Will we ever see the organic quality of midieval cities in new development?

This is a musing which seems like it would be best
addressed by following up on the references mentioned
in 
http://www.carfree.com/design/intro.html

---- but here it is anyways!:

Will we ever see the organic quality of midieval
cities in new development?

This has been in the back of my mind for some time. 

It sounds like this is what Joel will be addressing at

TCFCIV
http://www.worldcarfree.net/conference/details.php#principles

(but I won't see it unless they webcast/record it)

I've seen the new urbanist attempts to engineer in
randomness, like horton plaza-
http://www.jerde.com/go/place/hortonplaza
(and some of las vegas)

but those have more of the feeling of caricatures.

Now, with a boring apartment building with balconies,
once individual residents move it and do different
things with their balconies, a lot is added to the
scene.

What sort of framework could / would be put in place
when you get a block of space in a brownfield near
downtown seattle, say, to get a new area with the
midieval quality of feeling? (carfree of course)

It can't be as simple as requiring different
architects for different lots and even different
floors... as the the streets themselves must have
significant variation and individuality.

It seems to me that we can never create a new midieval
town... it is almost like trying to evolve a
grasshopper from an early predecessor...
intentionally, and without the earlier conditions and
the vast amounts of time.

Of course we don't need the midieval feel to enjoy a
well-designed carfree environment.

But if we did get a huge block of land on which to
build a carfree city the "problem" of having it feel
like disneyland, las vegas, or a master-planned
community seems significant.

Since carfree-ing of areas is progessing gradually (at
least in some places), this might not be a significant
issue... and yet it is a significant issue if you've
had the chance to experience anything like the Jerde
projects http://jerde.com (http://paseoatsdsu.com is
one) or just about any of the new urbanist
developments I've seen (like
http://www.villageofcheshire.com/).

If Joel says to wait for the conference, I will... (or
for his new design book
http://www.carfree.com/design/intro.html ) I'll
probably start asking if they have provisions for
putting videos of the presentations on the web...

I guess if zoning and government regulations are
overcome, the streets could be designed with great
variety (as in Joel's districts), difference of
materials, difference in time, and likewise with
everything else. It requires more time and less
efficiency (more diversity), which suggests that is
the correct approach.


In fact, it may require entirely new (or different,
rather) social structures for such a thing to happen.
The only US location I've been to where I could
imagine this happening (a new midieval feel) is
Earthaven Ecovillage (http://earthaven.org). They
don't quite have it there, due to auto use... but they
could, and may...

A key part of it is that many people are building
their own houses in entirely different ways, likewise
with the community buildings... and while there is a
forestry coop building multiple buildings with a
similar feel, their practices and skills have evolved
in time.

Interestingly, the midieval towns do have a sameness
within them (I've been looking at Joel's pictures)...
having to do with the material out of which they're
constructed, and a common style. No doubt the age of
the structures (along the lines of
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22how+buildings+learn%22
  perhaps) and what has been done to them in time is
part of the draw.

I am making a basic mistake of architecture though: it
is not the buildings, but the life between and within
the buildings that should concern us, and be our
standard...
http://www.rudi.net/bookshelf/classics/lifebetweenbuildings/index.shtml

Colin
http://carfreeuniverse.org
 



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