This talk should be mandatory for anyone approaching architecture school.

@BythepeopleForthepeople203

4 жыл бұрын

@Nekid Snek9000 And have you seen the "replacement" for the spire on the Notre Dame cathedral? 🤣

@ToddKeck98

4 жыл бұрын

​@Nekid Snek9000 The Notre Dame didn't really have that spire in its original plans as seen from a pic in 1847.

@renderwood

4 жыл бұрын

Why not any school while at it. I just watched this now and it's weird how fitting this still is, and it's 12yrs old. I am afraid that not enough people have made what James asked for.

@keziahdelaney8174

4 жыл бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/eZWkt6eEia-rYdI.html

@jrus690

4 жыл бұрын

The talk is useful for anyone wanting to reduce pollution, tackle climate change, and keeping their money by not giving it to other richer people. Everyone is looking for complex answers but the answers are apparently very straight forward.

This is the most important Ted Talk I've seen in a long time. It just hits so close to home. It's no wonder Americans are by and large depressed and unhappy. Driving your car two hours a day between a cartoon house and a fluorescent lit cubicles is no life, it's a joke.

@JohnSmith-qz7jx

5 жыл бұрын

I have a suburban house and live 5 minutes from work. What I find depressing is that people want to force me to pay obscene amounts of money to live in places where I would have no yard, forbidden to own a large dog, have to share walls, floors, ceilings with noxious neighbors and all because they think such a miserable life aligns with their political philosophy. Houses are not cartoon like. Living an multiple unit dwelling where there are hundred of identical units stacked on top of each other it what is cartoon like.

@bono894

5 жыл бұрын

It's not so much that we have the wrong kind of architecture, it's more that we have too much of it and that it's wrecking the aesthetics of the natural landscape.

@37VQV

5 жыл бұрын

@@JohnSmith-qz7jx Your name is a generic as suburbia itself. Your not being forced to live anywhere because whats being forced are things like Single Family Residency and other zoning restriction that prevent anything but a suburban sprawl. I like how you immediately bad it about you and only you. Congratulations you live 5 minutes from work, that's not the case for most American. Americans have to commute a lot more than a whole five minutes and its not getting any shorter. You can still buy a house just don't mandate that a suburban subdivision is the only way people should be able to live - which is what most current zoning codes do. Nevermind the fact that suburbs are absurdly expensive and have to be subsidized through state-federal funding because they don't cover the cost of their own roads and utilities because of how low density it is. You want to talk about "hundreds of identical units' go look at a typical American suburban subdivision. They are literally rows of the same fucking floor plan over and over - Yes they are cartoonish and so is a facade porch on a house which is what he was talking about.

@linuxman7777

4 жыл бұрын

We don't have much of a choice because our cities are so bad, and poorly managed. Only Americans who have traveled overseas can see what good urbanism is like. As I did when I visited Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. I saw what urbanism could be.

@jrus690

4 жыл бұрын

@@linuxman7777 Go to pretty much any Western European city, they did not destroy their cities. There are only a handful of North American cities that are anything like them.

The place "not worth caring about" is not just the ugly isolated architecture, but the loss of a beautiful town square, of a sense of belonging to a community with multiple overlapping relationships. Walking the dog should occur in the central park town square surrounded by your neighbours who are having coffee, eating in the local diner, reading the paper, buying a book, collecting their dry cleaning, buying a few groceries, getting their hair done, grabbing a pizza, and all the other varied activities in the local neighbourhood. We've lost street life, a sense of place. The problem with suburbia is there's no there, there.

@Takeru9292

5 жыл бұрын

Fortunately they know this idea well in italy

@lilithgrrrl

Жыл бұрын

Love this! I want to live there too! Getting to know your neighbors and belonging to a sense of place; these are all things we need as a country. Maybe someday we'll return to these roots.

@ninjanim7

Жыл бұрын

I think there is a pandemic of people getting pets in this country because they don't get to meet and develop relationships with their neighbors and shop owners anymore. So instead of people providing comfort people buy pets to feel that comfort of connectedness. But dogs and cats can't talk so Its my opinion it's not good enough we need other people and a rich mix of others.

I love the irony of a BMW commercial, one set in lovely natural environments, purporting all-natural fuel use, following Kunstler's lecture. It's so fitting as to be tailor made.

Little shout out to all my @NotJustBikes people - always good to learn about and be aware of your surroundings! :)

@goingplaces0X

3 жыл бұрын

NJB peep here! What a wonderful, insightful, actually funny video about urban design this is. Loved it!

@hectornonayurbusiness2631

2 жыл бұрын

NJB watcher here. Just learning about this stuff.

@blakksheep736

2 жыл бұрын

Same! I'm here from his recommendation! Love it!

@bonda_racing3579

2 жыл бұрын

You guys watch beautiful city too?

@thebravesirrobin.

2 жыл бұрын

I've been on an urban planning binge since last month because of NJB.

"notice that nature is present"

This would be one of the five best TED talks I've seen. And +1 calling citizens consumers is evil.

@mau5che

5 жыл бұрын

what are the other four? asking for a friend...

