Design Research Studio
Aug 28:
I thought today’s lecture on service and transitional design was a good start to the year. The “T” diagram made me think about the different levels of design ranging from the technical sides to the higher thinking parts like transition design. I struggle grasping the idea of transition design and what it encompasses. It’s nice that we are in a position to learn about all levels of design because ultimately this will make us a more well rounded designer. It also makes it harder to explain to people what type of design I focus on. Am I a graphic designer, service designer, ux designer, all of the above?
I found BP’s solution to the oil spill to be very embarrassing. A company of that scale implementing temporary solutions to a huge issue seems criminal to me. Especially since the “solution” made the problem much worse. It makes you wonder how many big companies are out there with flawed design mindsets.
Waiting and observing is something I did not do as much in previous projects. I think it will be interesting working on problems that involve this process. Something valuable is understanding how the design intervention lives in the environment and how it affects those around it. I find observing to be a valuable skill when discovering new reframes.
Thoughts/ Where I’m at:
My internship this summer taught me a lot about myself and my work ethic. I’ve always set a high standard for myself but failed to achieve those standards because of laziness. Working overtime almost everyday over the summer has made me more tolerable to long work hours which will benefit me this year. I learned to speak up more and be more comfortable with presenting in front of others. I also gained more experience working with tough personalities, a weakness I’ve had in the past. Looking back at these past three years, I realized I could’ve done more. I should’ve done more. But I’m happy where I’m at now and I still have one more year to prove to myself that I can do the work and not take shortcuts. I’m looking forward to this year and the classes I’ve chosen. Transition and service design scare me still because of the complexity and depth it brings, but I’m ready to tackle these challenges and become a more well-rounded designer!
For more about my internship: https://medium.com/@kgao1996/kevin-wunderman-ny-3d84ddcfe2c5
Meadows Reading:
Notes:
- inflows > state of the system > outflows
- adjusting the state until the goal and the perceived state is zero
- setting parameters to limit the outcome of a certain variable
“Probably 90 — no 95 — no 99 percent of our attention goes to parameters, but there’s not a lot of leverage in them.”
- big buffers cause a lot of build up (Think water in a dam)
- “just-in-time” inventory (not too much surplus, won’t run out too fast)
“Physical structure is crucial in a system, but rarely a leverage point, because changing it is rarely simple.”
- delayed information will cause you to undershoot or overshoot
- negative feedback loops may not be visible sometimes, but are critical to the long-term welfare of a system
- shared mindsets are the core of system, shared social agreements
- our shared beliefs cause us to strive towards a common goal (ex: egyptian pyramids = afterlife, skyscrapers = save real estate)
- ability to transcend paradigms: detaching yourself from the norm, frmo the shared beliefs
“It is in this space of mastery over paradigms that people throw off addictions, live in constant joy, bring down empires, found religions, get locked up or “disappeared” or shot, and have impacts that last for millennia.”
Quick Thoughts: Mastery over paradigms seems like a super power to me. Social norms and culture are instilled into each person from the start of their education. There’s no way to avoid absorbing the knowledge and actions of others around you. I don’t know how someone could detach themselves from these expected beliefs and have the power to push everything aside. I’m still a little confused on how this is a leverage point, or how this intervenes in a system. Are individuals who transcend paradigms a tool to intervene in an existing system? Is it saying that one person or a small group could shift the culture and beliefs of a collective? I’d like to come back to this with more clarity.
Aug 30
I was unaware about some of the problems Pittsburgh faces that we learned today. Although some were obvious to me (air quality, clean water, gentrification), other issues like affordable housing and public education were not on my radar. Our group is focusing on “Access to affordable housing.” It’s not as obvious to me as to what this problem entails since I believed that Pittsburgh offered one of the more affordable living situations across the nation. However, I can see how gentrified areas can be turning into more wealthy areas causing members of the old community to struggle in the search for housing. Some other issues that other groups received can be connected to the issue of affordable housing. Something that drives prices is the community around the area and the quality of transportation provided. Grocery stores and resources also play a factor into the price. I’m also curious about the price of housing being affected by market downfalls and other external factors that are unique to Pittsburgh. The quiz game we played in class gave me some insight into the change of median income in Pittsburgh and the fluctuations of house prices and rent.
Ojai Reading:
It seems like something that is brought up a lot is sustainable living. Whether it be the drought in California or another wicked problem, developing a system that tackles the wicked issues leads to a system that sets up the foundation for future generations. The solution to the drought shouldn’t be something that lasts a year or two, but rather change the way the system works and help build newer solutions for future problems. It reminds me of the BP example again of how they applied a temporary solution to the oil spill rather than finding something that would allow that situation to fix itself and benefit the community in future years. I’m very interested in efficient consumption and the idea of sharing resources. I think our society now is shifting towards that ideal with the introduction of Uber, Airbnb, and other crowd sharing resources. These services take advantage of what already exists and isn’t being used to be offered to those that need it. In terms of value, these services provide the most value for the amount of resources needed to accomplish the task. Although there are holes in these designs, I believe that the future of sustainability will utilize crowd sourcing, sharing resources on a massive scale, and efficient consumption and distribution. Looking at the examples of lifestyle-based narratives shows what an ideal society of sustainability looks like. I can’t imagine a world where all cars are shared or where cars are only used if it’s carpool. People love their own stuff. They love having their material possessions and having it be personalized and individualized. Cars have 5 seats, and 90% of the time 4 of those 5 seats are not occupied. Think about all the wasted space and energy that isn’t used each day. There has got to be a way to utilize these existing spaces and create a system where all the potential and value is being used. I think there’s a huge opportunity for business here. (UberPool)
Looking at these future scenarios reminds me of our futures class and the idea of a utopian future. When I envision the future, I see technology and AI being a key factor in making our society more sustainable or the opposite.
Transition Design is a new area of design study, research and practice aimed at seeding and catalyzing systems-level, societal change (transition). Launched at the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University in 2014, Transition Design has quickly been taken up by educators and researchers from a number of disciplines worldwide.
So transition design is still a hazy subject to me. I am very interested in this high level thinking of design that resides on the top of the “T” diagram. Sometimes I find it difficult to put my head in this space of transition design or even service design. It’s thinking about these huge wicked problems that are already defined as “nearly impossible.” I’m excited to learn more about transition design this semester and also cautious so I don’t lose myself.
