PLANNING FOR RESILIENT COMMUNITIES LEARNING FROM

Transcription

PLANNING FOR RESILIENT COMMUNITIES
LEARNING FROM OTHERS
May 2011
Norfolk Trust Fellowship Research 2010/11
Patsy Dell and Sarah Longlands
Planning for resilient communities – learning from others
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are both extremely grateful to Tom Harrison, Chief Executive of the Norfolk Charitable Trust for the
opportunity that these research fellowships have given us both professionally and personally. Special
thanks also go to Laura Forster for all the arrangements that supported the research trips and to our
respective employers for supporting us in this research project.
We would also like to thank all of the people who helped us in the different areas of the world we visited
for taking time to speak to us about their work and their experiences.
Patsy Dell and Sarah Longlands May 2011
CONTENTS
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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ABOUT THE NORFOLK CHARITABLE TRUST
1.1
The Norfolk Fellowship Programme
1.1.1 Local area economic development
1.1.2 Micro economic support
1.1.3 Discretionary grants
1.2
About the Norfolk Fellows 2010/11
1.2.1 Patsy Dell
1.2.2 Sarah Longlands
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INTRODUCTION
2.1
Defining a ‘planned community’
2.2
Specific objectives
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METHODOLOGY
3.1
Secondary data analysis
3.2
Semi-structured interviews
3.3
Site visit and observation
3.4
Limitations of the methodology
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PLANNING NEW COMMUNITIES IN EUROPE
4.1
Introduction
4.2
Background to planning and the economy in Europe
4.3
Vauban, Freiburg, Germany
4.3.1 Introduction
4.3.2 The development of Vauban
4.3.3 Distinctive characteristics of the Vauban planned community
4.3.4 Challenges for Vauban
4.4
Kronsberg, Hannover, Germany
4.4.1 Introduction
4.4.2 The development of Kronsberg
4.4.3 Challenges for Kronsberg
4.5
Hammarby Sjostad, Sweden
4.5.1 Introduction
4.5.2 Key characteristics
4.6
Norra Djurgårdsstaden, Stockholm
4.6.1 Master planning
4.7
Helsinki, Finland
4.7.1 Introduction
4.7.2 Viikki
4.7.3 Pikku Huopalahti
4.7.4 Vuosaari
4.7.5 Arabianranta (Helsinki Arts and Design City)
4.7.6 Delivering new communities in Helsinki
4.7.7 Future Helsinki
4.8
Lessons from Europe
4.8.1 Lessons from Vauban
4.8.2 Lessons from Kronsberg
4.8.3 Lessons from Sweden
4.8.4 Lessons from Finland
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PLANNING NEW COMMUNITIES IN ASIA
5.1
Introduction
5.2
Background to economic and planning systems in Japan and Korea
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5.4
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5.6
5.7
5.8
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5.10
5.11
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5.2.1 Planned communities in South Korea
5.2.2 About Korea
Incheon Free Economic Zone
5.3.1 Introduction
5.3.2 The structure of Incheon Free Economic Zone
5.3.3 The development of Incheon Free Economic Zone
5.3.4 Characteristics of Incheon Free Economic Zone
Sejong ‘Happy City’
5.4.1 Introduction
5.4.2 The development of Sejong City
5.4.3 Characteristics of Sejong City
Seoul Digital Media City
Hangang River Project
Tsukuba Academic/Science City – lessons from Technopolis
5.7.1 Introduction
5.7.2 Carbon reduction, green and climate change issues – how are they being tackled?
5.7.3 Community development and social infrastructure
Kawasaki Eco Town – lessons in delivering economic resilience
5.8.1 Introduction
5.8.2 Relationship with residential population of Kawasaki
Tama New Town – learning from the experience of a mature planned community
5.9.1 Introduction
5.9.2 Tama today
Kashiwa City – innovations in planning for an ageing community
5.10.1 Introduction
Conclusions – what can we learn from Korea and Japan?
5.11.1 Challenges and lessons from Incheon Free Economic Zone
5.11.2 Challenges and lessons from Sejong
5.11.3 Challenges and lessons from Tsukuba
5.11.4 Challenges and lessons from Tama New Town
5.11.5 Challenges and lessons from Kawasaki Eco Town
5.11.6 Challenge and lessons from Kashiwa City
PLANNING NEW COMMUNITIES IN SOUTH AMERICA
6.1
Introduction
6.2
Background to economic and planning systems in Brazil and Venezuela
6.3
Paraisopolis, Sao Paulo
6.3.1 The retrofitting and re-development of Paraisopolis
6.3.2 Characteristics of planning a resilient community in Paraisopolis, retrospectively
6.4
Curitiba
6.4.1 Introduction
6.4.2 The implementation of the master plan for Curitiba
6.4.3 Curitiba’s transport system
6.4.4 Characteristics of Curitiba’s approach to planning a resilient community
6.5
Caracas, Venezuela
6.5.1 Introduction
6.5.2 Our experience in Caracas
6.5.3 Current activities – overview
6.5.4 Conclusions on the delivery of new planned and resilient communities in Venezuela
6.5.5 Lessons from Brazil
6.5.6 Lessons from Venezuela
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CROSS CUTTING PLACE MAKING THEMES
7.1
Introduction
7.2
How much does the quality of design matter in new planned communities?
7.2.1 Conclusions
7.3
The importance placed upon environmental sustainability in planning new communities
7.4
The dynamics of planning and economic growth in a new community
7.5
The importance of community engagement models
7.5.1 Conclusions
7.6
The challenge of planning for household lifecycles and securing resilient maturation in new
planned communities
7.7
The ingredients of successful and resilient places
7.8
Conclusions
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FIGURES
Figure 1: Key elements of the Curtiba Master Plan 1965
Figure 3: The dynamic relationship from one extreme to another
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TABLES
Table 1: Summary of planned communities visited
Table 2: Cross section of responses gathered from interviews and discussions in each of the case study areas
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ABOUT THE NORFOLK CHARITABLE TRUST
The Norfolk Charitable Trust supports economic development through research funding and giving
grants through the following programmes.
1.1
The Norfolk Fellowship Programme
The Norfolk Fellowship Programme studies the operation and effect of the global economy at home
and abroad. Researchers visit countries around the globe to look at specific economic issues. This
work has the potential to inform UK government domestic economic policy and develop the skills
and experience of the researchers. The Trust identifies individuals whom it considers will make the
best contribution to its research work and who will also benefit personally and professionally from
the Programme. When the Fellows return from their travels, they work together to prepare a
report which they present to a specially invited audience.
1.1.1 Local area economic development
The Trust works with the public and private sectors by leading development of programmes to
stimulate economic growth in specific areas of low economic activity in the United Kingdom. The
Trust’s work stimulates enterprise through identifying synergies and establishing cooperation
between education providers, public authorities, private sector investors and business support
groups.
1.1.2 Micro economic support
The Trust’s Space Exclusively for Young Business programme, Sexybiz, helps small and new
businesses by providing free accommodation for their business for up to two years. Those
successful in their application will demonstrate a strong business plan and show enthusiastic
entrepreneurial spirit.
1.1.3 Discretionary grants
The Trust will make discretionary direct grants to assist in bridging start up costs for new social
enterprise businesses and community development projects.
1.2
About the Norfolk Fellows 2010/11
The 2010 Norfolk Trust Fellowships were undertaken by Sarah Longlands and Patsy Dell.
1.2.1 Patsy Dell
Patsy Dell is Head of Planning Services at Cambridge City Council. She is responsible for the
delivery of all planning services including significant areas of growth around the fringes of
Cambridge. Prior to moving to Cambridge City, Patsy was Head of Planning and Economic
Development at St Edmundsbury Borough Council from 2004 to 2010 and before that she
undertook a variety of senior planning roles with councils in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and
Peterborough.
Patsy is a corporate member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and holds degrees in Town and
Country Planning, Land Management Surveying and a Masters in Business Administration.
Research interests include the issues around the delivery of successful new places and investigating
municipal models for delivering sustainable and inclusive planned communities.
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1.2.2 Sarah Longlands
Sarah Longlands is currently Director of Policy at the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) a
leading research and membership organisation focusing on economic development and
regeneration based in Manchester, UK. CLES has done extensive work on economic development
and resilience both within the UK and internationally including activity in Eastern Europe and
Australia.
Before working for CLES, Sarah spent a number of years working in Local government on economic
development and regeneration projects. She is particularly interested in the challenges of
unemployment, migration, enterprise and the nature of economic growth and its impact on
resources and the environment.
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INTRODUCTION
The aim of this research is to help share experiences, inform debate and generate discussion.
This report explores the nature of planned communities across Europe, Asia and South America and
is based upon international research undertaken as part of the 2010 Norfolk Trust Fellowship. The
challenge of how new communities are planned, designed and implemented and what makes them
a success has long been of interest as generations of planners, geographers, economists,
philosophers and architects try to understand the essence of successful place shaping.
It was along this well trodden academic path that the 2010 Norfolk Trust research set out to reexamine the current exemplars of planned communities to understand what new responses and
ideas are being developed to deal with some of the most pressing modern challenges in an
increasingly globalised world. The project involved primary and secondary research in Europe,
America and Asia with the purpose of learning lessons from the places we visited and helping to
inspire planners and economic development practitioners in the UK. In particular the research
provided an ideal opportunity to analyse how professionals in different contexts defined and
characterised the concept of a resilient community.
We chose to examine exemplars of planned (and also by contrast some unplanned) new
communities to see how they contribute to the overall aim of delivering a healthy and high quality
of life for all people in this and subsequent generations, with equitable and geographically balanced
and socially cohesive and resilient economic development, which reduces the impact on the global
and local environments. Our research aim was to examine these places and how they work and to
see what lessons from their delivery, development and maturation would usefully translate into
applicable strategies for the UK.
2.1
Defining a ‘planned community’
Wikipedia defines planned communities as follows:
‘New town, planned community, or planned city is a city, town, or community that was carefully
planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This
contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion.’1
Britain has a rich heritage in building new communities having pioneered this approach over the
last two centuries. From the philanthropic in the 19th Century at Port Sunlight, Saltaire and
Bourneville to the early 20th Century garden cities at Letchworth, Welwyn and Hampstead and the
post war new towns such as Stevenage, Milton Keynes and Harlow, these have been successful
models for delivering successful places for new communities to establish themselves, grow-up, live
and work.
There is no single common definition of a planned community that we felt easily covered our
research interests but put simply we examined a range of new places involving the following
characteristics:
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where there had been re-design and retrofitting of existing urban areas to support new
sustainable development;
where there had been planned new sustainable design on Greenfield sites;
where there had been an approach based upon knitting the existing urban fabric together
with new development to achieve a new integrated city wide vision, including viewing urban
areas in relation to their hinterlands with more sustainable forms of development.
Reference taken from www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/plannedcommunities
2.2
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Specific objectives
Our research for the Norfolk Trust Fellowship had a number of specific objectives which helped
shape and drive our work:
to identify exemplars of planned communities in Europe, America and Asia and unpack the
drivers for these new communities, the scale of development and the particular factors
which have resulted in the establishment of resilient communities;
to understand, from these exemplars about the role of the private, public and social sectors
in the planning, design and implementation of a planned community and how the interplay
between the public, private and social sectors can results in a more or less resilient
community;
to capture examples of transferable practice in the development of planned communities,
particularly in relation to renewable energies, low carbon transport, community
participation, social enterprise, effective governance, high quality design and alternative
economic growth models;
to triangulate perceptions of what professionals from a variety of contexts understand as the
ingredients for a resilient and successful community.
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METHODOLOGY
The methodology for this research was focused on a number of distinct phases.
3.1
Secondary data analysis
In each area a selection of literature and reports was reviewed in advance of the visit and used to
inform the lines of enquiry pursued in semi structured interviews. This secondary data analysis also
helped us to identify exemplars for the research. We devised a set of criteria to help us choose
suitable projects for this research, this was as follows:
3.2
economic context – exemplars from a variety of economic contexts, including a BRIC2
country, Asian tiger economy and older industrialised economy;
political governance – in order to enable comparison, we decided to choose democracies but
from both right and left wing political backgrounds to explore what influence this had on
planned community policy, for example social protectionism model in Scandinavia to
capitalist model in parts of South Korea;
challenge blend – we deliberately looked for a variety of projects covering a wide range of
different challenges in order to be able to look at how planned communities deal with a wide
range of social challenges, from infrastructure, to ageing to transport;
social, public and private role – we were interested in how planned communities are
developed through partnerships between the private, public and social sectors. Therefore,
we identified examples where each of these partners played different roles.
Semi-structured interviews
This secondary data analysis also helped us to identity suitable candidates for the semi structured
interviews which we undertook in each area. Identifying candidates for interview was challenging
particularly given the language and cultural challenges. We used ‘snowballing’ as a technique to
identify suitable people for these interviews and arranged to meet with these interviewees singly
or in groups in each area. A full list of participants is provided in the appendix.
3.3
Site visit and observation
In each country, we visited an exemplar of a planned settlement to explore the physical design,
infrastructure and layout of the area and get a qualitative impression of the locality and the
community. Each visit was written up and annotated with photographs. Table 1 provides a
summary of all the planned communities visited.
3.4
Limitations of the methodology
It is important to note that although each of the research visits was carefully planned and
researched, undertaking this type of work in an international context can be limited due to
challenges of language, culture and by the very fact that our hosts in each of the countries visited
were welcoming strangers from the UK to examine their projects. Unlike research in the UK, it can
be more difficult to build up a rapport with interviewees and small groups, particularly those
unused to translators or unfamiliar with dealing with research enquiry.
Caracas was a difficult and dangerous place to visit and study and this impacted upon the research
we were able to undertake. Personal security was also a big issue, more so than anywhere else we
visited. The declaration of a national disaster a week before we arrived also put some limits on
what we were able to do and who we were able to meet.
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One of Brazil, Russia, India and China
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Table 1: Summary of planned communities visited
Europe
Germany
Sweden
Finland
• Vauban –urban settlement on the edge of Freiburg
• Kronsberg – urban settlement on the edge of Hannover
• Hammarby Sjostad – urban extension within the city of Stockholm
• Norra Djurgårdsstaden – Stockholm Royal Sea Port
Four communities planned around Greater Helsinki:
• Viikki
• Pikku Huopalahti
• Arabianranta
• Vuosaari
Asia
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South Korea
Japan
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•
•
Incheon Free Economic Zone – urban settlement on the edge of
Incheon City and capital city Seoul
Sejong – new city in the centre of South Korea in xxx province,
adjacent to xxxx city
Hangang Renaissance project – regeneration project in Seoul
Tsukuba Academic City
Kawasaki City
Tama New Town
Kashiwa City
South America
Brazil
•
•
Venezuela
•
Paraisopolis, a large community within Sao Paulo, Brazil
Curitiba, Brazil, considered one of the best planned communities in
the world
Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, particularly looking at the Barrios
generally and Chacao district specifically
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PLANNING NEW COMMUNITIES IN EUROPE
4.1
Introduction
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The first part of our research was exploring some of the exemplars of planned communities in
Europe, specifically, Germany, Sweden and Finland. We wanted to visit these examples because of
the potential similarities with the context of planning and economic development in the UK. The
projects visited were:
Germany
Vauban, Freiburg
Kronsberg, Hannover
Sweden
Hammarby Sjostad Stockholm
Norra Djurgårdsstaden - Stockholm Royal Sea Port
Finland
Four communities planned around greater Helsinki (Viikki, Pikku Huopalahti Arabianranta
and Vuosaari
4.2
Background to planning and the economy in Europe
Generally speaking the north European countries we looked at enjoy a high level of affluence, with
strong investment in public services and public infrastructure. They can reasonably be described as
sharing a social protectionist, liberal, western capitalist model of economic development and
planning. Central and Local government generally shared a funding role in supporting the delivery
of new communities with local government taking the lead role in overseeing the delivery of these
new developments.
All of the studied countries had a strong focus on public planning intervention and varying degrees
of commitment to the need for environmental sustainability/quality of design/infrastructure and
community development provision in their new planned communities. The objective of planned
communities in this context was focused upon delivering high quality new neighbourhoods mainly
as urban extensions or as brownfield regeneration within the existing urban area. All of the case
study areas had at least one location that had featured as a well documented 21st century exemplar
of new planned communities.
Our research took us to Germany where we visited Vauban in Freiburg and Kronsberg in Hannover.
Vauban is an often cited exemplar of sustainable living in new planned community on a former
brownfield site and Kronsberg was developed as a greenfield urban extension to Hannover. In
Sweden we went to Hammarby Sjostad and Norra Djurgårdsstaden in Stockholm. Hammarby is
widely recognised as an exemplar urban regeneration project and Stockholm Royal Seaport is a
new urban extension that is at the planning/pre-construction stages. Amongst the other aspects of
our research we were very interested to see how the learning from one was influencing the
planning of the other. In Finland we visited and discussed a number of recent developments in
Helsinki and were keen to understand the issues that are of importance in Finland in their planned
new communities. Were interested to go to Finland to contrast it with practice in Sweden and
focussed upon Helsinki because of the ambitious growth plans for the City and its sub-region. We
looked at four schemes that had been developed over the last two decades as well as the City of
Helsinki’s strategic plans for the next 20 years.
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Vauban, Freiburg, Germany
4.3.1 Introduction
Vauban is a planned community of some 5000 population which was established in the 1990s and
covers a 38.5 hectare site which was originally a French barracks site. A community within the city
of Freiburg, Vauban is considered to be one of the best examples of high quality; low carbon
planned communities and has become renowned particularly for its willingness to design housing
which does not centre on the use of the private car. Freiburg itself is a small city with a population
of approximately 217,547. Often regarded as Germany’s answer to Tuscany, the city has a
reputation for green space, with over 6420 hectares of forests, 586km of forest trails and 408
hectares of parks. The city was never a major industrial city with the main employers in the city
being the university, the Catholic Church and a range of small to medium sized businesses.
4.3.2 The development of Vauban
The main driver for the development of Vauban was
What is Vauban like to visit?
availability of the former French Barracks site, which
was occupied by the French with flats for 1150
A very pleasant environment to walk around
soldiers, up until 1992. This land was owned by the
with high quality public realm, very little
litter or vandalism. There are children
Federal Government who then sold it to Freiburg City
playing out in the street with no danger
Council for 120,000 German Marks and the city
from traffic and the streetscape is quiet and
began to consider how they could redevelop this
peaceful with only the gentle hum of the
brownfield site for residential use. Two important
tram. There are signs which encourage
events happened which greatly influenced the
children to play and carefully tended
direction of development in Vauban. Firstly, the
gardens and allotments. There is a feeling of
proposal for a nuclear power station in Freiburg
affluence with people sitting about in the
which provoked wide scale protests and unease,
square in front of the community centre
followed by the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 which
sipping glasses of wine and drinking beer.
finally ended the city’s ambitions towards nuclear
The squatter camps are in stark contrast to
this apparent calm and provide a strange
power and acted as a catalyst for the development of
paradox in this otherwise tranquil area.
alternative low carbon energy sources in the city and
particularly the council’s planning of Vauban based
on sustainable design principles as the key underlying theme of the planning process.
4.3.3 Distinctive characteristics of the Vauban planned community
Vauban is located 15 minutes by tram from Freiburg City Centre and incorporates a number of
distinct planning characteristics, including:
an emphasis on low car living and sustainable
transport – the tram provides the main mode of
transport in and out of the neighbourhood. Cars are
deliberately kept away from streets and houses and
parked in a multi-storey car park at the entrance to
Vauban. The lack of cars and space for cars results
in an extremely pleasant, safe and quiet
environment for residents.
Car ownership in
Vauban is low with 85 cars per 1000 residents and
around 40% of residents have agreed to live without
an owned car which means that they are not
required to contribute towards the upkeep of the
public multi-storey car park. Sustainable forms of
transport are also encouraged with ample space for bicycle storage built into the design of
the area and the absence of cars makes walking and cycling much more pleasant and
achievable;
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building design maximises use of natural
resources – the whole Vauban site maximises
the use of green space and vegetation which
immediately gives a very positive and vibrant
impression of the area to the visitor. We visited
in late spring when this impression of greenness
was further heightened. As well as gardens and
community parks, there are many well
established trees which were deliberately kept
in the design of the new buildings. Many of the
houses have been designed as ‘passive’
buildings which means that they face south with large windows to maximise the warmth of
the sunshine. Similarly, they have small windows to the north of the building to minimise
loss of heat. Houses also have very high standards of insulation with regulation stipulating
that new homes must waste less than 65kWh of energy a year per square metre (comparison
with UK?). All of the buildings in Vauban are designed to be low carbon; however, one
section of the area has been designed entirely with what are known as “surplus energy”
homes. The brainchild of Rolf Disch, the Schlierberg Solar Settlement is a collection of homes
and commercial buildings which actually generate more energy than they use, an example of
one of these houses is shown in the photo;3
active involvement of residents in design of the area – resident involvement in the
development of Vauban was a central
characteristic of the area. This involvement was
facilitated through the development of the
Forum Vauban, established in 1995 as a non
government body, but with financial support
from the City Council. This Forum established a
number of steering groups to deal with a range
of issues on the new site including energy,
planning, and financial challenges. Forum
Vauban grew to have 300 members and is still
active today to help continue to inform and
maintain the area.4 One of the residents we
spoke to described how valuable the Forum was for continuing to promote discussion and
debate within residents and explore some of the area’s new challenges. One example of
community involvement in the process was the design of community parks in the area. Each
group of buildings in Vauban has its own small community park and the communities were
involved in the design of these parks.
More information about Rolf Disch’s work can be found here http://www.rolfdisch.de/index.php?p=home&pid=78&L=1&host=2#a564
Little J (2006) Lessons from Freiburg on developing a sustainable urban community
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In one instance, children were encouraged to participate in the design of street furniture and
in the photo below you can see where they have built some of their toys into the park
structure;
Baugruppen, a unique approach to new community planning – a very interesting and unique
aspect of citizen involvement within the Vauban development was Baugruppen which,
roughly translated means ‘self build groups’. In the development of the area, the council
enabled groups of potential residents to buy land and work together to design and build
their own houses at the site. The city council actually gave preference to citizens over
commercial developers at the site and also fixed the land prices at the site so that
commercial developers could not enter into a bidding war.
Through this process, not only did residents get exactly the type of house they wanted
(within the overall planning guidance and masterplan framework for the whole site) but they
also began to get to know their future neighbours even before they moved into the area.
The effect of Baugruppen can be seen very clearly in Vauban as individual family preferences
and design decisions give the buildings character and interest;
economy of the planned community – although Vauban is primarily a residential site, retail
and commercial land use has been built into the design. Vauban has a large community
building (an original building from the French Garrison) which is the main hub for the
community incorporating meeting space, cultural centre, cafe and other facilities for the
area. There are also plenty of small neighbourhood shops selling a wide range of goods and
the fact that car transport is restricted may help to encourage greater use of local shops and
cafes as people require facilities within walking distance. The commercial space on the
periphery of the site (deliberately placed alongside the main tram and road routes) provides
high quality office accommodation. The site is also home to an impressive social enterprise
known as SUSI who have strong views on the role that Vauban can plan in supporting local
economic development. An interview with SUSI (Self Organised Independent Settlement
Initiative) based within Vauban highlighted their organisational interest in supporting local
economic vitality through a policy of local purchasing and procurement, policy of
encouraging integration of different economic social groups including unemployed,
academics, students and artisans. They were also interested in the ‘unification’ of residential,
occupational and cultural and living spaces. This is a challenge to the traditional planning
categorisation of land use as being either commercial, social or residential land use.
4.3.4 Challenges for Vauban
Although the development of Vauban is truly inspiring, it is neither without its critics nor its
difficulties:
a community of choice rather than a community for all? – When the French army originally
moved out in 1992, a group of squatters moved into the site and many of these original
squatters remain today and are deeply critical of the way in which the city council is
developing the site which they feel rides roughshod over their rights to occupy the site. We
were unable to interview any of the squatters but their opinions are obvious from the graffiti
that dominates parts of the Vauban development. Some of the people we spoke to are
critical of the area because they feel that, for the most part, it is a community of choice with
the majority of residents, articulate ,interested in environmental issues making a conscious
decision to move to a community which would afford them the low carbon lifestyle that the
aspire towards. The exception to this is the SUSI community which is home to 260 people in
the 45 apartment sharing site owned by SUSI. Our interviews also revealed some differences
within the community which suggest some tensions between residents, particularly car and
non car ownership. Another interesting community challenge which is emerging in Vauban
is the fact that the young families within Vauban are starting to grow up and there are now a
significant number of older teenagers in the community who lack services and support that
they require at this age;
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how has Vauban influenced other parts of Freiburg? – Although Vauban is a great example of
what can be achieved, to what degree has the development influenced planning and design
across the rest of the city? It is not clear the extent to which the learning at Freiburg has
inspired the council to raise standards and improve carbon output in existing housing areas
of the city. However, the city has gone on to develop a similar area of residential and
commercial land use (home to 8000 people) in Vieselfeld, Freiburg which is very similar to
Vauban;
public/private partnerships in the development of Vauban – from our research, it is clear
that the City Council have played a crucial role in leading and supporting the development of
Vauban. However, they have not done this on their own and our research has suggested
that the influence of the private sector has been considerable, particularly in encouraging
the council to consider the use of solar energy at the site. The influence of citizens
themselves through anti nuclear and environmental movements has also been important.
