Energy: patterns, planning and architecture

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

This pattern was not particular to any nation. It was universal and simply a result of functional necessity and (in part) the building technology of the era in which the cities of Europe were established. Over a period of hundreds of years, this approach to urban planning became a cultural pattern in the countries where it existed and contemporary additions to European cities essentially maintain that pattern.

Another important reason for the continuing compactness of metropolitan areas in Europe is the population/land ratio of the countries involved. France, for example, has 1/3 of the United States' population living in an area smaller than Texas. Holland is even more severely cramped. The open land in such nations is precious—as are the limited resources—and has been for centuries.

By contrast, the first white settlers in America found a vast, open wilderness possessing riches beyond imagination. There seemed to be little need for preservation or conservation of land, water or other resources. Each new load of immigrants—unhampered by the traditions which restricted their brothers back in Europe—were free to seek their fortunes in almost any way they saw fit. Our way of life soon became one of "use it up and move away".

The advent of the Industrial Revolution—and particularly the automobile—during our nation's formative years increased both the speed and scale of this rapidly developing tradition. High energy consumption became our mainstay while land, water and natural resources were destroyed at an ever increasing rate.

We became a throwaway society to the point of total absurdity: Any person could hitch the equivalent of 350 horses to 4,000 pounds of comfort zone (including stereo) and drive 16 miles to purchase a one-pound loaf of bread or a one-ounce pin. We even developed throwaway houses (mobile homes) and no one minded expanding all national and state highways—at least in part—for their accommodation. The taxpayers paid for the roads while the mobile home industry boasted of their products' low prices.

As a result of our "live it up" heritage, we find today that [1] we have enormously wasteful habits (it takes the equivalent energy of 80 people to support one average American in his daily life pattern), [2] every aspect of life in the United States must be reevaluated in terms of the energy it consumes and [3] as we rush toward the limits of our natural resources, our system—which is based on the increasing consumption of such resources—faces a serious threat of breakdown.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print