global cities

Global Cities

Tate Modern
Until 27 August 2007


Global Cities is a pioneering presentation of art and architecture inspired by last year's Venice Biennale. London is the focus alongside urban titans Cairo, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mumbai, São Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo. Films, videos and photographs by more than 20 artists and architects offer subjective and intimate interpretations of urban conditions while new commissions by Nigel Coates, Zaha Hadid & Patrik Schumacher, Fritz Haeg, OMA*AMO/Rem Koolhaas, Nils Norman and Richard Wentworth explore the London context.

Sponsored by Land Securities
In association with Savills and Derwent London

Global Cities looks at the changing faces of ten dynamic international cities: Cairo, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mumbai, São Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo.

Exploring each city through five thematic lenses – speed, size, density, diversity and form – the exhibition draws on data originally assembled for the 10th International Architecture Exhibition at the 2006 Venice Biennale. This unique show presents existing films, videos and photographs by more than 20 artists and architects to offer subjective and intimate interpretations of urban conditions in all ten cities.

As Global Cities takes place in one of the focus cities, the exhibition uses London as a touchstone for comparison. New commissions by a group of six artists and architects – Nigel Coates; Zaha Hadid & Patrik Schumacher; Fritz Haeg; OMA*AMO/Rem Koolhaas; Nils Norman; and Richard Wentworth – explore the local context through issues such as sustainability, public space and social inclusion.

FORM

Eva Koch
NoMad 1998
Video extract
Running time: 11 minutes 53 seconds

This section provides an overview of the distinctly different urban forms of five cities: Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Mumbai, and Tokyo. Satellite photographs illustrate the diversity and complexity of human impact on these cities, as physically manifest in street widths, block and plot sizes and distribution of open green spaces.

All five cities contain centrally-planned zones, but each also contains areas that have grown informally and organically. These physical structures have arisen to accommodate each city’s geographical and environmental conditions, (rivers, coastlines, mountains, orientation, etc), as well as its cultural, social and economic systems. Urban form - the DNA of the city - bears the imprint of the flows and forces that shape our daily lives.

Given the complex and locally-specific relationships between urban form and city life, architects and city planners face many challenges in trying to bring about positive change within cities of this size and history. These include the task of providing adequate infrastructure for the large number of informal settlements that have arisen in cities like Mumbai; protecting Tokyo from multiple potential natural disasters; and filling in the large areas that are London’s legacy from redundant infrastructure and industries. Many cities are being assailed by homogeneous, globalised international models which take no account of their particular, individual structures. The lasting success of planning policies and future developments may depend on the sensitivity of such interventions within the grain of their urban DNA.

DIVERSITY

Francesco Jodice 1967
Born and works Italy
São Paulo - Citytellers 2006
Video
Running time: 48 minutes
Courtesy the artist and UniCredit Group Collection

In an urban context, diversity - the level of variety within a city - is usually interpreted as its ethnic and racial composition. But diversity has a much broader range of indicators: the spread of ages and incomes, education levels, the range of employment sectors, and people born in the city versus newcomers.

When cities grow to accommodate new people they test the human capacity for coexistence, whether the newcomers are from outlying rural areas or the other side of the world. Diversity can affect a city’s social cohesion in different ways. It can foster a degree of integration amongst people from diverse backgrounds, celebrating tolerance and coexistence. On the other hand, it can equally engender segregation, with diverse groups coexisting separately, leading to a potential for social conflict and confrontation.

Urban segregation can take various physical forms, from fortified residential districts to business enclaves; while urban integration can foster vibrant and mixed quarters, catering to the cultural, social and economic needs of particular constituencies. Better integrated cities are designed around shared facilities, such as public parks or accessible public transport systems, and a more continuous urban grain that connects rather than separates communities. A variety of different patterns are examined here, with reference to five of the exhibition’s ten cities: Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Sao Paulo and Shanghai.

Johannesburg’s multi-ethnic population comprises 73% black African, 16% white, 6% mixed race and 4% Indian or Asian. Since the end of apartheid in 1994 Johannesburg has grown by 4% a year. In recent years there has been an increase in immigration from the rest of the continent to South Africa, particularly to Johannesburg. This has visibly affected many dimensions of city life, including its economy, housing and infrastructure demands, and social integration – with various outcomes. Johannesburg’s history of racial separation is still reflected in its social geography. Whites (a demographic minority) tend to occupy the northern leafy suburbs, where they are being joined by an emerging black middle class. Less affluent black Africans, traditionally relegated to townships, and migrants from elsewhere on the continent have moved into the now-deprived downtown area.