Having citizens who are keen to see the local government take action on carbon emissions
has provided a good context within which to develop the ideas at Vauban, particularly
around low car and low energy design.
Kronsberg, Hannover, Germany
4.4.1 Introduction
Kronsberg is a much bigger development compared with Vauban, with 15,000 residents across a
1200 hectare site located in the South East city limits of Hannover. Originally, agricultural land,
Kronsberg is a long urban extension running north to South which was developed as part of the
response to the growth of the city of Hannover. Kronsberg was built for the 2000 World Exposition
as a model sustainable development using the principles of Agenda 215. The vision for Kronsberg
was a new type of urban development which would inspire replication in other cities across the
world.
4.4.2 The development of Kronsberg
One of the challenges for Hannover City Council in the
last 50 years has been how to manage the growth of the
city, and particularly the demand for housing among its
residents. In the 1980s, the development of Kronsberg
became central to the government’s response to
growth and the focus for international scrutiny. The
site for Kronsberg was divided into three main land
uses: a commercial ribbon on the South west of the site;
a residential ribbon on the north west of the site; and
landscape measures to the east and north of the area6.
The site followed the principle that residential
development should be adjacent to and expand along
local rail public transport routes and ‘be concentrated at
urban densities in the catchment areas of the stops and
stations’ 7. As in Vauban, the district is served by a
direct tram link which is approximately 20 minutes
commute into the centre of Hannover.
5
6
7
Krause A and Sayani A (date?) Planning Sustainable Communities: Case studies
Rumming et al (2004) Hannover Kronsberg Handbook: Planning and Realisation
Rumming et al 2004
Impressions of Kronsberg
First impressions of Kronsberg are of
scale – it is a very large planned
community spatially speaking. However
as you move around the area you start
to notice the diversity of the buildings
and also the water drainage systems
which dominate everything. There is
very little or vandalism although we did
spot some anti German graffiti which
our host suggested had been done by
Iranian migrants. The main square is
relatively busy and vibrant but in the
housing areas beyond, it was extremely
quite with very little traffic or activity
(presumably because people are out at
work). The vegetation is noticeably less
mature than Vauban with fewer large
trees. The whole district felt very
remote from the busy city of Hannover,
a 20 minute tram ride away and
obviously functions as a separate
district.
16
The district of Kronsberg is characterised by a grid layout with high density apartment blocks (four
and five storey heights) with an emphasis on diverse designs and building methods. The design and
planning principles which influence Kronsberg are as follows:
8
open space planning – unlike Vauban, Kronsberg was a relatively flat open and agricultural
site and therefore, the city planners took the integration of green and open space, extremely
seriously in the initial design for the area. The proportion of open space at the site was
raised by 5-10% compared with conventional urban planning in Germany. The site is
characterised by neighbourhood parks, avenues bordered with trees, children’s play areas
and recreational space and open views. Many of the fields on the periphery of the site were
bought specifically by the council because they believe that the development required an
appropriate green ‘buffer’ to ensure a high quality of life for residents;
water management fully integrated into the site
design – an interesting feature of the overall
district design at Vauban is water management.
This only becomes apparent when you actually
visit the site and observe that the entire site is
dominated by large drainage ditches, waterways
and collection pools. The area is subject to flash
rain storms in summer and the soil is relatively
impermeable. Therefore, the site is designed to
manage very large water runoff in an efficient and
ecologically sound way which replicates what
would happen in a natural environment. This
attention to water management gives the area a very distinct feel, almost as if the built
environment is part of the natural eco-system. This approach to resource management is
not just restricted to water, in the development of the site, the management and disposal of
soil was also carefully considered. Instead of having to transport the excess soil out of the
site, thereby incurring costs and increasing carbon outputs, the developers transported the
soil to a nearby hill which is now used by residents in winter for sledging;
balancing environmental ambitions with creation of community for all – one of the
resounding themes of our interviews in Kronsberg was that the council had attempted to be
pragmatic, recognising that whilst the city council had worked hard to achieve a very high
level of environmental standards in the district, these standards were not going to be at the
highest level because the site needed to achieve other priorities such provision of affordable
homes and social inclusion. 60% of the homes at Kronsberg are social housing and the
demographic profile of residents at Kronsberg is much more varied than Vauban. This is a
community developed out of housing need rather than a community that has chosen to live
here because of the environmental standards. The Council were also keen to ensure that
any environmental standards or improvements would actually cost the development less in
the long term and that the standards would actually incentivise innovation among
developers;
an emphasis on high quality community services – a feature of the development at
Kronsberg is the high quality of the community facilities, what is described in the literature
as the ‘city as social habitat’. This includes KroKus which combines an arts and community
centre, supported through funding from Hannover City Council. KroKus was also designed as
a way of communicating with residents about the Kronsberg development and to provide
information and support, a ‘communication agency’ as one interviewee described.
The
building combines a library, youth centre, cafe, workshop and function rooms. It also
includes a project called ‘Habitat’ which is an international housing project which aims to
‘promote co-existence between German citizens and immigrant families’. 8
Rumming K et al (2004)
17
This is an interesting approach which attempts to integrate the characteristics of migrant
cultures and backgrounds into the design of homes. The project we examined in the
research was a small community of apartments which had been planned according to
Muslim beliefs and customs, for example, having a bathroom with separate toilet;
participatory planning – participatory planning was a feature of Kronsberg development
although seemingly less so that in Vauban. Part of the challenge of community participation
in a site like Kronsberg was the fact that it was a virgin site with no residents and therefore
no one to consult with. What the council did do was to consult with local community
organisations and they helped to shape and inform the development of the site until
residents began to live in the area. KroKus also played an important role in developing and
maintaining contact with residents;
low energy housing – all the houses built at Kronsberg are low energy housing with a pven
maximum heating energy of 55kWh per square metre. This is checked on an annual basis.
High insulation standards were also set for all developers on the site to abide by with
penalties for non compliance. The Kronsberg development also included passive housing
design similar to that seen at Vauban. An interesting observation from the development was
that although houses were designed to be low energy, in many cases, once people had
moved into their new apartments, it took a while for them to understand their heating
systems and to use them effectively so that energy consumption was at the required
standard (e.g. opening windows);
economy – the majority of people living in Kronsberg work in Hannover although there are
opportunities for employment at the site through the commercial space, retail facilities and
public services. The site has been built upon the principle that although there are limited
jobs in this area, the regular tram service into Hannover provides a regular and relatively cost
effective method of linking residents with employment and training opportunities in
Hannover;
diversity – Interviewees we spoke to described Kronsberg as a diverse site with diversity
running through all aspects of the area, not only is there diversity in the design of the
buildings and techniques used on the site, there was diversity in terms of the developers
used and the size and heights of the buildings.
4.4.3 Challenges for Kronsberg
The Kronsberg site is relatively large and noticeably more built up as compared with Vauban.
4.5
Hammarby Sjostad, Sweden
4.5.1 Introduction
In Sweden our research focussed on
Hammarby Sjostad and Norra Djurgårdsstaden
in Stockholm (aka Hammarby by the lake and
Stockholm Royal Seaport).
Hammarby is widely recognised as an
exemplar urban regeneration project and
Stockholm Royal Seaport is a new urban
extension that is at the planning/preconstruction stages. Amongst the other
aspects of our research we were very
interested to see how the learning from one
was influencing the planning of the other.
18
Hammarby Sjostad
stad is a large brownfield urban extension in the south of Stockholm, formerly an old
industrial and docklands area. The re-development
re development of the area was promoted and led by the City of
Stockholm who originally planned the regeneration of the area off the back
back of a proposed Olympic
bid. When the bid failed to proceed the City set up a multi-disciplinary
multi disciplinary team to continue to work
on the project and deliver the regeneration of the area. The cross department team was led by a
visionary planning chief and also included
included use of external architects. The team developed a master
plan for the regeneration that laid down clear design and environmental standards for the area.
The City used its position as planning authority, key landowner and investor to broker consensus
around the redevelopment plans.
The City used its own resources to invest in infrastructure and the decontamination of the site.
Local taxation systems mean that Stockholm City receives direct taxation income from residents
and federal tax revenue was also used to invest in public transport provision.
The Hammarby master plan that was developed and implemented was based upon replicating the
street dimensions, block layouts, building heights, density and mix of uses of the older parts of
Stockholm.
The City owned significant parts of the area and also invested heavily in tram connection to link
Hammarby in with the rest of the City’s public transport network. The tram system also links to a
ferry station, extensive cycle and walking routes and public green spaces.
spaces. The development is a
recognised European exemplar for its economic/environmental symbiosis and sustainability and
eco-friendly construction.
4.5.2 Key characteristics
The development of Hammarby was influenced by
challenging environmental targets from the start.
Because of lack of fossil fuel energy resources over
the last twenty five years Sweden has had to look
towards self sufficiency and adopt a strict focus on
energy generation and carbon reduction in the
husbandry of its natural resources and the way it
uses energy. This has driven a national desire to see
new development coming forward that is
sustainable, carbon neutral and energy efficient.
The Hammarby environmental model links waste
management, energy generation, transport, water usage, district
district combined heat and power.
Waste management and disposal are part of a cycle that links energy generation with water, heat
and power in a symbiotic way. Waste is viewed as valuable fuel in Sweden and sorted waste and
materials for recycling from households
households is taken from apartment blocks using the Envac (vacuum
disposal collection system) and is incinerated at the local combined heat and power (CHP) plant to
create energy. Sewage from the apartments and other buildings is also taken to the local sewage
works and the bio-gas
gas generated there is reused for gas for cooking and to power the City bio-gas
bio
bus fleet. The Swedes have aptly described this closed loop cyclical process ‘from toilet to
omelette’. There has been significant environmental and economic innovation in the wake of the
development of Hammarby, supporting the eco-economy
eco economy locally and beyond Sweden through
exports of new innovative products like Envac. 9
District power and heating is provided locally by the neighbourhood CHP plant (seen as the most
effective way of reducing overall C02 levels) and connected to each apartment. Interestingly given
the emphasis on sustainable living, the metering of heat usage has only recently been introduced.
Surface water within Hammarby is dealt with by way of a sustainable urban drainage system using
swales and on site retention in water features as a focus of the high specification landscaped areas.
9
Swedish Trade Council and Symbio-City
19
The housing in Hammarby has been developed at a medium to high density of 50 - 120 units to the
hectare. The buildings were generally simple in their construction making use of industrialised
methods and high standards of insulation. The area is highly accessible, linked into the wider
Stockholm public transport network. Car parking
parking is provided in basements and some on site but all
buildings lie within 500m of tram, ferry and bus connections. Car club schemes, cycling and walking
facilities have been designed in from the start. The area has a mixed use orientation both
geographically
ly and within buildings. Ground floors are typically given over to commercial uses to
enliven frontages and support the provision of local business and retail facilities like shops, cafes,
restaurants, offices etc. These have been encouraged to move in by low or rent free periods.
Hammarby was originally designed as an all
apartment area with mainly ‘empty nesters’ in mind
and the City of Stockholm were surprised by its early
adoption and popularity with families. The planning
of the area had not taken account
acc
of the need for
specific infrastructure for children such as prepre
schools, infant schools and play spaces so there has
been some retrofitting of this infrastructure after the
area was first developed.
Hammarby was established with a tenure split of
approximately
roximately 55% purchase and 45% rented
apartments. There is no affordable housing delivery in our sense of the word in Sweden; this is
provided through a City -wide
wide rent control system. The current population of Hammarby is mainly a
middle income socio-economic
nomic community. There is a mixture of owner occupied and rented
apartments but affordable housing as understood in the UK has not been part of the provision. The
area also has a low ethnic diversity.
The area has been developed in mixed use with homes and jobs in the same neighbourhood.
However, few people living in Hammarby work in Hammarby. Most people travel to work
elsewhere in the City using the accessible and high quality public transport network. There are, but
the City had not specifically promoted,
promoted, a close relationship between jobs and homes for the
purpose of reduced commuting and the need to travel. Many people travelling into Hammarby to
work don’t live there. The availability of the extensive CityCity wide public transport network appears
to serve a public policy purpose as creating accessibility to jobs but on a city wide basis. The
aspiration of the city is to promote a maximum commute of 30 minutes travel time to work, rather
than the promotion of more living near work type approaches.
The City set up GlashusEtt an onsite community centre used for running environmental workshops,
community projects and for showcasing the development and the new environmental technologies
employed therein. This proved to be an important facility for the local population
pop
as well as
meeting the popularity of Hammarby as a destination for visiting planners, architects, and
politicians.
4.6
20
Norra Djurgårdsstaden, Stockholm
Norra Djurgårdsstaden – Stockholm Royal Sea Port – is another very recent area of the city to be
comprehensively planned for regeneration. The plan is to create ‘A world class environmental
urban district’ that will showcase Sweden’s expertise in city planning and sustainable development
and construction. The area lies to the east of Stockholm and extends to 236 hectare of land.
Stockholm was European Green Capital in 2010.
The lessons and experience from Hammarby have been taken forward in the master planning and
delivery approach employed for this new area, work on which was started in 2008. Construction of
an extension of the existing port and a new cruise ship terminal to facilitate this wider regeneration
started in 2009, with completion of the total area planned for 2030. The adopted masterplan
provides for 10,000 new homes, 30,000 ports related and financial services jobs an extensive
business area of around 600,000m2 of new commercial floor space. The area is 8min by bike from
the tram stop and transport link options will include biogas bus, tram, subway, boat, E20 motorway
ring road extension, cycling and walking. The area will have connections to Kistya Science city and
will be served by a new bio fuelled combined heat and power plant to be provided by development
partner Fortum.
4.6.1 Master planning
Objectives for the area10:
by 2020 carbon emissions per person will be less than 1.5 tonnes per person, this will
compare with current Swedish average of 4.5 tonnes today;
the development is being planned to take account of future climate changes such as
increased rainfall;
by 2030 the development will be fossil fuel free.
The City of Stockholm has planned the area with a focus on five key issues: Energy use;
environmentally efficient transport, adaption to a changed climate, cycles and cyclical models at
system level and lifestyle issues. The same cross departmental working model has been established
and the various departments dealing with property, city planning, waste management etc are being
managed under a senior officer board to oversee their coordination.
The port area lies adjacent to a large parkland area of nationally protected and significant open
space and importance for bio-diversity, known as the royal hunting grounds. The City have
experienced significant levels of local protest in bringing this site forward that has contrasted
sharply with the consensus they experienced in the proposed redevelopment of Hammarby. The
decisions to proceed with the planning of the area have been challenged to national level at every
stage resulting in a two year delay in commencing construction. The City has addressed this
situation assertively and in part by using the in-house marketing team to gather tangible evidence
of support for the proposals, as evidence of the balance of views.
10
Marketing Material - City Of Stockholm Council
21
The comparisons with the development of Hammarby can be seen in the way that:
4.7
challenging environmental targets and closed loop environmental and economic symbiosis
are being planned in from the start;
significant public land ownership is involved;
local financial autonomy, partnership with federal funding for some infrastructure;
partnership working with Fortum international energy provider;
infrastructure provision by public bodies;
mixed use leisure, homes and jobs focus – strong distinctive design related to the essential
character of Stockholm;
significant public transport investment from the start;
better social and community infrastructure planning – recognising the needs of the initial
community and planning for resilient infrastructure from the start;
extensive public engagement in the master planning process, although more difficult at
Norra Djurgårdsstaden there has been extensive engagement as part of the process;
City Mayor and Vice-Mayors providing political leadership at the highest level;
Hammarby experience of international interest in what they are doing has resulted in
upfront involvement of marketing staff as part of the project team, GlashutEtt facility
approach likely to be reused;
significant upfront investment by public bodies in infrastructure to unlock the area for
redevelopment in the development of the cruise ship harbour, freight harbour terminal.
Helsinki, Finland
4.7.1 Introduction
Helsinki (Helsingfors) is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located
in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of
the city of Helsinki is 588,195 (31 October 2010), making it by far the most populous municipality in
Finland. Helsinki is located some 400 kilometres (250 mi) east of Stockholm, Sweden,
300 kilometres (190 mi) west of St. Petersburg, Russia and 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Tallinn,
Estonia. Helsinki has close historical connections with these three cities.
Greater Helsinki includes the city of Helsinki and three other cities: Espoo and Vantaa, which
immediately border Helsinki to the west and north, respectively; and Kauniainen, which is an
enclave within the city of Espoo. The Helsinki metropolitan area is the world's northernmost urban
area among those with a population of over one million people, and the city is the northernmost
capital of an EU member state. Altogether 1.3 million people, approximately one in four Finns, live
in the Greater Helsinki area.
Helsinki is Finland's major political, educational, financial, cultural and research centre. as well as
one of northern Europe's major cities. Approximately 70% of foreign companies operating in
Finland have settled in the Helsinki region. In 2009, Helsinki was chosen to be the World Design
Capital for 2012 by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design.
22
Our focus was on four areas that have been developed within the greater Helsinki area:
Viikki;
Pikku Huopalahti;
Vuosaari;
Arabianranta.
4.7.2 Viikki
An ecological residential area, University Campus and
Science Park’ (City of Helsinki Planning Department).
This area lies 8km from Helsinki City centre, adjacent to the
campus of Helsinki University, Helsinki Business and Science
Park and farmland associated with the University
department of agriculture. There are a number of smaller
development areas within the overall Viikki area such as
Eko-Viikki and the Latokartano neighbourhood. By 2015 this
area will be home to 16,000 residents, 7,000 students,
8,000 jobs and 0.5million m2 of commercial floorspace.
Eko-Viikki is a Finnish exemplar project which has pioneered
the use of sustainable construction in the development of
the housing in the area. The neighbourhood has been the subject of considerable interest as an
exemplar in the Sustainable Cities of Europe initiative. The development of the area with this
eco/environmental focus was a unique one off for Finland when first put forward. The area was
not originally envisaged with such a strong eco emphasis but this was developed in part to assist
with planning difficulties in justifying the development to the existing local community.
The layout of the wider area has been based on the ‘finger-like’ approach of linear development
interspersed with landscaped green fingers. The housing is mainly low and medium density with
individual houses in terraced blocks, apartment blocks, student housing all generally in traditional
street forms distributed around the community facilities.
Helsinki City owned (acquired) 70% of the land to deliver the development; the state government
owned the other 30%. The development approach employed was to develop a master plan then
build serviced sites which were then leased/sold to developers and the university. This delivery
model has helped in the delivery of the eco/environmental features. The scheme has developed
the new neighbourhoods over a 10 year period.
The development incorporates eco features in a
number of ways; through its construction, through
very tight control over parking provision, sustainable
design, energy saving features in the housing such
as solar PV water heating, shared laundry and
saunas even in owner occupied units, innovative
wind powered street lighting, sustainable urban
drainage and storm water management systems
which together have resulted in average with a 20%
reduction in over carbon consumption from this
development compared to conventional building
methods and 60% of the normal heating usage of
conventional housing11.
11
Skanska Case Study 38: Eco Viikki, University of Wales School of Architecture Case Study 2010: ‘Monitoring the sustainability of the Viikki Eco
Blocks, Helsinki Finland’
23
The proximity to university agricultural college and associated farmland gives the area a rural feel.
There are embedded allotments and fruiting trees have been built into the structural landscaping.
Employment areas are mainly separated from the housing and business incubator units are
embedded within the development – adjacent to the bioscience lab.
Overall the wider Viikki area has a good range of amenities and facilities for its residents: including
a church, grocery store, restaurants, winter garden, health care centres, schools, pre-schools,
allotments and easy access to parkland and the open countryside. We were impressed by the open
design of the school site and the lack of fencing and railings made it feel much more a part of the
community than many UK school sites do today.
The University, Business and Science Park provide proximate employment but other research has
suggested that the lack of a tram link into Helsinki City centre has continued to put pressure on the
maximum modal split that can be achieved through bus patronage and car usage remains high
despite the restrictions on car parking in neighbourhoods like Eko-Viikki.
We felt there was a lack of cohesion in places between the planning and delivery of different
phases of the overall development. The main square of a local centre had been part developed
leaving a very raw and ‘leaky’ interface between the developed part and the half that was still to be
constructed. The Lutheran church in Viikki is an architectural gem and one of the few focal
buildings in the local centre square.
4.7.3 Pikku Huopalahti
Pikku Huopalahti was a new neighbourhood developed in
the late 1980s and at the time was an example of a new
approach to planned communities in Helsinki and which a
mature neighbourhood is now. We wanted to understand
how the lessons from this approach to planning had
informed the planning of current and proposed new
communities in Helsinki.
The planning and development of Pikku Huopalahti marked
a distinct change in the style of planning in Helsinki as it
represented a more organic and incremental approach to
planning as opposed to what could be described as a more
soviet bloc influenced approach in the 50s and 60s. This earlier approach to planning had given a
number of areas in Helsinki a uniform soviet style architectural language which there has been
some sensitivity about in the past. Pikku Huopalahti marked a break in style away from that
approach. The neighbourhood developed around a 1930s art deco style hospital and is mainly
residential.
Although containing a significant proportion of
apartments the layout and form of buildings is much
more human scale with housing including a significant
proportion of well integrated social housing. Sheltered
accommodation had been provided as an integral part
of the area along with shops. Parking on street has
been minimized and underground parking provision has
been included for many of the apartment blocks. The
area is well served by public transport being flanked by
major routes into and out of the town centre and
access to trams and bus services is within 500m of the
majority of the area.
24
The neighbourhood is also known as having a 'Legoland' effect because the buildings, mostly
constructed in the past 20 years, all prominently display basic geometric patterns such as circles,
squares, and triangles on the residential housing.
housing. The use of light pastel colours, mostly white, light
blue, and turquoise, makes Pikku Huopalahti a very distinct neighbourhood compared to the other
neighbourhoods to the north and west that have more traditional housing stock from the 1940s
and 1950s.
4.7.4 Vuosaari
The neighbourhood of Vuosaari has been developed over the
last 10 - 15 years and is the largest new suburb in greater
Helsinki. Located adjacent to the new City port , to the east of
Helsinki City centre it is well connected by metro, road and
bus services and will provide for 40,000 residents and 5,000
jobs when complete. The residential part of the suburb
consists of a mixed use area including an area centred on the
former Paulig Coffee company works. It is not yet fully
developed out and the master plan for the area has yet to be
completed and deliver all of the non-residential
non
use elements.
It is a popular mainly private apartment blocked residential
area adjacent to the sea and has been laid out with a series of
five or six storey linear apartment blocks distributed amongst
carefully
fully landscaped external spaces and high quality public realm.
One of the issues we were made aware of was the desire to
expand the residential tax base in Helsinki and delivery of
housing was crucial to this aspiration. Vuosaari was not an
obviously a mixed
ixed income area and the apartments were
expensive and a combination of owner occupied and privately
rented.
There was no obvious promotion of eco features or
sustainable construction or development in the planning of
Vuosaari that has already been constructed
constr
and our
discussions with the planning officer overseeing this area
confirmed that it was a conventional housing development in
the construction sense of the word, their main concern in this
area had been with the quality of design12.
4.7.5 Arabianranta (Helsinki
elsinki Arts and Design City)
This is the former Helsinki Arabia ceramics and glass works and is
now one of the fastest growing residential areas in Helsinki. Lying
to the east of Helsinki, the redevelopment of this area has been
underpinned by the relocation
tion of the campus of Helsinki University
of Art and Design and the extension of the tram line to this
neighbourhood.
The area has been redeveloped with a mix of uses involving the
integration of education, creative commercial and residential land
uses in a high density ex-industrial
industrial setting. There are key links with
the design/creative sector as a result and this follows through into
the high quality of design seen in new residential uses and the
public realm. There are many new homes in this area, mainly
mainly in the form of apartments but with
integrated student accommodation blocks as well.
12
Interviews with Helsinki City Council Planning Staff
25
The density of new development in the area is medium to
high urban and ranges between 50 – 120 dwellings to the
hectare. New apartment blocks are of high quality and
varied design making use of colour and innovative
architecture at the same time achieving high standards of
insulation and enabling the deployment of system
building techniques. The quality of the public realm and
landscaping is generally high and public access to the
waterfront has been designed into the development.
Public art was a big feature of the area with numerous
examples of artworks in freestanding installations or
incorporated into the new buildings.
This was clearly a popular area to live and the tenure mix in the area includes owner occupation,
rented housing, shared ownership and student housing provided in an integrated way. The
different tenure types were indistinguishable externally and from their location and distribution in
the area site. What was clear was that the development had happened in stages and there were
some issues at the interfaces between phases of development that had not ‘butted up’ together as
successfully as might have been anticipated.
