These passages and the localism movement (ie. Wrath of Gnon twitter) make me think that maybe there are things that society should explicitly avoid applying any lessons we learn from "Fast" projects, because they necessarily require time to develop properly:
> “Brasilite,” as a term, also underscores how the built environment affects those who dwell in it. Compared to life in Rio and Sao Paulo, with their color and variety, the daily round in bland, repetitive, austere Brasilia must have resembled life in a sensory deprivation tank. The recipe for high-modernist urban planning, while it may have created formal order and functional segregation, did so at the cost of a sensorily impoverished and monotonous environment-an environment that inevitably took its toll on the spirits of its residents.
and
> First, existing structures are evolved organisms built by people trying to satisfy their social goals. They contain far more wisdom about people’s needs and desires than anybody could formally enumerate.
I would make the same critique about all American cities with their grids and wide roads compared to the character of old European cities. Having spent years living in London, San Francisco, and Brasília, I definitely consider London the superior city. But between San Francisco and Brasilia it’s not so clear. Brasilia for all its flaws is much greener and pedestrian friendly.
Certainly Brasília is a lot greener, but I wouldn't say it's pedestrian friendly: crosswalks requires one to deviate from the shortest route by a lot and walking in the north-south direction is always a terrible experience. What ameliorates this felling is when you are only walking inside of a block, but that's a tiny part of the Brasília's usual commute.