@KimMoth

3 жыл бұрын

@Think Tank Ease up, Don Quixote. Not sure if the Romantics have a monopoly on preserving civilisation, or why I'm responsible for their demise. And the temerity of telling some random dude what he wants is pretty steep too; take a hike, pal.

"A despotic building that makes us feel like termites." This guy should be getting $100,000 a speech.

@radattk3145

2 жыл бұрын

lol. this is the system that won. you asked for a capitalist's economic zone and now you've got it.

@SeanConneryPimpShlap

Жыл бұрын

​@@radattk3145 It's clearly drastically more complicated than that. You've seen images of bleak, brutal communist architecture in the former USSR, right? And the beautiful architecture of capitalist France, Germany and Italy?

15 years later, and this video ages like fine wine. All the predictions and warnings he made, were ignored and came true. Should have been youtubes most watched since 2007

@blitzir

Жыл бұрын

Watching the rise of anti-suburban planning since 2020 has been awesome

@1minus1equals1

Жыл бұрын

The talk itself was in 2004 it says; so really it's more like 19 years ago

@SweatLaserXP

20 күн бұрын

I haven't read his blog in 20 years, if it even still exists, but this speech put a smile on my face. I'll have to re-read The Geography of Nowhere. He was always an entertaining critic of decaying American culture.

I want a refund from my four years of architecture school with interest and compensation for my time wasted being taught by pretentious professors with big egos who did little to address the cancerous state of architectural theory. They taught me jack and shit about how to think about the future of design. And Jack left town. Thank you Kunstler for articulating everything I hate about "American" architecture and consumerism. I wish you spent more time bashing the big oil companies for convincing America to adopt a petroleum based infrastructure in the fist place, but hey....

@RagedContinuum

7 жыл бұрын

So are you an architect now?

@GregCalleja

6 жыл бұрын

Andrew Jimenez what's your pov on "sustainability"?

@solatiumz

6 жыл бұрын

I think that the most important questions that any architect should be asking themselves when they are designing any building/structure is "Is this fit for purpose?" "does it add or take away from it's environment?" "would I like to live/work/eat here/visit?" "does the existing structure need to be destroyed?"

@johnerwin9024

4 жыл бұрын

'Iron Curtain' architecture

@off-the-roadadventures7972

3 жыл бұрын

Agreed.

This guy is like the George Carlin of Architecture.

@gizzad

4 жыл бұрын

Dude hilarious!

@kenlieck7756

3 жыл бұрын

More like the Bill Hicks - or have you never heard Bill's "happy consumers" rant? (kzread.info/dash/bejne/eHeKuJOaoZepqrw.html)

@gregorylgreenwoodii

3 жыл бұрын

Good analogy!

@cd0u50c9

3 жыл бұрын

Not at all. George Carlin advocated against war. This dipshit mentions quality space while also talking about americans spilling their blood in Iraq. Got some news: Good quality spaces and local architecture of value is being destroyed en masse by those same people 'spilling their blood' half way across the world for oil money and imperialism. Hypocrisy.

@cabasse_music

2 жыл бұрын

@@cd0u50c9 i didn't read into it that he supports wars in the middle east AT ALL. in fact i would say he clearly does not, basically suggesting we're fighting them over oil. he's just saying our country is figuratively too ugly to care about nowadays, which is largely true

Architecture is such a joke nowadays. There is a total disregard to how people will feel in and around buildings. I hope that will change soon.

@HistoryNoob

9 жыл бұрын

As a current Architecture (+ Planning) student in the UK, I can't stress how much we are consistantly reminded how important it is to relate infrastructure to people. I do agree that what we currently see poorly planned cities, towns etc. today. But I want to tell you there are still architects out there willing to correct this problem; our most major obstacle is not ourselves, it's the developers; the clients in which architects work for. Sadly its these clients that tend to dictate what we can and can not do, which always ends in the conversation of cost and time. This is what limits what an Architect or Architecture Practice/Organisation to create what is seen as 'good' architecture.

@acgatlin

9 жыл бұрын

So become an Architect.

@HistoryNoob

9 жыл бұрын

Exactly... Until you put yourself at an Architect's perspective, don't point fingers until you know the true reasons behind the problem.

@HistoryNoob

9 жыл бұрын

Joseph Greene Are you an architect yourself or even studying the profession?

@acgatlin

9 жыл бұрын

Joseph Greene Nah dawg. Capitalism, Greed, and Overcrowding of cities are the reasons. Architects are just artists trying to make a living and improve our environment a little bit. Don't be silly.

I'm viewing this talk 13 years after the fact, in the middle of a pretty severe crisis. Part of why the crisis is so bad is because all this time later we're still building inefficient, idiotic cities with diminishing returns in life value vs. increasing financial cost. As far as "uplifting" goes, the architecture of the decade is some of the most abysmal minimalist modernism seen since the 60s that will age just as badly. New Urbanism hasn't prevailed, sadly. James H. Kunstler is an interesting guy, I'd recommend reading "The Geography of Nowhere."

