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#19 Aequòpolis
2006

Small cities grow

by Richard Burdett

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Today, in 2007 (yes, 2007 is fast approaching), for the first time in the history of mankind, more than 50% of the population lives in cities. Just a century ago, when our great-grandparents or grandparents were alive, a few generations back, 90% lived in the countryside, and only 10% in cities. A transformation on a global scale. On an astronomical scale. I think that the problem of growth obviously places a great strain on society. I realise that time is an extremely important issue: the time it takes to grow. But if we think of Rome or London, we see that these cities have taken a thousand years, two thousand years (or four thousand in the case of Cairo) to reach this urban mass. In Shanghai, if I’m not mistaken, ten years ago there were 300 buildings more than ten storeys high. Now there are 3,000. There’s a synergy between people’s need to live close together (a fact borne out by history) and the positive effect of being closer to the impact of change.

The megalopolis to end all megalopolises, Tokyo, is also the most efficient. Out of 35 million inhabitants, 80% use public transport (trains) to go to work. In Los Angeles, it’s the complete opposite. They are different models, and this has an impact on the landscape, but it also affects people’s sense of social cohesion. If you spend four hours in a car to get to work, as happens in Mexico City, Bangkok or Los Angeles, you’re not spending time with your family. You feel isolated, you’re totally dependent on a system which is not a public club… and I think this has a negative impact. It is important to stress that for the first time, the ecological equation goes hand in hand with social integration, and also with the large-scale architecture that brings people into the city squares and streets. Architects create the scenario, then authors write poems, whether it’s Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, comparing the horrors of Paris and London in the 19th century, or the great contemporary novels like Ian McEwan’s Amsterdam which speaks of integrated life… you can’t see the difference between architecture and people’s lives.

I don’t think we could put it so bluntly as to say that there’s a one-to-one relationship between architecture and a literary vocation. A city is a wonderful thing, because it changes completely in twenty-four hours: it isn’t unique, it has many temporal dimensions. I think that great authors and writers manage to capture this complexity, which is fascinating. The big problem for us as architects is to create cities of the future without this complexity. It is a real problem, which should be debated at this event and elsewhere: the problem of how to create the cities of the future, not like Pudong in Shanghai, where you go to work and then go to bed, but where you can do a thousand different things in the evening, in public or in private.

I realise that an institution like the Biennale, visited by thousands of people, is a remarkable opportunity for communication. If there’s one thing we want to start doing with this event, it’s to move the debate towards three or four major issues. One is the problem of the rapport between the shape of buildings and their democratic potential. Is it possible to create a fairer society by constructing buildings of a certain type? It’s an ambition. The second thing is the relationship between transport, or the world of mobility, to use a rather boring technical term, and social justice. We’ve already mentioned the third issue, that is, the importance of a city’s shape with regard to sustainability, i.e. a one-to-one relationship. The fourth issue is highly complex and delicate, one that is widely perceived in Italy today. In other words, the higher the immigration of foreigners from different races and religions, the higher the probability that the public spaces in cities become the scene of conflict, not tolerance. Just think of what happened in Paris or Marseilles a few months ago. The last thing is a very old story for Italy: good government. Without a good government, we can forget about everything we have said up to now. Without a good government, great architects and engineers can no longer do anything. These are the five key themes of the agenda we are setting up: architecture and democracy, transport and justice, sustainability, tolerance and good government.

Richard Burdett

Born in London (1956), he lectures on Architecture and Town Planning at the London School of Economics (LSE), and is an architectural consultant for London City Council. He has over 20 years’ experience in organising exhibitions and architecture competitions, as well as communicating architecture to the media and the general public. He directed the 10th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale.

