Town Planning, the Sim City way

[andrewducker]

I used to make cities like this - maximum efficiency, complete lack of any humanity to them. It doesn't strike me as a good idea in reality.

Comments

[meihua.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's grim. And beautiful, but grim. Is it real?

[andrewducker]

Looks real to me. But then I never noticed that lots of Ugly Betty is green screened.

[meihua.livejournal.com]

Do you know where it's meant to be?

[andrewducker]

I got it here:
http://e-apraksina.livejournal.com/5554006.html
They got it from:
http://ostrich-s.livejournal.com/1548556.html

where the picture is even larger.

Playing around with Google Translate, it seems that it's Barcelona.

This is another image of Barcelona from the air:

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

Is that Barcelona? That looks like the Gaudi cathedral. I've walked around that part of the city and it's lovely - it feels about as density populated as the tenement parts of Edinburgh. Which is the sort of city I like to live in.

[andrewducker]

It is, indeed, Barcelona. And other pictures of the area make it clearer that despite the regularity it's not as cramped as it first looks.

[chillies.livejournal.com]

I was surprised that the Edinburgh Community Backgreens Association doesn't use Barcelona as a model for their developments. Instead they use Copenhagen: http://ecba.org.uk/copenhagen-backyards.aspx I guess Copenhagen's more Northerly climate means their models are more applicable to Edinburgh

[zz]

I was thinking it reminded me of Copenhagen. E.g.
http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk/000-000-002-002-C
http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk/000-000-002-003-C
http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk/000-000-002-004-C

The aerial photography people at work managed to combine 2 very close aerial photos of it into a 3d image, where all the buildings and trees looked amazingly touchable.

[e-halmac.livejournal.com]

I miss Sim City...

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

It's the L'Eixample district of Barcelona, which is actually one of the most livable mixed use city districts I've ever been it. It's perfect for the climate, with buildings that need minimal airconditioning, and with cool green squares in the centre of each block.

It's surprisingly human.

(It's also one of Paolo Soleri's inspirations for Arcosanti)

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

I quite like the idea of blocks around a central space. I suppose there could be more wide-open spaces ... it needs a big park every now and again, but otherwise I like the look of it. City girl.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure why you think it lack humanity. In fact, I've always wanted to live there (Barcelona, not Sim City).

[andrewducker]

Square, square, square, square, square (repeat until screen is full).

I've now been reassured by a few people that it's actually lovely, but from a distance it looks like my vision of hell.

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

This is hell. Or was. It's now a park. I'm going to check it out tomorrow to see what's been preserved of it.

[andrewducker]

Damn, that looks impressive!

[heyokish.livejournal.com]

I was absolutely fascinated by the KWC when I lived in Hong Kong in the early eighties, though never brave enough to explore very far in because I couldn't persuade anyone to come with me. But even the edges of it were astonishing, and the transition between the city and the not-city was unmistakable.

[zz]

cool. it's a small real world version of how Coruscant was described in Star Wars books before Lucas turned his attention to it. imagine most of a planet covered in that, but a kilometer high. :>

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

I think that's the thing: "from a distance". Life is lived on the street, not in the air.

[cdave]

Town planners like twistsy roads with branching off cul-de-sacs for residential areas. They slow down the traffic, and in the case of cul-de-sacs reduce it to a minimum. This makes them popular for families with young kids.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

I thought town planners hated cul-de-sacs these days precisely because they are inactive. Not really relevent to cities though, except as it relates to housing estates which are similarly inactive.

[zz]

i read something ages ago that blocking through roads through estates reduced certain types of crime, and gave people more of a sense of being in a community rather than just living next to a main road.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

I've read just the opposite!

[chillies.livejournal.com]

That's because town planners only consider car drivers. A development of cul de sacs are a nightmare for public transport users, cyclings, pedestrians ... all of whom are "traffic", and none of whom drive too fast.

[dougs.livejournal.com]

It's definitely Barcelona, I recongnise the cathedral, and the diagonal in the middle distance. The photographer is vertically above the big hospital in the north-east, looking sort-of-south.

[johncoxon.livejournal.com]

It's so beautiful, I'd love to visit.