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About
News, updates and jet-lagged commentary on my work as creative director, writer and consultant specialising in design, urbanism, open source methodologies, and other topics that seemed like a good idea at the time.
Publications
Media Coverage
SHIFTboston: Ideas Competition Winner
Posted on January 23, 2010
Filed Under boston, ideas | 1 Comment
The winner of the SHIFTboston competition for new ideas for Boston has been announced. Congratulations to Andrzej Zarzycki and Sapir Ng of Arlington, Mass for their proposal for “The TUTS: Tremont Underground Theater Space”. As the TUT submission asks:
“WHAT IF the abandoned TREMONT STREET SUBWAY TUNNEL became an interactive social environment? What if we shifted these contemporary urban ruins into a network of underground, interactive social environments–experiential theatres and immersive digital (art) galleries—while celebrating the past through a media-infused trolley museum inside North America’s oldest subway system?”
As I posted a few weeks ago, I was on the jury for the competition, and for full disclosure, The TUTS received my vote. I loved the use of existing and overlooked infrastructure – in this case, an abandoned subway tunnel – and its benefits to the urban fabric of downtown Boston, linking the Green Line and the Orange Line of The T in an imaginative way.
SHIFTboston is gearing up for another competition for new ideas for my beloved Boston, so watch this space, as I’ll be sharing their future plans soon. In the meantime, I encourage you to visit the competition site to check out the other competitions entries that won Runner-Up and Honorable Mention. It’s always a pleasure to be on a jury for new urban ideas, and SHIFTboston held a bounty of them. I’m looking forward to the next iteration already.
Urban Hacks and Re-Use for 2010: The Urban Guide for Alternate Use
Posted on January 11, 2010
Filed Under hacks, ideas, open source, projects, urban hacks | 2 Comments
Open Chairs by Nina Mrsnik
Resourcefulness has become one of the most important skills for people to develop today. What resources do you see being treated as waste in your city that could be used to benefit others?The Urban Guide for Alternate Use is a catalogue of city-specific opportunities for resourcefulness within existing urban environments, compiled simply by asking the city’s residents to devise alternate uses for things already present in the city. It is a guide that acts as a catalyst for a new form of resourcefulness in the city, and as a communicative vehicle for exchange among residents.For the festival Exchange Radical Moments, a guide will be created for one of the participating cities, filled with the ideas submitted by the city’s residents, as gestures of donation to their fellow citizens. The city guide will be written by the imagination and resourceful thinking of its residents, and can serve as an alternate guide to the city. Together the different submissions will form a powerful collection of insights into how people mentally and physically play with the urban landscape as a conglomeration of readymade objects ripe for intervention.
Improvised Amsterdam Bird Bath
In Discussion with Jaime Lerner
Posted on November 1, 2009
Filed Under architecture, creative strategies, london, talks | Leave a Comment
For most people with even a passing interest in innovative urban problem-solving, the words Jaime Lerner and Curitiba, Brazil will hold special reverence. Lerner is the urban planner and three-times mayor of Curitiba who transformed the once traffic-congested, economically and environmentally challenged city into one of the world’s most livable urban spaces. This Wednesday at the British Film Institute, London, a documentary exploring his innovative approaches for “transforming problems into solutions” in the city will be shown, and following the screening I will be joining Jaime Lerner on stage to discuss his approach and visionary techniques.
The talk will be hosted by Peter Jenkinson OBE, an exceptional individual himself for his work with creative solutions in the face of limited resources. For those of you in London Wednesday 4 November, please come join us at the BFI for this exceptional opportunity. More information on the evening can be found here. For those unable to attend, please watch the trailer above and go see the film as soon as you can. It is a game-changer for urban strategies.
Design Hacking available for download
Posted on October 16, 2009
Filed Under hacking, talks | 1 Comment
From Left: Paul Thompson, David Godber, Scott Burnham, Colin McDowell, Otto von Busch
For those who weren’t able to attend the launch of my publication and the related debate on design hacking at the RSA on Wednesday (and for those who weren’t even close but still want a copy) I’m pleased to say that “Finding the Truth in Systems: In Praise of Design Hacking” is now available for download here (PDF, 291KB).
It was a fantastic night – the panel was sharp and the audience was on form with questions and debate afterwards. One of the great pleasures when chairing an event is opening questions to the floor and having a sea of hands spring up in front of you. And for that to happen with a packed house in the hallowed Great Room of the RSA is a special pleasure indeed.
