This reminds me of Martha Schwartz being interviewed by Kevin McCloud about her views on public consultation for the New Fryston Green project:

http://www.marthaschwartz.com/projects/fryston.html

You can have the pleasure of watching it here:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/kevin-mccloud-and-the-big-town-plan/4od#2927027

Skip to 13:40 onwards to see the bit I refer to although the whole programme is interesing.

“It’s impossible to come out with anything of excellence if you have 100 people holding onto the same pencil”!

The marketing men knew what they were up to when naming the ‘i’ series of products. Apple’s mail service now ends with yourname@me.com, (used to be yourname@mac.com which i still have thankfully) This is one stage to far on the road of the ‘individual’ , after all its all about me,me,me.

I think there is still a strong element of the ‘International Style’ (the Shard in London) for its safety in conformity. Alas China has had a taste of the capitalist apple, so at present not much chance of the Buddhist ethic, maybe when they (we) finally realise that this apple is rotten and severe stomach ache causes a change of diet.

Back to the Zeitgeist Movement idea..a bit too Utopian and centrally controlled, but 80% of Utopia would not be bad start.

So does the west design i-cities? Perhaps China in rediscovering its cultural heritage and Buddhist past might be able to show the way to designing cities with a Buddhist ethic?
Perhaps they would be green?

Yet to read the fabled book.

The comments read well about the Jobs that we all know, determined and with absolute vision. Sink or swim, total commitment.

And yes I agree International design is dull, corporate and gives people the feeling of being dictated to by ‘The Man.’ So no iSilvertown.

My real inspiration about the man is twofold.
First, the understanding about the end user, if a person under 12 or over 60 can’t use it then its too complicated. If it takes more than three intuitive moves to do anything, its too complicated, if it needs a large instruction manual ,its too complicated. Who buys the product? The end user, so who are we primarily designing for….you got it. Ockham’s Razor.
This is were companies like AutoCAD get it so wrong, built by engineers for engineers. Command structures than need a whole new language to even understand what the command is let alone find the dam thing. Apple employ artists as well as engineers. The problem should never be placed upon the end user, the problem should be solved by the engineer so that the end user will never encounter it. Thus the product will be used, loved and forgiven for when it does fail (and sold at a premium). And thats why sketch-up (as an alternative to AutoCAD) is so popular designed for school children upward.
Second, visionary. Bill gates was and is not a visionary, he is a business man who used the licence model to sell software at a premium, not because the product is any good, but you are tied in when purchasing a PC. Jobs on the other hand was about Vision, why can’t we build a computer that the masses can use, and still look beautiful? Easy to use? Inter connecting with other products?

As Landscape Architects we desperately need visionaries, to state our claim to the space that buildings reside in, we are the primary designer on site, after all Architects put their buildings in our space!
We need to create a passion for the space that the people we serve will pick up on. Rather than a bland formulaic system that stinks of internationalism, an idea that has people and their needs and wellbeing at the heart of the design. Though the New Modernist (post post Modernism or maybe New Abstractionist) in me still has the desire in some cases to create the context, though this is as much about human scale, sitting, watching etc ie the South Bank

One more thing… Planned Obsolescence the curse of the modern age, the fuel that keeps the wasteful consumer society going (and Apple are not entirely innocent). Had a huge rant on my blog to the point that until we really tackle the problem on mass consumerism we will run out of oil and landfill (which for Computers is Ghana, unbelievable what is going on) and there will be big trouble, not the feeble chancer’s of this Summer, I really think we are heading for some serious social unrest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5DCwN28y8o&feature=related

And if you have time, (first section not sure about the relevance and a bit of biased science, also the last Venus project designs zoning and internationalism, so great idea just could be better executed) The relevance of the film for us is core. No point building on a foundation of sand.
(unless i get an ipad, macbook air etc)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w

Bed and Site estimate tomorrow,

Cheers Tom