One thing that stood out to me whilst watching the documentary was the power of urban design and how the use of the environment can be a strong advertising alternative. An example of this is Tidystreets.org. This was a campaign in Brighton, England. Its purpose was to create a more energy efficient street, which was done through the use of using templates and spraying the streets energy usage on the road outside the residents houses. After interviewing the residents, it had defiantly had a positive impact on their thinking towards saving energy.
Urbanized also demonstrated how perspective has a large influence on how people interpret design. An example of this is Brasilia. It has been designed as a simple and rational city, and is easily accessible via transport. However the designer did not look at Brasilia in a number of viewpoints, and as a result, this has created a city that is a nightmare to navigate on foot. I could speculate that the designer did not take into account the people of the city, and did not look at it from their perspective, and instead, only focused on the aesthetic look of the place and not the usability.
Another example of this is Jane Jacobs opposition to Robert Moses, in his plans to overhaul her neighbourhood, Greenwich Village, in order to implement a new express way. Moses did not take the perspective of neighbourhood into account. He is perceived as one of the master builders of the era, however in this particular case, he was very insensitive in his plans, and did not take into account the consequences of building the express way on the residents of Greenwich Village. This specific story made me realise that design can be interpreted in many different ways, by many different people. This may be down to their personal feelings or even historic heritage of the place, however whatever the reason, urban design is perceived differently dependent on what perspective it is being viewed.
Huddersfields interview with Gary Hustwit.
