作者：艾莉森·門登霍爾

“DesignWorkshop的學(xué)術(shù)底蘊(yùn)會(huì)繼續(xù)推動(dòng)公司占據(jù)研究型實(shí)踐的前沿。我相信，許多中國(guó)設(shè)計(jì)公司和機(jī)構(gòu)都會(huì)因DesignWorkshop對(duì)該使命的持久堅(jiān)持以及致力于終生學(xué)習(xí)的精神而深受鼓舞?！?/p>

–景觀建筑教育者理事會(huì)研究副會(huì)長(zhǎng)李明翰

設(shè)計(jì)工坊

無論是初次參觀DesignWorkshop的訪客還是DesignWorkshop的長(zhǎng)期員工，走進(jìn)六個(gè)公司辦公室中的任何一個(gè)，就會(huì)立即感受到工作室的創(chuàng)新性以及交談的活力。合作氣氛和目標(biāo)意識(shí)在這里是十分明顯的。

一個(gè)工作日的典型場(chǎng)景是，項(xiàng)目團(tuán)隊(duì)聚集在開放的工作室，對(duì)固定在墻上的設(shè)計(jì)圖進(jìn)行考量，設(shè)計(jì)師們則專心地沉浸于鋪展在大號(hào)設(shè)計(jì)桌上的圖紙。在會(huì)議室里，設(shè)計(jì)團(tuán)隊(duì)正在向客戶匯報(bào)，并與其他顧問一同主持戰(zhàn)略會(huì)議。他們探討的焦點(diǎn)有可能是度假區(qū)規(guī)劃、社區(qū)規(guī)劃、街道景觀或公園設(shè)計(jì)。當(dāng)設(shè)計(jì)團(tuán)隊(duì)聚集在一起評(píng)論并改進(jìn)他們作品的時(shí)候，激烈的討論貫穿于整個(gè)工作室。團(tuán)隊(duì)的每一個(gè)人，從負(fù)責(zé)人到實(shí)習(xí)生，都被期待對(duì)討論有所貢獻(xiàn)。這就是DesignWorkshop的文化實(shí)景。

合作文化

刻在門上的名稱DesignWorkshop對(duì)于員工解決復(fù)雜的設(shè)計(jì)問題以及在實(shí)體空間中完成工作都具有重要意義。（參看圖1）熱烈的并且有意向的文化即將來臨。所有DesignWorkshop分公司的共同特點(diǎn)是擁有高層高、大公共桌以及充足的展示設(shè)計(jì)及草案的圍墻空間，在這樣的公司環(huán)境中，一件件的設(shè)計(jì)作品被反復(fù)創(chuàng)造。所有項(xiàng)目組都需要對(duì)自己的設(shè)計(jì)進(jìn)行審查，而且要展示給組外的同事。大家在時(shí)而親切時(shí)而熱烈的氣氛中分享建設(shè)性批判意見，但共同的目標(biāo)是完善設(shè)計(jì)。設(shè)計(jì)討論發(fā)生在辦公室的“公共空間”，這樣迫使員工離開自己的辦公桌，摒除設(shè)計(jì)“盲點(diǎn)”，否則，這些設(shè)計(jì)“盲點(diǎn)”可能會(huì)使員工無法看到所有可能的解決方案。當(dāng)然，員工也會(huì)在自己的辦公桌工作，在繪圖桌上畫圖或者在電腦上建模。但是，DesignWorkshop的文化以及強(qiáng)調(diào)合作的價(jià)值觀要求各項(xiàng)工作都是可視化的——無論是固定在墻上、大圖打印、還是投影，以便團(tuán)隊(duì)的每一個(gè)人都能看到——從而鼓勵(lì)大家進(jìn)行批判性的對(duì)話，這對(duì)推動(dòng)項(xiàng)目設(shè)計(jì)進(jìn)入項(xiàng)目決議是必須的。（參看圖2）

城市觀察員簡(jiǎn)·雅各布斯在《美國(guó)大城市的死與生》（1993年）探討了“混合”產(chǎn)生的活力，而“混合”發(fā)生在多元化使用與城市居民在一天中不同時(shí)段于街道和公共空間活動(dòng)相聚集的時(shí)候。雅各布斯把熱鬧城市人行道的復(fù)雜秩序比作“精巧復(fù)雜的芭蕾舞劇，每個(gè)舞者和樂團(tuán)都特色鮮明，奇跡般地相互為用，構(gòu)成了一個(gè)有序的整體?！盌esignWorkshop強(qiáng)調(diào)以開放式的工作室作為創(chuàng)造和發(fā)明的空間，讓團(tuán)隊(duì)成員聚在一起共同交流，以開發(fā)出新的設(shè)計(jì)，這樣的做法正是借鑒了上述的想法。團(tuán)隊(duì)成員及其技能和經(jīng)驗(yàn)都聚集在工作室內(nèi)，相得益彰。

史蒂文·約翰遜在《涌現(xiàn)：螞蟻、人腦、城市與軟件的生命連結(jié)》（2001）中探討了“集體智能”的現(xiàn)象，從一個(gè)蟻群的例子開始，蟻群通常被誤認(rèn)為是由發(fā)行指令的一只蟻后統(tǒng)治的。而事實(shí)上，蟻群是集體做決定的，共同使群居生活協(xié)調(diào)發(fā)展。通過隨機(jī)相聚，每只螞蟻都敏銳地關(guān)注彼此的動(dòng)作與行為。從相互交流中所產(chǎn)生的是一種自我組織系統(tǒng)，它能解決蟻群內(nèi)更大的問題。約翰遜還把城市視為自然發(fā)生系統(tǒng)。與雅各布斯一樣，他也著迷于人行道，它“把隨機(jī)排列的大量個(gè)體混合在一起”，并且促進(jìn)當(dāng)?shù)鼗?dòng)和信息交流，而這些信息在城市尺度上會(huì)匯集成“復(fù)雜秩序”。DesignWorkshop實(shí)踐的關(guān)注點(diǎn)是場(chǎng)所營(yíng)造——公司外所實(shí)現(xiàn)的迷人公共空間設(shè)計(jì)——已被應(yīng)用于產(chǎn)生設(shè)計(jì)的工作室。這就是公司的公共空間，它讓設(shè)計(jì)團(tuán)隊(duì)集中在一起相互交流和解決問題。這是DesignWorkshop自身概念的核心，它能促進(jìn)團(tuán)隊(duì)合作，有助于處理復(fù)雜項(xiàng)目。

目前有許多公司都在探索如何創(chuàng)造可以鼓勵(lì)互動(dòng)和創(chuàng)新的工作環(huán)境。國(guó)際設(shè)計(jì)公司IDEO的共同工作空間是經(jīng)常被提及的例子，同樣被提到的還有硅谷的企業(yè)園區(qū)中的皮克斯動(dòng)畫工作室和Facebook。試圖闡明通力協(xié)作的價(jià)值以及促使其成功的背景和條件的文章和商業(yè)書籍也正泛濫成災(zāi)。喬恩·R·卡岑巴赫和道格拉斯·K·史密斯在《團(tuán)隊(duì)智慧：建立高績(jī)效組織》（2006年）一書中對(duì)組織研究團(tuán)隊(duì)、生產(chǎn)和構(gòu)思的公司進(jìn)行了描述，并探討其他許多組織忽視群組努力的潛能或致使其效率低下的原因。同樣，《塞氏企業(yè)傳奇——最不同尋常的成功企業(yè)的故事》（1993年）講述了巴西公司塞氏企業(yè)的故事，塞氏企業(yè)是里卡多·塞姆勒的家族企業(yè)，它通過非正式的實(shí)踐對(duì)機(jī)構(gòu)進(jìn)行變革，在提高創(chuàng)新力和生產(chǎn)力的同時(shí)，也改變了現(xiàn)有的公司文化。

成立四十多年以來，早在最近許多探索如何優(yōu)化企業(yè)工作場(chǎng)所的書籍和機(jī)構(gòu)出現(xiàn)之前，DesignWorkshop就已擁有最佳合作環(huán)境的強(qiáng)烈觀念。在中心開放式工作室以外的區(qū)域是個(gè)人的工作空間，而角落辦公室是不存在的。相反，不同資歷的員工分散在不分等級(jí)的各個(gè)辦公桌。在這一場(chǎng)景中，交談可以被聽到，信息也可以在所有的員工中高效傳播。與設(shè)計(jì)負(fù)責(zé)人的近距離接觸（和親近）對(duì)于經(jīng)驗(yàn)較少的員工來說是有啟迪意義的，員工與不同角色、知識(shí)和專業(yè)技術(shù)相融合可以強(qiáng)化辦公室工作氛圍的合作性。

