Ann Pendleton-Jullian: Design through Gaming

In two interviews Marcel Duchamp discussed his obsession for the game of chess. He characterized the game as ‘a visual, plastic thing’, one which ‘is not geometrical in the static sense of the word (but) is a sort of mechanics, since it moves’. Lewis Carroll used an eleven move game of chess as the underlying structure of the narrative for Through the Looking Glass, explicitly organizing the movements of his characters, their spatial and dramatic interrelationships, and even character development through the logic of the game play.

Architects and designers of buildings, cities and landscapes – or systems and institutions even – work within physical and cultural sites in which value and meaning exist as embedded entities. As embedded entities, they are manifest in matter (material and the form it takes) and energy (systems of interaction and exchange of people, things, information), both of which may already be in play or exist as potential. To realize that which is potential within a complex and changing system of meaning, material, and exchange requires the ability to approach the problem as an interconnected fabric of definitions, frames, constraints, and opportunities, and to work (or play) within this fabric, making meaningful form emerge.

Ann’s talk will look at how game design was used in several architectural design studios to sponsor a way of working on problems in this manner; and how there is an operational transfer – tacit in nature – of cognitive and heuristic skills that occurs when game design (and play) is used as a set-up for design – what the students have termed a ‘re-wiring’.

Pendelton-Jullian Bio

TEDxColumbus Live Blog: Ann Pendleton-Jullian: October 20, 2009

Ann Pendleton-Jullian began her talk by discussing Pacariqtambo, an Incan site built around a clan structure. Each clan was responsible for creating a different part of the wall, and the different personalities of the clans are visible in the types of walls they designed. For her, this highlights the notion of an indivisible ecosystem, in which every bit of work that happens goes back into the system to (hopefully) improve it. She also discussed her extensive travels throughout South America and Asia, studying complex systems with numerous interdependent parts.

Games—and their ability to help us see the relationships between all parts of an ecosystem—are also a topic she is passionate about. She has incorporated game design, analysis and play into the architectural curriculum to help students learn new ways to approach architectural design. Games allow us to bring the real world into the imagined world. She feels that designing and analyzing games helps students actually change the way they think about architecture.

Finally, she used an inverted triangle diagram to highlight the point that that Homo sapien (“human who knows,” the left point of triangle) and Homo faber (“human who makes,” the right point of the triangle) need to be combined with Homo ludens (“human who plays,” the middle point of the triangle) in order to bring imagination into the 21st century.