Ecology for Innovation: Knowledge Management for Architecture

The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Industry is a well known latecomer in reaping the benefits of Information Technology. As design professionals, architects should be in the front line of innovation and creativity. Often used interchangeably, their fundamental difference should be made clear. Creativity coupled with implementation will produce innovations. Only then will the benefits of creativity be reaped. New media technologies are flooding us with information. Ironically, we are drowning with information but lacking in knowledge. O’Dell and Grayson defined knowledge as information in action. The management guru, Peter F. Drucker, believed that knowledge is information that changes something or somebody, either by becoming grounds for action, or by making an individual (or an institution) capable of different or more effective action. Information is knowing what, while knowledge is knowing how. According to the 2001 World Development Report, the global economy has become a service economy, thus, making it more knowledge intensive. This is the new arena that architects have to compete in. The traditional notion of economy as land, labor, capital is no longer applicable. We must gear up or be left out in the process. A collective response will benefit not only the UAP as our organization but the entire profession.

As media architects, we should aim to turn the future into an asset. We should do it rapidly, systematically, boldly, and openly. What we need is an innovative tool called future center. A future center is a facilitated organizational space dedicated to support an organization in its efforts to prepare systematically for the future and address it in a proactive way. Future centers nourish radical open innovation and complement other functions of the organization. The center provide the methodology, facilitation, expertise for identification, analysis of (very) long term threats, trends and opportunities which may be called "a future image". Off hand, the borderless practice of architecture initiated by the PRC through the BOA seemingly poses a threat to us as design professionals. But we have to weigh the threat against the benefits of open collaboration and knowledge transfers. In due time, the UAP will be a better learning organization.