Buildings are for People

In Buildings are for People: Human Ecological Design, Bill Caplan issues a clarion call for the design/build professions to expand their concept of sustainable design to be more inclusive of the social, as well as the physical, environment. Doing so, Caplan delivers what might be regarded by some as being nothing less than a manifesto for architects to take heed about doing a better job of interlinking people with ecosystems, at what he calls the “human ecological interface”. Buildings, we are reminded, are much more than physical edifices that are constructed; rather, they can transform and in some cases actually create the ambient surroundings that they occupy. Buildings are for People is, as its title states, above all else about our relationships to the built environments we create and inhabit. It is a guidebook for achieving positive change in the way we reconfigure our world and our place therein. As such, it should find prominent position on the shelf beside other likeminded and worthy tomes, which challenge and encourage us all to do better.