Design Education and Innovation Ecotones

7/28/2019 Design Education and Innovation Ecotones

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DESIGN EDUCATION AND INNOVATION ECOTONES 1

DESIGN EDUCATION ANDINNOVATION ECOTONES

ANN PENDLETON-JULLIAN, ARCHITECT


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2 EMANCIPATION

5 NOW AS THE DESIGN BRIEF

11 TOWARD THE DESIGN OF A DESIGN

EDUCATION ECOSYSTEM

21 ACCREDITATION +

25 MICRO-LABS / SEEDING

A CULTURE OF INNOVATION

30 A CULTURE OF INNOVATION AS

(CORRIDORS AND) ECOTONE

40 INNOVATION ECOTONE AS A CONCEPT FOR

A SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION ECOLOGY

(IN EDUCATION AND ELSEWHERE)

42 EPILOGUE

46 Endnotes + Postscript

DESIGN EDUCATION ANDINNOVATION ECOTONESANN PENDLETON-JULLIAN, ARCHITECT

Director, Knowlton School of Architecture

Ohio State University

[email protected]

2009 Ann Pendleton-Jullian / Design: Soulellis Studio


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DESIGN EDUCATION AND INNOVATION ECOTONES EMANCIPATION 2

The emancipation o both nature and the human imagination depends frst on the

capacity to unsay the world and, second, on the ability to image it dierently so

that wonder might be brought into appearance.James Corner 1

Estuarine intertidal zones are extraordinary landscapes and dynamic water-

land habitats. As ecological zones where two distinct ecosystems overlap or

grade into one another, they contain an abundance o diverse species and a

complex set o exchange dynamics. Scientists call these habitats ecotones.

Ecotones are typologically unique ecosystems connecting two distinctly

dierent plant and animal communities and the physical characteristics that

support those communities. 2

But these zones are more than just zones o transition. They are areas o

disturbance, catalyzed by the dierences in the two ecosystems, and they are

oten zones o conict as well. The words etymology derives rom a com-

bination o two Greek words: eco(logy) andtone, rom tonos or tension;

ecologies in tension. Ecotones are not merely the blending o two habitats and

their characteristics, but actually a third thing. Although ecotones share some

characteristics and species with the habitats on either side o them, ecotones

also have their own distinct characteristics and species.3

Landscape and environmental ecology theory, especially as it relates to spatial

confguration at the human scale is barely more than two decades old. Yet in

recognizing that humanity is now in charge o most o the land surace, and

responsible or it,4 landscape ecology theory explicitly links humanity with

the complex structure o our ecosystems, rom local sites to vast territories.

From the opposite end, rom the scale o the human, as science has re-scaled

its ocus rom the universe to the planet to the body. And as technologies

re-tool and shit rom operating on things that are external to living organisms

to operating on organisms themselves, to operating on the very matter o

organisms, we begin to enter truly original cultural terrain in which we grasp

EMANCIPATION


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that we are not just aecting the environment at unprecedented scales and at

accelerating rates, but that we are actually part o the contiguous matter o

these larger material systems.5

Given this interconnectedness o humanity and the natural world, theories,

models, observations and experiments related to landscape and environmental

ecology are proving increasingly useul to our understanding o other kinds

o complex systems across diverse disciplines. This understanding allows us

to think about change and resiliency dynamics, and it allows us to imagine

constructing new models or change and resiliency.

As an architect and educator, I want to apply the concept o the ecotone to the

design o an ecosystem or architectural design education. But I want to do this

with the belie that it is also scaleable to other disciplines, institutional systems

and situations, either directly or as an analogy.

Much discussion in terms o accelerating capability-building in business,

sports, government, education, disciplinary entities, or subjects even, ocuses

on the value o activities that operate at the edge. In this discussion edge

can mean many dierent things, rom the edge o an enterprise, the edge o

methods and processes associated with the enterprise, geographic edges,

demographic edgesa whole set o edges that create the opportunity or

capability-building.6

The implication within all these discussions is that work at the edge is unet-

tered and unencumbered by the inertia o core activity. It is more open to

radically transormative and innovative orces and processes. T hese orces

and processes, i tapped into, can re-shape and transorm the core, something

that the core will not do under its own constraints and conditionsunder the

shear inertia o its own historical operations. In these discussions edge and

core are separate and unique felds o activitydiscrete in their operations


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except or moments o catalytic communication.

I propose that within the dynamics o the twenty-frst century environment,modernist dialectical constructs are not as productive as they once were.

And simple polarized positions are not constructive. Instead o honouring

the paradigms o edge versus core, or, in our case, teaching versus research

learning about versus experimenting with, theinnovation ecotone

concept outlined in this paper proposes a third thinga concept o overlap,

transition or gradient. It proposes a sustainable educational environment: a

space o pervasive innovation which is talent rich and talent diverse.


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There is now considerable evidence in avor o the Intermediate Disturbance

Hypothesis; this new paradigm in ecology explicitly recognizes disturbance as an

integral part o natural systems. The Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis positsthat the greatest biological diversity occurs at intermediate levels o disturbance.

A disturbance in this sense is defned as any relatively discrete event in time that

disrupts ecosystem or community structure and changes resource availability or

the physical environment. The extension o this hypothesis to the landscape level

results in the view that the greatest diversity occurs in landscapes large enough to

contain various serial or successional stages as the result o disturbance events in the

past. The resulting habitat heterogeneity will help maintain conditions suitable or

a greater number o species, including both opportunistic species that

invade newly created patches and highly competitive species that predominate in

older patches.H. R. Pulliam and B. R. Johnson7

Designers are, by nature, an opportunistic species.They work with and

on problems, fnding or creating openings rom which to make things. And

where there are no clear and present problems defned, they go out and fnd

them embedded in the intricacy o everyday lie. By problems, I do not merely

reer to things problematic but to opportunities or working on the questions,

puzzles, issues and enigmas that are inherent to human existence, its behavior,

and its structures. And in using the word designers, I am speaking inclusively

about those who design and those who engage in design thinking design as

a constructive process by which the designer takes on problems, models them,

rames them, and creates a response through the distribution o material, real

or virtual, in spaceand design thinking the same process but where the

product may be thought itselconceptual, strategic, structural, or systemic

in nature.

The beauty o design as an approach to lie, specifcally as lie is associated

with the material and human environments in which it is embedded, is its

creative opportunistic tendencies. The entrepreneurialism associated with

NOW AS THE DESIGN BRIEF


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DESIGN EDUCATION AND INNOVATION ECOTONES 'NOW' AS THE DESIGN BRIEF 6

these tendencies has always been a driving orce and one which has been

eective in negotiating change. But as the dynamics are now shiting in the

contemporary context, as the rate o change quickens and becomes morepervasive and persistent, this eectiveness is at risk.

In the past we had punctuated evolution. Things changed abruptly and ater

the abrupt change, there were decades o stability. Every major technical or

inrastructural shit asymptoted out moderately ast and then stayed airly stable

thereater. Automobiles, canals, railroads. It is the stability that has enabled us to

build really deep institutional models based upon these types o inrastructures and

technologies thereater. But maybe or the frst time ever in the history o civilization

we are entering a new techno-economic paradigm, a new type o inrastructure, a

digital inrastructure that may just not asymptote out. It may just keep on goingand going. It is exponential in very interesting ways Now o course inrastructure

is more than just technologies. All serious inrastructures are social-technical

paradigms and society and institutions have to fll in and respond.

John Seely Brown, Chicago, May 20088

We are living a moment o great change as opposed to a state o stability

in the sciences, technology, and culture. We are acing immense horizons

o new knowledgenew knowledge that is continuously inuencing this

rate o change while, simultaneously, being a result o the new technologies

and methods o inormation production and collation, and knowledge

construction associated with this change. And we are embedded in

environments o new practices that are both responsible or, and a product o,

our emerging global society.

