The 2014 Geodesign Summit will take place January 29-30 at Esri Headquarters in Redlands, CA. This year there will be two separate talks given by Penn State Landscape Architecture Faculty:
Kelleann Foster, RLA, ASLA
Interim Director Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture; Lead Faulty, Graduate Certificate in Geodesign
Is it design? How Geodesign Compares with Other Design Theories
Wednesday, January 29. Talks will be held from 3:30-5pm (PST). Check on-site agenda for specific times and locations.
What distinguishes geodesign from processes that deploy more innovative approaches to GIS? This presentation will argue that the second part of the term, namely: design, must be present for a process to be truly representative of geodesign. But what is design in this context? The widely recognized and respected geodesign process, Carl Steinitz’s Framework for Geodesign (2012), will be used as the basis for comparison with other design theories. Several design theories will be explored and compared, ranging from Herbert Simon’s stages of design thinking, dating back to 1969, to Vijay Kumar’s design innovation process from 2012. Most of the theories have between four and seven parts, with each theory giving slightly different emphases on the various “steps.” These similarities and differences among the theories will be presented, with the goal being to inform the geodesign process and advance understanding about the design component of the process.
Brian Orland and Dr. Tim Murtha
Professors of Landscape Architecture
Engaged Geodesign in the Forgotten Quarter of Pennsylvania
Thursday, January 30. Talks will be held from 1:30-3pm (PST). Check on-site agenda for specific times and locations.
Residents of rural northeastern Pennsylvania are stewards of agricultural lands and forests, protectors of clean air and water. Their landscape is the source of Marcellus shale gas, a transitional energy resource that has all but erased the fears of peak oil or energy dependence on unstable states. Their landscape enjoys little legal protection; the design of its future is in their hands. For a sustainable future they must design landscapes and communities whose forms are not the accidental leftovers of energy development and post-boom abandonment. This is a geodesign problem but the framework is designed as a top-down expert system—in our setting there is little access to design services; expertise is absent or widely dispersed. We propose and will demonstrate a tool development approach that is designed to educate as it empowers citizens and disperses expertise to address multiple design interests from a common core of land knowledge.
Find out more about the summit and view the agenda here....