Читать книгу Voices of Design Leadership - Ken Sanders - Страница 21

A personal story illustrating this idea began with an unexpected phone call in 2014 from Diane Hoskins, co-CEO at Gensler. She had learned of a potential project involving Winsun Global, a Chinese construction firm and inventor of a large-scale proprietary 3D printing system, and the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), who was interested in exploring new methods of developing mass-produced housing that were less dependent on imported labor.

Given my background in leading design technology, my prefabrication experience working with clients such as Google and CitizenM, and my global relationships across Gensler, Diane thought the project might a good fit for me. She asked: “Would you like to pursue this?” My first thought and response: “Absolutely!”

Diane shared her contacts and we concluded our brief phone call. My immediate second thought: “How am I going to pull this off?” It was a question borne not of apprehension, but of curiosity. I did not know the answer, but I was confident I could assemble a strong team to solve the problem.

I again reached out to Xiaomei Lee, now the Managing Director in Shanghai, to identify a team to work with Winsun in China. She tapped Project Architect Qiu Sheng and Project Manager Wei Wang. I also reached out to the Costa Rica office, who had prior experience designing prefabricated housing units using shipping containers. Led by the amazingly talented Richard Hammond, the Costa Rica team included Jose Leiva, Andres Lara, Mariana Madriz, and Desiree Vargas. In Chicago, we brought in computational geometry design experts who had extensive experience with Rhino and Grasshopper, including Jorge Barerro, Daniel Craven, and Brent Watanabe. Todd Desmarais from Chicago was assigned overall project management responsibilities, and Tareq Abu-Sukheila, a Principal in Gensler’s Abu Dhabi office, served as liaison with DFF. We also engaged our trusted partners Thornton Tomasetti for structural engineering and Syska Hennessey for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) engineering.

The Gensler Design Excellence Awards (GDEA) jury discussing the 3D-Printed House prototype design at the 2015 Gensler Principals Meeting in San Francisco. Photo Credit: Ken Sanders.

After developing multiple design iterations, the team finalized a prototype design using 3D-printed concrete “cassettes” that could be efficiently packaged and transported in standard shipping containers. Using Winsun’s 3D printing system, the prototype design was eventually deployed in a demonstration project in Abu Dhabi for a 2,600 square foot (242 square meter) “office building of the future.” For that project, the team also collaborated with a talented local firm, Illa Design, who was responsible for the design of the interior finishes, furnishings, and expanded polystyrene insulation and exterior plaster system.

At Gensler, reaching across studio borders to find the most relevant expertise is wired into the firm’s collaborative culture. What I did was a natural act; I was swimming with the cultural current, not against it. Not surprisingly, the distributed team delivered terrific results. My contribution as a leader was not to design, but to find and bring together the best people in the firm to solve a problem that had never been solved before.

It is important to point out that the collective expertise of the team far exceeded my own. Through my prior collaborations with Google and CitizenM, I had worked with prefabricated systems and off-site manufacturing. And as part of my technology oversight role at Gensler, I was knowledgeable about 3D printing technology and computational geometry tools. But I lacked the deep expertise of the specialized talent that was brought together.

Importantly, each team member cared less about personal credit and cared more about being part of a collaborative team producing innovative design work. My role as a T-shaped leader was straightforward: understand the clients’ goals, connect the dots, assemble the right talent, establish guardrails, set a strong direction, and otherwise get out of the way.