Susan_Szenasy_1
All right. Good morning. We're really pleased to have today with us the Publisher and Editor-inChief Susan Szenasy. Susan has been writing about design, architecture, and culture for over 30
years. And in the course of all the tumultuous changes between last century and this century, she
has held a course of ethical and, I will say, sustainability this once, but won't talk about it. And
her work constantly investigates health, definitions of health, rethinking welfare in buildings, in
places, and in cities.
She has been a teacher, a journalist, a filmmaker, a writer, and an advocate for the value of
design in society. Her two films-- her favorite film is the film I sent you, which is [? Mindblock.
?] The two films that she directed were Site Specific, The Legacy of Regional Modernism, and
Brilliant Simplicity, which highlights each year Metropolis recognizes innovators in design and
their achievements and highlights their accomplishments. So we will be able to watch both of
those during the class in the coming weeks.
With her multi-disciplinary interests, she has served on several boards, boards in interior design,
boards in landscape architecture, boards in industrial design, and has received awards across the
board from all of them. And she recently has led the development of rethinking the Metropolis
magazine. And Josh, you can probably reach back over there and get those copies-- that's the, I
think, the January and February copies-- of Metropolis, which is beautiful, on beautiful paper.
It's also got, and has had, its digital components and podcasts. And it also has a blog called
Points of View.
So yesterday we discussed with journalists avenues for writing about design and making those
ideas public. Today we're really looking at design ideas and how to have them activate change in
society. So join me in welcoming Susan.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you. I'm really happy to be here and I'm looking forward to all you're going to talk about.
There was a book, I didn't know I wrote all of that. It takes an editor to spot those things. So as
an editor, as a writer, you're meeting deadlines all the time and you don't set out, oh, I'm going to
do this. You're drawn to something that is always-- always act, you always pushing you to kind
of explore more. And then the editors define the title.
And Paula Share, who is the graphic designer for the book, she chose that book from my young
communist pioneer days in Hungary. It's a red kerchief. She actually wanted to make the kerchief
red and I said, no, you're going to offend half of the country if you do that.
And then she was the one who came up with the title. So it was one of those. And I didn't know
that that's what I was doing. I still don't know if that's what I'm doing but, apparently, it comes
off that way.
But it's also in every issue that you take on, you have a multi-disciplinary dialog, usually with the
designer, with the client, with people who are producing objects, or systems, or media for the
space and so that transdisciplinarity, and that approach has always been part of all of the things
that you become interested in.
Well that was because Metropolis, when it was founded 35 years ago, starts with that. The name
Metropolis is an all engulfing name. The idea was always that urban planning, architecture,
everything that goes into architecture, including all the products, everything is a design concern
and therefore, anyone without the other makes no sense. And I began to understand that when I
was looking at some really good museum shows where they-- RISD used to have these
wonderful shows where they showed fashion and furniture and publishing.
Altogether.
Altogether. Graphics-- And it became really clear that there was a moment when something
happened and all of design responded, or created something new. And so that's why I love the
fascination of the complete design environment. And it has always been our concern. So we call
it design at all scales.
In fact, with the new redesign, our tagline is now "Architecture and Design At All Scales." And
we never use that but everybody who looked at that defined us that way. So the editors thought
that they came up with something and all of the sudden, I started reading my awards and, oh,
they said that 15 years.
That it actually, "Design At All Scales," gives a visual idea, at least, for a general public, which
is really, really true. Early on, one of my degrees is in environmental design, which many people
thought that that really meant study of grasses and soil, and it did but it also was the study of
design at all skills or the relationship of built environment to the environment. And it's
interesting that those degrees have dwindled, they dwindled from the '80s onward. And then they
rose up in the name of sustainable practices. And now it is an understanding that those
understandings should be ubiquitous and across all of our training and teaching. But the case is
not so, as Susan's articles point out.
So to that end, let's start discussing some of the work that you're doing as young innovators and
what you hope to do. So we'll use the model-- Maybe Alice, I can ask you to go over and you can
take the poster down and we'll start the PechaKucha which is on the desktop, and then we'll just
stop it after each person and we'll have a discussion. OK? And if any of you want to show more,
the clip is going around. I gave it to Michele.
I'll help Alice get this. OK. So you just go-- and then it's right there. I'm just going to put that
there and then pull that up. So when you're ready, just start that and stop it. If you would stay
here and then come join us. They had no idea this is going to be shown but here we go, let's do it.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
---zero-waste brewery on the river. Let's have a pint.
[END PLAYBACK]
Start it over, OK?
Start it over. He said something before that.
Can you rewind it? Yeah, there we go.
Yeah, there it is.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-Hi. My name's Roberto and I like to find problems and solve them. I'm creating a zero-waste
brewery on the river. Let's have a pint.
[END PLAYBACK]
OK. So let's stop and talk about Roberto.
You've got our interest.
[LAUGHING] Yeah right. OK. So what's your project about?
I think it's on.
Is it on? Yeah. So my project is revolving around addressing the issue of improper use of the
Chicago River but it could be applied to many rivers in the world. So it's just addressing how
water management is taking control of natural resources. And my way to engage society is to
engage society by brewing beer with that wastewater.
So in medieval times they would most likely drink beer rather than water because the process of
brewing beer would boil the water significantly where it would kill the microbes and the disease.
So my thought now is, this application could be a starter for multiple nodes along a river that not
necessarily have to be a brewery but for mine instance, it is. But the overall idea is to create an
awareness that we have this resource that is used as a way of transporting waste but instead of
transporting waste we should use a resource as a way to celebrate the environment, celebrate the
city. And so in the end, I would hope that this could be a catalyst for other projects to develop
some way of cleaning a river system not just necessarily in brewing but in any other application
but as long as there's a consistent node along a network that could revitalize a waterway.
So who have been your main colleagues that you've researched who are doing work in this area?
So there are quite a handful. There is the Friends of the Chicago River, who advocate cleaning
the river by volunteerism, by offering guided tours along the river in kayaks. They also work
with local schools so they try to integrate younger minds, to educate them on what the
ecosystems of the river are. Apart from them, there's also the National Defense Council, who
does a lot of work with natural resources in the entire country. And then interestingly, there are
other breweries that try to do zero waste brewing and reduce their footprint of wasting water. But
the most that I've seen have been out on the west coast, so in Colorado and in Oregon.
How about internationally?
Ooh, internationally. I'm drawing a blank.
I'm imagining Germany must be on top of this in some way.
Yeah. I'm drawing a blank. I'm sorry.
There's some really interesting craft beer now, Americans are starting craft beer in Germany
now, which is an uphill battle, obviously, in the land of beer. But I do have a question about your
cyclical thinking. You clean up the river, help to clean up the river, produce this wonderful drink,
and then, is there like a cyclical plan to make it all work all over? It's not just good enough to
clean up that's part of the rivers where you take your water from? But what happens in-The process.
--the process and sort of the full recycling program?
Do you have that chart? So I'll show you the image that I was holding up. So this is a rough idea
of how that system-Stand in front of me. That's OK.
--how that system would work. On the very left, the water would be pulled in and it would go
through the cycle of the brewing process first. It would be boiled and then the cool temperature
of the water would also transfer the heat and cool the-- at that process of brewing it's called wort- so the wort would drop in temperature. The remaining water would cycle up and be used to
grow hops on the roof of the building.
So then, any waste that's leftover from the actual brewing process is filtered through to a
digester, and that's boiling down any waste. And then the methane that's created is transferred
and used as power to power the brewery itself. And then also, since this is a large-scale
production of processing beer, the end result is you have the beer product. But also, when
someone consumes a beer their waste can be processed through the digester also. So it's going
full circle not only in the beer process but the beer consumption.
So the actual place where it is sold, the bars or wherever, has to have their own recycling
program.
Well for this, the idea is to implement this in one location and then, hopefully, this idea could
pick up more ground and spread to other breweries.
That's great. That's fantastic. How do you sell this to a squeamish American audience?
About river water in their beer.
It absolutely has to happen.
I think that the main selling point would be to offer free samples. I mean, I think any American
that likes beer would like beer if it was free. So engaging through that aspect, I think, would be a
good way to start. And then we'll see how that goes.
Yeah, that's good. Well and also, the process-- Now in beer making the process of boiling water
is a common practice?
Yeah.
So that is there already.
Yeah, it's the very first step. When you combine water with the hops and barley you have to boil
it down to create what is called wort. And then that wort gets processed through another heat
cycle and then a cooling cycle.
It's a great idea.
And how many gallons of water per a pint?
So normally, a typical size brewery or microbrewery, craft brewer, will take in eight gallons of
water to produce one gallon of beer, or eight barrels of beer to produce-- eight barrels of water to
produce one barrel of beer. Now some brewers who have been practicing sustainable practices,
say, in Oregon, like Full Sail brewery or New Belgium in Colorado, they've dropped that water
consumption from the eight to taking in three barrels of water to produce one gallon of beer. So
there are practices in place but I think we could try to reduce that a little bit more and be more
efficient.
And this then would supersede the use of already treated water, which takes a lot of energy, for
that purpose.
Right?
And it would be one that would make very palatable the understanding of reuse of water.
