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It is something very common in France. Most city enforce strict rules when it comes to their "historical" city center to preserve the look. Even changing window
by maeln 8y ago
It is something very common in France. Most city enforce strict rules when it comes to their "historical" city center to preserve the look.
Even changing windows has to be approved by the town hall to preserve the look of the buildings.
Where I live, I am not even allowed to hang something on my balcony.
It make the city center usually very uniform and, arguably, beautiful, but it can be annoying to live in.
- woodpanel 8y ago> It makes the city center usually very uniform and, arguably, beautiful, but it can be annoying to live in. I know what you're talking, and I know its a common design-pattern amongst architects and urban developers, but I think while uniformity can be beautiful, it certaintly isn't always. And more importantly: heterogenity can be beautiful as well. It is the latter sentence that is somewhat avoided in many countries/cities zoning codes and is IMO just wrong. Compare the skylines of Manhattan/HongKong with the ones of Kowloon's monotone apartment building skylines in the outskirts. Or the picturesque Italian towns. I could go on for lengths about it but there is an acknowledged dissent amongst planners to accept the fact, that in contrast to the "Paris-Way" the "London-Way" does also work. Interestingly, that often aligns amongst political views as well (Statism vs. Laissez-faire)