Optimal Density
City people feel density, but often can’t define it. Is it crowding? Is it too many tall buildings, too close together? Or is density vitality and diversity? Is there an optimal density?
If we asked urbanist Jane Jacobs this question in 1961, this would be her answer: 500 people per acre. Although Jacobs described numerical density as “the monstrosity of the average,” in Chapter 11 of her 1961 book Death and Life of Great American Cities, she summarized her detailed analysis of the qualities of good neighborhoods to settle, reluctantly, on that 500 pp/acre number.
What do you think is good density? The buildings and diagrams compared here sample projects featured in the exhibition HOUSING DENSITY. Think about how and where you’d like to live, but also consider that density is about many people. How should the city think about density so that the scarce resource of valuable urban land is best used for all its citizens?
