Social Issues



The grid is the simplest of urban forms. Though challenged by new designs and new forms of growth over the past several decades, the grid continues to find resonance with contemporary urbanists. The timeless utility of the grid is that it fosters rational and coherent design, providing an underlying order for both the formal and haphazard circumstances of urban life.


From this simplicity of right angles and straight lines emerges a variety of tools that planners, architects and designers can utilize to practice their craft. Individual buildings, boxes, are fitted together to build blocks, then neighborhoods, then cities. The intricacy of each level effects the other.


The essence of urban form is that it is spatially structured and functionally driven. However, real human beings themselves conduct their lives within this system, imagining and living in places, giving them meanings that defy the simple effort of moving from concept to indicator. There are three meanings of place that figure very importantly into the lives of human beings: place as hope and aspiration; place as community; and place as neighborhood.

(1) Hope and Inspiration. People attach to the notion of place is that of a site of hope and aspiration. When we think of a better world we think of something that we can construct, or dream about, something that is concrete, yet a place where we can fashion something new.

(2) Community. In a deep and profound sense, people aspire to overcome the fragmentation and alienation of our own lives by seeking out, and developing, ideas about how to construct, and reconstruct places as communities.

(3) Neighborhood. Neighborhood is the place where we grew up; where we developed our friendships; where we went to school; where many of our parents may have worked; what we remember best. It is a place that has the ability to regenerate all the stored memories and meanings that are familiar to each individual.


While travelling within the city we are exposed to geometry and fact; concrete interface to the city. What is behind this facade of metal and concrete? A thriving and ever-evolving social network.