FORM
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Eva KochNoMad 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.
ISTANBUL
Huseyin Alptekin 1957
Born and works Turkey
Incidents 2005-7
Incident-s Bombay
Running time: 8 minutes 5 seconds
Video installation
Courtesy the artist
enlarge
Huseyin Alptekin 1957
Born and works Turkey
Incidents 2005-7
Incident-s Istanbul
Running time: 10 minutes 33 seconds
Video installation
Courtesy the artist
enlarge
Istanbul is the largest city in the Balkan region. It is an
ancient, but rapidly-growing city that straddles Asia
and Europe along the Bosphorus strait. 95% of
Istanbul is urbanised, mainly in response to overwhelming
housing demand from inward migration.
The formal city covers 1,839 km2, an area slightly
larger than London but with 30% more people. But
its informal bounds are ever-expanding as the city
grapples with a combination of suburban sprawl
and increased inner-city living.
In past decades pressing urban needs have often
been met through informal means. This is particularly
true of the housing sector, where gecekondu
(‘built overnight’) squatter settlements on the city’s
edges have been legitimised. In contrast, more
recent residential developments take the form of
gated communities.
Istanbul’s metropolitan government has recently
acknowledged the need for more comprehensive
planning by establishing an urban planning department.
The intention is to put in place a structured
process of project negotiation as well as more efficient
administration of public works projects.
Co-ordinating transport is another key challenge.
Over two-thirds of daily journeys in Istanbul are
made on an already over-burdened public transport
system; under a third are conducted by private car.
Public transport infrastructure struggles under the
weight of an ever-expanding population. Nevertheless,
public policy has had some success in encouraging
car-free travel alternatives, and improvements
to the current transport system are planned, including
a new tunnel beneath the Bosphorus strait
linking train networks on both continents.
Laurence Bonvin 1967
Born Switzerland, works Switzerland, Germany
Community 2005–6
On the Edges of Paradise and Istanbul Peripheral
Framed lightjet prints and plexiglass mounted lightjet prints
Courtesy the artist
enlarge
Laurence Bonvin 1967
Born Switzerland, works Switzerland, Germany
Community 2005–6
On the Edges of Paradise and Istanbul Peripheral
Framed lightjet prints and plexiglass mounted lightjet prints
Courtesy the artist
enlarge
JOHANNESBURG
Johannesburg is South Africa’s largest city, with a
population of about 3.2 million people at the centre
of Guateng, one of Africa’s most rapidly urbanising
regions. The city is relatively dispersed and has a
poor public transport system. Attempts to dismantle
the social and spatial legacy of apartheid are
underway, but elements of an unjust geography are
resurfacing. Unregulated settlement and increased
crime have driven jobs and people out to the
suburbs, creating a hole at the city’s heart around
Hillbrow, now inhabited principally by immigrants
from other African states.
The financial and corporate centre has moved
from the modernist downtown core to the shapeless
suburbs of Sandton and Rosebank. Within this area’s
shopping centres, walled hotels, and businesses
and residential complexes warded by security gates,
cameras and guards, a range of social groups gather
to conduct business and socialise.
Only three kilometres away, the former apartheid
ghettoes of Alexandra and Soweto house hundreds
of thousands in substandard conditions. Informal
settlements with high levels of social disadvantage
are growing along the city fringes, as new residents
struggle to obtain other forms of shelter and face
arduous journeys to work on informal public transport
systems. But Soweto now has tarmacked streets
and basic services, including schools and shopping
malls. And since 1994, the new South African
government has planned almost two million lowcost
homes under the Reconstruction and Development
Programme.
LONDON
Francis Alÿs 1959
Born Belgium, works Mexico, Britain
Railings 2004
From left to right
Sample I, Onslow Gardens, Park Crescent, Fitzroy Square
Video installation
Total running time: 10 minutes 44 seconds
Presented by Tate Patrons 2006
enlarge
London’s organic urban form covers an area of 1,572
square kilometres – double the size of New York City,
but with a similar population of 7.5 million inhabitants.
