3 Urban Open Space-2/ The Necessity of City Planning

Roshan Toshniwal

e-Text & Learn More

Text

This lecture explains the formation and constituent of the city, about city planning and the issues that are at the centre of urban priorities. Cities are seen as engines of economic growth and contribute immensely to the country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Cities are manifestation of the big forces in play, economic, social and environmental forces that affects the people and its surroundings. A country’s development status is measured by its rate of urbanisation or percentage of its population living in urban areas. As per 2011 census India is 31.16% urbanised and about 54% of the world’s population is living in urban areas. By 2050 about 66% population are expected to live in urban areas. (Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2014).

So, what exactly is a city? Is it a geographical accident? Even the most developed cities have people living in ghettoes as there are inequality of income, race, cast and religion. There are visual disparities between settlements, and thus the real estate in different locations command indifferent rates based on amenities, proximity to central business districts and the economic strata of people living in the neighbourhood. In this process of development the open spaces are compromised based on the morphology of the settlements. As it grows denser the value of the physical space increases. This happens particularly as the growth of the city surpasses the vision and implementation of the planning agency.

The earlier settlements always grew near a water body especially rivers because water is a source of life and trading and business became sources of income. Thus glorified trading posts such as Singapore and Hong kong were important trading posts for the world economy because of its geography. Three of the largest cities in India Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), Chennai (formerly known as Madras) and Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta) were trading posts for East India Company and with sustained growth over time have attracted millions of people and are now considered some of the biggest cities in the world. Thus, city could also be categorised as a glorified trading post. But trading post need not necessarily be a port. Many cities like Delhi, Nagpur, Hyderabad are in hinterland but have grown as a trading post because of its geographic importance. Cities are also considered important communication node as it carries the image of the country.

Generally, cities have the underlying infrastructure, which is essential for creation of a smart city vision. Each phase in the long history of the world economy has created a particular condition that makes the cities better. One of the key properties of the current phase is the ascendance of information technologies and the associated increase in the mobility and liquidity of capital. There have long been cross-border economic processes—flows of capital, labour, goods, raw materials, tourists. But to a large extent these took place within the inter-state system, where the key articulators were national states. The international economic system was ensconced largely in this inter-state system. This has changed rather dramatically over the last decade as a result of privatization, deregulation, the opening up of national economies to foreign firms, and the growing participation of national economic actors in global markets. (Sassen 2005)

Well-designed cities carry many benefits. Cities unleash creativity that spurs growth and innovation. They bring access to good jobs, education, and health services. Compact urban areas offer lower-cost access to water and greater energy efficiency. High-quality public transit can save people time and money. These opportunities can, in turn, bring people out of poverty and lead to higher quality lives.

“Urbanization, one of humankind’s most successful and ambitious programs, is the triumph of the unnatural over the natural, the grid over the organic… Underway on a scale never before witnessed, one side effect of urbanization is the liberation of vast depopulated territories for the efficient production of ‘nature’.” – Bruce Mau (Designer)

The changing economic and social conditions have significantly changed the way people use and shape their surroundings. The urban population has been steadily increasing worldwide and has created an impact on the physical structure of the cities, which is constantly changing. As the population increases, the demand for physical and social infrastructure also increases. Privatization and decentralization are the two major concerns on the future of the cities and public open spaces.

“Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed; the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day.” – Frances Hesselbein

Cities thus are not made of merely stone and concrete but it has a soul and direction which sometimes gets lost in the process of rapid urbanisation and unplanned growth. The cities are shaped based on the climatic conditions, local requirements, geographic constraints and primarily the economic forces. As cities grow, they change their shapes based on the tides and pattern of growth. Unless the fabric is protected by the bye laws, the stagnation and congestion in any space will lead to the changes. Example: In Mumbai due to its geographic constraints has been expanding vertically, but heritage location such as the fort precinct remains untouched, altering only slightly based on the needs of the users. Because of good road and rail network, the city has expanded to its suburbia which have higher density than the island city but are dependent on the island city for jobs and related economic necessities.

Some planned settlements like Chandigarh have controlled modification based on strict regulations and implementation of the building bye laws. But in other cities planned zones have undergone gradual transformation due to the price pressure on the land resulting in increased density and leading to civic issues such as traffic snarls, congestion and inadequate physical infrastructure. Thus the city needs to adapt to changes and create fluid routes that can accommodate different kinds of mobility should become a priority in the development process.