Crime, the ongoing rampant HIV/AIDS epidemic and a lack of safe public transport are key concerns. Life expectancy is notably low: only 4% of residents reach 65 and the average age for a male is 52 years. Almost one in three is under 20. Currently one household in five has no income; unemployment hovers around 600,000 people.

PROJECT: FARADAY STATION PRECINCT The Faraday Station Precinct is the hub of a new integrated transport system for a population previously badly served by the city’s social and physical infrastructure. The precinct, built above an existing commuter rail system, incorporates formal taxi ranks for the otherwise unregulated long distance and local minibuses which provide the cheapest mode of transport. It is also notable for providing safer, more formalised facilities for herb sellers and healers using traditional medicines or muti.

DESIGNERS: ALBONICA SACK MZUMARA ARCHITECTS & URBAN DESIGNERS, WITH MMA ARCHITECTS CLIENTS: CITY OF JOHANNESBURG AND THE JOHANNESBURG DEVELOPMENT AGENCY COMPLETION DATE: 2003

Much of London’s recent growth is due to international inward migration, which partially counterbalances the numbers of mostly British-born households leaving the city. 95% of those moving to London since 1995 were born outside the UK.

Nearly a third of London’s residents are from non-white minority ethnic communities. Concentrations are found in three regions: south of the river Thames in Lambeth, Southwark and Croydon; along a corridor from the East End to East Ham; and to the west and north-west. In some areas, ethnic minorities make up over half the population.

London is the UK’s economic powerhouse, with global importance as a finance and business centre; nearly 90% of its residents work in services. But its wealth belies the levels of poverty in its inner city areas, where social housing is concentrated, and ‘key workers’ struggle to find affordable accommodation near their workplaces.

Los Angeles is a ‘minority majority’ metropolis. Half its residents are Latinos (three times the US average), and over 10% of Asian descent. Only 30% identify themselves as Anglophone white. About 40% were born outside the United States – nearly four times the national average.

Some of the city’s ethnic groups congregate in specific sections of the city such as Korea Town, Boyle Heights (Chicanos) and Glendale (Armenians), but most neighbourhoods host a mix of races. The city’s political representation reflects this diversity, though some friction remains.

Los Angeles is home to some of the wealthiest people in the world, but more than 20% of its families live in poverty. Most workers are employed in business and services, but Los Angeles also maintains a solid industrial base. The unemployed tend to congregate in former industrial areas, with newer concentrations emerging in aging suburbs and high-growth peripheral areas.

Sao Paulo is ethnically diverse and young: 66% of its population is under 20. The city has remained multicultural since the nineteenth century, when the region’s coffee plantations attracted workers from Spain, Portugal and Japan. Many residents are of mixed ethnic origins, descendants of migrants from many parts of the world. It is said that Sao Paulo is the largest Japanese city outside Japan, the largest Portuguese city outside Portugal, the largest Spanish city outside Spain, and the largest Lebanese city outside Lebanon. More recent migrants from Brazil’s poorest north-east regions form a large proportion of the city’s low-paid service workers.

Sao Paulo is prosperous compared to the rest of Brazil, but poverty, unemployment and crime remain major challenges. In contrast, the city’s wealthy population is reflected by its more than 1,000 private helicopters, a rate of ownership similar to New York City and Tokyo.

The population of the central district has declined steadily since the 1970s. Despite ambitious revitalisation plans, wealthy residents and businesses still move out. The population is growing most in peripheral areas with the poorest infrastructure.

PROJECT: 100 NEW SCHOOLS FOR SAO PAULO In 2000, the school attendance rate of 11-14 year olds in peripheral urban neighbourhoods of Sao Paulo State was roughly 20%. A lack of school facilities compounded the problem.

The initiative to erect 100 new schools is a direct response to this challenge. The same construction guidelines apply to every site: a high-quality design, simple pre-fabricated structures and durable materials. Projects have low costs and short turn-around times. Beyond its educational role, the scheme has also provided after-hours, multi-purpose spaces for the local communities. Nearly 30 projects have been completed to date.

