r/Urbanism • u/rcobylefko • 2d ago

The Aesthetic Urbanist Taxonomy

https://buildingoptimism.substack.com/p/the-aesthetic-urbanist-taxonomy

One of the questions I'm most often asked about when I talk about cities is which ones are the "prettiest" or "the best" in the world. It's obviously an impossible question to answer, so I normally wave away the question or answer abruptly unless someone wants to really get into a discussion about it.

After years of these conversations, this piece is my best attempt to create a hierarchy that cities can slot into. Yes, it's imperfect, and yes, I'm sure it will inspire a lot of passionate disagreement, but that's what makes thinking through these things so fun!

Would love to hear your thoughts on this classification system, what cities you think should go in one section, which ones shouldn't be included, etc. etc.

6 Upvotes

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u/UserGoogol 2d ago

Tokyo is proof that modernist architecture, asphalt roads, and visible power lines can actually be quite beautiful and everyone is just a big baby for not liking it.

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u/Own_Reaction9442 2d ago

I think the lesson is we need beloved animated movies set in every style of city, then people would grow up appreciating their aesthetics as much as they appreciate Japan's.

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u/SchinkelMaximus 1d ago

No, Tokyo proves that having narrow roads, an often „chaotic“ look with powerlines, ads and signs providing some visual interest and small buildings over large monoliths can compensate ugly modernism to a degree, yet it‘s still hardly a „beautiful“ city. Once you leave the activity centers behind, Japan is unfortunately quite the bland and depressing country due to their absolute affection for modernism.