Writing About Things and the Doing of Them

Here is an extract from an imaginary story about the future of a community in rural

America. Part fact and mostly fiction, it suggests a plan for reawakening a small town

with a large history, in a way that does not fall into the trap of providing vinyl houses

and a brand new shopping mall. The narrative is annotated by plans for landscapes and

architectural solutions that are driven by ethical principles, arbitrated by the potency of

good design. The full text, of which this is an eighth part, was published by

Archeworks in 2006,1 and included a withering attack by the editor on the impotence

of propositional writing. Six months have past, and there is a sign of movement, albeit

very small. Read on.