Design Like You Give a Damn

Treehugger.org Says it best

War in Kosovo. Aids in Africa. Earthquakes in Bam. Then, in quick succession, tsunamis in Asia, earthquakes in Pakistan and hurricanes in America. Now this past weekend, yet another tragedy in Indonesia. It is a wonder that Cameron Sinclair can stand up, let alone keep fighting with bureaucracies, prima donna architects, death and homelessness. Yet he remains positive-”by supporting innovative design, consulting with NGO's, and connecting professionals with projects in the field, we're creating opportunities for designers to get involved and to bring their services to those in need. For every celebrity architect there are hundreds of designers around the world, working under the ideal that it is not how we build but what we build that truly matters". Design like you give a Damn is truly an important work- its lesson is that architecture and design are not about being on the cover of last week's New York Times Magazine but about making a difference in people's lives. Margaret Visser once defined a professional as someone who you trusted with something that you did not understand- the doctor with your health, the lawyer with your freedom, the clergyman with your soul. Cameron Sinclair has given architecture a purpose and a reason to be called a profession- we are to be trusted to give shelter.

In Chapter One, Cameron outlines the founding of Architecture for Humanity, when he was a CAD monkey in a big New York firm. It started as a response to the conflict in Kosovo, in four square feet of his cubicle. He ran a competition for refugee housing and 220 architects responded, and he learned that there were lots of CAD monkeys who wanted to make a difference. By 2003 his footprint is 203 square feet and they are running competitions for Africa and getting 1400 entries. Then the disasters came thick and fast- Bam. Tsunami. Pakistan. New Orleans. The footprint is up to 1000 SF and the goals have evolved, to trying to create "an open-source network of innovative solutions".

Chapter two, by co-founder and partner Kate Stohr, covers the one hundred year history of humanitarian housing since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, taking in all the failures and successes of architects around the world. It is a depressing litany of missed opportunities and great ideas gone awry, but uplifted by remarkable quotes, our favourite being Samuel Mockbee's: “Everybody wants the same thing, rich or poor...not only a warm, dry room , but a shelter for the soul.”

The rest of the book shows examples, many which we have covered in TreeHugger. They demonstrate ingenuity and cleverness about doing more with less, and efficiently living with less, and should be looked at as models for us all, for we keep thinking that “It can't happen here” but as we have learned from San Francisco and New Orleans, it can and it will. ::Design Like You Give a Damn and when you are thinking about donations, think

Design for the Other 90%

Great website, great book.

http://other90.cooperhewitt.org/

Notes:

The Design for the other 90% exhibition and book are intended to draw attention to a kind of design that is not attractive, often limited in function, and extremely inexpensive.

This is another definition of design as intentional problem-solving, which best describes the methodology by which the many designers in this book work. " social entrpreneurs."who use design to help alleviate suffering of those lacking even the basic necessities.

Its OK to fail when designing in this method, we learn more from failure at times then from complete success.

The exhibition was intended to introduce the subject of designers actively designing for the other 90% of the world

Paul Polak
How complicated is it to design for the poor?

It is relatively easy to come up with new income-generating products that they are happy to pay for. but they have to be affordable.

What I got overall from this section was that it is no longer good enough when designing for this population to make something to just sell, even if its cheap, even if its free. After meeting with the people that live there you must then help them to build their own economy around the object. Paul sites a drip irrigation system that was given to the people of a certain country, the people would use it and then not be able to repair it and had no interest in repairing it because they had no ownership of the product. To give someone ownership and the pride in building their own future is to truly give someone the building tools to climb out of poverty.

Paul is most noted for his work with the bamboo treadle pump in use in India.

If what you design won't pay for itself in the first year don't bother. If you don't think that you can sell at least a million unsubsidized units to poor customers after the design process is over. don't bother.

" Don't get me wrong. I really have no problem with people who make money by designing products for the rich. Entrepreneurial brilliance deserves to be rewarded. What astonishes me is that a huge, unexploited market, which includes billions of poor custoomers, continues to be ignored by designers and the companies they work for. "

Design for the other 90%, Copyright 2007, Smithsonian Institution, Published by Cooper-Hewit, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institutuion NY, NY 10128 USA

Simplicity

A great book by RISD President John Maeda, Very quick simple read.

http://lawsofsimplicity.com/

Review

In his book The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda outlines ten laws of simplicity that can be used as guidelines for better product or even business design.

