‘Architecture is more than a mere record or reflection of who we are. Instead, the fundamental purpose of architecture is as a means for creating our cultures and ourselves’. Determining who we want to be, or what it would now mean to be fully human, could be properly understood as a design problem. And if the planet cannot support all of us living in accord with this vision of who we want to be, then the redefinition is still too superficial. A deeply satisfying life in which we can become fully ourselves, living in accord with our deepest values that are so difficult to honour in contemporary cities and suburbs, could be achieved without overtaxing the earth’s resources in the way our current vision of the good life does.