How do we respond to this present environment and the cultural and societal

shocks that accompany it, such that these shocks produce evolution and not

trauma? What is the role o the designer and how can we train ourselves to be

better prepared or these current challenges as well as uture possibilities we

cannot oresee?


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As designers and architects, how well are we engaging with these horizons o

new knowledge and environments o new practices? As educators o creative

individuals, how best to help them engage with these increasingly immenseknowledge horizons and new practices? How best to cultivate motivations

through which they will navigate these new environments with purpose,

meaning, and intent?

Fiteen years, ago, my image o design was like navigating the course o a

sailboatdetermining the basic trajectory, fnding the north, setting sail

and tacking with the wind and currents to keep on course. In this image, the

winds and currents are analogous to the parameters o the problem, including

the questions, responses and discoveries made along the way. This analogy

allowed or unexpected deviations, whether minor, major or even whencompletely blown o course. Navigating the process, the richness o making

new discoveries, and arriving relatively undamaged were all dependent upon

the designers tactical openness while steadily moving through the process

with consistent intentions.

But today, the sailboat has been replaced with the image o a kayak in

white water moving through changing topologies. Designers now operate

in an environment in which major epistemological and cultural shits are

challenging territorialized ideologies and identities at an increasing pace;

and where accelerated change, complex problems, and signifcant scientifc

innovations are leading to the elasticity o our proessional and disciplinary

barriers, and our cultural and political practices.

We are no longer sailing along the surace o our environment, responding

with some sense o orientation, control, and critical oresight. Today, we are

deeply embedded in a ast moving and complex terrain, and must be able to

rely on our instincts as much as knowledgeinstincts honed rom knowledge

gained through experience that can be tacitly accessed. Disorientation is


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oten part o this environment and can be productive when it catalyzes highly

situated revisions in prevailing assumptions and practices, or generates deeply

creative insights.

The designer as white water kayaker requires highly developed disciplinary

expertise (musculature) and creative dexterity. The imagination is the

undercurrent or this creative dexterity, and it uels movement orward at a

steady pace and as bursts o adrenalin.

But I would suggest that there is something more that goes beyond skill and

dexterity that allows one to maintain a given course, goal, or points o ocus

while responding skillully and creatively to situations at hand. I would suggest

that it has to do with elasticityelasticity as the property o a substance

that enables it to change its volume or shape in direct response to a orce and

to recover its original orm upon the removal o the orce.

In her introduction to the catalogue or the MoMA/SEED magazine

exhibit, Design and the Elastic Mind, Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator o the

Department o Architecture and Design at MoMA, used the term elasticity in

a more resonant way.


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Adaptability is an ancestral distinction o human intelligence, but todays distinct

variations in rhythm call or something stronger: elasticity. The by-product

o adaptability + acceleration, elasticity is the ability to negotiate change andinnovation without letting them interere excessively with ones own rhythms and

goals. It means being able to embrace progress , understanding how to make it

our own.

Paola Antonelli, New York, 20089

Elasticity as adaptability + acceleration is an inspired concept because it

implies shape deormation in response to external conditions without a

change in material composition. Over time the elastic object may deorm its

shape permanently as it repeatedly stretches and adapts, but the molecular

composition remains intact. I one makes the analogy between molecularcomposition and an individuals rhythms and goals (motivations), this implies

that a designer can negotiate extreme change by adapting to situations and

problems at hand, and adapt more quickly over time without losing his or

her individual point o view and inherent motivations. One can then extend

this metaphor to imagine that signifcant changes in a creative individuals

goals and motivations do occur as part o the natural process o evolution, but

at a dierent pacea pace that is associated with resistance. The key is the

concept o adaptability + acceleration, but with resistance.

This speciesthe designerinhabits an environment where expertise and

imagination interact to shape undercurrents o creativity. But expertise,

creative dexterity, imagination, and elasticity, without agency (the ability to

have an impact on the world) only suggest adaptability o the individual to this

uid and topologically complex environment. The capacity to adapt andact to

shape circumstances in this environment is critical. Elasticity o the individual

creates greater resilience or the entire species, as an ensemble o individuals,

but only when agency aects change in the ensembles network o rules,

norms, relationships, and practices.


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So here we bring in the terminnovation. Innovation is a bi-product o

agency, expertise, creative dexterity, imagination, and elasticity. While

creativity is the use o imagination to transcend traditional ideas, processes,objects and so on, to make new ones o these, innovation is about giving these

things new meanings that lead to changes in the system. Because resilience

o the entire species depends upon innovation, in a time o perpetual change,

we need to understand that innovation is the key nutrient, as well as product,

o the ecosystem.

21stCENTURYKnowledgeConstruction

20thCENTURYLearning

ACCREDITATION

ACCREDITATION +

EXPERIMENTATION

DESIGN

MICRO-LABS

DIGITAL CORRIDORS

SPECIES-RICH

SPECIES-DIVERSE

Hedgehog

Fox

Mangrove

Mudskipper

An Opportunistic Species w/ Elasticity + Agency = Innovation

(for evolution, not trauma)


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Given the dynamic and multivalent nature o current knowledge acquisition

in our evolving global society, it is very easy to become quickly dissatisfed

with the rigid binary oppositions put in place by the western cultural para-digm o modernity. In particular with regard to education, the systemic polar-

ization between teaching and research seems especially problematic. This split

is based on an historical bias that distinguishes teaching, as a system to deliver

rigorously vetted inormation, rom the practice o research as a methodical

investigation o a subject or topic to develop new knowledge.

The argument against the blending o teaching and research has revolved

around several key assumptions: that inormation delivered through teaching

unquestionably leads to the building o knowledge, and thereore authoritative

teaching is the most assured way to knowledge building; that the most efcientway to build knowledge rom inormation is through a disciplinary structure;

and fnally, that building knowledge systematically is a necessary prerequisite

to any new thought on a subject, implying a strictly linear sequence rom

teaching what is known to fnding new things.

I would like to suggest that the linear route is no longer eective in a time o

exponential increase in inormation. Today, massive amounts o inormation

can no longer be sorted into distinct disciplinary territories. Nor can they be

comprehensively learned or assimilated within the traditional educational

structure and time rame o degree-granting, even within one given feld.

So, i instead o polarizations, we think o continuums in which there is a

sliding proportional scale between the extremes, and where the extremes

themselves are tendencies and not absolute terms, then there is greater room

or adaptability to situations at hand and variability o means o engagement.

And i we break apart the traditional linear process, in which learning about

what is known preceeds new actions, and instead construct an idea space in

TOWARD THE DESIGN OF A DESIGNEDUCATION ECOSYSTEM


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DESIGN EDUCATION AND INNOVATION ECOTONES TOWARD THE DESIGN OF A DESIGN EDUCATION ECOSYSTEM 12

which how one acts in the world can be mapped relative to how one learns

about the world, and vice versa, then I believe we can envision a design concept

or a new kind o ecosystem o learning, engagement, and impact.

This idea space is scaolded by a double continuum in which the horizontal

continuum maps approaches to knowledge construction, and more specif-

cally, the paradigm shit that is occurring as we move rom twentieth-century

thinking to twenty-frst century thinking; and the vertical continuum maps

ways o engaging with the contemporary context, which I have suggested is

one in which we are aced with immense horizons o new knowledge and are

embedded in environments o new practices. The horizontal continuum is an

epistemological one and the vertical continuum is ontological in nature.

THE HORIZONTAL (EPISTEMOLOGICAL) DIMENSION

APPROACH-TO-EDUCATION

The let side o this continuum corresponds to models, methods, and

mechanisms associated with twentieth century learning and the right side cor-

21st

CENTURY

KNOWLEDGE

CONSTRUCTION

Scaleable learning

Elasticity

Agency

20th

CENTURY

LEARNING

Transmission of knowledge as pushfrom expert teacher to students

Disciplinary in nature w/neat rows ofinformation

Linearknowledge builds on facts

Student pulls knowledge throughentrepreneurial engagement withlearning environments

Breaks down disciplinary boundaries

Non-hierarchical learningwhat youneed when you need it

FIGURE 1The Horizontal Dimension/Approach-to-Education


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responds to how we are beginning to conceive o knowledge construction or

the twenty-frst century. A twentieth-century approach to education holds ast

to the notion o teaching as a systematic delivery o knowledgeknowledgethat is vetted and sanctioned and delivered in discipline-based packages rom

expert teachers to students. It is education in which one learns about specifc

stu and how to do specifc things.

