Back in the 60′s, Puerto Rico’s government considered the development of a social housing project called “Habitat“. The monstrous structure had its life, for pre-fabricated pieces were actually ordered and many arrived on the island. Thankfully, it was never built.
As this cartoon from 1969 satirically emphasizes, the social implications associated to the design of this structure would have only lead to a catastrophe. It’s labyrinthic layout would have provided a space for crime and drugs to prosper, and a new meaning to the term “cacerío“.
It’s a learning experience to look back at these materials. As a designer, I can imagine all of the blind efforts that must have been pushed forward by the building’s creators. As this case clearly illustrates, designers have the responsibility of understanding the implications of one’s work, specially if the social impact is at a scale that affects communities or cities. Of course, you may think “duh”, but proposals like Habitat make me aware that not everyone out there actually thinks this way.
Today, there are a few of the prefabricated pieces of the Habitat still around Puerto Rico.
Recently my father, an avid architectural historian, managed to track 2 of them down in the town of Arecibo. These pieces never fulfilled their original purpose, but today form a new kind of habitat that keeps intriguing some of us whose curiosities never sleep.
Study of a custom typeface in 1/2″ frosted acrylic. Each letter was cut to be 12 inches tall.
Study for a commercial booth in a 1/2 scale model to test the assembly system.
While at NC State University’s College of Design I was encouraged to consistently prototype. Even though we had access to a full machine shop and a laser cutter, I always prototyped in paper. I loved the quick success granted by playing with some post-its and markers (I have to say my friend Valentina was the grad-school queen of markers who got me into the habit of using them again).
Now, a few months after leaving NC State, I am still consistently prototyping. I have to say that now, because I am trying to establish a multidisciplinary practice, I require more quick iterations than ever before, be it to keep my mind fresh or to be able to collaborate with another designer on a project.
Here I want to show a few images from two projects that are currently underway. In each of them I have prototyped using a laser cutter and some acrylic. Read the rest of this entry »
Recently I have had the opportunity to work on a series of identity projects for a diverse group of clients. One of the most exciting has been the challenge to re-design the visual language of Puerto Rico’s State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO).
In a collaboration with Jorge Rigau FAIA and Miguel Ortiz, the approach intends to provide a framework on which SHPO can now establish a permanent visual structure. The project is currently being implemented, and a full system roll-out should be done in the next 2 months. Here I share some of the elements that have been generated. Read the rest of this entry »
Last semester I taught a seminar course at NC State University’s College of Design where I asked the students to identify, as part of a weekly assignment, two instances: one where design thinking had thrived and another where it had failed. Towards the end of the course, students had collected a series moments that proved that only a simple nudge was required, many times at no extra cost to anyone, to set a series of problems right. Recently, I came across one such example.
Last week, due to the birth of my nephew Gonzalo, I got to spend some time in the maternity wing of the Auxilio Mutuo Hospital. It was indeed a short time, yet most of it was spent waiting for the baby to make its appearance. I had time to look around. A few things came to my attention, but this particular emergency door stood out the most out of anything else that caught my eye.
An Emergency Door in the Maternity Wing of the Auxilio Mutuo Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The subject in question is located on a hallway directly across from the nursery of newborns. As you can imagine, a lot of people congregate in this area. Upon further investigation, four things were of interest to me:
1) The standard, internationally used emergency exit sign; 2) An ink-jet printed sign which informs that this door does not provide access to the ground floor; 3) The familiar red sign that indicates to use this exit in case of an emergency; and 4) A photocopy which explains, in paragraphs, what to do in case of a problem.
Can you imagine what would happen, God forbid, if there was an emergency in this space? Read the rest of this entry »
Recently, a few people have asked about the work I carried out in graduate school. Part of my time in the last few weeks has been spent formatting the work to share it online. Today I am happy to share:
You can visit and see a selection of some of the larger investigations carried out, many as part of larger collaborative groups. The final project is the only one not up yet. It will be coming soon.
Last summer I collaborated with Rebecca Tegtmeyer and Marty Maxwell Lane in the design of two projects for NC State University.
In May, Marty and I worked for the First Year College to design The Brick, a 120 page book to welcome and orient the 2008 incoming freshman class into the university. The rest of the summer, Rebecca joined us as we worked for the College of Design on Collective Intelligence, Collaborative Design, the college’s research publication.
Last night, our work was recognized with two Merit Awards from the AIGA Chapters of Charlotte and Raleigh in their Fifth Biennial Design Competition, BOOM! Read the rest of this entry »
The early part of the XXth century witnessed the construction of an extensive web of irrigation channels to distribute water to homes and farmlands in Puerto Rico along more than 35 kms. Still in operation to this day, throughout time different individuals and groups have acknowledged the scenic value of these channels; however, to most they remain unknown.
