TED Talks

TED Talks are different lectures from inventors, architects, engineers, basically the innovators of tomorrow that are trying to get out their ideas and inform the world through these lectures to help educate them and disprove preconceived notions about architecture, health, and world economy to name a few. I chose to watch two different lectures. The first being by Cameron Sinclair who's main message was about open-source architecture to house the world. He was an architect in his twenties that basically started off with 700 dollars and a couple of laptops and a website. He basically started to research and ask network with architects, engineers, designers, anyone that wanted to help and was interested in designing not just for the sake of designing but to add to a community and environment not take or ruin it. He believes much so in sustainable architecture and no -quick fix solutions or superimposed design upon other cultures but rather respects the land and people enough to be able to design where necessary but involve the people and culture. He does so not only out of respect but also to engage the community since their ones that live there. He wants to open source architecture because the people living in the area know best about the problems there so the designer and people should have a say so since they would know more than he would. There are some quick fix solutions in time of natural disaster but need to be open sourced to allow for testing and make sure they do work and not for profit. The same goes for the projects in the third world countries where education and knowledge was needed more so than the building and structure itself. In combination with building and working with the communities the two merged as in the case where a community center was a vehicle for HIV education and a clinic. One person alone can't change the world and one person saying something isn't going to get anything done but it's a matter of going out there and making those connections to help build the world and the community. It's not about building a gem of an architectural building but another piece of society and culture. It's about the opportunity not responsibility as Sinclair said to be able to help put forth the effort to help others and make a difference. It's not just about architects or design but holistically whoever wants to help should be able to and make a change not wait for change to happen because who knows when that would be. It was a very inspiring talk and absolutely amazing in thinking it changes how you perceive things and makes me want to push myself to study harder and think not just about myself but society and the world around me.

The second TED Talk I watched was by Hans Rosling in which he debunks third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen. His talk basically was about the lack of education in society even in the most academically inclined individuals they were compared to having a knowledge of the statistics of the world to those of chimpanzees. The statistics aren't just facts and his talk wasn't just throwing out statistics one after another to flaunt education but rather to show the need to know those statistics to further society as a whole, income, death rate, and in those statistics knowledge can be found of the basic way the world works around us from those aspects. The talk shows many statistics ranging from income to birth rate to population and it shows the evolution of in the past big families high death and low wealth but in today's world it's shifting to have the gap of wealth slowly close and middle class rise, funds being used properly for education and health which leads to higher rates of living longer. These stastistics have endless possibilities because they can be used to project how the world will be later in life and help us prepare and evolve to build for them, economically, and grow with them. The only downside really as mentioned in the talk was the lack of getting those statistics out but it's our job to find them and not shy away from them because they are facts and will affect us tomorrow because we're apart of it as your ancestors were and your future loved ones will be.

Below are the links for the talks:
Open Source Architecture
http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=c_sinclair

Debunk third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/92