Tim McGinley | University of South Australia (original) (raw)

Papers by Tim McGinley

The size of the state in the UK has been described as alternating tidally with each controlling g... more The size of the state in the UK has been described as alternating tidally with each controlling governmental party's embedded interests. Localism has been referred to as a trough in this tidal process that reduces the size of the state and provides greater power and responsibility for the individual. In a 2011 poll, 50% of people interviewed said that they agreed with the aims of Localism, whilst only 10% of people believed that it could happen in reality. Although elements of Localism have been applied by previous UK Governments, the changes it makes to the planning system are the biggest for a generation. Neighbourhood planning is an example of these changes and represents a significant proportion of the Localism Act. Whilst the effect of the changes is difficult to predict, the scope of the changes present many opportunities and challenges. These challenges include: highly deprived communities have low levels of volunteering; the cumulative sustainability impacts are difficul...

Digital collaborative technologies provide opportunities to increase citizen participation, which... more Digital collaborative technologies provide opportunities to increase citizen participation, which is an important aspect in planning sustainable cities and communities. However, in wicked problem contexts such as planning, it is difficult to coordinate multi-dimensional stakeholder participation. From this perspective, interesting parallels can be seen in the challenges represented in the digital cities discourse and a need for analytical and systematic approaches to organisational information systems development. In businesses, enterprise architecture frameworks (EAFs) have been applied to align business needs and IT systems. However EAFs in their current form have no grounding in a community context because they require an authority to define the strategy, goals and vision of the organisation which is not typically present among community stakeholders. Therefore, this paper reports on the demonstration of an EAF based ‘community architecture’ framework to facilitate the developmen...

Linnaeus' original Systema Naturae taxonomy defined three kingdoms: animal, plant and mineral. In... more Linnaeus' original Systema Naturae taxonomy defined three kingdoms: animal, plant and mineral. In this classification, animal architecture, such as termite mounds and beehives, is mineral. In human architecture, formal and functional imitations of animals and vegetables have frequently been used to decorate our mineral architecture. Advances in material science are blurring the traditional boundaries of these kingdoms in human architectural design. In the near future it will be possible to grow buildings, initially conceptually and then materially, as if they were biological organisms. In preparation for this we discuss theories of morphogenetic prototyping to conceptually raise these architectural hopeful monsters. The immaterial focus of this work means that it can act as a bridge between emerging architectural material potentials and the approaching architectural singularity where buildings will grow themselves and be as intelligent as their original designers and occupiers, or more. Ray Kurzweil predicts that in the near future humans and artificial intelligence will become indistinguishable; Kurzweil describes this as the 'singularity'. 1 Similarly, the architectural singularity describes a point in the near future when buildings will be at least as intelligent as their designers. 2 It is possible that, rather than augmenting human design skills, the approaching architectural singularity will make architectural design incomprehensibly complex for humans.

For architects, a database of typological specific occupant behaviour patterns could help in the ... more For architects, a database of typological specific occupant
behaviour patterns could help in the design of buildings, through a typological specific insight into the previous use of buildings. In addition, appropriately represented occupant behaviour data in commercial buildings represent an important factor for facilities management (FM) and business information (BI) teams in the assessment the operational
performance of the enterprise. Building Information Models (BIM) could provide an appropriate reference for this user data. However the mapping of user behaviour data to the BIM models is unclear. This paper presents a ‘designGhost’ information system to support the mapping of occupant behaviour to BIM models, so that the user data can be represented to the different stakeholders. To test the information system a prototype tool is presented to enable the mapping of the building use (designGhost) data to the building’s spaces in order to support architects in the design stage and to support navigation from an operational (FM/BI) perspective. This paper addressees the challenges of developing such a system and proposes directions for future
work.

The architectural singularity is approaching. It is the point at which buildings become more inte... more The architectural singularity is approaching. It is the point at which buildings become more intelligent than their occupants and designers. This will significantly change the roles of the built-environment professions in the design, fabrication, construction and operation of buildings. By exploring self-organizing behaviour in biological development this article describes the approaching challenges of this architectural singularity. Elements of morphogenetic design have been applied in various disciplines associated with intelligent building (IB), including architecture, engineering and computing. However, these previous discipline-specific approaches have not considered the trans-disciplinary implications of morphogenetic growth processes on the role of the disciplines associated with IB. Therefore, this article introduces a science fiction prototyping (SFP) scenario that proposes a morphogenetic design process for IBs based on Drosophila melanogaster development and grounded in the contemporary technologies of Building Information Modelling, digital fabrication and parametric design. Based on a discussion of the implications for the design team a morphogenetic architecture framework for IB is proposed.

