NEW URBANISM - A MATTER OF SCALE AND IDENTITY. LESSONS TO BE LEARNT FOR ASIAN CITIES
On March 14 2013 Steven Beunder from Townland Consultants was invited to
speak at an International Conference on New Town Development in Kuala Lumpur.
Mr Beunder was asked to speak about the Principles behind the Planning Movement
that is New Urbanism. In this lecture he tried to shed some light on the lessons
to be learnt from Township Development in America and how Planning
Professionals and Developers can use some of the New Urbanism Principles to
help in creating a more sustainable urban future for Asia’s New Cities.
The American Model:
Urban Sprawl
The twentieth century New Town and sub-urbanization boom in the West
gives us a huge body of knowledge concerning Township planning which can be
useful for the contemporary generation of New Towns being built in the fastest
growing economies around the World. With the Township development in so many
Asian countries resembling many aspects of the market driven sub-urbanization
model of the United States, it makes sense to take a closer look specifically
at what happened in North America.
With the growing dominance of cars in the public realm and the strong
degradation of the urban environment as a result of decades of
Industrialization, the dominant Modernist Planning Principle became the norm in
the American post war economic boom of the '50s and '60s. The Modernists Planners
advocated a clear spatial segregation of residential neighborhoods from
commercial and industrial centers. With land and gas prices being low and the construction
underway of an intercity network of highways, suburban development started
to spring up beyond the reach of the city extending further and further into
the countryside. The construction focused on low density, single family
detached houses as the preferred housing option for the growing middle class
who could afford to leave the congested and polluted city behind. The growing distance and spatial separation between
one’s home, office and place for shopping and relaxation, made cars
indispensable for efficient transportation and contributed to the emergence of
a culture of complete car dependency. This system of low density, mono-functional
sub-urbanization became known as Urban Sprawl. A notorious example of
the spatial impacts of this model is Los Angeles. A study from 1990 revealed
that while LA’s population had grown over the previous period of 20 years with a
modest 45%, the size of the urbanized area had exploded to more than 300% in
size.
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| Urban Sprawl: Las Vegas, USA |
Criticism of Urban Sprawl
One might
think that this is a typical American problem that we’re not experiencing on
that scale in Asia. The similarities
with Asia’s township building boom of today however are striking. We see
after a relatively long period of sustained strong economic growth a similar
environmental degradation of life in Asian cities as a result of a combination
of industrialization and unchecked growth of vehicular traffic. The
exponentially growing Middle Class is fleeing its cities. The Townships in Asia
are also planned similarly as in the United States, as part of a broadly
defined Land Use Plan within a framework of vehicular traffic thoroughfares,
resulting in a loose patchwork of rather insular mono-functional gated
communities, rather than an a more flexible, multi-functional an integrated urban fabric.
The critique of the unchecked Urban
Sprawl in America is also applicable in many different ways as to how countries
in Asia are dealing with the Urbanization question. The critique can be divided
in basically two categories: firstly the clear-cut environmental issues and secondly the maybe less obvious but
equally profound social angle.
When it comes to our environment, it is first of all because
of a lack of integrated Master Planning of the Townships or New Towns that we
see a relatively large loss of
agricultural land and natural habitat to urbanization. The lack of
integrated planning between townships also creates the higher carbon footprint of residents because of their strong
dependency on the use of private vehicles. A third element is that the haphazard
development of a relatively low density sprawl means the implementation of mass public transportation remains
elusive. The lack of a critical mass of a series of concentrated high density
nodes of development will make any form of mass public transportation connecting
townships to the main city financially unfeasible.
Social critique focuses first of all on the dullness and predictability of the same
few housing typologies that get repeated all the time. The set-up of small
gated communities and the limited range of housing typologies also means that
households other that young families that don’t necessarily own a car and may
have different interests and lifestyles, like young couples without kids, single
households, or the growing group of elderly people that are no longer part of
an extended family, are not being catered for. To quote Andres Duany, co-founder
of the Congress for the New Urbanism: “In
a traditional town, one can live above the store, next to the store, five
minutes from the store or nowhere near the store, and it is easy to imagine the
different age groups, income groups, and types of households that would each
prefer a different alternative. In this way and others, the traditional neighborhood
provides for an array of lifestyles. In conventional suburbia however, there is
only one available lifestyle: that is to own a car and to need it for
everything.”
