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From the 26.11.08 congress.

If you can help by cleaning the audio files, please email me [once they are fixed, i will make them available through a podcast].

BIG [two new strategies]

MAD [one new strategy]

Sadar Vuga

Jürguen Mayer

C-Lab

Michael Maltzan 

HAVE FUN!!!

Just too BIG

I rarely write about particular designers...  But this time I was blown away in many levels.  He takes the stage and the crowd silences to hear what he has to say.  He stands up and interacts with the presentation, instead of sitting down and giving a speech, just like everyone else had.  He was the only one that understood he had to put on a show...  and although still a bit short, we can be thankful.  He understands that we are living in the youtube generation.  So instead of having only the typical powerpoint, or turning it into a gimmicky flash presentation, he has videos.  Perfectly designed videos.  Videos of many kinds, from the more architectural to those that could have been from any great blockbuster hit.   This is the third presentation I have had of him in the span of one year.  And although certain things remain, there is something new every time.    He speaks with so much passion, that the crowd responds to everything he does.  A sleepy crowd suddenly realized something BIGger was going on in front of their eyes.  That unlike all the other presenters, who were flat, and in the case of the mexicans, going from more to less, he was just too BIG.  Even the small things like a 2D diagram are so simply BIGger in design.  Even the cynicism he uses is so BIG that it is classy and not tacky, which is a typical Mexican response [used on that very stage twice].  I still remember when someone said that his days were numbered because his design strategy had a limit set of operands.  Wrong.  He is just too BIG.  And I apologize to everyone because my voice recorder did not work properly.  After him, you forget everyone else to do them the favor of avoiding comparison.  After him those who speak of simple & special, just look mediocre.  He IS forward-design. 

Did I mention that at age 35 he has signed a contract for a one-million-square-meter city?  It is there behind him... and he has no Master Degree in city design/planning, he just works really hard and knows who to ask for advice.

HAVE FUN!!!

[full galleries comming soon]

Common sense & great design...

Every now and then, one should learn to listen...  and give credit to whom deserves it. 

Common sense enables great design.  Overdesign happens when you design without common sense.  Start with the white sheet, ink and paper, or you will never get the portrait done [add some passion & practice to make it great]. 

HAVE FUN!!!

Plan B...

I went to the congress discussed yesterday.  It was amazing to see how this great planning was actually working.  Having managed a nice place, enough sponsors to make sure money is not an issue, and above all:every presenter was there.  Not only there, but at the entrance among the attendees.  Due to my visit with them last year, I had a good time saying hello, chit-chatting, etc [Yangson Ma remembered me right away, which impressed me since he meets way too much people]...  Anyone else could have done it, they chose not to...  This is makes the live presentation worth your dime....

The show was scheduled to start at six thirty.  I was there at six twenty five, I was impressed by the screen.  It was part of the sponsorship deals [i won't name the brand], and it was huge.  They were running tests on it, getting it ready...  five minutes before the show!

The screen never worked properly.  First they moved ahead the opening cocktail, then the complimentary sushi...  At the end the day was canceled, after we had been waiting for three hours!  Everything will be rescheduled to fit in two days.

Everyone was disappointed.  But the saddest part of it all was how unresponsive the managing group was.  They could have gone out and buy a projector next door.  They could have decided to postpone everything earlier.  All they did was wait for the sponsor to try and take care of the problem.  All the atmosphere that was building up outside the venue had now become anger.  That is a recipe for failure.  People won't trust you next time.  All because no one would dare to go beyond management, and lead towards an emergency plan B.

Always prepare for a worst case scenario!  That is part of being a responsible designer/architect/planner.  Things can fail, if possible, always have a plan B ready, but that might fail too.  Put someone in charge who is not afraid to take action into his own hands.  And be sure to explain to him that the plan is actually a strategy open to feedback, open to action...  And that the worst thing to do is nothing!

The big question is: what will they do tomorrow?  Only delivering the lectures would surely keep everyone furious.  They need to give the money back for one day.  Or a coupon to visit the museum...  But let's just hope they do have an interesting strategy...  or at least a feedback-open-strategy!

