The Human Scale

 
Human beings are adaptable creatures and make the most of things given to them by nature. We have a certain intelligence that allows the habitat to expand to include the most intricate of needs but nonetheless there is talk of the human scale. It's talked about as a virtue to design to the human scale but what does this really mean?

Recently I've been doing a lot of driving on the Italian Autostrada and the fastest that I can do is around 125 km/hr without feeling that things are getting out of control, so there is my natural limit. This too I guess one could call 'human scale'. I was once up on the Empire State Building and the experience of looking down on the streets from such a height was sublime but the element of fear was such, I wouldn't necessarily want to repeat the experience. It seemed to go beyond the 'human scale'.

It would be hard to set limits in architecture, on a moral basis, to what humanity would build. It is however important to consider the context. There are many cities that have set height limits and in Europe, provincial centres are tending to bring stricter controls to prevent urban sprawl. Nature is being revalued as the primary physical context of every life and this is only right.

This scaling down on development doesn't change the patterns of desire and consumption. We can exaggerate what we take from the world. How much does an individual really need in order to live and love? Is the energy being consumed all worth it? These are all questions that are finally being addressed and I do believe that in the end, it all comes down to scale. Consumption in a free market is a matter of individual need and everyone can choose how much. If we believe that society is held together by practising a set of civilising precepts, we may also have the freedom to live according to our own individual designs with a true sense of that human scale.

 
Rome, 18 5 2007