What it is about suburbia that makes it so hostile to humanity ? To someone with no training in architecture, it’s often experienced as a great, non-articulated existential malaise, like depression. You know it sucks, but it’s hard to say exactly why. Here are a few pointers...
▻http://qz.com/698928/why-suburbia-sucks
4. Proximity does not mean pedestrian accessibility
On the other hand, it is not so uncommon in suburbia to live very close to a nearby shopping center. I’ve had lots of suburban friends tell me, “Actually, the grocery store is 1,000 ft from me. Very convenient.” Indeed, when we lived in an apartment complex in the Perimeter Mall area in Dunwoody, the nearby Walmart shopping strip was within spitting distance. I could almost see the store entrance from my bedroom window.
But, perversely, that doesn’t mean I could walk to the store, as a normal person from virtually anywhere else on the planet might conclude from that statement. In its fanatical quest to eviscerate the pedestrian realm and make cars exclusive first-class objects, suburbia manages to make far even that which is conceptually close. Building ordinances generally require some sort of “divider” between these adjacent land parcels, like a ditch, a chain-link fence, or a concrete wall or noise barrier. In our case, that means I had to walk out of the apartment complex, go around the divider, and then cross several hundred feet of parking lot to go to the store.
It goes without saying that most normal people would choose to drive the distance. And that’s the idea.
les ronds-points là, on a appelle ça des raquettes de retournement je crois bien
Par contre la comparaison avec Saint-Germain, pour moi, ça ne tiens pas. L’architecture haussmanienne, sèche comme un coup de trique, une série de cubes décorés, plantés à ras le trottoir, sans interruption, crée une densité tout aussi dystopique et paranoïaque que la suburbia.
