City Observer- Volume 5 Issue 2- December 2019

Volume 5 | Issue 2| December 2019

CITY OBSERVER A BIANNUAL JOURNAL ON CITIES PUBLISHED BY URBAN DESIGN COLLECTIVE

INSIDE

ENCROACHMENT IS INEVITABLE

SOUNDSCAPE OF NOTES AND THE SPACES BETWEEN

TALES OF LIVABILITY

CITY OBSERVER

Volume 5 | Issue 2 | December 2019 Free Publication City Observer is a biannual journal which aims to create a conversation on cities and to collaboratively interrogate our urban world.

City Observer is published by the Urban Design Collective.

Urban Design Collective (UDC) is a collaborative platform for architects, urban designers and planners to create livable cities through participatory planning. www.urbandesigncollective.org info@urbandesigncollective.org

EDITORIAL TEAM Devangi Ramakrishnan Neha Krishnan Shruti Shankar Sunjana Thirumala Sridhar Vidhya Mohankumar

COVER ILLUSTRATION Shourya Dubey

LAYOUT DESIGN Vidhya Venkatesan Vidhya Mohankumar

Copyrights of images lie with the person/party mentioned in the image caption.

The opinions expressed in this journal are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of UDC or its members.

This magazine cannot be republished or reproduced without the permission of the publisher.

TO CITIES AND PEOPLE

CONTENTS 8

Editorial Sunjana Thirumala Sridhar

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Feature Article SOCIAL EQUITY AND DESIGN PARADIGMS OF WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENTS

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Learning from Cities 10 URBAN DESIGN LESSONS FROM SURAT

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Anuja Joshi

City Trails TALES OF LIVABILITY

Pavithra Sriram

Charlotte Sabouret

Feature Article CRITICAL APPROACHES TOWARDS CONSERVATION IN A CONTEXT OF CHANGE

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Sivagami Periannan

Mobility and the City WALKING IN WELLINGTON Shrividya Ravi

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Feature Article ENCROACHMENT IS INEVITABLE

74 Vishakha Tiwari

158

120

Community Engagement WASTE LESS PROJECT

Saritha Sudhakaran

Art in the City SOUNDSCAPE OF NOTES AND THE SPACES BETWEEN

198 Closing Scene Vijayaraj Ramalingam

Kimberly Goes

Teaching Urban Design WHO ARE WE DESIGNING FOR?

Motion Captured A WALK THROUGH TIME

Deema Aburizik & Samar Al-Zwaylif

Nasim Amini

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On Location MOSCOW'S LEAP INTO THE FUTURE Neha Krishnan

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CITY OBSERVER

Malmรถ Copenhagen Leipzig Maastricht Amsterdam Belfast Toronto

Dublin Delft

New York City Newark St.Louis Juarez

Loire Valley Porto Madrid Barcelona

New Orleans

Kumasi

Rio de Janeiro

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Kisumu

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Guangzhou Hong Kong

Hyderabad Chennai

Hampi

Hanoi Singapore

Bangalore Kochi Trivandrum

Johannesburg

Pondicherry

Suva

Wellington

EDITORIAL

More than 3 decades ago, the world was introduced to the concept of climate change.

30 years later, the world continues to struggle in coming to terms with the implications it will have for our generation and the future. In the time it took to build the case that climate change began as a pollution problem, it has become unnervingly far more than that.

What justifies the lack of decisive progress on human-driven climate change?

To comprehend how the enormity of climate change affects our grasp of it, Rice University’s Tim Morton cites a scene from the Star Wars movie The Empire Strikes Back where the Millennium Falcon flies into a “cave” that’s actually a giant worm’s maw. Living with climate change is like that, he says: “Because the worm is ‘everywhere’ in your field of vision, you can’t really tell the difference between it and the asteroid you think you landed on. For a while, you can kid yourself that you’re not inside a gigantic worm—until it starts digesting you.” —AR Early 2018, Greta Thunberg was an obscure Swedish schoolgirl. Come September 2019, the young climate activist who inspired the global school strike movement spoke at a US congressional committee and met former US president Barack Obama. We too at UDC organized a strike in Chennai in solidarity with

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Greta Thunberg, attracting a passionate crowd of citizens and advocates combating climate change.

The protests all over the world, make a serious point: despite more than 30 years of international efforts to stem the greenhouse gases driving global warming, emissions have accelerated. Signs of a political response have begun to emerge in the form of climate emergency declarations and targets to cut the net emission of greenhouse gases to zero. Yet leaders are only beginning to understand the sweeping, economy-wide policies required to meet these bolder goals. They need to grasp the enormity of the climate change challenge — and put it at the centre of all policy making.

On one hand, President Donald J Trump announced a US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change. On the other, Democratic presidential hopefuls began producing detailed action plans in a contest marked by an unusual level of debate about climate change.

Yet too many have also supported the continued extraction and use of fossil fuels that have helped drive the average global temperature up by about 1C since the industrial revolution. Leaders regularly make stirring speeches at climate summits. Then, like those who make new year’s resolutions but do not stick to them for more than a few days,

they go back and implement energy, taxation, transport and economic policies that amount to business as usual on emissions.

30 years in the making… Here’s to a 2020 that moves beyond hope - into concrete, concerted global action.

This must end.

Signing off! Happy 2020 folks!

Fossil fuels — oil, gas and coal — have brought remarkable prosperity and underpin the livelihoods of millions of workers worldwide.

The task of gradually removing them in a fair and financially sustainable manner is Herculean. And unavoidable.

Sunjana Thirumala Sridhar On behalf of the Editorial Team

Image credit: All rights belong to Star Wars

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CRITICAL APPROACHES TOWARDS CONSERVATION IN A CONTEXT OF CHANGE SIVAGAMI PERIANNAN

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

“What matters is not the past, but our relationship with it” – Robert Hewison [1].

The idea of heritage has expanded vastly from how was perceived during its inception – as a mere preservation of articles. The origins of heritage conservation came about in the post-World War period as an attempt to retain the past and the associations related to it. With rapid urbanisation and changing needs & aspirations, abandoned historic buildings are regarded as elements that stunt the growth of their surroundings. This leads to erasure of significant built environs that serve as historic records of the past. Over time, the ‘museumification’ approach resulted in historic structures being viewed only from a nostalgic perspective of grandeur, and never having a chance to be adapted for an alternate purpose. Change was seen in a negative light. It is however critical to devise an economic framework that involves new users and alternate needs while conserving a settlement undergoing change. The three following case studies show the key role of urban design and conservation in enabling continuity of their historic cores.

Buildings transformed to house retail activities at Princess street, Fort Kochi.

Image source: www.honoluluhomestay.com, 2014

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CONSERVATION AS A MEANS OF REVITALISATION Many cities have used conservation as a tool to re-vamp their historic core to alter their image and accommodate new needs. This prevents the core from being taken over by large real estate development. However, this approach is criticised because it results in gentrification, causing the removal of the communities that have been residents for years. Successful examples showcase how revitalisation plans should include the interests of the local population and their existing livelihoods.

The Fort Kochi- Muziris project is a case where conservation has been used as a tool to revitalise a historic old town.

The port Muziris, originally a centre for spice trade, underwent a major transformation due to natural calamity.

Ancient trade relations were discovered through the research conducted by the Council of Historic Research in 2007 - 2008. Local monuments and living culture traditions continue to exist through time as traces of the past.

Initiatives undertaken by the Government of Kerala along with CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

the Central Government in 2006 include excavation at different sites, conservation and adaptive reuse of buildings, and redevelopment of markets and infrastructure.

A conservation development plan was created around conservation and adaptive re-use of existing monuments to cater to tourism development, but without forceful property acquisition and with participation from the locals.

Further, the Fort Kochi master plan is viewed holistically, envisioning the development of the area for the residents and not looking at tourism in isolation. Unused buildings in the area have become venues for art exhibitions and other displays, catering

Kottapuram archaeological site

Paliam Nalukattu & Dutch Palace

Parayur Synagogue

Centre for Muziris Studies

Parayur Synagogue

Kotappuram Market

Fort Kochi sites of intervention.

Image credit: Urban Heritage in Indian Cities, INTACH |Benny Kuriakose, 2015

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to the famous Kochi- Muziris Biennale that now occurs in the area. Previously abandoned buildings are being remodelled as cafés and homestays, and smaller economies are being generated due to the interest in tourism.

Post biennale in 2012, the ‘monopoly rent’ or the perceived rent of the area has increased by 10-20% (KPMG report).

HERITAGE AS A RESOURCE Sustainable development considers buildings as a resource - as masses of embodied energy. In this context, adaptive reuse of buildings means saving energy which can otherwise be used in the construction of new buildings. Moreover, older buildings used climatically appropriate material and

Characteristic façades of SOHO Cast-Iron district. Image source: www.nyclandmarkscommission.tumblr.com, 2017

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spatial planning principles that seldom required artificial heating/cooling systems.

The Soho Cast-iron District of New York is an example that demonstrates the adaptive reuse of buildings in an urban scale and the impact of the land use

master plan on the changing trends.

The buildings in this district date to the 1850’s, featuring Romanesque Revival, Renaissance Revival, and Queen Anne styles of architecture. As this was prior to the widespread use of steel, these buildings meant to serve as warehouses and storage lofts were primarily made of cast-iron.

Retrofitting of Warehouses of SOHO to accommodate retail stores. Image source: www. nyclandmarkscommission. tumblr.com, 2017

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The district was used for a variety of purposes over the years - from textile manufacturers (1850-1900) to drug wholesalers and paper warehouses (1950s), and dead storage and parking lots (late 1950s). As buildings became disused and abandoned, the district

became a site for crime, drug use and vandalism. Like many other unclaimed spaces in the city, in Soho too, artists illegally set up their studio spaces within the large space frames [2]. In 1971, the community became large enough to raise a request to amend

The intersection of Broadway and Broome Streets in 1935. Image credit: NYPL. Image source: (https://medium.com/@katzarch/a-katz-history-lesson-the-soho-castiron-historic-district-d6c79955cf06 CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

zoning laws to permit the alternate uses

has evolved into a prime location for

that had sprung up in the area. The

bars, boutiques, clubs, restaurants,

Landmarks Preservation Committee

galleries and shopping. Further rules

played a vital role in protection of close

and regulations have been framed that

to 500 buildings and by 1978 close to

include scope for modification of the

5000 artists were living in the previously derelict district [3].

structures for an alternate use. This case demonstrates the potential of historic buildings as resources that can be

Post 1990, the real estate value in

adapted to varying trends that may be

Soho has gradually increased and it

starkly different from the original use.

Location of the SOHO Cast-Iron District and extension, New York Image source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission report, 2010

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HERITAGE AS PART OF AN ECOSYSTEM: HISTORIC LANDSCAPE CHARACTERISATION The culture of people is manifested through the nature of change that occurs to the built fabric. Therefore, architecture and the modifications made to it serve as records of this culture.

Many alternative approaches attempt to look at cultural landscapes holistically, as a historic reserve that then questions the idea of exclusive protection for selected sites. Historic landscape characterisation is one such technique developed to help people understand time-depth in the landscape. It acknowledges that change is inevitable while looking at ways in which change can be regulated to cater to sustainable development while respecting the historic attributes of place.

Selective conservation separates the site from its influences and the communities who have become stakeholders over time. Landscape management should allow changing users to understand the origins of the landscape and re-interpret it for changing needs.

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“We protect what we value by giving it an appropriate use.

We should strive to pass on the ability to understand the past, by keeping its traces and imprints, by making time-depth and historic character”[4].

The process of intervening with landscapes should be dynamic and flexible, catering to the changing aspirations of the people.

The Pondicherry Boulevard Town project demonstrates a holistic vision and looks at the landscape at large, inclusive of the multitude of issues it encompasses.

Pondicherry’s historic landscape shows evidence of rule by Pallava, Chola, and Pandya Kings, and from 4th-14th century, the Vijaynagar Empire. This was followed by colonial construction by

1741 map of Pondicherry, displaying grid iron planning and the fort. Image source: https://www.geographicus. com/P/AntiqueMap/Pondicherry-bellin-1741

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Houses on Vysial Street, before and after restoration efforts. Image credit: Urban Heirtage in Indian Cities, INTACH, 2015

the Portuguese, Dutch, and British, and finally the French who re-built the town on its previous fortifications in 1770 [5].

The major organisations involved in the management of the site are INTACH and EFEO (Ecole Francais d’Extreme Orient) who have initiated documentation of the architecture through listing, providing

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

building guidelines, and advising building owners on restoration while involving planning authorities in the process.

The preservation of the model Subraya Street enhanced the rejuvenation of the surrounding area, making it an important tourist spot aiding indigenous

economies. Matching grant schemes, subsidies for owners undertaking restoration work, and the grand bazaar restoration were initiatives in this project.

Smaller economies were created through Heritage walks, which also created awareness amongst locals and formed an economic impetus through tourism. Locals were made part of the initiative by creating jobs in restoration, old building techniques, hospitality and tourism.

The project was a success because planning authorities came together with NGOs and the community creating a larger development plan that focuses on heritage to support the economy without curbing upcoming building activity.

Conservation was carried out alongside improvement of waste disposal systems and infrastructure development, an indirect aid to the protection of the heritage structures. Further conservation has improved the quality of life, increased real-estate value and acted as an urban regeneration tool for the boulevard town and the city at large.

Initiatives for waste management in Grand Bazaar, one of the oldest markets in Pondicherry.

Battery operated vehicles for conducting heritage tours in Pondicherry’s Boulevard Town.

Community level initiatives undertaken as part of Boulevard Town Project at Pondicherry. Image credit: Urban Heritage in Indian Cities, INTACH, 2015

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A streetscape in the French quarters, Pondicherry.

Image source: https:// travelblog.expedia.co.in/ india/pondicherry-riviera/

IN CONCLUSION

“Conservation is not an event but a process, the start of a cycle of development rather than an attempt to arrest the march of time”– Rodney Harrison [6].

Conservation must be well integrated with the development plans of the

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settlement. Master plans, which predict the land use, typology of development, and change of use to historic buildings must be laid out strategically. Infrastructure development in areas surrounding the site should be planned to aid the continuity of heritage structures. Change in heritage structures must be permitted to cater to changing needs, however the extent of change must be carefully determined based on the case. Tourism must be managed in a manner that it benefits the local community rather than harm it. Infrastructure for development and tourism management must be

framed ahead of time to prevent bottleneck situations.

A management plan that perceives conservation and development at par while involving all the stakeholders in the process of change can lead to a successful end.

REFERENCES: 1. Hewison, Robert. The Heritage Industry :Britain in a Climate of Decline. London: N.p.1987. Print 2. NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. SOHO-Cast Iron Historic District Extension Designation Report. N.p., 2010. Print.

3. NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. SOHO-Cast Iron Historic District Extension Designation Report. N.p., 2010. Print.

4. Fairclough, Graham et al. The Heritage Reader. London and New York: Routledge, 2008. Print.

5. INTACH. “Urban Heritage in Indian Cities.” (2015): 68. Print.

6. Harrison, Rodney. Critical Approaches. London and New York: Routledge, 2013. Web.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sivagami Periannan is an architect and urban designer who loves to explore the city. Having completed her undergraduate studies in School of Architecture & Planning, Chennai, she specialised in Urban Design and Architectural Conservation at CEPT, Ahmedabad. After a few years of working in the field with design studios such as Auroville Design consultants, ArchitectureRED and Triple O studio, she is currently freelancing while teaching part-time.

Having been involved in urban projects of varying scales, she believes that good design can make a difference for the better. When she isn’t working, she enjoys painting, baking and travelling.

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SOCIAL EQUITY AND DESIGN PARADIGMS OF WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENTS PAVITHRA SRIRAM

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Globally, post-industrial waterfronts have become postcard images for cities – symbols of capital transitioning into an economy by themselves. In India, neglected waterfronts have become pet projects for governments, planners, researchers, and developers. Although the historical, cultural, social, and economic settings of Indian cities are radically different from their western counterparts, the visions and outcomes of such waterfront planning strive to look alike and are usually insensitive to local cultural contexts.

What remains unanswered are how the needs of the communities that have borne its perils reflect on the design of waterfront neighbourhoods they are built for. If not, who is it for?

