus to the actual achievement of the goal, rather than the goal itself.

Images overall in the presentation could have really helped to drive their concept of affordability and their coverage of ‘worldly views’. The first presenter and her images of low cost housing projects around the world were so interesting, eye catching, and effective. The others, although I’m sure their research was just as valuable, were harder to follow.

Overall, I felt the presentation was very effective and relational in covering such a broad topic. I would have liked to hear a little more regarding a preface to their actual goal, how the millennium goal is defined, how it is being measured. It wasn’t entirely clear as to why they chose the specific avenues, were these the topics the UN used also to define global development? It may have been helpful for the group to begin with their brainstorming process, and how they began to wrap their mind around the ideas, the process it took to arrive at the end result.

Posted by carl1438 at 3:03 AM | Permalink

Millennium Goal: #7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability

I’ve decided to organize this blog prompt, the design of the project layout, in a more ‘holistic’ manner. For me, it was important to define what we were really trying to achieve before attempting to design a way to reflect our information. I’ve included a series of sketches that helped me work through the definition in my own mind. Hopefully they are useful in examining the final product.

To sketch the first diagram, I simply looked up the definition of sustainability on the web. The UN pinpoints the definition to ‘environmental’ sustainability, but I was curious, for layout purposes, what was encompassed by the greater spectrum of the term. Maybe, in this way, our final document could be built upon in research, while focusing, for the purposes of the class, on the millennium goal achievement.

The definitions from various sources seemingly created a web in my vision, with many different, often very specific, ways to define sustainability. Included in the center are the definitions that I felt were the most encompassing, while the extensions outward reflect the multitude expressions of sustainability. Environment is included here, however, there are many others listed, and many more beyond what is included here.

The question is, then, how do these relate. They are all extensions of sustainability in some way, but how is that possible? How are there so many ‘takes’ on the same idea? How are they connected?

From the beginning of the term, our group decided to focus on knowledge and education as a means to effectively achieve the millennium goal. To define this decision for myself, I wanted a way for ‘knowledge’ to specifically fit into this diagram, somehow justifying its strength and justifying our focus for the term project.

The second diagram reflects the integration of knowledge into the web. First you begin with the idea of sustainability. Then, you move to defining that idea as a whole, which represents the knowledge base, a starting point, a foundation. Only then can you move to interpreting or implementing that knowledge in various ways, which would represent the multitude of topics expressed in the earlier diagram. In this way, knowledge feeds the web of action, the web of resolution and the web of achievement, millennium goal or otherwise.

For our layout, I feel it is important to reflect the web concept, and the idea of knowledge extending out to various methods of action. To support the response of ‘building the knowledge’ base as a means to achieve the millennium goal, our group has focused on one organization which provides many classes, with different topics, to schools, corporations, other organizations, among others. Each topic offers a different way to focus the knowledge or education of sustainability. Our group has decided to use these topics as a framework to define our own project, each taking one topic, expanding the realm of the topic, and relating how it can potentially impact the achievement of sustainability.

To reflect the idea of a web in our layout, I chose the hexagonal shape because the pieces can fit together or stand alone. The shape itself suggests it’s ‘fit’ with others. From there, the cover could represent the center, while the first ring off of the cover, or center, could reflect the ‘knowledge base’. From there, the layout suggests an infinite connective web extending outward, signifying the seemingly endless ways to act upon the one goal of sustainability.

The actual layout of the pages could look something like the sketch below. The text and images would connect (with fabric or a band?) in some way, can could potentially fold back up to be included behind the one cover page, or center. The document as a whole would present a web of text and image, all feeding and supporting the center, reflecting the holistic and interconnectedness of the entirety of sustainability.

I’ve included the images below to suggest one way we could attempt to define the web more specifically, possible with color coding. The first image could represent the cover page, while the latter two could be options for the ‘knowledge pages’ or the ‘implementation/action’ pages. More could be devised as needed; however, choosing a few would keep the pages simple in the complexity of the whole document. The outside dotted rectangle around each hexagon show an 8.5�x11� sheet of paper, suggesting that these shapes could be cut out of sheet before being assembled together.

Another layout option that achieves a similar reflection of ideas is shown below. This one emphasizes the circle, or the center more overtly, and literally extends the 'knonwledge' topics outward. The topics themselves become the linking peices between the research information/text and sustainability, also further emphasizing the concept of knowledge as a 'bridge' or a 'foundation'.

The last layout option is more similar to the second, but emphsizes a hexagon center rather than a circle in the center. For layout purposes, this might be more effective in simplifying the overall design by sticking to one shape. Again, the topics are the actual peices that extend outward to connect, or link, all of the other information.

Posted by carl1438 at 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For most of the included images, I’ve used Ozayr’s suggestion for design layout sources, however, some more random, possibly not even official layouts, but all inspired me in some way.

I retrieved these typical CMYK layouts off their website. Although the overall concept of the page layout, to simply include a box that bleeds to the edge at the top left doesn’t appeal to me much, other characteristics about the design do. I really like the idea of a subtle change on all the pages, as they’ve done here with the different colored box and letter, to indicate a different ‘category’ (maybe) of information. For our group’s term project, we each have a different area of sustainability that we’ve focused on, which could be well represented by a color change or slight layout change on each page, indicating separate sections while still having unity in one document.

