Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 159 posts

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#21

Post by jeffbee »

lordnacho wrote: post #17
jeffbee wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are some examples of these regretted 1950s brutalist city centers?

Birmingham comes to mind. Lots of concrete, big ring roads cutting through everything. It's unfortunate because there's still a few historic buildings from before that era suggesting what might have been.

No love for the roads, but many of those brutalist buildings in Birmingham are considered masterpieces of architecture. That's why they are listed. And I can't think of one from before 1960, either.

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#22

Post by twelvechairs »

lbriner wrote: post #3

I think it looks really nice but alluded to in the article is the spectre of people who thought they were doing something equally innovative in the 1950s and we now have large brutalist city centres that are much lamented. There are plenty of buildings that look amazing when they are first built (or even worse when they are simply drawn) but give it 5 years, some water staining, a few unruly residents etc.... I don't…

Its not made clear in the article but Almere is exactly one of these Brutalist cities. Its only since the late 90s or early 2000s they built the new 'city centre' which is an architects wonderland to start overcoming its monotony. There's still huge expanses of fairly simple, cheap, robust and boring 70s housing. This is close to the train station [0] and a typical suburban street [1]. Regardless of the buildings the Netherlands is the world leader in street design which makes this slightly less bleak than others of a similar era.

[0] https://maps.app.goo.gl/eKF4jGYzEjSPVb3g7

[1] https://maps.app.goo.gl/mFdK333GFYKdQwD97

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#23

Post by jacquesm »

jeffbee wrote: post #5
lbriner wrote: post #3

I think it looks really nice but alluded to in the article is the spectre of people who thought they were doing something equally innovative in the 1950s and we now have large brutalist city centres that are much lamented. There are plenty of buildings that look amazing when they are first built (or even worse when they are simply drawn) but give it 5 years, some water staining, a few unruly residents etc.... I don't…

What are some examples of these regretted 1950s brutalist city centers?

Lots of those in former SovBloc countries.

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#24

Post by lmm »

lordnacho wrote: post #17
jeffbee wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are some examples of these regretted 1950s brutalist city centers?

Birmingham comes to mind. Lots of concrete, big ring roads cutting through everything. It's unfortunate because there's still a few historic buildings from before that era suggesting what might have been.

Neighbouring Coventry is a more complete example, being smaller.

Croydon also has a similar reputation.

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#25

Post by jacquesm »

dncornholio wrote: post #14

Almere broke my child imagination of what a city was. I was very young when Almere got build and I was so confused on how people could build a city in one go. I always thought it would take hundreds of years to develop a city. I always thought cities were the product of generations and generations.. and there I was standing in NL's newest city. It's not something worth to visit. It's still too sterile. Nobody visits…

For the longest time it was called the bedroom of Amsterdam.

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#26

Post by whazor »

jacquesm wrote: post #20
FooBarWidget wrote: post #18

Unfortunately it is now uncertain whether any of this matters 100 years from now. It is expected that sea levels will rise by more than 2 meters, and that dykes will no longer work beyond an extra 2 meter extension, not because they can't be extended but because Dutch soil is too soft and seawater will just go under the dyke. Almere will probably be amongst the first to go. It seems nobody has proposed a solution, bu…

This isn't as big a problem as some make it out to be. The dikes have always been a porous solution, not perfect, 'kwel' (water that seeps under the dike) has been there as long as there are dikes. But concentric circles of staged dikes are one way in which you could deal with this. It will require massive geo engineering but nothing on a scale that the Dutch have not done before. There are some voices that NL will h…

Countries with mountains are much more vulnerable against climate change and the extreme weather. Last extreme rain took away, via the rivers, many houses in Germany. Whereas The Netherlands is relatively safe as we are more downstream and also more prepared against river floods.

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#27

Post by eecc »

jeffbee wrote: post #5
lbriner wrote: post #3

I think it looks really nice but alluded to in the article is the spectre of people who thought they were doing something equally innovative in the 1950s and we now have large brutalist city centres that are much lamented. There are plenty of buildings that look amazing when they are first built (or even worse when they are simply drawn) but give it 5 years, some water staining, a few unruly residents etc.... I don't…

What are some examples of these regretted 1950s brutalist city centers?

Well, Bijlmer itself has become a mess at some point

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#29

Post by jacquesm »

eecc wrote: post #27
jeffbee wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are some examples of these regretted 1950s brutalist city centers?

Well, Bijlmer itself has become a mess at some point

> Well, Bijlmer itself was a mess…

Still is, but massively improved compared to the 80's.

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#30

Post by imilk »

It's interesting - but it's hard for me to see this being the future of urban life when most of the city looks entirely suburban (not very walkable), separated from the main commercial area without bars/restaurants/shops in their own sub-neighborhoods.

I would expect a key part of future urban life would include one of the most important parts of current urban life; walkability and a harmonious melding of commercial, residential, and public spaces.

Post reply on HN