Nature Inspired Entropy

Design and Text by Leonor Kerke

Nature Inspired Entropy As A Method.

Design + Text + Photographs By Leonor Kerke Š2016

Nature Inspired Entropy as a Method. Design and Text by Leonor Kerke. Master of Fine Arts, Communication Design, Pratt School of Design Received and approved May 2016. Š2016 Leonor Kerke

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MFA Candidate

Secondary Advisor

Christina Latian

Leonor Kerke

Primary Thesis Advisor

Jean Brennan

Ramon Tejada

Santiago Piedrafita

Secondary Advisor

Chair person

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts, Communications Design School of Design Pratt Institute.

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With sincere gratitude to my family, for your support and patience: Lolita, Galo, Brian, Alexandra,Eric and Ian. Thank you to my professors and friends at Pratt for your inspiration and enlightenment.

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LET DESIGN BE INSPIRED BY NATURE TO COMFORT THE HUMAN ORGANISM. NATURE HAS ITS OWN CONTEXT THAT EXIST IN TIME AND SPACE. A WILDERNESS CAN EQUALLY BE PART OF A DENSE FOREST OR A DENSE CITY. AS THE ENVIRONMENT CHANGES SO WILL THE ORGANISM. DISRUPTION IS HARMONY LOOKING FOR ORDER. —Leonor Kerke

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WHAT PLEASURE WANTS IS THE SITE OF A LOSS, THE SEAM, THE CUT, THE DEFLATION, THE DISSOLVE, WHICH SEIZES THE SUBJECT IN THE MIDST OF BLISS. CULTURE THUS RECURS AS AN EDGE: IN NO MATTER WHAT FORM. —Roland Barthe s 1

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Barthes, Roland and Richard Mille, The Pleasure of the Text, (New York: Hill and Wang.1975), p.7.

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WE ARE NO LONGER TRULY SIMPLE. WE NO LONGER LIVE IN SIMPLE TERMS OR PLACES. LIFE IS A MORE COMPLEX STRUGGLE NOW. IT IS NOW VALIANT TO BE SIMPLE: A COURAGEOUS THING TO EVEN WANT TO BE SIMPLE. IT IS A SPIRITUAL THING TO COMPREHEND WHAT SIMPLICITY MEANS. —Frank Lloyd Wright 2

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Frank Lloyd Wright, The Natural House, (New York: Bramhall House. 1954), p. 3.

Table of Contents

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13 17

Problem Statement

Introduction

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Abstract

TODs, Millennials 27

Research Lens

Architecture, Technology, Nature 33 35 38

Justification

Delimitations

Two Case Studies

The Lascaux Caves, Bloomfield New Jersey Politics and Conclusion

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Precedents

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Antecedents Process

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Exploration, Nature as Approach

Cultural Probes Methodology Projects

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What is Next Conclusion

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Bibliography

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Abstract

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NATURE'S SHIFTS SPATIAL-HUMAN INTERACTION USING INTERDISCIPLINARY METHODS; WE OBSERVE OPEN SPACE’S SCALE, LIGHT, COLORS AND LAYERS EFFECT ON THE HUMAN SPIRIT. —Leonor Kerke

I. Abstract By the year 2050, the human population will have doubled By the year 2050, the human population will have doubled while our natural resources are minimized or eradicated. while our natural resources are minimized or eradicated.

Nature and open space are transposed daily to make room Nature and open space are transposed daily to make room for more buildings. Nature’s processes are linked with the for more buildings. Nature’s processes are linked with the passing of time, and nature should be considered in every passing of time, and nature should be considered in every design phase. This thesis observes the uneven growth of a design phase. This thesis observes the uneven growth of a suburb into an urban city. The transformation of a suburb suburb into an urban city. The transformation of a suburb into an urban area raises questions about the need for open into an urban area raises questions about the need for open space, the loss of natural forms in our environment and how space, the loss of natural forms in our environment and how these changes affect people on a daily basis. “Nature” in this these changes affect people on a daily basis. “Nature” in this thesis refers to the physical and spiritual phenomena of open thesis refers to the physical and spiritual phenomena of open space and organic matter, and the scope of environmental space and organic matter, and the scope of environmental aesthetics includes many definitions of nature. aesthetics includes many definitions of nature.

The loss of open space and nature transformation is The loss of open space and nature transformation is explored here through communication design. How can explored here through communication design. How can design reflect the method of entropy, defined here are energy design reflect the method of entropy, defined here are energy found in nature, as both loss and transformation? This thesis found in nature, as both loss and transformation? This thesis uses qualitative heuristic data to open a dialogue on this uses qualitative heuristic data to open a dialogue on this subject that, ideally, will lead to new developments in design subject that, ideally, will lead to new developments in design methodologies. methodologies.

Community leaders sometimes fail to take stakeholders such Community leaders sometimes fail to take stakeholders such as residents, open green space and neoclassical architecture as residents, open green space and neoclassical architecture into account when allocating their town’s energy and into account when allocating their town’s energy and resources. How should design communicate change and resources. How should design communicate change and how can designers incorporate natural resources to achieve how can designers incorporate natural resources to achieve sustainable alternatives in the final stages of production? sustainable alternatives in the final stages of production?

Without understanding the total cycle scope of design, how Without understanding the total cycle scope of design, how can we achieve the greatest value for the users in service? can we achieve the greatest value for the users in service?

Technological advancements affect people’s physical and Technological advancements affect people’s physical and spiritual space. The outside space refers to the physical lines spiritual space. The outside space refers to the physical lines of architectural presence, the space that all people move in of architectural presence, the space that all people move in and around. The inner space is the ephemeral, the spiritual and around. The inner space is the ephemeral, the spiritual and the organic, which has fueled the creative spirit since and the organic, which has fueled the creative spirit since the dawn of man. The loss of open reflective space that the dawn of man. The loss of open reflective space that nature provides may bring disorder, or “entropy,” to the nature provides may bring disorder, or “entropy,” to the human condition. The aim of this paper is to observe the human condition. The aim of this paper is to observe the change and loss of nature while exploring how designers can change and loss of nature while exploring how designers can incorporate principles of open space and nature in design incorporate principles of open space and nature in design communication for the benefit of future generations. communication for the benefit of future generations.

Abstract

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Problem Statement

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2. Problem Statement

Problem Statement

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The dramatic shift of a suburb into an urban city raises questions about the use and loss of natural elements in environmental aesthetics. Twenty-eight new Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs) in New Jersey have not added any significant open space in their designs. In the initial plans for the TODs, built in the center of town The dramatic shift of a suburb into an urban city raises questions in Bloomfield, there were many large trees and plants, but these trees about the use and loss of natural elements in environmental and plants were not included in the final design. This new urban aesthetics. Twenty-eight new Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs) area chose to eliminate natural space by replacing it with a fivein New Jersey have not added anyparking significant open space theirand cement sidewalks, forever story lot, rental units, in stores designs. In the initial plans eradicating for the TODs, built plenitude. in the center of town nature’s Environmental aesthetics refers to the in Bloomfield, there were many large trees and plants, trees us, which becomes the physical and spiritual space but thatthese surrounds and plants were not included in the final design.

This new urban emotional space that transforms us. Open space inspires empathic area chose to eliminate natural space that by replacing it with and a fivereflection fuels creativity relaxes the senses, this is the story parking lot, rental units, stores of and sidewalks, forever aesthetic thecement everyday life. eradicating nature’s plenitude. Environmental aesthetics refers to the physical and spiritual spaceDesigners that surrounds us, which becomes the throughout history have looked to nature for ideas and emotional space that transforms us. Open space inspires inspiration.

Leonardo da Vinciempathic and the Wright Brothers walked in reflection that fuels creativity andfields relaxes senses, this iswhen the designing their flight machines. open andthe looked at birds aesthetic of the everyday life.

I plan to restore and question the designer’s connection to nature

through observation and experimentation. While design is an integral Designers throughout history looked to nature for ideasfew and parthave of our everyday experience, of us really notice how it changes inspiration. Leonardo da Vinci and the Wright in an environment andBrothers how thatwalked environment changes us. Architects open fields and looked at birds when designing their flight machines. such as Frank Lloyd Wright believed that including nature in the built I plan to restore and question the designer’s connection to nature environment led to higher levels of concentration. The impermanence through observation and experimentation.

Whilespace design is nature an integral experienced in open and invites humans to reflect on the part of our everyday experience, fewlife. of us really notice how it changes cycle of Lack of reflection may lead to imbalance and confusion, an environment and how that environment changes us. Architects phenomenon already present in the uneven growth of cities. such as Frank Lloyd WrightArchitecture’s believed that balance including nature in the built provides spatial and with the environment environment led to higher levels concentration.

The impermanence formalofqualities that engage the senses and inspire the spirit. Natural experienced in open space and invites to reflect on the light,nature air and spacehumans carry invisible grids that organize the framework cycle of life. Lack of reflection may lead to imbalance and confusion, that supports life, culture and sense of place. How can design reflect phenomenon already present the uneven growthasofloss, cities. theinconcept of entropy indifference and transformation?

Architecture’s balance with the environment provides spatial and formal qualities that engageObserving the sensesthe andphenomenon inspire the spirit.

Natural of transformation and loss creates new light, air and space carry invisible grids that organize the in framework emotional design connections forms of disruptive innovation. that supports life, culture and place. can design reflect between design, the user Thissense new of flow mayHow prioritize relationships the concept of entropy as loss, and transformation? and indifference their environment.

Nature’s sublime presence reveals quietude in simplicity and power in its complexities. Using interdisciplinary Observing the phenomenondesign of transformation loss creates principles, I and will explore newnew ways of making the invisible emotional design connections in forms of disruptive innovation. visible in order to understand the power of transformation in This new flow may prioritize relationships between design, the userconditions in environments communication design. These temporal and their environment. Nature’s sublime presence reveals quietude help designers see transformation in light, space and contextual in simplicity and power in its complexities.

Usinga interdisciplinary aesthetics to develop sense of time, place and purpose in cultivating design principles, I will explore new waysethos. of making the invisible an ecological visible in order to understand the power of transformation in communication design. These temporal conditions in environments help designers see transformation in light, space and contextual aesthetics to develop a sense of time, place and purpose in cultivating an ecological ethos.

Introduction

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YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’VE GOT ‘TILL IT’S GONE THEY PAVED PARADISE AND PUT UP A PARKING LOT. —Joni Mitchell1

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Hilburn, Robert, “Both Sides, Later”, (Los Angeles, CA: Tribune Company, December 8, 1996), Accessed: May 19, 2012.

I am a daily commuter who lives in Bloomfield, New Jersey. I take the 7:08 a.m. direct train to Penn Station in New York City and return on the 7:18 p.m. train to Bloomfield Station. I have made this trip for the past 20 plus years, starting when I was an undergraduate at university. The first time I rode the train I remember everything was shiny and new. The train crew would always welcome you aboard. The inside compartment was silver and the hunter green leather seats were well worn but still comfortable. The windows on either side of the train were rectangles from the ceiling to the seat. I always took a window seat and, depending on the day, I would sit on either the left or right side. But I had to get a window seat for that was the seat to have. Every rider rushed to sit in those specific seats and people would jockey for position at the train doors.

because it unified people. I opened this section with a quote from Joni Mitchell’s environmentally conscious song Big Yellow Taxi.1 On her way from the airport to her hotel, Mitchell connected spiritually with Hawaii’s green-mountain landscapes. The next morning she looked out her hotel room window positioned to see those same mountains covered by a parking lot.

Stunned by this type of urban blight on paradise, she was inspired to write this song. I am certain that Ms. Mitchell saw many parking lots around her home in California, but seeing the parking lots in juxtaposition with paradise awoke her civic environmental consciousness.

Recently, I had an experience similar to the one that prompted Mitchell to write Big Yellow Taxi. I had not noticed the large five-story building going up for weeks until the day it cast a shadow over the morning train car. No more morning sunlight streaming through the windows, no more lovely views of Bloomfield’s historic buildings and streets. I must have been in my own life-world,2 distracted by my new iPhone. We are continuously upgrading to the latest technology: new laptops, new smartphones and iPads.

Even the trains have upgraded to double decker models, although the new trains are not faster, just able to transport more people.

“More window seats,” I thought to myself when I first observed the new double decker trains.

Getting that window seat was like winning a contest where the grand prize was the view: those beautiful sunrises in the mornings and the amazing sunsets at night. They were cinematic landscapes, Gone With The Wind skies engulfed with translucent white clouds and blue hues. You felt a bigger spiritual presence while riding on this train. Those were landscapes that took your breath away.

Riders sat with their heads turned to look outside or looked straight ahead with eyes closed, maybe praying, catching up on sleep or meditating.

