Ida Telalbasic interviewed me some time ago and I want to share with you my thoughts.

She was conducting a series of interviews with people in the design world who understand the concepts of social innovation and social entrepreneurship.

1. What is the role of a designer in a society where products have turned into processes and ownership into access?

The designer is a guide that helps people listen and look at the world from a different perspective. Instead of focusing on the problems, we focus on finding solutions. Designers are becoming networkers and, even more that in the past, innovators.

2. How do design practices organise their work and secondly, how do they interact in terms of physical working space?

In my experience, the design of the working space is critical. I need to be in a complete open space to share ideas, to gather input, and to increase communication between people. Design has become a tool to encourage users to take an active role in their environment. Technology offers new opportunities to expand the capabilities of this kind of interaction. An online platform such as PBworks or Google Group is critical for sharing information, ideas, projects, and feedback.

3. What new rules could you suggest as guidelines for social entrepreneurs? 

The new rules are:

LIVE YOUR PASSION
THINK BIG
START SMALL
BE RESILIENT
SHARE YOUR IDEAS
MAKE IT SIMPLE
LOOK AT YOUR PROJECT ALWAYS FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
HAVE FUN!

4. How can design thinking be applied to social innovation?

Design thinking is an approach in which designers need to have a broad and deep understanding while also listening carefully to stakeholders. It is necessary to start from the humans, trying to understand their needs, culture, and context. Overall, we learn by doing, so we start quickly to create and encourage collaboration! Exchanging knowledge and experience!

 5. How does the economic crisis affect the way designers work in 2012?

 What is happening with the economy right now and in the near future will help designers to think out of the box to find new ways of thinking, designing, and finding solutions. We are looking for new paradigms and we are doing it with a participatory method. It is necessary to share! And, in my opinion, the economic crisis is really something necessary for our evolution to encourage innovation!

I will be in Venice the coming week-end and I will talk about two project of mine, Casa Netural and the co-creation process at The Hub. But this will a good chance also to be in the lagoon city (I love it!),  meet a lot of people, enjoy good exhibitions and have FUN!

This is my plan!

Friday 23

> Venice Architecture Biennale > Common ground by David Chipperfield – Arsenale

> Padiglione Italia

    Remade Italy, La sfida del futuro: come ripartire? dove andare? 

    10.30am – 6.30pm

I will present the project Casa Netural FANTALUCANIA at 4.30 pm in Gran Touristas time frame.

> Serra dei giardini di Castello – viale g. garibaldi 1254

Co-creation at The Hub, in collaboration with The Hub Siracusa and Studio427 -Palermo.

 7 pm – 9 pm

Saturday 24

> Venice Architecture Biennale > Common ground by David Chipperfield – Arsenale + Giardini

Common Ground, The Biennale for Social Entrepreneurs! organized by Francesca Battistoni and Flaviano Zandonai.

9.45 am – 6 pm

Sunday 25

> Open Design Italia 2012 - Magazzini Ligabue

International contest-exhibition-market self-produced design.

10 am – 6 pm

> Fondazione Cini - Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore

Life between buildings.

   11 am – 7 pm

Could an inspiring and healthy environment encourage our best work?

This is what I have been researching and working on my last years. I wrote my thoughts in the online magazine Shareable and I moved to southern Italy to create Casa Netural. Feel free to dive in my world and tell me what you think about it!

Barra A – reception (by Contropogetto) + Avanzi office

It has been a while since I had these pics on my laptop. I visited these two place’s as I had heard that they were unique, I was especially curious about their types of collaborative spaces.

Santeria – Cafeteria

Santeria is a multiple-use space, with a mingling courtyard surrounded by a nice hipster-style shop and a cafeteria. The Cafeteria is a great meeting place for people, friends or why not clients (informally)?  It has a great flexible open space that is used as an exhibition area / workshop. On the first floor there is a space with small private offices but at the same time they decided to leave an open space free to rent as a coworking space. It’s very minimal, they keep it very essential and not really attractive but it’s good to know that if you are in Milan for some days here you can ‘hot desk it’, find yourself a desk and maybe, working together and gathering with other people new conversations can start and maybe also ideas and projects.

Barra A – open office and mezzanine

Not too far from here there is another space, Barra A by SuperCake, they like to say that it’s a habitat where ideas become social business. Everything was started by Avanzi because they needed an office but wanted to share their space with others such as small social enterprises in order to help them share tools, implement experiences and maximise opportunities from these new connections and get open collaborations. Creating a new cultural hub, a place for debates, meetings, ideas.