合作在DesignWorkshop意味著許多事情。既可以意味著與坐在數(shù)張辦公桌遠(yuǎn)的人并排工作，也可以意味著與其它州或國(guó)家的同事共享文件和工作成果。某些項(xiàng)目團(tuán)隊(duì)是由來自于DesignWorkshop六個(gè)辦事處的員工組成的，視特定專業(yè)技術(shù)需求或者在最后期限內(nèi)人員是否有空而定。通過音頻、網(wǎng)絡(luò)和視頻會(huì)議系統(tǒng)，就有可能實(shí)現(xiàn)辦事處之間以及與客戶之間的合作。技術(shù)可以使設(shè)計(jì)對(duì)話超越各個(gè)辦事處之間的以及與全球客戶之間的距離，使不同辦事處成員組成的團(tuán)隊(duì)能夠完成工作。它能確保辦事處之間能夠很容易地聯(lián)系到彼此，避免相互隔離，而這種隔離正是許多有多個(gè)辦公地點(diǎn)的公司的弊端。

DesignWorkshop的管理結(jié)構(gòu)是對(duì)企業(yè)普遍存在的等級(jí)制度的公然挑戰(zhàn)。員工持股計(jì)劃使員工享有公司的所有權(quán)權(quán)益，并且使人人有功于公司成功的心態(tài)得以強(qiáng)化。公司的每月結(jié)算與收入預(yù)測(cè)對(duì)每一個(gè)人都是共享的，這些人包括從電話接線員到高級(jí)職員。辦公室記分卡描繪了每個(gè)辦公室的健康情況，不僅顯示了營(yíng)業(yè)收入、積壓代辦的事務(wù)和資源運(yùn)用等財(cái)政狀況，而且顯示設(shè)計(jì)審查以及最近獲獎(jiǎng)的數(shù)量，這些是設(shè)計(jì)迭代、卓越和辦公室可視化的指標(biāo)。這種理念和不尋常的透明度是以《偉大的商業(yè)游戲：釋放能量與賬目共享管理的盈利性》（1994年）所論及的觀點(diǎn)為基礎(chǔ)，這本書推廣賬目共享的管理方法，員工獲得信息授權(quán)，有歸屬感和經(jīng)營(yíng)業(yè)績(jī)的責(zé)任感。DesignWorkshop的員工都具有創(chuàng)業(yè)的態(tài)度，公司多年來擴(kuò)展到不同的區(qū)域，可以明顯感受到灌輸這種精神所創(chuàng)造的價(jià)值觀。例如，為客戶提供市場(chǎng)分析和戰(zhàn)略發(fā)展規(guī)劃的高爾夫球場(chǎng)設(shè)計(jì)與開發(fā)服務(wù)都是DesignWorkshop的員工推出的，他們都是出自對(duì)專業(yè)咨詢領(lǐng)域的酷愛和興趣，并且證明了把公司的服務(wù)擴(kuò)展到這些領(lǐng)域的財(cái)務(wù)可行性。

產(chǎn)生于學(xué)術(shù)界

DesignWorkshop的名稱以及該公司的經(jīng)營(yíng)方式來源于其創(chuàng)辦人在創(chuàng)辦設(shè)計(jì)公司之前作為專業(yè)學(xué)者所獲得的經(jīng)驗(yàn)。20世紀(jì)60年代末在北卡羅來納州立大學(xué)教學(xué)期間，喬·波特和丹·恩賽因認(rèn)為有必要在學(xué)術(shù)與專業(yè)學(xué)科合作遭到破壞和扼殺的領(lǐng)域展開工作。1969年，他們與來自于不同學(xué)科部門的其他兩名教授一起開放其實(shí)踐，目的是創(chuàng)辦一個(gè)“研討會(huì)”，讓整個(gè)大學(xué)的教育工作者、業(yè)內(nèi)人士及學(xué)生之間能夠合作無間。該公司被命名為“DesignWorkshop”，意在描述一種合作文化。

雖然現(xiàn)在喬·波特從公司退休了，但是，與公司成立之初一樣，他仍然擁有與創(chuàng)建DesignWorkshop之初相同的美好意愿。最近在回顧公司的起源時(shí)，波特指出，“我們的糧倉建立于商業(yè)、法律、設(shè)計(jì)、建筑、景觀建筑、工程、財(cái)務(wù)和其它學(xué)科以及創(chuàng)造建成環(huán)境和維持生態(tài)系統(tǒng)的特殊興趣中。這些筒倉生于長(zhǎng)于學(xué)術(shù)界，而在學(xué)術(shù)界，受到獎(jiǎng)賞的學(xué)者往往以犧牲合作和學(xué)科聯(lián)系為代價(jià)專攻某一學(xué)科并越走越深?；谘杏憰?huì)的概念組建公司，是為了嘗試讓不同行業(yè)的人為了共同的目標(biāo)而在一起工作。處理復(fù)雜的規(guī)劃與設(shè)計(jì)問題需要來自于不同學(xué)科的思考者。使其合作的方法是把設(shè)計(jì)工作建立在共享的價(jià)值觀和原則的基礎(chǔ)之上?！保▍⒖磮D3）

基于原則的實(shí)踐

DesignWorkshop的實(shí)踐是由四項(xiàng)原則界定的——綜合性、包容性、透明化和知識(shí)——這對(duì)合作和嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)設(shè)計(jì)方案都是必要的。第一項(xiàng)原則綜合性最好用圖形來表示：（參看圖4）

通過可持續(xù)發(fā)展四個(gè)必不可少的領(lǐng)域——環(huán)境、社區(qū)、經(jīng)濟(jì)和藝術(shù)，可實(shí)現(xiàn)產(chǎn)生設(shè)計(jì)方案的原則。這些關(guān)鍵領(lǐng)域構(gòu)成了該公司的DWLegacyDesign?方法的連環(huán)鎖。每一個(gè)項(xiàng)目都代表著平衡這四領(lǐng)域目標(biāo)的機(jī)會(huì)，以完成為對(duì)環(huán)境敏銳的、支持社區(qū)的、經(jīng)濟(jì)可持續(xù)發(fā)展的以及可產(chǎn)生藝術(shù)效果的項(xiàng)目。由于DesignWorkshop承接的項(xiàng)目具有一定的復(fù)雜性，因此需要一種四重盈余法才能真正實(shí)現(xiàn)可持續(xù)發(fā)展。第二個(gè)原則包容性明確了DesignWorkshop產(chǎn)生設(shè)計(jì)理念的方法。場(chǎng)所營(yíng)造的業(yè)務(wù)包括廣泛征求設(shè)計(jì)團(tuán)隊(duì)、咨詢專家以及客戶與社區(qū)的意見。

第三個(gè)原則決策過程透明化體現(xiàn)在工作室的環(huán)境以及與群體互動(dòng)以推進(jìn)工作所展現(xiàn)的公開性。展示項(xiàng)目目標(biāo)和決策依據(jù)有益于所有的參與者，使團(tuán)隊(duì)更具凝聚力。

第四項(xiàng)原則是知識(shí)。DesignWorkshop非常重視基于項(xiàng)目的研究，從而帶來知識(shí)發(fā)展和設(shè)計(jì)創(chuàng)新。評(píng)估項(xiàng)目的績(jī)效，使團(tuán)隊(duì)能夠檢驗(yàn)設(shè)計(jì)策略、擴(kuò)展專業(yè)知識(shí)并確定是否有可能進(jìn)一步創(chuàng)新。

正規(guī)的設(shè)計(jì)方法

自成立以來，DesignWorksho p的指導(dǎo)思想一直是與綜合性、包容性、決策過程透明化和知識(shí)有關(guān)的以過程為導(dǎo)向的理念。但是20世紀(jì)90年代，公司的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)層決定在股東內(nèi)部使這種基于原則的設(shè)計(jì)方法正規(guī)化。為了以真正合作的方式進(jìn)行經(jīng)營(yíng)，作為研討會(huì)的參與者，設(shè)計(jì)團(tuán)隊(duì)必須遵循一種共享的方法論。DWLegacyDesign?的方法是對(duì)綜合性、透明化、嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)和迭代過程的概括。公司由此制定出方法圖表，作為員工的設(shè)計(jì)路徑圖。（參看圖5）

該圖表描述的是如何利用戰(zhàn)略性會(huì)議啟動(dòng)每一個(gè)項(xiàng)目，從而為團(tuán)隊(duì)開展工作以及吸引客戶和股東奠定基礎(chǔ)。在會(huì)議過程中，團(tuán)隊(duì)著手調(diào)查了解項(xiàng)目面臨的機(jī)遇和挑戰(zhàn)，并進(jìn)行綜合調(diào)查為項(xiàng)目相關(guān)研究提供信息和確立績(jī)效目標(biāo)。按照學(xué)術(shù)實(shí)踐，團(tuán)隊(duì)為每一個(gè)新項(xiàng)目制定了一份項(xiàng)目挑戰(zhàn)聲明（稱之為“項(xiàng)目困境”）和假設(shè)聲明（稱之為“項(xiàng)目主題”）。在團(tuán)隊(duì)的集體努力下，“項(xiàng)目困境”使團(tuán)隊(duì)產(chǎn)生凝聚力，繞開障礙，從而成功獲得設(shè)計(jì)方案?！绊?xiàng)目主題”設(shè)定了最終設(shè)計(jì)的愿景，也時(shí)刻提醒團(tuán)隊(duì)所要追求的結(jié)果。