Both of these images struck me, as they are presented in an ‘image layout’ format, but convey more of a three-dimensional quality to presenting text. I was inspired to think outside of the box a bit from this, thinking of alternate ways to present text or research. Photo-shopping text onto a wall or a tee-shirt provides interest and involvement for the user.

I chose these two to represent options for a fold-book type layout. The first, to the left, appears more as a magazine article with the entirety of both pages filled with text or image. It definitely has a presence and catches the eye with boldness, but overall appears a little cluttered and overwhelming. Alternately, to the right, is a fold layout that includes very little on the pages, with two smaller images and a small amount of text. Although this allows less room for text, its simplicity is more effective by inciting the viewer to read. I also like the asymmetry of the images, balanced in weight on either page but varying in size. For a group presentation this will be helpful, as not everyone will have the same image size. Placing these in the center will put more emphasis on the images rather than the text.

These layouts stood out to me as catchy images, as their appeal is not from the text or even necessarily from the image, but from the positive and negative spaces the text and images create. Without knowing what the text reads in the middle of the upside-down America outline, you could probably guess it was provocative, maybe an unusual statistic, some kind of information, definitely not the image title or caption. The layout to the left, without reading the text, would indication some kind of action, movement, or emotion just by interpreting the lines on the page or the juxtaposition of shapes. It will be interesting to develop the reaction we want from our term project to present in a way that evokes that response. Perhaps, as these layouts employ, we want the audience to experience the research we’ve done visually, simply supplemented by text.

These last four I chose because of their uniqueness in using basic elements and principles of design. These first two uniquely employ boundaries for the layout other than the actual edge of the paper. In the first, the lollipop defines a significant area, and defines where the text should be placed in relation. The eye is carried around the circle and down off the bottom with the stick. The layout to the right uses the stack of papers to define a clear edge on the left, but a jagged, more dynamic edge to the right. This gives the overall composition more movement and interest.

These layouts define the page through use of repetition of a particular item. In the first, the chairs provide interest and movement along the bottom, effectively dividing the composition into thirds. It makes the image more static, but moves the eye around the page, keeping it active in the text and picture. The second uses the light boxes towards the top to create repetition of line and shape. Again, it pleasantly breaks up the page and moves the eye.

While it may be difficult to decide on a layout for the term project, I think, especially through researching some of these options, it will make the research more effective and more pleasant to read. In a sense, even if the viewer was not interested in the research through the text, they still may be able to respond or react in someway to the layout. As design students, I think its vital to present information in a unique way that showcases our knowledge and field apart from all other fields who ‘do research’.

Posted by carl1438 at 3:15 PM | Permalink

This time, my visit to homework n hoops was actually for tutoring! I hadn’t been set up yet with a specific child, but I was there to be support for any absent volunteers. I was asked to tutor a table of three fifth-grade girls, which ended up being very interesting for me….

First, I was amazed at how much the kids knew about what to do, the procedure of things, and how to focus. I, as a newcomer, did not know all the ‘formalities’ about the time frame for play activities, or the goal sheets that needed to be filled out. I was amazed at the girls’ ability to follow directions without being told when and how to do so. I was really amazed at the overall focus of the entire group of kids, and how well this organization had implemented this program so that activities were some-what under control!

It was interesting for me to spend time with the girls, doing double-dutch, vocabulary homework, and gossiping about school. It was obvious that they, as well as the other kids, thoroughly enjoyed coming to homework n hoops to spend time with their friends and the tutors. I’m excited to come back and build relationships with the children there.

Posted by carl1438 at 4:45 PM | Permalink

My second visit to the Bethlehem Community Center was to receive some training on tutoring and volunteering. I have to admit, I had no idea what to expect. I had been a nanny and volunteered at camps and after-school programs before….which left me thinking that much of the ‘training’ would be a review for me. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the information presented and its relevancy to the program. We didn’t go over diversity of children or how to specifically deal with scenarios or situations, but rather, focused on a holistic approach to dealing with kids, as people. The approach that they use at home work n hoops is not something that they have forced on the kids, but rather, the kids developed the guidelines themselves.

1. Take care of people: help them, listen to them, say and do friendly things

2. Take care of materials: use them properly, put them where they belong

3. Take care of the spaces I use: clean up, put stuff where it belongs, do activities appropriate for the room space, wear appropriate shoes in the gym
4. Focus on doing homework and learning activities

5. Work with my tutor to set goals and meet them

6. Stay with my tutor at all times

As I saw, from the signs and posters made by the kids plastered around the facility, these were not ‘rules’ to be enforced, but they gave kids the empowerment to choose to do what they had agreed upon.

The training was beneficial because we, as tutors, were able to learn and understand where this agreement came from. The whole approach stems from a belief that children want to do well, they need to be taught how to do well, that adults can control the choices a child make but rather the child has the control unless they demonstrate a need otherwise. It is based on respect as a two-way street, and that we only ‘blow it’ because of our own lack of understanding.

I think the training and holistic learning of the organization and its approaches will better help me to respond to the kids and their needs, in a way that they’ve agreed to and understand.

Posted by carl1438 at 4:44 PM | Permalink

This is getting pretty theoretical for me. My life a ‘phenomena’, the ‘things’ in categorized into ‘frameworks’, regulated by ‘clockworks’ and ‘opposed’ by environmental characteristics. I’ll try!

