How our physical and digital environments change how we behave and even who we are. An examination of how architecture and

1. PLACES MAKE US
Christina Wodtke @cwodtke

2. A LOVELY STORY
the house
shelters
daydreaming,
the house
protects the
dreamer,
the house
allows one
to dream in
peace.”
― Gaston
Bachelard, The
Poetics of Space

3. CLOSE YOUR EYES
REMEMBER YOUR FIRST HOUSE
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER?

4. My first house in Iowa City was scheduled to be torn
down to be replaced by apartments. We lived month to
month, not knowing when we’d move out. I learned that
many of the most precious things in life aren’t forever.
I’ve never loved a house so much.

5. Internet as New Third Place?
“All great societies provide informal meeting
places, like the Forum in ancient Rome or a
contemporary English pub. But since World War
II, America has ceased doing so. The
neighborhood tavern hasn't followed the middle
class out to the suburbs...” -- Ray Oldenburg

6. B=f(P,E)
Behavior is a function of a Person
and his Environment
Lewin’s Equation

7. 205 Structure Follows
Social Spaces
Conflict
No building ever feels right to the
people in it unless the physical
spaces (defined by columns, walls, and
ceilings) are congruent with the social
spaces (defined by activities and
human groups).
Resolution
A first principle of construction; on no
account allow the engineering to
dictate the building's form. Place the
load bearing elements- the columns and
the walls and floors- according to the
social spaces of the building; never
modify the social spaces to conform to
the engineering structure of the building.

8. The wide stairs make room for socialization,
without impeding travel.
This is a natural gathering spot.
Flamingo Hotel in Vegas taken by Erin Malone at the IA Summit

9. A BRIEF HISTORY OF
ARCHITECTURE

10. Cave

12. Hut

14. Stone Age City

16. VITRUVIUS
firmitas, utilitas, venustas : : durability, convenience, beauty

17. Durability
“Durability will be assured when foundations are carried
down to the solid ground and materials wisely and
liberally selected” Vitruvius

18. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel, Japan, survived an earthquake

19. I’m searching for “my
architect, not “movies,
directors, actors”
Technical Earthquakes

20. Social Earthquakes
If people post jobs in
discussion areas, any
user can move them to
job board
If people use
connection
invites to
spam/market,
they can be
reported.

21. Convenience
“When the arrangement of the apartments is
faultless and presents no hindrance to
use, and when each class of building is
assigned to its suitable and appropriate
exposure” Vitruvius
Sound familiar?
We’re talking
usability!

22. Google’s important
and unread makes it
much more convenient
for me to keep up
Medium keeps
core tools close
while I work

23. Is that all there is?

24. “Early in life I had to choose between honest
arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest
arrogance and have seen no occasion to change.”
Frank Lloyd Wright

25. Bilbao did not leak.
I was so proud.

26. I call it the "Then
What?" Okay, you
solved all the problems,
you did all the stuff, you
made nice, you loved
your clients, you loved
the materials, you loved
the city, you're a good
guy, you're a good
person... and then
what?
What do you bring to
it?
See his great TED talk at http://www.ted.com/talks/frank_gehry_asks_then_what.html

27. Beauty (delight)
“when the appearance of the work is pleasing and in good taste,
and when its members are in due proportion according to
correct principles of symmetry.” Vitrvius

28. “Less is more.”
~ Mies

29. SEAGRAM BUILDING (Philip
Johnson did interiors, 1957)
This logical and elegant 38story skyscraper (525' H)
has alternating horizontal
bands of bronze plating
and bronze-tinted glass
and decorative bronze Ibeams which emphasize
its verticality. Placed to
the rear of its site and set
back from Park Avenue, it
incorporates a large plaza
in the front as part of the
design--thus avoiding the
need for set-backs. It
uses granite pillars at the
base and has a two-story
glass-enclosed lobby.
Seagram
Building
New York City
1957
Is this
Beautiful?

