20 Minutes in Manhattan A Book by Michael Sorkin www.goodreads.com It begins with a trip down the stairsThoughts on stairsThey are something that has been buried(an architectural stem cell that might transform itself into any organ for living)The grid and its difficulties+41 More The MezzaninePsychogeographyTilted Arc architectureurbanismcitieshomewalking
Two Hundred Fifty Things an Architect Should Know An Essay by Michael Sorkin www.readingdesign.org The distance of a whisper.CornersWant, need, affordWhat the brick really wants.Borders+3 More 136 things every web developer should know before they burn out and turn to landscape painting or nude modelling architecturedesigncollections
Local Code: The Constitution of a City at 42º N Latitude A Book by Michael Sorkin www.goodreads.com The source code for SimCityLocal Code: 3,659 Proposals About Data, Design & The Nature of Cities regulationslawcities
AI-driven "Design"? An Article by Jorge Arango jarango.com Like a programming language interpreter, GPT-3 translates the designer’s intent from a language they’re already familiar with (English) to one they need to learn (Figma’s information architecture, as manifested in its UI.) This can be easier for a new/busy designer, much like Python is easier and faster to work with than assembly language. But that’s not “designing” — at least not any more than compiling Python code is “programming.” In both cases, all the system does is translate human intent into a lower level of abstraction. Sure, the process saves time — but the key is getting the intent part right. I’ll be convinced the system is “designing” when it can produce a meaningful output to a directive like “change the product page’s layout to increase conversions.” aidesignintentabstraction