TED
4 HN recommenders · recommended in 5 months, 2011–2024
21:42 · 558K views · May 16, 2007
James Howard Kunstler's TED talk argues that American public spaces and architecture have become unworthy of care, damaging civic life. He presents suburban sprawl and car-first design as failures of the common good.
HN recommends it as an engaging introduction to the critique of car-centric design and bad architecture.
6 comments from Hacker News
I'm seeing a lot of resistance to the idea of narrower city streets on this thread. The advantages of narrower city streets (and hence, crossings) goes far beyond safety. It actually enhances quality of life in a significant way. A wide, four lane highway running across your town basically says humans must come encased inside an automobile. Pedestrians and cyclists become second class citizens. It's a design driven for the convenience of cars and to the detriment of humans. Here's a far more engaging critique of car-first design by James Kunstler: this video
I see there is another Kunstler fan on HN! An upvote for you, sir. For anyone else interested in this line of argument, there is a great introduction that Kunstler did for his TED Talk. this video
That Peter Eisenman building looks like it'd be a killer skate park. Say what you will about James Howard Kunstler, his TED talk on Architecture seems to be in the right direction. this video
Reminds me of this [1] old TED talk about horrible architecture that I still find relevant as ever. [1]: this video
Surveillance may contribute to destroying "community" and "neighborhood" but another factors is architecture, in particular in the U.S., as pointed out by this famous TED talk by James Kunstler: this video Fewer pavements to walk and to arrange cafes alongside of, a lack of a market square to meet, more locked doors, more guns, more surveillance, more distrust - all contribute to the distruction of the community.