Building Urban Resilience through Social Connectedness (pt 2)

When imagining the city and modern society facing social and ecological crises, we tend to turn to dystopian thinking thinking. This is a rather ineffective approach, as it paralyzes us from making necessary changes to adapt. Rather, we can take a disruptive imaginings approach, in which we begin to question our  perceptions, and cultural norms that dictate the way our modern urban lifestyle unfolds. This is what resilience thinking looks like. One way to conduct a disruptive imagining is to create a prototype in order to imagine how the world might look like if we were to build resilience. 

We wanted to imagine a different social future in our cities. Particularly, we were responding to a failure in medium-high density neighborhoods to foster healthy levels of social interactions among neighbors or building inhabitants. Following the Healthiest City Strategy, a government document that outlines goals for such a sustainable future, including a priority action in the realm of cultivating connections in the city, a group of students and I, under the guidance of Vancouver-based CityStudio, an innovation hub, and InWithForward, a service design firm, co-created a program called Rezcue Buddy to experiment with social connectedness. The exercise was done to determine whether we could meet the City of Vancouver's goal: "have each Vancouverite know four people in their network." 

We found this goal to be extremely challenging to meet, which demonstrates that due to a number of social, structural, and cultural boundaries, we are limited in bridging social interaction among strangers, and thus may limit ourselves in finding urban resilience. 

Arranging a city to a symphony

A symphony of algorithms, that is.

Franz Ulm and Roland Pellenc, two MIT specialists in the atomic structure of cement, discovered that the texture of a city can be identical to crystalline patterns of elements in the periodic table. Such a random yet intriguing analogy reiterated something important to them: "that the laws of molecular physics can be applied to the texture of cities".

Using physics and equations to form the perfect city optimizes sustainability by building efficiently. Luis Bettencourt believes that the way to approach this method would be to seek the function of cities, not the form - what purpose does that city serve to the people? This will set the universal parameters for building that city, which works together with what Bettencourt calls "the social reactor" (a.k.a. the social dynamic in cities that produces creative and economic outcomes). Now this is the connection that we are looking for in every successful city, and this is what we need to optimize in every city along with energy efficiency and natural resource conservation. At the moment, the only way this sort of dynamic can be measured is through indicators such as city size and interactions within the population  (i.e. crime rates).

Socialisation, as it turns out, is the key to optimizing not only a city's economy, but an energy efficient city. Take this example - in a high-density city with fairly moderate public transport but high crime rate, people are more likely to avoid taking public transport and will drive individual cars. The more cars there are on the road, the higher the amount of GHG gases are emitted, which only leads to a greater carbon footprints that contributes to the upcoming apocalypse-via-global-warming. In fact, in one of his papers, "A unified theory of urban living", Bettencourt argues that the growth of both good and bad development is actually dependent on the size of the city. Mathematically, both good (e.g. opportunity)and bad (e.g. crime) development will increase by 15% should the city's size increase. Such metric data and mathematical analysis has always been used to guide an urban planner's hand, but using actual equations and universal parameters to help pursue optimal investments is a game changer in that it reduces the chances of unintended catastrophic consequences.

That being said, one wonders what the limitations of such a mathematical approach is. In my personal opinion, using mathematics to maximize municipal investment decisions and thereby spend money in the "right" way can go two ways. It will either benefit taxpayers by spending money where it is needed (assuming that municipal authorities are responsible with tax money...this might be bordering on fantasy for some urban areas), or it will ignore the necessity of what cannot be quantified in terms of dollar bills - for example, the necessity of trees and greenspace. Quantification of such amenities are also sometimes rejected because anything can dwindle in monetary value, and this can cause ramifications in appreciating the value of trees, highlighted as an issue because trees are already experiencing a game of thrones level of death as it is. Also, we need trees to survive.

Then again, this approach looks at the city as a system and goes beyond employing sustainable architecture. Using mathematics to engineer the perfect city allows us to foresee how our decisions can impact the global future with logical, rational eyes. It does not limit growth by developing the perfect city that cannot be tweaked because of its perfection; instead it focuses on keeping the city perfect throughout time - factoring in adaptations that need to constantly be made to accommodate changes in the universal parameters of city design. What interests me about this approach is whether we can use the mathematical concepts here to measure energy inputs and outputs in a natural ecosystem and whether it is therefore worth comparing a city's energy efficiency with nature's.

