on 3/3/06 11:45 AM, robertmstewart at robertmstewart@MAC.COM wrote:

> Tim, 
> 
> Sorry but I could not let this one get away..
> 
> �It can't be built so it's a simple exercise in imagination masturbation. An
> interesting design exercise? Hardly.�
> 
> If all designers listened to the likes of automobile engineers with similar
> dispositions regarding these �imagination masturbation� exercises than
> nothing of true design impact would ever be created. You would get square
> box cars with, hard uncomfortable interiors,  no curves, no innovation and
> zero design sensibility.
> 
> It is for this single reason alone they created industrial designers, to
> this day it why they are responsible for bridging the gap between the
> imagination of the creative mind, the functionality of purposeful and useful
> design initiatives and the engineers that constantly tell them it can not be
> done. The industrial designers job is see that it can be done within the
> parameters the auto manufactures provide them, and in some cases they
> succeed. 
> 
> I am sure the beloved Westy Campers were in a similar design exercise but
> some great German minded engineers and industrial designers got together and
> solved the problems to make the vehicle reality.
> 
> Try to understand that it is the imagination of human beings that allow us
> to see past our limitations, hence the key importance of why these
> �imagination masturbation� exercises are so important as they show us what
> might be possible if we just put our minds to it.
> 
 Very well said!  The same thing goes in my profession-architecture.
Nothing new & innovative gets built if you don't have the right attitude,
willingness to try something that has not been done before.

Pax,

Tom-it is Friday