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Change the Built Environment, Make the World Better

Posted by: Nate Berg

23 November 2009 - 7:00am

This essay from Places offers five simple ways to make the world a better place -- and they're all related to the built environment.

"So you want to change the world? Start by changing the built environment. Buildings shape our experience and open up or close down possibilities for life. Hardly anyone gets to realize his or her visions for transforming society, but activism through architecture is a place to start. Here I offer a guide, idiosyncratic and partial, drawing on personal experience and American history, to how architecture can contribute to social reform."

Author Jonathan Massey offers five suggestions: vote, shop, build a house, raise a barn, and throw a party.

Full Story: Five Ways to Change the World
Source: Places, November 16, 2009
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Shallow piece

Submitted by HRPlanner on Mon, 11/23/2009 - 20:49.

I find this to be a shallow/simplistic commentary.

How about "live in an existing house" or "shop less" as ways to live sustainably?

Albany's modern plaza buildings necessitated the demolition of entire residential neighborhoods, in the name of modern architecture.

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The circumstances that many localities and planning departments are suffering in the current economic winter will no doubt generate stress on administrations and service levels. The economy, combined with the housing bubble, has dealt a double blow to local budgets and revenue streams.
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