What are the ESRG research priorities?
A proposition for discussion: we want to help to transform what it is to design, by developing (or further developing) new kinds of analytic and generative tools. We want to help shift the emphasis from the expressive intentions of the designer, to the adaptive processes that make a design most successful, and the tools needed to do that. Progress has already been made (and in some cases can be extended further in our work) on evidence-based design, generative codes, Space Syntax, pattern languages and related tools.
The expressive intentions of the designer will of course continue to play a major role. But I suggest the ex cathedra pronouncements of what constitutes "good design" are finally beginning to give way to more reliable diagnostic and prescriptive tools to achieve much greater success, from a human point of view. As Bill Hillier notes, the 20th century is not likely to be remembered as a golden age for urban design, but it may be remembered as an era in which some of the core elements of the discipline were established through innovation and experimentation. The same is probably true for other fields of design. Perhaps these scientific benefits are only coming to fruition now, in an age where complex systems are beginning to be much more clearly understood and more successfully acted upon. So that is our opportunity, to push this ball forward.
Bill Hillier (in The Golden Age for Cities? How We Design Cities is How We Understand Them) lists four priorities for research along these lines:
* Understanding and managing the processes of self-organisation (we are beginning to examine this in the context of informal settlements and social housing)
* Developing tools to interrelate scales, and to link parts and wholes (this is a major emphasis in Chris Alexander's work)
* Developing a clearer understanding of the interdependence of movement and place
* Developing an understanding of the relationship between vitality and security
I would add, after Emily
* Developing an understanding of the strategies needed to achieve socially desirable adjacencies and diversities
Please give comments, challenges, additions, further thoughts.
The expressive intentions of the designer will of course continue to play a major role. But I suggest the ex cathedra pronouncements of what constitutes "good design" are finally beginning to give way to more reliable diagnostic and prescriptive tools to achieve much greater success, from a human point of view. As Bill Hillier notes, the 20th century is not likely to be remembered as a golden age for urban design, but it may be remembered as an era in which some of the core elements of the discipline were established through innovation and experimentation. The same is probably true for other fields of design. Perhaps these scientific benefits are only coming to fruition now, in an age where complex systems are beginning to be much more clearly understood and more successfully acted upon. So that is our opportunity, to push this ball forward.
Bill Hillier (in The Golden Age for Cities? How We Design Cities is How We Understand Them) lists four priorities for research along these lines:
* Understanding and managing the processes of self-organisation (we are beginning to examine this in the context of informal settlements and social housing)
* Developing tools to interrelate scales, and to link parts and wholes (this is a major emphasis in Chris Alexander's work)
* Developing a clearer understanding of the interdependence of movement and place
* Developing an understanding of the relationship between vitality and security
I would add, after Emily
* Developing an understanding of the strategies needed to achieve socially desirable adjacencies and diversities
Please give comments, challenges, additions, further thoughts.
posted by Michael Mehaffy at 8:06 PM
2 comments
