Methods
From thesisWIKI
Contents |
METHODS: Project scope
‘no.D’ proposes that innovation together with service design is capable of initiating relevant change to our lifestyles by introducing creative or simply more convenient products and experiences. The hypothesis suggests that creativity and convenience are mutual factors capable of reconciling environmental responsibility and consumer economic demand. Without the convenience of the iTunes service, Apple’s iPod would not be as popular. Likewise, the strength of ‘no.D’ will be a synergy of service and system design.
The scope of ‘no.D’ addresses a wide spectrum of scales. At one extreme, the service component exists in a global network of existing transport and communication infrastructure. The opposing extreme of human scale consists of the system—mobile and modular objects that are occupied and customized to individual users’ activities.
By designing the service and the system to be compatible, ‘no.D’ intends to inform more responsible design and construction of the building scale—the in-between realm of architects. It is in this middle sphere that realized innovative design appears to be most challenged. Lack of organization at global and urban scales and resistance of individuals to modify their lifestyles at the human scale limit creative buildings. With a multi-scale approach, ‘no.D’ attempts to create new opportunities for inspiring design.
The design of a building is a local scope that needs to express the cultural and social factors of its location. Although the scope of ‘no.D’ as a thesis project does not include the design of a specific prototype building, an objective is to inform a building typology—one that is ideal for a mobile lifestyle. This typology is not specific to any location, form, or construction method. Rather, the consistencies of the typology lies in the buildings’ ability to connect globally (the service) and establish familiar personal space for the users (the system).
METHODS: 'no.Dule' design
In addition to the standardization of the global scale network, ‘no.D’ also consists of customizable human scale pieces called ‘no.Dules’. The name ‘no.Dule’ is a play on the word ‘’mod•ule’’ representing the ‘no.D’ system of self-contained, interchangeable, prefabricated parts and the more biological term of ‘’nod•ule’’, a small mass of material adhering to a body (or to infrastructure in the case of ‘no.D’). A ‘no.Dule’ should not be viewed as a parasite or growth (as in a tumor), but rather as a physical piece occupying an intersection or joint of the network—the nodus or knot—where all support and information intersects.
The ‘no.Dule’ is a container or piece of furniture that the modern nomad occupies. Unlike the global and urban network, the ‘no.Dule’ design considers direct user contact. It is the stable and familiar particle that moves through striated and the smooth spaces with the user. Each ‘no.Dule’ is a customized unit. It might be a living space or a laboratory. As an incubator for the creative class, it is not a permanent space. Like Deleuze’s nomad steppe in constant flux between the forest and the field, the ‘no.D’ system will adjust, rearrange, replace, and interchange pieces (‘no.Dules’). The system offers flexibility of exterior location and experiences with interior consistency and familiarity.
Like the greater ‘no.D’ network, the ‘no.Dule’ units also strive for nomad space equilibrium. The design of a ‘no.Dule’ consistes of both ‘striated’ or ’smooth’ components.
Straiated components
Striated components of the ‘no.Dules’ such as the shell interact physically or digitally with the manmade world. They might come in direct contact during shipping—thus they wear the scars of their interaction with trucks, trains, ships, and other vehicles that have rigid paths defined by the striations of man. Striated components are durable and possibly non-specific to the use that they contain. The shell is a box or crate—the shipping container—whose dimensions are based not on the purpose of its cargo, but rather on conformance to agreed upon standardization of global transport infrastructure.
Smooth components
The smooth components buffer the user from the rigidness of the shell but at the same time conform to it. They are the organic insides of the striated shell. They develop form from human interaction—a place to sit, to bath, to sleep—rather than from external predetermined paths. Smooth components have surfaces that qualify their use: clean, soft, wet, etc. They need protection from the physical abuse of movement through and exposure to striated space. Thus they slide, fold, or collapse into the protective striated shell for transport or shelter from harsh environments but open up for light, ventilation, views, and simply more room when occupied. If protected by a bigger striation such as a loft space in a building, they can be removed from their shell and simply become moveable furniture.
METHODS: 'network' design
Consumer redundancy
As consumers’ income levels rise, so do consumption demands. With affluence, a greater percentage of income becomes available for travel and leisure pursuits (and leisure products). Consumption and production increase to serve demands beyond those of food and basic necessity. Because of this wasteful direct relationship, ‘no.D’ proposes services and product design that can decrease consumption by making products more mobile. ‘no.D’ suggests that mobility can accomplish this decrease in two ways: 1) by moving more necessities with the user during travel and 2) by creating a sharing mechanism to reduce product ownership. Both solutions reduce ownership of redundant products.
