(Charles Landry) The Art of City Making PDF

The Art of City-Making
The Art of City-Making

Charles Landry
London Sterling, VA

First published by Earthscan in the UK and USA in 2006
Copyright Charles Landry, 2006
All rights reserved
ISBN-10: 1-84407-245-2 paperback
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Landry, Charles.
The art of city-making / Charles Landry.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-1-84407-245-3 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 1-84407-245-2 (pbk.)
ISBN-13: 978-1-84407-246-0 (hardback)
ISBN-10: 1-84407-246-0 (hardback)
1. City planning. 2. City and town life. I. Title.
HT166.L329 2006
307.1216dc22
2006021878
The paper used for this book is FSC-certified and
totally chlorine-free. FSC (the Forest Stewardship
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responsible management of the worlds forests.

Contents
List of Boxes xi
List of Photographs xiii
Acronyms and Abbreviations xv
Acknowledgements xvii
Chapter One: Overture 1
City-making and responsibility 6
Art and science 7
Push and pull 9
Unresolved and unclear 11
Secular humanism 12
Shifting the Zeitgeist 14
Cityness is Everywhere 19
A view from above 26
An imaginary journey 27
Sameness and difference 29
Chapter Two: The Sensory Landscape of Cities 39
Sensescapes 45
The car and the senses 46
Transporting into a past sensescape 48
Linguistic shortcomings 50
Soundscape 51
Smellscape 61
The look of the city 68
Chapter Three: Unhinged and Unbalanced 77
The City as a Guzzling Beast 77
The logistics of a cup of tea 78
Washing and toilet flushing 79

Food and eating 80
Rubbish 81
Transport 83
Materials: Cement, asphalt and steel 86
The ecological footprint 88
Urban Logistics 88
Has decivilization started? 91
The Geography of Misery 93
Organized crime and the rule of fear 95
People-trafficking and the sex trade 98
The human cost of change 99
Grinding poverty and stolen childhood 101
Filth 102
Prisons and borders 103
Tourism and its discontents 104
Cultural prosperity among poverty 105
Learning from Katha 107
The Geography of Desire 109
Ordinary desire 111
Pumping up desire 113
Mentally moving on before arriving 115
Speed and slowness 116
Trendspotting or trainspotting? 118
The shopping repertoire 119
Making more of the night 124
The Geography of Blandness 125
The march of the mall 127
The death of diversity and ordinary distinctiveness 131
The curse of convenience 135
Shedland 140
Chapter Four: Repertoires and Resistance 143
Urban Repertoires 143
From Prado to Prada 143
Urban iconics 146
The crisis of meaning and experience 151
Capturing the final frontier: Ad-creep and beyond 153
Gratification over fulfilment 154
Urban Resonance 155
The city as a fashion item 155
vi The Art of City-Making

Drawing power and the resonance of cities 158
Forms of drawing power 161
Cities on the radar screen 163
Borrowing the Landscape 166
Selling places 172
The limits to tourism 174
Urban Rituals 176
Making the most of resources 176
Meaningful experiences 180
A Coda: Urban Resistances 186
Chapter Five: The Complicated and the Complex 189
The Forces of Change: Unscrambling Complexity 189
A conceptual framework 192
Faultlines 193
Battlegrounds 197
Paradoxes 199
Risk and creativity 201
Drivers of change 208
Aligning Professional Mindsets 211
Escaping the silo 212
Whole connections and specialist parts 214
Stereotypes and the professions 217
Balancing skills 226
Opening Mindsets and the Professions 227
The professional gestalt 227
Mindflow and mindset 228
The blight of reductionism 231
Professions and identity 232
Performance culture 233
Stretching boundaries 234
Insights and crossovers 238
Blindspots in City-Making 240
The emotions 240
Environmental psychology 243
Cultural literacy 245
Artistic thinking 249
Diversity 253
Towards a common agenda 263
The new generalist 264
Contents vii

Chapter Six: The City as a Living Work of Art 267
Re-enchanting the city 268
Re-establishing your playing field 268
Reassessing creativity 270
Revaluing hidden assets: A creativity and
obstacle audit 272
Reassigning the value of unconnected resources 275
Recycling and greening 277
Recapturing centrality 278
Revisualizing soft and hard infrastructures 281
Redefining competitiveness 285
Rethinking calculations of worth: The asphalt
currency 287
Rebalancing the scorecard: The complexities of
capital 287
Regaining confidence and a sense of self 290
Renewing leadership capacity 291
Realigning rules to work for vision 292
Renaming risk management policy 295
Reconceiving the city 295
Reimagining planning 298
Remapping the city 300
Redelineating urban roles 301
Reasserting principles of development 304
Reconnecting difficult partners: New Urbanism
and Le Corbusier 305
Reshaping behaviour 308
Reconsidering the learning city 310
Reigniting the passion for learning 313
Revaluing and reinvesting in people and
home-grown talent 315
Repairing health through the built environment 318
Reversing decline 319
Remeasuring assets 321
Re-presenting and repositioning 323
Retelling the story 326
Knitting the threads together 329
What is a creative idea? 331
A final coda: Reconsidering jargon 332
viii The Art of City-Making

Chapter Seven: Creative Cities for the World 335
Ethics and creativity 335
Civic creativity 338
Is Dubai creative? 341
Is Singapore creative? 350
Are Barcelona and Bilbao creative? 361
Urban acupuncture and Curitibas creativity 376
and there are many more 381
The Management of Fragility: Creativity and the City 385
Creative ecology 385
The creative rash 386
An idea or a movement 387
Creativity: Components 390
Where are the creative places? 407
Where next? 415
Fine judgement and the formula 420
Urgency and creativity 420
Ten ideas to start the creative city process 422
Endpiece 425
Why I Think What I Think 426
Notes 429
Bibliography 443
Index 451
Contents ix

List of Boxes
The long-distance lunch 81
Trendspotting 120
Weird = of strange or extraordinary character 127
Recreating the past for the future 130
Blandness and city identity 134
Urban acupuncture and social capital 379
Synchronicity and origins 389

List of Photographs
Sources are credited beside each photograph for those in the list
below. All photographs in the two colour sections are by Charles
Landry.
Creative city-making is a fragile affair 4
The city is more than roads, rates and rubbish 20
Cityness sprawls into every crevice of what was once nature 25
How many old industrial buildings are left to be regenerated? 47
Cars being the priority, pedestrians have to adapt 84
The basic infrastructures of life simply do not exist in
many places across the world 92
One of nearly 600,000 bunkers in Albania 103
Libraries are among the most inclusive cultural institutions 112
Speeding up the world allows no space for reflection 117
Corporate blandness, anywhereville 126
A good secondary shopping street in Cork, Ireland 129
The urban regenerators repertoire 144
The Guggenheim in Bilbao 146
Canberras National Museum 150
Anish Kapoors beautiful and popular sculpture in Chicagos
Millennium Park 190
All professions have a shape, a form, a mindset, a gestalt 229
Too many people think of the city as simply bricks and
mortar 264

Acronyms and Abbreviations
3PL third party logistics
BID business improvement district
BME black and minority ethnic
CABE Commission on Architecture and the Built
Environment
CDM Construction, Design and Management
CIAM Congres Internationaux dArchitecture Moderne
CLES Centre for Local Economic Strategy
CNU Congress of New Urbanism
GaWC Global and World Cities
IBA International Bauaustellung
ICLEI International Council for Local Environmental
Initiatives
IPPUC Institute of Urban Planning and Research of
Curitiba
IR integrated resort
KVI known value item
MACBA Museum of Modern Art of Barcelona
MFP Multifunction Polis
NPF National Planning Forum
PPS Planning Policy Statement
RFID radio frequency identification
TEU twenty foot equivalent unit
UDA Urban Design Alliance
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization

Acknowledgements
Writing a book is never a lone endeavour. You learn from others,
you pick up ideas, someone gives you a crisp turn of phrase that
encapsulates a point well. Someone encourages you and gives you
confidence. I have many people to thank: Ed Beerbohm, who
helped craft the text into a sharper form and did the research for
the section The City as a Guzzling Beast; Gabrielle Boyle, for the
conversations; Jim Bage; and then the many people I have worked
with, especially Margie Caust and Richard Brecknock, who put my
Adelaide Thinkers in Residence programme together; and Mike
Rann, the Premier of South Australia who appointed me as
thinker. The Adelaide period in 2003 gave me a real chance to
think some things through and the chapter The City as a Living
Work of Art comes from that period. John Worthington of DEGW
and chair of Building Futures gave me the opportunity to write
Riding the Rapids: Urban Life in an Age of Complexity, and the
Unscrambling Complexity sections benefited from that collabora-
tion. Honor Chapman (formerly of Future London) and Greg Clark
provided the chance to research the background to the sections on
Aligning Professional Mindsets and Blindspots in City-Making.
Chris Murray commissioned work on creativity and risk, which is
a theme throughout the book. My Swiss friends Toni Linder, Petra
Bischoff and Elisa Fuchs gave me the chance to try out ideas in the
book in Albania and the opportunity to survey projects throughout
southeastern Europe, from Ukraine to Bosnia. This has appeared as
Culture at the Heart of Transformation. Besim Petrela managed
many trips throughout Albania and his surgeon brother operated
on my septic arm in the middle of the night in Tirana. Carol Coletta
from Smart Cities is a friend but also asked me write a series of
letters called Letters to Urban Leaders to the CEOs for Cities
network in the States, of which she is director. Key ideas from those

appear throughout the text. Others who need thanking include:
Phil Wood and Jude Bloomfield, especially in relation to the
Intercultural City project; Marc Pachter; Meg van Rosendaal;
Simon Brault; Jonathan Hyams; Nick Falk; Dickon Robinson; Peter
Kageyama; Andy Howell; Masayuki Sasaki; my friends from Metaa
in Korea; Paul Brown; Thierry Baert; Christine Sullivan; Patricia
Zaido; Erin Williams; Evert Verhagen; Susan Serran; Tim Jones;
Doug Pigg; Theresa McDonagh; Richard Best; Richard Jackson;
Martin Evans; Andrew Kelly; Hamish Ironside from Earthscan;
Robert Palmer; Leonie Sandercock and of course the growing
family of wild ducks outside my window, which are a good source
of distraction.
xviii The Art of City-Making

1
Overture
City-making is a complex art; it is not a formula. There is no
simplistic, ten-point plan that can be mechanically applied to guar-
antee success in any eventuality.
But there are some strong principles that can help send good
city-making on its way:
The most significant argument of The Art of City-Making is
that a city should not seek to be the most creative city in the
world (or region or state) it should strive to be the best and
most imaginative city for the world.
1
This one change of word
from in to for has dramatic implications for a citys oper-
ating dynamics. It gives city-making an ethical foundation. It
helps the aim of cities becoming places of solidarity, where the
relations of the individual, the group and the outsider to the
city and the planet are in better alignment. These can be cities
of passion and compassion.
Go with the grain of local cultures and their distinctiveness, yet
be open to outside influences. Balance local and global.
Involve those affected by what you do in decision-making. It is
astonishing how ordinary people can make the extraordinary
happen, given the chance.
Learn from what others have done well, but dont copy them
thoughtlessly. Cities focused mainly on best practices are
followers not leaders and do not take the required risks to move
themselves forward.
Encourage projects that add value economically while simulta-
neously reinforcing ethical values. This means revisiting the

balance between individual wants and collective and planetary
needs relevant to the 21st century. Too often value is defined
narrowly in terms of financial calculus. This is nave. The new
economy requires an ethical value base to guide action. It will
imply behaviour change to meet value-based goals such as
putting a halt to the exploitation of the environment.
Combining social and environmental with economic account-
ing helps identify projects that pass this test. The fair trade
movement is an example.
Every place can make more out of its potential if the precondi-
tions to think, plan and act with imagination are present. The
imagination of people, combined with other qualities such as
tenacity and courage, is our greatest resource.
Foster civic creativity as the ethos of your city. Civic creativity
is imaginative problem-solving applied to public good objec-
tives. It involves the public sector being more entrepreneurial,
though within the bounds of accountability, and the private
sector being more aware of its responsibilities to the collective
whole.
You will come across recurring themes in The Art of City-Making.
These include the following:
Our sensory landscape is shrinking precisely at the moment
when it should be broadening. Sensory manipulation is distanc-
ing us from our cities and we are losing our visceral knowledge
of them. We have forgotten how to understand the smells of
the city, to listen to its noises, to grasp the messages its look
sends out and to be aware of its materials. Instead there is infor-
mation and sensory overload in the name of making the city a
spectacular experience.
The city is discussed in barren, eviscerated terms and in techni-
cal jargon by urban professionals as it if were a lifeless,
detached being. In fact, it is a sensory, emotional, lived experi-
ence. Cities are like relatives: you never really escape. The city
is more than hardware. How often do strategic urban plans
start with the words beauty, love, happiness or excite-
ment, as opposed to bypass, spatial outcome or planning
framework?
To understand the city and to capture its potential requires us
to deal with five major blindspots: we need to think differently
2 The Art of City-Making

in a more rounded way in order to see the connections
between things; we need to perceive the city as a more compre-
hensively sensory experience, so understanding its effect on
individuals; we need to feel the city as an emotional experience;
we need to understand cities culturally cultural literacy is the
skill that will help us better understand the dynamics of cities;
and we need to recognize the artistic in all of us, which can lead
us to a different level of experience.
An understanding of culture, in contrast to economics or soci-
ology, is a superior way of describing the world because it can
explain change and its causes and effects and does not take any
ideology, institution or practice for granted or treat them as
immutable. Culture is concerned with human behaviours and
so cultural analysis can be expressed in human terms we find
familiar and engaging. It is thus a good medium through which
to provide stories about the world.
Cities need stories or cultural narratives about themselves to
both anchor and drive identity as well as to galvanize citizens.
These stories allow individuals to submerge themselves into
bigger, more lofty endeavours. A city which describes itself as
the city of churches fosters different behavioural patterns in
citizens than a city that projects itself as a city of second
chances. (Critics complain, however, that such cultural narra-
tives are difficult to measure. We shall return to this contention
later.)
The internal logic of the unfettered market reveals a limited
story of ambition and no ethics or morality. It has no view of
the good life, of social mixing, of mutual caring or nurturing
the environment. There is an imperative to make the market
system serve the bigger picture through incentives, regulations
or whatever. This places responsibility on us.
Like a veil, the market system shrouds our consciousness while
plumping up desire and consumption. The market logic has a
tendency to fragment groups into units of consumption and
enclaves and, in so doing, to break up social solidarities. But
the latter are needed if intractable urban problems such as
meeting responsibility for the public realm or natural surveil-
lance are to be achieved.
A conceptual framework is offered to help us unscramble complex-
ity. It focuses on assessing deeper faultlines and problems that will
Overture 3

take generations to solve: traditional drivers such as IT and the
ageing population; battlegrounds and the day-to-day contests over
priorities; and paradoxes such as the simultaneous rise of a risk-
averse culture with a pressure to be creative and to break the rules.
Some of the main points made in The Art of City-Making are
that the overall dynamic of the system that governs city-making is
far less rational than it makes itself appear it does not look at
comprehensive flows, connections or inter-relationships, and down-
stream impacts are not seen or costed; that city-making is no ones
job the urban professions and politicians may believe it is theirs,
but they are only responsible for a part; that because of this frag-
mentation and the competing rules of different professions and
interests we cannot build the cities we love anymore the current
rules, especially concerning traffic engineering, forbid it. And, not
least, that 6 billion people on the planet is too many unless lifestyles
change dramatically.
The Art of City-Making proposes that we:
Redefine the scope of creativity, focusing much more on
unleashing the mass of ordinary, day-to-day, dormant creativity
that lies within most of us. The focus should fall equally on
social and other forms of creativity. This would represent a shift
in attention from assuming creativity only comprises the
creative industries and media. Creativity is in danger of being
swallowed up by fashion.
Recognize artistic thinking as helpful in finding imaginative
solutions and engaging and moving people. All urban profes-
sions should consider thinking like artists, planning like
generals and acting like impresarios.
Rethink who our celebrities are and what an urban heroine or
hero should be. This could be an invisible planner, a business
person, a social worker or an artist.
Creative city-making is a fragile
affair, requiring constant alert-
ness within an ethical framework
of values
Source: Collin Bogaars

