Episode Details

Daniel asked a sharp question: if humans keep getting better at design, shouldn't a city drawn on a blank page by experts work better than one that just grew? This episode examines the track record of three iconic planned cities — Brasília, Chandigarh, and Canberra — and the unintended consequences of top-down urban planning. We dig into why the superblock model failed, what Jane Jacobs got right about "organized complexity," and whether the engineering mindset itself is the problem. With dozens of new planned cities under construction today — NEOM, Nusantara, California Forever — the question isn't academic anymore.