TOWARD EDEN

ions of this earlier theoretical study and translating them into a Gisual and visible relationship" of 537 black-and-white photographs whish accompany the text. Spaces takes the reader on a journey through the landscapes which have influenced Greenbie as well as through the personalities and design theories which have helped shape his personal outIook on design. The book then is a highly personalized testament to the principles with which he is concerned as a desimer. It is this personal perspective: which is perhaps the book's most interesting quality; it is also the source of some of the book's shortcomings. In Part I Greenbie examines private spaceshome space, street space, and village spaceand makes a case for the importance of a hierarchy of privacy in the design of these spaces. One cannot read the first half of the book without inevitably comparing it to Cotnmunilpr and Privap (Chesnayeff and Alexander 1963) and to A Pattern Laaguage (Alexander el al. 1977). These works are far more precise, systematic, and pointed in their directives to the designer. Greenbie, by contrast, shares the process of analysis and theory befdre application is discussed. As a result, many of his references to application are vague. In Part IT, "Public Spaces," Greenbie finally recounts the basic theory he outlined in De~ign for Diversity. One wishes he had introduced this conceptual framework and its accompanying vocabulary at the outset of the book, so that it might have served to tighten the book's focus by providing an analytical model to be consistentIy applied throughout the work. Greenbie modifies Edward T. Hall's "proxemics" to "proxernic," which he defines as a culturally homogeneous use of space, roughly equivalent to animal territoriality, and descriptive of the types of private and communal spaces discussed in Part I . He then coins the term "distemic" to describe spaces which are actively shared across cultures, These two types of space are iaterrelated, and both are essential for safe and sane urban environments. It is the farniIiarity and security of the home environment {proxemic space) which allow man to "face the uncertainties of ma1 human diversity" in distemic spaces. Greenbie does not consider the distinction between proxernic and distemic space as academic, but instead as one basic to planning for groups of people with conflicting outlooks. In the second half of the book he looks at a variety of distemic spaces to illustrate the application of his model as an analytical and predictive tool in planning and design. In the final chapter he examines urban parks, promenades, and "places for peace o f mind," urban features which he views as barorneters of the social health of cities. Greenbie feels that "only in urbane public spaces . . . , and in their physical opposite, quiet, natural landscapes, can an individual feel fully at one with the human race." The inevitable discussion of the wonders of CentraI Park follows. (Central Park is wonderful, but is almost too familiar and over-anaIyzed. Other monuments of landscape design warrant careful study, interpretation, and celebration.) Greenbie weaves his spatial journey for us through verbal images, poetic passages, and photographic images. He relies on the visual images as much, if not more so, than the text to simulate as closely as possible the dimensions of spatial awareness with which he is concerned. In most cases, the page layout and coordination of plazes with the text i s very effective. Unfortunately the quality of the photographic prints and the small size of many of them make it difficult to perceive the ambient qualities which