The morning landscape moved fast across the windows and you could see fields of green, tree lined streets, parks, churches, and beautiful towns passing by your window seat. On the evening ride home, you would look into the darkness and see blinking lights all in a row from the streets or traffic lights changing colors on the highways. Riders remarked on these views in awe and amazement.

These landscapes were my sacred spaces. As an artist, I have often studied the beauty found in nature. I did not need a church because I saw nature everyday: white cranes that flew over green marshes, for example. In winter the falling snow polka-dotted the landscape like a Yayoi Kasuma painting. Spring awakened lawns from brown to green, and cherry blossom-filled parks and yellow forsythia trees blanketed either side of the highways. In the summer, the ride home had the wildest sunsets. Riders would often take their cold beers and stand on the last car and stare out the back door window to see the disappearing New York City skyline.

After 9/11 we all looked out the train windows to see the changed skyline. People looked out at the space as a natural inclination, an ancestral sense of spirituality, telling our primitive soul that this is the sacred.

9/11 turned a mundane environment into a sacred space, not because of the Ground Zero site, but

But I had not realized that an earlier stop, Montclair Bay Street, also got a new four-story parking lot last year with new apartments built fifty feet from where the train stops. Two towns ahead were other stops that did the same and so on. The double decker trains now arrive at my station almost full and the window seats are all taken. The people have ceased looking out windows. Many stare at their mobile devices or, at times, broadcast their phone conversations throughout the train. With the increased ridership, people still rush to the doors, not because they want a window seat but because they want any seat.

Soon this five-story building will be fully occupied, placing more demands

1 2

Ibid.

Life-world a social, political, historical, cultural environment where human beings interpret, communicates, and socially engages in multiple communal spheres, Accessed: 11/2014, newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Life-world.

Introduction

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on an already over-crowded and understaffed train system. The new TOD buildings combine apartments and retail space. They are five story buildings that block the view of the historical town center from the train.

The buildings’ shape overpowers the area and even their window-like square boxes hang over the sidewalks, giving prospective apartment dwellers more space on top. The street was purposely made smaller, bringing this development even closer to the train tracks.

This thesis project began with my concern regarding the removal of public green space (about 900 square feet) to build a large structure across from a train station in Bloomfield. I built my hypothesis based on what Rudolf Arnheim would call a “dynamic visual experience,” defined as a psychological force that helped me perceive not only an arrangement of objects, colors, shapes, movements and sizes, but an interplay of directed tensions between the new buildings and old buildings (the L-shape stores), and between new buildings and the trains or the station.1 The size of the new structures compared to the L-shape commercial area made me feel claustrophobic and overwhelmed by the size of the new developments. They reduced two car lanes to just one lane. I questioned these transit-oriented developments in my backyard and the effect that they would have on residents, storeowners and the community at large. I observed the environment to identify and understand the problems. Why did they remove a large patch of green space and trees?

Was this removal an evolutionary advancement that is somehow meant to grow consumerism, yield a better quality of life for residents or increase civic engagement? Did anyone care about the removal of open public space?

Bloomfield has lost many classical structures on its way to urbanization.

The flow of urbanization encroaches on both large and small suburban towns, changing not only open landscapes

but also the daily lives of the town’s inhabitants and the local economy. The dynamics of change happens so quietly and quickly that one is often not aware of one’s own transformation or adoptions of new behaviors and habits. In essence, who we were yesterday is not who we are today.

In order to understand this phenomenon in Bloomfield I had to arm myself with a camera and a notebook and walk in its open space. Why did I place so much importance on the renovation of this area? To every other commuter, the renovation was viewed as an improvement, an innovation leading to a better lifestyle. Why did others not seem to care about the loss of open green, natural space? What were these new big buildings and why were they built here in Bloomfield?

3.1 Transit-Oriented Developments Transit-oriented developments (TOD) are built rapidly in a box shaped design, transforming human social roots into global rental units worldwide. TOD designs typically feature highdensity buildings (some resembling small cities) around a transit hub such as a train station, metro station, tram or bus stop.

TODs squeeze into suburban areas, backed by urban renewal, and change small town culture. The buildings can be up to half a mile long, about 500 acres in size, and built so people can walk to a transit station in 10 minutes at 3 mph (a common estimate for walking) — no car needed.2 Starting after World War II and into the 1950s, Japan, Sweden, France, Netherlands and Denmark used TOD building principles in their urban planning. More notable, the latter two countries incorporated the use of bicycles. Nearly all these new communities were built on reclaimed land or landfill.3 However, today in the metro NY/NJ area, they are built on top of or next to train stations in established commercial areas like Hoboken and Harrison and include large parking areas in lieu of green spaces.

TODs were built on top of public green space and no new open space was added to the areas.

Since 1999, New Jersey has become a leader in transit-oriented development with 28 TODs.4 Urban population in 2014 accounted for 54% of the total global population, up from 34% in 1960, and it continues to grow.5 Most TODs are built specifically to meet the amenity needs of the upcoming workforce: the millennial generation, a group that will pay more for accessibility and shortened commute times. Most TODs are rental units, offering no green space per unit or open space interaction. Although the apartment windows look out to the transit hubs, many TODs still have parking garages as well as millennial-luring stateof-the-art fitness centers and pet-friendly amenities.

Bloomfield’s new TOD has all these amenities to offer millennials, plus more.6

2 3 4

5 1

Arnheim, Rudolf, Art and Visual Perception A Psychology of the Creative Eye, (University of California Press, 1997), p.416-417.

6

Erick Guerra, Erick and Cervero, Robert, “Is a Half-Mile Circle the Right Standard for TODs?”, (Spring 2013), Accessed: 11/2015. page 17.

Ibid.

“Transit-Oriented Development Supportive Zoning”, 13 Feb 2016, Page 15 of 18. There are currently 28 designated Transit Villages in the program. They are Pleasantville(1999), Morristown (1999), Rutherford (1999), South Amboy (1999), South Orange (1999),Riverside (2001), Rahway (2002), Metuchen (2003), Belmar (2003), Bloomfield (2003), BoundBrook (2003), Collingswood (2003), Cranford (2003), Matawan (2003), New Brunswick (2005),Journal Square/Jersey City (2005), Netcong (2005), Elizabeth/Midtown (2007), Burlington City(2007), City of Orange Township (2009), Montclair (2010), Somerville (2010), Linden (2010), West Windsor (2012), East Orange (2012), Dunellen (2012), Summit (2013), and Plainfield (2014) World Health Organization. “WHO Kobe Centre Measuring urban health”, World Health Organization, Accessed: 1/2016.

Avalon Communities. Accessed: avaloncommunities.com/new-jersey/bloomfield-apartments

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3.2 Millennials TODs are built specifically for millennials, sometimes called Generation Y. Millennials are defined as those born between the early 1980s to the early 2000s 7. Research indicates that many millennials are not interested, or financially unable, to own cars or homes and prefer to rent close to public transport 8 . Research also shows that millennials tend to be mobile and tech-savvy. Many use the car-sharing service ZipCar and some choose to couch surf through services like Airbnb while on vacation rather than pay high prices at hotels. 9 A lot of millennials work in the technology sector where their professional lives revolve around web servers and digital devices. Many millennials are not interested in marriage or are waiting to start a family at a later point in life, and many do not follow any organized religion. 10 They have limited time, use renewable resources, and prefer to spend money on experiences, pets and the latest technology. 11 If religion is “the opium of the people,” as Karl Marx theorized, then technology is the “narcissistic narcotic” of educated millennials today, according to blogger Patrick McCray. 12

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The White House The Council of Economic Advisers, “Economic Facts About Millennials”, Accessed: 10/2014, p.3.

The Nielsen Company, “Millennials Prefer Cities To Suburbs, Subways To Driveways”, Accessed: 3/ 2014.

9 Thompson, Derek and Jordan Weissmann, . (Aug 22, 2012), Accessed: theatlantic.com/magazine/ archive/2012/09/the-cheapest-generation/309060 10 Wittberg, Patricia. “American, The National Catholic Review”. (2/20/2012 Issue), Accessed: americamagazine.org/issue/5129/article/lost-generation.

11 Ibid.

12 McCray, Patrick. “The Narcissistic Narcotic of the Tech Intellectuals”, Accessed: patrickmccray. com/2013/10/20/the-narcissistic-narcotic-of-the-tech-intellectuals/ 8

Research Lens

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4.1 Architecture Our civilizations have traditionally worked in harmony with nature. Habitation, or dwelling, constitutes an ethical goal.

The function of architecture is to make sense of “being in the world” and to make one’s home in the world. Architecture as a human settlement is symbolic with characteristics that it shares with arts and design. Architecture is a design process that deals with the interior and the exterior: it requires planning, strategizing, prototyping and uses theories of perception and spatial knowledge similar to graphic design. This process is the essence of design that exists in human experience. Thinkingman’s dwelling on earth is an interpretive view*1 of people’s need to build. Architecture is an ethical discipline that was created so that human beings can make meaning out of their place in the world. Environment aesthetics can lead people to self-actualization. In fact, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was created based on this concept of preserving people’s sense of place in this world and the common heritage of humankind.

From natural shelter to human co-existence with nature, the sacredness of architecture uses different theories: Form Follows Function, FigureGround Relationship and Prospect-Refuge just to name a few. “The Vitruvian Man” drawing demonstrates the blend of art and science during the Renaissance. The drawing uses ideal human proportions with geometry as described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise De Architectura. Vitruvius described the human figure as being the principal source of proportion in Classical architecture.2 Nature has written the brief to designing almost everything, and with this thesis, I propose a conversation with nature to create a methodology and cultivate a new design practice.

4.2 Urbanization and Technology Urbanization and digital technology connect us to a global society quicker than our local communities. Urbanization forever altered the social norms of our parent’s time, but it is consumers’ adoption of technology in the marketplace that transforms the medium message3. Users have come to expect bigger and newer products. Evolution and innovation sometimes come with a price. According to the Oxford Journal of Public Health, urbanization can have both positive and negative effects on health. Urban communities tend to be more diverse, creative, multicultural and full of new opportunities.4 However, urban environments can also bring confusion and disorder to people’s daily lives. An environmental change affects not only the outer space but also a person’s inner space.

This change in energies alters perceptions, behavior and creates new rhythms and patterns in daily lives.

Technology entices us to do more and we submit. Technology changes what we spend time on and results in different lifestyle choices. For example, millennials travel more than previous generations, resulting in changing patterns of how disease transmittal. 5 Technology has changed the pace, and maybe even the order, of how we live our lives. It contributes subconsciously to the value we place on time, food habits, physical activities, work patterns, smoking, alcohol consumption, sexual behavior and leisure activities. These are all behaviors that used to be addressed more spiritually.

Good health is one of the major concerns of modern society.

Although urban cities tend to have a wealth of high-end health clubs, many urban dwellers still suffer from poor health conditions like muscle and joint-pain and depression.6 Insecurities, fear in work and life is prevalent and affects families with children like getting in the right schools, social circles, physical maintenance and safety concerns.7 What kind of lifestyles are urban planners and developers setting up for city dwellers? People’s health – physically, emotionally and spiritually - is just as important as technological advancements.

5 1 2 3 4

Interpretive Paradigm: Explores the individual’s viewpoint as a “on-going processes” to better understand individual behavior and the “spiritual nature of the world”.

The Vitruvian man. (2010-08-20). Accessed: Leonardodavinci.stanford.edu.

Marshall McLuhan, Theory that change in communication technologies alter people’s view of the world.

McMichael A., The urban environment and health in a world of increasing globalization: issues for developing countries. Bull World Health Organ 2000;78:1117–26. (10/2005), Accessed: eurpub. oxfordjournals.org/content/15/5/552.full

6 7

Gunnar, Tellnes ed. “Urbanization and health.

New challenges in health promotion and prevention“, (Oslo: Oslo Academic Press UniPub, 2005), Accessed: eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/ content/15/5/552.full Ellard PhD, Colin. “Stress and The City”,(8/2012), Accessed: www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mindwandering/201208/stress-and-the-city.

Ibid.

Research Lens

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4.3 Nature Open spaces and nature’s aesthetics are essential components in everyday life. They promote a curatorial process that leads people to a holistic social ecosystem. Nature’s organic phenomenon may aid the design process, inspire reflection and lead to innovation. Nature lets cognitive awareness emerge, enabling one to process change, despite technology’s accelerating speed. Nature’s psychological forces were measured by thirteen conservation organizations in the United Kingdom in 2012. Their final document, titled The Common Cause for Nature Report, declares that we all share values associated with justice, compassion and environmental concerns (intrinsic values), but we also share values associated with our self-image, personal interests and competition (extrinsic values).1 These two sets of values are in psychological conflict. The report found that looking at, or reading about, nature can raise environmental values (the intrinsic values) and at the same time suppress self-interest or materialistic values (the extrinsic values). Conversely, thinking about personal profit and personal image will suppress environmental concerns.

