How would you design your dream city? | James Rojas

And now, our TED Talk of the day.

Today, we're going to learn about how to build your idleness to play.

I wanted a dollhouse growing up, but in those days, boys didn't play with dolls.

and my parents couldn't afford to buy me building blocks.

So I started collecting small polycaptor popsicle sticks, and my governor gave me a shoebox, and they built my first mini house.

I was so motivated by it that I kept on building streets, neighborhoods, and eventually cities.

So that led me to current city planning.

But over the years, as a city planner, I realized that we take our work way too seriously.

We use the city as a deadline, as a measurement, as data.

or a problem to be solved by a really fancy presentation.

We use words people don't understand, maps people can't read, numbers that confuse people, and surveys that people don't fill out.

And community meetings are directed both by the planner that has to facilitate them and the public who has to attend them.

It's either an empty room where nobody cares about the issue, or it's a combat zone, where a few aggressive people with very strong opinions will dominate the conversation, and everybody else stays silent.

But like most people, I hate public speaking.

And myself, I communicate better with my hands.

So I thought, and for a lot of community members, the city is a place of memories and sensory experiences.

Planters have very few tools to capture these kind of intangible qualities.

So for planners, we get the land use right, but they're feeling wrong.

We can design streets for cars, but not for humans.

So I thought, what if we designed cities like we did as children through play, or at least how I did? Because as children, our brain's command center or prefrontal cortex is not...

fully developed, so we used our senses and imagination to explore the world.

And we played and we shared without any kind of agenda.

So I went back to my childhood and developed a place where people used objects to build their urban planning solutions.

I introduced this approach to planners at that time, and a lot of them were hesitant because it wasn't based on a measurement or data.

And plus, they were worried that people would build things that the city couldn't deliver on, such as a launching pad to the moon.

And now, our TED Talk of the day.

Today, we're going to learn about how to build your idleness to play.

I wanted a dollhouse growing up, but in those days, boys didn't play with dolls.

and my parents couldn't afford to buy me building blocks.

So I started collecting small polycaptor popsicle sticks, and my governor gave me a shoebox, and they built my first mini house.

I was so motivated by it that I kept on building streets, neighborhoods, and eventually cities.

So that led me to current city planning.

But over the years, as a city planner, I realized that we take our work way too seriously.

We use the city as a deadline, as a measurement, as data.

or a problem to be solved by a really fancy presentation.

We use words people don't understand, maps people can't read, numbers that confuse people, and surveys that people don't fill out.

And community meetings are directed both by the planner that has to facilitate them and the public who has to attend them.

It's either an empty room where nobody cares about the issue, or it's a combat zone, where a few aggressive people with very strong opinions will dominate the conversation, and everybody else stays silent.

But like most people, I hate public speaking.

And myself, I communicate better with my hands.

So I thought, and for a lot of community members, the city is a place of memories and sensory experiences.

Planters have very few tools to capture these kind of intangible qualities.

So for planners, we get the land use right, but they're feeling wrong.

We can design streets for cars, but not for humans.

So I thought, what if we designed cities like we did as children through play, or at least how I did? Because as children, our brain's command center or prefrontal cortex is not...

fully developed, so we used our senses and imagination to explore the world.

And we played and we shared without any kind of agenda.

So I went back to my childhood and developed a place where people used objects to build their urban planning solutions.

I introduced this approach to planners at that time, and a lot of them were hesitant because it wasn't based on a measurement or data.

And plus, they were worried that people would build things that the city couldn't deliver on, such as a launching pad to the moon.