Well, this picture is just poor city development. Living in appartement buildings 3-5-7-9 floors high is all very fine, IF
The neighbourhood is (pedestrian) permeable enough. The space around it must be pedestrian/cycle friendly and green. The blocks in this picture are way to wide, forming too big barriers for local slow traffic
there is a bit of variation in colour, size, shape. A neighbourhood with such blocks can surely have 4 identical buildings, but not 30… It feels uneasy to humans this way. We need a taller or oddly shaped or nicely coloured one once in a while, as a reference point, as things that give the neighbourhood a bit of an identity
The buildings themselves are high enough quality (well insulated, every appartement has 1 or 2 real balconies, …)
there are plenty of playgrounds and sports facilities and cars are in general carparks in garages at the edge of the neighbourhood, not on the streets
neighbourhood is well connected to the rest of the city
there are plenty of jobs in the area. Probably the hardest part.
May I introduce you to the concept of microdistrict. That’s how the original soviet developments were planned out - every house is guaranteed to have necessities like stores, a polyclinic, a school, a kindergarden, or a fire department within reasonable distance. Usually, walking distance. Everything is pedestrian permeable, there’s public transport connecting the “sleeping districts” where there were mostly apartments to the industrial areas where the jobs were. And yeah, playgrounds in or near every building.
Jobs in the same area as apartments isn’t really happening though, office buildings and industry tends to be away.
Well, this picture is just poor city development. Living in appartement buildings 3-5-7-9 floors high is all very fine, IF
May I introduce you to the concept of microdistrict. That’s how the original soviet developments were planned out - every house is guaranteed to have necessities like stores, a polyclinic, a school, a kindergarden, or a fire department within reasonable distance. Usually, walking distance. Everything is pedestrian permeable, there’s public transport connecting the “sleeping districts” where there were mostly apartments to the industrial areas where the jobs were. And yeah, playgrounds in or near every building.
Jobs in the same area as apartments isn’t really happening though, office buildings and industry tends to be away.
Good on paper, terrible when commuting to work 2 hours one way in a packed train.
Yeah, but at least we got WFH nowadays.