process book 02 FALL 2013 MdeS 2013/14
eMMA Joy LoveLL
nSCAd univeRSiTy
graduate design studio ii 6600
pART i WiTh R. MyeR
4
project spaCe in tiMe
iteration one iteration Two iteration Three iteration Four (Final)
14 18 20 22
eXercise the derive
Submission: urban drift Submission: Group derive
30 34
project taste the Moon
iteration one iteration Two (Final)
40 42
6600
pART ii WiTh C. eLLiCoTT
44
eXercise negative spaCe
part one part Two and Three
48 50
project pLanned obsoLesCenCe
Submission
56
project FueL For LiFe
proposal presentation
68 70
design research proposal 6112
74
WiTh M. ivey
project artiFaCts
Artifacts one to Three Artifacts Four to Six documented Artifacts
80 88 90
project MethodoLogy diagraM
iteration one iteration Two (Final)
102 108
AssesMent MidterM subMissions
Abstract presentation
112 114
grad independent study 6115
with M. Ivey
Project Current Practitioners
118 Presentation 122
independent study L/M/C Review
Overview 124 Meeting Places Conference 126 Altermodern 127 Readings on "Ma" 128 Sadao Tsuchiya 129 Rhethoric with Hanno Ehses 130
independent study writing week
Goals and Schedule 132 Outcomes 134
project research poster
Iteration One Iteration Two Iteration Three (Final)
144 146 149
Thesis development up to 12.08
150 Abstract 151 Rationale 152 Background and Context 153 Methodology 156
references
Research Trajectory
158
Works Cited Annotated Bibliography
160 162
graduate design studio ii 6600
pART i WiTh R. MyeR
The first part of this course explored broad and often abstract concepts through design. The projects and exercises demanded a casting off of preconceptions and assumptions and an examination of everyday contexts and situations as opportunities for exploring the possibilities of design. Through a series of exercises and two projects, this course introduced not only new ideas, but a new way of thinking about the world. it applied our understanding of design thinking to much broader concepts such as space and time, the five senses and the urban environment. Through critiques, the course also provided specific and constructive feedback on further honing skills in layout, typography, colour and contrast.
CoMponenTS
4
project spaCe in tiMe
iteration one iteration Two iteration Three iteration Four (Final)
14 18 20 22
eXercise the derive
Submission one Submission Two
30 34
project taste the Moon
iteration one iteration Two (Final)
40 42
ReCoMMended place Atlantic news at Morris and Queen
Book Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
publications domus and Abitare
Book outside Lies Magic, John R. Stilgoe
places Libraries: Sexton at dal and halifax public
Video Biography on Bill Cunningham
5
occupying space 09.05
SeMinAR And pRoJeCT 1
in our daily lives, we occupy multiple spaces simultaneously. They are both tangible and more abstract conceptual spaces. our experience is a process of moving in, out and between such spaces. This assignment centred around an awareness and analysis of these spaces with the hope of drawing conclusions about the nature of and relationships between the multiple spaces we inhabit. We were asked to consider what these multiple spaces might be and choose an instance where we found ourselves in three spaces at once. We were then asked to visualize this instance using conventions of cartography, mapmaking and data visualization.
the spaces we occupy are determined by the sequence of decisions made by ourselves and those before us leading up to a given moment. our decisions also have reciprocal effects on other people, their decisions and their spaces. FroM sketChbook, 09.05
6
7
09.05 - 09.09
8
pRoJeCT 1
ReSeARCh
Like a train journey, there are many possible routes that can get you from here to there. The decisions you make inform the direction you go. you don’t know the end destination exactly, you might get distracted or diverted or held up. The paths you don’t choose go on existing, you’re just not there. Sometimes there are connections between places or stations that you didn’t know existed. you realize there was a shorter route to arrive at where you are, but you wouldn’t have known it existed until you got there and saw the tracks. Although the tracks might be laid down, the route you take and the journey you have is not. it’s not about the tracks anyway. it’s about the experiences you have on the journey. FroM sketChbook, 09.05
9
09.05 - 09.09
pRoJeCT 1
ReSeARCh
brainstorM using MindMup.CoM, 09.06
10
researCh on visuaLiZation approaCh, 09.07
11
12
pa•limp•sest (noun) Writing material (as in a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased. Something having usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surface. “Canada is a palimpsest of classes and generations.” Margaret Atwood FroM the MerriaM-webster diCtionary
above FroM sketChbook, 09.09 LeFt pages FroM outside Lies MagiC by John r. stiLgoe (p. 6-7)
13
09.12
pRoJeCT 1
SuBMiSSion (iTeRATion 1)
PERSONAL
GENEALOGICAL
HUMANITY
GEOLOGICAL
14
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PROXIMITY TO THE PAST
15
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21
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A
09.16
pRoJeCT 1
ReFineMenT And ReiTeRATion
LeFt FroM sketChbook, 09.16 above FroM sketChbook, 09.17
16
LeFt FroM sketChbook, 09.17 beLow inspiration FroM geoLogiCaL CLoCk with events and periods, wikiMedia CoMMons
230-65 Ma: Dinosaurs
2 Ma: First Hominids
Hominids Mammals Land plants Animals Multicellular life 4527 Ma: Eukaryotes Formation of the Moon Prokaryotes
ca. 380 Ma: First vertebrate land animals ca. 530 Ma: Cambrian explosion 251
Ma
a M 2
4.6 Ga
ca. 4000 Ma: End of the Late Heavy Bombardment; first life
Ha
c
de
an
4 Ga
Ga
ic
3.8
zo
leo
ozoi
Mes
Pa
54
65 Ma
Cenozoic
750-635 Ma: Two Snowball Earths
4550 Ma:
ca. 3500 Ma: Photosynthesis starts
oic
oz
Arc
hea
ter Pro
n
1 Ga
3 Ga
2 Ga
a
2.5 G
ca. 2300 Ma: Atmosphere becomes oxygen-rich; first Snowball Earth
17
09.19
pRoJeCT 1
SuBMiSSion (iTeRATion 2) And CRiTiQue
DISTANT FUTURE
Space in Time
NEAR FUTURE
PRESENT
RECENT PAST
TIMELINES Personal Genealogical Anthropological Geological
DISTANT PAST
1995 Visited the Badlands during a trip to Alberta with my family
2000 Along with my parents, visited the farmhouse in which I was born in Udney, Ontario
2008 Collected newspapers on the evening that Obama became the first African American president
2009 Discovered letters to my grandmother from her brother Alec before he went MIA during WWII
2011 Read Both My Legs, a love story about my grandparents, written by my cousin
1998 Sat in our living room and watched the only surviving home videos of my childhood with my sister
2001 Gathered with my classmates in the hallway of Huntsville High School to see the Twin Towers fall
2009 Watched bodies burn on the banks of the River Ganges in Varanasi, India
2010 Met Rena McPhie, my grandmother’s youngest sister in Scotland
2013 Visited Joggins Fossils Cliffs and discovered fossils dating back 300 million years
18
19
09.26
pRoJeCT 1
SuBMiSSion (iTeRATion 3) And CRiTiQue
Distant Future Earth
Humankind
family
Death Personal
Birth
Great great grandparents are born
Distant Past
20
2000: Toured the farmhouse I was born in
Grandparents get married
2001: Watched the Twin Towers fall
2008: Collected newspapers as Obama became 1st African American president
2011: Read my grandparents’ love story in Both My Legs, written by my cousin
Future
Present
2009: Watched bodies burn on the banks of the Ganges
2010: Saw the Mona Lisa in person
2013: Went fossil hunting at Joggins
Past World War II
Dinosaurs become extinct
My proximity to the past, present & future in a series of momentus occassions
21
09.26
pRoJeCT 1
SuBMiSSion (FinAL)
Distant Future
Earth
Humankind
family
2000 Toured
the farmhouse I was born in
2001 Watched the
Twin Towers fall
2008 Co newspa night O the ele
Death
Personal
Birth
Great great grandparents are born
1 CE
Distant Past
22
First green plants and fungi appear on land
Grandparents get m
ollected apers the Obama won ection
2009 Watched bodies burn on the banks of the Ganges
2010 Saw the
Mona Lisa
2011 Read “Both My Legs,” my grandparents’ love story
Future 2013 Went fossil
hunting at Joggins
Present
Past
World War II
married Dinosaurs become extinct
My proximity to the past, present & future in a series of momentus occasions
23
observation: traces and the derive 09.12
24
SeMinAR
Case study: The 1933 Raleigh becomes the base for the quintessential chinese bicycle. it
gets brought to subsaharan africa and someone with some expertise adds an engine and it becomes a moped. repair + ingenuity + aMeLioration = innovation
FroM sketChbook, 09.12 iMage above FroM http://buyvintage.FiLes.wordpress.CoM/2012/03/1933_raLeigh_01.Jpg 25
09.12
26
exeRCiSe 1
pART one: deRive, pART TWo: TRACeS
derive is a term that was adopted by the Situationist international, an organization of revolutionary individuals active in the 1950s and 60s. Founding member Guy debord described the derive as “a way of discovering utopia” or a way of discovering what you love and what you hate about a city. Literally translating to “the drift,” the derive is an unemcubered walk during which you are pulled by attractions and repulsed by ugliness.
through the fog of everyday monotony and repetition. undertaking a derive is an opportunity to see a city with fresh eyes. it doesn’t matter if it’s a familiar or new city: because we have blinders on, constantly focussed on getting from point A to point B, we are always overlooking the subtleties of the place we’re in. The derive is the practice of removing the blinders and taking a very good look around.
Cities have rhythms and structures that we respond to and are directed by every day. These largely go unnoticed or unacknowledged. only once we are receptive, aware and observant of these rhythms can we truly come to take in, interpret and respond to a city in a deep, meaningful and thoughtful way. The derive is a technique that breaks
According to debord, distilled down to its essence, the derive is “just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape.”
ReAdinGS And inSpiRATion Book Memoirs, Guy debord, 1957 concept unitary urbanism, integrated city creation or an interest in games played on urban sites
Video “on the passage of a few people...” at www.ubu.com or on youtube Book outside Lies Magic, John Stillgoe
Website www.bopsecrets.org
27
09.15
28
exeRCiSe 1
pART one: deRive
29
09.19
exeRCiSe 1
pART one SuBMiSSion
The Urban Drift A Dérive Through Halifax’s North End
30
31
32
33
10.03
all map final (group).pdf
1
2013-10-08
exeRCiSe 1
pART one GRoup SuBMiSSion
3:19 PM
Urban Explorers
A series of dĂŠrives throughout Halifax Architecture Industry Nature People Signage Art
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
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09.15
exeRCiSe 1
pART TWo: TRACeS
traces are stories waiting to be told Traces of activity long gone are all around us. They are found in the scraped paint on the doorframe near the lock that’s too close. They are in the grease marks left by skateboards on the cement curbs. They are the rubber left on pavement from heavy-footed drivers. Traces are evidence, but only if you can give them context and start to tell the story. For this exercise, we were asked to collect photos of traces and then try to piece together the backstory based on our observations and assumptions. This activity requires curiosity, imagination and inquisitiveness and once you start noticing traces, it’s hard not to see them everywhere you go. often traces can be evidence of a shortcoming. if that’s the case, they can also act as markers for design opportunities.
trace (noun) 1. archaic: a course or path that one follows 2. a mark or line left by something that has passed (also footprint) 3. a path, trail, or road made by the pas sage of animals, people or vehicles 4. a sign or evidence of some past thing (vestige) 5. something (as a line) traced or drawn 6. a minute and often barely detectable amount or indication (a trace of a smile) FroM the MerriaM-webster diCtionary
35
on reading and writing 09.19
When people ask “do you draw?” our instinct is to say that we can’t draw becasue we can’t do accurate representations in the way we’ve come to understand they should be drawn. The perspectival drawing system that we’ve come to accept as the golden standard is a limiting system. We give up a lot if we accept that drawing is only perspective. But drawings are powerful communication tool, you just have to know the different languages and which language to use for which audience. each type of drawing serves a specific function: the sketch made on a napkin is a tool for conversation; a more formal and detailed sketch can be used to explain something; more comprehensive drawings enter the public realm and can be used to talk to a certain audience; orthographic drawings are plans for building something, but only if you understand the language used. The power of the drawing can be seen in the fact that we can still read drawings from thousands of years ago–although they used different conventions, they can still communicate to use today. in many ways, drawing is a more useful communication tool than the written word. it’s certainly more universal. More useful than drawing what you see is the ability to draw what you think. developing that skill rather than focussing on the ability to replicate is a wiser idea for any designer. All of this is to say: draw more!
36
SeMinAR
ReCoMMended concept Synectics (art, design and Wiliam JJ Gordon)
Book experiences in visual Thinking, Robert McKim
Architect Lebbeus Woods
tool oblique Strategies, Brian eno
Book pattern Language, Christopher Alexander
Book Thinking with a pencil, henning nelms
37
translating sensation 10.03
pRoJeCT 2
it is human nature to absorb and interpret experience through all of our senses. however, most communication design caters strictly to our sense of sight. This assignment asked us to imagine ways to engage the other senses in our design by observing and recording a process primarily experienced through one sense and translating that experience into another sensory medium. 38
Working on this project brought to light the hierarchy of senses engrained in the world of design as well as the challenges faced by those who are at all incapacitated in any one sense. it became apparent through the development of this project that the increased accessibility that comes from trying to expand the audience that design might serve to include those with challenges or disabilities benefits the entire audience.
39
10.17
40
pRoJeCT 2
pRoCeSS And SuBMiSSion (iTeRATion 1)
41
10.23
42
pRoJeCT 2
ReFineMenT And ReiTeRATion
10.24
pRoJeCT 2
SuBMiSSion (iTeRATion 2)
43
graduate design studio ii 6600
pART ii WiTh C. eLLiCoTT
There are a thousand ways to design something. The task of the designer is to explore as many options as possible in order to know which one is best suited for the given project. The second half of this course aimed to equip us with more skills for this task by further honing our technical abilities (typography, grids, balance, colour, etc.) as well as introducing some of the challenges, controversies and design opportunities that we will encounter as practicing designers. The balance between coaching on design fundamentals and the exploration of abstract and conceptual design issues is important. design finds itself spread across the spectrum between detail oriented and high level conceptual development, which is one of the reasons that it is such an exciting discipline. This also means that students of design have to work hard to gather skills and techniques in both ends of the spectrum.
CoMponenTS
44
eXercise negative spaCe
part one part Two and Three
48 50
project obsoLesCenCe
Submission
56
project FueL For LiFe
proposal presentation
68 70
ReCoMMended place Alan Fletcher, The Art of Looking Sideways
Website www.thegridsystem.org
concept “Ma� in Japanese architecture
Book effective use of negative Space in Graphic design, dong hyun Lee (MA thesis)
Artist pelle Cass
45
making white space work 10.24
SeMinAR And exeRCiSe 1
often designers will hear the suggestion, “you should add more white space.” But how? Why? Where? White space is mostly about typography (fonts, font size, weight, leading and kerning, colours, etc.), but all of the type decisions in the world won’t matter if your white space is sloppy. Cluttered design is an attack – you want your design to invite. not only is it a feeling of unease that comes with poor white space, but it also affects legibility. Good white space gives pause for the eye to rest, established hierarchy and makes layouts easier to navigate. White space creates sophistication. There are tools that can be used to help make white space work. These include proportions and rations, the most well known examples being the golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence. There are underlying theories such as the Gestalt principles, which employ the human desire to organize visual elements into groups or unified wholes. These principles include similarity, continuation, closure, proximity and figure/ground. Another helpful principle for organizing visual information is the hicks Law, which illustrates the way in which more choices actually lead to difficulty digesting and making decisions. The example is given, if a lion looks at a group of antelope, it takes him longer to decide which one to eat than if one antelope was isolated from the rest.
Theories, laws, grids and rules in design help to limit the amount of choices: to bring structure and unity to design and make it easier to decide how to arrange elements. Achieving good white space comes from developing a system of rules unique to the design you’re working on that you can defend. if there’s a method to your work, you can explain why something goes where it does. you can then make conscious, educated and justified decisions about how to structure your layout. This can be as simple as choosing a proportion (whether that’s the golden ratio, 4:3 or whatever) and sticking to it in the size of elements in your design. The options are limitless, which can make layout design overwhelming. The key to good white space is remembering that too muchchoice hampers decision making. effective white space comes from meticulous and strategic decision making, so do what you can to make that decision making easier and more effective through the use of proportion, ratios and grids.
ReFeRenCe Website The Gestalt principles, http:// graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/ process/gestaltprinciples/gestaltprinc.htm
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Before 47
10.31
Exercise 1.1 Negative Space: Advertisement 48 October 31, 2013 6600, MDes 13/14
exeRCiSe 1
SuBMiSSion pART 1
Dream Kitchens & Beautiful Bathrooms
Trends, tips and must-haves for every style
MARCH 2013
Trevor Linden’s Whistler Hideaway PLUS! Character building: 20 ways to style the white kitchen
Also featuring...
Healthy Italian: Sicilian Cooking at Home 50 Fabulous Faucets
WWW.HOUSEANDHOME.COM
49
10.31
50
exeRCiSe 1
SuBMiSSion And CRiT pART 2 And 3
Dove burst
ultimate
nectarine & white ginger scent
anti-perspirant stick 45 g
Directions
go fresh
Apply a thin layer to underarms. To ensure product appears clear on skin, do not over apply.
Caution
Do not use if inner cap is missing. Do not apply to broken skin. If rash or irritation develops, discontinue use. Keep out of reach of children. Do not store over 46 C.
