so I’ll start by asking you to imagine
the following problem you are about to
pay the bill at a restaurant in a
country you’ve never missed it before
and you have no idea how much you’re
supposed to tip or if you even supposed
to tip what would you do in this
situation if you’re anything like me
you’re probably not going to ask other
customers instead being very tech savvy
you’ll reach out to your phone message a
friend as Google or navigate to a
tipping app if you have one and then
your problem is solved and this is very
much the culture these days if you have
a problem whether it makes sense or not
there’s an app for it or three or a
million now my work has always been
about using technology to solve problems
but it’s not the kind of technology you
interact directly with in a set it’s
much more embedded and non intrusive to
the point that you may not even know
it’s there for an example the iron
blankie is a beautiful piece of
embroidered fabric that could detect
sleep apnea that’s because there is a
network of sensors and controllers
meshed within the design to do that and
you don’t know probably another example
is Internet of months there’s a carpet
of sensors that could gauge and possibly
control the levels of water humidity and
nutrients without you knowing or
intervening but tonight I want to focus
on a very different problem but the
solution could be solved or at least
somewhat addressed with non-intrusive
technology
who here has not heard about forced
displacement this is when people have to
flee their homes because of war or
disaster and they can’t go back most of
you or at least a few of you must have
have must have heard of this number 65
million people
the number of displaced persons globally
it’s huge and it’s increasing now a
number that most of you have never heard
of is 17
the average displacement period is 17
years and because of that many camps are
being increasingly considered as the
cities of tomorrow now in architecture
school so I have a degree in
architecture and a degree in computer
science and now I’m an Information
science an architecture school they
taught me that if you want to have a
city you need architects and urban
planners speaking of architects let me
throw one more number at you three
percent architects contribute to only
three percent of the built environment
and camps are typically not part of that
three percent it’s not because
architects don’t want to help there are
so many architects out there who want to
help but the way force does the
placement works it just there’s very
little room for architects to get
involved that does not mean there is no
construction happening in camps a year
ago I had the privilege of visiting a
few camps in Iraq via canvas metal glass
wood tarp or even concrete and cement
camp occupants are building and
customizing their own shelters piece by
piece by piece over the course of months
or years without architects the problem
is that none of these will withstand or
survive for five years let alone 17 even
the pretty concrete house it doesn’t
have a proper foundation and it’s not
structurally or ecologically sound and
recently the region has been hit by to
earthquakes one other thing that I want
you to consider if a child is born in
camp they may not leave until they’re
adults
remember that 17 number or they may not
leave at all so camp becomes their home
it’s their City of the
don’t have a proper home in that camp in
that city and so my goal is to help
people who suddenly find themselves in a
situation where they’ve lost their home
they have no construction experience
like most people here and they can’t
hire architects but they need proper
shelter because a proper shelter is the
backbone for having a healthy and humane
life one solution we considered is to
give camp occupants a menu of a few
designs that they can choose from and a
manual like an IKEA manual to build the
design that they choose the problem with
this approach is streamlining for
example some families in camps build
typical monolithic concrete structures
others might choose to merge their plots
with relatives and they designate maybe
a couple of rooms for sleeping and
living activities because then they can
have a large yard for the kids and a
store to generate income while others
have the space to spare and they might
have an outdoor terrace these are just
three out of hundreds of examples and
they’re all Syrian refugees who’ve come
from the same region have the same
customs and the same assigned plot but
each family is different so one or a few
modules are not going to address their
diverse needs so our first step towards
a solution is a kit that has
instructions examples templates stencils
a questionnaire that help galvanize the
inner architect in the user along with a
sketching sheet where users can draw
their dream home now you might notice
that this is happening on paper it’s
that ancient medium that some of you may
not even use anymore and that’s
intentional we have our rule do not use
technology unless it’s necessary and do
not use it unless it’s off camp
and that’s because we’re dealing with
scarcity this is where actually many
colleagues and the field look at me as
though I’ve broke some code of honor why
are you not doing this as an app well
this brings me back to my first example
about the tipping app in our context
it’s appropriate but do any of us have
to line up for hours to get a gas
tration that will not last us until the
next scheduled ratio
no so how can we apply the same
problem-solving mindset we can’t and we
shouldn’t
now once the sketching process is over
the sketches are either mailed to us or
an NGO scans them somewhere of camp and
then I trace them manually in a digital
modeling software this process is
