One of the chapters of my new non-fiction book ‘Coherence‘ is called ‘Money-scapes’ and is about the way the depleted values of our current materialist-based society show up in physical form in the shape of hideous urban ‘developments’. Here is an excerpt:
“Values are abstract, but they show up in form all around us. And architecture is a form in which we can literally see them. If we walk down the western nave of Chartres Cathedral, for instance, and gaze up at the vaulted ceilings, we see an embodiment of harmony. We are impacted by an interplay of architectural feature, proportion and perspective and the way light interacts with all these qualities of space as it shafts in through the multi-faceted stained glass windows. Every part is in meaningful relationship to every other part, as well as to the whole structure and even to the cosmos ....
.... the same cannot be said of the majority of modern urban and commercial development, particularly in North America. Even the word development is a euphemism, because most of the time what one is really talking about is sprawl, the cookie cutter sameness of large chains and mega malls and grid-like inner city apartment blocks and projects. These sites have not been developed in the sense of aesthetically designed and thoughtfully integrated but developed in terms of turning acreage into either a money-making or money-saving venture for as little cost as possible.
What is fascinating about these places is that as we try to interact with them, whether just by looking at them, finding our way around them, or living in them, we get to experience the absence of those unquantifiable values which have been left out of the equation, and in their place, to come up against the incoherence and constriction of ‘flatland’. ....
Proportion and perspective are qualities that require the sense of meaningful relationship between parts. As I have been exploring, it is possible to think and act in ways that lack proportion and perspective. But proportion and perspective are also visual elements needed to make designs aesthetic, or to give us a sense of relatedness to them. We know that we respond visually to the proportions and patterns encoded in sacred geometry and the golden mean because the same proportions and patterns govern the design of our bodies. This is why most of us prefer to walk down the nave of Chartres cathedral, or through woodland than across the wastes of parking lots and strip malls. ...
..... The confusion about value and meaning gives rise to an oddly literal-minded approach, which is usually founded on the depleted values of utility on the one hand,
and money, or cost-saving, on the other. Yet even though utility is emphasized -
let’s build a box and a parking lot and highways to get there - this idea does not function well. The literal-minded, utilitarian approach seems unable to integrate function with design...’
“Values are abstract, but they show up in form all around us. And architecture is a form in which we can literally see them. If we walk down the western nave of Chartres Cathedral, for instance, and gaze up at the vaulted ceilings, we see an embodiment of harmony. We are impacted by an interplay of architectural feature, proportion and perspective and the way light interacts with all these qualities of space as it shafts in through the multi-faceted stained glass windows. Every part is in meaningful relationship to every other part, as well as to the whole structure and even to the cosmos ....
.... the same cannot be said of the majority of modern urban and commercial development, particularly in North America. Even the word development is a euphemism, because most of the time what one is really talking about is sprawl, the cookie cutter sameness of large chains and mega malls and grid-like inner city apartment blocks and projects. These sites have not been developed in the sense of aesthetically designed and thoughtfully integrated but developed in terms of turning acreage into either a money-making or money-saving venture for as little cost as possible.
What is fascinating about these places is that as we try to interact with them, whether just by looking at them, finding our way around them, or living in them, we get to experience the absence of those unquantifiable values which have been left out of the equation, and in their place, to come up against the incoherence and constriction of ‘flatland’. ....
Proportion and perspective are qualities that require the sense of meaningful relationship between parts. As I have been exploring, it is possible to think and act in ways that lack proportion and perspective. But proportion and perspective are also visual elements needed to make designs aesthetic, or to give us a sense of relatedness to them. We know that we respond visually to the proportions and patterns encoded in sacred geometry and the golden mean because the same proportions and patterns govern the design of our bodies. This is why most of us prefer to walk down the nave of Chartres cathedral, or through woodland than across the wastes of parking lots and strip malls. ...
..... The confusion about value and meaning gives rise to an oddly literal-minded approach, which is usually founded on the depleted values of utility on the one hand,
and money, or cost-saving, on the other. Yet even though utility is emphasized -
let’s build a box and a parking lot and highways to get there - this idea does not function well. The literal-minded, utilitarian approach seems unable to integrate function with design...’
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