Right. So with that loop then, when people actually engage in say, this idea of this type of
brewery, they'll notice that there is zero actual clean water from deep in Lake Michigan or any of
the Great Lakes and they're actually drinking beer that's been processed through the actual
filtration cycle within the brewery. So the hope is that everyone engages in this learning aspect
of one of the beer brewing processes but more importantly, the idea of how we can clean the
river itself.
So your proposal is on a power plant, right, on north--?
Yeah. So my site right now is currently in the north branch of the Chicago River. For my
research in the fall, a lot of these conceptual projects done by Studio Gang and UrbanLab have
always concentrated on the south portion of the river, which is understandable. There's many
industrial sites there.
But for my interest, since I'm from the north side, there is a pumping station on the north branch
that has gone through many changes over the years. So before 1900 there was a tunnel that
would flush fresh water from Lake Michigan into the river and that would dilute the river and
carry that river south into the Mississippi and then into the Gulf of Mexico. In 1930 they built a
pumping station to apply water pressure that would pump sewage from the neighborhood in that
location and it would pump it north back to a water treatment facility, which would then flush
partially treated water downriver.
And there have been current improvements on the pumping station. It's still active today but
there is no connection between the pumping station itself now and the river except for that
pressure that's being applied that pushes waste up and then it comes back down. So I think,
theoretically, that would be a good place to start my brewery and have this process that stops that
waste that's coming down, it's filtered, and then it keeps continuing down.
So the city is looking to redevelop that property?
No.
No. They're not.
He's going to look-You're going to look to see if it's possible to redevelop that-Yeah. As far as my conversations have gone with the Waste Management Department, they want
like nothing to do with me just because it's a city-owned building and structure.
But the thing is that we're all becoming more aware of the water, energy, food nexus and that we
have only so much water and it has to go and do so many things. And so this idea to make it zero
waste is really phenomenal. And it's like a one-point project but it could be totally systemic in
breweries all over the world.
Right. And that's what's the nice thing about it. It doesn't necessarily have to be at this one site.
The process itself can be applied to multiple locations. So it doesn't necessarily have to be in
Chicago. It could be in Milwaukee, it could be somewhere in Colorado, it can be somewhere in
Mexico City, it could be located anywhere. It's just that the idea of process itself just needs the
water to be filtered through it.
That's great. Great idea.
OK.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
Perfect.
We'll go ahead and watch Patsy's. She's in crutches so she's not with us today.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-Hi. My name is Patsy Diaz and I'm collaborating with a group of young women at Hernandez
Middle School in the southwest side of Chicago. We call ourselves [INAUDIBLE] Ladies and
we meet bi-weekly to hold healing circles as a base for storytelling and identity-based art
making. Together we share practices of self-love and self-care, which nurtures self-development
as a young woman of color.
So her work is an art educator. And she has actually done a phenomenal job of creating this
healing circle and then, actually, applying it and learning from it in a middle school. And her
idea is to continue this support of young women of color in empowering them to take charge of
their lives and to be recognized for the talents that they can contribute.
So I think the fact that she had this idea, developed-- it's a whole tool kit of parts that, to get a
dialogue going, which is very awkward with middle and high school young women, to get them
to actually come back-- And her first group, she feels, in some ways, actually graduated because
they've left the circle now are back and then new ones will come in. So she realizes it's a cycle.
That's great.
She's going to make a little movie about it. And it actually is worthy of a documentary, the work
that she's doing.
Yeah, I would think.
And again, it's a replicable idea. It's not Patsy's ideas, it's a systemic thing that could be
replicated at other schools.
That's great.
OK. So here's for Patsy. All right. This is you Josh.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-Hello. My name is Joshua Leslie. The future of urban mobility is on-demand personal
autonomous vehicles. My goal is to develop a quicker, cleaner, more efficient world one trip at a
time.
[END PLAYBACK]
OK.
That's-That's you.
So that's my pitch. I'm really interested in autonomous vehicles, like I said. Originally, the
project started out as more of a loose idea, like how would I see public transportation in the next
10 to 20 years? And so it developed from this blanketed grid pattern based around Chicago, just
for reference, with electric rail-driven cars to more looking at what would the realistic today in
the sense of still electric vehicles but what people like Mercedes and Google are doing with their
autonomous vehicles. So over the course of this class, I have been making it more of a realistic
research-based project.
So the idea-- it always intrigues me why you would want individual vehicles to act like public
transportation because we have this system of individual vehicles, obviously, and we have to do
something. But I think it always leads to more paving, more highways, more invasion of our
environment. And so, do you think that that thought is a transition period to more sort of real
public transportation? How do you imagine your autonomous vehicles?
As a matter of efficiency, I don't know exact numbers, but having computers control car flow.
They make streets safer already just from traffic light patterns but if computers controlled every
step of the way efficiency would just go through the roof. So maybe, we could cut down on
roads. There would also be fewer cars because I think I read a statistic that says around like 60%
80% of a car's life is just being parked.
[LAUGHTER]
Just sitting there.
Just sitting there waiting.
And we have a large amount of square footage in the city just for cars to sit there.
It's massive. I think I heard of another seven-foot like just parking lot going up recently. And it
just is mind boggling because down here in the Loop, especially, people leave at 8 o'clock and all
those spaces are just literally empty lots. So I think, converting transportation to a company,
either private or public, would do many beneficial things for not only the economy but just the
whole planet.
So maybe it's a segue between public transportation, which, actually, someone defined public
transportation that works is when rich people ride it because by and large, it's for people who
don't have the autonomous car, the single car. But I did note that, in your picture, you show an
autonomous car with four seats and they're facing each other. So they're having a dialogue,
meeting as they're moving through space.
Yeah. It's definitely about the interaction that people could have within the car. So a large part of
the project is it being on-demand. So whether it is an app or like a service station, you could go
somewhere, summon the car, and it would come get you like a normal taxi today would, like
Uber, Lyft. And in a more realistic sense, it would be four people to a car but then different sizes
would be possible, in theory.
And so from that, it completely changes the idea of what a car means. So instead of having a
driver and a passenger who used to do the maps-- Pulling it down from the whole stagecoach
idea, you wold have your driver and the person riding shotgun and then everybody else in the
back type of thing. It would change that dynamic to where everybody is, basically, on the equal
footing of being a passenger. So maybe one person knows where they're specifically going but it
gives everybody much more of a freedom to interact with each other as they're going wherever
they may be.
So you are studying what BMW, and Audi, and all of them-Google.
--are doing---electric care.
--because, I think, there's a lot of talk about this. Like have you studied the green garage
movement where you plug these things in and, you know---it gets charged.
--it gets their charge? So it's like an urban form of recharging. So not just the cars but the
systems around them?
Oh yeah, yeah.
So it's actually giving something back while it's taking something, like it has solar cells on the
roof while it's sitting there, or something.
I've read a little bit into that. I think that kind of technology is definitely spreading and will
become a reality in time. I hear, occasionally, that solar cells are getting better. I think they are
up to 30% or 40% efficiency now and still growing steadily.
I can see, Josh, that the idea of mapping the populations that ride public transit. Obviously, in
most of our cities they are not at their maximum capacity but they are there. And then the
systems of the Zipcars, which then it still is the I'm driving, I might be listening to ebooks or
NPR, but I still am focusing on the road, and then look at the benefits of having an autonomous
vehicle that is driverless, and then what can happen. And I do think it's a transition and it might
be a good idea because people are loathe to give up the freedom of their car, some people.
Well there's also with the car though-- I'm not a driver. I've been forbidden to drive very early on
and I took it heart but from what I understand, my friends who drive, they love the idea of
driving. I have a friend who, we go to Italy and she becomes Mario Andretti. And so she just
loves doing the---the whole thing.
--whole thing. And it-It's like a pilot.
Yeah, it really becomes like a challenge. And people love their cars because of that. So that to
me is more something to overcome than maybe the other issues that you'd be facing because
there's an attachment, there's a doing, there's almost like a making there. It's like you're hands-on
involved with something, that you conquer the road. Of course, the cars are so automatic that you
really are not doing anything. But I think that perception is still there.
Yeah that's definitely a large part to me. I mean I'm definitely very passionate about driving and I
kind of get that thrill in the city through bicycling now because it's such an expense to own a car.
Well, and you have to fight against the statistics that the younger generations aren't as car-happy
or desiring as the older generations were.
Which, I think, is a really encouraging thing for your program. And the fact that the ownership of
something isn't as important. Maybe the experience is more important.
But I think another thing to really concentrate on is the fact that, right now, all we have-- Let's
say you're an elderly person going for a doctor's appointment. You only have the taxicab after
your friend and family. And the taxicab is difficult to get in and out of, by and large, and there
are a lot of other problems with it. It's a dehumanized environment.
So how could an autonomous car be much more responsive to what is needed to be done? I need
to take this person from here to there. I need to take these people from here to there. And how
can that be a more humane experience? OK.
I don't know. I'm just thinking of adaptable interiors now that you said that. It's like going from a
wheelchair to a four-seater type of thing.
Yeah. Well don't do what New York City cabs did. The accessible cabs, you can't get into.
[LAUGHTER]
No. Because they're lifted up high. They're supposed to be for wheelchair users. I have yet to see
a wheelchair user get into it and I have yet to see anybody trying to get into it get into it
gracefully. Because it took something that was an idea but it never fully extended it to the whole
population. But even for the wheelchair users it's not working. It has that kind of cute little sign
on the back with the person in a wheelchair happily waving down the cab. Well, that's as good as
it gets.
