SPRAWL vs SMART GROWTH: A NEW CITY FORM FOR BANGALORE.
Rama R.Subrahmanian
Asst.Professor, Dept. of Architecture, BMSCE, Bangalore.
Abstract: The rapid growth experienced by Bangalore has caused changes
in the physical form and extent of the city. Today the city covers an area of
495 Sq. Km. This kind of growth or Urban Sprawl may result in the city
becoming ineffective in performance, management and resulting quality of
life. The paper attempts to explore alternate city form.
1.0 Introduction : The city of Bangalore has experienced rapid growth over the
last two decades with the population exploding from 4.1 million to 6.1 million.
As the capital city of Karnataka, Bangalore is not only the state’s political,
cultural, scientific and educational center, but also one of the leading growth
engines of the country. The city has experienced double-digit growth in trade,
banking & commerce over the last decade. The upswing in economic growth and
the increase in business activity have had their impact on the real-estate sector.
Real estate has been one of the most important sectors of economic growth
since the mid-1990s, with public and private investment leading to improved
urban infrastructure, intense demands for housing and increased land
consumption. This rapid growth has fundamentally changed the physical pattern
of the city, both in the existing built-up areas and the extensive fringe area
developments. In the last few years, the Bangalore property market has seen a
shift from the central business district (CBD) to the suburbs with IT majors
shifting to suburban campuses. In the next five years, this trend is expected to
accelerate, with notified development of the IT corridor and the demand for own
built-to-suit facilities.
Cities have always expanded horizontally unless curbed by walls (historic towns),
natural barriers (e.g. Mumbai), or the inability to communicate over distance.
Policies such as greenbelts or the exclusion of immigrants have not been able to
maintain themselves over time. Recent urban policies have included either –
allowing low-density suburban expansion,
building dense public housing on the periphery,
establishing new towns,
or allowing poor migrants to squat in minimally controlled settlements.
Bangalore city has expanded mainly by the first of these models. Yet recent
studies indicate that unchecked development is bad for the city and its inmates—
for residents & commuters, for taxpayers, for the environment.
2.0 Urban sprawl: is defined as “a process of large scale real estate
development resulting in low density, scattered, car dependent construction
usually on the periphery of declining older suburbs and shrinking city centers.”
Hayden, 2005.
Thus urban sprawl is a product - but more than that, it’s a process. The process
is one of neglecting existing city neighborhoods, older suburbs, and the existing
infrastructure such as schools, clinics, roads and water supply & sanitation
systems in favor of new development. So the fringe areas of the metropolis are
often the places where there are new layouts, new shopping areas, affluent
residents and a demand for quality new schools; while the existing developments
struggle with congestion & chaos and lack of funds for renewal / development of
additional facilities required. This method of development results in disconnected
settlement patterns, at the same time downgrading older locations that people
have made a substantial social and economic investment in. Such spatial policies
also pay little attention to achieving greater social equity, which is surely a major
attribute of any "good" city.
Developers are most often interested in new development because it is
frequently most profitable to be building on raw land on the outer edge of a
metropolitan region where there are fewer restrictions, cheaper land is available,
and there are more profits to be made in short time. New development &
construction involve many people / players in the economy, using land, energy &
other resources.
Stretching Govt. resources to service these new layouts implies diverting scarce
revenue to the wrong end of the economic spectrum; there is no affordable,
multi-family housing here - we’re not housing the homeless. This is not a strategy
that results in any kind of social or economic equality.
3.0 The building out of suburban Bangalore: Historically, the most rapid rate
of suburbanization in Bangalore occurred between 1960 and 1970 when the city
evolved into a manufacturing hub for heavy industries such as HAL, HMT, BHEL,
ITI, BEL, ISRO, BEML, etc., and again in the last decade with the phenomenal
growth of the IT sector. Since 1970 the vast majority of the city’s economic and
population growth has occurred mostly in the sprawling outer rings -“build-out,”
which increases traffic congestion and commuting times, contributes to loss of
arable land and creates conflicts between new development and infrastructure,
such as public water supply and sanitation systems, because 90 percent of all
metropolitan growth has taken place in the suburbs.
