Suburban Nation - Andres Duany [3]
Social scientists identify three phases in cultural change: first, social marketing; then the removal of existing barriers to change; and finally the enactment of new regulations. Suburban Nation has helped to socially market a change in the way we build. Americans are now well into the subsequent phases of removing barriers and regulating … and not a moment too soon. Growing awareness of the need to adapt to climate change, energy limits, and economic volatility has created an environment of ferment and opportunity. Development patterns that reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are no longer merely a matter of choice.
History has shown that lost momentum can result in lost knowledge. Unless put to use, hard-won skills atrophy. The first decades of the twentieth century, which saw the creation of Mariemont, Forest Hills, Coral Gables, and other exemplars of town planning, were followed by a period of inactivity long and distracted enough so that when construction resumed after World War II, Americans had utterly lost the capacity for that model of community-building. As we reluctantly settle into another period of great economic uncertainty, we must take pains to avoid another decline into professional dementia. Toward this end, I hope that Suburban Nation will serve as a lasting battery of knowledge, a record of what needed to be overcome in our time, and an admonition, lest hard times lead to lowered ambitions.
—ELIZABETH PLATER-ZYBERK, MIAMI, FLORIDA
AVOIDING OBSOLESCENCE
When Suburban Nation was being written a dozen years ago, each of the authors fell into a role. Jeff was the purveyor of the light touch. His easygoing tone has contributed as much as anything to the book’s appeal. It is probably responsible for the number of people who have told me that, to their own surprise, they read it to the end. Lizz, for her part, was the guardian of clarity. She has no patience for obscurantism in language or message. Suburban Nation’s simple and straightforward writing is an extension of the educational philosophy she promotes at the University of Miami, where students learn “plain old good architecture.” Her success is evidenced by the book’s unexpected popularity as required reading—even in high schools.
My own contribution to the editing process was a result of simple time management. With new towns to design that could outlast centuries, why spend an inordinate number of hours on a text that might have a shelf life of only a few years? I was aware of the tension between a book focused on a present problem and one of lasting relevance, and I argued strongly that our book should be the latter. In this regard, Jane Jacobs’s half-century-old The Death and Life of Great American Cities was my model—a difficult one to live up to, granted, but the pursuit of unattainable ideals is stimulating. And so I undertook the editing with an eye to issues that were of the more transcendental sort. To this end, the grand subject of urbanism certainly provided a good foundation. The fashionable was eradicated under my pen—and so I bear any blame for the book’s being not nearly as hip as the younger Jeff would have had it.
Then, shortly after it was published, I realized that while I had checked the book for technical obsolescence, I had not done so for political survivability. More out of curiosity than anything else, I asked for assessments from two friends, one attuned to right-wing and the other to left-wing bias. Both marked-up copies were returned with a similar number of disputed statements, and I remember being surprised at how unnecessary these passages were. Although we could have smoothed the feathers for this second edition, the original text remains intact, as it has done no great harm. It seems that, for different reasons, Suburban Nation is read by radical protectors of the environment no less than by conservatives concerned with the restoration of the traditional human community. Perhaps this is because it avoids ideology altogether and puts theory last—simply proposing an alternative habitat for