Charles Landry-The Art of City Making -Routledge (2006)

The Art of City-Making

The Art of City-Making

Charles Landry

London • Sterling, VA

First published by Earthscan in the UK and USA in 2006

Copyright © Charles Landry, 2006

All rights reserved

ISBN-10: 1-84407-245-2 paperback1-84407-246-0 hardback

ISBN-13: 978-1-84407-245-3 paperback978-1-84407-246-0 hardback

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataLandry, Charles.

The art of city-making / Charles Landry.p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-1-84407-245-3 (pbk.)ISBN-10: 1-84407-245-2 (pbk.)ISBN-13: 978-1-84407-246-0 (hardback)ISBN-10: 1-84407-246-0 (hardback)

1. City planning. 2. City and town life. I. Title. HT166.L329 2006307.1’216—dc22

2006021878

The paper used for this book is FSC-certified andtotally chlorine-free. FSC (the Forest StewardshipCouncil) is an international network to promoteresponsible management of the world’s forests.

Contents

List of Boxes xiList of Photographs xiiiAcronyms and Abbreviations xvAcknowledgements xvii

Chapter One: Overture 1City-making and responsibility 6Art and science 7Push and pull 9Unresolved and unclear 11Secular humanism 12Shifting the Zeitgeist 14

Cityness is Everywhere 19A view from above 26An imaginary journey 27Sameness and difference 29

Chapter Two: The Sensory Landscape of Cities 39Sensescapes 45

The car and the senses 46Transporting into a past sensescape 48Linguistic shortcomings 50Soundscape 51Smellscape 61The look of the city 68

Chapter Three: Unhinged and Unbalanced 77The City as a Guzzling Beast 77

The logistics of a cup of tea 78Washing and toilet flushing 79

Food and eating 80Rubbish 81Transport 83Materials: Cement, asphalt and steel 86The ecological footprint 88

Urban Logistics 88Has decivilization started? 91

The Geography of Misery 93Organized crime and the rule of fear 95People-trafficking and the sex trade 98The human cost of change 99Grinding poverty and stolen childhood 101Filth 102Prisons and borders 103Tourism and its discontents 104Cultural prosperity among poverty 105Learning from Katha 107

The Geography of Desire 109Ordinary desire 111Pumping up desire 113Mentally moving on before arriving 115Speed and slowness 116Trendspotting or trainspotting? 118The shopping repertoire 119Making more of the night 124

The Geography of Blandness 125The march of the mall 127The death of diversity and ordinary distinctiveness 131The curse of convenience 135Shedland 140

Chapter Four: Repertoires and Resistance 143Urban Repertoires 143

From Prado to Prada 143Urban iconics 146The crisis of meaning and experience 151Capturing the final frontier: Ad-creep and beyond 153Gratification over fulfilment 154

Urban Resonance 155The city as a fashion item 155

vi The Art of City-Making

Drawing power and the resonance of cities 158Forms of drawing power 161Cities on the radar screen 163

Borrowing the Landscape 166Selling places 172The limits to tourism 174

Urban Rituals 176Making the most of resources 176Meaningful experiences 180

A Coda: Urban Resistances 186

Chapter Five: The Complicated and the Complex 189The Forces of Change: Unscrambling Complexity 189

A conceptual framework 192Faultlines 193Battlegrounds 197Paradoxes 199Risk and creativity 201Drivers of change 208

Aligning Professional Mindsets 211Escaping the silo 212Whole connections and specialist parts 214Stereotypes and the professions 217Balancing skills 226

Opening Mindsets and the Professions 227The professional gestalt 227Mindflow and mindset 228The blight of reductionism 231Professions and identity 232Performance culture 233Stretching boundaries 234Insights and crossovers 238

Blindspots in City-Making 240The emotions 240Environmental psychology 243Cultural literacy 245Artistic thinking 249Diversity 253Towards a common agenda 263The new generalist 264

Contents vii

Chapter Six: The City as a Living Work of Art 267Re-enchanting the city 268Re-establishing your playing field 268Reassessing creativity 270Revaluing hidden assets: A creativity and

obstacle audit 272Reassigning the value of unconnected resources 275Recycling and greening 277Recapturing centrality 278Revisualizing soft and hard infrastructures 281Redefining competitiveness 285Rethinking calculations of worth: The asphalt

currency 287Rebalancing the scorecard: The complexities of

capital 287Regaining confidence and a sense of self 290Renewing leadership capacity 291Realigning rules to work for vision 292Renaming risk management policy 295Reconceiving the city 295Reimagining planning 298Remapping the city 300Redelineating urban roles 301Reasserting principles of development 304Reconnecting difficult partners: New Urbanism

and Le Corbusier 305Reshaping behaviour 308Reconsidering the learning city 310Reigniting the passion for learning 313Revaluing and reinvesting in people and

home-grown talent 315Repairing health through the built environment 318Reversing decline 319Remeasuring assets 321Re-presenting and repositioning 323Retelling the story 326Knitting the threads together 329What is a creative idea? 331A final coda: Reconsidering jargon 332

viii The Art of City-Making

Chapter Seven: Creative Cities for the World 335Ethics and creativity 335Civic creativity 338Is Dubai creative? 341Is Singapore creative? 350Are Barcelona and Bilbao creative? 361Urban acupuncture and Curitiba’s creativity 376… and there are many more 381

The Management of Fragility: Creativity and the City 385Creative ecology 385The creative rash 386An idea or a movement 387Creativity: Components 390Where are the creative places? 407Where next? 415Fine judgement and the formula 420Urgency and creativity 420Ten ideas to start the creative city process 422

Endpiece 425‘Why I Think What I Think’ 426

Notes 429Bibliography 443Index 451

Contents ix

List of Boxes

The long-distance lunch 81Trendspotting 120Weird = ‘of strange or extraordinary character’ 127Recreating the past for the future 130Blandness and city identity 134Urban acupuncture and social capital 379Synchronicity and origins 389

List of Photographs

Sources are credited beside each photograph for those in the listbelow. All photographs in the two colour sections are by CharlesLandry.

Creative city-making is a fragile affair 4The city is more than ‘roads, rates and rubbish’ 20Cityness sprawls into every crevice of what was once nature 25How many old industrial buildings are left to be regenerated? 47Cars being the priority, pedestrians have to adapt 84The basic infrastructures of life simply do not exist in

many places across the world 92One of nearly 600,000 bunkers in Albania 103Libraries are among the most inclusive cultural institutions 112Speeding up the world allows no space for reflection 117Corporate blandness, anywhereville 126A good secondary shopping street in Cork, Ireland 129The urban regenerators repertoire 144The Guggenheim in Bilbao 146Canberra’s National Museum 150Anish Kapoor’s beautiful and popular sculpture in Chicago’s

Millennium Park 190All professions have a shape, a form, a mindset, a gestalt 229Too many people think of the city as simply bricks and

mortar 264

Acronyms and Abbreviations

3PL third party logisticsBID business improvement districtBME black and minority ethnicCABE Commission on Architecture and the Built

Environment CDM Construction, Design and ManagementCIAM Congres Internationaux d’Architecture ModerneCLES Centre for Local Economic StrategyCNU Congress of New UrbanismGaWC Global and World CitiesIBA International BauaustellungICLEI International Council for Local Environmental

InitiativesIPPUC Institute of Urban Planning and Research of

CuritibaIR integrated resortKVI known value itemMACBA Museum of Modern Art of BarcelonaMFP Multifunction PolisNPF National Planning ForumPPS Planning Policy StatementRFID radio frequency identificationTEU twenty foot equivalent unitUDA Urban Design AllianceUNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization

Acknowledgements

Writing a book is never a lone endeavour. You learn from others,you pick up ideas, someone gives you a crisp turn of phrase thatencapsulates a point well. Someone encourages you and gives youconfidence. I have many people to thank: Ed Beerbohm, whohelped craft the text into a sharper form and did the research forthe section ‘The City as a Guzzling Beast’; Gabrielle Boyle, for theconversations; Jim Bage; and then the many people I have workedwith, especially Margie Caust and Richard Brecknock, who put myAdelaide Thinkers in Residence programme together; and MikeRann, the Premier of South Australia who appointed me as‘thinker’. The Adelaide period in 2003 gave me a real chance tothink some things through and the chapter ‘The City as a LivingWork of Art’ comes from that period. John Worthington of DEGWand chair of Building Futures gave me the opportunity to writeRiding the Rapids: Urban Life in an Age of Complexity, and the‘Unscrambling Complexity’ sections benefited from that collabora-tion. Honor Chapman (formerly of Future London) and Greg Clarkprovided the chance to research the background to the sections on‘Aligning Professional Mindsets’ and ‘Blindspots in City-Making’.Chris Murray commissioned work on creativity and risk, which isa theme throughout the book. My Swiss friends Toni Linder, PetraBischoff and Elisa Fuchs gave me the chance to try out ideas in thebook in Albania and the opportunity to survey projects throughoutsoutheastern Europe, from Ukraine to Bosnia. This has appeared asCulture at the Heart of Transformation. Besim Petrela managedmany trips throughout Albania and his surgeon brother operatedon my septic arm in the middle of the night in Tirana. Carol Colettafrom Smart Cities is a friend but also asked me write a series ofletters called ‘Letters to Urban Leaders’ to the CEOs for Citiesnetwork in the States, of which she is director. Key ideas from those

appear throughout the text. Others who need thanking include:Phil Wood and Jude Bloomfield, especially in relation to theIntercultural City project; Marc Pachter; Meg van Rosendaal;Simon Brault; Jonathan Hyams; Nick Falk; Dickon Robinson; PeterKageyama; Andy Howell; Masayuki Sasaki; my friends from Metaain Korea; Paul Brown; Thierry Baert; Christine Sullivan; PatriciaZaido; Erin Williams; Evert Verhagen; Susan Serran; Tim Jones;Doug Pigg; Theresa McDonagh; Richard Best; Richard Jackson;Martin Evans; Andrew Kelly; Hamish Ironside from Earthscan;Robert Palmer; Leonie Sandercock … and of course the growingfamily of wild ducks outside my window, which are a good sourceof distraction.

xviii The Art of City-Making

1

Overture

City-making is a complex art; it is not a formula. There is nosimplistic, ten-point plan that can be mechanically applied to guar-antee success in any eventuality.

But there are some strong principles that can help send goodcity-making on its way:

• The most significant argument of The Art of City-Making isthat a city should not seek to be the most creative city in theworld (or region or state) – it should strive to be the best andmost imaginative city for the world.1 This one change of word– from ‘in’ to ‘for’ – has dramatic implications for a city’s oper-ating dynamics. It gives city-making an ethical foundation. Ithelps the aim of cities becoming places of solidarity, where therelations of the individual, the group and the outsider to thecity and the planet are in better alignment. These can be citiesof passion and compassion.

• Go with the grain of local cultures and their distinctiveness, yetbe open to outside influences. Balance local and global.

• Involve those affected by what you do in decision-making. It isastonishing how ordinary people can make the extraordinaryhappen, given the chance.

• Learn from what others have done well, but don’t copy themthoughtlessly. Cities focused mainly on best practices arefollowers not leaders and do not take the required risks to movethemselves forward.

• Encourage projects that add value economically while simulta-neously reinforcing ethical values. This means revisiting the

balance between individual wants and collective and planetaryneeds relevant to the 21st century. Too often value is definednarrowly in terms of financial calculus. This is naïve. The neweconomy requires an ethical value base to guide action. It willimply behaviour change to meet value-based goals such asputting a halt to the exploitation of the environment.Combining social and environmental with economic account-ing helps identify projects that pass this test. The ‘fair trade’movement is an example.

• Every place can make more out of its potential if the precondi-tions to think, plan and act with imagination are present. Theimagination of people, combined with other qualities such astenacity and courage, is our greatest resource.

• Foster civic creativity as the ethos of your city. Civic creativityis imaginative problem-solving applied to public good objec-tives. It involves the public sector being more entrepreneurial,though within the bounds of accountability, and the privatesector being more aware of its responsibilities to the collectivewhole.

You will come across recurring themes in The Art of City-Making.These include the following:

• Our sensory landscape is shrinking precisely at the momentwhen it should be broadening. Sensory manipulation is distanc-ing us from our cities and we are losing our visceral knowledgeof them. We have forgotten how to understand the smells ofthe city, to listen to its noises, to grasp the messages its looksends out and to be aware of its materials. Instead there is infor-mation and sensory overload in the name of making the city aspectacular experience.

• The city is discussed in barren, eviscerated terms and in techni-cal jargon by urban professionals as it if were a lifeless,detached being. In fact, it is a sensory, emotional, lived experi-ence. Cities are like relatives: you never really escape. The cityis more than hardware. How often do strategic urban plansstart with the words ‘beauty’, ‘love’, ‘happiness’ or ‘excite-ment’, as opposed to ‘bypass’, ‘spatial outcome’ or ‘planningframework’?

• To understand the city and to capture its potential requires usto deal with five major blindspots: we need to think differently

2 The Art of City-Making

– in a more rounded way – in order to see the connectionsbetween things; we need to perceive the city as a more compre-hensively sensory experience, so understanding its effect onindividuals; we need to feel the city as an emotional experience;we need to understand cities culturally – cultural literacy is theskill that will help us better understand the dynamics of cities;and we need to recognize the artistic in all of us, which can leadus to a different level of experience.

• An understanding of culture, in contrast to economics or soci-ology, is a superior way of describing the world because it canexplain change and its causes and effects and does not take anyideology, institution or practice for granted or treat them asimmutable. Culture is concerned with human behaviours andso cultural analysis can be expressed in human terms we findfamiliar and engaging. It is thus a good medium through whichto provide stories about the world.

• Cities need stories or cultural narratives about themselves toboth anchor and drive identity as well as to galvanize citizens.These stories allow individuals to submerge themselves intobigger, more lofty endeavours. A city which describes itself asthe ‘city of churches’ fosters different behavioural patterns incitizens than a city that projects itself as a ‘city of secondchances’. (Critics complain, however, that such cultural narra-tives are difficult to measure. We shall return to this contentionlater.)

• The internal logic of the unfettered market reveals a limitedstory of ambition and no ethics or morality. It has no view ofthe ‘good life’, of social mixing, of mutual caring or nurturingthe environment. There is an imperative to make the marketsystem serve the bigger picture – through incentives, regulations… or whatever. This places responsibility on us.

• Like a veil, the market system shrouds our consciousness whileplumping up desire and consumption. The market logic has atendency to fragment groups into units of consumption andenclaves and, in so doing, to break up social solidarities. Butthe latter are needed if intractable urban problems such asmeeting responsibility for the public realm or natural surveil-lance are to be achieved.

A conceptual framework is offered to help us unscramble complex-ity. It focuses on assessing deeper faultlines and problems that will

Overture 3

take generations to solve: traditional drivers such as IT and theageing population; battlegrounds and the day-to-day contests overpriorities; and paradoxes such as the simultaneous rise of a risk-averse culture with a pressure to be creative and to break the rules.

Some of the main points made in The Art of City-Making arethat the overall dynamic of the system that governs city-making isfar less rational than it makes itself appear – it does not look atcomprehensive flows, connections or inter-relationships, and down-stream impacts are not seen or costed; that city-making is no one’sjob – the urban professions and politicians may believe it is theirs,but they are only responsible for a part; that because of this frag-mentation and the competing rules of different professions andinterests we cannot build the cities we love anymore – the currentrules, especially concerning traffic engineering, forbid it. And, notleast, that 6 billion people on the planet is too many unless lifestyleschange dramatically.

The Art of City-Making proposes that we:

• Redefine the scope of creativity, focusing much more onunleashing the mass of ordinary, day-to-day, dormant creativitythat lies within most of us. The focus should fall equally onsocial and other forms of creativity. This would represent a shiftin attention from assuming creativity only comprises thecreative industries and media. Creativity is in danger of beingswallowed up by fashion.

• Recognize artistic thinking as helpful in finding imaginativesolutions and engaging and moving people. All urban profes-sions should consider thinking like artists, planning likegenerals and acting like impresarios.

• Rethink who our celebrities are and what an urban heroine orhero should be. This could be an invisible planner, a businessperson, a social worker or an artist.


Creative city-making is a fragileaffair, requiring constant alert-ness within an ethical frameworkof values

Source: Collin Bogaars

• See that there is a major opportunity for the return of the citystate and for cities to become value-driven to a much greaterextent than nation states can ever be. This entails renegotiatingpower relations with national governments.

At its best, good city-making leads to the highest achievement ofhuman culture. A cursory look at the globe reveals the names ofcities old and new. Their names resonate as we think simultane-ously about their physical presence, their activities, their cultures,and their people and ideas: Cairo, Isfahan, Delhi, Rome,Constantinople, Canton/Gúangzhõu, Kyoto, New York, SanFrancisco, Shanghai, Vancouver, or, on a smaller scale, Berne,Florence, Varanasi, Shibam. Our best cities are the most elaborateand sophisticated artefacts humans have conceived, shaped andmade. The worst are forgettable, damaging, destructive, evenhellish. For too long we believed that city-making involved only theart of architecture and land-use planning. Over time, the arts ofengineering, surveying, valuing, property development and projectmanagement began to form part of the pantheon. We now knowthat the art of city-making involves all the arts; the physical alonedo not make a city or a place. For that to happen, the art of under-standing human needs, wants and desires; the art of generatingwealth and bending the dynamics of the market and economics tothe city’s needs; the art of circulation and city movement; the art ofurban design; and the art of trading power for creative influence sothe power of people is unleashed must all be deployed. We couldgo on. And let’s not forget community endorsement, health, inspi-ration and celebration. Most importantly, good city-makingrequires the art of adding value and values simultaneously in every-thing undertaken. Together, the mindsets, skills and valuesembodied in these arts help make places out of simple spaces.

The city is an interconnected whole. It cannot be viewed asmerely a series of elements, although each element is important inits own right. When we consider a constituent part we cannotignore its relation to the rest. The building speaks to its neighbour-ing building and to the street, and the street in turn helps fashionits neighbourhood. Infused throughout are the people who popu-late the city. They mould the physical into shape and frame its useand how it feels.

The city comprises both hard and soft infrastructure. The hardis like the bone structure, the skeleton, while the soft is akin to the

Overture 5

nervous system and its synapses. One cannot exist without theother.

The city is a multifaceted entity. It is an economic structure –an economy; it is a community of people – a society; it is a designedenvironment – an artefact; and it is a natural environment – anecosystem. And it is all four of these – economy, society, artefactand ecosystem – governed by an agreed set of rules – a polity. Itsinner engine or animating force, however, is its culture. Culture –the things we find important, beliefs and habits – gives the city itsdistinctiveness – its flavour, tone and patina. The art of city-makingtouches all these dimensions. City-making is about choices, andtherefore about politics, and therefore about the play of power. Andour cities reflect the forces of power that have shaped them.

The Art of City-Making is quite a long book, but there aredifferent rhythms beating in its pages and I hope it is easy to readin bite-sized, self-contained chunks. For instance, Chapter 2 (‘TheSensory Landscape of Cities’) has one mood and attempts to belyrical in parts, while the section on ‘The City as a Guzzling Beast’(Chapter 3) is fact-driven, and the sections on the geography ofmisery and desire have a more exasperated tone. The second halfof the book seeks to bring all these things together, to clarify andsimplify, and to help the reader throw light on complex, biggerissues affecting cities. Thus, as we draw towards the end, Chapter6 (‘The City as a Living Work of Art’) is like a toolbox of ideaswith which to move forward. And ‘Creative Cities for the World’and ‘Creativity and the City: Thinking Through the Steps’ invitethe reader to make their own judgements about what places arereally inventive and why.

City-making and responsibilityWhose responsibility is it to make our cities? While the forms theytake are usually unintentional, cities are not mere accidents. Theyare the product of decisions made for individual, separate, evendisparate purposes, whose inter-relationships and side-effects havenot been fully considered.

City-making is in fact no one person’s job. Politicians say it istheirs, but they can get too concerned with managing a party ratherthan a city. Elected officials can get addicted to shorter-term think-ing. The imperative to get re-elected can stifle leadership, risks arenot taken, and easy wins or instantly visible results – the building


of a bypass, say, or putting up as many housing units as possible –are thrust to the fore. Perhaps a local partnership or a chief execu-tive officer is responsible? No – probably not.

The urban professions would claim they are in charge, eventhough they are responsible only for aspects of the physical parts.Yet if there is no conscious overarching sense of city- or place-making, we go by default patterns and the core assumptions of eachprofession – their technical codes, standards and guidelines, such asthose that set patterns for a turning circle or the width of pave-ments. But such codes, standards and guidelines do not, on theirown, provide a cohesive template for city-making. The technicalknowledge of highway engineers, surveyors, planners or architects,viewed in isolation, is probably fine, albeit requiring rethinking onoccasion, but a technical manual does not create a bigger picture ofwhat a city is, where it could be going and how it fits into a globalpattern.

It is no one person’s job at present to connect the agendas, waysof thinking, knowledge and skill bases. But if, at present, no one isresponsible, then everyone is to blame for our many ugly, soulless,unworkable cities and our occasional places of delight. And there isa pass-the-parcel attitude to responsibility. One moment thehighway engineers are the scapegoats, the next it’s the planner orthe developer. What is needed is more than being a mere networkeror broker of professions and requires a deeply etched understand-ing of what essence each professional grouping brings or couldbring to the art of city-making.

The spirit of city-making, with its necessary creativity andimagination, is more like improvised jazz than chamber music.There is experimentation, trial and error, and everyone can be aleader, given a particular area of expertise. As if by some mysteri-ous process, orchestration occurs through seemingly unwrittenrules. Good city-making requires myriad acts of persistence andcourage that need to be aligned like a good piece of music. There isnot just one conductor, which is why leadership in its fullest senseis so important – seemingly disparate parts have to be melded intoa whole.

Art and scienceThe Art of City-Making privileges the word ‘art’ over ‘science’. Itacknowledges, though, that we can still be scientific in the proce-

Overture 7

dures of how we approach city issues. As in the natural sciences,we can define questions, gather information and resources, formhypotheses, analyse facts and data and on occasion perform exper-iments, and certainly interpret things and draw conclusions thatserve as a starting point for new hypotheses. But given the array ofthings in a city to consider, different forms of insight are needed,and these change all the time, for example from the hard science ofengineering to the soft science of environmental psychology.Adhering to methodologies is inappropriate. Science assumes apredictability that the human ecologies that are cities cannotprovide.

The phrase ‘the art of’ in itself implies judgements of value. Weare in the realm of the subjective. It implies there is a profoundunderstanding of each city-making area, but also, in addition, theability to grasp the essence of other subjects, to be interdisciplinary.The methods used to gain insight and knowledge are broad-ranging, from simple listening to more formalized comparativemethods and understanding how intangible issues like image canhelp urban competitiveness. These arts are in fact skills acquired byexperience and acute observation, requiring deep knowledge, theuse of imagination and discipline.

Fine judgement is key to city-making. What works in one situa-tion, even when the factors seem the same, may not work inanother. For example, to launch the long-term image and self-perception campaign in Leicester, posters declaring ‘Leicester isboring’ worked positively because there was enough resilience inthe city to both understand the nuggets of truth embodied in thecampaign and to respond actively to the criticism and to appreciateirony. The steering groups involved decided prior to the campaignthat this was an appropriate approach for Leicester. However, asimilar, ‘negative’ approach in neighbouring Derby, for example,may have been deemed culturally insensitive, ineffectual or justplain unsuitable. Knowledge of local cultural particularities andcontext is therefore always paramount. But while specialized judge-ment in particular cases is key, there are also principles that tend towork across particularities, such as going with, rather than against,the grain of peoples’ cultural backgrounds in implementingprojects.

The compound city-making is preferred to city-building, sincethe latter implies that the city is only that which the built envi-ronment professions have physically constructed. Yet what gives


a city life, meaning and purpose are the acts people perform onthe physical stage. The stage set is not the play. The physicalthings are only the accoutrements, helpful instruments anddevices. But the aim here is to shift the balance, to increase thecredibility and status of the scriptwriters, the directors andperformers. Countless skills come to mind. The core professions,beyond the built environment people, include environmental andsocial occupations such as conservation advisers or care profes-sionals, economic development specialists, the IT community,community professions and volunteers, and ‘cross-cutting’ peoplesuch as urban regeneration experts. There are also historians,anthropologists, people who understand popular culture, geogra-phers, psychologists and many other specialists. And there is astill wider group – including educators, the police, health workers,local businesses and the media – that makes a city tick. Then thereis the wider public itself, the glue that ties things together. Withinall these groups, there is a need for visionaries who can pinpointwhat each city’s prospects are and where it might be going. Unlessall these people are part of the urban story, the physical remainsan empty shell.

Yet too often we rely on the priesthood of those concerned withthe physical, and it is they, perhaps more than others, who areresponsible for the cities we have. Acerbically we might ask: Dothey understand people and their emotions? Do some of them evenlike people?

Push and pullTransitional periods of history, like the Industrial Revolution or thetechnological revolution of the past 50 years, can produce confu-sion – a sense of liberation combined with a feeling of being sweptalong by events. It thus takes a while for new ethical stances to takeroot or to establish new and coherent worldviews. For example,the link between the individual and the group is gradually beingreconfigured, as bonds to traditional place-based communities havefractured and been weakened by increasing mobility and decreas-ing provision by public authorities. Creating stable, local identitiesor senses of belonging in this context is difficult.

The temper of the age is one of uncertainty, foreboding, vulner-ability and lack of control over overweening global forces. It is hardto see a way to a Golden Age. Among the present-day young, the

Overture 9

Zeitgeist of the 1960s generation, with its sense of ‘we can changethe world’, is absent. A significant proportion of the young todayfeel change is potentially threatening rather than liberating. Butwhat is different about the spirit of the age is the recognition thatthe long-term effects of industrialism have hidden real costs.

City mayors or key officials know about the contradictorydemands of successful city-making in this context. They experienceand navigate the push and pull of clearing rubbish, reducing noise,curtailing crime, making movement and transport easy, ensuringurban services, housing and health facilities are up to speed, whileleaving something in the kitty for culture. Day-to-day life needs towork.

But mayors and their cities have to paint on a much largercanvas if they are to generate the wealth and prosperity to fund thenecessary investments in infrastructures and facilities that generatethe quality of life of their cities.

Cities must speak to a world well beyond national government.They need to attract investment bankers, inward-investing compa-nies, property developers, the talented the world over. They need tocourt the media through which the city’s resonance is eitherconfirmed or generated.

To survive well, bigger cities must play on varied stages – fromthe immediately local, through the regional and national, to thewidest global platform. These mixed targets, goals and audienceseach demand something different. Often they pull and stretch indiverging directions. How do you create coherence out of wantsand needs that do not align?

One demands a local bus stop shelter, another airport connec-tivity across the world; one audience wants just a few tourists toensure the city remains more distinctly itself, another as many aspossible to generate money; one wants to encourage local businessincubators, another a global brand; for some, an instantly recog-nizable city brand to disseminate is the way forward, for others it ismerely copying the crowd. The list is endless.

Working on different scales and complexity is hard: the chal-lenge is to coalesce, align and unify this diversity so the resultingcity feels coherent and can operate consistently.

But lurking in the background are bigger issues that play on themind of the more visionary urban leader, issues that the worldcannot avoid and that cities have to respond to. Global sustainabil-ity is one. And this is a consideration that should shape what cities


do, how we build, how we move about, how we behave and howwe avert pollution. Taken seriously, it requires dramatic behav-ioural change, since technological solutions can only take us so far.

There is already an air of resignation, tinged with guilt, in indi-viduals and decision-makers alike; we cannot face the implicationsof getting out of the car or refitting the economy for the periodbeyond the oil age. But that time is coming at us fast. It is too easyto respond only when the horse has already bolted. It is too diffi-cult, too many feel, to argue for the switch to public transport, togenerate the taxes to create a transport system that feels great touse as much for the well-off as for those at the other end of thescale. This means rethinking density and sprawl. But everyoneknows the economic equations and urban formations that makethis work as well as the tricks that seduce the user: city regions withhubs and nodes, incentives like park and ride, and disincentives totravel by car.

The issue has been solved in many parts of the world – think ofHong Kong or Curitiba – but it requires a different view of publicinvestment and investment in the public good and, essentially,depends on how much the individual is prepared to give up forwider public purposes.

As already mentioned, there is a tendency to pass the parcel onresponsibility. Some say it should be government taking the lead,but at the same time these people do not want government to be sopowerful. Yet many US cities have taken the lead over nationalgovernment and signed the Kyoto agreement, for example, remind-ing us of the power of cities to drive national agendas.

But sustainability addresses more than environmental concerns.It has at least four pillars: the economic, social, cultural and ecolog-ical. And there is more to add. Cities need to be emotionally andpsychologically sustaining, and issues like the quality and design ofthe built environment, the quality of connections between peopleand the organizational capacity of urban stakeholders becomecrucial, as do issues of spatial segregation in cities and poverty.Sustainable places need to be sustaining across the range.

Unresolved and unclearThere are many opinions in the text that follows and variousconclusions are reached about how cities should move forward.Where do these judgements come from, what is their basis and what

Overture 11

is the evidence?2 What I have laid out comes from my experience ofobserving cities; from participating in projects in cities from thesmall to the large; from talking to city leaders and the more power-ful about how they want to make their cities better; and fromtalking to activists and the less powerful about what they want tochange and how they are going to do it.

This has made me even more curious about cities – I want toknow how they work and how and why they succeed or fail. I havereflected on these encounters and am left with many unansweredquestions. As an example, I keep on thinking of the balances thatneed to be achieved and then worry that this leads to compromiseand blandness: creating urban delights or curtailing urban misery;focusing on density or being lax with sprawl; worrying about whatthe world thinks of your city or just getting on with it regardless.Alternatively I have been thinking of questions like: Is it possible tocreate places where people from different backgrounds intermingleand where segregation is reduced? How can you tap the dormantenergy of people that coexists side by side with pervasive passivity?What skills, talents, insight and knowledge are needed to makecities work? What qualities are needed to be a good city-maker?Imagination, for sure, but what about courage, commitment andcleverness? Is it worth having lofty aims about cities and does thisprovide the motivation, energy and will to change things?

My intention is to start a conversation with whoever is readingthis as if we were mutually critical friends. Because of that I havetried to write in a conversational style. I know many academics willfind this irritating. Yet I have a reader in mind who is probablyresponsible for some field of city-making, someone who is some-what ground down by the difficulties of getting things done, whohas high-flown ideals, who wants to be active yet feels they shouldstand back and contemplate, but who does not want to engage witha weighty tome. I have tried to switch between the evocative, theconceptual, the anecdotal and the exemplary and I hope thisrhythm works. This is not a step-by-step guide. It is an explorationthat proposes we think of cities in enriched ways and in which I tryto highlight things I think are important yet hidden.

Secular humanismA final point: The Art of City-Making is laden with assumptionsthat shape what I say, the suggestions I make and the preferences I


have. These will probably become clear to you as the text unfolds.Nevertheless, since cities are such contested fields, both in terms oftheir actual functioning and what is said about them, I feel it isright to make my ideological position explicit from the outset.

I subscribe to a secular humanist position that privileges civicvalues, which in essence seek to foster competent, confident andengaged citizenship. Mine is an attitude or philosophy concernedwith the capabilities, interests and achievements of human beingsrather than the concepts and problems of science or theology. Itdoes not decry the virtues of science or the sustenance religion orother belief systems give. It is simply that its focus is on how peoplelive together. The world is best understood, I posit, by reasoningand conversation without reference to higher authorities. It claimslife can be best lived by applying ethics; which are an attempt toarrive at practical standards that provide principles to guide ourcommon views and behaviour and to help resolve conflicts. Itprovides a frame within which difference can be lived and sharedwith mutual respect.

Secular humanism as a core Enlightenment project has beendrained of confidence. It feels exhausted and consequently ismistakenly accused of being ‘wishy-washy’, with no apparent pointof view. Its confidence needs to be restored. The confident secularhumanist view proposes a set of civic values and rules of engage-ment which include providing settings for a continually renewingdialogue across differences, cultures and conflicts; allowing stronglyheld beliefs or faiths expression within this core agreement; andacknowledging the ‘naturalness’ of conflict and establishing meansand mediation devices to deal with difference. It seeks to consoli-date different ways of living, recognizing arenas in which we mustall live together and those where we can live apart. It generatesstructured opportunities to learn to know ‘the other’, to exploreand discover similarity and difference. It wishes to drive down decision-making on the subsidiarity principle, which implies muchgreater decentralization and devolution of power. Central govern-ment takes on a more subsidiary role. This enhances participationand connectivity at local level. It helps generate interest, concernand responsibility.

‘Secular’ does not mean emotionally barren. In fact I treasurethe heightened registers of being that spirituality evokes. Indeed itsanimating force may be just the thing that makes some cities moreliveable in than others.

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Shifting the Zeitgeist Better choices, politics and powerCity-making is about making choices, applying values, using politicsto turn values into policies and exerting power to get your way.Choices reflect our beliefs and attitudes, which are based on valuesand value judgements. These in turn are shaped by our culture. Sothe scope, possibilities, style and tenor of a city’s physical look andits social, ecological and economic development are culturallyshaped – culture moves centre-stage. If, for example, a cultureinvests its faith only in the market principle and trusts the drive ofcapital to produce sensible choices, the logic, interests and points ofview of those who control markets will count for more than thosewho believe market-based decision-making is an essentially impov-erished system of choosing.3 If a culture holds that individual choiceis everything – individuals always know best – this impacts the city.Conversely, if it is held that there is something in the idea of a public,common or collective good that has value and is beyond the vagariesof the market, credence can be given to inspirational and emblem-atic projects that can lift the public spirit: buildings that are notconstructed according to market principles, imitate environmentalinitiatives, attending to the sickly or investing in youth.

City-making is a cultural project involving a battle aboutpower. Power determines the kind of cities we have and politics isits medium. What are the effects of these different values? ConsiderMercer’s ‘quality of living’ rankings of 2006.4 This US company’sannual survey of 350 cities, focused especially on expatriates, isnow seen as authoritative. It considers 39 criteria covering econom-ics, politics, safety, housing and lifestyle. European, Canadian andAustralian cities dominate the rankings, with Zurich, Geneva andVancouver the top three, followed by Vienna. Six of the top eightcities are European. The implications of the market-driven USapproach for how city life actual feels to individuals is instructive.The top US cities are Honolulu at 27th and San Francisco at 28th;Houston, where you cannot walk the streets even if you want to, isthe worst of all large US cities at 68th.

Challenging the paradigmThe Art of City-Making wants to be a butterfly whose small move-ments contribute with many others to grander effects on a globalscale. It feels to me that the Zeitgeist is ready to shift, and I want


this book to be part of encouraging a new spirit of the times. Thisinvolves more than just altering the climate of opinion or intellec-tual atmosphere. A Zeitgeist is felt more deeply. It is less malleableand it is sensed viscerally, so providing energy and focus. It makesevery person who feels it want to be an active agent, pulling themalong with a comforting and comfortable instinct bordering onfaith.

In each period of history we can discern overarching qualities;these are never formulaic and often contradictory. Intellectual,political, economic and social trends are etched with the character-istic spirit of their era. We can say ‘modern times’ are characterizedby an unwavering belief in a particular, progressive view of scienceon its inexorable journey to the truth, and a faith in technology.Yet the ‘rationality’ of technology is being called into question andcritiques of this approach are escalating in number. (As an example,what is rational about creating global warming and its conse-quences?) Post-modernism rejects the grand unifying narrativesassociated with the modern period that try to explain everything.The relative, multiple, culturally determined truths it upholds desta-bilize the position of the many who want a single answer, sounsurprisingly the truths of the Gods are back. They providecertainty and anchoring. But both the modern and the post-modernexacerbate the fragmentation of knowledge, the one throughspecialized research and scientific data and the other through thediversity of perspectives. The Enlightenment ideals of progress andreason have taken a battering; their confidence has been shaken.

The ethical anchorWhat is the quality of the Zeitgeist seeking to emerge? At its core isa belief in thinking in a rounded way and seeing different perspec-tives, not putting things in separate boxes. Thinking differently alsomeans doing things differently and sometimes means doing differ-ent things. In the struggle about what is important, those pushingthis Zeitgeist seek some form of unity beyond the ding-dong ofeither/or arguments.5 They believe in ‘seeing the wood and the treessimultaneously’, with ‘strategy and tactics as one’. They are able to‘operate both with the market and against the market’ and to‘assess things in terms of the precautionary principle and take risksat the same time’ or ‘to go with the flow of ambiguity but still beclear about where you are going’. This allows them to see things inmore depth. They work against compartmentalized, ‘silo’ thinking

Overture 15

and the turgid bureaucracy of departmental baronies. They areagainst reductionism, which thinks about parts in isolation and seesthe city in its parts, and instead consider the interconnected, overalldynamics, such as how socio-economic exigencies and crime inex-tricably interconnect. It is difficult, if not impossible, to understandwholes by focusing on the parts, yet it is possible to understand theparts by seeing the connections of the whole.

How we manage a city is in part determined by the metaphorswe employ to describe it. If we think of the city as a machine madeup of parts and fragments rather than as an organism made up ofrelated, interconnected wholes, we invoke mechanical solutionsthat may not address the whole issue. And a mechanistic approachsimilarly impacts on public spirit. If, instead, we focus on the widestimplications of a problem, on connections and relationships, wecan make policy linkages between, say, housing, transport andwork; between culture, the built environment and social affairs;between education, the arts and happiness; or between image, localdistinctiveness and fun.

Whose truths?The new Zeitgeisters value the subjective as well as the objective. Ifsomeone says ‘I feel good’ or ‘I feel bad’, this is a truth. They listento emotions and credit these with due seriousness. They look at theeffects on deeper psychology and believe these are important in city-making. They’d ‘rather be vaguely right than precisely wrong’.6

They agree with those who believe the notion of a stable, unwaver-ing truth waiting to be discovered has been discredited. Fritz Caprasummarizes succinctly the point made earlier:

My conscious decision about how to observe, say, anelectron, will determine the electron’s properties tosome extent. If I ask it a particle question, it will giveme a particle answer; if I ask it a wave question it willgive me a wave answer. The electron does not haveobjective properties independent of my mind. Inatomic physics the sharp Cartesian division betweenmind and matter, between the observer and theobserved, can no longer be maintained. We can neverspeak of nature without speaking about ourselves.7

The new Zeitgeisters want to encourage a conceptual shift in whatwe take seriously and how we view things. Most importantly, they


have a value base. It is based on curiosity about ‘the other’ and sois interested in cross-cultural connections and not inward-looking,tribal behaviour. It believes in bending markets to bigger pictureobjectives such as greater social equity, care for the environment oraspirational goals. The market on its own has no values; it is only amechanism. The emerging spirit of the times tries to think holisti-cally.

Being loftyThese lofty aims are not unrealistic simply because they are lofty.Lofty does not mean vague. It can mean trying to see clearly and togive a sense of the direction of travel rather than the name of everystation in between. Of course, this scares the pre-committed andclosed-minded. Shifts in Zeitgeist are mostly triggered by thecoming together of sets of circumstance: an event like HurricaneKatrina or 9/11 or, on a lesser scale, the sudden awareness of atipping point – the UK government’s ‘Avoiding Dangerous ClimateChange’ report of January 2006 makes global warming deniersseem crazily committed to being blind; the Northern IrelandStatistics and Research Agency 2005 report documents coldly theconnection between segregation, deprivation, sectarian violenceand lack of economic prospects. These ‘events’ are enhanced bymedia clamour. Suddenly it seems the time has come for a set ofideas. And the hordes of the new Zeitgeisters are ready to pounce.

Crisp encapsulationsMost importantly, Zeitgeist shifts because it becomes a better repre-sentation of reality. It chimes with ‘common sense’. A contestedterm, the idea of common sense has been argued about forcenturies. In German it literally means ‘healthy human understand-ing’,8 but can be understood as the ‘generally accepted majorityview’, with examples being ‘laws apply to everyone’, ‘peace is betterthan war’ or ‘everyone should have access to health services’. ‘Someuse the phrase to refer to beliefs or propositions that in theiropinion they consider would in most people’s experience be prudentand of sound judgment.’9 Common sense is dynamic, not static,and what makes sense changes with time and circumstance.

Shifting common sense requires the dissemination of thestarkly illustrative. New cultural narratives by their nature aremore difficult to inculcate into common sense – there are few starkfacts or figures that can evince an epiphany. But environmental

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narratives, on the other hand, constitute a more jarring challengeto received wisdom and it is not difficult to construct out of themwould-be iconic soundbites that can seep into common sense. Forinstance, you do not need to be a scientist to understand thatincreasing the number of cars in Britain by 800,000 a year cannotcontinue. This net increase is equivalent to an extra six-lanemotorway full of bumper-to-bumper motor vehicles from Londonto Edinburgh, a length of 665km, every year.10 The averageEuropean car produces over 4 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.You do not need much skill to calculate that 800,000 times 4 tonnes equals 3,200,000 tonnes, nor that pumping thiscompound, invisible though it may be, into the atmosphere musthave an effect. We simultaneously acknowledge and deny the linkbetween exhaust fumes and acid rain, lead-poisoning and a varietyof bronchial and respiratory illnesses. But we don’t need muchinsight to realize that cars, whether moving or static, clog up citiesand give them an overwhelming ‘car feel’. Is it therefore not‘common sense’ to curtail car use and encourage less-pollutingforms of transport?

Would-be iconic facts such as these enable the understanding ofthings that seem self-evidently true. Or do they? Many want to hidefrom ‘reality’. They are wilfully ignorant, their fear often maskedbehind arrogant overconfidence and power play. The will leadingto ignorance and apathy arises especially among the beneficiariesof the status quo, whether financially, through peer groups or evenemotionally. It takes commitment to change. The structures andincentives around us do not help, nor does the mantra of ‘freechoice’, two deeply contested words that are used together as ifthey could never be queried. It takes behavioural change, but denialtranslates into avoidance activity. With glazed open eyes we sleep-walk into crisis. It hurts to digest the implications of facing thingsas they are, and to do something about them. The Zeitgeist changeswhen the unfolding new can be described in crisp encapsulations;this gives the spirit of the times a firm, persistent push, so it appearsas the new common sense.

Capturing the ZeitgeistIn every age there are battles to capture the Zeitgeist, because whenon your side it is a powerful ally. The goal is to portray adversariesas if they are acting against history in some sense. So, for instance,hardened reactionaries will accuse emergent trends of being woolly


or devoid of reality in an attempt to put them down. Today thebattles and dividing lines centre on your views around a series offaultlines, which determine whether you are ‘one of us’.

The emergent spirit has an ethical twist and includes a concernfor the following:

• Distinctiveness – fostering authenticity of places to strengthentheir identity and ultimately their competitiveness.

• A learning community – encouraging participation and listen-ing. The city becomes a place of many learners and leaders.

• Wider accounting – balancing economic goals with others suchas liveability and quality of life.

• Idealism – encouraging activism and a values-based approachto running a city. Not shying away from altruism.

• Holism – having a whole systems view so sharing a concern forecology or culture.

• Diversity – having an interest in difference and cross-culturalconsolidation and rejecting intolerance.

• Gendered approaches – having an interest in the other sex’sperspectives on running cities.

• Beyond technology – technology is not the answer to everyproblem. It is not a white knight that can address all urbanproblems, from segregation to gang culture. We also need toencourage behavioural change, while stopping short of engi-neering society.11

CITYNESS IS EVERYWHERE

The world’s urban population has just passed 50 per cent. This isan iconic figure. We are inexorably leaving the rural world behind;everything will in future be determined by the urban. Of course, inmore developed places in the world, the urban population is alreadywell over 50 per cent – over 74 per cent in Europe and 80 per centin the Middle East and Australia – but this is a critical moment, theturning point from rural to urban.

‘Cityness’ is the state most of us find ourselves in. Cityness iseverywhere because even when we are nominally far away fromcities, the city’s maelstrom draws us in. Its tentacles, template andfootprint reach out into its wide surrounds, shaping the physicallook, the emotional feel, the atmosphere and economics. The

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perceptual reach and physical impact of London, for example,stretches 70km in all directions, that of New York even further,that of Tokyo well beyond. Their networks of roads, pipes andpylons stretch into the far yonder. And the same is true even forsmaller settlements – each has a catchment area or dynamic pullaround itself. When these magnetic maelstroms and catchments areadded together, nearly nothing is left of what was once callednature. The overarching aura is the city.

Urbanism is the discipline which helps us understand this auraand see the dynamics, resources and potential of the city and city-ness in a richer way; urban literacy is the ability and skill to ‘read’the city and understand how cities work and is developed by learn-ing about urbanism. Urbanism and urban literacy are linked genericand overarching skills, and a full understanding of urbanism onlyoccurs by looking at the city with different perspectives, insightsand multiple eyes. Overlaying it is cultural literacy – the under-standing of how cultures work – which ultimately is key.12

Night maps show the extent of urban ubiquity most graphi-cally. The entire Japanese nation shines like a beacon. Osaka to


Source: Charles Landry

The city is more than ‘roads, rates and rubbish’, as the Australianssay (or ‘pipes, potholes and police’, as the Americans say)

Tokyo is nearly one built mass, a contiguous city of 80 millionpeople stretching 515km. The Pearl River Delta in Southern Chinawent from paddy fields to near complete urbanization in 50 years.Even more extreme, the seaboard of the east coast of China willsoon be one strip of urbanization. The east coast of the US is allbut completely urbanized from Boston to Washington, which is710km, and the lights extend inland too. From the east coastinwards are 1000km stretches of light blur. Forty years ago theSpanish coastline seen from the air was punctuated by a few largecities, such as Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Almeria and Malagawith some speckled fishing villages in between. Now it is almostcompletely built up along a 970km stretch. The same is true forMarseille in France to Genoa in Italy (440km). Only Africa is a fardimmer continent, rarely punctuated by bright interruptions.

The inexorable movement of people, who hope cities can fulfiltheir dreams, expectations or sheer need for survival, feeds cities.But this is not happening uniformly. In Europe populations havestabilized and are about to begin their decline.13 During industrializ-ing eras concentration is the dominant force, as witnessed in Europeand the US, with populations shifting from smaller towns to largecities. A second pattern now emerging is a parallel counter-urban-ization – larger cities are stuttering, with the largest percentage gainsseen in smaller cities and rural areas – though the rebirth of the cityin the West is curtailing that trend somewhat, bolstered by attemptsto make cities safer, more attractive, vital and vibrant, so enticingvarious subgroups such as empty-nesters or young professionals.

In East Asia and the rest of the developing world, by contrast,the pull to the city continues unabated, fed by hope and need. Weare witnessing the largest movement of people in history. Waveupon wave of incomers are arriving. The vast majority are poor,but once semi-settled there are layers of deprivation within thispoverty and each layer has differing economic prospects. In spite ofabject poverty at the lowest levels in the booming cities in Africa,Asia and Latin America, each stratum can provide services to thegroup slightly better off. So it partly fulfils its aspirations. Thisranges from selling cooked meals to personal services as one movesup the chain. There is exploitative production-line work and transport services, then building and construction, and finallyfinancial activities or leisure provision similar to those meetingdemands in the West. This makes slums complex. They have theirown class structure and stratifications.

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Imagine the impact of Sao Paulo’s expansion from 10 millionin 1984 to 20 million in 1999 – over 600,000 newcomers per year.Or, perhaps the starkest example, Shenzhen, a 90-minute train ridefrom Hong Kong, which has grown from a rice-growing village inthe late 1970s to a city of over 10 million people today. In somesense the achievement is astonishing.

Imagine the physical infrastructure needed. Imagine the psycho-logical stresses. The figures are telling, but the added zeros barelytouch the impact of dense living, exacerbating pollution, grindingpoverty, the urban rush, the ugly slipshod-built buildings or theescalating sense of things being out of control. The zeros do notput across the heaving weight of fates fulfilled or destroyed, thesadnesses lived through, injustices endured, helplessness put upwith, and occasional delight.

In 1900 only 160 million people, 10 per cent of the world’spopulation, lived in cities. In 1950 it was 730 million people or 34per cent. Today 3250 million or 50 per cent are urban dwellers –the equivalent of every single person in Europe, the Americas,Africa, Oceania and Western Asia living in cities.14 These averagefigures, however, mask gaping differences. Ninety-seven per centof Belgians, 89 per cent of British and 88 per cent of Germans livein urban areas, against 74 per cent of Europeans as a whole. Everyyear another 68 million people move to cities, the equivalent ofthe entire French and Belgian populations combined. Mercifully, ifpredictions are correct, the world’s population will stabilize at 9billion in 2050. Population has already stabilized in Europe, andthe remaining the growth is expected to come from Asia andAfrica.

In 1900 the ten biggest cities in the world were in the North.Now that hemisphere has only New York and Los Angeles in thetop ten and by 2015 will have none. In 1800 London was theworld’s largest city, with 1 million people. Today 326 metropolitanareas have more than 1 million people. By 2025 there are expectedto be 650. Many of these cities of a million you will have neverheard of: Ranchi, Sholapur, San Luis, Potosi or Gaziantep, Nampoand Datong, Tanjungkarang, Davao and Urumqi. Who would havethought that Chungking had nearly 8 million people or Ahmadabadjust over 5 million and Wuhan and Harbin just under? The numberof megacities, cities of more than 10 million, has climbed from 5 in1975 to 14 in 1995 and is expected to reach 26 by 2015. Lagos’population in 1980 was 2.8 million and is now 13 million and


Kampala’s population has tripled over the same period. We couldgo on …

Feeling and perceiving geographyHow does the feeling of cityness come about? Figures rarely tellyou how a landscape or space feels. Near where I live inGloucestershire, 25 years ago there was a clear distinction betweenthe natural landscape and human settlements, whether the villageBisley, the town Cheltenham or the city outside the county, Bristol.The county now has a population of 568,000 and 60 per cent ofthe land is rural; the growth in population from a figure of 515,000in 1980 was 10 per cent. Yet car numbers rose by 30.2 per cent inthe same period. Add to this a dramatic increase in mobility –people are currently moving around six times as much as in 1950,from 8km per day in 1950 to 19.5 in 1980, 48.2 in 2000 and apredicted 96.4km in 2025. By contrast, travel by buses hasdecreased from 32.8 per cent of all journeys in 1960 to 6.7 per centin 2000.15

At the same time, personal living space has nearly doubled since1950 and increased from 38m2 per person in 1991 to 43m2 in 1996and 44m2 in 2001. This reflects the increase in single person house-holds and the decrease in larger families.16 As more people demandmore dwelling space, so existing settlements expand and new onesemerge. Empty space is ever more scarce.

To accommodate the increasing numbers of people over time,open space was infilled and new estates were built. The greaternumber of cars led to strategic roads being widened, bypasses beingadded and more roundabouts. The larger supermarkets were movedfrom town centre cores to peripheries at the nexus points of varioussettlements, petrol stations were added along routes, ribbon devel-opments were allowed and more signs were put up. Step by stepand imperceptibly the atmosphere changed. The area’s overall feelis now one of cityness.

Transpose this tiny local instance in Gloucestershire on to theglobal scale. Visualize the vehicles and the ever-expanding physicalinfrastructure needed and space used. The British net increase of800,000 cars per year has already been noted. In the US the annualnet increase averages 2.7 million per year. In Europe between 1995and 2002, 32 million more vehicles hit the road. Wait for Chinaand India fully to emerge – China has 20 per cent of the world’spopulation and only 8.1 per cent of its vehicles, a large proportion

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of which are vans and lorries. The 5.2 personal cars per 1000people looks minuscule in contrast with Western Europe, where itis just over 400 per 1000.17 If China catches up, the figures becomeabsurd – several hundred million more cars would be on the roads.

Look at living space. Similar processes to those occurring inGloucestershire are taking place throughout Europe, where livingspace differs from place to place but hovers at around 40m2.Contrast this with the North American average of 65m2 or moredramatically still China, where prior to 1978 average living spacewas only 3.6m2. By 2001, with the massive expansion of apart-ments, this had risen to 15.5m2, close to the 19m2 in Russia.18

What are the spatial implications of China reaching Europeanlevels?

Single person households are rising. In Britain in 2001, 29 percent of households were solely inhabited by single persons, up from18 per cent in 1971. Household inhabitants have reduced from 2.91people per dwelling in 1971 to 2.3 in 2001. In Sweden, the figure is1.9, the lowest in Europe. If Britain were to match Swedish figuresit would require 47 per cent more dwellings by 2050. Consider thephysical impact of these increased dwellings. In the rest of the devel-oped world the range falls within the same margins – the US, forinstance, has a figure of 2.61 – but for the less developed world it isjust over 5. India has 5.4 and Iraq, the highest, 7.7. Once thesecountries develop, the demand for space and mobility will increase,although population growth will decline as education levelsincrease. This is the acknowledged pattern, but by the time that hashappened what will the world look like?19

Flipping perception The impact of the intensification of land use and movement isdramatic. The distinction between the natural and built environ-ment has eroded. The balance has tipped inexorably. From a feelingof settlements within nature, there are now interconnected, sprawl-ing settlements within which there is parkland. The nature we haveis manicured, contained and tamed. It is a variant of a park. Thewolves, the bears and the snakes have long gone. Sad it may be, butbetter to start from an honest premise.

Even widening a road through the countryside from one laneto two so that cars can pass one another has startling effects. In theone-lane landscape the car is careful, contained and cagey. Treesand foliage dominate. But as road space spreads, the visual impact


of asphalt grows disproportionately, making the natural landscapefeel less significant. The dual carriageway finally changes theperceptual balance completely, and this is a pattern seen the worldover. To talk of urban versus rural makes increasingly less sense.For instance, the Midlands in Britain and much of the south of thecountry are in truth series of built-up villages, towns and citiesconnected by roads; the green in between is incidental.

Transport is central to the equation and the need to think itthrough creatively is urgent. For example, the width of land surfacetaken up by a double railway line is only 12m, compared with 47mfor a three-lane motorway. A typical freight train can move over1000 tonnes of product, equivalent to 50 heavy goods vehicles. Andaround 30 per cent of the lorries are running empty at any one time.Moving a tonne of freight by rail produces 80 per cent less carbondioxide than moving it by road. Light van traffic is projected togrow by 74 per cent by 2025. Articulated lorry traffic is expectedto grow by 23 per cent by 2010 and 45 per cent by 2025.20 Railfreight accounts for 12 per cent of the British surface freight marketand removes over 300 million lorry miles from the roads every year.Its external cost to the environment and community (excluding

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Cityness sprawls into every crevice of what was once nature

congestion) is eight times less than road freight in terms of carbondioxide per tonne kilometre.21

Alternatives are possible. The Brazilian city of Curitiba has a150km bike network linked to a bus network. There is one car forevery three people (which some might consider underdevelopment)and two-thirds of trips are made by bus. There has been a 30 percent decline in traffic since 1974, despite a doubling of the popula-tion. Freiburg in Germany shows similar figures.22 Since 1982 localpublic transport has increased from 11 per cent to 18 per cent ofall journeys made, and bicycle use from 15 per cent to 26 per cent,while motor vehicle traffic decreased from 38 per cent to 32 percent, despite an increase in the issue of motor vehicle licences.23

A view from aboveCityness is what comes to mind when you stand back and let theessence of cities seep over you. Picture yourself arriving at a big cityfor the first time from the air. What thoughts and impressions cometo mind?

On the whole, modern cities take on a Lego-like regularitywhen viewed from high altitude. Box-like buildings hug straightlines and curves while the general hardness of brick, cement andtarmac is occasionally punctuated by the dark green of trees or thelighter green of grass. Sometimes the sun is caught in the reflectionof a pond or lake and often a river will run a course. Some largerstructures – sports stadia, power stations, communications towers– stand out as distinctive and purposeful.

As you decrease height, activity becomes more discernible.Vehicles move up and down tarmac arteries, the main thorough-fares more clogged up than residential streets. Many of the vehiclesare moving to and from the airport you are about to land in. Lowerstill and you can start to make out people, but watching theirbusying about is akin to watching an ants’ nest – fascination,perhaps, but little comprehension of the activity. Nevertheless, youget the impression of purpose as they appear from and disappearinto vehicles and buildings. If you arrive at night, you will note thenot small endeavour of defeating darkness – billions of watts calledforth to keep the urban environment physically illuminated. Citiesrely overwhelmingly on energy.


An imaginary journeyHow you view the city varies according to who you are, where youcome from, your culture, your status, your life stage and your inter-ests. Yet some experiences of the city are the same for everyone.The city announces itself a long way off through the senses: sight,sound and smell.

Take yourself on an imaginary early morning journey from outof town in summertime to a big city, the most common journey onEarth. We could be in Europe, the US, Australia, China – anywherecity-bound.

The manifestations of the city become apparent early on,although you are 30km from the urban core. The once agriculturalland left and right is speckled with windowless, uniform aluminiumindustrial sheds which are, on occasion, brightly coloured. Furtherout they are larger, the asphalted service areas more spread out,with articulated lorries in the forecourt. Closer towards the city thesheds compact in, they have a more cluttered feel. The three-lanehighway itself has an urban feel – an expanse of pounded asphaltthat stretches endlessly into the horizon. Compactly massed andclose-set cars purposively batter the road, prancing fast-forward enroute to the city. Some have blacked-out windows so the driver canmaintain a private world in a moving sea of metal. It is very diffi-cult to stop anywhere. Later in the day the asphalt will give way alittle, especially in the heat, but it is still unresponsive and dead inlook and in feel.

Instructional signs begin to escalate, telling you to slow downhere, speed up there and where to veer off into suburbs before youreach the outer ring road. And in the distance, still 15km away,shimmering against the morning sun that breaks through theclouds, a high-rise building reflects a sharp shaft of sunlight. Youget closer, structures pile up.

It is getting denser – the sensation of asphalt, concrete, glass,bricks, noise and smell mounts and spirals. Adverts swell, passingwith greater frequency: ‘Do this’, ‘Do that’, ‘Want me’, ‘Desire me’,‘Buy me’. Your radio is on, with continued interruptions. Thatmakes 52 exhortations to buy since you left home. You protectyourself from information overload by selectively half-closing andhalf-opening your ears; but you need to know the traffic news. Thecar windows are closed, the air conditioning on, but the air is stale,so you need a waft of fast-moving air from the outside. Either way,

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you are driving in a tunnel of pollution and you are beginning tosmell the approaching city. The petrol vapour is warm, fetid andglobular, perhaps even comforting. It causes a light-headed giddi-ness. It is the urban smell par excellence.

The hard surfaces of the city intensify. You are in a completelybuilt-up area, but the multi-lane highway means you can zip along.The road has just been widened to four lanes at this point. Nowyou’re in a secure funnel guiding you straight into town. Youremember that argument with the eco-guy. You think to yourself, ‘Iam moving fast. What was that nonsense about induced traffictransportation that planners dread?’ You recall that this is wheredespite highway capacity being increased when it becomescongested, over time more cars on the road drive longer distancesto access the same services, and the new highway becomes just ascongested as the old one was.

‘Forget all that. Any problem will be solved in the near futureby technologies that are currently just around the corner, like satel-lite guidance.’

The urban street patterns are not yet clear; the sight lines areobscured by underpasses and overpasses. They are made fromconcrete. Inert and lifeless, they throw an unresponsive deadnessback at you. Concrete’s shapes can on occasion lift – the swooshand sweep of a concrete curve – but it ages disgracefully. It leaches,stains and cracks, not to mention cancerous concrete that breaksup to reveal rusty steel, or graffiti.

Reinforced concrete24 is the material of the industrial age andyou are seeing more of it now. Endless concrete garden walls, rashlyconstructed. Cheap housing estates. Cheaper breeze-block accommo-dation for the even poorer. A grey concrete car park on the horizongreets you with a garish red sign: ‘All Day Parking – Only $5.’

But still there is some green. A tree-lined street eases by in theonce middle-class outer suburb of single detached houses. It is nowa lower middle-class area with rented accommodation divided intounits. A few abandoned cars, perhaps, but the place seems perfectlyfine from a distance. It might just revitalize and become the newouter urban chic, maybe for those that moved to outer-outer subur-bia and found auto-dependency too much.

Over the last 80 years the transformation from walkable toautomobile-dependent has been extraordinary. It didn’t justhappen. A set of policies at all levels of government have favouredcars over all other transport.


You’re on a flyover, which explains why this area originallywent into a downward spiral. Who wants to live under a motor-way? But for you it provides a vista – you can see the urbanpanorama. Is that IKEA in the far distance? Closer by there is acolonnaded shopping mall within a sea of car-parking and brandnames. You can read the signs from a distance. The mighty M signis one, the famous golden arches – that’s four or five within the last3km. Then there’s Wendy’s, Burger King, Nando’s, KFC, Subway.BP, Texaco. Wal-Mart or Tesco or Carrefour or Mercadona. Assigns they are as recognizable as a smile or a wave. The ads areeverywhere now: mobile phones (‘Stay in touch wherever you are’),finance deals (‘With interest rates this low, who can say No?’),banking (‘The bank you can trust’), telecommunications (‘Globalconnectivity at a switch of a button’), and property (‘Buy into urbanliving, the art of sophistication’).

You should have left ten minutes earlier. The exit lanes arejamming up and the three sets of traffic lights ahead always causea problem. You’re on the outer-inner edge of town. Brick andconcrete give way to glass. The street is segmented into big blocks,with huge setbacks, with forecourts embellished by public sculp-tures in their ubiquitous red and their abstract forms; these arebuildings that pronounce themselves, they shine in glass andmarble yet feel as if they are warding you off and keeping you atbay. They are buildings that say ‘no’, and buildings which pretendto say ‘yes’. It’s down into the car park. There is still lots of spaceat 8.15am.

For every person living in the US there are eight parking spaces.That’s over 1.5 billion.

Sameness and difference Suburbia and its discontentsSome might say that this imaginary drive is an unfair depiction,only bringing out the worst of city life. We could have started witha more positive metropolitan adventure – one that skirts the moreartsy, ethnically diverse side of things – but the drudgery of thedaily commute is far more familiar.

We could have driven the other way towards suburbia, thesetting cognoscenti love to hate. One might tut tut at its popular-ity, but only 17 per cent against 83 per cent of Americansexpressed a preference for an urban town house within preferred

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walking distance of stores and mass transit in a national survey.25

Similar figures also hold for Australia, and the new worldeconomies are catching on.26 Get Used to It: Suburbia’s Not Goingto Go Away, as one author titles his book.27 Polls, Kotkin notes,consistently show a large majority of suburbanites are happy withtheir neighbourhoods in spite of the bad press suburbs get. Sprawlhas provided individuals and families with a successful strategy toadapt to urban dysfunction: failing schools, crime, lack of spaceand the lack of personal green spaces of the inner city a stick; theample car-parking and convenience shopping of suburbia a carrot.Why worry about the lack of urban hum? Let people have whatthey want, the argument goes. Forget the social and environmen-tal costs and, anyway, suburbs are becoming more like towns. AsJoel Kotkin describes:

There are bubbling sprawl cities like Naperville,Illinois and brash new ‘suburban villages’ popping upin places such as Houston’s Fort Bend County orSouthern California’s Santa Clarita Valley. There areglistening new arts centres and concert halls inGwinett County, Georgia. Almost everywhere thereare new churches, mosques, synagogues and templesspringing to life along our vast ex-urban periphery.This humanization of suburbia is critical work and isdoing much to define what modern cities will look likethroughout advanced countries. These are greatprojects, worthy of the energies and creative input ofour best architects, environmentalists, planners andvisionaries – not their contempt and condemnation.28

Forget that sprawl is an inefficient use of land, with large quanti-ties of space taken up by roads and parking and zoning lawsmandating large setbacks, buffer zones or minimum lot sizes; thatcontinual expansion of road systems ensures land is cheap, encour-ages ‘leapfrog’ development, and leaves undeveloped land orbrownfield sites inside the city; that more roads increase trafficcongestion, because it induces more driving; that it separates landuses, leaves commercial developments to ease themselves intovacant land usually at one storey; that it uses up almost exclusivelygreenfield sites, previously in either agricultural use or a naturalstate. Forget the health consequences of sprawl – a huge cause ofpremature death.29


Others point out how government incentives and regulationshave consistently favoured suburbia, opening up land for suburbandevelopments at the expense of the city core, destroying the urbanneighbourhoods through which they pass. The urban regenerationboom that started 15 years ago has shifted the focus somewhat andcreated some turnaround, yet the shrinking tax base in cities hasled to a vicious cycle, with public services such as education andpolicing far inferior to that in the suburbs. The balance of spendingis still on multi-lane highways, bypasses and road-wideningschemes, taking passengers away from public transit, with vigorouslobbying by automobile and oil companies lending a helping hand.Low density suburbs are in essence inaccessible without a car.Today’s suburbs include office buildings, entertainment facilitiesand schools and can exist independently of central cities.Dissatisfaction with their physical appearance, moreover, has led tothe complex maze of regulations and the New Urbanism agendathat shape their current look and feel.30 Gridded street layouts havebeen abandoned in favour of sinuous networks of culs-de-sac, andzoning laws have been extended to address lot sizes, permissibleuses, parking requirements, buffer zones, façade treatments andbillboards. However, while they may be more attractive thanbefore, their primary effect fosters car dependency, increases devel-opment costs, and makes it ‘illegal to build anything remotelywalkable’.31 Even the French, urbanists par excellence, are into it.Head out to the grand couronne far outside the capital, skippingover the poorer, heavily immigrant suburbs closer to the centre.

So far we have conflated Europe, Australia and the US into oneand have thus made sweeping statements to get across an overallfeel. Would there have been a contrast had we separated out theexperiences? Yes and no. The sheer corrosive physical impact ofquarter-acre block suburban development is more dominating in theUS and Australia. Its hold on the psyche cannot be overstated. Someindeed love it very much. Suburbia is a form of urban developmentwhich lends itself to a particular form of description distinct fromthat of cities in general. The word city implies density, height, streets,intricacy, intimacy, intense interaction. Suburbia, on the other hand,is a new settlement form with its own logic and dynamic spread outlike a flattened pancake. Europe is moving towards the NorthAmerican and Australian way, but we have less space to play with.Advocates play with numbers and, depending on the country, arguethat only 2–4 per cent of total land space is used up. Others say that

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already 4 per cent of US land is used up as roads. There is plentyleft, yet some people forget to assess the perceptual geography onthe ground. The city’s linked physical infrastructure of pylons, roadsand utility plants casts its net immeasurably further out into thelandscape, so shaping the feel of the space as if it were merelysupporting the city and suburbia. In terms of perception, roads feelas if they are taking up a third of overall space and, indeed, in citiessuch as Los Angeles asphalt takes up even more.

The US, Canada and Australia still play with space as if it werein endless supply. Transportation codes demand greater leeway onturning circles, turn-offs, emergency lanes, lay-bys, parking baysand setbacks. These destroyers of streets are ever present. Flippingthe parking to the back and the building to the front to create astreet alignment is clearly a solution too obvious. The tired, listlessarguments along the lines of ‘this is what customers want’ or ‘itwill increase turnover in shops’ hold little water when you see the(lack of) vibrancy of these streets recreated. Visually there is avacant endlessness. These wide roads project a boundless expanseof ungiving, unforgiving asphalt. Inert machines lazily flop on tothe tarmac in front of sheds of chain shops, and there is an overar-ching sensation of sluggishness and lack of energy. The dominanthue is grey, interspersed with billboards and shop fascias that jumpout at you, grabbing you by the neck. Their garish, brightlycoloured signs create a tacky modern beauty and a touch of origi-nality; mostly, though, it is the dulled familiarity of fast-food chainswhere those that are getting too obese feed as if from a trough.North Main Road in Adelaide, a suburban car-borne shoppingstrip, is the kind of exception that excites. Shocking, bold adsscreech at you with their alluring plastic ugliness, as do frontages:This is the car sales highway, one car salesroom following the next;then it is DIY goods; later bulk furniture.

European cities are more contrite in trying to attract custom.There are equivalent streets, yet they have a tighter feel; you feelspace is more at a premium. Many places, of course, are hollowingout as shopping has switched out of town, as happened some timeago in North America. Britain is further ahead here, with mainlandEurope catching up significantly.

The past is a prettier place?But the older fabric with which European cities can work is a truegift. It gives far greater scope to mould cultural resources. You can


work with layers of history and the patina of ages, blending oldand new. You can contain the car and make places walkable, andthe density makes public transport very efficient. Yet finding novel,vibrant roles and purposes for the more ancient European towns,beyond keeping them pretty for tourists, is hard. Nothing wrongwith tourists, but when there are too many the lifeblood of a citycan be sucked out. A place can fossilize. Think, almost at random,of Delft, Rothenberg, Vaasa, Cortona, Broadway in the Cotswoldsand thousands more from Italy, France, Germany, Britain and theNetherlands. Antiques and souvenir shops are fine as far as it goes,but is that wealth creation? Going up a notch or two, Europe has aplethora of mid- to large-scale cities which seem to define what wemean by urbanity: Nice, Parma, Munich, Lucca, Lyons, Reims,Heidelberg, Graz, Orvieto, Utrecht. North America has few citiesof this type as most cities there were constructed to feed the needsof the car. The great Italian or French cities and the cities definedby 19th century urban bourgeois architecture in particular havesomething handsome about them: a touch grand but notoverblown, not overwhelming in height but manageable, withmixed uses – ground floor shops, first floor offices and residentialabove. The streets are tree-lined, wide enough to take parking andoften boulevarded to reduce the visual impact of endless asphalt.The vibrancy generated can stretch across the emotions: self-satisfied when the bourgeois sense of self is too confident; gutsywhen the urban grime and grot creeps in as the poor and better offcoexist; and purposefully calm when you know business is beingconducted behind façades encrusted with the urban sweat of ages.

However, Europe, like everywhere else, has it share of ugliness:cheap buildings in the modernist vein, inappropriate design, grimouter estates, shed culture at the urban edges. The functional build-ings of the industrial age often had a proud presence and solidity inmarked contrast to the throwaway, portal-framed sheds that allowfor vast covered spaces, with a built-in 15- to 20-year cycle. Canyou imagine the artists and hip designers of the 2030s recyclingthese sheds for inspiration or trendy middle classes converting theminto designer apartments? Another thought. We think of Italy as anapex of the urban experience: the walkable, mixed-use city clus-tered around a historical core enlivened nightly by the hubbub ofthe passegiata. Yet if we only consider Italian post-war settlements,forgetting pre-war grandeur, you sense they have lost the art of city-making. True, the grid-patterned streets and boulevards are

Overture 33

leavened by ground-floor uses in apartment blocks. There aremessily parked cars, ubiquitous cafés and general hanging around –outdoor life to give the city a greater street presence. But beyondthe ring roads that hug the centres and probe into the estates, therecan be a dull bleakness to match anything else other countries canoffer.

Although there is increasing convergence, we can still contrastEastern and Western Europe 15 years after the fall of the SovietUnion and the Berlin Wall. Ironically, as Western Europeansyearned after lost architectural grandeur, they rediscoveredKrakow, Prague, Budapest, St Petersburg, Ljubljana, Lvov, Odessaand Timisoara, where there were few resources to allow moderndevelopment to take them apart, and where budget airlines nowply their trade. Their faded, dilapidated elegance, as that ofHavana, reminded people of what their home cities could still be.Interestingly it was often the more successful places of the past inthe West that suffered most in terms of losing their grandeur.Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol had their hearts transplantedand renewed or torn out, depending on perspective. Those citiesstruggling in the 1960s and 1970s boom, like Glasgow, were bycontrast able to maintain most of their fabric. Thus the example ofEastern Europe represents a mixed blessing. Grandeur is oftenpreserved through lack of economic good fortune. A washed-outcharm – peeling delights mixed with grey clad buildings in a Sovietstyle – can take some beating.

Some of the best buildings of the earlier Stalin period have agrandeur and self-confidence, especially in Moscow, Warsaw oreven Kiev. Ex-Yugoslavia had its own socialist modernism that stillhas much to offer in places like Belgrade or Zagreb. Kenzo Tange’sbrash, bold Skopje reconstruction plan of 1966, after the 1963earthquake, particularly stands the test of time. But as money ranout, standards dropped and an obsessive homogeneity began totighten its grip, leaving a beaten-up feel: the ‘joys’ of Bucharest,Katowice, Iasi, the outer estates of Sofia, Kishinev or St Petersburg,the Nova Huta steel factory and its estates in Krakow come tomind. With rust seeping through the reinforced concrete, thesebuildings are nonetheless difficult to destruct. Here are tired metalbus shelters, twisted concrete benches, concrete cancer, weepingcement, bent metal shutters. Now political posters from last year’selection add to the visual cacophony. There are more adverts forCoca Cola, West and Marlborough cigarettes, beer, vodka, the


swoosh of Nike and mobiles than a Westerner will ever have seen.Sometimes they take up entire sides of six-story buildings. They areplaced inappropriately. In Odessa I was bemused by 4�3m flash-ing, noisy ads covering the windows and sightlines of 19th Centurybuildings. And for visual clutter, the surrounds of Bucharest airportmust be breaking some records. One senses and knows this was notplanned, however – a great deal of corruption and backhandershave played their part. And one sees on occasion a calming relic:old hand-painted giant adverts for collectivized firms. The largercities at least have some buzz to go with the visual pollution, butless-known, smaller cities like Kraljevo, Ucize, Elbasan, Durres,Nickel, Tetovo, Banja Luka, Bitola and Kosice have less to offer.

Then there are moments of surprise, originality and inspiration.Tirana’s mayor, Edi Rama, ordered the painting of several hundredold buildings, using the drab and dismal grey buildings as a freshcanvas and creating a riot of brash colour and Mondrian-styledesigns to beautify the city and change its psychological state. It ismore reminiscent of a Pop Art painting than an urban restorationproject. For a couple of years, around 4 per cent of the city budgetwas spent on paint in an attempt change the psychology of citizens.Rama noted that the main challenge was to persuade people thatchange is possible. The former artist noted, ‘Being the mayor ofTirana is the highest form of conceptual art. It’s art in a pure state.’

In contrast, in the drive for modernity in most of the East, apervasive, new hyper-capitalist style has spread. Cheap reflectiveglass – if you’re lucky, in fake gold or luminous green – throws yourimage back at you. Sometimes you can catch yourself in the mirroragainst the backdrop of an old building. Pressed and anodizedaluminium, plastic sheeting and panelling, fibreglass, crushedaggregates and insulation materials collude to flimsy, mean andmiserable effect. Patterns are cruder, colour definitions as yet stilltoo unsubtle. These materials are not flexible and do not weatherwell. Bits are bolted on to the main structures rather than beingdesigned in, giving buildings an unrefined, mechanical feel.Modular design and new techniques able to produce larger panels,much bigger than bricks, have made buildings lose texture. Theability to extrude sections and shape and bend segments in enticingways is limited. Able to get greater access to the West’s new materi-als of 25 years ago, the Eastern European city planners aim to getas much fanciness as possible for the minimum cost. Yet the resultscan be tawdry and cheap. This was (and to an extent remains) no

Overture 35

different in the West across the whole developed world. Its scarssplatter the horizon. The buildings are technically fine – they dotheir job functionally – but not aesthetically. In the East costsremain more important than aesthetics, whereas in the West thevalue-adding impact of design and quality is now more recognized.

Local idiosyncrasiesWould our earlier imaginary drive have been different travellinginto a huge Asian or Latin American city? Again, yes and no. With,say, Japan or India there is a completely contrasting experiencefrom that in the US or Europe. The overall sense of noise, bedlam,visual chaos, dilapidation, trading, traffic, smell and many, manymore people lends a cab ride around New Delhi, Buenos Aires,Caracas or Manila a different feel to an equivalent journey inEurope or North America. But flagship Asian cities such as Tokyo,Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong rise up like the best the Westcan offer, if not better. Glass and steel challenge concrete’s hege-mony. Their fast, efficient, frequent public transit systems faroutstrip those in the West.

What is different and what is similar as you take an eagle’s eyeview of cities across the globe? Mending a car in Punta Arenas,Southern Chile, surely serves the same core function as in Kirkeneson the Barents Sea, Maputo in Mozambique, Kanazawa in Japan,Oshkosh, Wisconsin or Cebu in the Philippines. The same shouldbe true for building a house, fixing the roads or putting in electric-ity, going shopping, having a break, drinking a beer, getting rid ofrubbish or saving something for a rainy day. Superficially doingmany of these things looks the same and has the same output:shelter, sustenance, getting by and getting around. The differences,however, are in the logistics, organization, process, technique, tech-nology, management and cultural idiosyncrasy which shape thecomprehensive flow of urban dynamics. Interactively they shapethe look and feel of cities and are in turn shaped by them.

We have to consider cities globally as an interconnected systemof settlements. Chains of causes and effects circulate in feedbackloops with real daily consequences on the ground. Whatever loca-tional advantages a city might have had in the past, now its physicaland cultural resources, its intrinsic gifts and the skills of its peopleare all part of a global network.

To consider in isolation a piece of the world urban map, sayEurope or Africa, is to ignore the interdependencies. Every action


in one place can affect a world away. The shape, structure and stageof economic development are determined by threads of historyfrom past colonialisms to current global terms of trade. In thedevelopment rush we rarely stand back and assess the balance ofgains and losses in places as different as Memphis, Port of Spain,Bamako, Oulu, Norilsk, Frankfurt, Qatar and Chennai. It is as ifonly one rational approach counted: the unfettered logic of capitaland property values inexorably drives the evolution of cities andtheir shape, segregating rich from poor and casting light or shadowdepending on perspective or circumstance. The market economyhas no mechanism within itself that ensures ethics or trust; it is theembodiment of self-interest. Using money values to drive progressto create more monetary assets means monetizing all aspects of life,even relationships. On its own it is an impoverished theory of decision-making which excludes considerations of forms of socia-bility, exchange and bonding, as exemplified in bartering or othervoluntary exchanges of favour. It also curtails the imagination inrecreating anew forms of free exchange, cooperation and endeav-our and circumscribes thinking about alternatives. It puts itsmonetary stamp on everything; someone has to make money some-where. Capital’s gleam lies in its seeming simplicity. It works, too,in a way, if you forget all the downstream consequences and lookat the world through the narrow prism of ‘economic man’.

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2

The Sensory Landscape of Cities

What do things look like? What colours do you see? How far canyou see? What do you smell? What sounds do you hear? What doyou feel? What do you touch? The city is an assault on the senses.Cities are sensory, emotional experiences, for good and for bad.But we are not accustomed to articulating things in this way: thesmelling, hearing, seeing, touching and even tasting of the city areleft to travel literature and brochures. It taxes our vocabulary aswe are used to describing the city in an ‘objective’ lexicon deprivedof sensory descriptives. We thus experience the city at a low level ofawareness. We do not recognize, let alone describe, its smellscape,soundscape, visual spectacle, tactile texture or taste sufficiently.Our impoverished articulation is made all the worse because thecity can overwhelm our senses – honking, flashing, whirring,whizzing, precipitous, huge, confusing. Too often, urban stimuliinduce a closing rather than opening out of our senses. Depleted,drained and defensive, our field of experience is diminished.

We live in an impoverished perceptual mindscape, operatingwith a shallow register of experience and so guiding our livesthrough narrow reality tunnels. The primary overwhelmingparadox for those who care for cities is this: our capacity toperceive is shrinking at precisely the moment when it needs toincrease. And this will cause a crisis of growing proportions as theindividual and institutional capacity to cope with and addresspredicaments and possibilities will decline. Our perceptive capaci-ties are shrinking because we do not sufficiently recognize orpractise most of the senses. By diminishing our sensory landscape,we approach the world and its opportunities within a narrowperspective. By being narrow we do not grasp the full range of

urban resources or problems at hand, their potential or threat, letalone their subtleties. We do not connect the sensory to the physi-cal and work out how each can support the other.

Our world is shrinking as its interconnections become far moretightly bound, as mass movement and mobility continue unabated,as economies intermesh globally, and as electronics flattens thedistance between places. This is happening at speed and simultane-ously, rapidly bringing together cultures, people and ideas. Tohandle this complexity we need deep and discriminating minds thatgrasp the delicate diversities and understandings required tooperate in worlds of difference and distinctiveness.

Constricted, we understand and interpret the city through thetechnical rather than the sensory, yet it is the sensory from whichwe build feeling and emotion and through which our personalpsychological landscapes are built. These in turn determine howwell or badly a place works – even economically, let alone sociallyor culturally – and how it feels to its inhabitants and to visitors.Technical disciplines like engineering, physical planning, architec-ture, surveying and property development are important, but theyare a smaller part of the urban story than their practitioners wouldwish to think.

The senses contribute to a rudimentary form of knowledgeupon which our worlds are built. The sensory landscapes we focuson are the five senses first classified by Aristotle: hearing, smell,sight, touch and taste. Yet it is now recognized that this list is notexhaustive. For example, perceptions of pain1 and of balance2 havebeen identified as distinct from these five. Depending on classifica-tion, somewhere between 9 and 21 human senses have so far beenidentified, more (up to 53) if you include those recognized by meta-physicians.3

Take electroperception. The city is a vast, dense sea of electricalenergy fields and waves estimated to be 100 million times strongerthan 100 years ago. Urban life systems cannot operate without elec-tricity; an electrical shutdown will bring the city to a halt. Theaccumulative cocktail of magnetic and electrical fields generated bypower transmission lines, pylons and masts, mobile phones,computers, television and radio, lighting, wiring and householdappliances can seriously interfere with the subtle natural balancesof each cell in our body. These massive currents criss-crossing theurban environment are unseen, unfelt, unheard, without taste orsmell, yet they operate upon us, albeit at a subconscious level.4


Whatever the semantics, there is clearly a lot more to oursensory landscapes than we acknowledge. And our circumscribed,cramped focus has pervasive implications. It limits perception,thinking, the way we analyse, what we think is important and theideas we come up with to solve problems or create opportunities. Itpares down our mindscape.

A mindscape is the totality of our thinking: the modes, procliv-ities and gut reactions of thought; the theories we use to interpretand construct reality; how this in turn shapes all the sensoryelements and how these are perceived, taken apart and interpreted;how our mind responds to and is moulded by the media andcultural representations; and how it handles, engages with and usesits own historical sediment and traces. This mind sets the precondi-tions for our perceptual geography.

Just as geography describes the Earth and the impact of humaninteractions upon it, deriving as it does from the Greek words for‘earth’ and ‘to write on’ or ‘describe’, so perceptual geography isthe process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizingsensory information about the places we inhabit. The aim is toencourage our minds to be wider in analysing opportunities andproblems and in finding richer ways of identifying and implement-ing solutions.

In order to do this, the first step is to perceive expansively inorder to work with the full register of experience. The next step isto interpret broadly to appreciate the range of possibilities.Intelligence is the capacity to make these two steps, encompassingas it does vital intellectual abilities: comprehension and under-standing, profiting from experience, reasoning, planning,problem-solving, abstract thought, linguistic flexibility and learn-ing. As a corollary, there is an implicit need to rethink our narrowdefinitions of intelligence as merely a numeric, verbal and logicalcapacity.

It is appropriate to point to Howard Gardner’s Theory ofMultiple Intelligences here.5 Gardner proposes that people haveseveral kinds of ‘intelligence’ and suggests that, in teaching, we havefor too long given greater credibility to the thinking intelligencesconcerned with words and writing or with numbers, logic andabstractions. Sensory intelligences, on the other hand, have beengiven secondary status. Sensory intelligences here include the visual-spatial, concerned with vision and spatial judgement, thebody-kinaesthetic, concerned with muscular coordination and

The Sensory Landscape of Cities 41

doing, and the auditory-musical, concerned with hearing and listen-ing. Although we admire painters, singers and dancers, their insightsare rarely incorporated into how the economic or social worldsmight operate. Further, two intelligence types concern communica-tion: the interpersonal, the capacity to interact and exchange ideasand information with others, and the intrapersonal, the communica-tion a person has with themselves, the ability to reflect. Finally, thereis naturalist intelligence, the ability to understand the various func-tions of and mechanisms behind life, an intelligence often lacking forthose who live in cities and who are often completely divorced fromnature. But, given the fragility of our ecosystems and finiteness ofour resources, understanding the relation between, say, a hamburgerand a cow is ever more important.

The sense-making process applies forms of intelligence toperceptions and a ‘post-sensory cognitive awareness’ processbegins. This is the mind operating aware of perceptions, thoughtand objects and it includes all aspects of perceiving, thinking,feeling and remembering. This interpretative process is culture inthe making as it involves beliefs, desires, intentions, past knowl-edge, experience and valuing what is significant.

The sensory realm of cities generates strong feelings, andemotions spawned by urban life are not neutral or value free. Theyare subjective, yet similar emotions are often shared, especiallybetween individuals within a cohesive group. Conversely, while thefact that we have emotions is universal, our culture determines howour emotions unfold and how we interpret their significance, as doexpectations, norms and the conditioned behaviour of the group.They affect the mechanics of body function as well as behaviour.Emotions are the domain where body mechanisms and thoughtmesh, where the physical ‘self’, instinctive drives and our percep-tions, values and opinions collide. This can cause tension andaffects how we behave towards others.

It is clear that the urban experience should very much be under-stood as a psychological experience. And, as discussed earlier, thephysical and social environment deeply affects the health and well-being of individuals and communities. Beauty and ugliness impacton our behaviour and mental state; building configurations canengender feelings of safety or fear. People have thresholds of toler-ance as to what they can psychologically bear in terms of stimuli.

But we approach the urban sensescape with chronic myopiaand thus an ill-equipped toolkit. Paradoxically, this aggravates the


problems, dysfunction and malaise it is trying to solve. This feelingof not sensing can dull and foster a feeling of being out of control,taking people almost to breaking point. What will be the effect onthe new generation, who have never experienced anything differentand are unaware of sensory richness?

This focus on the senses is not about making people feel para-noid, frightened, hyperaware or over self-conscious. Instead it aimsto get us to concentrate on two important things. First, how we feelas individuals and city-dwellers in negotiating urban life in order tolive well, generate wealth, coexist without harming fellow citizensand collaborate. Second, to care for the environment, withoutwhich life as we know it is not possible. The implications of thisexpanded awareness are far-reaching. It demands, unavoidably inthe end, that, as a collective body of people, we change our behav-iour and lifestyles. But better to change through our own consciouschoice rather than have the change imposed on us through circum-stances out of our control.

Seeing the city as a field of senses could be an invigorating expe-rience. Playing with the senses can trigger action; it might generatethe pressure for ecological transport more quickly, for plantingmore greenery or for balancing places for stimulation and reflec-tion in the city. It would force us to ask questions such as: How canthe smell, sound, visual, touch and taste landscapes help cities? Boldinroads into sensory fields have already been undertaken by somecities: light6 and colour7 have been tackled where issues such ascolour planning strategies, future colour, and space or colour andits effects on the mind and well-being are considered. Imagine, ifyou will, the differences in effects of a city that is essentially white(Casablanca or Tel Aviv), pink (Marrakech), blue (Jodphur orOman’s new Blue City project), red (Bologna) or yellow (Izamal inYucatan). Or imagine a city that is black – the darkness wouldprovoke seasonal affective disorder, well-known in Scandinaviawhere winter light is scarce. Until the 1960s, London was in fact ablack city. Emissions of smoke from coal and industry blackenedstone and brick, shading buildings with a uniform, light-absorbingblack. Decades of scraping off the surface dirt reveal colour anddetail hidden for years. The nickname of some cities involvescolour: Berlin or Milan are both known as ‘the grey city’.

Clearly planners and developers deal with sensory elements,but often with insufficient thought, subtlety or care. Even worse,sensory awareness is strongly manipulated in the world of


shopping malls and destination marketing without an ethical aim.The purpose is for people to spend more so ‘nice’ smells and ‘good’sounds direct and guide people. At the very least we should knowwhat is happening – that, for instance, the smell of bread is pumpedout in supermarkets, as is the smell of turkey at Christmas.

Sensory resources and awareness are seen as offbeat, withoutmuch credibility. There is no acknowledged professional disciplinefocused on the whole picture and linking these resources to thephysical. Planners and architects might argue they take these issuesinto consideration, but they focus more readily on look, colour andlight. Equally, there is a neglect of the senses in education. Yourarely discover a teacher discussing someone’s sense of sight, sound,taste or smell. As a consequence, there is no related career adviceor training or job route. Within schools, the arts curriculum is themain area where appreciation of the senses is specifically high-lighted – of those, that is, apart from smell and taste – yet the artscontinually remain in the firing line, having to argue that investingin them is worthwhile. The kinds of imagination and thinking thearts’ focus on senses and sense-making engenders rarely, if ever,carry into city-making. Increasingly, artists are members of plan-ning teams, but still more as an exception than the rule. Usually,too, they are restricted to the visual, as in public art projects, whereall too often they are brought in as decorative embellishment andas an afterthought rather than as part of the initial conceptualiza-tion of possibilities. Artists play large roles in urban events, butlittle as healers of the soundscape or developers of colour strate-gies.

People within and between cultures perceive and value thesenses in different ways. Places will be loved or hated depending onsensory cues. The sensory environment for an older person mightbe noisy or unsafe while too quiet or safe for someone young. Thesame differences can apply to people from different class andincome backgrounds. A smell is seen as sweet and comforting inone cultural context and as fear-inducing in the next. A smell canbe nice if you associate it with someone you like, horrible if exudedfrom someone you dislike. The sound of nothingness may feelrelaxing to a Finn and like a heavy rumble to someone from Taipei.And for each of the landscapes of sense, there are cultural codes ofconduct. The Chinese and Italian speak far more freely about smellin comparison to the English. Italians are encouraged to touchmerchandise, especially fruit or vegetables, whereas it is discour-


aged elsewhere. In Northern Europe people tend to touch eachother less. Southern Europeans shake hands and hold shouldersmore.

Our experiences of stimuli are also mediated by culture. Forexample, we consider the sounds of animals as neutral and similaracross cultures, but this is not reflected in onomatopoeia. Englishdogs woof woof or bow wow, German ones wau wau. Around theworld, dogs bau bau in Italy, ham ham in Albania, haw haw inArabia and wang wang in China.8 And woof woof is definitely nota dog in Japanese. Roosters cock-a-doodle-do, kikeriki orchichirichi depending on where you are.9 Importantly, though, inspite of differences about interpretation, there are broad agreementson the significance of the senses across time and culture. Drawingback to this essential sensory realm, the aim is to trigger a directunmediated response to the urban environment (while noting thatnothing is completely unmediated).

SENSESCAPES

I use the suffix -scape in soundscape, smellscape and mindscape asI would in landscape. I want to convey the fluid panorama ofperceptions. Building on the ideas of Arjun Appadurai,10 each scapeis a perspective depending on the situation of those navigating theirway within it and on how they view these scapes, how they perceiveand act upon them. These are the shifting and fuzzy ways andshapes within which we construct our world and views about it.Appadurai defines further scapes which, while they need not detainus here for long, are useful background tools for understandingdifficult areas. They include the ideoscape, the linking together andvaluing of ideas, terms and images, especially the Enlightenmentworldview and its master concept, democracy, as well as freedom,welfare, rights, sovereignty and representation, around which polit-ical and economic discourses in the West revolve; the ethnoscape,the fluid and shifting landscape of tourists, immigrants, exiles andother moving groups and persons; the technoscape, the grid ofinterlocked technologies that connect the world; the financescape,‘the very complex fiscal and investment flows’ that link cities in a‘global grid of currency speculation and capital transfer’; and medi-ascapes, the representations and media through which culturalimages are conveyed. This broader sense of the urban landscape


can shape our thinking and precondition our worldview as well asour physical and mental geography. And it forces us to reconsiderthe maps we need to know where we are.

A map is an image that represents graphically the position ofelements in the real world. But many ‘real’ elements of the worldare invisible. We have maps of territory in abundance: some enlargeor shrink space, some show physical features and contours or build-ings in three dimensions, some colour-code activities or facilities.Mapping the flows of goods, people, diseases, weather and the likebetween cities and countries has long been an important part ofcartography; any good atlas shows these flows. Mapping informa-tion landscapes, the internet, network structures is a recentdevelopment.11 There are a few maps that express financial flowssuch as those of the World Bank, but getting an easy sense of howthe power configurations in the world work is not a straightfor-ward task.

And there is hardly any mapping of the sensory landscape. Anexception here is the Noise Mapping England project initiated bythe Department for Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).12 This aims tocalculate noise levels and produces noise maps across England.Governments have traditionally viewed noise as a ‘nuisance’ ratherthan an environmental problem. As a result, most regulation hasbeen left up to municipal authorities and bylaws and ordinancesvary widely from one place to another or do not even exist in sometowns and cities.

The car and the sensesThe fact that city-making impacts on our senses is no better illus-trated than by reference to the automobile. When a city is built withthe car rather than the pedestrian – the person – in mind, the carunderpins the sensory experience of that city. Too often, the urbanbackground of what we see, smell and hear is car-related: a soundwall is generated by the background hum of engines, punctuated bybeeps and horns; the lingering, pervasive smell of petrochemicalspermeates the air; the fuel-burning activities of engines and the ther-modynamic properties of asphalt affect the temperature; and oursightline is dominated by metal and asphalt. But because of the veryubiquity of these stimuli, we almost forget they are there.

But the presence of the car also affects our experience of the cityin very tangible ways. Cars are a very real danger that both pedes-


trians and motorists have to be aware of in order to survive. If we’recareful, we look sharply left and right at junctions and crossings tocheck for oncoming traffic. Thus, by necessity in such situations, weare forced to ignore the finer details and nuances of the cityscape.Similarly, we are attuned to an entire lexicography of signs dedi-cated to communicating conduct in relation to motor vehicles. Butthe interpretation of greens, reds and ambers at traffic lights andcrossings can preclude an even-paced, reflective urban experience.

In the sensory descriptions of the city below, it is therefore notpossible to avoid returning to aspects of the car. But the point hereis not to sound a rallying call against cars per se, but rather toremind ourselves how motorized society inflects our senses, ouremotions and our being. The car sights, smells and sounds thatfrequently confront us do not beckon or welcome us, or lead us toopen out. Instead we tighten up, close in our ears and noses andsquint our eyes as we try to blank out the persistent roary growl ofcars or the leaden odour of fumes. We then operate on restrictedregisters of experience and possibility. The tightening up processencourages withdrawal into inner worlds with a desire to commu-nicate less. This is the opposite of the image of the good city life ofhuman interaction, vibrancy and vitality.



How many old industrial buildings are left to be regenerated?

Transporting into a past sensescape13

To understand the sensescape of cities today, transport yourselfback into a yesterday perhaps 250 years ago somewhere in Europe.Subtract the noises, smells and what you can see, touch and tasteone by one: the car, petrol fumes, the hum of electrical appliances,air conditioning, grinding mechanical noises, asphalt, tall build-ings, the profusion of glass, plastic materials and concrete.

Mid-18th century, a central street like Oxford Street inLondon, Nevsky Prospect in St Petersburg or Via Condotti inRome would be deafening. The clacking and clatter of horses’hooves and carriages were so loud you couldn’t hear yourselfthink. It would be almost impossible to hold a conversation. For awhile the stone cobbles in London were changed into woodencobbles to dampen the sound and quieten things down. The sidestreets would be immeasurably calmer and, away from the cityhub, it would be near silent bar the shout of a voice or a distantbell. You get a sense of the back streets of old when walkingthrough Venice today. You hear footsteps and even dogs walking,which can be eerie. In Europe the sound of bells would be ever-present, telling the time every fifteen minutes to watchless citizens.Bells would also call the people to prayer. The bells of each churchwere slightly misaligned for identification purposes. There wereonly short breaks between chimes. In market areas, there wouldbe the sound of talking and shouting as wares were sold and othertrades plied. There were fewer shops. Horses, dogs and pigs wouldadd to the cacophony. There was thudding, clanging, banging andclinking as hammer hit metal or wood, making or mending things.Near the rivers on a busy day, the human voice would rise aboveother sounds. The pathways to the riverfront would be clogged upby horses and there would be lots of shouting as boatmen loadedand unloaded. In contrast to today, the sound of humanity wouldbe more obvious.

The smell could be very strong, powerful, pungent and putrid,at times made up of horse, other animal and human shit, stagnantsewage, rotting garbage, interlaced on occasion by the whiff oflavender from a rich passer-by or a stall. A whiff too on occasionof a bakery, but more likely overpowered, especially if a tannerywas nearby. Though not every street would have a stench this bad.You would smell people. People generally stank. Hygiene only trulycame into its own from the mid-19th century.


There was more wood and masonry around. Things had a morehand-made feel, more rough to touch. The urban shapes were morecrenulated and less angular. The hue of colours was more sombre –browns, greys and blacks, even for clothes because of dirt, dust anda lack of washing. Brighter reds, greens, blues and yellows were ararity as dyeing was very expensive. The height of buildings aver-aged perhaps five times the human height, with the churchesthrusting above as the only high buildings.

The look and smell of poverty would be all over – peopledressed in unwashed, stinking rags, scrapping a living from thestreets. The sound of disease would have been more prevalent too,with coughs and spluttering joining the yells and clatter.

But once out of the city, very soon the sounds and smells ofnature and the overriding sense of the rural would take over. Thecity was the exception not the rule.

Fast forward to the early 20th century and much of the oldsmell has abated: sewerage systems are in place, there is a greaterawareness of cleanliness and the motorcar has not yet marched itsway to dominance. Nevertheless, new smells are on the horizoncloser to those of today: smoke from coal whose heavy particleshang in the air and hover over the ground especially on cold days;burning home coal fires creating over time a smoggy filter andmuggy atmosphere that would make you cough and choke. Perhapsthere would be a background of grease, sweet and sharp to the noseat the same time. Mechanical sounds are increasing: regular grind-ing, pumping, cutting and banging noises. The city begins toacquire its more angular, upright feel and heights are rising – ten,twenty times human height. Height is especially dominant in theemerging cities of the ‘new continent’. Chicago, New York andPhiladelphia adopt a template of wide grid-patterning and build-ings are built towards the sky, fuelled by an optimistic modernism.The building archetype is the factory, a paean to production.Retrospectively, the factory has a beauty, generates awe and inspiresartists to revitalize them and the chi-chi-ria to transform them intoapartments. Yet in their time, they told a different story. Factories,especially the great mills of Lowell or Halifax, have a monumentalquality with their regular patterning, great halls and assemblyyards. There is a mechanical feel, people suddenly feel secondaryand like automatons.14 The machinery of city-making, as inconstruction, becomes ever larger with new types of crane, steel,pylons. Electricity is being embraced with such enthusiasm that


New York builds its first electric chair in 1888. Things are becom-ing more like today.

These are mere flavours of a past, not a detailed description.They seek to call forth memory, to suggest and evoke. Everyonecan paint their own picture. Lest we are tempted to romanticize,they also remind us of some past dreadfulness, much of which hasbeen overcome – disease, hunger and poverty, at least in the moredeveloped world. On the other hand, grim and hideous as thesewere, they did not threaten the planet and civilization as havetoday’s toxic set of chemical compounds and relentless exploitationof finite resources.

Linguistic shortcomingsWe do not have a well-developed language to explore and describethe senses, let alone in relation to the city. This restricts our capac-ity to experience fully, as only when we have words can we buildon primary sensations. Without suitable descriptors, it is difficultto create and work with a rich associational palette around a sensa-tion. Often we have to turn to literature to seek linguisticinspiration. Sights are better articulated because in general we havea rich vocabulary around physical appearance. Sounds too areeasier to describe because language (itself a system of sounds aswell as visual signs) can be used to approximate them: The whooshof a car going past or the buzz of a bee (although, as noted, thereare cultural discrepancies here). Smell and taste, however, seem toevade easy encapsulation. (Interestingly, unlike our other four mainsenses, smell goes directly to the limbic system in the brain. As aresult, the immediate impact of smell is unfiltered by language,thought, clutter or translation.15) We rely more on metaphor andassociations with other senses, dangers and pleasures here, henceterms such as ‘comfort food’ or ‘the smell of death’ and the use ofadjectives like ‘sharp’, ‘warm’ and ‘bursting’. Or else, we describesmells and tastes with reference to the source of the stimuli: ‘fishy’,‘musky’, ‘salty’.

The language of the senses is not rich enough for describing ourcities today, especially when we think of the combined sensoryexperience together as one. Our language, unless we look to artists,is hollowed out, eviscerated and dry. It is shaped by the technicaljargon of the professions, especially those in planning and the builtenvironment: planning framework, qualitative planning goal,


spatial development code, development strategy, outcome targets,site option appraisal process, stakeholder consultation, the role ofthe development board in delivering integrated services, incomeinadequacy, statutory review policy programme, neighbourhoodframework delivery plan, sustainability proofing, benchmarking,underspend, empowerment, triple bottom line, visioning, main-streaming, worklessness, early wins, step change, liveability,additionality.

The language of what cities look like is thus dominated by thephysical but without descriptions of movement, rhythm or people.This visual language comes largely from architecture and urbandesign. Its principles derive from key texts such as that by Vitruvius,with notions of symmetry or harmony at its core.16 Descriptions ofthe visual city come from habits of portraying classic architecturewhere building components are illustrated: pedestals, columns,capitals, pediments and architraves. The language has broadenedsomewhat, yet still has a focus on static elements rather thandynamic wholes like space, structure, technology, materials, colour,light, function, efficiency, the expression and presence of a build-ing. Urban design, meanwhile, sees and describes cities more asdynamic totalities: place, connections, movement, mixed uses,blocks, neighbourhoods, zones, densities, centres, peripheries, land-scapes, vistas, focal points and realms. But both frequently excludethe atmospherics of cities, the feeling of the look. Does it make youshrink into yourself, make you calmly reflect or fill you withpassion? Does it close you in or open you out? Does the physicalfabric make you respond with a sense of ‘yes’ or ‘no’? Does itinvolve you, make you want to participate?

Let’s explore senses in turn, starting with sound.

SoundscapeWith urbanization comes a proliferation in sounds. Sound can havepositive connotations in the context of music, but more is less withthe increased roar of noise in the city. It becomes less differentiatedand variegated. Put simply, there are more decibels from moresources.

Yet many sounds attract people: the busy hum of a commercialdistrict, the twang of a guitar from a busker, the murmuring ofhuman voices in a tranquil park offset from the hubbub of the city,the shouts of market traders, the hurly-burly of the morning rush


hour. If you like a sound, it can trigger pleasurable emotions. If youdon’t:

Adrenaline ... is released into your bloodstream. Yourheart beats faster, your muscles tense, and your bloodpressure rises. Sudden spasms occur in your stomachand intestines ... thoughts are interrupted and thedigestion of food halts.17

Noise created by humans can be harmful to health or welfare:headaches, fatigue, irritability, sleeplessness, lack of concentrationand other symptoms where the body screams for help. Not forget-ting the most obvious problem – loss of hearing. Noises loudenough to cause hearing loss are almost everywhere in larger cities.Or, as one writer put it, ‘New Yorkers (or Londoners, Tokyoites,Shanghai citizens, Romans) are expected to work and live in anaural state of siege.’18

Most city-dwellers experience the barrage of noise as a sound-wall which prevents us from hearing distance, space and the moresubtle exchanges among humans or animals. Transport vehicles arethe worst: large trucks, buses, cars, aircraft, trains and motorcyclesall produce excessive noise. As does construction equipment suchas jackhammers, bulldozers, drills, grinding machines, dumpertrucks, piledrivers and cranes. Air conditioning provides a constantbackground whirr and computers an electrical hum. So the noise ofglobal transactions is a broadband hum. Shops have foregroundand background music. Even in the suburbs we have lost the art ofsilence; gardening equipment grinds, grates and whirrs.Overwhelming everything is the big petrochemical roar of the car,but we do not notice it anymore. We cannot afford to. We mustadapt as a function of self-protection. We are selectively attentive –we try to hear what we want to hear and we filter out noise. This iswhite noise, the total sum of all noise, the noise we take for granted.If we didn’t, we would go mad. Look at people in the noisy city.They knit their brows, they squint their eyes and pucker their lipsin a fixed position to shield themselves from and to ward off thesounds of the city.

To make matters worse, the sounds of the city are amplified bythe physical structures that hug our street. Concrete, glass and steelcreate a ‘canyon effect’ that loudens the growls and honks of traffic,sirens and exhaust from big buildings. The sound artist and urban


observer Hildegard Westerkamp sums up parallel developments inmodern architecture, as exemplified by the Bauhaus movement, andsound. She points out that the new international architecture thatis homogenizing our visual urban environment is also homogeniz-ing our soundscape:

Although most likely not anticipated by Bauhaus design-ers, functionalism and efficiency in building design havebeen developed to great extremes during the twentiethcentury as banks and corporations have been erectingtheir tall towers. Artificial control of air and light hasbecome an integral aspect of this type of building design,where no windows can be opened and natural light doesnot find access. Sonically this translates into electricalhums from artificial lighting and broadband soundsfrom air conditioning inside, and powerful broadbandsounds from the buildings’ exhaust systems outside.Modern cities are not only throbbing with amplified andreflected traffic sounds, but also with the ‘bad breath’,as Schafer calls it, of high-rise buildings… So, the inter-nationalism in urban design has resulted not only invisual but also in aural sameness: same materials, samestructures, same sounds.19

The original impetus for sound awareness came from composersand musicians. As professional listeners and makers of sound, theyare acutely aware of the sonic environment and its acoustic ecology,the discipline that explores the ecological health and balance of ouracoustic environment and all living beings within.20 It is in largepart artists who have been at the forefront of sensory searching.

R. Murray Schafer introduced the concept of soundscape in themid-1970s and, later, that of acoustic ecology.21 Westerkampdefines soundscape as ‘the sum total of all sounds within anydefined area, and an intimate reflection of, among others, thesocial, political, technological, and natural conditions of the area.Change in these conditions means change in the sonic environ-ment’.22 Schafer noted too that ‘to grasp what I understand byacoustic aesthetics, we should consider the world as a vast musicalcomposition which is constantly unfolding before us’.

The goal of acoustic ecology is to raise listening awareness andto preserve acoustically balanced soundscapes. Westerkamp again:


Soundscape Studies and Acoustic Design want to stripthe soundscape of its sonic overload, its noise and allthe acoustic ‘perfume’ that the Muzak Corporation,for example, has introduced into urban environ-ments… Wanting to care for the acoustic environmentin the deepest sense creates the desire to listen to itand vice versa, listening to it creates a desire, or,perhaps beyond that, it highlights the urgent need tocare for it – just as caring for our children createsdesire to listen to them and vice versa.23

In fact, in Western Europe, muzak has declined in influence, butwander around any shopping mall and you can hear the muffledcacophony of MTV culture and dance music, in place to energizeconsumerism. Hence there remains, at least in some quarters, thedesire to remove background aural clutter so as to enjoy varied,distinct sounds from place to place.

