26 Sep

What’s the difference between a big building and a small city?

The social environment, situation, time, and inhabitants all create and change small cities or big buildings.  First, it’s probably appropriate to try and define each simply.  A big building is a compilation of many units, apartments, shops, and/or spaces.  People gather together for a shared purpose, either witnessing or participating in some event together.  People can either share similar common spaces or not; they could act as a community or as separate entities.  Within a similar situation and context, big buildings seem to fit, and their size doesn’t overwhelm.  A small city can have more intimate interaction, people know each other, and have usually been through similar situations or problems, and work to overcome them together.  A small city can essentially be a big building spread out on land.  For some reason, I think people (including myself) get stuck in assuming that big buildings and small cities are dissimilar, but when you start to compare the differences, it becomes obvious that there aren’t many.  Big buildings are not always skyscrapers; small cities are not always horizontal.  These lines obviously blur when shopping malls seem to have characteristics of both.  Visiting and shopping at Porta di Roma this weekend combined the experience of a small city and big building into one entity.