15th INTERNATIONAL PLANNING HISTORY SOCIETY CONFERENCE
PAPER TITLE: Design of a Good City – Creating a 21st Century City in
Developing Countries (and bringing about Social Reform)
AUTHOR NAME: Nana-Yaw A. Andoh
Address: SUNY
Delhi, 150 Farnsworth Hall, Delhi NY 13753 (USA)
Email: [email protected]
ABSTRACT
The design of a good city is closely linked to the social life of its citizens; “The way we build
affects the way we live.” My paper will address issues currently facing developing countries
by (1) Introducing the current lack of a proper infrastructure in developing countries and its
social impact. (2) Speak about the basic components that define a good city by
referencing historically successful cities, and (3) Outline how developing countries can
plan a good city and bring about social reform.
(1)The current problem facing developing cities can be attributed to two issues; (a) a lack
of multiple centers and (b) a lack of proper planning. There are no established mixed-use
building types in these cities that lead to a separation of uses. The result is a dependency
on the automobile when there aren’t enough roads to sustain the growing development,
and the existing roads are in poor condition.
(2)What are the basic planning and building components of a good city? Beginning with
the basics and working backwards, Cities are made up of Towns, Towns are made up of
Neighborhoods, and Neighborhoods are up of streets and blocks (S&B). In essence the
DNA of a City is its system of Streets and Blocks (S&B). Once the S&B system has been
configured, next is the disposition of buildings within the system to create groups of
neighborhoods which form a town, and groups of towns which form the city. The traditional
neighborhood is one where daily human activity can be lived to its fullest within a half mile
walking radius. The building typologies required to make this feasible as discussed by
Professor Westfall are (1)Tholos/Monument (2)Templum/Temple (3)Regia/Gov’t or Civic
(4)Theater/Entertainment (5)Taberna/Shops (6)Domus/Residential. The characteristics of a
good city is one which pays attention to the disposition of these building types with respect
to how the citizens of the city live from day to day.
(3)Lastly I will outline seven (7) steps I believe can lead to an effective urban planning
policy for developing countries to follow and effectively bring about social reform and an
improved quality of life.
Step 1: Record the existing infrastructure.
Survey the current existing infrastructure and document everything electronically.
Step 2: Honor your past.
Streets should be given names of significance
Step 3: Quadrants/ Townships.
Divide the city into smaller townships or quadrants.
Step 4: Master Plan
Design new roads/ streets where needed. Plan for new buildings and renovations to
existing.
Step 5: New Building Types.
Invent new building types to support the current lifestyle of the city.
Step 6: Public Spaces.
Create usable public spaces for multiple uses.
Cities, nations and regions in planning history
Step 7: Love your City and take pride in it!
“Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved
her!” G.K. Chesterton.
If these 7 basic steps are followed, I am very sure we will see a wonderful improvement in
the urban infrastructure and the quality of life in developing cities, a good recipe for positive
social reform.
SUBTITLE
The design of a good city is closely linked to the social life of its citizens; “The way we
build affects the way we live.” My paper will address issues currently facing developing
countries by (1) Introducing the current lack of a proper infrastructure in developing
countries and its social impact. (2) Speak about the basic components that define a
good city by referencing other historically successful cities, and (3) Outline how
developing countries can plan a good city and bring about social reform.
I.
Introduction of issues
Science often describes man as a social animal and Aristotle takes this concept a step
further by calling the city man’s greatest achievement due to its ideal as a socially
interactive setting designed to bring out the best in man and enable us to achieve our
greatest accomplishments. The question we need to then ask ourselves is “are cities in
developing countries allowing its citizens to
live life to its fullest potential? Is the social,
political and economic infrastructure set up to
enhance the quality of life of the citizens? If
not, how can the urban landscape be better
designed to address these key issues?”
Three simple letters define a much larger
problem in many developing cities – GPS
(Global Positioning System). From my
personal experience in Accra, a GPS system
in a car is about as useless as a snow
Image 1. One of the many undefined "streets"
making machine is to an Inuit. Streets have
in Accra.
no names and can barely be defined as a
proper means of automobile travel, some neighborhoods are actual fields of aluminum
sheds with no discernible urban pattern or addresses, and this is in the capital city of
Ghana, Accra (image 1).