HAVE FUN!!!

International Architecture Congress's, ironically lack design

I will be attending yet another International Architecture Congress, today and on Friday.  This one started as a counter-proposal towards the bad-outcome-lack-of-care from the 9-year-running one.  The established one had its worst ever last year, when the two biggest names were either sending someone else from the office or simply not showing.  Not to mention the lack of relevance from everyone else.

The new guys really put effort into it, or to the very least, the connections of being close to one of the richest men on the planet paid off.  They have better, more relevant, presenters [to the point where one that sent a stand-in for the competition this year, will be attending personally].  A better location, better days of the week and at a better time of the day.  And although the idea is appreciated, I cannot believe someone who is into the world of design would miss the target by that much.  The promotion, and logic of the event, appear to be the magical formula everyone should do by default.  And it is that forumla which has put the original congress in it's current below-par scenario.

But here are some proposals attempting to improve the situation:

1. Smarter marketing.  Get word of mouth out.  Put the presenter on the spotlight way before he gets here.  Make his thoughts available on the proper media months before you advertise the event as such.  Get the media that has nothing to do with architecture to discuss about the guest once you have confirmed he is coming.  Put your energy there, instead of concentrating it on designing posters [probably pasted in the worst place] and magazine ads [you know that is the media that has fallen most in the last 3 years].
2. Make more events.  Instead of one with many names, have one event for every architect.  This allows things to be cheaper & more flexible, which ensures the presenter will actually come. And being cheaper and dedicated means you will appeal better to a niche, which means more buzz and demand. To your guest, it means even more personalized treatment, quality time, and that will make him feel more like a star.
3. Bring the full show.  Every starchitect has an exhibition of their work ready to be shipped.  Bring it!  That way more people will get the chance to get involved in the event, and in time, they will want to come to the live opening.  And even better, young people will get motivated and freshen up their vision, therefore thankful to you for doing it.  Thankful people are priceless.  And the display of these exhibits usually give way more insight than the presenters themselves, because most of what they will present is already online for free.  You don't go to a rockstar concert to listen to the music you have on your mp3 collection.  And, money wise, it allows you to get funds sponsored by the culture budget that every city holds. 
4. Lobby for dedicated space.  Get a "free" great space that turns into the architecture-museum facility of the city.  Specially if the current place that wants to hold the honor of doing it simply sucks.  You already promise great content, whomever donates the space has nothing to loose, and everything to win.
5. Allow questioning input & interaction.  Ninety percent of the questions will be "worthless" or "stupid".  Firstly, who are you to judge?  Second, it is about setting a platform, not about a result.  Thirdly, if there is a single worthwhile .  And again, it is the only benefit you can get from having them live while all their work is online for free.
6. The guests can hold leverage to re-fresh the medium. Get the public sector involved so they can talk to the starchitect, his name/vision/ideas that are far away from the local prejudice will land him a commission.  I am going to assume i don't have to explain how everyone wins in this scenario...
7. Choose your audience.  Just like nightclubs, if the right people show up, everyone else will follow.  It is a matter of quality first, quantity [if you are interested] later.
8. Smart Allegiance.  By bringing your presenters one by one, you can take them to more places than the actual event.  Tour him around schools, public sector meeting rooms, etc...  That way you get to split the tab [or some percentage of it], give bigger exposure to sponsors, and make new connections.  The presenter gets to feel even more appreciated.
9. Liveblog / Webcast it.  And preferably, have other people do it.  Opinions and insight attached to a live [and delayed] more-appealing-to-this-generation broadcasting method, will build up long term commitment.  That is priceless too.  [If you add the exhibition and the input/interaction, it does not compete with selling tickets]
10. Make it a strategy.  If you get it done once right, and you write down your step-by-step, you can do it with a lot less effort every other time.
11. Keep improving and finding new ideas to make it better every time.  [Equilibrium is death, yet again.]