1

“Common Cause for Nature”, (Full Report 2013), Accessed: publicinterest.org.uk

As The Common Cause for Nature Report explains, experiencing nature every day can bolster our sense of the intrinsic values of justice, compassion and concern for the environment. All twenty-eight TODs currently in construction throughout New Jersey are architecturally designed out of context. Their designs are similar even though they are located in different towns: some are near a beach, some are in the mountains, but each one has its own distinct environment. I cannot find any reason why all these TODs should look the same.

Without justification, I ask will they function the same?

I call this act of design a bad habit of urban designers and planners to appropriate without reflection on space distinction. I see missed opportunities here, a loss of ingenuity and positive benefits to future generations.

As a designer, I believe there should be no limits to producing a unique experience for a community. Are all communities the same? Are all people the same? Are all products and services the same? The answer, of course, is no. Brands employ unique selling points, authentic to the area, to attract loyal customers. Designers can do the same by building environments to correspond to a unique function in context with the surrounding community. Through field studies, designers can observe how a user interacts with their physical space and where they go to find a reflective inner space.

When designers match the design of a built environment to its intended function, that building performs more efficiently for, and is accepted more quickly by, the users. When the affordance of a built environment conflicts with its intended function, the design will be less efficient and not accepted in the community (i.e. problems renting the apartment). For example, a development near the beach could have outdoor showers and a locker room — the affordance of these amenities would make the building function better. Open spaces would have beach commodities and regional design affordance. In addition, buildings near the mountains could have a mudroom – the affordance corresponds to the way in which people use their environment, drawing upon both intrinsic and extrinsic values to enhance design use.

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Delimitations

Justification

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Designers use technology but as humans we are more than our tools. As a designer, I question why we do not place nature higher on our list of design priorities. In spite of this, our evolution remains connected to our natural environment, helping us to define our sense of identity and place in the world. Harnessing this emotional connection could lead to better designs and greater synergy.

I question the role of the designer in today’s intersection of culture and technology — is newer really better? And does working faster guarantee a useful product? Geniuses like Einstein found inspiration in silent spaces. Much of his day was spent in silent reflection, except for short breaks to talk about ideas, play his violin or walk in nature. In my own practice my imbalanced state of the body and mind increases with technological speeds. I am evolving from being a cultivator of personal knowledge to being a hunter and gatherer in the digital data forest. Design is a practice of mindful cultivation and preparation.

The new sparks our curiosity, but we also must reflect on history in order to produce content that understands the context of the user.

I speculate that future structures will be made of 100% plastic.

The designer in me understands the sublime power of plastic: it is indestructible, inexpensive and used in almost all human advances in biotechnology such as prosthetic body parts and eye lenses. To

Justification

The best practices for urban planning are always in question for future generations. The millennial generation is the focus now, but generation “Z” and “Alphas” are right behind them.

According to UN calculations, we have 28 megacities with populations of approximately 10 million.1 By 2030, the number of megacities is predicted to increase to 41 and, by 2050, the world population will have doubled in size.2 Future visionaries and governments are trying to expand and reinvigorate medium to small-sized communities across America railroad lines,3 like the small town of Bloomfield, New Jersey — my hometown.

Small areas of trees and grass are the first things that get downsized or eliminated in the final design plan.

say that nature and humans are becoming plastic is a big statement to make, but our birds and fish eat plastic daily. The EPA reports that every bit of plastic ever made still exists,4 and we drink water with the residue of chemicals used to make plastic. Researchers have discovered that most plastic products leach endocrine-disrupting chemicals such as bisphenol-A (BPA), even if labeled “BPA-free products.”5 The clean look and translucency of the plastic wins approval every time. This reaction made me think of Michael Pollan’s book

These TODS make me think of the earth’s natural resources and how much is wasted in the construction phase. As one builder said, it’s easier to knock down buildings and create new ones, then to reuse any part of them. All around us is evidence of this statement. How many things get thrown away without thought of their usefulness? Our natural resources are depleting as the population is growing. We need another whole planet of natural resources to sustain future generations in the way we enjoy life now. Some hope technology will save us with new sublime inventions, but the reality is that we need to strike a balance with our ecology.

The Botany Of Desire in which he states that we all want the look and feel of a new, shiny man-made material as these materials seem to be aesthetically pleasing.6 Today’s large corporations have big money and designers must ask themselves hard questions as I did: Should I spend three times as much or more for a product that may last

The concept of the sublime is to expresses our human need for a sense of grandeur or power. This emotional need could be met by strengthening our connection to nature’s wonders such as thunder, lightning, oceans and mountain valleys. Ecopsychology is the study of our innate emotional connection with nature and how it affects our subconscious. Today we are emotionally moved by technology and mass production. Today’s structures are made of steel, concrete and plastic; builders no longer use all wood material. TODs use particleboard and plastic tubing in their construction.

longer and look better or a product that is better for the world at large?

4 5

1 2 3

“2014 Revision of The World Urbanization Prospects”, (United Nations, The World Urbanization Prospects, 2014), Accessed: http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/ Ibid.

Lind, Diana. “What You Can’t See From A Train Window”, (11/5/2012), Accessed: 2/29/2016, Nextcity.org.

6

Silven, Kirsten E., “Plastic Contamination in the Atlantic Ocean”, (3/2011) Yang, Chun Z., Yaniger,Stuart I., Jordan, V. Craig., Klein, Daniel J., Bittner, George D. 2011 July 1; 119(7): 989–996. (Environ Health Perspect, Journal Published online 2011 March 2. doi: 10.1289/ ehp.1003220 PMCID: PMC3222987) Baekeland, Leo Hendrik, “Chemical Achievers“, (Chemical Heritage Foundation,11/2005) Accessed: chemheritage.org/discover/online-resources/ chemistry-in-history/people.aspx.

Delimitations

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Justification

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Entropy is used qualitatively in this paper to explain the natural process of energy decay (transforming matter to another state thermodynamics). This transformation can be measured in entropic index, where less entropy of energy is used and reused in the resource cycle. A low index of entropy would bring the most social good by giving nature time to replenish itself. Energy that is overused has a higher index number, which results in a waste of finite resources.

Delimitations

I am not a mystic, shaman, politician or urban planner. I’m a designer, curious observer and communicator. Thus, the word “sacred,” within the context of this thesis, is not connected to any world religion or religious experience. When I use the word “man,” I include women as well.

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Two CaseIitial Studies

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Basic human needs often inspire good design and push designers toward innovation, and this phenomenon can be observed in the Lascaux Cave paintings in France, the subject of my first case study. The second case study spotlights the complexities of a suburban town and defines my thoughts on a sacred theory found in the first case study. I needed to go further back into history because of man’s need to build more higher and denser cities like what I saw happening in Bloomfield, New Jersey and Brooklyn, New York.

THE TROUBLE IS, WE’VE BEEN TAUGHT WHAT TO SEE ... WE HAVE INVENTED NOTHING — — Pablo Picasso2

My initial purpose was to research the use of what I call universal design principles that incorporate—or are inspired by— nature which include archetypes, the Gestalt principle, Sacred Geometry and Biophilia. Awareness and practice of these universal design principles could strengthen the unity of urban dwellers and encourage civic engagement, better health and social balance. The first question I raised was where did people get this need to constantly innovate?

Science speculates that the Lascaux cave dwellers needed to map their prey and hunting grounds to improve their system of food gathering. Visual forms of messaging and mapping seem to have always been a part of our genetic makeup. It is at least a plausible conjecture that humans need to create, organize, narrate, curate, cooperate, control, and consume to re-create and begin the cycle again. I speculated that the new TODs were small caves like Lascaux caves.

7.1 Case Study One: The Lascaux Caves Epistemology is the study of knowledge.

Epistemology is the method I used to encircle the scope of Bloomfield’s new cultural phenomenon of eliminating sacred space, defined as space that inspires nostalgic reflection, and replacing it with something new. As a designer, I question the development of this new space as well as its form and function. Walking around these new TOD buildings makes me feel physically off-balance. The buildings in raw wood forms engulfed me and I felt enclosed.

This feeling of entrapment reminded me of how my country cousins said they felt when they came to visit and we took them to New York City for the first time.

However, Bloomfield is not a city but a small town.

I deconstructed the concept of habitation and thought about our predecessors who lived in 17,000 B.C.E. This case study developed because transitoriented developments (TOD) remind me of the Paleolithic dwellers of Lascaux who lived in complex caves and hillsides in France. Like the urbanstyle renovation in process in various suburbs of New Jersey (specifically the new TOD building in Bloomfield), the Lascaux cave dwellers also pushed for innovation.

What sets Lascaux apart from other Paleolithic societies in Africa, the Americas and Asia is that archaeologists found the appearance of behavioral modernity (see chart) in the Lascaux cave dwellers— they possessed an innate knowledge for health and happiness.2 It has been argued that behavioral modernity could have developed from genetic mutation or environmental learning. The genetic ability to “invent” is a complex human behavior only done by less than 1% of humanity.

The other remaining 99% had no significant problems with “adopting” those inventions, and that is the power of evolution3 today.

I considered that the Lascaux cave dwellers designed the caves and created good habits in order to direct them to a sacred, holistic natural system like Gestalt, where people need to be in nature and need to organize themselves as part of a whole.1 The collective parts include having open reflective space, being part of nature, and creating new ways to express themselves. This practice of being in their environment and creating may have inspired their innovative work. Anthropologists believe the caves may have been used as sacred places, and thus I pose the following question: can the act of art-making lead to a feeling of the sacred?

In a lifestyle so simple and focused, the Lascaux cave dwellers spent their entire life in a naturally sustainable process using pre-existing edifices and resources without impairing the integrity, stability and beauty of nature.

The cave paintings show us that the

1 2

Gestalt balance is about being whole in regulating one’s self with your environment, the parts are all other pieces in ones life.

Whitehouse PhD, David, Science shows cave art developed early, (2001)

2 3

Ratey, John J. MD and Manning, Richard,Go Wild, (Little Brown and Company, 2014) Accessed: (11/2014) wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_modernity

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painters thought aesthetically about the process of survival and respected nature enough to paint it with care. They also exhibited a desire to sit (painting) in open spaces.

Creativity and ideation are two other processes that lead to finding individual consciousness and happiness. Being innovators, the Lascaux cave dwellers communicated their thoughts through rock art paintings, both communally and individually as well as with children. The drawings of children’s hands are evidence to me of a creative idealization sharing and bonding to produce what I call sacred.

Our ancestors understood the primordial need for shelter and protection as well as the need for future visualization. They used rocks and cave walls as their media in order to record their knowledge for future generations. They created drawings that followed form and function and orchestrated it with nature. They created a sanctuary, even installing a shaman leader to guide them in meditation for mystic consciousness transformation. They used their unconscious aesthetics. Unknown to them, unconscious aesthetics refers to the part of the creative process when ideation happens, the moment that many creators experience as an ‘aha’ moment. In the Lascaux cave dwellers, this unconscious aesthetic seemed to manifest itself as a gut feeling that prompted dwellers to push for innovation to understand the world in which they lived in and to form a visual narrative of their story for posterity.

call wicked problems.6 What remains constant in innovation is a humanistic creative framework.

I speculated that the Lascaux dwellers used unconscious theories of space, form, function, and shape found in nature to motivate them in their creative process. In Go Wild, a book written by Harvard Medical School professor John J. Ratey, MD and Richard Manning, the authors presents scientific evidence of these theories inspired by nature. These innate observations in nature, when combined with humanistic acts, elevate our evolutionary track.7 Today we refer to these theories as universal design principles and biophilic design.

Go Wild inspires a whole lifestyle based on primitive ideas of nature.

The Lascaux cave society represents the dawn of empathy. Without any form of established religion, the cave dwellers took care of the sick and buried their dead with rituals and rites.4 The natural caves’ cell-like clusters could be one of the first urban density growth frameworks embedded in our life code. Self-expression is well documented through history and civilization. It was here in these cave paintings that I observed universal principles of design – namely the Gestalt Law of visual perception, sacred geometry and design inspired by nature – and started to discover artifacts that are well documented by archaeologists, anthropologists and sociologists.

My findings are that today’s urbanization clusters, like the Lascaux cave dwellers’ settlements, keep traveling the same pathways driven by the rise in populations across the globe (7 billion in 2014 and projected to rise to 11 billion by 2050).5 Urbanization has always been a movement about cultural shifts based on innovation. How else would evolution come about but through innovation?

