Please attempt to describe architecture without using the phrases: orientation to the street , relationship to the street, eyes on the street, activation of the street, dead zone on the street
It appears we are talking past one another, so I'll give it one more shot. You did however identify the key point - I don't care about the architectural style, that has nothing to do with my argument. There are an infinite number of ways that a building can be bold, beautiful, innovative - and yet not be detrimental to the neighbourhood. You did not answer my question - ""what social good comes from this housing style?" I assume you take that into consideration, the impact the building will have on its environment? Although I'm starting to think it's just a case of art for art's sake, and there is no other consideration?
This 2017 BBC article highlights some of my key point; here's a few key quotes:
"We now know, for example, that buildings and cities can affect our mood and well-being, and that specialised cells in the hippocampal region of our brains are attuned to the geometry and arrangement of the spaces we inhabit. Yet urban architects have often paid scant attention to the potential cognitive effects of their creations on a city’s inhabitants. The imperative to design something unique and individual tends to override considerations of how it might shape the behaviours of those who will live with it. That could be about to change. “There are some really good [evidence-based] guidelines out there” on how to design user-friendly buildings, says Ruth Dalton, who studies both architecture and cognitive science at Northumbria University in Newcastle. “A lot of architects choose to ignore them. Why is that?”
"Today, thanks to psychological studies, we have a much better idea of the kind of urban environments that people like or find stimulating. Some of these studies have attempted to measure subjects’ physiological responses in situ, using wearable devices such as bracelets that monitor skin conductance (a marker of physiological arousal), smartphone apps that ask subjects about their emotional state, and electroencephalogram (EEG) headsets that measure brain activity relating to mental states and mood."
"One of Ellard’s most consistent findings is that people are strongly affected by building façades. If the façade is complex and interesting, it affects people in a positive way; negatively if it is simple and monotonous. For example, when he walked a group of subjects past the long, smoked-glass frontage of a Whole Foods store in Lower Manhattan, their arousal and mood states took a dive, according to the wristband readings and on-the-spot emotion surveys. They also quickened their pace as if to hurry out of the dead zone. They picked up considerably when they reached a stretch of restaurants and stores, where (not surprisingly) they reported feeling a lot more lively and engaged." The writer and urban specialist Charles Montgomery, who collaborated with Ellard on his Manhattan study, has said this points to “an emerging disaster in street psychology”. In his book Happy City, he warns: “As suburban retailers begin to colonise central cities, block after block of bric-a-brac and mom-and-pop-scale buildings and shops are being replaced by blank, cold spaces that effectively bleach street edges of conviviality.”
"Social isolation is now recognised by urban authorities as a major risk factor for many illnesses. Is it possible to design against it, to build in a way that encourages connection?"
Fundamentally that's my problem with your work, it does not encourage connection and ultimately is bad for the neighbourhood. I really don't see this perspective as controversial at all, it's widely known and documented - shouldn't we avoid the mistakes of the past?
Another interesting article from the Globe and Mail, although overly bold in it's key point on how Bjarke Ingels really sucked at the 'meet the street' until Brent Toderian set him straight and he redeemed himself in Toderian's backyard with Vancouver House.
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