In less than three decades, 300 sq.km of agricultural land has been converted to
urban uses. If current growth and land consumption rates continue, that number
will more than double in the next 20 years.
With this kind of growth over the last few years, the citizens of Bangalore have
become increasingly mobile. The increase in kilometers traveled per person has
been very pronounced, creating new challenges to keep various types of
transportation corridors congestion-free. Experts believe that by 2020 there will
be nearly a doubling of vehicles on road over the current numbers. 45% of all
vehicular traffic in Karnataka is found on the roads of Bangalore.
The biggest reason for this is not the builders, as oft-cited by enviro-activists, but
the simple desires of ordinary people to own a piece of land and on this to build a
dwelling, however humble, where they may live in relative comfort and peace-
what the 1960s Los Angeles urbanist Edgardo Contini labeled “the universal
aspiration”.
The current thinking on housing can be summed up as follows: people should
buy a plot and build houses; finance should be made available to those who have
the capacity to pay back the loan; the poor should be given subsidized housing.
This approach is inconsistent with the prevailing demographic and economic
situation in cities. Cities with high population densities require vertical solutions in
order to escape the phenomenon of urban sprawl and to achieve an efficient and
economical service and infrastructure network.
4.0 The Current Urban Pattern: The sharp inflation of real estate prices in the
city center and subsequent use of multi storied buildings have led to these areas
being more fully dedicated to business, thus pushing residents into low rise
suburban developments outside the city centre. This kind of single, concentrated
use in central areas is often perceived as undesirable, extending travel times and
adding to people's sense of isolation and fear outside trading hours.
The suburban economy achieves its tranquility by offsetting its traffic and support
services to the urban center. Suburbs can come into being only by demanding
that services be provided below cost--subsidized partly out of general rather than
local revenues--and can grow only by demanding expensive road-widening
projects in central areas, which degrade life in the communities the suburbanites
must drive through in order to work in the city. It is precisely the nature of the
suburb--designed as a residential shell lacking services, which are to be sought
elsewhere--that is at the root of so much environmental degradation in developed
countries today. For by placing residences far from services, and by centralizing
services either in urban cores or in mega-mall clusters, suburban design requires
excessive automobile use, which is accommodated by building wide high-speed
roads and flyovers. This even increases the cost of food for city dwellers by
requiring farmers to move farther from the city.
4.1 Area Comparison
The sketch below shows the site and the site area occupied by a single block of
the Unite d’habitation designed by Le Corbusier in comparison to a sketch of the
site area taken by a development of equal numbers /density consisting of
single family houses.
Plotted vs. Highrise
The town in case of terrace building is like a cancerous growth; it has to be
opened out to separate its functions and introduce more open space.
5.0 Smart Growth Option or Neotraditional development:
In the U.S.A., urban sprawl has sparked a national debate over land-use policy.
At least 19 states have established statutory growth-management laws or have
task forces to protect open spaces and agricultural land.
"American suburbs are 'a chaotic and depressing agglomeration of buildings
covering enormous stretches of land.' The cost of providing services to such
'monotonous stretches of individual low-rise houses' is too high. As a result, 'the
search for a future kind of residential building leads logically to' high-density,
mixed-use housing (O'Toole,The Height of Foolishness: Sprawl Without Growth,
Michigan Land Use Institute, May 12, 2005).
In Europe, where there is more realism about the use of energy, the development
of cities has been more compact.
A movement called "New Urbanism" or "Smart Growth" is currently in vogue in
the U.S.A., Canada and northern Europe, in response to the perceived threat of
"urban sprawl". This movement among city planners, builders, and architects
holds that denser, more city-like communities with less rigid zoning laws and
mixed-use buildings are the desirable pattern of growth. Such communities ease
traffic, since people do not need to commute as far, and may foster a better
sense of community among residents. Some of these communities seek to
reduce car-dependency (and thus the use of personal automobiles) wherever
possible. This movement has resulted in both the construction of new
developments that embody these principles, and renovation of areas in existing
city centers for new residential and commercial activities.