The process of innovation creates new questions and new sets of complex problems that today we

4 5

Ratey MD, John J. and Richard Manning, Go Wild, (New York, Little, Brown and Company, 2014), p. 32-33.

UN News Centre. (2013, June 14). "World population projected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050" – UN report. Accessed: un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45165#.

VIy7ZGTF9Ns

6 7

Problems that are complex, like politics, poverty, and equality; they are nestled in each other’s solution by smaller problems and human nature.

Ratey MD, John J. and Richard Manning, Go Wild, (New York, Little, Brown and Company, 2014), p 173-178.

Contemporary Work

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Boxhome by Norwegian architects Rintala Eggertsson 2011.

The Lascaux Caves, Dordogne, France

Polka dots, Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama 2013

Balance: Vertical and Horizontal

Marcel Duchamp 1914 Network Stoppages

Space: Figure and Ground

Paul klee 1939, Embrace

Research Chart Lascaux Caves

Form: Overlapping, Hierarchy

Expression: Outer vs. Inner World, Line and Contour

Experiment Research Chart 1.

Lascaux Caves [ 17,000 B.C.E. ] Observing: Similarities, patterns and differences between creative self-expressive cave drawings and contemporary artwork.

Questions: Was creative innovation such as painting used as a sacred ritual to unite the community? Why paint only animals; does nature have a sacred purpose to all Paleolithic people?

Findings: Paleolithic people used innate design principles found in contemporary design (and some contemporary art) such as Gestalt Law of visual perception, sacred geometry, and design found in nature. They appeared to be united in the welfare of the community, rather than of individuals, so that individual welfare and group welfare merged to one.

Methodology: My research process was developed by this first case study. I watched videos and documentaries of archaeological digs from around the world. The research question I posed was “ Where does innovation begin?” The methodology included observation and reflection along with analysis of the secondary data collected and curated in these charts.

The Lascaux Caves, Dordogne, France

Contemporary Work

Randy Krum 2011, Digital Clustering

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Expression: Outer vs. Inner World, Line and Contour

MY BODY IS NOT A COLLECTION OF ADJACENT ORGANS BUT A SYNERGIC SYSTEM... LINKED TOGETHER IN THE GENERAL ACTION OF BEING IN THE WORLD. — Merleau-Ponty1

The premise for my thesis grew out of a simple question: “Why would Bloomfield build a large fivestory building fifty feet away from the train tracks, taking away public green space?” No longer could the town’s landscape be seen from the train station. The small corner green was open and inviting, a place where one could sit on a bench and watch the trains go by.

One could feel a sense of peace there, a sense of unity with nature that I would call sacred. The open space is only a pleasant memory now, a memory that resonates deeply whenever I think of Bloomfield. I used to look out the train window to see Sacred Heart Church in the distance and the eight story building named “Leo Frank” standing proudly like an iconic monolithic lighthouse in the center of town, a symbol of enduring strength in this community since the 1900s.

7.2 Case Study Two: Bloomfield New Jersey

For this case study, I walked Bloomfield’s streets to learn more about the new construction, and the people. I used the five W questions - who, what , where, how and when – when speaking with the locals and store owners. “Who was the building for?” “What were they building?” “When would they finish?” I wanted to identify the building’s purpose by interviewing some residents and learn more about how it will create new cultural and social phenomena.

The streets were empty except for the builders and the police. The removal of open green space had caused traffic to slow down and some sidewalk confusion. Most people out that day said that eliminating the open green space was unimportant. People on the street were all anxiously waiting for the new building. Most shop owners did not live in Bloomfield but in the surrounding neighborhoods; they were expecting more business and better clients. Some stores owners anticipated bigger profits and planned to sell their businesses after the TODs were finished. The TODs are considered improvements to the area and subsequently raise surrounding real estate values. In an area where there’s new construction, all real estate will be re-appraised leading to higher values and higher taxes.

I could sense the pedestrian and storeowners’ disconnection with municipal policies and the civic process. They had no information to offer. I went a few streets down to understand the area. The center of town was also slated to be disassemble.

Conversely, the photos I captured highlight the wealth of information and depth of knowledge used to build these Neo-classical style buildings of the 1900s that would soon be just a memory on this part of town. The TODs and new developments were expected to attract new people, namely millennials, with their new stores and apartments, but the act of eliminating classic structures was deeply upsetting to my aesthetic sensibility. I returned to the library to find more information.

What I found was a small scale wicked problem.

People’s lack of recognition of the problem is interesting, but the complexity of one aspect of a wicked problem may reveal or create other problems for future generations.

1

Pink, Sarah. (2015) Doing Sensory Ethnography. p.29.

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Politics and Conclusion The New Jersey Department of Transportation offers one million in annual assistance to any municipality with a ready-to-go project that mixes commercial and residential space. By funding such projects, the state hopes to develop more affordable housing as well as contribute to job growth and culture.1 In 1999, Governor Whitman introduced the Transit Village Initiative, named a friendly land use because it focused on pedestrians and cyclists,2 to award funds to municipalities that are committed to the redevelopment of areas around train stations. Each transit village gets one to three million dollars in funding as well as assistance in streamlining the state permitting process.3 The town’s key parties engage in a collaborative sustainability assessment process to yield research on the potential development area.

Assessing key issues, like the effect of building height, is a process known as a sustainability appraisal.

For the TOD project in Bloomfield, a sustainability appraisal, completed and presented to the town council, stated that the area was in decay and unable to house the new millennial work force. In order to receive one million dollars from the state government, Bloomfield changed zoning laws to accommodate five story (or more) buildings on land usually zoned for two story buildings. A change in zoning is usually based on individual town policies and political forces (e.g. the mayor, developer, county clerk etc.). The zoning policies are used to preserve the character, culture and even spiritual significance of a community”.4 Zoning policies in Bloomfield do not include regulations for historic buildings, open natural space (e.g. nature, mature tree, a quiet place to sit and talk, etc.) or train riders views.

1 2

3

4

Rinde, Meir. “Explainer: How Transit Villages Help Nj Combat Sprawl, Car Culture”, (9/ 2015) p.1.

Renne, John L. “Smart Growth and Transit Oriented Development at the State Level: Lessons from California“, (New Jersey, and Western Australia. Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 11, No. 3, 2008), p. 96.

“Transit-Oriented Development in the United States: Experience, Challenges, and Prospects”, (Library of Congress, Washington D.C., Transit Research Board. 2004. TCRP Report 102), p. 212.

“T-zone from municipal zoning to achieve balance in private developments“, (2014, November). Accessed: transect.org/ transect.html

In conclusion, as a designer and local resident, I discovered that what awakened my aesthetics, what inspired awe in me when I walked this town’s space, was the feeling of the sacred. I felt a sense of the sacred during the times when unity was present – for example, seeing the balance of the old buildings placed next to one another and the way that these buildings produced a gestalt harmony with nature.

The architects achieved balance through various ratios such as the distance of the sidewalk to the building and through the contrast between the green of the lawns and the red terra-cotta facades. Spiritual air flowed around the space of these historical structures. I documented my study with photographs and drew grids on them to bolster my findings (See chart 2). The shapes, form and lines created universal patterns found in nature and absorbed in our collective consciousness. The shapes echo universal design principles, such as sacred geometry and the golden ratio, and are in balance with nature. With the increase of TODs’ compact urban lifestyle, I found that including nature in urban planning is crucial to bring balance and harmony. I question in what context and form can looking at nature be used as a methodology in a design practice.

Proportions Golden Rectangle

Balance of Refuge-Prospect-Good Aesthetics

The “Geometry of Life” Simplicity and complexity

Symmetrical Pattern, Spatial Relations

Dynamic Tension

Chambered Nautilus, Growth and Evolution

Research Chart Bloomfield, New Jersey

Triangles Have Energy, Power and Stable/Unstable

1917

Ratios of Common Shapes, Good Gestalt

NO sidewalk yet...

Harmony of Space Between All Parts is Sacred

Smaller sidewalk

New TODs Display Bad Aesthetics for Everyday Life

New TODs Display Bad Aesthetics for Everyday Life

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Research Chart 2 Bloomfield, New Jersey Questions: Does anyone know what people feel when they look at a tree, a sunset or a patch of a green lawn? What rituals are used to unify individuals with their homes?

What will happen to this urban community in 25-50 years? What can the TOD dwellers in the recently urbanized town of Bloomfield learn from Lascaux’s cave dwellers?

Elements of Dynamic Symmetry

Findings: Bloomfield’s Neoclassical buildings and urban planning from previous generations (circa 1913) exhibit active primeval design principles similar to those in the Lascaux caves. A well-planned community displays balance and unity with nature.

Harmony between the built environment and the natural environment can foster good community spirit. Bloomfield TODs do not display balance or harmony with nature: the final design plan eliminated existing open space and no new natural space was added to balance the new 5-story development.

Methodology: My research process was fine tuned by this second case study. I picked up a camera and a recorder (my iPhone) and started to interview residents, storeowners and pedestrians, whom Sarah Pink call informants.

When I realized my informants had biases because of the transformation to their area, I noted how human perception changes in different contexts. My methodology consisted of observation and reflection on the primary data. I collected and curated these charts to mark the flow of energy.

Proportion Builds Aesthetics Pleasure

1917

Emulation of Nature

Balance Strengthens Confidence in Self and Groups

open

space

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8. Precedents & 9. Antecedents

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THIS SECTION WILL DISCUSS THE THEORISTS, DESIGNERS, ARCHITECTS AND ANTHROPOLOGISTS THAT PAVED THE WAY TO SUSTAINABLE, ETHICAL AND HOLISTIC COMMUNICATION IN DESIGN AND HELPED ME DEVELOP MY CREATIVE VOICE.

David Émile Durkheim Sociologist

Frank Lloyd Wright Architect

Durkheim theorized that things or acts agreed on by a group can be called sacred and form a social system.

These beliefs, practices, and rituals, agreed upon by a group, make up what Durkheim termed the sacred– profane ideology. The “profane” involves mundane individual concerns.

Durkheim notes that the sacred/profane difference was not to be thought as good versus evil because they both could be good or evil. Durkheim’s idea of society (a group) as the brain of a body is similar to Arnheim’s perception of the visual: the sums of the parts equal the whole. It is a pure holistic view, and one shared by our ancestors.

Frank Lloyd Wright understood nature’s sacredness in the sunlight and in the perception of contextual spaces.

My body of work explores the use of light and its effect on contextual space. Wright understood the need to harmonize with nature and to achieve balance in design. The organic design process requires a designer to listen to everything around them, to reflect, to analyze, to empathize, and to reach a truth that synthesizes the design with the environment.

To achieve an appropriate “whole” design that’s in harmony with nature, a comprehensive approach is needed.

“Organic Architecture”, as Frank Lloyd Wright defined it, 1 means not just looking at nature, but looking into it. Organic Architecture also means planning for the future and understanding the nature of materials and the union of context with the structure. Wright united form and function like nature itself. He stressed the use of common sense in design in

Durkheim realized how maintaining “the sacred” allowed an internal stability that survives over time in certain social groups. He explored how shared values, symbols and systems of exchange held people together. These types of social bonds are echoed on today’s social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, etc.

1

Elman, Kimberly, and Frank Lloyd Wright. The Principles of Organic Architecture. Accessed: (1/2015) megaessays.com/ viewpaper/94160.html..

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the same way that nature does. Look at an anthill, for instance, and the form of tunnels it creates to function as a home, office and community.

The most prominent example of Wright’s nature-focused design is his 1935 project Fallingwaters, a rural residence built for the Kaufmann family in southwestern Pennsylvania. After hearing the family’s story of their weekend picnic ritual, Wright concluded that communing with nature was important to this family.

Nature inspired Wright to define the importance of a human-centered design process in architecture.

Victor Papanek Designer and Educator Papanek’s designs exhibited strong ecological ethics and common sense.

He was interested in how design affected people’s identity, culture and their environment. He prompted big companies to question their use of natural resources. He influenced community infrastructures. His methodology employed quick design system thinking formed out of common sense as well as the simplistic elegance found in today’s Dutch and Japanese graphic design practice.

Rudolf Arnheim Perceptual Psychologist Arnheim argued that the root of the creative process is the use of common sense in design. He claimed that the most efficient design-related thinking starts with using your senses.

Following his lead, the notion of “I sense before I speak” is what leads the qualitative field research in this paper and in my design practice. I address the visual before the collection of quantitative proof. Empirical findings in this paper reveal that natureoriented design is the solution to the TODs problems in Bloomfield and elsewhere. Arnheim would explain that my brain responded to a sensory stimulation and spatial organization between the train and the new buildings. This phenomenon caused a dynamic spatial grid awareness and deformation in depth perception - too much of this stimulus, I believe, causes entropy in my kinesthetic sense.

