Posts tagged lessons from elsewhere

Lessons from elsewhere: Milan Design Week, When Districts Compete

Around the world this spring and summer several international events take place at several cities, the Cannes Film festival, the Sharjah Biennial, the Venice Biennial and others are events that bring flocks of visitors interested in particular cultural productions such as film and art to those cities. The events serve various functions from energizing the economies of cities to revitalizing otherwise neglected spaces to creating dynamic reputations (branding) for those cities. In all cases such events put their host cities on the world culture map and bring visitors year round beyond the limited time frames of those events. In Egypt, events such as the Cairo Film Festival have failed to make a similar impact on the city. Aly Muhammad Ahmad visited Milan Design Week and reflected on the power of international events in revitalizing cities and keeping them going.

The main exhibition at Milan Rho

By Aly Muhammad Ahmad

Architecture has always been as much about the event that takes place in a space as about the space itself. Bernard Tshumi, Event Cities

Every year during April and for a week, Milan, the well known city as the capital of design and fashion, is well dressed to welcome one of the most important design events in the world: the Milan Design Week. The event takes place in Rho exhibition area (the main exhibition), and also at different districts and neighborhoods which are considered for young designers.

The upcoming lines are not a report about the event and the competition that takes place between designers from all over the world or their amazing works, but it is an attempt to consider an urban perspective on another competition that takes place between different city districts, neighborhoods and public spaces.

Different spaces in each district, whatever their original functions are, switch into exhibition areas. A university, a kindergarten, a warehouse or a workshop, it does not matter, they are all switched to serve the design exhibition.

The two examples below are for two districts that are quiet and calm neighborhoods during typical everyday life but during the Design Week, they are the most well known and active spaces in the city.

The Egyptian booth at salone satellite 2013

Ventura Lambrate

Ventura Lambrate area is a remote area and the main street where the exhibition takes place is full of warehouses, abandoned factories and workshops for small crafts where people are exhibiting their works side by side with their crafts tools.

There are some light fixtures, benches on the outside and bars to sell water and snacks are all what you need to bring life and people into a warehouse and display the different products in open partitions. The warehouse or the abandoned building becomes vibrant and occupied by people and designers and their products.

A kindergarten is changed and switched into another exhibition space for fashion design; many other buildings are easily switched into new temporary functions.

The exhibition at different Warehouses

The exhibition at Workshops

Via Tortona

Located behind “Porta Genova” train station, “Zona Tortona” is a very calm street with a lot of small houses with courtyards inside and some small shops outside. The courtyards and garages on the ground floor are ready to receive the new function during design week, for example, an entrance garden for a firm head office is switched to an open exhibition. The calm street becomes a crowded pedestrian path; entrances on both sides are opened to welcome people, the small shops display their products outside. Booths are everywhere, people are watching, taking photos, contemplating the products, drinking and crossing from one space to another. It’s totally a vibrant and lively space.

Courtyards at Tortona

Every space is well used; the corridor of an old palace is temporarily used as an open area for display. Many other places are hosting events and exhibitions, the courtyards and rooms of universities, the city centre public spaces, and many more.

Milan is fully booked every year during April because of Design Week; people from all over the world head to the city. In addition to the event, touristic sites across the city become activated and well-visited. The event is an important source of income to the city and its hostels, hotels, museums, transportation, and commercial spaces. Good infrastructure and services are very important to host an event like this.

It is all about a vision and a will to convert a specific place or a city to an attraction point. Why don’t you stop, visit, buy, eat, be entertained and enjoy an atmosphere full of art, design and beauty. It’s a will to bring life to a certain space.

It’s very strange how in Egypt we don’t appreciate the value of historical buildings and how we are neglecting them until we wake up everyday on news about the destruction or the collapse of all or a part of them. It is also strange how we feel shame from old crafts workshops and how we want to get rid of them, instead of discovering the potential inherent in them, while other people have crossed over this by giving value to non valuable buildings through contemporary and elegant functions, design, new concepts and creativity. This requires another look at the city and its contents.

Aly Muhammad Ahmad is a graduate student at the School of Architecture and Society at the Politecnico Di Milano.

