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You need "freedom of movement" because you are always trying to escape where you are.
You can only escape into "shared space" - and apparently you can do nothing more than travel through it on pre-determined paths.
That streetscape you showed looks like concrete/masonry bunker housing. There is very little green there at all. You might find it appealing because you aren't actually there. You are always leaving to go elsewhere. Possibly another major cultural difference.
I can walk out the front or back door and into exclusive, non-shared space filled with plants and trees.
I don't need to "escape" to some other location. I am not confined to simply being an observer of someone else's space as you are. I have the ability and right to alter it or improve it as I wish. I am free to go elsewhere but unlike you I can actually enjoy where I am. Calling a subdivision a "prison" is laughable when you prop this streetscape as something you would prefer.
Everyone needs freedom of movement. It's a natural human desire. I rather have a smaller home than having no choice of moving around my environment. I think you are just too used to not having the choice of moving around, that you don't even realize it. It must be very depressing to be a prisoner of the own four walls and some depressing empty lawn surrounding it.
At least there are pre-determined paths in my environment versus no paths at all in your environment. The only place where you have no pre-determined paths is your tiny backyard. If I am out on the pre-determined paths I am moving for hours into all directions, seeing plenty of new things and collecting an endless number of new impressions. I am not only doing something for my physical health, but also for my mental health.
Unlike you who sits on his empty depressing lawn or even worse in your oversized four walls with little natural lighting.
There is plenty of green for such high density housing. You are just ignoring it. There are even backyards which probably have more life to them than your dead empty lawn in your backyard.
People who say this looks depressing have no clue what they are talking. That's ridiculous.
So your house and laws is non-shared? That would mean that you are admitting that you don't live with your family, which are individuals of their own that share the space with you.
You don't escape your little house, because you can not. There is no infrastructure except for cars to escape this place and explore the much larger environment around you. I can do this, I have the freedom to explore my environment without car and to see many things.
I can actually enjoy where I go to as well. The best thing is I can go to many different places and have a huge variety of places where I can go to sit and enjoy. You don't.
Well your subdivision is a prison, because there is no quick and easy escape. You need a car to escape it, which in itself some kind of prison, where your physical body is not free.
The problem with Cologne, and many other European cities, is that it was bombed into rubble during World War II. Which meant that it had to be rebuilt in the immediate postwar period, which is a period in which public architecture was just plain awful. American cities weren't bombed, but we did a lot of expansion in that period, and our postwar architecture was awful too. I don't know why, but it was just a bleak period, architecturally speaking.
Incidentally, I would never use most of the balconies that were shown in your images. Why? Because they are supported only on one side, not on three sides. When I was young, I witnessed the aftermath of a high rise building whose balconies were built like that. One near the top had collapsed due to lack of side support, and it pancaked down on the ones below it, causing them to collapse as well. Ever since then, I won't use balconies unless they are supported on three sides.
Those balconies are stronger than most American walls. That is solid German architecture. Don't worry! Our building code would not allow unsafe balconies.
These buildings were built just a few years ago. As you can see, the trees planted in this neighborhood are still pretty young.
You may not like the simple Bauhaus style, but technically it is the most advanced design out there with "form follows function". I actually like it and I think that most American houses built in the Victorian style look pretty outdated. It's also fake, because they weren't really built in that period. It's like building cars that still look like cars from the 1950s. Most developers haven't gone with time in the US.
Curious, do you favor one-way or two-way streets? I ask because the image of Pine Street is a little deceptive. The street actually isn't all that wide. It's a two-way street, and it's wide enough for opposing cars to pass each other -- barely. If the street were any narrower, it would need to be made a one-lane, one-way street.
One way streets are better, but you can also make it narrower and still have a two way street. It forces drivers to slow down and make room for upcoming cars. Such wide streets aren't comfy and safe for pedestrians to cross.
"Shared space" -- oh, the horror of having to share something!
Maybe we should change the motto of the USA from "e pluribus unum" to "get off my lawn."
The issue is not "shared space" itself, it is designing living arrangements that restrict people to only having access to shared space. The suburban option gives people both personal space and shared space.
The irony is, that by turning everything into exclusive space, Americans imprisoned themselves.
I can wander from my American suburban house any time I choose. It was even true during the height of the pandemic, yet I saw numerous cases in the news where urban dwellers were restricted to their apartments, especially in Europe and Asia.
The issue is not "shared space" itself, it is designing living arrangements that restrict people to only having access to shared space. The suburban option gives people both personal space and shared space.
There is almost no access to shared space in suburbs. Americans don't know what it is like to explore their neighborhood and city without car. And from the car your senses do not really take notice from your environment.
There is almost no access to shared space in suburbs. Americans don't know what it is like to explore their neighborhood and city without car. And from the car your senses do not really take notice from your environment.
You are an apartment renter in Germany. You have never been to America, never been to an American suburb, and never been in an American house. You do not have a car. You have convinced only yourself that you are more knowledgeable about American houses, suburbs, and living than the Americans who do own cars and do own and live in houses in suburbs in America.
Last edited by toosie; 08-12-2023 at 02:52 PM..
Reason: if you think its a troll then report it - dont accuse online
Human scale neighborhoods are still being produced. The area of Cologne that I previously showed in Google Streetview is called Clouth Quarter. The quarter is on the former factory site of the former Clouth Gummiwerke AG.
Today I was there making some photos to get some impressions you can not see from the streets.
Some of the apartment complexes have nice and large shared backyards.
It is also very family friendly. I have seen plenty of children there, which I didn't want to photograph of course.
There are playgrounds everywhere and there is a nice park within the quarter.
Last edited by toosie; 08-12-2023 at 03:02 PM..
Reason: just took out "back on topic"
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