In contrast, twenty-frst century learning environments are about learning

that extends ar beyond the classroom (it scales), which in turn promotes

elasticity and agency. The assumption is that we need to prepare or utures

in which the specifc things we will be doing, and specifc stu we will need

to know, do not yet exist. Implicated in an education or the twenty-frst

century are all sorts o new mechanismscultural, social, and intellectualmechanismsthat are either directly or indirectly afliated with the digital

age as a global phenomenon.

Intuitively, we understand that a twenty-frst century approach to learning

is radically dierent rom education that ocuses on the accumulation o

inormation and the simplistic transer o culture and ideas associated with

this inormation. But what is it more precisely?

I would suggest that it begins with an epistemological shit in which learning

how to learn and act (learning to be), in a highly situated manner, replaces

learning about 10 something. And then it is about how this scales, so as to

create elasticity and agency.

Scaleable learning is learning that extends beyond the duration o a particular

instance o learninga class, a course, or an extended sequence o courses

evenand beyond the defned content and knowledge boundaries o that

particular instance. It is learning that may be locally situated, and regionally con-

structed, but is ultimately globally oriented, ocusing on the relationship between

the regional and the global in how one constructs and applies knowledge.


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Scaleable learning is not discrete learning, but learning that connects with

other knowledge bases, and osters easy adaptability and application to mul-

tiple instances, multiple scenarios, and multiple applications. It is the inverseo instructional teaching environments, promoting and in act requiring

students to actively and entrepreneurially engage in their own education. It is

authentic learning, highly situated but extensively connected.

This is a second paradigm shit in how we think about knowledge, action,

interaction, and agency. It is about learning to manage a complex network o

inormational resources and skills so as to develop the capacity to assimilate

them, internalize them and then access them under a variety o situations

changing, adapting and innovating in dierent situations and circumstances.

Project-based environments like the design studio are an excellent example

o scaleable learning because in order to engage the problem, the students

must frst decipher it and then determine what they will need to work through

the problemwhat skills and inormation they will need to move orward,

including elements outside the specifc domain where the work began. And

then they engage in work that, as it progresses, continually reorms the prob-

lem, its constraints, and inormation + skills needed. Inormation-rich courses

can also operate in this entrepreneurial manner and there are many well-

proven examples,11 as well as more experimental ones still under development.

So i twenty-frst century learning is about scaleable learning to create elastic-

ity and agency, how do we understand elasticity in this context? And agency?

Elasticity was defned earlier as adaptability and acceleration but we can

elaborate here. Adaptability and acceleration imply exibility and speed, both

associated with agility and dexterity. Dexterity and agility require tremendous

skill that may be part o ones natural talent. More oten, however, and even

with inherent talent, this skill is developed through tremendous amounts o

concerted work that is done to build strength in multiple areas. Design dexter-

ity and agility also require that knowledge and skills not only be extensive but

that they are assimilated so thoroughly that they become internalized as tacit


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knowledge that is accessed instinctually as needed.

Agency is the ability to have an impact on the world, and is the product oscaleable learning and elasticity. Architecture has always been a visionary dis-

cipline and a visionary practice. Between vision and its achievement is agency.

The development o agency is dependent on many things, including, most

importantly, the ability to deeply read the context and the systems o values

embedded in itthe ramesto ormulate actions that support or mediate

change, or operate on that context.

I agency can be defned as instrumental actionsthat is, actions that shape

their environment as opposed to being merely shaped by itthen the the un-

damentals o agency are a deep understanding o that environment, a vision,and being able to make that vision operational through elasticity o response.

It must be emphasized that the horizontal axis is a continuum, not a time line,

and the two ends are not mutually exclusive. There will be educators deep in

the uture still teaching with twentieth-century principles and there are many

instances o teaching in the last century that attempted sel-sustaining learn-

ing practices and project-based environments.

THE VERTICAL (ONTOLOGICAL) DIMENSION / ENGAGEMENT

OF THE CONTEXT

This dimension maps ways o engaging the contemporary context: a context

in which we are aced with immense horizons o new knowledge and embed-

ded in environments o new practices. The top o this continuum has been

labelled accreditation. It is accreditation that defnes the role and content

o proessional architectural education today. Thereore, accreditation at the

top can be taken to mean, literally, that the dynamic and complex context is

engaged and acted on through the consistency o proessional standards and

practices or accreditation as architects. Experience is assimilated through

these flters, new knowledge is constructed in direct relationship to existing


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knowledge, and new practices are studied and understood relative to existing

and historical practices.

But the term accreditation can also more broadly represent the imperative o

any core disciplinary teaching or core body o knowledge, and the standards

and practices associated with that knowledge. This is to say that the context is

made sense o through these core knowledge flters and historical practices. Or,

analogically, it can also mean any epistemological systemor any outlook, act,

or belie or that matterthat is accessed and employed to help organize and act

on the context we are in. Accreditation, as a term broadly interpreted, is about

sanctioned authority. It thereore implies that the context, as dynamic as it might

be, is engaged through accepted categories o knowledge and perspectives (value

rames), that existing knowledge and practices are reliable, and that they holdauthority over emerging questions and unknown uture conditions.

21st

CENTURYKnowledge

Construction

Scaleable learning

Elasticity

Agency

20th

CENTURYLearning

ACCREDITATION

(responses)

EXPERIMENTATION

(questions)

FIGURE 2The Vertical Dimension.Engagement of Context


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At the oot o this continuum is experimentation as an imperative and a prac-

tice. Here, the context is engaged through creative research, and a conscious

way o working that prioritizes questions over authoritative responses. Thiscan be seen as an ontological distinction: while accreditation is about I exist,

and act, through how I defne mysel, experimentation is about acting and exist-

ing through questions.

Experimentation is explicitly about the raming o questions through which

we learn about the things we are experimenting with and on. Experimentation

also implies that it is not merely a process o providing questions and answers,

but a recursive process o repeated questioning in which partial , possible, or

probable answers are tested and then subjected to new questions with new

responses leading to new propositions, more questions, and so on. Becauseexperimentation is recursive and because it is ongoing (ueled by curiosity),

this process o knowledge building has the potential to keep pace with its

environment while simultaneously aecting this environment.

Experimentation is the conducting o specifc pieces o work (acts or opera-

tions) or the purposes o discovering something unknown, or or testing an

idea, a principle, a proposition. It is the means through which creativity is

linked to innovation. Innovation requires deeply contextualized knowledge;

knowledge that comes rom engagement o the context, not beore engage-

ment o the context. Knowledge that leads to innovation is built rom working

deeply situated in the context to know it (the kayak again), rather than applied

over the context to make sense o it (the sailboat).

Because I understand accreditation, and all that it implies and makes analogy

to as an overlay o knowledge and practices onto the context, and experi-

mentation as a way o operating through an underlayment o questions that

generate new knowledge and practices, I have placed experimentation below

the learning continuum and accreditation above it.


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(THE TEST: HEDGEHOGS AND FOXES)

As a testing o the creative ecology o this idea space, it could be useul to sub-ject an existing creativity paradigm to this space in order to better understand

the relational nature o its two dimensions.