Winding down later that eve I was glad to see that some live tweets were taking place during the session. From joannejacobs:
With some dialogue carrying on into the next day. From jasecoop:
Thanks to all who came, and for those of you who are just downloading “Finding the Truth in Systems: In Praise of Design Hacking” now, let me know what you think.
Design Hacking: Publication Launch
Posted on October 9, 2009
Filed Under hacking, writing | 1 Comment
Street Market Hacking Stall, Hong Kong. Photo: Scott Burnham
To launch my publication “Finding the Truth in Systems: In Praise of Design Hacking”, London’s Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) is hosting an event on 14 October 2009 to open the dialogue on design hacking.
The RSA commissioned me to write the text as an overview and exploration of ways in which individuals are taking design decisions into their own hands by hacking, reconfiguring and reworking the products, systems and spaces that make up our lives. The publication and event are part of the RSA’s Design and Society programme, which states:
“Contemporary society needs to be more resourceful: its citizens more engaged, self-reliant and collective in their striving. A combination of professionalisation, bureaucracy and consumerism has reduced our resources of common competence and as citizens we often appear to be less resourceful than ever. At the same time our consumption has diminished the earth’s resources and we now have fewer resources of energy and natural material at our disposal.”
- Emily Campbell, RSA Director of Design
It is from this perspective that “Finding the Truth in Systems: In Praise of Design Hacking” is launched. Design hacking is the resourcefulness of the individual stepping in when the products and systems we are offered fall short. In the text I explore ways in which this is being done as a response to both the limitations of resources and economies in the developing world, and the imbalances which exist in the products, systems and cities of developed regions. I feel that hacking methodologies and philosophies hold profound benefits, as I explore in some of the topic areas in the text:
- Hacking creates new engagements between the product and the consumer
- Hacking mandates relevance and necessity in design
- Hacking is resourceful
- Hacking creates abundance from limited resources
- Hacking finds the truth in systems
And when it’s not being summised in bullet points, the text goes like this:
Hacking gives people a voice. Hacking creates new realities, options and possibilities from those we are given, whether commercial, social or civic. It offers forth the notion of a democratisation of design, by enabling the end user to be part of the process and not only on the receiving end of it. There is a triumphant message of individual resourcefulness and direct engagement when a hacker sensibility is applied.
Most of all, hacking is evidence of our fundamental self-reliance in spite of professionalism, bureaucracy and industrial supply. In many ways, it is a return to, or a rediscovery of, the skills which saw us through our pre-consumerist times, when ‘making do’ with what you had to hand required inventiveness. To relegate such activity to the realms of ‘amateurism’ is a dangerous dismissal, for it not only further deepens the ‘us and them’ disconnect between design and society, but ignores the vast potential of the creative energies at work outside established channels.
I will make the PDF of the publication available here after it is launched in dead tree form next week. For those of you in, near, or visiting London, I invite you to come to the event. Famed fashion hacker Otto van Busch will present an overview of his work, with Sunday Times journalist Colin Mcdowell, Dr Paul Thompson – RCA Rector and former director of London’s Design Museum and the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and David Godber of the Design Council joining to dig into the realm of Design Hacking. I will be chairing the evening.
The event is free, but booking is essential. For more details and to reserve a space, go here.
Competition: Big Ideas for Boston
Posted on October 2, 2009
Filed Under ideas | Leave a Comment
Boston is a city very close to my heart. It was my home for several years during and after my time at Boston University, and of course home to the Red Sox. But for all the things about Boston I love, I have always been dissapointed that the city hasn’t become a league leader in radical urban thinking and bold new strategies.
The ingredients are all there – the city has proven its ability to deliver on big ideas, having pulled off The Big Dig, one of the boldest urban development projects in recent history. The intellect is certainly there, with the faculty and students of Harvard, MIT, BU, and dozens of other universities based in the area. It always seemed that the city needed more catalysts to bring it all together and go after new a urban future for the city. Well, one has arrived.
SHIFTBoston has just announced a competition for bold new ideas for Boston’s urban future. As they describe on their website:
The aim of this competition is to ignite the spirit of innovation that has long lived and thrived in Boston. SHIFT seeks to collect new visions for Boston’s urban environment, rediscover Boston’s role in innovation and reaffirm the city’s position in progressive design and development … The competition is open to architects, artists, landscape architects, urban designers, engineers, students and anyone else who would like to tackle the question: WHAT IF? What if this could happen in Boston? Express your idea of what a metropolis such as Boston needs.
