Interesting
May I suggest an old documentary from the BBC; The Shock of the New, in particular, Ep-4, Trouble in Utopia. its available on youtube
Regards
Dr Qassim Saad
Coordinator of Product, Furniture and Jewellery Design
School of Design and Art
Curtin University
Perth-WA
Australia
www.qassimsaad.academia.edu<http://www.qassimsaad.academia.edu>
________________________________
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Lars Albinsson <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 07 January 2018 16:01:09
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Design without Empathy
Great question!
Don’t know where to start or end. Pretty much the whole notion of modernism is based on the idea that the designers know better than people/citizens/users.
If you haven’t read Le Corbusier’s manifesto, you should. He makes it clear that we need both new cities AND new people (for an age of mass production). So the idea to care about what people thought was even dysfunctional.
In modernist planning, the US case of Pruitt Igoe social housing is a ”juicy story”. As well as Jane Jacobs struggles with Robert Moses, in New York. (Planning director Moses, planned to erase parts of for instance Grenwhich Village and replace it with a huge highway. He certainly didn’t ask the citizens about their opinons.)
On a larger scale the whole of communism, nazi or any other totaltarian regimes, is built on the idea that (the contemporary) people don’t know what’s ”best” for themselves.
But perhaps that is outside your scope?
A key question is perhaps whether there is itention, understanding or if it is just bad design. This can, in some cases, be a rather compicated issue. Most modernist planning and architecture is not evil in is intention, but the effect is. (An important reason is that Le Corbusier’s style and plans are imitated by people unaware of his intentions or their intended effects.) (Daniel Dennet have written about intentions. Don’t know if that is useful?)
Central urban planning, with the modernist process, for instance in Sweden, is very intresting as it has a tendency to produce hostile enviroments, even though those participating in the process have good intentions. (In Sweden there is overwhelming data that areas built before 1930 is almost always more expensive than areas built after.)
Intrestingly, you couldn’t today make a copy of the most attractive areas of for instance Stockholm, because of (modernist) planning regulations and building codes, which makes the old buidings and areas unlawful. In this case the regulators are, indirectly and unknowingly, acting like Mies in your case.
Having said all this, there is another side of this coin. Any innovator will tell you, that there is no point in asking people what they want. It is the job of the innovator to come up with things people will love when they see them. (Henry Ford is quoted by his grand son to have said: ”If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.)
Sorry for rambling, but I don’t have any better thoughts. That is why I really look forward to your findings, becuase I believe this is a central issue!!
Med Vänlig Hälsning / Best Regards,
Lars Albinsson
Consultant - Innovation & Creative Processes
CEO & Ph D Candidate
+46 (0) 705927045
[log in to unmask]
Maestro Design & Management AB
www.maestro.se<http://www.maestro.se>
> 6 jan. 2018 kl. 19:50 skrev Maria Miller <[log in to unmask]>:
>
> Hello PHD-DESIGN list!
>
> My name is Maria Miller, Visiting Assistant Professor of Design at The Ohio
> State University and I am interested in better understanding the value of
> empathy in design. This is my first post.
>
> When teaching the importance of empathy, I have often used precedents as
> examples. One of my favorites is the much written about and well-documented
> experience of Dr. Edith Farnsworth, a brilliant medical researcher for whom
> Mies van der Rohe had designed a vacation home on property she had recently
> purchased in Illinois. When I was in architecture school, this house was
> greatly revered and frequently assigned as a first year precedent
> replication project. The story is fairly salacious, drives my point home
> and always seems to resonate with my students.
>
> Rumor has it that Mies may have seduced Farnsworth in an effort to make
> real his architectural ideal, which until that point had remained largely
> theoretical. Although greatly celebrated as an architectural masterpiece,
> the project was something of a disaster for his client -wildly over-budget,
> plagued with building and systems failures, birds constantly striking the
> glass, deliberately situated on a risky flood plain, and failing to address
> many of Farnsworth’s requests and needs.
>
> Long after their personal relationship ended, Farnsworth continued to
> inhabit the house with much discomfort. What’s worse, Mies’ apostles would
> regularly travel to the property and trespass intrusively while attempting
> to photograph her and the house. A constant stream of visitors could be
> seen from those large glass windows attempting to peer in, leaving her
> feeling much like a caged zoo animal. At night it was worse. While
> illuminated, one could no longer see out of the house, but one was aware
> that others could see in. The glass acted as a mirror and all Farnsworth
> would have seen was her lone, haunting reflection moving about the
> space. Mies was nowhere, Mies was everywhere and although she'd paid
> greatly for it, this house would never be hers.
>
> I am writing a paper and looking for similarly historically revered
> precedents from different design disciplines that can be shown to be
> greatly lacking in empathy for its user needs, not even emotional ones.
>
> Does anyone have any good leads or juicy stories they would be willing to
> share?
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Maria V Miller
>
>
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