ARCHITECTS FOR THREE SELECTED PROJECTS: MMBB ARQUITETOS (CONJUNTO HABITACIONAL CAMPINAS F1 SCHOOL); ESTUDIO 6 ARQUITETOS (JARDIM UMUARAMA/MOACYR DE CASTRO FERRAZ SCHOOL); SPBR ARQUITETOS (JARDIM ATALIBA LEONEL/PEDRO DE MORAES VICTOR SCHOOL) CLIENT: FOUNDATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION (FDE), STATE OF SAO PAULO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION DATES: 2003 – ONGOING

After the homogeneous social levelling of the Mao period, Shanghai has recently become a more diverse society. Only 0.7% of its population was born outside China, but its social mix is deepened by influxes of overseas Chinese, Western and Asian expatriates and domestic economic migrants. Levels of inequality are now as marked as when the city was an international concession before 1941.

Shanghai has a low fertility rate and an aging population; 17% of residents are 65 or older. Its growth is driven by inward migration, particularly from rural areas. This ‘floating population’ – about 4 million people – helps meet the demand for low-wage labour. But it also tests the city’s capacity for social inclusion and integration; ‘floating’ workers, lacking official status, often live in makeshift accommodation and have only limited access to social services.

The speed with which many of the world's cities are growing affects their social and physical structure dramatically. The five cities featured in this section - Cairo, Istanbul, London, Los Angeles and Shanghai - are experiencing growth at a different pace, and absorbing it in different manners: some are growing upwards, others are growing outwards.

The speed of urban change is fuelled by natural increase as well as rural-to-urban migration, with people flocking to cities in search of jobs and social opportunities. Some cities, like London, are managing this change with planned strategies for growth. Others are overtaken by informal development processes that completely transform their scale, texture and character.

In many cases, the social and urban landscapes of these cities are being rapidly transformed by the speculative commercial development of business parks, commercial districts, shopping malls and housing enclaves. These changes directly affect the lives of existing communities and new city residents; the way in which they are managed is central to the creation of more balanced and inclusive cities in the twenty-first century.

According to the United Nations, Shanghai is the eighth fastest-growing city in the world, adding 29.4 new residents each hour. The city lies at the intersection of global trading routes at the heart of the Yangtze river delta, one of world's fastestgrowing regions. Its metropolitan region holds over 18 million inhabitants, a number increased mainly by rural Chinese migrants attracted by its economic potential and rampant construction activity.

Shanghai's sustained and substantial economic growth (the current annual economic growth rate of 10% is projected to continue for at least another decade) has produced a landscape of dramatic vertical and horizontal expansion. The city's public and private sectors are closely meshed, and it continues to build themed satellite towns and construct hundreds of new subway stations. The demand for residential space is fuelled by speculative development as well as residents' needs; in 1985 the average dwelling size was 12 square metres – the size of a small car. It is now over 40 square metres; still small by most North American and European standards.

Shanghai's economy is modernising as well as growing: approximately half of the labour force work in the service sector, while 36% are employed in industry – about three times the number in western global cities like London. Shanghai is also investing heavily in expanding its road capacity and public transport infrastructure. Currently a quarter of daily commuters use some form of public transport, with over half of Shanghai residents either walking or cycling to work. While an annual limit has been set on car sales, bicycles are targeted as an impediment to traffic flow, threatening this older and more sustainable form of transport.

Cairo is one of the world's oldest continually - inhabited cities, centred on the river Nile and its fertile basin surrounded by desert. It is an intense palimpsest of overlapping cultures and civilizations, each of which has lefts its mark on the city's built heritage. The population totals 7.8 million, with almost 15 million in the greater metropolitan area; non-official figures approach 18 million. Cairo's population grew by about 890% in the past century, fuelled partly by an influx from rural areas. Current growth is calmer: 15% in the past decade. Cairo is the fifteenth fastest-growing city in the world and the third fastest in Africa, after Lagos and Kinshasa.

60% of the city's residents live in unlicensed housing, some up to 14 storeys high, but many have access to modern facilities – water, gas and electricity. 100,000 people inhabit Cairo's City of the Dead, whose small courtyard buildings, mosques and tombs provide makeshift shelter for new immigrants. The site has been occupied by the poor for several hundred years.