UNILEVER CANADA Toronto, ON M4W 3R2 1-800-761-dove (3683) www.dove.ca 83120658
Non-Medicinal Ingredients Cyclopentasiloxane, stearyl Alcohol, c12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, PPG-14 Butyl Ether, Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Dimethicone, Polyethylene, Parfum, Steareth-100, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, BHT.
aluminum zicronium tetrachlorohydrex glycine 14.8% W/W
Exercise 1.3 Negative Space: Deodorant October 31, 2013 6600, MDes 13/14 Emma Joy Lovell
51
planned obsolescence 10.31 - 11.10
For this project we were asked to research planned obsolescence: what it is, its background and examples of companies who employ it in their product designs. By the end of our research, it was expected that we would take a position on its prevalence in today’s market and the ethics of such a business practice. This research was to be captured on a mindmap that explored planned obsolescence and cradle-to-cradle. next, taking what was learned about planned obsolescence, we were asked to create a product design that embodied the opposite of planned obsolescence: something that could theoretically last forever.
52
pRoJeCT 1 ReSeARCh
53
11.12
54
pRoJeCT 1
ReSeARCh
55
11.14
pRoJeCT 1
SuBMiSSion
HAPPEN change the colour | change the world This pen doesn’t make any sacrifices. Made of the highest quality, sustainable sourced, entirely biodegradable materials, it’s not only stylish: it’s life-changing. With interchangable inks and a lifetime guarantee, you’ll never need to buy another pen. Plus, when you’ve used up the non-toxic, totally natural ink, the canister becomes a building block for a limitless line of desktop furniture and accessories that you can build yourself. Why would you want anything less?
SO MANY CHOICES change the colour, nib
THE FIRST R reduce waste in land
The HAPPEN only has seven Reducing the complexity means le to the landfill. Each biodegrada snuggly into one another, ensurin tight seal that won’t lose tension o
THE THIRD R recycle (repurpose) parts through upcycling
In an effort to divert waste from landfills by producing quality products, we’ve designed a whole line of office furniture and accessories that can be made from the component parts of the HAPPEN. When the ink runs out, the canisters and nibs can be united with one of our many connector pieces. Start with the “star connector” that comes with each pack of ink refills and the “connect and twist cap” that can be found on the end of every refill. Nibs can be used as end joints or feet. Visit www.hap-pen.com for plans, tutorials and inspiration.
PARTS star connector (top left) and in use with empty c connect and twist cap (bottom middle) and empty canis
EXAMPLE the basic pen and paper holder
HAPPEN
EN
PP HA
56
DESIGNED BY emma lovell DATE november 14, 2013 FOR mdes 6600: candace ellicott
HAPPEN
b and pattern
dfills
n simple parts. ess waste going able part nests ng a flexible but over time.
NEST AND TWIST nesting mechanism that holds the HAPPEN together
THE SECOND R reuse instead of discarding The high quality of the HAPPEN means you’ll never need to buy another pen. Made of superior, sustainablysourced bamboo, the body is extremely durable and longlasting. The simple and effective “nest and twist” design means there are no springs or lids to lose or complicated mechanisms to malfuntion. And with a wide range of interchangable coloured inks, nibs and laserengraved patterns, you’ll never get bored!
canisters (top right), nib foot (bottom left), ster (bottom right).
INKS natural and biodegradable NIBS made of bioplastic
INK CANISTER bioplastic and ready for upcycling
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final personal proJect 11.16
58
ReSeARCh And pRopoSAL
For our final project, we were given complete freedom in choosing the issue and our subsequent design proposal. ideally, it was to be an issue we were interested in and a creative proposal that was well-informed and detailed, backed by solid research. My direction for this project was inspired by an article titled “how to Solve india’s poverty Crisis” by paul polak and Mal Warwick. The article listed several of the current realities for the world’s poorest people (left). it also proposed three ways to end poverty: “by helping poor people develop income-generating businesses of their own; by providing jobs that allow them to increase their incomes through wages or salaries; or selling them products that enable them to earn or save money.” The article made apparent several opportunities for design to intervene to address the very big problem of global poverty.
right: design proposaL (eMaiL to CandaCe)
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60
61
i quickly discovered that the biggest problem with cooking methods in the developing world is that half of the world’s population cooks on rudimentary stoves called threestone fires, like the one pictured at left in uganda (photo by practical Action on Flickr). These stoves are devastating to the health of people who use them and the environment.
Researchers, engineers and international aid organizations are working on designs for improved biomass stoves that burn more efficiently and cleanly than three-stone fires, like the one pictured at left that i found for sale at Mountain equipment Co-op in halifax. But the more that i learned about the shortcomings and negative impacts of biomass stoves, the more i wondered: is it worth redesigning something that is inherently flawed? Can we not reimagine the whole system to create something that is clean, efficient and sustainable from the very beginning? 62
i began to rethink the very foundation of cooking methods: the fuel. The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves outlines on its website (right) the most popular and prevalent cookstove technologies and fuels and details the health impacts, availability and effiiency of each. Armed with this information, i decided that ethanol was the best choice for a fuel that is environmentally friendly, safe to use and sustainable to produce.
it turns out that ethanol can be produced on a small at-home scale using the same principles and equipment that are used to make alcohol and beer. There are tons of resources online that document how to build your own at-home fermentation/distillation system. The e-Fuel System (pictured at left) is a complete low-maintenance system that turns regular organic waste into fuel. however, at $40,000, this system is well out of reach for the average north American, let alone those in the third world living on $2 or less a day. i wondered: could this type of technology be combined with the “Jugaad factor� of frugal innovation to make a system that could produce ethanol and be made out of largely scavenged/recycled materials? 63
during my research, i also uncovered a way to make a very rudimentary but highly efficient ethanol stove out of a popcan, pair of scissors, knife and thumbtack, which i tried (with the help of my boyfriend) and recorded for my presentation.
64
65
sketChes
Right, 11.27, Below, 11.28
66
The final discovery that was integral to my proposal was that sugarcane is one of the most efficient crops in the production of ethanol and also one of the most widely available in the developing world. While initially i was considering ordinary organic waste for the raw material, it became clear that capitalizing on a crop that was already being produced at a high rate in many of the countries with the highest poverty rates was a better solution. The website Sugarcane.org was a critical resource for this part of the proposal. 67
12.05
pRoJeCT 2
FinAL pRopoSAL And pReSenTATion
Fuel for Life
An all-in-one processing, fermentation and distillation system for the creation of sustainable and safe fuel
Fuel Ingredients Raw sugarcane (or organic material high in sugar or starch) Yeast Water
Heavy press capable of processing raw sugarcane 200 L steel drum Large plunger Stirring implement Two fine screens 19 L glass jug Rubber stopper Small glass collection jar Copper tubing Highly reflective material (tinfoil, glass mirrors, etc.)
5. The distilled ethanol is collected in a jug, which is then stored or used in the stove or engine.
68
34.5�
Construction Materials
Yield This system produces roughly 4.5 litres of ethanol in 2 to 10 days (equivalent to nearly three weeks of fuel for one family’s stove). The Fuel for Life system would require roughly 5 metric tonnes of raw sugarcane to provide fuel for one family for one year. One hectare (about the size of a football field) would produce enough ethanol with this system to provide for 12 families for one year.
1. Sugarcane is pushed through a press to extract juice.
2. The liquid is filtered and flows into the fermentation chamber, where it stays for 2 to 10 days.
4. Once heated, the liquid rises up into a copper tube. As it drops, it cools and condenses.
3. The liquid then flows into the solar still, a glass jug surrounded by reflective mirrors.
23� 69
pReSenTATion noTeS slide one Global poverty is a problem so big and overwhelming that people are often quick to dismiss it as a necessary consequence of the way things are. it’s one of those nasty problems with limitless confouding variables and contributing factors. But it’s a problem that desperately need to be addressed. slide two it’s a fact that nearly three billion people in the world live on $2 or less a day. A devastating statistic. But not an impossible one, if you start to look a little deeper. slide three Global poverty is the result of a web of interrelated problems. When you break it out into its component parts, it makes it much easier to see where the opportunities for intervention are and how by addressing one problem we can inherently affecting many others. i am going to attempt to address more than half of these problems. My proposal touches on food security, economic prosperity, gender equity, power, clean water and cooking. But it starts with an improved cooking method. With this presentation, i hope to demonstrate how new fuel technologies, combined with an ability for frugal innovation and locally sourced materials can result in a widespread reduction of poverty. in order to do that, i have to explain a bit about how half of the world’s population cooks its food. slide four This is a woman cooking over a three-stone fire in uganda. These rudimentary stoves are one of the most widely used methods of cooking in the world. They’re as crude as they look: three stones holding up a pot, with burning sticks underneath. Approximately half of the world’s population use stoves similar to this one and still depend on coal and biomass fuels like wood, charcoal, dung and crop residues (cleancookstoves). Burning biomass fuels over open fires or on crude stoves like this one emits a harmful smoke that causes a range of deadly chronic and acute health effects such as child pneumonia, lung cancer, pumonary disease, heart disease, low birth weights and increased infant mortality. in developing countries, women are traditionally responsible for cooking and have the highest levels of exposure, as well as infants and young children who are usually not far away from their mothers (cleancookstoves). These stoves are also devasting to the environment. The toxic black carbon emitted from cooking fires that burn wood, charcoal or other biomass is one of the leading causes of air pollution in Asia. it is estimated that black carbon from cooking fires contributes the equivalent of 25 to 50 percent of carbon dioxide warming globally (cleancookstoves). in addition, the unsustainable collection of wood for fuel contributes to deforestation, mud-slides, loss of watershed, devastation to local biodiversity and the drying out of viable cropland which places further pressures on regional food security and agricultural productivity.
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Women and girls are often responsible for collecting wood for cooking fires. As they venture further and futher away from home, they are also at greater risk of sexual and gender based violence (cleancookstoves). improving cooking stoves in the developing world addresses at least 5 of 8 un Millennium development goals: ending poverty and hunger gender equity child health maternal health environmental sustainability (aprovech.org) slide five Currently, this mission is being tackled by non-profits, private companies, development agencies, governments and grassroots organizations. Some propose improved biomass stoves that still burn wood or coal, but do so more efficiently and safely. But these stoves don’t address the devastating consequences of burning coal and wood. others are busy investigating alternative fuels that are cleaner, safer and healthier for people and the environment. each fuel option’s viability is determined by the health impacts, fuel efficiency, availability and cost. Any viable option must be easy to access and affordable for those living on $2 or less per day. slide six ethanol emerged as the most efficient fuel choice, with the fewest negative health and environmental impacts. ethanol is a clean liquid biofuel that can be made from a variety of crops, anything with a high sugar or starch content from beets to molasses to potatoes. SLide nine ethanol burns very cleanly without the production of harmful gases and soot. Greenhouse gases released in the production and consumption of ehtanol fuel are reabsorbed during the growth cycle of the plant material used to make the fuel and especially damaging greenhouse gases like carbon monoxide are not produced or produced at extremely low levels. ethanol is made on every continent and in most countries. however, the price of ethanol is still high, in part due to the demand created by its use as fuel for cars. But, ethanol can be produced on a small scale. in north America, there is a growing movement of individuals who create biofuel at home using the same principles and equipment as those used to distill spirits and make beer. So, if ethanol is a viable fuel for improving the health, safety and efficiency of cooking methods in the developing world, but the price of the fuel is too high, the next step is to find a crop high in starch or sugar that is already being produced and processed in countries that have high poverty rates. Capitalizing on a successful existing local crop rather than trying to introduce new ones cuts down on the capital costs. slide seven enter sugarcane, one of the world’s largest crops. While only 20 countries produce oil, over 100 countries cultivate sugarcane and that 71
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number continues to grow (sugarcane.org). The best climate for cultivating sugarcane happens to occur in many of the countries with the highest global poverty rates as well. india, for example, contains nearly one in three of the world’s poorest people (designobserver) and last year it produced almost 350 million tonnes of sugarcane, second only to Brazil. in addition to being widely available, sugarcane is highly efficient. it is seven times more efficient than corn in the production of ethanol (sugarcane.org). So, we’ve got an efficient and available fuel and a fuel technology, but how can that be adapted to the life of some of the world’s poorest people? slide eight The answer can be found in the hindi word Jugaad, which essentially means frugal innovation. it’s about improvising with those things you have close at hand, usually due to a lack of resources. This video shows two men pushing sugarcane through a homemade press to extract juice with the help of their cow. This type of problem solving is not hard to come by in the developing world. The Jugaad movement is gaining momentum globally and becoming understood as a cost effective way of solving problems of daily life. it was einstein who said necessesity is the mother of all invention. slide nine even the task of improving a cookstove, which is being undertaken by engineers, scientists and designers all over the world, can be achieved with as little as a popcan, knife, pair of scissors and a thumbtack. ***hAndouT popCAn SToveS And ShoW eThAnoL*** By putting an ounce of rubbing alcohol (which is 95% ethanol) in the bottom of this modified popcan, you get a stove that can boil water in under six minutes. The only cost is the fuel, which was less than $3 for whole bottle. Many people in india and other developing countries are adept at the ways of the Jugaad. So if you can make a stove out of a few simple materials, why not extend that to making your own fuel? ***pASS ouT hAndouTS*** slide ten This is fuel for life. An all-in-one system that takes raw sugar cane and turns it into ethanol on a single-family scale. it uses a common local process, like the one seen in the video with the cow, of pressing sugarcane to make juice for the raw material and uses processes of fermentation and distillation to turn the juice into fuel. slide eleven All that’s needed to make the fuel is raw sugarcane, yeast and water.
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The sugarcane is pushed through the press on top. The juice flows through a filter or screen into the fermentation chamber, where it is mixed with yeast. it sits there for anywhere from two to ten days, until the sugar content reaches the ideal level, at which point the liquid flows into the solar still. The liquid is heated in the still, evaporates into a copper wire, where it is cooled and the distilled ethanol condenses and flows into the collection bottle. The materials to make the processor can largely be scavenged or purchased inexpensively, including a 200 L steel drum, a sugarcane press and copper wire. in 2 to 10 days, this system is capable of yielding fuel for almost three weeks of cooking for one four-person family. if one family didn’t have enough resources or knowledge to construct one of these, several families could get together to build one. or the excess fuel could be sold for additional income, thus addressing one more of the goals for ending poverty. in addition, this is a scalable system. The principles and techniques apply for small and large scale processors. if a community wanted to get together to build one of these, they could scale up the size and produce much more fuel. slide twelve The Fuel for Life system uses locally scavenged materials and an established and popular crop and capitalizes on an ingrained ability for innovation and improvisation to bring clean, environmentally and health friendly, sustainable fuel to people living in poverty, thus improving individual health and wellbeing, improving gender equity, increasing economic stability and food security, and reducing climate change. one small step towards ending a very big problem. [ eXtrA: slide thirteen ] As far as how much sugarcane is needed, in a medium-scale processing plant, 1 tonne of sugarcane produces 85 litres of ethanol. even if you multiply that amount by 5 to account for the smaller scale production, the Fuel for Life system would only require 5 metric tonnes of raw sugarcane to provide for one family for one year. one hectare of sugarcane yields 60 to 70 tonnes of sugarcane in a year. So one hectare (which is just slightly bigger than a football field) would produce enought ethanol through the Fuel for Life system to provide for 12 families for one year. Typically, sugarcane fields are much much bigger than one hectare. ] [ eXtrA: slide fourteen ] At current scrap metal rates in india, three feet of 1/2 inch copper tubing would cost about 240 rupees. That’s around $4.20 Canadian. For those living on $2 or less a day, that’s about two days budget. ]
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design research proposal 6112
WiTh M. ivey
This course engages with the idea of design as another way of knowing. it introduces design research and methodology and employs various research methods such as modelling and artifacts, brainstorming and mindmapping and critical reading to challenge and broaden perspectives and delve deeper into the thesis topic. in this course, through readings and assignments, i was challenged to once again rethink my understanding of design research, expanding it to include the concept of “knowing through making” more wholly. Also, i began to reflect and distill my methodology, grounding it in established approaches such as action research, as discussed in the paper “Action Research and the practice of design” by Cal Swann.
CoMponenTS
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project artiFaCts
Artifacts one to Three Artifacts Four to Six documented Artifacts
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project MethodoLogy
diagram iteration one iteration Two (Final)
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AssesMent MidterM
Abstract presentation
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ReCoMMended designer ettore Sottsass and the Memphis Group designer Bill Gaver and the idea of the cultural probe tool ideo Method Cards
remember ettore sottsass: “don’t worry. not everything works out.” When the pressure of success is off, that’s when you can start asking questions, exploring and learning new things. FroM sketChbook, 09.10
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identifying research Questions through design 09.10
WoRKShop
Skills in critical thinking allow designers to see opportunities in every situation. By relentlessly questioning things we take to be true, you can often uncover a point of uncertainty that requires new design knowledge. For this exercise, we were given several pages pulled from a national Geographic magazine. We were asked to read through the pages and create a brainstorm that questioned and explored any aspect or set of ideas taken from the pages. This exercise demonstrated that when you are given information, there is a wealth of opportunity lying just below the surface. Critical thinking is a tool that can be used to penetrate that untapped line of questioning.