Sound classifications obviously come from music. The mainqualities cover pitch, the location of a note between high and low;timbre, the tone colour or quality of the tone that distinguishes itfrom other tones on the same pitch or volume; intensity, the loud-ness or magnitude; and duration, the length of a tone. Some haveenriched the descriptive vocabulary further to portray subtler detailwithin a sound.24 Yet it is difficult to articulate the urban sound-scape with these categories alone – its noises ranging from hum tohubbub, from din to honking, beeping and the whoosh and swooshof cars.

So we have a low whirr, brrrrrm, brrrhh, with changing volumefrom a rumble to a roar, but always a continuous soft echo ofrubber on the road. The more continuous backdrop of motorizedsound is interspersed with sporadic interruptions: a staccatoscreech, whine, beep or honk, the straining sounds of cars goinguphill or changing gear, and blaring, thumping car stereos. Theoccasional unmuffled motorbike exhausts make your ears boil.Sometimes there is a siren or a car alarm, designed to irk and annoywith its high-pitch, unrelentingly piercing whining or wailing.When these sounds cumulate, they crescendo to a roar. There isoften an aeroplane above, rumbling with a gravelly roar, and onoccasion it rasps with a gruffness as it flies directly overhead.

Cities are always on the move with accompanying constructionand demolition: whirring, whining, clanking, drilling, banging,grinding; or the sound of swooshing or noisy crumbling as things


fall down. The vibrations even reverberate within your chest if youare near enough.

Extract the car, the plane and construction and listen to thesounds of buildings in isolation, if you ever can – they breathe asteady, long, drawn out hummmmmm. The air conditioning andelectrical gadgetry give out a coated, dulled whirr. If you listenclosely, they alert rather than relax your ears.

The sound on the streets is the faint sound of people brushingagainst each other, a rustle, the patter of feet, the odd intermittentcough or loud exhalation of breath. Some voices break through,though commuters are rarely vocal. Then open the door of a bar,pub or restaurant, and you are hit by a soundwave. Voices can burstout as if the sound had been condensed in a fizzy bottle. A mix ofpitches high to low, distinct voices in the foreground, the wordsnearly clear, sound in the background more like a rhythm of noise.A giggle or a laugh might break through and someone always hasthat unpleasant, piercing, whiny, nasal voice. Walking the streets atnight and there will be a repetitive beat, lots of bass, faster todaythan yesterday – a basement bar or record shop, again you feel thevibrations. If you want to hear a thousand voices chattering, moveout from Europe or North America to the bazaars of the East orthe souks of the Middle East.

Really, it is noise not sound that you hear in the city. Soundsare mushed together and it is difficult to pick out individual ones.Rhythm is rare – and a comforting relief when it comes. Movingtrains provide some rhythm, the dadumdadum dadumdadum aswheels click the joints on the tracks. Usually, though, the noise israndom, a hubbub all around. Traffic throws a blanket over thesoundscape so you lose the subtle sounds. Rarely is there a clearnote. Discrete and continuous sounds simply coalesce. You wouldhave to shut down electricity to hear silence without thehummmmm and it is difficult to experience pure sound.

Remind yourself of times gone: what sounds did you hear thatyou will never hear again with such pristine clarity? Sounds disap-pear like species: the hooves of horses clopping that you now onlyencounter in the military parade or TV period dramas; the clink ofglass milk bottles on the front doorstep; the clack of typewriterskeys on carbon paper; the pop of flashbulbs; the slamming of tele-phone handsets. You don’t hear church bells often and when youdo they are not crystal clear, masked as they are by the noise wall.You rarely hear the varying wind sounds in the city. Long gone is


the tweet of urban sparrows or starlings, unless you are in Rome,where you might see a hundred thousand starlings in the eveninglight.25 Normally you have to concentrate hard and get rid of thenoise in your head to pick out a poor miserable bird. While somesounds have gone, others have evolved: think of police and ambu-lance sirens, car engines and, of course, the styles of music you hearon the streets.

The sound of commerce is the sound of movement: packing,unpacking boxes, plonking crates on top of each other, shouts, self-advertising, the rustling of paper, trolleys, forklift trucks and theirhigh-pitched whining. Markets are a sound and smell cliché, butcompelling and ubiquitous. They have a rich sound colour and vari-ations coming more from people than machines, with those fromthe latter often monotone. While the precise texture of marketsounds across continents is different, its general tone is similar.

If you are near a port, sounds seem to emerge from the bowelsof the hulls of ships. Add to this the deeply pitched vibrations ofheavy containers clanging and juddering on to the ground. Thesound is paced and measured in ports; heavy machines don’t zipabout, although the agile forklifts can dart about like ants. Thesense of slow movement is inflected by our knowledge of port activ-ities. The noise of industry has largely left cities whose economiesare now based more on service industries and at whose edges thenoise is trapped in large industrial sheds. This is especially true ofcities in the Far East. But in the former Soviet Union you canencounter industry in its classic industrial revolution incarnation.Often it is silent as the massive centralized plants have gone bank-rupt, with rusting debris lying forlorn, the wind on occasionwhipping through the landscape causing irregular clangs. I remem-ber a section of the shipyards in Gdansk, the rusting hulks in theport of Murmansk, the steel works in Elbasan, Albania. Then thereare the still active plants like Nova Huta near Krakow or the Mittalsteelworks in Iasi, Romania. The noise rings, booms and echoes asit hits the metal structures of the factory.

Nearing the city core there is the silent commerce behind thehumming buildings’ façades. You’ll be lucky to see white-collarworkers in the cheaper buildings, whose reflective glass returnsyour image. Yet transparency is all the rage now and behind see-through glass they go about their silent business. They, in turn, willbe hearing sounds coming off the streets, muffled and less distinctthough they are because of the double glazing. Inside their offices is


the sound of static and hum coming from computers mixed in withvoices. If the phone is used a lot, the workers hear the privatesounds of other voices. More frequently than not, they will be onhold as they wait to be connected. How many times have they heardVivaldi’s Four Seasons, which has taken over from Albinoni’sAdagio as the new muzak for calls on hold?

The sound of shops is chart music pumped out mainly byfashion and record stores. Usually more discreet in the West, thereis a kind of social noise contract for which regulations are notori-ously flexible. Thresholds of acceptable noise differ from countryto country. The loudest street sounds I have ever heard were inTaipei’s Hsimenting, a district popular with the young. Full ofteeny-bopper boutiques, six-storey high-rises cram in up to 50 shops. They sell every kind of the latest that is bizarre, self-madeand imported. On the ground floor the music thumps out from eachof the competing stores, colliding with each other. The soundsvibrate underneath your feet as if you were balancing on a lilo andat head level your ears are assaulted. No wonder the sound ofsilence was too loud for the Taiwanese woman I met in Inari innorthern Finland. She could hear her blood pumping and thisfrightened her. Calmer variations on the Taipei theme can be foundin Tokyo’s Harajuku, Electric City in Akihabara or Hong Kong’sNathan Road. But the new Eastern Europe is competing on thenoise front. Think of Deybasovskaya in Odessa, Durrësi Street andBoulevard ‘Zogu I’ in Tirana or even Arbat in Moscow, with soundscoming mostly from cafés. Evidently, being modern is being noisy.

The dominant department store and supermarket noises aremore curtailed, in the first a discreet hush, in the later the pings ofitems being scanned at the checkout or the squeak of a trolley.

Places to escape from noise increasingly play significant roles:museums, galleries, libraries and places of religious worship aresanctuaries of quiet. Their silence wafts over the brow, easingtension along the way. Uninvited noises take energy away; silencecan revivify and recharge. With time, relaxation sets in. Oftenpeople use these spaces as mental cleansing rooms.

Every city has its own sound atmospherics, even if too manyare alike. Yet the sound of elsewhere can be enticing, even thoughit is largely the same. The combination with other impressionsmakes us hear sounds unlike those we have heard before. Also, ifyou listen intently, the sound palette of the roars is subtly dissimi-lar. The honk in one place says ‘look, I am here’, in another ‘get


out of the way’. In one, the honk is a quick beep, in another it ismore drawn out.

It is rare for the sound of the city to come up at you at once,encapsulating all the fragments, but from vantage points aroundthe world you can appreciate different sound panoramas: the dinlooking out from Zócalo Square in Mexico City, the children, birdsand hooting from the panoramic view of Jodhpur’s blue city fromMehrangarhin, or the more discreet noises from the castle inSalzburg. East Berlin once had a special high-pitched, two-strokeengine noise from the Trabants. In Los Angeles the horns and sirenspierce more sharply because the motors there are now quieter. InItalian cities there was far more hooting and beeping from motori-nos and Apes, the tiny three-wheeled vans, until the governmentraised noise as an issue. One of my most memorable sound experi-ences was in Sarajevo, where three global religions meet at a point.The main mosque and orthodox and catholic churches are a fewhundred metres from each other. Within a few minutes of eachother, there was the tinny call to prayers through a megaphone fromthe muezzin, bells ringing first to a catholic service and shortlyafterwards to an orthodox one – all competing for attention. Onlya few years before, practitioners of these religions had been slaugh-tering one another.

When we think about space, not just in terms of the physicalstructures that delimit it, but also as occupied by sounds and noisewhich are wittingly and unwittingly propagated, we begin to realizewe are far more enclosed than we care to acknowledge. HildegardWesterkamp describes Brasilia’s soundscape:

As much as the Monumental Axis and the ResidentialHighway Axis may connect people between sectors orbetween home and work, acoustically speaking theyform two enormous soundwalls that divide the city…The acoustic space traffic on these arteries occupies ismuch more extensive than their geographical dimen-sions. The traffic noise travels right across theexpansive green spaces into hotel rooms, offices,churches, even schools, and many living areas. Theeyes can see far but the ear cannot hear beyond theacoustic immediacy of the car motor … because every-thing looks wide open one gets the illusion of space.Acoustically, however, one is closed in.26


As an exercise, try to imagine your own city in similar, auditoryterms. What noises would you rather not have? Which are anunnecessary, unpleasant imposition? What would you like to hearmore of? How can sounds – especially those that grate – be bettercontained? As sounds occupy space beyond the geographicalpurview of their origins, we need to think of sound territorially.

Imagine music that you like: orderly chamber music, stirringRomanticism, catchy pop, exploratory jazz, whatever. Contrast thiswith the sounds of your city. How far is one from the other?Imagine yourself as a sound engineer. Reconstruct the sounds ofthe London of 1660, Cairo of 1350 and Baghdad of 1100. Whatsounds do you need to add to and subtract from today’s noise?Imagine reconstructing the sounds of the city in a way that feelsgood to you. What would you foreground? Would the sounds be,as in nature, more distinguishable and identifiable, even the intru-sive aircraft?

But we also have to be cognizant of the cultural contingency ofsound. Sounds mean different things and have different weightingsacross cultures and territories. Our conditioning determines ourresponse to noise, though it is risky to generalize too strongly.Scandinavians, it is said, prefer less cluttered, quieter sound environ-ments; the Chinese need some noise to ward off the chasing ghostsof the dead; and Americans have become too used to fracturedsoundscapes typified by the constant advertising interruptions intheir media. People hear, listen to, make and want sounds differ-ently. A church bell might evoke a warm feeling even if you are notreligious, but it might irk a Muslim. The sound of a police siren mayprovoke comfort, fear, anxiety or even excitement, depending oncontext. As travel and migration increase, there is greater awarenessof soundscapes, but we accept too passively what we have at home.

As cultures interpret sounds differently, so they also makesounds differently. North American cites have less vocal soundunless in a shopping mall; Indian urban sounds reflect a greaterhuman intricacy – they are more expressive; and Japanese citieshave a more focused, hectic feel. Or is that too simple? Everywherea low motorized rumble threatens. How many decibels are OK? Itdepends; the sound of a baby crying has more decibels in it than apneumatic drill. But the baby induces the emotion to help; the drillyou want to destroy. Westerkamp describes bemusement at Delhi’scar horns. But she realizes there is an intricate system behind theseemingly chaotic noise:


I realize quickly that car-horns ‘speak’ differently here.They talk. ‘hallo’, ‘watch out, I am beside you’, ‘leaveme some space’, ‘I want to move over to your side’,‘don’t bump into me’, ‘hallo’, ‘I want to pass’. Whatseemed like chaos initially starts to feel like an organicflow, like water. There is an undercurrent of rules.27

Sounds engender emotions, they have meaning, and they reflect thecultures from within which they stem.

We could change the soundscape dramatically; it is in ourcapacity. Electric cars are already pretty silent. We could challengeour innovators to invent the silent computer or air conditioner. Wecould ask what would a public space sound like.

Did you ask for your soundscape? Is auditory trespassing partof the landscape of planning? Clearly not. Acoustic sensitivity isnot designed in. It is hardly part of urban planning and develop-ment. It is an unplanned sideshow. Unsurprisingly, noise is now onmany other agendas, such as those of the ‘right to silence’ and‘sound rights’ campaigners: The Right to Quiet Society forSoundscape Awareness and Protection.28 The World Federation ofAcoustic Ecology, inspired by Murray Schafer, is based inVancouver, which perhaps makes British Columbia and Vancouverthe urban sound awareness capital of the world.

Awareness of noise pollution is rising fast. In New York,London, Delhi and Chennai to name but a few. New York’s Mayor,Michael Bloomberg, put forward legislation in 2005 which willprovide the first comprehensive overhaul of the New York CityNoise Code in over 30 years.29

In New York, noise is the number one complaint to the city’scitizen hotlines, currently averaging nearly 1000 calls a day. Thecity is developing a new noise code, focused on construction, musicand other nuisance but not the general din of traffic. This willaugment the successful anti-noise initiative, Operation Silent Night.Silent Night targeted 24 high-noise neighbourhoods throughout thecity with intensive enforcement measures. From its inception in late2002 to early 2005, using sound meters, towing of vehicles, seizureof audio equipment, summonses, fines and arrests, the initiativeissued 3706 noise summonses, 80,056 parking violations, 40,779moving violations and 33,996 criminal court summonses. The CityPolice Department is now identifying new neighbourhoods to betargeted for noise control.30


SmellscapeThat smell is extremely evocative is evidenced by neuroscience. Theolfactory system has close anatomical affinity with the limbicsystem and hippocampus, ‘areas of the brain that have long beenknown to be involved in emotion and place memory, respectively.’31

Olfactory information is therefore easily stored in long-termmemory and has strong connections to emotional memory. Smellcan remind us sharply of a precise moment a very long way back.Perhaps the smell of an old relative or the whiff of perfume thatenveloped you in one of your early kisses. A classic example linkingsmell with memory occurs in A la Recherche du Temps Perdu(Remembrance of Things Past) by Marcel Proust. Early on in thefirst book (‘Swann’s Way’), the protagonist Charles Swann findsthat the smell from a small piece of madeleine cake soaked in teatriggers a raft of memories from his childhood.

But powerful as it is, smell is a sense that we have neglected incultural terms. And it is the one people are most willing to give upwhen asked, ‘Which sense would you be prepared to lose?’32 Yetwithout this sense, our sense of taste would be terribly depleted. Ifyou eat something while holding your nose, it is impossible todistinguish subtle flavours. Smell leads to heady feelings and trig-gers emotions: at one extreme we can smell arousal and sexualexcitement; at the other, fear, as the body releases aromaticsubstances called pheromones. Smells affect our mood quite easily,relaxing us or dulling our senses. As we can detect atmospheres,our sense of smell gives us a strong grasp of place and location.But, as noted, in contrast to the sound or look of a place, smells arehard to describe. They defy onomatopoeic encapsulation and visualmetaphor. We therefore resort to their associational relations.

So the smellscape is transient and difficult to capture in words.As Pier Vroon notes:

Our terminology for describing smells is meagre orinadequate due to our neural architecture. The partsof the brain that are closely involved in the use oflanguage have few direct links with the olfactory(smell) system. Because consciousness and the use oflanguage are closely connected, it is understandablewhy olfactory information plays a part mainly on anunconscious level.33


To make matters worse, although we can measure sound in deci-bels, colour in frequencies and touch in units of force and pressure,we have no scale against which the intensity of a scent, smell orodour can be measured, so we resort to human inspectors, who areby definition subjective. Perhaps this is a reason for the lack ofcampaigning organizations to improve our smell environment.

Nevertheless, classifications of smell go back as far as Plato,whose simple dividing line was pleasant and unpleasant. Aristotleand later Linnaeus in the 16th century enlarged these to seven:aromatic, fragrant, alliaceous (garlic), ambrosial (musky), hirci-nous (goaty), repulsive and nauseous. Two other smells have sincebeen added: ethereal, which is fruity, and empyreumatic, the smellassociated with roasted coffee.

Smell exacerbates the differences between urban and ruralexperiences. Smells in nature have a purpose – to attract or repel.Honeysuckle’s smell, intensive yet transitory and fragile, oftenattracts a double take. Rotting flesh repulses through smell, and forgood reason. Evolution doesn’t favour those who find the poison-ous, the diseased or the dangerous sweet-smelling or tasty. Smell ispart of the signal world of nature. The smell of cut grass is a famil-iar one throughout Western culture. Behavioural studies haveshown that this ‘green odour’ involving cis-3-hexenal and othercompounds has a healing effect on psychological damage caused bystress. Another familiar smell is that after rain. The wetness andforce of rainfall kicks tiny spores – actinomycetes – up into the airwhere the moisture after rain acts as an aerosol or air freshener.The spores have a distinctive, earthy smell. There are also otherscents after it rains as the impact of rain stirs up aromatic materialwhich is carried through the moist air. Most people consider itpleasant and fresh. It has even been bottled.

In the city after rain, the air feels polished and cleaner as therain has pushed down the dust. Dust is a quintessential ingredientof the urban sensescape. It flattens and makes bland the air. Not somuch a source of smell, it muffles the perception of other smells. Ifit has an odour, it will be a composite of the particular urban matterfrom which it has arisen.

There are so many subtle smells bumping into each other inthe city. Unfortunately, most are unpleasant, unhealthy and badfor us, yet the background smell remains predominantly petro-chemical, so it is difficult to discern the detail. If you are exposedto it for long enough, the fumes from cars can give you a foggy,


swimmy feel with light-headed giddiness. After a while it feels likea dulling thwack on the head. To an avid urbanite the fumes maybe intoxicating at the beginning, but then your head starts to swirl.You can wretch and gag if by mistake you happen take a deepbreath in Norilsk in Siberia or Lagos as a 30-year-old diesel-powered bus expels its exhaust into your nostrils at the changinglights. Even with modern buses, the acrid smell and taste can besickening. When you get close to the running motors of cars andlorries, you can smell the chemical activity before particles becomecharred and olfactory activity begins to tail off. You can tastepetrochemicals, but this does not excite your taste buds, make youfeel hungry or build up your appetite. It feels empty and disap-points.

You cannot move an inch without petrochemicals. They areeverywhere – in petrol, grease, paint, heated-up engines, whitespirit, turps, plastics, trainers, households cleaners, cosmetics andglue. They envelope us like a smog. What is the smell of a new car?It is essentially like sniffing glue. The new car smell emanates from40 volatile organic compounds – ‘primarily alkanes and substitutedbenzenes along with a few aldehydes and ketones.’34 You slide intoa new car and see plastics, fabric, and upholstery – held togetherwith adhesives and impregnated with sealants whose gases arereleased into the car as it warms. You smell solvents, adhesives,gasoline, lubricants and vinyl. Perhaps you also smell the ‘treatedleather’ odour of shoe stores. Tanned leather smells slightly rank sotanneries add an artificial ‘treated leather’ fragrance. Some carmakers spray this in their cars.

This is a cross-cultural, homogenizing, globalized smell and itblankets the intimate smells distinctive to a place. It sits low ratherthan rises like gases do; its synthetic feel is almost like a physicallayer. Often heat is involved, and the smell rises in waves andconvection currents. There are petrol-fuelled industrial environ-ments where the grease on machines leaves a residue and the sparkson metal create a tighter and more tinny scent. This common fume-filled urban experience can be debilitating, irritating and have adegenerating effect.

For a more varied olfactory experience, head to a market.Markets can be thrilling urban smell experiences when not inun-dated by endless, odourless variations of T-shirts, jeans and othercheap clothing or the cheap plastic whiff of shoes and trainers. It’sthe scent of food that hits you right up the nose as if it is pushing


your head back. This is most strong in a covered market, wheresmells and scents are trapped and can circle in a whirlpool withtheir mixed messages: fish and fowl, meat and offal, fruit andvegetables, beans and pulses, nuts, berries and dried fruits, pastries,bread, flowers, and most of all the wonderful smell-world of herbsand spices. Displayed to entice and to make your mouth water, theyplay on both your sight and sense of smell. This organic scent-worldconflicts at edge points in the markets when we move to synthetichousehold goods, cleaning materials, polishes, the DIY section,haberdashery, and cane and wicker work.

If you enter a market at the vegetable end, you are hit first bythe overriding smells of a complexity of freshness. There are toomany subtle aromas around to discern individual ones, saveperhaps for bunches of mint, coriander or rosemary. And manyvegetables hold back their aromas until cooking. But overall, thereis the smell of earth, of green. But the smell of individual vegetablesis contributing to the whole, especially when samples have been cutto release scent. The earthy, moist tones of root vegetables – carrots,parsnips, potatoes, beetroot; the ebullient, fuller, subdued pepperi-ness of the allium family – red and white onions, shallots, scallions,leeks and garlic; and the clean chlorophyll of greens – cabbages,chard, spinach, lettuces.

Over to the fruit. The zesty citrus of lemons, lime, oranges andtangerines, as powerful in their scent as they are in their colour.Ripened summer berries, mangos, guavas, bananas and pineapplesgive off aromas that hint at what they will taste like. In East Asianmarkets, you might encounter the durian, with its enigmatic – tosome, foul – stench.

To many, spices release the most evocative of scents, and hereindividual smells become distinguishable: the warm, spicy-savourytones of ground cumin and coriander; woody powdered ginger; thepenetrating, bittersweet burnt-sugar smell of fenugreek; the arrest-ing, sweet aromatics of cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and greencardamom; and the more complex composites of Indian garammasalas, Jamaican jerk or Moroccan ras-el-hanout.

Far more confrontational to the nose are the smells of meat,fowl and fish. In many markets, the produce is still alive, alongwith the unattractive smell of chicken shit and, by association, fear:the juxtaposition of live and dead flesh will unnerve the squeamishas well as the livestock not long for this world. In the meat sectionthe unavoidable smell of death hangs in the air, leaden, thick, dense,


bloody, congealed, concentrated. Offal might contribute a smell ofurea or bile. There is an urgency about the smell of flesh and bloodin that you might be conscious of the potential transition to thefetid and therefore repulsive.

The incipient decay of fish is arrested in ice. Some oily fish likesardines and mackerel are particularly pungent as the digestivejuices in their stomachs begins to digest their own flesh. A tinge ofseaweed, ozone, a bit antiseptic and oddly heavy, static air. Thesmell of even fresh fish is unpleasant to some, but the fish waterthat runs off the display slabs becomes repulsive to all within amatter of hours, hence the need to continuously wash the area.There is not an individual aroma to any individual fish species barthe fresh shellfish which smell of the sea itself. Overriding every-thing is the superimposed blanket of coldness.

Contrast the vivid smell sensation of markets with the neutral-ized, antiseptic scent-world of supermarkets. These cultivate thesmell of nothingness, impenetrable, empty, blank. Creating thesmell of absence is an art in itself – the blander the better – butthere is a constant background tinge of refrigeration: dry, sicklyand plastic when you get your nose right into it. You are smellingiced water and air conditioning. The non-smell of food in super-markets is ironic. It smells not of what you are buying, except forthe bakery, where they pump out the flavours of hot crusty bread,or the roast turkey smell at Christmas.

Cheaper supermarkets or grocery shops do not succeed increating an odourless world. More often there is a stale, sweatyodour that seems to cling to grease that you cannot see. The typicalshop smell in the old Eastern Europe was old sugar mixed in withdisinfectant and lino, which you can sometimes also encounter ina hospital setting. Yet even hospitals are seeking to control thesmell environment through herbs, such as the relaxing lavender, asawareness of the power of aromatherapy becomes more wide-spread. Aromatherapy is defined as ‘the art and science of utilizingnaturally extracted aromatic essence from plants to balance,harmonize, and promote the health of the mind, body, andspirit’.35 Essential oils range from the calming to the stimulating,such as citrus or peppermint oils. Increasingly shops aware of itspotency are constructing smell environments, often linked tosound, to seduce people to buy. There is an irony in that we pumpthe air with unpleasant petrochemical odours, then neutralize theirsmell in controlled settings and try to put back natural smells.


Interior environments are now essentially controlled. The odourcontrol and creation industry is massive. In the West you wonderabout the origin of the smell, whereas in a less economically devel-oped context at least you know where it is coming from. Theodours, scents and fragrances have uncalculated effects. Forinstance, around 70 per cent of asthmatics report that their asthmais triggered by fragrance and skin allergies are known to becommon.36

Department stores are an example where you might be affected.In colder climates they first hit you with a waft of warm, stale airand in warmer climes, a draught of cold. Yet from Dubai to Tokyo,from London to Buenos Aires, the first impression is of a powerful,heady blast of perfumes and cosmetics. With profit margins high,the ground floors provide an oversaturated smell environment. Theperfumery hall is full of sales women who have put on body lotion,piles of foundation, powder, scent and deodorant. The smells aredifferent and are fighting against each other. Every perfumecompany is fighting the fragrance battle, luring and seducingcustomers into their smell zones. Chanel, Guerlain, Issy Miyake,Dior, YSL. The list grows yearly as fashion designers, pop stars andthe odd football player branch into fragrances. The continuoussquirting from tester bottles replenishes this heavy petrochemicalcocktail. Modern perfumes are constructed chemical smells with asubstantial benzene base. The odour industry can create any scentfrom chemicals and, just in case we get starry-eyed aboutfragrances, let’s remind ourselves that perfume-makers use theodours of urine, sweat and vaginal wetness in their products,knowing it is a turn-on. Their scents are nearly accurate, yet a goodnose will tell the difference between the real and the fake. Syntheticfragrances do not linger and have no staying power. Long gone arethe days of real constituents in perfume. Everything is synthetic:remember the real smell of jasmine, rose, lavender, gardenia, lily ofthe valley, violet, cedar wood, sandalwood, frankincense, myrrh oreucalyptus?

Walking in dining areas of cities, you might hit a row of Indianor Chinese restaurants whose food smells emanate from their airconditioning, either by design or inadvertently. The good Chineserestaurant will exude a blend of ginger, garlic, spring onion and soysauce. If it is cheaper this mixture will include a fullish greasiness,partly inviting but interspersed with the smell of plastic and disin-fectant. The dominant smell of Italian restaurants is often that of


pesto, the mix of basil, parmesan, garlic, pine nuts and olive oil,tart but fruity. The Indian restaurant’s exhaust might smell ofcumin, coriander and turmeric, but pre-made sauces which blurdistinctions between individual spices are beginning to dominate.

The fast-food chains have a smell of their own. McDonald’s,KFC, Wendy’s, Subway, Burger King. They mush into one. Theyare almost sweet, crusty, a slight smell of cardboard, dry. Greaseand ketchup liberates and heightens the papery cardboard smellfrom which you eat the chips and chicken nuggets.

Let’s move from the crusty smell of fast food to the antisepticnon-smell of electrical goods. Think of non-smelling computers,televisions and radio equipment, where only the rubbery connec-tions exude a tiny whiff. However, changes are on the horizon tocontrol our smell environment comprehensively. The Japanesecommunications ministry is investing large resources in creating thefirst 3D virtual reality television by 2020 to change the way wewatch TV. It is proposed to have several thousand smells so as tocreate any mood. If that is frightening, consider that Las Vegascasinos already pump the smell of money on to the gambling floors:dry, sweaty, sweet.

Cities have their own scent landscapes and often it is an associ-ation with one small place that determines a smell reputation. Wecan rarely smell the city all in one so we can say that a city’s smellmakes us happy, aroused, or down and depressed. It depends oncircumstance. There is the smell of production (usually unpleasant)or consumption which is hedonically rich and enticing. There iseven a smell of poverty. Our home has a smell, but we don’t smellit as much as visitors do. Going home is about presence as well asabsence of smell.

But there is the sulphurous, bad eggs smell of Los Angeleswhich grabs you by the throat as this high pressure area holdseverything in. The same is true for tall buildings in narrow valleys,as in Caracas, that act as a canyon and container so that smells donot circulate freely. And this equally applies in Broad Street in beau-tiful Georgian Bath, one of the region’s most polluted streets, fromfumes that are trapped as the older buildings bend in. The brew-eries of Munich throw out a distinct aroma of heavy yeast:piercingly pungent, acrid, it darts into your nose and catches youunawares. The tannery in Canterbury, England is just as bad as thatof Fes in Morocco. Left untreated, the hides or skin of animalsquickly begin to rot, putrefy and stink, which is why originally


tanneries were on rivers at the edge of town. The penetrating smellin Fes is caused by the use of all kinds of animal products (excre-tions, urine and brains). It makes you look at the leather productsin a different way.

Finally us. What do we smell like? The city smell is that ofpeople, and the cross-cultural issue is ever-present, with this as withevery other sense. Different countries perceive the same smells andtastes differently. To the Chinese and Japanese, Europeans appar-ently smell cheesy or like congealing diary products, unsurprising,perhaps, given the lack of diary products in their diets. We smell ofwhat we eat and that is a fact, but in our antiseptic world, talkingof the smell of people is seen as politically incorrect. We prefer tomask ourselves in deodorant. Personal body smell is affected byseveral factors – the types of food consumed, the use of scentedproducts, and even the distribution and abundance of scent-producing glands in the skin may vary from culture to culture.37

The interplay of these factors may result in a body odour which isspecific to a culture, a city or a geographic region. With mass mobil-ity and migration, the variation within a culture or geographicregion is very wide. Equally, within cultures, people interpret smellsdifferently. For some, petrol fumes are fine while for others theyare sickening. So people and places have their scent DNA related totrades, industry, diet, landscape and level of development. The‘developed’ West tries to sanitize smell, masking what is bad behindcreated odours of ‘pleasantness’. ‘Less developed’ places smell muchmore as they are.

The look of the cityWhen we envisage a city, we are quite likely – especially if wehaven’t been there before – to draw on previous, perhaps iconic,representations of it: postcards, paintings, maps (London’s wonder-ful though abstracted Tube map), TV programme opening titles(Eastenders for London, Friends for Manhattan) and news images(where else, alas, can you see a city’s skyline changed live, as in the9/11 disaster?). We may also recall personal memories of arrival –landing close to Las Vegas’ Strip or driving into Mumbai from theairport – and catching a particular view, of Rio from CordovadoMountain or London from Parliament Hill. Monuments may ormay not be prominent in our picture – the Eiffel Tower perhaps, orthe Sydney Opera House. But in all cases, our picture will be just


that – a subjective one formed by our experiences and by othernarratives. The look is always gleaned from a particular vantagepoint.

The look of the city depends on where you stand and its layout.A warren of streets is a different experience, from the ground orfrom on high, than a grid pattern. In one case it can seem like amaze; in the other, like an arrow with a purpose. Each vantagepoint from which you look tells a different story of the city. Areyou high up or low down? Are you seeing the city from a distanceor close up? Our eyes determine what we see. If you are young,disabled, old, a woman or a man there is a contrast in focus. Forone the buildings loom overwhelmingly or can appear claustropho-bic hemming you in, for the other they soar grandly into the sky.Our jobs, too, shape what we see and what we leave out as we seeselectively. The strategic planner typically sees the city from the airon large-scale maps, whereas the local planner zooms in to the greatdetail. The one sees the city as slightly flat, more like a surface, andwith computer technology its 3D shapes come across with the tilt.The other needs to walk the streets and nearly touch the surfaces ofbollards, pavements and houses. The engineers might look at struc-tures and ask ‘do they stand up?’. The crime prevention officer islooking for hidden crannies where the sightlines aren’t clear; andthe thief wants some confusion in the space.

There is one eye and vantage point that has shaped how welook and talk about cities: that of the architect/interior designer. Itis but one view, yet it predominates. A raft of glossy magazines reinforces the message. They are supported by an industry waitingto sell its product. There is a vast architectural publishing industryand so far more has been written about the look of places, but invery restricted terms, than the sounds and the smells of the city, forwhich there is no market to sell to. Occasionally you sense thearchitect and their critics reflect in each other’s glory.

Too few architectural critics and urban writers write with theease and insight of James Howard Kunstler,38 who reflects a viewof city life in its full dynamic. Instead, usually the tone is rarefied,its vocabulary dense, arid, precious or even pompous. The picturesare beautiful, yet lifeless and rarely peopled. The architecturalobject comes across too much as isolated, as if it had landed some-what disconnectedly in the urban landscape. This is a reason whythe profession stands accused of being self-referential. There ismuch left out; you are often not sure that someone is talking about


a city within which people live. The confident tone and self-understanding reinforces the view that it is the architect who isreally the city-maker.

Let us take some snapshots of the look of cities. The sense ofsheer compacted physicality is what makes the city so distinctive. Itis the first impression. No other structure built by humans is socomplex and extensive. On occasion, the largest steel works have asimilar feel. The bigger the height and size, the more different wefeel. The extent of loomingness is partly perceptual. With a widepavement and boulevarded, broken-up street pattern, the fact I am120 or 60 or 20 times smaller than the building is of little conse-quence. The same is true when I can view the building from somedistance. There are other compensations too. I sense a certaingrandeur, power and energy. Yet when the public realm does notwork, when streets are too narrow and the road feels like a motor-way, the difference between how big I am and how big the buildingis matters. Too great a difference feels oppressive, interfering andlooming. But a ratio of, say, one to six creates a dramatically differ-ent feeling. It is more comforting because it is more human in scale.This is why, apart from the buzz, we like markets.

Angularity is the other predominant feature: straight lines; rightangles; sharp edges, some jutting out; squareness; planes; blankwalls. From above, this angularity comes across as a chaotic rangeof heights and right angles. There is hardly a place in nature thatlooks like this except, perhaps, the famous Devil’s Causeway inCounty Antrim, Northern Ireland – a mass of basalt columnspacked tightly together that resembles a mega-city.

The latest trend in architectural fashion helped by new technol-ogy and buildings techniques is to break out of the angularityprison. There are a few more swoops and swerves and roundedbuildings. In London, for instance, there is the Norman Foster-designed Swiss Re building – the ‘gherkin’. In Birmingham is FutureSystems’ Selfridges store – the ‘curvy slug’. Yet the surface feel ofthe city remains hard, ungiving, unbendable, inflexible. More like arod than a bendable reed. Nature, by contrast, feels movable, adap-tive, changeable.

Materials matter. Buildings speak to you in different waysthrough their materials. We notice this especially when they aremade just from one material, like the largely unpainted woodentown of Koprivshtitsa in Bulgaria, the cement-clad towns of theformer Soviet block, the mud buildings of Yemen (as in the aston-


ishing Shibam, called the Manhattan in the desert), the grey lime-stone of the Cotswold towns, the red bricks of industrial Lowell,USA, or the sand-coloured buildings in Fez. Then the materialspeaks to you in its full glory. Wood ages well; it fades, but doesnot crumble; it feels animate, a reminder that it was once a tree.Cement, by contrast, has a deadening patina; it absorbs light backinto itself, and its deceptive evenness gives a place a musty feel; thedust is in the air. Think, for instance, of the once grand Shkodra inAlbania. It was given the cement makeover in the Enver Hoxha era.The red bricks in older towns have blemishes; they felt alreadyweathered when new. Colour variations seep through the bricksand there seems to be a story in each one. New brick buildings aretoo smooth and mechanical; the up-to-date chemical processes ofbrick-making have evened out the surface and given them a lifeless,impenetrable shine. And they come in non-brick colours: every hueof yellow, terracotta and red.

We live in the age of glass. Glass and mirror have come into theframe with new techniques of heating and air conditioning. Thereflective buildings that mirror themselves back at you in a ‘look atme’ kind of way seem impertinent and self-imposing. To theWestern eye they now look cheap and garish, but to the post-Sovieteye they are like modernity par excellence. This has come in phasesas new materials emerged and were tried out. The sturdy sicklybrown and green glass feel; then the reflective golden touch for theattention seekers; and now the predominant silver that throws backclear mirror images. They do not invite nor have a conversationwith you, the passer-by. They assert, aggressively, their presence.

The West favours more the transparent look of see-throughglass. At its best it projects a sense of democracy and modernity. Itfeels airy, open, cool and uplifting. When done well the steel andmetal buildings combine strength and lightness. The PompidouCentre in Paris was one of the first of that generation, followedshortly afterwards by I. M. Pei’s Louvre Pyramid. Now the style iscommonplace and the Toronto Eaton Centre stands out as anexample from a cold climate. At night, of course, glass refracts lightdifferently than a brick building. For how long will glass stay asthe material of choice for malls, museums and city halls?

Colour is everywhere. It is all-embracing and in every culture.Meaning is attributed to each colour. There is a difference betweenthe psychological effect of a colour and its symbolism. For instance,green is symbolically associated with envy, while psychologically it


denotes balance. One does not need to be a specialist to understandinstantly that colour shapes how you feel. Dark colours candepress, and darkness has become a metaphor for negatives likeevil, ignorance and mental gloom. Light colours lift; again, wordassociations reinforce our perceptions – light and enlightenment. Ifa city were to be black it would be depressing, and the blackenedindustrial cities of industrial Britain were depressing in their time –and grey is not too uplifting either. It was always said that Berlinand Milan were grey cities, which is why their more recent creativeand fashionable associations also change how you think of whattheir colour might be.

Until very recently the colour and the palette used was limited– you rarely saw a green, purple, bright yellow or blue building.The new coloured glasses are changing that, such as Herzog deMeuron’s Laban dance centre in London, clad by sheets of multi-coloured glass. The new Musée du Quai Branly of indigenous artin Paris by Jean Nouvel is another. It is a kaleidoscopic, anarchicmontage of structures that will annoy those who love Paris’sconsidered order. It clashes well with the exterior of the adminis-tration building, which is swallowed up by a vertical carpet ofexotic plants punctured by big windows. The hydroponic greenbuilding feels as if it is alive – a sharp contrast to most buildings,which feel inert.

Clearly the local materials determined the colour of a place inthe past; today this is far less apparent as materials are movedaround with ease, with sheet glass and cement the overriding mate-rials in use. Think of the ‘granite city’ of Aberdeen in Scotland; itwears its sobriquet with pride, but the grey, silvery stone material isunforgiving. Do its colour, weight and heavy density determine thecharacter of Aberdonians? The predominant hues in Mediterraneancountries were variations of terracotta going into sandy beiges. It ispleasing on the eye in that sunny light.

Many Italian cities are an exception in having widespreadcolour strategies as part of planning. There are the famous colouredcities of the world which show how paint has an impact: the pinkcity of Marrakech and, nearby, the blue and white town ofEssaouira, or the blue city of Jodphur in India. The vivid colours ofpainted houses of Latin America, equally, both shape and respondto character. The crisp colour combinations on the corrugated ironbuildings in the once seedy La Boca in Buenos Aires has become sofashionable that it has become the city’s design template. Designer


articles, from sheets and pillows to furniture, seem to carry theimagery. Did the impoverished residents of La Boca ever get aroyalty? I doubt it.

Overriding everything – and again we cannot avoid the greysand blacks – is the colour of roads on which the buildings sit as ifbedded in a sea of asphalt. Grey is the canvas on top of which thecity plays itself out. The buildings do not feel independent.Asphalt’s homogenizing feel shrouds the city at ground level in aveil interspersed by signage and yellow and red traffic lines.

Advertising hoardings increasingly shape the look of the city asthey expand in size and impact. Less discreet than a decade ago,they can be immense – the largest billboard in the world, erected inManila in 2005, was 50m long and 50m high. Occasionally beauti-ful and often intrusive, it is Eastern Europe that sets new standardsof garishness, impact and boldness, and the Far East has alwaysbeen visually wild to Western eyes. Think of Tokyo’s electric city,Hong Kong’s Nathan Road or Delhi’s Chandri Chowk – you chokein colour and sign overload.

The city is increasingly a sign system and a message board. It isa staging set communicating products and images to you. But it alldepends where you are. The colours and materials used in commer-cial districts vary. In the upscale parts things are more discreet andmaterials obviously better. The hues in modern settings, in partbecause of the mass of glass, have a light blue, light yellow translu-cent overlay. Think here of the new 101 district in Taipei, wherethe world’s largest skyscraper stands. The more downmarket placesscreech their colours at you.

A business district communicates differently. There is moreblack – usually shiny black marble – as this is the colour of author-ity and power. It comes across, too, as stylish and timeless, becauseblack makes things appear thinner and sleeker (a reason for itspopularity in clothing). Increasingly, too, blue is coming in. It istranquil and in control, but blue can also be cold and calculating.Silver has a sharpish clarity, and again it creates a distance betweenthe viewer and passer-by – it reflects back at you. And glass, glass,glass – it is the gloss of corporate openness. Brown is less inevidence now, unless left over from a former period. It looks murky,unclear, unfocused.

A housing or apartment block area can be as different as thecountry or city it is in, so it is difficult to generalize across culturesand places even though the homogenizing process continues


unabated. Suffice it to say it depends on land costs and availability.The denser city will compact building upwards, as in Hong Kongor Singapore, but where people feel land is limitless – as inMelbourne, for example – the city spreads out into endlessness. Indenser places, people spill out into the streets as if pushed out oftheir buildings. The rising numbers of the middle classes in placessuch as Russia, Turkey or India are creating new, largely gated,edge-of-town settlements in dinky, post-modern apartments, typi-cally 10–20 stories high. The message here is one of ‘lifestyle’.

Buildings will reflect the past, particular regional styles, thematerials available at various times in history, power relations, class,their function. Often, a principle of city design will inform and orderthese buildings into a particular layout that affects our visual expe-rience of the city, such as the grid systems of America. Regardingthe grid, this tyranny of the shortest distance can have a uniformbeauty. But when combined with architectural monotony, it can bedull and oppressive. Green spaces contribute to a city’s quality oflife, but remember that a green impression of a city can be mislead-ing – much of London’s ‘green’ is private gardens, for example.

Whatever the colours, materials and layout of a city, the climateremains a check on our visual experience of it. A blanket of snowtransforms a city; a shroud of mist (or, worse, smog) can hide itsvista; and a serious flood can render the cityscape totally unfamil-iar to even its own inhabitants. Cities look different depending onwhether it is sunny, gloomy or rainy. And above all, light plays onthe physical structures that make a city.

How different does Helsinki look in winter, when bereft ofnatural light, than in summer, when the days are long? Lightchanges all, and that includes the man-made. Electricity must beseen as pivotal in the history of urban spaces. Artificial light illumi-nates the dark and allows activities that were previously confinedto the day to continue into the night. Light facilitates the 24-hourcity. It can also, unfortunately, dull the pleasure of a starry nightsky as we unwittingly illuminate particles in the air above with lightpollution. More positively, light can make a street look safer atnight and can transform the façades of otherwise dull buildings. Itcan allow us to watch a football match in the evening. A well-lit orsparkling city view can be inspiring.

Lighting has been discovered as a resource to enliven the city.Some cities (such as Naples) have recognized the power of light

and have specific light strategies. Against the chaotic background


of the changing city, every new public lighting scheme illuminates acomplex clash of priorities and agendas. How can public lightingcreate an image for the city as well as support urban renewal? Howcan safety and security needs be reconciled with a desire for visualcommunication and delight?

A new way of looking at urban lighting, based on a relation-ship between identification and regeneration on any given site, canbe expressed through three stages: light marketing, light art andlight landscape. Centrepoint and its environs in central Londonwere adopted as a ‘laboratory’ from which to evolve and test out aset of generic strategies and tactics. The research demonstrates theability of lighting to transform our urban spaces at different levels– and to generate and communicate powerful new spatial identitieswithin our nocturnal environments that underpin the urban regen-eration process.

The visual environment should be public property, but thereare vast differences in how it’s thought through. Illumination, ofcourse, is central to advertising and its flashing, bright visual inter-jections are forced upon us. Japan, notoriously, has a lightscapedominated by brand and advertising messages. This isn’t necessar-ily a bad thing in itself, but we must be careful in matters ofderegulation that our cities do not lose overall control over theirlighting.

These pages have provided a short treatment of the city’s look.There is much more to explore. For instance, we have concentratedon the outdoor look of places when there is much to say about theindoor life of cities, especially in cold climates. We could haveexplored the underground world of some cities, their metros andsubways. Nevertheless, the salient point of this entire section onthe senses is that the city is a sensory experience and this shouldnever be overlooked when thinking about a city’s future. Above allelse, we see, hear, smell, touch and taste the city.


3

Unhinged and Unbalanced

THE CITY AS A GUZZLING BEAST

Stark images like those in One Planet Many People: Atlas of ourChanging Environment by the UN Environment Programme cansear into your mind.1 Everywhere you look there is cityness. It hasinvaded our landscape, so shaping our mindscape. Comprised oftime-series satellite images of the globe over the last few decades,the images provide powerful visual testimony to our increasingdominion over the planet. Considered ecologically, these imagesshould sound alarm bells: industrialization and agriculture sweep-ing over indigenous flora and fauna, water resources shrinking,deserts increasing. Most strikingly, they show the irresistible growthof urban areas.

While half of us now live in cities, this will reach two-thirds ofa 9 billion world population by 2050. While the city can signify atriumph over nature, urban dwellers exact more of the Earth’sresources than their rural counterparts. In fact, there is not enoughplanet to support the Western lifestyle.

We will show below the implications for resources of running aLondon lifestyle, which requires three Earths to meet its demands.The Los Angeles population, meanwhile, with their meat-heavydiets and car-embracing culture is, per capita, even more voracious.Six billion people living like Los Angelinos would require fiveplanets. Living like Dubai perhaps ten.2 Even many rural existencesneed more than one planet, and indigenous lifestyles are in theminority in terms of being sustainable.

The city is a massive logistical endeavour. It as an overwhelm-ing input/output machine, a voracious beast guzzling in, defecating

out. It stands at the apex of the global nexus of goods distribution.Like any living organism, the city consumes food and water,expends energy and produces waste. Cities require bricks, mortar,cement, lime, steel, glass and plastics to generate and renew theirphysical presence. Then manufactured goods – fridges, clothes, tele-visions, washer-driers, books, CDs, cars – are used, exhausted andeventually expelled as carbon dioxide, ash or simply junk to beburied out of view. Increasingly, too, goods travel greater distancesbetween their places of origin and consumption end points, using acomplex global distribution system of massive supertankers, lorries,airplanes, trains, containers, warehouses, cranes, forklift trucks,pipes and wires, not to mention a workforce coordinated byincreasingly sophisticated and powerful logistics companies.

In the following sections I have used quantitative measures toget the feel of the urban endeavour across viscerally. Throwingthese figures at you might give you a headache, but please bear withme. They reveal the folly of our lifestyles, the irrationality of ourproduction systems and built-in inefficiencies, notwithstandingecological impact. They starkly raise the question, ‘Can civilizationcontinue in this way?’ And the answer is, ‘No.’

Everything we do is implicated in the consumption of resourcesreliant on supply chains. Consider a morning routine: (1) having acup of tea; (2) morning ablutions; (3) having breakfast; (4) puttingout the rubbish; and (5) taking the metro to work.

The logistics of a cup of teaWe start the day with a cup of tea, and Londoners drink enoughtea or coffee to fill eight Olympic-size swimming pools every day.The UK drinks 165 million cups per day, or 62 billion cups per year,which is 23,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. You put the kettleon. A standard kilowatt kettle uses some 80 (food) calories to cometo the boil, about the same as the potential energy stored in fiveteaspoons of sugar. In a year, London consumes some132,769,103,200,000 calories or 154,400 gigawatt-hours of elec-tricity, the equivalent of 13,276,000 tonnes of oil. This is more thanIreland consumes and about the same as Portugal or Greece.

Half the tea consumed in London comes from East Africa, therest mostly from the Indian subcontinent, China or Indonesia. Itgets to Britain packed in either foil-lined paper sacks or tea chests,in containers, by ship, in three to five weeks. In Britain, it is deliv-


ered to blending and packaging centres, and packets of loose leavesor tea bags are distributed to retail shelves. Ninety-five per cent oftea is consumed in tea bags. Most likely, milk will be added – 25per cent of the milk consumed in Britain is taken with tea; 674,000tonnes of milk and cream are consumed in a London year, orapproximately 240 Olympic swimming pools.3

In the UK there are 2,251,000 dairy cows producing14,071,000,000 litres of milk a year. This easily makes the UK self-sufficient in milk. However, because of the idiosyncrasies ofinternational trade, countries import and export the same productat the same time. In 1997, the UK imported 126 million litres ofmilk and exported 270 million litres. Imports are now less, andexports greater, but 2002 still saw more than 70 million litres comeinto the country.4

Washing and toilet flushingShortage of water is emerging as a global crisis and many predictthat the wars of the future will be fought over control over water.Water gets to us through a daunting network of pipes to house-holds and Londoners use approximately 155 litres a day each,compared to the average for England of 149 litres, a third of whichis used flushing the toilet. An American uses more than treble theamount, while the average African uses only 50 litres a day.5 Intaking a 5-minute shower, we use about 35 litres of water, overtwice this amount if we have a bath. Brushing our teeth whileleaving the tap on uses 6 litres, a washing machine cycle 100 litres,while a tap left dripping for a day sees 4.1 litres of water go downthe plughole. And water waste happens at the infrastructural aswell as the individual level. In 2000 water consumption in Londonreached 866 billion litres, of which 50 per cent was delivered tohouseholds. The volume of water lost through leakages (239 billionlitres or 28 per cent) was more than the total amount of water usedby the commercial and industrial sectors (195 billion). In Manilasome 58 per cent of water is lost to leaks or illegal tappings. InIstanbul vendor water is 10 times as expensive as the public rate; inBombay it is 20 times as much. In developed countries an averageof 15,000 litres of treated, safe drinking water is used to flush 35kgof faeces and 500 litres of urine per person per year.6

Unhinged and Unbalanced 79

Food and eatingOn an average day Londoners might eat over 3 million eggs in oneform or another and the equivalent of about 350,000 large (800g)loaves of bread. As a nation, Britons eat nearly 10 billion eggs ayear – 26 million every day – which placed end to end would reachfrom the Earth to the moon. Londoners consume 6,900,000 tonnesof food per annum. A good portion goes through Smithfield, whichsells 85,000 tonnes of meat a year, and Billingsgate, which sells35,000 tonnes of fish. Between 700 and 750 million broiler chick-ens (chickens bred for their meat) are reared and slaughtered eachyear in the UK. When eating out, Londoners consume 74 per centmore ethnic food, 41 per cent more fish and 137 per cent more fruitthan the British average.7

Vast amounts of water are consumed by agriculturists andhorticulturalists to keep their crops alive, healthy and growing, notto mention fertilizers and pesticides. Animal farming impacts evenmore. For cattle raised in feedlots, it takes roughly 7 pounds ofgrain to add a pound of live weight to the animal. Seventy per centof the grain produced in the US and 40 per cent of the world’ssupply is fed to livestock, largely to satisfy burger demand in fast-food chains.8 To produce 1 pound of beef, a cow has produced 0.5pounds of methane, a very potent greenhouse gas, which is equiva-lent to 10.5 pounds of CO2. The beef eaten by the averageAmerican in a year has produced the methane equivalent of 1.4tonnes of carbon dioxide.9

To get on to supermarket and shop shelves, food travels evergreater distances to sate multicultural and metropolitan tastes. Ofthe 7 million tonnes of food consumed by Londoners each year, 80per cent is imported from outside the UK. Over half of the vegeta-bles and 95 per cent of the fruit Londoners eat is imported.10 Eachtonne of food in London has travelled approximately 640km.Therefore, 3,558,650,000,000 tonne-km of road freight wasrequired to meet London’s food demands.11 Even though the UK isable to grow lettuces throughout the year, imports increased from21.8 per cent of the total supply in 1987 to 47.1 per cent in 1998.Nearly a quarter of all lettuces imported into the UK come fromSpain. For every calorie of carrot flown from South Africa, we use66 calories of fuel. For every calorie of iceberg lettuce flown in fromLos Angeles we use 127 calories of fuel.12 The food chain, includ-ing agriculture, processing and transport, contributes at least


22 per cent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to oneestimate.14 Conversely, many high-density cities in the developingworld produce up to 30 per cent of food production within theircity boundaries.

RubbishAround one third of food grown for human consumption in theUK ends up in the rubbish bin and Britain throws away £20 billionworth of unused food every year, equal to five times its spendingon international aid and enough to lift 150 million people out ofstarvation.15 Seventeen million tonnes of food is ploughed intoBritain’s landfill sites every year.16

Meanwhile, food is increasingly packaged using plastics, metaland paper products. A typical London household generates around3–4kg of packaging waste per week. It is estimated that Londonhouseholds produce approximately 663,000 tonnes of packaging


THE LONG-DISTANCE LUNCH

A traditional Sunday lunch could easily have travelled 25,000 miles if achicken from Thailand and fresh vegetables from Africa are included ina supermarket shopping basket. The trend for supermarkets to sourcefood from overseas that could well be grown in the UK is the problem.In Britain the distance food is transported increased 50 per centbetween 1978 and 1999.

• Chicken from Thailand: 10,691 miles by ship• Runner beans from Zambia: 4912 miles by plane• Carrots from Spain: 1000 miles by lorry• Mangetouts from Zimbabwe: 5130 miles by plane• Potatoes from Italy: 1521 miles by lorry• Sprouts from Britain: 125 miles by lorry• Transport of imported goods from port of entry to distribution

centre: 625 miles• Transport from distribution centres to supermarket: 360 miles• Total: 26,234 miles

However, choosing seasonal products and purchasing them locally ata farmers’ market, for instance, could reduce the total distance to 376miles, 1/66th of the distance of the meal above.13

waste per annum, of which 67 per cent is food packaging. A quarterof the overall waste we produce is packaging.17 For every tonne offood consumed in York, a quarter of a tonne of packaging isproduced.18 Londoners consume approximately 94 million litres ofmineral water per annum. Assuming all bottles were 2-litre, thiswould give rise to 2260 tonnes of plastic waste. A bottle of Evian,the top-selling brand, travels approximately 760km from theFrench Alps to the UK.19

In total, the average Londoner throws away more than seventimes their own weight in rubbish every year and a London house-hold produces a tonne of rubbish in that time, the weight of afamily car. Londoners produce enough waste to fill an Olympicswimming pool every hour or to fill the Canary Wharf tower everyten days. London’s waste is transported to 17 main municipal solidwaste transfer stations, 45 civic amenity sites, 2 incinerators, 23recycling centres, 2 compost centres, 18 landfill sites and 2 energy-from-waste plants. Of the 17 million tonnes produced by thecapital, 4.4 million is collected by councils. Seventy per cent of thiswaste travels more than 120 kilometres. For every million tonnesof waste generated in London, approximately 100,000 wastevehicle journeys are required.20 Developed countries produce asmuch as up to six times the amount of waste of developing coun-tries.

English-speaking cities are almost linguistically predisposed totreat waste as a nuisance rather than a resource, perhaps thusadopting an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ approach to waste. Seventy-three per cent of London’s waste goes to landfill, 19 per cent isincinerated, and 8 per cent recycled or composted. Overall the UKrecycles 23 per cent of waste; in the Netherlands the figure is 64per cent and in Germany 57 per cent.21 Ninety per cent of all ofLondon’s landfill goes to areas outside London.

Perhaps the most recognizable landfill site in the world is FreshKills Landfill on Staten Island, New York. The site covers 2200acres and mounds range in height from 90 to approximately 225feet. The result of almost 50 years of land filling, primarily ofhousehold waste, it is estimated to contain some 100 million tonnesof garbage. Now Fresh Kills is permanently closed, New York’srubbish is sent to landfill sites in New Jersey, Pennsylvania andVirginia, some of them 300 miles away.

Over 333,000 disposable nappies are buried every day in Essexlandfill sites alone.22 Approximately 1.7 million nappies are used


every day in London, which equates to around 202 tonnes of wasteper day or 74,000 tonnes per annum; 75 per cent (55,000 tonnes)of this is sewage.23

The number of live births in London in 2001 was 104,000. Thisequates to a total weight of 354 tonnes (assuming the averageweight of a newborn is 3.4kg). The number of deaths in London infor the same year was 58,600. This equates to a total weight of4160 tonnes (assuming the average adult weight is 71kg). The deadare buried in 124 municipal cemeteries, 12 Jewish, 3 RomanCatholic, 1 Church of England, 1 Muslim cemetery and 9 opera-tional private cemeteries.24 London’s cemeteries are running out ofburial space. Central London, Hackney, Camden and TowerHamlets will run out of space within five years.

Pollution keeps the death rate up. On the Marylebone Road on28 July 2005, one of the hottest days of the year, NOx levels rose to1912 micrograms per cubic metre, the equivalent of motorists andpedestrians breathing in four cigarettes a minute. Normal dailyexposure to London’s air is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes. Inpollution hotspots like the Marylebone Road, daily vehicle emis-sions are so concentrated that pedestrians and those with offices orhomes on the roadside are exposed to the NOx equivalent of morethan 30 cigarettes a day. Other affected areas include King’s Road(29 cigarettes a day) and Hammersmith Broadway (27.3 ciga-rettes).25 Consider Kolkata, where the pollution in cigaretteequivalents is over 40, or the far more polluted Chinese andRussian cities.26

Disposal or reuse of waste apart, there is the cosmetic matter ofstreet cleaning. Fast-food lovers, smokers and gum-chewers keepcouncil workers employed cleaning up after them. It is estimatedthat three-quarters of the British population chew gum regularly.They buy 980 million packs a year, and spit out more than 3.5billion pieces – most of which they dispose of ‘inappropriately’. Onany given day, there are as many as 300,000 pieces of gum stuck toOxford Street.27

TransportAbout a billion trips are made on the London Underground eachyear, 70 per cent more than in 1980.28 Four thousand LondonUnderground carriages whiz around 408km of route (181 intunnels), travelling at an average speed of 32km per hour, including


stops. The metro uses 1091 gigawatt-hours of electric power a year– less than 1 per cent of the total for London.

On the surface things move more slowly: inner London trafficspeeds are between 19 and 24km per hour (9–15 km per hour inthe worst areas) and 30 per cent of a typical peak-time journey isspent stationary.29 In the major cities of the European Union theaverage speed is 15km per hour. This is no better than 200 yearsago. Of 11 million daily car journeys in London, just under 10 percent are of less than one mile. London has the highest concentra-tion of cars in the UK at ten times the average – 1500 cars per km2

compared with an average of 150 cars per km2 for the regions.30`

Each weekday, 6000 buses accommodate 4.5 million passengerjourneys on 600 routes around London. Local bus journeys rose inLondon by 25 per cent between 1991/1992 and 2001/2002 – aperiod that saw bus use in other British metropolitan areasdecline.31 In central London in 2001, only 12 per cent of peoplecommuted by car, compared to a figure of 41 per cent for the wholeof the city.32 More sprawl equals more car use. Seventy-two percent of those working in central London used trains, 32 per centusing the Underground and 40 per cent surface rail. Compactionand density encourages public transport use. Men travelled 10.3



Cars being the priority, pedestrians have to adapt

miles to work on average in Britain in 1999/2001, 70 per centfurther than women (6.1 miles). The average distance betweenhome and work in Britain increased by 17 per cent over ten yearsfrom 7.2 miles in 1989/1991 to 8.5 miles in 1999/2001 as citiesspread their tentacles outwards.33 In the EU as a whole between1975 and 1995 the daily distance travelled per person doubled anda further doubling of traffic is predicted by 2025.34

Two contrary trends are occurring in London with regards totransport. On the one hand – and in keeping with expectations ofurban sprawl – people are travelling further to work. On the other,London’s congestion charge for motor vehicles travelling in centraldistricts has encouraged overland public transport, with fewerpeople commuting by car and more trips taken on local buses.

The British annual motor vehicle increase is running at800,000. The movement of freight (measured in tonne kilometres)increased by 42 per cent between 1980 and 2002 and the length ofhaul of goods moved by road increased by over 40 per cent between1990 and 2002. This means more traffic delays, given limited spaceresources, and more congestion, and it costs Britain around £20billion per year.35 For the EU as a whole, congestion costs 130billion euros annually and the total external costs of motorizedroad traffic are estimated at 270 billion euros per year – around 4 per cent of Europe’s gross national product. Calculating all asso-ciated car activities into time, the typical American male devotesmore than 1600 hours a year to his car, sitting in it while it’s movingor stands idling, parking it and searching for it. Add to this the timespent earning the money to pay for it, to meet the monthly instal-ments, and to pay for petrol, tolls, insurance, taxes and tickets andyou arrive at a figure of 66 days or 18.2 per cent of his time.36

London drivers spend 50 per cent of their time in queues. Onaverage, Londoners spend nine days a year just sitting in a car andjust three days walking.37

In 1950 there were an estimated 70 million cars, trucks andbuses on the world’s roads. Towards the end of the century therewere between 600 and 700 million. By 2025 the figure is expectedto pass 1 billion. Around 15 million vehicles are sold every year inWestern Europe alone.38 When you average the space taken up bysmall cars and trucks and buses this equates to about 9500km2.This is as if just under half the size of Wales were a car park. Putanother way, it is the equivalent of back-to-back vehicles stretchingon a 1000-lane highway from London to Rome, a 250-lane


highway from New York to Moscow, a 120-lane highway stretch-ing from London to Sydney, or a single lane stretching 1.9 millionkm into space, five times the distance to the moon.39

A double-track urban railway can move 30,000 people per hourin each direction. A two-lane road can only handle 3000 to 6000people an hour in each direction. A double-decker bus carries thesame number of people as 20 fully laden cars. A double-decker bustakes up to a seventh of the road space of the equivalent number ofcars. Cars need as much road space as five to eight bicycles and asmuch parking space as 20 bicycles. Buses, coaches and trains inBritain are seven times safer than cars in terms of fatalities perpassenger kilometre.40 But over the past 20 years the overall cost ofmotoring has in real terms remained at or below the 1980 levelwhile bus fares have risen by 31 per cent and rail fares by 37 percent.41

Materials: Cement, asphalt and steelIn 2000 Londoners consumed 49 million tonnes of materials – 6.7tonnes per person. Some 27.8 million tonnes were consumed by theconstruction sector, out of which 26 million tonnes of waste wasgenerated: 15 million by the construction and demolition sectors,7.9 million by commerce and industry and 3.4 million by house-holds.

Buildings consume some 40 per cent of materials in the globalcommunity. And cement is a key component. In 2000 1.56 billiontonnes of Portland cement was manufactured globally. One thirdof this was produced in China alone.42 And global demand isexpected to double within the next 30 years.

Cement is a noxious, or even obnoxious, substance. Each tonnerequires about two tonnes of raw material (limestone and shale),consumes about 4 gigajoules of energy in electricity, process heatand transport (the energy equivalent to 131 m3 of natural gas),produces its equivalent weight in CO2, about 3kg of NOx, amixture of nitrogen monoxide and nitrogen dioxide thatcontributes to ground-level smog, and about 0.4 kg of PM10, anairborne particulate matter that is harmful to the respiratory tractwhen inhaled. Cement manufacturing accounts for approximately7–8 per cent of CO2 globally. Yet twice as much concrete is used inconstruction around the world than the total of all other buildingmaterials, including wood, steel, plastic and aluminium.43 The


annual global production of concrete is about 5 billion cubic yards,which is the equivalent of a massive block 1000m long, 1000mwide and 3824m high, a bit higher than Mount Fuji in Japan(3776m).

More than 65,000 square miles of land have been paved in thelower 48 states to accommodate America’s 214 million cars; thereare 3.9 million miles of roads, enough to circle the Earth at theequator 157 times, in that area alone.44 This amounts to 2.5 percent of the total land surface – an area more than the size ofGeorgia, far, far more if you consider car parks and other areas.For every five cars added to the US fleet, an area the size of a foot-ball field is covered with asphalt. Close to half of the land area inmost US cities goes to providing roads, highways and parking lotsfor automobiles, close to two-thirds in the case of Los Angeles. Notmany cities calculate their asphalt, but Munich, one of the moreenvironmental cities in Europe, has only 4 per cent pavement, 15per cent asphalt and 16 per cent built area, against 59 per cent vege-tation and 6 per cent bare soils.45 Of London’s 175,000 hectarearea, 62 per cent is urban – buildings, asphalt, and pavement – with30 per cent of London’s area dedicated to parkland.46 MetropolitanTokyo is 82 per cent covered with asphalt or concrete.47 An areathe size of Leicestershire is now taken up by roads in the UK, withan additional fifth as much land given over to parking. ‘Oncepaved, land is not easily reclaimed,’ as environmentalist RupertCutler once noted. ‘Asphalt is the land’s last crop.’48

In 1973 the tallest building in the US opened its doors. At 1454feet tall (110 storeys), the Sears Tower took three years to build ata cost of more than US$150 million. From the Skydeck, on a clearday, you can see four states – Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin andMichigan. The building contains enough steel to build 50,000 cars,enough telephone wiring to wrap around the world 1.75 times,enough concrete to build an eight-lane, five-mile-long highway; itcontains more than 43,000 miles of telephone cable, 2000 miles ofelectrical wire, 25,000 miles of plumbing and stairways totalling2232 steps.49 It took 36,910 tonnes of steel to build the PetronasTowers. The Empire State Building contains 60,000 tonnes of steel– 4500 elephant equivalents – and 10 million bricks.50 A three-bedroom detached house requires about 10,000 facing bricks. Totalbrick production in UK is 2.8 billion a year, which if lined up endto end would reach to the moon and back.51


The ecological footprintThe ecological footprint is a concept used to calculate the area ofland required to meet consumption and waste demands. As well asland and bodies of water required for food, forestry required toabsorb carbon dioxide emissions and land used for waste disposalare taken into account. Calculations can be made for any unit ofconsumption (e.g. the individual) and have been made for the worldas a whole, for individual nations and for towns and cities.Unfortunately, there are wide discrepancies in methodologies,making comparisons between cities very difficult: estimates ofLondon’s ecological footprint range from 125 to 293 times the sizeof London itself.52 Nevertheless, suffice it to say that even at lowerestimates, the footprint of London (and that of most cities) extendswell beyond its geographical area.

That cities’ footprints are far greater than the cities themselvesis neither surprising nor necessarily problematic. One would expectan area of dense population to exact disproportionate demands onthe planet in terms of area and less peopled regions produce foodfor ones more so. Agriculture is configured in such a way. However,problems become clear when we look at consumption on a widerscale. For example, Europe’s ecological footprint represents an areamore than twice the size of the continent. (Americans’ needs percapita are nearly twice those of Europeans). And, as a planet, weconsume more than the Earth can sustain. Since the early 1980s,we have been living in ‘ecological deficit’. In 2001, we used 1.2times the biocapacity of the Earth.53

URBAN LOGISTICS

Putting food on supermarket shelves or supplying the high streetwith clothes and other consumer durables is no small feat. Theguzzling city presents titanic and complex organizational chal-lenges. Sating the demands of a city like London requires themovement of huge ships filled with oil or piled high with mineralsor Lego-like containers, thousands of kilometres of pipeline carry-ing oil and gas, and just-in-time meetings of different transportmodes. The port infrastructures of Hong Kong or Rotterdam aresmall cities in themselves. But since they are usually cut off behindfencing and customs barriers, we often overlook them. Equally, we


see trucks on motorways with names like Maersk Sealand or CN,but few of us have much of a grasp of what they are doing.

Logistics is the art and science of coordinating the myriadmovements of goods and information within and between nations.It involves the process of strategically and profitably managing theprocurement, movement and storage of materials, parts andfinished inventory (and the related information flows). City logis-tics require an intensely complex coordination of tangible and lessvisible things – trucks, planes and ships on the one hand, computersystems and software on the other. When it works it has the graceof the well-oiled machine, but its resilience is far lower than wethink, its fragility exposed in a computer shutdown or traffic crisis.All this may sound dry, but logistics constitutes the respiratory anddigestive systems that make cities work; without them cities fallapart.

Logistics is big business. The logistics sector is worth £55billion to the UK economy alone. It contributes 15–20 per cent oftotal product costs. The sector currently spans some 63,000 compa-nies, employing 1.7 million people in the UK and, although oftenneglected, is one of the largest employment sectors in theeconomy.54 The size of the US logistics industry is US$900 billion –almost double the size of the high-tech industry, or more than 10per cent of US gross domestic product.55 The global logistics indus-try is worth US$3.43 trillion.56 This includes a wide variety of jobs,from vehicle tracking, cargo securing and protection to customsbrokerage, warehousing, distribution and the associated ITconnected to these activities.

And it is a fast growing business. Food imports and exportshave tripled over 20 years in the UK.57 Significantly, recent yearshave seen the emergence of third party logistics companies (3PLs)who are solely concerned with organizing these movements.Theoretically, and historically, there are a number of differentplayers in the supply chain whose activities have to be coordinated:road haulers, rail operators, shipping companies, airlines, freightforwarders, warehousing companies, postal companies, and pack-aging and distribution companies. Increasingly, however,sophisticated one-stop companies – 3PLs with unfamiliar nameslike Christian Salvesen, Wincanton, and Tibbet & Britten – offersolutions over a range of sectors. New software and satellite tech-nology tracks inventory and movement, allowing suppliers andimporters to locate their shipment at any one time. The newest


trend is radio frequency identification (RFID), which is now beingstandardized at a global level, allowing companies to tag all theirgoods to provide uninterrupted tracking of goods in transit.

Sea ports are the main hubs of global freight distribution. Thereare some 2000 ports worldwide, from single-berth operationshandling a few hundred tonnes a year to multipurpose facilitieshandling up to 300 million tonnes a year. The largest includeShanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, Houston, Rotterdam,Hamburg and the ports around Tokyo Bay. Fewer and fewer portshandle the lion’s share of world traffic: the top ten container portshandle close to 40 per cent of world traffic today. You can recog-nize the containers in any port: Maersk Line (with 18 per cent ofworld trade, by far the largest), Mediterranean Shipping Co.,Evergreen from Taiwan, Cosco (China Ocean Shipping) fromBeijing, Hanjin from Seoul and NYK Line from Tokyo.

Port infrastructures can be massive. For example, Rotterdam’sEuroport stretches 40km and covers 10,500 hectares (industrialsites plus water), has 60,600 people in directly port-related employ-ment and handles some 1 million tonnes of goods every day. In2005 the equivalent of 8 million 20-foot containers passed throughRotterdam. The port is now expanding by claiming land from thesea.

World port traffic surpassed 5 billion tonnes in 1998 and it isestimated that by 2010 world seaborne freight will approach 7 billion tonnes. Of this, Chinese ports will handle about 4 billiontonnes of freight throughput, 57 per cent of the total.58 Forty-fiveper cent of sea freight is liquid. Dry bulk goods – coal, iron ore, grain,phosphate – make up 23 per cent and general cargo accounts for theremaining 32 per cent. The transportation of general cargo hasbecome increasingly containerized. Freight containers are typically20 feet long, 8 feet wide, and, usually, a little over 8 feet high. Someare 40 feet long. One twenty foot equivalent unit (TEU) equals about12 register tonnes or 34m3. One TEU can carry 2200 VCRs or 5000pairs of shoes. There are estimated to be 15.9 million TEU contain-ers in the world. Container traffic breaks down globally thus: the FarEast 45 per cent, Europe 23 per cent, North America 16 per cent, theNear and Middle East 6 per cent, Central and South America 4 percent and Africa 3 per cent. Movements of empty containers are esti-mated to make up about 20 per cent of the total. In 2003 sea portcontainer traffic was 266.3 million TEUs, treble the container trafficin 1990. Thus more goods are moving around faster.


Ports handle about 26,500 ships of over 500 gross tonnagecriss-crossing the seas. They include 5500 crude oil tankers and oilproduct tankers, which between them can carry 175 million tonnesof oil, 2600 container ships, 4900 bulk carriers carrying loads suchas grains, over 2000 chemical tankers and around 11,500 generalcargo ships sailing around the world. The largest ports handle thesuper-sized ships, over 300m long, that can carry up to 9000 20-foot containers, 13 storeys high and 10 containers wide. One of thelargest, the OOCL Shenzhen, can carry up to 100,000 tonnes ofcargo; it is driven by a single 12-cylinder, 69,439kW (93,120bhp)engine which turns an 85 tonne propeller. By way of comparison, atypical family car engine generates around 90kW (120hp), 776times less. Fuel consumption is measured in tonnes of fuelconsumed per hour, and the rate is around 10 tonnes. On thedrawing board is the MalaccaMax ship, 470m long, 60m high, with16 storeys, an 18,000 container capacity and a 200,000 tonnecargo capacity.59

Has decivilization started?We live in awkward times. Between now and 2050 world popula-tion is expected to grow by 50 per cent and, as we have seen, ourper capita consumptive demands on the planet are also growingfast. In the 1960s the world’s ecological footprint was below theplanet’s biocapacity; by the end of the 1970s it had risen to aboutone planet, where it stayed until about 1983. By the end of themillennium our footprint had reached 1.2 planets. We have nowbeen living in ecological deficit for two decades.60 At the same time,wealth differentials are getting more extreme. Global inequality isworse than it has ever been. Such trends gloomily raise the ques-tion, Has modernity failed us? Has, indeed, decivilization alreadybegun?

In 1992 Francis Fukuyama buoyantly declared in his book TheEnd of History and the Last Man that the end of the Cold Warmeant the end of the progression of human history with Westernliberal democracy as the triumphant, final form of human govern-ment and liberal economics as the ultimately prevailing mode ofproduction. However, this thesis has not been able to withstandgeopolitical – Balkanization, Islamic fundamentalism – and envi-ronmental objections. Capitalist ideologies assume inexhaustibleresources which just aren’t there. The global economy cannot, or




The basic infrastructures of life simply do not exist in many placesacross the world – such as Shkodra, Albania (above)

plain won’t, continue in its present form. We cannot rely on themarket to respond appropriately to environmental, social andcultural crises in time because environmental, social and culturalcosts are not factored into economic calculations.

Barring manna from heaven or an extraordinary scientificdiscovery, it is safe to say that civilization will not survive in itspresent form. This is not to make an ideological point. There’s justnot enough planet to maintain culture as we now know it. Ouraddiction to the automobile will have to be addressed because evenif or when sustainable energy sources arrive on a widespread, globalscale, we do not have an infinite supply of metal. Tastes will changeas we readjust to agricultures and industries closer to home. Waterwill become, as it should be, precious.

Given this material backdrop, ideologies will of course change.Perhaps the current rhetoric of rational economic man will be seenretrospectively as rather mad. The cult of individualism may wanewhen we realize in full how dependent our individual existencesare on others (since we are all in effect sharing the same pie, havingmore means someone else having less). And change will be trau-matic. Extreme economic crisis has historically precipitated extremeideologies.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF MISERY

Light and shade accompany the urban story, and in some places itis the dark that dominates. Too often, grinding poverty, hopeless-ness, drug dealing, child prostitution, people-trafficking, pettycrime, street children, AIDS and the fear induced by local gangscharacterize the urban experience. And let’s not forget Grozny orBaghdad. We can take extremes of suffering and well-being as agiven. Columbia’s murder rate is 100 times that of Copenhagen.Gloom is fairly unavoidable when you dwell on these thoughts,and trying to empathize with the city’s most afflicted hurts in thegut.

But misery is exactly where the greater focus of creativityshould be. Forget for the moment the more attractive glamour ofnew media industries or the latest icon building in a city centre.Finding imaginative solutions to day-to-day needs, human distress,thwarted ambition, and crime and violence is a far more creativeact. The creativity needed has different qualities. Good ideas are


interwoven with courage, the skill of mediation, negotiation,dialogue and even love.

This chapter and the two that follow approach the concept ofgeography in terms of the way feelings and experiences are distrib-uted over physical space. Further, these chapters explore howmisery, desire or mere blandness can pervade the way a city looksand feels. Endemic misery among an urban population, forinstance, will impact on the subjective experience of a visitor totheir city. But misery may also be reflected in the physical structureof the city: crumbling buildings, filthy streets, public spaces nolonger tended by a local authority, no-go areas. And the sameapplies to desire and blandness, which can manifest themselves inadvertising clutter or homogenized shopping malls respectively.

Misery exists everywhere, even in our most affluent cities –mundane, everyday miseries of redundancy, not being able to makeends meet or the alienation that dense but fragmented communitiescan induce. However, I concentrate here on extremes of misery toillustrate more starkly how creativity can be brought to bear onproblems we are all too aware of, if probably not close to.

While sometimes grim, these narratives are intended to empha-size hope rather than despair. Even for a city in acute distress, thosethat live there can still harbour a love. In each of the citiesmentioned in the pages that follow, there are wonderful peoplebattling against the odds. As we survey misery, consider the NGOViva Rio’s campaign ‘Choose Gun Free! It’s Your Weapon or Me’,where women are taking the lead in reducing debilitating levels ofgun violence in the favelas. Consider Viktor Melnikov, the surprisenew mayor of shockingly polluted Norilsk, who is trying to forcethe local mining company into safer practices. Consider the projectthat Cirque du Soleil, in conjunction with Save the Children, and inaddition to its shelters, has developed to provide circus training asan alternative to education for the street children who lived in thesewers and heating pipes beneath the streets of Ulan Bator.

Or consider the reaction ‘without precedent in Japanesesociety’61 to the Kobe earthquake of 1995, which killed 6279people. Although volunteerism is not nearly as widespread in Japanas in Europe or North America, most search and rescue was under-taken by community residents. Spontaneous volunteering andemergent group activity were widespread throughout the emer-gency period. Residents provided a wide range of goods andservices to their fellow earthquake victims, and large numbers of


people travelled from other parts of the country to offer aid.Officially designated rescue agencies such as fire departments andcivil defence forces were responsible for recovering at most onequarter of those trapped in collapsed structures. There was not asingle authenticated case of looting.62

To focus on misery can depress, yet it provides a broad and richcontext in which to imagine positive, original alternatives. Areminder of urban difficulties challenges us to imagine deep downwhat it is really like to live in such places. It reminds us what thechallenge is to creativity: to build civility, a civic culture and somesense of fairness, to curtail the corrupt, to generate jobs, and tocreate cities that can do more than just serve basic needs.

Organized crime and the rule of fearFor centuries now the Italian Mafia has distorted and impoverishedthe South Italian economy, extorting shopkeepers and taking a cuton any economic activity. Even today it seems it takes a cut on anybig construction project. This is why Rico Cassone, the mayor ofVilla San Giovanni who opposed building the Messina Bridge toconnect Sicily to the mainland, resigned – he received the classicMafia threat of five bullets through the post. Organized crime isexpected to profit hugely from the bridge’s construction. But theirtentacles go much further. Building cities is a construction game, soMafia involvement in Southern Italian city-making will continue adnauseam.

The yakuza in Japan, like other mobster groups, are far morethan gangs of thugs that oversee extortion, gambling, prostitutionand other traditional gangster activities. They have bought up realestate and have their tentacles in some 900 construction-relatedfirms. The three largest groups are the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi and the Sumiyoshi-Rengo-kai and Inagawa-kai, bothheadquartered in Tokyo. The National Police Agency indicated thatthe Yamaguchi-gumi had 20,826 members and 737 affiliatedgroups in the late 1990s.63 In 1998 the South China Morning Postreported Japanese police data on mob involvement in the nation’sconstruction industry, showing that Japan’s mobsters stood to makeabout US$9 billion just in the reconstruction needed after the majorearthquake hit the port city of Kobe in 1995. The same story isrepeated with the Chinese triads in Taiwan, Macau and the widerdiaspora. It is evident also in places like Moscow, where older


tenants are brutalized out of their cheap communist tenancies indesirable areas to make way for new construction and where listedbuildings are burnt down to enable new building at higher plotratios. And the US mafia’s historic involvement in construction iswell documented.

Think of Belfast, where a number of the ‘freedom fighters’ onboth sides of the religious divide – Catholic and Protestant – nowhold whole communities to ransom as they slide into drug dealing,racketeering and violence under the guise of protecting theircommunities. Think too of the apartheid on the ground that stillcontinues in spite of efforts towards peace. Like a poison, it leachesinto the daily fabric of life. For instance, in the Ardoyne district ofBelfast, four out of every five Protestant residents will not use thenearest shops because they are located in Catholic streets, and asimilar proportion of Catholics will not swim in their nearest swim-ming pool, which is located in a Protestant street. Most18-year-olds in Ardoyne have never in their life had a meaningfulconversation, about, say, sport or family, with anybody of theirown age across the ‘peace line’ and religious divide.64 The connec-tion between segregation and deprivation is startling. Virtually allthe most deprived areas are highly segregated and have the mostsignificant levels of sectarian violence. The link between economicwell-being and prejudice is clear.65

Rio conjures up a particularly powerful resonance: carnival,dance, gyrating, big-busted girls, Copacabana beach and theSugarloaf. But any party atmosphere is severely compromised bythe threat of gangs. Drug organizations like Red Command controlmost of the city’s 26 sprawling shanty towns or favelas, whosepopulation exceeds a couple of million people. The leader of theRed Command drug organization, Luiz Fernando da Costa, betterknown as Fernandinho Beira Mar, has been in a top-security prisonsince 2001, but he still exerts power. He is reputed to have negoti-ated arms deals on his mobile phone there. In 2002 he managed totorture, murder and burn four of his enemies. To murder his oppo-nents he needed the connivance of prison staff to be able to movethrough six sets of iron gates. Prison staff are threatened if they donot accept bribes. The repercussions reached Rio. Armed support-ers of one of Mar’s victims, Ernaldo Pinto de Medeiros, movedslowly from street to street ordering shops to close and schools tosend their children home as a mark of respect. Rio, normallychaotic, fell silent.


Rio’s largest favela, Rocinha, prone to landslides as it clings tothe hillside above high-class beachside areas which provide easyaccess employment for residents, is often held up as an example ofa greatly improved area of squatter housing. However, pitchedbattles between the police and drug lords have drawn attention toits underlying social problems and the challenges that still lie aheadfor city planners. The sheer size, topographical complexity andsocial structures of Rio’s favelas mean that police are reluctant tointervene unless serious violence or drug-trafficking has beendetected. Rocinha is in fact the largest favela in South America,with some 127,000 residents. Despite a more violent past, it is nowrelatively peaceful – thousands of tourists even visit each year, oftenon organized tours. Yet Rio is a major transit point for Colombiancocaine on its way to Europe and represents a big market itself forthe drug. Higher up the hill, in a community that is both sociallyand spatially segmented, lie parts of Rocinha that are largelycontrolled by drug lords, not the city authorities. But lower downthere is a structure of local government and the community hasdeveloped services for itself, such as crèches, and three-quarters ofresidents now have access to electricity. The 2002 film City of Godshone a spotlight on favelas, chronicling the cycle of poverty,violence, and despair in a Rio de Janeiro slum.

Overall the murder rate in metro Rio is declining. It is now 50per 100,000 inhabitants per annum, down from 78 in 1994,although in some favelas like Baixada Fluminense the murder rateis still 76. But it is not only murder that shifts perceptions. ‘Gunmenrob British coach party in Rio – Raiders storm airport bus carrying33 elderly British tourists – cameras and jewellery worth thousandssnatched,’ read a headline earlier this year.66 The road that linksRio’s international airport to the glitzy South Zone has becomenotorious in recent years for carjackings and shootings. In Rio theyspeak of the ‘parallel power’ that traffickers exert while enrichingthemselves, or even of a ‘parallel state’.

Gary, Indiana, with a population of 120,000, has a murder rateof 79 per 100,000, the highest in the US. Dominated by drug gangsfighting for turf, it is a hollowed out, desolated place and has beenso for a couple of decades. The drug dealing is seductive – you cantriple your money turning cocaine into crack and if you are verylucky move on when you have some money. But most end up deador in prison. In 1995, when the murder rate was 118, the stategovernor ordered in the state troopers amid great fanfare. On


national TV he ordered them to go to war on Gary’s gangs. Thetroopers set up roadblocks in the most dangerous neighbourhoods.During their three-month stay the murder rate went down by 40per cent only to go back up again when they left. Once a raciallymixed steel town, a dozen years after the mills began to shrink fromemploying 30,000 workers in the 1970s, it became a wretchedblack ghetto. Today employment hovers at around 5000.

The story of Gary’s descent into violence is an extreme versionof one played out in many American cities where ‘white flight’ isfollowed by ‘urban blight’. But murder rates are only one indica-tion of urban distress. Behind these murders lie untold stories ofviolence, unpleasantness, paranoia and fear. One may note that theaverage murder rate in the US is 5.6 per 100,000 people, with NewOrleans on 53.3, Washington on 45.8 and New York, with itsdramatic reduction in crime, on 7.3. Contrast this with two of themost multicultural cities in the world, Toronto on 1.80 andVancouver on 3.45.

People-trafficking and the sex tradeAfter drugs and arms trading, the £4 billion global sex trade busi-ness comes in third in illegal trade. An estimated600,000–800,000 people are trafficked in this way per annum,according to the US State Department. I witnessed for myselfseveral instances in Iasi in Romania on the Moldavian border andthen in Moldova’s capital Kishinev: burly, blurry-eyed men intheir 40s shacked up in hotels with waif-like 18-year-olds waitingto be transported on. The contrasts in Kishinev are stark. Themain thoroughfares have some faded class and a mix of garishbars, clubs and shrill advertising. In the evening, you see hoardsof scantily dressed young women, the target of the traffickers.Immediately off the main roads there is no street lighting and youare enveloped in gloom. The European Parliament estimates thataround 4000 women a year are trafficked to Denmark and over10,000 to the UK. Many come from Eastern Europe but othersincreasingly from places like Thailand, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.Often they are sold on to work as prostitutes who can makeseveral thousand pounds a week for their pimps and are effec-tively imprisoned in our major cities. The London MetropolitanPolice estimate some are forced to see between 30 and 40 clientsper day. It is estimated that only 19 per cent of prostitutes in


London are British: 25 per cent are Eastern Europeans and 13 percent are of Southeast Asian origin.

Pattya, 100 miles east of Bangkok, where the streets are linedwith go-go bars and where English-style pubs display signs declar-ing ‘lager louts welcome’, teems with prostitutes. Of the 200,000inhabitants, it is estimated that 100,000 have some kind of connec-tion to sex tourism. Pattya’s population virtually doubles duringthe winter months, when affluent European and American tourists– many of them well past middle age – flee the cold of their owncountries to seek the warm weather and sensual pleasures of Pattya.Three decades ago, Pattya was an obscure fishing village. With theadvent of the Vietnam War, it became a popular recreation resortfor American marines based at nearby Sattaship; their weekendescapades sowed the seeds of the sex industry. From that beginning,prostitution spread like wildfire. Because of the enormous financialsuccess of sex tourism, thousands of young women and girls barelyinto their teens come from the impoverished villages of northernThailand to seek the easy money. Even women and girls from neigh-bouring Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam are brought to work inthe sex shops. And lurking behind the lure of pleasure lies endlessviolence.

Cambodia has become a favoured destination for paedophilessince Thailand, previously the most notorious centre of under-agesex, began a crackdown on child prostitution two years ago. Thepaedophiles come from America, Canada, Australia, Holland andGermany, as well as Britain. Svay Pak, the infamous brothel area11km north of central Phnom Penh, is the epicentre. ‘Out here youcan get anything, you do what the fuck you like, girl, boy, two-year-old baby, whatever you want. Nobody cares.’67 And Pattyaand Svay Pak are just at the apex of many more towns and citiesacross the region that rely on sex and have lost their dignity.

The human cost of changeOver the South China Sea to Port Moresby, the capital of PapuaNew Guinea. No other country has been wrenched into the modernworld with such brutal swiftness, and it is now on the brink ofsocial and economic meltdown. For two years running it came outworst in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s liveability rankings of130 cities, behind the likes of Lagos, Algiers and Karachi.68 Crimeis extremely high, armed hold-ups perpetuated by raskols are


common, and expatriates and middle-class locals live behind highwalls and coils of razor wire. Yet grass-roots crime may simplyreflect the corruption of authority: ‘Raskols mimic political leaders’corrupt behaviour at the street level, enriching themselves throughtheft and operating with relative impunity. When criminals andcorrupt politicians go unpunished, people lose respect for state lawsand the authority of central government collapses.’69

Back North. While admiring the amazing growth and sparkleof the new China, let us not forget the grim cost of China’seconomic miracle, even though in comparison with other recentlydeveloping countries in the region, this immense logistical challengehas been managed with some sense of planning and order. Thereare only a few slums, a significant achievement given that this is thebiggest mass migration in the history of the world, with ruralpeople move into cities creating a second industrial revolution. Amassive building boom, unparalleled anywhere, is taking place. In2003 half of the concrete used in construction around the worldwas used in China’s cities. In 1950, 72 million Chinese lived incities; in 1997 the figure was 370 million and by 2020 it is predictedto be 800 million, perhaps 950 million by 2030. The extremeexample is Shenzhen, constructed at breakneck speed by ‘architectson acid’.70 In the 1970s it was a fishing village. Then the govern-ment established a special economic zone there and the growth wasnon-stop. Recent government estimates put the population at 10million, well above the 7 million counted in the 2000 census. Wehear little about the industrial and construction accidents of thisexpansion. Official estimates are that 11,000 are killed every year,but it is privately acknowledged to be more than 20,000 a year.71

China competes on price in the global market and safety measuresadd costs to the bottom line. This speed of development meanssafety standards do not catch up and compensation is so low thereis little incentive for operators to ensure safety.

Furthermore, in spite of increased awareness of pollution, theenvironmental crisis appears in danger of getting out of control.China’s spectacular economic growth over the past two decadeshas dramatically depleted the country’s natural resources andproduced skyrocketing rates of pollution. Environmental degrada-tion has also contributed to significant public health problems,mass migration, economic loss and social unrest. ‘The result is apatchwork of environmental protection in which a few wealthyregions with strong leaders and international ties improve their


local conditions, while most of the country continues to deterio-rate.’ Elizabeth C. Economy documents in a gripping way theseverely degraded environment where ‘rivers run black, desertsadvance from the north and smoky haze covers the country’.72

Imagine, after a hard day’s work, being cocooned in smallapartments in endlessly similar 25-storey blocks in ever-burgeoningcities. Think of the social life, leisure, shopping. And yet ‘It is betterliving here than living in my home village in Anhui,’ comments aBeijing resident.73

Grinding poverty and stolen childhoodThe suffocation, by surveillance, shadowing, wiretap-ping and mail interception, is total. Most patients inhospitals suffer from psychosomatic illnesses, wornout by compulsory drills, innumerable parades, ‘patri-otic’ assemblies at six in the morning and droningpropaganda. They are toil-worn, prostrate, at the endof their tether. Clinical depression is rampant.Alcoholism is common because of mind-numbingrigidities, regimentation and hopelessness. In patients’eyes I saw no life, only lassitude and a constant fear.74

North Korea represents a ‘prison state’ where criticism of the stateconstitutes treason. Pyongyang recoils from outside intervention,but recent appeals for aid reveal the desperation of a people shutoff from the rest of the world. In fact, in relative terms, the capitalis a better place to live than the countryside and its residents wouldfind the idea of Western middle classes wanting to move out of thecity quite bizarre. Pyongyang’s restaurants and nightclubs contrastabsolutely with rural North Korea, where citizens face cripplingpoverty, with starvation particularly rampant among children. Butrepression also takes its toll on childhood:

Children have had the creativity and spontaneity ofchildhood taken away from them. The unquestioningfollowing of the instructions and behaviour of adultssuggest that the children are aware of the conse-quences of misbehaviour in adulthood and don’t wishto dabble in it. There is a sense of defeat about chil-dren’s behaviour – that they are subconsciously awareof the intransigence of the status quo and have decidedto meekly accept it.75


Meanwhile, in Mongolia’s capital, Ulan Bator, where temperaturescan fall as low as -52°C in winter, more than 3000 children live onthe streets. Many shelter in the sewers for warmth, refuge and toescape violence in the city. The collapse of communism saw mostfactories shutting down, leaving thousands unemployed. The resultwas escalating crime, domestic violence and alcoholism. Thispoverty forced children out of their homes and now they beg, stealand wander the ice-covered streets.76

FilthLet’s explore some of Russia’s (and the world’s) most polluted cities,such as Norilsk, 2875km east of Moscow, in Siberia, at the edge ofthe Arctic circle, where the temperatures can drop to -60°C inwinter, Dzerzhinsk about 380km further east, or Murmansk andthe Kola Peninsula. In Norilsk the snow turns black, and isdiscoloured yellow across a 30km radius, and the air tastes sourfrom sulphurous fumes. It is a closed city, but one which myComedia colleague Phil Wood had the pleasure to visit. Like 90other towns and cities, it is normally off-limits to foreigners. Theauthorities say that this restriction is to protect Norilsk fromAzerbaijani traders flocking to this economic zone. Others argue ithas more to do with hiding highly unpleasant facts. A former Sovietpenal colony, safety was never a concern. Norilsk, with a popula-tion of 230,000, is home to the world’s biggest nickel mine andknown for industrial pollution so severe it drifts over to Canada.Evidence of Norilsk’s activities has also been found on polar ice.The city itself is a paradise compared to what goes on in the plants,where workers wear respirators as fumes giddy the senses andwhere ‘workers’ lives have, over several decades, been remorselesslyput upon the sacrificial block’.77 Chimney stacks to the south, east,north and west mean the city is hit by pollution whatever way thewind blows. The appalling conditions mean the average lifeexpectancy is ten years below the Russian average and the men inthe mines live barely beyond 50. Norilsk produces 14.5 per cent ofall factory pollution in Russia,78 an astonishing fact given Russia’spoor pollution record. Each day the stacks blurt out 5000 tonnesof sulphur dioxides into the sky. The lure, however, is the highwages.


Prisons and bordersThink of the once-proud Shkodra in Albania, now forgotten at theedge of Montenegro, where electricity is still intermittent and thepotholes are deep enough to conceal a small child. The populationwas transformed after the flight of many of the ambitious to Tirana,tempted by its glitz and apparent opportunities. The mountainvillagers, who in turn are tempted by Shkodra, have replaced them.Clannish attitudes linger in the city and family blood feuds persist.For instance, in December 2000 the nephew of Ndoc Cefa, afamous Albanian theatre director, assassinated another Albanian inLondon. While the assassin is locked up in a psychiatric hospital inAlbania, the blood feud must continue and all males of the Cefafamily in the Shkodra area are targets. Their houses are theirprisons.

Consider the wall separating Israel from the West Bank andpartly running through Palestinian territory. It was built to preventPalestinian would-be suicide bombers from entering Israel. It is partwall, part fence, and most of its 670km length has a concrete base



One of around 600,000 bunkers in Albania: these are often in the most unlikely urban settings, built

under Enver Hoxha’s leadership to control the population

and a 5m-high wire-and-mesh superstructure. Rolls of razor wireand a 4m-deep ditch are placed on one side. In addition, the struc-ture is fitted with electronic sensors and it has an earth-covered‘trace road’ beside it where footprints of anyone crossing can beseen. Parts of the structure consist of an 8m-high solid concretewall, complete with massive watchtowers. Many towns are cut offor cut up by the wall. Imagine living in Qalqilya, where the wallsurrounds the town almost completely. Residents are imprisoned,cut off from neighbouring Palestinian villages and the rest of theWest Bank. Palestinian property within 35m of the wall, includinghomes, farms, agricultural land, greenhouses and water wells, hasbeen destroyed by the Israeli army. Four entrances to the town havebeen blocked, while the only remaining entrance is a military road-block. It denies locals the means to livelihood and access to naturalresources. Qalqilya was once known as the West Bank’s breadbasket, but nearly 50 per cent of the city’s agricultural land hasbeen confiscated, as have 19 wells, representing 30 per cent of thecity’s water supply, forcing residents to migrate to sustain a liveli-hood.79

Border towns, especially between countries where wealth differ-entials are great, can also be problematic. Cuidad Juarez in Mexicoand El Paso, Texas effectively constitute one city but they are sepa-rated by the Rio Grande River and the border. More than 320women have been murdered in Juarez since 1993. Of these deaths,approximately 100 have been sexual-torture killings of youngwomen aged between 12 and 19. Several hundred women aremissing and unaccounted for. Nobody takes responsibility forsolving the cases and corrupt police are in cahoots with the publicprosecutor’s office. The powerful drug cartels and outdated lawshave allowed the perpetrators to go free. Since 1995 police havejailed more than a dozen killers but the murder spree continues andhas now attracted global attention, with Amnesty International atthe campaigning forefront.

Tourism and its discontentsWhat about the gleaming tourist spots of Faliraki, Goa or Ibiza?Thousands of places worldwide are caught up in the tourism mael-strom, and, while it has clearly done much for many places, it alsohas its flip side: the effect on local identity, ecological despoliation,overdevelopment and more. Fuelled by cheap airlines, charter


flights and media attention, Faliraki, the once sleepy fishing villageon Rhodes, became a ‘modern-day Sodom’, according to some,after a TV series called Club Reps, which followed the activities ofholidaymakers and reps. It rapidly became a destination for Britishyoungsters and developed into a place of binge drinking orgies,fighting, vomiting and casual sex, encouraged, it must be said, bylocal bar owners. In 2004 it had clubs with names like Sinners,Excite, Bed, Climax and The Pleasure Rooms. Then the authoritiesclamped down after a fatal stabbing of a British boy in a drunkenbrawl and introduced a zero tolerance policy. Quickly the actionmoved on to Zakynthos. Once exclusive, for the moment it enjoysthe dubious reputation of being the party haven of Europe. But inthe evening a darker side quickly emerges. Barely dressed girlsweave their way drunkenly between guys whose strut has beenreduced to an alcoholic crawl. Flashes of violence and casual sexskirt the streets and rape is then never far away.

Goa, once a dope-filled, peace-loving haven, has long lost itsinnocent, fun-loving reputation, blown away by a spate of drugdeaths as the hippie paradise is taken over by British traffickers.Ibiza, once a Spanish idyll, is now another party haven invaded byunshackled tourists. The club names are again appropriate:Amnesia, Eden, El Divino.

Cultural prosperity among povertyAs I have already suggested, acute misery is not confined to devel-oping nations. Material poverty exists alongside prosperity.Nevertheless, culture can be wielded to alleviate poverty by recen-tring communities and by providing a foundation upon whichtangible, material economies can be built.

Paris’ Val-Fourre sink estate is Europe’s largest council estate,with 28,000 inhabitants, sky-high unemployment and growingschool drop rates – inevitably worse for the immigrants, most ofwhom are from North Africa. Despite the republican French idealof equality, they do not feel treated and respected as French. Thecombination – no job, no education, no respect – is a dangerouscocktail as the riots in the banlieues all over France in late 2005showed. But here, as in so many other places, there are brightsparks such as Radio Droit de Cite, run by 60 local teenagers. Thestation gives them a platform on which to shape their identity andfoster self-belief through producing documentaries, phone-ins,


community information, sports and music. More than a dozenteenagers from the station have moved on to jobs in national broad-casting.

Finally, back to my home country, Britain, where the JosephRowntree Foundation revealed that 70 per cent of Britain’s poorestchildren are concentrated in just four conurbations: London,Greater Manchester, Merseyside (which includes Liverpool) andGlasgow.80 The Rowntree report points out ‘the huge damagecaused by the persistence of poverty and disadvantage in a gener-ally prosperous country’. The poor areas in these cities, likeHarpurhey in Manchester, Everton in Liverpool, Tower Hamlets inLondon or Easterhouse in Glasgow, can feel like desolated places,but here, as elsewhere, civic leadership can produce innovativeideas. For example, in Easterhouse a new Cultural Campus, appro-priately called the Bridge, has opened, incorporating a library, alifelong learning centre, a flexible auditorium, rehearsal, photogra-phy and multimedia studios, a flexible exhibition and performancespace, and an education centre, the John Wheatley College. Thislarge, multifunctional building also offers office suites, a new swim-ming pool, water features and a health suite, which will attractmany users. Its goals are to increase opportunities to developpersonal self-confidence, new life skills, such as communicationand team working, and good health and to increase employability.Most interestingly and counter-intuitively, it is also the base for thenew National Theatre of Scotland. Conceived as a ‘virtual’ body,with only a small number of permanent staff, it will research at theEasterhouse base and create plays for touring. This alone will bringpeople into the area who previously had no reason to be there.

In London the new Idea Stores in Tower Hamlets are remodel-ling the view of libraries, which were previously underused andunloved. The plan is to create a series of bright, new buildings inlocal shopping areas, combining lifelong learning and culturalattractions with all the services normally associated with libraries,from classic books to DVDs and CDs. They borrow the best thatcan be learnt from the world of retail – presentation, use of colour,sense of welcome – while retaining a public service ethos. The firstthree in Bow, Chrisp Street and Whitechapel have an airy, transpar-ent feel, in tune with a democratic spirit and that of valuing usersas citizens. The first Idea Stores have trebled the number of visi-tors. The dowdiness of the old libraries has been left behind and anew image has drawn in new users. Acting as a community hub,


the word library has disappeared. We now have Idea Stores,complete with cafés, crèches and multimedia offerings. Whetherthe word ‘store’ reflects the right ethos is another matter.

The Easterhouse Cultural Campus and Tower Hamlets’ IdeasStores projects attempt to build social capital, characterized byencouraging social trust and mutual interconnectedness, which isenhanced over time though interaction. The analogy with capitalcan be misleading, because unlike traditional forms of capital,social capital is not depleted by use, but in fact grows by use and isdepleted by non-use. It is accumulated when people interact in apurposeful manner with each other in families, workplaces, neigh-bourhoods, local associations and other meeting places.

Learning from KathaThe goal of the art of city-making is to create more liveable placeswith decent services, good housing and the possibility of a liveli-hood. If these are missing, not to mention the basics like shelter,food, drinkable water and elementary security, there is the dangerof falling back into chaos in spite of the selfless and courageousacts of individuals.

I want to conclude the geography of misery with the story ofan organization I know well. It stands as an exemplar for all theother creative projects around the world that attempt to grapplewith ordinary and dramatic misery in cities. It reminds us how theworst can be turned into something better.

It is called Katha and it works largely in Delhi’s largest slum,Govindpuri, where 150,000 people live. Katha is now at the epicen-tre of activities that are transforming the Govindpuri slum cluster.Katha supports people’s movements in over 54 communities withthe aim of turning ‘the slums into the gold mines they are – thepowerhouses of creativity, entrepreneurship and drive’. Its slogan is‘uncommon creativities for a common good’ based on an ‘uncom-mon education’ (visit www.katha.org for more information).

The word katha itself means story or narrative. It started witha simple idea ‘to enhance the joy of reading’ and to foster story-telling. India has always been a land of storytellers. It honed overcenturies the fine art of telling the story – in epics, mythologies,folk tales and more recent writings. Stories can transmit values,morals and culture. Founded in 1988 by Geeta Dharmarajan,Katha started as a small publishing house translating stories from


the different Indian regions. But the story idea has had greaterimpact. The organization then started schools and income genera-tion projects in Govindpuri.

Its educational ethos is centred on developing a story each term.There are no discrete topics such as biology or maths. Childrenlearn these through the story along the way. I was involved whenthe theme was ‘Transforming the City, Urban Stories’. In its mainschool and 12 smaller ones the whole curriculum was focused onthe city and all the rooms had city themes. They surveyed sewageconditions in their own slum and so learnt about safe water, biolog-ical processes, bacteria and diseases. In bringing together the resultsthey grasped proportions, percentages and statistics and so got toknow maths. By interviewing residents and writing up impressions,they learnt to articulate and craft language and learnt how to createpresentations on computers. By building models of how their slumcan develop, they learn how to design, paint and make models. Andthey get to know their community: every day their urban story getsadded to through talking to their parents, friends and neighbours.

Since the Katha schools started in the early 1990s, over 6000children have benefited and over 1000 have gone on to highereducation, this in an area when illiteracy runs very high. But inorder to get parents interested in sending their children to school,Katha started a women’s entrepreneurship programme, which in1995 evolved into the Katha School of Entrepreneurship, todevelop leadership, mentoring and work. The idea of ‘[SHE]2’ is atits core, meaning that any investment in women brings double theresults.81 Hundreds of women in the last decade have gone out intothe community and entered full-time employment as home helps oroffice workers or started businesses as stallholders or tailorsearning up to 20 times what they did before. Many have gone onto take further education courses. There is an in-house bakery atKatha that employs some of Katha’s beneficiaries. This educationand employment provides women with resources with which tosend their children to Katha schools. Parents pay a small but, for aslum dweller, significant fee (£4 a year) – Katha believes thispersonal investment increases commitment and motivation. Yet itis possible to recoup all the fees through results attendance and theinvolvement of parents in schooling. Additional costs (£50 per yearper pupil) are obtained from grants and sponsorship.

Katha has now added city development to its repertoire. Again,its ethos here is poor-friendly, taking the ideas and aspirations of


the impoverished into consideration. It asks them how they wantto improve their environment and to bring themselves decentlifestyles. It seeks equitable growth, with more people involvement,as only then will growth be viable or sustainable. From 2007onwards Katha will begin to help redevelop a part of Govindpurithrough a process of co-designing and co-creation with the localcommunity.

The Katha philosophy has grown organically over the years,yet at its core is a desire to stimulate an interest in lifelong learningthat will help children grow into confident, self-reliant, responsibleand responsive adults; to build social capital; to empower; to helpbreak down gender, cultural and social stereotypes; and to encour-age everyone to foster excellence and expand their creativity.

Katha’s ‘9 Cs’ slogan, based on what they believe helps formcharacter, is embellished on a main column in the principal school.It could stand for what The Art of City-Making is attempting topromote:

Curiosity Competence Concern Creativity Confidence CooperationCritical Thinking Concentration Citizenship

THE GEOGRAPHY OF DESIRE

Desire is the flip side of misery. Let’s look again at Rio de Janeiro,where desire and misery clash. The city has a powerful resonance:sexuality, heat, glamour, energy. Our vantage point is the giant 38m-high Christ the Redeemer statue on the Corcovado mountain,710m above sea level. The city’s vista is unrivalled anywhere in theworld, even by Sydney, San Francisco, Hong Kong or Vancouver.Even the favelas look enticing. But down on the ground, things aredifferent. The 1950s and 1960s, as nearly everywhere, took theirtoll, as rampant redevelopment fractured the tree-lined boulevardsand decorative apartments.

Carnival, beautiful women and men, samba, bossa nova. Eventhe once seedy and dangerous Lapa is now a hub of the music sceneand is a regenerator’s dream: faded 19th century houses and ware-houses are waiting to be turned into more hip apartments andoffices. It still has an edginess, yet the clubs, bars and restaurantsare opening and beginning to tame the threats.