A second social critique focuses on the lack of well defined, attractive public spaces
with a human scale. This reinforces a
lack of civic pride in the shared public realm, and makes them prone to be
becoming uncared for empty and unsafe spaces that will deter residents in the
end of walking anywhere outside of their own street. The combination of the
mono-functionality of the different neighborhoods, the large spatial division
between neighborhoods consisting of wide traffic thoroughfares and lack of inviting
communal spaces, creates an even bigger segregation of different social communities
and income groups within society.
It’s important to realize that most Townships
developed in Asia are not so much
the result of a planned effort for urbanization, than rather an escape from it.
The city is at the moment mostly perceived as something bad, something that
can’t be fixed, so the only thing on offer is to abandon it. It is not
an unlikely scenario that without a shift in the current dominant planning and
development approach to our new cities and townships, the problems American
suburbs are facing today are Asia’s problems of tomorrow.
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| Mixed Use Commercial Center New Town in West Bandung, Indonesia | TOWNLAND |
New Urbanism – the counter movement
The proponents of the American suburban model have always had one
compelling argument: 'This Is What Consumers Want': a quiet, safe environment
among people in the same social strata. This is also very true for Asian
Township of today: ‘liveliness’ that
in the West is seen as one of the main advantages of a more mixed use, big city
life, doesn’t necessarily count as a positive quality in Asia today. The heavy
pollution and over-crowded Asian cities makes it inhabitants long for a more tranquil
suburban environment. However true that is, it is all a matter of scale. In most Asian townships of today the benefits of a
quiet suburban life in a gated community can still be combined with what most
would consider a reasonable commute to their place of business in the nearby
City or their favorite recreational spot in a natural environment. However this
model of low density urban sprawl that can provide ‘the best of both worlds’ is
clearly unfeasible as travel time can’t be stretched unlimited, with a
continuation of the urban sprawl.
As a counter movement,
channeling the criticism on the Urban Sprawl, the new Town Planning paradigm
called New Urbanism began to arise in the United States in the early 1980s.
Since then it has gradually informed many aspects of real
estate development, urban planning, and municipal land-use strategies in the Americas, Europe and major cities around Asia. New
Urbanism promotes the creation and restoration of compact, diverse, walkable, vibrant, mixed-use communities composed
of the same components as conventional developments, but assembled in a more
integrated fashion, in the form of complete communities. These contain housing,
work places, shops, entertainment, schools, parks, and civic facilities
essential to the daily lives of the residents, all within easy walking distance of each other. Every public open space is to be designed and
thought of as a spatial entity and no longer as just the residue between
buildings or neighborhoods.
Think Global – Act Local
When it comes to understanding the relevance of New Urbanism in
planning today and in Township Development in particular the phrase 'Think Global, Act Local' sums it all
up. We are all familiar with the phrase as it has been used so many times in
the context of environmental challenges: calling upon us to lower our impact on
the environment as individuals rather than to wait for global action.
However the original phrase ‘Think global, act
local’ is actually almost 100 years old and can be attributed to Scottish town
planner Patrick
Geddes. Instead of
the environment he originally implied with the phrase the social benefits of Neighborhood Planning.
In his words: “the local character as can
be found in organically grown cities and urban neighborhoods around the world
are not mere accidental old-world quaintness. They represent a specific
local urban fabric that can only be reproduced with an adequate grasp of the
whole environment, and in active sympathy with the characteristic life of the
place concerned."
In this
sense Geddes can be viewed as a New Urbanist avant la lettre: encouraging
planners to create a Unique Identity for
Townships, based on a consideration of the local situation, inherent virtue
and potential of a given Site and Culture, rather than introducing an abstract
Modernist ideal imposed by forces from the outside.
Many architects and planners today
scoff when New Urbanism is mentioned, which they associate with those quaint
little new communities circa 1980, like Celebration, Florida which was popularized in ‘The Truman Show’. The focus of New Urbanism however long ago turned
away from quaint little new towns for the wealthy elite. Today, they’re major
advocates of green urban and suburban
infill; the
conversion of dead malls and poorly
designed suburbia, into places worth
caring about. Increasingly,
regional planning techniques are being used in combination with New Urbanism to
control and shape growth into compact, high-density, mixed-use neighborhoods.
