*It's no secret that I dote on these.
Doors of Perception Report
Design for resilience
by John Thackara
June 2009
TRANSITIONING
Fui So means "ability to rejuvenate" in Mandarin. I learned this from Wong
Lai-yin, a Chinese participant in last week's Transition Towns event in London.
Transition initiatives and groups are multiplying at extraordinary speed:
170 communities have been officially designated Transition Towns (or cities,
districts, villages - and even a forest); and a further 600 communities are
"mulling it over" as they consider the possibility of kicking off their own
Transition Initiative. The Transition Towns WIKI opens with the statement,
"Here's how it all appears to be evolving...". That statement helps explain
why the movement is growing so fast: it's been designed to be scalable.
Read more at:
http://www.doorsofperception.com/archives/2009/06/transition_town.php
TOOLS FOR FACE-2-FACE (TRANSITION WEB STRATEGY)
How best should communities share knowledge when and where it is most needed?
Wikipedia is a hard act to beat in terms of formal and recordable knowledge.
But what about lived, embodied, situated knowledge? How do we share that?
A few weeks before the London event, the Transition Towns web team asked for
feedback on the "great diversity of web tools and processes currently in use and
under development" and asked for input on "which of these will be resilient and
adaptable enough to support the changing needs of transition groups around the
world." That's a demanding brief: deploy common tools, processes and protocols
to help rapidly-evolving and heterogeneous groups do their work. Ed Mitchell,
one of the web team, told us in London that face-2-face is overwhelmingly the
most important mode of communication for Transitioners. Among key web
development principles for the next period the most important is that "we don't
want to force people to behave in a particular way." Mitchell presented a map of
inter-connected functions and channels that will include guided search -
with human beings to help never far away. "There is no such thing as a
single Transition website, he explained, and tools will be selected that
cause Transitioners to "spend as little time in front of computer screens
as possible". As a description of how to use the web to facilitate change,
this was the most insighful that I've heard in 15 years.
MONUMENTO (EXCHANGING ACORNS, NOT TREES, WITH SAO PAULO)
We moved the Doors conference from cosy Amsterdam to India, in 2002, because it
seemed right to go to a new context and re-frame questions of sustainability
there. The trouble is that long-haul flights produce 110 grams of carbon dioxide
per passenger kilometer; each of us flying to Doors 9 in Delhi therefore
produced the best part of two tonnes of CO2 emissions. Our excuse, then, was
that it was too late (when we learned about those numbers) to cancel the event.
But that excuse will no longer wash. Doors' legacy business - bringing together
hundreds of people from different parts of the world - has to change, and
radically.
So let's change it together. From 10 October to 11 November we will participate
in a project in in Sao Paulo called Monumento. It combines the words monument,
and moment. A 22-story abandoned office building (among litreally thousands in
that city) is being turned into an "auto-construction laboratory" by two
ex-architecture groups, Coloco and Exyzt. They are working with mixed local
communities in an area of the city that's an office district by day, and home to
multiple urban tribes by night. The hard aspects of the project involve
re-purposing the building using local skills, and rescued materials and
equipment, to create living and production spaces. The soft programme is
described by Coloco's Pablo Georgieff as "a fusion of culture and social
production". During the six-week season different aspects of what he calls "the
art of meeting" will include food, theatre, storytelling, and live presentations
of projects that explore new ways to organise daily life.
Monumento coincides with an international symposium on sustainable design in the
city on 5 and 6 November. We are also in touch with DESIS-Brazil, a network on
design for social innovation that connects universities in Brazil with DESIS
groups in China and Ezio Manzini's group at Politecnico di Milano. We are also
talking to the Sao Paulo designer Paula Dib who is developing a programme at
another university there, FAAP.
