c01.qxd 2/26/07 12:42 PM Page 1 PART I Introduction: Definition, Design, and Development of the Built Environment COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL c01.qxd 2/26/07 12:42 PM Page 2 c01.qxd 2/26/07 12:42 PM Page 3 CHAPTER1 The Built Environment: Definition and Scope Tom J. Bartuska e all build and therefore make important con- tems. Look further afield and observe the variety of tributions to the built environment. We objects and environments out of the window. Buildings, Wdesign and build our lives from one experi- automobiles, roads, bridges, the landscaped areas, parks, ence to another. Based on those experiences, components and the surrounding city are also part of a human-made of the built environment emerge from human needs, or -arranged built environment. Imagine the range and thoughts, and actions. Sometimes the substances of complexity of environmental components, the magni- human actions are grand, and we design and plan quality tude of environments beyond your home: cities, high- life experiences for ourselves and others. At other times, ways, and other transport systems, parcels of agricultural human actions are shortsighted, creating uncomfortable land, even domesticated plants and animals—all are to situations that are less fit for healthy human activities and some degree the products of human artifice and should negatively impact the environments that surround us and be included. with which we are in constant interaction. All people everywhere are surrounded by an abun- There are many reasons to design, plan, and build. dance of components of the human-created world. It may Each aspect of the built environment is created to fulfill actually be harder to find environments that are completely human purpose. As those purposes and actions are mani- outside the built environment, not made or arranged, fold, so too are the reasons to design and build. Where maintained or controlled by people or society, if such still you are sitting while reading this page, you are sur- exist on this planet. The sky, weather, free-flowing rivers, rounded by hundreds of human-created objects, all con- and wilderness areas may seem untouched, but none are tributing components of your built environment. The totally free from human intervention and impacts. words on this page, this book, your chair and desk, the The cumulative results of the changes people have nearby stereo, the cell phone and Internet that connect made in their surrounding environment are extensive you to many others throughout the world, even the walls, expressions of past and present cultures. A large percent- floor, and ceiling of the space are humanly made or age of humanity lives in urban metropolitan areas. These arranged and therefore part of the built environment. massive urban and suburban developments are the These components are constructed by dozens, hundreds, largest, most complex human systems ever created. Per- even thousands of material products and production sys- haps less evident but equally extensive are human modi- 3 c01.qxd 2/26/07 12:42 PM Page 4 4 INTRODUCTION: DEFINITION, DESIGN, AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Figures 1-1 and 1-2 Reflections of the built environment—outside and within. The Cloud Gate/2006/Anish Kapoor, Millennium Park, Chicago, Illinois. Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York. (Photograph by Jon Bartuska) fications of the rural regions of the world: farmlands; and significance be created and maintained in the built domestication and genetic alterations of animals and environment?1 plants; manipulation and management of forests and Movements to protect or restore the environment wildlife; dams built on a multitude of rivers for power, have focused somewhat narrowly on natural systems, navigation, and flood control. The count is endless. The neglecting the idea that the environments with which built environment fills every nook and cranny of the people interact most directly are often products of human everyday world; it strongly influences human lives con- initiated processes. Collectively, these products and current with their creation and modification of it. processes of human creation are called the built envi- To meet their most basic needs, people first created ronment. This term is comparatively new, but it tools, harnessed fire, and developed shelter to survive in describes in one holistic and integrated concept the cre- the wilderness. Once human survival needs became less ative (and not so creative) results of human activities uncertain (though that uncertainty still afflicts many throughout history. The term emerged in the 1980s and even now), people turned their attention beyond survival came into widespread use in the 1990s.2 To illustrate, the and continued to modify the environment at an acceler- term built environment is an integral part of a new defini- ating rate to make their lives safer and more comfortable, tion of landscape architecture approved in 2003 by the productive, and enjoyable. Times have changed, change International Federation of Landscape Architects. Tasks has accelerated, and populations have exploded, but the considered to be central to their work include the “plan- basic reasons for creating a built environment remain ning, design, management, maintenance and monitoring essentially the same as people design and construct tools of functional and aesthetic layouts of built environ- and products, modify and manipulate space, build struc- ments” and “identifying and developing appropriate tures, plan and shape landscapes and cities, and manage solutions regarding the quality and use of the built envi- regions and the Earth. ronment in urban, suburban and rural areas.”3 These are Certain questions, though, can never be asked too broad goals for a profession long considered to be many times, if only to remind us of the power we have to focused on yards and gardens, yet typical of the recogni- change environmental conditions. Why do humans tion by the design disciplines today of the need to be make such extensive changes to their surroundings? Do more collaborative and inclusive.4 we take equally extensive responsibility for the actions or Most of society’s knowledge of past civilizations is changes involved? How often do we consider the long- derived from remnants of the built environment. Simi- term consequences of these actions? Are we concerned larly, present cultures will be judged in the future enough about the overall effects these actions have upon by what they have created. Will the results, and the neighbors or upon the Earth, its finite resources, and its remainders, be profound and expressive of the very best complex ecological systems? What are the limits to of society or condemned as careless of healthy human- human intrusions on natural systems? How can meaning environmental relationships? c01.qxd 2/26/07 12:42 PM Page 5 The Built Environment: Definition and Scope 5 The primary purpose of this book is to develop an Definition and Scope of appreciation and understanding of the objects and places (even the organisms) built and modified by humans, the Built Environment how they are created, and how they affect life on the The built environment is certainly pervasive (look again planet. Increased involvement in and awareness of the out that window), but both the term and its reach and design of the built environment should lead to human implications are evasive, more comprehensive, and far- actions that influence our lives today, and those of our reaching than most of us realize, even though we live in it descendants, in a positive, contributing way. Quality tends every day. It may be helpful, then, to start simply and to encourage more quality, more personal enjoyment, define the built environment by four interrelated charac- enrichment, productivity, and greater involvement, which teristics. First, it is extensive; it is everywhere; it provides in turn should improve quality. Poor quality creates apa- the context for all human endeavors. More specifically, it thy and has negative impacts on human health and is everything humanly created, modified, or constructed, well-being. humanly made, arranged, or maintained. Second, it is the Every person is immersed in environments, including creation of human minds and the result of human pur- the built environment. Since the built environment is poses; it is intended to serve human needs, wants, and val- manifested in physical objects and places, it is relatively ues. Third, much of it is created to help us deal with, and easy to observe and study (if not so easy to understand). to protect us from, the overall environment, to mediate or It is critical for the reader to participate in, to visualize, change this environment for our comfort and well-being. and to experience real environments. This involvement Last, an obvious but often forgotten characteristic is that can more easily be achieved by paying attention, by every component of the built environment is defined and being aware, by directly experiencing and analyzing the shaped by context; each and all of the individual elements many examples that exist in your local environment, contribute either positively or negatively to the overall home, and community, as well as throughout the sur- quality of environments both built and natural and to rounding region, country, and world. This book encour- human-environment relationships. These impacts are ages your active participation and tries to increase your almost always local, and more and more are experienced interest in and sensitivity to the wide range of variables at every scale, including global and even planetary.5 in the built environment. The best way to create better The simple but inclusive diagram in Figure 1-3 is environments is to actively engage with those environ- intended to help visualize and define the built environ- ments, perhaps especially those we shape so intimately ment by these four interrelated characteristics.