The Monticello Dialogues – Part 4 – The Rebirth of the Commons with William McDonough

Product Description

Imagine for a moment, a beautiful future, free from poverty, war and suffering. Where do you see yourself living in that beautiful world? For many of us we see a bucolic life in the country. Anticipatory design architect William McDonough sees that healthy harmonious future in the city. Really. Named a hero of the planet in 1999 by Time Magazine, McDonough envisions a post sprawl future where the human enterprise is more compact and more abundant and more fun. He still sees cars in our future, but tomorrowís cars wonít pollute more efficiently, they will be effective silent runners, releasing POSITIVE emissions that support life. And public transport (read trains) will double as a power utility. McDonoughís celebration of the city is a sign of the positive transformation of culture; a culture where we can be people with lives again, neither consumers nor units in a plannerís design algorithm, nor fields in a security database.

William McDonough is former Dean of the Architecture Department at the University of Virginia, Time magazine named McDonough a “Hero for the Planet” in 1999, and he is the winner of three U.S. presidential awards including the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development.  He is the author with his partner, Michael Braungart, of the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (Farrar, Straus and Geroux 2002).  In this, part 1, of the six-part special series recorded at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, McDonough offers a fresh path out of the history of mindless timefullness.

Topics Explored in this Dialogue:

• How your life will be changed for the better by the next industrial revolution
• What early design decisions make Mahattan livable
• How can cities become healthy, sustainable places to live
• How can cities become restorers of nature? Eco-feeders
• What happened to “the commons”
• What is the vast commons we all own and barely use

Interview Date: 4/12/2002 Host: Michael Toms Program Number: 2973