I was first introduced to the urban dialogue by chancing upon a presentation at my city college in Santa Barbara, California. I was blessed with a two hour treatise on the subject of 'Ecocities' (also the title of his book) by Richard Register. Since that time I have devoured over 40 books on the subject of urbanism and architecture, you could say I am thoroughly hooked. I have sense chosen my life's pursuit to imbue the philosophies of 'New Urbanism' into software code and digital malleability. The software I am working on, Permacity, aims to lower the conceptual barriers to this school for the every day person. I want every child and adult to be capable of composing green 'permaculture' visions of their environs, from rural homestead to urban metropolis.
"The hollow priapism of the utilitarian skyscraper and the pathological monumentalism of totalitarian bombast are the proliferating symbols of catastrophic hubris, of loss of human limits, of humaneness 'tout court'." - Léon Krier
Human cities are not a hodgepodge ensemble of structures. Human cities are not supposed to be a despotic void of the soul. One of the first features of urban life was often visualized by sacred temples; in the historic tongue known as - aedicula. If our souls are to be satiated we must find ourselves in places with identity, places with a living present and an untapped future. Classical architecture is not fundamentally about style it is, at it's core, the realization of human scale, anatomical ergonomics. A return to the dance of the feet and the feasts of our eyes.