Creating Tomorrow - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 477

The Disappearing City , Richard Ingersoll wrote in Sprawltown , “Almost without notice the
city has disappeared.” Ingersoll goes on to say, “Though people continue to live in places
with names like Rome, Paris, New York, and Beijing, the majority of the inhabitants of the
developed world live in urban conditions somewhere outside the center city.” 13
With respect to the built environment, in so many ways, our understanding of technol-
ogy and behavior has never been more focused. Governments, developers, designers of
all kinds, engineers, manufacturers, builders, educators, professional societies, and jour-
nalists have all joined in the chorus of advocacy for planning and design that is smart,
green, and sustainable. But we must still design for the future on a case-by-case basis.
Many urban areas are land-locked and, having been built out, can only build up. Timing
sets another decisive difference. So much of what we associate with great European cities
was already formed or transformed a century and a half ago. Within the United States,
New York was shaped in the 1910s and Los Angeles largely in the 1950s. These and all
other cities will continue to change. Many of today's most dynamically growing cities—for
example, those in Asia, instead of creating something new are simply playing catch-up
along the lines of nineteenth century patterns.
Against this background, the desert Southwest stands out as having one of the greatest
potentials for a new direction that combines the behavioral desire for decentralization
made possible by technology, with the nature-inspired integration that ecology demands.
While the future is unknown and unknowable, there are always insights from which to
make long-range decisions. From the local to the global conflict is now the normal dynamic,
given the world's growing need for fuel, food, and freshwater. Where possible, the desired
pattern of growth will be in the direction of decentralized, high-performance settlements
designed around sources for alternative fuels, fresh produce, and recycled water. In keep-
ing with this direction, the Southwest enjoys an abundance of solar energy, vast stretches
of fertile soil, and highly developed systems for water management, microfiltration, and
the biological treatment of wastewater.
This leads us back to human behavior. Will our municipalities be willing to engage in
regional planning? On the developer's side, if the more simplistic approach that produced
suburban sprawl remains an option, to what extent will developers be inclined to pursue
the greater rewards that require greater complexity?
In like manner, will potential buyers be willing to embrace the complexity and rewards
of community as being more desirable and more valued than the notion of independence
associated with conventional low-density subdivisions?
Will individuals be ready to take advantage of the benefits of live/work communities
and shared-use vehicles instead of requiring the conventional separation between home
and office and maintaining our emotional attachment to personal vehicles?
Will financing be available for what conventional wisdom will view as plans organized
around complex systems of spatial connections? And will citizen activists herald the
advent of demonstrably “green” communities or will they oppose anything that differs
from what already exists? 14
My observations and experience suggest that the answer to all such questions will be
in whatever direction can be shown to provide for a genuinely richer, more healthful way
of living for less cost. Codes will be changed to allow for multiple generations to inhabit
the same house as well as the design and development of custom family compounds that
replace the present line-up of look-alike houses.
A live/work version of the cottage industry of 200 years ago is now possible, with the
added benefit of real-time audio and visual communication, both local and global. Instead
of finding solutions to some of our more pressing suburban ills, we will simply eliminate