PAUL AND PERCIVAL GOODMAN
COMMUNITAS, 1947
“Communitas is explicitly organized as a tree: it is divided into four concentric major zones, the innermost being a commercial center, the next a university, the third residential and medical, and fourth open country. Each of these is further subdivided: the commercial center is represented as a great cylindrical skyscraper, containing five layers: airport, administration, light manufacture, shopping and amusement; and, at the bottom, railroads, buses and mechanical services. The university is divided into eight sectors comprising natural history, zoos and aquariums, planetarium, science, laboratories, plastic arts, music and drama. The third concentric ring is divided into neighborhoods of 4000 people each, not consisting of individual houses, but of apartment blocks, each of these containing further individual dwelling units. Finally, the open country is divided into three segments: forest preserves, agriculture, and vacation-lands. The overall organization is a tree.”
(in: CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER, “A CITY IS NOT A TREE”)
