em.collings i eat wolves

Right away after reading about The Natural Step, I kept thinking about our group projects. Clearly this organization saw a problem within some of our major retail stores and came up with a solution and other ways these billion dollar stores could give back. SImply explained, The Natural Step wants to push society to a sustainable way of life. AKA, using multinational companies revenue. Same thing for visa and global marketing. The one section I was slightly confused about was the chapter on material economics and the idea of taking material and developing intelligent products from them. Philip Ball was a interesting section to read about. He was helpful in explaining scientific materials and what it comes down to is that materials need to be thought about in a more contemporary way. He gave the example of, shape-memory polymers and what happens when you place a bent wire into a hot cup of coffee. I am surprised at how much I do not mind reading Massive Change. It jam packed with crazy information I probably would of not read anywhere else.

I am running a little behind on my reading but definitely happy to be up to date with Massive Change now. Reading this section of the book, I found interesting. I think it’s very important to have knowledge about the earth we live on. I knew about the energy crisis and all the issue the future holds for man kind but it blew my mind that every two minutes the sun gives the earth more energy than is used annually worldwide. Thankfully, certain countries like Germany, The United States, Denmark, and India are head producers for wind mill farms and are recognizing on going issues of solar polar. Another part of Massive Change I thought made sense but in the world we live in is realistically impossible to achieve, is the idea of united sharing and thinking.Free society. The idea that information should be given to everyone is a wonderful idea but would never work do to greed and pride. Humans love keeping knowledge to themselves but information only becomes important when it’s being kept behind closed minds.

This project gave me a chance to look at Philly with new eyes. Looking around and trying to find issues unfortunately was not that hard. One problem I kept coming across was trying to find a place to sit. Of course, there are outside restaurant seating and coffee shops I was able to sit at but that would mean I would have to buy something to eat and drink when I just wanted to sit and recollect my thoughts. I began brainstorming of other areas to sit. Park benches, bus stops and other places like that but they are generally really dirty, very noisy and most likely broken. I realized something as simple as finding a place to sit and take a breather in Philly was not that easy. Philadelphia is a beautiful place to sit and soak up, it just needs a revamped sitting area. I did research on other cities and the way they deal with public seating. Many used refurbished materials and constructed them into fun and interesting seats for the public. After looking around and learning about other seating techniques, I had a better understanding of what Philly needed but I was still stumped on how to make a seating area for the public. Philly needs a nice place to sit, relax, and collect your thoughts, simply for your sanity and to lead a less stressful life.

After gathering all the information and research on public seating it came to me. A moment box. I want to create a chain of seat boxes that are well kept, safe, and can be easily accessed. The box seating would have a firm and comfortable chair with sound proof walls so you would be able to think and recollect your thoughts in a less stressful environment. Moment Box simply promotes less stress and better living. It is for all ages and completely free. I would promote this new seating through posters, catalogs, and a stress relief ball that would have Moment’s Box logo on it. 

For our problem, we kept seeing a repetitive issue for single mothers living in North Camden. Many women have a lack of resources to run a fully operating family. For example, money is tight, food is bare, health benefits are scarce, and clothing is stained. 

We defined this difficult situation by rising the following issues. We began the research stage by finding organizations and local government funded programs that are willing to lend a hand and give the information that is needed to help these less fortunate families.  For example, WIK has a set list of brands of food that is able to be bought through WIK with discounted prices that are appropriate for families in need. 

With all the information we have gathered, we will be creating a more informative and less cluttered binder on tools, guidelines, giveaways(for example coupons) and steps to educate single mothers and their families of the important resources that are available to them through surrounding communities. We are solving the issue by doing the research for them and also by making the information more clean and understanding. These women don’t have the time to thumb through dozens of websites and documents found on WIC and SNAP. There are many opportunities that are missed because individual don’t know exactly where to look and how to find it. We are designing an informative way to excel and participate in these following areas.