To redirect urban growth, Cairo's government has fostered the development of several satellite cities in desert areas poorly served by public transport. But despite heavy promotion over three decades, by 1996 the total population of these new towns was less than Greater Cairo's growth in just six months.

Istanbul is the eighteenth fastest-growing city in the world, adding 19 new residents each hour. With 9.8 million inhabitants, the ancient but rapidly growing city is the largest within its young country. Istanbul straddles the Asian and European continents, with an extensive waterfront on both sides of the Bosphorus. The city grew by around 900% in the past 50 years; 27% in the last decade. Further growth of 1.5 million people is projected in the next decade. With the recent infusion of global capital and culture, the city is engaging in large infrastructure schemes. These include the Marmaray rail-tube tunnel linking its two halves, and controversial programmes for renovating its urban core and redeveloping its waterfront.

Industry is no longer the principal cog in Istanbul's economy, but it employs a third of the city's population; significantly, a third of Turkey's manufacturing plants are still in Istanbul. As industries move to the outskirts of the city, many redundant industrial areas (especially along Istanbul's extensive waterfronts) have become sites for the development of cultural institutions and facilities. This is particularly true of its Asian side; until recently, such resources have been concentrated in the historic western peninsula.

With a population of 7.5 million, London is growing again after a period of decline. This growth is moderate compared with the other cities in this section: London is the 360th fastest-growing city in the world, adding only 2.3 new residents an hour (less than one-tenth of Shanghai's rate).

London reached its peak of 8.6 million people in 1939, but declined during the 1970s and 80s. 600,000 more inhabitants are projected in the coming decade. The planning decision to contain this growth within the existing city boundary is driving a period of intense inner city development. Housing and offices are being constructed at higher densities on available urban land – much of it on redundant industrial or 'brownfield' sites along the river Thames.

London lies at the heart of south-east England; its regional hinterland contains 17 million people. London itself is the UK's economic powerhouse, with a GDP equivalent to that of Switzerland; over 80% of its work-force are employed in services. But London's wealth belies the levels of poverty in inner city areas. High housing costs in relation to income mean that over half the children in some central areas live below the national poverty line.

PROJECT: CONGESTION CHARGE Congestion charging is a daily fee for driving a vehicle on public roads within a designated zone (an ovalshaped 22 square kilometres of central London) during weekday peak hours. The scheme is enforced by computer- linked licence plate recognition cameras. The scheme has generally been a success, despite continued opposition from central London businesses, who claim the charge has negatively affected their trade. The charge was increased from £5 to £8 in 2005 and a westward expansion of the regulated zone was implemented in early 2007. The congestion charge has reduced car-use within the zone by over 25% (compared with pre-charging peak-hour levels). Bus passenger numbers have nearly doubled since 2003. Profits are ploughed back into public transport and public space improvements.

CLIENT: TRANSPORT FOR LONDON, MAYOR OF LONDON PHASE ONE 2003; PHASE TWO 2007

Los Angeles is a city of suburbs at the heart of a wider agglomeration of over 16 million people; it is the second largest metropolitan region in the USA after New York. The city is growing at a rate of 10.1 people per hour - half the number of Cairo, but nearly five times that of London. Its Long Beach agglomeration is 52nd fastest-growing in the world. LA's urban growth is driven by a strong economy, based on a high industrial and port activity as well as the media and film industries. The city has grown horizontally, at relatively low residential densities: a collection of suburbs consisting mostly of detached single family homes. Recent immigration and geographic limits to expansion are causing pressure to accommodate more people within its boundaries. In contrast to the image of a lush city on the Californian coast, many communities in Los Angeles (particularly in the south) are deprived of open space. Only 10% of the city is allocated to green open spaces: primarily large parks away from higher density urban centres.

Private cars remain the prevalent transport mode; public transport serves only 10% of daily journeys. Inadequate public transport provision has clear social-justice implications: Los Angeles's poor residents rely on the bus system. But the city is investing in its public transport infrastructure: bus rapid transit, light rail and subway. In addition, it is strengthening a freight rail link along the Alameda corridor, connecting the region's two ports with its downtown area. Prominent public buildings built over the past ten years form a new civic focus in the central city; plans are underway to regenerate the downtown district.

Cities are increasingly at the centre of global flows of people, capital, culture and information. Over the last 30 years their role as financial command centres has expanded, creating a new type of sprawling, often multi-centred, urban agglomeration.