Take all that, present it as a business & brand association strategy to sponsors, and they will go all out for the full pack.  And, you will be building a tribe, rather than desperately agglomerating a crowd.  Taking the current economical context into consideration, do all the hard planning and testing of the strategy until the situation settles, then present it.

Special thanks to my business partner David for his priceless input/insight/opinion/time on this post's content.

HAVE FUN!!!

Time is priceless

"Time is money", is a famous phrase from when the factory system started.  It had to do with machines being able to craft a product and that meant revenue.  Every hour of the machines working costs you money, the more products they craft in that hour means you take in more money.  Simple, right?

"Time is priceless" should be embedded in our system by now, but it hasn't quite caught on just yet.  Just like with ecosystems, now we understand what waste really means.  And waste only really happens with that which is limited.

Time is NOT money.  You can get money back if you loose it, you can ask for a loan, you cannot get time back, you cannot borrow time.  Even if you have all the money in the world, or if you worked hard and a benefactor gave it to you for free, you should not spend that money in any way that would force you to splurge your time.  You can do far more if you have little money but invest your time.

Therefore wasting time can be defined as whenever you are doing something that is not part of you passion, or will not get you closer to your personal fulfillment.  People kid themselves all the time whenever they waste time, they claim there are things like unintended consequences  that will help you in the future.  Of course everything you do has unintended consequences!  But betting on them is like buying a lottery ticket, you can't bet all your future on it, you'd better start building your myth.  Because it is very different if the unintended consequences come from the myth...

You should take everyday as an opportunity to design, to work, to keep getting your message through, to avoid getting rusty and more importantly, all of these add up towards building the mythology that will allow you to build a tribe.

Money and connections can build a factory any day.  Factories are not only boring and so last century, but have become an economically challenged business. And worst of all, they make you waste your time.  If you want to build a factory, keep on networking the old fashion way: more connections are better.  When the latest we have learned from the tribe model is that fewer, yet tighter connections are far better: they are built from work&passion-up, they get you in touch with who you need, they allow you to go forward, fast.

HAVE FUN!!!

Linear Spectrum

Derived from discussing the recent posts, this diagram is an attempt to explain the spectrum of the profession in a linear fashion.  Iam still working on the matrix conversion of the diagram, but it was important to post this update as an attempt to clarify & lead all the noise into signal a proposal.

What is interesting, Forward Thiking [and Costume] is extremely hard to get just right.  Pragmatism, Mediocrity, Professional Mediocrity & the Avant Garde have a much wider range in the spectrum to work with.

Of course, getting it into a diagram is easy, actually doing it, as a designer, is much harder.  Because it means lots of work, mistakes, research, and being able to do a constant resolution level change.  All that, while getting your own voice through. 

The problem, as always, is just looking at either region of the spectrum, and not doing anything.  But if you are going to be spending your valuable time in this world medium, the least you can do is be responsible and informed. 

HAVE FUN!!!

You are here.

It is important to know where you are going, to dare ask for directions...

But it is all useless if you don't know where you are now.

HAVE FUN!!!

Fads Trends Fashion & Mindset

Many people mistake fads, trends, fashion and mindset. 

When you do something only for how popular it has become, and you don't understand why that is being done, you are a follower of fads.  Fads always look out of style [even if their intended look is to be out of style]. 

Trends are those ideas that have been the most popular and extracted from a particular breed of technique from a mindset.  Trends are only one part of fashion, but by themselves they are part of fads.

If you look for fashion, you need the mindset.  They are very close because both are feedback-looped systems [like a chameleon in front of a mirror].  Fashion is about styles, expression, belonging, not only trends.

The mindset is the logic by which we try to understand reality make sense.  All the connections in our brain from things old and new...  When you want to find something, I bet you google it...  I bet you can think of a zillion songs you can choose to listen to now, because you have an ipod...

As you can see, those people afraid of Fashion, are really, afraid of updating, afraid of the only certainty we hold: everything changes, and everyday more rapidly.  "Equilibrium is dead".

Stay away from the fads, do your research, get into fashion, and please practice a lot.  Be open to updates in the mindset, keeping things forward [not avant garde, pragmatic or in the middle]...  Everyone else is changing, even if you won't...