See that there is a major opportunity for the return of the city
state and for cities to become value-driven to a much greater
extent than nation states can ever be. This entails renegotiating
power relations with national governments.
At its best, good city-making leads to the highest achievement of
human culture. A cursory look at the globe reveals the names of
cities old and new. Their names resonate as we think simultane-
ously about their physical presence, their activities, their cultures,
and their people and ideas: Cairo, Isfahan, Delhi, Rome,
Constantinople, Canton/Gangzhu, Kyoto, New York, San
Francisco, Shanghai, Vancouver, or, on a smaller scale, Berne,
Florence, Varanasi, Shibam. Our best cities are the most elaborate
and sophisticated artefacts humans have conceived, shaped and
made. The worst are forgettable, damaging, destructive, even
hellish. For too long we believed that city-making involved only the
art of architecture and land-use planning. Over time, the arts of
engineering, surveying, valuing, property development and project
management began to form part of the pantheon. We now know
that the art of city-making involves all the arts; the physical alone
do not make a city or a place. For that to happen, the art of under-
standing human needs, wants and desires; the art of generating
wealth and bending the dynamics of the market and economics to
the citys needs; the art of circulation and city movement; the art of
urban design; and the art of trading power for creative influence so
the power of people is unleashed must all be deployed. We could
go on. And lets not forget community endorsement, health, inspi-
ration and celebration. Most importantly, good city-making
requires the art of adding value and values simultaneously in every-
thing undertaken. Together, the mindsets, skills and values
embodied in these arts help make places out of simple spaces.
The city is an interconnected whole. It cannot be viewed as
merely a series of elements, although each element is important in
its own right. When we consider a constituent part we cannot
ignore its relation to the rest. The building speaks to its neighbour-
ing building and to the street, and the street in turn helps fashion
its neighbourhood. Infused throughout are the people who popu-
late the city. They mould the physical into shape and frame its use
and how it feels.
The city comprises both hard and soft infrastructure. The hard
is like the bone structure, the skeleton, while the soft is akin to the
Overture 5

nervous system and its synapses. One cannot exist without the
other.
The city is a multifaceted entity. It is an economic structure
an economy; it is a community of people a society; it is a designed
environment an artefact; and it is a natural environment an
ecosystem. And it is all four of these economy, society, artefact
and ecosystem governed by an agreed set of rules a polity. Its
inner engine or animating force, however, is its culture. Culture
the things we find important, beliefs and habits gives the city its
distinctiveness its flavour, tone and patina. The art of city-making
touches all these dimensions. City-making is about choices, and
therefore about politics, and therefore about the play of power. And
our cities reflect the forces of power that have shaped them.
The Art of City-Making is quite a long book, but there are
different rhythms beating in its pages and I hope it is easy to read
in bite-sized, self-contained chunks. For instance, Chapter 2 (The
Sensory Landscape of Cities) has one mood and attempts to be
lyrical in parts, while the section on The City as a Guzzling Beast
(Chapter 3) is fact-driven, and the sections on the geography of
misery and desire have a more exasperated tone. The second half
of the book seeks to bring all these things together, to clarify and
simplify, and to help the reader throw light on complex, bigger
issues affecting cities. Thus, as we draw towards the end, Chapter
6 (The City as a Living Work of Art) is like a toolbox of ideas
with which to move forward. And Creative Cities for the World
and Creativity and the City: Thinking Through the Steps invite
the reader to make their own judgements about what places are
really inventive and why.
City-making and responsibility
Whose responsibility is it to make our cities? While the forms they
take are usually unintentional, cities are not mere accidents. They
are the product of decisions made for individual, separate, even
disparate purposes, whose inter-relationships and side-effects have
not been fully considered.
City-making is in fact no one persons job. Politicians say it is
theirs, but they can get too concerned with managing a party rather
than a city. Elected officials can get addicted to shorter-term think-
ing. The imperative to get re-elected can stifle leadership, risks are
not taken, and easy wins or instantly visible results the building

of a bypass, say, or putting up as many housing units as possible
are thrust to the fore. Perhaps a local partnership or a chief execu-
tive officer is responsible? No probably not.
The urban professions would claim they are in charge, even
though they are responsible only for aspects of the physical parts.
Yet if there is no conscious overarching sense of city- or place-
making, we go by default patterns and the core assumptions of each
profession their technical codes, standards and guidelines, such as
those that set patterns for a turning circle or the width of pave-
ments. But such codes, standards and guidelines do not, on their
own, provide a cohesive template for city-making. The technical
knowledge of highway engineers, surveyors, planners or architects,
viewed in isolation, is probably fine, albeit requiring rethinking on
occasion, but a technical manual does not create a bigger picture of
what a city is, where it could be going and how it fits into a global
pattern.
It is no one persons job at present to connect the agendas, ways
of thinking, knowledge and skill bases. But if, at present, no one is
responsible, then everyone is to blame for our many ugly, soulless,
unworkable cities and our occasional places of delight. And there is
a pass-the-parcel attitude to responsibility. One moment the
highway engineers are the scapegoats, the next its the planner or
the developer. What is needed is more than being a mere networker
or broker of professions and requires a deeply etched understand-
ing of what essence each professional grouping brings or could
bring to the art of city-making.
The spirit of city-making, with its necessary creativity and
imagination, is more like improvised jazz than chamber music.
There is experimentation, trial and error, and everyone can be a
leader, given a particular area of expertise. As if by some mysteri-
ous process, orchestration occurs through seemingly unwritten
rules. Good city-making requires myriad acts of persistence and
courage that need to be aligned like a good piece of music. There is
not just one conductor, which is why leadership in its fullest sense
is so important seemingly disparate parts have to be melded into
a whole.
Art and science
The Art of City-Making privileges the word art over science. It
acknowledges, though, that we can still be scientific in the proce-
Overture 7

dures of how we approach city issues. As in the natural sciences,
we can define questions, gather information and resources, form
hypotheses, analyse facts and data and on occasion perform exper-
iments, and certainly interpret things and draw conclusions that
serve as a starting point for new hypotheses. But given the array of
things in a city to consider, different forms of insight are needed,
and these change all the time, for example from the hard science of
engineering to the soft science of environmental psychology.
Adhering to methodologies is inappropriate. Science assumes a
predictability that the human ecologies that are cities cannot
provide.
The phrase the art of in itself implies judgements of value. We
are in the realm of the subjective. It implies there is a profound
understanding of each city-making area, but also, in addition, the
ability to grasp the essence of other subjects, to be interdisciplinary.
The methods used to gain insight and knowledge are broad-
ranging, from simple listening to more formalized comparative
methods and understanding how intangible issues like image can
help urban competitiveness. These arts are in fact skills acquired by
experience and acute observation, requiring deep knowledge, the
use of imagination and discipline.
Fine judgement is key to city-making. What works in one situa-
tion, even when the factors seem the same, may not work in
another. For example, to launch the long-term image and self-
perception campaign in Leicester, posters declaring Leicester is
boring worked positively because there was enough resilience in
the city to both understand the nuggets of truth embodied in the
campaign and to respond actively to the criticism and to appreciate
irony. The steering groups involved decided prior to the campaign
that this was an appropriate approach for Leicester. However, a
similar, negative approach in neighbouring Derby, for example,
may have been deemed culturally insensitive, ineffectual or just
plain unsuitable. Knowledge of local cultural particularities and
context is therefore always paramount. But while specialized judge-
ment in particular cases is key, there are also principles that tend to
work across particularities, such as going with, rather than against,
the grain of peoples cultural backgrounds in implementing
projects.
The compound city-making is preferred to city-building, since
the latter implies that the city is only that which the built envi-
ronment professions have physically constructed. Yet what gives

a city life, meaning and purpose are the acts people perform on
the physical stage. The stage set is not the play. The physical
things are only the accoutrements, helpful instruments and
devices. But the aim here is to shift the balance, to increase the
credibility and status of the scriptwriters, the directors and
performers. Countless skills come to mind. The core professions,
beyond the built environment people, include environmental and
social occupations such as conservation advisers or care profes-
sionals, economic development specialists, the IT community,
community professions and volunteers, and cross-cutting people
such as urban regeneration experts. There are also historians,
anthropologists, people who understand popular culture, geogra-
phers, psychologists and many other specialists. And there is a
still wider group including educators, the police, health workers,
local businesses and the media that makes a city tick. Then there
is the wider public itself, the glue that ties things together. Within
all these groups, there is a need for visionaries who can pinpoint
what each citys prospects are and where it might be going. Unless
all these people are part of the urban story, the physical remains
an empty shell.
Yet too often we rely on the priesthood of those concerned with
the physical, and it is they, perhaps more than others, who are
responsible for the cities we have. Acerbically we might ask: Do
they understand people and their emotions? Do some of them even
like people?
Push and pull
Transitional periods of history, like the Industrial Revolution or the
technological revolution of the past 50 years, can produce confu-
sion a sense of liberation combined with a feeling of being swept
along by events. It thus takes a while for new ethical stances to take
root or to establish new and coherent worldviews. For example,
the link between the individual and the group is gradually being
reconfigured, as bonds to traditional place-based communities have
fractured and been weakened by increasing mobility and decreas-
ing provision by public authorities. Creating stable, local identities
or senses of belonging in this context is difficult.
The temper of the age is one of uncertainty, foreboding, vulner-
ability and lack of control over overweening global forces. It is hard
to see a way to a Golden Age. Among the present-day young, the
Overture 9

Zeitgeist of the 1960s generation, with its sense of we can change
the world, is absent. A significant proportion of the young today
feel change is potentially threatening rather than liberating. But
what is different about the spirit of the age is the recognition that
the long-term effects of industrialism have hidden real costs.
City mayors or key officials know about the contradictory
demands of successful city-making in this context. They experience
and navigate the push and pull of clearing rubbish, reducing noise,
curtailing crime, making movement and transport easy, ensuring
urban services, housing and health facilities are up to speed, while
leaving something in the kitty for culture. Day-to-day life needs to
work.
But mayors and their cities have to paint on a much larger
canvas if they are to generate the wealth and prosperity to fund the
necessary investments in infrastructures and facilities that generate
the quality of life of their cities.
Cities must speak to a world well beyond national government.
They need to attract investment bankers, inward-investing compa-
nies, property developers, the talented the world over. They need to
court the media through which the citys resonance is either
confirmed or generated.
To survive well, bigger cities must play on varied stages from
the immediately local, through the regional and national, to the
widest global platform. These mixed targets, goals and audiences
each demand something different. Often they pull and stretch in
diverging directions. How do you create coherence out of wants
and needs that do not align?
One demands a local bus stop shelter, another airport connec-
tivity across the world; one audience wants just a few tourists to
ensure the city remains more distinctly itself, another as many as
possible to generate money; one wants to encourage local business
incubators, another a global brand; for some, an instantly recog-
nizable city brand to disseminate is the way forward, for others it is
merely copying the crowd. The list is endless.
Working on different scales and complexity is hard: the chal-
lenge is to coalesce, align and unify this diversity so the resulting
city feels coherent and can operate consistently.
But lurking in the background are bigger issues that play on the
mind of the more visionary urban leader, issues that the world
cannot avoid and that cities have to respond to. Global sustainabil-
ity is one. And this is a consideration that should shape what cities

do, how we build, how we move about, how we behave and how
we avert pollution. Taken seriously, it requires dramatic behav-
ioural change, since technological solutions can only take us so far.
There is already an air of resignation, tinged with guilt, in indi-
viduals and decision-makers alike; we cannot face the implications
of getting out of the car or refitting the economy for the period
beyond the oil age. But that time is coming at us fast. It is too easy
to respond only when the horse has already bolted. It is too diffi-
cult, too many feel, to argue for the switch to public transport, to
generate the taxes to create a transport system that feels great to
use as much for the well-off as for those at the other end of the
scale. This means rethinking density and sprawl. But everyone
knows the economic equations and urban formations that make
this work as well as the tricks that seduce the user: city regions with
hubs and nodes, incentives like park and ride, and disincentives to
travel by car.
The issue has been solved in many parts of the world think of
Hong Kong or Curitiba but it requires a different view of public
investment and investment in the public good and, essentially,
depends on how much the individual is prepared to give up for
wider public purposes.
As already mentioned, there is a tendency to pass the parcel on
responsibility. Some say it should be government taking the lead,
but at the same time these people do not want government to be so
powerful. Yet many US cities have taken the lead over national
government and signed the Kyoto agreement, for example, remind-
ing us of the power of cities to drive national agendas.
But sustainability addresses more than environmental concerns.
It has at least four pillars: the economic, social, cultural and ecolog-
ical. And there is more to add. Cities need to be emotionally and
psychologically sustaining, and issues like the quality and design of
the built environment, the quality of connections between people
and the organizational capacity of urban stakeholders become
crucial, as do issues of spatial segregation in cities and poverty.
Sustainable places need to be sustaining across the range.
Unresolved and unclear
There are many opinions in the text that follows and various
conclusions are reached about how cities should move forward.
Where do these judgements come from, what is their basis and what
Overture 11