“All designers...begin with a given determinate situation, discover what is unresolved and indeterminate in that situation requiring new design thinking, and then seek to resolve the uncertainty through creative exploration of the parts and the relations of the parts, leading to a solution that brings unity to what was indeterminate.� FroM MarLene’s presentation on CritiCaL thinking, Quoting FroM buChanan 2007, p. 4 76
critical thinking has the ability to
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09.17
seminar
identifying research questions
Exercise This class began with an exercise in Standing Qigong, which was a new experience for me. Upon reflecting on the experience, I realized that looking at the world with a critical eye requires you to be alert and thinking all the time and this can be exhausting. It’s important to engage in relaxation techniques, like meditation and yoga, that can help to ease the stress on mind and body. This in turn allows you to be a better critical thinker. Compared to other meditation techniques, I liked this one because it combined guided meditation with movement. However, I found it difficult to do in a group setting without feeling self-conscious or distracted. Source: youtu.be/H90T33vHCHU
readings Peeling Apples: Prototyping Design Experiments as Research, Mattelmaki and Matthews Creation of Artifacts as a Vehicle for Design Research, Nithikul Nimkulrat Knowing Through Making: The Role of the Artefact in Practice-Based Research, Maarit Makela 78
From knowing through making by maarit makela, p. 2
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knowing through making: three artifacts 09.20
often the creation of objects or artifacts by designers is seen as a final outcome, but the process of making the artifact can also be viewed as an essential part of research. The making of the artifact becomes “a method of collecting and preserving information and understanding� (Makela, p. 1). For this assignment, we were asked to create three artifacts that pushed our research forward. The process was meant to be an inquiry into our subject, not an exercise in illustrating a concept. of the three artifacts, one was to be two-dimensional, drawn on brown paper. The other two were meant to be three-dimensional. Because this was an exploration, we were encouraged to be imaginative and creative and not to worry about being wrong, so long as our construction and representation was thoughtful and precise.
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pRoJeCT 1
MindMAp
ARTiFACT one: WhAT doeS pLACe MeAn? The creation of these artifacts was an exploration of the concept of place and its implications on lived experience. The first artifact i created was the mindmap (below). The section that i found the most compelling and worth investigating further was about how place was constructed in different environments (right). i identified three components of how place is created (scaffold, context and interaction) which i investigated further with the following two artifacts.
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ReSeARCh
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ARTiFACT TWo: STRuCTuRed pLACe The second artifact examined how place is constructed in environments where the scaffold the preexisting or prescribed. examples of this type of place would include public spaces like parks, streets and squares. The context and interactions are determined by the rigid infrastructure.
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pRoJeCT 1
SuBMiSSion, pReSenTATion, CRiTiQue
ARTiFACT ThRee: oRGAniC pLACe The third artifact modeled authentic place construction, where nothing is predetermined, but instead rises organically from natural interactions and a serendipitous context. The scaffold is then built around and based on the interactions, which are shifting and only occasionally allow authentic sense of place to be realized. 85
knowing through making: 3 more artifacts 09.29
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pRoJeCT 2
ReSeARCh
ReAdinG place and placelessness edward Relph
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pRoJeCT 2
MindMAp
ARTiFACT FouR: pLACe AS A MuLTiFACeTed phenoMenon oF expeRienCe This mindmap was created based on readings from edward Relph’s book place and placelessness. expanding on ideas introduced in the mindmap from project one, concepts explored in this mindmap centred around how place is constructed by individuals and groups – the creation of place rather than the meaning of place.
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Artifact five: THE LENS OF PLACE This was meant to be a model of how place is experienced (and constructed) by an individual. Through the creation of this artifact and my subsequent deeper understanding of how individuals construct place, I came to realize several opportunities for design that my thesis might focus on (sketch below).
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PROJECT 2
SUBMISSION, PRESENTATION, CRITIQUE
Artifact six: authentification This artifact was made to explore the concept of authentification, which is discussed in Place and Placelessness. I feel this is an important concept to understand as it is one mode of connecting with place that I think is most prevalent today, as much of our places are populated with pre-existing infrastructure that we then authentic through the personalization and modification of that place.
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pRoJeCT 2
doCuMenTed ARTiFACTS
Emma Joy Lovell | MDes 13/14, NSCAD | 10/29/2013
ARTIFACTS ONE TO SIX
MODELS OF PLACE These six artifacts were made as part of an exercise in visual thinking that was meant to help clarify and support understanding in the research of my thesis domain. The models are a record and visualization of the process of my inquiry into understanding what place is, how it is constructed and by whom and how design can intervene or help facilitate that construction.
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Artifacts as practice-based research
ARTIFACTS ONE TO THREE
THE MEANING OF PLACE The first three artifacts examined how sense of place is realized by individuals. They rested on an understanding that sense of place (the ability for individuals to connect and identify deeply with the place they are in) is an innate quality of our lived experience: we all develop connections to meaningful places and that connection can vary from very weak to very strong, depending on certain qualities of place. It was these qualities of place and how place is constructed that formed the basis of understanding for artifacts one, two and three. ARTIFACT ONE: MINDMAP This artifact examined the question: what does place mean? It broke that question down into subcategories of identity, location, story, experience and history. In this context, place was examined as something that is created by individuals through their lived experience. Out of the creation of this artifact came the realization that there are three main components to how place is created: the scaffold, the context and the interaction of individuals. These three components are structured differently in environments in which the concept of place is structured or prescribed than when the sense of place rises organically out of a situation and environment. In reflecting on this, it becomes clear firstly that all three components are interrelated and codependent and secondly that any design intervention in the creation of place will have to interact with at least one of these components and that intervention will in turn affect the other two components. This artifact and the concepts it revealed about the creation of place were investigated further in subsequent artifacts. ARTIFACT TWO: STRUCTURED PLACE This artifact explored the creation of place in environments where the scaffold is preexisting, structured or prescribed. Examples of this type of environment would include a public square, streets, parks, public buildings like libraries and schools – anywhere that there is a constructed framework that determines the context and interactions that take place there.
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In this model, the scaffold or existing infrastructure is represented by the wooden dowels. In this model, the infrastructure is rigid and relatively inflexible. It was the first element to be constructed. The white thread wrapped around the joints of the scaffold are there to indicate its quality of construction: because in this type of environment, the sense of place is prescribed, the connections between segments is precarious and needs extra support. In this instance, the connections are lashed together, giving the impression that without extra support, they would not be stable.
mean that authentic or strong sense of place is lost. In this model, context is less important ¬– the scaffold determines the interactions, regardless of the context. This model illuminated several things about environments where the creation of place is structured and rigid. It demanded an exploration of the opposite in the next model: environments where the creation of place is organic, rising up from naturally occurring interactions and a serendipitous context. ARTIFACT THREE: ORGANIC PLACE
The coloured threads represent the web of interactions of individuals with one another and with the scaffold. This web is comprised of individuals’ intentions (yellow thread), actions (orange thread) and experience (red thread). During the construction of the model, the tension from the threads warped the shape of the scaffold. This illustrates the power of human interactions to determine the shape and structure of places, even in environments when that structure is predetermined and apparently rigid. Together the scaffold and the interactions support the marble, which represents (in both this model and the following one) a strong and authentic sense of place. If you put pressure on the scaffold, or tamper with the interactions, the sense of place is lost. Once the marble falls out, it is very difficult to replace: the balance of tension and slack between the threads and the scaffold is precarious, as is sense of place. In structured environments, one tiny change can
This artifact explored the creation of place in environments where the scaffold is not predetermined or prescribed, instead it forms organically around natural interactions and a serendipitous context. In this model, the first element that was created was the web of interactions. This was formed around a mould, which was later removed. In this model, the mould could represent the serendipitous context, which determined the shape of the interactions. The threads alone (and not the scaffold) support the marble (a strong and authentic sense of place) and the scaffold is built after, around and based on the natural shape of the interactions. This model is more dynamic than the model of structured place. When you move it around, the interactions do engage with the scaffold: the ball bounces off of the scaffold and falls within it at times. This reaction illustrates the nature of organic place: it does not depend on infrastructure for its form, but does respond
to the infrastructure in a way that is more enjoyable and whimsical than in the first model. The marble is not fixed, it is dynamic. If you put pressure on the structure, the interactions and sense of place are less affected.
ABOVE Artifact One: Mindmap TOP RIGHT Artifact Two: Structured Place BOTTOM RIGHT Artifact Three: Organic Place
However, even in organic places, sense of place is always fragile and it can be lost. There are holes in the web of interactions that are big enough to let the marble fall through. However, in this model and in organic places, it is much easier to reestablish sense of place, because the web of interactions is woven more tightly and is therefore less precarious, providing more room for a dynamic sense of place.
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Artifacts as practice-based research
ARTIFACTS FOUR TO SIX
THE EXPERIENCE OF PLACE The first three models investigated how place is created by individuals and what qualities of place allow for the realization of strong and authentic senses of place. The subsequent three models built on this understanding by looking for opportunities where design can intervene in the construction of place to allow for these deep connections with place to occur more often. In order to identify those opportunities, it was important to explore place as a multifaceted phenomenon of experience, a concept raised in Edward Relph’s book Place and Placelessness. ARTIFACT FOUR: MINDMAP This artifact expanded on concepts introduced in the first mindmap, specifically those centred around the creation of place more than the meaning or definition of place. It examined place as a phenomenon of experience: how we determine which places are authentic and which are inauthentic and how we identify with place, including issues of insideness and outsideness. The mindmap was based on readings from Edward Relph’s book Place and Placelessness. The most important realization that arose in the creation of this artifact was the understanding that all places are individually interpreted and experienced. We form our identities (both collectively and individually) based on our interactions with others and with our environment: our experience, intentions and actions. Place is merely an articulation of these individual and group identities. It was this concept that was explored in the next two models. ARTIFACT FIVE: THE LENS OF PLACE This model examined how place is experienced and constructed by an individual. We each see place through our own unique lens. In this model, the larger cube made out of wooden dowels continues to represent the infrastructure, and the smaller square is the individual who constructs place. The threads continue to represent interactions, but this time it’s more personal. We experience place through our own intentions (yellow), experiences (red), attitudes (orange) and circumstances (green).
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Through constructing this artifact, several opportunities for design became apparent. Design can engage with the construction of place at the level of the individual. Making individuals aware of the lens through which they come to understand place and perhaps altering or shaping that lens presents several design possibilities. There are also design possibilities in the construction of the infrastructure. This could include altering, modifying, building on or deconstructing existing infrastructure or creating new infrastructure to support the creation of authentic and meaningful connections to place. Finally, there is an opportunity for design once place is created. Understanding that place is the result of an existing infrastructure and individuals’ interactions with that infrastructure presents several opportunities for design to engage with or subvert sense of place. Through the creation of this model, I came to realize that in almost all of the places we find ourselves in, especially in an urban environment, the infrastructure is preexisting or prescribed. Very rarely is there an opportunity to create new places from the ground up. That begs the question: what can design do with places that are preexisting? How do we “authenify” places that are preexisting? How do we create a sense of place in environments that lack it? This line of questioning led to the creation of the sixth model. ARTIFACT SIX: AUTHENTIFICATION This final artifact explored how individuals can take places that have a homogenous preexisting
TOP RIGHT Artifact Four: Mindmap BOTTOM LEFT Artifact Five: The Lens of Place BOTTOM RIGHT Artifact Six: Authentification
structure, which is often the case in urban environments, and create authentic and meaningful places by living in them. A clear example of this can be in apartment buildings: how do the residents of each unit make their apartment, which is structured the same as dozens of others around it, their place? In Place and Placelessness, Relph explores how the personalization of property can create an authentic sense of place. In this model, the wooden dowels continued to represent existing infrastructure. The paper on one side illustrated how that infrastructure can appear from one side to be homogenous, placeless and inauthentic, but from another angle we can see that the homogenous space is made up of smaller, more authentic places. Each place is slightly different from the next because place is constructed by individuals through their unique lens of experience, attitude, intention and circumstance (from model five). This artifact represents a model for how design can address the prevailing challenge of inauthentic place (which Edward Relph describes as ‘placelessness’), which is particularly prevalent in today’s hyper-connected environment. The artifact raises the question: how can design help to create meaningful and authentic connections to place, thus eradicating placelessness? This line of questioning will be further explored through subsequent work on my thesis. Overall, the making of these artifacts helped to crystallize my understandings of place creation and to identify the different ways that design can intervene and engage with those ideas.
ABOVE Artifact One: Mindmap TOP RIGHT Artifact Two: Structured Place BOTTOM RIGHT Artifact Three: Organic Place
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action research methodology 10.01
“The important point is that visual form is a form of knowledge. It is a means of encapsulating ideas and, indeed, some ideas are expressed more powerfully through the visual medium than via any other form of communication.” Action Research and the Practice of Design, Cal Swann, p. 52
Many conceive of the design process as an ambiguous mix of intuition, inspiration and insight: a process that is impossible to pin down and describe by quantitative means. In some ways, this is the case – being a successful designer does hinge on a certain amount of “intuition, inspired guesswork and holistic thinking” (Swann, 51). But the design process is also an interpretive process that allows for the solving of complex problems through a process of critical thinking, reflection and analysis. In order for the practice of design to be seen as a legitimate way of not only producing objects, but of formulating and collecting knowledge, there must be a research methodology at work. This project asked us to read Cal Swann’s paper on action research and then reflect on our own design process and how it interacts with the methodology that Swann examines. We were then tasked to create a diagram of our design process to be discussed and critiqued in class.
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project 3
reading and research
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10.12
PROJECT 3
inspiration and refinement
inspiration Steampunk (top right), from http://www.instablogsimages.com/1/2012/03/24/pezzanos_steampunk_communicator_phone_image_title_oe1mc.jpg Marbleworks (top left), from http://web.acsalaska.net/~totallymom/Pictures/DTPIC/ schoolyears/marbleworks.JPG Orthographic drawings (bottom left), from http://www.uh.edu/engines/watt2.gif 100
10.21 preparation For MidterM
Outline of Inquiry
PLAN
ACT
OBSERVE
REFLECT
Based on Action Research Methodology and 5 Steps of Discourse Production
Invent Search, collect, explore, experiment, model, mockup, prototype, test
Analyse Understand, reflect on background, intentions, audience, possibilities
Identify Need Problem, context, situation, exigency, dilemma, ambiguity
Reflect Analyse, synthesize
Interpret
Render Conceptualize, sketch, arrange, style
Digest Synthesize, collate, reflect
Finalize Deliver, implement
Refine Re-test, analyse, reflect, reiterate
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pRoJeCT 3
SuBMiSSion (iTeRATion 1)
Design Research Methodology
Identify Need
Interpret
Determine problems, context, situation, ambiguities
Weigh options, define the problem, articulate approach
PLAN
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Analyse
Invent
Understand, reflect on background, identify intentions, audience, possibilities
Search, col experiment mock-up, p
ACT
llect, explore, t, model, prototype, test
Digest
Refine
Reflect
Synthesize, compare and contrast, collate, reflect, discard
Re-test, analyse, reflect, reiterate
Analyse, synthesize
Render
Finalize
Conceptualize, sketch, arrange, style
Deliver, implement
OBSERVE
REFLECT
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11.03 - 11.06
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pRoJeCT 3
ReFineMenT And ReiTeRATion
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readings Action Research and the Practice of Design, Cal Swann Designerly Ways of Knowing, Nigel Cross Action Research: Improving Schools and Empowering Educators, Chapter 2: Overview of the Action Research Process, Craig A. Mertler Design Without Disciplines, Craig Bremner and Paul Rogers
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pRoJeCT 3
SuBMiSSion (iTeRATion 2)
IDENTIFY
IMPLEMENT
GATHER
SYNTHESIZE ADJUST
REVIEW
EVALUTATE
ANALYZE
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TEST
using action research to
MAP THE DESIGN PROCESS
REVIEW
Reflect on the qualitative information gathered and review existing and related literature, looking for ways to connect it with practice. Allow time to digest and thoroughly consider the problem from all angles.
SYNTHESIZE
Collate and sort the data, with the aim of further honing, defining or limiting the problem. Identify, weigh and discard irrelevant data. Determine and articulate main research question(s), subordinate questions, variables, (possibly) a hypothesis and research methods.
INVENT
Implement the research plan: collect data, experiment, sketch, model, play, explore and engage deeply with the problem and the data.
EXECUTE
Develop or prototype proposed solution. Arrange, style and render it in a form that can be implemented and tested.
TEST
Reflect on design choices and proposed solution in light of all data and information collected. Measure the effectiveness of proposed solution using previously determined strategies and methods.
ANALYZE
Collate, reflect on, interpret and articulate results.
EVALUATE
Share results, interpretation and analysis. Discuss, critique and gather feedback.
ADJUST
Synthesize, interpret and implement feedback. Refine, tweak or rethink proposed solution accordingly.
IMPLEMENT
Once the solution has been achieved, it is finalized and implemented. Reflection is integral at this stage and may reveal new problems, alternative solutions or gaps in the proposed solution, which may re-initiate the entire process.
REFLECT
Commence preliminary information gathering, with the goal of gauging perceptions and assumptions surrounding the research. Reflect on the context, history and personal beliefs to gain a better understanding of the problem in a wider context.
OBSERVE
GATHER
ACT
EXECUTE
Identify the problem, need, ambiguity or dilemma that initiated the process. Determine the general domain of research and the research goal (what the design hopes to improve). Consider the project’s scope, parametres and limitations to make sure it’s manageable.
PLAN
INVENT
IDENTIFY
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visual presentation and abstract 10.20
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midterm assessment (Progress)
FroM pLaCe and pLaCeLessnesss by e reLph, p. 90 111
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10.22
midterm assessment
Abstract
Place is a fundamental source of identity for individuals, communities and nations. Its importance and influence is so innate in our experience of the world that it is often overlooked and taken for granted. Place-based connections affect the economy, community vitality and sustainability and personal health and wellbeing. Despite its importance, the creation of an authentic and meaningful sense of place is constantly being challenged and often threatened by the growth and development of our places. Especially today, as the world becomes ever more connected, in communication, culture and business, the authenticity of place-based identities is being undermined and individuals’ ability to connect with place in a meaningful way is being forgotten. Using a research methodology based in action research and design process, this thesis project will identify how and where can design intervene in the process of placemaking to ensure that authentic and meaningful connections to place are created, maintained, rediscovered and preserved.
