Drawing pictures of cities

Image from noahpinion.substack.com on 2021-07-24 at 1.33.54 PM.jpeg

This is a famous picture by the artist Imperial Boy (帝国少年), who works in the anime industry. I sometimes claim that the entire genre of solarpunk is simply a riff on this picture.

If it’s not just “trees on buildings”, where does the Imperial Boy picture get its magic? Looking at it carefully and trying to analyze what I like about it, I think that much of it is about architecture, and even more of it is about the use of urban space — about how the structures in the picture shape the kinds of things you’d do if you were there. For example, here are five things I like:

  1. Open, walkable multi-level retail
  2. River with low bank
  3. Walkable streets
  4. Varied architecture
  5. Shade
  1. ​251. Different Chairs​
  2. ​Suburban Nation​
  3. ​Towers in the Village​