Community Mural in a Historically Black Neighborhood of Boston, MA
Palermo Farmers’ Market
Often, culture dictates the design of the urban environment. The design of urban environments has been used by historians to learn more about ancient and forgotten cultures. The arrangement of homes, how buildings are entered, the use of walls around a city are all clues to the past. The culture of these civilizations dictated their design. Today’s cities are just as purpose built. Whether built for to efficiently move people around, even through specific and targeted areas and to avoid other areas, or for other more targeted purposes.
Comic depicting women “Carrying the Earth”
Coal Miners in West Virginia
These cultural influences are explored in the following abstracts:
Bringing the Moral Economy Back In
The Nature of Gender: Gender, Work, and Environment
Fluid City, Solid State: Urban Environmental Territory in a State of Emergency, Kathmandu
The Neighborhood Strikes Back: Community Murals by Youth in Boston’s Communities of Color
These perspectives should paint a picture that these sorts of cultural influences dictate urban design around the world. Next, learn about how the natural landscapes impact communities.