Tags: a tale of two cities, amsterdam, architects, architecture, bangkok, Biennale, buildings, cairo, charles dickens, cities, complexity, countryside, democracy, ecological, future, government, grow, ian macewan, impact, integration, Italy, justice, literary, london, los angeles, marseilles, megalopolis, mexico city, paris, population, public, pudong, richard burdett, rome, shangai, social, Society, sustainability, tokyo, tolerance, transformation, transport, urban

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THE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY
Daniele Sandri
Aequòpolis should not be a place that pollutes and strips natural resources down to the bone, but it should blend into them, becoming an integral part of them.
Silvia Amaduzzi
Utopolis. Today, a just city is a Utopia; an emerald City to be built from the errors of unsustainable development in the modern megalopolis.
Domenico D'Alessio
Aequòpolis, the city that gives a natural aspect to urbanisation. A city that allows you to feel as though you were someone in a sea of nobodies, to find an equilibrium in which you can feel alive.
Guido Tamino
The reality portrayed is a perceived, fleeting, rapid and confused one. It is the reality that we intercept, perceive and experience, as we walk.
Andrea Cadorin
The artificial installation has become naturalised, and Nature has become urbanised. A selective process.
Francesca Pasini
Cities give great chances, from a perfect stranger you can become someone. This is the reason why many people live in a big city.
Katja Onjukka
People need more open, green spaces where they can relax, breathe fresh air, smell the grass. We have to discover the secret of greenery.
Mario Ruggiero
Starting with the observations of Daverio, "is the growth of cities a question of numbers?" and Branzi "a city has to offer opportunities" I’ve seen a growing, seeping form of random development, mainly driven by the market. A development that risks isolating the individual.
Fabrizio Luca
Modern cities compress, draw in and heap together any kind of shape, like a funnel. Yet Nature tries to adapt itself to this city.
Simone Trotti
This is Bangkok, a city of angels and temples. Bangkok, unrecognisable. It overruns all boundaries and keeps expanding. Insatiable.
Ilaria Di Emidio
A liveable city, a possible city. Not destroying what exists, but redesigning it, changing the perspective: today, cities are not wrong, just interpreted badly.
Ilaria Di Emidio
A liveable city, a possible city. Not destroying what exists, but redesigning it, changing the perspective: today, cities are not wrong, just interpreted badly.
Giorgio Caviglia
The city is created and grows fed by its diversity. All attempts at planning should be aimed at making the most of its peculiarities.
Susanna Ferraro
Vertical development as an objective; the text becomes part of the metropolitan fabric, integrating and elevating it towards an aequòpolis.
Cristina Venanzetti
You can see the city because the eye of a 20th century human being can distinguish more than 100 different shades of grey. There has also been a physiological adaptation to cities that are ever greyer.
Maria Rosaria Delle Cave
Outside of the conurbations, towards the provinces, losing yourself in the unexplored footpaths to find yourself.
Katja Onjukka
People need more open, green spaces where they can relax, breathe fresh air, smell the grass. We have to discover the secret of greenery.
Stefano Cremisini
An idealised space where nothing is stronger. Everything is on the same level, there is no dimension, no above and no below. A utopian cohabitation of different shapes.
Domenico D'Alessio
Aequòpolis, the city that gives a natural aspect to urbanisation. A city that allows you to feel as though you were someone in a sea of nobodies, to find an equilibrium in which you can feel alive.
Tommaso Colombo
The city is a cohesion of different realities. The basic idea is to transpose this variety of aspects which make up the city through a type of “aequòpolis” composed of different features.
Vincenzo Lodigiani
While preserving the inevitable, oppressive and negative aspects of the great modern metropolis, the new city has the ability to transform itself, offering its inhabitants escape routes towards refuges where they can find their own equilibrium, on a personal or group level.
Paola Slongo
Metropolitan suburbs like giant Tetris blocks: anonymous masses suffocating the sky; indeterminate pieces of solitude fixed in a precarious equilibrium.
Beatrice Cesana
Large cities are like Leopardi’s hedge. A barrier to be overcome with the help of the planners’ imagination.
Ilaria Comello
In some cities, going home is not something that everybody wants to do: architecture and good government can make sure that it is.
Sabrina Grillo
“A famous story says that in Babylon, part of the city was occupied by enemy invaders and the other parts knew nothing about it. The city was not communicating with itself.” Predrag Matvejevic
Paola Busnelli
Sustainable city... to live or to lie? Man is at the heart of the question. Man is responsible for the answer: Live or lie? Act or submit?

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Anonymous at Galleria illy London
“The time is always right to do the right thing”

Martin Luther King
"Liberty is about our rights to question everything".