So do better than that, Josh.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just watch the failures because the failures are there to learn from.
OK. All right. It's Mary.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-Hi, I'm Mary. I am a repurposer of urban malls. The typology of retail is dead. I'm using their
historical skeleton paired with community means to turn them into thriving centers for the city.
[END PLAYBACK]
That's great.
So how are you doing it Mary?
So mine focuses on urban malls that are kind of dying. And the reason I wanted to focus on
urban malls versus suburban malls is because they oftentimes are historical skeletons. And so I'm
focusing on one in Milwaukee that's actually five buildings that were stitched together. And
they're all on the National Registry. And the building was recently just sold at an auction so
they're trying to figure out what to do with it.
So my is design is how do you adaptively reuse something that's already been adaptively reused?
And what kind of program best fits into this kind of commercial area?
So you are you looking at that particular Milwaukee neighborhood and studying what's there,
what their needs are. Is that how you-Yeah. It's actually like right in the middle of downtown Milwaukee and so it's kind of a dead area
as it is. But there's a really big tourist belt to one end and the entertainment belt's on the other so
it's kind of creating that connection between the two.
And not to mention the Amtrak station, which is heavily used from Chicago to Milwaukee.
That's a block south and then a block north is the convention center, which actually because of
Chicago's capacity being overwhelmed a lot, is in pretty constant use. So it's all the pieces are
there but they're not working together.
Have you looked at-- I don't know what he's doing but there was this guy that we did a story on a
long time ago called the mall doctor.
The mall doctor.
There are mall doctors because the malls have been dying for quite a long time. He dealt mostly
with suburban malls, and then the mini malls that kind of empty out, and then nothing. Again, it
was user studies and neighborhood studies that sort of created new programming. But I think
with your building, that's a really interesting and new way of thinking about an urban place. And
that gives you a lot more programming.
And again, because it's a downtown mall so it's already been retrofitted once and then failed
with-- Milwaukee was in the stage where it just built the outdoor walkable malls north that really
took its last life. It had built the indoor one to the west, to the North was the pedestrian one, and
the combination of those two really bottomed it out. But the buildings are significant. And it
raises the value of keeping the core of historical buildings as shells for contemporary activities.
Yeah.
So how are you going to approach this? You've got all the demographics and the numbers, what's
your mix? What are you looking at?
As far as programming, there's actually two hotels that are in it right now that are underutilized,
and there's also apartments. And so the way I approached it was how could you create something
that's for the tourism but also for the local people? So my proposal right now is focusing on an
urban food hall and a food market that brings in the tourists but it's also a place that people can
shop locally because there's not a lot of grocery stores in that direct area as well.
And then just a week ago they said 5,000 new units are coming to downtown, which is pretty
aggressive for the population. The historic district south of the river is thriving and really
absolutely wonderful but the prices, like in New York, have risen and so, actually, young people
just starting out can't afford to live in the historical district. So I'm hoping that the condominium
and apartment spread will have a range of price points.
And so you are involved with the city. Are you from there, from Milwaukee.
Yeah, I'm from Milwaukee.
So you have connections. This is a great idea and needs to be publicly discussed. And you really
need to spearhead the advocacy on this. This sounds perfect to me.
So Fourth Avenue Forum, which is the Public Broadcasting platform out of UWM, they have
shows on the city and we'll set you up with that and see if they're-- and I think they would be
interested. So probably, the editor or the director will probably invite a few other city people but
I think that that would be a great place to publicize this conversation.
Yeah, definitely.
And make sure you are prepared to the gills because you're going to be challenged on everything
and you're going to have to have some rapid fire answers, which is great. It's a great way to test
your knowledge and then bring in the public who views it because you have ammunition there
that really is solid.
I think that's the thing to respect is that ideas actually are easy, it's implementing that it's all the
work. And in schools of design, we get so excited about these ideas and we work furiously on
them but the truth is, ideas sometimes take 5, 10, 20-- a lifetime to be achieved. And you have to
have that perseverance.
And something this is very big. You're talking about rethinking a section of town itself, how it
sees itself, how people want to be there. What do they want out of their lives? And I think that's a
cultural shift that you're asking for. So that doesn't happen overnight but I think you can start-The conversation.
The conversation is really important.
Investing value in the core of the city.
And also the historic structures. We lose so many of them. There isn't a day when something
doesn't come through.
Something's being torn down-Paul Rudolph now is being savaged everywhere. It's very hard to love Paul Rudolph but he's very
important in terms of architecture, and structure, and planning, and ideas and they're just biting
the dust all the time. These buildings are just going away.
The buildings that are built, like many new buildings, are not built today.
Exactly.
So it's a tremendous amount of energy to demolished them and then what's built usually only
lasts maybe 20 years or 30.
But I think also, the citizenry have to understand that they have a treasure in the buildings, that
there is something important for them to think about in terms of quality of life of the city. I don't
think the Brigham and Women's Hospital here in Chicago would have been torn down if people
stood up for it. It's like when I get one of these emails I say, OK, I'm coming and chaining myself
to the gate.
But where do you go if you don't live there? And who's going to be the protector of those
buildings? So I think creating advocacy among citizens, concerned citizens, is really important.
In historic Milwaukee too. OK.
Thank you.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-Hi, I'm Haley. I design active workplace landscapes to adapt the culture of sitting that's killing
the American workforce, change the behavior by controlling the way we interact with our
environment. Get up and move.
[END PLAYBACK]
Great. Just begin.
I think just speak into it.
Just don't adjust it. Just hold it to your mouth.
You have to hold it right by your mouth. It's like an ice cream cone.
So my project is really about changing in the workplace environment to put health as a first
priority and move away from the idea that sitting is best way of working. So I've been looking at
mental acuity and heart rate and how that becomes like an interval map of how you move
through the day. And also, I've been looking at research behind the 7-minute exercise and how
space can encourage those movements, like the choreography of those movements, in space
without actually having to force someone to work out. But the way you interact with the space
creates those movements.
I did mine this morning, by the way. Just so you know.
It's great.
And I'm using in Willis Tower as a prototype building to show how a new system could be
implemented and then how that would be applicable in all sorts of workplace architecture and
urban places. And I have my PechaKucha on my flash drive, if you want-Yes. I would stick it in because-Because the images, I feel, tell-Will help you
--a better-- yeah.
So just press Escape. One of the things I was just thinking, when you are done with this thesis,
that I would-- or even before you're done, I would notify Haworth and Knoll and some of these
companies who have been working in refreshing the workplace and contemporizing it in terms
of-- You could put it by date.
It's in the folder for the visit.
Oh, Szenasy visit, at the bottom,
Very bottom.
Right there. That's it. And then-At the top.
Can you see OK?
You can go to the next one. This is just chronic diseases that are caused by sitting. And I really
just want to change the idea and get people moving. You can go to the next slide. This is like a
condensed version. OK, you can stop there.
This is just some of the health research that's been really important. That 7 out of 10 deaths in the
United States are caused by chronic disease but 70% of what causes our health is a combination
of behavior and environment. And then also, the idea of how to market this to businesses and
employers is that they have so much loss, monetary loss, due to the fact of personal health and
family health and how big of a difference addressing those needs for the employee can make a
difference in their bottom line.
You can go to the next slide. And then I've been looking at using Willis Tower, especially
because it breaks down to four different floor plates and how this kind of systems have been
currently integrated. So it just shows how a hot desking, which is more of a new concept, it can
create a smaller floor plate but-With more open area?
Yeah. It's a smaller floor plate with not necessarily designated desk but it lacks personalisation.
And it creates a very complicated time schedule where you have to know exactly when people
are going to be working so that they can share the desk and you don't have over demand and not
enough places to sit. Where the open plan provides flexibility but it's also a loss of privacy. And
a lot of complaints come from the idea that people are over stimulated, with sound especially.
And then the cellular plan, which is like a typical lawyer's office. It just reduces opportunity for
learning and mentoring like through visual connection.
And then the activity-based plan, which is more of a newer concept, is something that I'm trying
to take it and run with. And it increases the autonomy of the space but it provides some
unpredictability and it's not quite applicable for all work places. And so instead of looking at it as
activity-based workspace that's drived just by what you're working on I'm trying to take activitybased and drive it by exercise and by movement and not just by the mental tasks that you're
looking at. You can go to the next slide.
This is a diagram of heart rate and mental acuity that I've been looking at. Moderate to light
activity is the range I'm looking to hit in the office because the more intensive workouts don't
really create a lot of sweat and become more of a problem. Whereas these three categories raise
your heart rate but it's not as an inhibiting and quite as recreational. You can get these levels of
increased heart rate through small activity.
And so the outside ring just shows, based on research that I found, that you're only supposed to
spend 90 minutes at a time on one task before you start to lose your mental acuity. So the
gradient areas becomes moments where, if you don't take a break at that time, you're not really
working at your optimal-You're starting to slip.
--speed. And so if you only taking a one break between coming to work and going to lunch that
you're really losing 40 minutes of productive time because-You're optimum.
Yeah. You're forcing yourself to work in a situation when it's not-You're pushing yourself.
