Comments on: Sustainable urban design and landscape architecture – definitions

By: Christine

Christine — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 05:47:05 +0000

Trends is Dutch Landscape suggest our desire and need will be to exert increasing control over the landscape and to extend this control to nature considered as a biological process [http://www.ny400.org/event-details.php?eventId=79]. Practically this is occuring at the same time as the predominant philosophical critique is precisely of our often destructive control over the same. Is this an irony? Or a form of inevitable consequence?

The more out of our control nature seems the more control we seek?

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:49:31 +0000

Access to green roofs is a big issue for the future. It certainly cannot be general & free, as it is to public parks. It will need careful planning and here are a few examples:
- some green and brown and blue roofs will be for wildlife only
- public companies may wish to restrict access to employees and guests
- public buildings (eg libraries) may restrict access to users of their other facilities
- shopping malls may treat the space like their their other mall space – and patrol it with security guards etc

By: Stefan

Stefan — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:16:24 +0000

i really like point 6. the way our towns were carved up by ringroads in the 70s shows how much ‘seviceability and effiency’ are the priority for many people. do you think they could be persuaded to take a leisurely stroll in to town, even if it means taking time contemplate before they begin shopping?

although i love the idea of skyparks i worry about their accessibility. i think i’d like to be able to step off the street into a plaza than get to the top of a building before i can relax.

By: Christine

Christine — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 02:51:08 +0000

Perhaps I should have been thinking about excesses and deficits rather than simply more and less?

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:06:57 +0000

I think Veblen touched on a basic truth about human nature – and an unfortunate truth for those who think people can be persuaded to ‘love’ sustainability.

By: Christine

Christine — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:56:04 +0000

Veblen argued both that man is agent of his own destiny.

He believes that he/she strives for ‘serviceability and efficiency’ rather than ‘futility, waste and incapacity.’

The comparative aspect, if Veblen is correct, arises from seeking for external rather than internal reference points as to what a ‘serviceable and efficient’ life might be. From this follows the desire for external display;
“visible success becomes an end sought for its own utility as a basis of esteem.”

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:14:06 +0000

You can’t know! Most people want more than they have but as Thorstein Veblen argued, there is a strong comparative aspect to how well off people feel

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 03:12:21 +0000

Two interesting questions to pose are;
1)’How do you know when you have more than you need?’
2)’How do you know when you have less than you need?’

How do you know when you have reached the point not of equilibrium, but of diminishing returns?