So here's the challenge: how to introduce service innovation projects to the mix
in Sao Paulo, and exchange experiences with the Monumento participants, without
organising an international convention. Send your thoughts to: john at
doorsofperception dot com. We'll flesh out the idea in next month's newsletter.
http://www.momentomonumento.org/en/
http://portal.anhembi.br/sbds/speakers.html
http://www.sustainable-everyday.net/desis09_brazil/
POROUS PARIS (REPORT)
Transition Towns is not exclusively bottom-up; its groups are encouraged to
engage with local government entities where possible. But a magisterially
top-down project in France accentuates the difference. Nicolas Sarkozy, the
French president, asked 10 uber-architects to project 20 years into the future
and dream up "the world's most sustainable post-Kyoto metropolis". An
illustrated report in English has just been published. As flagged last month, I
especially like the metaphor of "Paris as a sponge" proposed by Bernardo Secchi
and Paola Vigano. They state: "Porosity: relation of the empty to the full, of
the unbuilt to the built, of vegetable to mineral, of accessible space to
uncoupled space... porosity through a remodelling of the landscape, porosity
through a multiplied transportation system, porosity to create a habitat revised
and corrected for "sustainability". And so on. These words accompany a rather
horrible picture - which only goes to show that some architects can write better
than they can.... design?
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/actualites/communiq/albanel/dp_grand_paris_en.pdf
NORWEGIAN ARCHITECTURE POLICY (BYLUFTSLOV)
Meanwhile in Norway 13 different government ministries (surely a world record)
are working together on a new architecture policy. For Nina Berre, director at
Norsk Form, who is helping to organise the process, Norwegian architects
"excel at building harmonic structures in difficult terrain - and the end result is
often poetic. Cottages grow out of rocky surfaces, as do roadside rest areas or
public buildings, scattered across the landscape as if placed by an act of God".
Norway is the same size as Germany but has fewer than five million inhabitants
(to Germany's 80m); the country is not exactly short of water; and it has also
stashed a huge pot of money from its (now declining) oil producing heyday.
Confronted by this rather luxurious starting point, I suggested, in my talk,
that Norway lead the world and base its architecture policy on a land ethic.
Kjetil Thorsen, Norway's leading architect, then talked about a word he has
coined,"byluftslov" that describes a Nordic model built around the concept
of joint ownership, togetherness and shared responsibility for public space.
My Norwegian is a bit rusty so I've asked Kjetil if his intriguing piece
could be translated.
http://www.norskform.no/default.asp?V_ITEM_ID=4516
FOODPRINTING THE CITY (SYMPOSIUM, THE HAGUE)
In March 2007 we organised Doors 9 in Delhi to explore the design agenda for
food systems. Since then, interest in the subject has exploded and architects
the world over are now photoshopping gardens onto every proposal. The next
priority now is to get serious on strategy and implementation - to put food and
water systems at the heart of city planning and design. A seminar in The Hague
this month will launch Foodprint, a two year project to explore the
possibilities of food production in the Dutch capital city. Speakers include
Carolyn Steel (author 'Hungry City'); Wally Satzewich (Spinfarming); Rob Baan
(Kopper Cress Micro Vegetables); Debra Solomon (Culiblog), Will Allen from
Growingpower. I'll talk too. Friday June 26, 2009, The Hague.
http://www.het-portaal.net/foodprint/STR+Food+programma+07.pdf
http://www.het-portaal.net/foodprint/Sprekers.pdf
WATER STRESS (JOURNAL)
In Europe we extract 286 cubic kilometres of water every year; that's 5300 cubic
metres per person. Where does it all go? Well, up to 1500 litres of water are
needed to grow enough biofuels to move one car ten kilometres. 2000 litres are
needed a day to feed each one of us. And it takes 140 litres of water to grow
enough beans for a single cup of coffee. It sounds, and is, unsustainable:
Over-exploitation impacts heavily on the quality and quantity of remaining
water, and on the ecosystems that depend on it. And it's not just a problem for
southern Europe; water stress is also increasing in parts of the north. I could
go on, but for more insight get hold of the International Water Association's
excellent journal, Water21. The June issue contains a fascinating survey on the
interconnectedness of water and energy.
http://www.iwaponline.com/
http://www.iwapublishing.com/register
IS DIGITAL LIFE LONELY? (LIFT CONFERENCE, MARSEILLE)
"We have come to an era where society breaths technology. Screens are familiar
to us, however we do not know the consequences that tie with their domination".