Rio’s resonance is why the Guggenheim wants to be linked withit. The associational richness of the two brands, Rio andGuggenheim, seems irresistible; they are a city-marketer’s dream.At first, the idea was to help regenerate the Mauá Pier area in thehistoric centre of Rio de Janeiro. The redevelopment of this site asa new cultural centre is expected to be a crucial and strategic land-mark in Rio’s plans to bring life back to the Cais do Porto region.Apparently mutually beneficial, the aim of redevelopment is tostrengthen the Guggenheim’s ‘global brand’ and turn Rio into a‘global city’. Visionary architecture was contractually required, andJean Nouvel was chosen and has provided the design.

But there has been a stand-off: The plan has stalled politicallyand the city cannot get it approved. The battle lines are drawnbetween those who believe the Guggenheim will be a regeneratorand those who think it will only gentrify the area and be of little orno benefit to the poor. The fate of the Rio/Guggenheim connectionis the supreme symbol of The Art of City-Making story and of thebattle of how to deal with misery. Do you create fashionable desire,whose economic effects are unlikely to trickle down in a positiveway for the poor but which pleases the better off, or do you goabout the less glamorous process of bottom-up economic develop-ment?

It is only when we see these things from a detached, eagle’s eyeview that the shape and overall dynamic of things are clear. Thosewho move around from place to place can see the full impact of thedull sameness of the ‘same place everywhere’ syndrome, which iswhy the promise of another Guggenheim icon seems so attractive.Then the sharp dominance of global brands becomes clear, fromWal-Mart to Tesco to McDonald’s to Gap, whether you are inCalifornia, Milan, Lyon, Moscow, Yokohama or Johannesburg. Butlocals instinctively know too that in spite of the glamour of thebrands, they are a double-edged sword, endangering local distinc-tiveness. Finding an inventive route that balances the local andglobal is the challenge.

Which way the creativity of people is focused to make citiesgreat places is a subtext throughout this book. It is highlightedmore sharply below when we talk of the geography of desire. Thequestion that lurks in the background is this: What if the immenseenergy, resources, creativity and imagination that are used to seduceus to buy more were used for different aims? Inevitably the text hasa somewhat critical tone, but it is not a personal criticism of the


many shopping centre managers, developers, marketers or policy-makers I meet daily through my work. They, like me and all of us,are caught in a maelstrom and a system that pushes us inexorablytowards speeding up, consuming more, with greater focus on indi-vidual wants than on bigger-picture, communal needs. Many wantto bend the market to more lofty aims. But to stand alone againstthe prevailing wind is hard.

Ordinary desireYet ordinary desire is a more beautifully mundane thing, a lessthrusting desire, one that is softer. It is the ordinary day-to-day livedurban experience of people. It is the basic needs that count. Can Iwalk from where I live or work to a public space where I can justbe rather than having to buy something? Desirable places fulfil theneed for just being, so enabling us to experience the moment, achance for incidental encounter, a space open for coincidence ratherthan having to do something specific or continuously having toconsider, ‘What next?’ The Plaza Nueva in Bilbao fulfils this need,as does the contained Caracas town hall square or Stavanger’sSølvberget Square, where, as so often, the public library, theKulturhus, is an anchor. The sensually perfect oval square Piazzadell’Anfiteatro, the shopping street Via Fillungo in Lucca or evenDjemaa el Fna in Marrakech, one of the world’s great squares,satisfy ordinary desire, as does idling around one of Amsterdam’smany markets or even ambling along its canals. Mothers looking attheir kids running around, idle chatter, old guys reading the news-paper and smoking, a stall to buy a drink or a bun, a market sellingflowers and food one day, second-hand knick-knacks the next. Thecommunity centre or library, a place to browse, let a chanceencounter with books or through the internet take its course, reada magazine. A city is not only a static thing consisting of its builtform, but also a series of small human interactions that fill a caul-dron. Ordinary culture in action.

Is the housing well designed, well built, well maintained,spacious and affordable? Does it meet the varying needs of singlepersons and families? Does the urban design meld the interior andexterior landscapes into an integrated whole? Does it meet theneeds of privacy yet also encourage people to interact? Are usesmixed so that living, working, shopping is convenient, so thatpeople have many reasons to cross paths and communicate in the


simple ways that build social capital and make communities work?Can I go swimming? Is there a gym or a cinema nearby? Areservices – doctors’ surgeries, schools, meeting places – local? Is therubbish cleared, does the graffiti get cleaned and do potholes getdealt with? Can I ring a council official and get someone – a humanbeing – to answer the phone? Do I have confidence in the volun-tary bodies or the businesses around me? Ordinary needs well met.

How do you get around? Does the transport system work? Isthe metro clean? Does it operate frequently and without hiccup?Are suburban train lines efficient? Is the journey itself worth theexperience, so you relax into the journey itself, just travelling, asyou might in Hong Kong? Or is it more unpleasant, like in London,where you feel crowded in and your body tightens up and whereyou think of the next experience to take your mind off the presentone? Does the car traffic flow through the city? Is parking avail-able? Ordinary facilities working like clockwork.

Are there bright lights in the city core to stimulate aspiration?Are there places to hang out – special shops, cinemas, theatres,outdoor spaces for gathering, celebrating, demonstrating? Could



Libraries are among the most inclusive cultural institutions … and Vancouver’s is one of the best: note how rounded the

building is, which may account for its popularity

you call your city a vibrant hub and a place of flourishing neigh-bourhoods? Is the gap between the rich and poor leavened? Aresegregations reduced? Do cultures cross boundaries? Is prejudiceminimal? Does it all add up? Does this stage set feel safe? Does itmeld into an overall quality of life? Ordinary equality lived out inreal life.

This picture exists in snatches in many of our cities withoutconscious planning or any new ‘ism’. It is astonishing how simplethis quiet desire feels, where time is slowed down and with the occa-sional burst of excitement. This is what makes café culture soappealing. Yet economic drivers go against maintaining its simplicity.

Pumping up desire‘Since 1970 the number of consumer products introduced each yearhas increased 16-fold’.82 This is the inexorable dynamic that meansretailing must pump up desire and push us to buy more. Yet themall and shopping as the metaphor for a good life cannot sustainthe spirit. Filling emptiness with busyness rarely works, howeverenticing it may appear at first sight.

In our age of consumption, we buy many things we don’t need,at least not to survive biologically. Increasing purchases take on asocial function, expressing sexuality, status, wealth and power. Forcapitalism to keep going, needs must grow and so they must bemanufactured. The ‘free market’ propels the inexorable dynamic toget you to spend. Otherwise the system falls apart. Every sensorymeans is used and orchestrated to trigger the imagination: sound,smell, the look and feel, texture, colour and motion. It is enticing,it has its delights, it projects pleasure, but it is emptier than itappears. The system could not survive if it was not immenselyseductive, and fashion is its name. Yet it is a hedonistic treadmillthat drains our energy.

Retailing is the engine of this process, fashion the mechanismand technique, and the manufacture of dissatisfaction the result. Itis a double-edged sword, twisting discontent into urges and thedesire to want. The shift to compulsive consumption changes thenature of ordinary desire. All-pervasive, it changes the way werelate, so that everything feels it should be an economic transac-tion. This is a voracious desire that can never truly be satiated. Youmight retort, ‘But you have a choice.’ But when everyone around


you is wanting, it is hard to go against the grain. In the past weconceived most things as necessities. Treats were less in evidence.We had less disposable money. Today many have little too, but thecredit system has expanded to soak up wants, even though it mightultimately hit you and throw you back on the heap. Now treats,surprises and the new have become necessities. Think of humblespectacles or glasses, once bought once and for life. The same foryour umbrella or wristwatch. Now there is Swatch and you needwatches for every occasion: my dress-up watch, my dress-downwatch, my sports watch, my fun watch. Think of functionalWellington boots, just there to keep out the rain for those in thecountryside, by tradition usually green and on occasion black. Nowthey are an urban accessory. They come in bright red, translucentblue or garish yellow, and you need a different colour for everyoccasion. Everything is turned into a fashion item. The life span ofthings like clothes once stretched into the horizon. Now theyquickly become disposable. Even your home. Now all too soonthings are perceived to look tired and worn. This feeds the DIYcraze. Even your looks are up for grabs. ‘I need a makeover.’Wrinkles no longer reflect experience – they are a cosmeticnuisance. The idea of the beauty of ageing is disappearing.Everything must be young, young, young. In the end, life itselfbecomes a commodity, but sadly there is only one.

Out has gone the well-worn shirt fraying at the edges – chuck itinstead. Or wearing a pair of shoes until you can see your experi-ence etched into them – chuck them. We have lost the sense of smallhistory, the little pieces of personal experience melding togetherinto a textured life. And along the way we have lost the art ofrepairing and feeling a sense of trajectory and the patina of agesinscribed into things. Old clothes still look smart if worn with aquiet confidence. Instead we have to invent ‘shabby chic’ as afashion type, so you have to buy new things made to look old. Theproduction cost of making jeans look old is more than producingjeans that look new. Something always needs to make a buck,otherwise it all falls apart.

In the name of choice there is a continual roll of inventions:new breads, butters, every variation of milk, chocolates. Whothought they needed 40 varieties of candles or that 30 styles ofcoffee were necessary? Barry Schwartz’s The Paradox of Choice:Why More is Less documents this and the increasing reaction towish to simplify things well.83 Schwartz starts with a story of


trying to buy a pair of jeans in Gap and talks of the 85 brands ofcrackers in his local supermarket. He experiences choice overload,a condition that can make you question your decisions before youeven make them, setting you up for unrealistically high expecta-tions, where inevitably you fail and blame yourself. This can leadto decision-making paralysis. A culture of limitless choice thatimplies that somewhere there is perfection leads to a sense ofemptiness and possible depression. We are being bred to buy andto give up on the simple pleasures of creating our own entertain-ment: singing, dancing, playing games, having fun and making ourown things from clothes to furniture. This is a loss so strong thatit has counter-reactions, which is why activities such as karaokeare so popular.

Mentally moving on before arrivingBeing locked into a pattern of needing to consume forces peopleinto a lifestyle which they cannot quite afford. And so we are dissat-isfied. Continually needing makes people needy because they arepermanently being shown the next thing they do not possess. Theretailing dynamic unhinges the anchored self, always under threatfrom other causes too, as it focuses on what is missing. It changeshow we perceive existence. Rather than experiencing what is andconcentrating on the here and now and its attendant realities, itshifts focus to tomorrow and what could be. This means we do notappreciate the fullness of possibilities or the engagement of dailylife.

Insidiously this logic has crept into other parts of our life.Everything is becoming a paid-for experience. Like a rash, themarket has eviscerated much of the finer texture of urban living,the unpaid transactions that build social capital and trust. Many ofthese are the invisible threads upon which collaboration was built.Relationships and interactions that were once free are now set inthe exchange economy; they are now a commodity. Social relationsare being determined by whether you can buy. Even how you meetpeople is increasingly arranged, brokered and paid for. And every-thing has to be fast, thus the rise in speed-dating. There are fewerfree activities or places to hang around, to sit around in public andnot spend money. Some people, especially the elderly, now go tothe doctor simply to have a chat and have human contact ratherthan be at home on their own.


Indeed, what does desire look like through the eyes of theelderly, the poor and those otherwise disenfranchised? They arealready swept up in its maelstrom. The market has already sniffedout that there is an audience to be captured who are nurturing theirsavings when they could be spending them. Make them feel inade-quate, make them want. Make them understand that just like atired shop needs a design makeover or facelift, so too do olderpeople. The poor are a harder challenge: give them a sense thateveryone can be a winner, keep them wanting too. But this is afragile balancing act, because at some point the dream has to cometo fruition or else resistance might grow, endangering the wholehouse of cards.

Speed and slownessThe consuming logic that is never fulfilled means people want toexperience more, perhaps 30 hours of experience in a 24-hour day.There is more on offer, but the same amount of time. In our desirenot to waste time, we are left with even less of it. Speeding thingsup means substituting quantity for quality and along the way acertain depth to life is lost. Travel is faster, communicating elec-tronically is faster. Eating has become faster – fast food is just onemanifestation of this. Lunch breaks are shortening, with little timefor eating, let alone digesting. Getting to know people and relation-ships are speeded up through speed-dating. With names likeSpeeddater or Hurrydate, it is possible to meet 20 people for threeminutes each on an evening and decide who you want to followup. The length of time we keep clothes has shortened. Disposabilityis key. The shelf-life of buildings is shorter. Room decorations canbe bought off the peg and discarded with each new move. This isthe throwaway city. Caterers with names like On the Run orGourmet on the Go! (‘Providing healthy, delicious meals for busypeople’) are proliferating.84

With everything speeding up, people are trying to adapt; thehigh visibility and immediacy of advertising messages becomescrucial and very fast instant response rates are required. People arein danger of becoming overloaded. More and more messages aretrying to get through and the urban landscape is increasingly onelarge advertising billboard. Eye Contact, a new device, helps calcu-late the amount of advertising messages we receive in a day. In alarge city like London we see as many images in a day as people


saw in a lifetime in the Middle Ages, around 3500. Yet in a surveyit was discovered that 99 per cent of messages are not consciouslyremembered.85

A reaction to speed is ‘slowness’. Now joining the stress consul-tants, therapists and time-management consultants are ‘slowcoaches’ to treat ‘rushaholics’:

At work they are management freaks, on holiday theyare activity freaks, in the evening their time is jammedwith social functions … they’re constantly working ontheir wardrobe, darting into shops buying things …between watching a video they’ll be phoning friends.A woman who was cured noted: ‘I’ve slowed down, Ilive more basically and because I shop less, I wantless… I’ve replaced quantity with quality.’86

The Slow Cities movement is a reaction to speed based on ethos-driven development. Slow Cities developed out of the Slow Foodmovement, which started in Italy in the 1980s. Slow Food promotesthe protection of local biodiversity, the right to taste through



Speeding up the world allows no space for reflection

preserving local cooking and eating traditions, and highlights thefolly of fast food and fast life. Slow Cities is expanding the conceptto be a way of life. It emphasizes the importance of local identitythrough: preserving and maintaining the local natural and builtenvironments; developing infrastructure in harmony with thenatural landscape and its use; using technology to improve qualityof life and the natural and urban environment; encouraging the useand production of local foodstuffs using eco-sensitive methods;supporting production based on cultural traditions in the local area;and promoting the quality of local hospitality.

The aim of the Slow Cities movement is to implement aprogramme of civilized harmony and activity grounded in theserenity of everyday life by bringing together communities whoshare this ideal. The focus is on appreciation of the seasons andcycles of nature, the cultivation and growing of local producethrough slow, reflective living. Slow Cities is not opposed toprogress but focuses on changes in technology and globalization astools to make life better and easier while protecting the uniquenessof town characters. To be a member of Slow Cities and to be ableto display the movement’s snail logo, a city must meet a range ofrequirements, including increasing pedestrian access, implementingrecycling and reuse policies, and introducing an ecological trans-port system. Working with the Slow Food network, the Slow Citiesmovement is spreading the word about its slow brand of commu-nity connectedness.

Trendspotting or trainspotting?‘Fashion is not just a matter of life and death, it is more… it helpsdefine who we are.’87 Fashion is the cause and retailing the agentof the change hysteria. Fashion has a glow, yet also a witheredsadness, as what we wear is always on the cusp of going out offashion. The industry of fashion trendspotters inexorably forgesthe forward path. Trendy they may seem, yet in their own way theyare as obsessive as trainspotters in their raincoats and anoraks.With their ear to the ground they read the signs and symbols ofchanging taste and desire. They not only track change but alsocreate it, as there are always leaders, early adopters, before thelaggard majority. Being sensitive to trends helps companies stayahead of the game, a game that is moving ever faster. Barely adecade ago there were two fashion cycles in clothing. Now there


are six, requiring the frenzied change of window displays and mediabombast. Car purchasing is moving down to a three-year cycle.Home makeovers, which did not exist as a concept until recently,are now on a five-year cycle. Moving house was a once-in-a-gener-ation thing. It is now down to a seven- to ten-year cycle.Relationships are shorter and divorce no longer carries a stigma.

Consider some trends from the trendspotters – and they willhave already gone by the time you read this (see box overleaf). Forexample, ‘branded brands’, ‘being spaces’ and ‘curated consump-tion’ are, apparently, just round the corner if not already upon us.At their core they are about individuality, not solidarity, and theyseek to distinguish the individual from others, making you as theindividual feel you are the most important person in the world. Youbecome what you are through the brand and your control of it. Yousurround yourself with associational richness.

The shopping repertoireWe could divide the shopping world into essentials, such as food,and inessentials, like fashion accessories, but both are subject tothe same forces. The competition to generate desire spills out intothe landscape of cities and helps shape them. The city then becomesa desire-inducing machine. It needs to draw attention to itself forits local, national and international audiences, and a repertoire hasemerged to make this happen. At its core lies shopping and culture.

Property prices are the core driver of this urban development.Retailing is the main driver of its changing shape and look. Creatingthe destination is the goal, generating the experience the means.The aim is to craft an experience that has rich layers that meansomething. Much as people try to give products or brands depth,they still have a hollow ring as consuming, in the final analysis, haslimited value. A pair of shoes is just that – a pair of shoes. Eventhough staying in that ‘special’ boutique hotel, eating refined foodand going to that seductive lounge bar might be great, in the enddoes it give longer-term sustenance? Generating associational rich-ness is the challenge and the city itself needs to play its part inkeeping the machine speeding along. And there are alternativestrategies here – one shouts louder through its sign and symbolsystem, another more quietly so as to project class. Yet interwovenin most strategies are arts institutions and cultural facilities as isevidenced by every single city-marketing brochure, which highlights



TRENDSPOTTING

• Youniversal branding At the core of all consumer trends is thenew consumer, who creates his or her own playground, owncomfort zone, own universe. It’s the ‘empowered’ and ‘betterinformed’ and ‘switched on’ consumer combined into somethingprofound, something we’ve dubbed MASTER OF THE YOUNI-VERSE. At the core is control: psychologists don’t agree on much,except for the belief that human beings want to be in charge oftheir own destiny. Or at least have the illusion of being in charge.

• Curated consumption … make way for the emerging trend ofCURATED CONSUMPTION: millions of consumers following andobeying the new curators of style, of taste, of eruditeness, in anever-growing number of B2C industries (Martha and home deco-rating was really just the beginning ;-). And it’s not just one way: inthis uber-connected world, the new curators enjoy unprecedentedaccess to broadcasting and publishing channels to reach theiraudience, from their own blogs to niche TV channels.

• Nouveau niche BusinessWeek called it The Vanishing MassMarket, Wired Magazine spoke of the Lost Boys and the Long Tail.Others talk about Niche Mania, Stuck in the Middle, orCommoditization Chaos. We at TRENDWATCHING.COM dubbedit NOUVEAU NICHE: the new riches will come from servicing thenew niches! And while all of this may smack of wordplay, thedrivers behind this trend have been building for years.

• Branded brands In plain English: BRANDED BRANDS meansyou will get a pizza from Pizzeria Uno on an American Airlinesflight. And onboard perks offered by United Airlines includeStarbucks Coffee, Mrs. Fields Cookies and even a McDonald’s‘Friendly Skies Meal’, including the ubiquitous promo-toy. Carsaren’t immune either: Lexus proudly promotes their Mark Levinsonaudio systems. It all points to consumers on the road increasinglywanting to find the brands they trust and enjoy at home.

• Being spaces With face-to-face communication being rapidlyreplaced by email and chat, goods and services being purchasedonline, and big city apartments shrinking year by year, urbandwellers are trading their lonely, cramped living rooms for the real-life buzz of BEING SPACES: commercial living-room-like settings,where catering and entertainment aren’t just the main attraction,but are there to facilitate small office/living room activities likewatching a movie, reading a book, meeting friends andcolleagues, or doing your admin.

Source: www.trendwatching.com

how vibrant their cultural scene is in terms of these institutions.For many, still, culture simply equates to museums, galleries andtheatres and not a great deal else. For this reason, mobilizing theseinstitutions remains central to cultural policy.

Architects, lighting engineers and billboard animators stand inthe centre, seeking to dazzle, amaze and stun their audience. Thelevel at which this is executed depends on the city’s role in the largerworld urban hierarchy. Think of the historic ‘boulevards of dreams’and their resonance. They once played on a larger stage, but manynow live off memories of a past heyday. They tend to attract anolder audience now as their hipness has been drained out of them.The Champs-Elysées, once a place which fed desires and a synonymfor Parisian chic, has lost some of its lustre and glamour, dominatedas it is by airline offices and car showrooms, though it is still thesite of fashion houses and expensive restaurants. Piccadilly Circusand Regent Street in London have suffered a similar fate. TheRamblas in Barcelona is perhaps overrun now by tourists, but at itsbest you can still watch the world and not be contained in a fenceof consumption. There is Düsseldorf’s Königsallee, which the localsavoid when the tourists swarm in, or Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm,whose energy is waning. In the Malecon in Havana, the flow of oldclassic cars and the music excite, but on the down side you areaware of the clash between tourists and poor locals. The latter aretied into an oppressive relationship with the tourist; their relaxed,laid-back lifestyle contrasts with the need to hassle and competefor tourists. Ginza in Tokyo is a byword for its department stores,such as Mitsukoshi or Matsuya, into which are interspersed thetrendsetting shops like Sony or the cool and sleek Apple Store. Allare kept in trim by stylish new architectural insertions.

The louder response is best seen in East Asia, althoughEastern Europe is also making its mark. Adverts become increas-ingly vertiginous – six stories high as in Hsimenting in Taipei,where to attract the young Taipei hipsters the music also poundsout so loud that the ground shakes. New York’s Times Square isanother instance, as is the Strip in Las Vegas. For a sheer blast ofcolour, action and head-spinning animated billboards, perhapsnone can rival Dotonbori in Osaka, packed with people at night.It uses every latest advertising gizmo and its craziness has anoutlandish beauty. To get an idea of what the future may hold instore, Japan is instructive. Its aesthetics so different fromEuropean sensibilities, it combines the stark crassness of Osaka’s


Electric Town or Tokyo’s Akihabara computer district with thesublime beauty of the perfectly crafted object, shop front or urbansetting. They come together in Kyoto around Kiyamachi-dori andKawaramachi-dori, calm yet exalting Zen gardens with buildingsbuilt by architects seemingly inspired by watching Star Wars onacid. Vegas looks tame and controlled by contrast. China, in fren-zied growth zones like Shenzhen, is beginning to rival this newaesthetic. Cities use every trick they have to ‘spectacularize’ them-selves: image, media and trophy buildings by ‘star’ architects arebrought into harness.

Segmentation and area character are key, with property pricesdriving the design quality and focus of any area and its distinctive-ness. Most large cities can be divided into high-end, mainstream,alternative and grotty. Like a Ginza or Sloane Street in London,where high-end architecture, design, image and aspiration mix,strongly fed by media attention and focused on an older, richercrowd. There are the mainstream, less rich areas like Oxford Streetin London, where most day-to-day shopping takes place. Thenthere is the continual search for the new upcoming area. In Londononce Notting Hill, then Camden and now Hoxton. It is always onthe move. The next will be an area that today is still relativelycheap. The very cheapness that makes an area attractive to theyoung and inventive is the very thing that raises prices over time.With trendspotters on the prowl, providing the media oxygen overtime, the edginess is tamed and the gentrification process starts.This is both good and bad and keeping the balance of shabbinessand chic or inventiveness and convention is an immensely difficulttrick. Very few places have achieved it. Amsterdam, though, is oneinstance. This is largely because mainstream retailers, with theprofit ratios they demand and minimum size requirements for theirstores, cannot impose their templates on to the city. In Amsterdamthe intricate physical patterning and structure dominated by canalscannot be broken up. In addition it is extremely difficult for corpo-rations to buy up large areas. The resulting fragmented ownershipmeans that landlords are not always pumping up rents to theirhighest levels. As a consequence, the sheer number of unique shopsis astonishing. Think of the Nine Streets area, the Jordaan and themyriad other small streets that offer surprise.

But when the market has unfettered leeway, the Amsterdamscenario is nearly impossible to sustain. Typically the pioneersdiscover an area, perhaps an old industrial site such as the


Distillery in Toronto, a set of industrial streets like Tribeca in NewYork or streets near a university where many young hang out, suchas Deptford High Street near Goldsmith’s College in London,famous for graduates like artist Damian Hurst. They try out ashop. It might succeed. The cafés come in. The word spreads.Alternatively, larger industrial structures are converted into artists’studios or incubator units for young design companies. A galleryopens; there is a cultural venue which shows fringe material; thebar there becomes popular; a restaurant opens, then another; andthe gentrification process begins as it spills into the surroundingarea. Gentrification remains a double-edged sword. It is an essen-tial process through which property values rise to make itworthwhile for investors to get involved. On the other hand, it canpush out those who make the gentrification process possible in thefirst place.

In essence, the fate of cities is determined by property prices.When a city like London or Berlin is selling its property to a globalmarket, this will tend to price out less affluent locals. This is whywe are faced with a crisis of finding accommodation for people inlower paid but crucial employment such as nurses, teachers andpolice, without whom a city cannot function. The gentrification ofan area can spell the exclusion of key workers if left unchecked.The only solution is to contain the market and to find alternativeways of providing affordable accommodation.

A few places have tried to challenge this logic. Temple Bar inDublin is an instance. A finely knitted pattern of streets in the heartof the city, it was once threatened with demolition to make way fora transport hub and inevitably declined with this sword ofDamocles hanging over it. Many years later, when the plan wasrescinded, the area’s attractiveness was recognized and redevelop-ment was planned to make it an artistic hub. The development wascontrolled by a quasi-public authority which either owned or hadinfluence on leases and tried to obviate the logic of price spiralsthat were inevitable given Temple Bar’s central location. Its leasestructures guaranteed affordable, longer-term security for the manyarts organizations, such as the Irish Photography Centre, the IrishFilm Institute, the Temple Bar Music Centre, the ArthouseMultimedia Centre, Temple Bar Gallery and Studio, and the GaietySchool of Acting. However, the creative vitality that these organiza-tions represent is being threatened by over-popularity andconsequent growth in tourist fodder restaurants and meat-market


pubs to deal with stag and hen night parties. This has led to TASCQ(Traders in the Area Supporting the Cultural Quarter) encouragingpeople to stay away.

Normality is increasingly the out-of-town suburban mall asso-ciated with mid-America but now wending its way through Europeand into Asia. It is even reconfiguring shopping in India, so long abastion of thousands of stallholders. At the moment 97 per cent ofIndian retailing is by small independents. ‘The malling of India’,though, has become a recognized phenomenon. When it fully takeshold millions of Indians will have turned from small entrepreneursto wage slaves. But there is resistance to the chain gang. InSingapore the food hall adjacent to Erskine Road in Chinatown has140 independent cafés or restaurants, rather than the usual crowdof multinationals who would fit about a dozen brand names intothe same space.

Asia is catching up just when the homeland of malls, America,is reconsidering their value. For many, the well-known mass brandnames are enough, cosseted next to the big box retailers. Enclosedsomewhere, essentially in places of no distinction in the middle ofnowhere, the business of shopping can proceed conveniently withan ocean of parking spaces attached. The architecture imitatesClassical or Art Deco, built to last a shopping generation that ismeasured in half-decades. The substance only skin deep, façadeshide false ceilings and the sites can be reconfigured when required.

Making more of the nightThe dream of the 24-hour city for groups of all ages has largelyfaded, heralding the arrival of an urban drinking environment forthe young only, especially in Northern Europe. The continentalEuropean café, eating and entertainment culture, with the genera-tions intermingling, has not happened. With cities increasinglyspread out, travelling downtown is too much of an effort. Thefamed Mediterranean passegiata can only occur with vibrancywhere living and shopping are close to each other. This meansurban density with accommodation for single persons as well asfamilies.

Being able to deal with the night is culturally learnt. A decadeago the symptom was dead town centres at night in places likeBritain where the tradition of living together and socializingpublicly in the evening had been lost. When the city began to be


revalued and a shift towards an urban renaissance occurred, it ledto an increased awareness of the value of public space and invest-ment in it.88 This occurred throughout the country, with some highquality examples, such as Brindley Place and Broad Street inBirmingham. But generally, in the early evening, city centres empty,to be reclaimed at night by mostly young drinkers, bolstered by thedrinks industry with bars competing loudly for attention. The resultis monocultural. Hordes of young drinkers put off other agegroups. The city centres in Britain are usually very lively, yet it is anexclusionary feeling: less intergenerational, less intercultural.Children and older people hardly dare venture in. Twenty-four-hour services are limited to bars, bars, bars, restaurants, clubs andbars. Facilities to broaden the appeal of night are rare. Libraries,museums and galleries close early, some even at 5.00pm. In effect,many such places are open on weekdays when most people have notime and closed when people have time. Urban management shouldhave a strong role in assessing the palette of possibilities in eachsegment of the day, as it should in the management of public spaceto ensure diverse use and users.

The Italians have come up with an innovative solution and areaddressing the democratic deficit of the 24-hour city. At least half adozen Italian cities now have an Ufficio Tempi – an Office of Time.These try to reorganize time in more flexible ways to meet newneeds, especially those of women, who often juggle two timetables,work and home. The Offices of Time try to bring together trans-port providers, shop-owners, employers, trade unions, the policeand other services to see how their efforts might mesh better toproduce more flexible ways of living and working. They use timeas a resource by staggering opening hours of offices, shops, schoolsand services to maximize time and to avoid crushes and rushes.Shops might open and close later, and police might work more inthe evening when people want to see them, rather than in themorning.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF BLANDNESS

Fifteen years ago I started to count shops on the high streets ofdifferent cities to see how many names I knew. I was disappointed.I was already beginning to recognize too many and gave up. Lastyear I started the counting again and idly counted the shops in


Cornmarket and Queen Street, the main shopping streets inOxford, one of Britain’s most distinctive cities. I knew the names of85 out of 94. I experienced a lurching feeling of dullness. In those15 years, the world of retailing in Britain has changed dramatically,with the march of malls and global brands sucking the life out ofordinary high streets. I have travelled too by car, criss-crossing thesuburbs and outer entrances of cities from Europe to NorthAmerica, Australia and elsewhere: always the same picture, alwaysthe same names. Thought experiments kept coming into my mind.What if you lined up all the 30,000 McDonald’s in the world nextto each other – how long would the McDonald’s road strip be? Sixhundred kilometres or so? And then add the 25,000 Subways,11,000 Burger Kings, 11,000 KFCs, 6800 Wendy’s and 6500 TacoBells? Hey, if we line up the ten top fast-food chains, they willstretch half the 4504 kilometres from New York to Los Angeles. Achilling thought. And even Starbucks has over 11,000 outlets withjoint ventures. Then I went though the same exercise with othershops, like Gap, which has 3050 outlets, before a headache set inand I stopped. This is the geography of blandness, and the bland-ing processes are worldwide, as witnessed by counter-activities suchas the ‘Keep Louisville Weird’ campaign, which, picked up on from



Corporate blandness, anywhereville

bumper stickers from Austin, has been followed by others like‘Keep Portland Weird’.

The march of the mallRegional malls initially started without too much of a threat todiversity. They had foundation stores to ‘anchor’ an end of the mall,typically then a department store. In between were several specialtyshops, often smaller local traders relocating from older, decliningshopping areas. But to ensure the highest possible rent, mall


WEIRD = ‘OF STRANGEOR EXTRAORDINARY CHARACTER’

Keep Louisville Weird is a grassroots public awarenesscampaign, recently and quietly begun by a small butgrowing coalition of independent Louisville businessowners who are concerned with the spreading homoge-nization of our hometown. We’re concerned that theproliferation of chain stores and restaurants in Louisvilleis not only driving the independent business owner outof business, but is also robbing the city of much of itsunique charm. While we don’t discount the need for theWal-Marts of the world, we’re troubled by the current civicnotion that excitement for our town should come from thecourting, establishment and promotion of chain storesand restaurants that can be found in many other citiesacross America.89

Suddenly large billboards started dotting parts of Louisville with a strik-ing black and white design and with the simple message ‘KeepLouisville Weird’… and then there were T-shirts … and bus cards …and stickers. No one knew where they had come from. And the storybehind the ‘Keep Louisville Weird’ motto did not come out until almosta year later. By then, the media were raring to cover it.

The billboards were placed by an informal coalition of indepen-dent Louisville businesses – a protest against ‘Starbucksification’,sparked by the sale of Hawley-Cooke, Louisville’s largest independentbookstore, to Borders in August 2003. They borrowed the ‘Keep MyTown Weird’ idea from a similar slogan on car bumpers in Austin:‘Collaborative fission of coordinated individualism’.

operators preferred leasing to stores with proven track records,especially those with marketing success in malls. Few small, localstores could match the track records of national specialty retailers,chains of stores specializing in a single product niche but operatinginternationally, such as Gap, Williams-Sonoma (cooking supplies),Dorothy Perkins and Benetton. As the market became saturatedwith malls, specialty retailers thrived even when malling declined.

Malls began homogenizing by the early 1990s. They now breakdown into three broad categories, driven by class and income. ‘A’malls cater to upper- and upper-middle-class shoppers. In the USthey include department stores, such as Neiman Marcus, Saks FifthAvenue and Bloomingdale’s; exclusive national specialty clothingretailers like Ralph Lauren and Kenneth Cole; household goodsstores like Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel; and national nichestores that appeal to broader audiences, such as Gap. ‘B’ malls aretargeted more at middle- and partly upper-middle-class shoppers.Their department stores have large selections, but not as large or asexclusive as those in ‘A’ malls. While the mix of specialty shops in‘B’ malls is similar to those in ‘A’ malls, retailers like Bulgari, YvesSaint Laurent and Tiffany & Co. would not locate in ‘B’ malls.Others, such as Banana Republic, offer reduced selections ofmerchandise. ‘C’ malls cater to middle- and lower-middle-classshoppers. Their department stores only target people with lowerincomes. Specialty retailers that seek to attract wealthier shoppers,such as J. Crew or Abercrombie & Fitch, will not locate stores in‘C’ malls.

This retail mix renting strategy significantly reduced risks formall operators but has created a monotonous shopping experiencefor consumers, who want a more varied choice. Visitors increas-ingly feel the convenience of one-stop, climate-controlled shoppingin regional malls is counter-balanced by the inconveniences ofparking, ever-expanding buildings and limited choice heavilyfocused on national speciality retail stores.

Two approaches are being offered as an alternative to regionalmalls. The first is the ‘big box’ shopping centre, which is essentiallya strip mall that contains several very large stores. There, outletsare 10–20 times the size of the speciality mall store. Shoppers parktheir cars in parking lots directly in front of the store. Dependingon where you are you see Best Buy, Home Depot, Currys, Halfordsor Office Depot. The second is to reinvent the old high street: the‘main street mall’, combining big box and smaller shops, designed


to resemble the fantasy of a main street in a small Americancommunity at the turn of the 20th century. The storefronts in mainstreet malls, like those of early malls, face a pedestrian walkway.Parking is tucked inconspicuously behind the building.90

The bland processes of malling, shedding and big boxing havereconfigured cities dramatically. They tore older cities apart byinserting malls inside their cores, losing the street in the processand breaking up community patterns, rupturing the historic urbanfabric. Placement on the edge of town or out of town drains thecity of its lifeblood – a process well documented. It has led to thedecline of local shopping and the attendant network of relation-ships. It has made facilities like libraries and other services feel outof place, because they are now separated from shopping.91 It hashelped the process by which chains have become ever dominating,providing the larger templates they require. Yet what irony! Backin 1956, when the first mall was opened in Minnesota (SouthdaleMall in Edina, a suburb of Minneapolis), the father of the enclosedmall, Victor Gruen, stated that the mall was the way to replicatecommunity by providing social interaction and recreation in pedestrian-friendly environments by incorporating civic and educa-



A good secondary shopping street in Cork, Ireland – the kind that is disappearing very rapidly

tional facilities. It filled rather than created a void, he said. Whatirony again to note that the latest retail trend is to recreate commu-nity precisely along the lines of that which retailing took apart inthe first place, often on the edge of town. The developers mademoney taking things apart and now are making it again putting itback together. Yet what was lost in the process? The walkable placewhere living, working and having fun are in close proximity, withdoctors and dentists nearby, schools accessible, a park… Preciselywhat they are now recreating.

For the aspiring city that wants to project an edge, an imagina-tion or to play on a world stage, the simplistic, low-textured mall is


RECREATING THE PAST FOR THE FUTURE

As much as malls and shopping centers have morphed in the past fewyears, even more changes are coming. The retail cycle is shrinking,change is accelerating and store sizes and formats are in flux. Therewill be some stunning new designs and lots of white-hot technology,but the biggest changes will be less obvious: redesigned malls withdifferent kinds of anchors and different tenant mixes, and lots morespace for non-retail uses. Everywhere, there will be a new focus onconvenience, including, perhaps, daycare facilities and a place tocheck your coat.

No one can say for certain what the world of 2013 will look like,and interviews with industry insiders produce some predictable predic-tions. Developers with a heavy focus on enclosed malls say they’llremain the big dogs; those who’ve invested deeply in lifestyle andpower centers think that they’ll be on top, and that a lot of the olderenclosed malls will be long gone.

Get beyond those disagreements, though, and a common visionemerges. The retail center of the future – whether it is enclosed oropen-air, big or small, themed or general – will be designed to resem-ble a community, not just a place to shop. That means environmentsthat place as much emphasis on recreation (everything from skateparks to jogging paths to entertainment complexes) as they do onconsumption. The developments under way in 2003, as well as variousremalling/demalling, already point to a future in which retail blends withother functions.

Source: excerpted from ‘The Future’ by Charles Hazlett, published on the RetailTraffic website, 1 May 2003, http://retailtrafficmag.com/mag/retail_future/index.html

not enough. Think of Harajuku in Tokyo. The chains are presenton the traditional gridded streets. Yet whereas most Americanteenagers follow the dictates of fashion provided by stores like Gap,Urban Outfitters, Hot Topic or any large national or internationalchain, many teenagers in Harajuku set the trends that are thentaken up by the fashion industry. They are not the followers oftrends dictated from the top of the fashion food chain. Likepeacocks showing their feathers, teens go through an amazing ritualof preening, creating a visual feast, claiming the area as their ownalong the way. Garish colours shout, subverting traditionalJapanese styles and borrowing from Western ones. They createelaborate shapes and hairstyles and, with their powdered faces, theyare punky and rebellious. They twist perceptions and warp theminto a strong tension of ritualized behaviour and controlled wild-ness.

Think of restaurant brands. Whether upscale or run-of-the-mill,they do not register on the ‘desirometer’. Thirty thousandMcDonald’s or 11,500 Burger Kings do not get the blood racing.Consider instead Zurich’s Blinde Kuh (Blind Cow), set up in 2000,which has taken the city by storm. (Similar ventures have been setup in Paris and London.92) This combines gastronomy with a socialpurpose. These are restaurants where you can’t see – you eat intotal darkness – and the waiters are blind. Only the manager andthe receptionist are sighted. Blinde Kuh is owned by a charity,Blindlight, set up by Jorge Spielmann, a blind clergyman. The mealcreates a bonding experience between diners and makes sightedpeople focus on their senses afresh, which many find profound. Forblind diners it can be liberating and those going blind can showtheir partners what life may be like.

The death of diversity and ordinary distinctivenessOnce upon a time, not so long ago, people used to shop on foot intheir local high street. They bought individual products from differ-ent retailers: screws from the hardware store, bread from the baker,meat from the butcher, fruit and veg from the greengrocer. Thisprocess developed an invisible web of community. Those days aregone. Instead, supermarkets reign supreme and they are aggres-sively expanding their offer of non-food goods.93 The one-stopshop only appears beneficial, however, because we think we aretime-pressured and convenience-driven. The high streets, the malls


and big box centres all look similar and to create distinctivenessthey need to spice up the bland with ‘total experiences’. There aregains and losses in this process.

We have lost the option of shopping at small, local, specialistshops and building relationships with owners. The link with super-markets check-out staff is minimal. Fifty years ago in Britain,independents made up half of the market; now the figure is below15 per cent. Between 1997 and 2002, 13,000 specialized shops –bookshops, hardware stores, butcher’s, baker’s, fishmonger’s,chemist’s, multipurpose corner shops, newsagent’s, clothes shops,whatever specialism you care to think of – were lost. In 2004 alone,2157 independents were lost. Overall that is nearly 50 per week.Add to this the branches of post offices, banks and building soci-eties and the pubs and the figure doubles. Based on current trends,33 per cent of local outlets will have shut between 1990 and 2010.These deep changes sound the death knell for local economies, andit is happening everywhere. The decline in neighbourhood shopsand services breaks up the social fabric on the way and replaces itwith large-scale, industrialized, corporate landscapes and relation-ships. Left behind are deserts where communities no longer haveeasy access to local shops and services; you get an increasing senseof multiplying ghost towns.94 The result is a bland, imitative shop-ping landscape of multiple retailers, fast-food chains and globalfashion outlets. And the decline of local shops forces many to travelgreater distances to do their shopping, even in the largest cities.

This process has insidious downstream side effects, affecting thesystem as a whole. As smaller shops close, the number of suppliersto small shops dwindles, leading to a Catch 22 situation. Withoutlocal suppliers, local retailers suffer; and when local retailers close,suppliers suffer as they become increasingly reliant on a handful ofsupermarket purchasers. These in turn hold them in a vice-like grip.Between 1997 and 2002, the number of UK farm workers fell by100,000 as supply chains globalized. Supermarket chains are notinterested in the ‘real’ economy and real costs of food miles. Andthe popularity of the new ‘local’ stores emerging under the big super-market brand banners presents yet another threat to independentstores.95 Supermarkets and malls eviscerate the city.

A 2005 report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for SmallShops stated, ‘Small and independent shops may vanish from theUK’s high streets by as early as 2015 … The erosion of small shopsis viewed as the erosion of the social glue that binds communities


together.’96 The British Retail Consortium responded that the groupwas ‘trying to turn the clock back’. And a Tesco spokesperson,seemingly quoting Britain’s largest retailer’s PR manual, deliveredthe rather ignorant statement, ‘The consumer is the best regulatorand there is room in a thriving market for anyone who satisfiescustomers.’ How very ironic, then, that the US trade magazineRetail Traffic’s issue on future trends in retailing in May 2003 citedrecreating a sense of community as the key trend for the nextdecade. The retailing logic that tore quite resilient communitiesapart is now trying to put them together again in its own imageand on its own terms.

Governments can only deal with wider issues of social exclu-sion, disadvantage and poverty if they understand that an economicsystem seen as ‘natural’ favours the large, the distant and theuniform. It damages diversity, choice, local economies and commu-nities. Conversely, ‘relocalizing’ the economy empowerscommunities. It requires courage and tenacity to resist the lobbyingcapacity and media-savviness of the large retailing giants and toaddress the pressures of the wider economic forces head-on tocreate a balance between local and global economies. This requiresunderstanding real economic value flows or local transaction analy-sis and distinguishing it from surface value.97 And this in turnmeans redefining what we understand and measure as progress andfinding ways to make the invisible value of things – social, culturaland environmental values – visible.

The New Economics Foundation proposes measures to restorelocal communities and shopping cultures. These include:

• Local Communities Sustainability Bills. Based on a bottom-upphilosophy, these bills would create a coherent framework forpro-local policies by giving local authorities, communities andcitizens a powerful voice in planning their future to guaranteedynamic and environmentally sustainable local economies. In2003 such a proposed bill got the support of 33 per cent ofBritish MPs. The goal is a ‘realignment of power between theforces driving ghost and clone towns and those seeking to buildmore healthy, vibrant and sustainable local economies’.

• Local competition policy. In France, the Royer and Raffarinlaws have limited the development of new supermarkets overthe past few years, requiring special approval for any proposednew retail store bigger than 300m2. This has guaranteed the



BLANDNESS AND

CITY IDENTITY

Italy and France have so far been able to resist the arguments, blan-dishments and pressures towards blandification coming from thelarge chains in the name of efficiency and progress. Many of their so-called restrictive planning guidelines are precisely those that aresecuring diversity and resisting what the French call ‘laLondonization’.

Paris approved a Local Urbanism Plan in 2005 which seeks toencourage small shops and key workers to stay in the city. It seeks tosustain the economic, social and cultural ecology of Paris, not in anostalgic way but to strengthen locality and diversity. Central Paris,with just over 2 million residents, is far livelier because it has a denseand varied network of shops and people. It wants to sustain the socialbalance that makes Paris what it is and not have a place with the richon one side and the poor on the other.

It seeks to achieve this goal by influencing the market throughregulation and incentives. To nurture la mixité sociale, a requirementfor developers is to set aside 25 per cent of any project spanningmore than 1000m2 for social housing apartments in districts wherethere is little at present. The majority of these will be reserved for keyworkers, such as teachers, nurses, council employees and shop-keepers, who are rapidly being driven out of a city where manyresidents rent their homes, endangering the social fabric.

To enhance a vibrant local retail sector on the streets of Paris andto sustain its distinctive food culture, half the 71,000 shops in Parishave restrictions placed on them to prevent inappropriate change ofuse when the shopkeeper either sells up or retires. This means that asmall food shop would have to remain a food shop, and it wouldprevent, for example, a string of mobile phone chain shops replacingbutchers, bakers or greengrocers. The move follows studies showingthat the number of delicatessens has fallen by 42.8 per cent in thepast decade, with butchers falling by 27.2 per cent, fishmongers by26 per cent and bakers by 16.2 per cent. At the same time, thenumber of mobile telephone shops has risen by 350 per cent, fast-food restaurants by 310 per cent and gymnasiums by 190 per cent.Other measures in the plan include a requirement for developers toset aside 2 per cent of any new building for residents’ bicycles andpushchairs. On the other hand it will reduce the number of parkingspaces they are required to create.98

diversity of French shopping. Poland has also enacted similarversions of this law.

• Using planning law to protect locally owned stores. Planninggain agreements, such as Section 106 in Britain, which usuallygrant planning permits to social housing, should extend toinclude locally owned stores.

• Introducing a retail takeover moratorium and limit marketshare to 10 per cent. Tesco in Britain, for example, currentlyhas a market share of over 30 per cent; the next three each haveover 10 per cent.

• Extending local tax relief to independents, such as newsagents,and food, beverage and tobacco retailers, particularly those invillages, town centres and deprived urban neighbourhoods.

• Undertaking local money flow analyses. Local authorities,planning agencies, regeneration bodies and regional develop-ment agencies need to monitor local money flows to help guidelocal retail development.

• Setting requirements for economic and community impactstudies.

• Holding local referenda on major developments that affect theidentity of localities. Some issues, such as local identity, are soimportant that the ordinary democratic process is not enough.99

The curse of convenienceThe blanding process needs to be counteracted by creating the lureof excitement and massive choice. A brief excursion into the worldof supermarkets reveals that in Britain, the big four control nearly75 per cent of food retailing, a frightening figure. Tesco has 30.6per cent, Asda (Wal-Mart) 16.6 per cent, Sainsbury’s 16.3 per centand Morrison’s 11.1 per cent.100 They have drained the life out ofthe high street and cleansed it of diversity. The supermarket modelis also space eating and they have wrenched space away from theedge of town and out of town.

Looking at their activities through a broader food miles andsustainability perspective, they are far less efficient than they makeout. They have sidled into the imagination of the public as the one-stop destination for your every need. They have projectedthemselves as the only way. They are not stupid and they have awealth of expertise and resources at their fingertips to lobby, tochange minds and to get their way. And when the going gets tough,


they adapt, chameleon-like, and pretend to be local in their desireto please. Many fund local initiatives, as long they can get on withbusiness as usual. In sum, they pull the wool over our eyes so wedo not understand the underlying dynamics of their operations andtheir impact on real life. These guys are professionals, exertimmense power and are in it for the long haul.

Few other shops swallow such a huge chunk of our net incomeas supermarkets do. Tesco, for example, takes £1 in every £8pounds spent in British shops. Do we get the value we arepromised? Comparing the big chains and local, independent shopson the high street, the result is surprising. Guardian journalist SarahMarks conducted an experiment over two weeks. In the first week,she spent £105.65 at Sainsbury’s. In week two, a total of £105.20at local shops was spent on the same groceries. A difference of 45pis admittedly not an enormous amount and she had to walk aroundmore.

Nevertheless, local retailers suffer because there is a perceptionthat the big four are cheaper and because they tell us they are ‘goodvalue’. But they rely on people only knowing the cost of a smallnumber of goods, referred to as known value items (KVIs). Theseare items that supermarkets price check against their supermarketand independent competitors and keep as low as possible to attractcustom. Other items can be much more expensive. Bananas are oneKVI and the local market cannot match the price. But other fruit,like seedless white grapes, can be twice as expensive in the super-markets. There is a ‘hierarchy of value’, with extra cheap ranges,everyday prices and premium brands. Basic sliced white bread costSarah Marks just 19p, but its country style with rye loaf was eighttimes more expensive at £1.49. Overall, chemist and grocery itemsin the supermarket were cheaper by 11 per cent and 28 per centrespectively, but fruit and veg, meat and fish were not.101 What arethe gains and losses in shopping in different ways? In one yousupport the local economy and in the other the corporatizedeconomy with global supply chains.

Supermarkets have maintained their power because of theirconvenience and seductive tricks like pumping out smells near thebread counters. But how else? The planning system is weak in prac-tically all countries and favours multiple retailers over independentstores. In Britain, in contrast to France, the government’s PlanningPolicy Statement 6 (PPS6) is failing to prevent out-of-town devel-opment, possibly as a result of supermarkets lobbying central


government. Yet PPS6 forms the only formal defence that localauthorities have against retail development that may negativelyimpact on the community. On the one hand the policy states it is‘facilitating and promoting sustainable and inclusive patterns ofdevelopment, including the creation of vital and viable towncentres’. On the other, about 60 per cent of development still takesplace out of town, with a rising percentage in edge-of-town loca-tions. PPS6 also states, ‘Larger stores may deliver benefits forconsumers and local planning authorities should seek to makeprovision for them in this context. In such cases, local planningauthorities should seek to identify, designate and assemble largersites adjoining the primary shopping area (i.e. in edge-of-centrelocations).’102 But local authorities have no ultimate control.Supermarkets are beginning to have more power than local coun-cils, as local decisions are being overturned on appeal by higherauthorities. Councils are also influenced by the very high costs ofappeal and are reluctant to lose. As one councillor, also a shop-owner, noted:

Tesco has hit the town really badly. My typical dailyturnover went down 50 per cent the day it opened…They are too big and powerful for us. If we try anddeny them, they will appeal, and we cannot afford tofight a planning appeal and lose. If they won costs, itcould bankrupt us.103

This is the result of supermarket lobbying and leveraging planninggain whereby a developer agrees with a planning authority to payfor community facilities in return for planning approval.Supermarkets run lobbying and public relations campaigns focusedon local authorities and communities respectively in order toincrease the likelihood that planning applications for their storesand the stores themselves, once constructed, will be accepted.

The focus on out-of-town and edge-of-town developmentreduces creativity because it is geared towards branded, globalchains. A feeling of public space may be propagated but in reality itis privately owned space that is tightly controlled to foster aconsuming environment. There is little or no room for individualparticipation and invention. One could imagine food chains andother stores rethinking their service delivery so that people can usecity centres without worrying too much about carrying thingsabout. Internet grocery shopping with home delivery is one


development but as are local pick-up points where shoppers collecttheir shopping without worrying about being at home at a certaintime. Such delivery innovations lessen the imperative of supermar-kets to locate on the edge of town.

Clearly some chains have better track records than others, suchas Waitrose in Britain, which has a good reputation for quality andis owned by its employees and not shareholders. As one wouldexpect, this produces a high level of commitment among employeesand a far stronger commitment to locality. In contrast are Wal-Martand Tesco.

Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer, with more than 3000stores in the US and almost 1300 international operations, such asAsda in Britain. It is also the world’s largest corporation. It employs1.4 million workers worldwide and with over a million in the US itis the largest private employer there. More than half of Wal-Mart’sUS employees leave the company each year. They earn an averagehourly wage of US$11.00 for non-management positions, with nodefined benefit pension and inadequate healthcare. Wal-Mart wassued 4851 times in 2000 – or about once every two hours, everyday of the year. Wal-Mart lawyers list about 9400 open cases.104

They pay below poverty-level wages. At 34 hours per week (full-time at Wal-Mart), a person makes US$19,000 per year, well belowthe poverty level for a family of four. Six hundred and sixty thou-sand of its employees are without company-provided healthinsurance, forcing workers to seek taxpayer-funded public assis-tance. A US congressional study found that Wal-Mart costs theAmerican taxpayer up to US$2.5 billion in public assistance tosubsidize its US$10 billion in profits. But the going may be gettingtougher. Wal-Mart won city council approval in May 2004 to buildits first store in Chicago after months of delay and intense lobbyingby the chain’s foes and supporters. After a raucous debate, thecouncil voted 32 to 15 to allow Wal-Mart to construct a 150,000-square-foot store in a poor, largely black and Hispanicneighbourhood on the city’s West Side. In a second vote, however,the council rejected a huge store that Wal-Mart wanted to build ina racially diverse, largely middle-class South Side neighbour-hood.105 In June 2005 Vancouver city council rejected (by eightvotes to three) Wal-Mart’s bid to build its first store in the city, abig-box outlet on Southeast Marine Drive, this in spite of the greendesign that Wal-Mart put forward after criticisms of its environ-mental practices. As councillor Peter Ladner noted, ‘There was a


real “undercurrent” that wasn’t officially part of the council’sdebate about Wal-Mart’s labour practices, its sourcing practices,the satanic nature of giant multinational corporations.’106

In 2005 producer/director Robert Greenwald made an emblem-atic film called Wal-Mart: The High Price of Low Cost, which tookthe viewer on an extraordinary journey that could change the waypeople think, feel and shop.107 It tracked the conditions of workersat Wal-Mart, the company’s intimidation of employees, its powerover supply chains and the culture of fear it induces. It allowedthese people to tell their story. The film really came alive when itutilized footage of deserted towns and main streets all acrossAmerica, many of which had been affected by Wal-Mart and otherbig-box stores moving in and causing destruction. It was releasedthrough an alternative distribution network via thousands of houseparties.108

Similarly, there is a growing movement of people in towns andcities across Britain who believe Tesco and other big superstoresthreaten to destroy their communities and reduce choice.Increasingly, local people are joining together to fight new super-market developments that they believe pose a grave threat to thehealth of their local economies and communities. ‘Tesco has drivendown the supply price of meat, vegetables, everything, because theyhave such a huge share of the market. It’s a monopoly position…they can simply go and find someone else who will supply them atthe price they want.’109 The Tescopoly Alliance documents thesecampaigns. Britain is renowned for its apple varieties and quality,yet surveys by Friends of the Earth show that, at the height of theBritish apple season, over 50 per cent of Tesco’s apples are importedand that supermarkets reject perfectly good British fruit for no goodreason. Tesco says it has 7000 regional (i.e. Welsh, Scottish, Irishand English) lines on sale and many promotions related to regionalproduce. Yet this figure is less than 20 per cent of the total of40,000 Tesco lines and many of these ‘regional’ products are soldthroughout Britain so are simply British produce.110

Many people choose locally grown produce because of the asso-ciated environmental and social benefits. Yet ethics are increasinglymarketed as a consumer choice rather than a corporate standard.Fairness and justice in trading, for example, are niched as fair-trade-labelled speciality products and not mainstreamed into businesspractice as of late 2005. Tesco sells only 91 fair trade product lines,a tiny amount representing only 0.2 per cent of its lines. In


November 2004 no more than 4.5 per cent of Tesco’s sales ofbananas were fairly traded.111

Tesco, like other major chains, claims to create more jobs, butthe figures do not add up. In 2004 small grocery shops in the UKhad a turnover of around £21 billion and employed more than500,000112 while Tesco, with a £29 billion turnover, employed just250,000 people.113 As retail chains grow, overall jobs are lost. Thismight be more efficient in narrow terms, but not when taking intoaccount downstream impacts. Furthermore, the buying power ofthe big chains is considered to be distorting competition to a worry-ing degree.114 Londis, the national corner shop brand, has admittedthat it is cheaper to buy brands from Tesco and resell them than toget them from its wholesalers.115 Tesco may claim to be a ‘magnetfor market towns, keeping people shopping locally’,116 but thereality is that local shops close wherever Tesco goes, from Dumfriesin the north to Penzance in the south. ‘The new Tesco in Dumfriesnow sells chart music cheaper than me, so people now only cometo me for the rare stuff and the staple 35 per cent of my incomefrom the chart music has disappeared,’ says an independent recordretailer.117 The idea that regeneration can be driven by major chainsneeds close and sophisticated examination and appropriate androbust policy. Friends of the Earth suggest:

• a much stricter code of practice to ensure suppliers along thewhole chain are treated fairly and which covers sustainability,labour and health standards;

• a supermarket watchdog to ensure that the grocery market isoperating in the interests of consumers, farmers and smallretailers;

• enlargement of competition policy to address impacts onsuppliers (not just consumers) to prevent misuse of buyingpower; and

• a market study by competition authorities to examine the widereffects on society of the over-concentrated retail sector with aview to presenting policies to address market share.118

ShedlandYou come across iconic and representational buildings, new andold, more often as you drive to the core of the city. Yet the city ismore than icons. Office parks, industrial estates, housing quarters


rich and poor frame the overall urban experience. Perhaps the mostdispiriting areas are shedland. This is the visual experience of mostplaces when you navigate the ring roads and dual carriageways thatfeed into the city: cheap, windowless, large buildings of steelframes, corrugated iron and pre-cast slabs. They are distributionhubs or light industrial sites. Their blandness neutralizes thesurrounding landscape. They are lifeless. Occasionally a garish logois the only visual relief. Built with a short shelf-life in mind, perhaps10 or 20 years, they are part of the throwaway, disposable city. Canyou imagine the artist of the mid-21st century suddenly deciding tomove into these as the new live/work space as they have in the solidbrick buildings of the industrial age? What new areas can artistsdiscover when all the industrial buildings have been used up?


4

Repertoires and Resistance

URBAN REPERTOIRES

From Prado to Prada1

There is an emerging repertoire, often used thoughtlessly and in animitative way, to use culture or arts in city development. The fullrepertoire includes galleries, museums, the concert hall, the theatre,the experience centre of whatever theme, the sports stadium andfinally the aquarium. Indeed, as a perceptive commentator recentlynoted, ‘we live in the age of aquaria’.2

Back to Rio, which in 2003 announces with a fanfare the newGuggenheim, and also a new sports stadium and a new concert hall.More recently the repertoire has been broadened to include‘creative quarters’ – which in fact are usually refurbished old indus-trial buildings in inner city fringe areas – as well as attracting bigevents, either sports or festivals. The aim is to enhance image andprestige and to attract visitors and therefore inward investment.The attempt is to brand the city and richly associate its name withcultural sophistication. In the past these institutions mostly carriedthe name of the city in their title, like the Birmingham Rep or theCleveland Museum of Art. More recently the trend has been tocreate more unique and distinctive identifiers such as the‘Esplanade’ in Singapore, ‘The Baltic’ or ‘The Sage’ in Gateshead,and the ‘The Guggenheim’ in Bilbao, where intense efforts are madeto give the word itself powerful resonance. Taking the name of anexisting cultural institution like the Tate, Hermitage orGuggenheim, which have spent generations building their reputa-tions, is an attempt at a short cut. The costs of generating brand



The urban regenerators repertoire: The concert hall and ferris wheel in Birmingham, UK

recognition through a name from scratch are immense. Not onlymust the power of the building – the container – entice, but thecontents also need to be associated with world-class quality to getthrough the ‘noise’ of information overload in order to become a‘must see’ destination. And very few achieve this.

The primary focus of these recognition strategies is outward-looking and internationally oriented. This often creates problemsfor locals, especially indigenous artistic communities, who may feeltheir needs are being neglected. This is why Tate Modern hired acommunity regeneration manager while it was being built to ensurethat rich links with and involvement of the community werefostered. The attempt to generate international attention in a worldof short attention spans has meant architects now have an increas-ingly powerful role and there is frenzied competition to attractthose with star quality who are able to create iconic buildings, suchas Gehry, Izozaki, Snøhetta, Rogers, Foster, Alsop and Calatrava.There is a tension between the need to continuously provide innov-ative and technological derring-do, enabled increasingly throughcomplex computer modelling, and the requirement to make build-ings work functionally for their purpose. The latter requires a seriesof mundane considerations, such as ‘Can I get the lorries to actu-ally deliver the theatre scenery?’ or ‘Can I clean the windows so asnot to disturb the building as a work of art?’

As branding has become the mantra of the age, so cultural insti-tutions have increasingly recognized that they can have drawingpower and iconic qualities. Cities seeking to take the short route tointernational status now pursue them with vigour. They have recog-nized value in their brands and have begun to franchise their names,such as when Bilbao paid US$20 million for the use of theGuggenheim name for 20 years. The Guggenheim’s international-ization strategy includes outlets in Berlin, Las Vegas (built by RemKoolhaas, another architectural star) and its oldest outlet in Venice.The Guggenheim frequently receives offers to establish new opera-tions, from cities such as Tokyo, Rio and Johannesburg. But oneday the deals are on the map, the next they seem to have fallenthrough. Others following this approach include the Hermitage inSt Petersburg, with museums/galleries in Amsterdam and Las Vegas.The Tate in the UK has also pursued this route, although in a lesscommercial way. These outliers make sense given that the vastmajority of their artworks are in storage.

Repertoires and Resistance 145

Urban iconicsIn The Creative City I make the distinction between narrative andiconic forms of communication. Narrative communication isconcerned with creating arguments; it takes time and promotesreflection. Its ‘bandwidth’ is wide as its scope is exploratory andlinked to critical thinking. It is ‘low density’ in the sense of buildingunderstanding piece by piece. It is about creating meaning. Iconiccommunication, by contrast, seeks to be instantly recognized. Ithas a narrow ‘bandwidth’ and highly focused purpose; it is ‘highdensity’ because it seeks to ‘squash meaning’ into a tight timeframe, creating high impact by encouraging symbolic actions thatmake what is being projected feel significant.

The challenge of creative urban initiatives is to embed narrativequalities and deeper, principled understandings within projectswhich have iconic power. Emblematic initiatives can leapfrog learn-ing and avoid lengthy explicatory narratives through the force oftheir idea and symbolism. In this context, visionary leaders,emblematic best practice projects, and the work of campaigners,radicals and risk-takers are all of paramount importance. The deci-



The Guggenheim in Bilbao, one of the few iconic buildings that is etched into the world’s imagination

sion to create the first directly elected mayor for London had hugeiconic resonance. It symbolized not just the creation of a leadercommitted to the city but a break with tradition and a new start.The idea of ‘zero tolerance’ initiated in New York to combat crimewas equally iconic. Everybody immediately knows the power of theword ‘zero’. ‘Zero tolerance’ was a packed phrase and people knewwhat it meant and what was expected without complex explana-tions. Even though it has an authoritarian feel linked to the word‘tolerance’, it provides psychological comfort.

Identifying the iconic trigger – whether light, a song or even aword like ‘zero’ – is the most difficult aspect as communicationneeds to relate to the place, its traditions and identity. In an agewhere attention span is at a premium, identifying projects thatembody principled and fresh ideas yet can be communicated iconi-cally is the challenge of the creative city. However, iconiccommunication, if not leavened by an understanding and accep-tance of deeper principles, can be dangerous and turn intomanipulation and propaganda.3

Places of desire need iconic projects. The aim of icons is to grabattention and profile. And if they fail, you can be stuck with archi-tecture that you don’t like for a very, very long time. At their best,both good ordinary functional buildings and iconic ones can exudea deep register of feelings and emotions that can sustain or enrich acity. To succeed, however, they must reflect a range of triggers, fromthe layers of a city’s history to the thrill of the new. Calatrava’sairport in Bilbao and Liebeskind’s Imperial War Museum in Salfordcome to mind. What is right depends on context. A choice will bemade as to what extent of stimulation is right and appropriate. Inone instance calmness may be required, as in the de Young artmuseum in San Francisco; in another a sense of wildness, as in theToronto art school by Will Alsop.

Icons seem to be most accepted when they are part of a ‘head inthe clouds and feet on the ground’ approach, as in Bilbao, where theGuggenheim Museum is part of a much wider economic and socialregeneration initiative. Overriding everything, though, is quality.The discussion of and arguments about what quality is at any givenmoment is at the heart of what makes an urban culture. These qual-ities will not be the same for all types of buildings or hardinfrastructure, although some criteria may be common: utility anduse value, materials used, how it is made or projected, the meaninggenerated, craftsmanship, symbolic value or resonance in relation to


the visual forms that inhabit a culture. For example, the Kiasmagallery in Helsinki, Oslo airport and Amsterdam’s BorneoSporenburg and West 8 housing development all meet these criteria.

Icons are projects or initiatives that are powerfully self-explanatory, jolt the imagination, surprise, challenge and raiseexpectations. In time they become instantly recognizable andemblematic. The Eiffel Tower is iconic, reflecting the confidence ofParis’ role in the industrial age, as is the Sydney Opera House,causing us to rethink the possibilities of Australia, or theGuggenheim in Bilbao, emphasizing the courage and determinationof the Basque people. The London Eye is already rapidly becomingthe marketing symbol for London after only five years. Suchprojects make us think again, so changing the perception of a placeand expectations of it and for it.

Museums, galleries, theatres and sports stadia in particular cancommunicate iconically. Because they often do not have to strictlyapply market criteria in the same way an office building needs to,they can concentrate more on quality. However, commerce, espe-cially in fashion, is catching up and risking far higher costs fordownstream image benefits. Witness Koolhaas’s Prada, minimalistJohn Pawson’s Calvin Klein flagship stores in New York or NormanFoster-designed Asprey’s in London and New York. Shoppingprovides a showcase of what is new in architecture as there aremany new shops but only likely to be a few museums and galleries.These brand-building retail stores are visible for both the brandand the architect.

The battle between content and container is key. Rarely doiconic buildings follow through this iconic approach into thecontent of the institution. An exception is New Zealand’s nationalmuseum – Te Papa. The name itself translates as ‘our place’,resonating with symbolic meaning behind which lies a powerfulexpression of the bicultural nature of the country:

Recognizing the mana (authority) and significance ofeach of the two mainstreams of traditions and culturalheritage – Maoris and Pakehas – so providing themeans for each to contribute to the nation’s identity… A place where truth is no longer taken for granted,but is understood to be the sum of many histories,many versions, many voices.4


This sensibility is built, in part, into the physical fabric. A long,noble, reflection-inducing staircase proceeds past outward-lookingbays towards the top, where a dramatic promontory projects usout towards the drama of sea and sky, before we reach the maraeatea (the traditional Maori meeting place), which is a symbolichome for all New Zealanders. This requires little explanation andis instinctively understood.

The key objective of big events, festivals and icons is to increasedrawing power. A building, a tradition, a person (such as NelsonMandela or Frank Gehry), an event (such as the Love Festival inBerlin or the Notting Hill Carnival), a festival (such as Edinburgh)or an atmosphere (such as the liberal, free-for-all of Amsterdam)can have iconic status – yet cities seek to take the apparently easyand expensive route of a building without sufficiently exploringother dimensions.

In reality there are very few icons that have world recognition,although the desire to create new icons is hotting up at a fast pace.This frenzy has, at the very least, dramatically increased discussionof standards of design. It raises too the question of whether we canhave icon or big event overload. Anecdotally, I have found throughmy own work that only two buildings constructed in the last 40years are consistently cited as immediately and popularly identifi-able global icons: the Sydney Opera House and the Guggenheim inBilbao. Others vying for iconic status among the cognoscentiinclude Richard Meier’s new Getty in Los Angeles, the LouvrePyramid in Paris and the Miho Museum near Kyoto, both by I. M.Pei, and Calatrava’s City of Arts and Science in Valencia.

Most icons built in the UK through its national lottery fundsare of largely regional significance, such as the Life Centre inNewcastle or the Hull aquarium. This is in part because the citiesthemselves are not sufficiently known at an international level. TheUK’s new national icons can be counted on one hand, but whoknows them internationally? They are unusual: the London Eyewheel; Cornwall’s Eden Centre (an imaginative use of an old quarryin the middle of nowhere); and Tate Modern (which had the inher-itance both of an old building and a name). Some would argue thatthe list should also include the Walsall Arts Centre, PeckhamLibrary and the Millennium Bridge in Gateshead.

Iconic status accrues more easily to those cities that are alreadyseen as icons, like Paris, for example. Second- and third-tier citiessimply have to try much harder in a hyper-mediated world. It helps

From Repertoires to Resistance 149

when, like in San Francisco, you already have one: the Golden GateBridge on to which you can add another layer like Herzog deMeuron’s new de Young museum.

Within this repertoire, festivals and big events seek to providethe content for the iconic containers. The larger festivals have,however, an additional value in that they use many other uncon-ventional locations which allow both locals and visitors to exploreless well-known parts of the city. Sometimes the use of these sitescreates a dynamic for renewal. An example is the use of the massiveBinding-Brauerei for Kassel’s Documenta 11 in 2001, essentiallythe cultural Olympics for the visual arts. This redundant brewerysite became subject to intense local discussion with the idea ofincorporating it into the regeneration of its area rather than tearingit down. It is now a performance and exhibitions space. Melbourneis interesting as it is seeking to define the city as a whole as an iconand stage by holistically using and orchestrating iconic triggers,from urban design to events, and by increasingly projecting the cityas a ‘style’.

Significantly, icons can be negative when they are deemed tofail, either subjectively or objectively, such as London’s Millennium



Iconic buildings are sprouting everywhere: Canberra’s National Museum

Dome. The same media frenzy that helps generate iconic impact isthe same that can work in reverse. There is also a growing worrythat in a world of attention deficit, we are about to suffer icon over-load. This means that people can only remember a distinct numberof icons. This in turn might create a more intense battle to createever more outrageous or innovative structures that can blastthrough the miasmic information swamp.

The crisis of meaning and experience‘Shoppertainment’ is the next phase of retailing, where consumingbecomes a greater leisure ‘experience’:5 acrobats in the atrium, fire-eaters in the parking lots, music bands in record shops, celebritychefs rustling up gastronomic feasts in kitchen shops, TV decorat-ing personalities doing their DIY, Comme de Garçon in New Yorkwooing customers through art exhibitions or chill-out areas.Bluewater, one of Britain’s largest shopping complexes, even oncesuggested charging customers entrance fees to come to their ‘expe-rience’. When that happens, the distinction between the theme parkand shopping centre will have all but evaporated.

Over to Las Vegas, and what Steve Wynn is up to counts.When the Wynn Las Vegas opened in April 2005, visitors stormedthe entrance to see if his US$2.7 billion luxury resort would liveup to all the hype. And there they were with ‘dozens of designershops tailored to one lifestyle – yours’: Dior, Cartier, ManoloBlahnik, Louis Vuitton, Gaultier, Oscar de la Renta, Graaf,Ferrari Maserati, Chanel – you get the picture. The shows like LaReve? ‘As an exercise in sheer power they’re unbeatable.’ ‘La Reveis a new world of dreams that will alter the theatre-goers experi-ence of theatre forever.’ Franco Dragone, the artistic director ‘haspresented us with dazzling images that stir the senses and thesoul’. The stores in Vegas are not just stores, they’re the backdropfor shoppertainment. At the Grand Canal Shoppes at theVenetian, singing gondoliers whisk shoppers down a windingcanal and street performers distract those on foot. The DesertPassage at the Aladdin has a Moroccan bazaar theme in its malland a thunderstorm that explodes every half hour. At the ForumCaesar’s Palace you walk past gigantic fountains, statues, colon-nades, animatronic Bacchus and Venus sculptures, and aspiral-shaped escalator – ‘all to get a sense of the real spectacle:the stores themselves’.6


Commerce has recognized that consuming on its own increas-ingly provides insufficient meaning and satisfaction. It has sought towrap the transaction of buying and selling into a broader experienceto give it greater purpose. This development, labelled ‘the experi-ence economy’, is a new mantra and a union of everydayconsumption and spectacle.7 The process is turning retailing into apart of the entertainment industry, often blurring the boundariesbetween shopping, learning and the experience of culture. It involvescreating settings and using every trick in the book, where customersand visitors participate in all-embracing sensory events, whether forshopping, visiting a museum, eating at a restaurant, conducting busi-ness-to-business activities or providing any personalized service fromhaircutting to arranging travel. In this process, shops can developmuseum-like features, such as the Discovery Store or Hard RockCafé, with its display of original artefacts. Vice versa, museums canbecome more like extensions of entertainment venues, such as thenew collection of museum spaces in Las Vegas, where ‘culturalquality’ is added to the menu of possible experiences.

Shops are turned into stage sets, installations and artworks,such as the Future Systems Selfridges store in Birmingham thatlooks like a reflective bubble, or Koolhaas’ Prada stores in LasVegas and New York. The latter cost US$40 million for just 23,000square feet of retail space. The ground floor has little merchandise.The majority is in the basement. It feels cramped and lacks appro-priate lighting. Bars are becoming less like your local, which youcould rely on being the same for years on end. Their design canchange as fast as an art gallery. These trends are shaking the foun-dations of museums, libraries, art galleries, science centres,shopping malls, cultural centres as well as virtually every aspect ofthe business world. Design, multimedia, theatrics and soundscapesincreasingly move centre-stage. Given that we are subject to thevagaries of fashion, ‘beyond the experience economy’ is alreadybeing discussed, in which a transformation economy where peoplewill pay for a life-changing series of experiences is upon us.8 Andthen towards the ‘dream economy’?

With greater choices on offer and given our higher expecta-tions, marketers are competing for customers’ attention – trying tobreak through the clutter and sensory overload to capture theirattention and to try to give them a sense of depth. How is this done?By creating experiences that are so distinctive that they stand out ina crowded landscape. Suddenly for the mainstream, the power of


Disneyland is seen as salvation and organizations are seeking tocreate their own ‘brandlands’, which are destinations, both real andvirtual, that deliver a memorable message by telling a compellingstory that reflects magic and wonder. Theme park-style technology,special effects, and storytelling techniques are applied to projectslike the Sephora and Niketown stores and Volkswagen’s experiencecentre, Autostadt, at its factory in Wolfsburg. Casa Bacardi’s tellsthe story of rum, the Rainforest restaurant creates a plastic jungleenvironment. Leading imagineering companies work on corporate‘brandlands’, cultural ‘discoverylands’ and ‘learninglands’, wrap-ping everything up in a cohesive narrative, engaging visuals andsoaring musical scores. Everything in order to make a bigger storyout of a mundane product. Everything to charge you more for acup of coffee.

In its latest guise, the market economy has recognized otheraspirations in its public beyond consumption alone – a desire forengagement, involvement and participation. Commercial enter-prises have begun to take on core roles associated with culture andcultural institutions: The ‘educational’ experiences of DisneyWorld’s Epcot Center, Niketown’s museum-like stores, and epicbookstores such as Borders come to mind.

At the same time, there is a corresponding, defensive appropri-ation of aspects of the marketplace by cultural institutions. Theymay borrow commercial criteria in selection processes, evoke enter-tainment modes in presentation, create facilities nearlyindistinguishable from shopping experiences, or justify their exis-tence in terms of marketplace goals.

Borrowings and uneasy graftings are one approach to under-standing the interconnection of culture and the marketplace.Another is the response broadly defined as post-modernist, whichviews the jumble of modern conditions with ironic detachment,appropriating stylistic aspects as it suits. In effect, this viewpointtreats this complexity only whimsically. In examining these condi-tions, is it possible to identify and assert cultural values andpriorities that are based neither on resistance nor on capitulation,to feel at ease with markets, but at the same time go against them?

Capturing the final frontier: Ad-creep and beyondWe have allowed marketers to blast our senses with manufacturedsmells and sounds to affect our mood. We have been too relaxed


about ad-creep, which has allowed us to be assaulted by adverts inschools, airport lounges, doctors surgeries, offices, cinemas, hospi-tals, gas stations, elevators, convenience stores, on trains, onroundabouts, on park benches, on escalator rails, on the internet,on fruit, on ATMs, on garbage cans, on beach sand and on toiletwalls. We are compelled to watch and listen to tamper-proof TVsets in airports, buses and other mass transit. TV programmes inan innocent guise are packed with embedded advertising. No placeis sacred. The urban environment is a canvas for adverts. Publicspace has become advertising space.9 Will we respond at last to theassault on the final frontier, the inner workings of our minds?

Neuromarketing charts the neural activity that leads to ourselections in the supermarket and the voting booth. It studies thesubliminal responses of the brain to adverts, brands and othermessages littering the cultural landscape. The aim is to transformotherwise rational people into consumption-driven robots, soachieving the complete corporate manipulation of people. Themeans are to trigger neural activity in various ways so as to modifyour behaviour. Atlanta’s Brighthouse Institute for Thought Sciencesclaims it is closing the gap between business and science – with thegoal of getting us to behave the way corporations want. ‘What itreally does is give unprecedented insight into the consumer mind.And it will actually result in higher product sales or in brand pref-erence or in getting customers to behave the way they want them tobehave,’ notes company executive Adam Koval.10 ‘Let that quotelinger in your mind,’ as the organization Commercial Alertcomments acerbically.11

Those involved in neuromarketing try to make it sound likenothing special. They simply want, they claim, ‘to help consumersunderstand their true desires’. Alternatively their research ‘could beused to shut off a buy button as well as turn it on’. Paying for atechnology that makes people buy less? Sounds very unlikely.12

Gratification over fulfilmentWe have speeded up experience, desperate to get more out of eachmoment. But the result is we experience less. We rush so fast, it is ablur. We have learnt to absorb quickly, but have overloaded oursenses with information and have dazzled them. Often there is athrill to the spectacles of fast life and it can have a seductive quality.Yet too often this impact is without meaning. In this mental evolu-


tion, the ability to process vast amounts of information is almostmachine-like and we lose the capacity for reflection. In this worldof bright lights and logos you only look and experience the thingsthat jump out at you – the hype, the shrill, the loud – and miss outon subtler intricacies – the enjoyment of lingering, mulling overthings, simply being. Proliferating needs get us on to the treadmillof consumptive desire. It can create greed that needs to be perma-nently fed. But induced and perpetuated by the media and retailingindustries, it will never be sated. We are left permanently hungry.We are in danger of living solely through consumption. To be is tobuy. The effect on the city is dramatic. Places need to be made intodestinations, where you go with the intention of being dazzled andwhere, as Rem Koolhaas notes, shopping is arguably the last formof public activity.13

URBAN RESONANCE

The city as a fashion itemCities are now part of the fashion parade. Fashionability is usedby cities as a global positioning tool in their attempt to anchor orshift their identity. But being fashionable is almost by definitionunsustainable and on its own is incapable of achieving long-termrecognition. Fashion can take on a life of its own that can sendcities on a trajectory on which they do not want to be. Avoidingthis fate is therefore of paramount importance. A city’s resilienceneeds to reinforced and buttressed by ‘real’ economic drivers,such as what wealth it is creating, what it is producing, itsresearch and development capacity, its generation of employment,and how open its investment environment is. Nevertheless, imageand fashion is both an industry in its own right that may be signif-icant for a city and also a means of putting the icing on the caketo reinforce its attractiveness to other investors in its industries,from car manufacturing to IT and finance. What cities look for isto lodge in assets that are difficult to dislodge, such as a stockexchange or major university. It is unlikely that the New Yorkexchange will locate elsewhere or that Harvard will move fromgreater Boston. Having the right image strengthens the image of acity’s assets. It has a psychological effect on residents too. Beingdeemed to be part of a ‘cool city’ gives people confidence and in


turn makes the city cooler, thus creating greater desirability in avirtuous circle.

The principle of fashion is changeability, always transforming,always moving, departing before it arrives. Most of us are living astep or two behind. Only a few urban fashionistas can stay close tothe pace. Driven by the trend industry and travel market, citiesmove in and out of fashion and only a few keep up with the pacefor the long term as, for example, New York, London andAmsterdam have managed to do. Others, through historical acci-dent, fall off the radar screen, as happened to Berlin and Vienna inthe Cold War, to Barcelona under Franco and to Shanghai whenChina was a more closed society. Yet with their intrinsic substanceand their cultural resources, from heritage and museums to politi-cal power, they have the assets to re-emerge and create a globalresonance to attract attention. ‘Move over London – Berlin iscoming up the slipstream,’ a headline might read. ‘Shanghai, theParis of the East, is coming back with a vengeance.’ ‘Barcelona, thedesigner capital of Europe is the essence of urban chic.’ ‘ReliveEastern grandeur in St Petersburg.’ ‘Vienna is the gateway to theEast; more to the city than waltzing, Lipizzaner horses and SacherTorte.’ These cities were dormant giants whose energies weresuppressed by conflict. When a resolution was found, a burst ofcreativity expressed itself in relief.

Visibility comes to capitals of countries or regions as theyinevitably draw the power brokers to themselves: politicians,investors and cultural types. The interplay of economic opportu-nity, construction possibilities, a position in the world of arts andheritage, a reputation for trendsetting, and the lure for tourists reinforces their position as hubs.

As the world production centre inexorably shifts east, a raft ofplaces are ‘rediscovered’. Once cities reach a certain level of devel-opment they begin to shift towards service industries and theircapacity to consume, especially of clothes, entertainment and travel,increases. The international movement of ideas and people goeswith it and the fashion media industries play a strong role. Placeslike Hong Kong and Taipei, once seen as low-grade productioncentres for textiles, inevitably seek to move up the value chain.Rather than buying into Western design aesthetics, the large Easternproduction empires hired in-house Western designers. Yet as placesgained confidence, rather than borrowing from elsewhere, theyfound their own voice and Eastern designers began to make their


own name: Vivienne Tam, Lu Lu Cheung, Harrison Wong, DavidTang, Sophie Wong. In the process of fostering its own, indigenousfashion designers, the city itself becomes fashionable because it ispart of the media whirlwind. Behind this lies a mighty economicinfrastructure of market intelligence, major production, financehouses and, at the apex, catwalks. The aim is to make the city aworld centre of fashion. The association of fashion is partly howParis and Milan built a core aspect of their image and reputation.

Already, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou are being advised torethink their role and to allow a move of their industrial facilitiesto second-tier areas like Hefei, Nanjing and Wuxi. Soon, with thisrefocus, the names of Beijing and Shanghai designers will be oneveryone’s lips. Both already have their Fashion Weeks. As ChinaDaily noted in 2003, ‘to create Shanghai with an image of worldmetropolis, and to promote export and import in the fashionablefields … we are going to organize [the] second Shanghai FashionWeek.’19 This is part of Shanghai’s strategy to play on a biggerstage. It was disappointed it could not get the Olympics, whichwent to its main competitor, Beijing, and so took the consolationprize of the World Expo 2010 instead.

Two decades before, the same process happened in Japan, espe-cially in Tokyo. Japanese design first made a real impression on thefashion world back in 1982, when 12 designers showed their collec-tions in Paris at the ready-to-wear shows. Already known at home,Issey Miyake, Kenzo, Yoji Yamamoto, Kawakubo Rei of Commedes Garcons and Hanae Mori shot into world consciousness. Sincethen, a few such as Keita Maruyama have been added to this established list. This shifted focus on to things Japanese, withTokyo as its hub. In terms of global awareness, it is street fashionthat leads the way, and the Harajuku crowd in Tokyo are as hip astheir contemporaries anywhere in the world.

The fashion focus shapes the physical environment as the bigbosses of fashion are ‘now competing for high profile architects tocreate the ultimate accessory – extravagant buildings designed toimpress’. The drive to redefine fashion as ‘art, removed fromcommerce and something more than mere clothing, is reinforced bysuch shopping temples’.20

Fashion and art live together in an odd symbiosis: artcontributes to fashion’s cutting-edge feel and fashion helps art’sfashionability. Both are part of the repertoire for cities to grabattention for themselves and project distinction and distinctiveness:


I think it’s going to happen here… I’ll be surprised ifin five to ten years Taipei is not considered one of thegreat cities of the world for doing contemporary art…I’ve been struck by the youthful, vibrant art talenthere. And unlike New York, London and Paris, Taipeiis relatively affordable for young artists from Taiwanand abroad. Most importantly, Taipei enjoys anunselfconscious and freewheeling city life that lendsitself to an explosion in the arts.21

As a city’s fashion status increases, the advantages of cheapnessdisappear. Taipei, once ‘the ugliest city of the planet’,22 suddenlybecomes a hive for the hip where trends are made; Hong Kong isthe safe starting point to get a glimpse of the Chinese miracle.Mumbai is the city to experience urban India and Bollywood filmshelp keep the media profile in view. As the urban fashionistas scourthe world for new hip places, Bollywood’s popularity in the Westhas grown exponentially, and with that comes Indian music, designand fashion.

And so it moves around. The new disposable income of the newmiddle classes provides the opportunity once a certain stage ofdevelopment has been reached. The international executives, withtheir demand for international-level services, drive the consump-tion patterns on and the battle of the brands keeps attentionfocused. What will be the next stop on the fashionable city tread-mill? Anywhere is fair game. Accra briefly appeared for a moment,linked to an ethnic look and shabby chic: the chic of poverty andthe unknown. It was an ugly, downplayed chic. Then its Westernprotagonists out-shabbied themselves and had to back-pedal so thatthe clothing could be universally appealing. Having gone out on alimb, they had to coil back and so Accra was less in the limelight.Will Lagos make its star turn or Johannesburg? Buenos Aires andRio are due for a comeback.

Drawing power and the resonance of citiesThe drawing power concept pulls the various aspects of a city’sdesirability together. It assesses the dynamics of attraction, reten-tion and leakage of power, resources and talent. Equally, it looks atwhat repels people from a place. It is the blend of elements thatmake a city attractive and desirable. And different aspects willtempt different audiences: power brokers, investors, industrialists,


shoppers, tourists, property developers. The sum of these threadsof attractiveness creates the resonance the city projects. If this ispositive, the results will be shown through economic, social andothers indicators. Many of the components can be quantified, yetmuch needs to be evaluated through peer-group assessment andqualitative judgements. The currently available data on cities,however, do not allow us to comprehensively assess drawing power.Sometimes this is because an element is not measured at all, say theimage of a city or its resilience, in other cases because the variousdata are not brought together within a broader explanatory concep-tual framework such as overarching drawing power. Economic,environmental, social and cultural data are looked at in isolationand rarely in terms of mutual impacts upon each other.

The Global and World Cities (GaWC) project inLoughborough23 reminds us how out of date our measurementsystems for assessing city dynamics are. There is a dominance ofattribute measures over relational measures in social research. Wemeasure static quantities, such as population or gross domesticproduct, usually derived from the census, as distinct from relationalmeasures of flows, connections, linkages and other less tangiblerelations. ‘In this process cities are effectively de-networked’, whichis ironic given the mantra about the importance of networking. Thesame applies to transnational statistics, which are based on thenation. For example, the massive concentration of flows of infor-mation across the North Atlantic and the vast connection networkslinking London and New York are simply not picked up in ‘officialstatistics’. Lastly, GaWC note:

There is a great temptation to interpret rankings ashierarchies. Since data can be compiled from officialstatistics on cities to provide quantities of attributes –population totals, employment sector totals, head-quarter totals, etc. – cities can be ordered by size invarious ways that may look like an urban hierarchy.Of course, it is no such thing: hierarchies can only bedefined as relations between objects, mere ranking ofcities says nothing about relations between cities.

The axes of power and relations to be looked at should includesocial and cultural power as well as political, administrative andeconomic power. But there are other sources of power, especiallywithin niche sectors. These include heritage or tourism power,


where clearly a Florence or a St Petersburg would score highly. Yetthe judgement of how powerful these assets are would not be exclu-sively based on high levels of tourism. How exclusive it might be orhow it might attract inward investors would also be considered.

Another source of power is the attractiveness of learning insti-tutions, especially to post-graduates. This gives a city moreopportunity to be selective and perhaps attract greater talent. Thattalent itself, if it clusters in a place, becomes in its own right asource of pulling power.24 An effect of being a talent magnet is theability of a city to get outsiders to associate with it, to attend eventslike conferences, which in turn have spin-off effects as people get toknow the city and become ambassadors by sending out goodmessages. Other sources of potential power include research orindustrial specialisms, such as the hardcore disciplines of comput-ing, engineering or high-tech manufacturing. This was the initialtrigger that made Silicon Valley happen. All power resources needtracking.

The overall effect of drawing power is the resonance it creates.And this is made up of tangibles and intangibles – it is the multiplefacts, stories, images, memories and associational richness a cityestablishes for itself. This might be to do with a historical event, animage or its role as an industrial engine. People often have strongviews about a place, positive or negative, even if they have not beenthere. The phrase ‘black hole of Calcutta’ will always blightKolkata’s prospects. It refers to the death of 123 British prisonerswho had perished in an airless dungeon in 1756 after the Nawabof Bengal incarcerated them but, partly as a result, Kolkata is stillseen as the epitome of urban hell and slum-living and is not attrac-tive to inward investors. The reality is far away. There are somedreadful conditions, but the infrastructure, such as the metro, isvery good. Mumbai by contrast, because of its association withBollywood, is seen as glamorous, when in fact it has a far greaterproportion of slum dwellers: 5.82 million as against 1.49 million inKolkata and 1.82 million in Delhi. With 500,000 inhabitants,Mumbai’s Dharavi is the largest slum in the world.

The positive or negative resonance of a city affects its citizensand they behave accordingly. It is difficult to measure, yet, in myexperience, people in places that have a negative perception of theircity lack confidence and have less motivation and energy. Bycontrast, those who know they are coming from a place that isgoing somewhere derive energy from that, even though objectively


they may have no more talent than someone from a place lackingconfidence. The collective psychology of a city plays a significantrole in achieving its objectives. It affects its ambition, its chutzpahand its vision. That is why we can talk of ‘can do’ or entrepreneur-ial places, such as Birmingham in the past or present-day Shanghaior even Hong Kong. Conversely, Taipei’s or Osaka’s current diffi-culties with the rise of mainland China affects them deeply.

Forms of drawing power25

Political power implies assessing the number, level and importanceof legislative functions or government institutions based in a city orregion. If these only relate to a city and region, then the position isweak. The more national and international institutions based in thecity, the better. For example, Leicester and Nottingham in Britainwere equal regional powerhouses in the East Midlands. Over thelast five years, however, the balance has tipped to Nottingham, eventhough Leicester is more conveniently placed for London.Nottingham always had the regional broadcasting authority. Thisbecame a point of leverage to attract the regional strategiceconomic authority, the regional arts council and regional head-quarters of national companies, many of whom moved fromLeicester. This inexorably reinforced Nottingham’s power. Perhapsmost irksome to the city of Leicester was the renaming of EastMidlands airport as Nottingham-East Midlands, even though it isin Leicestershire.

At the global level the stakes are even higher as cities battle toattract institutions such as the European Central Bank, whichFrankfurt won over London. Getting an institution to base itself ina city is more sustainable than being only fashionable. Yet beingfashionable plays its part in getting on the radar screen in the firstplace and perhaps attracting the key institution. But it can be hitand miss. As Henry Ford said, ‘50 per cent of my advertising worksgreat – I just don’t know which 50 per cent.’ The same is true forintangibles such as image.

There is a symbiotic relationship between the different areas ofpower, and political and economic power often reinforce oneanother. The economic indicators are well known, such as thevalue-added created per employee, companies headquartered in thecity, the presence of key research centres, and international tradefairs, events and so on.


Cultural power involves the assessment of the status of variousinstitutions in the city, such as museums, theatres and art galleries,and where they fall in the national and international hierarchy. Ofmost importance is the content of these containers for culture. Thecontainer itself, even if it is an iconic building, is not enough. Inaddition there is a trendiness or hipness factor, where quality ofrestaurants, nightlife and overall design should be assessed. This islargely judged by peer-group assessments, food writing, forexample, or through the views of the streetwise.

Cities can accrue power and desirability by capturing a terri-tory that others also want to occupy. This is where quality of lifeand environmental and sustainability power come in. Yet to gainfrom such an asset, it needs to be known about – tangible, self-evident and transparent. A range of cities have built reputations onthese that create downstream spin-offs. These softer issues are nowcentral to the quality of life and competitiveness surveys of organi-zations such as Mercer’s, the Economist Intelligence Unit or Jones,Lang, and Lasalle’s World Winning Cities programme. They helpcompanies assess where to locate. Usually many Nordic cities aswell as places like Zurich and Geneva come top. The city ofFreiburg is instructive. Its strong environmental profile – car usehas remained stable over the last two decades, despite growth inthe population – has attracted major eco-research institutes, so thecity is an attractor of resources and talent in this sphere. This reinforces its position, as do initiatives such as the solar regionproject or Vauban environmental district, where local job creationand local sourcing are important.

Measuring the performance and competitiveness of a city acrossvarious dimensions is problematic because good performanceaccording to one indicator may mean poor performance in another.A good economic indicator may cause a cultural, social or environ-mental problem. Economic vitality causes large movements ofpeople. So the relevant cultural indicator may be levels of toleranceor interaction between differing groups. A social indicator such aslevels of crime may require an assessment of the costs of crime tobe set against an economic growth figure. The same is true for envi-ronmental damage.

Within an overall assessment, competitiveness is a key criterionbecause it creates the resilience a city needs. Being competitive isessentially about doing something well and better than somewhereelse. Its significance is growing because of the increasing interna-


tional mobility of investment and skills. Gifted and talented peopleare attracted to such places, because they have vitality and theyhelp individuals achieve more. Statistically, if a place has moretalented people than somewhere else, it will perform better acrossall dimensions. Therefore the talent agenda is rising to the fore anda primary indicator for a city should be its talent churn, which isthe balance between talented people moving in and out (who orwhat is talent will be subject to debate and is context-driven). If itis positive, a city is doing well. For example, one expects and wantsclever locals to leave their city, to broaden horizons and learn aboutthe wider world, but a city also wants them to return or, if notthem, then talented people from elsewhere. Part of talent is thecapacity for creative thinking which harnesses and maximizescompetitive advantages. Economically, competitiveness is expressedin terms of profitability, levels of investment, technological innova-tion, access to venture capital, the quality and skills of theworkforce, how well the city is networked at a human and techno-logical level, and the rank and status of local firms as well as theirproducts and services locally, nationally and internationally.Socially, it concerns the quality of the relationships between socialgroups (including race relations) as well as the achievements of acity’s voluntary sector. Environmentally, it is a city’s sustainabilityagenda. Culturally, it concerns the rank and status of educationaland cultural institutions and activities, and particularly how theyare seen by peer groups.

Cities on the radar screenCities are now a media event and city-branding is the process bywhich media attention is secured. Like a voracious beast, the medianeeds feeding, and cities are part of the feeding frenzy. There is apersistent tendency for place-marketing literature to focus onclichés, to represent places as culturally homogeneous and not toshow their diversity or distinctiveness, promoting a similar, blandmix of facilities and attractions for every area. Cities are now beingtreated like any other product, such as a car, computer or breakfastcereal, and similar techniques are applied to their marketing.Something as complex as a place cannot be marketed in one-dimensional terms like an insurance policy. The identities of citiesbeing peddled, especially in tourism literature, are at best partialand at worst fictitious, usually only accentuating hypothetical posi-


tives rather than reflecting better realities. The very creativity thathas made places vital is lacking in the practice and literature beingused to promote ‘places’. Further, promotional messages fromdifferent agencies are rarely aligned. There is often a conflictbetween the inward-investment promotional literature, whichusually projects a breezy forward-looking tone, official tourismmaterial, which can be backward-looking, and streetwise maga-zines, which project being at the cutting edge of style. For instance,a survey of 77 brochures of British cities showed the pages ofbrochures to be crowded with images of the past. Eighty-five percent of the sample had a heritage theme for the cover – people inhistoric costume, knights in armour, gentle country peasants andlocal fisherfolk enjoying a pipe at dusk with their dog on the quay-side.26 This precisely at the moment when Britain is seeking toproject itself as ‘cool’, creative and innovative and when cities suchas Glasgow, Manchester and Bristol have an underground gutsinessthat defines their identity. This would not be a problem if theimages had been balanced with others, but generally they are not.Clearly a city is an amalgam of personalities, but brochures lack asense of authenticity or reality. The underlying criticism is that theydepict a truncated, often sanitized experience. It is a short cut,perhaps telling an artificial story that creates an unfulfillable desire.

The globalization process is a daily reality for large cities todeal with and, with competitive intensity increasing, it is hard forcities to create a sharp focus for themselves. In a crowded medialandscape, branding a place is about claiming territory in people’simagination. It needs to be sharp, memorable and work on differ-ent registers of consciousness at the same time. It has to be alive, itneeds energy and it has to play the fashion game. The difficulty ismaking the old seem relevant, new and vital. An article on the ‘sexi-ness’ of cities felt that Paris or Venice were such well-worn namesthat they did not trigger the imagination to the same degree asbefore and that Stockholm exuded now a stronger sexy feel.27 Tocreate brand symbols of desirability, every aspect from manufactur-ing vigour and research capacity to architecture and sex is used incity-branding.

Cities are continually trying to broaden their appeal and changeperceived images they consider false. Frankfurt once had the unde-sirable image of being a city of ‘Marxists, murderers andmillionaires’, which led to a long-term campaign to invest heavilyin cultural facilities to project the city as more sophisticated and


build a series of high-profile museums including Richard Meier’sMuseum of Decorative Arts and Hans Hollein’s Museum ofModern Art. Dubai is intensely trying to broaden its appeal, beyondshopping, as a leisure and knowledge centre. Amsterdam seeks toreflect its creativity to make the city part of the life choice ofcreative people around the world. The trendspotters are on thelook-out for which city is high on the hip register. The hippest clubsand street scenes in the world are in continual flux. One day Miami,the next Ibiza, then London, Hong Kong, Cape Town, Berlin, NewYork. Even Singapore emerged briefly as Asia’s gay hub. Then forthe aficionados there is the ‘I heard it through the grapevine’tendency: Moscow, Beirut, Warsaw and Tel Aviv. The challenge forcity-marketers is to reflect the associational richness of a city andto find simple ways of playing on these registers and layers of inter-est.

Selling urban identity and the individuals within a city as acommodity is problematic given the differences between outsiderand insider perceptions. When people do not participate in the storythat is being sold about them, it creates resistance. A more cultur-ally attuned approach to city-marketing takes a far broaderperspective. It reflects and looks at the good and bad, it has honesty,it acknowledges conflict in cities. There is a danger of always fallinginto the fashion trap. For instance, behind the rise of favela chic inBrazil was a counter-branding strategy alluding to the gangs, graf-fiti and poverty as something truly authentic.

I was personally involved in a strategic set of meetings withgovernment officials in Johannesburg in autumn 2000 when SouthAfrica was discussing its branding as a tourism destination. Themeeting began with old-style marketing messages: sun, sand, lions.Stepping back from these core brands, the group realized thatSouth Africa’s history of conflict was perhaps its best-knownfeature and that the country’s journey of self-discovery could bereflected in tourism by inviting the visitor to take part in their ownself-discovery.

These alternative approaches seek to pick up on local flavourand look at a bigger palette. Rather than seeing city-marketing as anarrow discipline, more integrated and multidisciplinaryapproaches should be used, cutting across the public and privatesectors and involving a wider variety of insights, such as those ofartists, historians, environmentalists, community representatives,urban geographers and psychologists. Most importantly, involve


too a wider range of people who actually live in places to help formthe marketing messages.

BORROWING THE LANDSCAPE

Tourism is vast and has transformed thousands of cities, for goodand for bad. Many cities are drowned by tourists and have hadtheir lifeblood drained out of them, their identity squashed by thesheer mass of human bodies crowding into sites. Think of Agra andthe route to the Taj Mahal, Barcelona’s Sagrada Famiglia, NiagaraFalls, Venice, and now Keralan beaches and Mayan temples. It isoften better to look at a picture or watch a film than visit thembecause it is difficult to see them in the flesh, let alone sense theirawe. With so many people there is little respect as chatter, flashingcameras, smelly food and sticky drinks impinge on the experience.It is one reason, money aside, why armchair tourism and virtualtourism have become popular, where you do not travel physicallybut explore the world through the internet, books or TV.

Tourists mostly borrow someone else’s landscape for their ownpersonal pleasures and needs. It may be an urban buzz or a beach.As tourists we treat those landscapes or cities as commodities –used one moment, thrown away the next, rather like we treatclothes. Tourists rarely converse deeply with the place, meet a localor go to their home, even though most of us want to pretend weare travellers. In the hierarchy of travel, tourists are seen as mereconsumers, whereas travellers are – to themselves, at least – of abetter class: amateur anthropologists.

Frenzied tourism has transformed the way we treat places. Oneday Prague, the next Hong Kong – an endless list of the ‘nextthing’. We see the cities briefly, we engage little with them, we usethem (and abuse them). We give nothing back except a bit ofmoney and rarely do we speak the language. How under thoseconditions can we find the ‘true soul’ of a place that seems to beauthentically itself: resilient enough through inner strength to takeon the blemishes, to absorb outside influence without being tooabsorbed?

In the resilient city, such as New York, Hong Kong or Tokyo,the strength and sheer scale of activity, business and the industrymeans the tourist is a bit player. Their impact is minimized. Theinsider (the resident) rather than the outsider (the tourist) defines


the city’s self-perception. In between there are those on their way tobecoming insiders or temporary insiders and they are necessary togive the city new blood. But it is important to appreciate that theyare committed to the city by living there. They give something backby providing their ideas and labour. Yet cities become a stage setwhen the balance is wrong and the outsider overwhelms. Think ofthe French Quarter in New Orleans, old Venice or even the strongcity of Barcelona with Las Ramblas and new city beach. Tourismhas recently opened in China and already the beautiful Lijiang iscomplaining about losing its identity. A city with too many touristsis like a home that receives too many guests; there is little time tobe yourself and get on with your life.

The contradictory effects of tourism come from its mixedmotives, which represent two kinds of yearning. It is about trans-gressing and escaping from everyday reality. At the same time, bygetting out of yourself you can reflect on and affirm who you are.You let go of yourself and at best you enrich yourself. Or, incomplete contrast, you search for a home from home and that istruly borrowing the landscape. For the English abroad it can meanthe clichés: fish and chips, lukewarm beer and a cup of tea. Wheredoes this leave the city visited?

The history of European tourism originated with the medievalpilgrimage. The purpose was religious; there was a humility and arespect for place, but the pilgrims already saw the experience as aholiday. The word derives from the ‘holy day’, where religiousactivities and fun and games are mixed. Pilgrimages created thesouvenir business, helped banking to develop and, inventively, usedall forms of transport, such as catching a lift on boats bound forports near religious sites.

From the 16th century onwards it became fashionable for sonsof the nobility to take an extended Grand Tour of Europe as aneducational experience. The equivalent today is perhaps the back-packer trip. Health tourism, such as visiting spas to take the waters,developed early and became popular by the 18th century. Theyhelped create cities like Bath, Karlsbad or Baden Baden, whichprovided an active social life for their fashionable visitors, such asballs and tournaments.

The tourism industry as we know it can be dated back to 5July 1841 when Thomas Cook, a Baptist minister, organized trans-portation and entertainment for 570 people travelling fromLeicester to Loughborough to attend a temperance rally. He


thought that the new power of the railways could help the causeof temperance. Cook argued that the lower and middle classeswould be better off if they saved their money for trips rather thanspending it on booze.

Cook’s big break came with arranged package tours for theGreat Exhibition in London that took place in 1851, prefiguringbig-event tourism. For five shillings, a person could travel to theexhibition, eat and sleep in London. 165,000 tickets were sold inthe county of Yorkshire alone. Cook arranged similar tours to theParis Exhibition and developed many of the services we knowtoday, such as help getting passports, language guides, transporta-tion, food, lodging and traveller’s cheques.28

What a supreme irony that the temperance movement’s fightagainst alcohol shares a history with tourism! We have now turnedfull circle as cities and holiday spots around the world, from Pragueand Dublin to Goa and Bali’s Kuta Bay, fight to control binge drink-ing and drink-induced bad behaviour by tourists. For instance, thetraditional English habit of a ‘stag night’ or a ‘hen night’ before awedding has taken on international dimensions. In Dublin’s TempleBar area an association called TASCQ (Traders in the AreaSupporting the Cultural Quarter) is actively discouraging such visi-tors and block bookings of hotels.

Tour operators tout attractions such as Prague Pissup,(www.praguepissup.com) ‘an all-in package for all-in drinkers’.Stand on Wenceslas Square on any Saturday evening and you willsee lots of British stag groups. And they openly admit they’ve cometo Prague for the cheap booze – and cheap sex:

There’s fifteen of us in various places, all doing thesame thing – all in strip clubs. Beautiful women …culture, beautiful blonde-haired culture. We like allthat.

Listen, it’s a beautiful city, and the architecture isfantastic. But what we’re saying is, it’s built up aculture now that’s a stag weekend … and peopleenjoying themselves. Cheap beer, it’s easy to get to –two hours from the UK. Fantastic, fantastic.29

As Peter Hall noted, ‘There’s a haunting sense that maybe Praguecould become an urban Torremolinos, following the curve fromcharming discovery to mass tourism hell to tourist slum in one


generation.’30 And expansion is on the way as the lure of Praguewears off: The cheap, beautiful East European cities like Tallinn,Budapest, Ljubljana and Krakow are next on the list of the PraguePissup organizers. As they say, ‘The groups pump money into localbusinesses – hotels, bars, restaurants, taxis and so on. These blokesspend a lot more than the average tourist.’31

Tourism exploded from tiny beginnings into the world’s largestindustry with finance.32 ‘The Lonely Planet is not lonely anymore’reads a headline in the Guardian.33 Tourism employed 235 millionpeople in 2006, which is one in every 15 jobs, and this is projectedto reach 280 million (one in 11 jobs) by 2016.34 Its economic valuewas US$6.5 trillion (US$6,500,000,000,000) in 2006 and isexpected to double between 2007 and 2016, 4.2 per cent annualgrowth in real terms. It represented 3.6 per cent of global GDP in2006.35 Yet when considering both direct and indirect contribu-tions to the world economy such as the growth in tourism-relatedbusinesses (cleaning companies, caterers, and so on), the industry isestimated at 10.3 per cent of gross domestic product.36

In 1950 there were 25 million international tourists. By 2005 ithad risen to an estimated 800 million – an astonishing 24-foldgrowth. This was aided by the rise of low-budget airlines and cheapairfares, whose prices are cheap because there is no tax on theirfuel. It is the environment that is paying the consequences. Of thesetourists two-thirds are European, the equivalent of one trip perEuropean. In 2004, just over half of all international tourists trav-elled for leisure and recreation, business travel accounted for 16per cent and around a quarter had other motives like visiting friendsand relatives, religious purposes and health treatments. Together,they spent US$623 billion on souvenirs, hotels, restaurant meals,museum tickets and the like. The World Trade Organization reportsthat the world’s 6.5 billion people produced US$8.9 trillion worthof merchandise exports in 2004 and international tourism repre-sented 7 per cent of this total. This is a bit less than the total worldagricultural exports of US$780 billion for that year; about two-thirds of the US$990 billion in energy exports; more than twice thevalue of global steel trade; 40 per cent above the US$450 billiontextiles and clothing trade; and 20 times the US$30 billion inannual arms exports.37

Tourism is growing at a faster rate than trade as a whole. In1950, 25 million international tourists spent US$2.1 billion equiva-lent against a world export total of US$125 billion. The ratio of


tourist spending to export revenue was 1 to 60. In 2005 it was 1 to13.38

And just wait for China and India to take off. For instance, in2005 31 million Chinese flew abroad, admittedly most to Macauand Hong Kong, and by 2020 it is estimated it will be 100 million39

– and how many to Europe? 10 million? To Britain, perhaps 1million? And the Chinese go to quirky places. In Germany, thesecond most visited place by Chinese tourists after Berlin isMetzingen, a small town in the Black Forest unknown to mostGermans, but home to a giant Hugo Boss discount store – sincejoined by another 20-odd factory outlets for designer labels. TheChinese already account for 11 per cent of the annual US$121billion luxury goods industry and this is projected to rise to 24 percent by 2009, surpassing the Americans, Japanese and Europeans.40

But tourism is a two-way process and more will go to China, espe-cially with the Olympic hype, and India. In 2006 alone China isbuilding 48 new airports. There are also 120 million middle-classIndians longing to travel.