intentionally manual but performed in
within a digital realm because it’s hard
to have an algorithm that can detect
some of the design errors yes there are
design errors and I have to go in and
find them and fix them but it’s actually
very efficient to give you an example
the user on the Left through the dining
room exactly the size of the dining
table the user on the right sketch
something that looks more of a mental
map than an actual house and that’s okay
they’re not architects so I go in apply
my chance and expertise and improve
their design sometimes I do more than
one version because I don’t want the
user to be disappointed so in this case
the human is driving the technology and
it’s efficient I can do it in 10 minutes
and it’s robust step 3 is where
technology finally takes the driver’s
seat so once I have the tracing done
it’s fed to an algorithm and the
algorithm does more error checking and
correction as well as extruding the 3d
geometry and this does not require
creativity and if I were to do it myself
it
would take me hours and it’s so boring
so here an algorithm is very appropriate
now in the last step to make sure that
this initial part of the solution is
designed is working we deliver back to
the user instructions on paper and ask
them to build what they designed with
Plato at one 250 scale I have done this
a lot over the past two years and I’m
absolutely blown away by the diversity
of designs it’s something we already
expected but something that we did not
expect is also how different people are
in their perception of geometry so if
you look at the six examples here
all of them have domes but the domes are
very different and I didn’t know that
and this emphasizes even further the
individuality of the users and have and
we have to accommodate for them another
thing that really surprised me was how
fun and engaging the process seems to be
I’ve done this with tens of users some
of them are very tech savvy some of them
are very vocal with their criticism you
know someone told me miss I don’t like
the way your instructions work I’m going
to do my own thing I’m sure do what you
like but none of them complain why is
this happening on paper why is this not
an app and you know what
this is the typical aftermath of a
sketching session can you replicate this
on a small mobile screen you can’t the
collaboration the spreading of the paper
the critiquing this medium works for the
intended context and for the intended
purpose another really cool thing that
is coming out of this is that there is
an inner architect inside each and every
one of us and that’s because we
experience space space stays in our
memory we have dreams of what kind of
space we want so to give you an example
this is a
designed by a thirteen-year-old Syrian
refugee his dream house is actually a
freak lodge of all kinds of things so
either top the two domes are a kitchen
and a bathroom and he designed them such
that they’re attached to the garage and
that’s because in camps some NGOs build
kitchens and bathrooms and they build
them separated next to the tent or the
caravan so in his mind he threw them
designed them as an outhouse on the
right you see that the structure is
symmetrical and it has many rooms that’s
because he envisions sharing this space
with his grandparents his uncle and his
family because that is the kind of
living arrangements they had in Syria
but it also has a unique dream feature
and that is each bedroom has its own
washroom and each washroom has a large
window that is his dream house now maybe
you want to think about your dream house
what I think made this process work for
all kind of different ages and and and
demographic groups because I’ve also
done this in Canada is the playfulness
of the interface it’s not serious
it’s paper its stickers even adults love
using stickers if you make a mistake you
can just erase it
there is no frustrating technology to
learn or fiddle with and I even had
illiterate users engage in it it works
but it but of equal importance is the
role of Technology so what helped also
kind of trigger this or nurture user
creativity knowing that technology has
got their back it’s okay if they made
mistakes because these mistakes will be
caught and corrected and that further
helped unleash their creativity so this
user he was paranoid about doing this he
kept saying I have zero artistic ability
I don’t want to do this and I think you
can agree that his sketch is maybe
geometrically challenged once but once
it was processed
you see that there’s a form of design
philosophy there is symmetry there are
all these modules plugging into a
central space there’s a hierarchy of
spaces and technology helped elevate his
ideas without hijacking them now I’m
going to wrap up with this designers
sometimes tend to impose their own value
sets and these value sets sometimes stem
from backgrounds of privilege and
Western centrist ISM but that cannot
work if we’re trying to use our
expertise to help people in all kinds of
different contexts this is why we had to
go and understand the context we
understand that there is tension between
user creativity and technology there is
also the need for expert intervention
and we have to shuffle them around and
the solution as you saw it’s not a
simple app it’s actually very
complicated it has all these stages and
in some stages technology is completely
removed in other stages ecology is in
the foreground
but that curation is necessary and as we
move forward with this project hopefully
going from the sketchings phase all the
way to a full shelter we have to
maintain that careful curation of
technology we are genuine and committed
to helping those who lose their home and
they are difficult but inspiring
self-help journey thank you very much
[Applause]
you
