3 A new kind of zoning law, helping to generate neighborhood structure through successive transformations

The neighborhood geometry which results from these new procedures will be very different from the one we came to consider normal in the 20th century. However, this new geometry, I think you will agree, is a sensible structure which does address directly the twin issues of belonging: that is, belonging of a public nature to the community (which requires formation of a communal and coherent pedestrian hull), and belonging of a private nature (which requires that buildings are relatively small, standing on their own individual lots, and which may therefore be developed individually by owners, families, and businesses, seeing the world as they see it, embodying their vision of the world in the individual territory where they belong).

We strive for a balance between public and private belonging. Sometimes we need connection to the community. Sometimes we need retreat to our own private space. The way we solve problems in software, leads us to break these issues apart into sub-problems and solve them separately: offer solutions for when we want connection and community. Separately, offer solutions for when we want solitude and privacy. That leaves figuring out the balance between them to us. We’re not good at it. We’re ignoring the whole, which is a healthy balance between those two extremes, and thus leave its solution to the individual.

#book/The Nature of Order/3 A Vision of a Living World/9 The reconstruction of an urban neighborhood#