In 1953 Sir Isaiah Berlin wrote the essay, The Hedgehog and the Fox, in which

he proposed a classifcation o writers and thinkers, and perhaps all human

beings, into two opposing psychological orientations and personalities. His

classifcation is based upon a line rom the Greek poet Archilochus, which says

The ox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

Taken fguratively, the words mark a great chasm between those, on one side,who relate everything to a single central vision, one system less or more coherent or

articulate, in terms o which they understand, think and eela single, universal,

organizing principleand, on the other side, those who pursue many ends, oten

unrelated and even contradictory related by no moral or aesthetic

principle; these last lead lives, perorm acts, and entertain ideas that are centriugal

rather than centripetal, their thought is scattered or diused, moving among many

levels, seizing upon the essence o a vast variety o experiences and objects The

frst kind o intellectual and artistic personality belongs to the hedgehogs, the second

to the oxes.12

Although Berlin himsel agreed that over-simple classifcations o this type cre-

ate dichotomies that, i pressed, are artifcial, scholastic, and ultimately absurd,

he still elt that all distinctions which embody any degree o truth, oer a point

o view rom which to look and compare, a starting point or genuine investiga-

tion. Certainly enough people have cited this metaphoric dichotomy to contrast

artists, thinkers, architects, business models, political fgures, and others.

Taking his cue rom Berlin, the well-known modern architectural historian

and theoretician Colin Rowe, in Collage City, applies the hedgehog/ox model

as well. He uses it to discuss the dierent motivations attributable to Louis


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XIV at Versailles and Hadrian at Villa Adriana.

Versailles is certainly an exhibition o total architecture and design the tri-umph o generality, the prevalence o the overwhelming idea and the reusal o

the exception, the complete unitary model, while Villa Adriana attempts

to dissimulate all reerence to any controlling idea. Compared with the

single-minded perormance o Louis XIV, we have the curiosity o Hadrian

who proposes the reverse o any totality in the Villa Adriana an uncoordi-

nated amalgam o discrete enthusiasms. So to paraphrase loosely in hopes

o expediting this characterization, we have exhibition o the overwhelming

idea on the part o the hedgehog personality in contrast to the curiosity and

discrete enthusiasms o the ox personality. The ox is preoccupied with a

multiplicity o stimuli while the hedgehog is concerned with the primacy othe single idea.13

Looking again at the vertical dimension o the idea space I have delineated, i

one takes the broader understanding o the word accreditation as meaning

authoritative knowledge and practices (or even analogically as a core episte-

mological system seen as a complete and unitary system), and experimenta-

tion to mean a practice o curiosity o discrete enthusiasms, then one can

clearly see how the hedgehog maps into the top-let-hand space and the ox

into the lower-let-hand space. Because the hedgehog organizes his under-

standing o reality through a clear single a priori idea, holding steadast to this

image o reality regardless o the changes in the context, it is clear that reality

is understood through the authoritative. The ox, on the other hand, is open

to changes in the environment, adapting with it. The implication in Berlins

text is that the ox is not merely scattered in thinking and ormation because o

an incapacity to be otherwise, but that oxes seize upon the essence o a vast

variety o experiences. They modiy their behaviourthey adaptand pos-

sess a situated understanding o reality. Given this, I would actually place oxes

closer to the right o this lower realm, just as I would place hedgehogs closer to

the top let o their quadrant.


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But both o these species are still very much part o the pre-twenty-frst

century contexta polarization that is problematic in the shiting, altering,

dynamic context o the twenty-frst century. I we want to think about the

aect a twenty-frst learning paradigm might have on this context, and more

particularly how to design an ecosystem that would occupy the other two

quadrants, what would it take? And what species would we fnd evolving there?

21st

CENTURY

Knowledge

Construction

20th

CENTURY

Learning

ACCREDITATION

ACCREDITATION +

EXPERIMENTATION

DESIGN

MICRO-LABS

DIGITAL CORRIDORS

SPECIES-RICH

SPECIES-DIVERSE

Hedgehog

Fox

Mangrove

Mudskipper21st

CENTURY

Knowledge

Construction

20th

CENTURY

Learning

ACCREDITATION

EXPERIMENTATION

Hedgehog

Fox

FIGURE 3The Test


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The amount o inormation available today, the pace at which it is coming in,

and thereore the amount an architect is expectedrequiredto master is

exponentially increasing. The ormal academic phase o becoming an architectis one component o the education. The proessional internship, during which

the student is actively practicing, under the guidance o proessionally licensed

architects, on real ull-scale projects, is another. Despite this greater amount o

inormation and the manner in which it keeps adding to, and rereshing itsel,

the length and time available within the academic portion o an architects

education is not increasing. In act, in some cases it is decreasing.

As a result, certain bodies o inormation are being replaced by new bodies

o inormation, not because they are outdated or irrelevant, but because there

is just not enough time or all to be consumed under the traditional learningmodels.

For example, looking at technical coursework alone: Ten years ago, course-

work on structures was about statics o materials; today, in addition to this, we

have new materials, new methods o construction, and an entire new feld that

relates structures, materials, and perormance to environmental concerns and

sustainable responses. And this multiplication o inormation and concerns

sub-felds evenprolierates throughout the coursework rom structures, to

history and theory, representational methods, building systems, and design

methodologies, even.

Furthermore, this gap between the amount o consumable inormation

and skills that can be learned under traditional teaching models, and the

inormation and skills available and critical to an architect today, can produce

unintended shits in values and ocus as the immediacies o new concerns and

inormation create competition within the system. In an eort to answer the

really tough questions really quickly, with ever-new inormation and practices,

we stand to lose the human social and reective dimensions o our work and

our identitieso who we are and what we do, as individuals and together. In

that which is most immediate being attended to frst, the more tacit aspects o

ACCREDITATION +


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DESIGN EDUCATION AND INNOVATION ECOTONES 'ACCREDITATION +' 22

our social, cultural and political practices oten stand to be neglected. Without

a critical assessment o these possible and unintended shits in values, the

discipline is vulnerable to racture and loss o purpose.

In addition to this increased amount and pace o new inormation acquisition,

we have the development o new sub-disciplines. One example is computation

as a tool or design, simulation, research, and construction methods, and as a

feld with its own theoretical ground. Environmental systems and processes

is another. And as deep areas o expertise are developing within these sub-

disciplines, sub-sub-disciplines are emerging. The risk o losing the disciplines

integrative imperative is severe without new mechanisms and networks o

connective tissue.

All o this implies that the designer must master core knowledge and skills in

a dierent way: one that is about greater assimilation, in a more compressed

manner, o an ever broader range o knowledge. Engagement with immense

horizons o new knowledge and new practices, in the disciplinary context

described above, requires re-envisioning the core o design education.

Mechanisms, means, and methods associated with a twenty-frst century

approach to learning promote entrepreneurial learning. In an environment

in which knowledge and skills are built and acquired in situated contexts that

promote scaleability, elasticity, and agency, there is greater possibility that

the student will acquire, assimilate, and synthesize valuable skills and more

inormation associated with new practices.

Thereore, I propose that as one moves increasingly toward an operational

twenty-frst century architectural education, accreditation (which I now use to

reer to the system o core principles, knowledge, and practices that specifcal-

ly correspond to the proessional certifcation given to schools o architecture)

incrementally and signifcantly improves and becomes hyper accreditation.

That is, it becomes accreditation + (plus) and it can be drawn like this:


24/56


The curve is not an even gradient because the moment one makes the shit in

thinking rom delivering knowledge through teaching, to providing mecha-

nisms that cultivate entrepreneurial and scaleable learningthe incremental

increase in aect is signifcant.

But this broader range o knowledge and skills is o little value on its own

terms. For it to be deployed in a manner that meaningully responds to the

complex issues o today, learning must advance beyond inormation and skills.

It must ultimately lead to the development o a creative inquiring disposition.

The designer must be able to understand a specifc situation or problem,

unpack it, and then determine and go ater the specifc deeper or fner-grained

inormation and skills necessary to move orward.

