In the first section of his book "A Living Tradition", a book about Bahamian architecture, Stephen Mouzon develops the case for the coding of the built environment and he quotes one of his previous books:
"The best measure of the greatness of architecture is the extent to which it touches the hearts, minds and spirits of the people who use it. Good work in architecture can move people, just as good work in music, art, writing or drama does."
He then proposes that the way we know when people have been moved by the built environment is that they enjoy using it and therefore incorporate it into their patterns of activity. Those places become, over time, what he calls "most-loved places". The rest of the book develops his theories about the role of tradition in the creation of most-loved places, and the spectrum of meanings "read" by users in a variety of different situations, from the vernacular to the classical.
While I have no conclusions to offer on his theories (I have not yet completed the book), I find them very valuable, in that they confirm three important things about the built environment.
First, they confirm that people do indeed "read" their environments. They look for and respond to clues that inform them about order, importance, use, ambition, origin and a dozen other useful aspects of our perceptual world.
Secondly, it confirms that the most-loved places are created over time, not instantly, using methods that have become "traditional" through common use and acceptance. Generally (although not always) those traditions arise out of the use of local or locally-available materials to respond to local climatic and geographic conditions, using skill sets prevalent in the local community. This explains why most places we enjoy are older and made from materials we are too ready to replace today with modern alternatives.
Thirdly, it confirms that the design skills needed to create those places are as varied as the context of the places themselves. While at the vernacular level (for example, on a farm on a Family Island), common practice is enough to guide builders as they expand their built environment, the need for a more meaning-packed environment in, say, the center of local government or commerce requires the skill and sensitivity of good designers. Here an understanding of scale, balance, proportion, rhythm, silhouette, texture, contrast and composition are the basic tools required.
This latter circumstance, the development of the meaning-charged city center, is at the crux of the concern for the development of downtown Nassau. There has been much talk about the functional redesign of downtown to respond to commercial opportunities, but practically none (at least not publicly) about the need to understand the ways in which downtown has meaning to today's Bahamian. There is no question, for example, that Rawson Square means the center of downtown and the seat of government. It also means the center of colonial administration, certainly an important part of our history. What, then, means that we have, for the past 44 years, been a nation of independent, innovative and extremely creative people? Not only is there no such reference, there is not even any conversation that suggests its importance.
The disrespect we have for tradition is evident in the way we allow those exceptional carriers of tradition to rot and disappear, whether downtown or otherwise. Because our bank accounts allow it, we replace buildings that responded well to the climate with buildings that are surprised to find themselves in a hurricane zone. We replace most-loved places with parking lots and meaningless lookalike gestures imported from elsewhere.
Downtown Nassau was once unique and special because it had become, over time, a place where the traditions that sprang from the Bahamian experience, the local and the imported, had been used to present the culture -- the history, the ceremonies and the peculiarities -- that had meaning for Bahamians. Whatever was done had local meaning and contributed to the making of a Nassau that was a most-loved place, a place those that visited once would wish to return to purely to be there. Places like Hope Town and Green Turtle Cay, Abaco, and Harbour Island and Governor's Harbour, Eleuthera, are still such places. Key West, Florida, is becoming such a place, using the architectural traditions of the Abacos.
It is, I believe, critical that the discussion of the development of downtown not remain a matter of commerce only. If it does, not only will that part of our island become less and less relevant to younger Bahamians (as it is already becoming) but we will soon lose any semblance of the most-loved place it could once boast of being.
o Patrick Rahming & Associates is a full service design firm providing architectural, planning and design services throughout The Bahamas and the northern Caribbean. Visit its website at www.pradesigns.com and like its Facebook page. The firm's mission is to help its clients turn their design problems into completed projects through a process of guided decision-making, responsible environmental advice and expert project administration.
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