Is the city concept wrong with human nature? Vertical vs. horizontal scaling
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Is the city concept wrong with human nature? Vertical vs. horizontal scaling
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Re: Is the city concept wrong with human nature? Vertical vs. horizontal scaling
#2We have chewed up and paved over far too much of the earth already. More sprawl is the very last thing we need to build.
Re: Is the city concept wrong with human nature? Vertical vs. horizontal scaling
#3And the solution to solving world hunger is to grow more food.
Re: Is the city concept wrong with human nature? Vertical vs. horizontal scaling
#4[deleted]
Re: Is the city concept wrong with human nature? Vertical vs. horizontal scaling
#5And the solution to solving world hunger is to grow more food.
Huh, isn't logistics are the harder problem than production though?
Re: Is the city concept wrong with human nature? Vertical vs. horizontal scaling
#6"Vertical" cities are cheaper, healthier, and more sustainable to live in than spread-out suburbs.
What makes cities miserable is _cars_, which in most cities are driven primarily by people who don't live there -- since in well designed cities, the people who live there can complete many (though not necessarily all) trips on foot, bicycle, or by public transit.
In the spread out neighborhoods the article is envisioning, anything but personal car transport becomes impossible for essentially every trip. This is bad for your health, the "nature" the author is focused on, and your wallet.
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Cities don't need to be built hundreds of stories high; two or three story apartment buildings are enough. They don't need to be built with a lack of green and nature; tree lined avenues are pleasant and don't take up much space.
Re: Is the city concept wrong with human nature? Vertical vs. horizontal scaling
#7"I hope the next generation of architects, and city planners will use horizontal scaling and will build beautiful, nature-oriented housing."
Suburbia!
This was said, much better, by Frank Lloyd Wright, in his materials about Broadacre City.
Re: Is the city concept wrong with human nature? Vertical vs. horizontal scaling
#8[deleted]
Re: Is the city concept wrong with human nature? Vertical vs. horizontal scaling
#9As I recall, Paul Krugman’s 2008 Nobel Prize lecture would be a good place to start to understand why, economically at least, cities are they way they are, have the size distribution they have, and so on. For a philosophical delve into how cities and other large scale products of society emerge, you could try DeLanda.
Re: Is the city concept wrong with human nature? Vertical vs. horizontal scaling
#10Living in apartments is disrespectful to humanity? Yikes. Living on the street or in slums is disrespectful to humanity. Author has some messed up priorities.
What we should, of course, be aiming for is the Goldilocks zone of density. Not too tall, not too wide, but just right.
There are diminishing returns with very tall buildings, everything becomes harder and more expensive (lifts, piping water against gravity, etc). Very tall buildings also have negative effects on the surrounding area (stealing daylight, inducing strong wind). But sprawl has its own set of negatives.
It's not all that hard to aim for something in between, something that aims for maximizing the benefits while minimizing the downsides.
Sadly many apartment buildings (of any height) seem to be designed by stingy idiots. Oppressively low ceilings, paper thin walls, no thought given to soundproofing. There is certainly room for improvement...