How to Make an Attractive City

We've grown good at making many things in the modern world - but strangely the art of making attractive cities has been lost. Here are some key principles for how to make attractive cities once again.

FURTHER READING

“Cities are a big deal. We pretty much all have to live in them. We should try hard to get them right. So few cities are nice, very few out of many thousands are really beautiful; embarrassingly the more appealing ones tend to be old, which is weird because we’re mostly much better at making things now...”

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CREDITS

Produced in collaboration with:

Vale Productions

[hildegardvonbingen]

One important point missing though: we Need the green: Parks, Forests, trees, Community gardens

[chrishydahl]

I saw this video around the time it came out, I was 19 and it really struck a chord with me. Now I'm 23, I'm studying architecture. I've probably referenced all the principles multiple times to my peers. Coming back to it now revitalizes my conviction of what's said here. Thank you so much for making this video, I hope I will be able to make it some justice.

[sya]

Guess who watched this attentively like they were gonna build an entire city tomorrow.

[GrootmanSipho]

This is so true, I never knew why I liked European cities so much. Everything you said makes sense

[hamishashcroftplaysminecra]

Things to make a good city;
1. Dense, not sprawling
2. Good walkability
3. Good public transport and not much car infrastructure (roads, highways, parking)
4. Good, fitting architecture that matches local materials
5. Lots of green space, parks and street trees.

[laloarr]

I'm using these tips in my minecraft world

[prabanjanraja]

I just really got interested in architecture all of a sudden

[MR.ALFE]

This is a hate letter to 90% of US cities, and I love it! To me, cities within the USA are dead, boring, and dirty, I see no life or joy even if there's a lot of both. They look like being planned to just sleep, work and repeat.

[ImaCrysis]

As a student in architecture and urban design, I find this content very interesting! It's a very different perspective than what I've been taught at school

[checaa__]

0:48 not too caotic not to ordered
2:52 visible life
4:53 compact
6:52 orientation and mystery
8:10 scale
9:50 make it local

[erikhamburger]

I really want to create my own city now, Any one got 100 Billon dollars to spare?

[M_Julian_TSP]

This video is basically :
"How to make an attractive city?
1. Make it the opposite way the Americans do"

[boratbruno]

Sad that the people who actually choose how a city looks probably won’t watch this

[RodGibsonMusic]

That's why Mediterranean towns (Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Albania, Cyprus, Malta, Sicily, etc) are the best and most visited in the world.

[Kwokyboi]

Based on my recommendations, I think Youtube wants me to build a city

[francisssali]

I don't know why it took YouTube so long to recommend me this... I mean... this is my field and been searching for this exact video

[hippybecca]

A lot of the qualities this says are needed in an attractive city are actually found on college campuses and that is partially why I think most of us enjoy our years in college.
They often have a square in the center to hang out in. College dorms are compacted living areas where you can see what everyone else is doing. You get connection there. Old universities have diversity in buildings because as it developed they had different building styles over the years. Just look at some of the big or popular colleges they have all or most of the qualities of an attractive city. I have been suggesting for a while to people that there is something special about a college campus that needs to be incorporated to the world at large.

[ArrowedDragon]

All the urban planners and builders in Florida should watch this video because they keep adding suburbs in the middle of nowhere, where you have to drive for 30 minutes for entertainment.

[addiegengenbach]

If anyone is interested on where these ideas come from, I believe a lot of it was influenced by The Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, written in the 1970's.

[blumist]

I watched this video 6 years ago in school, and I’d like to add:

Less or no cars. Cars are loud, ugly, the roads and parking take up tons of space. They reduce human communication (causing road rage, people on bikes rarely get that mad at each other), and they’re dangerous.