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| Frank Lloyd Wright was a champion for individual creativity and local control |
By Bob Silvestri
“The Internet is based on a layered, end-to-end model that allows people at each level of the network to innovate free of any central control. By placing intelligence at the edges rather than control in the middle of the network, the Internet has created a platform for innovation.” ~ Vint Cerf
When you develop Internet software, the only thing you can be sure of is that everything you’re sure of will probably change because innovation is happening everywhere in the long tail. It is the ultimate “bottom up” system. This means that designing for it requires solutions that embrace user interactivity, open-ended design, flexibility, and methods that “learn” and adapt to change. I think city planning can be that way. In fact I think it will have to be because whether we like it or not, the coming century will be an increasingly bottom up, networked, borderless, telecommuting, personally expressive, crowd-sourced world.
I know. It sounds like a lot of big words. But think about it. I recently wrote a piece about a “criteria-based method” of planning. It suggests an approach that would be more responsive and adaptable to the nuances of local public policy needs and the ever-changing dynamics of private capital markets. It highlights the importance of enabling individual initiative and local empowerment in solving planning problems. And in some ways it was inspired by the third planning vision that came out of the 1930s.
The Bad Boy of Planning
Frank Lloyd Wright was perhaps the most controversial architect in modern history. His iconoclastic career was unique even among American visionaries. Always the rebel, he never bothered to get a license to practice until he was in his 70's, by which time he'd designed or built more than 600 buildings. By today’s standards he’d be called a Libertarian (footnote: The Marin County Civic Center was Wright's last commission before his death).
Wright absolutely hated top down planning and big government. He’d be rolling over in his grave if he knew about ABAG and the One Bay Area Plan. When it came to city planning, Wright was a staunch advocate of “local control.”
Full Article: The Best Laid Plans: Part II 21st Century planning
When you develop Internet software, the only thing you can be sure of is that everything you’re sure of will probably change because innovation is happening everywhere in the long tail. It is the ultimate “bottom up” system. This means that designing for it requires solutions that embrace user interactivity, open-ended design, flexibility, and methods that “learn” and adapt to change. I think city planning can be that way. In fact I think it will have to be because whether we like it or not, the coming century will be an increasingly bottom up, networked, borderless, telecommuting, personally expressive, crowd-sourced world.
I know. It sounds like a lot of big words. But think about it. I recently wrote a piece about a “criteria-based method” of planning. It suggests an approach that would be more responsive and adaptable to the nuances of local public policy needs and the ever-changing dynamics of private capital markets. It highlights the importance of enabling individual initiative and local empowerment in solving planning problems. And in some ways it was inspired by the third planning vision that came out of the 1930s.
The Bad Boy of Planning
Frank Lloyd Wright was perhaps the most controversial architect in modern history. His iconoclastic career was unique even among American visionaries. Always the rebel, he never bothered to get a license to practice until he was in his 70's, by which time he'd designed or built more than 600 buildings. By today’s standards he’d be called a Libertarian (footnote: The Marin County Civic Center was Wright's last commission before his death).
Wright absolutely hated top down planning and big government. He’d be rolling over in his grave if he knew about ABAG and the One Bay Area Plan. When it came to city planning, Wright was a staunch advocate of “local control.”
Full Article: The Best Laid Plans: Part II 21st Century planning
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