Architecture & IA: Expanding the Metaphor - IA Summit 2016

ARCHITECTURE & IAExpanding the Metaphor

Jessica DuVerneay @jduverneay

WHAT IS IA?

Michigan - Circa 1992

METAPHORS

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/King's_Cross_Western_Concourse.jpg

. Conductor

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/arts/music/susanna-malkkis-wide-appeal-on-both-sides-of-the-atlantic.html?_r=0

.

.

is to make places, not just spaces.

The reason to work with an architect

.

Places where strategy shapes the structure to ensure good fit between what you intend…

.

experience it…and how people

Do you use physical architecture as a metaphor to explain or discuss information architecture?

WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE

http://somethingwickedhorror.kinja.com/the-winchester-mystery-house-1736574784

http://somethingwickedhorror.kinja.com/the-winchester-mystery-house-1736574784http://www.weirdretro.org.uk/the-winchester-mystery-house.html

https://eatingfastfood.wordpress.com/2014/11/11/fascinating-tales-from-history-the-winchester-mystery-house/

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Film, 2004

STRENGTHS & LIMITATIONS

If you use physical architecture as a metaphor to describe IA, what strengths or limitations have you found?

Strengths

• All humans have experiences in built spaces

• User needs are important in both

• Workflows are important in both

• Wayfinding is important in both

• Context is important in both

Limitations

• May turn clients off

• Misalignments between websites & physical places

• Time

“The objective of IA is not the production of environments for inhabitation, but for understanding.”

- Jorge Arango

The current discussion of IA and the use of built-world examples is mostly a reference to western architecture from the past 100 years.

.

http://www.laurelhighlands.org/things-to-do/arts-culture/frank-lloyd-wright/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Le_Corbusier_buildings

So, what’s wrong with that? Those buildings are cool.

This is problematic.

Lack of Diversity

Sustainability

It was fossil fuel-derived electricity that lit and air-conditioned modern buildings, which often spurned natural light and ventilation. Modern architecture is thus an energy-profligate, petrochemical architecture, only possible when fossil fuels are abundant and affordable. Like the sprawling cities it spawned, it belongs to that waning era historians are already calling ‘the oil interval’. Although histories of modern architecture still overlook this critical fact − failing to note what is, literally, blindingly obvious − any future history must surely begin by noting this relationship, which is axiomatically unsustainable.

- Peter Buchanan “The Big Rethink”, Architectural Review

http://chrisdent.co.uk/new-york-skyline

“The problem…is also that these structures lack an authentic connection to nature and the very cultures in which they exist. This, in turn, leaves us feeling disconnected, isolated and longing for true connections to each other and our communities.”

- Monica Gray “The Problem With Architecture Today”, 2014

The Big Rethink …Most of what we now see as exceptionally stupid design concepts – such as the ubiquitous, a-contextual, energy guzzling, airconditioned glass box – were initiated by architects and once hailed as exemplifying Modernist ideals.

…No amount of the desperate fad for jazzing up facades in syncopated ‘barcode’ patterns and other jittery rhythms, and jollying up with strong colours can conceal the tawdry, mean-spiritedness of the design and the flimsy thinness of much construction. (Even inoffensive seems beyond us.) These faults are largely the inevitable consequence of the rhetoric of cheap and ‘efficient’ utilitarianism promised by Modern architecture.

- Peter Buchanan “The Big Rethink”, Architectural Review

increased isolation

increased disparity

increased pollution

increased illness

economic collapse ecological collapse http://www.handsoffmydinosaur.com

universal independence

uniformity urbanism efficiency economy industry

machined mass production material centric

profit http://chrisdent.co.uk/new-york-skyline

As the field matures, and as more of our daily interactions involve information environments, we must become also increasingly proactive in our role as agents of cultural and political change.”

Jorge Arango “Architectures”,

Journal of IA, Sep 2011

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

“Lord of the Rings”, Film, 2001

Little Book of Sloth - Lucy Cooke

local interdependence

customization earth integration

quality affordability community hand made

bespoke ideas

people

www.yearofmud.com

www.yearofmud.com

local interdependence customization earth integration quality affordability community hand made bespoke idea centric people

local interdependence customization earth integration quality affordability community hand made bespoke idea centric people

local interdependence customization earth integration quality affordability community hand made bespoke idea centric people

global independence

uniformity urbanism efficiency economy industry

machined mass production material centric

profit

https://prezi.com/1mul6vuq_a2s/earthships/

local interdependence customization earth integration quality affordability community hand made bespoke idea centric people

global independence

uniformity urbanism efficiency economy industry

machined mass production material centric

profit

local interdependence customization earth integration quality affordability community hand made bespoke idea centric people

global independence

uniformity urbanism efficiency economy industry

machined mass production material centric

profit

We can become better practitioners of IA by expanding our metaphors to include examples & strategies from traditional, natural, and indigenous architecture.

4 STRATEGIES FROM NATURAL & INDIGENOUS ARCHITECTURE

1. Prioritize Sustainability 2. Consider Context 3. Demand Inclusion 4. Look Beyond the Project

Prioritize Sustainability

http://www.iasc-culture.org/THR/THR_article_2012_Summer_Yates.php

Prioritize Sustainability

http://timfrick.com/2015/06/30/ted-talk-on-internet-sustainability/

Consider Context

Vincent van Zeijst https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/cf/2e/cc/cf2eccf463ba9c75a0de258f333e22b8.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Faroe_Islands,_Streymoy,_Kirkjubøur_(1).jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Horyu-ji11s3200.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Pagaruyung_palace.jpg

Vincent van Zeijst

Consider Context

Andrew Hinton Understanding Context

Demand Inclusion

http://risingearthbuilding.blogspot.com/2015_10_01_archive.html

http://www.alternativehomestoday.com/blog/deanne-strawbale-studio/

http://return2green.blogspot.com/2010/07/earthship-touches-down-

in-haiti.html

Look beyond the Project

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_spaceEames, “Powers of 10”

http://www.qrpartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Rosa-Parks-Circle_04-960x640.jpg

Maya Lin

http://kfouchephotography.com

http://www.thomaskoziol.com/photography/

Michigan - Circa 2015

START NOW

Dan Klyn

Workshop Origins of Pattern

Language: Learning from C. Alexander

Tim Frick

Book Due July 2016

Andrew Hinton

Book

Sunday 1:15pm

#NOBODYUBERSINTHEHOOD: ARCHITECTING FOR INCLUSION

IN THE DIGITAL SERVICE ECONOMY

Working Session Architect the Information of Georgia House Bill 757

Reserve your seat today Email to RSVP:  info@iainstitute.org 

Saturday 6-7:45pm

Our goal must be not to disparage, deny the threats under which we live, but to boldly go forward toward a new practice, an understanding that may save us from what many past and present follies are now dumping in our laps…If we take it up as a goal, it will spread like fire to other minds and other fields… Information architects should adopt this as a goal. We are uniquely qualified to get it done, so let's do it.”

Brenda Laurel Closing Keynote 2015 IA Summit

THANK YOUJessica DuVerneay @jduverneayjessica@understandinggroup.com

@undrstndngunderstandinggroup.com