每個(gè)項(xiàng)目啟動(dòng)時(shí)舉行的氣氛熱烈的會(huì)議確定了項(xiàng)目目標(biāo)，而這個(gè)目標(biāo)平衡了經(jīng)濟(jì)問題、社區(qū)價(jià)值、環(huán)保問題和設(shè)計(jì)藝術(shù)，使其成為凝聚的愿景。有了目標(biāo)，就有了研究任務(wù)，團(tuán)隊(duì)成員被安排鉆研與項(xiàng)目有關(guān)的議題。做進(jìn)一步探究，可以使團(tuán)隊(duì)能夠預(yù)測(cè)完成項(xiàng)目的量化績(jī)效利益。對(duì)設(shè)計(jì)發(fā)現(xiàn)、合作和責(zé)任性這一初始過程做出概括，可為團(tuán)隊(duì)提供路徑，對(duì)項(xiàng)目的成功是至關(guān)重要。

快速循環(huán)

DWLegacyDesign?的核心元素是快速循環(huán)的概念，用方法圖表左側(cè)上的環(huán)線表示?？焖傺h(huán)屬于迭代過程，是公司的設(shè)計(jì)實(shí)踐的核心。設(shè)計(jì)不是線性的運(yùn)動(dòng)項(xiàng)目；而是會(huì)演化的。DesignWorkshop的項(xiàng)目是復(fù)雜的并且位于特定場(chǎng)地的。設(shè)計(jì)產(chǎn)生于可控的周期內(nèi)，而可控周期是由控制、鞏固和向客戶提交工作并反饋意見時(shí)產(chǎn)生的一系列情感宣泄的探索的集合。DW的董事會(huì)主席庫爾特·卡伯特森補(bǔ)充指出，“快速循環(huán)也能夠被視為兩種思維模式之間的碰撞過程——?jiǎng)?chuàng)造性思維和批判性思維。圖表里的環(huán)形描述的是我們作為設(shè)計(jì)師經(jīng)歷的過程——先嘗試做一些事情，從中學(xué)習(xí)一些東西，再嘗試做其它的事情，以便從中學(xué)習(xí)一些新的東西?！边@種在專業(yè)實(shí)踐過程中試驗(yàn)性的模式被M.I.T.社會(huì)科學(xué)家唐納德·A·斯肯稱為“在行動(dòng)中反思”，這位科學(xué)家在設(shè)計(jì)過程中識(shí)別出三種對(duì)于嚴(yán)格迭代的獨(dú)特方法：探索、移動(dòng)檢驗(yàn)和假設(shè)檢驗(yàn)。在DesignWorkshop，項(xiàng)目經(jīng)歷的周期數(shù)取決于其空間大小、進(jìn)度和費(fèi)用以及團(tuán)隊(duì)對(duì)設(shè)計(jì)質(zhì)量和完成程度的評(píng)估。以這種方式處理設(shè)計(jì)，只要在圖表上標(biāo)注，就逐漸向員工灌輸了迭代的重要性。設(shè)計(jì)團(tuán)隊(duì)被希冀可以在一定時(shí)期內(nèi)專心工作，同時(shí)也可以定期停下來接受外界的觀點(diǎn)。設(shè)計(jì)如何演化和進(jìn)步是公司合作文化的關(guān)鍵。

進(jìn)行設(shè)計(jì)審查是團(tuán)隊(duì)征求客觀反饋意見以便為設(shè)計(jì)提供信息的一種方式，這是工作室的重要基礎(chǔ)，也是公司環(huán)境是否健康的最終檢驗(yàn)。設(shè)計(jì)審查有許多不同的形式。有些設(shè)計(jì)審查是在項(xiàng)目例會(huì)上進(jìn)行的，會(huì)議上的對(duì)話僅限于想要對(duì)設(shè)計(jì)進(jìn)展進(jìn)行更新的團(tuán)隊(duì)成員之間。其它設(shè)計(jì)審查發(fā)生在個(gè)人辦公桌旁，這時(shí)也許一名正出訪的負(fù)責(zé)人想要對(duì)項(xiàng)目進(jìn)度進(jìn)行檢驗(yàn)。但是，研討會(huì)的核心是在辦公室或公司范圍內(nèi)召集進(jìn)行的設(shè)計(jì)審查，目的是廣泛征求客觀性批判意見。在此情況下，整個(gè)辦公室會(huì)在午餐時(shí)間聚在一起聽取團(tuán)隊(duì)的簡(jiǎn)短報(bào)告。披薩餅是參會(huì)的酬勞。舉行設(shè)計(jì)審查有多個(gè)目的：尋求設(shè)計(jì)反饋意見、分享客戶對(duì)最近匯報(bào)的反應(yīng)并指明下一步的方向、準(zhǔn)備新項(xiàng)目的訪談，以及/或者對(duì)獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)提交的草案進(jìn)行分享。這樣的設(shè)計(jì)審查是帶有批判性思維的深思熟慮過程的一部分，旨在為進(jìn)一步的創(chuàng)新研究做好準(zhǔn)備。（參看圖6）

知識(shí)的形成

DesignWorkshop的員工通常會(huì)討論參與批判性實(shí)踐的意義。在這一點(diǎn)上，他們認(rèn)為應(yīng)該關(guān)注那些影響到即使不是地球和全人類也至少是建成環(huán)境的全球性議題。公司用幻燈片按季度進(jìn)行情況介紹，歡迎新員工加入，其中就包括2007年的《新聞周刊》封面，該封面突出的是一個(gè)地球儀，并把描述政治、古生物學(xué)、金融、藝術(shù)、通俗文化、科學(xué)等內(nèi)容的圖像網(wǎng)格映射在地球儀的格網(wǎng)上。標(biāo)題為“你需要立刻知道的181件事”。與新員工分享這一圖像的目的是向他們灌輸超越某個(gè)特定項(xiàng)目的范圍和實(shí)際界限看問題的重要性，并且使他們關(guān)注總體建成環(huán)境和具體項(xiàng)目場(chǎng)地的廣泛影響因素。綜合型DWLegacyDesign?方法的核心是強(qiáng)調(diào)高額的調(diào)查研究與多意信息的綜合處理。

DesignWorkshop項(xiàng)目團(tuán)隊(duì)時(shí)常尋求了解各種主題，并將其融入設(shè)計(jì)，而這或許在上一代被認(rèn)為已超出傳統(tǒng)景觀建筑實(shí)踐的范圍或能力。公司項(xiàng)目的復(fù)雜性迫使其團(tuán)隊(duì)擁有大量的信息和工具，以便進(jìn)行設(shè)計(jì)和對(duì)成功進(jìn)行評(píng)估。除了關(guān)注實(shí)體空間設(shè)計(jì)和形式創(chuàng)造之外，一個(gè)典型的團(tuán)隊(duì)可能會(huì)計(jì)算總體規(guī)劃社區(qū)的職住比，以求減少發(fā)展產(chǎn)生的車行次數(shù)或路程。他們可能會(huì)關(guān)注社會(huì)公正的問題，或者利用有針對(duì)性的調(diào)查確保項(xiàng)目的社區(qū)參與策略考慮到了受影響的部分人口。抑或，他們可能會(huì)研究某個(gè)區(qū)域的零售空缺或交通事故率，以便了解和衡量在實(shí)施街景改造前后的影響。批判性實(shí)踐需要智慧性運(yùn)營(yíng)，并且需要對(duì)影響建成環(huán)境的廣泛議題保持高度注意。

由于承認(rèn)項(xiàng)目的復(fù)雜性，DesignWorkshop不僅著手努力收集有助于設(shè)計(jì)決策的信息用來指導(dǎo)公司的最佳實(shí)踐，而且還開展正規(guī)的研究，以創(chuàng)造行業(yè)的新知識(shí)。作為這項(xiàng)工作的一部分，項(xiàng)目團(tuán)隊(duì)在設(shè)計(jì)中以及實(shí)施后越來越多地使用循證設(shè)計(jì)來衡量項(xiàng)目的績(jī)效。緊接著新項(xiàng)目合同的簽訂，任務(wù)團(tuán)隊(duì)會(huì)聚集在一起，尋找出會(huì)影響設(shè)計(jì)和實(shí)施結(jié)果的各種相關(guān)因素和機(jī)遇。研究清單和指標(biāo)議題會(huì)被進(jìn)行審查和優(yōu)先考慮。在這次初始會(huì)話中圍繞著小組的關(guān)鍵問題是，“我們和我們的客戶對(duì)于這個(gè)項(xiàng)目想要講述什么故事？”在設(shè)計(jì)工作開始之前問一下這個(gè)問題并想象一下最后的結(jié)果，有助于構(gòu)建該項(xiàng)目的議程。該會(huì)話會(huì)產(chǎn)生一個(gè)綜合性大綱，各種因素和機(jī)遇則變成是與環(huán)境、社區(qū)、經(jīng)濟(jì)或藝術(shù)有關(guān)的研究主題和目標(biāo)，它們會(huì)分配給團(tuán)隊(duì)的不同成員。（參看圖7）