We started the lecture with ‘things’, defining them as existing in space, having mass, matter, and size, ability to be measured with formal attributes, arranged, and are comparable. Of course, there are many ‘things’ that make up any built environment, whether they affect the users or not. In that sense, each ‘thing’ will vary in affect for each individual. The things which affect me most would be the items which relate in some way to my lens and perception of the environment, whatever previous framework s, or a bound relationship of systems, I have established based on past experiences. For example, I mentioned in my previous blog that my family had a major impact on the person I am today. The built environment that I have associated with my family would most likely include associations to my parent’s house. The framework of things that constitutes ‘my parents house’ in my mind would be the framework of past experiences that I would use for association for comparison in new environments. If I experience an environment similar to my childhood home, with similar things, feelings, senses, than I call upon that established framework to evaluate the new one. Often, new environments that have a similar framework of things to my childhood home comfort me, support my personality, and encourage my identity. Examples of this would include my current apartment, arranged similarly to my room at my parent’s home. Smells at a restaurant that smell like my mom’s home cooking could trigger those less literal built environment associations as well.

In a broader sense, my hometown can represent my identity and is associated with my family and their importance to me. The frameworks of things that support my perception of my hometown are often things of the built environment such as the Wisconsin capital, the UW campus, my church, Mendota or Monona Lake, the Badger stadium. My childhood consisted of all these places outside of my home, and within each includes many more frameworks of things outside of the built environment that allow these places to be associated with my idea of ‘home’ or ‘hometown’. Again, triggers of these associations in a new environment can make me feel more at home, more comfortable, and support who I am, because they support where I’ve come from.

A second major framework that affects or defines who I am is my life and work as a student at the University of Minnesota. Again, as I often do with my hometown associations, I begin categorizing frameworks within my student life into elements of the built environment. Actual lectures are defined by the classrooms, Rapson or McNeal Hall, and can then be associated with the information gained from the lectures, peers in the classes, or walks to and from the buildings. In my case, the built environment can offer the boundary of the framework that contains many other things and frameworks. Overall, the framework of my current education is defined by the University of Minnesota and the Twin Cities, which is immediately bounded by its built environment to contain all the other events occurring within. My associations might include Coffman Union, Northrop Mall, the IDS tower downtown, or the walking bridge across the Mississippi River. Each of these connect in some way to my time spent here, and therefore to the things that make up who I am as a student, what my passions are for a career, and the knowledge base I’m building to help define the rest of my life.

Clockworks, I have to admit, are a bit harder for me to wrap my head around. That is assuming I have, indeed, ‘wrapped my head’ around the ideas above. From class, clockworks were defined as having essential attributes, having frameworks in which things start with certain relationships, go through change, and return to the starting relationships making them stable, predictable, regular, and measurable. This definition sounds relatively strict….potentially discrediting my argument of identity as a phenomena. However, I do think that identity, my identity, does have some continuity to it, in fact, maybe the point is to gain continuity over time. If these initial environments or frameworks define my ‘start’, define who I am, and my childhood background, what am I doing currently and in the future to return to these frameworks exhibiting the change and reflection based on the initial experience. I begin at my parent house creating a foundation for my identity. I move, I learn, I grow as an individual, returning back to this beginning with newfound knowledge and experience. The same is true for my professional beginnings. I’ve started my career at the U of M, and will continue it elsewhere, returning to the start to constantly define and refine future goals and decisions. Maybe this is what makes them predictable and measurable…..because you have a starting point which you use as a base to evaluate and reflect upon all other experiences? Again, the built environment with its physicality helps to define the boundaries of initial experience, the U of M, to future experiences, professional firm, future residence or city. The built environment will mark the changes that occur to the initial relationships and frameworks.

If my identity is a phenomena, it consists or is perceived through facts, events, or by complex systems that incorporate things, frameworks, and clockworks, which I have (attempted) to explain above. Phenomena also have reason, are marked by beginnings, have meaning however known or understood boundary conditions, have duration, become evident in intervals, are comprised of internal hierarchies, and exhibit change and behavioral characteristics on a large or small scale. This is definitely too much for me!

Phenomena have reason, as do identities. Mine is defined by many different reasons, goals, and purposes. Each framework has a basic reason of contributing to the phenomena or identity as a whole. As the built environment helps to bound frameworks, it affects their contribution to the phenomena’s reason, and often can reflect the reasoning behind other phenomena such as modernism or sustainability. As the definition above explains, we may not be fully aware of the understanding of the reason behind frameworks, clockworks and phenomena, just as we are not always aware of the affects or purposes behind the things that make up our identity, as they can manifest themselves much later in life.

Phenomena have duration as identities have a life. This implies change which is understood in intervals and exhibit internal hierarchies and behavioral characteristics. Graduating from high school and moving to college marked a major change in my identity from child to adult, from living at home to being independent. As I graduate from college, it will mark a major change from student to professional. Among these major changes are more minor shifts within the frameworks, such as class changes, birthdays, anniversaries, which help to develop a hierarchy of ‘major’ and ‘minor’. While each has a purpose, some are more defining than others. These shifts, major or minor, are defined as a characteristic of the overall phenomena, such as a ‘good change’ or a ‘subtle change’ or a ‘revolutionary change’. These characteristics contribute to our understanding of them as ‘major’ or ‘minor’ independently from the period of time or place. The built environment, again, helps me to bind these experiences by place or setting. My high school building is the first thing I think of when I reflect upon the major shift into college. The Kohl’s center marks my graduation day. McNeal and Rapson Hall will define my college experience, and Northrop will most likely define my graduation experience from the U of M. In these ways, my identity, changing, altering, evolving, is defined and affected as a phenomenon by the built environment.