--the best. You can move to the next slide. So the top is the choreography of-It's the 7-minute workout
--of the 7-minute workout. Then the smaller circles just demonstrate opportunities or activities
that may encompass a break or a resting moment because the 7-minute workout is 30 seconds of
an activity and then a 10-second break. So I was trying to think about how I could stretch this
seven minutes across the eight-hour day and create sort of a concourse of these spaces that
encourage this activity around the center of the circulation. And then the hatched black areas
then become the opportunities where I can put these break moments or resting things.
So and then, this is just the study of how outside of the concourse. The concourse where the
activities are the most strenuous would be the shortest distance from one place to another. But
then once you kind of move out into the open system of desking that it becomes like this
adaptable maze. And so the path is not always the same. It changes based on how people are
moving, are using the space.
And that there's these movable privacy/collaborative tables that can compact and slide around
and how it can force somebody who wants to get from A to B as quick as possible, then they go
through the more active space. And if not then they can spend a lot more time walking to get to
the activity.
So I was looking especially at the step up exercise and how creating this terrace that connects
two levels-With meeting places on the way up.
Yeah. And how that can be integrated with more of a typical desking system. And you can see,
on the terrace step those privacy dividers and then how they can be folded down and then be
integrated as a standing-height conference table almost. And then you can create privacy by
sliding them and enclosing a space.
And then here is a scheme for how to mimic the step up and also lunge and the squat, and how
changing the ceiling topography can force people to engage with the space in a different way.
And that that would be the fastest way to get all the way across this. And if you didn't want to do
that then the grid down below becomes the changing decision making moment where you have
to find your way through everyone's-Through the offices.
So now I'm moving more towards looking at this idea of circles and how that creates spaces. But
to start to look at it more as a topography.
Organically.
I actually went hiking in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado this past weekend and was really
inspired by the way that the hike and the path moves-It's a different journey.
Yeah. And it was tiring and difficult but I wasn't sore afterwards and it wasn't really as strenuous,
It was challenging.
Yeah.
It was challenging.
Yeah. And the-- I forget what they're called-- the bridges between each ridge became almost like
a back and forth climb. And then you come to the ridge and it's like a resting, stopping moment
where then you look over everything but it's-So there's a reflective moment.
Yeah. So it's like you work back and forth, back and forth, up climbing up the mountain, and
then there's these stopping moments. And so I was inspired about how that could inform the way
that these circles sort of work together and of push and pull on them.
Make it a little more responsive too because-- I know this was the Willis Tower study-- but
offices are crammed in every imaginable configuration. So that flexibility.
Great research. I think you're right at the heart of this thing. It's happening now all around us.
The manufacturers are studying it, the design offices are trying to figure out, the corporations are
figuring it out because it's all, especially, due to the mobile technology. And what's really
interesting to me is that the ergonomics of an office were figured out when we had the desktop,
the console, the ergonomic chair, and all of those pieces kind of hung together. And now because
of mobile technology, the posture has changed, the movement is a little bit more free but we are
getting-[INAUDIBLE] tighter.
Well, we're getting different pains. It used to be carpal tunnel, now it's the back, and the back and
the neck muscles because the mobile technology isn't designed for that steady working. And then
of course, people are forcing themselves onto that way of working, so spending too much time
with one thing. So I think you're right on.
The issue for me is more cultural than just work because you have to move in your life, you have
to move in your neighborhood, you have to move in your school, wherever you are. So this sort
of agile human being needs to live in every aspect of their lives. And the workplace is kind of the
testing ground because you spend so many hours.
I actually found research through Ginsler-- they do a lot of work in this -- that despite what
people think, that if you go home and have a very active evening that it doesn't physically undo
the harm that you've done to your body by sitting for seven hours. Even if you sat for seven
hours of your work day and are still kind of active it doesn't undo that. And so even if it's
someone who goes home and sits on the couch at night versus someone who goes and maybe
works out, that it still has that same effect on your body.
Yeah, there's that great Ted-Ed about how sitting might actually be harmful to you. We are made
to move and we moved far less than we used to. That was the one thing we were talking-- Before
you came, I was trying to give her the range of what everyone in the class works on. But I'd like
to see the map of mobile moments in a typical work day, which might be going to get coffee or a
drink, it might be going to the restroom, it might be meeting.
And one of the things that I really think needs to be rethought is the conference room because at
the informal meeting or the conference room, these are two stages for those meetings to happen.
This is a great opportunity, I think, to have those meetings happen in action. So the employees
have to say how many walking meetings did I have this month, how many biking meetings did I
have?
We were talking about Roman times. They used to meet in the bath houses where there was the
gymnasium and the steam room and you'd have this whole kind of health-oriented process while
you're doing business. So you're trying to lay those two things over. And it should affect the
actual design of the units that need to be reconfigured in the station or the cubicle, also in the
workspace, and then in the collaborative workspaces.
So I always liked the kind of, I don't know, Bourne Identity movies where they've got this big
wall and you'd have these big movements to move your digital computer screen. Even that would
help as a meeting room. So it's in the hallway, and it's got this big digital screen where people are
talking and pulling their presentations.
Have you seen bluescape before?
Yeah. Hayworth
Yeah, they have an installation.
Yeah. I think those are really great. Unfortunately, they cost like $30,000 a shot so Google can
afford 30 of them but nobody else can. But I think it's a really great idea because if really helps
you communicate distance, present in a standing position from your computer. So it offers you
many more options. But I think you're onto something really big here with the workplace
because once you start changing habits at work, that filtrates the-The rest of your life.
--the rest of your life, and you take it home. I work from 9:00 to 9:00 and, yeah, I walk around a
lot but it's ridiculous how much time you spend sitting there. And then you get home and you're
so tired that you kind of sit there and-Plus you haven't had oxygen.
And yeah, you are like, OK, all I can do is watch a cooking show. And they're active, they're
very active. They're killing themselves running around but you're sitting there like an idiot. So I
just think that this work thing is a really important part. And your research is very, very thorough
and really good.
And I think you're looking at the right places because Gensler definitely-- although I have to say,
that those interiors are not great. I was at a Gensler interior somewhere. Where was I? San
Francisco, maybe. And they had this agile workplace that they were designing for.
[INAUDIBLE] agile workplace.
And there was a gym and it was in a glass box. And this was the women's gym. And the women
are going to work out, and you know what's going to happen, the guys are going to be standing
around watching them and the women are not going to do the job that they need to do. So you
really need to be sensitive to how people perceive each other, work with each other, and what
their limitations are.
Yeah. Clive Wilkinson Architects out of California, their work has been more inspiring but
Gensler tends to collect a lot of research about workplace design so I've been tapping into their
research more than the projects as a precedent. But I really like Clive Wilkinson's work.
Excellent.
And also, if you look at maybe Steelcase and Herman Miller, their research.
Yes. Steelcase, especially, did an international study of different cultures and how they work and
what's successful and not. And they use eight different ways to evaluate them. And a lot of that
research was really interesting.
There's a lot to dip into but I love the idea of kind of making it cultural and making you an
advocate for the worker. I mean, you can be a really very sound advocate for the persons not the
corporation because they take care of themselves. You really need that person to advocate for,
somebody who uses those faces. And that's a really good place to be right now.
It's the prevention of health and the welfare before the-Before the---past problems, the problems set in. Thank you Haley.
Thank you.
We're going to pick up the pace a little bit so that we can make sure we get around as many of
you as possible. OK. It's Marie.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-Hi, My name is Marie [? Gilstrom ?]. Everyone's talking about standardized testing in schools.
They're supposed to make kids competitive global citizens, right? In the midst of those good
intentions, I think, we forgot to teach kids how to be good local citizens and stewards to their
own environments. I want to design learning environments that support the holistic growth of
students. So let's give kids a hall pass to use the communities as their classroom.
[END PLAYBACK]
I'm investigating how to connect environments with education. And I'm using a place-based
approach. And by that I just mean using the community as a tool for learning about local
ecology, economy, culture. So the specific pedagogy I'm working with is Montessori. And the
specific site is a K through 12 school in Battle Creek, Michigan.
I'm specifically interested in the adolescent program of Montessori because it is very placebased. It was designed as like a rural boarding school where education and environment were
one. So I'm really interested in how school design and the learning environment can support that
type of learning on different scales, so the community, the site, the building, and the classroom.
So you did a recent workshop with what grade of students?
Seventh and eighth graders.
Seventh and eighth grade. And what did you do?
It was at the Montessori school in Battle Creek and I asked them to design their ideal learning
environment where they can learn best. And they came up with some pretty creative ideas and
gave me some kind of jumping off points for my design.
So you had-- the image was a garden or an outdoor space. Are you working with some sort of
food cultivation, and harvesting, and eating that food, and that kind of whole cyclical thing that
the kids could learn through that?
I'm really interested in how that process can inform the building design, as well, and be more
integrated because I feel like, on the surface, Montessori really encourages that process but the
building design doesn't support it all. So I looked at their current food story of how they get food
delivered and how they eat it and dispose of it, and I'm trying to figure out ways to improve it
and make it more cyclical.
And I think we talked about the 14 principles of biophilia. I think I sent it around. And the idea
of the nature of the space but nature in space, I think, is one of the things that's really waiting to
happen in any kind of environment. We come inside and we're in and the outside is out. And I
think that that's going to blend in a very different way in terms of learning environments.
