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Snide Guide on Urban Design
Awesome. You're ready to make cities that are boon to the planet instead of a curse. Cities that are made for humans and not just the marketplace. Thank you.
There are two enemies for city design:
- Myopia: You needed a new stadium, eh? Great, but now the streets are clogged, businesses are gentrifying, and no one likes you but the hobnobbing "elite". Hidden blow: your city looks like a jigsaw puzzle from 5 different sets that were cut from the same jig design. OOPs: you laid down new streets, but now there's no room for bike and other transit because you didn't see from high enough perch.
- Cost Overruns: You tried to be a visioneer, but now you can't afford it because you didn't make the have the value generation in other sectors to pay for it. OOPS: the city administration building lays half-done because you don't have the money to finish it.
- Architecture: large buildings vs. interconnected smaller structures
- Human similarities: Human differences: diversity vs. Peoples willingness to work for your city
- Natural Resources: Terrain
- Interconnectedness to other cities
Invest for the future. Your city is probably going to last for centuries. Build for it now, because the main input costs are probably constant. On the other hand, consider your nearby options and whether you need to build at all.
Good architecture mates with the terrain, not the other way around.
See also:
Awesome. You're ready to make cities that are boon to the planet instead of a curse. Cities that are made for humans and not just the marketplace. Thank you.
There are two enemies for city design:
- Nearsightedness: You needed a new stadium, eh? Great, but now the streets are clogged, businesses are gentrifying, and no one likes you but the hobnobbing "elite". Hidden blow: your city looks like a jigsaw puzzle from 5 different sets that were cut from the same jig design. OOPs: you laid down new streets, but now there's no room for bike and other transit because you didn't see from high enough perch.
- Farsightedness: You tried to be a visionary, but now your petard is sitting high on the hilltop and no one understands it. It lacks the complex interconnectedness of an integrated, healthy society to participate in value generation and expression with other sectors to stay functional. OOPS: that big cathedral ceiling at the library is bleeding out the administrative budget because you didn't think about other costs (like HVAC) when you had your vision.
- Architecture: large buildings vs. interconnected smaller structures
- Societal Mores: Traffic Flows vs. traffic stops
- Government: Human differences vs. human similarities
- Natural Resources: Terrain vs. Civil Engineering.
Invest for the future. Your city is probably going to last for centuries. Build for it now, because the main input costs are probably constant. On the other hand, consider your nearby options and whether you need to build at all.
Good architecture mates with the terrain, not the other way around. But good engineering can trump inconvenient terrain.
See also:
Category: Justice League