The oppositions between human and the physical realm underlie our experiences with the built environment help to explain why architecture and design can play a significant role in the definition of our identity phenomena. It influences our experience by contributing to our understanding though senses, other frameworks, and cycle of change. The oppositions help to further define a boundary of space in which an experience can take place, influencing our perception of that experience as occurring, its significance, it time, and its location. These varying oppositions help to connect frameworks through association of similarity or dissimilarity. Environments of warm climates and sunny beaches are associated with family vacations which help to define those relationships and in turn define my identity. Other buildings with copper roofs are associated with my experience and education at Rapson Hall and the University, which support my identity as a student.

If the study of phenomena, things, frameworks, clockworks, and oppositions has taught me anything, it would be that everything, much including the built environment and architecture, is interconnected. Each has an affect, with varying degrees of significance, on the outcome. In design, it is vital that we are aware of the significant role our built environments can play in the shaping of ideas or identities. Knowledge of these things forces me to take more responsibility in the design solutions as they relate to their users and their environment.

Posted by carl1438 at 8:51 AM | Permalink

It was interesting for me to ponder this thought which is basically asking us, as students, how we would re-direct or improve our education to fit our particular areas of interest. At least that’s how I chose to think about this.

The first and most often frustrating constraint of my education is a seemingly forced rubric or process for design thinking and creativity. In our interior design studios, we always begin a project with programming, carry that information to schematics, and implement the conceptual ideas into design development and construction documentation. Most of that process time in school is devoted to the end result or design and documentation. Very little is spent on the programming phase of the project or the research. In fact, before my senior year in the program, programming was often fictitious, based on our idea of an arbitrary client and their needs rather than consulting or researching a real user/situation. Although I can completely understand the need for focus on design and construction documentation in school, I am finding more and more that the real experience in needed in research: what to look for, who are the real users, what do they really need? When we make quick decisions from these sorts of questions, we limit our design in the end. If I could re-direct my educational experience in our program I would include or focus on a more research based approach.

To explain myself further, I should include my thoughts on what research is. Della’s lecture on the different options of research confirmed my thoughts that often, we are pigeon-holed in our mindset on what constitutes ‘doing research’. She presented some interesting options such as drawing or travel that contrast the University’s view of writing and documenting.

I am very excited that our program at the U boasts evidence based design practices which implies that our design decisions and solutions are not the result of personal taste or subjective knowledge, but of proof and research. While this is nicely said, it is not so easily implemented. Sure, many of our project solutions in school are based on the research we’ve done in programming, but many of them are left to personal choice due to time constraints. An environment that supported more research and involvement with the topic of our project would create stronger and more evidence based solutions.

One ‘new’ environment that I’ve recently added to my thoughts in research and connection to my school projects is the volunteering we do for class. This has been a great way to not only experience part of our community as a city, making me more connected to this university and place, but also to informally experience different opinions and outlooks on life. So often, I become focused on my life here as school oriented. When I need advice on something, I look to my friends, who are all also students at the U. It creates a lens for my outlook on Minneapolis that is so skewed in relation to the surrounding community and culture here. My volunteer experience has lent an opportunity to look outside that lens, which ultimately becomes research as it is growing me in knowledge about my environment. This knowledge can be applied in various ways to my upcoming projects as it manifests its way into my design thoughts.

Photographer: Mario Tama: retrieved from www.gettyimages.com on February 20th, 2008

One area in particular that I would be passionate to research is more on the effects of the Hurricane Katrina and the low income housing projects done to rehabilitate the area in the south. These images (along with the film, When the Levees Broke) only briefly give insight to the need for assistance in these areas. Ultimately, I want my design to have meaning. Without significant research, how can we evaluate how design will make a real impact?

Another option to support research would integrate more travel into education. One of my most memorable experiences, both in life and education, was a study abroad trip to London, Paris, and Florence. These experiences sparked and interest for me, not only in travel, but also in design. It was most enlightening to see how other cultures lived, pondered life, and valued possessions. Although it might not have been clear at the time of the trip, these visits were educationally and research based. Many of the things I saw and cultures I experienced have manifested into my design projects and concepts along with integrating into my outlook on my world.

Ideally there would be an educational program that could integrate travel all over the world. Four of the places I would like to visit in the near future include Australia, Italy, Japan, and Brazil. To study or research, or even work in these places would be a dream come true for me. However, travel doesn’t necessarily need to be international to be of value. As I mentioned earlier, simply traveling to another part of the city to do my volunteer work has proved worthy to me. There are also many places nationally that could be extremely educational, similar to James Wheeler’s discussion of Biloxi.

