Public Interest Design

'local code: real estates' by nicholas de monchaux from: Designboom

Good to see the representation of designing for the public good at the US Pavilion at the 13^th International Venice Architecture Biennale. This year's theme is, "Spontaneous Interventions: design actions for the common good" and marks a welcomed emphasis shift from the sexy and high-speed elite design to architecture that engages in a manner that is "sustainable, accessible and useful." The Biennale's overall theme is Common Good and is being lead by the purist architect David Chipperfield. The exhibit runs August 29 to November 25, 2012.

Some early press on the exhibit at Architect Magazine by John Cary expresses desires to act in a more permanent, larger way: "Designers must pursue these larger, more systemic public interest design projects at a scale and a pace never seen before—at a scale and pace that the world needs and deserves." He suggests a shift from performing design for individuals as a doctor would treat a patient, to a larger practice that requires entrepreneurial talents to address the needs of the many.

Amen.

More links talking about the Biennale and other design movements for the common good:

http://artinfo.com/news/story/817142/is-counterculture-getting-mainstream-curating-the-venice-architecture-biennales-guerrilla-us-pavilion

http://www.archdaily.com/249209/u-s-pavilion-at-the-venice-architecture-biennale-announces-designers-and-participants/

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/22027/venice-biennale-2012-us-pavilion-preview.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

http://www.publicinterestdesign.org/

http://architectureforhumanity.org/

http://www.seednetwork.org/

https://www.ideo.org/

City from scratch

What if you were able to build a city from scratch with current technologies, new ideas and a fresh way of organizing space, transportation and information? The South Korean city of Songdo is slowly emerging from virgin land to do just that.

 

Along with the new buildings is an infrastructure that completely rethinks city systems and how we relate to the urban environment. Pneumatic trash chutes, underground parking, planned for walking and biking, integral grey water irrigation, communications and sensors gathering information everywhere. Songdo will be a highly connected living city that will benefit from a few decades of sustainable thinking that has never had the chance to be installed as basic services integrated into the fabric of the city from day one. More than exciting, this will be a living laboratory for how these types of systems perform, and it will go a long way towards convincing other cities to adopt these new technologies. Assuming, of course, that everything works as advertised...