04-29-2022, 11:35 AM
(04-28-2022, 09:40 PM)nms Wrote: I don't know if I first came across it here, but apparently Vincennes, a suburb of Paris, France, is the 9th densest place in the world for population, yet it also appears very human-scaled with no large towers. (so says this Twitter thread). It's not even 2-square kilometers (less than half the size of the University of Waterloo campus), and has a population of 49,700 people. I would like to see a proposal for more density that does not include incredibly tall towers that will only beget more tall towers while ignoring what makes a community great at the street level.
God I wish we could replicate the sort of density we see in European cities. You don't need towers, you just need 6 floor buildings, no setbacks, parking on the street, in car parks or alternatively in a courtyard behind the residential buildings facing the streets, slower streets overall for more safety etc. I don't think we could completely replicate that here because we just don't have the public transit options. Vincennes has two Paris Metro lines running under it and bus lines. A good number of people living in these cities utilize public transit, which is why they can get away with narrow streets that even include car parking. Maybe one day...