In the past, we have made several erroneous decisions and several great decisions when it came to urban planning. The point with this approach is to eliminate erroneous possibilities and to assist municipal authorities into making the most fiscally responsible decisions - not only in terms of money, but in terms of social, economic and political sustainability as well. No more planned shrinkages in the Bronx that only resulted in higher crime rates. No more gentrification of Jacobian streets that exclude poorer classes. Though this process may not promise us a threat-free world, it might yet compose a world sweeter to the ear.

Tabinda Shah.

Building Urban Resilience through Social Connectedness (Pt 1)

In the wake of environmental and social disturbances such as sea level rise and mass migration into cities driven by economic, social and political factors alike, many municipal governments around the world have underestimated and neglected a little known sustainability issue: social connectedness. While devising large scale efforts to build resilience through large infrastructure projects and sustainable community design, we forget about this issue that could otherwise enable greater resilience. Even Vancouver, often hailed as an urban planning utopia-- its design has been marketed and replicated worldwide as 'Vancouverism'-- has a long way to go before it achieves social connectedness in the city. Why is social connectedness important for cities? What might it look like and how can we socially engineer cities, especially at the neighborhood and building scale, to foster it?

Despite densification and transit accessibility in its central business district and surrounding downtown residential neighborhoods, Vancouver suffers from a social isolation problem. Some might not consider this a problem; historically, urban sociologists and geographers, such as George Simmel, have long critiqued urban living for its anonymity (read Hubbard's the City). In the modern era, planners and sociologists have warned that not knowing the names or being able to rely on those living across your floor or within your own building, creates vulnerability. After publishing a frightening article in the New Yorker on the big earthquake projected to hit the Pacific Northwest, the author revealed one piece of advice for communities that want to lower their risk of casualties and be prepared: get to know your neighbors.

If natural disasters occur, or even something like the refugee crisis, it is imperative for people to be able to rely on others within their vicinity. In the long term, social cohesion, even if superficial, might offer a sense of stability. This is especially the case for vulnerable populations, for instance, those living in social housing, or in buildings where young families and senior citizens live. Being able to take care of neighbors or receive favors when needed is what cities should begin to imagine under social connectedness. It is what we will require resilience. Fortunately, Vancouver has outlined goals to Cultivate Connections in its Healthiest City Strategy 2014-2025, highlighting that is prioritizes social cohesion as a priority issue.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Halina Rachelson

Manhattan South? A Study of Miami's Emerging Mixed Use Downtown

It surprised me to see the authors of a recently published New York Times article to compare the outcome of Miami's rapidly evolving Downtown landscape to that of major U.S. metropolises like New York and San Francisco. Miami's mainland has always faltered due to sprawl, while South Beach, the nearby barrier island, with dense commercial development within walking distance of homes, grabbed the media spotlight. It drew in the metropolitan region's tourism and real estate investment.

Miami's image has always been one of luxury living, leisure, and tourism

With millennials seeing positive prospects of living in Downtown and surrounding areas like the Design District, Wynwood, and Midtown, centripetal forces are claiming the central business district, as clerical development moves inward rather than outward as rents become more affordable in the center (also thank the Panama Papers leak). A rapid influx of members from the creative class consisting of artists, entrepreneurs, and business professionals are drawn to a growing cultural economy in these areas. The areas began their growth with art galleries soon followed by boutiques and high-end restaurants.

Miami, as of last year (or so it seems), boasts many a craft brewer, specialty cocktail bar, and innovative restaurant concept. Funky public spaces, such as the Wynwood Yard, offer incubator space for food trucks to try out business and local bands to play concerts every evening of the week. Museums like the Perez Art Museum and the new science museum have become defining attractions, drawing in the public. As a result, the average beach-goer might be evolving into a foodie and public art devotee. 