So Montessori really encourages making things, building and kind of the tactile human, in
addition to the visual, and the whole human being. Your study, I am really glad you started there
because you at least have a foundation because you go to the public school and it's without any
of that. So is there a way that you can think about bringing it to a city school, what you're
learning, and use that as a test ground for some of the things that you're beginning to gather? It's
a really important piece of work.
I think it could definitely be applied in other locations, this kind of way of thinking about the
system. But I was really interested in this kind of rural site because using a place-based approach
in an area like that is much harder to connect to different resources than it would be-- There's a
high school up in Evanston, just north of the city, that is a high school. And the kids can just
walk across the street to the YMCA or Northwestern University. And it's like a wonderful
connection to the city but how do you make those connections when it's not so easy?
That's great.
And I think it can be a model. There's place-based education and there's project-based learning
and the two of them working together-- Many project-based learners aren't really investigating
making or even investigating design as supporting of the projects that they're making. And that's
a huge arena that your model can be applied to. OK.
Great.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-Hello. My name is [? Marlys, ?] and I'm a soil maker. The soil is produced by worms, which are
earth's best biodegraders. Everyday food scraps, with a few exceptions, are great food for worms.
I work with children to do soil making through composting.
[END PLAYBACK]
Hi. So I'm trying to teach composting, specifically, with children just because I think it's
important to start at a very young age to introduce this type of activity just so that they can bring
it into their adult life and then later on keep teaching around.
We talked about Jaime Lerner's experience in Curtiba, how the small children learn how to
recycle. And so you're doing some demonstration workshops.
Yeah. Next week I'm going to be demonstrating how do to start up a composting system at home.
And do you have a place in mind? Where are you demonstrating it?
Well, it's going to start here but I really want to start off in the parks, as well, and be able to get
into that community and grow from there.
What's really interesting to me is when Detroit got depopulated and there were all these
gardeners that we're populating the former urban realm. And then everybody thinks that you can
plant something and you grow something, And you know that that's not the case. So especially in
urban remediation, where there's so many toxic sites and so much land available in certain areas.
This would be a hugely important project because you can actually make it fertile and make it
hospitable to plant life. And it just can't happen without that kind of intervention. So you're onto
something big here.
Resoiling the world when we've depleted such a large percentage of the topsoil. And we know,
as the population grows the demand for food is going to be even greater. So urban-- you almost
might want to call it urban soil making or resoiling urban areas.
And I think the Conservation Corps, which is a city-based program that runs out of the nature
museum, they are looking for volunteers, which eventually-- You all know that the volunteer role
or service learning is a great step to get into the paid position. But I would take it right there.
Yes. Start from there.
Take some pictures of your workshops so you've got some documentation.
Yeah. Exactly.
I will.
OK. Thank you [? Marlys ?].
[APPLAUSE]
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-Hi. My name is Jinny and I'm a cultural hybrid. The interaction between local and global culture
fascinates me. The uses of body language and eye contact is one of the key communication in
multicultural connection. Even though we come into contact with multicultural people there are
still unknown values of cultures. And my goal is to give the understanding of the effectiveness of
the usage of nonverbal communication of various cultures.
[END PLAYBACK]
So she's not here to talk about it but we're hoping that she documents it in some visual cards
different cultures and how they respond to a, raise awareness, and then begin to give the rest of
us social cues of what is appropriate and not. OK.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-Hi. My name is Michelle. When I'm not in the architecture studio I am doing critical shopping.
America was built on consumerism and architecture was built for it. I've researched a range of
consumerism, from services Route 66 to products from giant warehouses such as Sears Roebuck.
This research show that the economic ups and downs of these consumer cultures have impacted
our neighborhoods. I'm developing a Product-Service System approach that restores historic
architecture and enhances the existing culture of these neighborhoods.
[END PLAYBACK]
OK. Great.
OK. So basically, my project has a local and a global scale. So on the global scale, the railroads
and Route 66 and the abandoned Sears warehouses around the country. And then on a local scale
I'm focusing on the neighborhood of North Lawndale. Chicago's west side. There's an abandoned
railroad by this Sears. The Sears headquarters was located there and Route 66 also goes through
the neighborhood.
And actually mapping out those two infrastructures, I noticed that they meet at the beginning, on
each end of North Lawndale. So it's the perfect place to have the next step of this kind of
consumerism of America that I'm-Targeting.
--targeting. So on one end of the neighborhood there's this castle that used to be a car wash and
filling station on Route 66 and then on the other end is the original Sears Tower. Both of them
are landmarks and are currently abandoned.
So I'm having this as a product-service communication between the two buildings. So the tower
would be more of the product and then car wash would be the service end of selling these
products but then also being a culture center as well. So in my research I analyzed the whole
catalog system of Sears and how it's basically like a reflection of America and their culture. And
I see this building as a reflection of the neighborhood's cultures.
So within the catalog there were these certain sections that always stayed the same. And then,
throughout the years, they transformed and adapted based on the new culture of the nation. So
having these specific floors tailored to either-- one is tailored to art, and one's music, and then
how they can adapt and then-- Yeah. Let's see, what else is-- There is so much.
How many neighborhoods across the country have been impacted by the rise and fall of
consumerism culture? This is now working on the fallout of those malls and of the strip malls
and they're trying to reallocate or re-imagine those buildings as other, more local-based
generators.
I have looked at a few different Sears warehouses. And one that I was interested in was the one
in Minneapolis and it's called Midtown Global Market and it's an internationally themed public
market. So how it's kind of this product but also has services. So there's like education classes
and tasting tours. So having it be on both ends and how-- Basically, I'm trying to illustrate how
the past with the railroads, automobile, and now the future with more technology and culturedbased activities.
So do you have some demographic information in those areas?
Yes.
And what is the demographic? I mean, do you get there just by driving your car?
There is public transportation, the CTA is nearby.
OK. The demographic is what? Is it dense enough to support something like this? If it's scattered
and it's hard to get to, it sounds like a great idea but if I can't get to it and if I have to drive three
hours to get my coffee maker repaired, or something, it's not going to happen.
It is close enough to the city where you don't need to drive to get there but like the two buildings
are a few blocks away from each other so you could walk if you wanted to or bike, actually,
would be probably better.
But it's been a depressed neighborhood and the city has taken several steps to try to pull it
together. It's one of those dematerialized zones like areas of Detroit but it has made progress and
this could be another part to add to that momentum. So it's that momentum adding.
So I did, also in my research, I've communicated with a few of the community organizations
there and I'm trying to integrate my idea with theirs. So one of their ideas is a revitalization
planting because Ogden Avenue, which is right in front of the Castle Car Wash, is four lanes but
there's nothing-- They want to do a boulevard system. So having that kind of be part of this plan
of mine.
And then also, the abandoned railroad station by abandoned tower, they're planning on having a
community garden. And so incorporating that with-So it will all start to link together.
Have it be a network.
You also mentioned repairs. Is there a repair culture that's happening now? You mentioned that it
might be a place to get things repaired.
Fixed.
Fixed.
Yeah. So I'm thinking more of technology-based-OK.
That's where I'm at.
So there's so much work in that topic alone. There is the mall but then there's the fallout from
that consumerist culture. And it is trying to come back to a local versus a global practice, which
is a real important step in making a regenerative neighborhood.
In essence, you're redefining consumerist culture because it's not the old, OK, I'm going to get it,
I'm going to use it, I'm going to throw it out and I'll get the next one. You're really rethinking
with the services and the goods and the kind of things that you were thinking about and the
neighborhood involvement.
You're really, basically, creating something that could be a new model because we do buy things
even though you may not buy as many as your parents did. And you may actually rent some of
the things or rent your ball gown and then give it back. And you don't have to own it.
So one of that parts that I was doing was-- entertainment systems were really big in the catalog
but that's so expensive now. It's easier to rent.
Yeah.
The rental agencies almost kind of depleted except for elderly care but they're actually fabulous
when you think, I can't really afford this tent or I can't afford this, the whole rental notion is
really great.
Yeah. It's great. It sound good.
Thanks
Thanks.
[APPLAUSE]
[PLAYBACK VIDEO]
-Hi. I'm Sophia and I'm an interior designer. Living in small spaces can seem an obstacle to [?
chic ?] design but it is where it is most needed. As your apartment investigator, I can transform
your apartment both functionally and stylishly.
[END PLAYBACK]
So tell us about your micromanaging of apartment space.
I'm focusing on doing the research about new design of apartments. I feel there is a need for
because society and the neighborhoods and the demographics, they keep changing over time. So
I feel, for now, there is a need for a new design about the type of apartments. So I'm thinking to
design a new type of apartment, which is micro apartments, to fill people's needs. Because I
think for now, the singles and the small families without children, or young couples, that the
population of them has been increased. So I think-And they can't afford the rent in urban areas.
And also, I think people don't have to build large or luxury apartments. Smaller apartments can
also be creative and luxury as well.
So you gave us two examples, those videos.
What is in Hong Kong is designed by Gary Chang. The amazing thing is he can turn one room
into 24 different types of rooms using the movable walls and movable furniture. And another
project is-- right now, it has been built in New York. And I think they are open to the customers
in this September. They expect to have people living in the new micro apartments.
So it's really interesting to me to think about that because we've been talking about converting
spaces and manipulating the elements of the space. Did you look into how much of that people
actually do? We can't even adjust our ergonomic chairs ourselves.
