Bruce Mau and Sudbury

Sudbury is a really cool place and I am immensely grateful for the time I spent there.

In the exercise of courageous self-examination, no other city in the world -- that I know of -- can hold a candle to Sudbury. And I say that without the slightest hint of sarcasm or wink-wink, nudge-nudge paternalism.

Over the past several decades, Sudbury has, on several occasions, bravely looked into its own heart, plumbed its depths, faced its demons. And it has learned tremendously from the truths it has seen there. It has never flinched. Just to live in Sudbury is to be smarter and braver and more alive to reality than most of the people who live in other cities in other places in the world.

So it surprises me not at all that Sudbury has had the balls to invite native son Bruce Mau, a true outlier in the world of design, to come and give advice about designing a viable future.

Anyone who has read Mau's work, or visited one of his Massive Change exhibits, has to understand that Mau is not your average garden designer. To say he has a big scope is an understatement. He is difficult, if not impossible, for a non-artist to understand. Yet it is impossible to view his work and not realize that he is on to something. Much as one might read Stephen Hawking or Roger Penrose and understand that there is something important there, even if one cannot grasp it.

Bruce Mau is not accessible in the way that Jane Jacobs or Richard Florida might be. He is difficult, tantalizing, suggestive and visionary in a way that may be beyond the ken of most of us. One may dismiss his vision, but one cannot deny he has one.

So when Bruce Mau comes to Sudbury to give advice, a wise person will listen and try to understand that advice as best he or she can.

It will be very exciting to watch this interaction between the genius designer and the intrepid city.

My hope is that Mau can be convinced to expand his range even further, and to begin to think about the design of the entire region of Northern Ontario. That would really be something to see, wouldn't it?