Is Beauty Important in Designing Financially Productive Cities?

[@browndog6004]

Many people like to live in nice looking places, even if it means a little inconvenience. As a student choosing my uni halls for first year I picked the pretty, older buildings over the 1970s concrete block, even though the latter was closer to the student bar and to my lectures. I was happy to trade off a shorter way to lectures for more green space and historic architecture, which I knew would make me happier. Sure, there would have come a point at which those wouldn't have been worth the commute for me, but I think it illustrates the point that aesthetic very much features in decision-making.

[@IanZainea1990]

People want to be around beautiful things and in beautiful spaces. If it's beautiful and comfortable and inviting, I wanna hang around for a minute. If it's stark and uninviting, I'm only gonna stay the bare minimum

[@peterslegers6121]

Architecture is not about the walls, Urban Design is not about the buildings, but it´s all about the space in between. Those walls/buildings are a means to shape it. Too many designers don´t know how a person feels in their designed spaces. They´ve never read books like `Environmental Psychology´ (Bell, Fisher, Baum, Greene) (might be an oldy). They don't know about the sun's effect on their spaces, the wind, and how it feels when you're walking or biking around. And you don't learn to grasp how public spaces could be soothing and refreshing, if you live in a concrete jungle and don't get to experience good quality surroundings yourself.

[@disposabull]

The best support for beauty making financial sense is Poundbury in the UK. Prince Charles hates modern architecture so he built a traditional village instead of a normal looking housing development. 20 years later the selling price for homes in Poundbury are about 30% higher per square metre compared to other new developments in the area. This is despite Poundbury having a much higher rate of social housing than other developments. So if you like the free market, people will pay 30% to live next door to poor people provided the area is beautiful.

[@behindyou666]

One prbolem with the architecture and ubranist debate is the over-focus on older architectual styles. You can in fact build modern and still aesthetic.

[@dakunssd]

I'm in landscaping and therefore biased, but public spaces in cities all across the world suffer from poor exterior design, poor atmosphere, and nonexistent or improper greening. There's nothing more inviting to me than a properly built and spaced public place with public amenities (toilets, water fountains, shade, park benches and sitting/lying areas, playgrounds etc.) and nothing more ugly than a concrete and pavement wasteland with zero considerations towards pedestrians and the public, serving only as access to retail space, and all amenities removed or even made purposefully hostile. We have to treat public (exterior) spaces with much higher priority. turning everything into a shopping mall or parking lot and treating greening like an extraneous feature rather than a necessity is why cities like Toronto or Munich are so damn ugly outside the most touristy areas.

[@dakunssd]

@@b_uppy Dude, you're just spouting off lingo, I don't see what this has to do with my comment.

[@b_uppy]

@@dakunssd My above comment was supposed to be posted under another person's commentunder the video. That said, the removed comment wasn't 'lingo.' You can break your pinkies and look it up.

[@GeneralNatGreene]

I was hoping this video was just a title card that said yes.

[@caphalor08]

How do you get a city's income to go up? By getting people to want to live there. That means job opportunities, amenities but also not killing their will to live with nothing but slabs of concrete to look at when not at work.

[@b_uppy]

Is it that you want to make the cities themselves richer per se, or would a better quality of life for the money expended (value) be just as good a way to increase a city's attractiveness?? Imagine if you added bioswales and curb-cuts to help water them to add to the positive impacts that lower costs, impacts of both public and private spaces while increasing livability by reducing electric-, water-, and storm/sewer drain-grid dependency. Decentralization within cities has a positive impact on its residents.

[@sarsgarrs]

Hey as an engineer, I resemble that!

[@b_uppy]

Engineering and city planning are very myopic. They do their calculations with concrete, $$$, and old paradigms instead of figuring out low-tech decentralized solutions that do more good than harm.

[@Thukad]

If you're going to mention a book in the video, a link to it would be nice.

[@strongtowns]

Thank you for your feedback, we will add it to the description. Here is the Amazon link to Cognitive Architecture: www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Architecture-Designing-Respond-Environment/dp/036746859X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3T5F42XOUN7NI&keywords=cognitive+architecture&qid=1660927799&s=books&sprefix=cognitive+architecture%2Cstripbooks%2C75&sr=1-1 and the Barnes and Noble link: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cognitive-architecture-ann-sussman/1119576652

[@michaeljfoley1]

You could also just look the book up, he mentioned the title and author. A link is nice, but tactful comments are also nice.

[@Thukad]

@@michaeljfoley1 I was planning on it

[@Thukad]

@@strongtowns Thanks!

[@mgjmiller1995]

The question every urbanist/planner wants to hear 😂: 1:27 "Were you on the bus yesterday?

[@DarrienGlasser]

DOWN WITH TIM HORTONS

[@dakunssd]

Canadians (and the world) deserve better. Better jobs, better service, better coffee, and better friggin donuts.

[@cwa8199]

Look no further than Columbus,IN

[@booniedogchamorru2205]

I’m guessing the designers of prisons and public schools miscalculated the beauty part of the equation.

[@fyzxnerd]

I'm apt to think someone changed their goals more than miscalculated.

[@b_uppy]

Beauty can be helpful.

[@dakunssd]

In the same way the Nazis "miscalculated" their architecture. Oppression via architecture is almost as old as architecture itself, but it's been taking a more sinister tone since the modern period. (insert Foucault reference "everything is a prison" here).

[@b_uppy]

@@dakunssd 'Nazi' architecture reflected an entire ethos of Germanic people.

[@dakunssd]

@@b_uppy Not really. It reflected the constructed ethos of a clique of ultranationalists and egomaniacs, who believed in naturally/divinely ordained hierarchies and the superiority of themselves over all others, and their taste in art and architecture reflects that. Bauhaus architecture and Hundertwasser with all their quirks come out of the same cultural background, but with completely different ethos and design philosophy. Totalitarianism is an ethos onto itself, not a feature of "Germanic people".

[@yay-cat]

I love this! But I think its a capitalism vs bureaucrat thing. Like governments trying to sell cola or makeup or train tickets aren’t going to splurge on market research but the new development down the road that wants me to buy an appartement has outdoor art installations and water fountains and green spaces. But yeah if one can squirrel some tax money it’d be great to set up a task team to commission a report of aesthetic design principles based on market research (that didn’t sound sarcastic in my head 🤷‍♀️)

[@strongtowns]

The point is that it isn't actually splurging but a good use of time and resources. In fact, without spending the energy on good design, a municipality is going to squander their resources on sub-optimal outcomes.

[@Stan_sprinkle]

@@strongtowns this ugly cookie cutter tin storage facility they erected in a couple months across the street from my Austin subdivision… as soon as the external walls went up, someone spray painted “ugly” and “gross” on them. It’s such lazy development. Reminds me of these Kunstler Ted talk, “if you keep building places not worth caring about, soon you have a nation not worth defending”. He’s a bit dramatic, but has a point.

[@b_uppy]

Many engineers think in terms of concrete and steel-reinforced solutions because they're ham-fisted as well as short-sighted. Lots of bad examples of cut-and-paste solutions that are later undone: Cabrini Green, huge multilane freeways, LA's cemented river beds, and storm water management that contributes to more flooding, heat buildup and drought impacts. These are great examples of the failed conceptualization of the needs of communities as well as individuals. They also represent the healthy-male-centric view that overlooks the needs of the elderly, poor, disabled, women, as well as children...