We wondered how successful this neighbourhood was in terms of the communities that lived
there. We visited during the working day and the retail, University and commercial area was lively
and busy with people and students. The housing areas were much quieter with many people out at
work. We saw a few mums with pushchairs taking their toddlers out to the play area but no older
people and few people passing through on their way to somewhere. We wondered whether the
attractiveness of the area to people at particular lifestyle stages e.g. students, couples and young
families and the design and layout of the housing areas would reduce the area’s opportunities for
passive social interaction and resilience as a diverse community environment. It was not clear
whether social isolation would be an issue for some households here.
4.7.6 Delivering new communities in Helsinki
Helsinki City Planning is an important service within the City Council and there is considerable
political and economic support for planning and development promoting activities at the council
e.g. aspirations seen in 2012 City of Design status and investment in a city centre facility the
‘Laituri’ centre devoted to a permanent planning and interpretation and exhibition centre staffed
by 25 part time staff. The Laituri centre attracts school children etc to come there to learn about
the developments in the city and as facility for general public to learn about the
developments/changes in their areas.
4.7.7 Future Helsinki
Helsinki City Council has ambitious plans for the development of greater Helsinki and we were keen
to look at schemes they have developed over the past 10 years as well as understand their
approach to planning for the future growth of the city. Helsinki is marketing itself strongly as a prodevelopment city. Land in the City’s ownership has been/is being made available for significant
amounts of new development and ‘Dynamic Helsinki’ is the City brand that they are promoting
strongly in Europe and elsewhere:
‘Helsinki is currently undergoing the largest change in its history. In 2008 two cargo ports were
transferred from the city centre... vacating 250 hectares of waterfront areas for redevelopment.
The city’s vast development projects, to be completed mainly during the second and third
decades of the 21st century, will create 4.5million m2 of new residential floor area and almost 2.5
million m2 of business floor area. This represents new homes for 100,000 people and jobs for
tens of thousands.’13
13
Helsinki City Growth Plans
26
The current city focus is pro-new development and significant growth. Helsinki is a small capital by
European standards but ambitious to grow, increase its population and tax base and in a distinctive
way. The fact that Helsinki will be City of Design 2012 is not coincidental.
The City has major landholding interest in a number of the sites. The overall planning strategy for
Helsinki is based upon urban containment and increasing use of brown field sites. A strategic plan
to move heavy industry/port logistics out of the city centre has freed up significant areas of land for
new residential and commercial development. New or expanded neighbourhoods are being
planned in the following 10 areas around the city and within greater Helsinki: Jätkäsaari,
Kalasatama, Kruunuvuorenranta, Pasila, Viiki, Arabianranta, Vuosaari, Old City Centre, Finlandia
Park, and Kuninkaankolomio14.
The city has an eco/environmental focus in the construction and delivery of these new
neighbourhoods but this is not their overriding priority in the planning and delivery of new
development. Economic and population growth is the key driver with design and city regeneration
as the key issues for them. The city is well placed for in-migration and is closer to some key cities in
Russia that European capitals. The success of immigration, and how to manage integration of new
migrants, is and will continue to be a key issue for them for the future.
4.8
Lessons from Europe
Our hypothesis was to test if there was a distinctive European model of planning for and delivering
new communities. At the same time we wanted to better understand the issues that can help to
make or undermine the resilience of these new areas. This section pulls together the various
lessons from each of the case study/places we visited and the breadth of issues we observed.
Understandably, the priorities in the delivery of these developments clearly reflect national and
cultural differences and looked at from the UK’s current perspective it is interesting to see how
many of these issues are similar or contrast with our own priorities to deliver economic growth, job
creation, high quality design, affordable housing, sustainability and the mechanisms, particularly
funding by which new communities happen in the UK.
4.8.1 Lessons from Vauban
There are a number of reasons why Vauban has managed to achieve much with its development of
low carbon and sustainable living in Freiburg:
14
15
political stability – Vauban has been developed in a context of political stability and the
political leadership has given considerable support to the low carbon ideals of the site,
particularly the Obermiester (mayor). This support has continued to grow as the
international reputation of Vauban as an international example of good practice has risen in
recent years;
strong role of local government – without public ownership of the Vauban site and strong
leadership from the public sector on sustainability, the high standards at Vauban could not
have been achieved. The public sector, under pressure from citizens and some private sector
businesses with an interest in low carbon have provided the city with the opportunity to
develop a new form of housing development. The local government have used their powers
to insist upon high standards of design and building standards, to regulate the land price
market in favour of citizens and ensure that site had good access to public transport. Our
research also shows how the public planning system can act as a strong force for good by
having the vision to develop a new type of housing settlement and being willing to negotiate
robustly with the private sector to squeeze benefits for the community ‘we have the
planning system; he (the developer) can do nothing’15;
Helsinki City Council material
Quote from one of the interviewees
27
clever financing arrangements – fact that public sector owned land and managed to
negotiate funding, capital, contracts with public sector and residents in a way that benefited
them (e.g. idea about selling property back to the public sector within the first 5 years);
shared belief in a better way ‘don’t listen to people who say it won’t work’ – many of the
main protagonists we spoke to as part of this research had a real belief in what they were
trying to achieve. This enthusiasm and vision stems from the strength of public feeling at the
time of Vauban’s development which was inherently linked to wider questions about the
future of energy given the public protests to the thought of nuclear power and the concern
more generally about resource use. The development at Vauban also tells us something
about the importance of individuals involved in a project like this having a personal interest
and commitment to the ideals and values which underpin the project and being willing to
take time to construct an effective argument which everyone can buy into, as one private
sector representatives said ‘you can get the money if you have a good enough argument and
if you can convince people it will work’;
flexibility – another key factor in the success of Vauban was the willingness to be flexible and
to adapt and evolve the project as the context changes. Any development, particularly a
physical housing scheme needs to be willing to be dynamic.
4.8.2 Lessons from Kronsberg
Political leadership – like Vauban, the development of Kronsberg was only possible because
politicians and officers in high office at Hannover City Council believed in the vision of a high
quality, environmental sustainable development which would set a standard for
developments globally. There was real determination and “the will” to make it happen16.
The link with EXPO provided a real incentive to do something interesting and innovative
which would give Hannover a global reputation. Also important was the fact that City
Council had a self governing right to do this type of project, they knew they could proceed
without being overruled by central government. This is an interesting observation when
compared with the political context in the UK.
Coordination of infrastructure – Kronsberg was a big project involving complex
infrastructure, standards and technology. One of the successes of the project has been the
fact that the council was able to effectively co-ordinate this infrastructure to achieve positive
benefits for the community.
Link between environmental improvements and the economy – the city council were keen to
ensure that any environmental improvements at the site were also economically beneficial –
that there would be no environmental improvements for the sake of it. Any the
environmental features, had to be justified in terms of their economic as well as ecological
benefits.
A mixed community – the protagonists involved in Kronsberg are bullish about their view
that the district is an example of a truly mixed community. They argue that the area is home
to a diverse range of residents including older people, families, migrant communities and a
range of people from the whole spectrum of income levels.
4.8.3 Lessons from Sweden
There are a number of aspects in the delivery of the projects that we have looked at that have been
key in supporting their success in delivering Hammarby and which are being incorporated into the
planning and delivery of the Norra Djurgårdsstaden development. In summary, these are:
16
Comment from an interviewee asked about the reasons for the project’s success
28
city land ownership, investment, brokering and civic leadership has been critical to
supporting the regeneration of Hammarby and will be to the delivery of the Royal Seaport.
The City has also taken/been able to take a long term view of their investment in the area
including the costs of land restoration and upfront-investment in key infrastructure. This
facilitates a cash flow model that enables the private sector to reduce its risks and be keen to
engage as a development partner;
getting consensus around a shared vision for the development of an area – usually through a
major master planning exercise fronted by the Council involving significant public and
community engagement and participation - note City of Stockholm marketing and
communications team actively sought positive feedback from supporters of the Royal
Seaport plans to counterbalance objections;
Symbio-City work and the integrated approach to transport, water, waste management,
energy generation and use, environment and community;
delivering carbon shift – national focus on this aided by strong planning and influence over
land ownership and public transport funding – delivers low carbon options from the start;
city influence over infrastructure provision at an early stage - transport and waste
management provision makes a significant difference to the timing and nature of provision
of these facilities – encouraged carbon shift behaviours from the start;
city master planning and delivery power through strong planning and property controls –
leadership in setting up cross disciplinary teams, strongly controlled project framework
managed by the public sector within which the private sector then operated;
city influence and partnership with the utilities particularly energy, water and heat (the
process of getting public stakeholders and private partners working together seemed so
much easier than in the UK, seen in development delivery rates as well)17;
social and community infrastructure needs to be planned for and delivered from the start –
key issue at Hammarby that involved significant retrofitting latter to address;
visionary political and professional leadership over a long and consistent period and taking
lessons forward to Norra Djurgårdsstaden;
economic – city wide economic focus, large enterprise area and public transport system that
helps the economy;
ability to demonstrate environmental and economic symbiosis;
if you are doing something well people from around the world and locally will be interested –
the City were surprised at the interest in Hammarby as an exemplar by the numbers of
people coming to see Hammarby from Europe, China and beyond. Marketing and
communications staff are included as part of the teams involved in these projects now.
However:
17
city planners wrongly anticipated the early adopting community as empty nesters;
didn’t anticipate community and social infrastructure needs of early adopting population so
some retrofitting was necessary – shops, schools, transport infrastructure in early phases not
all coordinated/provided;
‘Beyond Eco towns: applying the lessons from Europe’ PRP, URBED, Design for Homes 2008
29
similar lessons about needing to plan for flexible and resilient infrastructure to respond to
large sector of population being at similar lifestyle stages and what implications this has for
new communities;
late development of individual metering system for city-wide district heating – undermining
carbon reduction efforts elsewhere and will need significant retrofitting investment across
the City;
ambitions for lower car usage and very low parking standards had to be modified upwards
initially, but still achieving significant modal shift to 85% non-car use at peak times even so;
little evidence that these schemes are seeking to directly alleviate poverty, social cohesion or
inequalities in Swedish society;
is it sustainable not to try and address travel to work and look to link homes and jobs in
closer locations.
4.8.4 Lessons from Finland
Big focus on enlarging Helsinki – drivers seen in enhancing City status, city economy and tax
revenue base.
National and local emphasis on high quality design – main driver in new development.
Less emphasis on eco standards and carbon reduction – very big contrast with Sweden.
Less emphasis on sustainable homes and jobs mix like in UK, with business areas being
largely promoted separately from housing.
Social cohesion issues with managing immigration and diversity issues not highlighted as an
issue in the process.
Scale of growth ambition is significant, unclear how all infrastructure issues will be dealt with
and whether growth will happen to the anticipated extent.
Marketing of ambition is impressive.
Will there be the jobs to match the planned growth and where will they come from?
5
PLANNING NEW COMMUNITIES IN ASIA
5.1
Introduction
30
The second part of our research took us to the Asian countries of South Korea and Japan to explore
similarities and contrasts in place-making with what we had seen to date in Europe. The areas we
visited were as follows:
South Korea
Sejong Happy City
Digital Media City, Seoul
We were also shown around the Hangang River project, Seoul which is a regeneration
project in the centre of Seoul
Japan
Tsukuba Academic City
Kawasaki Eco Town
Tama New Town
Kashiwa City
In Korea we were particularly interested in exploring the context for planning new communities in
the context of an Asian tiger economy. In Japan, we expected greater similarities with the UK
planning context but were particularly interested in their ideas around community engagement and
the impacts of an ageing population on the planning of communities.
5.2
Background to economic and planning systems in Japan and Korea
These countries were not only very interesting to us in terms of their economic growth imperative,
but their relative positions on an economic life cycle model viz a viz one young tiger economy
emerging from Korea contrasting with a late tiger economy in Japan and the associated challenges
both of these contexts provide. On the one hand, the Japanese economy grew rapidly during the
mid to latter stages of the 20th century in a similar way to other western countries and making
Japan a global powerhouse in terms of economy in the post war economy. Japan is very much a
neoliberal, capitalist economy which then peaked in 1980s and resulted in long period of flattening
or plateau economic growth. In this context, the drivers for planned communities have been about
both management of economic and urban growth in the boom times and dealing with some of the
post boom challenges these areas now present, e.g. the ageing population and managing an
economy that is no longer growing at anything like its former rates. For Korea, as a young tiger
economy, (12th fastest growing economy in the world circa 2010) the imperative is about
maintaining that growth in the future through massive investment in infrastructure, continuing to
improve quality of life for citizens, managing impacts of growth (urban extensions/new towns) and
managing the transition from manufacturing fuelled growth to knowledge based economy).
5.2.1 Planned communities in South Korea
We were keen to explore South Korea because it is one of the fastest growing economies and we
were interested in what impact this rapid growth in both its economy and national confidence
would have on the way they approached the development of planned communities.
In Korea we visited a number of examples of planned communities and developments in and
around the capital city Seoul including Incheon Free Economic Zone, Hangang River, Digital Media
City and Sejong ‘Happy City’.
31
5.2.2 About Korea
Korea is split into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, otherwise known as North Korea,
considered one of the most dangerous countries on earth, and South Korea, a modern democratic
county, which has experienced considerable growth in the last thirty years and has a population of
around 29million. The country was split in 1953 following the Korean War which left millions dead
and the country’s economy and infrastructure devastated. Whilst the North pursued an aggressive
communist policy, becoming ever more insular and secretive, the South embraced democracy and
has gone on to become a successful and increasingly powerful
economic force in Asia.
South Korea is now considered the 12th largest economy in the
world. The capital of South Korea, Seoul, is home to more
than 20 million people and is the focus for the majority of the
Country’s economic activity. It is served by the main
international airport at Incheon. Korea has had an uneasy
relationship with its neighbour Japan for many centuries,
culminating in the Japanese occupation of Korea for a large
part of the 20th Century. In the 21st Century, South Korea is
keen to maintain its strong economic standing and assert its
potential and new found sense of identity in a globalised
economy.
5.3
‘Our vision is to build truly sustainable cities, step by step, based on a solid and dependable
foundation. As long as we follow our principles and plan for the long term, we’ll achieve great
things in no time.’ 18
5.3.1 Introduction
The Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) was established in 2003/04 with the aim of developing a
‘world class city’ to help position South Korea as the ‘hub of hubs’. The IFEZ incorporates three
new planned areas; aviation city, leisure city and Songdo economic and investment city and is a
massive site, covering an area of 209km. IFEZ is one of six free economic zones in Korea and is part
of the national government’s ambition to maintain Korea’s competitiveness and attract new
investment and economic growth in the future by ‘providing companies with an optimal
environment to engage in global business activities’19. The private sector is incentivised to invest in
these areas by the government through tax breaks and a more flexible planning system in these
designated areas. The free economic zone is an economic development model that has been used
extensively in Asia and other parts of the world to attract new investment and boost growth, for
example in Shanghai, China. The Enterprise Zone model in the UK, recently announced in the
March 2011 budget are a variation on the idea of free economic zone and replicate the idea of
creating conditions which are conducive to economic growth.
5.3.2 The structure of Incheon Free Economic Zone
The IFEZ is a massive infrastructure project which is focused on high quality, high density mixed
land use, set out in a grid formation (need some correct planning terminology here). The IFEZ
comprises three distinct cities which have been carefully planned to reflect the growth priorities for
the site and be as attractive as possible to encourage investment:
18
19
IFEZ (2010) New Business Paradigm. Incheon Free Economic Zone, page 8
Quote sourced from the South Korean Government website on Free Economic Zones (FEZ) http://www.fez.go.kr/en/why-fez/whats-fez.jsp
32
Songdo: Best of global business – this is 53.4km with a projected population of 252,000. This
area is focused on attracting international business and investment with landmark buildings
(including the North East Asia Trade Centre and Incheon Tower), state of the art conference
centres, hotels, international schools, universities and green parks and golf courses for
leisure;
Yeongjong: Best of global logistics – this is 138.3km with a projected population of 169,000.
This area has been planned alongside the existing Incheon International Airport and aims to
establish an ‘airport city’, a hub for air transport in North East Asia. The site provides an
interesting mix of logistics, commercial and distributional facilities together with residential
accommodation for airport staff and visitors. Airport city is extremely diverse, detailed and
sophisticated in its offer and designed to provide residents and business visitors with every
type of service required on one self contained site. Facilities include provision of high quality
leisure complexes on the coast, cultural facilities including ‘Asia’s biggest musical hub’. This
area also boasts the “Milano Design city” as European Style town for culture, art and
education;
Cheongna: Best of global leisure – this site is 17.8km with a projected population of 90,000.
This area is being branded as ‘the Venice of Korea’ and has been planned as a hub for
excellence in global leisure. It includes landmark buildings, golf courses, high tech park,
agricultural complex, a university and “Robot Land”. Robot Land is designed to serve as a
‘mecca for the high tech industries by linking them to the public through a robot themed
park’.
5.3.3 The development of Incheon Free Economic Zone
Incheon Free Economic Zone was designated by the National South Korean Government in 2003
and was targeted on developing a range of specific sectors including; IT, International Tourism and
Leisure, International Business and Finance. The main driver behind the establishment of the FEZ
Programme nationally was to maintain the growth of South Korean economy through encouraging
new investment/new businesses start-ups, particularly in the knowledge economy. At Incheon, the
government were keen to make the most of its natural advantages including proximity to Seoul
(Incheon is 30km west of the city of Seoul) and the prescience of the international airport (with 55
cities within reach). Incheon FEZ is keen to position itself as a strategic hub for businesses in Asia
because it has close proximity to both Japan and China, what one interviewee referred to as “the
nut in the nutcracker”. The Incheon FEZ along with the other FEZ are designed to help Korea
establish itself in the knowledge economy so that it can replace its manufacturing sector, in which
South Korea is becoming less competitive because of the fact that there is cheap labour to compete
with in China and high tech skills and capacity in Japan. Investment from the Korean Government
in these strategic FEZ sites is enormous with the investment at Incheon totaling 21,450billion
Korean Wan (conversion to sterling).
5.3.4 Characteristics of Incheon Free Economic Zone
Ubiquitous technology, the ‘u city’
A strong characteristic of the IFEZ was the importance it placed upon the use of new technology.
This was a theme that ran through much of Korean planning but at Incheon they were hoping to
develop residential and commercial office accommodation where technology was completely
integrated and the resident or worker could complete all transactions through the use of
technology.
‘This u-city system uses IT technology to manage medical treatment, residences, schools,
hospitals, public institutions etc leading to a new unprecedented level of convenience in city
life.’20
20
IFEZ (2010) New Business Paradigm. Incheon Free Economic Zone
33
Land reclamation
Approximately 12.11 square metres of land at Incheon has been reclaimed from the sea. The
waters around Incheon are relatively shallow and have good bedrock and therefore make it ideal to
reclaim and sell on for development.
Speed and rate of development
The sheer speed and pace of development in Incheon, as with all the projects we saw in Korea, was
staggering. Given that the area was designated as a FEZ in 2003, the whole site looks well
developed and mature.
Economic growth as a priority
The IFEZ is a project which is focused on boosting economic growth as a clear priority for the
future. The focus is on the success of the physical environment, including cutting edge design,
good infrastructure, high quality office and residential accommodation. However, the plans for the
FEZ also aim to be “sustainable”. The IFEZ promotional materials states that “its very easy to
generate immediately visible positive results, but such short sighted thinking always has costs that
must be paid for the in future. However what the IFEZ lacks at present is a relationship with
people. With some of the residential accommodation selling for an average of £350,000, it seems
certain that the IFEZ area will be dominated by wealthy Koreans foreign investors. Where will the
workers who service the IFEZ area live and how will the benefits of IFEZ benefit people more
generally across Korea, particularly those on low incomes who are keen to take advantage of the
economic growth been seen across Korea at the current time (wider point here about the
relationship between planning and people).
Financing mechanisms
The financing of the IFEZ area and indeed other FEZ across Korea has been achieved through
significant public sector investment (fuelled by the growth seen in Korea over the last 10 years and
mechanisms such as Tax Increment financing (TIF). The federal and the municipal government are
each putting up 60 billion won ($43.6 million); Korea Land Corporation is investing 79.4 billion won;
and private investors will spend a total of 587.2 billion won.
5.4
Sejong ‘Happy City’
5.4.1 Introduction
‘The best city dreamed of by everybody.’
Sejong Happy City, 120km South of Seoul, just north west of the city of Taejeon in Chungeon
Province is traditionally the ‘Chungcheong’ or ‘kingmaker’ of Korean politics and now home to one
of the biggest building projects in Korea.
34
Named after one of King Sejong, the Korean King who invented the Korean Alphabet21 , Sejong is a
completely new city slowly beginning to emerge of former rice and cornfields. From the
observation tower built by the Municipal administrative Construction Agency (MACCA), responsible
for this impressive construction project, the city structure is beginning to emerge, despite the
controversy that this project has prompted over the last decade.
The scale of this project is immense and makes UK growth areas look modest in comparison. What
is being planned is a ₴16billion dollar project, stretching for 72km (or x miles) and eventually home
to 500,000 population. That’s a population the same size of Milton Keynes, plus its planned growth
until 2030 (!) but being built completely from scratch, including roads, guided bus way, services,
sewage and so on.
5.4.2 The development of Sejong City
Sejong city was originally conceived as part of a decentralisation policy which would help create a
second administrative city (which would include government departments and the president’s
office) to help relieve the pressure of rapid growth in Seoul which was creating challenges for the
city including housing shortage, skyrocketing housing prices, congestion and pollution. The National
Assembly government passed a special law in 2005 to provide a legal basis for the creation of
Sejong, known then as the Multifunctional Administrative City. The development of the city was
and is managed by the Multifunctional Administrative City Construction Agency (MACCA).
The city has been controversial ever since its inception because of its radical proposals to shift
government, government departments and the president’s place out of Seoul, the capital city.
Successive governments have been both proponents and opponents of the scheme calling the
decision to build the city undemocratic. The proposal to move 10,000 civil servants out of Seoul as
part of the decentralisation has also been problematic.22
5.4.3 Characteristics of Sejong City
Importance of green infrastructure and measures to reduce carbon
An important theme of the Sejong city development, compared with other projects in Korea that
we visited, is the strong focus being placed on the environment in the planning and design. There
is a particular emphasis being placed on green space, with 52% of the land use in Sejong City
designated as parkland which is around 50m per person. The city will also boast a ‘blue network’
with the existing river xxxx integral to the overall design of the new area.
The city has also developed a range of measures to reduce the city’s impact on the environment.
This includes a commitment to generate approximately 15% of the city’s energy needs through
renewable sources including solar and biofuel energy production. The city is also committed to
reducing the carbon output from the actual build on the site and has developed relationships with
other low carbon cities which interestingly includes Freiburg in Germany, one of the other cities we
looked at as part of this research. This type of thinking and integration of low carbon
considerations is relatively new for South Korea and we did not come across this type of
commitment to low carbon at any of the other sites we looked in Korea. Sejong has also been
designed to include an energy from waste system whereby combustible waste is incinerated at the
facility of RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel) and recycled for district heating and cooling, reducing 30,771
tons of CO2 per year23.
The city also boasts some ambitious plans for transport with plans to construct around 400kms of
cycleways and an integrated public transport system.
21
King Sejong lived in the Chosun Dynasty era
For a flavour of some of the controversies, more information can
http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20090922000068
and
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/LF25Dg01.html
23
Information from MACCA application to the UN Habitat Scroll of Honour (2010)
22
be
found
the
at
the Korean
Asian
Herald,
times
35
Community facilities
Another feature of the design at Sejong is the commitment to quality community facilities. The city
has been planned so that it is made up of 21 neighbourhoods, each of which will have its own
community centre which will include access to public transport, schools, a cultural complex, a
sports centre, neighbourhood parks and welfare facilities.
Strong marketing and promotion of the development
Given the controversy about the development of Sejong, it is perhaps unsurprising that the city has
dedicated a great deal of resources towards promotion and marketing of the new city. MACCA
boasts a viewing tower overlooking the build site where visitors can get a really good view of the
emerging city. There is also an extensive marketing suite at the MACCA offices which includes a
complete model of the new city and tells the story of the vision for Sejong and the history of its
development to date.
Power of a bold vision
There is no doubt that the plans for Sejong are extremely bold, ambitious and on a scale
unrecognisable in the UK. This vision has been driven by policians keen to make their mark on this
newly forming economic powerhouse. What is interesting about the vision for Sejong is the
emphasis or weight placed on environmental sustainability which, based on our other visits in
Korea, seems relatively rare. It will take many years to evaluate whether the investment and
commitment being made to Sejong has been effective, but the ambition being shown by
developers on this site is impressive and exciting.
