Berntsen, Duncan (2013): Pastoral Manoeuvres: Ecologies of City, Nature & Practice
Berntsen, Duncan (2013): Pastoral Manoeuvres: Ecologies of City, Nature & Practice; Architectural Design
Footnote (p. 134):
The Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff triple-helix approach to university–industry–government
relations for innovation1 was here extended, proposing culture and society as a fourth
helix and bringing community to the heart of innovation processes.
(135)
The ‘pastoral’ is in fact an intangible rather than physical construct, and this intangible element has increasing value much needed by our cities and economies. Its heart lies in notions of simplicity, Charm and serenity; Arcadian contentment lying deep in the psyche of our populations (...) but can
these intangibles be defined and articulated today to commodify public spaces, making them more accessible and valuable, and hence available contributions to the value chain?
(...) By defining the obscure character of the pastoral as intangibles of the Arcadian idyll, we can begin to communicate it, value it and exchange it. Over the past decade staff and students within the School of Architecture, Design and Construction at the University of Greenwich have sought to render a rationale upon which investment decisions in extraordinary public infrastructure can be confidently founded.
The ‘performance of the city’ can be considered as the sum output from a vast number of interactions between its human resources. In this context, a park or public space should be considered to have a ‘balance sheet’ contribution; the ‘balance sheet of place’. Using indicators and navigators,
correlations can be made between spatial configuration, thematic and incidental use or service provision and bottom-line performance through which programmatic juxtapositions of unexpected human interfaces and nature can be valued. Seen collectively as intangible ecologies able to be harvested for innovation and value, they are not scale dependent to render investable benefits. Hence a balcony, a blade of algorithm-receptive grass, temporary 3G land forms or a strategically placed
apple tree can all offer investment returns, collectively acting at multiple scales.
Footnote:
Jamie Laffan, Intellectual Capital Indicator, Barcelona, Spain, Diploma in Architecture, School of Architecture, Design and Construction, University of Greenwich, London, 2003 right: The Intellectual Capital Indicator challenged over-simplistic valuation units (bundling all value into square metre units) and the potential for architects to convincingly ‘design’ metrics, promoting a more nuanced investment in place that moves significantly beyond pounds or dollars per square metre and into brain (IC) value, giving a new range of derivatives to be traded to proactively balance the city.
136
Harnessing the Creative Force of Disruption
Seeking to redesign the current valuation and investment system, the projects shown here served to collectively demonstrate that higher-order patterns of ‘holistic’ functions in the built environment cannot be predicted or understood by a simplistic summation of its parts or layers. Not surprisingly, unforeseen profits emerged as the components interacted in complex, unforeseen ways; something we
know through everyday life but which is little recognised by the professions who more typically attempt to base valuation on square metres (...) Pastoral holistic development invites us to invest in the benefits of a holistic multi-local, multilayered system.
(...)
Developments in industry and business have generally taught us the importance of the continuous improvement at the heart of conventional industrial processes, education, architecture and research. It is holism, however, that favours creativity and adaptability. But it is what kind that is an issue for municipalities that try to differentiate themselves. GDH, a ‘happiness index’, as a corollary to GDP, has recently become currency among the G8 countries, who have recognised that the creativity for their success within knowledge economies will be rendered by self-actualisation; the highest order within Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – broadly, happiness.
137
To be sustainable, architecture should now reclaim the confidence to design a great many more
aspects of a place than the building itself.
Footnote (p. 134):
The Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff triple-helix approach to university–industry–government
relations for innovation1 was here extended, proposing culture and society as a fourth
helix and bringing community to the heart of innovation processes.
(135)
The ‘pastoral’ is in fact an intangible rather than physical construct, and this intangible element has increasing value much needed by our cities and economies. Its heart lies in notions of simplicity, Charm and serenity; Arcadian contentment lying deep in the psyche of our populations (...) but can
these intangibles be defined and articulated today to commodify public spaces, making them more accessible and valuable, and hence available contributions to the value chain?
(...) By defining the obscure character of the pastoral as intangibles of the Arcadian idyll, we can begin to communicate it, value it and exchange it. Over the past decade staff and students within the School of Architecture, Design and Construction at the University of Greenwich have sought to render a rationale upon which investment decisions in extraordinary public infrastructure can be confidently founded.
The ‘performance of the city’ can be considered as the sum output from a vast number of interactions between its human resources. In this context, a park or public space should be considered to have a ‘balance sheet’ contribution; the ‘balance sheet of place’. Using indicators and navigators,
correlations can be made between spatial configuration, thematic and incidental use or service provision and bottom-line performance through which programmatic juxtapositions of unexpected human interfaces and nature can be valued. Seen collectively as intangible ecologies able to be harvested for innovation and value, they are not scale dependent to render investable benefits. Hence a balcony, a blade of algorithm-receptive grass, temporary 3G land forms or a strategically placed
apple tree can all offer investment returns, collectively acting at multiple scales.
Footnote:
Jamie Laffan, Intellectual Capital Indicator, Barcelona, Spain, Diploma in Architecture, School of Architecture, Design and Construction, University of Greenwich, London, 2003 right: The Intellectual Capital Indicator challenged over-simplistic valuation units (bundling all value into square metre units) and the potential for architects to convincingly ‘design’ metrics, promoting a more nuanced investment in place that moves significantly beyond pounds or dollars per square metre and into brain (IC) value, giving a new range of derivatives to be traded to proactively balance the city.
136
Harnessing the Creative Force of Disruption
Seeking to redesign the current valuation and investment system, the projects shown here served to collectively demonstrate that higher-order patterns of ‘holistic’ functions in the built environment cannot be predicted or understood by a simplistic summation of its parts or layers. Not surprisingly, unforeseen profits emerged as the components interacted in complex, unforeseen ways; something we
know through everyday life but which is little recognised by the professions who more typically attempt to base valuation on square metres (...) Pastoral holistic development invites us to invest in the benefits of a holistic multi-local, multilayered system.
(...)
Developments in industry and business have generally taught us the importance of the continuous improvement at the heart of conventional industrial processes, education, architecture and research. It is holism, however, that favours creativity and adaptability. But it is what kind that is an issue for municipalities that try to differentiate themselves. GDH, a ‘happiness index’, as a corollary to GDP, has recently become currency among the G8 countries, who have recognised that the creativity for their success within knowledge economies will be rendered by self-actualisation; the highest order within Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – broadly, happiness.
137
To be sustainable, architecture should now reclaim the confidence to design a great many more
aspects of a place than the building itself.
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