Los Angeles Gas Station by Office dA
As humans we are continuallly redesigning and reconstructing our environments and bodies. Laser surgery, pacemakers, prosthesis and genetically modified foods and vaccines have defined us as pre-cyborgian even though we still have our animal bodies. Although we still feel connected to nature, we are beginning to question what it is to be human. In reality we live and work in totally artificial environments that protect us from the natural world. The Compact City is today's sustainable European town-planning concept that prescibes regenerating cities without buidling anew, i.e. small over sprall). This approach means that cities now offer less of the elements we really need for our long term health and wellbeing.
Reflecting much of Howard's Garden City approach, anti-urban concepts like new urbanism are alive and well due to the fact that many of us still like living in the country. Apart from the pollution, noise and crime however, cities are physically and mentally stimulating places to be. Architects need to embrace the Compact City in terms of its urban transportation flows to really add long-term value; increasingly more of our lives will be spent on roads, freeways and gas stations. SUV's or 4X4's have created nomadic extensions to the traditional home. Life on the freeway now is so commonplace we don't even think about it, until harsh climatic conditions reminds us of how fragile we really are. Mr Numan could have been right, 'in my car it's the safest of all'...
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