From an article in Wired magazine online, “The Global Danger of Boring Buildings“:
“Unloved buildings turn to ruin, leading to a deluge of construction waste worldwide. Designer Thomas Heatherwick tells WIRED why cities need to prioritize human health and joy in architecture. … Buildings need to mean something to people, or they won’t be sustained, they’ll be more likely to be demolished. And in our environmental crisis, the demolition industry is society’s giant dirty secret.”
Synchronicity: Recently I happened to stumble on a series of police novels that I fell in love with. The books are set in Venice, Italy. The main character is a police officer named Commissario Brunetti. (The author of the series is Donna Leon.) Brunetti and the other characters are extremely engaging.
Another thing I really love besides the lovable and admirable characters is the setting itself, Venice. On that ancient island-city, people walk everywhere. (There are no motor vehicles on the island.) And the characters are often shown taking time to admire the beauty of their place — the buildings, the boats, the water — even though most of the characters are Venetian-born and -raised, they never go numb to the beauty of their home. Even when they are in a hurry to get to an appointment, they always have at least a moment to take nourishment from the loveliness of their built environment.
My parents took several trips to Italy, and it was one of their favorite places to go together. One of the things they liked was that the culture seems to have a devout insistence on beauty. Seemingly quite the opposite of the USA, where we seem to have declared beauty optional and impractical.
Interestingly, in the process of putting “practicality” before beauty, we in the USA have ended up creating a lot of impractical buildings and other impractical features in our built environment. It is financially and ecologically unsustainable, particularly as hurricanes and other natural disasters mount in frequency andcseverity. Something to ponder!
Regarding buildings, though, there is a caveat nowadays. With the increasing severity and frequency of storms and other disasters, we might want to encourage more food trucks and other mobile businesses; and portable homes (tiny homes on wheels, etc.). All of which can be very beautiful and lovable too.
#waste #sustainablecities #construction