Amongst the unplanned development, Istanbul has fallen victim to an out-of-control development. The metropolis is smeared with concrete construction and in some districts it is hard to find a single tree, let alone a park. The unplanned urbanization has eradicated almost all green and open spaces in the city that it has now amongst the lowest amount of open space in the world. After the 1999 earthquake, the Ministry of Public Works and Settlement, decided that the city should have at least 10 square meters per person of open space, while people in most European cities had 20 square meters. But as per the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, the green area ratio per person in Istanbul is only 6.4 square meters per person and reducing with time. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends at least 9 m² green open space per capita.

Ideally most urban planning authorities would like to be in control of the functioning of the cities but the economic dynamics, transport systems and levels of governance directs the path of the city.

Prior to the ideas of Neo-urbanism which propagates multi use of space the earlier planning systems clearly distinguishes the different land-use and segregates it based on the proximity and accessibility principles. Thus the city was divided into pockets of zones meant for specific human activity but in this process of zoning and creating a central business districts, there were variations in the real estate price which also led to proliferation of ghettoes.

“Any city however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich. These are at war with one another.” – Plato

The economic divide also leads to increase in crime rate and other sociological changes that can be of disastrous consequences. A utopian society with structured distribution of occupations, castes and creeds which existed during the Vedic era is a thing of the past, where the power remained with a few and their diktat was followed. In democracy people are the priority and the chosen governments are answerable to the people hence the governments need to work for the benefit of the people to remain in contention. With an increasing urban shift, the governments are slowly focusing towards development of smarter cities and urban renewal of existing cities. The urban reforms and changing dynamics in the working of cities will bring in equal opportunities for people of different economic strata and help them to upgrade their style of living.

With the territorial expansion, the modern cities have undergone radical changes moving from closed fabric which different elements to form a system, to an open fragmented peri-urban fabric which is more self- reliant and is not heavily dependent on the main city. In these morphological transformations the infrastructure of transportation has a dominant role.

The urban fabric consists of relationship between different elements that emphasizes their dialectical nature. Morphological analysis involves examining relationships between the different elements that constitutes the urban fabric (which are essentially plots, streets, constructed space, open space and the way people use them) over a period of time.

The contemporary urban fabric has undergone a transformation not only in its territorial expansion but also its internal physical transformations. The traditional structure of its urban fabric, its elements and its rules of organisation can be analysed to see the dramatic shift that has occurred in the process of transformation. In many cities the traditional settlements continue to exist in their pristine state either due to regulation or cultural reasons. The Pols of Ahmedabad, Peths of Pune, Katras of Shahjahanabad, or the Havelis of Rajasthan are prime examples that continues to exists in Indian cities as old settlements, but the city has outgrown them and the new development are in complete contrast to the old settlements.

The ancient city planning concepts of Hippodamus in Miletus to present day ideas of Neo-urbanism reflects the change that the subject of city planning has undergone but each concept still holds relevant in modern day planning of cities. Since cities are constantly changing and expanding, ‘Patrick Geddes’ concept of Conurbation holds true.

To conclude with cities are like an organism, they are born with few settlements, flourishes as an adult and slowly withers away unless upgraded with time. The most common traits of unplanned development is lack of open space and the street structure. The failing physical and social infrastructures are also vital signs of need for revitalization and change. Cities that are changing based on the needs have potential of sustaining with time. Heritage cities like Madurai, Baroda, Barcelona’s growth has been stagnant for a few decades but these cities have survived, while the ancient ruins of Rome and Athens are frozen in time and are now merely tourist attraction. This lecture was primarily to explain the importance of urban planning and its importance to ensure balanced growth. The urban landscape students would benefit to learn about urban structure to determine the different types of landscape.

Web Links

http://www.globalcities.eu/

http://www.saskiasassen.com/pdfs/publications/the-global-city-brown.pdf

http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Highlights/WUP2014-Highlights.pdf

http://www.todayszaman.com/national_unplanned-urbanization-damages-istanbuls-silhouette-irreversibly_311395.html

References

http://www.europan-europe.eu/media/default/0001/06/forres_e11_debat3_en_pdf.pdf

http://urbanform.org/online_unlimited/um199902_79-85.pdf The Global City by Saskia Saasen.