This video provides a nice overview of how certain kinds of events influence the development of a city in several ways. Personally I dislike the negative tone that the video sets, because I think it fails to realize that the focus on safety is nothing new at all. Human settlements have always developed with an eye to defence; look at the city of London itself (where this video is set). Lionsgate, Ramsgate, Kingsgate; all of these streets are named after the particular section of a defensive wall that used to surround the city, and they even retain the exact shape of those walls because the roads quite accurately replaced the walls when they were torn down; almost every major city in Europe has this exact feature. Furthermore, they showed the US Embassy in London, describing how these defences have become almost invisible over time, such as the foot-thick concrete wall disguised as a planter. This isnt anything bad, I think, even though the video seemed to link it with a negative connotation. In fact I think that its a good idea, because not only does it provide security, but it doesnt interfere with the aesthetic appearance of the territory, and nor does it hinder people from using the space at all; in fact all it seems to do is add greenery! Thats fantastic urban planning, when you can have safety features that are not only effective, but also not jarring to the eyes. They even sounded like they were describing the buffer zone plazas between buildings and streets as something almost negative (thats how I heard it anyway); but I see nothing negative about it! Here in North America there are always complaints about how much space is given to cars that detracts from publicly accessible areas for pedestrians, yet here is an example of something that is exactly that; a (usually) public space that not only looks good and provides an area to socialize or just linger about, but is also a safety feature! Believing that safety features should be removed from cities because we should just all be better to each other is naive, and poor city planning. As great as it would be to live in a world where such features are unnecessary, its simply unrealistic, at least anytime soon. Fascinating nonetheless. https://youtube/watch?v=nRbgpEslqwE&feature=youtu.be
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 00:54:42 +0000
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