Week 5 - October 15, 2009

The reading for this week's lecture "Economic Sustainability in the Post Industrial Landscape" I found quite engaging. I believe this generation of designers are well on their way to having an epiphany when it comes to mixed-land use and new urbanism.
Urban sprawl is occuring at an alarming rate. Big box stores and strip malls are littering the landscape, not to mention the stores asphalt parking lots that displace vegetation, and also cause drainage problems for surrounding residential areas. Besides the technical issues, urban sprawl creates social problems as well; as we keep building out (instead of up) we lose our sense of community - which, in my opinion, is also compounded by the revolution of electronic social networking (god forbid we might have to talk to someone face to face).
I think the idea of mixing private and public areas is not a new one, but definitly one that needs to be reclaimed in todays designs. Big box stores are not going to disappear anytime soon, so why not integrate shopping with living and recreation? I believe this is the beginning to salvaging that 'lost' idea of community!