Ideal City

Layout, Navigation and Transport

An ideal city is dependent on the individual, some enjoy and choose to live within the densely populated, fast pace, automobile cities, whilst others are obligated by work within the city, choosing to commute on trains, on buses and return to a more subdued environment, with a sparser layout in the suburbs.

An ideal city is an organised city, with a layout arranged in accordance to a grid, producing easily legible maps and allowing confident navigation with or without guidance.

A cluster of well facilitated mixed use buildings and specalised stores in close proximity to each other, with narrow facades allowing a denser, over whelming number of shops, all within walking distance; with large, vibrant signage, at an eye level hight, visible from a far, calling you to go in.

Community and Shared Spaces

An Urban city will offer a different experience with each visit. It is constantly changing and modernizing, with new stores opening, events and developments. However, it is the people within the city, the way in which they interact with others and their changing environment, which opens a real stage for spontaneity and originality.

Long, narrow, well lit, inviting roads leading people through the city’s most interesting and attractive pathways; holding a mass of people in an area of close proximity, heightening the chances of direct or indirect interaction. The duration of a few minutes, allowing people to walk pass each other, smile and maybe see a friendly face.

Tall office buildings with light hitting the glass facades, turning them into mirrors, closes you into the narrow streets further, with reflection providing a view of the scene in front and behind you.

Once through the narrow path; revealed is a busy, lively and noisy, open communal square of cafes and green urban breaks, with public seating overlooking the main activity of the day. This space acting as a node, becoming an arranged or coincidental meeting place within the city.

Semi enclosed, artificially as well as naturally lit outdoor pathways and links from outdoor to indoor, allowing comfortable and safe use of the city in all weathers and times of the day.

Cities and future Cities

Cities have evolved and developed over time and will need to continue to modernise, to remain relevant and needed by its public.

However, the main principles of a city have not changed; remaining as a cluster of mixed use spaces in close proximity to one another, housing a high density of people within a tightly arranged layout, including shared public areas and facilities; serviced by busy lines of transport.

Çatal Hüyük

Above is the plan of the first urban city, showing the density and closely spaced buildings. The buildings were so tightly compacted that there was not even roads between them, meaning that each wall was a part wall. People would therefore enter and exit the building through the roof.