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. 16 towers with 4,000 residential units were erected in hopes of creating a strong community.
Despite its lavish amenities and lofty public plazas, a peculiar emptiness persisted. The development felt anonymous, speaking to a fundamental truth about human social capacity. Where architectural ambition outpaces human cognitive limits, the potential for intimacy collapses.
While modernist visionaries once dreamed of "streets in the sky" that would foster vertical villages, reality proved stubborn. 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.
Where architectural ambition outpaces human cognitive limits, the potential for intimacy collapses.
Author's summary: Balance scale and intimacy in urban architecture.