Photographer: Allan Baxter (1, 3), Raimund Koch (2), Eduardo Garcia (4): retrieved from www.gettyimages.com on February 20th, 2008

Lastly, if I could express confinement in one final issue it would be the strict disciplinary nature of our college of design. Currently, our state of dividedness decreases our chance of graduating with a holistic and truly innovative sense of design. Instead, I would appreciate amore interdisciplinary or ‘work shop’ approach, including varied studies of art, drawing, jewelry making, furniture design, or landscape research. I chose the major of Interior Design not necessarily based on my love of the topic, but based on the opportunity to combine my strengths and interests into one area of study. This did not mean that I only, then, wanted to study things in relation to Interior Design, but to continue to foster the growth of my strengths and interests. In our program, we all have become so focused, so one-sided about the expertise of our area of design. In the professional world, we often become even more focused and one-sided. I believe the educational aspect should be more about broadening that it should be about focusing.

An environment to foster this idea would include a more workshop design approach to education. Among architecture, landscape architecture, and interior design, classes might include drawing, graphic illustration, or geography. In this program, as graduates, we diverse, therefore innovative, approaches to design solutions.

Posted by carl1438 at 3:00 PM | Permalink

a perspective take on the definition of our existence.

So much present inside my present
Inside my present so...so much past
Inside my present inside my past
Inside my present
So, so

Feist, Past in Present Lyrics

I am first and foremost defined by family and my past experiences. My parents have been my greatest teachers on life, morals, decision making. It is from my dad that I have learned compassion, hard work, creativity, and problem solving; from my mom, kindness, respect, humility, grace, and holism. My actions, decisions, and perspectives on daily life directly reflect what I have learned from these two individuals. My relationship with my parents is beyond blood relation, beyond a forced growth environment over which I had no choice. As a child and as an adult, I have been exposed to many different culture, situations, and perspectives that have also deeply influenced me as a person. However, I have fully chosen, now, to define myself mostly through upbringing as my parents as individuals and my experience growing up more fully resonates with the person I am and the lifestyle I’ve chosen today.

The value I’ve placed on family and relationships directly correlates with my passion for the sustainability millennium goal. In the broadest sense, we are a relational being. We are programmed to care and communicate with one another as an entire race. We are cyclical. We are born, we exist, we procreate, and we pass on. In our society, undoubtedly, we are taught to maximize that existence. We are hardly taught to focus on how and why we procreate, or how we should pass. We are responsible for creating and sustaining a race that needs a supporting environment to function and to complete the cycle. In this basic sense, we need to put energy into our environment as we put energy into ourselves.

To emphasize the point further, we need an environment that supports our relational nature to one another. As I shared the biggest influence on my life, most people would agree that their most defining thing in their life has been a person or related to an individual. We all have some connection to this world, to the other individuals in this world, which creates a connection to the environment that supports each relationship, giving us all reason to care.

"Our loyalties must transcend our
race, our tribe, our class, and
our nation; and this means we must
develop a world perspective."

Martin Luther King

Whether it is a direct generational relative or not, we can trust that future generations will also need a space to relate to one another and create connections. There will be someone similar to me that will need an environment to grow, make decisions, learn from their parents. What I do now to this environment affects the ability for that person to define themselves within their world.

"The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian

We need to be aware of what is important to us now, and realize that it will still be important to others later. One way to recognize this is through sustainability and health of our environment.

A second measure that I use to define my existence is based on my success as an individual. In the long list of items to measure, I often attempt to asses my success as a daughter, as a sister, as a friend, as a student, as a community member, as a learner and as a teacher. Inevitable, although we all have different measures of success, we do assess this often. We especially assess our selves in relation to the typical standards. We look in a magazine and assess our success at beauty. We read our report card as assess our success at intelligence.
In the end, our assessment of our success is linked to a value or self worth. We also asses the success of other things, other people, other situations outside of ourselves and give those a value too.

This builds up an environment of value that in turn imposes on the perception and assessment of future values. For instance, I used the example of a magazine influencing our assessment of beauty. Maybe one individual chooses to ignore that measure of ‘standard beauty’ while another uses it to define their self value. Overall, I think we can assume that what society presents as a standard measure for success in a certain area is the typical, or becomes the typical standard for most individuals. This is the reason it is society’s standard in the first place (for the most part) because the majority of people believe (believed) it to be true.

Our current society’s measure of success is often displayed and associated with things, with money, with status, with love, with presence in ‘successful surroundings’, or with ‘successful people’.

You need a real woman in your life
That's a good look
Taking care, home is still fly
That's a good look
Imma help you build up your account
Thats a good look.

Beyonce, Upgrade You Lyrics

When I was five years old I realized there was a road
At the end I will win lots of pots of gold
Never took a break never made a mistake
Took time to create cuz there's money to make
To be a billionaire takes hard work for years
Some nights I shedded tears while I sent up prayers
Been through hard times even worked part time

Kool G. Rap & DJ Polo, Road to the Riches Lyrics

Both sets of song lyrics clearly show how popular media defines success. The first implies that you can be successful by having someone with you that is already ‘successful’. It also implies that money can make you successful. She uses the terms ‘good look’ to imply that others a viewing you and that the way you appear has an effect on how others view you as successful. The second song implies another aspect of success that is very commonly believed in society, that hard work achieves money and money achieves ultimate success. With this, as the lyrics demonstrate, that harder you have to work, the more “worthy� your success in the end. In the rap community, as in many other communities, this has somewhat glorified this “rag to riches� tale. If you start off with no “success� your achieved “success� in the end is more valuable. It is also clearly implied again here that success or riches comes in the form of money or material items. This popular belief resonates with many different areas of life, included religion as the quote below describes.

