Well, a big day at the conference.



To kick off the day Witold Rybczynski, professor of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania and best-selling author, began speaking on the topic of his latest book. Having previously read and enjoyed "Looking Around", "The Most Beautiful House in the World", and "Home" I was looking forward to his talk on Frederick Olmstead--the well-known landscape architect who designed Central Park, Prospect Park, and many others. Witold (if I may call him Witold) outlined some of his major work and design philosophy/methodology and went into detail with one major project--surely a tease for his forthcoming book.



Next came staff writer for the 'New Yorker', Malcolm Gladwell. Not to be deceived by his youthful looks and fresh literary wit (as well as his distance from the world of design)--he knows a little something about material culture and the social and cultural impact of product marketing. Unfortunately as the self-described "least visual person in this part of the country" he did not realize the importance of pictures to an audience of 700 designers --I would have been happy with merely some slides of past covers of the New Yorker, yeah, and maybe even a few of those impenetrable cartoons. Anyhow with interesting stories from past intuitive psychological research as evidence of humanity's overestimation of the power of character and underestimation of the power of environmental influence, he sees a somewhat distinct line between suburban and urban
living. Unfortunately, Malcolm feels, there is a confusion of the products appropriate for one space or another and he cites golf umbrellas and Sport Utility Vehicles as having an inherent suburban contextual appropriateness but when in New York City they "violate the urban ethos." His overall message was that we "must be more aware of the social and moral consequences of the objects that we design," and that, "the objects we surround ourselves with are fundamental to who we are." (Oh, and don't get him going on presidential visits to the city and the traffic problems that they create.)

After lunch things started off with architect Stanley Tigerman and his long-time friend Eva Maddox discussing their founding of Archeworks. Five years ago they began a school offering a one-year post professional program in architecture/design centered on morality and ethics. Students come from diverse fields in a "post-disciplinary setting" where they work in teams on design problems that focus both on theory and practice.

I was so impressed by the Archeworks message that I drove back to their studio with Stanley to attend a discussion about the finalization of a social theory of design. Under his guidance, Archeworks students produced a document that outlines an ethical framework for their school design program to follow in the future. I would encourage anyone reading this who has an interest in socially responsible design (and even those who don't, shame on you) to check out their web site www.archeworks.org.



Other speakers for the day included Rebecca Allen, chair, UCLA department of design and founding co-director, Center for Digital Arts. Unfortunately when she was going on stage I was entering a food coma from the prodigious spread at the all-you-can-eat-if-you-don't-mind-waiting-in-line-for-half-an-hour lunch buffet (which reminded me of my Airborne days at Ft. Benning, Georgia--although admittedly the mess sergeant there did not usually wear a cropped bright red jacket with gold trim, ever ask me if I wanted more bean sprouts on my grilled vegetable pita, nor ever showed an interest in having a harp player perform in the mess hall--despite my pleadings).



Anyhow Rebecca is obviously a heavy hitter in the digital media game (even having won an Emmy for something or another) but I am a bit fuzzy on the specifics. She showed some pretty cool video clips of interactive digital environments. Her present work seems to involve adding uncontrollable elements and distinct but sometimes erratic personalities to the virtual actors within the created spaces.



The final speaker (for me, as there were many concurrent break-out sessions and discussion groups) was Hani Rashid (yes, brother of Karim Rashid--you know he must hate the comparisons) (after all who remembers Charles Eames' younger brother, Chung-Kuang?). Hani is an architect and co-founder of Asymptote, an architectural design and research practice. He's no design lightweight (although he is a somewhat shorter, and slightly more congenial, version of Karim). The sometimes conceptual and often high-tech work of their firm is divided into four specific categories: Architexturing, Technical Buildings, Virtual Environments and Image/Body Scapes. Basically it's pretty fascinating stuff that runs the range from computer modeling of the theoretical/conceptual (like the digital sketches and 3-D morphs of Object/Space/Building) to the extremely practical (but still cool). Their latest major work is a highly complex virtual trading floor for the New York Stock Exchange that is in use today. His many visuals and video clips described system and data scapes that model and enhance the present intricacies of stock trading. Now if he could only design a shiny candlestick.



Well the evening festivities included dinner and drinks in the swank Gold Coast region of Michigan Avenue--fortunately we were able to avoid the cigar bars and settled for only somewhat less pretentious entertainment. Mixing business with pleasure makes for some very long days.


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