URBANIZED | DOCUMENTARY

A journey to the city is based on chance encounters.  You know you have a destination and that you will encounter certain things on your way to that destination, but it is the expectation of the unexpected that attracts you to the city. The city itself though is planned, everything from the widths of the foot paths to the size of the blocks, nothing is unplanned. Everything is designed.

I watched this documentary and recommend it to all! Cities are big electrical circuits - many flows of various things - people, money, goods all unite and work with and against each other.

Urban design is multi disciplinary, architects developers, agencies, the general public and landmarks/historical groups also work with and against each other to create what they may (or may not) think is the best solution to problems.

I think it may have been Rem Koolhaas who said in this doco, that a good city is like a good party.  Look at how many people are not walking to see who is staying and enjoying.  The integration of something as simple as moveable chairs creates 'ownership' for people within this macrosized environment.

One of the points that stood out to me was from one of the NY planners. She looked at Robert Moses who was a planner in about the 50-70's who tore things down. He was a birds eye planner.  Jane Jacobs was a journalist and resident/journalist of NY.  She had her eyes on the street and wanted to help keep and also establish safer more comfortable spaces.  Walkable and compact/connected spaces/suburbs create this safety net and that is something I am taking on board into this assignment.

The car.

I hate cars.  They make people angry (case of road rage?), they pollute, they are anti-social tools that have many a number of disadvantages that outweigh the few advantages.  In saying that, I am a car owner.  If I lived in a city/town that had better connections ie public transport, safer walking paths, I don't think I would own a car.  KEY WORD : THINK.  I pretty much get around by walking everywhere during the day and sometimes at night too.  But there are times when I need the car to get me from A to B.  I know that the general concensus on cars from the general public is different though.  For that reason, political parties will never move toward the ideal of a public transport oriented city.  "We need votes" they say.
Brett (my tutor) feels very strongly about design for people, not for yourself.  He is actually quite passionate about it and I too agree.  Therefore, the car still needs to be accomodated for in the future. If I had my way, we would all be to-ing and fro-ing in trains and trams and buses and city cats (my favourite), and maybe...in time, the general populous will be of the same attitude.

This means that cars do need to be accomodated for in my future scenario but I do feel like better integration of public transport should be a key feature of future Paddington. Not only for connection to place, but also to create a destination.  For it to be a destination, it also needs to have supporting buildings to create vivacity, activity, place....e t c