The proposed laws are as follows:

• Law 1: Reduce – The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.
• Law 2: Organize – Organization makes a system of many appear fewer.
• Law 3: Time – Savings in time feel like simplicity.
• Law 4: Learn – Knowledge makes everything simpler.
• Law 5: Differences – Simplicity and complexity need each other.
• Law 6: Context – What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral.
• Law 7: Emotion – More emotions are better than less.
• Law 8: Trust – In simplicity we trust.
• Law 9: Failure – Some things can never be made simple.
• Law 10: The one – Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.

Simplicity is one of today's buzzwords. But what does it mean? Instead of treating it as a complex, theory-laden construct, Maeda answers this question with extraordinary lightness and wit.
Referring to his own book as a "framework" and equating simplicity with sanity, Maeda points the way to less complex, more enjoyable products.

Starting with thoughtful reduction, followed by Gestalt psychology basics demonstrated by Apple's iPod, Maeda touches on topics such as time perception, didactic basics, context-related information, and emotions without ever confusing the reader.

With an accurate eye he brings life to the idea of simplicity by animating it with everyday-life observations, such us a sushi dinner or his mother's aesthetic preferences.

What is more, Maeda does not only write about simplicity, he adheres to his proposed laws by achieving simplicity in the book's contents (language), volume (100 pages), and design.

These examples together with his reduced (Law 1), organized (Law 2), and time saving (Law 3) presentation of design principles make this book a compelling and usable approach – this is a "must-read."
To find out more, go to www.lawsofsimplicity.com.

Humdinger

http://www.humdingerwind.com/#/wi_overview/

I hate to use the word, but a great innovation in wind power.

Amy Smith

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/amy_smith_shares_simple_lifesaving_design.html

"We should work with the people in these communities to give them the tools they need to solve their own problems"

Not all inventions need to be grandiose, complex things, Amy Smith said at TED2006: sometimes they can be simple and smart ideas that just help a lot of people

Why you should listen to her:

Mechanical engineer Amy Smith's approach to problem-solving in developing nations is refreshingly common-sense: Invent cheap, low-tech devices that use local resources, so communities can reproduce her efforts and ultimately help themselves. Smith, working with her students at MIT, has come up with several useful tools, including an incubator that stays warm without electricity, a simple grain mill, and a tool that converts farm waste into cleaner-burning charcoal.

The inventions have earned Smith three prestigious prizes: the B.F. Goodrich Collegiate Inventors Award, the MIT-Lemelson Prize, and a MacArthur "genius" grant. Her course, "Design for Developing Countries," is a pioneer in bringing humanitarian design into the curriculum of major institutions. Going forward, the former Peace Corps volunteer strives to do much more, bringing her inventiveness and boundless energy to bear on some of the world's most persistent problems.

"Smith has a stable of oldfangled technologies that she has reconfigured and applied to underdeveloped areas around the world. Her solutions sound like answers to problems that should have been solved a century ago. To Smith, that's the point."

Wired News

June 29th

Last week was a big week, as would be expected at this stage of the project. I began posting a reading list that I will add to weekly.

Another early Tuesday morning meeting at Brueggers, This time though I had the privilege of meeting with Bob Clark and Ed Przybylowicz. Bob currently lives in Maine and comes down about once a month to "cause trouble" I knew we would get along the moment he said that. Ed is among many other more important things currently trying to find something that you can stain bamboo with for a pet project that he is working on in his garden. Both men come with years of experience and it's an honor just to be able to sit and talk with them.

At the meeting we discussed the inner workings between RIT and RMSC as well as other sustainable projects that are currently going on in the area, such as local plastic's molder that sells back power to the grid on weekends and Red Tail Winery that has opened a newly fully sustainable winery in the finger lakes. We also spoke about my meeting later in the week with Jim Meyers.

