DESIGNING WATER SYSTEMS IN SITU
Sometimes you just need a game to explain systems.
Yale’s Schools of Architecture & Business got together under the direction of Jessica Helfand, and created a class - "Design as Utility: Luxury, Sustainability and Waste" - that asks the hard questions about equity and tourism in one of they driest cities in the world: Cape Town. The workshop was designed in two parts: a lecture of various water technologies and their respective costs and a game.
This game presents methods for capturing, cleaning and storing water in various geographical areas each with their unique tradeoffs. With financial constraints and distinct regional resources as their guides - it becomes an ethical battle for shared resources. Players are allowed to exchange with other teams at a low cost, or to the game master for an advanced technology at high cost. Demonstrating collaboration of technologies is often more effective that a stand alone budget game. In the end, we were met with technology combinations and solutions to problems that were truly innovative and remarkable in their uniqueness.
- A workshop designed and delivered for Yale University’s Schools of Architecture & Business with Jessica Helfand, Professor of Yale School of Architecture & the Design Observer.