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midterm assessment
visual presentation
presentation notes I wanted to start off right away with the current state of my thesis question because I have worked hard to ensure that it encapsulates all of the questions I have right now about the intersection of design and placemaking and the potential path I will take going forward
MDes 6112/6115: Midterm Presentation | October 22, 2013 | Emma Lovell
How and where can design intervene in the process of placemaking to ensure that authentic and meaningful connections to place are created, rediscovered, maintained or preserved?
How and where can design intervene in the process of placemaking to ensure that authentic and meaningful connections to place are created, rediscovered, maintained or preserved? First, this question seeks to understand completely how place is created by individuals and groups. Second, this question explores why that creation of place is important and what the development of a positive, authentic and meaningful sense of place stands to offer Within that is the understanding of what exactly makes an authentic and meaningful place. Third, this question rests on an understanding of place and placemaking: what that means to whom and how I will chose to interpret it Finally, the question asks about the state of place-based connections today, compared to the past. Is there a disappearance or erosion of sense of place? Is it under threat more than it has been before? What kind of place-based connections do I want to work to create?
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How and where can design intervene in the process of place-making to ensure that authentic and meaningful connections to place are created, rediscovered, Exactly what makes an “authentic and meaningful” maintained or preserved? connection to place?
How is place created? And by whom?
Why is the creation of “authentic and meaningful connections to place” important?
What do those connections stand to offer?
What kind of place-based connections do I want to create and why?
What is the state of place-based connections today?
What is placemaking and what does it mean to me?
“To be human is to live in a world that is filled with significant places: to be human is to have and to know your place.” Edward Relph, Place and Placelessness, p. 1
Middleburg, Virginia
Near Dallas, Texas
Images by La Citta Vita, Flickr, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/la-citta-vita/
Placelessness “a weakening of the identity of places to the point where they not only look alike but feel alike and offer the same bland possibilities for experience.” Relph, p. 90
Image (left) from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lee_farm_sunset_hdr_1.png Image (right) by RicLaf, Flickr, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/riclaf/441024334/
The central most important idea to my thesis at this point is the understanding that relationships to places are fundamental and essential to our experience – as fundamental, you could argue as relationships with other people. So fundamental that they’re often taken for granted or overlooked. But sense of place is being eroded and challenged all the time, as we become more connected, through mass media, mass culture and big business and with the expansion and development of our places, being undermined by placelessness, a term described by geographer Edward Relph.
To help explain this concept, I’d like to use the road as a metaphor. I’m borrowing this from Todd Snow, an essayist who has written about the changing nature of travel. Old Road: definite places – they connected locations at a distance, gave access to what was immediately at hand, landscape was tangible and immediate, not something seen only at a
distance, they encouraged social interaction with people, started from and led to the city and it was organically part of the way the city was built, mostly because the city had grown up with and along the road. New Road: although it seems to go between cities, it actually goes past cities – they seem to go on indefinitely and if it’s not the direction you wish to take you have to actively get off of it. broad rights of way and limited access, they turn drivers in on themselves, alienating and isolating, this feeling amplified by high speeds. Snow says “The old road started from and led to the city. The New Road starts everywhere and leads nowhere.” (P&P, 90). These great highways are “Placeless” – they have no connection to the landscape around them. When travelling them you could be anywhere. You could also use this metaphor to describe authentic and meaningful sense of place and inauthentic or prescribed sense of place.
The ability to connect with place in a deep and meaningful way is becoming more difficult as our connection to place is less innate in our day-to-day lives. A century ago, and still today in many cultures around the world, place is a key player in how people live – I’m thinking about the farmer whos livelihood depends on the wellbeing of his farm, or the fisherman or hunter who learns to listen and respond to the rhythms of place. Today, for many people, place is merely the background to our daily life. It’s there, but it’s not playing a role in the way we do things. It’s not surprising that this is the case, as landscapes start to look more and more alike: the stores, huge highways, the same fashion and culture. In the face of this, places have to work really hard to identify what makes them unique – they search hard for it, define it and then project it feverishly. The problem is that in the face of this pressure, that story of place often becomes flattened or commodified, moving farther away from authenticity. 115
if placelessness is eroding or challenging our ability to make authentic and meaningful connections to places and if those connections are integral to our experience of the world, then the case must be made to resist placelessness and make sure that, in the words of edward Relph, the means of experiencing, creating and maintaining significant places are not lost. This mission is being adopted by people in many disciplines, including but not limited to architecture, design, community development, urban planning and tourism. Many refer to this as placemaking, though the definitions of the practice are many. Most often they relate to the planning and developing of communities that are people-centric: wider streets, lots of benches, beautiful artwork, greenspace, community events, that sort of thing. But that’s not the only way that people are resisting placelessness. There are artists creating critical work that raise awareness of the issue, there are marketers and tourism operators looking to capitalize on sense of place, there are policy makers, politicians and community members who are working to preserve the integrity of important places, there are historic societies like the one in Annapolis Royal nova Scotia working the preserve stories from the past
“If places are indeed a fundamental aspect of man’s existence in the world, if they are sources of security and identity for individuals and for groups of people, then it is important that the means of experiencing, creating and maintaining signficant places are not lost.” Edward Relph, Place and Placelessness, p. 6
The formal practice of placemaking has been in development since the 1970s and continues to grow. There are now consultants and agencies that call themselves placemakers, focussed mainly on urban planning and development. Other fields that are engaging with these ideas include architecture, design, visual arts, community development, and tourism.
Image from Project for Public Spaces, www.pps.org/reference/parks/approach-4/
The value of creating, maintaining or preserving place-based connections
Health
Empowerment Local economic sustainability
Individuals Job retention and creation
Identity Sense of belonging
Tourism
Increased property values
Experience
Economy
Connection to place Community
The positive repercussions of meaningful connections to place are many: they build and strengthen community they bolster the local economy they promote and facilitate tourism they help solidify and strengthen individual identities encourage personal and collective ownership of place, which then results in people defending their place, as we’ve seen recently close by in Rexton, new Brunswick So that’s the challenge ahead of me: to define place, sense of place and the practice and importance of placemaking and to find ways that design can intervene in that process to build more meaningful connections to place. i intend to approach that task through a methodology that is rooted in action research, discourse production and the design process and looks something like this. i intend to use various methods within this methodology including modeling, contextual search and review, deep observation, interviews and questionnaires and prototyping and testing.
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Protection
Preservation
Heritage
Environment
Development
Sustainable development
Outline of Inquiry
PLAN
ACT
OBSERVE
REFLECT
Based on Action Research Methodology and 5 Steps of Discourse Production
Invent Search, collect, explore, experiment, model, mockup, prototype, test
Analyse Understand, reflect on background, intentions, audience, possibilities
Identify Need Problem, context, situation, exigency, dilemma, ambiguity
Reflect Analyse, synthesize
Interpret
Render Conceptualize, sketch, arrange, style
Digest Synthesize, collate, reflect
Finalize Deliver, implement
Refine Re-test, analyse, reflect, reiterate
Going Forward
Built environment
Scaffold and aesthetics
Identifying opportunities for design to intervene in the creation, maintainence and preservation of sense of place
Interactions
With one another and with their environment
Context
Time + location
Perception
Of insiders, outsiders, Story of Place
MDes 6112/6115: Midterm Presentation | October 22, 2013 | Emma Lovell
How and where can design intervene in the process of placemaking to ensure that authentic and meaningful connections to place are created, rediscovered, maintained or preserved?
Going forward, i will be looking for specific opportunities for design to intervene in the creation, maintenance, discovery and preservation of sense of place. So far, i have identified four inter-related areas where these interventions might occur, based on the ways that place is created.
however, interventions that are focused mainly on interactions would include community building events, like open Streets where roads are closed to vehicles for the day, they could also include place-based activities, such as geocaching, where you look for hidden caches using a GpS or smartphone.
Built environment: this refers to the existing infrastructure and its appearance: referring to basic things like roads, sidewalks, buildings, remnants of old buildings. interventions might include art installations, surface treatments like new facades, the construction of new buildings or the modification of existing ones, projects that make streets more people-friendly by planting trees or adding more benches, etc.
Context: This refers specifically to time and place. While context has a lot to do with interactions, interventions in this area involve altering the environment at a specific location and a specific time. interventions of this nature could include things like flash mobs, for instance. An example of this, which has happened in cities all over the world, are knit-bombing events where groups of people get together at a given time and location and cover the area with knitting. This can also include protests or temporary installations.
interactions: this refers to the interactions of individuals with eachother and with the built environment. interventions in the built environment will inevitably affect interactions.
about a place. This can be people who belong to the place or outsiders. interventions of this nature include marketing and branding of a place, community campaigns, or tours. overall, the more research and observation that i do, the more i realize that this is a very important issue that has some serious repercussions. once you start looking, the evidence of placelessness and its effect on sense of place is everywhere and i would argue that the erosion is worsening. Significant places are being lost, people’s ability to form a deep connection with place is being forgotten. With this research, i hope to find ways to resist placelessness and help others rediscover the power of place-based connections, thus making an impact in community health and wellbeing, in personal growth and identity and in the preservation of significant and important places. Thank you.
Finally, perception: This one is a little more difficult, but it refers to the attitude of people 117
grad independent study 6115
WiTh M. ivey
Taking the skills we have and are learning in critical thinking and practice-based research, this course supports us on our exploration of our thesis topic. By acquiring knowledge in how to effectively seek, find, analyze, synthesize and communicate information, i feel much better prepared to approach my thesis head-on. This course has helped me penetrate the often intimidating amount of information out there and “draw down” (in Marlene’s words) the relevant and poignant points relative to my thesis topic.
CoMponenTS
118
project praCtitioners
presentation
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ind. study L/M/C review
overview
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ind. study writing week
Goals and Schedule outcomes
132 134
project researCh poster
iteration one iteration Two iteration Three (Final)
144 146 149
ReCoMMended Architecture The Archigram Archive practice Critical design
our research is taking us on a journey. it’s important that we’re able to explain our path, show where it took us and explain why that’s important. FroM sketChbook, 09.17
inspiration Mdes theses in the library
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citations, bibliographies and academic integrity 09.10
The reliability and strength of your work always rests on your academic integrity. Without a clear path of how you arrived at your ideas, which includes documentation of all of the work that you consulted during your research, your conclusions are not dependable. Luckily, the conventions for this documentation are clearly laid out and abiding by them is essential. Key to good citations is a good research workflow, where every source is well documented at the time that it is consulted. To assist in our research, we are to prepare an annotated bibliography, which includes all of the sources that we have consulted along the way, accompanied by a short description of the source’s value to our research.
handouts from seminar on fair dealing and copyright issues, 09.24 120
seminar
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10.01
pRoJeCT 1
pReCedenT pReSenTATion
PlaceMaking Halifax
Connecting with Stories of Place Through Design
Place
Design
Storytelling
“When neighbours create something together in their common spaces we build community. The placemaking activities taking place in Halifax are citizen-led transformations of typical urban streets into a unique community gathering points.”
Who’s doing what and where?
Project for Public Spaces
Sushine Chen “How are Canadians re-imagining and re-making our cities and communities and redefining Canada’s place in the world today? “ Wasan Island Retreat
Image from: http://b.vimeocdn.com/ts/511/824/51182486_640.jpg
“A non-profit planning, design and educational organization dedicated to helping people create and sustain public spaces that build stronger communities. Our pioneering Placemaking approach helps citizens transform their public spaces into vital places that highlight local assets, spur rejuvenation and serve common needs.” Image from: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150704241399076&set=a.10150704240474076.415942.27528724075&type=1&thea ter
Ghost Lab
Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper
Brian MacKay-Lyons and Richard Kroeker undertake what was essentially a Freelab on MacKay-Lyons’s farm in 1994
A low-cost, high-impact approach to building and strengthening community.
Grew into a summer camp then a conference The Porch, 30th Street Station, Philadelphia
The connection to place, to craft and to community – “locavore architecture”
Image from: http://universitycity.org/sites/default/files/styles/page_slider/public/UCD-Porch-Beer-Garden-161_1.jpg?itok=vKiqObQ1
Image from: http://www.mlsarchitects.ca/mobile/ghost.htm
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Replaced Street Signs
Activate Union Station
“Constitutes a public intervention within de Schilderswijk (Painters’ neighborhood) in The Hague, The Netherlands, during which several street signs, featuring the names of Dutch and Flemish masters, will be taped over by an adhesive sticker with the same text in Arabic.”
Metropolitan Planning Council of Chicago’s 2013 placemaking contest Winners: Blah Blah Blob! submitted by Chicago-based architecture and planning firm Latent Design and Kent State Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative trainYARD, submitted by a Chicago-based team of architects
Image from: http://www.vangervenoei.com/wp-content/uploads/gerarddou01-edit-500x333.jpg
Blah blah blob by Latent Design Image from: http://www.cudc.kent.edu/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/spikey-interior-shot_560px.png
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KcPmM8FvKhc
Open Streets Project
Using graphic design to discuss, analyze and critique globalization through stories of place
Vincent WJ van Gerven Oei and Jonas Staal
I amsterdam
“Open streets initiatives temporarily close streets to automobile traffic, so that people may use them for walking, bicycling, dancing, playing and socializing.”
2004 urban branding campaign The city as a product Swiss typeface Avenir
From the Street Plans Collaborative Image from: http://thisisnotadvertising.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/i-amsterdam-museumplein.jpg Image from: http://thechronicleherald.ca/sites/default/files/imagecache/ch_article_main_image/articles/swtich.jpg
Envisioning Design: The Role of Visual Communications in Place-making
Revealing the Invisible Uncovering the industrial heritage of NE England as an opportunity for sustainable tourism From the Dott 2007 Design Camp, a twoyear span of community projects, events and exhibitions based in NE England exploring what life in a sustainable region could be like and how design could help us get there.
Katrina Sandbach, University of Western Sydney, Australia Image from: Down the Rabbit Hole: a situated approach to design education that facilitates socially responsible emergent
Image from: http://www.jimrokos.com/images/Revealing%20the%20Invisible/wheel-one.jpg
designers, by Samantha EDWARDS-VANDENHOEK and Katrina SANDBACH, University of Western Sydney
“With the desire to illuminate the invisible moments of Allendale’s industrial heritage, the team proposed a series of light-based installations to fill in the gaps that time and space has erased.” Designers: Monica Chong, Vincenzo di Maria, James Rokos, Christina Worsing
Image from: http://www.jimrokos.com/images/Revealing%20the%20Invisible/Christina%20Worsing/epic-posters-full-scale21-J.jpg
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literary, media and conteXtual search and review onGoinG
one-To-one TuToRiALS, ReSeARCh
notes FroM one-to-one and reCoMMended reading FroM MarLene, 09.17
Throughout the semester, i was undertaking a search and review of contextual, literary and media sources that were relevant to my thesis. This consisted of a survey of the important texts related to place and place identities. it has also included a collection of relevant links, videos and images relating to current practitioners investigating this issue across disciplines. Finally, it has included attending events, conferences, and exhibitions relevant to this study.
The results of the literary, media and contextual review are embedded in the annotated bibliography and reference list, included at the end of this process book. The following pages are a selection of key discoveries that have impacted the course of my independent study this semester.
ReCoMMended Book The Tuning of place, Richard Coyne Book Lifeplace by Robert L. Thayer Book Stories till dawn, Joe neil Mcneil
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FroM sketChbook, 09.29
FroM pLaCe and pLaCeLessness by e reLph
125
onGoinG
L/M/C RevieW
inFLuenTiAL diSCoveRieS
09.18: Canadian studies ConFerenCe at st. Mary's with keynote speaker graeMe wynn FroM ubC on edward reLph's inFLuentiaL book pLaCe and pLaCeLessness
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11.04: discovered altermodern, 3rd tate triennial and curator nicholas bourriaud's view on the end of postmodernism right: chipinksi the altermodernist by simone lia
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LeFt: readings on Ma, suggested by rudi 11.01 right: notes FroM workshop by Christopher (11.01) and taLk by sadao tsuChiya (11.05) 128
129
09.24 - 10.01
L/M/C Review
lectures by hanno ehses
Rhetoric gives you strategic competence, rather than intuition. It is creativity and intuition systematized. It's about knowing the tools, patterns, strategies and background. This is also studying design. Meanings are in people. Communication does not exist in the transmission of meaning, but the transmission of text. In interpreting those texts, individuals create meaning. Those meanings are never fixed. As experience changes, so meaning changes. From sketchbook, 09.24 130
notes FroM LeCture ii, 10.01
Why do We need RheToRiC? To figure out what we mean; To persuade others to take our point of view and to accept the results of our inquiries as valid;
To protext ourselves from those who use it to their advantage; To enhance our pleasure in using and experiencing symbol systems of all kinds: language, visual arts, even music; To preserve or, even more basically, to define our humanity; as an alternative to solving
conflict through violence. Rhetoric is a framework for communication. it is profoundly social in its orientation. it assumes the scarce commodity is human attention. Stylishtic devices are filters that regulate attention. 131
writing week 11.04 - 11.08
Writing week was time set aside for mindful reflection, synthesis of our research and writing as a way of communicating our findings to date. There was no structure or defined outcomes for the week. Instead, we were asked to effectively plan our time, both for writing week and the remainder of the semester, to ensure that our partial thesis would be completed by end of term. To this end, planning, goal setting and timelines were critical to the effectiveness of writing week. We were asked to create timelines for writing week inclusively and for the remainder of the semester. At far right is the schedule I created at the beginning of writing week. As is often the case, everything ended up taking much longer than planned, so I was not able to complete as many sections as I had set out to do, but I was able to complete one comprehensive section. Marlene had suggested at the outset that choosing one section to focus on and complete was a realistic and feasible goal for the week. In the end, over writing week I was able to clarify and complete a first draft of the outline of inquiry section of my thesis, as well as a draft outline of the context and background section.