Planning for new nodes of mass public
transportation instead of more roads as central catalysts for the development of compact, mixed use neighborhoods on township and city level, delivers the best results – also better
known as Transit Oriented Development.
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| Mixed Use Development on Batam, Indonesia | TOWNLAND |
Short
Term Gains and Long Term Solutions
The question for us Planners involved in Affordable Housing and New Town
Planning in Asia is how to get more of the
New Urbanism Principles actually implemented. With a real estate market
driven in most countries by private sector, it is first and foremost about
getting the developers on board. In
the following section I therefore highlight how New Urbanism as a Planning Model
can increase profitability for
developers, whilst creating a sustainable urban development that will provide
for a satisfactory lifestyle for many generations to come.
1. Create Diversity in Density
One of the obvious benefits or the more compact mixed use approach to
the development of residential and commercial neighborhoods are the higher returns due to more saleable square
footage per acre. More, smaller shop units bring a higher return per leasable square
foot compared to big box retail. The focus on high density commercial development around nodes of
Public Transport has shown to be the best model to create higher property
prices instantly.
The argument regarding lack of public
support for more investments in Mass Public Transportation in developing societies has
always been that the Middle Class’ main aspiration of today is to own a car, so
they never have to take public transportation again. That this is a matter of
mindset, was shown by the former mayor of Bogota, who implemented a daring
Transit Oriented Development approach in his city, famously said in response to
that: "A really advanced city is not a place where
the poor move about in cars rather it’s where even the rich use public transportation".
2. Create More Space for Pedestrians – Less Space for
Cars
A more compact, walkable development means less land area needs to be acquired, that
less land needs to be set aside for roads and a reduction in costs for
development of utilities and other infrastructure. Walkability also means significant cost
savings can be made in the lower demand for parking facilities. Moreover, in
mixed-use properties even sharing of parking
spaces is possible between complementary users. For example between
residents that use the parking spaces during the evening and on weekends and
office goers during the day, results in less duplication in providing parking.
3. Create an
Identity: The Urban Village
In an ever increasing globalized world with an exponentially growing
middle class, where people’s lifestyles and their urban environment have
started to look very similar the world over, the importance of cherishing one’s
own culture and identity is becoming increasingly important. The universal
importance for residents to be able to identify with their city or town as a
unique place should not be underestimated. One could draw a parallel with the
Maslov’s Pyramid: the hierarchy of man’s fundamental needs. As more and more
people reach the higher levels of self-actualization, to live in what is a just
a ‘livable’ city no longer suffices: the importance shifts for people’s
immediate environment to be more stimulating,
interesting and memorable.
A Township can be sold with one successful image.
The importance is having a ‘Post Card
Image’ for one’s Township: a tool in creating a differentiating Identity that doesn’t need to apply to major cities
alone trying to draw in tourists. It can similarly be applied to green-field
developments like New Towns. By using specific local natural or cultural
aspects as inspiration, new site
specific Icons and Landmarks can be created in the first stage that will
make a Township immediately a memorable place for residents, business owners
and visitors alike. The use of local urban design traditions and, or a reference to indigenous architectural styles as an Identity
Marker can be an especially appealing way to achieve this. In this
way an environment can be created, that will remind residents and visitors of
their own or their elders’ childhood and make them identify with the Township
immediately.
4. Cater for a
Wider Audience (1): Lower Income Groups
Whilst Western countries
took almost two centuries to make a gradual transition from an agricultural
society to an industrial economy and later on to become the globalized serviced
oriented economies of today, some Asian countries are effecting this transition
in merely a couple of decades. This also means that, contrary to the American
postwar sub-urbanization period, Asian Cities are still in the middle of the
surge of migration from the countryside to the city. However this demand for
housing the lower end of the market has so far not been reflected in the
make-up of most Township developments. The demand for jobs for the uneducated
migrants as construction workers, domestics and drivers has however started to
shift to the Townships together with the Middle Class. In order be ahead of informal settlements popping up at nearby sites, the inclusive integration of housing for
the Lower Income Groups in the Townships, will not only suffice for a huge real
demand, it will help in preserving the
precious open space and Natural Environment, that has attracted the Middle
Class to move to the Townships in the first place.