is the evidence?
2
What I have laid out comes from my experience of
observing cities; from participating in projects in cities from the
small to the large; from talking to city leaders and the more power-
ful about how they want to make their cities better; and from
talking to activists and the less powerful about what they want to
change and how they are going to do it.
This has made me even more curious about cities I want to
know how they work and how and why they succeed or fail. I have
reflected on these encounters and am left with many unanswered
questions. As an example, I keep on thinking of the balances that
need to be achieved and then worry that this leads to compromise
and blandness: creating urban delights or curtailing urban misery;
focusing on density or being lax with sprawl; worrying about what
the world thinks of your city or just getting on with it regardless.
Alternatively I have been thinking of questions like: Is it possible to
create places where people from different backgrounds intermingle
and where segregation is reduced? How can you tap the dormant
energy of people that coexists side by side with pervasive passivity?
What skills, talents, insight and knowledge are needed to make
cities work? What qualities are needed to be a good city-maker?
Imagination, for sure, but what about courage, commitment and
cleverness? Is it worth having lofty aims about cities and does this
provide the motivation, energy and will to change things?
My intention is to start a conversation with whoever is reading
this as if we were mutually critical friends. Because of that I have
tried to write in a conversational style. I know many academics will
find this irritating. Yet I have a reader in mind who is probably
responsible for some field of city-making, someone who is some-
what ground down by the difficulties of getting things done, who
has high-flown ideals, who wants to be active yet feels they should
stand back and contemplate, but who does not want to engage with
a weighty tome. I have tried to switch between the evocative, the
conceptual, the anecdotal and the exemplary and I hope this
rhythm works. This is not a step-by-step guide. It is an exploration
that proposes we think of cities in enriched ways and in which I try
to highlight things I think are important yet hidden.
Secular humanism
A final point: The Art of City-Making is laden with assumptions
that shape what I say, the suggestions I make and the preferences I

have. These will probably become clear to you as the text unfolds.
Nevertheless, since cities are such contested fields, both in terms of
their actual functioning and what is said about them, I feel it is
right to make my ideological position explicit from the outset.
I subscribe to a secular humanist position that privileges civic
values, which in essence seek to foster competent, confident and
engaged citizenship. Mine is an attitude or philosophy concerned
with the capabilities, interests and achievements of human beings
rather than the concepts and problems of science or theology. It
does not decry the virtues of science or the sustenance religion or
other belief systems give. It is simply that its focus is on how people
live together. The world is best understood, I posit, by reasoning
and conversation without reference to higher authorities. It claims
life can be best lived by applying ethics; which are an attempt to
arrive at practical standards that provide principles to guide our
common views and behaviour and to help resolve conflicts. It
provides a frame within which difference can be lived and shared
with mutual respect.
Secular humanism as a core Enlightenment project has been
drained of confidence. It feels exhausted and consequently is
mistakenly accused of being wishy-washy, with no apparent point
of view. Its confidence needs to be restored. The confident secular
humanist view proposes a set of civic values and rules of engage-
ment which include providing settings for a continually renewing
dialogue across differences, cultures and conflicts; allowing strongly
held beliefs or faiths expression within this core agreement; and
acknowledging the naturalness of conflict and establishing means
and mediation devices to deal with difference. It seeks to consoli-
date different ways of living, recognizing arenas in which we must
all live together and those where we can live apart. It generates
structured opportunities to learn to know the other, to explore
and discover similarity and difference. It wishes to drive down
decision-making on the subsidiarity principle, which implies much
greater decentralization and devolution of power. Central govern-
ment takes on a more subsidiary role. This enhances participation
and connectivity at local level. It helps generate interest, concern
and responsibility.
Secular does not mean emotionally barren. In fact I treasure
the heightened registers of being that spirituality evokes. Indeed its
animating force may be just the thing that makes some cities more
liveable in than others.
Overture 13

Shifting the Zeitgeist
Better choices, politics and power
City-making is about making choices, applying values, using politics
to turn values into policies and exerting power to get your way.
Choices reflect our beliefs and attitudes, which are based on values
and value judgements. These in turn are shaped by our culture. So
the scope, possibilities, style and tenor of a citys physical look and
its social, ecological and economic development are culturally
shaped culture moves centre-stage. If, for example, a culture
invests its faith only in the market principle and trusts the drive of
capital to produce sensible choices, the logic, interests and points of
view of those who control markets will count for more than those
who believe market-based decision-making is an essentially impov-
erished system of choosing.
3
If a culture holds that individual choice
is everything individuals always know best this impacts the city.
Conversely, if it is held that there is something in the idea of a public,
common or collective good that has value and is beyond the vagaries
of the market, credence can be given to inspirational and emblem-
atic projects that can lift the public spirit: buildings that are not
constructed according to market principles, imitate environmental
initiatives, attending to the sickly or investing in youth.
City-making is a cultural project involving a battle about
power. Power determines the kind of cities we have and politics is
its medium. What are the effects of these different values? Consider
Mercers quality of living rankings of 2006.
4
This US companys
annual survey of 350 cities, focused especially on expatriates, is
now seen as authoritative. It considers 39 criteria covering econom-
ics, politics, safety, housing and lifestyle. European, Canadian and
Australian cities dominate the rankings, with Zurich, Geneva and
Vancouver the top three, followed by Vienna. Six of the top eight
cities are European. The implications of the market-driven US
approach for how city life actual feels to individuals is instructive.
The top US cities are Honolulu at 27th and San Francisco at 28th;
Houston, where you cannot walk the streets even if you want to, is
the worst of all large US cities at 68th.
Challenging the paradigm
The Art of City-Making wants to be a butterfly whose small move-
ments contribute with many others to grander effects on a global
scale. It feels to me that the Zeitgeist is ready to shift, and I want

this book to be part of encouraging a new spirit of the times. This
involves more than just altering the climate of opinion or intellec-
tual atmosphere. A Zeitgeist is felt more deeply. It is less malleable
and it is sensed viscerally, so providing energy and focus. It makes
every person who feels it want to be an active agent, pulling them
along with a comforting and comfortable instinct bordering on
faith.
In each period of history we can discern overarching qualities;
these are never formulaic and often contradictory. Intellectual,
political, economic and social trends are etched with the character-
istic spirit of their era. We can say modern times are characterized
by an unwavering belief in a particular, progressive view of science
on its inexorable journey to the truth, and a faith in technology.
Yet the rationality of technology is being called into question and
critiques of this approach are escalating in number. (As an example,
what is rational about creating global warming and its conse-
quences?) Post-modernism rejects the grand unifying narratives
associated with the modern period that try to explain everything.
The relative, multiple, culturally determined truths it upholds desta-
bilize the position of the many who want a single answer, so
unsurprisingly the truths of the Gods are back. They provide
certainty and anchoring. But both the modern and the post-modern
exacerbate the fragmentation of knowledge, the one through
specialized research and scientific data and the other through the
diversity of perspectives. The Enlightenment ideals of progress and
reason have taken a battering; their confidence has been shaken.
The ethical anchor
What is the quality of the Zeitgeist seeking to emerge? At its core is
a belief in thinking in a rounded way and seeing different perspec-
tives, not putting things in separate boxes. Thinking differently also
means doing things differently and sometimes means doing differ-
ent things. In the struggle about what is important, those pushing
this Zeitgeist seek some form of unity beyond the ding-dong of
either/or arguments.
5
They believe in seeing the wood and the trees
simultaneously, with strategy and tactics as one. They are able to
operate both with the market and against the market and to
assess things in terms of the precautionary principle and take risks
at the same time or to go with the flow of ambiguity but still be
clear about where you are going. This allows them to see things in
more depth. They work against compartmentalized, silo thinking
Overture 15

and the turgid bureaucracy of departmental baronies. They are
against reductionism, which thinks about parts in isolation and sees
the city in its parts, and instead consider the interconnected, overall
dynamics, such as how socio-economic exigencies and crime inex-
tricably interconnect. It is difficult, if not impossible, to understand
wholes by focusing on the parts, yet it is possible to understand the
parts by seeing the connections of the whole.
How we manage a city is in part determined by the metaphors
we employ to describe it. If we think of the city as a machine made
up of parts and fragments rather than as an organism made up of
related, interconnected wholes, we invoke mechanical solutions
that may not address the whole issue. And a mechanistic approach
similarly impacts on public spirit. If, instead, we focus on the widest
implications of a problem, on connections and relationships, we
can make policy linkages between, say, housing, transport and
work; between culture, the built environment and social affairs;
between education, the arts and happiness; or between image, local
distinctiveness and fun.
Whose truths?
The new Zeitgeisters value the subjective as well as the objective. If
someone says I feel good or I feel bad, this is a truth. They listen
to emotions and credit these with due seriousness. They look at the
effects on deeper psychology and believe these are important in city-
making. Theyd rather be vaguely right than precisely wrong.
6
They agree with those who believe the notion of a stable, unwaver-
ing truth waiting to be discovered has been discredited. Fritz Capra
summarizes succinctly the point made earlier:
My conscious decision about how to observe, say, an
electron, will determine the electrons properties to
some extent. If I ask it a particle question, it will give
me a particle answer; if I ask it a wave question it will
give me a wave answer. The electron does not have
objective properties independent of my mind. In
atomic physics the sharp Cartesian division between
mind and matter, between the observer and the
observed, can no longer be maintained. We can never
speak of nature without speaking about ourselves.
7
The new Zeitgeisters want to encourage a conceptual shift in what
we take seriously and how we view things. Most importantly, they

have a value base. It is based on curiosity about the other and so
is interested in cross-cultural connections and not inward-looking,
tribal behaviour. It believes in bending markets to bigger picture
objectives such as greater social equity, care for the environment or
aspirational goals. The market on its own has no values; it is only a
mechanism. The emerging spirit of the times tries to think holisti-
cally.
Being lofty
These lofty aims are not unrealistic simply because they are lofty.
Lofty does not mean vague. It can mean trying to see clearly and to
give a sense of the direction of travel rather than the name of every
station in between. Of course, this scares the pre-committed and
closed-minded. Shifts in Zeitgeist are mostly triggered by the
coming together of sets of circumstance: an event like Hurricane
Katrina or 9/11 or, on a lesser scale, the sudden awareness of a
tipping point the UK governments Avoiding Dangerous Climate
Change report of January 2006 makes global warming deniers
seem crazily committed to being blind; the Northern Ireland
Statistics and Research Agency 2005 report documents coldly the
connection between segregation, deprivation, sectarian violence
and lack of economic prospects. These events are enhanced by
media clamour. Suddenly it seems the time has come for a set of
ideas. And the hordes of the new Zeitgeisters are ready to pounce.
Crisp encapsulations
Most importantly, Zeitgeist shifts because it becomes a better repre-
sentation of reality. It chimes with common sense. A contested
term, the idea of common sense has been argued about for
centuries. In German it literally means healthy human understand-
ing,
8
but can be understood as the generally accepted majority
view, with examples being laws apply to everyone, peace is better
than war or everyone should have access to health services. Some
use the phrase to refer to beliefs or propositions that in their
opinion they consider would in most peoples experience be prudent
and of sound judgment.
9
Common sense is dynamic, not static,
and what makes sense changes with time and circumstance.
Shifting common sense requires the dissemination of the
starkly illustrative. New cultural narratives by their nature are
more difficult to inculcate into common sense there are few stark
facts or figures that can evince an epiphany. But environmental
Overture 17

narratives, on the other hand, constitute a more jarring challenge
to received wisdom and it is not difficult to construct out of them
would-be iconic soundbites that can seep into common sense. For
instance, you do not need to be a scientist to understand that
increasing the number of cars in Britain by 800,000 a year cannot
continue. This net increase is equivalent to an extra six-lane
motorway full of bumper-to-bumper motor vehicles from London
to Edinburgh, a length of 665km, every year.
10
The average
European car produces over 4 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.
You do not need much skill to calculate that 800,000 times
4 tonnes equals 3,200,000 tonnes, nor that pumping this
compound, invisible though it may be, into the atmosphere must
have an effect. We simultaneously acknowledge and deny the link
between exhaust fumes and acid rain, lead-poisoning and a variety
of bronchial and respiratory illnesses. But we dont need much
insight to realize that cars, whether moving or static, clog up cities
and give them an overwhelming car feel. Is it therefore not
common sense to curtail car use and encourage less-polluting
forms of transport?
Would-be iconic facts such as these enable the understanding of
things that seem self-evidently true. Or do they? Many want to hide
from reality. They are wilfully ignorant, their fear often masked
behind arrogant overconfidence and power play. The will leading
to ignorance and apathy arises especially among the beneficiaries
of the status quo, whether financially, through peer groups or even
emotionally. It takes commitment to change. The structures and
incentives around us do not help, nor does the mantra of free
choice, two deeply contested words that are used together as if
they could never be queried. It takes behavioural change, but denial
translates into avoidance activity. With glazed open eyes we sleep-
walk into crisis. It hurts to digest the implications of facing things
as they are, and to do something about them. The Zeitgeist changes
when the unfolding new can be described in crisp encapsulations;
this gives the spirit of the times a firm, persistent push, so it appears
as the new common sense.
Capturing the Zeitgeist
In every age there are battles to capture the Zeitgeist, because when
on your side it is a powerful ally. The goal is to portray adversaries
as if they are acting against history in some sense. So, for instance,
hardened reactionaries will accuse emergent trends of being woolly

or devoid of reality in an attempt to put them down. Today the
battles and dividing lines centre on your views around a series of
faultlines, which determine whether you are one of us.
The emergent spirit has an ethical twist and includes a concern
for the following:
Distinctiveness fostering authenticity of places to strengthen
their identity and ultimately their competitiveness.
A learning community encouraging participation and listen-
ing. The city becomes a place of many learners and leaders.
Wider accounting balancing economic goals with others such
as liveability and quality of life.
Idealism encouraging activism and a values-based approach
to running a city. Not shying away from altruism.
Holism having a whole systems view so sharing a concern for
ecology or culture.
Diversity having an interest in difference and cross-cultural
consolidation and rejecting intolerance.
Gendered approaches having an interest in the other sexs
perspectives on running cities.
Beyond technology technology is not the answer to every
problem. It is not a white knight that can address all urban
problems, from segregation to gang culture. We also need to
encourage behavioural change, while stopping short of engi-
neering society.
11
CITYNESS IS EVERYWHERE
The worlds urban population has just passed 50 per cent. This is
an iconic figure. We are inexorably leaving the rural world behind;
everything will in future be determined by the urban. Of course, in
more developed places in the world, the urban population is already
well over 50 per cent over 74 per cent in Europe and 80 per cent
in the Middle East and Australia but this is a critical moment, the
turning point from rural to urban.
Cityness is the state most of us find ourselves in. Cityness is
everywhere because even when we are nominally far away from
cities, the citys maelstrom draws us in. Its tentacles, template and
footprint reach out into its wide surrounds, shaping the physical
look, the emotional feel, the atmosphere and economics. The
Overture 19

perceptual reach and physical impact of London, for example,
stretches 70km in all directions, that of New York even further,
that of Tokyo well beyond. Their networks of roads, pipes and
pylons stretch into the far yonder. And the same is true even for
smaller settlements each has a catchment area or dynamic pull
around itself. When these magnetic maelstroms and catchments are
added together, nearly nothing is left of what was once called
nature. The overarching aura is the city.
Urbanism is the discipline which helps us understand this aura
and see the dynamics, resources and potential of the city and city-
ness in a richer way; urban literacy is the ability and skill to read
the city and understand how cities work and is developed by learn-
ing about urbanism. Urbanism and urban literacy are linked generic
and overarching skills, and a full understanding of urbanism only
occurs by looking at the city with different perspectives, insights
and multiple eyes. Overlaying it is cultural literacy the under-
standing of how cultures work which ultimately is key.
12
Night maps show the extent of urban ubiquity most graphi-
cally. The entire Japanese nation shines like a beacon. Osaka to
Source: Charles Landry
The city is more than roads, rates and rubbish, as the Australians
say (or pipes, potholes and police, as the Americans say)

