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How to Make an Attractive City

4 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
4 HN users recommended this explainer4 months2015–2018 score 4.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Recommended in urban planning and housing threads as a concise summary of what makes cities livable and beautiful.

The School of Life sets out principles for making attractive cities, arguing that the art has been lost in the modern world.

“This video is really informative in this regard and has changed my opinion on a few things” (HN, 2018)

1 strong recommendations · 4 recommendations · 1 citations · Explainers

6 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@konschubert Apr 2018 Strongly recommends
on HN thread The Dow of Cities
Because there are ugly cities and there are beautiful cities. And they are so for a reason. This video is really informative in this regard and has changed my opinion on a few things: [this video]
Informative on why some cities are beautiful
@matkam Jan 2016 Recommends
on HN thread San Francisco's Fog Over Growth
Relevant to this topic, Youtube channel "The School of Life" talks about this issue where people are reluctant to build, causing the housing price to go up. One Reason Homes Cost So Much: [link] As a follow up, the same channel offers some more ideas and broader view solutions. How to Make an Attractive City: [this video]
Broader ideas and solutions for attractive cities
@cleansy Jun 2018 Recommends
on HN thread Future generations will laugh in horror and derision at the folly of facadism
Read more
> Finally, it should be mentioned that buildings are owned by private companies and individuals, who generally have a right to do whatever they want to them! Err, no. A city can and should decide what the "overall look and feel" is. London fails at that spectacularly. Pretty much all cities that are considered beautiful have building guidelines in place that support that. Like: you can build only to the height of neighboring buildings, windows need to line up, specific styles and mandatory balconies to fit into the environment. Think of Amsterdam or Barcelona. The overall look of a city is part of the quality of life of its citizens. If you leave it to property developers, well, you get something like London. EDIT: "The school of Life" made a video that explains that pretty well. [1] 1: [this video]
Explains why building guidelines make cities beautiful

Citations, criticism and jokes

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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