The Vanderbilt Center for Better Health is employing an MG Taylor NavCenter to further develop their Rapid Advance Methodology (RAM) and to deliver Infomatics technology to their ValueWeb members in the Health Care Industry. This process is documented elsewhere (password protected). This document captures, in real time, the history of the FasTrack Design-Build-Use process as the NavCenter - which will be called the VCBH Innovation Center - is created and the early use of the environment as it is brought into full use.

The “box” in which the NavCenter is being placed will, in this first phase, have minimal work done to it. Painting, cleaning and re-stretching the carpet and upgrading of the hung ceiling tile over the main large group process area (Radiant Room) is the extent of it. Two reasons drove this decision: first, the aggressive schedule of getting the facility ready for first-use in less than 30 days after the “go” decision. And, the desire to evolve the permanent work-habitat based on the experience of real use - not a guess of what “should be.” It is thought that experience may bring significant changes to the expected scale and scope of the project. Yet, initially just installing a RDS level facility for the first phase was not considered adequate. The key to finding the happy-medium between a completely built-out architectural space and a totally portable one was the creation of an entirely new level of Armature. This required the rapid-Prototyping, from a first sketch of an entirely new system of architectural-scale furniture and successfully installing the first iteration of the product in less than three weeks. Part of the functionality of the furniture system had to be the ability to work well and look “done” upon opening, yet, be able to evolve through iterations of migration from a mostly “portable” to a mostly “permanent” installation.

A fitting symbol given the VCBH mission.

This rapid-Prototyping, FasTracking, iterative approach to developing a workspace makes a great deal of sense in today’s business environment. The AI Foundation II series WorkFurniture system is the only one, that I am aware of, that provides this flexibility while maintaining the capability and look of ‘being done” at each step along the way.

There are a number of old AI - and some new ones - that have been newly reinvented and redone in order to meet this specific challenge. The Tracery aspect of the Armature was brought to an entirely new scale and level of development. In this case the design employed in the Cambridge project in 1998 was restated and made considerable lighter and more adaptable. The Octopus received it’s first full reworking since it was first designed in 1996. The Cube-Pod (a first development from 1990 and 1995 designs) is built for the first time. The ceiling docking power poles were recreated using the Gatling post that was developed for glazing in our Cube Office System in 1999. Several new docking components and rolling bases were refined to create a new level of dock-ability and a refined trade-dress.

The Start

The VCBH ValueWeb dialog begins...

Prospect and refuge combine to form a creative PLACE. Elements mostly lacking in the so-called modern workplace.

Spaces should have continuity, yes; They should be flexible and able to multitask, yes; AND, each niche must support, indicate and reflect the kind of work that is to take place within it. It must, to be effective, provide the appropriate tooling and ambiance for that work. It has to be specific - not generic. Those who work here will remember their experience and work in context of place - The architecture you see here goes beyond utility. It it not, however, decoration. It is ART and as such has a practical role in the workplace. Everything SPEAKS and NavCenters are one of the few places where this is recognized and used an an active principle of the design and the management of the environment - and the work that takes place within it.

The VCBH Innovation Center (NavCenter) has several major functions that require a unique setting: research, knowledge-management and archiving, collaborative design, project management, venture management and promotion, rapid-prototyping, education delivery and learning, multimedia production to name some. These functions require that large group, teamwork and individual work can be done discretely (and in parallel in various parts of the Center) and with everyone being able to shift mode at a moments requirement. In addition, technology has to seamlessly support all of these work-modes and employ the 10 Step Process making the entire environment a knowledge-factory.

The following photos, of the installation process, show how quickly and easily the system goes in and the transforming effect that it has on an otherwise prosaic space. A box of no particular distinction has been made to fit a specific function by the employment of modular furniture with a dash of local adaptation. We use wood because of its many qualities: strength, flexibility, durability, warmth, reparability. It also allows us a “lean” mix between manufacturing and custom response in a way that is both sustainable and affordable.

The AI Shop went from final design to complete installation of this phase of the project in about 10 days. The same workers who did the manufacturing did the installation. Immediate feedback without need for management intervention. The Shop is also deeply involved in the design process and develops final CAD drawings for all products. In total, idea to design to engineering to building and installing is a seamless process. And a fun one.

Once a grammar for a project has been determined, there then exists a reservoir of “patterns” that can be applied to localized design and “fitness” problems. This informs and delimits the design decisions that are made along the way from inception to completion. This simplifies the design process greatly. Unique and well integrated environments are conceived and built in less time than most organizations can do the design and engineering. This design “smarts” is embedded in the entire organization and every person in it. Besides providing organizational efficiency this way of working makes “job enhancement.” It is just more fun to work where thinking is required and you can make what you think about become real in concrete FORM.

This way of working and the FasTracking, design-build rapid-Prototyping process is the process that the NavCenters are created to facilitate in the broader reread of the user’s work. The fact that they are built by the same process they promote is not lost on the subsequent users. It is a proof of concept thing. Would you ask an organization to bet their future on a process that failed to work when building the environment in which the work was to be done?

