In the Built Environment, the Tyranny of the Big, the Beauty of the Small

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:




In the Built Environment, the Tyranny of the Big, the Beauty of the Small
Green building leader Jason McLennan on ways to keep our buildings and cities at a healthy, human scale.

by Jason McLennan
posted Mar 11, 2011


“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.”
—E.F. Schumacher


The world’s tallest built structure, Burj Khalifa, looms 2,717 feet over Dubai’s central business district, boasting the human species’ modern architectural and engineering capabilities. This glass and steel behemoth outstretches Chicago’s Willis Tower by 1,266 feet and is more than two and a half times the height of the Eiffel Tower.

Less significant than its stature, though, is Burj Khalifa’s profile. Viewed from any angle, the building’s shape is reminiscent of an exaggerated line graph that begins at zero before shooting sharply upward to its highest point then plummeting dramatically back to nothing.

In my opinion, Burj Khalifa’s silhouette stands as a poetic—and prophetic—representation of the past and future of ridiculously oversized ways of building and living. The tower’s profile reminds us that we began our architectural history by designing modest-sized dwellings (close to the earth and the y-axis) before “progressing” over time to our current skyscraping, unsustainable abilities. Soon, environmental realities will force our return to designs that better suit the human scale. The fact that Burj Khalifa was funded by vanishing oil money only reinforces the idea that the era of enormity in our structures, roads, homes and egos must and will come to an end, just as the global inventory of fossil fuels is undeniably finite.

The Righteousness of Scale

In his book, Small is Beautiful, E.F. Schumacher delivered compelling arguments in favor of appropriate scale. “Man is small, and, therefore, small is beautiful,” he wrote. First published nearly four decades ago, the book is equally if not more relevant today. While Schumacher’s thesis was aimed primarily at 1970s economics, his assertions apply perfectly to 21st-century supersizing trends. Environmentalists still relate to Schumacher’s message that a person or a thing need only be as big as required to fulfill its intended function. Otherwise, beauty, meaning, and accountability are lost. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/in-the-built-environment-the-tyranny-of-the-big-and-the-beauty-of-the-small

[KoKo]

1. Thanks for this post. It's a fascinating read.

:kick: