What do you consider an ‘ordinary’, well-planned city?
I’m still teasing out my own thoughts on this, but perceive a well-planned and ‘ordinary’ city as one with a good quality of life and opportunities for a diversity of residents, including those of different income levels, backgrounds, lifestyles, residential settings, etc.
Of course, such a city is also walkable and bikeable with good local public transportation.
Such a city doesn’t have the ‘bells and whistles’ of some of the more frequently referenced and visited ‘destination’ cities, but for local residents, the space and way of life is functional & good.
I’ve lived in such cities.
I don’t approach urban research with discontent that something is wrong with everything because I have, fortunately, observed and experienced great examples of spatial equity and quality of life in different cities.
We have best practices to look to, and of course, anyone with common sense knows these practices are not ‘copy-paste’ but are to be adapted to different contexts locally.
Do any cities come to mind when you think of examples of ‘ordinary’ & well-planned cities?
Such cities often don’t make it to mainstream urban discourse, perhaps because of how mundane they are but herein I believe are some of the brilliant examples of shaping urban resilience at the local neighbourhood & city level
Photo by Annika Lundkvist, FSI // A city in Scandinavia