Is a place a whole? Do we want places to be a whole?
Perhaps we do, in Alexander's sense, that they possess what he calls "the quality that has no name." (Alexander 1979) But that does not mean that the place has no internal contradictions, or that all its multiple identities are neatly overlapping rather than conflictual.
We know that dream, the small town dream. The Plan of St. Gall. It returns in the suburban dream, though not in the Edge City reality.
In the time of images and nets, even the monasteries move in wider circles, are invaded by economic processes and larger activity patterns. It was really ever thus, despite the monastic dream, but now the connections are more energetic and rapid.
(c) David Kolb, 1 August 2001