Similarly, in Europe a pattern called “Multifunctional Intensive Land Use (MILU),”
is currently gaining favor among city planners – a pattern of growth that in
America is known as Smart Growth.
The form that these New Urbanists envision is both deeply familiar and
revolutionary: the mixed- use, pedestrian-scaled neighborhood developed in
increments by following the mantra - Keep it local: Work and shop locally
whenever possible.
6.0 City Form and Process : Recent theoretical attempts focusing on the form
of cities see the city as a democratic institution, theories about which require a
systematic quality and a high degree of explicitness so that citizens can
participate in constructing the city’s form i.e. informed decision-making as the key
to achieving good city form.
There are various theories of city form by which -
i. the city is regarded as a unique historic process, derivative from its own
very specific cultural context
ii. the city is regarded as an ecology of people, each social group occupying
space according to economic position and class. Derivative from general
propositions of the sociology of the city (Weber, Simmel and Spengler),
the work of the Chicago School, Park and Burgess in particular, suggest
that the competition and accommodation of social groups produces a city
of dynamic concentric rings from a center to a zone of commuters. Hoyt,
however, assumed the forces of such ecological patterning would result in
sectoral shapes. Both propositions regard space as a neutral medium
through which social groups interact.
iii. the city as an economic engine in which space, unlike in the previous
category, is both an additional cost imposed on the economy but also a
resource for production or consumption. At a regional scale, the location of
the settlement in the case of heavy industrial production would be an
optimized function of raw materials, labor and product markets (Isard). In
the case of agricultural distribution, systematic distributional patterns also
emerge (Von Thunen), as they do in the creation of regularly spaced
central places based on hexagonal market areas (Christaller). Within the
city itself, the form of the city is argued around the willingness or ability of
different groups to pay rent for land either close to or at a distance from
the center, this expressed in curves for each class of activity (Alonso).
7.0 Urban Spatial Patterns: Bi Polarity
Bangalore is a model of a Bipolar City, the site of a previous native city, later a
colonial city and its subsequent transformation to a modern city. This process
involved the building of a military cantonment at a distance from the old city,
followed by a civil station for colonial administration, and the subsequent creation
of a State capital. A vastly larger post- IT Bangalore, saturated by migration, now
struggles to deal with the form of a new city type, the city of hyper and mega-
urbanism.
The upswing in economic growth and the increase in business activity have had
their impact on the real-estate sector. Bangalore has been leading the race in
real-estate demand and offtake in the south — and possibly the rest of India —
for a while now, closely followed by Chennai and Hyderabad. According to the
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Mumbai is rapidly losing out to Bangalore
and Hyderabad as the preferred investment destination.
According to Mr Anurag Munshi, associate director, research - capital markets,
Jones Lang LaSalle, the Bangalore market continues to be led by demand from
blue-chip MNC tenants who have contributed in raising property values in the city
substantially.
The development of the IT corridor, which spreads from Electronic City to
Whitefield, is in addition to the existing Tech Park, which is one of the most
successful developments in the city. The factors supporting growth of IT in
Bangalore include a reasonably good infrastructure, lower cost of operation and
a booming domestic market for hardware and software, which makes the city a
hotspot for outsourcing a host of ITES activities like BPO, call-centres, medical
transcription and various back-office operations for global firms.
9.0 Toward a Spatial Development Perspective:
The current need is to refashion the city whose competitiveness is threatened by
inefficient urban forms and declining infrastructure – to revitalize the state’s prime
economic engine: a center of technological and cultural innovation where the
vast majority of immigrants who are driving population and economic growth will
assimilate into the economic and social mainstream.
A global city, also known as a world city, is a prominent centre of trade, banking,
finance, innovations, and markets. The term "global city", as opposed to
megacity, was coined by Saskia Sassen in a seminal 1991 work. Whereas
"megacity" refers to any city of enormous size, a global city is one of enormous
power or influence. The Thoreau Institute, May 07, 2005.