在整個(gè)設(shè)計(jì)過程中，項(xiàng)目團(tuán)隊(duì)會(huì)針對(duì)已設(shè)定的目標(biāo)對(duì)設(shè)計(jì)進(jìn)行評(píng)估。在起初設(shè)定的可衡量目標(biāo)是評(píng)估項(xiàng)目過程中備選設(shè)計(jì)方案的一種工具。在這個(gè)階段，設(shè)計(jì)尚未實(shí)現(xiàn)，因此僅可顯示出成功的跡象。直到在設(shè)計(jì)實(shí)施后進(jìn)行績(jī)效評(píng)估，才能產(chǎn)生成功的證據(jù)。很少設(shè)計(jì)公司有能力自己承接這一工作，這就是DesignWorkshop積極參與景觀建筑基金會(huì)（LAF）的“景觀績(jī)效系列案例研究倡議（CSI）”的原因。這一計(jì)劃使實(shí)踐者與學(xué)術(shù)團(tuán)隊(duì)相合作，而學(xué)術(shù)團(tuán)隊(duì)開展的嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)研究可對(duì)建成項(xiàng)目交付的可持續(xù)景觀績(jī)效利益做出衡量。正如DesignWorkshop在過去三年里與猶他州立大學(xué)合作，這種合作可確保對(duì)項(xiàng)目進(jìn)行客觀研究，并且可以使用科學(xué)方法對(duì)各種主張進(jìn)行驗(yàn)證。這些研究已發(fā)布在LAF網(wǎng)站上（見側(cè)欄），作為行業(yè)提高其可持續(xù)發(fā)展實(shí)踐水平的資源。此外，學(xué)術(shù)團(tuán)隊(duì)也在同行評(píng)議的出版物發(fā)表研究，并在各項(xiàng)會(huì)議上展示，如：景觀建筑教育者理事會(huì)（CELA）。

知識(shí)必須在項(xiàng)目背景下形成并在項(xiàng)目團(tuán)隊(duì)中進(jìn)行交流，對(duì)這種期望必不可少的是DesignWorkshop門戶，這是分享整個(gè)公司的知識(shí)和信息的內(nèi)部網(wǎng)站。每個(gè)人都可以看到在該門戶公布的一系列信息，從員工結(jié)婚通告到辦公室聯(lián)誼會(huì)，從公眾會(huì)議召開的最佳實(shí)踐到不透水表面減少的新方法。其中大部分信息都在內(nèi)部網(wǎng)站的主題頁面上，每個(gè)頁面都有一個(gè)DWLegacyDesign?的指標(biāo)議題。從城市熱島效應(yīng)到植物技術(shù)再到生態(tài)排水溝，這些在線網(wǎng)頁收集了公司內(nèi)外部的信息，包括基準(zhǔn)目標(biāo)的范例、設(shè)計(jì)策略、在線計(jì)算器以及與各組織機(jī)構(gòu)的鏈接，其中這些組織機(jī)構(gòu)在主題、文章、白皮書和示范項(xiàng)目多方面各有所長(zhǎng)。該門戶還為全公司的社區(qū)實(shí)踐提供了一個(gè)家園，它把擁有共同設(shè)計(jì)興趣的員工聚集在一起，也把在某一特殊領(lǐng)域主管提升公司能力的職員聚集起來，這些特殊領(lǐng)域諸如：數(shù)字化表現(xiàn)或綠色屋頂設(shè)計(jì)。要在DesignWorkshop工作，必須成為網(wǎng)絡(luò)化社區(qū)的成員，這個(gè)社區(qū)重視知識(shí)，每一個(gè)人都有望為知識(shí)的擴(kuò)展作出貢獻(xiàn)。

持續(xù)學(xué)習(xí)

DesignWorkshop極力強(qiáng)調(diào)持續(xù)學(xué)習(xí)，這既是為了員工的專業(yè)發(fā)展，也是為了把新思路和專業(yè)知識(shí)注入到每一個(gè)項(xiàng)目中。希望員工提升專業(yè)知識(shí)并與同事分享以促進(jìn)實(shí)踐，這是公司基于學(xué)術(shù)的構(gòu)成方式。這種注重學(xué)習(xí)的方式不僅體現(xiàn)在全公司的正規(guī)計(jì)劃上，也體現(xiàn)在各個(gè)項(xiàng)目?jī)?nèi)容中。

DesignWorkshop的員工“五年計(jì)劃”描繪了員工在公司前五年被賦予的期望，這些期望包括增長(zhǎng)知識(shí)以及確立成功的、令人滿意的職業(yè)生涯憑證。該計(jì)劃明確了建立基本技能、展示思想領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力、攻讀研究生課程及獲得專業(yè)許可和認(rèn)證的目標(biāo)和時(shí)間線。必須有研究生學(xué)歷才能晉升到領(lǐng)導(dǎo)職位。公司深信，攻讀研究生學(xué)位是一種轉(zhuǎn)型經(jīng)歷，可以增強(qiáng)自信心、提升智能和個(gè)人成熟度、提高專業(yè)能力。員工出席會(huì)議并發(fā)表文章也是受到鼓勵(lì)的?！拔迥暧?jì)劃”的目標(biāo)旨在描繪一種使青年才俊有計(jì)劃的盡快發(fā)展而不是任其隨機(jī)努力的過程。DesignWorkshop強(qiáng)調(diào)知識(shí)的發(fā)展和共享，也強(qiáng)調(diào)通過認(rèn)證和學(xué)位鞏固知識(shí)，力求促使員工盡快從新手發(fā)展成大師。一年兩次的績(jī)效評(píng)議是使每個(gè)員工能夠針對(duì)專業(yè)發(fā)展目標(biāo)衡量其進(jìn)步的里程碑。

公司每年都會(huì)計(jì)劃舉行一系列內(nèi)部員工和特邀專家的午餐時(shí)間報(bào)告會(huì)。一個(gè)月舉行數(shù)次的“午餐學(xué)習(xí)會(huì)”針對(duì)與設(shè)計(jì)、特定項(xiàng)目類型或一般技能培訓(xùn)相關(guān)的主題進(jìn)行簡(jiǎn)短的報(bào)告。各個(gè)辦公室的員工都會(huì)連接到網(wǎng)絡(luò)會(huì)議聽取報(bào)告，并在每個(gè)講座總結(jié)時(shí)參與討論。最近的主題包括雨洪管理、城市行道樹、植物修復(fù)、公共藝術(shù)、數(shù)字建模、會(huì)議簡(jiǎn)易化、項(xiàng)目管理和GIS。

自2006年以來，DesignWorkshop已針對(duì)各個(gè)主題或項(xiàng)目類型召開了10多次全公司座談會(huì)，其中有許多是公司重點(diǎn)關(guān)注的領(lǐng)域，包括城市廊道設(shè)計(jì)、種植設(shè)計(jì)、新社區(qū)開發(fā)、公園設(shè)計(jì)和社區(qū)綜合規(guī)劃。當(dāng)幾個(gè)DesignWorkshop辦公室在做同一類型的項(xiàng)目時(shí)，就會(huì)召開會(huì)議，使團(tuán)隊(duì)能夠分享最佳實(shí)踐。外部的嘉賓也會(huì)被邀請(qǐng)作為主題演講者，并確立討論框架。處理相似問題的數(shù)個(gè)項(xiàng)目團(tuán)隊(duì)會(huì)應(yīng)邀參與簡(jiǎn)短的報(bào)告會(huì)分享最佳實(shí)踐和接收反饋意見。雖然參與座談會(huì)會(huì)損失員工趕工期的緊迫感，也會(huì)消耗員工一天中的部分帶薪時(shí)間，但是公司領(lǐng)導(dǎo)層認(rèn)為，這些會(huì)議可擴(kuò)展行業(yè)最佳實(shí)踐的意識(shí)、提升項(xiàng)目設(shè)計(jì)并加強(qiáng)所有辦公室之間的聯(lián)系。這些會(huì)議強(qiáng)化了“研討會(huì)”的概念。

公司確信，使員工與知識(shí)相聯(lián)系，并教會(huì)他們?nèi)绾芜M(jìn)行項(xiàng)目相關(guān)的研究將有利于實(shí)踐進(jìn)步，這種信念已經(jīng)使旅程和探索超越了DW六個(gè)辦事的局限。從2005年至2007年，整個(gè)公司都會(huì)到美國(guó)的不同城市進(jìn)行年度休假會(huì)議。2005年內(nèi)華達(dá)拉斯維加斯集會(huì)的重點(diǎn)是設(shè)計(jì)方法。2006年，員工到訪俄勒岡州波特蘭，其重點(diǎn)是關(guān)于環(huán)境和藝術(shù)，這兩者構(gòu)成了DWLegacyDesign?的主要范疇。社區(qū)和經(jīng)濟(jì)是2007年伊利諾伊州芝加哥會(huì)議的重點(diǎn)。這些類似會(huì)議的聚集舉辦講座、分組座談會(huì)，也可以參觀示范城市項(xiàng)目，會(huì)議由內(nèi)部專家和發(fā)言嘉賓擔(dān)任主持，對(duì)到訪城市的建成環(huán)境所取得的綜合性可持續(xù)發(fā)展實(shí)踐提出特別的見解。（參看圖8）

