Emerging Cities: My Aims
My main aim for this project is to study the successful design development of Curitiba, and consider the ways in which these design principals can be applied to cities across the global south.
To begin, I need to understand WHY each of these cities is developing at an exponential rate. To do this, I will need to explore the push factors that are driving people from the rural locations, and the pull factors encouraging them to move to cities. How does this vary across cities of different scales, and on different continents? Are there similarities, differences, changes? Rapid urbanisation in cities leads to pressures on resources, which can be improved through sustainable design. There are many different strategies for doing this, some successful, some not.
This is where my interest in Curitiba plays an important role. This is a fairly small city in Brazil, which has developed using a strong urban master plan, creating extensive and successful transport links across the city, effective recycling, and many pedestrian only areas. This was implemented by Jaime Lerner, an architect and the Mayor at the time of the big changes. However, there are still a number of informal settlements, making up about 8% of the city's population - these are mostly on the periphery of the city, which implies that the transport allows people to commute into the city for work, yet live in a cheaper area in which they are less likely to be displaced.
To compare this, I will also visit two other cities of different scales in Brazil: Brasilia and Sao Paulo. I will look into how these two cities have developed in contrast to Curitiba, and if they have aspects that are more or less successful.
My research then leads me to the other side of the world: South East Asia. I will be travelling to Mumbai and Jaipur in India, followed by Jakarta in Indonesia. These are all very large cities which have experienced an extremely high rate of urbanisation, leading to many slums in the cities. I will explore the pressures this causes, and also the proposed development plans that have been suggested.
Overall my research will take me across the world to explore the developing cities in the south, which I will document through sketching, interviews, photographs, etc.