Tokyo is nearly one built mass, a contiguous city of 80 million
people stretching 515km. The Pearl River Delta in Southern China
went from paddy fields to near complete urbanization in 50 years.
Even more extreme, the seaboard of the east coast of China will
soon be one strip of urbanization. The east coast of the US is all
but completely urbanized from Boston to Washington, which is
710km, and the lights extend inland too. From the east coast
inwards are 1000km stretches of light blur. Forty years ago the
Spanish coastline seen from the air was punctuated by a few large
cities, such as Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Almeria and Malaga
with some speckled fishing villages in between. Now it is almost
completely built up along a 970km stretch. The same is true for
Marseille in France to Genoa in Italy (440km). Only Africa is a far
dimmer continent, rarely punctuated by bright interruptions.
The inexorable movement of people, who hope cities can fulfil
their dreams, expectations or sheer need for survival, feeds cities.
But this is not happening uniformly. In Europe populations have
stabilized and are about to begin their decline.
13
During industrializ-
ing eras concentration is the dominant force, as witnessed in Europe
and the US, with populations shifting from smaller towns to large
cities. A second pattern now emerging is a parallel counter-urban-
ization larger cities are stuttering, with the largest percentage gains
seen in smaller cities and rural areas though the rebirth of the city
in the West is curtailing that trend somewhat, bolstered by attempts
to make cities safer, more attractive, vital and vibrant, so enticing
various subgroups such as empty-nesters or young professionals.
In East Asia and the rest of the developing world, by contrast,
the pull to the city continues unabated, fed by hope and need. We
are witnessing the largest movement of people in history. Wave
upon wave of incomers are arriving. The vast majority are poor,
but once semi-settled there are layers of deprivation within this
poverty and each layer has differing economic prospects. In spite of
abject poverty at the lowest levels in the booming cities in Africa,
Asia and Latin America, each stratum can provide services to the
group slightly better off. So it partly fulfils its aspirations. This
ranges from selling cooked meals to personal services as one moves
up the chain. There is exploitative production-line work and
transport services, then building and construction, and finally
financial activities or leisure provision similar to those meeting
demands in the West. This makes slums complex. They have their
own class structure and stratifications.
Overture 21

Imagine the impact of Sao Paulos expansion from 10 million
in 1984 to 20 million in 1999 over 600,000 newcomers per year.
Or, perhaps the starkest example, Shenzhen, a 90-minute train ride
from Hong Kong, which has grown from a rice-growing village in
the late 1970s to a city of over 10 million people today. In some
sense the achievement is astonishing.
Imagine the physical infrastructure needed. Imagine the psycho-
logical stresses. The figures are telling, but the added zeros barely
touch the impact of dense living, exacerbating pollution, grinding
poverty, the urban rush, the ugly slipshod-built buildings or the
escalating sense of things being out of control. The zeros do not
put across the heaving weight of fates fulfilled or destroyed, the
sadnesses lived through, injustices endured, helplessness put up
with, and occasional delight.
In 1900 only 160 million people, 10 per cent of the worlds
population, lived in cities. In 1950 it was 730 million people or 34
per cent. Today 3250 million or 50 per cent are urban dwellers
the equivalent of every single person in Europe, the Americas,
Africa, Oceania and Western Asia living in cities.
14
These average
figures, however, mask gaping differences. Ninety-seven per cent
of Belgians, 89 per cent of British and 88 per cent of Germans live
in urban areas, against 74 per cent of Europeans as a whole. Every
year another 68 million people move to cities, the equivalent of
the entire French and Belgian populations combined. Mercifully, if
predictions are correct, the worlds population will stabilize at 9
billion in 2050. Population has already stabilized in Europe, and
the remaining the growth is expected to come from Asia and
Africa.
In 1900 the ten biggest cities in the world were in the North.
Now that hemisphere has only New York and Los Angeles in the
top ten and by 2015 will have none. In 1800 London was the
worlds largest city, with 1 million people. Today 326 metropolitan
areas have more than 1 million people. By 2025 there are expected
to be 650. Many of these cities of a million you will have never
heard of: Ranchi, Sholapur, San Luis, Potosi or Gaziantep, Nampo
and Datong, Tanjungkarang, Davao and Urumqi. Who would have
thought that Chungking had nearly 8 million people or Ahmadabad
just over 5 million and Wuhan and Harbin just under? The number
of megacities, cities of more than 10 million, has climbed from 5 in
1975 to 14 in 1995 and is expected to reach 26 by 2015. Lagos
population in 1980 was 2.8 million and is now 13 million and

Kampalas population has tripled over the same period. We could
go on
Feeling and perceiving geography
How does the feeling of cityness come about? Figures rarely tell
you how a landscape or space feels. Near where I live in
Gloucestershire, 25 years ago there was a clear distinction between
the natural landscape and human settlements, whether the village
Bisley, the town Cheltenham or the city outside the county, Bristol.
The county now has a population of 568,000 and 60 per cent of
the land is rural; the growth in population from a figure of 515,000
in 1980 was 10 per cent. Yet car numbers rose by 30.2 per cent in
the same period. Add to this a dramatic increase in mobility
people are currently moving around six times as much as in 1950,
from 8km per day in 1950 to 19.5 in 1980, 48.2 in 2000 and a
predicted 96.4km in 2025. By contrast, travel by buses has
decreased from 32.8 per cent of all journeys in 1960 to 6.7 per cent
in 2000.
15
At the same time, personal living space has nearly doubled since
1950 and increased from 38m
2
per person in 1991 to 43m
2
in 1996
and 44m
2
in 2001. This reflects the increase in single person house-
holds and the decrease in larger families.
16
As more people demand
more dwelling space, so existing settlements expand and new ones
emerge. Empty space is ever more scarce.
To accommodate the increasing numbers of people over time,
open space was infilled and new estates were built. The greater
number of cars led to strategic roads being widened, bypasses being
added and more roundabouts. The larger supermarkets were moved
from town centre cores to peripheries at the nexus points of various
settlements, petrol stations were added along routes, ribbon devel-
opments were allowed and more signs were put up. Step by step
and imperceptibly the atmosphere changed. The areas overall feel
is now one of cityness.
Transpose this tiny local instance in Gloucestershire on to the
global scale. Visualize the vehicles and the ever-expanding physical
infrastructure needed and space used. The British net increase of
800,000 cars per year has already been noted. In the US the annual
net increase averages 2.7 million per year. In Europe between 1995
and 2002, 32 million more vehicles hit the road. Wait for China
and India fully to emerge China has 20 per cent of the worlds
population and only 8.1 per cent of its vehicles, a large proportion
Overture 23

of which are vans and lorries. The 5.2 personal cars per 1000
people looks minuscule in contrast with Western Europe, where it
is just over 400 per 1000.
17
If China catches up, the figures become
absurd several hundred million more cars would be on the roads.
Look at living space. Similar processes to those occurring in
Gloucestershire are taking place throughout Europe, where living
space differs from place to place but hovers at around 40m
2
.
Contrast this with the North American average of 65m
2
or more
dramatically still China, where prior to 1978 average living space
was only 3.6m
2
. By 2001, with the massive expansion of apart-
ments, this had risen to 15.5m
2
, close to the 19m
2
in Russia.
18
What are the spatial implications of China reaching European
levels?
Single person households are rising. In Britain in 2001, 29 per
cent of households were solely inhabited by single persons, up from
18 per cent in 1971. Household inhabitants have reduced from 2.91
people per dwelling in 1971 to 2.3 in 2001. In Sweden, the figure is
1.9, the lowest in Europe. If Britain were to match Swedish figures
it would require 47 per cent more dwellings by 2050. Consider the
physical impact of these increased dwellings. In the rest of the devel-
oped world the range falls within the same margins the US, for
instance, has a figure of 2.61 but for the less developed world it is
just over 5. India has 5.4 and Iraq, the highest, 7.7. Once these
countries develop, the demand for space and mobility will increase,
although population growth will decline as education levels
increase. This is the acknowledged pattern, but by the time that has
happened what will the world look like?
19
Flipping perception
The impact of the intensification of land use and movement is
dramatic. The distinction between the natural and built environ-
ment has eroded. The balance has tipped inexorably. From a feeling
of settlements within nature, there are now interconnected, sprawl-
ing settlements within which there is parkland. The nature we have
is manicured, contained and tamed. It is a variant of a park. The
wolves, the bears and the snakes have long gone. Sad it may be, but
better to start from an honest premise.
Even widening a road through the countryside from one lane
to two so that cars can pass one another has startling effects. In the
one-lane landscape the car is careful, contained and cagey. Trees
and foliage dominate. But as road space spreads, the visual impact

of asphalt grows disproportionately, making the natural landscape
feel less significant. The dual carriageway finally changes the
perceptual balance completely, and this is a pattern seen the world
over. To talk of urban versus rural makes increasingly less sense.
For instance, the Midlands in Britain and much of the south of the
country are in truth series of built-up villages, towns and cities
connected by roads; the green in between is incidental.
Transport is central to the equation and the need to think it
through creatively is urgent. For example, the width of land surface
taken up by a double railway line is only 12m, compared with 47m
for a three-lane motorway. A typical freight train can move over
1000 tonnes of product, equivalent to 50 heavy goods vehicles. And
around 30 per cent of the lorries are running empty at any one time.
Moving a tonne of freight by rail produces 80 per cent less carbon
dioxide than moving it by road. Light van traffic is projected to
grow by 74 per cent by 2025. Articulated lorry traffic is expected
to grow by 23 per cent by 2010 and 45 per cent by 2025.
20
Rail
freight accounts for 12 per cent of the British surface freight market
and removes over 300 million lorry miles from the roads every year.
Its external cost to the environment and community (excluding
Overture 25
Cityness sprawls into every crevice of what was once nature

congestion) is eight times less than road freight in terms of carbon
dioxide per tonne kilometre.
21
Alternatives are possible. The Brazilian city of Curitiba has a
150km bike network linked to a bus network. There is one car for
every three people (which some might consider underdevelopment)
and two-thirds of trips are made by bus. There has been a 30 per
cent decline in traffic since 1974, despite a doubling of the popula-
tion. Freiburg in Germany shows similar figures.
22
Since 1982 local
public transport has increased from 11 per cent to 18 per cent of
all journeys made, and bicycle use from 15 per cent to 26 per cent,
while motor vehicle traffic decreased from 38 per cent to 32 per
cent, despite an increase in the issue of motor vehicle licences.
23
A view from above
Cityness is what comes to mind when you stand back and let the
essence of cities seep over you. Picture yourself arriving at a big city
for the first time from the air. What thoughts and impressions come
to mind?
On the whole, modern cities take on a Lego-like regularity
when viewed from high altitude. Box-like buildings hug straight
lines and curves while the general hardness of brick, cement and
tarmac is occasionally punctuated by the dark green of trees or the
lighter green of grass. Sometimes the sun is caught in the reflection
of a pond or lake and often a river will run a course. Some larger
structures sports stadia, power stations, communications towers
stand out as distinctive and purposeful.
As you decrease height, activity becomes more discernible.
Vehicles move up and down tarmac arteries, the main thorough-
fares more clogged up than residential streets. Many of the vehicles
are moving to and from the airport you are about to land in. Lower
still and you can start to make out people, but watching their
busying about is akin to watching an ants nest fascination,
perhaps, but little comprehension of the activity. Nevertheless, you
get the impression of purpose as they appear from and disappear
into vehicles and buildings. If you arrive at night, you will note the
not small endeavour of defeating darkness billions of watts called
forth to keep the urban environment physically illuminated. Cities
rely overwhelmingly on energy.

An imaginary journey
How you view the city varies according to who you are, where you
come from, your culture, your status, your life stage and your inter-
ests. Yet some experiences of the city are the same for everyone.
The city announces itself a long way off through the senses: sight,
sound and smell.
Take yourself on an imaginary early morning journey from out
of town in summertime to a big city, the most common journey on
Earth. We could be in Europe, the US, Australia, China anywhere
city-bound.
The manifestations of the city become apparent early on,
although you are 30km from the urban core. The once agricultural
land left and right is speckled with windowless, uniform aluminium
industrial sheds which are, on occasion, brightly coloured. Further
out they are larger, the asphalted service areas more spread out,
with articulated lorries in the forecourt. Closer towards the city the
sheds compact in, they have a more cluttered feel. The three-lane
highway itself has an urban feel an expanse of pounded asphalt
that stretches endlessly into the horizon. Compactly massed and
close-set cars purposively batter the road, prancing fast-forward en
route to the city. Some have blacked-out windows so the driver can
maintain a private world in a moving sea of metal. It is very diffi-
cult to stop anywhere. Later in the day the asphalt will give way a
little, especially in the heat, but it is still unresponsive and dead in
look and in feel.
Instructional signs begin to escalate, telling you to slow down
here, speed up there and where to veer off into suburbs before you
reach the outer ring road. And in the distance, still 15km away,
shimmering against the morning sun that breaks through the
clouds, a high-rise building reflects a sharp shaft of sunlight. You
get closer, structures pile up.
It is getting denser the sensation of asphalt, concrete, glass,
bricks, noise and smell mounts and spirals. Adverts swell, passing
with greater frequency: Do this, Do that, Want me, Desire me,
Buy me. Your radio is on, with continued interruptions. That
makes 52 exhortations to buy since you left home. You protect
yourself from information overload by selectively half-closing and
half-opening your ears; but you need to know the traffic news. The
car windows are closed, the air conditioning on, but the air is stale,
so you need a waft of fast-moving air from the outside. Either way,
Overture 27

you are driving in a tunnel of pollution and you are beginning to
smell the approaching city. The petrol vapour is warm, fetid and
globular, perhaps even comforting. It causes a light-headed giddi-
ness. It is the urban smell par excellence.
The hard surfaces of the city intensify. You are in a completely
built-up area, but the multi-lane highway means you can zip along.
The road has just been widened to four lanes at this point. Now
youre in a secure funnel guiding you straight into town. You
remember that argument with the eco-guy. You think to yourself, I
am moving fast. What was that nonsense about induced traffic
transportation that planners dread? You recall that this is where
despite highway capacity being increased when it becomes
congested, over time more cars on the road drive longer distances
to access the same services, and the new highway becomes just as
congested as the old one was.
Forget all that. Any problem will be solved in the near future
by technologies that are currently just around the corner, like satel-
lite guidance.
The urban street patterns are not yet clear; the sight lines are
obscured by underpasses and overpasses. They are made from
concrete. Inert and lifeless, they throw an unresponsive deadness
back at you. Concretes shapes can on occasion lift the swoosh
and sweep of a concrete curve but it ages disgracefully. It leaches,
stains and cracks, not to mention cancerous concrete that breaks
up to reveal rusty steel, or graffiti.
Reinforced concrete
24
is the material of the industrial age and
you are seeing more of it now. Endless concrete garden walls, rashly
constructed. Cheap housing estates. Cheaper breeze-block accommo-
dation for the even poorer. A grey concrete car park on the horizon
greets you with a garish red sign: All Day Parking Only $5.
But still there is some green. A tree-lined street eases by in the
once middle-class outer suburb of single detached houses. It is now
a lower middle-class area with rented accommodation divided into
units. A few abandoned cars, perhaps, but the place seems perfectly
fine from a distance. It might just revitalize and become the new
outer urban chic, maybe for those that moved to outer-outer subur-
bia and found auto-dependency too much.
Over the last 80 years the transformation from walkable to
automobile-dependent has been extraordinary. It didnt just
happen. A set of policies at all levels of government have favoured
cars over all other transport.