Santeria – co-working

Santeria – courtyard

Santeria – details

Santeria – details

Barra A – details

Barra A – details

Barra A – details

Barra A – details (by Controprogetto)

]]> http://uuushh.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/collaborative-mingling-in-milan/feed/ 1 andreapaoletti uuushh_avanzi_4 uuushh_santeria_2 uuushh_avanzi_2 uuushh_santeria_4 uuushh_santeria_5 uuushh_santeria_6 uuushh_santeria_7 uuushh_avanzi_3 uuushh_avanzi_6 uuushh_avanzi_1 uuushh_avanzi_5 http://uuushh.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/evolution-in-basilicata/ http://uuushh.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/evolution-in-basilicata/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:31:59 +0000 andrea paoletti http://uuushh.com/?p=1094 ]]>

Pietrapertosa, Basilicata, Italy

http://blog.atcasa.corriere.it/livable-life/2012/04/19/borghi-rurali-innovazione-e-sviluppo-con-netural-limpresa-e-possibile/

Lasvit Liquidkristal by Ross Lovegrove @Triennale

ENJOY, MEET a lot of PEOPLE and have FUN!

Tuesday 17 
-Cascina cuccagna
-Autoproduzione fabbrica vapore 10am 20pm
-Triennale opening party 7 12pm
Wednesday 18
-Most by Tom Dixon, Museo della Scienza, 10am 9pm
-Elita Festival, Teatro Franco Parenti
-Palazzo Clerici, The Future in Making 11am 10pm
-Via Lambrate, Via Ventura, Padiglione Italia
-Marni, via della spiga 50, 8 11pm
Thursday 19
-Spazio ansaldo, via Tortona 54, 8pm
-Domus accademy, opening, 7pm
-Flos, via Turati, party 50, 10pm
Friday 20
-Homeless design, Boisbuchet, via ciovasso 15  8 12 pm
Everyday
-Rosanna Orlandi, via Bandello
-Pelota, via Palermo 10 austrian design
-Villa Necchi, via Mozart 14 (Fabrica installation)
-Superstudio, via Tortona
-Università statale
-Valcucine, Piazza Moscova
-Appartamento Lago, via Brera
-Renda-se ao Brasil Exhibition, Palazzo Giureconsulti

Canada’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is a centre that provides a multi-disciplinary environment to foster scientific collaboration in research areas of cosmology, particle physics, quantum foundations, quantum gravity, quantum information, superstring theory, and related disciplines. I have’nt visited the institute yet but two friends of mine told me about that and I found it very inspiring from an innovative and collaborative design point of view. It is composed of two parts. The original building designed by Saucier + Perrotte architectes completed in 2006 and a major expansion designed by Teeple Architects and completed in 2011.

Riding the controversial line between public and private space, the original research institute attempts to subvert the usual hard thresholds established by private enterprise in the public realm. The design is takes inspiration from the wide-ranging, hard to define concepts that make up the subject matter of theoretical physics, at once micro- and macro-cosmic, rich in information and of indeterminate form and substance. Between city and park, the Perimeter Institute expands and inhabits the improbable space of the line separating the two. The building defines the secure zones of the Institute’s facilities within a series of parallel glass walls, embedded in an erupting ground plane that reveals a large reflecting pool. The north façade, facing the park across this pool, reveals the Institute as an organism, a microcosm of discrete elements. The south façade, facing the city across train tracks and the city’s main arterial road, presents the Institute as a unified but transforming entity, of enigmatic scale and content. Entry to the Institute is possible from both the north, along the reflecting pool, and the south, under the new ground plane.

The interior of the Institute is organized around two central spaces, the main hall on the ground floor and the garden on the first.

The circulation corridors running east-west are positioned between the opalescent glass planes, which are occasionally punctured and shifted to reveal views across the interior space of the hall. Vertical circulation climbs these walls, tendrils of ground that run from the garden through the building.

