What is Love?
Before I try and figure out where love is, I should probably try and figure out what love is. Love is an ambiguous word, at once too simple and complex to convey what I mean. One word doesn't suffice, so, in my quest to define it, I shall turn to the Greeks, who have not just one word for love but several. Some of these are eros, where we get the word 'erotic,' philia, the kind of love found in a good friendship, and philautia, which is self-love, probably best understood as self-esteem. However, the type of love I'm talking about is what the Greeks call agápe.
Agápe love is an empathetic love, not limited to one or more individuals but extending to everything and everyone, for a neighbor, stranger, and nature alike. It is a selfless and, at times, sacrificial love that is willing to privilege the needs of others without a personal agenda. This kind of love is said to be (and I believe to be) the bedrock of great societies.
As we design and build the world around us, surely, we take a part in building societies and communities too. So, to return to my original question, where is this agápe love, and can it be found in our built environment? In realized or speculative built projects? In architecture, landscape architecture, or urban design studios? In our design schools? And if it is in these places, what does it look like, how can we recognize it, and most importantly, how can we practice it? This column will seek to answer some of these questions, taking an inventory of agápe love across each of these places; it will offer a critical reflection on who is being shown love through the built world and who isn't.
This column is also a call for change. We know that historically in the US and worldwide, buildings, streets, and landscapes reflect the needs of those who designed and built them. Creating a world for those like us might be called philautia, a type of love that has created a self-seeking and unjust world. To achieve justice (and by that, I mean a world that puts those in need above those in want), we need to choose a different kind of love—one that sets aside selfish ambitions and instead seeks to advance the needs of others. I propose that what we need is agápe.