@emiliofernandez7117

2 жыл бұрын

Yup my city is literally building the most hilarious 1000% definition of what the worst suburb could be everyday I mean I drive through an area that’s just sand and then boom a few months later new cardboard houses, no trees and people in them. I understand that it’s 1000% better than no houses but they’re literally 20km from the city which is stupid far without public transport

"these habitats are inducing immense amoutn of anxiety and depression in children" -- so true

@mitonaarea5856

3 жыл бұрын

@Colmillo Blanco wtf are you talking about??

@gobblelevclass3nuclearsubm393

3 жыл бұрын

and adults too !!

@ee-ef8qr

2 жыл бұрын

These places are breeding grounds for school shooters.

10 years have gone by and this keeps touching people as it did then

Not Just Bikes sent me here.

@blakksheep736

2 жыл бұрын

Same.

@bryced7126

4 ай бұрын

same

@kwpp7

3 ай бұрын

Truthstream Media for me.

I love this TED talk. I do not like modern city design or architecture. I'm glad someone is saying what most of us have been thinking for years!

@alexandraelena6499

6 жыл бұрын

Travieso78702 you have not seen the communist blocks

@neoir8514

4 жыл бұрын

Alexandra Elena That type of architecture was popularized when communism ruled eastern Europe and Russia and then was employed by urban designers in the US who valued only efficiency and profit. Prettiness was not on our agenda and it shows on the outskirts of a place like New York City.

@johnerwin9024

4 жыл бұрын

Post modern architecture: 'iron curtain' architecture-

@Travieso78702

4 жыл бұрын

I was in Budapest just after the fall of the USSR. I went in a Soviet Train from Venice. It was a surreal experience, and I learned va lot.

@kittykittybangbang9367

3 жыл бұрын

@@neoir8514 Have you ever heard of Paris syndrome though?

Wish I could give this talk more than just one thumbs up. As a European who relocated to this country the urban design in places like Los Angeles, Dallas or Miami has long been a pet peeve of mine. This is such a great country with so much to offer and it is ruined by strip malls and convenience stores as main architectural anchor points.

@m.r.p.rosefsky1105

10 жыл бұрын

James Newlin As in size, weather, geography, natural resources... and look what humanity has done to it.

@chairmanofrussia

5 жыл бұрын

I think Los Angeles has just enough architectural charm and different designs in different areas that it’s decent. Lots of interesting places to explore and suburbs with different designs. Yes there are bland areas, but they’re often surrounded by more interesting places. It’s not San Francisco by any measure, but it’s not cleveland either. Granted there’s still a lack of space here. If I want to go sit down for free and study, hang out or talk with friends in an outdoor setting that integrates well with the rest of the city, I can’t do that. I literally have to find a place to park (when there’s little parking available), spend $20 to park, then spend another $10-$30 to dine just so I can have a table to myself outdoors.

@kittykittybangbang9367

3 жыл бұрын

Well now malls are dying

Isn't it a bit ironic that there's a car commercial within this video.

@dylansmith5161

7 жыл бұрын

It is absurdly ironic.

@pdblouin

7 жыл бұрын

Even worse, a hydrogen powered car after he says "There's not going to be a hydrogen economy". I think whoever put that ad in there knew exactly what they were doing.

@DavidJGillCA

7 жыл бұрын

GET Adblock!

@kendomyers

7 жыл бұрын

LegendMeadow its like rain on your wedding day

@marks6663

6 жыл бұрын

Perhaps you do not know how google ads work. Google it. It is not a coincidence.

I am Bulgarian and I am ashamed of the US railroad system

@Fuchsia_tude

7 жыл бұрын

...thanks?

@GregCalleja

6 жыл бұрын

LIUKLER how would you vision an improved rail system?? (I really don't know much about that)

@CK-yb5pi

6 жыл бұрын

LIUKLER the US actually has the one of the most efficient friend systems in the world. Ppl who think passenger trains are needed in this country don't realize who completely impractical that is.

@loganperry6407

6 жыл бұрын

LIUKLER it’s because most of us don’t use it for public transport

@InfinityR319

5 жыл бұрын

@@loganperry6407 True, but if you ask someone from the population hubs like any city at the Northeast or even Portland or Seattle, they will tell you that they rely on public transit.

The final note on the prevalence of the word "consumer" is so right on. "Consumer spending is down", etc. I get so tired of people being reduced to the word "consumer".

This guy is right beyond doubt. My parents were suffering from a lot of mental stress and anxiety living in big cities surrounded by concrete blocks and tall builds full of "consumers" and "workers". Moved with them to a small town where every neighbor knows each other and the architecture is better, they are now more healthy than ever.

@Kevin-it4fh

3 жыл бұрын

I thought this video was more of a criticism on spread out suburban towns. I think something in between would be best. Basically what you could find in Queens, NY

He's not saying nature is bad. He is saying that architecture should be beautiful enough that it doesn't need nature in order to make it bearable. I don't know if you've ever been to Rome, but there are many places that have no trees of flower beds whatsoever, but they feel great and look beautiful. You don't miss nature because the urbanism and architecture is so good. Watch the video again, he describes what nature should be used for.

I am from the year 2022. Nothing has changed.

@TeutonicTribe

Жыл бұрын

Wrong.

I have been struggling for years to articulate everything I despise about modern suburbia and this talk nails it all perfectly. So glad I found this.