30. “Less is a bore.”
~ Venturi

31. Is this
Beautiful?

32. Do we dictate
what is
beautiful by
constraining
user choice?

33. Or support
passionate use
that may not
meet our
aesthetic
standards?

34. Beautiful
Durable
Convenient

35. Lessons from Architects
INNOVATION

36. Space

37. Identity
Social
Space
Activity
Relationships
Distribution (Viral)

38. Humans don’t like empty spaces. Create starter objects – newsfeeds can be good.

39. Site
Site

40. Julia Morgan
First Bay Tradition
• Natural material
from site
• Traditional Craft
• Integrate in
surrounds by Julia Morgan
Asilomar, built
Each building a
in •the dunes of Pacific Grove
unique workall found on-site,
of
with materials
art
seems to have grown out of the
land it inhabits.

41. Site=Context
Facebook- Personal
On the internet, site=context.
Facebook is about being
personal, playful, and selfagrandizingLinkedIN - Professional

42. Site=Context
Linkedin is about being
professional, serious,
representational and
promotional
Facebook- Personal
LinkedIN
It grows out of the- Professional
resume.

43. Servant and Served Spaces
‘I do not like ducts; I do not like pipes. I hate
them really thoroughly, but because I hate
them so thoroughly, I feel they have to be
given their place. If I just hated them and
took no care, I think they would invade the
building and completely destroy it.’
The Notebooks and Drawings of Louis I.
Kahn, 1962

44. Services (settings,
in this case) are
separated from
served)

45. Services
intergraded with
served is easier to
comprehend and
use

46. Centre Pompidou was designed with services
revealed rather than hidden

47. Services (the
statistics usually
only accessed by
employees] are
made visiable

48. Views
Hey, it’s
the Arc de
Triomphe!

49. Views into
people’s
lives

50. Views into the
service before
you sign up

51. Speed
5 mph
25mph
60mph

52. Speed
60mph
25mph
5 mph

53. Movement

57. Structure
“And if you think of Brick, for instance,
and you say to Brick,
"What do you want Brick?"
And Brick says to you
"I like an Arch."
And if you say to Brick
"Look, arches are expensive,
and I can use a concrete lintel over you.
What do you think of that?"
"Brick?"
Brick says:
"... I like an Arch"
It’ s important to honor the material.“ – Louis

58. This is a tall page

62. Flipboard
moves in
a variety
of
directions

65. Even if you use the
“wrong” gesture,
Flipboard reacts correctly.

66. Gehry has been inspired recently by fish. What would a
website be if it was a fish? Sound silly?

67. His masterwork in Bilbao is the result of his chasing fish.
It’s a school of abstract fish.

68. Emotion of spaces
POETICS

69. What do you associate with a nest?
What feelings? What memories?

70. It nests at the end of a tunnel bored by
itself in a bank. There,
six or eight white and translucent eggs are
laid, on fishbones
not on bare clay, on bones thrown up in
pellets by the birds.
On these
rejectamenta
(as they accumulate they form a cupshaped structure) the young are born.
And, as they are fed and grow, this nest of
excrement and decayed fish becomes
a
dripping, fetid mass
Charles Olson uses the kingfisher nest to play
against the sense of security nests give us.

71. The “last homely house” plays with our
feelings of home and loss and preciousness

72. DOES THE INTERNET HAVE A
HEARTLAND?

73. Personality
POETICS FOR PLACES ONLINE
73

74. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT
WHEN YOU THINK OF PAINTING?

75. HereControl, power,poetics of power, of mastery
Poetics: is the precision
75

76. But here are the poetics of sketching: playful,
lose and simple
76
Values:
Lightweight, easy, sketchy, imprecise

77. But the mixer comes from the poetics of
polished and power. It breaks the mood.

78. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHEN
YOU THINK OF WRITING?

79. Word is about power, control, precision
79

80. OmmWriter
Beauty, peace, zen
OmmWriter plays soft chimes, setting a mood
of “the artist’s way”
80

81. Iawriter’s poetics invokes Hemmingway and
Wolfe.
Serious, typewritten, the labor of words
81

82. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHEN
YOU THINK OF SOCIAL?

83. What is twitter?

84. Cocktail party!

85. What is facebook?

86. The parlor, where one “entertains.”

87. What is Linkedin?

88. The Office (Hi Bob!)

89. KNOW YOUR PRINCIPLES
KNOW YOUR MEDIUM
KNOW YOUR POETICS
BE TRUE

90. PLACES MAKE US
MAKE GOOD PLACES
@cwodtke
cwodtke.com
eleganthack.com