Designing the Future

Rating:
Summary: Frank Lloyd Wright's Youngest Apprentice...
Review: ...lays out new directions for the most pressing problem of our time: How we live. The basic premise is that the physical design of homes, buildings and streets helps or hurts the people who live there and that we cannot continue to use the land to build the kind of infrastructures we are putting in place. A practicing architect with impeccable credentials, Swaback not only set down the reasons why, he also lays out imaginative, practical guidelines for new and better ways to live. The following quote from the book points up the troubled feeling for the quality of life in America shared by many:

Americans sense that something is wrong...we drive by gruesome tragic suburban boulevards of commerce, and we are overwhelmed at the fantastic, awesome, stupefying ugliness of everything in sight-fry pits, big box stores, office units, lube joints, carpet warehouse, parking lagoons, jive plastic townhouse clusters, signs, the highway itself, clogged with cars as though the whole thing had been designed by some diabolical force bent on making human beings miserable."

The root cause of the problem, according to Swaback, is the outmoded apparatus we have put in place to control land use called "zoning." He describes it as a fragmented, uncoordinated process that begets endless sprawl. Zoning laws promote the self-destructive babbles of pro-growth, slow-growth, or no-growth; they also perpetuate endless political infighting and acrimony, but never solve the problem of proper land use. Through examples and case histories, he snows that the cost of sprawl will eventually overwhelm us because it is the harbinger of more pollution and ongoing, declining community values.

Solutions to population growth and density are complex and not easy to come by, by Swaback believes we can must develop more wholesome living environments,. He proposes "Micro Communities" in open space with connected corridors. New stand-alone communities would be situated on dedicated spaces o varying size with a minimum of forty acres or more. All would include single-family homes, condominiums, schools, offices, light manufacturing, support services, and government centers within walking distance of home on tree-shaded pats and bicycle trails. For the more adventuresome, there is a centralized car pool, and public transit.

The author makes a strong case that living center clusters reduce air pollution, traffic congestion, and the rising cost of building, not to mention widespread social deterioration created by sprawl. Micro communities are pedestrian-centered therefore more likely to develop the human qualities of the inhabitants for tolerance and cooperation because we frequently meet our fellow man face to face as neighbors. Culturally, this new design concept encompasses facilities for all levels of education, participation in music, drama, appreciation for architecture, writing, crafts, visual arts, dance, film, theater,and whatever new forms of culture evolve.

Swayback is a practicing architect and original thinker who has mastered the art and disciplines of this craft. In Designing The Future he has used his considerable skills to conceive new and better ways to live by designing an environment that encourages us to become better human beings. His message: Before it's too late, we had better decide whether we are going to ad to American's wealth or systematically destroy all we have been given.

Vernon D. Swaback, AIA, AICP, is the owner-manager of Swaback Partners, a 21-year old Artichectural-Planning organization in Scottsdale, AZ. He moved to Arizona from Chicago in 1957 to become Frank Lloyd Wright's youngest apprentice and remained with the Wright organization 21 years. Designing The Future was published by Arizona State University's Herberger Center for Design Excellence and is in demand as an architectural text throughout the world.

Reviewer's Note: It is this reviewer's opinion Designing The Future is deserving of best-seller status because of its original, perceptive ideas about a gigantic environmental problem which is reducing the quality of life in America.

Rating:
Summary: Frank Lloyd Wright's Youngest Apprentice...
Review: ...lays out new directions for the most pressing problem of our time: How we live. The basic premise is that the physical design of homes, buildings and streets helps or hurts the people who live there and that we cannot continue to use the land to build the kind of infrastructures we are putting in place. A practicing architect with impeccable credentials, Swaback not only set down the reasons why, he also lays out imaginative, practical guidelines for new and better ways to live. The following quote from the book points up the troubled feeling for the quality of life in America shared by many:

Americans sense that something is wrong...we drive by gruesome tragic suburban boulevards of commerce, and we are overwhelmed at the fantastic, awesome, stupefying ugliness of everything in sight-fry pits, big box stores, office units, lube joints, carpet warehouse, parking lagoons, jive plastic townhouse clusters, signs, the highway itself, clogged with cars as though the whole thing had been designed by some diabolical force bent on making human beings miserable."

The root cause of the problem, according to Swaback, is the outmoded apparatus we have put in place to control land use called "zoning." He describes it as a fragmented, uncoordinated process that begets endless sprawl. Zoning laws promote the self-destructive babbles of pro-growth, slow-growth, or no-growth; they also perpetuate endless political infighting and acrimony, but never solve the problem of proper land use. Through examples and case histories, he snows that the cost of sprawl will eventually overwhelm us because it is the harbinger of more pollution and ongoing, declining community values.

Solutions to population growth and density are complex and not easy to come by, by Swaback believes we can must develop more wholesome living environments,. He proposes "Micro Communities" in open space with connected corridors. New stand-alone communities would be situated on dedicated spaces o varying size with a minimum of forty acres or more. All would include single-family homes, condominiums, schools, offices, light manufacturing, support services, and government centers within walking distance of home on tree-shaded pats and bicycle trails. For the more adventuresome, there is a centralized car pool, and public transit.

The author makes a strong case that living center clusters reduce air pollution, traffic congestion, and the rising cost of building, not to mention widespread social deterioration created by sprawl. Micro communities are pedestrian-centered therefore more likely to develop the human qualities of the inhabitants for tolerance and cooperation because we frequently meet our fellow man face to face as neighbors. Culturally, this new design concept encompasses facilities for all levels of education, participation in music, drama, appreciation for architecture, writing, crafts, visual arts, dance, film, theater,and whatever new forms of culture evolve.

Swayback is a practicing architect and original thinker who has mastered the art and disciplines of this craft. In Designing The Future he has used his considerable skills to conceive new and better ways to live by designing an environment that encourages us to become better human beings. His message: Before it's too late, we had better decide whether we are going to ad to American's wealth or systematically destroy all we have been given.

Vernon D. Swaback, AIA, AICP, is the owner-manager of Swaback Partners, a 21-year old Artichectural-Planning organization in Scottsdale, AZ. He moved to Arizona from Chicago in 1957 to become Frank Lloyd Wright's youngest apprentice and remained with the Wright organization 21 years. Designing The Future was published by Arizona State University's Herberger Center for Design Excellence and is in demand as an architectural text throughout the world.

Reviewer's Note: It is this reviewer's opinion Designing The Future is deserving of best-seller status because of its original, perceptive ideas about a gigantic environmental problem which is reducing the quality of life in America.