prior Where Is Matt Index Where Is Matt images of Boulder, Colorado - our birthplace 4 Step ReCreation Model - 1984
June 28, 2000 to September 15, 2000 Where: Palo Alto to Cape Canaveral, to Palo Alto to Boulder, Colorado to Palo Alto to Kansas City to Detroit to Palo Alto. At: Palo Alto KnOwhere Store, Space Gateway Support, Palo Alto KnOwhere, AI Boulder Tech Center, the home of Cary Goodman, architect, DTE Learning Zone. Mission: Now things have to brought home. This is a critical period. It is here that prior work come to a head (or not) and very different paths lead out of the decisions that will be made. All of these things have to be brought to a timely and appropriate conclusion. The 4 Step Recreation Model has a special meaning for me. The diagram from my Notebook, above, is an early expression of the concept which was first drawn in 1982. The basic idea of the Model is how does a vision emerge, without compromise and degradation, in a group process. Which aspects are individual, which are group? How does the idea get better through many iterations of work instead of declining in use and power? How is feedback employed without killing the process? These are key aspects to birthing a complex idea. Now, I am at the ending period of a 25 year period of work and at a transition to a new cycle. A critical time. On the scale of a life-time, the Model has some interesting implications. I have been working 44 years. Does it add up to anything? It is time to apply the 4th Step to that question - time to report to the stockholders.
Longitudinal Cross Section This perspective, above, is for an office building outside of Berkeley California. It is a narrow deep lot facing North, North West. Usually, these city lots are built side-to-side, end-to-end. This leave little in the way a sense-of-place or amenity related to the ground - it puts people in a surround of hared surfaces with no views. This design opens up the building so that light can flow through it. It leaves room for some earth to be associated with the building and provides a novel approach to storing cars when they are not in use. Views into landscaping is provided in all directions. The building is designed so that space reconfiguration for tenants can be accomplished without remodeling, while at the same time, providing appropriate Pattern Language values and the look, touch and feel of a built-in-place leasehold improvements. This is, in effect, scaling up to the level of the building shell the same functionality the AI WorkFurniture system has been doing for years.
Syntopical: Ernest Callenback Ecotopia; Jane Jacobs The Nature of Economies; Christopher Alexander Notes On the Synthesis of Form; Howard-Yana Shapiro and John Harrisson Gardening for the Future of the Earth; Kathryn Smith Frank Lloyd Wright - Americas Master Architect; Donald Hoffmann ; Val Brinkerhoff and Dudley Gardner Architecture of the Ancient Ones; Paula Volshy The Grand Ellips; Kenneth H. Cardwell Bernard Maybeck - Artisan, Architect, Artist; Jullie Nocoletta and Bret Morgan The Architecture of the SHAKERS; Charles E. Beveridge and Paul Rocheleau Frederick Law Olmsted - Designing the American Landscape; Peter and Judy Nelson with David Larkin the treehouse book; Randell L. Makinson Greene & Greene - The Passion and the Legacy; Frank Lloyd Wright The Living City; Lawerence Blair Rhythms of Vision; Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson Builders of the Dawn - Community Lifestyles in a Changing World; David Brin Foundations Triumph; Witold Rybczynski City Life - Expectations In a New World; Lawrence Lessig Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace; James Tertius deKay MONITOR - The Story of the Legendary Civil War Ironclad and the Man Whose Invention Changed the Course of History; Leonard Garment - In Search of Deep Throat; Lance Armstrong with Sally Jenkins - Its Not About the Bike - My Journey Back to Life; Images:
A weekend trip to the California Gold Country
Gail and I and taken a number of short weekend drives exploring Northern California. We drove up to Columbia which is an old gold mining city from the Gold Rush Days. The buildings are interesting, nice scale, straight forward construction, very good workmanship and some innovative details. Another weekend we visited San Francisco and saw the VC Morris Shop and attended a play based on the life of Bucky Fuller. On a third trip, we visited Muir Woods and the wine country. The pictures above are from these trips, as well as, bicycle rides in Palo Alto. A great discovery was an 1880s sailing barge still plying the many rivers that run from the Pacific deep into the Northern California interior.
