Opinion / Nolan Giles
All is revealed
For urbanists, architects or any keen observer, the city takes on a new tone in its semi-abandoned state. Forced to slow down, many of us now use our one-a-day walks to learn how the land lies in our neighbourhoods in a much more intimate manner. It’s quite eye-opening.
Speaking to designers and industry commentators across northern Europe this week we’ve been discussing the little urban quirks that we now appreciate. It could be the way that the sun moves gracefully around a well-planned garden or the fact that London’s old industrial buildings have much more generous (and better designed) windows than those in its glitzy new developments. “You take away the distraction and you give yourself more time to see things,” says Ernst van der Hoeven, editor in chief of MacGuffin magazine. He painted me a vivid verbal picture of central Amsterdam, where birds are returning to the trees and the architectural beauty of the canal-laden district being returned to citizens from the tourists.
There’s plenty to complain about right now, of course. But it seems that architects and urban planners are using their time wisely. By looking at our environments with a more careful eye and thinking about what really needs to be there (and what could be done better) we can all help to improve our future cities.