| Urban sprawl is not inevitable. Human interaction and societal contact are lacking in our cities today. There is a significant price the environment is paying in trying to accommodate the people with the city in this form. Sprawl not only causes detrimental effects to the natural world, but to society itself. Forced to be vehicle-bound, parking lots and freeways have taken over the importance of public squares, where human contact is promoted. The automobile is not the only technology that is to blame. Since the early 20th century, when the television was first introduced, there has been a rapid rise in the technologies that cater to human visual perception. The human eye has been trained to process rapid change, and in doing so, has created a serious dependence on constant visual change. The automobile, television, cinema, and internet are major technological modes that alter our perception of the world. In the interchanging relationship between the 2-dimentional and the 3-dimentional, these technologies have played as major contributors to a hinderance of societal contact and human interaction. Our dependencies on these technologies have become hallmarks for the North-American lifestyle, where the engagement of the physical with society and architecture is lacking. |