@randymulder9105

2 жыл бұрын

I agree. I complained in Art School in the early 90s, late 90s, and early 2000s. They tend to study how "brilliant" architects were in the 60s. And stick to that idea of modernism. Some professors totally got what this guy is talking about. But most only saw a one time version of what modern could mean. Modern only means 60s...lol. Or prior. And then repeating the style over and over and over and over again. And anything original is cast out. And anything that is not "modern" is also cast out. And anything original is cast out. And anything that is logical and rational is cast out. Anything that would "actually" bring humans together is cast out. And anything that is architecture from any era that works and brings people together is cast out. Basically if it works well and brings humans together then it CANNOT be modern. Lol. Modern means form and function without including rational creations that bring humans together. The excuse for "ghost town" condo areas and other monstrosities is that bringing too many humans together may cause damage to a building and its environment. And I say, wait, isn't a building essentially for humans? Or not? Lol.

The picture Kunstler shows of a European city looks like a typical "PLEIN" (public square) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Shortly after post-WW2, the plan was to demolish the medieval city structure and turn it into a "modern" city no one wants to visit to accommodate the happy motoring lifestyle but that thankfully never materialized and now it's still a place tourists from all over the world come and visit.

We are sleep walking into the future...

@MaartenvanRossemLezingen

5 жыл бұрын

More like sleep driving lolz

@MaartenvanRossemLezingen

5 жыл бұрын

Keylanos Lokj More irrational than the nazis? Or when they thought world war 1 was a good idea? Or the centuries of generations that accepted feudalism, slavery, witch hunting etc.?

American city centers suffered after WW2 more from an abandonment and obsession of businesses moving to the suburbs than to bad architecture though this was of course a factor in their decline. In the U.K. for example the destruction of large areas of cities such as Birmingham (2nd largest after London) Manchester etc. was not because of a move to the suburbs but a pig headed attitude by planners and architects that the new must replace the out dated old (which of course was invariably of much higher quality). The result was the loss of many outstanding buildings replaced by cheap, ugly low quality junk much of which is now coming down because it's now universally despised. Post war architects did 10 times more damage than the German air force did during the war but many people are not aware of this fact.

This talk is bigger than just architecture. It's about humanity and the greater good when you think about it. Incredible.

@LNKSonYOUTUBE

2 жыл бұрын

Architecture is only a small part as planners of course pick the type of buildings they want, not the architects

God I hate modern architecture!

@DavidJGillCA

8 жыл бұрын

+WankersCramp69 Get a grip on the truth. Modern architecture did not create a world full of parking lots and strip malls.

@antred11

7 жыл бұрын

Of course not. Modern architecture is not the cause; it's a symptom.

@ColonelClusterFunk

7 жыл бұрын

The original modernists (Le Corbusier etc.) would have a fit if they saw a Wal-Mart

@ColonelClusterFunk

7 жыл бұрын

That said, they really thought of buildings as just machines to live in

@DavidJGillCA

7 жыл бұрын

+Yeben01 No... Machines FOR living. It's a metaphor!

Just when I was starting to lose faith in TED this came along. Great talk. :D

@JWStreeter

4 жыл бұрын

This TED talk is from 2004, back when TED was still a respectable enterprise.

Can't say I disagree. When I think of an America I would fight and die for, I don't think of Peoria. When I think of my childhood memories of visiting my extended family in Lansing, no part of the city I remember or care about was built after 1940. When I think of an overwhelming downtown that broadcasts America's power and wealth to the world, I don't think of Houston, Miami, or Richmond, I think of iconic skylines with architectural interest, like NYC, Detroit, Chicago, or even (and this is the only part of that non-city that's remotely appealing) "uptown" Charlotte. When I imagine a charming country house, I imagine a Victorian Sears kit or a plantation house, not a vinyl box covered in plastic columns. Then I walk outside, and I feel the need to obsessively garden and landscape in my front yard until there's no grass left, because there's nothing else manmade that's aesthetically appealing within 100 miles. But I still feel depressed and placeless when I leave that yard, and drive to Popeye's for dinner down the featureless, concrete, 6-lane "main street." So does everyone else. They distract themselves from how they really feel by being artificially, ridiculously nice, or becoming more and more religious, or maybe they distract themselves with white hot hatred of whoever their political idols tell them to hate today. But they all feel depressed, lonely, and displaced, and are incapable of acknowledging and dealing with it. That would mean they have to change, and people naturally resist change, even if it's necessary.

@unapprovedtruth7116

5 жыл бұрын

Do you write?

@gizzad

4 жыл бұрын

Bravo

@davidorourke4311

3 жыл бұрын

To emphasize the ugliness of recent decades suburban sprawl type Architecture perhaps inform the regular people that modern Architecture was founded by WW1 Veterans/other ways involved that were hit with PTSD. Don,t mean any offence but the scale of ugly Architecture is a factor in increasing mental health problems in North America and to a lesser extent many older parts of the world.

