July, 2023 - the urban engine

Gated Communities: 3 Causes, 3 Problems and 3 Solutions

Gated communities are a common sight, but they are detrimental to communities and exacerbate inequity in cities. From automatic gates and tall, green, metal fences to rough concrete walls topped with shattered glass, gated communities appear under different names and guises in cities all over the world. They are everywhere and have been for some time.

Systems and Urbanism

A car is a powerful metaphor for the city. This tool can help understand and analyse the meaning of a city – its various purposes, components and behaviours that have been evident throughout the history of human settlements. This website’s name is derived from this metaphor: thinking of a city as a car is a rich but intuitive notion. Here are a few examples:

If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha

The founder of Chan Buddhism, the 9th Century Chinese Master Linji Yuxuan once taught:

“If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha,

If you meet the patriarchs, kill the patriarchs,

If you meet an Arhat [one who has reached Enlightenment], kill the Arhat,

If you meet your parents, kill your parents.”

Home is where the Bodily Fluids are.

Home means different things to different people. But more than ever before, people find it easier, more prosperous and indeed more enticing to emigrate to other cities or countries. By contrast, people also tend to be more fierce and proud of the city or country they call ‘home’. So what defines home? Can you have more than one? How long should you live somewhere before you can call it a home?

On the Analysis of Unique Phenomena

Consider any phenomenon, X, which is ‘unique’ in the sense that an intelligent agent (e.g. a person, an algorithm) is not familiar with the structure, performance, functions, or any other characteristics of the phenomenon in any meaningful way.

How would we analyse such a thing?