The social implications of living in a city as I just described is a culture of corruption
based on a system of little to no accountability of ones’ actions due to the simple fact
that there are no means by which the citizens can actually be accounted for.
Here are a couple of scenarios to explain what I mean:
1. A car runs a red light in a developed country. A camera mounted on the light
takes a picture of the car’s license plate. The license plate is linked to a
registration which provides the culprits’ name and address. A week later, the
culprit receives a ticket for the violation in the mail.
15th INTERNATIONAL PLANNING HISTORY SOCIETY CONFERENCE
2.
3.
A person on a bike grabs a lady’s purse on the street. A chase ensues and the
person drops the bike and jumps a fence. The bike is retrieved. The police scan
the barcode on the bike and find out where the bike was purchased. The police
take the bike to the store and the store determines when the bike was
purchased and exactly when it was scanned through the register. It was paid for
by a credit card, and the name of the owner is provided, which gives the police
the address of a possible suspect.
Taxes. As much as we all dislike taxes and some of the things that our tax
money actually pays for, there’s no denying the fact that in developed nations
all meaningful roads are paved, public schools are free and so are public
libraries, and at least there’s an illusion of transparency with regard to knowing
that you are paying into a system designed to enhance the public good.
Why are these scenarios important? A person who runs a red light in Accra simply keeps
going without any repercussion. Even if a police officer is close by and pulls you over,
there is no address to mail a ticket if the summons is not paid. That means the officer is
supposed to escort the culprit to jail until the fine is paid. What usually happens is the
officer gets paid and the culprit leaves. Now here’s the dilemma, does the officer actually
report the payment or simply put the money in his pocket to put more food on his dinner
table? In the second scenario, sorry ma’am, but your purse is gone forever. Hope there
was nothing important in the purse and that you like the bike left behind. In the third
scenario, I would love to know who pays taxes in developing countries and if they know
what the money actually goes to at the end of the day because there’s no way you can
tell by driving around since very few roads are paved, there are no free public school
systems and even fewer free public libraries, and definitely no transparency, not even an
illusion.
II.
Basic Components of a Good City
So what defines a good city and how does such a city enhance the lives of its citizens
and its politics? I would argue that great cities begin with an idea that serves as the
foundation for the physical manefestation of what the city will become. With the general
idea in mind and working backwards, Cities are made up of Towns, Towns are made up
of Neighborhoods, and Neighborhoods are made up of streets and blocks (S&B). In
essence the DNA of a City is its system of Streets and Blocks (S&B). Once the S&B
system has been configured, next is the disposition of buildings within the system to
create groups of neighborhoods which form a town, and groups of towns which form the
city with the objective of enhancing the original idea. The traditional neighborhood is one
where daily human activity can be lived to its fullest within a half mile walking radius. The
building typologies required to make this feasible as discussed by Professor Westfall at
the University of Notre Dame are; (1)Tholos/Monument (2)Templum/Temple
(3)Regia/Gov’t
or
Civic
(4)Theater/Entertainment
(5)Taberna/Shops
(6)Domus/Residential. The characteristics of a good city is one which pays attention to
the disposition of these building types with respect to how the citizens of the city live from
day to day.
Politically this means putting the design of the city ahead of the individual for the greater
good of the citizens. There was once a time when undertaking a large building campaign
Cities, nations and regions in planning history
in order to leave a lasting legacy and improve the urban landscape of a specific city was
the main political goal. All the great places we love to discuss as excellent precedent for
good urbanism with a solid infrastructure were not always so. It took lots of like-minded
people with the foresight and will to leave behind a building legacy that enhanced these
particular places. Think of Rome, St. Petersburg, Washington DC, Chicago and
Philadelphia. What all these cities have in common are people who assumed leadership
roles in determining the design direction of the city by developing an idea of what they
wanted their city to embody, and over a very long period of time, design decisions were
made in order for these cities to become some of the greatest places in the world to visit
and more importantly, to live in.
With this concept in mind, I’d like to briefly discuss the city of Rome and its proud
building history, and if there are any lessons to be learned in order to bring the great
building philosophy and tradition to current practice.
