Urban Design as an Important Facet of Physical Planning

Urban design is a part of the overall framework of planning. It seeks to develop the policy framework within which physi­cal  designs can be created for a certain urban area.  Urban design  is  an activity that deals  with  the  relationships between  the  major elements of the urban  fabric.  

Urban  design is a very important facet of planning  because as  planning must exhaustively consider the  economic  social and environmental aspects of development, it likewise has to always  heed the physical aspects. Development  will  always have  a physical dimension because afterall, both the  built and natural environments are physical.

Hedman and Jaszewski (1984) mentioned that:

"there  was a time when architecture take care of the urban  design requirements without the need of an urban design  overview.  There  was a built-in sensibility that ensured a reasonable degree   of  order and  harmony   within  the  built environment.   But that   state  of affairs   has  changed  that  architecture   now often (though not all the  time) contributes to the disorder and   disharmony".

The  above  implies that urban design has  really  become  a significant  discipline as its task includes overseeing  the general consistency and coherence of the built environment.

The  importance  of urban design was further  reiterated  by Smith (1974) who stated  that:

"All  the  right strategic decisions may be  made,  and  the planning theory used may be   impeccable,   but if   the   physical  consequences  do not add up to a satisfactory  and  vigorous (physical)  environment,   good decisions  are  of  no consequence".

In addition to the above, Alexander (1987) also  highlighted the  role of urban design in achieving a sense of  wholeness in urban areas. He described old beautiful towns and  cities as  somehow "organic", and the idea of "organicness" is  not an analogy but a precise vision of a specific quality of  an urban area. According to Alexander (1987):

"Towns and cities can grow as a whole, under its own laws of wholeness... and we can feel this wholeness not only at  the largest  scale but in every detail, in restaurants,  in  the sidewalks,  in  the  houses, shops,   markets, roads,  parks, gardens and walls. Even in the balconies and ornaments".

Alexander  (1987) further noted that this quality no  longer exist in towns and cities built and being built at  present, because  neither  architecture, nor urban design,  nor  city planning take the creation of such a quality of wholeness as part of their task:

"City planning is too preoccupied with  the  implementation of ordinances, architecture is too much pre-occupied with  the   problems  of   individual buildings and urban  design  has  a sense of dilettantism: as if the problem could be solved  on a visual level, as an aesthetic matter".

After  bludgeoning the discipline of urban design with  his criticisms,  Alexander  (1987) changed tone  by  emphasizing that  among all existing disciplines related to urban  planning, urban design is the one which comes closest to accepting the responsibility of creating the city's wholeness.

Alongside the concept of "wholeness"  is what was  described by  Hedman and Jazewski (1984) as "coherence". According  to them:

"While  individual structure may be  attractive and visually appealing in themselves   (thanks  to   the   skills   of architects),  the cumulative effect be otherwise".

In  other  words,  no coherence and  satisfying  pattern  of development  is achieved. There is no synergy as  the  whole does  come out as greater than the summed-up  attractiveness of its parts. In short, no sense of place is attained. Urban design  could make the difference in this aspect because  it is the discipline which has the capability to see things  in a wider perspective.

It is in regard of the above points  that the role of  an urban  design  planner in the process of urban  planning  is deemed genuinely prominent.

The Multi-Function Polis (MFP)

  Urban development experiences of countries around the world in the past few decades had made modern-day planners well aware of the importance of linking physical development with other aspects of equal importance which are, economic, socio-cultural and environmental development. The realization of such significant linkages brought about the birth of new concepts in planning such as the integrated area management (Better Cities program ) and the paradigm of  sustainable development (Khan, 1995). Built-in to these two concepts is the basic idea that a good balance of objectives for physical, economic, socio-cultural and environmental development should carry the economy and society across turbulent times.

The basic  MFP concept  is geared towards the development of an urban area (considering a population ranging from 50,000 to 100,000) which would provide a springboard for science, technology and advanced technology enterprise  (Yencken, 1989). The emphasis on high-tech and high touch industries  would bring the development up-to-date with the  information and communications technologies and likewise with economic trends such as globalization of economies, privatization and deregulation. The jobs created would help alleviate the unemployment statistics.

