Buildings are for People

In Buildingsare for People: Human Ecological Design, Bill Caplan issues a clarion callfor the design/build professions to expand their concept of sustainable designto be more inclusive of the social, as well as the physical, environment. Doingso, Caplan delivers what might be regarded by some as being nothing less than amanifesto for architects to take heed about doing a better job of interlinkingpeople 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 transformand in some cases actually create theambient surroundings that they occupy. Buildings are for People is,as its title states, above all else about our relationships to the builtenvironments we create and inhabit. It is a guidebook for achieving positivechange in the way we reconfigure our world and our place therein. As such, itshould find prominent position on the shelf beside other likeminded and worthytomes, which challenge and encourage us all to do better.