A New Humanism Part 2 (Robert Lamb Hart via Metropolis)

"And the practices and results envisioned in the modern movement – the neo-classicisms, organic architecture, new urbanism, post-modernism, placemaking, green building, and many other sensible ideas – have proven to hold great promise. The problem remains, though, that applications of these approaches and styles, in practice, tend to explore too narrowly the actual human experience of the places that are built. While these places may or may not deal brilliantly with functional and technical issues or display an intellectual rigor, they still tend to become focused more on the personal drive for expression by the designers, the “producers” and their design and business processes, than on the thought-out impressions and subjective experience of the “consumers.” They concentrate on the attributes of their products rather than the responses of the people who use them. Creative ideas are too often about the striking image, the style-makers, theories, manifestos, celebrity or a quick-fix, more than “what is it like to be there?”