Little soldiers on the Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad. Image credits: Joseph Raja

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The Sabarmati Riverfront Development in Ahmedabad is one such completed project in India. The project was opened to public in 2012 after nearly three decades of planning. On the one hand, it has received heavy accolades from several international forums and the other there is considerable criticism on both its design and social equity aspects. The project introduced Western ideologies of waterfront planning into its Indian streetscapes and stands today as a pioneering example for other waterfronts in the country. Although, its narrative leaves behind several pertinent questions on equity unanswered.

As developing countries are attempting to adopt Western models, Western designs of waterfronts are also being continuously criticized. Globally in cities, the protection of vulnerable populations from capitalist growth is the need of the hour. In cities like New York, where real estate is a prime commodity and land prices are sky-rocketing, the least expensive way to ensure success of a project is to replicate a successful model from elsewhere in the world.

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

The processes that govern the waterfront developments raise questions about its intent. This pattern is similar across varying geographies where post-industrial waterfronts are being revamped. Three such developments are described here to illustrate how key stakeholders and decision makers influenced the outcome of the project.

The experiences of these communities in redeveloping their waterfronts are a valuable resource for other waterfront communities that are undergoing transition.

GREENPOINT-WILLIAMSBURG NEIGHBOURHOODS, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES Historically, Greenpoint-Williamsburg industrial neighbourhoods have been home to a diverse population living in a number of ethnic enclaves. In the last few decades, the economic restructuring from a manufacturing sector to a service-based economy, left the pre-existing building stock vacant or under-utilized. The 2005 rezoning of the neighbourhood fuelled rapid gentrification causing significant

changes to the density, socio-economic and physical characteristics of the neighbourhood that were fought against by the community for a decade.

The GreenpointWilliamsburg Rezoning stands out for its inclusionary zoning mandates as well for the diversity of its stakeholders.

Timeline of the Greenpoint-Williamsburg urban transformation. Image Source: Author

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Aerial View of GreenpointWilliamsburg. Image Source: nyhabitat CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

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Environmental groups, affordable housing advocates, tenant leaders, manufacturers, developers, waterfront landowners, and the Mayoral administration were inherently part of this rezoning and urban transformation (Goldberg 2011). The community demands for the rezoning plan focused on creating new opportunities for residential and commercial development, while maintaining its low density, mixed use characteristics, strengthen the diversity, improve waterfront access, and promoting a work environment that is clean and safe with necessary economic development.

The Williamsburg we see today is a result of many of the hard-won revisions to the initial rezoning, steered by the community organizations and stakeholders’ advisory efforts. The bulk and density conditions that framed the urban design doctrine was completely over-ruled. However, the community’s efforts helped them win the battle in other major areas of concern. An industrial retention fund was established to foster non-profit and art-sector organizations’ acquisition of industrial space. In the division of Parks and Open Spaces, the significant gains included CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

a five-acre parkland site at Greenpoint, a pledge to acquire the three-acre Transportation Authority site, a two-acre site adjacent to a ball field, including a fund for its 2010 operating budget.

Most importantly, a provision was established that required all developed shore-walk site deeds be mandatorily forfeited to the city after completion, in order to establish public ownership of the shore walk at the completion of the development process.

Today, only a fraction of the promised parkland in the 2005 rezoning has been developed. The process in GreenpointWilliamsburg, the negotiations,

community input, and consensus building has been exceptional. However, in order for their visions and decade-old promises to be fulfilled, they will need to be vigilant. The need to organize and hold the city accountable to its promises, and developers for their actions is more urgent.

IRONBOUND WATERFRONT FROM NEWARK, UNITED STATES The Ironbound is a multi-ethnic, largely working-class neighbourhood primarily serving the manufacturing industries in Newark, New Jersey. In 1983, after several years of Environmental Justice

battles, Newark was declared dangerous with extremely high levels of pollution caused by 70 companies located in the city. For several years after which, the waterfront region of Ironbound was demarcated as a ‘Special Waterfront District’ left merely to the hands of developers and property owners to influence the amendment of the zoning ordinance. Damon Rich, the Planning Director and Chief Urban Designer of Newark, in an interview mentioned, ‘over the years, approximately 12 to 13 documents were developed and were conceived with a single constituency in mind: downtown property owners.’

Timeline of the Ironbound riverfront development. Image Source: Author

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Aerial View of the Ironbound neighbourhood of Newark. Image Source: Flickr CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

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Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC)’s 48-year relationship with the community and its strong presence in the Ironbound neighbourhood helped in steering community engagement and partnerships with other local and city-wide organizations. A critical milestone in this process was when local partnerships with ICC helped draft a City-wide residents statement which assimilated the demands in the neighbourhood with approximately 3000 resident signatures and presented it at the City Hall (Rich 2018).

The initiation of the Riverfront Park saw novice methods of community engagement by testing potential coalitions and building relations towards that. Damon Rich, in his capacity as an architect, in partnership with ICC, conducted a five-week architecture class as an after school program for children. Over nine months, the team made a model of their vision for the neighbourhood. The attention drawn to the waterfront helped in gaining the momentum for the project and helped in achieving ‘two cents from two percent (of Newarkers),’ thus involving about 5,000 people to envision the Riverfront Park (Rich 2018).

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‘The strongest supporters and stakeholders are the ones who can walk to it (the Riverfront Park)’ says Damon Rich. Rightly so, the needs and demands of the community were built into the working model of the riverfront. As far as Phase One is considered, the planning processes inform a bottom-up approach that has helped in empowering the community to envision a socially accessible riverfront. The persistence of community presence in the functioning of the Riverfront Park is a significant piece in the planning process moving forward.

Timeline of the Porto Maravilha Urban Operation. Image Source: Author

PORTO MARAVILHA FROM RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL Five years ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics an Urban Operation was commissioned in Porto Maravilha.

Set as a Waterfront Regeneration project in Rio’s post-industrial neighbourhood, the project was to bring about aesthetic, infrastructural, and service sectoral improvements. On a partially hilly terrain, Porto Maravilha housed poorly maintained and obsolete historic tenement districts, favelas (a low-income, historically informal urban area), railroad yards, office buildings, and warehouses in industrial sites.

In November 2009 the City passed the legislation that approved the Porto Maravilha master plan. A list of fourteen broad goals of the Urban Operation was prepared that emphasized on investment in urban infrastructure, development of all under-utilized land, stimulating economic activity, improving environmental conditions, and promoting education.

Although nearly 80 percent of the available land was public, the City did not provide for a platform for the 34 35

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Aerial View of Porto Maravilha redevelopment area. Image Source: SkyscraperCity CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

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residents to discuss their needs in the project. The project was approved with no adherence to the existing planning background of the city and it did not stem from a democratic debate (Vannuchi 2013). “The proposal itself is not bad, nobody is against the work, since it addresses areas that need work.

It is the way these interventions are made and also the priority and interest behind these interventions. Also the lack of communication with the communities affected,” a member of the Community Forum commented regarding the proposal (Toledo 2012).

The UPP Social (Pacifying Police Units Program) held informational sessions in June 2011 to discuss the needs of the residents of favelas. The UPP Social, a program launched by the State, later transferred to the City government, aimed at producing information about the needs of favelas and articulating the improvements to missing or lowquality public services like sanitation, health care, education, etc. While the UPP Social was a framework of the City to facilitate public participation, most of the participation was mere consultation, a form of tokenism.

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

The collective demands of the residents with the community organizations were infrastructural and targeted. It dealt with collection and treatment of sewage, sustainable mobility, security, transparency and dialogue on areas of geological risk, and a portal for monitoring of the goals and advance the plans. Soon the government lost exclusivity in urban space interventions, the project was handled by the “Consortium for Urban Operation.” The consortium made way for private entities to develop the area (Antonio Colchete Filho 2017).

The Porto Maravilha project was much needed in the city of Rio, regardless of the International games. Where the project fell short was in the lack of clarity of its goals, implementation processes, and transparency. More so, although its development model targets Porto Maravilha neighbourhood, its development strategies did not address the favelas in the region. Running the risk of increasing segregation and creating a modern edge to a disinvested neighbourhood core (Mohammed Al Abassi n.d.).

A CRY AND A DEMAND Waterfront developments characteristically carry the weight of massive urban transformations. This often drives the question of ‘who is it for?’ The inevitable trade-offs between economic outputs and needs of the residents’ leaves the intentions of such projects questionable. Envisioning a planning process that is idealistic is difficult within the organized chaos of an urban development. However, building a sustainable process that is responsive to city needs is critical. Although, within the battle for an environmental, economic, and socially sustainable neighbourhood, the physical aspects of design is presumably insignificant. Such Urban Developments are advertised as a benefit to all.

The constant question of ‘who is the ‘all’?’ deliberated me to question design itself.

The need for designs to be site specific and responsive to the social and

environmental contexts supersedes the obligation to leave it as a blank palette that is interpretative for the evolving cultures and its users. The appeasement of the global audience in projects intended for the public good remains unsettling during design discussions. The need for public-interest designers to take charge of urban design projects and assist communities in articulating their needs is increasingly urgent. Pragmatic enforcement and accountability mechanisms must dominate conversations with governments.

Collectively we must aim to push the envelope of planning processes further to be more accommodative of the local communities and their needs, after all, their rights remain as a cry and a demand.

REFERENCES: 1. Antonio Colchete Filho, Frederico Braida, Lucia Maria Sá Antunes Costa and Juliana Varejão Giese. 2017. “Puerto Madero and Porto Maravilha: The Transformation Process of Port Areas into Tourist Zones.” Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture 915-920. doi:10.17265/1934-7359/2017.10.002 .

2. Barbanel, Josh. 2018. “The Bronx Is Back, Baby!” Wall Street journal. Feb 14.

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3. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-bronx-isback-baby-1518606000.

4. Billy Graeff, Barbara Almeida. 2016. “The Olympics and Paralympics in Brazil: Who Takes the Prize?” Journal of Sport Science and Physical Education.

5. Byron, Joan, interview by Pavithra Sriram.

2017. (November 29).

6. Capps, Kriston. 2017. City Lab. October 17.

Accessed January 28, 2018. https://www. citylab.com/design/2017/10/the-problemwith-fast-casual-architecture/542934/.

7. Clair, Ben St. 2017. March 29.

8. https://therealdeal.com/2017/03/29/realestate-investors-pumped-a-record-3-3b-intothe-bronx-in-2016/.

9. Desai, Renu. 2014. “Municipal Politics, Court Sympathy and Housing Rights: A PostMortem of Displacement and Resettlement under the Sabarmati Riverfront Project, Ahmedabad.” Centre for Urban Equity, CEPT University. Accessed Apr 12, 2018.

10. http://cept.ac.in/UserFiles/File/CUE/ Working%20Papers/Revised%20 New/23%20Municipal%20Politics%2C%20 Court%20Sympathy%20and%20 Housing%20Rights%20A%20PostMortem%20of.pdf.

11. Ganguly, Shramana. 2015. “The transformation of Sabarmati from a parched riverbed with puddles of industrial effluents to a bustling, swanky riverfront.” The Economic Times. Jan 24. Accessed Apr 11, 2018.

12. https://economictimes.indiatimes. com/news/politics-and-nation/theCITY OBSERVER | December 2019

transformation-of-sabarmati-from-aparched-riverbed-with-puddles-of-industrialeffluents-to-a-bustling-swanky-riverfront/ articleshow/45998310.cms.

13. Goldberg, Leo. 2011. “Game of Zones: Neighborhood Rezonings and Uneven Urban Growth in Bloomberg’s New York City.”

Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute Of Technology.

Accessed Apr 16, 2018.

14. https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/ handle/1721.1/98935/921891223-MIT. pdf.

15. Grassi, Carrie. 2006. Waterfront Views: Defining a New Planning Process for Brooklyn’s Post-Industrial Waterfronts.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Accessed February 01, 2018.

16. HCP, SRFDCL. 2011. “Sabarmati Riverfront Development: Integrated Environmental Improvement and Urban Revitalization.”

Indian Urban Conference. Mysore.

17. Marshall, Richard. 2001. “Contemporary urban space-making at the water’s edge.”

In Post Industrial Waterfronts, 5. New York: Spon Press.

18. Mathur, Navdeep. 2012. “On the Sabarmati Riverfront: Urban Planning as Totalitarian Governance in Ahmedabad.” Economic and Political Weekly 67 (47 & 48): 64-76.

Accessed Apr 11, 2018.

19. http://www.soulhyd.org/articles/On_the_ Sabarmati_Riverfront.pdf.

20. Mikicich, Stephen Nenad. 1990. “Sabarmati Riverfront Development in Ahmedabad, India,.” School of Community and Regional

Planning, University of British Columbia.

21. Mitchell, Don. 2003. The Right to the City : Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space.

New York: Guilford Publishers.

22. Mohammed Al Abassi, Tanmoy Bari, Angela Maria Gabriella Rossi. n.d. “SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY STUDY OF PORTO MARAVILHA: THE EFFECTS ON SOCIOSPATIAL SEGREGATION.” Accessed April 9, 2018.

23. www.laburb.poli.ufrj.br/publicacoes/ INFRA-100.pdf.

24. Morris, Keiko. 2016. “South Bronx Sees a Rise in Market-Rate Rentals.” Wall Street Journal. Apr 3.

25. https://www.wsj.com/articles/southbronx-sees-a-rise-in-market-raterentals-1459721559.

26. Rich, Damon, interview by Pavithra Sriram.

2018.

27. Richmond, Matthew. 2013. “Back to the future? Urban Transformation and Public Protest in Rio de Janeiro.” Rio On Watch.

June 19.

28. http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=9604.

29. Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Limited. n.d. SRFDCL Organisation. Accessed Apr 12, 2018.

30. http://sabarmatiriverfront.com/ organisation.

31. Shah, Kirtee. 2013. “The Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project: Great. But Much Needs to Change.” Daily News and Analysis. Accessed April 11, 2018.

32. https://architexturez.net/doc/az-cf-166149.

33. Studio, Columbia University GSAPP Urban Planning. 2012. Porto Maravilha: Planning for Inclusive Communities in Rio De Janeiro’s Port Area. New York: Columbia University.

34. Toledo, Mariana Peixoto de. 2012.

Participation of Local Institutions in Projects Urban Revitalization: The Case of the Project Porto Maravilha In Rio De Janeiro City. Rio De Janeiro : Getúlio Vargas Foundation Brazilian School of Public Administration and Business.

35. Vannuchi, Luanda. 2013. Transforming cities for sports mega-events: another path to accumulation by dispossession . 4 Cities UNICA Euromaster in Urban Studies.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Pavithra Sriram is an architect from Chennai and holds a Masters in Urban Planning from Pratt Institute, New York. As a strong advocate for safe and inclusive streets, in the last few years, she has focussed her career on learning, testing, and implementing placemaking, tactical urbanism, and street design projects. Her varied exposure to design, design development, research, and community planning, aids in developing a rich understanding of people and their behavioural patterns. She has started her independent practice called Design Co:Lab in Chennai that actively work on advocating for and healthier people-oriented cities.

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MOBILITY AND THE CITY

WALKING IN WELLINGTON The challenge of topography SRIVIDYA RAVI

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY, CONGESTED CITIES New Zealand is lauded worldwide for its incredible coastline, rugged mountains and unique pacific cultural heritage.

However, urban lifestyle in New Zealand is not a charming picture. Car mode share is high across the country, accounting for 84% of household travel trips [1]. Public Transport (PT) uptake is very low - 63% of New Zealanders have not taken PT at all within the last year [2]. As a result, congestion is a persistent issue - especially in the two largest cities, Auckland and Wellington. Only 14% of Aucklanders and 24% of Wellingtonians make regular use of PT (At least 10 days in a month) [1].

ACTIVE TRANSPORT Combined with a large proportion of obesity in the country and road traffic related deaths [4], the proposition of active transport is seen as a panacea that can tackle both the health and mobility crises. Earlier this year, a paper from the University of Otago made strong recommendations to create policies that enable significant mode shift from driving to active transport and PT [5]. They recommend a doubling of trips made by walking, cycling and PT by halving the trips made by car (from 84% to 45%). The proposed transport mode share by 2050 is more balanced - with 45%, 40% and 15% by car, active transport and PT respectively.

View of Mt. Taranaki reflected in a tarn in Egmont National Park. Image credit: Author.