Access to Affordable Housing
Research
Understanding the history of Pittsburgh and the formation of each neighborhood will guide the solution to affordable housing.
Notes from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh
In 2015, Pittsburgh was listed among the “eleven most livable cities in the world”;[16] The Economist’s Global Liveability Ranking placed Pittsburgh as the first- or second-most livable city in the United States in 2005, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014.[17] The region is a hub for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, sustainable energy, and energy extraction.[18]
- Downtown are called the “Golden Triangle”
- Areas around downtown: North Side, South Side (South Hills), East End, West End
North Side
- Many areas in transition
- Was known as “Allegheny City”, operated independently to Pittsburgh
- Residential neighborhoods and unique architecture
- Home to Heinz Field, PNC Park, National Aviary, etc
From what I know so far, the North Side seems to be a fairly well off area with many attractions that are pretty popular and a community that appreciates the arts.
The neighborhoods that make up the North Side of Pittsburgh include: Allegheny Center, Allegheny West, Brighton Heights, California-Kirkbride, Central Northside, Chateau, East Allegheny, Fineview, Manchester, Marshall-Shadeland, North Shore, Northview Heights, Perry North, Perry South, Spring Garden, Spring Hill–City View, Summer Hill, and Troy Hill.
Based on zillow:
Pittsburgh PA Home Prices & Home Values | Zillow
Pittsburgh Home Prices and Home Values
www.zillow.com
The median home value in the North Side is around $166,600 compared to the average home value in Pittsburgh which is $124,100.
The image above shows that Pittsburgh as a whole is in an upward trend for home value. The largest increase is from 2014–2017, and the future forecast shows a steady increase.
South Side
- Was once the site of the Pennsylvania Railroad
- Used to be inexpensive housing for mill and railroad workers
- The value of homes in South Side has increased 10% annually in the last 10 years
- Divided into South Side Flats and South Side Hills
East End
- Universities in this area
- Wealthy neighborhoods
West End
- Includes Mt. Washington
- Downtown skyline and residential neighborhoods
This was a general overview of the four sects branching from downtown. Let’s take a deeper look into a few key neighborhoods that reflect the overall housing situation in Pittsburgh.
Central Business District (a.k.a Downtown Pittsburgh)
- 10 bridges connected to downtown
- Home of many big businesses and where many big moguls made their money (Andrew Carnegie)
Downtown Pittsburgh retains substantial economic influence, ranking at 25th in the nation for jobs within the urban core and 6th in job density.[7]
- Over 5,000 apartment and condo units
The home value for a house in downtown Pittsburgh is around ~$220,000. Looking at the data, the biggest spike in value occurred between the summer of 2015 and 2016. This area of Pittsburgh has a lot of business and transportation going in and out which causes the value to be the highest in Pittsburgh.
Southside Flats
- Located south of the Monongahela River
- One of the cities largest conservation of 19th century homes
- Many bars, restaurants, and residencies
- The Southside Works brought in many large retailers
- 2000 census: 95.2% white
- Population decreasing
Southside Flats roam around the $200,000 range for house value which makes it one of the most expensive places to live, similar to downtown.
Beltzhoover
Just south of the Southside Flats lies Beltzhoover. It’s located in an area known as the South Hills.
The neighborhood is currently the subject of a revitalization effort by several local organizations, such as the Beltzhoover Concerned Citizens Development Corporation, the Hilltop Housing Initiative, and the Urban Redevelopment Authority.[3]
Beltzhoover is neighbored by Knoxville and Beechville, two other areas that are considered struggling. There is very little going on in these areas and commercial stores are nowhere to be seen. Crime rates are higher and education is not as good.
East Liberty
East Liberty is now a very gentrified area due to commercial businesses opening up around that area and young professionals moving into the real estate. The demolishing of homes to build up large stores like Target and Whole Foods drove many of the residents out of East Liberty into other surrounding communities. In the mid 1960s, East Liberty turned from an urban marketplace into an urban ghetto. Demolishing of the Hill district caused many African-Americans in that area to migrate to East Liberty. These areas where they would live became big centers of crime.
In the span of just a few years during the mid-1960s, East Liberty became a blighted neighborhood. There were some 575 businesses in East Liberty in 1959 but only 292 in 1970 and just 98 in 1979.
Now the reverse has happened. East Liberty is making a comeback in the value of homes as shown in the market overview. Prices of houses will skyrocket in these next few years because of gentrification and the opening of new big businesses that attract young working professionals.
Analysis
There are a number of factors that affect the affordability of an area and how the area changes due to newer systems. Gentrification causes an area to push out existing residents of that community to other locales neighboring them. This creates conflict with long time residents because their home isn’t considered a safe place to live. They don’t have control in the land they are living on. Increased crime rate is a result of this, making the new area they live in more crime driven, causing housing prices to go down. The gentrified area’s housing value goes up, with more affluent individuals moving in and bigger commercial businesses opening up. Also those that are affected by gentrification are given temporary housing, something that is supposed to get people back on their feet and into new homes. But they don’t have the money or time to do these things.
Sep 3: First group meeting
Our grouped shared some of our initial thoughts and started grouping our questions onto a Mural board.
Researched continued
Guidelines and Definitions:
How do people define affordability?
Are we following a certain guideline to determine what is affordable or not?
Housing Affordability Index:
“The Housing Affordability Index measures whether or not a typical family earns enough income to qualify for a mortgage loan on a typical home at the national and regional levels based on the most recent price and income data.”
Pittsburgh being one of the most affordable areas to live in:
- Median household income: ~$50,000 vs national: ~$50,000
- Median home price: ~$137,000 vs national: ~$200,000
However this is talking about the median, the average of the population in Pittsburgh. It’s commonly known that the affordable housing issues apply mostly to those who live well beneath median means of living and can’t afford anything close to the median home price, even if it’s the 4th best in the nation.
—
Black Homes Matter: The Fate of Affordable Housing in Pittsburgh
- Affordable housing is still an issue for low-income people
- Reagan-era shut down funding for public housing
“Pittsburgh has been designated the “most livable city” in the US several times in the past decade. It gets points for its parks and rivers, excellent universities and hospitals, low crime rate, strong family-centered neighborhoods, expanding high-tech economy, and fine dining. Of course, The Economist and Forbes magazine do not consider how the city’s livability is distributed unequally across lines of race and class. The facts that we have among the steepest bus fares in the nation, the lowest minimum wages, and high infant mortality among African Americans do not figure in rankings designed to attract tourists and new businesses to the city.”