Food trucks, salsa dancing, raised bed gardens, musical performances
 all take place at the publicly- accessible Wynwood YardImage Source:
https://a.cdn.miamimusicweek.com/production/venue/171/image/Wynwood-Yard.jpg

The Perez Art Museum is as much a value to art and architecture as it is to public space and scenery for the city
Image Source: http://www.daversteels.co.uk/assets/projects/images/golden_dusk_photography__ronstan_usa1.jpg 

Mainland Miami is becoming a cultural powerhouse- a new creative class magnet.  Richard Florida, the renowned urban geographer, might attribute this gentrification to the demand for accessibility to the amenities available in nearby South Beach, but also to the 'coolness' of neighborhoods, while suburban life out west and down south becomes less attractive. While driving one of Miami mainland's other day, I saw a sign for express lanes that read "congested". Young professionals are tired of clogged arterials and highways- they want a nice place to walk their dogs, a good view of Biscayne Bay, and to bump into others of their kind.

More importantly, the city hopefully protects itself from a 'suburban devolution', as urban geographer Jamie Peck calls it. In this process, instead of diverse housing types and mixed use buildings, monotonous condo towers and exclusive neighborhoods of studio lofts begin to dominate the landscape. Planners must pay attention to affordable housing and zoning. Among other concerns, can the city, without a proper industry, sustain itself? That remains to be seen. Unlike other cities, Miami's Downtown might not necessarily be doomed to becoming a playground for the rich, although some areas like the Design District hint at an increasingly polarized geography. However, the evolution, according to some naysayers could take much longer than usual.

Read original article here. 

Miami Pioneers the Rain-adaptive Utopia

Four months out of the year, Miami bears monsoon-like conditions. Receiving an average annual rainfall of 62 apt its infrastructure accordingly.

During my visit to Miami this time around, I uncovered a few locations where rain proofing of infrastructure helps the city maintain outdoor leisure activities regardless of how much it pours.

The Wynwood Yard: an entrepreneurial hub

Rooftop Rejuvenation: The use of Public Spaces in Hospitals

There's something about hospitals that emit an atmosphere of sterility, where everything from their white walls to the squeaky clean tiles can smother the soul. The Scientific American spells out what we all know to be true: hospitals are stressful places. Given that the brain is the central system that signals when to produce antigens to help the body heal, it is in the patient's best interest to have their brain optimised when recovering. 

Enter Mother Nature in the bleak horizon of antiseptic white walls, particularly that of Darul Ehsan Medical Center in Malaysia. 

On the second floor of this hospital, one will see an open rooftop courtyard with pebbled floors, furniture that respects the tropical culture of this country, and lush greenery that gives patients a break from the indoor world of medicine. This space, although not necessarily the creme de la creme of hospital public spaces, is comfortable and invigorating. 

Malaysia's hot climate requires some technique of cooling an area down, and what other way to best do this outdoors other than incorporating a water feature? A+ for the aesthetic.

The furniture complements the overall aesthetic; wooden chairs incorporate for a warmer feel to the space, and blue umbrellas revitalise the space with some colour, while providing much needed shade in their entirely open space. The tilework could (and perhaps should) have been replaced with grass.

It gives the patients a breather [pun intended] from the mechanical feel inside this hospital, as it allows them to interact with a wider demographic of patients. The elderly can interact with infants, with people outside of their circle of curers, people who don't pity them, but just want to know them. Patient's relatives can relax here. In the past, mother/baby expositions have been held here, and so we can see that this space facilitates community development, arguably achieving social sustainability. Lounges and cheap malaysian cuisine borders this area and stimulates some circulation of leisure money, a secondary form of income for the hospital that also creates a few jobs outside of the medical field here. 

Unfortunately, what this space particularly fails at is the environmental pillar of sustainability. Though there was planty (2nd pun) of opportunity to integrate a greener environment to the space, such as a grassy floor with a stone path that would have benefited the hospital during monsoon season (via stormwater management), they instead chose to use an impervious pebbly surface that is particularly harsh to patients who are vulnerable and can fall. Although the potted plants are diverse, there are but a few of them, and they lack cohesive design - the vegetation used is so random, that it weakens the general motif to this public space and fails to give this space its character. This is a shame, for Malaysia usually uses every design opportunity it has to integrate vegetation...even if it is sometimes at an expense to the user's convenience (bad pedestrian paths! But that's for another post).

Integrating extensive rooftop garden techniques to this space might be the solution to making it more sustainable; it is a shame that this hospital chose not to integrate more greenery into this space, especially given that nature helps heal. The constraints it most likely faced was the cost of installing and maintaining these plants. Though considering that nature helps patients heal faster...is this really a cost in the long run?

Tabinda Shah