wellness

Needs & Wants Exercise

Tue, February 14, 2012 No Comments by deren

We suggest a simple exercise to stop “scope creep” (scope creep is when the list of critical deliverable items within the project grows larger making the project more difficult to manage & in most cases much more expensive)

Establishing NEEDS and WANTS (this exercise can take up to a hour)

  1. Take 2 sheets of paper to each stakeholder in your space/house/office
  2. Make a “DREAM SHEET” listing everything you could ever want in your space.
  3. Make a “NEEDS & WANTS” sheet.  Copy all of your dreams into a “needs” section or a “wants” Section. BE HONEST
  4. Combine your lists.  Together identify:
    1. “COMMON NEEDS” or “scope of the project” (these are the critical deliverables of the project),
    2. “INDIVIDUAL NEEDS” or “Extras” (These can often be included in the scope but only with group support),
    3. “WANTS” or “wish list” (no less important to know what the perfect story would be like.  Sometimes these are easy to include if identified early in the design process).
  5. Share this discussion of project scope with your contractor/designer

With all this information your contractor will be able to provide you with everything you need, and with any luck include some individual needs and wants as well.  Often these little extras things often make good projects great.

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Designing for Children

Tue, May 3, 2011 No Comments by deren

Recently spent time with a landscape designer who works building play areas for children. What became clear to me is the play structure business is focused on selling adults, not kids. All the catalogs look the same. Furthermore, children are often not interested in structures that can only do or be one thing. Next time you are at a playground look at how the children are playing. Are they using the whole thing?

To overcome these challenges this designer is engaging children directly. Through design workshops they are letting the children design the play yard of their dreams with paper. Amazing things are created when children’s ideas are not bounded by teachers, or parents.

My take away from this presentation is to take seriously the ideas of the people that will use what we are creating. And make special effort to include ideas for our youngest and most brilliant minds.

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Being Conscious

Mon, February 28, 2011 No Comments by deren

My friend recently promoting himself as a Conscious Carpenter. In thinking about his position since then I have come to understand that being conscious about the work that I am doing does not finish at the end of my day. Every piece of wood I use, every nail I drive, glue I apply came from somewhere. And all of these things will go somewhere in the future.

I was talking with an old logger the other day and he talked about treating the trees with respect. Now he was not a small time logger but he saw value in having people (not huge feller buncher machines) working the wood, walking the trees, showing respect to each of the fallen giants.

I understand being a conscious builder is responsible for the beginning and the end of everything I make, being respectful of every person and piece of puzzle that forms the beautiful things I like to build.

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