HAVE FUN!!!

Fashion forward.

Fashion-forward is always met with acclaim, because it is the perfect match of fashion, mindset & momentum.  Fads are cheap ways to get momentum from actual fashion, from actual mindset trends.

A good example, you can ask a designer to make you a fifties dress.  If that dress is just like it was in the fifties and is envisioned in the same way it was back then, then you have a costume, or even worse, a cliché.  Why?  Because you live in a contemporary world, not in the nineteen-fifties.  A good designer, is able to show that, even though he is making a fifties dress, it belongs to his mindset, that he lives in a different era, in which certain cuts, materials, looks, have EVOLVED.  And if he is not good but great, you can see his own point of view even through all the constrains.  And if he is not great but awesome, his point of view does not go all the way avant-garde, but just enough to make it work aka forward.

The latest trend of architects that talk about the middle, should understand that the middle is just as bad as the avant-garde or pragmatism they claim to escape from.  It is about being architecture-forward, and not being afraid to say that fashion co-evolves with the contemporary mindset.  Denying that they are into fashion, is not understanding the difference between fad trend fashion and mindset...

HAVE FUN!!!

Mindset...

Have you ever wondered why certain design/architecture studios that continue to upgrade their tools, hire younger people, and purchase the latest set of publications available, just don't make it anymore?

Even with the proper tools, best people and latest updates, if you lack the mindset, you cannot get there... The great example scientists provide is that of the Greek, and how, they could never breed the scientific method, even though they had basically the same tools we did.  The Greek were too busy thinking about their gods, and wrote all their observations based on that mindset, to get anywhere else.

In the world of design, we have the Spanish firms from the 90's as a good contemporary example.  They were only into the fad of the programmatic-redefinition discourse.  They still handled themselves as factories, so when new tools and new people came, they were expected to keep the status quo of those at the top.  Anything from the younger updated mindset crowd was used as a gimmick. And it is sad how they get exposed when put in the same context as the truly contemporary-mindset firms [campus justica madrid].

It is few firms which can outlast one mindset. It is those firms who don't think of their organization as a factory.  It is those firms who are curious enough to go to places they don't know, and understand when to take half a step back and take it to that level in which it is most effective in that moment.  [If they are only led by curiosity they become avant-garde and fade out just as fast, since this is another type of fad.] These firms are known as trendsetting.  These firms get to lead. These firms don't write about history, they get to write history. These firms are not only in fashion, they are fashion!  These firms are those who get to celebrity-icon-status, who get to be more than just a design firm.

HAVE FUN!!!

Selling Design and Architecture

Everybody knows who claims that architecture is still quite medieval in its charging for service method.  Square meters are the measure.  The more meters we do, the more we charge.

What does that say about you?  That what you want is to make the client build more so you can charge more?  That it is always about quantity rather than quality? That the minimum must always become the maximum?

This is another one of the things i expect us as designers to design!  As you know, everything we do defines us.  If we are cheap, what we do is cheap.  If we are unconscious, what we do is mediocre.

How should we do it then?
By hour, by product, by resolution, by how standard or unique it is?

By the amount of manpower involved, of blueprints we have to produce, of specialists we have to see?

How about by how interesting and design-forward we get to make it?  How about by how much of a difference our design will make on everyone?  Think of something important to you and charge for that, remember how standardized systems have proven to fail. Remember, designers are supposed to find new potentials and break all the rules to get to a better opportunity.

IAM will be launching a very unique strategy regarding this matter sometime within the end of next year.  Which is the only sneak peek you´ll get of the 2010 season... 

HAVE FUN!!!

Technique tells a story!

Architecture and design have changed just as fast as anything else in the last couple of years.  Both professions claim to have lost their narrative storytelling since they broke out of both philosophical criticism and history's critical moments. 

