In many urban areas could be noticed a tendency of architectural freedom of city infrastructures and building’s designs of houses and office spaces, therefore, citizens are able to build everything taking into account only their preferences. I am convinced that this tendency has more disadvantages than merits as it may have a devastating impact on urban harmony and humans’ safety in everyday life.
First and foremost, the freedom of architectural development in any city can greatly enhance the number of dangerous accidents and because of buildings, made out of standards and rules. It is clear that building houses using suspicious architecture and shape is not a positive development. Lack of safety standards, especially in residential areas, are likely to jeopardize people’s safety during natural disasters. For instance, builders often try to converse money on applicable materials and durability of houses in order to lower property value, therefore, some big blocks of flats could be easily destroyed due to strong wind or just a slight earthquake. Weakness of the building structure might injure human beings and city infrastructure.
Secondly, the most common argument against freedom of urban planning is the fact that building processes, which are out of government’s control doesn’t have any authentic appeal and make a disruption of urban harmony. Cities, which are monitoring unregulated development, have a well-designed infrastructure plan, which provides zoning laws in particular areas. By violating rules, people make visual pollution and chaotic views, that puts the whole picture of the city in unattractive view. Moreover, building modern single-story houses in the old part of the neighborhood completely ruins visual appearance and cultural identity of the architectural heritages.
On the other hand, with the ability to create and erect houses freely, people have an opportunity to represent their creative expression, which provides an eclectic architecture in cities. Citizens are capable to integrate innovations and new ideas into placed, where they live. For example, owners of a small dwellings frequently expand their windows or arrange a garden on the roof in order to safe space in their land plot.
To sum up, architectural freedom has potential to develop citizens’ creativity, however, safety and authentic harmony is a priority in urban planning. Avoiding building laws may affect people’s health and become a huge problem for visual cohesion.