computer Aided design:blog Aided charity

2008年9月10日

轉載:Designing for the Other 90%

全球10%人口掌握全世界近85%資源
擁有建築知識的社群
卻常受城市法規體系與財團箝制的市場影響
有意或無意
去享受建築政策所勾勒下的經濟安定感
更甚者或恣意配合企業財團的金脈揮霍著85%帶來的放縱

建築教育讓設計者
常以身為建築師或建築設計者或都市規劃者自居
卻總忽略設計者對社會價值的正向意識
被設計費佔總工程預算的數目所蠱惑
或為迎接下個更大型設計案或等待下個更財大氣粗的建設公司而盲從

我們忽略了什麼?
90%人口捧著15%資源勇敢生存的本能


人類的貧富差距
是一種挑戰
挑戰窮的人的生存本能
挑戰富的人究竟可放下多少的本能

設計者在人類貧富差距史中
有越來越多刺激和反思了………

以下文章是這些集體意識慢慢凝聚中的共鳴


Archinect Reviews: 'Designing for the Other 90%'

Reviewed by Quilian Riano

By now we are more than familiar with the numbers; 10% of the world's population owns 85% of the world's wealth (Brown, 2006), 17% of the world's population lives in extreme poverty, less than $1 a day, another 23% live in moderate poverty, less than $2 a day (Chen & Ravallion, 2004). We are talking about 40% of the population, 3.8 billion people or almost 3 times the total population of China, at the lowest end of the world's economic scale. When one is confronted with these overwhelming numbers and statistics it is hard to find any hope of being able to help change the situation. However, once we look closer, the statistics reveal an emerging market of consumers with a variety of design needs and a combined purchasing power of over $100 billion dollars a month. Keep in mind that we are still talking about the people at the lowest edge of economic indicators, once you add those in relative poverty, according to country, you have a whopping 5.9 Billion people or 90% of the world's population as potential clients.



Global Village Shelter

It is clear that the need is overwhelming and, in a sign that design institutions are beginning to notice it, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum addresses it in its 'Design for the Other 90%' exhibit. The exhibit includes a variety of design strategies that have taken 'helping the poor' outside the charity arena, and into the entrepreneurial design realm. Clearly, what the exhibit advocates is not profiteering from those in need, but rather for designers to work closer with the poorest clients to give them an opportunity to earn a productive life while remaining within their means. The exhibit itself is displayed in the garden of Andrew Carnegie's Fifth Avenue Mansion, now home to the Cooper Hewitt, giving the exhibit a luscious, if not ironic, backdrop. A series of small architectural interventions await outside creating a small village populated by the furniture and other objects that make up the rest of the exhibit. These small architectural interventions roughly break into two categories, shelters and public space pavilions.

There are many other simple and elegant solutions to the very real problems of the world's poor which I urge everyone to explore through the online catalogue. One that caught my attention particularly is the Solar Dish Kitchen, which was constructed in a collaboration with the community, architecture students, professionals such as James Adamson from the Jersey Devils, and artists. The dish is a lesson on how to smartly and appropriately use the environmental conditions of a site as part of a low-cost, low-impact architectural strategy. It is simple, cost effective, low-impact design solutions such as these, and not charity, that will help those people with the most needs around the world.

Solar Dish Kitchen


More Link:
Archinect Reviews:'Designing for the Other 90%'

2008年9月1日

轉載:Extreme Environments Design Class

稱得上真正的設計課

討論設計過程中的力學行為
結構如何解決
在水壓力與浮力干擾下的構造







Students in a recently developed design class at the University of Cincinnati are meeting and working at the bottom of the university’s Olympic-sized pool.

It’s all part of a new Extreme Environments design course. The point of the underwater exercises is the same as that for any site visit: to first experience an environment and then design for it, according to Brian F. Davies, associate professor of architecture in UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning and initiator of the Extreme Environments design class.

Archinect had a chance to talk to Davies, as well as to third-year architecture student Emma Scarmack who was a participating student.

Archinect: What type of real-world situations require underwater architecture, or do you foresee requiring underwater architecture in the future?

Brian Davies: One of this quarter’s students, Amanda Davidson, has positioned her floating residence as a remedy in case of either global warming or a new ice age. While I admire Amanda’s research and proposal, I hope neither force delivers the necessity for underwater architecture. Our foray into underwater architecture is motivated by a conviction to inspire greater respect for the planet and by opportunities to enable exploration and science that will contribute broader understanding to fuel such respect. This is not a new futurist architecture, rather more of an analogous reflection of where things are and where they should or need to be moving.

Emma Scarmack: Currently, real-world situations that require underwater architecture belong to research and scientific development of the unknown world. Most closely resembling space exploration. It seems very feasible that, in the future, we will rely on underwater architecture because, currently, we know more about space than we do about our own oceans. The need for requiring underwater architecture, however, might not happen in this generation’s lifetime, but just as space offers possibilities, so does the water, and we should start exploring and experimenting now.







More Link:
Underwater Studio