People travel for bizarre reasons. Everything is now a potentialtourism resource. Take any topic, theme or purpose and it hastourism potential. Does this show endless human curiosity or is itsimply boredom that needs satiating? Obvious niche tourismincludes: cultural tourism, like visiting museums and galleries;heritage tourism, such as visiting old canals and railways; eco-tourism, which is responsible tourism that includes programmesthat minimize the adverse effects of traditional tourism on thenatural environment and enhances the cultural integrity of localpeople; sports tourism, which follows teams; adventure tourism;and gambling tourism. The raison d’être of places like Atlantic City,Las Vegas, Macau or Monte Carlo is gambling, and others areincreasingly getting in on the act. And sex tourism is oftenconnected. In spite of the gloss, there is a seediness.

The more unusual tourist pursuits include: disaster tourism,not to help out but to be a voyeur; dark tourism, to visit placesassociated with death; pop-culture tourism, where you visit aparticular location after reading about it or seeing it in a film;perpetual tourism, where wealthy individuals are always on vaca-tion to avoid being resident in any country where they might beliable for tax. Not forgetting vacilando – where the process of trav-elling is more important than the destination – and the quirkyexperimental tourism.41 In this latter form of tourism destinations


are chosen not on standard tourism merits but on the basis of anidea or experiment. For instance, try the ‘bureaucratic odyssey’,which recommends that you:

Take a tour of the following places known for theiradministrative function (rather than their touristvalue): waiting rooms, social services offices, townhalls, police stations. Use the facilities and resources,such as the photocopier, brochures, magazines, andsample the gastronomic delights on offer like thecanteen, coffee machine, sandwich shop.42

Another is by-night travel: ‘Arrange to visit a place and arrive atnight. Spend the night exploring the town and return home at dawnthe next day.’43

Experimental tourism reminds us that the ordinary andmundane can be strange places. By making strange what is familiarto us, we do not have to travel to far-flung clichés to escape theeveryday or to explore our identities. Indeed, we do not need toleave our bedrooms. An atlas and a pair of dice may be all that arerequired for a journey.

Experimental tourism cannot, by its very nature, become agrowth industry. However, its ethos is not to be sniffed at. Atpresent, much tourism represents a tired rehearsal of a song we donot understand the words to. We visit monuments, museums andchurches because this is what tourists do, but vary rarely to explorethe history, culture or spirituality of a place. This is not to deny thepotential resonance of such places but to question the tourist–destination relationship itself. As it is currently configured, thetourist gaze brings no new life to places. Experimental tourismsuggests that we look afresh at things, start from scratch. By soquestioning the received wisdom of heritage and travel brochurenarratives, new ideas about ourselves and others are generated,lending a new dynamic to tourism which isn’t just about taking butalso giving.

Further, the ordinary day-to-day facilities of a place can oftenoffer the most rewarding experiences. Hong Kong’s transportsystem is a case in point. It has great diversity and is affordable,frequent, always on time and a joy to use. For instance, the mid-level escalators are, at 800m, the longest escalator system in theworld. It is free. First thing in the morning they take people down


the steep Hong Kong island hill to work. Then at 10am they switchdirections and take people up the incline. The escalator floats pastthe ever-inventive shops that advertise themselves on the higherfloors of buildings, creating a strip of high-level shops. The areas itpasses below have regenerated, affirming the truism that transportis the maker and breaker of cities. The Peak Tram funicular railwayis a more typical tourist pull but it is still heavily used by localsbecause it gives an astonishing view of the city. The Star Ferry thatruns continuously between Hong Kong island and Kowloon givesyou a glimpse of the city from sea level for practically nothing.Hundred-year-old double-decker trams trundle around Hong KongIsland at a leisurely pace. The MTR underground system is clean,fast and very frequent and the Airport Express Link speeds you toand from the airport while you watch the personal TV that is in theback of every seat. When even transport is pleasurable in its finestdetail, there’s no need to fetishize obscure historical relics in orderto create an experience for the tourist. The everyday becomes ascentral to the tourism experience as more rarefied cultural attrac-tions on offer.

In fact, getting a visa extension, reporting a lost camera to thepolice or washing your clothes in a local launderette are, one couldargue, somewhat more authentic experiences than eating ice-creamon a gondola, drinking beer in lederhosen or watching theChanging of the Guard in London. So why is it that the touristindustry peddles such invented traditions in the name of ‘authentic-ity’? Travel literature is fixed on ideas like ‘real food’, ‘local culture’and ‘history’ while simultaneously propagating cultural antiquities.Why? Because both travel and destination are commodities whichare subject to the imperatives of marketing and competition.

Selling placesThere is a gigantic global infrastructure of hotels, travel agents,transport providers and marketers driving the industry forward insearch of ever more exotic, unusual places creating ‘must see’ desti-nations. Tourism is the coalface of branding: out there, garish, and,at its worst, prostituting the city. Everything is on the move to keepthe frenzy of tourism going: Bangkok transforms itself from ‘Asia’sbargain basement’ into ‘the coolest city on the planet’; ‘Ich bin einBerliner – how the city learnt to party’; ‘Tel Aviv has the edge ofBelfast, the spirit of Rio and the 24 hour attitude of New York’;


‘Mumbai’s the word – get to grips with one of the world’s mostextreme – and now most fashionable – cities’; ‘C’est chic – you bet– for the US, Montreal is Paris without the jetlag. Montreal can dothat version of itself in its sleep’; ‘[Shanghai is] the most excitingcity on Earth. There’s a boom-town exuberance to Shanghai withits outlandish skyscrapers, designer shops, hip bars and world-classrestaurants.’44 Favourite destinations change by the season: oneday it is Reykjavik, the next Ljubljana; and then the lure of thetango in Buenos Aires. You even hear, ‘Move over New York, bringon Bratislava.’ There are the perennial favourites, usually prefacedby the phrase ‘the irresistible charms of …’ (Paris, Venice, ‘Brazil’smost vibrant city’, etc.).

And everything has to be ‘cool’, ‘hip’ or ‘hot’. ‘UK Cool: Whywe are hip again’. There are the ‘cool capitals – Amsterdam, Berlinand Vienna’ – and ‘mid-sized cities get hip’. The elemental, primaland visceral is a strong theme and the ‘cold’: ‘try the untamedNorth’.

By contrast it may be themes such as glimpses into Russia’srepressive past, gay tours, firing kalashnikovs or tracking wolves.Or ever dreamt of taking the kids to the beach in Europe, but findthe logistics daunting? Stay at the pretend beach at Centre Parcs, acontrolled indoor setting whose signature feature is a large domethat houses a landscaped waterpark and tropical pools, play zones,restaurants, shops and a spa and other ‘novelty features’. Or youwant something more exclusive? How about the private world ofMustique in the Caribbean, where even the locals aren’t allowedto go. Is that too dull? Try Stalin World in Grutas Park, Lithuania,which mixes humour and history. An imitation Soviet prison campinterspersed with old communist statues may not sound like theideal place for a good time, but in the search for the exoticanything goes. Or try the more sedate Statue Park in Budapestwhere another collection of old Marxes, Stalins and Lenins looksdown on you.

Excitement is promised and stimulation provided. The reality isthat most of the experience is pre-digested and manipulated. And,on return, the tourist hunters bring back their trophies. Instead ofbrandishing rifles or shooting animals they shoot pictures and bringback souvenirs, memories and a passport stamp. It is still aconquest. It is collecting experiences, collecting places, collectingthings. What is left for the city? It has to clear up.


The limits to tourismThe scale and growth of development is unsustainable, especially ifthe growing numbers of middle class around the world want thesame experience. For instance, if not Dublin why not Serbia andMontenegro? It’s all the same. The Vega City theme park projectthat United Entertainment Partners (UEP) originally planned fornorth Dublin is now likely to be built in Serbia and Montenegro.Fingal County Council voted by a 19 to 1 margin to reject thescheme for the US$7 billion theme park on 2500 acres, describingit as ‘enormous, and unlike any proposal put forward in thiscountry before,’ and contrary to proper planning and sustainabledevelopment of Fingal.45 Instead UEP is in talks with Belgrade. UEPhad hoped to attract 37 million visitors a year to Ireland (nine timesthe Irish population) with its three theme parks, golf courses, shop-ping centres, 14 hotels, conference centre, equestrian centre, icerink and 10,000 apartments for short-term lets.

Carl Hiaasen, a newspaper columnist with the Miami Heraldwho has written extensively on the impact of large theme parks onhis home state, says it sickens him to think a plan such as Vega Cityis even being considered by the people of Dublin. As a warning toFingal, Hiaasen described the area around Orlando, where DisneyWorld is based, as an ‘ugly, congested, sprawling hellhole’.46

Consider too the latest ideas for Venice. It is likely to becomethe first major living city to charge an entrance fee, to offset thedamage done by hordes of tourists. Often over 50,000 people a daytraipse through the city and this will increase dramatically whenChinese and Indian tourists begin to travel en masse. If Eurodisneycharges visitors 50 euros a visit, surely Venice is worth much more?And the sums collected will help save the city.

Implementing the ideas behind the eco-tourism movement isone way forward to overcome the contradictory dilemmas. It seeksto conserve cultural and biological diversity and to adopt an ecosys-tems approach to thinking through tourism. It involves being awareof the cultural sustainability of the places tourists go to and encour-aging them to develop cultural knowledge and self-awareness. Itfocuses on providing local populations with jobs, sharing socio-economic benefits with local communities and getting theirinformed consent in the management of enterprises, rather thanencouraging foreign ownership of the majority of resources. In thisway resilience can grow.


The ideas behind the City Safari project in Rotterdam may be amodel. They have invented a new sustainable approach to tourismdevelopment. The brand name ‘City Safari’ has been ‘stolen’ orcopied by many, but not the core idea. The project has a list of over300 people or organizations that are willing to be visited. Thevisitor chooses the kind of people they want to meet – which couldrange from priests to imams, from urban planners and gardeningenthusiasts to unusual shopkeepers, tattooists, and collectors of thebizarre like a man who owns over a thousand koi carp kept in tanksin a collective garden of a series of apartment blocks – and placesto go to, from delicatessens to sex shops to a café employing recov-ering heroin addicts. The visitor gets an address and has to findtheir target by exploring and navigating the city. They encounterpeople a normal tourist would never meet. They hand over paid-for vouchers and in return they get a service – primarily aconversation about their life and what they do. In addition,perhaps, a glass of wine, a tour of a building or a meal. Its power isthat the tourist and the locals connect and the benefits go directlyto the local rather than an intermediary. City Safari was started asan economic development project by Kees de Gruiter and is nowowned by Marjolijn Masselink to bring more resources to localpeople rather than intermediaries.47

The problem for less-developed countries is that tourism isoften presented as one of the only routes to development. Buttourism can in fact be a terrible burden on the economy of the desti-nation. There are a number of reasons for this. One is leakage: notmuch tourist expenditure stays in the economy after taxes, profitsand wages are paid outside the area and after imports arepurchased. Indeed, of each US$100 spent by a tourist in a devel-oped country, only around US$5 actually stays in that country’seconomy. A second reason is the phenomenon of enclave tourism:many tourist packages are ‘all-inclusive’ wherein tourists do notleave their resort or cruise ship. Third, infrastructure improvements– in roads and airports, for example – can cost the government atthe expense of local health and education, especially if there is pres-sure from developers for tax breaks. Fourth, with an increase in thespending power of tourists, prices can rise faster than indigenouswages can accommodate them. Finally, an area can become depen-dent on tourism and therefore subject to tourism’s vagaries. Otherparts of the economy are neglected and the area lacks a healthydiversity. Also, a local tourist industry may be seasonal, meaning


instabilities in employment and leaving the economy as a wholevulnerable to climatic instabilities.48

Tourism can be configured to help the areas it affects. Pro-PoorTourism, for example, is an organization that promotes the localexpansion of employment and businesses and the active inclusionof the poor. Eco-tourism as a movement is intended to encouragetourism that is responsible and environmentally and culturallysensitive. However, as with any industry, tourism must be under-stood as an extensive system of which no particular facet can beseen in isolation. Air traffic is increasing and, as an abundance ofnew wealth enters the tourism industry, this will continue. But atwhat cost? Clearly flying to the other side of the world to see thefamous dyers in Fez market or to watch pandas chew bambooshoots is not eco-tourism. Responsible tourism may in fact be trav-elling less far from home. Cities could do worse than look toRotterdam’s City Safari as a model of how tourism can be incorpo-rated into self-discovery. In fact, why not turn your own citizensinto tourists of their own city?

URBAN RITUALS

Making the most of resourcesUrban rituals provide one measure of resistance to the never-endingconsumer journey. But even they are subject to becomming morecommerical. Day-to-day rituals abound. The evening passegiata inthe Mediterranean, where you look and are looked at, you have anidle chatter and you check out who you fancy. Coffee in the caféwith a newspaper. Going to a pub in Ireland or a beer garden inGermany. Sunday dim sum in Hong Kong. A Sunday stroll in thepark anywhere urban. The weekly supermarket visit or – better –browsing the markets. The Saturday football or baseball match. Inaddition, a raft of new rituals has emerged: urban fun runs,marathons, heaving Friday night pub crawls, karaoke. In warmerclimes, this urbanity is easier to experience in the open. In thedamper, colder north, however, it is more difficult to get that senseof alfresco urbanity; activity tends to be indoors (though places likeCopenhagen manage with outdoor heaters and blankets).

Rituals serve a purpose. Rituals anchor individuals in time andplace, they bond groups together, and they create an occasion andregularity. Even in an ordinary activity like drinking tea or coffee


there can be ceremony which establishes, affirms or reaffirms socialroles.

In fact, every aspect of life and every resource is or can be ritu-alized and can thus be turned into an asset. Think of any food,animal, flower, art form, sport, religious occasion, major historicalbattle or topic and there is likely to be a festival or ritualized eventsurrounding it. Rituals mark the calendar. They identify seasonsand create formalized activities that mean something to those inthe know. They assert the ‘tribe’, personal and place identity, awe,and submission to a higher authority. In religion, ritual is gearedtoward union with the divine; otherwise rituals can celebrateachievement or are just fun.

Celebrations after harvest or anniversaries of significantevents are part of human history. Usually local in scale, in thepast they helped form local identity and distinguished one cityfrom the next. If anything was important to local life, it wouldbe celebrated.

Think of the Italian sagre or feste, where there is simplyacknowledging and indulging: chestnuts, mushroom, artichokes,olives and wine; pigs, sheep and fish. And the same is true for othercultures. The snail is celebrated in Lleida, Spain, Belfort, Franceand Pianello, Italy. The donkey in Otumba, Mexico, and Aleria,Spain. Sheep in the US in Cummington and Bighorn. The cat festi-val in Ypres, Belgium, broadens the scope to consider myths aroundthat animal. More recently, as festivals have come into vogue,places have consciously fostered the bizarre to get name recogni-tion, such as Keppel, Queensland with its crab leg-tying event. OrGilroy in California, branded the world’s garlic capital, which hasbeen celebrating garlic since 1979 and whose festival attracts125,000 people. The only problem is that now more and more ofits garlic is imported from China.

Religious processions have formed part of the social fabric sincethe first human settlements were formed. Many early settlements,like Nineveh or Antioch in the Middle East or Teotihuacán inMexico, were dominated by ritual. The Christian celebration ofEaster in Rome or the famous New Orleans Easter Parade;Christmas celebrations nearly everywhere, even in non-Christianplaces (another opportunity to shop); feasts before fasting such asthe Fasching carnival in German-speaking countries in the periodbefore Lent; the Haj to Mecca; and the Hindu Diwali festival oflight in many places. The Ganesh Chaturthi in Mumbai is a ten-


day festival of the elephant god where, on the last day, Ganesh’simage is taken through the streets in a procession and immersed inwater. The Esala Perahera in Kandy, Sri Lanka, celebrates Buddha’stooth being brought to the country. The main elephant is precededby a slowly prancing parade of dozens of elephants and a frenziedcast of thousands of Kandyan dancers and drummers. A brightwhite linen carpet is unfurled before him so that his feet do nottouch the bare ground.

Other festivals had and have a different purpose. Carnivalsoften represented the few moments in the calendar where rankcould be forgotten, rules broken, barriers overcome and normstransgressed. It was a way of creating social equilibrium and lettingoff steam. Carnivals in Port of Spain and Rio and the New OrleansMardi Gras are prime examples, as is the modern gay incarnationof the Mardi Gras in Sydney.

Arts festivals are the most common form of festival today andthey come in every conceivable form, from the specialist to thegeneral. In Germany alone there over 100 music festivals in thesummer, showcasing a range of genres from opera and jazz to elec-tronic music. Then there is the raft of theatre, ballet, literature andbook events. Within these, any theme can be explored, from hopeand sex to urban utopia.

The broader-scale festival and events culture which seeks toattract visitors as well as indigenous participation only took off inthe post-war period. The Edinburgh, and later Adelaide, festivalswere early prototypes. Since their inception, possibly tens of thou-sands have been conceived. The Notting Hill Carnival, now one ofthe biggest festival events in the world, seems to have been with usforever, but was only founded in 1964 on a small scale. It projectsitself as multicultural, but in reality it is showcase for quite anarrow band of cultures. Its active participants are largely African-Caribbean. Today festivals are part of the urban regenerator’sarmoury. In the process, many of the traditional events are indanger of losing their qualities of authenticity as the balance ofparticipants to tourists tips against the former.

Imagine anything and it can be turned into an event, rangingfrom Coventry’s ‘The virtual fringe: A festival of possibility’ thatyou only know is in Coventry if you are on the net; the short film-makers’ frenzy in Newcastle, Australia, where people race throughthe night to finish a 24-hour shoot; Vancouver’s ‘Dancing on theEdge’; Marseille’s ‘Festival of the Wind’; the more sedate open-air


painting festival in Geneva; to the surprisingly hectic ‘Slow FoodFestival’ in Turin.

A story, a person, an accident, a victory, a local resource, a skill,a bizarre idea – cities scour their cultural resources and ideas bankto turn anything into something bigger, from the very local to theglobally significant. At its apex stands the super league of big one-offs: Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup. In the next divi-sion are the World Expos and European City of Culturecelebrations. Below that are the ‘cities of festivals’ that build theirreputations and city-marketing on putting on events, such asCannes, Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Salzburg and Istanbul.

They have different cycles, scales and purposes, but now thedanger is that festivals are subservient to the overarching goal ofmarketing, of getting on the radar screen and breaking through theinformation clutter to create recognition. The regeneration agendais another new objective, especially as cities which hold biggerevents like the Olympics can use the prestige to do things that other-wise would be impossible. Typically this might be to renew thesporting or cultural infrastructure, extend a metro line, open outold port areas, reclaim derelict land, or extend the city. The specialcircumstances, the deadline and tight timetables make it possible tobreak through political obstacles, local resistance to developmentand red tape. It is possible to raise additional financial resourcesand to set up innovative, experimental delivery mechanisms, usuallybased on partnerships and a task force-based approach, which maythen later become part of the mainstream.

Two cities which have used big events to good effect areBarcelona and Glasgow. The 1992 Barcelona Olympics andGlasgow’s European City of Culture celebrations throughout 1990pioneered a regeneration approach to big events. In Barcelona theOlympics was used to open out the port area and renew the sportsinfrastructure as well as to reposition the city globally. Equally, inGlasgow the building of the Royal Concert Hall was a by-productof the cultural year. Contrast this with the ‘disposable Olympics’approach of Atlanta, tearing down the stadium as soon as theGames had finished.

With major events, especially arts initiatives, a series ofconundrums and strategic dilemmas occur that require reflec-tion. How do you combine political ambition and externalmarketing goals with, say, cultural or artistic objectives? Howcan projects and events balance celebrating a city’s existing


cultural status and its past history with seeking to reflect moredeeply on how a city’s culture could develop in the future? Whatis the respective importance of local residents’ involvement andattracting visitors and tourists? How do you follow up and main-tain momentum in the wake of events and projects? What levelof commercialization or sponsorship do you invoke? Indeed, evermore frequently fringe festivals and rituals are created inresponse to commercial aims.

We learn too little about how these dilemmas are solvedbecause evaluations are usually disappointing. They tend, withnotable exceptions, not to go into depth and focus on a narrowrange of issues, such as economic impacts.14 They are largely quan-titatively driven, focusing on tourism figures and levels ofparticipation rather than on the quality of the experience, its trans-formational effects on individuals or the social impacts of events,let alone the quality of the art or the nature of culture change andits meaning for the city in question. For the ‘realists’ these concep-tual or philosophical evaluations appear too soft. But significantquestions are not assessed: Who defines what culture is? Is theemphasis on city regeneration or the cultural development of art,creativity and identity? Is the priority to work with mainstreaminstitutions or less formal entities?

Meaningful experiencesLeaving aside fun, celebration, creating a spectacular and having agood time, what makes a festival significant in a wider sense? Thebest rituals respond to a deep yearning to be part of a bigger thing.You can take any theme as long as it is given meaning. Here aresome ways of doing so in an urban context:

• Bonding individuals and the group. Collectively and self-consciously sharing experience. Normally it is national eventsthat do this, such as Anzac Day in Australia or National Day inSingapore. In terms of creating urban belonging and identity,the Mardi Gras in New Orleans is an example. It provides aforum for the sense of imagined community to be played out –people feel connected through a collective identity.

• Active not passive. To express self by being an actor on the festi-val stage. The carnival season in Christian countries is the partybefore the abstinence of Lent and its variations, like Fasching,


Italy’s Carnevale or Mardi Gras, encourage the participation ofthe many. Such participation consolidates community solidar-ity.

• Ritualizing and reconciling conflict. The Palio in Siena is afamous horse race where the local contrade (districts) fight itout for supremacy. While it is very competitive, they are at leastnot cutting each others’ throats. The same is true for Trinidad’sCarnival. The gang warfare of the 1950s and 1960s was tamedand the energies were turned into making music, masqueradingand parading. The names of the main mas camps (groups alliedto a particular band) indicate the gang legacy: Invaders,Desperados, Renegades.

• Community self-reflection. The teatro povero (‘poor theatre’)and its festival started in 1967 and is like a community drama.It has taken on an important meaning in the life ofMonticchiello, Tuscany, when it was realized it could help thevillage to overcome the threat of isolation and social break-down in its transformation from peasant to modern life. Runby a co-operative and developed in an atmosphere of commu-nity solidarity and intellectual purpose, the whole communityand surrounding areas are involved as actors and helpers. Thetheatre has become an important element in raising the village’sconsciousness in its efforts to understand itself and achieve anidentity. They developed the concept of autodramma (perform-ing oneself). Relevant themes about the place itself act as atrigger for self-reflection. The theatre is centred on the PiazzaSan Martino. The square is the centre of the community fromevery point of view: the space for social encounter, confession,decision-making and self-analysis. As the natural meeting placefor the whole community over the centuries, it is the ideal placeto stage autodrammi and is transformed every summer into astage.15

• The city as a stage. The urban theatre festival in Rome claimsthe territory of the city, transforming city spaces into stages. Itinvades random streets and surprises the public, not counte-nancing indifference. It is preceded by the Estate Romana, fromJuly to September, with nightly outdoor cinema in the best spotsin the city, such as Tiberina island, with two giant screens over-looking the River Tiber and St Peter’s Cathedral in thebackground. The Estate Romana was initiated in the 1970s bythe politician then in charge of cultural affairs, Renato Nicolini,


who pioneered an annual summer arts festival to liven up thecity and, to use the feminist campaign slogan of the time, to‘Reclaim the Night’. He argued this was best achieved bydesigning cultural policies which would encourage people touse the city at night in large numbers, thus providing safetythrough the natural surveillance of crowds.

• Eliciting primal instincts. The basic elements, air, water, fireand earth, are deep themes of ritual. They have an authenticquality that harks back to origins. All major religions use light:Eid in the Muslim world, Diwali for Hindus, Chinese lanternfestivals, Chanukah for Jews and Advent for Christians.

• Bonding across cultures and groups. Invented by BarnabyEvans, WaterFire in Providence, Rhode Island is one of thestrongest new urban rituals.16 More than 20 times a year, a firesculpture installation on the three downtown rivers becomes amoving symbol of Providence’s renaissance. It centres on aseries of 100 bonfires that blaze just above the surface of thewaters. They illuminate nearly two-thirds of a mile of urbanpublic spaces and parks, and residents and visitors gather tostroll along the river while listening to an eclectic selection ofclassical and world music that serves as a melodic accompani-ment to the normal sounds of urban life. The fires are tendedfrom sunset to past midnight by black-clad performers in boatswho pass quietly before the flames. There is no admissioncharge. The experience surrounds viewers on all sides andimpacts all five senses. The crackling flames, the fragrant scentof blazing cedar and pine, the flickering firelight on the archedbridges, the silhouettes of the firetenders floating by in theirtorch-lit vessels, and the music from around the world engagethe senses and evoke emotions in the many thousands whocome to stroll along the river walks. It has a reflective quality,and people who have never met talk. Children, parents, thehappy and the sad open out.

• Common experiences in open space. The Cow Parade hasbecome the world’s largest public urban art event – cowspainted in a maze of colours line the streets. It is a fundraiserfor charitable activities and started in 1999 in Chicago, the UScentre of cattle trading. At the conclusion of each event, thecows are herded up and many are auctioned, with a substantialportion of the proceeds benefiting charity. The initial Chicagoauction raised US$3 million for charity. The average bid price


on each of the 140 cows was nearly US$25,000. Over 40 citieshave now held the event, from New York, London, Moscow,Telemark in Northern Norway and Boston to Buenos Aires. Forthose that travel a lot, it creates a thread of common experi-ence that is different from a McDonald’s or a Hilton. A similarglobal event, though with no charitable aim, is Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s powerful ‘The Earth from Above’ outdoorphotography show, whose core message is sustainable develop-ment. It has around 120 photos on sixty 2�1.5m panels alignedin various configurations in public spaces and has beendisplayed in places as varied as Dushanbe in Tajikistan,Helsinki, Ljubljana in Slovenia, Seoul, Taipei and Qatar. Since2001, Berlin has had its ‘Buddy Bears’, who represent under-standing among cultures and a peaceful coexistence. The eventhas now gone global, with artists making bears in Shanghai,Sydney and St Gallen, Switzerland. Twenty 6-foot Buddy Bearskicked the ball on the pitch of the world’s largest table footballtable to help launch the FIFA World Cup in Germany. The bearsraise money for UNICEF and similar charities and had by 2005raised over a million euros. At a more local level, Hamelin, thefamous city of the Brothers Grimm Pied Piper story, has aRattenfestival (Festival of Rats), last held in 2004. This publicart event brings rats back into the streets of Hamelin in theform of 70 individually decorated five-foot rats. In their ownway these shows are an indicator of a city’s presence in globalconsciousness.

• Social statement. Piobbico, Italy – ‘The World Capital of UglyPeople’ – holds the annual ‘Festival of the Ugly’. ‘Ugliness is avirtue, beauty is slavery.’ Telesforo Iacobelli, its chair, has spenthis life fighting for the recognition of the ugly in a society thatplaces a high value on physical beauty. Iacobelli is consideredugly as he has a small nose in a culture where large noses areconsidered beautiful. The festival is a reaction against the forcesof fashion, design and aesthetics and was relaunched 40 yearsago with a new focus on a marriage agency for the town’s singlewomen, who claimed they could not find attractive husbands.17

Today the Ugly Club, started in 1879, has 20,000 membersaround the world.

• Protest and protest within protest. The Love Parade wasfounded in 1989 in Berlin when 150 ravers protested for theright to party in a city just still divided. It claimed to be a polit-


ical demonstration for peace and international understandingthrough music. Now a mass of DJs perform on their trucks,turning Berlin into one big club. At it highpoint, in 1999, 1.5million people attended and it was copied from Santiago toSan Francisco. When it lost its reputation as a political demon-stration in 2001 and began to be seen as a mere commercialevent, it entered financial difficulties but re-emerged again in2006. Since 1997 there has been an alternative techno demon-stration, Fuckparade, that protests against the Love Parade’scommercialization. Zürich’s Street Parade is similar to theLove Parade and since 1996 has similarly spawned a counter-parade called the Antiparade. It fights for a vital subcultureand sees itself as an antidote to the commercialization of themain event. The EXIT event in Novi Sad, Serbia, now simply amusic event, started in 2000 as a response to student demon-strations against the political regime. For a hundred days, theEXIT organization coordinated a continuous programme ofcultural and academic events, beach parties, live concerts andperformances with a very powerful social dimension. It hadone goal: to motivate all social groups, but especially youngpeople, to vote at the presidential elections and removeMilosevic from power. Two hundred thousand people came toNovi Sad during this period to join the demonstration. Twodays after the closing night of EXIT 2000, participants wentto the polls and many ended up as part of the final 500,000-strong demonstration that physically removed Milosevic frompower two weeks later.

• Getting intellectual. Adelaide was one of the first places to havea Festival of Ideas. Started in 1999, its aim has been to cele-brate ideas and innovation as central to South Australia’s valuesand identity. Rarely are there public opportunities to be part ofa city that explicitly conceives of itself as a thinking city. Inaddition, Adelaide also has a Thinkers in Residenceprogramme, which invites two or three thinkers to Adelaideeach year to live and work. (I was fortunate to be one of thesein 2003). The Thinkers undertake residencies of between twoand six months, during which they assist South Australia tobuild on its climate of creativity and excellence. The Thinkersprovide the state with strategies for future development in thearts and sciences, social policy, environmental sustainabilityand economic development. As the competition for ideas is so


intense, the Ideas Festival was immediately copied by Brisbaneand Bristol.

• A shared humanity. It is perhaps only sports events like theOlympics where for a time we reach across cultures and back-grounds and where a collective consciousness is created with abigger message such as peace. Or the FIFA World Cup, whereyou know that you are just one person in a mass of humanityglued to the TV. At a national level, England regaining theAshes against the Australians in their national sport, cricket, in2005 provided a mass sense of unity that was positive. Duringthat time, everyone was England, whatever misgivings theymight have had about nationalism or cricket. Such occasionsprovide an excuse to participate in festivities and talk tostrangers. Normally if a stranger talks to you, you mightconsider them as a weirdo. There is almost a tribal groupconsciousness that is also found in war when people say ‘ourboys are out there’. Globally transmitted mega-events, whichhave charitable purposes, like Live Aid or Live 8, recreate asimilar feel, because two pleasurable thoughts merge: enjoyingyourself is helping others. The same was true for the Pavarottiand Friends concert, ‘Together for the Children of Bosnia’, withthe song ‘Miss Sarajevo’ acting as a communal hymn. Whenmega-events are created on a simple commercial basis, such asthe mega-operas like Turandot at the Munich Olympic stadium,they lack this quality. Other branded events like Expos find itdifficult to tap into emotion in a similar way, although theEuropean Cities of Culture programme on occasion has.

• Alternative views of life. Burning Man is a radical arts festivalbased in Black Rock, Nevada. ‘You belong here and you partic-ipate. You’re not the weirdest kid in the classroom – there’salways somebody there who’s thought up something you nevereven considered.’ Burning Man is a temporary town largelymade up of art installations that exists only for one week a year.At its maximum it has 35,000 occupants with temporary facili-ties, from emergency services, a post office, bars, clubs andrestaurants to hundreds of art installations and participatory‘theme camps’. The city is then taken apart and mostly burnt,leaving the desert as it was beforehand. Each year there is atheme. 2006’s theme was ‘Hope and Fear: The Future and theRoad to U(Dys)topia’. ‘Along the road to a utopia, the sciencefiction fantasies of the past gave way to traffic jams. The future,


it begins to seem, has ran out of gas.’ The ten Burning Manprinciples include ‘radical inclusion’, so anyone can be involved(you cannot just be an observer); ‘decommodification’, so thereis no sponsorship, advertising or commercial transaction (‘weresist the substitution of consumption for participatory experi-ence’); ‘radical self-reliance’, ‘encouraging people to rely ontheir inner resources’; ‘self-expression’; ‘communal effort’;‘civic responsibility’; ‘leaving no trace’; and ‘participation andimmediacy’.18

• Release of tension and the bizarre. The out-of-the-ordinary hasbecome ordinary as cities search to make themselves known.When it is gratuitous, such as the crab leg-tying event, it haslittle resonance. But when it has a local meaning, it takes on adifferent colour. As ever, local resources are key. At theTomatina in Buñol near Valencia there is a mass release oftension when around 30,000 people throw tomatoes at oneanother – 110,000 kilos are used in the biggest food fight in theworld. It is a free-for-all and anybody is able to throw a ripe orover-ripe fruit at anyone else. Its origin is disputed. One story isthat it was a political response in 1945 to the continuing influ-ence of Franco. A less lofty explanation is that it happened bychance after a lorry-load of tomatoes spilled on to the streets ofBuñol around the same time. A similar event is Haro in Spain’s‘War of the Wines’, which lasts for three hours and which beganin 1906. In 2005, 4000 people were involved. It commemoratesa tenth century property dispute between Haro and the neigh-bouring village of Miranda. Today anything goes, fromsquirting red wine on to the obligatory white shirts to pump-action pistols capable of shooting half a litre in five seconds,water pistols, fire extinguishers, buckets and pesticide sprayers.Or consider the ‘Moose Shit Festival’ in Talkeetna in Alaska.When the snow melts at the end of winter, there are fields fullof moose shit. The inhabitants arm themselves with what is athand for the annual festival. Whatever is left over is used tomake jewellery!

A CODA: URBAN RESISTANCES

Like the proclamations of millenarian religions or ideologies ofcertainty, global capital projects an air of inevitability, even suggest-


ing its forces are ‘common sense’. To question its unimpeded marchis to invite ridicule. Yet conformity and resistance to the main-stream continually coexist. The winners and losers live side by sideand inevitably they will fight.

Creating the alternatives and building counter-arguments abouthow life can be lived are, in fact, what keep society moving andalive; it regenerates the culture. The issue is whether the alternativeis absorbed into the mainstream simply as a new idea – as part of ageneral innovation process that strengthens its potency – orwhether it has the power and resilience to change the system andits inner workings.

Wherever you look, projects, groupings and movements batteragainst the implications of a narrow, self-interested globalization.As even George Soros notes:

Unless self-interest is tempered by the recognition of acommon interest that ought to take precedence overparticular interests, our present system … is liable tobreak down… Unsure of what they stand for, peopleincreasingly rely on money as the criterion of value…What used to be a medium of exchange has usurpedthe place of fundamental values.49


5

The Complicated and the Complex

THE FORCES OF CHANGE: UNSCRAMBLING COMPLEXITY

Escalating change is in evidence. The shift of the global axistowards the East is one example, changing global terms of tradeanother and growing global disparities a third. Not to mentionclimate change, pollution and the growth of fear culture.

With so much happening quickly and simultaneously, the worldfeels complex and disturbing. The changes feel dramatic, like aparadigm shift unfolding. How do you unscramble the complexityto see clearly and disentangle the different layers and levels ofproblem? It is more than unpeeling an onion or an orange, becausethe elements interweave, interlock and reinforce.

If you look at the world within the mindset that created theproblems we worry about, you will only replicate those problems:the mind that created the problem is unlikely to be the mind thatsolves it, to approximate Einstein’s words. An underlying theme isthat our mental toolkit may not be appropriate for current circum-stances. Our intellectual architecture was constructed for the age ofindustrialism and has sedimented itself into our minds like acityscape of familiar streets and buildings which we simply take forgranted. Since such mental architecture gets out of date, it causes aparticular set of conundrums and strategic dilemmas when we tryto apply it to the emerging world. And we attribute incomprehen-sion to ‘complexity’ rather than revisiting and questioning the

appropriateness of that mental architecture. Yet each generationsays its age is more complex. What we really mean is ‘this is apattern of events that I do not understand’.

The distinction between complicated and complex is useful.Brenda Zimmerman has noted that:

‘Complicated’ is essentially mechanical. ‘Complex’ isessentially relational. ‘Complicated’ is about actingon. ‘Complex’ is about acting with. ‘Complicated’ isappropriate in a world of predictable outcomes.‘Complex’ must acknowledge and respond to uncer-tainty. Putting a rocket on the moon is complicatedwhere an enormous number of detailed steps have tobe taken into account from engineering to navigation.There’s lots of room for error. But we know how todo it if we stick to the plan and execute with diligence.‘Complex’ is raising a child. We learn and adapt fromday-to-day experience. And we co-evolve in relation-ship to one another.1


Source: Richard Brecknock

Anish Kapoor’s beautiful and popular sculpture in Chicago’sMillennium Park embodies physically the idea of thinking in

the round, holistically and from multiple perspectives

A conceptual framework is proposed through which it may beeasier to focus on the significant and strategic, to unravel the trivialfrom the profound, and to understand timelines and connections.Taking an eagle’s eye view of the 20-year horizon requires us tolook at existing trends to assess their depth or superficiality, theircharacteristics, their differential rates, and their impact.

In spite of all the unpredictables, you can interrogate and assessthe changing dynamics which shape possibilities and determine thedirection of change and its possible routes. Even deep trends can becharted, although not with precision since they evolve gradually.Trends can be linear or cyclical, they can gain or lose momentum,and they can create cleavages and occasionally flip into entirelynew trends in a paradigm shift. They can coalesce, so gaining inforce, speed and power, or they can operate independently withoutaffecting the broader environment. Thus understanding the differ-ence between a trend and a fad is crucial.

Some deeper trends and drivers are now easy to see because wehave lived with them for a while and their impacts are unfoldingwith increased force. For example, the nexus of emancipation builtaround individuality, choice and independence spilling out fromthe Enlightenment has been with us for some 250 years. Some feelthis particular driver of change is at the edge of exhaustion: its self-focused energy is causing more negatives than positives. Yetevidently it still has enough energy to shape everything, from howpolitics appeals to its constituents to how we customize productsand services, how we appeal to individual desires, whether housingchoice or the types of cheeses on offer. Business creates the increas-ing wants: Who would have thought ten years ago that we deeplyneeded iPods?

There is little doubt that a realignment between individualdesires and a broader public purpose is in the offing. The environ-ment is just one example. With an incentives framework in place,thousands of products and services wait to be invented at the rightcost to wrench our habits and behaviour in a more sustainabledirection. We now know that individuals pursuing personal wantsdo not add up to a harmonious whole.

Another trend is the renewed vigour and degree of globaliza-tion enabled by IT, which both makes operating across boundarieseasier and helps shift global terms of trade. In the context of cities,it makes operating globally an imperative for success.

The Complicated and the Complex 191

Just because we are so acquainted with such deeply embeddedtrends does not mean they will not have considerable furthereffects. They will continue to affect urban lifestyles, social andeconomic structures, policies and choices. The significant issue iswhere the continuities and, especially, discontinuities are likely tofall, who and what configuration of forces will make that happen,and when it will happen.

Most importantly, it is necessary to go below the surface todiscover the undercurrents and tectonic shifts in the socio-politicalsubstrata that shape trends and drivers in the first place. By under-taking this exercise we can see they have been underpinned by ideasand motivations about how life should be lived.

An analogy is to think of change like an ocean. Ripples on thesurface are less important than waves of increasing significancewhich are themselves formed by tides, currents, climatic changesand geological events which shape the movement and dynamics ofthe whole – and which might throw up the occasional tsunami.

A conceptual framework The central dilemma of our age is how we live together. Peacefulcoexistence is the goal of civilization and avoiding the ‘clash of civi-lizations’2 should be the overarching intent of politics. But in tryingto achieve these goals we are to a lesser or greater extent prisonersof circumstance – of old habits, assumptions, battles and animosi-ties, struggling with the physical and mental worlds. Historycircumscribes possible future trajectories. However, we can at leastpartially transcend this imprisonment through understanding andanalysing the world, and, crucially, acting on our reflections. Self-reflection should focus us on considering boundaries, barriers andborders within cities, such as ghettoes, voluntary or imposed, andbetween cities and countries. This draws attention to our tribaltendencies and our insider/outsider instincts, as well as how weclaim territory, as when gangs physically occupy an area or whenwe distinguish ourselves from others through lifestyle choices ormaking people like the homeless feel like outsiders. These are ques-tions of identity and belonging. It challenges us to ask how porouswe are while still feeling confident about who we are.

As the world comes closer together virtually and in real timeand space, how we gather, communicate and understand each otherrises in importance. Then it becomes crucial to assess more what


we share as common citizens of the world rather than what dividesus. This is not to claim that some cosy togetherness should occur,but rather to stress how we negotiate conflicts and be together indifference. If being global in every sense is the tenor of the age, thenthe notion of the intercultural moves centre-stage. This means theability to look at the world through an intercultural lens, whichimplies a cultural literacy, an understanding of how differentcultures think and see the world.

From this premise of the aim of civilization I propose a concep-tual framework. Think of faultlines, battlegrounds, paradoxes,drivers and strategic dilemmas and navigate your mind aroundthem. It may help decipher what is happening and what might bedone. You will find gaps that you can fill in. To do this adequatelyrequires a kind of thinking that is holistic and sees the connectionbetween things rather than the fragmented parts. Indeed, the battlebetween these two ways of thinking may be the biggest faultline ofall.

FaultlinesFaultlines are change processes that are so deep-seated, intractableand contentious that they shape our entire worldview. They deter-mine our landscape of thinking and decisions across multipledimensions and can be global in scope, affecting our broadestpurposes and ends. They may create insoluble problems and perma-nent ideological battlefields. Even if they eventually solvethemselves, such problems are likely to take a very long time toresolve: 50 years, 100 years or more. It is then more a question ofmediating and managing conflict.

The five most important faultlines are the battles between faith-based and secular worldviews, between the rational, irrational andarational, between environmental ethics and economic rationalityin running countries or cities, between the artificial and the organic,and of realigning individualism with collective good. These affect amass of downstream decisions.

Taking the first, the most obvious aspects at a global level arethe varieties of religious fundamentalism. Fundamentalists areresponding to disappointments with a material progress that neithermakes us happy nor answers genuinely fundamental questions suchas ‘What is life for?’ What in this context are the agreements thatbond and anchor communities when fundamental views of the


world are so different and people with diametrically opposing viewsnow live in the same place – a city, a neighbourhood, a street? Thesearch for greater meaning and releasing the spiritual realm beyondconsuming lies at its core. What, if anything, can city leaders do toboth balance differences yet also provide citizens with greater suste-nance beyond material wants?

The second faultline is between the rational, irrational andarational. A big put-down is when the logical rationalist claimssomeone they don’t agree with is irrational or arational. Beingarational is not to be irrational (that is, to act without reason). Itimplies instead acknowledging that a narrow rationalist, linearapproach is not the answer to inextricably interwoven issueswhere to untangle the threads involves thousands of variables.The result of trying to isolate each thread or system of threads islogical entanglement. It is rather like the cat that starts pulling athread of a ball of wool and entangles itself as its claws get stuck.The result is confusion. The bigger picture made up of flows anddynamics disappears from view. Being arational is being full ofreason and openness, because it implies the belief that an imagi-native leap in thought can occur; that very deep instinct exists;that there are higher registers of understanding, knowledge andinsight, some of which will remain intuitive for a very long time.It sees things less as a machine or defined structure and more asan organism that evolves and is emergent as things unfold, wherethe seeming randomness is not mindless. It can be intuited fromwithin a higher pitch. The arational person understands the prin-ciples of connections and processes and is not scared of emotion.They believe emotion is a source of great value and that it enrichesunderstanding. The narrow rationalist eschews emotion and somisses out, and makes decisions without sufficient knowledge andinsight.

The third faultline is the conflict between environmental ethicsand economic rationality. The rise of environmental ethics is asustained challenge to an economic rationality increasinglyregarded as an impoverished theory of choice-making. This ration-ality implies a value set and resulting behaviours and states that thesum of profit-maximizing individual choices and self-interest-drivenbehaviour through ‘the invisible hand’ in the longer run equates topublic good. A central fault is that it assumes that the environmentis a free exploitable resource. ‘Rational’ choice and its associatedeconomic system have led to environmental degradation and


massive pollution. Eco-efficiency on its own is only a small part ofa richer web of ideas and solutions that requires a fundamentalrethinking of the structure and reward system of commerce. Thisimplies developing a regulatory and incentives regime attuned toencouraging resource efficiency by combining innovations in busi-ness practice and public policy. It implies a different taxation systemwhich in essence makes what is considered good for us tax-free andtaxes heavily what is bad. This might relate to encouraging recy-cling, creating local energy-efficient building standards or the publicsector acting as a role model in using alternative sources of energy.To what extent have cities got the independence and power tooperate in this way?

The more urban we become, the more we hanker after the wild,the untamed and unexplored. We want to touch nature and theundisturbed. This mirrors the divide between culture and nature,or that made by humans and that which pre-exists. It mirrors toothe urban/rural split. In other words it is the clash between the arti-ficial and the organic. This is the fourth faultline. The urban standsfor the rational, the logical, the instrumental, the constructed,however little the results speak for its rationality. Thinking drivenby the urban mindset appears to those on the opposite side of thefence as lifeless, lacking in understanding of natural cycles, seasons,forces and rhythms. The divide typically is with the eco-view andexpresses itself in many manifestations contrasting the fast and thefrenzied with the simple and the slow. The growth in organic foodsor farmers’ markets are instances of the latter.

The fifth faultline is the struggle to realign the individual andthe collective in 21st century terms. Many feel individualism hasgone too far. Expressed differently it is about how much we take orhow much we give. How far we are going to remain egocentric orunderstand that being egotistical is a blind alley. The trumpetedchoice of individuals has largely reduced people to consumers witha parallel loss of what it might mean to be a citizen. Instead thebattle is to reframe day-to-day individuality so it embeds a concernfor the larger whole, be this a local community, a city or an activistcampaign. The default position of a new ‘common sense’, howeverdisputed the term, is to consider individual and collective needssimultaneously.

In The Malaise of Modernity, Charles Taylor (1991) suggeststhat the source of our malaise can be largely summed up as individ-ualism and instrumental reason. Individualism has resulted in the


growth of human rights, perhaps the finest achievement of moderncivilization. However, ‘in its debased forms, individualism comeswith a centring on the self, which both flattens and narrows ourlives’, it makes them poorer in meaning and less concerned withothers or with society. Instrumental reason is the kind of rationalitywe draw on when we calculate the most economical means to agiven end, the maximum efficiency.

The combination makes people feel a lack of meaning in theirlives, an emptiness that is filled often materialistically, but does notprovide satisfaction. Private life becomes more important, civic lifeatrophies and when life is moving fast it ‘spins out to a rationaliza-tion that the average citizen is accomplishing a great deal simply bycoping with or even surviving in this modern milieu, never mindbeing expected to assume responsibility for civic engagement andconcern’.3 And remember the Ancient Greek origins of the wordidiot: meaning self-centred, private, separate and only concernedwith self-interest rather than the public or common good.

There are also human attributes that feel like faultlines as theyrarely seem to solve themselves and are constantly present. It isperhaps better to describe them simply as part of the human condi-tion. These determine how we feel, what motivates us, our patternsof behaviour and how we act. Often they oscillate from one extremeto the next. One is the striving for fullness and avoidance of void.There is a yearning for completion, being at one, having a sense ofwholeness that might result in fulfilment. The desire to fill theabsence leads to a striving and the void is filled in various ways –religion, ritual, spirituality, internal mediation. Ultimately theseseemingly abstract things are expressed in the city. It might be aplace of worship, an urban festival or the way a public space is laidout.

Another example is the human tendency to flip betweenneeding anchorage and wanting exploration. Seemingly contradic-tory, but still sensible, this highlights the desire for stability andfamiliarity while constantly striving to experience the new, whichoften merely means consuming something different. Resolving thecontest between new experience and the familiar and fixed createscultural identity. It explains why tourism is so appealing. Thedilemma today is that swaying between the two is happening morequickly and so absorbing what it means is difficult. The great cities,in passing, are those that manage to make you feel you know them,but that you can still explore.


Finally, those with power often want to project the inevitabilityof things as they are. They do not quibble, for instance, at thecommodification of everything – our time, social interaction, everytransaction. They argue that this is economic ‘reality’. Yet a countergroup will always resist and create a backlash, arguing these trendsare merely self-serving. Alternatives are always available.

BattlegroundsDiscussions and policy debates around faultlines often becomebattlegrounds because the nature of debate is intense and contested.Yet there are other battlegrounds less concerned with ultimatepurposes, although at times touching on them. They are usuallyabout significant policy choices and thus more concerned with prag-matics. Each battleground has implications on the future of cities.

To elaborate briefly on a few:

• Multiculturalism versus interculturalism. In the multiculturalcity we acknowledge and ideally celebrate our differing culturesand entrenched differences. In the intercultural city we moveone step beyond and focus on what we can do together asdiverse cultures sharing space. The contention is, as historytends to prove, that the latter leads to greater well-being andprosperity. Yet funding structures are usually predicated on thefirst.

• Environment matters versus the technology fix. Will the regu-latory and incentives regime at differing levels (city, state,nation) be constructed to encourage recycling, renewableenergy resources, energy efficiency and behaviour change ingeneral or will it just be left to the market to produce new tech-nologies?

• Social equity versus disparity. The inclusion and empowermentagenda will remain with us as the dynamic of capital tends toproduce excluding effects which impact more strongly on thedisadvantaged, who have the least capacity to respond. Whatpower do cities have to bend markets to broader social needs?

• Sharing responsibility versus exporting problems to neighbour-ing jurisdictions. The compact cores of major cities havewidespread assets. Some of these, ranging from transportnetworks to cultural infrastructure, need to be maintained bythe public purse. Outlying suburbs which jump over jurisdic-


tions seek to avoid paying appropriate contributions for theiruse by their residents.

• Central versus local. The battle between central and more local-ized power is ever present, yet the trend is towards the local. Ifcities accrue greater powers, do they in aggregate have broaderresponsibilities for their countries? How do they activate this?

• Compaction versus dispersal. It is said that density creates abetter urban fabric since it results in viable activities born ofthe increased vitality and economic efficiency that sprawl dissi-pates. Can cities counteract decades of city-building and habitsthat encourage sprawl? Can cities built with the car in mind bereconfigured to a pedestrian focus and to public transport? Thisis easier for highly textured European cities or dense Asiancities.

• Fear versus trust and openness. The pervasiveness of riskconsciousness and fear come from deeper anxieties about life,from fears for personal safety and of crime to those of out-of-control technology, of the speed and scope of globaliza-tion and its unintended effects, and of unconstrained pollution.This has coincided with the decline of traditional ties, based ontrust, whose value bases anchored people. We need to be opento compete and operate and not draw ourselves into voluntaryghettoes.

• Authenticity versus global markets. The contrast between thereal, the virtual and the fake will move into a new gear. Thesearch for the authentic, distinctive and the unique has becomepervasive as our sense of the ‘real’ and the local is dislocated byvirtual or constructed worlds such as those of cyberspace andtheme parks and standardized, global mass products with littlelink to a particular place. Related to this is the battle betweenchain-store power and its homogeneity and locally distinctiveshopping. Once basic facilities exist, it is difference not same-ness that contributes the most.

• Holism versus specialisms. There is a battle between those whosee issues such as urban decline or how cities as a whole operateas being composed of interacting wholes that are more thansimply the sum of the parts and those who look at the frag-ments within narrow specialisms. Increasingly, we know weneed to see the parts and the whole simultaneously.

• Hard versus soft indicators. What indicators are the mostimportant in measuring the success or failure of organiza-


tions and cities? If competitiveness combines the hard andthe soft, will hard indicators such as levels of employment,growth, income or GDP suffice? Soft factors of competitive-ness are people-related, for example a city’s networkingstrengths, governance capacity, cultural depth and creativemilieus. How do we know where a city stands when these arenot measured?

• Speed versus reflection. Competitive pressure with IT as anenabler speeds up life and makes it shrill to the extent that theslow is increasingly desirable, and not just for the old andinfirm. From the Slow Cities movement to the ‘clock of the longnow’ that will chime only once every 1000 years people aretrying to avoid existence becoming a whistle-stop tour throughlife and then you are dead. This connects to another battle linebetween always emphasizing the next or the past, with thefuturists fighting the nostalgics and rarely anyone living in thepresent.

• Forgetting versus remembering. The residue that remains fromthe past is a selection of what could have been remembered.For instance, the feminist movement helpfully reminds us of thewomen urbanists well beyond the remarkable Jane Jacobs.4

Equally, philosophical and psychological traditions get side-tracked. These are often more than mere battles of history –they reflect power struggles. What we choose to forget andremember reflects a society’s priorities.

ParadoxesA paradox is an incongruity that seems to be contradictory or anoutcome that is different from that envisaged. There are sevenworth highlighting in the context of cities. The first and overarch-ing paradox is the conflict between risk and creativity that will beelaborated upon below. The other six are:

• Calculating tangibles in a world of intangibles. We live in a‘weightless economy’, or an economy of ideas, where 80 percent of wealth is created through intangibles. We talk too ofthe importance of people. Yet our systems of measurement andthe calculation of value are out of step and lag behind realities.For instance, accountancy systems invented in a mercantilistage and developed under industrialism remain largely focused


on measuring assets as material entities. People, who as ideas-generators create most value, are by contrast treated as anaccounting cost even though in the sale of a company they arepart of its goodwill.

As mentioned earlier, too much of our data gathering isbased on nations and static measures when it is cities that arethe driving forces of national economies and it is relations andflows that reveal more about urban dynamics than quantitiesof attributes such as population.

• Accessibility and isolation. Can there be too much access? Beingswamped with cascades of uncontrolled information impossi-ble to filter is a well-known problem. Reflection often thrivesmore on being under-stimulated. Accessibility is deemed anunquestioned good, yet too much accessibility can destroy whatit sets out to do. Unfettered access can make things too popularor bring things into reach too easily. The isolated settlementthat thrives on being distant can suddenly find the outsideworld too close for comfort. It can be overwhelmed by popu-larity fired by a new accessibility and mass mobility. The criticalmass tips from being ‘just right’ to being ‘out of control’. Aheritage setting can inspire and generate welcome tourism. Yetif too many visitors appear, they can drain the lifeblood of anddrown local identity. The result may be that a city’s future isdetermined by the nostalgic past that visitors want to see, butwhich residents do not need, with knick-knack shops, souveniroutlets and interpretative centres that gel the past into aspic.

• Porousness and identity. People need to be porous to new influ-ences as well as to retain their identities. We need to be bothlocal and global to survive in the current world, selectively openand closed at the same time. We need boundaries and bordersto ground and anchor identity as well as bridges to connect usto the outside. Although identity is shaped by a variety offactors, from upbringing and friendship networks to work,crucially it is also rooted in geography and place. In spite ofincreased mobility, a sense of place remains a core value andoften acts as the pivot point around which a person acts. Thistends to mean that cities need to balance being parochial andcosmopolitan.

• Space and density. People want space and density at the sametime. Some will want both, others one or the other. Space is ata premium and will become the benchmark of luxury. Perceived


lack of space will drive location decisions, lifestyle choices,densities and technological development. Systems to optimizespace, such as roads, will develop by making journeys moreefficient through autonomous vehicle control devices involvingsmart card technology so that a greater number of cars cantravel at far higher speeds in convoys on existing roads or bycar sharing. Simultaneously, and in a seemingly contradictoryway, densities will increase as the number of households risesand urban vitality is deemed to come from close-knit mixeduses, so shaping the look and feel of cities.

• City and country. The more we move to the country, the lesslike countryside it will become. According to a recent UK RICSsurvey, only 4 per cent of people want to live in urban areas, afigure constant since similar surveys were first conducted in themid-1990s.14 The overwhelming majority want to live in thecountryside. This will exacerbate the intense pull out of urbanareas, putting pressure on market towns and villages whoseformal integrity will be blown apart by in-fill, edge develop-ments and rises in population. It will all merge into a built-upmass. The overall feeling will be of many highways connectingsome settlements rather than many settlements connected bysome roads. The battle between perceived urban and ruralvalues will surely get worse.

• Age and technology. The capacity to handle technology is aform of power, and the young feel more comfortable with itthan older generations. As technological change drives theeconomy, it could thus transform power relationships betweengenerations. We already know that children teach parents howto use videos, email and the internet: they have become thetranslators of the modern world. In a global culture where agehas engendered respect, what will technology do to social rela-tions when older people feel increasingly disenfranchised? Forsome older people there is a growing sense of being an immi-grant in their own technological country.

Risk and creativityThe landscape of risk5

We are caught between a rock and a hard place. The simultaneousrise of the risk and creativity agenda is one of the great paradoxesof our time, with risk avoidance strategies often cancelling out


inventiveness. Creativity, openness and risk-taking are demandedof us to be competitive in a globalized world and to be inventive toadapt to 21st century needs. At the same time creativity is denied.The evaluation of everything from a perspective of risk is a defin-ing characteristic of contemporary society. Risk is the managerialparadigm and default mechanism that has embedded itself into howcompanies, community organizations, the public sector and mostcities operate. Risk is a prism through which any activity is judged.Risk has its experts, consultants, interest groups, specialist litera-ture, an associational structure and lobbying bodies. A risk industryhas formalized itself.

It subtly encourages us to constrain aspirations, act with over-caution, avoid challenges and be sceptical about innovation. Itnarrows our world into a defensive shell. The life of a communityself-consciously concerned with risk and safety is different fromone focused on discovery and exploration.

Risk consciousness is a growth industry: hardly a day passeswithout some new risk being noted. It is as if risk hovers over indi-viduals like an independent force waiting to strike the unsuspectingcitizen. This might concern personal safety or a health scare. In1994 Factiva noted 2037 mentions of the term ‘at risk’ in UK news-papers; this rose to over 25,000 by 2003.6

The notion of accident seems to have gone from our vocabu-lary. Cleansing the world of accidents means scouring the world forsomeone to blame. Bad luck gets retrospectively reinterpreted ascarelessness. Risk-taking, a positive activity, is viewed negativelythrough a prism of negligence.

This drives a tendency never to blame oneself or to take respon-sibility. Instead many litigate, leading to claims of a ‘compensationculture’, yet that culture feeds on deeper fears. The opportunityside of risk-taking begins to disappear. There seem to be no moregood risks; all risks appear bad. The mood of the times is avertingthe worst rather than creating the good. Guidelines are drawn upon worst-case scenarios. Many say this culture of fear and litiga-tion started in the US and developing from there has been exportedto other societies, where the idea of ‘reasonable endeavour’ had amuch stronger hold.

The media shapes perceptions of risk, creating a climate whichdisposes us to expect bad outcomes. It heightens dangers, it spec-tacularizes issues and even creates panics. Which risk factoremerges within the media or political battlefield can seem arbitrary.


The risk of food poisoning, constantly highlighted, is far less thanrisks caused by sedentary lifestyles encouraged by urban planningthat reduces walkability in our cities and makes people obese.

Consciousness of risk comes in myriad forms. Some have beenwith us for a long time, such as assessing the financial viability ofprojects. Others concerned with safety, health, epidemics or bully-ing are more recent and grabbing most headlines are safetyconcerns about personal injury in the public realm, such as trippingover a tree trunk, stepping off the road into an oncoming car ortearing your trousers on the edge of a park bench. Undoubtedly aperception exists that the public have a greater tendency to seekredress if they suffer an injustice or injury. People look for someoneelse to blame for their misfortune.

The rise of claims management companies help; they advertiseon TV, radio, the press, through direct marketing, street canvass-ing or tele-sales with slogans such as ‘No win, no fee’ or ‘Wherethere’s blame, there’s a claim’. One group in Britain alone gener-ated 15,000 claims per month, selling them on to solicitors, someof whom have up to 10,000 personal injury claims running, withdedicated departments acting like production lines. An environ-ment emerges where suing is seen as an entitlement as when aleading practice was asked, ‘Who can I sue when nobody is toblame?’

The major categories of claims affecting our living environmentare fourfold. Occupier’s liability affects the design of buildings andtheir aesthetic, for instance what railings or banisters are accept-able to ensure no injuries. Liability under the Highways Act affectsthe look of the streetscape, junctions or interchanges. Protectingagainst road accidents results in an increased clutter of barriers,guard rails and excessive signage and signalling. The only defencefor local authorities is to have ‘a reasonable system of inspection’,with everything hinging on the word ‘reasonable’. The basis ofarguments concerns whether it was reasonably foreseeable that anaccident could occur. The boundaries of ‘foreseeable’ are continu-ally being tested and stretched.7

The rise in claims has forced local authorities to enhance theirinspection and maintenance regimes. In Britain Leeds, Cardiff andLiverpool are often cited as having good procedures. For example,when claims clusters occur in specific areas, Leeds targets these forattention. This has affected the culture of maintenance, so mainte-nance is now conducted specifically with the avoidance of claims in


mind rather than seeing the urban environment in terms of criteriasuch as ‘Is it pleasing?’ or ‘Does it feel attractive?’

Concerns about construction industry safety have been wide-spread and involve employers’ liability; there is little criticism of theirsafety improvements, embodied in Britain in the Construction,Design and Management (CDM) regulations which have created newprofessions such as planning supervisors. The process, though, hasaffected urban professionals in pursuing innovations. There is a pref-erence to go for tried and tested technology, materials or procedures.

Ironically there is one area within this where people havebecome blind to risk – ‘megaprojects’8 – because human frailtiescome into play. Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambitionprovides a detailed examination of how promoters of multibillion-dollar megaprojects systematically and self-servingly misinformparliaments, the public and the media in order to get projectsapproved and built. It shows, in unusual depth, that theMachiavellian formula for approval is underestimated costs, over-estimated revenues, undervalued environmental impacts andovervalued economic development effects. This results, the authorsargue, in projects that are extremely risky, but where the risk isconcealed from MPs, taxpayers and investors.

Yet we need to take measured risks as new agendas challengeus – think how the built environment is put together. The sustainability agenda demands new ways of building and some-times using novel materials; new architecture can push at theboundaries of the tried and tested within construction; the desirefor more walkable places can tip the balance between pedestriansand cars. Achieving these aims involves ‘good risks’. They confrontthe legacy of how things have been managed in the past, yet, alignedto a culture of risk aversion, moving forward becomes doubly diffi-cult.

The result of this thinking would be a reframed approach torisk management. A first emblematic step would be to rename thecurrent risk statements as ‘risk and opportunity policy’, where eachside of the coin is equally validated. Most risk statements currentlyfocus on problems rather than possibilities.

A trajectory of risk consciousnessWhat social and political conditions have encouraged a riskperspective on life? The question does not denigrate the contribu-tion risk consciousness makes to addressing legitimate concerns.


The pervasiveness of risk consciousness and aversion comesfrom deeper anxieties about life. They are part of broader histori-cal forces impacting on our sense of self and how we view theworld. From the early 1990s onwards a series of books highlighteda profound shift in our view of the modern world and notion ofprogress embedded in the Enlightenment ethos.9 The increasingdisenchantment targets the Enlightenment’s limitless optimism, thearrogance and over confidence of science and industrialism, thefear that technology is out of control, the speed and scope of glob-alization and its unintended effects, or unconstrained pollution.This has coincided with the decline of traditional ties that providedvalues and models for action and readily understandable identitiesfor individuals, whether through religion, ideology or a fixedcommunity setting. Those value bases anchored people, giving thema purpose and direction allowing them to negotiate life’s travails.The erosion of tradition and taken-for-granted relationships andresponsibilities breaks continuities and establishes uncertaintywithin which individuals have to assess lifestyle options them-selves.10

The paradox is that the freedom of choice projected as libera-tion, especially in the commercial world, is then experienced asfrightening. When little can be taken for granted, like ties ofcommunity, ideology or other forms of solidarity, it is difficult toknow which information to trust and what to predict. This loosen-ing of ties feels like swimming in the rapids with free-floatinganxieties.

Periods of transformation and transition can involve a mix ofheady expectation and worry as the foundations are reassessedbefore they move to a more settled pattern. Within this setting, trustin oneself and others erodes. Everything is uncertain. FrancisFukuyama defines trust as ‘the expectation that arises within acommunity of regular, honest and cooperative behaviour, based oncommonly shared norms, on the part of other members of thecommunity’.11 An absence of trust in humanity shapes our percep-tion of risk. It is a symptom of the cleavages which have made usfearful and risk aware. Misfortune cannot be blamed on acts ofGod so the blame must lie elsewhere.

Risk consciousness rises when conditions of uncertainty andthe perception of powerlessness increase. Unable to control press-ing issues, from environmental degradation, crime and healthhazards to the imbalances created by globalization, the ‘system’ is


to blame for what is wrong. This affects public perceptions and theemotional frame which guides perceptions independent of thereality of risk, so negating objective risk calculations. The sense ofpowerlessness, vulnerability and impotence begins to shape self-identity. The responsible individual as potential maker, shaper andcreator of the environment becomes a passive individual, always onthe receiving end. The world is negotiated as a dangerous junglewith risks lurking in the undergrowth beyond the control ofhumanity. The author of circumstance becomes the victim ofcircumstance. Resilience, alertness and self-responsibility lose swayand by making claims we assert our authority and identity.

How responsibility and accountability is defined is determinedby social and political norms. If we focus on the fragility of peopleit shapes norms of accountability. People who believe they cannotcope will find it difficult to be responsible for their behaviour.

Blame is credited to an external force and the sense of responsi-bility is distanced from ourselves. It legitimates the growth oflitigation and shifts individualism defined as self-sufficiency andpersonal responsibility to a rights-oriented individualism. ‘Theexpansion of the right to compensation is proportional to theshrinking of individual autonomy.’12

Ironically this raises a further paradox, as the science that nowallows us to assess and calculate risk is the science that we blamefor causing risk in the first place. The capacity to absorb the speedof change is difficult, which is why the notion of the precautionaryprinciple has gained currency. That principle suggests we are notmerely concerned about risk but are also suspicious of finding solu-tions. It is best not to take a new risk unless all outcomes can beunderstood in advance. Judgement remains the key in decidingwhere to act with caution and where to give leeway for experiment.

Risk and the urban professions Thirty leading urban professionals, including engineers, architects,project managers, valuers, quantity surveyors, estate agents andproperty developers, were interviewed to assess how their workand perspectives are shaped by risk consciousness. They concluded:

• ‘Risk has moved into the core of what we do.’ ‘Increased riskprocess tends to focus on managing the downside rather thanconsidering potential.’ The consensus is of a clear increase inthe awareness of risk, especially with the development of CDM


regulations. A number noted that risk has sharpened up theirpractices, yet felt it constrained their capacity to innovate andprovide certain design features. ‘There is now little intelligentinterpretation of the rules.’

• ‘The risk industry has a vested interest in a climate of risk.’None of the design professionals is against design reviewprocesses, but there is a hardening view that risk assessmentprofessionals ‘want an increasing climate of risk as it justifiestheir existence’.

• ‘The new planning supervisory and risk assessment roles reducethe risk for themselves.’ Those with responsibility for designtend to believe those attracted to risk assessment are not peoplewith imagination. Acerbically, someone noted, ‘They are fromthe lower end of the gene pool – most of them want the ordi-nary because they can manage the ordinary.’ The notion ofundertaking work on the basis of ‘reasonable endeavour’ isdeclining.

• ‘Do risk assessors understand design?’ Lack of understandingby risk assessors or safety auditors often makes assessmentsinadequate, especially in relation to environmentally sustain-able design. Criticisms centre on a desire for design to be lookedat from a broader, long-term perspective.

• ‘Increased resources are being spent on risk assessment.’Practically every practice is spending more resources on riskthan five years ago. This ranges from employing people withlegal experience or risk assessors as part of instituting newmanagement procedures. Insurance cover for all professionshas increased beyond the level of inflation.

• ‘The rise of intermediaries cramps our style.’ In the past engi-neers dealt with a single client, who might take the whole riskof an innovative project. Now more projects are undertakenthrough intermediaries such as projects managers and contrac-tors. This fragmentation tends to increase risk aversion.

• ‘Passing the parcel on risk.’ In a world of multiple contractingand intermediaries, where is risk located? ‘There is a merry-go-round’ with people trying to pass on and export their risk tosomeone else. Risk should reside with those best able to managea specific risk was the consensus. ‘The price we pay if you createpressures on various consultants to manage their own risk bybuilding in too many safeguards is that engineers will over-design and build in self-preservation and waste.’


• ‘Design for risk rather than against it.’ There should be anassumption, especially in public space projects, that risky activ-ities might occur, such as skateboarding. Rather than designingstreet furniture to repel skateboarders it should be designed towithstand it.

• ‘More safety rather than health conscious.’ The risk agendafrom the perspective of urban professionals focuses too exclu-sively on safety and not health. This stunts debate on creatingurban environments and developing a regulations and incen-tives regime that fosters healthy lifestyles. This ranges fromencouraging public transport use to creating walkable urbansettings or cycling-friendly environments.

• ‘Keeping the client close and consultation.’ The way forwardproffered was to develop risk mitigation strategies by keepingclose to clients and other contractors in a collaborative processof systematic risk assessment. Closeness to clients will helpavoid litigation.

• ‘The biggest risk is not to take the risk.’ The risk of not goingagainst the grain of perceived rules ‘was the far greater one ofcreating depressing cities that do not work emotionally’ sogenerating spin-off problems from crime to vandalism. ‘Ourpalette of possibilities is shrinking.’13

Drivers of changeWe are used to discussing futures by using ‘drivers for change’ asthe template, and the basic drivers are known which determinemuch of what will happen. This is fine as far as it goes, but tendsto tell us little about the depth or severity of a change process andits possible timeline. For this reason faultlines, battlegrounds andparadoxes were discussed first.

The core drivers include: demographics, and especially an ageingpopulation in the West, with inward migration balancing outexpected skills and job shortages; globalization, which will moveforward unabated; global terms of trade, which will shift inexorablyto favour the East; technology transfer periods, which will reducedramatically; and climate change, which will hasten the end of theoil economy and speed up the search for energy alternatives.

New issues will rise to the fore and shape urban decision-making. These include:


• The health and urban design agenda, which will push debateon city-making more towards the New Urbanism agenda.Public health and urban design will come together. Health-promoting urban design will emerge as a central planning issueover the next decades, underpinned by arguments for contain-ing the car, increasing pedestrian-friendly environments,controlling out-of-town shopping, creating local facilitieswithin walking distance, making cities more compact andinvesting in public transport.

• Safety, surveillance and a public realm. Safety and responses toterror will determine how cities are built and managed. The‘watchful eye’ of surveillance will be with us wherever we go incities. People will choose to live in voluntary physical ghettoesand gated communities will proliferate which parallel themental ghettoes they create to block out a seemingly uncon-tainable world. This is why the fake experience is easier formany to cope with than reality. The question is, What types ofgated enclaves are created from the urban design point of view?Crime and fear of crime, which regularly come at the top ofpeople’s concerns, affect the way the built environment isconstructed. Troublesome trade-offs will need to be negotiated,such as those between convenience, cost and profitability;privacy, freedom and creating sustainable environments; andlegal and ethical norms. Design tactics will become moresophisticated in anticipating and blocking criminal activity.

Variations of gated enclaves have always existed, kitted outwith a diversity of surveillance devices. How will argumentsfor public realm investment be made in a context where no onefeels public space has anything to offer? Will urbanitycompletely disappear in the newer gated communities whichtend to be severed from the local community, with everythingsealed within a fortress?

• Time and the spectacular. People increasingly perceive them-selves to be ‘time poor’ and yet dream of being time andexperience rich. The commercial sector will respond andincreasingly seek to make all experiences, especially leisureactivities, more intense and spectacular in an attempt to givethem greater impact and meaning. This will affect design, espe-cially for shopping, culture and education facilities. The sameis true for public authorities, who will increasing feel they needto play the game of ‘urban iconics’, throwing up ever more


spectacular buildings to catch attention. Additionally, new,more invasive ‘spectacularizing’ technologies will emerge asknowledge from brain research cascades down into commercialapplications, giving rise to neuromarketing whereby the indi-vidual at a conscious level does not realize they are being soldsomething. One effect may be the increasingly animated adver-tising hoardings that both lull soporifically and excite. Thepressure to maximize every moment, and increased globaliza-tion, will encourage the development of truly 24-hour cities.Compressing time may increase the speed of events to a pointwhere people cannot, or will not, make the necessary psycho-logical adaptation. This is likely to generate a counter-reactiontowards slowing things down again. The Slow Cities movementis an example of such an ethos-driven development.

Crucially, pre-existing decisions and dominant ideas and mindsetsare the forgotten drivers. What shapes present decisions more thanthe decisions that have preceded them and the intellectual architec-ture of those that make them? But precedent and ideology arerarely, if ever, mentioned in terms of the future. Pre-existing deci-sions, such as those which have resulted in the houses, shoppingmalls, roads and industrial sheds already built, are significant deter-minants of the future look and feel of the city, narrowing the rangeof alternative choices, for good and for bad. The future, longer-term plans of cities, such as the expansion of airports, land-usedecisions and tourism developments, also tell us now what citieswill be. The shape, style and form of the future city is in essenceembedded in the laws, regulation, codes and guidelines of thepresent. A simple way to assess whether such decisions were rightis to ask some simple questions: Does this building or structure say‘yes’ or ‘no’? Does it feel right emotionally? Is it good enough formy city? Once standards are raised in these kinds of ways, it ispossible to bring in a language of city-making long lost. Beauty canbe demanded from a shed, a mall or an industrial estate, let alone aresidential apartment block.

How dominant ideas and mindsets affect what we do is forgot-ten. The central idea of our civilization is the notion of business logicand efficiency and economic rationality. It has significant merits, butdoes not tap the complexities of human behaviour. Its ideas providethe warp on which the patterns of our behaviour are encouraged tobe woven. It affects the language we use and the discourse of public


affairs. It entraps us, however much we talk of ‘thinking outside thebox’. So there are often surprises when people do not behave ‘logi-cally’. Cold economic logic is coupled with the rise ofmanagerialism, with its colourless, grey, neutralized language ofprocess that has little flavour or energy. Not surprisingly, civicengagement and connection is in decline. The managerial logic spillsover into other domains that traditionally worked on different prin-ciples, such as ethics, morality, justice, voluntary work and the ideaof the public. Yet discussion of such concepts is now shaped by thelanguage of ‘efficiency’. Because ‘efficiency’, when narrowly defined,seems to work by definition, it is a given. But it favours means overends and process over broader ambitions. When efficiency is itselfthe end, it strips out other life values, creating as many problems asit solves by promoting short-term thinking.

Some will say, ‘So what?’ The logic of efficiency affects howissues like public transport, waste management or service provisionare addressed since it conditions deeper, wider mindsets. It becomesdifficult to ask questions like, ‘What is transport for?’ because theefficiency criterion makes it difficult to calculate ‘soft’ benefits.

ALIGNING PROFESSIONAL MINDSETS15

The cities we have disappoint. Too many do not work as a fine,webbed whole, although there are urban delights in parts – thewell-crafted building, an occasional housing estate, an upliftingicon, a buzzy retail centre or a comforting, small park. Too oftenwe turn to the past to look for urban features we like: in Britainthis might be the sweeping crescents of Bath, the streets of York,the lanes of Brighton, London’s Regency squares, a village neigh-bourhood like Hampstead, the market hub of Norwich or thegardens of once grand houses. Think of Italian cities, which in oursurveys of cities people like usually come on top. Again peopleusually refer to the older fabric and not the new. There are too fewexamples from today. What went wrong? Have we all lost the artof city-making? Is it to do with us, our addiction to cars, our loveof asphalt and our blindness to pollution? Or is it down to forcesbeyond our control, such as the overwhelming needs of globalcompanies? The fact is that when you try to replicate the princi-ples of those places we like the rules usually forbid it. For instance,the intimacy we might try to create is seen as a safety problem,


because a fire engine cannot drive down as it needs at least twiceits own width or a turning circle needs to be extra wide just in casean articulated lorry comes your way, so making a physical settinglose its sense of place.

We have increasing expertise in the technical aspects that makeup the city, a neighbourhood or a building: the qualities of materials,heating and ducting systems, air circulation, sound- and damp-proof-ing, road-building methods, the carrying capacity of new engineeringstructures, demographic prediction, spatial modelling. We can speed-build with new techniques. Scientific studies on every conceivablemicroscopic aspect multiply and proliferate. We go down narrowfunnels, increasingly separating the parts from the whole. Weconsider feasibilities, we cost, we predict, we project plan, projectmanage, review, assess, monitor, evaluate. Yet we still seemed to havelost the plot. We regenerate one kind of area – former light industrialzones, say – and no sooner than we have done this, another type likeinter-war housing estates raises its ugly head. But somehow it doesnot hang together and we seem no closer to better cities.

Escaping the siloWhat aspects of city-making get left out in the gaps between theprofessions and who is responsible? Often the physical spaces inbetween – the public realm. It is simply undervalued. And secondly– since a city is made up of both hard and soft infrastructures –social, cultural, psychological and sometimes even economicdomains get overlooked.

Professionals can become entrenched in silos. Being a profes-sional shapes a person’s self-identity and, allied to the ‘natural’tendency to act tribally, are the traditional views of more hierarchi-cally based management. Knowledge and specialism silos can ossifywithout proper communication to outside learning and develop-ment communities as there is little discussion and challenge ofassumptions. Such silos see the world from their own point of view.It becomes difficult to make bigger-picture strategies. Criticizingsilos does not mean we should all know a little about many thingswithout deep knowledge of a particular subject. Instead it impliesthat more important, higher-order forms of thinking, understand-ing, knowledge, interpretation and behaving exist that should shapehow the silo works. This will make silos more porous and perme-able and give them the lifeblood they need to develop and expand.


The play of similarities and differences between insights is centralto good city-making and the differences should be exploited as theyenlarge the whole. The best professionals know the other silos welland allow themselves to be influenced by other insights.

Some solutions have been proffered in response to a series ofcrises of confidence in the main built environment professions.These have been attacked from various quarters about what theyhave done to cities over the last 30 years. Urban design emerged asa discipline and profession and sought to put the fragments togetheragain as a means of giving coherence and continuity to urban devel-opments. Urban design highlights the need for collaborativeworking too, but still remains largely a physical discipline.

There is a new wave of change occurring in Europe, NorthAmerica and Australia. In Britain is was initiated by the RichardRogers’ Urban Renaissance report and the development of RegionalCentres of Excellence as well as the Office of the Deputy PrimeMinister’s ‘sustainable communities’ agenda and the Egan Reviewof New Skills for Sustainable Communities. They all have beenhelpful in shifting the debate and setting out its new terms. TheEgan Review16 reminds us usefully that nearly all of us are part ofmaking sustainable places, from the core professions whose full-time job it is, through associated professionals whose impact is alsogreat, to the wider public. It outlines a set of generic skills, behav-iours and ways of thinking that are requirements for movingforward, such as ‘inclusive visioning’, team-working, leadershipand the ability to manage processes and change. Crucially, they arenot discipline specific. The review lists over 100 jobs cutting acrossseveral dozen professions. The first group includes those whoseprimary concern is planning, delivering and maintaining sustain-able communities, including the elected and appointeddecision-making classes, from politicians, members of regenerationpartnerships and agency leaders to infrastructure providers. Thesecond group consists of those whose contribution is very impor-tant, such as the police or health professionals. The third widerpublic group includes those whose active engagement is important,such as local residents, the media and school children.

This agenda has also begun to impact on the more enlightenedparts of the development community and professions, becauseseeing the world through a sustainable communities prism reshapesnot only goals and priorities, but also how to get there. The tide isturning positively even though there is much to be done.


Whole connections and specialist partsWe now have a greater understanding of the connections betweenthings. For centuries we have been splitting knowledge and insightinto fragments, boxes and segregations. From this have grownmany inventions and innovations, albeit moving along a narrowfurrow. The evaluation of everything from a perspective of special-ism and narrowness is a defining characteristic of contemporarysociety. Narrowness is the paradigm and default position that hasembedded itself into how companies, community organizationsand the public sector operate, even while partnership building is amantra of the age. Others prefer to call this narrowness ‘focus’.For the majority, narrowness is the prism through which any activ-ity is judged. Narrowness also has its experts, advocatesconsultants, interest groups, specialist literature, associationalstructure and lobbying bodies. It has formalized itself. This hasmade us lose the art of holistic thinking.

Holism is a scientific theory with a proud history of over 100years, but its insights were battered into submission in the race tounderstand ever smaller bits of the puzzle, whether this was howcities work or nuclear physics. Yet we should remember that nativeor aboriginal people have been thinking holistically for millennia.Holism as a theory emphasizes the whole and connections over theparts. In the context of the city, it stresses the relationships betweenelements such as transport, social life and the economy. It argues thatyou cannot understand a system such as a city by merely looking atparts, like traffic, in isolation from its effects. Ecological awarenessand environmental distress have revived an interest in holism. It hasrefocused us on chains, loops, cycles and feedback mechanisms.Transferred to cities it has made us see connections between thedifferent domains: the environmental, social, economic and, at last,also the fourth pillar of sustainability, the cultural. For far too long,the cultural has been neglected, yet it is cultural literacy that in facthelps us understand where a place has come from and what is impor-tant to it and has meaning. It helps us understand the present andthus possible futures too. If we are culturally confident rather thanself-effacing, we are much more likely to take the necessary risks tomove ahead. (In fact the cultural should be seen as overarching, as itdetermines how other areas are conceived and perceived.)

Thinking through the issues a city throws up, the city needsmany experts. Since most opportunities or problems are inextrica-


bly interwoven, experts need to take account of each other. Yetordinary citizens are also experts – they are certainly the expert oftheir own concerns and what they want. ‘Taking account of’ shouldnot be seen as a marginal add-on once the basic decisions have beenmade. The list of urban issues is well known and extensive: choicesof shelter at varying standards and sizes; comfort; warmth; makingservices – from rubbish and waste removal to maintaining roadsand walkways – work; the capacity to move around in cars, bikesor public transport; the ability to earn money in varying places ofwork, from offices to factories; the ability to shop in differing typesof outlets; to have fun; to be artistically challenged; the availabilityof facilities for health or social care; spaces to relax and reflect,meet people and interact; spaces to avoid noise, to escape intonatural surroundings, to feel safe; to be free of vandalism; to reducefear and crime; and to be part of decision-making.

Which of these factors are more important? Clearly the builtfabric is key: it sets the frame and provides the setting within whichthe city conducts its business and goes about its life. Not everystructure works. If it is ugly and projects itself as if it were saying‘no’, leaves out consideration of how people use space, uses cheapmaterials, impedes the pedestrian through a clutter of obstacles andsigns, or is insufficiently accessible, it affects the rest of the urbansystem negatively. For the city to work well requires more than thesimply utilitarian, although the practical and functional remainskey, as inspiration is required to motivate. That motivation hasmanifold downstream impacts, from the ability to get a job to aspir-ing to learn and do better for oneself. This reintroduces the idea ofbeauty, a word long lost from our urban lexicon. A simple devicemay be for cities to ask themselves, ‘Is this beautiful (and practical)enough for us?’ Addressing how people feel about their city is not‘just another burden we have to bear’ but tangibly affects the valueof property, how long it will last and reduces maintenance costs. Tomake the varied urban factors mesh well means assessing mutualinterdependencies and impacts.

The life of the city shaped by a community of professionals self-consciously concerned with niches or specialisms is different fromone focused on connecting and integrating their knowledge withothers. This specialist focus has shaped the growth of urban profes-sions, usually seen as those concerned with the physical: engineers,planners, surveyors, architects. They have associational structuresthat mirror the shafts of light they throw on to city-making. Their


list of abbreviations exemplifies the profusion of organizations anddivisions. In Britain they include APS, CIBSE, CIOB, CIH, CILT, ICE,IHIE, IHT, ILT, IMECHE, IstructE, LI, RIBA, RICS, RTPI and TCPA.

However open-minded the professions are, it is in their inter-ests to claim special knowledge and specialist knowledge is needed.Often this is translated into technical codes, standards, guidelinesand directives. This is not to decry the specialist, but to avert thetendency for particular professions to feel they are ‘the top dog’ ofcity-making. Architects, it is argued, feel they have the monopolyon three-dimensional design because they can draw. Planners mightsee themselves as ‘the kings of the process’ because they know thesteps to the agreed plan. And surveyors might consider themselvesthe arbiters of every kind of value, even though there are broaderdefinitions as to what value is.

In arguing for integrated thinking and cross-cutting team work,a sustainable response to the challenge must be a cultural onearising from the heart of the professions’ values and purpose, ratherthan an add-on approach which mimics a changed mindset.Integration is about mutual respect and the ability of the variousteam members to be full and equal members of a project. Integratedworking implies allowing others to comment on or even rewrite thescript or rules of a project. This does not displace the architect,engineer, planner or other professional: it invites them to rethinkhow their gifts and experience can be opened to genuine partner-ship within an honest, reflexive conversation. It means workingtowards professional institutions whose interpretation of city-making is dynamic, aware of the tensions between perspectiveswithin contemporary society and more instrumental as a result. Itmeans forging new hybrid and evolving practices which secure ourshared values and goals.17

There remains a misalignment between the challenges and tasksof city-making and the types of thinking, intelligences and skills weapply to it or give legitimacy to. This is a faultline of major propor-tions. The primary aspect of this is between the dominance of hardinfrastructure professionals, from engineers and architects overthose concerned with soft infrastructure, those who understandsocial, psychological, cultural and economic dynamics. In the hier-archy, the built environment professions are deemed to be on top.Perhaps at the beginning of the process others are consulted, butonce the ‘real’ project starts, ‘the regen lads’ take over as the moreexciting activity of getting things on the ground takes hold.


There is a need for more cross-connections between plannersand historians, developers and sociologists, and surveyors andhealth professionals. A useful technique is to consider ‘outcomeswaps’ in implementing a city vision. Here a planner might becharged with gearing plans to the goals of health professionals,thereby considering, say, obesity issues in thinking through urbandesign. The same notion might work with transport plannerstaking on the mantle of the person concerned with social inclusionor the head of environment taking on the mantle of transport plan-ning.

Each profession has its value, but none fosters key elements ofthe combined qualities of thinking required for city-making: holis-tic, interdisciplinary, lateral; innovative, original, experimental;critical, challenging, questioning; people-centred, humanistic, non-deterministic; ‘cultured’, knowledgeable, critically aware of thepast; and strategic.18

Stereotypes and the professionsUrban transformation lives with the legacy of stereotypes as eachprofession and their associated institution finds ways of justifyingits primacy or dominance. In interviewing the professions in theFuture London survey I asked each what they thought of the other,what they thought others thought of them, and whom they admiredand for what qualities. I was attempting to get a 360-degreeperspective. The aim was to explore their frustrations in findingways of working across disciplines with mutual respect, includingthe soft disciplines, and in addition how new knowledge could beembedded into the common sense of city-making. Rather thangetting the developer or engineer to say, ‘And now I also have tolearn about this facilitation and consultation stuff,’ the goal was toreach an understanding that a broader perspective helps achievetheir personal, professional objectives better as well as those of city-making as a whole.

We live in a world of clichés and stereotypes. By using these theaim is not to complain about any particular profession or addanother layer of prejudice. Stereotypes are revealing about percep-tions or prejudices and useful in helping to assess and overcomeobstacles. Like all caricatures, stereotypes are grotesque, yet theyretain a grain of truth and can be amusing, even though the imagesoften linger long after realities on the ground have moved on.


A difficulty is that each profession is taken as a catch-all, when infact there are great distinctions within each profession. Forexample, there are many types of surveyor, such as building, quan-tity or planning surveyors, and many types of planner, such asspatial, development-control or more process-oriented planners.Linked to stereotyping is scapegoating. Yet who gets the blamechanges over time: the spatial planner today, the highway engineertomorrow. I offer the following composite sketches based on verba-tim remarks from these interviews, strung together to form anarrative. These are by no means scientific, but there is merit inhighlighting prevailing assumptions and incomprehensions. Theconclusions do not constitute the whole truth, but they will containelements of it.

The planner‘Planning is about fairness and sorting out the muddle.’ ‘They plan,they project into the future.’ ‘Planning attracts people who want tomake a difference. They have a social conscience, but are depressedat being worn down.’ ‘They have become grey-haired, especiallythose in planning control. Spatial planners are less grey because theyfeel they are shaping the city.’ ‘But the way the system now works isthat increasingly the private consultants are doing the creative stuff,leaving the public sector planners to deal with the drudgery.’ ‘Thecliché of the planner is that they are bearded, a bit left-wing and havea social agenda.’ ‘They are worthy and their origins compared to anarchitect are more likely to be working-class.’ ‘They are downtrod-den, spending their time holding back the floodgates; but theygenerate quite a lot of sympathy since they are treated quite badly,and more and more of them are thinking, “I’ve had enough, I canbarely cope.” And there is a lot of exasperation that the governmentis not making their life easier, the whole system is under-resourced –so the system can’t work.’ ‘There is a huge gulf between the best andworst of planners, and the outside world can’t understand why plan-ning procedures can not be business-driven.’ ‘I understand theaccountability issues, but why are the processes so slow?’ ‘Plannersare quite defensive, they stand between a rock and a hard place – thelocal community says that you don’t listen, and the developers saythat you don’t act.’ ‘Architects see planners as dull, dowdy, bureau-cratic, nit-picking, with a lack of imagination.’ ‘Planners andarchitects are in an adversarial position. The planner decides whatthe architect can’t do.’ ‘Planners are very processy, they go step by


step.’ ‘They have a tidy mind and tidy, unflashy dress. In fact they area bit anal.’ ‘The surveyor sees the planner as bureaucratic, with alack of a sense of realities, a bit self-serving and focused on commit-tees.’ ‘Planning in itself tends to rely on analysis and objectively seeingwhat the problem is; there is a particular twist in developmentalcontrol – it is reactive; it has not got a huge amount of creativity;there is too much emphasis on rules, looking at others. It’s notinstinctive. There’s less trust in terms of planners trusting their ownjudgement. These planners don’t speculate, they like to assess others.’‘Actually, most of the time it is not the planners who are to blamebut the local politicians who hide behind them.’ ‘Politicians see plan-ners as servants, as servile staff, handling the brunt end of complaintsand consultation.’ ‘Planners try to read the politician’s mind so don’tdare step out of line and so take less risks.’ ‘Planners should freethemselves.’ ‘They do have a mindset – to some extent. Planners liketo locate in space – they have this in common with geographers andarchitects. They are not comfortable unless they can see things intwo-dimensional form, and they like to think longer term. In the past,say 40 years ago, they connected with social planners, with peoplelike Norman Dennis or Michael Young.’ ‘You can date-stamp plan-ners: first there is the 60s mindset – this was their high water mark;then in the 80s they were clamped down upon – they were seen asinterventionists and intervention was a bad word. I don’t think theyhave quite recovered yet.’ ‘Planners feel disempowered. They weremore confident some while back. They used to be about big-picturevision – now less so.’ ‘Thirty years ago they had big thoughts. Whothinks the big thoughts about cities now? Some architects, less theplanners.’ ‘There has been a certain loss of status. This affects whocomes into the profession, their quality is less than good enough.’‘Planners used to be creators of development, rather than controllersof process.’ ‘The 60s crowd had a statist attitude; planners were civilservants in all but name, but were pursuing a public agenda for thepublic good. Now there is a much more open situation and a recog-nition that the private and voluntary sectors have a role. Now theprofession is very porous. They move around more between sectors.’‘In getting a broader approach going, planners have a slight advan-tage. More of them have recognized that a team approach isnecessary – it is part of their role to search for consensus.’ ‘Yet plan-ners feel they are everybody’s scapegoat, they cause delays, they takeforever, they feel under siege. The word planning is tarnished. Theonly TV programme with them in it is Blot on the Landscape.’ ‘This


makes the profession attract a certain type of person – the ones thatservice the mud worms. At times they are people who can’t be both-ered to move on.’ ‘They have some visual knowledge, but weren’tgood at art, so they like to fall back on rules – they are a like civilbureaucrats.’

The surveyor‘Surveyors – they’re straight down the line; they deal in facts notfancy, they’re realistic, they’re not interested in sensibilities.’ ‘Theylook at what’s there – they survey.’ ‘They basically measure things,they know how to count, how to cost. They can’t draw.’ ‘They’vegot lots of sub-heads, there are various families like quantity, build-ing, or planning surveyors – basically they are land economists.’‘They understand values, they compare prices, they say, “This soldfor that then, so that could sell for this now.”’ ‘They see the worldthrough a rear-view mirror. The trend is their friend, they’re nottoo good at speculating.’ ‘Surveyors are concerned with values andvalue for money. A good building, surveyors think, must be well-costed.’ ‘It’s always about defining things and values in a monetarysense.’ ‘Surveyors share with the economist the idea that thenumeraire is really important, but they are more commerciallyfocused.’ ‘The dominant group are now estate agents. They areknowledgeable about transactions, prices, rents, broking – [but] asmaller number are knowledgeable about buildings.’ ‘They knowthe price, but do not ask, “Why is it this price?” They are market-aware, they spot opportunities.’ ‘The building surveyor is moremodest – they are more like technicians than transactors.’‘Surveyors are not thoughtful, but they’re not stupid [either]. Thebest will build networks to understand prices.’ ‘They have toconnect to gain market knowledge, so they are quite worldly in ajovial sense.’ ‘They see themselves as good-hearted people.’‘Surveyors are more adaptable than some other professions, as theytend to be realists. They are materialists and pragmatists – they arenot into imagining or that stuff about social values.’ ‘Surveyors arenot thinking about place but the market.’ ‘“We’ve got to get thefigures right,” they say. “These are the facts, right or wrong.”’ ‘Fewsurveyors have gone down the thoughtful route – that’s not wherethe money is, surveyors are quite into money.’ ‘I was recently intro-duced as an ‘unusual, thoughtful surveyor’, as if that were odd.’


The engineer ‘I am not a person who says engineers are a curse on you: the mostexciting structures are combinations of architects and engineers;structural engineers are nearly always creative, as are civil engineers.But traffic engineers – they have become the bogeyman – their strictadherence to codes and rules without thinking of their consequencesis the problem. Think of Calatrava today or Brunel, Eiffel, Roebling,Strauss or Khan.19 ‘Ah, did you know that in the past a mild formof autism was called engineer’s disease?’ ‘As far as anyone can beblamed for the urban mess it is the highway engineer. They don’tunderstand how people, roads and places work.’ ‘Engineers arebound by performance measures, codes, standards, criteria, guide-lines.’ ‘Their explicit codes contain an implicit culture.’ ‘The civilengineer will ask, “Will the forces operate correctly? They will aslong as we have laid down the proper criteria.”’ ‘They tend to havea belief in an optimum – there is the perfectly functioning system.There cannot be a mistake. For example, the bridge has to stand.’‘Usually this works according to a theoretical design. Thus whenthey’re looking at transport they see it as a flow problem – its allabout hydraulics.’ ‘They insist on huge splays or wide turning circlesso there is no accident, messing up the feel of the city along the way.’‘The ideal is a congestion-free environment. They’re not very inter-ested in counterposing considerations or arguments.’ ‘The code ofengineers is by default designing the urban fabric. Their guidelinesaffect everything we see, and if there is no conscious place-making –and not many engineers are into that – we go by default patterns.’‘Ooh – “The highwaymen,” I call them. I’ve had trouble with them,they have a smug certainty that right is on their side, they’re on theside of God. Their arguments are always scientific – they coulddemonstrate through reason how things worked and the conse-quences when they don’t work.’ ‘They operate in a pseudo-scientificenvironment trying to find a way through to scientific certainty.Now when you ignore everything else, this is of course easy.’‘Basically they can’t handle the emotional.’ ‘You can’t have emotionscoming into this. You could feel them thinking, “This is rational.”’‘You can’t beat them on their own ground. They always had themodels or the data to back them up. In the end it was about blud-geoning them and winning over the politicians by appealing to adifferent side of their brain and with new kinds of arguments aboutwhat makes a good place.’ ‘Christmas lights are done by the high-ways people – just see the results.’


The architect‘They always look neat, the rimmed glasses, a controlled stylishness,tidy, sharpened pencils, ideally 2B. They’re really unhappy not beingable to implement.’ ‘Architects claim they can see in three dimen-sions, so they think they have a monopoly on building cities.’ ‘Theydraw and create designs and underneath this there is the assumptionthat if these are thrilling then that’s fine as they judge things aesthet-ically – they are not very concerned about how things work.’ ‘Onemanifestation of architects is their desire to be different.’ ‘They liketo make statements about themselves.’ ‘People often moan aboutarchitects – they say they go off on their own. Part of the problem isunderstanding that you need to keep up with them and make moredemands.’ ‘Architects’ creativity needs to be harnessed – they needto understand the overall vision of the place, to see the bigger picturebeyond just their building. We need better briefing and control.’‘Too often people think you need a showman, but for many jobsyou need the basics – [for example] the mending of places. Thus,more architects need to be into small-scale interventions.’ ‘Architectssee themselves as artists, they think the visual thing is the mostpowerful tool, although some are very into the technical aspects.That may be true, but many others can also draw, or a person witha fine feel for cities could ask someone to draw something on theirbehalf.’ ‘If drawing is seen as the main skill for building a city, thismeans that anyone with a social feel for how cities work has nothingto say or no power.’ ‘The slightly overblown sense that architectshave of themselves is that historically they were so often the overallimpresario, especially when the notion of planning permission cameinto being.’ ‘Whose know-how now is actually building the build-ing? Large parts are invented by companies doing all the componentbits, which you buy off the shelf. In the past the architects did more.You don’t design anymore – you choose the doors or windows, eventhough the architect tries to put it all together.’ ‘Architects tend tothink of themselves as having a godlike power. They have the moralhigh ground.’ ‘They believe they understand everything, like howcities work. They have solutions to understand things, like master-planning, innately.’ ‘How much harder is it for the communitydevelopment worker with no understanding of planning and archi-tecture to get their oar in?’ ‘They think they should be dominant –at present they are, but it is not axiomatic that they should be. Youneed hybrids of knowledge to make places – geographers, plannersand so on.’ ‘You can see the dominance thing in terms of urban


design – this is fought over. Architects claim only they should bedoing it – it’s implicit in what they know, but in fact a battle is goingon.’ ‘Architects say they are good at lateral thinking, but now theyalso need to learn to be finishers and to listen to others.’ ‘But I fretthat my own profession is extremely narrow.’ ‘In terms of publicsector architects, you feel they feel frustrated, that they ought to bein private practice. In part this is driven by the image others put onyou – you are here because you aren’t good enough for the privatesector. People think that a stronger personality and flair is necessaryfor that.’ ‘The best public architects have had to create a differentnarrative along the lines of “I may not have that much flair but I doknow how to do functional buildings well, to budget and on time.”’‘Landscape architects are really a derivation of the architects, butthey also have an environmental interest – they are more ecological,more modest, less showy, and more sensitive.’

The property developer‘Cigar-chomping is the stereotype. This is true but untrue – whenyou work in a quasi-public realm, as we inevitably do, you can’t justchomp cigars.’ ‘The other [stereotype] is fat cat developer, brash,knock up stuff quickly. They do not pay attention. They want tomake money as quickly as possible.’ ‘They do make money when itworks – but many fail – property development is vulnerable.’ ‘Manypeople working in the public sector think they are non-elected inter-lopers without a mandate who want to introduce hamburger joints.They’re rapacious capitalists who would concrete over the city. Andin reverse developers think planners are overly bureaucratic, hinder-ing development, unable to make a decision… The communitysector is seen [by property developers] as wanting handouts and notunderstanding the needs of business; they have a halo, sitting therecross-legged with a begging bowl.’ ‘The development industry hasmany layers. There are the traditionals – the PLCs. They make apoint that they care, they genuinely want to do their best. They seethemselves as having a duty to shareholders, they take trouble tobuild an environment that is as good and creative as possible.’ ‘Butwhether property developers are using property for the social good– that’s nearly incomprehensible. Whether their public spirit extendsor whether they would do loss leaders that depends. They might aslong as it was consistent with making a profit.’ ‘The same goes forsustainability, you have to take it seriously as part of managing risk.Developers are not trying to save the world, but take it into account


in order to run their business well.’ ‘Urban Catalyst or Urban Splash,they are another category who have managed to combine variousgoals.’ ‘They’re not doing philanthropy.’ ‘They’re clever at spottingan opportunity. Genuine care is not enough – you have to under-stand how you can play in these complicated markets.’ ‘Thereremains a strong element where property is just a financial play, acommodity. Someone I know makes a point of never looking at theproperty he pays for: these folks do our image no good.’ ‘Theessence of property development is about supply and demand, wherethe product is an office or housing. You’re only successful in prop-erty if people use your building. It has to be customer-focused.Property developers are like manufacturing shopkeepers. Yourespond to what goes off the shelf. They’re not intrinsically inter-ested in cities – that’s why we need to get them to appreciate cities,because in the longer run it’s to their benefit.’ ‘Developers are aderivation from a surveyor – where you really need to understandvalues and how to create values. Your penalty for failing to under-stand economic value is bankruptcy.’ ‘In a way, propertydevelopment is not a profession like surveying. It’s about respond-ing to and suiting the moment.’ ‘Whilst they are seen asmoney-grabbing, vulgar and exploiting, many developers see them-selves as saving the world.’ ‘Some are trying to reconsider what theydo, less as builders of development and more as facilitators of oppor-tunity. This means they have to learn new skills like gettingstakeholders together or consulting people.’ ‘In any case, the bigdevelopments are very complex; you have to bring together teamswhere the economic development people play a key role.’ ‘To makeour developments work and bring people together, our communitywants a good, strong, transparent and fair planning system.’

And many others…The above are thumbnail sketches of the predominant building-focused professions. There are many other professions of relevance,and hackneyed (and sometimes pertinent) descriptive short cuts tomatch:

The economist‘Economists, the cliché goes, say, “It looks as if it will work in prac-tice, but will it work in theory?”’ ‘They have an automatic responsethat the market will work, even though it can create negative exter-nalities, and although economists invented externalities, they tend


to think disturbances should take care of themselves as the remedyis worse than the cure.’

The project manager‘The project manager in essence derives from quantity surveying –you have to ensure the job is closely specified throughout to avoiddeviations from the bill of quantity so no cost overruns occur andto ensure you’re not held up in terms of critical path management.Time is money, so specifications are everything – just think of thepenalties.’ ‘They are not a creative breed, you can’t let good ideasget in the way of a tight time and budget schedule.’

The social worker‘They’re a fire-fighting occupation.’ ‘They gaze over the abyss somuch that they become depressed – they are socialized into wheretheir clients are, they have total empathy with the group they arelooking after. The environment is so powerful on them and gets inthe way.’

The community developer‘These people from community development backgrounds also holdstereotypes about other people, such as “the council is the enemyof the state” or “the private sector by definition has it in for you”,and they are very process-oriented.’ ‘It’s still very threatening forthem when a non-professional comes in with a mission, say linkingthe arts to a social goal. “Who is this loose cannon?” they think.They’re just as much into silos as any other profession.’

The cultural developer‘The cultural people, they are marginalized.’ ‘If you want culture inthe mainstream of city development you have to understand otherlanguages. I’d be in a far weaker position had I not been able tospeak the language of education, or had not worked with the prop-erty division and got into the priorities of engineers or surveyors.’‘If you don’t understand where they are coming from, you getnowhere. It’s like going to France with no French.’ ‘We need morepeople who can translate across professions, and people with acultural background are good at this.’ ‘Actually for most profes-sions, you look to a bible, like for planners or engineers. There is norule book in culture. Culture is about assessing what’s important ina place and this is different from place to place. Most rules are there


so you follow them – for good reason – but it squeezes out flexibil-ity. Take the cinema complex, for example. It’s worth £2 million andwe want to spend £4 million to refurbish it. To the cultural sectorthis is not an issue – as value is also cultural, not only financial.When we talk of culture in this way we’re seen as oddballs, andwhen we break rules to empower people this is a big challenge. Butbeing a maverick has its limits. If you’re seen as a nutter, you’re nottaken seriously, which is why we must mainstream.’

The civil servant‘And then as an overlay on this you have the civil servants, whofeel themselves to be good – they are risk-averse, you mustn’t rockthe boat, accountability is key; they start off as being honest andright and then become distorted. They then [become] so muchinvolved in managing risk, they stop doing the best for life as life isnot risk-free.

Balancing skillsStereotypes become less and less applicable as professions learn towork across boundaries. Further, new groupings such as regenera-tion specialists are emerging. They are slightly broader and at theirbest they are multidisciplinary, multiskilled multitaskers, but theystill do not sufficiently incorporate the softer insights into theirpractice.

We still remain in a period where ‘everyone thinks they havereasons to be dominant’ and ‘everyone feels justified in their ownterms to justify this’. Yet ‘silos don’t matter if people have a visionbeyond their specialism and can see how their specialism fits in’. ‘Ifyou want to know a law, you want a lawyer, you want to beabsolutely sure it is safe – or if you want the sum, you wantsomeone to add up.’ ‘The problem is they think they are in charge.’‘With leadership and especially strong local leaders, alliances canbe built and then the architects, planners, engineers fall into placeand then can deliver.’ ‘Without leadership silos cement.’ This isperhaps the reason for Shaw’s pithy remark that the ‘professionsare a conspiracy against the laity’. ‘Leaders overcome the barriers.’‘There is nothing wrong with the skill set around, it’s about usingthem better.’ ‘Most professionals are good people who want todeliver.’ ‘The starting point in the leadership process should be whatmakes a good city rather than let’s do the roads first and everybodyhas to fit around it.’