Conceived by the architectural firm, Jorge Rigau FAIA, Architects, the pilot project was designed to garner support from government officials, institutions, and the general public for the development of Isabela’s irrigation channels as a key ecotourism attraction in Puerto Rico. The “canales” travel across plains, mountains, and forests of varying microclimate, flora, fauna, and views. Maintenance paths that run continuously next to them could today be refashioned as nature trails accessible to the general public, children, senior citizens, and handicapped people alike. This pilot project set out to prove the feasibility of this initiative.
After public access to these facilities had been denied for eighty years, one kilometer of channels was opened up for two days, attracting an audience of over 3,000 registered people, including key decision-makers like the Island’s Interim Governor. Environmental leaders and university professors joined the long lines of visitors from all over the Island.Advocacy is often linked to demonstrations, more than often committed to stop something from happening. In our case, we chose to demonstrate otherwise: How something can, in fact, happen. Letters of support have started to come and decision makers – already engaged – have invited us to sit and dialogue. This is what we planned for.
A few weeks ago, in one of those paradoxical afternoons where warmth and clarity are mixed with feelings of confusion, Marty Maxwell Lane, in a sudden look-left ask-question sequence, said: “Where do you stand in the form is content debate?“. (What a way to get my attention right?) For about 10 seconds, my agitated cognitive self shuffled through every single project I ever made…anxiety crept in… I almost found myself questioning my existence… (and from Marty’s reaction, I am sure that my perplexed state was being externalized through my facial configurations.)
I finally was able to respond to her query, even though I’ll admit that I am not quite sure what I said. At the time, I verbally articulated an answer while I simultaneously thought about the question. In retrospect now, where do I stand on this debate?
Three landscapes are important to my work: content, concept, and context. One of my design interests lies in articulating the space between the three, in finding overlays and relational patters among them. It’s like being able to identify and work in that moment when one is between being awake and being asleep, when one still remembers dreams. The point is that I am interested in the relation of these, and it is my belief that an adequate understanding of it leads to, and concludes in formal creations. I see form as the subjective outcome of the interplay of these landscapes.
Answering Marty’s question, since I see form as a subjective outcome of the relationship between content, concept and context, form in itself can only be understood as content. It produces and embodies a particular meaning. If some other person where to receive the same specs and assignment that I got for some of my earlier work, I am sure that the end-product would be different, a different piece, a different outcome, and hence, a different content.
The five entries that receive the most votes in the Readers’ Choice contest will also be featured in the STEP Design 100 March/April 2009 Annual, so all you will receive an email to go vote on the entry soon…:)
Thanks to Jorge Rigau and José Lorenzo Torres for your support, comments, feedback, ideation, and moral infrastructure throughout the short and intense design process of the book… to Robert Ruehlman and Santiago Piedrafita for your e-mails, feedback, critiques, and comments on the layout, structure and typography of the book as I was making design decisions… to Alfonso Gómez Arzola, who came in during two of the most critical days of the process to help with the production of the piece… to Eduardo Miranda, who helped make the cover a reality…and last, but never least, to Eric Jukelevics, who not only retouched 4 of the images in the book, but who always provides me with photographic support when it comes to the documentation of my projects.
So the big question after getting the button machine was: what was I going to do as a first button set to share with others? I decided to make a gift to my classmates, and I made a button out of every single one of the Design Thinking Posters that we each made for this semester’s studio class. The set has all 16 concepts represented.
These are some images of the installation that was part of our first semester studio project where the class attempted to define design thinking in terms of a series of thinking strategies and cognitive frameworks. Read the rest of this entry »
A few days ago I was notified that my original abstract was accepted into the conference. This is my final revised abstract.
Understanding Interaction through People, Settings, and Scenarios
At NC State, the Professional Bachelors of Graphic Design prepares students to understand design from a systems perspective. Among courses that address the issue, three are dedicated to imaging. Last Spring, when co-teaching a three-credit sophomore class —Imaging II: Settings and People (Leading to Activity Scenarios)— with Santiago Piedrafita (faculty member), students were introduced to interaction and time-based media through three key ideas: settings, people and scenarios. Each was addressed through a particular investigation: a “site survey (settings);” a “subject study (people);” and an “activity map (scenarios).”
For the site survey investigation, students were asked to build annotated panoramas through layering techniques, documenting and commenting on a particular location of their daily commute. To visualize the importance of people within a system, students collected ethnographic data of other school members, which they then reinterpreted into one-minute biographical video clips and oversized broadsheets. The semester concluded with an understanding of scenarios, exploring how myriad interfaces found on various mobile platforms shape and affect interactions (scenarios) between users (people) and their environment (setting). This investigation was carried out through hand-made rapid-paper-prototypes, later modeled into stop-animation video clips.
Throughout the semester, concepts were introduced through observation and interpretative methods like annotated tableaus, visual essays, authored journals, video interviews, collaborative ideation techniques, activity maps, paper-prototyping, and stop-animation photography. These “image-making” strategies helped students visualize and actualize key aspects (and phases) of diverse design problems (project-definition-driven, project-building, project-making), understanding issues they will come to terms with when undergoing interactive and time-based media work.
