Sociology

     The most fundamental considerations which must be made regarding the social needs of humans in an urban environment are the respect for individual privacy while still giving way for community. Yet, in attending to these needs, we must take care not to impose or restrict the directions of man's interaction with man. A city high rise offers no space for young children to play out-of-doors under a mother's watchful eye without her leaving the apartment to sit in the park with the children (if there is a park nearby). The suburban home scatters schools and stores so widely that absolute dependence of the automobile makes a mother part-time chauffeur-errand-runner, catering greatly to children's activities. Spaces which offer only one of two extremes must not be considered the only possibilities open to urban man.

 

     We do not intend to predetermine either the forms or directions of human's personal relationships. Contemporary women's search for activity and expression outside the home and the increase of day care centres is said by some to indicate a loosening of nuclear family ties. Sociologists point toward divorce statistics to postulate a breakdown of marriage. Which ever directions people may choose in their personal relationships and desire for fulfillment, such possibilities must be open to them. Studies of space and structures, building materials and prefabrication systems are already being developed which can offer greater flexibility and freedom in the design of urban spaces. The forms of living structures must allow freedom. Rather than isolating people, they must give them the widest opportunities for interaction and experimentation with intra-personal relationships.

Universal City Model        The Universal City Model is an educational program created for the McGill University 1972 World Urban Concept featuring Buckminster Fuller and Franklin Thomas.  Notice Borealis in the bottom left. Interact with the full story of this program on the Internet.

Education

     The socialization of our children into society is accepted as being the role of our public school system. The question so frequently raised today by educators, parents, and students alike is, "Do our schools carry out their role according to our needs and in our best interests?" In a centralized and standardized system, what provision is made for individual differences, whether those differences by of culture, language, social background, goal-orientation, ability, or interests? The existence of free schools, de-schooling concepts, modular systems, cluster colleges, and self-directed courses at all levels of the educational system reveal a feeling that more freedom must be given to the individual to determine the directions of their own studies and, consequently, of their own lives.

     Our goal is to integrate an education system into the city where the entire city is seen by all of its inhabitants as a place of learning The forms this would take is open to research, discussion, and experimentation. There are already many experimental programs which offer a great variety of possibilities for innovation in these directions. We shall use these programs as guidelines, accepting only one measure of success - that of our children gain the abilities to work joyfully and live positively.