Vocabulary Bingo
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Vocabulary Bingo
absolutely, architect, argued, authorities, calling for, conversation, compact, disease, demolish, factor, friendly, glass, historian, ideal, invention, knocked down, layout, persuaded, pointed out, preserve, principle, professionals, proposed, quotation, recognize, recommend, restaurants, square, urban, Vietnam
Host: This is the Urban Planning Podcast.
Host: So, historian Lewis Mumford claimed that the city was the second most important invention ever. I don’t know what the most important one was, but I think he was right that cities are an essential part of modern life. The question is, then, how do we make them better? How do we improve the layout of our existing urban spaces and build beautiful new ones, because we definitely need them? The architect and urban planner, Peter Calthorpe, estimates that, over the next thirty years, we’ll have to find urban space for another three billion people. Three billion! So, what are the principles we should adopt? I asked two professionals for their views: an urban planner who plans the layout of cities, and an architect who designs the buildings. First, my conversation with our urban planner, Hina Yoshida.
Host: So, in terms of building better cities, what would you say is the most important factor, from your point of view, as an urban planner?
H. Yoshida: In a city, layout is key, and I believe that the cities we are building should be compact—not too big, not too tall. It should be easy to walk and bike around them. That’s the first principle.
Host: Can you give me an example of a compact city?
Yoshida: Sure. Barcelona in Spain is an example. Cusco in Peru is an example. Hoi An in Vietnam is an example. They’re all beautiful cities partly because they are compact. You see, the bigger the city, the more highways you need in order to get around. I mean, to move from one place to another. And unfortunately, highways make cities less beautiful.
Host: Is there an ideal size for a city?
Yoshida: It’s difficult to talk about the ideal size because factors like public transportation make a difference. In general, though, my job as an urban planner is to reduce the time it takes to get around a city. Ideally, about half an hour should be the maximum. An Italian scientist, Cesare Marchetti, wrote a famous paper about this. In it, he claimed that people have a travel limit of about one hour every day, so half an hour traveling to work and half an hour back. A lot of urban planners now are calling for all new cities to be “30-minute cities” where anyone living anywhere in the city can travel to work, without a car, in 30 minutes or less.
Host: Are we still building new cities?
Yoshida: Oh yes, definitely. Around the world, there are something like 120 new cities being built.
Host: Completely new?
Yoshida: Completely new.
Host: And does that principle of making things compact apply to public spaces as well?
Yoshida: Absolutely, yes. For example, many urban planners recommend limiting the size of public squares to no more than one hundred feet across. From a hundred feet
away, you can recognize someone’s face. And when you recognize people, a space feels friendlier. If the square is more than a hundred feet, it becomes difficult to recognize someone’s face, so the square feels less friendly. We need to get this kind of thing right because, to paraphrase a famous quotation, first humans make buildings, but later the buildings make us.
Host: Next, I spoke with an architect, Jack Darby, who designs office buildings.
Host: So, what factor is top of your list when it comes to building better cities?
Architect: Overall, I think that the best cities are the ones that keep things rather than demolish them. As much as possible, we need to preserve the historic buildings and the old narrow streets that we find in many cities, because once you’ve demolished them, you can’t change your mind.
Host: Can you give me an example of something that was knocked down and shouldn’t have been?
Darby: Well, I can give you an example of something that was nearly demolished: Paris. One of the most famous architects of the 20th century, Le Corbusier, almost persuaded the authorities in Paris to demolish a large part of the city center and to build glass towers there instead.
Host: Really?
Darby: Yes, really! Le Corbusier proposed replacing one of the most beautiful parts of Paris with eighteen glass towers. And many writers have pointed out that a lot of people thought it was a good idea. At the time, the area he wanted to demolish was terrible. It was full of disease and overcrowding . . .
Host: Disease and overcrowding? Really?
Darby: Yes! And the glass towers would have been a great improvement with a much better layout. But what Le Corbusier forgot was that an area can change. It can improve and get better. You don’t have to knock something down to make it better.
Host: That’s incredible. Are there any other principles that you think are important when it comes to building better cities?
Darby: Yes, one other thing is very important. Mix. Cities need a mix of buildings in each area. The journalist Jane Jacobs wrote a book called The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and in it she argued that great cities have to have a mix of buildings in each area: offices, shops, and houses should share the same space, because this brings people together.