Lessons from elsewhere: Leipzig by Ali Alraouf

Lessons from elsewhere: Bogotá

Lessons from elsewhere: São Paulo

Lessons from elsewhere: Mumbai rent control

Rent control has been the leading cause of the stagnation of Cairo’s real estate economy in the city’s formal center (areas built until the 1950s). Egypt like many other countries around the world created rent control laws decades ago but the law has not been revisited despite the demands of property owners across the country. Since the 1990s several counties have implemented rent control deregulation following different methods. Most recently the Indian state of Maharashtra where the city of Mumbai is located has considered rent control deregulation and the debate there regarding this issue may prove to be very relevant and useful for us here in Cairo.

Robin Houterman, a London-based urbanist who spent some time last year at the Mumbai-based Urban Design Research Institute, has written two useful articles regarding this policy shift. Both articles are published online on The Global Urbanist.

Here is a brief excerpt from Houterman’s critical review of the policy:

In 2011, the Indian Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation produced a new Model Residential Tenancy Act (MRTA), meant to provide a basis for the revision of rent control acts around India. It is a liberal act, proposing the abolition of rent control, and leaving rent levels and revisions to agreement between landlords and tenants.

The act’s publication revives the already decades-long debate on rent control in Mumbai. Like many other countries, India introduced rent control in the 1940s and 1950s as a means to mitigate high prices due to housing scarcity. Although scarceness is still an issue for affordable housing today, on the whole, the necessity and effectiveness of rent control as a means to secure the availability of housing is no longer self-evident. Rent control is often blamed as one of the causes of scarcity in affordable housing.

Some form of deregulation is necessary; however the main argument here is that the MRTA is largely skewed against tenants and is likely to push poor tenants towards inadequate housing.

Read the full article, here.

And here is Houterman’s “Three alternatives for implementing rent control deregulation in Mumbai”:

More gradual deregulation

Reconsider ownership of properties

State support for poor tenants

Read the full article, here.

Property and rent laws in Egypt must be a top priority for Egypt’s legislators as this is an issue which has been neglected by the former regime and completely mismanaged. The negative effects of ignoring these laws has had dire consequences on Egypt’s urban fabric in general but particularly the urban centers which were established prior to the 1950s. The real estate market has also suffered as millions of pounds worth of properties have sat empty, unused and in limbo for decades. Following Mumbai’s debate of the issue could save us a lot of time and energy.

Lessons from elsewhere: Tucson Trees

As someone who isn’t a specialist in horticulture and with pedestrian observations only, something seems deeply flawed with the kinds of vegetation planted in Cairo’s desert communities. Water continuously flowing from meters and meters of hoses desperately trying to keep small patches of green as green as possible. Trees that need relatively high water maintenance are planted for shade in private residences. The houses and the developments in which they are located mimic Florida, a state with high levels of ground water, lakes and swamps. However this is Cairo and although it is possible to build a house that looks like its counterpart in Florida, it is not possible to mimic the  landscaping that comes with that model, simply because the ground and water levels are immensely different. Although it is a different kind of desert than Cairo’s, Arizona and particularly Tucson, offers some useful lessons on how to turn the desert green without wasting precious Nile water.

The flat Tucson desert landscape means that almost all the trees and plants seen there today are brought from elsewhere. Although the area is home so various cacti, much of the city’s greenery is in the form of trees. However, these are carefully selected trees, most of them have two important qualities: fast growing, and low water maintenance. Some of the trees commonly used in landscaping Tucson are: Guajillo Tree, Willow Acacia, Argentine Mesquite Tree, Chilean Mesquite Tree, and Chinese Pistache Tree. For a list of medium-sized, fast growing, low-water trees (and other plants), click here.

Why is this important?

Water is scarce in Egypt, yet the relatively small but most financially capable segment of society is the most wasteful. That segment of society is also the one capable of landscaping their desert homes and compounds. Because of lax regulations on water usage by this segment of the population, seemingly small gardens collectively have a dire effect on the Egyptian environment. Added to this is the fetish of golf courses, a 1980s North American real estate gimmick, that continues to be a centerpiece for many of Egypt’s new developments. 

