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Comment by rmah | Hacker News Reader

Read "A Pattern Language" by Christopher Alexander. http://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Language-Buildings-Constructio...

And also Carfree Cities by J.H. Crawford, which advocates a form of linked neighborhoods similar to what is described here. http://www.carfree.com/book/

And "Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed" - http://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Like-State-Institution-Universi...

Does it mention Disney's grand vision for Epcot?

Addendum: I realized on the way home that this comment was rather too content-free for HN. So...

More specifically, I was curious if the book you mention has some narrative or historical details on why the grand Epcot vision fell apart/was stymied.

Great book! That's actually the book that got me interested in the recent history of my city, which suffered major changes (most say for the worst) that seem to have been taken up from the book's chapters on mdoernist urban development. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceau%C5%9Fima)

For a short and directly on-point piece by Alexander, see:

http://www.patternlanguage.com/archives/alexander1.htm

For some commentary on that piece, see:

http://contraterrene.com/wiki/index.php/Commentary_on_%22A_C...

tl,dr: designing cities as hierarchical trees, while perhaps efficient in the sense of transportation links, is a bad idea from the standpoint of making a cohesive city.

Interestingly, "A Pattern Language" directly inspired the GoF book.

It has similar flaws, as well. It should be considered descriptive, not prescriptive--and Christopher Alexander is not nearly as careful around that distinction as the GoF.

Thanks for this. I have just drawn what I felt from a traffic congestion avoidance perspective. I should give it a thought from an environmental perspective also and try to re-iterate on the design. Thanks for the feedback.

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