Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
PROSPECTS AND RETROSPECT: THE CITY OF
HUNDERTWASSER AND SOLERI
HARRY RAND, WITH A STATEMENT BY PAOLO SOLERI
Certain notions so deeply rooted in our thinking resemble instincts and
aspects of personality more than ideas. Among these, general cravings
toward form are a rare class of diagnostic self-perception which historically
present themselves in few instances.These central notions may not be uni-
versal yearnings, although their manifestation seems to have been the driv-
ing force of much of what is called culture and almost everything called
civilization. Some of these longings seem more like natural tropisms that
underlie technological evolution rather than culture-specific urges toward
the creation of distinct inventions that derive from convention. Among the
great locomotives drawing humanity forward through history, a very few
notions were realized in historical times and some even within the mem-
ory of living people.That is, after millennia of yearning—and probing non-
linear experiments of more-or-less value—within the last few generations
some of these central urgings have been requited. Eye-witness testimony to
a great shift in the way our species adapts is rare, but recognizing the satis-
faction we experience at having achieved these goals helps visualize the
pride early civilizations felt in overcoming the first great beckoning ambi-
tions—none more primary than the others.
The airplane gave us flight, for which we had envied the birds since the
time when bipedal humans could look up to the clouds. Letting us travel
faster than the wind or seven-league boots, our wonder at flight, and the
godlike convenience it bestows, is either keenly appreciated from our win-
dow seat or forgotten in the aisle seat. In the nineteenth century the tele-
phone brought far-off voices and conversation instantly to us, withering
space and making Marco Polo's distant report as easily obtained as a rou-
tinely punched-in country-code; or, a telephone call can be unspeakably
poignant, more than the words uttered over distance. But even this inven-
tion was not as momentous, in terms of assuaging human longing, as the
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