Regional and Urban Design Committee

Walter,

How about planning and design to engender citizen participation, knowledge, and purpose about how an archtypical city's systems might work in all dimensions - physical, social, economic, and political - to empower citizens from an early age to ensure their common social and physical welfare, and to perpetuate a healthy, sustainable, and secure urban environment?  Shouldn't we be asking ourselves how we do that with physical planning, given that we can't otherwise dictate social norms?  What core notion might be a starting point to rally around?  What core social rather than abstruse planning criteria might get general assent to underpin the effort?

I am not in the least convinced that a systems oriented theory of design will change anything for the better, or has the magic, as Daniel Burnham said, "....to stir men's blood".  Maybe city as "womb"?.

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Gary Collins AIA
Principal
Gary R. Collins, AIA
Jacksonville OR
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The AIA has programs which we could use to present these ideas to younger population so they have been exposed prior to adulthood. Urban planning and its visions, are not common knowledge among the population.
Our AIA chapter has programs, which we are working to expand as part of our 10 year plan, leading up to the National convention here in 2019.
Our ACE mentoring program for high school students involves students interested in the architecture/engineering/construction fields with after school programs. We now have teams in three Orlando region school districts, and is a shared effort with the engineering and construction professionals.
We also are trying to organize a program for elementary school children: Box City, to help them think about the city and urban design. The Jacksonville Florida chapter hosts a Box City event from which we are patterning ours.
Some distilled materials shaped to be comprehended by these age groups would be great to improve the materials currently used, which I suspect don't have much about urban planning. I know our chapter members participating in these programs would use such materials, and be excited to get them.

And perhaps this suggests that we should begin to brainstorm programs that would engage all college students, because they are ripe to seed with this information. Architecture schools would be the group who should host such an event in their university.

Just like the green movement, the public has to embrace it before they will demand change/improvement.

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Gregory Stock, AIA Orlando Board Member
Project Architect/planner
Rogers, Lovelock & Fritz, Inc.
Winter Park FL
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