Youre on a flyover, which explains why this area originally
went into a downward spiral. Who wants to live under a motor-
way? But for you it provides a vista you can see the urban
panorama. Is that IKEA in the far distance? Closer by there is a
colonnaded shopping mall within a sea of car-parking and brand
names. You can read the signs from a distance. The mighty M sign
is one, the famous golden arches thats four or five within the last
3km. Then theres Wendys, Burger King, Nandos, KFC, Subway.
BP, Texaco. Wal-Mart or Tesco or Carrefour or Mercadona. As
signs they are as recognizable as a smile or a wave. The ads are
everywhere now: mobile phones (Stay in touch wherever you are),
finance deals (With interest rates this low, who can say No?),
banking (The bank you can trust), telecommunications (Global
connectivity at a switch of a button), and property (Buy into urban
living, the art of sophistication).
You should have left ten minutes earlier. The exit lanes are
jamming up and the three sets of traffic lights ahead always cause
a problem. Youre on the outer-inner edge of town. Brick and
concrete give way to glass. The street is segmented into big blocks,
with huge setbacks, with forecourts embellished by public sculp-
tures in their ubiquitous red and their abstract forms; these are
buildings that pronounce themselves, they shine in glass and
marble yet feel as if they are warding you off and keeping you at
bay. They are buildings that say no, and buildings which pretend
to say yes. Its down into the car park. There is still lots of space
at 8.15am.
For every person living in the US there are eight parking spaces.
Thats over 1.5 billion.
Sameness and difference
Suburbia and its discontents
Some might say that this imaginary drive is an unfair depiction,
only bringing out the worst of city life. We could have started with
a more positive metropolitan adventure one that skirts the more
artsy, ethnically diverse side of things but the drudgery of the
daily commute is far more familiar.
We could have driven the other way towards suburbia, the
setting cognoscenti love to hate. One might tut tut at its popular-
ity, but only 17 per cent against 83 per cent of Americans
expressed a preference for an urban town house within preferred
Overture 29

walking distance of stores and mass transit in a national survey.
25
Similar figures also hold for Australia, and the new world
economies are catching on.
26
Get Used to It: Suburbias Not Going
to Go Away, as one author titles his book.
27
Polls, Kotkin notes,
consistently show a large majority of suburbanites are happy with
their neighbourhoods in spite of the bad press suburbs get. Sprawl
has provided individuals and families with a successful strategy to
adapt to urban dysfunction: failing schools, crime, lack of space
and the lack of personal green spaces of the inner city a stick; the
ample car-parking and convenience shopping of suburbia a carrot.
Why worry about the lack of urban hum? Let people have what
they want, the argument goes. Forget the social and environmen-
tal costs and, anyway, suburbs are becoming more like towns. As
Joel Kotkin describes:
There are bubbling sprawl cities like Naperville,
Illinois and brash new suburban villages popping up
in places such as Houstons Fort Bend County or
Southern Californias Santa Clarita Valley. There are
glistening new arts centres and concert halls in
Gwinett County, Georgia. Almost everywhere there
are new churches, mosques, synagogues and temples
springing to life along our vast ex-urban periphery.
This humanization of suburbia is critical work and is
doing much to define what modern cities will look like
throughout advanced countries. These are great
projects, worthy of the energies and creative input of
our best architects, environmentalists, planners and
visionaries not their contempt and condemnation.
28
Forget that sprawl is an inefficient use of land, with large quanti-
ties of space taken up by roads and parking and zoning laws
mandating large setbacks, buffer zones or minimum lot sizes; that
continual expansion of road systems ensures land is cheap, encour-
ages leapfrog development, and leaves undeveloped land or
brownfield sites inside the city; that more roads increase traffic
congestion, because it induces more driving; that it separates land
uses, leaves commercial developments to ease themselves into
vacant land usually at one storey; that it uses up almost exclusively
greenfield sites, previously in either agricultural use or a natural
state. Forget the health consequences of sprawl a huge cause of
premature death.
29

Others point out how government incentives and regulations
have consistently favoured suburbia, opening up land for suburban
developments at the expense of the city core, destroying the urban
neighbourhoods through which they pass. The urban regeneration
boom that started 15 years ago has shifted the focus somewhat and
created some turnaround, yet the shrinking tax base in cities has
led to a vicious cycle, with public services such as education and
policing far inferior to that in the suburbs. The balance of spending
is still on multi-lane highways, bypasses and road-widening
schemes, taking passengers away from public transit, with vigorous
lobbying by automobile and oil companies lending a helping hand.
Low density suburbs are in essence inaccessible without a car.
Todays suburbs include office buildings, entertainment facilities
and schools and can exist independently of central cities.
Dissatisfaction with their physical appearance, moreover, has led to
the complex maze of regulations and the New Urbanism agenda
that shape their current look and feel.
30
Gridded street layouts have
been abandoned in favour of sinuous networks of culs-de-sac, and
zoning laws have been extended to address lot sizes, permissible
uses, parking requirements, buffer zones, faade treatments and
billboards. However, while they may be more attractive than
before, their primary effect fosters car dependency, increases devel-
opment costs, and makes it illegal to build anything remotely
walkable.
31
Even the French, urbanists par excellence, are into it.
Head out to the grand couronne far outside the capital, skipping
over the poorer, heavily immigrant suburbs closer to the centre.
So far we have conflated Europe, Australia and the US into one
and have thus made sweeping statements to get across an overall
feel. Would there have been a contrast had we separated out the
experiences? Yes and no. The sheer corrosive physical impact of
quarter-acre block suburban development is more dominating in the
US and Australia. Its hold on the psyche cannot be overstated. Some
indeed love it very much. Suburbia is a form of urban development
which lends itself to a particular form of description distinct from
that of cities in general. The word city implies density, height, streets,
intricacy, intimacy, intense interaction. Suburbia, on the other hand,
is a new settlement form with its own logic and dynamic spread out
like a flattened pancake. Europe is moving towards the North
American and Australian way, but we have less space to play with.
Advocates play with numbers and, depending on the country, argue
that only 24 per cent of total land space is used up. Others say that
Overture 31

already 4 per cent of US land is used up as roads. There is plenty
left, yet some people forget to assess the perceptual geography on
the ground. The citys linked physical infrastructure of pylons, roads
and utility plants casts its net immeasurably further out into the
landscape, so shaping the feel of the space as if it were merely
supporting the city and suburbia. In terms of perception, roads feel
as if they are taking up a third of overall space and, indeed, in cities
such as Los Angeles asphalt takes up even more.
The US, Canada and Australia still play with space as if it were
in endless supply. Transportation codes demand greater leeway on
turning circles, turn-offs, emergency lanes, lay-bys, parking bays
and setbacks. These destroyers of streets are ever present. Flipping
the parking to the back and the building to the front to create a
street alignment is clearly a solution too obvious. The tired, listless
arguments along the lines of this is what customers want or it
will increase turnover in shops hold little water when you see the
(lack of) vibrancy of these streets recreated. Visually there is a
vacant endlessness. These wide roads project a boundless expanse
of ungiving, unforgiving asphalt. Inert machines lazily flop on to
the tarmac in front of sheds of chain shops, and there is an overar-
ching sensation of sluggishness and lack of energy. The dominant
hue is grey, interspersed with billboards and shop fascias that jump
out at you, grabbing you by the neck. Their garish, brightly
coloured signs create a tacky modern beauty and a touch of origi-
nality; mostly, though, it is the dulled familiarity of fast-food chains
where those that are getting too obese feed as if from a trough.
North Main Road in Adelaide, a suburban car-borne shopping
strip, is the kind of exception that excites. Shocking, bold ads
screech at you with their alluring plastic ugliness, as do frontages:
This is the car sales highway, one car salesroom following the next;
then it is DIY goods; later bulk furniture.
European cities are more contrite in trying to attract custom.
There are equivalent streets, yet they have a tighter feel; you feel
space is more at a premium. Many places, of course, are hollowing
out as shopping has switched out of town, as happened some time
ago in North America. Britain is further ahead here, with mainland
Europe catching up significantly.
The past is a prettier place?
But the older fabric with which European cities can work is a true
gift. It gives far greater scope to mould cultural resources. You can

work with layers of history and the patina of ages, blending old
and new. You can contain the car and make places walkable, and
the density makes public transport very efficient. Yet finding novel,
vibrant roles and purposes for the more ancient European towns,
beyond keeping them pretty for tourists, is hard. Nothing wrong
with tourists, but when there are too many the lifeblood of a city
can be sucked out. A place can fossilize. Think, almost at random,
of Delft, Rothenberg, Vaasa, Cortona, Broadway in the Cotswolds
and thousands more from Italy, France, Germany, Britain and the
Netherlands. Antiques and souvenir shops are fine as far as it goes,
but is that wealth creation? Going up a notch or two, Europe has a
plethora of mid- to large-scale cities which seem to define what we
mean by urbanity: Nice, Parma, Munich, Lucca, Lyons, Reims,
Heidelberg, Graz, Orvieto, Utrecht. North America has few cities
of this type as most cities there were constructed to feed the needs
of the car. The great Italian or French cities and the cities defined
by 19th century urban bourgeois architecture in particular have
something handsome about them: a touch grand but not
overblown, not overwhelming in height but manageable, with
mixed uses ground floor shops, first floor offices and residential
above. The streets are tree-lined, wide enough to take parking and
often boulevarded to reduce the visual impact of endless asphalt.
The vibrancy generated can stretch across the emotions: self-
satisfied when the bourgeois sense of self is too confident; gutsy
when the urban grime and grot creeps in as the poor and better off
coexist; and purposefully calm when you know business is being
conducted behind faades encrusted with the urban sweat of ages.
However, Europe, like everywhere else, has it share of ugliness:
cheap buildings in the modernist vein, inappropriate design, grim
outer estates, shed culture at the urban edges. The functional build-
ings of the industrial age often had a proud presence and solidity in
marked contrast to the throwaway, portal-framed sheds that allow
for vast covered spaces, with a built-in 15- to 20-year cycle. Can
you imagine the artists and hip designers of the 2030s recycling
these sheds for inspiration or trendy middle classes converting them
into designer apartments? Another thought. We think of Italy as an
apex of the urban experience: the walkable, mixed-use city clus-
tered around a historical core enlivened nightly by the hubbub of
the passegiata. Yet if we only consider Italian post-war settlements,
forgetting pre-war grandeur, you sense they have lost the art of city-
making. True, the grid-patterned streets and boulevards are
Overture 33

leavened by ground-floor uses in apartment blocks. There are
messily parked cars, ubiquitous cafs and general hanging around
outdoor life to give the city a greater street presence. But beyond
the ring roads that hug the centres and probe into the estates, there
can be a dull bleakness to match anything else other countries can
offer.
Although there is increasing convergence, we can still contrast
Eastern and Western Europe 15 years after the fall of the Soviet
Union and the Berlin Wall. Ironically, as Western Europeans
yearned after lost architectural grandeur, they rediscovered
Krakow, Prague, Budapest, St Petersburg, Ljubljana, Lvov, Odessa
and Timisoara, where there were few resources to allow modern
development to take them apart, and where budget airlines now
ply their trade. Their faded, dilapidated elegance, as that of
Havana, reminded people of what their home cities could still be.
Interestingly it was often the more successful places of the past in
the West that suffered most in terms of losing their grandeur.
Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol had their hearts transplanted
and renewed or torn out, depending on perspective. Those cities
struggling in the 1960s and 1970s boom, like Glasgow, were by
contrast able to maintain most of their fabric. Thus the example of
Eastern Europe represents a mixed blessing. Grandeur is often
preserved through lack of economic good fortune. A washed-out
charm peeling delights mixed with grey clad buildings in a Soviet
style can take some beating.
Some of the best buildings of the earlier Stalin period have a
grandeur and self-confidence, especially in Moscow, Warsaw or
even Kiev. Ex-Yugoslavia had its own socialist modernism that still
has much to offer in places like Belgrade or Zagreb. Kenzo Tanges
brash, bold Skopje reconstruction plan of 1966, after the 1963
earthquake, particularly stands the test of time. But as money ran
out, standards dropped and an obsessive homogeneity began to
tighten its grip, leaving a beaten-up feel: the joys of Bucharest,
Katowice, Iasi, the outer estates of Sofia, Kishinev or St Petersburg,
the Nova Huta steel factory and its estates in Krakow come to
mind. With rust seeping through the reinforced concrete, these
buildings are nonetheless difficult to destruct. Here are tired metal
bus shelters, twisted concrete benches, concrete cancer, weeping
cement, bent metal shutters. Now political posters from last years
election add to the visual cacophony. There are more adverts for
Coca Cola, West and Marlborough cigarettes, beer, vodka, the

