Hi All,

I am trying out an alternative means of writing a book.  I am writing online through a blog and publishing Alpha, Beta, and final versions of the essays and chapters that make up the book.  I am asking for public commentary on the beta versions of essays and chapters.  Consider this an experiment in how to peer review an academic publication.

I now have the first seminal essay in beta version and ready for review. 

I am posting here to ask that you review the essay and post questions and/or comments that can help to refine the essay.

The seminal essay is http://datastructureformdesign.com/2015/10/04/tending-the-artifact-ecology-cultivating-architectural-ecosystems/

I would appreciate any constructive criticism that you care to offer.

Thank you!

Joe

Hi All,

I have been developing a design project ecological niche construction checklist to help designers consider the likely cognitive and physical tasks performed in an environment and then (hopefully) better design the environment to support those tasks.

The checklist is on version 3 and I will be presenting a poster about the work at the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) Conference - Bridging Synapses - next week at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA.

Given this upcoming presentation, I figured that it would be a good time to bump this post and the updated version of the article that captures much of the rationale for why I am developing this checklist.

Here is the article, "Tending the Artifact Ecology:  Cultivating Architectural Ecosystems"

Here is the current draft of the design project ecological niche construction checklist.

Thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Joe

Here is the abstract for the article:

Tending the Artifact Ecology: Cultivating Architectural Ecosystems

Abstract

This paper presents a perspective for designing and living in complex, interactive architectural systems [9] that are part of ‘artifact ecologies [3].’ All organisms co-evolve with their environments and change their respective environments to better suit their needs – this is known as ecological niche construction [6]. For many organisms, including humans, niche construction entails making ‘a better world to live in’ [2] by actively cultivating and shepherding other organisms. But humans are relatively unique with respect to ecological niche construction because humans also cultivate their environment to make ‘a better world to think in’[2]. That is, humans also cultivate and shepherd abstract information systems just as they do other organisms (e.g., flowers or crops or animals). Humans tend to their information systems and devices in the service of improving the cognitive dimensions of their ecological niche. This perspective is useful for contemplating the roles and obligations of designers and users with respect to complex, interactive, and intelligent information systems and devices, including buildings. This paper posits that the near future of innovation in environmental design and management will increasingly be driven by the cognitive niche construction aspect of ecological niche construction. This perspective is useful because it frames the integration of computational technologies into environmental systems in a way that illuminates the continuity of human behavior in utilizing physical and non-physical architectures as part of ongoing physical and cognitive ecological niche construction.

And here is the abstract for the design project ecological niche construction checklist:

Designing for Complex, Interactive Architectural Ecosystems:  Developing the Ecological Niche Construction Design Checklist

Abstract

This paper presents the rationale for and ongoing development of the Design Project Ecological Niche Construction Checklist (DPENCC) [1], a designer's/researcher's checklist for assessing the usefulness of potential environmental design features on cognitive and task performance during the conceptual phase of environmental design.  The rationale for developing such a tool stems from a comparative integration of concepts from ecological niche construction [2], systems science [3], embodied cognition theories of mind [4,5], and Kirsh's writings on pragmatic action [6], activity spaces [7], and performance design [8].  The checklist is developed and tested via three case studies that entail designing interactive building environments.  This mixed methods case study research is organized and evaluated using the Design Science Research Method [9] and the Validation Square research method [10].  Findings, lessons learned, and next steps are discussed, especially the strengths, weaknesses, and likely preferred use cases for such a method and tool.  

This research contributes to the fields of architecture and neuroscience by: (a) developing a designer’s method and tool that represents possible impacts on cognition of environmental features during early conceptual design; (b) demonstrating a research framework for specifying, developing, and evaluating a cognitive method and tool; (c) and addressing a significant, emerging set of design challenges.  These emerging design challenges entail degrees of complexity and interactivity that make them orders of magnitude more difficult to represent during design than traditional static environmental design challenges.

hey..have you finalized your design project ecological niche construction checklist??it looks interesting and I'd love to use it for my research..but not sure how to reference it and whether you have completed the whole things which has way more details and info..so far I gathered such materials as Evolutionary Ecology magazine, Research into Sustainability of Human Ecological Niche Construction, environment essays, Chicago journals and some other essays and works..so if you've got any other info, I'll appreciate f you share..many thanks