the following problem you are about to
pay the bill at a restaurant in a
country you’ve never missed it before
and you have no idea how much you’re
supposed to tip or if you even supposed
to tip what would you do in this
situation if you’re anything like me
you’re probably not going to ask other
customers instead being very tech savvy
you’ll reach out to your phone message a
friend as Google or navigate to a
tipping app if you have one and then
your problem is solved and this is very
much the culture these days if you have
a problem whether it makes sense or not
there’s an app for it or three or a
million now my work has always been
about using technology to solve problems
but it’s not the kind of technology you
interact directly with in a set it’s
much more embedded and non intrusive to
the point that you may not even know
it’s there for an example the iron
blankie is a beautiful piece of
embroidered fabric that could detect
sleep apnea that’s because there is a
network of sensors and controllers
meshed within the design to do that and
you don’t know probably another example
is Internet of months there’s a carpet
of sensors that could gauge and possibly
control the levels of water humidity and
nutrients without you knowing or
intervening but tonight I want to focus
on a very different problem but the
solution could be solved or at least
somewhat addressed with non-intrusive
technology
who here has not heard about forced
displacement this is when people have to
flee their homes because of war or
disaster and they can’t go back most of
you or at least a few of you must have
have must have heard of this number 65
million people
the number of displaced persons globally
it’s huge and it’s increasing now a
number that most of you have never heard
of is 17
the average displacement period is 17
years and because of that many camps are
being increasingly considered as the
cities of tomorrow now in architecture
school so I have a degree in
architecture and a degree in computer
science and now I’m an Information
science an architecture school they
taught me that if you want to have a
city you need architects and urban
planners speaking of architects let me
throw one more number at you three
percent architects contribute to only
three percent of the built environment
and camps are typically not part of that
three percent it’s not because
architects don’t want to help there are
so many architects out there who want to
help but the way force does the
placement works it just there’s very
little room for architects to get
involved that does not mean there is no
construction happening in camps a year
ago I had the privilege of visiting a
few camps in Iraq via canvas metal glass
wood tarp or even concrete and cement
camp occupants are building and
customizing their own shelters piece by
piece by piece over the course of months
or years without architects the problem
is that none of these will withstand or
survive for five years let alone 17 even
the pretty concrete house it doesn’t
have a proper foundation and it’s not
structurally or ecologically sound and
recently the region has been hit by to
earthquakes one other thing that I want
you to consider if a child is born in
camp they may not leave until they’re
adults
remember that 17 number or they may not
leave at all so camp becomes their home
it’s their City of the
don’t have a proper home in that camp in
that city and so my goal is to help
people who suddenly find themselves in a
situation where they’ve lost their home
they have no construction experience
like most people here and they can’t
hire architects but they need proper
shelter because a proper shelter is the
backbone for having a healthy and humane
life one solution we considered is to
give camp occupants a menu of a few
designs that they can choose from and a
manual like an IKEA manual to build the
design that they choose the problem with
this approach is streamlining for
example some families in camps build
typical monolithic concrete structures
others might choose to merge their plots
with relatives and they designate maybe
a couple of rooms for sleeping and
living activities because then they can
have a large yard for the kids and a
store to generate income while others
have the space to spare and they might
have an outdoor terrace these are just
three out of hundreds of examples and
they’re all Syrian refugees who’ve come
from the same region have the same
customs and the same assigned plot but
each family is different so one or a few
modules are not going to address their
diverse needs so our first step towards
a solution is a kit that has
instructions examples templates stencils
a questionnaire that help galvanize the
inner architect in the user along with a
sketching sheet where users can draw
their dream home now you might notice
that this is happening on paper it’s
that ancient medium that some of you may
not even use anymore and that’s
intentional we have our rule do not use
technology unless it’s necessary and do
not use it unless it’s off camp
and that’s because we’re dealing with
scarcity this is where actually many
colleagues and the field look at me as
though I’ve broke some code of honor why
are you not doing this as an app well
this brings me back to my first example
about the tipping app in our context
it’s appropriate but do any of us have
to line up for hours to get a gas
tration that will not last us until the
next scheduled ratio
no so how can we apply the same
problem-solving mindset we can’t and we
shouldn’t
now once the sketching process is over
the sketches are either mailed to us or
an NGO scans them somewhere of camp and
then I trace them manually in a digital
modeling software this process is
intentionally manual but performed in
within a digital realm because it’s hard