swoosh of Nike and mobiles than a Westerner will ever have seen.
Sometimes they take up entire sides of six-story buildings. They are
placed inappropriately. In Odessa I was bemused by 43m flash-
ing, noisy ads covering the windows and sightlines of 19th Century
buildings. And for visual clutter, the surrounds of Bucharest airport
must be breaking some records. One senses and knows this was not
planned, however a great deal of corruption and backhanders
have played their part. And one sees on occasion a calming relic:
old hand-painted giant adverts for collectivized firms. The larger
cities at least have some buzz to go with the visual pollution, but
less-known, smaller cities like Kraljevo, Ucize, Elbasan, Durres,
Nickel, Tetovo, Banja Luka, Bitola and Kosice have less to offer.
Then there are moments of surprise, originality and inspiration.
Tiranas mayor, Edi Rama, ordered the painting of several hundred
old buildings, using the drab and dismal grey buildings as a fresh
canvas and creating a riot of brash colour and Mondrian-style
designs to beautify the city and change its psychological state. It is
more reminiscent of a Pop Art painting than an urban restoration
project. For a couple of years, around 4 per cent of the city budget
was spent on paint in an attempt change the psychology of citizens.
Rama noted that the main challenge was to persuade people that
change is possible. The former artist noted, Being the mayor of
Tirana is the highest form of conceptual art. Its art in a pure state.
In contrast, in the drive for modernity in most of the East, a
pervasive, new hyper-capitalist style has spread. Cheap reflective
glass if youre lucky, in fake gold or luminous green throws your
image back at you. Sometimes you can catch yourself in the mirror
against the backdrop of an old building. Pressed and anodized
aluminium, plastic sheeting and panelling, fibreglass, crushed
aggregates and insulation materials collude to flimsy, mean and
miserable effect. Patterns are cruder, colour definitions as yet still
too unsubtle. These materials are not flexible and do not weather
well. Bits are bolted on to the main structures rather than being
designed in, giving buildings an unrefined, mechanical feel.
Modular design and new techniques able to produce larger panels,
much bigger than bricks, have made buildings lose texture. The
ability to extrude sections and shape and bend segments in enticing
ways is limited. Able to get greater access to the Wests new materi-
als of 25 years ago, the Eastern European city planners aim to get
as much fanciness as possible for the minimum cost. Yet the results
can be tawdry and cheap. This was (and to an extent remains) no
Overture 35

different in the West across the whole developed world. Its scars
splatter the horizon. The buildings are technically fine they do
their job functionally but not aesthetically. In the East costs
remain more important than aesthetics, whereas in the West the
value-adding impact of design and quality is now more recognized.
Local idiosyncrasies
Would our earlier imaginary drive have been different travelling
into a huge Asian or Latin American city? Again, yes and no. With,
say, Japan or India there is a completely contrasting experience
from that in the US or Europe. The overall sense of noise, bedlam,
visual chaos, dilapidation, trading, traffic, smell and many, many
more people lends a cab ride around New Delhi, Buenos Aires,
Caracas or Manila a different feel to an equivalent journey in
Europe or North America. But flagship Asian cities such as Tokyo,
Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong rise up like the best the West
can offer, if not better. Glass and steel challenge concretes hege-
mony. Their fast, efficient, frequent public transit systems far
outstrip those in the West.
What is different and what is similar as you take an eagles eye
view of cities across the globe? Mending a car in Punta Arenas,
Southern Chile, surely serves the same core function as in Kirkenes
on the Barents Sea, Maputo in Mozambique, Kanazawa in Japan,
Oshkosh, Wisconsin or Cebu in the Philippines. The same should
be true for building a house, fixing the roads or putting in electric-
ity, going shopping, having a break, drinking a beer, getting rid of
rubbish or saving something for a rainy day. Superficially doing
many of these things looks the same and has the same output:
shelter, sustenance, getting by and getting around. The differences,
however, are in the logistics, organization, process, technique, tech-
nology, management and cultural idiosyncrasy which shape the
comprehensive flow of urban dynamics. Interactively they shape
the look and feel of cities and are in turn shaped by them.
We have to consider cities globally as an interconnected system
of settlements. Chains of causes and effects circulate in feedback
loops with real daily consequences on the ground. Whatever loca-
tional advantages a city might have had in the past, now its physical
and cultural resources, its intrinsic gifts and the skills of its people
are all part of a global network.
To consider in isolation a piece of the world urban map, say
Europe or Africa, is to ignore the interdependencies. Every action

in one place can affect a world away. The shape, structure and stage
of economic development are determined by threads of history
from past colonialisms to current global terms of trade. In the
development rush we rarely stand back and assess the balance of
gains and losses in places as different as Memphis, Port of Spain,
Bamako, Oulu, Norilsk, Frankfurt, Qatar and Chennai. It is as if
only one rational approach counted: the unfettered logic of capital
and property values inexorably drives the evolution of cities and
their shape, segregating rich from poor and casting light or shadow
depending on perspective or circumstance. The market economy
has no mechanism within itself that ensures ethics or trust; it is the
embodiment of self-interest. Using money values to drive progress
to create more monetary assets means monetizing all aspects of life,
even relationships. On its own it is an impoverished theory of
decision-making which excludes considerations of forms of socia-
bility, exchange and bonding, as exemplified in bartering or other
voluntary exchanges of favour. It also curtails the imagination in
recreating anew forms of free exchange, cooperation and endeav-
our and circumscribes thinking about alternatives. It puts its
monetary stamp on everything; someone has to make money some-
where. Capitals gleam lies in its seeming simplicity. It works, too,
in a way, if you forget all the downstream consequences and look
at the world through the narrow prism of economic man.
Overture 37

2
The Sensory Landscape of Cities
What do things look like? What colours do you see? How far can
you see? What do you smell? What sounds do you hear? What do
you feel? What do you touch? The city is an assault on the senses.
Cities are sensory, emotional experiences, for good and for bad.
But we are not accustomed to articulating things in this way: the
smelling, hearing, seeing, touching and even tasting of the city are
left to travel literature and brochures. It taxes our vocabulary as
we are used to describing the city in an objective lexicon deprived
of sensory descriptives. We thus experience the city at a low level of
awareness. We do not recognize, let alone describe, its smellscape,
soundscape, visual spectacle, tactile texture or taste sufficiently.
Our impoverished articulation is made all the worse because the
city can overwhelm our senses honking, flashing, whirring,
whizzing, precipitous, huge, confusing. Too often, urban stimuli
induce a closing rather than opening out of our senses. Depleted,
drained and defensive, our field of experience is diminished.
We live in an impoverished perceptual mindscape, operating
with a shallow register of experience and so guiding our lives
through narrow reality tunnels. The primary overwhelming
paradox for those who care for cities is this: our capacity to
perceive is shrinking at precisely the moment when it needs to
increase. And this will cause a crisis of growing proportions as the
individual and institutional capacity to cope with and address
predicaments and possibilities will decline. Our perceptive capaci-
ties are shrinking because we do not sufficiently recognize or
practise most of the senses. By diminishing our sensory landscape,
we approach the world and its opportunities within a narrow
perspective. By being narrow we do not grasp the full range of

urban resources or problems at hand, their potential or threat, let
alone their subtleties. We do not connect the sensory to the physi-
cal and work out how each can support the other.
Our world is shrinking as its interconnections become far more
tightly bound, as mass movement and mobility continue unabated,
as economies intermesh globally, and as electronics flattens the
distance between places. This is happening at speed and simultane-
ously, rapidly bringing together cultures, people and ideas. To
handle this complexity we need deep and discriminating minds that
grasp the delicate diversities and understandings required to
operate in worlds of difference and distinctiveness.
Constricted, we understand and interpret the city through the
technical rather than the sensory, yet it is the sensory from which
we build feeling and emotion and through which our personal
psychological landscapes are built. These in turn determine how
well or badly a place works even economically, let alone socially
or culturally and how it feels to its inhabitants and to visitors.
Technical disciplines like engineering, physical planning, architec-
ture, surveying and property development are important, but they
are a smaller part of the urban story than their practitioners would
wish to think.
The senses contribute to a rudimentary form of knowledge
upon which our worlds are built. The sensory landscapes we focus
on are the five senses first classified by Aristotle: hearing, smell,
sight, touch and taste. Yet it is now recognized that this list is not
exhaustive. For example, perceptions of pain
1
and of balance
2
have
been identified as distinct from these five. Depending on classifica-
tion, somewhere between 9 and 21 human senses have so far been
identified, more (up to 53) if you include those recognized by meta-
physicians.
3
Take electroperception. The city is a vast, dense sea of electrical
energy fields and waves estimated to be 100 million times stronger
than 100 years ago. Urban life systems cannot operate without elec-
tricity; an electrical shutdown will bring the city to a halt. The
accumulative cocktail of magnetic and electrical fields generated by
power transmission lines, pylons and masts, mobile phones,
computers, television and radio, lighting, wiring and household
appliances can seriously interfere with the subtle natural balances
of each cell in our body. These massive currents criss-crossing the
urban environment are unseen, unfelt, unheard, without taste or
smell, yet they operate upon us, albeit at a subconscious level.
4

Whatever the semantics, there is clearly a lot more to our
sensory landscapes than we acknowledge. And our circumscribed,
cramped focus has pervasive implications. It limits perception,
thinking, the way we analyse, what we think is important and the
ideas we come up with to solve problems or create opportunities. It
pares down our mindscape.
A mindscape is the totality of our thinking: the modes, procliv-
ities and gut reactions of thought; the theories we use to interpret
and construct reality; how this in turn shapes all the sensory
elements and how these are perceived, taken apart and interpreted;
how our mind responds to and is moulded by the media and
cultural representations; and how it handles, engages with and uses
its own historical sediment and traces. This mind sets the precondi-
tions for our perceptual geography.
Just as geography describes the Earth and the impact of human
interactions upon it, deriving as it does from the Greek words for
earth and to write on or describe, so perceptual geography is
the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing
sensory information about the places we inhabit. The aim is to
encourage our minds to be wider in analysing opportunities and
problems and in finding richer ways of identifying and implement-
ing solutions.
In order to do this, the first step is to perceive expansively in
order to work with the full register of experience. The next step is
to interpret broadly to appreciate the range of possibilities.
Intelligence is the capacity to make these two steps, encompassing
as it does vital intellectual abilities: comprehension and under-
standing, profiting from experience, reasoning, planning,
problem-solving, abstract thought, linguistic flexibility and learn-
ing. As a corollary, there is an implicit need to rethink our narrow
definitions of intelligence as merely a numeric, verbal and logical
capacity.
It is appropriate to point to Howard Gardners Theory of
Multiple Intelligences here.
5
Gardner proposes that people have
several kinds of intelligence and suggests that, in teaching, we have
for too long given greater credibility to the thinking intelligences
concerned with words and writing or with numbers, logic and
abstractions. Sensory intelligences, on the other hand, have been
given secondary status. Sensory intelligences here include the visual-
spatial, concerned with vision and spatial judgement, the
body-kinaesthetic, concerned with muscular coordination and
The Sensory Landscape of Cities 41

doing, and the auditory-musical, concerned with hearing and listen-
ing. Although we admire painters, singers and dancers, their insights
are rarely incorporated into how the economic or social worlds
might operate. Further, two intelligence types concern communica-
tion: the interpersonal, the capacity to interact and exchange ideas
and information with others, and the intrapersonal, the communica-
tion a person has with themselves, the ability to reflect. Finally, there
is naturalist intelligence, the ability to understand the various func-
tions of and mechanisms behind life, an intelligence often lacking for
those who live in cities and who are often completely divorced from
nature. But, given the fragility of our ecosystems and finiteness of
our resources, understanding the relation between, say, a hamburger
and a cow is ever more important.
The sense-making process applies forms of intelligence to
perceptions and a post-sensory cognitive awareness process
begins. This is the mind operating aware of perceptions, thought
and objects and it includes all aspects of perceiving, thinking,
feeling and remembering. This interpretative process is culture in
the making as it involves beliefs, desires, intentions, past knowl-
edge, experience and valuing what is significant.
The sensory realm of cities generates strong feelings, and
emotions spawned by urban life are not neutral or value free. They
are subjective, yet similar emotions are often shared, especially
between individuals within a cohesive group. Conversely, while the
fact that we have emotions is universal, our culture determines how
our emotions unfold and how we interpret their significance, as do
expectations, norms and the conditioned behaviour of the group.
They affect the mechanics of body function as well as behaviour.
Emotions are the domain where body mechanisms and thought
mesh, where the physical self, instinctive drives and our percep-
tions, values and opinions collide. This can cause tension and
affects how we behave towards others.
It is clear that the urban experience should very much be under-
stood as a psychological experience. And, as discussed earlier, the
physical and social environment deeply affects the health and well-
being of individuals and communities. Beauty and ugliness impact
on our behaviour and mental state; building configurations can
engender feelings of safety or fear. People have thresholds of toler-
ance as to what they can psychologically bear in terms of stimuli.
But we approach the urban sensescape with chronic myopia
and thus an ill-equipped toolkit. Paradoxically, this aggravates the

problems, dysfunction and malaise it is trying to solve. This feeling
of not sensing can dull and foster a feeling of being out of control,
taking people almost to breaking point. What will be the effect on
the new generation, who have never experienced anything different
and are unaware of sensory richness?
This focus on the senses is not about making people feel para-
noid, frightened, hyperaware or over self-conscious. Instead it aims
to get us to concentrate on two important things. First, how we feel
as individuals and city-dwellers in negotiating urban life in order to
live well, generate wealth, coexist without harming fellow citizens
and collaborate. Second, to care for the environment, without
which life as we know it is not possible. The implications of this
expanded awareness are far-reaching. It demands, unavoidably in
the end, that, as a collective body of people, we change our behav-
iour and lifestyles. But better to change through our own conscious
choice rather than have the change imposed on us through circum-
stances out of our control.
Seeing the city as a field of senses could be an invigorating expe-
rience. Playing with the senses can trigger action; it might generate
the pressure for ecological transport more quickly, for planting
more greenery or for balancing places for stimulation and reflec-
tion in the city. It would force us to ask questions such as: How can
the smell, sound, visual, touch and taste landscapes help cities? Bold
inroads into sensory fields have already been undertaken by some
cities: light
6
and colour
7
have been tackled where issues such as
colour planning strategies, future colour, and space or colour and
its effects on the mind and well-being are considered. Imagine, if
you will, the differences in effects of a city that is essentially white
(Casablanca or Tel Aviv), pink (Marrakech), blue (Jodphur or
Omans new Blue City project), red (Bologna) or yellow (Izamal in
Yucatan). Or imagine a city that is black the darkness would
provoke seasonal affective disorder, well-known in Scandinavia
where winter light is scarce. Until the 1960s, London was in fact a
black city. Emissions of smoke from coal and industry blackened
stone and brick, shading buildings with a uniform, light-absorbing
black. Decades of scraping off the surface dirt reveal colour and
detail hidden for years. The nickname of some cities involves
colour: Berlin or Milan are both known as the grey city.
Clearly planners and developers deal with sensory elements,
but often with insufficient thought, subtlety or care. Even worse,
sensory awareness is strongly manipulated in the world of