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MOBILITY AND THE CITY

At present, active transport makes up 13% of trips but only 2% of annual travel [1]. Distances travelled on foot or by cycle tend to be much shorter than motor-enabled trips - the average walking trip is 1 km and only lasts 11 minutes [6]. Meeting the ambitious goals set out for active transport will require converting some of the longer distance trips, currently made by car, to walking and cycling. However, the natural topography of New Zealand

poses a high barrier for both walking and cycling. For many Wellingtonians, walking to the nearest playground is not a trivial activity! Playgrounds are a convenient leisure space designed for neighbourhood access and a useful proxy for learning about accessibility at the local level.

A NATURAL CHALLENGE Though Wellington is not part of the nearby mountain chains, it is still a

Topographic map of Wellington produced using the Digital Elevation Model created by University of Otago - National School of Surveying. Image credit: Author.

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

hilly city. Several hill ranges running in a roughly North-East to South-West direction fold the cityscape. These hills rise sharply from the coast - with many of the city’s suburbs nestled amidst them.

Most of Wellington’s low-lying coastal areas were raised from submersion by historic earthquakes. Significant parts of the CBD were raised during the 1855 Wairarapa earthquake. An earlier

earthquake also raised the Rongotai isthmus (Te Awa-a-tia) creating a narrow but useful strip of flat land that currently serves as the Wellington Airport. Flat land is a precious commodity in this city and prevents certain types of development. For example, Wellington airport can only service limited destinations because the short runway cannot support planes larger than an Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737-800 [7].

Historic and present day shorelines. Image credit: GNS and Te Ara [8].

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MOBILITY AND THE CITY

Present day bird’s eye view of CBD from atop a southern hill suburb.

The western hill suburbs can be seen on the middle left of the image. Image credit: Author.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES Two capital cities of two small mountainous countries: Bern and Wellington. They are more different than they are similar, but they share enough characteristics that the comparison sheds an interesting perspective on the problem of topography.

Bern sits on the Swiss Plateau in the northern shadow of the Alps. Wellington sits at the gaping mouth of the North Island (Te Ika-a-Maui) facing the narrow but turbulent Cook Strait that divides the North Island from the South Island (Te Ika-a-Pounamu). Both cities sprawl over CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

hilly terrain but the inland plateau and coastal hills have a very different effect on the built environment.

Osmnx [9], an open source package, can extract the street networks from OpenStreetMap [10] given the spatial boundaries of the cities. Only the streets within the city limits have been extracted for both Bern and Wellington and exclude the Canton of Bern and Greater Wellington region respectively.

The city streets of both cities can also be enriched with elevation information using the free tier of Google’s Elevation

Street networks for Wellington city (white) extracted using the city boundaries (grey). Image credit: Author.

API [11]. Street gradients in degrees (°) are calculated with basic trigonometry: (1) the difference in elevation between the start and end of the street segment and

routable. This latter feature allows for the calculation of catchments using distances along the streets rather than direct (‘as the crow flies’) distances.

(2) the distance along the segment.

Bern and Wellington have steep streets as well as extensive easily walkable areas. Easily walkable streets are defined as those with a maximum gradient of 5% or 2.9° [12] - the lighter coloured segments (between white and pale salmon) on the maps. In Bern,

Street segments in the network are defined as sections between intersections. The resultant street network is both rich in metadata and

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MOBILITY AND THE CITY

Bern street steepness (°). Only plotting streets with gradient <=30°. Image credit: Author.

Wellington street steepness (°). Only plotting streets with gradient <=30°. Image credit: Author.

these streets are spread across the city, while in Wellington they are tightly concentrated around coastal areas and isolated inland plateaus.

environment topography. 67% of Bern’s streets are easily walkable streets while only 58% of Wellington streets are. The tail of steep streets is “fatter” for the Antipodean city partly due to the larger elevation differences - which range from coastal plains to 300 metre hills. By contrast, most of Bern sits at a relatively tight elevation due to its position on a large plateau.

Extracted from the map and plotted on the same axes, the rich metadata of elevation and street gradients give useful insight into comparative built

Comparative street steepness

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Comparative street elevations

Tobler’s function for calculating speed vs. incline. Image courtesy the author.

TOPOGRAPHY NEEDS TOBLER Walking speeds vary according to the steepness of the incline. Tobler’s hiking function is a neat little equation that converts incline to speed [13]. The parameters of the function calculate speed on a 30° incline to be six times slower than 5°. A little bit of high school physics [14] can convert speed to a travel time. Walking 100 metres on an easily walkable street (Less than an absolute incline of 2.9°) takes a minute but almost 10 minutes for streets at an incline of 30°.

LOCAL WALKABILITY: AS EASY AS A WALK TO THE PARK? Urban planners typically use distances to describe accessibility. However,

distances are not a useful metric for topographically-challenged regions.

Travel times, adjusted according to street inclines, are necessary to represent realistic walkability.

Playgrounds are a convenient built environment feature to test walkability at the local level. Municipalities and councils distribute them across urban environments to ensure consistent access. For example, Wellington City Council works to ensure that most of the city is within a 600 metre catchment of a playground [15]. To measure the difference in walkability due to topography, the total travel times to four playgrounds across Wellington were examined: two on a hill (black circles) and two on flat land (red circles).

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MOBILITY AND THE CITY

Playgrounds used for catchment analysis: hills (black) vs. flat land (red). Map created from data provided by Wellington City Council. Data source: https://datawcc.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/wcc-playgrounds. Image credit: Author.

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Catchment analysis of playgrounds on hills as total travel time (minutes) . Image credit: Author.

Catchment analysis of playgrounds on flat land as total travel time (minutes). Image credit: Author.

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MOBILITY AND THE CITY

The street networks for both hilly and flat playgrounds sweep a consistent 1.5 km radius. Travel times are calculated using Tobler’s function and represent total travel: going to the playground and coming back. The difference in catchment area between the two topographically different playgrounds is stark. For the first set of hill and flat land playgrounds, the 25 minute catchment areas are 0.43 km2 and 1.56 km2 respectively. Given the same total travel time, the suburban area captured by the flat land playground is 3.5 times that of the playground on the hill.

more attention to infrastructure before active transport becomes a mode transfer option. The analyses discussed in this article are a useful tool to help understand the feasibility of active transport depending on the city characteristics. More nuanced versions of the analysis can delve into demographics and socio-economic aspects.

REFERENCES [1] Ministry of Transport. 2019. ‘Household Travel Survey 2015 - 2018’ https://www.transport.govt.nz/mot-resources/ household-travel-survey/new-results/overview/

The contraction of catchment areas on hills is due to both (1) different street layouts (longer, windier roads that skirt the sides of the hill compared to grid layouts on flat ground) and, (2) the difference in travel time due the street gradients.

ENABLING ACTIVE TRANSPORT Active transport is a great approach for managing the health crises resulting from sedentary lifestyles and increasing travel resilience by distributing travel trips across more modes. But, cities with topographical challenges need CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

[2] Ministry of Transport. 2019. ‘Household Travel Survey 2015 - 2018’. https://www. transport.govt.nz/mot-resources/householdtravel-survey/new-results/public-transport-usein-the-past-year/ [3] Ministry of Health. 2019. ‘Obesity Statistics from the New Zealand Health Survey 2018/19’. https://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-statistics/ health-statistics-and-data-sets/obesity-statistics [4] Environment Health Indicators New Zealand.

2019. ‘About Transport and Health’. http:// www.ehinz.ac.nz/indicators/transport/abouttransport-and-health/ [5] Mandic et al. 2019. Turning the Tide - policy recommendations. https://www.otago.ac.nz/ active-living/otago709602.html [6] Ministry of Transport. 2019. ‘Household

Travel Survey 2015 - 2018’ https://www.transport.govt.nz/motresources/household-travel-survey/new-results/the-average-trip/ [7] Wikipedia. 2019. ‘Wellington International Airport’. https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_International_Airport#Runway [8] Lloyd Homer (GNS Science) and Te Ara Online Encyclopedia.

2006. Image reference: VML 216739. http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/ photograph/4383/wellington-harbour-before-the-haowhenua-earthquake [9] Boeing, G. 2017. “OSMnx: New Methods for Acquiring, Constructing, Analyzing, and Visualizing Complex Street Networks.” Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 65, 126-139. doi:10.1016/j. compenvurbsys.2017.05.004 [10] OpenStreetMap. https://www.openstreetmap.org/ [11] Google Elevation API https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/elevation/start [12] New Zealand Transport Agency. 2009. ‘14.4 Gradient’. In Pedestrian Planning Guide, 145-146. https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/ pedestrian-planning-guide/docs/pedestrian-planning-guide.pdf [13] Wikipedia. 2019. ‘Tobler’s Hiking Function’. https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Tobler%27s_hiking_function [14] https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/math/speed-distancetime-calculator.php [15] Wellington City Council. 2017. Wellington Play Spaces Policy. https://wellington.govt.nz/~/media/your-council/plans-policies-andbylaws/plans-and-policies/a-to-z/play-spaces/play-spaces-policy. pdf?la=en

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shrividya Ravi is a data scientist who has recently discovered a passion for urban analysis and development. She believes that open data and open source software gives citizens an incredible opportunity to understand how their city works and investigate avenues / causes of particular interest to them.

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CITY TRAILS

TALES OF LIVABILITY

CHARLOTTE SABOURET

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Nowadays, architects and urban planners, when they can afford it, travel the world to get inspired by the best practices in the field. In the race among global cities, the rather small capital of Denmark, Copenhagen, with 623,404 inhabitants (1.3 million for Greater Copenhagen) [1], has been striving to win a place on the podium of the world’s most ‘liveable’ cities. Three times proclaimed as such by the global lifestyle magazine Monocle, the city’s ‘recipe’ for success is proactively promoted by various public and private stakeholders. This old harbour city, situated on the East coast of the island of Zealand intends to continue playing this important role, experimenting with a series of measures to become the first carbon neutral world capital by 2025 [2].

Guided tour about the ‘smart city’ in Copenhagen for a group of urban planners working for various municipalities in France. Image credit: Nordic Insite

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Every year, from April to October, I work as a freelance guide for agencies specialised in organising tours and lectures for architects and urban planners, namely Nordic Insite and Scaledenmark. Participants work in architecture studios, municipalities, consultancies, engineering or real estate companies. The majority of them live in Europe or in Northern America, and the routes taken during the tours are often similar but can be modified to match the needs and specific area of interest of the visitors; for example forms of cohousing, policies to adapt with climate change, or the development of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;smart cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Some might be interested in the governance and economic aspects of projects, while others more keen on learning about the history of architectural trends and designs.

Themes stand out, recurring visits are asked from those groups looking for good practices and insights on what lies behind the neologism of liveability. A chronological thread can meaningfully be drawn between the two, following the history of the concept in the capital city.

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

This progressive shift is visible from the foundations of the welfare city of the early 20th century, to the radical change in the 1990â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where the city saw its structures and ideology shaken by a market driven approach to urban planning, followed by the challenges generated by climate change and its consequences on urban management.

THE WELFARE CITY The early period of the 20th century was characterised by large urban, housing, and social reforms that led to a profound change in Danish welfare and

urban policies. In line with this trend, the 1950s and 60s were marked by the establishment of the core institutions of the welfare state and an optimistic view of a future with seemingly endless economic growth. The rapid development of the built environment that accompanied the post war boom was inspired by the famous ‘Finger Plan’ of 1947, according to which development would be shaped along five finger zones extending from the city centre, with recreational and green spaces in between. This period framed the history and the ideology of welfare architecture, which found its formal expression in the classic works of the Danish architectural tradition.

In this regard, the Sankt Jørgens Quarter can be seen as a compressed form of the modernist history of Copenhagen with buildings erected mainly in the period from the 1930s to the 1970s.

The neighbourhood is a scale model of Brasilia, built on a tabula rasa after the closing of the Central Station formerly located there. The area is a

curiously isolated enclave with rare pedestrians and many cars. Its layout is functionalist and zoned with different programs, the central part containing offices and institutions while the edges are dedicated to housing. It is probably one of the least remarkable districts in Copenhagen, but architecturally it has many functionalist and modernist buildings. Many of the great modernist Danish architects are present here; Kay Fisker, Arne Jacobsen, Vilhelm Lauritzen, and others. These architects are also well known for the large housing projects they built to fulfil the growing housing demands of the post war period.

Many visitors like to stroll around these imposing buildings, where modernism and traditionalism are combined through a neutral and functional drawing intermingled with specific Nordic characteristics (aka ‘Funkis’), like solid brick façades, navy like windows and guardrails, and sometimes, large courtyards in the middle of the built block.

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CITY TRAILS

Two main types of visitors are drawn to these kind of projects; students invited to visit these modernist constructions by their teachers in architecture schools, and architects of a certain age (60+ in average), who highly appreciate these functionalist forms that shaped their own education and practice of architecture. They generally admire the simplicity and the elegance of the forms, the quality of construction, and regret the distortion of the original design by recent renovation work (for example in the SAS hotel designed by the Danish architecture guru Arne Jacobsen).

The Vestersøhus, a functionalist housing block designed

by Kay Fisker and C.F. Møller (1935-1939). Image credit: Author

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

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CITY TRAILS

ØRESTAD, A NEW URBAN PARADIGM The developing area of Ørestad, located south of Copenhagen’s city centre is composed of four districts sprawling over a rectangular piece of land 600 meters wide and 5 kilometres long, and epitomises the market driven planning approach of the 1990s that dictated urban governance and architectural aesthetic. Here, the sale of publicly owned land was primarily intended to raise money for the Copenhagen Metro project. Conceived around a master plan won in 1994 by a Finnish-Danish architectural collaboration, the district is however mainly known for its iconic buildings designed by ‘starchitects’; Jean Nouvel (DR Concert Hall), Daniel Libeskind (master plan of the sub district Ørestad City, Cabinn Metro Hotel), as PLOT and then BIG, Bjark Ingels (VM Houses, Mountain Dwellings, 8 House), alongside famous Danish firms 3XN (AC Hotel Bella Sky, Royal Arena) and Lundgaard & Tranberg (Tietgenkollegiet). Ørestad triggers various and extreme responses among participants of the tours I conduct. Some fall in love with the place, amazed by the architectural gems on display, the open master plan articulated around nature and water, CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Visit to Tietgenkollegiet, a students residence hall designed by Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter (2003-2006). Image source: Nordic Insite

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CITY TRAILS

and the stated ambition of reinventing

favour of partitioned areas, a gigantic

the urban life between countryside

beige mall boxing in all commercial

atmosphere and urban amenities.

activity, resulting in an utter lack of

Others reject it violently, criticising

sense of belonging.

the project for its artificiality, its cruel lack of life and spontaneity, and its empty spaces where winds rush in. For

Though Ørestad continues to generate

those persons, the value of designing

many debates on planning and design,

for human scale has been defeated in

it is evident that this interpretation

View of the southern tip of Ørestad from Kalvebod Fælled (“Kalvebod Commons”).

The 8 House (BIG, 2010) is visible in the distance. Image credit: Author CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

of urban life is attractive to the

FROM AN INDUSTRIAL HARBOUR CITY

many households who have chosen

TO A â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;SMARTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; LEISURE PORT

to live there. In many ways, this

Sluseholmen, Havnholmen, Refsaloen,

neighbourhood, whose completion

Nordhavn - all of these city districts

is expected by 2025, presents an

are located along the harbour of

engaging sociological field to observe

Copenhagen, running from north to

the evolution and forms of appropriation

south. They have been undergoing

of space by the different users present

a transformation of their former

there.

industrial legacy to become mixed

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CITY TRAILS

Tour participants on the rooftop of Konditaget Lüders, a building with recreational space built on the roof of a multi-storey car park (JAJA Architects, 2016). Image source: Nordic Insite

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

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CITY TRAILS

used neighbourhoods with housing, office spaces, leisure, and recreational infrastructure. Tour participants regularly comment on the ‘playful’ urban style of these districts, given the several playgrounds used by schoolchildren, residents, strollers, and other users.

Nordhavn (the North Harbour, founded at the end of the 19th century), situated on the Øresund coast, is a brand new city district, that will be developed over the next 40-50 years. When completed, the project will feature buildings with a total floor area of up to 4 million square metres, providing

View of Nordhavn from the train platform. UN City (3XN, 2013) and a ferry leaving for Sweden or Norway, seen on the right. Image credit: Author

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

living space for 40,000 inhabitants and workspace for another 40,000 users.