- Pittsburgh’s rankings on the affordable housing list do not reflect the whole story
- “City’s livability is distributed unequally across lines of race and class”
- Pittsburgh’s high tech reinvention of itself after the decline of steel and other industries, attracting young professionals and driving the existing population out of the area
- Businesses destroying old mom and pop shops
- New businesses don’t employ the local community
- Pittsburgh median income for African-Americans: ~$21,000
- Metro system inaccessible to minority workers
- Those kicked out due to gentrification can’t find affordable housing near their jobs
- Instead, they settle for something they can afford but these places don’t have the adequate services and transportation needs that help them do their job and maintain a salary
- They also lose their community as they are forced out of their environment
- Seems inhumane in a way, reminds me of slavery? (People being forced to go somewhere foreign and work for no pay, vs local residents who are forced to move out and work in unpleasant circumstances with the same little pay)
- Deep injustice for people who live there
- The gentrification and revival helps those who make a well amount of money
- Those who are local cannot share the same renewal and do not feel at home
“Along with its “most livable” designation, Pittsburgh is also credited these days for its progressive city administration. Mayor Bill Peduto, in office since 2014, is listed alongside New York’s Bill De Blasio as a leader willing to tackle structural inequality in his city. Bakery Square and the East Liberty TOD were initiated before Peduto’s term, and he has recently set up an Affordable Housing Task Force. A test case will come with the development of the “28 acres,” a vast parking lot between downtown and the largely black Hill District. This was the site in the 1960s of one of Pittsburgh’s most brutal acts of “urban renewal” — or “negro removal” as activists call it. 8,000 people were displaced and their homes and businesses razed to make way for an arena and parking for the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team. The arena has been demolished and the Penguins have relocated, but they still own the land and they refuse to include more than 12% of affordable housing on the site. With “affordable” defined as 80% of the market rate, even those few homes will be out of reach for descendants of the families that used to live in what was a thriving community.”
“It doesn’t have to be this way. On Pittsburgh’s North Side we have a counter-example: a strong tenant council prevented the eviction of more than 300 low-income families from Section 8 housing slated for redevelopment. Working with the URA and other agencies, Northside Coalition for Fair Housing acquired properties and used a “rehab for resale” strategy to keep people in their homes. “The result has been higher-quality housing, safer and more attractive neighborhoods, and increased tenant incomes,” according to the Pittsburgh Fair Development Action Group, which produced Black Homes Matter. The group advocates a range of strategies to resist displacement and support resident control in neighborhoods threatened by gentrification: inclusionary zoning, community land trusts, rent stabilization, tenant ownership schemes.”
Sep 6:
These wicked problems like affordable housing, clean air, crime, etc… are all in a way unsolvable. We have been asking questions that limit the scope in which we research but also have to stray away from thinking about solutions first. In class today, we broke down some of the main components we associate with affordable housing in Pittsburgh and diagrammed a web that connected other minor points to the major. Stacie also helped us shift our focus so we would divide our research into different parts, splitting up the work.
Speaking of the issues, historical residue/ tradition is something that is really key to affordable housing. The history of the land and how Pittsburgh was formed into different neighborhoods shows the background and the culture of the area. This explains a lot of how different areas develop into either wealthy or poor spots of living and can further give insight on why housing is so hard for some and easy for others. Another big issue is education. Being educated about where to find affordable housing, what’s the best option to go with. And also growing up with good education. If someone is brought up in a poor area with poor education, he/she is more likely to grow up not knowing as much in general and making poorer decisions, therefore causing this person to live a lower quality of life and having more issues with housing and affording anything.
Also, looking at other groups and the way they organized their initial research, I noticed there were different methods and ways post-its were used. In class we talked about these points.
- Some of the post-its have vague descriptions that may not be clear to those who are not working on that subject
- Different methods of research led to different ways of showing the research
- Some did categories first and then filled in questions underneath the categories
- Some did the research first and based on that created categories
- One of the post-its connects the designer to the problem which is really important, being self-aware about yourself and how you relate to the problem and who’s involved
- Timeline a good indicator of the scale of the problem and certain important events
- Does time play a role?
- We all organized the post-its without being asked to
- I guess it helps organize our thoughts and make things easier to understand
- One group organized the categories in a venn diagram
- Some post-its lean towards a certain subject (political, economical) or lie in the middle of 2 subjects being both political or economical
- color of post-its differentiating hierarchy of information
- post-it with main questions that give you enough to answer instead of making you generate more questions about that post-it
- is the question so big that it is encompassing everything?
- is it so specific that it isn’t going to apply to anything else?
Environmental issues:
10 environmental issues with affordable housing
- long commute because of houses being unaffordable near common jobs/ more carbon emissions
- reasonable rent and reasonable commute inversely related
- developments near transits lack affordable housing
- Rising housing prices give less incentive for house owners to save energy and keep homes energy efficient
- Heavy industry destruction (steel mills) = lower air and water quality
- Pittsburgh’s rivers suffer from the demolition
- Tearing down old homes/ remodeling produces toxic waste
- Destruction of natural habitats because of new constructions (Pittsburgh is always in construction
- Pennsylvania forests are victims of acid rain
- difficulty finding jobs/ lack of job diversity = no salary/ salary too low to maintain housing
- low paying jobs/ tough transportation/moving houses often/ not energy efficient
Sep 11:
Design Research Studio Notes:
Worldview, stakeholder beliefs, assumptions, and expectations
- Starting to form connections between wicked problems
- Some of the post-its notes could be an angle for intervention
- Some may be more effective to tackle than others
- The post-it map becomes a living record of our team’s understanding of this wicket problem over time
- Some wicked problems may take generations to solve
- Can we tackle a problem in a small scale to represent our understanding of the problem
- “Donella Meadows’ most powerful leverage point for change: The mindset or paradigm out of which the system arises.”
- Worldview — Shared idea in the minds of society. Everyone knows them, unstated assumptions.
- Every designed thing arises out of a belief system
- Worldviews are created individually and collectively
- Ex: Collective of different people brought together for their collective concern for the state of the planet.
It doesn’t matter if you are Christian or Muslim, or if you hate cooking and someone else loves cooking. Or you don’t eat meat and the guy next to you only eats meat. A shared worldview lives above all the differences and puts everyone on the same page, sharing the same goal.
