ABSTRACT
In almost every sphere of their lives, people have become used to enjoying the benefits of progressive industrial and technological advance. In their own homes many now ‘do-it-themselves”, enhancing their lives by changing, adapting or refurbishing different aspects of the local environment provided for them by architects and builders; their bathrooms can have improved water provisions-with hot, cold or warm water splashing, pulsating or gushing at them from all directions-tailored to desire, kitchens can automatically provide perfectly cooked food from the freezer at an instant and gardens can be transformed into an individualised landscaped paradise. At work, without leaving their desks, people can have their ideas word processed, copied and ‘faxed’ to almost any other person in the world enabling easy, fast and accurate communication. Knowing that more is now possible, people are no longer prepared to “put up” with poor conditions. They have therefore come to demand the right to control their own futures, their own lives and, in the present context, their own environments.
