Concentric Circles

Strategic Architecture

2012-02-26T10:40:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the use of sociopetal arrangements or simply designing with clear strategic goals helps to create environments of collaboration.

An article in today's NY Times talk about how Bell Labs used social affordances in their quest for innovation.
From the article:

Elliott Erwitt/Magnum Photos

"ONE element of his approach (Mervin Kelly's) was architectural. He personally helped design a building in Murray Hill, N.J., opened in 1941, where everyone would interact with one another. Some of the hallways in the building were designed to be so long that to look down their length was to see the end disappear at a vanishing point. Traveling the hall’s length without encountering a number of acquaintances, problems, diversions and ideas was almost impossible. A physicist on his way to lunch in the cafeteria was like a magnet rolling past iron filings."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/opinion/sunday/innovation-and-the-bell-labs-miracle.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=true%20innovation&st=cse

Building Schools in New Jersey...

2012-02-16T07:03:00.000-08:00

Building schools in NJ can never be easy or clear or without controversy... Christie, I don't trust that you will do a better job fixing buildings than the job you have done "fixing" education in the state... (fixing in his case is similar to "fixing" stray animals...)

http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/12/0216/0209/

Aha!

2012-01-24T12:27:00.000-08:00

Great! let's pay more attention to this...(I wish I had more time to comment...!)

January 22, 2012

America's Health Threat: Poor Urban Design

David Zentz for The Chronicle

Richard Jackson waits for a bus outside Los Angeles International Airport. The UCLA scientist is a leading voice in the call for better urban design for the sake of public health.

By Scott Carlson

http://chronicle.com/article/A-Scientist-Pushes-Urban/130404/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

The knowledge in objects

2012-01-20T17:04:00.000-08:00

Many authors have described the role of asomatic knowledge, two that come to mind are Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Tim Ingold. On the Leonard Lopate show on WNYC the director of the British Museum has been talking about the BBC's "History of the World" exhibition, which depicts the history of our world through 100 objects. I have not had a chance to listen to any of the shows yet (they are doing one object per day, so perhaps I will catch one). It seems to me that in our everyday life we do not look at the objects we use as "full of knowledge". From the intention in their design, to the way objects are produced; we forget that we are interacting with historic creations and the knowledge that they embody. We forget that we change the objects and the objects change us.

In looking at whole environments do we stop to see the objects they contain?

Link to the "History of the World" exhibit at the British Museum

As the Iron Lady puts it...

2012-01-05T11:15:00.000-08:00

http://youtu.be/hFp2SD-AUdw

I was surprised to hear the beginning of this clip on the radio. It is of Merryl Streep performing as Margaret Thatcher, she says to the British Parliament:

"Teachers cannot teach when there is no heating, no lighting in their classrooms..."

There is such an obvious connection between the quality of the school environment and the quality of academic outcomes that it almost sounds as a cliché. Even though I have not seen this film, and therefore don't know the context of the clip, Thatcher's proclamation sounds like the all-too-known issue in education. There is little understanding of the processes that occur in the human-environment interaction, What is it about a poor environment that impedes education's goals? There are the clear functional factors: We cannot see without proper lighting. We cannot learn if we are sitting at an uncomfortable temperature. But beyond that, what does it mean to attend a school in disrepair? What are the implications for education as "the great equalizer"?
This is the subject of my dissertation research and of much of my future research.
My concern is the reproduction of social structure, where poor school children attend poor school environments and attain poor educational outcomes.

As Margaret/Merryl adds:

"Who's fault is that?"

Nice find thanks to Radiolab

2012-01-01T18:41:00.000-08:00

I heard about this show when listening to Radiolab (www.radiolab.org). It was very interesting to hear about the "invisibility" of design.
The issue of design, just as the issue of environment as an active aspect of human activity has a way of disappearing in the background.

http://99percentinvisible.org/

2011-12-08T19:03:00.001-08:00

Dear Audience,
Posting to this blog was seriously delayed by my dissertation. Dissertations tend to get in the way of life... But I have now finished that feat. I started my first semester as a full-time faculty member. I am currently a visiting professor and I have a large academic load. I am still getting used to it. I am very happy and I find that I am in the right profession.
I will hopefully get back to this blog in the near future. Thanks.

School Building Matters II

2010-02-25T18:10:00.000-08:00

When the wish to learn is about the only thing that there is...

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/pakistan901/

School Building Matters

2010-02-24T13:24:00.000-08:00

http://blog.nj.com/njv_barry_carter/2010/02/newark_west_ward_elementary_sc_1.html

The study of the Abbott Legislation

2009-01-03T21:21:00.000-08:00

School Daze

A photo essay points to the inequalities in school districts.

Friday, October 31, 2008 4:28 PM EDT

By Adam Grybowski

The beginning

2008-10-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

This study (my dissertation) should be exemplary of the latest in the field of ecological psychology. The field initiated by Gibson and Barker, enriched by the thought of Lewin, Vygotsky and Bronfenbrenner, ratified by Proshansky, Altman, Rivlin, Saegert & Winkel, now summarized in a meta-theoretical way by Heft. This history allows me to start my research in a well-structured place. It is my turn now to take the baton and start running…