Summary
The Project:
Emergent Structures explored the possibilities of a material and knowledge exchange in the form of an online platform. The platform was intended to be used by Emergent Structures, a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring material recovery from building demolitions for reuse in construction and other innovative applications.
My Role:
I studied several frameworks for analyzing the data, including Activity Analysis Map and System Diagram. I created a new framework for Competitor Analysis, which was used to show the case studies. I designed the user journey and descriptive value web. I also found insights, based on analysis performed with the project team. Additionally, I participated in workshops with the Emergent Structure committee and designed the possible concepts for the clients.
What I Learned:
I learned how a non-profit organization in the sustainability and construction industry operates. I also learned how to design workshops to efficiently communicate business ideas with clients.
TEAM MEMBERS
INTRODUCTION
- Living Principles
- Natural Capitalism
Sustainable practice in industry calls for an end to the notion that commerce and the environment are diametrically opposed to each other. Building off of groundbreaking work that re-frames world commerce as the only force large enough to enact change at a global level, this course prepares students to apply design thinking to the greatest of all problems: building a sustainable ecologic,
economic and social culture in industry. To this end, design management principles are directed toward the convergence of ideals with reality into a harmonic industry: design. We studied several different frameworks in order to understand what the implications of our work might entail. We looked at Cradle to Cradle, Living Principles, Life Cycle Analysis, LEED, and Natural Capitalism. The purpose of
studying these frameworks was to evaluate Emergent Structures’ present system.
UNDERSTANDING THE PROJECT
- Project scope
During our first project meeting, ES’ strategic committee shared how the organization formed from its cornerstone project: the redevelopment of Savannah Gardens into Strathmore Estates. The team took a deep dive into the project, internalizing the stakeholders and their respective activities. Learning about the partnerships, the volunteer recruitment, and the process of how materials were reclaimed and repurposed provided the team with a realistic understanding of ES as an organization.
The board members also explained ES’ other activities, like Materialanthropy, which seeks donations of monetary or material form from philanthropists within the community. This meeting also helped the team to define the overall scope for the project as well as understand personal visions for ES.
- Activity Analysis Map
The Activity Analysis Map visualizes the current activities of ES along with the people and entities involved in each activity. The current model places ES at the center, while the future goal of an online platform positions them further away from the physical act of deconstruction and demolition.
- System Diagram
This system diagram was created to understand the categories of ES’s current activities.
- Organization and Services Matrix
One of the main solutions from the previous project was that Emergent Structures, wanting to grow from being strictly a local grassroots organization to a much larger regional or national entity, would require an active online platform in which they could help with knowledge and material sharing. So a study of other similar organizations with online platforms was needed. We used several research methodologies, including popular media scanning and SWOT analysis to identify seventeen different organizations that were each working within the same ideology as Emergent Structures.
- Competitor Positioning 2×2
The attributes of this 2×2 came from ES’ current activities and future goals. ES is seeking to create an online presence while maintaining their physical projects within local communities. ES also wanted to provide physical services
(material share) while also providing education (knowledge share). This is when we realized the future for ES would be in the middle of this spectrum. By plotting the competitors we were able to understand what other organizations were doing.
INSIGHT GENERATION
Throughout our research we generated maps and models to understand ES and their relationship to the building industry
- User Journey
This diagram is a hypothetical user journey map. It is a simulation of a scenario, that is composed of the most recent data collected from our research. The purpose of this map is to understand the people that are involved in the system and the other players that are providing a service. This map also serves as a synthesis tool for the possible services that Emergent Structures could offer. The diagram identifies how the players can be fit into the Emergent Structures’ system and the relationship between consultancy and material exchange. The top section is focused on D.I.Y.ers and services provided to them such as blueprints and material
connections. Our research showed that there is a disconnection between reclaimed
material industry and small projects and everyday people. The lower section maps out a possible material exchange platform, exploring the interaction between material sender-receiver and how it can correlate to consultancy.
- Insights from Value Web
This model maps out the existing relationships between stakeholders within the system.
- Clustering Insights
We used a matrix to compare each insight and determine the strength of their relationship, from the strongest relationships we created clusters. The clusters were then named to be used at a later date in the project.
- Building Life-cycle Diagram
This diagram delves into the stages that a structure goes through in its lifetime or ideal life-cycle that promises a closed loop of material usage. The model consists of three important steps as the major phases in the life-cycle of a building, which are deconstruction, demolition, and construction. It also provides the type of partnerships and frameworks that are utilized during the process.
This diagram was a combination of maps created in class, each with a different
framework emphasis. The goal was to see how and where each framework influenced the system.
This diagram helped us quickly grasp the principles of an ideal sustainable process
of the building industry. In such a process, the system aims to reduce all forms of waste toward zero and continually find new ways to design products and processes so that former waste streams become valuable inputs to other processes or benign flows back into natural systems.
WORKSHOPS
Our class hosted data gathering workshop where local professionals helped us to
understand the construction/deconstruction/demolition process and the related waste management processes. Our guests included Scott Boylston (President of ES and Director of the Sustainability Department for SCAD) Mark Fitzpatrick (J.T.Turner) and Jason Carangelo (Building Inspections Administrator); each provided their insight on the stages of the process.
The activity was broken down into different sections; Assessment, Deconstruction, Demolition and Construction. We walked our guests through each section of the process to get a good understanding of every aspect of the system.
The setup of the game consisted of a pre-built Lego house placed at the “Assessment/Deconstruction” stage of our life-cycle game. Several activity icons were created to represent different entities, barriers, and relationships to help us better visualize and understand the system. The Lego structure had multiple materials, each with a representative color to keep track of the movement of materials through the process. The guests were then asked to walk us through the planned demolition of this “residential project” by describing the disassembly
of the Lego pieces and then their path through the building life-cycle. Each step of the process is categorized and annotated with their respective icons.
CONCEPTS
