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Comment by cat_plus_plus | Hacker News Reader

I want to live in the building, not look at it and as such I want a balcony, a window that opens and an individual A/C unit that can deliver a strong blast next to my bed on summer nights. If it looks ugly from outside, who cares, make it up with a pretty, clean and safe street with shops and restaurants nearby.

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What you prefer to live in is not the point of the article. It's about why some large, many unit buildings appear imposing / overwhelming while others less so.

Downtown Pyongyang also looks beautiful, yet I think that prioritizing needs of the residents is beautiful in the most important way. Taipei street markets are messy. That's the best food I ever had.

People who actually live in these environments rather than out-of-town tourists don't share that experience though. They prefer the buildings you call dystopian.

That idea works until you have several such buildings near you and you get to go out on your balcony and see an ugly building everyday.

I’m not sure there’s any solution to this.

Europe has had many uniformly designed high density residence towers, with clean and very worked out exteriors, and it’s a hell to live in.

Balconies are a real QOL improvement, actual windows are as well. I had a friend who snapped after a year of not being able to fully open his windows.

There’s middle grounds, with glass towers that partially hide the balconies and AC units for instance to make it look clean, but you never end with the level of uniformity of the hotels in the article.

Take 10,000 hideous plain beige detached houses. Replace 2000 with 20 big buildings. 2000 with 200 small buildings, 2000 with row houses, 2000 with duplexes and quadplexes and leave 2000 as houses (but remove the hoa).

Now they can all look at a large park, and still only take up half the space.

This is a false dilemma. There's no need to choose between ugly buildings with climate control and attractive buildings with poor climate control. It can be very hot in Las Vegas and the buildings shown in the article have climate control more than capable of making you cold in the summer.

Eh, I'd definitely prefer a mini-split to a window air conditioner. Its nice not having to hear the compressor constantly.

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