With its easy access to the city’s core infrastructure, direct access to the water, and its multitude of recreational urban spaces and public facilities, the district is envisioned to become a “sustainable district of the future” - a

genuine open-air laboratory for urban planning experimentations, combining IT solutions, high quality of urban design and resiliency towards climate change.

In that regard, the district is part of the proactive strategy of the Municipality to make Copenhagen a ‘smart city’[3], attractive for investors and companies

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CITY TRAILS

[4], with ‘smart city’ solutions that are exportable to other cities, primarily in Asia [5].

This ‘smart’ and ‘liveable’ city comes at a high cost for a large existing population that falls under the low income category, and tends to be forgotten in the dominant storyline shared with visitors. Indeed, competition in the city’s housing market has strongly increased over the past decade. According to Finance Denmark, apartments cost 70% more than in 2010, while houses are 45% more expensive. Renting an apartment is also 50% more expensive than it was in 2010, according to the main national newspaper, Politiken. This expensive housing market could have serious consequences for the social fabric of the city. It is an issue being debated among city politicians looking to find solutions to ensure that Copenhagen – which is expected to grow by 20% over the next decade [6] – does not become a well-off people’s ghetto, a situation resulting from three decades of local housing policies that changed

the built environment and housing stock to set up favourable conditions for the so-called ‘economically sustainable population’[7].

A CITY FOR PEOPLE? Others initiatives, often less flashy than well-known projects, demonstrate that the concept of liveability is not completely devoid of its democratic promise. Several public spaces in Copenhagen provide a physical expression of its liveliness.

Superkilen is a public park located in Nørrebro, a multi-cultural and socially challenged neighbourhood, undergoing gentrification. Divided into three areas (The Red Square, The Black Market and The Green Park), the design improved the image of the neighbourhood, providing better connectivity as well as increasing the sense of security within the surrounding residential area.

To furnish the park, residents of the neighbourhood were invited to propose elements and objects referencing their culture, with the intention to create an exhibition filled with interesting things from around the world [8].

Facing page: Superkilen Park, Nørrebro, Copenhagen (SUPERFLEX, BIG, and Topotek1, 2012). Image credit: Iwan Baan; Image source: https://www.archdaily.com/286223/superkilen-topotek-1-big-architects-superflex/5088cd8428b a0d7525000100-superkilen-topotek-1-big-architects-superflex-photo?next_project=no CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

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CITY TRAILS

Visitors are, in their majority, enthusiastic about Superkilen, and they also appreciate the quality of other public spaces throughout the city (Israel Plads, Island Brygge, the new plazas around the new metro line stations).

Walking around these spaces often triggers one recurring observation, “Where are the elderly?” It is indeed increasingly rare to see old people in the streets of the Danish capital and statistics confirm the empirical observation. According to figures from Danmarks Statistik, the number of people over the age of 70 living in Copenhagen has almost halved over the past 30 years.

Another park in Nørrebro – largely underestimated for its quality as a public space – is worth noticing. The place is called BaNanna park because of the big, yellow, banana-shaped embankment that makes it a great skate park – and from its location on Nannasgade. This leftover parking lot/football field/shady exchange for drug dealers has been transformed into an attractive green haven for both locals and others alike.

To revitalise the area, the Municipality worked closely with the neighbourhood.

A user involvement study was carried out by one agency, another one did the concept design, and then a third party did the detail design. It was a very long and costly process, but with a success that is evident to see - its primary users are casual strollers It is no coincidence that Copenhagen is a city where some architects are expressing the need for a renewed approach to practicing architecture and urban planning. Gehl Architects, world renowned for its founder Jan Gehl, an architect and urbanist whose approach follows from famous predecessors such as Jane Jacobs, exhorting the link between ‘human scale’ design and the quality of urban life. Arki_Lab, a Danish design studio founded by architects who previously worked at Gehl, are taking this approach even further with a practice that focuses on co-creation, democratic design and a crossdisciplinary team - ‘designing cities with people instead of for people’.

Facing page, top: BaNanna Park in the district Norrebro (Nord Architects, 2010). Image credit: Author Facing page, bottom: BaNanna Park, Norrebro. Image source: https://dac.dk/en/knowledgebase/architecture/ bananna-park-from-contamination-to-local-oasis/ CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

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CITY TRAILS

Overview of the four main themes/areas visited by architects and urban planners travelling to Copenhagen.

Image credit: Author CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

CONCLUSION / END THOUGHTS

REFERENCES:

During the course of the walks, the stories I share about the ‘Copenhagen model’ are mixed, the picture half-tone.

Urban governance and social geography have been transformed over the past three decades in Denmark. Over the 20th and early 21st centuries, the term ‘liveability’ has come to represent the urban ideology of accessibility and community, and of the improvement of

[1] Danmarks Statisk https://www.dst.dk/da

urban spaces and infrastructure as a functional and experience driven urban scenography that improves perceived quality of life. At the same time however, there is a real risk that liveability could be reduced to an irrelevant and catch all term that undermines the democratic aspect of the foundation of the welfare city. And that is why, for all its contradictory and often intermingled approaches to city building, Copenhagen is worth visiting.

[2] https://international.kk.dk/artikel/carbonneutral-capital [3] https://urbandevelopmentcph.kk.dk/ indhold/smart-city [4] https://investindk.com/set-up-a-business/ tech/smart-city [5] https://nordic.climate-kic.org/news/danishsmart-city-solutions-exported-to-asia/ [6] https://urbandevelopmentcph.kk.dk/artikel/ cph-2025-climate-plan [7] Anders Lund Hansen, Hans Thor Andersen & Eric Clark (2001), Creative Copenhagen : Globalization, Urban Governance and Social Change, European Planning Studies, 9 :7, 851-869. Link: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/ Hans_Andersen3/publication/248961001_ Creative_Copenhagen_Globalization_ Urban_Governance_and_Social_Change/ links/0046353c94170ea68c000000.pdf [8] https://www.visitcopenhagen.com/ copenhagen/planning/superkilen-parkgdk707822

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Charlotte Sabouret is a graduate of the Master of Regional and Urban Strategy program at Sciences Po Paris. She has been living in Copenhagen, Denmark for almost four years.

Besides her primary job in the field of co-design and service innovation, she regularly conducts guided tours for architects and urban planners visiting Copenhagen and the Øresund Region.

For Charlotte, this activity is a way for her to dive into the details of each project, not only to learn more about their design and the thinking behind it, but also about economic, political and sociological topics related to their construction.

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FEATURE ARTICLE

ENCROACHMENT IS INEVITABLE Accommodating street vending in our cities VISHAKHA TIWARI CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Raised eyebrows, grumpy faces and murmuring lips, is a common reaction towards tumultuous streets in India. But letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s acknowledge it, they are a definite part of the urban fabric of Indian cities.

So, instead of condemning them how can we comprehend and accommodate them in the urban design and planning of the cityscape?

A wide enough Indian Street leaving minimum Right of Way. Image credit: Arihant Daga, Unsplash

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FEATURE ARTICLE

WHAT COMPRISES ENCROACHMENT?

concerns like noise, congestion, hygiene

Encroachment is defined as “anything

issues and obstruction in pedestrian

which advances beyond the limits”.

In the context of Indian streets, street vending is labelled ‘encroachment’ and perceived purely as a problem, although the reality contrasts with this perception.

Street vending has become a key urban issue in Indian cities since the 90’s, as

and vehicular flow, and the lack of a ‘clean’ urban identity as common in more formal planning frameworks.

This has led to a negative perception of street vending as ‘encroachment’, discouraging the presence of vendors in the ecosystem of typical Indian cities.

it limits the already inadequate parking supply due to a lack of planning for

The parking inadequacies and lack of

integration in appropriate ways into the

allocated vending zones in the high

urban framework and streetscapes.

streets and urban nodes in a city also leads to an increased pressure on

In India, encroachment by an organic progression of street vendors primarily results in traffic congestion and haphazard parking options. While clear automobile thoroughfares and parking are generally valued by higher-income groups and commercial establishments, street vending plays an important role in the social and economic structure of Indian cities. Often, street vending is the only source of income for a large proportion of the urban poor, and plays a huge role in our informal economy, as well as the civic structure of our cities.

existing public space infrastructure.

In Indian cities, the majority of public spaces are typically either parks or streets. With growing urbanisation, the need for aesthetically appealing streets as public spaces is sought after, and ‘encroachment’ is perceived as the biggest hurdle in achieving a standardised, functional and aesthetically pleasing public street.

The reasons for street vending encroaching into other street functions varies depending on each street and city in question, although a broad generalization could point

However, this facet of the cityscape

to unsystematic planning policies,

is often associated with additional

government legislation and street

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Highly encroached street with no proper access routes Image credit: Pixabay

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design. In particular, a lack of innovative ideas at the micro-level design of the public-private interfaces of the city leads to gaps in the system that enable an informal economy of street vending (or encroachment) to flourish. It is important here to also stress the need for urban planners and designers in mediating this space and providing the frameworks to address these issues.

STREET VENDING When it takes hold on Indian city streets, street vending consumes much of the area on streets, leaving little scope for pedestrian comfort, hampering vehicular safety and ultimately leading to commotion. But forced removal of street vendors should not be presumed as the most suitable solution to this disorder. Before resorting to the removal of street vendors to beautify streets, let’s acknowledge what they have to offer to the city.

• Street vending is an effective way to program streets and engage people to create a great public space • Vendors add safety and vibrancy -- ‘eyes on the street’ - in the urban fabric of the city.

• Informal vending is often the main CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

source of income for the urban poor.

• Street vending provides basic goods at convenient locations, encouraging more local walking • Street vending also maintains a level of affordability of goods in a country such as India with a larger middle to lower-middle class population.

GOVERNMENT’S ROLE & MEDIATION BY NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS Local government policies and legislation often fall short of the vision for more integrated streets provided by urban planners and designers, as often these policies are attempting to cater to a variety of citizen audiences including motorists. In the case of street vending in particular, many legislative policies seek complete elimination of street vending, without consideration to the livelihoods and economies it supports. While street vending policies vary from city to city, it is typical to see a combination of the following measures or designations on the street: • Restriction-free Street Vending Zones • Time Restricted Zones • No Vending Zones In places where local governments are pursuing a complete elimination

Street vending as the source of income for the aged and poor. Image credit: Atharva Tulsi, Unsplash.

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of street vending, this issue has led to the mobilisation of various nonprofit organizations who are acting as mediators on the subject by preparing extensive research & surveys of street vending and the communities involved.

This serves to provide street vendors with legal safeguards to enable them to continue practicing street vending.

SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association) is one such organisation which helped reduce the challenges faced by street vendors and the streetscape in Ahmedabad.

These community-based organisations have made the leap comparatively easier for street vending, which otherwise is a complicated process in conventional city models. Around 2.5% of the population of India earn their livelihoods from street vending, and disorganisation of this fraction is affecting the economy. For the economic, social and communal safety, many cities are coming up with models that consolidate various stakeholders and jointly share the gains.

Another instance can be appreciated from the case of Bhubaneswar, Orissa where the various public, private and CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

community organisations came up with joint initiatives to for a mutually benefiting model for street vendors.

The city now has 52 vending zones and has higher levels of organised vendors working with the proper infrastructure required.

If such model markets are replicated, they could benefit the vendors and their families in creating a secure livelihood for them with increased levels of sensible functionality of a city.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR URBAN DESIGN It is inadequate to completely rely on government and community-based organisations to take charge of creating better streets and organised levels of ‘encroachment’. While their work is effective at the macro-level of policy and coalition-building, there also need to be micro-scale propositions through urban design to ensure a holistic approach and impactful change.

Comprehending the conditions of ‘encroachment’, a design approach should be flexible enough to let street vending permeate in the urban fabric.

Active Engagement without any proper infrastructure. Image credit: Raj Vitthalpura.

Street Vending Zones in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. Image credit: Telegraph, India

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While any standard model needs adaptation to fit in varying contexts, there are some fundamental design suggestions that designers and planners can follow to enable a more integrated streetscape.

• Including all necessary urban infrastructure as the base layer in the design process • Delineating a clear right of way • Insurance of pedestrian and vehicular safety • Parking management and designing streets with appropriate parking capacities.

• Time-restricted parking and street vending according to traffic flows • Micro-level design of the important interfaces of public and private infrastructure • Controlled organic behaviour to an extent • Prioritising the activity and vitality of public spaces One such general proposition is explained in the diagram on the facing page; street vendors and parking are not intermixed with pedestrian access and vehicular flow. The proposition CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

provides active program on both sides of the pedestrian access and enables customisation according to the local context.

This proposition explores the concept of maintaining the activity of the street without creating congestion, while providing for all modes of transport and pedestrians. Creating designated parking alcoves on the edges of the vending zones facilitates effective accessibility and addresses the parking requirements for large volumes of twowheelers, in the Indian street scenario.

The primary goal achieved by this proposition would be freeing up of the sidewalks for improved pedestrian comfort & stipulating adequate frontages for the commercial zones.

This proposition model intends to address high activity / street vending areas and cluster them in a well-defined zone which may or may not extend the whole length of the street. As it is a modular layout, the same can be easily replicated in the highly congested areas where the Right of Way is compromised, with customization through a thorough analysis of the context and requirements for the specific site.

Street design proposition. Image credit: Author

Any social issue when perceived from a collective approach leads to groundbreaking solutions. In the case of designing Indian streets, the proposed urban design solutions have the potential to deliver a new approach to deal with ‘encroachment’.

The ideas suggested are not a comprehensive solution to the issues faced due to organic vending and haphazard parking, but they bring us one step closer to acknowledging street

vending as a legitimate use of urban space and integrating it with designing of Indian streets.

REFERENCES: • Mahadevia, Prof. Darshini, Prof. Alison Brown, Suchita Vayas, Tejas Patel, and Self Employed Women’s Association(SEWA).

Inclusive Design for Street Vendors in India., 2014.

• Mahadevia, D. and Vyas, S. (2012). Laws, Regulations and Rights of Street Vendors: Ahmedabad.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Vishakha Tiwari is a Senior Associate Urban Designer at CBRE, a multinational real estate organisation which is involved in various government infrastructure initiative in a capacity of a consultant. She is currently is working on varied urban design and master planning projects ranging from mixed use to the public realm. Vishakha has completed her B. Arch in 2016 and her masters in Urban Design in 2018 from University of Westminster, London (merit). She has also completed a certification in Site Planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

She is a passionate professional with a flair for Urban Design & Public interfaces between infrastructures.

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LEARNING FROM CITIES

10 URBAN DESIGN LESSONS FROM SURAT

ANUJA JOSHI

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

An old saying goes ‘Surat nu jaman ane Kashi nu maran’, implying, for the ultimate soul satisfaction, nothing can beat the food in Surat and death in Kashi. The love and passion for food is very organically permeated deep within the socio-cultural and urban fabric of the city. When one mentions Surat, ‘Diamond city’ and ‘Textile hub –Manchester of the east’ are not the only identities which make it to the list but invariably the ‘Food Paradise’ of India as well. Unlike other cities which are also popular for their gastro indulgences, food forms an integral part of the social, cultural, economic and built setting of Surat. Spaces are not planned, but adapted or produced to facilitate this culture. For the people of Surat, from children to the elderly, from housewives and working women to businessmen, life revolves around food. It plays the foremost role in elevating the quality of life by contributing to a vibrant public realm and social cohesion. This indulgence in food and community is mutually beneficial. The food and work culture has over the period of time influenced the use and design of built elements of all scales in the city, from the ‘Otla’(verandah) of the house, streets, sidewalks and neighbourhoods to city planning.

One can garner various urban design lessons from the city of Surat which are a collective response and collaborative outcome of the relationship shared between the people, food and urban public space.

Aerial View of the city of Delft. Image credit: Author

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1

OTLA, THE BEGINNING OF CONVERSATIONS

The threshold between the private and public space, ‘the urban edge’ domain is critical in deciding and shaping human behaviour. Otla is this transitional space between the house and street. Along with the other traditional functions and meanings of welcome and prestige, the most relevant function remains as the facilitator of conversations and interactions. In Surat, the otla forms an integral part of day to day events and culture. Social bonds being very strong, people make at least some time from their busy lives to meet at the otla every day. It is here that conversations begin and plans surrounding food are initiated. Traditionally, five members were responsible to handle the affairs of the community cluster. Each community had one ‘Panch nu makan’ (house of the five heads of the community), which was used for community activities or even personal gatherings, making the cluster self-sufficient. The house had a larger elaborate otla where people met, gatherings were held along with preparation of food. Using this threshold

as kitchen, and street as dining hall goes as far back as the origins of the city. Till date, utensils and the equipment/ furniture required for the social gatherings are stored in one such house. With changing times, vacant houses of non- resident Indians (NRIs) are occasionally used.

