Change the Built Environment, Make the World Better

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

1 minute read

November 23, 2009, 7:00 AM PST

By Nate Berg


"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.

Monday, November 16, 2009 in Places

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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