Since the time of Alan Turing's death, in the early nineteen-fifties, largely due to beliefs spaw... more Since the time of Alan Turing's death, in the early nineteen-fifties, largely due to beliefs spawned by Turing's formative work into machine intelligence, dreams that the design process can be automated by an artificial system, have been theoretical catnip in the field of Architecture. The first wave of interest in this subject can be identified to have peaked around 1972 with Nicholas Negroponte's experiments for an 'Architecture Machine' at MIT. In developmental biology, the incentives that drive natural growth systems are referred to as morphogens. It is acknowledged in this field that without morphogens, systems would not be able to grow. It is also possible to observe morphogens in the human creative design process.Since the initial excitement into the potential of artificial design systems in the late sixties, it is fair to say that relatively small progress has been made: the architect's position as designer, has not received any serious artificial challenger. It is therefore interesting to note the general absence of the concept of Morphogens in historical and contemporary proposals for artificial design systems. However, in 2002, Manuel DeLanda published an article on the requirements of an artificial process which will be used in this essay to identify the morphogens of an artificial design process.The main body of this essay is formed into three sections documenting the proposed morphogens. The first of these is defined as a requirement to grow, which can be seen in nature in phototropism. The second, is to have large populations of problems and solvers to encourage,competitiveness; this will also be used to explore the idea of community design with reference to the open source community. The third incentive will be used to organise both the proposed Design Engine, and the resultant design, calibrating the cybernetic relationship between the human designer(s) and the artificial tools.This essay seeks to extrapolate morphogens from a wide variety of sources develop a proposal for a Universal Design Engine, to be tested in the subsequent thesis design project. The Engine will be formed from a small community of unskilled human designers, or an individual,with morphogenetically motivated artificial tools

Materials are typically sourced in the building industry as new materials in bulk that carry guar... more Materials are typically sourced in the building industry as new materials in bulk that carry guarantees of safety, quality and delivery. The distributed and diverse origins of used materials means that they do not normally carry these guarantees. This paper proposes an information system to support the procurement of used materials at a scale that is appropriate for construction projects. Used materials are commonly placed on sites like eBay either by businesses or end users. The individual nature of each auction means that it could be difficult to manage and procure multiple items in order to satisfy the quantities, condition and type required by the contractor. Therefore this paper proposes the development of a tool called ‘JunkUp’ that would allow multiple auctions of similar items from diverse sellers to be managed as a single item. Based on this system, In future work, it should be possible to use this tool to test strategies to address the risk to safety, quality and delivery. Which should ultimately lead to the opportunity to increase material reuse (and reduce waste) in the building and construction sector.

Legislative mechanisms from the Localism Act in the UK, provide opportunities for communities to ... more Legislative mechanisms from the Localism Act in the UK, provide opportunities for communities to explore their future development aspirations through ‘neighbourhood planning’. The legislation assumes that non experts in dynamic and informal communitysystems will be able to: engage their community; capture their requirements; and develop and fund a plan that is representative of the needs of the community, this presents a series of challenges. Rittel and Webber have referred to this type of social policy challenge as a‘wicked problem’.Ackoff’s three rules for participation state that: participation needs to make a difference for the participants; that implementation of the results should be likely; and finally that it should be fun to participate. We identify the components of sustainable communities and investigateapproaches including community engagement and community led planning as well as participatory design games and a new approach of science fiction prototyping (SFP). SFP provides an approach to encourage participation and increase engagement that is fun and creative. We identify the system requirements for an appropriate approach to address thewicked problem of designing a participatory system in the context of localism. Finally we present the approach and discuss its potential and limitations

Interdisciplinary (ID) research has been described as research that synthesises multipledisciplin... more Interdisciplinary (ID) research has been described as research that synthesises multipledisciplines with non discipline specific research approaches. Inherent differences betweenthe disciplines present barriers to ID research. These barriers make it challenging for IDpractitioners to develop a shared understanding of their research. Lélé and Norgaarddescribe the following ID research barriers: different values for different types of inquirydifferences in: theories and explanations; epistemology; and the relative value society placeson the discipline. We focus on the case of the EngD industrial doctorate centres (IDCs) in The UK. IDCs act as an autonomous ID department which provide fertile ground to conductID research free from the traditional departmental silos of universities. IDCs differ fromtraditional doctoral training centres by closely involving non academic industrial stakeholderswhich make their research transdisciplinary. We focus on the academic stakeholders in IDCprojects to present an ID perspective of their research. We review the barriers to ID researchand propose four approaches that IDCs could use to overcome them

This report covers the development of a generative design system to encourage a symbioticrelation... more This report covers the development of a generative design system to encourage a symbioticrelationship between the technology employed and the human design team. To emphasisethe importance of the relationship, the technology will be a Playstation2, a technologicalmedium we are all aware of but this alternative use will help us to think of the technologyas technology.It is an attempt to evolve a complex design from a simple starting point, a portion of essential data to be peppered with human emotive response and abstractive ability. Thehope is that this will bridge the gaps, that current technology dominant generative design,outlined in Manuel Delanda's essay, suffers from in the generative design process.The first iterations of the generative design will be developed on the PC and those multipleiterations will be tested by the PS2 users. In the event of a successful iteration thefollowing iterations will gain complexity whilst retaining the structure of their parents. Ontheir failure the PC will try new mutated iterations at the previous level of complexity.The relationship starts to kick in as the user realises that they are trying to generatecomplexity - an organism that has the instinct to shelter and grow, which is later putforward to be the instinctive driver of successful generative architecture. The result of thismodel will hopefully enable the human designer to gain a heightened awareness of theirown design process, which in this context should promote a discussion about the role of smart technologies in the design process