Rome like every other medieval city was a series of inter-connected slums. All the great
buildings of the time, mainly the churches and palaces of the early Middle Ages existed
as isolated complexes not connected to the urban fabric or built outside the city walls.
Through a lot of political turmoil, it took the vision of one pope to design the basic
foundation and design philosophy which essentially set the ball rolling to make Rome
what it is today, Pope Paschal I (817 – 824). The papacy during this time was always
being challenged (by the Lombards, Carolingians, Franks, etc. between the 1st – 6th
centuries) and Rome was always under some form of attack and the general state of the
city was constant chaos. Battles between the Franks, Lombards, and Romans (in or
around 817 AD) for control over the Italian peninsula and control over Christendom was a
large political motivator for Pope Paschal I in his decision to transform Rome into a city
worthy of being the capital of the very young Christian religion (keeping in mind that the
Battle of the Milvian Bridge happened in 312 AD, thus making Christianity a recognized
religion in Rome under the emperor Constantine) and started a building campaign with
the design philosophy meant to project the official Papal authority in the city of Rome.
Under the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, the new empire chose to recognize
Christianity by building basilicas over important burial sites such as St. Peter’s and St.
Paul’s basilicas, both outside the walls of the city. In order to bring importance to the city
of Rome, Pope Paschal I begun searching for relics of important saints and having the
remains brought inside the walls of the city and transforming medieval churches into
pilgrimage sites and building new churches for other saints. This massive building
campaign was initiated to project the power and authority of the papacy within the city.
This change in ideology shifted the attention from isolated precincts devoted to particular
gods and isolated entities such as basilicas and made the city the receptacle of a single,
shared sacred entity, God. It is for this reason that the system of streets in the city of
Rome conform to serve a higher purpose, and not merely for commerce.
As Caroline Goodson talks about in her book The Rome of Pope Paschal I – Papal Power,
Urban Renovation, Church Rebuilding and Relic Translation, 817 – 824, one very
important side effect of the church building project was that as Christianity begun to take
hold in Rome, the celebration of the saints and the churches where they rested gained
momentum, and as the crowds got larger, the celebrations were taken to public outdoor
spaces, which then evolved into processional routes, a topic discussed in-depth by
David Mayernik, Timeless Cities: An Architects Reflections on Renaissance Italy. As
processional routes became more defined (such as The Possesso – the procession
route taken by a newly elected pope from St. Peter’s Basilica to St. John Lateran in
Rome), buildings along these routes now had to be rehabilitated to enhance the
15th INTERNATIONAL PLANNING HISTORY SOCIETY CONFERENCE
experience of the procession, and that is how Rome started to re-design itself. Without
really intending to turn the city into a series of events, Pope Paschal I had built Rome into
a city that visitors could recognize and also see how the citizens cared for their city.
Buildings were shaped to conform to the larger profile of public spaces, doors were
moved to align with certain streets, fountains were placed in public spaces as urban
markers while providing much needed water to citizens of Rome, and very slowly a very
magnificent city begun to arise, one small building project after the other.
After the precedent set by Pope Paschal I numerous popes followed in his footsteps by
putting massive efforts into building campaigns, all with the singular goal of making
Rome the center of the world by projecting authority through its urban landscape. For a
medieval city with a poor infrastructure, lack of a good sewer system, and a lack of
potable water for bathing and drinking, every pope took it upon themselves to provide
the citizens with any amenity to not only enhance their quality of life but to also generate
love for the city. Grand bath houses and fountains emerged, the famous aqueducts were
constructed, and tunnels were dug to install sewer systems. Anytime a building came
crumbling down due to an earthquake, fire, or sometime just old age and poor
construction, its remains were reused to build something new.
During his five year reign as pope, Sixtus V (1585 – 1590) made perhaps some of the
greatest contributions to the city of Rome through a comprehensive urban planning
campaign that brought clarity to the city’s layout. At his request, entire buildings and
even some neighborhoods were demolished (all for the greater good of Rome) to create
streets linking some of the most important religious sites in Rome. As the city had
become a pilgrimage site, Sixtus V went through the effort of bringing clarity through the
city, and his legacy can still be seen today in the form of the large obelisks that mark the
pilgrimage sites in Rome and leads visitors through what used to be a maze. The famous
trident (three streets leading from Piazza del Popolo) which brings visitors into the city
can be clearly identified in the Nolli Plan as being of a different age from most of the
medieval streets of Rome (straight streets vs. winding roads – renaissance planning vs.
medieval planning, or lack of planning.)