The otla functions as a community meal prep area during events and otherwise, seating area during gatherings on street, all without disrupting the private realm.

Design of modern houses also incorporate the otla, the size of which is based on the level of interactions and functions it will cater to.

Facing page: Traditional Otla space used for quick and long conversations and prepping for the meals. Image Credit: Unnati Patel CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

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2

SHERI, THE SHARED STREET

Sheri is a cluster of houses along a street generally occupied by people of a particular group, caste, religion or occupation. Over time, the sheris now hold mixed groups of people from various occupations and castes though usually of the same religion. It still functions as a very tight knit group, one big family, food being the glue holding them together. Often, the families come together for various events like festivals, family occasions, religious events, other social events or just a get-together to celebrate the local produce of the season.

The central spine of the sheri- the local interior street functions as the dining space as said earlier, to host all the gatherings.

It is a shared street in a true sense. The scale and structure of the street is just right or adapted to suit the functions of the gathering. Vehicular movement is cordoned by the residents themselves; modular furniture is accommodated, retractable shading structures built and infrastructure facilities of water, electricity are provided for. A smooth transition occurs from a vehicular street to an informal indoor space.

Lately, these things are taken care of and the street is made equipped while maintenance or infrastructure and service work for the streets is carried out by the municipal corporation. The social bonding, happiness, leisure and subsequent health and well-being are shaped by the programming for the street helping to enrich the quality of life of the residents.

“Quality of life actually begins at home - it’s in your street, around your community.”

-Charles Kennedy

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Sheri transformed into outdoor dining hall with arrangements for serving, seating and social interactions. Image credit: Hitesh Patel

The shared street and Otla adapted for various activities. Image credit: Shruti Jariwala

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3

STREET FOOD

Jane Jacobs always insisted on a vibrant street scene which not only provided active frontages and ‘eyes on the street’, but also encourages social dialogue between all city residents irrespective of age, sex, caste, class etc. To allow that and activate the space, William Whyte suggests “If you want to seed a place with activity, put out food.”

(Social Life of Small Urban Places). In Surat, one can walk out on any street and find food. It does not need a trigger

or setup. Street food is ingrained in the cultural landscape of the city.

The city beautifully transforms itself from a textile hub or a diamond city in the day to a food hub in the night.

The food culture is celebrated and savoured by one and all. One can find the most elite crowd enjoying the food at a lari (food vending cart) without any reluctance. Unlike other urban spaces and cities, where street food is limited to a particular street or district owing to the stated inconvenience registered by a section of the society,

Vibrant street food scene encountering traffic on the daily basis. Image credit: Unnati Patel

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Street food with furniture accommodated in the residual space of the streets and sidewalks. Image credit: Unnati Patel

Surat surprisingly has it everywhere.

The street food activity is an inclusive initiative developing socio-cultural and economic sustainability and also resisting gentrification and hegemony by generic models at a city-wide level.

The city is an example of how street food can organically blend in the urban scape and create a celebratory street scene. Space for street food vending is carved out from the right of way for

the street, which is typically partial to the pedestrian area. The spillover of consumers occurs on the parking space and carriageway. This leads to traffic congestion when tied with irregular parking and lack to traffic discipline. To prevent the daily scuffle of this vibrant street scene and traffic congestion, design of streetscapes should be inclusive and provide a conducive environment for street food culture.

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4

PUBLIC SPACE, FOOD AND FURNITURE

Urban public spaces are synonymous with gastro indulgence in Surat and most other places in India. Dedicated open spaces like parks, lake front parks, plazas are typically only a few in the city and get immersed in the flood of people. The planned open spaces are usually designed with generic visual and physical concepts to satisfy the demand for public open space. Depending on location, culture and social behaviour, these spaces perform differently. The public spaces in Surat are lined with street food kiosks and laris, usually at the peripheral street or at the entry points. The vendors struggle to keep the pedestrian movement flowing and the consumer struggles to find space to sit, engage and celebrate the public space.

Despite it being an active vibrant open public space, there is always a struggle to find street furniture. One is forced

to adapt to marginal conditions of the plinth or peripheral fence seating. At times special food courts or food zones are provided with basic infrastructure and seating area. One would hope the food scene within these public spaces is cared for and celebrated more in a city like Surat. Yet, these are usually treated like back of the house spaces with low visibility of the public space, lack of trees, and very crude furniture, thus lacking all the parameters to have a successful vibrant public space.

People tend to adapt to the condition but serious thought needs to be given to street furniture and seating places in public spaces. While the aforementioned street-side spaces develop organically, planned public open spaces need to be sensitised to this food culture for it to grow and flourish.

Facing page, Top: Exterior of Gandhibaug serving for variety of food joints but lacking proper street furniture. Image credit: Unnati Patel Facing page, Bottom: Special food court spaces are now planned at many public spaces with provision for food trucks, though still provided with temporary and crude furniture. Image credit: Niren Mehta Source: https://www. citytadka.com/place/surat-food-trucks-fun-park/ CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

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5

THE SIDEWALK

â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans.â&#x20AC;?

-Jane Jacobs Like most of the cities in India, Surat also lacks in the open space index.

As mentioned earlier, the planned open spaces do not suffice the needs and demands of users. It is therefore essential to not only defend public open spaces but also to find opportunities to create new public open spaces.

People of Surat have started occupying underutilized public right of ways for their dining needs. The service lanes and sidewalks on the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) route which are overly designed are now used as linear picnic parks.

In the evenings, the sidewalk is topped with colourful mats, laid with a spread of home cooked food and people having interactions while relishing the food.

It transforms into a vibrant public space than being just a wide traffic corridor.

The service lanes then function as space for food trucks, laris and kiosks. As Jane Jacobs said, people produce spaces. The space is adaptable and performs as one big linear street park. The street is still functional as a vehicular carriageway with people working the traffic around the reclaimed space and not the other way around. With limited public space in cities, designing and producing such innovative adaptable urban elements should be an imperative.

Facing page: The vibrant sidewalks of Gaurav path lined with mats, service lanes of food laris, trucks and convenience parking and people enjoying the customised public space. Image credit: Unnati Patel CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

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6

NEIGHBOURHOOD: BREAKING THE BARRIERS

All across the world, food has been the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;icebreakerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to bring people from varied backgrounds, regions, religions, economic stature, caste or political views together and help enrich lives and human relationships. Indian cities are subjected to neighbourhood formations based on caste, religion, region and several other factors. Often, planners and designers struggle to prevent this and search for an element to enhance quality of life and social relationships.

Surat is amongst the cities with highest immigrant population. A lot of neighbourhoods in Surat are formed with communities based on caste, immigrants groups, religion, etc. But along with this, each neighbourhood is also identified by a food specialty or cuisine generally a traditional cuisine specific to the dwellers of that locality.

Though being self sufficient in terms of amenities and facilities, people go to different neighbourhoods for the love for food they share. For example, people go to Rander for Chicken paratha, to Khaudara gully for Chinese food, to Begampura for eggs, to old city for khaman and so on. This brings a sense of place, sense of belonging and social interactions of residents.

Food becomes that urban element which not only is the identity of the place but also the factor to bridge differences and bring about social cohesion.

Facing page, Top: Shev puri and Khaman at Chowk. Image credit: Unnati Patel Facing page, Bottom: Lemon Soda at City light. Image credit: Unnati Patel CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

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7

MIXED USE MARKETS

A majority of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population is involved in the textile or diamond businesses, mainly located in the textile market, Heera (diamond) bazaar, main chowk (city centre) and Jhapa bazaar. With the working population and the floating population of visiting merchants, businessmen and women spending most of their day in these markets, they become an important part of the urban experience. The urban food culture during the day also becomes a part of these markets, with street vendors stationed right within, and restaurants mostly around.

This creates a very efficient mixed land use, allowing people to reduce the use of motorized transport, creating a pedestrian friendly environment, and encouraging the exchange of information and work conversations over lunch or tea with snacks.

The mix of uses greatly influences the quality of the market experience - not only are they places of work, but also places for recreation with unique cultural element. This increased walkability, pedestrian flow and social interactions raise the livability of the city. Also after work, these places function as street food markets, creating a unique identity for the city.

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Jhapa bazaar is one of the busiest markets for textile and other goods. The main junction of the market area converging all the market streets is lined with restaurants and informal street food places for convenient meals during the day. Image credit: Unnati Patel

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8

FORGETTING THE NATURAL LANDSCAPE

While food helps build identity and attracts people to a particular place, it can also overpower the original essence of the place. Places in Surat like Dummas, the coast, a unique landscape of the city have lost their charm. The â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Ratalu bhajiyasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Yam fries) and corn specialties are the items localised to Dummas and people travel there only to gorge on these.

The food is now the destination rather than a convenience for people visiting to enjoy the nature. The food scene

follows the crowd, developing into an economy for the local people, but also brings the paraphernalia attached with it. The infrastructure and services that is needed to sustain this culture and economy has not just damaged the visual quotient but also the environmental aspect of the place. Areaspecific policies and regulations need to be in place and respected to preserve the sensitive natural environment along with the urban culture. Only when social, cultural and environmental factors work in tandem, can the city become a sustainable, livable city.

At Dummas (the coastal area), from approach road to the beach, the place is occupied by formal and informal street food joints converting the beach into a food court. Image credit: Unnati Patel CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

9

THE GLOCAL SURPRISE

While the globalisation trend still

local produce and spices which marks

continues, creating the need to battle

the specialty of the city. Today, when

gentrification and generic development,

uniform concepts of planning and the

the quote by Alain Bremond -â&#x20AC;&#x153;Cook

trend towards globalisation produces

with butter in the North, olive oil in

an urban sameness and a generic

the Southâ&#x20AC;?, proves to be a simple, straightforward and conducive solution to preserve the culture and identity of the place. Surat, however, achieves best of both the worlds. When one mentions a food paradise, the mind conjures a platter of different cuisines from all across the region. You can find all that and more in the city of Surat.

The city offers a surprise by celebrating

culture leading to loss of local identity, such learnings from the food culture in Surat provide a potential opportunity to combat it. The city has always been working towards preserving its identity through constantly evolving and experimenting, yet keeping the essence intact. This glocal identity not only successfully generates economy

its character and lending its identity to

and helps branding; it also plays an

different cuisines and unique recipes.

important role in sensitizing the built

Food vendors here generally have their

environment to the local culture and

own unique version of the dish, using

builds a unique spatial relationship.

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The menu of one of the egg joints displaying varieties like Australian fry, Russian fry, Jamaican Jerk Eggs along with very local Ghotalo and other versions from all across India. All have a local essence with the use of local spices and produce. Image credit: Ministry of Eggs Restaurant, V R Mall, Surat CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

10

NAVIGATING TOWARDS ‘SUSTAINABLE SAMAJ’ – THE COMMUNITY

Food is one of the major generators of waste and litter. Community food gatherings, street food vending, hawking zones, markets produce a considerable amount of dry and wet waste, contributing to the litter on streets, vacant land and storm water drains. It creates an abhorrent environment to all senses, also a potential health hazard.

Solid waste management is one of the primary concerns of any city, more so for Surat given the high food consumption in public areas. After the plague of 1994, Surat transformed itself from a filthy, ‘floating on sewage’ city to one of the cleanest cities in the country.

Administrative reforms from macro to the micro level were set up, with functional and engaged Urban Local Bodies, new public private partnerships, and public participation encouraged to monitor, regulate and work towards the common goal of elevating the quality of life of the people. One of the crucial concerns in our cities is to sustain the efforts taken by the local governing bodies towards enhancing the urban

infrastructure and development. Though a lot more can be done; Surat presents a successful story of administrative reform with local bodies involving people in urban governance thus triggering a movement towards sustainable community. The communities in Surat are working towards the common goals of sustainability like healthy environment and well being amongst few. For example, the local streets are cleaned by the residents after any social activity. A small gesture of cleaning your own house front along the street leads to a very healthy environment.

With all the social activities surrounding the food, the garbage generation is inevitable but care is taken by the community to keep the streets clean, without depending on the local systems and infrastructure. Such a community working towards sustainable goals is one of the solutions for urban local problems and empowering future. It is a way we can approach urban design, manage, protect and transform our urban spaces.

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Streets are often cleaned and decorated with rangolis providing a welcoming and festive character.

Image credit: Hitesh Patel CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

REFERENCES: 1. William H. Whyte, The Social Life Of Small Urban Spaces, Ingram, (1980) 2. Lewis Mccrary, ‘Modernism, Food, And Public Space’, The American Conservative, September 2016 3. Lenore Newman and Katherine Alexandra Newman, ‘Street Food and Vibrant Urban Spaces: Lessons from Portland, Oregon’, Local Environment (18(2):233-248, February 2013) 4. Karim W. F. Youssef and Sasha Tsenkova, ‘Rethinking Neighbourhood Identity and Cohesion Through Assemblage Theory’, Conference: Canadian Sociological Association, At University of Calgary, Volume: Congress 2016 5. Angeli Doliente Cabaltica, Hung Dinh Nguyen, Hoa Nhan Pham, ‘Solid Waste Management Practices in the Street Food Sector in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City’, Civil and Environmental Research, ISSN 2224-5790 (Paper) ISSN 2225-0514 (Online) Vol.8, No.10, 2016

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Anuja Joshi holda an M. Arch (2014) in Urban Design from The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London with a focus on urbanisation of waterfronts and coastlines. After graduating, she worked with StudioPOD, Mumbai for 4 years on various projects like Urban design toolkits, Development Control Regulations, City vision documents, Streetscapes, Landscape master plans and community engagement. She has recently moved to Frankfurt and is currently working as an Urban Designer with AS+P. Anuja has keen interest in developing urban design toolkits, form based codes, landscape and street design guidelines.

For the same, she likes to explore cities mainly through its streets and parks. In her spare time, you will often find her making street doodles, miniature plant paintings and bingewatching crime shows. For the article she was supported by Unnati Patel, a promising interior designer from Surat to help her with the photographic documentation of the city.

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MOTION CAPTURED

A WALK THROUGH TIME NASIM AMINI

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MOTION CAPTURED

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.”

Rumi – 13th Century Persian poet Iran is home to one of the world’s oldest civilizations. In the sixth century BCE under Cyrus the Great, Achaemenid Empire stretched from Eastern Europe to the Indus Valley, creating one of the largest empires in history. This is evidenced in a wide range of races contributing for centuries to the rise of the mankind in art, philosophy and sciences as one Iranian nation.

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ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER Nasim Amini, alumni of Columbia University New York, brings 10 years of architectural and urban design experience from Europe and the United States. Her work has a keen focus on innovative and gender-oriented design strategies for urban and rural development. She is the Co-Founder and Principal Urban Designers of a young New York based urban design and research practice, called Design Office of Global Cities.

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ART AND THE CITY

SOUNDSCAPE OF NOTES AND THE SPACES BETWEEN KIMBERLY GOES

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

The Drive of Walking participants on a collaborative walk. Image credit: Yeb Wiersma

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ART AND THE CITY

‘Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise.

When we ignore it, it disturbs us.

When we listen to it, we find it fascinating.’ [1] - John Cage

THE DRIVE OF WALKING ‘The Drive of Walking,’ an initiative of the Jan Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, Netherlands, held in September 2016, investigated walking as a significant aspect of art practice and as a specific method of research, perception, and experience. Twelve participants along with master class leaders Yeb Wiersma and David Helbich, explored through collective and individual walks; philosophical, cultural,

The Drive of Walking participants on a performative walk. Image credit: Yeb Wiersma

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phenomenological, botanical, ecological and spatial questions. [2]

Walk,’ we questioned the role of walking as an art practice.

Over the course of the programme, we set out on solitary and collaborative walks, immersed into exploring the landscaped heart of South Limburg and Maastricht while simultaneously interacting and exchanging ideas. From countryside walks to performative walks and a thrilling ‘Drag and Drop Night

‘The Drag and Drop Night Walk is a highly scored walk where individual experience hits the ground of a collective restriction: the city. The participant is picked up and dropped at locations; an apparently simple task, but at the same time an open field for interventions.’ - David Helbich [3]

Maastricht Tracks, a performative audio guided walk by David Helbich. Image credit: Author

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ART AND THE CITY

What defines walking?

