These are a really extreme examples of how cities are constantly changing. If not because of a natural growth then there is a history behind the change. Quite often a war like in Dubai or Dresden. But the point I am making is that this change is a part of the city, part of the town being alive, moving, growing.
Dubai
Shenzhen
Dresden
Las Vegas
Warsaw
London's Barbican Center on Blitzed Area
And this is an example that I am going to use in my essay, It is my home town in Lithuania :
Old and new Church of Gargzdai
Everything is changing. It is natural. More people means more needs and because of that towns have to adjust.
We are used to see images like this - old, historical buildings with Starbucks or McDonald's in them. Nowadays, these things are ordinary to us. A lot of cities or towns have changed drastically during a decade or two.
You might think that it happened only to a large city's but my small home town is a good example to prove it wrong. It changed not only appearance but a function too and it even happened a few times. At first Gargzdai was a really empty town with only the main bread baking factory in it. After my country got independence in 1993 a few shops and restaurants started to appear. Later on young people having nothing to do organized something like a night club only with no bars or dancing till the morning (closing at 12). Unfortunately, the majority of people living in the town were pensioners and they made the club to close down. The youth still had their small skate park and some drawing, dancing, singing clubs. Only recently Gargzdai renovated the whole city centre. It is now unrecognisable. I started to notice how the government is trying to make the town look modern
with strange houses, weird looking street lights and uncomfortable benches.
After a while skate park was closed down. Then a bunch of cameras were scattered around the town. Later, the park (place where youth were gathering around) started to turn off the outdoor lights at 11pm. Also, government build a children play ground in a middle of it. This year it was announced that Gargzdai is in the third place from all Lithuania's towns that has the biggest population growth. And everybody knows why: it became a bedroom area where people working in a bigger towns come to grow their family's and have a good nights sleep with no traffic noises.
There are a lot of examples like these, but what about the towns that haven't changed? How did they managed to keep their citizens happy and not only that, how did they manage to keep them from moving away? What is their scheme? If it is based on a quite town module how do they keep the youth entertained? Could utopian towns really exist?
Research Utopian Towns:
Bournville Village:
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