The MFP is aimed to be a model community. It is to be a city of new character (Yencken, 1989), a place where social opportunities can be maximized and social curtailment can be minimized if not totally avoided. In the process of developing MFP, it is intended that social issues in existing urban and developing countries and special problems of communities that have developed around advanced technology enterprise zones will be well considered.

As regards the environment, the MFP also is aimed to be an environmental model for the future. In the MFP Concept Paper (cited by Yencken, 1989)  it was posed that the development “should demonstrate how a site can be sensibly chosen, and  a community planned and built in harmony with its natural surroundings in accordance with a basic ecological policy; how pollution problems can be eliminated or minimized, and how citizens can be taught a strong environmental ethic”.

  

The magnet of a model MFP is IT.  It is clear that the magnet should be developed first and therefore, the government has to pump-prime the whole MFP machine by investing money on physically building a place where businesses can commence operations  with all the necessary facilities available, e.g.  offices,  houses,  shopping,  recreational facilities, research facilities, water supply, electricity and communications. Together with the physical infrastructure, the soft infrastructure should likewise be there such as, linkage with the universities, linkage with concerned government institutions and units, linkage with transport operators e.g. the airport management. To reiterate, all these necessary infrastructure should be put in place simultaneously in a very incremental but systematic manner. When investments start to trickle in, then a snowball effect can be expected while incremental developments are continually being pursued. There is no point in making available the housing accommodations if the primary reason for businesses to come over, which is the opportunity to conduct IT-related enterprise, is not there. Similarly, there is no point in investing too much on environmental projects now if investments from businesses do not flow in because that would mean that these environmental projects  will not be sustained without the money pouring in. MFP Administrators should realise that  MFP is no less an economic undertaking.  It is to be an enterprise zone. Businesses would come in to MFP with the end-in-view of  conducting business in a very economic standpoint. They will not come in with the end goal of appreciating environmental achievements only. 

Complementary to strengthening the magnet is widening its sphere of attraction. Development of transport links to make MFP accessible nationally and internationally is a way to do so. In this regard, again, the airport extension and upgrade project should be claimed and be advertised overseas as a part of a larger program for MFP. The development of transport links is very crucial. 

In the context of urban design, MFP should be flexible and robust. Since technology can change rapidly, technological devices for buildings and houses  should be add-on and not built in to the structures. In designing work places for buildings, it should be kept in mind  that  change in technology result in change in operations and consequently, changes in needs for spaces and facilities within the building.

The MFP should be aimed to be a strong regional centre. Employees and workers in the MFP will be encouraged to live close to work only if all of the services and facilities that they need to access in their day to day living is available in a spitting distance. It should not be thought that MFP will draw  people  and activities e.g. retailing away from the CBD and therefore contribute to the  doughnut effect.  The MFP, in terms of activities, will not compete but rather would complement the activities offered by the CBD. Its high-tech magnet could work in tandem with arts and cultural activities and would add to the overall attractiveness as a rich and versatile destination.

The MFP has indeed all the makings of a model, next generation urban settlement. MFP  planners just have to  bear in mind that although  the traditional locational forces are now rendered irrelevant (Hall, 1991) and communications technologies had shrunk physical distances,  other centripetal forces are still at work. The magnet of Silicon Valley in the US and TechnoParks in Japan are still working. Thus there is no acceptable  reason for an MFP’s magnet to fail. It’s a matter of drawing up the right implementation plan and time  table to make the ball start rolling to a sustainable future.

The Complexity of Urban Planning

“Urban  planning  seeks  to  direct  and  control the  course of urban affairs and events in the interests  of  the  society  as  a  whole.  The  nature of the planning contribution is to identify  needs and issues, to anticipate challenges, to identify goals  and  objectives, to formulate  policies  and  to  prepare  strategies  for the future  which  resolve  problems,  not  separately,  but with the means available and within their total urban and regional contexts.”

            --John N. Jackson, “The Urban Future: A Choice Between Alternatives”.