5.5
Seoul Digital Media City
5.6
Hangang River Project
5.7
Tsukuba Academic/Science City – lessons from Technopolis24
5.7.1 Introduction
Japan is home to 125 million people and some 75% of the population live in urban areas or rather
in a series of mega-cities that occupy the southern coastal plains of central Japan, stretching
between Tokyo and Kyushu. Some 70% of the national territory is mountain bisected by river
valleys and small towns and villages have been the key settlement form outside of the cities. Urban
planning in Japan has been around since the late 19th Century and was influenced by planning
policies from elsewhere like Europe and America. The system has also developed in response to
rebuilding following war and disaster over the last 50 years into a mainly top down system known
as toshikeikaku with the one characterised by greater citizen engagement and involvement known
as machizukuri (bottom up with active community involvement).
We chose a selection of places to investigate Japan’s approach to planned communities. We looked
at Tsukuba Science and Academic City to see how that had developed. We looked at Tama New
Town to see how the more traditional Japanese new towns (based upon a similar model to the UK
New Towns Programme) had matured. We looked at the Eco Town approach using Kawasaki City as
an exemplar and we looked at a specific regeneration project in Kashiwa City in Chiba prefecture to
see how the Japan is tackling the issue of planning for an ageing population.
Tsukuba Science city covers an area of 2700 hectares and was originally designed to alleviate
overpopulation of the Tokyo area and to promote high level research and development
opportunities as spin outs from the University. The unified City plan was approved in 1963 and
construction started in 1968. Tsukuba is located in Ibaraki prefecture to the north of and 40km
away from Tokyo. The population as of May 2010 was 214,243. Tsukuba is linked to central Tokyo
(Akihibara Station) by the Tsukuba Express train line, completed in 2005.
24
Sir Peter Hall coined the designation for cities that grew from academic and science clusters as the Technopolis type of new settlement
36
Tsukuba Science City is an Industrial/academic agglomeration in campus-like environment. The City
has attracted many research institutes as well as being the home of Tsukuba University. The 1985
Expo confirmed Tsukuba’s status as Japan’s leading hi-tech research and development centre. At
the time of writing there are 7% non Japanese nationals living in the area, it also attracts many
researchers from inside Japan. The drivers for the development of the Tsukuba area were
specifically around the science and research component of the area which was initially developed
in the 1980’s, through the involvement of the two public sector bodies; Tsukuba City Council and
Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
The planning and development of the residential area, subsuming a number of existing villages and
small towns was overseen separately from the academic and science related construction activities.
The academic/science/business and residential parts of the city were built with different aims in
mind, one to accommodate residents from overcrowded Tokyo, the other to encourage
investment, clustering of knowledge industries and economic growth. As time has progressed,
greater realisation has emerged within the public bodies involved of the need to plan and deliver
the land-use and economic development functions and related infrastructure in a comprehensive
way to create a more self sufficient and cohesive community, avoiding some of the challenges that
the legacy of this approach is demonstrating today.
Tsukuba has been a very successful location for science and high tech industrial development and
associated spin offs but the staff we met were concerned about this success continuing and wanted
to do more to promote Tsukuba within and outside Japan. The active marketing and promotion of
Tsukuba was being given little support at national level and this was a source of frustration to the
mayor and his staff working in the economic development area.
One issue that was mentioned to us was about the conflict that is emerging between the academic
and science economy and other business and service uses emerging with the process of maturation
of the city and its growing population. Over time new facilities have begun to come to town and
not all are as welcome as others. We were given the example of Love Hotels. These are a feature of
cities in Japan and this has been seen as a business opportunity by love hotel providers looking to
Tsukuba to develop these facilities there. At the same time the City is not sure that it wants to
welcome such development for fear of detracting from the research and high tech industry ethos it
has been promoting so far. Economic development and planning staff recognised that communities
have a wide variety of needs to be met and that a balanced approach may need to be taken to the
range of business development activity that has to be encouraged to support the local economy.
Local economies also develop and mature over time.
The principles/philosophy of the design of the new residential neighbourhoods of Tsukuba has
focused on the Japanese concept of ‘benri’ or convenience. In these terms residents look primarily
for accessibility to local services, good waste management and recycling, water supply and
sewerage, available technologies like internet etc. Aesthetics and urban design as we know them
to be deployed in the design of new neighbourhoods in Europe are a lesser consideration in the
design and delivery of new Japanese housing areas. Housing design in particular generally has very
little consideration given to it. In the Tsukuba area, older style, traditionally designed timber houses
were very expensive and are mainly those passed down the generations through Japanese families
or were those originally built by farmers and subsumed as the growth of Tsukuba has surrounded
them. The majority of housing was apartment style, laid out on western grid pattern, in the typical
Japanese 5 storey walk up block model. Low rise areas of housing had vast diversity of design
quality, with no overall code/cohesion or even control of design. Convenience was a key priority
with apartment blocks providing cheap, easy to construct and deliver volume housing. Building
housing for the longer term was also not a prime consideration as many private houses are rebuilt
after about twenty five years. Tsukuba City’s successes lie in the greenery, good amenity,
infrastructure and architecture of its key buildings.
37
At the same time there was a strong emphasis on public parks and open green spaces areas which
were a feature of the planning and layout of Tsukuba. The difference in public green space per
1000 population in Tsukuba compared to Tokyo was a statistic often mentioned to us and was a
feature of the new town environment. When discussing this legacy with the current major we
were reminded that public sector finances are subject to pressure elsewhere in the world and
green space infrastructure and maintenance costs are a significant issue in Tsukuba. The green
infrastructure is one of key assets of the design and layout of the new town but the long-term costs
of maintenance were never properly considered at the design stage and are now a real issue,
notwithstanding the willingness in Japan of local communities to support the public authorities and
take an active role in the maintenance of their local green spaces. This long term maintenance
legacy was one of the considerations that new planned communities need to have in mind.
5.7.2 Carbon reduction, green and climate change issues – how are they being tackled?
Tsukuba is a dispersed rather than compact city and the way that it has developed without
integration of land uses has led to high levels of reliance on car usage and car parking. There were
no mandatory targets for delivery of carbon reduction through new construction in Tsukuba but
there is a 20 year carbon reduction action plan that the council has produced. The main approach
to this issue was through education rather than regulation and targets as a way of dealing with
these issues, primarily through domestic recycling, saving energy consumption and reducing water
usage. We saw a different focus on carbon reducing construction targets and emphasis on
encouraging sustainable transport modes than in the UK or elsewhere in Europe and our
observation was that this was a lower priority with focus on local voluntary solutions rather than
being tackled forcibly through national or local targets and regulations. That said we saw heat and
energy being produced from waste downtown in the Tsukuba district CHP plant but this form of
energy provision was not universal in the city.
5.7.3 Community development and social infrastructure
Issues that were encountered during the development of the new town included the lack of
investment in support for developing cohesion between existing and new residents (i.e. because
Tsukuba was developed from the merging of three smaller town administrations into a single new
authority and two other public bodies led on the development of the overall new town). Originally,
this softer community development issue was not actively managed in the planning of the new
town and community cohesion between new and older residents and researchers and the
residential community were one of the issues the mayor said they would address differently if they
undertook the planning and development of the new town again. There are active community
events in Tsukuba as well as the ongoing planning and practicing for emergencies that all
communities participate in. But clearly the mayor and staff at Tsukuba City Council reflecting on
what they see today in their communities felt there should have been more active promotion and
community development around this issue as part of the development of the City over the last 30
years. That said because of the number of foreign nationals in Tsukuba we also observed an English
newsletter and a blog site called ‘Alien Times’25 that suggested there are active communities,
foreigners are welcomed and there is lots to do if you want to get involved.
A second issue was that of meeting the needs of an ageing and changing population. The
population of Tsukuba is changing as the community matures and the ageing element of the
population needs new facilities and support to keep living in their homes e.g. community bus
routes in the area to enable access to shops and healthcare facilities. We observed shop closures
and local centre decline in some outer parts of Tsukuba and this was adding to the problems of the
elderly population in those areas who needed to access these local shops, or have a convenient bus
route and service to take them to where medical and other necessary facilities were located.
25
Alien Times, Blog site for Tsukuba City Expats
38
Both of which were a challenge for the public bodies involved at a time of significant pressure on
public resources and an ageing population to keep living in their own homes as long as possible.
The mayor spoke of community, demand responsive bus services being set up to address these
needs where commercial services had declined, comments which mirrored similar public sector
dilemmas back home.
The interviews with Tsukuba staff and the major enabled us to ask ‘What makes a good planned
community?’ They felt that Japan currently lacked strong planning for its cities and that the concept
of what makes for a well planned community as a concept is difficult to pin down, as it clearly
changes over time and is to a certain extent a ‘moving target’ and one that ‘differs from one
generation to the next’ as lifestyle, income etc change. The Mayor’s vision for Tsukuba was about
creating a natural green place to live but at the same time a ‘convenient city’ with good access to
facilities, technology and a good standard of living. The aim of his administration was to raise the
level of convenience across the board for the residents in Tsukuba.
Community involvement in the life of the town through the bottom up process of ‘machizukuri’26
was felt to be very important and the mayor was keen to involve the academic community in this,
to encourage researchers to also participate in civil life of the area. A future role for machizukuri as
a process of community engagement was being used to encourage citizens to get involved in
current planning of the area.
5.8
Kawasaki Eco Town – lessons in delivering economic resilience
5.8.1 Introduction
Kawasaki City lies 30 minutes from Tokyo and is a world recognized industrial centre. It made a
significant contribution to the 1960s period of economic success in Japan and still generates 1% of
national GDP. Its history of industrial activity and location close to Tokyo is therefore very
important. 70% of the 1% contribution from Kawasaki to national GDP comes from Ecotown area.
Kawasaki was developed as an Ecotown as part of national policy drive to develop eco-towns across
Japan, mainly with the intention of supporting the development of low carbon economic growth
clusters. In the late 1990’s Eco-towns was an important policy initiative for Japan in trying to
stimulate economic growth. Environmental challenges were seen as key market opportunity for
those firms in the Kawasaki area and the local authorities involved. In 1997 Kawasaki put itself
forward for the Eco-Town scheme. 2800 hectares were identified for the economic Ecotown area
and the initiative matched well with what they were already doing in the area. We wanted to see
what lessons the Eco Towns experience could tells us about planned communities and
regeneration/economic resilience.
Drivers for the adoption of the initiative: there was policy support nationally for the initiative and
community pressure locally to improve the environment in the industrial area particularly air
pollution and land contamination. The approach taken in Kawasaki was to work with existing
business rather than get rid of them, to focus on improving ways of working, “heavy industries still
exist, they haven’t exchanged them but cleaned them up”. Heavy industry has remained but has
reinvented, cleaned up and changed its activities and operations.
The Financial situation: An NPO (Not for profit organization) was set up to oversee the situation.
Loan backed funding was made available from banks, underwritten by the state and Kawasaki City
to help change the approach to production amongst firms in the area. The NPO facilitated this
process, taking the role of broker between companies and the banks. Strong governance from
Kawasaki City has been a feature of the Eco-Town project and the initiatives that have been
undertaken.
26
Machizukuri – defined as bottom up citizen engagement in the planning process, see also Andre Sorenson and Caroline Funck: Living Cities in
Japan Citizen’s Movements, Machizukuri and local environments
39
The environmental focus of the Eco-Town scheme meant that the significant number of waste
processing activities in Kawasaki became an important business opportunity. The scheme placed
significant focus on the waste industry in this area, promoting recycling and reuse as business
opportunities. Kawasaki was originally a small island reclaimed from the sea and has developed
over time to become the significant industrial engine that we see today. The area has good
proximity to transport and other communication links and access to markets. In early 2011 Haneda
airport started accepting international flights and this will support further expansion of the Ecotown area. The ports of Yokohama and Tokyo enable easy export access for Kawasaki products.
Dirty stuff gets done in Kawasaki but now in an improved way, for a profit with much lower
environmental impact than thirty years ago. Kawasaki now boasts a cluster of the most advanced
recycling technology companies in Japan. Waste is a key theme of the Ecotown and waste is seen
as a valuable resource for the economy of the area. We visited a recycling plant where waste paper
(including Tokyo Metro tickets and tetra-pak type cartons) is recycled into soft toilet rolls. Proximity
to Tokyo means there is a virtually endless supply of domestic and commercial waste paper sources
needing to be disposed of. We went to a co-operative owned soap plant where waste cooking oil is
being converted into household soap. These activities and more have been supported by the local
authorities to make a virtue out of waste and create jobs within the Eco-town zone.
Not only are waste products being recycled or reused in Kawasaki but advances into energy
production with production of steam/heat exchange mean that local energy generation and
distribution is also taking place, supplying a number of plants in the area. A Solar energy
production plant is planned to open in 2011. Local energy generation and reduced energy costs are
identified as the biggest saving for the companies involved. We asked about the measurement of
carbon reduction arising from these initiatives but were unable to get specific answers on this.
There was clear understanding of the economic benefits that were ensuing from these
developments bit less emphasis and understanding about the associated carbon reduction/climate
change benefits that would arise.
5.8.2 Relationship with residential population of Kawasaki
We asked about the relationship between the local residential population and what benefit they
had seen from the eco town experience in Kawasaki. There had been significant pressure from the
local population over the years to improve air quality, contamination and congestion in the area as
well as a feeling that the sea front had been ‘stolen’ from them by the development of the
industrial area.
There was cognizance of those concerns in the designation of the eco town area. A new beach was
being created on the sea front and ‘leisure regeneration’ was being promoted as part of the wider
development of the eco-town area. We asked whether the locally generated energy was available
to the residents but the continuity of supply was not guaranteed so was only being made available
to industrial users at the moment.
The Eco-town area was still very industrial in form and appearance and physically divided from the
adjoining residential area by major roads. The industrial area had developed incrementally, without
an overall planned approach from the outset so struggled with being able to retrofit and improve
its infrastructure e.g. the inadequate road hierarchy that didn’t match the demands being placed
upon it locally or to meet the weight of industrial traffic currently using it – success had also driven
new problems such as chronic congestion and illegal parking, as well as littering and fly-tipping.
Our conclusions from Kawasaki are that public leadership is important in supporting the
development and ongoing success of the local and national economy. Industry can adapt and
change how it operates but will need support to do that. Waste is a valuable commodity.
5.9
40
Tama New Town – learning from the experience of a mature planned
community
5.9.1 Introduction
Borrowing from the new town movement in the UK, some 30 new towns have been built across
Japan. Tama New Town along with Chiba New Town was two of the earliest planned communities
in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Studying how successful they have been as planned new
communities can add to the knowledge about undertaking planned new developments elsewhere.
Tama New Town lies approximately 30km from Tokyo station (central Tokyo) and planning and
construction commenced in the mid 1960’s with completion planned for 1990. Tama was a
government sponsored project, conceived of by Tokyo Metropolitan Government in 1964 and
taken forward by Japan’s Housing and Urban Development Corporation and Tokyo Metropolitan
Housing Supply Corporation. Consisting of an area of around 3000 hectares Tama New Town was
originally planned as an alternative to high density urban sprawl in Tokyo and to alleviate housing
shortages in the greater Tokyo area in the post war period. Tama was originally conceived of as a
planned residential community with no local employment base, linked to employment in Tokyo by
commuter rail links27. The local facilities provided were planned to serve day to day needs and
specialised facilities were delivered through a new town centre and neighbourhood/district units
centred on the rail stations.
The first homes were completed in 1971. Based on the planning standards of the day the 21 new
town neighbourhoods provided local shops, schools and community facilities with generous open
spaces. Direct train links to central Tokyo were provided relatively early on in the mid 1970’s. Tama
New Town is an area of varied topography and development took place with significant land on
hillsides as well as in valleys. Typical public housing construction was in five story walk-up ‘Danchi’
apartment blocks distributed in a landscaped setting in local neighbourhood formation. In the late
1980’s an economic and land-use policy change promoted a greater degree of
economic/employment self-containment in Tama and land was made available for local
employment with encouragement being given to Universities and companies to come and locate in
the town.
Social and community interaction were part of the planning process. There was recognition that
wives and children would have frequent social interactions in the new town but the men less so if
they were working elsewhere and spending significant parts of the working week away from home
and commuting. Planned social interactions and opportunities such as festivals, community events
and the physical design of new neighbourhoods to facilitate interaction were carefully considered
as the town developed.
The housing provision in Tama evolved over time to recognise changing lifestyles and greater
affluence of the population. Early blocks provided apartments for rent and sale at around 50m2 and
this increased throughout the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s to 90m2. Initially more family than single
occupancy units were provided but over time the number of single person units was increased and
became the more dominant housing form.
5.9.2 Tama today
Tama is a second generation new town now and its original pioneer population has grown-up and
grown old. The children of the first residents are leaving Tama and its population is growing older.
There is much to learn from this situation. Four decades on with significant changes in
demographics, transportation, energy consumption, land-use and infrastructure, life styles and
housing demand, Tama New Town faces acute challenges of continuity and purpose.
27
Problems of the New Towns in Japan – Geo Journal H. Tanabe 1978
41
Writers studying Tama have identified the shrinking suburb issue that it has been suffering from
and we witnessed these changes to the Japanese urban model for ourselves when shown around
by colleagues from Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The new towns that were planned to address
the urbanisation pressures on Tokyo and other major cities in Japan in the 1960’s are now
becoming old towns and have declining suburbs which are witnessing population ageing and loss,
contracting neighbourhoods, empty buildings, landscape decline, degradation and the erosion of
urban life. Research on the topic of the shrinking cities problem has become more widespread and
it is now possible to observe the impact of urban shrinkage and how relevant strategies to stem this
type of urban transformation need to be developed and implemented. Those with responsibilities
for delivering new planned communities need to understand these issues.
Tama’s particular issues are a product of its topography, planning and design and the changes in
Japan’s socio economic circumstances over the last two decades. There we can see the implications
of the end of the economic bubble and then the ageing population and now shrinking population
effects on a planned community. These experiences are relevant to the UK as part of the debate
around how we should be anticipating these issues in the planned communities we are delivering
now.
Urban shrinkage has been broadly defined as the concurrency of sustained population loss and
economic crisis. Urban shrinkage is different from the rural depopulation that many western
countries are familiar with, these days it tends to be associated with a transfer of population back
towards urban centres. This is a reversal of earlier patterns of outmigration from the centre of
urban conurbations. In Japan population movement back into central areas is being observed and
facilitated by new dense urban developments in places like Shiodome in Minato Ku, in downtown
Tokyo that have enabled significant population transfer back into the inner metropolitan areas.
The projected population of Tama upon completion was to be 342,200, in 2004 population was
201,443. Building stopped in Tama New Town in 2000. Since then it has begun to evidence the
combined challenges of shrinkage along with an ageing population which have manifested
themselves in some interesting issues. A gap has been created between the conditions under
which Tama was created and originally developed and the resident communities’ current needs.
This is best explained in terms of a lifecycle model of support Infrastructure where at the start
there is the greatest demand upon educational and related services and low demand upon
eldercare needs which changes over time to reduced educational related needs to greatest demand
upon elder care facilities. Some of the adaptability will be easier to deliver than others. In Tama
we saw new blocks being built to replace the walk-up Danchi blocks which have no lifts and we saw
redundant schools being put to new uses. Part of the solution seems to be about clarity about the
community you are trying to create.
The earliest neighbourhoods, those constructed in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s with the
traditional walk up style danchi blocks are the least popular and because of the occupation of these
area by communities at the same life stage, the areas had dominant family populations who all
grew up and then grew old at the same time. In the 1970’s and 1980’s Tama was a lively place but
over the last 20 years the school population has almost halved, leading to marked school closures,
abandoned playgrounds and empty shops in neighbourhood centres28. Not all areas are unpopular
with young families but there is a clear pattern of preference for the later residential areas over
older ones that are making the resident age profile more stark and polarised. Parts of Tama have
been described as a ‘ghost city’ by the communities living there. The rolling topography of Tama is
also an issue as highways were constructed in the valleys and pedestrian areas were constructed up
the hills. The separation of cars and the layout that utilises significant numbers of pedestrianised
streets now contributes to accessibility issues for the elderly, less mobile population. These
constraints are now adding to the depopulation issues.29
28
29
The search for quality of life in Japanese Planned Communities’ Gary Hovinen – Department of geography University of Millersville, 1988
Tama New Town west of Tokyo: analysis of a shrinking suburb. Estelle Ducom, University of Tsukuba and Paris Sorbonne University 2008
42
Attempts to promote redevelopment in certain neighbourhoods are also proving difficult as even
private developers are uninterested in developing available land in these areas. In Tama they have
started making the infrastructure more resilient by retrofitting schools as eldercare centres for
example. Elderly people need specific urban services like transportation, medical assistance,
adapted housing and leisure as well as care facilities. Big issues arise such as how the planning for
these needs is carried forward and questions are generated about appropriate responses to the
trends – the danger is to opt for solutions that seek to segregate accommodation for elderly people
into specific retirement communities. This may be desirable for some but is not a desirable
universal solution; more appropriate is to deliver a resilient urban spatial structure that is resilient
enough to cater for life stage and cycle changes in the resident population that is capable of
accommodating new needs over time.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government colleagues showed us sites where redevelopment opportunities
were being taken by the private sector. These were public and privately owned older flatted blocks
being replaced with modern, denser development but making use of the landscaped setting within
which they are located. These interventions were taking significant periods of time to deliver (15
years in some cases), partially because of legal hurdles involved in transferring land title and also
dealing with elderly occupiers.
There are tensions in Japan between solutions for managing urban regeneration and managing
decline and addressing these issues holistically appears to be a challenge for metropolitan and local
government. The universal issue of what infrastructure is needed to support growth as well as
what is needed to support decline is giving rise to real challenges. In Japan the issue of public
response to urban sprawl transitioning into responses to urban shrinkage raise real questions for
sustainable and resilient communities as products of urban planning. The spatial solutions to the
issues of ageing populations and the need for dynamic infrastructure in resilient communities are
issues that they are already having to grapple with in places like Tama.
Looked at spatially an urban model which is not resilient and dynamic in anticipating, adapting and
meeting these changing community needs runs the risk of becoming obsolete and abandoned
within a couple of generations. This experience has huge relevance for the UK in terms of the
relationship between urban solutions and delivering sustainable and resilient new communities.
Tama gives us a good example of the importance of taking a longer term planning view.
5.10 Kashiwa City – innovations in planning for an ageing community
5.10.1 Introduction
Japan has the fastest ageing community in the world. Although the UK’s population is not ageing as
fast as in Japan we are heading in the same direction and the lessons from Japan are worth looking
at to see if there is anything we can translate to the UK, particularly around the societal issues of
not wasting the social capital represented by older people and also meeting the needs of growing
numbers of frail elders. 30
The average Japanese lifespan is now 82 years and 23 percent of the population is currently over 65
against the under 16 population of around 16 percent. By 2030 the government predicts that the
over 65’s will amount to 32 percent of the population, rising to 41 percent by 2050. The ‘age
shokku’ or age problem is due to increasing longevity and changes in Japanese society; people are
living longer, fewer people are marrying and decreasing numbers of people are having children31.
At the same time there are increasing problems in addressing these issues: the cost of caring for
the elderly and the bill for medical treatment is rising, and because of the cost of housing, many
people no longer live as they used to in multi-generational households. By 2010 one in three people
are living alone and social welfare expenditure is becoming an increasing proportion of GDP
spending. Large numbers of elderly people die alone; around 32,000 every year.
30
Newspaper Articles on planning for the ageing in Japan Financial Times 2010/2011
Kayo Murakami, Rose Gilroy et al – Planning for the Ageing Countryside in Japan: the potential impact of Multi-Habitation. Planning, Practice and
Research, 2009
31
43
Myth has it that long ago the practice of ‘obasute’ was popular, referring to a local place in mainly
rural communities where elderly people were carried to and abandoned to starvation, literally
‘throwing grandma away’. Clearly this is no longer practiced but the current economic climate in
Japan is giving rise to the phenomena of ‘missing’ elderly Japanese, a scandal recently reported in
the Japanese news. These are very elderly people, allegedly living with their relatives but who are
never actually seen, but who are still claiming their pensions.
In Kashiwa City located in Chiba Prefecture, east of central
Tokyo, the Japan Urban Renaissance Agency (JUR),
University of Tokyo Institute of Gerontology and Kashiwa
Metropolitan Government are undertaking an innovative
project to redevelop a 45 year old, 32.6ha, 4,500 unit
public housing project to provide a new, mixed tenure,
mixed household housing scheme incorporating specialist
facilities for the elderly within this community. This
combination of community based care provision, housing
renewal strategy with new life support systems and
entrepreneurship in the care service industry is an
approach that bears investigation.32
With a population of 400,000 the city is an average commuter bedroom community of Tokyo,
about 30 minutes by train from the centre of the metropolis. Built in 1964, the Kashiwa
‘Toyoshikidai danchii’ or public housing project was an exemplar scheme for working families in its
day. Five-storey, walk-up apartment blocks set in a landscaped setting were built in the economic
boom to house Japanese salarymen and their families. Now those salarymen have grown old and
the housing is no longer fit for modern living, particularly if you are over 65 which 52% of the
population of this part of Kashiwa City are.
