“Design is about looking at the future, thinking about the way things could be. Planning is about figuring out the steps we need to take to achieve where we want to go. …
…a lot of people don't realize the way designers work. You do a lot of research, develop some ideas, and then you put them up for critique and people try to shoot them down, saying: "This won't work. You've got to change that." You do it again and again. It's an iterative process, and by the time you've gone through many phases of it you've got a solution that basically nobody can find many flaws with.”
Tom Fisher, Dean of the College of Design, University of Minnesota
What Tom Fisher says is relevant to the thesis process – "thinking about the way things could be". Thesis is about the idea and the steps to get there. I am going to spend time this week thinking about my vision for connection in Minneapolis. How can we connect the relevant pieces of downtown? Why should they be connected? And what criteria will be used to determine which sites are relevant to this project?
I am thinking in terms of destinations – museums, theatres, music venues, sporting venues, parks, plazas and gardens.
Why should they be connected? What will the benefit of connection be? There is a certain energy inherent in each of these places today. If they were considered an essential piece of the whole that is Minneapolis, rather than just one destination, it could make them stronger draws for tourism and entertainment, and create a synergy that is not present today.
I’m working on the research piece this week. My first draft of a plan is attached – the attractions/destinations from the Walker Art Center (south end) to the Mill City Museum (river) and University of Minnesota Campus.
[Note: I will also post to VT for your viewing convenience.]
Mary:
ReplyDeleteYou raise some interesting questions regarding connections within the city. Are you proposing to somehow connect all these spaces shown on the map? Perhaps there are two or three seperate site that need to be connected. Maybe rather than having EVERYTHING be conencted there are a number of smaller relationships and conenctions that when viewed as a whole, form the overall infrastructure.
What are you going to research?
ReplyDeleteHow will this be design rather than planning?
What is the role of architecture in what you are thinking?
Dave - you are correct - I should not connect everything. But I wanted to identify the possibilities and work from there.
ReplyDeleteMike - I am researching the venues downtown to create the overall map, then determining which sites warrant connection. I believe that Minneapolis needs a venue that will give a coherent sense of place to the city and increase its legibility. I am not planning to design the connections as part of my thesis as much as to establish the validity of the IDEA of connection.
The architecture will occur at the confluence of the various paths of connection, and give a place to start the journey through the city.
Even from your simple color coding and locations on the map I can imagine connections taking place between the nodes. I think establishing what should be connected and why will be important and supportive to your arguments.
ReplyDelete