“在DesignWorkshop工作就像是回到學(xué)校一樣，”喬什·布魯克斯說道。他畢業(yè)于巴吞魯日路易斯安那州立大學(xué)的羅伯特·賴希景觀建筑學(xué)院，取得學(xué)士學(xué)位后新近加入公司?！拔艺娴暮苄蕾p貫穿整個(gè)年度的所有學(xué)習(xí)活動(dòng)。頻繁舉行的設(shè)計(jì)審查為工作室注入了探索意識(shí)和批判意識(shí)，為設(shè)計(jì)探索奠定了基調(diào)?！?/p>

與學(xué)術(shù)界的聯(lián)系

作為一家學(xué)術(shù)界出身的公司，DesignWorkshop與美國(guó)各大高校的設(shè)計(jì)計(jì)劃以及全國(guó)范圍內(nèi)的教授都維持著密切的聯(lián)系。猶他州立大學(xué)的景觀建筑計(jì)劃已被指定為公司檔案室的接收者。數(shù)年來，公司創(chuàng)建了一項(xiàng)“駐院老師”計(jì)劃，邀請(qǐng)教授在休假日或暑假在公司的一個(gè)或所有辦事處里工作。這些安排產(chǎn)生了巨大的相互利益。對(duì)于學(xué)者而言，他們可以利用這個(gè)機(jī)會(huì)參與專業(yè)實(shí)踐，并利用這些時(shí)間把研究運(yùn)用于即將實(shí)施的項(xiàng)目。而與教員的互動(dòng)，使員工有機(jī)會(huì)直接向在某一特定領(lǐng)域有著豐富知識(shí)的專家學(xué)習(xí)。由于DesignWorkshop擁有以過程為導(dǎo)向的設(shè)計(jì)實(shí)踐以及為了追求設(shè)計(jì)方案而共享的方法論，學(xué)術(shù)到訪者在工作室往往有一種賓至如歸的感覺。喬治亞州立大學(xué)環(huán)境設(shè)計(jì)學(xué)院景觀建筑系的富蘭克林教授兼美國(guó)雨洪設(shè)計(jì)和技術(shù)專家布魯斯·弗格森已在DesignWorkshop工作了兩個(gè)夏天，波爾州立大學(xué)景觀建筑教授萊斯·史密斯也在其休假期間花了數(shù)個(gè)月的時(shí)間在DesignWorkshop，對(duì)藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作與設(shè)計(jì)之間的交叉點(diǎn)進(jìn)行強(qiáng)化。（參看圖9）

DesignWorkshop贊助兩項(xiàng)縮小學(xué)術(shù)界與專業(yè)實(shí)踐的距離的計(jì)劃。第一項(xiàng)計(jì)劃是“設(shè)計(jì)周”，期間，負(fù)責(zé)人及數(shù)名員工會(huì)與一系列高校名單中的景觀建筑或規(guī)劃本科課程的老師合作，舉行一場(chǎng)為期一周的專家研討會(huì)，重點(diǎn)是討論特定場(chǎng)所的設(shè)計(jì)問題。給學(xué)生講授如何開展綜合性設(shè)計(jì)過程之后，會(huì)創(chuàng)建跨學(xué)科團(tuán)隊(duì)重點(diǎn)解決復(fù)雜的設(shè)計(jì)問題。在志愿者活動(dòng)時(shí)間，與學(xué)生互動(dòng)并教會(huì)他們?nèi)绾伍_展嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)?shù)膶I(yè)實(shí)踐對(duì)公司的員工而言是很鼓舞人心的，這也使我們與教職工和學(xué)術(shù)機(jī)構(gòu)建立了新的聯(lián)系。學(xué)者和學(xué)生都會(huì)接觸到公司公布的研討會(huì)方法以及由于跨學(xué)科的努力帶來的累累碩果。迄今為止，公司已在數(shù)個(gè)享有聲望的設(shè)計(jì)學(xué)院舉行了“設(shè)計(jì)周”，包括克萊姆森大學(xué)、肯塔基州立大學(xué)、路易斯安那州立大學(xué)、德州農(nóng)工大學(xué)和賓夕法尼亞州立大學(xué)。（參看圖10）

此外，DesignWorkshop還贊助一項(xiàng)年度暑期實(shí)習(xí)計(jì)劃。公司在六個(gè)辦事處內(nèi)總共征集約12個(gè)實(shí)習(xí)申請(qǐng)。每一年，在暑期的第一個(gè)星期，其中一個(gè)辦事處會(huì)被指定主持由所有實(shí)習(xí)生參加的高強(qiáng)度的多天設(shè)計(jì)研討會(huì)。學(xué)生沉浸在公司的合作文化中，并學(xué)習(xí)DWLegacyDesign?方法的過程。然后，每一名學(xué)生會(huì)被分配到DesignWorkshop的其中一個(gè)辦事處，把暑期剩余的時(shí)間花在客戶委托的公司項(xiàng)目上。（參看圖11）

合作的意向文化

DesignWorkshop的名稱、實(shí)體空間、綜合性設(shè)計(jì)理念、合作設(shè)計(jì)原則以及共享的方法論不斷強(qiáng)化著“研討會(huì)”的概念。公司的每一個(gè)人都有責(zé)任秉承合作文化。

每一名員工都是研討會(huì)的主體。在很大程度上，設(shè)計(jì)團(tuán)隊(duì)會(huì)自我組織并發(fā)起會(huì)話，從而在以發(fā)現(xiàn)為導(dǎo)向的環(huán)境中提升理念。不過，必須培養(yǎng)合作文化。為了提升研討會(huì)的理念并反復(fù)灌輸這種實(shí)踐方法，由每個(gè)辦公室派出的LegacyDesign代表組成的團(tuán)隊(duì)每個(gè)月會(huì)集會(huì)一次，分享新的研究或者通過績(jī)效指標(biāo)評(píng)估設(shè)計(jì)和建成效果的方法。他們還會(huì)討論每個(gè)辦公室的研討會(huì)文化情況，并根據(jù)需要采取培育措施。如果某個(gè)辦公室的設(shè)計(jì)審查流程和團(tuán)隊(duì)合作已衰退，這些管理人員將鼓勵(lì)小組改變行為方式，并且在工作室共用區(qū)域征求項(xiàng)目團(tuán)隊(duì)外人員的意見。在其它情況下，可能安排辦公室之間的設(shè)計(jì)審查，以激發(fā)全公司的交流和思路分享。

簡(jiǎn)·雅各布斯寫道，“沒有強(qiáng)大、包容的生命核心，一個(gè)城市往往會(huì)變成彼此孤立的利益的收集站。它在社會(huì)、文化和經(jīng)濟(jì)上的產(chǎn)出很難大于各獨(dú)立部分的總和。”豐富的系統(tǒng)、用途和人的重疊參與才形成了極其重要的城市空間。把這一思路運(yùn)用于設(shè)計(jì)工作室，設(shè)計(jì)師的關(guān)注領(lǐng)域以及不同觀點(diǎn)的傳播對(duì)工作室的生存是至關(guān)重要的，因?yàn)楣ぷ魇沂且粋€(gè)知識(shí)形成和復(fù)雜設(shè)計(jì)問題解決方案生成的地方。最高設(shè)計(jì)質(zhì)量的實(shí)現(xiàn)是依靠研討會(huì)團(tuán)隊(duì)的貢獻(xiàn)，而不是單單依靠個(gè)人的行為。在DesignWorkshop，我們每天都在有意地創(chuàng)造這種條件以秉承公司的文化，這是公司創(chuàng)辦的核心，也是公司持續(xù)運(yùn)營(yíng)到今天的方法。

艾莉森·門登霍爾是DesignWorkshop的綜合型可持續(xù)設(shè)計(jì)實(shí)踐DWLegacyDesign?的總監(jiān)。她開發(fā)了DesignWorkshop的景觀設(shè)計(jì)、城市設(shè)計(jì)和土地規(guī)劃實(shí)踐的研究工具和模型，并講授強(qiáng)調(diào)公司建成工程的績(jī)效衡量的方法論知識(shí)。阿利森因其在大型、復(fù)雜的多學(xué)科設(shè)計(jì)和規(guī)劃工作的項(xiàng)目領(lǐng)導(dǎo)能力而著稱。艾莉森是哈佛大學(xué)和哈佛設(shè)計(jì)研究院（GSD）的研究生，是GSD校友理事會(huì)和景觀建筑基金董事會(huì)的一員。

A Design Workshop

Whether one is a first-time visitor to Design W orkshop or a long-time Design Workshop employee, when walking into any of the firm’s six offices, there is an immediate sense of the creative energy of the design studio and the liveliness of the conversations. The collaborative atmosphere and sense of purpose are palpable.

On a typical day, project teams are gathered in the open studio space, considering designs that are pinned up on the wall and designers are leaning intently over drawings spread on large layout tables. Conference rooms are filled with design teams presenting to clients and leading strategy sessions with other consultants.Perhaps a resort or a master-planned community or a streetscape or a park is the focus. Boisterous discussions about proposed designs are heard throughout the studio as teams huddle together to critique and advance their work. Everyone on teams, from the principals-in-charge to the student interns, is expected to contribute to the conversation. This is Design Workshop’s culture in action.