There are now over 20 mega-city regions with more than ten million people. There are also nearly 450 city regions with over one million residents. Together they house more than one billion people in a relatively small surface of the earth. As they expand even further, into urbanised regions of over 50 million inhabitants, their footprint will have a direct impact on climate change and the ecological balance of the planet, as well as on the lives of existing and new city dwellers. This section explores some of the most populous city regions of the world – the greater Tokyo area (the largest urban region in the world today), and the expanding metropolitan zones of Mexico City and Sao Paulo. Each city displays different spatial characteristics and varying levels of success in managing urban change through governance and policies to contain sprawl. Some of these policies, such as London’s Green Belt, established by Patrick Abercrombie in 1943, can have a lasting impact on the city’s ecology and liveability.

Tokyo, the largest city in the world and the only mega-city in a developed economy, expanded dramatically after the Second World War. Over 40% of the city is built on landfill encroaching on Tokyo Bay to accommodate this growth. However, given Japan's low demographic dynamism and the policies to curb Tokyo's growth, the city will grow at a relatively modest pace. Like many other cities in Japan, Tokyo is prone to earthquakes and flooding. Home to a relatively wealthy and homogenous population, the city is composed of narrow building plots, closely-packed commercial districts, such as Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ginza or the new centre at Roppongi Hills. The Greater Tokyo area in the Kanto region now accommodates over 34 million people in a consistently dense and multi-centred urban region that is well served by an integrated system of trains, underground and buses, used by nearly 80% of daily commuters.

Despite its scale and complexity Tokyo provides a highly efficient urban model and is now seeking to make more of its assets by creating denser clusters of development near the centre and regenerating its under-used waterfront along Tokyo Bay. The Governor of Tokyo is one of the most powerful figures in the Japanese administration and Tokyo receives more national fiscal resources than it contributes.

Sao Paulo is Brazil’s largest and richest city, with a metropolitan region the size of Los Angeles or Shanghai. Its population has nearly doubled in the past 45 years, and growth in the last decade was 9.2%. As the country’s financial capital, with a constituency the size of some European countries, Sao Paulo plays a key role in national politics.

A continuous, dense city that spreads out into the tropical vegetation of the Tietê river valley, Sao Paulo’s boundaries are in a state of constant flux as it expands outwards from its emptying historic core to a disparate periphery, with poor favelas (squatter settlements) close to the exclusive highrises of the rich.

Today six million cars operate on Sao Paulo’s streets and a thousand new cars are registered every day. Just under half of daily journeys are by public bus, while just over half are by private car. Long commute times (four-hour journeys for residents of some outlying districts) and vehicle pollution are major issues, yet investment in other modes of public transport, such as the metro, has been minimal. The invasion and contamination of the city’s watershed by informal housing – whose poor occupants cannot access adequate and affordable housing within the existing city fabric – threatens the provision of drinking water and viability of the sewage system for the wider city region.

Sprawling across a high plateau framed by mountains and volcanoes, Mexico City has expanded tenfold in both population and area since 1940. With a population of 18 million plus, the city region generates nearly a quarter of Mexico's wealth, attracting people – many of them young – from the rest of the country to the Aztecs' original 'floating city'.

The region faces a major challenge in co-ordinating services and infrastructure across the administrative boundaries of the two separate governing entities that make up Mexico City's wider metropolitan area – the Federal District and the State of Mexico. Its central tree-lined boulevards and security-guarded shops and offices contrast with the continuous spread of informal housing that clings to the steep hills and extends outwards to the horizon.

The income gap between rich and poor remains wide, and a high crime rate dominates, with security a prime concern alongside pollution and traffic congestion, exacerbated by car-oriented policy and investment, in a city where petrol is cheaper than bottled water. Fear has motivated the presence of security forces and the construction of gated residential and commercial compounds across the city.

The new city mayor is now pushing for more coordinated governance to control sprawl, revitalising its historic centre, introducing more sustainable transport, and starting to tackle its acute water shortage and the crumbling urban fabric that reflects decades of unstructured growth and poor resource management.

