February 2022 Editor's Letter: More Than Meets the Eye
At the end of last year, E.O. Wilson died at age 92. Although the legendary scientist, best-selling author, and pioneer of the concept of biodiversity was not a designer, his work expanded our understanding of the world and how we should live in it. Wilson’s interest in the evolution of species and their social interactions—his specialty was ants—extended to his ideas about human beings and how we gather in groups. In addition, as he observed the alarming destruction of the world’s natural habitats and the rapid extinction of species, he became an outspoken conservationist, proposing that half of the earth be untouched and left to nature.
But how should we continue to build on the other half of the planet, where human beings come together? One enlightened leader on that subject was Richard Rogers, who died at 88 the week before Wilson, and whose concepts for the modern city, beyond his works of architecture, are often underappreciated. His powerful sense of urbanity was evident in his first groundbreaking project, with Renzo Piano, for the Centre Pompidou in Paris (1977). Significantly, in front of that brightly colored, eye-popping structure, the architects designed a vast space, evoking a Roman piazza, in an otherwise crammed Medieval neighborhood.
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