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THE BOTTOM
LINE
For me, all design, whether of a physical
environment or of an organizational environment must involve consideration
of several conceptually different programmatic concerns in some form and
to some degree. Life is like that; it is not just one thing or another,
but some of many things. it is not just a hand or a head without
a body, it is not just an air conditioning system or a roof without a building,
and it is not management without a strategy.
Each concern must be addressed independently
as well as a part of the final system because they each offer dramatic
opportunities to influence the "success" of the total system .
VISIONING
Planning today for tomorrow's use.
Tough to do especially if you see tomorrow
as a moving target, and tougher still if you fear it. It is equally
"tough" to put practical limitations on the visioning process. As
the distance from a goal increases the probability of the end point being
what you expect it to be decreases. So what are the practical limits
on vision?
Clearly the "future" is subject to all
kinds of influences. However two common attitudes towards it cause
much of the "dissonance" found in the built and organizational environments:
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Thinking that it can be completely controlled
or that it is a stationary point.
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Thinking that it is impossible to plan for.
The reality is neither. While
it may not be possible to predict, with certainty, the distant future,
it is possible to plan a good course or choose the better path. It
is possible to reach decisions with the knowledge that they are "good"
ones.
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
Crisis is the driving force for change.
Effective planning of a built or organizational environment must be driven
by a deliberate intention to avoid crisis and minimize its affects.
Careful, conscious, front end identification of crisis potential is essential
to a successful planning strategy.
THE SENSUAL ENVIRONMENT
So where does this leave the aesthetic, the
feelings, the non strategic parts of life? Right where they
should be; simply one part of the big picture. It is an important
part, but really just one of the many variables to be considered.
The really important thing is to identify and define the purpose of your
actions, the tools that are available to achieve the purpose, the context
and its influence, and to create an appropriate balance between them.
Even if the primary purpose of an environment
is sensual satisfaction, the environment must still perform effectively
in the the same ways that the environment of a manufacturing facility,
or an office, or a residence does. It must keep the wind and rain
out, it must provide a satisfactory climate, and it must accommodate the
supporting utilities and infrastructure, etc., etc. For an environment
to be successful it must be successful on all levels not just a selected
[or arbitrary] few.
STRATEGIC PLANNING
The whole "ball of wax"... Strategic planning
is a methodology that begins with the reasons and lets the form of the
system be dictated by its purpose. The point here is that all design
is, more or less strategic, by its very nature. The success of the
form of any system is dependent on the success of the strategy used in
its creation. In other words, good/successful design
is also a good/successful strategy.
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