In today’s busy world, taking a few minutes to help a stranger doesn’t always seem like a good idea. How much does being civil to people you don’t know really matter?
Schools and programs are popping up all over the country in response to our sense that we could and should conduct ourselves in a more appropriate manner. Has the whole notion of manners and civil behavior become a quaint and outdated concept? And if so, can a return to formal etiquette training solve the problem?
Belief in the significance of architecture is premised on the notion that we are, for better or for worse, different people in different places—and on the conviction that it is architecture’s task to render vivid to us who we might ideally be.