Collaborative Design - Personal Report

| Jordan Lane n5681235 |

| deb610 collaboration report |

how to read this report...

7 3

6 2

8 4

1 5

9

Use spiral to determine milestones and week no.

Workload Conflict Enjoyment

use icons on 1 - 5 scale to obtain quick summary

Communication

use text for in depth analysis

solowork

Use images for reference and record

now take a deep breath...

teamwork

Nervous faces and apprehensive movements signified the introduction of something new...something foreign.

Welcome to Collaborative Design...

It was clear that communication was going to be the fundamental impetus through the process of group formation and selection.

Speed-dating, albeit awkward and unusual facilitated an effective format for communication between not-so-starcrossed pairs of students as we all introduced ourselves, shed light on our ideas and began to compile a list of people we would like to work along side throughout the remainder of the collaborative process.

Strong disciplinary alliances still ran incredibly deep after the speed-dating process as the difficulties of team selection arose. I firmly believe that without the stipulation of cross-discipline groups to be formed, most students would have been complacent with working with the people they already knew from their own discipline. This could have been both positive and negative. Positive in the sense that after three years of working alongside certain people, you have already developed relationships and mutual understandings of how people work which could have allowed the collaborative process to progress more rapidly. On the negative side, the desire to just stick with what you know does not facilitate new ideas or learning experiences that arise from working within a new dynamic or environment.

Finally...this ushered in the conception of MADE COLLABORATIVE STUDIO. | Carla | Kylie | Josh | Cassie | Jordan

| Landscape | Interior | Architecture | Interior | Architecture

With our group formed and named we focused on communication as the main teaming approach as we exchanged details and information.

With this established, solowork and individual research was implemented in order to individually comprehend the scope of the parking day manifesto and project.

tion

ica commun

According to the Basadur Complex Problem Solving activity, MADE consisted of quite a few generators, yet still scored quite high in other qualities. This was to prove beneficial as the focus switched from introductions and communication to brainstorming and ideas generation.

Due to the relatively short time frame between idea conception and the week 5 milestone it was decided by the group - based on the difficulties to meet outside of class time, quantity of ideas and general consensus - that solowork would be the best way to effectively generate the ideas we needed.

We broke the task into multiple independent sections having each member generate and illustrate three ideas that they felt supported the parking day manifesto.

These ideas would then be presented to the group in an open forum discussion during the following class.

I also brought along some books on differing topics such as meditative spaces, exhibition space design, guerilla marketing etc, that the group could flick through during the time. This was an effective way to gauge how different people and disciplines valued ideas highlighted by the books and allowed a more effective and open forum for discussion.

Although we were still not working through the process with pure teamwork focused on a common goal yet, we found that solowork was the most valid and effective way to achieve what we needed in our current situation.

Potential sites were also discussed and solowork was once again implemented as individuals researched possible locations for the park.

made

collaborative studio

rk

Solowo

Logo designed by myself for MADE to give a visual representation of who we are.

The teaming approach most successful this week was once again communication, as we pooled together our ideas from the previous weeks solowork. With everyone presenting 3 ideas which they had generated individually we set about discussing them within the group and with the coaches.

The positive side of this transition from solo to team based resolve was that we were able to generate multiple ideas that every group member was encouraged to comment on, criticise and critique.

This short intonation of teamwork was then to be replaced once again by solowork as through public discussion and debate, the top five ideas were selected for further refinement.

MADE clearly saw the need to cull some of the inspirational concepts gathered during and beyond the tutorials, in order to expand upon the most unique and thought provoking installation ideas five schemes became obvious inclusions for presentation night as they stood above the rest. | Carla | Kylie | Josh | Cassie | Jordan

| Landscape | OneSeed | Interior | BikePark | Architecture | GlobalMelting | Interior | GreenBean | Architecture | FootpathLibrary

An interesting point to mention each member of the group came up with one of the above ideas. So perhaps this was still a solo process with a slight turn of team refinement and discussion at the end.

SO

ion

unicat

-comm LOWORk

| Kylie

| Interior

| BikePark

| Josh

| Architecture | GlobalMelting

solowor

k

ad -worklo

| Carla

| Landscape | OneSeed

| Jordan

| Architecture | FootpathLibrary

Cassie

| Interior

| GreenBean

The first milestone was met after four weeks of predominantly solowork with sporadic communication by email and file exchange. Although we were presenting as a group, I felt there had been - quite deliberately and importantly little teamwork in the creation of the presentations except for the powerpoint template that I had created to deliver the information in a consistent and readable format.

At this stage it was clear to see within MADE and the other groups the individuals who had made a greater contribution to the design process and those who were prepared to take a lesser role.

As everyone presented the entire class engaged in what was possibly the largest collaborative effort during the whole semester to discuss the ideas that held potential and developmental possibilities and discard those which appeared too intensive and demanding on either time, transport, construction or execution etc.

As was the flavour of the night...it was time for MADE to join forces with COIN to form MINT...the duplex that would see me through to the end of the process.

A unanimous decision was made and the Footpath Library was chosen as the MINT parking day project. This was due to a number of factors including - relevance and excitement expressed surrounding the idea - a similar idea being presented by a COIN member - familiarity with other members of the COIN team It was back to stage one with communication as we once again swapped details. However there was one significant difference...we all knew where we were headed now and this allowed us to create different teams within our duplex.

