HOW TO MAKE AN ATTRACTIVE CITY?

6 Fundamental Things a City Needs to get right

1. Not too chaotic, not too ordered
*variety and order; freedom in form and color
*too ordered = alien
*too much mess and its off putting
*simple order and its boring
*yes to organized complexity
2. Should have visible life
*life of the city is in display and we are primed to love this
*see things going on (ex. bakery, markets, bookshop)
*old alley ways, see people work, connection
*beauty and practicality
3. Compact
*art to a good square, not too big, not too small, less than 30 meters
*ideal square, containment not claustrophobia
4. Orientation and mystery
*drawn to mystery, alley ways can be homey, balcony are low, see neighbors
5. Scale
* “If you want to see what a society really believes in, look at what the biggest buildings
on the horizon are dedicated to.”
- Joseph Campbell
*the biggest buildings show actual rather than the admitted priorities of the society
*ideal height for any city block is 3 to 5 storeys high, dense and compact (e.g. Berlin,
Amsterdam, London, Paris)
*best ambition and long tern needs
6. Make it local
*buildings don’t need to look the same everywhere
*Cities need to have strong characters connected to the use of distinctive local materials
and forms
2 Main Problems
1. Intellectual Confusion around Beauty
- We think that no one has a right to say what’s beautiful and what’s ugly.
2. Lack of Political Will
- given the right make buildings to the rich
- nice cities are only built when the political takes part in making its regulations, like height
and width
- to keep the greedy guys at check
- rules, regulations, heights of buildings, quality of finish, materials to use, quality of space,
character of the skyline
- 1905, venice was the last time it was nice