Legend has it that the native Patagonians were unable to see Magellan’s ship anchored off their coast because their worldview did not encompass the concept of transatlantic travel.
They could not perceive what they could not conceive…
- Looking back, smoking is so horrendous. But it was seen as ok with even the most beloved figures smoking.
- Changing attitudes over time
- If groups have opposing belief systems or cultural norms, it is difficult to find solutions
- Example of conflicting views: Government should provide for citizen’s basic needs vs The government should stay out of it: less taxes
- Small problems could be related to larger problems affecting a higher level of scale
- These small problems and consequences could be considered as symptoms to the larger issue
- How far can we go before we can’t think of a larger problem?
- The root of the wicked problem is the greatest leverage point for change
- Ex: Increase in tuition > Rising costs of higher education > Lack of value placed on education
(Insert image of Comcast example here)
Going into a company as a junior designer may have limitations on what we can suggest. But, understanding the higher level problems while working on smaller level problems could influence the solution of that issue. That different mindset where we think upstream will be the difference from a temporary solution and a solution that could lead to another breakpoint.
Transition Design = Formal design skills + understanding of systems + empathy and ability to dance + ethos: people and planet
“Ability to dance” — Being self-aware and understanding when to step in, when to talk and when to listen. Ability to come to every conversation willing to change your mind. (Dancing with uncertainty)
Stakeholders: Living and non-living members of the ecosystem. These stakeholders must have advocates to represent them in the process.
- Working with stakeholder relations call for new mindsets and postures: empathy, patience, optimism, humor
- Opposition/ Conflict and Affinity/ Alignment within the stakeholders
- “My fondest hope might be your worst fear”
- Resolve the conflicts and leverage the alignments
Mapping out conflicting stakeholders are a good way to understand where to begin. (insert stakeholder triangle here)
This helps us direct where we aim the research.
Transition design = identifying barriers and conflicts, looking for areas of common concern
Sep 13:
We mapped out three important stakeholders in a triangle diagram and drew connections between them based on conflicts/ interests. This allows us to understand our stakeholders better and what their wants and needs are. From this exercise, we had interesting conversations on connections, interests, and conflicts between these stakeholders.
Sep 18:
We looked at the personas of each stakeholder within affordable housing and acted it out in class. It was very helpful looking at the perspectives of each stakeholder and how they would argue and react to each other’s points.
Haewon and I created a fictional persona for (for-profit investors) specifically real estate. They care about profit and creating long term investments that have the best value. It’s unfortunate for those who live in areas where for-profit investors start to thrive because they force these locals to look for temporary housing or housing elsewhere since they can’t keep up with the increase in rent or the changing environment around them.
So far we have taken on a wicked problem, mapped out an understanding of how it looks today, and made an effort to appreciate the POVs of some of those affected by it. We begin to see connections between various wicked problems and how these stakeholders could have similar and differing views. What do we want next? What is the ideal future, or the ideal futures? I enjoyed the example Stuart Candy gave us in class today: Chess is a game that is very restricted in its rules and already has billions of combinations to play the game by the 4th move. Imagine the world and predicting combinations for possible future scenarios with 7 billion people and no restrictions. The possibilities are endless, and also can be good or bad.
More thoughts: Some classmates were a bit upset about the skits and how they were almost like a piece of disrespect to the stakeholders we are trying to understand. I think it’s difficult to understand stakeholders on the other side of our worldview because we implement our own stereotypes and experiences to these people. A poor industry worker has experiences that privileged college students could never imagine having, therefore making it very difficult for us to understand how these people think and how severe these issues are to them. I think someone mentioned in my group how people have different definitions of affordability to housing and other aspects of life. For some, a nice comfortable middle class level house may be an affordable option whereas someone with a very low salary might think temporary housing is an affordable option. We have to define what we are looking for in terms of affordable housing and which stakeholders we are primarily focusing on. Another thing is that all of us have obviously started drawing connections between all the wicked problems. Gentrification, crime all lower the value of houses and property which means these wicked problems are a part of our wicked problem. I think moving forward we are going to start mapping out these connections and seeing what big umbrella theme encompasses all these wicked problems faced in Pittsburgh.
Haikus:
A day in my life in 2047:
Replaying my day,
A hundred screens in my face,
Hundred eyes watching.
Feels like a bad dream,
Stuck in my own pointless loop,
Trapped in the system.
The community in 2047:
Data drives AI,
All actions are recorded,
There’s nowhere to hide.
My fears have surfaced,
The ones you trust are now gone,
It began with Trump.
Dator Reading Thoughts:
The world has been around for millions of years and we are living in a period of life where the rate of change is growing tremendously. The past 50–100 years have seen the most technological advancement in all of the world’s lifetime and we have created so many social inventions that were never a “normal thing” before this period of time. We have families of a mom and a dad and 2–3 children and education and college. The reading said something like farmers had extensive families so it was easier to help out in the fields and education was not something everyone had or was considered normal. It is amazing to me that such social constructs have made us think these new inventions are “normal” or are traditional. If we take into consideration the millions of years in the past, things like slavery should still be considered “normal” since it has existed long before this golden age of advancement.
Studio Notes:
- Why is a purely predictive or linear stance a trap?
- When we tried to write about the future, we responded in a range of different models…
- Any single image of the future, no matter how compelling, is incomplete
Monofuturism: the mistaken assumption, because only one future will happen, that only one future can happen.
- parade of mistaken predictions
The nature and shape of change over time itself
“The future” cannot be “studied” because “the future” does not exist -Dator’s first law
Future (singular)
> FutureS (plural)
How do we get from this to something concrete enough to be useful for our work?
—
Generating Alternative Futures:
How are we supposed to predict the future when we see so much change in pace in the recent future (50–100years) which comprises of only like 0.1% of the world’s lifespan.
Are we able to become sustainable future designers without adapting sustainable habits/ behaviors as well?
Changing one person’s behavior might not make as big of an impact compared to designing something to change a mass number of other’s behaviors.
“The future” cannot be “predicted,” but “alternative futures” can, and should be “forecast.” -Jim Dator
The future has no boundaries but man has to put boundaries to understand the scale of the future and put restrictions so we can start at a starting point.
Scenarios: the art of drawing boundaries
A scenario is a hypothetical history: a path through possibility space
One boundary we can draw is around the time horizon we’re interested in
We must consider a range of possibilities. Then, meaningful contingencies and choices will appear.