Both professions are now about technique, and that will continue in the post-post-critical era [under a new attitude or mindset].  And that is where the new storytelling comes from.  Interesting enough, even when technique is used only to achieve aesthetics [although when it is only at this level, the story is not quite as interesting].  It also tells the story of the technique as a strategy that allow more to happen within the form, as a method that's also easier and cheaper to produce, as clarity or simplification within complexity, as a maximizer of potential, steps of evolution in the process, among others....

Stop pretending you don't know this. or stop being afraid of it because you confuse criticism with storytelling.  It is no longer a Quixote long heavy novel-like structure.  In this "next" society you have to be simple and more to the point, but it is still a story.

If you are not telling a story, is because you are still an unconscious designer. Or even worse, you are so into just using technique as a gimmick that you are afraid of stepping into this forgotten territory.  Remember, great images travel fast, but great stories travel faster and can build a tribe.

HAVE FUN!!!

From wow to WOW

According to chef Ramsay, the wow factor are gimmicks that don't make you come back to a restaurant because you only cared about the "pretentious" look of a meal.  The WOW factor is in the flavor, because it is flavor that holds the memory.  It is flavor & price what make you come back....

wow is shallow, WOW is passion.  The kind of passion that will make you want to achieve more, that will make you want to make it an experience rather than a forgettable picture.  The kind of passion that will make you experiment over and over, and loose sleep but feel good about it.  Ever since architecture imagery has become the greatest medium for the broadcasting of a government or an investor, many architects forget that it IS about the food design.

There are certain experiences that you can never tell in a picture that few buildings/cities can achieve.  Everyday, with the need for faster projects, but most importantly, with architecture thinking that to accept its shallowness means to make it superficial, and that it is all good, those experiences become harder to find.  I hold those memories as transcendental moments in my life.  And those few moments translate into a city having more tourists, an office taking in more commissions, and a tribe building up street cred.

Please stop thinking and executing propaganda [wow], and start to live passionately through design [WOW].

HAVE FUN!!!

I'm going to be cruel to be nice...

Honesty, making people crack, and express themselves can help the team a lot more than just nodding and being pissed on the inside.  That will even get the tribe tighter, vibrant, efficient and improve communication.

Make a difference, don't just duck!  Remember, comfort is the best shortcut to mediocre-land.

HAVE FUN!!!

Basic Instinct

I was visiting architecture/design school the other day, and remembered the last thought of "basics" as architecture's poverty trap.

I went to overhear what students were discussing among themselves.  Just as anyone would guess, "bathrooms, parking lots, facade detailing". But i was expecting that when the group leader [aka teacher] came in, and that his questions/comments would make them realize there was more.... It just did not happen.  I also talked a bit to a leader and he said "we cannot grade taste, or what we don't know about..." 

Fear makes them play it safe, lack of attitude makes them boring, and unconsciousness only delivers tastelessness. And we embed this into designers from day one - that's how it becomes the instinct.  Why go beyond or experiment or even THINK about technique or what we do if that gets us into trouble?  At least a pep talk when they go beyond and a bad reaction when they stay still would help a little...

How to break out of only going for the basics?  Get informed!  If information has done anything for the world it has been to break down prejudice, even political regimes that use fear to maintain power.  Information has allowed us to move beyond our basic instincts every now and then, trust me, taught instincts will disappear with just a little...

First we need informed leaders, then informed designers.  Please, information will make you feel down every now and then, but it is only through information that you may eventually break free or make a different...  to the very least not look "stupid" in front of others, and carry the profession's credibility with you.

HAVE FUN!!!

The Great, The Average and The Mediocre...

Great is easy to tell,it is forward, simple to the point, and makes a difference.  It has great technique and tells an amazing story.  In both aspects: basic & iconic.

But where lies the line between average and mediocre? Is it execution, technique, the forwardness, the story?  That the basics work? An amazing parking lot scheme?  Making money?  How "easy" it was to build?  How timeless or fashionable it was sold as?  Who made it? The greenness? The facade? How many people can recognize it? The embodiment of "what people want"?

Simple answer:  great design, avoid cheapness, get in the contemporary mindset, basics are beyond good, avoid odors, let the humans breath, and to the very least go somewhere beyond basics, clichés, gimmicky "pluses", and pretentious concepts titles.