Too frequently, professions tend to return to their core assump-tions. As a cost-accountant-turned-estate-agent noted, ‘I was soanalytical that I analysed the potential out of the challenge, Ianalysed things to death.’ Furthermore, their minds are governedby the environment in which they work and influenced above allby their peer group.20

Every profession has a gestalt – a shape, form and configura-tion. Planners project, surveyors cost, engineers calculate, architectsvisualize. In addition, professions work on different scales – thearchitect focuses on the block, the engineer within the block and theplanner at a wider geographical setting. Yet the regulatory mindsetis still prominent. ‘There remains much too strong an emphasis oncontrol. Bringing these together is manageable if you have the rightculture around them.’ ‘The key issue is that the differences shouldbe exploited rather than seen as getting in the way.’ ‘It is more aboutallowing people to feel relaxed about who they are and using themwell. You don’t want every planner to be long term – you want thesystem to pick the right people for the right task.’ ‘This may be moreimportant than saying everyone should have an MBA.’ ‘What youneed is a balance of skills, professional creativity, analysis skills andthe ability to finish.’ ‘The best way forward is to mix groups as longas the social, the political and the built professions understand theeconomic.’ ‘Each person should acquire a bit of the other.’ This isespecially true for urban design, which by its nature is interdiscipli-nary. There is a desire to get beyond the stereotype: ‘You should getaway from the blame culture and generate leadership and manage-ment within a broader and more aspirational alliance. An alliancethat challenges each of us in a mature way, based on experience; toomuch challenge is actually infantile.’21

OPENING MINDSETS AND THE PROFESSIONS

To get at the core of the problem of city-making and of our inca-pacity to see things in the round or to see both the trees and theforest together, we need to explore conceptually.

The professional gestaltAccording to gestalt psychology, people naturally organize theirperceptions according to certain patterns. Perception is the process


of acquiring, interpreting, selecting and organizing sensory infor-mation and a pattern is a form, template or model or, moreabstractly, a set of rules which can be used to make or to generatethings or parts of a thing in a certain way. (Remember a rule inmathematics is something which is always true, which is why someprofessions project such certainty.) As each profession perceives theworld in a certain way – a planner projects ahead or sees spatially,a surveyor surveys, costs and values, and an architect designs anddraws – there is an underlying patterning to how they go abouttheir work. The word gestalt refers to a way a thing has beengestellt: ‘placed’ or ‘put together’, ‘formed’, ‘shaped’. It is an orga-nized structure. It is a configuration. Gestalt theorists follow thebasic principle that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Inother words, the whole (a picture, a car or the engineering disci-pline) carries a different and altogether greater meaning than itsindividual components (paint, canvas, brush; tyre, paint, metal;brick, pane of glass, tensile structure element).

The idea of gestalt proposes a series of laws that can be appliedto how professions operate. The most important is the law of praeg-nanz, which says we try to experience things in as good a gestaltway as possible in our terms. In this sense, ‘good’ can mean severalthings, such as regular, orderly, simplistic or symmetrical. Otherlaws point to a certain volition in the way that we think: the law ofclosure – if something is missing, our mind adds it; the law of simi-larity – our mind groups similar things together; the law ofproximity – things that are close together are seen as belongingtogether; the law of symmetry – symmetrical images are seen asbelonging together regardless of distance; and the law of continuity– our mind continues a pattern even after it stops. The mindcompletes the missing pieces through extrapolation. These compo-nents of grouping and perception influence our thinking andproblem-solving skills ‘by appropriate substantive organization,restructuring, and centring of the given (“insight”) in the directionof the desired solution’.22 To some extent, in layman’s terms, wesee what we want to see.

Mindflow and mindsetFrom the above we can say that every professional practicecoalesces around a mindflow and a resulting default pattern inlooking at the world – a mindset. Clearly other personal character-istics come into play, such as the qualities of being humorous and


confident, willing to listen or being pleasant. For this reason it isnot possible to say ‘every engineer or doctor is like this’. It is possi-ble, though, to argue that each profession has a tendency, proclivityor bias to look at issues in a certain way. From these ways oflooking, processes, procedures, techniques and practices, specifictechnologies or traditions emerge and develop. Indeed it is thisfocus that generates the advances in each discipline that we wouldnot want to do without. Once a set pattern has emerged thisbecomes reinforced.

Mindflow is the mind in operation. The mind is locked intocertain patterns for good reason. It uses familiar thought processes,concepts, connections and interpretations as a means of filteringand coping with the world. The environment or context determineswhat is seen, what is interpreted and what meaning is implied. Forexample, when someone asks in English, ‘What does S-I-L-K spell?’the answer given is, ‘Silk.’ When one then asks, ‘What do cowsdrink?’ people will often respond, ‘Milk.’

A mindset is the order within which people structure theirworlds and how they make choices, both practical and idealistic,


All professions have ashape, a form, a mindset,a gestalt that followsthem like a shadow


based on values, philosophy, traditions and aspirations. Themindset is our accustomed, convenient way of thinking and guideto decision-making. It not only determines how we act in oursmall local world, but also how we think and act on an ever-increasingly encompassing stage. The mindset is the settledsummary of our prejudices and priorities and the rationalizationswe give them.

A changed mindset is a rerationalization of a person’s behav-iour; people like their behaviour to be coherent – at least tothemselves. The crucial issue is how to get the urban professions tochange their approach systematically – but not piece by piece.

A mindshift is the process whereby the way one thinks of one’sposition, function and core ideas is dramatically reassessed andchanged. At its best it is based on the capacity to be open-mindedenough to allow this change to occur. At times this happens throughreflective observation of the world around. At others, possibly moreoften, it occurs through external circumstance and is forced uponindividuals and groups through crisis.23

It is not only individuals, professions or collectives like compa-nies that have a mindset, but also societies and periods of history.For example, an era shaped by certain religious or ethical values isaffected by the dominant thinking; an era is also shaped by predom-inant views of how right and wrong is established or by scientifictheories. Science is a method in the quest for truth, yet itself is aparticular approach. Within each period specific scientific para-digms dominate over others. For example, the long-established ideaof holism, the idea that things are connected, was until recentlysidetracked and reductionism was in the ascendancy. The increasedawareness of complexity has challenged this primacy, which is whyin the political domain there is increased talk of joined-up, inte-grated and holistic thinking. Yet governments’ aim to fosterjoined-up thinking will only succeed if they forcefully challengecertain entrenched scientific hierarchies. The power of reduction-ism nevertheless lingers on as those at the height of their professionand with power were probably educated 20 or 30 years ago and sohave had the reductionist mindset etched into them. We now knowwe need to look both at the parts and the whole together.Regretfully we always seem to be behind the times in realizing whatis necessary.


The blight of reductionismReductionism is an approach to building descriptions of systems,such as places or cities, out of the descriptions of the subsystemsthat a system is composed of, such as architecture, spatial planningand social issues. But in doing so, I would argue, it ignores the rela-tionships between the subsystems. The reductionist perspectivethinks about parts in isolation. Many argue this approach is notpractical, citing the notion of strong emergence, that there is moreto a system than the specification of parts and their relationships.

The power of reductionism is that it can appear self-evidentwhen we look, for example, at simpler things like mathematicalformulae. The sum of two and two is four in all but the most total-itarian circumstances! However, there is a danger of simplificationif we extrapolate this attractive simplicity to complex ‘living organ-isms’ like cities.

Emergence is a useful concept because it can describe the flux,flow and evolution of things like places. It asks what parts of asystem like a city do together that they would not do by themselves.Collective behaviour, for instance, could not be described asanything but collective. Clearly, a wave of panic, spontaneousapplause or the rise of fascism is not comprehended by looking onlyat individuals. Emergence is about understanding how collectiveproperties, issues or questions arise from the properties of parts,such as a house, a shop or an office.

In this view, when we think about what ‘emerges’, we aremoving between different vantage points. We see the trees and theforest simultaneously. We see the way the trees and the forest arerelated to each other. To see in both these ways we have to be ableto see details and ignore details. The trick is to know which of themany details we see in the trees are important to know whenconsidering the forest. Conventionally, people consider either thetrees or the forest. When one can shift back and forth betweenseeing the trees and the forest, one also sees which aspects of thetrees are relevant to the description of the forest. An urban examplewould be to see the house and street or the street and city simulta-neously.

A useful example is a door key. A key has a particular struc-ture. But describing its structure is not enough to tell someone thatit can open a door. We have to know the structure of both the keyand the lock, and we have to know that doors exist.


A final crucial point: when we look at things in isolation, weseek truth. In assessing things like places, however, the notion ofapproximation or ‘partial-truth’ is more appropriate, indeed isessential for the study of complex systems.24

Professions and identityHow does this discussion relate to the professions?

Part of the human condition is wanting to belong and feelattached to a broader whole, whether this be the tribe, group,family, community, city or profession. Professions create an iden-tity by setting out to distinguish themselves from others to createthat belonging. This can only occur by differentiation, through aset of technical skills, rules, codes and accepted behaviours. Thustribalism asserts itself: ‘I am a planner so I am not an architect or asocial worker.’ Some might argue that distinctions and differencesbetween professions are a function of precision and efficiency, butin reality we have created professional jealousies. Once in a profes-sion, it is safer to keep to the rules of a profession rather than blurthe boundaries. Boundary-blurring threatens identity and gets allkinds of defensive system mechanisms going. Some say this is aFaustian pact, where we limit some freedom of creativity in returnfor being part of a ‘brotherhood’ of mutual respect and support. Soeven if we think some of ‘ours’ are none too good, we still supportthem.

This process is witnessed in the relationship of traditionaldoctors vis-à-vis complementary medicine. The initial response tothe latter’s popularity was along the lines of ‘I’m a trained doctorso I know the effect of complementary medicine is likely to be aplacebo effect; the double blind trials don’t seem to work.’ Thiswas a way of getting rid of the threat. To this the alternative practi-tioner responded, ‘This is not the appropriate method to check mywork in any case.’ And, given the sustained interest in alternativemedicine, the conventional doctors are now having to say, ‘I betterfind out more about this.’

Most professions want to identify something, put it in a box,give it a name, strip out the uncertainty and measure it. Life is notlike that – there is a need to live with uncertainty and complexity,and the fact that many things are never completely true.

This changes the professional landscape, and the traditionalprofessional view does not fit into the new world. This is the world


of city-making, place-making, sustainable communities and urban-ism – all terms seeking to describe a broader way of doing thingsother than mere road-building, house-building or land-use plan-ning. A world in which highway engineers have a specialism inkeeping things moving is different from one in which there is a jobcalled ‘making places’. In fact, when given the opportunity to worktogether and be part of a place- or city-making process, specialiststend to find this stimulating and more rewarding. Making cities ismore exciting than making a road. In this shift, no one is criticizingthe technical capacities of the professions, but rather the lack ofcooperation between them and with others currently not seen aspart of the city-making circuit. What matters is that professionalsare excellent at what they do and willing to participate in a relatedexercise. Current professional arrangements can appear dysfunc-tional in making this happen. Others are sharper in their criticism:‘The professional bodies are wretched, so much of what they do isseen through the narrow prism of their perspective.’ ‘They aredeeply unchallenging, there is little that suggests that they aretaking the new agenda on board.’ ‘Few have a bigger-picture framewithin their profession.’ ‘I have stopped reading the housing andother specialist press; it is precious and self-referential.’‘Regeneration and Renewal is a good digest. It is not representing aprofessional body and thus not self-interested.’ ‘We need profes-sions beyond self-interest.’ ‘The professions are not about solvingproblems of the professions, which is why so many outsiders arethe innovators.’25

Performance cultureMany of the encrustations referred to above are exacerbated bygovernments’ focus on a performance-driven culture with its focuson specific targets and outputs. In such a culture, the only safe testis a standard which works against the joined-up, integrated think-ing simultaneously proposed. The moment the emphasis is toostrongly on a standard, you lose the unique capacity to be adap-tive. Over the longer term this can lead to a culture that graduallybegins to destroy itself, because it keeps shooting for agreed stan-dards with little ability for change. With built-in specifications,nobody can be blamed. This reinforces the sense of the professionalas someone who keeps to the rules. Instead of seeing rules as abackground or supportive guide for action, they become the


method of progressing. A performance-driven culture also dimin-ishes the capacity to make judgements. A target such as cost persquare foot has no wider reference except itself and so, for example,can say nothing about warmth or comfort. This focus increases riskaversion and reduces the possibilities of boundary-blurring andcoherent joint working.

Stretching boundariesInterestingly, urban design, a discipline that binds built environ-ment people together, has no professional institute in Britain. Thereis, though, the Urban Design Alliance (UDA), perhaps a threat toprofessional institutes’ identity, which was welcomed by govern-ment when it was set up eight years ago. It seeks to think ofprofessionalism in a new way within a broader urban vision,although it still seen as physical place-making. It argues professionsshould work together more, for example in training. In Britain theAcademy for Sustainable Communities addresses some of theseissues and will give credits for topics such as regeneration or urban-ism rather than for planning. There is also the National PlanningForum (NPF), set up by the government, with a similar objective tobroaden perspectives. Both have rotating chairs – different profes-sions take it in turn. Planners, architects and others movingbetween the public, private and community sectors are likely tofoster the breakdown of compartmentalization. Ironically, therespect for individual disciplines is likely to increase when theyopen out and communicate as more people will know what theydo. Being perceived as a ‘secret brotherhood’ fosters prejudice.

The openness implied connects well with the literature on lead-ership. For example in Good to Great, Jim Collins26 argues thatthere are five levels of leadership. Fifth-level leaders channel theirego away from themselves towards the bigger picture of building agreat company. As Harry S. Truman once observed, ‘You canaccomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind whogets the credit.’ The equivalences here are the objectives of the UDAor NPF. Thus ‘the post-modern profession is the profession that isnot purely for the professions’.27

A critical factor in city-making is values. They cannot beavoided as these are embedded consciously or subconsciously inany place-making project. For example, opening structures out tothe street reflects our views of transparency; the fact that the Dutch


do not draw their curtains at night reflects an originally Calvinistview that we have nothing to hide; by contrast the repelling, reflec-tive glass on office buildings exudes a sense of power and lack ofapproachability.

Britain, it is argued, is currently good at exhortations andproducing good practice guidance. It is also effective in setting upalliances such as the UDA. Apart from creating useful noise, suchalliances do not implement defined projects through which you canmeasure success and failure. They are thus not transformational.They represent advocacy. Raymond Unwin and his implementationof the garden cities is cited as a counter-example. Unwin and hisfollowers built cities which were supposed to act as role models forfuture living – such as Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth. Herethere was a clear statement of aspiration, values and the means ofproviding technical know-how.

The Congress of New Urbanism (CNU)28 is given as a contem-porary example. Some say its focus is narrow, but it remains aninteresting example of a group coming together with a clear charterof values and principles which can be argued against. They havetried to extend their understanding of how to go forward by beingvalue-driven and asking how to work across professions and howto challenge codes. The CNU is a movement which took as itsmodel the Congres Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM)statement, which, whatever your views, is an aspirational charterof principle and practice. Another example noted is the Urban LandInstitute, which has a strong track record in providing cross-sectoral learning models and training, although its background isas part of the development community.

The British government wanted a similar charter for theAcademy of Sustainable Communities, one which is not just aboutgood practice or aspirations but is clear about what is expected soit is possible to hold people to account.

Planning is about to be different from what it used to be – it isset to be a more holistic process. Soon the idea of planning asmerely land-use planning will probably feel defunct, as will thereliance on technical code-based work. We are likely to incorporatenew insights, such as psychological and cultural literacy, and newpeople will be brought in and consulted. We are moving fromsimply asking to actively involving. This paradigm shift in theworlds of planning will take time to unfold in its fullness. It willnot happen in a smooth, soothing, business-as-usual way. There


will be arguments and resistance, battles of will and occasional rageas well as pleasant surprise. Obstacles will appear, although somein the longer run could be seen as opportunities. The shift from‘participation in planning’ where you merely consult to ‘participa-tory planning’ where you involve will get us beyond the knee-jerkconsultation processes so common and yet unempowering. Theplanning professions should see this moment as an opportunity forthem.

This shift emphasizes the democratic imperative. Democracywill cause problems, things will take more time, some kinds ofvision might be curtailed or professionals will need to be morepersuasive in leadership. But we must have it, especially locally, asthe results on the ground are likely to be more sustaining if we useour creative capacities to do it in ways that tap imagination.

Boundaries are stretching from many directions to break downsilos. A variety of initiatives and terms express this. Each hasstrengths and weaknesses as it tries to capture a sense of integra-tion and connectedness.

The way it is used by the British government narrowly focuseson housing. Contrast this with Barcelona’s approach (see later) withpublic space. Nor is it concerned with the global competition ofcities, the role of core cities in Britain and their regions, or theeconomic foundations of cities; a similar class of problem existselsewhere in Europe.

‘Place-making’ seeks to move us away from focusing on sites,locations and transport as if these in isolation could create ‘a place’.The word place resonates and is emotionally laden in a positivesense. ‘A sense of place’ encapsulates a variety of factors, physical,atmospheric and activity-based. It centres itself on peoples’ percep-tion and experience of places. It highlights quality, good design andappropriateness to purpose and the jointly shared public realm asthe connective tissue within which the buildings, forecourts andstreets form a pattern or mosaic. It focuses on collective skills andtechniques, including cultural and social priorities, that need towork together to make a space a place. Although it has a designfocus, it asks itself the question, ‘How will social or economic inter-actions be fostered by the design and layout?’ Rather like urbandesign, it seeks to orchestrate the elements into a workable whole,so highlighting a concern with the lived life of the city as distinctfrom its mere structures.


‘Urbanism’ uses an even broader canvas. It is the disciplinewhich helps understand the dynamics, resources and potential ofthe city in a richer way. And urban literacy, developed by learningabout urbanism, is the ability and skill to ‘read’ the city and under-stand how cities work. Urbanism, it is argued, can become themeta-urban discipline and urban literacy a linked generic and over-arching skill. A full understanding of urbanism only occurs bylooking at the city from different perspectives. By reconfiguring andtying together a number of disciplines, penetrative insights, percep-tions and ways of interpreting an understanding of urban lifeemerge. By seeing the city through diverse eyes, potential andhidden possibilities, from business ideas to improving the mundane,are revealed. Traditionally, however, the conversation on urbanismhas been led by architects and urban designers. Urbanism providesthe raw materials for creating urban strategies and decision-making. It requires a set of lateral, critical and integrated thinkingqualities as well as core competencies. These draw on the insightsof cultural geography; urban economics and social affairs; urbanplanning; history and anthropology; design, aesthetics and archi-tecture; ecology and cultural studies; as well as knowledge of powerconfigurations.

Each discipline contributes its unique quality, traditions andfocus necessary to comprehend urban complexities. For example,cultural studies and anthropology bring an understanding andinterpretation of the inherited ideas, beliefs, values and forms ofknowledge which constitute the shared bases of social action. Thisis enriched by interrogating and decoding the world of signs (inlanguage, narratives, film, music, and so on). The sociological focushelps reveal group dynamics and the processes of social andcommunity development, while economics identifies the financialand commercial determinants driving urban transition processes.Cultural geography helps clarify the spatial, locational and topo-graphical patterning of cities and design and aesthetics focuses onlook and feel. Completely underestimated in the context of the city,psychology brings in emotional factors in urban development andhow people feel about their environments. Finally, planning andthe other built environment professions contribute the techniquesand technology and sets of rules, codes and conventions to carryout the insights gained from these varied forms of knowledge.


Insights and crossovers The real power of notions such as ‘sustainable communities’,‘place-making’ and ‘urbanism’ comes from emphatically integrat-ing disciplines and the extra insight and knowledge gained throughsynergy. Much of this will derive from new perceptions, such ascultural insights into economics, spatial planning insights intotransport or psychological insights into geography. Alternatively,combinations might be created that could link telecoms and trans-port or land use with social networking strategies. This might thenjustifiably be called communications planning. Policy handshakesbetween diverse areas of expertise are central to the ‘art of city-making’. Valuing diverse disciplines, as noted, might lead tointeresting appointments in running cities – an environmentalistbecoming head of transport, an economist heading up social affairs,a historian physical planning or a social development specialistcultural affairs.

Over the years I have asked countless people who they respector admire as city-makers in terms of their attitudes, qualities andcharacteristics. There is an astonishing alignment in terms ofprofessional qualities now being highlighted for city-making. Thesecan be summarized as follows:

• An ability to cross boundaries and think laterally.• The ability to pick out the essence of a profes-

sional position and to see how it relates to otheraspects.

• Practical and open to new ideas.• An openness of thinking and willingness to hear

other things.• To be able to listen and to hear.• Open to suggestion and challenge.• To be able to bring out the best in others, to facil-

itate, to draw together arguments and attitudes.• People who know their place, have walked its

streets, can feel what it is like.• A sense of vision combined with realism, a

patience garnered from having experience, a mixof drive and focus on the nitty-gritty, a tenacity tosee things through.29

These skills are not profession specific. Some architects havethem; so do some planners or engineers and others outside the


urban professions. What is noticeable is the focus on ‘openness’and ‘others’. This chimes well with emerging notions of leader-ship such as those expounded in Good to Great by Jim Collins.

Noticeably, the role models had broad experience starting rightfrom the beginning. Their education was not narrow. Often theyhad taken baccalaureate-style exams with many subjects stretchingfrom the natural to social sciences and languages. Those withspecialist undergraduate training then expanded their repertoire,combining subjects like English with social administration and thenplanning, or politics with economics and then engineering. Thoserole models that had specialized early often got into areas likedevelopment not through the professional route but through differ-ent experiences, bringing these to the task of city-making. It is thelateral, connecting skills that people seem to admire.

In looking to individuals who made breakthroughs in thinkingabout cities, it is noteworthy how many are not urban professionals.Brunelleschi, who devised the model for the cupola in Florence, wasa goldsmith and sculptor. Christopher Wren was a scientist and thenbecame a professor of astronomy before going into building.Ebenezer Howard was a stenographer. Lewis Mumford was a jour-nalist, as was Jane Jacobs, and both were fantastic observers anddescribers of the real place and how you understand it. What thisshows is that deep insight comes from a visceral sense of, emotionalengagement with and love of the city. So many people already under-stand and apply place, sustainable communities and urbanisticthinking instinctively, being able to draw threads from differentdomains of their experience. There are also many counter cases, suchas David Burnham, who was an architect before he became a planner.

What are the conditions within which it is more possible tobecome a thought and action leader? There is a need to allow for adegree of romanticism and passion allied to prosaic common senseand a strong value set. Ideally leadership is rooted to place andcommunity; it needs to be organically grown. Yet a raft of newniche developers, and some of the mainstream too, even asoutsiders, have managed to bend their goals to local aspiration, soenlarging the sense of local leadership.

Today we have allowed too much responsibility, creative think-ing and planning to be subcontracted to consultants. The worldover, municipalities have hollowed out. This creates a form ofsubcontracted leadership that can feel imposed. Consultants shouldbe more like critical friends and less answer providers.


BLINDSPOTS IN CITY-MAKING

There are a series of blindspots in the comprehensive art of city-making. Their effect causes people to lose insight andunderstanding of what makes cities work. In the longer run, thiswill cause economic and social damage, and negative spin-offs.

We have already extensively covered the lack of sensory appre-ciation. The five other most important domains of missingknowledge are:

• the emotions;• environmental psychology;• cultural literacy;• artistic thinking; and• diversity.

They all require a deep understanding of people and social dynam-ics. Critics will complain, ‘Oh not another thing to consider. We’veonly just absorbed sustainable communities, diversity and genderissues.’ Yet these concepts are merely enlightened common sense.There are two basic approaches: first, embedding this knowledgeas a consideration within existing disciplines through adaptingtraining programmes or the help of experts and, second, specifi-cally bringing in experts as part of a team.

The emotionsEmotions drive our life. They shape our possibilities, determine ourreactions to situations and our outlook on the future. Yet have youever read a city plan that starts with the emotions or even refers tothem? ‘Our aim is to make citizens happy.’ ‘We want to create asense of joy and passion in our city, to engender a feeling of love foryour place.’ ‘We want to encourage a feeling of inspiration andbeauty.’ It is rare to find such sentiments in the context of urbandiscourse. Yet it is odd that emotions, a defining feature of humanexistence, are absent in discussions of city-making. Instead theprevalent, interchangeable words and concepts proliferating involvea barren, unemotional language that is performance-driven – strat-egy, development, policy, outcomes, framework, targets – and feelshollow and without a reference point. A challenge for city leaders isto describe the aims for their city without using any of those words.


In 1995 Daniel Goleman published Emotional Intelligence,30

which pulled together the huge amount of work in developing areasof brain research, where extraordinary advances have been made inunderstanding how people function. Goleman stressed the central-ity of emotions. While most people already knew this intuitively,now this notion was given experimental testimony. This book, andother writings by authors such as Jack Mayer, Peter Salovey andDavid Caruso, have advanced our understanding of the role ofemotions in dealing with life.

Emotional Intelligence focuses on two broad areas. First,human competencies like self-awareness, self-discipline, motiva-tion, persistence, empathy and social skills are of greaterconsequence than IQ or technical skills in much of life. (And theseforms of intelligence can be taught.) Second, there seem to be eightfundamental emotions. Five are connected to survival: fear, guilt,anger, sadness and shame. The three others – excitement, joy andlove – make us bond and attach and are not about survival. A ninthcrucial element is surprise – the startled emotion that can translateinto either fear or excitement, depending on context. Within thisemotional interplay there is a balance between safety and a sense ofanchoring and exploration. Just as unfettered fear is unsustainable,so is continuous excitement. Emotions and feelings are different,although the words are used interchangeably. All feelings are acompound of the emotions – a palette of colours. The evidencesuggests that these emotions are not only cross-cultural but thatthey apply to the whole mammalian realm.

How does this connect to city-making? Just as we can test aperson’s feelings system, any place-making project should start with‘How does it feel?’ rather than ‘Does it meet a particular specifica-tion?’ The latter is not about the human condition. If one can tapinto emotions, places can become more sustaining and sustainable.For example, darkness engenders fear, but stark sodium lightswhich seek to solve fear also make us fearful as the light sharpensthe contours between dark and light. It feels cold and external. Softlight that feels welcoming is a better solution. High-rise blocks canmake people feel diminished as overwhelming structures can feeloutside a person’s control, thus engendering fear and again a coldand external feeling. It makes a person feel less powerful. It takesaway the sense of identity with which we manage the world. Thusa high-rise block that works would tend to balance the excitementof a view or a sense of awe with comforting features. These might,


for example, be soft textures created through greening or planting.Interestingly, the theme park seeks to balance the emotions in acontrolled way by triggering excitement while diminishing fear.

Contrast a theme park with a cathedral. Even for the non-religious, a medieval cathedral or mosque can uplift as the experi-ence of a sense of awe and dignity balances the possibleoverwhelming feeling with a feeling of order and structure. On theother hand, a modern church can often feel like a social workers’gathering place when it does not lift the person into a differentstate of being, belonging and wanting to feel attached. Attachmentis a fundamental human cue. The brain, it appears, is hard-wiredto need a dimension we can call the spiritual – some high-ordersymmetry. Yet we do not have the same level of evidence as towhere to locate it. It is a common cross-cultural response whichtriggers a sense of possibility and wholeness. Much of this knowl-edge is intuitive. Intuition, although decried as unscientific, in factrequires a highly developed sensibility, which comes from reflect-ing on a range of experiences. Intuitively, people seem to knowwhat kind of places work and they vote with their feet as thesebecome popular. They might not be able to explain why, as theirintuition is insufficiently self-conscious and thus untutored. Again,intuition has zero status in city-making, so people have to schoolthemselves in accepting physical environments that conflict withtheir own instincts rather than trusting their own judgements. Byneglecting the capacity for people fundamentally to trust their ownjudgements we infantilize them.

The emotional intelligence debate also highlights the fact thatcompetencies based on emotional intelligence play a far greater rolein leadership and general performance than do intellect or technicalskill, and that both individuals and organizations benefit from culti-vating these capabilities. In Primal Leadership: Realizing the Powerof Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman, Annie McKee andRichard E. Boyatzis outline five components: Self-awareness, theability to recognize and understand one’s moods, emotions and drivesas well as their effect on others, which leads to accurate self-assess-ment, and self-confidence; self-regulation, the ability to control orredirect disruptive impulses or moods as well as the propensity tosuspend judgement, which leads to self-control and adaptability;motivation, a passion for something, such as the city, that goesbeyond money or status as well as a propensity to pursue goals withenergy and persistence; empathy, the capacity to understand the


emotional make-up of others and the skill of treating people accord-ing to their emotional reactions; and social skill, the ability to managerelationships and build networks as well as find common ground andbuild rapport.31 At the core of the latter two is empathetic listening.

Environmental psychologyEnvironmental psychology measures the effect of the physical andsocial environment on the health and well-being of individuals andcommunities. The discipline has a rich history stretching back over50 years. The vast evidence it has gathered includes:

• the harmful effects of ugliness – this could be a building, cheapmaterials, bad urban design or townscape planning;

• the restorative effects of beauty, even though what beauty is ina context will be subject to debate;

• the impact on people of a clutter of signs and information over-load;

• the disorienting effects of confusion in the urban environmentin terms of feeling safe;

• the influence of height on the senses, feeling overwhelmed bythe townscape, especially when the pavements are too narrow;

• the impact of heaviness or clunkiness of buildings;• The consequences of seas of endless asphalt, wide roads and

turning circles or sprawl;• how mental geography determines a sense of well-being; thus

the effect of people feeling cut off by roads, barriers and obsta-cles;

• the effect of motorway gateways, such as ‘spaghetti junction’ inBirmingham, or looming overpasses;

• feelings about dirt and rubbish and the subsequent lack of carepeople have for their environment; and

• the repercussions of noise and car dominance.

Clearly both beauty and ugliness are relative terms, yet there is asurprising coalescence in agreeing their scope. It is often highlightedthat more traditional designs are favoured over the modern. This isoften seen as a consequence of the failure of many new housingdesigns in the 1960s,32 but in fact there is a complex of reasons.One is the impact of the speed of change, which leads to a perva-siveness of risk consciousness – and anything modern is risky. It


feeds deeper anxieties about our notion of progress and the arro-gance and overconfidence of science and technology that it cansolve any problem. In this context, the past and nostalgia seem likea safe, comforting place. Experimenting with new designs for livingthat might work better seems frightening.

Depending on age, class, life position and income, concepts ofaesthetics and good design vary, while what is deemed ugly tendsto cut across divisions. Unsurprisingly, the net effect of beautiful,well-designed, high quality physical environments is that they feelrestorative, more care is taken of them, feelings of stress and fear ofcrime is reduced, and social mixing increases, as does hope, moti-vation and confidence in the future and thus well-being. ‘Natural’environments have similar restorative effects.

By contrast, ugly environments increase crime and fear of crimeand lead to stress, vandalism, untidiness, feelings of depression,isolation, loneliness, worthlessness, a lack of aspiration and adrained will. The consequence is a self-reinforcing negative cycle,the likelihood of less employment, reduced social capital and lesssocial bonding, although community spirit can occasionally beintensely strong in places of such disadvantage. A core question toany architect is then, ‘How does your structure help build socialcapital?’

Similar evidence exists for other phenomena, such as how levelsof noise cause people to shut off and become uncommunicative,how a lack of quality space makes people feel impoverished, howtoo many cars overwhelm, or how wide open asphalt or concretecan lead to depression.

Within each of these, there are the thresholds of change thatpeople can psychologically bear. People are affected by, but copewith, say, a pub changing its name three times in a few years.Anchoring either in physical space, through the community or withpeers is key. Interestingly, change and variability are more acceptedwhen decisions go with the flow and grain of a local culture, andculture thus becomes a backbone rather than a defensive shield. Soworking with and uncovering this ‘cultural stuff’ through consulta-tion processes is far more central than we think.

This brings us to the third large domain missing in city-making– cultural literacy.


Cultural literacy33

Cultural literacy is the ability to read, understand, find significancein, evaluate, compare and decode the local cultures in a place. Thisallows one to work out what is meaningful and significant to peoplewho live there. We understand better the life cycle of the city inmotion. We understand more what we see, feel, smell and hear. Wegrasp better the shapes of urban landscapes and why they cameabout. We sense history in how the city goes about its business,who the historic names of places refer to and what their purposewas and how that resource might be used for the future of the city.We recognize how perhaps the placement of facilities like markets,often seemingly chaotic at first sight, are thought through at root.We feel the city’s economy viscerally, both through obvious signslike a steel plant and through signs of it’s going up or down – shab-biness or ‘For sale’ signs, for example. We identify the socialconsequences of urban economies in transition, as when ‘lowervalue’ uses (for example, cheap incubation units and artists’studios) get supplanted by ‘higher value’ uses (for example, retailunits). Here we are given very clear visual clues as to economicdirection. We appreciate aesthetic codes, so understand the mean-ings of colours, the style of buildings and their presentation.Subconsciously ‘trained’ in advertising symbolism, the culturallyliterate intuits and interprets the manifold urban distinctions andidentifiers – to whom a shop is targeted, what draws people in andwhat repels.

Culture is who we are, the sum of our beliefs, attitudes andhabits. It is seen in customary ways of behaving – making a living,eating, expressing affection, getting ahead or, in the urban context,behaving in public places. Some cultural rites have evolved overgenerations, such as the passegiata, the evening stroll in Italy orSpain. Each culture has codes or assumptions by which it lives, andthere are expectations underlying those customary behaviours, forexample what kinds of acts of intimacy or affection are deemedappropriate in public space. This may condition how we organizespace or the iconography of our road signs, which, while interna-tionalizing, still have local distinctiveness. Cultures create artefacts– things people make or have made that have meaning for them.These punctuate the city, typically monuments to past leaders orheroes in the main square or in front of a government building.34

Religious monuments to saints or gods also have pride of place,


especially those representing the dominant religion. In most moderncities the artefact might equally be a Henry Moore or AlexanderCalder sculpture sited in front of downtown office towers, symbol-izing the wealth and power of corporate capital. The meanings ofartefacts change over time as new interpretations of history evolve.

Cultures need economic, political, religious and social institu-tions to provide and enforce regular, predictable patterns ofbehaviour so that the culture is reinforced and replicated. In citiesthese are strategically placed to induce awe or respect. Think ofSiena’s Piazza del Campo. From medieval times onwards in Europethe layout of a town’s civic centre or market square has been domi-nated by the key civic institutions, the town hall, the guild house,the cathedral and perhaps a learning institution. These representthe four powers: political, economic, religious and that of knowl-edge. These power concentrations are now also more spreadthroughout the city. Cultures pattern how they behave and relate.This becomes the social structure – how we behave in crowds, makeeye contact, how much personal space we need or whether wequeue for a bus or just go for it.35

Our culture shapes how we create and make our places, fromthe physical level – from the design of street furniture to icon buildings – to how we feel about ourselves and the place. So thescope, possibilities, style and tenor of social and economic develop-ment in a city is culturally determined. If as a culture we are moreclosed-minded or strongly hierarchical and focus on traditionalvalues, it can make our culture inflexible and might make adjustingto major transformation more difficult. It might make communi-cating with different groups difficult. It might hold backinternational trade or tourism because obstacles will be created tothe free flow of exchange and ideas. It might deter creating mixedpartnerships to solve problems now recognized as a major wayforward for communities. It might hold back developing a vibrant,empowered small business sector.

By contrast, if our traditions value tolerance and openness,those adjustments to the new world may be easier. Those placesthat share ideas and have the capacity to absorb bring differencestogether more effectively. This does not mean their culture becomessubsumed – identity is still shaped by where you came from. Thereis, however, sufficient mutual influence and counter-influence,coalescing and mixing over time to create a special fused anddynamic identity, not one hardened into an ossified shell.


These views about how life is managed do not happen by acci-dent – they are a response to history and circumstance. If the cultureesteems hard work and the taking of responsibility, the outcomewill be different than if it assumes others will take decisions foryou. If a culture has an ethos that assumes no one is to be trusted,collaboration and partnership is hard to achieve and bureaucracylikely to be extensive; by contrast, where trust is high, regulationtends to have a lighter touch. Societies that have transitioned fromarbitrary rule, which may have lasted for decades or centuries, willnot with ease move into liberal democracy overnight. As the democ-racy of democratic countries itself took substantial time to takehold.

These transitions take generations to unfold in their fullness,and in the meantime corruption is usually rife before uncertaintiesare settled with more ordered rules and common guidelines forcivility. Cities are places where varied publics can come together toco-create a civic realm – a precondition for a confident civic societyto uphold rules and justice. This is where citizenship is more impor-tant than ethnic group, clan, tribe, religion, party or cadreallegiance. Cultures and societies which place such an emphasis oncitizenship are likely to be more resilient, flexible and ultimatelyprosperous than those that are divided along lines of ‘blood’ ortraditional allegiances.

What we call the culture of a place, whether a village, a city, aregion or a country, is the residue of what has stood the test of time.It is what is left and deemed important after the ebb and flow ofargument, the fickleness of fashion and negotiation about what isvaluable has passed. Culture is the response to circumstance, loca-tion, history and landscape. Thus a region of regular warfare aboutboundaries is one where people are more suspicious than a moresettled one, port cities tend to be open-minded because of theinfluxes of people over time, and a place that is fortunate andstrikes luck with its resources might come across as more generous.

The specific circumstances of place and the problems andopportunities they present inspire a culture to find its own uniquesolutions, such as how to save water, how to gain sustaining foodfrom the environment, how to ensure food remains healthy, how tobuild machines that work in the context and with the materialsavailable, how to maintain machinery, how to recycle waste, howto build to protect themselves against the ravages of and changes inweather, how to heal the ill, how to appease the unknown forces in


the ether, how to celebrate good fortune and be sad about distress.This is what we also call local distinctiveness. It is an asset and aresource with power. It locks up within it social and economiccapital.

All this leaves people in a specific place with intangible thingslike views and opinions about their world and the worlds outside;passions about certain things and rituals; the role and importanceof higher beings and the spirit; moral codes and ethical positionsabout what is right and wrong; value judgements about what wethink is good, beautiful and desirable or ugly and bad; and atti-tudes about how we approach problems, conduct our affairs,organize ourselves and manage business.

The values of a culture leave tangible marks: the buildingsrespond to weather and wealth and the spirit of their times; theirquality, design, style or grandeur reflects the values and foibles ofthe powerful; how good the buildings of the poor are dependslargely on how well they are empowered; places of power, ritualand worship reflect the role of politics and religion; places forculture like museums, libraries, theatres or galleries from morereverential times demand obedience through their appearance –they seem to say ‘come to our hallowed ground’ – whereas moremodern and democratic buildings invite and entice, they are moretransparent in style. This is reflected in the materials used, perhapsgranite in one and glass in the other.

The industrial landscape too shapes and is shaped by culture.The best factories of the industrial age project the pride of manu-facture and production, the worst the exploitation of their workers.Grime and filth live often side by side with the raw beauty of gleam-ing machinery. Culture spreads its tentacles into every crevice ofour lives: how we shop and the look of shops, markets and retail;how we spend leisure time and how the parks, boulevards andplaces of refuge are set out; how we move around and whether weprefer public or private transport; and, most importantly, how andwhere we give birth to our children and how we bury our dead.The list is endless.

When we look at places culturally and are culturally literate, wesee at once whether care, pride and love is present or whether there isdisenchantment, disinterest or disengagement. We see, too, withoutneeding to know the details, whether corruption or subterfuge arethe order of the day. Being culturally literate means understandingthe weft and wove of a place, what matters to a people and how they


have expressed it. Without such understanding one walks blind. Andthis can all be learnt by paying attention, watching, learning to lookclosely, finding out how and why things work as they do, assessingthe past to know how it shapes the present.

Appreciating culture is even more crucial in periods of dramatictransformation, because it is then that the culture needs to absorb,digest and adjust. Culture, when acknowledged, gives strength inmoving forward, even if it’s culture itself that has to change. It thenbecomes a backbone that can create the resilience that makeschange and transformation easier. Confidence is key for creativity,innovation and renewal. When cultures feel threatened or weak orthat another culture is superimposing itself upon them, they go intotheir shell. Culture then becomes a defensive shield not open tochange, imagination and creativity.

Artistic thinking36

The values and attributes that dominate and are responsible for themalaise of the modern world – narrow conceptions of efficiencyand rationality – are almost diametrically opposed to the valuespromoted by artistic creativity.

The former worldview is summed up by words such as ‘goal’,‘objective’, ‘focus’, ‘strategy’, ‘outcome’, ‘calculation’, ‘measur-able’, ‘quantifiable’, ‘logical’, ‘solution’, ‘efficient’, ‘effective’,‘economic sense’, ‘profitable’, ‘rational’ and ‘linear’. In contrast,the artistic worldview is powerful for the very reason that it’s nothostage to such a rigid vocabulary.

While culture is broad, a significant core consists of the arts,and the quintessence of the arts is artistic creativity. Human beingsin all societies throughout history have expressed artistic creativity.What is unique about artistic creativity? What are its distinct attrib-utes? What human values does it embody and share with others, sothat it is capable of having deep significance for individuals,communities, and even, over time, for history? Can the arts re-anchor humankind, knit together what has been rent apart?

At its best artistic creativity involves a journey which artists areimpelled to undertake, not knowing where it will lead or if andhow they will arrive; it involves truth-searching and embodies aquest for the profound and true; it has no calculated purpose, it isnot goal-oriented, nor measurable in easy ways, nor fully explica-ble rationally – its outcome can be mysterious; it has no quick or


easy solutions; it denies instant gratification; it accepts ambiguity,uncertainty and paradox; it calls upon humility and endurance; itendures the tedious and repetitious so as to reach mastery; itcontains loneliness and the potential for failure; it recognizes thatsomething beyond the rational such as a soul exists; it can offerglimpses of the (non-supernatural) sacred; it gives the spirit aconnection outside itself; it originates in the self but aims to creatework which enters the common space of humanity; it proclaimsthat humans have the right to pursue freedom and urges confidencein exercising that right; it inspires others to be brave and to riskfailure; it champions originality and authenticity but opposesvanity; it accepts the potential for epiphany and exaltation and forfun and delight; it generates openness to new ideas and new waysof doing; it lives in the ‘now’ – it takes place in the moment; it istransgressive and disruptive of the existing order (not as a pose orto flaunt difference but as a necessary reality); it is often uncom-fortable, even frightening.

Artistic creativity is expression. What is special about the artis-tic activities – singing, acting, writing, dancing, performing music,sculpting, painting, designing or drawing – especially in relation todeveloping cities? Participating in the arts uses the imaginary realmto a degree that other disciplines, such as sports or most of science,do not. Those are more rule-bound and precise. The distinctionbetween involvement in arts and writing a computer programme,engineering or sports is that the latter are ends in themselves, theydo not, or very rarely, change the way you perceive society; theytend to teach you something specific. The arts can have widerimpacts by focusing on reflection and original thought; they posechallenges and want to communicate (mostly). If the goal of citiesis to have self-motivated, creative places, they need engaged indi-viduals who think. Turning imagination into reality or somethingtangible is a creative act, so the arts, more than most activities, areconcerned with creativity, invention and innovation. Reinventing acity or nursing it through transition is a creative act, so an engage-ment with or through the arts helps.

This engagement with the arts combines stretching oneself andfocusing, feeling the senses, expressing emotion and self-reflecting.Essential to it is mastering the craft through technical skill, on topof which is layered interpretation that sums up something mean-ingful to the listener or viewer. The result can be to broadenhorizons, to convey meaning, with immediacy and/or depth, to


communicate iconically so you grasp things in one without needingto understand step by step, to help nurture memory, to symbolizecomplex ideas and emotions, to see the previously unseen, to learn,to uplift, to encapsulate previously scattered thoughts, to anchoridentity and to bond people to their community or, by contrast, tostun, to shock by depicting terrible images for social, moral orthought-provoking reasons, to criticize or to create joy, to enter-tain, to be beautiful; and the arts can even soothe the soul andpromote popular morale. More broadly, expression through thearts is a way of passing ideas and concepts on to later generationsin a (somewhat) universal language. To have these effects, the artshave to be communicated.

Not all art creates all these responses all of the time. The bestart, though, works at a number of these levels simultaneously. Art,and especially the making of art rather than just consuming, trig-gers activity in the mind and agitates it (and even the body) – itarouses the senses and these form into emotion and then thought.It is not a linear process, but as it happens associations and seem-ingly random intuitions and connections come forth. It is moreunstructured, less step-by-step than scientific or technologicalprocedure; it looks more for intuition, it is freer flowing. Itresonates at a deeper level. At their best the arts on occasion canlift you beyond the day-to-day on to a higher plane that somepeople call spiritual.

Humans are largely driven by their sensory and emotional land-scape, in spite of centuries of developing scientific knowledge andlogical, analytical, abstract and technical thought. They are notrational in a scientific sense, which does not mean they are irra-tional, rather arational. This is why all cultures develop the arts. Asthe arts can speak the language of the senses and feelings, they haveimmense power that the ‘scientifically’ minded should understandand use as it can help them achieve their aims. There are hardlyany other ways of tapping into this knowledge. Perhaps meditationor sex. Thus participating in or consuming art helps interpret realityand can provide leadership and vision.

This highlights the role of the arts in tapping potential. Theassumption is that everyone can in principle be more creative,involved, engaged, informed and that this is significant in creatingcitizenship in transition countries. The out-of-the-box, lateralthinking and use of imagination present in the arts are perhaps themost valuable things the arts can offer other disciplines such as


planning, engineering, social services or to the business community,especially if allied to other emphases like a focus on local distinc-tiveness.

The arts help cities in a variety of ways. First, with theiraesthetic focus they draw attention to quality and beauty.Unfortunately this is expressed in a limited way – typically a pieceof public sculpture in front of an ugly or ordinary building. Yet inprinciple they challenge us to ask: ‘Is this beautiful?’ This shouldaffect how urban design and architecture evolve. Second, the artschallenge us to ask questions about ourselves as a place. Thisshould lead us to ask: ‘What kind of place do we want to be andhow should we get there?’ Arts programmes can challenge decision-makers by undertaking uncomfortable projects that forceleaders to debate and take a stand. For example, an arts projectabout or with migrants might make us look at our prejudices. Artsprojects can empower people who have previously not expressedtheir views, so artists working with communities can in effect helpconsult people. For example, a community play devised with a localgroup can tell us much more than a typical political process. Finally,arts projects can simply create enjoyment. A useful question to askis: ‘What is the problem and can a cultural approach help; can thearts help?’ For intergenerational communication or mixing cultures,for example, clearly the arts are more effective than many otherinitiatives.

Seen in this light the arts can help create an open-minded culturethat is more resilient and adaptable to the changes brought about bypolitical ructions and globalization. Think of any problem or oppor-tunity and the arts might help. What other activity can better dealwith dialogue between cultures or ethnic conflicts or allow individu-als to discover talents, to gain confidence, to become motivated, tochange the mindset, to involve themselves in community?

The lesson learnt is that perhaps it is artistic thinking that is thestrongest message from the arts. Planners, engineers, businesspeople and social workers could all benefit from seeing their worldsthrough the eyes of artists

All of this has left out the fact that the best of our past arts endsup in museums, and so the arts also contribute to creating destina-tions – visitor attractions – and help foster a city’s image as well asgenerating an economic impact, as do the best of the contemporaryarts, which are found in galleries, theatres, performance venues orbookshops. Furthermore, it ignores that increasingly it is the


marriage between scientific and artistic creativity that is driving thedevelopment of new products and services. Only a few cities havegrasped these possibilities (one being San José).

Diversity37

We cannot consider the future of cities without considering diver-sity. Ethnic and cultural diversity are a driver and a symptom ofchange. There are few parts of the world which are entirely homo-geneous, while an increasing number of urban communitiesroutinely comprise dozens of different groups in visible numbers.Major cities such as New York, London or Singapore are now‘world cities’, microcosms of the world in all its teeming diversity.This diversity plays itself out differentially as developmentalprocesses vary around the globe: a pride in diversity in some places;the rise of ethnic cleansing in others, such as in the Balkans orbetween Shias and Sunnis in Iraq.

Diversity in its many forms is the primary element of a vibrantplace, diversity of business, diversity of activities and diversity ofbuilt form creating visual stimulation.

Most places are very diverse when you look deeply enough andthe diversity of cities is perhaps the central urban question of the21st century, as mobility increases and reactions to it too.

For example, Britain has always been a far more diverse andheterogeneous nation than that imagined to comprise simply theEnglish, Scots, Irish and Welsh: from the North Africans thatpatrolled Hadrian’s Wall on behalf of the Romans and the interplayof Celtic civilizations with successive waves of medieval invadersand settlers, such as the Vikings and Normans, to the deep-seatedcommunities of Jewish and Huguenot origin, even Yemenis in theNortheast, the post-colonial immigrants such as the African-Caribbeans, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Chinese, and alsoEuropeans, from Germans, Italians and Portuguese toScandinavians, Poles and Russians, Australasians, Arabs, Nigerians,South Africans, Moroccans, Somalis, South and North Americans.

London is now one of the most diverse cities that has everexisted and its diversity played a role in it getting the 2012Olympics. Altogether, more than 300 languages are spoken by thepeople of London and the city has at least 50 non-indigenouscommunities with populations of 10,000 or more. Virtually everyrace, nation, culture and religion in the world can claim at least a


handful of Londoners. London’s Muslim population of 607,083people is probably the most diverse anywhere in the world, besidesMecca. Only 59.8 per cent of Londoners consider themselves to beWhite British, while 3.2 per cent consider themselves to be of mixedrace.38 New York and Toronto are equally diverse.

The rest of Britain too is changing. There are foreign-born peoplein large and smaller British cities you may not have heard of and thesame is true all over Europe, America and Australasia. There are nowover 1000 French people living in Bristol and Brighton, 650 Greeks inColchester, 600 Portuguese in Bournemouth and Poole, 800 Poles inBradford, 1300 Somalis in Sheffield, 770 Zimbabweans in Luton, 370Iranians in Newcastle and 400 in Stockport and 240 Malaysians inSouthsea. And these figures only represent those who are foreign-bornand not the much larger numbers of second generation and beyond,of people whose nationality and identity will be hyphenated.

The fundamental question is whether increased interactionbetween ethnic cultures will produce social and economic innova-tions which will drive the prosperity and quality of life of our cities;whether intercultural mixing is a source of dynamism for cities.Historically the great cities of the world, from Gúangzhõu (formerlyCanton) to Delhi, Constantinople/Istanbul, Rome, Amsterdam orNew York, have been hubs of ethnicity where the interplay helpedachieve their prosperity, innovativeness and stature, although peopleoften lived parallel lives.

The notion of cultural mixing shifts the perspective on diversityaway from multiculturalism. In the multicultural city we acknowl-edge and ideally celebrate our differing cultures. In the interculturalcity we move one step beyond and focus on what we can dotogether as diverse cultures in a shared space.

Without undermining the achievements of multiculturalism, thecharge levelled at it is that it has created a false sense of harmony,which worked for a while yet imperceptibly moved from being partof the solution to part of the problem. Particularly at the local level,the system – in Britain, for example – encouraged the creation ofculturally and spatially distinct communities, even ghettoes, frontedby ‘community leaders’ and that difference became the verycurrency by which importance was judged and progress made. Thishas proved challenging for second and third generation members ofsuch communities, who find it difficult to find a place whichacknowledges or rewards their new, often hybrid senses of identity,so alienation often ensues.


Multiculturalism spoke only for the minorities, it has beenargued, hindering a two-way conversation with British culture. It isalso accused of having devalued and alienated the culture of thewhite working class, driving them further away from the goal oftolerance and into the arms of extremists.39

This is not the way diversity is perceived everywhere. In soci-eties in which immigration lies at the heart of national identity, suchas the US, Canada and Australia, diversity has been far more widelyregarded as a source of potential opportunity and advantage. Theprivate sector evolved the idea that there was a ‘business case fordiversity’ where diverse teams of people brought new skills andaptitudes, which broadened a company’s business offer and whichin combination might produce new process and product innova-tions which would advance competitiveness.40

The idea emerged that a more heterogeneous city or nation isbetter equipped than homogeneous ones to weather the storms ofthe global economy and adapt to change. Such a charge, forexample, has been levelled against Japan and Germany as they havefallen behind the economic performance of more diverse G8member states. It is argued too that success at the level of local andregional economics will also be influenced by the extent to whichcities can offer an open, tolerant and diverse milieu to attract andhold mobile wealth creators.41 Such thinking has made fewerinroads into many European countries, especially those where evenethnic cleansing emerged after the break-up of the communist bloc,such as the former Yugoslavia.

In Europe there are five distinctive policy frameworks for immi-gration, integration and citizenship: corporate multiculturalism;civic republicanism; ethnic nationalism and the Gastarbeiter (guest-worker) system; the southern Mediterranean unregulated and thenrestrictive regime; and the minority nation idea.42 These differencesshape the sense of belonging and identity urban citizens can achievein different countries.

While change on the ground has been relatively speedy, thepublic discourse around diversity was slow. Since the turn of thiscentury debate has become a bubbling ferment. It is not just a re-emergence of old questions and arguments but somethingqualitatively different. It is no longer a question of how manyforeigners a country can accept but rather what it means to beGerman, Norwegian, Chinese or British in a very different world.


Many argue that the future lies not in finding better ways ofintegrating outsiders into, say, British society but in fundamentallyreappraising what we understand British society to be. British (orGerman, Italian or Finnish) culture and values cannot be reducedto a set of unchanging principles, but is an evolving and transform-ing entity which responds to the ongoing process of hybridizationthat accelerating change is bringing about. What will hold coun-tries together is not the social glue of ‘shared values’ but the socialbridge of ‘shared futures’.

The intercultural city idea, without denying that there are greatproblems of economic disadvantage and racism, switches the focus.Instead of discussing diversity largely as a dilemma it asks: ‘What isthe diversity advantage for cities which can be achieved throughintercultural exchange and innovation.’ To unlock this advantagerequires new skills and aptitudes on the part of professionals suchas cultural literacy and competence. To assess the preparedness of acity achieving diversity advantage there need to be indicators ofopenness and there is an intercultural lens through which profes-sionals can re-evaluate their work.

Openness is key. It is connected to curiosity: the desire to knowwhat lies beyond one’s spatial, cultural or intellectual boundariesand the capacity to pursue the interest. Multiculturalism wasfounded upon the belief in tolerance between cultures but it is notalways the case that multicultural places are open places.Interculturalism, on the other hand, requires openness as a pre-requisite, and while openness in itself is not the guarantee ofinterculturalism, it provides the setting for interculturalism todevelop.

Economic structures and legal systems play a fundamental rolein determining the openness of a society. ‘Openness’, in the contextof the intercultural city, means the degree to which differences anddiversities between individuals and groups are acknowledged,respected and encouraged in law. The ideal of this city Sandercockcalls ‘cosmopolis’. It requires a fundamental reappraisal of the cityand how it must respond, root and branch, to the changing world.43

Cosmopolis is the new model hybrid city or the mongrel city. Aplace of a thousand daily encounters, interactions, negotiations,accommodations and reformulations. Within a cosmopolis inter-culturalism is key. The term emerged in the Netherlands andGermany in the educational field and was concerned primarily withcommunication between different nationalities in border regions,


while across the Atlantic it responds to the growing needs ofAmerican government and business to sell their message and theirgoods overseas.44

Comedia’s take on interculturalism moves on from this. It isnot a tool for communication but a process of mutual learning andjoint growth.45 This implies a process of acquiring particular skillsand competences which will enable one to interact functionallywith anyone different from oneself, regardless of origins. It impliesa different way of reading situations, signs and symbols and ofcommunicating, which is cultural literacy. Intercultural competencein a diverse society becomes as important as basic numeracy andliteracy.

It allows us to re-envision our world or profession through anintercultural lens. Cities are increasingly driven by the need to inno-vate – economically, socially, culturally – to solve the problems thatthey as cities create.46

There are significant differences between the ‘community cohe-sion model’ and interculturalism. Foremost is the attitude towardsharmony and disagreement. The aim of the former may be harmonyat all costs and the avoidance of disagreement or dispute, eventhough this may require the imposition of a blanket set of commu-nal values and viewpoints upon an increasingly diverse andhybridizing community. Disagreement and dispute should beembraced rather than swept under the carpet and should beaccepted as a vital component of a healthy and vibrant community.Interculturalism requires rules of engagement to negotiate andactively resolve difference. By way of a concise definition of inter-culturalism, we have argued in the past that:

The intercultural approach goes beyond equal oppor-tunities and respect for existing cultural differences tothe pluralist transformation of public space, institu-tions and civic culture. It does not recognize culturalboundaries as fixed but in a state of flux and remak-ing. An intercultural approach aims to facilitatedialogue, exchange and reciprocal understandingbetween people of different backgrounds.47

Interculturalism is not a monolithic creed, but a process and inter-active approach.

We can measure how ethnically diverse a city is. It is harder tomeasure how intercultural it is. There are shortcomings with exist-


ing data in most places. In Britain, the standard 18-class ethnic cate-gorization used is essentially a Commonwealth classification whichdistinguishes Black African, Black Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani andBangladeshi but treats all non-British Whites as one and anybodyelse as ‘other’. Second, data is usually not available at a low enoughlevel to produce reliable statistics for individual cities. So the stan-dard data only tells us the degree to which a place is ethnicallydiverse or multicultural, but cannot take us much further.

One measure that does go further is the index of isolation. Theformula produces a statistic that can be interpreted as the ratio oftwo probabilities – that your neighbour is BME (‘black and minor-ity ethic’) if you are BME yourself and that your neighbour is BMEif you are white.

The ratio is a measure of how isolated the two groups are fromone another. The higher the ratio, the greater is the isolation. InBristol, a BME Bristolian is 2.6 times as likely as a white Bristolianto live next door to someone who is BME. By contrast, Burnley,whose BME population is the same as Bristol’s, has an equivalentratio of 8.7. This may be one important contributor to the latter’srelative disharmony.48

Getting beyond the physical proximity of ethnicities theComedia research identified four principal spheres of influence, theopenness of:

1 the institutional framework;2 the business environment;3 civil society; and4 public space.49

The openness of the institutional framework is determined princi-pally by the regulatory and legislative framework within nationalor local government. Easy access to citizenship is an indicator, andthe means of measurement would include the naturalization rate,provision of language classes to learn the new language, or accessto health and social welfare for refugees.

In policy areas such as education, the presence of an intercul-tural/multicultural citizenship curriculum is an indicator. At a citylevel an indicator and measure would be the existence of an inter-cultural strategy.

The openness of the business environment refers to trade andindustry, the job market and training. Indicators might be drawn


from commitments of businesses on recruitment and training.A means of measuring this at a city level might be the ethnic

composition of staff and leadership positions and cultural aware-ness training in major companies.

In terms of employment, one might assess the percentage ofjobs requiring minority languages, interpreters in hospitals orcommunity settings or intercultural mediators, people who help‘translate’ across cultures. Alternatively one could ask how manyethnic minority firms are winning tenders from the city.

The openness of civil society is the extent to which the socialfabric of a place is more or less intercultural. Nationally one couldmeasure the incidence of mixed marriages via the census or theindex of isolation mentioned above. At the city-level indicatorsmight include the inter-ethnic and interfaith representation onhealth, welfare and education boards or management and commu-nity forums. The ethnic mix of top management tiers in the 20 toppublic, voluntary and private sector organizations could tell astory.

Cross-cultural economic, social, cultural and civic networkscould be measured from observation and interviews to establishwhether there are any ethnically and culturally mixed business asso-ciations, social clubs, religious groups, political parties andmovements. In addition it is useful to look at projects that involvedifferent ethnic groups.

Much of the openness in public attitudes is seed-bedded inschools, and aside from assessing the overall curriculum, relevantindicators could include the number of school children learningforeign languages or the percentage of overseas or minority ethnicstudents in universities. Looking at a city’s internal and externalplace marketing one could assess how it has decided to project itselfinto the world.

The openness of public space focuses on the extent to whichpeople feel they have the ‘freedom of the city’ or whether there arespaces or whole neighbourhoods which feel closed or even hostileto one or more groups within the city. The indicators wouldmeasure the degree of mixing in housing and neighbourhoods;safety and mobility of ethnic minorities in all areas of the city;participation in public facilities such as libraries and cultural venuesin the city centre; perceptions of cultural inclusiveness in publicspace; and views on which city institutions or events and festivalsare welcoming and which are forbidding.


A way of applying the intercultural logic to the city is to lookat potential and assess things through an intercultural lens. Culturalliteracy is the precondition to decode the varied cultures that areinterwoven in a place. It is a form of cultural capital which enablesus to act sensitively and effectively in a world of differences. It iscrucial for survival. The intercultural lens makes it possible to takean apparently familiar issue or discipline and to look at it afresh.

It is difficult for individual urban professionals to accumulatean in-depth cultural knowledge of every group represented in theircity. With more intercultural dialogue, knowledge about andbetween cultures can occur more seamlessly on a day-to-day basis.This involves having questions in mind such as: ‘Are our expecta-tions different?’, ‘Are my assumptions valid in this differentcontext?’ or ‘Are people interpreting what I say differently than Ithink?’

From this comes the awareness that in all forms of humancommunication, the information is making a journey throughseveral filters. As Hall reminds us in The Hidden Dimension,‘People from different cultures not only speak different languagesbut, what is possibly more important, inhabit different sensoryworlds.’50

In making a place you can take any topic and see it through anintercultural lens: public consultation and engagement, urban plan-ning and development, how cities are attracting migrants, housingplanning, business and entrepreneurship, education, the arts orsports development. Let’s briefly look at master-planning.

Master-planningCultural preferences and priorities are etched into the mindscape ofthe professional urban experts who determine what the physicalfabric of our cities looks like: the engineers, surveyors, master-planners, architects, urban designers, cost accountants, projectmanagers and developers do not make decisions that are value freeand neutral. What at first sight looks like merely technique andtechnical processes concerned with issues – Will the building standup? Can traffic flow through? What uses should we bring together?– is shaped by value judgements. The look, feel and structure of theplaces planners encourage, help design and promote reflects ourassumptions about what we think is right and appropriate. This isetched into codes, rules and guidelines. It sets the physical stageupon which social and economic life plays itself out. Even the


aesthetic priorities people choose themselves have their culturalhistories.

What happens then when different cultures meet and coexist inthe same space? There have always been borrowings and graftings,they have been there so long we cannot see them. For centuriesbuilding styles and fashions criss-crossed Europe: there is Englishbaroque just as there is French, or German and English gothic.Exceptions apart, the architectures of Arabia, India and China arenot visible in exterior design in Europe – they have had much moreinfluence on the interior. One only sees the mosque, the gurdwara,and Chinese gateway arches in Chinatowns. Should we learn fromthe great traditions of Arab and Indian architecture and theiraesthetics?

Should the basic building blocks of the city be the same whenlooked at through intercultural eyes? Think of street frontages,building heights, setbacks, pavement widths, turning circles, thenumber of windows and their size, how we deal with enclosure,privacy or sight lines. Think too of the materials we use, colour,light or water. At its simplest, would streets or the colour paletteused be different seen interculturally? One thinks here of the vividcolours of housing in Latin America or the use of water in Moorishculture. Should we structure space to reflect different cultures asthey might see and use spaces in varied ways? Or should we createopen-ended spaces that others can adapt, such as the Kurds whogather around the steps in Birmingham’s Chamberlain Square?

Let’s touch on a few other areas; for instance, consultation.Citizens cannot easily be ascribed to one homogeneous group. Thusconsultation cannot simply be a one-off and standardized exercisebut must be a continuous process of informal discussion andengagement. The orthodox, multiculturalist approach to publicconsultation requires that communities are defined by their ethnic-ity and consulted in isolation (e.g. ‘the African-Caribbeancommunity’, ‘the Asian community’) as if ethnicity is the onlyfactor influencing the way in which people lead their lives in thecity. This limited perspective recognizes the views of the whitepopulation as the cultural norm and the views of ethnic minoritiesas inevitably different or aberrant – while hybrid identities andcomplex intercultural views are not anticipated.

What would intercultural education look like? All ethnicgroups, including the majority ‘white’ groups, of whatever socialclass, would be encouraged to feel that their background, history


and narrative are valued in the school context. An interculturaleducation would instil the following six competences in youngpeople:

1 cultural competence – the ability to reflect upon one’s ownculture and the culture of others;

2 emotional and spiritual competence – the ability to be self-reflective, handle one’s own emotions, empathize with others;

3 linguistic and communicative competence;4 civic competence – the ability to understand and act upon rights

and responsibilities and be socially and morally responsible; 5 creative competence; and6 sporting competence.

By their very nature the arts are predisposed to being intercultural.Being interested in what lies beyond the horizon or across a bound-ary is often what inspires people to make a career in the arts. Beingawkward, rule-questioning, transgressive even, are common char-acteristics that emerge from the lives of artists, and, more oftenthan not, this leads to the curiosity to want to explore culturesother than their own. It might be added that addressing conflict,fusing opposites and resolving incompatibility are all processesreported by some artists as triggers in their search for a creativebreakthrough.

Often working on a project-by-project basis, artists areconstantly thrust into new situations with unfamiliar teams andsurroundings, thrown back on their technique to survive. The secretis to ‘create third spaces, unfamiliar to both [sides], in which differ-ent groups can share a similar experience of discovery. Sometimessuch spaces allow people to detach aspects of their own identity(cultural, vocational, sexual) from what they have hitherto regardedas its essential and dominating character. It is in such spaces – youthgroups, drama workshops, sports teams – that some of the mostimaginative and successful forms of community healing have takenplace.’51

Other shared spaces do not necessarily have to be located inbuildings. Melbourne’s mighty ‘Dancing in the Streets’ inFederation Square for its international arts festival in 2003 was oneof the most successful ways of bringing communities together, aseach taught the others their dances.


Towards a common agendaCities are made by people but rarely do people who know aboutpeople sit around the decision-making table. The exception isperhaps the market researcher. This might be a person with a back-ground in anthropology, history or a social science like sociology.Understanding social dynamics, behaviours, desires and aspirationsis key to how a city works. Investing in this skill can save resourcesdown the line, given the expense of the built form.

How do you shift the thinking so that an individual’s defaultmechanism does not lock in initially into the professionally condi-tioned mindset?

There are a variety of ways to change behaviour and mindset:to threaten or coerce through force or regulation; to explain morestrongly and convince through argument and training; to reconcep-tualize; to induce through payment or incentives; to generateawareness by creating and publicizing aspirational models; or evenby generating a crisis. Often what leads people to change theirminds is a combination of the above.

The issues discussed in this section are unlikely to be shifted bycoercion. They are too subtle and embedded in peoples’ minds.Incentives are being created to change the thinking by, for example,the ‘sustainable communities’ agenda, which has a touch of coer-cion in it since many of the big urban regeneration projects havepublic resources behind them. Thus, if a developer were againstsustainability, they would be unlikely to be selected. Showing andpublicizing best practice models is a well-trodden path and hassome merit. Reconceptualizing a task can be powerful. Forexample, talking of city- or place-making as distinct from urbandevelopment makes a difference. There is an aspirational, holisticquality to the former and a technical hollowness to the latter. So ahighway engineer is likely to respond completely differently to theplace-making rather than road-making challenge. Yet the best andmost complicated method is through explanation, discussion, argu-ment and training. The problem is it takes time.

The new thinking should impact on policy at three levels – theconceptual, the discipline-based and the implementational. The firstis aimed at reconceptualizing how we view cities as a whole. It isconcerned with reassessing the concepts and ideas that informaction and is much the most important as it determines how prob-lems are conceived and handled at other levels. The idea of


conceiving the city as an organism rather than a machine is anexample. It shifts policy from concentration on physical infrastruc-ture towards urban and social dynamics and the overall well-beingand health of people, implying a systemic approach to urban prob-lems. Absorbing the full impact of this shift can be difficult. Second,thinking about policy at discipline level involves reviewing existingpolicies in known fields – transport, the environment, economicdevelopment and social services – and considering the efficacy ofexisting models and ways of addressing problems. For example, intransport there may have been an emphasis on car transport, whichmight need to shift to a hybrid model combining the benefits ofpublic and private transport. This shift might be easier to achieveas it is largely a matter of shifting priorities. Third, thinking afreshabout policy implementation involves reviewing the detailed mech-anisms to expedite policy, such as the financial arrangements orplanning codes to encourage and direct development in certaindirections. This might be how grant regimes are set up and targeted;what incentive structures, such as tax rebates or fiscal encourage-ments, are created; or how local plans and the priorities arehighlighted. In principle this is easy to understand and to do, butnot necessarily easy to implement.



Too many people think of the city as simply bricks and mortar

The new generalistGetting to the point where generic city-making skills are primaryrather than an add-on requires the conceptual shifts highlightedand deeper reflection on why they are necessary and not optional.And crisis is a helpful mechanism to generate the urgency toreassess. Seen clearly there is a sufficient urban crisis to reconsider,reconceive and to react.

There are two processes involved: new skills that are a core partof city-making and other skills or dispositions that aid effectivenessand leadership that apply to any domain.

In getting across the changing landscape of planning and asso-ciated disciplines it is useful to reconceptualize the newrequirements. For example, to create good cities we need goodobservers, explorers, galvanizers, visualizers, interpreters, contex-tualizers, storytellers, revealers, information-gatherers, strategists,inspirers, critics, agenda-setters, processors, facilitators, consulters,translators, analysts, problem-solvers, decision-makers, procurers,managers, makers, constructors, builders, brokers, mediators,conciliators, educators, arbitrators, implementers, evaluators,appraisers and presenters. And then, in addition, the classic disci-plines associated with urban development like design, planning,valuing and engineering come into play. The terrain is large – manypeople will have a combination of these skills and not everyone willhave all to the same degree of intensiveness.

The core point is to understand the essence of what the otherattributes bring. All these attributes have existed for a long time,but their relative importance has grown. The challenge is to createan idea of the ‘new generalist’ or ‘cultured person’ or ‘professional’where it is assumed that understanding, as distinct from deepknowledge, of these other skills forms the basic knowledge. Thenew generalist knows how to think conceptually, spatially and visu-ally and is attuned to their multiple intelligences. This morerounded person is not the jack of all trades or gifted amateur ofolder times, but broader based in their appreciation of others.

Overlaid on that are general personal qualities such as open-ness, listening and empathy as well as the capacity to judge thetiming and appropriateness to move into their near opposites ofdecisiveness, implementing, making, shaping and creating.

The above has a substantial training implication, which theAcademy for Sustainable Communities in Britain, for example, is


beginning to address. Yet it needs to go further. Thinking skills arebeginning to be taught in some schools, often using Edward deBono-style methods focusing on lateral thinking or, more frequently‘cognitive acceleration’, especially in the natural sciences.52

However, there is no school programme nor barely an undergradu-ate programme that teaches the integrated thinking moderncity-making requires. Indeed, as educationalist Tim Brighouse oncesaid to me, ‘This would be anathema to the way schools are run.’

The implication for urban planning training is to start with abroad-based urbanism course, perhaps even three years, withcomponents such as geography, basic architecture, culture, socialdynamics, psychology and planning, then coupled with a one-yearspecialist qualification and on-the-job learning.


6

The City as a Living Work of Art

This chapter of The Art of City-Making begins to draw conclusionstogether and approaches the questions ‘Where next?’ and ‘What todo?’ Many of the ideas raised here were first developed in Adelaide,where I was employed as Thinker in Residence.1 Adelaide has greatqualities, from wine to engineering to its lifestyle, and any passingcriticisms made of the city should be put in the context of the open-ness which Adelaide displayed to me. The city was courageous inallowing itself to be used as an exploration ground and my obser-vations were only possible given the free access I was given. Flawswould be found in any city under similar scrutiny.

Throughout the following pages you will notice that I use theprefix ‘re-’ rather a lot. This is deliberate. It is a prefix of our age.Both intellectual and material pursuits are increasingly iterative andretrospective. Contemporary art, architecture, music and literatureconsciously borrow from that which has preceded them. The afflu-ent spend more money on the past, for example, through buyingantiques or researching their family trees. We are always in thethroes of some revival or other, haunted by flares, mullets andadults wearing school uniforms. In such ways Western culture canbe very self-reflexive. But I am also aware that the past, imaginedor otherwise, can constitute an escape from the present and that‘re-’ can be a superfluous adjunct. Why re-energize when we canenergize? Let’s live, rather than relive. Nevertheless, I persist with‘re-’ because I want to emphasize as strongly as possible the factthat tackling urban challenges requires visiting first principles againand beginning afresh. ‘Re-’ implies a process of standing back,considering again, taking time to think. It suggests doing thingsdifferently. Most of all, it is active as opposed to passive.

Re-enchanting the cityIn imagining what the city could be, enchantment lies at the heart.2

The reimaginings of the city required are far more than physicalimprovement, although that matters too. Enchantment asks us torediscover and reanimate social tissues and repair the severancesbetween us. The desire to reconnect lurks everywhere, bursting toget out given the chance. It expresses itself best in small acts of dailyand ordinary consideration. These seek to resolve any fissurebetween being ‘me’, the individual, and being ‘us’, the collective.

This feeling of urban solidarity enchants. At its core this meansletting the city enrapture, enthral and enamour us and to cast aspell, because we are surprised by an open response. Within it lieschant, a slow, repetitive, monotonous melody, persistent yet rhyth-mic. It builds over time, encompassing its environs. Enchanting is ametaphor for the repetitive acts of kindness which form the textureand glue from which social capital grows. This is the only form ofcapital that grows by frequent use, rather than depleting. It is thenervous system of the lived city. Ash Amin calls this the ‘habit ofsolidarity’ towards the stranger or the ‘urban solidarity of related-ness’. He redefines the good city as ‘an expanding habit ofsolidarity’, ‘as a practical but unsettled achievement, constantlybuilding on experiments through which difference and multiplicitycan be mobilized for common gain and against harm and want’.He focuses on the ethic of care, incorporating the principles ofsocial justice, equality and mutuality and resists the notion of imagined socially cohesive communities.3 Differences, diversitiesand conflicts remain in continuous negotiation.

The trajectory followed so far has taken us through a descrip-tion of the sensory city and the materially unhinged andunsustainable dynamics of urban life and through a conceptualframework that seeks to simplify complexity. This should allow usto stand back and review how cities might be put back togetheragain and reassembled differently.

Re-establishing your playing field Cities should pitch at the right aspirational level and identify a placein the urban hierarchy of their region or country or globally thatreflects strong ambition and works with the grain of their culturalresources. Many cities are unrealistically ambitious and others holdback too much. An assessment of the city’s drawing power will


reveal the territory in which it is competing. It can then with calmurgency develop strategies to strengthen itself and capture territoryin the imagination of others and for itself. The central question is:Can you get to the next level, adapt to change or be energizedwithin existing frameworks, budgets and skill sets?

Cities across the globe face complex opportunities that aredistinctive to each place. For Perth in Australia it may be to investresources sustainably for the next generation while they are goingthrough their boom period, or for Port of Spain in Trinidad to buildon the manifold skills involved in Carnival to ensure livelihoodsthroughout the year. Possibilities cannot be grasped by a ‘business-as-usual’ approach. The stakes are high and cannot be harnessedsolely by traditional means. A shift in aspiration, courage and willis usually required. And it will not happen overnight. A closer lookat cities which have succeeded, such as Curitiba, Barcelona orCopenhagen,4 shows startling differences between what they aredoing now and what they did before: Copenhagen’s considered,long-term plan to create a walkable city; Curitiba’s approach toefficient bus transport; Barcelona’s capacity to remodel its newurban areas.

The unfolding storm of globalization will affect the operatingsystem of cities worldwide. We could cope with these changes atevery level if they happened slowly and one by one. But they donot. They are happening at speed and simultaneously, and theirdeeper impacts have not emerged in their entirety. Cities can ridethe wave of global trends and possibilities easily, but do they endup where they want to? To avert the dynamics that harm them, theyneed clarity of purpose and an ethical vision to direct dynamics sotheir own goals are met. Superficially cities might look and feel thesame in the future. There will be places in which to live, offices andfactories in which to work and places in which we can shop andhave fun, but the underlying operating system – the software – willbe different.

Choosing when to resist or go with the flow of turbo-capitalism will be pivotal for cities wishing to move forward. AsDee Hock, the founder of Visa Card, notes, ‘Change is not aboutreorganizing, re-engineering, reinventing, recapitalizing. It’s aboutreconceiving! When you reconceive something – a thought, a situa-tion, a corporation, a product, [a city] … – you create a whole neworder. Do that and creativity floods your mind.’5 Given fuller rein,the impact of change and creativity on organizational culture is far

The City as a Living Work of Art 269

more than people wish to admit or are willing to let happen. Yetchange is necessary as old material factors – raw materials, marketaccess – diminish in significance. Cities then have two crucialresources. First, they can mobilize their people – their cleverness,ingenuity, aspirations, motivations, ambition, imagination andcreativity. Second, they can harness new resources by seeking differ-ent ways of collaborating and connecting better – connectionsbetween people, varying groups, different decision-making bodies,various parts of the city, the old story of the city and an emergingnew one, and, crucially, their city and the wider world.

Reassessing creativityWhat being creative is should be redefined, as well as its emphasis.We should move away from an obsession with the creativity inentertainment, of media celebrities and fashion, although inventionin these areas is often impressive. There is a creative divide. Someactivities are deemed to be creative and others not, such as socialwork, and the latter become disenfranchised by the fashionabilityof creativity in narrower fields. But creative heroines and heroescan be found in any sphere, from social entrepreneurs to scientists,business people, public administrators and artists.

A reassessment of creativity implies rethinking its ambit andapplications. Marketing, media and technological innovations willstill be significant, but creativity should also be applied to the chal-lenges of misery, to nurturing our environment, and in political andsocial innovation. How democracy can be renewed, how ourbehaviours might change, how hierarchies can be realigned, howprisons and punishment can be reformed, what social care mightlook like, how young people can feel engaged, how community andmass creativity can be triggered – these are exactly the areas thatrequire most of our cerebral endeavour and cannot be exempt fromcreative approaches.

In a study assessing the characteristics of 20 creative projects inHelsinki, including cutting-edge digital media, homelessnesscampaigns, business entrepreneurs, physical regeneration, socialenterprise and scientific research, I concluded that the personalcharacteristics of project initiators and key staff are similar acrosscompletely different disciplines.6 They share an exploratory open-mindedness, deep focus, a lateral, flexible mind. The challenge is tovalue and link different forms of creativity together in the environ-


mental, political, economic, social and cultural spheres. This is thecreative milieu.

We should value creativity as a form of capital. Creativity ismultifaceted resourcefulness. It is applied imagination using quali-ties such as intelligence, inventiveness and learning along the way.It is dynamic and context-driven: what is creative in one period orsituation is not necessarily so in another. Crucially, creativity is ajourney not a destination, a process not a status. Every creativeoutput has a life cycle and, as time and experience of the innova-tion in action unfolds, it will itself need to be adapted andreinvented again. Creativity involves divergent or generative think-ing and is linked to innovation, which demands a convergent,critical and analytical approach and ways of thinking that willadapt as a project develops. Being creative is an attitude of mindand a way of approaching problems that opens out possibilities. Itis a frame of mind which questions rather than criticizes, whichasks ‘Why is this so?’ and is not content to hear ‘It always has beenlike this.’ Creativity challenges not just what has already become aproblem, but many things that seemingly work well. It has anelement of foresight and involves a willingness to take measuredrisks, to stand back and not to pre-judge things.

Yet precisely at the moment when the world acknowledgescreativity, decisions are made that operate in the opposite direc-tion. For example, the arts, a key area within which creativity isfostered, remain relatively undervalued in the school curriculumand by parents.

The expression of creativity in an individual, an organizationor a city are different, but the essential attributes and operatingprinciples are the same. Every city should ask itself very honestly,‘How creative am I?’ ‘What specific forms of creativity am I espe-cially proficient in?’ ‘Where is this creativity to be found?’ It isvery difficult to assess how creative a city is. There must be noself-delusion, and the desire to find out how good other cities aremust be repressed. For instance, merely holding festivals does notmean a city is creative; it may mean it is good at attracting creativepeople from the outside to perform in the city. On the other hand,I concluded after my work there that Adelaide is perhaps verycreative in fashioning warm welcomes. Festivals and events feelgood in this city. Adelaide’s strengths may therefore lie in organiz-ing and generating the setting. These attributes have great financialpotential and the fact that Adelaide punches above its national


weight in conferencing and conventions is evidence of this capacity.

Being creative implies individuals, organizations and the city asa whole set the preconditions within which it is possible for peopleto think, plan and act with imagination. This is what being a ‘Yes’rather than a ‘Maybe’ or ‘No’ city is about. This means makingpeople feel it is possible to take imaginative leaps or measured risks.When this happens there are dramatic implications for organiza-tional culture and structure. Creativity is not the easy option.Creative organizations are unusual; they tend to break down hier-archies and find new ways of organizing; they are driven by anethos; and they balance rigidity and flexibility. As David Perkinsaptly notes, ‘Creative people work at the edge of their competency,not at the centre of it.’7 This idea can sit uncomfortably within largeorganizational structures, especially public organizations, whoseattitudes to risk are tempered by accountability issues. Risk assess-ment can be a cover for avoiding action. Risk, creativity, failureand bureaucracy are uneasy bedfellows. People rarely acknowledgefailure as a learning device.

The more successful creatives tend to cluster in places of distinc-tiveness8 and so the geography of creativity is lopsided. Many areas,especially in the outer suburbs, suffer as there are not enough possi-bilities and stimulation is lacking. The danger is that if we focustoo strongly on places that are already strong, a creative dividemight develop, rather like the divide between the information richand poor, or income rich and poor, or the poorly networked andhighly networked. For this reason any overarching talent strategyshould be targeted at groupings in all locations. This should includea networking strategy for the poor, because if they know only eachother, they might have too few or inappropriate role models toemulate.

Revaluing hidden assets: A creativity and obstacle audit Every place has more assets than first meets the eye, hidden in theundergrowth, invisible, unacknowledged or under-acknowledged.The challenge is to dig deeper and to undertake a creativity andobstacle audit. For the first time in history, knowledge creation initself is becoming the primary source of economic productivity. Weare evolving from a world where prosperity depended on natural


advantage (arising from access to more plentiful and cheap naturalresources and labour) to a world where prosperity depends oncreative advantage, arising from being able to use and mobilizecreativity to innovate in areas of specialized capability more effec-tively than other places. Thus in the 21st century the engine forgrowth is the process through which an economy creates, appliesand extracts value from knowledge.

The recent focus on creativity has been technocratic, leading toa focus on IT-driven innovations or business clusters. The crucialrecognition of today’s creativity movement is that developing acreative economy also requires a social and organizational environ-ment that enables creativity to occur. This means creativity needs toimbue the whole system. This is witnessed, for example, through theinterest in creativity shown in many countries by a diversity ofgovernment departments, ranging from trade and industry to educa-tion and culture. Creativity then becomes a general problem-solvingand opportunity-creating capacity. This means we need to be alertto creativity in social, political, organizational and cultural fields aswell as in technological and economic ones. The focus should be onhow it generates opportunities as well as solves problems.

Creativity is therefore both general – a way of thinking, amindset – and specific – task-oriented in relation to applications inparticular fields. A creativity audit assesses creativity across anumber of dimensions:

• spatial – from the city base to its regional and nationalsurrounds;

• sector – private-, public- and community-oriented;• industry – from advanced manufacturing to services;• demography – assessing the creativity of different age groups,

from the young to the elderly; and• diversity and ethnicity.

The audit needs to look at creativity across the spectrum, includingindividuals, firms, industry sectors and clusters, networks in thecity, the city itself as an amalgam of different organizationalcultures, and the region. It needs to assess the relevance of creativ-ity in the private, community and public sectors and in relation toareas like education, specific industry sectors, science and organiza-tions in helping the prosperity and well-being of a region.


First, in relation to the private sector, while it should assessthe creativity of the new economy, such as in the creative indus-tries, it must also assess the creativity potential of traditionalindustries. Anecdotally, Gore-Tex, the traditional fabric manufac-turer, was voted the most creative company in the US by the bibleof the new economy, Fast Company, in its December 2004‘Creativity’ issue.

A second area of investigation should be social entrepreneur-ship – often a means of empowering people in local communities totake responsibility and to develop entrepreneurship and solve socialproblems at the same time. Typically this might involve community-owned recycling companies, care for the elderly servicesprovided by a co-operative or a food trading company.

The third is exploring the creativity of public sector organiza-tions in terms of delivering routine services, enabling theircommunities to flourish through innovation in managing the urbanchange process and applying imaginative problem-solving to publicgood objectives.

Fourth is the need to assess levels of creativity in working acrosssectors and inter-organizational networking. This seeks to explorethe extent to which value-added is created through inventive part-nering and networking.

The fifth focus should be boundary-busting creativity. Forexample, at the beginning of the 21st century a rapprochement hasbegun between the two great ways of exploring, understanding andknowing, science and art. This collaborative activity has generatedconsiderable momentum and become a powerful force for changeand innovation in the development of new products, processes andservices.

A sixth area of exploration is assessing how the conditions forcreativity are created. This focuses especially on programmes ineducation and learning. Yet this should not be restricted to schoolsand institutions of higher learning but should also include profes-sional development and informal learning.

A seventh element is an audit of obstacles to creativity, as it isincreasingly recognized that highlighting obstacles, which them-selves become targets for creative action, is at least as important ashighlighting best practices.

The final area of the audit would be to look at how the physi-cal context needs to develop to encourage creatives to stay in theregion or be attracted to it. Seen in this light, every crevice in the


city has a hidden story or undiscovered potential that can be reusedfor a positive urban purpose.

Reassigning the value of unconnected resourcesCreative potential is often revealed when one connects things otherssee as unrelated. Each element might be small but brought togetherthe whole is large. This is how the creative or cultural industriesconcept initially developed. The individual music, film, graphics,theatre, dance and visual arts sectors were relatively small andusually assessed in isolation, yet when the interconnections betweensectors were identified and their overall scope and scale assessed, itwas realized they made up roughly 4 per cent of most developedeconomies and in major cities like London more than 10 per cent.9

All major cities in the world have now cottoned on to their poten-tial.10 Rather like water, electricity or IT, they are now seen as partof the physiology that makes any economy work. Apart fromproviding products in their own right, such as music or film, theycan add symbolic value to any product or service. Encouragingthese industries is one of the most powerful means of enhancingthe city’s identity and distinctiveness, while simultaneously creatingemployment and generating social capital. In a world where everyplace is beginning to feel and look the same, cultural products andactivities mark one place from the next. And tangible differencecreates competitive advantage.

Debates and insights from within cultural studies and economictheory have played a part in understanding culture’s invigoratedrole in society. Developing a culture is a process of meaning-makingand identity-creation, and within that all products play a partbecause they embody symbolic value and trigger experiences.Increasingly consumers buy products not for their practical purposeor technical qualities but for the experience and meaning they hopethey will engender. Thus design and aesthetics take on a completelynew and more significant role as the value of styling increasinglypredominates. This means that the economy is progressively acultural one as it is determined and driven by cultural priorities.

The economic transformation has required innovation to reinvent older industries, invent new products and services, and tocreate completely new economic sectors. Creative professionalservices in particular, such as design and advertising, have helpedcreate innovative concepts and ideas for other branches of industry,


ranging from food and clothing to automotive and telecommunica-tions services, which can add value to functional products. In thisway they contribute to product development and the positioning ofgoods and services in the market by increasing their experientialregister.11 Significantly, products and services arising from andgeared to popular culture and the media and entertainment indus-tries are themselves drivers of innovation. For instance advances incomputer gaming find applications in areas as diverse as miningsafety or healthcare.

There are neglected industry sectors, such as healthcare, thatcan give quiet, unremarkable cities a leading edge. In fact, thesemore public sectors are not often regarded as industries as such andthis can engender a trust often withheld from other sectors. Further,their remit is perceived to extend beyond a particular specialismand they can connect previously disconnected economic endeav-ours. Exploring health possibilities, for example, we can see howseemingly disparate economic activities can be brought together,such as holiday and convalescing resources, nutrition and organicfood, projecting a city as a place to recharge batteries, a capacity toprovide medical operations perhaps at a lower cost, or specificmedical research strengths. In this way, a calm, seemingly dull citycould become a hospital and recovery space. Equally, the disciplineof design might map disease processes, of the heart, for example,and thus might lead to medical innovations. Interestingly, in recon-ceiving sectors like health, it is unlikely that such a sector would beinvented by the medical profession or health ministry alone, andfor it to flourish should probably not be controlled by them. Morelikely an outsider to the profession would see the potential.

Cities with a narrow resource base and smaller size should beable to focus on smart linkages more easily, since different playersare more likely to know each other. An example is Sci-Art.12 Sci-Art brings artists and scientists of all kinds together to work in astructured environment on projects of mutual discovery andbenefit. The Sci-Art concept is based on the premise that the mostfruitful developments in human thinking frequently take place atpoints where different lines of creativity meet. Over the years theSci-Art competition in Britain, funded initially by Glaxo-Wellcome, brought together more than 2000 artists and scientists,breaking down the widespread mutual incomprehension betweenthe disciplines; working in partnership combined insights to solvecommon problems and generate ideas. Powerful new concepts


being developed by artists and scientists working together arepotentially as ground-breaking as those that launched the indus-trial revolution.

Can ideas in themselves become tradable services? Is there away of reconceiving the value and outcomes of events and confer-encing, such as Adelaide’s Festival of Ideas, in terms of selling onconclusions or acting as an experimentation zone. This could befor trialing and testing commercial products. The goal would be todrag more out of opportunities. The change in focus suggestsmoving from creating value chains to creating self-reinforcing valueloops.

Recycling and greeningThat the green agenda needs to rise up the priority list is obvious,but words and action remain kilometres apart. Statements of policytoo rarely translate into imaginative incentives and innovative regu-lations to drive the green economy. Stringent guidelines for wasterecycling, energy efficiency and green transport have been a start,but would create more impact if linked to incentives, such as centralgovernment giving a city a massive financial bonus for matching agreen target.

There are endless products waiting to be invented, with severalmarkets still open; these are so diverse that most places will be ableto play to their strengths, so aligning with traditional skills andtalents as well as new research-based activities. These include applications as varied as pollution-monitoring devices, wastepelletization techniques, the development of new insulation materi-als and new environmentally targeted software, componentmanufacture or sub-assembly for wind and wave energy, as well asmaintenance work on large renewable structures or plants.

Cities should signal enthusiastically that they are in the greenfield – too few do at the moment. For example, the public sectorowns thousands of vehicles. Think of the impact of hordes of greenelectric cars and perhaps even green taxis suitably moving around.The subliminal message would be strong. Many cities already haveenvironmental initiatives and incentives. How about pulling themtogether into a designated area identified as an environmental zone,where clustering would make their impact stronger than spreadingthem out? One might even consider innovative branding devicessuch as clustering different subsidies, for recycling, say, or the use


of renewable energy, into sub-areas – by street, for example – andmarketing them as ‘recycling street’ or ‘zero energy road’.Alternatively, what about more green industrial parks, modelled onHamm, in Emscher Park in the Ruhr, where eco-business, retailingand conferencing facilities intermesh?

In spite of the energetic attempts to get green issues more widelyaccepted, a survey of innovative eco-communities around the worldrevealed very disappointing results, though not for lack of trying.13

There are an alarmingly small number of projects of real scale thathave been completed. The small number of successes is a sad reflec-tion of where we are. One survey, for example, studied hundreds ofeco-village or neighbourhood projects worldwide – often withimpressive websites and high reputations in their networks – butdiscovered that most were purely at the conceptual stage. Bartonand Kleiner’s survey analysed 55 projects showing a rich vein ofdifferent kinds and forms of innovative communities that bill them-selves as eco-neighbourhoods and with great diversity in their scale,locations, focus and means of implementing. These included ruraleco-villages, like Crystal Waters in Queensland, Australia; tele-villages, such as Little River near Christchurch in New Zealand;urban demonstration projects, such as Kolding in Denmark, a highdensity block with courtyards of 150 dwellings; urban eco-commu-nities, such as Ithaca Eco-Village in New York State; NewUrbanism developments, such as Poundbury, initiated by PrinceCharles in the UK, or Waitakere in Auckland, New Zealand; andecological townships, such as Auroville in South India or Davis inCalifornia. But over 50 per cent of these 55 projects had fewer than300 people. A tiny proportion were really comprehensively innova-tive projects at the neighbourhood level. Many had a number ofimpressive buildings and high environmental standards withinthese, but very few also combined this with new sustainableeconomic activity or new political or social arrangements.14 And inspite of the public pro-sustainability stance of national and localgovernment, sustainable development is in its infancy; sustainabil-ity is a term more talked about than practised. ‘It is often used withcasual abandon as if mere repetition delivers green probity.’15

Recapturing centralityFor the first time in history size and scale does not matter any more.Large cities no longer have the automatic advantage. Size, indeed,


can now be a disadvantage. The sheer ‘cityness’ becomes invasive,transactions are too cumbersome, you fight against the traffic, easeof movement is constrained, and open space is too far away. Inshort, quality of life is not good enough.

This is why in surveys of world’s best cities places likeCopenhagen, Zurich, Stockholm and Vancouver always come outtop. Most have less than 2 million inhabitants. They are walkableand accessible. Even Frankfurt has less than 1 million. They aresmall enough to be intimate yet large enough to be cosmopolitan.

Any place anywhere can become the centre of a universe,whether a tiny niche or something more substantial, as long as it istenacious, connects adroitly and thinks long term. Even those outof the urban maelstrom. This is the big opportunity for less-knowncities at a time when edge places and peripheries can become hubsand even small towns can get on the radar screen. Think ofHelsinki, Geneva or Antwerp.

But it can also be in the smaller or more peripheral towns andcities where people with a high level of ambition find it hard torealize their potential. The pool of risk-takers and thinking peoplefeels too small to stimulate people to achieve more and this canlead to a leakage of talent and wealth-creating possibilities. A wayto overcome leakage is to develop and promote very strong nicheswhere localized critical mass can be attained. Within these niches,‘thick’ labour markets can be achieved. Adelaide, for instance,achieves deep strength in the wine industry. Wine research, produc-tion (and consumption!), distribution and representative bodiesagglomerate there. Only large cities can generally create across-the-board strengths, niches and the associational richness that can beheard among the din of global information overload. Within theglobalized market industries do not need to be large, but they mustbe competitive to operate globally.

A city can accrue power by capturing imaginative territory inthe imagination of the world. It can become the central location foran activity, the headquarters of an important entity or be associ-ated with an area that others aspire to. These niches can act aspowerful levers.

Corporations capture markets by selling products, much ascolonial powers captured territories to secure trade routes or rawmaterials. If cities have few tangible, productive resources, they canstill capture ideas and networks and get ownership of them. Thechoices they make and resonances they create can reflect more


distinctively the values a city wishes to reflect. This can have downstream benefits in terms of economics and culture and shouldbe part of a city’s foreign diplomacy. For example, Freiburg inGermany, with a population of just over 230,000, is renowned asan innovator. Car use has remained stable over 30 years and eco-housing, recycling and the use of alternative energy sources are aneveryday part of life. This has attracted a cluster of high-level envi-ronmental research institutes and networks, such as ICLEI,16 whoseinnovations reinforce the town’s position. The broader region,including wealthy northern Switzerland, acts as an innovation hub,rather like a Silicon Valley with a sustainability twist, with citiescompeting with each other on the environmental front. This alter-native view of city development acts as its drawing power and isthe region’s source of competitiveness. It is the region’s eco-aware,IT-savvy, anti-guzzling perspective and alternative Silicon Valleyidea that resonates.

Another example: I proposed the concept of Adelaide asGoogle,17 whose aim was to make Adelaide a strategic nodal pointfor various activities, thus reinforcing its presence on global radarscreens and enabling it to work strategically to capture downstreameconomic and other impacts. The core idea was that when keywords were searched on Google, links returned to Adelaide. Thecity has niche specialisms and holds key events in areas that mayseem insignificant at first glance but which are in fact potentiallypowerful, such as prison reform. It is also a hub in the ‘educatingcities’ network. It has some leading cluster specialists. Its wine tech-nology research is world class. The list is extensive and possibilitiesare very wide. By assessing the networks in which a city can take aprime position, a city can reflect back to the world some sense ofcentrality. This can be achieved by a concerted effort to join in andparticipate in relevant international organizations, providing inter-national presentations and making the city the focus for meetings.

The aim is to capture space in the world’s imagination. Thisapproach allows a city to cascade into niche audiences, so creatingambassadors for the city. Three thousand targeted internationalfriends of the city are better than a generalized scattershotapproach. Deepening a niche requires long-term commitment, sotheir worth can reveal itself. This then begins to generate associa-tions, and for these to have power they need time to mature ratherthan jumping from one idea to the next. The danger is that manyplaces copy good ideas before they have had time to settle, as


happened with Adelaide’s Festival of Ideas, which was more or lessimmediately copied by Brisbane.

The fact that so few cities have developed these strategies isastonishing. It reveals a lack of understanding of how soft infra-structure works, its role in urban dynamics and what its value is.The continued knee-jerk reaction to focus on hard infrastructureblights exploring these ‘soft’ possibilities and eats up budgets.

Revisualizing soft and hard infrastructuresMany assets are hidden or invisible. One such is soft infrastructure– the enabling and connective tissue that makes a creative milieu orclusters work. Soft infrastructures are the atmosphere, ambianceand milieu which the hard infrastructures enable. They areexpressed in the capacity of people to connect, inter-relate andgenerate ideas that turn into products and services. They includetoo the talent of people, measured not only by educational levelbut also by imaginative capacity. But soft infrastructure is oftenneglected, as some feel it is difficult to quantify the preciseeconomic value of a system of associative structures, networks,connections and human interactions that underpin and encouragethe flow of ideas between individuals and institutions to generatethe products and services for wealth creation.

The network idea is an emblem of the age of the ‘neweconomy’. The paradox is that we know the networks make thingshappen, but do not value or sufficiently invest in them because theyare not tangible. The tools we have, such as industrial codes formeasuring such activities, do not track in a sufficiently fine-grainedway how the trade in services and ideas operates or how network-ing might add value.

The notion of infrastructure needs rethinking. The hard is thecontainer within which the soft contents (the value-added) arecreated. Hard and soft are mutually interdependent. Yet the physi-cal is usually privileged. The milieu is people and place together, aphysical setting in which a critical mass of entrepreneurs, intellec-tuals, knowledge creators, administrators and power brokers canoperate in an open-minded, collaborative context, and where face-to-face interaction creates new ideas, artefacts, products, servicesand institutions.

The network capacity that lies at the heart of the creative milieurequires flexible individuals and organizations working with a high


degree of trust, self-responsibility and strong, often unwritten, prin-ciples. The success of networks is based on very traditionalqualities, such as involving people or organizations you like andwho like each other, having a core of active people sharing respon-sibility, and having a sufficient budget, so that not all activity isbased on voluntary input. Most successful networks combine aninformal atmosphere with focus. They feel spontaneous, creative,and stimulating to their participants and are conducted with a spiritthat does not drain the lifeblood through rigid procedures.Networks that survive longest are adaptable and assume eachmember has valuable knowledge and a contribution to make, other-wise they fall into simple information sharing. This generates awillingness to share and to contribute to the success of the networkfor the greater good.

At times this means submerging self-interest for the greatergood, for instance the Italian clusters in the smaller towns that arepart of the Third Italy, such as Carpi and Prato in textiles, Arzignanoin leather, Sassuolo in ceramic tiles or Manzano in furniture. Thereis customized public support for a wide spectrum of business devel-opment, which involves companies in collaborative competition –joint promotion, the organization of fairs, access to information onthe evolution of markets or technology, the bulk purchase of inputingredients, consultancy and training. This can generate dynamiccompetitiveness, which helps accumulate technical know-how. Itimplies manifold relationships and interaction which favours spon-taneous mechanisms of specialization, incremental innovation andthe creation of enterprises and in the process pushes up quality.Intermediate public structures play a vital role by encouraging a highdegree of involvement of firms in common initiatives through whichfirms have a sense of being part of a larger system. This often leadsto collaboration and the pooling of resources.

The health and prosperity of the creative network largely deter-mines the prosperity of each individual company or creativeinitiative and even the geographical area in which it operates.Unless the milieu thrives, the inspirational flow that comes frombeing part of it dries up. Pure self-interest causes the milieu toatrophy. Trust is a central feature of the way a creative milieu oper-ates. A culture of collaborative competition is a precondition forsuch an environment to work.

We are entering a world of potentially almost limitless connec-tion between people, organizations and cities, where constraints of


time and place are evaporating. How do you make this potentialconnectivity effective without becoming overloaded? It involvesselectively shutting off and selectively opening out. Saying ‘no’ tonetwork opportunities as well as saying ‘yes’. Strategic intelligenceis key. It is a combination of the analytic, practical and creative; anattitude of horizon scanning that helps in the creation of foresight,understanding the dynamic implications embodied in the present,seeing the whole as an organic system and seeing how parts inter-act and relate to each other to serve the city’s aims.18

Networking capacity occurs at various levels: between individ-uals or organizations, city-wide and between cities. The challengeis to translate the known, even clichéd, generic skills of personalnetworking to the city level. These qualities range from the quali-ties associated with creativity, such as curiosity, to others like ‘giftof the ‘gab’, energy, listening capacity, understanding others’ view-points, relationship skills, interest in others, and the ability toinspire or empathize. The networking capacity of the organizationsof a creative milieu is more than the urban equivalent of an ‘eleva-tor speech’. Typically these summarize what you do in 30 secondsor hook your listener to being interested in you, because you askgood questions and are interested in them. For organizations, thenetworking type and attributes depend on purpose – this deter-mines its form, which ranges from the open to the closed. Forinstance, an open network might simply disseminate information.An example here would be the Active Living Network, whichrequires little if anything from recipients and where connectionsbetween the parts are minimal. By contrast, the London VoluntaryService Council or an inter-city EU network on best practice inpublic–private partnership would be more closed and shouldinvolve real engagement of participants, mutual site visits and thewriting up of projects. When such networks are well run, thoseinvolved might become friends and unpredictable, often positive,spin-offs occur.

For this networking to benefit a city, other dimensions comeinto play beyond well-communicating individuals, groups and orga-nizations. These include not only involving firms in industryinitiatives, but also promoting an area to its citizens and the outsideworld, creating a sense of engagement through more consultative-based planning approaches, or marketing and events strategies toenhance a sense of belonging and identity. For instance, theNorthern Quarter in Manchester has a special development vision


which seeks to maintain its attractiveness to the alternative typeswho made it popular in the first place, given the pressures of gentri-fication. Another example is Glasgow’s Merchant City initiative.Since 2002 this has included a Merchant City festival, tied in withthe European car-free day, as part of a wider marketing campaignto raise the area’s profile as the hub of Glasgow’s creative economy.

The words ‘networks’ and ‘networking’ have already become amantra, imbued largely with positive connotations as we perceivenetworking to be about connecting in an open way. Yet networkscan have a flip side if they are too tight, closed in or self-referential,only benefiting those who are part of the group. This reducescreative capacity. This is a point that comes through in assessmentsof Japanese and Chinese creative potential19 and may emerge morestrongly as intercultural creativities which require connectionsacross cultural axes and networks become more relevant.

A battle is raging within the inward-investment communityabout the relative weightings of soft or hard infrastructure. Thedeveloping consensus emerging is that both hard and soft nowprovide the base conditions for inward investment, whereas beforeonly hard factors counted. Richard Florida’s work on the rise ofthe creative class and the urban settings that encourage creativityhas given new credibility to soft infrastructure arguments.20 Anindication of the shift is that more research is currently under wayon soft factors. In the traditional list of 11 inward investmentfactors, most ‘soft’ issues are subsumed under ‘quality of life’, arelatively low-scoring factor. The eleven are: economic profile,market prospects, taxes, regulatory framework, labour climate,suppliers and know-how, utilities, incentives, quality of life, logis-tics and sites. Yet there is growing coverage in the local economicdevelopment and business location communities about the increas-ing importance of quality-of-life factors in attracting and retaininginward investment. A major review of 30 separate studies of factorswhich influence local economic development again identified 11 factors which were cited on a regular basis:

1 location;2 physical characteristics;3 infrastructure;4 human resources;5 finance and capital;6 knowledge and technology;


7 industrial structure;8 quality of life;9 institutional capacity;10 business culture; and11 community identity and image.21

It is notable that the factor cited most consistently (in 25 out of the30) was quality of life, closely followed by human resources andinfrastructure. But while it was most frequently mentioned, itsweighting was lower.

Our own review of the influence of culture and creativity onthe location decision-making of inward investors revealed that:22

• ‘Soft’ infrastructure considerations, such as quality of life orculture, are growing in significance.

• Culture is a ‘soft’ location factor, yet ‘hard’, cost-related factorsstill dominate the location decision process – even in today’sknowledge economy.

• ‘Soft’ considerations are more important for particular types ofinward investment projects, where the attraction and retentionof high-skilled people is important.

• The ‘soft’ considerations are not the central driver in locationselection per se. Except, and this is crucial, when the project isa creative industries or new economy project, when it affectsthe decision after the ‘hard’ factors have been addressed.

• In a tie-breaker situation where there is little to choose betweenseveral locations, ‘soft’ considerations become a ‘must-have’factor for locations aiming to attract and retain highly skilledpersonnel (when quality of life/quality of place is an issue).

• With the emphasis on ‘hard’ facts in the current environment,it is unlikely that a decision-maker is ever going to admit tobeing influenced by ‘soft’ factors such as culture, as they cannotquantify this to other decision-makers and stakeholders.

Redefining competitivenessCity competitiveness is usually defined as economic at core. But thecompetitiveness debate is becoming more sophisticated.Increasingly, new ideas are coming into play, such as an innovativebusiness and cultural environment. Is the city a cradle of creativitywith high rates of innovation within commerce, science and/or the


arts? Does the city have clusters of cutting-edge niche specialismsrequiring specialized networks of professionals? Has the city got astrategic virtual location through intense connectivity? Does insti-tutional capacity exist to get beyond bunker thinking? Is theleadership willing to trade its direct power for a greater creativeinfluence, so unleashing more leadership potential in the city? Isthere good governance and management, involving transparency,trust and lack of corruption, a precondition for seamless trade tobe conducted? Is there ability to work in partnerships to maximizethe benefits of combining public and private sector approaches? Isthere capacity to network globally and to keep abreast of the best?And, significantly, is there cultural depth and richness, which mightmean heritage or the availability of contemporary artistic facilities?Is strategic thinking so embedded across key actors in the city thatthe idea of learning infuses every tissue of its being? Does this makethe city a place where individuals and organizations are encour-aged to learn about the dynamics of where they live and how it ischanging? Does this in turn feed into the quality of municipalservices, including transportation and, most importantly, educa-tion? These competitiveness issues are just as important as costsand productivity or a piece of technology.