Culture of Collaboration

The name on the door, Design Workshop, speaks volumes about the way staf f members conduct themselves to solve complex design problems and about the physical space in which the work is accomplished.(see f g. 1)It heralds a culture of collaboration that is intense and intentional. Designs are created and iterated in the common areas which, in all Design Workshop’s off ces, are def ned by high ceilings,large community tables, and ample wall space where plans and sketches are gathered. All project teams are expected to conduct design reviews where the work is presented to colleagues beyond the design team. Constructive critique is shared in an atmosphere – sometimes genial, sometimes heated – with the common goal of improving a design. Design discussions take place in the “public space” of the off ce to force staf f to leave their desks and discard any design “blinders” that may inhibit seeing all the possible solutions. Certainly, employees work at their own desks, drawing on drafting tables or modeling on the computer. However, the culture of Design Workshop and the value placed on collaboration require that all work be visible – pinned up on the walls, printed large or projected so everyone on the team can see it – to spur the critical conversations that are necessary to propel project designs into project resolutions. (see f g. 2)

In The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1993), urban observer Jane Jacobs discusses the vibrancy created by the “mingling” that takes place when there is a convergence of diverse uses and urban dwellers moving through a city’s streets and public spaces at different times of day. Jacobs likens the complex order of a lively city sidewalk to “an intricate ballet in which the individual dancers and ensembles all have distinctive parts which miraculously reinforce each other and compose an orderly whole.” Design Workshop’s emphasis on the open studio as a space of creation and invention where team members encounter and engage with each other to develop new designs borrows from this idea. Members of the team and their varied skills and experiences concentrate in the studio and complement each other.i

Steven Johnson discusses the phenomenon of “collective intelligence” in Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software (2001),leading off with an example of an ant colony which is often misunderstood to be governed by the queen, a single individual who issues directives. In fact the decision-making and social coordination of an ant colony are made collectively .Through random encounters, individual ants are keenly aware of each other’s movements and actions. What emerges from their interactions is a self-organizing system for solving larger problems within the colony. Johnson also focuses on cities as emergent systems. Like Jacobs, he shares a fascination with sidewalks,which “mix large numbers of individuals in random configurations” and foster the local interactions and exchanges of information that in agglomerate into “complex order” at the city scale. The place-making focus of Design W orkshop’s practice –the engaging public spaces the f rm implements outside its walls – has been applied to the studios in which designs are developed. They are the public spaces of the company where design teams interact and solve problems collectively. They are central to Design Workshop’s conception of itself and to fostering the teamwork that is necessary to tackle complex projects.ii

Many companies today are exploring how to create work environments that spur interaction and innovation. The common work spaces of international design f rm IDEO are a frequently mentioned example as are the corporate campuses of Silicon Valley such as Pixar Animation Studios and Facebook. And there is a proliferation of articles and business books that attempts to address the value of collaborative efforts and the context and conditions for making them successful. In The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization (2006), Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith pro f le companies that form teams for research, productivity,and idea generation and also explore why many other organizations overlook the potential of group ef forts or implement them inef fectively.iiiSimilarly, Maverick: The Success Story Behind the W orld’s Most Unusual W orkplace (1993)captures the story of the Brazilian company Semco, the family business of Ricardo Semler, who transformed the organization through unorthodox practices that increased innovation and productivity while simultaneously changing existing company culture.iv

Since its founding over forty years ago, and in advance of many recent books and offices exploring the optimization of the work place, Design W orkshop has had strong notions about optimal settings for collaboration. Beyond the open studio areas that are central to each of f ce are individual work spaces, and corner of f ces are nowhere to be found. Instead, staf f members of varying seniority are dispersed in non-hierarchical arrangements of desks. In this scenario, conversations are overheard and information is ef f ciently disseminated across all staf f levels. Such close access (and proximity)to design principals is edifying for less experienced staff, and the intermingling of staf f with diverse roles, knowledge, and expertise reinforces the collaborative nature of the off ce’s workshop atmosphere.

Collaboration means many things at Design W orkshop. It can mean working side by side with someone who sits a few desks away, or it can mean sharing f les and work efforts with a colleague in another state or country. Some project teams are composed of staff members from several of Design Workshop’s six off ces based on the need for a particular expertise or someone’s availability to help on a deadline.Inter-office and client collaboration is made possible through audio, web, and video conferencing systems. Technology enables design conversations to span the distances between off ces throughout the United States and with clients across the globe, bridging the distances so that inter-of f ce teams can be deployed to get the work done. It ensures that one of f ce can easily reach out to another, and it avoids the isolation that characterizes many other f rms with multiple locations.

Design Workshop’s management structure defies the hierarchy typically found in a corporate setting. An employee stock ownership plan provides staf f with an ownership interest in the f rm and reinforces a mentality that everyone contributes to its success. Monthly billing and revenue projections are shared with everyone at the f rm, from the person who answers the phone to senior staff. Off ce scorecards paint a picture of each of f ce’s health and show not only f nancial performance such as revenues, backlog and utilization but also the number of design reviews and recent awards won which are indicators of design iteration, excellence, and of f ce visibility.This philosophy and unusual level of transparency are grounded in the ideas covered in The Great Game of Business: Unlocking the Power and Profitability of Open-Book Management (1994), which promotes an open-book management approach where employees are empowered by information and feel a sense of ownership and accountability to the performance of the operation.vThere is an entrepreneurial attitude among staff at Design Workshop, and the proof of the value created by instilling this spirit can be seen in the dif ferent areas into which the f rmhas expanded over the years. For instance, golf course design and Development Services, the group that provides market analysis and strategic development planning for clients, were both launched by individual employees who were driven by a passion and interest in these areas of professional consultation and were able to prove the f nancial viability of expanding the f rm’s services into these areas.

圖4 (fig.4)CREDIT:DesignWorkshopDesign Workshop’s comprehensive DW Legacy Design ? approach ensures that projects are environmentally sensitive, community supported, economically sustainable and artfully executed.DesignWorkshop的DWLegacyDesign?方法確保項(xiàng)目是對(duì)環(huán)境敏銳的、支持社區(qū)的、經(jīng)濟(jì)的可持續(xù)發(fā)展的以及可產(chǎn)生藝術(shù)效果的。

圖5 (fig.5)CREDIT:DesignWorkshopDesign Workshop’s method diagram provides an outline for a comprehensive approach to the project, as well as how the design will be iterated and evaluated. DesignWorkshop的方法圖給項(xiàng)目提供了一個(gè)綜合性方法的輪廓，以及如何迭代和評(píng)估設(shè)計(jì)。

Borne of Academia

The Workshop name and the way the firm operates stem from experiences its founders had as academics prior to starting a design f rm. During a teaching stint at University of North Carolina in the late 1960s, Joe Porter and Don Ensign saw a need to work around areas of specialization that separate and stif e collaboration between academic and professional disciplines. In 1969 they opened their practice with two other professors from dif ferent academic departments for the purpose of creating a “workshop” where educators from across the university, people from industry and students could collaborate without barriers. The f rm was named “Design Workshop” to describe a culture of people working in collaboration.

Although Joe Porter is now retired from the firm, his intentions in creating Design Workshop are as fresh now as they were at the f rm’s inception. Recalling recently the genesis of the f rm, Porter noted that “Silos exist in business, law, design, architecture,landscape architecture, engineering, finance, and other disciplines and special interests responsible for creating built environments and maintaining ecosystems.These silos are born and nurtured in academia where scholars are rewarded for becoming expert in a single subject and digging deeper and deeper into that subject at the expense of collaboration and connecting disciplines. Forming a company based on the concept of a workshop was an attempt to get people from different sectors to work together toward common goals. Tackling complex planning and design problems requires thinkers from dif ferent disciplines. The way to get them to collaborate is to base the design exercise on shared values and principles.” (see f g. 3)

A Principle-based Practice

Design Workshop’s practice is defined by four principles - comprehensiveness;inclusiveness; transparency; and knowledge - that are necessary for collaboration and rigorous design solutions. The first principle, comprehensiveness, is best expressed by the overlapping Legacy Design rings. (see f g. 4)

This principle of developing design solutions is achieved through four essential aspects of sustainability – environment, community, economics and art. These focus areas form the interlocking rings of the firm’s DW Legacy Design?method. Every project represents an opportunity to balance goals in all four areas to achieve projects that are environmentally sensitive, community supported, economically sustainable and artfully executed. The complexity of the projects undertaken by Design Workshop requires a quadruple-bottom line approach to be truly sustainable.vi

The second principle, inclusiveness, defines Design W orkshop’s approach to generating ideas developing designs. The business of place-making involves soliciting a broad spectrum of input from the design team, consultant experts, clients and communities.

The third principle, transparency in decision-making, is exhibited by the studio environment and the openness with which groups interact to advance the work.Exposing the goals of a project and the basis of decisions is edifying to all participants and aligns the team.