Density – the number of people living in a given area, usually expressed as people per square kilometre – is at the centre of public debate on the future growth of cities. Used as a planning tool, awareness of density can help to curtail over-development and overcrowding, or ensure that scarce urban land is not under-used, especially in areas with good public transport and social amenities. High density does not mean high-rise; large numbers of people can be accommodated in five- or six-storey buildings arranged in a compact and efficient manner, creating congenial places for living.

Good design can produce desirable neighbourhoods in cities across the world by balancing dense development with access to open space and good transport. Dense urban environments can create sustainable cities; more dispersed developments use up more land and need more infrastructure – water, gas, electricity, roads – with negative impacts on the environment. High density housing can be associated with poverty and overcrowding, especially in the slums of developing countries. However, good design can produce desirable neighbourhoods in cities across the world by balancing dense development with access to open space and good transport – as evident in some of the most successful neighbourhoods in London, Paris and New York.

The four models shown in this section compare, at the same scale, the number of people living within the administrative boundaries of four of the ten cities featured in the exhibition. The peaks show the highest residential densities, with the largest number of people concentrated in a square kilometre. They range from the high-density of Cairo and Mumbai to the more dispersed, but bounded London (contained by the Green Belt) and the sprawling Mexico City.

Residential density: 5,800 people per km2
(London 4,500 people per km2)

Located on a high plateau, with few geographic boundaries to curb its growth, Mexico City has developed as a low-rise, sprawling city; the central Federal District's residential density is about 5,800 people per km2, slightly higher than the relatively low density of London. But it has some denser areas: wealthier parts in the south, east and the historic centre, as well as less affluent areas such the urbanised north.

The suburban sprawl continues to develop, fuelled by low-cost mortgages, cheap petrol and a lax regulatory framework. The municipal government has tried to re-shape the fragmented city by luring residents back into the historic centre, whose population had decreased by 40% between 1970 and 1995. But certain programmes intended to bring more people into the city centre have had the unanticipated effect of pricing out some residents, forcing them into the surrounding State of Mexico.

PROJECT: BRAZIL 44 The current regeneration of Mexico City’s historic centre involves revitalising historic structures as well as creating and upgrading commercial buildings and infrastructure. Brazil 44 is part of a federal government initiative in partnership with the Junta de Andalucia of Spain, aimed at improving housing conditions for the poor in the historic centre. The project’s name is taken from the address of an existing dwelling, which is being revitalized to include five housing areas with retail space on the ground floor. Its aim is to provide public space for communal living desperately needed by Mexico City’s many inhabitants. ARCHITECT: JAVIER SANCHEZ / HIGUERA + SANCHEZ CLIENT: INSITUTO NACIONAL DE LA VIVIENDA EXPECTED CONSTRUCTION: 2007 PROJECT: EL FARO DE ORIENTE

El FARO (La Fábrica de Artes y Oficios) de Oriente, or ‘lighthouse of the east’ is a community cultural centre in the borough of Ixtapalapa, on the eastern edges of Mexico City. Ixtapalapa is one of the city’s most populated and violent zones, with inadequate amenities and poor urban infrastructure. The building was originally designed as government offices, but local officials re-appropriated it as a community arts centre, with studios, galleries, libraries and performance space. The project involves extending the public space surrounding the building to create an outdoor amphitheatre for large-scale performances, gatherings and activities, to provide a cultural oasis in this industrial desert environment. CLIENT: EL FÁBRICA DE ARTES Y OFICIOS ARCHITECT: ALBERTO KALACH / TALLER DE ARQUITECTURA X COMPLETION DATE: 2000

Residential density: 36,500 people per km2 (London 4,500 people per km2)

Cairo has a high residential density, approximately nine times that of London. Desert conditions limit the amount of habitable land in Egypt, so half its inhabitants live within a 100 kilometre radius of Cairo. Its dynamic informal economy is a magnet for people who continue to flow to Cairo’s already congested neighbourhoods. As a result, the many people attracted to the city have difficulty finding affordable housing.

The Nile Valley frames the overall metropolitan development of Cairo. The most dense urban areas lie along a corridor stretching north east from the river, and in parts of Giza, west of the Nile. Open public space is scarce; as a result, Cairo’s citizens have co-opted some unexpected parts of the city for use as social space, including using the multilane bridges over the Nile for evening picnics.

