The Formula for Lovable Cities

Camillo Sitte’s 1889 book The Art of Building Cities argued that beloved urban places depend less on impressive architecture than on how buildings shape streets and public spaces. Its ideas challenged the straight grids, broad boulevards, symmetry, and open vistas favored by many planners. Sitte’s work strongly influenced urban design in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but was largely eclipsed when modernist planning took hold. Its lessons remain relevant to anyone trying to build new places that feel welcoming rather than merely look grand.

The discussion focuses on enclosure, human-scale proportions, and the limits of symmetry. Buildings can make squares feel like outdoor rooms, while corner entrances, covered passages, and colonnades preserve their boundaries; Brussels’ Grand-Place and Barcelona’s Plaça Reial contrast with the exposed, traffic-dominated Trafalgar Square and Place de la Concorde. Sitte’s rule of thumb is that a square should be no wider than twice the height of its main building: oversized spaces such as St Peter’s Square can make monuments seem small and leave visitors exposed, while the Pantheon’s intimate forecourt heightens its presence. Curves and offset junctions can also give streets a sense of closure. The account presents these principles as a way to explain why public spaces can succeed even when their buildings are ordinary - and why celebrated architecture can be undermined by its setting.