I even dare say that to some extent, Benito Mussolini (1883 – 1945) made some
contributions to Rome in his attempt to improve the city’s status just as popes had
before him. In his own fascist way, he also tore down buildings and neighborhoods
creating wide avenues to visually connect specific places such as Castel Sant’angelo to
St. Peter’s Cathedral and Piazza Veneto to the Coliseum (because apparently the view
from his balcony to the famous landmark was being obstructed by an entire
neighborhood of buildings), and along the way unearthing some of ancient Rome’s most
priceless ruins which we see today.
Rome exists today as a series of conscious design decisions made by like-minded
people in an effort to create a noble city, an eternal city, and its sentiment is perfectly
summed up by GK Chesterton, “Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was
great because they had loved her.” Essentially one does not take the time to enhance the
appearance of a place if there was no affection for the place to begin with.
Having a design philosophy is paramount (an idea), be it the projection of papal authority
or making a city the center of a specific religion. However not every city has popes nor
wants to be the center of a specific religion. More likely the projection of civic authority
tends to be the design philosophy with examples such as Paris, St. Petersburg and
Washington DC and I’d like to discuss all three cities briefly.
The city of Paris developed very much like Rome with regard to a medieval city being
transformed into a planned renaissance city with much of the credit going to Charles V
Cities, nations and regions in planning history
and Charles VI in the middle to late 13th century. Paris developed much later than Rome
and as Edmund Bacon points out, the superimposition of Italian ideas on the medieval
city was quite apparent. The basic design philosophy (the idea) was politically inspired
structure and order to a medieval city through the re-structuring of streets, the creation of
avenues and boulevards, and magnificent palaces as symbols of civic authority.
St. Petersburg on the other hand is one of the few great cities built in its entirety after
Renaissance design ideas had reached their full maturity according to Edmund Bacon.
Its planners had available to them the experience of a broad range of completed civic
works. In 1712 Peter the Great essentially decided Russia needed a new capital city
(since he was tired of Moscow) and decided it would be designed along the banks of the
Neva River (possibly an attempt to equal Paris which had achieved a grand scale along
its Seine River). Whether it was love of country or love of ones’ self, it can be argued that
both reasons were necessary for Peter the Great to initiate a building campaign that
would equal Paris and Rome, while opening up a once isolated country in the Asian
landmass to the western world.
Federal Dignity is the title of the chapter Edmund Bacon choses to describe Major Pierre
L’Enfant’s original design for Washington DC. The meeting of the city and Potomac River
was a focal design point placing it in common with other great cities such as Venice,
Florence, Paris and St. Petersburg. To borrow a line from one of my favorite movies, The
American President, “Washington DC is a city designed to intimidate foreign leaders,” and
this sentiment is carried out through the dominating presence of the Capitol Building and
its grand forecourt also known as the Washington Mall, the presence of the White House,
also visible from the mall, and later additions of grand structures such as the Jefferson
and Lincoln Memorials all add to the grandeur of the city. The essence of Washington
DC (the idea) is a physical manifestation of the fundamental civic identity upon which the
United States was founded, both in its urban design and architectural details.
What all these places have in common socially are citizens who are proud to be
residents of these cities and visitors who just cannot seem to get enough making tourism
one of the major sources of income for most of these cities. Tourism is an excellent
motivator both politically and socially and some cities are better designed to take
advantage than others.
As citizens of these cities see the physical manifestation of their tax money improving the
quality of life for the public good allows society to function relatively well and peacefully.
Discord occurs when there’s a lack of transparency and accountability from public
officials and the citizens don’t see any changes in their way of life regardless of how
much effort they put into making it better.
III.
Guideline to re-building and social reform
So how do we re-build cities in developing countries to address the critical issues I have
addressed? I will attempt to outline seven steps that I believe can be used as a basic
guideline (and it helps to begin with an idea of what you want the physical manifestation
of the city to embody).
15th INTERNATIONAL PLANNING HISTORY SOCIETY CONFERENCE
Step 1: Record the existing infrastructure.