Arnheim calls these forces, or energies as I like to call them, a structural theme*, or the interplay between tension-heightening factors and tension reducing factors1(entropy). The result is a powerful dynamic moment in visual perception. Simplicity is a primary Gestalt principle, which states

1

Arnheim, Rudolf. Art and Visual Perception, (1974), p. 411

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that the brain looks for simplistic shapes in every circumstance. These new TODs had complicated this existing space and upset the dynamic force between my mind and body that perceives volume and depth occurrences. This dynamic tension in architecture interacts visually with the parallel grids and spatial patterns outlined in the windows, streets and horizon lines — and we perceive all these shapes and grids within the first few seconds.

agenda all that matters?’ I just don’t think we’re that stupid to continue in a way that continues to destroy. I’m hopeful that the Epic of Evolution will be yet another strategy in our culture that will lead our consciousness out of a very tight, human-centered materialism.” 2

*

Dr. Sternberg is known for her discoveries on the interactions between colors, sound, structural environments and human wellness. Her scientific research provides empirical evidence of the mind-body connection and sheds light on how the brain responds to stress. She incorporates terms like person- and place-centered wellbeing, revolving around the needs and wants of the users. Her process is holistic, biophilic and spiritual. Dr. Sternberg provides solid scientific evidence, integral to this paper, that designing open environments that incorporate nature can foster a tendency towards civic participation and aid mental and physical well-being.

Geometry is used in architecture and third dimensional space (minus time). The third dimension can be labeled by a combination of any three terms length, width, height, depth, and breadth (not on the same plane). Parallel lines converge to form grid cells to make spatial patterns. The brain is able to construct internal representations with our senses that correspond to external x, y, and z coordinates.

Edward Osborne “E. O.” Wilson Biologist, Theorist and Naturalist E. O. Wilson awoke my curiosity about nature in design. Being a designer means having multiple interests and passions. In the field of graphic design, architecture and future speculation are what interest me. The cosmologist Brian Swimme concludes a 1997 interview with this comment about E. O. Wison’s book Epic of Evolution: “I think that what E. O. Wilson is trying to suggest is that to be fully human, a person has to see that life has a heroic dimension [quoting Wilson]: - ‘I think for the scientist, and for other people, it is a question of, is the universe valuable? Is it sacred? Is it holy? Or is the human

Esther M. Sternberg MD Environment Brain Interaction Specialist

2

“Brian Swimme interview”, (4/23/2014), Earthlight.org.

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Additional Research on the Connection Between Wellness and Natural Environments:

IT COULD BE ARGUED THAT NATURE SIMPLY TEACHES PEOPLE TO NOTICE NEW THINGS SUCH AS THE COLOR CHANGE OF LEAVES EVERY FALL, A CHANGE THAT LETS US KNOW COLDER WEATHER IS ON THE WAY. VIEWING NATURE RICH ENVIRONMENTS OR NATURE-BASED IMAGERY REDUCES STRESS AND ENHANCES CONCENTRATION. THE STUDIES BELOW HIGHLIGHT THE CONNECTION BETWEEN WELLNESS AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS. Researcher Nancy Wells found that children ages 7 to 12 who viewed nature from their windows displayed the greatest gains in standard tests and paid the most attention (home quality variables were controlled).1 A similar result was discovered in another study involving college students based on nature views from their dorm windows.

Further studies have shown that subjects obtained the same benefits of increased concentration and well-being when they were shown only images of nature as when they were placed in physical, nature-rich environments.2 Dr. Sternberg produced the same trials in hospitals and found that patients who enjoyed views of nature from their windows were able to leave the hospital one to two days earlier than patients who were placed in rooms without windows.3 Additional research on the connection between nature and human wellness

includes a 2001 study of how looking at trees affected inner city residents (Kuo and Sullivan, “Aggression and Violence in the Inner City, Effects of Environment via Mental Fatigue”) and a 2010 healing study by Dr. Irving Biederman on how looking at nature or listening to music or poems is like giving yourself a shot of endorphins. 4 Japan, one of the top 5 leaders in Research & Development technology,5 is also on the forefront of a national movement called shinrin-yoku (forest bathing or basking in the forest).6 Researchers at the Japanese Society of Forest Medicine have done a number of studies demonstrating that a simple potted plant can reduce stress as well as lower heart rate and blood pressure and can even reduce sick leave time by 40%.7 Research from Japan also shows that just by breathing in a natural

4 1 2 3

Wells, Nancy, “At Home with Nature: Effects of ‘Greenness’ on Children’s Cognitive Functioning, Environment and Behavior”.

Vol. 32 p.6.” 2000.

Kaplan, Stephen, “The Restorative Benefits of Nature: Toward an Integrative Framework”. Journal of Environmental Psychology.

Vol. 15, p. 169–182.

Ibid.

5 6 7

Vessel, Edward A. & Irving Biederman, “Why do we prefer looking at some scenes rather than others?” (University of Southern California, 2001) Florida, Richard. “City Lab. The Worlds Leading Nations Innovation and Technology”. Oct 3, 2011 p.224 Accessed: 1/12/16. samuraispain.org/shinrin-yoku.html Ratey MD, John J. and Richard Manning, Go Wild, (New York, Little, Brown and Company, 2014), p. 180.

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setting stimulates a chemical called phytoncides in our immune system that kills bad cells and stimulates cancerfighting cells.8 Biophilia9 effects are more deeply rooted in the brain because of innate early human survival techniques, such as the “Savanna Preference.”10 People have an innate preference for open clearings of uniform lawns, bushes, or trees as opposed to obstructed complex terrains. People also innately prefer being on higher ground to calm programmed instincts and feel safe.

The relationship between ceiling height and cognition has been confirmed in many scholarly journals: the higher the ceiling height, the more it promotes abstract and creative thinking.11 Lower ceilings promote concrete and detail-oriented thinking because of confinement effect, according to a journal article by Joan Meyers-Levy and Rui Zhu.12 They recommend building low ceilings for less visiting time like fast food stores and taskoriented shopping, and high ceilings for hotels and research labs to promote innovate thinking.13 Biophilia theories

8 9

Ibid. p. 183 The biophilia hypothesis suggests that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems.

Edward O. Wilson introduced and popularized the hypothesis in his book, Biophilia (1984).

10 William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler, The Universal Principles of Design, (Rockport Publishers Inc. 2003).

11 Ibid.

12 Meyers-Levy, Joan And Rui (Juliet) Zhu. “The Influence Of Ceiling Height“, Journal Of Consumer Research, Inc. Vol. 34. 8. 2007.

13 Ibid.

bring us closer to nature so that we may see dynamic changing patterns to our own self-organization.

Kenya Hara Environmental speculative design

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THIS SECTION HIGHLIGHTS CONTEMPORARY INFLUENCER TO MY UNDERSTANDING AND EXPERIMENTING DIFFERENT METHODOLOGIES. THEIR PRACTICAL, ETHICAL AND HOLISTIC METHODS OF PERCEPTION AND OBSERVATION IN THEIR ENVIRONMENTS AID THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS PAPER.

Stefan Sagmeister Designer Sagmeister’s installation work Trying to Look Good Limits My Life is one of self-reflection( he closed his studio for one year). His eccentric conversations through nature are his way of evaluating himself and thinking about future design processes. His use of organic resources such as wood, bananas, flowers, etc., at the time this seemed fearless to me. In design thinking, cognitive biases and fears affect design. Sagmeister’s methodology of design thinking is to reject fear and gain strength as a designer. His problem was not perfectionism, but rather, as he put it, an “assumption of failure”.1 Nature

Taku Satoh

1

Sagmeister, Stefan. Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far. (New York, Harry N. Abrams, 2008).

gave him the ease and quirkiness to poke fun at himself and his process. He created personal mantras to self reflect with nature and to open conversations about design and contemporary issues such as technology, natural resources and alter ego.

Kenya Hara Designer Kenya Hara uses nature’s cycles as a powerful visual language to awaken dormant emotion in designers and users. Meaning and simplicity are two concepts from nature and Hara uses these ancient principles to heighten the communication of a natural world that is so fragile and yet so powerful.

The Japanese yin and yang principle is one of the many ancient reference to life balance existing in nature, and this juxtaposition of ideas exist in my body of work. Hara embraces nature’s poetry to design with function and positive content. Hara claims future design inquiries should be done in the present, leaving the rest to legacy.2

2

Hara, Kenya, Designing Design, (Lars Muller. Netherlands, 2007).

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Sarah Pink Visual Methodologist I became half scientist and half anthropologist to communicate my experience of walking near the new TODs. I felt a direct correlation between my body, mind and the town structures (see Map 2). I used Sarah Pink’s work to help me develop my methodology and guide me through my qualitative research. I theorized and made rational hypotheses based on my presence in the area. I collected, reflected, and outlined a plan to repeat this process to reveal the contrast between the neoclassical architecture two streets away and the contemporary developments. My research uncovered strongly opposing environmental aesthetics in each of the two areas. The TODS create negative motion in my walking experience whereas the older part of town gave me a sense of what I call the sacred through the way air circulates, unseen but in motion.

Street and is an example of open reflective space in the middle of urban space. The park is next to the New York Public Library, built in 1911 in the Beaux-Arts style of neoclassical architecture. The scene is similar to the way Bloomfield used to look, before some of their neoclassical buildings were destroyed. One could only imagine the detrimental loss if the New York Public Library was eliminated. The balance of Bryant Park’s open space, structures and people is an example of a wellplanned, positive natural environment.

The dynamic motion of space and nature creates balance in the city and contributes to visitors’ mental health.

Raw Color Design Practice Raw Color is a Dutch design practice that studies nature’s influence on culture and people, similar to the Japanese’s deep reflection on the tradition of space, light and nature. For me, what sets Raw Color apart is their scientific methodology and their use of natural materials. The Raw Color approach attempts to communicate complex questions with these materials, and thus inspired me to experiment.

Sunday May 3, 2016

Bryant Park New York City Bryant Park is located in midtown Manhattan between Fifth and Sixth Avenue and between 40th and 42nd Anri Sala, Dammi

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Anri Sala Dammi i colori (“Give Me the Colors”) Video Installation New Museum, New York.

This installation is a comment on open space planned without consideration of user need. Anri Sala’s hometown of Tirana, Albania depends on one man, the mayor, to build a beneficial infrastructure for the residents. The mayor used town funds to paint all of the town’s buildings in a Mondrianinspired geometric pattern using primary colors. Sala’s documentary, titled Dammi I colori, is a visual paradox that poses the question, “What is going on here?”

The Mayor takes pride in his decision to paint the buildings instead of giving his townspeople new roads, open spaces and solid infrastructure. The documentary makes it obvious that funds could have been used elsewhere. Sala weaves this narrative through the use of color, history and personal subjectivity. The mayor also happens to be the painter and chose the buildings’ colors based on his own personal preference rather than allowing a committee or urban designer to choose the color scheme. The story of this mayor and his town is reminiscent of the local politics I witnessed in Bloomfield, New Jersey.

Gehl Architects The use of Gehl Architects case studies changed this thesis into a system of

curating my projects and research to include documentation and create a dialogue in which to build relationships and solve complex problems. GA constantly exceeds client’s expectations by analyzing their previously collected documentation and producing new data to learn from. They built their business on the intersection of social science, architecture and research. They merge graphic design with data visualization and data mining methods to compile research on real social behavior in urban communities.

Gehl Architects

They create new systems of human networks to find how information spreads across them. Bloomfield’s public sector had no say in the design change of trees size in the TODs construction plans. There was no thought given to the long-term aesthetics or the loss of the missing natural open space. Community transformation should be studied well, using current urban social structures. A minimum index number system of open space in each city may have prevented its removal.

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10. Process

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ref lective

space

April's Light, Leonor Kerke 2016.

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10.1 EXPLORATION Nature is an organic phenomenon that aids the design process and inspires reflection, which may lead to innovation. Nature lets your cognitive awareness emerge and enables you to process change. The contextual meaning of nature has a different meaning for everyone. — Kerke I approach my projects with the need to know as much as I can in order to get into the minds of the stakeholders . These stakeholders become a system that can be used to promote, or be affected by, design ideas. My process is to engage and immerse myself in research to find connections between groups to make the invisible visible, and then communicate what I have found. This exploration includes data on culture, habits, theories and forces. This ever-changing process of exploration sometimes pushed me to the point of becoming uncomfortable.

Nature is what I chose to explore in this time and space, because I felt it was being left out of the TOD’s final urban design plans. People seem to just follow the flow of change with the opinion that decisionmakers will make good choices, but we should question if the changes being made are for the greater good.

