Architecture and Human Computer Interaction

How architects can combine art, design, enginneering and etc to build those awesome buildings has been fascinated to me for a long time. In contrast, so far, HCI still has a long way to go to have HCI architects combine all those factors. What can we learn from the field of architecture？

I would like to have an inside view of the architecture industry, and when I went to berkerly's architecture website, I found it has been subdivided into a lot of areas including community design, applied building sciences, design methods, history and theory, or the social basis of design. Compared to that, HCI is not so systematic.

Here are lines that attract my attention:
The real nature of the education offered by any institution resides in the interests and abilities of its faculty.

have a passion for cities, their form and the life that is supported by good city design
--- E T E R B O S S E L M A N N
(How is our life shaped by technologies? )

I ask my students to study streets and neighborhoods in order to better understand how conditions have come about, what has changed over time, what is likely to change in the future and why.
--- E T E R B O S S E L M A N N
(Human computer interaction has no history compared to architecture. Less users impact can be observed. NO physical media. Not the older the better, but the newer the better. )

What makes a building memorable? I believe it comes not from the glossy images in a magazine, but from the experiences of people who live, work, or pass through the interior spaces. The environmental forces of sun, wind and light have a strong influence on a buildings experiential aesthetic, and the consideration of these forces should be a purposeful part of the earliest stages of design. I guide students to learn about principles, tools, and values that will enhance their ability to create buildings that are both beautiful and efficient, responsive to climate and people, sensitive to the environment, and a delight to be in.
---G A I L B R A G E R

(I don't want to see other environmental stuff serves as resources of Ubiquitous computing，ubiquitous computing should server the environmental world. Instead of asking what kind of ubiquitous computing I should build, we should look around, find problems in the environment, and see what kind problems should be solved by ubiquitous computing systems. Thus, ubiquitous community should go outside, to work with architects, with schools, with companies and with urban plannings, to make the ubiquitous computing as part of the whole design. The focus is not the computer, but the environment. )

HCI's strength is dynamic, connectivity, flexible....

I believe it is true for a lot of issues, such as the nature of a building, the nature of a system, the nature of business, and etc all reside in the interests and abilities of persons involved, so to design something, the first thing to do, is to design people, or to cultivate people.

In a multidisciplinary department, the background of faculty is varied collectively. How to make them being combined in a more meaningful way is a question. Just as stated from the Gestalt psychology, the composition has new meaning from its parts, what's the way to combine to find this new meanings.

There is systematic way to educate architects, where is way to educate HCI architect? HCI from the start, very much focuses on the utility. No systematic education is there. One problem is HCI is too inclusive, maybe that makes it hard to establish systematic education.

Our commitment to excellence in design is strengthened by our recognition that the critical and creative process of design is inseparable from history, social purpose, environmental setting, and building process. For architecture students, they need to visit and study a hugh number of architecture works, to learn to accurately conceive and describe them, and then learn the process to bring the building into space. To me, to cultivate their sensitivity, and to lead them through historical and cultural journey.

The cognitive processes designers use when they explore, generate and evaluate possible ways to meet the goals these objects and environments ought to accomplish. Where is the cognitive process? Where can I access it?

"creating a light so bright that the machine and the mud and the world and the light itself became invisible, and only feeling was left. Then we filled this space of only-feeling with people milling about, intensely aware of the invisible light and mud and pulsing mechanical bodies, the swelling and sucking envelopes of heat, the gently drifting atmospheres, and pressures, and humidities". - from Anderson Anderson: Architecture and Construction, Princeton Architectural Press, 2001

Seems architecture, the functionality is not so much a big issue-basically it is something to accomodate people，but for HCI, the functionalities are so diverse.There is no physical shape, it is more flexible. there is less common base to compare different hcis, except for web design, or for certain areas of applications. Maybe we should categorize different interactions?

Artificial vs. Natural Science - reading Herbert A. Simon's "The Sciences of the Artificial"

"The Sciences of the Artificial " is an amazing book. The author Simon could combine such a varitey of topics ranging from economics, organization, engineering design and Artificial intelligence into one theme called "Artificial". Of course, it must be much more challenging to establish artificial science than Natural Science, because it is man made, and it is changing for ever. Not like natual science, you progress to further understanding of same phenomena, the Artificial, with human involved, is about generating, which makes it impossible to have a fixed or stable set of principles.

My blog has been setup

Finally I decided to try out blog. The most attractive thing for blog over personal webpage is that I don't need to maintain it and can just focus on the content. Plus, the web design seems very professional. To be honest, I heard about blog long time ago, but just didn't get it why people would spend a whole bunch of time to write it, but now I just love it. How great it is to have my voice heard with such a simple way! And it doesn't cost time at all. I just feel like I am talking to someone, and free to write anything and with any format, which is toally different from writing a paper or essay for a class. Just imagine, how many thoughts you will come across everyday. How fun it is you can write them down and let people know! Now, internet is not only for you to receive and check out information, but also check in information, and you have control of what the information is and how to publish it. That means you are the owner of blog in stead of a participant as in BBS or Forums.

Ok, let me start with my journey of blog, and this blog will be mainly focus on my book reading. It will record what I read and what I think.....