It's not often that I read a book that really inspires me. Especially if it's a doctoral thesis, because those books are made to bore basically. There are usually too much information and so fine words that only the thesis editor can follow.
However I was super positively surprised over Sara Westlins doctoral thesis "Planerad alltför planerad". The original version is in Swedish but it goes to translate as "Planned too much planned". She refers to city planning in a smart way. There might be master pieces architecturally to watch but to feel. Too often are urban environments planned as monuments not really for people to live in.
That is note a very new thought because already Jane Jacobs (1960’s) was critisizing this, but I like the way that Westlin has guts to critize ”a modern master peace” such as Swedish Hammarby sjöstad. City planners all around the world come to visit that area, to admire and learn from it. But is it really so excellent? Is there enough life in the streets to keep that housing area alive?
I’m soon heading to New York. Where the streets are actively changing, and like Sarah Jessica Parker says in the Sex in the City: ”In New York City, you walk out the door and you do not know what is going to happen. There’s such potential for poetry.” That’s probably a cultural difference and a matter of size. In Stockholm you could never see that much people in the streets, or maybe if it’s a big happening such as the Royal Wedding in Summer 2010. But normally Stockholm streets are quiet and lonely. That characterizes Stockholm very well especially when walking and feeling the streets or when watching them from high up.
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