God is on everyone's side … and in the last analysis, he is on the side with plenty of money and large armies.

Jean Anouilh

Success in life is to have these riches, and the riches are given a value by each of us depending on our individual scales of measurement, depending on our individual lenses by which we see the world.

It's pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness. Poverty an' wealth have both failed.

Kin Hubbard

Hubbard brings up an interesting point as well in measuring our success. Popular belief would state that having success is to also be happy. He suggests the contradiction between having nothing and having everything, which implies inherently a materialistic approach of having something.

Sustainability and the millennium goal of ensuring sustainability will also be measured in some term(s) of success. As designers, this creates an opportunity to create terms to measure this success. It creates a challenge and ultimately a response that is more holistic and reflects success on many different levels. These levels could include, but may not be limited to environmentally sustainable, functional, respectful, sensitive, stimulating, and meaningful. Measuring success based on sustainability only adds another element to be achieved, making the overall design stronger.

There must be a better way to make the things we want, a way that doesn't spoil the sky, or the rain or the land.

Sir Paul McCartney

We have to have a way of dealing with this that engenders confidence, trust, gives us every chance of getting the right outcome and boosts both sustainability and economic return at the same time.

John Anderson

Ultimately, I know that my beliefs and my perspective are tainted through a lens that is uniquely mine. My definition of existence most definitely will contradict others, and can never be entirely holistic in incorporating everything. However, in understanding that there is contradiction, and that one thing can never be all things, is a huge achievement in itself.

We are all something, but none of us are everything.

Blaise Pascal

The last reason I can relate to these millennium goals, particularly the environmentally sustainable goal, is because they do encompass the flexibility to be achieved in many ways according to different perspective lenses. Our lens of lifestyle in the United States sees sustainability as a very different idea than countries who struggle with access to clean water, hygiene, or shelter in general. I am looking forward to broadening my lens to incorporate the need for sustainability to create a more holistic personal perspective on the matter that is beyond LEED certification and green building materials.

One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

There must come a day
When a box is not somebody's home
The unfinished work of our heroes
Must truly be our own
We can't let the future become our past
If we are to change the world
Won't you tell me
Tell me please
How many miles must we march

Ben Harper, How Many Miles Must We March Lyrics

I irrigate illusions
Then let them grow
How can I pacify myself?
And let go
And I run wild to see
Who I turned out to be

Yael Naim, Too Long Lyrics

Posted by carl1438 at 8:54 AM | Permalink

I enjoyed Tom Fisher’s lecture. I found it intriguing the seamlessness of the relationship between a school floor plan and its design education philosophy. For obvious reasons, I was most intrigued by the discussion on the courtyard plan, as the association of this design to Rapson hall pertains directly to the education, to the professors, to the environment that I’m receiving.

Dean Fisher spoke with great knowledge and precision. It was clear, with a published book in hand, that whatever conclusions he’d gathered from research were to be trusted. I not only trusted, but agreed, at least on behalf of my personal experience and education here at the U, as an Interior Design and Architecture Student.

The courtyard type implies education is both connected and apart from society creating an inter/intra analogy.
It reflects a medieval cloister to preserve learning through inwardness.
The courtyard type has tension. Can be together or pull apart.

I had agreed and felt pride in the descriptions of our philosophy, it made sense and I could relate to it. As a design student at the U, I was connecting to campus and to my community; I was looking inward, but also outward, with creativity flourishing from the embodied tension. It all sounded perfect. However, when he began to relate the philosophy of the courtyard type to its manifestation in Rapson Hall, I began to feel confused and distant. He referred to this philosophy of inwardness and levels of connection as only applying to Rapson and the Architecture/Landscape Architecture group. I began to wonder, where did the rest of the majors under the CDes umbrella fit in? Why are we under one name when the Dean of our College doesn’t even reference Interior Design or Graphic Design in his message on our design education philosophy?

I enjoyed Tom Fisher’s lecture. I found it intriguing the seamlessness of the relationship between a school floor plan and its design education philosophy. For obvious reasons, I was most intrigued by the discussion on the courtyard plan, as the association of this design to Rapson hall pertains directly to the education, to the professors, to the environment that I’m receiving.

Dean Fisher spoke with great knowledge and precision. It was clear, with a published book in hand, that whatever conclusions he’d gathered from research were to be trusted. I not only trusted, but agreed, at least on behalf of my personal experience and education here at the U, as an Interior Design and Architecture Student.

The courtyard type implies education is both connected and apart from society creating an inter/intra analogy.
It reflects a medieval cloister to preserve learning through inwardness.
The courtyard type has tension. Can be together or pull apart.

I had agreed and felt pride in the descriptions of our philosophy, it made sense and I could relate to it. As a design student at the U, I was connecting to campus and to my community; I was looking inward, but also outward, with creativity flourishing from the embodied tension. It all sounded perfect. However, when he began to relate the philosophy of the courtyard type to its manifestation in Rapson Hall, I began to feel confused and distant. He referred to this philosophy of inwardness and levels of connection as only applying to Rapson and the Architecture/Landscape Architecture group. I began to wonder, where did the rest of the majors under the CDes umbrella fit in? Why are we under one name when the Dean of our College doesn’t even reference Interior Design or Graphic Design in his message on our design education philosophy?