Detrás del Silencio, Gilda Navarra’s retrospective, has been chosen to be part of Gateways, an international exhibition of contemporary book design that will take place in Porto, Portugal. It will open on July 30th.
As part of my academic charge this semester, I underwent an independent study with Santiago Piedrafita. In it, we explored various possibilities on how to develop, build and maintain a common curricular system between the different faculty members and the students of the department. What follows is just one of the many presentations since the final work is still underway.
After spending some time with the community and the information derived from the concept map, it was the moment to understand how to define an exchange of information between some of the members. This insight lead to a crucial part of the semester’s design work.
What if motivation was me translating between others to improve their communication?
Option Shift Control is almost here, and in one of this weekend’s sessions we will be exploring the idea of motivation, and the role it plays in design planning, projects and execution.
Jaime Suárez and Joel Ramos keep working on the sculptural aspect of the Vieques Main Plaza Fountain designed by Jorge Rigau FAIA. Read the rest of this entry »
As part of a studio project, I carried out an exploration in the spirit of the PixelVision. Honoring the tradition of pixelvisionaries, I underwent a personal study of my way to-and-from design studio. I recorded these different videos using a point and shoot canon s70 digital camera, which since it was not really intended for video recording, it provides an “amateurish” feel and look.
In my first exploration, I recorded my way into the studio during the day.
In my second exploration, I recorded my way from home into the studio during the night
In my third exploration, I recorded my way from studio to my home during the night.
After all explorations were done, I made an exercise in which I overlayed all of them together in one film. I went into this with no intentions or expectations, so a few realizations came in with incredible surprise. I was able to note some parts of my mile-long-trip that slow me down and others that I thought were linear in nature but actually caused more variations in path.
In conclusion, if the winds send the Burger King scent into my route, I slow down and the trip takes me an extra 1 minute. Hills are not particularly the slower aspects of my trip and no matter what, there is a 7 minute difference between the faster walks and the slower ones.
Even though this did not developed into a final project, it is a beginning phase as I explore the videographic medium.
At the AIGA Next conference there was a segment called 20/20. It was 20 young designers, each having been granted 1 min to talk or show what’s next. One of the designers, Geoff Halber, asked others to contribute to his presentation by submitting a version of an 08.
My domino version of the 08, already blending with the next version.
Thanks to Kelly Murdoch-Kitt for having taken the photo.
As part of my explorations on the relationship between the disciplines of architecture and graphic design, a current work in progress delves into the subject of representation thru typography. Here letterforms (which designs are dictated by the medium) can be texture, but at the same time a message, which at the same time is a texture. The revelation of this meaning arises from the interaction the user has with the work. These are process photos. The project is half way in the process.
Architecture by Jorge Rigau, FAIA. Typography by Alberto Rigau. Scultpture and modeling by Jaime Suárez Toro.
As a graphic designer, I wonder about my possible contribution to a social & architectural development project. How can I aid other professionals whose practice and form are key in improving people’s lives while recontextualizing their social condition. How can I help them understand the possibilities that are at hand?
I analyzed the case study of Quinta Monroy at Iquique, Chile. This social housing development project was idealized by architect Alejandro Aravena from the Elemental Group and the Barrio Chile civic organization.
In this case study, and in many others that the group has already finished, Elemental does a wonderful job of working with the community. It understands that in this kind of relationship, understanding social realities is the key to the success of any endeavor. It is not possible to come in with a brilliant idea, impose it and carry it out. If no interest is shown on the community’s opinion, nothing will take place.
Seminars, collaborative sessions, educational exercises, informational meetings… just a small sample of the efforts that Elemental performs to gain confidence and understanding from the members of communities, which are usually skeptical any kind efforts made in order to improve their way of life.
My project concentrates in the touch point between these two groups (architects vs. community members). I explored the possibility of a visualization system to allow a better dialogue between the architect’s’ diagrammatic style and a verbally denoted system that allows for the community to develop a sense of ownership and understand that this kind of project is not an imposition, but a template for them to develop within. It’s about realizing the unlimited possibilities.
Last week was the opening of this year’s 50 books / 50 covers exhibition in the AIGA National Center’s Gallery in New York City. Detrás del Silencio, Gilda Navarra’s Biography (and Editorial Revés’s first national award) was showcased as one of the 50 Covers. (Located at the far left of the photo.)
Ten (10) Possible Strategies for Designers to Improve Communication Management with Communities
by Jorge Rigau, FAIA and Alberto Rigau
The following are not presented in any particular order, as implementation of all or some strategies may vary from case to case:
1. Elucidating the Big Picture
Community members often argue their cases focusing in particulars, often missing a large scale, wider-scoped understanding of the issue at hand.
2. Make the Community’s Questions Your Own
Identify questions and concerns that are key to the conflict and address them before they are articulated as such. Answer them directly, and proceed to explain; not otherwise. Making sense is about acknowledging pro’s and con’s.
Armando Rigau currently pursues a Master in Architecture I at Cornell University. He received his bachelor's degree in Philosophy with History and Spanish minors from Georgetown University.
