Density in urban context

• Main Author: Fomyn, Pylyp, 1985-
• Other Authors: Listaháskóli Íslands
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Arkitektúr; Borgarskipulag; Umhverfismál; Græn svæði; Þétting byggðar; City planning; Environmental aspects; Græn; Reykjavík; Svæði
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/11683

A direct and fundamentally optimistic approach of dense urban living and questioning of the ideologies of the urban planners since the Victorian age is the core concept in this paper. Density was perceived as destructive in the growing industrial city, which suffered from overcrowding, poverty and ill health. It was for these reasons that planners such as Ebenezer Howard in 1898 proposed a thinning out of the population by creating less dense and greener surroundings like the Garden City model. This paper will discuss the concept of density in an urban context, and how urban planners applied it in theory and practice. Providing evidence about the influence of density not only as physical environment, but also how it affects our cities in economical, environmental and sociological sense. Proposing a more dense urban fabric serving the complex organism of the city, generating safety and diversity. Learning from one of the most populous dense cities such as Berlin and Barcelona and reflect the experience on the much younger Reykjavík.