Abstract:
As new generations respond to an electronic and globalised world, daily life and public policy seem to respond to events, leaving the settings for those events to take care of themselves. Often the only environmental response is to ensure basic facilities, or to enhance for the benefit of an essential tourist market. Sustainability hovers in the background as a global desire, difficult to achieve at the local level. The historic context of our decisions is having a hard time. It is seen as a desirable luxury for those who can afford it, a significant factor in Western planning, but confusion when faced with community protest for basic facilities. But culturally and politically we rely on the shared meanings and understandings behind current public life, and therefore on the landscape and built settings which provide a mental context for our actions. The big question remains, how, and to what degree should these contexts be conserved, maintained and promoted in contemporary cultural life? My argument will be that these past remnants are not just for the package holiday visitor, but their presentation should serve as an essential, visible, text to remind citizens of the origin or their current beliefs and aspirations. Urban squares, buildings and routes, and the arrangement of rural land provide the textbook for what we want to retain, retrieve or reject in the future. They are often more eloquent and universal in their language than the modern polemic or app. And we must find ways of re-incorporating them into the thought process of a contemporary population. Such cultural manifestations last longer, speak louder and punctuate the world and are only neglected because of the instant electronic pseudo-knowledge that envelopes us. The challenge for those who choose to conserve and understand such places is how to integrate them with current ways of knowing.
Page(s):
3-20
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: Proceedings of the 6th Seminar on Urban and Regional Planning, Volume: 0, Issue: 0, Year: 2011