A scenario set is a sort of sample or tour of possibility space.
Scenarios > Predictive, Explorative, Normative
Probable, Possible, Preferred
We will be focusing on a technique called “generic images of the future”, or “archetypes”
Looking at the similarities within possible futures
- Growth
- Collapse (disasters, economic meltdown)
- Discipline (control from above, peer to peer agreement and self-adopted constraint)
- Transformation (technological transformation, robots, AI, spiritual shift)
Key thing to understand: Two relationships…
- between the archetypes or generic images
- between the generic mages and the specific scenarios
Often it’s the technically possible scenarios which are treated as implausible, and therefore ignored, that will most probably screw us up. (stock market crash, kodak cameras not switching to digital, Blockbuster, steel industry in Pittsburgh)
A kind of story > A particular story (Abstract > concrete)
Our group predicted a disciplined private sector in the year 2050. These businesses such as Google or Whole Foods generate a lot of profit by this year and start to create housing complexes for the poor because they feel responsible for the gentrification. However, these businesses use these houses as data hubs to leech data from the individuals they house. We were thinking about how the local government would support these private businesses because they drive in a ton of business and monetary capital. This could also cause a divide between the rich and the poor, and have some sort of hidden segregation. It seems like the private businesses are doing a favor to the community by offering housing to the poor, but in reality they may be using them just for their own benefit by manipulating their data. Over time the “Google houses” could be a negative thing and cause protests over private businesses taking advantage of the poor.
Hawaii Reading:
I find it both scary and fascinating that futures in the Hawaii reading could possibly exist. The more I read about these types of futures and research similar topics, I begin to understand that the future isn’t something so far fetched that we can’t imagine, but rather a manipulation to the present that is plausible. If we look back to the past 50 years, it’s easy to understand that certain technological developments or other factors of STEEP start to steer what our present look like. With the internet and the accessibility of data being huge now, I am quickly realizing that the future is inevitable being data driven and motivated by the vast amounts of information we can gain through our everyday activities. Some shows like Black Mirror show me the endless possibilities the future can hold and it sometimes scares me that such realistic dystopias could exist in the near future. I think doing all these activities and working on a project that focuses so much on something we cannot fully control makes me think about the future in a more realistic setting and gives me a different perspective. Instead of thinking of flying cars or flying to another universe, I think of how our local environment can deteriorate due to gentrification factors or how crime can affect the affordable housing issues.
Generating Alternative Futures
Setting/Scenario Type: Discipline
Time Horizon: 2050
Environmental:
The quality of living in Pittsburgh is on an all time high in 2050. The influx of yuppies and big private companies has driven a huge rise in the development of smart homes and self-sufficient/ zero waste lifestyles. Those affiliated with these large companies are contributors to this lifestyle and the culture is shifted into a more eco-conscious mindset. These companies are also building their smart homes in abandoned real estate areas, benefitting the communities that used to be crime-ridden and left alone. The air quality is better, water is cleaner, and food is locally grown and organic. Although vehicles still exist, the result of the emissions aren’t enough to impact the good environmental state of Pittsburgh.
Sep 25:
Thoughts: Hearing the different scenarios of growth, collapse, transformation, and discipline, has given me a better perspective on how I can predict the future in a realistic way. Before this activity, I’ve thought of the future as flying cars or something big and “Hollywood.” I understand now that something like dirty pipes can eventually lead to population decrease because of the number of deaths and illnesses caused by that one factor. And there’s so many seemingly “small” factors that can realistically lead to a big impact into the future of Pittsburgh, or even the world. Learning about these different types of scenarios shows me that the future can consist of one or a combination of these types, leading to a very diverse and unpredictable future. I’m really interested in futures thinking because it doesn’t seem so far-fetched to me now. It feels feasible. It feels within reach. I can see how some things that exist now can be an extension of what the future could possibly look like.
Notes from the different futures:
Grow Scenario:
1 & 2.
- sea level risen
- living in tighter spaces
- increase in population
- widening wealth gap
- increase in crime
- green energy technology
- presidential campaigning enforces usage of green technology
- increase taxes on fossil fueled vehicles
- public policy = public transport utilize greenest energy
- pittsburgh = progress leader bc of 2010s uber and google
- systematic air ventilation
- abandoned lots for renovation
- nature parks attracting locals and new people
- outdated vehicles that used to run on diesel accumulated over a faster rate
- lots of countries like india are behind transitioning to clean energy
- multiple political parties have formed
- anti green party (coal workers) their livelihood would be lost fear
- Probable
- Preferable
- Clean energy reform
- Income gap, exporting the non green tech to other countries
Collapse Scenario:
1&2.
- living is impossible unless u are upper echelon
- busses operated 20% of what they once were
- Segregation was common place
- downfall of port authority
- private sectors took up transportation
- fit their needs and agendas
- fit high income areas
- pitt is hotbed for social unrest
- pockets of increasely high crime rate
- cut off from fresh resources
- public schools are not utilized
- uneven distribution of transportation, education suffered the most
- 30% more likely to do illegal activity
- repairs for bridges are too expensive
- new bridges and highways built for upper class
- further segregation between high and low
- physical barriers
- some private companies offer clean energy transportation, but is more expensive so it serves affluent areas
- Coal factories open and create electricity for the cities
- more affordable sources of energy
- city relies on coal industry for power
- but increase in carbon emissions
- quality of life decreases
- public pipes might be dirty
- population continues to decrease
- increase in infrastructure maintenance cost = tighter budget
- lower property value
- the rich get richer, poor get poorer
- local politicians begin to form dangerous alliances to transportation companies
- kind of probably if port authority collapses
- not preferable
- support public transportation, promoting after school care stuff like that
- support greater gov involvement in public transportation so that drivers don’t start driving illegally and making the roads more dangerous
Transform Scenario:
1&2:
- Pittsburgh aquatic contamination
- thousands of deaths
- population cannot afford clean bottle water and health care
- upmc couldn’t support
- local and state gov dealing with mass influx of people
Next class:
A written vision.
Imagining an ideal version of the year 2050 where these problems in your domain have been resolved or have evaporated due to whatever kinds of developments we wish to introduce.
Collaboration:
Thoughts:
- easy to get lost in the future thinking scenario because although we are thinking of ideal scenarios, its easy to get lost into the negatives or scary possibilities
- is “ideal” different for people? maybe a collapse society is ideal for someone over growth
- we went around and said what our ideal future was and took the themes of each and combined it into one
STEEP Forces for Affordable Housing in Pittsburgh 2050
A Vision for the Ideal Pittsburgh Future Outcome
PRINCIPLES
- Pittsburgh leads the renewable energy industry.