Ironic that we are prompted to blog a found “social-design issue’ in the Twin Cities. In fact, we were instructed to “go� and find this issue. I have found one in this very school, this very lecture, one of contradiction and disagreement. We, ourselves at the U, in the school of architecture, pride ourselves on inwardness and strict boundaries instead of reflecting the nature of our joint name. To me, our social design issue starts here, without need to ‘go’ because it exists within. It is the contradiction of our own identity in the College of Design.

There was a distinct moment during Fisher’s lecture I realized, while I had chosen to go to a school with the courtyard mentality, I had come to desire a workshop-type school, one of acceptance, one of interaction, one of engagement, dynamic overlap, and interdisciplinary education. When I started four years ago in the College of Human Ecology, I admit, I was innocently content with my beginning education and the ‘design philosophy’ of my new professors. The separation of design disciplines didn’t phase me. In fact, beginning that first day until now, we were told over an over again to pride ourselves in our separation to be advocates for our profession, ensuring that our job is to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public.

Somewhere in these four years of priding myself in my chosen profession and finding value in my education, I found this ‘advocacy’ position to be a constant justification against my peers, against others in the design community, against professors in my own college. This justification was rooted in various misunderstandings leading to defensiveness and disrespect that I hadn’t meant to partake in on either “side�. This thought was more fully realized when the Colleges merged last year to become CDes. The nature of the name and the majors listed under that name implies an interdisciplinary philosophy, one that has yet to be realized. With the joining of the colleges, I also applied for the Architecture minor, and again experienced disbelief. My Architecture advisor didn’t know anything about the interior design school, any of the faculty, or anything about the classes I had taken. I was continually amazed at how unconnected these two disciplines were in the educational system yet how integrated they seemed to work in the professional world. If these two majors were so uninvolved with one another, how were the other disciplines functioning so interdependently? Couldn’t we work better learning and working together, broadening and specializing at the same time?

I have had internship experiences with two large firms, both of whom highly stress the interaction between Interior Design and Architecture (among other disciplines), which I’ve enjoyed, and which prompted me to become an advocate for a higher joint effort here at the University.
Now that the colleges have merged under one design roof, I believe we should be working towards a goal of higher integration between all of the design majors. Although I understand Dean Fisher’s pride in the design of Rapson Hall, and its reflections on our design philosophy, it is not conducive to a mentality that amalgamates all of the disciplines. We are taught to focus too much on the “inwardness� aspect when school should be a time of preparation to look outward.

I have explored the ideas of joining studios, a joint major, and a joint facility for all of the CDes majors with Interior Design faculty who share in the desire to see the College more integrated. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lack of interest, community, and financial support from the rest of the communal faculty and administration. Hopefully the lack of support stems from the newness of the college, and more will amount in the future. As the president this year of ASID (American Society of Interior Designers) I have attempted to become an advocate myself by starting the collaborative effort at the bottom with student activities and joint meetings/events with the AIAS group. The answer to this issue is not necessarily about entirely joining the majors, but about rethinking and rebuilding our educational philosophy to make it stronger and more responsive. We simply need to be enough people, together asking questions (whatever questions these might be), in order to make a difference in bettering the educational system.

Ultimately, this social design issue will never be an obvious one such as habitat for humanity or raising awareness for the homeless, but there is still potential for a profound conclusion. It is looking at the heart of what we think of as design, how we think of design, and how we can improve upon our own methods rather than always focusing on how we can improve the world around us. In class, we discussed the basis of design as a question, not always a solution, yet we never are asked those questions of ourselves. Focusing on our design education as a holistic idea, similarly to our holistic ideas of our design projects we create in class will, in the end, produce more desired and functional responses and better prepare us as students who enter a very collaborative world.

Posted by carl1438 at 1:18 AM | Permalink

I've officially begun my volunteer work at Bethlehem Community Center yesterday at 4pm, working with kids for Homework n Hoops. My visit wasn't long, however, it gave me great insight and excitement.

Initially I was impressed with the facility. Although the building was very confusing, the spaces were obviously arranged to be conducive to kid’s need for both play and study. Of course it helped that they were filled with laughter, games, and interaction! It was very apparent that both tutors and kids were enjoying their time spent there.

For a brief couple of minutes, I actually got to speak to some of the students and tutors about their experience, what they liked or disliked about the program. I was impressed that most answers weren’t, “snack time�, “games�, or “playing with friends�, but instead, “spending time with the kids� or “spending time with my tutor�. This was encouraging to me, that people were really forming bonds with one another apart from their environment.

Soon, after a quick tour and some paper work, my visit had ended, reminding me of questions posed during the U’s volunteer training session last week. What do you hope to get out of this experience? What do you hope to learn?

My hope for this experience, volunteering with Bethlehem Community Center and Homework n Hoops, would primarily be to connect with a child, not just as a child, but as a person of this community. As Minneapolis is not my hometown, I have not had many chances to connect with this city, this community, this culture outside of the campus atmosphere. I am extremely excited to create a relationship outside of my typical world, one that will teach and grow me as well as help others.