Up in the wine country it was confirmed that parking garages dont have to be ugly - what a concept!.
Armour and Pam are back from the Bahamas with CAMELOT and sent this picture. She will be sailing the Santabell Islands the rest of this year. Schedule a trip if you have time.
CAMELOT sailing the Bahamas, June 2000
Saturday, July 29, Gail, Todd, Jeff, Sheri and I saw R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe at the Lorraine Hansberry Threatre in San Francisco. It was written by D.W. Jacobs and performed by Ron Campbell. A wonderful piece of work that brilliantly captures the essence of Bucky and his work. This is an experience not to be missed. Information can be found at foghouse.com. Marin County Complex by Fllw, 1959
May 22, to June 28, 2000 Where: Palo Alto to Princeton, to Palo Alto to the Bahamas to Palo Alto. At: Palo Alto KnOwhere Store, ETS Campus, Palo Alto KnOwhere, CAMELOT, Palo Alto KnOwhere Store. Mission: A year of strategy development and six months of hard implementation come to a close. Getting ready for a huge avalanche of work. New partners, new customers, new producers in the ValueWeb. All this means, of course, is that the Enterprise has gone through radical change which will lead to it recreating itself in short order. This is emergence. A new NavCenter developmenting on the East Coast - this one with the explicit function of rapid-prototyping thereby creating an engine of creation for their organization. June 10, Gail and I drove up to the wine country to attend the 60th Birthday of Michael Toms, cofounder of New Dimensions. We have not spent time with Michael and Justine, except a brief one hour visit by me in 1982, for nearly 21 years. It was wonderful to see them keeping on with their dream along with the dedicated staff and supporters who have worked beside them all these years. Monday, June 13th, MG Taylors Board meeting was held in Palo Alto, California with new Board Members brought on board. A variety of subjects were covered from the overall financial health of the Enterprise, to License policies and investment strategies. More renovation taking place in the neighborhood following the trend we started in 1997.
The new Starbucks next to the Palo Alto KnOwhere Store
This is an interesting story about Memes and Trade Dress. About a year ago, Starbucks leased the building next door on the corner next to KnOwhere. According to the Palo Alto Weekly, their permit application was turned down by the Palo Alto Building department for not coming up to the standard of the KnOwhere Store. (See: July 2001 update to this story) Starbucks resubmitted and, this week, they are nearing a one year renovation of what was a very ugly building. They used our colors and basic exterior style. This is amusing because they are known for their Brand. It is also, architecturally a good decision. Since we pioneered this section of town, three other renovations have been done but they choose the usual suburban shopping center style on-the-cheep. Starbucks, now, reinforces our look and we reinforce theirs. It is possible that this can start a trend that will become the look of this neighborhood shopping area. The meme is planted. It may be, when you come back in 10 years, that the entire area will be known for this look. The next move in the renovation process is important and may well determine which way this will go. This June 16, I finished 44 years of professional work. These have been interesting years - some good, some bad - but all of a single kind. All have been devoted to pioneering a different way to practice the process of making environments, and, to challenge the environments, themselves, - what they are, how they are made and how they are used. Not always a happy circumstance. Now, the work is becoming accepted. Now, many others inside and out of our ValueWeb are taking this approach and work on - this is a new circumstance. June 17th Gail and I flew to the Bahamas for a 10 day working vacation on CAMELOT. CAMELOT will be returning to the States in early July and will available to ValueWeb members, for sailing out of Fort Meyers, the rest of this year. Our first and last trip to the Bahamas was at this same time in 1995.
