Looking at the diagram above of the current world order, the cycle we are in now is an addiction driven by an Extravagant Lifestyle that shapes the Urban Planning to be self-centered on personal private space as the only concern which is achievable because we can afford to exploit the available natural resources and most importantly there is no one making us pay to offset or repair the environmental impact cost! This ultimately can only be done if there is international regulation that everyone follows which is virtually impossible! End result is this lifestyle will only change when resource depletion and competition because of the growing demand will force prices to skyrocket. What shall we do, just wait? No, as professionals leading development we must make efforts towards change and continue to propose the direction that will put us on track for both a sustainable lifestyle and hence model of Urban Planning.
Professionals in Urban Planning and Architecture need to push for the right direction and educate clients and promote choice such that a quality sustainable lifestyle is an option. The key is choice to walk. Residents of suburban America on average generate about 28 tons of Co2 per year while urban dwellers primarily walk and use public transport, produce about 9 tons of Co2 per year. Urban planning has to provide choice for people to walk and use public transport to take care of daily needs without the need to own or drive a car everywhere. The making of pedestrian friendly streets and spaces not only will save the earth from the pollution of cars, but provides both much needed physical and social activities we miss sitting in automobiles as well as leave financial resources for people to enjoy in better ways than a daily 2 to 3 hours of wasted commuting to and from work. It will give us more compact developments that will have people spend less time traveling and hence more quality time for themselves and families. The choice for smart efficient living units that use less resources to build but also to maintain. The choice for green recreation space that are walking distance to urban spaces and private living spaces. The choice for shopping and entertainment all within walking distance empowering all people (especially the young and elderly) without the need to rely on cars and the benefits list goes on and on.
Governments need to take the lead as they need to provide the critical infrastructure of transportation, sanitation and flood control that can double as recreation space. They need to set densities so economies of scale can be created for efficient infrastructure and management of it can take place. They need to set guidelines and regulations so excess of automobile related spaces does not become a norm. And the list goes on with the critical role the governments need to play in development. In essence all developments need to take an integrated approach in order to make sure the priorities are carefully balanced for the time place and occasion making best use of everyone’s resources.
This Blog is intended to explore the vast range of issues so critical to Development, but not commonly understood with the purpose of giving perhaps an easy to understand but maybe different perspective to Developers, Governments, Master Planners, Architects, Students and all of the ordinary people who will be impacted daily by professional decisions being made. We hope this exchange will help shape the fast growing Asian developments away from all the poor and wasteful urban planning, policy and lifestyle decisions that have shaped the developments of the past.
(see part 1)
This Blog is intended to explore the vast range of issues so critical to Development, but not commonly understood with the purpose of giving perhaps an easy to understand but maybe different perspective to Developers, Governments, Master Planners, Architects, Students and all of the ordinary people who will be impacted daily by professional decisions being made. We hope this exchange will help shape the fast growing Asian developments away from all the poor and wasteful urban planning, policy and lifestyle decisions that have shaped the developments of the past.
(see part 1)
Jiwa Studio
Whether they call themselves communist, capitalist or socialist, all of the Asian countries have embraced some variant of capitalism with the only real variation being who does the work and who gets the rewards.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the "enlightened" developed countries aren't all that enlightened and the way each has dealt with urbanism and the environment is a product of their history and geography more than from any conscious decision to become this or that kind of a society.
Trying to transplant one set of solutions into another environment may or may not work. Clearly the "edifice complex" that characterises much of Western architecture is no more sustainable in Asia than in the West.
An example of a transportation fix that can fail is the Bus Rapid Transit developed in Bogota. It worked miracles there and in a few other cities in the area. However, when applied to Mexico City it became a complete flop because the city fathers were reluctant to provide sufficient busses to make it work while the populace jammed on board the existing ones in far greater numbers than ever imagined. Meanwhile, the same system in Las Vegas is starving for lack of passengers.
What is probably needed is a combination of the best in neo-urbanist thought combined with the best in local thinking to develop something that will work in each country. Cookie-cutter approaches are doomed to failure.
fgbouman"
I was 14 when I designed my first house. at 23 after extensive travel, I said there has to be a better way. So I enrolled and became an architect 30+ years ago. Built around the world.
ReplyDeleteIt is so sad, but clients (corporations) ego takes over and profit, image, etc takes over. Nobody thinks of our children who will have no clean water, no oceans, heat in atmosphere, no oil, no resources.
American Indians were the last culture to respects the earth in the West, and I ma not fully aware of Eastern Philosophies to name all the ones that do the same.
Gardens have to be weeded to give proper balance, the nest big war will do the same for the earth.
Tapani Talo, Architect - Principal of NY Super Studio Architects
Your two-part blog is a good introduction to the need to change the way development needs to be reshaped to bring about more positive futures.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there is a magic density level, any more than there is a magic, single way to achieve a particular density.
I have been in the planning field and more recently a carshare entrepreneur and older-neighbourhood community advocate.
I suggest focusing on defining the goal of urban planning to provide for an environment in which it is not necessary for any resident or worker to OWN their own car. They should be able to do fine with only transit-walking-cycling and the odd time of using a shared car or some form of ridesharing. Then work backwards to determine what mix of non-residential uses and housing density (and socio-economic mix) and public infrastructure is needed to achieve it. Every community, no matter how old, can improve things by a process I call "travel-reducing development."
As to people being "addicted" to over-consumption, you might want to look at my 1997 paper (http://hearthhealth.wordpress.com/about/previously-published-works/feet-first-early/using-our-feet-to-reduce-our-footprint-the-importance-of-scale-in-life/) to see how such addictions occur and why our efforts to "reward" ourselves keeps us trapped in what I call "the burn cycle."
Chris Bradshaw
(from Linkedin Urban Vision discussion)
Chris,
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with you more about the "...not necessary for any resident or worker to OWN their own car....." If the city is properly planned there should be choices so this is possible.
I started driving when I was 16 and living in an LA suburb it was a neccessity, I have since lived in Singapore and Hong Kong for the last 20 years and have NEVER owned a car and waste less time and money on cars and commuting. These countries have developed the way they have out of neccessity due to limited land, but certainly lessons can be learned.
I wrote an earlier piece about why I appreciate Urban so much. (6.0 Urban vs Suburban why I appreciate Urban so much! http://jiwastudio.blogspot.com/2011/10/60-urban-vs-suburban-why-i-appreciate.html)
I will certainly have a look at your paper from 1997.
Thanks for your feedback.