shopping malls and destination marketing without an ethical aim.
The purpose is for people to spend more so nice smells and good
sounds direct and guide people. At the very least we should know
what is happening that, for instance, the smell of bread is pumped
out in supermarkets, as is the smell of turkey at Christmas.
Sensory resources and awareness are seen as offbeat, without
much credibility. There is no acknowledged professional discipline
focused on the whole picture and linking these resources to the
physical. Planners and architects might argue they take these issues
into consideration, but they focus more readily on look, colour and
light. Equally, there is a neglect of the senses in education. You
rarely discover a teacher discussing someones sense of sight, sound,
taste or smell. As a consequence, there is no related career advice
or training or job route. Within schools, the arts curriculum is the
main area where appreciation of the senses is specifically high-
lighted of those, that is, apart from smell and taste yet the arts
continually remain in the firing line, having to argue that investing
in them is worthwhile. The kinds of imagination and thinking the
arts focus on senses and sense-making engenders rarely, if ever,
carry into city-making. Increasingly, artists are members of plan-
ning teams, but still more as an exception than the rule. Usually,
too, they are restricted to the visual, as in public art projects, where
all too often they are brought in as decorative embellishment and
as an afterthought rather than as part of the initial conceptualiza-
tion of possibilities. Artists play large roles in urban events, but
little as healers of the soundscape or developers of colour strate-
gies.
People within and between cultures perceive and value the
senses in different ways. Places will be loved or hated depending on
sensory cues. The sensory environment for an older person might
be noisy or unsafe while too quiet or safe for someone young. The
same differences can apply to people from different class and
income backgrounds. A smell is seen as sweet and comforting in
one cultural context and as fear-inducing in the next. A smell can
be nice if you associate it with someone you like, horrible if exuded
from someone you dislike. The sound of nothingness may feel
relaxing to a Finn and like a heavy rumble to someone from Taipei.
And for each of the landscapes of sense, there are cultural codes of
conduct. The Chinese and Italian speak far more freely about smell
in comparison to the English. Italians are encouraged to touch
merchandise, especially fruit or vegetables, whereas it is discour-

aged elsewhere. In Northern Europe people tend to touch each
other less. Southern Europeans shake hands and hold shoulders
more.
Our experiences of stimuli are also mediated by culture. For
example, we consider the sounds of animals as neutral and similar
across cultures, but this is not reflected in onomatopoeia. English
dogs woof woof or bow wow, German ones wau wau. Around the
world, dogs bau bau in Italy, ham ham in Albania, haw haw in
Arabia and wang wang in China.
8
And woof woof is definitely not
a dog in Japanese. Roosters cock-a-doodle-do, kikeriki or
chichirichi depending on where you are.
9
Importantly, though, in
spite of differences about interpretation, there are broad agreements
on the significance of the senses across time and culture. Drawing
back to this essential sensory realm, the aim is to trigger a direct
unmediated response to the urban environment (while noting that
nothing is completely unmediated).
SENSESCAPES
I use the suffix -scape in soundscape, smellscape and mindscape as
I would in landscape. I want to convey the fluid panorama of
perceptions. Building on the ideas of Arjun Appadurai,
10
each scape
is a perspective depending on the situation of those navigating their
way within it and on how they view these scapes, how they perceive
and act upon them. These are the shifting and fuzzy ways and
shapes within which we construct our world and views about it.
Appadurai defines further scapes which, while they need not detain
us here for long, are useful background tools for understanding
difficult areas. They include the ideoscape, the linking together and
valuing of ideas, terms and images, especially the Enlightenment
worldview and its master concept, democracy, as well as freedom,
welfare, rights, sovereignty and representation, around which polit-
ical and economic discourses in the West revolve; the ethnoscape,
the fluid and shifting landscape of tourists, immigrants, exiles and
other moving groups and persons; the technoscape, the grid of
interlocked technologies that connect the world; the financescape,
the very complex fiscal and investment flows that link cities in a
global grid of currency speculation and capital transfer; and medi-
ascapes, the representations and media through which cultural
images are conveyed. This broader sense of the urban landscape

can shape our thinking and precondition our worldview as well as
our physical and mental geography. And it forces us to reconsider
the maps we need to know where we are.
A map is an image that represents graphically the position of
elements in the real world. But many real elements of the world
are invisible. We have maps of territory in abundance: some enlarge
or shrink space, some show physical features and contours or build-
ings in three dimensions, some colour-code activities or facilities.
Mapping the flows of goods, people, diseases, weather and the like
between cities and countries has long been an important part of
cartography; any good atlas shows these flows. Mapping informa-
tion landscapes, the internet, network structures is a recent
development.
11
There are a few maps that express financial flows
such as those of the World Bank, but getting an easy sense of how
the power configurations in the world work is not a straightfor-
ward task.
And there is hardly any mapping of the sensory landscape. An
exception here is the Noise Mapping England project initiated by
the Department for Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
12
This aims to
calculate noise levels and produces noise maps across England.
Governments have traditionally viewed noise as a nuisance rather
than an environmental problem. As a result, most regulation has
been left up to municipal authorities and bylaws and ordinances
vary widely from one place to another or do not even exist in some
towns and cities.
The car and the senses
The fact that city-making impacts on our senses is no better illus-
trated than by reference to the automobile. When a city is built with
the car rather than the pedestrian the person in mind, the car
underpins the sensory experience of that city. Too often, the urban
background of what we see, smell and hear is car-related: a sound
wall is generated by the background hum of engines, punctuated by
beeps and horns; the lingering, pervasive smell of petrochemicals
permeates the air; the fuel-burning activities of engines and the ther-
modynamic properties of asphalt affect the temperature; and our
sightline is dominated by metal and asphalt. But because of the very
ubiquity of these stimuli, we almost forget they are there.
But the presence of the car also affects our experience of the city
in very tangible ways. Cars are a very real danger that both pedes-

trians and motorists have to be aware of in order to survive. If were
careful, we look sharply left and right at junctions and crossings to
check for oncoming traffic. Thus, by necessity in such situations, we
are forced to ignore the finer details and nuances of the cityscape.
Similarly, we are attuned to an entire lexicography of signs dedi-
cated to communicating conduct in relation to motor vehicles. But
the interpretation of greens, reds and ambers at traffic lights and
crossings can preclude an even-paced, reflective urban experience.
In the sensory descriptions of the city below, it is therefore not
possible to avoid returning to aspects of the car. But the point here
is not to sound a rallying call against cars per se, but rather to
remind ourselves how motorized society inflects our senses, our
emotions and our being. The car sights, smells and sounds that
frequently confront us do not beckon or welcome us, or lead us to
open out. Instead we tighten up, close in our ears and noses and
squint our eyes as we try to blank out the persistent roary growl of
cars or the leaden odour of fumes. We then operate on restricted
registers of experience and possibility. The tightening up process
encourages withdrawal into inner worlds with a desire to commu-
nicate less. This is the opposite of the image of the good city life of
human interaction, vibrancy and vitality.
How many old industrial buildings are left to be regenerated?

Transporting into a past sensescape
13
To understand the sensescape of cities today, transport yourself
back into a yesterday perhaps 250 years ago somewhere in Europe.
Subtract the noises, smells and what you can see, touch and taste
one by one: the car, petrol fumes, the hum of electrical appliances,
air conditioning, grinding mechanical noises, asphalt, tall build-
ings, the profusion of glass, plastic materials and concrete.
Mid-18th century, a central street like Oxford Street in
London, Nevsky Prospect in St Petersburg or Via Condotti in
Rome would be deafening. The clacking and clatter of horses
hooves and carriages were so loud you couldnt hear yourself
think. It would be almost impossible to hold a conversation. For a
while the stone cobbles in London were changed into wooden
cobbles to dampen the sound and quieten things down. The side
streets would be immeasurably calmer and, away from the city
hub, it would be near silent bar the shout of a voice or a distant
bell. You get a sense of the back streets of old when walking
through Venice today. You hear footsteps and even dogs walking,
which can be eerie. In Europe the sound of bells would be ever-
present, telling the time every fifteen minutes to watchless citizens.
Bells would also call the people to prayer. The bells of each church
were slightly misaligned for identification purposes. There were
only short breaks between chimes. In market areas, there would
be the sound of talking and shouting as wares were sold and other
trades plied. There were fewer shops. Horses, dogs and pigs would
add to the cacophony. There was thudding, clanging, banging and
clinking as hammer hit metal or wood, making or mending things.
Near the rivers on a busy day, the human voice would rise above
other sounds. The pathways to the riverfront would be clogged up
by horses and there would be lots of shouting as boatmen loaded
and unloaded. In contrast to today, the sound of humanity would
be more obvious.
The smell could be very strong, powerful, pungent and putrid,
at times made up of horse, other animal and human shit, stagnant
sewage, rotting garbage, interlaced on occasion by the whiff of
lavender from a rich passer-by or a stall. A whiff too on occasion
of a bakery, but more likely overpowered, especially if a tannery
was nearby. Though not every street would have a stench this bad.
You would smell people. People generally stank. Hygiene only truly
came into its own from the mid-19th century.

There was more wood and masonry around. Things had a more
hand-made feel, more rough to touch. The urban shapes were more
crenulated and less angular. The hue of colours was more sombre
browns, greys and blacks, even for clothes because of dirt, dust and
a lack of washing. Brighter reds, greens, blues and yellows were a
rarity as dyeing was very expensive. The height of buildings aver-
aged perhaps five times the human height, with the churches
thrusting above as the only high buildings.
The look and smell of poverty would be all over people
dressed in unwashed, stinking rags, scrapping a living from the
streets. The sound of disease would have been more prevalent too,
with coughs and spluttering joining the yells and clatter.
But once out of the city, very soon the sounds and smells of
nature and the overriding sense of the rural would take over. The
city was the exception not the rule.
Fast forward to the early 20th century and much of the old
smell has abated: sewerage systems are in place, there is a greater
awareness of cleanliness and the motorcar has not yet marched its
way to dominance. Nevertheless, new smells are on the horizon
closer to those of today: smoke from coal whose heavy particles
hang in the air and hover over the ground especially on cold days;
burning home coal fires creating over time a smoggy filter and
muggy atmosphere that would make you cough and choke. Perhaps
there would be a background of grease, sweet and sharp to the nose
at the same time. Mechanical sounds are increasing: regular grind-
ing, pumping, cutting and banging noises. The city begins to
acquire its more angular, upright feel and heights are rising ten,
twenty times human height. Height is especially dominant in the
emerging cities of the new continent. Chicago, New York and
Philadelphia adopt a template of wide grid-patterning and build-
ings are built towards the sky, fuelled by an optimistic modernism.
The building archetype is the factory, a paean to production.
Retrospectively, the factory has a beauty, generates awe and inspires
artists to revitalize them and the chi-chi-ria to transform them into
apartments. Yet in their time, they told a different story. Factories,
especially the great mills of Lowell or Halifax, have a monumental
quality with their regular patterning, great halls and assembly
yards. There is a mechanical feel, people suddenly feel secondary
and like automatons.
14
The machinery of city-making, as in
construction, becomes ever larger with new types of crane, steel,
pylons. Electricity is being embraced with such enthusiasm that

New York builds its first electric chair in 1888. Things are becom-
ing more like today.
These are mere flavours of a past, not a detailed description.
They seek to call forth memory, to suggest and evoke. Everyone
can paint their own picture. Lest we are tempted to romanticize,
they also remind us of some past dreadfulness, much of which has
been overcome disease, hunger and poverty, at least in the more
developed world. On the other hand, grim and hideous as these
were, they did not threaten the planet and civilization as have
todays toxic set of chemical compounds and relentless exploitation
of finite resources.
Linguistic shortcomings
We do not have a well-developed language to explore and describe
the senses, let alone in relation to the city. This restricts our capac-
ity to experience fully, as only when we have words can we build
on primary sensations. Without suitable descriptors, it is difficult
to create and work with a rich associational palette around a sensa-
tion. Often we have to turn to literature to seek linguistic
inspiration. Sights are better articulated because in general we have
a rich vocabulary around physical appearance. Sounds too are
easier to describe because language (itself a system of sounds as
well as visual signs) can be used to approximate them: The whoosh
of a car going past or the buzz of a bee (although, as noted, there
are cultural discrepancies here). Smell and taste, however, seem to
evade easy encapsulation. (Interestingly, unlike our other four main
senses, smell goes directly to the limbic system in the brain. As a
result, the immediate impact of smell is unfiltered by language,
thought, clutter or translation.
15
) We rely more on metaphor and
associations with other senses, dangers and pleasures here, hence
terms such as comfort food or the smell of death and the use of
adjectives like sharp, warm and bursting. Or else, we describe
smells and tastes with reference to the source of the stimuli: fishy,
musky, salty.
The language of the senses is not rich enough for describing our
cities today, especially when we think of the combined sensory
experience together as one. Our language, unless we look to artists,
is hollowed out, eviscerated and dry. It is shaped by the technical
jargon of the professions, especially those in planning and the built
environment: planning framework, qualitative planning goal,

spatial development code, development strategy, outcome targets,
site option appraisal process, stakeholder consultation, the role of
the development board in delivering integrated services, income
inadequacy, statutory review policy programme, neighbourhood
framework delivery plan, sustainability proofing, benchmarking,
underspend, empowerment, triple bottom line, visioning, main-
streaming, worklessness, early wins, step change, liveability,
additionality.
The language of what cities look like is thus dominated by the
physical but without descriptions of movement, rhythm or people.
This visual language comes largely from architecture and urban
design. Its principles derive from key texts such as that by Vitruvius,
with notions of symmetry or harmony at its core.
16
Descriptions of
the visual city come from habits of portraying classic architecture
where building components are illustrated: pedestals, columns,
capitals, pediments and architraves. The language has broadened
somewhat, yet still has a focus on static elements rather than
dynamic wholes like space, structure, technology, materials, colour,
light, function, efficiency, the expression and presence of a build-
ing. Urban design, meanwhile, sees and describes cities more as
dynamic totalities: place, connections, movement, mixed uses,
blocks, neighbourhoods, zones, densities, centres, peripheries, land-
scapes, vistas, focal points and realms. But both frequently exclude
the atmospherics of cities, the feeling of the look. Does it make you
shrink into yourself, make you calmly reflect or fill you with
passion? Does it close you in or open you out? Does the physical
fabric make you respond with a sense of yes or no? Does it
involve you, make you want to participate?
Lets explore senses in turn, starting with sound.
Soundscape
With urbanization comes a proliferation in sounds. Sound can have
positive connotations in the context of music, but more is less with
the increased roar of noise in the city. It becomes less differentiated
and variegated. Put simply, there are more decibels from more
sources.
Yet many sounds attract people: the busy hum of a commercial
district, the twang of a guitar from a busker, the murmuring of
human voices in a tranquil park offset from the hubbub of the city,
the shouts of market traders, the hurly-burly of the morning rush

