A Lego Urban Design Primer
Sarah and I were at the store picking up some things for the newborn, and I wandered over to the Lego section to see what the latest ridiculous theme lines were (something went wrong between Castle Lego and Star Wars Lego, in my view). It just so happens that they have released a line that feels like what I grew up with in the ’80s: the City series.
Although he won’t be old enough to play with it for a few years (he’s two weeks old today) I bought Dexter the ‘City Corner’ set, which just so happens to be a superb example of sound urban design.
Notice first the mixed use development, where people can live and work in the same spot, in this case there is residential use above the pizzeria. Almost every truly vibrant place has a mix of land uses, as opposed to segregated uses where people live in one district, work in another, and shop in yet another, etc.
Second, it’s an active street, featuring the following:
- Sidewalks: you would think these go without saying, but think of the streets you know without sidewalks, and I guarantee you’re thinking of a place you wouldn’t want to walk. Notice that it’s cycle friendly as well.
- Effective transit: I’m assuming because Lego is European that the transit is frequent and reliable, which makes this spot an appealing point of origin for people who live here, and an easy-to-access destination for visitors. (I added the pantograph to the bus, figuring that if it’s European it also ought to be electric.)
- Defined edge: a line of buildings built to the sidewalk, which join to form a street wall which defines the space. (I’ll need to dig out some of my classic Lego to add some more buildings to really bear this out, which I probably won’t have time to do until Dexter is talking.)
- Active building frontages: the businesses themselves contributes to a positive pedestrian environment; however, the presence of commercial activity is not sufficient in and of itself. To make it work, the frontage must be permeable (the businesses are inviting and accessible from the street) and fine-grained (in that the individual business frontages are not too wide, therefore offering many options to strollers and contributing a sense of rhythm to the street).
- Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED, or ‘sep-ted’ as we say): part of the benefit of having activity at all hours, which comes more easily with mixed use, is having ‘eyes on the street‘ which helps deter crime. Notice also the lighting on the buildings, which eliminates dark corners. For bonus points, the lighting is all downward casting, which reduces light pollution (which is light waste when you think about it) and is generally more energy efficient.
The only missing things I can think of are: secure bike parking, renewable micro power generation, public art, and a bit of green space. All in all, still a surprising example of a “place worth caring about” in the words of urbanist James Howard Kunstler.
21 thoughts on “A Lego Urban Design Primer”
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Love it Don…. Love it!
If only it were as simple as building Lego.
Lego is great! I learnt all my nautical skills through years of building Lego pirate ships. I hope Dexter turns out to be a better urban planner than the swashbuckling pirate I turned out to be.
Admit it, Don. You bought that Lego set for your enjoyment as much as your boy’s. Next you are going to buy Hot Wheels and HO train sets to show your kid about city infrastructure.
I spent three years on the design committee asking; What would Lego do? What would Lego do?
Lego and SimCity inspiring the next generation of Duany’s, Calthorpe’s and Beasley’s. I love it.
If only it were that easy to do for real. I’d love to see more areas designed like this in Edmonton.
Good urban design: so simple a child can do it. So why is it so hard to do it in real life? I bet it isn’t. We just need to start building cities citizens idolize – like the one in this Lego box. We want it, so let’s build it.
Existing subdivision pattern and fragmentation of ownership is one barrier, but lack of political will is the other. That one we can change. Campaign Finance Reform is connected, in a roundabout way, to this.
Meanwhile, I’ve managed to justify hauling out my old lego over the summer Council break in August to build the rest of the ideal place. It will be an intersection and it won’t have a gas station. I will take more pictures.
lets build it for real….
speaking of urban planning, why doesn’t the city do something with this plot of land by fort road?
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=&g=city+of+edmonton&ie=UTF8&ll=53.581398,-113.443065&spn=0.007414,0.043602&t=h&z=15
the plot of land with the old chimney in the middle of a brown field.
it’s close to the lrt lines. and in a community that needs some revitalization and beautification. seems like a perfect candidate for that “infill planning” you were talking about awhile back.
I too have been recently looking at the Lego City sets. Many of the sets are simple, yet functional and it’s really sad that many North American municipalities, including Edmonton, can’t get it right in many cases.
Nevertheless, teaching children about things like urban planning/design using tools like Lego can be crucial for our municipalities once the younger generations get older. I for sure will be teaching my future children all about urban design and planning; maybe they will want to be a planner like myself. :)
As a side note, the Lego Architecture series has recently been released with some neat buildings such as the Sears Tower and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater.
This is spectacular!
Your lovely wife just sent me over here from my posting about a Playmobil cargo bike mail carrier. Love this. Actually when we were looking for toys we asked about a big bucket of ‘plain’ Lego, no set involved, but somehow we stumped the toy store manager. So sending this to my urban planning friends.
Sara:
The plain Lego buckets are making a big comeback – there are lots at Toys R Us (in boxes and tubs) and Zellers (just tubs, though they’re currently having a Buy One Get One 1/2 off, so it’s a good time to stock up for birthday parties!).
Can I vote for you, even if you’re not in my Ritchie district? I love your vision… Keep up the great work!!
how old is don?
I was 30 when I wrote this particular post, and am 31 now.