After that I ventured to RIT to print out some plans for different types of bike generators that I could share with some of the guys at RMSC. Upon arriving at RMSC the team was in full swing and this being my second week I was eager to start working on something. I spoke with the team that was creating an exhibit utilizing a leaf blower to demonstrate how much power it takes when pedaling to power certain house hold appliances. One of the major problems I face when going into RMSC is that this team has been together for years they also have a lifetime of experiences. This leads to me having to sit back a little bit and learn from them instead of forcing my ideas upon them. All and all a great visit but I am getting antsy to start my own project and designs.

That afternoon I got together with the RIT riding club led by Joe Pow and put in quick 32 miles with erika before heading home and getting some rest.

Wednesday

I rode into school with Jon Scholl and the RIT e.bike. the bike was quick and seemingly effortless. (there in lies the problem) as we left the lehigh valley trail the e.bike received its first flat tire and would have to be pushed the half mile to campus. Because of the expensive design of the bike this was no easy task.

Jon and I met with Ian and Bob Clark to assist another graduate student Sarah Wolfstien in joining our group. Sarah seemed excited and the next morning left for Boulder Colorado, hopefully when she comes back we can work something out.

Thursday
Upon arriving I met with Ian, Jim Myers and Bob Clark, at 2pm

Jim having just returned from a trip to Bourne Haiti, was excited about the idea of working together and eagerly showed me pictures from his trip as well as told be about all the opportunities for projects that he was currently working on in many different countries. the idea that a latched onto the most was the fact that kerosene lamps kill over 40,000 people a year. That number grossly undercounts those who are burnt severely and have to live the rest of their lives with large scars from the avoidable accidents.

Jim also had a great idea of for my thesis showcasing how the design of a bike powered generator would be severly different for this country as opposed to more developing nations. He left me to do some much needed research and gave me some leads on that information, such as MIT's D-Lab and Dr. Smith who works at Standford and has a facinating TED talk. Also to look up the wind belt a truly novel innovation in wind power.

Pedaling Revolution

Book overview

Pedaling Revolution is essential reading for the approximately one million people who regularly ride their bike to work or on errands, for anyone engaged in transportation, urban planning, sustainability, and public healthaand for drivers trying to understand why theyare seeing so many cyclists. All will be interested in how urban bike activists are creating the future of how we travel and live in twenty-first-century cities.

Out of poverty

By Paul Polak

http://www.paulpolak.com/

Hard to find book, you can read a small sampling of it on Google books.

OUT OF POVERTY

In this impassioned and iconoclastic book, entrepreneur, inventor and self-identified “troublemaker” Paul Polak tells why mainstream poverty eradication programs have fallen so sadly short and how he and his organization developed an alternative approach that has already succeeded in lifting 17 million people out of poverty. (Watch video of Paul on his 12 steps to Practical Problem Solving).

Drawing on his 25 years of experience, Polak explodes what he calls the "Three Great Poverty Eradication Myths": that donations alone will end poverty, that national economic growth will end poverty, and that big business, operating as it does now, will end poverty. Polak shows that programs based on these ideas have utterly failed–in fact, in some areas where these approaches have been tried, such as sub-Saharan Africa, poverty rates have actually gone up.

These failed top-down efforts contrast sharply with the grassroots approach Polak and International Development Enterprises have championed: helping the dollar-a-day poor earn more money through their own efforts. Amazingly enough, unexploited market opportunities do exist for the desperately poor. Polak describes how he and others have identified these opportunities and have developed innovative, low-cost tools that have helped impoverished rural farmers use the market to improve their lives.

In Out of Poverty, Paul Polak shares a practical guide to problem solving that helped him address the root causes of poverty and can help us improve our lives. His book also offers specific advice for everyone who wants to end poverty, including development donors, multinational corporations, universities, agriculture and irrigation research institutions and concerned individuals worldwide who would like to join the movement to support innovative design solutions that enable prosperity.