Increasingly significant in understanding the new competitiveenvironment is the play of urban iconics, through which the inten-tion of physical structures or events that project a story, an idea orambition can be grasped all at once. Iconic communication is dense,packed and experience rich. But finding the triggers that do this isdifficult. A building that does succeed is the Guggenheim in Bilbao,while Chicago’s Cloud Gate, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridgeand the Rio Carnival are examples of public art, utilities and eventsthat achieve iconic communication. These are more than just wellknown – each tells a deeper story. These iconic triggers then needorchestrating in order to generate critical mass and momentum.They involve design awareness, another competitive tool, and ofteneco-awareness, which might speak to higher ideals of healing theenvironment. In sum, what this does is help create and reinforcethe resonance of the city. And resonance generates drawing power,which in turn can override underlying real economic potential. Thisis why some places do better than they should do, as resonancerepresents a form of capital.

Finally, does the city have an ethical framework of action thatinspires people to give more, to care more and to have more social


solidarity? The crucial step is to be able to define and communicatea bigger role and purpose for the city by defining a common goalbased on an integrated emotional, technological, environmental,social, economic, cultural and imaginative story. It should feel likean unfolding drama where the citizens know their roles becausethey are gripped into engagement. It needs to tap into peoples’ senseof who they are and where they might go, hinting at their role. Citygoals need to be delivered through a wider skills set, beyond that ofplanning professionals.

Rethinking calculations of worth: The asphalt currencyTranslate the cost of every initiative into its asphalt equivalent.Revitalizing the atmosphere of an area might only be 300m ofasphalt equivalent and a youth project 30m. Do a thought experi-ment. What would the comparative impact be of reinvesting 1kmof road equivalent into strategically targeted network capturing?What investment would have greater economic, image and culturalimpact? We are uncritical and rigid in reassessing value in terms ofa money numeraire as well as the budget proportions differentdepartments, whether education, social services or transport,receive. Their positions in the budget hierarchy remain immutable.If you take a medium-sized city, dozens of kilometres of road willbe asphalted annually. And this represents a stark choice. One kilo-metre of a standard two-lane road in the Western world costs about£1.2 million, a kilometre of motorway £3.8 million. That is if youare lucky. More often it is higher and relatively modest roads cancost up to £2.7 million per kilometre. Consider the effectiveness ofinvesting these resources in an alternative and what its impactwould be. Public transport is the obvious choice, but the interestingspeculations occur when you broaden the possibilities.

Rebalancing the scorecard: The complexities of capital The complexity of city competitiveness and reinvention meansurban leaders should better understand, integrate and orchestratethe many forms of capital in their city. Not only financial capital,but also:


• human capital – the skills, talents and special knowledge of thepeople;

• social capital – the complex web of relationships between orga-nizations, communities and interest groups which make up civilsociety;

• cultural capital – the sense of belonging in and understandingof the unique identity of a place expressed in tangible and intan-gible form, such as heritage, memories, creative activities,dreams and aspirations; also Bourdieu’s sense of the culturalcapital of family background, social class and acquired educa-tion that give a person greater confidence and higher status;

• intellectual capital – the ideas and innovative potential of acommunity;

• creativity capital – the capacity to stand back, to connect theseemingly disconnected, to relax into ambiguity, to be originaland inventive;

• leadership capital – the motivation, will, energy and capacity totake responsibility and lead; and

• environmental capital – the built and natural landscape andecological diversity of an area.23

These forms of capital are urban assets and a lack of them urbandeficits. And like all assets they need managing. Thinking of theseforms of capital as the urban currencies should reveal how alldimensions of city-making are inextricably interwoven. There is aneed to realign the weighting given to different activities. The socialdomain, for example, is then not just seen as a problem-solvingarena, dealing with the consequences of unresolved dilemmas else-where, an add-on we have to deal with later. Instead, creating socialcapital assets is a self-conscious strategic activity that builds thiscapital from the ground upwards, as the more we develop and,importantly, use it, the more it grows. Thus in education, an arenain which social capital is developed, courses like history or evengeography then become both aids and exemplars to develop it. Thesame prism should affect police training and that of taxi drivers,how shopkeepers are encouraged to behave, and so on. We knowthere is a link between high levels of social capital and low levels ofcrime. But which cities have strategic social capital developmentprogrammes, as opposed to a series of usually disconnected socialprojects? If social capital includes networking capacity, which citiesare getting their citizens to network across barriers? In deprived


communities, the under-networked network with the equally under-networked so creating an enclosing, isolating, downward spiral ofcommunication and possibilities.

Again, though, as with networking, we must be aware ofdouble-edged qualities. There can be too much social capital, whenit crowds people in, when tradition is too strong, when it curtailsbeing open.

What cities have an intellectual capital development pro-gramme as distinct from an education programme? We knowattracting and having access to knowledge and imagination is thekey to urban success. Important as formal education is, much ofthis talent will be nurtured in settings that have nothing to do witheducation. Thus our perspective on how talent is generated shouldgo well beyond educational institutions. Furthermore, what are thelanguage capacities of your citizens? How many speak a second orthird language and use these in trade and business?

Equally, what cities self-consciously try to develop theircultural capital, as distinct from building cultural facilities?Culture determines how we shape, create and make our societies.So the scope, possibilities, style and tenor of social and economicdevelopment is largely culturally determined. If our city culture ismore closed-minded, strongly hierarchical and focuses on tradi-tion, it can make adjusting to major transformation moredifficult. It might limit communicating across different groups. Itmight hold back international trade or tourism because obstacleswill be created to the free flow of exchange and ideas. It mightdeter creating mixed partnerships, which are now recognized as amajor way forward for communities to solve problems. It mightstifle developing a vibrant, empowered small business sector. Bycontrast, if our traditions value tolerance and openness, thoseadjustments to the new world may be easier. Places that shareideas and have the capacity to absorb bring differences togethermore effectively.

By giving full weight to the various forms of capital, a newurban assessment and measurement tool emerges that combines theeconomic with other factors city leaders are concerned about.

PricewaterhouseCoopers recently published their Cities of theFuture report24 which offers a similar framework, focusing on:

• intellectual and social capital – which focuses on skills andcapabilities;


• democratic capital – which suggests city administrations needto be accountable and transparent in their dialogue with citi-zens;

• culture and leisure capital – which proposes strong city-branding for visibility to compete for residents, business reloca-tions, tourism and international events;

• environmental capital – which draws attention to urbanconsumption and the need to provide a clean, green and safeenvironment;

• technical capital – technology must be able to support thechanging needs of citizens, from broadband to transport; and

• financial capital – how resources are garnered to pay forservices.

Regaining confidence and a sense of selfThe first step in getting a city back on its feet is to regain a sense ofself, and psychological factors play an important role. Changeprocesses initially cause places to lose their self-confidence as thosethings that are distinctive about them and the tried and tested waysof doing things are shown not to work. This might range fromindustrial decline, the loss of services or the brain drain of the moregifted leaving town. Gijon in Spain took two decades to regainsome confidence after the loss of its shipyards, coal industry androle as a port city; Glasgow’s re-emergence from its slow declinestretched many decades, as did that of Pittsburgh.

Unless cities have that rare ‘can do’ attitude or have re-established a new position, they will tend to suffer from a culture ofconstraint. This is because the public and private bureaucracies, theorganizational form that changes most slowly, will be holding thingsback. A sense of needing to ask for permission to do things willprevail over an attitude that says ‘go for it’, which means acceptingsome mistakes and being aware of the distinction between compe-tent failure (good, trying hard, learning from mistakes) andincompetent failure. Normally, unconfident places focus toointensely on the detail rather than the bigger picture. Effecting thenecessary psychological change can happen through shock, seduc-tion or vision. Shock, such as a major employer going under, canstun and deflate. Clearly, preventative approaches, such as having avision or taking global dynamics into account, are better. A visionneeds to touch people individually and viscerally. The strategies that


hang off this vision need to ensure a city has a 21st-century soft andhard infrastructure. The hard concerns – airports, rail, roads and IT– and the soft – the collaborations and connective tissue that makesa city work, as well as atmosphere – must both be in place, butbuilding confidence is key. This requires a strategy of smaller, well-judged risks and the occasional imaginative leap with investment tomatch, so that momentum is built by achieving step-by-stepsuccesses.

Renewing leadership capacityLeadership ideas change with history. Each era requires its ownspecific form of leadership and a governance system to matchprevailing conditions. Each city will assess whether it is in consoli-dation or change mode. In moments of dramatic change,transformational leadership is required rather than the skills of thecoordinator or manager. Local leaders will need to move from beingmerely strategists to being visionaries. While strategists commandand demand, visionaries excite and entice. They will need to movefrom being commanders of their cities, businesses, institutions orcultural bodies to being able to tell a story about the bigger pictureand where their entity fits in, so moving from being institutionalengineers to change agents.

These leaders should provide answers for people in their cityconcerning their personal, work, social and moral choices. Thestory they tell interweaves what their own institution could be,what role others can play and how to get there.25 There are ordi-nary, innovative and visionary leaders. The first simply reflect thedesires or needs of the group they lead. An innovative leader ques-tions circumstances to draw out latent needs, bringing fresh insightto new areas. Visionary leaders, by contrast, harness the power ofcompletely new ideas and get beyond the ding-dong of day-to-daydebate. They retell a compelling story so that everyone feels theyhave a role to play, however small or large.

Most importantly, leadership requires the courage to act deci-sively in the knowledge that some will disagree; to acknowledgethat what is required goes well beyond a single political cycle; andto dare to be creative and inspirational. Lastly, great courage isrequired to acknowledge that the transformation and regenerationof a city takes a generation, with initiatives building on each otherand harnessing across vested interests. Only a few places, like


Barcelona, Bilbao or Valencia, where, importantly, the autonomyof their local leaderships has played a significant role, have reinvented themselves in such a way.

Existing leaders need to trade their power for creative influ-ence, which means giving away power in order to increase influenceover a wider sphere. Leadership is a civic capacity as important ashard infrastructure. It should be a renewable resource. The culturalattributes and attitudes or mindsets that have made places success-ful in the past, such as being an industrial production hub, are thosethat could constrain them in the future if, say, they need to becomea services centre. Industrial and service economies work in differentways. Today communities and companies all over the world arereplacing hierarchies with networks, authority with empowerment,order with flexibility, and creativity and paternalism with self-responsibility.

How many leaders does a city of a million need? 1, 10, 100,1000, 10,000? Indeed, 10,000 still represents only 1 per cent of thepopulation. A city of a million should have a football stadium worthof leaders, as the good and successful city is made up of thousands ofacts of tenacity, solidarity and creativity. The challenge is to unlockthis potential. It is not enough to demand leadership only fromgovernment. Leaders come in many forms and from unusual places:communities, business, the cultural arena, the environment people,activists of many colours. Most cities have many undiscoveredleaders and those that exist often do not work across boundaries.

The new reality of power is that to share power is not an abdi-cation of responsibility but the only feasible and responsible meansby which leaders can possibly achieve everything they want for theircommunities. By sharing power, cities can achieve far more for theircitizens. Having influence over a more powerful, larger patch isbetter than having a lot of power in a smaller patch that has noinfluence. Cities need leaders at different levels and spheres, asurban success depends on the successful results of a myriad set ofinitiatives. As long as there is a sense of a clear unfolding urbanstory, based on a set of explicit principles, self-activated leaders canfunnel and focus energy so complexity is reduced.

Realigning rules to work for visionThere is a misalignment between ambition and rules. Toofrequently, rules determine policy, strategy and vision rather than


vision, policy and strategy determining the rules. Many rules areincredibly petty, cluttering up the urban system and obscuring thebigger picture possibilities of any city. We have become regulatorsrather than facilitators. In times of dramatic change, the rulessystem must be reassessed. If rules only constrain, they have acorrosive effect on imagination. With a risk and opportunity policywe begin to think differently, do things differently and, ultimately,do different things. This is a ‘glass half full’ rather than ‘glass halfempty’ approach.

‘Each rule-based hurdle is a response to some disaster inhistory,’26 and too often rules are based on worst-case rather thanlikely scenarios. This is entrenched by indemnity and personalliability legislation which encourage individuals to export their risk,usually to cautious public authorities.

Each discipline has its rules or legislation to safeguard specialinterests. Consider a highway. Highway engineers have rules, as doenvironmental services or planning. Disability legislation, too,effects what can be done. Yet each discipline applying their rulesdoes not make a good city. This highlights the need for rule-makersto collaborate to create the best solution possible by bending andadapting their rules with the overall goal of good city-making.Another example: Adelaide City Council wanted to be walking-and cycling-friendly. It suggested providing free bikes, an emblem-atic initiative that projects greenness imaginatively. It was blockedfor legal reasons concerning who had responsibility for accidentsand the need to provide certification that users could ride a bike.How could they if the bikes were free to be picked up anywhere?The idea had to be aborted. Many countries have ‘advanced stoplanes’ which give bikes at traffic signals an area in front of cars,making the cyclist highly visible to motorists and giving them ahead start. It improves cyclist safety. The design is not covered byAustralia’s ‘AusRoads Guide to Traffic Engineering Practice. Part14 – Bicycles’. Few councils – Melbourne is an example – arewilling to take the risk of implementing a design not covered byAusRoads. Similar blockages happen in encouraging pedestrianpriority. Zebra crossings, thick black and white stripes adopted inmany countries, give pedestrians the right to cross the road withoutpushing a stop button, with the onus on the motorist to stop. Butcurrent ministerial regulations prohibit their installation in SouthAustralia in all circumstances. It shows how difficult it was forAdelaide to reflect its then slogan, ‘audacity, capacity and vivacity’.


This all has a corrosive effect on imagination, affecting every-thing we do, whether in the public, private or community sectors:the plastic gloves that need to be put on when you buy food; thesausage sizzles put on by a voluntary group to raise money thatwere threatened because someone got food poisoning once; thecooking students who cannot watch a famous cook at work in casethey slip in the kitchen.

This generates a culture of constraint, where common sense issqueezed out. Two forces are working in parallel. One is a litigious,suspicious climate that can generate a level of paranoia and leadsto a loss of human interaction. The other is that, while occupa-tional health and safety committees rightly focus on risk at work,there is no equivalent committee that looks at creative possibilitiesat work. As a result we focus on danger and not opportunity. Manyrules are small yet cumulatively they erode initiative. Governmentsand cities should play a central role by thinking through imagina-tive regulation. Attitude and perspective are key: ‘Yes. How can weachieve this?’ rather than, ‘But there might be a problem here.’ Weneed to be less legalistic and more concerned with problem-solving.We need to understand that saying ‘open up rules’ does not equateto deregulation but rather to finding the right rules for the rightcircumstances.

A lively session with several hundred public servants at anInstitute of Public Administration Australia seminar threw out acascade of interesting ideas that are easy to implement, including adisposition to strike a redundant regulation off the books each timea new one comes on; allocating, say, 0.5 or 1 per cent of budgets toknown risky projects; new recruiting criteria that assess the innova-tive capacity of the individual; a creativity index as part of annualperformance assessment; and placing an innovation item onagendas, like the one for occupational health and safety. There mayeven be a programme like Huddersfield’s Creative Town Initiative,where a business leader gave £750,000 to a programme – the sumwas matched by the city – to come up with 2000 innovative ideasby the end of the year 2000. These could be in any field fromrunning a crèche in a new way to developing a business idea.

A semantic shift can be applied to regulation by rethinking it asa source of creating added value. Normally we think of incentivesas the driver, yet adroit, creative regulation can also be a driver tosustained economic growth rather than a constraint. One againthinks here of Emscher Park, which used high environmental stan-


dards and ‘first mover’ advantage to drive forward the growth ofits export-driven environment-healing industries. The long-termstudies of how green regulations have encouraged company inno-vation is further evidence of the possibilities.27 By refocusingattention to resource productivity rather than labour productivity,any city could copy this approach to generate, say, hypercars –affordable, fuel efficient, ultralight, hybrid-electric vehicles – andmuch more.

Renaming risk management policyPrecisely at the moment of change, when cities need to be inven-tive, the rise of a risk culture limits potential. Every riskmanagement policy should be renamed ‘risk and opportunitypolicy’ to ensure both sides of risk are explored. This means movingfrom a climate of ‘no, because’ to one of ‘yes, if’. Allied to this moveshould be incentives to encourage and validate imaginative think-ing. For instance embedding criteria for innovation and creativecapacity as part of annual job performance assessments and as arequirement in job applications. Moving forward requires a focuson the spirit of most guidelines, rules or laws and not on the letterof the law, which usually constrains. This requires leadership fromthe top, from the bottom and right through the middle. Top leadersneed to symbolically ‘give permission’ so that the trapped potentialof others lower down the hierarchy and of the city is unleashed.There are many potential leaders waiting in the wings.

Reconceiving the city Reconsider what the city is. Cities in the 21st century are smartlyconnected cities, ones that can marshal the energy of their entirecommunity. The legal, physical, economic and perceptualconstructs of the city will differ, as will images. Most big citiesare city or metropolitan regions but are governed as smaller enti-ties, at times even as if they were only towns. This set-up cancreate fierce parochialisms and turf wars which make it hard todeal coherently with issues like public transport, housing orinward investment strategy. This is why there are city amalgama-tions worldwide. For instance Toronto moved tometro-governance in 1998 and the major British cities are defin-ing themselves as city regions. Town thinking and city thinkingare different. The balance between locality and wider areas needs


to be continually renegotiated; there is no iron law. Over time,cities reshuffle boundaries to maximize overview with the needfor very local detail: to make decisions of international impor-tance or to cut down a tree.

The core communication challenge is to be close to the voterand to find a means by which there is enough involvement of theindividual citizen, through a variety of participative means within astructure that allows the bigger picture issues to be dealt with. Yet,in the end, the decision must be a judgement on what sustains bothwealth creation capacity and social harmonies.

Consider a common worldwide phenomenon. Take Memphis,where independently incorporated cities in the outer suburban beltlike Germantown and Bartlett leapfrog over the core and suburbs,demanding infrastructure so they connect with the city. Physicallyit shatters Memphis’ integrity and shape, creating wide funnelsalong which strip stores proliferate. Built to attract the better paid,it drains Memphis of its tax base. This is a triple whammy.Memphis has to maintain its services on a lower income base, thecity loses its mix of rich and poor, and the outer suburbanitesexploit the bits of Memphis they like, such as using the culturalfacilities, while making little or no financial contribution to itsmaintenance. Only a metropolitan approach can solve this.

Take Espoo as an instance of strategic planning difficulties.Espoo is a high-tech area where the original headquarters of Nokiawere based and is, to all intents, part of Helsinki. When Helsinkicompleted its metro in 1982 it wanted to extend to Espoo. Espooresisted, essentially for power reasons, and this created traffic prob-lems in Helsinki. For 20 years they argued and only recently hasEspoo relented.

Finding the resolution, the will to operate well, is key. Bristol inBritain is an important city of 400,000 and has a metropolitancatchment area of around 600,000. When metropolitan councilsfirst arrived in the early 1970s, the change did not touch Bristol,although it was an obvious candidate. Instead, in 1974 it became adistrict within an even larger region, Avon, thus reducing its status,even though it was the driver of the city region. Bristol then oper-ated like a doughnut, with pockets of extreme disadvantage withina larger, richer conurbation. Organizationally, it took a long timeto get Avon to work; but then it was taken apart again in 1997 andBristol was boxed into too narrow boundaries as part of a networkof four local authorities, Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset,


North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. Indeed some bound-aries run right through the city of Bristol. This creates tension andbad decision-making and led to the recent tramway proposal beingaborted.

Birmingham is the largest city in Europe without a metro. Itdrives the West Midlands region of Britain – a region of about 5.5million people. But the proud cities of Wolverhampton, Walsall,Coventry and a mass of smaller ones fear its power. If they workedtogether they could probably persuade central government torelease resources. Perhaps more importantly, the centralized,controlling British system does not allow Birmingham to borrowresources from international financial markets to create a metro onits own. This means that Birmingham remains stuck in traffic jams;that its poorer populations are locked into specific areas; and thatthe city remains under-connected, disadvantaging areas like theethnically diverse Handsworth or Sparkbrook. These would be farmore vibrant hubs otherwise.

The British regeneration success stories appear to happen inspite of obstacles and lack of power. The current level of centraliza-tion is holding cities back. Without revenue-raising powers, howcan a city have a vision? Within Europe, Britain has one of thelowest levels of locally raised taxation.28 Contrast this with theastonishing revival of Spanish cities like Valencia, Bilbao,Barcelona, Malaga and Seville. Their local control over resourcesand the ability to raise their own taxes is one of the highest inEurope and is acknowledged as a driver of their vision for them-selves.

Metropolitan areas should be viewed as an interlocking assetwhere the centre feeds north, south, east and west – and they, inturn, feed the centre. When you look at the supply chains andeconomic dynamics, the mutual interdependences are crystal clear,as are the flows of services. It is important, too, to overcome stereo-types that affect investment potential. Stereotypes do not help goodstrategy. For example, one of the largest concentrations of PhDgraduates in Australia work in north Adelaide, around Playford.Yet because of image issues, that area is perceived as part of theproblem rather than home to some of the nation’s most dynamicknowledge-intensive industries.

Taking an eagle’s eye view of most cities as a governance struc-ture, we see a decision-making spaghetti as you overlay onejurisdiction over the next: local, regional, national or federal politics


and water, education and health boards. They do not align. Decision-making is not geared to seeing metropolitan areas as integratedwholes. But the fates of the centres matter to outer-lying areas. Theyare bound together like Siamese twins. Having local councils iscrucial as long as there is a mechanism which ensures that the widerpicture is considered. Take Adelaide again: What is Walkerville, acouncil with 8000 voters, to a Parisian, Burnside to a Roman orMarion to someone from Shanghai? They are just Adelaide. On theinternational stage Adelaide is the overarching identifier.

A metropolitan governance arrangement makes sense despitethe downsides. Many cities struggle with the dilemma. Dublin istoo big for Ireland, so the government resists the creation of aGreater Dublin authority, but Dublin is too small for Europe tooperate effectively as a major European city.

Yet the city needs a boundary. Cities work well when they haveboundaries, barriers and borders. Too few cities address the ques-tion ‘When will it ever end?’ and take a stand on the boundary. Theassumption should be for a boundary that only on rare occasions isredefined. The justification to move ever outwards, from Istanbulto Canberra, often comes from the development industry, whichclaims ‘none of our children will ever be able to buy their ownhouse’ as the cheap land has historically been on the edges.Boundaries, as distinct from endless sprawl, help define and giveplaces stronger identity; this is why in our own surveys of the idealcity, the classic bounded cities of Italy usually come on top. It alsoforces cities to compact in selectively, so creating the critical massfor public transport hubs or more lively activity to occur. This inturn has a beneficial downstream effect.

Reimagining planning The word planning is confusing, because it both describes a genericattribute that applies to all activities and simultaneously has beentaken over as the core term for city-making and become synony-mous with it. Broadly it means to anticipate futures and problems,to explore their possible impact, to describe what is wanted andhow to get there in solving problems and to select strategies fromamong alternative courses of action, as well as a set of steps inreaching a goal. ‘A plan is like a map. When following a plan, youcan always see how much you have progressed towards yourproject goal and how far you are from your destination.’29


With the pace of urban development so fast and the attemptsof ‘planners’ to create orderly development, planning has increas-ingly come under criticism. Planning has two core conundrums todeal with: ‘What is planning?’ and ‘What is planning for?’ TheAmerican Planning Association shows no lack of confidence anddeftly says:

Planning is city building… The goal of city and regionalplanning is to further the welfare of people and theircommunities by creating convenient, equitable, health-ful, efficient, and attractive environments for presentand future generations… It is a highly collaborativeprocess. Through this collaborative process they helpto define the community’s vision for itself… In theanalytical planning process, planners consider the phys-ical, social and economic aspects of communities andexamine the connections between them.30

As to the scope of planning activity, the British government nowdefines planning as the creation of ‘sustainable communities’. Soplanning is moving away from its land-use focus towards beingmore about mediation and the negotiation of differences. Thisrequires new skills. For others, it veers between being solelyconcerned with the physical and the planning of land uses to beinga generalist activity covering an understanding of economic dynam-ics, the social, the environmental and, increasingly, the cultural aswell as the process of engaging communities in visioning where theylive. In the former case the skills base is clear and circumscribed. Itsees the city as essentially an engineering artefact and helps focuson orchestrating the built environment professions. As conductorof the ‘plan’ its self-understanding is that of the leader.

In the latter case its role is less clear – either it acquires higher-order understanding of a variety of disciplines to justify itsleadership role or it acknowledges it is merely part of the city-making team. Or alternatively it makes a special claim that its formof knowledge is more significant in creating cities. These statusbattles have raged for a long time. At points it was the architectwho claimed primacy; now it is the urban design grouping whoclaim that their overlapping concerns, touching the ‘morphologi-cal, perceptual, social, visual, functional and temporal’,31 put it inthe central role. These dimensions cover connectivity, movementpatterns, street layout, sense of place and image, environmental


design, social use and management of space, and the functioning ofthe public realm.32 It should be noted that all the disciplinesdiscussed, including urban design, are physically oriented andinspired. It is as if only organizing the space is important ratherthan creating a habitat. The knowledge of people who glue the citytogether seems incidental.

My view is that city-making is the overarching activity thatdraws on a wide variety of disciplines, soft and hard, one of whichis planning and another urban design, but only as two among many.Mostly people will need to work in interdisciplinary teams, as onlyoccasionally is one individual able to grasp the overarching picture.It is an exercise in telling a possible story about the city and how toget there. It energizes and provides direction. It is both normativeand prescriptive. It is not value free at this point, as city-making isa process of exerting power. In being normative the city-makerswill have critically analysed how they reached their conclusions,why things work and why they don’t. It is not mere speculation.The skills of the storytellers need to include an understanding ofthe various dynamics that make cities work. It needs to be bothhard-nosed and sensitive. This aspect of city-making should avoidthe dull, lifeless language of traditional planning and explain whywhat it is suggesting could work.

It will address in its action plan the classic planning dilemmas,such as ‘to plan or not to plan’, and the guidelines and levels ofrigidity it proposes will be context-driven. In this scenario, who isleading the process will depend, and by no means will it always bea physical specialist. It may in one instance be a historian, inanother someone knowledgeable about social dimensions and in athird a culturally literate person.

There are then the mechanics of implementing and evaluatingagreements, guidelines, regulations, rules or laws in fields as variedas development control and creating economic incentives. Theseare, however, essentially routine processes and should not beconfused with the process of developing the bigger picture oppor-tunities.

Remapping the cityBy reconceiving cities a different picture emerges. This needsmapping if policy priorities are to be set and the right investmentundertaken. The best mappers are usually the planners. Their focus


is largely on land-use patterns and socio-demographic trends. Manymaps exist, such as of the value contours of the city, but these donot appear to be looked at from a holistic perspective in whichplanners, economic strategists and the social or culturally mindedinterpret together what the policy implications are. So far, interpre-tation has been too firmly viewed within isolated disciplines. Thisis fine as far as it goes. Yet when other dimensions are also mapped,further insight occurs. In short, maps stimulate insight when lookedat through collective eyes, and we could be more creative about thekinds of maps we develop.

Maps rarely track emerging issues such as the flows of creativ-ity, innovations, decision-making, participation, use of space andpotential. Nor are maps made of industrial dynamics, showing howa place interconnects internally and with the wider world. But whatcan emerge from these are interdependencies, mutual reliances andoften counter-intuitive conclusions. In Adelaide we undertookextensive remapping and discovered, for instance, the Playford PhDcluster. Remapping revealed an extensive decision-making spaghettias one map was layered on to the next. The maps showing wherecreatives live confirmed intuition. Creatives move to areas of char-acter and distinctiveness, but also to places in the process oftransformation, where an element of edginess remains. Also thereis a strong correlation between places on the heritage register andwhere they live, often in accommodation where they both live andwork. The maps were also helpful in predicting areas of futurepotential or possible decline.

Redelineating urban rolesThe bureaucracies that run cities have two core tasks whichrequire completely different outlooks, attitudes and skill sets. Yetoften they are done by the same organization with attendantstresses. The first task is the routine delivery of services, which arelargely repetitive, such as street cleaning, road maintenance, andthe management of schools and transport systems. This is essen-tially rule-driven and mechanical. The second task is managingurban change, which is developmental. This focuses on identifyingfuture needs, such as the soft and hard infrastructure requirementsfor 50 years hence. This might be as bold as shifting the city centre,as Taipei has done by building Taipei 101, the Taipei financialcentre in the new Xinyi District. At the time of writing, this


508m skyscraper is the world’s tallest building. Around it nowcluster department stores and Eslite, one of the world’s largestbookstores, selling 3000 different magazines and newspapers.Promoted as ‘a cultural arena for the people of Taiwan’, Eslite’seight storeys include a children’s discovery museum, seminarrooms, and a design and living floor. Managing urban changemight involve investing in new education, shifting the industrialbase to services, getting into a new economic sector, recabling acity or opening out new housing zones.

Vehicles to push the urban change agenda forward need a valuebase to guide thinking and decision-making; they need to be set updemocratically while being able to act entrepreneurially withinaccountability principles. This means giving leeway to act with therequisite public monitoring. Rotterdam Development Corporationis one model of an arm’s-length local authority entity with theleeway to act entrepreneurially and to partner with the privatesector. Importantly, it has an income stream from a large numberof ground rents in the city. Thus it can put resources into the potwhen enticing the private sector to get involved but can also reducerisk, so encouraging innovation or more expansive or interestingfollow-through. Another model is Bilbao’s Metropoli-30 (describedin Chapter 7). It was set up as a driving mechanism and visionholder. It does not confuse vision-making with implementing. Itsroad map has led from a focus on civic infrastructure to a changein cultural values in the region. It has said to itself, ‘You only havea once in a lifetime opportunity to change the civic infrastructure,and at a minimum it should be international class, at a maximumworld class.’

Metropoli-30 was particularly effective in the early years ofBilbao’s regeneration, when it helped launch the city on to theglobal stage. However, it is now struggling somewhat to maintainits position and, while its current theme of ‘changing the culturalvalues’ of the city to be more open and tolerant is immensely impor-tant, it does not have the same urgent ring as building a newphysical infrastructure. Again the invisible infrastructure neverseems as exciting as the visible.

In parallel, the company Bilbao Ría 2000 plays a significantrole within the city itself and has grown in importance. Created in1993, it is a joint stock company with public capital – a statuschosen to give its organizational ethos flexibility. At the beginningit had few financial resources and had to face the overcautiousness


of private investors. It received land – a crucial point – from theport and the railway company at a nominal cost in return for devel-oping new infrastructures. This enabled it to resell parts for housingunits. These first receipts were reinvested in high quality publicrealm works in the Abandoibarra area near the Guggenheim. Asthe real estate market took off after the Guggenheim effect, andwhile other resources were leveraged from the EU and public insti-tutions, the initial caution of the private sector stopped and themarket dynamic gained full flow. The danger now, however, is thatit excludes the less wealthy.

In surveying regeneration economics the following conclusionscan be drawn. Public and private relations need to be in balance somutual benefit is clear and not dominated by one party. It is naïveto think complicated developments involving public-good valuesand goals can be achieved by a few enlightened developers workingon their own. However enlightened they are, their economics donot stack up in truly blighted areas. The private realm is more oftenthan not interested in the shorter term and in minimizing risk. Thepublic sector needs to help reduce that risk, but also needs the toolsto do so. An income stream to help the private sector is required.The ownership of and ability to trade in land is the key lever as itenables borrowing against increased land values. But bear in mindthat the window of opportunity within regeneration to capture landvalue is short.

An income stream enables local, publicly accountable bodies totake a lead and not just be passive implementers of what a nationalgovernment imposes or be completely driven by private marketinterests. Cities in continental Europe have a better understandingof the need to plan for their financial future and it allows them todevelop more imaginative strategies than those in, say, NorthAmerica, Australasia or Britain.

Some of the value-added created through good public strategyshould go back to the public purse. This revenue can help financepublic realm initiatives. A completely private sector approach tendsto privatize public space, so you to tend to end up with mall-likedevelopments and lose the street in the process. The difference infeeling between private public space and public public space issubtle but significant. However well done, the former has acommercial edge as it is geared to consuming, which allows forsome excitement but is essentially barren. The latter done well, asin Abandoibarra, can exude public values like conviviality, the


ability to hang around or the ability to reflect. When done badly,however, it also has an emptiness.

Reasserting principles of developmentThe speed of deep regeneration is slow; it takes a generation. Itrequires value holders who can stick it out for 20 years.Regeneration is too important to be left to the vagaries of the polit-ical cycle. Typically, the trajectory of development or renewal in anarea starts with a philosophy and then a story – a story of whatcould be. Often this is prefigured by some temporary actions, suchas a market, a bizarre arts event, an old building being broughtback to life or a new type of project. Often these are led by urbanmissionaries, two examples in Britain being Eric Reynolds, whoselong track record includes Camden Lock Market, Gabriel’s Wharfand Container City in London,33 and Bill Dunster, the eco-architect. They in turn create settings that the pioneers occupy,examples being Dunster’s Bed-Zed Factory,34 a zero emissionsdevelopment with 82 residential units in Merton, London, or KenYeang’s bioclimatic skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur. The next groupcodify, replicate and make the innovations into a formula as themainstreaming begins. Finally, there are those who benefit from thehard work of the innovators. The challenge is to ensure they do nottake all the value out of the development.

The goal is to get a system that reinforces key actors taking along-term perspective and encourages ordinary people to create thegood ordinary and the great surprising. Good ordinary buildingsbuild up like a mosaic, yet the debate about housing or public build-ings tends to be dominated by architectural comment focused onloud buildings. To encourage the good ordinary requires principles.

The New Urbanism charter addresses three levels: the region,metropolis, city and town; the neighbourhood, district and corridor;and the block, street and building. Within each there are nine princi-ples. For example, at the regional level: ‘The metropolitan region is afundamental economic unit of the contemporary world.Governmental cooperation, public policy, physical planning andeconomic strategies must reflect this new reality.’ At the neighbour-hood level: ‘Neighbourhoods should be compact, pedestrian-friendly,and mixed-use.’ Or at the block level: ‘Individual architecturalprojects should be seamlessly linked to their surroundings. This issuetranscends style.’ The core aims are difficult to disagree with:


The Congress for the New Urbanism views disinvest-ment in central cities, the spread of placeless sprawl,increasing separation by race and income, environ-mental deterioration, loss of agricultural lands andwilderness, and the erosion of society’s built heritageas one interrelated community-building challenge.

We stand for the restoration of existing urbancentres and towns within coherent metropolitanregions, the reconfiguration of sprawling suburbs intocommunities of real neighbourhoods and diversedistricts, the conservation of natural environments,and the preservation of our built legacy.

We recognize that physical solutions by them-selves will not solve social and economic problems,but neither can economic vitality, community stabilityand environmental health be sustained without acoherent and supportive physical framework.35

The charter for New Urbanism is a useful mechanism. But it shouldbe judged by its intention, aims and values, not only by what hashit the ground in its name. Many New Urbanism developments canhave a cloying feel without the edge of surprise, overemphasizing,as they often do, historic references and context and giving littlespace for rethinking the new or making dramatic interventions.

Reconnecting difficult partners: New Urbanism and Le CorbusierWhile their intentions to create better cities were similar, LeCorbusier and New Urbanism seem miles apart. Their conceptionsstarted from very different premises. For the first the image is rational and mechanical: the house as a dwelling machine, wherethe car is king. For the second, the image is organic, where ‘commu-nity’ is at the centre.

In the US more than elsewhere, towns and cities have beenpulled apart by putting the needs of the car centre-stage. Hence theappeal of New Urbanism whose tentacles are now spreading. It hasa view, a manifesto and set of principles, of how life should be lived,seeking to establish a link between the physical design of cities andsocial aims like ‘a sense of community’ providing an alternative toautomobile-oriented planning that has torn and fractured mostplaces apart, less so those whose historic cores have remained. It isa reaction against sprawl and wants to create human-scale walka-


ble places. Its major principles are to create compact, walkableneighbourhoods or districts with clearly defined centres and edgeswith a public space, a square or a green at its heart, surrounded bypublic buildings, such as a library, church or community centre aswell as major retail businesses. There should be a focus on diverse,mixed activities in close proximity: living, shopping, schools, work-places and parks. Neighbourhoods and districts should encouragewalking without excluding automobiles. Streets should bereclaimed with building entrances fronting the street rather thanparking spaces. Streets should form an interconnected network andpublic transit should connect neighbourhoods to each other, andthe surrounding region. Also, a wide spectrum of housing optionsshould enable people of a broad range of incomes, ages, and familytypes to live within a single area. By contrast hulky, large develop-ments featuring a single use or serving a single market segmentshould be avoided. Civic buildings, such as government offices,churches and libraries, should be sited in prominent locations. NewUrbanists think areas with large office, light industrial, and even‘big box’ retail buildings can be made walkable with the dominantparking lots flipped to the side and the rear so avoiding setbacks.More than 600 new developments are planned or under construc-tion in the US, using the principles. Additionally, hundreds ofsmall-scale new urban infill projects are restoring the urban fabricby re-establishing walkable streets and blocks.

Some design fashionistas hate New Urbanism; they detest whatthey see as its cloying feel; its ornamentation, its dinky town imita-tion of a nostalgic past. Celebration, near Orlando Disney’s private5000-acre town, built on those principles and using their designershas eclipsed Seaside as the best-known New Urbanist community.Disney has given New Urbanism both a good and bad name. WhileDisney has avoided the label, it is a juicy target especially given itsstrict rules and management. Its town hall, perhaps its least attrac-tive building, with forbidding columns, accentuates that reputation.Celebration’s roads, apart from the ubiquitous use of Celebration,have names like Acacia, Mulberry and Hawthorn alluding to anatural, arcadian landscape. Celebration’s conventional urbandesign is generally of high quality; for instance all houses front thestreet and cars are hidden from view. It is mostly liked by thosewho live there. The area feels safe. As one person noted, ‘The entirefocus of our lives has changed. Instead of doing everything someplace other than close to home, we now can eat, do errands, cele-


brate special occasions and just hang out near our own home. Thechanges are most dramatic for our children, who now have afreedom they never had in our old neighbourhood.’

Le Corbusier equally had intentions to find better ways ofliving, seeking to deal efficiently with the urban housing crisis andsqualor of the slums. As a founding member of the CongresInternationaux d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM) he realized earlyon how cars would change cities. Fascinated by the logical rigourof Taylorist and Fordist production strategies he applied this rational, some would say desiccated, spirit to city building anddecreed that ‘the house is a machine for living in’. It was to bedesigned with great clarity and a focus on function using modernmaterials, technologies and architectural forms so providing a newsolution to urban living and simultaneously raising the quality oflife of poorer people.

His core ideas are embodied in his scheme for a ContemporaryCity of Three Million Inhabitants (1922). Its centrepiece is a groupof 60-storey glass-encased, steel-framed cruciform skyscrapers withoffices and apartments for wealthier people. Set back in smallertowers were to live poorer people. Many buildings were on thinstilts. His notion of towers in parks as the ideal city plan becamethe dominant model for low- and mid-priced housing on theoutskirts of major cities in Europe and elsewhere. The hub was atransportation centre with buses and trains on different levels withroad intersections and even an airport on the top. Pedestrians wereseparated from the road, and cars were venerated. Ornamentationwas sparse and buildings spartan and by law all buildings shouldbe white. Brasilia is the prime example of its logic to full effect, yethis influence seeped throughout urban planning, still applied butincreasingly criticized as creating cities enslaved to cars on wide,congested roads, banked with dull repetitive towers. Le Corbusierbecame a bête noir for critics who hated his insistence on a rationalefficiency that to them diminished people.

So do we, as Rem Koolhaas suggests, ‘fuck context’?36 HaveKoolhaas’ followers been able to create spaces people love? Indeed,the question needs to be raised: Do architects like people? Somedo. Take Will Alsop’s extension to the Ontario College of Design inToronto. He rejected the solution to build an extension on a clearedsite as too conventional. He suggested leaving the site open, land-scaping it and linking it to the public park behind. He boldly putthe extension high in the air on stilts, so doubling its space use.


Like an architectural installation it hovers above the existing collegewith its pixelated black and white cladding and coloured stilts. Itcompletely transforms an unremarkable street. It is pragmatic andvisionary, albeit seemingly devoid of contextual considerations.Some have criticized the internal spaces that students work in, butthe exterior leaves a strong mark.

Reshaping behaviourIncentives and regulations condition and bend our behaviours. Thesame is true for norms and values, let alone laws. The market choicesoffered determine what we do. Technology shapes what we do andhow we do it. Many of these behaviour shapers are etched into oper-ating manuals, codes or guidelines. We are never as free as we think.

The knee-jerk reaction that changing behaviour equates tosocial engineering is ill-considered. Thousands of ways to effectbehavioural outcomes are employed to make civilization work. Forexample, red traffic lights tell us what to do, as do road markingsor safety codes, yet we do not dismiss these measures as social engi-neering. Reforms in an incentive system, like congestion chargingin London, change behaviour. In the case of congestion charges, ithas encouraged walking and cycling and discouraged car use.

It is better to encourage behaviours through incentives ratherthan invoking stipulatory regulations, but sometimes things are notmoving fast enough. Living sustainably is one area: we guzzle fartoo much. Most people are not aware of the deeper implications oftheir consumption. This requires either more dramatic incentives,for example tax rebates on sustainable fuels, or creative regulation.Emscher Park has one of the most stringent and developed systemsof environmental regulation in the European Community, and, incontrast to several other countries in the community with strictenvironmental laws, the regulations are also actively enforced.37

Emscher, once the mining centre of the Ruhr, used its environmen-tal degradation as a spur to reinventing its economy. It applied veryhigh standards which local industry had to meet, and in meetingthese standards industry developed innovations. This contributedto creating the environment-healing industries cluster centredaround Dortmund Technology Park, a sector within which it is esti-mated that 50,000 people work. By the time the rest of the worldcaught up with these standards, the region had already benefitedfrom its ‘first mover’ advantage.38


Ironically, Emscher cities such as Dortmund, Bochum,Gelsenkirchen, Essen and Unna are twinned with their once indus-trial mining Yorkshire counterparts in Britain – Leeds, Sheffield,Bradford. The contrast could not be more striking. Emscher, apowerhouse of structural renewal, sought to create culture changewithout erasing memory. Witness the transformation of theDuisburg-Meiderich steel works. A torch-lit guided tour at nightthrough the gargantuan installations of the former works only dimlylit by Jonathan Park’s coloured light installation bends the percep-tion. Emscher Park has attempted to innovate, while maintainingconsensus, and to adopt an ‘incrementalism with perspective’approach to ensure that eco-thinking was deeply embedded. The10-year IBA Emscher Park project regenerated the river system,created a chain of 22 science and technology parks, refurbished orbuilt 6000 new properties according to high ecological and aestheticstandards, and found radical new uses for former mines.39 Its storywas simple – turn a mining area into a landscape park. Conceptually,the Yorkshire region was simply not at the same level, partly becauseit did not have the levers to generate a vision beyond the mundane.

Some British politicians understand what is at stake but havelost the moral high ground and have not delivered this level ofquality. In Britain one senses that we still need to ‘convince the manat the treasury’ that there are other ways of using resources better.Their concern is with productivity and they find it difficult to thinkin feedback loops and spin-offs. This treasury approach stops smartthinking about investment and, with its particular form of risk aver-sion, makes it difficult for public bodies to behave in long-termways. Often there seems a confusion between investing and spend-ing. The fact that investment in social fabric has a financial paybacklater is forgotten.

To make matters worse, the system of incentives and rewardspromoted by government in Britain until recently fostered a beggingbowl mentality. Grant processes encouraged those who could claimthey were in the worst situations, who were thus rewarded at theexpense of those who could say they had improved the most.

What is required is a revolution in taxation. In relation tocreative finance we can learn from the US, with its bond systems,tax increment financing, business improvement districts (BIDs) andland value tax.40 Crucially, these measures can be instigated by thecity. The reason the US is able to innovate is that, as a federal struc-ture, not everything is controlled from the centre. These


mechanisms essentially allow future value increases of property tojustify current borrowing by public authorities to create publicrealm improvements, ranging from new trams to public space,which will be repaid by increased taxes in the future. And withBIDs, contributions from the private sector are repaid by higherproperty values or increases in turnover in shops. For instance,bond systems are underwritten by expected increases in land valuesonce the infrastructure has been improved. They are attractive toprivate investors as they provide an inflation-proof form of invest-ment. Bonds have the great appeal of being evaluated in terms ofthe project and the capacity of the borrower by the investor, ratherthan relying on the judgement of politicians. Importantly, therequirement in the US to secure prior approval for issuing a bondin a ballot secures greater accountability. These institutional mech-anisms remind us that while what the individual can do is worthyand important, it is limited compared to institutional change andsystemic creativity.

While the US has been financially innovative in its urban devel-opment model, however, it is flawed in other ways: sprawlcontinues, cars dominate, and segregation and inequalities areendemic. It is more a warning than an inspiration. Many countries,including Britain, that look to the States perhaps could do worsethan to look to continental European countries such as Holland,Germany and Spain, or to places like Hong Kong.

Reconsidering the learning cityThere are many slogans that now declare the aspirations of cities:‘the good city’, ‘the knowledge city’, ‘the intelligent city’. For me,the notion of the learning city has most meaning. A creative, learn-ing city is more than a city of education. A learning city is a clevercity that reflects upon itself, learns from failure and is strategic; thecity is a learning field. The dumb city, on the other hand, repeatspast mistakes.

Learning resources are everywhere, from the obvious, likeschools, to the less obvious, like the urban streetscape, or thesurprising, like prisons or malls. As the educating cities networknotes:

The city is, therefore, educative per se: there is noquestion that urban planning, culture, schools, sport,environmental and health, economic and budget


issues, and matters related to transport and traffic,safety and services, and the media include and gener-ate forms of citizen education. The city is educativewhen it imprints this intention on the way it presentsitself to its citizens, aware that its proposals have attitude-related consequences and generate newvalues, knowledge and skills.41

Most large cities produce a surplus of graduates as they suck intalent from surrounding regions. So by definition they are ‘educa-tion cities’. This is fine as far it goes. However, a more worthwhileand exciting prospect is to be a learning city – a city that encour-ages people to be educated. What does this mean? We knowlearning and education need to move centre-stage to secure ourfuture well-being. Only if learning is placed at the centre of ourdaily experience can individuals continue to develop their skills andcapacities; can organizations and institutions harness the potentialof their workforce; can people or cities be self-reflective and sorespond flexibly and imaginatively to opportunities, difficulties andemerging needs; can the diversity and differences between commu-nities become a source of enrichment, understanding and potential.

The challenge for policy-makers is to promote the conditions inwhich a learning city or community can unfold. This goes wellbeyond learning in the classroom. It is a place where the idea of learn-ing infuses every tissue of its being and is projected imaginatively; aplace where individuals and organizations are encouraged to learnabout the dynamics of where they live and how it is changing; a placewhich on that basis changes the way it learns, whether throughschools or any other institution that can help foster understandingand knowledge; a place in which all its members are encouraged tolearn; and, finally, and perhaps most importantly, a place that canlearn to change the conditions of its learning democratically.

A true learning city develops by learning from its experiencesand those of others. It is a place that understands itself and reflectsupon that understanding – it is a reflexive city. Thus the keycharacteristic of the learning city is its ability to develop success-fully in a rapidly changing socio-economic environment. Where thedumb city flounders by trying to repeat past success, the learningcity is creative in its understanding of its own situation and widerrelationships, developing new solutions to new problems. Theessential point here is that any city can be a learning city. It is not afactor of size, geography, resources, economic infrastructure or


even educational investment. The learning city merely requiresstrategy, creativity, imagination and intelligence. It looks at itspotential resources in a far more comprehensive way. It seescompetitive edge in the seemingly insignificant. It turns weaknessinto strength. It makes something out of nothing.

How is this promoted? Leaving aside the wealth of educationalopportunities one would expect from a learning city, there is a needto find ways of using the city itself as a learning field. Urban learn-ing resources are everywhere, from the obvious to the less obviousto the surprising. Pre-school groups, schools, colleges, universities,adult learning centres, libraries, television and the internet areobvious. Businesses, community centres, arts centres, museums andattractions, health centres, post offices, citizens’ advice bureaux,the urban streetscape, nature reserves, the outdoors and bookshopsare less obvious. Old peoples’ homes, homeless shelters, refuges,prisons, shopping malls, hospitals, churches, trains, stations, foot-ball stadia, service stations, restaurants, hotels, cafés, nightclubsand local parks are surprising.

The challenge is to create more self-conscious communicationdevices that allow the city fabric to become a learning experience.Learning messages must confront the clutter of advertising. Thismight mean that, on occasion, the football stadium uses its screensto explain how the screen itself works, the train station becomes akind of classroom on transport or communications, or public signsexplain the origins of street names: Why is Brixton’s Electric Avenueso called? Who lived in Bloomsbury? Anywhere, anyhow, canbecome a site of learning.

Indicators to measure an educated or learning city are differ-ent. The former includes government school inspection records,school student attainment, proportion of students enrolled inhigher education, impact of research produced by the universitysector and the proportion of the workforce receiving training.Evaluating the learning city notion requires a different order ofindicators: the number and reach of formal cross-sectoral partner-ships, the proportion of major businesses and institutions whichuse non-hierarchical management processes or the number ofmentoring schemes supported by business, the vitality of localdemocracy as expressed in voting patterns or responses to consul-tation processes or the numbers of people involved in localcampaigns, and voluntary groups dedicated to bringing aboutchange and improvement.42


Reigniting the passion for learningAdvances in knowledge about how effective learning works shoulddrive educational policy, strategy and institution-building; suchadvances cannot be guided by views that are etched into currentinstitutional practices that come from a former era. Learning needsto focus on and be seen through the eyes of those wishing to learn.This implies a major conceptual shift in how schools work, whatthey look like, the role of teachers, who should be regarded as ateacher and what the curriculum should offer. Students shouldacquire higher-order skills such as learning how to learn, create,discover, innovate, problem-solve and self-assess. This wouldtrigger and activate wider ranges of intelligences. It would fosteropenness, exploration and adaptability and allow the transfer ofknowledge between different contexts as students learnt how tounderstand the essence of arguments rather than recall out-of-context facts.

Creative learning environments have characteristics includingexuding trust; freedom of action; variety – where you can transferknowledge across contexts and disciplines; a balance between theskills people have; challenge – a context where ideas are bouncedback and forth with continual feedback and evaluation; direct rele-vance to the outside world; and an organizational leadershipculture that is open-minded and boundary-crossing.43

Meaningful learning is reflective, constructive and self-regulated. It is more effective to present kids with problems, chal-lenging them to devise their own solutions. By putting the youngperson at the centre, passion can be reignited, the passion requiredfor citizenship. This is especially so if learning plans and learningagendas in school and outside school are co-created and co-financed with a variety of outside stakeholders.

There are many educationalists thinking afresh, but their viewshave not reached critical mass. There are many teachers with goodideas and nearly every school has extremely interesting projects,but too often these are the ‘naughty stuff on the side’. Teachers sayit is simply too hard to work against ‘the system’. This systemlooms everywhere and is difficult to pin down – a rule here, a habitof doing things there. When teachers push innovative approaches,they hit a wall of legislation and resistance from concerned parents.Those things now seen as obstacles often emerged initially for goodreason, such as duty of care, safety issues or accountability frame-


works. But now those same issues are creating constriction,restraint and even an element of infantilization, taking awayresponsibility from and underestimating the capacity for people tofind their own ways to solutions. A climate should be encouragedthat ‘gives permission’ to work around obstacles. The failures weoften discuss are more often not to do with the pupils but the waythey are taught and how their success is measured.

Education cannot solve the problems of education on its own.After all, school occupies only 5 to 7 hours a day, even though wesometimes behave as if it were 24. People could still be learning inthe other 19 hours. Some of the most effective learning outcomeshappen outside school. We know many miss this opportunity anddo things we prefer they would not. The role of cultural institu-tions, from botanical gardens and zoos to museums, libraries andgalleries, should increase as their style of learning is seen as partic-ularly effective in new learning theory. The same is true forparticipation in the arts. Evidence shows that astonishing results inoverall performance can are achieved with increased participa-tion.44 Young people say their disinterest is triggered by the lack ofconnection schools make with real life or young enthusiasms.45

This overall refocus could be the circuit breaker in the system thatunleashes passion.

To shift the agenda to learning how we learn will be difficultgiven the weight of history, institutional inertia, union rules andsurrounding bureaucracies more used to a controlling mode ratherthan an enabling mode.

Reinventing teachers means their self-conception should changefrom being knowledge experts to facilitators and enablers of learn-ing. It means communicating to parents that the way they learnt inthe past is not necessarily the way we should learn in the future. Itis often parents, with their desire to give their kids the best, whoreinforce unhelpful patterns, assuming often that how they learntwas right.

When teachers are brought up in an environment of constraintthey provide a role model for pupils of passivity and powerlessness– an unfortunate set of attitudes for young people to endure in theirrites of passage – which affects those kids for life. Passion is thekey. When passion is tapped in learners and teachers there is a wayforward, and then schools can be reconceived as centres of curios-ity and imagination and communities of enquiry rather thanfactories to drill in knowledge.


Revaluing and reinvesting in people and home-grown talentIt is a cliché to talk of valuing people. Cities need to find ways ofidentifying, harnessing, nurturing, sustaining, attracting andpromoting talent – wherever it is. The talent of its people are thecity’s main asset. Capitalizing and harnessing the creative potentialof local people has to be the defining core of any city’s reinvigora-tion. Their applied creativity generates the wealth and solutionsthat will drive the city on. Every department, whether public orprivate, should have a talent strategy. Every person can expresstheir talent better. At one extreme a long-term unemployed personcan become employable. Someone coasting in their job can becomeenterprising, so doing their job better. That person over time maybecome entrepreneurial and set up a business. Ideally they thenbecome creatively entrepreneurial and develop innovations orbecome leadership figures.

Every city and region wants to attract more gifted and ambi-tious people. Some call this ‘the war for talent’. Singapore’s talentstrategy to attract outsiders stands as an example of what manycities, regions and countries are trying to do.46 New Zealand47 andMemphis48 are two other examples; they also have a strong agendato develop their domestic knowledge base. In essence they buytalent, perhaps a leading researcher and his or her team, or encour-age a company to relocate. Singapore has also developed a notionof the creative city, whereby they seek to foster an environmentwhere people want to come. They note that:

The future will nonetheless be very different from thepast. In the knowledge age, our success will dependon our ability to absorb, process and synthesizeknowledge through constant value innovation.Creativity will move into the centre of our economiclife because it is a critical component of a nation’sability to remain competitive. Economic prosperity foradvanced, developed nations will depend not so muchon the ability to make things, but more on the abilityto generate ideas that can then be sold to the world.This means that originality and entrepreneurship willbe increasingly prized.49


Cities can attract outside talent to refresh their inner gills – andthey have to – but most of all they need to achieve endogenousgrowth. I have no problem with migration, but simply want torefocus on tapping home grown talent as a parallel strategy. In myexperience, in any city you investigate, there are many projects totap hidden talent, but they tend to be one-off, short-term and unco-ordinated.

In Adelaide, for instance, we calculated that, of its populationof just over a million, perhaps 250,000 – a quarter – were under-achieving. This is likely to be similar elsewhere. Some aredesperately leading a life that drains both them and their city.Others may have merely missed out, and yet others don’t quitereach the next step of aspiration or are just waiting for the rightchallenge to achieve more. If just 1 per cent of these people becametransformed, they would represent the equivalent of 2500 qualifiedmigrants in the Adelaide case; in London it would be 20,000. Andif 1 per cent, why not 2 or 3? If all of us achieved 5 per cent morethan we do already, this would equate to a hugely enlarged talentpool. Think of any large city or ghetto, from the US and Brazil toSouth Africa. The stark fact is that millions of younger people havebasically dropped out or not recognized what they can offer. Itreminds us of wasted talent.

Richard Florida’s The Rise of the Creative Class asks, ‘Whatdo talented people look for in a place?’ According to conventionaleconomic theory, workers settle in those cities that offer the highestpaying jobs in their fields. However, Florida argues that people inthe ‘creative class’, given their mobility and international demandfor their talent, base their choices on wider considerations. Theychoose cities for their tolerant environments and diverse popula-tions as well as good jobs. They want the critical mass of jobopportunities in their field but look for places that suit theirlifestyle interests, with attributes well beyond the standard‘quality-of-life’ amenities. They seek an environment open todifferences – places where newcomers are accepted quickly into allsorts of social and economic arrangements. They want interestingkinds of music, food, venues, art galleries, performance spaces andtheatres. A vibrant, varied nightlife, indigenous street culture, ateeming blend of cafés, sidewalk musicians, small galleries, bistrosand so on.50

What is true in attracting external talent also holds for inspir-ing and keeping local talent – they also want environments


conducive to inspiration. There is a danger that if importing oftalent is not combined with a home-grown talent strategy, disaffec-tion and disenchantment could grow. Importing and overlayingambitious newcomers into a setting where existing inhabitants havelow expectations and aspirations can cause tension, as differencesin achievement can create a ‘have’ and ‘have not’ divide.

To tap talent might mean being unconventional, reimagining,say, schools as different kinds of places, as centres of curiosity andimagination that are co-conceived in an equal partnership by kids,their parents, the teaching profession and architects. With thesebroader links to the community, a different spirit could emerge. Itmight mean reconceiving what a school is – less a factory for learn-ing and more interwoven with daily urban life. It could mean that atravel agent might have a role in the geography class, a well-beingcentre acting as the biology class, or that kids teach asylum seekerslanguage skills. This means rethinking who our teachers are andwhat the role of traditional teachers should become. Not everyoneis equally talented, but everyone can tap into and express theirtalent more than they do. Some people, especially those with lowexpectations, often do not know they have talent simply because,for a variety of reasons, it has not been discovered.

A talent strategy seeks to address this problem. A useful deviceis to divide the talent-generating process into 6 components interms of helping policy-making and defining projects. Each hasdifferent requirements and targets:

1 projects to help people become curious and interested – this is aprecondition without which talent cannot be discovered;

2 initiatives to help people become work ready or employable;clearly the role of cultural initiatives or arts programmes canhelp and has so far been underplayed;

3 programmes to help people become enterprising – the enter-prise education agenda;

4 schemes to help people be entrepreneurial, such as by settingup a business;

5 projects to help people to ‘self-actualize’, from which unex-pected potential may emerge and where cultural institutions orsports can again play a key role; and

6 creatively entrepreneurial initiatives that might lead to innova-tions and inventions.


Importantly, the talent agenda is not a strategy for education,although education should play a central role. It is integrated andshould also involve an assessment of how economic or arts devel-opment and the programmes and activities of cultural institutionsfoster talent and how social affairs can connect to the agenda. Thefocus should not only be on statutory provision, but should alsoinvolve the activities of the private sector and voluntary bodies.The talent agenda is not only about youth, but also adults andmembers of the third age.

These processes will rekindle enterprise and the entrepre-neurial – these are positive words, but we tend to regard whatthey mean in a narrow way, assuming too often they only applyto business people. There is a need to improve the image of beingan entrepreneur, getting schools to bring in outsiders to teachthese skills, getting the public sector itself to appreciate thevirtues of entrepreneurial thinking, both in its own domain andelsewhere, and developing a range of affirmative devices, fromcompetitions to prizes. Being entrepreneurial goes beyond beinga business entrepreneur and applies equally to those working insocial, cultural, administrative and political fields. It is a mindsetdriven by the ability to focus on creating opportunities and over-coming obstacles. Each city needs to remind itself of itsenterprising history, for founding a city is a supreme act of entre-preneurship.

Repairing health through the built environmentFollowing their combined efforts to improve living conditions inthe overcrowded and disease-ridden cities of the 19th century, thedisciplines of public health and urban planning went their ownways. Only recently, after many decades, have they come togetheragain, with growing concerns about inactivity and subsequentobesity and other chronic diseases, from hypertension to diabetes.The US leads the race to be fat. It has the highest percentage ofoverweight people (64.5 per cent), of whom 30.5 per cent are obese;Mexico has 62.3 per cent overweight and 24 per cent obese, Britain(61 per cent overweight, 21 per cent obese) and Australia (58.4 percent overweight) following close behind. Mainland European coun-tries hover around the high thirties. The lowest percentages arerecorded in Japan (25.8 per cent) and Korea (30.6 per cent); obesityis probably also lower in Chad or Eritrea, but the figures aren’t


available.51 Being obese means that someone of 1.77 metres weighsover 95kg.

In September 2003 the two leading American public healthjournals, The American Journal of Public Health and TheAmerican Journal of Health Promotion, had special issues on theeffects of the built environment on health, and how the design ofcities can foster health-inducing behaviour. Their argument can besummarized thus: car-dominated, sprawling and pedestrian-unfriendly cities make you fat and unhealthy. And ‘it is time toshift to communities intentionally designed to facilitate physicaland mental health’. The situation is stark. In the US only 2.9 percent of trips are made by walking, down from 10.3 per cent in1960. Walking and cycling now accounts for 6.3 per cent of trips.In continental Europe, by contrast, figures range from 35 per centto 45 per cent. And this is impacting on life expectancy. A batteryof evidence from around the world is suggesting that cities thatencourage incidental walking and cycling have higher levels ofhealth. The relationship between built form and weight is clear –those areas with more sprawl and fewer sidewalks, thus encourag-ing greater car use, have higher levels of obesity. Additionally,those of greater isolation have higher levels of depression. Theresults point ideally to forms of settlement that are more denseand compact, where facilities from public transport to shoppingare nearby.

The challenge for all professions concerned with the city, fromthe social worker to the architect, is to look at the city through theprism of health. The topic is too important to be left only to healthspecialists. This should involve outcome swaps. This means aplanner, regeneration expert or economic development professionalshould ask, ‘How do my plans help citizens become healthy?’

Reversing declineCities rise and fall and rarely stay on top for a very long time.Excepted, perhaps, are national capitals such as London, Paris orMadrid, as they tend to accrue political, economic and culturalpower. But there are many counter-examples. Berlin lost its statusand may catch up again. Kyoto lost out when Tokyo took over ascapital. Rome had 1.5 million people in the first century AD; 300years later, the population had fallen to 30,000, before resurging to3 million in the 1970s. British cities like Liverpool, Sheffield and


Glasgow have seen their relative positions decline, not forgettinghundreds of smaller ones, from Burnley and Rochdale toBlackburn. Whole streets can still be bought in some northernEnglish towns for under £100,000. If there were no subsidies forthese places, there would be mayhem. Shored up by welfarepayments, decline is managed. In parts, life is quite pleasant, butthe young, gifted and talented are leaving. Side by side there areareas of affluence – some of them even the richest parishes in Britain– and poverty. A new class of quite well-paid urban therapists andregeneration experts keeps them afloat. Statistically there are moresocial workers, more housing experts and more economic develop-ment specialists than elsewhere. This welfare industry makes lifebearable for those who find it difficult to succeed economically.They try to manage decline gracefully.

Consider, too, East Germany, where most big cities have shrunk,let alone the smaller ones. Or Detroit. Or production hubs in Russialike Ivanovo. Or the mining towns in Australia like Broken Hill orWhyalla. Cities rise up and achieve moments of glory and then fadeinto insignificance. Their resources run out – see Burra in SouthAustralia; they are now in the wrong place – see Liverpool orCalcutta. For some, war contrives to make them lose power, ashappened to Berlin and Vienna. Some miss strategic opportunities,some are badly managed and led. Some, such as Venice or Florence,manage to exploit the residues of their past glories by becomingtourist destinations, but their real dynamic has long gone. Declinemostly takes time and happens almost imperceptibly. Each smallmovement of decline in itself does not seem to matter, but collec-tively the movements constitute something dramatic.

Decline is often out of the control of cities but at times it isexacerbated by a tendency to operate within a comfort zone. Thisgenerates inertia, and then changing existing procedures and atti-tudes is like raising the Titanic. At times, the decline is not visible,and can be masked by comfortable lifestyles. Good weather, goodfood and wine can be blinding and the nostalgia of all good thingspast takes over.

The shrinking cities project has monitored such decline.52

Significantly, it is assessing the opportunities that decline mayprovide. Suddenly the growth paradigm is thrown out of thewindow. Decline may be bliss, with a premium on space, telecom-muting a possibility, and far more room for experimentation andcreating models for the future, such as eco-towns.


Remeasuring assetsDaniel Yankelovich, the renowned American pollster, helpfullyreminds us:

The first step is to measure whatever can be easilymeasured. This is OK as far as it goes. The second stepis to disregard that which can’t be measured or give itan arbitrary value. This is artificial and misleading.The third step is to presume what can’t be measuredisn’t really important. This is blindness. The fourthstep is to say that what can’t be easily measured reallydoesn’t exist. This is suicide!53

On some basics like value-added created per employee or thenumber of unemployed, a city may be lagging. These basic comparisons are useful, but there is a bigger story. The rethinkingprocess requires places to remeasure themselves according to theirself-defined strengths. For example, when I assessed indicators inAdelaide, I found that predominant measures of success and failureunderplay its strengths or often push the city into the wrong prior-ities. With indicators such as GDP growth, we see relative decline.However, while these need to be taken seriously, they do not tellthe whole story. A traffic jam in Los Angeles increases GDP, as doesthe resulting pollution that causes ill health. Crime rates jack upsales of security devices. GDP signals can thus guide us into wrongpolicy and investment. Or consider the value of time gained byliving in Adelaide, ‘the 20 minute city’, as compared to a Sydney.What are the benefits of proximity? How much time is saved,perhaps an hour a day by 100,000 people? I calculated this ataround 250 million working days a year. What is this worth?Perhaps some £25 billion.

If people and their capacity to contribute to a city’s future arethe key, why do we not measure the costs of not investing in people?For example, the lifetime cost of an unemployed person is roughlyAUD1 million, while the lifetime benefit of a plumber is perhapsAUD1.8 million or that of an accountant roughly AUD4 million.The taxes paid might amount to from AUD600,000 to AUD1.4million, the cost of an educational programme is perhapsAUD100,000. The cost of only asphalting 1km of an existing two-lane highway is AUD1 million. What ultimately contributes moreto GDP? A newly laid kilometre of road or 10 transformed people


contributing to the local economy whose lifetime taxes would morethan pay for the road in any case?

Benchmarking, when it emerged two decades ago as a means offostering improvement in business and elsewhere, had positiveimpacts. Cities took to the idea with vigour, constantly comparingthemselves with others, copying what worked and pushing bestpractices. This is fine, but increasing negative impacts are emerg-ing. Most importantly, it can stop creativity and innovation as, bydefinition, benchmarking is a strategy of following, not an exercisein leading. Often it avoids defining strategy appropriate to localneeds and can distract from identifying unique local resources.

If nurturing and attracting talent is central to most cities’futures and we are worried about the brain drain, are we trackingleakage of talent? This might be done by tracking not only gradu-ates that leave, but also mid-career professionals, or throughpeer-group assessment within fields such as the arts. In turn, are wetracking the talent coming in? The indicator of indicators may bethe ‘talent churn’, because we know there is a correlation betweentalent and generating wealth, solving problems of social cohesion,or coming up with inventions and innovations. Even if creativityseems too complex to measure, there is a wealth of proxy indica-tors both quantitative and qualitative. These include those – citedby Richard Florida54 – that, while contentious, draw on a body ofdata to develop a number of indices which he then uses to developcorrelation matrices and rankings of cities. These include:

• the creative class index – the percentage of creative workers inthe labour force;

• the high-tech index – the size of software, electronics and engi-neering sectors;

• the innovation index – the number of patents per capita;• the talent index – the percentage of college-educated people in

the population; • the gay index – the concentration of gay couples in the popula-

tion (a proxy or lead indicator for diversity); and • the bohemian index – the concentration of artistically creative

people (artists, writers and performers) in the population.

These are a good beginning, yet they do not highlight (nor do theyclaim to) the fine detail. This needs to be elaborated more specifi-cally, including measuring international connectivity or density of


communications assessed by telephone calls and internet uptake, orlevels of organizational networking. In the end, international peer-group assessments of various fields are the most dependable.

More comprehensively, creativity might be assessed through abiannual creativity audit to assess the city’s creativity potential.Such an audit provides a confidence-building foundational stone,as literally hundreds, if not thousands, of people emerge as the realdrivers of an invigorated place. It is likely that they will representclusters of achievement and potential. It is likely, too, that some donot know each other and operate in silos.

Re-presenting and repositioning Arrival to and departure from a city matters. First and last impres-sions configure overall impressions and negative experiences impactmore than positive ones. Airports, stations and entry roads are vitalin telling the urban story. They communicate how the city sees andvalues itself. Philadelphia, a city with a strong identity, memorablywelcomes you after arriving at its airport with a major rubbishdisposal site. Singapore was one of the first cities to grasp andfollow through every aspect of the experience of arrival. Friendlyassistants help you to your taxi and a lush, green, tree-lined corri-dor with boulevarded streets make the ride into the city centre calm,so taking away the insecurities any traveller feels on arrival.Shanghai’s elevated maglev (magnetic elevation) train, the world’sonly commercial maglev, connects the international airport to nearthe city’s financial centre in Pudong district, a run of 30km. Passingsimilar tree-lined approaches, it creates a similar calming effect.Both send out messages such as ‘we care for you’, ‘we are well orga-nized’, ‘you are safe’, ‘we are modern’. Even though neither city isrenowned for its sustainability agenda, the arrival experience alsosays ‘we are green’.

Hong Kong airport is also in this top league, with a publictransport system that is a delight and with porters for your luggage.Noticeably, it is easier to achieve complicated goals, such as a 10kmentrance to the city, when an enlightened public sector is in the leadand in essence can overcome resistances along the way. Here theNordic cities work too. Oslo airport is an intelligent building –alternative-energy-powered shutters open and close according tothe weather. You feel the eco-awareness through the design too;there is practically no visual clutter and commercial aspects are


downplayed. Civic values, such as consideration, safety and respect,imbue the atmosphere. Getting into the city is seamless. Contrastthis with the Washington Dulles airport experience and themessages it sends out: no metro system to the centre, just a herd oftaxis waiting for arrivals. This is sad because Washington’s metro isrenowned as one of the best in North America.

Train stations send out the messages too. Euralille in Lilleprojects modernity and the future – open heaters compensate forthe cold chill that sweeps through it and that was perhaps a designfault. The grime of Bucharest, the chaos of Odessa or the humanmass in Kolkata elicit other feelings. Adelaide is the only city in theworld where two of the world’s great railways stop – the IndianPacific and the Ghan. This symbolic resonance is immense.Unfortunately they arrive at a shunting yard in Keswick. Adelaideis now changing that.

Getting these arrival termini right is key. This makes the Bilbaocomment above on ‘once in a generation opportunities’ pertinent.Get this wrong, as, for example, Terminal Four at Heathrow, andwe have to live with a bad building for a generation or more.Importantly, this is the opportunity to send out visible iconic trig-gers and not merely advertising hoardings. There is a hugeopportunity to make statements that show visitors what is differentabout the city. The key themes should be embodied and reflectedfrom the terminal or station or motorway entrances onwards to tellan unfolding story that links with the story in other parts of thecity.

But using the city as a communications device to drive visionand aspiration remains under-explored and goes well beyondarrival and departure. The panoply of visual clues and activitiespromoted, from urban design, public art and signage to the tempo-rary and whimsical, is there to be further explored. For instance,green buildings should be known to be green, perhaps employing atemporary sign that reminds people that the building next dooruses, say, double the energy and costs more.

Cities often downplay their possibilities and self-perception isoften the cause. The following may appear trivial, but has down-stream effects on self-perception. In Adelaide we proposed thatinstead of thinking of itself as the ‘smallest of the big’ (Brisbane,Melbourne, Perth and Sydney all being bigger) and losing outagainst them, why not think of itself as the ‘biggest of the small’?We advised Helsinki that, instead of worrying about being on the


periphery and ‘on the edge’, it might think of itself as ‘at the cuttingedge’. One sounds dull, the other more interesting. This changesthe narrative a place tells about itself and can generate confidence.These switches have real life impacts.

The media is key to urban reinvention. Most city media disap-point. They are geared to complaining rather than helping to create.Cities are often projected as clichés, with little sense of their depthor richness. There is much about problems, but little about achieve-ment and aspiration. You hear above all about fears, crime,vandalism and disorder (important though these are). You hearabout the effects but little about addressing causes. Places wherecourts are based always have a disadvantage. In Adelaide there arecourts in the district of Elizabeth which deal with cases from awider area than that of the district itself. Yet reports of these casesin the media refer solely to Elizabeth, so weakening the image ofthis area dramatically. How about dropping the references to thephysical location of courts?

Just as it is good for any larger city to have alternative hubswhere different lifestyles express themselves, so the media land-scape for a mature city should be one of diversity. In contrast toAdelaide, which had one dominant paper, Melbourne’s or Sydney’smedia provides a richer, more sophisticated story that reflectsbroader views. Without more media competition, the story of aplace like Adelaide will be a narrow one. Most urban turnaroundstories work in part because they have this diversity of media or –especially when they are small – a supportive local media thatencourages the city to move forward. The British town ofHuddersfield got lift-off as the ‘creative town’ only when the localpress firmly helped create an environment in which citizens felt theycould become part of the solution. Obviously in a ‘hyper-mediated’age, urban politics increasingly responds to media messages. Andthis can also have a corrosive effect on politics as it begins to playmore to the media than to the other big picture issues concerningthe future. The media claim they are only responding to viewsrather than creating views, but these are large arguments about therole of the fourth estate.

Only a few cities, perhaps 30 in the world, have enoughdrawing power and recognition across a range of domains. Mostpeople will know which these are. The list starts with places likeNew York, Tokyo, Shanghai and London. The mass of others needto increase their reputation and positioning in niche areas to sustain


wealth creation over time. The strong niches a city decides to high-light are important, because if they inspire citizens they will wantto stay and contribute, and outsiders will be enticed to come.Building a reputation is not merely a marketing exercise but aprocess of creating rich associations around these niche areas.

In projecting itself as having desirable attributes, such ascreativity, dynamism or greenness, a city should not brand itself as‘Creative Anywhere’ or give itself a similar accolade. It shouldsimply demonstrate through imaginative action that it is creativeand let others say of it ‘you are creative.’ As ever, there is the dangerof sloganeering or vainly and desperately attempting to be famousfor something.

Yet positioning is about creating the conditions whereby thewealth-creating capacity of a place can be sustained over time. Forthe mass of smaller cities, which can mean any of those not at thetop of the urban hierarchy, the switch being attempted is to movethem from being places to leave to being destinations to come to.This means increasing drawing power to various audiences.Foremost, this is targeted at the city’s own citizens by providing anenvironment where they want to stay. In this way they becomestronger ambassadors for their city.

Retelling the storyEvery city has many stories. Every story a city tells itself anchors itssense of self and possibilities. Stories describe where a city has comefrom, how it sees itself now, where it might go, its personality andits perspective on life. Take Adelaide’s stories:

• The land and its peoples before European settlement.• The city of free settlers and no convicts, and thus respect for

the law.• The city of ideals and perfect planning, exemplified by the

world-famous Light plan for the city. This engenders pride anda certain high-mindedness, as well as a feeling of order and defi-nition.

• The city of stone and substance, reflecting a deeply embeddedsolidity and long-term legacy.

• The city of churches, highlighting its loftiness, spirituality andotherworldliness. Yet this image on closer examination may notbe that pure, because the Bible and booze always went closely


together. Indeed, the number of churches may reflect a certainfractiousness rather than unity of purpose.

• The city of bold, state-led intervention, as exemplified by thecreation of the new town of Elizabeth and the attraction of thecar industry into the state. Perhaps it felt controlling and some-what restrictive.

• The city of the arts: a way of saying Adelaide is open, experi-mental, vibrant and creative. This connects to the AdelaideFestival.

• The city that overextends and loses judgement, that is overam-bitious and bites off more than it can chew. The State Bankcollapse or failure of the Multifunction Polis (MFP), a vision-ary Japanese idea for the future of the city.

• The boring city that is overcautious, avoids risk and that ‘talksthe talk’ well but does not feel it can deliver.

• Niche stories, such as Adelaide as the Detroit or Athens of theSouth. Perhaps a marriage between the two is what Adelaidereally is. Then there is the murder capital label and, on a morepositive note, the city within which women can flourish andwhere possible utopias can happen.

Seen in this sequence – and the stories do follow chronologically –we can see why one followed the other. For example, the openingout in the 1970s under Premier Don Dunstan, with his interest inthe arts, and the closing in after the State Bank saga and the ensuingreputation for inaction.

Its goal now is to write a new chapter as the ‘city of creativeimagination’. It seeks to build on the vision that ‘you can make ithere, you can achieve your dreams and we will help you’. The signalis ‘you have permission to get on with it’. Permission to haveinsight, to imagine, to improvise, to invest and to implement. Thisis the operating system of the new story.

Take Memphis as another example. Named after the ancientEgyptian capital on the Nile, its stories include being the birthplaceof the blues and musical invention. Another predominantly 1950sstory is that Memphis is the quietest, cleanest and safest city in theStates. Then the Elvis Presley movement adds to its musical rich-ness. Martin Luther King’s assassination is a story that blighted thecity for 35 years, but one that also highlights a concern with civilrights. Fed Ex, the massive logistics company, is reshaping the storyagain. Most interestingly, the University of Memphis is repeatedly


being referred to as the ‘University of Second Chances’.55 Thiscertainly sends out the message, ‘You can make here. You can fulfilyour dreams, and we will help you.’ And this is an adroit narrativefor the city as a whole, given its high entrepreneurial start-up rate(and given that most entrepreneurs fail at least once), the popula-tion mix (many on low incomes who desperately need secondchances to finally succeed) and plain old human frailty. If a citytakes on board the idea of second chances and inserts it into itsgenetic code, this changes behaviour. Imagine a place that is posi-tive about second chances, where the assumption is that you willnot be blamed for a failure or missing an opportunity.

Retelling the urban story is not about eradicating the past, butabout building on it and using the elements of past stories to helpus move forward. In so doing we should examine honestly themyths that sustain us and give us our identity. There is nothingwrong with myths as long as we challenge them regularly. We alsomust invent, and then live out in our daily lives, new stories aboutourselves. If the watchwords are to be ‘the place that encouragesimagination and being creative’, what that means needs to be phys-ically seen as well as allowing people to improvise. Rules andregulations should facilitate and enable development rather thancontrol it.

My conclusion is that while industrial structure, business devel-opment, natural resources and location are vital, what is even moreimportant is the culture of the place, its psychology and its history.This shapes the attitudes of its people and its sense of self, the storyit tells itself and the myths about itself that it clings on to. This isthe genetic code of the city. While there is a certain path depen-dency, this dependency can change because, whereas an individualis locked into their attributes, in a city the people constantly change.New generations come in unencumbered by the past, new outsiderswith fresh views arrive, and leadership with new priorities canemerge. Leadership is central to the urban change agenda, and lead-ership is more than just administering or managing.

How will we know these processes of imagination, improvisa-tion and implementation are happening? This will requirecommunicating strategically and putting some things on the groundthat may, at first sight, seem superficial and irrelevant to the purists.Yet their psychological power can be great. If you want to signalthat your city, Adelaide, for example, is ecologically savvy, puttingvineyards around an airport terminal communicates green inten-


tion (and wine) without wordy explanations, as would greeningblank walls, where foliage could hang majestically down from cityroofs like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Green buildings couldhave imaginative signage explaining how much energy is saved andhow much more the neighbouring building costs to run. Having along-term plan to solar panel a city would have immense power tocommunicate ambition, as would plans to waterproof the city. Itinvolves being a bit subversive or surprising and working at asubliminal level to get a message across, while at the same timedoing the hard work of deeper greening.

Knitting the threads togetherTo drive a city forward there need to be a few powerful ideasaround which disparate communities of interest can gather andcoalesce. These should capture the imagination by tapping intodeeply felt desires and widely acknowledged assets, or even prob-lems, but only if solutions are also proffered. They need to besimply, but not simplistically, expressed in order to communicatewell.

The results need to be communicated not as a clutter of facts,but as visible achievements that can be seen and felt in the way thecity goes about its business and in its urban landscape. That is whywe need to integrate attitudinal change with activities, programmesand initiatives as well as physical manifestations such as in urbandesign and infrastructure. Together these have a psychologicalimpact. To do this well requires whole of government approachesand not scatter-gun initiatives.

Resources to achieve transformation will not magic themselvesout of nowhere. They will be harnessed by doing things betterlargely within the same resource base. Much of this does not costmoney, or at least very little. But this can happen only by rethink-ing through what capital, collaboration, connections andcommunications are available. An under-explored form of capitalis confidence. When we tap this energy, motivation and will follow.If we focus only on one without attention to the others, the city ismanaging itself badly. Leading a city is about managing all its formsof capital together.

Additional resources come from collaboration because, ifpeople and organizations follow jointly agreed ends, more valuecan be created and greater impact achieved without wasting time


and resources by contradicting each other. This is why the need tothink through new governance arrangements for the city and to seeit as an interconnected asset is highlighted.

Connections, linkages and networks are a key resource. Theyare the software system of the city, society and economy. Gettingpeople and sectors to talk together and finding ways to broker thattalking does not cost much and can have great impact in terms ofunderstanding, strategic decision-making, the generation of projectsand, ultimately, wealth creation. Yet nobody takes this on as theirrole. Connections are not valued because the focus is on tangibledeliverables. But they are the invisible assets that make thenetworking-driven economy work. And this should be the jointresponsibility of both business and various levels of government.There should be two foci for connections, both internally and tothe outside world. This is what we have called ‘capturing territory’.

Communicating with strategic intent and sophisticationthrough iconic triggers generates resources because, when donewell, it engenders response, energy and will.

While every city needs to be imaginative, some need to bedoubly so. They must self-create through inventiveness, but tobegin the process they must overcome the culture of constraint.This means a subtle shift in mindset, which is the order withinwhich people structure their worlds and how they make choices,both practical and idealistic, based on values, philosophy, tradi-tions and aspirations. Mindset is our accustomed, convenient wayof thinking and our guide to decision-making. Mindset is thesettled summary of our prejudices and priorities and the rational-izations we give them.

A changed mindset is a rerationalization of a person’s behav-iour, because people like their behaviour to be coherent, at least tothemselves. The crucial issue is how people at every level canchange their approach systematically, not piece by piece.

The challenge is to find a story or narrative and linked struc-ture that forces a change in perception. The notion of themetropolis as an interconnected asset and the idea of ‘learning tobe a city’ and revaluing hidden assets could do the trick.

Strong ideas or themes have a significant impact on how thingsare conceived, the role of discipline, and collaboration and imple-mentation. For example, conceiving a place as a metropolis, orshifting the policy on education to centre around the child ratherthan the professional, or changing the name of risk policy.


What is a creative idea?What is a good, catalytic idea that can drive a process, that becomesthe roadmap to move forward? A great idea needs to be simple butcomplex in its potential. A good idea is instantly understandable,resonates and communicates iconically – you grasp it in one. Agood idea needs to have layers, depth and be able to be interpretedand expressed creatively in many ways and involve many peoplewho each feel they have something to offer. A good idea connectsand suggests linkages. It is dynamic. It breathes and implies multi-ple possibilities. With a good idea creativity and practicality cometogether. A good idea solves economic problems as well as others.It has to embody issues beyond the economic. If it is just economicit can become mechanistic. Ideally it should touch the identity of aplace and so feel culturally relevant. Indeed it should support, buildon and create it. In this way it should speak to deeper values andambitions. It is significantly powerful and can be implemented inmany ways.

Let’s look at some ideas. Many cities around the world say theyare going to become the ‘education city’. This idea is narrow; itimplies and feels as if it is only the education sector that is involved.It excludes everyone else. ‘A talent strategy for …’ idea would bebetter: it is easy to understand; clearly many people would need tobe engaged; and they can see their involvement from the arts toeducation to business providing professional development. It canbe layered to focus on identifying, harnessing, attracting, sustain-ing or exploiting talent. Or it can focus on the stages of talent fromgetting people to be curious, enterprising, entrepreneurial or innov-ative. Its weakness it that it could apply anywhere. To say, asMemphis is beginning to say, that it is ‘the city of second chances’is quite strong. It projects a positive ethos; openness, the willing-ness to listen, tolerance. It recognizes that the city is disadvantagedwithout over-egging the pudding. It acknowledges business start-uprecords are not too good. It opens out to the future and ideally in adecade the slogan will be less relevant, because enough secondchancers will have succeeded. To say that Adelaide would ‘water-proof the city’ was a strong idea of theirs, but it has not yethappened. It had an implied economic agenda and spoke power-fully to green issues. The same is true if any other city were to claimit would become the world’s first ‘zero emissions city’ or ‘solar city’,and really mean it. It would provide a mass of business opportuni-


ties and put that city on the global radar screen. It would seeminterestingly counter-intuitive for a known mining centre or indus-trial centre to do it as the gut instinct is to see those kinds of city asmacho.

Another example of broadening an idea or ‘making more outof less’ is if someone wanted to light a set of buildings or a bridge.Such a lighting scheme, with associated activities and linked public-ity, would have to be about more than just lighting some buildings– perhaps it should be about enlightening a place, and Perth beingenlightened. In short, lighting a building needs to work harder.

A final coda: Reconsidering jargonLanguage is important – it is intrinsically linked to thinking andbehaviour. A survey by the Centre for Local Economic Strategy(CLES), a British association for city development, quizzed 38voluntary agencies in Oxford on their understanding of commonlyused urban regeneration terms like capacity-building, communityempowerment, project outcomes, strategic objective, synergy,joined-up thinking and exit strategy.56 In almost 90 per cent ofcases, more respondents had heard of a term than understood it.This indicates a high frequency of overused but misunderstoodphraseology. The worst were ‘capacity-building’, ‘synergy’ and‘community empowerment’. As many of the activists did notunderstand the jargon, they did not know what many urban regen-eration projects were seeking to achieve. Jargon detaches anddisengages us from the core of what we are trying to do.

Local people talk of taking their kids ‘on holiday’, profession-als give them ‘a residential experience’; ‘having a good time’ is now‘learning new skills’.

Other jargon often reflects an atmosphere of political correct-ness. For instance, in Britain, multiculturalism has come undercriticism for segregating communities and not encouragingcrossovers between cultures. However, anything to do with race isseen as a minefield, as it presents so many opportunities to put yourfoot in your mouth and trip yourself up because you do not under-stand the cultural nuances of the latest words and dare not usethem. This can especially be the case for council officers in plan-ning or engineering services rather than in social and communitydevelopment. They therefore stay away from these importantissues, reinforcing the problems that need addressing.


Or how about ‘the Council’s commitment to delivering acomprehensive parks service is key to developing a sustainableparks service with a broad remit to deliver a full range of parksrelated services’? Or ‘the final report recognizes that local govern-ment is key to the current and future success of cultural provisionand development and suggests that local authorities should takethe lead in establishing and servicing Cultural PlanningPartnerships to achieve outcomes within the policy framework’?57

Jargon can mask a lack of content and substance.The private sector is no better: ‘Clear Channel Spectacolor’s

thrilling outdoor signage will add significant value to our property.This project will bring the excitement and energy that are the hall-marks of Times Square to this region. With this extraordinaryvolume of signage, the equivalent of three entire buildings in TimesSquare, this is a high-profile project that will allow us to embedclients into a truly unique marketing environment in a burgeoningmarketplace.’ Insipid hogwash.

Any professional field coins a technical language that justifies itsexistence and operations and gives the impression of specializationand exclusivity. But such language can act as a smokescreen to hidethe fact that nothing is there or that something very insubstantial is.If you translated some jargon into plain English, it would come outas mundane truisms. It is often tautological or plain banal.

Clearly ‘when you have new problems and want to conceptual-ize them, you create new language … but was it worth getting ridof poverty in favour of social exclusion, when no-one really under-stood what it was … and why get rid of social justice?’58


7

Creative Cities for the World

Ethics and creativityTo be a ‘creative city for the world’ or to be ‘creative for your city’highlights how a city can (or should) project a value base or anethical foundation in encouraging its citizens, businesses and publicinstitutions to act. By acting in this manner the way a city operatesand the results it achieves act as role models to inspire others.Creativity in itself is not necessarily a good, especially when it limitsitself to mere self-expression. Linking creativity to bigger pictureaims, however, gives it special power and resonance. These valuesmight range from a concern with greater equity or care in all itsguises to balancing policy goals such as increasing the quality oflife for all citizens, being globally competitive or linking economic,social and environmental agendas. Thousands of cities claim to beconcerned about sustainable development; how many have radi-cally applied such policies and gone against our inherent laziness orthe interests of the car lobbies and others? The strength to goagainst the grain today must now be counted as an act of creativeendeavour.

Creativity for the world or for your city gives something back;it is a creativity that generates civic values and civility. Every city,for instance, has special public spaces, often given in perpetuity byphilanthropists. These are a gift to a community. Alternativelypublic spaces in disrepair have been reconquered by citizen groupsfor the city. One of the best examples is the transformation ofBryant Park in New York from a fearful ‘no-go zone’, nicknamed‘Needle Park’, dominated by drug dealers, prostitutes and the

homeless in the 1970s, to an urban haven with a Parisian feel bythe 1980s. Initiated by a group of prominent New Yorkers, the parkis now managed by the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation.Restored and redesigned, a coordinated programme of activitiesand facilities made it a spectacular success, immediately attractinglocals and visitors. Since the summer of 2002 the park has had afree wireless internet network, sponsored by Google. You seepeople of all ages beavering away at their work or their novels.Overall this feels like a gift from ‘somewhere’ to the city and itscitizens, rather like a random act of kindness.1 These acts of civilityencourage social capital.

Creativity for the world or your city can mean many otherthings, ranging from encouraging social entrepreneurship to provid-ing ladders of opportunity to start-up companies or rethinkingeducation, like the Katha example described earlier.

When you think of great creative cities, Paris, New York,Amsterdam and London spring to mind, but, of course, there arethousands of other places that have degrees of creativity. Youusually think of the city as a composite whole, with many imagesracing around, rather than an individual building or a part. Parismay have the Eiffel Tower and New York the Empire StateBuilding, but they do not encapsulate the city.

To be creative means being alive with possibility and not ossi-fying and resting on the laurels of former greatness or a singlebuilding. Paris and London achieve being both old and somewhatyoung. Through their imperial pasts they have extracted wealthand resources from their former dominions. Their museums – theLouvre or the British Museum – exemplify this. Abundant withtreasures taken in from the world they exude power and help reinforce that power today as an element of their global pull.Political power linked to economic power often force-feeds creativ-ity as these cities became poles of attractiveness for the ambitious,the talented or those wanting or needing to be near the centres ofpower.

They have drawn in the peoples from their former colonies andnow well beyond too. And those people in turn are now part ofwhat makes London and Paris alive. Paris was for much of the 20thcentury regarded by many as the artistically creative centre of theworld. Anyone who wanted to make a name for themselves had tohave been there, from Picasso to Stravinsky. It attracted not onlythe makers but also the buyers, auctioneers and collectors. Overall


they created a milieu of both challenge and support. Yet todayParis, in spite of its glories and its attempts to foster the modern, ischided for its somewhat dirigiste, top–down, somewhat closedapproach. London by contrast was for decades seen as the stuffy,unimaginative counterpart until it burst open in the 1960s in anumber of fields, from irreverent comedy, to fashion and music. Ithas retained a reputation since then, attracting the young the worldover. Its degree-level art education of world renown, for instance, isregarded as being a foundation. It is far less rigid and formulaicthan its continental or American counterparts. This support forflexibility and focus on self-reliance both challenges and underpinscreativity. It has resulted in comments such as those of GiorgioArmani, who is showcasing his 2007 collection in London ratherthan Milan or Paris: ‘London is in many ways the world’s mostcosmopolitan and influential city, as it has become a crossroads forso many cultural references, including contemporary art, architec-ture, the performing arts, literature, food, music, film and fashion.’Clearly, for London to regard itself as creative it needs to fire onmore cylinders than this. Its congestion charge will in time be seenas brave and imaginative.

New York must be mentioned as one of the creative cities ofthe last 150 years. Inevitably, as the traditional port of entry forEuropean immigrations, and later many others, it represented thenew horizon and attracted the ambitious or those wanting to makea fresh start the world over. The tough competitiveness and need tosurvive generated an intense energy and, as the cliché notes, a ‘door die’ attitude that ultimately expressed itself in New York’s domi-nance in myriad fields, from finance to the media and even hip-hop,generated in the Bronx, which builds both on African roots and thecontemporary possibilities of technology. Even the beggars haveinventive scams to draw the money out of you. It expressed itselftoo in New York’s urban fabric, with Manhattan standing as themodern city icon par excellence. The AIDS crisis dampened possi-bilities, with the fear of crime and an edginess that was too starkplaying their part too, but the subsequent turnaround in its safetyrecord is admired, and this in turn attracted more financiers andbusiness people, who helped increase the tax base in order to payfor public services that make New York feel safer and cleaner. Thisis a virtuous cycle. Yet the average financier, developer or businessperson, while good at what they do, is not renowned for theircreativity. There is a fine balance between needing to focus on the

Creative Cities for the World 337

quality of life agenda, including safety, good housing or being afamily-friendly city, and creativity. Some say too that since 9/11New York feels a different place – it has shown its resilience andhas come back. Yet in a place with so much agglomerated power itis difficult to conclude the big debates, such as the memorial for the9/11 victims, with the array of vested interests – neighbourhoodgroups, politicians, developers and landowners. So the site as ofsummer 2006 lies there like an open wound.

People are allergic or addicted, perhaps in equal measure, tothese great creative places. These hubs of intensity and inventioncan feel too much. The quality of life – traffic jams, pollution, dirt,wealth and squalor living side by side – can overwhelm. Yet thenotion of creativity for the city begins to bridge that gap.

Civic creativity In all great cities public-spirited generosity to the city is evident.Yet the question now for acknowledged creative cities such as NewYork, Paris, London and many others is whether they are creativeenough or could they be more creative. There are many smallercities coming up and challenging the formerly great centres, fromHong Kong to Singapore, from Vancouver to Zurich, from SanFrancisco to Melbourne and smaller still. And let’s not forget thenewly fashionable cities like Shanghai, where there is immenseenergy (although is it really creative, given the constraints citizensoperate under?). When businesses can be run from anywhere, theyshould make no assumption that their position is indelible. Justremember that of the great cities from 1000 years ago onlyCanton/Guangzhou is again in the primary league. Furthermore, istheir imagination focused on a ‘just for me’ creativity or is itcontributing to making the city a better place. I call this type ofcreativity civic creativity. The concept puts two words together thatdo not seem to fit. Creativity that seems to be loose and potentiallywild and civic that comes across as curtailed and contained. Thereis a tension between them. The ability to generate civic creativity iswhere the public sector learns to be more entrepreneurial and theprivate sector more socially responsible in pursuing joint aims andthe willingness to share power, with a goal of having greater influ-ence over an enlarged more successful whole.

Anywhere you go, from a tiny place in the far north likeLongyearbyen in Svalbard to a giant metropolis like Tokyo, you


will find creative individuals and organizations bucking the trend,exploring the boundaries of what they know, inventing useful andless useful things. Some use their energy and imagination to keepthe system going as it is and to reinforce existing trends. This mightbe an advertising agency devising ways, at times very stimulatingbut often dull, of trying to seduce us to buy while making it appearthey are not doing so. This requires creativity of a sort, but is itcreativity for the world? The garishness can excite, the technologi-cal wizardry can create wonder, and the irony can amuse. But towhat larger purpose? To make you consume more or feel you aremore unique and distinctive than you perhaps really are and there-fore need that special brand. The city itself is increasingly seen as abranded retail experience that integrates the brands into an urbansuperbrandscape that becomes the ‘must-see’ destination. Or somany would hope. In this process retail/leisure developers becomethe true city-makers.

The city of creativity has different qualities. It goes with andagainst the branded experience. It subverts the readily accepted. Ittests convention. It seeks to be its own author of experience ratherthan have ‘experience’ imposed in a pre-absorbed way. Experiencesare too often contained within a preordained template or themethat leaves little space for one’s own imagination. Instead, the cityof creativity wants to shape its own spaces. It relaxes into ambigu-ity, uncertainty and unpredictability. It is ready to adapt.

Not all creatives display these qualities in their lives, but themore creative city has an overall atmosphere that projects vistas ofchance encounter, possibility, can-do, surprise, the unexpected, thechallenging and the clash of the ugly and the beautiful. The morecreative city also attends to the quintessentially ordinary (thoughincreasingly extraordinary): affordable housing and ranges ofhousing choices at different prices; convenience stores selling basicproducts like bread and tea near to the urban core; flourishingneighbourhoods with strong identities; fast and frequent publictransport; and gathering places and walkability. To make thesepossibilities come true requires civic creativity, because it involvesusing the regulations and incentives regime to bend the market logicto bigger goals. The vast number of small shops in Paris only existbecause they have been encouraged through various regulationsover time.

We may care for our cities, but that care is often misplaced.And given a world of growing complexity we can often forget the


basics. We suffer from a collective amnesia when it comes to urbanlore. Thus we deem ordinary, traditional applications of city-making, like creating a good public space or restructuring publictransport, as creative, when in fact we are merely revisiting firstprinciples. The willingness to insist on the basics of good city-making we increasingly must call civic creativity too.

Creative people come in different shapes and forms, but toofrequently we conflate stylishness and creativity. Though many areundeniably imaginative, we overemphasize media creatives andartists. And while, say, the socially creative may indeed be veryunstylish, they may understand social bonding in important newways and be invaluable to some city-making contexts. Technocreatives and engineers may have a laser-sharp focus on some obscureelectronic problem or building dilemma. The same is true for theresearchers in organizations, such as chemists, biologists or softwareengineers, beavering away quietly, unseen and usually unknown, witha concentrated focus on some minutiae or other. Disparagingly, manyare written off as ‘nerds’: single-minded enthusiasts or people exces-sively interested in subjects or activities that are regarded as tootechnical or scientific. The creatives can be architects – some of whosedizzying buildings can shock you into awe – or built environmentprofessionals, painters, musicians, business entrepreneurs, restaura-teurs, generators of public experiences and even bureaucrats.

These groups have differing characteristics, although some corequalities cluster, such as a relative degree of openness, tenacity andfocus. Many may be smart in their subject but socially quite dulland limited. Indeed many work in the corporate world, with itsmany restrictions, formulae and group mindsets that may be effec-tive in a narrow, econometric sense but are not necessarily creative.Creative urbanity, good conversation and wit are not inevitablepartners of the research or corporate mind. Many of the so-calledcreatives in fact possibly want urban settings that are familiar, thathave a contained edginess or a degree of reassuring predictability,and have lifestyles that are defined by the brands they associatewith rather than what they create themselves. They breach bound-aries in limited ways. So does this curbed boundary-breaking inone place make up a creative city? Probably not.

The creative city needs the spark of the alternative; the sense ofplace, of non-branded space; the imagination of the ‘what couldbe’ displayed in action; younger and older people challengingconventions in behaviour, attitudes and even dress.


I have said already that the creative city is more like a free jazzsession than a structured symphony.2 Jazz is a democratic form –everyone can be in charge at some point, yet when done well theindividual performances seamlessly fit together. The creative cityneeds tens of thousands of creative acts to fit into a mosaic-likewhole. There is not one conductor guiding everything from above,although leadership, hopefully widespread, sends out signals of theprinciples and values that are deemed right. Too often cities resem-ble karaoke, quite enjoyable yet scripted.3 You read the text fromthe screen and feel as if you are a creative performer, but in realityyou are an imitator.

The following sections look at urban creativity in a few selectcities; hopefully the examples and dilemmas they pose will standfor the many others claiming they are exemplars of imagination.Readers can make up their own minds as to whether they arecreative at all and what other cities they would have put in theirplace.

I start with lengthier discussions of Dubai (an extreme of sorts),Singapore, the more familiar territory of the Spanish citiesBarcelona and Bilbao, and Curitiba in Brazil. This gives a spread ofattempts at urban creativity. There are other strongly creative placeslike Amsterdam, Vancouver, Yokohama, Freiburg and others,which will be briefly surveyed.4 When reading this through I hopethere is sufficient food for thought for you to decide what is creativeand what is not.

Is Dubai creative?Having encouraged open-mindedness on your part, I mustacknowledge that when it comes to Dubai, my own views aren’tparticularly charitable and it shows. By way of a justification forthis polemic, while Dubai’s modern history has a lot in it to beadmired – determination and boldness, for example – I wish toprovide a cautionary account of how great productive endeavourand transformation does not always equate to creativity. Rememberthat its productive endeavours contribute to the world’s largestecological footprint.

Dubai has blasted itself on to the world map. It has followedwhat it considers ‘best practice’ with a Dubai twist. Courageous,strategic, a place of visions, determined, motivated and focused arewords one might use, but creative? That is doubtful. Clearly devel-


oping ‘The Palm’, a palm tree-shaped set of islands off the Dubaicoast, is a bold endeavour, as is creating ‘The World’, a set of man-made islands representing every nation on the globe, or the DubaiWaterfront, part of an attempt to increase Dubai’s shoreline from60km to 800km in length. Dubai has scoured the world for bestpractices and has learnt the lessons of US business schools by heartand gone beyond those lessons.

Dubai provides lessons in ambition, boldness, branding, hype,centralized resourcing, potential ecological disaster, human unsus-tainability and implosion. The city state is one of seven that makeup the United Arab Emirates and is governed by the rulingMaktoum family, so it has no need to consider the vagaries ofdemocratic ‘time wasting’. It can take decisions, stick to them andnot worry about dissent. ‘Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed binRashid al-Maktoum wanted to put Dubai on the map with some-thing really sensational’ and to transform Dubai into aknowledge-based society and economy.5 The vision of Dubai todiversify away from oil, which now represents only 7 per cent of itsincome, was clear-sighted. Dubai was always a trading entrepôtand recognized early that the world was turning eastwards and thatit could become a global hub between Europe and the East – a hubboth logistically and, more importantly, in the knowledge- andmedia-based industries.

The Middle East sends out mixed messages. To many it is a zoneof instability and religious zealotry, seemingly detached from theWest. However, the Gulf is a sub-region that lures the West andprojects calmness, certainty and safety. As the world’s key oilproducer, the region needs a transparent financial centre and transac-tional hub. Thirty years ago that centre was Beirut. Famed for itscosmopolitan outlook, atmosphere and diversity, it attracted bankersand tourists from the Middle East and Europe. Yet Lebanon’s 16-year civil war from 1975 to 1991 destroyed both physical andnetworking infrastructures. Dubai had a short window of opportu-nity to step into the vacuum and usurp the role of Beirut, which hasa far better climate, much more dramatic setting and much heritageto boot. As its advertising notes, ‘Beirut is simply a melting placecombining culture, history, commerce and modern life.’6 As the civilwar subsided and urban regeneration initiatives like Solidaire werecompleted, entrepreneurs were scrambling to re-establish Beirut asthe transparent hub of the Middle East. And this is where Dubai hadto move fast and launched its ambitious physical programme.


The elements of Dubai’s launch on to the world stage areincreasingly well known and trumpeted in travel brochures and in-flight magazines. Developing the Emirates airline, with Dubaiairport as its hub, is the core precondition of the overall strategy.The Jebel Ali airport currently under construction seeks to handlesome 120 million passengers per annum by 2025, making it theworld’s largest airport and overtaking Atlanta, currently the world’sbusiest airport, which handled 88.4 million passengers in 2005.The Dubai Metro project due for completion in 2009 is anotherelement. The Festival of Shopping started in 1996; it ‘has changedthe preconceived concept of summer in the UAE and the regionfrom sluggish to an exciting season of fun and entertainment for allunder the directives of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid AlMaktoum, UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister and Ruler ofDubai’.7 The land reclamation projects such as The Palm, TheWorld archipelago and the Dubai Waterfront are the largest man-made offshore structures in the world, housing villas, hotels, shopsand holiday resorts. The last on its own will consist of 440km2 ofwater and land developments, an area seven times the size ofManhattan. Dubai Logistics City is the world’s first integratedlogistics and multi-modal transport platform under a singlecustoms-bonded and free-zone area. Spread over 25km2 it is thefirst phase of the huge World Central project, which will eventuallycombine all required transport modes with a logistics zone withample space for warehousing and other logistics services. Naturehelps here: a flat unremarkable landscape assists efficiency.

The list continues. The Burj al-Arab is the world’s tallest hotel.Dubai’s Media City, built by the Dubai government to boost theUAE’s media foothold. Dubai Internet City. Dubai KnowledgeVillage, Dubaitech. All are attempts to build clusters of expertiseby getting companies to relocate. These are free economic zoneswhich allow companies a number of ownership, taxation andcustoms-related benefits such as 100 per cent foreign ownershipand zero tax on sales, profits and personal income guaranteed bylaw for a period of 50 years. The goal was to become the logicalplace to do business in the Middle East, providing investors withan advanced business infrastructure and comprehensive platformto create value.

Everything in Dubai has to be the biggest. The Burj Dubai isintended to be the world’s tallest building with the world’s fastestelevator, at 18m/s (40 mph) overtaking Taipei’s 101 office tower at


16.83m/s (37.5 mph). Part of the complex is co-branded withArmani to reinforce the fashion statement… and Dubai Mall isabout to be the world’s largest mall. ‘The Earth has a new centre,’claims one of its slogans.8

Dubailand is a central plank in attracting 15 million visitors by2010 and 40 million by 2015 – a dramatic rise from the projected 6million in 2006. It is a vast entertainment complex growing out ofthe desert and claimed to be ‘a destination of extraordinary vision’with ‘an endless mix of day and night activities’ that would appealto ‘the world’s widest tourism segments, across genders, age groups,world regions and activity preference’.9 It is twice the size ofDisneyworld and its ‘Great Dubai Wheel’ will be the world’s largestobservation wheel. This Gulf version of Las Vegas and Orlando willhave six themed areas: a themed leisure and vacation world, anattractions and experience world, a retail and entertainment world,a sports city, an eco-tourism world, and a downtown. It will includereplicas of the Eiffel Tower (70 feet taller than the original) and theTaj Mahal (one-and-a-half times bigger than the original). AquaDubai will boast 60 water features. This taps into the increasedtendency for people to be more attracted to the simulated than tothe real thing – reality appears to be too much to cope with.

The residential developments mirror the imaginary worlds,being created as a collection of idyllic communities: The Lakes, TheMeadows, The Springs, Emirate Hills. One development is TheVilla, described as:

a totally unique concept which offers you the oppor-tunity to design your ultimate Spanish home… Youcan combine a relaxed and serene lifestyle with theSpanish countryside experience… Just imagine theview from your terrace stretching over a lush greenlandscape and glistening water features reflective ofthe Mediterranean letting you experience the beautyand tranquillity of Spanish living… Wherever youdecide to build your unique villa – The Haciendas,The Ponderosa, The Aldea – you can rest assured youare becoming part of a unique community.