The final install of various sections of the layout started the weekends of July 27th and August 3rd. The final work will be completed August 10 in anticipation of the VCBH Open House on August 12th. In total, this work includes the installation of the Octopus Workstation in the KnowledgeWorker Area, the Star Wall for the Research Team areas, The rolling/folding Anaconda Wall, Rolling Book Case/Workstation Units and integrated 12 volt lighting fixtures.

Since the June 6th opening day, The VCBH Innovation Center has been setting up systems, holding Discovery and Sponsor Sessions and training. The first full up use of total Center capability will be in September when two DesignShops will be done - one for an internal Vanderbilt project and one for an external Vanderbilt client. Two back-to-back DesignShops make a robust test of any environment and its support systems. The VCBH will have gone from an idea to a fully capable system in four months. The first cycle (by no means the last) of Design/Build/Use will be complete.

The complete transfer process of the Taylor methods and the integration - and reinvention - of these methods into the VCBC RAM system of work will take about a year from this point forward. This transfer is accomplished by a combined team of VCBH and MGT KnowledgeWorkers learning and working together. Robust capability exists from the beginning. This starting capability is transformed through experience and use. It migrates from the general (the sum of all past experiences) to the specific (what is required for full efficacy at this installation). Over the year, the MG Taylor KreW shrinks and the VCBH KreW grows. NavCenters are created first by cloning and then matured by transformation. The process of making a NavCenter is the installing of a dynamic OS that then recreates itself. It should be clear, then, why this has to be done quickly.

This lighting is the result of a collaboration between PipeDreams and the MG Taylor AI production Krew. It builds off the earlier work done on the Joseki project. We have wanted - for years - to more fully integrate lighting with our WorkFurniture and Armature systems. Joseki, Vanderbilt and the SDC projects are our first major inroads to this ambition. The PipeDreams idea is to engineer a basic infrastructure (out of common off-the-shelf components and copper water piping that anyone can install) and to encourage the design of a wide variety of hand-crafted fixtures that have artistic as well as architectural character. All this promises a far better product at a fraction of the price now provided by the lighting industry which tends to be expensive, unimaginative and narrow in the range of their solution sets.

The 12 volt lighting system installation was mostly completed By the 10th of August AI work session. A few refinements are to follow. The lights make the Armature System seem “tree-like” and combine ornament and utility making a semitransparent layer between ceiling and human-occupied space. This enhances the sense of shelter of the space and obscures the more mundane aspects of the preexisting ceiling “system.” It will be possible, now that these lights are installed, to re-switch the existing ceiling lighting so that these lights can be on full, on 75%, on 50% or off. This will provide variable lighting levels suitable for different activities and moods at different areas of the space at different times. The existing fluorescent bulbs will also be changed out to full spectrum tubes over time. This, with the 12 volt lighting and a greater reliance on natural window lighting, greatly modifies the light signature of the space. Modern workplaces are usually over lit and fail to differentiate between ambient, general, task, highlight and effect lighting. This oversight typically creates a washed-out space that offer little variety and visual relief. Both prospect and refuge are sacrificed.

The VCBH had its open house and reception on the evening of August 12th. This was the first opportunity for the wider Vanderbilt community to see the space.

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In September, The VCBC Innovations Center did two back-to-back DesignShop events. This was the first full scale test of the facility as a system.

The VCBH Design/Build/Use process demonstrates that several methods and approaches often thought to be inimical can in fact be integrated into an iterative and seamless way of building.

Christopher Alexander has pointed out the architecture is often better accomplished when buildings evolve slowly over time. I agree with this. Steward Brand wrote the seminal book on the subject How Buildings Learn. In seemingly juxtaposition to these viewpoints is the reality that modern finance and business demands requires very rapid and complete building processes. This approach has been responsible for a great deal of the environmental atrocities now spread around the planet. My contention, however, is that this is the result of a misuse of rapid design-build methods and is not the inevitable result of the technique. I have been employing extreme time compression in building for years without sacrifice to design or sensibility.

The resolution of this is in the integration of the approaches and by imposing a rigorous iterative Design/Build/Use process and by employing a true ValueWeb in high frequency collaboration.

We did evolve the design - and changed it - throughout this project. The environment will continue to develop for some time to come. It takes a year of extensive use of an environment of this kind to even learn its many possibilities. Each insight will suggest changes and additions that further augment the environment. Many contributed to the design and its execution. Their contribution comes from their own unique perspective, the actual work they do - and how they do it. All aspects of USE feedback to the ongoing development of the work.

A flexible approach to building flexible environments requires a great deal more disciple than conventional methods. Conventional methods are control focused and seek to limit variety. This is why they are so often dull and prosaic. To achieve an organic response means to increase variety; it means to release control. It requires the discipline of systematic EMERGENCE.