Basics are the poverty trap, if you are only doing the basics, if you can't see the panorama beyond the details of bolts, bathrooms and parking lots, YOU are mediocre.

HAVE FUN!!!

Basic & Iconic

The main problem about iconic buildings is that it is easy to get carried away with the object, and forget what makes it work for users, not only for broadcasting. Think of it this way, if your point is to make a writing device, you decide to call it a pen, it looks sexier than an iphone, but in the end it turns out the ink won't work because you forgot to let some air in, what was the point?

Let's just keep in mind the basics are not prejudice, the basics are some of the simple things that makes something go from cheap to bad.  The other thing we must keep in mind is that an icon is not just about saying fuck the template, or embellishment of the envelope, icons are built from the bottom up.  For designers/architects it goes from the basics, to the story, to the product.  If one fails miserably, the designer failed at everything. 

Most architects fail, that's why the profession is in deep depression.  Most architects just draw, forget about design.  Most architects blame everyone else for failures, rather than themselves.  Most architects don't give a fuck!

For the few others out there, remember, be conscious.  If you do it just because, or without an understanding of the implication of the technique or method, trust me, you will fail just like most.  "Not too careful, but not too careless either". - When in doubt, a tablespoon of carelessness might be better, but just like salt, don't get carried away.

HAVE FUN!!!

Architecture by default

Everyday, more and more, templates and defaults are ruling the world.  Since they are already embedded in the system, people don't even think twice and run to use them.  We are particularly used to the defaults of digital presentations, but the city-development-business has defaults of its own. Not all generic architecture is default, but all default is generic.  Office towers, residential solutions, all by default, just with a variant template wrapping.  [Architecture by default also considers how architecture by itself will do all the difference like magic.]

"We only do as the clients ask"; "this is business-sound".  How about doing amazing, how about expanded-context input, what about paying a designer to do his job, and then not go all bureaucratic on him.

Many people must think that time is an issue solved directly by defaults, and they come cheap.  Defaults cost just as much, take just as long, they only manage to look cheap.  Even worse is when mediocrity strikes, attempting to be called design, and one ends up suddenly bumping into this hideous developer-people-are-so-stupid-they-will-think-it's-great management. The icon is not only about making something monumental by advertising; only great-contemporary-design & the story it embodies can become iconic.

To try and clarify this: think of every print add you have ever seen in a decent magazine, or any television or web add you've ever seen.  Do they look anywhere near the templates from presentation software [power point]?  How does the template look compared to the design by experts? What product do you buy?

Defaults suck!!!  Templates stink!!! Hire a very good designer, they might end up being cheaper in the overall equation than what you think, especially when compared to how much more they will make you earn.

HAVE FUN!!!

Internet killed the school starchitect...

About ten years ago, schools all over the world were filled with the best of the best as far as local architects were concerned.  The school used to be the only way to build a tribe.  So local starchitects saw their time at school as both an investment and an opportunity to stay updated.

With the internet, and the speed of news and growth of niches; people looking for the work and the people they feel close to, being the only way to go to the top, what are we supposed to do now?  Internships.  That's where all the rage of internships comes from.  "Those who have more shall have more", is one of the effects of a wired world... the cream of the crop will be found working at the world renowned firms.  I even remember, from my visit to one of them, that an extremely over-qualified philosophy graduate was an intern.  It blew me away...

Young architects that want to get far, that can lead and that are worth it, finally found a way to get to know each other, for a time they belong to a tribe, doing the work they liked away from a design "factory".  Until they decide to start their own, tighter-less-crowded-fresher.

Local schools are now suffering from this new model because there are only so many starchitects, most local ones don't go to school and forget about getting updated, and students then loose motivation.  When starchitects look at "regular" schools, the followers that can be found there look like undeserving-follow-sheep...  Anyone beyond good enough has already left or found the niche-architect that interests them... 