Research in Kashiwa has shown that with small amounts of support its elderly people can live at
home pretty well until they are in their mid-70’s but after that increasing amounts of care may be
needed, but not necessarily to be provided away from the home, providing the home is adapted to
meet the care needs in-situ. Japan has approximately 29 million older people and has until recently
had a strong tradition of family care, even extending to ‘respect for the elderly day’ each
September. Those traditions are however coming under intense pressure as the number of care
givers is reducing and they are struggling under the weight of care responsibilities being required.
References to ‘care giving hell’ – ‘kaigo-jigoku’ and well publicised increases in elder abuse led to
the government introducing a compulsory long term care insurance scheme in 2000. This system
features compulsory contributions and uniform entitlements and represents the socialization of
elder care. The system has since been adapted to promote more community engagement and
involvement to sustain the extreme pressures that are being placed upon it. Japan also has a long
tradition of neighbourhood mutual-help associations (Jichikai) which people pay into and which are
self-funding, self-governing organizations which have multiple functions to meet local needs,
including regular visits to older people living alone.33
In Kashiwa the scheme looks at 103 existing ‘danchi’ apartment blocks that are a standard form of
public housing seen everywhere in Japan. At 45m2 the apartments are very small even by Japanese
standards. They have Japanese style sit-in baths and the lack of lifts make them difficult to live in
when you start getting older. The Kashiwa project is to redevelop the 103 existing apartment
blocks, replacing them with taller, modern blocks of public and private housing. As part of the
scheme there will be apartments for every household size including specific blocks to be built for
the elderly residents in this community, offering sophisticated monitoring and alarm systems,
differing degrees of in-situ care and onsite 24 hour medical treatment facilities. Local shopping
facilities and community restaurants will be provided as part of the plans, catering for the needs of
all residents but particularly enabling elderly people to stay in this area as long as possible.
32
33
Japan Times Article April 2010 – ‘Japan seeks to turn city into old people’s home’
Article in Society Guardian 29/9/2010 – ‘testing the limits of care’ Mayumi Hayashi
44
The project also seeks to support the mental as well as physical health of this community. In this
part of Kashiwa they have a strong and active local community, based on the original pioneering
families that settled here back in 1964. The feeling of community pervades this neighbourhood
from the well-used community rooms to the popular kindergarten, the OAP gym and greengrocer
in the local shopping parade.
The JUR and Institute of Gerontology have plans to keep the elderly active in this community by
encouraging them where they want to get involved in light work, providing childcare support,
growing vegetables in the grounds of the scheme and on new roof-top gardens. One interesting
issue that had been identified was the need to provide particular support to the retired, mainly
male salarymen. Leading a working life elsewhere, working long hours and commuting long
distances they had had little opportunity to invest in home and relationships in their local
community over their working lives. Now no longer commuting they need particular
encouragement to leave their homes and participate in the life of their local community. The
increasing divorce rate for retired couples in Japan also suggests that males and females need to
continue to lead active lives upon retirement.
The redevelopment scheme will be completed in phases over the next three years. We asked
Masahiro Mizobe the project officer from the Japan Urban Renaissance Agency34 what he felt
would be the key to the success of this community as it reinvents itself. He felt three things would
be important: firstly that the area needs the diversity of all generations and households forms to be
present. Secondly that these projects need leadership and governance to make them happen and
thirdly that there needs to be encouragement to facilitate active community involvement in these
communities, particularly amongst the elderly.
5.11 Conclusions – what can we learn from Korea and Japan?
Some of the key lessons and interesting issues that came from our case studies in Korea and Japan
that are relevant to the delivery of successful new planned communities are in the relationship
between economic drivers and spatial issues. These range from the delivery of an economic growth
model predicated on the fast growth transition from a manufacturing to a knowledge based
economy and the implications that speed of growth and investment has for the long term resilience
of the communities that support it. In Japan we saw the spatial and socio-economic implications of
this model twenty years on and what this can mean for the resilience of those communities over
time.
5.11.1 Challenges and lessons from Incheon Free Economic Zone
Planning the market
One of the big challenges for the IFEZ is whether the market will respond to the cities that are being
planned there and whether the growth sectors will grow in the way that the planners hope? From
our discussions with the IFEZ, it is clear that there is investment flowing into the site, from
international investors including Gale International, who are particularly interested in Songdo City,
GM Daewoo who have invested in an R and D centre within Cheonga City and ‘The Bear’s Club, an
American company specializing in luxury golf courses and founded by Jack NickLaus.
34
Kashiwa City Toyoshikidai Danchi Project Housing Development Manager - Japan Urban Renaissance Agency
45
Reports from the IFEZ authority suggest that since its establishment in 2003, it has signed a total of
41 memoranda of understanding for a combined $57.9 billion in foreign direct investment35.
However, there was a suggestion in our interviews that the rate of investment was not as fast as
the Koreans had hoped for. Indeed whilst we were there, Reports in the Korean Times suggested
that the FEZs were struggling and that the government was taking steps to bolster them through
more incentives for international investments36. One of the challenges cited in the article was that
the FEZ growth potential and business benefits were not enough to complete with other areas such
as Singapore, Japan and China. Previous reports have also suggested that the administrative
burden of investing on the site may be off putting for some foreign investors. The government
plans included widening the list of businesses eligible for tax breaks and rethinking the model for
FEZs by 2020.
Place versus people?
The development of the IFEZ raises some important questions about who will live in this new city
and whether this IFEZ is a city for people? The main stated function of this planned area is
economic, economic growth is the key objective and outcome that the government want to see in
this area in the short and longer term. The government expects that the majority of the residents
will be foreign nationals who choose to both work and live in this area with all the relevant services,
including schools, shops and hospital facilities provided on the site. However, will this be a place
where the people want to live, not only for work, but because of its quality of life? People may
come here to live because of their work, but will they also see this area as a home and as a
community where they want to stay longer term?
Is this a mixed community or a sanctuary for the rich and mobile?
Linked to the question of people and place is the extent to which IFEZ is a ‘mixed ‘community.
From a UK perspective, the perception is that this area will be very much a community for a
particular type of citizen who is both working in the area and can afford to buy into the lifestyle on
offer.
The benefits of the IFEZ to Incheon and Seoul
One of the questions that we were keen to explore with the IFEZ was how the adjacent cities of
Seoul and Incheon would benefit from the foreign direct investment at IFEZ? New jobs seems to be
one of the main ways in which the IFEZ hope that Koreans will benefit from the developments both
in terms of servicing the area but also working in the companies that decide to locate to the area.
However, the economic development model for the area is based purely on foreign direct
investment and particularly on global multinationals. Although these multinationals will be linking
with Korean companies, it’s not clear how this might benefit Korean Small to medium enterprises
(SMEs) and the wider Korean supply chain. In addition, the cities at Incheon are designed to be self
contained, you need never go anywhere outside the FEZ in theory as all the services, attractions
and leisure facilities are provided. Therefore, although investment may flow into the FEZ, it may be
an island, whereby very little flows into neighbouring areas or elsewhere in Korea (for example
through tourism).
Role of Korean culture in development
One of the interesting aspects of the FEZ development from a UK point of view is that the whole
area has been designed using western architectural and planning principles. In that sense and like
many similar investment projects in the UK and elsewhere, it could have been anywhere. There
was nothing particularly distinctive about the development that suggested that the area was in
Korea. Even the signage in the area was provided in English. From the Korean point of view, they
are competing with similar FEZ sites across Asia and this lack of Korean cultural input may not be
important as this aspect of the development is common to many similar sites across Asia (REF) so in
that sense the IFEAZ development is not unique.
35
Korean Herald (30th March 2010) Incheon FEZ takes shape as business hub
The Korea Herald (2nd September 2010) Front Page article ‘New plans to bolster struggling FEZs. Seoul to offer more tax incentives to attract
foreign investors’
36
46
However, in a context where globalisation has the effect of further standardising the nature of
urban centres, the IFEZ development does provide an opportunity to do something different and
actually play on the strength of Korean culture to add something interesting and unique to the
experience of living and working in IFEZ, particularly in a market which is highly competitive? (Is
there any research about the fact that foreign companies value this type of thing in an ever
competitive market?)
5.11.2 Challenges and lessons from Sejong
Impact/influence of politics – make or break a project. Also illustrates the fickle nature of
political support for communities.
What is a planned community for? Why plan a community? To showcase a particular
approach or vision or as a place for people to live?
Sejong also shows us how the driver of planned communities can start as one thing and then
finish off as something else entirely.
5.11.3 Challenges and lessons from Tsukuba
Tsukuba is a successful planned City but with specific issues.
Building on and maintaining the economic success of Tsukuba will need effort and
investment by the public bodies, it will not happen if unsupported.
Delivering successful new communities needs investment in community integration and the
softer community and infrastructure development side of things, from the start, just as much
as the hard physical infrastructure assets.
Japanese communities look for ‘benri’ or convenient living in their neighbourhoods,
aesthetics are less important than convenience to them.
The needs of communities change over time so planning and infrastructure needs to be
adaptable, resilient and flexible.
The revenue cost of maintaining neighbourhood infrastructure can become an issue over
time for the responsible bodies so infrastructure legacy issues need to be considered at the
early planning stage.
5.11.4 Challenges and lessons from Tama New Town
The new town model can be a very successful one but must be planned with inbuilt flexibility
and resilience in mind.
Planning for the needs of new communities needs to be long-range and address changing
infrastructure needs as communities mature.
Providing homes and jobs in mixed use communities is the best protection against shrinking
mono-use residential suburbs and abandonment of towns by the working age population.
Implications for life cycle/stage effects for long term planning: The Japanese new town
experience demonstrates how early popularity and adoption of neighbourhoods by primarily
family occupation puts initial pressure on education and associated play facilities but later
this infrastructure faces under utilisation and possibly closure as their capacity is no longer
required. People move to the area, bring up their families and the parents remain, so in 30
years time they have become old a place also dominated by elderly occupants. We are
seeing this pattern in the UK now.
47
Infrastructure itself needs to be resilient and adaptable and capable of changing over time.
Local and central government will continue to need to be involved with these communities
because the private sector cannot meet all of these changing needs.
5.11.5 Challenges and lessons from Kawasaki Eco Town
This is a good example of an intervention model.
Strong Governance model for the Eco-Town scheme with leading role played by the public
sector (e.g. a lot of the groundwork done by Kawasaki city in setting up the NPO and
initiation of the Ecotown Bid proposal).
Strong public and NPO involvement with banks supporting the existing businesses in raising
capital for investment in business innovation in the scheme area.
Waste is a valuable raw material for some industries – the Ecotown experience
demonstrates what can be achieved with technological innovation and reuse of waste
products – but there needs to be a better appreciation of the greater economic and
environmental symbiosis to understand what the overall benefits are.
‘The sea was stolen from the citizens of Kawasaki’. City has attempted to give something
back by developing a waterfront ‘beach’ scheme, leisure regeneration approach where
people can enjoy recreation by the sea once more.
5.11.6 Challenge and lessons from Kashiwa City
Need to learn from experience of other places about how society changes over time and the
pressures and solutions that can be delivered to make new development resilient and
flexible in responding to change.
Planning for an ageing population needs to be undertaken with health care, elder social care
and social work providers involved to ensure there is an integrated approach in the delivery
of a successful mixed community.
Some infrastructure needs to remain local to enable older people to stay in their own
homes/communities for as long as possible.
There are particular issues that emerge if communities have a dominant household form be
it for young or old families, the best is to deliver a mixed range of household forms.
Need to be planning for integrated communities that have a mixed population with all
household types and life stages represented and accommodated. Experience from Japan
shows that communities where there is a dominant household type are less resilient and
adaptable over time, and can lead to infrastructure lag and problems such as social isolation
and abandonment.
Particular issues can arise from the economic and cultural norms of the society such as the
observed issue of retired Japanese salarymen becoming socially isolated as they retire after a
lifetime of commuting to work elsewhere.
Public bodies and agencies have a significant role to play in making this happen.
6
PLANNING NEW COMMUNITIES IN SOUTH AMERICA
6.1
Introduction
48
In South America we visited a number of interesting case
studies in Brazil and Venezuela. These case studies all
demonstrate the different ways in which authorities across
South America are attempting to deal with and manage the
consequences of rapid urbanisation as a result of economic
growth. The three areas we visited were:
Paraisopolis, a large community within Sao Paulo,
Brazil;
Curitiba, Brazil, considered one of the best planned
communities in the world;
Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, particularly looking
at the Barrios generally and Chacao district
specifically.
We were particularly interested in visiting Sao Paulo because we had read about the challenge of
retrofitting communities in the slums of South American cities. This was a real contrast and
antithesis to the planning we had seen elsewhere in Europe or Asia because it requires
stakeholders to plan the community retrospectively. We chose Curitiba as one of our exemplars
because the city has an international reputation as one of the best planned cities in the world, and
is known particularly for its integration of transport, land use and economic development.
Finally, we wanted to visit Venezuela because we had heard about the plans to develop a series of
‘socialist cities’ outside of Caracas specifically to help re-house residents of the Caracas Barrios and
we were interested in the influence of socialist ideology on the planning and design of new
communities.
6.2
Background to economic and planning systems in Brazil and Venezuela
Both Brazil and Venezuela have been urbanised relatively recently since their discovery and
colonisation by the Spanish and Portuguese in the 1500s. In Brazil, Urbanisation was driven by
search for resources (particularly gold) and rise of ‘cash crops’ like sugar cane and coffee, both
extremely important drivers for growth in Sao Paulo). The planning of urban areas over the last
century was driven by rapid economic growth and informed in part by Howard’s garden suburb
idea, for example, the ‘Jardins’ in Sao Paulo. Today, the population of Brazil is approximately
170million, 81.2% of which live in urban areas (from Jorge et al 2004). Brazil’s economic policy has
been influenced strongly by neo-liberalism particularly the belief in the idea of minimising state
power and enabling the market. However, there has also been a rise in a belief in civil society to fill
the gaps left by neo-liberalism. Brazil also has a relatively effective democratic system of
governance and political stability which, unlike other South American countries, has allowed it to
progress well over the last 30 years.
Economic success has given Brazil a global reputation for growth and it is one of the four major
growth drivers for the future, one of the ‘BRIC’ countries. However one of the consequences of this
rapid growth has been the development of massive disparities and the escalation of poverty so
clearly illustrated in the favelas of Sao Paulo and Rio. 50% of residential construction in Brazil is
informal and the official housing deficit is around 5 – 7million. However, there is also a trend for a
decline in infant mortality rates and increasing life expectancy among Brazil’s citizens.
49
Planning policy in Brazil has seen significant change since 1986 which brought an end to National
planning policy and instead stated that each city should develop their own planning policy, a policy
known as ‘estatuto da cidade’ or the “city statute. This is a set of land tenure regulation measures
and rules on access to urban land and much progress made in this area within Brazilian cities.
Venezuela, although Brazil’s neighbour, is significantly different. Here the political context is
dominated by President Chavez who has been in power for x years. Chavez has pursued a socialist
agenda and the model of governance could be called ‘late communism’ with Chavez a de facto
dictator. There is great political instability with ongoing feuds and disputes in government about
the legitimacy of Chavez’ government and serious problems with crime and security within the
country. Kidnappings and drug smuggling are commonplace and have seriously damaged
Venezuela’s international reputation. There is a complete absence of national planning policy and
serious fracturing between central and local government with a variety of different views and
opinions about the best way to design and manage communities for the future. Like Brazil, a large
percentage of housing is informal with large areas of informal settlements of ‘barrios’ dominating
the capital of Caracas...
6.3
Paraisopolis, Sao Paulo
‘Sao Paulo is the remnants of an economic development model that has left and is still leaving –
part of its population excluded from the wealth that was created and the ensuing benefits.’37
Paraisopolis is an informal settlement made up of favelas within the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Paraisopolis is home to more than 60,000 people and covers an area of xxx acres. The Paraisopolis
informal settlement area is extremely interesting from the point of view of this research because it
is an example of an unplanned community which has grown up organically on the periphery of the
city.
Sao Paulo was established as a city on a hill by Jesuit priests in 1554 but it wasn’t until the 2nd half
of the eighteenth century that the real expansion of the city began. Rapid economic growth as a
result of coffee plantations, banking, late abolition of slavery and the huge impact of in-migration
to the city from the north are the root causes for the massive physical expansion of Sao Paulo from
1890 onwards. The growth rate soared during the 1930s, 60s and 70s to a size of over 20million
people today, the 5th largest city in the world on a 200,000 ha (2000 sqkm). The consequence of
this rapid urbanisation was that demand for housing and services has not been able to keep pace
with supply leading to the development of informal settlements and large areas of unplanned
communities within the city boundary.
Sao Paulo remains an important driver of economic growth in Brazil, accounting for around 42% of
Brazil’s industrial product exports, 46 percent of imports by the country’s industry, 46 percent of
the domestic processing industry, and 43 percent of the revenues from services rendered to people
and companies.38 Like many other cities of the world, Sao Paulo’s economy is undergoing structural
change with the knowledge economy increasingly dominating the industrial sector. There has been
massive growth in the service economy, financial services, information technology, the production
and analysis of knowledge and arts/culture. This shift in economic structure has also meant
changes in land use and the labour market. Reports suggest that informal settlements on the
periphery of the city have increased steadily as people struggle to find jobs in this new economy.
The majority of people who live in the favelas will work in the city helping to service the many
hotels, offices and apartments. However, they will not generally benefit from any of the services
that the city provides, including education, health and social care.
37
38
Cities Alliance (2009)
Cities Alliance (2009)
50
6.3.1 The retrofitting and re-development of Paraisopolis
Paraisopolis as particularly interesting from the point of view of this research, local government is
not attempting to build planned communities to accommodate the needs of economic growth and
rapid economic growth because the community already exists. Rather the task is whether it is
possible for government to retrospectively manage the consequences of urbanisation which have
resulted in the development of informal settlements. Their task is to plan a resilient and successful
community in a way which provides good quality of services to residents which they do not
currently have (including sewage, water, housing and public services) whilst at the same time,
preserves the integrity of the existing community and its economy.
Paraisopolis is located to the South of Sao Paulo’s centre and is the 2nd largest favela in the city.
The origins of Paraisopolis date back to the 1920s when parts of the site were occupied by
construction workers, building the nearby upper middle and high class neighbourhood of Morumbi,
one of the last areas of Sao Paulo to be developed. The current Paraisopolis site was purchased in
lots, but the owners never took possession, nor submitted plans nor in some cases paid their dues.
Therefore, with ownership in question, the site became vulnerable to informal occupation.
Informal occupation escalated in the 1950s, 70s and 90s and the area is now home to 60,000
people living in high density precarious accommodation with almost 1 person per square metre.
UK planning policy has until recently supported minimum densities of 30 to 50 dwellings per
hectare by comparison. The district of Paraisopolis is located cheek by jowl with Morumbi, still an
area where middle and upper class citizens live and the two physical settlements are sharply
juxtaposed with the high rise, smart apartments and swimming pools built right up against the
precarious slums of Paraisopolis.
Currently, Sehab (Secretaria Municipal de Habitacao)39 is leading on slum upgrading programmes
across Sao Paulo including slum upgrading programmes, land tenure regularisation of municipal
public areas, sanitation improvement in environmentally protected water supply areas, and
regularisation of informal land subdivisions. Planning policy in the city has established a set of
criteria which is used to prioritise interventions and to decide how to allocated funding.
6.3.2 Characteristics of planning a resilient community in Paraisopolis, retrospectively
As has already been mentioned, the approach taken to the development of Paraisopolis is
distinctive because the government are attempting to introduce a system of planning into the
communities that already exist in the slums in order to improve the basic provision of services and
support the development of a resilient community for the future. The success to date has been
down a number of important factors:
39
The Municipal Housing Department of Sao Paulo Council known by the acronym ‘Sehab’
51
Understanding the diversity of informal settlements
The scale and density of informal settlements across Sao Paulo means that informal or precarious
settlements are extremely varied in their quality, condition and characteristics. Generally, speaking
there is thought to be three main types of slum in Sao Paulo (although there are sub-divisions of
type within these definitions):
favelas – illegal occupation of public or private land (belonging to third parties) which is
developed without regard to urban land use or city government regulations. Favelas appear
to be predominantly disorganised with precarious infrastructure and house low income and
socially vulnerable families;
informal land divisions – land occupations do not comply with technical and legal standards
and which are developed by an agent who is not resident in the community. Boundaries of
land parcels permit identification of an individual lot in relation to the access path or street.
Subdivisions most common on privately owned land purchased through some commercial
means and may include residents of all income brackets;
‘corticos’ or slum tenements – this accommodation is used for group residence and typically
houses more than one family. Corticos tend to consist of one or more buildings on single
urban lot, buildings have been subdivided into rooms that are rented, sublet, single room
serves several functions and there is common use and access to open space, sanitary
facilities, means of circulation and infrastructure. Generally, Corticos are overcrowded and
in precarious state of repair and in 2010, there are thought to be around 1648 in the city
centre of Sao Paulo.40
Recognising that the slum is part of the city
Informal settlements such as Paraisopolis are by
no means uncommon on a global scale and have
tended to characterise rapid urbanisation and
economic growth. Because of their unofficial
status, city governments have tended to ignore
slums rendering them almost invisible in
comparison with the rest of the formal city.41
However, once the externalities from the informal
settlements become too critical to ignore, officials
have had to act. The typical response to slums has
generally been a combination of both expulsion
and demolition whereby people are decanted
from the informal settlements and re-housed
elsewhere.
Impressions of Paraisopolis
We visited Paraisopolis with representative
from the Sao Paulo Planning department who
agreed to show us around the new
developments in what is a very dangerous place
for tourists to visit on their own as kidnappings
and theft are commonplace. The first thing
you notice are the contrasts, the difference
between the high value high rise luxury flats of
Morumbi which are right beside, almost on top
of, the poor quality houses of Paraisopolis.
There are also contrasts between the areas of
Paraisopolis which are being improved with
new roads, schools, play areas and the acres
and acres of unimproved slums which have
arranged themselves haphazardly around the
hills of the area.
However, these types of approaches have not
reduced the level of informal settlements in Brazil,
nor have they significantly improved the lives of
the citizens who were meant to benefit. Therefore, Brazil has been leading the way in policy which
retrospectively plans, supports and strengthens existing informal communities in a way which
recognises them as settlements and recognises the responsibility of local government to ensure
that the citizens of that place have good access to basic services and an improved quality of life.
The underlying philosophy which informs the Council’s work is that the slums of Sao Paulo:
‘Must be considered as a real part of the city’s structure... although informal.’42
40
Lopez A, Franca E, Prado Costa K (2010) Corticos A Experiencia De Sao Paulo. Prefeitura de Sao Paulo Habitacao
Smith D (2009) Best Practices in Slum Improvement, the case of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Development Innovations Group
42
Brillembourg A, Franca E, Santa Fe Zacarias E, Klumpner H (2010) Sao Paulo Architecture Experiment
41
52
The active involvement of residents in the redesign and planning process
Central to the planning approach adopted by Sao Paulo Council is importance of involving citizens
of the informal settlements in the redevelopment of their area, rather than ‘doing’ development to
the people, as has been the case in previous slum clearance initiatives. Successive officials told us
about the importance of involving communities in this process and that at the heart of their work
was a clear assumption that the successful upgrade of the favelas areas could only be done if the
council worked in partnership with local communities. An example of this approach in action can
be seen in the Council’s decision to establish a neighbourhood centre in Paraisopolis, evidence of
their commitment to develop a relationship with the local community and to introduce people to
the work of the council. In addition, the improvements and plans for Paraisopolis have included
extensive discussion and consultation with over 1000 meetings per year between the Paraisopolis
project team and the community.
Effective collation and analysis of evidence to understand the informal city
One of the main tools which Sao Paulo Council has used to tackle the challenges of the city’s slums
has been has the use of spatial analysis. Spatial analysis has been used to map and document all
the informal residential areas of the city, thereby formally recognising them as part of the city
rather than peripheral or not belonging to the city. This is not only crucial in order to design and
plan these areas but also a powerful statement of responsibility from local government that these
areas matter and contain citizens of the city, in effect, that these people and communities exist,
that they are real. The spatial analysis tool is known as Habisp and has been used to map
precarious settlements across Sao Paulo. This has involved officials visiting every slum area across
the city to identify all the key features including, type of housing, number of residents in each
house, quality of infrastructure, social vulnerabilities, health, risk of landslides/flooding. Gathering
accurate data and mapping the whole city has enabled Sehab to obtain an accurate picture of the
characteristics of the slum areas and to begin to develop criteria within which to prioritise the
upgrade and improvement of the slums, according to the risks and vulnerabilities of each area.
