CITIES: THE PEOPLE PARADOX
Cities in the developing world are struggling to cope with an unprecedented influx of people. Tackling slums is one of the challenges facing city planners, but municipal centres also need to address how sustainable urbanisation can sustain an ever-expanding population, by devising solutions that will remain viable across the decades.
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The issue of how to design cities has vexed planners since the days of the pyramids. The competing forces of commerce, environment, geography and culture must all be reconciled as a city grows beyond its beginnings. Ensuring that the population is safe, fed and free to move around, while positioning it to develop economically, has in essence been the goal of city planners through the ages. “Cities have been around for 4,000 years,” says Lars Reutersward, director of the global division at UN Habitat. “Of course, some of them have a military basis or strategic importance, but fundamentally most of them grew up to provide a market for products and ideas: universities and religions and industry.” In the 21st century, city design and urban planning has had to keep pace with enormous social and economic changes. That’s particularly evident now in the developing world, where high population growth and massive wealth inequality fuel urban development on an exponential basis.
In that context, designing urban systems has become as much an art as a science. Cities need to be able to change, while their geography and make-up need to respond to indeterminate, unpredictable forces. From Lagos, Mumbai and Delhi to Dhaka, as well as Shanghai and Jakarta, there is clearly the need for a new type of development approach. Reutersward believes that the need to adapt planning techniques is pressing: “Over one billion people need to be adequately housed in developing countries. So that will require not only technical improvements in construction techniques but also looking more closely at the evolving needs of a city.”
Holistic planning Africa represents the biggest challenge for urban planners. Cities such as Lagos, Kampala and Luanda are all experiencing rampant population growth. But while they attract more people and investment, the strain is beginning to show. Are urban plans for a city of two million really fit for purpose when the population has swelled to eight million? For Atkins, finding a solution to this has become the biggest single planning challenge in emerging cities. Looking forward three decades, the fastest-
growing cities will be those in Africa and Asia. In many African countries, for instance, planning authorities believe a longer-term approach is needed and some have taken the pre-emptive step of asking for a masterplan to oversee and control growth. Paul White, director of planning at Atkins, has worked on many urban regeneration projects. He says that, because it’s impossible to put a definitive time on the lifespan of any plan, the focus for planners is largely on setting the direction of travel. Having worked on several sustainable projects, White and his team have perfected the process of consulting the relevant parties – local authorities, planning consultants and community leaders – in order to set up a “base camp” and produce a basic initial design plan. “After a few years you revisit this to make sure that the assumptions you made are correct,” he says. “Once that’s done, you can readjust it, and the likelihood is that planners modify that in some way because circumstances will change. Ultimately, it would be pretty unusual for a plan to remain live and current for the duration.”
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