Design is the first signal of intention.

--William McDonough

The blueprints of architects and master planners engineer more than the shape of buildings and the relationships between building, street, and open space. Through these designs, the conditions of the possibility of living are structured.  What is being mastered in these plans to build the shells of human habitation?

The conscious intention of the designer is only one small part of the signals that any given design sends to the various persons who may see it, engage it, and even live in it.

While I’ll have a tendency to report on architecture, urban planning, eco-towns, and may write more about things occurring in China than elsewhere, these entries will spread across design broadly conceived as intentional action to shape human life, across the globe.