It has become more important to create work so passionate that will attract the tribe, rather than just trying to lure them by friendship or words.  To be part of the best, you've gotta set up the platform, be ready to lead, loose a little control at the bottom...  but have lots of widespread work that can be seen somewhere [even if it is only online] so that the tribe can find you.  If iam unable to find you, but most importantly, what defines you [your work] and where you are headed [your attitude], you don't exist...  even if i see you everyday and you've got to grade me...

HAVE FUN!!!

Crises are an opportunity...

Time to lay back, and focus on content, get updated, reinvent the office, find new colleagues, you are not going to get paid anyway...

But take the break seriously and don't just think of it as vacations.  The more effort you put into it now, the more you will get back soon - if you put enough effort, you might even be one of the first to break out of the crisis.

As designers/architects, what could be better than to be able to design...  you might even find the passion of what got you into your field of work back... if you don't, i would consider moving...

HAVE FUN [or go where you will]!!!

Big opportunity to make money from the current crisis!

Mediocrity is the cause of the current economic crisis.  If you are only shifting around money, the burst of the bubble is near.  Governments, and planners were happy having developers throw money at them.  Developers were delighted with it, because they got to make money.  But no one cared to think what might have been wrong with this scheme. That's why the city lost so much in recent years.  Every time someone invests a lot of money into a mediocre project, it means years and years and years before [if] you can ever "fix" it.  Basically, you will have to make a new city...  can you picture the developers smiling?  Has anyone thought people actually live the city?  Has anyone realized the city empowers you to be competitive and create economical growth or not?

It is amazing to me how Denmark and a few other European countries understand it the other way around. If you've been creating value, you need not worry.  It will pay off.  You are building a city, not just objects around sand dunes.  The future shines brightly, and will make you an even better city because productive people will move into the opportunity you've created.  The crisis will hit, but for very little time with very little impact. 

This is when "planning" or at least leading towards rules that make developers [do their job which is] develop value into the city instead of quick-money-monsters is needed.  Designers, architects, thinkers and planners, where are you?  Are there any outside Europe?  My guess is yes, but they lack motivation, and they are still seen as crazy solitary gamblers update: heretics...

Well, if you want to see it from a different perspective, it IS a new business opportunity.  One that this crisis has opened for us, if you design/breed/organize/plan/engage first, you will become rich get paid, and make the city and many people gain that which they've been loosing lately...

HAVE FUN!!!

Going with the flow will kill you...

Architects / Designers, are hired to go beyond & against the flow.  The boring flow does not bring in anything.  We can learn some lessons then from the current financial crisis.  To think everyone is rational and that just because things have been happening the way they have that makes it ok, it is the biggest mistake.  To believe that those who hold the money have a scheme that will forever be the "best business" and to do as they say because they "know about money".  Designers only useful by turning their formula into form has finally be proven stupid!  This is when the post-post-critical age has officially started, even though we have seen traces of it trying to surface in recent years.

The point of hiring a designer or an architect is because of the unexpected [or... the least expected].  Those who dare go beyond the formulas, or at least understand them to rewrite them, get to become relevant interesting & famous.  At least until they decide to stand still.

If design & architecture can be embeded into everything, why not engage in it?! Remember, constant change is the only certainty in our current hyper-connected world.  And to loose a little control at the top can't hurt either...

HAVE FUN!!!

When lost ask for directions...

It is easy to get lost in the city; specially in mega-cities.   It is funny how when you ask, people might not know the exact names of the streets, or why would you care about going to a particular location, or if you are in a hurry, but they can most certainly give you direction.

The mega-third-world-city is filled with managers, each one with their own agenda, prejudice, and work-system.  But they are just as lost, and have no clue as to where they are going, they just now they are following the[ir] rules...

That's why, we don't need more managers in the city, we need leaders.  And not political leaders who win elections by taking advantage of failing economies and filling people's ears with promises that contradict each other & secret agendas.  We need leaders, with vision.  We need people who are motivated and fresh, and updated, and are able to bring it!

In no way am I saying cities should have only one direction.  They can have many, but they need to be clear, communicated, and given sense.  Remember, self-organizations or planning regimes, can only work when they have a goal...  You can act from the bottom-up top-down or middle up & down, it does not matter, if you are a leader, the city needs you!