Is walking a tool?

Is it a starting point?

Discussions with participants led me to believe that each of us used walking in a multitude of ways to facilitate our own practice. While on a particular collaborative walk along Maastricht’s countryside, we were each handed sheets of paper titled ‘Songs of the Exterior’ by Yeb Wiersma who led the walk. These sheets were designed as staves in a music sheet. 14 groups of five horizontal lines on a large sheet of paper were the blank canvasses for our self-reflection on the practice of walking. I pondered the subject of walking and my thoughts drifted to an essay by Brian Eno titled ‘Axis Thinking’ from his 1995 diary: A Year with Swollen Appendices. He speaks of an axis as a name for a continuum of possibilities between two extreme positions: so the axis between black and white is a

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

scale of greys. He states that while we look for descriptions and definitions to concepts, we often constrain ourselves by placing these definitions squarely at either one or another polar position. And it is only when we acknowledge the grey areas and examine the wide range of hybrids between the two positions that we open up to a continuum of limitless multidimensional possibilities.

‘I am interested in these transitions — these moments when a stable duality dissolves into a proliferating and unstable sea of hybrids. What happens at such times is that all sorts of things become possible: there is a tremendous energy release, a great burst of experimentation. Not only do the emerging possible positions on this new-born axis have to be discovered and experienced and articulated; they have to be placed in context with other existing axes to see what new resonances appear.’ [4] - Brian Eno, A Year with Swollen Appendices

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS ON MAASTRICHT ‘The street conducts the flâneur into a vanished time. For him, every street is precipitous. It leads downward—if not to the mythical Mothers, then into a past that can be all the more spellbinding because it is not his own, not private.’ [5] Walter Benjamin

There is a certain old worldly charm to the town of Maastricht. From the moment I set foot wandering through its tangled streets, it did, as Walter Benjamin implied - conduct me, the flâneur into a vanished time. The ascending and descending structures of its Medieval-era architecture stood as tall reminiscences of a history

Maastricht Architecture. Image credit: Author

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unforgotten. As I drifted through its fragmented pathways counterpointed with soft gleams of sunlight reflecting off the cobblestones, I was certain these tangled streets were paved together for flânerie.

On a warm summer’s day as we traversed through Maastricht’s blend of architectural styles, slowly and steadily moving into its country landscape,

Maastricht stepped structure. Image credit: Author CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

I likened the experience to a sound wave with us as a group being ‘the energy’ and the environment being ‘the medium’.

The pattern of our disturbance created an outward movement; filled with conversations, reflections, laughter and confessions. This movement created a wave, carrying with it subconscious impressions from the walk which then formed a rhythm; a soundscape to echo the days to follow.

Little did I know, this momentary interpretation on part of my subconscious was the starting point

of a soundtrack waiting to be [un] covered. Over the course of the days that followed, through solitary and collaborative walks, I began to realise that I was drawn to the impressive acoustics within the town. From the ringing of hollow church bells at dawn to a clash of musical instruments by students practicing at the Conservatorium near the Academie; the looping rhythm of bicycles and footsteps against the uneven concrete; the more I tried to observe, the more I heard.

Fragmented Glass. Image credit: Author

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I was certain that each city had its own sounds, some its own acoustic characteristics; its own soundscape.

So what was it that drew me to the soundscape of Maastricht?

my fellow Dutch friends. I then began to deconstruct these solely as onomatopoeic words; giving them whole new definitions in order to see the resonances that appeared.

Interlaced between these reflections on sound was also a curiosity towards certain words in the environment. This probably owed itself to the fact that these words belonged to a language

While these aspects played on my subconscious, I pulled them to the forefront and decided to take these triggers on a walk. This experience led to a fascinating discovery of undulating soundscapes within the city. I’d set out looking for a visual ‘word’ cue, stop at the spot; tune my ears and jot down the sounds at the very same location.

I didn’t understand. My fascination lay in their phonetic attributes as well as my failed attempt to enunciate them accurately with the help of

Hoop (English: Hope). Image credit: Author CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

A SOUNDSCAPE OF WORDS EXERCISE Following a series of walking experiments in Maastricht, I uncovered a new perspective for observing the city through a collective of visual and aural impressions. I was then chanced with the opportunity of testing this exercise format with a group of participants as part of The Drive of Walking Public Programme. Participants were each handed a sheet of paper with the ‘Soundscape of Words’ exercise.

On the walk, they were tasked with looking out for words; visual cues in the environment they were intrigued by. The first word would then be the starting point to conduct the soundscape. After documenting the chosen word through photography; the participant would have to pause and listen carefully and attentively to the soundscape of the place. These sounds would then have to be described on the same sheet of paper as vividly as possible. The same format would be repeated with the next word encountered. The sheets of soundscapes gathered as part of this experiment were a varied mix of observations - some described in terms of their duration and pitch, some by their tempo and dynamics. While looking through the research material, my thoughts wavered

on the appropriate format to collate the notes and observations from the walking exercise and accurately depict the material collected. Could these impressions create a visual story of the sounds of a street? What if the sounds described were manifested through visual compositions?

Piecing together fragments of these impressions and observations by the participants, I began to create visual representations of the soundscapes gathered. From circular shapes to depict bicycle sounds and solid blocks to represent sounds from a cash desk; I experimented with type and a range of graphic shapes to interpret the content part of each sheet. I sought inspiration from the works of music composers like John Cage and Cornelius Cardew who had experimented with graphic notation as an alternative to the traditional form of music notation.

I began visualising each individual’s experienced soundscape and assembled these as graphic scores. The resulting visual pieces can then be described as experimental visual scores to the city of Maastricht reflecting another’s time and place; some of which may never be heard again.

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Soundscape 1: Secrets. Image credit and copyright: Author

Soundscape 2: Zone. Image credit and copyright: Author CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Soundscape 3: Sail boat. Image credit and copyright: Author

Soundscape 4: Cash desk. Image credit and copyright: Author

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Soundscape 5: Hekwerk. Image credit and copyright: Author

Soundscape 6: In een gewelfde kelder. Image credit and copyright: Author CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

END NOTE ‘Soundscape of Notes and the spaces between’ is meant to be read and viewed as sound bites or as songs as part of a record, each of which can be experienced in its entirety or individually with infinite pauses as each note unfolds. The intent of this research is to put forward an experimental approach to observing the environment that surrounds us. By placing together two distinct positions of enquiry onto a new-born axis, the emerging result is a piece of work reflecting one of the many limitless possibilities. Curated from the foundation of a multi-axial space, the fragments of notes/reflections/ exercises/research material presented is reflective, open and experimental in its approach; acknowledging the grey areas in between.

One particular self-reflective afternoon during the Drive of Walking Programme, browsing through the archive at the Jan Van Eyck library I picked up a book that piqued my interest - ‘In a Language You Don’t Understand’. Presented below is an excerpt from the conversation between the two editors, Ryan Gander and Sara De Bondt.

‘It has something to do with always making work that resists closure.

A closed work is a work that is finished and a finished work isn’t a work that lives after the experience. Because, it becomes like a deadend, a dead piece of work.

But making decisions that leave a piece of work open and nondidactic also means that the work could be read by some people as being purposely confusing or purposely elitist.

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View from the Jan Van Eyck Library window ‘Monde Possible’. Image credit: Author

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

But it’s not a point to confuse people; it’s a point to give people the foundation to think from without providing an answer.’ [6] REFERENCES [1] D Cage, John. (2010). Silence. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press.

[2] 2016. The Drive of Walking Public Programme.

[3] Helbich, David. Drag and Drop - Guided Urban Contemplation. http:// davidhelbich.blogspot.com/2013/10/drag-drop.html [4] Eno, Brian. (1996). A year with swollen appendices. London: Faber & Faber.

[5] Benjamin, Walter., Eiland, Howard., McLaughlin, Kevin. (2003). The arcades project. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press.

[6] Gander, Ryan., De Bondt, Sara. (2002). Manchester: The Annual Programme.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kimberly Goes is a graphic designer from Mumbai currently residing in Dublin, Ireland with a Master’s Degree in Graphic Design from the University of the Arts London [2015]. With a strong interest in design research and writing; she has built her practice through collaborative and participatory mediums like The Drive of Walking at the Jan Van Eyck Academie [2016, Maastricht], Travelogue Summer School [2015, Porto] and has conducted The Urban Explorer Workshop [2015, London]. She is drawn to the study of places and the emotional reaction we as individuals have to a particular environment or landscape. www.kimberlygoes.com.

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MOSCOWâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LEAP INTO THE FUTURE NEHA KRISHNAN

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Image credit: Iwaan Baan for DS+R

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PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS Zaryadye Park is an urban park and public recreational space envisioned by Diller, Scofidio + Renfro at the centre of Moscow in Russia. Located just east of the Kremlin walls and abutting the Moskva River this space occupies the heart of historical Moscow. It is surrounded by many major landmarks; St. Basil’s Cathedral, the Red Square, the Annunciation Cathedral and the flashy, designer-heavy shopping centre GUM amongst them. Its current iteration as a ‘wild’ unstructured urban park however, stands atop over 600 years of architectural history fraught with the ideological shifts, regime changes, ethnic and political cleansing and extreme surveillance that Russia has experienced. Zaryadye is urban design at its grandest scale, giving the city a public space to be truly proud of yet it bears witness to the country’s brutal history and is imbued with the strangeness that comes with knowledge of such violence.

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Location: Completion: Client: Project lead: In collaboration with: Climate Engineering and Energy Consultant: Engineering Consultant: Park Management: Cost Consultant: Lighting Consultant: Native Planting Expert: Architect and Engineer: Contractor: River Overlook: Site area:

Moscow, Russia 2017 City of Moscow Diller Scofidio + Renfro Hargreaves Associates, Citymakers Transsolar

Buro Happold Central Park Conservancy Directional Logic ARUP Arteza

MAHPI Mosinzhproekt 70 meters in length 102,000 sq m

HISTORY The site for Zaryadye Park mirrors the political and social changes that the country in general and Moscow as the

30,000, until pogroms and persecution led them to flee leaving the area in a state of dereliction.

capital have seen over the years. The

Following the Russian Revolution and

site for Zaryadye park originated as a

the establishment of the USSR, the

trading post due to its proximity to the

communist vision for a new Moscow

Moskva River around 1365, and through

began to be implemented widely under

various iterations grew to be a popular

Stalin in the 1930s. The city’s master

and fashionable neighbourhood filled

plan came out in 1935 with a mandate

with wealthy nobles in the 18th century.

for larger blocks, visual uniformity via

Its downfall began when the capital of

matching façades, and buildings of

Russia was shifted from Moscow to St

up to 14 stories. Moscow’s pre-1917

Petersburg in 1718 [1]. The migration

architectural heritage was replaced

of important residents combined with

rapidly and ruthlessly with buildings of

the construction of a fortification wall

a much larger scale, intended to house

that blocked the outflow of sewage

thousands and increase the density of

led to a steep drop in Zaryadye’s stock

the city while modernizing and unifying

value, making it a stinking, unsafe and

its aesthetic. Zaryadye was demolished

unhygienic place to live [2].

in three phases, the process culminating in the 1960s to clear the site for the

The Great Fire of Moscow in 1812 razed the district, built almost exclusively of timber, to the ground leaving behind a void which was filled by two to three-

construction of the Hotel Rossiya. It was briefly considered as site for an unrealized Stalinist skyscraper, an eight addition to Moscow’s ‘Seven Sisters’.

storey brick structures intended as cheap housing for textile workers. By the

The Hotel Rossiya occupied the site

19th century, it had become home to an

between 1969 and 2006. Rossiya was

industrious yet ignored (if not actively

a communist answer to Europe’s great

oppressed) group, the Muscovite Jewish

hotels as envisioned by Khrushchev.

community. It grew to a population of

The planning of the hotel was rather of 138 139

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View of the area from the river in the 1890s. Image credit: United States Library of Congressandhra-capital/

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

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a sinister nature, its entries and exits bottlenecked into small areas so visitors might always be observed entering or leaving the premises [3]. This led of course, to disaster when a fire struck in 1977, killing and injuring far more than at a normal space this size. The hotel also boasted its own police station and jail cells. It was demolished in 2006, and the site lay empty until 2013 when the City of Moscow and its chief architect Sergei Kuznetsov announced an international competition to create Zaryadye Park [4].

DESIGN AND VISION “Control is an aspect of life here, and fences are popular – people actually like them. But we wanted to create a liberating space that you can enter from any point you choose. We wanted to say, it’s okay to walk off the path.”

- Charles Renfro Diller, Scofidio + Renfro have come to be known for their fluid, organic green spaces that overtake the urban space

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Image credit: Iwaan Baan for DS+R

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Image credit: DS+R

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

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they are assigned, growing ‘naturally’ in a controlled manner. Perhaps their most famous project, the one that started it all, was the Highline [5]– giving them a reputation for a deft understanding of site and place combined with an eye for spectacle. Hargreaves associates, the landscape consultants for the project, came to the project with a vision for what they called a ‘wild urbanism’ approach to park planning [6].

representing the natural climatic zones of Russian flora – the tundra, steppe, forests, and wetlands. Over 760 indigenous trees and 900,000 perennials were brought in from various parts of the country with the help of a dedicated native planting expert.

Flowering summer plants are kept alive throughout the year in greenhouses.

The micro-climates descend in terraced zones from the Northeast to Southwest [7].

Mary Margaret Jones, the head of project from Hargreaves, designed the park to be divided into four zones

The adoption of Wild Urbanism had a multi-pronged reasoning. Marketed

Bottom: Birch trees in the park. Image credit: Maria Gonzales for DS+R Facing page: Image credit: Iwaan Baan for DS+R

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

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as Moscow’s Central Park, Zaryadye is designed to be just as iconic and recognizable if rooted in a different time with different design principles. It is the first public park to be built in Moscow in 50 years and is a far cry from the formally laid out affairs of the Soviet Era like Gorky Park [8], and even further from Imperial Russian gardens like the one in Tsaritsyno Palace (both located within the capital city). Meandering pathways and hardscaping encourage people to walk freely through the park, while the characteristic cobblestone paving ties the park to the Red Square visually and physically.

Aiding this appearance is customdesigned paving system, which allows the edges of landscaping and the pedestrian pathways to blend into one another without creating hard borders.

Programmatically, the park includes two restaurants, a market, an openair national history museum, and an outdoor amphitheatre with a capacity of 5000. A nature centre with an aeroponic greenhouse houses the aforementioned warm-weather flowers, with educational programs on biotechnology. Artist Alexander Ponomarev and architect Alexei Kozyr have created a massive installation called the Ice Cave.

Pathways criss-cross over each other in layers, winding through the four microclimates and causing the park to seem like it is ‘growing’ out of its historic surroundings.

Constructed with 70 tons of frozen water, it claims to offer ‘an opportunity to travel to the world of snow and ice and feel the power and greatness of the Northern nature’ [9]. The grandest feature in this collection of grand gestures, however, is the culmination of the park’s pedestrian pathways in a massive floating v-shaped walkway that cantilevers 70 meters over the Moskva River. The park’s outwardly grandiose programming results in a

Facing page, Top: Image credit: Arup Facing page, Bottom: Image credit: Iwaan Baan for DS+R CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

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CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Image credit: Iwaan Baan for DS+R

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CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Image credit: Iwaan Baan for DS+R

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surprisingly usable urban space, despite initial consternation from locals about a ‘forest’ cropping up in the middle of Moscow.

A NEW PARK FOR A NEW AGE ‘Zaryadye Park represents a historic transformation of Russia’s capital that demonstrates Moscow’s commitment to innovative design for 21st century civic spaces.’

- Hargreaves Jones Project description [10].

The Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin has, since the beginning of his tenure in 2010, had a vision to revamp the city into a “more flexible, modern capital “.

As Russia inexorably moves away from communism and towards capitalism, public spaces too have had to be reimagined to reflect the ostensible newfound freedoms of citizens. Sobyanin and Kuznetov are a team with a clear vision for 21st century Moscow, driven by principles of green urbanism. Wide walkable pavements, bike paths along the riverfront, and the destruction of

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Image credit: Iwaan Baan for DS+R

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Image credit: Iwaan Baan for DS+R CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Soviet era apartment buildings have opened up the city to new modes of usage by the general public. Zaryadye Park completes this vision, and the international starchitect team is a clear message to the world that Russia in general and Moscow in particular, is ready to join the great capital cities of the world.

