c o m i n gx i n t ox b e i n g |
part eight b of eight - ending the eighth week |
| We more that survived the first day of a very unusual “test.” Now, we will see if we can do as well or better the second day and then carry on with the task of making a functioning NavCenter. These days are about habits [link: creative habits]. Good ones and not so good ones. Forming new ones and developing the ability to re-new habits that were good in another time and context but will not work any longer. |
| The photo below was taken, early in the morning of the second day, of me on the Garden patio watching the proceedings. There has been eight of these Fridays since this building was essentially a raw space as represented in the masthead, above. At the time of this picture, there were 450 people - participants and KnowledgeWorkers - in this environment all involved in purposeful activity. |
|
...Friday - 19/Jan/ 07
Opening! - Day Two |
| A day can never be copied so we have to recreate [future link] the experience. It is important not to drop our guard and think we understated this complexity or have it under control. Day two is structured the same as yesterday - with the half that went upstairs yesterday - staying down after the plenary, and visa versa for those who were down yesterday, yet it is a completely different animal. |
| The first task ahead for me (I am not involved in the Work products) post-event - after resetting the environment and finishing the installation work in progress - is to determine how this environment is really going to be used. How the final design and build out work is done will be appropriate - or not - based on this Model. We have had a few discussions on this but they have not been conclusive, I designed a NavCenter. I am not certain, however, what the real mix-of-use will turn out to be. If we are going to more events like the last two days, we will have to make significant changes to the architecture, equipment and furniture selections. If the Center is going to be a NavCenter and is going to do MGT processes, predominately, then we can stay on the evolutionary path we are presently on. This has to be determined soon so that there is not waste - and, so that we do not have future attempts to use this space in ways it cannot adequately support and that imposes unnecessarily difficult conditions on the participants. Of the many reasons why I did not want to see this facility launched in this way and at this time, many of the risks I was concerned about were successfully mitigated. We avoided blatant physical disasters and I think, generally, the UniManagement facility has been accepted by this group who are its primary users. It will not be possible to know for some time, but I am fairly certain we barely demonstrated why the environment is designed as it has been and what the real work here is to be. We very well may have placed some powerful memes of the wrong kind into this important community. This is definitely true of the NavCenter and perhaps a little less so for the learning facilities on the 3rd floor. |
 |
A PLACE waits for the second day to begin.It is a solid and expectant kind of waiting. An invitation. I spent the greater part of the day watching from the Garden Patio. How will this place hold the energy and set the frame for the many activities planned? How will it represent the values being discussed? How will it adjust to mood, process, time of day, content and the personalities of those who are working and dialoging in this place?
How will it be the baclgound music to the movie?
Will the message of the environment find its way into the dialog? Architecture is the background music to a script yet it has to be so for many different “movies.” The variety required is great. It cannot cease to be interesting nor be too easily understood - it must, however, be understandable. The variety of the place has to match the variety of those who use it including their thoughts and actions. At the same time it must deliver a clear thematic message. It must hold what is going on. It must render experience.
It must be a sanctity from the world (refuge) and it must be a way of seeing the great world we too often ignore (prospect). |
|
 |
 |
 |
| As I write this, in real time at 15:30, the workshops are finishing up and the room is being set for the final plenary session. There is now a coffee break and a little time outside - it is 20 degrees centigrade! - and the last gather up will be in an hour. At 18:00 it will be over except, of course for the a basic clean up so that tomorrow does not confront us with a mess. There is a KreW diner - we are going to the Fiat museum for our celebration. I think the content of the workshops will be better today - despite a greater number of disruptions and timing glitches - and we will be reporting out both the work done in the NavCenter and that of both days on the 3rd floor. |
Reports, dialog, final thoughts and outside to transportation and off to homes all over Europe - the event is over. Another week is over. A brief informal circle up of our KreW, mutual congratulations, straightening up and off to the Fiat Museum which was a wonderful experience and extraordinarily relevant to the meta-mission of this NavCenter [future link]. |
| So here we talk about the integration of vision, design, engineering and market creation: innovation. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| In 2008, Torino will be the designated European City of Design for the year. This, I think is a happening worthy of a DesignShop® hosted by the NavCenter. As can be seen, Torino knows more than a little about design. It is one thing, however, to use design in the making of an industrial product - it is another to make the shift to a design economy [future link] and to become a sustainable replacement economy [future link]. |
