CHAPTER 3THE CITY: A Limitless Context for Teaching and Learning

A desirable, sustainable world for ourselves and our children in 2046 cannot be predicted, and certainly will not be achieved by default. It can be achieved by design, as designers of the future apply their talent and enthusiasm to the task.

—Inventor and aeronautical engineer Paul B. McCready, “Design in 2046,” Design News Magazine, November 4, 1996

“Do we actually have to build a City of the Future in the classroom?” This is a question I have fielded over decades of training teachers in the methodology.

The answer is yes. Or, if not a City of the Future, any other contextual, three-dimensional, tabletop model of an imagined, built environment. This is the gestalt: the whole ...

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