We, as a generation, are very complicated and living in a time of constant change that may cause conflict. The life patterns of institutions need redesigning and re-testing. My process is governed by the challenges of my projects. I diverge to understand systems, and then converge to address subjective needs. I start with broad observations that combine different research methods to understand

people's contextual spaces and energy.

I use nature as a research lens for this paper because I feel passionate about worldwide natural resource depletion and the loss of opportunity for open space to be included in urban communities such as the twenty-eight TODs in New Jersey.

Nature is applied contextually in my design thinking. My purpose is to find new solutions that would be useful to society. I believe our anthropocentric consumption frameworks encourage us to ignore nature and open space.

Most people have become complacent as designers of their time. My design process is documented with notes, drawings, and photographs. I filled a couple of notebooks with sketches and asked several questions about the area and the people. When processing information I sometimes cannot verbalize the revelations, but they live in a space in my mind. That mental space works like a third eye or a spirit; it’s the artistic force that lets you know when an answer is right.

My sketches are followed by photographs and audio clips. I used my senses of how a place smells, tastes, feels and sounds in the design modalities of my process. I became acutely aware of, and interested

in, how I saw the world. I wrote down what affected me the most and the least. These observations led me to create a mind map and a matrix in order to understand the players in this system. I built stories in my mind to produce outputs. The research lenses (call them vernacular, nostalgic, idealist or romantic) are constantly shifting based on design boundaries. I begin to understand how order, hierarchy and time all play a role in graphic design and architecture. My mind organized all these notes and ideas and I made plans to execute projects that are similar to gardening. I set to work to cultivate the plans that had been forming over the past several months.

Gardening is a way to reveal the unseen and the overlooked. To me, these are the future problems that waste time, limit possibilities, slows enjoyment and freezes progress. Energies This is when small problem develop to become bigger ones, like energy in motion wasting 67

away without direction. This creates the biggest sense of loss for me as a designer that I witnessed in the new TOD communities that I surveyed. (Bloomfield is one of the twenty eight). According to the 2015 World Happiness Report - an index that ranks countries based not only on life expectancy and GDP per capital, but on the absence of corruption and subjective well-being - a community is only as good as how happy the people are in it. The Better Life Index finds Switzerland number one on the happiness scale with a stronger sense of community and notes that 96 percent of Swedes say know someone they can rely on in a time of need1 — can we say the same here in the United States?

1 

Accessed: 2/24/2016, http://worldhappiness.report

the past is always swallowed and forgotten; the coming only is sacred.

Nothing is secure but life, transition, the energizing spirit.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson1

10.2 NATURE AS APPROACH Our natural environment holds the primal psychological connection that helps us bring order to disorder. I have a strong reaction when I look at landscapes such as mountains ranges with clear blue skies above. Darwin would say my reaction to landscapes is an example of instinctual natural selection sparked by an experience in my childhood. The brain absorbs silent codified messages from synapses reacting to environmental stimuli. The brain is attracted to constant stimulation but continues to be overwhelmed until it looks for aesthetic simplicity to bring it calm. Arnheim’s teaching and gestalt therapy both center on reflection as a way to reach clarity, and natural open space affords reflection and order.

I believe nature opens minds to reflect on relationships in the world. In my case, the green area near the Bloomfield train station made me stop to experience its beauty because it reminded me of a past time in my life. I listened with my whole body to the physical and spiritual side of myself. When I sat on the bench, my feet were off the ground and in the summers, my flip-flops sensed the freedom in the patch of green grass. On winter

1

Guthrie, James R., Above Time: Emerson’s and Thoreau’s Temporal Revolutions. (University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri, 2001), p.112

Lilly 759, Leonor Kerke 2016.

In nature, every moment is new;

People build habits to comfort themselves and feel secure in familiar areas. When construction began on the five-story, gray TOD building, workers boarded up the area around the public green space and I felt a sense of loss.

But I expected the green space would soon return (with a better bench). The area was boarded up for months. When they finally opened the area, I saw that concrete was placed on the green spot along with several small yearling trees.

Where was the designer in this process and why did open space appear to be so unimportant? The old green space was where the building now stands since the urban planner thought it better to narrow the street to one lane so the building could sit closer to the tracks.

There is a big question that plagues our generation: how do people keep up with the accelerating pace of change without losing our connection to nature?

This question is important to me because I am a designer who has always had an acute sense of environmental ethics. I was born in a small town named Riobamba, Ecuador. Riobamba sits on

2

Humanist Paradigm: Theorists in this paradigm are mainly concerned with personal development, reveal social constraints that limit human potential.

the skirt of the Chimborazo Mountains where the temperature ranges between 70-75 degrees midday and drops to 4050 degrees at night. I believe I have an innate connection to land, plants and sky because I was born there. Yet, living in New Jersey since the age of twelve, I found that nature, for me, could also be the landscape of New York City. Nature can mean plants and trees interspersed with concrete and steel.

It is this emotional connection to the environment that David Abrams writes about in his book The Spell of the Sensuous. Many people feel this connection to the earth, but it is innately dormant in many people too.

Some environmental theories, such as “prospect and refuge,” attempt to explain why people fear to enter natural settings and prefer instead to look at them from a distance in well-covered areas.3 Arnheim explains spatial dimensions as a visual process that begins in the brain (explained later in this paper).

A designer’s creative eye attempts to organize visual elements including

3

Hildebrand, Grant, Origins of Architectural Pleasure, (Berkeley University of California Press, 1999).

Mother Park 1, Leonor Kerke 2016.

mornings, my face, ears and nose sensed the warmth of an impending sunrise on the horizon. On my return trip, I would notice the sunset colors while looking at the town’s center, thinking that all is right with the world and me. This space represented a safe place anchored by the quiet and the familiar. This paper uses a radical humanist paradigm*2 and an interpretive paradigm** to examine and make sense of what happens when open space is eradicated.

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mental grids, color, motion, space and other visual psychological premises mentioned in Arnheim’s theory of design psychology.

Arnheim’s books include Art and Visual Perception (1954 revised 1974), Visual Thinking (1969), Entropy and Art (1971), The Dynamics of Architectural Form (1977), and several more.

I propose that designers take time to work in nature to expand their emotional connections, create new meanings and form new frameworks in Ecopsychology, defined as the study of people’s connection to ecology. I also propose that designers study the Gaia theory, defined as design with nature as a partner, as well as holistic design so that they may better understand our planet and connect with nature’s voices. Designers have begun to question anthropocentric thinking because we are rapidly losing natural open space. A connection to, and preservation of, nature is essential for a sustainable existence. The psychological connection to nature could ground all design work to what is ethical. Biologist E. O. Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis, defined as love

for life and of all that is alive, suggests that humans have an innate instinct to connect emotionally with nature. Environment and brain interaction specialist Dr. Sternberg adds that photographs of nature can foster the same emotional connection in humans.

Abrams asks us to hear the voices of nature. He argues that our written language made us forget the language of our environment. Is technology alienating us from nature, running our lives and directing our designs? Are we honestly designing for a specific type of user or for everyone? We input algorithms to get outcomes and experience emotion through these outputs. Will humanity lose the feelings of love, hate and indifference? Will we lose the physical and spiritual presence of another human being, an animal or organic material?

An ecopsychological approach to design allows me to immerse myself in my surroundings to learn from stakeholders and the contextual landscape. Designers surrounded in this type of connection to nature observe vernacular needs and habits as well as bring forth ideas, approaches and field research. As a holistic designer, I want to be more than just a problemsolver, beautifier, or process enhancer.

As a designer, I want to build better environments and incorporate sensitivity to ecology in design practices.

I decoded visual information that I collected through sensory ethnographic techniques in the town of Bloomfield.

Information obtained through conversations with townspeople and local storeowners helped give my initial abstract ideas a clear direction.

Communication is a dichotomous process of thought and action. Through my design projects I questioned the definitions of nature, transformation and loss.

context

transformational cognitive tools

sustainability politics of change

sustainability

emerging green designer

mass technology

symbiosis

theory

dialect perceptive

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happiness

urban planning

development in suburban

placemaking

art

voice

health

emerging responsible green designers

nature identity

no man is an Island

we are only human

cycle of natural resources

ingenuity

system planning

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Hey! My answers are....

I initially thought it looked like a little world. It went home to my apartment in midtown east. It lived in my home studio for a while but it got lost in the flurry of end of semester activity. Where it is now? Only time will tell....guess humans should only be responsible for nature that's self sustaining!

See u soon @ school!

Katie

11. Cultural Probe One of the research tools I learned the most from was a cultural probe.

A cultural probe is typically used to gather information about people views and activities. In contrast to observational method in field studies, time plays a role in the research. In general, the probe should be functional and attractive to guarantee an investment of time and interest.

The graduate students were asked to report on the placement of the probe as well as any feelings or any interactions worth noting. Out of the twelve people, only five completed the probe assignment. The lack of participation made me realize how detached people are to nature. The answers also evoked apathy and passiveness. Two people spoke of feeling as if they were in a forest and of observing a natural phenomenon near their desk. I collected photographs to document their participation.

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Culture Globes 12, Leonor Kerke 2016.

My cultural probe consisted of a glass globe containing fresh plant trimmings from my garden. I distributed the cultural probe to my graduate class of twelve people as a gift. The glass globe was similar to a terrarium with the exception that these probes would turn brown and die, stressing the finite aspect of our natural resources. I timed the distribution of the probe to coincide with the winter holidays and envisioned my fellow students using the glass globe on a Christmas tree or holiday bush. The participants in my graduate class were instructed to observe the glass globe over the holiday break and then fill out a emailed questionnaire after break.

open

space

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Methodologies are the underlying principles and rules of an organizational framework or inquiry procedure. I seek to understand and expand the emotional connection between designers, open space and nature as well as reveal what is lost if open space and nature are not considered in future design plans.

Designers organize themselves through methodologies to create structured plans for investigation, problem-solving, interpretation and communication. Design is an innate process where intuition is a primary qualitative tool used to search for answers to problems based on a clear research statement.

My methodology is to understand and uncover relationships or patterns that offer direction. My initial methods involved observational and immersive thinking to build potential scenarios.

The following projects use a crosspollination of design methodologies, but my primary steps are always include listening to the voices of stakeholders in the project.

Ethnography, as a practice, collects empirical data on human societies and cultures, and it has become a very popular tool in the design research for many complex projects. Having less than four months to research my paper, I did not feel that quantitative data collection research would be viable because of time constraints.

Questions that are integral to this paper include: How can nature help

Method Video Entropy, Leonor Kerke 2016.

12. Methodology

me in my design-based thinking? With so much technology can a designer just look at nature for ideas? Does reflective thinking awaken the creative voice?

Nature is critical to developing a design methodology. Innately, we can see how the creative process could be analogous to how bees build hives or how a tree forms pinecones. Being mindful of, and open to receive, nature’s cues leads to seeing visual patterns that we can use to try to better understand our world.

Nature could hold a direct connection to aesthetic beauty.

My process in this paper uses nature in any way possible to drive my design practice and create a methodology of exploration and honest intentions. The idea is to think about nature — to reflect on it while designing – and generate ideas based on this reflection. I enjoy learning as much as I can about the projects to create feasible methods. Like being in nature, I read the visual cues while exploring ways to communicate ideas. Here are three projects that exemplify this process.

13. Projects

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g r e e n i n f r a s t r u c t u r e p r e s e n tat i o n

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Bioswale Sponge Maker Project Ages 7+ Up

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• Stewardship • Collaborative • Tactile knowledge

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DEP is currently building green infrastructure in compliance with NYC Department of Environmental Conservation to reduce combined sewer overflow (CSO) discharges into New York City’s water bodies.

Bioswale Sponge Maker Project.

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They consist of a swaled drainage sloped sides with native nature.

Teacher will introduce subject matter in science section on urban infrastructure, water and/or energy that make their city cleaner, healthier and more enjoyable places to live.

Nature. Ciandit officidem quideseq omnimusa cum errovid estrupta neca mporesti beribus alignime nobit opta modia ipis et aut arum eicimincte as odicima iossunt, nihicate.

It is like a Sponge!

Designed and installed to capture and prevent pollutant runoff from entering before releasing it to the watershed or storm sewer.

a

This activity will encourage students to learn about a Bioswale’s function and the impact they have on a community.

What a Bioswale?

ke

The Goal

fall 2015

ma

his research project on ecology nd conservation focuses on the rban and rural environments. tudents learn about water onservation, energy conservation nd the impact of personal choices n local environments.

