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Right, and a lot of bad urban design, is "good" architecture. --- It reminds me of what urbanist Jan Gehl calls 'birdshit architecture', which is stuff that l
by bobthepanda 3y ago
Right, and a lot of bad urban design, is "good" architecture.
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It reminds me of what urbanist Jan Gehl calls 'birdshit architecture', which is stuff that looks good from a bird's eye view or a rendering but is totally impractical in practice. Prime examples include gigantic plazas or lawns without any sort of trees or seating, so you can't really stay in them because they're too windy and the sun is overbearing, they're totally empty (and probably unsafe) as a result, and they just extend your walking distances.
Bonus points if the paths are totally fenced in because they're not where people actually want to walk and they end up trampling the lawn full of desire paths.
- nayuki 3y agoI forget what it's called, but something like "airplane view" architecture is also bad urban design. It's when centralized planners have lofty goals and design huge neighborhoods and plazas that look good from the air. There are towers, gigantic lawns, and a projection of power rather than chaos. There are various Latin American cities guilty of this. I'm struggling to recall the words and examples, so please help me out!
- bobthepanda 3y agoI believe we are talking about the exact same thing; “bird shit” is a play on words of “bird’s eye view”, meant to convey the planner’s/architect’s lack of thought or contempt of the actual people on the ground.
- zachkatz 3y agoLe Corbusier