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planning, progress
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11.04 - 11.08
writing week
Outcomes
rationality, neutrality, and a concern for ‘truth’ - in the humanities: subjectivity, imagination, commitment, and a concern for ‘justice’ - in design: practicality, ingenuity, empathy, and a concern for ‘appropriateness’”
Research Methodology This research project will be undertaken through a methodology rooted in the design process. This presents several challenges as, in recent years, research in design has entered a difficult phase of its development. Design does not fit neatly into discussions of research methodologies when they focus only on contrasting the approaches of humanities or arts with those of science. Many assert that design research stands so far apart from both disciplines that it therefore requires its own research methodology. However, few propositions of what this research methodology might look like have been concrete and explicit: most resort to discussing what design research is only by contrasting it with what it is not. In his book Designerly Ways of Knowing, Nigel Cross attempts to shed light on what exactly design is by comparing it to science and 134
art in the following categories: “The phenomenon of study in each culture is: - in the sciences: the natural world - in the humanities: human experience - in design: the artificial world The appropriate methods in each culture are: - in the sciences: controlled experiment, classification, analysis - in the humanities: analogy, metaphor, evaluation - in design: modelling, pattern-formation, synthesis The values of each culture are - in the sciences: objectivity,
Designerly Ways of Knowing, p. 2 Cross argues that design must come closer to the inner coherence that both science and art have if it is to be seen as a valid and valuable form of research (Cross, p. 6). Part of the challenge to attaining that inner coherence is found in the fact that design is experiencing a proliferation across disciplines. It is being recognized that design skills can be useful in almost any creative production and the boundaries between disciplines of design are becoming blurred and even obsolete (Bremner, p. 6). Cross writes, “the study of design could be an interdisciplinary study accessible to all those involved in the creative activity of making the artificial world” (p. 99). A methodology is therefore necessary in order to unite designers who adopt this broad approach to the practice. Design research lives in an iterative world of ‘doing and making’: exploring solutions by trying them out and testing them. Unlike in science, where the solutions are to be found hidden within the data, the designer constructs solutions from the data. This involves a certain amount of intuition, imagination, inspiration and holistic thinking, which is difficult to articulate in quantitative terms and has been a criticism of design research, contributing to the mystique of “creative genius” (Swann, p. 50) and positioning design as counter to scientific inquiry. However, this makes it all the more important to develop a valid methodology that embodies the iterative and interpretive nature of design (Swann, p. 50).
Although there was a time when designers sought to couch their work in the objectivity, universalism, logic and controlled experimentation of the sciences, namely in the 1920s and later in the 1960s (Bremner, p. 4), it is now accepted that the scientific model, which demands methods that produce a persistent validation of results, is not reflected in the practice of design, where methods are less important because results that are repeatable are not required (and are often even discouraged) (Cross, p. 97). While science looks to for puzzles that can be solved through rigorous and exhaustive analysis, design tends towards the ill-defined or unstructured problem–those that do not necessarily have a correct answer, but instead a number of possible solutions (Cross, p. 7). The social sciences have presented alternative ways of conducting research that embrace this uncertainty and multiplicity of solutions and seem to capture the interpretive nature of research that is based on observing human behaviour rather than quantifiable facts and certainties (Swann, p. 50). This design research project will use a methodology grounded in action research, which comes out of the social sciences. As Cal Swann outlines in his paper “Action Research and the Practice of Design,” the traditional model of research that is based on a hypothesis still applies, where the hypothesis is tested through a design proposition and the knowledge outcome is contained within the visual form (and accompanied by written explanation) (Swann, p. 52). In order for the action research methodology to apply, there are typically three conditions that must be met: the subject matter centres around a social practice; it is a participatory activity where the researchers work in equitable collaboration; and finally, the project is iterative. In this methodology, progress is made through four phases: plan, action, observation and reflection (Swann, p. 55). However, although these conditions and
phases sound reminiscent of the design process, they do not reflect it explicitly and there are several points where design is challenged to fit within the constraints of such a model, namely in the required conditions. Although many have argued that design practice is moving towards collaborative work which brings users, consumers and the public into the design process at the ground level, I would argue that this would never qualify as “equitable collaboration”. There will always be an inequitable relationship between designer and user, simply because the designer has an agenda and he/she needs the user to fulfill that agenda. Swann writes, “Authentic collaboration in research is more than just a multidisciplinary design team approach. The users of design should be genuine ‘collaborators,’ and not merely co-opted for token comments in an illusion of collaboration” (p. 57). However, examples of action research methodology applied to design research tend to outline a process of collecting data on users’ behaviours, beliefs, affinities and aversions, drawing conclusions from that data, and then designing, testing and perfecting a solution. Although this process may be grounded in a deep study and dialogue with the user, this is not equitable collaboration. Hiding within that process is a leap where the designer recognizes that something must be added to the information in order to arrive at an appropriate solution.
Recognizing and creating that catalyst is the raison d’être of the designer. In “Designerly Ways of Knowing,” Cross presents several characteristics of good design research, which I will adopt in place of Swann’s three conditions. These are: - research that is purposive (based on identification of an issue or problem worthy and capable of investigation - research that is inquisitive (seeking to acquire new knowledge) - research that is informed (conducted from an awareness of previous, related research) - research that is methodical (planned and carried out in a disciplined manner - research that is communicable (generating and reporting results which are testable and accessible) (Cross, 2006) The methodology adopted for this project will be rooted in action research, with a few slight adjustments to account for the challenges discussed previously.
works cited Action Research and the Practice of Design, Cal Swann Designerly Ways of Knowing, Nigel Cross Designing Without Discipline, C. Bremner and P. Rodgers
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11.04 - 11.08
writing week
Outcomes
Context and background outline SECTION ONE: CREATION OF PLACE
SECTION TWO: AUTHENTIC PLACE VS. PLACELESSNESS
SECTION THREE: PLACEMAKING AND DESIGN INTERVENTION
DEFINING PLACE What is place? How is it created and by whom? Why or in what ways is it important to individuals? Groups?
AUTHENTIC PLACE
THE PRACTICE OF PLACEMAKING
What are the qualities of place-based connections that are positive and constructive? Negative and detrimental? What ensures an authentic and meaningful connection to place? What does that type of connection look like? What are the benefits of authentic and meaningful connections to place?
What is placemaking? Who practices it?
PLACE AND THE HUMAN CONDITION
What is ‘sense of place’? What is meant by place-based connections? What affects the establishment or maintenance of place-based connections? What effects does the creation of placebased connections have on lived experience?
PLACELESSNESS
What is the opposite of authentic and meaningful connections to place? (placelessness) What does placelessness look like? What leads to placelessness? What are the dangers or problems of placelessness? How can placelessness be avoided? PLACE-BASED CONNECTIONS TODAY
What is the state of place-based connections today? What do they stand to look like in the future? What needs to be improved or changed with place-based connections?
A MODEL FOR DESIGN
What’s wrong with the way placemaking is developing or being applied? How can it be modified to be a tool for not just to professionals, but for individuals? What can it offer as a model for design? What are the opportunities for design within the context of the state of place-based connections today?
CONCLUSION
What can design improve with regards to place-based connections today and how can it do that? Where exactly can design intervene? What might some of these interventions look like?
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11.19
138
submission and revisions
Draft thesis
139
research poster 11.12
pLAnninG, pRoGReSS
LeFt, 11.12
intro to research posters with Marlene 140
above, 11.19
Brainstorming possible approaches to poster (illustrative, typographic, photographic, mapping)
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pushing the boundaries What if this research poster can communicate primarily through the visual, rather than depending on a lengthy narrative? This question, posed by Marlene on November 19, was the impetus for the concept development of my research poster. Marlene encouraged me to push the boundaries and try for another kind of research poster, one that didn’t depend so heavily on text and leaned more on visual. Using cartographic conventions made this easier, as they allowed me to include a lot of information in the visual part of the poster, replacing the need for several dense paragraphs of text, as is the tradition for research posters. Although it took several iterations before the poster really started communicating in a strong and effective way, I really enjoyed the challenge of pushing the boundaries and attempting to communicate in a different way. I also feel like this approach was well suited for my research topic, as the idea of mapping is ingrained in any exploration of place-making.
inspiration Top left: Travis Ladue Bottom left: Maggie Li Top right: Edward McGowan Middle right: Lotta Nieminen Bottom right: Khuan Caveman Co. 143
Authentic and meaningful connections to place are being undermined by pervasive placelessness. CONNECTION TO PLACE
INAUTHENTIC & SUPERFICIAL
AUTHENTIC & MEANINGFUL
CONTRIBUTING FACTORS
focus on local conditions increased spatial mobility active & engaged community
strong local economy
economic structure
BENEFITS
planning for efficiency
CONSEQUENCES
personal & collective ownership
environmental stewardship
PLACELESSNESS thriving & stable local economy
preservation of local heritage & culture
job creation & retention
INTRODUCTION
OUTLINE OF INQUIRY
GOING FORWARD
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11.19
research poster
iteration 01 and critique
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11.27
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Concept sketches for iteration 02.
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research poster
iteration 02 and critique
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research poster
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thesis development up To 12.08
oveRSeen By M. ivey
This semester, the focus for our thesis development has been a thorough and comprehesive search and review of all literary, media and contextual sources relevant to our thesis. Through that process, the research question, abstract and rationale have been crystallized. in addition, we are now equipped with a solid understanding of the background and context out of which our thesis arises. What follows are a selection of relevant sections drawn from the partial thesis, as they stood at the end of the fall semester. in January, we will begin to build the design proposal on this foundation.
CoMponenTS
references
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Abstract Rationale Background
151 152 153
Methodology
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Research Trajectory
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Works Cited 160 Annotated Bibliography 162
ABSTRACT place is a fundamental source of identity for individuals, communities and nations. But in a hyper-connected and highly mobile society, place-based identities are being eroded. The importance and influence of place is so innate in our experience of the world that it is often overlooked and taken for granted. our personal and collective identities are shaped by place and reflected in the way we create and manage places that are important to us. place-based connections affect the economy,
community vitality and sustainability and personal health and wellbeing. despite its importance, the creation of an authentic and meaningful sense of place is constantly being challenged and often threatened by growth and development that is inauthentic or superficial. As the world becomes ever more connected, in communication, culture and business, the authenticity of place-based identities is being
undermined and individuals’ ability to connect with place in a meaningful way is being forgotten. using a research methodology based in the design process and drawing on action research methodology, this project will identify ways in which design can help to facilitate and foster authentic connections to place while embracing the advantages of a connected and mobile society. 151
Rationale How can design help to facilitate and foster authentic connections to place while embracing the advantages of a connected and mobile society? This question rests on the foundational understanding that individual and collective relationships to place are essential and fundamental influences on our lived experience– as fundamental as relationships with other people. These relationships are so natural and innate that they go unquestioned or taken for granted. Their need to be fostered, maintained or preserved is often overlooked. But place-based identities are being eroded and challenged all of the time. As we become more connected, through mass media, mass culture and big business and our places experience the rapid expansion and development that comes with that increased connection, authentic sense of place is being undermined by what geographer Edward Relph describes as placelessness: "a weakening of the identity of places to the point where they not only look alike but feel alike and offer the same bland possibilities for experience" (Relph, 1976, p. 90). Placelessness pervades in many communities where day-to-day lives continue to become less inherently connected with the location in which they take place. A century ago, and still today in many cultures around the world, place is a key actor in how people live; the farmer, for example, depends on the health of his land and the vitality of his place for his well-being and livelihood. But for many people today, particularly in environments where placelessness has pervaded, place is merely the backdrop to daily life. Their intentions, aspirations, interactions and decisions are divorced from the physical environment they find themselves in. It's not surprising that this is the case, as landscapes 152
grow to look more and more alike: the same huge highways, the same stores and shopping malls, the same fashion and culture, all developed without consideration for unique local conditions. So if placelessness is eroding or challenging our ability to make authentic and meaningful connections to place and if those connections are integral to our experience of the world, then the case must be made to resist placelessness and ensure that, in the words of Relph, "the means of experiencing, creating and maintaining significant places are not lost" (Relph, 1976, p. 6). This mission is being adopted by people in many disciplines, including community advocacy, city planning, education, art and design. The effort to resist placelessness is being taken up by a particular group who call themselves ‘placemakers.’ Typically, placemaking is related to the planning and development of urban communities that are people-centric. Placemakers promote street widening, the creation of more public space, planting trees, erecting benches, creating gathering places and installing public art. But that's not the only way that people are resisting placelessness. There are artists creating critical work that raises awareness of the pervasiveness of mass culture; there are marketers and tourism operators looking to capitalize on or commodify sense of place; there are policy makers, politicians and community leaders who defend the integrity of important places; there are historical societies working to preserve stories from the past. The positive repercussions of fostering authentic and meaningful connections to place are many. They have the potential to build and strengthen community, to help solidify and strengthen individual identities, to bolster the local economy, promote and facilitate tourism and encourage personal
and collective ownership of place. However, today the creation and importance of place is shifting in response to a society that values connectivity and mobility more than ever before. The advantages of a globalized society are integral to this new lived experience. In many ways, this new modernity threatens to undermine the authentic and meaningful connections to place that have been so important in the past. This project will examine ways that design can aid in the creation, maintenance and preservation of authentic and meaningful connections to place, while acknowledging and integrating the benefits of connectivity and mobility. This task is critical in the face of a sweeping mass-culture that threatens to undermine the unique identities of places and their people.
background and context The evolution of place The concept of place, a word used regularly in everyday speech, is so deeply embedded in our experience and understanding of the world that its definition and multiple meanings are often overlooked or taken for granted. It is a concept that features prominently across disciplines in the academic arena, from anthropology, sociology and psychology to history, architecture and urban planning. For geographers, place is arguably the single most fundamental concept to their study (Cresswell, 2004). The fact that so many people have an ingrained understanding of what place means to them makes a deep exploration of place and its implications on everyday life particularly challenging but critical at a time when our ability to establish meaningful connections with places is being challenged and eroded. Definitions of place range from the simplistic understanding of place as a synonym for location to the deeper conceptualization of place as a location imbued with meaning by experience to the existential view of place as a way of understanding the world (Cresswell, 2004). The latter definition was adopted by geographers such as Edward Relph and Yi-Fu Tuan in the 1970s who were disillusioned with overly quantitative and scientific research methodologies. They argued that approaches to design and development that were rooted in a quest for efficiency and technological advancement above all else had resulted in environments which were effective for big business and central authorities, but divorced from the intimate realities of everyday life and alienating to individuals (MacCannel, 1983). This line of inquiry, spearheaded by Relph, Tuan and others, would come to form the basis for the domain of human geography (Seamon and Sowers, 43). Humanist geographers sought a definition of place that
emphasized the subjective and emotional, rather than the quantitative logic of science. They viewed place as the result of human experience and interaction, drawing heavily on philosophy rather than science, primarily existentialism and phenomenology (Cresswell, 20). Canadian geographer Edward Relph published Place and Placelessness in 1976 which quickly became, along with Space and Place by Yi-Fu Tuan, one of the quintessential texts of the emerging domain. The impetus for the book arose out of Relph’s study as a doctoral student at the University of Toronto on the impact of symbolic landscapes of the Canadian Shield on Canadian identity (Seamon and Sowers, 43). Over the course of his research, Relph realized that little was written about the fundamental importance of sense of place and place-based identities and his research focus thus shifted. Concurrently, Relph was looking for an alternative to quantitative and scientific methodologies, which he found in the philosophical study of phenomenology (Relph, letter, p.1). Phenomenology is the study of human consciousness, experience and self-awareness. It aims to examine and clarify everyday human situations, events, meanings and experiences by “seeking out what is obvious but unquestioned and thereby questioning it” (Seamon and Sowers, 2008, p. 43). This philosophical approach provided the perfect model for Relph to investigate the nature and significance of place in daily life. According to Relph, place is a multi-faceted phenomenon of human experience, created by individuals’ attitudes, experiences, intentions and circumstances (Relph, 1976). He breaks place down into three fundamental components: the physical component (natural and built), activities (communal or individual), and human intentions and experiences.