By addressing consumer redundancies, the ‘no.Dule’ system and ‘network’ service models are design solutions that shift economies from raw material supply and manufacturing to innovation and mobility services.
- ”It is only when we blatantly and obviously waste resources that we can, with a large degree of security, claim that it is possible to have your cake and eat it, a so-called ‘no-lose’ situation…the challenge lies in transferring the economy to a non-cake and eat it situation - in other words, to a situation where increase in activity in one sector takes place at the expense of another.” (TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY, 29-30)
Organizing lifestyle products into mobile lifestyle ‘no.Dules’ makes packing and shipping of belongings easier. In addition, common interests can be identified and shared between different lifestyles. The ‘no.D’ service manages the ‘no.Dule’ distribution and sharing.
Shipping container distribution model
The introduction in the 1950’s of the standard shipping container redefined global commerce and transport infrastructure. It wasn’t only the idea of a container that led the movement. Marc Levinson argues in his book ‘’The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger’’ that the idea of putting goods into reusable boxes or containers actually traces back to the late 19th century. Of greater significance was the gradual standardization that encouraged other participants in the network (the manufacturers, ship builders, railroad companies, governments) to modify their methods to accommodate a standardized container. In 1956, Malcom McLean, a trucker from North Carolina, sent the first refitted container ship from Newark to Houston. It took until the early 1970’s to reach global standardization.
Once all modes of transport adopted a standard size, the network no longer cared what was being moved or its origin. Standardization and the definition of a ‘shipping unit’ now made distribution an exercise in moving, stacking, and sorting similar sized pieces.
Torrent distribution model
Shipping container distribution represents a network moving physical pieces. In the virtual realm, the pieces are bits of data. Until recently, data distribution observed a direct sender/recipient relationship similar to container distribution where files are sent as complete packages (made up of many pieces of data). The ability to distribute large files to many people is often limited by the distributer’s hosting server capacity.
An efficient model for distributing large digital files over the internet emerged in 2001 called a ‘torrent’. A torrent is a virtual data sharing method where users swap file pieces and then rebuild the whole on their machines rather than downloading complete files from expensive hosting servers. The model relies on many users forming a ‘swarm’. Users in the swarm downloading pieces of information are called ‘peers’, while users contributing pieces are called ‘seeders’. One user, the ‘tracker’, hosts the organizing information (rather than the source file) on a server. Instead of directly downloading the file from the tracker, the tracker monitors who in the swarm needs pieces of a file and who has pieces to contribute and share. With this information, the tracker orchestrates sharing. The efficiency comes from peers sharing small pieces of information rather than creating bottlenecks from downloading complete files from a single source. Additional efficiency occurs because the pieces don’t have to be downloaded in order. They are gradually filled in as they become available by other seeders. While one peer is downloading pieces from other users in the swarm, they are at the same time uploading and sharing the pieces they already have.
‘no.D’ hybrid distribution model
‘no.D’ is dealing primarily with physical distribution. Reproduction is not the focus. However, the innovative concepts of a torrent such as piecewise distribution and sharing are relevant to the ‘no.D’ network model. Rather than every ‘no.D’ user owning complete life ‘files’ (excessive consumption), users will draw upon their peers in the ‘no.D’ swarm to share and exchange pieces when needed. The key to this model is the support of a tracker—the ‘no.D’ service. The service will organize shipping logistics within existing transport infrastructure so that it is transparent to the user (just as the logistics and infrastructure of sending a digital data file is transparent to torrent users). Users interact with the service on the internet where they can monitor the movement and availability of their pieces.
Appendix
Project timeline
Definitions
- mobile = 1. easy to move 2. operating from a vehicle 3. prepared for change 4. changing socially – moving or able to move from one social or professional class or group to another, for example, by changing jobs or moving to a new neighborhood
- module = unit, component, part, element, section = independent interchangeable unit…a unit that is combined with others to form a larger structure or system and is self-contained enough to be easily rearranged, replaced, or interchanged to form different structures or systems.
- modular = made up of separate modules that can be rearranged, replace, or interchanged easily
- nomad = 1. member of itinerant people, somebody who belongs to a group of people who move from place to place seasonally in search of pasture for their herds or food and water 2. somebody who wanders from one place to another
- itinerant = 1. traveling on the job, traveling from place to place, especially to find work or as a part of work 2. somebody who moves from place to place
- component = a part of something, (mathematics) any one of a set of vectors whose combination (resultant) is a vector
- system = an assembly of mechanical or electrical components that function together as a unit
- no.D = nomadic DESIGN (the branded idea and service)
- no.Dule = is the physical, self-contained, prefabricated modular piece of the global 'no.D' user system (the branded product)
Diagrams