Without necessarily placing a moratorium on current building projects, all existing
infrastructure needs to be documented and accounted for electronically. This process
will be very long and time consuming and needs to be well planned before the process
begins.
Politicians and design experts will need to collaborate and determine the limits of the city
for documentation purposes. This may be easier in some cases since most developing
countries tend to have guard stations (similar to toll booths) at the entrances and exits for
major cities and these could be a starting point to determining where the city begins and
ends. Other criteria unique to each location can and should be taken into account to
make the city limits more definable.
Design experts need to set parameters for what is worth documenting. Is an entire area
where structures are constructed from sticks and aluminum sheds worth documenting
individually or simply shown as an occupied area with removable structures?
Part of the documentation will have to include the existing topography and other natural
features such as wetlands, waterways, etc. that might be affected, obscured or
threatened by negligence and might be usefully rehabilitated or incorporated into a later
master plan.
New software is readily available for large scale graphic documentation such as GIS
systems. These can actually scan entire areas and document all structures and changes
in topography both two and three-dimensionally with more accuracy.
The documentation will result in an existing master plan of the city showing where all
buildings are located as well as roads, streets and any visible infrastructure such as open
gutters next to streets, etc. and natural geological formations including elevation changes
in the topography and significant waterways. This information is critical as it will
determine future building sites, setbacks, street locations and permissible widths.
Step 2: Honor your past.
Once the existing documentation phase has been completed, there needs to be a short
period allowed for the city to honor its past by beginning to name the streets and this
process should be as inclusive as possible.
One of the most amazing things about growing up in a developing country is although
streets have no specific names they seem to have an identity which over time morphs
into a street name that becomes widely accepted. Get into any taxi or mass
transportation and they all know what your destination is when the name or street
description is given. Hence I strongly believe that a process of honoring the past should
include the formal adaptation of such street names.
For political reasons it will also be important to honor former leaders of the nation by
reserving special streets to be named after such people of historic significance. Such
important street names can also bring social awareness to the citizens as a way to
connect with their own history.
Another option to make this process easier is to simply have the option of using numbers
rather than names for streets (such as 1st street, 2nd avenue, etc) and reserve the named
streets for boulevards.
Regardless of the option chosen, after the length of time used to document the existing
conditions, a period of three months should be enough to give every existing street a
name. The first month should be used to advertise and schedule neighborhood meetings
to discuss which streets are being named and the process by which the name will be
chosen. The second month should be dedicated to weekly meetings to narrow down
Cities, nations and regions in planning history
choices for the names of the various streets. The third month will result in names being
selected for each street and temporary street signs being designed and erected to mark
each street as decided upon. The temporary signage is significant as it tells the citizens
that the process for improving the city is finally underway.
Step 3: Quadrants/ Townships.
This next step can also be done in concert with step two. Urban design and planning
experts along with politicians will next need to divide the city into
quadrants/townships/counties or whatever the choice terminology is for each city.
Two issues to consider during this process are (1) The quadrant must be sized to
function efficiently such as location of schools, fire and police departments, and delivery
of mail, etc. (2) How will the division of quadrants affect the political structure of the city
as every quadrant will most likely need a political representative to voice future concerns.
Step 4: Master Plan
Perhaps the most critical step as this will define the future character of the city. Going
back to the concept of streets and blocks, designers need to determine a consistent
pattern of blocks and ideal sizes to fit within the urban landscape.
One great example is the block system used by the city of Chicago which follows a
consistent block size of 330ft x 660ft (100.58m x 201.19m) in order to fit within one mile
(5280ft/1609.34m) quadrants. The accepted rule of thumb for urban planners is that
people are willing to walk about 1/2 mile (2640ft/804.67m) to reach any destination
comfortably. Therefore the ideal radius for a neighborhood design would be 1/4 mile
(1320ft/402.34m) and contain all the basic components found at the larger scale of the
city for citizens to live a complete day without any dependence on a vehicle.
Every city will have to identify what these components are needed to live a full and
complete day, but here are five examples to use as a base guideline. Within every
neighborhood, a person ought to be able to do the following; work, play, eat, pray and
sleep within a 1/4 mile walking radius ideally.