21st

CENTURY

Knowledge

Construction

20th

CENTURY

Learning

ACCREDITATION

ACCREDITATION +

EXPERIMENTATION

FIGURE 4 Accreditation + Curve


25/56


Learning in this environment o hyper accreditation is about three things. It

involves sorting inormation and skills into those that you have to have on

hand, to have mastered, so that they are part o any tacit synthetic response,rom those that are best let in the bank o stu to be accessed as necessary in

a given situation. It is also about developing an entrepreneurial disposition

one that is ueled by inquiry and maniest through the creative imagination.

Finally, mechanisms o communication and connectivity are essential to create

a rich integrative environment o deep and broad work.

Accreditation + is not so much about more knowledge, more skills, as it is

about key knowledge and skills, well assimilated and well linked across the

sub-disciplinesdesign, technology, history and theory, representation, com-

putationas well as the capacity to fnd and build the knowledge and skillsnecessary or any given situation. T his requires the development o new learn-

ing mechanisms; injected into the system, these new mechanisms can instigate

transormative change in the system itsel. There are already mechanisms that

have been in place or many years in key places, such as MITs Open Course

Work platorm, Rices Connexions Project, and other more experimental

projects and sites such as USCs Vectors Journal or Culture and Technology

or the NASA-sponsored Virtual Telescopes in Education (there are vitual

microscopes too), simulation devices, etc. Many o these mechanisms, but not

all, are acilitated by digital technology and the Internet.

Within a school o architecture and design there are, even traditionally, sub-

stantially dierent modes o engaging with course content throughout the

education process. But new technologies, new theories related to inormation

collation and visualization, lead us to think about possible new models or

specifcally working toward accreditation +.14 And accreditation +, as a

concept, challenges us to design these.


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As we navigate toward a twenty-frst century approach to learning that

honors elasticity and agency, and engages the context through inquiry and

experimentation, we gain a greater chance o authentic innovation. Greaterdesign elasticity, ounded upon better assimilated skills and knowledge, cre-

ates the dexterity and agency that are needed or design that is more than just

instrumental or critical problem solving. This is design in which constraints

are reramed as opportunities. Increased knowledge and skill assimilation

increased dexteritymeans an increased capacity to oer design responses

to these opportunities. And increased agency means that these design

responses can alter existing understandings, practices, and boundaries.

This shit in emphasis in architectural education rom learning how to make

things in response to a problems constraints and opportunities, to learning asa orm o experimentation where questions are ramed aroundproblems (mov-

ing rom the upper quadrant to the lower one) activates design as a form

of inquiry. Here, opportunism is not a perceptual shit applied to a given

problem (valuable as that might be in opening up unexpected trajectories o

work). It is not an aikido move that turns constraints into opportunities. It is

problem-seeking itsel.

Questions ramed around problems become much more important than

intentional responses with intended consequences. Intelligent, well-ramed

questions are the essence o meaningul, creative design inquirydesign

as researchbecause they instigate an abundance o work testing dierent

approaches, priorities, and possibilities through multiple responses. And

great questions, intricately ramed around problems that are even mildly

complex in nature, have a tendency to trespass across disciplinary boundaries,

leading naturally to work that co-opts material and methods rom

other disciplines.

MICRO-LABS / SEEDING A CULTUREOF INNOVATION


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DESIGN EDUCATION AND INNOVATION ECOTONES MICRO-LABS / SEEDING A CULTURE OF INNOVATION 26

An approach to design that ocuses on experimentation, inquiry and ongoing

creative research, multidisciplinary / multitalented in scope, around intricate

questions, creates a culture o innovation. A culture of innovation alsoimplies distribution o innovative practices throughout a particular environ-

ment. Culture, as the shared belies, customs, practices, and social behavior

o a group andculture as the growth o biological material in a nutrient-rich

medium, both rely on distribution as opposed to concentration o activity.

This culture o innovation can emerge as individuals embrace new knowledge

and practices as active participants in their work. Or it can be catalyzed

through mechanisms that encourage individualsand specifcally individuals

rom dierent areasto do design work together. Catalytic mechanisms can

be heavy or light: large-scale multidisciplinary centers with major unding, lotso people, and clear planning, or they can be something else.

Given the ast pace o the world today, I suggest that creativity and experi-

mentation must be quicker and more agile than traditional, heavy innovation

mechanisms allow. A lighter, more agile mechanism is called or; one that is

capable o elasticitymaybe even conceived as elastic. As an alternative, I

propose design labs, where the organizational structure is light, emergent,

networked, and elastic, are dierent rom design studios in that they are driven

by inquiry rather than organized around pedagogy.

I would suggest that a culture o innovation looks very dierent rom a

traditional research unding model. As a culture, it cannot be mandated or

structured, but it can be acilitated. These design labs, instead o compre-

hensive large units, could be richly networked design micro-labs. Easier and

quicker than large centers to plan, build and reconfgure as projects shit and

move in other directions, they acilitate grassroots creative research. These

highly networked micro labs, ocused on topics o deep inquiry, need not have

dozens o participants sitting in the same room. A team o participants with

the necessary skills might be distributed among several institutions, several

countries, networked digitally and through ongoing academic relationships.


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The creative research can then move beyond the home discipline, the home

academic institution, and beyond academia itsel, while being built on these

home resources, strengths, and talents.15

Like a pace line16or echelono cyclists, these design micro-labs, in

concept, consist o a small, agile team o diverse talent and expertise, non-

hierarchically organized, drating rom each others strengths. An example is

a our-person team o track cyclists. The ront cyclist leads the eort until it is

his turn to drop back and drat at the rear, to rest, recuperate, and regenerate.

The two cyclists in the middle drat and pull simultaneously, and the person in

the rear waits and prepares to move orward.

My daughter is one o these cyclists and she explained the dynamics o eortto me. There is generally a movement cycle o twenty seconds to several

minutes until a specifc event occurs, such as a hill. In preparation or the hill,

the team positions the member who is most eective at pulling up hills into

the lead position where this cyclist will build uphill momentum and hold until

the hill is attainedar at least long enough to break the inertia o the eort

on at ground. On a straightaway, where speed must be built, the team rotates

continually with no more than a two-pedal-stroke hold in the ront position.

In the micro-lab, the various strengths and areas o expertise would pull, drat,

and rest at dierent moments during a project, depending on dierent needs

and events. While drating, one has the chance to learn new material, research

new inormation and re-direct a portion o the research/work in preparation

or leading again.

Returning to our idea space, i we understand that these design micro-labs are

part o an ethos o experimentation and can only be achieved within twenty-

frst century teaching/learning methods, I suggest that the conceptual curve o

the design micro-labs looks something like this:


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Just as the accreditation + curve starts with talent and lie experiences, build-

ing knowledge and skills in a structured setting, the design micro-lab curve

also begins with talent and lie experiences. It relies on knowledge and skills

built within the accreditation + activity zone, but these new skills and this

new knowledge become more tacit, supporting instinct and intuition around

projects. What is important is that the design micro-labs seed a culture o

innovation as elastic mechanisms. They are mechanisms not structures, and as

mechanisms they are a means o creative grassroots research and innovation.

Because they are networked, a single micro-labs reach extends beyond the

team itsel or the duration o a specifc project. When the opportunity arises,

these micro-labs can coalesce into one larger lab with tremendous diversity

and richness o talent. Breaking apart again, they may redistribute talent and

21st

CENTURY

Knowledge

Construction

20th

CENTURY

Learning

ACCREDITATION

ACCREDITATION +

EXPERIMENTATION

DESIGN

MICRO-LABS

DIGITAL CORRIDORS

SPECIES-RICH

SPECIES-DIVERSE

Hedgehog

Fox

Mangrove

Mudskipper21st

CENTURY

Knowledge

Construction

20th

CENTURY

Learning

ACCREDITATION

ACCREDITATION +

EXPERIMENTATION

DESIGN

MICRO-LABS

FIGURE 5The Micro-lab Curve


30/56


resources. Analogous to the way process networks mobilize highly special-

ized small companies across an extended integrated design and manuacturing

process,17

a network o micro-labs creates a horizontal rhizomic structure inwhich the whole is much greater than the sum o the parts. The networked

micro-lab can adapt to new questions and opportunities rom outside as well

as inside the network.