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Small cities grow

by Richard Burdett

Write a comment

Search illywords

Images

THE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY

Daniele Sandri

Aequòpolis should not be a place that pollutes and strips natural resources down to the bone, but it should blend into them, becoming an integral part of them.

Silvia Amaduzzi

Utopolis. Today, a just city is a Utopia; an emerald City to be built from the errors of unsustainable development in the modern megalopolis.

Domenico D'Alessio

Aequòpolis, the city that gives a natural aspect to urbanisation. A city that allows you to feel as though you were someone in a sea of nobodies, to find an equilibrium in which you can feel alive.

Guido Tamino

The reality portrayed is a perceived, fleeting, rapid and confused one. It is the reality that we intercept, perceive and experience, as we walk.

Andrea Cadorin

The artificial installation has become naturalised, and Nature has become urbanised. A selective process.

Francesca Pasini

Cities give great chances, from a perfect stranger you can become someone. This is the reason why many people live in a big city.

Katja Onjukka

People need more open, green spaces where they can relax, breathe fresh air, smell the grass. We have to discover the secret of greenery.

Mario Ruggiero

Starting with the observations of Daverio, "is the growth of cities a question of numbers?" and Branzi "a city has to offer opportunities" I’ve seen a growing, seeping form of random development, mainly driven by the market. A development that risks isolating the individual.

Fabrizio Luca

Modern cities compress, draw in and heap together any kind of shape, like a funnel. Yet Nature tries to adapt itself to this city.

Simone Trotti

This is Bangkok, a city of angels and temples. Bangkok, unrecognisable. It overruns all boundaries and keeps expanding. Insatiable.

Ilaria Di Emidio

A liveable city, a possible city. Not destroying what exists, but redesigning it, changing the perspective: today, cities are not wrong, just interpreted badly.

Ilaria Di Emidio

A liveable city, a possible city. Not destroying what exists, but redesigning it, changing the perspective: today, cities are not wrong, just interpreted badly.

Giorgio Caviglia

The city is created and grows fed by its diversity. All attempts at planning should be aimed at making the most of its peculiarities.

Susanna Ferraro

Vertical development as an objective; the text becomes part of the metropolitan fabric, integrating and elevating it towards an aequòpolis.

Cristina Venanzetti

You can see the city because the eye of a 20th century human being can distinguish more than 100 different shades of grey. There has also been a physiological adaptation to cities that are ever greyer.

Maria Rosaria Delle Cave

Outside of the conurbations, towards the provinces, losing yourself in the unexplored footpaths to find yourself.

Katja Onjukka

People need more open, green spaces where they can relax, breathe fresh air, smell the grass. We have to discover the secret of greenery.

Stefano Cremisini

An idealised space where nothing is stronger. Everything is on the same level, there is no dimension, no above and no below. A utopian cohabitation of different shapes.

Domenico D'Alessio

Aequòpolis, the city that gives a natural aspect to urbanisation. A city that allows you to feel as though you were someone in a sea of nobodies, to find an equilibrium in which you can feel alive.

Tommaso Colombo

The city is a cohesion of different realities. The basic idea is to transpose this variety of aspects which make up the city through a type of “aequòpolis” composed of different features.

Vincenzo Lodigiani

While preserving the inevitable, oppressive and negative aspects of the great modern metropolis, the new city has the ability to transform itself, offering its inhabitants escape routes towards refuges where they can find their own equilibrium, on a personal or group level.

Paola Slongo

Metropolitan suburbs like giant Tetris blocks: anonymous masses suffocating the sky; indeterminate pieces of solitude fixed in a precarious equilibrium.

Beatrice Cesana

Large cities are like Leopardi’s hedge. A barrier to be overcome with the help of the planners’ imagination.

Ilaria Comello

In some cities, going home is not something that everybody wants to do: architecture and good government can make sure that it is.

Sabrina Grillo

“A famous story says that in Babylon, part of the city was occupied by enemy invaders and the other parts knew nothing about it. The city was not communicating with itself.” Predrag Matvejevic

Paola Busnelli

Sustainable city... to live or to lie? Man is at the heart of the question. Man is responsible for the answer: Live or lie? Act or submit?

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