Compassionate Landscape

From the top of the Clent Hills in England, one can look out over the Black Country to the north and the Forest of Arden to the south. As a boy Humphrey Carver looked at these two landscapes – one synonymous with the harsh ugliness and dehumanization brought by industry, the other with idyllic harmony between man and land. At the start of the depression Carver came to Canada where, in many and varied ways, he has tried to bring the qualities of humanity and compassion to the landscape shaped by the man. His career has involved him in the initiation of, and contact with, almost everything that has happened in the last forty years in the field of housing, planning, design, and urban and community action. This book is a history of the development of an awareness, of institutions, and of policies on the shaping of the man-made environment. It is however more than that. Mr Carver describes his own life and sensibilities, his family and his colleagues, with a trained and compassionate eye and a taut and careful prose. Rarely does one encounter an autobiography of such perceptive and satisfying craftsmanship. Those who know him will not be surprised; those who do not will be delighted to discover a work of such a warm and sympathetic humanity. Humphrey Carver has a message for us all.