Ch. 8, Creating Livable Cities
1. reputation: inhospitable, unpleasant, unhealthy, dangerous places
2. results from 1) loss of industries and jobs, 2) depopulation, 3) increased use of cars, 4) decreased use of public transport, 5) pollution, 6) crime, 7) dereliction.
3. a) gun crime, b) race riots, c) urban terror: symptoms and causes of urban decline
4. transform existing, often rundown cities or districts to give them a new lease on life
5. wanted: a) cultural vigor, b) physical beauty, c) sustainable-environment and economy
6. Frederick Olmstead, the father of American town planning
7. concerns: 1) circulation: distribution and treatment of the spaces devoted to streets. 2) distribution and treatment of spaces related to public purposes, 3) the character of the development of private lands
8. Robert Owen, “A New View Of Society,” created a model community in New Lanark in Central Scotland
a. the damaging effects of the industrial revolution could be tempered by a caring & humane regime
b. abolished working for kids under 10, organized infant schools
c. created a creche for working mothers
d. provided free medical care & comprehensive education
e. pleasant gardens
f. many dancing & musical events
g. created a second village called New Harmony
9. 1849, James Silk Buckingham published his book “National Evils and Practical remedies”
a. utopian town: Victoria
b. high degree of symmetry, space, healthfulness, large supply of air, light, good drainage system
c. 10,000 acres: 1,000 for building, 9,000 acres for farms
10. Sir Titus Salt: created the new settlement of Saltaire, 3 miles from Bradford
a. took 20 years to build
b. paternalist tradition
c. 800 houses, 3,000 people, shops, park, church, school, hospital, and library
d. textile mill, one of largest and most modern in Europe, designed to minimize pollution and noise
11. 1861, William Morris started the Arts & Crafts movement with architect Philip Webb and artists Dante Gabriel Rosetti and Edward Burne-Jones
a. aim: to promote good design inspired by a) nature, b) social fulfillment, c) preservation of built heritage, d) the pleasure of good craftsmanship
b. wanted to recapture the lost ideal of the medieval town set in an idyllic rural setting
12. 1876, Benjamin Ward Richardson published “Hygeia: a city of Health”
a. blueprint of a model city
b. promoted fresh air, light, water
c. located industry away from the town center
d. early example of zoning
e. inspired the town planning movement
13. 1880, George Pullman founded a town of Pullman near Chicago, on 4,000 acres
a. most of the Pullman houses have been privately owned since 1907
14. 1887, William Leer, a Quaker soap manufacturer created a community called Port Sunlight near Birkenhead in N. England
a. believed workers living in a pleasant conditions would be trustworthy, efficient, and reliable
b. included allotment gardens, parks, sports grounds, cultural venues
15. 1901, George Cadbury, a chocolate manufacturer tried to provide a pleasant living environment for his workers at an affordable price
a. started the Bourneville community of 1,000 acres
b. now accommodates 25,000 people
c. 1/10 of the land should be set aside for parks & recreational space
16. 1906, Maragethe Krupp-social engineering in a settlement in Essen called Margarethenhoehe, built on 125 acres of farmland on the outskirts of the city
a. 1/2 of inhabitants couldn’t be employed by Krupp > diverse social mix
b. Adelaide, S. Australia, prototype for the garden city
17. Ebenezer Howard, wrote “Garden Cities of Tomorrow”
a. aim: find ways to overcome overcrowded, ugly, and unhealthy urban environments
b. combine the advantages of town and country living while avoiding the disadvantages of both
c. wanted garden cities on greenfield sites
d. wanted to demolish overcrowded terraces to create new green spaces
e. proposed garden cities on 6,000 acres, 1,000 could be built on
f. wanted 32,000 inhabitants in city, 2,000 people in the 2,000 hectare agricultural estate
g. circular town plan had 120 ft. wide tree-lined boulevards that would divide the town into six distinct sectors
h. garden cities: self contained settlements connected by rail to London
i. pedestrian streets and vehicle traffic were separated
j. Hertfordshire, garden city project & Letchworth, Welwyn Garden City
18. “In the USA, Frederick Law Olmstead was arguably the intellectual leader of the city planning movement. In 1917, he became the first president of the American City Planning Institute.”
