A fine view of a famous town.
Notice that many of the blocks seem to have interior courtyards. The famous French mathematician Augustin Fresnel (of the eponymous lens) is less well known for his work on the form of cities. He demonstrated that the courtyard pattern provides many advantages, includes a great deal of street frontage, a maximum of light exposure, and a considerable area of green space. Blocks are still short enough that there are many streets, which can be fairly narrow. The only way around Fresnel's conclusion is the use of tall buildings with elevators. I believe that Fresnel's conclusions are still valid, and that the modern form, elevator building with broad streets, is not an improvement in city form. In this case, many of the interior courtyards are quite small. In fact, even small courtyards provide remarkable amounts of light and air. I happen to prefer larger ones generally.
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