Our social construct has been moving away from the elements that build and sustain great neighborhoods. Far too often, our place of birth determines our future. Opportunity is the dream of so many yet the reality of so few. Sadly, the pendulum of progress that led us to this moment was built on the highway and the car. Both represented newfound freedom, and the landscape of city living took a tectonic shift. Acre after acre of forest and farmland gave way to monocrops of homes, neighborhood after neighborhood, home after home no different from the last. As this type of development stretched to the horizon, problems began to mount; endless traffic, polluted air, polluted runoff, our mental and physical health suffered, and soon population sprawl and migration began to outpace our connection to each other, a sense of wellness, and respect for placemaking. At the pendulum’s apex’s precipice, we see development shift back to the city targeting the cheap neighborhoods first. These neighborhoods are filled with people long forgotten by the mainstream, full of hopes, dreams, and futures but pushed aside by those who are more fortunate. Replacing vast swaths of culture and heritage with monocrops of lifeless housing and redundant amenities. So, what do we do? Is this the type of world we want to live in? Where our progress trumps all other possibilities? Progress: We knock down existing cheap housing stock to be replaced with new expensive housing stock. Do we want to live in a world where opportunity is only available to those with the means to afford it? Or do we want to live in a world where being ourselves is enough, and we all have equal opportunities that make us human? What if we all had equal opportunity to live comfortably and with dignity, no matter our economic background? What if we all had equal opportunity to work, no matter our career? What if we all had equal opportunity to play, no matter our preference? What if we all had equal opportunities to nourish ourselves, no matter our location? What if we all had equal opportunity to learn, no matter our age? What if we all had equal opportunity to move, no matter our agility? These questions define the foundation for our solution, our fundamental human rights. From these rights, we can define our policies to be more inclusive of human diversity. From these rights, we can build our neighborhoods to better respond to the multiplicity of human demand. From these rights we can build a better world.

Our solution tackles the question of growth by identifying the elements for a comprehensive solution: Jurisdiction, Streets, Neighborhoods. In combination, these elements create an ecosystem that represents human diversity. As architects, we often think deeply about what a design looks like within a set of rules but rarely about how to change the rules. Our solution acknowledges the role of jurisdictions in the city making process and identifies where policy and design collide. Streets should reflect the diversity of human mobility (they are the portals between neighborhoods and culture) and better provide opportunities to connect to our surrounding city rather than only curate to cars. Neighborhoods are the incubators of community and culture and is where sustain our lives. Our neighborhoods directly reflect the diversity of the human condition, providing opportunities for everyone to live comfortably no matter their background.