These components are linked and amplified by the character or personality of a place – some refer to this as “sense of place” (Relph, 1976). Relph’s study rests on the firmly held belief that authentic and meaningful connections to place are a fundamental and integral component of human experience. This is to say that place is a fact of life, something that makes us human. In his book Place: a short introduction (2004), Tim Cresswell explains it like this: What kind of a thing is place? Place, some would argue, is neither like toothpaste (which once did not exist and in the future will be redun- dant), nor gravity (which exists completely free of human will or consciousness). It is a construction of humanity but a necessary one–one that human life is impossible to conceive of without. In other words there was no ‘place’ before there was humanity but once we came into existence then place did too. A future without place is simply inconceivable (unlike a future without toothpaste) (p. 33). Place and identity The concept of place is naturally linked with the creation of identities. Places have identities of their own and they also inform the identities of individuals. Relph describes this difference as “identity of” place and “identity with” place (1976, p. 45), where the identity of a place relates to the qualities of that place that allow an individual to differentiate it from another. Identities established with place are those relationships that grow out of the prolonged experience in a particular place by an individual or group. 153
Identity of place is described by Relph as “the persistent sameness and unity which allows that thing to be differentiated from others” (1976, p. 47) and is comprised of three parts: physical setting, activities situations and events, and the individual and group meanings created through people’s experiences and intentions (Seamon and Sowers, 2008). The way in which we identify with a particular place is, according to Relph, an articulation of the degree to which we experience that place as an outsider or as an insider. This is not a simple matter of recognizing the physical boundaries of an inside that is distinct from an outside (i.e. the walls of a building or the sign that marks the city limits), but instead it is about the degree to which we feel a sense of belonging and are able to identify ourselves with a particular place. The more inside a place we feel, the stronger our identity with that place (Relph, 1976). When a person feels separate or alienated from place, they are experiencing what Relph describes as outsideness. For example, we experience outsideness when we feel homesick upon arriving in a new place. It is important to note that feelings of insideness and outsideness are not mutually exclusive; both can occur simultaneously and at varying degrees (Seamon & Sowers, 2008). In Place and Placelessness, Relph outlines seven degrees of insideness and outsideness, reflective of varying degrees of engagement, experience and meaning. Relph calls the strongest level of insideness “existential insideness,” referring to an experience of place that is wholly unselfconscious and without reflection but still imbued with deep and significant meaning. This is the type of insideness one might feel at home or in a hometown, where one knows the place, its people and customs inherently (Relph, 1976). Insideness brings with it an authentic sense 154
of place, which Relph describes as a “direct and genuine experience of the entire complex of the identity of places-not mediated and distorted through a series of quite arbitrary social and intellectual fashions about how that experience should be, nor following stereotyped conventions” (1976, p. 64). One the other end of the spectrum, existential outsideness occurs when an individual feels deeply out of place and experiences a profound sense of not belonging: an alienation from people and places and a sense of the unreality of the world. When an individual experiences existential outsideness, places all assume the same homogenous identity and are no longer centres of existence, but at best superficial backgrounds to activities and at worst meaningless voids (Relph, 1976). These qualities of superficiality and uniformity can be attributed to inauthentic place-making, standing in bleak contrast to the concept of authentic and meaningful sense of place. The phenomenon of disconnection from place is examined in the contemporary study of ecopsychology, which asserts that “a cultural sense of separateness from place has led to destructive actions and practices in both the human and more-than-human world” (le Roux Ohm, 2013, p. 3). Placelessness Relph argues that existential insideness and authentic sense of place is being undermined and eroded by development and advancement that is ignorant to the importance of place (Cresswell, 2004). According to Relph, existential outsideness arises out of inauthentic and superficial connections to place and leads to placelessness, which is described as “a weakening of the identity of places to the point where they not only look
alike but feel alike and offer the same bland possibilities for experience” (Relph, 1976, p. 90). Design that arises out of placelessness tends to be “single-purpose, functionally efficient, often in a style independent of the physical setting, reflecting mass values and contrived fashions” (Relph, 1976, p. 78). In contrast, more authentic, sustainable design accounts for deep, holistic connections between people, nature and the built environment (le Roux Ohm, 2013). Relph views placelessness as the end result of a rootless consumer society of mass values, mass media and mass culture. He attributes the rise of placelessness to an increase in mobility, kitsch and tourism (Cresswell, 2004). The state of place today Unlike the climate of the 1970s, out of which Relph condemned geographical homogenization, today hyper-connectivity and widespread mobility mean that geographical homogenization is impossible to deny. On any street in any North American urban centre, you’ll find restaurants that serve ethnic foods from all corners of the globe; the clothes that adorn shoppers have probably been made in a range of countries from South America to Asia; the origins of fruits filling grocery store shelves are as diverse as the people who are buying them (Cresswell, 2004). Our contemporary reality of cyberspace, rapid technological advancement, diversity and geographic and social mobility no longer allows places to be independent of one another (Seamon and Sowers, 2008). Globalization is not the pervading threat that it was in the 1970s, but rather an ingrained component of a connected world. This was the starting point for Altermodern, the fourth Tate Triennial that was held in 2009, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud.
According to Bourriaud, the period of postmodernism that has defined the previous century is coming to an end and we are now entering a new period of modernity, characterized by globalization, mass culture and mobility. In the Altermodern manifesto that was published alongside the exhibition, Bourriaud writes “Increased communication, travel and migration are affecting the way we live... Multiculturalism and identity is being overtaken by creolisation: artists are now starting from a globalized state of culture” (Bourriaud, n.d.). He argues that this emerging globalized perception calls for new and different types of representation that reflect it and new tools to resist “the twofold threat of uniformity and mass culture” (Bourriaud, n.d.). In this new modernity, the concept of place has not evaporated, since, as asserted by Relph and others, place is a necessary component of the human condition, but place identities have changed drastically. Lucy Lippard, an author on place, has reflected on how place and mobility can and do coexist in today’s reality:
Most of us move around a lot, but when we move we often come into contact with those who haven’t moved around, or have come from different places. This should give us a better understanding of differ- ence (though it will always be impossible to understand everything about difference). Each time we enter a new place, we become one of the ingredients of an existing hybridity, which is really what all ‘local places’ consist of (cited in Cresswell, 2004, p. 49).
Today, mobility and place identities have come together in a way that Relph deemed impossible. However, due to its hybrid nature as the product of experience, is it
not surprising that place can incorporate, embody or reflect the changing identities of a society that is more mobile and connected than ever before? As Lippard described, we are all still deeply reliant on connections to place; it might even be argued that increased mobility means our place identity is more strongly crystallized by a variety of experiences. The polarizing tendency of Relph, pitting place against placelessness, authenticity versus inauthenticity, insideness versus outsideness, rootedness versus mobility, boundaries and localities versus global sense of place, makes it difficult to reinterpret the subtleties of place-based connections today, which continue to shift and change as our world becomes more and more connected, mobile and globalized. Relph’s model leaves no room for the benefits of increased communication and mobility (facilitated and shared understanding, tolerance, acceptance of difference, global aid) and the perils of extreme place-based identities (parochialism and xenophobia, for example) (Relph, 1996). Relph addressed these criticisms in a 1996 paper he wrote celebrating the twenty year anniversary of the publication of Place and Placelessness. In it he acknowledges that when he initially wrote the book, the greatest threat to place identity was imposed uniformity but that today geographic homogenization is widely accepted and nearly inescapable. In addition, the same corporations that once promoted placelessness are now beginning to recognize that distinct place identities are good for business: by connecting with sense of place, realtors can sell houses, marketers can sell products, travel agents can sell holidays (Relph, 1996). This presents a new problem where sense of place is being distorted, exploited flattened and commodified by big business.
In addition, challenges that thirty years ago may have been considered localized problems are now increasingly understood as global problems, such as climate change, poverty, ethnic conflicts, terrorism and unemployment associated with the world economy. Advocating too strongly for identities that are adamantly place-based could make the global cooperation that will be necessary to address these massive problems more difficult. Relph writes “efforts to confront these problems by acting locally are necessarily fragmented and weak; they also have the appearance of furthering narrow self-interests. On the other hand, policies and practices that are not based in specific actions in particular places are likely to be ideologically oppressive, undemocratic, imposed and placeless” (Relph, 1996, p. 3). Thus, in critiquing his own work, Relph presents the paradox that place identities now face: the advantages of a mobile and connected society need to be leveraged alongside the benefits of deep and meaningful connections to place. Proposals are needed for sustainable ways of living that recognize the power of place to unite and connect rather than alienate and divide. Relph suggests that the first step may be “the act of imagination that enables us to relate the immediacies of our lives in particular places to larger environmental and social issues” (Relph, 1996, p. 4). It is this challenge that this thesis project takes up.
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Methodology Over the course of its development, design has struggled to identify a research methodology that fits perfectly with the nature of the discipline. While both science and the humanities had their approaches, rooted in a long academic history, design was a newer discipline that emerged not out of academia but as a trade (Swann, 2002). For a long time, the scientific and objective approach to research was taken to be the golden standard for design to follow. Once it was understood that the rigid scientific model did not quite fit design’s affinity for experience and emotion, design researchers looked to the social sciences for an alternative way to conduct research that was based in human behaviour and interactions (Swann, 2002). Most recently, design researchers have arrived at the understanding that design doesn’t fit perfectly in either discipline. Although it may draw on either or both at different times during the design process, it also has its own distinct characteristics, patterns and approaches that could benefit both the sciences and humanities. In addition, if design is to enjoy the same prestige in the academic arena as the sciences and humanities, it must be able to articulate itself and its methods in the same depth and breadth as the other disciplines (Cross, 2006). In an effort to address this challenge, this research project will utilize a research methodology rooted in the design process that draws on the social science’s tradition of action research. In his book Designerly Ways of Knowing, Nigel Cross attempts to clarify exactly what design is by comparing and contrasting the discipline with science and the humanities (left). But design does not fit neatly into antithetical comparisons. Polarizing approaches have a tendency to flatten, rather than augment, the possibilities within each discipline. In addition, this compare-and-contrast model 156
The phenomenon of study in each culture is: - in the sciences: the natural world - in the humanities: human experience - in design: the artificial world
The appropriate methods in each culture are: - in the sciences: controlled experiment, classification, analysis - in the humanities: analogy, metaphor, evaluation - in design: modelling, pattern-formation, synthesis
The values of each culture are - in the sciences: objectivity, rationality, neutrality, concern for truth’ - in the humanities: subjectivity, imagination, commitment, concern for ‘justice’ - in design: practicality, ingenuity, empathy, concern for appropriateness” (Cross, p. 2)
does not account for designs inter-disciplinary potential. Due to its dynamic and hybrid nature, design is currently experiencing a proliferation across disciplines, defying any rigid definitions of disciplines. It is being recognized by those within and outside of the discipline that design skills can be useful in almost any creative production (Bremner and Rogers, 2013). Cross writes, “the study of design could be an interdisciplinary study accessible to all those involved in the creative activity of making the artificial world” (Cross, 2006, p. 99). Many assert that this version of design research stands so far apart from both the sciences and humanities that it therefore requires its own research methodology. However, few propositions of what this research methodology might look like have been concrete and explicit; most resort to discussing what design research is only by contrasting it with what it is not. Because of the potential design research has to offer those outside and within the discipline, a clearly articulated methodology is therefore necessary in order to unite those
who adopt this dynamic and interdisciplinary approach. The foundation for this methodology lies in the design process itself. Design research lives in an iterative world of thinking, saying, doing and making (Sanders, 2002): exploring solutions by trying them out and testing them. The process involves a certain amount of intuition, imagination, inspiration and holistic thinking, which is difficult to articulate in quantitative terms and has been a criticism of design research, contributing to the mystique of “creative genius” (Swann, 2002) and positioning design as counter to scientific inquiry. However, this capacity for creativity, ingenuity and intuition is one of design’s greatest attributes. It just makes it all the more important to develop a valid methodology that embodies the iterative and interpretive nature of design (Swann, 2002). Although there was a time when designers sought to couch their work in the objectivity, universalism, logic and controlled experimentation of the sciences, namely in the 1920s and later in the 1960s (Bremner, 2013), it is now accepted that the scientific model is too problem-focussed for design, which
tends to be solution-focussed. While science looks for puzzles that can be solved through rigorous and exhaustive analysis, design tends towards the ill-defined or unstructured challenge – those that do not necessarily have a correct answer, but instead a number of possible solutions (Cross, 2006). The social sciences have presented alternative ways of conducting research that embrace this uncertainty and multiplicity of solutions and seem to capture the interpretive nature of research that is based on observing human behaviour rather than quantifiable facts and certainties (Swann, 2002). This design research project will use a methodology that draws on action research, a tradition of the social sciences. As Cal Swann outlines in his paper “Action Research and the Practice of Design,” the traditional model of research that is based on a hypothesis still applies, where the hypothesis is tested through a design proposition and the knowledge outcome is contained within the visual form (and accompanied by written explanation) (Swann, 2002). In order for the action research methodology to apply, there are typically three conditions that must be met: the subject matter centres around a social practice; it is a participatory activity where the researchers work in equitable collaboration; and finally, the project is iterative. In this methodology, progress is made through four phases: plan, action, observation and reflection (Swann, 2002). However, although these conditions and phases sound reminiscent of the design process, they do not reflect it explicitly and there are several points where design is challenged to fit within the constraints of such a model. Although many have argued that design practice is moving towards collaborative work which brings users, consumers and the public into the design process at the
ground level, achieving “equitable collaboraCharacteristics of good design research: tion” remains challenging. When a designer undertakes research that incorporates the - research that is purposive, based on user in the design process, inequality is inher- identification of an issue ently present, simply because the designer or problem worthy and capable of has an objective and he/she needs the user to investigation fulfill that objective. Swann writes, “Authentic - research that is inquisitive, seeking collaboration in research is more than just a to acquire new knowledge multi-disciplinary design team approach. The - research that is informed, users of design should be genuine ‘collabora conducted from an awareness of tors,’ and not merely co-opted for token com previous, related research ments in an illusion of collaboration” (2002,p. - research that is methodical, 57). However, examples of action research planned and carried out in a methodology applied to design research tend disciplined manner to outline a process of collecting information - research that is communicable, about users’ behaviours, beliefs, affinities generating and reporting results and aversions, drawing conclusions from that which are testable and accessible data, and then designing, testing and perfect (Cross, p. 102) ing a solution. Although this process may be grounded in a deep study and dialogue with the user, this is rarely equitable collaboration. such a methodology, one that adapts and adopts from action research and Cross’s In Designerly Ways of Knowing, Cross prescharacteristics of good design research, while ents several characteristics of good design remaining rooted in the design process. research, which are better suited to this research methodology and will be adopted in place of Swann’s three conditions for action research (above). In conclusion, if design research hopes to continue to grow as a viable and impactful mode of inquiry, a well-articulated and sound methodology that can be employed, tested and articulated must be adopted. This is not in an effort to satisfy those who criticize design research for lacking clarity and depth, or to further isolate the discipline in contrast to others, but instead it is in an effort to realize the interdisciplinary potential of design. Having a coherent and unified methodology will only enhance the power of the discipline to conduct research alongside the sciences and humanities in a way that contributes to the overall understanding of the possibilities of academic research. This project will adopt 157
research trajectory Environment This project hopes to uncover specific opportunities for design to intervene in the discovery, creation, maintenance and preservation of sense of place. In pursuit of this aim, place-based identities have been broken down into four inter-related facets. These components offer points of access for design to engage the way place-based identities are constructed, maintained and in some cases eroded.
The built environment refers to existing infrastructure, both built and natural. The physical settings that individuals find themselves in act as a scaffold for experience. It is the stage upon which individuals interact and engage with one another. It is the foundation upon which all is built–in the context of a community, this can refer to elements such as roads and buildings. Interaction
It’s as if place is a prism through which the interactions, perceptions and context of individuals within the built environment are reflected. When one facet is altered, the other three shift and the resulting visualization is different. Each facet offers interesting opportunity for design, however because they are all interdependent, any design intervention will inherently address and incorporate all four. However, the facets can act as points of access or initiation for a design intervention.
Interaction relates to the engagement of individuals with one another and with the environment. As all of these facets of place are interdependent, changes to the built environment will affect interactions and vice versa. In day-to-day life, interactions often occur with little regard for place. However, particularly interesting are interactions that are made possible as a direct result of awareness of place. Context The third dimension of place is context, which is recognized in the coming together of the built environment and the interactions of individuals at a particular point in time. Interventions that are context-focussed involve altering the environment at a specific location for a finite duration of time.
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Perception Finally, perception refers to the attitude of people about a place. This is the most abstract of the four areas, as it is based largely on emotion and subjectivity. It is often referred to as “sense of place.� Separating the facets of place helps to identify potential points of access out of which a design intervention might arise. Degree of Belonging The final component of the creation of place is the degree of belonging. This relates to Edward Relph’s theories of insideness and outsideness. It is not a facet of place creation, but instead a confounding variable where the strength of a place-based identity is dependent upon the degree to which individuals and groups are able to identify themselves with a place. The higher the sense of belonging, the stronger the place-based identity. Rather than acting as a point of entry for a design intervention, the degree of belonging must be taken into consideration with any intervention. The project must strive to instill in its users a high feeling of insideness, as this has a direct impact on the establishment of authentic connections with place, thus mitigating the damaging effects of placelessness (Relph, 1976).
Each facet makes possible interventions with a specific focus and purpose. The effectiveness of a design intervention depends on the appropriateness of the primary facet of place that the project engages. At this point in the project, both interaction and perception are emerging as viable points of entry for a design intervention that looks to foster and facilitate authentic place-based connections while embracing the advantages of a connected and mobile society. Interventions that arise out of the context and environment facets of place tend to limit their audience to those in a specific locality and at a specific time. As this project hopes to serve a connected and mobile audience, time and location will be less integral to the effectiveness of the intervention. As this project evolves, a primary facet will be selected, which will determine the characteristics and approach of the chose design proposal. A deeper engagement and exploration of the chosen facet will be undertaken in tandem with the design of the final intervention.
