Cities throughout the world are changing so fast that planners and government officials are trailing behind to comprehend the lasting impact on inhabitants. Our cities are no exception. One study pointed out that around 47 percent of Pakistanis are living in urban areas and the number is increasing every day. This rapid urbanisation brings new lifestyles, changes patterns of living and habits and impacts the way we interact with others. But some things can never be changed as they are in the very DNA of humans. Humans need open breathing spaces, places for interaction to exchange ideas, play and relax to enrich their lives.
Urban open spaces, which broadly include parkland, plazas, landscaped boulevards, waterfront promenades and public gardens, significantly define the layout, real estate value, traffic flow, public events and the civic culture of our communities. Public spaces are the living rooms, gardens, corridors and lungs for cities. They serve to improve the development and desirability of a community. This eventually increases productivity and attracts human capital while providing an improved quality of life. Research suggests that investing in urban public spaces can create prosperous, livable, and equitable cities in developing countries.
The Eduljee Dinshaw project, Karachi
Our romance with massive infrastructure projects has just commenced, whereas cities worldwide are correcting their past errors
As Jan Gehl, the eminent Danish urban planner whose work transformed the city of Copenhagen into the most livable city in the world, said, “Cities are not about buildings and streets, they’re about the interaction of life and the physical environment. It is this dimension of architecture and planning which has been pushed out by the modernists. Therefore we need a new planning paradigm: Cities have to be liveable, healthy and sustainable”. Another prominent advocate of public spaces, Amanda M. Burden, who served as the New York City Planning Commissioner from 2002-2013 with Michael Bloomberg as mayor, says, “Cities are fundamentally for people and where they go where they meet what they do and how they do makes a city work. I believe that lively, enjoyable public spaces are the key to planning a great city. They are what make it come alive.”
In Pakistan, with decades of ineffective planning (or none at all) we have made our urban lives completely car-dependent. Hence we invest only on concrete and asphalt but not on urban inhabitants themselves. Our city infrastructure is so incompetently planned that it discourages physical activities. One can’t commute on bicycle or walk even if one wanted to. Our urban planning compels people to sit confined to their homes, offices or in cars while on roads, and this is leading to very grave social and health problems. It reflects the fact that our government and urban planners are less concerned about the health and happiness of urban dwellers, environment and ever-growing costs associated with all of this. With every new ugly elevated road or expressway, we are breaching the promise that the city made with its inhabitants - just to make automobiles happier?
We must not forget that, in 19th and early 20th century, the leading causes of death were infectious diseases like cholera and tuberculosis and that they were defeated through city design by creating sanitation infrastructure and clean water systems. Today we have health problems like obesity, respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases – arguably they would require a similar rethinking of urban spatial allocation and design.
Seoul's Cheonggyecheon Freeway
At present Pakistan has nine cities of over one million inhabitants and each city is in desperate need for urgent solutions to solve ever-growing problems caused by rapid and unplanned urbanisation. We have to be creative and act fast. Our cities are relatively young and growing fast. We have the widow of opportunity to correct the course and lay out the foundations on which “cities for people” can be built. Our cities are expanding but our open and green spaces are shrinking at an alarming rate. We need comprehensive plans that redefine the notion of open spaces to go beyond mere parks and food streets - to include the vast and diverse natural assets of our big and small cities, including rivers, creeks, canals, ponds, streams, mangroves, wetlands, beaches and seafronts. We need plans that aim to create non-exclusive, non-barricaded, non-elitist, meaningful, enjoyable public spaces that provide access to all citizens. We need plans that ensure that open spaces are not only available but are geographically and culturally embedded into neighborhoods and a participatory community life. Public spaces are meant to unite citizens by interaction - not to be catalysts for exacerbating the existing inequalities in society.
Fortunately the trends around the world are shifting. Cities are globally trying to have less cars - especially in dense areas - and adding more safe, sustainable multipurpose urban spaces for all. Many cities worldwide, small or large, have been quite successful in achieving this. As Jan Gehl points out, “This is a general pattern all over the world that the mutual love affair between people and their cars has waned. People start to think there might be other qualities in cities than just making spaces for cars. Cities should treat their inhabitants better than their cars.”
Our romance with massive infrastructure projects has just commenced, whereas cities worldwide are correcting their past errors. Transforming projects like Cheonggyecheon stream in Soul, South Korea and Embarcadero Freeway in San Francisco city, USA, represent bold innovative steps in urban design. These cities replaced some of their monumental infrastructures with new open public spaces. This created pedestrian-only public spaces with greenery, walking areas, water and vegetation right in the center of dense metropolitan areas. Many other examples can be found in developing world as well. As Kim Youngmin, assistant professor in the University of Seoul’s Department of Landscape Architecture, says, “Cheonggyecheon gave a certain answer to the controversial debate in urban planning between those who emphasised the vehicle-oriented city and those who believe the city should be more pedestrian-friendly.”
And more recently, a Brazilian urban planning collective called Urb-i (shorthand for Urban Ideas) documented more than 1,000 areas with ‘before’ and ‘after’ Google Street View images revealing the most stunning public space transformations from around the world. This massive collection shows the areas reserved for car parking, overhead bridges, car-only boulevards and even roads are now shared and used by people for multiple activities. These cities turned themselves into “Cities for people” and have aimed to make their inhabitants healthy, happy more connected and ultimately add value to their lives.
Some good news from last month and projects completed recently could give tremendous hope to Karachiites and Lahoris.
Last month, the Chief Minister of Sindh, Syed Murad Ali Shah, announced a World Bank-assisted $80-million “Karachi Liveable Improvement Project” targeting restoration projects in the old city, which contains many of Karachi’s heritage landmarks. Mr. Shah said that he was committed to transforming Karachi into a liveable, green and resilient metropolis by focusing on growth, prosperity, sustainability, inclusiveness and service delivery of the city.
Last year the movement, named Eduljee Dinshaw Road project, restored the grandeur of the Karachi Port Trust and Imperial Customs House buildings and gave a facelift to the area spanning over half a kilometer. This project not only restored two landmark buildings but also enabled the residents of the area to spend their leisure time strolling in a street that was earlier impossible to access. And recently opened to public, the Pakistan Chowk, a historical landmark public space in Saddar Karachi, went through seven months of rehabilitation - now providing much-needed solace to a busy commercial district. The project was conceptualised by Architects Marvi Mazhar and Hassnain and funded by PPP leader Sharmila Faruqi, who also inaugurated the public space.
Also the World Bank-assisted project of the “Walled City of Lahore” has restored centuries-old streets and homes within the historic Walled City while improving infrastructure and streets. Families now enjoy a better quality of life, businesses generate increased profits and the community has a greater sense of participation in improving their lives.
These are surely excellent initiatives in the right direction but many more bold steps needs to be taken. We can’t wait for urban encroachment to eat all our open spaces and leave us entirely at the mercy of automobiles to interact with each other.
