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Architect and historian Edson Cabalfin to lead Tulane's Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship program.

2020-07-09T16:04:00-04:00

The Tulane University School of Architecture has named designer, historian, and architect Edson Cabalfin, PhD as the new Director of the school's Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship (SISE) program.

Cabalfin is a licensed architect in the Philippines and runs the design consultancy Talyer Kayumanggi/Brown Workshop, which is currently based in Cincinnati, Ohio and Manila. The multi-disciplinary practice operates within the realms of architecture, interior design, set design, costume design, fashion, and design strategy, among other arenas. Cabalfin's academic research focuses on a variety of interrelated topics, including the interdisciplinary and transnational intersections of architecture history and theory, cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, postcolonial theory, Southeast Asian studies, spatial justice, public interest design, and heritage conservation.

A statement published by the Tulane School of Architecture explains that "Dr. Cabalfin said his design stud...

The creative power of walking

2019-10-08T08:00:00-04:00

Sitting there, program in hand, concept underway, and with constraints to abide by, we consider the possibilities. The design process isn't a scientific thing, there's an artistic aspect to it, one that sometimes leaves us searching for the perfect solution. We arrive at something, but know when it isn't right, it could be better, we think. But, how do we get there? We sketch, we model, we converse, we charrette, and yet sometimes there are still those moments of creative contemplation where we can't put our finger on that thing that we know lies in the back of our minds. Historically, walking has been one way to bring that thing to the forefront of our creative pursuit.

The School of Athens by Raphael.

Mobile pondering

In 335 BCE, after his pupil, Alexander the Great, rose to power and conquered Athens, Aristotle began teaching at the Lyceum, a school of philosophy whose followers would later become known as the Peripatetics. In the famous fresco The School of Athens, Italian Renai...

Design Thinking Comes of Age

2015-08-22T22:07:00-04:00

Transformative innovation is inherently risky. It involves inferences and leaps of faith; if something hasn’t been done before, there’s no way to guarantee its outcome. The philosopher Charles Peirce said that insights come to us “like a flash”—in an epiphany—making them difficult to rationalize or defend. Leaders need to create a culture that allows people to take chances and move forward without a complete, logical understanding of a problem.

Filed under Organizational Culture, Design Thinking Comes of Age goes further to consider, "there’s a shift under way in large organizations, one that puts design much closer to the center of the enterprise. But the shift isn’t about aesthetics. It’s about applying the principles of design to the way people work. This new approach is in large part a response to the increasing complexity of modern technology and modern business.

What Is a Design-Centric Culture?

...All in all, it is about products, designing them and getting them out there to have them consumed by you. Hence, Design-Centric Culture.. Think Design thinking.

Design's Invisible Century

2012-04-23T14:17:00-04:00

All human artifacts and activities — not just our objects and architecture, but also our organizations and operations, policies and procedures, systems and infrastructures — have been designed, and too many of the most critical have been badly done by professionals and politicians who didn’t know the first thing about design. While we cannot blame them for what they didn’t know or couldn’t see, the stakes have gotten too high for us to continue in this way.

On Places, Thomas Fisher, dean of the Minnesota College of Design, argues that the 21st century is poised to become the "invisible century of design" (rivaling the last hundred years, the invisible century of science). Who will be the Einstein and the Freud of the new design century? We need a revolutionary thinkers to identify and solve critical structural problems.