Architecture has never been just a career option - it was always an art form.

Architecture has been around ever since the emergence of civilization. We’ve always sought to combine gorgeous visuals with premium functionality and comfort. Numerous forms of design go into architecture, and all of these things combined give us our modern cityscapes.

But, newer districts, blocks, and city-regions have become more and more uniform in their exterior design, and interiors have all began to look alike. This is because modern architecture is closely related to city planning as a whole.

Humans are highly visual creatures, and whole cityscapes that look similar enough to be uniform but different enough to peak our interests have become the industry standard.

So, how does the modern architecture approach and influence our city planning? Well, it happens in numerous different ways, such as:

Tall Buildings and Skyscrapers

Tall buildings and skyscrapers seem to be more and more prevalent in today’s cities, but why?

Well, tall buildings and skyscrapers fulfill many different needs for both their residents and the architects who are hard at work designing them.

Tall buildings are a part of modern urban designs and have been popular ever since people decided to move to cities.

Urban cityscapes are filled with tall buildings, and all of them vary in their style, depending on their purpose. While residential buildings might employ older, brick and mortar designs, office buildings and other places of work tend to strive for a more glassy look.

Glass is a gorgeous material that is skyrocketing in popularity as a building material. While the infrastructure of the building is not built out of glass, the facade tends to be.

This is not regular glass, though, as it is a more robust, thicker version of the ones we use in our windows.

Glass is so popular because it gives a building a neat, clean look.

While glass might be the king of facades in office buildings, residential buildings follow a different trend. Since there is a rising housing shortage, architects are working hard to design bigger and bigger buildings to fulfill the demand.

Working with at this scale lets the architect give more attention to detail. The thing that seems to be the most popular when it comes to architecture trends is minimalism.

Minimalism

Minimalism is so far the most popular modern style of architecture. Attractive, minimalistic buildings aren’t only impressive, but having bigger buildings gives architects more space to play around it.

Minimalism does not mean minimum effort. Minimalism is best combined with high functionality to provide for a quality building, and both residential and commercial architects are jumping on the bandwagon.

Architecture is nothing, if not an art form, and artists express themselves on a minimalistic canvas. Minimalism has found its way in urban design due to its simplicity and appealing nature.

Urban city planning is an essential thing in every city, as it dictates what things buildings have to fulfill before being approved. Urban city planning is giving minimalism a priority, and the amount of minimalistic structures is only rising.

With city planning being integral to the city’s aesthetic infrastructure, uniformity is key to the preservation of said aesthetics.

Smart Buildings and Automation

Another thing that is rising in popularity is the application of smart devices into our home lives. When you think of smart devices in your home, you most likely envision the Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, yet buildings have been smart for much longer than you might think.

Smart buildings are taking the world by storm, and have been for quite some time now. This removes the need for numerous different security features, as they are included within the smart system that runs the operations of the bundling.

Smart systems provide a wide array of different services, such as:

Entry/Exit Control

Entry and exit control has been in operation in one way or the other for quite some time but has recently become automatic through a smart building system.

In the past, residential and office buildings might have had a doorman or bellhop on building floors controlling who enters and exits a building. These days, this process is automatic through surveillance cameras.

Security

One of the most important things people want in a building is premium security. Feeling safe is one of the essential things overall, and the safety of smart buildings is way more advanced than you might think.

While buildings might have had a security guard on sight in the past, these days, some buildings employ smart security systems, with automatic distress calls, locking capabilities, and advanced security features.

Light Control

One of the first things that smart buildings implement in their infrastructure is lighting control. Automatic on/off lights have been present for some time now, but modern smart buildings control lighting based on the outside.

Lighting can be dimmed if the room is filled with natural light. The system determines this through a set of smart sensors that send signals to the system, informing it of the amount of light in the room.

Automatic Garages

Everyone drives a car these days. Residential and especially office buildings have their garages. While in the past, this process required personnel on-site to regulate who can enter and park in the garage, this process is now automatized, though card reading and facial recognition technology.

While smart buildings might be rising in abundance, architects need to plan ahead when it comes to their design. Smart buildings have quite a lot of requirements to fulfill, and the rising demand for them in combination with skyscrapers has had quite an impact on urban city planning.

With the emergence of planned cities all around the world, whole planned smart cities that work in unison to achieve a common goal of safety, security, sustainability, and accommodation are not that far in the future.

Combining Old and New

Minimalism is the dominant style in designing new buildings, but what of the existing old buildings?

Well, architecture is an art form, after all, and it is currently striving to create a combination of old and new. Modernizing old buildings has been in effect for quite some time, giving numerous modern commodities.

The only exception to this rule being buildings of historical value, which are preserved without any modification.

Older buildings are modified to fulfill the commodities and requirements of the modern man in numerous ways. While functionality is essential, aesthetics have raised quite a problem for contemporary architects.

Architects work to implement new designs with the old, making a beautiful combination. With the rising popularity of residential complexes and skyscrapers, some architects have created a merger, designing new buildings influenced by archaic design fads known as neo-traditional style.

Styling is essential when it comes to buildings, and bringing old design trends to new design laws, regulations, and styles are what the future holds for modern architecture.

City planning regulates a lot of things, such as floor amount, ceiling height, overall building height, and to an extent, the building style.

Some older buildings do not fulfill all of these standards and regulations and are more often than not renovated to satisfy these requirements.

If a building is deemed unfit for occupation due to improper construction, design, or security issues, it is most often demolished to erect a new building. This new building might accommodate the same purpose but will fulfill the laws and regulations of urban city planning.

Sustainability and Strategy

Sustainability and strategy are both integral parts of urban city planning, and modern architecture has to work to accommodate both into its modus operandi.

Sustainability, strategy, and overall placement of buildings need to follow regulations and fulfill many different needs, to achieve the maximum optimal functionality of a particular structure.

Urban planning regulates this so that there is never too much of anything in one single place. To paint a picture, imagine a residential building complex that contains ten gyms and five supermarkets, to accommodate the 200 people living in the said complex.

Strategic placement of buildings in a particular area has not only a residential accommodation purpose but has a significant impact on administrative centers, transport, and numerous other aspects of modern life.

All in all, it is crucial that modern buildings follow modern plans, and fall within a strategic template with their surroundings.