PROJECT: AL-AZHAR PARK
By the mid-1990s Cairo had one of the lowest ratios of green space per inhabitant in the world; at only one square metre per resident it fell far below the World Health Organisation’s recommended eight square metres per person. Al-Azhar Park was one solution to the problems of these extreme population pressures.

Designed to rehabilitate one of Cairo’s poorest and most populous areas, the park was created by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture on a 30-hectare site used as a dump for over 500 years. Mosques, palaces and historic houses are being restored alongside initiatives to provide residents with apprenticeships, employment, health centres and women’s associations. ARCHITECT/PLANNER: HISTORIC CITIES SUPPORT PROGRAMME (HCSP); SASAKI ASSOCIATES; SITES INTERNATIONAL CLIENT: GOVERNORATE OF CAIRO COMPLETION DATE: 2004

Residential density: 4,500 people per km2

Greater London - the area within the M25 ring road - has a residential density of over 4,500 people per km2 - only a quarter of the average density of Tokyo. Almost half (46%) of Greater London consists of open and recreational space, including the royal parks. Some of the most dense and affluent neighbourhoods are composed of townhouses or mansion blocks designed around landscaped squares (some still in private ownership) in Chelsea, Earl’s Court and Lancaster Gate. Most of London’s housing stock is made up of two- and three-storey terraced housing with small gardens.

The city’s ‘urban villages’ - such as Hampstead, Greenwich and Chiswick - create clusters of higherdensity development near transport hubs. Now that London’s Green Belt, established in 1943, has been reconfirmed as an urban growth boundary, the city must become denser rather than more dispersed. High-rise, high density office and residential complexes have developed around existing and new transport centres, particularly along the river Thames, including London Bridge, Bermondsey and Canary Wharf. The emerging shape of the city’s skyline is an ongoing focus of debate, with new clusters of taller buildings being planned in the financial district of the City of London and around transport hubs such as Victoria and London Bridge stations.

PROJECT: LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC GAMES AND REGENERATION OF THE LOWER LEA VALLEY The Lower Lea Valley is a derelict area of East London which is being transformed in preparation for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The project will regenerate one of poorest parts of the UK, and is concentrated around a new 500-acre park, the Stratford City development and the new Stratford International Station, where high-speed trains from the Channel Tunnel will arrive.

The Olympic Park, Olympic Stadium, Aquatics Centre and Velodrome will be permanent structures. All other, temporary, sports venues will be replaced by a mix of 9,000 private and affordable housing units, office space and community facilities. CLIENT: OLYMPIC DELIVERY AUTHORITY ARCHITECTS: EDAW, ALLIES & MORRISON AND FOREIGN OFFICE ARCHITECTS AND HOK SPORT DATES: 2003-ONGOING

The city of Mumbai (Bombay) covers 438 km2 of Salsette Island, although almost a fifth of this area is occupied by Borivali National Park. This means the urban areas are condensed into about 350 km2, with a high gross residential density, about seven times the density of London. About half the population lives in makeshift shacks with no sewers or water. Urban housing is cramped and expensive, and open public space is limited – only 1% of the city’s area – and often poorly-maintained.

Mumbai’s more affluent classes live in a corridor stretching along the city’s north-south axis. Taller residential structures are surrounded by densely-packed, low rise slum buildings. As the city diversifies from its core industries, former mill areas and docklands offer the potential to produce affordable housing and accessible public spaces, but given current development trends, are likely to become exclusive office and residential zones.

Lack of investment means urban infrastructure cannot meet the demands of a growing population. 85% of residents (the equivalent of the population of Norway) use public transport every day; train carriages are regularly filled well beyond their intended capacity. Mumbai is a city where the vast majority of people still walk to work, reflecting the strong link between the location of informal housing and workplaces.

PROJECT: CHIKHALWADI SANITATION PROJECT Mumbai lacks sanitation facilities for about half its population. The absence of running water and sewerage connections is unacceptable and potentially lifethreatening. Children in slums cannot compete in the long queues for scarce municipal toilets; they defecate outside their homes.

The Chikhalwadi Sanitation Project consists of community toilet blocks designed, constructed and maintained by collectives. They include separate spaces for men, women and children. Capital finance for construction comes from the state or municipalities, who also have to ensure that water and electricity are provided to the blocks.ARCHITECT: VISTAAR ARCHITECTS AND PLANNERS CLIENT: SPARC COMPLETION DATE: 2004