Limiting Harm

Planners spend a lot of time trying to keep neighbors from harming each other. Do neighbors have a right to harm each other’s property? How problematic might be a code that limits harm? The best approach may be to write codes that ensure that each property owner can develop a lot to a certain level, and then allow further use so long as it does not harm society, the immediate neighbors, or the community.
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Vernacular, Classical, and Other

According to numerous sources there is a basic life-giving “geometry.” Michael Mehaffy and Nikos Salingaros—following Christopher Alexander—have demonstrated that the brain craves them. Although they would never put it so baldly, they divide the realm of design into the life-giving and the rest: primarily minimalism and avant-garde. If we accept this mental map, how can we map the “living” side—at least within architecture and urbanism?

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