- Pittsburgh residents make time to be with family and friends.
- Pittsburgh residents don’t worry about being late.
- Pittsburgh is beautiful and green.
- Pittsburgh employees enjoy three day weekends.
- Pittsburgh values lifelong, on-demand learning.
- Pittsburgh trains students in ethics and humanitarianism.
- Pittsburgh finds medicinal cures at unmatched rates.
S — Social
Pittsburgh residents build trust by making time to be with other people above all else. Students are schooled in ethics and humanitarianism.
People live where they are. With collapsible, durable and lightweight high-tech shelters, people take their homes with them wherever they go. Families may travel together or have smaller shelter units for individuals, reconvening at the end of the day or forming bonds with whoever they happen to be with. Strangers are friends that haven’t been met yet. Material wealth is seen as wasteful of resources, devoid of life and therefore less gratifying, so people have very little to carry around. Instead, the culture has come to value community, interpersonal, and interdependent relationships above all else. As previously laborious aspects of life are made efficient and nondisruptive, people have more time than ever to invest in their relationships with family, friends and strangers. In traditional primary school settings, students receive education on the importance of caring for all life on earth, on altruism, and on being decent human beings. Formerly traditional STEM subjects have been moved out of classrooms and channeled into accessible, virtual learning technology. The working class (mostly everyone) focus more on artistic and creative pursuits, and work just over half the week to maintain a healthy amount of growth and change in the city.
T — Technological and Infrastructural
Pittsburgh residents are never late and receive services and knowledge on demand. Virtual learning fulfills academic endeavors.
Shelters are equipped with solar power, wind power, the ability to use rain water, and even a sewer system that cleanly disposes of waste back into the earth. A transformative delivery system has been built into the very infrastructure of the city to reach its every nook and cranny, supplying goods and services near-instantly to those who request them. Since people are nomadic without permanent addresses, the system deploys drones for each region of the city and advanced GPS technology allows them to deliver with pinpoint accuracy and unprecedented speed. A decision from above was made to invest in perfecting such technology, in order to free up other aspects of life that require more deliberateness and human thoughtfulness. Smart devices are accessible and exclusively portable, and deliver information on-demand as people require knowledge or expertise on whatever domain. They also serve as storage for virtual belongings like books, art and news.
Ec — Economic
Pittsburgh leads the renewable energy industry, becoming an internationally well-known green hub that continues to pioneer sustainable and self-sufficient lifestyles.
Creative practices and increased leisure time lead to more focused and productive sessions at work, leading to a great deal of successful innovation. The renewable energy industry has prospered in Pittsburgh due to the most advanced green technology in the world. Pittsburgh is an internationally well-known green-tech hub, and other regions strive to reach the standards it sets. Renewable energy is one of the main sources of Pittsburgh’s economic growth, and as more and more nations worldwide embrace concern for our planet, companies in Pittsburgh provide green energy globally and make a huge amount of profit. People are happy to see this profit go towards maintaining the health and wellbeing of the collective community. (In doing so, those from the lower-class are provided shelters with advanced technology that help replenish their well-being)
En — Environmental
Pittsburgh is beautiful and green with cyclical, self-sufficient systems in place that reuse waste.
As most people spend a large amount of time outside their shelters, they wanted their city to be beautiful to look at. In the beginning, some residents started cleaning trash and building community gardens. Over the years, the gardens thrived to provide large supplies of locally grown food, clean air, and potable water. Swaths of natural beauty overtook the city, becoming self-sustaining green spaces that grew and recycled their own waste. Pittsburgh is known as the “Green City,” after many years of clean energy reform and policies supporting the usage of renewable sources.
P — Political
Pittsburgh operates as decentralized autonomous subsystems.
Pittsburgh has outgrown democracy and is run by a decentralized government overseeing different subsystems. However, this government is not elected but autonomous. The governmental system oversees the city’s economic profit and loss, population flux and well-being (measured by mood readers, physical activity, levels of sickness, etc.) and efficiency of its subsystems. These subsystems include the citywide delivery system, public transportation, water and sewage, power centers, food growth and delivery, and virtual education. Many of these systems are at a manageable scale because the people themselves manage a large portion of it, especially energy. Humans have the ability to override the systems when necessary, entrusting someone they elect to do so when the need arises. Large meetings involving many stakeholders are generally orderly and productive as people have been taught early on to strive to understand differences among themselves, and many even know each other from spending leisure time together.
Unfolding a Vision: Three Horizons
Understanding the timeline of Pittsburgh through signs of change today, issues and conflicts, and things that must be avoided.
Oct 2:
Strategies for New Ways of Designing
Thoughts on post-its and three horizons activity:
I found it very helpful seeing all the other groups’ methods on organizing post-its to develop a narrative that showed their depiction of their ideal future. Our group color coded our post-it timelines grouping them into the three horizons (what needs to decline, what needs to change, and intersections of conflict). It was interesting seeing how the layout and the way groups presented narratives affected the way we perceive information and understand the information better. It’s hard to decode so much information from small post-its and we saw this evident when looking at the whiteboard group. Their information was handwritten with more space, therefore creating an environment that made it easier to read and understand. Also the artifacts along with the notes helped bridge the story together. When groups used images and artifacts created from the future, it helped gain a better understanding of the narrative they were creating.
Notes on lecture:
- Max-Neef’s theory of needs:
- Needs, satisfiers, desires
What is a synergistic solution?
Violator/ Destroyer > Pseudo solution > Inhibiting solution > Singular solution > Synergistic solution
Pseudo satisfiers lead to pathologies of unmet needs (ex: cell phone providing protection for small children)
- We think about the positive outcomes of the intended use, but don’t extrapolate the negative consequences
- Ex: texting while driving (death/ injury)
- Ex: eating while multitasking > obesity?
- Ex: distance between relationships/ family
Examples of negative consequences from something “positive”
- Tide pods: Looked so good and cool that kids started to eat them
- Credit card: Supposed to offer freedom but may make you bankrupt
Can we create some solution that meets several different needs at once?
Genuine needs motivate action
Satisfier: Breast feeding solves the immediate need for protection, affection, and identity.
