"Is the world as it presents itself bearable for man?
More: is it worthy of man or too lowly?
Does it offer room for the highest form of human dignity?
Can it be shaped so as to be worthwhile to live in?"
This passage is very powerful, as it asks some great questions that lead to some great points. Looking at line 1 mostly I begin to ask myself if the world is truly meant to maintain our population of man? Was the world put here for us to make what we've made of it? or has man become overpopulated for Earth's purpose? Looking at some of Earth's qualities, mankind has challenged and even broken many boundaries of our Earth. Gravity-look at the capabilities we now have that defy gravity. Gravity will always be present and a factor, but look at the technology that attempts to defy gravity. Ozone-mankind has began the demise of the protection we have from the sun's powerful rays. If you look at where we are in a timeline of Earth, I believe that we are relatively close to the beginning of where Earth might end, so was Earth designed for us to be here? What if we are in the earlier stages of human existence? Our pursuit of advancement in all areas has led to this ozone depletion. Water-we are now facing many challenges with the availability of fresh water. Earth is 70% water, where has the fresh water gone?? Man has destroyed it! For our pursuit of "happiness", as we enjoy to call it. There is so much more that I could go on about that shows man has began an ultimate destruction of what Earth has lost because of us.
All of this being said, I ask the question: Should man humble himself and respect Earth for what it is or are we designed to stand up and dominate? Once compared to all other species, we have naturally dominated over all other species on Earth thus far. What is it innate in us that leads us to act as we do? I also ask: is there a happy medium that allows us to maintain our lives, yet allow Earth to maintain all of its plentiful resources?
Going into another quote found in the work of Gio Ponti, "The Architect, The Artist" I find a continuation of this particular area of questioning. "The architect, when building in the green world, must proportion walls to trees(trees are proportionate to man)."
My mind now shifts to the thought that we are here to enhance the Earth, just as the Earth has enhanced us. We aren't to be parasitic to the Earth, but to have a symbiotic relationship with it. The Earth gives us resources to better our lives, so why can't we give back to the Earth and help back? I believe that this could be a possible meaning for us. I do, however, believe that we have taken advantage of the precious resources we have been given. I love reading William McDonough for these very reasons because he has an understanding on this subject. As architects we are to take control of this issue and become aware of what problems we have dealing with our Earth.
There is so much more to discuss here on this matter but I feel that too much and I begin to get off subject and lose focus on where architecture fits into this conversation so I want to sum up what I do believe. I believe that architecture should facilitate the way that we live our lives; however, we should not begin to take advantage of what we have available to accomplish this. [This goes onto a side conversation about overpopulation and my beliefs on what mankind should do about becoming over populated; it has lead us to problems we have today] We should begin to think about what renewable resources we can use and incorporate into our design that enables us to give somethings back to Earth.
(I'm not too sure if much of this makes sense; I have been rambling on for a while and not sure what to think of it. I will come back and add/change any thoughts)
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