//Seating where you can take a breath and recollect. The seating area would have napkins, hand sanitizer, lotion. All those things you would generally find in a bathroom. Think as this seating area as a outside bathroom.

//Moveable chairs that are able to be shifted around to different areas around neighborhoods or parks. Maybe like mobile seating. No one actually owns these chairs but you do find them everyone because people are always moving them around. It is free and anyone can use them.

//Modernized rocking chairs?? Hammocks?? Mini grass hills??

//Refurbish things around the city that are not being used like old newspaper stands or street lamps or meters??

//Fish tank seats!? Image large and sturdy rectangular benches where the sitter is able to feed and watch the fish swim about. I am sure there is some sort of relaxing mechanism involving water and fish. These fish tanks could be used as a meditating area??

//Help minimise landfills. Use trash found around Philly and turn those items into a sand like texture which then could be filled into a sand bag like chair!

//Mini grass covered hills. Bring in more green for Philly. Planted and taken care of by locals and volunteers.

//Desk like seating. Able to drink coffee, write and other activities that entails a table to get your things done.

//Clear cubes placed around the city that can be filled with anything really. Ex. old books, christmas lights, food, candy, soil, crayons.

//Steps like a pyramid. 

What if it was possible to create a sitting area where human interaction naturally took place? What if the new seating had a game like tic tac toe or hang man where you could play with friends and family? What if the seats were made out of a chalk board material where you can leave positive messages. What if the new seating was able to be turned into tables or some sort of playground equipment where kids could play or interact. What if the sides of buildings were able to be covered by grass or flowers? What if side walk gum could be completely eliminated? What if the gum was turned into art work for people to gaze at?

Whenever I think about cities and the clutter that consist inside each square foot, I could not help but think about all the pollution and crowds. After reading about the manufactured housing being compared to vertical uprising, it made complete sense. The facts and statistics made it clear the the denser the cities the more surrounding rural space. Brilliant. Like Massive Change had mentioned in the book, holistic thinking is very important and only necessary to create more reliable and convenient living for our growing planet. The next section was titled, “Movement Economics”. This is simply the idea to design and keep creating other options of transportation in and around cities. Jaime Lerner was very interesting to read about. He is known for his urban planning and I really loved his idea of “getting them while they are young”. He taught children the importance of organic to non organic which then flowed to their parents. Anyway, I understand the idea of each problem and the benefits of working together and the power of design. 

I generally understand the direction that the Business Model is going towards but for whatever reason I was completely lost with all the pattern numbers, charts, and business success break down until I got to the very last page of the section (page 19). This was a chart that simplified all the filler words and broke down exactly what the section was trying to get across. The chart was laid out in the pattern steps. Unbundling Business Model, Long Tail, Multi-sided Platforms, Free as a Business Model, and Open Business Models. I have a pretty good understanding about all the benefits that each pattern could bring to the table of creating a successful business plan. But I really liked the Multi-sided Platforms. I understand the that it is possible to have to different customer needs. Multi-sided Platforms grows in value and it’s main goal is to attract more customers that will hopefully be long-term. At the end of the day, more customers means more revenue which means solid grounds for your business. 

I found chapter 7 and 8’s descriptions of the cities to be the most interesting compared to others I have read. I think that Clarice and Beershea have many common attributes. Clarice is a city that is constantly being rebuilt do to lack of attention but even thought always being rebuilt again and again, the city is really just being picked a part. With the city’s remains, for example, walls, buildings, and automobiles, they are being placed else where to represent a new thing? In some ways, could this be related to design? Designers are always revamping old adds to make it stand for something else. It is definitely not a bad thing to reinvent something but all in all is design just a repetitive system? Like Clarice? I personally do not think so. I think designing could be related more to the city of Leonia. This particular city was described as a city that refashions itself each morning. The city expands each year to make more room for life’s ideas. Like designing, more and more ideas are being developed through different people all the time. Each morning is a fresh start and a new beginning for the mind.