I think that there's this thing that's provided by designers. The Gary Chang apartment is amazing.
A worker of art.
It's amazing. But would you really do all of that stuff? When you live there, are you going to say,
oh, I can't, I'm going to just bunk on the floor because I can't pull down that bed again? You
know what I mean. So I think you have to think about how we relate to the manipulation of space
that we need to do at all times for a small space. So I don't know what your findings are, and if
you're looking into that, but that might be interesting for you to look at.
You showed a second video that-- Gary, his apartment is a work of art and it was like the Pierre
Chareau glass house where cabinets moved out and all of this-- but the second one that you
showed, I kept thinking, I actually am probably capable of doing what this woman does. She gets
everything and puts it away but the rest of my family is not.
It was so neat and tidy, everything in its place. So I think that that range is really interesting to
look at from the neat and tidy to-- we talked about the clutterer. And how do you create a system
that is responsive to both ends?
And then also, how do you create spaces around it. Like if you have such a tiny space, and that's
urban living, we all live in cramped spaces but the reality is that you will live your life in the
city. So you go out for food, for entertainment, for friendship, for all of those things that we
associate with living in an urban realm.
So the apartment, really, can be very minimal taking care of your very minimum needs and not
try to do all of those things that designers tend to give you. And then you kind of say, well, that
broke I'm not using that again. So I think you have to think about the tiny urban apartment within
the urban context and what's around it.
What kind of restaurants are around it, what kind of cultural institutions? Where do you go to
live your life? And then the apartment is merely a place you bunk.
Yeah. Or even time spent in apartments. I know you have mentioned that you're in a smaller-you've downsized to an Alan designed apartment. In Europe most of the apartments are smaller
so you more often meet with friends at a restaurant than you have coming into your house. So to
map the percentage of time that Americans spend in their apartments-- I'm not talking single
family homes just apartments-- and then the range of square footage of those apartments verses
European and denser cities would be really, really good.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-Hi. My name is Keeley Haftner. I'm an artist who is obsessed with the untapped potential of
material waste. Post-consumer refuse is a lost opportunity. My research aims to empower and
enable individuals to move recycling from the plant to the desktop.
[END PLAYBACK]
Sorry, I was nervous so I didn't want to put my glasses away.
By the way, what are you making?
I am making a backpack, actually, out of plastic bags.
You're recycling even as you speak.
Yeah, I'm busy handed.
They're so strong.
They're beautiful. Wow. Thank you. That's lovely.
And it's so strong.
So you're crocheting.
Yeah.
Wow. Good for you.
Well thanks.
Yes. Go ahead.
I'm actually an artist. This is the first design class I've ever taken. It's been super, super
interesting for me but my research, in particular, is looking at a few different ways I could
potentially downsize recycling to a desktop level. And so at this stage it's primarily research but
I've got a couple on the go that I've actually got in the process of happening. This I guess, is
more of a craft-based process.
But one thing that I'm doing is I'm making 3D printing filament out of waste recycling. So there's
PLA-based cups that are industrially compostable in the cafeterias that as of today, I'm going to
be collecting and using in my studio to make filament and make 3D prints from, printing cups, it
would seem. And then another process, which I'm just at the early stages of looking into, is a sort
of heat compression or injection molding recycling, being able to take that to the desktop, which
is totally possible but super, super expensive. So I'm looking at other models where you could
potentially revamp existing models, like drill presses, into this kind of a recycling mechanism
and take it into the home.
So think about it, since the garbage disposal, what has been brought into our home-- and the
compactor but compactors, a lot of people don't have because their expense. The can crush their
can. So this would be a third way.
And what you're talking about is just decreasing the mass of waste and not utilizing it. I just see
it as, like I mentioned in my pitch, it's a lost opportunity. I really love the value. The potential
value, especially in plastics, is something that I look at continually.
My partner is a toxicologist so I always feed him the other parts of my research. Like OK, PLA,
what does that look like as an organic structure? And so it's interesting to me to think about how
this stuff can be utilized. It's constantly just going into the landfill or being recycled but can we
reclaim that as individuals?
So have you thought of working with an industrial designer and your toxicologist partner
together, the three of you?
I would love that. I would love that. Right now I'm looking for places where I can actually gain
access to the industrial processes. They're very closed doors.
I think that you're at that stage where you have a really good idea here. And so it needs to be
some sort of small compacting system that is affordable, that can be near your desk that, you can
actually do something with, and figuring out how to get that processed material out. So I think it
would be that industrial designer who gets the industrial processes but can personalize it. Like
when they design a coffee maker, it's an industrial product but then they personalize it to you, to
your hand, to the ergonomics of the average human hand. So I think it would be really cool for
you to get that relationship going.
Yeah, I would love that. Time and time again, I find in my research that recycling plants are very
closed doors about all of their processes. A lot of people have, for sometimes just cause, really
critical eyes when they're looking at those processes and how they're being handled.
But most of the time, like even here in Chicago, there's a great plant called MRC Polymers that
since the '80s has been taking waste recycling that nobody deals with and turning it into fabulous
things. Taking bumpers off of cars and using that ABS plastic to sell to people who are making
3D filament, for example. But nobody knows about their processes because they're all under
wraps because they're all proprietary, and so on. So opening some of that up through smaller
mechanism would be really great.
We were talking about the EU's transfer of and generous sharing of material technologies
between different corporate cultures and different countries. And I was saying how sad that that
can't happen here because everything is so proprietary. And she was saying that the EU made
that a mission, that that kind of cross-collaboration and fertilization was going to be promoted. A
project like this can do it between homes and industry and start to break down those borders. So
we still need that governmental understanding that we need to open up and share, be generous
with ideas.
And then what do you do once you've collected? There needs to be that whole system, the
system of not only reclaiming, recalibrating but then where does it go and who collects it? And I
think you're right. There are organizations that are doing that right now.
So I think you're not hitting something totally unknown. But I think what I love about your idea
is that it creates awareness by the individual, and millions of individuals make change. So that is
a really interesting, strong idea.
So we have to get you hooked up with an industrial engineer and/or slash designer, or the Ellen
MacArthur cyclical economy Fellowship. They'll help you. Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-Hi. My name is Vi and I design apps and events that link people together to initiate creative,
beneficial collaboration. I'm currently working alongside native Mission District residents and
Silicon Valley tech workers to foster a stronger community in San Francisco.
[END PLAYBACK]
As I've stated over there, I am currently designing an annual event and an app corresponding to
that that's focusing on the Mission District of San Francisco where there's a heavily dominated
Latino community there as well as the rise of tech workers living in that community also. And
within those two groups of people there's this rising tension due to the standard of living hike in
San Francisco as well as the population density there that is creating this tension and dread. And
I want to connect the two groups of people together so that it alleviates the tension as well as it
connects the people who can't really have a connection unless-They have a friend or somebody.
And so with the tech powerhouses like Google, YouTube, Facebook, who are in that immediate
area, I think that it could be possible since they are already contributing to San Francisco in the
city, and their public transportation, and everything else.
So you're talking about social connectivity?
Yes. Social as well as skill sharing.
Skill sharing. OK. And I'm not clear, how are you going to bring them together?
I was hoping to create an event akin to Chicago Ideas Week, where it's just a public-- condensed
into week of public events that's aimed to bring different types of people together and make it
accessible also for people can't afford to take classes with-It's a great idea. What kind of social networking are you designing into this?
I was looking into Chicago Ideas Week as well as the Boys and Girls Clubs, like their system of
just connecting a disadvantaged person with the one who is a tech worker making $200,000 and
who has the skills and knowledge to commandeer the tech economy. I was looking at all social
media apps, like Facebook, something that is not so rigid and fosters a personal connection as
well as a professional one.
So what you need to figure out is who's a really good copywriter? Because you need a mission
that is well defined that both the Latino community and the tech people relate to really well
because there needs to be some commonality that you bring forth and repeat and expose in all
social media platforms, I think. Twitter allows you to deal with ideas more than the others. The
other's kind of just put the stuff out there.
But I think if you have Twitter at its core, as a kind of major communications system to those
people-- And I guess you need access to the Googlers and everybody else because you need to
reach them somehow. So you're going to have to figure out how to do that. But I think if you
start figuring that one out that should be an amazing collection of ideas coming together.
And I like the Chicago Ideas because that happens once a year but actually things that happen
monthly tend to build a little more momentum because once a year is you hit it, you missed it.
Then it comes, ohp, it's next year, I missed it again. But every month, eventually you could
probably get stats of. By the third month the population's growing.
Yeah. It's also really, really interesting if it's monthly because you're going to discover things
that you didn't even think of what people will design, and how they will relate, and what kind of
work that they're going to be doing because people are fascinating and really creative. So I think
that's going to be really cool.
Thank you.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-I'm Jackie. My research is on Gaza refugees and, specifically, ongoing children's trauma. I've
developed a toy companion that is compassionate, caring, and comforting. Provide refuge for
refugees.
[END PLAYBACK]
OK Jackie.
Hi. For my project I am doing something that relieves PTSD for, specifically, children in Gaza.
And I'm focusing on providing mental care because I think often for refugees, people dismiss the
mental health aspect. It's always about either food or medicine.
The physical health performance.
