Common ground

Having an interesting chat yesterday about a community's need to have place where everyone can assemble together from time to time. I suggested that a well designed outdoor space could work well - we are in tough times in the UK for public service funding right now and economic solutions are needed.

Last weekend the place where I mostly live, Brightlingsea, held a Music Festival - not quite Glastonbury but great fun. Brightlingsea is blessed with a large village green set on a slope which is a bit useless for cricket but offers such a great natural amphitheatre. You can see here, despite some patchy weather, families and groups of friends gathered for a weekend of everything from Bach to Blues.

Communities need a heartspace: it needs some 3D shape, but in many countries (not too hot or too cold) it doesn't need to be a building.

We can learn so much from small communities with, in some places, a few thousand years of prototyping!