A vision thing.

Compact cities and towns, Walkable, this means compact buildings that fit even the smallest and leftover bits of ground. Streets where we can live without being terrorised by vehicles. Buildings that last for centuries. Adaptable, buildings where we can cut windows and doors, subdivide rooms and extend. Cities that fit the landscape not the other way around, the world isn't a grid of graph paper to be filled with identical cells - Identikit buildings can't fit the world that we have. Buildings where every corner, every room, every street is tuned to be a place we would want to be and to spend our lives.

This is a world worth having. How do we get it? Start small and work our way up.

Technology doesn't exist in a void, nothing is pre-determined. We have the technologies that are exactly the technologies we need to build civilisation as we have it. This is a truism. But our toolkits are incredibly narrow and specialised, suitable only for making the things that the old economy finds useful. Maybe the technologies we have, tools for making a lot of things that are exactly the same, are not going to be up to the task.

The existing set of technologies and methods is not fit for purpose. Some of these practices are flat out obstacles to the job that needs to be done.

To imagine a different world we need to imagine some different tools. Then we have to create these tools ourselves as nobody else is going to do it for us.

But what kind of tools?

Pattern Languages are the basic technology. Homemaker is just one of these tools that designs house layouts, sunlight and coexistence. Tools to share construction information. Tools to deal with bureaucracy and regulations. Tools for financing.

A Pattern Language is a check on our progress, we can use it as a test for the fitness of our buildings. Every room at the same time, every house at the same time and every street at the same time. Discard designs if they don't fit, keep and adapt it they do. Again and again, iterating, the key to creation is to keep going and always be prepared to throw away a bad idea.

Now I'm here to promote Homemaker, but this isn't the biggest or most important thing needed.