Bioswale Sunday Case Study

educational t ool to

Ecology Conservation: Research Questions and Project for Middle Schoolers

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t r a n s f o r m at i o n d e s i g n

13.1 EDUCATIONAL BIOSWALE PROJECT Baseline How to communicates a bioswale’s function 1 to a new generation; who are part of the fabric of an inner city.

Research My first assessment was to ask New Yorkers on the streets if they knew of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), or of the 1.5 billion dollar green Infrastructure projects completed, during Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration. Their answer was “no.”

The next empirical research phase was to conduct field interviews in the Greenpoint community of Brooklyn, NY where the bioswales were placed. I placed myself next to an actual bioswale and made a prototype of a bioswale out of sponges to personify the concept of water absorption.

The sponge made bioswale clearly identify the problem of sewer overflows that pollutes the East River and how a bioswales works.

I asked people if they had ever heard of the word “bioswale” and compared it to the phrase “have you heard of a sponge?”

The participants, who all lived in the area, were of different cultures, genders and ages. Out of the fifteen people surveyed, only one knew what a bioswale was and he called it a rain garden because he built some in Arizona. Based on my research, I proposed an educational tool-kit for the young local residents. This idea seemed the most promising to me to promote DEP brand building awareness and tactile knowledge.

1

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Bioswale function as a rain basin that collects rain run off water that would otherwise contribute to sewer overflows and pollute the East River.

Methodology This project’s method was pure immersion and collective learning with a group of my peers from Pratt. This was a much bigger problem than Bloomfield’s and with many stakeholders. We acquired tacit knowledge through visiting actual sites and seeing regional problems and learning their solution methods. I focused on an education tool-kit as a means of stewardship for the next generation, who must deal with future projected population obstacles in urban cities.

Engagement The prototype of the sponge attracted people, especially children ages 7-16, and reinforced sustainable ideas. I built a tool-kit lunch-bag projects to educate the function of a bioswales.

Kids build bioswales from sponges and shared their experience with each other and their caregivers. Five teenage children met on a Sunday on November 29, 2015 to learn about how rain affects urban water bodies.

Assessment This design project gives the participants a maker mindset and allows them to explore tools and techniques as well as collaborate and share knowledge. Children and teenagers learn better when material is presented in an interesting and fun way. The process of creating something unique reinforces their identity with their environment. Their understanding of scientific facts about land, water and rain usage gives them a sense of their place in the world and could lead to future civic engagement.

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13.2 FIVE WORDS PROVOCATION PROJECT Baseline How do I understand change? Why was green space removed and replaced by cement in Bloomfield? Do I have biases as a designer towards nature? Do I learn from my observations and experiences? I gave myself a five-word provocation to collect data on how I, as a design student, felt about nature’s sublime power.

Research I wanted to build something based on the five-word provocation that would be a statement, a physical manifestation of the power of design, a way to come face-to-face with my feelings of loss over the destruction of neoclassical buildings and green space in Bloomfield. I began with five words nature, the sublime, dystopian, sentient, and artifact – and used them to generate a small project idea. My previous projects did not encompass the sense of loss I felt for the green space, so I reached out to other disciplines to create a statement piece.

In the world of design, especially architecture and fashion, many designers create chairs as a statement to their place in the world. Following their lead, I chose to create a throne-like chair crafted from the branches of the tree that once lived in the open space near the Bloomfield train station, I created the throne – which I define as a symbol of sacred power that can never be denied or destroyed - to express the powerful presence of nature.

Engagement The chair is an artifact that raises questions about how people view nature. It is meant

to disrupt our unconscious bias and create a dialogue about nature’s presence in our daily lives. Made of branches and rope twine, the chair is organic and its strength comes from the design and erectness of the branches. The throne is open to interpretation; it’s a homage to nature, an effigy to the tree. I believe if you are comfortable with nature you can see the sublime. If you are not comfortable with nature, you see the dystopia.

Methodology I created a mapping system of two disconnects, nature and technology, by using sound to juxtapose the suburb and city. What I learned was that people had biases against nature. Nature is contextual to people.

Assessment I placed the chair in context, in Bloomfield, on a highly visible street corner. The chair’s presence suggested nature’s sublime power over these developments of concrete and glass. The chair expressed the loss of a tree, grass and a bench that will never be there again for people to enjoy.

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Light Series X, Leonor Kerke 2016.

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13.3 FLOWERS AND ENTROPY PROJECT Observing change. How does change happen in nature and how does it influence graphic design? The word entropy finds its roots in the Greek entropia, which means “a turning toward” or “transformation.”1 The idea of entropy comes from the second principle of thermodynamics that deals with the dispersal of energy. 2 The idea is qualitative: entropy is a change that can happen in any system. I wanted to spark change in organic material to observe and learn from the transformation.

A common example of entropy is that of ice melting in water. The resulting change has been described many ways: form to organic form, from order to disorder and from low to high entropy. I decided to document the entropy process in flowers and found that, in my flower studies, disruption like decay and disorder can be a method to excite and to build empathy.

Baseline The action of changing an environment moves energy, and entropy could be a measurement of that change in energy.

Nature reflects balance and order. I decided to create a still life scene using flowers, fruit and cultural objects and use this still life to study the entropy process over a period of time.

Research The Dutch encountered nature’s sublime power and beauty in March of 1637 with “tulipomania,” the Golden Age of tulip demand when prices for bulbs reached

1 2

Ibid.

Barnes & Noble’s Essential Dictionary of Science, 2004.

extraordinarily high levels. 3 The power that natural forms like flowers can have over humanity is still strong today. I chose to photograph nature’s transformation using flowers. Thinking of future viewers of my work, I had a sense of forging. Good forgers are drawn to flowers because they know there will be food produced soon, and food is essential to survival. Michael Pollan’s book The Botany of Desire tells stories of nature’s relationship to humanity. In the book, Pollan asks who controls whom: does nature control humanity or vice versa?

For this paper I needed to document my views through design to establish a mutually beneficial nature-human relationship. Understanding and respecting relationships in design is an extension of sensitivity to resources. Did I respect my connection to nature by using these flowers

3

Pollan, Michael, The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World, (New York, Random House, 2001).

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Engagement The still life curation process made me reflect on my position as author and viewer. I questioned what these flowers had to tell me and tell the world. I knew that I wanted to capture the story of light using the sun as a resource and sublime natural power. The sun’s rays speed the process of decay and heighten entropy.

My subconscious sensory information guided my hands to take photos that documented how the light moved and how the flowers transformed over time.

The flowers smelled sweetly, influencing my first photos. I noted how my sense of smell influenced my sight and how my sight in turn influenced my hands to capture each shot, similar to how our sense of smell influences taste.1 Assessment The results were poetry to my eyes. I captured the process of natural decay for as long as I could. To me the flowers became more beautiful each day, until finally my nose said it was time to stop. The process of change is a story not told enough in the media: visual studies provide the infrastructure necessary for understanding 1

DeVere, Ronald; Calvert, Marjorie, “Navigating Smell and Taste Disorders”, (8/2010).

Orange Syntax 1,2 & 3, Leonor Kerke 2016.

to tell this story? My flower selection was guided by a still life method used by the Dutch in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that questioned and strengthened people’s connection to nature and immortality. I chose the flowers to mimic biophilia design using the “vanitas” symbolic style of mixing flowers, mostly tulips with cultural beautiful objects, but could not find tulips anywhere in New York City or New Jersey as the flowers were not yet in season here. I used a mix of flowers, including roses, to narrate a story about change. I let the flowers speak and documented what they were trying to say. I chose a violin as the constant, representing technology’s continuous presence, and fruit as a homage to man’s will to survive.

I wanted to redo this still life study using a contemporary genre with tulips to observe change and entropy without the dark undertones of immortality in the “vanitas” style. For my second study, I chose brightly colored tulips to represent nature and a bright orange factory-made plastic mesh as a constant. This type of plastic gets in our oceans and strangles sea life. Plastic lasts 700 years, only to break into little pieces that never really decompose. The still life demonstrated that plastic remains untouched while nature perishes. A study of the light’s movement did not matter as much in this second flower study. Nature tells its own story to the viewer and I was there to capture it. Finally, I realized my body of work always is about studying of light because that is time, it create space, and textures that reveal sequence of time changing the organic, not the synthetic.

Which is more precious?

Methodology I used pass proven historic and nostalgia artist practices of a still-life such as memento mori, a styled still-life used by past and contemporar y artists to reflect vanity of earthly life — man’s search for meaning, I was looking for the meaning of nature’s position juxtaposed with technological innovations (violin and plastic).

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Orange Syntax 186, Leonor Kerke 2016.

the human condition. The final evaluations observed how change is constant in nature.

Seeing the cycle of bloom and decay is a reminder, similar to the “vanitas” still life, of how finite nature is.

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13.4 THE ONE APP AND ENTROPY PROJECT Communities have a positive effect on our health and well-being. With The One app, I created a holistic system that includes spatial attractions and daily interactions with our communities. Rediscovering where we live could help us manage our complex lives.

The One app invites the user to interact with neighbors in a neutral space based on common interests. The app harvests data connected to iBeacons (Apple’s brand). iBeacons are placed centrally at the local library or train station. The map above shows the ethnic diversity that exists in neighboring towns surrounding Glen Ridge, New Jersey. People’s interests vary as much as their ethnicity and culture.

The One App mission is to allow residents to foster a unique sense of place in their local community. The app saves time while cultivating civic engagement through

Nature-Human Centered Design S O P E N PA C E

Vernacular (native) Spirit in nature

Nature Contextual Environment

Connection (senses) Emotion in nature

Immersion (teaches) Perception in nature

cultural events, school activities, and more.

Change happens quickly and The One app stays connected 24/7 in real time and produces indexes to keep residents informed about town changes and activities. The app will be authored by librarians using data collected from local institutions such as town halls, schools, culture centers, organizations, parks, hospitals, police stations and health clubs.

In addition to keeping residents connected to their local communities, The One app also encourages engagement with nature and is designed to create a meditative experience for users.

Baseline: Using Fromm’s eight principles of need (listed below) to achieve happiness and a balanced lifestyle, The One application will use biophilic and biomorphic artistic forms (like those of Joan Miró, Antoni Gaudi and Henry Moore, see drawings) with iBeacon technology. The push method of the iBeacon leads people to experience new things and take action. More stimulation creates endorphins and dopamine, especially from familiar areas and experiences. The One application will generate pushes that nudge the user to think about nature’s patterns, colors, and principles such as complexity, water, light and space.

The One application will invite a sense of the sacredness into everyday life by suggesting that the user stare out a window overlooking their town, sit on a bench and take in the view, leave messages for people they may not have spoken to in a while or experience a new event or a place. By

making these suggestions, the app will help the user to rediscover open, reflective space.

Research The One app will encourage the use of digital devices for activism and participation in local politics as well as foster personal growth. Innovation happens in both the public and private sphere. The intention with the app is to make a difference in the digital sphere like Google did, but on a small scale: one community at a time.

Engagement The iBeacons are small (about the size of a quarter), low energy Bluetooth devices (BLE) used in retail markets, events and museums. A transmitter sends a message via Bluetooth to a nearby device with an app that uses iBeacon. This message is called a push message and appears on the screen of the digital device. The iBeacon is programmed to capture users up to 230 feet or 70 meters in range. A gentle nudge will ask the user to opt-in to receive information.

The user interface will open on the device and show the visuals and messages.

The nudge is a gentle vibration, not a typical phone ring-tone or push alert, and would only occur if a user passes an iBeacon. iBeacons could be strategically placed in high traffic areas around town, such as at a train station, and could send unique messages and offerings. The train ride from Bloomfield to New York City is between 40 to 60 minutes. During that time, riders would be informed of community activities and town council information as well as receive updates on events and news.

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The biggest obstacle for iBeacon is that Bluetooth needs to be turned on in order for a device to receive the nudge. Bluetooth decreases battery life so most users keep the service turned off. A second problem is privacy: when you agree to view the message, you’re giving away certain information such as your location or shopping preferences.

Assessment The Transit Oriented Developments’ aim is to revamp suburban towns into city-like dwellings with new businesses and services.

But people have become more complex. I wrote earlier that all the TODs have the same design, but people are not the same in each town. Each town is unique and has its own culture, habits and character.

As technology continues to mold our lives, we need to harness its potential to make our lives better based on the unique characteristics of local environments.

Further research is needed, however.

On the back end, iBeacons gather information about community members such as real time analytics data (good for voting management). This technological advancement could help better gauge the unique needs of each community and in turn make better use of people’s travel time.

13.5 METHODOLOGY CHART 3.

Preference Notices

An Example

PROJECTS

APPROACHES

LENS & FRAMING

FORM

FUNCTION

CONTENT

Birthday Cake

French

Romance

3 tier Cake: Flour, Eggs

To Eat, Impress

Message

Flower 1

Observation Sequence

Transformation

Real Flowers Lilly, roses, violin (as technology)

Documentation Change Over Time.