REFERENCES: [1] Zaryadye Park Official Site - History of Zaryadye Park. (n.d.). Retrieved from https:// www.zaryadyepark.ru/en/history/the_first_ stone_buildings_o_varvarka_street.html.

[2] Erken, E. (2019, December 23).

Zaryadye Park: A Graveyard of History at the Kremlin Walls. Retrieved from https://www. themoscowtimes.com/2017/09/29/zaryadyepark-a-graveyard-of-history-at-the-kremlinwalls-a59108.

[3] Backstory: Do svidaniya, Rossiya! (2006, March 16). Retrieved from https://www. csmonitor.com/2006/0316/p20s01-woeu.html.

[4] Gonzalez, M. F. (2017, November 8).

Zaryadye Park / Diller Scofidio Renfro. Retrieved

from https://www.archdaily.com/883201/ zaryadye-park-diller-scofidio-plus-renfro.

[5] Roux, C. (2017, November 1). Inside Zaryadye Park: Moscowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first public park for 50 years is a soaring success. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/propertyand-architecture/inside-zaryadye-park-moscowsfirst-public-park-50-years-soaring/.

[6] Zaryadye Park in Moscow is an architectural triumph. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www. economist.com/prospero/2017/10/25/ zaryadye-park-in-moscow-is-an-architecturaltriumph.

[7] Wild Urbanism: Zaryadye Park Will Bring Nature to Moscow. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ ex/sustainablecitiescollective/wildurbanism-zaryadye-park-will-bring-naturemoscow/240121/.

[8] Iovine, J. V. (2018, July 25). The Most Ambitious Park in Russia. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-mostambitious-park-in-russia-1532549548.

[9] Ice Cave. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www. zaryadyepark.ru/en/services/ice-cave/.

[10] http://www.hargreaves.com/work/ zaryadye-park/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Neha Krishnan is an urban planner and architect currently based in New Jersey. Her work focuses on the impact of climate change on cities, resiliency planning and policy, and community-centric disaster management. She has worked for several years in Mumbai and Chennai as an architect and professor. Following a masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in urban planning at Columbia University, she now teaches at SUNY Empire State and pursues a career in research.

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WASTE LESS PROJECT People-Driven Solutions to Goaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Waste Challenges SARITHA SUDHAKARAN

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Between its resident population, half-yearly tourist population and floating migrant population, Goaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s per capita waste generation is comparable to larger Indian cities [1]. Waste management planning and infrastructure provision are likely to fall short of demand with the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s waste volumes projected to increase by 45% in the next 15 years [2]. An alternative outlook, focusing instead on waste minimisation, presents an opportunity to look beyond conventional, myopic and resource-intensive solutions. In January 2019, the Waste Less Project was created to promote waste reduction through a collective knowledgesharing process. The 12-week initiative provided local, adaptable alternatives to current unsustainable consumption choices, thereby encouraging people to reconsider the definition of waste.

Goaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s garbage scenario: Unchecked dumping of waste at a municipal site Image credit: Author

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Goa is India’s smallest state spanning

Management Corporation (GWMC) to

a total area of 3702 sq.km [3]. It is also

manage all waste-related issues. But

the most urbanised state in the country,

the functionary role of GWMC was

resulting in a high rate of solid waste

undefined and sometimes in conflict

generation [4]. In the last decade, an

with that of existing departments. With

increase in tourist footfall combined

many agencies managing waste and the

with migration from other Indian states

ambiguity in their regulatory boundaries,

has compounded the waste problem [5].

often the outcome is unchecked

Recent studies estimate that the state

dumping spots.

generates about 766 tonnes of waste per day (Navhind Times, 28 June 2019).

But there is no official data on the actual quantity or types of waste produced, particularly in the peri-urban and rural areas. While the state government is drafting a Solid Waste Management Policy to efficiently tackle the problem, many bottlenecks impede the effective implementation of solutions in Goa.

In 2016, the state government inaugurated the Hindustan Waste Treatment Plant, a 125-tonne facility designed to treat mixed waste from a few select North Goa constituencies.

However, within a span of two years, the plant has exceeded its intended capacity leading to the Minister for Waste Management announcing an expansion of the plant’s intake to 250 tonnes,

GOA’S WASTE CHALLENGES

amidst opposition from the surrounding

Unlike other Indian cities, Goa has

villages [6]. Similar resource-intensive

the administrative challenge of

treatment plants are proposed by the

organising 189 village panchayats, 13

government in other talukas of Goa,

municipal councils, and 1 municipal

but their progress is hindered either

corporation towards a unified waste

by the unavailability of sufficient land

management vision for the state. Most

area, consensus-building among people,

local body meetings (village gram

or lack of environmental clearance.

sabhas, in particular) are dominated by

Furthermore, there is no visible progress

citizen’s concerns over poor garbage

in the setting up of units for special

management. In 2016, the state

category waste such as biomedical,

government set up the Goa Waste

sanitary, hazardous and e-waste. In

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Local body meetings dominated by poor garbage management issues.

Source: Times of India (Goa Edition) & O Heraldo Newspapers

The Hindustan Waste Treatment Plant set up by the government to treat 125 tonnes of waste. Image credit: Author

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the absence of scientific disposal

With Goaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s waste generation figures

mechanisms, a lot of waste ends up

projected to increase in the coming

unaccounted for, i.e it is either dumped,

years, the sole reliance on waste

landfilled or incinerated.

management solutions can be an expensive, short-term and difficult to

Presently, the disposal destination for collected dry waste from Goa is cement factories in Karnataka, where the waste is co-processed and used as Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) [7].

Wet waste is usually not considered an issue in the villages as residents continue traditional practices of burying the waste or feeding it to animals.

Many villagers also prefer burning dry waste to avoid participating in a poorly

implement. It will also be challenging for the government to keep up with infrastructure provision if a simultaneous check on the volumes of waste generated is not done. This idea translated into an opportunity to create awareness and collaborate directly with communities on generating less waste, thus giving rise to the Waste Less Project.

designed system. Some residents

WASTE LESS PROJECT

in municipal areas and ill-informed

What if, there was no waste.

tourists hand over mixed, unsegregated

In 2019, the Waste Less Project (WLP)

waste creating hurdles in material

was envisioned to further this thought.

recovery. Moreover, with the absence

The premise for WLP was very simple

of aggressive awareness programs and

- for any significant change to take

a formal penalisation system, rampant

place in Goaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s garbage scenario, the

use of banned materials and single-

conversation on waste reduction is as, if

use plastics continues unchecked.

not more, important as the discourse on

Most local bodies also face operational

waste management. What followed was

challenges like lack of labour and

the formulation of WLP into a structured

appropriate equipment and insufficient

program that fostered a collective

funds to sustain waste collection and

knowledge sharing approach at its core.

transportation.

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Map showing locations of existing and proposed waste management infrastructure in Goa. Image credit: Author

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Aims of the Waste Less Project • Build awareness of the various types of household waste and the eventual disposal mechanisms for each type;

• A considerable long-term time commitment was required in order to break down the complex subject of waste;

• Provide options for local, easily adaptable solutions suitable for all consumers;

• No waste should be created in the process of conducting the project.

• Provide tools to access sustainable alternatives;

How WLP Works

• Provide a forum to share, discuss and learn from one another; • Create future ambassadors who promote a less waste lifestyle; and • Provide inspiration on accelerating and scaling up the knowledge to benefit others.

Communication Medium WhatsApp was chosen as the primary platform for the exchange of information and feedback for multiple reasons: • In the absence of an efficient public transport system, bringing participants together was a challenge in Goa owing to long travel times between the North and South Districts; • The medium of communication had to be simple yet engaging, one that most people were comfortable using; CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

• To participate, community members registered by filling in a Google Form shared via social media. Each week provided information on a particular waste type, its correct and eventual disposal method, the need to reduce this waste type, the various alternatives available and how to access them.

• Every Monday, from the start date, a series of WhatsApp messages were sent such that participants could access the information at their convenience.

• Supplementary information in the form of additional readings or videos were also shared for the remainder of the week.

• Participants were free to contribute additional knowledge, clarify queries and generally discuss the week’s guidelines on an optional WhatsApp group.

Structure of the 12-week Waste Less Project. Image credit: Author

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

• On Sunday, a Google form was circulated that recorded the participant’s comprehension of the week’s information, how they fare and what their main challenges and suggestions were.

• This was repeated for 12 weeks.

Project Response When the project was launched on 1st January 2019, 70 people registered from across the world [8]. Two-thirds discontinued participating actively and only 21 participants documented their efforts and experience for the total duration of 12 weeks. Based on the

feedback provided, the second iteration, that started in June, included monthly demonstrations on practising the guidelines. A nominal fee of INR 150 per week was charged to include give-aways and facilitate meet-ups. 21 participants registered and completed the project.

From August 2019, a new structure was attempted where the project had no particular start date. Participants were free to enrol by Saturday of the week and were also given the option of choosing the 4-week basic, 8-week standard or 12-week complete versions.

23 participants - many from other Indian states - enrolled until the close of registrations in September.

Profile of the Waste Less Project participants. Image credit: Author CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Key Findings of the Waste Less Project. Image credit: Author

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

SOLUTIONS FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE Based on the weekly feedback, additional resources and collateral events were identified that could enrich the project experience and learning.

These were conducted in collaboration with local experts and attendance for the same was thrown open to the public.

Finding 1 The main challenges that participants faced on trying waste reduction are the absence of similar thinking and practising community around them (66.2%) and the difficulty in accessing packaging-free products (55.4%). Many also admitted to not knowing where to begin reducing their waste (32.3%).

Action taken

Some of the key findings from the feedback along with the responsive measures that were adopted during the project are showcased here-

â&#x20AC;˘ Set up a WhatsApp group for sharing information and progress to provide the assurance of being part of a community.

Goa Waste Management Atlas - a resource tool to access waste-related agencies in the state. Image credit: Author CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

â&#x20AC;˘ Shared inspiring stories of individuals or organisations working with communities on developing tangible and scalable solutions. â&#x20AC;˘ Provided a kit of 20 samples sourced locally to familiarise participants with packaging-free alternatives. â&#x20AC;˘ Created and shared an open-source map of waste-related agencies in Goa and encouraged participants to plugin additional information on to this tool.

Finding 2 While many responded that food and

milk (72.3% and 35.4%, respectively), toiletries (36.9%) and home cleaning product (33.8%) packaging were the top waste producers in their homes, very few documented sanitary waste (9.2%) or e-waste (3.1%) as a problem.

Action taken Conducted talks and workshops in collaboration with experts on specific topics, such as how to reduce plastic waste and making natural homemade cleaners and personal care products, to build awareness on the harmful waste-producing effects of conventional products.

Poster of Eco Terra - an awareness event organised at Goa Chitra Museum. Image credit: Goa Chitra Museum

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Top: Participants at Eco Terra - an awareness event held at Goa Chitra Museum. Image credit: Author Left: Saritha Sudhakaran, curator of the Waste Less Project, conducting a waste sorting exercise. Image credit: Isha Manchanda

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Finding 3

Action taken

Only half of the participants (49.3%) were aware that segregation is the lawful responsibility of the waste generator. But the majority (78.5%) already practised waste segregation into the two basic fractions of wet & dry.

Very few (30.8%) had attempted to learn more about the journey of waste by visiting a nearby management facility.

Organised trips to waste management units to facilitate a better understanding of different types of waste, their handling and management challenges, and also to highlight the eventual disposal methods of each waste type.

Instead of a fee, participants were expected to bring at least one other person.

Clinton Vaz, the owner of vRecycle Waste Management Services, explaining the operations of his business during a Trash Trail. Image credit: Author

Finding 4

Action taken

It was encouraging to find that 57.1% of the participants composted their wet waste. Non-practitioners felt that it was a very complicated and time-consuming activity.

Organised composting workshops for various groups - institutions, apartment dwellers, housing societies, senior citizens - that explained different composting practices and setups.

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Finding 5

communities to create awareness

Food packaging stood out as the most

about food waste, the need to

generated waste (72.3%). Despite realising the problem, respondents preferred packaged food due to the unavailability of packaging-free food (65%) and because it was easier to buy commercial products off the shelf (31%).

Action taken â&#x20AC;˘ Organised visits to local gardening

consume local and seasonal produce, and to learn how to grow food even with limited availability of space. â&#x20AC;˘ Conducted shopping expeditions at local markets for adults and children to promote bulk stores, to encourage simple habitual changes, and to showcase packaging-free shopping practices.

Prashant Maurya, an avid gardener, exhibiting gardening techniques to workshop participants.

Image credit: Author

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Finding 6

Action taken

92.3% wanted to reduce their waste to be responsible and do their bit for the planet while 46.2% wanted to simultaneously encourage and help others reduce their waste.

Building on this finding, a key component was designed into Week 12 of the WLP - the need to accelerate knowledge dissemination and to scale up ideas. Participants were informed on how each weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s core idea could diversify into various individual projects.

Composting 101 discourse conducted for students of Our Lady of Rosary High School, Fatorda. Image credit: Prashant Maurya

ACCELERATING KNOWLEDGE AND SCALING UP With active participation from 65 families, the project directly influenced 233 people. But the true impact of the project manifested itself in many new

sub-projects, five of which are described below. Each sub-project, initiated independently by a WLP participant, ties intrinsically to the core idea of engaging with communities to bring about positive change.

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Project 1: Cleaning Up The Andamans 90% of the Andaman islands live on imports. This equates to a lot of residual packaging waste on the islands. The beaches also get a sizeable quantity of washed-up garbage from Thailand and Burma. A few clean-up initiatives have taken place and the collected plastics were sent to Chennai for recycling.

Mariam Ali & Rahul Demello started

smaller clean-ups around their dive shop which led to them being invited as speakers at a youth conference in Middle Andaman. Post this, they have been repeatedly engaging with the local Panchayat in a village called Webi and helping the community learn the right way to dispose of plastic packaging without creating microplastics or littering.

Mariam Ali engaging with youngsters on managing plastic waste in the Andaman Islands. Image source: Mariam Ali

Project 2: The Cloth Bag Project Agnelo Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Souza, a Physics professor and waste reduction enthusiast, wanted to prevent the mismanagement of textile waste. He formulated a circular economy driven model where old, CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

unwanted clothes are given a second life by making cloth bags, doormats, and other utilitarian items. He engages women Self Help Groups (SHGs) from his village in order to enable them with an additional income source and to reduce unnecessary transportation of waste.

Demonstration of cloth bag making. Image credit: Author

Project 3: Starting an EcoStore in Mapusa The challenge of accessing sustainable and eco-friendly products was so immense for Tanuja Divkar that she decided to start her own store -

Medini, the EcoStore. Using part of her husbandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office space, she began with a few shelves and within a few months, expanded her clientele and stock to include a range of sustainable product options.

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Tanuja Divkar at her EcoStore - Medini. Image source: Tanuja Divkar

Project 4: Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Talk. Period.

In response to the need for educating the youth on sustainable menstrual practices, WLP members created a helpline that provides personalised

assistance on queries related to the subject. This approach is preferable to many people as they are uncomfortable talking about the subject in public. A series of discourses on the subject was also conducted across Goa.

Article in The Goan highlighting the event on sustainable menstrual hygiene. Image credit: The Goan CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Project 5: Waste Segregation Awareness Building Devaki and Janaki Shinkre are sisters who chose different methods to engage with their respective communities.

Janaki works with Mahila Mandal Margao to organise monthly dry waste

collection drives. The sorted waste is then handed over to an ethical collector.

Devaki, on the other hand, recently launched her own YouTube channel - Diâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Planet - to educate others on simple ways to live sustainably.

Article in Gomantak TImes showcasing the first dry waste collection drive organised

by Mahila Mandal Margao. Image credit: Gomantak times

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WHAT NEXT FOR THE WASTE LESS PROJECT In essence, through its numerous awareness sessions, WLP is now successfully championing the argument for waste minimisation with constant community-level interactions across India. With over 25 collaborations, what started as an attempt to stimulate individual behaviour change, is now morphing into a collective that fundamentally works to improve quality of life.

