Commitment and provisionality

Here’s Sara Hendren talking about commitment and provisionality as key elements of the design process, with reference to the work of urban design group Better Block: “It’s the commitment of a three-dimensional sketch, with a piano and furniture and semi-mature trees, but with the provisionality of impermanence. An idea brought to tangible life, and yet reversible.” I love this not only for its application for better streetlife but also as a framework for thinking about open design processes generally. And it makes for good questions of whatever it is you’re trying to do in your work: what commitment can you make, and what would it mean for that commitment to be provisional and temporary? What would it look like to try something that’s real and tangible but still reversible?