Using Domes to Understand Concerns

Conflicts inevitably arise during design discussions and policy talks. A team of architects has created a new way of understanding each side's concerns, mainly by diagramming them into distinct domes.

1 minute read

October 19, 2010, 6:00 AM PDT

By Nate Berg


Urban Omnibus interviews creators Janette Kim and Erik Carver about the Underdomes idea, which uses Buckminster Fuller's and Shoji Sadao's Dome Over Manhattan concept as a guiding metaphor.

"Janette Kim: Sometimes it seems that the role of the architect, when it comes to saving energy, is to source the right product or to calculate LEED points - as though the engineers and the bureaucrats alone can find the right way to minimize our energy usage. Or sometimes we push for design strategies - self-sustaining cities, locavore farms, town center densification - without interrogating some of the assumptions and belief systems behind them.

But when two contending approaches to energy are compared side-by-side, bigger issues emerge. Should we invest in market-based development of efficient products or support direct government investment in new infrastructures? Should we build zero-emissions cities in the desert, or revise the distribution networks of today? Should we buy better or consume less?"

Wednesday, October 13, 2010 in Urban Omnibus

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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