| The highlight of the evening, if you can call it that, is when nine KnowledgeWorkers climbed into a Fiat 500 which was parked in the middle of our dining room. Unfortunately I did not get a picture. I will try and dig one up and post it. I wonder what the record its. Several of the Italian colleagues who were there said that this was their very first car. It is a brilliant piece of engineering in its simplicity. |
...Saturday - 20/Jan/ 07
back to work |
| Back to work! I look forward to this and there is much to do. It will, however, be appropriate to sleep in late. Midmorning we had a circle up to think through the work product requirements, how to set the space and the logistics and work of the next few weeks. Many KnowledgeWorkers are leaving and some are staying to resent the center, plan the next two events and produce the documentation from the first event. Most will be gone by Tuesday. I will be leaving for Davos Monday morning. Mike returned to a daytime schedule to continue the installation work of the NavCenter - there is a long Punch List. The artist Nicola De Maria returned to his work and I thought about the future of this Center and how it can be now brought to life. |
| The NavCenter seemed to be sleeping today in a somewhat self satisfied way. Perhaps dreaming about growing up and taking on the real work of importance in our time and to this place, Torino. I started full of ambition, today, but soon fatigue and the need to step back and think soon overwhelmed a long “to do” list. Other projects need some attention, now, as this one decides what it wants to be. Time is critical yet so is reflection. My trips Davos and Barcelona will facilitate this relaxation. It is a good period for me to see Gaudi’s work for the first time. What a pleasure to see the work of a true Master. I wonder, what did he think about his work and how did he experience the act of doing it? How did he feel about his work as he passed it built on the streets of Barcelona? If we could talk together I would ask him these and many other questions. Did he believe it worth it on that day, with a lifetime of work ahead, when he was stopped short by a street car? What a dialog we could have reaching across time, place and paradigm. His work is yet to be realized as mine is just emerging and far from being fully realized. I wonder how many understand what it will mean to finish his cathedral - I wonder if my work will ever reach full expression. I wonder if Earth can be a-garden-and-a-work-of-art [link: mgt mission] or if we will squander our opportunity by trying to turn everyone and everything into a commodity. |
|
| This is the end of this part of the story and the beginning of the 6-months-to maturity-period. Whatever direction is chosen for this environment and the evolutionary path it follows, the critical patterns will be entrained - for at least one creative cycle - within this time period. For me, after documentation of the last year is complete, one aspect of the work will be completed. I do not know if I will be, personally, fully or partially involved in the development of this environment - or, not involved at all. These things are not yet determined. |
| So, this is an end - the telling of 8 weeks of work - and a beginning:the work of this NavCenter in the years ahead - a commencement. |
| The issue of value, of course, comes to mind. Was this effort worth it? Time, only, will tell. Use, only will tell. This work extracted a tremendous cost to MG Taylor, the ValueWeb and to me, personally. If I had know this cost a year ago I would not have taken on the project. But perhaps this also would have been a mistake. I know of no way, given the circumstances, how this cost could have been mitigated. Yes, I know how the project could have been done better, if it had been facilitated out of a NavCenter and designed and built by our method. This was, of course impossible to do. The “old way” dictated the terms for the making of a new reality. |
| I do know that this is a work of art. I might even be, when time passes, considered to be an important piece. I know that it does effect how people see the world and it can augment their work in ways that few building can approach. It is our most mature built work to date. It encapsulates decades of effort and points to a future yet to be realized. It is a transition work and this is appropriate for its time and place. A part of me will be left in this place. I know this and I am not sure how I feel about this fact. Will this place be kept and evolved? Will it be used in the way that is intended. Or, will it suffer the indignities so common in our times? Torino is a place where architecture is respected and preserved. Will this work we taken in and accepted as an Italian work or seen as an invasion? So many questions and so little, it seems, time left to answer them [link: a future by...]. |
| It could be that these questions are a good sign. They could be the consequence of having gotten close to the core of things. |
|
GoT0: part one of eight - the first week
GoT0: the First Six Months |
click on graphic above to go to a tour of the NavCenter |
|
| GoTo: UniCredit Handwritten Notebook |
|
|
|
Matt Taylor
Torino
January 19, 2007
SolutionBox
voice of this document:
BUILD • TACTICS •
EVALUATION
|
posted:
January 19, 2007
revised:
January 23, 2007
• 20070119.222190.mt • 20070121.878767.mt •
• 20070123.711009.mt •
(note:
this document is about 85% finished)
Copyright© Matt
Taylor 2007
Leonado Images copyright© Leonardo3 2006 |
|
|
