A Design Jukebox

Creativity, drawings, and good ideas are all best accompanied with storytelling. Working with that trio as a creative professional while listening to the story pondered by a community or cultural organization is inspirational and [idea] provoking. I have found PechaKucha to be a brilliant place and format to engage in these narratives and conversations. Its four hundred second long stories are like stellar pop songs. They are a bit longer than Bohemian Rhapsody, and a little shorter than Hey Jude. And often similarly memorable.

Thinking about this as an architect and professor has turned all of my talks, lectures, keynotes, and some meetings into a jukebox of stories; an interactive selection and exchange between me, design practice, and a community audience who select what they are interested in hearing on a storytelling jukebox of design and ideas. The singles you find in a jukebox are good selections for your likes, your personality, and the mood you’re in. For challenges in the built environment, designed solutions (and music) are essential.

Most of us have a favorite record and place. The music lives on a 45rpm single (or on some cloud). There’s architecture, a public space, or something about the built environment that we love to visit, or maybe live in. We all have a story about each of them.

Last month, I took this idea to architect Laura Crane AIA’s class at the University of Hawai’i, Ma?noa. Students made selections on my presentation jukebox instigating great conversations and follow up. Playing this design storytelling idea with the Aberdeen Society of Architects a few months ago is still something we are talking about as a community.