New streets need to be designed where needed to create consistent and definable
blocks. Existing streets will also need to be accounted for and improved to sustain the
new blocks. Streets should be designed to be pedestrian friendly since sidewalks are
relatively non-existent in most developing countries and a large part of the congestion is
due to pedestrians and automobiles trying to share the same roads. Develop a hierarchy
of road systems ranging from alleys to streets, avenues and boulevards.
Locate any existing buildings that need to be either demolished or renovated. For any
missing gaps in the urban fabric, propose new buildings or public spaces to enhance the
neighborhood. It is entirely possible that during this process the cities will need to
establish design guidelines such as basic setbacks for buildings, heights, street widths
and parking requirements, etc. In certain cases the existing fabric will need to be
modified greatly to accommodate the new design guidelines.
It is imperative that the master plan focus on the development of defined public spaces
as I addressed earlier. The heart of any city is “where the action is” and the action is the
people. The people of any city gather in places designed to sustain their presence. On a
smaller scale, the life of any neighborhood is the park, square, or plaza where the older
generations sit in gentle conversation on benches while the children play under the
watchful eyes of parents. It is in the design of these public spaces that each
neighborhood gets its architectural and cultural identity while gaining a sense of
15th INTERNATIONAL PLANNING HISTORY SOCIETY CONFERENCE
community which are all critical components of civic life in the Aristotelian sense as I
alluded to.
The location of the public spaces within the urban fabric will also inform the planners on
how to address the issue of mass transportation. Ideally any form of mass transportation
will be designed around these public spaces to allow for efficiency. I may also suggest
the exploration of alternative forms of mass transportation such as light rails. These do
not need to be intricate systems or reach every single street, but rather be contained to
major road networks connecting neighborhoods and quadrants of the city in the most
efficient way possible.
During the master planning phase is where the lessons of old can be great precedent.
Look back to the transformation of Rome and Paris from medieval cities to well-planned
iconic renaissance cities. The urban design initiatives of Pope Sixtus V is a prime
example of how entire neighborhoods can be transformed and/or relocated for the
greater good of the city. Each city will need to decide what story it wants to tell through
its built infrastructure and plan to make it happen.
At minimum designers and politicians need to produce a 10, 25 and 50 year master plan.
The 10 year master plan is a relatively short time frame to motivate all involved and still
long enough to make significant changes and laying down the basic foundational
infrastructure for the city. The 25 year master plan will seem achievable after the public
sees positive transformation from the 10 year plan and the 50 year master plan keeps
everyone on the same page, especially politicians and their priorities.
There are other master planning models to follow which are currently working and can
serve as excellent precedent such as the developments of Singapore and the Rwanda
Vision 2020, a current initiative to transform the capital city of Rwanda into a selfsustaining urban wonder by the year 2020, with on-going positive evidence to prove that
it is a reachable goal. A third potential model (although the precedent of this model can
be traced to the planned cities I have already described such as St. Petersburg and
Washington DC) is Djibloho, the new planned capital city of Equatorial Guinea designed
by IDF for the current president Teodoro Obiang. This model is often an easier approach
as it can be built in an initial phase, peacefully relocate residents of the existing city in the
second phase, and finally rehabilitate the existing city in a third phase.
Step 5: New Building Types.
Invent new functional building types to support the current lifestyle of the city. What most
developing cities sorely lack are mixed-use building types. Too often people put
aluminum containers in front of their homes and
turn them into shops. This idea is one that can
be improved into a new building type unique to a
city making it different from the western
prototype of the storefront. However it is one that
needs to be well thought-out and designed to
function efficiently and also be aesthetically
pleasing.
Most cities are divided according to use creating
residential and commercial zones. By creating
Image 2. Lack of mixed-use building type in mixed-use building types, we begin to alleviate
the problems created by single-center cities and
Accra
the effects of suburban sprawl. Even in
developed cities with a better road infrastructure the negative effects of sprawl have been
Cities, nations and regions in planning history
well documented. When the same issues come up in developing cities with a poor urban
infrastructure, the effects can be devastating. Therefore it is absolutely critical to begin
designing multi-centered cities to alleviate this problem (image 2).
Step 6: Public Spaces.
