Quote:
Originally Posted by badrunner
Modern Paris was designed as a master planned utopia. Efficiently designed American cities have achieved productivity and wealth never before seen in history. It shows what's possible, when the work isn't being done by rank amateurs  |
The Hausmann Plan of Paris wasn't really as comprehensive as it's sometimes given credit for. It carved several grand boulevards through the existing built form, but everything inbetween is still based on the organic medieval grid.
This isn't to say that planning is bad, of course. Any place needs some level of cohesive plans and regulation - it's just the rigid, top-down masterplanned approach that's been the dominant way of thinking about urban planning & architecture for the past 70 years or so often doesn't provide enough room to allow for the organic complexities of life and for adaptive re-use. They're dictated by a small handful of people designing communities based on they
think people should use them, and not how they actually will.
This sort of thing looks nice, but there's not a whole lot you can do with it if the needs of its inhabitants were to change:
https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2019/10...ies-plant-site