This section features commentary on various
planning/development issues, and is intended to
stimulate thought and comment.
Current Discussion Topic:
Design in Community Development
What is the role of design in community development, and how does that role relate to market and economic development? As long as the design is within the realm of construction feasibility, design is like the action that follows on from a spoken message. Economic analysis is like that message. It has no substance in itself; but lays out part of a program for action and a call to action, of which the next stage is design. The other components of a design program are the physical constraints and the functions of the forms to be produced, of course, and also the visions and aspirations of the intended clientele for the project. The economic analysis helps determine what or who that clientele base consists of, its magnitude, and its expected interaction with the proposed project. The analysis can also apply some parameters to the stakeholders’ goals.
The more the success of a project depends on enthusiastic participation of the clientele base, the more critical that the design interpret the heart and soul, as well as involvement/consumption patterns, of the clientele. And clientele must be understood to mean not only the customers; but also the merchants, the financial partners, and the community "psyche" -- so that the development has a proper place in the consciousness of those who claim "ownership" of it, whether that ownership is literal or symbolic.
How much certainty can be attributed to any of the elements of a community design program? Understanding people and their habits, likes and dislikes is a messy business, and even if the economic analysts and the designers get it right at the beginning, a project really lives or dies by the spirit of the people implementing it – not so much their skill, although that can certainly help.
In short, good design will both embody the ideals of the stakeholders and inspire those stakeholders, and to achieve that it might be necessary to go beyond the initial expectations of everyone involved, in terms of the image ultimately created.
Joe McClure
Current Discussion Topic:
Design in Community Development
What is the role of design in community development, and how does that role relate to market and economic development? As long as the design is within the realm of construction feasibility, design is like the action that follows on from a spoken message. Economic analysis is like that message. It has no substance in itself; but lays out part of a program for action and a call to action, of which the next stage is design. The other components of a design program are the physical constraints and the functions of the forms to be produced, of course, and also the visions and aspirations of the intended clientele for the project. The economic analysis helps determine what or who that clientele base consists of, its magnitude, and its expected interaction with the proposed project. The analysis can also apply some parameters to the stakeholders’ goals.
The more the success of a project depends on enthusiastic participation of the clientele base, the more critical that the design interpret the heart and soul, as well as involvement/consumption patterns, of the clientele. And clientele must be understood to mean not only the customers; but also the merchants, the financial partners, and the community "psyche" -- so that the development has a proper place in the consciousness of those who claim "ownership" of it, whether that ownership is literal or symbolic.
How much certainty can be attributed to any of the elements of a community design program? Understanding people and their habits, likes and dislikes is a messy business, and even if the economic analysts and the designers get it right at the beginning, a project really lives or dies by the spirit of the people implementing it – not so much their skill, although that can certainly help.
In short, good design will both embody the ideals of the stakeholders and inspire those stakeholders, and to achieve that it might be necessary to go beyond the initial expectations of everyone involved, in terms of the image ultimately created.
Joe McClure