@phongphong4640

2 жыл бұрын

Totally agree with your very insightful and outstanding delivery of your thought and feeling about your neighborhood. I lived in NYC for 20 years and moved to Vegas for a change. After 2 years in Vegas, I rushed back to NYC. I appreciate NYC every single day after the Vegas experience. In NYC, there are always so many interesting, exciting variety of places, activities and people you can choose from. It keeps life Fun!

@jacobpitts6846

2 жыл бұрын

Hey I'm from Peoria 😆

"PLEASE STOP REFERRING TO YOURSELVES AS CONSUMERS. CONSUMERS ARE DIFFERENT THAN CITIZENS. CONSUMERS DO NOT HAVE OBLIGATIONS, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES TO THEIR FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS." If this quote does not resonate with you or you don't get it, it may help to read "The Corporation" by Joel Bakan or watch the movie

This guy has summed up my exact thoughts on modern American architecture. I especially hate suburban sprawl and how almost everywhere has the EXACT same soulless design features. I've been pointing out things like this for a long time but people don't really seem to grasp or even care what I'm saying. I thought I was crazy.

@Chapelrone

3 жыл бұрын

yeah, they just look like random boxes placed at random location

@loshingtondc6652

2 жыл бұрын

It's difficult to convince people how wrong it is if they haven't done some traveling to beautiful cities in several continents. Then they will see just how bad it's gotten in the U.S.

@thebravesirrobin.

2 жыл бұрын

​@@loshingtondc6652 You say that, but I live in an American city and most people I know associate good urban planning and interesting spaces with poverty, crime, and, if they've travelled, "that only works in Europe". The prevailing attitude is that urban decay in America is a uniquely American problem, and the cure is to escape to suburbia or move to Europe. After all I've read and watched, I think it's more a self-fulfilling prophecy and I wish people wouldn't be so cynical about their own damn country.

I watched this video about 8-10 years ago and immediately agreed with what he said, but I didn’t understand the reason behind America’s bad urban design. Then I stumbled upon Not Just Bikes about a year ago and learned the problem: car centric design and car dependency. This video is a classic and really put planted the seeds for understanding the benefits of good urban design: cities need to be human scale with good public transit.

@Parker307

Жыл бұрын

Not Just Bikes has really picked up the ball where Kunstler left off. Kunstlers great writing and speaking on urban design great but in recent years he is off in the conspiracy weeds. And very year he is saying the the collapse of the world is a happening in the next year or so. I guess there is always an audience for that even though over and over it does not happen.

This is honestly one of the best Ted talks of all time. America is the single most tragic misallocation of resources in the history of the universe. 1 gallon of gasoline can exert the equivalent amount of work as a human can in an entire year. Yet you can sit in any empty brightly lit parking lot in America and watch thousands of automobiles whizz by, chunky SUV’s which have terrible aerodynamics compounded even worse by their speed over 70 miles an hour, squandering our species’ chance to defy the Fermi paradox, so they can commute to bullshit jobs that wouldn’t make sense outside our insane system of mindless consumerism and morally bankrupt capitalist self destruction.

@quant2011

3 жыл бұрын

Totally agree

One of the best TED talks ever. I would laugh at Mr. Kunstler's wit, if I weren't so outraged. But I think that's the idea. A few years ago, when I first saw this, I moved close to work and changed my diet. Now I own a bike and no car...and I'm happier for it. What changes are you making in your life to prepare for what's coming?

@MrBeaux

7 жыл бұрын

I know your comment is 3 years old, but you should read The Geography of Nowhere if you haven't already.

@DariaEllington

6 жыл бұрын

Moving out of the suburbs where most of my neighbors are self-medicating in their mcmansions and telling me that our kids play outside too much.

@Asdos.

5 жыл бұрын

In Holland half the population commutes by bike

@APAL880

4 жыл бұрын

we discovered greater oil reserves in our own country than anywhere in the world. the environmentalist lobby is the only thing stopping us.

I love how he says we won't have a hydrogen economy, and at the end of this video there's an ad for a fancy hydrogen powered car.

@fredrikkarner4115

6 жыл бұрын

Patrick Blouin Hydrogen car "drive till u qualify"

As an advocate for a great public space in Maine, I'll be sharing this TED Talk with my architect and planning colleagues. Well done Mr. Kunstler!

I was expecting the typical modernist, progressive Ted talk, but this actually very based. The European village/localism model is the way to go.

@jackhubert

2 жыл бұрын

Agreed.

This is easily the greatest TED talk I’ve ever seen!

"A bad habitat is an awful thing to get into." - Steven Lloyd Wright

This is one of my favorite talks!

Him: *Talks about how cars have influenced and ruined urban planning* BMW: *sips tea nervously*

I'm surprised he didn't say anything about the fact that the American economy is mainly what created our Architectural landscape in the first place. It's all about building the cheapest, fastest, biggest building, and that's what creates those big ugly blank facades, not necessarily bad Architects.

@williamchamberlain2263

6 жыл бұрын

Cody Gat and bad planning regulations, weak council powers vs corporate leverage, exclusive ownership of space rather than social/community planning

Politicians need to watch this

Boston City Hall really is a depressing place.

@DavidJGillCA

8 жыл бұрын

+biffyqueen Boston City Hall is not even close to being an example of what the nature of the problem is.

