{ Week 2 } Exploring Agents

Creating Positive Action on Issues such as:

1. Alternate Energy.
Solar, Wind, Biomass, etc.
a. How can we combine such technologies so that a city can be self-sustained?
b. How would it be distributed?
c. Would this change the face of cities?

2. Increasing Natural Disasters. Scenarios include:
Flood (Brisbane). Bush Fire (Black Saturday). Cyclone (Darwin). Tsunami (Japan). Earthquake (New Zealand).

How do we protect ourselves (prevention)?
Flexible buildings. Moving buildings. Communication.

What do we need in an event of emergency?
Distributing/Deploying shelter, food, health, water, warmth. Manpower required. Can we do it using machines more for efficiency? How important is the presence of Parliament in these situations?

What about aftermath?
Clean up. What can we recover? How do we go about fixing up buildings and roads? How do we help those who can't help themselves? What services do we need to get started ie. making boats to re-activate fishing communities, providing rice seeds for livlihood.

What about protecting culture and history - art, textiles, hunting craft, lifestyle.

3. Expanding Natural Habitats.
As opposed to increasing urbanisation. How to re-introduce natural habitats as a layer in urban centres. Strategically placing such green initiatives according to function ie. Recreation like parks. Shading for walkways. On roofs for food production or water filtration or relaxation. On walls for food production and insulation. In offices to cleanse the air and create health benefits.

4. Food Supply.
How can food supplies be produced in a distributed fashion in urban areas to alleviate the need for travelling and hence carbon pollution and using oil resources?

Although food waste is biodegradable, it produces methane in landfill and the food we don't eat also means that energy was also wasted in producing the food and transporting it. Is there a way to reduce this waste by changing people's perception of food waste? What about changing people's behaviour about consuming food and storing it in the fridge? How can we recycle this waste by giving wasted food a second life? For example, can we create a system to compost and collect this compost for the reuse in producing food? Where can we collect this waste? Dwellings. Multi-dwellings. Restaurants and cafes. Office. Schools and Universities. Food courts.

5. Poverty.
Networking. Community Help. Global Help.

6. Health.
Reaching those in need. Humanitarian Aid.

7. Mental Health. Education.
Reaching poor countries.

8. The Elderly.
Making life easier, convenient, safe. Getting milk shouldn't be a difficult task.

9. Water Supply.
Clean and continuous water supply to all. Wasting water. Providing clean water to the needy.

10. Waste

11. Globalisation and Free Trade.
Create Alternative Self-Sustaining Markets. Encourage local produce and trade.

12. Rich and Poor

13. Population Growth and Transport Congestion

14. Regional Farming

15. Carbon Tax

{ Week 2 } Flexibility

The beauty of chance and human imput.

A building should still be useable over time. Functions may change. Parts may be added or changed.

1. Moving Parts (Pivot, Sliding, Folding)
How often will these parts realistically move? Consider size, weight, difficulty of operation, mechanisms to operate, frequency of use, purpose of movement.

2. Grow (Additions over time, Hidden, Dissassemble-able?)
How flexible is an addition? How much effort and time is required for such growth? How much would it cost financially, environmentally, public confinece?

When is growth efficient and when is it not worth the cost?

3. Multi-use
How can spaces be used to their maximum potential? Is it managed by time? Is the space designed for different users and functions?

4. Customisation
User customisation. Cheap and makes spaces usable by personalisation. Paint. Furniture. Small changes such as adding dados and level changes.

5. Renovation
Keeps the building fresh.


QUESTIONS
1. What spaces are necessary? Is it necessary to have two chambers in parliament, for example? Can the space be flexible enough so that we only need one chamber.
2. How resilient is the structure/agent? How well does it adapt to changes (human, climate, economy)?
3. Who decides on what happens in a space? How can it be constantly activated to maintain vitality? What groups of people would it cater for?

{ Week 2 } Mobile

What can move?
1. Transport people
2. Transport goods and services
(food, water, tools, livestock, markets, doctors)
3. Connect people
(Increase communication, maintain relationships)

What are important factors of mobility?
1. What are the arrival points? (Do they lead somewhere? Deadend?)
2. Where do they bypass? (Does this disadvantage these areas?)
3. Where do we need to include new points of mobility?
4. Why? Does it provide more access? efficiency?
5. What are the specific requirements for certain peoples to move? For example, requirements for the elderly (access and help getting out of seats), babies (safety, noise, pram space), children (different proportions, sense of time and hence boredom), Cyclists (room for them?), Shoppers (Room to store bought items)?

What sort of mobility is there? Keep in mind time and speed. What are we traversing and how difficult it is. What are its risks?
1. airborne
2. seaborne
3. land - walking, cycling, motoring, train?

Is this transport for one person, a few people or 100s or 1000s of people? Is it transporting commodity?

How far are we travelling?
1. Within a city
2. Between cities
3. Between countries

What happens while we are mobile?
1. How can we make the journey more interesting/meaningful? (Disseminate information? News. Events. Entertainment for children)
2. What if it is about the journey and not the destination? (Having a meal, being there for MP announcements, making something to contribute at arrival points)
3. How can we keep in contact with outside places/events while we are on the move?
4. Can we contribute to places and events while we are on the move? (Perhaps we can distribute commodities or services as we move along)
5. Are these contributions permanent or temporary?
6. Can we promote positive changes to where we have been?
7. How about if mobility meant the sum of all parts? Small parts moving to achieve something big and desirable in the end? What if things can only happen when all parts are there?
8. Perhaps our mobility are a part of a system involving the gathering of "waste" to give a second life as a "nutrient" for another place?
9. Is mobility about being able to do something while on the move or is it about being able to get around to assemble and dissassemble the agent?

Is the mobility based on node to node? Is it intact the whole time to be able to use as we move or is it to be assembled and disassembled between points?

{ Week 2 } Virtual

Types of Virtual
1. Internet
2. Hologram
3. Digital Devices ie. Phone, iPad
4. Simulations
5. Games
6. GPS

What can it assist/improve in our lives?
1. Real time communication
2. Record and distribute information/events quickly
3. Inform/Change public opinion on a large scale
4. We can experience things that couldn't be possible everyday (Imaginative spaces, simulations like flyng planes)
5. Another learning style (simulations)
6. Better access to information and opinions
7. Better visualisation of information and imagination

QUESTIONS
1. Who has access to it?
2. Who controls/regulates it?
3. How does a virtual component impact on everyday living?
4. Does it reduce face to face contact?
5. Does it change the way we relate to each other?
6. How does it impact on the environment?
7. Would it reduce congestion?
8. How would it facilitate change?

{ Week 2 } Distributed

Types of Distribution
1. Sprawled
2. Random
3. Adapting and Natural
4. Opportunistic
5. Organised and Controlled
6. Temporary or Permanent?

How do distributed spaces work together?
1. Does each part all have the same function with a main HQ?
2. Does it distribute itself as required and come back together? So a temporary distribution? Or is it a permanent distrbution?
3. Or does each part have a different function that service eachother?
If each part does have a different function, how do they work together to achieve goals? Does it require mobility; transporting things to each other? Or does it distribute information to each other virtually?

How would the distribution be decided? How is it monitored?
1. Is it limited by geography/city elements?
2. Who decides where it is to be distributed?

What impact would it have on its surrounding environment? How would the city change? Would people's behaviour change because of this distribution? For example would it change traffic conditions and the way people would travel?

How would the distribution improve:
1. accessibility
2. traffic
3. carbon emmissions
4. reduce resource consumption
5. public perceptions about climate