I actually took some psychology courses here and I learned that to be healthy you have to be
mentally healthy first before anything. And there is even a TED talk given recently by Dr.
Nadine Burke. She said, child trauma can affect your lives 20 years from now. Not just like
disease-wise but people who tend to have PTSD or any mental trauma have much more risk of
not just heart diseases and whatnot but also suicide rates, which is about 20 times more prevalent
if you have anything from the ACE list, which is Adverse Childhood Experiences.
So what group are you going to focus on, what refugee group?
Children in Gaza.
Children of what?
Gaza.
The Gaza.
Gaza. OK. That, and then do you have any relationship there, any relationship in Gaza?
Well not bloodline or genetically.
But I mean in terms of people and organizations.
I know a few. I actually went to a presentation recently in Columbia College and there was a
student who actually is from Gaza. And he gave a short speech about how it was like growing up
there. And I don't, actually, even have a very close relationship with him. He's more of an
acquaintance but I took a lot of notes. Thanks to the presentation, that I got to know what it's like
to be there as a child.
She's going to prototype some toys that eventually might be offered through the Red Cross or
other agencies working there in the after-trauma moments. And the tactile qualities of the-At the moment my focus is not exactly on the refugees' experience because, I think, now I'm
trying to take the step of doing more research on what types of things are used for children's play
therapy or art therapy. And Chicago, thank goodness, has a lot of places that offer psychological
therapy, which also offers group therapy and children's art therapy. So I plan to either visit there
or give them a call and figure out what's typically being done.
Yeah. What works. And of course, the cultural aspect is huge because the children in Gaza are
not the children in Chicago. So it's going to be very interesting what you find out. It's a great
project.
And much needed because with all the money that flows into post-emergency situations we don't
see toys at the top of the list. And I think that you have done the research to say that mental
health is first and foremost. Susan's here in Chicago visiting with The Farm and has looked at
many, many hospital or medical facilities and looking at the through the lens of how are they
increasing the health of the patients that are there. And the answer has been, unfortunately-They're not.
--very little.
And also, the thing about children is what's interesting is I, actually, was reading through
National Geographic and I once tumbled into a picture of these Afghani children playing with
mines, which I thought was quite shocking. But I also realized children, no matter where they are
or what situation they're in, they want to play with something.
Exactly.
Exactly. That's a really good point. And that's an enormous change that you can bring to them.
So great project.
She told this heart-rending story about a two-year-old cancer patient in a hospital in Kentucky,
wasn't it?
Yeah, Louisville. First of all, the question should come up for all of us, why does a two-year-old
get cancer? But nobody seems to be asking that question. And then secondly, how do you
accommodate that child and family?
They provided a little playroom behind the bed. Well, the kid can't get out of bed. There needs to
be something centered around that child. And I think what you're doing is you're centering
around their needs and not just as a group but those individual children with all kinds of
reactions to trauma and emotional traumas that they had. And they're all different. So it's critical.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
OK. You want to finish these? I realize you all had great questions for Susan and we've taken a
lot of time but go ahead. This is yours Alice.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-Hi. I'm Alice Yu. Creative and innovation are essential in the rapidly changing world of
architectural and urban design. As China faces great social change, architectural education needs
to transform to respond. Studying historical, theoretical, and practical perspectives
[INAUDIBLE] times will change the architectural education can be explored. It is time they
need to open up China's education system and to make a change for the next generation.
[END PLAYBACK]
Sounds like a great idea already.
So what are you finding out?
So so far I'm finding out while I'm doing my research, I realized that the modern architectural
history in China is actually quite short. We just started around 1920s. And it's pretty much all
based on America's education system, which for me, I think, it's OK as a starting point because
we have nothing.
So for now, I think, it's time for us to explore our curriculum based on our problem, based on the
social issues and the political issues and the environment. So so far, I'm still on the historical
part, like how the modernism or postmodernism influence the architecture education in here and,
consequently, influence it in China. And so far, that's my idea.
But what's really interesting, when you study American postmodernism all you're going to get is
stylistic revival. And when they started looking at Palladio, when they started looking at classical
architecture, I was so hopeful because I thought, OK, they're going to know building siting,
they're going to know materials, they're going to know the natural environment that the building
is placed or the urban environment, analyze it. And of course, it didn't happen.
So I think you don't want to waste your time on why didn't it happen because it's just one of
those mental blindnesses at that time. But I think now, if postmodernism came around now, the
study of what exists and the human knowledge that built the buildings and the cities, I think it
would be really, really interesting what you come up with. This is a really great time to reengage-It's a book.
--with that. It's a really good book.
Yeah. Because like now I'm outside of my country, and I can feel the shifting or the diagram
starting to change. And I feel like if the whole society becoming changing in a slow way because
they've been rapidly changing in 20 years, which normally it would take 100 years. So this is
something really, I shouldn't use awkward, but it is a weird transition.
But now it's like another transition starting. So I'm just thinking then how should architecture
education respond to this rapid transition. That's more important for nowadays and how to make
an influence or impact, or how to advocate about the social issues. I think that's the important
part for education.
So at the moment, you're doing more academic research and more-Timeline research.
Great. Great. So that's really great. I'd love to see how it plays out.
She has another year so she's really just starting it.
Fabulous.
I think, too, how do we develop the agile mind so that they understand that the environment,
economy, culture, and technology all are looked at in response comprehensively. So thank you
Alice.
[APPLAUSE]
Great. Thank you.
I think we've got one more and then we've got a quick couple of questions. And then we're going
to break down here and move upstairs as the admissions comes. I think that's right. But all right,
I think Sabrina, you're left.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-Hi. I'm Sabrina [INAUDIBLE]. I'm designing objects for the home that sustains shitake
mushroom growth as a beautiful food source. The small-scale sustainable art of home-growing
your own mushrooms provides easy, fast, and fresh cultivation, nutrition and health benefits, as
well as being cost efficient.
[END PLAYBACK]
So tell us about your mushrooms, Sabrina.
Mushrooms, whoa.
Hi. So I am focusing on making it easier to cultivate mushrooms in the home. I like the thought
of being able to grow your own food at home and so that's what I'm basing this project on. It's
going to be specifically for shitake mushroom.
And so you're researching the agriculture of shitake mushrooms? Where is your research going?
So the climate indoors is typically around 70 degrees and this is perfect climate for shitake
mushroom growth. They need humidity, which the objects would be made to be soaked in water
around every one or two weeks depending on how humid your environment is indoors. And they
need regular light day and night cycles to grow just like any other plants. So they would grow
perfectly indoors.
And then growing medium, which is quite beautiful, and this is wood.
So they be growing oak wood. I'd be carving objects out of the oak wood.
And does it matter if the light that they get is filtered light through glass or if it's somewhat-As long as it's UV light, which is typically what we have artificially, or from the natural sunlight
they will grow well.
Great.
And her PechaKucha has beautiful images that-- I'm not really a mushroom lover but I would
like one of those growing because they're so gorgeous. And the time frame is so quick.
Yes. The objects would come ready to fruit after two weeks of watering. So you would just soak
your mushrooms when you buy the object and in two weeks they would be already full grown.
So it sounds like it's one of those great consumer pieces that everybody would want to buy at
Costco or somewhere.
Right. And it's pretty easy because you can get the different types of wood. And so you have
something natural brought into the house.
Yeah. And then it's beautiful as it grows. And then you can reuse that wood after that school of
mushroom is done with.
I wanted to focus on making it a service. So once the whole wooden object would be taken over
by the mycelium, which are the roots of the mushroom, we would replace the object.
That's great. Well you know that there's an architect who builds by growing mushroom bricks,
right?
I've seen the material that he makes it out of.
Corn stalks and mycelium. And it's a very strong material. Mushrooms are really big now so
you're onto something.
Very good. OK. Thanks Sabrina.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
Now we just have a couple minutes. And a lot of you submitted questions for Susan either about
the remake of the magazine, or of her historical work, or about an ethical practice. Anybody?
Jackie.
One of the questions I have for, basically, designers in general is currently, our generation, the
future biggest consumers, have very different perspectives of how to spend on something or what
to choose but then the current consumers, who have the most power, are, basically, people in
their mid-age, I suppose. So there's a huge generation gap between the future consumers and the
current ones. Is it important to cater more to either group or do we need to find a good balance?
Well I think it depends on what you do. And I would say that your generation is as powerful as
that group is because of your numbers. You're kind of equal with the baby boom so 70-- baby
boomers-- 74 million of you.
So I think you actually can we define a new consumerism. And you really don't have to fall into
that kind of just let's buy, let's use, let's throw away, which is what's been the culture. You're
looking at a much more diverse way of getting things, renting things, not even not even buying
them, what kind of systems there are.
You need to look at designing systems for renting, collecting, and sharing. And it's not just
designing a product it really is designing much more than a product. It's redesigning a big system
that exists that is a huge elephant that you have to now kind of feel every part of that elephant to
figure out what do you change.
OK. Thank you.
Someone else. Josh.
So I've been kind of going back and forth about the ideas of creativity versus criticality lately,
like holding them on two sides of the scale, if you will. How do you see those two traits in
design?
Well I think critical thinking is really important. But critical thinking, to me, is not an armchair
operation that you can just throw out critical observations, which a lot of people do, by the way,
in design and based on very flimsy evidence of thought. And so I think really solid critical
thinking thinks about the social impact, thinks about the economic impact, thinks about the
human impact of what you do. And that, to me, is very important to bring those conversations
into design.
