Post on 17-Aug-2014
description
PLACES MAKE US
Christina Wodtke @cwodtke
A LOVELY STORY
the house
shelters
day-
dreaming,
the house
protects the
dreamer,
the house
allows one
to dream in
peace.” ― Gaston
Bachelard, The
Poetics of Space
CLOSE YOUR EYES REMEMBER YOUR FIRST HOUSE WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER?
My first house in Iowa City was scheduled to be torn
down to be replaced by apartments. We lived month to
month, not knowing when we’d move out. I learned that
many of the most precious things in life aren’t forever.
I’ve never loved a house so much.
Internet as New Third Place?
“All great societies provide informal meeting places, like the Forum in ancient Rome or a contemporary English pub. But since World War II, America has ceased doing so. The neighborhood tavern hasn't followed the middle class out to the suburbs...” -- Ray Oldenburg
B=f(P,E) Behavior is a function of a Person
and his Environment
Lewin’s Equation
205 Structure Follows
Social Spaces
Conflict
No building ever feels right to the
people in it unless the physical
spaces (defined by columns, walls, and
ceilings) are congruent with the social
spaces (defined by activities and
human groups).
Resolution
A first principle of construction; on no
account allow the engineering to
dictate the building's form. Place the
load bearing elements- the columns and
the walls and floors- according to the
social spaces of the building; never
modify the social spaces to conform to
the engineering structure of the building.
The wide stairs make room for socialization,
without impeding travel.
This is a natural gathering spot. Flamingo Hotel in Vegas taken by Erin Malone at the IA Summit
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE
Cave
Hut
Stone Age City
VITRUVIUS
firmitas, utilitas, venustas : : durability, convenience, beauty
Durability
“Durability will be assured when foundations are carried
down to the solid ground and materials wisely and
liberally selected” Vitruvius
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel, Japan, survived an earthquake
Technical Earthquakes
I’m searching for “my architect, not “movies, directors, actors”
Social Earthquakes
If people post jobs in discussion areas, any user can move them to job board
If people use connection invites to spam/market, they can be reported.
Convenience
“When the arrangement of the apartments is
faultless and presents no hindrance to
use, and when each class of building is
assigned to its suitable and appropriate
exposure” Vitruvius
Sound familiar? We’re talking
usability!
Google’s important and unread makes it much more convenient for me to keep up
Medium keeps core tools close
while I work
Is that all there is?
“Early in life I had to choose between honest
arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest
arrogance and have seen no occasion to change.”
Frank Lloyd Wright
Bilbao did not leak.
I was so proud.
I call it the "Then
What?" Okay, you
solved all the problems,
you did all the stuff, you
made nice, you loved
your clients, you loved
the materials, you loved
the city, you're a good
guy, you're a good
person... and then
what?
What do you bring to it?
See his great TED talk at http://www.ted.com/talks/frank_gehry_asks_then_what.html
Beauty (delight)
“when the appearance of the work is pleasing and in good taste,
and when its members are in due proportion according to
correct principles of symmetry.” Vitrvius
“Less is more.”
~ Mies
SEAGRAM BUILDING (Philip
Johnson did interiors, 1957)
This logical and elegant 38-story skyscraper (525' H) has alternating horizontal bands of bronze plating and bronze-tinted glass and decorative bronze I-beams which emphasize its verticality. Placed to the rear of its site and set back from Park Avenue, it incorporates a large plaza in the front as part of the design--thus avoiding the need for set-backs. It uses granite pillars at the base and has a two-story glass-enclosed lobby.
Seagram
Building
New York City
1957
Is this Beautiful?
“Less is a bore.”
~ Venturi
Is this Beautiful?
Do we dictate what is beautiful by constraining user choice?
Or support passionate use that may not
meet our aesthetic
standards?
Beautiful
Convenient Durable
Beautiful
Convenient Durable
INNOVATION Lessons from Architects
Space
Identity
Activity Relationships
Social Space
Distribution (Viral)
Humans don’t like empty spaces. Create starter objects – newsfeeds can be good.
Site
Site
Julia Morgan
First Bay Tradition
• Natural material from site
• Traditional Craft
• Integrate in surrounds
• Each building a unique work of art
Asilomar, built by Julia Morgan in the dunes of Pacific Grove with materials all found on-site, seems to have grown out of the land it inhabits.
Site=Context
Facebook- Personal LinkedIN - Professional
On the internet, site=context. Facebook is about being personal, playful, and self-agrandizing
Site=Context
Facebook- Personal LinkedIN - Professional
Linkedin is about being professional, serious, representational and promotional It grows out of the resume.
‘I do not like ducts; I do not like pipes. I hate them really thoroughly, but because I hate them so thoroughly, I feel they have to be given their place. If I just hated them and took no care, I think they would invade the building and completely destroy it.’ The Notebooks and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn, 1962
Servant and Served Spaces
Services (settings, in this case) are separated from
served)
Services
intergraded with served is easier to comprehend and
use
Centre Pompidou was designed with services revealed rather than hidden
Services (the statistics usually only accessed by employees] are made visiable
Views
Hey, it’s the Arc de Triomphe!
Views into people’s lives
Views into the service before you sign up
Speed
25mph 5 mph 60mph
Speed
25mph 5 mph 60mph
Movement
Structure
“And if you think of Brick, for instance, and you say to Brick, "What do you want Brick?" And Brick says to you "I like an Arch." And if you say to Brick "Look, arches are expensive, and I can use a concrete lintel over you. What do you think of that?" "Brick?" Brick says: "... I like an Arch"
It’ s important to honor the material.“ – Louis Kahn
This is a tall page
Flipboard moves in a variety of directions
Even if you use the “wrong” gesture, Flipboard reacts correctly.
Gehry has been inspired recently by fish. What would a
website be if it was a fish? Sound silly?
His masterwork in Bilbao is the result of his chasing fish.
It’s a school of abstract fish.
POETICS Emotion of spaces
What do you associate with a nest? What feelings? What memories?
It nests at the end of a tunnel bored by itself in a bank. There,
six or eight white and translucent eggs are laid, on fishbones
not on bare clay, on bones thrown up in pellets by the birds.
On these
rejectamenta (as they accumulate they form a cup-
shaped structure) the young are born. And, as they are fed and grow, this nest of
excrement and decayed fish becomes a
dripping, fetid mass
Charles Olson uses the kingfisher nest to play against the sense of security nests give us.
The “last homely house” plays with our feelings of home and loss and preciousness
DOES THE INTERNET HAVE A HEARTLAND?
POETICS FOR PLACES ONLINE Personality
73
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT WHEN YOU THINK OF PAINTING?
75
Poetics: Control, power, precision Here is the poetics of power, of mastery
76 Values: Lightweight, easy, sketchy, imprecise
But here are the poetics of sketching: playful, lose and simple
But the mixer comes from the poetics of polished and power. It breaks the mood.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU THINK OF WRITING?
79
Word is about power, control, precision
80
OmmWriter Beauty, peace, zen
OmmWriter plays soft chimes, setting a mood of “the artist’s way”
81
Iawriter’s poetics invokes Hemmingway and Wolfe. Serious, typewritten, the labor of words
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU THINK OF SOCIAL?
What is twitter?
Cocktail party!
What is facebook?
The parlor, where one “entertains.”
What is Linkedin?
The Office (Hi Bob!)
KNOW YOUR PRINCIPLES
KNOW YOUR MEDIUM
KNOW YOUR POETICS
BE TRUE
PLACES MAKE US
MAKE GOOD PLACES
@cwodtke cwodtke.com eleganthack.com