Create usable public spaces for multiple uses. The idea of a public space in most
developing cities is a formal open space with a singular use such as Independence
Square in Accra, Ghana (image 3). It is a great formal public space designed for large
Image 3. Independence Square in Accra, Ghana
group gatherings and opens up to the ocean but also a waste of space and not defined
by anything. Essentially it’s a space that is never used 362 days of the year due to its
remote location and not accessible for pedestrians on a casual walk. You have to intend
to go there, get in your car, drive there, find a place to park, and then walk into the vast
empty space.
The most successful public spaces I’ve encountered during my travels are spaces
designed for flexibility. Campo de Fiore in Rome, Italy is a perfect example of such a
space. It’s a fresh-produce market early in the morning, transitions into a large public gift
shop in the afternoons, and in the evenings becomes the social night life of Rome
complete with food and drinks. Its success is due in large part to its scale being relatively
small and the buildings that define it (a combination of restaurants, shops and
apartments) and the flexible design of the space (it’s not a space that restricts the users
to a specific activity, such as Independence Square in Ghana).
Another great space is Bryant Park in New York City (image
4). At one of the busiest intersections in a city that never
sleeps is a relatively small urban park surrounded by the
Public Library, shops, restaurants, hotels and office
buildings. It is designed well enough to offer a small amount
of tranquility and yet transparent enough to still make users
able to interact with the city. It can accommodate both
formal events (fashion shows, winter skating, etc.) and
informal events (daily picnics for office workers and/or
families, some illegal skateboarding, etc.) and truly
enhances the life around it. Some may even say the
presence of the park enhances the businesses around
because it offers patrons a place to enjoy their purchases
(be it food, music or miscellaneous items) in relative peace.
Using such precedents, the designers of cities in developing
countries should determine how to incorporate accessible
public spaces into the proposed master plan to enhance the quality of life for the
Image 4. Bryant Park, NYC
15th INTERNATIONAL PLANNING HISTORY SOCIETY CONFERENCE
residents of the city as I addressed in the master planning phase while enhancing the
experience for visitors as well.
Step 7: Love your City and take pride in it!
“Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved
her!” G.K. Chesterton. The same can be said for any city considered to be “great” such
as Paris, London, New York, etc. We must take pride in where we live and love where we
live in order to make it a great place. That means not throwing trash wherever we see fit,
not making our entire city a public restroom, and holding ourselves accountable for the
maintenance and upkeep of our buildings, while holding our leaders accountable for the
public buildings and streets.
It also requires our elected officials to take on large building campaigns not merely for
their lasting legacy but to also enhance their cities and make them visually compelling
and places that people want to live in and enticing for visitors to keep coming back.
So to paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, it may seem that The only way to enhance the quality
of life in developing cities through the built environment is for the citizens and politicians
to love their cities: to love it with a transcendental tie and without any earthly reason. If
there arose a man who loved a City, then the City would rise into ivory towers and golden
pinnacles; the City would attire herself as a woman does when she is loved. For
decoration is not given to hide horrible things; but to decorate things already adorable. A
mother does not give her child a blue bow because she is so ugly without it. A lover does
not give a girl a necklace to hide her neck. If residents loved their City as mothers love
children, arbitrarily, because it is theirs, the City in a year or two might be fairer than
Florence.
IV.
Conclusion
It is my earnest belief that with a carefully crafted idea of what any developing city wants
to embody and if these 7 basic steps are followed as a base guideline, we will see a
wonderful improvement in the urban infrastructure of cities in developing countries.
Residents will now have to live according to the improved built urban infrastructure.
Social reform will have to follow as everyone can be held accountable for their actions
because we can now trace people to a physical location in a city within a specific
neighborhood in a quadrant on a house within a block on a street with a name. The new
accountability can effectively lower some of the corruption and hopefully create a better
sense of community. Through the planning of a city with multiple centers, crowds will
become less of an issue, traffic will be more efficient and pedestrians will become a
priority again and the quality of life will improve for everyone, both residents and visitors,
and the way the city is built will positively affect the way people live, socially,
economically and politically.
Cities, nations and regions in planning history
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Krier, Leon, “Urban Components”, Architectural Design, vol. 54, no 7/8, 1984
Kunstler, James H, The Geography of Nowhere (New York: Touchstone 1994)
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