7 PRINCIPLES FOR BUILDING BETTER CITIES – PETER CALTHORPE

land consumption: environmentalists are really concerned about this, so are farmers; there's a
whole range of people, and, of course, neighborhood groups that want open space nearby. The
sprawl version of California almost doubles the urban physical footprint. 
Greenhouse gas: tremendous savings, because in California, our biggest carbon emission
comes from cars, and cities that don't depend on cars as much obviously create huge savings. 
Vehicle miles traveled: that's what I was just talking about. Just reducing the average 10,000
miles per household per year, from somewhere in the mid-26,000 per household, has a huge
impact not just on air quality and carbon but also on the household pocketbook. It's very
expensive to drive that much, and as we've seen, the middle class is struggling to hold on. 
Health care: we were talking about how do you fix it once we broke it -- clean the air. Why not just
stop polluting? Why not just use our feet and bikes more? And that's a function of the kinds of
cities that we shape. 
Household costs: 2008 was a mark in time, not of just the financial industry running amok. It was
that we were trying to sell too many of the wrong kind of housing: large lot, single family,
distant, too expensive for the average middle-class family to afford and, quite frankly, not a good
fit to their lifestyle anymore. But in order to move inventory, you can discount the financing and
get it sold. I think that's a lot of what happened. Reducing cost by 10,000 dollars -- remember, in
California the median is 50,000 -- this is a big element. That's just cars and utility costs. So the
affordable housing advocates, who often sit off in their silos separate from the environmentalists,
separate from the politicians, everybody fighting with everyone, now begin to see common
cause, and I think the common cause is what really brings about the change. 
One is to preserve the natural environment, the history and the critical agriculture. 
Second is mix. Mixed use is popular, but when I say mixed, I mean mixed incomes, mixed age
groups as well as mixed-land use. 
Walk. There's no great city that you don't enjoy walking in. You don't go there. The places you go
on vacation are places you can walk. Why not make it everywhere? 
Bike is the most efficient means of transportation we know. China has now adopted policies that
put six meters of bike lane on every street. They're serious about getting back to their biking
history. 
Complicated planner-ese here: connect. It's a street network that allows many
routes instead of singular routes and provides many kinds of streets instead of just one. 
Ride. We have to invest more in transit. There's no silver bullet. Autonomous vehicles are
not going to solve this for us. As a matter of fact, they're going to generate more traffic,
more VMT, than the alternative. 
And focus. We have a hierarchy of the city based on transit rather than the old armature of
freeways. It's a big paradigm shift, but those two things have to get reconnected in ways that
really shape the structure of the city.
One is, most people get it. They understand intrinsically what a great city can and should be. The
second is that the kind of analysis we can bring to bear now allows people to connect the
dots, allows people to shape political coalitions that didn't exist in the past. That allows them to
bring into being the kinds of communities we all need
URBANIZED
Opening
Cities are the manifestation of the physical forces that are at play, economic, social,
environmental. The thing that attracts us to the city is the chance, encounter, start here and
end up here. Make a discovery in cities.
Urban design is the language of the city. Architect, developers, state and federal agencies,
public, landmarks and historically minded groups
1. Mumbai to Santiago
Mumbai
Most of Mumbai living in slum conditions, no water, no sanitation. Mumbai is set to
be the biggest city in the world by 2015. There would be an increase in people living
in these slum conditions.
The real estate developers and the slum dwellers are carving out the design of the city.
The poor people are doing it because the plan has no space for them. The construction
industry produced a huge housing room for the top 10% and increasing crisis for
everyone else.
The big downside of informal settlements which need to be urgently resolved is the
question of health and hygiene. How do you bring water sanitation and water supply,
etc. That of which, makes it inhuman and unlivable. The failure of society to make a
human habitat.
You have a situation in rich and in informal settlement gets ignored for a very long
time. And because there’s no space for growth, it gets denser. The issue is that you’ve
got all this growth happening in the next 20-30 years basically a doubling of the urban
population, at the same time you haven’t really dealt with the people that are already
there.
Santiago, Chile
We are in an urgency to generate the conditions that follow of people into cities
happens in a good way.
Lo Barnechea (Social Housing Project, Elemental, 2010)
Participatory design: families help design, choose what they want, upgrade when they
get the time
2. 19th Century to Brasilia
Modern city urban planning, minimalist, separate everything out
I think architecture is invention. In architecture it isn’t enough to have the right
building that works well, it can also be beautiful, it can be different, it can create
surprise, and surprise is the main thing in a work of art. Brasilia was designed by a
very competent Brazilian architect, Lucio Costa. He made it with his heart, with great
desire. I am responsible for some of the architecture. I went to Brasilia to make the
Cathedral. I thought about making it round, so I built the columns up and the
cathedral was ready. 23 churches and im an atheist. But the problem is so beautiful, it
is so rich, it allows many ideas. –Oscar Niemeyer
Modernistic city, eye level not nice, disaster, not connected city. If u design a city that
every trip needs to be taken by car, stuck in traffic jams. Automobile issue in cities
3. Bogota to Copenhagen
Bogota, Colombia
Bigger roads do not solve traffic jams, because what creates traffic is not the number
of cars but the length of trips and the number of trips. More road infrastructure due to
the traffic will worsen. The only way to solve traffic is to restrict car use. And the
most obvious way to restrict car use is to restrict parking. No right to park anyway.
Started to invest in people, in sidewalks, in parks, in great schools, libraries, and
we’ve also created a bus-ways public transport system, Bus Rapid Transit System
(BRT). Subway on wheels than traditional bus, buses go on exclusive lanes, people
pay when they enter the station, station doors open simultaneously with the bus doors,
you can get a 100 people in and a 100 people out in seconds. Many people say that
they travel 2 hours a day because of the traffic jam, but now they can say that do it
faster. A bus with a 100 passengers has 100 times more right to road space than a car
with 1.
Pedestrian and bicycle only road, increase social status of cyclists, one
cyclist/pedestrian is equally important as a car. Prioritize people and bicycles with
road pavement, while cars go on muddy roads.
Copenhagen, Denmark
Pedestrian | Bicycle lanes | parked cars | traffic
Parked cars to protect bicycles.
A good city is like a good party. If people get involved in social activities, they will
forget place and time and just enjoy. Don’t look at how many people are walking in
the city, but look at how many people have stopped walking to stay and enjoy what is
there.
How to make sure that the places are inviting and well-used, this is design to tell
makes all the difference. Different seating, movable chairs, socialize be part of the
city and not.
100m max to see other people, all the squares are small than 100m, urban habitat of
homo sapiens,
 4. The High Line to Jane Jacobs
New York, USA – The High Line
The rise of post industrialized sites in the country and the world has come about only
in the last 30 or 40 years and people don’t know what do to with them. They think it
should be removed or erased. What we found over the past 10 years is that you can
actually take these post-industrial conditions and through creative design should
produce something that people love. It is not eraser or preservation, but
transformation.
5. Phoenix to Detroit
Phoenix - Sprawl
Detroit - People started moving out, backyard garden, free vegetables
6. Beijing to Brighton
Beijing, China
A city I don’t recognize. Livability is ignored. Roads or not streets anymore.
Rem Koolhas,
A bldg. recipe in India in the 21st century won’t work on China in the 21st century
Brighton
Energy usage can help
7. Rio to Cape Town
Rio
How do we take care of everyday life with technology?
Security issue
Cape Town
Crime rate
8. New Orleans to Stuttgart
Upgrade train but ppl don’t want bec trees r gonna be cut done
Save current station bec landmark
Save for the park
Closing
Extras