What is design cultivation about in 2024 and beyond? The new Singularity

 

Braking cars on the interstate, copyright Stephen M. Frey

What are we waiting for? 

What does cultivating design mean today as compared to over ten years ago about the time the last DC blog post appeared here? 

Can I say I do not really know except I know a few things remain true. 

Cultivating design or design cultivation as I call it here means seeing to learn and learning to see. For me design means reflecting on the who, what, where, why, and when of things and experiences we have everyday. What lies underneath the pen or pencil, or stylus we use to write, draw, sketch or muse in a sketchbook, an iPad, or touchscreen notebook. 

It means asking questions about why something is the way it is. How did that something come to be the way it is today? In 2024, different forces come to play on the everyday that didn't exist in 2012 in the way they do now. In 2012, we were just two years into the last singularity event that occurred, the iPhone which truly ushered into the world unfathomable changes in everyday life. 

The singularity event then changed how we communicated, amplified the effects of emerging internet based applications and standalone programs, social media as we know it today. The portability of the smartphone and iPhone untethered us from our laptops, desktops and more. It also fed the media streaming revolution and millions now more than a decade later, cutting big Cable with ad free services, only to transform in the last few years to streaming services with adds again. 

But now, over a year ago now, another singularity came along that will no doubt transform our lives like the invention of the Smartphone and iPhone, those are large language models like ChatGpt, Dall-e and all the artificial intelligence enabled assistants and guide by the sides in all aspects of everyday life. Now we have new 'friends' we can ask advice, questions or tell them to draw pictures or make illustrations, do coding, answer phones and replace people performing routine jobs.  

What does this mean for cultivating design, with this AI enabled assistants by our side? What does it mean to be original and come up with ideas when now we can brainstorm with the help of AI pretty respectable ideas and more? Hopefully, we can use these tools to cultivate better design outcomes that more solidly solve today's and tomorrow's challenges.  But what do you think? 

(A note, this was not enabled by any AI tools in any way. I'm sure it shows. But it is authentic that way. My writing about cultivating design is authentic and not assisted.)  

What I want for the New Year: "The Green Workplace", Leigh Stringer's new book

Two Greenbuild's ago in Boston in November 2008, I saw Leigh Stringer, the Author of "The Green Workplace: Sustainable Strategies that benefit employees, The Environment, and the Bottom Line." who participated in a social media oriented seminar with other green luminaries of the blogosphere. I blogged about it in November of 2008. It was a fascinating session.

Last August her book named after the blog she originated and oversees became available. It's what I want going into the New Year. Apparently The Green Workplace Blog provides much of the material she and others cultivated there into a transformative book about the ins and outs of greening your workplace. Reading reviews of it on Amazon indicates usefulness to workplace sustainability managers, human resource personnel, designers of all kinds among others.

I'm going to sample some of the review words and phrases I saw there to tantalize.

------------

"alternative work options"

"replacing destructive behaviors"

"a good compilation of the issues facing corporations today"

"help(s) businesses improve their ecological footprints"

"(the book) informs, educates and inspires..."

"illuminating, accessible, and comprehensive"

What I'd like to know is how others who have read the book used it in their workplace design and sustainability efforts in the last couple of months? What effects do resources like this have on workplace culture and facilities management, design process, materials selections and operational effects, user satisfaction etc.? What kinds of changes has this inspired for others? Do people who bought the book use the blog and vice versa? At Maclay Architects we're always on the look out for inspiring ideas to help us with our work with our environmentally and socially conscious clients and partners.

Of course, I've got to go read the book and I'll let you know how it folds into our work and design process as well.

In the meantime, tell me how this book has affected you. Or, if you have other books or articles you suggest I take a look at and perhaps share with others, please let me know. I'm happy to take a look. 

Interested in learning more? 

You can find us at www.arocordisdesign.com, the website of our Montpelier, Vermont-based residential architecture firm practice Arocordis Design. If you want to contact us there, click on this link. 

#netzero #homedesign #arocordisdesign #vermont #vermontarchitect #architecture #climateaction

Blog Feedback and the Importance of Adsense

Give me your feedback! Put it on the line!

I've been blogging for a while now and wonder if I could ask for some feedback from you, my loyal readers.

so here goes....

Ads.... how important, useful are the Ad-sense ads by Google on my blog? Are they helpful to you? Do you like clicking on them? Wish they weren't there? Are the Ad topics of interest to you?

From a content stand-point, are there other topics you'd like to see me write about or return back to which I haven't posted on recently?

In regards to ease of use, does this blog operate effectively for you when you navigate it? Is it easy or challenging? Fun, Annoying?

Are there any things I can do differently to make your time spent more engaging, interesting?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Steve