Of course, if a place, a landscape, a streetscape is clean (enough), if I can breathe there (sorry Beijing), and walk or cycle, I can begin to make it my own (even as a visitor).

I meant something different with that. To create places that matter more, I think we should allow more freedom in the ways people fill in those places. Instead of controlling every aspect of the public realm, a place can be so much more if that tight grip is loosened.

One of my earlier drafts focused on New Urbanism, a supposedly more people-centered way of creating places. The problem that I have with it is that it creates overly fake fairytale places. For instance: the town where The Truman Show is shot, Seaside, FL is completely made in the New Urbanism style. It is supposed to be the town of dreams, where everything is perfect, but it just gives me the eerie feeling that it's too perfect. It doesn't feel like a place where people live, because then it couldn't be perfect.

That town, just like Disney's Celebration, FL pictured above, is supposed to be the best example of creating sense of place. But I could never find myself living there. They succeeded in creating a perfect place, that's for sure, but it is purely aesthetic. It doesn't factor in the very people who will live there.

I find it fitting that Disney of all companies created that town. The similarities to the themepark are striking, both come over to me as fake façadism, fake places that are enjoyable for a day or two, but not as places that I could make my own. The tightly controlled environment that works fine in a themepark should never be applied to a town.

Edit: on a side note, mk, do you have any idea why dvh doesn't work?