It is important that both the emergence oindividual grass roots eorts and the

seeding orgrass roots activity are o value to this model. Easy to support, quick

to build, networked together, they are capable o creating an impact ar beyond

what a single larger lab could.


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As has been previously stated, much o the discussion about building business

capability ocuses on the value o activities that operate at the edge, where edge

can mean several thingsthe edge o an enterprise, the edge o the processesassociated with the enterprise, geographic edges, demographic edges, etc.a

whole set o edges that create the opportunity or capability building. (JH)

The point is that by being able to listen deeply and participate on the edge, you

can pick up things beore anybody else picks them up, and you can use them to

accelerate you own capability building My sense is that there are more edges

today, and the edges themselves are becoming more important. (JSB)18

The implication is that work at the edge is unettered and unencumbered by the

inertia o core activity. It is more open to innovative orces that can reshape and

transorm the core, which the core will not do under its own constraints andconditions.

The design micro-lab curve is analogous to edge activity, while the accredita-

tion + curve relates to core activity. While some people are most valuable

working within the accreditation + environment, others bring value working

in the micro-labs-as-seeds-o-innovation environment.

As the design micro-labs become more and more deeply engaged with exper-

imentationas their members and methods become more and more elastic

with increasing dexterity and agencythe distance between the accreditation

+ and the micro-lab activities diverges. This diverging propensity and a contin-

ued disinterest on my part in the value o polarizing classifcations, means that

instead o ocusing on these as separate and unique felds o activity, discrete in

their operations except or moments o productive communication (irritation),

I preer instead to ocus on the opportunities or connection oered by the

space in between.

This space is not a void between two kinds o activity, but a space o pursuit

itsel. Work within this space would be dierent rom ongoing work pursued at

the edge, dierent rom work associated with hyper disciplinary learning, and

A CULTURE OF INNOVATIONAS (CORRIDORS AND) ECOTONE


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DESIGN EDUCATION AND INNOVATION ECOTONES A CULTURE OF INNOVATION AS (CORRIDORS AND) ECOTONE 31

dierent rom the experimental project-based work o the micro-labs.

Connectivity would begin as events in sequencecorridorscapable otranserring both inormation and methodologies between the two ongoing

activities. These corridors can be maniest as many things: symposia, micro-

symposia, seminars, short topic-oriented design workshops, inormal research

presentations, or any mechanisms that move the work o the design labs out

into the space. The corridors would be supported by inormal social networks

as well, developed digitally (Facebook, Twitter, et al) and physically (caes, game

rooms, etc.). Students or participants within the accreditation + activity can

be conscripted to work in the micro-labs just as non-local participants in the

design labs might be poached or work within the accreditation + activity.

The crucial point is that this in-between space o pursuit and the corridors

o connectivity create a condition that disrupts the traditional operational

understanding o the edge-vs-core relationship. This environment depends on

both and thereore honors both. To break the non-productive resistance o the

historically sanctioned core/accreditation activity, this edge environment must

be prepared with internal mechanisms o connectivityintellectual, social, and

digitalprovide that preparation. (See endnote 19 or how digital tools/means/

mechanisms operate to sustain the ecotone)19

But beyond connectivity, corridors also have the capacity to create other spin-

o activity that distributes itsel entropically, seeding the space in between to

create a ully distributed culture o creativity and innovation.

In landscape systems, corridors create connectivity between dierent habitats.

A system o corridors can lace together two distinct ecosystems, or two pur-

suits such that the impact o one on the other is not purely incidental. Chan-

nelled movements o matter that are spatially dierentiated rom an adjacent

static area may produce or maintain an observable corridor. Here, movement

o objects is greater within a strip than in the surroundings.20

FIGURE 6 Corridors + Distribution


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Corridors in the landscape are strips that dier rom their surroundings;

(and they) permeate the land.21 They are movement paths or species, or wa-

ter, or windor material o the landscape. They exist as qualitatively dierentzones o conduit that connect two ecosystems, end to end. But in addition to

connectivity, they also provide distribution as they open up their contiguous

surroundings to the stu that is moving within them, whether species, air,

inormation, or creative practices.

The space between the two curves is intended as an inhabited space, and I

suggest that its inhabitation has an eect on the activity curves that were

originally drawn. As the two curves diverge, the increasing distance across

the space calls or longer connective corridors; more numerous, more diverse

activities, and completely new mechanisms are necessary to exploit the value

o the most experimental o the micro-labs. These longer corridors seed more

spin-o activities and engage more people. The capacity or experimental work

21st

CENTURY

Knowledge

Construction

20th

CENTURY

Learning

ACCREDITATION

ACCREDITATION +

EXPERIMENTATION

DESIGN

MICRO-LABS

DIGITAL CORRIDORS

SPECIES-RICH

SPECIES-DIVERSE

FIGURE 7Digital Corridors + TheInnovation Ecotone


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is increasingly amplifed and what was a straight arithmetic proportion now

becomes a curve transormed by the rapidly expanding area o the ecotone.

Because people and creative work are involved and because curiosity is a

driver, the more people involved, the more work achieved. I this work and

these people are well connected through involvement in dynamic mechanisms

o communication, and are intellectually generous, then the growth, volume,

and impact o this space increases. The density, diversity, and richness o the

work increases.

While I suggest that many o the proessors and researchers would choose to

work in one o the two edge regionsthe hyper-accreditation or the micro-

labssome cross the space to work in both. But the principle inhabitants othe ecotonal space in between will be the students. They will be raised in that

space, migrating rom one edge to another as they choose their own courses o

learning and discover their own strengths, talents, and motivations.

Several categories or types o (ecotone) species are useully recognized, indepen-

dent o taxonometric group. Most species are generalists that tolerate requent

disturbance, as well as the contrasting environmental conditions on opposite sides o

the (ecotone)


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In addition to edge residents, (ecotones) oten contain multihabitat species, those

requiring or requently using two or more habitat types. These organisms capitalize

on the complementarity o resources provided by the zone between two ecosystemsor land uses. Though subject to disturbance regimes o both ecosystems, these loca-

tions oer ready access to diverse resources, plus stability during stress periods.22

But, even more importantly:

(Ecotones) are oten biological cornucopias. High species richness and density, or

biomass, are documented or many groups Edges may also play an important role

inspecies evolution.24

Within the deep interior o the Cameroon rain orest there is an abundance o

bird species inhabiting the dense canopy. One o these is a green robin-sized

bird known as the greenbul. Drab and unremarkable in appearance, this

bird is extremely interesting to the biologists at UCLAs Center or Tropical

AQUATIC

SPECIES

UNIQUELY RIPARIAN

SPECIES

DECIDUOUS CONIFEROUS

FOREST SPECIES

Aquatic

ecosystem

or

accreditation +

ecosystem

Riparian

ecotone

or

innovation

ecotone

Upland mixed forest

ecosystem

or

micro-lab

ecosystem

FIGURE 8Species distribution for ariparian ecotone (or an innovationecotone)23


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Research and Leiden University in the Netherlands because its existence and

characteristics run counter to the traditional argument that species generation

and modifcation occur within distinct geographically isolated ecosystems.25

This bird can be ound both within the deep rain orest and the wooded ringe

(the ecotone) where jungle meets savannah. Although there is no geographic

barrier between the two populations, the greenbuls living on the orest edge

are distinctly dierent rom those living in the interior o the orest. In act,

the morphological dierences between the two are more pronounced than

those ound between separate bird species living within the same habitat.

The greenbul is a highly vocal bird species. One o the most signifcant dis-

coveries o the UCLA/Leiden group was that the greenbuls living within the

orest edge have a distinctly dierent song pitch rom those that live within theorest. This change in pitch allows those greenbuls living on the edge to over-

come the distinctly dierent ambient sounds o the savannah, thus inuencing

mating choices and ensuring reproductive success.