Beauty Aesthetics Loss decay

Flower 2

Observation Sequence

Reveal

Tulips Flowers, Plastic, Acorn (as a constant)

Document Environmental Effect

Nature vs Plastic.

Chair

Provocation of 5 words: Nature, Sentient, Artifact, Dystopian, Sublime.*

Symbolize Loss, Anger

Throne/Chair

An Effigy

Monument, Statement: 5 Words.*

Bioswale

Vernacular

Fun, Game

Toolkit

Teach

Bioswale Knowledge, Urban Ecosystem

Sensory Scarf

Futuristic

Safety Blanket

Long Translucent Scarf

Interface with Digital Environment

Memory Cores, Data

Thanksgiving Documentary

Activist

Waste

Analysis of Food Consumption

Ecological Footprint

Thesis

Open

Curating Knowledge

Research

Process Book

Open Space and Nature Effect to Urban Living

Generative

Informative

Reveal/Game

Digital Art

Question Over Development

Building

Futuristic

Transforming into a Better Community Member

Digital Application

Concierge Knows All to Social Good

Receptionist, Security, Events, Credit, Lifestyle, Town Council

Essex Beacon

(22 towns)

Preference Notices

Energy Cycle Notices

CONTEXT

METHODS

TECHNIQUE

TREATMENT & STYLE

RESOURCES

RESULTS

A Birthday Celebration

Follow a Recipe

Hand vs Mixer, Measurement

Beaux-Arts Construction

Organic Food Time

A Romantic Birthday

Historical Genre Dutch Tulip Mania

Photography Story Telling:

Sequence, Juxtaposition, Symbolism

16th Century Still Life

Organic Food Time

Sequence of Loss, Beauty, Time

Contemporary Story Telling

Photography Story Telling:

Sequence, Juxtaposition, Symbolism

Modern Still Life

Organic Food Time

Sequence of Loss, Beauty, Time

Spot Where it was Eliminated

Making

Type of Tree That Lived in Context

Magical Fantasy

Wood Material, Cutting and Drying, Time

Statement

Contemporary in Urban Communities

Hands-on Making, Cutting, Wire use, Form Molding, Designing

Personification

DIY, The Brown Bag

Local People, Children and caregivers

Educational Tool-Kit

Urban cities

Digital

Fabric Printing

Wearable

Material, Natural Fibers, Printing

Ethereal Scarf

A Family’s Thanksgiving

Photograph

Juxtaposition

Contemporary

People's Survival Question

Question food Consumption

Master Program

Print

Riso-like, Digital

Modern, Romantic

Others time, Paper + Inks, Process

Informative Knowledge

Digital platform

Digital

Algorithms Computation

Futuristic code

Platform

User Interaction

3 Towns: Activite Hubs Linked to Neutral Hubs Library, Local Lifestyle, School, Maintenance

Town Crier, A Nudger (mom/wife)

Email Specific Notification with Images

Modern Futuristic

People’s Time, Daily Cycle

Convenience + Civil Responsibility (like mowing the lawn), Security

ref lective

space

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14. What is Next?

What will be our next nature, the aesthetics of everyday life. ­ 3D Orchid — Speculative Project 2016

wrote: “I believe that the man in choosing progress can find a new unity through the development of all his human forces ... biophilia, love for humanity and nature, independence and freedom”. 2 What we need most is more research in biophilia and entropy. We need to further investigate E. O. Wilson’s definition of the biophilia theory as our innate connection to the living organism. What I call nature in this paper is limited in scope. Research in over-developed areas inlike China, and the Middle East are needed to understand how people adapt. We should observe subtle changes by looking at skies, rivers and decaying environments that have become our other nature, connecting to primal encoded brain messages of wellbeing and survival.1 This section is to understand why nature is over-looked, The twentieth century German socialist philosopher Eric Fromm introduced the word “biophilia,” and the theory behind the word, in his book The Heart of Man: Its Genius For Good and Evil. Fromm

Fromm extracted the idea of biophilia from his knowledge of the Talmud and of the Judeo-Christian story of Adam and Eve’s exile from the Garden of Eden.3 When they ate the fruit of knowledge that awoke their consciousness, Adam and Eve became separated from nature. Nature fills the gap (returning to Eden) and makes humans whole again after this divided existence.

Fromm, like Maslow’s pyramid theory, offered a better understanding of social and cultural human needs. His theories are still used in communication design today.

Erich Fromm theorized eight basic needs: 1. Relatedness Relationships with others (care, respect, knowledge) 2. Transcendence Destruction, creation and caring for people and things.

3. Rootedness To establish belonging, familial ties and feel at home in the world.

Productive.

4. Sense of Identity Expressed conformity to a group and productively as an individual. Aim. 5. Frame of Orientation Understanding the world and our place in it. Conscious.

6. Excitation and Stimulation To actively strive for a goal rather than simply responding.

7. Unity A sense of oneness between one person and the natural and human world outside.

8. Effectiveness Feeling accomplished. 4 Fromm’s transcendence theory can be observed in our anthropocentric ways.

Anthropocentrism is when man considers himself to be the most important thing in the universe. Man highest intrinsic value is higher than any other species and 1

“Terrapin Bright green”, (2014). 14-Patterns-of-Biophilic-DesignTerrapin-2014e.pdf

2

Fromm, Erich, On Being Human, (London, The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd, 1997), p. 101 Ibid, p. 97 Ibid, p. 101

3 4

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can produce higher entropic energy. The construction of Bloomfield’s TODs was executed without concern for open reflective space for future generations and this neglect of open space limits progress. We can also see the negative effects of excessive construction in certain parts of China. For example, overbuilding in Balding, Xingtai, Shijiazhuang, Tianjin and Beijing has lowered air quality and erased blue skies from view. The documentary Under the Dome explores air pollution in China and features a six-year-old who has never seen blue skies.1 Poor leadership will lead to poor cultural habits in global mega cities.

Graphic and communication design ultimately steers products and services into a user’s selective evolutionary pattern.

Design not only makes us who we are today, but it also effects who we may one day become. Graphic designers create order and balance, but having a quantitative form of measurement may aid the design process and spark new conversations. A high or low level of entropy could be used to measure universal lack of order. The body of work discussed here in this paper is defined by the ways that thinking in a natural setting can influence communication design.

Through nature, I have revealed entropy and energy found in various systems.

I believe that documenting and communicating the entropy process from micro-low energy to macro-high energy can be a way to spark a dialogue about overbuilding and the overuse of both natural and synthetic materials.

The goal should be to maintain a low entropy cycle where resources are used and reused. Low entropy is the state of having a maintainable balance of resources. High entropy means a high quantity of synthetic, mass-produced, disposable components.

Nature is finite, so it has a low entropy level and it recycles to produce the same low entropy level season after season. Nature’s

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time and use is in balance, but its very fragile and the loss of it would be our loss of opportunities and future innovations. Man is the curator of natural resources.

Studies have discovered that too much nature, meaning a forest that’s too dense, too much color in a landscape or too much sunlight, would lead to a decrease in overall wellness and benefits.2 Exposure to nature, it seems, must be kept in check, just like a city’s growth. We must create a balance between time spent in nature and time spent in other environments. Similar to the design process, entropy must be kept in balance in the universe.

According to the principles of Feng shui, a Chinese system of creating harmonious environments, our man-made surroundings are filled with energy that needs to be balanced. A. T. Mann wrote in his book Sacred Architecture that the unique mathematical rhythm of energy that surrounds us is made up of primitive elements of order existing in the human mind.3 This balance and unity with the surrounding environment can also be felt in places like Solomon’s Temple, the Athenian Parthenon, the Ka’aba at Mecca, the temple of Pronaia Athena, Delphi Greece, the Aztec Sun-temples and Gothic cathedrals. Plato, Pythagoras, the Hermeticists and Leonardo da Vinci all had names for these invisible streams of perception in the psychological design matrix. The names include sacred geometry, numerology and magical circles.

Primitive elements of archetypal order in the mind create pleasurable consonance in the brain affecting the central visual nervous system.

2 1

Jing, Chai, “Under the Dome” (film), (2/2015).

3

Ratey MD, John J. and Richard Manning, Go Wild, (New York, Little, Brown and Company, 2014), p. 180-181.

Mann, A.T. Sacred Architecture. (Great Britain, Element Books, (1993).

I SEE THE WILDERNESS AS THE MOST BLESSED OF PLACES WHERE BEAUTY IS FOREVER CHANGING MOMENT BY MOMENT. NATURE IS SUCH THAT IT IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING WITH ITS OWN FORCES AT WORK CONSTANTLY, THE WIND, THE SKIES, THE OCEANS, THE FOREST, THE FIELDS. ALL EVER CHANGING. ALL EVER BEAUTIFUL EVEN IN

15. Conclusion

ITS DECAY. — Ralph Waldo Emerson4

This paper’s direction is an axiological view of my research process through the lens of nature because, to me, there is no greater evidence of truth than nature’s truth: the sun rises and the sun sets in simple splendor. People need nature’s presence. People need air, water, plants, and good bacteria, so why is nature and open space being eliminated in the name of progress in Bloomfield (and worldwide)? The research presented in this paper documents the transformation I witnessed.

This paper has heightened my awareness of the value of nature in design and the value of curating a research process. One of the questions I sought to answer in this paper is how can we adapt design practices to reflect entropy? Nature reflects balance and order, but it also decays and recycles. Taking a cue from nature, we could design products and services that reflect balance as well as mirror the cycle of decay and renewal.

4

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Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Nature. (Boston, James Munroe and company, 1836).

I feel calm and see beauty all around; the aesthetics of everyday life. ­— Cognitive Scarf Speculative Project 2016

Documenting the entropy process has made me a better observer and taught me to value the scale, light, and colors of natural spaces.

I have come to understand how to communicate the effect nature has on the human spirit. In turn, I have created methodologies that incorporate universal principles of design as well as new principles found in physics, science and biology. Respecting all previous work, designers need to know when to look to the past to find new sources of inspiration and unexpected ways to innovate.

Through the process of writing this paper, I became a quicker prototype designer. I can now use materials like sponges, plastic or organic matter to fabricate and communicate ideas. My field research in Bloomfield, armed with a camera and notebook, yielded insights into the people’s daily lives and led me to the realization that we are time sensitive just like nature’s cycles.

Remember New York City, Sounds of Urban Nature. on May 5, 2016. ­— Soundscape Light Speculative Project 2016

While design is an integral part of our everyday experience, few of us really notice how design affects an environment and how that environment affects us.

This thesis opens up a dialogue on the role of environmental aesthetics in everyday life.

Observational practices provide the opportunity to uproot imbalance and confusion in communication and design.

Design not only transforms a physical environment, but also a spiritual one. Nature-inspired design methods cultivate a holistic view of cultures and systems to achieve positive outcomes and to create ecological architecture in balance with the natural environment.

I have written about a vision system that upholds designers as crucial mediators in humanitarian ideals. My techniques in collecting qualitative data during these past months were both unstructured and semistructured and, at times, spontaneous. I am not a trained research professional who uses focus groups or structured interviews. I am speculating based on my own experience and qualitative observation using my knowledge of proven existing design theories and Sarah Pink’s guidance. I find some people are trapped in time when it comes to reworking methodologies and incorporating new evidence into existing frameworks. The natural is simple, but it invites people to reflect and strive to innovate.

Nature has built systems to sustain this world for billions of years. People have benefited in the past from the inspiration nature provides. Open, reflective space has been encroached on by urban developments.

The constant practice building of building bigger and taller structures has produced fifty percent of all total waste in the United States.1 The more development, the more the world produces garbage.

There are many future questions to be addressed here, but the elimination of nature in Bloomfield is not good.

Nature gives designers and humanity so much to think about and to observe, and cultivating nature’s importance in my design process is a new conversation for me. Designers have the aesthetics sensitivity to help individuals create rituals for social good. Human-centric design has always been part of the equation, and it is more important now than ever that naturalistic references enter our design vocabulary and practice.

1

Arieff, Allison, “Shifting The Suburban Paradigm”, Accessed: (4/2016),Nytimes.com. opinionator.blogs.nytimes. com/2011/10/02/shifting-the-suburban-paradigm/?_r=5

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EVERY SPIRIT BUILDS ITSELF A HOUSE; AND BEYOND ITS HOUSE A WORLD; AND BEYOND ITS WORLD, A HEAVEN. —RALPH WALDO EMERSON1

In memoriam

Lauren Davis 4 15 16

1

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Nature. p. 89.

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©2016 Leonor Kerke

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©2016 Leonor Kerke