Reconstituting Traditional Urban Values: The Role of the Boundary in the Contemporary City

The word “boundary,” as found in standard English-language dictionaries, means “that which bounds, divides, or separates,” or “something that indicates a border or limit.” In its generally accepted meaning, the concept of boundary is used to describe the physical landscape at various levels of granularity. In some cases, it may be used to describe the shape and size of individual plots; in others, it may be used to describe the configuration of much bigger units, such as urban blocks, census tracts, districts, etc.; and in others, it may be used to describe the configuration of cities, regions and countries. Such uses imply that the concept of boundary is an important elementary device in the conceptualization of the physical landscape, that it helps people map the landscape they inhabit (.). In none of the standard uses of the concept of boundary, however, is there a recognition that the manmade physical landscape is more than an agglomeration of land plots. Nor does a clear sense emerge that the concept of boundary-making involves more than the T D S R V O L U M E I X N U M B E R I I 1 9 9 8 37