Engaging the World The Prepositional Difference of

Design/Build/Engage

What’s the Difference?

Intellectual solve problems; geniuses prevent them.

Albert Einstein

Architecture Schools Revisit Community

• Boyer report

• Taking design thinking to the neighborhood

• Looking for partners in all the right places

It’s All in the Strategy

• Design Thinking

• Build

• Engage

• Capacity building

What’s New

• Complexity and variability have increased

• Plans must fit old into new

• Things change (and so do cities)

What’s Not New

• Rational analysis and good judgment

• Range of choices

• Taking action is hard

Opportunities

• Reason to chaos

• Have tools for change

• Not just your hometown anymore

Challenges

• Solutions not diagnosis

• City limits don’t hold anymore

• History, demographics, and culture

Three Paradigm Shifts

• More diversity

• More local decision-making

• More complicated and interrelated issues

Problems and Solutions

• Type I Problem—mechanical and fixable

• Type II Problem—definable but no clear-cut solution

• Type III Problem—no definition/no real solution

Leaders for Type II & III

• Debate, rethinking, reframing

• More people in the game

• Vision and persistence

Millennial Conditions

• Rich-poor gap

• Energy & Water

• Shelter

• Health and disease

• Population Growth

• Sustainable Global Development

Question for Today

How can our university, and the professions and research that drive our work with communities, regions, and nations, change the odds for successful, sustainable development and urban advantage?

Mega City of the Future