And then the creativity part is informed by all that. I think the richest projects and the most
interesting projects are the ones that really are done by incredibly informed designers, which
usually isn't one person but the consulting with a lot of really interesting specialties that help
you. Mushroom growing, that's biology, that's farming, that's climate. You're dealing with much
more than just a little mushroom there.
So I think of that kind of creative thinking is really important now because you stand to redesign
a lot of things and a lot of systems. And you have to because the ones that we have are designed
around heedless consumption and everything being available and everything being petroleumbased and all of that has to be looked at. So you have enormous opportunities to really rethink a
lot of things that we do and come up with new thinking.
Remember, the 20th century was very different from the 19th century. It remade the world. Now
it's your chance to redefined the 21st century for how you think. And I think you're powerful
enough in numbers and in thought that you can do that. But frankly, we can't wait for you. So we
all have to do something.
But I think you definitely will do some very interesting things. And the criticality is, obviously,
very much part of it. But it's not the old art historic criticality that we've been used to reading
about architecture and design. That doesn't work.
So I guess, a follow up question to that is what do you think is the predominant or strongest trait
a designer should have or exemplify?
Well, you mean in terms of skill or in terms of just knowledge?
In terms of skill, what a designer would bring to a project?
Well I think your design thinking or your thought about proper designerly problem solving is
hugely important to any project because you will make it work, you will make sure that you
work with the right engineers and whatever it is-- it's a product, it's a building, it's whatever-- and
you really need to pull in all of those talents around you. But your thinking, your fresh thinking
as a designer is essential to this kind of remaking the world idea. So what you bring to it is you're
connectivity, your ideas, your skills, and you're ability to digest complex information and create
a new ideal around that information. And new ideas never come out of nothing they come out of
a massive sort of connectivity of brain tissue among yourselves and others.
And I think your in a really important position right now. And design is being talked about more
but design is being talked about as a consumerist idea, what cool thing I buy. And that's not
design that's consumerism. Your contribution is much bigger than just designing one more
product and one more building.
You know, I was thinking about this building. Yesterday I remarked, it's by the 'L' and nobody
thought about sound proofing it. And then I'm sitting here and I'm feeling the cold coming in. I
hope you'll never design a building like this.
I hope you really think about where the wind's coming from. Chicago, you're in Chicago, there's
the 'L' running by every two seconds. The context of that knowledge, that observation, and then
the knowledge that you bring to it needs to be applied now to all of what happens.
And I mentioned the cabs before, the accessible cabs. The thinking right now is this much-It's like this thick.
--when we need it be-- yes.
It needs to be this thick.
And we need to be circular and systemic. And you need to be Bucky Fuller's, you really do. You
really need to think about how you define a system, and what do you do with that system, and
how does it work because you're just fixing little bits otherwise, which we've been doing. And
it's not working.
So that's your charge.
You've got a lot of work to do. It's great. It's great to be alive when there's a lot of great work to
do. You're not going to be bored.
And it's wonderful that you're not just designing but you're being a design advocate to change
things.
So my question then, piggybacking off of that, is in this world where there's so much to do and
ourselves being young optimists and looking to apply ourselves to those tasks, I remember
reading once about South African artist William Kentridge's animation. And a critic wrote that
his work attempts to keep optimism in check and nihilism at bay, and that's something I think
about all the time. So I'm wondering how do you navigate that conundrum?
You have to find something that you're fascinated by. And then that's optimism personified
because then if you're really interested in exploring something then you're never bored. You're
always, oh well, I didn't know that. I didn't know-How to do this and how to find out.
Yeah. How do you do that? What happens? So I go to Italy every summer. And I am constantly
floored by how ancient cultures were able to build and how smart they were about their
environment.
I was in a medieval hill town where they actually figured out 200 years ago how to gather the
rain that falls, a deluge that comes into this hill town, falls on the top of the hill where there's this
well, and all of the water disappears by morning, and it's collected in cisterns. So this has been
figured out a long time ago. So I love that idea of discovering those things and understanding
that this has been going on for a long time. And we're not reinventing everything but we are part
of the line of invention.
And I think, if you get involved in something that you can trace backwards and forwards and
begin to understand connecting ideas, connecting people, connecting places, then it becomes a
lifelong interest and that's where the optimism is. And then the pessimism or the sort of
negativism comes when somebody throws something your way but that's just an obstacle. You
have to kind of figure out how to jump over it because you can't let people stop you.
You just have to drive the idea forward. And I think what you're talking about, your project
signifies to me that you're interested in much more than just that project, that you're really
thinking about material and the materiality of the world and how do we think about it. And that's
a lifetime of thinking, and doing, and discovering, and connecting.
Also piggybacking to Josh's question, what are your thoughts on the best traits exemplify when
you're working with a broad range of people in a collaborative setting like a-It's here. You've done it.
--like being in a firm, in a team, collective, et cetera?
Yeah. I think collaboration is really hard, it's really hard. Don't let anybody tell you that it's easy.
But I think what really works is when you have a clearly defined mission and everybody on your
team buys into it. Because one of the things that happened when, for instance, when we
redesigned the magazine, I was pretty much on the sidelines by then because I helped define the
mission of the magazine for the past 29, 30 years.
So they'd been all working on that mission. So I did not have to re-engage myself because the
editors and the art directors we're ingrained with this stuff. So it's that kind of buying into an idea
that you can develop further.
And they were the ones who came up with new iterations, new departments, new ways of
treating things, kind of a rebirth of the magazine as a result of the fact that they all knew where
they were working, what the mission of the magazine was, and why we were important, and why
what made us different, and what made us important to the marketplace. Because you also have
to be important and you have to be successful financially because otherwise you don't have a
system. You can't do anything. You have to pay for things, you have to pay salaries, rent,
utilities, taxes. It's all part of the picture.
But at the same time, you really have to think about what makes you unique, special, and
something that people want. And so the team was there. And we built that team and now they're
functioning on their own, pretty much. I'm just called in once in awhile to say, OK, have you
thought of this? And then they go on and do whatever they need to do. So yeah, collaboration is
a long, drawn process but it is very interesting what can happen if everybody shares within that
vision.
Contributes.
And contributes.
OK. So that's it. Collaboration and advocacy hand-in-hand. All right. OK. I think we have one
more and then we're going to have to shift for this next group.
In terms of architectural education in today's world, do you think that schools are developing the
next generation of innovators or a wave of designers that are dependent on technology and lack
the experience and knowledge of how to actually build viable structures today?
Yeah, the old architects say that. I don't believe in that. I really do believe that what's developed,
the technology is key because that is the way architecture is done now. Building information
modelling is ingrained in the architecture offices. They use software to measure every brick's
performance, every sunbeam that falls on the building. So you can do a lot more and understand
a lot more with technology.
However, I think what's missing a lot of times is the hands on practice. And I think some of the
studios, like Studio 860 at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, where I'm going after this, it's a
really cool things that they're actually building, or Rural Studio, or Jersey Devil, or these people
who actually build the things are really important because you know things go together, you
know the physicality of the material, you know a lot more than just the concept. You're not a
kind of aesthetic consultant you're a builder. Meese was a bricklayer, you know. Wright knew
how things got together.
So I think Gropius, he wasn't just a conceptual guy. He knew how things were put together. So
you really have to think about how do you integrate the making with the theory, with the
technology.
And you need to, as students, you need to ask for that because sometimes the systems don't allow
for that kind of growth and that kind of expansion. And where in that mode right now where the
technology is key and you do great stuff on the computer but you have to pull it out of the
computer and then figure out how it hits the ground, how the joints work, how everything is
going to feel and look.
So when and where do you get that building experience? And I think Parsons has a very, very
good, actually, design-build program. I don't know if the architecture schools around here do but,
maybe, if they don't-They're starting.
They're starting. And maybe if they don't then the architecture programs can collaborate on
building together because that's another part that really needs to be paid attention to. And I think
also it's fun because it's collaborative, it's communal, its results oriented, it's physical, it's being
outside, it's all of those things that you love anyway. And you need to ask for it. And you need to
be an advocate for your own profession.
Your own education.
That's right. If you don't get from the school what you feel you need, you need to speak up. And
we were on the picket lines in the '60s. We were pushing for women's studies, and AfricanAmerican studies, and we got those. We ran those through. And it happened because the students
actually were pushing for real change and you're pushing for much bigger than that.
And we need change, right? Yeah We do.
Especially for you because you're looking at the world in new ways, you're looking at society,
consumption, building in new ways. You have new tools, you have-- the world has shifted into
this mode of technically informed, environmentally concerned and environmentally connected,
built environment that you really, really have to integrate now and think about.
So that's a big, big change. It didn't happen in the 20th century. It happened in little bits and
pieces but it really didn't happen in the way that you're going to make it work. It's going to be
fabulous to watch it and I'm sorry I'm not going to be around to see it.
To write about. So there's your stage. Thank you Susan. We're going to close now. And I really
appreciate your taking your valuable time to meet so intimately, like kindergarten chats.
But I think it's a really part of your personality how you can move seamlessly between industry
and design firms and the public realm as a design advocate.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
OK. If you want your book signed there's the table there. I know there's a group waiting to
reconfigure the space.