The  complexity of the conditions in the urban setting  make the urban planning  very complicated. Every community  is  composed of different individuals  and  groups  with varying  needs.  Each town and city has their own distinctive attributes, emerging through time as a result of a complex interplay of many factors. The complexity is exacerbated by  the  fact that  these  diverse needs further evolve   and vary  from  place to place. There are a  number  of  factors cited by Hall (1989) which trigger these changes. Among others, are (a)  changes in  economic trends such as privatization, deregulation  and globalization  of economies; (b) advent of  new  information and communications technologies; and, (c)  conceptualization of new ideas in managing the society and environment.

These factors can significantly affect people's patterns  of living.  The way humanity uses spaces and structures changes with needs pressures and demands. It changes in response to new circumstances such as the invention of the lift, the institutionalization of public transportation, the increasing need for recreational space as cities grow, and the changes in demographic characteristics and socio-economic attributes as a result of in-migration and out-migration (Jackson, 1972). The industrial revolution in Europe, for  instance, essentially  changed the way businesses were  conducted  and the travel and settlement patterns of the European  society. Now, in almost every corner of the globe, the recent economic  trends of globalization of cities and trade  liberalization are changing people's lives  anew. Consequently,  needs are changing as well.

Amidst these changing needs of the populace, the context and approaches  to  planning  are changing too.  More  and  more fields  of expertise are becoming involved in  the  planning arena. According to Healey (1988), what used to be the realm for  architects, engineers and urban design planners now has likewise  become  the realm  for  economists,  sociologists, community  development experts, environmentalists  and  even theoreticians. Healey (1988) accepted that all the fields  now involved  have  legitimate roles to play   in  the  planning process.

But the difficulty lies on achieving a high degree of interaction and understanding not only between planners and  cli­ents (the community) but also between and among the planners themselves.  As emphasized by Udy (1994), Planners  need  to "know how to get  behind the facelessness of other  planners and  find  the human beings who are there...the key  to  the success  of  the  planning process is a  high  and  constant degree of interaction".

Another  development  in  urban planning amidst the changing urban setting  is  the  increasing popularity of people's participation as an accepted approach and an essential part of the whole planning exercise.   Many planners  had realized that the people can not be  separated and is an integral part of the built environment. Participatory  methods were then included specially in  the  critical areas of planning.

Establishing a Framework for Rural-Urban Fringe Planning-Part 3

At present, many countries have already incorporated the concept of sustainability in each of their own developmental plans and programs. For instance, in Australia, sustainable development has become a buzz word in the planning arena. In South Australia,  ideas like “land-use planning must extend into economic, social and environmental spheres of strategy” and “ a long term flexible framework need to be linked with short term plans” are considered as key principles in strategic planning exercises such as the Adelaide 21 Project (Lennon, 1996). In the Philippines, the  acceptance of “sustainability”  as a very valid developmental goal has prompted the government to formulate the Philippine Strategy  for Sustainable Development  (PSSD) in 1987.

I believe that in essence, the concept of sustainability has fully feathered and may now be used as a yardstick  for objectively deciding what is good,  right, and fair. Therefore, it was deemed  appropriate to use this concept as a framework or guide in assessing the effectiveness and appropriateness of the rural-urban fringe  management system and land-use policies  in the Philippines. 

The relevant definition of what is an appropriate and effective policy would be that which would allow the highest and best use of land  in the rural-urban fringe based on all its economic, social and environmental attributes. Built-in to the policy should be a decision-making tool for identifying what is that  “highest and best use” of land.

“Highest and best use”  is defined by Frederick Babcock in his 1932 work as “that available  use and program of future utilisation of a parcel of land which produces the highest present value” (cited in Wendt, 1972, p.133).  Fisher and Fisher defined it as “a designated use of a spatial unit which will allegedly produce the largest net income over a given period of time” (cited in Wendt, 1972, p.133). Relatedly, the Appraisal Institute defined it as “that use which at the time of appraisal is most likely to produce the greatest net return to the land and building over a period of time” (cited in Wendt, 1972, p.133).

