Embracing 'Tactility'

"Tactile knowledge" is what we feel in the presence of an object: the smells of a street, the texture of a building, the grade of a hill. It is the knowledge gained though contact or direct experience with an event or environment, and is closely related to Jacobs's concept of "locality knowledge" as well as to F.A. Hayek's "local knowledge." While Mr. Sasaki focuses on one's perception of physical objects rather than the social relations with which Jacobs and especially Hayek are primarily concerned, the significance he attaches to the knowledge of "the particular circumstances of time and place" (to quote Hayek) is, I think, the same."

"Mr. Sasaki argues that in recent history, and outside of Tokyo at least, there has been a shift from the tactile to the visual in urban planners' notion of what makes a city beautiful. I would imagine this has a lot to do with the transition, especially in the 20th century, from a pedestrian- to a vehicular-based urban perspective. Today we are more likely to experience most cities from the seat of a car than from a sidewalk, and contemporary designs for public spaces seem to reflect that."