Understanding the local geography of drainage basins
One of the key factors which affect the
precariousness of informal settlements is their
relationship with their local drainage basin and
water catchment area. When analysing the data
about informal settlements in Sao Paulo, officials
quickly became aware that many informal
settlements were at risk because environmental
conditions were unfavourable. Not only was there
a danger to the communities from flooding and
landslides, but they also contributed to the
contamination of the city’s water supplies through
inadequate water treatment and sewage systems.
Therefore sorting out these communities was an absolute priority for housing policy. Therefore, in
redeveloping the informal settlements, Sao Paulo
had to ensure that their redevelopment work
started from the top of the water drainage basin
and worked downwards so as not to further
pollute or disrupt the catchment areas further
down. The vulnerability of slums within the
drainage basins has been one of the key factors
for prioritising and upgrading of slum areas.
53
The relationship between land use and the economy
One the reasons for the irregular land use
across Sao Paulo has been the rapid and
unregulated growth of the economy. It is only
now that the planning system has begun to
catch up. Economic growth in Sao Paulo has
attracted new migrants to the city in search of
work and a higher income. However, the jobs
available to the majority of these migrants are
low wage with most people earning no more
than the equivalent of three minimum wages
which is not enough to enter the formal
housing market. This poverty is at the heart
of Sao Paulo’s slum challenge because faced
with this level of income, there is no alternative for the city’s poor other than the informal housing
market; either to ‘build it yourself’ or purchase an existing house in the informal settlements.
Therefore, the challenge for organisations like Sehab in attempting to improve the slums is not only
how to improve housing in the slums, but at the same time, how to tackle the severe urban poverty
affecting those living in the informal housing market? How can residents be supported into
education, training and employment so that their incomes can rise and enable them to afford
better quality house? How can these projects help address not only basic infrastructure needs but
improve the overall health and wellbeing of the urban poor?
The existing community and economy of the favela
In addition, unlike their appearance suggests, an area like Paraisopolis, although informal, has
existing structures and hierarchies which govern how it operates, for example, the supply of
services such as water, wireless internet, construction services and electricity are all managed by
the community themselves. The existing structure and economy of the favelas also means that
there are economic consequences from the upgrade of the favelas for residents, for example, for
those residents re-housed in new purpose built accommodation by Sehab because their
accommodation was at risk of flooding and/or collapse, there is often a significant rise in living
costs as they are now required to pay for services such as electricity and water which were
previously ‘free’ in the favelas. This has led to some residents returning to the favelas.
Challenging perceptions about informal settlements and planning
From a distance you can’t imagine anyone living in such a place, the area has the chaotic texture of
a landfill site, a rubbish dump. Zoom in a little and the teeming detail begins to emerge: tangled
outbreaks of television aerials, dense thickets of unofficial power lines; walls and roofs of
remaindered breezeblocks and stolen brick and found iron sheeting and repurposed doors:
Structures that should never work but somehow do because they must.’
What was really interesting about the interviews and research visit in Sao Paulo was the
relationship between the informal city and the planning process. Generally, traditional planning
approaches to informal settlements in the city has been negative viewing them as peripheral to the
formal city, undesirable, dangerous, in short, the focus for the city’s problems. The interviews
undertaken as part of this research and the impressions gained from visiting Paraisopolis revealed
very different ideas about informal settlements and their relationship with planning. SEhab’s
approach has been about integrating informal settlements into the city about challenging
perceptions which view the favela as peripheral or outside of the city. Instead, the favela is viewed
as integral to the city and as such provides the opportunity for architects and planners to develop a
new kind of approach to planning based on the existing structure and diversity of the community
already in place.
54
As summarised by Fiori et al, to what extent are informal settlements such as favelas, a threat to
the formal planning processes of city formation and the institutions which govern them, or do they
actually provide an alternative response to producing and planning cities?43 This is an area of great
interest for planners and architects at the current time because of the failed attempts to deal with
informal settlements previously but also the failures of the planning system in the formal city.
6.4
Curitiba
6.4.1 Introduction
‘The secret of Curitiba is combining creative, simple and viable solutions with political will.’44
Curitiba is regarded as one of the best examples of a planned city in the world because of the way
the city has managed to anticipate and respond to rapid urbanisation through a process of
integrating land use planning, economic development and transport over the last forty years. The
city attracts planning professionals from across the world and has been named the world’s most
liveable city.45 Curitiba is the capita of the state of Parana and situated in the South of Central
Brazil, around 250 miles south west of Sao Paulo. It is home to 1.6million people in the city itself
and around 2.3million in the surrounding area46.
The formal planning of the city began in 1930 with the Agache Plan, developed by French architect
Alfred Agache which proposed organising urban functions and zoning different types of land uses as
well as a radial structure for the city. However, the seeds of the city’s current approach to
planning were developed in the 1960s during a time of rapid economic growth and urbanisation
when the city experienced a doubling of its population in just 10 years, from 140,000 to 360,000.
The city realised that a new approach would be needed and a group of innovative planners,
architects and engineers decided to come together to develop the first integrated master plan for
the city which is still the basis of the city’s planning approach today47. This master plan proposed
these early innovators set up the IPPUC (Instituto de Pesquisa e Planejamento Urbano de Curitiba)
Curitiba Institute for Research and Urban Planning in 1965, a planning authority for the city which
has led the way in supporting land use and transport planning across the city over the last forty
years.
The main aspects of the Curitiba Master plan developed in the mid 1960s included:48
changing the radial urban expansion model developed by Agache to a linear plan and
integrates transportation, the physical streetscape and land-use. This which would mean
that commerce, services and housing would develop in a linear way;
central to the linear planning of the city was the improvement of transportation and mobility
across the City;
manage the population within the city’s boundaries;
free up the city centre from heavy transport and preserve the historic centre;
provide economic support to urban development;
setting up of a group to drive forward these changes across the City (which became IPPUC).
43
Taken from Fiori J, Warnock Smith A, Pascola E from their research project launched in 2009 entitled ‘Urbanism & the informal city research
cluster’. More information can be found on their website: http://informalcity.aaschool.ac.uk/?page_id=116
44
Liana Vallicelli quoted in Espaco Urbano, May 2010
45
Goff C. (2010) Order and Progress: New Start magazine
46
Campbell (2006) IPPUC the Untold secret of Curitiba. In House Technical capacity for sustainable environmental planning, Urban Age Institute
47
Information from IPPUC website http://www.ippuc.org.br
48
Information from IPPUC website http://www.ippuc.org.br
55
The main ideas behind the plan are summarised in figure x below and demonstrate the integration
of land use planning, public transport, the environment and the economy. What is interesting
about development of planning policy in Curitiba was the fact that the master plan was devised at a
time of political change across Brazil with the establishment of dictatorship in the country which
meant that cities were expected to follow central planning policy with very little autonomy to
launch their own initiatives or focus upon their own priorities. This master plan was agreed by the
state of Parana and the ten local authorities which made up the area of greater Curitiba.
Figure 1: Key elements of the Curtiba Master Plan 196549
6.4.2 The implementation of the master plan for Curitiba
The development of the IPPUC provided the ideal vehicle with which to proceed with the
implementation of the city’s new master plan. One of the key players in the development of the
Master plan and its subsequent implementation was Jamie Learner who in 1968
1
became the mayor
of Curitiba and who is widely credited for being the main driver of the success of the planning
system in the city. Learner’s vision was that a city should be designed for people rather than for
planners. As the plan started to be rolled
rolled out in the 1970s, one of the most controversial aspects of
the new Master plan in Curitiba was the development of a pedestrianised area in the heart of the
city, which was virtually unheard of in Brazil at this time. With the help of some local school
schoo
children and some robust debates with the local chamber of commerce, Learner eventually got his
way and the downtown area of the city was reserved for pedestrians only.
The debate about the importance of pedestrians versus vehicles underlined one of the
th key
principles of the planning process in Curitiba, that the pedestrian was more important than the car
and that public transport should be prioritised over the private car.50 To this end, Curitiba used
their linear planning structure to design a rapid urban transit system using high speed buses. Buses
were chosen as the preferred mode of transport because they were much more cost effective
solution as opposed to building underground systems. The system is managed by URBS which was
established as a transport
nsport and land use planning organisation (but managed as part of IPPUC) to
manage all the transport systems throughout Curitiba including public transport, the physical road
network and infrastructure, traffic system, inspection and regulation of transport
transpor services (e.g. taxis
and school transport) and all the public space around train and bus stations.
49
50
Adapted from interviews with representatives of IPPUC in Curitiba
Principle identified in an interview with URBS, Public transport authority in Curitiba
56
6.4.3 Curitiba’s transport system
Public transport in Curitiba has been fundamental in shaping the look and feel of Curitiba and its
whole planning system. Unlike other approaches to transport planning, Curitiba’s main transport
routes are linear and with72km of exclusive bus ways upon which it is not physically possible for
cars to travel in the same lane as the bus. The photo below illustrates one of the bus only lanes and
the cylindrical bus stops which dominate the main routes around the city.
The bus system is closed with a fixed fare to enter
and once in the system, any distance can be travelled
without incurring further costs. There is cross
subsidisation built into the fare charges so that long
routes (generally used by lower income travellers)
are paid for by fares from short routes (generally
used by higher income travellers) as well as low
density routes subsidised by higher density routes.
There are also 10 different types of bus ranging from
the well known red express buses which operate
along the main routes to the orange ‘feeder’ buses
which link people from suburban areas to the main
express ways where they can catch one of the red express buses. The city has also pioneered the
integration of public services at bus stations. Travellers by bus can not only purchase tickets and
route information at the bus station but they can also access council services including social
services, housing and employment support. The photo below illustrates public services being
provided in one of the more deprived areas of the city. The transport system in Curitiba is
operated commercially by 10 transport operators (tendered by the public sector) and is completely
self financing. Crucially, operators are paid according to the distance travelled rather than by the
number of passengers carried.
6.4.4 Characteristics of Curitiba’s approach to planning a resilient community
It is difficult to summarise all of the factors which make Curitiba a successful examples of a city
which has been planned in an effective and resilient way; however there are a number of
important characteristics which are particularly relevant for this research.
Integration of economic development, transport and planning
Curitiba is a striking example of a planned city because of the way in which the city has integrated
land use planning transport and economic development. The Master plan has successfully
encouraged commercial growth along the main transport arteries which run in a linear way out
from the city centre. This system helps to reduce the traditional importance of the city centre as
the focus for day to day transport activity helping to minimise congestion at peak times.
57
Instead, rush hour in Curitiba has heavy commuter movements in both directions along the main
express ways. This transport system has been combined with careful zoning so that high density
development is zoned in the two blocks around the high density transport
transport routes – the red bus
express ways. This means that the actual look of the city reflects this integration. When you gaze
across the Curitiban skyline, it very quickly becomes apparent that the tallest buildings follow the
main linear express ways in
in a quite extraordinarily regular way, something remarkably different
from Sao Paulo and indeed any other city we visited on the course of our research. The main
express ways are characterised by high density, high rise developments which then - are zoned for
high density development. Beyond this zoned residential areas taper in proportion to distance
from the main transport routes.
Figure 2: The way in which this integration of transport, land use planning and the economy
operates
Importance of green space
Some facts about Curitiba's
Transportation Integrated Network
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Public
There are 1,235,000 paying passengers on
an annual basis
32 in every 100 curitibans travel by bus
The network has an operating fleet of
2680 buses
There are 28 companies operating the bus
network (10 companies in the city of
Curitiba and 18 in greater curitiba
There are 35 bus terminals (with
integration with other services including
shops and public services)
No vehicle in the network is older than 10
years
Transport operators are paid according to
the number of kms they travel rather than
the number of passengers they transport
A key element of Curitiba’s master plan over the
last forty years has been its focus on the
importance of green space. Curitiba developed a
series of linear parks
rks which traced the main linear
routes in and out of the city. They also included
artificial lakes in these parks to help control water
levels during storms, as Curitiba can be susceptible
to flash flooding. Curitiba has a very high
percentage of green space, almost 51 sqm per
head of population. Many of the parks have also
been designed to reflect the different cultures and
ethnicities in the city. The city has also pioneered
the recycling and reuse of waste and in the favelas
of the city, the council has been working with local
residents to buy their garbage in return for food
and transport vouchers. Curitiba is also famous for
its innovative policy of using sheep grazing in its
parks in order to cut costs of maintenance!
58
Active involvement of the community in planning their city
Jamie Learner and the other architects and planners who were at the heart of implementing the
Curitiba master plan believed passionately in the involvement of citizens in the design and planning
for the city. From the beginning, local people were actively involved, for example, during the
controversy over pedestrianising downtown Curitiba, local children were invited to come down to
take over the street and participate in an arts and crafts event. This proved so popular that it has
now become an annual event and the street was successfully pedestrianised for all citizens. We
also heard from URBs that they respond on a regular basis on public concerns about the public
transport system.
High quality infrastructure
Although the bus rapid transit system in Curitiba was chosen because of its cost effectiveness, the
quality of infrastructure in place across the city is extremely high quality. The main express way
routes are dotted with the characteristic Curitiba bus stops which provide level and accessible bus
stops in the form of tubes with integrated ticket seller stations. The fact that tickets are bought
and sold at the stop (similar to underground or tram services) makes the bus travel experience
extremely quick and efficient. High quality infrastructure was also evident at the main bus stations,
where the facilities available appear to be well maintained. The link with public services at bus
stations is extremely interesting and means that citizens, particularly those on lower incomes, do
not need to travel miles to access support or information but can simply visit their local bus
terminal for assistance. This seemed to us like a very concrete example of decentralisation and
localisation in action. We did spot some low level vandalism in some areas and URBs did comment
on the fact that there have been some complaints because of bus stops under Perspex can become
very hot in the summer. We were taken out for a tour of the bus system and had the chance to
ride the express bus network which was very different to the experience of travelling on the bus in
the UK as the buses travel extremely quickly with no obstacles, although at times it was difficult to
get a seat due to the popularity of the services. Travel costs were also cheap; we paid just over 2
Brazilian reals for a round ticket.
Visionary leadership – technical and political
‘Many cities understand the message of Curitiba, which prioritizes public transportation," says
former Curitiba mayor and chief architect of the transportation system, Jaime Lerner. "But few
cities have had the strategic vision to do it.’ 51
Like many other exemplars of planned communities, visionary leadership has played an important
role in the success of Curitiba. The influence of Jamie Learner a former director of IPPUC and
subsequently the major of the city has undoubtedly played a key role and his leadership in the city
is well documented. However, the development of IPPUC also played an important role because it
enabled transport and land use professionals to work together to explore the future for the city,
the people we met described how engineers, public transport managers and architects were able
to collaborate to implement the master plan and continue to do so as the city continues to develop
and evolve. There was also recognition at the highest level of the relationship between planning,
transport and the economy. An example of this cited to us by IPPUC was the link with Volvo. In the
1970s, the city were trying to attract new industry into the city but made a deliberate decision that
they would only accept ‘clean’ industry to the area. One of the businesses that accepted this
invitation was Volvo. Not only are Volvo a key employer in Curitiba but they have also worked with
the city council to help develop innovative solutions to the bus transport system in the city and
have been fully supportive of the city government’s ideas on land use planning, economic
development and the consideration for the environment.
51
Quote from Jamie Learner cited on the ‘Upside down world’ website
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/brazil-archives-63/1370-get-on-the-bus-curitiba-brazil-rolls-out-a-transit-solution
59
Using the reputation as an exemplar to attract investment and continue developing
innovative practice
Curitiba’s reputation as a global leader in city planning and integration of land use, transport and
the economy has made it a focal point for visitors from across the world. When we visited IPUCC,
we were one of many foreign organisations visiting the city that week. Not only is there an
economic impact of its popularity but this reputation also gives Curitiba a very strong global brand
as a ‘green’ city or a city with a very high quality of life, compared with other South American cities.
This reputation gives Curitiba the freedom to be able to promote themselves and attract
investment from companies who are interested in these priorities, for example, low carbon goods
and services sector businesses. The reputation as a centre for excellence also gives Curitiba the
incentive to continue to experiment with new ideas and new innovations, learning lessons from
each project as they progress. When we visited, they were working on the development of the
Linha Verde or the green line. This is a massive project which is in the process of turning an existing
interstate highway BR116 into a new rapid transit express bus way. This is the kind of project that
it’s difficult to imagine in the UK. It’s the equivalent of taking the M6 and converting two lanes to
bus only lanes with car transport either side. The driver for this project is the need to generate
more capacity as the city continues to grow, car transport continues to increase and demand for
transport increases. Despite its green credentials, the city has a high level of private car ownership,
probably because it is amongst the wealthiest in Brazil. The new route is known as the ‘green way’
because it literally will be green with linear parks along each side, native plants and trees to
support biodiversity and bike lanes. The buses operating on the green line will use biodiesel to
reduce carbon.
6.5
Caracas, Venezuela
6.5.1 Introduction
Caracas was a difficult and dangerous place to visit
and study and this impacted upon the research we
were able to undertake. Personal security was also
a big issue, more so than anywhere else we visited.
The declaration of a national disaster a week before
we arrived also put some limits on what we were
able to do and who we were able to meet.
Caracas is the capital of Venezuela. Home to 5
million people it’s an edgy kind of place. Set in the
El-Avila mountain range, Caracas has a linear form
with a mountainous green ring around it.
Venezuela has a largely urban population with around 80% of the country living in urban areas and
where the political process has been characterised by 45 years of uninterrupted democracy.
60
Described by William Nino52, Caracas ‘has the weather, nature, geographic location and
outstanding potential to become an enviable capital, a metropolis at the centre of the region’s
most relevant events’. We wanted to understand this context and find out what planning for
resilient communities looks like in a 21st Century socialist country.
6.5.2 Our experience in Caracas
It was dark by the time we arrived in Caracas in
early December 2010 and the mountain sides
were covered in thousands of lights, looking for
all the world like they had been decorated with
Christmas fairly lights. They weren’t and were in
fact the single bulb that traditionally lights the
threshold of a barrio dwelling. In Caracas it is
estimated that 50% of the 5m population lives in
the ‘Informal City’ or ‘barrios de ranchos’.
Caracas is a place where water is more expensive
than petrol, where you can fill the tank of your
car with petrol for 3 bolivars, about 45 pence53.
After seeing the work in the favelas in Sao Paulo we were interested to understand what is
happening to the barrios in Caracas and with planning and housing policy under the Chavez
Government regime. Our research had highlighted two issues of interest that we wanted to
pursue, the new socialist cities programme and what is happening to the barrios.
The Barrios are Venezuelan equivalent of the favelas in Brazil and are similar precarious human
settlements developed outside of the framework of the formal city. In Caracas these settlements
have also developed outside of the formal planning process, constructed on invaded and nonurbanised land which is largely topographical y steep and environmentally vulnerable54. Developed
through self-help of its inhabitants as the only mechanism to solve their housing problems, these
settlements have gone through a consolidation process lasting in some cases more than 40 years.
Teolinda Bolivar55 introduced the concept of the ‘Barrio City’ to differentiate the informal
settlements of Caracas from the formal city. Intense poverty, high crime rates, low participation in
education and health system and a host of other problems critically demark the spatial
concentrations of poverty in the informal and formal parts of the city.
Teolinda has been researching the barrios since the early
1970’s and her research tracks the establishment and
development of the barrio settlements in Caracas. This
work provides a context to the necessary understanding of
the current challenge of socio-economic and spatial
integration of people living in informal settlements.56 Given
that the barrios have been there in some cases since the
1940’s it was only in 1987 that the Organica de Ordinacion
Urbanistioca gave recognition to the informal settlements
in urban planning in Venezuela. Even to this day some
barrio areas don’t appear on formal maps of the city.
52
Architect, Caracas, El Universal Blog site article ‘Caracas, a garden with an ocean view’. 26th April 2010
December 2010 prices
54
Alfonso Alfredo Ayala Aleman –Theoretical Framework of the integration process of the barrios of Caracas
55
Teolinda Bolivar, academic, barrio researcher and community activist
56
Teolinda Bolivar – 1989 La Produccion de los barrios de Ranchos en Caracas. Universidad central de Venezuela
53
61
Barrio policy in Caracas has changed over time. In the 1960’s there were piecemeal interventions
based upon clearance and relocation of occupiers. In the 1970’s major programmes of benign
intervention and significant mapping work were undertaken by urban sociologists such as Teolinda
Bolivar who worked in the barrio communities to understand their needs and issues. The 1980’s 1990’s saw governmental recognition of the barrio as an informal but important part of the city,
and there followed a significant period of investment, squatter improvements, stabilisation
intervention programmes, urban acupuncture, skill sharing. 2000’s – programme changes, new
build options and barrio clearance.
Josefina Baldo is an academic and former politician who was once national housing minister
employed by but now out of favour with the Chavez regime. We spoke to her and her ex-husband
Federico Villanueve (son of Carlos Raul Villanueve the architect responsible for some of the best
post-modern buildings in Caracas including the Central University). They are respected urban
designers, architects and academics who have been working on the barrios of Caracas for the last
30 years.
They described life in the barrios as ...‘alive but
not living’ where the ’risk to life’... is high. They
felt that strategic interventions such as large loans
from organisations like the World Bank won’t
work in places like Caracas – few occupants have
sufficient security or proof of title to offer in the
Barrios so communities there can’t benefit from
lending towards property improvement unless
titular issues have been addressed. Their view is
that there is huge potential for the barrios to be
improved by appropriate small-scale interventions
and the focus of policy should be on supporting
the development of the untapped social capital
that exists within those communities. They view the barrio as more efficient than credited with,
given half the population of Caracas live there. Looking at the barrios from the perspective of
growth levels and being self sustaining they are a much more successful model than the formal city
– but clearly on a differing basis.
Villeneuve and Baldo57 have consistently argued that as long as the deplorable living conditions
persist in the barrios, no social or educational effort can make it possible to integrate the
inhabitants of the barrios as equal citizens of Venezuelan society. Villanueva described their
situation as ‘The inhabitants of the barrios are spectators of a city that persistently denies them
their right to socio-economic opportunities and political participation’.
Informal cities have huge amounts of social capital
locked up in them. Much more so than the formal
city – these communities need help but can also call
upon significant internal resources to deliver.
Training programmes for Barrio dwellers initiated in
the last decade but now abandoned were an
attempt to provide real skills to the barrio
communities so they could improve their homes,
living environments and job prospects. As well as
living informally most barrio dwellers are also
employed informally adding to the precariousness of
their existence. You have to admire their tenacity,
survival skills and capacity to cope with this.
57
Federico Villanueva and Josefina Baldo oversaw CONAVI – Consejo National do la Vivendia/National Housing Council 1999 - 2002
62
Community participation has been a key to the work in the Barrios over the last few decades and is
being seen around the world as a successful way of handling interventions in the informal
settlements. Sensitive engagement combined with urban acupuncture58 a participatory design
approach to improve Barrio areas by linking them to the formal city by providing infrastructure and
other formal elements within the barrio areas has been a successful model of intervention.
Villeneuve’s view was that handled well, community participation in barrios projects could create
an explosion in community participation. This matches what we saw in Sao Paulo and in the
research we have seen on interventions in the informal cities elsewhere.
This approach has proven successful in a number of South American countries including Venezuela.
Baldo and Villanueve acknowledged that the condition of the barrios has been improved in Caracas
over the years and many of Caracas’s barrios had been structurally stabilised. But they still need
significant support to make them good places to live. Their experience and views do not however
meet favour under the current regime and the pursuit of current housing and planning policy.
When asked about the strategic planning of Caracas Villanueve described what is currently
happening to Caracas as the city ‘destroying’ itself.
The political situation in Venezuela is complex, and especially so in Caracas. Of the seven Alcaldias
or municipalities jointly responsible for the city of Caracas only one, Libertadore is politically
sympathetic to Chavez. This political tension between state and city government, combined with
the state control of oil revenues and the impact the activities of the state are having on the
country’s economy appears to be having serious consequences for the longer term planning for
Caracas and unified approaches to tackling the barrios issues.
6.5.3 Current activities – overview
We met a number of people across the academic, local and central government community who
were kind enough share their views and experiences with us and gave us some fascinating insights.
We had found it difficult to set up contacts in Venezuela from outside the country and it was the
least accessible of the places we studied.
The government now sees rebuilding as the preferred option for the barrios and to meet the
chronic affordable housing shortage. There are an estimated 2m homes needed as up to 51% of the
population is living in the informal city in Caracas, that figure reaches 65% in cities like Maracaibo.
The current Chavez housing policy is addressing the urbanisation issue by focussing on offering
some new build housing solutions, including clearing the barrios and relocating the population
inside the city in high density housing as well as relocation to new cities which are being built
outside Caracas. This policy suggests the barrios are seen as a problem, a source of crime, an
eyesore and an urban blight, but we heard concerns that this is sporadic policy being made
incrementally, without an overall plan. The new housing solutions are largely cosmetic, being
delivered for ideological reasons around vote winning in barrio communities rather than being a
coherent housing strategy for the wider city.