Throughout Out of Poverty Polak tells fascinating and moving stories about the people he and IDE have helped, especially Krishna Bahadur Thapa, a Nepali farmer who went from barely surviving to earning $4,800 a year&*8211;solidly upper middle class by local standards. Out of Poverty offers a new and promising way to end world poverty, one that honors the entrepreneurial spirit of the poor themselves.

Stories Spawn Solutions

My fifteen-month-old grandson, Ethan, has fallen in love with a neighbor’s driveway. It sits two houses down from where he lives, and it seems to overflow with small, multicolored stones. He stops there when I take him for a walk, and then he refuses to leave. He picks up a handful of stones and inspects each one carefully. He places them one after another in my hand, watching intently, and I give them back to him one by one until his hand is full again.

I don’t know who has given him the job of turning every little stone over and over in his hand until he understands its very essence, but that’s the job he has accepted, and he’s not leaving until it’s done. I think I must have inherited a lot of genes from Ethan, because I operate just like he does. I live to play and to satisfy my curiosity.

For the past twenty-five years, two questions have kept my curiosity aroused: What makes poor people poor? And what can they do about their poverty? Because of these infernal questions, I’ve had thousands of conversations with one-acre farmers with dirt on their hands, and they have offered me more cups of steaming tea than my seventy-three-year-old kidneys can take. I have learned more talking with these poor farmers than from any other thing I have done in my life.

Out of Poverty tells their stories, describe some of the things they have taught me, and shows how what I learned has been put to work in straightforward strategies that millions of other poor people have used to end their poverty forever.

Each of the practical solutions to poverty I describe is obvious and direct. For example, since 800 million of the people whose families survive on less than a dollar a day earn their living from small farms, why not start by looking for ways they can make more money from farming? And since these farmers work for less than a dollar a day, why not look for ways they can take advantage of their remarkably low labor rates by growing high-value, labor-intensive cash crops and selling them at the time of year when these crops will fetch the highest prices?

I hate books about poverty that make you feel guilty, as well as dry, academic ones that put you to sleep. Working to alleviate poverty is a lively, exciting field capable of generating new hope and inspiration, not feelings of gloom and doom. Learning the truth about poverty generates disruptive innovations capable of enriching the lives of rich people even more than those of poor people.

My hope is that you will read Out of Poverty and come away energized and inspired. There is much to be done.

—From Out of Poverty by Paul Polak

The Greenway Project.

http://rochestergreenway.org/

This is a project led by Jon Schull of RIT. The idea is simply a bicycle highway connecting RIT, U of R to downtown Rochester by way of an above ground tunnel system that can be used year round. The images above are from a similar project that is being created in Toronto by Architect Chris Hardwicke.

He is trying to gain grass roots biker/cyclist momentum, check out the site and email Jon to find out what you can do to help.

Pedal Power at coachella!

http://www.pedalpowergenerator.com/

Free plans on this site to build your own bike powered Generator.

pedal a watt.

http://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm

Good site, some good information but mostly a place to buy parts or whole working generators. the bonus of this type of generator is that it is relatively small , but expensive.

David Butcher.

http://www.los-gatos.ca.us/davidbu/pedgen.html

"Power From The People!"

This site is amazing, there are lots of different ideas as well as plans on how to make your own bike Powered Generator. Make sure you check out the videos that posted of the traveling tour of him and his device.

There is also a section where he answers questions about possible third world application.

June 22nd.

This is the beginning of documentation on my thesis project of human powered generators for third world application.

Last week on Tuesday I met for breakfast with Dr. Ian Gatley (RIT), and Mr. Jim Meyer (RMSC) to discuss the current show that the Museum is putting together for next summer on Alternative Energy. On the long list of exhibitions that are going in the show are a series of bicycle powered generators. By the end of a short conversation that morning I was off to the museums exhibit workshop to join a team of expert volunteers to learn from them all they knew about such devices as well as give some imput about what I have experienced in my research of HPG's (Human Powered Generators)

The large benefit of working with the team comes largly from the fact that they work with seemingly no budget relying solely on thier injinuity and craftmanship, instead of expensive modern device.

I will be working with the group every tuesday morning for the rest of the summer.

Rochester Institute of Technology

I will be working with Dr. Ian Gatley throughout this process to assist in creating a stronger bond between RMSC and RIT.