The three above cited definitions take “highest and best use” as a concept central to real estate finance  and said definitions clearly convey the principle of profit maximisation. Another definition of the same context is that provided  by William N. Kinnard, Jr. and Bryl N. Boyce in  An Introduction to Appraising Real Property.  According to them,  “highest and best use (highest and most profitable use; optimum use) is that reasonable and probable use which will support the highest present value as defined, as of the effective date of the appraisal (cited in Webb, 1980, p.58). These definitions however are applicable only in the financial point-of-view. Other factors such as risk (Webb, 1980) and  unquantifiable costs and  benefits  are bound to be left unaccounted for. In this regard, the concept of “highest and best use”  relevant to this research study is that which  will support the optimal realisation of  economic benefits by taking into consideration as much unquantifiable costs and benefits as possible. That means, the decision-making tool for identifying what is the “highest and best use” of a particular parcel of land must grow beyond financial analysis and approximate a full benefit-cost analysis   (BCA) if it is to internalise both the concepts of productivity and sustainability. 

Establishing a Framework for Rural-Urban Fringe Planning-Part 2

The notion of “sustainability” as embodied in Khan’s paradigm actually  had its origins in the international environmental law and policy of the 1970s and 1980s. In a document known as A Blueprint for Survival (The Ecologist, 1972, cited in Basiago, 1995). It was said that the industrial way of life with its ethos of expansion, is not sustainable. The rates of growth of population and consumption are undermining human survival prospects by disrupting ecosystems and depleting resources. 

“Sustainable Development” first appeared in the World Conservation Strategy drafted by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1980, who suggested that it should be advanced through “conservation”, defined as “the management of human use of the biosphere so that it may yield the greatest sustainable benefit to present generations while maintaining its potential to meet the needs and aspirations of future generations (Eblen and Eblen, 1991 cited in Basiago, 1995). In the same year, Cousteau wrote in his Bill of Rights for Future Generations that “future generations have a right to an uncontaminated and undamaged earth...each generation has a duty as a trustee for future generations to prevent irreversible and irreparable harm to life on Earth” (cited in Basiago, 1995). Such a duty, more popularly known as the “futurity principle” will ensure sustainability.

Similarly, the UN’s World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987, in what is more widely known as the Brundtland Report, defined sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs”. 

Then, in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, the Earth Summit was held and was attended by over 120 nations to endorse “sustainable development” as an economic and environmental policy of extreme importance in the 21st century. The Earth Summit produced a document known as the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (UNCED, 1992 cited in Basiago, 1995) wherein in its 27 principles, it was repeatedly indicated that economic development and environmental protection should be integrated. Agenda 21, a fifth accord to come out of the Summit, is a blueprint on how to make development  socially, economically and environmentally sustainable (Keating, 1993 cited in Basiago, 1995).

The applicability of sustainable development as a concept, through time, has transcended boundaries. For over two decades, a wide array of definitions  developed as its applicability  penetrated  different fields and bodies of knowledge. It is now said that if you throw a stone in any direction, you will likely hit three definitions of sustainable development.

In the arena of planning,  the notion of sustainable development could be particularly applied in pursuing a  plan or design science that will integrate growth and urbanisation with nature preservation and social enhancement.

Millichap (1993, in Basiago, 1995) posed that both  the temporal dimension of sustainable development (concern for  future generations)  and its spatial dimension are actually long established concerns of city and regional planning. The relevance of sustainability to land-use planning is in the interplay of its future and spatial dimensions. To illustrate the point, Millichap (1993, in Basiago, 1995) cited as an example the compact city that allows for efficient transport and thus reduced carbon emissions, and therefore protects the future generations from global warming. To this, Calthorpe (1993),  agreed and likewise blames suburban sprawl as the cause of some major urban ills. According to Calthorpe, urban growth boundaries should be set to preserve natural features at the edge of the metropolis and such boundaries should be large enough to accommodate growth for the next generations and small enough to encourage in-fill, redevelopment and medium to high density living.

The core of the idea is that planners must  move away from the design philosophy  which seeks to bend nature to its will and should rather  conceive new design concepts and physical plans which would be in consonance with what nature dictates. In “The Hannover Principles”, McDonough (1992, in Basiago, 1995) urged designers and planners to “ insist on the rights of humanity and nature to coexist in a healthy, supportive, diverse and sustainable condition because the elements of human design interact with and depend upon the natural world” (p.116).

