Designing Resilient Cities & Communities

This book was created for my application to the American Academy in Rome's Rome Prize

 

We are amidst an intellectually violent revolution to produce livable, resilient cities. The enormity of our social and environmental difficulties suggests that we should study those complex systems that have shown an ability to adapt and survive. Resilient cities, such as Rome, have a fundamental cultural value in beauty. The current emphasis on the ‘data –driven sustainability of architecture’ has prevented us from expanding the broader notions of sustainable beauty and cultural ecology. We need beauty, it is the promise of happiness.

 

Public spaces are the intimate physical connection to a city; in these spaces we can begin to create a more resilient culture.