Salon on Architectural Theory and Business Patterns -- Allendale, NJ -- June 11, 2002

Attendees: Marianne Kosits, David Hawk, Minna Takala, Ian Simmonds, David Ing

These participant's notes were created in real-time during the meeting. These should not be viewed as official transcripts of the meeting, but only as an interpretation by a single individual. Lapses, grammatical errors, and typing mistakes may not have been corrected. Questions about content should be directed to the originator. These notes have been contributed by David Ing (daviding@systemicbusiness.org) at the IBM Advanced Business Institute ( http://www.ibm.com/abi ).

HVAC: cold air returns too close to the vent

• Irv Bails -- NJIT -- HVAC
• In HVAC, need to know a lot about materials, e.g. what happens when you add moisture.
• Manual-J is used to design HVAC, it overdesigns by 20%
  • Contractors
  • Need to underdesign a system, because it's more efficient -- it uses better.
• Japanese have ductless air conditioning system -- anti-American.
  • First, Shimizu headquarters.

Corbusier on modularity -- Radiant City

Christopher Alexander hasn't written anything about HVAC.

Lighting is aesthetic

• Can bring it back to HVAC, on human comfort.

Frank Lloyd Wright -- in the nature of materials -- horrible

Postulates of a good building (from David Hawk):

• The building looks better on day 2 than on day 1
• Human comfort, e.g. mass, can't have a lightweight building in a desert, need mass to maintain climate.

Types -- architects organize themselves around types

• e.g. housing as a type, then single family, multi-family (e.g. prisons)
• e.g. commercial, public
• Based on a theme of modernism -- Frank Lloyd Wright from Louis Sullivan, form follows function.
  • Eberhardt, Sullivan's mentor, coined form follows function
• 1880, Eberhardt dropped out of Chicago, move to Iowa to farm, anarchist.
  • Favourite book: Darwin, evoluntionary biology
• Now, biologists have borrowed it, because it's silly.
• A nice space is a nice space, no matter what you do with it.
  • e.g. train stations that become restaurants.
• Function is a good example is misplaced concreteness
  • Houses as functional land use plan e.g. livingroom for living.
• David Hawk tries to not use the word "function" in his practice.
  • It's a trap, meaning that you use it for something that you don't know what you mean.

Similar idea -- zoning of cities

• Jacobs -- diversity of uses

Susanne Langer, 1941, Philosophy in a New Key -- distinction between signs and symbols in communications theory for Bell Labs

• 1953 -- Form and Feeling, chapters on music and art
  • War on functionalism.
  • One chapter on "virtual space", making fun of functionalism, reducing you to coat hangers and doorknobs.
• All works that are aesthetically valuable, stem back to virtual spaces
  • Becoming one with a painting, landscape becomes a virtual space
• This should become the aim of architecture, not functionalism
• This came from Lao Tzu

Types become an accounting system.

Japan has 10 times as many architects as the U.S., and they do good things -- focused on technical systems

• Effective architect tries to be a member of the building team, not at the center

9 rules for managing innovation people -- Hawk, in Design Handbook, Blackwell Reference

• Anything that goes well, you have to say it's the team; if it goes badly, you need to absorb this.

Cal Pava: advisor to Bill Gates

• All wealth is based on real estate
• Bill Gates will create software real estate.
• Place is linked to real estate -- the defining characteristic.
  • Ray Kroc -- McDonald's business is real estate.

Richard Florida

Dostoyevsky-- creative class doesn't make trouble -- the Idiot.

• Non-creative, stupid versus intelligent people.
• Non-creative, stupid people aren't a problem.
• Intelligent, non-creative class -- the instigator of all problems in society -- they're smart, but pissed off; they get even in small ways.

Bertrand Gross -- the U.S. isn't a republic or a democracy, but a friendly fascism

Greek -- people without external governance, individual responsibility and self-management

• anarchism == without an official
• Ideal form of government

Republic -- only a few people governing

• Let the people in, and then they may co-opt

In the French revolution, used anarachism to overthrow royalty

Kropotkin -- The Anarchist Prince, brings the concept of anarchism back.

• Geographer, walking around nature.
• Spent time in jail.
• Anti-Darwinist, in Siberia, people collaborate.
• Preached non-violence: the best way to fight a system is to ignore it.
  • If you do battle with it, you give it energy.
• Debate against Lenin: if you spill blood, you'll replace old guard with a same new guard; Lenin said to spill blood.
• Fans: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King

David Hawk's dissertation at Wharton

• Couldn't have anarchism as a chapter title
• Trist said that he had read Kropotkin, but forgot it.

Ackoff (from Trist): two choices

• #1. Find out the truth, so the leader can find the truth (Platonic)
• #2. Set up a system where each individual can find out the truth.
• Problem: most people support #1

Profound ideas in governance?

• Governance as quality but efficiency, vs. Lao Tzu: an efficient government is a bad government, because it will be ruthless.
  • Lao Tzu: How to build inefficiency into governance.

Discussion on Patterns

Potential journal article -- JFK Terminal 4, without a crisis?

Prisoner's dilemma -- David Hawk has an approach, so that it's never a good idea to screw the other person.