So begins the LIFT conference blurb. My own take, which I'll talk about, is that
new technology connects us to each other more, but leaves us *less* connected to
the biosphere of which we are a co-dependent part. We need to use digital infra
in ways that reverse this ecocidal divide. Keynote speakers include Euan Semple,
Gunther Pauli, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet (the French Digital Economy Minister),
Usman Haque, Bruce Sterling. The event takes place in the Palais du Pharo, a
gift to Napoleon perched on the cliff tops at the entrance of the Vieux Port.
Marseille, 18-20 June 2009
http://liftconference.com/lift-france-09
AALTO UNIVERSITY: FOR LIFE, OR UNDECIDED? (TEXT OF TALK)
A major new university is to be named after the Finnish architect and designer
Alvar Aalto. Aalto University, which opens in 2010, is the result of a merger
between the Helsinki School of Economics (Finland's top business school, with
4,000 students); the University of Art and Design (one of Europe's top design
and art schools, with 2,000 students); and Helsinki University of Technology
(the main technical university, including the country's principal architecture
school, with 15,000 students). Four hundred people are already busy preparing
the new university, but I was asked to speak at symposium in Helsinki called
"Beyond Tomorrow" about what the new university should do, and be. The
University has stated that it will will "make a positive contribution to Finnish
society, technology, economy, art, art and design, and support the welfare of
both humans and the environment". I proposed that Aalto University should stand
for something more precise than this: an unconditional respect for life, and for
the conditions that support life. Read more at:
http://www.doorsofperception.com/archives/2009/05/post_43.php
HOLISTIC GREEN IN PALESTINE (TEXT)
Wael Al-Saad is making plans to return to his Palestinian homeland after 17
years of secure living, studying, and working in Germany. He is convinced that
there is enough land with high capacity (for instance for dryland permaculture)
for innovative production methods in which they can invest resources, and become
more productive. Read more at "What Does a New Start Look Like in Palestine?
Returning Home to Create a Holistic Green Economy".
http://globalpalestine.blogspot.com/
ARTS AND ECOLOGY (SURVEY, UK)
Respond! started as a simple idea. "What if we find out how many arts events in
the UK in a single month are responding to the ever-increasing threats to the
environment?" The Royal Society of Arts is taking a snapshot of activity all
around the UK to build on the agenda of World Environment Day on 5 June. The
RSA's excellent Arts & Ecology has the details.
http://www.rsaartsandecology.org.uk/projects/respond
FISHING SYSTEMS (VISUALISATION, UK)
Justin Buckley has launched a website called EyeOverFishing that makes visible
the UK fisheries system. It shows how the fishing industry, EU and UK
policy-makers, and consumers, damage the ocean ecosystem - and how
each group can participate in its restoration. "It's not really a campaign,
it's more of an educational resource that collects the various problems with
the UK fisheries in one place, to make it easier for people to find ways
of solving them" Justin tells me.
http://www.eyeoverfishing.org
BLEEP! SAID SID (SONIC DESIGN, PORTO)
An alarm clock that you cannot hear, but still wakes you up. A shower curtain
that sings along with you. Chewing gum that allows you to catch sounds that
surround you and chew them into a new remixed soundscape. Sonic Interaction
Design (SID) explores "ways in which sound can be used to convey information,
meaning, and aesthetic and emotional qualities in interactive contexts".
Karmen Franinovic is listening out for inspring examples for a sound
and computing conference in Porto. 23-25 July, Porto, Portugal
http://smc2009.smcnetwork.org/programme/special-sessions/sid.html
HISSI FIT (SPOILED BRAT RANT)
Why is it that "design hotels" are such a total nightmare? At the K in Helsinki
I had to press the remote eleven times to turn on CNN and throw 15 cushions onto
the floor before I could get into bed. My tooothbrush fell in the loo twice
because there was nowhere to put it. I would walk endlessly around the room
pressing sliders, buttons and knobs trying, without success, to illuminate the
room. No flat surfaces were available to put my laptop on. The control panel on
the lift ("hissi" in Finnish) was so confusing that I had time to make new
friends with fellow lost souls in its cabin as we went up and down.
I prefer yurts.
__________________________________________________
Doors-Report mailing list
http://lists.webtic.nl/mailman/listinfo/doors-report