The Waste Less Collective is the culmination of a year-long project that challenged the status quo, consisting of solutions like recycling and treatment plants, through research and data-driven arguments. It is also the beginning of a participative, bottom-up, communitybuilding exercise in Goa - one that endeavours to actively engage conscious citizens and build capacity in creating local, multi-beneficial and simple approaches to tackle global climate change concerns.

Ideation workshop conducted with villagers on waste management planning. Image credit: Author CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

REFERENCES [1] Ranjith Annepu, Sustainable Solid Waste Management in India, (New York, Columbia University, 2012), Pg 30. Available at www.seas.columbia.edu/earth/wtert/ sofos/Sustainable%20Solid%20Waste%20 Management%20in%20India_Final.pdf [2] ‘Goa to generate 1,108 tonnes of waste per day by 2035’, The Navhind Times, (June 28, 2019). Available at www.navhindtimes.in/ goa-to-generate-1108-tonnes-of-waste-per-dayby-2035 [3] Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, ‘Census of India 2001’.

Available at www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_ Data_2001/India_at_glance/area.aspx [4] Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, ‘Level of Urbanisation’.

Available at www.mohua.gov.in/cms/level-ofurbanisation.php

[5] ‘Migrants may outnumber locals by 2021, says Goa govt report’, Firstpost, (June 13, 2013). Available at www.firstpost.com/india/ migrants-may-outnumber-locals-by-2021-saysgoa-govt-report-867983.html [6] Suraj Nandrekar, ‘Saligao people’s woes are unwarranted: Minister’, O Heraldo, (October 6, 2019). Available at www.heraldgoa.in/Review/Saligaopeople%E2%80%99s-woes-are-unwarrantedMinister/152047 [7] Environmental Management & Policy Research Institute (EMPRI), Government of Karnataka, ‘Chapter 10 Waste Management’, Pg 18. Available at www.karnataka.gov.in/empri/ Documents/Waste%20Management-final.pdf [8] Although the project was envisioned for Goa, it was thrown open to everyone owing to the global nature of the waste issue.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Saritha Sudhakaran is an urban designer and architect with over 13 years of work experience in India, the Middle East and the United States. She is the founder of incollab - a design, planning and research initiative developing sustainable communities in collaboration with the people who inhabit them. Saritha’s work is focused on developing local, scalable, researchdriven solutions to urban planning issues faced in cities. She began research on Goa’s waste management during her tenure as a senior research fellow at the Charles Correa Foundation.

In 2017, she was appointed as a planning advisor by the Goa Waste Management Corporation in the preparation of waste management plans for three pilot villages. Saritha received her master’s degree in urban design from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA and a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Sir J. J. College of Architecture, Mumbai, India. She works out of Goa and can be reached at saritha@incollab.org.

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WHO ARE WE DESIGNING FOR? Inclusive Design in the Middle East: the UAE Case

DEEMA ABURIZIK AND SAMAR AL-ZWAYLIF

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

This article reflects on urban design projects produced by students at various universities in the UAE, using the example of the Al-Ghafiya Urban Design Studio at the American University of Sharjah. It discusses the definition of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;inclusive designâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; as is now practised in Europe, and attempts to expand it to include vulnerable and marginalised socio-economic groups.

Inclusive design has long meant designing for everyone regardless of their age or physical abilities (as opposed to designing solely for them in specialised projects). Attempts to include people of disabilities (people of determination as they are now labelled in Dubai) have been underway for the past few years; however, including other groups such as marginalised labourers, or very low-income groups have not yet become mainstream in the UAE. Final review of Al-Ghafiya Urban Design Studio Image credit: Authors

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As professionals working in the UAE

often presented with progressive design

region, we have observed that there is

ideas, have animated discussions about

a tendency for professionals involved in

trends in the field, and most importantly

the built environment to focus on form,

try to offer advice on how to ground

and attempt to achieve a ‘wow’ factor.

projects in real-life challenges of the

Further, investigating the context, users,

built environment sector. A common

and applicable precedents is limited to

theme or recurring question that arises

the commercial attractiveness of the

at these discussions is: Who are we

project. This tendency is solidified by:

designing for?

• The celebrated projects in the Architecture world exemplified by the

WHAT IS INCLUSIVE DESIGN?

educational systems that primarily

DEFINITION AND EXAMPLES

focus on them, by the magazines

The notion of Inclusive Design came into

that celebrate them, the architecture-

perspective in Europe in the early part of

websites that advertise them, etc.

the 1990s, where several architects and

This plethora of information creates

designers rejected the typical end user

preconceived notions for the students

of Architecture schools and Architecture

that would place the programme

firms: The middle-class, fit, male,

and its users second to the design

white individual that designers have in

outcome (Nicol and Pilling 2005).

mind when creating projects (Coleman

• Focusing on sales targets in the absence of a comprehensive citywide policy that evaluates the impact assessment of any project on the overall economy, • Lack of social awareness and enforcing policy for all involved.

et al., 2003). Thereafter, Inclusive Design emerged as a framework for all relevant stakeholders to design for the various needs of different users, with the hopeful aim of designing products, services, and even neighbourhoods to cater for the population as a whole, and not just a stereotypical segment of it.

As more progressive designers began

Serving as guest critics for Architecture

to grapple with the reality of population

and Urban Design final project reviews

ageing and the failure of mainstream

at various universities in the UAE, we are

design to address the issues of disability

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

and accessibility; Inclusive Design was born. This trend has been around for the better part of two decades, it has been studied, tested, and refined to suit the needs of an everchanging population. Fast-forward to the present-day realities of several financial crises, global immigration, and a millennial generation that is refusing to succumb to the prescribed job markets (Thompson and Gregory , 2012); another definition of inclusivity is needed. In addition to issues of age and accessibility, designers now have to think of the marginalised socioeconomic groups and the vulnerable as part of their prospective users.

In order to account for those marginalised socio-economic groups in a society, whether in the UAE or any other country, it helps to study projects that have successfully translated their inclusive design visions. In the book: Happy City, Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design, (Montgomery, 2013) we find two examples.

The first is Woodward, a mixed-use, urban redevelopment project in Vancouverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s east side. The development transformed and revitalised an

important but troubled neighbourhood in a historic site within downtown Vancouver. The project achieved its vision by providing a wide range of uses, including cultural and retail uses, market-rate condominiums, and social housing for low-income residents, most of whom, face addiction and mental illness challenges.

The project has helped re-establish the area as an important destination and as a desirable place to live while also serving the needs of the poor and disenfranchised.

According to Montgomery, the architects employed a keen sense of appreciation for the status aspirations and sense of anxieties among the residents in their solution, where the windows of the social housing were fitted with hardy sliding blinds. Residents dealing with mental illness and paranoia could shut out the lights of the world without 182 183

TEACHING URBAN DESIGN

taping up the windows with tin foil.

These types of projects only materialise when the stakeholders involved in the design truly attempt to understand their end users. Such sensitivity to the marginal segments in our communities is very rare, and can occur only when the designers thoroughly use participatory design techniques in their projects. The development accelerated the gentrification within the wider neighbourhood. Nonetheless, it provided 200 units of affordable housing (Gagnon, 2014).

The second example in the book, is Nørrebro public park in Copenhagen.

The designers were adamant on addressing the needs and desires of all users, including the residents dealing with poverty, homelessness, alcoholism, mental illness or other social issues.

When the designers asked those users what they wanted, they explained that they desired a place to socialise, where they would not bother or be bothered by others, they also wanted a toilet. The designers responded by providing an enclosure in the middle of the public park, as well as public toilets. After completion of the park, the designers often visited the area and found that CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

the space was clean. The users picked up the litter and they looked out for one another (Montgomery, 2013).

These cases are of â&#x20AC;&#x153;extremeâ&#x20AC;? inclusive design. The designers worked to accommodate the needs of an unwanted demographic in a public place.

They claimed that such interventions reduced drug dealing, because the location of these shelters was highly visible. As a city, Copenhagen continues to be an urban design laboratory.

THE UAE CASE The UAE community is made up of people of diverse cultures, nationalities, and socio-economic groups, however, when it comes to neighbourhood planning, these residential communities are painted with one shade of yellow (code for residential in land use maps), denoting a singular type of residential unit.

The resultant urban fabric depicts zones for UAE Nationals housing, labour accommodation for the low-income, business parks, educational zones, etc. Such separate zoning results in traffic congestion, restricts easy access to amenities, and excludes segments of the society from being integrated within the community (Grant and Perrott, 2010). The UAE population is classified as UAE nationals, and expatriates. The majority of expatriates have rights to unlimited residencies and work permits in the country, which is renewed every two years, provided that employment is still valid. Expatriates go through a thorough health check prior to granting of their residency permit.

Furthermore, employment law requires employers to provide health insurance for their workers. Therefore, cases of homelessness, chronic diseases, or drug abuse are not mainstream.

Al-Ghafiya Design Studio at the American University of Sharjah - Setting the studio context The Sharjah Urban Planning Council (SUPC) collaborated with students at the American University of Sharjah to come up with projects that would regenerate the decayed areas of the city of Sharjah.

The brief given to the students by the officials was that the regeneration of those decayed neighbourhoods should not entail displacing the existing population. On the contrary, the vision was to retain the population in these neighbourhoods and improve their quality of life. It became apparent at the end of these presentations however, that students found it challenging to integrate their end-users with the proposed designs, and the question of â&#x20AC;&#x153;who are we designing for?â&#x20AC;? was a recurrent concern. This question set the stage for students to think about the intended users of their projects in an in-depth method that required investigating and learning from previous successful projects.

Site analysis and studio outputs Al-Ghafiya, the neighbourhood that the students were asked to regenerate as part of their collaboration with the SUPC, started as a neighbourhood dedicated for UAE Nationals housing in the 1970s.

Over the following two decades, UAE nationalsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; families relocated to newer suburbs in the city, attracted by their larger plot sizes that better suited their needs for space.

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The students carried out interviews with UAE Nationals who used to live in those neighbourhoods. Previous residents expressed their eagerness to relocate back to Al-Ghafiya, citing its location as a big advantage, provided that some improvements were implemented.

On the other hand, current or newer residents of the area mostly fell within the low-income demographic; some were shared households (for bachelors) and some were families. These users will be forced to move out of Al-Ghafiya if the regeneration scheme only provides housing units that are unattainable to this segment of the community. The relocation will be likely to other cheaper, often dilapidated neighbourhoods, that are far from jobs and lack good amenities. According to latest research reports, almost one quarter of the UAE population falls within the low-income demographic (Rizvi, 2019), and planning their integration within the community is vital to the unity of the urban fabric in the UAE; hence all policies, and specifically in this context, land use policies should aim to be inclusive at their core.

Revitalization of North East Al-Ghafiya - Existing building conditions map.

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

People Survey. Image credit: Batch of 2014, SRM SEAD

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Existing building conditions Image credit: Sultan Al Hammadi and Alya Al Tunaiji CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

In Al-Ghafiya, when students surveyed different users, they voiced their concerns about the lack of amenities.

UAE Nationals requested a Majlis for the neighbourhood. Expatriates required an affordable school, play areas and associated equipment, and retail opportunities. Schemes proposed by the students went further, by identifying a need for training facilities for the residents and a womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s club, whereby the women who often do not work in such communities could have a productive social space. The survey conducted by the students of the existing ground reality debunked the myth that neighbourhoods for UAE nationals and expatriates needed segregation. The migration of UAE nationals out of Al-Ghafiya was driven by housing allocation policy, not by a need to be secluded or isolated.

Other marginalised users were the people without access to personal vehicles. These are the people that walk to public bus stops, or cycle â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and generally this group is neither well integrated nor included in planning decisions, most of which are automobile oriented.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS Students need to cater for all sectors of the population in their projects and assignments to be truly inclusive. Educational programmes, collaborations, discussions, and relevant case-studies all help in cementing the inclusive design concept in the UAE design agenda. The challenge is to utilise design as a tool to deliver social equality expectations to all segments of society regardless of age, nationality, socio-economic status or physical abilities.

The solution for this challenge is to practice a response that has already been instilled in many countries around the world; a four-step system that largely summarises what we have been discussing here: Audit, Understand, Improve, and Innovate. (Coleman, 2013).

In design terms, this four-step guide is advocating to understand the users more and then design for their needs, evaluate the designs, actively seek feedback, spot the errors, and innovate to rectify them.

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Local population of Al-Ghafiya. Image credit: Authors

Housing conditions in Al-Ghafiya. Image credit: Authors CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Revitalization of North East Al-Ghafiya - Land use Development Plan.

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TEACHING URBAN DESIGN

Revitalization of North East Al-Ghafiya - Master Plan.

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

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TEACHING URBAN DESIGN

Revitalization of North East Al-Ghafiya - Access and Movement.

This solution echoes the discussions we often have with students to encourage them to use new research methods in the first steps of the project to analyse the users (in addition to analysing the site, which is a verified step in all design processes). Students and designers need to thoroughly study the users, their needs and aspirations, what do they think they will achieve from this design,

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

and how to achieve it. The initial phase of site analysis needs to include user analysis in order to account for the users as a whole. Just as the trend has shifted away from designing specifically for the disabled and the ageing groups of the society, a similar thing is happening with designing for the marginalised socio-economic classes, and a trend of integrating them within the design of

Revitalization of North East Al-Ghafiya - Proposed Commercial Outlets.

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TEACHING URBAN DESIGN

Revitalization of North East Al-Ghafiya - Residential Plan.

the city or the neighbourhood is rising.

Progressively introducing Inclusive Design methods into the educational system and design institutions will hopefully translate into a more articulate, effective, and unified urban fabric.

CITY OBSERVER | December 2019

Outputs from the Al-Ghafiya Design Studio used in this article are courtesy the student team of Sultan Al Hammadi and Alya Al Tunaiji.

Instructor: Dr. Rafael Pizarro, Associate Professor of urban planning, American University of Sharjah.

REFERENCES 1. Coleman, R. (2013) About: Inclusive Design, Design Council.

5. Montgomery, C. (2013) Happy City, Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design, London: Penguin books.

2. Coleman, R., Lebbon, C., Clarkson, J. and Keates, S. (ed.) (2003) Inclusive Design: Design for the Whole Population, Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media.

6. Nicol, D. and Pilling, S. (ed.) (2005) Changing Architectural Education: Towards a New Professionalism, 2nd edition, London: Taylor & Francis.

3. Gagnon, K. (2014) Inclusivity as Architectural Program: A Reflection on Vancouver’s Woodward’s Redevelopment Five Years On, 22 December, [Online], Available: https:// www.archdaily.com/580467/inclusivityas-architectural-program-a-reflection-onvancouver-s-woodward-s-redevelopment-fiveyears-on [16 October 2019].

7. Rizvi, M. (2019) Why Affordability Is the Key to UAE’s Home Market, 3 February, [Online], Available: https://www.khaleejtimes.com/ business/real-estate/why-affordability-isthe-key-to-uaes-home-market [16 October 2019].

4. Grant, J. and Perrott, K. (2010) ‘Where Is the Cafe? The Challenge of Making Retain Uses Viable in Mixed-use Suburban Developments’, Urban Studies, vol. 48, no.

1, June, pp. 177-195.

8. Thompson, C. and Gregory , J. (2012) ‘Managing Millennials: A Framework for Improving Attraction, Motivation, and Retention’, The Psychologist-Manager Journal, vol. 15, no. 4, November, pp. 237246.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Deema Aburizik is an architect and urban design consultant, who is currently leading master planning design at Arada, a new UAE-based developer with a launch focus on the Emirate of Sharjah. Prior to joining Arada, Deema led the urban planning and design practice for the UAE at Khatib & Alami. During this time, she worked on high-profile projects that spanned a diverse series of disciplines, including regional planning, town planning, public realm design, development codes, port planning and way-finding. Deema is currently conducting professional research on public realm design and related policies in the UAE. Samar Al-Zwaylif is an architect, urban designer, and researcher who received her Master degree in Urban Design from the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London (UCL) and her Bachelor of Architecture from the American University of Sharjah. Samar worked as an Adjunct Lecturer of Architecture at the University of Sharjah, UAE. Her research focuses on synthesising cultural and urban representations, urban studies, and everyday experiences with mainstream design to achieve a broader understanding of the city.

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CLOSING SCENE

IMAGE CREDIT: VIJAYARAJ RAMALINGAM

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