The concept of sustainable development is now regarded as a new philosophy in which principles of futurity, equity, global environmentalism and bio-diversity must guide decision-making (Basiago, 1995).  An exhaustive look at the available literature on “sustainable development” since the early 70s  yielded that the concept is no longer just an aspiration or a goal. It has evolved into a principle to govern activities at all levels of a system, a quality that characterises social interaction  that will yield vitality.  According to Basiago (1995, p.118),  “it is no longer just a doctrine enshrined in the rarefied reaches of political philosophy” but can now be treated as a valid research methodology and analytical tool  in various fields, to include social sciences. The concept can be treated as similar to the empirical method which sets up a schema  for asking important questions but does not provide, a priori, an answer. It can provide selection criteria which would aid  in  identifying all the valid alternative solutions for the problem at hand. The questions that may be generally asked by virtue of the sustainability principle are: Will the future generations have an undiminished stock of natural capital? Is it equitable now and for the future? What will be its short and long-term impacts on the global environment?

Wanted: Systems View on the Traffic Issue

The traffic woes in Metro Manila could make a killer out of Gandhi. It is frustrating as watching a cross-eyed trying to thread a needle. There are many solutions that have been brought forward; some are witty and many others border on the dumb and dumber. 

As an intermittent economist who also dabbles as an armchair urban planner (oh, a potent combination!), I agree with certain proposals that focus on enforcement. People are known to respond to prices. When there is a price to pay, behavior can be changed. 

Others dwell on the obvious physical limitations of the roads. They say we have too many cars and too little road space. So, when one puts two and two together and get three, that person is likely to suggest that the solution is to have less cars by forcing them out of the system. Some others get five, so they look to requiring a minimum number of heads in a car to be allowed to partake of the limited space. 

And then there are the limited few who  get it  right between the eyes. The ones who would say, let us be holistic. If we fix the trains, people will choose it over their cars when the roads are full. People will even choose the buses if the buses are on time, clean, drivers are behaved, and have express services, the last one being a point to point service with no stops in between, and with some extra mile services such as newspapers and maybe even coffee. But then we will have to have carparks in train and bus terminals so people can park and ride. Others can even kiss and ride when the wife can drop off husbands on their way to the grocery, or that could also be husbands dropping off working wives before their muscled arms do the laundry. 

The really enlightened ones would propound creative solutions and say,  we should create systems for temporary house swapping, so families who dare participate in this system could swap houses (or apartments, condo units) so that they may live closer to their workplaces. Schools could create swap systems to optimize home-work travels for their teachers and students, government offices can also do the same for their employees. 

But wait, there's more! Malls and business establishments can seriously localize hiring of sales staff, and private companies can shift a whole work force into a 10am-7pm work schedule. I would even push it to 11am-8pm to really skip the rush hours altogether. Or for the brave CEOs, work-from-home could also be the new flexitime. Otherwise shift workdays from Tuesday to Saturday, and avoid killer Mondays like they do now in some State Unis. 

Government can incentivize these private-led solutions. 

Until we realize that the traffic is just a manifestation of lack of a systems view of urban planning issues, we will continue to get piece meal solutions from politicans. 

There I said it. Yes, i did. Now I will sit back and drink my decaf coffee. 

The Economists' Disease

Before you read on, please watch this.

As you watched through the video, I would guess that you were thinking about the beauty of nature, diversity,  sustainability, environmental awareness and so on. If I am right in your case, then you are likely not an economist, but for sure you have a beautiful heart.

If you are one of us, a gang of people burdened by a "rational brain" to the point of it being in fact an affliction, you would have not seen the beauty you just saw; the birds and the rabbits and the regrowth of willows and the less-meandering river. You would have not seen the colors and the hues as your brain connected the dots from the reintroduction of the wolves to the changing of the river.

Instead, you would have seen a multiple regression model, with predictor variables and correlation coefficients. You would have thought, "hmmm, what tests are applicable: multicollinearity, heteroscedasticity  and/or autocorrelation? Will the values of x's be true blue unbiased estimates? Do I just look at the residual plots or perform the White Test or the Goldfeld-Quandt Test?" You would be yearning, longing, thirsting, aspiring for a data set, both time-series and cross-section. You would be fumbling for what dummy variables can be used. And after all the number-crunching you would have came up with a thought: "It makes me wonder, what it we introduce dingoes and not wolves?"

Yes, we kind of always spoil it, even in the case of love and beauty.

And that is why I call it an affliction.