Urban planning

URBAN PLANNING

Arch. Maribel C. Tubera, MSCMUAPSA-Lecture series February 2013

“THE SKYLINE RISES IN THE EAST”

Rem Koolhaas

Singapore, Shanghai & Hong Kong… instead of New York,

London and Paris

SINGAPORE

SHANGHAI

HONG KONG

NEW YORK

LONDON

PARIS

2 UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES OF GLOBALIZATION

1. Global capitalism2. Post-colonialism

PROBLEMS WITH MODERN LIFE AND NATURAL INTERESTS

a. City infrastructureb. Investmentsc. Sustainable standardsd. Political lifee. Aesthetic value

URBAN PLANNING INVOLVES:

• Architects• Economists• Engineers• Social scientists

Metropolis are viewed not as fixed locality but nexus of situated and

transnational ideas.

3 styles of being global

1. Modeling2. Inter-referencing3. Association

MODELING

• Actual urban projects that have been dubbed “garden”, “sustainable”, “liveable” or “world-class” that planners hope to reproduce elsewhere.

• This cannot be a process of cloning.

Led the way in solving urban problems

1. Public housing2. Downtown development3. Clean industries4. Upscale districts5. Cultural & tourist attractions

Transformed them into world-class cities

ASIAN CITIES “MODELS”

• “GARDEN CITY”• SUBSIDIZED HOUSING• INDUSTRIAL ESTATES• UPSCALE RESIDENTIAL ENCLAVES• WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

HONG KONGsees itself as

“ASIA’S WORLD CITY”

HONG KONG

DUBAIhad become a

“DREAM CITY” for millions of citizens in Asia , Africa & Middle

East and beyond

DUBAI

ARABO-MODERNIST FAÇADE

DUBAI projects a vision of metropolitan modernity for Elite South Asian Migrants.

SINGAPOREpresent itself as the knowledge

of a far-flung “effervescent” “BUSINESS ECOSYSTEM”

SINGAPORE

SECRET OF SINGAPORE’S SUCCESS

“LUCK” followed by “PERSONAL DRIVE” and “SINCERITY OF

PURPOSE”.Lee Kuan Yew

Lee Kuan Yew noted that “it was easier to improve the

physical infrastructure than the rough and ready ways of the

people”.

“GARDEN CITY”this slogan was credited to

Lee Kuan Yew

“GARDEN CITY”to

“CITY-IN-A-GARDEN” changed by Urban

Redevelopment Authority in 2000

“GARDEN CITY”

•Greening inspired cities in Asia and beyond to develop their own “garden city” plans.

•Greenness humanizes the city, at ground level the canopies of leaves reduce the height of the city visually.

•It softens the harshness of the high-rise city, an avoidable consequence of land scarcity.

Ebenezer Howard’s 1898 Garden City Vision

1. Prioritization of green space2. The removal of industry3. Building communities

Prioritization of green space

• Permanent agricultural greenbelt around the city

• As parks within the city

The removal of industry• No more large & middle-sized factories

built in the central area.

• Removal of factories from the city center. “the sustainable development strategy”.

• Opening up the seashore for recreational uses and increasing the per capita green space.

Building communities, shaping subjectivity

• Concerned with people’s behaviour and self-government

• Community buildings

• Population management

DALIAN CITY, CHINAwas advertised as

“HONG KONG OF THE NORTH”(Yahuda, 1994)

DALIAN CITY, CHINA

DALIAN CITYgreening experience

•Fostering of civilized and quality citizens;

•Technological sophistication;

•Being green is directly associated with being modern and civilized.

COMMUNITY BUILDING FOSTERS “QUALITY” CITIZENS WHO WILL

BEHAVE RESPONSIBLY.

HOW TO EDUCATE AND PERSUADE PEOPLE TO ACT SUSTAINABLY FOR

THE LONG TERM

MANILA

modeled as a

“LITTLE SINGAPORE”

MAKATI CBD

MANILA

•“PLANNING PRIVATOPOLIS” is the material and social aspects of Manila.

• Emphasizes self-contained zones with requisite elements of “urban efficiencies” to attract new investments.

PLANNING PRIVATOPOLIS

UIMs (Urban Integrated Megaprojects)

-privatization of urban and regional planning.

-cities or urban district-scale integrated development project built on for profit-basis by a single developer.

MAKATI CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT

• Dominate Metro Manila’s global business functions.

• Wholly owned by Ayala Land, a private developer which master planned it as an elite residential enclave and commercial and office center since late 1940’s.

UIMs (Urban Integrated Megaprojects)

-a defining feature of Metro Manila’s Urban Landscape

- This trend has been facilitated by weakness of both civil and political society

“BOOTY CAPITALISM”

The American colonial regime fostered the development of an electoral democracy, but deliberately maintained an elite political control.

This result to a system of “booty capitalism” in which powerful business class extracts privilege from largely incoherent bureaucracy (Hutchcroft 1998).

2 Channels of UIMs

1. Through the acquisition by private corporations of large tracts of formerly hacienda land. (Magno-Ballesteros 2000)

2. Through the government sale of state land.

Through the acquisition...

• Beginning the development of Ayala family after WWII of its Hacienda de Makati landholding.

• Subsequently acquired agricultural and food processing estates in South Metro Manila, Ayala Alabang UIM.

• Plus the adjoining province of Laguna, Laguna Technopark, Ayala West Grove and Ayala South.

Through the govt. sale...

• Made possible by BCDA (Bases Conversion Development Authority)

• The most significant project is the Bonifacio Global City

• From Pan-Asian consortium then subsequently bought out by Ayala Land Inc. and being developed as extension of MCBD.

What has resulted is a much more fragmented urban landscape,

characterized by the polarization of urban space between the

congested space of the “public city”, and highly regulated, carefully

designed spaces of the elite consumerism and global business.

It highlighted the tensions inherent in the persistent socio-economic

and political disparities that characterize the Philippine society.

ENDFor my references, I will try to retrieve the books I’ve read about urban planning and design. My apologies to the author of said books, and also to the owner of pictures posted on Google images, please allow me to use these pictures for my presentation. Thank you!