12-03-2020, 11:26 PM
(12-03-2020, 05:53 PM)dtkvictim Wrote: High density is achievable without highrises, as most of Europe shows, and people here continually praise European cities for their successful planning and design. I fear the lack of high-density midrise neighbourhoods will push people who reject highrise living away to suburbia (this is how I feel, personally). Of course there are cities in the world where the only choice is up, like Tokyo (which is also a city of extremely high quality), but KW could densify insane amounts within our footprint without a single highrise (which isn't to say we shouldn't have any for those who want them).
My take is that both should be sought, but the high rises are definitely the more marketable and exciting image. I think denser developments like this one that (hopefully) cultivate some centre point to blocks could be well supported by well designed mid-rise surrounding. Not sure I have knowledge, however, to comments specifically on how the economics and/or city planning in KW may incentivize dense over mid-rise.
I really wish we could build more European style housing and communities here but I think our natural sense of spacing and car-centric lifestyle, and the building requirements that comes with it, negates a lot of that potential for that to manifest. There are some examples in the region that it has been tried to varied levels of success, but there is still a whole different paradigm we can't seem to reach here (though I would be at the front of the line for such a neighbourhood/block!).