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references up to 12.10
works cited
BhreithiĂşn, B. M. (2012). Graphic Design, Globalization, and Placemaking in the Neighbourhoods of Amsterdam. In De Waard, M. (Ed.), Imagining Global Amsterdam: History, Culture and Geography in a World City (pp. 255-271). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Bourriaud, N. (n.d.) Altermodern explained: manifesto. Retrieved November 4, 2013 from http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/ tate-britain/exhibition/altermodern/ explain-altermodern/altermodern explainedmanifesto Bremner, C. and P. Rodgers. (2013). Design Without Discipline. Design Issues, 29(3), pp. 4-13. Cross, N. (2006). Designerly Ways of Knowing. London: Springer-Verlag. Cresswell, T. (2004). Place: a short introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ETC Press. (June 9, 2012). Place-based Design for Civic Participation. Retrieved November 30, 2013 from www.etc.cmu.edu/etcpress/ content/place-based-design-civic- participation
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Gerven Oei, V. W. J. and J. Staal. (2008). Replaced Street Signs. Retrieved September 01, 2013 from www.vangervenoei.com/replaced street-signs le Roux Ohm, H. (2013). Catskills Inspired Learning. Journal of Sustainability Education, 4. Retrieved November 29, 2013 from www. jsedimensions.org/wordpress/content/ catskills-inspired-learning-place and-design-in-a-community-college program_2013_02 MacCannell, D. (1983). Reciprocal Reviews: Edward Relph, Place and Placelessness. Place, 1(1), 54-57. Makela, M. (2007) Knowing Through Making: The Role of the Artefact in Practice-led Research. Knowledge, Technology & Policy, 20(3), pp. 157-163. Metropolitan Planning Council. (2013). Placemaking Chicago: Activate Union Station. Retrieved September 20, 2013 from www.metroplanning. org/work/project/12/subpage/1 Open Streets Project. (n.d.) Open Streets Project: opening streets to people, sharing resources, transforming communities. Retrieved September 01, 2013 from openstreetsproject.org
Placemaking Halifax (n.d.). PlaceMaking Halifax: Breathing life into public spaces. Retrieved September 14, 2013 from placemakinghalifax.wordpress.com Place Partners. (n.d.) About Place Partners. Retrieved June 29, 2013, from placepartners.com.au Project for Public Spaces. (n.d.). What is Placemaking? Retrieved June 29, 2013, from www.pps.org/reference/ what_is_placemaking
Swann. C. (2002). Action Research and the Practice of Design. Design Issues, 18(2), pp. 49-61. Tuan, Y. F. (1977). Space and Place: The perspective of experience. Minneapolis, MN: The University of Minnesota Press.
Relph, E. (1976). Place and Placelessness. London: Pion Limited. Relph, E. (1996). Reflections on Place and Placelessness. Environmental and Architectural Phenomenology Newsletter, 7(3), 14-16. Sanders, E, B.-N. (2002). From User Centered to Participatory Design Approaches. In J. Frascara (Ed.), Design and the Social Sciences: Making Connections. London: Taylor & Francis Books Limited Seamon, D. and J. Sowers (2008). Place and Placelessness, Edward Relph. In Hubbard, P., R. Kitchen and G. Vallentine (Eds.), Key Texts in Human Geography (pp. 43-51). London: Sage.
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up to 10.22
annotated bibliography
Archer, B. (January 1995). The Nature of Research. Co-Design, interdisciplinary journal of design, 6-13. This paper examines research across various disciplines, including general research, science, humanities and “practitioner action”. Archer explains how science approaches research through testing and proving theories wrong, while in the humanities tradition research is more subjective. He argues “the author’s ideology and framework of values will have coloured his or her view of events, and will be embodied in his or her expression of them” (8). It seems this position is only reserved for research in the arts and he does not apply the same scrutiny to science. He finally explores action research, which includes design research. The article seeks to justify practitioner action research as a necessary and acceptable form of research by comparing it to scientific research. He sets out a three-part model of this type of research: research about practice, research for the purposes of practice and research through practice. Overall, the paper makes some interesting points but seems heavily biased and does not include a reference list. Barab, S. A., Thomas, M. K., Dodge, T., Squire, K. & Newell, M. (2004). Critical Design Ethnography: Designing for Change. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 35(2), 254-268. Critical design ethnography is described and an exemplary project that uses this approach is outlined (called the Quest Atlantis project, a multi-user virtual environment). The article examines how researchers can engage groups in a way that is collaborative, empowering and constructive. The researcher’s role in this approach is detailed as one of “participant observers” and “change agents” who work collaboratively “to critique and support the transformation of the communities being studied” (255). There are useful parts of the article, however overall it is written with a strong bias towards anthropology. Also, it seems the researchers do not strongly critique their own stance as self-proclaimed 162
“designers with a change agenda”. Overall, this is a heavily biased article, though it does provide an interesting perspective on participatory design. Bhreithiún, B. M. (2012). Graphic Design, Globalization, and Placemaking in the Neighbourhoods of Amsterdam. In De Waard, M. (Ed.), Imagining Global Amsterdam: History, Culture and Geog- raphy in a World City (pp. 255-271). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. This article examines graphic design’s potential as a tool for opening up discussion around globalization and immigration and its impact on the urban environment, both concerning city-wide branding and neighbourhood identity, specifically in the case of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The article examines and critiques various approaches to defining place and the practice of placemaking and offers several case studies that have utilized the principles of placemaking in art and design (both successfully and unsuccessfully, in the author’s point of view). Overall, the article is well researched and well written and offers good case studies that are rooted in design. Blanc, P., & Giovanni, A. (Summer 2011). The Beauty of Being a Plant. Antennae, 17, 7-9. Written in first person, from the perspective of the tropical plant sonerila, this article asks the reader to consider what it might be like to be a plant that is threatened by development and loss of habitat. Through its prose and perspective, the article combines a scientific and a design approach and challenges the reader to reconsider the potential of scholarly documentation.
be impossible were it not for the jig’s existence. This concept has serious implications for design. Sometimes, in order to change or improve a situation, an enabler must be created. In this case, the design of that object is less important than the possibilities it creates. Overall, this is an insightful and enlightening piece. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). (2013). The Halifax Explosion. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/halifaxexplo sion/index.html This is a comprehensive interactive collection of information, images, first hand accounts and documents on the Halifax Explosion of 1917. The site includes a “Your Stories” section, where people can submit personal or family accounts of the Halifax Explosion by email. The site provides an example of one way to share stories of place using digital interactive technology. Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, University of the Arts London. (2013). MA Creative Practice for Nar rative Environments. Retrieved from www.narrative-environments.com/ap ply/the-course This is the website for the MA in Creative Practice for Narrative Environments at the University of the Arts in London. The course is multidisciplinary and it brings together designers, curators, writers and project managers to investigate and develop narratives for both the cultural and commercial sectors. The approach is based in experience design and storytelling. The website documents methodology, projects and research, which include inspiring examples of placemaking in action.
Bow-wow, A. (2009). Jig. In Atelier Bow- Wow: Echo of Space/Space of Echo (pp. 81-88). Tokyo: INAX Publishing.
Chen, S. (March 24, 2010). Sunshine Chen: Storybuilding Stories [Video file]. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/ watch?v=YCE6U8-lkRQ
This short article challenges readers to conceive of objects beyond their functionality, to instead perceive their potential as a conduit for something else, something that would
In this short video, architect Sunshine Chen outlines why stories are so important and how stories of place can strengthen and build community. He talks about how and why he
moved away from architecture and towards what he calls “storybuilding”. This video provides an introduction into the links between storytelling and placemaking and places it in context.
Davis, N. (March 1, 2012). The power of place and data-driven storytelling. Retrieved June 27, 2013, from engagingcities.com/ article/power-place-and-data-driven- storytelling
This short article links storytelling and stories of place through data-rich visualizations and maps. It makes the case for using mapmaking as a way to engage people with the places This article outlines City Repair’s approach they inhabit. The article is a promotion for a to placemaking, which includes three major 2012 conference called Where, which was held elements: natural building, permaculture and April 2-4, 2012 in San Francisco and examined public art. It also documents the services that the business of location technologies. City Repair offers, which include personal consultation, presentations, facilitation of Eggener, K. L. (May 2002). Placing Resistance: A Critique of Critical community discussions and project design Regionalism. Journal of Architectural workshops. City Repair is largely a volunteer non-profit organization based in Portland, Or- Education, 55(4), 228-237. egon that works to advocate for placemaking and community development. Although the This is a critique of Kenneth Frampton’s article article relates mostly to the specifics of this “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for organization, it does outline an alternative ap- an Architecture of Resistance”. Eggener arproach to placemaking, one that is more proj- gues that critical regionalism is often applied after the fact and from the outside in and does ect-oriented, rather than theoretical. not always reflect the true intentions of the architect. He uses the work of Mexican architect Coyne, R. (2010). The Tuning of Place: Luis Barragán as an example. He asks if the Sociable Spaces and Pervasive Digital application of critical regionalism to the work Media. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. of architects of other cultures has done more This book examines the way that digital media harm than good and whether or not “a system influence how we utilize and experience space bearing so many exceptions and contradictory and place and it offers strategies in which de- impulses…tell[s] us much of anything” (235). vices can be used to adjust or alter that expe- This article offers a compelling counterpoint rience. Further reading is required, but so far it to Frampton’s critical regionalism and alis proving to be a helpful link between current though it seems to be rather confrontational technologies and opportunities and the prac- and contradictory itself, it highlights several points that are worth considering. tice of placemaking. City Repair. (n.d.). Intro to Placemaking. Retrieved from http://cityrepair.org/ about/how-to/placemaking/
the government spent on these celebrations with the funding cuts to Library and Archives Canada. It also questions whether the stories that were told for the bicentennial reflected accurate history. Frampton, K. (2002). Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance. In Labour, Work and Architecture: Collected Essays on Architecture and Design (pp. 77-89). London: Phaidon Press. This article examines universalization and propounds a critical regionalist approach, which is meant to “mediate the impact of universal civilization with elements derived indirectly from the peculiarities of a particular place” (82). Although Frampton discussed the theory in relation to architecture, it is particularly poignant in regards to placemaking and urban design as well. Although Frampton can be criticized for being an outsider, especially when he attempts to apply or suggest critical regionalism to architects from other cultures, the concept itself is interesting and offers ways that designers can connect with their surroundings in authentic and constructive ways. The article also examines the issue and perils of placelessness. Overall a very compelling and well-written piece.
Friedman, K. (2003). Theory construction in design research: criteria: approaches, and methods. Design Studies, 24(6), 507-522. This article provides a framework with which theories in design can be constructed and Fitzpatrick, M. (June 15, 2012). Conservatives analyzed. It explores the definition, nature Dagan, R. (June 16, 2013). Cognitive draw fire for War of 1812 spending. CBC and meaning of design and the research pos Mapping: Definitions, Examples and Re sibilities within the field. The author promotes News. Retrieved August 12, 2013, from sources. Retrieved from http://richard http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/conser theorizing design, stating that it “enables the dagan.com/cogmap.php vatives-draw-fire-for-war-of-1812-spend designer to move from an endless succession of unique cases to broad explanatory prinThis website examines the history and use ing1.1265851 ciples that can help to solve many kinds of of the term “cognitive mapping” as well as including examples of cognitive maps, a de- This article is interesting in the context of tell- problems” (515). This expands the impact of scription of the types and techniques of cog- ing stories of place, as a recent example of the individual designed solutions by making the nitive mapping and the theory behind them. government effort to reaffirm Canada’s place- lessons learned in their making applicable to The site is comprehensive and informative, story with the War of 1812 bicentennial. The other design situations. This article makes a article juxtaposes the almost $30 million that clear case for theory construction in design with reference lists and many images. 163
and offers a helpful framework for designers to interpret and use in their design research. Green, S. (January 19-20, 2013). A keen sense of place. The Sydney Morning Herald, p. 17. This is a write-up about Kylie Legge, a placemaking professional at Place Partners, a consultancy in Sydney, Australia. The article includes a brief history and profile of placemaking. It attempts to explain placemaking to a general audience, so it is written simply and clearly. Groves, T. (2009). Halifax’s Missing Plaque Project. Retrieved from http://hfxmiss ingplaque.blogspot.ca/ This website documents the results of a twoweek residency that activist Tim Groves completed at the Roberts Street Social Centre in Halifax in 2009. During that time, Groves created four posters that reexamined little-know events in Halifax’s history, such as how Agricola Street got its name and the controversial past of the city’s “founder” Cornwallis. This is an interesting example of how placemaking can be critical, political and subversive. Groves, T. (n.d.). The Missing Plaque Project: Changing the way we think about Toronto’s history. Retrieved from missingplaque.tao.ca/index.html This project attempts to subvert the tendency of those in power to rewrite history over time by creating historical plaques that aim to represent accurate history. The project is a critique of the plaques that cities often install at important monuments, landmarks and buildings that describe significant historical events and figures. By addressing historical stories that are overlooked or misrepresented, the project aims to shed light on segments of the city’s history, change people’s perception of Toronto’s identity and demonstrate why the history of the city is relevant to its contemporary experience. This is an interesting project with some compelling examples of how the story of place can be subverted or distorted by people in power. 164
Hermann, M. A. (n.d.). The Daily News – Then & Now, Compiled by Marc A. Hermann. Retrieved from www.marchermann. com/dnthenandnow/
Katz, J. (2012). Designing Information: Human Factors and Common Sense in Information Design. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
As a photographer for New York’s picture newspaper The Daily News, Marc Hermann creates photomontages that combine historical photographs with contemporary photographs of the same location. This “thenand-now” approach isn’t new, but his photographs are extremely well conceived and crafted. His photos generally focus on crime and catastrophe, but this approach of connecting stories of place over time in inspiring and relevant to studies in placemaking and storytelling.
Chapter one of this book, titled “Aspects of Information Design: The nature of information” introduces the concepts of information, uninformation, noninformation, misinformation and disinformation. The book is written in a way that is easy to understand and includes many illustrations and images. The first chapter examines cartography and way finding. Further reading of this book is required, specifically chapter 5, which is titled “Finding Your Way?: Movement, orientation, situational geography”.
Jencks, C. (2013). The Style of Eureka. In Jencks, C. and Silver, N., Adhocism: The Case for Improvisation (expanded and updated edition) (pp. vii-xviii). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Legge, K. (2008). An overview of international place making practice; profession or ploy? Paper presented at the 2008 ICTC Conference, Sydney. Retrieved from http://ictcsociety.org/ PastConferencesSpeakersPapers/2008I TCConferenceSydney/2008PublishedSp eakersPapers.aspx
This foreword introduces the idea of adhocism in design: “the surprising and delightful moments when a new idea or invention results from the sudden and successful conjunction of old ones” (viii). It lays out several successful examples of this both in design, science and the natural world. One particularly interesting and relevant concept to placemaking is the author’s discussion of the time-city, the idea of a city that builds in layers over time. The constant push and pull of past and present in a city is explored. Further reading of this source would be beneficial. Jones, M. (March 27, 2012). Re-Imagining Community. Retrieved August 1, 2013 from http://tamarackcci.ca/blogs/ michael-jones/re-imagining-community This article frames the importance of stories of place as the way that communities construct and articulate their identities. The article provides several examples of Canadian communities that have effectively used their story of place to help build and strengthen their brand. Jones also provides a simple list of the achievements of community stories.
This paper examines how design professionals can work to create places that are nourishing, rather than just functional, for those who inhabit them. It describes the author’s approach to placemaking and offers a glimpse into what a placemaking development framework might look like. Although the paper is mostly an overview of these issues, it does ask some compelling questions and offers several examples of both successful and less successful placemaking projects. It seems to be an effort in justifying placemaking as a valuable discipline, however at times the argument gets lost. Levine, F. & Macon, S. (2013). Sign Painters. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press. This book, which accompanies a film, documents the disappearing art form of handpainted signs by profiling artists who are still working in this field. The authors are attempting to preserve this fading practice and
by extension a culture that seems to be disappearing. It is an oft-heard story of a handmade and authentic process being overrun by an automated and mechanized process (in this case, the vinyl plotter). This discussion is poignant in the context of placemaking, as more and more landscapes are becoming standardized, with a dwindling connection to the natural peculiarities of the place in which they are located. In a way, placemaking is an attempt to preserve a fading culture, as well. Overall, a beautiful book with great photos and wellwritten accounts from the sign painters. Lindsay, H. B. (August 25, 2009). Missing Plaques: Using posters to uncover parts of Halifax’s hidden history. Retrieved from http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/sto ry/1837 This is an interview with Tim Groves, founder of the Missing Plaque Project in Toronto. It discusses a two-week residency he completed at the Roberts Street Social Centre in Halifax in 2009. During that time, he created four posters that document little-known stories in Halifax’s history. This was inspired by a similar project he completed in Toronto over the course of six and a half years. This is an interesting example of how placemaking can be critical, political and subversive. Lupton, E. & Lupton, J. (2009). Univers Strikes Back. In Armstrong, H. (Ed.), Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field (pp. 133-136). New York: Princeton Architectural Press. In this piece, Ellen and Julia Lupton challenge design to reexamine a universal approach, suggesting that global design does not always subvert cultural identity. While the article is at once a cautionary piece against the perils of globalization, it outlines its potential advantages as well, including more universal access to design for more people. The challenge is to push beyond the limitations of universal design without forgoing that increased access. This concept relates to the field of co-design and participatory research in that it discusses opening up design to more people than just
professional designers. Overall a well written, if somewhat one-sided, piece. MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects. (n.d.). Ghost. Retrieved from http://www.mlsar chitects.ca/mobile/ghost.htm
McCabe, A. (n.d.). Space Vs. Place: Defining the Difference. Place Partners. Retrieved June 27, 2013, from placepartners.com. au/blog/space-vs-place-defining-differ ence
This website includes photographs and information about Brian MacKay-Lyons’s project called Ghost Laboratory, which looks at how architects can connect with place, craft and community to develop buildings that are more deeply connected to the place in which they are located. The symposium draws architects and designers from all over the world and happens every year in rural Nova Scotia.
