Uber Elctric Cars, True Design Thinking?

The great promise of design are its wonderful solutions. "Wonderful" certainly seems inadequate when talking about or reading design commentary. "Divine" would be more fitting of a word. How would you describe a future of society designed with design thinking? Well, perhaps there is no world "wonderful" enough to describe that. Perhaps there is, perhaps it's called failure, and perhaps my assessment is somewhat valid and a little rude if Le Corbusier and Norman Bell Geddes were having this conversation here with us today. So in talking about transportation we can say that we face big problems. Apply design thinking and what do we get? Uber electric cars? Ethanol fuel? Wind, solar, nuclear, Jedi power? Perhaps we could all say "beam me up Scotty!" So, in thinking about transportation we might forget about ethanol or the Star Trek Enterprise and look at our feet. After all, isn't design about simplicity?

The problem here is that our feet are ineffective in the human habitat we have constructed. Perhaps we can look at Seaside, Florida, and the movement of New Urbanism. Designed by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Seaside applies the principles of New Urbanism. These principles emphasize the public realm rather than the private realm of the suburb. Walking becomes a realistic means of transportation. This is made possible by the implementation of mixed use zoning. Retail, offices, and housing are positioned withing a small area. Mixed housing allows people with different income levels to share the same public space. Streets are made narrower and rows of trees encourage walking. Civic centers and buildings again take prominence in the design of the city. Our civic lives happens outside on our feet, not in the inside of our vehicles.

Andres Duany on New Urbanism:


James Howard Kunstler on Suburbia:


Reference:

Kunstler, James Howard. Geography of nowhere the rise and decline of America's man-made landscape. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. Print.

Katz, Peter. New urbanism toward an architecture of community. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994. Print