Urban Design and Adaptive Reuse in North Korea, Japan, and Singapore • Hacker News Board

Re: Urban Design and Adaptive Reuse in North Korea, Japan, and Singapore

#11

Post by bluGill » Fri, Jun 13, 2025, 4:43 PM UTC

binaryturtle wrote: post #8

Onavo wrote: post #3

The issue with trying to study US YIMBY through the lens of Asian urban planning is that most of these Asian countries have very different approaches to civil rights and private property than America. Japan has the added complication of routine natural disasters forcing rebuilds of housing. Singapore is a tiny city-state with a strong single party unicameral government (no separate parliaments, no municipal/state/fed…

I'm from the EU, not the US.

You can substitute EU for US and large parts of the point remains. The context of the EU and Asia is also very different. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. We should still look at what others do, but we need to be careful extrapolating as sometimes things are the way they are because of some factor nobody is even aware of.

Re: Urban Design and Adaptive Reuse in North Korea, Japan, and Singapore

#12

Post by duxup » Fri, Jun 13, 2025, 5:36 PM UTC

decimalenough wrote: post #5

Interesting stuff. I did not realize it was even possible to build a 40-story building without using steel. (I mean, I presume they use some , just a lot less if the walls are load-bearing.)

It's not clear to me if it is a good idea or even safe.

This might be one of those "yeah it's possible".

Re: Urban Design and Adaptive Reuse in North Korea, Japan, and Singapore

#13

Post by SECProto » Fri, Jun 13, 2025, 6:47 PM UTC

decimalenough wrote: post #5

Interesting stuff. I did not realize it was even possible to build a 40-story building without using steel. (I mean, I presume they use some , just a lot less if the walls are load-bearing.)

Looking at Wikipedia[1], the ≥40 storey buildings look pretty typical, I assume you're correct that they are using some. Some look like older designs with external shear walls, which reduce the exterior windows. That said, it's certainly possible to build tall buildings without structural steel reinforcing - can look at all the tall old cathedrals, pyramids, etc that surpass 140m height (40 storeys at 3.5m each)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_N...

Re: Urban Design and Adaptive Reuse in North Korea, Japan, and Singapore

#14

Post by robocat » Sun, Jun 15, 2025, 6:13 AM UTC

Onavo wrote: post #3

The issue with trying to study US YIMBY through the lens of Asian urban planning is that most of these Asian countries have very different approaches to civil rights and private property than America. Japan has the added complication of routine natural disasters forcing rebuilds of housing. Singapore is a tiny city-state with a strong single party unicameral government (no separate parliaments, no municipal/state/fed…

> and you don't "own" property there, most land is not freehold, you are merely temporarily leasing it from the state

Nobody really owns land: the government disallows many many activities, maybe charges you a yearly rental, and just has different hurdles to take it from you (eminent domain, market replacement cost). Even freehold is more like a franchise right to sell your freehold. Perpetual is somewhat irrelevant given zoning restrictions.