Hey. I was working on designing a fantasy setting and I wanted to pose a hypothetical that I thought this community might find fun to consider and give me ideas on.
If there was a race of bird people that could fly wherever easily, what kinds of infrastructure would they have city-wise?
Would there be designated road-like areas to fly in or would it be more practical to designate no-fly zones?
Buildings would likely be elevated to minimize pests and for temperature control anyways, so they might be a lot more vertical.
I don't know all that much about this kind of thing, but I'm trying to think in the same capacity of how CPP does for this so that I can have a good reason to have each thing and make the area feel more alive and natural because of it.
Thoughts and ideas are appriciated in advance.
#Bird-person City Planning Hypothetical
vale flume
scenic isle
I'm kinda assuming the setting is modern enough for there to be larger buildings and different types of roads.
- There'd still be "roads" in some way. Either for wayfinding or (assuming said bird people care about accessibility) for foot/assisted traffic. Though they'd probably be more minimal
- This means main exits may be higher up, but there would also either be a lower entrance/exit or some raised path situation connecting to other buildings (think ewoks from star wars)
- Buildings could functionally have two front doors. One within the building and one to the outside on a balcony for example
- Buildings would for sure be taller
- I'd expect farming to be done more vertically as well (or on flat roofs)
- I'd expect flying to be treated similarly to biking, meaning you expect different speeds, different reasons, maybe there's someone who starts walking for a bit, etc.
Though the extent all of that goes also depends on the setting. If it's more D&D-ish magic assisted early renaissance it probably won't have skyscrapers but something more like a handful of levels with some wooden paths. If we're talking steampunk you may have large industrially built towers with loads of iron, ofcourse
vale flume
I love the idea of farming on roofs. That gives a neat character to cities visually very quickly and implies that farming is more subsistence based than industrial.
I haven't fully committed to a time period yet, but the tone is noir, so cyberpunk, Victorian, or 1940's-ish American are all typically used. None of those are very high fantasy or low tech situations.
Would buildings still be square for density reasons? Tileable shapes come in variety, but I know that they can be much harder to build in most situations.
Also, I feel like I get the jist of what you mean when you say "flying would be treated similarly to biking" but I don't know speciffically that would look like. Or are you only talking about what it looks like when people use the "road" facilities?
I love the idea of accessibility, and as it's noir, that makes for an "undercity" feel that could be more dangerous or less regulated. Conversely, that could easily make the higher parts of the city more desirable and expensive. Plus, with rooftop farming, that very well might be where the parks and natural ammenities are as well.
scenic isle
Would buildings still be square for density reasons?
Probably, but there may be more organic shapes than otherwise. Smaller farms/similar may have that effect even more
Also, I feel like I get the jist of what you mean when you say "flying would be treated similarly to biking" but I don't know speciffically that would look like. Or are you only talking about what it looks like when people use the "road" facilities?
I'm thinking it's along similar lines of rules, priorities (so much more improvised and based on sight then formal rules), different types of cyclists (so mountainbikes versus racing ones versus city bikes and associated behaviour, but with different (sub)types of birds), it's also faster than walking but not always the go to way of transport (depending on the exact time period they can have trams for all we know)
Which I think would actually be really nice for most of those, though I'm not entirely sure what a victorian bird tram would look like