The Chaos-Order Spectrum of Cities
The idea that the places we inhabit should be humane doesn’t seem like it would be a particularly controversial idea. Yet many cities and towns around the world are built with no regard to the mental, emotional, and cultural needs of humans. It is commonplace to find vast tracts of residential land that look like computer chips or waffle irons instead of organic systems. In order to thrive in cities, humans need a sense of place, the feeling of living in a community, and a rich and varied urban fabric.
Take the development pictured above, in Rotonda West, Florida. At first glance, some might appreciate the symmetry of the district’s layout. Although I have never visited this particular part of Florida, I know how I would feel walking around in it. The entire setup would make me feel like I am walking around in someone else’s dream, in a labyrinth constructed by another mind. In fact, that is exactly what it is — the town layout was probably designed in a single meeting by a handful of urban planners.
Pervading the entire development is a sense of dystopian uniformity. If you lived in one of the town’s seven identical sectors and were dropped into another sector, you would have the eerie feeling of finding everything at once familiar and yet slightly out of place. I don’t mean to single out Rotonda West as a unique example. The vast majority of suburban…
