Abstract
A sustainable culture and community are fundamental desires of humankind. We want our towns and dwellings to house out happy, healthy progeny. Ill health and distress caused by increasing pollution are symptoms of our failure to attain sustainability. We sense that something is going awry and that the solution requires a change in our collective lifestyle. This change must occur at every scale of consideration from each product we use to our individual dwellings and workplaces, to our communities, to regions throughout our nation, and to our planet. The ethic of consumption (exploit natural resources) that results in both product and waste (generate pollution) must be replaced by the ethic of stewardship (conserve natural resources) that recognizes the interconnection of all processes - the waste from one would supply the others. The role of architecture and community design in assuring sustainability is demonstrated in the theoretical, award-winning case study of Pullman, Washington, contributed by Tom Bartuska et al. A generalized description of this role is needed not only to set the context for the Pullman case study, but to facilitate its widespread applicability.