Monthly Archive: October 2015

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THE MINDSET OF CONSERVATIVE CLIENTS

Humans have an innate tendency to avoid losses rather than to achieve gains. We are hardwired for this. All of our design discussion with our clients is, fundamentally, one of losses and gains. Let’s...

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AUTOMATIC VISUAL PROCESSING

What exactly is our state of mind when we are drawing to solve problems? Much of what goes on between our ears is automatic. The common act of seeing is automatic. We are continually...

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EL LISSITZKY

The Russian constructivists have been a cultural influence upon use here in the West. Many of the current famous architects developed their first architectural responses in the guise of constructivism. I am thinking of...

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PRECEDENTS IN ARCHITECTURE

Some of the books that we have mentioned in these pages are by Ching, Lauseau, Jenkins, et. al.  And they are great books.  Elegant books.  Theoretical books.  Classic books. Yet all this theoretical power...

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APRES TRAVEL

The trips that we take are often way too short. I always find that however long we travel, the time could have at least been doubled. One great way to extend your trip is...

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GUGGENHEIM BILBAO

It extends under an ordinary car bridge. The Museum. Gehry’s Guggenheim. It extends under a four lane, mediocre vehicle bridge that spans the river.  The bridge runs over the museum. We were just in...

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SUBURBAN GROUND EFFECTS

We are traveling this week. So I offer these brief posts on various topics that I have prepared ahead of time. Although this may not exactly be the most burning design question, what would...

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DRAWING ON AIRPLANES

                We are traveling this week.  So I prepared this travel related post ahead of time. You’re probably tired of hearing me extol the virtues of drawing...

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PERCEPTUAL THINKING

Let’s try teaching our scientists to think like artists. One of the themes of these pages is the confluence of art and science. We have talked about scientists using the same language as artists....

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CULTURAL COPYING

The cultural provenance of your ideas and solutions is what will establish what is valued, and what is not. How you manage, parse and organize the Googlized information flood is a significant part of...

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IS CONTEXT THE NEW CONTENT?

The title above is a quote by Kenneth Goldsmith in his collection of essays titled “Uncreative Writing.”    Goldsmith is a conceptual poet. Yet his ideas regarding the provenance of our ideas, specifically within...

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SOCIETAL KNOWLEDGE

In these pages, we have bemoaned the subjugation of the visual and the elevation of language.  Let’s look a bit closer at how language actually works so we can see what we are up...

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DRAWN TO DESIGN 2

A few weeks ago, Eric Jenkens, very kindly responded to my comments on his book, Drawn To Design. Link here to that post. And Eric’s comments can be seen to the right side of...