I am delighted to have been asked to be a judge for the competition, giving me a front row seat to what the future could hold for Boston. The deadline for submissions is 11 December 2009. I encourage anyone who wants to go after some bold new ideas for Boston’s future to visit the SHIFTBoston website for more information and to download the call for entry and submission form.
IKEA Hacker Oslo
Posted on August 17, 2009
Filed Under ikea hacker, talks | Leave a Comment
Communal Kitchen, IKEA Hacker style
A couple weeks ago I was in Oslo, Norway, following up on an invitation to give a talk about IKEA Hacker there. It was an easy invitation to accept – for one, it was a great opportunity to spend some time in beautiful Oslo, and two, the evening was being sponsored by IKEA, which was a pleasant twist – to talk about Hacking IKEA at an IKEA sponsored event.
One particularly rewarding part of the evening came after the talk, when people were chilling with a few beers. At the periphery of the main seating area were some sample IKEA domestic showroom units still in place from their 2010 catalogue launch, which was held in the same venue. As people began to relax, talk and move around, they rather instinctively began using the mock units as domestic spaces. Conversations were held around kitchen tables (as above), couches were colonised by groups of friends having leisurely conversations – it was fascinating to see these showrooms come to life as people spread out and began using them for their intended “real world” function, set inside the usually make believe world of a showroom. If the stoves had have been hooked up, dinner definitely would have been in the cards. Did the IKEA Hacker spirit break down some barriers? Maybe, maybe not. But that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
On Screen: "Parcours VIKEA" by Daredo
It was a hugely enjoyable time both in and outside of the talk, getting to know Oslo more courtesy of event organiser Paul Amble who gave me a tour of his favourite parts of the city, and also being able to spend time with some great people at IKEA, including Design Director Lars Engsman. Many thanks to everyone at IKEA and in Oslo.
From New York to Amsterdam: A Tale of Two Hotels
Posted on July 20, 2009
Filed Under amsterdam | Leave a Comment
Amsterdam's Citizen M, Beethovenstraat
A couple weeks ago I was in New York City to give a talk and Masterclass at Eyebeam on my work with open source cultural models. After NYC I was off to Amsterdam for a week to work with the Premsela Foundation for Dutch Design and Fashion, so I thought back-to-back sessions in two great cities would allow me to run a bit of a “pod hotel” comparison between the two.
The Pod Hotel, New York
In NYC I chose the, yes, Pod Hotel on East 51st Street near 3rd. Every room is extremely clean with a pleasing minimal design, and you can basically create your own room experience at the macro level when you book – single, double, king, bunk beds, with private bathroom or shared bath, and so on, with the variables you choose being reflected in the price. There are some nice touches such as free wifi throughout the hotel (not as standard in all hotels as it should be), a decent mini stereo with an external port for you to plug in your iPod to get your own tunes filling the room, but the thing that really stood out for me with the Pod Hotel was the social site you are invited to join once you make a reservation. Once you book your room, you receive an email with login details to enter an area of their website where you will find headings of “drink with me”, “shop with me”, “eat with me” with listings and email addresses of people who are going to be in NYC the same time as you and would like to get together with other travellers to experience the city together.
Artist's Rendering of Life in Citizen M
Amsterdam’s Pod offering is Citizen M on Beethovenstraat, near the city’s World Trade Centre financial district. It is actually the second Citizen M to hit Amsterdam, after their premiere at Schiphol Airport. Citizen M is an entirely different breed of a pod hotel experience. While its critics may comment on it being insanely over-designed and over-concepted, which is true, there is an entertainment value to these same things which I sometimes enjoy.
Citizen M is a design hotel on steroids. As the press release states:
Here, past the touch-screen check-in and check-out terminals, exclusive partner and renowned design firm Vitra provides even more environments and new furniture. There’s the legendary Marshmallow sofa by George Nelson, the brand-new Vegetal chairs by the famed Bouroullec brothers … above its extra-long bar with many plug-in points and white Eames bar stools are 14 Asian-inspired lantern lamps from Vitra’s Home Collection … There’s even a special corner for kids, featuring colourful child-size Panton chairs, the fabulous Porcupine Desk by Hella Jongerius and cute plywood elephants by Ray and Charles Eames.
