{"id":9328,"date":"2020-01-28T13:00:35","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T18:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/?p=9328"},"modified":"2020-01-26T18:41:19","modified_gmt":"2020-01-26T23:41:19","slug":"book-review-soft-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2020\/01\/28\/book-review-soft-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Soft City"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Author: David Sim (Island Press, 2019)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bringing the soft back to cities<\/h3>\n

Cities are often caricatured as hard and harsh. Concrete, steel, loud noises, crowds and congestion, bright lights, fast speeds, isolated people. With the increasing focus on \u2018smart cities’, we are in danger of adding another layer of technocracy to our cities, further adding to their hardness and social isolation.<\/p>\n

David Sim’s book, Soft City<\/em><\/a>, provides a counterpoint to this version of the city. The book makes the case for a human-scale \u201csoft city\u201d that emphasizes the design of our built environment to promote human movement, interaction, and comfort. It promotes a diversity of building types and thoughtful urban design to ensure a resilient urban environment and society. In Sim’s eyes, a \u201c\u2018soft city\u2019 is a human-centered city; one that adapts to the needs of its residents and visitors in order to accommodate the pleasures of everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about density and diversity<\/h3>\n

Soft City<\/em> makes a case for density and diversity at a human scale. Rather than thinking about cities as a collection of buildings and infrastructure, Sim thinks about them as a series of relationships: between people and place, people and planet, and people and other people. He believes cities are not simply a collection of buildings, but rather the interactions that they promote.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Illustrations from the book.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to the author<\/a>, \u201cwe see an increasing need for living densely and with that comes sets of contradictions between privacy, sociability, economic efficiency and spatial design.\u201d The book seeks to balance such contradictions by suggesting simple, low-tech, low-cost, small-scale, human-centred solutions to improve everyday urban life, and help address some of our current human challenges, from the climate emergency to the rise in political polarization.<\/p>\n

Reconnecting people to place, planet, and other people<\/h3>\n

Drawing on works by the likes of Jane Jacobs, Christopher Alexander and Jan Gehl, Soft City <\/i>carries on the proud tradition of these urbanist luminaries. From a foreword by Jan Gehl through its nine chapters, the book persuasively outlines how our cities can be softened through urban interventions at a human scale. Throughout the book, Sim shares specific examples of how to make any city more efficient, more livable, and better connected to the environment through a collection of accessible, \u2018doable\u2019 solutions that can help reconnect people to places, our planet, and\u2014other people. By creating opportunities for social interaction and urban propinquity<\/a>, these ideas can help soften the edges of our hard cities.<\/p>\n

\n
\"David
The author and his book. Image courtesy of Gehl<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cRather than one big idea or one single solution, it\u2019s a story of 1000 small steps towards improving people\u2019s quality of life.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

David Sim<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The book concludes by outlining nine important criteria for dense livable cities, each accompanied by tangible solutions. These measures include density at a human scale, flexibility and responsiveness, diversity of public spaces and built forms, a sense of social identity and control, accessibility and contentedness, micro-climates, increased biodiversity, and a smaller carbon footprint.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"An
An image from the chapter “Getting About and Getting On.” Courtesy of Gehl<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rather than a book you sit down and read, Soft City<\/i> is a book that invites you to explore what it has to offer. It is highly visual, filled with primary colours, useful case studies, original ideas, inspiring photographs, and helpful graphics. As such, it is highly recommended that you forgo the e-book version and get yourself a physical copy.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

David Sim<\/b><\/a> is Creative Director at Gehl<\/a> where he champions people-first urban strategies and design work worldwide. His knowledge of human-scale cities have made him a leader in the push for more equitable, healthy and sustainable urban environments.<\/em><\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

For more information visit the\u00a0Island Press website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Yuri Artibise<\/strong><\/a> is a public policy advisor with a passion for city planning and community housing. He is the Executive Director of the Vancouver City Planning Commission<\/a>, and is the principal at Yurbanism, a strategic and urban engagement and policy consulting practice.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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With the increasing focus on \u2018smart cities’, we are in danger of adding another layer of technocracy to our cities, further addingContinue reading “Book Review: Soft City”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6024,"featured_media":9332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[419,426,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-infrastructure","category-streetscape","category-urban-design"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBook Review: Soft City - Spacing National<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2020\/01\/28\/book-review-soft-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Review: Soft City - Spacing National\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Author: David Sim (Island Press, 2019) Bringing the soft back to cities Cities are often caricatured as hard and harsh. 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