Additionally trees are important for low-rise low-density desert developments as they provide shade and lower cooling costs and electricity consumption. However that shade must be designed and appropriately placed to maximize its effect. Also cutting down electricity costs should not be made at the expense of using high-water-use trees and plants. A landscape specialist, or landscape architect must be consulted.

Landscape architecture in Egypt?

Despite Egypt’s rich cultural heritage when it comes to gardening and creating pleasurable green spaces, nearly none of that heritage has been continued professionally. Meaning, there is not a well-established profession of landscape architecture in Egypt today that builds on Egypt’s long landscaping history nor attempt to confront the challenges created today by urbanizing the desert. Although some academic programs in garden design exist they fall under schools of agriculture rather than schools of architecture. Landscape design is contingent upon architectural and urban planning designs and therefore those professionals must study in schools of architecture. Landscape design is not merely about planing some trees around a building!

Landscape architecture is a multi-disciplinary field, incorporating aspects of: botany, horticulture, the fine arts, architecture, industrial design, geology and the earth sciences, environmental psychology, geography, and ecology. The activities of a landscape architect can range from the creation of public parks and parkways to site planning for campuses and corporate office parks, from the design of residential estates to the design of civil infrastructure and the management of large wilderness areas or reclamation of degraded landscapes such as mines or landfills. Landscape architects work on all types of structures and external space - large or small, urban, suburban and rural, and with “hard” (built) and “soft” (planted) materials, while integrating ecological sustainability.

Besides the need to update the academic and professional frameworks of landscape design in Egypt for the service of new communities, landscape designers are needed to revive the old urban fabric. Landscape designers not only design parks and public spaces but also street furniture and hard surfaces (sidewalks).

Important to stress is the fact that landscape design is not merely ornamental. However the common perception of landscape in Egypt continues to place landscape as an ornamental addition to the built environment. The two most tangible “landscaped” areas in Cairo today are Al Azhar Park and the campus of the American University in Cairo. Although in some instances landscape design in both projects attempts to cross the line from the ornamental to the functional (landscape as shade for buildings and people, for example) it is still treated in both projects as an aesthetic exercise rather than a functional one.

Who regulates the landscape?

Recently the minister of agriculture made outrageous statements requesting rice farmers to reduce their water use due to lower levels of water this year. The minister had nothing to say about golf courses, landscaping in desert communities or the biggest catastrophe of all the Toshka project further south, in which millions of gallons of Nile water are literally dumped into the desert before the water even enters Egypt.

As always the heart of the problem is an administrative one: Who regulates and manages landscaped areas such as parks, public and private gardens and other designed green spaces? How can the same governmental organization also control/regulate agricultural land? And what about the “natural landscape,” such as natural reserves, deserts and other natural environments which also need to be studied, regulated, measured, observed and maintained as part of Egypt’s natural heritage. Finally where does the authority of the Agriculture Ministry “وزارة الزراعة” end and the Ministry of Water and Irrigation “وزارة الري” begin?

Trees are political

Several weeks ago I woke up on a Friday morning to the sound of an electric saw. A mature tree in the yard of the public school across the street was being cut into pieces. When I inquired about the reason for cutting the tree the school yard keeper replied with sincerity “It will be made into coals for shisha.”

As the weather warms up trees around the city have been hacked and severely damaged by what most dismiss as “spring trimming.” In fact what is taking place is anything but maintenance of trees, instead it is a combination of underpaid government employees selling trees (public property) to a variety of businesses to be used either as coal or to make furniture, and government officials turning a blind eye. In fact the state has been actively removing trees in Cairo for the past two decades. Trees provide shade and invites pedestrians to congregate below them, maybe even sleep (or in the case of political instability pedestrians may use trees as shelter as they camp outside to protest). In all these cases trees have been removed. 

In the rare situation of government planing a new tree, it opts for palm trees, as was done at the newly redesigned square outside Cairo’s central station. Palm trees in these cases are merely ornamental and do not provide shade.

