The Well-Tempered City Preface

 Hello fellow anthropologists!

The Well-Tempered City is a book written by Jonathan F. P. Rose. I recently spent some time reading the preface of the book and was pleasantly surprised by the connection the book makes between cities and the importance of a harmonized perspective. 

    The main goal of the book is said to focus on studying the value of balance in cities and how temperance can improve the efficiency, prosperity and much more all while maintaining the social and natural capital that all cities have. The name of the book largely stems from The Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach and his ability to compose music by tempering the order and tune of the musical notes. 

    The word temperance is defined as a quality of moderation (can also be defined as a form of "self restraint" but this sounds a bit extreme). Bach composed The Well-Tempered Clavier as a means to demonstrate a new system of harmonizing different tunes and notes. Prior to this. the tuning of piano notes varied as a result of Pythagoras's theories one of which was known as the "harmony of the spheres" which suggested that the distance between planets resembled the ratios of the distances between musical notes. While, this system produced beautiful pieces of music, it also produced pure pain to the ears. When two keys were played simultaneously the slight difference in tuning of the keys ultimately dissipated that beauty and produced unpleasant sounds. 

    Therefore, The Well-Tempered Clavier highlights the integration of the whole and the impact of the individual. That the chaos of each individual's part perfectly intertwines with the entire piece. Applying this to cities (as the name of the book suggests), the complexity of each individual is represented in the intricate networks of urban societies. Thus, the individual has a significant role on the city. Then environmentally speaking, every person should strive to be aware of their impact in order to combat environmental issues. 

    All in all, it is the composition of the music that illustrates the importance of individual human behavior and its impact on the whole city and environment. I personally interpreted the meaning to show that all humans have a small responsibility to the whole community. That communities need to attempt to collectively address environmental issues in order to properly and efficiently improve such problems. Example of this include increased sustainability awareness in schools and public spaces, improving recycling systems and waste management, composting, lowering energy uses and carbon footprints, and so much more. The key take away from the preface is that The Well-Tempered City can be used as a design to harmonize the complexity of our cities and communities. 

Source: 

Rose, Jonathan F. P. The Well-tempered City: What Modern Science, Ancient Civilizations, and Human Nature Teach Us about the Future of Urban Life. New York City, Harper Wave, 2017.