This Site as Public Forum

May 6, 2015

This Site21 Comments

This site is intended to facilitate an exchange among those of us who want to cultivate attractive and healthy everyday environments. To be successful we need new knowledge and new skills. These have to do with the issues mentioned in the  home page:  Change over time;  Distribution of design tasks and relations with other designers – those who acted before us, those we share a site with , and those who will act after us;  Sharing values with those who we relate to.

These issues are not generally discussed, or studied, or taught in schools. The site seeks to serve those who do so nevertheless, and offers a forum for an international exchange.

To this end the site shows work in practice as well as academic studies that demonstrate the application of the skills mentioned above.  The “Open Building ” network which connects practitioners, academics and students in  many countries across the globe fits under the Thematic Design umbrella but many others, concerned in the  quality of everyday built environment, its ecology and sustainability over time do so as well.

Because those who seek new ways of professional intervention  are scattered across the globe, they may appreciate the possibility to see what is done elsewhere, and to show their own work.

By the very nature of the site’s purpose it will remain a selective event. It demands a longer attention span and will bring together those who seriously seek alternative ways of working.

I intend to continue to bring into this site work from people whom I know of who already have contributed in various ways to its purpose.  Your suggestions about people who did so will be much appreciated and, most of all, I hope you will not hesitate the contribute work yourself.

The site does not want any one to ‘sell’ anything but invites you to share with others what you try to do, what you seek to find, what you have learned by trying and what questions you want to raise.

The ‘This Site’ category under which this  message appears has been created with the intention to stimulate user involvement in the site’s development over time.What we have now is the  result of a severely limited budget and, while use may eventually stimulate funding in the future, it will be a shoestring operation for some time, but I hope to see the site go by the energy and care of its users, no longer needing my involvement. Let me have your thoughts about this.