Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: community design -- and a book review

[John M. Gear (catalyst]

>Part of what Shedrick Coleman wrote:
>  If you have any true understanding of
>what an architect does, you would realize that urban planning is vital to
>the practice of architecture.  Buildings are not designed in a vacuum and
>any architect who ignores that premise will probably not be around long.
>

        I wish I could agree, but the evidence before me suggests that
architects who ignore that premise don't suffer in the slightest 'round
here.  They bloom and grow and get more subdivisions.  Heavy sigh.

        On the bright side, if you want to read a *terrific* book, try "The
Geography of Nowhere" by James Howard Kunstler.  It may not tell people on
this list too much but it's definately worth a space on your shelf and to
lend to people to explain what you're doing and why.  My only complaint is
that after discussing how terribly educated we (avg. US citizen) are in
terms of design and appreciation for good design, he failed to illustrate
his book.  As someone who does, indeed, suffer from having grown up in
sterile boxes (and who inevitably found some inexplicable attraction to
houses that were designed with human scale in mind, not auto scale) without
any education in what makes good design, I sure could have used some
pictures when he started throwing around basic design terms.  But it's a .02
quibble in $20 of praise; it's a wonderful book.
John Gear (catalyst [at] pacifier.com)
Catalyst Consulting Services -- "Words that Work, Guaranteed"
Vancouver, WA
(206) 260-0066 voice/fax