The garden – nature emerging from the vacuum – is crossed by three bridges that puncture all the planes, as well as the north and south façades. Two wings of offices are separated by a glass-roofed atrium and an exterior courtyard. Three bridges span the exterior courtyard, to encourage easy continuance of scientific discussion for researchers, connecting the building on the second and third levels. Each bridge culminates in an informal meeting area, overlooking either the exterior garden or the atrium, that are visually accessible from alternate floors, enabling resident researchers to quickly assess who is in the building throughout the day or night. There are 44 single research offices, together with larger shared offices, to accommodate additional researchers, and 15 administrative offices. The building is flooded with natural light from the generous amount of glass throughout the building and from the central atrium. The facility also contains a two-story library, two seminar rooms, a large lecture theater, seating 210, and a bistro with a rooftop deck, located above the lecture theater at the eastern edge of the building.

To ensure a warm and personal atmosphere throughout, six wood-burning fireplaces are placed in lounges, informal meeting areas and the bistro. Natural light is extremely important. Plentiful, comfortable interaction areas, where scientists can deliberately and spontaneously meet to discuss developing ideas, are essential. Areas for quiet contemplation, calculation and reflection are equally necessary. There is a harmonious balance of private spaces, quiet public spaces, formal meeting areas (such as seminar rooms and an auditorium) and informal meeting areas (lounges, open gathering spots).

On the ground floor are fitness facilities and a squash court. In addition to its primary purpose, the lecture theatre plays host to regular musical performances, while the atrium is an ideal for rotating artistic exhibitions to provide a stimulating cultural experience for the research staff.

In the Stephen Hawking Centre, new expansion, the design strategy for this challenging program focused on creating ideal spaces for research – quiet spaces for contemplative thought, which are balanced with spaces designed to encourage and facilitate interaction among scientists, researchers and graduate students.

There was a strong desire from the entire project team that the expansion be contiguous with the existing facility. It was understood early on that the expansion and existing building would need to interact to function as a singular whole.

The design solution hovers the new addition over an existing reflecting pool and parking garage roof, such that is occupies virtually no additional site area. The architects worked closely with PI to ensure that the new addition connects directly into existing research space, ensuring seamless connectivity between the existing structure and the Stephen Hawking Centre.

The Executive Director at PI, Dr. Neil Turok, called for the new Centre to integrate aspiring young physicists into an exciting learning environment to work with and learn from established researchers as well as for the creation of a research environment that would foster an intensive and creative interaction amongst staff scientists, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students.

An extremely unique design solution was derived to achieve these goals, which included: relocating the current Black Hole Bistro to the ground level from the 4th floor, this space is ideal to facilitate planned and spontaneous encounters immediately upon arrival into the building – staff expressed this desire to the architectural team as they wanted more opportunities for interactive discussions to occur outside of offices and meeting rooms; creating three central pods of research, postdoctoral and graduate offices to support independent research, while enabling grads to have a visual link to their research partners; situating interaction areas at half levels between floors, both to bring researchers from different departments together and to create an acoustically separated public interaction zone.

The final design solutions involve a highly energy efficient and cost effective VRF system that is equipped to ensure acoustic privacy in all research spaces. This dual mode system also provides natural ventilation during the warmer seasons, ensuring user comfort. The Centre is partially clad with “Gold Glass”, which provides protection from solar radiation and reduces heat loss in the winter months.

You can have more details about the collaborative aspects here, and here.

Photographs 1-7 © Marc Cramer

Photographs 8-14  © Jens Langens

A screen shot of Alexa Getting project designed in CCA Fall studio 2010. A vision into the future of the Golden Bear Building on University Avenue, San Francisco. It was given an AIA award in Spring 2011. 

Always expect the unexpected. And I will start a new adventure. It will be an interesting experiment, I will be involved via skype in the CCA Spring studio Fluid Working, that focuses on comprehensive building design. Margaret Ikeda and Evan Jones are adjunct professors of architecture at California College of the Arts in San Francisco and they invited me to be part of that in an innovative way.  We think it will be fun to try and set up a new way for me to be part of a studio review using the internet. We will have face to face times plus we will use a drop box where we will share the work at everyone convenience (there is a 9 hours time change from San Francisco and Milan) and leave comments.  The architectural studio focuses on sustainable and innovation projects in the bay area. The Hub business model will be the ideal starting point for new architectural explorations in order to investigate varying spatial possibilities and designs of what the office, now, might be. The context of the studio is:

The evolving systems of information technology and the ascension of carbon as a global currency are challenging architecture as a spatial practice. Information  technology is dematerializing the traditional office of fixed walls, desks, and paper. Hand-held electronic devices and the shift towards cloud computing now allow for the dispersal of the production cycle across a new digital workspace transcending geographical boundaries. Prioritizing the electron over the atom enables the  efficiency of the virtual office. This distinction puts an ever increasing demand for a new infrastructure of external data centers to store electronic information, which is doubling every two years. It has also supported the emergence of a new typology of co-working. Co-working suggests a plurality of possibilities for re-materializing new office spaces. Workspaces, under this model, are not assigned but occupied in ephemeral ways and in a more diverse array of spaces akin to urban neighborhoods. Shared spaces exemplify a more efficient way of utilizing resources at the scale of a building as well as the larger context of the city.