Additionally, the greenbuls living in the gradient zone between orest and

savannah have longer wings, deeper bills and are heavier than the rainorest

dwellers. These characteristics coner competitive advantage in an environ-

ment where this small bird is more vulnerable to aerial predators. Rainorest

edges are inherently environments o increased predatorship due to the

greater density o small herbivore species. These species orage on certain

plants that can only be ound on the edges because the boundary soils tend

to be mineral rich and because greater penetration o sun and wind opens up

the orest oor to growth. The abundance o small herbivore species attracts

predators turning it into an ecological trap or species such as the greenbul.

It is the greenbuls ability to adapt its song to acoustical variation and its aero-

nautic capabilites in response to increased vulnerability within the gradient

zone o the rainorest edge that ensures its survival. The biologists studying

the greenbul believe that they are witnessing something very important.

Together with other species that have been discovered and studied within this


37/56


particular ecosystem, but also across the globe, the greenbul substantiates

the theory that ecological gradientsin this case between rainorest and

savannahencourage species adaptation and experimentation.26

Theyeven encourage species evolution and generation. In this particular ecotone,

savanna species are adapting to orest environments, and orest species are

adapting to savanna environments. But even more than this, species such as

the greenbul have evolved to a degree that they can no longer occupy any habi-

tat but the ecotone, which is distinctly dierent rom either bounding habitat.

Because the students o the ecotone culture share the space and their work

with others unlike themselves with diverse species there will be those cases

in which one enters as one thing and evolves into something else: an architect,

or instance, evolves into a musician/architect; or an astronomer evolves intoan astronomer/environmentalist.27 Like the Greenbul, though, it is not a

change o song but a new tonality that honors both the song structure and the

new context. This means that this new talent will acquire the ability to contrib-

ute in more than one feld and maintain a key presence in multiple camps.

Theecotone analogy is extensive and highly productive. Diversity o spe-

cies, new species development, keystone species as engineers, distribution

o nutrients, corridors or transer o creatures and stueven the idea o

microhabitats (smaller habitats within larger habitats, like a tidal pool)are

all intensely relevant in terms o conceiving, designing, and implementing

organizational structures and mechanisms or this innovation ecology model.

Each component might independently have an impact and add value to the

system, but the act that the ecotone is a system, rather than a collection o

components, means that their collective impact scales.

These discrete components, which are light, agile, and diverse in nature, are

easier to bring together and to und, and they can take risk. Failure o one

component, or one piece o work, does not mean ailure or the system, and

risk-taking is supported and sanctioned. Multiple talents (species) can be

tapped as opposed to orcing talent to adapt to larger top-down goals. Talent


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buys in and work equity builds.

A mechanical systema watch or instanceis divisible, while an ecosystem isindivisible because o well developed interdependences.28

Because ecosystems are indivisible, they are environments where all work

eeds back into the system, aecting the entire system. This means that while

the innovation ecology model may be structured around discrete packages

o work done by individuals and groups (classes, seminars, labs, micro-labs,

micro-symposia, etc), the actual work o the ecosystem is interconnected,

interdependent, and limitless. Work done over a week, or over months,

continually eeds back into the system, altering the existing and uture course

o the work. The complex series o exchanges adapts to emerging trends,inormation and practices.

Because ecotones are constantly negotiating the interaction o two dierent

habitats in tension, the two activities/pursuits depend upon and sustain each

other. The experimental work (the work o inquiry) eeds back into the ac-

creditation + work (the core work), keeping it relevant, inormed, and moving

orward at the pace o the environment around it. The accreditation + work

grounds the work o inquiry through successul practices. This interdepen-

dence is achieved through the work in the middle which is the work o the

innovation ecotone.

The innovation ecotones resilience comes rom its indivisibility and its capac-

ity to incorporate even disruptive change, thanks to its species diversity and

richness. As conditions in the environment changenew problems, projects,

inormation, and practicesdierent talents rom diverse areas o expertise

respond, taking up the challenges and orming new alliances. These alliances

orm new practices with dierent inection points; sometimes one entity is

the driver, sometimes another.


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The great urbanist Jane Jacobs was among the frst to identiy cities diverse

economic and social structures as the true engines o growth Jacobs argued

that the jostling o many dierent proessions and dierent types o people, allin a dense environment, is an essential spur to innovationto the creation o

things that are truly new. 29

Jostling can be interpreted as physical contact, but it can also reer to the

critical inrastructure o connectivity. Because the innovation ecotone is a

distributed culture containing many smaller events and mechanisms, com-

munication inrastructure o all sorts is essential.

It is expected that certain individuals in the model proposed will inhabit

both the adjacent edge and the ecotone. Those in accreditation +aculty,teaching assistants, adjunct aculty, technical consultants o all sorts, digital

and library support sta, etc.,can and will move into the space in between to

work on certain problems and or certain events.

Those individuals who work in the micro-lab edge can also occupy the in

between: aculty (tenured or not and including those rom other disciplines,

schools and countries), research assistants, industry researchers and con-

sultants, artists, flm makers, business, and anyone valuable rom anywhere

with the necessary talent or the situation at hand. Since the micro-labs are

experimental and multidisciplinary, when these individuals inhabit the space

in between, they bring a dierent ethos. They add richness, diversity, hyper-

disciplinary expertise, and implementation know-how. The dierent talents/

species associated with this edge, along with their capacity to adapt and com-

municate, energize the space with curiosity and the belie that anything can be

done.

Ecotones are specifcally known or being sources o evolutionary novelty.30

Here, the species o evolutionary novelty is the students. Students are capable

o inhabiting both edges o the innovation culture. But more importantly, like

the greenbul o the rainorest/savannah edge with its own song and increased


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aeronautic capabilities, they survive and thrive by their ability to exploit the

variety o conditions within the ecotone itsel. They participate in the events

and mechanisms. Held together by social networking, digital (and non-digital)protocols that are prevalent and ubiquitous today, they are the biological,

psychological, and sociological matter o the innovation culture. The more

they participate in this interstitial zone, the more their disposition or inquiry

develops in relationship to grounded skills and knowledge. They will become

elastic. They will become accustomed to change and in act will thrive on

change, debate, riction and risk, all essential to operating in the twenty-frst

century.

Ecotones unction like the membrane o a cell, negotiating the movement

o materials and conditions around them, and are subject to competition,conict, and riction, even in their most stable states.

When disturbances o signifcance occur, the impact on the ecotone is greater

than on the bordering ecosystems. A storm does not have as great an eect

on the marine ecosystem at sea as it does within the tidal zone. The edge o a

rainorest is more ragile than the interior because its proximity to the savan-

nah creates sun and wind conditions that penetrate the canopy, drying out the

soil so that fre is a greater risk and more destructive on the edge than in the

interior. Thereore, species that live in ecotones have greater adaptability. In

act generally species o an ecotone (actually) require a level o disturbance

or regeneration.31


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As proposed at the outset, this paper outlines an innovation ecotone model

as a sustainable environment o pervasive innovation that is talent rich and

talent diverse.

As an ecosystem that is indivisible, that is species (talent) rich and species

diverse, it is about sustainability at two levels. It is about sustainable innovation

at the level o the system. And it is about sustainable innovation at the level o

deep, and even highly specialized, talent.32

As an ecotone that is a specifc type o indivisible ecosystem connecting two

habitats, it means that the talent that develops within this environment is

uniquely adapted to negotiate core activitysanctioned knowledge bases, sanc-

tioned power bases, etc.and also the creative experimentation that is allowedto occur in an edge environment o irrepressible curiosity, specialized talent, and

where learning through ailures is its own agency or progress. Innovation is sus-

tainable because it is pervasive, and because it negotiates both core/sanctioned

activities and the pull o the dynamics o change.

