Friday Fives
Friday Fives
A round up of five things that have caught our eye (or ear) this past week.
1. TED TALK: ARCHITECTURE THAT IS BUILT TO HEAL
We recently revisited this TED talk from Michael Murphy, co-founder of the not-for-profit MASS Design Group - an inspiring story of how the built environment can positively impact the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. In this eloquent talk, Michael shows how he and his team look far beyond the blueprint when they're designing - considering factors from airflow to light, they take a holistic approach that produces community as well as (beautiful) buildings.
Murphy argues that architecture is more than a clever arrangement of bricks. When you look at your built world “ask not only what is the environmental footprint … but what if we also asked what is the human handprint of those who made it”. Via their philosophy of: hire locally; source regionally; train where you can; and invest in the dignity of the places in which you serve, they have turned the process of the building itself into a healing process for the community.
Through his unique approach to architecture came a moving, ambitious plan for The Memorial to Peace and Justice, which opened in April 2018, which Murphy hopes will heal hearts in the American South.
Watch the full talk here: “Architecture that is built to heal”
2. MACMANUS: WHY CRYPTO CRASHED
A great read from Richard MacManus on the crash of the cryptocurrency markets this year which he mainly attributes to regulatory crackdowns and uncertainty.
In the last year and a half cryptocurrency has been gaining a lot of attention as their value skyrocketed in the belief that there would be a lot of institutional investments. Now that we are heading towards the end of the year, we are seeing the value of cryptocurrencies plummeting. MacManus outlines what he sees as the key reasons for this crash - from regulatory crackdowns by the USA and China, to lack of progress on blockchain products, to ICOs dumping ETH.
Read the full article to have a closer look at the major events affecting the crypto world: “Why the crypto market has crashed in 2018”
3. ALIBABA AND THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS
A interesting read from Ming Zeng, chairman of the Academic Council of the Alibaba Group, on Alibaba and how its refocus in 2007 to “foster the development of an open, coordinated, prosperous e-commerce ecosystem” really kick started it’s growth to one of the world’s 10 most highly valued companies today.
Zeng outlines the strategy of creating an ecosystem and providing the resources and access to resources which would support the evolution of the ecosystem. Zeng sees “smart business” as the dominant business logic of the future - the leveraging of new capabilities in network coordination and data intelligence. This means a tech-enabled model where operational decisions are in the main made by machines. This in turn enables rapid adaptation to changing customer preferences and market conditions.
Read more: “Alibaba and the future of business”
4. NEW ZEALAND AND CHINA’S BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE
New Zealand was the first developed country in the world to enter into a free trade agreement with China in 2008. Trade to China quadrupled since the FTA was signed and China is now New Zealand’s largest trading partner. And in May last year NZ became one of the first “western countries” to sign a Memorandum of Arrangement to strengthen cooperation on China’s Belt and Road (BRI) initiative with a joint action plan due to be finalised this year.
The BRI is not new - it was announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 - and is the way that China is connecting to neighbouring countries and the world through development led trade growth. Yet there seems to be little traction as a concept in NZ on China’s significant Belt and Road initiative - which is evidenced by a recent Asia NZ Foundation perceptions of Asia tracking survey where only 15% of New Zealanders knew vaguely anything about it.
A report released earlier this year by the New Zealand China Council broke down the opportunities for New Zealand into four categories: trade facilitation; NZ as a conduit to South America; the creative sector; and innovation - and provides detail on the specific actions that could be taken in each of these four areas.
In a recent opinion piece Simon Draper, executive director of the Asia New Zealand Foundation sums it up well “With China as New Zealand's largest trading partner, we can't ignore the belt and road. Even if you don't totally understand what it is yet, it is clear that it's important to China and will therefore be important to business.”
Download the full NZ China Council report: Belt and Road Initiative - A strategic Pathway
5. SIR IAN ATHFIELD MEMORIAL LECTURE
We headed along to Auckland's Festival of Architecture earlier this week to hear from Allison Arieff who delivered this year's Sir Ian Athfield Memorial Lecture.
Allison is a prominent American writer on architecture and urban issues and currently editorial director off The Urbanist, the magazine of the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR), an urban planning and policy think tank.
Allison's talk focussed on the on the San Francisco Bay Area and it's growing extremes as the centre of the world's innovation economy while at the same time a place of deep economic equality. SPUR have recently launched their SPUR Regional Strategy which is a multiyear effort to develop a vision for the San Francisco Bay Area for 2070, along with the strategies needed to make this vision a reality.
Check out their first Four Futures Scenario report produced as part of their strategy which looks at the four uncertainties that the Bay Area will contend with over the next 50 years: the economy, housing, transportation and the physical form that growth takes.