Its irregularity reflects many aspects of its history:
these include Britain’s island status, which meant
London needed no defensive barriers; the presence
of many urban villages; the destruction caused by
Second World War bombings and, more recently, the
fragmented nature of its local government.
Compared to any other global mega-city, a very
large amount of London’s surface is given over to
domestic gardens, parks and open areas, making it
a relatively low density city. London’s central and
western zones are denser and more continuous
while its eastern fringes are more fragmented and
open as the river Thames approaches the North Sea.
As the mercantile hub of the historic British
Empire, London’s port stretched eastwards along
the Thames to the open sea, remaining active until
the 1970s. This means much of the city’s available
land, derelict for decades, is concentrated in East
London, host to some of the city’s most disadvantaged
communities and now the site for new transport
and housing projects, including the London
2012 Olympics.
Also ripe for development are London’s existing
transport interchanges – King’s Cross, Paddington
Station, Stratford – and redundant industrial sites –
Battersea Power Station, White City, Greenwich
Peninsula and the Lower Lea Valley. These are being
developed by the private sector in response to
demand for new housing and commercial facilities.
Since 2000, after 15 years without metropolitan
governance, London has had an elected Mayor and
assembly to discuss citywide issues and to set metropolitan
policy. The Greater London Authority improves
coordination between the city’s 33 boroughs, focusing
on economic growth, housing, social inclusion and
upgrading urban and natural environments.
MUMBAI
Mumbai (Bombay) is India’s most populous city; over
18 million people live and work in its wider metropolitan
region, tightly-packed on a thin stretch of
land between the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of
Mumbai. Built on seven small islands progressively
linked by land reclaimed from the sea, Mumbai’s
growth has, until recently, been constrained by its
physical geography. The city has grown along corridors
created by an extensive suburban railway,
though residential development often consists of
slum settlements crowding dangerously close to the
tracks.
The population increased tenfold last century, but
sustained immigration and a high birth rate is set to
produce a 20% growth in the next decade. More
than half the city’s population lives in slums (a figure
roughly equivalent to the population of London).
Rapid urbanisation has produced poverty, poor
health and employment instability. Lack of investment
in transport, sanitation and housing means
that Mumbai is fast approaching breaking point.
Solutions to such major urban issues are needed
urgently. However, Mumbai is currently controlled by
the state of Maharashtra and Indian central government,
and as such suffers from a decision-making
system that lacks the knowledge and power to
implement changes sensitive to local needs.
TOKYO
Atelier Bow Wow:
Yoshiharu Tsukamoto 1965
Momoyo Kaijima 1969
Born and work Japan
World Cup Flux 2002–6
Video
Running time: 3 minutes 31 seconds
Courtesy Victoria Miro Gallery
enlarge
Tokyo’s population grew dramatically in the twentieth
century. The largest urban region in the world has
evolved as a series of continuous medium-density
suburbs, connected to employment and commercial
centres by a very efficient system of underground and
railway lines.Nearly four out of five daily journeys in
Tokyo are made on the city’s comprehensive public
transport network. To accommodate this growth,
Tokyo Bay has been progressively infilled to create
land for more offices and housing.
The city’s population is spread relatively evenly; it
does not have a significant high-density residential
inner core. Less than 5% of Tokyo’s total surface is
green space. Policies to curb the city’s growth mean
that the city is not expected to gain a significant
number of residents in the future; its challenge is to
produce a more sustainable and pleasant environment
for its millions of current residents.
Tokyo’s development has been driven by its
disaster-prone environmental landscape. Japan
experiences around 27 typhoons per year; Tokyo is
prone to earthquakes and floods, a problem exacerbated
by the fact that half of central Tokyo is built on
low-lying landfill sites. This means the city has always
considered its extensive waterfront from the point of
view of disaster-prevention, rather than as a recreational
asset. This strategy is being reversed as Tokyo
addresses its next stage of urban development.