Pseudo satisfier: Bottle-feeding leading to a rise to a host of designed artifacts and processes. Manufacturer of the baby formula motivated by profit, not the genuine needs, therefore possibility to make toxic formula, killing many babies. Also number of baby products not created to be sustainable.
Also maybe some artifacts are created to falsify needs, making people think that some products are necessary for their lives even if they aren’t.
The Domains of Everyday Life: The Levels of Scale
The flavor of the relationships informing a solution
Globalization > Cosmopolitan Localism
Max-Neef Needs Activity
Possible Interventions (Short Term)
Specific Focus: Gentrification
Natives: Locals, those who have lived in Pittsburgh for most of their lives. (Permanent)
Foreigners: College students, yuppies, internationals (Temporary)
STEEP Issues: Social, economic, political
Natives needs that aren’t met: Subsistence, Protection, Affection, Understanding, Participation, Identity, Freedom
Foreigners needs that aren’t met: Understanding, Identity
Natives needs that are met: none
Foreigners needs that are met: Subsistence, Protection
Potential interventions
Education system for international students entering college
- Program that teaches them the geography and culture of Pittsburgh
- Needs met: Understanding (for foreigners), identity
Community events that promote diversity?
- Similar to “Paint the Pavement”?
- Needs met: Affection, understanding, creation?, participation, identity
Building new housing structures that support mixed income housing
- Needs met: subsistence, protection, participation, affection, creation (of a new system)
Oct 9
Molly Steenson: Service Design
- “When you have 2 coffee shops right next to each other, selling the exact same coffee at the exact same price, service design is what makes you walk into the one and not the other, come back often and tell your friends about it.”
- Good service is… The right thing at the right time… choreographed interactions… coordinated between the invisible and visible… backstage and frontstage
Group work
Transportation
“Port Authority +“ (Port Authority Plus) // Like it’s a better version of port authority lol
Technological, Economical, Political
All-inclusive public transportation system that covers every nook and cranny in Pittsburgh.
Needs satisfied:
Protection — Improves the value of land by making all homes equidistant to public transportation // Decreases the price of houses location to transportation is constant
Leisure — Offers peace of mind to locals by being the connector between food, shelter, and work // Housing location is less of an issue, also no food deserts
Gentrification
“Welcome Workshops”
Social, Economical, Political
Mobile workshops that educate locals and foreigners on backgrounds, customs, and habits to foster a community that is more understanding towards each other.
Oct 11
Everyone’s Proposed Interventions
Affordable Housing
- 6 proposed interventions: Transportation, education, economics, energy, gentrification, and legislation
- Education initiatives in the classroom to focus more on the community and sustainable living
Needs Satisfied: Subsistence, Affection, Participation, Understanding, Freedom, Creation
Education
- Board of Education transitions from STEM to STEAM
- Standarized testing becomes more qualitative
- Afterschool activities
- Environmental excursions
- Internship/ Mentorship programs
- Lifelong Learning
Environmental Exposure Intervention
Needs Satisfied: Protection, Participation, Understanding, Idleness
Water
- Water challenge to reach out to younger generation
- New university major in CMU and Pitt encouraging environmental practices
- “Blue City” Campaign
- Underwater tunnels/ Education exhibit to teach people about waterfall
- Water visibility product that shows the contents within the water
Crime
- A pathway back to society
- Educate inmates and incentivize to hire ex-cons
- Treatment Truck — Accessibility to rehab
- A helping hand — Platform that lets neighbors reach out to each other
- Panel with successful ex-criminals
- StudioBURGH — student mentorship prpogram
- PGH Scouts — safe space for students to go to after school
Air Quality
- Activity Sharing App — most people work remotely, so this app connects people in the community to participate with their neighbors
- Repurposing Land
- Community Garden Education — children attending field trips to community gardens and promote sustainable practices
- Bag recycling service
- Recycled plastic fibers
Food
- Nutrition and Food Education — Paradigm shift where diff types of foods are eliminated
- Autonomous Food Rescue — Using your car to donate food
- The Garden Initiative
- Community Compost Service
- On-demand pantry delivery
Service Blueprinting
Oct 16
Cheryl Lecture:
- What constitutes “social innovation?”
- Future of fish
- Anyone related to what I’m trying to do is part of my system
- Transition design requires layers of change
- Better fishery policies > Better fisherman compliance
- The work of transition design is nested full of social innovation projects
- Upside down food pyramid: Theory of Change (naming the problem) > Strategy (plan to fix it) > Actors/ Channels (execution) > End User
- Fishery = Industry and groups of fishes and all the fishing activity in a common center
- Present — Taking more from the ocean than they are reproducing
- Fishing industry is larger than coffee and sugar
- One of the most wasteful industries on the planet
- Fish for one thing but catch other things as well that you throw away
- 64 Lbs of by-catch for every 1Lb of shrimp (Indonesia)
Infant Mortality in Developing Nations
- Looking at a specific subset of data that targets a lot of the infants that die early
- PATH birthing kit
- Frameworks for DSI: Complexity vs the Scale of Impact
Final Project
Educating kids on sustainable living habits (Aquaponics)
Julia, Jeong Min, Raph, Kevin, Emily
Group Roles:
Julia (Gentrification): physical artifacts, interview, project organization
Jeong Min (Air Quality): physical artifacts
Raph (Food): illustrations, animation, interview
Kevin (Housing): Visual design, animation
Emily (Food): service blueprint, system thinkings, copywriter, drawing, branding, curation, interview
Goals: Make the future more sustainable (by starting with kids)
Identify problems that lead to interventions
List research questions: What do you want to learn? What impact do you want to make?
Define the design opportunity. What might you achieve? (What’s the shift in power)
Start telling stories.
Problems:
- Sustainable living isn’t incorporated into school curriculums
- Encouraging people to eat unsustainable
- Blurred lines between different food groups
- High rate of people in Pittsburgh are in food deserts (50%?)
- Living outside the city is a larger radius for calculating food deserts (versus Downtown)
- Transportation getting cut off (Grocery store = convenience store selling Pop Tarts, which is a problem)
- Population isn’t well educated on everything including sustainability
- Long term change through educating the younger generation
- “Plant a seed”
- How do things like higher education get funded? (Be very specific, look into policy)
- Shifting the mindset on kids that sustainable a normal thing?
