A city drawn as a star
- Words
- Tomas Reyer
- Published
Seen from above, a triumphal arch sits at the centre of a star of avenues. What that plan does for the people walking it.
From above, the plan is unmistakable. A triumphal arch stands at the centre of a great circle, and the avenues leave it like the points of a star, running straight out across the city until they disappear into the haze.
A plan made to be seen
Radiating avenues are one of the oldest devices in city planning. Every street aims at the same monument, so wherever you stand on one of them the view closes on the arch. The plan does the signposting.
The cost is paid at the centre. Where many avenues meet one roundabout, traffic has to circle, and anyone on foot is kept to the edge or routed around it.
Every street aims at the same monument, so the plan does the signposting.
From the ground
At street level the star is invisible. What you notice instead are long, straight views, blocks cut into wedges where two avenues part, and corner buildings with narrow, pointed fronts. The aerial view explains all of them at once.
