Finding Design Inspiration at our Farmer's Market

Last weekend I visited our farmer's market in Montpelier where I live. I go there every so often not buy fresh food or people watch ( I do those things to) but to look for visual inspiration.

I take pictures of vegetables in containers, closeups showing materiality and quality of daylight dancing off of surfaces. It's very interesting to me see subjects in multiples or grids, piles of material etc. There's beauty in the purity of forms and how they interact in their naturally stacked, loaded and displayed configurations. Looking at shade and shadow, unorthodox image cropping are all on the table.

Looking at these shapes and interactions cleanses my mind and opens it up to new ways of seeing and organizing, composing images etc. See the spiral glass bowl and try to imagine the market scene shown in the curving reflection.

Please see these photos from my visit and comment on what this process means to you. Thanks, Steve

BMW GINA - Visionary Concept Car (Adaptation)

I recently viewed the below video showing BMW's new concept car covered by an advanced fabric rather than metal or composite materials. It stretches and adapts to a moving ekoskeleton below in a very sensual kinesthetic way. The video introduces the overall conception of the vehicle, how it adapts to different uses and modes. It is revolutionary in it's thinking and I can't wonder how the adaptive design approach could be translated into the architectural design process. These images are screen shots from the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTYiEkQYhWY

Do buildings need 'skins' as we understand them with siding, shingles, metal panels, glazing or could there be more of an adaptive ekoskeleton with a durable weather resistant fabric responding to different times of day, weather and seasonal conditions? See the video and let me know what you think. - Steve

Montpelier, VT City Wide Bike Sculptures

My adopted city of Montpelier in north central Vermont is hosting through October a series of wonderfully eclective bike sculptures populating our fair city's street corners, front yards, trees and sidewalks. Come see and visit them for yourself. The idea is to prompt discussion about bicycling as alternative transportation layered with artistic whimsy and eccentric wheeled vision.

Go check out the website at http://www.sculptcycle.org/

or a news story at a local TV station. http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp? S=8444011&nav=4QcScDEz "Bike Display Rolls into Montpelier."

or an article in my favorite local newspaper.

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080605/NEWS02/806050362/1003/NEWS02

Steve

The Hero and Sustainability

It is with rapt fascination I stare at gas station signs at $4.01 / gallon. The words of the Whos in Whoville echo in my ears...we are here...We Are Here...WE ARE HERE. Sooner than anyone could imagine we're tasting the beginning of the next chapter of our lives with this siren call from the gas pumps. (I'm sorry if I abuse all kinds of metaphors but I can't help it.)

A friend over for dinner the other night was discussing the gas prices and how we need a new nationwide 'race to the moon' galvanizing call to action with the goal sustainable survival here on earth rather than a moonshot. As I reflect on the return of Indiana Jones in the summer movie season I remember the attraction and primacy of the hero figure in our cultures. Well, we need new hero's today to help us move towards a better tomorrow. However, we need both epic heroes and everyday heroes.

We need the epic ones to motivate us a nation to do better and make different choices and change our energy usage and other behaviors counter to sustainable values. We need everyday heroes to make difficult choices to change on a daily basis. These unlikely heroes must figure out how to car pool more, turn out the lights, not take car trips to faraway vacation destinations, insulate their homes, grow their own food more often and work together as neighbors, communities and regions to change group behaviors to help us all stabilize the uncertain times ahead.

Our next president and others in the national limelight hopefully can play the role of epic hero inciting us to join together to make the rapid changes our society so badly needs to respond to the continuing unpredicatable energy and economic situation we are facing. My hope is this next President and administration will turn outward to other nations to work together to change behaviors on a giant epic scale. Turning inward only, while initially satisfying and absolutely helpful is myopic and unhealthy. We must both work within our borders and without as the earth knows no such boundaries only inter-relationships and inter-dependencies.

Goshen School in Indiana_Go see this place

http://www.goshen.edu/merrylea/rieth/index.php , Very interesting link to a environmentally focused school in Indiana with an interesting perspective on sustainabilty and land use.

Best, Steve

A Carbon Conundrum

Recently the office I work at reviewed the carbon footprint of our workplace and our professional activities. During this process, we discovered something I want to share. Our Carbon conundrum.

The carbon conumdrum is the following. We all thought our carbon footprint of our building would be larger than anything else we did. You know, all of the workings of an office, keeping a building fueled up, lights on, maintaining the facility etc. Given our rural location away from significant population centers 3/4 of our 20+ staff must drive more than 2o to 30 mins roundtrip to work. Our average commute is is actually an hour. We found the biggest part of our carbon footprint pie is our commuting, driving back and forth from job meetings, flying to conferences, meetings etc. out of state. It's not our building's operational costs. It's just plain old us moving around burning fossil fuel.

How did we react as a group to this news? Well we're much more sensitive to how much impact our driving is making and carpooling more often. We're at least more self-aware and possibly can change our commuting and meeting behaviors. Perhaps we don't need a face to face project meeting or really go to that conference or trade show out of state. You don't change this behavior overnight. I'm especially finding it hard as I have a different family schedule and after work activities every night, no set routine. For others it is easier. Regardless, it's important and I hope I can successfully carpool at least one day a week for the next year. It does make a difference.

Anyways, what do you think about the Carbon Conundrum? Best, Steve

This is a study of a composite of some homes we're designing in our office in an idealized setting.

Innovation and the Curse of Knowledge

Last night I read in the Sunday NYT 12/30/07, "Innovative Minds Don't Think Alike" by Janet Rae-Dupree in the Bright Ideas section.

I found it very compelling reading as every day in practicing architecture and design I confront my knowledge and lack of knowledge in the work I participate in. As I grow in experience I share the same tendency to come at design challenges with the past in mind rather than with eyes and mind wide open.

Quoting from the article, "when it comes time to accomplish a task - open a store, build a house, buy new cash registers, (design an sustainble, green buildings)..those in the know get it done in the way it has always been done, stifling innovation as the barrel along a well worn path."

This struggle to effectively design a project and/ or provide a service of value vaccilates uneasily between re-use of building systems, site plan ideas or space layouts which are comfortable like old friends or purposeful re-imagination of the design problem or brief with eyes wide open to all of the possibilities.

It is important to have outsiders involved in these design processes to keep professionals and the experts in check. Maintaining a fresh perspective is challenging especially with tight budgets, short timelines and high expectations of clients and other design team members towards designers. If outsiders can't be brought in ask "basic" questions yourself.

Design should be easy to understand and to use, whether it's a knob on an IPOD or entry leading into a large building. This process is difficult as so often there are so many details and issues to grapple with. What I take away from the article is to always keep a fresh eye on where a design is going and constantly ask very basic questions to test the validity of design choices.

An example for me is when choosing a design strategy, regardless of scale, is this choice in someway helping rather than hindering the quality of our environment for our generations and generations to come. If I can't comfortably answer this essential question I pause and take notice. Often such choices come with interdependencies which also must be figured out.

So often, we aspire to design something truly compelling, interesting or unique and in doing so express some aspect of our own inner creative qualities and leaving our mark on humanity, while serving the needs of the greater good. As architects and designers of the built
evironment the marks we leave are usually all too visible and long lasting. Taking care to be reflective and insightful along the whole design process is essential to producing value.

Read this article.