4. Historic Heritage

History is made in the present and honoured in the future. Improving quality of life, reinforcing our sense of place and identity – and provide a legacy for future generations is something we can do today. But it does not come by accident. It requires intent.


The MarketTown will be new, but it has studied carefully what makes a place wonderful. Because it is that wonderfulness that future generations treasure. Shopping malls are torn down and no one mourns. Few tourists travel to suburbs to see the architecture. What is it about the wonderful places of the world that we so treasured? For the most part, it is not the patina of age, but the fact that the people who built the place intended to live there and pass it on to their descendants. They decisions were not purely based on ROI (return on investment).

The MarketTown enables people and communities to make the important decisions that will, in a few generations, make it a historic treasure.

In this photo you see two towns that have almost matching scale buildings, but the one in Spain looks authentic, with character. The one in California looks fake. Why? Because the California developer hired a designer but wanted to save money by ordering all the doors and windows from the same mass-production factory. They faked the appearance. Also, note the impact of the pedestrian plaza versus the motor-vehicle street. It changes the core character of the sense of place.