In contrast with the U.S. where “Greenfield development” is the norm, the
European Union for decades has invested vast sums to promote development
and redevelopment of comparable bypassed areas. These investments have
produced dramatic results in revitalizing the economies of Ireland, Spain,
Portugal and Greece, and formerly depressed cities and regions in Europe’s
periphery. Similar strategic investments in Bangalore’s disadvantaged city center
areas may be instrumental in creating a new dynamic of growth.
10.0 A Vision for the Future: A New Polycentric Pattern: The old plan pattern
failed to control urban growth from spreading out of the existing built-up center.
On reviewing the reasons for this, several major principles arise that can help to
define a new spatial pattern considering the status of urban primacy of the city of
Bangalore and the lack of regional development;
Create capacity for growth and improved global competitiveness in the
city’s transportation and other infrastructure systems.
Revitalize bypassed urban spaces.
Bring the market factors that affect urban structure into the planning
process.
Protect and reclaim significant natural resource systems like lakes &
valleys and promote less land-consuming patterns of growth.
11.0 Expert speak: Leading urban developers like Jean-Philippe Lestang of
SCE Creocean, a French urban planning organization that has developed a
Comprehensive Development Plan for Bangalore, have suggested that cities
need to grow vertically rather than horizontally. Urban sprawl is an expensive
proposition in the long run, needing more funds for setting up a costly urban
transportation systems that require citizens to spend more time and money on
travel, while compact cities are more cost-effective.
One change that will facilitate such growth is to allow higher FSI (Floor Space
Index) in order to encourage taller buildings.
Jayshree Kurup of Good Governance India Foundation warns that vertical growth
will have to be backed with stringent regulations about the quality of construction.
And once these high rises are occupied, both the buildings and the common
areas must be properly maintained if this initiative (of growing vertically) is to
result in improved quality of life for residents.
Most citizens would like to have some kind of affordable housing, some kind of
connection to nature, and some sense of community.
12.0 The Regional city: planning for the end of sprawl:
In Europe and in Asia, network cities are already being seen as the new
competitive units in the global economy. (Clapp, James. A, 1991).
The European Union and national governments in Europe, China and Japan are
investing hundreds of billions of dollars in new intermodal transportation and
communication links and other infrastructure to underpin the capacity, efficiency
and livability of these regions. In all of these places, new high-speed rail
networks are integrating the economies of formerly isolated regions.
These component metropolitan areas will have to cooperate in the formation of a
structure that takes advantage of the complementary roles of each area while
addressing common concerns in the areas of transportation, economic
development, environmental protection, and equity. The new megalopolis model
will contribute to improving social and economic cohesion along with a better
territorial balance, and will support more sustainable development by
emphasizing collaboration on important policy issues, infrastructure investments
and instruments for facilitating economic growth and job creation.
Furthermore, regional infrastructure and development focused around rail
stations would shape and redirect urban growth in more efficient, less sprawling
patterns.
CONCLUSION: The next five to 10 years will be a key period for the City of
Bangalore to create its new urban form. Local planners and decision makers
should make a serious review of the last century of urban development history in
other Global cities which have lessons to offer on both policy making and
implementation regarding roadways, suburbanization, densities and other urban
issues. Current initiatives proposed by other Global Cities are also instructive:
smart growth, regional growth control and management, mixed-use planning,
density and design review. Globalization will bring more political and economic
competition to the world’s largest cities, and Bangalore must learn from past
experiences and adapt to the new economic realities.
Instead of being a monolithic megalopolis, Bangalore can evolve as a
polynucleated city with multiple work nodes.
REFERENCES:
Hanson, "Automobile Subsidies and Land Use," ‘92.
Hillier, et al. "Syntactic Analysis of Settlements", ’99.
Kunstler, “The myth of suburban independence”, ‘05
Lynch. A Theory of Good City Form.
Neumann,“Rebates for driving less”, ’05
Risemberg, “Suburbs & cities”, ‘97
Sala, “Edge Cities”, ‘95
Saunders, Social Theory and the Urban Question, ’97.