Leaders, direction and speed are the main difference between first world country cities that can adapt; and third world megalomaniac-political-platform-cities that by the time a decision is made [if it is ever], the boom has passed and the direction is now irrelevant...

HAVE FUN!!!

The one time overdesign is ok...

I have been having a discussion lately with the director lead organizer of a graduate school.  He complains about the results students are having, and more importantly about the lack of commitment.  He says only one student outperforms the rest, by far.

I asked him about the acceptance system.  He said that even though they needed the money, they asked for a CV and two recommendation letters.  Since they were dealing with the government at some point, people from there went almost straight through.  I then asked him: what is the point, for you, of this graduate program?  He hesitated and eventually I reminded him that, originally, they discussed something about it being more like a think tank.  He said "well yes..."  In order to have a think tank, you need to get the top 10% of the people both in content and technique, because you need graphically stunning interesting stories...  He had gone, like bad marketers [instead of like great designers], for the 90% bottom which he thought, could not be that bad...

Interestingly enough the one guy that outperforms, did not turn in neither a resumé nor the recommendation letters.  In fact, that guy did not meet the requirements in other ways too.  That guy does not get a scholarship to go, he did not even ask for one.  He was convinced to join based on the potential they originally saw in the program and its proposals towards actually making a difference.

How did he get in then?  By invitation!  Someone from the organization knew him, and asked him to join, explained the importance of the matter, and convinced him.  Turns out, not only did he hold more interest because he was invited [he felt honored], and by not running the standard check, it turns out he new more about technique and research than everyone else did.  He prepared prior to every class, and tried to take advantage of all the material that was being fed to him. 

The problem, he was alone, so there was only so much he could do.

If the head of the program, instead of taking time to design a poster, send emails, talk to the wrong people, hand out fliers at schools, get his signs printed in the magazines, etc...  would have taken 10% of those resources and talked to the professors/students he thought could point him in the direction of finding worthwhile people, gotten on the phone, invited them, motivated them, he could have achieved the results he wanted.  The one guy he says outperforms would have better team-mates, beyond that, he would have built a tribe...

So overdesign is ok, as long as it is not based on expenses, but on investments...

HAVE FUN!!!

Voting is not enough - Daring or Staring

Stop staring and start acting.

Dare to make a difference, don't just duck.

It is not only [though you should] casting a vote, or saying "did my best", is about going all the way out there and making change happen.

Take some time off facebook, msn, etc... and use it to design a strategy for whatever you think your country needs.  When you are done with a good/implementable one, use the time to take it up with the proper people.

You will do better than any politician because

a. you are not in it for the money
b. you will have chosen something you believe in
c. you have no hidden agendas

And you will get big revenue:

a. you will get to know people who will support you beyond your strategy
b. you will get noticed, because above all, you are highly motivated
c. you will be filled with new research that will allow you fresh ideas
d. if it works, people will be thankful with you

Who knows, one-hundred-million motivated people trying to do a difference, and at least one will succeed.

This is not charity!  You are doing it because you want to be productive in a crisis-economy!

HAVE FUN!!!

Stop Predicting

Predictions are NOT the outcome.  Human singularity DOES happen.  More importantly, you MAKE the change.

In the following hours,we will see an overwhelming amount of predictions.  Ten or maybe fifteen years ago, predictions worked.  Then the hyper-speed connected world changed everything.  Not only do we live in the biggest net, but it is a net of ever-increasing feedback.

There are multiple scenarios, and there is the problem of choice.

In the world of design architecture & cities, pre-visualization, and pre-market studies seems to have everyone believing that your predictions ARE the outcome.  And older [mindset wise] act like kings, because they are so old they KNOW the future...  seems to me like being back in the middle ages.

So instead of predicting, start taking decisions, start connecting ideas, start working...  And do it the best you can with the quality you think it deserves...  Loose the prejudice, embrace the infinite feedback loop and DARE change.

HAVE FUN!!!