Episode Summary

  1. The speed of communication has caught up to architecture. There used to be a long period of planning and construction before an architect got feedback from the public. Now with renderings and social media, it's possible, with an open minded architect, to build community serving spaces and places.
  2. Sprawl affects us all. Through separation and isolation there are long term effects on the environment and our own physical and mental well being that sprawl directly impacts.
  3. It is possible to make places where the car is, as Jeff Speck says, "optional rather than required for freedom" by following some of Peter Calthorpe recommendations: mixing use, creating green space, and increasing the density of a places transportation network.

#6 - Why the buildings of the future will be shaped by you. 18 mis by Marc Kushner.

#9 - 7 principles for building better cities. 14 mins by Peter Calthorpe.

#13 - How cohousing can make us happier. 10 mins by by Grace Kim.

#14 - 4 ways to make a city more walkable. 19 mins by Jeff Speck.

Episode Transcript

Hey everyone. I’m Kyle Gulau and on this show, patterns of development, we take less than 10 minutes each week to deconstruct what's going on in real estate, architecture, and urban planning.

This week, the year 2021 comes to a close. And I was trying to think how to position this episode. Same thing as always? Or do we change it up. I’ve been experimenting with the format of the show this December and I thought I’d try one more variation. As the year ends, people naturally look toward the future and start planning.

I thought where are the big ideas,ideas worth spreading, that we could springboard into 2022? It led me to TED talks. Whose catchphrase is in fact, Ideas worth spreading. This episode is a summary of the 3 most viewed architecture TED talks.

I went to TED.com and applied the filter architecture and sorted by most viewed. What came up?

Living on Mars, bamboo houses, the Great Wall of China, and the leaning tower of Pisa. All great topics but not quite on point for this show. So I skipped to talk #6, #9, #13, and #14\

And so here are those ted talks distilled. And then some pattern recognition.

We'll start with the first talk. Talk #6, tagged with the word architecture and sorted by all times views is, "Why the buildings of the future will be shaped by you” - Marc Kushner

The first thing you need to know is that this talk was given in 2014. Keep that date in mind.

Marc shows a picture of 2 libraries. 1 looks kind of old-fashioned. There's a rotunda, brick, the building is symmetrical. The other is made up entirely of glass and steel and it looks like a pyramid tipped on its side.

And he asks the question, how is it that these two buildings are libraries, and yet they look totally different from one another?

I love that question. It feels leading. It's implying that we expect all of our libraries to look the same. Or kind of the same. What is the symbol of library?

This question or this idea is the thesis of the talk. He never says this. Never says it. But I think what he's getting at is this idea of form following function.

He covers a lot of good architectural history ground, which for the sake of time, I'm going to skip. And he gets to the point of saying that, finally, the speed of communication has caught up with the speed of architecture.

He shares how social media can and will be used as a tool to share 3d renderings of a project to get feedback from the public before the project is even built, shortening the feedback cycle for architects to build what the community really needs.

I told you to remember the date of the talk, 2014. If you rolled your eyes at that, you're not alone. I have it in my notes, "that's so cute, Mark" It's so idealist, almost. That now, only 7 years later, in an age where fake news is now common terminology, the strategy to use social media to get feedback, seems almost wrong.

This brings us back to the library question. And this is what I agree with Marc on. There's no answer to the library question. The library, as a symbol, is specific to the community it's in. And yes, you should get feedback from the public to make sure that symbol and that emotion is aligned with what the communities needs and how they'll use it.

If I got to ask Marc a question about this Ted Talk, I would ask him, in the example he gave, if and how he's used social media feedback to change his projects for the better. Because asking for feedback is one thing, implementing it is another.

Ok ok. Big ideas from Marc. He swung for the fences. Who's next?

Talk #9 by Peter Calthorpe is “7 principles for building better cities”

I'll keep this short and sweet. Top quote from Peter, "There's a villain in this story and it's sprawl."

A frequent topic of discussion on this show. Sprawl does affect us all. I love how Peter defines sprawl's key attributes as isolation and separation. United States sprawl is by space, which creates separation. China's high-density sprawl creates isolation.

His 7 principles are:

  1. Preserve the natural environment
  2. Mix -> not just land use but income and age too
  3. Make it walkable
  4. Prioritize a bike network
  5. Connect the city by increasing the density of the transportation network
  6. Allow more people to ride by investing in public transit
  7. Match density to transit capacity (which I wish he elaborated on this one more because I'm not quite sure what he meant by it...)

No big surprises here.

Talk #13 is, “How cohousing can make us happier” by Grace Kim.

Grace Kim opens her Ted Talk with a discussion on loneliness which she defines as "lack of social connection." She shows an image of classic separation sprawl. And talks about how architecture contributes to isolation (Remember what we just learned from Peter?)

Grace talks about her cohousing project where they took a traditional mid-rise building and intentionally build spaces (courtyards, and a common house) to add a level of intention to living collaboratively with neighbors.

This building, with specific nodes to elevate that collaboration, helps combat sprawl and loneliness. Grace measures "communitas" as how frequently neighbors eat with one another and encourages people to walk with their neighbors and share a meal together.

Finally, Talk #14 is 4 ways to make a city more walkable by Jeff Speck.

If you listen to Peter and Marc and say yeah, that's great but how? Jeff finally delivers giving so much tactical this is how you do it advice.

We've talked about this on the show before, "the general theory of walkability" needs 4 things:

  1. People need a reason to walk
  2. People want to feel safe, and be safe
  3. People want to be comfortable
  4. The walk must be interesting

Essentially, you have to incentivize people to walk. A walk must be better than a drive.

Jeff talks about two types of cities. The traditional neighborhood is compact and diverse in use. Live, work, shop, recreate, educate, all in proximity. And Sprawl (apparently the villain in all architecture talks). I liked Peter's definition of sprawl, and Grace's contribution of the loneliness it brings. That's really focused on the person. Jeff's version of sprawl calls out the isolation of activities. Sprawl is "The places where you only..."

You only shop here. You only live there. You only work here. You teach over there. And every building that supports these activities gets bigger and they continue to spread out.

One type of city has the foundation to recover and support walkability, the traditional neighborhood. Sprawl fundamentally cannot support walkability. Of course, it's a two-part American dream. As we've talked about on this show people want what the suburbs offer, and they're moving there. But it comes in two parts, if you want the cookie-cutter house on the lake, you're going to end up driving more miles and dealing with more traffic.

Which leads us to our patterns of development. Our last of the year!

  1. The speed of communication has caught up to architecture. There used to be a long period of planning and construction before an architect got feedback from the public. Now with renderings and social media, it's possible, with an open-minded architect, to build community-serving spaces and places.
  2. Sprawl affects us all. Through separation and isolation there are long term effects on the environment and our own physical and mental well being that sprawl directly impacts.
  3. It is possible to make places where the car is, as Jeff Speck says, "optional rather than required for freedom" by following some of Peter Calthorpe's recommendations: mixing use, creating green space, and increasing the density of a places transportation network.

That's all for this year. Talk to you in 2022.