The state had been inviting planners from Iran, Cuba and Belarus to help with these new projects,
as well as outside contractors from Cuba and other ‘ideologically friendly’ countries to help deliver
these projects. We met government employed architects and planners engaged on these and other
government development projects and they were sceptical about the likely success of the new
cities policy and not much had been seen of these projects other than rhetoric at this stage.
58
Alfredo Brillemburg et al Urban Think Tank 1993
63
Venezuela National Government Department IPPU – Strategic Planning and Housing
Service59
We met with two senior officials from the IPPU to
discuss housing and planning policy under the current
Chavez government. The housing policy currently
being followed is based upon a combination of the
delivery of housing in free-standing new settlements
outside Caracas (e.g. Caribia60) or in redevelopment
areas within the Barrios, replacing the Barrio
dwellings. National government statements about
free-standing settlements had been upbeat
proclaiming ‘new socialist towns ‘are intended to
promote the endogenous potential and prioritize
social economy’61. The building programme for the
new socialist cities is being promoted under an
agreement with Belarus.
The officials we spoke to were sceptical about the policy of free-standing cities like Caribia being
delivered. They highlighted that there was no water supply to the area where Caribia was being
planned in and no indigenous economic activity to support new residents either. We sensed that
they felt as a policy innovation it would soon be kicked into the long grass.
At the time we were in Caracas a national emergency had just been declared after rain had brought
significant flooding and landslip incident making 10,000 barrio families homeless. IPPU with the
army were leading on the provision of emergency shelters and temporary homes for them.
A number of new government funded cultural, housing and civic infrastructure projects are being
delivered in downtown Caracas and the IPPU is overseeing them. One project is a significant new
civic square with new housing surrounding it. The dimensions of the new civic square are
significant, taking up a large area and breaking all the urban design rules for the delivery of good
spaces. But then the delivery of this massive processional and civic square has little to do with good
planning, it looked to us like symbolic construction projects, ‘high modernism’62 Chavez style.
We asked the government planners what they thought were the essence of a good place to live.
Their view was that it needed to have mixed uses, good provision of green and public spaces and to
maximise the natural assets of a city like Caracas such as the fabulous views in and out.
Planning has been piecemeal in the past, they recognise need for strategic plan but it doesn’t exist
and political differences between the government and the majority of the Alcaldias mean that it
may be difficult to bring it about.
Our impression was that there is a complex political situation at play at the moment, with housing
policy as one of the pawns in the middle. This is seen in the highly publicised government
sponsored programmes of new build housing solutions aimed at barrio dwellers. This approach
combined with clear mistrust of some of the home grown practitioners and their long experience of
dealing with these issues gives a distinct feeling of ad hoc, ideological solutions that are not
necessarily going to prove resilient in the long-term.
The architectural, planning and housing practitioners we met were sad and frustrated at the fact
that in recent decades Caracas has grown formally and informally as a city with little or no overall
strategic planning. The implications of this lack of overall planning and action on a strategic basis
were obvious.
59
Interviews with National Government Agency Officers
Caribia – freestanding new settlement, ‘Socialist City’ in Camino de los Indios outside Caracas. Christian Science Monitor article by
Sara Miller Llana, April 2008
61
Venezuelan Minister of Housing Edith Gomez – Social welfare programme Mision Villanueve April 2008
62
James C. Scott ‘Seeing like a state’ 1998 and Chavez’s Vision in the Hills – Charles Lane, Washington Post November 29th 2007
60
64
Transport and other public infrastructure were in a poor condition or ineffective, urban design and
the quality of new development coming forward has been compromised and there is a chronic lack
of public open space within the city. Combine this with the security and housing issues and you
begin to get a measure of the size of the issues they are facing in Venezuela.
The main focus of Chavez’ strategy is based on his particular brand of socialism. This has included
the nationalisation of banks, insurance companies and communication industry using the oil wealth
of the country. Venezuela was described to us as a ‘widow of communism’ and as you walk
around the city there are posters proclaiming the benefits of this kind of socialism, “wifi brought to
you by the socialists” the socialist bank and so on.
Local Government: Alacaldia Chacao – Officina Local de Planeamiento Urbano63
We wanted to get the local government perspective so met with Concejal Elizabeth Diaz de
Barnola64 the political lead on town planning in Chacao Alcaldia in central Caracas. Chacao is
politically opposed to the Chavez regime so has a policy of non-cooperation with central
government where it can. Chacao is a well off council, relatively speaking. It occupies
administrative territory in the heart of Caracas, equivalent to the city or west end of London so
benefits from significant local tax revenues from hotels, foreign banks and businesses. To a point
this revenue income gives them an ability to act on their own ambitions without being beholden to
tax revenues from central government.
Planners from Chacao have been developing a local plan for their district and are currently
undertaking extensive door to door community engagement upon it. The development plan known
as the PUDL65 is a 15 to 20 year plan for Chacao municipality area. They were investing significant
resources in their area to try and improve the actual and perceived quality and safety of the streets
and the public realm. They were clear that their residents and business community want a better
looking, safer city to live in. Through the ‘Chacao Verde’ programmes they were building additional
green areas and new play spaces for their local residents and international business occupiers. They
were also investing in new cultural facilities to serve their residents and wider city users.
The local planning system in Venezuela is based upon a zoning system where detailed design is at
the discretion of the developer provided their development complies with the adopted land use
zoning and density plot ratio for their site. Members and staff from Chacao were try to plan with
neighbouring council on cross boundary issues but all were concerned about the lack of strategic
spatial and infrastructure planning for Caracas and what this would mean for the future of the city.
The two tier government issues and political differences we saw were combining to the inertia
around strategic planning for the greater Caracas area, something desperately needed.
6.5.4 Conclusions on the delivery of new planned and resilient communities in Venezuela
We saw clear differences between the way that the barrios were being dealt with here and in
Brazil. There was none of the pragmatism, comprehensive and purposeful approach we saw in Sao
Paulo. Although in past years there had been significant investment in the Caracas barrios, current
government policy and ideology had shifted position and now appeared to be more about newbuild, large scale schemes. Local practitioners with experience in supporting small scale barrio
interventions were out of favour and it was hard to see coherence in the way this was being
approached by the various tiers of government. It would be easy to speculate that keeping the
poor, poor had political expediency under this policy.
Caracas as a city has no overall development plan and the coordination of infrastructure
investment; public transport improvement and the provision of new, good quality open space,
issues which are a real problem there are not being dealt with.
63
64
65
Commission de Panificacion y Desarrollo Local, Municipal De Chacao, Caracas, Venezuela (Planning Department)
Councillor with Chacao Metropolitan Council
Plan Desarrollo Urban Local
65
The need for strategic and co-ordinated planning in Caracas was widely supported but the issues
that seem to be preventing co-ordinated action are political differences and ideology, definitely not
lack of local talent or funding. We saw little to suggest that environmental sustainability was a
concern of government. The poor public transport system combined with the incredible cheapness
of petrol spoke of an issue needing a strategic approach and a visionary leadership mindset
prepared to drive forward change as seen in Curitiba or more recently in Bogota, Columbia. Seeing
what is happening in Caracas makes the case for strategic planning and the integration of planning
with housing, economic development, transport and infrastructure delivery.
The inherent social capital in the informal communities was an issue we wanted to know more
about. Coming from a society supported by big government which is now moving to one with a
smaller state, encouraging the development of social capital in local communities is of great
interest. Cultural differences clearly apply and don’t necessarily translate but appreciating what
potential social capital exists in the community and how that may be unlocked is clearly relevant in
the UK.
6.5.5 Lessons from Brazil
6.5.6 Lessons from Venezuela
The absence of strategic overview in the planning for a city like Caracas is really showing in:
• lack of cooperative approach around planning for infrastructure and particularly
strategic approach to transport planning and provision;
• Barrios situation not being looked at in the round with the Alcaldias and central
government;
• outsourcing construction of new infrastructure is not investing in local skills and
experience, is this in the countries long term best interest.
Potential lost opportunities to unleash and apply the social capital locked up in the barrio
communities, recognition of the strength in the survival skills of those communities.
Interventions can address many of the barrio issues without destroying the social fabric and
structure that have become part of the strength of those communities.
Not many alternatives to urban interventions because of the numbers involved and the
amount of land that it would take to address the barrio issue with new build housing.
Economic policy means that 80% of the imports into the country are food – is this a
sustainable and resilient economic policy for the country.
7
CROSS CUTTING PLACE MAKING THEMES
7.1
Introduction
66
Our research has identified many different considerations required in the planning and
development of new communities across the world. The research has showed how each planned
community struggles to deal with many of the same challenges in a variety of contexts. One of the
key outcomes that policy makers are trying to achieve in planned communities are resilient
communities which are good places for people to live, to work and to do business. However, is it
possible to achieve all these outcomes and what can we learn in the UK from these examples about
how to plan a resilient community?
This section presents an analysis of some of the main findings from the case studies we’ve
examined in Europe, Asia and South America and explores what economic development and
planning can learn from these examples to better plan resilient communities in the UK.
One of the challenges in planning for any community whether existing or new is what weight
should be given to the different priorities that are important for a resilient and successful place. In
the course of our research we have identified ten key priorities which are important in the planning
of a resilient community. This is not designed to be an exhaustive list, there are many other
considerations such as equalities and liveability, but we have focused on those priorities that
emerged from our research in Asia, Europe and South America and those we wanted to test against
UK comparators:
7.2
how much does the quality of design matter in new planned communities?;
the importance placed upon environmental sustainability in planning communities;
the dynamics of planning and economic growth in a new community;
the importance of community engagement models;
how much does the quality of design matter in new planned communities?;
the challenge of planning for household lifecycles and securing resilient maturation in new
planned communities;
the ingredients of successful and resilient places.
How much does the quality of design matter in new planned communities?
In the UK we have seen a renaissance in the importance of design in new development and as an
objective of planning law and policy over the least 15 years. Prior to that, during the time of the
Thatcher and Major governments, design quality in new development was a matter for developers
to determine, not local planning authorities. In 2008 it became a duty for local planning authorities
to secure the delivery of high quality design in new development in their areas66. How this
provision will survive the much heralded new duty to deliver sustainable development through the
planning system is debatable. Coalition government pronouncements on where they stand on
design quality in new development have been noticeably silent over the last 12 months.
We wanted to test how important this issue was in the new planned places we looked at around
the world. In Europe, urban design, aesthetics and the quality of place shaping in new planned
communities was very important. In Germany and Sweden urban design and aesthetic issues were
high priorities and teams of professional planners, urban designers and architects had been
employed in the public and private sector agencies overseeing these developments at all stages of
their delivery. Finland has a great national modernist design tradition and they had nailed their
design principles to the mast with Helsinki being designated European City of Design for 2011.
66
Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2008
67
The property and development market in Korea reflects the national obsession ‘with the new’ and
a massive construction programme is being pursued in and around Seoul. Development of all types
(excepting protected historic buildings) is subject to development churn on a much quicker basis
than we see in the UK. We saw huge amounts of new development and investment in
infrastructure (pork barrelling on a huge scale) being undertaken in Seoul and the other places we
visited, the impetus being to cement (literally) Seoul‘s place as a world class city. Across the city we
also saw general housing provision in swarms of cookie-cutter apartment towers that had been
delivered en-mass by private construction companies with a maximum anticipated 25 year life.
In ‘Happy City Sejong’67 – the ‘best city dreamed of by everybody’, great emphasis was being placed
upon the integration of a masterplanning and urban design in delivering the new city. Officials
charged with delivering the project had undertaken research into exemplars of new planned
communities around the world and a best practice approach based upon a European model was
being promoted. This was an approach unlike anything we had seen elsewhere in Korea and the
plan for the city spoke of: ’creating a good city where everybody wants to live; the city shall be
constructed as a low CO2 emission city; a u-city that is home to state of the art technologies will be
created, safe and convenient traffic systems will be created’68. As little had been built at the time
we visited it was difficult to assess the extent to which aesthetic considerations will be delivered
upon.
Convenience or ‘benri’ was a key issue in Japanese planned communities, design considerations at
the dwelling, street and neighbourhood levels were generally a secondary consideration in the
places we visited. Standardised apartment blocks or cookie cutter housing designs were favoured
approaches. The most attractive historic housing or new housing based on historic designs were
said to be very expensive and were not generally favoured. The design quality of public ream and
places like parks and green open spaces was considered very important but longer term
maintenance issues for these public assets are becoming of concern to local government agencies
with reducing revenue budgets69.
We saw a mixed picture in South America. In Sao Paulo there
has been a much publicised beautification approach taken by
the City70 in the passing of the Clean City Law in 2006. This
provided a legal and policy framework for tackling ‘visual
pollution’ in the form of corporate signs, hoardings and
graffiti as part of improving the appearance and image of the
city.
The barrios of Caracas and favelas of Sao Paulo have
developed with little regard for aesthetics or design quality
in the way that we understand it and few of the subsequent
interventions in these areas have placed beautification and
aesthetics above delivering basic infrastructure and facilities.
When simply getting a roof over your head is your key
objective, making it a good looking roof comes some way
down the list of priorities. The informal city has never been
about design and aesthetics as they are understood as part
of the planning and development process elsewhere, and in the formal city. The new flats being
provided in the Paraisopolis favela to decant people to where their housing had to be demolished
to make way for new drainage and water supply infrastructure area at best utilitarian in design, but
still an improvement compared to the surrounding area.
67
Multifunctional Administrative City Construction Agency (MACCA) Brochure and presentations 2010
Op cit 2 MACCA as above
69
From interviews with the Mayor and staff of Tsukuba City Council, Tokyo Metropolitan Government
70
http://www.worldculturepictorial.com/blog/content/clean-city-sao-paulo-says-no-visual-pollution-bans-public-advertising-cleaner-more-sereneenvironment
68
68
We saw an impressive community art project involving stencilling that had been undertaken in the
Paraisopolis favela to improve the appearance of a small neighbourhood, develop skills, social
inclusion and civic pride in that area71.
In Curitiba urban design and aesthetics had been important considerations in the development of
the city over the last 40 years. The designation as ‘most liveable city in the world’ or ‘best planned
small city in South America’ attest to the emphasis on planning and design that have been a feature
of the approach here for the last 40 years. Provision of green space, high quality public realm and
cultural/leisure infrastructure has been as much a part of the planned development of Curitiba as
the integrated public transport and innovative linear city form72.
We saw no evidence in Caracas that aesthetics or urban design have great importance there.
Caracas was described by one architect we met as ‘destroying itself’73. The few 1950’s set piece
architectural gems of the city are being swallowed up by crass new development around them, or
being neglected by their owners. Lack of a strategic, comprehensive approach to planning the city
is also being reflected in the generally poor quality of the urban realm and of new buildings being
developed. That said the ‘Chacao Verde’ project being promoted by Alcaldia Chacao was focussing
on public realm improvements within their administrative boundary. They are but one authority of
the seven responsible for Caracas.
7.2.1 Conclusions
Design quality, urban design and aesthetics are important issues in the delivery of new
planned communities we visited in Europe, and also in the UK. Design quality was seen as an
important output of the planning and development process, fundamental the quality of
product delivered and an issue that the public bodies overseeing these projects placed a lot
of emphasis on.
Design quality was of greatest importance in Finland, seen as more important than delivering
on sustainability issues.
The Korean developments that we saw placed importance on quality of design where that
added economic value e.g. to help underscore Seoul’s status as a world city at the Hangang
River Renaissance74 project, or where necessary to attract foreign investment at IFEZ or
because of the need for a specific iconography at Digital Media City in Seoul.
New communities in Korea looked for the ‘u’, ubiquitous technology and usability. Only
Sejong Happy City promoted a different approach, following European exemplars.
In Japan beauty is within the home and aesthetics and urban design are less important than
convenience.
We saw a mixed picture in South America – progressive and world class approaches in Sao
Paulo and Curitiba but nowhere in the favelas or the barrios.
Caracas would benefit from a strategic planning approach on many issues including
aesthetics and design. It is a city with a fantastic setting but which it is failing to benefit from.
71
Interview with Viviane Frost, Companhia de Desenvolvimento, Brazilian Government Housing Agency in Sao Paulo
Interviews with staff at URBS, Curitiba City Council integrated Planning, Transport and Engineering Department
73
Interview with Federico Villanueve (son of Carlos Raul Villanueve the architect responsible for some of the best post-modern buildings
in Caracas including the Central University)
74
Seoul Metropolitan Government- Hangang River renaissance Project
72
7.3
69
The importance placed upon environmental sustainability in planning new
communities
A common feature in many of the new communities we visited was the consideration or weight
given to environmental considerations in the planning and development of the community. This
tended to include:
reduction in carbon emissions in building design, through energy efficiency measures, lower
consumption requirements, sustainable transport solutions;
production of alternative energy in the new community;
value place upon the provision of green space in the new community, including parks,
children’s play areas and gardens.
The extent to which environmental considerations were important for the planning of a new
community varied considerably from country to country. European planned communities tended
to place much greater consideration upon environmental considerations, particularly around
energy efficiency, carbon reduction and sustainable transport. In these areas, environmental
considerations were often seen as central to achieving a resilient community and a good place for
people to live. In Stockholm, for example, the projects we visited had some of the most stringent
environmental standards in the world. In Freiburg, Germany, the community had been planned
without cars and in Kronsberg, evidence of consideration for the environment were integral to the
community’s design and operation from the rain water collection system to the passive housing
design.
The Asian tiger examples we visited, tended not to place as much emphasis upon environmental
considerations, economic growth imperative tended to be much more important, for example, the
Kawasaki eco-town development in Japan had a strong emphasis on green infrastructure and
environmental improvements to ‘clean up’ the industry in the area, but this was sharply contrasted
by the area’s interest in developing and growing the importance of the airport in the area for
economic development. In Korea, environmental considerations were important in the
development of Sejong Happy city, particularly their provision of green infrastructure in the
community with 51msq of green space per person. However, this was still a community that was
being planned around the use of the private car.
In Sao Paulo, the council were faced with the realities of simply trying to provide basic services for
their slum communities although there was awareness of the importance of these issues longer
term. In complete contrast, no consideration of these issues is taking place in Caracas and the
upgrade of the barrios there and there is no national imperative/driver to reduce energy usage, for
example, national energy policy and political policy advocates low petrol costs, fuelling the negative
cycle of consumption and inefficient use of energy.
The degree to which environmental considerations should play an important role in the planning of
new communities has been an area for discussion for many decades long before climate change;
perhaps the best known advocate of the important role that the environment can play was
Ebenezer Howard’s vision of the Garden city75. Howard’s vision was a city characterised by open
space, parks and agricultural land to provide recreation for all citizens who lived there, surrounded
by a permanent belt of agricultural land. His vision was also for towns that had a balance between
jobs and housing to as to avoid local unemployment and limit in and out commuting. Howard’s
planned communities:
75
Howard, E Garden Cities of To-Morrow (London, 1902. Reprinted, edited with a Preface by F. J. Osborn and an Introductory Essay by Lewis
Mumford. (London: Faber and Faber (1946)
70
‘Were also to be of a specific size which meant that they would be self contained, capable of
hosting all the functions need for a town without being dependent on a larger city for their
survival.... self sufficient in terms of food supply and energy production.’76
These ideas were used to inspire the new towns movement in the post war period including
Welwyn and Letchworth Garden Cities in the post war period. In 2007, the labour government
signalled a renewed interest in environmental considerations for planning new communities with
the programme for development of 10 eco-towns to be built in a variety of locations across the UK,
this programme has struggled to move forward successfully and in the current climate with the
imperative to grow the economy quickly and efficiently, the weighting of environmental
considerations in planning for communities is changing.
With the significant carbon reductions targets that the UK has signed up to on an international
basis, current discussions on the formation of 10 new enterprise zones across the UK has
downplayed the role of planning and regulation and there is hardly any mention of the importance
of environmental consideration in these developments. At the same time the government is
introducing a new duty to deliver sustainable development through the localism bill but has yet to
define what sustainable development is or means.
What was very clear in the examples we saw, particularly in Europe, but also in Curitiba, was how a
strong emphasis on environmental considerations was also conductive to achieving other economic
and social outcomes. For example, in Freiburg, the reduction in car transport transformed the way
in which the community was able to interact and connect with each other and was conductive to
the release of social capital. It has also helped to support the development of low carbon jobs and
enterprise. In Curitiba, the planning system had been used successfully to bring together economic
and environmental considerations. Investment in efficient and effective public transport systems in
the majority of the communities we visited, helped to improve people’s access to jobs and training
and was seen as a policy instrument in that regard.
7.4
The dynamics of planning and economic growth in a new community
A key assumption implicit within any discussion of planned communities is that planned
communities are deliberately created by government for a specific purpose, i.e., they are not
created or initiated by the market itself. In the UK, for example, following the damage caused by
the war and the urgent demand for new housing, the government initiated one of the biggest
house building programmes ever and effectively assumed the role of private developer77. The
precise drivers behind government deciding to take action do vary often in response to the state of
the economy. In each of the areas examined in this research, the planning of a new community
was being used as a tool by government to either manage the consequences of growth or to
encourage growth to occur. This interplay between economic growth and planning is extremely
topical in the current UK policy context which is currently grappling with the question about the
extent to which the presence or absence of planning policy has a positive or negative impact upon
economic growth? The case studies in this research give us a glimpse of this dynamic relationship
from one extreme to the other as illustrated in Figure 3.
76
Alexander A (2010) Britain’s New Towns, Garden Cities to Sustainable Communities Routledge
Heim C (1990) The Treasury as Developer Capitalist? British New Town Building in the 1950s. Journal of Economic History Vol: 50, No. 4,
December 1990
77
71
Figure 3: The dynamic relationship from one extreme to another
At one end of the spectrum were those projects that were very much planning led and driven by
the need to manage the impacts of economic growth and provide housing to meet the rising
demand. For example, the development of new towns in Japan like Tsukuba which were built to
meet the housing demand from a rapidly expanding Tokyo, or the development of urban
extensions like Kronsberg in Germany, developed to accommodate the rapidly expanding economy
of Hannover.
Perhaps the most extreme example of a new planned
planned community to accommodate growth was the
development of Sejong, being designed to house 500,000 people and act as an administrative
capital for South Korea, to replace Seoul. This city is being planned completely from scratch to be a
self sufficient town with an implicit assumption that that the economy will follow.
These
examples were often masterminded by government (both central and local) and deliberately
planned to achieve a range of outcomes for an area. There was also the rigorous planning system
of Curitiba which was extremely prescriptive about the way in which the city should develop and
actively used planning to carefully integrate public transport, land use and economic development,
to such an extent that the physical look of the city reflected
r
the policy.
In other areas, there was a more deliberate attempt to plan for growth, for example, in Hammarby
in Stockholm, the planning system was used to make more efficient use of city centre land to
accommodate housing needs and to regenerate former
former industrial areas and improve the economic
value of these areas to the city (although still heavily regulated in terms of environmental
priorities). In Korea, the Incheon Economic Zone was very firmly driven by economic priorities so
that it was less about the development of a residential community than about providing a powerful
mechanism for future economic growth and foreign investment, centred on the country’s main
airport.
To what extent can the planning system be used constructively to stimulate
stim
and encourage
economic growth and when does it become a block rather than a facilitator of that growth? In the
current UK policy context, there has been a great deal of criticism about how the planning system
constrains or distorts the operation of the market. The Coalition government have called for an
unshackling of a ‘bureaucratic
bureaucratic planning system’
system 78and an ‘unblocking’79 of the planning process in
order to boost economic growth.
78
79
Taken from Communities and Local Government press release dated
date 8 April 2011 http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/newsroom/1883285
Taken from Communities and local Government press release dated 23 March 2011 http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/newsroom/1871038
72
An important part of this reform is a new presumption “in favour of sustainable development”80
which is designed to release more land for development and speed up the process of planning
approval. Enterprise Zones are being developed in a variety of locations across the UK, in a similar
guise to that of the Incheon Free Economic Zone that we visited in South Korea. Like Incheon, the
UK enterprise Zones will have fewer planning restrictions in order to actively encourage
development.
In Sao Paulo, we saw the outcome of unplanned development and the absence of a strong planning
policy. What happens when a laisez faire economy, has grown to such an extent that it has
contributed to negative externalities in the form of massive informal housing growth which now
requires significant public investment to mitigate the impacts for the people who live there. In
Caracas, the situation was even more extreme with unbridled, unregulated economic growth
creating serious externalities in terms of air pollution, large areas of informal housing land and
extreme challenges around security and safety. For local authority members and officers in areas
like Chacao attempting to manage these challenges, they needed to address the question ‘why plan
for the city’81. In the context of the slums of Caracas or Sao Paulo, the answer may seem obvious,
but for the UK, planning is within a perfect storm at the moment and perhaps it’s a question we
need to revisit in order to understand what our planning system is for and what outcomes we
expect it to achieve.
