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Superblocks are great, but they are bit boring. Take, for example, Barcelona - it looks the same everywhere. I think, the city should not be homogeneous. Thus,
by xvilka 5y ago
Superblocks are great, but they are bit boring. Take, for example, Barcelona - it looks the same everywhere. I think, the city should not be homogeneous. Thus, the idea is to make them heterogeneous.
- fennecs 5y agoAnd vast miles of suburban sprawl coupled with endless roads is not boring?
- ertian 5y agoIt is. North American zoning certainly isn't ideal, IMHO. But a mix of superblocks, both dense and sparse mixed-zone housing, single family homes, and high rises would appeal to me. Just let people pick where they want to live. I also find these superblocks a bit oppressive, TBH. If they were one option among many I might find them appealing, but as the _only_ option they seem a bit...dystopian. Very much like the endless suburbs you find in American cities. Do we really need an absolute all-encompassing housing ideology?
- dathos 5y agoPeople over cars is opressive? I don’t understand this mentality
- ertian 5y agoI don't like American-style suburbs, I'm not defending cars over people. I think the lack of public transportation in the US is a tragedy. But "You must live in one of 100 identical walk-up 4-storey courtyard-facing brown brick blocks, with a limited selection of approved local community businesses, and commute or drive for anything else" seems oppressive, yeah. Some people want to live in shiny glass high rises, or pay a premium to have a private yard, or live on a busy street full of bars and clubs. We don't need to define the One True Housing for Everyone and then implement it city-wide, we could just put a few of these superblocks within cities. But Barcelona looks just as oppressive to me as endless American suburbs, though admittedly it may be more pleasant to live there.
- CPLX 5y agoHave you ever been to Barcelona or are you making assumptions from looking at an overhead view of the street grid? It’s one of the most pleasant and human scale cities to walk around in that exists.
- ajeet_dhaliwal 5y agoThere are people in those cars. I lived in the center of city for 9 years without a car and being walkable is great but you tend to end up limiting your life to a small area. Cars can enrich lives, open up opportunity and for families with small kids, make getting around more convenient. No need to be anti car to the point where cars are not an option anymore, optionality is key.
- thesuitonym 5y agoWhy does it have to be all or nothing? Why do you think putting up superblocks necessitates tearing down every single other block? Why do you think this gets rid of suburbs and low density housing outside of the city's core?
- Kon-Peki 5y ago> North American zoning certainly isn't ideal, IMHO. But a mix of superblocks, both dense and sparse mixed-zone housing, single family homes, and high rises would appeal to me. Take a look at Chicago from your mapping tool of choice. Slowly zoom out until the street names fall away and the minor roads start to disappear. The dominant feature is their 4x4 grid of major roads and it extends even to the close-in suburbs - especially in the north and south. Perhaps you can call this the North American version of the superblock. Density is concentrated along these major roads (and the central business district, of course). The inner roads have that mix of single family homes, townhouses, high-rises, etc. depending on the neighborhood you are in.
- Gigachad 5y agoPart of what I love about modern western cities is how much verity there is in buildings. When I look out my window I see buildings of all different eras and design styles. Some of them are “ugly” in a way but they still contribute to the aesthetic positively. One old 90s concrete office tower is fine, 30 identical ones would be ugly.
- TaylorAlexander 5y agoThe thing that bothers me the most is housing prices that leave so many people out on the street. I think every person deserves housing. So more affordable housing, even if it looks “boring”, is exciting to me.
- lotsoweiners 5y agoThanks for adding so much pertinent information to this discussion. Definitely appreciated.
- Gigachad 5y agoAffordable housing doesn’t have to mean 5 copy pasted towers lined up in a row. If hiring an architect for a unique design costs too much, then scatter the buildings so it’s 5 towers over 5 postcodes.
- dagw 5y agoIt's not the architect or design that costs. Building 5 identical houses next to each other is simply much cheaper and faster due to the economy of scales of prefabricating and delivering identical elements and being able to use the same machinery and crew to put them all up att once. Spreading the out over 5 postcodes means you need more people, more construction equipment, more infrastructure work etc. etc.
- sokoloff 5y agoMaintenance over time is also easier and cheaper if the buildings are standardized.
- visarga 5y agoThe Manhattan layout is good for multi-routing between any two points - no preferred roads, all sharing the load together.
- hgomersall 5y agoGood for cars maybe. Crap for people.
- Schiphol 5y agoBarcelona has a few pilot superblocks, five or six, but not nearly enough to make it 'boring'. You are perhaps thinking of the square grid, in place since the 19th century.
- mejutoco 5y agoThe grid in Barcelona started in Eixample neoghbourhoods. Check Gracia, Barceloneta, Horta, Gòtic for very different arrangements. I agree Barcelona needs more green though, too much asphalt.
- otikik 5y agoBarcelona is a good example of how to not make things homogeneous; the map layout can be similar, but each superblock has its own personality. Not only they are architecturally varied, there's difference in the kinds of businesses hosted in the ground floor. This superblock has a bakery, the next one holds the fire station, the next one is residential but with red brick, the next one has a bank, and so on. It is very different from walking in other "purely residential" blocks that are just closed to the world, looking inwards.
- stevoski 5y agoThis doesn't sound like Barcelona's superblock concept at all. It sounds like you are talking about mere blocks. The superblock concept only exists in a few places so far in Barcelona. It takes (usually) a 3 by 3 grid of blocks and closes the inner streets to though traffic, instead putting playgrounds, benches, bike lanes, and plants there.
- pauldavis 5y agoActually the density is so great that lots of blocks have a bakery, and most have a convenience store, and usually several kinds of other shops, like clothing or stationery. I was amazed that there were two model train shops within 10 minutes walk of our place in Barcelona. In a dense city, specialist businesses can thrive.