a. helped design the innovative Forest Hills project in Queens
b. prepared plans for Detroit, Boulder, New Haven, Pittsburgh,
c. concern with functionality and aesthetics
d. beauty = efficiency = economy
19. 500,000 homes in Britain were destroyed in WWII
a. new towns were surrounded by a green belt
b. 2000, many of the towns were rundown, needed a lot of repair
c. “Some new towns also have serious problems of unemployment. Unlike Howard’s Letchworth, few have been able to regenerate out of their own resources because in the 1980s their development corporations were dissolved by government decree and their assets were privatized. An opportunity to create and maintain financially self-sustaining garden cities had been tragically lost.”(159)
20. Le Corbusier, a mid-20th century architect
a. proposed “garden cities”
b. contemporary cities were chaotic & gloomy prisons
c. believed engineering & technological breakthroughs could propel “progress”
d. Bauhaus colleagues: Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius
e. created standardized architecture in which building components could be assembled efficiently in mass production processes
f. insisted on purist design without ornamentation
g. the importance of function over style
h. rationally planned, collective developments offered desirable & healthy housing options
i. proposed massive, angular “living machines” to be set in leafy parks, with 100s of apartments, and 1000s of people living under one flat roof
j. wanted places of light & air, cafes, restaurants, shops, and nurseries
k. Corbusier created the Unite d’Habitation in Marseilles: 330 housing units, in 23 different forms
l. intended to be functionally superior to traditional urban forms, meeting both individual and collective needs
m. accommodates single persons and families as large as ten
n. steel frames, reinforced concrete,
o. high rises: a) bleak, b) comfortless, c) alienation, d) loneliness, e) stress became common experiences
p. housing blocks: prone to vandalism & premature aging
q. in areas of high unemployment & extreme social inequality, they are unlikely to become livable places
Urban Oasis
a. Salford, Manchester: a rundown block can be transformed into a thriving new community
b. Apple Tree Court, with 100 apartments had been 1/2 empty
c. a security fence was installed and residents began cultivating its gardens
d. transformation: a social & environmental issue
e. Urban Splash, highly imaginative property developer
f. Urban Splash recognized that many historic buildings in rundown cities such as Manchester & Liverpool had a real future & could be adapted for new, exciting uses
g. converted many old industrial buildings such as the Match Factory in Manchester into a high quality business center
h. converted the Tea Factory in Liverpool into studio workplaces for creative industries, restaurants, and bars
i. US is also refurbishing rundown tower blocks & back-to-back terraces and council houses that had suffered from dereliction and depopulation
j. young professionals come in live in revitalized inner city dwellings
k. young people love the bars, restaurants, and nightclubs the city has to offer
A New Start?
1.today’s planning agenda is very different than WWII’s
2. brownfield sites can be transformed into livable urban environments
3. compact cities, emphasis
4. varied streetscapes, emphasis
5. compact “livability”: Udaipur, New Orleans, Curitiba, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Prague
6. cities: centers of a) communication, b) learning, c) complex commercial enterprises, d) house families, e) focus & condense physical, intellectual, and creative energy, e) diversified activities
7. “All over the world the quest is to create the liveable, compact city of the 21st century: a place that is pleasant to live in, work in and visit. While cities are centres of economic activity, they should also be places of cultural creativity, citizenship and conviviality. They should have well-designed public spaces and buildings, large pedestrian areas, access to water, parks and gardens. High quality ‘micro-environments’ should enhance the experience of urban living.”(164)
8. balance between community and anonymity
9. “Most people want to live in places in which neighbors can be neighbors, but without coercion and without others interfering in their personal lives. They want leafy streets where they can sit safely on their verandas and chat to each other. They want to belong to communities, but not to be gazed at and gossiped about. They want schools, markets, shops, pubs, and restaurants within walking distance, and beyond pedestrian areas, affordable buses, light rails or trams that offer rapid access to other parts of the city.”(164)
Liveable City Agenda
1. make places of beauty, diversity, and easy contact
2. develop vibrant local communities with diverse living choices
3. integrate a diverse range of economic activities
4. revitalize underutilized land for community benefit
5. protect & enhance natural environments and biodiversity
6. enhance the benefits of climate, natural setting, and architecture
7. facilitate cycling, pedestrianization, and public transport
8. assure efficiency of traffic flows and minimize traffic impacts
9. enhance public participation in decision making
Smart Growth & New Urbanism
a. problem of urban sprawl: plagues USA & Australia
b. Smart Growth and New Urbanism, stand for a reordering of the built environment
c. revival of place making
d. creation/restoration of compact, mixed-use cities
e. New Urbanists: architects, planners, and developers
New Urbanist platform
1. diverse neighborhoods
2. designed for pedestrians & transit
3. universally accessible public spaces
