Jack/Zen
A zen perspective on how we think about the future
Jack Ricchiuto is a nationally acclaimed designer and author of 9 books. His website is DesigningLife.com
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The de-stripification of suburbia
If we decentralized strip and other reified shopping centers in the suburbs, we would perhaps see the emergence of mixed use/zoning walking/biking neighborhoods. Think of places like Lincoln Park in Chicago. It just takes an ounce of development imagination and political will.
The power of this vision is that it would create the kind of architectural metaphors that would spark new possibilities of small neighborhood businesses, like sustainable products and service businesses that could provide local living economic options to the bog boxes that ship local money out of the local economy faster than lightening. Imagine that.
Comments (1)
We vacation there every year and Seaside is hardly a local place for local people as we are all from somewhere else. The first time I rode my bike down the street and loved the feeling, I was still saying to myself "This isn't real...is it?"
That feeling is imbedded once you get it and it lead to my own growth and understanding of designing communities. Even though we never pulled any of them off, I helped design a total of four communities. The first one was built around the concept of rural meets urban. On that fringe, the edge going out will either become sprawl or will be preserved with a connection to agriculture. In every community, this will always be the story. Believe it or not, I think it will work this way in Peru too, perhaps 1,000 years (less?) from now.
Your words about the future are very inspiring. I hope in this age of radical cons and desperation that we can connect. I cherish your words and vision and hope we can find a way to help each other.
One last thought, with the wish that something I say will get your attention. I'm not an especially passionate fan of Ken Wilber, though I do think he is a smart guy and a devoted meditator. But the word he used--Worldcentric, and the added thought that it means moving in the trajectory beyond egocentric and then other "centrics", past love of Country even to understanding that we're one world and all our behavior should be in keeping with that sacred understanding. Any behavior which stands in contrast to that responsibility--for instance polluting the river because "where else will we dump our factory waste," just simply can not be tolerated. The collective does have a voice, and if Jung was correct (although I think he meant collective consciousness and not collective unconscious), then all information of all time has never been lost and the underlying intelligence of the universe contains this thought too, neatly indexed and available for anyone to use at any time.
This is rather lengthy. Hope I didn't just commit suicide by leaving too many words. Thanks again!
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