The Theatre of the Universe-Culture and Urban Design

摘要

In this short Viewpoint we will try and untangle the culture 'urban design hiatus'. Of necessity the following comments will be truncated, and possibly unsubstantiated. We refer readers to prior publications for support (Cuthbert 2006; Suartika 2007, 2010). We offer two thoughts at the outset. First, mainstream urban design by definition has not much to say about culture. Second, the term culture itself is semantically void. Herein lays the problem. In addition, since this paper is being written in Bali, we invite readers to step out of their comfort zone using some illustrations from one of the most complex 'cultures' on Earth.