Justin Switzer: Environment
The environment of the area the city is in plays a massive role in not only planning of the city, but in the culture of the city’s residents. The differences in the environment are directly tied to differences from city to city. From buildings being earthquake resistant in parts of California, to homes being raised off the ground in the hurricane-prone regions of the Southeast, the environment ultimately decides how we build a functional city. In today’s era, cities have increased focus on the environment inside of their borders, opting to create many green spaces and parks. Historically and fundamentally, the environment is a very inclusive aspect of city planning worldwide.
Justin Nguyen- design
I believe that design is the most important aspect of creating and renovating a city. Design is such a broad but important element of creating a city, but it applies to every element in planning a city. From the top- down perspective of designing the layout that will incorporate the land. It is crucial to utilize the land that is given to developers and not to waste space. An example of this is that Polaris Fashion Place was able to utilize land that had a sizable hill in the land they had to work with. So they designed the building to have two sections, a top and bottom. The bottom section was built inside the hill instead of wrapping the mall around the hill. With using the hill as a structural support and using the surface area of the hill Polaris mall was able to maximize the area of the mall allowing for more shops to be open.
Logan Benson- Community
I believe that the most important element of an urban space is the community that it creates between its inhabitants. As can be shown by so many examples across the whole world and throughout human history, groups that do not wish to work together and are not made to work together, simply will not work together. A community that has even just one safe place for people to get together and trade ideas, work together, and build bonds has a significant advantage over a society that focuses only on something like the economic advancement of the society. The happier the people are with themselves and each other, the more likely they will be to give back to the society.
Alec Yeager-Design
I believe myself that design is one of the single most important elements because the design of such city is essentially acting as the backbone for that city or community. When a city or community is starting to be built out on paper and through peoples thought process’s the design aspect of such ideas can either make it a fantastic well run city, or it can sink it and make it a very unpleasant place to live and suitable for families and community members. Also when considering the design aspect of such community the framers have to take into consideration that it will only increase in capacity as more and more people flock to this new community, so the designs much think about long term things that may occur further down the road and try and prevent such problems by creating a suitable community that is well ran and maintained from the initial design process.
Because of the internet, culture has changed dramatically from generation to generation. Because of this, we wanted to create a futuristic and innovative neighborhood is tailored to the kids of today’s generation. Since kids today are now growing up utilizing technology and the internet more in their everyday life, it’s appropriate that they have a community that fits to their unique culture. People today are becoming more accepting, we wanted to make a neighborhood that was designed for the “community” but still incorporated individualistic features.
The Neighborhood that we created was based off of a circular design. We thought that this design was innovative and creative by going a different route than traditional grid-like structure of typical American neighborhoods. With this new design we hope to attract young people that will enjoy its modern design while creating a modernistic atmosphere. A major component to this design is to create a sense of community by having the shopping center and a main park located in the middle of the neighborhood with housing surrounding it. By doing this, every person regardless of wealth and race would be able to go to the same markets and parks as everyone else, minimizing socioeconomic factors in the community. With this secular design, anyone from any walk of life is represented. The neighborhood is also linked with bike paths, promoting a healthy alternative to travel and minimizing traffic. Even though the neighborhood is designed to push people to socialize, the houses branch off around the market and park area with a section of trees and nature creating a border between the houses and the market. This is to create a private atmosphere for the houses in the neighborhood. The incorporation of nature is crucial to this design. Without the trees dividing the housing and the market the atmosphere would be too open, and then the feeling of community would be imposing on the people and they would not want to live there because it is crucial to balance private spaces with open ones.