Taylor Dotson is Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at New Mexico Tech in Socorro, NM. His research focuses on how more democratic decision-making processes can not only avert disastrous mistakes and unintended consequences but also enable incremental development toward more desirable technological societies. His research on Quartier Vauban was published in the Journal of Urbanism and in his first book, Technically Together: Reconstructing Community in a Networked World. Taylor earned his PhD in Science and Technology Studies from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and he is a research consultant with WHOA Inc. You can connect with Taylor on his website or on Twitter.
We all know the pitfalls of master-planned communities, right? Sterile. Homogenous. Certainly not adaptable or resilient over time. Is there a way around it? Maybe, if this fascinating case study from Germany has anything to teach us. And it all starts with one word: Baugruppen.