5. Cater for a Wider Audience (2): Not Just
Families
Providing for a more diverse range of housing typologies and more mixed
use environments, will help to make living in a suburban Township a more
appealing Lifestyle choice to other households than families with young
children. All major cities in Asia, like Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong and Mumbai
have seen their share of Gentrification: a renewed appreciation of a more urban
lifestyle among people in their twenties to their forties. Changes in lifestyles that are behind this trend, like marrying and
starting a family at later age, more women in the workforce, combined with the
general rise in disposable income, will only become more and more commonplace in
the years ahead. The compact mixed used neighborhood centers
can help to attract these growing target groups to the Townships.
6. Create a Community (1): Understanding of the
NIMBY Principle (Not In My Backyard)
People are inherently adverse to changes they can’t control. This
attitude towards to changes in people own neighborhood has become known as
NIMBY: Not In My Backyard. If a Township
is solely sold on the principles of privacy and exclusivity, then every new
house that will be built next is a degradation of the amenity. However, if what
one sells is: ‘Community’, then every new house can be perceived as an enhancement
of the asset. Moreover with a more compact New Urbanism development it is
possible to sustainably plan for and retain open a green and natural
environment, within proximity of where people live.
7. Create a
Community (2): Use Social Media
The use of Social Media has become another important tool for
Developers that want to sell their Township as a Community. It creates bonds
between the Developer or City Management and the residents and strengthens the
mutual relationship between residents.
The Township of Lavasa in Pune, India, has for example
a very active Facebook page and is involved in the public debate about Urbanization and Sustainable Development, by
actively organizing regularly well publicized events around these themes. Word of caution: using Social Media to
one’s advantage means one can never make any promises one can’t keep, so Marketing
needs to be truthful or otherwise people will let the Developer and the rest of
the world know about it.
8. Create a Community (3): Create the essence of
freedom, but not total freedom
People want to feel free, but they also want their neighbors to play
by certain rules, especially in mixed use and more densely built living
environments, where a poorly executed or
maintained development next door can have adverse effects on one’s
property value. To accommodate this double bind many New Urbanism
Developments have been created with the essence of freedom while building in also
some necessary controls. It has been proven that on one hand one can create a
successful branding campaign imbued with ideas of freedom and self-actualization,
and at the same time get people to sign
more restrictive covenants, about for example maintaining a front garden or
sticking to a certain color palette when painting one’s house. People are very
much willing to make these trade-offs when communicated well and the benefits
for the Community as a whole become clear for everyone.
9. Create a
Sustainable Economy
The American planner Zev Cohen has said: “People don’t want to live near where they work; but they would like to
work near where they live”. It turns out that for most people their preferred job environment resembles their residential lifestyle
environment. Jobs have already started moving out of the city towards to
suburbs following the Middle-Class. Contrary to the large scale, anonymous
business parks, the compact mixed used neighborhood centers will be able to
offer a workplace environment that comes really close to resembling people’s
residential environment.
It’s this same type of compact mixed used
neighborhood centers that will help to bring in the young creative business
community. Nurturing creative entrepreneurship will become more and
more important in Asia. The New Urbanism approach for Townships to strive for a
clear Local Identity, whilst providing an International Standard Work, Live and
Play Environment, will help to reinstall a climate
of imagination with different local answers to global issues.
One can say that the
irony of New Urbanism is that in order for (Asian) cities to benefit from the
universally applicable principles behind New Urbanism, a more introspective and
‘local’ approach would be a major step forward in creating a truly sustainable urban future. To quote the eminent
trendwatcher Lidewey Edelkoort, who said in 2010: “The only way to become a global force as a Developing
Economy is to rely less on international trends and get centered in your own
heritage, do things your own way. True contemporisation is possible only if you
are totally grounded in your own indigenous inspirations. Things can only become global if they are first
firmly rooted in the local”.
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| Ciseeng New Town in Bogor, Indonesia | TOWNLAND |