@keziahdelaney8174

4 жыл бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/eZWkt6eEia-rYdI.html

@kittykittybangbang9367

3 жыл бұрын

I've actually heard that it's the most European city in America

@biffyqueen

2 жыл бұрын

@@kittykittybangbang9367 Most American cities are founded on a grid system, whereas Boston was organically formed around cow paths, which I guess is closer to most European cities.

@petalchild

Жыл бұрын

@@kittykittybangbang9367 It is, he chose a horrible example to represent Boston.

This is such a big problem. I want to go outside, I want to experience the world but I step out the house and it's just miles of the same exact thing. 50 feet wide roads, no sidewalks, etc, you get the idea Where can I live to combat this, in the US? Should I live in an older city? Maybe a satellite town to a much larger city to avoid the pains of the cities while keeping the town-iness and walkability still there? I'm genuinely asking, if anyone knows how to not live like you're in a prison

This guy is legendary. We need another one for this TED talks with him lecturing in Urban Sprawl.

God bless this man and his work!!! I've followed him for years and his predictions, so far, have been "dead-on" accurate!!!

This man was spot on about the way the world was heading. Away from dependence on cars and fuel. Towards walk-able cities, public transit expansion, and architecture that is inviting not sterile.

Love this Ted talk. Let's stop putting up with postmodernists who defend brutalism as "sophisticated" and "boundary-pushing." This is nonsense. This architecture sucks out people's souls to be around. Think of how many government employees like the building they work in. Reinstate beauty in the world of architecture. "Beauty will save the world" - Dostoevsky

@formulaone07

3 жыл бұрын

Ironically, some of it looks like something a Soviet architect would come up with.

@majacovic5141

3 жыл бұрын

@@formulaone07 No, the soviets had uniform apartment blocks but they intentionally made room for ground floor shops, pedestrian streets, and trees as guards against trafic and weather. This is peak capitalism

@VT-mw2zb

2 жыл бұрын

@@formulaone07 ironically, the Soviets designed cities actually work better. Their Khrushchevka (apartments in Khrushchev's era) were not too tall (6-10 stories max). The blocks were spread out a bit with plenty of spaces and greeneries so children can usually play in the yards and their mothers can stick their heads out the windows and call the kids up for meals. Markets, amenities, and doctors are nearby and within walking distance.

@heartache5742

2 жыл бұрын

but postmodernists hate suburbia

Everytime I go back and watch this video its amazing how true it is.

When visiting America in the early 1900s Oscar Wilde was asked why he thinks America is such a violent place. His response was; “have you seen the state of your wallpaper?” Wallpaper being a metaphor for for the architecture of the buildings.

"Please, please stop referring to yourselves as consumers. Consumers are different than citizens. Consumers do not have obligations, responsibilities and duties to their fellow human beings, and as long as you are using that word - consumer in the public discussion, you will be degrading the quality of the discussion we are having and we are gonna continue being clueless going into this very difficult future that we face." Great quote.

I first saw James Kunstler in the film "The End of Suburbia" I think he's got a great mind and he deserves to be noticed .

@al-du6lb

2 жыл бұрын

same. Also, he has a podcast if you didn't know.

A good example of when some humour can be usd when discussing a difficult subject or topic. 15 years on and this talk still rings true.

The cities in the US are abysmal in general. I always miss European countries when I'm there, and I've been to about ten US states. I'm never going back to the US though.. Its just sad, the architecture, the feeling they give.

@donteatthechalk

9 жыл бұрын

A lot of Canadian cities are the same. Endless & ugly strip mall roads with no public realm or any evidence of people using feet to get around. And then to add insult to injury we have harsh cold winters which add a blanket of grey colour for 5 months of the year. North America is pretty dismal.

@bananian

7 жыл бұрын

donteatthechalk old neighbourhoods have high accessibility to amenities but they are also high crime area because criminals also have high accessibility to their 'amenities'. Also, the idea that the poor living in harmony with the rich is simply la la land delusions. Not even poor people want to live in places where they might get stabbed.

@MrBeaux

7 жыл бұрын

Don't forget about the natural world, America has natural places that are absolutely amazing!

@amacnaughton85

7 жыл бұрын

It doesn't seem to me to be as much about place as age of architecture; most European cities simply have older histories than American ones. If you compare old and new Zagreb or old and new Bratislava you'll see what I mean. The new cities are monstrosities compared to the beautiful and radiant old parts of those cities.

@MrBeaux

7 жыл бұрын

Even the newer stuff they build in Europe looks so much better though. How many endless miles of parking lots, soulless tract homes, and strip malls all with the same chain stores do you see in Europe? WAY less than you see in the US, and Europe has had to pretty much rebuild some cities almost entirely after them being bombed out during WWII. And those rebuilt cities still have good public transit and good urban design that you won't find in the vast majority of American cities. And yeah, I completely agree with you, the history of Europe is an advantage they will always have over America, we'll never have anything like the Louvre, the Sistine Chapel, or the Parthenon, but that doesn't mean we can't improve on what we're doing right now.

That was absolutely refreshing. I wish most professors were like him.