The fourth principle is knowledge. Design Workshop places great importance on project-based research that leads to knowledge development and design innovation.Evaluating the performance of projects enables a team to test design strategies,expand expertise and determine whether further innovation is possible.

A Formalized Design Approach

Design Workshop has been guided by the process-oriented ideals related to comprehensiveness, inclusiveness, transparent decision-making and knowledge since its founding. However the leadership of the firm decided to formalize this principle-based design approach at a shareholders retreat in the late 1990s. To operate in a truly collaborative manner, to be participants in a workshop, design teams need to follow a shared methodology. DW Legacy Design?outlines a comprehensive, transparent, rigorous and iterative process to the work. A method diagram was developed to serve as a design roadmap for the staff. (see f g. 5)

The diagram depicts how every project is launched with a strategic kick-of f meeting to lay the foundation for how the team will perform the work and engage the client and stakeholders. During this session, the team embarks on an exercise to discover the opportunities and challenges faced by the project and to set comprehensive inquiries that inform project-based research and the establishment of performance goals. Following academic practices, teams develop a project challenge statement(called the Project Dilemma)and a hypothesis statement (called the Project Thesis)for each new project. Developed collectively by the team, the Project Dilemma aligns the group around impediments to a successful design solution. The Project Thesis posits a vision for the f nal design and serves as a constant reminder of the outcome the team is aiming for.

A spirited session at the beginning of each project defines goals that balance economic concerns, community values, environmental issues and the art of design into a cohesive vision for the project. The goals beget research assignments, and team members are deployed to delve into the topics that are relevant to the project.Further inquiry enables the team to anticipate measureable performance bene f ts the implemented project will deliver. Outlining this initial process of design discovery,collaboration and accountability provides a pathway for the team and is essential to the success of the project.

圖7 (fig.7)CREDIT:D.A.Horchner/DesignWorkshopEvery project is launched with a strategic kick-of f meeting during which the design team collectively identif es topics that are relevant to the project and identi f es environment-, economic-, community- and art-related goals for the design to achieve. 每一個(gè)項(xiàng)目都推出一個(gè)戰(zhàn)略啟動(dòng)會(huì)議，期間，設(shè)計(jì)小組集體確定與項(xiàng)目相關(guān)的主題，并確定環(huán)境、經(jīng)濟(jì)、社區(qū)和藝術(shù)相關(guān)的設(shè)計(jì)目標(biāo)，并實(shí)現(xiàn)這些目標(biāo)。

Rapid Cycling

A central element of DW Legacy Design?is the concept of Rapid Cycling,represented by the looping line on the left side of the method diagram. Rapid cycling is the process of iteration that is central to the f rm’s design practice. Designs are not linear exercises; they evolve. Design W orkshop’s projects are complex and site-specif c. Designs are developed in controlled cycles which combine periods of exploration with cathartic moments when the work must be reined in, consolidated,and presented to the client for feedback. DW’s Chairman of the Board, Kurt Culbertson, adds “Rapid cycling can also be thought of as a process of moving back and forth between two modes of thought – creative and critical. The loops in the diagram depict the process that we go through as designers – we try something, we learn, try something else, and learn something new.” This mode of experimenting in professional practice is termed “Reflection-in-Action” by M.I.T. social scientist Donald A. Sch?n, who identifies in the design process three distinct approaches to rigorous iteration: exploration; move testing; and hypothesis testing.viiAt Design Workshop, the number of cycles the project undergoes is dependent on its scope,schedule and fee – and the team’s assessment of the design’s quality and level of completion. Tackling the design in this way, and going so far as to represent it on a diagram, instills in staf f the importance of iteration. Design teams are expected to work intently for periods but also to pause periodically to accept outside points of view. How the design evolves and advances is a crucial piece of the collaborative culture of the f rm.

One way that teams can solicit objective feedback to inform a design is through design reviews, a mainstay of the studio and ultimately the test of a healthy workshop environment. Design reviews come in many dif ferent forms. Some occur in regular project meetings where the conversation is limited to the team members wanting to update each other on the evolution of a design. Others take place at individual desks when perhaps a principal who has been traveling wants to check on a project’s progress. But the center of the workshop is an off ce- or f rm-wide design review that is convened to solicit a broad spectrum of objective critique. In these instances, the full off ce gathers over lunch to hear a short presentation by the team.Pizza is provided in exchange for input. Design reviews are held for many purposes:to seek feedback on designs, to share client reactions to a recent presentation and get direction on next steps, to prepare for an interview for a new project, and/or to share a draft of an awards submittal. Such design reviews are part of a deliberate process of critical thinking that is intended to set the stage for further creative inquiry. (see f g. 6)

Knowledge Generation

Staff members at Design W orkshop often talk about what it means to be engaged in a critical practice. By this, they mean being aware of global issues that af fect the built environment, if not the earth and entire human race. The slide show presented at quarterly orientations to welcome new employees to the firm includes a 2007 cover of Newsweek which features a globe on to which is mapped a grid of images depicting politics, paleontology, finance, art, popular culture, science and others.The headline states, “The 181 Things You Need to Know Now.” The purpose of sharing this image with new staf f members is to instill in them the importance of looking beyond the scope and physical boundary of a particular project and to open their eyes to a broad set of in f uences that affect the built environment in general and the project site in particular. The emphasis on expansive lines of inquiry and synthesis of multivalent information is at the core of a comprehensive DW Legacy Design?approach.viii

Design Workshop project teams often seek to learn about topics and incorporate them into designs that a generation ago might have seemed beyond the scope or capacity of a typical landscape architecture practice. There is a complexity to the f rm’s projects that forces its teams to acquire a broad set of information and tools to design and evaluate success. In addition to focusing on the physical design of space and form giving, a typical team might be calculating the ratio of jobs to housing of a master-planned community in an attempt to reduce the number or length of car trips generated by the development. They might be looking into issues of social justice,or making sure that a project’s community engagement strategy acknowledges subsets of the af fected population with tailored surveys. Or they might be studying the retail vacancy or vehicle accident rates in a district to understand and measure impacts before and after a streetscape re-design has been implemented. Being a critical practice is about operating intelligently and with a high level of awareness of the broad issues that inf uence the built environment.

Embracing the complexity of its typical projects, Design W orkshop has embarked on an effort not only to gather information to aid design decisions and inform the best practices of the f rm but also to conduct formal research that generates new knowledge for the profession.ixAs part of this undertaking, project teams increasingly use evidence-based design to measure the performance of the projects during design and after implementation. Shortly after a contract is signed for a new project,the assigned team gathers to identify all the relevant issues and opportunities that will affect the design and its implemented outcome. Menu sheets of research and metrics topics are reviewed and prioritized. The key question that hovers over the group in this initial conversation is, “What story do we and our clients want to tell about this project?” Asking the question at the beginning of the design effort and imagining the outcome helps to shape the agenda of the project. This conversation generates a comprehensive outline and the issues and opportunities become environment-, community-, economic- or art-related research topics and goals that are assigned to different members of the team. (see f g. 7)

Throughout the design process, the project team evaluates the design against set goals. The measurable goals set at the beginning are a tool for evaluating design alternatives over the course of the project. At this stage, a design is not yet realized so it can only exhibit evidence of success. Proof of success is not possible until after implementation when performance assessments can be conducted. Few design f rms have the ability to take on this ef fort themselves which is why Design W orkshop has enthusiastically participated in the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF)Landscape Performance Series Case Study Initiative (CSI). This program pairs practitioners with academic teams who produce rigorous studies that measure the sustainable landscape performance benef ts delivered by the built project. Partnering with academic teams, as Design Workshop has done with Utah State University for the last three years, ensures that projects are studied objectively and claims are validated with scientif c methods.The studies are published on the LAF website as a resource for the profession to advance its sustainable practices. Additionally, the academic teams publish the research in peer-reviewed publications and present them at conferences, such as the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA).

?

Essential to the expectation that knowledge must be generated in the context of projects and exchanged among project teams is the Design W orkshop portal,an internal website for sharing knowledge and information across the firm. The portal is the place where a range of items is posted for all to see, from employee marriage announcements and of fice social gatherings, from best practices for conducting public meetings to new methods for reducing impervious surfaces. Much of the information is contained in internal topic-based web pages, one of which exists for every DW Legacy Design?metric topic. From Urban Heat Island Ef fect to phytotechnologies to bioswales, these on-line web pages collect information from within and beyond the f rm, including examples of benchmark goals, design strategies, on-line calculators, links to organizations with expertise on the topic,articles, white papers, and exemplary projects. The portal also provides a home for f rm-wide communities of practice which gather staf f who share a common design interest or who are charged with advancing the firm’s capabilities in a particular area, such as digital representation or green roof design. To work at Design Workshop is to be a member of a networked community that values knowledge, and everyone is expected to contribute to the expansion of this knowledge.

On-going Learning

Design Workshop places tremendous emphasis on continuous learning - both for the professional development of staf f and for the infusion of new ideas and expertise into projects. Expecting staff to augment their expertise and to share it with colleagues to advance the practice is part of the f rm’s academic-based composition. This focus on learning happens through formal f rm-wide programs and also in the context of projects.