There isn’t an administrative governmental body responsible for publicly accessible parks in the city of Cairo. Once again the ministry of agriculture maintains some control but it should be clear by now that a public park in a city shouldn’t be managed by the same authority that regulates pesticides in the country side. Cairo needs a “parks department.”

Also parks are political in that they act as place-holders for future investments rather than actually being used as parks. Despite the seeming lack of green space in Cairo, some parts such as Madinat Nasr and Heliopolis have a relatively high percentage of green space, however these spaces are inaccessible or fenced or are simply unwelcoming. Take for example al-Oruba park on the edge of Madinat Nasr: a large well-maintained park surrounded by a tall fence that is hardly used, the park’s location makes it a target by investors and speculators who can transform the space into real estate in the future. This was the case with the Tahrir Square park, the green space created in 1955 in the center of Tahrir which has been taken away from the public in the 1980s and was later sold to an investment company owned by the minister of housing and minister of tourism. Their company still owns the lot which is being transformed into a massive underground parking facility owned built by the Arab Contractors. Finally the Cairo 2050 plan claims to turn Cairo into a city of parks, showing images of green spaces replacing densely populated areas. The parks here are merely an excuse to dislocate millions of people and to reserve those locations for future capitalist ventures by the state and business elite.

Trees are also political not only because of their effect on urban public space but because of the administrative and environmental reasons mentioned above: who owns the trees? the public? the state? and who takes responsibility for them?

Trees in Cairo can open a multifaceted debate about the environment and governance. Such a debate is necessary and urgently needed. For now however, we hope that those who can afford to plant new trees in their newly constructed desert homes can at least make wiser decisions when choosing what trees to plant.

Lessons from elsewhere: New York City #1

Lessons from elsewhere: Dutch cycling

Lessons from elsewhere: Frankfurt Waterfront

The Nile River goes right through Cairo. Yet for pedestrians there are few opportunities to experience the river up close. At present the river can be experienced by riding boats or crossing the city’s bridges, particularly Qasr el Nil Bridge. The sidewalks along the river are higher up from the water where pedestrians are much closer to buzzing traffic than the river. In addition views of the river are obstructed by overgrown vegetation or smaller buildings which belong to various professional syndicates, private enterprises such as restaurants or five-star hotels or the waterfront is simply off limit.

A simple waterside park reached by stairs from the sidewalk down to the level of the water could be the city’s most popular and most democratic attempt at a green and public space. There is no need for an over-designed park: simple pavement path cutting through a grassy park with native plants and trees which already exist on the site can be a relatively easy and affordable urban renewal project.

Even one of the world’s wealthiest cities, Frankfurt, has a simple and not too extravagant waterfront park. Below is a short article about that city’s experience

Frankfurt, Germany is a city which I have come to know and admire over the last few years. It is one of the world’s wealthiest cities, a major financial hub, home to one of Europe’s busiest airports and a magnet for migrants. It consistently scores highly on quality of life rankings.

At first glance, Frankfurt appears a cold and business-like city. As a tourist, it does not have the charm of a place like Heidelberg, nor does it have the exuberant night life or cool demeanor of Berlin. Its skyline is one of the most dramatic in Europe, leading to it being called ‘Mainhattan,’ after the river Main, which flows through the city. And it is this feature of Frankfurt which I would like to discuss with you now.

Most cities in the world, especially very old ones, are situated on some sort of body of water. Frankfurt is located along the River Main, with the city center, and much of the population and industry situated on the north bank, and a handful of neighborhoods and the city’s vast forest situated on the south bank. Like all rivers, it serves as a natural barrier in the city, although there are many bridges which span the Main, carrying pedestrians, cyclists, buses, trams, cars and trains.

Cities which are situated on bodies of water face the challenge of what to do with that space. Historically, waterfronts were working spaces, the places where goods were loaded and unloaded, factories which needed those goods were situated and transport networks were located in order to give good access to all that industry. In a post-industrial city, all of those uses have disappeared. (In Frankfurt, there is still a lot of industry along the waterfront, but it is situated on the periphery, not in the city center)

Many cities have redeveloped their waterfront with grand public buildings, apartment towers, stadiums or other commercial uses. Many waterfronts, such as that in my home town of Toronto, have been cut off from the rest of the city due to over-development and poor planning.

