Your Community Reimagined with Classic Architecture and Urban Design
Here at Rambling Spirit, we explore how to complete big projects that can change society for the better. To make these projects more identifiable, I've decided to label the most significant ones as official Rambling Spirit Projects. You will see the seal on the featured images of such posts.
Now, these projects are massive. Someone may think renovating an abandoned house is a big project, and it is. But these Rambling Spirit Projects project the implied vision in jobs like that onto a larger-than life projector. So, for example, a Rambling Spirit Project doesn't keep the vision limited to one abandoned building. Rather, it tackles the larger endemic of all abandoned and distressed properties throughout the country, and comes up with a plan for renovating each one, one at a time, by building a repeatable system that could be applied across the nation.
I could easily spend the rest of my life trying to renovate the distressed and abandoned properties in my home town alone. The problem is I probably wouldn't even be very successful. While it is important to make local connections in order to implement change in our communities, there also aren't enough people who care on the local level. Sorry, that's just the reality. I've tried. I didn't try very hard, but I tried hard enough to know it probably wouldn't work. I tried finding kindred spirits among neighbors, local churches and local real estate agents and investors. They all had their own concerns, their own ambitions, and that's great for them. They'd probably have just as much trouble finding people to make their vision a reality.
We live in a culture where individualism reigns supreme. Most people are more concerned about their own lives than they are about forming intentional community. This is why local communities are falling apart and most people don't care. It's sad on one level, but it's also the understandable trade-off we got from our live-and-let-live philosophy. We can live whatever way we want, as long as it doesn't infringe upon other people's freedom, but finding others in your area who want to live the same way as you is not that easy.
We have to widen our nets to build community. This is where modern technology---namely, the internet---can help. People are still forming communities online, and movements are using that new reality to their advantage. Instead of trying to form communities on the local level, they find their "tribe" on the national and global levels, hoping the tribe they foster trickles back down to the regional, and local levels.
Taking that approach, I believe we will have enough connections and resources to implement the change we seek---whatever it may be. An app I just found called Retribalize does exactly what I'm talking about: It connects like-minded people and helps them form communities or tribes. The key is to find our tribe. My tribe is made up of kindred spirits who want to see the same revitalization of society as I do. That revitalization involves the renovation of abandoned properties. My goal is to present the possibilities with the tools available to me. Two of those tools are the internet and AI, which has allowed me to share concepts I simply could not share before.
Take my urban design concepts as an example; because, ultimately, the goal is to renovate abandoned properties in a community one at a time and eventually revitalizing the entire town or city they're in. The plan is to renovate one property at a time, then one neighborhood at a time, then one whole municipality at a time.
The problem is, you can't just retrofit good urban design into a city. The values and principles behind the design need to already be present in the city. You need to build a culture that represents the human side of the community. Otherwise, you wind up with the kind of redevelopment we've been seeing in modern times: lifeless boxy buildings that lack vitality. Urban design needs to reflect the values of the lifestyle of the people already living there. When visuals present a vision that highlights that lifestyle, people can more easily imagine ways to implement the natural steps necessary to make the vision a reality. We can't implement change if we can't even show people what change could look like.
Visuals trigger neural pathways that help people see a practical path toward making the visual---the vision---a reality. Many people call themselves visual learners for this reason, but we all benefit from visual representations of concepts.
This is also why beauty is such a universal concept. Beauty is a gateway to deeper truths. It draws us in and invites us to learn more about the beautiful thing we are seeing. Beauty is wired into our conscience and subconscious because it works. It is what we evolved to appreciate, not for some sentimental reason, but because of its effectiveness. For instance, we learned to appreciate enclosed spaces more than excessive open space in our settlements because the enclosed space offered a level of protection from predators and enemies. We learned to love curves and round objects because they connote fertility---such as a ripe fruit or the fertile land between the curve of a river. Natural ecosystems have streams gently rambling down hillsides into valleys. These landscapes are not only beautiful, they're also masterfully designed water drainage systems that prevent flooding and irrigate the land. Beauty and practical design work together.
So, when I talk about renovating the abandoned properties around America, I'm not just talking about renovating them with cheap, simple blueprints. I see these potential renovations as chances to reimagine the spaces they occupy. Andrew Millison, a horticulture instructor at Oregon State University, has this amazing video about a permaculture ecovillage in California. He shows how entire communities can be built in harmony with the land. The ecovillage he highlights is not a hippy commune. Many of the techniques used in it have been used for centuries.
For more urban design concepts, we have The Aesthetic City to offer direction. It is dedicated to making our cities more beautiful and livable, while aiming to help and inspire citizens and professionals to create more beautiful environments.
These are people who are not only proposing a better way to build in the future. They show us people who are already doing so and leading the way.
I'd like to do what I can to help them out, even if that's just by spreading the word and knowledge. To that end, Here are some books that are suggested in this video: Why We Should Revive Traditional Architecture & Urbanism (The Aesthetic City):
From other Aesthetic City videos:
Other finds:
Maybe we can read these books together and keep the conversation going. Better yet, let's get involved in local communities and share how we can build these kinds of beautiful, practical environments.
For my part, I'm developing an app called Rambler where you can upload photos of the abandoned buildings you find, add details, then pin them on a map.
I've also written three books of my own on different topics, but which I'm also passionate about. I guess I'm passionate about a lot of things, but I still believe they all serve one end. I just don't know what that end is yet.
I don't know about you, but I'm excited about all of this. It's kind of like what G.K. Chesterton said, when he pointed out:
"The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice."
Tradition has become the same way. Tradition is so unpopular today that defending it has all the exhilaration of being innovative.
Other sources:
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