7 AM, Saturday, January 3, 2026 WPKN 89.5 FM wpkn.org

There is political urgency in the Housing Crisis: There is academic fascination with Urban Design: There is popular cultural obsession with Community Building.

But the basic directions of how we make places to live together have often been based on road layout, zoning codes and the vision of those who are either “planners”, ‘designers”, real estate developers, politicians or activists: all trying to capture a cultural vision: but how do any of those think of outcomes?

The framing of our social aesthetics is so complicated in realization that its easy to lose the essential vision of why some of us want to design a future – versus simply accept cultural evolution without design: What do we value? What do we want? Do we encourage? discourage? prohibit? require?

Beyond pretty 2D renders and site plans- what do those thinking about our collective future see as our future living together?

Three world thought leaders in how we form community join DESIGN NOW. Sarah Bronin is an architect, educator and spearheaded a huge revision in Connecticut’s State Zoning Regulations. Yodan Rofe is an Israeli professor and urban design authority, Andres Duany is an architect and urban designer and was one of the creators of New Urbanism, and has participated in the creation of over 300 communities.