The Philips Mood Pad (image copyright Philips)
Within the design festival disguised as a hotel, the thing that really stood out for me was that each of the 215 rooms was entirely an customisable environment, controlled entirely by a universal remote created by Philips call the Mood Pad. The Mood Pad is the secret to creating an “Ambient Experience” for the guests. As Philips says:
There are two main elements to the system. Firstly, the Ambient Experience combines a host of various ambient products, including dynamic LED lighting, VoiP phone, free wifi and FlatTV which contribute to a guest’s overall experience of the hotel room. Secondly, Philips has also created a unique back-end network design solution, which enables all different software platforms to work together seamlessly. This means that individual hotel rooms, and all functionality within the rooms, are linked to a central server that manages everything from room temperature and curtain settings, to the welcome message guests receive upon arrival in their room.
Now, it was indeed pretty damn impressive to be presented with a palette of “themes” for your room’s ambience. By pressing the TV theme, the lights dim, the TV comes on, curtains close… the Romance theme brings up chilled lounge music, lights go down…
Citizen M in full Ambient Experience Mode (image copyright Citizen M)
So for all the wonders of Citizen M and its fully customisable Ambient Experience, here’s what bothers me: there was no true personal customisation to the aesthetic. Why not go one step further and put some digital photo frames in the room and put some Bluetooth access onto the remote so I can upload some photos that mean something to me or remind me of the people who are waiting for me at home while I’m staying there? There’s an impressive sound system hidden in the walls of the room, and a dedicated wifi network, so how about letting me stream one of my playlists to make my listening experience, well, MY listening experience? It was interesting that while Citizen M was a veritable feast of design and user experience in the rooms, the longer you spent in the rooms, the more these things became apparent, and the colder the experience became – figuratively and literally. There were times when I thought back to the simple joys of opening at window in NYC’s Pod Hotel and plugging in my iPod that made me overlook the Vitra-o-rama in Citizen M.
Latest book launches in Italy
Posted on May 26, 2009
Filed Under media, projects, writing | Leave a Comment
I’m pleased to share the news that the latest book to feature my work and approach towards urban creativity has just been launched in Italy. The book, Disegnare le città (Drawing cities), is an overview of a more organic and people-driven approach to design, creativity and the city rather than the top-down model that has been dominant for so long. As the introduction to the book states:
Drawing cities today cannot simply mean creating (or re-designing) an emblem for public administrations. As the populations’ needs change and diversify, so do the competences and the ways they are represented and communicated. Therefore we now can observe, alongside traditional elements, the more or less aggressive affirmation of new instruments requiring attention, specific cultural standards and creative sensibility.
In it you will find text and commentary from myself, images from some of my projects, and a number of superb contributions from others. More information can be found here.
London Sign Fonts Tell Their Own Stories
Posted on May 5, 2009
Filed Under london | 1 Comment
Walking around London yesterday I found myself paying attention to the secondary narrative of the city’s fonts, text and signage. How the current condition of some of the texts differ from their original form, and that within the aesthetic of that difference lies the story. The image above is from a suit maker and tailor in the City of London. While the shop is now closed and empty, the entryway shows that at one time, there was enough foot traffic to wear away the firm’s name. A sad marking of a once prosperous shop and tailor-based culture.
The signage from a toy store in Clapham Junction – the store itself is still in operation, but, as the sign tells, it has lost something of its glamour and relevance, selling mostly board games and models in an era of computer games and online entertainment. The sign has obviously lost its covering and illumination – requiring an appreciation of the tradition of the name and its stoic character instead of a glaring call to attention, as with the entertainment it sells, and recalls an era of a more robust engagement with its community and youth market.
Mismatched pavements are the scars of the city, showing its growth, repairs and upgrades. Not much can be done about the colour or texture of the pavement matching, but as is evidenced here, London roadcrews seem to take special care to only replace the pieces of text that their works directly disrupt. The half-rendered S and O above are especially painful to see as evidence of the rigid limitations of where someone’s job ends and the assumption that someone else’s job supposedly begins. The ‘not my job’ culture, as told in two simple words.
In Brixton, a multi-tiered story of a hastily-reworked sign, the passage of time, and the eventual upgrade bolted on below as fortunes improved. Clearly the first generation of the signage under a different name was done in vinyl letters, simply painted over rather than removed, with another vinyl lettered sign stuck on below. As time passed, the original letters peeled, revealing its history and slowly removing its new moniker. Rather than engaging with the organic nature of the sign and its time-based rebellion, the owners just slapped a new sign below, letting the old one continue its war.
There is a phrase in Britain, “it does what it says on the tin”, meaning that the product and function is as literal as its claim was when sold. Here, the gradual erosion of the signage is in keeping with its function when first installed.
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