In order to avoid crowdwork, we divided ourselves into different teams within the MINT group to facilitate parallel workflows and outcomes. The teams were DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION, MARKETING, BOOK SOURCING.

+SOLO

PREAD S N E V E

MADE+COIN=MINT

A camel is a horse designed by a committee...a little cynical perhaps? It’s true.

I collaborated solely with Adam Lenzinger - a fellow architect student who I had worked with in the past, to create the design for the week seven milestone. Although a smaller workforce meant a greater workload, we were comfortable in our design approach and resolved the design much faster than if we had a teamwork approach. Also as we are both architecture students, parallel timetables meant scheduling meeting times was easier than involving students from other disciplines.

t n e m p o l e

v e d n g i des

pair n i d a worklo

After some effective delegation at the previous class the teaming approach started to spread out from a linear to a more faceted shape. While the design was being finalised books were being sourced and a possible location scouted. Finally it felt like we were getting somewhere...Adam and I designed, documented and modelled the footpath library with little communication with the other members of the duplex.

While designing, I was beginning to realise the interdependence of the other tasks on the design process, or at least that the other processes appeared less intensive and less tangible than that of design and documentation.

All things considered the whole process was moving smoothly...

That was until...

Elevation from Kerb

Exploded view 2200.00mm

2000.00mm

2000.00mm

2000.00mm

400.00mm 300.00mm 300.00mm 300.00mm

wo

pairs n i d rkloa

950.00mm 400.00mm

The giant brass knuckles in the bottom left hand corner are not in relation to conflict within the group but rather the feedback we received from the coaches. It was clear that although the fundamental idea was highly imaginative, novel and purposeful, the tangible side of the design needed rethinking. Below is a summary...

n a f e h t t i h t i h s e h t NEGATIVES - risk assessment - stability - amount of materials - height - transportation - on-site construction - re-design

t c i l f n co

POSITIVES - highly positive value - potential of idea - creative approach - interactive - novel and insightful

K

R SOLOWO

REDESIGN

REDESIGN

RK

SOLOWO

Feeling quite despondent after the tutorial in week seven I set about redesigning the parking day space. We agreed as a duplex that the best resolve for the project would be an A-Frame type structure that would lay across the parking space. We still wanted to retain the “books hanging on the wire� aesthetic for the space and use some the original materials we had in mind.

The drawings below were drafted by myself prior to meeting with the workshop, and after consultation this design was revised again to minimise waste and materials.

It was decided that we would revise the design from three frames to 2 frames to allow a greater circulation space with the parking space and generate a smaller workload.

RK

SOLOWO

REDESIGN

CONSTRUCTION While the marketing and book sourcing teams kicked up a gear in the final week it was time to hand over the design and documentation to the Construction team, consisting of Josh, Adam and myself.

I was a little attached to the project at this stage and found it difficult somewhat to take a backwards step and hand over most of the construction to Josh. However as I have worked with Josh in previous units I was cofident in his abilities and content with this decision.

This final week also saw the onset of incredibly frequent and urgent communication between the duplex to make sure the parking space was coordinated and executed properly.

TEAM

N

ICATIO

OMMUN WORK+C

DETAILS The final week before the week nine milestone was an even spread of communication, high workload and solowork with a combination of teamwork at the end. In order to have everything for the parking space organised and accounted for, communication increased and peaked as everyone submitted what they were contributing to the park, how it was transported to the site and what would happen to it at the end of the day.

EVE

NSPREAD

The stage was set...the books were ready and the frames built...

PARKING DAY 09 COIN - VERBS FROM THE KERB BOUNDARY ST, WEST END

T N E M Y O J EN

rearvision mirror ...looking back on park(ing) day 09 55 x Workload 33 x Conflict 31 x Enjoyment 27 x Communication 47 x solowork 28 x teamwork

...results in reflection Although the results I have gathered over the duration of the course are by no means scientifically gauged, I believe they truthfully reflect the team processes through each stage and at the conclusion of the project.

The fact that the workload scored the highest can be attirubuted to the heavy emphasis the design, documentation and construction made on the overall tangible workload of the project. This is only my experience during the project, as I am sure the amount of work put in by everyone was not equal in time, resources and energy.

Coupling this with the fact the solowork scored second highest, highlights my preferred teaming approach - that being a clear delegation of tasks to be executed at an individual or small group level.

This has always been my preferred method as although it may carry an increased workload at an individual level it always results in an outcome that I am satisfied with.

But does satisfaction add up with enjoyment?

It was interesting to see there were two very strong parallels between the remaining results. That being conflict and enjoyment being equal to each other, and communication sharing even points with teamwork.

Although the conflict experienced during the week seven milestone was a very strong turning point of the project, it was in fact balanced by the enjoyment throughout the project by myself, especially on parking day itself.

Communication and teamwork come hand in hand, and this project was no different. When communication was needed to facilitate the collaboration of teamwork and group outcomes it was utilised, and when it was not needed individuals focused on solo tasks.

In conclusion, I felt the teaming approaches utilised by the group throughout all stages of the collaborative process were the most effective and suitable. Although it was a cross-disciplinary project, there was no real clear lines of distinction between individuals and their respective disciplines.

We were able to achieve a successful parking day through careful team and subteam structuring and a predominantly solo approach to the process.