The problem with all these things is that they are generally the result of too much focus. By focus I mean often what we see in our built environment is the product of a single discipline, without reference to other professions, as such while they fulfill the purpose for which they were built, they are a far cry from being the most efficient way of doing things. Now take that simple understanding and apply to it every building, air conditioning unit, motor vehicle, elevator and you can start to appreciate the problem we are dealing with.
The age of single discipline advances is for all intents and purposes over. Very much like nature, where the greatest potential lies is on the borders where mixing of environments take place. It is the fundamental reason why ports which play host to international vessels are always more interesting than some farming village in the mountains where the same conversations are recycled over and over, ad nauseum.
Economists would have us believe that human beings are maximizers and that we are equipped with perfect knowledge of prices and goods in the marketplace. Furthermore that the market is not dominated by a few suppliers who have the ability to give us a ‘take it or leave it’ ultimatum. But looking at these assumptions it is plain that Economists have built a gleaming edifice with all the strength of a house of cards. Human are satisfiers, working on the interlinked premises of ‘if it aint broke don’t fix it’ and ‘change is scarey’.
There is enormous scope for doing things better. Many individuals are already committed to doing just that. Conversely there are established interests who like things just the way they are, and dislike the idea that anyone wants to shake things up a little.
So, how do you bring about significant change within established systems without antagonizing the watch dogs who have the political connections and the financial strength to eat you alive?
Strangely enough this is a question as old as modern democracy. In the balance between corporate interests and society, the balance has swung back and forth between the two. The social democrats of Europe used nationalization and Keynesian economics to justify massive social programs that brought us things like national health services and national insurance. Now however the balance has shifted the other way and we are told that we are all consumers in a market place and that governments and communities are helpless in the face of market forces. You have to wonder about politicians who get elected to do a job and then proclaim themselves helpless in the face of market forces. Elect me there’s nothing I can do.
Well, as a matter of fact there is something you can do. Decades of convenience piled upon convenience has made for communities that are fragmented and lost, people separated into smaller and smaller groups, isolated inside concrete cubes. But what is done can be undone.
People are natural creatures and this is beyond dispute. It is no coincidence that land values are higher next to a park, or that some people will give their eye teeth to live next to a river. House values go up when you add trees to a street. Some may think of this as being merely beautification, but there’s more to it than that, isn’t there? I heard recently that urban Japanese are heading to the country to practice hobby farming. Studies in guerilla farming in the USA point to community improvement, lower levels of crime, greater citizen participation in politics at local levels.
No, while I think any attempt at guerilla farming in Tokyo is pretty much an invitation to be arrested given the stratospheric cost of land, there is an another alternative.
Rooftop gardening, or even rooftop farming..
But I’m beat and so I will talk about this more later…