Emerging ecology theory recognizes not only the impact, but the valuable role

o disturbance to evolution. Disturbance is not only an integral part o any

natural system, but the greatest diversity occurs in landscapes large enough to

contain various serial or successional stages as the result o disturbance events

in the past The resulting habitat heterogeneity maintains conditions suitable

or a greater number o species.33 Implied in this is the assumption that greater

diversity and richness o species contributes to the resiliency o the system.

The twenty-frst century is one that promises perpetual and persistent change.

The ecotone analogy, as more than a metaphoras a structural and operational

constructis invaluable as a model that uses disturbance and change to develop

talent that can sustain itsel and thrive on disturbance and change. This learning

environment is intended to cultivate the education/evolution o students with

new capacities, behaviors, and tendencies that are open, adaptable and elastic.

INNOVATION ECOTONE AS A CONCEPTFOR A SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION ECOLOGY(in education and elsewhere)


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DESIGN EDUCATION AND INNOVATION ECOTONES EPILOGUE 42

Integral to the Indo-Pacifc, and much o the tropical, estuarine zones, man-

groves and mudskippersrhizophora and periophthalmuscan live nowhere

else. One, a terrestrial organism turned aquatic and the other aquatic turnedterrestrial, they both manage the air-water interace, which is one o the most

complex transitions to overcome. In addition to negotiating an environment

o dierence, they are also subjected to continuous disturbances both cyclical

(tides) and event-driven in nature (typhoons). As such they have developed

unique characteristics o adaptation.

Mangroves dominate tropical coastlines. Few other plant species can tolerate

the salinity, the cyclical ooding, and the sot bottomed anaerobic soil condi-

tions. Mangroves flter salt out through their roots and leaves, creating their

own supply o nearly salt-ree water that they store in their thick leaves. Theydeal with the anaerobic soil conditions and continual ooding by taking in

oxygen rom the air through specialized aerial and/or snorkel-like roots that

rise up rom the mud. These woven spidery roots create a structural integrity

that holds ast to the sot soil in the tidal zone.

Mangroves not only survive under these conditions, they also create an

ecological habitat that supports many intricate coastal ecosystems. Their

tangled root systems flter out sedimentation and pollutants while providing

the smaller fsh critical cover rom predators. This unique root structure

neutralizes tidal activity as well, and by calming waves during sea storms,

delicate speciescoral, shrimp, crabs, sea grasscan ourish. Additionally,

decomposing leaves and branches on the seabottom provide rich nutrients or

plant and animal lie, such as the mudskipper.

The mudskipper is a class o amphibious fsh that shuttles back and orth

rom land to water. Compared with its ully aquatic cousins, the mudskipper

exhibits a series o unusual physiological and behavioral adaptations to its

land/water liestyle.

EPILOGUE


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The mudskippers pectoral fns provide buoyancy but also permit them to

walk, jump, and climb across sand and obstacles. Some mudskippers can jump

as high as two eet. T heir uniquely engineered eyes and lenses allow them toextend their eyes above water like periscopes, and move them independently,

increasing their feld o vision. Breathing through their gills like all submerged

fsh, they fll enlarged gill chambers with water beore moving on to land. This

portable oxygen tank allows them to breathe while on land and to burrow deep

into the mud, where they thermoregulate, lay their eggs, and avoid high-tide

marine predators and low-tide aerial predators. Their capillary-rich skin and

mouth membranes provide additional air.

Even more curious are the behavioral adaptations o this species. As an

aquatic creature, mudskippers school like any other fsh. On land, however,they become highly aggressive and territorial, building low mud ridges around

their particular plots o mud. While on land where the temperature changes

are more extreme, the mudskipper has developed several thermoregulatory

mechanisms: changing color; adjusting body positioning relative to the sun;

burrowing; and clinging to shaded wet zones o planks and rocks.

As extraordinary as both mudskippers and mangroves are, these are only two

o a plenitude o species inhabiting this complex and dynamic water-land

ecotonal habitatmost all o them dependent on the mangroves unique root

system.

The intricate root system o the mangroves that shelters small fsh like the

mudskipper is a rhizomic system. A rhizome is a horizontal stem that stores

ood and enables reproduction. Rhizomic structures are networks o stems

that scatter in all directions, in contrast to hierarchically organized vertical

tree structures. There are not a million roots growing into an orderly tree, but

a milllion little underground prolierations. 34 Any point o the rhizome may

be connected to any other point. The stems intertwine, scatter and spread, and

as a rootstock rather than a conventional root, when broken at any spot, they

grow again.


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Rhizomic systems can be small or vast; ginger roots, a garden o irises, a clump

o mangroves, a grass lawn, or an entire bamboo orest. Because its roots are

horizontal, because they can reproduce in any direction rom any spot, and

because they connect to each other, a rhizome is a single, but highly complex

system, and unctions as a single organism. They dey any classifcation as

individual entities. Instead, these distributed plant systems are populations

multiplicitesrather than single unifed upright things. I one rootor an

entire portion o the root systemails, others fll in. I nutrients are not con-

sistently available across a habitat, the interconnection o the system allows

distribution o ood to all parts. In a rhizomic system, ailure can occur and

the truism o a chain being only as strong as its weakest link is not valid; here

weaker links are tolerated and supported. Failure can eed back as nutrients or

the entire system, allowing rhizomic systems to tolerate a lot o distress.


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While mangroves, themselves, are the dominant, or keystone species, o the tropi-

cal estuarine ecotone, their rhizomic root system is also analogous to the entire

ecotonal ecosystem itsel. It negotiates the air/water interace as a third thing.

From Carl Jung, to Deleuze and Guattari, to authors o hypertext, rhizomic

systems have ascinated so many because they replace hierarchical constructs

with an alternate model o heteregeneity and multiplicity. The rhizomic sys-

tem is a model o integrated multiplicity and managed disturbance, both made

highly productive or the regeneration and evolution o the total system. As a

distributed system o populations, but one that unctions as a single organism,

the rhizomic structure is a precise and prolifc analogy or the innovation

ecotone space that this paper has put orward.

END35


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ENDNOTES

1 James Corner, Ecology and Landscape as Agents o Creativity, in Ecological design and plan-ning, George F. Thompson and Frederick R. Steiner, editors, (New York: John Wiley, 1997),

p.99.

2 In an intertidal zone, conditions exist that are similar to those in the ocean: waterin move-ment; salinity; sea creatures; sea ora; the composition, orm, and structure o its geologicalsubstrate, etc. At the same time, conditions exist that are similar to those on land: the composi-

tion and structure o the same geological substrate; no water; airin movementwind; landcreatures; land ora, etc. But conditions in the tidal zone oscillate between being like onecondition and being like the other, as the tides rise and recede. Even when most like the sea, athigh tide, the intertidal zone is still dierent rom the sea. The water temperature is higher; waveaction and the movement around rocks and other articulations o the geological substrate ismore dynamic; the salinity is dierent; sea ora and auna are subjected to moments o dryness.When most like the land, at low tide, it is still dierent rom the land. T he ground, whetherbeach or exposed bedrock, is more saturated; its chemical composition is dierent as decayingsea creatures add material; pockets o trapped sea water hold unique micro-environments. And

even more signifcantly, as the intertidal zone transitions rom one state to another, as it cyclesthrough water moving in and water moving out, it creates a unique environment o change anddisturbance.

3 Creek Connections Riparian Buers Module, Eco-Tones. Adapted rom: The Edge oHome in Project WILD Aquatic Council or Environmental Education, 1992 AND Field Lab:Measuring Species Diversity by Jim Palmer, Ph.D., Director o Creek Connections, Box 10,Allegheny College, p. 2.

4 Richard T.T. Forman, Land Mosaics. The ecology o landscapes and regions. (Cambridge: Cam-bridge University Press, 1995), pp. xiii-xiv.

5 Conversations with Jane Amidon, Landscape Section Head at the Knowlton School o Archi-tecture, Ohio State University. Also reerenced in

Documents

Design Education and Innovation Ecotones