- Talk to schools about their curriculum (How they work)
- Charter school vs public school vs private school
- Choose one type of school (Possibly public because it targets the most people)
Reframe (Design Opportunity): Shifting the curriculum to a more sustainable focused system to foster citizens that positively influence the future of Pittsburgh
Julia’s edit — Reframing our vision: To shift Pittsburgh public elementary school curriculums to incorporate more sustainable practices and foster citizens that will positively influence the future of the city.
- Create a lesson plan
- Focusing on certain classes to implement sustainable practices
- Elementary kids (Each grade takes on different roles, upgrades into sustainable practices)
- What makes sense for each year
- In Pittsburgh, the school system shrinks so there are fewer high schools than elementary schools etc
- Backcasting/ Timeline
Research Questions:
- National Science Foundation
- Where does funding come from?
- How do you implement this system/ curriculum?
- Who’s in charge of the curriculum?
- What is the current curriculum?
- How much food does aquaponics make?
- What types of sustainable habits do we want to teach? What activities?
- Extracurriculars/ after school programs? Versus changing a current subject?
- What are the parameters for holding workshops with teachers?
- Do kids care? How do we make them care?
- How do we make parents care?
- Underprivileged children generally need after school care because of conflicts with parents etc. After school program is a leverage point?
- Building habits? Just picking up trash, sorting trash, being conscious of materials used when eating or doing whatever? (plastic vs paper?)
- What’s the value?
Deliverables:
- A written proposal for a new lesson plan to elementary schools
- A backstage blueprint for how a new curriculum will be implemented and what will be its impact
- A lesson plan with sustainable activities / workshops
- A timeline outlining each grade level’s sustainability curriculum including strong visuals and physical artifacts
- Back-up plan: sustainability exhibit for kids at CMOA
Timeline/ To do:
- Talk to schools and people in charge of curriculums (learn how curriculums work and how changes are implemented) — try to talk with people in public schools of Pittsburgh but can also talk with those who worked on School of Design’s curriculum change
- Research sustainable habits and activities
- Visit Chatham’s Eden Hall Sustainability Campus to learn more about sustainable practices (aquaponics, etc.)
- Visit Phipps aquaponics system
- Create a timeline for 2050
- Outline the new curriculum
- Write a proposal to implement the new curriculum
- Create visual and physical artifacts to make our timeline compelling
- Take great process photos along the way and put in process folder
Timeline:
Oct 26 — Nov 3
- first group meeting Oct. 26
- do research on funding and sustainable practices
- visit Chatham’s campus on Oct. 30 (Julia arrange)
- reach out to those in charge of school curriculums (Emily)
- visit Phipps if more research is necessary
- compile all of our research and begin thinking about a curriculum outline
Nov 4 — Nov 10
- timeline
- backstage blueprint
- begin writing a proposal
- begin thinking about visual and physical elements
Nov 11 — Nov 17
- MAKE — work on visuals, clean version of timeline, final copy for proposal, physical artifacts for curriculum
- do supplementary research where necessary
Nov 18 — Nov 24 (Thanksgiving break begins Nov 22)
- continue making + researching
Nov 27 — Dec 1 (Design show install on Dec. 1)
- tie everything together and prepare all final presentation deliverables
Extra thoughts:
- Branding of all this (Earth day etc…)
- What would this new curriculum look like?
Small Intervention Ideas
Intervention ideas for studio:
Our question: How can we get selfish college students to care about sustainability?
- Sustainability kit that informs students on the benefits of helping the environment by using clean resources
- kit includes like a reusable water bottle, seeds to plant trees, maybe a small aquaponics start up system
- Installation near trash cans/ on top of trash cans that shows a visualization of where that trash goes, and how plastics in the wrong bin lead to horrible landfill which equals death in fishes and other animals in the sea.
- Visualization near cigarette smoking areas that show how the pollution from the cigarettes and the littering damages the environment. Maybe some futures looking scenario that plays there that shows what the surroundings would look like if cigarette smoking kept existing in 20–30 years.
- vending machine?
Jeong Min:
- small gadget, small pin, to promote awareness, simple life hacks, people can easily follow
- integrated different mediums like print or digital to promote some activity
- exhibition interaction with the garbage can, people throw away plastic bottle, they can see the turtles dying or whatever
- booth that people can do some activity, maybe to inform and people experience what it would look like in the future, the consequences
Raph:
- browser extension on chrome that overlays when ur online shopping, overlay of unsustainable practices
- ordering in food, packaging, the gas, everything
- social media, for sale @cmu groups, example of our age being sustainable, thrift stores
Emily:
- case study proposal
- magazine
- illustration or a set of skills
- forward thinking ads
Final Deliverables
- Plan V4.5 (julia and emily)
- Context booklet / process (Emily and Raph)
- Visual Style/Grid/Template (Ojai/Ideo)
- Writing Content
- Making our Mediums Pretty
- Cards
- Box (Julia and jeong min)
- Stickers (logo) (Emily and Raph)
- Card Illustrations (Emily and Raph)
- Blank Cards
- Write Card copy from Julia’s Copy
- Layout + visual system (Kevin/Raph/Emily)
- Habit cards (5–7) (Heart) (Julia)
- Fact cards (3–5) (Spade) (Julia)
- Blank cards (10) (Diamond!)
- On-boarding pamphlet (Clover/Club) (Jeong Min and Julia)
- What is this
- How to use
- What this is not gonna be (joking tone– ex use a reusable bottle)
- Call to action
- Illustrations/Visual Style (Emily/Raph)
- Snapchat story and filter (Kevin)
- Story for people to join the community and share ideas
- Filter pointed at different objects/place s and info pops up
- What’s the interaction
- Snapchat code?
Initial Iterations
Final Deliverables
In context
Final Reflection
I enjoyed this second part of the semester more than the first because my group worked well together and we divided up our tasks efficiently. Also our topic focusing on education was a great topic since a lot of the wicked problems stem from education. I think that our project was successful in our goal which was collecting data on users in terms of sustainability practices and motivations/ issues with sustainability. Our final deliverable came together nicely as our box showed our cards in a presentable manner and included an informative onboarding pamphlet and logo stickers. I’m wondering if next semester we can do more on-site research so our claims/ online research isn’t the only things we are basing our solution/ designs off of. I’m still not completely sure about how I can explain “transition design” to someone else but I believe I’ve learned much more about this topic by tackling a small part of a bigger wicked problem. Overall, this was a useful project that I hope will make me think twice the next time I waste food or do something unsustainable.