Design Workshop’s Five-Year Plan for staff outlines the expectations of staf f during their f rst f ve-years at the f rm to expand their knowledge and credentials to build successful and satisfying careers. The Plan def nes goals and timelines for building essential skills, demonstrating thought leadership, pursuing graduate studies and accomplishing professional licensure and certif cation. A graduate degree is required to advance to a leadership position. The f rm strongly believes that the pursuit of a graduate degree is a transforming experience that results in increased con f dence,intellectual and personal maturity, and professional capacity. Staff are encouraged to present at conferences and to publish articles. The goal of the Five Year Plan is to outline a process that develops young talent as quickly as possible in an organized rather than random pursuit. Design W orkshop’s emphasis on the development and sharing of knowledge, and on solidi f cation of knowledge through certi f cations and degrees, is an attempt to hasten an employee’s passage from novice to master.Semiannual performance reviews are milestones that enable each employee to measure progress against professional development goals.

A series of lunchtime presentations by internal staf f and guest experts is planned for each year. Held several times a month, the “Lunch and Learn” series of fer short presentations about topics that are relevant to design, speci f c types of projects, or general skill-building. Staff members from all of f ces connect to a web conference to hear the presentations and to participate in the discussions at the conclusion of each lecture. Recent topics have included stormwater management, urban street trees, phytoremediation, public art, digital modeling, meeting facilitation, project management and GIS.

Since 2006, Design Workshop has convened over ten f rm-wide symposia on topics or project types that are areas of focus for many at the f rm, including urban corridor design, planting design, new community development, park design and community comprehensive plans. When several Design W orkshop offices are working on the same types of projects, a session is convened so that teams can share best practices. An outside guest is invited to serve as the keynote speaker and to frame the discussion. Several project teams grappling with similar issues are invited to participate in short presentations to share best practices and to receive feedback.While participating in symposia removes staf f from pressing deadlines and billable capacity for a portion of a day, f rm leaders believe these sessions expand awareness of best practices in the industry, improve project designs, and strengthen the bonds across off ces. They reinforce the notion of “workshop.”

The firm’s conviction that connecting staf f to knowledge and teaching them how to conduct project-based research will advance the practice has led to travel and exploration beyond the con f nes of DW’s six off ces. From 2005 to 2007, the entire f rm traveled to annual retreats in dif ferent cities in the United States. The focus of the 2005 gathering in Las Vegas, Nevada, was Design Methods. In 2006, staff visited Portland, Oregon, where the focus was on Environment and Art, which form two of the DW Legacy Design?categories. Community and Economics were the focus of the 2007 meeting in Chicago, Illinois. These conference-like gatherings of fered lectures, break-out sessions, and tours of exemplary urban projects and were led by internal experts and guest presenters with particular insights about comprehensive sustainable practices achieved in the built environments of the cities visited. (see f g. 8)

“Working at Design W orkshop is like being back in school,” says Josh Brooks,who recently joined the firm after graduating with an undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University’s Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture in Baton Rouge. “I really appreciate all the learning events that are of fered throughout the year. The frequent design reviews infuse the studio with a sense of inquiry and critique that sets the tone for design exploration.”

Connecting to Academia

As a firm borne of academia, Design W orkshop has maintained close ties to design programs in numerous American universities and with individual professors throughout the country. Utah State University’s landscape architecture program has been designated as the recipient of the f rm’s off ce archives. For several years, the f rm has hosted a Faculty-in-Residence program in which a professor is invited to spend time at one or all of the f rm’s off ces while on a sabbatical or summer break.The mutual benef ts of these arrangements are tremendous. For the academic, the opportunity brings exposure to professional practice and time to apply research to projects that will be implemented. Interacting with a faculty member af fords staff the chance to learn directly from an expert with deep knowledge in a particular subject.Academic visitors tend to feel at home in the studio due to Design W orkshop’s process-oriented design practice and shared methodologies for pursuing design solutions. Bruce Ferguson, the Franklin Professor of Landscape Architecture at University of Georgia School of Environmental Design and an expert on stormwater design and technologies in the United States, experienced two summers at Design Workshop and Les Smith, professor of landscape architecture at Ball State University, spent several months at Design W orkshop during a sabbatical to reinforce the intersection of art making and design. (see f g. 9)

Design Workshop sponsors two programs that bridge the gap between academia and professional practice. The f rst is Design W eek, during which a principal and several staff members partner with the faculty of an undergraduate landscape architecture or planning program at a rotating list of universities to host a weeklong charrette focused on a site-specif c design problem. After teaching the students about comprehensive design processes, interdisciplinary teams are formed to focus on a complex design problem. Volunteering time to interact with students and teach them about rigorous professional practice is invigorating for the firm’s staff and forges new relationships with faculty members and academic institutions. Academics and students are exposed to the workshop approach promulgated by the f rm and the fruitful outcomes that stem from cross-disciplinary endeavors. To date, Design Weeks have occurred at prestigious design schools including Clemson University,University of Kentucky, Louisiana State University, Texas A&M University and Penn State University. (see f g. 10)

In addition, Design W orkshop sponsors an annual summer internship program.The f rm solicits applications for approximately one dozen internship spots spread across the f rm’s six off ces. Each year, one off ce is designated as the host of an intense multi-day design workshop attended by all of the interns for the f rst week of the summer. The students are immersed in the collaborative culture of the f rm and learn the DW Legacy Design?process. After this stint, each is assigned to a Design Workshop office and spends the remainder of the summer working on the firm’s projects for clients. (see f g. 11)

An Intentional Culture of Collaboration

Design Workshop’s name, physical spaces, comprehensive design philosophy,collaborative design principles and shared methodology continually reinforce the concept of “workshop.” Upholding the culture of collaboration is the responsibility of everyone at the f rm.

Every staff member is a proprietor of the workshop. For the most part, design teams self-organize and initiate conversations to advance concepts in a discovery-oriented environment. However the culture of collaboration must be fostered. To promote the idea of workshop and to inculcate this way of practicing, a team of Legacy Design representatives from each of f ce meets monthly to share new research or ways of evaluating design and built outcomes through performance metrics. They also discuss the condition of the workshop culture in each off ce and take steps to nurture it as needed. If the f ow of design reviews and team work has ebbed in an off ce, these caretakers will encourage the group to change behavior and seek the input of those outside the project team in the common area of the studio. In other cases an inter-off ce design review may be scheduled to stimulate communication and sharing ideas across the f rm.

Jane Jacobs wrote that “Without a strong and inclusive central heart, a city tends to become a collection of interests isolated from one another. It falters at producing something greater, socially, culturally and economically, than the sum of its separated parts.”xVital urban spaces are created when diverse systems, uses and people overlap and engage. Applying this thinking to a design studio, the concentrations of designers and circulation of diverse viewpoints are crucial to the life of the studio as a place where knowledge is generated and solutions to complex design problems are produced. The highest quality of design can be achieved by the contributions of a team in a workshop rather than by individuals acting alone. At Design Workshop, this condition is cultivated daily and intentionally to uphold the culture that was central to

the f rm’s founding and to the way it continues to operate today.

Notes:

i Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York, NY: Random House, 1993, 227; 65.

ii Steven Johnson, Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software. New York, NY:Scribner, 2001, 74; 31-33; 94; 96.

iii Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith, The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization. New York, NY: First Collins Business Essentials, 2006.

iv Ricardo Semler, Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace. New York, NY:Business Plus, 1993.

v Jack Stack with Bo Burlingham, The Great Game of Business: Unlocking the Power and Prof i tability of Open-Book Management. New York, NY: Currency/Doubleday, 1994.

vi This expands on the concept of triple-bottom line accounting that integrates ecological, social and economic criteria into measures of organizational success. Design Workshop adds a fourth key area – Art – into the formula.

vii Donald A. Sch?n, The Ref l ective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York, New York: Basic Books, 1983, 146-147.

viii “181 Things You Need to Know Now,” Newsweek (July 2, 2007): Cover Image. This double issue of Newsweek collected essays on global topics about which readers need to be knowledgeable to navigate the increasing complex world and to achieve, what editor Jon Meacham termed, “Global Literacy.”

ix See M. Elen Deming and Simon Swaffield, Landscape Architecture Research: Inquiry, Strategy, Design.Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2011, 239-242. Deming and Swaff i eld discuss the diversity of knowledge development and research in the context of landscape architecture practice and introduce three realms of knowledge development – 1) Integrating research strategies into practice; 2) Integrating research into practice –polemical transformation; and 3) Integrating Knowledge into Practice – Grassroots Movements.

x Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York, NY: Random House, 1993, 215.

About the author:

Allyson Mendenhall is the Director of the DW Legacy Design?, Design W orkshop’s comprehensive and sustainable design practice. She develops tools and models for research in Design W orkshop’s practice of landscape architecture, urban design and land planning, and teaches the methodology which emphasizes performance measurement of the f rm’s built work. Allyson is distinguished for her project leadership of largescale, complex, multidisciplinary design and planning ef forts. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), Allyson serves on the GSD Alumni Council and also on the Board of Directors of the Landscape Architecture Foundation.