In the city center, Frankfurt has rejected that commercial development (at least in the center) and opted for a far more simplistic, some might say minimalistic approach. For along the riverfront there is simply a park. It is not a park with lots of grandiose fountains, monuments or public art; it is a park in its most basic form. There is grass, there are benches and there is a wide path running beside the river. There is space amongst the grass for festivals, which the city has plenty of, and there are numerous beer tents and bratwurst stands to give hungry Frankfurters a place to fill up, or relax while they are out along the waterfront.

And that is exactly what locals do: they use their waterfront. On a sunny day, it is filled with people walking, cycling or rollerblading. There are people sitting on the grass or along the quayside. When there is a festival on, it seems like the entire city has come out to the river.

While some cities spend millions on their waterfronts and public spaces, Frankfurt’s riverfront is proof that good quality space does not have to be complex. It also shows that it does not need to be built to become a destination; a simple park, with good paths, nice views and a pleasant atmosphere will become a destination simply because people enjoy visiting it. Many waterfronts of the world appear to be ‘overbuilt’ with too much emphasis on landscaping, design and creating unique spaces. They can also get ‘cut off’ from the rest of the city due to too much development, or being over overbuilt as public spaces, with too few connections to the surrounding areas and rest of the city. Lost in all that building is the fact that people enjoy simple things like grass, being beside the water and spending time outside on a nice day. Frankfurt’s waterfront can give them all of that, while at the same time feeling like a space which blends seamlessly into the neighborhoods which surround it.

The city’s waterfront also contributes something much more valuable to the city. Post-industrial cities are constantly competing with each other to make themselves attractive places to live and work. Many cities opt for grand museums and other spectacles in order to gain an edge in this regard. Frankfurt plays this game too, but the riverfront plays another important role in the equation: it contributes positively to the quality of life of its residents by providing much needed open, public space in a densely crowded city.

This quality of life contribution helps the city in both economic and social ways. Economically it helps because it makes Frankfurt a more attractive city in which to live. Many affluent households are footloose and will live in places they feel offer many amenities and a good quality of life. A welcoming riverfront park definitely makes a contribution to this regard. Socially, it brings a positive contribution because it truly is a public space, open to everyone. On any given day, you will see not only bankers eating their lunches, joggers or mothers pushing strollers, but also young people playing music, or the city’s less affluent drinking beer along the water, or under a shady spot beneath a bridge. It is the type of public space where virtually all activities are accepted and practised.

Its genius lies in its simplicity. It is not overbuilt. It is not overplanned. It is simply a park along the waterfront. Its success as a public space and its contribution to the city’s quality of life can offer valuable lessons for other cities. The first lesson is that people like grass. With some public space, even places which are meant to be parks, you get the notion that their designers forgot about that important fact! The second is that simple places can often work the best. Frankfurt’s waterfront is a success not because it is a grand design, but because the people, through their use of the space, and the festivals which take place there, have made it a truly special place. And third, the waterfront should be part of the urban fabric, not cut off from the rest of the city. Frankfurt’s riverfront has seamless connections with the rest of the city; even a freight railway line which runs along the north bank does not serve as a barrier (fortunately, there are few trains left). In this regard going to the river is less of an ordeal or event for Frankfurters, and more a part of their daily life and routine. In this sense, this simplistic combination has created a space which belongs to the citizens of Frankfurt. And for a city to truly be great, this is what public space must be about.

Lessons from elsewhere: Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis, Missouri

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: an Urban History – Film Trailer from the Pruitt-Igoe Myth on Vimeo.

Completed in 1954, the 33 11-story buildings of Pruitt-Igoe were billed as the solution to the overcrowding and deterioration that plagued inner city St. Louis. Twenty years later, the buildings were leveled, declared unfit for habitation.