Best TED Talk of all time. Never have I seen someone distill the problems of poor architecture, civic life and our energy issues into such a short amount of time... with humour! Perfect 💯

It's funny how the original title "The tragedy of suburbia" was changed to "How bad architecture wrecked cities".

@kittykittybangbang9367

3 жыл бұрын

Why was the title change though?

You can tell it's an old video because now they wouldn't have him on. They'd have on the very people arguing why ugly is beautiful.

James Howard Kuntsler is spot on in his arguments about the need to re-establish harmonious community living space with architectural design that embraces and encourages the people living in it. I live in New Orleans's Garden District. I live close enough to walk to restaurants, bank, drug store, grocery, etc. The architecture is beautiful and timeless. It is also visually distinct. When I go elsewhere in much of the U.S., I have a hard time finding my way around.

"Our architecture communicates who we are as a people" Yep, America just cares about its money. In Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream they go over how someone lived next to a Wal-Mart, but it was fenced high and have to drive a mile and they are basically forced to drive everywhere. Suburbia is wasteful, inefficient, and sucks balls. It was designed that way because big oil got with city planners to make it that way. City planning also used to be in the humanities, now it's just about the numbers and profit, just like America.

@APAL880

4 жыл бұрын

don't let the modernist and postmodernist architects off easy. their egos are bigger than their buildings. they try to make the most vulgar, repulsive, tasteless buildings, and then feel good about themselves and win awards even though everyone who uses these buildings is depressed by them. they also have a globalist agenda to make all cities look the same and abolish the cultures and histories of each people. these people are sick, and many of their absurd building projects are super expensive to design and build, not streamlined in favor of saving money by removing ornamentation/elegance. so the problem is not just greed and function over form, it's gross, vulgar globalists.

@stuffums

2 жыл бұрын

@@APAL880 Modern and postmodern architecture is mostly a Europe problem, where existing and aesthetic buildings are replaced with egotistical abominations North America is more an economic issue than architecture itself

I just now realized that this ted talk was sponsored by BMW, that is freaking hilarious. This is just a gem, I keep coming back. Kunstler just nails it.

This is one of Kunstler's greatest speeches.

Watching this again in 2020. This is still rock solid stuff. So sharp. Still as relevant and crucial as ever.

@EGbean2

4 жыл бұрын

More relevant now than ever

The audience busts out laughing at the school shooting joke then goes "ooooohh" at the hannibal lecter joke. My how times have changed

@venus_envy

3 жыл бұрын

I like this comment and your username! :D

@TeutonicTribe

Жыл бұрын

Didn’t escape my notice either

This is absolutely excellent! All of his points ring so true. And I've never laughed so much - or really at all- during a TED talk! I will remember this man's name!

What sickens me is that our soldiers are dying overseas for causes that really only thinly veiled excuses to ensure our access to oil - oil that's required to sustain the suburban model. America uses 21% of the world's oil per day; 42% of which is used by private transportation. How can we justify continuing to build environments that maximize our need to drive? What are the benefits of this model to our quality of life? We arn't #1 in health, education, median income, happiness, etc., in fact we're the second most depressed nation. As Kunstler said, what's worth defending? Is Target worth the lives of our children?

@zoxeme

10 жыл бұрын

excellent comment!

@benmccrary2698

7 жыл бұрын

skaidar radiaks totally agree. Private transportation is depressing too. Public transportation sounds awful until you really experience it.

@JohnSmith-qz7jx

5 жыл бұрын

@@benmccrary2698 There is nothing so uplifting as to seeing the rows and rows heroin junkies in the lining the BART stations. The government is giving them free needles so they will toss them on the ground for you to step on.

@kylehankins5988

5 жыл бұрын

We actually are #1 in good housing by a substantial margin, we are also #5 in median income and #1 by a really large margin in average income (that is, not counting oil states like the UAE)

The architecture in my locale punishes my spirit and thew new buildings being erected (at break-neck speed) are ugly and utilitarian. It makes me feel dispirited. Thank you Mr. Kunstler, finally there is somebody in this country that tells like it is about the deplorable architecture that dominates this country.

My home town of Hooksett, New Hampshire has been struggling to find a center for over a decade. There was once a town center, but that was abandoned at some point and shifted closer to the nearby city. As a result, we have one busy, unwalkable, ugly street with struggling retail stores, car dealerships, gas stations, etc. What was once the town center is still quaint, but there's not much there, town hall even left. It's a dilemma that needs solving and it would improve quality of life.

"The public realm has to inform us not only where we are geographically, but it has to inform us where we are in our culture. Where we have come from and what kind of people we are, and by doing that, it has to afford us a glimpse of where we are going, in order to allow us to dwell in a hopeful present. If there is one great catastrophe about the places we’ve built, the human environments we’ve made for ourselves in the last 50 years, it is that it has deprived us of the ability to live in a hopeful present."

"Please please stop referring to yourselves as consumers. Consumers are different then citizens. Consumers do not have obligations, responsibilities and duties to their fellow human beings. And as long as you're using that word, consumer, in the public discussion you will be degrading the quality of the discussion we're having and we're going to continue being clueless going into this very difficult future that we face." James Howard Kunstler

Sad how little has changed since these words were spoken.

