This document discusses the use of creative ethnography for design. It provides an overview of ethnography as describing a culture in its own terms through real-world observation and interviews. Semantic ethnography requires close listening to understand people's categories and meanings. For design, ethnography allows architects to interpret social forces and develop empathy to inspire creative solutions that respond to cultural and social issues. The document suggests ethnography can enhance design processes through greater occupant engagement, body awareness, narrative-based approaches, generative techniques, relational mappings, and ecological thinking.

1. CREATIVE ETHNOGRAPHY
FOR DESIGN
Organizer:
Jennifer Preston
Speakers:
James Wilson
Galen Cranz

2. listen to place

3. listen for meaning
Image: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen

4. listen for empathy
Image:Egon Schiele

5. listen for connection

6. listen with your body

7. listen with your imagination
Image: Albert Robida

8. listen for beauty

9. listen for wellness

10. listen for a living future
Image: Louise Docker

11. ETHNOGRAPHY is...
...the description of a culture in its own terms in real settings.
... a process of discovering meaning, making inferences and continuing inquiries.
...an iterative process of learning episodes.
... an open‑ended emergent learning process.
...a highly flexible and creative process.
....the practice of listening actively, observing systematically, and interviewing
sensitively.
...a way to see beyond our preconceptions and immerse ourselves in the world of
others.
...a tool for understanding place.
Source: Teaching Semantic Ethnography to Architecture Students
Cranz, Lindsay, Morhayim, Sagan

12. SEMANTIC ethnography is...
...requires close listening.
...is based on special interviewing skills.
...relies on what people can tell you about the nature of the world they live in.
... relies on learning the categories of speech and thought that people use to give
structure and meaning to their worlds.
...is particularly suited to architectural design because it is qualitative,
interactional, not restrictive, and generative.
Source: Teaching Semantic Ethnography to Architecture Students
Cranz, Lindsay, Morhayim, Sagan

13. ETHNOGRAPHY for design...
...gives architects a way to interpret and feel social forces and cultural resonances.
...offers the architect an expanded way of seeing and listening.
... provides architects with the social acumen to tease out spatial solutions and
aesthetic values from social or functional issues.
...is an opportunity for designers to develop an “ethnographer’s sensitivity” and a
broader sensibility for empathy.
...produces empathic awareness that is not a constraint on architectural
expression, but rather a source of inspiration and a generator of creativity.
...provides the architect with greater response-ability and cultural agency.
Source: Teaching Semantic Ethnography to Architecture Students
Cranz, Lindsay, Morhayim, Sagan

14. Velocity, Contingency, Rhythm
Image: Chris Litherland

15. Velocity, Contingency, Rhythm
Image: Brett Weinstein

16. Velocity, Contingency, Rhythm
Image: User:Omegatron

17. Trajectory, Proportions + Pattern
Image: User: Purpy Pupple

18. Trajectory, Proportions + Pattern
Image: NASA

19. Trajectory, Proportions + Pattern
Image: User: Abrget47j

20. Texture, Scales + Fabric
Image: Gordon Rice

21. Texture, Scales + Fabric
Image: Nikodem Nijaki

22. Texture, Scales + Fabric
Image: Jialiang Gao

23. Density, Proportion + Adjacency
Image: Chris Davis

24. Density, Proportion + Adjacency
Image: User: chensiyuan

25. Density, Proportion + Adjacency
Image: User: Schulbausteine

26. Where can this tool take us?

27. occupant engagement
Image:Jacob Riis

28. body consciousness
Image: Eadweard Muybridge

29. narrative-based design
Image:Winsor McCay

30. generative drawing
Image: Muhammad al-Idrisi

31. relational mapping
Image:USGS

32. ecological thought