Alexandre Grégoire

C’est intéressant de voir des exemples de densités d’habitations. Par contre, il ne faut pas perdre de vue que le nombre d’habitants par demeure est tout aussi important que la densité d’habitations pour prendre le pouls de la vie d’un quartier. À ce propos, Jane Jacobs écrivait:

One reason why low city densities conventionally have a good name, unjustified by the facts, and why high city densities of dwellings have a bad name, equally unjustified, is that high densities of dwellings and overcrowding of dwellings are often confused. High densities mean large numbers of dwellings per acre of land. Overcrowding means too many people in a dwelling for the number of rooms it contains. The census definition of overcrowding is 1.5 persons per room or more. It has nothing to do with the number of dwellings on the land, just as in real life high densities have nothing to do with overcrowding.

Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Vitange, 1992 (1961), p. 205.