Introduction

A Wider Context

"Our present level of design integration across scales resembles the profusion of US railroads in the mid-nineteenth century, each with its own gauge of tracks. The cross-continental traveller must frequently transfer from one train to another, since the gauges were incompatible. Architects, urban planners, industrial designers—design professionals of all stripes—are clinging to their own gauges, their own scales of interest and expertise. Of course, each field does work at a different scale, and does incorporate specialized knowledge, but each must work within a common background of scale-linking processes that cross disciplinary boundaries. The challenge is to create a dialogue that links the insights of designers working at different levels of scale. Without a common gauge, a shared dialogue, we will continue to face the costs associated with rigidly separated disciplines: mutual incomprehension and designs which work at cross-purposes." (Van der Rym and Cowen 1995, 12)

Community participation or activism, and technical design are areas of practice which infrequently overlap, as I discuss below. One sign of that is the fact that this research needed to be completed in an interdisciplinary program. This work fits into a growing set of practices which recognize the need for crossing boundaries and understanding the points of view of different disciplines. Examples of these include environmental architecture, industrial ecology, and social economics. Even the names of the fields signify a commingling of ideas. My intent is for this dissertation to further and deepen that interdisciplinary trend.

Overview | Research Goals | Wider Context | Online Format

Contents | Introduction | Background | Methods | Description | Conclusion | References