Another challenge of planning policy and economic development is the how to plan a community
so that they are not only successful places because of the quality of accommodation provided to its
citizens, but also because they provide a good mix of employment and/or good access to
employment and training in nearby areas. Perhaps the most common response to this challenge in
the areas we researched was to improve connectivity between the new area and nearby economies
through the provision of transport infrastructure, for example, provision of a tram system in
Vauban, Freiburg and Kronsberg, Hannover. This is interesting as one of the criticisms of previous
new towns movements, both the early and later new towns movements, was that they failed to
properly address how the economics of the new communities would operate. Some were too
dependent on one employer which meant that when this employer left, the impact was crushing.
More resilient areas had a greater blend of employers and good links to other economies.
Reflecting on the strategic planning process for new towns in the UK, Alexander (2010) concludes
that a key factor in their economic success or otherwise was their connectivity to other economic
centres, their physical isolation and their over dependence upon the private car. Freiburg is
interesting in its approach to connectivity because they planned Vauban both with the provision of
high quality public transport alongside the removal entirely of the private car from the area. This
radical step appeared to have an interesting impact upon the local economy. Removing the car,
also removed the impulse to use the car for short journeys and people were encouraged to walk
within their community to access local shops, cafes and restaurants. So not only was connectivity
to the labour market tackled through the provision of an effective public transport system, but the
planning of the area also encouraged greater connectivity between residents and their very local
retail market. However, the planning department in Freiburg were keen to stress that whatever
public transport solution is used to address the challenge of connectivity, it must have the proper
investment to compete with the public car, ‘public transport must be clean, quick, safe and
cheap’.82
The presence or absence of a local economy can have a strong influence on a community’s sense of
purpose and identity. Communities who lose a major employer, particularly a historical employer,
can also in the process lose their sense of purpose and identity, such are the links between
employer and employee.
80
ibid
From interviews and meetings with Chacao planning department staff in Caracas
82
Comment from interviewee at Freiburg Planning Department
81
73
This cycle of decline can be seen, not only in some of the post war new towns such as
Cumbernauld, but in many former coalfield areas, where recovery has been slow and difficult.
Similarly, new towns that are built simply to accommodate housing need
ne
and are primarily
‘commuter’ towns can also suffer from a lack of identity as seen clearly in Tama new town in Japan.
Another interesting learning point from the new towns in our work was their use of particular
themes to encourage economic development,
development, for example, in Vauban, Freeburg and Hammarby,
Stockholm, both areas were designed with a mixture of land uses both residential and industrial.
The strong emphasis on environmental outcomes in both areas helped to strengthen and reinforce
the area’s competitive
mpetitive advantage in these types of local carbon environmental goods and services.
Similarly in South Korea, the development of the Incheon Economic Zone was themed strongly,
particularly upon the airport. Again, a deliberate attempt to encourage or make
mak the market.
7.5
The importance of community engagement models
One of the overriding confirmations that we take
away from this research is that people care about
and are interested in their neighbourhoods the
world over. From the poorest environments in the
slums of South America to well off
neighbourhoods in Sweden and Germany, people
are interested in and want influence over what
goes on around them. None of this is surprising
but is useful to be reminded of as we grapple with
delivering the new localism agenda
a
in the UK.
We saw a number of models of community
engagement which merit description. In Freiburg,
in Vauban an entirely new neighbourhood/community organisation was established. Forum
Vauban83 was initially established from existing residents groups from the surrounding areas but
grew to be populated by new residents as the development was completed over time. This model
is being used in the UK in Cambridge84 and other areas to ensure the softer yet equally important
community cohesion, local governance
governance and development issues are planned and delivered as well
as the bricks and mortar. Forum Vauban has had its issues but has been identified as one of the
successes in delivering the new community at Vauban.
In Sweden we saw the things that Stockholm City
City had put in place at Hammarby to support
community development. The City set up GlashusEtt85, an onsite community centre used for
running environmental workshops, community projects and for showcasing the development and
the new environmental technologies employed therein. This proved to be an important facility for
the local population as well as meeting the popularity of Hammarby as a destination for visiting
planners, architects, and politicians. Onsite facilities for activities to take place in are an important
aspect of establishing the new community but clearly timing of provision and funding of ongoing
running costs are important considerations to be resolved.
When we looked at Norra Djurgårdsstaden, the Stockholm Royal Sea Port redevelopment project
proj
we were interested to learn how they were taking an active role in managing community
engagement. Unlike at Hammarby where there was no resident population and it had been a major
industrial site where there was community consensus about the need to clean
clean it up and redevelop,
the City have experienced significant levels of local protest in bringing this site forward. The
decisions to proceed with the planning of the area have been challenged to national level at every
stage resulting in a two year delay in commencing construction.
83
Forum Vauban http://www.vauban.de/info/abstract2.html
Cambridge Southern Fringe – Southern Fringe Community Forum established 2011, www.cambridge.gov.uk Cambridge City Council
Cou
and South
Cambridgeshire District Councils. Orchard Park Community Forum, http://www2.insideorchardpark.com/
85
http://www.hammarbysjostad.se/glashusett/
84
74
Stockholm City has addressed this situation assertively and interestingly in part by using the inhouse marketing team to procure formal opinion surveys from the surrounding communities as
tangible evidence of support for the proposals, to give recognition to the silent majority that there
is a balance of views to be considered in bringing the development forward.
In Japan we learnt about bottom up community engagement in the planning process. Created with
the aim of improving the quality of the local environment and of environmental management
processes such activities are widely referred to as machizukuri. This approach emerged to
popularity in Japan over the last 15 – 20 years and particularly during the reconstruction of Kobe
after the 1995 earthquake. Japan has traditionally had a top down system of managing the process
of urban change, derived in part from the history of reconstruction from war or disaster. That
legacy combined with a cultural reticence to comment and raise objection meant that citizen
engagement with the state over planning matters had largely been a symbolic process.
Machizukuri processes operate at the neighbourhood level, with small machizukuri teams being set
up and assisted by consultants to help develop a community vision86. Officials in planning and
related functions have had to be trained to regard citizen engagement as a ‘duty that has to be
facilitated’ by them as a way of comprehending its importance. The rise of popularity of this form
of bottom up engagement in Japan can be highlighted as a trend towards increased civic
participation in managing urban change in and has clearly impacted upon the institutions involved
in placemaking and neighbourhood governance.
We asked about the development of new communities and the role that machizukuri type
processes could or should have played in supporting relationship building and the development of
community cohesion between new and old residents in areas subject to development change. This
was one of the issues that Ichihara-san Mayor of Tsukuba drew our attention to in their experience
of developing the city. Tsukuba Academic City had absorbed three existing small towns and a
number of existing villages and rural areas within its boundaries. He highlighted that there had not
been enough investment in the development of the new communities and community engagement
between existing and new residents during the development process. He felt there was a lack of
overall cohesion in the communities of the new city and this was a failing in the way the city had
been developed/delivered. The same was so between the research and residential communities.
He saw machizukuri as a positive means by which communities could be engaged around on-going
planning and development issues.
In the favelas of Sao Paulo and Caracas we heard again and again about the need for community
engagement models that work for those communities. In Sao Paulo in the Paraisopolis favela they
had set up a community building on site, that was being used for meetings and discussions about
the changes that were being planned in that area. Sao Paulo City staff based there were constantly
out and about in the favela area, meeting people, being seen, helping and gaining the communities
trust and confidence. They told us there had been 1000 meetings in the last year alone. The
manager of the project told us that there had been great fear for personal safety amongst the staff
asked to undertake this work and that she had got through six teams of people before the current
team had stabilised87.
In Caracas, we discussed this with Federico Villaneuve88 and his view that community participation
has been a key to the work in the Barrios over the last few decades and is being seen around the
world as a successful way of handling interventions in the informal settlements. Sensitive
engagement combined with urban acupuncture89 a participatory design approach to improve Barrio
areas has been a successful model of intervention.
86
From Toshikeikaku to Machizukuri – Urban Planning in Tokyo with special reference to the participation of residents. Silke Vogt, Department of
Geography University of Bonn
87
Interview with Maria Teresa Diniz, Coordenadora - Paraisopolis, Prefitura da Cidade De Sao Paulo
88
Interview with Federico Villanueve (son of Carlos Raul Villanueve the architect responsible for some of the best post-modern buildings in Caracas
including the Central University)
89
Alfredo Brillemburg et al Urban Think Tank 1993
75
Villeneuve’s view was that handled well, community participation in barrios projects could create
an explosion in community participation. It was about practitioners using their skills to help
communities develop their own social capital and do it for themselves, with support, not about
being done to.
7.5.1 Conclusions
This research has allowed us to look in a wide but relatively shallow way at models of community
engagement being practiced in the places we looked at around the world. What is clear is that this
is increasingly important in all communities and that the models used must be the appropriate
ones, culturally for those communities. The successful approaches have seemed to rely on the
‘officials’ in the process having a very clear role to provide support or skills or knowledge. To have
responsibility to facilitate engagement and support action that the people in those communities
want to get on with it.
As we move into localism in the UK there are approaches that we have seen elsewhere that offer
merit in experimentation about the ways that engagement with communities can be supported.
7.6
The challenge of planning for household lifecycles and securing resilient
maturation in new planned communities
One of the issues for new communities and their resilience that came across very strongly was the
need to plan for and then take a long term view on changing household and community
infrastructure needs in the maturation of those communities. We found this issue to be very much
alive in the European communities we visited as well as in Japan and recent research90 in the UK
demonstrates this to be the case in the new communities here91. Put simply, research suggests
that successful and resilient places need an ongoing diversity of households at all life stages. “We
should aim for a critical mass of people at different life stages: children, working age population
and the elderly, so that each group can develop their own social networks and facilities”92.
In Vauban, Germany this issue was aptly demonstrated where we observed a new community that
had been subject to early adoption by a significant number of young families. Attracted by the eco
and environmentally friendly lifestyle promoted at Vauban and the car free play streets and
groupings of like-minded families it had become a popular place to buy or rent a home. In the early
days this had helped the new population meld together with the pre-school and schools
contributing as a focus for community development and social mixing. Play spaces were fully
integrated within the development and in some areas children were actively engaged in the design
and delivery of the play areas.
90
The steps to Quality Growth- Cambridgeshire Horizons, Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council 2007 and ‘Knitting
together- Planning and our ageing population’ Planning Advisory Service 2009,
91
Lessons from Cambourne- South Cambridgeshire District Council and others
92
Op cit Cambridgeshire Horizons above
76
The car free approach, discouragement of on-street parking and promotion of slow modes of travel
like walking and cycling lent themselves to a popular family friendly environment.
When we visited Vauban in spring 2010 a new issue was emerging. In Germany home ownership is
not as common as in the UK and people tend to buy a house and stay there, having saved longer to
purchase in the first place. In Vauban this pattern was also being observed and the original
community of early adopter households was growing up, with low churn in the housing stock and a
smaller number of new comers moving in. This makes for a very stable community in the early
years but over time means that the community matures at a similar rate. This pattern puts pressure
on infrastructure in peaks, early years on education, health, leisure and associated facilities and
then later on youth facilities, even later on health and elder care facilities.
This issue was not anticipated in the original planning of Vauban and residents and the public
bodies now have a real issue with 700 bored middle class teenagers roaming the streets each
evening with little to do. The original children’s play facilities set within close-knit housing are now
a focus for teenage gatherings giving rise to complaints about anti-social behaviour and vandalism.
Those youth facilities that were planned for are unable to cope with the numbers involved and the
scale of the issue at this point in time. There was discussion about converting the current oversupply of pre-school accommodation into more facilities for young people but that had not
progressed into a fully formed solution.
It’s not helpful to say that this outcome will arise in every planned new community but it is clear
that the law of unintended consequences can emerge even in otherwise exemplar new
communities. This issue points to a level of sophistication being needed in the multiple dimensions
that go into the planning of new communities at the outset to avoid these problems emerging.
The projects we saw in Japan alerted us to issues at the other end of the household lifecycle
spectrum. The need to ensure that older people are independent, supported, confident, valued,
active and contributing to their communities. In Tama New Town and Kashiwa City outside Tokyo
we saw how the other end of the household life cycle and maturation issues were manifesting
themselves in households who were the original occupiers that have now grown old. In Tsukuba
City we asked the Mayor what he felt made for a resilient community and he said he felt that it
changes from one generation to the next, it’s a moving target, hard to pin down.
Both Tama and Kashiwa provided significant new public and rented housing stock just over 30 years
ago to relieve pressure on urban Tokyo. Those communities were settled by pioneer early adopter
households who by and large had their families there, they brought their families up, their children
‘fledged’ and left home leaving their parents behind. Both Tama and Kashiwa faced significant
social mix and infrastructure issues when over 60% of the resident population in some
neighbourhoods were aged 65 and older. In Kashiwa social isolation for elderly, retired male
salarymen was a particular issue, demonstrating the need to understand a wide range of influences
upon the resilience of communities as they age.
Communities which are unbalanced in the diversity of their households lack resilience. Large
numbers of households that are socially, economically and physically inactive, or isolated and frail
and in need of some supervision can dominate a community negatively. These are not just spatial
issues but are part of planning for communities that reflect the changing shape of society today and
tomorrow.
Conflicts can emerge in planning for an ageing community where availability of land or public
resources for a growing demographic takes place in the face of priorities that conflict with their
needs. In the UK this has often been about a desire to have bungalow accommodation for older
residents to decant them out of family accommodation but where such built form is viewed as
wasteful at a time of pressure on housing land.
77
The issue is much wider than simply the accommodation and is as much about supporting
independent living for as long as possible. Many solutions exist to addressing these issues but in the
UK it’s also as much about raising awareness of the growing issue and the available solutions,
particularly through the planning process.
In Kashiwa city this issue was being tackled in an innovative redevelopment project (see elsewhere
in this report) that is combining targeted redevelopment of outdated accommodation with housing
management and support. This is promoting greater diversity in the households in that community,
supporting a greater range of representation of household lifecycle stages and making for a much
more resilient and self sustaining community for people to grow up and grow old in. This is a
reactive approach faced with a problem that has developed over time. We can learn from this
experience and try and inform practice in the UK on the need for long term, sophisticated planning
of new communities.
7.7
The ingredients of successful and resilient places
One of the key questions for this research has been to develop an understanding of what
constitutes a successful and resilient community. During our research, we repeatedly asked
interviewees about their perceptions of what constituted a resilient or successful place, based upon
their experience of developing planned communities in their own areas? Table x below
summarises a cross section of responses gathered from our interviews and discussions in each of
the case study areas.
Table 2: Cross section of responses gathered from interviews and discussions in each of the case
study areas
Country/community
Europe (Germany,
Sweden, Finland)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Seoul and Sejong,
South Korea
•
•
•
•
93
Perceptions of what made a successful place
Environmental sustainability (local energy generation reduced
consumption), mixed land use uses, community development
approachVauban traffic free approach, ‘car is not king’93 makes
people happier, particularly families.
Planning for the ‘human scale’ and creating opportunity space
within the design.
Variety and diversity in the planning process – e.g., variety of
residents, of designs, of developers involved in the project.
Community engagement and participation, e.g. Baugruppen.
A different way of thinking – of recognising the Symbiosis between
challenges and solutions within a planned community, for example,
waste becomes energy.
Breaking down traditional planning barriers between land uses (i.e.
residential, economic and leisure).
Strong sense of civic pride where people feel happy.
Ubiquitous technology to provide greater convenience.
Good networks and communication systems which discussion,
networking and the opportunity for the exchange of ideas.
Self sufficient communities where people can access services, green
space and employment.
Quote from one of the interviewees in Freiburg
Country/community
Tsukuba and Kashiwa,
Japan
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sao Paulo and
Curitiba, Brazil
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Caracas, Venezuela
•
•
•
•
78
Perceptions of what made a successful place
There is 'no well planned place in Japan'.
The nature of an effective community is a moving target and the
sense of what makes a community changes from one generation to
the next.
Identity is important – creating a sense of place.
Convenience (‘benri’) is important so that communities have good
access to services
Encouraging mixing of different (social) groups in a community as
well as mix of design and shape
Need all generations in a community, all spectrums of ages, both
young and old alike, so that all generations needed in a balanced
community.
Communities need leaders
Linking of communities through networks, relationships to
encourage community participation, co-operation and mixing of
different types of people
Quality of infrastructure and access to services
Changing mindset and perceptions – seeing slum dwellers as part of
the city rather than peripheral or a problem to be dealt with
Security and safety
Access to opportunities for urban poor who are otherwise excluded
Flexibility of approach
Planning for people
Power and authority to do planning for the common good of an
area and to integrate planning with land use and economic
development
A good community has a strong sense of purpose
Good infrastructure and services, leisure and recreational facilities,
distinctiveness, walking and squares, skills and education, diversity
of population, employment that is proximate and convenient and
accessible, compact form of city
infrastructure and services including recreation, public space, safe
environment, mobility access and opportunities for social
interaction
Mixed land use, quality public spaces/greenery creating a good
looking city which has a strong vision for the future.
The comments in Table 2 above illustrate how perceptions of what makes a successful and resilient
place vary from place to place and illustrate how culture and context can have a powerful influence
on what people value. In Germany, Sweden and Finland the successfulness of a place was closely
paralleled with its environmental sustainability, reflecting their national policy concern about the
long term impacts of climate change and their ambition to move towards a low carbon economy.
Environmental considerations were also strongly supported by the communities who actively chose
areas like Vauban and Hammarby because of their environmental characteristics. There was also a
strong assumption in favour of the role that the public sector can play in planning new places,
reflecting the largely centre left political complexion of these countries.
In contrast, environmental sustainability was not as high on the agenda in Korea. Here, rapid
economic growth during the last decade has given the country the ability to develop new
infrastructure and renovate and renew their urban architecture, including historical monuments
and buildings.
79
Our discussions revealed the desire amongst Korean planners and architects to assert Korea’s
identity both as a member of the global economy and as a country that had for many years, been
subject to colonial rule by Japan. The national mood was in upbeat, confident and excited about
the potential role that Korea could play in the future, in sharp contrast to that of the UK. This
upbeat and ambitious attitude was reflected in their planning approach in both the style and scale
of the projects being undertaken. What was also different about the perceptions in Korea as
opposed to Europe and other areas was their assumption that if you design and build housing,
infrastructure and services, the process of developing and forming a community will happen, but it
does not necessarily require further intervention by the state.
Comments from Japan about the nature of a resilient place felt most similar to the UK. Like the UK,
Japan has been through many episodes of developing and building new communities and they are
much more concerned, like the UK, about how a community works once the building and
construction has been completed. The ageing workforce in Japan is also having a strong influence
on their ideas about resilient places with the comments about the need for places to be home to
many different types of people of all ages.
The comments from Sao Paulo and Caracas reflect the very different state of planning communities
that exist in South America where the emphasis is upon tackling the high levels of poverty and
deprivation among the slum dwellers. However, both Sao Paulo and Caracas are approaching this
challenge in different ways, illustrating that influence of that politics can have on perceptions of
what makes a successful place. In Caracas particularly, the socialist Chavez regime has asserted a
very strong vision of what he sees as the ideal community of the future to replace the barrios.
Instead, he is planning a network of ‘socialist cities’ to which he plans to decant the people of the
barrios and create a ‘new balance of power’. The vision for these new cities is a utopian vision of
an agri-industrial community, reminiscent of the ideals of former communist eastern bloc
countries, and in fact the government is getting technical advice from some of the former designers
and planners who worked on the creation of similar cities in Belarus at the height of the cold war.
The ingredients of what makes a successful place in this scenario are dictated by Chavez’ particular
brand of socialist politics and used as a mechanism by Chavez’ to convince the poorest of
Venezuela that he is ‘on their side’.94
Unsurprisingly perhaps, Infrastructure, including access to services, transport and amenities,
emerges as a priority for a successful place in every area. In almost any handbook, academic
paper or report written about successful place making or urban planning, infrastructure emerges as
an important issue. Community and social infrastructure has emerged as an important issue. Green
(parks, play spaces and open space type) infrastructure featured strongly in many of the projects
we researched; with the majority of interviewees agreeing that good green infrastructure was an
important ingredient of any successful place. Transport and general connectivity was also a
commonly cited infrastructure requirement, necessary to help citizens access employment,
education and training opportunities. Again, the scale of infrastructure varied from enormous
underground extensions at in Incheon Korea, high speed bus transit systems in Curitiba to the
provision of roads and pathways in the slums of Sao Paulo.
We also got a feel for how infrastructure is changing and evolving with the development of ‘U
cities’ in Korea which rely on ubiquitous technology infrastructure to ensure that residents are able
to undertake many day to day activities such as paying bills, doing shopping and working via high
speed broadband.
Commentators on the importance of infrastructure in communities, particularly new communities
have emphasised the importance of building on existing infrastructure wherever possible to
improve sustainability, efficiency and cost effectiveness.
94
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/26/AR2007112602205.html?hpid=moreheadlines
80
There has also been a growing awareness in the UK not only of the need for basic infrastructure,
but infrastructure which is environmentally sustainable.95 From the projects we examined, the
strongest commitment to the idea of environmentally sustainable infrastructure came from
European examples, particularly Germany and Sweden and the transport developments in Curitiba.
The comments also highlight the importance of community infrastructure which is key to the
success of the ‘softer’ community development issues, providing opportunities in a community for
people at all life cycle stages to develop networks and the social structures that contribute to
successful places. What the Project for Places in Melbourne Australia calls, the importance of
‘sociability’ in communities:
‘This is a difficult quality for a place to achieve, but once attained it becomes an unmistakable
feature. When people see friends, meet and greet their neighbours, and feel comfortable
interacting with strangers, they tend to feel a stronger sense of place or attachment to their
community – and to the place that fosters these types of social activities.’ 96
The communities we visited had a variety of ideas about how this could be achieved, particularly in
Japan and in Europe where there was a strong belief in the role of the planning system in helping to
influence not only the physical infrastructure such as roads and parks but the creation of an
environment which was conductive to community cohesion and networking. This is an idea that
has long influenced planning in the UK and has been a mainstream requirement in the planning of
new communities for some time. Many of the new towns were deliberately built with a full range
of community facilities which included not only schools and shops but community centres and
public buildings. The degree to which the delivery of community and social infrastructure is a
success in new planned communities in the UK is still open to question but there is significant
evidence of its importance and the learning from recent development such as Cambourne in
Cambridgeshire to draw upon.
Environmental determinism as a concept in the planning of new settlements has been called into
question in the last twenty years as ways of encouraging a sense of community and sociability to
develop through the design of the built environment have often been a failure. Perhaps the most
famous example being the ‘streets in the sky’ concept, famously taken forward in the Park Hill
estate in Sheffield97. Simply providing the physical infrastructure and services is not enough, a
point reinforced by Stott et al (2009) ‘there is an assumption that the physical environment and
layout will create community cohesion’ 98.
More recently the idea that the process of planning a new area can help to release social and
community capital which in turn can help build community cohesion and more resilient place has
gained significant importance in place making activities. As this research has illustrated,
particularly from the examples in Germany and Brazil, there also needs to be an active community
development approach where local officials help to support communities to build social capital and
empower residents to take a more active role in the planning and running of their communities.
Consideration also needs to be given to the mix of communities in an area which is particularly
influenced by the type of housing and tenure of housing provided.
95
Falk N (2010) Cambridge horizons
Quote taken from the PPS Project for Public Spaces http://www.pps.org/articles/grplacefeat/
97
Reference taken from description of the Park Hill estate at http://www.open2.net/modernity/3_12.htm
98
Stott M, Stott, N and Wiles C. (2009) Learning from the Past? Building community in new towns, growth areas and new communities. Keystone
Development Trust
96
7.8
81
Conclusions
Delivering resilient communities requires:
99
research suggests that delivering a wide range and size of house-types is the best way to
create a resilient household/community mix, and one that is lasting over time. Which
household mix is appropriate will differ from country to country;
high levels of child or older household densities need to be planned carefully and
development approaches that seek a mix of house types will help this;
ensuring communities are accessible on foot and by a range of transport means for all
participants is a necessity to avoid isolation in new communities (e.g. young parents and the
single elderly) and increase dependency on the private car;
ensuring retail, health and other facilities are available in proximity to where people live;
recognise the shifts over time in how people spend their time and planning for volunteering,
leisure and cultural activities;
not losing sight of the social and economic capital locked up in communities;
ensuring health care facilities are accessible to everyone;
monitoring the success of new communities is increasingly important as communities change
over time and infrastructure provision needs to be resilient or flexible or both;
there is inherent complexity in planning for and delivering successful new communities,
research undertaken on behalf of Cambridgeshire Horizons, Cambridge City and South
Cambridgeshire District Council – ‘Balanced and mixed Communities-a good practice
guide’99, demonstrates the complexity in the various elements that contribute to delivering
successful communities.
Cambridgeshire Horizons

PLANNING FOR RESILIENT COMMUNITIES LEARNING FROM

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