Furthermore you can live next door to Julio Iglesias! ‘Julio felt thatThe Villa will help spread Spanish culture in the region, and wehope that it will.’10 Other developments allude to the virtues ofTuscany … in Dubai, that is.


Yet ‘Dubai is ready for the ultimate lifestyle’ and encouragesyou, the globalized corporate worker, ‘to be part of a vibrantcommunity of like-minded people who share the same hunger forsuccess’. Lest anyone doubts the intentions, an indication of thatchilling striving for success can be detected in Dubai developerEMAAR’s annual report of 2004:

Competition is a companion of success… The possi-bility and probability of others replicating EMAAR’ssuccess is a foregone conclusion… Competition hasintensified and short-term advantages are no longersufficient to ensure the survival of our company. Inthe ferocious war for profits, winning requires relent-less strategic execution, which focuses on turningmerely competitive advantages into decisive advan-tages that will neutralize, marginalize and even punishrivals… The challenge is not what we know, but howfast we can learn, such as to change our focus fromthe speed of expansion to the speed of our response tocustomer service. We need capabilities to becomedifferent as well as better. Branding is an importantway of ensuring that the extra value that has beencreated is perceived by customers. Impossible is aword we live with and defy every day at EMAAR andactualize into the word possible… We constantlystrive for perfection. Compromise is not a word in ourvocabulary… We believe that our greatest achieve-ment is not the tallest towers or largest malls wecreate, but the close-knit communities we develop…We searched the world and put together the very bestin their fields.11

If this is the best the world can offer it is interesting they end upwith a controlled theme park.

Let’s look at the flip side. Where will this lead to in 20 years’time? Of Dubai’s population of just over 1 million, only 18 per centare locals, with 65 per cent Asians, mostly low-paid workers fromIndia and Pakistan who keep the country going, 13 per cent ex-patArabs and 4 per cent ex-pat Europeans. Dubai leads global cities inthe proportion of foreign- to native-born population. Many Asianshave lived in the city for more than a generation but have no citi-zenship rights. Indeed the ‘Dubai-style underclass ofdisenfranchised immigrants’12 will do the UAE no good. Seventy-


one per cent of the population are men. Unsurprisingly there arehordes of prostitutes coming from Eastern Europe

Tourists could spend weeks in Dubai without ever meeting anative of the city. You will be served and driven around by immi-grants and the physical fabric is being built primarily byimmigrants, with massive imports of low-wage workers fromSouth Asia and the Philippines. Press reports in 2006 indicatethat skilled carpenters earn £4.34 (US$7.60) a day and labourers£2.84 (US$4.00) and trade unions are forbidden in the UnitedArab Emirates. This has sparked rioting at the Burj Araq site in2006 and at the new airport site, where five workers wererecently killed in an accident. Indeed rioting is spreading to thewhole region, from Qatar and Oman to Kuwait. Millions offoreign workers have flooded Gulf nations, outweighing indige-nous populations. Most of these workers are forced to give uptheir passports upon entering Dubai and elsewhere, making itvery difficult to return home. Reports suggest workers ‘typicallylive eight to a room, sending home a portion of their salary totheir families, whom they don’t see for years at a time’.13 Othersreport that their salaries have been withheld to pay back loans,making them little more than indentured servants. There’s a goodchance they live in Sonapur, a collection of run-down, dirty tene-ments housing more than 150,000 workers. Therein lies anotherstory beyond Dubai’s shimmering skyscrapers. As Dubai haswittingly transposed Spain on to its land, Sonapur is an unwit-ting importation of a rather less glamorous, subcontinentalurban life. And a story that is growing concerns rumours thatthe whole edifice is in part financed by money-laundering.

Consider too that the UAE’s ‘ecological footprint’ is the worstof all countries in the world. Using data from 2001, the UAE hasthe biggest ecological footprint, at 9.9 global hectares per person,which means that five-and-a-half planets would be needed tosustain a UAE lifestyle applied globally. If Dubai were isolated fromthe UAE and 2006 data were used, its lifestyle is likely to requireten planets’ equivalent.14 This ecological overshoot can go unno-ticed since there seem to be no apparent shortages. Water flowsfrom taps, food appears in supermarkets, garbage disappears fromstreets, restaurants are overflowing with delicacies and new prod-ucts materialize all around us as we are induced into buying moreand still more. Yet consumption does not mean there are no limits.The limits are simply masked by not seeing the wider picture.


Behind the UAE, Kuwait, the US and Australia are the major foot-print makers.

One can see why when Dubai’s new US$275 million Ski Domeis a ‘monument to ecological folly’ and has perfect conditions everyday, in a city where temperatures can reach can reach 50°C. TheSki Dubai centre expends thousands of watts on keeping its indoorclimate at -1.4°C all year round. More than 6000 tonnes of snowcover an area the size of three football fields and 30 tonnes of freshsupplies will be added nightly to maintain a depth of 70cm.15

Equally the Burj al-Arab’s self-characterization as a ‘7-star’hotel is considered by travel professionals to be hyperbole and anattempt to outdo a number of other hotels which claim ‘6-star’status. All major travel guides and hotel rating systems have a 5-star maximum.

What has been achieved? Dubai, a trading port and backwaterpearl-diving village until the late 1950s, has found innovative newways of reinventing its role as middleman. Leadership has beenclever in using every trick in the urban revitalizer’s book, from taxincentives, the 2002 decree allowing foreigners to buy homes andapartments to branding. For instance, firststeps@DIC is a facilitywithin Dubai Internet City that allows companies to lease short-term office space while exploring business and marketopportunities. Dubai attracted the International Cricket Council torecreate their headquarters in Dubai, parting from Lords inLondon, the emblematic home of cricket which had hosted the ICCfor 95 years. Some initiatives, such as creating 800km of newwaterfront, can be considered inspiring in logistical terms, albeitdevastating to the environment.

Crucially Dubai has understood the inherent insecurity andconservatism of the corporate executives they are trying to attractand their desire for safety and certainty, with a contained sense ofbuzz – the familiar in the apparently unfamiliar.

Yet in the terms in which I define creativity in the Art of City-Making, namely creativity for the world with an ethical foundationthat harnesses widespread talent, Dubai is not creative. Given itsleaders’ proven track record of boldness and willingness to beinventive and visionary, Dubai’s financial resources, the unequalledpower of its rulers, the free sunshine beaming down on them, whydid Dubai not try to become the most ecologically sustainable cityin the world, rather than the least? Why did it not become a modelof what city-making could be like in the use of innovative new


energy-saving materials, building techniques and new eco-design?Why did they not follow the lead of eco-skyscraper builders likeKen Yeung to reduce air-conditioning needs and to create naturalventilation? Why does constructing a city mean treating the work-force as if they were second-class citizens? Why does Dubai thinkthat striving for 15 million visitors has to be central to its posi-tioning? Could they not have soft-pedalled on that and stillachieved the objective of being a hub? How come that by consult-ing the ‘best experts in the world in their field’ Dubai ends up withextensive theme park experiences and residential quarters thatbarely have anything to do with Arabia and hardly reflect or buildupon the historic inventiveness of Arabs at all? Perhaps Dubai isbeing advised by experts with little sense of larger, globally sustain-ing values, notions of local distinctiveness and what it means toestablish creative environments, where difference means innova-tion, not rarefied gated communities. Why has Dubai fallen forthe fake experience rather than the real? How come it was notconfident or courageous enough to seduce the corporate class it isattracting to its hub with something bordering on the authenticwhere locals and incomers could co-create a new Dubai identitynot merely based on brand names? Indeed some locals privatelywonder how long Maktoum’s miracle can continue – and whetherhis unique society would survive a major political or economicshock. This shock could come from many places – from religious,reactionary zeal, democratic pressures unleashed by needing tomaintain openness to the world or ecological disaster to a globaldownturn in tourism.

Let us not forget that an age of creativity requires conversa-tion, debate, consensus, disagreement and inevitable dissent that isleavened by democratic processes where all people, women andmen, have a chance to participate fully. Is dissent allowed in Dubai?Can women be equal in Dubai? Only then can one begin to discussthe comprehensive creativity of a place.

Imitating the Dubai approachDubai has inspired others to follow who will build on its experi-ence and take it further. Qatar is one, where the Pearl-Qatar

will be a secure, family oriented environment. It willbe like no other destination in the Middle East.Modelled on the best of the Mediterranean, it will be


the Arabian Riviera (Riviera Arabia) and will offer alifestyle reminiscent of France and Italy in the heart ofthe Arabian Gulf. The Pearl-Qatar will have 40 kilo-metres of reclaimed coastline and 20 kilometres ofpristine beaches. Porto Arabia is a continental marinawith a heart which beats to the rhythm of Arabia …It captures the vibrant sophistication of the Riviera.Colourful, refined and conducive to the highest stan-dards of living, Piazza Arabia, the ‘dynamic hub’ ofPorto Arabia, is an exciting retail, dining and culturalexperience of incredible sophistication. Nowhere isthe Riviera more aptly captured than in this ArabianPiazza – a blend of cosmopolitan chic and refinedgood taste – a place to meet and watch the world goby or to browse some of the world’s most reveredbrands.16

The City of Silk in Kuwait will, it is hoped, be located on the north-ern shore of Kuwait Bay. It will take 25 years to complete and willhouse 700,000 people and cost US$85 billion. The city will havefour main districts. The Financial District, with its centrepiecetower, the 1001m-high Mubarak Tower, ‘inspired by the 1001nights story and the desert plant life. The tower will be composedof 7 vertical villages which will consist of hotels, offices, residencesand entertainment facilities’. The Entertainment District willcontain resorts, hotels and entertainment villages. The CulturalDistrict will be located on a peninsula with a centre for research onancient artefacts, a historical museum and an arts centre. TheEnvironmental District will be located at the heart of the city aspart of the Bird Reserve for birds migrating from Africa to CentralAsia. It will include an Environmental Research Centre and anextended network of universities and a health resort. The entirecity will be surrounded by an emerald belt which will containponds, lakes and parks which will ensure that no one is more thana couple of steps away from the emerald belt.17

The Dubai model is self-replicating. Dubai’s EMAAR is build-ing King Abdullah Economic City (!) near Jeddah along the RedSea in Saudi Arabia, which at US$26 billion is considered relativelysmall scale. It is divided into six zones, with huge skyscrapers,including a seaport, a resort zone, an industrial zone for manufac-turing and logistics, an education zone, a financial island and aresidential area.


Can the city boom continue? One is reminded of the Japanesemega-projects in the 1980s, such as Osaka’s Minatu-ku, whichattempted to lodge Japan on to the global map. Yet projects canfail, although when swept along their success can seem inevitable.

Is Singapore creative?Singapore has a reputation for cleanliness, clockwork efficiencyand a well-behaved citizenry. Your baggage has arrived on theairport belt before you have cleared immigration. The route intothe city was the first in the world to be completely tree-lined andboulevarded and it exudes a contagious calmness. Shanghai hasfollowed the example. These constitute positive first and lastimpressions. Things work: the metro is on time, wireless internetconnections are nearly ubiquitous, electronic sensors in cars seam-lessly monitor when you enter the charging zone or car parks andthe city is clean and safe. The West sneers at its apparent conser-vatism: haircuts for long-haired male arrivals, the ban on chewinggum. You still hear much about fines for jaywalking, littering andspitting. But the day-to-day reality is that you don’t feel a heavy-handed government presence. Often the same people that sneerhanker after the sense of security Singapore offers. Yet there aredilemmas for a city brought up and built up with a culture ofnation-building, national security and social discipline, even thoughSingapore is so far the ‘most extraordinary case of economic devel-opment in the history of the world, which launched itself by adeliberate strategy out of abject post-colonial poverty into first-world affluence within one generation’. That in itself is an act ofcreation, intellect, determination, strategy and focus. ‘Singapore, sofar, has experienced no real crisis, no fundamental break in itsremarkable economic progress … the government, conscious thatthis is a city-state completely dependent on its global trading func-tion, has sought to keep ahead of the action, moving the economyout of basic manufacturing into high-technology production andfinally into advanced services.’18 Yet how will Singapore copemoving into the creative age?

Singapore, like Dubai or Hong Kong, is an exceptional case. Acountry-island-city-nation-state, a port-city and regional hub, it hasno hinterland or, rather, ‘the world is its hinterland’. There is a rela-tive absence of an overarching ancestral culture and traditions. Ithas a dominant one-party government that is interventionist and astrong emphasis on political stability and economic development.19


Historical background

We have reached a stage in our economic and nationaldevelopment when we should devote greater attentionand resources to culture and the arts in Singapore.Culture and the arts add to the vitality of a nation andenhance the quality of life.

So responded PM Goh Chok Tong – then first Deputy PrimeMinister and Minister for Defence – to the Report of the AdvisoryCouncil on Culture and the Arts in April 1989. That report waswidely regarded as a watershed in the development of the arts,heritage and cultural scene in Singapore. Its main thrust affirmedthat ‘culture and the arts mould the way of life, the customs andthe psyche of a people’ as they ‘give the nation a unique character,broaden our mind and deepen our sensitivities, improve the generalquality of life, strengthen the social bond and contribute to ourtourist and entertainment sectors’.20

In the Singapore way this vision of a culturally vibrant society‘whose people are well-informed, creative, sensitive and gracious’was to be achieved by 1999. Note here the tone, in contrast toDubai: the word ‘gracious’ appears, whereas in Dubai ‘decisiveadvantages … will neutralize, marginalize and even punish rivals’.It highlighted that Singapore’s multicultural heritage, whose ‘excel-lence in multi-lingual and multi-cultural art forms should bepromoted’ made it unique. Indeed, as the world has switchedemphasis to the East, its Chinese–English bilingualism may becomeits key advantage.

In moving away from advanced manufacturing, Singapore iden-tified international gatherings and linked performance andexhibition spaces as key to projecting an image of world-class styleand attractiveness. The most visible accomplishments since 1989have been the Singapore Art Museum (1996), which is now aboutto move, the Asian Civilizations Museum (1997), the SingaporeFilm Commission (1998) and the Esplanade (2002) – a multipur-pose performance centre.

The Esplanade is seen as the ‘star in the firmament’ and wasintended to be an icon comparable to the Sydney Opera House. Thereality is that it probably has regional rather than global drawingpower. After 30 years of planning and 6 years of construction, itseeks to ‘entertain, engage, educate, and inspire’. Only five concert


halls in the world possess its state-of-the-art acoustic features. TheEsplanade’s two outer shells resemble durians, a prickly fruit lovedby Singaporeans. In the evening, ‘its two “lanterns of light” sparkleupon Singapore’s marina. It houses Singapore’s first performing artslibrary and an arts-centric shopping centre’. It claims to ‘herald theentrance of a cultural renaissance’.21

This phase of cultural development focused on traditionalcultural institutions and approaches without linking them to theunderlying economic and social dynamics that could projectSingapore as a creative, innovative city. Containers on their own donot guarantee creative content, especially if they are institutionallyfocused and without links to the informal sectors where muchcreativity starts. Furthermore, big structures swallow resources atan exorbitant rate. One could ask: How about 50 more smallprojects instead of one big structure? Which would generate morecreativity potential?

The Renaissance City project22

By 1999 many commentators argued that the emphasis should shiftfrom ‘hardware’ to ‘software’ or what they called ‘heartware’. Apotentially enhanced role for culture and the arts in the futuredevelopment of Singapore’s society and economy was foreseen.Various government agencies had already mapped out plans toensure that the strategic concerns of Singapore in areas such aseducation, urban planning and technology were being addressed.But there was not a holistic, comprehensive re-examination inSingapore of how the arts and cultural scene would fit in.

The Renaissance City project sought to fill that gap. It beganby undertaking an audit of facilities, activities and arts groups andassessed audience profiles. It noted a general burgeoning of activ-ity. Whereas Singapore was generally written off as a sterile culturaldesert, the New York Times on 25 July 1999 described theSingapore arts scene as having gone ‘from invisible to explosive’.Time Magazine’s cover story for the week of 19 July 1999 featuredthe loosening up of Singapore – ‘Singapore Lightens Up’. It notedSingapore was getting creative and even ‘funky’, with its societytransformed ‘in ways that until recently seemed impossible’. Today,in-flight magazines extol the virtues of Singapore’s ‘bohemianedge’.23

The city state began a vigorous benchmarking process, target-ing world cities – London, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong


Kong, Barcelona, Austin and Melbourne. This process highlightedthe ‘war for talent’, the notion of ‘buzz’ and vibrancy in creatingthe intangible value of fashionability that needs to be backed up byreal substance. This might be the presence of world-class institutesof higher learning and research laboratories, productivity andindustry if the goal is to get beyond hype. The benchmarking indi-cators used tended to define talent in narrower and morequantitative terms, such as numbers of arts organizations or‘creative class’ professionals, rather than including social innova-tion and creativity in terms of organizational culture. It notedinstead that London had double the amount and New York threetimes as many arts facilities, activities, performances and expendi-ture. ‘While we are in the top league of cities in terms of economicindicators, we are not in terms of culture.’

Culture was seen as the next step and competitive tool in urbangrowth. Drawing on thinkers around the world, the RenaissanceCity report concluded:

In the knowledge age, our success will depend on ourability to absorb, process and synthesize knowledgethrough constant value innovation. Creativity willmove into the centre of our economic life… Prosperityfor advanced, developed nations will depend oncreativity, … more on the ability to generate ideas thatcan then be sold to the world. This means that origi-nality and entrepreneurship will be increasinglyprized.

Singapore had recognized this encroaching reality relatively early.The 1991 Strategic Economic Plan singled out the need to nurturecreativity and innovation in Singapore’s education system as a keystrategy to realize its vision. Yet the link to developing the city’scultural capital only happened at the end of that decade. As DeputyPrime Minister Lee Hsien Loong noted in 1996, ‘Creativity cannotbe confined to a small elite group of Singaporeans… In today’srapidly changing world, the whole workforce needs problem-solving skills, so that every worker can continuously add valuethrough his efforts.’ Later the Renaissance City Report noted:

We will need this culture of creativity to permeate thelives of every Singaporean… This will have to takeplace in our schools and in our everyday living envi-


ronment… We have to be wary that we do not merelyequate creativity with a narrow form of problem-solving. The arts, especially where there is anemphasis on students producing their own work aswell as appreciating the work of others, can be adynamic means of facilitating creative abilities.

Such an approach would encourage virtuous circles of ‘arts devel-opment and business formation loops’ that improve both theeconomic and artistic environment. Business-friendly administra-tion and facilities are necessary but not sole guarantees of attractingtalent. For this, a cultural ‘buzz’ is also needed: ‘By calling for aRenaissance Singapore, this is not an attempt to replicate the condi-tions of post-medieval Europe. Rather, it is the spirit of creativity,innovation, multi-disciplinary learning, socio-economic andcultural vibrancy that we are trying to capture.’

The vision was a projection of the type of Singapore person,society and nation that Singapore could aspire to. This is a societywhere people are at ease with their identity and one which encour-ages experimentation and innovation, whether it be in culture andthe arts or in technology, the sciences and education.

From rhetoric to realityThe Renaissance City concept was theoretically strong and manysubscribed to its intentions. The Renaissance City strategy implieda completely different way of operating, but this has not yetoccurred. The historical mindset that worked so well for the pasthas not adjusted. The notion of a creative city implies a level ofopenness that potentially threatens Singapore’s traditions of moretop–down action. Nevertheless, this issue is at least being openlydiscussed. As an instance of how Singapore’s traditions are etchedinto its mindset, the deputy prime minister, in approving the initia-tive to set up creative quarters, stated precisely where these mightgo. The local artistic community is especially critical of the empha-sis on importing world stars to perform in Singapore without aparallel focus on developing indigenous cultural creativity. Theybelieve their scope for action remains contained.

It now appears that the idea of a ‘creative culture’ and ‘creativecapital’ is being taken seriously, even to the extent of examiningfundamental issues such as censorship laws. Yet the culturalcommunity remains worried that creative capital will be driven bya purely economically driven model. Their focus is on how the


cultural ecology of Singapore can develop more deeply – anapproach that takes time rather than the ‘sledgehammer approach’that solely addresses hard infrastructure. Notions of ‘soft infra-structure’ are being taken more seriously. Singapore has applied therecognized repertoire of culture and renewal – icon structures,global branding and the talent agenda – and its effective focus iswithin the Asia-Pacific region. It continues to scan world trends,seeking to be a global nodal point, and currently aims not to slipbehind Shanghai, whose global resonance grows daily, and stay ona par with Hong Kong, which is aiming to be the events capital ofAsia. It is aware too of Seoul’s ambitions to create a digital mediacity and the intentions of Dubai.

Singapore has always been strong on developing physical infra-structure. In seeking to reach the next level of strategic globalpositioning, its latest initiative is ‘One-North’, a more than US$1billion investment. This project seeks to learn the global lessons ofhow to establish a creative milieu by combining hard and softcomponents and applying this to a series of clusters in a park-likeenvironment. Coordinated by the Agency for Science, Technologyand Research, this 200-hectare zone has two focal points: Biopolisand Fusionopolis/Media Hub. In addition there is an incubatorzone called Phase Z.Ro, which focuses on eight clusters: electronics, chemicals, engineering, infocoms, pharmaceuticals,biotechnology, medical devices and healthcare services – all withshared research facilities where upwards of 10,000 people willwork. A strong residential component is interwoven and from themore assertive new developments a long meander, or short carjourney, takes you past 42 older, smaller buildings and heritagesites. The area, 20 minutes from the centre, is well connected bythe metro and other public transport.

Green spaces, mature trees and winding roads have beenpreserved to allow ‘pause for thought and quiet contemplation inthe midst of technology and commerce’. The aim is to give contrast,character and a sense of continuity. Between the high-rise officespaces sit hotels, conference facilities, corporate retreat areas anddining and entertainment facilities. They call this a ‘DoBe (live-work) and play lifestyle and … an exceptional place for exceptionalpeople to live and work, relax and learn. Where you can inspireand be inspired to push the boundaries of knowledge and turn ideasinto groundbreaking innovations’. It is conceived as a place whereimagination turns into action:


Imagine an environment bounded only by imagina-tion itself. Where you can live, work and be inspiredby leading scientists, researchers and technopreneursfrom around the world. Where groundbreaking ideasare born from a stroll in the park and conventionschallenged over coffee at a sidewalk cafe. Whereanything is possible. Welcome to One-North – avibrant place and a lifestyle choice for the mostcreative minds of the new economy.24

Biopolis aims to be a centre for biomedical sciences in Asia andthe world, combining public and private research institutes andcommercial lettings, such as the Bioinformatics and GenomeInstitutes or GlaxoSmithKline, Molecular Acupuncture Ltd orJohn Hopkins’ Division of Biomedical Sciences. It includes theworld’s first facility for large-scale production of stem cells. It liesclose to the National University of Singapore, National UniversityHospital and the Singapore Science Parks. The names of the build-ings indicate the interests with their ancient Greek associations –Nanos, Proteos, Genome, Helios, Matrix and Centros. It also hasan arts programme, which bills itself as ‘soft art meets hardsciences’.

Fusionopolis, by contrast, aims at an ‘uptown’ vibrancy:

Embark on a pilgrimage of learning and discovery atthe Fusionopolis@one-north… Fusionopolis will be avibrant and exciting place for infocom and mediaindustries to come together, bringing talents, expertiseand organizations to create innovations and break-throughs that are in a class of their own.25

Here there are institutes for micro electronics, high performancecomputing, a data storage institute and digital media researchcentres. This is part of an attempt to transform Singapore into aglobal media city and exchange and financing nodal point with thehelp of a Media Development Agency.

Phase Z.Ro, the cheaply priced incubator and company start-up zone, with 60 office areas, has a far more zany feel. Brightyellow Lego-like container constructions are clustered around agathering space. Contrasted to the corporate structures of Biopolisaround it, Z.Ro has an imperfect, human feel, where you the tenantfeel you can shape its future. An interesting growing signage collec-


tion of past tenants stands tall like a piece of public art. Sadly,though, the space will disappear. Land prices in Singapore are fartoo valuable for structures like Z.Ro to proliferate, though thesebuildings’ more handmade, organic feel will be missed as some-what lifeless corporate structures take their place.

Yet a unique design palate could be instigated at this juncturewhich combines the need to build high with opportunities to indi-vidualize and continually transform living and working spaces andwhich also projects an eco-design concern.

Key to Singapore’s success is the talent attraction strategywhereby bright younger individuals and established experts arelured through scholarships and financial inducements as well as aconducive regulatory and business environment and hopefully a‘buzz’. For instance, scholarships are available to more than 500 ofSingapore’s best and brightest to fund their PhDs at top US andEuropean universities. The investment can run to SGD600,000(£210,000) per person in return for a guarantee of six years’ serviceto public institutions. Others schemes exist to attract foreigners toSingapore:

We foster and nurture world-class scientific talent …and aspiring scientists who dare to race with theworld’s best towards the very limits of modern science.Together with scientists we will build up our intellec-tual capital and our scientific capabilities. That willboost the economic competitiveness of Singapore.26

They see this as happening in ‘real space’ – the physical locationand resources of One-North; ‘virtual space’ – the communities ofinterest linked through state-of-the-art connectivity; and ‘imagina-tive space’ – ‘the limitless possibilities and opportunities of thehuman imagination and endeavour’.

Dilemmas for SingaporeThe strengths of Singapore are known: strong supporting factorssuch as good IT and telecommunications infrastructure, being amulticultural society with a bilingual policy, having a cosmopolitanand well-educated population, a well-developed arts and culturalinfrastructure, its closeness to the huge Asian market and its newfocus on ‘translational’ research which stimulates collaborationacross disciplines. Its problem areas are its small local market, highcosts of land, the relative weakness of soft infrastructure invest-


ment and the perception that Singapore is a highly regulated placewhich is not very tolerant of divergent views. The latter may havean effect on attracting certain types of talent.

Let’s use attitudes towards gays as a weathervane forSingapore’s tolerance dilemma. For four years from 2001,Singapore consented to a more liberal policy towards gaylifestyles, stirred by research, such as that of Richard Florida,showing that cities with an active gay community had morecreative and productive societies. The attractions of the ‘pinkdollar’ should also not be underestimated. The annual public gayNation Party held on Nation Day on 8 August was emblematic ofthat change. The events were sponsored by Fortune 100 compa-nies like Motorola and Subaru. Yet the gay community wasshocked when in early December 2004 the licence to hold anevent called Snowball 04 was rejected:

Observations at a previous Ball … showed thatpatrons of the same gender were seen openly kissingand intimately touching each other. Some of therevellers were cross-dressed, for example, maleswearing skirts. Patrons were also seen using the toiletsof the opposite sex. The behaviour of these patronssuggested that most of them were probablygays/lesbians and this was thus an event almost exclu-sively for gays/lesbians… Several letters of complaintwere received from some patrons about the openly gayacts at the Ball… The police recognize that there aresome Singaporeans with gay tendencies. While policedo not discriminate against them … the police alsorecognize that Singapore is still, by and large, aconservative and traditional society. Hence, the policecannot approve any application for an event whichgoes against the moral values of a large majority ofSingaporeans.

In April 2005, the licensing division faxed a rejection of the appli-cation to hold Nation 05 – the Nation Party had become Asia’smost acclaimed gay and lesbian party – citing the event to be‘contrary to public interest’.27

Some associate the decision by Britain’s Warwick University toabandon plans for a Singapore campus with worries about acade-mic freedom and Singapore’s stance against the gay community.


Singapore’s loss has been Thailand’s gain. Fridae.com, an eventorganizer, transplanted the annual Nation Party, now stylishlyrenamed Nation.V, to Phuket, Thailand. ‘Singapore has a way togo in maturing as a society, where Thailand has a long historyculturally of accepting gay lifestyles,’ noted Stuart Koe, who runsFridae.com.28

Some are concerned that the issue might set back efforts by thecity state to attract top Western universities in its quest to become a‘global schoolhouse’ and ideas of Singapore becoming the ‘Bostonof the East’, with a cluster of top universities like Harvard and MITand a regional hub for higher education. The government wantseducation services to account for 5 per cent of gross domesticproduct, up from 3.6 per cent, within the next decade.

Further evidence of relaxation was extended licensing hours,allowing bar-top dancing, the setting up of a Crazy Horse fromParis and creating the Clark Quay development where tacky, sexistoutfits like 1NiteStand Bar or Hooters go about their businessunquestioned and especially attract the ex-pat crowd.

Another dimension of the easy money over substance debatewas the decision to develop two ‘integrated resorts’ in MarinaSouth and Sentosa, which combine casinos within a leisure resort.Aimed at attracting tourists, especially from China, and increasingtax revenues, there are, however, restrictions. The Singapore lead-ership acknowledged the downsides and promised there would besafeguards to limit the social impact of casino gambling, such asrestrictions on admitting the local population into the casinos. Forexample, family members of a patron may block them from enter-ing and gambling. The very high entrance fee of SGD100 per entryor SGD2000 every year are prohibitive. A system of exclusionsincludes not being allowed to extend credit to the local population.As the large US casino and retail developers hover over Singapore,they promise:

the creation of an experientially compelling entertain-ment destination at Singapore’s Marina Bay … aunique opportunity to extend our popular mediabrands and assets into a whole different realm… Thedevelopment presents us with an unprecedentedopportunity to create multiple flagship stores housingthe world’s top luxury fashion brands within oneunified shopping and entertainment environment.29


In the process, other ‘cultural brands’ like the Centre Pompidou arebeing brought into play to project an element of class.

Does an integrated resort contribute to the creativity potentialof Singapore? The pre-digested brand experiences proposed offerlittle if anything to Singaporeans to shape and create thingsauthored by them rather than a foreign corporation. Do integratedresorts (IRs) attract the creatives? Probably not. Indeed they mightrepel them. The IR concept may indeed decrease the city state’screativity potential as the creative cutting edge looks elsewhere forplaces to explore and discover. In fact it would have probably beencreative for Singapore to have said ‘no’ to IRs, as it would havebeen for Hong Kong to have said ‘no’ to Disneyland or Osaka tohave rejected Universal Studios. The latter both increasingly disap-pointed with the results and effects. Singapore stands at a cusp.Does it want to be a ‘tourist city’, a ‘fantasy city’ or a ‘creative city’?While not completely mutually exclusive, they are stark choices asthe trajectories for each development path are different.

Singapore’s strengths embody its weaknesses. The advancedindustrial model it excels in implies instrumental rationality, linearand convergent thinking. It aims at replicability and clear process.This makes the city state good at urban hardware, metros, build-ings and the technology to match. It is better at creating thecontainers rather than the contents, the hardware rather than thesoftware. And it is more than competent at replicating alreadyexisting innovations. However, the trick is to continually explorenew possibilities rather than reproduce that which has been donebefore. Such divergent exploration will, of course, be held in checkby physical, logistic capabilities. It will either be possible to repli-cate new ideas and projects or not. But the virtue of a creative ideacan only be measured if it is realized. The creative mind is open orclosed as appropriate to context. Uncertainty in this context is posi-tive but is stifled in a risk-averse culture.

Singapore therefore oscillates between constraint and creativ-ity. It is more relaxed to operate in comfort zones and with morecontrol than in unknown territory. It has a desire to plan creativityas against creating the conditions within which creativity can occur.It accepts its multifarious diversity, yet does it also engage withdifference? Its wish to pre-empt the consequences of risk and focuson security and predictability can curtail its possibilities. Perhapsthere is a sense of angst, even a fear of insight, which makes beinga ‘happy robot’ more appealing. The city’s pragmatism may lead to


a narrow economic calculus, such as in the IR debate, so losing outon the broader accounting Singapore’s values and ideals imply.

Are Barcelona and Bilbao creative?BarcelonaSpanish cities like Barcelona, Bilbao, Malaga, Seville and Valenciahave perhaps more to teach us about creative physical urban reinvention than cities in any other country in Europe or elsewhere.The pent-up energy contained during the Franco dictatorshipperiod burst forth from the 1980s onwards as cities and regionssought to reassert their identity and presence and become part ofthe heart of Europe again rather than pariahs at the edge. Barcelonaand Bilbao have inspired each other. For these two in particular, adistinctive approach that was culturally their own was a matter ofpride. Being port cities helped – traditionally the necessary open-ness of ports fosters ideas exchange and mutual influence, althoughoften ports can be open to the world and closed to their hinterland.As part of Catalonia or the Basque country, its major cities canbring together diverging interests in the wider area and unite themfor larger, regional goals. Yet it does not guarantee a strategic,imaginative response. History helps understand creativity potentialand can help provide the backbone, energy and motivation. Buthistory can hold a city back if it rests on its laurels and focuses onthe past. The break from the Franco era, under which Spanishsociety had been extremely conservative, in 1975 led to a transitionperiod, the completion of which was marked with the victory ofthe socialist Partido Socialista Obrero Español in October 1982.The liberation from Franco and transition to democracy began aliberalization of values, of ideas and of potential. Significantly,being regions that wanted to assert their identity against the domi-nace of Castilia was key. Being unique and distinctive was a survivalissue.

In the context of re-found freedoms, the recognition of global-ization’s power and the need to restructure their economies,reshaping the city to 21st-century needs became urgent. There wasmuch to catch up on. Franco had despised Barcelona andCatalonia, so there was a massive backlog of required investments.In both cases this was done with strategic verve and long-termthinking. Both Barcelona and Bilbao had history to fall back on.Most obviously in terms of city-making, design was significant.


Why is Barcelona considered part of the creative pantheon?Let’s remember that to discuss Barcelona globally in terms of style30 years ago would have seemed very odd. The city landscape forforeigners was more dominated by images such as those from JeanGenet’s A Thief’s Journal, which describes how he scraped a livingas a rent boy and thief in the streets of Barrio Chino in the 1920sand 1930s, living side by side with prostitutes, transvestites, pimps,drug dealers, gypsies and thieves. Few tourists would have consid-ered visiting this once rather run-down industrial centre. A seismicchange indeed.

In Barcelona I want to highlight three elements: design, publicspace and its link to place-making and cultural management.

It has been to Barcelona’s advantage that the aesthetic experi-ence of daily life is now wanted by everyone in every sphere of life,and that capitalism needs this design experience to sell its ongoingdreams of a better life. Some say we live in the age of design andstyle. Few places are design centres and even fewer exude a sense ofdifference and therefore the seemingly authentic. Barcelona is one.In Barcelona and Catalonia design is not a recent fad. Design hasdeeply etched roots growing from the needs of the industrial revo-lution applied to products and services and the cultural influencesstemming from Barcelona’s port status. From that it is a short stepto architectural design. Antoni Gaudi, who invented an originalarchitectural palette, stands as the best known example. Othersinclude Domenech i Montaner and Josep Puig. The important factis that the city has been able to reassert its design standing today tothe extent that the city itself is synonymous with design, as in‘Barcelona design’ (Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair being themost well known). All this reinforces Barcelona’s resonance.Catalan distinctiveness is key. As an instance, the 1992 Olympicsmascot symbol was a sheepdog called Cobi, whose design aestheticwas far removed from Mickey Mouse imagery. Equally, the openingceremony set a different benchmark for the public spectacle, begin-ning with the lighting of the Olympic Flame with a flaming arrowfired by paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo. The spectacle includeda staging of the mythical birth of Barcelona from the sea, completewith ocean battles between sea monsters and humans. Theseapproaches have since been copied by other major openings.

The difference between Barcelona as a design capital and otherssuch as Milan and Montreal is that the former more strongly seeksto create its identity as a designed work of art, from its architec-


ture, street furniture and interior design to shops, bars and restau-rants. Barcelona has become a cultural icon in itself – one of thefew places where the city is a living work of art as distinct from adead one. This is what many feel about cities such as Venice andFlorence, in spite of their beauty. An essentially ‘dead city’ is onewhere the past overwhelms the present, and the present merelyserves to maintain the past for groups like tourists. They may baskin their beauty and inspire, but not much more. In the ‘living city’current creativity is the dominant feature.

The convergence of the design ecosystem, starting from thepresence of designers across the disciplines of environmental,product, interior, graphic, digital and fashion design, strengthensthe city’s echo. It includes public and private research centres,design in schools and tertiary institutions, events and festivals,awards, museums and associations. It stretches across transportdesign – Volvo and Volkswagen have a strong design presence – tohousehold goods and urban design. Yet worries are on the horizon.Some say the city is too concerned with design: ‘Everything has tobe specially designed, even the notepaper or the invites to an event.They can’t leave anything un-designed and ordinary – perhapsValencia is the place to watch.’30

Barcelona’s urban design standing nevertheless has stronghistorical roots to draw on. The Eixample by Cerda, an example of‘ideal urban planning’, although not universally liked by everyonebecause of its rigour and monotony, still provides a frame forBarcelona’s urban life on which its diversity can play itself out.

Many people agree that Barcelona has one of the best streetlives of any larger city. This is not a coincidence. Catalonian (andMediterranean) culture and the climate all play a part. Yet althougha city is rarely made by individuals on their own, two personalitiesalso shaped our current view of the city strongly. The first wasPasqual Maragall, mayor from 1982 to 1997, who helped kick-start Barcelona’s international re-emergence. The Olympics came in1992 (to Madrid’s great annoyance), putting Barcelona on the inter-national map. The preparation for the games from 1984 onwardsand the resources they brought to bear became a tool to reshape hiscity. The strategy was in essence urban physical transformationdriven by big events. The city was reconnected with its waterfrontby submerging a highway; new beaches and neighbourhoods werecreated, as were a series of pocket parks. Oriol Bohigas was asecond important figure. From 1980 to 1984 he was responsible


for urban services and was a leading spirit in caring for and re-conquering the city for its citizens. As he noted, ‘I had my firstmeeting with Barcelona’s first democratic mayor. We decided thatwe had to invent the democratic urbanity in Barcelona.’ Theyagreed: ‘The public space, whether open or built-up, is really thecity’ and is based on the conviction that ‘citizenship is closelyrelated to participation in the public space and the rhythms of thecity.’ They felt quality of life depends on attaining four conditions:density, collective life, identity and communication.31

The priority was therefore to reconstruct the city starting frompublic space rather than, say, housing, roads or office projects. ThusBohigas launched a phased programme of new pocket parks andsmall plazas, concentrating on derelict spaces and the hiddenhistoric areas of the city. Artists were seen as an essential compo-nent of the new design teams charged with assessing and developingthe city’s public spaces in consultation with residents. These newspaces used modern art in day-to-day neighbourhood contexts aswell as the old core quarters such as Raval, where the Museum ofModern Art of Barcelona (MACBA) is based. The latter wascontentious. It partly ‘cleansed’ the area of its more shady drugpeddling and criminal fringe and some called this ‘sanitizing’, anequivalent perhaps of what happened to 42nd Street in New York,where the corporates moved in and ‘low life’ moved out. Yet alwaysexpect the unexpected. In front of MACBA, within the densesurrounds of Raval, there has been a new takeover of the publicspace by skateboarders. This day-long daily show, watched bymany, is perhaps one of the best urban sport spectacles of its type.

The Spanish tradition of placas provided an important culturalcontext for a long-term plan, which developed organically into amaster plan for the whole city, rather than there being a masterplan in advance:

From the point of view of planning this was impor-tant, because we were absolutely against the idea ofmaster plans. The master plan is a way of factoring inthe globalization of the city but without consideringthe individual identities of each quarter. For thatreason we decided not to do a master plan forBarcelona but to complete small architectural projectsand to understand that the master plan was just theculmination of all of these small solutions.32


This is principled, strategic incrementalism, in other words incre-mentalism with a clear goal.

Creating spaces of communication and gathering in order tofoster conviviality and to stage performances was key, as wasattempting to find an equilibrium between the natural and builtenvironment. The goal, said Bohigas, was to create the conditionsfor an ‘element of randomness: the capacity to find somethingwithout searching for it’. ‘Such random information is not possiblein a technological system where everything is logically defined.’‘With information technology we search but in the city we find.’Note here the comparison with Dubai or Singapore. ‘To be a citizenof Barcelona is to walk its streets, to be part of the ebb and flow ofpublic life.’33

Not only has public space been reinvented, but so have publicevents such as La Merce, whose origins date back to 1218 and isbased on a vision of the virgin Mary dressed in white, surroundedby brilliant lights and celestial spirits. Yet as Jordi Pablo noted in1984:

At the end of the 70s, as a consequence of the substan-tial changes in public life, a profound renovation ofthe Festa Major of Barcelona was initiated. The citytried to construct a different model of festival, onethat maintained an equilibrium between tradition anda strong sense of modernity, between activities avail-able to only a few and a modern sense of the use ofthe public spaces of the city, between a high qualityprogramme of spectacles and the possibility of freeparticipation in nearly all the activities.34

La Merce became a celebration of living afresh, with citizens ofBarcelona pouring into the streets for a mass of participatoryevents. La Merce is a new conception of what a festa is, how it canbecome part of the urban fabric as well as retain traditional Catalanelements:

The parade and dance of giant papier mâché figuresfrom within Barcelona and the surrounds, a competi-tion of castellers, groups of people building humancastles, a parade of stilt walkers, and the correfoc(literally ‘running fire’), a mass gathering in whichgroups of young people dressed as devils parade


through the streets carrying various papier mâchébeasts and firing off fireworks over the heads of themassed crowd.35

To make these conditions work themselves through, anotherelement is required: recognition of the primacy of culture and deeppride in one’s own locality, with the cultural thinking and manage-ment skills to match. The Institute of Culture, the city’s culturaldivision, is more influential than equivalent departments in othercities where, in the hierarchy of power, the finance and engineeringdivisions tend to have the highest status. It is a public–private part-nership which provides more flexibility. Its goal is to increase theinfluence of culture on development strategies in the city and tomake culture a key element for social cohesion. This means thatany major development will tend to be assessed through a culturalprism. Mirroring this interest, Barcelona has, unusually, over adozen cultural planning courses, such as that started in 1989 by theUniversity of Barcelona or that of the Pompeu Fabra University.

Barcelona’s 20-year trajectory from the early 1980s was pacedand purposeful. It was focused on a combination of urban designand big events, such as the Olympics or the Universal Forum ofCultures in 2004. The Forum was perhaps one step too far. Thenew logic of driving urban development the world over throughthe private sector that emerged in the early 1990s had exclusionaryeffects with few social benefits apart from the parks and openspace. The Forum’s goal was to launch a new kind of Olympics ofCulture, sponsored by UNESCO and based on discussions andintercultural exchange, and at the same time enhance the quality oflife of La Catalana and La Mina, two of the most marginalizedareas of Barcelona’s metropolitan core. However, the Forum’s aimslacked clarity and resonance and as a consequence the visitornumbers were widely overestimated. More importantly, the redevelopment of the city east towards the Besós river became aproperty speculator’s dream. How the initial local communitiesbenefited is less clear. This leaves the two main buildings of theForum’s legacy – the jagged, unforgiving Forum Building designedby Herzog de Meuron is not the city’s best and the BarcelonaInternational Congress Centre by Josep Lluis Mateo is, well, just acongress centre. Time will tell how the reclaimed land and newbeaches will play themselves out. Yet now the thought that lingersis a sense of gentrification.


Barcelona has ‘a thinking brain’ on the future of the city calledthe Metropolitan Strategic Plan of Barcelona, founded in 1988,which is important in seeking to highlight future priorities.Barcelona monitors itself in five so-called ‘strategic blocks’. Theseare a knowledge block; an innovation and creativity block; a terri-torial and mobility block; a sustainability and quality-of-life block;and a social cohesion block. In scanning the city’s comparativeprospects, a report by Xavier Vives36 pointed out that by traditionalinnovation criteria Barcelona is not in the top league in Europe,which is led by Helsinki, Stockholm, Munich and Stuttgart. Thesecriteria include patents per 100,000 citizens and levels of R&Dexpenditure. This was a shock to a city which has a self-under-standing that it is innovative and creative. In fact, though,traditional innovation indicators may be bad for creativity, becausepatenting can foreclose creative possibilities which open-sourceapplications encourage.

The innovation and creativity block includes assessing thedynamics of company creation in strategic sectors; what is happen-ing to different classes of business; technology transfer betweenuniversities, society and companies; the amount of European high-tech patents applied for; and levels of use of information andcommunication technologies. In keeping abreast of strategic urbandevelopment, Barcelona has now focused on the quinary sector.(See below for a description of primary to quinary sectors based ondistance from natural resources.) Quinary activities emphasize thecreation, rearrangement and interpretation of new and old ideasand information, innovation of methods in knowledge gatheringand data interpretation, as well as the reconceptualization of think-ing at different levels. At its core lies creativity. Some regard it asencompassing research, culture, health and education.

The overall effect of Barcelona’s transformation speaks in surveysand statistics. Since 1990, Cushman & Wakefield’s European CityMonitor has annually assessed the most desirable and highly ratedEuropean cities for basing a business in through interviews with 500top companies.37 Barcelona is the most improved city in their rating,moving from 11th in 1990 to 5th in 2005 it is closing the gap on theleaders. Given that London, Paris, Brussels and Frankfurt are the topfour, the competition is clear. It is ahead of cities such as Berlin,Madrid and Amsterdam.38 It comes out on top in the ‘overall qualityof life for employees’ category, even though it is the leader in ‘accessto markets’, which is the top priority for business. It is the most


improved city for the third year running; business leaders expectBarcelona to be in third position in five years’ time; and it is the thirdmost familiar city, though still some way behind London and Paris.Barcelona has solidified its position as a major regional economicpower, strategically close to the French border and the Europeanheartlands. The economy of Barcelona, with only 4 per cent of theSpanish population, contributes 14.29 per cent of the country’s GDP.Its key industries include manufacture, textiles, electronics andtourism. In 2003 Catalonia received 14,540,000 visitors from a totalof over 50 million throughout Spain and since the Olympics therehas been an almost 100 per cent increase in hotel capacity, numberof tourists and number of overnight stays. Cheap air travel has madeBarcelona one of Europe’s most popular short break destinations,popular as it is for romantic weekends and hen and stag parties.Whether these add anything to the city’s creativity potential, however,is an open question. Indeed growing tourist numbers are seen bymany as the greatest threat to the city’s quality of life and futureprospects, as any person who goes to the iconic Gaudi sites or newpublic beaches can see for themselves. What do they give back apartfrom a bit of money? What do they take from the city? The city’schallenge is to reduce tourists – imaginatively.

BilbaoLike Barcelona, Bilbao draws on its sense of history and a self-understanding of having a unique and unusual culture to give itstrength and motivation. Added to which it is entrepreneurial. Itfears the danger of being trampled upon. It is thus fiercely indepen-dent. Just in case we forget, it reminds us of its famous people:Elkano, who completed the first circumnavigation of the globe afterMagellan was killed in the Philippines, Ignatius of Loyola, whofounded the Jesuits, Maurice Ravel, whose mother was Basque, thecyclist Miguel Indurain, the golfer José María Olazabal, the tennis-players Jean Borotra and Nathalie Tauziat, the politician DoloresIbarruri, and many more.

The city provides three useful lessons in creativity: long-termthinking and staying strategically principled and tactically flexible;standards of design; and the need to shift values towards openness.

From strategy to implementation: A historical trajectoryBilbao has become an international focus for lessons in urbanregeneration largely because of the ‘Guggenheim effect’. Yet the


Guggenheim is merely one initiative in a much longer-term processof Bilbao’s renewal, whose history is far longer. I highlight thistrajectory to show that at its core the changes in the city areconcerned with changing mindsets, developing leadership, gover-nance and entrepreneurial capacity, aspiration, will and motivation,a consequence of which is the focus on very long-term, strategicthinking and high quality design. In turn this has enabled projectssuch as the Guggenheim to happen. The regeneration did not startwith the Guggenheim, although a large cultural facility was alwayspart of the game plan.

Lying somewhat forlorn at the western edge of Europe, out onthe Atlantic coast when the action was happening further east inEurope and in Asia, Bilbao and the Basque region had alreadyrecognized in the early 1980s the restructuring of the worldeconomy and its potentially damaging effects on the local economy.They predicted that this would affect its traditional port and steel-making industries, with vast areas along the river Nervionredundant and in need of renewal. Bilbao then began to scan devel-opments of relevance to its situation, especially good practiceexamples, from around the world. These included Pittsburgh(which famously had reinvented itself after the decline of its coalindustry), the Ruhr area in Germany, Glasgow, Newcastle and awide variety of cities in the Ibero-American regions. In particular,Bilbao wished to learn how renewal could be effectively imple-mented and noted especially how a driving visioning mechanismwas required to turn aspiration into reality. The public–privatepartnership model initiated from the 1940s onwards through theAllegheny Conference for Community Development in Pittsburghprovided key lessons. Indeed, Bilbao is twinned with Pittsburgh.Inspiration also came from the International Bauaustellung (IBA)model whose history of ten-year initiatives goes back 100 years,including Emscher Park (1990–1999), Berlin (1980–1987) andfurther back to Darmstadt (1901–1914).

This led in 1989 to the Perspectiva del 2005, a strategic planfor the city whose objective was to develop Bilbao as a world-classmetropolitan centre and to make the city ready for the neweconomy. The process of developing the plan and its subsequentimplementation was assisted by a series of ‘critical friends’ andadvisers of renown, including Phillip Kotler, one of the inventors ofthe concept of city-marketing; Charles Handy, management scholarand social philosopher; James Baughman, the corporate director of


General Electric; Gary S. Becker, the economics Nobel Prize winner;David Bendaniel, from the Johnson Graduate School ofManagement; and the architects I. M. Pei and Cesar Pelli. Of specialimportance to the city was the work of Anderson Consulting, whichhighlighted the ‘urbanistic chaos’ of the city.

To meet its challenge Bilbao sought over time to develop ‘asocial architecture of innovation based on people and strengthen-ing their capacity to identify new opportunities, and to have visionand ideals. To create an environment that attracts people who loveideas. To turn dreams into reality’.39 A guideline for Bilbao notesepigrammatically: ‘We only have the chance once in a lifetime tocreate anew the civic fabric. At a minimum it should represent inter-national class, at its best world-class.’ Taking this seriouslyestablished a design quality benchmark.

Driving the vision: Metropoli-30Like Barcelona, Bilbao wanted a thinking brain for the city and in1991 Metropoli-30 was set up as a driving mechanism and visionholder as well as a means of institutionalizing the strategic conver-sation about the city. The figure implies thinking 30 years ahead.Five values currently lie at its heart: innovation – to move ahead ofchange; professionalism – to do things right and at a high qualitylevel; identity – to answer the question of who we are; community– to share a long-term vision; and openness – to be open to differ-ence, not only to distinctiveness.40 Principally, this associationdrives the Strategic Plan for the Revitalization of MetropolitanBilbao, whose latest version is ‘Bilbao 2010: The Strategy’. Its corefocus concerns developing leaders and professionals, providing theinfrastructure and support activities for high-value business activi-ties and ensuring ‘the city is a vital space, an inhabited space … aliveable place’.41

It does not confuse vision-making with implementation. Thelatter is left to Bilbao Ría 2000, the key agency for physicalrenewal. Metropoli-30’s remit covers municipalities in the metro-politan area. It has a membership of 128 paid-up stakeholders,ranging from public bodies, leading industry and university figuresto major community bodies. Its role is to push aspiration and tothink ahead, to enhance the metropolitan areas’ leadership capacityand ability to think strategically, to connect the metropolitan regionwith the best specialists in their fields and to promote a new visionfor metropolitan Bilbao. It organizes courses, on strategic manage-


ment of cities, for example, and its latest initiative is ‘City andValues’ concerned with 21st-century values of urbanity. Early on,Metropoli-30 was involved in a series of staging posts connected tothe overall vision, such as setting up the 1993 Basque Council forTechnology and getting the European Agency for Safety and Healthat Work and the European Software Institute to base themselves inthe city.

Other roles include improving the external and internal imageof the region and carrying out research related to both metropoli-tan Bilbao and other metropolises that are cutting-edge and fromwhich Bilbao can learn. This requires an intense networking strat-egy. It is, for example, a founding member of the BenchmarkingClearinghouse Association and an active participant of the WorldFuture Society. Overriding everything, the association fosters cooperation between the public and private sectors with the aim offinding joint solutions to problems of mutual interest that affectmetropolitan Bilbao.

From civic infrastructure to a change in cultural valuesThe strategic plans can be seen as having had three primary foci.The first is concerned with physical infrastructure development, socreating the physical preconditions to move forward; the secondmore on issues of attractiveness and broad quality of life concerns;and the third – the current phase – on changing cultural values ofthe metropolitan area. Within the initial plan, key aspects of thecivic infrastructure were addressed: a metro system, designed byNorman Foster, opened in 1995; a new airport, designed bySantiago Calatrava, in 1999; the Abando passenger interchange,designed by James Stirling and being carried out by MichaelWilford; a major internationally oriented cultural facility thatturned out to be the Guggenheim Frank Gehry, opened in 1997; anew tram system; the enlargement of the port; the Zubi Zuri pedes-trian bridge by Calatrava; the Euskalduna Music and CongressCentre by Federico Soriano and Dolores Palacios; the extension tothe Fine Arts Museum; the Alhondiga building refurbishment intocultural and sports facilities to create a new social space for thecity; and the Bilbao International Exhibition Centre.

Implementation involved attracting world-renowned architec-tural stars who could help create ‘a new centrality’ for Bilbao,which was initially seen as establishing Bilbao as El Nuevo PortoAtlantico de Europa. However, the emergence of the East and


European enlargement now figures strongly in their thinking inattempting to redefine what Bilbao’s new centrality in a futureEurope could be.

The levers to create this centrality include high quality designstandards, iconic architecture, cultural facilities, advanced eco-friendly design and sustainability, attracting the headquartersof European-level organizations and developing global events.

In parallel there is a focus on projects that help mature the softinfrastructure of the metropolitan region, and key terms usedinclude enhancing the capacity for ‘multiple creativity’; developingthe spirit of entrepreneurship, with post-graduate studies in entre-preneurship focused on the needs of the region 30 years hence, forexample; developing leadership cadres in the region; increasingaspiration and desire, as with the idea of having a Nobel Prizewinner from Bilbao; and, appropriately, renewing the region’scultural values in tune with what a future metropolis requires, suchas the need for a cosmopolitan outlook, flexibility but also an ethosthat marries wealth creation and social equality.

The focus on cultural values of openness embraces the broadernotion of culture as an expression and combination of sharedvalues, shared ambition and shared vision based on commonassumptions, norms and habits of mind – ‘the way we do thingsaround here’. The aim of these combined hard and soft initiativesis to involve an ever-widening circle in seeing the development ofthe metropolis as a ‘common social project’ and to increase thedynamism of the region within a recognition of the new rules ofurban competition, focusing on cultural richness, network dynam-ics and reinvigorated concepts of the idea of leadership.

The mission for the coming decade is to identify and attractpeople who are willing to lead and to help their ideas get expressedand transformed into projects and real innovative experiences, sospinning off into Bilbao’s social and economic wealth while respect-ing the city’s ‘values, history and idiosyncrasy’.42 Seemingly triteslogans, such as ‘Bring your dreams to Bilbao. We can make themcome true’, seek to reinforce this message. The World Forum onValues and City Development, held in May 2006 and to be regu-larly held henceforth, is a vehicle to project these aims.

Some commentators feel that Metropoli-30’s highpoint was inthe early stages of its existence, when it framed the conversationabout Bilbao’s future, and that now those lessons have beenabsorbed. However, the issues Metropoli-30 is now dealing with,


concerned with the software of the city, such as changing the valuesof citizens and leaders, are far more subtle. It’s less easy to getexcited about having to change yourself and to get overall momen-tum behind such ideas than about building interesting physicalprojects. This leaves aside the question of whether Metropoli-30 isbeing effective or not. The fact is that not many urban regenerationmechanisms are focused on value change.

From thinking to doingMetropoli-30 thinks and Bilbao Ría 2000 acts. The latter is anentrepreneurial public-spirited public–private partnership createdwith an endowment of port land it was given cheaply. Since then ithas required hardly any public funds as it has traded land andgenerated sales to developers in the gentrifying Abandoibarra areanear the Guggenheim. These capital gains have been invested inextensive city projects where social needs are greatest, such as theSouthern Connection, Bilbao La Vieja and the Barakaldo Urbanproject. Its work has included the Abandoibarra renewal, theformer industrial city and port, now the symbol and centre of newBilbao; Ametzola, formerly three goods railway stations, which isnow a residential area with a modern park; the renewal of BilbaoLa Vieja, the old town; and Urban-Galindo in Barakaldo, an ambi-tious urban plan to recover the waterfront for use by local peopleand psychologically linking it to the heart of Bilbao.

Broader impactsHas this investment in structure, iconics and big events paid off?The overall investment over the last 15 years has been in the orderof 4.2 billion euros. Its effectiveness is measured in a variety ofways. Metropoli-30 annually assesses a series of benchmarks, suchas the quality of human resources, including education, trainingand labour market dynamics, the internationalization of theeconomy in terms of commerce, transport connections, tourism,trade fairs, levels of internet usage, economic growth indicators,environmental quality (there are now fish in the river Nervion),personal quality of life, the sense of safety, cultural facilities, energyconsumption, and so on.

Foreign direct inward investment data has been hard to comeby. Anecdotally this increased, especially in the ETA ceasefireperiod (the ETA issue was key in terms of business relocation). Thelevel of new business start-ups increased substantially in the decade


from 1991 onwards, from roughly 1700 to 2850 per annum. Thelargest percentage increases were in services (20.4 per cent)followed by construction (15.4 per cent). Property price levels haveincreased a great deal – indeed Bilbao is the city with the mostexpensive prices per square metre in Spain, followed by Barcelonaand Madrid. This is a double-edged sword. The most expensiveareas, Ensanche and Abandoibarra, are close to the GuggenheimMuseum. Yet the price of new housing in the periphery is risingeven faster than in Bilbao, especially in Getxo on the coast. Theprices on the outskirts are also rising sharply with the extension ofthe metro system there.

While Bilbao is not in the top 30 European cities for businesslocation, it hovers around 35, in the company of Turin, Valencia,Rotterdam and Birmingham. This is an achievement in itself whenyou consider the central location of the others.

The Guggenheim effectMany urban specialists now say they are bored of hearing aboutBilbao, but the reality is that getting the Guggenheim was Bilbao’smaster stroke, added to which a special building added lustre.Many cities, such as Valencia, have tried to follow Bilbao’s patternof development, but very few have succeeded in sustaining the levelsof quality and bending the gentrification process triggered by publicinvestments to the city’s advantage.

A brief reminder. Salzburg had previously been in discussionfor the Guggenheim but the bold design by Hans Hollein for asubterranean museum carved directly into the rock of theMonchsberg was too much for the city fathers. Once Spain wasidentified as the location for the European hub there was a compe-tition between Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Badajoz, Bilbao and thenorthern coastal resort of Santander, which was an early favouriteuntil the well-funded Basque redevelopment consortium won out.Since then, the Guggenheim effect has become an urban renova-tor’s cliché, but in truth it can rarely be repeated, in spite of theicon-building mania that has subsequently ensued. While theGuggenheim sheen might be fading as it becomes positively promis-cuous, pursuing relationships with governments, cities andcorporations around the world, there is only one Bilbao.

Metropoli-30 claimed that it was able to attract the museumbecause the preconditions – open-mindedness, ambition and willing-ness to take financial risks – had been set in the decade before the


actual decision was made. As they noted, ‘Luck goes to those whomake it.’43 An international design competition was held with athree-strong shortlist of architects – Izozaki, Buro Himmelblau andFrank Gehry – which Gehry won in 1991. The Guggenheim openedin 1997 and is owned by Bilbao. It cost approximately US$100million, with an additional US$20 million paid to the Guggenheimfor the use of the name for a 20-year period. Within this contract,Guggenheim makes its exhibitions and stock of art available toBilbao. This direct investment by the Basque authorities repaid itselfvia increased tax revenues after three years and the current contribu-tions by the region to the museum are covered by the yearly increasesin tax revenue averaging, around 28 million euros per annum. By2005 the Basque treasury had benefited from the Guggenheim byover 200 million euros and 4500 jobs in the hospitality industries.Estimates of visitor numbers were originally 500,000, but in the firstyear visitors numbered 1.2 million. This began to decline after 11September 2001 and is currently running at 900,000 per annum, withthe proportion of foreigners increasingly annually (59 per cent in2003). The impact on other cultural facilities has been substantial –for example, the Museum of Fine Art has doubled its attendance.44

The arrival of the Guggenheim effectively developed the localtourism industry, although business tourism was already well devel-oped given the economic strength of the region. Eighty-two per centof visitors state that they specifically visited Bilbao only because ofthe museum. There is an estimated additional bed occupancy ofapproaching 1 million, with global hotel and shop brands cluster-ing into the city.

The building of the Guggenheim was not uncontentious,however. The idea to build an icon structure in the face of the highunemployment levels of the early 1990s caused alarm in a numberof quarters, with some feeling it would be better to build new facto-ries rather than pursue an internationalization strategy involvingcity-marketing and cultural facilities. The artistic community wereinitially the most vociferous opponents, as they believed theGuggenheim offered little to the local artistic community. Indeed anumber of arts programmes were initially cut and there was a fearof its impact on existing facilities. Local sculptor Jorge Oteiza, whohad nurtured the project of an arts centre in another site in the heartof Bilbao, became the leader of a lobby opposing this museum,which was seen by many local artists and intellectuals as ‘an instru-ment of cultural colonialism’.45


While some segments remain suspicious, a larger section hasbecome more enthusiastic, given the now increased investment intraditional cultural facilities, such as the extension of the Museumof Fine Arts as well as other amenities, such as the auditorium andconference centre. As a consequence it appears there has also beena burgeoning of artist-run and grass-roots movements, with outletssuch as the alternative theatre and dance centre, La Fundici, theMediaz association and the Urazurrutia centre.

Creativity when culture mattersBarcelona and Bilbao (and Montreal46) believe their threatenedidentity was a spur to cultural creativity and originality. But anotherprimary reason for their success has been budgetary control andlocal autonomy to perceive and trust the long-term vision withouthaving to dilute it through external negotiation with nationalgovernment. This can be contrasted to the relative lack ofbudgetary authority British cities have. Imagine what they mighthave achieved if they had not been treated like infants by the Britishgovernment. For instance, the Basque region keeps 90 per cent ofregionally generated taxes and pays 6.2 per cent towards the statebudget for external affairs and defence. The Barcelona and Bilbaomodels have also been taken up by Valencia, Seville and Malaga.While Madrid, as the nation’s capital, increasingly draws talent,skills and headquarters to it, there is a strong countervailing force.For instance, in the music industry Barcelona was historically thecentre, but with the re-emergence of Spain after Franco, many keyplayers felt they had to relocate to Madrid as the global playerssuch as AOL/Time/Warner had based themselves in the nationalpolitical capital. However, each of the main regional cities, likeBarcelona and Valencia, is now seeking to reinforce its strengthsinternationally in an attempt to bypass Madrid, for instance ascentres of design. The battles of relative urban power continue,with Madrid trying to accrue as much power and resources aspossible. This is also the case in other federal countries, likeGermany, where cities such as Munich, Hamburg and Frankfurttry to create a counterforce to the newly re-emerging Berlin.

Urban acupuncture and Curitiba’s creativityBrazil’s Curitiba, a city of 1.7 million, has tripled in populationover the last 35 years. It is a byword for urban creativity and eco-


urbanity. Curitiba, with Freiburg in Germany, is a forerunner in itsconcern for ecological urban development. Curitiba’s public trans-port and park system and creative ways of turning weaknesses intostrengths are its trademarks. Emblematic is its Open University ofthe Environment, the first of its kind in the world, set up in 1992and located in a reclaimed quarry. It carries out projects relating toa sustainable economy, conservation of the ecosystem and environ-mental education. Deep in a native forest covering 37,000m2, itsresearchers are influencing the growth of the city, whose economyis based on trade, services and processing industries.

In the mid-1960s a group of activist architecture and designstudents began making the case to improve the city’s quality of life;this prompted a revolution in Curitiba’s development. City officialsrecognized the possibilities, which led to a master plan. A keyelement was that mobility and land use could not be disassociatedfrom each other. Therefore counteracting random sprawl throughdirecting development along transport corridors was central. JaimeLerner was one of the students and was later appointed mayor threetimes between 1971 and 1992, when he twice became electedgovernor of Parana, the region within which Curitiba falls. Lernerwas responsible for creating and setting up an urban think tank,the Institute of Urban Planning and Research of Curitiba (IPPUC)in 1965, one of the plan’s recommendations. Like in Barcelona andBilbao, this was a forward-looking thinking brain for the city.

Nearly 40 years later Lerner wrote Urban Acupuncture todescribe his approach to the revitalization of cities, which dependson the relative agility of local policy-makers and counter-intuitivethinking.47 Urban acupuncture involves identifying pinpointedinterventions that by being accomplished quickly can be catalyticby releasing energy and creating a positive ripple effect. Lernernotes:

Keep in mind that the city is a scenario for encoun-ters. Gregarious by definition, the city is the centrearound which relationship codes are created. Thegreat ideological conflict in today’s world is globaliza-tion versus solidarity. It is necessary to ‘globalizesolidarity,’ in Mario Soares’ words.

The city is also the last solidarity retreat. The cityis not the problem, it is the solution.48


The aim of city-making and acupuncture is to create this solidarity.Usually this is achieved by acts of what Lerner calls ‘urban kind-ness’, which act like acupuncture. Examples can be either small andseemingly trivial or large. They can be the acts of individuals, themunicipality or a business. For instance, after finishing his dailywork, a Curitiba dentist used to go to his office’s window and playthe trumpet for anyone walking past. It can be the planting by thecity of the first tranche of what later became a million trees in lessthan two decades. In the beginning it was a true gesture of urbankindness. To ensure that all the seedlings planted in the streetswould be watered regularly, Curitiba asked people to help. Thelocal authorities rolled out a campaign: ‘The City provides theshade and you the fresh water.’ And they water them. It can beLerner’s innovative recycling programme, where the city exchangedrecycled materials collected by citizens, especially the poor, for foodand bus tickets. Street children were given free food, but in order toget it they had to take a class to learn something. Similarly he gotindustry, shops and institutions to ‘adopt’ a few orphaned or aban-doned street children, providing them with a daily meal and smallwage for doing simple maintenance gardening or office tasks. Muchof this might sound chaotic, and some insiders critize it, but theprocess builds social capital.

The fast acupuncture approaches had a purpose: ‘preventingthe inertia of complexity sellers, of pettiness and of politics fromstifling critical opportunities and public projects’.49 The first pedes-trian street in Brazil was created in 1972 over a weekend to avoidany opposition by merchants. Once it was successful they clam-oured for more. Children involved in mural-drawing sessions havebeen a feature of Saturday mornings on the mall ever since. In 2002the Oscar Niemeyer Museum was finished in five months. Thecomplexities are easy to imagine, but there was an opportunity torecycle an old building designed by Oscar Niemeyer, a bold projectfrom the 1960s, that had been used to house state governmentagencies. ‘Refurbishing a bureaucratic space to be used as a spacededicated to creativity, identity, art, design, architecture, and citieswas important. But once again, it had to be done fast.’50

Smart incentives act as acupuncture, fostering effective busi-ness–government partnerships. In this way positive action isreinforced by civic practice. For example, developers and buildersreceive a tax break when their projects include green areas. Thehistoric preservation of a commercial district near the downtown


was achieved by transferring development rights. The abandon-ment of heritage buildings had been a problem as developerswanted their deterioration and eventual demolition. Under theregulations, you can build in the rear or in another part of the cityif you restore the old building in front. Tax discounts were alsogiven for restoration. Owners are therefore compensated andhistoric structures are preserved. In designated areas of the city,businesses can ‘buy’ up to two extra floors beyond the normal, legallimit and can pay in cash or land, the receipts of which the city usesfor low-income housing. Land-use legislation encourages high-density growth along the arterials, and a ‘social fare’ mass transitfare system was employed with the fare the same for close-in resi-dents and lower-income users living on the periphery.

On a larger scale, Curitiba’s bus system is so frequent that, asLerner says, ‘you never need a timetable’. It has articulated busesthat can carry up to 300 people and trademark clear tubes forboarding, where people pay before entry and get on and off sospeedily that it is like a metro. It is efficient, affordable, and solvent.Eighty cities around the world are using similar rapid bus transitsystems, which can be constructed 20 to 100 times more cheaplythan light rail or subway systems.

In the end long-term urban kindness pays back. It engenderssocial capital. The city government has demonstrated its commit-ment to the constant maintenance of green, pedestrian andlandscaped areas, and now citizens, who once took the flowers and


URBAN ACUPUNCTURE AND SOCIAL CAPITAL

In Calgary, if you ride a bike without a bell you get fined CAD57. It costsCAD100 to administer the fine and if you are caught it leaves a sourtaste in your mouth. You are cross and hate the municipality (and prob-ably the next person you meet). The city’s director of bylaws thoughtthere must a better way. He decided to buy 100 bells and 10 screw-drivers for his patrollers at a cost of CAD500. Now when someone isfound without a bell, the patroller cautions them and tells them howlucky they are since they have a bell and a screwdriver and will givethem a present. The net effect is they ride with a glow and are probablypleasant to the next person they meet. That kindness reverberates. It ishow social capital is created and, counter-intuitively, the more you useit the more it grows.

committed vandalism, have become responsible partners, protec-tive of these public spaces.

Several guiding principles govern decision-making at city andcommunity levels. Priority is given to people and public transport,design should keep nature in mind and technology should be appropriate to the situation. Three components guide Curitiba’sregional planning: the idea, the viability and the operation.Planning, execution, and administration are handled separately byCuritiba’s government. The three interface constantly, with weeklymeetings among the mayor and key players in each area of respon-sibility, who define and set weekly targets. The ethos of citymanagers is that good systems and incentives are better than goodplans. Awareness of environmental sustainability and each individ-ual’s quality of life is part of the education of every person inCuritiba. All school students participate in environmental surveys.Forty-seven school libraries have been brought outside schools toallow public access. They each have a lighthouse tower and guard-house based on the ancient Library of Alexandria. Seventy-five percent of commuters take the bus, although Curitiba has the secondhighest per capita car ownership in Brazil. This has resulted in oneof the lowest air pollution levels in Brazil. Because of the integratedtransportation system, Curitibanos spend only 10 per cent of theirincome on transport. During a period of startling populationgrowth, Curitiba expanded its green space more than a hundred-fold – from 0.5m2 of serviced green space per person to 52m2 perperson – 21 million m2 in total. Free green-coloured buses andbicycle paths fully integrate these public spaces into their local andlarger communities.

Curitiba shows that cities do not necessarily require expensivemechanical garbage separation facilities. Residents recycle two-thirds of their garbage in a programme that costs no more than theold landfill. The ‘Garbage that is not Garbage’ and ‘GarbagePurchase’ programmes involve kerbside pick-up and disposal ofrecyclables sorted by households and, in less accessible areas, theexchange of food and transit tickets for garbage collected by low-income residents. The ‘All Clean’ programme temporarily hiresretired or unemployed persons, who concentrate on areas wherelitter has accumulated. Trash is separated into only two categories,organic and inorganic, picked up by two different types of trucks.Poor residents in areas unreachable by truck bring their waste toneighbourhood centres, where they exchange it for bus tickets or


eggs and milk bought from outlying farms. Trash is separated at aplant built of recycled materials, sorted by workers who are handi-capped, recent immigrants and alcoholics. Recovered materials aresold to local industries. Styrofoam is shredded and used as stuffingfor quilts. Since its 1989 start-up, the recyclable waste programmehas separated 419,000 tonnes – enough to fill 1200 twenty-storeybuildings. Inorganic waste (plastic, glass, paper, aluminium) totals13 per cent of garbage collected.51

… and there are many morecreative places both today and from yesterday. Let us remindourselves of one from the past. Ragusa, now Dubrovnik, inCroatia was a classic example of a creative, knowledge-basedcity.52 Perhaps in its historical context it was a creative city for theworld. For instance Ragusa’s slogan was ‘oblivi privatorum,publica curate’ (forget the private issues and tend to the publicones). The government of the Ragusa Republic was liberal andearly showed its concern for justice and humanitarian principles.With no resources apart from a fleet it had to live on its wits, be abroker, a diplomat and intermediary. It traded knowledge and hada sophisticated network of spies; it based its ethos on dialoguerather than conflict. ‘Always sit down with your worst enemy’ theystill say in Dubrovnik or ‘keep your friends close and your enemieseven closer’. It had no army of its own. As early as 1272 theRepublic had its own statute and codified Roman practice withlocal customs. The statute included town planning guidelines. Itwas very inventive regarding laws and institutions: a medicalservice was introduced in 1301; the first pharmacy (still working)was opened in 1317; a refuge for old people was opened in 1347;the first quarantine hospital (Lazarete) was opened in 1377; slavetrading was abolished in 1418; an orphanage was opened in 1432;the water supply system (20km of it) was constructed in 1436.

From its establishment in the first half of the seventh centuryRagusa has been under the protection of the Byzantine Empire,Venice, the Hungarian–Croatian Kingdom and the OttomanEmpire. But it always managed to negotiate its relative independenceand made itself useful to others with far greater power, who in turnprotected Ragusa from invasion. As a free state it reached its peakin the 15th and 16th centuries. But a crisis of shipping and a cata-strophic earthquake in 1667 killed over 5000 citizens and levelled


most public buildings. It ruined the well-being of the Republic and,while it fought back, it never reached the same heights and the finalstraw was when Napoleon conquered the city in 1806.

Although all effective power was concentrated in the hands ofthe nobility, Ragusa was governed in a radical way. The head of thestate was the Duke or Rector, elected for a term of office for onemonth and eligible for re-election after two years. Every noble tooktheir seat in the Grand Council. The Senate was a consultative bodyand consisted of 45 invited members (over 40 years of age). Therectors lived and worked in the Rector’s Palace but their familiesremained living in their own homes.

The pride in Dubrovnik, an urban gem, is pervasive and citi-zens today speak of it as if it were a person etched into their innerbeing and not as a detached thing. When asked where they comefrom, in Zagreb, say, they simply say from ‘the city’.

And what has become of this jewel today that until recentlyhad a fine balance of trade and visitors? It is overwhelmed bytourists with little chance of maintaining its identity; at times over2000–3000 tourists are flushed from cruise liners into this verysmall city. They take a two-hour walk, leave practically nothingbehind and move on. As Vido Bodanovic, the mayor of Dubrovnikfrom 1998 to 2001 noted: ‘Tourism is essentially a form of prosti-tution.’ Some visitors attracted by its beauty buy houses, whichthey rarely go to, and as a consequence the permanent populationin the city has declined from 10,000 to 5000 over the last decade,and there are more souvenirs than you want to see.

Amsterdam is another city of creative power that has had toreinvent its primary purposes again and again in acts of imagina-tion. Interestingly, Amsterdam City Hall is billing the city as acreative city par excellence and supporting conferences such as‘Creativity and the City’ and ‘Creative Capital’.53 It is a cruel ironyof sorts that Amsterdam, historically a centre of creativity, has toproclaim its creativity in a mundane way to be heard among thehubbub of other cities now branding themselves as creative.

A helpful guide, Amsterdam Index 2006: A shortcut to creativeAmsterdam,54 provides a contemporary overview. Like a personalguide, the index ‘gives tips and escorts you to the city’s specialplaces and invites you to get to know the people who make up thisinnovative capital’.

The question always lurking ‘is not whether Amsterdam willbecome a creative city or not, but above all whom that city is aimed


at: a creative city for the highly educated and prosperous upperclass or a creative city for all the city’s inhabitants’.55

A port and hub for centuries, its openness has attractedoutsiders, many of them edgy. The multilingual capacities of theDutch reinforce its accessibility. Let’s consider the old, the new andthe alternative as three elements. Many are beguiled byAmsterdam’s dense urban fabric and the canals dissecting the city.Some find its ‘olde worlde’ beauty too cutesy. Yet it is precisely theplanning restrictions in the older, intimate core that allow small,often fashionably designed outlets to survive and intense interac-tion and stimulation to occur, as witnessed in areas like NineStreets. There is a relief at not seeing a McDonald’s, Burger King orSubway.

Can the city recreate this sense of place that triggers imagina-tive responses in its new development areas like the Zuidas (SouthAxis) area, a Dutch version of La Defense in Paris, Potsdamer Platzin Berlin or Canary Wharf in London? This business hub, with itsincreased residential buildings, currently has a global style, likemany places that attract bankers and accountants. Will its aim toinsert a repertoire of city-making – cultural activity, greening andpublic squares – create a feeling of compelling and urgent vitality?They say, ‘Culture plays an important role all over Zuidas. Onearea in particular, the Museum Quarter, is almost entirely dedicatedto culture.’56 Can one area be dedicated to culture? Althoughamusing, will naming areas Gershwin, Mahler 4 or Vivaldi createvitality? Zuidplein at the bottom of the World Trade Centre (howmany are there of these in the world?) has street life at lunchtime,but is this creative? Some of the architecture, like Meyer en vanShooten’s Ing House, has a playfulness seen from a distance, buthow lively is it at street level?

Amsterdam’s underground breeding ground of inventivenesswas inextricably linked to its squatter movement, as activists andartists occupied abandoned structures and buildings. With nameslike Silo or Vrieshuis Amerika, these often acted as experimenta-tion zones. Crucially, in contrast to most cities in the world,Amsterdam recognized the importance of these alternatives. In1999 it set up the Breeding Places Fund, whose aim is to provideaffordable small-scale infrastructure for artists and cultural entre-preneurs in response to dramatic changes in the cultural landscapeof Amsterdam. Amsterdam’s popularity and gentrification hadthreatened the city’s cultural ecology, but since then, around 1000


spaces have been provided in 35 projects, ranging from thedramatic old shipyard, NDSM, to Plantage Doklaan andElektronstraat. Other spaces include the Westergasfabriek, amodern park and a cultural complex etched out of an old gas landscape, which balances well the need for innovation witheconomic sustainability and has been one of the more successfulexamples of balancing innovation and economic sustainability.57

As an example to remind ourselves of the fragility of these places,however, take the OT301, an artist studio and performancecomplex:

At the end of the month, the lease runs out for theOT301, and looming in the air are potentially big renthikes, smells of third-party investors and questionsover the subculture’s future… So take a quick walkthrough the OT – it may not be there much longer.58

There are many other cities which have recaptured their publicspace, such as Copenhagen, Portland, Vancouver and Melbourne.Each has a dimension of creativity to offer. Many of these are welldocumented in Jan Gehl and Lars Gemzøe’s New City Spaces.59

The authors describe Copenhagen’s ten-step programme to human-ize the city: convert key main streets into pedestrian thoroughfares;reduce traffic and parking gradually; turn parking lots into publicsquares; keep scale dense and low; honour the human scale; popu-late the core; encourage student living; adapt the cityscape tochanging seasons; promote cycling as a major mode of transporta-tion; and make free bicycles available.

Then there is Vancouver, one of the North American cities citedas most liveable. Greater Vancouver has gained an internationalreputation for various innovative planning initiatives over theyears. A healthy economy, employment opportunities, rapid popu-lation increases and the desirability of a West Coast lifestyle havecontributed to the region’s urban design, the architectural characterof its neighbourhoods and its general prosperity. The limited landbase of the region, surrounded by mountains, the US border andthe sea, increased development pressure and created challenges forboth the public and private sectors. Successful planning initiativesinclude the rejection of extensive freeway systems, the redevelop-ment of the south shore of False Creek and the transformation offormer industrial lands into town houses and apartments in the


mid-1970s and the creation of eight regional town centres, such asMetrotown in Burnaby, Lonsdale in North Vancouver and HaneyTown Centre in Maple Ridge. These town centres provide a focalpoint for higher-density residential neighbourhoods combined withbusiness and commercial opportunities easily accessible via theregional transit system. They serve as an alternative to the familiarsuburban commute into downtown Vancouver and as an effectiveway to accommodate urban growth and decentralize employmentopportunities within the region.60

The emphasis on neighbourhood planning began in the 1970swith the creation of citizens’ planning committees. Differentapproaches were needed in each neighbourhood. Vancouver led theway with plans involving citizens, resulting in specific policies for adiversity of communities – Strathcona, the West End, Grandviewand Shaughnessy, for example. The emphasis from the outset wason a two-way planning process with community participation.

John Punter argues61 that since the early 1970s Vancouver hasdevised and implemented a distinctive, clear-sighted approach to itsurban planning and design which has provided a frame withinwhich the city could build itself out, focusing on making the urbancore mixed-use – residential, offices and shopping. This gives thecity its vitality. It was based upon discretionary zoning, cooperativemegaproject schemes, development levies, managed neighbourhoodchange and building intensification. The success of these strategieshas created Vancouver’s outstanding reputation in internationalplanning circles.

THE MANAGEMENT OF FRAGILITY: CREATIVITY AND THE CITY

Creative ecology The aim, for me, of creative city-making is to think of your city asif it were a living work of art where citizens can involve and engagethemselves in the creation of a transformed place. This will requiredifferent creativities: the creativity of the engineer, the socialworker, the planner, the business person, the events organizer, thearchitect, the housing specialist, IT specialists, psychologists, histo-rians, anthropologists, natural scientists, environmentalists, artistsof all kinds and, most importantly, ordinary people living their lives


as citizens. This is comprehensive creativeness. It involves differingforms, not only the thrusting creativity of discovering a new techni-cal invention, but also the soft creativity of making interaction inthe city flow. To make creativity’s diversity work involves themanagement of fragility.

Every period of history requires its own form of creativity.Today’s will be different from yesterday’s and tomorrow’s. Now weneed to focus our creativity on being creative for the world. To dothis we need to work across disciplines in an interconnected wholeso we can see issues and solutions in the round. We need to thinkboth horizontally and vertically, to see strategy and detail, the partsand whole and the woods and the trees simultaneously. We need tocare for our world. For instance, rather than focusing on sustain-able development we should think of restorative development: howour cities can help restore the environment, how can they givesomething back to it. A few housing developments already giveelectricity back to the grid.

Creativity is not the answer to all our urban problems but itcreates the preconditions upon which it is possible to open outopportunities to find solutions. Urban creativity requires an ethicalframework to drive the city forward, and not in a prescriptive sense.At its core this ethic is about something life-giving, sustaining,opening out rather than curtailing. This requires us to focus on softcreativity, which is the ability to nurture our cities and their culturalecology.

The creative rashCreativity is like a rash; it is all-pervasive. Everyone is in the creativ-ity game. Creativity is a mantra of our age, whether we are referringto creative individuals, companies, cities, countries or even creativestreets, buildings and projects.

At my last count 60 cities worldwide claimed to be creativecities. Twenty were in Britain, from Creative Manchester, Bristol,Plymouth and Norwich to, of course, Creative London. And dittoCanada: Toronto, with its Culture Plan for the Creative City;Vancouver and its Creative City Task Force; London, Ontario’ssimilar task force; and Ottawa’s plan to be a creative city. In the USthere is Creative Cincinnati, Creative Tampa Bay and the welter ofcreative regions such as Creative New England. Partners forLiveable Communities in Washington DC launched a Creative


Cities Initiative in 2001. In Australia we find the Brisbane CreativeCity strategy and there is Creative Auckland. Osaka set up aGraduate School for Creative Cities in 2003 and launched theJapanese Creative Cities Network in 2005. Even the somewhatlumbering UNESCO, through its Global Alliance for CulturalDiversity, launched its Creative Cities Network in 2004, anointingEdinburgh as the first for its literary creativity. On closer examina-tion most of the strategies and plans are in fact concerned withstrengthening the arts and cultural fabric, such as support for thearts and artists and the institutional infrastructure to match. Inaddition they focus on fostering the creative industries, comprisingthose that ‘have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talentand which have a potential for wealth and job creation through thegeneration and exploitation of intellectual property’.62

An idea or a movementToday we can even talk of a Creative City Movement,63 but backin the late 1980s, when most of the constituent ideas were beingdeveloped, the key terms discussed were culture, the arts, culturalplanning, cultural resources and the cultural industries. Creativityas a broad-based attribute only came into common, as distinct fromspecialist, currency in the mid-1990s. Earlier Australia’s CreativeNation, instigated in 1992 by Prime Minister Paul Keating, speltout the country’s cultural policy with a focus on creativity. In theUK, by contrast, the first short version of the Creative Citypublished in 1995 had little resonance beyond niche audiences.64

Instead it was the publication of Ken Robinson’s national commis-sion on creativity, education and the economy for the UKGovernment, All Our Future: Creativity, Culture and Education,that a couple of years after its publication in 1999 put creativitymore firmly on to the political agenda.65 Later some of the phrase-ology changed, but what people referred to was usually a narrowlyfocused creativity, essentially the cultural industries, which becamethe creative industries and the creative economy. The notion of thecreative class then emerged in 2002. The publication of RichardFlorida’s book, The rise of the Creative Class, gave the ‘movement’a dramatic lift with the danger of hyping the concept out offavour.66

Why do cities want to be creative? Where did the obsessionwith ‘creativity’ come from? A central point is that creativity was


always present in cities, it is just that we called it by another name:ingenuity, skill or inventiveness. Venice did not emerge in its timethrough a business-as-usual approach, nor did Constantinople orDubrovnik. It became a link between the Latin and Slavonic civi-lizations and a powerful merchant republic. It maintained itsindependence by successively becoming a protectorate and bybrokering knowledge, acting as a haven and refuge and inventingservices. It required intense cleverness and astute positioning.Perhaps, today, Singapore is striving to be an equivalent.

Further, from the late 1980s onwards a recognition that theworld was changing dramatically was increasingly widespread.Industries in the developed world already had to restructure fromthe mid-1970s onwards. The movement took time to unfold in full,but its momentum moved apace with the shift in global terms oftrade now apparent. Its effects were eased in the West by the internet-based ‘new economy’, with the move from a focus onbrawn to brain and a recognition that added value is generated byideas turned into innovations, inventions and copyrights.

Yet these processes left many countries and cities flailing as theysearched for new answers to create a purpose and role for them-selves, while cities were physically locked into their past. This ledto soul searching and many concluded that the old way of doingthings did not work sufficiently well. Education did not seem toprepare students for the demands of the ‘new’ world. Organization,management and leadership, with a control ethos and hierarchicalfocus, did not provide the flexibility, adaptability and resilience tocope in the emerging competitive environment. Cities’ atmosphere,look and feel were seen as coming from the industrialized factoryage where quality of design was viewed as an add-on rather than asthe core of what makes a city attractive and competitive.

Coping with these changes required a reassessment of cities’resources and potential and a process of necessary reinvention onall fronts. This required an act of imagination and creation. Citiesfelt ‘creativity’ could provide answers to their problems and oppor-tunities and would get them out of being locked into their past,either because of physical infrastructure or because of theirmindset. These adjustments require changes in attitudes and in howorganizations are run. Yet while many organizations claim to havechanged through ‘de-layering’, ‘decentralizing’ or ‘decoupling’, inreality they have remained the same. Nevertheless, different peoplefor different reasons felt creativity had something in it for them – it


seemed like the answer. First, the educational system, with its thenmore rigid curriculum and tendency to rote-like learning, did notsufficiently prepare young people, who were being asked to learnmore subjects and perhaps understood them less. Critics instead


SYNCHRONICITY AND ORIGINS

The first detailed study of the ‘creative city’ concept was called‘Glasgow: The creative city and its cultural economy’, which I wrote in1990. This was followed in 1994 by a meeting in Glasgow of represen-tatives from five German and five British cities (Cologne, Dresden,Unna, Essen, Karlsruhe and Bristol, Glasgow, Huddersfield, Leicesterand Milton Keynes) to explore urban creativity, resulting in The CreativeCity in Britain and Germany,67 followed up by a short version of TheCreative City in 1995 and a far longer one called The Creative City: AToolkit for Urban Innovators in 2000, which popularized the concept.Unknown to the author at the time, in fact the first mention of the‘creative city’ as a concept was in a seminar of that title organized bythe Australia Council, the City of Melbourne, the Ministry of Planningand Environment of Victoria and many other partners, held betweenthe 5 and 7 September 1988. Its focus was on how arts and culturalconcerns could be better integrated into the planning process for citydevelopment. While several speakers were arts practitioners, thespread was broader, including planners and architects. Yet a keynotespeech by David Yencken, former Secretary for Planning andEnvironment for Victoria, spelt out a broader agenda, stating that whilewe give firm attention to the efficiency of cities and some focus onequity, we should stress that the city is more. ‘It should be emotionallysatisfying and stimulate creativity amongst its citizens.’68 The city cantrigger this, given its complexity and variety, especially when seen asan interconnected whole and viewed holistically. This ecologicalperspective is reflected in Yencken’s later appointment as chairman ofthe Australian Conservation Foundation. This prefigured some of thekey themes of The Creative City and how cities can make the most oftheir possibilities. The latter noted, ‘Creative planning is based on theidea of cultural resources and the holistic notion that every problem ismerely an opportunity in disguise; every weakness has a potentialstrength and that even the seemingly “invisible” can be made intosomething positive – that is something can be made out of nothing.These phrases might sound like trite sloganeering, but when full-heartedly believed can be powerful planning and ideas generatingtools.’69

argued that students should acquire higher-order skills, such aslearning how to learn, create, discover, innovate, problem-solve andself-assess. This would trigger and activate wider ranges of intelli-gences, foster openness, exploration and adaptability, and allowthe transfer of knowledge between different contexts as studentswould learn how to understand the essence of arguments ratherthan recall out of context facts. Secondly, harnessing motivation,talent and skills increasingly could not happen in top–down orga-nizational structures. Interesting people, often mavericks, wereincreasingly not willing to work within traditional structures. Thisled to new forms of managing and governance, with titles such as‘matrix management’ and ‘stakeholder democracy’, whose purposewas to unleash creativity and bring greater fulfilment. The drive forinnovations required working environments where people wantedto share and collaborate to mutual advantage. This was necessaryoutside the workplace and increasingly the notion of the creativemilieu, a physical urban setting where people feel encouraged toengage, communicate and share, came into play. Often these milieuswere centred on redundant warehouses which had been turned intoincubators for new companies.

Creativity: ComponentsCreativity and resilienceAn overarching goal of being creative is to generate urban resilienceand build overall urban capacity. It is not about being fanciful.Resilience is the capacity to absorb change, ruptures and shocksand to be supple enough to adjust. Resilience is strong adaptability.It means a city has the right attributes of inventiveness and open-ness to bounce back if its industrial base has been eroded or a newcompetitor, say India or China, has taken its markets. This requiresthe city to evolve a spirit of expectation, of being alert to changeand of not assuming given advantages are timeless. This helps thecity avoid being downcast, a psychological frame of mind notattuned to understanding and then grappling with change. Urbanshocks can leave cities depressed just as they can individuals. Liftinga city out of this state is difficult as it needs to nurture itself backits self-confidence. One area to develop resilience is the learninginfrastructure, which should be fashioned to combine the teachingof focused disciplines, such as engineering or crime prevention, withthe ability to see the core of disciplines and then across and beyond


them. The capacity of a company to think from a conceptual andnot a product point of view opens out possibilities. For instance,Camper shoes developed the hotel Casa Camper in Barcelonabecause, as they note, they are into comfort, not shoes. The comfortplatform gives Camper a far wider range of possibilities to inventproducts well beyond shoes (clearly having a brand name helps).The most innovative companies then align their skills with otherswithout wishing to control the complete chain. The same shouldapply to cities when assessing their production possibilities. LikeCamper, they may ask themselves, ‘What is the essence of what weknow?’ rather than focusing on the particular application theyhave, which could be mining or textiles. For instance, mining couldbe seen less as a mineral extraction sector and more as an opportu-nity to develop software for accessing hard to reach places.

Fear of creativity Quite rightly people argue, ‘Why should people want to be creative,as being so involves adjustment and change?’ It is painful. Better toleave things as they are. The desire to be open and inventivedepends on what we do. For the artist exploration is a raison d’être,for many scientists too. For the traffic engineer continuity andpredictability are at a premium, as they are for the property devel-oper. Ideally even certainty. The lawyer thrives within a plethora ofrules to be nit-picked to achieve clarity. Planners can project afuture only with clear guidelines; they would prefer less instability.In fact most people and professions prefer order. Individually,though, we may wish to explore, to find ourselves and to make ourlife more interesting. We may want stimulation.

Being creative is not the sine qua non of life. The reason it is sowidely discussed is our period of transition and lack of settledness.Too many problems are not being solved. Until a new settlementemerges, where for instance individual values and economicpurposes are aligned, things will remain up for grabs. Then thecapacity to create, recreate and reimagine will remain at a premium.Seen thus, creativity is in essence the capacity to stand back andreassess.

Driven by competitivenessCreativity has risen because people have realized that the sourcesof competitiveness now happen on a different plane and they needto learn afresh how to compete beyond merely low cost and high


productivity. It includes a city’s cultural depth and richness, whichmight mean heritage or the availability of contemporary artisticfacilities; the capacity to network globally and to keep abreast ofthe best; the ability to create imaginative partnerships so that theimpact of projects can generate the equation 1 + 1 = 3; seeing designawareness and quality not just as an add-on but an intrinsic part ofdevelopment; understanding how urban imagery works throughthe media; the need for eco-awareness to tap into peoples’ aspira-tional desires; developing language capacity to ease com-munication; and unblocking obstacles to interaction, whether thisbe concerned with bureaucracy or by creating gathering andmeeting places.

Creativity and the quinary domainEconomies are divided into sectors depending on distance from thenatural environment. The first extracts resources, the second manu-factures finished goods, the third, or tertiary, provides services,often using those produced goods, and the fourth, or quaternary,consists of intellectual activities associated with government,culture, scientific research, education and information technology.Some consider the fifth, or quinary, sector as a branch of the fourth,including the highest levels of decision-making in a society oreconomy. This sector would include the top executives or strategicofficials in such fields as government, science, universities, busi-ness, the non-profit world, healthcare, culture and the media.Others disaggregate the service sector, especially business serviceswhich are information-oriented, into quaternary activities and referto activities involving the collection, recoding, arranging, storage,retrieval, exchange and dissemination of information. Quinaryactivities emphasize the creation, rearrangement and interpretationof new and old ideas and information as well as innovation ofmethods in the knowing, gathering and interpretation of data. Theyare thus concerned with the reconceptualization of thinking,concepts, products and services at different levels. This is the strate-gic realm of the creative city thinking.

Quality of life, competitiveness and creativityCreativity, it is said, thrives on messiness, a touch of disorder oreven an element of chaos. The unfinished waiting to be finished. Buttoo much untidiness does not attract all types. Not the lawyers, thebankers, the property developers, most media types or their fami-


lies. It is these people who in many contexts can drive the urbantransformation agenda and create the confidence and positive invest-ment climate. They are not renowned for their creativity and itsuncertainties. In fact they probably want nearly the opposite.Messiness is also uncomfortable for many others: ordinary hospitalworkers, teachers and shopkeepers, to name a few. They want ‘live-ability’ or ‘quality of life’, two catchphrases of the moment. Thatagenda focuses on safety, cleanliness and good transport. Within thenew competitiveness paradigm both the creativity and liveabilityagendas need to be aligned. And they can be. Thinking aboutunusual crime reduction schemes is an example, as is creating urbanhubs that act as havens, like Bryant Park in New York, or comingup with the idea of the mid-level escalators as a form of public trans-port in Hong Kong. Overall urban competitiveness cannot survivetoday only on refurbished warehouses with their creative economytypes and office parks in idealized green settings. It needs the publicspaces in between, the good transport links and a sense of relativesafety – only with a slight touch of edginess.

Creating open conditionsThe goal of cities which try to be creative is to create conditionswhich are open enough so that urban decision-makers can rethinkpotential, for example turning waste into a commercial resource;revalue hidden assets, for example discovering historic traditionsthat can be turned into a new product; reconceive and remeasureassets, for example understanding that developing social capitalalso generates wealth; reignite passion for the city by, for example,developing programmes so people can learn to love their city;rekindle the desire for learning and entrepreneurship by, forexample, creating learning modules much more in tune with youngpeoples’ desires; reinvest in your talent by not only importingoutside talent but by fostering local talent; reassess what creativityfor your city actually is by being honest about your obstacles andlooking at your cultural resources afresh; realign rules and incen-tives to your new vision, rather than seeing your vision as beingdetermined by existing rules; and reconfigure, reposition andrepresent where your city stands by knitting the threads togetherto retell your urban story, galvanizing citizens to act. To elaborateon learning, it might mean reconfiguring curricula to teach higher-order skills, like learning to learn and to think, rather than moretopics, or alternatively to think across disciplines beyond the silos


rather than learning facts. The resilience to survive requires neweducational curricula. The Australian curriculum is an example ofmoving in this direction.

The creative milieuGiven that people now have more choice and mobility about wherethey want to be, the physical setting, ambience and atmosphere isof upmost importance. This is the stage, the container or platformwithin which activity takes place and develops. It generates themilieu or environment. The milieu mixes hard and soft infrastruc-ture. The hard consists of roads, buildings and physical things, thesoft the interactions between people, the intangible feelings peoplehave about the place.

A creative milieu can be a room, an office, a building, a set ofbuildings, a refurbished warehouse, a campus, a street, an area, aneighbourhood or occasionally a city. These places can equally becompletely uncreative. What makes a milieu creative is that it givesthe user the sense that they can shape, create and make the placethey are in, that they are an active participant rather than a passiveconsumer, and that they are an agent of change rather than a victim.These environments are open, but they do have unspoken rules ofengagement. They are not wild for the sake of wildness, so thatthings dissolve in chaos, but they accept the need to be stretched.Things are being tried out and there are experiments. It might meansomeone hidden away in an office is experimenting with new soft-ware and in the public realm it might mean a new type of restauranteither in terms of food or decor and style. It is likely to mean thatthe products and services of the local area are sold and used there.There is likely to be a focus on being ‘authentic’, though what thismeans will always differ depending on context.

A cautionary proviso: such an environment will also attractoutsiders who may only consume and give nothing back. Theyborrow the landscape, chew it, digest it and spit it out. We shouldbe mindful that tourists can drain the identity of places if theirnumbers overwhelm the locals.

Mass creativity An extension of the creative milieu notion is how you encouragegroups of people to be imaginative en masse. Open-source amend-ments to software is a version of this in a more restricted area.What is a city variety? Perhaps it does not need to be so dramatic;


if thousands of people were ‘creative’ perhaps it could be too much.Incremental creativity might be the answer, whereby the openmindset is legitimated by leadership groupings or the media. Forinstance the change of Copenhagen from a car-dominated city to awalking and cycling city must in its initial stages have involved1000s of cyclists going against the grain of then current thinking.The same is true for recycling schemes. It is the atmosphere thatcreates the context for innumerable smaller things to occur whichin themselves display only a tiny speck of creativity.

Democracy and creativity Creativity relies on openness and its political counterpart is democ-racy – that is when it actually works. Yet creativity is also thecapacity to squeeze through imagination whatever the circum-stances; so creativity will also exist in places such as Beijing orDubai that are undemocratic. Yet it will be circumscribed. A boomtown booms. The sheer hype, buzz and activity gives the allure ofcreativity, but speediness, a building boom and hysteria are no guar-antee that it is actually happening. In both the above citiesentrepreneurs are seizing opportunities and making money, butagain that does not ensure imaginative solutions or products arebeing created. Inevitably there will be responses reflecting on thefeverish development, especially from within the artistic field orenvironmentalists, and with our global gaze we will take these moreseriously. But will they stand the test of time? And, more impor-tantly, in Dubai we have no idea what women could contribute tomaking the city state a better place. In Shanghai we do not knowwhat could happen if there was far more open debate about thecity’s development.

Yet they get things done. Quickly. Impressively. It makesdemocracies feel slow paced, ponderous and lacking in verve. Sothere is not a simple relationship that says democracy = creativity.Yet equally we know that squeezing liberty too tight leaves littleroom for imaginative manoeuvre. Totalitarian places are notcreative milieux.

The hard and the softTo make a milieu happen requires infrastructures beyond the hardware – the buildings, roads and sewerage systems. Soft infra-structure includes the mental, the attitudes of mind, and evenspiritual infrastructure, the aspirational core. It is the informal and


formal intellectual infrastructure. The soft also includes the atmos-phere which is allowed to exist by giving vent to the emotionalrealm of experiences and which is more visceral. We need toremember that essentially no city plans start with words like‘happy’ or ‘beauty’. There are technically driven and conceived. Nowonder there is little interest from the broader public. The softmilieu needs to allow space for the maverick, the boundary breaker,as this person is often is one that looks at a problem or opportunityin a new light. The environment also fosters linkages within itselfand with the outside world, as otherwise it does not sufficientlylearn from the best of what others are doing. Collectively theseattributes create a culture of entrepreneurship.

But creative places are not comfortable places.70 Those pushingat the edges continuously bump into vested interests, whether thosebe in their own organizations or outside in the wider city, as thenew collides with the old. In these moments the purposes of goodcity-making get lost in power struggles at both micro and macrolevels. It can be extraordinary petty things that kill off good ideas:a person in charge who doesn’t like an intelligent upstart and wantsto protect their sphere of power or influence or a regulation thatmakes no sense in the current context, but which someone insistsupon. One only needs to remember cities in transition, fromFlorence way back and Berlin in the Weimar Republic to Shanghaitoday, to appreciate that being creative involves power struggles.Creative places have a creative rub, they often live in a tense butdynamic equilibrium.

Diversity as a driver of creativityJust as biodiversity guarantees the well-being and resilience of thenatural environment, so cultural diversity strengthens the city.Creative places seem to need an influx of outsiders to bring in newideas, products and services to challenge existing arrangements andbring together new combinations where insiders and outsidersmeet. But there is a level at which a city can absorb the new – if itis too much it can overwhelm. What constitutes too much dependson circumstance. The history of successful cities in the past, fromConstantinople and Hangchow to Florence, suggests the capacityto absorb and bring together different cultures was a contributingfactor to that success. This did not mean that cultures weresubsumed – identity was still shaped by where you came from.There was, however, sufficient mutual influence and counter-


influence, coalescing and mixing over time to create a special, fusedidentity as older and newer citizens changed. The same is true todayin the large multicultural cities of London (which bills itself as ‘theworld in one city’), New York, Sydney and Toronto.

The creative challenge, as noted, is to move from the multicul-tural city, where we acknowledge and ideally celebrate our differingcultures, towards the intercultural city. Here we move one stepbeyond and focus on what we can do together as diverse culturesin a shared space. The latter probably leads to greater well-beingand prosperity.

Planners and urban designers play a critical role in building cityculture and creating conditions for creativity. Their decisions canhave a profound impact on the way we lead our lives and expressour collective and individual cultural values. Diversity in publicspace is key, as Jane Jacobs reminds us.71 Jacobs identifies foursignificant conditions: diversity of activities, a fine grain of urbanform, diversity of building stock and the all-important critical massof people. To which we should add a fifth, the length of history ofa building, where the diversity of experiences is etched into thepatina of the fabric. This intricate web of diversity is rather likeenvironmental diversity. As with ecological conditions, if a city ordistrict becomes too homogeneous, it becomes vulnerable. If, forinstance, one form of activity or business is dominant, and it nolonger works in the new environment, the entire area may be atrisk. Therefore, very new mega developments rarely encourageinventiveness.

Cities often get carried away with the physical form of publicplaces, placing great responsibility on the urban designer to trans-form a place through new paving, elegant street furniture andimproved lighting. The reality is that many places are dead ordecaying for reasons other than poor public realm design, such asfailing business or traffic domination. Too often, major city ordockland redevelopments focus on iconic buildings as a drawcardbut fail to build in the finer grain of diversity and urban life.72

Diversity in its many forms is the primary element of a vibrantplace – a diversity of business, a diversity of activities and a diver-sity of built form creating visual stimulation. Think of streetmarkets. The most successful are those with a great diversity ofproducts – every stall has a different range and somewhere there istreasure to be found. They also provide the setting for interculturalinteraction as people from many cultures go about their business.


The task of contemporary planners, architects and urbandesigners is to help build rich textures that draw from the past butare living expressions of contemporary life. Yet it is not always cityplanners and designers who have primary influence over the lookand feel of the built environment. Increasingly it is those that frameregulations and standards who affect the way a city infrastructureis delivered. In addition, a large proportion of public realm infra-structure is created not by the city but by private sector developers.This presents a challenge to city officials, who must establish a clearvision for the city and evolve strong planning criteria to influencethe work of others.

Modernity has brought with it professional classifications andboundaries between professions and responsibility. Ideally a builtenvironment professional should be deeply engaged with his or herlocal culture, given the dramatic impact their professional practicehas. They should be culturally literate. There is a need to gainknowledge prior to the formulation of a brief for master-planningfrom as many different sources as possible: a mosaic of knowledgegathered from people of different ages, cultures and associationswith place.

Creativity is culturally and contextually determinedThe capacity to be creative is culturally determined. If the cultureof a city, region or country is autocratic or corrupt, it is difficult forideas to emerge, potential to be harnessed and the free flow ofpossibilities to be turned into inventions. Rigid hierarchy alsomakes creativity more difficult as creativity relies on tolerance,listening and a strong degree of equality. Clearly, though, creativitycan also happen in controlled situations. For example, the inven-tion of weapons and advances in aerospace in wartime happened insecret, tightly controlled environments and even today new devel-opments in computing in Silicon Valley occur in enclosed campuseswithin which there is a free flow of ideas among colleagues. Thesame is true for scientific discoveries, especially when intellectualcopyright is at stake. Even here, though, there is openness in theconfined setting in order to harness individuals’ imagination.However, many innovations are concerned with services, tradingand presentation and these require the free flow of movement upand down hierarchies and across disciplines and institutions. Aculture which is democratic and where questioning is cherishedfavours the development of imagination.


Creativity means different things in different cultures. Forinstance, within certain cultures good imitation is deemed to be theapex of creativity. The imagination is then steered to producingwith perfection. And again perfection is also a relative term. To theJapanese eye, a lack of symmetry is what creates perfection. For theWest, symmetry is associated with harmony and has a high value.In Western culture there is also an obsession with the new. As globalculture is swept up with a similar obsession, so the Western percep-tion of creativity tends to dominate, especially given that theoverriding capitalist economy itself is driven by the need for contin-uous innovation. The challenge is to create a working definition ofcreativity that addresses both tradition and the future as well as aquality of nurturing the existing and pushes the boundaries into thenew.

In Japan, for instance, one would need to ask, ‘What isJapanese creativity?’ What is the same as in other Asian places,Europe or the Americas? What is specific and unique about it andwhat is different? The same would be true for Norway, Chile orindeed any country. The answer should be beyond trivial concernssuch as differences in cuisine, clothes or heritage. Does Japanese,Chilean and Norwegian creativity work on different principles? Arethese then visible in the urban landscape?

Creativity is context-driven. What was creative in a period longpast is not creative now, although it may still be necessary, such asthe public health advances in the 19th century. What is creative inBritain may not be creative for Malaysia and, in turn, what isdeemed creative in Malaysia may appear ordinary in Britain.

