Before finishing my proposal I wanted to share with you some” unorganized thoughts” – we already talked a little bit about it in the last hangout- but having 2 diff experiences during the last month kept me thinking and would like to share it with you.
The 2 experiences was Dreamhamar tactical urbanism online workshop in hamar and terhal workshop“nomadism” in siwa oasis in Egypt.
First of all participation of inhabitants is essential especially if it is for a public space in both approaches.
I tried to compare and make some pros and cons about the 2 approaches I will try to summarize them and conclude at the end.
Being physically in the place and interacting with it is another experience specially for a a place like siwa or hamar where nature is dominant isn’t compared to any digital experience.
Tech allows more than a few days visit u can see winter and summer and contact a lot of diff people than u could meet.
Being a stranger is a very good advantage to make out of the box ideas.
Sharing ideas and the “non-stop brainstorming “ is amazing and about the debate of”Too much information kills creativity” I think with archiving and tags it is increasing creativity .i mean if u think that there is too much posts on the blog u can just read 3 or 4 posts like agata ,sara and silvia’s posts or watch the final presentation by ethel and paco .
In siwa it was an amazing place I was affected by it and the people living there but as for a design process I needed a bigger circle to share ideas with them like artists, engineers, other architects……….etc
Social interaction between participants in the nomadism workshop was certainly more but I think it is because we are all new to google+ i mean digital socializing is pretty much close to physical nowadays
As a conclusion
I think the 2 approaches should be complementary and what EU is doing is an excellent way combining the 2 principles with the whole process of onsite online workshops…..etc.
Network design methodology is a great process and I think should be used whether u visited the site or not
Physical visit can’t be compared with any digital one till now.
An this makes me questioning:
could network design go all the way to the final stages -I mean no architects form the country and never visited the country but make a good design that the local inhabitants like?
Technology gives a lot of possibilities and yet more to come but are we making the most of it ?
Other technologies could be helpful like augmented reality but could it replace the physical interaction ?