4. architecture & landscape design should celebrate local history, climate, ecology and building practice
5. restore existing urban centers and towns
6. reconfigure sprawling suburbs into communities of real neighborhoods & diverse disedtricts
7. promote the conservation of natural environments & the preservation of our built legacy
8. Christopher Alexander, architect and planner, advocates the liveable city
a. outdoor space should be shaped positively
b. significant boundaries must be erected to give space purpose
The Scope For New Urban Villages
a. urban village, European equivalent of New Urbanism
b. Copenhagen, Freiburg, Vienna, Zurich, Heidelberg, Barcelona-benefitted from outstanding urban redesign
c. urban village theme, central feature
d. created around pedestrian streets, pavements, public squares and parks
e. every trip should begin & end with walking: healthy, eco-friendly, democratic
f. mayor San Sebastian: pedestrians must be given priority, creates a higher quality of life
g. Denmark: “cohousing”: groups of houses are clustered together, have community cafes, playgrounds, laundries, and car-sharing facilities
h. Britain: Peabody Trust, London’s largest housing trust, created an urban eco-village
i. Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED) was created on a brownfield site, a former sewage works, in the borough of Sutton in S. London
j. 82 homes, 16,000 meters of commercial space
k. completed in 2002
l. innovative features: 1) combined heat & power system, 2) burns wood chips, 3) a “living machine” sewage system, 4) a pool of electric cars, 5) photovoltaic panels mounted on the conservatories of every flat
m. thermally massive materials: store heat during warm times, release heat at cooler times
n. uses 30 cm of rockwool instead of central heating
o. constructed from natural, recycled or reclaimed materials
p. solar energy: used for heat & cooking
q. BedZed, major visitor attraction, “zero fossil energy development”
r. “At BedZED the intention to use only energy from renewable sources has encountered some technical problems but this is not surprising in a development with so many innovative features.As a laboratory for truly sustainable ‘one planet living’, Bedzed had not been equalled in the UK in 2008, at the time of the publication of the second edition of this book.”(168-169)
Parks And Public Places
a. public spaces and parks: crucial feature of livable cities
b. public parks are important for people: need green space and biodiversity
c. Enrique Penalosa: former mayor of Bogota- public spaces are important, they are a place where people can meet as equals
d. parks: physical and emotional health of the city
e. roads receive much more funding than parks
f. Bogota, 1,300 new parks created, new investments in water, sewage, schools, libraries, transportation, pavement
g. “Spaces for people but above all, spaces that demonstrate respect for the more vulnerable of society’s members: the poor, the old and children. Parks are an important means to children’s happiness and therefore, to a more convivial, constructive and civilized society.”(170)
Eco Villages-From Dream To Reality
A. “Hundreds of such developments have occurred, driven by the idea that if we want to survive as a species we have to learn to live sustainable lives close to nature.”(170)
b. “Since the 1970s, the dream of creating alternative settlements or eco villages has been spooking around in the minds of ever larger numbers of people.
“Let your community be small, with only a few people;
Keep tools in abundance, but do not depend on them
Appreciate your life and be content with your home
Sail boats and ride horses, but don’t go too far
Keep weapons and armor; but do not employ them;
Let everyone read and write,
Eat well and make beautiful things.
Live peacefully and delight in your own society;
Dwell within cock-crow of your neighbors,
But maintain your independence from them.”
c. “Eco-villages aim to be living models of sustainability and examples of how action can be taken immediately. They also seek to address the degradation of our social, ecological and spiritual environments, enriching the lives of many people who profoundly lack meaningful content. According to the international Ecovillages Network, there are now some 15,000 such villages worldwide, including 11,000 existing villages with sustainable lifestyles in various parts of the world.”
d. “They have contributed to the development of a) renewable energy systems, b) waste water treatment, c) new forms of architecture, music and dance
Aldinga Arts Eco-Village
a. developed by architect John Maitland
b. 1) residential, 2) arts, 3) community, 4) commercial development is being built on 33 acres of farmland
1. renewable energy: solar hot water, photovoltaic and wind power
2. Water supply from household rainwater tanks; mains needed only occasionally
3. storm water retention in ponds, fed by swales from roads and buildings
4. sewerage to be treated and reclaimed water used for irrigation on site
5. a sophisticated communications network to support home industries
6. internal roads constructed for safe travel by pedestrians and cyclists
7. edible and indigenous planting in common areas & private gardens
8. health, financial, building, and gardening services provided on site
9. a central facility for visual and performing arts & culture
10. centralized postal services, refuse, and recycling collection
“But livability is not just about the layout of cities, it is also about co-determination-people wanting to be actively involved in shaping their local environment. This means that livability is also about local power and community control.”(174)
