Urban planning is defined as the process of controlling the utilization of design and land of an urban development, with the aim of ensuring that communities and settlements in the urban areas are orderly developed. Urban planning is concerned with analysis and research, urban design, policy recommendations, strategic thinking, management and implementation of recommended policies.
The modern urban planning methods started to be used during mid-19th century, as a solution to the disorder experienced in the industrial cities.
In addition, urban planning includes urban renewal, under which urban planning methods are adopted to an existing city that has been undergoing a fast decline. Paris is one of the cities that underwent the adoption of urban planning methods under the Haussman plan that was used to give modern day Paris its present structure.
Though Before Sunset is a romantic movie set in Paris in 2004, it can be used to analyze such aspects of urban planning as neighborhood gathering places, importance of open spaces for a big city, mixed use concept as well as urban density and elements for physical design.
Neighborhood gathering places are places where people from the same neighborhood meet to connect and socialize. Places like tea or coffee shops, parks, town squares, outdoor spaces, bars, restaurants or public access buildings form major neighborhood gathering places.
The fact that urban planning ensures orderly development of communities and settlements makes neighborhood gathering places very essential. This is because they are evidences of an orderly developed settlement, as they provide the people of one neighborhood with the chance to connect and socialize. Such places are represented in the movie by the café and garden that Jesse and Celine visit during their time together.
The sequence of the movie might not have capitalized on the people in the café, as this sequence focused more on Jesse and Celine, but all the people in the café were involved in a series of conversations and most of them seemed to know each other. This clearly happens between people from the same neighborhood and if more investigations were made on the crowd in the café, evidence would have been collected to show that most were from the same neighborhood.
In many cases, people strolling in a garden come from the neighborhood in which the garden is situated. For this reason, the garden through which Jesse and Celine passed can be identified as a neighborhood gathering place.
Proper urban planning puts open places into consideration when designing a big city. Such open spaces include parks and rivers, which are important because they improve the overall urban life quality, strengthen the community, form an urban oasis, enhance recreation and health, promote relaxation and reduce stress, enhance property values, ensure ecological conservation and promotes creativity.
In Before Sunset, the open spaces are represented by the garden and The Seine that forms the major places that Jesse and Celine visited during the short period they spent together in Paris.
Many properties and companies are located along the Seine. This is because the properties and companies located along the open spaces are know to be of a higher value as compared to their counterparts that are situate in other areas. Recreational and commercial boats are used in negotiating the river, which increases the value of the properties along it.
Essentially, the recreation boats are utilized by most people to promote relaxation and relieve stress as well as enhance health and recreation. Many creative artistic expressions can be found in the garden that Jesse and Celine passed through and hence it is used for promoting creativity. In addition it is used for ecological conservation.
Mixed-use development forms a fundamental aspect of urban planning that ensures the utilization of a set of buildings, neighborhood or building for many uses. In many Paris boulevards, commercial activities, jobs and housing are located in close proximity, with the aim of increasing the transportation options. Additionally, such developments increase property values as they are located in urban areas or new town centers.
Le Corbusier is a modern architect who was an advocate of the Syndicalist Movement that proposed the mixed-use developments of such areas in Paris as Ville Contemporaine, Ville Radieuse and Plan Voison. Some scenes of Before Sunset are shot in street that have the same plans as those proposed for Ville Contemporaine, Ville Radieuse and Plan Voison by Le Corbusier. Though these scenes capitalize on the conversation between Celine and Jesse, the major characteristics of Mixed-use developments can be witnessed in such streets.
Some of these streets have a combination of commercial, office, industrial, residential as well as other land uses. Additionally some of the streets seen by Celine and Jesses as they negotiate the Seine in a recreational boat have the same characteristic of the Mixed-use developments. These therefore form a major aspect of urban planning in the movie.
Urban density as utilized in urban planning and design refers to the number of people living in a give urban area. This term is used to help people understand how cities work. In many cases, urban density is measured using Floor area ratio, Residential density, population density, employment density, gross density, net density, and weighted density.
In many cases, urban density is utilized as a major element of the physical design of a city. The main difference between Paris and Los Angeles is their physical design that is dependent on their urban density. The urban density of Paris is less as compared to that of New York.
This is the reason why New York is characterized by greater road congestions, higher air pollution and more expensive real estate as compared to Paris. As Celine and Jesse walk in the street, their conversation spans through many subjects that span over the major differences between New York and Paris. Such conversations make the main basis for differentiating between the urban density of Paris and New York.
Essentially, this conversation and the evidence collected as they walk through the streets ascertain the reason why the urban planning and design of Paris is as it is. This is because it is dependent on urban density.
Before Sunset is a movie that has been reviewed from different aspects, but no reviews have never been made based on urban planning. In this case, urban planning forms the basis of this review and it is defined as the process of controlling the utilization of design and land of an urban development with the aim of ensuring that communities and settlements in the urban areas are orderly developed.
Neighborhood gathering places, importance of open spaces for a big city, mixed use concept as well as urban density and elements for physical design, are the main aspects utilized to analyze urban planning in the movie. The café and garden that Jesse and Celine visit form the neighborhood gathering places in the movie. The importance of spaces for a big city is brought out by the Seine and garden visited by Celine and Jesse.
The streets that Celine and Jesse traverse bring out the Mixed-use concept in the movie and the conversations between Celine and Jesse bring out the aspect of Urban Density and elements of physical design. In conclusion, though Before Sunset is a romantic movie set in Paris in 2004, it can be used to analyze such aspects of urban planning as neighborhood gathering places, importance of open spaces for a big city, mixed use concept as well as urban density and elements for physical design.