Most people come across John Cleese through Monty Python. I didn't. A long time ago I was given a tape with the recording of a talk he had given to a group of architecture students. Cleese was reminding them that when they move on to build something, this something will become part of the city or town that everyone walks through and looks at, no matter how interested 'in their very piece' of architecture they might be. In other words, as we do things, we generate an impact that goes well beyond those things and affects many more people than those that we build for, because every building is part of a much greater whole. Every building is a piece of city, and cities belong to all of us. As an observation by somebody that felt genuinely baffled and elated in the context of a short stroll, his talk made complete sense: it was about having a sense of civic responsibility.
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