Host: So, a mix of offices, shops . . .
Darby: Yes, offices, shops, housing, restaurants. These should all exist together because that brings people together. That creates busy, friendly cities
Key Vocabulary
Host: This is the Urban Planning Podcast.
Host: So, historian Lewis Mumford claimed that the city was the second most important invention ever. I don’t know what the most important one was, but I think he was right that cities are an essential part of modern life. The question is, then, how do we make them better? How do we improve the layout of our existing urban spaces and build beautiful new ones, because we definitely need them? The architect and urban planner, Peter Calthorpe, estimates that, over the next thirty years, we’ll have to find urban space for another three billion people. Three billion! So, what are the principles we should adopt? I asked two professionals for their views: an urban planner who plans the layout of cities, and an architect who designs the buildings. First, my conversation with our urban planner, Hina Yoshida.
Host: So, in terms of building better cities, what would you say is the most important factor, from your point of view, as an urban planner?
H. Yoshida: In a city, layout is key, and I believe that the cities we are building should be compact—not too big, not too tall. It should be easy to walk and bike around them. That’s the first principle.
Host: Can you give me an example of a compact city?
Yoshida: Sure. Barcelona in Spain is an example. Cusco in Peru is an example. Hoi An in Vietnam is an example. They’re all beautiful cities partly because they are compact. You see, the bigger the city, the more highways you need in order to get around. I mean, to move from one place to another. And unfortunately, highways make cities less beautiful.
Host: Is there an ideal size for a city?
Yoshida: It’s difficult to talk about the ideal size because factors like public transportation make a difference. In general, though, my job as an urban planner is to reduce the time it takes to get around a city. Ideally, about half an hour should be the maximum. An Italian scientist, Cesare Marchetti, wrote a famous paper about this. In it, he claimed that people have a travel limit of about one hour every day, so half an hour traveling to work and half an hour back. A lot of urban planners now are calling for all new cities to be “30-minute cities” where anyone living anywhere in the city can travel to work, without a car, in 30 minutes or less.
Host: Are we still building new cities?
Yoshida: Oh yes, definitely. Around the world, there are something like 120 new cities being built.
Host: Completely new?
Yoshida: Completely new.
Host: And does that principle of making things compact apply to public spaces as well?
Yoshida: Absolutely, yes. For example, many urban planners recommend limiting the size of public squares to no more than one hundred feet across. From a hundred feet
away, you can recognize someone’s face. And when you recognize people, a space feels friendlier. If the square is more than a hundred feet, it becomes difficult to recognize someone’s face, so the square feels less friendly. We need to get this kind of thing right because, to paraphrase a famous quotation, first humans make buildings, but later the buildings make us.
Host: Next, I spoke with an architect, Jack Darby, who designs office buildings.
Host: So, what factor is top of your list when it comes to building better cities?
Architect: Overall, I think that the best cities are the ones that keep things rather than demolish them. As much as possible, we need to preserve the historic buildings and the old narrow streets that we find in many cities, because once you’ve demolished them, you can’t change your mind.
Host: Can you give me an example of something that was knocked down and shouldn’t have been?
Darby: Well, I can give you an example of something that was nearly demolished: Paris. One of the most famous architects of the 20th century, Le Corbusier, almost persuaded the authorities in Paris to demolish a large part of the city center and to build glass towers there instead.
Host: Really?
Darby: Yes, really! Le Corbusier proposed replacing one of the most beautiful parts of Paris with eighteen glass towers. And many writers have pointed out that a lot of people thought it was a good idea. At the time, the area he wanted to demolish was terrible. It was full of disease and overcrowding . . .
Host: Disease and overcrowding? Really?
Darby: Yes! And the glass towers would have been a great improvement with a much better layout. But what Le Corbusier forgot was that an area can change. It can improve and get better. You don’t have to knock something down to make it better.
Host: That’s incredible. Are there any other principles that you think are important when it comes to building better cities?
Darby: Yes, one other thing is very important. Mix. Cities need a mix of buildings in each area. The journalist Jane Jacobs wrote a book called The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and in it she argued that great cities have to have a mix of buildings in each area: offices, shops, and houses should share the same space, because this brings people together.
Host: So, a mix of offices, shops . . .
Darby: Yes, offices, shops, housing, restaurants. These should all exist together because that brings people together. That creates busy, friendly cities