(1) My design goals reflect my personal relationship to the project site. They synthesize a set of both physical and social observations. I’ve spent time caring for the land- I’ve weeded beds, watered the fruit trees, took note sunny and shady areas, observed where and how people hangout there and noted popular pathways, and I’ve watched how water travels across the landscape. I’ve helped to organize events that drew people there, and began researching its social past too.
(2) My design goals offer a way to reflect on the project in process, before it is “complete”. They are set some time in the future; they are projected self-reflective statements. This working list is malleable, but each goal should be a solution/or a group of solutions which fulfill a need, whether expressed by the site or identified by stakeholders. So working in the other direction, each relationship or feature that exists in the designed system should tie back to one or several of the goals. This working list acts as a screen that I can filter my ideas, movements, and decisions through to make sure they align with the core of my project.
(3) My design goals reflect what I believe to be the site’s potential, not a place that serves everyone’s needs at each moment, but one that has its own needs meet continually through the fulfillment of campus-wide needs.