Scaling the Threshold: When Community Architecture Becomes Too Large
Discover the balance of scale and intimacy in urban architecture. When Hudson Yards opened in Manhattan in 2019, it promised a new urban neighborhood built from scratch, with 16 towers and 4,000 residential units.
Despite its lavish amenities and lofty public plazas, a peculiar emptiness persisted, and the development felt anonymous. This speaks to a fundamental truth about human social capacity, where architectural ambition outpaces human cognitive limits, and the potential for intimacy collapses.
The traditional Japanese concept of roji - the in-between spaces that act as transitional zones for users to form communal bonds - worked brilliantly at small scales, unlike the "streets in the sky" envisioned by modernist visionaries.
Where architectural ambition outpaces human cognitive limits, the potential for intimacy collapses.
This highlights the importance of considering human social capacity in urban architecture, to create spaces that foster a sense of community and intimacy.
Author's summary: Urban architecture must balance scale and intimacy.