The studio will focus on the materialization of these new paradigms within the context of San Francisco’s historic Mission Creek which was a navigable waterway leading into a dock at Division Street, now 16th. Subsequent infrastructures onto the  site, of a railway and a modern freeway, form a rich history of overlapping systems. The method of the studio will be to uncover opportunities to develop office space within a new digital urban infrastructure incorporating the ecological and circulatory flows of the city. The re-materialization of the office will concentrate on European high-performance precedents of wood construction techniques as the manifestation of more carbon neutral building systems. The overarching aim is to understand the urban context as a series of flows within which a transformative architectural paradigm is infused. 

Two interesting questions asked: has the HUB found a need to design its own building in any city? Or would the formalization of a building conflict with the fluid nature of the HUB business model?

How can a company encourage people to give their best? Designing collaborately their workspace is an inspiring possibility. I wrote a new article on Shareable talking about that. I am looking forward for your feedbacks, suggestions and additional ideas. Thanks

The Google office in San Francisco is located on The Embarcadero with a beautiful view of the Bay Bridge and the Bay. From the design perspective it is not fancy at all, but it has a human touch and is simple and personable. I liked the way they applied the principles of collaboration to make them real. Maybe it’s better to speak about connection rather than collaboration. Right when you enter the space, all the systems are computerized through Google applications.  For example, you must enter your name on a screen, and a message is sent by text to the person who is waiting for you. They are pioneering new technologies and using these mobile services inside their offices to help people to do a number of tasks on their phones. The building is an old one, and inside it is like a two floor labyrinth. There are very few solo offices and people share cubicles, yurts and huddle rooms. I saw people using free tables for brainstorming or sharing ideas, and it looked like they worked. There are different areas for mingling, a social area with tables, armchairs, massage chairs and large inflatable balls are spread around and they are characterized by a particular image of the city.  Laptops are everywhere. The company developed a standard issue for mobile coding, email on the go and note-taking in order to facilitate employee collision and collaboration. There is an office healthy cafe, where there is open seating and allows employees to enjoy conversations with people from different teams. Photography inside the office is restricted so I am showing pictures that I found online. Google’s playground slide installed into one of the stairways is the most shown feature, and people are proud of that, but this is what make me upset because these types of recreational activities (an employee can take a break to play and enjoy foosball, pool tables, volleyball courts, assorted video games, pianos, ping pong tables, etc) make the people feel satisfied but I am convinced that it is not the case. I have read different web sites and heard that these activities work to motivate workers and give them a sense of community, and that such an environment boosts productivity. In this way they want to encourage teams to come out and play with new ideas. They try to change the paradigm, but are we sure that this is the right answer? Google was built around the idea that work should be challenging, and the challenge should be fun, but is this the right translation for fun? Employees are continually fed, break rooms are packed with a variety of snacks and drinks kept Googlers going, and then they are encouraged to make use of a free onsite gym including trainers, free weights, exercise machines, yoga and dance classes. I think it is a strange mechanism. They are treated like robots that have just to think about what they are working on and not about what they really want to do. In my opinion it is a great control of behavior instead of giving freedom. Google says that they are focused on people and this is the reason why they look after them offering a variety of “games” to play, free time, a nice atmosphere, all the food they want, but is that the real meaning of being people focused? I think that their environment, giving a positive first impression, makes users comfortable, assures them that the company is reliable and professional, and encourages people to give their best. But then living inside they loose control of their real needs. Google’s workspace is designed as a casual environment to get from inspiration to action in a quick way, and its value is providing this community feel. They offer private services, such as onsite massages and onsite haircuts, in order to simplify life and make it more comfortable, but are we sure that this is the way to make people are more creative, productive and focused? Or is it just a way for the company to make people feel more protected and therefore make them loose activity, independence and personality?

Pictures taken from the www. Thanks.