Frame and Form

As part of the collapse(with) conferences IED is holding a three days introductory event. I have been invited as a lecturer as mentioned  before here. I invite you to read the abstract and come along:

March 12th, 19:00 H

TO ERR IS HUMAN! We must acknowledge that even the most engineered systems can collapse. Failure is a constant element trough the design process: on one hand, the desire of fixing an existing malfunction is the mother of invention. On the other hand, fear of failure is deep embroiled in our education, our culture punishes mistakes and that affects the designing process resulting in conservative solutions.

“The development of new artifacts and new technologies follows from the failure of existing ones to perform as promised or as well as can be hoped for or imagined. Frustration and disappointment associated with the use of a tool or the performance of a system puts a challenge on the table: Improve the thing! Sometimes, as when a part breaks in two, the focal point for the improvement is obvious. Other times, such as when a complex system runs disappointingly slowly, the way to speed it up may be far from clear. In all cases, However, the beginnings of a solution lay in isolating the cause of the failure and in focusing on how to avoid, obviate, remove, or circumvent it. Inventors, engineers, designers, and common users take up such problems all the time.” (1)

Small things, which typically are mass produced in shockingly large numbers, can be tested by sampling. However, very large things like structures, which are essentially custom or uniquely built, do not present that same opportunity. and, because of their scale, the failure of large structures or machines can be devastating in all sorts of ways, not the least of which is economic. Due to this fear of failure, education in engineering and architecture has traditionally been conservative when it comes to design on the edge. Design culture based on fear of failure is no longer creative enough.

Exploring the interplay between success and failure in design and, in particular, analysing the important role played by education in the way we react to failure in achieving success must be an important step in the way we invent new solutions.

(1) Henry Petroski. Success through Failure: The Paradox of Design. 2006. Princeton University