The December edition of the German business magazine brand eins is focusing on design. There we found an interesting article and interview with the Italian architect and urban planner Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani.

The architect compares the urban planning of three different cities: Brasilia, Los Angeles and Venice.

Brasilia: The architect Oscar Niemeyer constructed his “retort city” Braslia according to the principles of The Athens Charter, with a clean separation of the quarters for living, working and free time. Residents had to shuttle between the quarters on wide motorways. Today, this concept is considered as on of the biggest mistakes of the modern urban planning. Why?
In Vittorio Lampugnani’s opinion these visions failed because people were not asked in a serious and open-minded way how they want to live.

Los Angeles: For Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani Los Angeles is a delightful example for many mistakes you can make while planning a city. For instance the immense enlargement of the city which is supported by a gigantic network of highways. Because they are always blocked newly one tries to revive the public transportation system. This is almost unaffordable because of the spatial dimensions of the city.  In Los Angeles, one important success factor is missing: closeness/concentration. That is important, because it supports exchange and communication. Otherwise the urban infrastructure is not affordable: For instance shops only develop at places with adequate potential customers. And you can only finance a trolley line or a subway where enough passengers use it.

Venice: Greek philosopher Aristotle defined the ideal dimensions of the urban space through the range of the human voice. The British urban planner Ebenezer Howard designed his garden city according to the walking distance: Each point of the city should be reached within 15 minutes from the city centre. The American architect Frank Lloyd Wright extended this concept in his model of the “Broadacre City”  to driving distance. But the walking distance persists to be the most important dimension. There are several advantages for a city where each point is within walking distance. The city produces less dirt and traffic problems and is cheaper to run. Venice is the perfect city for young and old people without cars. Thus, despite all problems Venice still represents an ideal city concept.

To sum up from an urban planners view Venice appears to be a perfect city. Urban planning is an awfully complex business and a lot of visions in the past were unidimensional. The concept of an integrated vision for a city or a section of a city is something that an urban planner can achieve. For cities of the future there is no need to invent new complete solutions – there are established principles to draw on.

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