That BMW ad is the peak of irony, the cherry on the cake that is this video

He predicted the future, dead malls everywhere nowadays...

Man people really been talking about this stuff for over two decades and I just woke up to it ~4 years ago

Everyone should see this talk, thank you Mr. Kunstler! As an architect from Europe, I agree and want to add that the issue is not limited to the US and not entirely the fault of architects as some comments suggest. Though I agree architects and city planners are the first to blame for the disaster he's describing, I would like to add that this is a wider cultural issue. It's impossible to make meaningful architecture in the culture where clients only see the building in terms of profit it can immediately generate, where pedestrians see the street as a mere connection from A to B and where the form of cities has become entirely predetermined by regulations written by some bureaucrats. Architecture is not a commodity! its literally our everyday environment. Its importance cannot be overemphasized and it should be everyone's concern! Architects should be some of the most knowledgeable people around. Urbanity is indeed one of the greatest human achievements. Important cultures of the past knew how to build great places and those places in return positively influenced generations that came after.

Now that I've lost my financial ability to lease a car a few months ago, having had my car REPOed over a year ago, now am relegated to getting around by walking or taking the Metro bus, I now understand just how 'nauseating' the layout of my suburb is. It takes me 6 minutes to walk from the bus stop at the intersection to get to the entrance of WinCo Foods. The ridiculous redundancy of everyone having their own vehicle. A dozen cars waiting at the drive-thru with engines running. Stupidity.

The funniest thing about this is that after the speaker says "no alternative fuel can save us" there's a hydrogen car BMW advert at 20:34

@N0Xa880iUL

2 жыл бұрын

o.o

and right after that, they put an ad for a hydrogen car. lmao are you kidding me?

one of the best TED lectures I have ever seen. The bite of his energy and enthusiasm is refreshing in the sea of academic neutrality that is often found in these discussion. A great historical record as well

Sadly, here in nyc I've been hearing this mantra, this philosophy for 50 years (usually from old school neighborhood activists) and it has been continually ignored. NYC continues to be a land of a growing ever increasing hideous glass and steel boxes. For the rich.

@hotpepper5037

4 жыл бұрын

U should watch documentary beauty matter

@lindsb3541

4 жыл бұрын

Same here in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Our skylines and older neighbourhoods are being demolished and rebuilt at a break-neck pace into bland, lifeless, unappealing glass, steel and boxy towers and townhouses. Greenspace and adequate parks are an afterthought. And the hideous creations are exorbitantly priced, made for the rich, and with little to no real policy/restriction on foreign ownership (ie. no limit on the number of properties that can be owned, or requirement for the ownership to hold citizenship/status in the country). It is an abomination. Locals can't afford to stay or live and are getting pushed out from rentals and ownership is so wildly out of reach.

As someone from a post-socialist country, yes ugly architecture destroys your wellbeing.

I wish every city council had to watch this. I’m watching the ruination of our little town…I’m powerless, but it still hurts to see.

The water tower bit at the beginning ironically made my day better!

In light of what’s happening now in the world and Australia the last bit hits hard.

We as a nation have gotten really lazy. We used to design building that were looked at for their design, such as the Metropolitan Building in Minneapolis, and the entire Bunker Hill in Los Angeles.

Heh, this was awesome. I love the way Kunstler adds stand-up comedy in this lecture!

Long overdue subject that needs to be heard and implemented very, very soon. Great lecture.

A complementary documental to this is "why beauty matters" . The same goes for art and music.

@TeutonicTribe

Жыл бұрын

Because beauty is truth and truth, beauty. Simple x

As an Australian, I realise we have the same problem in our cities. Perhaps not quite as bad as the U.S. thanks to all the Victorian era architecture remaining in some parts of our older cities, however I did not realise how bad it was until I traveled overseas. Go to places like St.Petersburg, Lisbon, Delhi, Buenos Aires, Cartagena and you realise the beauty that the westernised countries are losing.

James Howard kunstler sure knows how to deliver!

I am glad that Kunstler has had the opportunity to engage in this discussion. My hope is that those of us who are like-minded can work together to improve transportation choices in our cities.

All architects need to see this video.

Wow, early TED was really good.

What most people don't realize is that all schools built in the last 60 years are specifically designed for quick conversion to internment camps. The idea of mass incarceration in these public buildings is a part of common policy in all 50 states and all design is mandated for such uses.

@more_tezza

10 жыл бұрын

Even though that might be true, and it probably is, there is always time to redesign and refurbish these places. It is something that is worth investing in by the local community and the government.

@kommi7658

6 жыл бұрын

Jim Bronaugh My junior high actualy felt like a prison. There were almost no windows within the entire schools. You were lucky if one of your classes had a single 2x4 window. An entire floor of the school was underground. It was extremely small. There was almost no color on the walls whatsoever, everything was just a single shade of gray.

@DariaEllington

6 жыл бұрын

Sounds like a prison.

Not Just Bikes directed me here! Great video! I love how he mentions the confusion between urban and rural among most Americans. There is nothing rural about an asphalt roadway with a stop sign; that is classified as urban!

Exactly! Im glad I got a link to this.