Ecological Urbanism starts in **HOLLYWOOD**

“…Andrea Branzi has for many years espoused the advantages of a different approach toward the city – one that is not reliant on a compositional or typological approach…[one that] deliberately blurs the boundaries between the disciplies…”

-Moshen Mostafavi, Ecological Urbanism

While I agree with Mostafavi’s and Branzi’s argument for a different approach toward the design of a city, I think that their proposed scope is too attached to a top-down process to make a lasting impact. Rather, I propose that the “different approach” that we take toward a broader understanding of sustainability as a lifestyle (not simply a catchy buzz word to attract wide-eyed clients) starts in Hollywood, and not in an office filled with designers. The idea stems from a broad use of media to communicate progressive ideas – mass-media such as films have the capacity to introduce seemingly farfetched, futuristic ideas (ie watches that are phones, space travel, or the internet) and make them tangible to the masses. Can you imagine a 1950s individual preaching the news of a wireless signal that has potential to connect everyone in the world? I’d think they were insane. Watch a movie about it, though, and it’s a novel idea. Mid-century architects (Wright, Neutra, or Schindler, to name a few) had a different approach toward marketing their ideas – namely, utilizing magazine articles (a primary media outlet at the time) and other publications to effectively sell their ideas to the public on a local or regional scale. I think that the success of ecological urbanism takes a similar but more contemporary form – that it starts by selling the idea to Hollywood to become a novel idea for the masses. Then, bring on the designers to create the sustainable reality that was the “public’s idea.”

Image Source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/06/16/asia-pacific/star-wars-shown-in-chinese-theaters-for-first-time/