Lessons from elsewhere: Tunis

Cairo’s nineteenth and twentieth-century architectural heritage is not only unprotected by the state but it is under continuous attack by authorities who have drafted laws to de-value it (in favor of raising value of the desert cities) and who have discouraged private enterprise or entrepreneurs from intervening. Not only are we abandoning our own modern heritage but we are also systematically erasing it from existence. Cairo has a very complex and rich architectural heritage from this time that reflects of a rich economy and society. Here is an example of how things could be, as has been done in the Tunisian capital. Note the similarity in building types such as central markets, theaters in addition to apartment blocks and public spaces which have all received attention from authorities and professionals. Important to note that in order for this project to take place two entities must be in place: a municipality and a professional independent association of architects, historians and conservationists with a mandate to make recommendations and oversee the work. Neither of those institutions exist in Cairo.

Location: Tunis, Tunisia (North Africa)
Architect: Association de Sauvegarde de la Medina de Tunis (ASM)
Client: Municipality of Tunis
Completed: 1998-2007 ongoing
Design: 1998-ongoing
Site size: 60’000 m²

The nineteenth and early twentieth-century architectural heritage of North African cities embodies an important cultural exchange between the southern and northern Mediterranean. This heritage commonly lies adjacent to the old medinas, and has often been neglected in the drive to revitalise the historic centres of cities in this region. The Ville Nouvelle of Tunis, a recipient of the 2010 Award for Architecture, which was built when Tunisia was a French Protectorate, . Its construction reflected a move from the urban patterns of the old medina to a grid plan that changed the character of the city. The urban revitalisation plan, devised and spearheaded by the Association de Sauvegarde de la Médina de Tunis (ASM), has restructured the public spaces of the area around Avenue Bourguiba and Avenue de France and made them chiefly pedestrian. It has also listed and restored key monuments, such as the Théâtre municipal de Tunis, Marché central, Ancien Tribunal administratif and Cinéma Palace, which are once again in use. The ASM continues to actively guide institutions and individuals in the public and private sectors who wish to undertake preservation projects, in order to ensure overall quality and meet the objectives of the many stakeholders.

For more information, please see: http://www.akdn.org/architecture/project.asp?id=3985

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Aga-Khan-Award-for-Architecture/149714823785

Lessons from elsewhere: Münster

Poster from the city of Munster Planning Office, 2001. Munster, Germany.

Lessons from elsewhere: Jane Jacobs

The following excerpt is from a seminal 1958 essay by Jane Jacobs republished by Fortune in honor of the 50th anniversary of Jane Jacobs’ influential book The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

If the downtown of tomorrow looks like most of the redevelopment projects being planned for it today, it will end up a monumental bore. But downtown could be made lively and exciting — and it’s not too hard to find out how.

By Jane Jacobs

This year is going to be a critical one for the future of the city. All over the country civic leaders and planners are preparing a series of redevelopment projects that will set the character of the center of our cities for generations to come. Great tracts, many blocks wide, are being razed; only a few cities have their new downtown projects already under construction; but almost every big city is getting ready to build, and the plans will soon be set.

What will the projects look like? They will be spacious, parklike, and uncrowded. They will feature long green vistas. They will be stable and symmetrical and orderly. They will be clean, impressive, and monumental. They will have all the attributes of a well-kept, dignified cemetery. And each project will look very much like the next one: the Golden Gateway office and apartment center planned for San Francisco; the Civic Center for New Orleans; the Lower Hill auditorium and apartment project for Pittsburgh; the Convention Center for Cleveland; the Quality Hill offices and apartments for Kansas City; the downtown scheme for Little Rock; the Capitol Hill project for Nashville. From city to city the architects’ sketches conjure up the same dreary scene; here is no hint of individuality or whim or surprise, no hint that here is a city with a tradition and flavor all its own.

These projects will not revitalize downtown; they will deaden it. For they work at cross-purposes to the city. They banish the street. They banish its function. They banish its variety. There is one notable exception, the Gruen plan for Fort Worth; ironically, the main point of it has been missed by the many cities that plan to imitate it. Almost without exception the projects have one standard solution for every need: commerce, medicine, culture, government—whatever the activity, they take a part of the city’s life, abstract it from the hustle and bustle of downtown, and set it, like a self-sufficient island, in majestic isolation.

