Places Make Us

transcript

PLACES MAKE US

Christina Wodtke @cwodtke

A LOVELY STORY

the house

shelters

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

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 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

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

Identity

Activity Relationships

Social Space

Distribution (Viral)

Humans don’t like empty spaces. Create starter objects – newsfeeds can be good.

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

Centre Pompidou was designed with services revealed rather than hidden

Services (the statistics usually only accessed by employees] are made visiable

Hey, it’s the Arc de Triomphe!

Views into people’s lives

Views into the service before you sign up

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

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT WHEN YOU THINK OF PAINTING?

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?

Word is about power, control, precision

OmmWriter Beauty, peace, zen

OmmWriter plays soft chimes, setting a mood of “the artist’s way”

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

Places Make Us

Design