Ideo Smart Space

IDEO Smart Space neo-UrbanPlanning practice.

It's not explicitly listed anywhere on their website, but some things within their "Environments" list fit.

existed in 2005

Mar'2006 profile - takes on 45 projects a year

• including Forest City project

from 2006: Andrew Blum profile focusing on their Kansas City project - It's not clear that works, mostly because it's too early to tell - but also because the team at IDEO is messing with the DNA of the planning process. They're changing it from a concrete process of Infrastructure and building to an imagined one of Narrative and identity; they're exchanging the idea of a place for place itself.

• slide show of materials

• PeterJones post - But it is not innovation of urban planning, it seems to be a innovation of urban packaging. This has implications for design strategy, because IDEO gets to set the top bar for the profession. If conceptual design planning is the product and deliverable, how does this actually lead to better urban spaces? And who is the ultimate customer - the city planners and developers? Or the people living in the community?... So to what extent can people be empowered to direct the planning and design of their own communities? To what extent can they - community dwellers - mobilize the tools of design - with design facilitation by IDEO-like firms? And should innovation firms take on the slog through architecture, zoning, and planning to engage themselves as committed players in such projects? If they don't "have a dog in the fight" now, how would the level of trust and possibility of real community-centered design be actualized if they did have such a commitment to results?

  • One of the most inspiring practices I've encountered in the world of conceptual arts is Christo And Jeanne Claude's total commitment to a project, often involving years of negotiation with planners, public official, and public hearings. Too bad it's all in the service of Spectacle.