This short piece describes differences between the concepts of place and space. It is written by a senior placemaker at Place Partners, a placemaking consultancy. It is a simplified and surface examination of complex concepts, but it provides one of the common models for thinking about place and space, written by political geographer John Agnew in 1987. It is also helpful to know how consultancies that deal in placemaking understand the difference between these concepts.
Metropolitan Planning Council. (2013). Placemaking Chicago: Activate Union O’Reilly. (2012). Where Conference: The Station. Retrieved from http://www.me business of location. Retrieved from troplanning.org/work/project/12/sub http://whereconf.com/where2012/ page/1 This is a collection of the winners of a placemaking contest that took place in Chicago. The Metropolitan Planning Council sent out a call for designs that would reimagine the potential of Chicago’s central train station as a gathering place and culture centre. The winners included a Chicago-based architecture and planning firm called Latent Design, which worked in tandem with the Kent State Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative. Their project, called Blah Blah Blob!, provides an example of how design can be used in placemaking to shake up preconceptions and encourage the public to think about the potential of public spaces in a critical and conscious way. Makhoul, A. (October 2004). Using Creativity to Enliven Urban and Rural Villages. Caledon Institute of Social Policy. Retrieved from http://www.caledoninst. org/Publications/PDF/513ENG.pdf
This site documents the 2012 Where Conference with videos, lecture slides and presentation notes. The conference focused on location-based technologies and their possibilities in business. The documentation on the whole is technology-focused and in some cases very specific, but broadly this information provides an overview of the some of the possibilities that geo-technology promise, which can be very relevant to placemaking. Parvin, A. (February 2013). Alastair Parvin: Architecture for the people by the people [Video file]. Retreived from http://www.ted.com/talks/alastair_ parvin_architecture_for_the_people_ by_the_people.html
This lecture by designer Alastair Parvin raises the idea of open-source architecture with his project WikiHouse, where anyone can access model files for structures, which can be downThis article provides examples of both rural loaded, modified and printed on a 3D printer and urban placemaking projects. The place- and constructed. Parvin is an advocate for the making outlined in this paper is business- democratization of production and aims to focused, with the local BIAs initiating both make architecture accessible to everyone. This projects. Both are compelling examples of talk is helpful in opening up the idea of who a how placemaking can be used to generate or city belongs to. Parvin says, “the uncomfortable fact is that almost everything that we call reaffirm community identity. 165
architecture today is actually the business of designing for about the richest one percent of the world’s population”. The same could be said for the perspectives that are most often taken into account in urban development. Penrith City Council, Neighbourhood Renewal Program. (2013). Neighbourhood Stories. Retrieved from neighbourhoodstories.net.au This website documents an initiative led by Penrith, Australia’s City Council’s Neighbourhood Renewal Program. The initiative is comprised of a team that spans community development and engagement and economic development and includes a series of different projects that engage artists and community leaders to collaborate with community members. The website catalogues and presents the projects in an interactive map. This serves as one possibility of how design can engage in placemaking and community building. Placemaking Halifax (n.d.). PlaceMaking Halifax: Breathing life into public spaces. Retrieved from http://placemakinghali fax.wordpress.com/ This is the website belonging to local placemaking organization PlaceMaking Halifax. It contains documentation of their projects, details on upcoming projects and links to other resources on placemaking across the globe. As it is a local organization that is engaged directly in placemaking, further research into this organization will be undertaken in the coming months, including interviews and field research. Project for Public Spaces. (n.d.). What is Placemaking? Retrieved June 29, 2013, from www.pps.org/reference/what_is_ placemaking/ This simple description of the discipline provides an overall overview of what placemaking means to the Project for Public Spaces, one of the leading organizations in the placemaking field. It also includes details on 166
the organization’s approach to placemaking, which includes the Place Diagram, a tool the PPS developed to assist communities in evaluating places. The article includes a brief history of placemaking and a simplified list of what placemaking is and isn’t. Overall, while this is a simplified look at placemaking, it does include some concrete tools to describe placemaking, which can be an abstract or difficult concept. Relph, E. (1976). Place and Placelessness. London: Pion Limited. The book delves deeply into the concept of place and, in contrast, placelessness. This exploration includes many different aspects, such as location, landscape, time, community, private space, rootedness, home, identity, etc. It is extremely useful as an introduction to the challenging and multi-faceted concept of place and, as it was originally submitted as a doctoral thesis to the University of Toronto in 1973, many of its examples are Canadian. Rogers, S. (1976). Fisherman’s Wharf. On Fogarty’s Cove [album]. Springfield Sound: Borealis Recording Company. The lyrics of this song can be considered a critique of place and placelessness in Halifax. With local reference, the song provides an interesting perspective on the history of the city and the way some Maritmers feel about the way it has developed.
example of how design can engage with placemaking in community development initiatives. Salvador, T., Bell, G., & Anderson, K. (Fall 1999). Design Ethnography. Design Management Journal, 4(10), 35-41. This article presents design ethnography as a potential methodology for design research in the global marketplace by examining food, shopping and the American family room versus the Italian kitchen table. The article combines approaches to design with ethnography by examining human patterns and the authors posit that by completing this type of research they are better equipped to make and sell products that are well suited to their audience. They assert that this research links the corporate worlds of business and production. However, their approach seems unrealistic and ill conceived. How can you spend two weeks on a project and claim to have insider knowledge as to how those people live their lives? Also, it seems this approach heightens the risk of misrepresentation. Can they assume that because they spent two weeks in a small town in Japan, for example, that they can now anticipate what the people of the country need and want? Although this article does offer some potential approaches to dealing with global design, it makes a lot of presumptions.
Rokos, J. (n.d.). Revealing the Invisible. Retrieved from http://www.jimrokos. com/Revealing%20the%20Invisible.html
Sandbach, K. (2011). Where is graphic design practice at today?: Graphic design and the aesthetics of place. Iridescent- Icongrada Journal of Design Research, 1(2), 148-159.
Jim Rokos reviews the project he completed in collaboration with Christina Wong, Monica Chong and Vincenzo Di Maria as part of a Sustainable Tourism Design Camp that was held during Dott 07 (Design of the Times). The project reconnected with the forgotten lead mining industry of Allendale, UK through a series of art installations. The project examined different ways to reconnect with a place’s heritage, especially in the perspective of cultural tourism. This is a very interesting
As an early-stage exploration of Sandbach’s doctoral project entitled “Envisioning Design: The Role of Visual Communications in Place-making”, this paper describes a series of focus groups that the author completed with undergraduate students at the University of Western with the goal of examining “how graphic design practices can make a contribution to the methodologies of placemaking” (148). The paper gives an overall look at the state of the profession of graphic
design, particularly the emerging practice of co-design, and draws links with the practice of placemaking. The paper provides Sandbach’s preliminary findings, which show how graphic design impacts the conceptualization of place. The author suggests that approaching placemaking through graphic design provides an opportunity for intervention that does not require a complete overhaul of the built environment, as is often the case with urban development and architecture. This paper is extremely useful in linking the practices of design and placemaking.
This study examined the state of the creative economy in Muskoka, Ontario in 2011. It provides a glimpse into the make-up of the economy and the impact that creative professions have in that area. It is a helpful perspective when trying to understand the economic impact of stories of place, especially when examined through the lens of tourism and creative industries. Stilgoe, J. R. (1998). Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places. New York, NY: Walker and Company. This book is about exploration and observation. It discusses the underlying framework and history that exists in the urban fabric. It examines, in sequence, the railway, mail systems, roads and highways, fences and enclosures, the concept of the Main Street, and rest stops. This book is helpful in regards to placemaking, but also in the context of the practice of design, as it demands that readers are observant and inquisitive, two qualities that are integral to design.
Sanders, E. & Stappers, P. J. (2008). Co creation and the new landscapes of design. Codesign, 4(1), 5-18. This article explores the practice of codesign, where designers collaborate with their users in the design process. The article provides a brief history of the user-centred design approach (led largely by Americans) and the participatory approach (led largely by Northern Europeans). The article explores the current and future implications of the changing roles of designer to facilitator and user to codesigner and the new domains that this practice opens Sutton, S. & Kemp, S. P. (2002). Children as partners in neighbourhood placemaking: up. Lessons from intergenerational design charrettes. Journal of Environmental Saunders, A. (June 13, 2013). Curb your enthusiasm for the Neighbourhood Yard Psychology, 22, 171-189. Sale. The Coast, Retrieved from This paper explores how design charrettes (in http://www.thecoast.ca/Shoptalk/ archives/2013/06/13/curb-your-enthusi tensive, collaborative, hands-on workshops) can be used to engage community members asm-for-the-‘neighbourhood-yard-sale in design problem solving. It gives an overThis article in the Coast discussed the Neigh- view of the charrette methodology and probourhood Yard Sale that takes place each year vides a case study in which this methodology in a community in Halifax. For the first time was used to bring together primary school in 2013, Placemaking Halifax, a community students, university students, design profesdevelopment organization, partnered to host sionals and community members. The most the event. The article (and by extension, the impactful section of the paper is the “Lessons event) discusses the possibility of collabora- from intergenerational design charrettes” as tive community events, like a group yard sale the authors share their successes, challenges or mural painting, to build and strengthen a and missteps in this project. Finally, the authors propose a model of children’s civic accommunity’s identity. tivism and community development. While this paper has a strong educational and instiShyllit, R. & Spencer, G. (2011). Water, Rocks tutional focus, there are lessons that can be & Trees: The Creative Economy in Muskoka. Toronto: University of Toronto. applied to community placemaking.
Tange, K. (1956). Creation in Present-Day Architecture and the Japanese Tradition. Excerpt in Boyd, R. (1962) Kenzo Tange (pp. 113-117). New York: Braziller. This seminal article examines the role of tradition in Japanese architecture. It also offers insight into how tradition might be dealt with in modern architecture from all over the world. The article discusses the phenomena of universalism and internationalization in contrast with the tendency towards individualization and subjectivity in modern architecture. Tange suggests that tradition needs to be examined critically and constantly reinterpreted so that it remains applicable to contemporary realities. This is not Advertising. (November 5, 2012). I Amsterdam – The campaign to re- brand Amsterdam. Retrieved from http://thisisnotadvertising.wordpress. com/2012/11/05/i-amsterdam-the-cam paign-to-re-brand-amsterdam/ This article provides and overview and a critique of the re-branding campaign that the city of Amsterdam undertook in 2004. The article is overall positive, with a few criticisms of how the design team reached its final product. The article includes excerpts from the brand manual and photographs and videos that were published by the ad agency Kesselskramer, who created the re-branding campaign. The campaign provides a poignant example of branding that ineffectively engages with place-based identities and in many ways alienates people who actually belong to the place itself. Tuan, Y. F. (1977). Space and Place: The perspective of experience. Minneapolis, MN: The University of Minnesota Press. This seminal book explores the construction of space and place: the differences, intricacies, similarities and difficulties. It examines space and place in the context of human development, sociology, geography, anthropology, science and architecture. It is extremely helpful in developing an understanding of 167
the complex relationship between place and space and the history, theories and behavior that lies behind those concepts.
Watsuji, T. (1961). The Basic Principles of Climate. In Climate and Culture: A Philosophical Study (pp. 1-17). New York: Greenwood Press. This dense but insightful chapter of Climate and Culture examines the nature of climate and its articulation in the actions of humankind. It asks the reader to examine first exactly what climate is and how it is created and then how climate impacts the way we live our lives (and in a way, vice versa). The reading is difficult and at times it seems there are some challenges and perhaps errors in translation. However, the concepts raised in the article have implications for design and placemaking, specifically in regards to how we interact with and are impacted by our environment. Wildbur, P. (1988). Information graphics: a survey of typographic, diagrammatic and cartographic communication. London: Trefoil. This survey text examines modes of representation in data visualizations and cartography. It provides many good examples of various approaches. It is helpful in conceiving different ways to depict data in a compelling visual way. Williams, J. (2010). Towards a Model for Indigenous Research. In Hokowhitu, B., Kermoal, N. & Andersen, C. (Eds.), Indigenous Identity and Resistance (pp. 107-123). Dunedin: Otago University Press. This article examines ways that a researcher might adopt both etic (outsider) and emic (insider) viewpoints in his/her methodology, calling such an approach ‘etmic’. The author writers: “This entails a familiarity with the strengths and shortcomings of both perspectives, arriving at appoint where the 168
researcher can see both the wood and the trees” (108). As a case study, the author discusses research into the traditional ways of the Māori people in New Zealand. Overall, the article is helpful in proposing an approach in theory, though it seems the author has not been overly critical as to whether such objectivity can be obtained in practice. How can one gain an etmic perspective without truly being an insider? Does speaking with insiders count as emic research? Wortham-Gaalvin, B. (June 25, 2008). Mythologies of placemaking. Retrieved June 22, 2013, from http://places. designobserver.com/feature/mytholo gies-of-placemaking/497/ This is a critical look at placemaking. The author cautions against nostalgia and romanticism when discussing “sense of place” and asserts that places are not only physical, they depend equally on the imaginations and perceptions of those people who occupy them. The article also includes several American examples of placemaking gone wrong. The article concludes with the powerful statement: “Place is always a remaking process, never a product.” Wynn, G. (September 18, 2013). Place and Placelessness in Canada. Meeting Places: An International Canadian Studies Conference. Lecture conducted from Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, NS. This talk by renowned geographer Graeme Wynn focused on Edward Relph’s book Place and Placelessness. Wynn discussed the concept of place, describing it as “a prism through which human intentions, actions and experience are given a spatial context”. He presented and analyzed two types of sense of place: authentic or genuine and inauthentic or contrived. In a world where more and more of our landscapes are standardized and global, Wynn stressed that we must try to circumvent placelessness through the construction of significant places that satisfy the human need for connection. He provided several examples of placemaking in Canadian
literature and discussed local Halifax landmarks (i.e. Historic Properties) in the context of place and placelessness. This talk was extremely enlightening and helpful in understanding place and placelessness (both the book by Relph and the broader concepts).
Events and Personal Communication
To Read/View
Bachelard, G. (1994). The Poetics of Space. Migrating Landscapes exhibition at the Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 [Exhibition], visited on August 20, Calvino, I. (1972). Invisible Cities. New York, 2013. NY: Harcourt. This exhibition is framed by the statement “Who we are is shaped by where we live. City of Sydney. (March 2013). CreativeCity: Cultural Policy Discussion Paper. Where we live is shaped by who we are.” It Retrieved October 19, 2013, is on display at the museum from May 30 to from http://sydneyyoursay.com.au/cre November 11, 2013. The exhibit examines the experience of migration and the built envi- ativecity ronment through a collection of models created by young architects and designers from Cravens, A. E. (2008). Storytelling, Histories, and Place-making: Te Wāhipounamu around the world. The models are accompa- South-West New Zealand World nied by soundtracks and videos that expound on the personal experiences of each artist Heritage Area. Christchurch, NZ: with issues of immigration and migration. The University of Canterbury. exhibit was Canada’s 2012 entry to the 13th International Architecture Exhibition–la Bien- Cross, J. E. (November 2001). What is Sense of Place? Paper presented at the 12th nale di Venezia in Venice, Italy. The exhibit was an interesting look at the personal experience Headwaters Conference, Western State College, November 2-4, 2001, Gunnison, of these architects and designers and how migration can impact one’s worldview. How- CO. ever, there wasn’t enough tying the exhibit together or enough critical commentary on Earnshaw, R. (June 28, 2012). Contest breathes life into vacant properties. the overall implications of the work to make it NWI Times, Retrieved October 19, 2013, truly impactful. from http://www.nwitimes.com/busi ness/local/article_00846747-ab7f-5ff2Sean and Sandy Phillips [Interview], inter viewed at the Neighbourhood Yard Sale b69a-48e713c0ea26.html#.TD8O1AO568 on Duncan Street, June 15, 2013. Edwards-Vandenhoek, S. & Sandbach, K. (2013). Down the Rabbit Hole: a situated Discussed the concept of urban community approach to design education that and neighbourhoods with two long-time resi- facilitates socially responsible emergent dents of Duncan Street in Halifax. designers. Paper presented at DRS Cumulus, 2nd International Conference for Design Education Researchers, May 14-17, 2013, Oslo.
Nelms, H. (1964). Thinking with a Pencil. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble. Oei, V. G. & Staal, J. (2009). Monumental Research. Retrieved from http://www. jonasstaal.nl/MonumentalResearch.pdf Sakakibara, C. (2009). Speaking of Place: Contemporary Iñupiat Storytelling and Place-Making in the Time of Climate Change. In Collignon, B. & Therrien, M. (Eds.), Orality in the 21st century: Inuit discourse and practices. Proceedings of the 15th Inuit Studies Conference. Paris: Inalco. Seamon, D. (Fall 1996). A Singular Impact: Edward Relph’s Place and Placelessness. Environmental and Architectural Phe nomenology Newsletter, 7(3), pp. 5-8. Seamon, D. & Sowers, J. (2008). Place and Placelessness, Edward Relph. In Hub bard, P., Kitchen, R., & Vallentine, G. (Eds.), Key Texts in Human Geography (pp. 43-51). London: Sage. Venturi, R. (1977). Learning from Las Vegas: the forgotten symbolism of architectural form. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Whyte, W. H. (1980). The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. New York, NY: Project for Public Spaces. Whyte, W. H. (1988). The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces [Video]. Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/6821934.
Hornsby, S. & Wynn, G. (Spring 1981). Walking Through the Past. Acadiensis, X(2), pp. 152-159. Jacobs, J. (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York, NY: Vintage Books. Lefebvre, H. (1992). The Production of Space. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
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