Companies are increasingly recognising their responsibilities to the communities they operatein.... more Companies are increasingly recognising their responsibilities to the communities they operatein. ISO 26000 recommends that corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities should reflectthe social potential of the company’s core business. However, companies can find it difficult toidentify causes that match the values, services or products they are trying to represent in theirCSR actions. Furthermore, once projects are identified, it can then be challenging to agree oncontainable and achievable tasks and understand the potential risks involved from the outset. These tasks can require employee volunteering which in turn requires monitoring andmanagement. It is these additional tasks that can make it difficult for small and medium sizedenterprises (SMEs), who are typically too small to take on full projects. Therefore SMEscommonly form clusters in order to engage in CSR activities. However, operating in clusterspresents further challenges because SME’s local and regional CSR interests mean that theymay have to collaborate with firms that they are in competition with.It can also be difficult for community organisations to present their challenges to businesses in away that reflects the company’s motivations for engaging in CSR activities. Therefore wepropose a CSR management tool that will enable social organisations to propose CSR projectsto SMEs in a format that is attractive to the company. The tool will break down the CSR activityinto component parts in order to make it possible for SMEs to take on small tasks themselves orto enable the work to be securely distributed within a cluster. We outline a participatory designapproach to capturing the dynamic system requirements for a CSR management tool for SMEs. The tool would support CSR managers to identify, engage and maintain partnerships that reflectthe social value of their core business. A design game approach is selected in order to supportSME CSR management in the following ways: to enable the managers to define the goals of theproject; to provide the stakeholders with boundary objects which emerge from the gameartefacts; and to help to increase employee engagement by presenting CSR activities in a waythat is engaging to them. Finally a description of a potential system using the social networktwitter is presented.

The Localism Bill is currently being read in the House of Lords. The Bill presents a series of ... more The Localism Bill is currently being read in the House of Lords. The Bill presents a series of policy reforms that are being promoted by the government to empower citizens to participatein local decisions under the umbrella term of the ‘Big Society’ (BS). This paper addressesconcerns outlined in the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) report on SustainableDevelopment in the Localism Bill. We focus our analysis on the policy of neighbourhood planning which aims to give people greater ownership of plans and policies that affect their local area. The concerns of the EAC report are addressed by compiling a list of requirementsfor ‘sustainable’ neighbourhood planning (SNP). In addition to the requirements wedeveloped a set of factors to represent the capabilities of two cutting edge communityengagement platforms (The Place Station and Simpl.co). By mapping the capabilities of theCEPs to the requirements identified for SNP, we highlight a number of gaps which requirefurther research.

This paper introduces a research on a user centric and participatory approach tosustainable commu... more This paper introduces a research on a user centric and participatory approach tosustainable community development (SCD). The research is structured into threeaspects i) requirements engineering, ii) crowd sourcing and iii) human computerinteraction. These three aspects act as containers for industrial case studies fromCapgemini, the industrial sponsoring company of this research. The three aspects will inform the development of a suite of tool-kits that will provide the corefunctions of a new SCD framework. An important feature of the research willtherefore be the ability to derive generic sustainable development tools fromconsultant enterprise architecture case studies. In this paper, an approach todeveloping generic tools that are specific to an aspect of the research will be testedby proposing the first of these three transformations; applying the methodology from a decision support system (DSS) case study for a desktop computingtransformation assessment to a user centric DSS for a micro renewable energy supply tool. This new requirements engineering tool will form the SCD framework,it is intended to help users decide which micro renewable technology best fits theirrequirements

Conference Presentations by Tim McGinley

Morphogenetic prototyping provides a method for designers to manipulate a design over a series of... more Morphogenetic prototyping provides a method for designers to manipulate a design over a series of pseudo 'developmental' stages as if it had grown biologically. Designers can then manipulate the development by carving the design. Carving alludes a surfer defining a path in the water with their board. It requires an alternative design metaphor to the antiquated drawing board metaphor used in traditional digital design systems. Therefore this paper presents the development of a new tangible user interface (TUI) for morphogenetic prototyping that explores the form, meaning and affordances of the Katana as an alternative design interface. This is achieved in two stages: (1) the TUI is prototyped using a 2D carving tool, (2) the TUI prototype is fabricated and used to explore the mapping of morphogenetic prototyping to the meaning of gestures in traditional Katana use. This results in a proposal for a radical new HCI for morphogenetic prototyping.