Creative property developmentProperty prices are central to developing a creativity strategy.Young innovators and start-up companies need low prices to getgoing. The constant search for low rents or property values iswhat drives the movement of people around a city. Artists inparticular need larger spaces to work that now equally attractcreative industry sector workers. Inevitably this pushes them toexplore older factories whose future is not yet determined yetwhich afford generous working space. However, over the last 25years it is precisely these places that are attracting non-artists insearch of a hip lifestyle. Whether they like it or not, these creativetypes act as the vanguard of gentrification, making areas ‘safe’for others who are less adventurous to follow. Practically all of


these buildings have been reused in the more central areas of themajor cities. The equivalent industrial buildings today are short-life industrial sheds. As I mentioned earlier, it is difficult toimagine trendsetters in 20 years’ time searching out a shedlifestyle. These processes of gentrification are a double-edgedsword, pushing up prices, which makes upscale developmentpossible, yet also pushing out those who gave a place an interest-ing flavour in the first place. Artists then move to discover newareas. Perhaps the outer urban estates unloved by most will betheir next target?

Individual creativity and urban creativityWe understand what creativity can mean in the context of individ-uals, for example the capacity to think across boundaries, to roamacross disciplines, ideas and concepts, to grasp the essence of anissue, and to connect the seemingly unconnected; or in the contextof teams or organizations, which is the capacity to draw out indi-viduals’ diverse talents, open out the barriers between individuals,reduce obstacles and procedures so as to allow many people tocontribute, and meld potential into a cohesive whole. But to thinkthrough and implement a creative city agenda is of a different orderof magnitude as it involves conjoining the interests and power ofdifferent groups, who may be diametrically opposed and whosegoals may contradict each other. It involves certain qualities: thecapacity to bring interest groups around the table within acommonly agreed agenda, to learn to work in partnership betweendifferent sectors that share mutual respect, and, most importantly,to develop civic creativity.

Creativity and the pastSo if the overall culture of a city is central to establishing creativepotential, what about cultural heritage? The triggers for creativitycan be contradictory. For example, heritage can inspire because ofpast achievements, it can give energy because deep thought hasgone into its creation, it can save time because much has alreadybeen thought through, it can trigger the desire to emulate, and itcan give insight and generate pride because it has withstood the testof time – it is still there. But, equally, heritage and tradition can puta weight on peoples’ shoulders, it can constrain and contain, it canoverwhelm, it can force the mind to go along familiar patterns andfurrows of thinking and so make people less open and less flexible.


Which side of the coin overrides the situation depends on circum-stance.

If the new generation perceives its role as only safeguarding apast to which it had no input, it might mean heritage and traditionis drowning a vibrant emerging identity. Heritage works best whenwe perceive ourselves to be part of its continual creation. This iswhy museums and galleries that encourage the audience to ask newquestions and do more than just let the viewer admire are oftenmore successful. They engage their audiences in an act of co-creation and co-interpretation of the past. Contrast this with thefailure of those who just present things as a given, immutablecanon. When heritage and its interpretation are allowed to ossify,the past and the present disengage from one another.

Culture inevitably involves a past, as a place’s culture is theresidue deemed to be important after the ebb and flow of argument,fashion and negotiation about what is valuable has passed. Culturewhen acknowledged – and this might also mean the ability to rejectit – gives strength in moving forward. It becomes a backbone thatcan create the resilience that makes change and transformationeasier. Confidence is key for creativity. When cultures feel threat-ened or weak or when other cultures are superimposing themselvesupon them, they go into their shell. Culture then becomes a defen-sive shield not open to change, imagination and creativity.

Cultural institutions, anchoring and creativity Museums, galleries and libraries can provide confidence, oftengiving the city its identity. Indeed, when you ask people to identifya city, it is often a cultural facility or icons they refer to.

At their best these tell us who we are, where we have come fromand where we might be going. In so doing they show us the routesthat reconnect us to our roots. They do this through storytelling,with stories that fit us, our community, our city, our country, ourcultures and even our worlds into a bigger human and naturalhistory, showing us connections, bridges and threads that canenrich our understanding. Museums and galleries confront us withsome things that are familiar and comforting while at other timeschallenge us to look afresh, to see the world in a new way or toexperience things that require imagination to grasp.

Some museums also allow us to contribute our personal storiesin an act of co-creation. By triggering imagination, museums enticeus to explore, so providing opportunities for testing out, for chance


encounter, for discovery and for inventing things afresh. At theircore, museums and galleries are involved in an exchange of ideaswhere we as the visitors come to grips with displays. In effect weconverse either with ourselves or more publicly about what ourculture is, or what those of others are, so we think about what wevalue and what our values are. There are thousands of examples,such as Madame de Pompadour – Images of Mistress exhibition atthe National Gallery in London or the Bodyworks exhibition,which uses human body parts presented in a non-museum space.

By placing us, the visitors, at the crossroads of what has gonebefore, with what could be and what others have thought,museums, libraries and galleries become platforms for dialogue,discourse and debate, revealing the multilayered textures that makeup any society. In these processes of creating, questioning andanchoring identity, of imagining and reimagining and of discovery,the object or artefact, ideally real, is the catalyst.

In fact the cultural institutions communicate with every fibre oftheir being – not only their artefacts, but also their setting and theway they project to the outside world. What they feel like and looklike sends out innumerable messages and their values are especiallyetched into their physical fabric as well as into their programming.Thus our older museums often speak more to a former age – an ageof deference where the expert told the inexpert what to know andhow to know it and where you – the humble citizen – were to beelevated by the museum experience. And the physical elevationsthemselves spoke in a more grandiose style, often going back to aclassical age with their Corinthian columns, reflecting a differentkind of confidence and attitude. Yet good contemporary design hasoften helped museums to combine old structure with new ways ofengaging an audience. Today we attempt to live in a more transpar-ent and democratic age. Consequently, more buildings reflect agreater lightness of touch in the materials they use – glass, light-weight steel or tented structures – or in the way audiences areinvited in. Again the best of the old and the new can communicateiconically so that we grasp the totality of what a cultural institu-tion is about in an instant.

When we take an eagle’s eye view, we see there is a specialmuseumness about museums or a librariness about libraries. Theyare:


• places of anchorage, which is why so often in a world thatspeeds ahead of us we see museums as refuges or places ofreflection;

• places of connection, so enabling understanding of our pastsand possible futures;

• places of possibility, letting us scour the resources of the pastand memories to stimulate us to twist them to the contempo-rary condition;

• places of inspiration, to remind us of the visions, ideals andaspirations we have made for ourselves and continue to make;and

• places of learning.

And when these things come together we know more aboutourselves, our surroundings, what things work or don’t work andhow things could be made better.

Arts and sciences, and the creativity of citiesMost of the literature on creativity concerns the arts and sciences.The question is whether there is anything special about the categoriesof arts, such as singing, acting, writing, dancing, performing musicand drawing, in relation to the development of the city. Equally, whatis special about biology, chemistry, physics? Science and technologyare immensely important. For example, our awareness of climatechange, ecological balance, pollution and the ways to overcome theseproblems would not be possible without science.

Importantly a lively city needs both old arts and new arts.Juxtaposing the two creates dialogue, argument and at times evenconflict. The negotiation as to what is significant is the process ofmaking a dynamic culture. A static urban culture just focuses onwhat has been achieved in the past. This has happened to manybeautiful places, like Florence, whose beauty has become a prison.

The arts help cities with their aesthetic focus and then challengeus to ask questions about ourselves as a city and our hopes, fearsand prejudices. And arts create enjoyment.

Artists can be interpreters of reality, leaders and visionaries.Perhaps most of all it is the outside-the-box, lateral thinking anduse of imagination present in the arts that is the most valuable thingthey can offer other disciplines like planning, engineering and socialservices, especially if allied to other emphases, such as a focus onlocal distinctiveness.


On closer examination, most city strategies and plans that callthemselves ‘creative’ are in fact only concerned with strengtheningthe arts and cultural fabric, important as these are. In addition theyfocus on fostering the creative industries, such as advertising, archi-tecture, art, crafts, design, designer fashion, television, radio, filmand video, interactive leisure software, music, the performing arts,publishing, and software creation.

This is fine as far as it goes. However, this is not what the‘creative city’ agenda should be exclusively concerned with – it ismerely an important aspect. Indeed it would be great if artisticthinking fused itself into how traffic engineers, planners and othersthought about their city. Clearly artistic creativity has its ownspecial form, as has already been noted.

Creativity is legitimized in the arts and assumed to be a coreattribute of what being an artist is about, and the artistic commu-nity has been astute in putting itself at the centre of that debate.Think of all the books on creativity. A large proportion over thelast decades have focused on artistic creativity (and this includesmuch of what is covered within the creative industries) and neglectmost other forms, such as social, public sector or bureaucraticcreativity. There is also a wealth of work on business creativity.There is little work on the creativity of solving urban problems orurban development or on the creative approaches to thinking aboutscience and technology.

The creative city idea is all-embracingThis is a pity, as the creative city concept is all-embracing. It is aclarion call to encourage open-mindedness and imagination fromwhatever source. It implies, too, a regard for tolerance, a precondi-tion for cities to foster inventiveness. Its assumption and philosophyis that there is always more potential in a city than we imagine atfirst. It posits that conditions should be created in places for peopleto think, plan and act with imagination. This implies a massiveopening out process and has a dramatic impact on a city’s organi-zational culture. The style and ethos of such a place is one where a‘yes’ rather than a ‘no’ attitude is likely to prevail, so giving peoplethe sense that there is opportunity. It is possible to put the highwayunderground. It is possible to fund an innovation incubator out ofpublic funds. It is possible to develop a passionate participatoryculture.


The creative city idea claims that if conditions are right, ordi-nary people can make the extraordinary happen, given the chance.Here a glance at the inventiveness of social workers, businesspeople, scientists, social entrepreneurs or public servants in solvingproblems highlights the potential – and many of these activities aredeemed to be dull. I focus on this type of inventiveness because it isperhaps more significant than the creativity we usually focus on,such as new music, graphics or fashion trends.

These other creatives harness opportunities and address seem-ingly intractable urban problems like homelessness, traffic jams,pollution and enhancing the visual environment. The principle thatunderlies so much creativity is giving power to those affected bywhat you do.

Creativity, authorship and local distinctivenessUnderlying much of the creative city debate is local distinctiveness,as most creativity is a response to local circumstance. The creativ-ity debate itself emerged against the backdrop of reinvigoratedglobalization and the tendency towards homogeneity. This takesthe emphasis away from a continual concern with the new. It asksinstead what is unique, special or different about a place. Who isthe author of a city’s experience? A corporation headquartered faraway that has decided a theme will work in your city, because youhave the right demographics? ‘Authentic’ remains a difficult term,yet whatever its definitional vagaries it is more about controllingthe creation of your experiences than the reverse. These, then, aresome of the main resources a city can use to project its identity andto position itself in the wider world. These resources might includean idea we have that reworks a tradition, it could be an old indus-trial sector, such as textile or ceramics, that can be reinvented anew.It might include a tradition of learning expressed in a university, ora type of technology which themselves might be the basis of a newcreative industry.

Enemies of the creative cityBeing creative is a fragile affair. It requires seemingly contradictoryconditions such as stimulation and calm. Great cities can provideopportunities for the breadth of human emotion. Vitality andvibrancy help creativity, but only up to a point. Too much can endup as noise and whirr and there is no chance for focus and reflec-tion. Information overload is another problem for being a creative


city; a fragmented clutter of out-of-context facts leads to confusionrather than clarity of thought and the hyper-mediated world doesnot help, with its usual blast of unconnected information whereone rarely comprehends a story in its completeness. Compare thevisual landscape of cities today with 30 years ago. Physical space,airwaves, sport, cultural events and performances: all are on theadvertiser’s easel. Ad-creep is everywhere. It is hard to think of anyarea of urban space which isn’t in some way sponsored, branded orotherwise earmarked for corporate use. These are also some of thesuperficial ways in which society ‘values’ creativity – as style, asfashion, as edgy, as controversial for its own sake: attributeswithout substance. Speed is another problem. Being continuouslyfast works against reflection and things simply become a blur. Thecapacity to reflect is central to imagining and innovation.

Is creativity positive?The word ‘creativity’ is imbued almost exclusively with positiveconnotations. But should this be so? The creative impulse can benegative. It can produce weapons that kill as well as medicines thatcure. The purpose and goal of creativity is as important as theprocess of being creative. Importantly, too, both the trivial and theprofound are equally called creative. An imitative, formulaic designmight be called creative, just because it appears funky, as can a deepnew insight about human personality.

Creative as a word, a concept, as a desirable state or aspirationhas taken over from the word ‘cultured’. ‘Cultured’ appears to havean old-fashioned ring and backward look. This need not be so. Thebest cultured people seek to understand the present and are focusedon the future too. Being creative has a forward ring and it appearsto be about the new and inventive, about being on the pace – itseems to be glamorous. And business too is tripping over itself toattract creativity in the ‘war for talent’. Companies frequently claimhow creative they are.

With so much creativity cities should be exciting, but this is notwhat we see in most streets, downtowns or neighbourhoods. Toooften there is a blandness and sameness masquerading as differenceand excitement: 30,000 McDonald’s with their 50 millioncustomers daily,73 5000 Wal-Marts with a total occupied retailspace of over 50km2, a third of the size of Amsterdam,74 adnauseum.


Creativity definedCreativity is applied imagination using intelligence and all kinds ofmental attributes along the way in order to foster continuous learn-ing. This implies a more open attitude to failure and distinguishingbetween competent and incompetent failure. In the first, whensomeone tries hard to succeed but fails, there is substantial learninggoing on which creates the foundations for possible success in thefuture.

It is ‘thinking at the edge of one’s competence, rather than thecentre of it’. In complex urban problems, solutions are often discov-ered at the boundaries of what we know and when each specialistdiscipline works at its boundaries. The reason is that the shaft-likefocus of a narrow discipline tends to reveal less and less and giveless insight as we become clearer that things are inextricably inter-connected. This is not to put down the specialist, but it asks themto operate in a different way.

The creative city idea is an ongoing process and way of goingabout things, not an end result. It is dynamic, not static, and it isconcerned with the mindset predominant in a city. It suggests that aculture of creativity should be embedded into the texture of howthe city operates, that is into its community members, its organiza-tions and its power structures.

Legitimizing the use of imagination in the way the city operatesgenerates an ideas bank of possibilities. This process of allowingdivergent thinking to occur within the worlds of specialists andthose who find this approach more natural generates multipleoptions, choices and a pool of ideas. It needs aligning to conver-gent thinking, which narrows down possibilities from whichinnovations emerge once they have gone through the realitychecker.

Where are the creative places?Many places considered creative, like New York, London, HongKong and Sydney, are port cities. They remain hubs even in the ageof air transit as they have maintained their status as communica-tion nodal points. Today many cities we consider interesting arecity states like Hong Kong and Singapore. Perhaps being a smallnation allows a place to generate more impact, as it is notconcerned with a vast hinterland. But what about landlocked citiesaround the world that feature as innovative hubs, like Munich,


Berlin, Austin, Madrid and Curitiba? Soon, however, those citieswhich can make the most of their airport hubs will become theexchange centres of the 21st century.

Within cities we often think of city centres as cores of creativ-ity, yet increasingly the reality is different. The city core may simplybe a lifeless institutional zone. Instead it may be an inner city livingarea, a light industrial rim, a science park or a village within a citythat has reputation for inventiveness. Think of New York’sGreenwich Village, once a very creative place, or Schwabing inMunich.

Suburban creativity?Can the suburbs be creative? Suburbs are normally seen as dull,deflating and boring. The environment does not stimulate inven-tiveness, it is said, but instead suits families bringing up children.However, while the suburban physical setting may be focused oncomfort and convenience rather than being inspiring, reactions to itoften spark inventiveness. One example is the number of pop starsthat were born in very ordinary places. John Lennon lived with hisAunt Mimi for almost 20 years at ‘Mendips’, 251 Menlove Avenue,Liverpool, Mick Jagger in Dartford and Bruce Springsteen inFreehold, New Jersey. Punk’s origin as an outgrowth of suburbia iswell documented. Indeed the film Suburbia in which PenelopeSpheeris explored the world of alienated suburban teenagers, isregarded as the ‘punk rock movie’.

Comprehensive creativityVery few places are comprehensively creative, but every city can bemore creative than it is. Those with a global reputation over a longtime period, say 150 or 200 years, and where the sheer weight ofcreatives dominates the urban scene in a sustained way, can becounted on the fingers of one hand. They may include, currently,New York, London, Amsterdam and Tokyo. Over the next decadesthey may be joined by others such as Mumbai, Shanghai andBuenos Aires. At a slightly lower level there are places strong inniches that can be sustained over periods of, say, 50 to 100 years.For example Milan and fashion, Los Angeles and the media indus-try, Stockholm and public infrastructure, and Zurich and banking.All these places are attractors and to sustain their creative powerthey need economic, technological, cultural and even political statusand pull. It is the combination of these factors that drives their


drawing power, acting as a reinforcing agent to bring in talent andto generate talent endogenously. To sustain their positions they needto attract or develop leading research institutes, often built on theback of existing universities or cutting-edge companies. They need,too, today, a public sector setting and organizations that think longterm, are focused on the key drivers of future wealth creation, andcan assess honestly and strategically their city’s relative positioningand potential assets in a broad-minded way.

Today a city’s creativity is usually judged by its arts and culturalsector scene, such as music or film, or that of its alternative scene,rather than its creative capacities in science, engineering or technol-ogy and other spheres where reputations take a longer time toevolve. These rely on infrastructure in education, research and busi-ness and their results appear less glamorous. The cultural sceneappears in its media incarnation as exciting, yet it is fickle and issubject to fads and fashions, even though a substantial museumand educational infrastructure helps in generating future innova-tive capacity. For example, the tens of thousands of textile samplesin the Victorian and Albert museum in London have for decadesprovided inspiration to young designers. The faddish nature of themedia plays a significant role as to which cities we believe to becreative, and cities move in and out of the news at a dizzying speed.At one moment Mumbai is the creative hub, the next it is Taipeithat is suddenly creative, followed by Seoul or Buenos Aires orAccra and now Moscow. In Europe Barcelona was the city for along moment, then Prague and Budapest, then Helsinki andLjubljana. This is the fashion roundabout and obscures a deeperassessment of the true nature of potential in any given city.

Bursts of creativityLooking back through history, cities have creative bursts, possiblyonly for a short period, whose resonance remains in the publicimagination. Take San Francisco. Its long drawn out creativity sincethe 1906 earthquake reached a certain apex in the summer of loveof 1967, whose embodiment was found in Haight Ashbury. Longenjoying a bohemian reputation, the city became a magnet forcounter-cultures in the second half of the 20th century. During the1950s, City Lights was an important publisher of beat generationliterature. San Francisco was the centre of hippie and other alterna-tive culture. The ‘San Francisco sound’ emerged as an influentialforce in rock music, associated with acts such as Jefferson Airplane


and the Grateful Dead. They blurred the boundaries between folk,rock and jazz and enhanced rock’s lyrical content. During the 1980sand 1990s San Francisco became a major focal point in the NorthAmerican – and international – punk, thrash metal and rave scenes.Already known as a gay mecca at the beginning of the 20th century,this was reinforced during World War II, when thousands of gaymale soldiers spent time in the city. The late 1960s brought a newwave of more radical lesbians and gays to the city, attracted by itsreputation as a radical, left-wing centre. These were the primemovers of gay liberation and they made the Castro neighbourhoodthe gay mecca of the world. But in the 1980s the AIDS viruswreaked havoc on the gay male community. In the 1990s SanFrancisco was also a centre of the dot.com boom and growth ofthe internet. These movements shaped the world and pushed at theedge, creating innovations in lifestyles, products and services alongthe way. Yet much of the creativity disappeared as the dot.comcrash hollowed out much of the industry that had grown up inSoMa (South of the Market). Many of those funky, ex-industrialwarehouses are turning from hubs of invention to upscale apart-ments. In effect, the internet pioneers made the area safe for thenext wave of gentrifiers.

Haight Ashbury lives awkwardly with its memories and is nowmerely a souvenir shadow. The hippie shops sit oddly in an increas-ingly middle-class, gentrified area. The remaining old andoccasional new hippies look bereft of purpose. Castro inevitablydeclined, its self-confidence dented. Ghiardelli Square, consideredthe first successful adaptive reuse of an industrial building in 1964,is now a tourist mecca with little creative energy. True, new areasemerged, such as SoMa, but the new media epicentre has shiftedelsewhere, to Los Angeles and beyond. Without economic, politicalor cultural centrality which retains endogenous talent and attractsexternal talent, it is difficult to maintain a global position ofcreative power. In spite of everything, the city has immense drawingpower and creative initiatives and projects still abound, althoughthere is a danger of tourism taking from the city rather than givingany creative force back. So the city increasingly resonates in itsbeauty, its memories and its past.

Ebb and flowThe San Francisco story is repeated a thousandfold elsewhere. Thecreative impulses ebb and flow and depend on fortunate coinci-


dences of circumstance where creative individuals, an open institu-tional setting and various power brokers are in good alignment.Individual acts of creativity naturally occur without propitious situ-ations, but for creativity to build upon itself and becomeself-reinforcing it needs a milieu where people, resources andencouragement can come together. Usually cities are open in partsand closed in others, which change over time, but it is rarer for allaspects of openness to come together so that the city feels full ofpossibility. There is always a lead and lag situation. At one momentthe university may turn its back on its city, while the municipalityis opening out, or else the business sector is neutral and littleconcerned about the strategic future of the city. In another phasethe roles may be reversed. On occasion, too, a set of individualsmay burst through, setting the tone for the city, reaching far beyondtheir area of expertise, as did the zany group Leningrad Cowboysfor Helsinki. The joke from the outset was that they were ‘the worstrock ‘n’ roll band in the world’ who, with their striking unicornhairstyles and long pointed shoes, offered a naff Eastern Europeaninterpretation of Western rock ‘n’ roll. Playing on the irony ofFinland’s past Russian connection, they performed with the RedArmy Choir in the famous Total Balalaika Show in Helsinki’sSenate Square in 1993 in a breakthrough concert in front of 70,000people, sponsored by Nokia, so linking to the city’s technologicalinnovativeness. They later extended their activities to films, restau-rants and megastores. Their initial joke, while increasingly unfunnyas they themselves recognized, was self-effacing yet confident, soprojecting a sense that Helsinki could just be what it wanted to be.

Power and creativityWhen political, economic and cultural power agglomerates in oneplace, it can act as an incapacitator and a means of reducing poten-tial for certain kinds of creativity. This is because power battles candrown out the ability to innovate, as can high property prices,which make it difficult for people to get on to the first ladder ofopportunity. The existing mainstream will be powerful in whateversphere and will tend to encourage a creativity it can nurture andcontrol and that feels tried and tested. The media is also, perhaps,too attentive, endangering the fragile equilibrium of innovation.On the other hand, in such power centres some of the newest ideaswill be found in the largest museums, galleries, shopping centres,entertainment centres, universities and company headquarters,


because the power brokers and the ambitious will feel it is theirright to have them there. These in turn attract the most aspiring,successful and wealthy people, thereby sucking in the talent fromsurrounding areas and draining the identity and potential of thoseplaces. Crucially, capital cities have the greatest capacity to insertthemselves into global arenas, most obviously initially throughpolitical structures like embassies, trade missions and other repre-sentative structures. When allied to the city’s economic and foreignpolicy it is a potent mix.

Once launched, the agglomeration of resources, talent andpower accelerates and reaches a critical mass, which makes it diffi-cult for other cities to break in, especially in smaller countries,where the core city might have 25 per cent of the population. Oncea tipping point is reached whereby a city gets its dominant posi-tion, this tends to escalate. Seoul, for example, has just over 20 percent of South Korea’s population and to a large extent determinesthe global identity of the nation. This makes it doubly difficult forBusan, Daegu, Inchon and Gwangju, let alone Jeonju orPyeongtaek, to insert themselves into international circuits and gainrecognition. Nationally and regionally they may be significant, butif international recognition is important, something unique yetinternationally recognized or a strong niche area is vital.

Away from the spotlightYet being away from the spotlight can have its advantages. Indeed,as Peter Hall points out,75 many historically innovative cities, suchas Los Angeles (at least initially), Memphis and Glasgow, nurturedtheir talents and experiments away from the central hub. The firstcontemporary art galleries in the sense we understand them todaywere in Lodz in Poland and later Hannover in Germany, ratherthan in Warsaw or Berlin. Smaller cities can try out things a centralcity may find unimportant. Furthermore, the core city will find itdifficult to operate in every sphere. The difficulty for the smaller,upstart city is inserting itself into international circuits and meetingthe aspirations for their creatives once initial success has beenachieved.

The point is that every city can be more creative than itcurrently is and the task for the city wanting to be creative is toidentify, nurture, harness, promote, attract and sustain talent andto mobilize ideas, resources and organizations.


Qualities of creative placesCreative places are able to overcome many obstacles as resilience isone of their key qualities. They know where they are going andhave a vision that in broad terms is agreed by key players. Theytake measured risks and push boundaries. They acknowledge thata creative place needs many leaders. There may be a few superlead-ers, but their essential role is to pave the way for others to achievethings and to trade their power for influence.

Creative cities, in my definition, should have an ethical purposethat guides and directs the mass of energies present in most places.These ethical goals might be to both generate wealth and reduceinequalities, to grow economically but to focus on sustainability, orto focus on local distinctiveness. The ethical code is more likely tobe based on secular principles which guarantee freedom of enquiryand tolerance and where the state and religion are separated.Fundamentalism does not help develop the imagination becauseeverything has already been imagined.

This implies bending the market to public good objectives. Placescan develop creative initiatives without such a framework, but Iwould not call places like that ‘creative cities’. For example, SiliconValley has intense creativity in a series of narrow engineering-basedfields and this has transformed how the world works; however, thephysical environment they have created out of Silicon Valley is quiteunappealing and soulless, which is why nearby San Francisco is soimportant as a playground to stimulate the senses.

Soft creativitySoft creativity is perhaps the next wave to think about. It is the taichi of creativity. It bends like the reed and moves with the wind andis not rigid like the rod. It understands the flow of human personal-ity, psychology and nature. It is an imagination that works withculture’s and nature’s resources and not against them. It does not seetechnology as the knee-jerk solution to any intractable problem. It isa mindset that holds back at first, listens, reflects and examines. Ittries to find solutions that go with the grain of a local culture and itsattitudes. For instance, if there are unique local transport schemessuch as the dolmus in Turkey, a cross between a taxi and a bus oper-ating on fixed routes, you would not superimpose another systemon this national institution. Equally, if there is a tradition of care forthe elderly such as that in Mediterranean countries, the city wouldsupport it and make it easier to work within existing habits ratherthan subcontract care to private companies.


Indicators of creativityWe live in an age of measurement, yet being creative is often aboutbending rules, doing things differently or rethinking possibilities. Ithas strong unpredictability. Therefore it is better to assess the char-acteristics and preconditions that allow places in principle to becreative. These are necessary, if not sufficient indicators. It may bea chimera to look for the sufficient conditions. The central featuresof creative places are their openness and their vitality, which leadsto their viability. Vitality is measured by assessing a range of factorsacross the economic, social, cultural and environmental spheres.These include critical mass, diversity, accessibility, security, identityand distinctiveness, innovativeness, linkage and synergy, competi-tiveness, and organizational capacity.76 The openness indicatorswere reviewed in Chapter 5, including assessments of the institu-tional framework, the business environment, civil society andpublic space.77

The creative commons and open sourceWe need to be watchful of merging indicators of innovativeness andcreativity. Creativity is an input to innovation and makes innovationsmore likely to happen. Creativity is a divergent, exploratory, openingout process and innovation results from a process of closing downand narrowing in, considering, making things work in reality.Importantly, though, innovations need the tenacity and spark of theinitial creative work. A place cannot be innovative without first beingcreative. Traditional indicators of innovative strength may in facthinder creativity.78 These include the percentage of patent registra-tions developed in a city – insisting on copyrights and intellectualproperty or registering too many minor patents, for example in a tech-nological field, can reduce options and possibilities for others. This iswhy the ‘creative commons’ and open-source movements79 arguethere should be flexible copyright licences for creative works or accessto source codes in software to allow for multiple developments. Thiswould enable communities of people or interests to flexibly developideas or products that in a proprietary world are guarded. Creativecommons licences allow copyright holders to grant some of theirrights to the public while retaining others. The intent is to avoid theproblems current copyright laws create for sharing information.

The idea behind ‘open source’ is that when programmers canread, redistribute and modify the source code for a piece of soft-ware, the software evolves, because people improve it, adapt it and


fix bugs. This develops software much faster than the conventionalclosed models and methods, in which only a few programmers cansee the source.

Countries that show more evidence of innovation are richerand grow faster. Companies that show more evidence of innova-tion post better financial performance results and have higher shareprices. But:

In a knowledge-based economy, the primary competi-tion is competition to innovate first, not competitionto cut prices as standard economics posits. Becausesole ownership of an innovation bestows monopolypower, the economic laws of perfect competition donot govern innovators. Their monopolies reward theirinvestment in innovation. But unlike monopolies instandard economic theory, innovation-based monopo-lies are temporary, for they last only until anotherinnovator makes yesterday’s innovation obsolete.Intellectual property rights prolong innovators’monopolies.80

In the past economists have assumed that intellectual propertyrights encourage more innovation by increasing economic rewards;now there is the view that they slow things down. So high patentcounts do not necessarily mean a high level of innovation.

Where next?The creative city has now become a catch-all phrase in danger oflosing its bite and obliterating the reasons why the idea emerged inthe first place. Cities tend to restrict its meaning. Overuse, hypeand the tendency for cities to adopt the term without thinkingthrough its real consequences could mean that the notion becomeshollowed out, chewed up and thrown out until the next big slogancomes along. The creative city notion is about a journey of becom-ing, not a fixed state of affairs. When taken seriously it is achallenge to existing organizational structures, power configura-tions and habitual ways of doing things. The creativity of thecreative city is about lateral and horizontal thinking, the capacityto see parts and the whole simultaneously.

Below I describe a possible agenda for getting the creative showon the road. I supply this section with some trepidation, since much


of this book has talked about breaking away from bureaucraticprocedure and challenging outdated modes of thinking.Nevertheless, regard the following as a proposal upon which youcan ponder and, wholly or partially, accept or reject.

Possible first stepsTo get a creative platform going requires a group of influential part-ners in the city to recognize its importance. A preliminary auditwith those partners would discover that a number of creative initia-tives, institutions and individuals already operate in the region.

Clarify what creativity means for the city by:• coming to a consensus on what creativity is;• summarizing its importance to the main city players; and• identifying some role models from other places to act as inspi-

ration.

Undertake a creativity and obstacles audit to:• describe the nature and extent of creative activity within public,

private and not-for-profit entities in the city region; this mightbe established companies, research organizations, specificcourses within an educational establishment or an initiativeundertaken by an individual;

• identify potential sources of future creative action;• assess honestly the obstacles to developing creativity in the

region; and • spell out the shift from natural advantage (arising from access

to more plentiful and cheap natural resources and labour) to aworld where prosperity depends on creative advantage, arisingfrom being able to use and mobilize creativity and extract valuefrom knowledge.

The recent focus on creativity has been on the arts and the techno-cratic, leading to a focus on IT-driven innovations and businessclusters. The crucial recognition of today’s movement is that evolv-ing a creative economy also requires a social and organizationalcreativity that enables imagination to occur and which shouldimbue the whole system. As such, creativity then becomes a generalproblem-solving and opportunity-creating capacity. Its essence is amultifaceted resourcefulness. Creativity is both generic – a way of


thinking, a mindset – and specific and task-oriented in relation toapplications in particular fields. A creativity audit would assesscreativity across a number of dimensions:

• spatially from the local outwards; • sector style, from private and public to community-oriented;• industrial sectors, from advanced manufacturing to services;• demographically, assessing the creativity of different age groups

from the young to the elderly; and• diversity and ethnicity.

An audit would need to look at creativity across the spectrum, fromthe individual, the firm, industry sectors and clusters to networksin the city, the city itself as an amalgam of different organizationalcultures and the region. It needs to assess the relevance of creativityin the private, community and public sectors and in relation toareas like education, specific industry sectors, science and organiza-tions in helping the prosperity and well-being of a region.

The results of the audit will then help:

• Identify organizations and individuals to become creativityambassadors and to work with these and other identified enti-ties on projects.

• Develop synergies between interesting projects from completelydifferent areas. For instance, a homeless people’s project and adigital media initiative might find much in common by sharingtheir learning about creativity.

• Create spaces, places and venues that in terms of image projec-tion signal the region’s ambition and stimulate creativity.

• Build an environment where being creative is seen as desirableand something to aspire to.

• Provide opportunities to experiment and explore new ideas aswell as to access appropriate resources, whether encourage-ment, mentoring, training or finance.

• Assess how changes in teaching approaches can occur andprovide dedicated training courses, development programmesand mentoring on creative thinking targeted at people acrossthe age range. These should cover the spectrum, to includecreativity not only in business, but also in administration andsocial economy activities.


• Develop support programmes for creativity in people and orga-nizations involving toolkits to support learning anddevelopment, bearing in mind the need to avoid formulaictraining and to allow for flexibility and openness.

• Assess how ladders of opportunity to incubate ideas in specificsectors can be created so that ideas can become developmentopportunities.

• Identify niches where the city can make a significant impact.The audit will provide indications of strategic opportunities.These should be followed up by assessing how a creative twistcan add additional value to both new and traditional sectors ofthe economy.

• Identify start-up resources to fund activities within the creativ-ity platform as well as help lobby existing investors and fundersto apply creativity criteria to their investments.

• Establish criteria for investing. These should be for projects thatdemonstrate impact and the capacity to push boundaries oftechnology, technique, procedure, process, implementationmechanism, problem redefinition, target audience, behaviouralimpact and professional context as well as create a new end-product.

Once the audit has been digested and a programme set up, an eval-uation framework should be built which:

• Establishes an agreed base-line starting point so as to be able toassess the dynamics of creativity of the city and to track itsmovement.

• Develops a solid evaluation architecture and supportingmethodology to assess success and failure by quantitative andqualitative methods. This is likely to develop new measures,such as talent tracking and talent churn and monitoring creativeproducts and services, creative people in the region, creativeprocesses that are being adopted, and how creative environ-ments within organizations or the region are being developed.

• Publishes an annual creativity report on the city that is notbased on boosterism – that is, hype without substance – andlinks this to a series of public events to discuss its conclusions.

Orchestrating momentum, developing critical mass and communi-cating the city’s creative aims:


• The creativity platform is itself an orchestration device. To thisshould be added a communications platform to speak both tothe city itself and to the wider world as a centre of imagination.

• Identify devices such as exhibitions, showcasing and travellingroadshows to foster discussion about creativity and celebrateachievements.

• Develop a key series of different events involving the creativitytheme – some high profile and concerned with strategies ofinfluence, others appealing to smaller audiences or a moregeneral public. This is important for mutual learning and criti-cal comment.

• Build up and mobilize networks of creative people to becomeambassadors for the creativity platform and the city.

A paced and purposeful, timetabled project plan will involve anoverall visioning project that should have a mix of easy, short-term,low-cost projects and more difficult and expensive long-term ones.This makes it easier to create achievable staging posts along theway and to establish early winners that build confidence andmomentum as well as generating the energy to do more difficulttasks. A creativity audit will reveal a number of projects thatalready exist but which are not yet well communicated. This meansit is already possible at the outset to project a city as creativelyactive by promoting the interesting examples to show the initiativehas already started. The ultimate aim is to retell the story of thecity so that residents and outsiders feel they can relate to it andwant to be part of it.

The overall aim of the first year is to develop collective under-standing of the creativity agenda by promoting the results of thecreativity audit and working with key individuals and organizationswho emerged as models and partners within it; initiating promo-tional activity related to the importance of creativity and theprobable need to change educational programmes; identifyingcoaches, mentors and courses to begin training initiatives; and,towards the end of the first year, to create a high-profile launch eventthat imaginatively shows creative achievements. In the end thecreativity agenda needs to be created bottom–up and top–downtogether. The steps in involving people in the agenda need to movefrom a core group to a wider stakeholders’ group totalling over 100people who will largely be identified through the creativity audit.


From there the dynamic should then cascade out, involve and inspireperhaps a 1000, and from then on even much further out.

To start such a project requires dedicated creativity platformcoordination responsible for driving the agenda forward, coordi-nating the research and instigating programmes, organizingcommunications and networking.

Fine judgement and the formulaBut being a creative city does not involve picking a formula off theshelf. It is not a science that can be learnt from a textbook. It is anart. Art in its broadest sense connotes a sense of doing somethingwell, having ability and pursuing a skill by study and practice.There are some core principles that apply across cultures and tomost situations for creative city-making: a willingness to listen andlearn; the capacity to be open-minded; encouraging enquiry; reduc-ing ego; concern more with influence than power; grasping theessence of different disciplines; thinking across disciplines; imagin-ing the implications of the present for the long term; andunderstanding the dynamics of change at both trivial and deeperlevels.

The art of creative city-making involves fine judgement basedon experience and the ability to know when to push for innovationand when to hold back. City-makers are artists of the highest orderbecause they have a grasp of all the arts concerned with complexcity-making.

Urgency and creativityHow do you create a sense of urgency, of needing to be alert tochanging circumstances, in places that are doing well and where apotential problem seems a distance away or is not yet felt? Forinstance, Perth and Calgary are both blossoming because of an oilboom, but they also have a looming crisis of attracting talentedpeople to stay in their cities. In part this is because people feel thequality of their urban environment could be better. In many placesthere is warm sun, good wine and relaxed living, which can dentambition, so taking away focus from considering ‘what reallymatters’ and what the underlying drivers of change or lurkingdangers might be.

Generating a ‘crisis of aspiration’ is one strategy. Typically thisis created by appealing to people’s higher ideals, which comes from


looking at bigger picture issues like the future of the world or whatlegacy you are going to leave for the next generation. This mightoccur within a strategic body like a city committee or apublic–private partnership.

Generating a crisis of aspirationI often start work within a city by asking stakeholder groups,from public leaders and local shopkeepers to residents, todescribe places they love elsewhere. I then ask them about placesthey love in their towns. Wherever the research, similar placesre-emerge as favourites and these are often the places that comeup high on quality-of-life rankings like Mercer’s: Vancouver,Seattle, Portland, Montreal, San Francisco, Boston, San Antonioor smaller places like Charleston and Salem. In Europe it is Paris,London, then Barcelona and the great Italian cities like Siena,Verona and Florence. Then there are Hong Kong, Melbourne orSydney that get a mention. Further probing will bring out Nice,Munich, Berlin, Amsterdam and smaller Dutch places like Delft,and further East, Krakow, Ljubljana and Prague. The placesmentioned elsewhere and in their cities are typically places withvaried housing and distinctive shopping, and few brands, wherethe street life is lively and chance encounter possible. This is notscientific, but a decade of asking similar questions to differingpeople has a value.

Following on I apply a simple ‘yes or no analysis’. We gatherimages of places and ask whether the building or setting evokes a‘yes’ or a ‘no’ feeling. This quite quickly clarifies what people areafter. Within the instinctive ‘yes’ and ‘no’, deep knowledge isembedded which is often implicit. Some can describe the emotionaltriggers precisely. This leads to the central question; ‘What are theactions required to get into yes?’ The great urbanists and thegeneral public agree on the main urban qualities, which are seem-ingly contradictory as they pull in differing directions. Yet the greatcity is a container where extremes can coexist, where the calmmoment can be as enjoyable as the wild. The lovable, liveable,lively, joyful, dynamic, vital, edgy, easy, accessible, walkable, tran-quil, peaceful city. Places where you can explore, discover, createand be entrepreneurial. Places that are memorable, distinctive,unique, iconic, well designed. Safe, secure, fearless, resilient.

The next step is to contrast their reality with their ideal, andusually stakeholders lead the way in showing what is undesirable.


Another trick is to ask stakeholders to always preface a new devel-opment with the question: ‘Is it good enough for…?’ Or, within thenew aspiration, for them to dare to say: ‘It’s not good enough for…’Or even: ‘Could you fall in love with the development or your city?’ Then I generate a discussion on how the places people love havebeen achieved. This involves discussions of planning and whocontrols its agenda, such as the development, road-building andengineering fraternities. This leads to questions of principles, suchas whether a place should be determined by the needs of cars orenvironmental issues and what urban design guidelines, such asgiving primacy to the street, are appropriate. This grounds a debateabout contradictions and paradoxes, such as how asking for moreroads and convenience is precisely destroying the things people saythey love. By spelling out those implications it opens out conversa-tion about how the texture of communities is built up. This usuallyleaves stark choices. For instance, the car-focused choice, whichleads to a certain type of community where everything is based onneeding to go to a destination, versus the public transport option,which at its best creates accessible city centres. This is based onfaster, more efficient, low-fares-based systems with extended hours.The analysis of how alternatives are achieved begins to generate acrisis between what is and what could be.

Ten ideas to start the creative city process If a city wanted to focus on being a creative city what would it do?

1 Precipitate a culture of crisis. A crisis in this context does notneed to be negative. A crisis helps because it opens the oppor-tunity to rethink and reassess. It can be precipitated by adeclining industry, but it can also be pushed ahead by creatingvery high expectations for a city, so generating a crisis of aspi-ration. Then the gap between existing realities and what youwant to achieve creates a self-generated crisis that can be a spurto action.

2 Identify a largish group of project champions from differentsectors who are interested in the broader creativity agenda. Ifthis is not possible, pursue some of the work listed below witha narrower grouping, but constantly with a view to buildingwider alliances.


3 Undertake an audit of creative potential and obstacles. Thiswould assess creative projects across the whole spectrum inyour city as well as the incentives and regulatory regime. Arethere any incentives or policy initiatives that foster creativity?Who or what is creating the obstacles?

4 Identify some key projects in your own city that stand as exam-ples of good practice. Visit these with mixed teams andinvestigate how they work. Similarly, identify key projects else-where in other cities and, ideally, visit them. This is recognizedas creating one of the most transformative effects.

5 Develop the evidence that proves your arguments about thevalue and impact of the nexus of culture, broadly definedcreativity, the arts and imaginative uses of technology.Highlight examples from different parts of the world and espe-cially those you perceive to be your competitors.

6 Seek to influence the city’s ‘master’ strategy. This is usuallyspatially or economically driven. Try to insert a cultural and creativity agenda within it. If this fails, develop a well-publicized alternative strategy. Show an appreciation of all theissues a traditional plan would have but go well beyond it.Show by example the power of working across boundaries ininterdisciplinary teams.

7 Create a series of pilot projects that can be seen as experiments,perhaps under the cover of a major event, such as an Expo, afestival or large physical regeneration project.

8 Assess how the story of your city is told internally and exter-nally. Is the story still true and relevant to what you want toachieve? Generate a new story, if necessary.

9 Create an advocacy lobby group that embodies, in the way itacts, holds meetings or arranges seminars, the creativity youare aspiring to.

10 Do not call yourself a creative city – let others do that byrespecting what you have achieved. Ironically, cities which lookfor tick-box solutions to creativity branding are in fact doingthe inverse of what is required.

This tenth point is in some ways the most important. Branding yourown city as creative when everybody else is doing so is like declar-ing yourself a member of Homo sapiens – somewhat unoriginal.But if others recognize your creativity, people take note. This is not


to discourage city-branding per se. Indeed, original, pertinentbranding may well be creative in its own right. But a positive repu-tation built by others is the litmus test of your own endeavours.

Thus the focus should at first be introspective, attending tochanging, if necessary, the intellectual infrastructure in which ideasare generated, facilitating a learning culture in both attitudinal andinstitutional terms, being ultra-aware of the conditions in whichcreativity flourishes or flounders, and aiming high.

Think entrepreneurially in social arenas and socially in entre-preneurial ones. Valorize opportunities over risks. Swap roles withothers. And, in perhaps the greatest test of your leadership, spotand share power with others with talent and leadership qualities.

In terms of urban experience, no citizen is more or less impor-tant than any other, so harnessing the potential of the many has farmore clout than ‘inspired’ top–down direction. In such a way, wide-spread, passionate participation in a vision which is shared by theparticipants gains its own, self-fuelling momentum because, bluntly,people tend not to piss in their own backyard.

I have already prescribed a more tangible creative plan in termsof audit, consensus, creative platform, and so on. But such prescrip-tion may amount to an already restrictive framework within whichto operate. This is your call. Just as Barcelona spurned the idea of amaster plan, so should a city organically follow a path to becominga better, happier place.


Endpiece

The Art of City-Making is a clarion call to usher in a new spirit ofthe times, a new Zeitgeist, one which sees the wood and the treessimultaneously and which sees things in the round. It understandsthe dialectical dynamics of our creative and imaginative ecology asindividuals, organizations and cities. It grasps its implications onthe culture of a place. It understands what drives motivation, aspi-ration and will. It seeks to re-enchant the city and give it an alteredresonance, where the word ‘urban’ is not always seen as negative(‘urban crime’ somehow feels worse than ‘crime’).

It is a world with a new ethical foundation where valuing thingsdifferently and thinking differently means doing things differentlyand doing different things; it sets priorities in a changed way,because it sees the fuller picture. It grasps the interconnections. Itcosts the environment comprehensively, for example, and does notlet the economy take a free ride. So it costs resources fully andfocuses on resource productivity.1

It changes the image of what being creative is and seeks to re-address its focus. It moves away from seeing the self-focusedentertainment industry as its driver to looking to the vast raft ofinventions waiting to happen to nurture our cities, our countrysideand more. Or to the combination of creativity and courage neededto curtail crime and twist those distorted energies, talents and aspi-rations to more worthy aims as well as to cultivate a civic culture.

It rethinks its assets in broader terms, considering the full regis-ter of perception, emotion, insight and understanding and its effecton individual or group psychology. It can therefore see the powerof intangibles like yearning, history, identity, desire, happiness, fear,confidence and much more. It is not blinded by thinking that onlywhat you see is important, so it is not obsessed by the hardware. Itvalues too the soft, the slow and the reflective. It flips the balance

of importance between the hardware and software of cities andgives those who understand how people tick greater status. Itinvites the hardware folk, from traffic engineers to architects andproperty developers, to rethink and enrich their skills in this light.

As it revalues importance, it shifts the regulations and incen-tives regime to bend the market to new priorities. Then the powerof markets can do what they do best: seek opportunities and fillgaps, but in the name of urban healing, knitting the fabric of citiestogether again. They are guided and nudged in directions that fitthe values. There is no invisible hand that knows best. What abizarre thought that such could ever have been the case? Marketshave no values, but they have incredible energy. The other invisiblehand of values is the motor of development.

In this world there are new heroines and heroes. They may beboxers, planners, musicians, house-builders, talent scouts, intellec-tuals or local historians. What celebrity means, or being cool, hipor whatever the latest phrase, is changed. Less media people talkingin a dervish spin about themselves. These new role models are notboring and dull just because they see the excitement of using anethical foundation to act.

‘WHY I THINK WHAT I THINK’

The opinions you have read and the judgements made have comefrom working with cities since 1978 and thinking about theirdynamics, their successes and failures, and how they can reach theiraims. It has involved trying to answer questions cities have posed,often about their future: ‘How can we be more creative?’ ‘Whatdoes the future hold for a city like ours?’ ‘How can our culturalsector be strengthened?’ ‘How do we get on the radar screen?’‘How can we rethink our assets?’ ‘How can we compete?’ Mostimportantly, people in an advisory role want urgent answers tospecific problems: ‘How can Calgary’s Olympic Plaza become morevibrant and be inclusively used?’ ‘Can Adelaide move up the urbanhierarchy and if so how?’ ‘How can we make the most of the diver-sity advantage?’

This means connecting with decision-makers at various levels,from those at the centre of power to those more at the peripherytrying to change priorities. Often the latter work in the culturalworld and want their cities to develop with a cultural perspective


in mind. Others may be scientists who know that our guzzlingpriorities must change. Often, my views have come from reflectingon failures as exploring the boundaries between precedent andwhat is possible can be risky.

Many of the cities I have worked with are big: London,Toronto, Osaka, Adelaide, the Govindpuri slum settlement inDelhi, Lille, Leicester, Glasgow and Iasi in Romania. Others aresmaller, like Shkodra in Albania or Andover. There has been workwith networks of cities, such as the EU Urbact project on culturalactivities, the creative industries and regeneration,2 involving placeslike Naples, Gijon, Amsterdam, Maribor, Birmingham andBudapest. There have been many talks, perhaps 250 keynoteaddresses in many places, on a diversity of topics such as ‘risk andcreativity’, ‘ the creative city and beyond’, ‘complexity and city-making’ or ‘the diversity advantage and creativity’. There have beenresidencies in cities like Adelaide, Canberra, Salem or Worcester inMassachusetts, acting as a critical friend of the city. There has beencommissioned research. Of particular relevance to The Art of City-Making has been work with the Commission on Architecture andthe Built Environment (CABE) to interview 30 key built environ-ment professionals on their attitudes towards risk. This appearedin What are We Scared of?3 Second, with Future London, part ofthe London Development Agency, I interviewed 40 partners ofmajor firms on how professional mindsets can be aligned, how theyperceive other urban professions and how they think they areperceived themselves. This 360-degree analysis led to a series ofstereotypes and a publication called Aligning ProfessionalMindsets.4 Finally, for the Urban Futures group, interviewed 25leading thinkers on what they believed the key issues affectingurban life would be. This is published as Riding the Rapids: UrbanLife in an Age of Complexity.5 Evaluating 12 initiatives inSoutheastern Europe for the Swiss government in using culture fordevelopment in places as diverse as Odessa, Sarajevo and Skopjewas especially useful. This is published as Culture at the Heart ofTransformation.6

Over the years I have interviewed perhaps 2000 people invarious guises. All this leaves a particular form of knowledge, basedon watching close-up as people try to make change, be part ofteams involved in that process, and use the experience as the basisfor the reflections you have hopefully just read.

Endpiece 427

Notes

CHAPTER ONE: OVERTURE

1 Thanks to Uffe Elbaek from Kaos Pilots, who made the point about ‘for’ and‘in’ in relation to his organization’s goals in education.

2 At the end of the book, under ‘Why I think what I think’, involvements withcities and background research undertaken are described; or see www.charleslandry.com or www.comedia.org.uk.

3 For a review of these arguments see Amin (2007).4 See www.mercerhr.com/pressrelease/details.jhtml?idContent=1173105.5 These conclusions are drawn from a series of research projects speaking to

urban leaders, key professionals, etc. Lengthier exposés of the conclusions arepublished in Landry (2004b).

6 John Maynard Keynes famously originated this preference.7 Capra (1982). 8 Gesunder Menschenverstand.9 German Wikipedia.10 Adams (2005).11 See also Ray and Anderson (2000).12 Landry (2000).13 See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population.14 Global Urban Observatory and Statistics Unit.15 Adams (2005).16 See www.eci.ox.ac.uk/pdfdownload/energy/40house/chapter03.pdf.17 EIU Autopolis.18 From www.env.leeds.ac.uk/~hubacek/leeds04/6.5final-gdb-march%20

conference.pdf.19 Statistics from various sources.20 From www.freightonrail.org.uk/PDF/GoodsBooklet.pdf.21 From www.transport2000.org.uk/factsandfigures/Facts.asp.22 O’Meara (1999).23 Kenworthy and Laube (2001).24 Invented in 1849 by Joseph Monier and patented in 1867.25 Kotkin, J. ‘Building up the burbs’, Newsweek, 3–10 July 2006.26 Wascher (2006).

27 Kotkin, J. ‘Building up the burbs’, Newsweek, 3–10 July 2006.28 Kotkin, J. ‘Building up the burbs’, Newsweek, 3–10 July 2006.29 See American Journal of Public Health (2003).30 See www.newurbanism.org.31 David Bleicher, www.urbanity.50megs.com/Author.htm.

CHAPTER TWO: THE SENSORY LANDSCAPE OF CITIES

1 The technical term is nociception.2 Equilibrioception.3 Our ‘metaphysical senses’ include clairsentience, the ability to ‘feel’ energy

and non-physical matter; clairaudience, which is ‘psychic hearing’ and occurswhen one is able to ‘hear’ vibrations that are outside the range of the humanear; and telepathy, which is communication between minds by some meansother than sensory perception.

4 See www.powerwatch.org.uk/.5 Gardner (1983).6 Lyons and Helsinki, for example, have renowned light strategies.7 A number of Italian cities have colour strategies, including Naples, Bologna

and Genoa (Lancaster, 1996). 8 See www.gbarto.com/languages/animasounds.html.9 See www.eveilauxlangues.be/expressions.php.10 Appadurai (1996).11 Useful sources are the The Atlas of Cyberspace and Mappa Mundi magazine,

with maps visualizing and charting communication flows or ‘telegeography’,the topology of the internet and the geography of cyberspace, by the presenceof domain names. See www.cybergeography.org/atlas/atlas.html andwww.personal.umich.edu/~mejn/networks/ or http://mappa.mundi.net/.

12 See www.defra.gov.uk/environment/noise/research/crtn/index.htm.13 Thanks to Martin Evans, a leading film sound engineer, for the conversation

that helped write this section.14 See, for example, www.deanclough.com.15 Vroon (1997).16 Vitruvius (c. 27–23BC).17 This unpleasant reaction is described in a US government booklet on the

body’s response to excessive or unexpected noise, cited atwww.tenant.net/Rights/Noise/noise1.html.

18 Cited at www.tenant.net/Rights/Noise/noise1.html.19 From www.sfu.ca/~westerka/writings/bauhaus.html.20 Schafer (1984).21 Schafer (1976).22 From www.sfu.ca/~westerka/writings/bauhaus.html.23 From www.sfu.ca/~westerka/writings/bauhaus.html.24 Schaeffer(1966); Chion(1983).25 Rivenburg , R. ‘Familiar sounds go by the way of dinosaurs’, Japan Times, 4

January 2005.


26 From www.sfu.ca/~westerka/writings/bauhaus.html.27 From www.sfu.ca/~westerka/writings/bauhaus.html.28 See www.sfu.ca/~westerka/writings/bauhaus.html.29 See www.citymayors.com/environment/nyc_noise.html.30 See www.citymayors.com/environment/nyc_noise.html.31 See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olfactory.32 Vroon(1997).33 Vroon(1997).34 Ritter (2002).35 From www.aroma54.com.36 See www.fpinva.org/Education/beyond_the_scent.htm.37 See Sharon Lynn’s ‘Do members of different cultures have characteristic body

odors?’ at www.zebra.biol.sc.edu/smell/ann/myth6.html.38 James Howard Kunstler is author of The Geography of Nowhere (1993),

among many other books.

CHAPTER THREE: UNHINGED AND UNBALANCED

1 United Nations Environment Programme (2005).2 Girardet (2004, p115).3 Dairy Council (2003).4 Dairy Council (2003).5 ‘An American needs on average 500 litres a day, a Western European 150

litres and an African only 50 litres’ – www.lenntech.com/domestic-water-consumption.htm.

6 See www.thewaterpage.com/ecosan_main.htm.7 From www.igd.com.8 See ‘Biodiversity to go: The hidden costs of beef consumption’ by Dave

Tilford, at www.newdream.org.9 See http://risingtide.org.uk/pages/resources/lifestyl.htm.10 Jones (2001). 11 Best Foot Forward (2002).12 See www.sustainweb.org/pdf/eatoil_sumary.pdf.13 Jones (2001).14 Transport 2000’s ‘Wise Moves’ project, 2003.15 Milmo, C. ‘What a waste!’, The Independent, 15 April 2005.16 See www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/yorkslincs/series7/supermarket_

landfills.shtml. 17 INCPEN (2001).18 From www.york.ac.uk.19 Data from Brita Water.20 Data from Recycle for London. 21 Defra news release, 14 September 2005. 22 Visit www.Londonremade.com for further details.23 Best Foot Forward (2002).24 Dolphin (2001).

Notes 431

25 Williams, D. ‘Breathing London’s air “is as bad as smoking”’, EveningStandard, 10 November 2003.

26 Data from www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/chinaenv.html. 27 Benedictus, L. ‘Gum crime’ The Guardian, 23 February 2005.28 Department for Transport (2004). 29 Traffic speeds in Inner London, 1998. Note that this was before the introduc-

tion of the congestion charge.30 Data from www.london.gov.uk/view_press_release.jsp?releaseid=402.31 Confederation of Passenger Transport (2003).32 Data from www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_transstats/documents/page/

dft_transstats_508290.pdf.33 Data from www.udrzatelnemesta.sk/uploads/streets_people.pdf.34 Data from www.urtp.ro/engl/proiecte/tapestry.html.35 Figure from the Confederation of British Industry.36 Data from www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/~ira/ illich/facts/social_effects.html.37 Greater London Authority data.38 Data from www.alternet.org/story/27948/.39 Association of European Auto Manufacturers (2004).40 Data from www.transport2000.org.uk/factsandfigures/Facts.asp.41 Data from www.transport2000.org.uk/news/maintainNewsArticles.asp?

NewsArticleID=168.42 Data from www.ecosmartconcrete.com/enviro_statistics.cfm.43 According to Cement Association of Canada figures.44 Data from www.populationconnection.org/Factoids/.45 Data from www.map21ltd.com/COSTC11/sb-mun.htm.46 Data from www.citylimitslondon.com/downloads/Complete%20report.pdf.47 Data from www.swedetrack.com/eflwa22.htm.48 Data from www.newcolonist.com/paveplanet.html.49 Data from www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/wonder/structure/sears_

tower.html.50 Data from www.creativille.org/groundfloor/geometry/skyscraper/

intermstudent.htm.51 Data from www.brick.org.uk/publications/PDFs/reclaimed_clay_

bricks.pdf52 125 times is Herbert Girardet’s estimate (see http://makingthe

modernworld.org/learning_modules/geography/04.TU.01/?section=4); 293 times is City Limit report’s estimate (see Note 46).

53 See www.worldchanging.com/archives/002924.html54 Data from www.careersinlogistics.co.uk/industry/1090318577.html.55 US Department of Commerce figures.56 According to Donald Bowersox and Roger Calantone at Michigan State

University.57 From www.transport2000.org.uk.58 People’s Daily Online (http://english.people.com.cn/), accessed 18 May 2004.59 Data from www.proinversion.gob.pe/oportunidades/SIT/docs/Puertos/PNDP

%20Final.pdf.60 See www.kansas.sierraclub.org/Planet/Planet-03-1011.pdf61 Tierney and Goltz (1997).


62 According to E. L. Quarantelli, a co-founder of the Disaster Research Centerat the University of Delaware and one of the pioneers of disaster research.

63 National Police Agency (1989).64 O’Farrell, J. New Statesman, 28 November 2005.65 NI Statistics and Research Agency (2005).66 See www.guardian.co.uk/brazil/story/0,,1692752,00.html.67 American ‘customer’ cited on www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.

jhtml?xml=/travel/2003/09/13/etsextr.xml&sSheet=/travel/2003/09/16/ixtrvhome.html.

68 Economist Intelligence Unit hardship rating, annual survey.69 Windybank, S. and Manning, M. The Australian, 12 March 2003 .70 Lonely Planet (2005a) guide to China.71 Goff, P. Sunday Telegraph, 20 February 2005.72 Economy (2004).73 Cited on http://english.people.com.cn/200509/09/eng20050909_207472.

html.74 Vollertsen (2001). Norbert Vollertsen was a German doctor who lived in

Pyongyang in 1999–2000 before being expelled for complaining about humanrights abuses.

75 See www.ariontheweb.blogspot.com.76 Badamkhand, L. The Independent, 16 December 2003.77 See www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press900.html.78 Walsh, N.P. ‘Hell on Earth’, The Guardian, 18 April 2003.79 Information from www.aljazeerah.info.80 Hirsch (2004).81 From the Katha website (www.katha.org/CommunityMatters/she2.htm):

[SHE]2 stands for:• Safe water and Sanitation/hygiene • Housing and Health, especially reproductive health • Education and Economic resurgenceDouble woman power!

82 Bryan, L. Fortune, 28 November 2005. Lowell Bryan is a senior partner atMcKinsey & Co.

83 Schwartz (2004).84 See www.ontherun.cc/aboutus.asp and http://gourmetonthego.net/.85 Gibson, O. The Guardian, 19 November 2005. For more about Eye

Contact, see www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1646240,00.html#article_continue.

86 Kelly, D. ‘Curse of the rushaholics’, Evening Standard, 30 April 2002.87 Grant, L. The Guardian, 21 September 2004.88 Rogers (1999).89 Quotation from homepage of www.keeplouisvilleweird.com.90 Saul Carliner, ‘Big boxes and shoppertainment: More lessons for web design

from mall and retail design’, www.boxesandarrows.com/view/.91 See NEF Ghost Town Britain at www.neweconomics.org/gen/

local_ghost.aspx.92 Both Dans le Noir, set up in 2004 in Paris and in 2006 in London.93 Rosselson (2005).94 Oram et al (2003).

Notes 433

95 Blythman (2005).96 All Party Parliamentary Committee’s ‘High Street Britain’ report (2005).97 See ‘real world economic outlook’ from the New Economics Foundation,

www.neweconomics.org/.98 Simms et al (2005).99 Sage (2005); Simms et al (2005).100 Figures from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4694974.stm.101 Marks, S. The Guardian, 30 April 2005. 102 From www.odpm.gov.uk/pub/821/PlanningPolicyStatement6

PlanningforTownCentresPDF342Kb_id1143821.pdf.103 From www.rural-shops-alliance.co.uk/stalham.htm.104 See www.ufcw.org/issues_and_actions/walmart_workers_campaign_info/

facts_and_figures/walmartgeneralinfo.cfm.105 See www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5069992.106 See www.cbc.ca/bc/story/bc_walmart20050629.html.107 Released by Brave New Films.108 Visit reclaimdemocracy.org/walmart/links.php.109 See www.tescopoly.org/.110 See http://community.foe.co.uk/resource/marketing_material/tesco_

takeover_leaflet.pdf.111 See www.tescopoly.org/.112 The Grocer, 15 May 2004.113 See www.libdems.org.uk/story.html?id=6271.114 Association of Convenience Stores (2005).115 Shabi, S. ‘The price isn’t right: Supermarkets don’t sell cheap food, we just

think they do’, The Guardian, 26 January 2004.116 From www.bitc.org.uk/docs/Market_Towns_2004.pdf.117 From www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=2369.118 See www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/good_neighbours_community.pdf.

CHAPTER FOUR: REPERTOIRES AND RESISTANCE

1 I have borrowed this title from Evans (2003). 2 Bob McNulty of Partners for Liveable Communities in conversation.3 I am grateful to Tom Burke for highlighting these distinctions.4 From www.tepapa.govt.nz/.5 See, for example, www.whitehutchinson.com/news/lenews/2003_03.shtml.6 See www.wynnlasvegas.com/.7 Gilmore and Pine (1999).8 See, for example, www.hobartcorp.com/hobartg6/sa/sage.nsf/articles/f12_

c?opendocument&s=1.9 See www.commercialalert.org/index.php/category_id/1/subcategory_id/14/

article_id/99.10 From www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/money/science_shopping/.11 From lists.essential.org/pipermail/commercialalert/2004/000165.html.12 Visit www.commercialalert.org.


13 From Koolhaas et al (2001).14 Palmer/Rae Associates, ‘European Cities/Capitals of Culture and Cultural

Months from 1995 to 2004’, downloadable via www.palmer-rae.com/.15 See www.teatropovero.it/english/ Poor_Theatre/poor_theatre.html.16 See www.waterfire.org/.17 See www.montefeltro.info/CMDirector.aspx?id=2153.18 Visit www.burningman.com.19 From www.cnfashion.net/english/famous09.htm.20 Menkes, S. Orient Express Magazine, vol 9, no 4, 2001.21 Jeffrey Martin, ‘The Coming Art Renaissance in Taipei (?)’ at

http://en.pots.com.tw/article.pl?sid=05/6/10/1458200&mode=thread.22 Lonely Planet (2001) guide to Taiwan.23 See www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/.24 Florida (2002).25 This subsection is a reworking of ideas already covered in Landry (2000).26 Murray (2001).27 Scanorama (Scandinavian Airlines’ in-flight magazine), April 2005.28 See the Christian History Institute website, www.chi.gospelcom.net.29 From ‘Prague: A cheap paradise for British stag tourists’ by Ian Willoughby, 7

September 2005, available at www.radio.cz/en/article/70388.30 The Peter Hall column, Regeneration and Renewal, 20 June 2003.31 From www.praguepissup.com/v2/stag/1_holidays/9_press_coverage/press_

coverage2.asp?story=27.32 World Travel and Tourism Council, www.wttc.org.33 The Guardian, 3 June 2006 (article by Rory Maclean).34 Data from www.wttc.org.35 Data from www.wttc.org.36 See www.wttc.org.37 Data from www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecID=

900003&contentID=253904.38 Data from www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecID=

900003&contentID=253904.39 Quoted in Mark MacKenzie’s ‘The Oriental Express’, The Independent on

Sunday, 11 June 2006.40 From www.economist.com, 22 June 2006.41 See www.latourex.org/latourex_en.html and The Lonely Planet Guide to

Experimental Tourism (Lonely Planet, 2005b).42 From www.latourex.org/latourex_en.html.43 From www.latourex.org/latourex_en.html.44 All quotes from pages on http://travel.guardian.co.uk.45 See www.fingalcoco.ie/minutes/2003/ff/1124/FF20030570.htm.46 Taken from http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2003/11/25/story855140

507.asp.47 See www.citysafari.nl.48 This paragraph draws on information from www.uneptie.org/pc/tourism/

sust-tourism/economic.htm.49 Soros (1997).

Notes 435

CHAPTER FIVE: THE COMPLICATED AND THE COMPLEX

1 Thanks to Colin Jackson for pointing out Eric Young’s speech at ‘Policy learn-ing and distributed governance: Lessons from Canada and the UK’, 5 June2003, quoting Brenda Zimmerman.

2 Huntington (1998).3 Personal communication from Joy Roberts of the Musagetes Foundation.4 Jane Jacobs (4 May 1916–25 April 2006) was an American-born Canadian

writer and activist. She is best known for The Death and Life of GreatAmerican Cities (1961), a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies ofthe 1950s in the United States (information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Jacobs).

5 This section draws on research undertaken for the Commission ofArchitecture and the Built Environment (CABE) in 2004. Thirty high-levelbuilt-environment professionals in public and private practice were inter-viewed to discuss how risk was affecting their professional life. See CABE(2005).

6 See www.wfcs.org.uk/BulletinApril05.PDF.7 Landry (2005a).8 Flyvbjerg, Bruzelius and Rothengatter (2003).9 Beck (1992); Giddens (1991); Luhmann (1993).10 This section on the ‘trajectory of risk consciousness’ draws on Furedi (1997).11 Fukuyama (1995).12 Furedi (1997).13 Landry (2005a).14 Visit www.rics.org.15 This section was initially written for Future London, part of the London

Development Agency. It is based on a survey of 38 leading professionals inthe built environment sector. Thanks to Honor Chapman and Greg Clark formaking this possible.

16 See www.odpm.gov.uk/index.17 Based on conversations with Francois Matarasso.18 This list emerged based on discussions with Franco Bianchini.19 John Augustus Roebling (with his son, Washington): engineer/builder of the

Brooklyn Bridge; Joseph Strauss: the structural engineer who built the GoldenGate Bridge; William le Barron Jenney: structural engineer and the father ofthe modern skyscraper; Fazlur Rahman Khan: structural engineer and devel-oper of the ‘tube-framing’ concept for skyscrapers which heralded the rebirthof tall buildings in the 1960s and 1970s.

20 See Harris (1998).21 All quotes from personal interviews for the Future London survey.22 Quotation from http://gestalttheory.net/gtax1.html.23 Mindset, mindflow and mindshift were discussed more fully in The Creative

City (Landry, 2000).24 Thanks to Yaneer Bar Yam for his description of reductionism.25 Quotes from professions survey. 26 Collins (2001).


27 Quotes from professions survey.28 See www.cnu.com. The CNU was founded in 1993 in the US by a group of

architects. It has since expanded to over 2300 members internationally. Theysay that they stand for ‘the reconfiguration of sprawling suburbs into commu-nities of real neighborhoods and diverse districts, the conservation of naturalenvironments, and the preservation of our built legacy’. About 200 NewUrbanist developments are under construction or completed in the US.

29 Quotes from professions survey.30 Goleman (1995).31 Goleman et al (2002).32 For evidence that currently more traditional designs are favoured over the

more modern, see CABE survey undertaken by MORI at www.mori.com/polls/2002/cabe2.shtml.

33 This section draws on Landry (2006b).34 Consider the German etymology: Denkmal (monument) reminds us of think-

ing about or reflecting upon as its root comes from denken (thinking).35 This paragraph draws on Brecknock (2006) and Ogbu (1995).36 This section comes from a meeting with the Musagetes Foundation.37 This section draws on an extensive two-year international study Comedia has

undertaken (Wood et al, 2006). The research involved city-based case studiesin four UK settings as well as in Australia, New Zealand, Norway and theUS. Thematic studies subjecting 12 areas of public and urban policy to analy-sis through an intercultural lens. Studies were undertaken of 33 individualintercultural innovators in 8 cities. A more extensive version is to be publishedas The Intercultural City by Earthscan, London in 2007. See www.interculturalcity.com for an extensive list of publications.

38 Statistics from www.guardian.co.uk/britain/article/0,,1395548,00.html.39 Alibhai-Brown (2001).40 See Wood (2004).41 See Wood (2004).42 This segment draws on Bloomfield and Bianchini (2004).43 Sandercock (1998, 2004). 44 Rogers and Steinfatt (1999).45 Antal and Friedman (2003).46 Hall (1998).47 Bloomfield and Bianchini (2004).48 See www.interculturalcity.com.49 For further details see ‘The intercultural city: Making the most of diversity’ at

the www.interculturalcity.com website.50 Hall (1969).51 Edgar, D. ‘My fight with the Front’, The Guardian, 14 September 2005.52 Cognition being how we perceive, think and remember, and the awareness of

how knowledge is acquired.

Notes 437

CHAPTER SIX: THE CITY AS A LIVING WORK OF ART

1 This chapter is based on work undertaken in Adelaide as Thinker in Residence(Landry, 2004a). My thanks to Mike Rann, the Premier of South Australia,for appointing me, allowing me to be a friend of the city and for his couragein opening out to a critical external view that Adelaide publicly discussed.Thanks also to the team in Adelaide, especially Margie Caust, Rodin Genoff,Richard Brecknock, Terry Tysoe and Ann Clancy.

2 Thanks to Jean Hurstel of Banlieues d’Europe for focusing me on to re-enchantment, see www.banlieues-europe.com.

3 Amin (2006).4 Gehl and Gemzøe (2000).5 See ‘The art of smart’ at www.fastcompany.com/magazine/26/one.html.6 Landry (1998).7 Quoted in Fryer (1996).8 Mapping analysis of creative professionals in Adelaide as part of the Thinkers

in Residence programme. 9 Office of National Statistics data for 2005.10 See www.nycfuture.org/content/home/index.cfm?CFID=23040787&

CFTOKEN=79757806.11 Rutten (2006).12 See www.sciart.org/site/.13 Landry (2006a).14 Barton and Kleiner (2000).15 Barton (2000).16 International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.17 This idea emerged in conversation with Margie Caust.18 Maccoby (2004).19 See for instance the conclusions of Desmond Hui in ‘Baseline study on Hong

Kong’s creative industries’, www.info.gov.hk/cpu.20 Florida (2002).21 Wong (1998).22 Landry and Wood (2003).23 These ideas were first elaborated in Landry and Wood (2002).24 PricewaterhouseCoopers (2006); or see ‘Cities of the Future’ at www.

pwc.com.25 See Gardner (1995) for general discussion on leadership, from which some of

the thinking presented here is drawn.26 Interview with planner in Adelaide. 27 Porter and Linde (1995).28 Institute for Public Policy Research (2006).29 From www.time-management-guide.com.30 From www.planning.org/careers.31 Carmona et al (2003).32 Kozlowski (2006).33 See www.containercity.com/ and www.urbanspace.com/index.asp.34 Visit www.zedfactory.com.


35 From www.newurbanism.org/pages/532096/.36 See Koolhaas and Mau (1995).37 See www.epa.gov/brownfields/partners/emscher.html.38 For a longer case study of Emscher by the author see ‘Innovation in a non-

innovative Setting: Emscher Park’, available under free downloads at www.comedia.org.uk.

39 This project was one of Germany’s Internationale Bauausstellung (hence IBA– literally International Building Exhibition) projects in which local andregional government and public–private partnerships plan and promote struc-tural change for former industrial and mining areas. Seewww.eaue.de/winuwd/137.htm for more details of IBA Emscher Park.

40 Falk (2005). Thanks to Nick also for a discussion of broader urban issues.41 From www.bcn.es/edcities/aice/estatiques/angles/sec_tematiques.html.42 Landry and Matarasso (2001).43 Jupp, Fairly and Bentley (2001).44 See ‘Champions of change’ at www.aep-arts.org/PDF%20Files/Champs

Report.pdf45 For example Adelaide Thinkers in Residence survey with young people.46 For details on the New Zealand Talent Initiative, see www.executive.

govt.nz/MINISTER/clark/innovate/lek.pdf47 See www.mica.gov.sg/renaissance/FinalRen.pdf.48 Visit www.memphismanifesto.com.49 From www.a-star.edu.sg/astar/attach/speech/ASTAR_Scholarship_Awards_

(22_Jul_2005)_-_V2.pdf. See also www.mica.gov.sg/renaissance/FinalRen.pdf.

50 See Florida (2002) for treatment of creative environments.51 See www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/ publications/facts/obesity/en/.52 See www.shrinkingcities.com/, www-iurd.ced.berkeley.edu/scg/case-study-

summaries.htm and www.bauhaus-dessau.de/de/projects.asp?p=iba.53 Cited in Gray (1993).54 By Geoff Calkins, the sports columnist for The Commercial Appeal.55 Florida (2002).56 McInroy (2002); visit www.cles.org.uk.57 I am going to be too polite to name this source.58 McInroy (2002).

CHAPTER SEVEN: CREATIVE CITIES FOR THE WORLD

1 For the general notion see, for instance, www.actsofkindness.org/.2 Landry and Bianchini (1995) (the first version of The Creative City).3 Thanks to Professor Kian Woon Kwok for the karaoke comparison.4 Landry (2000) includes case studies of Emscher Park and Helsinki.5 See www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-dubai13oct

13,0,5107518.story?page=2&coll=la-home-headlines.6 See www.libanmall.com/main/beirut.htm.7 From www.mydsf.com/dsf/eng/dsf_pressrelease.asp?pressid=4392.

Notes 439

8 See www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-dubai13oct13,0,5107518.story?coll=la-home-headlines.

9 See www.tijanre.ae/dubai_land.html.10 See http://skyscrapercity.com/archive/index.php/t-178639.html.11 EMAAR is a major Dubai developer responsible for initiatives such as the

Burj al-Arab and increasingly operating globally. The government has a 32per cent stake in the company and thus effective control.

12 From Mother Jones at www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2006/04/should_immigran.html.

13 Ivan Watson, NPR (National Public Radio), 8 March 2006.14 The Living Planet Report at www.panda.org.15 Frith, M. ‘In the middle of the desert: A monument to ecological folly’, The

Independent, 3 December 2005.16 From www.thepearlqatar.com/SubTemplate1.aspx?ID=165&MID=115.17 See www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?referrerid=39159&t=339039.18 Personal conversation with Sir Peter Hall, 1999.19 Lecture by Kian Woon Kwok, ‘The age of the city’, Osaka, 11 December

2005.20 From www.mica.gov.sg/renaissance/FinalRen.pdf.21 See www.mica.gov.sg/renaissance/FinalRen.pdf.22 See www.mica.gov.sg/renaissance/FinalRen.pdf.23 For example, British Airways’ magazine for June 2006.24 From www.phasez.ro/Default.asp?SID=42.25 From www.a-star.edu.sg/astar/fusionopolis/index.do.26 From www.firefly.gov.sg/html/EtsHome.html.27 All quotations in this paragraph are from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Singapore_public_gay_parties.28 See www.smh.com.au/news/world/thailand-wins-as-singapores-brief-gay-

fling-grinds-to-a-halt/2005/11/03/1130823343452.html.29 From www.taubman.com/pressrelease/163.html.30 Private conversations with city representatives of the Urbact culture network,

May 2006.31 Cited at www.boston.com/beyond_bigdig/cases/barcelona/index.shtml.32 Oriol Bohigas, ‘Designing urban regeneration’, lecture given at London

School of Economics, 30 November 2002. 33 Campbell, R. ‘Barcelona’, Boston Globe, 2002; and visit www.boston.com.34 Quoted in Schuster (1995).35 Schuster (1995).36 See www.bcn2000.es/en/2_plan_estrategico/antecedentes.aspx.37 See, for example, the 2005 report, available at www.cushmanwakefield.

com/cwglobal/docviewer/European%20Cities%20Monitor.pdf?id=ca1500006&repositoryKey=CoreRepository&itemDesc=document.

38 Glasgow commentators claim that the city’s high ranking was in part due tothe ‘halo effect’ generated by its European City of Culture tenure in 1990 andthat as that receded so did its international status, the city falling from 10thto 22th place on the Cushman & Wakefield European City Monitor.

39 From http://bilbao.bm30.es/plan/Bilbao2010-StrategicReflection.pdf.40 Conversation with Alfonso Martinez Cearra, director of Metropoli-30. 41 See www.bm30.es/plan/estrategia_uk.html.


42 Alfonso Cearra, director of Metropoli-30, in conversation (2005).43 Alfonso Cearra in conversation (2005).44 See, for example, KPMG surveys at www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/ingles/

home.htm.45 See www.comedia.org.uk/downloads/Cultural%20Policy%20Melbourne.doc.46 Montreal’s Frenchness in the ‘island’ of Quebec was threatened by an ocean of

Englishness and feels its cultural creativity stems from maintaining its identity.47 Lerner (2003). I was privileged to spend four days with Lerner, in Adelaide in

2003, observing his sharp, lateral thinking at close quarters.48 Lerner (2003).49 Lerner (2003). See also www.brazilmax.com/news1.cfm/tborigem/pl_south/

id/10 and www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=1700.50 Lerner (2003).51 For more information on Curitiba, go to www.curitiba.pr.gov.br.52 Thanks to Leif Edvinsson for pointing Ragusa out. See www.entovation.

com/entovatn/edvinsson.htm.53 See www.creatievestad.nl or creativecapital.nl/programme.php.54 Krabbendam (2006).55 Eric Duivenvoorden and Floris de Graad; see www.precairforum.nl/Library/

MakewayENG.rtf.56 See www.zuidas.nl/smartsite.dws?id=179&curindex=1.57 See www.westergasfabriek.com/./ engels_routebeschrijving_kopie.php.58 See http://squat.net/overtoom301/pages/home.html.59 Gehl and Gemzøe (2000).60 Oberlander (1996).61 Punter (2004).62 As defined by the UK Department of Media, Culture and Sports.63 For a history of the ‘creative city’ idea see Landry (2005b). 64 Landry and Bianchini (1995).65 Robinson (1999).66 Florida (2002).67 Landry et al (1996).68 Record of the conference published in Yencken (1988).69 Landry (2000). 70 Hall (1998).71 See Jacobs (1961).72 Drawing on Richard Brecknock Lewisham study on intercultural master-plan-

ning. See Comedia’s Intercultural City project at www.interculturalcity.com.73 See www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/post200/2005/MACD.html.74 See http://irogaland.no/ir/file_public/download/Noku/Final%20Creativity%

20and%20the%20city.pdf.75 Hall (1998).76 For a lengthy description of indicators of vitality see Franco Bianchini and

Charles Landry’s ‘Working Paper 3: Indicators of a creative city: A methodol-ogy for assessing urban viability and vitality’ (1994), downloadable from theComedia website, www.comedia.org.uk. For a briefer elaboration see Landry(2000), pp221–229.

77 For greater detail on indicators of openness see Comedia Intercultural Cityfinal report at www.interculturalcity.com.

Notes 441

78 Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (2003). See alsowww.charleslandry.com for further suggestions.

79 Visit www.creativecommons.org.80 Morck and Yeung (2001).

ENDPIECE

1 Hawken et al (1999). All these materials are available from www.charleslandry.com.

2 See www.urbact.eu.3 Landry (2005a).4 Landry (2005c).5 Landry (2004b).6 Landry (2006b).


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FURTHER READING

Barzun, J. (2000) From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years ofCultural Life, HarperCollins, New York

Battram, A. (1998) Navigating Complexity: The Essential Guide to ComplexityTheory in Business and Management, The Industrial Society, London

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Participation. UNESCO, Paris/Earthscan, LondonFlorida, R. (2005a) Cities and the Creative Class, Routledge, New YorkFlorida, R. (2005b) The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition

for Talent, HarperCollins, New YorkFlyvbjerg, B. Bruzelius, N. and Rothengatter, W. (2003) Megaprojects and Risk: An

Anatomy of Ambition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UKFoglesong, R. E. (2001) Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando,

Yale University Press, New Haven, CTFriedman, T. L. (2005) The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First

Century, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York


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Aberdeen 72Academy for Sustainable Communities

234, 235, 265accessibility 200Accra 158–159acoustic ecology 53–54Adelaide 267, 298, 301, 331

creative qualities 271–272, 277developing centrality 279, 280–281festivals 178, 184indicators 321media 325presentation 324rules and regulations 293–294stories 326–327talent 297, 316

advertisements 116–117, 121,153–154

Eastern Europe 35, 73hoardings 73, 210lighting 75

Agra 166Ahmadabad 22airports 323–324, 343Akihabara 57Algiers 99Alicante 21Almeria 21Alsop, Will 147, 307alternative culture 409–410

Burning Man festival 185alternative energy 280, 323Amin, Ash 268Amsterdam 111, 122, 148, 156

creative city 382–384, 408cultural institutions 145

diversity 254tourism 165, 173

Anderson Consulting 369Antwerp 279Appadurai, Arjun 45arational approaches 194, 251architects 222–223architecture

iconic buildings 145, 147–149and language 51, 69and the look of the city 69–70, 210and soundscape 52–53

arrival at the city 26–29, 323–324,350

arts and artists 158, 249–252, 262role in city making 44, 252–253,

364, 375–376, 403–404, 420Sci-Art 276

Arzignano 282asphalt currency 287aspiration 268–269, 420–422Atlanta 179Atlantic City 170audit of current creative activity

416–418, 419Auroville 278Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change

report 17

Baden Baden 167Bangkok 173Banja Luka 35Barcelona 21, 121, 156, 361–368,

376cultural management 365–366design 362–363

Index

regeneration 179, 269, 292, 297tourism 166, 167

basic needs 111–113Bath 67, 167, 211Baughman, James 369beauty 215, 243, 244, 252Becker, Gary S. 369behaviour, changing 263, 308–310,

330Beijing 101, 157Beirut 165, 342Belfast, organized crime 96Belgrade 34benchmarking 322, 352–353, 373Bendaniel, David 369Berlin 145, 156, 369

decline 319, 320festivals 183–184sensory landscape 43, 58, 72tourism 121, 165, 173

Berne 5Bilbao 111, 292, 368–376

iconic architecture 143, 147, 148,149, 286

regeneration 297, 302–303, 361,368

Bilbao Ria 2000 302–303, 370, 373binge-drinking 105, 168–169bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Sheikh

Mohammed 342, 343Birmingham 161, 297

architecture 34, 70, 152public space 125, 261

Bitola 35Blackburn 320Bloomberg, Michael 60Bochum 309Bohigas, Oriol 363–365Bologna 43Bombay see Mumbaiborders 103–104Boston 21boundaries of cities 296, 298Bournemouth 254Bradford 254, 309branding the city 143–145, 163–166,

172–173, 326, 339, 423–424Brasilia 58, 307Brighton 211, 254

Bristol 34, 254, 258, 296Broadway, Gloucestershire 33Broken Hill 320Brunelleschi 239Bucharest 34, 35, 324Budapest 34, 169, 173Buenos Aires 72–73, 408building materials 35–36, 70–71,

86–88burials 83Burning Man festival 185–186Burnley 258, 320Burra 320bus travel 23–24, 84, 86

Cairo 5Calatrava, Santiago 147, 149, 371Calcutta see KolkataCalgary 420Cannes 179Canterbury, England 67Canton see Guangzhou (Canton)Cape Town 165capital

forms of 287–290see also social capital

Capra, Fritz 16Caracas 67, 111Cardiff 203carnivals 178, 180–181Carpi 282cars

and architecture 305, 307dependency on 23–24, 31, 84,

85–86, 319electric 277and the senses 46–47

Casablanca 43Cassone, Rico 95catchment areas 19–20

see also drawing powerCelebration 306–307celebrations see festivalscentrality 278–281, 371–372changing world

battlefields 197–199complexity 189–190and creativity 388, 390cultural adjustment 246–247


drivers of change 208–211, 253faultlines 193–197, 216paradoxes 199–208, 244speed and slowness 116–118,

154–155, 195, 199, 210trends 191–192

Cheltenham 179Chennai 60Chicago 49, 138, 182, 286children 101–102China, urbanization 21, 24, 100Chungking 22Cirque du Soleil 94citizenship 247, 258cityness 19–20, 21–23, 77, 278–279

feeling of 23–24, 26–29city-regions 11, 295, 296city-states 5, 408civic creativity 2, 338–341civic institutions 246, 306civil servants 226climate 74, 208Colchester 254Collins, Jim, From Good to Great

234, 239colour 35, 43, 71–73Columbia 93common sense 17–18, 195community

attracting talent 316–317festivals 180–186neighbourhood shops 131–133

community cohesion 257community developers 225compensation culture 202, 203–204competitiveness 100, 285–287,

391–392, 393Dubai 345indicators 162–163see also centrality

concrete 28, 86–87confidence 290–291, 329Congress of New Urbanism (CNU)

235Constantinople see Istanbul

(Constantinople)construction industry, risk 204,

206–208consultation 261

consumption 77–78, 113–116, 155building materials 86–88domestic 78–83shoppertainment 151–153transport 83–86

controlled environments 65–66, 67Cook, Thomas 167–168Copenhagen 93, 176, 269, 279, 384,

394Cortona 33cosmopolis 256counter-urbanization 21creative cities 335–341, 381–385,

386–387, 408–413, 413agenda for 415–425Barcelona 361–368Bilbao 368–376Curitiba 376–381Dubai 341–348Singapore 350–360

creative industries 275–277creativity 4–5, 385–386

artistic 249–253, 403–404civic 2, 338–341concept 387–390, 404–405,

406–407conditions for and against

392–396, 405–406, 410–411,412, 414

and culture 249, 398–399, 400–403and diversity 396–398fear of 391ideas 331–332and innovation 414–415reassessing 270–274and resilience 390–391and risk 201–202, 295soft 413talent 315–318, 322, 389–390to address misery 94–95see also creative cities

creativity platform search 419, 420crime 95–100, 209Crystal Waters, Queensland 278Cuidad Juarez/El Paso 104cultural capital 288, 289cultural developers 225–226cultural institutions 120–121,

143–145, 148–149, 152, 248

Index 453

and creativity 252, 401–403and education 314Singapore 351–352see also Guggenheim

cultural literacy 3, 20, 193, 214,244–245, 248–249

see also intercultural citiesculture 14, 245–249, 398–399,

400–403arts festivals 178, 179, 185and the market economy 153,

275–276of place 326–328response to poverty 105–109and sensory landscapes 42, 59–60,

68see also arts and artists; ethnic

diversityCuritiba 26, 269, 376–381, 379, 380

Darmstadt 369Dartford 408Datong 22Davao 22Davis, California 278decivilization 91–93decline 319–320Delft 33Delhi 5, 73, 254

Katha 107–109, 336sounds 59–60

democracy 236, 395demographics 208design quality 244desire

basic needs 111–113and consumption 113–116

Detroit 320disposability 114, 116distribution systems 78, 80

see also logisticsdiversity see ethnic diversityDortmund 309drawing power 158–163, 268–269,

286, 325–326, 408–409drivers of change 208–211, 253drugs trade 97Dubai 77, 165, 341–349, 395Dublin 174, 298

Temple Bar 123–124, 168Dubrovnik 381–382Dumfries 140Dunster, Bill 304Durres 35Dusseldorf 121Dzerzhinsk 102

Easterhouse Cultural Campus 106,107

Eastern European cities 34–36ecological footprints 88, 91

United Arab Emirates 341,346–347

ecological urban development376–377

economics of regeneration 303economists 224–225, 415eco-tourism 170, 174–176eco-villages 278Edinburgh 178, 179education 265, 311, 312–314,

388–389cultural response to poverty

106–108interculturalism 258, 259, 261–262neglect of the senses 41, 44, 271tapping into talent 317, 318

Egan Review 213Elbasan 35, 56electricity 40, 74, 78electroperception 40emergence 231emotions 240, 268

and the arts 251emotional intelligence 241–242and leadership 242–243

employment 258–259Emscher Park 278, 294–295, 308–309engineers 221–222Enlightenment 15, 45, 191, 205environmental psychology 243–245environment issues

and economic rationality 194, 197initiatives and incentives 277–278rapid development 100–101transport 11, 18see also greenhouse gas emissions;

recycling; sustainability


Essaouira 72Essen 309ethical values 1–2, 335, 425

environment v. economic rationality194

framework for action 286–287, 413shopping 139–140

ethnic diversity 253–260, 396–398Dubai 345–346

evaluation framework 418–419experience economy 152–153, 209experimental tourism 170–172

factories 49Faliraki 104–105fashion 114, 118–120, 131

cities 186–159, 409fear 198festivals 150, 177–180, 180–186, 262,

271, 365Fez 67–68, 71Florence 5, 160, 239, 320, 396, 403Florida, Richard 284, 316, 322, 358,

387food and drink

consumption 78–79, 80–81retailing 135–136, 139–140smells 63–65, 66–67waste 81–82

Foster, Norman 70, 148, 371Frankfurt 164, 279, 367, 376free economic zones 343Freiburg 26, 162, 280, 376Fukuyama, Francis 91Future Systems 70

galleries see cultural institutionsGardner, Howard, Theory of Multiple

Intelligences 41–42Gary, Indiana 97–98Gateshead, branding 143gay communities

San Francisco 410Singapore 357–358

Gaziantep 22Gdansk 56Gehry, Frank 371, 374Gelsenkirchen 309Geneva 14, 162, 178, 279

Genoa 21gentrification 110, 122, 123, 410Gestalt theory, and the professions

227–228Gijon 290Glasgow 34, 290, 320, 412

cultural response to poverty 106festivals 179, 284

globalization 176–187, 208and the arts 252brands 110, 126, 137effect on cities 269–270and IT 191v. authenticity 198

global network of cities 36–37global property market 123Global and World Cities (GaWC)

project 159Goa 104, 105Goleman, Daniel, Emotional

Intelligence 241governance 295–298, 390

budgetary control 376managing urban change 301–304,

309–310Graz 33green economy 277–278, 280, 295greenhouse gas emissions

food chain 80–81see also cars, dependency on;

sustainabilityGuangzhou (Canton) 5, 157, 254, 338Guggenheim 143, 148, 149, 286,

374–376

Hamburg 90, 376Hamelin 183Handy, Charles 369Hannover 412Harbin 22Havana 121health

effects of noise 52and repression 101and smells 62–63and urban design 208, 209,

318–319healthcare 276Hefei 157

Index 455

Heidelberg 33Helsinki 270, 279, 296, 367

culture and image 74, 183,324–325, 409, 411

iconic architecture 148Herzog de Meuron 72, 366historic cities 33–34, 74, 211–212,

400–401holism 214–217, 230Hong Kong 74, 161

advertising 73fashion 156, 158noise levels 57port 88, 90tourism 165, 166, 170, 172, 360

transport 112, 171–172, 323, 393Honolulu 14Houston 14, 90Howard, Ebenezer 239Huddersfield 294, 325Hull 149human attributes, effect on cities 196Hurricane Katrina 17

Iasi 34, 56, 98Ibiza 104, 105, 165iconic communication 146–151,

286–287see also Guggenheim

ideas, dominant 210, 329, 330,331–332

identitycities 298, 331personal 200professional 232–233

image see drawing power; fashion;iconic communication

imaginative territory 279–281immigration and integration

European policy 255see also ethnic diversity

incentives 308, 309, 339, 378–379individualism 15, 45, 191, 195–196infrastructure 6, 281–285, 301, 394,

395–396and professionals 212, 216Singapore 355sprawl 32

innovation, and creativity 414–416

integrated resorts 359–360intellectual capital see talentintellectual property 387, 414–415intercultural cities 254, 256–260,

396–397interdisciplinary approach 8–9, 16

see also professions, specialism andintegration

international trade 78–79, 80, 208see also logistics

intuition 242inward investment, and soft infrastruc-

ture 284–285Isfahan 5isolation index 258Israel 103–104Istanbul (Constantinople) 5, 79, 179,

254, 396Italian cities 33–34Ithaca Eco-Village, New York State

278Ivanovo 320Izamal 43

Jacobs, Jane 239, 397Japan, urbanization 21jargon 50–51, 332–333Jodphur 43, 58, 72Johannesburg 145, 165–166Joseph Rowntree Foundation 106journeys to work 84–85

Kampala 23Kandy, festivals 178Karachi 99Karlsbad 167Katha 107–109, 336Katowice 34Kiev 34King Abdullah Economic City 349Kishinev 34, 98knowledge creation 272–273Kobe 94, 95Kolding 278Kolkata 160, 320, 324Koolhaas, Rem 145, 148, 152Koprivshtitsa 70Kosice 35Kotkin, Joel 30


Kotler, Phillip 369Krakow 34, 56, 169Kraljevo 35Kuala Lumpur 304Kunstler, James Howard 69Kuwait, City of Silk 349Kyoto 5, 122, 149, 319

Lagos 23, 63, 99land reclamation projects 341–342,

343language

of efficiency 211, 240, 249jargon 332–333of the senses 50–51

Las Vegas 68, 121, 145, 170shoppertainment 151, 152

leadership 6–7, 234, 239–240,291–292, 424

and emotions 242–243and resources 330

learning cities 310–312Le Corbusier 305, 307Leeds 203, 309Leicester 8, 161Lerner, Jaime, Urban Acupuncture

377Letchworth 235Liebeskind, Daniel 147lighting 74–75, 332Lijiang 167Lille 324Little River, Christchurch 278Liverpool 106, 203, 319, 320, 408Ljubljana 34, 169local distinctiveness 110, 248,

326–328, 405Lodz 412logistics 88–91, 343London 20, 22, 147, 304, 319, 367

consumption 78–82, 86, 87, 88creativity 336, 337, 409cultural response to poverty

106–107diversity 253–254, 396gentrification 123historic city 48, 211iconic architecture 148, 150–151image 156, 165

logistics 88look of the city 43, 68, 70, 72, 75people-trafficking 98–99pollution 60, 83shopping 121, 122transport 83–85, 112waste disposal 82–83

look of the city 43, 68–75, 210, 244,260–261

Los Angeles 22, 408, 412consumption 77iconic architecture 149roads 32, 87sensescape 58, 67

Lucca 33, 111Luton 254Lvov 34Lyons 33

Macau 170Madrid 319, 376Mafia 95Malaga 21, 297, 361, 376Manchester 34, 106, 283–284Manila 73, 79Manzano 282mapping the city 46, 300–301Maragall, Pasqual 363market economy

and cultural choice 14limitations 3, 37, 93v. environmental ethics 194see also retailing

marketing the citytourism 172–174see also branding the city; fashion;

festivals; iconic communicationMarrakech 43, 72, 111Marseille 21, 178measurement and calculation

159–160, 162, 198, 290assets 321–323diversity and interculturalism

257–259and intangibles 206

mediaand branding 163–164and risk consciousness 202–203and self-perception 325

Index 457

megacities 23megaprojects 174, 204Melbourne 74, 150, 262, 293, 325,

384Melnikov, Victor 94Memphis 296, 315, 327–328, 331,

413Mercer, quality of life rankings 14,

162Merseyside 106Metropoli-30 302, 370–371,

372–373, 374Metzingen 170Mexico City 58Miami 165Middle East 342migration to cities 21–23Milan 43, 72, 157, 408mindflow and mindset 228–230, 330mindscapes 41misery 93–95

crime 95–98cultural responses 93–94, 105–109people trafficking and the sex trade

98–99prisons and borders 103–104and rapid change 99–101and repression 101–102

mobility, car dependency 23–24, 31,84, 85–86

Monte Carlo 170Monticchiello 181Montreal 173, 376monuments 245–246Moscow 34, 57, 95–96, 165multiculturalism 197, 254–255, 256,

261, 332Mumbai 79, 173, 408

festivals 177–178image 68, 158, 160

Mumford, Lewis 239Munich 33, 67, 87, 367, 376, 407,

408murder rates 93, 97–98Murmansk 56, 102museums see cultural institutionsmusic 53–54myths 328

Nampo 22Nanjing 157Naples 74narrative communication 146National Planning Forum (NPF) 234networks 259, 281–284, 289, 330neuromarketing 154, 210Newcastle upon Tyne 149, 254New Economics Foundation 133–135New Jersey 408New Orleans 98, 167, 177, 178, 180New Urbanism 31, 302–308New York 5, 22, 121, 156, 407

creativity 335–336, 337–338, 393,408

crime 98, 147diversity 253, 254, 396gentrification 123iconic architecture 148noise control 60past sensescapes 49port 90reach and impact 20rubbish 82shopping 152tourism 165, 166

Nice 33niches and drawing power 279,

325–326Nickel 35night life 124–1259/11 17, 337–338noise 51–60, 244Noise Mapping England project 46Norilsk 63, 94, 102Northern Ireland Statistics and

Research Agency 2005 report 17Norwich 211Nottingham 161Nouvel, Jean 72, 110Novi Sad 184

Odessa 34, 35, 57, 324Olympic Games 179, 253, 362, 363Oman 43One-North, Singapore 355–356openness 239, 256, 258–259, 372organic v. artificial 195organized crime 95–98


Orlando 174Orvieto 33Osaka 21, 121, 161, 360Oslo 148, 324Oxford 125–126

Palacios, Dolores 371Paris 164, 319, 336–337, 367

architecture 71, 148, 149fashion 157retailing 121, 134, 339Val-Fourre estate 105–106

Parma 33Pattya 99peaceful coexistence 192–193Pearl River Delta 21Pei, I.M. 71, 149, 369Pelli, Cesar 369people-trafficking 98–99perceptual geography 41–43performance-driven culture 233–234performance indicators 162–163perfumes 66personal living space 23–24Perth, Australia 269, 420petrochemicals 62–63, 66Philadelphia 49, 323Phnom Penh 99Piobbico 183Pittsburgh 290, 369place-making 236, 238, 252, 263planners 218–219planning 134, 136–137, 235–236,

298–301, 397, 422Bilboa 369–370, 371–372Curitiba 377, 380master-planning 260–262Vancouver 384–385

policy making 263–264risk and opportunity 292–295

politics 14, 103–104pollution 83, 86, 102, 194–195

in China 100–101noise 60

Poole 254population growth 23–24

see also urban populationsPortland 384Port Moresby 99–100

ports 90–91, 247, 361, 362, 407Port of Spain 269postmodernism 15, 153Potosi 22Poundbury 278poverty 93, 101–102

cultural responses 105–107power 14, 411–412

centrality 278–281centralized v. localized 198drawing power 159–163, 268–269,

294.326–327and leadership 292–293

powerlessness, perception of 205–206Prague 34, 168–169Prato 282professions 7, 9, 44, 263–264, 319

creative 275–276Gestalt theory 227–228and the intercultural city 260, 398and risk 206–208specialism and integration 9,

212–217, 232–239, 264–265stereotypes 217–227

project managers 225property developers 223–224property value

driving urban development 120,122, 123, 373–374, 399

financing regeneration 303, 310Providence, Rhode Island 182psychological landscapes 40public space 111, 212, 259, 303–304,

335–336, 384Barcelona 363–365Birmingham 125

Pyongyang 101

Qalqilya 104Qatar, Pearl-Qatar 348–349quality of life 14, 162, 284–285,

392–393quinary domain 392

Ragusa (Dubrovnik) 381–382railways 25–26, 84, 86, 324Rama, Edi 35Ranchi 22rational and arational approaches 194

Index 459

recycling 82, 277–278, 280, 378, 380reductionism 230, 231–232regeneration 31, 301–304

in Britain 309–310in Britain and Spain 297Emscher Park 309Rio de Janeiro 110through festivals 179–180

Reims 33religion

festivals 177–178fundamentalism 193

resonance 279, 286–287see also branding the city; drawing

power; fashionresponsibility

for cities 6–7and perception of powerlessness

206restaurants 66–67, 131retailing 113–115, 118

corporate blandness 125–127decline of small specialist shops

131–132impact on cities 120–125, 129,

132–133relocalizing the economy 133–135shoppertainment 151–153shopping malls 124, 127–131supermarkets 131, 132, 135–140

Reynolds, Eric 304Rio de Janeiro 96–97, 110

image 68, 109–110, 143, 287risk 197, 272

consciousness 198, 202–206, 244and creativity 201–202management 203–204, 295and urban professions 206–208see also rules and regulations

rituals 176–178, 180roads 25, 32, 86, 87Rochdale 320Rogers, Richard, Towards a Strong

Urban Renaissance 213role models 238–239, 426Rome 5, 48, 56, 254, 319

festivals 177, 181Rothenberg 33Rotterdam 88, 90, 175, 302

rubbish 81–83, 380rules and regulations 292–295, 339,

397see also risk

rural areas, movement to 21, 201

St Petersburg 34, 48Salford 147Salzburg 58, 179San Francisco 5, 14, 147, 150, 286,

409–410San Luis 22Sao Paulo 22Sarajevo 58Sassuolo 282Schafer, R. Murray 53, 60schools see educationSci-Art 276scientific approach 8seaborne freight 90–91secular humanism 13–14segregation 96sensescapes 45–46

cars 46–47linguistic shortcomings 50–51look of the city 68–75in the past 48–50smells 61–68sounds 51–60

sensory intelligences 41–42sensory landscapes 2–3, 26–29,

43–44, 251and culture 42, 44–45, 260mapping 46perceptual geography 41–43unrecognized 39–40, 42–43see also sensescapes

Seoul 412Seville 297, 361, 376sex trade 98–99, 170Shanghai 5, 90, 323

creativity 395, 408fashion 157, 338resonance 156, 161, 173

shedland 140–141Sheffield 254, 309, 319Shenzhen 22, 100, 122Shibam 5, 70Shkodra 103


Sholapur 22shopping malls 124, 127–131shops 65–66, 131, 132

see also retailingSiena 180silence 57Singapore 74, 90, 124, 323

branding 143creativity 315, 350–360, 388diversity 165, 253Renaissance City project 352–355

single person households 23, 24Skopje 34Slow Cities movement 117–118, 199slums

complex social structure of 21–22Delhi 107–109Rio de Janeiro 96–97

smellscapes 61–68social capital 107

Curitiba 377–379developing 112, 275, 288–289

social equity 197social workers 225Sofia 34soft creativity 413soft infrastructure 6, 281–285, 394,

395–396Bilbao 372and professionals 212, 216

Soriano, Federico 371sound classification 54–57soundscapes 51–60Southsea 254space and density 200specialism and integration, professions

9, 212–217, 232–239speed and slowness 116–118,

154–155, 195, 199, 210spirituality 196sports events 179, 184–185

Olympic Games 179, 362, 363sprawl 30–32, 198Stavanger 111stereotypes 217–227Stirling, James 371Stockholm 164, 279, 367, 408Stockport 254stories 326–327, 330, 401

street markets 63–64, 397Stuttgart 371suburbia 30–32, 408supermarkets 131, 132, 135–140surveillance 209surveyors 220–221sustainability 11, 18, 204

changing behaviour 308see also greenhouse gas emissions;

recyclingsustainable communities 278, 280

professions 213, 238, 263Sydney 148, 149, 325, 396

Taipei 73, 121, 161, 301–302fashion and art 156, 158noise levels 57

talent 289, 301, 315–318, 322, 357,389–390

Tallinn 169Tanjungkarang 22taxation systems 195, 297, 309, 376Taylor, Charles, The Malaise of

Modernity 195–196technology and age 200–201Tel Aviv 43, 165, 173Tetovo 35theme parks 153, 174, 242, 344–345Timisoara 34Tirana 35, 57Tokyo 87, 90, 121, 145, 408

advertising 73fashion 131, 157–158noise levels 57organized crime 95reach and impact 20, 21tourism 166

Toronto 71, 123, 295architecture 71, 147, 307diversity 396murder rate 98

tourism 33, 166–172, 174–176Barcelona 368Bilbao 375Dubai 344marketing 172–174negative effects 104–105, 121,

166–167, 168–169, 175–176,382, 394

Index 461

Tower Hamlets 106–107traditions

collective memory 199see also culture

traffic congestion 85transport 25–26, 85–86, 264,

323–324, 422basic needs 112Curitiba 11, 26, 269, 379, 380Dubai 343Hong Kong 172, 323hypercars 295London 83–85sustainability 11, 18see also cars

Trinidad 181Turin 17824-hour city 124–125, 210

Ucize 35ugliness 243, 244Ulan Bator 94, 102UNESCO 386–387United States (US), urbanization 21Unna 309Unwin, Raymond 235urban acupuncture 377–379urban change see regenerationurban design 51, 213, 234, 299–300,

397Urban Design Alliance (UDA) 234,

235urbanism 20, 237urbanization

extent of 21, 22–23, 77nature of 23–25

Urban Land Institute 235urban literacy 20, 237urban populations 19, 21–23Urumqi 22Utrecht 33

Vaasa 33Valencia 21, 149

Buñol 186regeneration 292, 297, 361, 376

values 1–2, 234–235, 248, 260, 335Vancouver 5, 98, 138, 178

quality of life 14, 60, 279, 384–385Varanesi 5Venice 48, 145, 320

tourism 164, 166, 167Vienna 14, 156, 173, 320Viva Rio 94Vroon, Pier 61

Waitakere, Auckland 278Wal-Mart 138–139Warsaw 34, 165Washington 21, 98, 324waste see disposability; rubbishwater consumption 79, 80Welwyn Garden City 235Westerkamp, Hildegard 53–54, 58,

59–60Whyalla 320Wren, Christopher 239Wuhan 22Wuxi 157Wynn, Steve 151

Yankelovich, Daniel 321Yeang, Ken 304York 82, 211

Zagreb 34Zakynthos 105zeitgeist

contemporary 9–10shifting 15–19

zoning laws 31Zurich 14, 131, 162, 184, 279, 408


Documents

Charles Landry-The Art of City Making -Routledge (2006)