to have an algorithm that can detect
some of the design errors yes there are
design errors and I have to go in and
find them and fix them but it’s actually
very efficient to give you an example
the user on the Left through the dining
room exactly the size of the dining
table the user on the right sketch
something that looks more of a mental
map than an actual house and that’s okay
they’re not architects so I go in apply
my chance and expertise and improve
their design sometimes I do more than
one version because I don’t want the
user to be disappointed so in this case
the human is driving the technology and
it’s efficient I can do it in 10 minutes
and it’s robust step 3 is where
technology finally takes the driver’s
seat so once I have the tracing done
it’s fed to an algorithm and the
algorithm does more error checking and
correction as well as extruding the 3d
geometry and this does not require
creativity and if I were to do it myself
it
would take me hours and it’s so boring
so here an algorithm is very appropriate
now in the last step to make sure that
this initial part of the solution is
designed is working we deliver back to
the user instructions on paper and ask
them to build what they designed with
Plato at one 250 scale I have done this
a lot over the past two years and I’m
absolutely blown away by the diversity
of designs it’s something we already
expected but something that we did not
expect is also how different people are
in their perception of geometry so if
you look at the six examples here
all of them have domes but the domes are
very different and I didn’t know that
and this emphasizes even further the
individuality of the users and have and
we have to accommodate for them another
thing that really surprised me was how
fun and engaging the process seems to be
I’ve done this with tens of users some
of them are very tech savvy some of them
are very vocal with their criticism you
know someone told me miss I don’t like
the way your instructions work I’m going
to do my own thing I’m sure do what you
like but none of them complain why is
this happening on paper why is this not
an app and you know what
this is the typical aftermath of a
sketching session can you replicate this
on a small mobile screen you can’t the
collaboration the spreading of the paper
the critiquing this medium works for the
intended context and for the intended
purpose another really cool thing that
is coming out of this is that there is
an inner architect inside each and every
one of us and that’s because we
experience space space stays in our
memory we have dreams of what kind of
space we want so to give you an example
this is a
designed by a thirteen-year-old Syrian
refugee his dream house is actually a
freak lodge of all kinds of things so
either top the two domes are a kitchen
and a bathroom and he designed them such
that they’re attached to the garage and
that’s because in camps some NGOs build
kitchens and bathrooms and they build
them separated next to the tent or the
caravan so in his mind he threw them
designed them as an outhouse on the
right you see that the structure is
symmetrical and it has many rooms that’s
because he envisions sharing this space
with his grandparents his uncle and his
family because that is the kind of
living arrangements they had in Syria
but it also has a unique dream feature
and that is each bedroom has its own
washroom and each washroom has a large
window that is his dream house now maybe
you want to think about your dream house
what I think made this process work for
all kind of different ages and and and
demographic groups because I’ve also
done this in Canada is the playfulness
of the interface it’s not serious
it’s paper its stickers even adults love
using stickers if you make a mistake you
can just erase it
there is no frustrating technology to
learn or fiddle with and I even had
illiterate users engage in it it works
but it but of equal importance is the
role of Technology so what helped also
kind of trigger this or nurture user
creativity knowing that technology has
got their back it’s okay if they made
mistakes because these mistakes will be
caught and corrected and that further
helped unleash their creativity so this
user he was paranoid about doing this he
kept saying I have zero artistic ability
I don’t want to do this and I think you
can agree that his sketch is maybe
geometrically challenged once but once
it was processed
you see that there’s a form of design
philosophy there is symmetry there are
all these modules plugging into a
central space there’s a hierarchy of
spaces and technology helped elevate his
ideas without hijacking them now I’m
going to wrap up with this designers
sometimes tend to impose their own value
sets and these value sets sometimes stem
from backgrounds of privilege and
Western centrist ISM but that cannot
work if we’re trying to use our
expertise to help people in all kinds of
different contexts this is why we had to
go and understand the context we
understand that there is tension between
user creativity and technology there is
also the need for expert intervention
and we have to shuffle them around and
the solution as you saw it’s not a
simple app it’s actually very
complicated it has all these stages and
in some stages technology is completely
removed in other stages ecology is in
the foreground
but that curation is necessary and as we
move forward with this project hopefully
going from the sketchings phase all the
way to a full shelter we have to
maintain that careful curation of
technology we are genuine and committed
to helping those who lose their home and
they are difficult but inspiring
self-help journey thank you very much
[Applause]
you
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