RIT Director for Student Innovation and Undergraduate Research Support Announced

College of Science Dean Ian Gatley assumes position April 1

Rochester Institute of Technology Dean of the College of Science Ian Gatley has been named director of the new Center for Student Innovation and Undergraduate Research Support, effective April 1. Gatley will remain dean until June 30.

Jeremy Haefner, RIT Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, will appoint an interim dean for the College of Science and begin a national search for the next permanent dean, with the goal of filling the position by July 2010.

“Ian brings a creative and innovative set of skills, experiences and passions to this new appointment,” says Haefner. “In his previous roles, first as director of the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science and as dean of the College of Science, he fostered an environment of tremendous growth and expansion. Research and scholarship in science significantly grew during the time of his appointments and the college saw a rise in a number of strategic programs, culminating in the Ph.D. in astrophysical science and technology this past year.”

In his new role, Gatley will oversee a center designed as a workplace, a think tank of sorts, for teams of students to pursue problem-solving ideas representing social or commercial innovation.

Scheduled to open this spring, the center’s 10,000 square-foot circular, glass-enclosed space will dramatically distinguish it from other buildings on campus. This glass wheel will be the “hub and clearing house of RIT innovation resources” Haefner envisioned in a December presentation.

Ultimately, the center will be a place for students to grow their ideas and to meet and interact with alumni, clients, businesses and community organizations. It will also host gatherings, seminars and innovation fairs that encourage networking and relationship building and stir up synergy.

Gatley’s multidisciplinary approach to research and problem solving makes him an ideal fit for director of the Center for Student Innovation. An internationally known scientist, Gatley may be best known for building one of the first multi-pixel infrared cameras used for astronomical research.

More recently, his passion for adapting technology for new uses can be seen in the various projects on campus employing immersive-video techniques. The general idea for using multiple projectors grew out of Gatley’s relationship with the Rochester Museum and Science Center and the need to find affordable projection technologies for the planetarium. Related RIT-based projects have included a five-camera video of the 2007 commencement ceremony featuring former President Bill Clinton and an immersive open-house experience for prospective students that converts an auditorium into a wide-screen theater.

“Gatley’s team has assigned the intellectual property from this work to RIT in order to create opportunities for students,” Haefner says. “The university has filed for three patents for inventions that include wearable and mobile video capture and multi-screen displays.”

Haefner points also to the success of the Undergraduate Research Symposium as another example of Gatley’s emphasis on discovery. The annual symposium has grown steadily over the past three years. Last summer, 93 students presented research guided by faculty from nearly all the colleges at RIT.

“I am very confident that Ian will bring this same passion for helping students achieve the learning outcomes we expect from the Center for Student Innovation and from Undergraduate Research Support,” Haefner adds.

The Rochester Museum and Science Center

I will be working with RMSC to assist in creating an exhibit on Alternative Energy, as it stands right now I will be creating a piece for the Student Innovation Center at R.I.T. My exhibit will be based on the idea of Human powered Generators.


http://www.rmsc.org/



Founded in 1912 as the City of Rochester, New York's Municipal Museum, the Rochester Museum & Science Center (RMSC) has grown from a City-funded agency into a unique public/private partnership with the County of Monroe.

The 13-acre campus in Rochester, NY includes:

• A museum/science center with three floors of hands-on, interactive exhibits in science & technology, natural science, and regional cultural heritage. World-class collections of 1.2 million objects embody the community's many stories. The Bathysphere Underwater Biological Laboratory (BUBL™), a service of Monroe BOCES #1, is located in the Museum, as is the headquarters of the Water Education Collaborative.

• The Strasenburgh Planetarium, presenting giant-screen films on the four-story dome, original astronomy/star shows, and spectacular rock music laser light shows. The Challenger Learning Center, a service of Monroe BOCES #1, is located at the Planetarium.

• The 400-seat Eisenhart Auditorium

• The RMSC Preschool

• The Genesee Community Charter School

• The RMSC's 900-acre Cumming Nature Center is located south of Rochester in the Bristol Hills near Naples, NY.