OpenGeofiction
I’ve continued to work on Lafort. I took some advice I got a few months ago, and I’m looking for some more. There’s a lot that’s incomplete, but one of my big problems is making my roads interesting. Especially in the northern parts of the city, they become kind of boring. What can I do to make my city better? Thanks!
Discussion
Comment from ImmortalHawk on 23 October 2018 at 04:01
Maybe add more buildings? Idk I think its decent. Maybe the roads could become a little more suburban?
Comment from LemonKing on 23 October 2018 at 07:57
I agree buildings make the city – but work some more on the streets first.
Avoid almost-but-not-quite parallel and right angled streets. This area can become really beautiful with the interplay between two different grid directions, but straighten the streets first and perfect the parallels.
About the northern parts: consider remaking some of the residential roads with a more suburban layout, perhaps something like this.
Then make groups of identical residential buildings with copy-paste to emphasize the rhythm. Experiment to find the perfect tension between order and disorder.
Happy mapping!
Comment from Luciano on 23 October 2018 at 16:21
@LemonKing - I would push back a bit on the “Avoid almost-but-not-quite parallel and right angled streets”. There are many cities, especially those laid out on the pre-modern era, which have “not quite perfect” grids. I distinctly remember Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, where I spent a semester in the late 1980s:
osm.org/#map=17/14.83276/-91.51603
And in the US, also a legacy of Spanish colonialism, the downtown Los Angeles grid is famous for being “not quite parallel.”
osm.org/#map=15/34.0517/-118.2361
I have more issue with the “sweeping curves” (e.g. Lafort Avenue). Real urban roads, when they curve, tend to follow more of a pattern of “straight, curve, straight, curve…”. The sweeping curves are never in the older parts of town, but out in the suburbs which were laid out after they gave the civil engineers curve-drawing tools.
Comment from CartographerKing on 23 October 2018 at 17:52
Possibly make the northern city more a suburban road system or take inspiration from Barcelona