ABSTRACT
Besides care-filled maintenance, places’ durability depends on relevance to context: economic, social, ecological – and atmospheric. But, as contexts continually evolve, today’s designs are more likely to fit into future contexts if we understand why past evolution shaped places as it did. Traditional towns were rarely planned: they responded to socio-economic pressures, modified by ecological, topographic, microclimatic and cultural constraints. Activities created places, and relationships established routes. Chapter 13 describes utilizing such natural processes in today’s circumstances: particularly by finding, then enhancing, potential activity-nodes to seed further activities. But, besides such life-based factors, how we mentally organize space affects how we form it. ‘Being-in’ Culture differs from ‘Having’ Culture: radial focus on activity centres versus gridded ownership plots with roads bounding, not leading to, them. Whether design-constrained or spontaneously self-formed, however, alignment with archetypal form-generative principles, increases the likelihood places will work as planned, ecologically, socially and economically. For soul-nourishing authenticity, it’s essential.
