
The Generic City - mkrfox
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2015/11/psychology_of_boring_architecture_the_damaging_impact_of_big_ugly_buildings.single.html
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ansible
There's a great and funny talk by James Kunstler about how are are doing city
planning badly.

[https://www.ted.com/talks/james_howard_kunstler_dissects_sub...](https://www.ted.com/talks/james_howard_kunstler_dissects_suburbia?language=en)

He talks about similar issues with some other big buildings in the urban
landscape.

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apecat
Over 9000 internet points for posting Kunstler.

His TED talk is literally how I in my early twenties realized that I hated
life in my native, post-WWII Helsinki modernist, mid-rise suburbs.

Without being able to put my finger on it, I'd always despised the whole
ideology of your home being a generic place to put your crap and sleep in,
separated from the rest of society on the condescending premise that being
surrounded by generic "nature" is good for you. I never wanted a car, and I
loathe hanging out in spaces where every adult supposed to drive one.

I totally get why the Le Corbusier crowd saw 19th and 20th century inner
cities as cramped, dark and unhealthy. Poor sanitation and fumes from lead
mixed gasoline alone are good reasons to escape the urban core.

But technology has improved to the point where suburban sprawl is nothing but
a tragedy in how it formed whole societies and middle classes around
compulsory car ownership. I love how Kunstler angrily summarises thinkers like
Jane Jacobs: The quality of culture and civic life is limited by the quality
of the built spaces around us.

I've moved downtown to the Kallio district in Helsinki. I'm certainly building
my adult life around the assumption that a significant chunk of my income will
go to paying high rents. I'm not the only one who has realized that life is
better in the small number of dense neighborhoods of pre-war Helsinki that
were built like a real European city with services and life in mind.

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guard-of-terra
That's why I can't watch most youtube videos. I get bored before they cut to
the chase.