I look forward to meeting “my student� in the upcoming weeks!

Posted by carl1438 at 2:23 PM | Permalink

Posted by carl1438 at 8:22 AM | Permalink

Posted by carl1438 at 8:20 AM | Permalink

A growth in proportion to our understanding.

Had I been asked, prior to viewing Andy Goldsworthy’s film or reading the Norberg-Schulz article, how do you see energy manifested in architecture, my answer would not have been revolutionary. My answer would have matched most answers of students, educators, professionals, industry partners alike. The most concrete way we acknowledge energy consciousness, today, in architecture, is through green design or sustainability practices. From what I’ve gathered of class projects, discussions, internships, and lectures, sustainability in design has become our primary means of connecting, or re-connecting, the natural environment to our built environment. Further, sustainability in this context has a fairly limited perspective. Our current means of evaluating “green design� or sustainability in building is limited to a LEED checklist of items. As a society, we seem to only respond to to-do items with a goal, and with included instructions on how meet the goal.

Currently, LEED is a response, rather an initial attempt at a response, to meet the goal of sustainability. It is my understanding, however, that total sustainability is only a half-way marker to achieve the goals and state of mind that Goldsworthy illustrates in his work.

It brings me to the question posed in discussion class of the Norberg-Shultz article: Have we lost touch with things? How far gone are we?

As a base, I’ve included the definitions below of the three words we were asked to discuss. It is my assumption that these definitions would more appropriately describe Goldsworthy’s definition of sustainability.

Energy: the capacity or power to do work, can exist in a variety of forms, can be transformed from one form to another.
Flow: to move or run smoothly with unbroken continuity
Transformation: the act or an instance of transforming. A marked change, as in appearance or character, usually for the better.

Have we lost touch with things? Sure we have. Specifically, we have lost touch with these definitions and idea of energy, flow, and transformation, integration of nature into the city. LEED and environmentally conscious efforts, at least in the realm of architecture, although an important step towards a far-away goal, have created a checklist of to-do items that still remain distant from the holistic act and mindset of bringing the natural world close.

In attempt to illustrate this point, I’ve included two images below, both LEED accredited buildings. This certification implies many objectives. LEED accreditation implies an obvious abundance of documentation, design and planning, coordination between building systems, overall energy efficiency, green materials, etc. All of which are VERY good things. All of which make an important impact on our society, culture, environment, and architectural practice. However, these building images and their LEED accreditation do not necessarily imply the definitions of the words above. It does not imply the overall purpose of bringing the natural world close, involving the approach Andy Goldsworthy identifies in his film. It does not acknowledge that the designer or the users have responded to their shared and embodied energy connection with nature. It does not imply a flow or fluidity between the landscape and the built environment. It could be argued that the buildings do imply a transformation of nature to materials, materials to structure. However, neither building overtly exemplifies to the viewer the poetic connection between the city and the nature that both Goldsworthy and Norberg-Schulz illustrated.

As a fourth-year student in the design college at the University, and after completing internships at architectural firms, I know that the typical discipline of architecture or does not approach design through the acknowledgement that we are one with nature; it does not approach design with the acknowledgement that natures energy is the same as the energy within us. Design is almost always approached, at least initially, with the concept of creativity, which is often based on empowerment of mind and emotion over situations, materials, limitation, etc. We are taught act upon our environment, to own our designs, to feel pride over our creation. We are not taught to be still, to be one, to listen. We can surely have sustainable solutions, or cities, without truly acknowledging the nature, the energy, flow, or transformation.

My intent isn’t to be completely pessimistic about the current state of our profession, however. My favorite aspect of our discussion, Goldsworthy’s film, and the article was the concept of growth in proportion to our understanding. So again, I ask, are man-made things our act of bringing the natural world close?

Although I do believe that we have lost touch with things, and we have a long road ahead to come close to achieving perfect complementation with the natural world, sustainability is our current, most feasible and appropriate way to achieve one step forward towards closeness. From our understanding of the present environmental crisis, LEED is the most understood solution. Hopefully, as our understanding and grasp on the idea expands, the solution with become more holistic.

The other aspect of the designed environment particular to architecture is the accommodation of users. Design must speak to its environment, but also respond and reflect upon society. Therefore, to complete the equation, design must speak to the level of understanding of its users. Is it okay, then, that design and architecture is at the level of the users?

As the Norberg-Schulz article addresses, architecture or designed environment should push the level of understanding to make it broader. This then, can be our ultimate goal as designers. We must realize the level of our understanding, address those needs, and yet simultaneously expand that level to continually increase understanding. This encompasses many sustainable fundamentals, mainly, flexibility in space. If the design can continually address the level and increase the level, it must be evolutional itself, with the ability to grow.

The idea of energy, flow, and transformation is much broader than the city itself. Ultimately, the city can foster this idea, it can push the understanding of this idea, and it can reflect the idea, but the ideas themselves are much more extensive than architecture, than the city. These ideas must manifest into our thoughts, our way of life, our morals, our purpose and connection to this world. If design can foster these ideas, beyond sustainability, I believe we are one step closer to regaining our touch of things between architecture and environment.

Posted by carl1438 at 8:17 AM | Permalink