That structure in Dredd reminded me of Corbs Ville Contemporaine (aka 'A City of Three Million Inhabitants') design. Interestingly, the objective was to bring back a green landscape without sacrificing urban density. Almost everywhere there isn't a structure there would have been park. Manufacturing, Business, Recreation, and Habitation each occupied it's own zone. One of Corbusier's plans could fit 800-1200 residents/hectare.
It's an interesting observation on our vision of a utopia; Paul Rudolph enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity in the 60's & 70's, now many of his structures (in the U.S.) have been dismantled. Luckily some past endeavors age well, e.g. Neave Brown was awarded the Gold Medal by RIBA for Robin Hood Gardens several years ago, Trellick Tower is still standing, etc.
Yeah, it was one way to do that, for sure. But there are other ways that many people would think are far better. Here's a typical street in a neighborhood that is presently at about 30,000 people/mile^2 (11,000 people/km^2):
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.0103594,-87.6643239,3a,75y,2...
We have since discovered that this becomes a major problem. If these things are far apart, you need to dedicate a ton of resources to transportation to move people between those areas.
Prenzlauerberg is a fancy/hip neighborhood and not representative of how the average Berliner lives.
Of course a lotbof happened between these ideas and the situation now.
Heidelberg is of course pittoresque but not a city in the same league in size. Maybe Mannheim could be taken as a town planning model.
Although I guess one feature mentioned by OP that is relatively unique (in the German speaking countries) to Berlin how wide so many of the streets/sidewalks are.
I think these might work in Detroit. The city has lots of vacant land. These towers are wider at the bottom. Why not have shops and offices on the lower floors? The upper floors would offer great views of the Detroit river into Windsor or out to the suburbs. By staggering the rows everyone would have a great view.
You'd be within walking distance of shops in the other towers, it would be village-like with a lot of green space. In effect you'd have a set of towers in the middle of a park.
(Parmentier lived at a time before the pommes frites, when only pigs, prisoners, and people in poor faraway countries ate potatoes. The story goes that he set up a fancy potato field, complete with armed guards, but because they weren't guarded at night, the same people who earlier wouldn't dare eat a potato came to steal them under cover of darkness to grow themselves.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine-Augustin_Parmentier#Po...
Caveat: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Parmentier says it's fake news. Parmentier really did wish to guard his research patches.
100% agree with this. He designed first planned city of India, Chandigarh - state capital of Punjab at that time. Buildings he designed are lifeless to me. There is just no motivation going into those buildings, they sap your energy. Legislature house is easily one of the worst designed building of them all - imagine giving your politicians such an uninspiring structure and tasteless interior. On top, all of these buildings are poorly lit. I dreaded going into these buildings and bureaucrats housed inside also resented their offices.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2017/apr/07/the-c...
[1] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=lichtenberg+berlin&t=hx&iar=images... [2] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gropiusstadt+berlin&t=hx&iax=image... [3]
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=dredd+movie+building&t=osx&iar=ima...
Fuller probably envisioned the shape of his buildings as futuristic and naturalistic, but to me, they look like nuclear power plants. Icons (as in a simplified, recognizable image) end up playing an unexpected role.
From the countries I've visited, I'd say Berlin (especially Prenzlauerberg) and Tokyo had the most pleasant version of urban design. With Berlin, most apartments have balconies, streets are wide enough to let shops expand onto the sidewalks, and public transit works extremely well. Tokyo mixes commerce with residential in a way that American cities get completely wrong.
There is also a city in Poland, Łódź, which also has a geometrically appealing layout: it's essentially a single long street with two concentrations at either end. The city itself is still recovering from the 90s and is fairly run-down outside of the center, but the conceptual simplicity has an appeal that's hard to describe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piotrkowska_Street