to
This situation cannot possibly be improved for reasons that even if we had the necessary technical and economical resources to fulfil the wishes of our generation) we still were unable to predict what the coming generations are likely think, to need and to like. And as most of us cannot afford to build a house for ourselves only it seems rather odd to build a new town for to-day's population only. The fact is, that investments
put into town planning are of such dimen- sions that nothing essential can pos- sibly be changed in 100-200 years' time.
DANGEROUS
or good
If these questions come up we are always very much inclined to look to America for solutions advice, as they have decades of ex- perience in matters like this. The adoption of results obtained some- where else is dangerous. Firstly, because their education, the general way of life and their traditions are quite different from those we are ac- customed with, and secondly because most of the schemes which seemed so good in theory have very developed into something what Catherine Bauer describes as "the dreary deadlock in public housing."
soon
and
She says: "Everyone of our social experiments starts off as an abstract idea, frequently in an atmosphere of violent theoretical debate. But after it has been tried out for a while, one of the two things usually happens. Either it dies off as an acknowledged failure or it is accepted as an
in- tegra! part of the ordinary scheme of things. The original ideas, in the meantime, become modified adopted to local conditions. typical subsidized dwelling is de- ficient in interior space, in outdoor- privacy and in true (American) resi- dental character. Families with chil- dren generally want to live in in- dividual homes, while housing au- thorities for apparent reasons busily, erecting high density and high rise apartments with no outdoor space whatever.
LOW COST HOUSING
The
are
The charity-stigma is attached to subsidized housing; each project proclaims visually that it serves the lowest income group. And in addi- tion, if a tenant manages to increase his income beyond a certain point, out he goes, which among other things results in continuous loss of natural leadership among the ten- ants with a trend of so-called pro- blem-families as the permanent core of the occupants.
94
Rather successful projects have in similar ways very quickly developed in virtual slums"."
ге-
What then are the ways to base our planning on safer grounds than just assumptions or so-called opinions. An answer to that question is absolutely necessary in order to establish at least a little confidence that our gigantic investments have not been misued in the end. Just here in this connection it should be said that the architect and the planner do not scoff at all the information and figures sociologists provide. On the con- trary they will be very well ceived. It is the job of the planner and the architect to have the funda- mental situation ASSESSED by socio- logist, psychologist, legal, and econo- mic experts etc. But at the same time it has to be realised that they can tell us very little how we should plan
how we have to plan; very little in comparison with the natural conditions we have to do with, in comparison to all the ex- periences we have gained either as a result of our studies or of our own practice. By this practice I mean a practice which was sufficiently con prehensive, includes many years of experience and a sound human judge- or what ever one likes to call it. Such a mature judgement is necessary to sort our the gigantic ma- terial of figures and facts which the experts put in front of us.
or even worse
ment
―
KNOW MANKIND
And in saying this it must be stress- ed, that a mature judgement has to be based on the knowledge of man- kind. A knowledge which does not stop at man's pattern of behaviour and eventually taking this pattern as the only criterion for an individual's adaptation of a situation of life he is living in at the present; a situation which includes him as a member of our industrialised society, of our city environment, of a family or of so many other social groupings.
It can eventually be said, that there exists a certain order of precedence among these facts which are decisive for this adaptation. Some of them are doubtless of greater significance than others. But any order of prece- dence between themselves resists any attempt for a quantitative evaluation.
One of the more significant facts is the relationship between individual and nature. This must not be judged either by the reverie of a person who just moved into a town having had his previous domicile on the country- side, or by the town-resident's pre- dilection for primitive condition in free nature for some picnic hours or some days of vacation. It has to be
judged with regard to the fact that the whole nature including human life is subject to rhythms; i.e. а regular return of similar conditions in regular intervals; change of sea- sons, night and day, rhythm in the life of plants as well as in the life of animals, etc., which altogether in the in the end are nothing but an expres- sion of an overall system of universal rhythm. In our modern surroundings these rhythms are more or less wiped out and have been drowned in a technical rhythm; i.e. a change of exactly equal conditions in equal in- tervals. As healthy as the natural rhythm obviously is, as destructive can the technical rhythm be. In town planning one has all reasons to ask to what an extend it is necessary to reduce or to exclude the rhythm of nature. This is a serious question in any case, and the right answer be- comes extremely important in connec- tion with the consideration to what degree a certain area should exploited and what types of houses provide the best answer under certain conditions. It does not diminish the town plan- ner's responsibility of how to solve the problem if one states, that this factor belongs to the so-called im- ponderables.
BEAUTY
Another factor of great significance must be added: beauty. It is well known that aesthetical viewpoints can be used as striking weapons in discussions which have passed the matter-of-fact-stage and have turned into controversies of individual pre- stige. On the other hand they can and should be defended seriously and with conviction against all the tech- nical and economical demands which so much tend to dominate our present communal life. One thing is not to make a difference between different personalities, different countries and different conditions; but to be aware of
that old and only implication: good or bad.
In discussions of that kind one is again and again confronted with the opinion that ugly or beautiful is just a question of taste or fashion and in any case just a matter of an in- dividual appreciation, which there- fore can be dismissed as easily as possible. It is nevertheless a curious fact that people who are completely indifferent to aesthetical values do regard the understanding and appre- ciation of art in all its different and innumerable manifestations as a cri- terion for higher education in par- ticular and for a high cultural stand- ard in general. It is an enormous task to educate people to appreciate the higher aims of architects and planners. It requires a relatively high cultural
THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER-VOLUME 19, NUMBER 3
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