Syntopical: Jef Raskin The Humane Interface; Joel De Rosney thesymbioticman - A new understanding of the organization of life and a Vision of the Future; Ken Norwood and Kathleen Smith Rebuilding Community in America - Housing for Ecological Living, Personal Empowerment, and the New Extended Family; Esther M. Sternberg The Balance Within - The science Connecting Health and Emotions; Richard Brodie Virus of the Mind - the New Science of the Meme; Freeman J. Dyson The Sun, The Genome, and The Internet - Tools of Scientific Revolutions; Owen W. Linzmayer Apple Confidential - The Real Story of Apple Computer, Inc.; Henry Petroski Design Paradigms - Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering; Robert D. Putnam Bowling Alone - The Collapse and Revival of American Community; Jim Tolpin The New Cottage Home; John Schaeffer A Place in the Sun - The evolution of the Real Goods Solar Living Center; Richard J. Komp Practical Photovoltaics - Electricity From Soal Cells; David Brin The Transparent Society; Rob Roy Mortgage FREE! - Radical Strategies fo Home Ownership; Images:
Photos Taken taken by Gail of the Bahamas trip
My work time on CAMELOT was focused on IP, Brand management and documenting the financial history of the Enterprise. The Patent is in a major revision process and is being transported to my web site (password protected) so that ValueWeb members (as is necessary) can have ready access to it. CAMELOT is a great place to think. It is her quality and the beauty of the places she visits that makes this so. She has a very strong memory - She holds past and future together. CAMELOT in the Bahamas
Jeff Johnston is taking over the day-today management of iterations. Supporting the annual Foresight gathering was his first piece of work. Jeffs background is in scientific research. He will be looking at long range trends and working with members of our Enterprise regarding our response to these trends. MG Taylor is in its 21st year of full operations. Until 1995, the focus of our effort was to establish the basic idea of our Enterprise and the create the core products and services necessary for demonstrating our fundamental thesis. Over the last five years, we have worked to establish a profitable organization and a Business Model that can go to scale. Now, our attention turns to growth and accomplishing the size necessary to play effectively in the Marketplace we have created. Our Financials, for the first 20 years, tell an interesting story.
CAMELOT completes Her annual haul out April 1, to May 22, 2000 Where: Palo Alto to Kalamazoo to New York to Palo Alto. At: Palo Alto KnOwhere Store, Borgess NavCenter, Ehama Institute, a RDS for the Foresight Institute. Mission: Three DesignShop sessions back-to-back. One to design a strategic partnership for recreating a new expression of innovation/invention environments. Continue the creation of the the four MG Taylor Business Units, their B2B agreements, Boards, Enterprise Teams, stock distribution, capital base. Move to the next (final) phase with the Patent Pending. Experience the Circle of Foxes Ceremony facilitated by the Ehama Institute on their land in the Santa Cruize mountains. This process is based on the old tradition of telling the tribes story over and over until a level of understanding is reached. Two and one-half wonderful and successful days. Perfect timing was as the Enterprise is going through a transformation and many of our members are migrating to new duties and opportunities. The MG Taylor, KnOwhere, AI, iterations, Yolke clan The Ehama process is very sophisticated. I recommend it without reservation. The art and craft they bring to the experience is total - this is a very powerful and caring group. Support the second annual Foresight Institute Group Genius experiment with a Patchworks Design event. The focus of the DesignShop portions of the two and one-half days will be creating strategies, Policies and materials for an update of Engines of Creation. CAMELOT sails to the Bahamas where she will be until early July. ValueWeb members who wish to spend time on her there should make arrangements right away as communications are difficult. If you want to spend time on CAMELOT e-mail me and reach me by cell phone as soon as possible: 650 814 1192
Syntopical: Elizabeth A. T. Smith, editor Blueprints For Modern Living - History and Legacy of the Case Study Houses; David Brin Brightness Reef; Bernd Polster Design Directory Scandinavia; Eric Drexler Engines of Creation. Images: Miko @ KnOwhere, The RDS Shell, me talking about Weak Signal Reasearch A story of 25 years of architecture was delivered at SFIA and posted to my web site - it is almost finished. As part of this, a Manifesto is born and an old architectural idea resurfaces.
MG Taylor and KnOwhere teams met - with some help from Yolke - and completed the KnOwhere/MGT B2B 2000 agreement and License. Members of KnOwhere, MG Taylor and Yolke celebrate KnOwhere will take on many aspects of MG Taylor work freeing MG Taylor to focus more on new IP and IC development. The dialog was vigorous.
Starting my TAM for the next cycle of work.
SolutionBox voice of this document:
Posted: April 8, 2000 Revised: September 15, 2000 Copyright® Matt Taylor 2000 update to Matts Notebook |