There are, certainly, ample reasons for redoing downtown—falling retail sales, tax bases in jeopardy, stagnant real-estate values, impossible traffic and parking conditions, failing mass transit, encirclement by slums. But with no intent to minimize these serious matters, it is more to the point to consider what makes a city center magnetic, what can inject the gaiety, the wonder, the cheerful hurly-burly that make people want to come into the city and to linger there. For magnetism is the crux of the problem. All downtown’s values are its byproducts. To create in it an atmosphere of urbanity and exuberance is not a frivolous aim.

We are becoming too solemn about downtown. The architects, planners—and businessmen—are seized with dreams of order, and they have become fascinated with scale models and bird’s-eye views. This is a vicarious way to deal with reality, and it is, unhappily, symptomatic of a design philosophy now dominant: buildings come first, for the goal is to remake the city to fit an abstract concept of what, logically, it should be. But whose logic? The logic of the projects is the logic egocentric children, playing with pretty blocks and shouting “See what I made!”—a viewpoint much cultivated in our schools of architecture and design. And citizens who should know better are so fascinated by the sheer process of rebuilding that the end results are secondary to them.

With such an approach, the end results will be about as helpful to the city as the dated relics of the City Beautiful movement, which in the early years of this century was going to rejuvenate the city by making it parklike, spacious, and monumental. For the underlying intricacy, and the life that makes downtown worth fixing at all, can never be fostered synthetically. No one can find what will work for our cities by looking at the boulevards of Paris, as the City Beautiful people did; and they can’t find it by looking at suburban garden cities, manipulating scale models, or inventing dream cities.

You’ve got to get out and walk. Walk, and you will see that many of the assumptions on which the projects depend are visibly wrong. You will see, for example; that a worthy and well-kept institutional center does not necessarily upgrade its surroundings. (Look at the blight-engulfed urban universities, or the petered-out environs of such ambitious landmarks as the civic auditorium in St. Louis and the downtown mall in Cleveland.) You will see that suburban amenity is not what people seek downtown. (Look at Pittsburghers by the thousands climbing forty-two steps to enter the very urban Mellon Square, but balking at crossing the street into the ersatz suburb of Gateway Center.)

You will see that it is not the nature of downtown to decentralize. Notice how astonishingly small a place it is; how abruptly it gives way, outside the small, high-powered core, to underused area. Its tendency is not to fly apart but to become denser, more compact. Nor is this tendency some leftover from the past; the number of people working within the cores has been on the increase, and given the long-term growth in white-collar work it will continue so. The tendency to become denser is a fundamental quality of downtown and it persists for good and sensible reasons.

If you get out and walk, you see all sorts of other clues. Why is the hub of downtown such a mixture of things? Why do office workers on New York’s handsome Park Avenue turn off to Lexington or Madison Avenue at the first corner they reach? Why is a good steak house usually in an old building? Why are short blocks apt to be busier than long ones?

It is the premise of this article that the best way to plan for downtown is to see how people use it today; to look for its strengths and to exploit and reinforce them. There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans. This does not mean accepting the present; downtown does need an overhaul, it is dirty, it is congested. But there are things that are right about it too, and by simple old-fashioned observation we can see what they are. We can see what people like.

Read the full essay, here.

Lessons from elsewhere: Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad’s Rapid Bus System has won international acclaim and already after the first phase opened to the public the system has won the 2010 Sustainable Transport Award (international).

Essam Sharaf (briefly a transport minister in the past) could have taken the opportunity of being the country’s PM to promote public transit projects and bring the issue into focus. The topic has hardly been presented in the press, media, government plans, politicians’ speeches or in any other public arena, as if transport in Cairo is not an urgent matter.

Ahmedabad’s BRT system is being studied by other Asian cities as a prototype that could be transplanted elsewhere. For Cairo, a rapid bus system would help the city’s traffic problems immensely and it is badly needed along the city’s main roads: the ring road, Mehwar, and also crosstown routes such as Salah Salem. Read more about the system here.

Lessons from elsewhere: Havana