Week 10 Guest Lecturer: Alexis Sanal

I found the guest lecturer Alexis Sanal's talk about her work, experience and background to be most interesting and highly relevant to some of the issues I am trying to discuss and work with in my design for project 2. Her three key areas of work and interest aligned with my own aims and intentions for my project. These were:

• dealing with projects concerned with the combination of 'Civic and Civil' ideas
• creating 'Knowledge Centric' communites and projects, and
• ensuring that there is always the important element and aspect of generating and encouraging 'Shared Futures'

Alexis Sanal's diagram (a version can be seen below) that she utilises in the early stages of the majority of her projects was of particular prominence in conveying to her clients (and to clarify to herself I believe) her intentions or aim and how she is going to achieve this outcome. One could say that each point on the diagram represents an aspect to be satisfied for the success of the project, therefore the overall diagram could be seen as a Key Perfomance Indicator perhaps?

Some important aspects to consider when designing were also proposed by Alexis Sanal, that I think will play an important role when it comes to evaluating my design at particular stages. These aspects include:

• trying to answer what draws us into life?
• how can design of Place nurture social society? -> of particular relevance to my project
• what are the vital roles of the architect?
• how is digital culture shaping our understanding and knowledge of the spatial, geometric, material, phenomenological and techtonic world? -> of particular relevance to any project
• nature is always central - in that Alexis never really exclaims that her work is 'environmentally friendly' or  has 'sustainability' in mind as she believes that it is pretty much a 'given' in today's society - which I totally agree with.

Overall, I found Alexis Sanal's talk most enlightening and reassuring that there are like minded designers out there concerned with the same issues and topics that I am. It kind of reinforced my belief and passion in what I am trying to achieve, and created an enthusiasm for it as well...something I have found difficult to maintain after 5 years of completing this degree and also this stage in my life.