# Cities without people

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://paragraph.com/@brandondonnelly), 2015-03-23

architect-this-city, architecture, art-project, artist, atc, athiscity, buildings, built-environment, cities, condo, condominium, development, lucie-simon, new-york, office-building, queensbridge, real-estate, silent-world, times-square, uncategorized, urbanism

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![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/8556b5da4d383a938563a816a314a5c8.jpg)

Some people believe that cities are all about bricks and mortar. While other people believe that they are first and foremost about people. Though I wholeheartedly believe that our built environment has a profound affect on our lives, I am in the latter camp. 

Real estate to me is an outcome. It is the result of people needing space. A new condominium is built because people need a place to live. A new office building is built because somebody built a great company and it needs to house its growing workforce. So at the end of the day, what is a city without people?

Perhaps the best way to demonstrate this point is to show you what cities look like without them. This morning I stumbled upon an interesting series of city photographs where almost all of the people have been removed. They are by artists Lucie & Simon and the project is called [Silent world](http://www.lucieandsimon.com/works/silent_world).

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/3d008ef443f6c5134fb1e67574db2024.jpg)

The top image is Times Square and the bottom image is Queensbridge in New York.

_Images:_ [_Lucie & Simon_](http://www.lucieandsimon.com/works/silent_world)

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://paragraph.com/@brandondonnelly/cities-without-people)*