Chapter 23

Back to the Future
We need to create order out of chaos. Please read the opening statement in "Basics," the prelude to Part I.

Even though there has been attention to Urban Planning since the end of WWII, it has, in the United States, been an abject failure. Our expanding population, due mainly to immigration, has brought uncontrolled growth of the automobile with its attendant fuel needs, commuting time, and costs. Add in diminishing educational accomplishments, and we can realize that all of these problems require attention to quality of life, transportation, fuel sources, economics, and education,. It might be time to concentrate less on individual buildings, and expand our thoughts to communities - considering the "New Urbanism" begun in the 1990’s, as well as another approach, which might be the British New Towns begun shortly after WWII. Looking to Europe and Asia for solutions, particularly in the use of the automobile – or lack there of - and pedestrian - only streets which exist in almost every single German city - well, there is a lot to emulate. At the same time, the "Gehry effect," mentioned above, certainly plays a vital role in the future of Architecture.