hour. If you like a sound, it can trigger pleasurable emotions. If you
dont:
Adrenaline ... is released into your bloodstream. Your
heart beats faster, your muscles tense, and your blood
pressure rises. Sudden spasms occur in your stomach
and intestines ... thoughts are interrupted and the
digestion of food halts.
17
Noise created by humans can be harmful to health or welfare:
headaches, fatigue, irritability, sleeplessness, lack of concentration
and other symptoms where the body screams for help. Not forget-
ting the most obvious problem loss of hearing. Noises loud
enough to cause hearing loss are almost everywhere in larger cities.
Or, as one writer put it, New Yorkers (or Londoners, Tokyoites,
Shanghai citizens, Romans) are expected to work and live in an
aural state of siege.
18
Most city-dwellers experience the barrage of noise as a sound-
wall which prevents us from hearing distance, space and the more
subtle exchanges among humans or animals. Transport vehicles are
the worst: large trucks, buses, cars, aircraft, trains and motorcycles
all produce excessive noise. As does construction equipment such
as jackhammers, bulldozers, drills, grinding machines, dumper
trucks, piledrivers and cranes. Air conditioning provides a constant
background whirr and computers an electrical hum. So the noise of
global transactions is a broadband hum. Shops have foreground
and background music. Even in the suburbs we have lost the art of
silence; gardening equipment grinds, grates and whirrs.
Overwhelming everything is the big petrochemical roar of the car,
but we do not notice it anymore. We cannot afford to. We must
adapt as a function of self-protection. We are selectively attentive
we try to hear what we want to hear and we filter out noise. This is
white noise, the total sum of all noise, the noise we take for granted.
If we didnt, we would go mad. Look at people in the noisy city.
They knit their brows, they squint their eyes and pucker their lips
in a fixed position to shield themselves from and to ward off the
sounds of the city.
To make matters worse, the sounds of the city are amplified by
the physical structures that hug our street. Concrete, glass and steel
create a canyon effect that loudens the growls and honks of traffic,
sirens and exhaust from big buildings. The sound artist and urban

observer Hildegard Westerkamp sums up parallel developments in
modern architecture, as exemplified by the Bauhaus movement, and
sound. She points out that the new international architecture that
is homogenizing our visual urban environment is also homogeniz-
ing our soundscape:
Although most likely not anticipated by Bauhaus design-
ers, functionalism and efficiency in building design have
been developed to great extremes during the twentieth
century as banks and corporations have been erecting
their tall towers. Artificial control of air and light has
become an integral aspect of this type of building design,
where no windows can be opened and natural light does
not find access. Sonically this translates into electrical
hums from artificial lighting and broadband sounds
from air conditioning inside, and powerful broadband
sounds from the buildings exhaust systems outside.
Modern cities are not only throbbing with amplified and
reflected traffic sounds, but also with the bad breath,
as Schafer calls it, of high-rise buildings So, the inter-
nationalism in urban design has resulted not only in
visual but also in aural sameness: same materials, same
structures, same sounds.
19
The original impetus for sound awareness came from composers
and musicians. As professional listeners and makers of sound, they
are acutely aware of the sonic environment and its acoustic ecology,
the discipline that explores the ecological health and balance of our
acoustic environment and all living beings within.
20
It is in large
part artists who have been at the forefront of sensory searching.
R. Murray Schafer introduced the concept of soundscape in the
mid-1970s and, later, that of acoustic ecology.
21
Westerkamp
defines soundscape as the sum total of all sounds within any
defined area, and an intimate reflection of, among others, the
social, political, technological, and natural conditions of the area.
Change in these conditions means change in the sonic environ-
ment.
22
Schafer noted too that to grasp what I understand by
acoustic aesthetics, we should consider the world as a vast musical
composition which is constantly unfolding before us.
The goal of acoustic ecology is to raise listening awareness and
to preserve acoustically balanced soundscapes. Westerkamp again:

Soundscape Studies and Acoustic Design want to strip
the soundscape of its sonic overload, its noise and all
the acoustic perfume that the Muzak Corporation,
for example, has introduced into urban environ-
ments Wanting to care for the acoustic environment
in the deepest sense creates the desire to listen to it
and vice versa, listening to it creates a desire, or,
perhaps beyond that, it highlights the urgent need to
care for it just as caring for our children creates
desire to listen to them and vice versa.
23
In fact, in Western Europe, muzak has declined in influence, but
wander around any shopping mall and you can hear the muffled
cacophony of MTV culture and dance music, in place to energize
consumerism. Hence there remains, at least in some quarters, the
desire to remove background aural clutter so as to enjoy varied,
distinct sounds from place to place.
Sound classifications obviously come from music. The main
qualities cover pitch, the location of a note between high and low;
timbre, the tone colour or quality of the tone that distinguishes it
from other tones on the same pitch or volume; intensity, the loud-
ness or magnitude; and duration, the length of a tone. Some have
enriched the descriptive vocabulary further to portray subtler detail
within a sound.
24
Yet it is difficult to articulate the urban sound-
scape with these categories alone its noises ranging from hum to
hubbub, from din to honking, beeping and the whoosh and swoosh
of cars.
So we have a low whirr, brrrrrm, brrrhh, with changing volume
from a rumble to a roar, but always a continuous soft echo of
rubber on the road. The more continuous backdrop of motorized
sound is interspersed with sporadic interruptions: a staccato
screech, whine, beep or honk, the straining sounds of cars going
uphill or changing gear, and blaring, thumping car stereos. The
occasional unmuffled motorbike exhausts make your ears boil.
Sometimes there is a siren or a car alarm, designed to irk and annoy
with its high-pitch, unrelentingly piercing whining or wailing.
When these sounds cumulate, they crescendo to a roar. There is
often an aeroplane above, rumbling with a gravelly roar, and on
occasion it rasps with a gruffness as it flies directly overhead.
Cities are always on the move with accompanying construction
and demolition: whirring, whining, clanking, drilling, banging,
grinding; or the sound of swooshing or noisy crumbling as things

fall down. The vibrations even reverberate within your chest if you
are near enough.
Extract the car, the plane and construction and listen to the
sounds of buildings in isolation, if you ever can they breathe a
steady, long, drawn out hummmmmm. The air conditioning and
electrical gadgetry give out a coated, dulled whirr. If you listen
closely, they alert rather than relax your ears.
The sound on the streets is the faint sound of people brushing
against each other, a rustle, the patter of feet, the odd intermittent
cough or loud exhalation of breath. Some voices break through,
though commuters are rarely vocal. Then open the door of a bar,
pub or restaurant, and you are hit by a soundwave. Voices can burst
out as if the sound had been condensed in a fizzy bottle. A mix of
pitches high to low, distinct voices in the foreground, the words
nearly clear, sound in the background more like a rhythm of noise.
A giggle or a laugh might break through and someone always has
that unpleasant, piercing, whiny, nasal voice. Walking the streets at
night and there will be a repetitive beat, lots of bass, faster today
than yesterday a basement bar or record shop, again you feel the
vibrations. If you want to hear a thousand voices chattering, move
out from Europe or North America to the bazaars of the East or
the souks of the Middle East.
Really, it is noise not sound that you hear in the city. Sounds
are mushed together and it is difficult to pick out individual ones.
Rhythm is rare and a comforting relief when it comes. Moving
trains provide some rhythm, the dadumdadum dadumdadum as
wheels click the joints on the tracks. Usually, though, the noise is
random, a hubbub all around. Traffic throws a blanket over the
soundscape so you lose the subtle sounds. Rarely is there a clear
note. Discrete and continuous sounds simply coalesce. You would
have to shut down electricity to hear silence without the
hummmmm and it is difficult to experience pure sound.
Remind yourself of times gone: what sounds did you hear that
you will never hear again with such pristine clarity? Sounds disap-
pear like species: the hooves of horses clopping that you now only
encounter in the military parade or TV period dramas; the clink of
glass milk bottles on the front doorstep; the clack of typewriters
keys on carbon paper; the pop of flashbulbs; the slamming of tele-
phone handsets. You dont hear church bells often and when you
do they are not crystal clear, masked as they are by the noise wall.
You rarely hear the varying wind sounds in the city. Long gone is

the tweet of urban sparrows or starlings, unless you are in Rome,
where you might see a hundred thousand starlings in the evening
light.
25
Normally you have to concentrate hard and get rid of the
noise in your head to pick out a poor miserable bird. While some
sounds have gone, others have evolved: think of police and ambu-
lance sirens, car engines and, of course, the styles of music you hear
on the streets.
The sound of commerce is the sound of movement: packing,
unpacking boxes, plonking crates on top of each other, shouts, self-
advertising, the rustling of paper, trolleys, forklift trucks and their
high-pitched whining. Markets are a sound and smell clich, but
compelling and ubiquitous. They have a rich sound colour and vari-
ations coming more from people than machines, with those from
the latter often monotone. While the precise texture of market
sounds across continents is different, its general tone is similar.
If you are near a port, sounds seem to emerge from the bowels
of the hulls of ships. Add to this the deeply pitched vibrations of
heavy containers clanging and juddering on to the ground. The
sound is paced and measured in ports; heavy machines dont zip
about, although the agile forklifts can dart about like ants. The
sense of slow movement is inflected by our knowledge of port activ-
ities. The noise of industry has largely left cities whose economies
are now based more on service industries and at whose edges the
noise is trapped in large industrial sheds. This is especially true of
cities in the Far East. But in the former Soviet Union you can
encounter industry in its classic industrial revolution incarnation.
Often it is silent as the massive centralized plants have gone bank-
rupt, with rusting debris lying forlorn, the wind on occasion
whipping through the landscape causing irregular clangs. I remem-
ber a section of the shipyards in Gdansk, the rusting hulks in the
port of Murmansk, the steel works in Elbasan, Albania. Then there
are the still active plants like Nova Huta near Krakow or the Mittal
steelworks in Iasi, Romania. The noise rings, booms and echoes as
it hits the metal structures of the factory.
Nearing the city core there is the silent commerce behind the
humming buildings faades. Youll be lucky to see white-collar
workers in the cheaper buildings, whose reflective glass returns
your image. Yet transparency is all the rage now and behind see-
through glass they go about their silent business. They, in turn, will
be hearing sounds coming off the streets, muffled and less distinct
though they are because of the double glazing. Inside their offices is

the sound of static and hum coming from computers mixed in with
voices. If the phone is used a lot, the workers hear the private
sounds of other voices. More frequently than not, they will be on
hold as they wait to be connected. How many times have they heard
Vivaldis Four Seasons, which has taken over from Albinonis
Adagio as the new muzak for calls on hold?
The sound of shops is chart music pumped out mainly by
fashion and record stores. Usually more discreet in the West, there
is a kind of social noise contract for which regulations are notori-
ously flexible. Thresholds of acceptable noise differ from country
to country. The loudest street sounds I have ever heard were in
Taipeis Hsimenting, a district popular with the young. Full of
teeny-bopper boutiques, six-storey high-rises cram in up to
50 shops. They sell every kind of the latest that is bizarre, self-made
and imported. On the ground floor the music thumps out from each
of the competing stores, colliding with each other. The sounds
vibrate underneath your feet as if you were balancing on a lilo and
at head level your ears are assaulted. No wonder the sound of
silence was too loud for the Taiwanese woman I met in Inari in
northern Finland. She could hear her blood pumping and this
frightened her. Calmer variations on the Taipei theme can be found
in Tokyos Harajuku, Electric City in Akihabara or Hong Kongs
Nathan Road. But the new Eastern Europe is competing on the
noise front. Think of Deybasovskaya in Odessa, Durrsi Street and
Boulevard Zogu I in Tirana or even Arbat in Moscow, with sounds
coming mostly from cafs. Evidently, being modern is being noisy.
The dominant department store and supermarket noises are
more curtailed, in the first a discreet hush, in the later the pings of
items being scanned at the checkout or the squeak of a trolley.
Places to escape from noise increasingly play significant roles:
museums, galleries, libraries and places of religious worship are
sanctuaries of quiet. Their silence wafts over the brow, easing
tension along the way. Uninvited noises take energy away; silence
can revivify and recharge. With time, relaxation sets in. Often
people use these spaces as mental cleansing rooms.
Every city has its own sound atmospherics, even if too many
are alike. Yet the sound of elsewhere can be enticing, even though
it is largely the same. The combination with other impressions
makes us hear sounds unlike those we have heard before. Also, if
you listen intently, the sound palette of the roars is subtly dissimi-
lar. The honk in one place says look, I am here, in another get

out of the way. In one, the honk is a quick beep, in another it is
more drawn out.
It is rare for the sound of the city to come up at you at once,
encapsulating all the fragments, but from vantage points around
the world you can appreciate different sound panoramas: the din
looking out from Zcalo Square in Mexico City, the children, birds
and hooting from the panoramic view of Jodhpurs blue city from
Mehrangarhin, or the more discreet noises from the castle in
Salzburg. East Berlin once had a special high-pitched, two-stroke
engine noise from the Trabants. In Los Angeles the horns and sirens
pierce more sharply because the motors there are now quieter. In
Italian cities there was far more hooting and beeping from motori-
nos and Apes, the tiny three-wheeled vans, until the government
raised noise as an issue. One of my most memorable sound experi-
ences was in Sarajevo, where three global religions meet at a point.
The main mosque and orthodox and catholic churches are a few
hundred metres from each other. Within a few minutes of each
other, there was the tinny call to prayers through a megaphone from
the muezzin, bells ringing first to a catholic service and shortly
afterwards to an orthodox one all competing for attention. Only
a few years before, practitioners of these religions had been slaugh-
tering one another.
When we think about space, not just in terms of the physical
structures that delimit it, but also as occupied by sounds and noise
which are wittingly and unwittingly propagated, we begin to realize
we are far more enclosed than we care to acknowledge. Hildegard
Westerkamp describes Brasilias soundscape:
As much as the Monumental Axis and the Residential
Highway Axis may connect people between sectors or
between home and work, acoustically speaking they
form two enormous soundwalls that divide the city
The acoustic space traffic on these arteries occupies is
much more extensive than their geographical dimen-
sions. The traffic noise travels right across the
expansive green spaces into hotel rooms, offices,
churches, even schools, and many living areas. The
eyes can see far but the ear cannot hear beyond the
acoustic immediacy of the car motor because every-
thing looks wide open one gets the illusion of space.
Acoustically, however, one is closed in.
26

As an exercise, try to imagine your own city in similar, auditory
terms. What noises would you rather not have? Which are an
unnecessary, unpleasant imposition? What would you like to hear
more of? How can sounds especially those that grate be better
contained? As sounds occupy space beyond the geographical
purview of their origins, we need to think of sound territorially.
Imagine music that you like: orderly chamber music, stirring
Romanticism, catchy pop, exploratory jazz, whatever. Contrast this
with the sounds of your city. How far is one from the other?
Imagine yourself as a sound engineer. Reconstruct the sounds of
the London of 1660, Cairo of 1350 and Baghdad of 1100. What
sounds do you need to add to and subtract from todays noise?
Imagine reconstructing the sounds of the city in a way that feels
good to you. What would you foreground? Would the sounds be,
as in nature, more distinguishable and identifiable, even the intru-
sive aircraft?
But we also have to be cognizant of the cultural contingency of
sound. Sounds mean different things and have different weightings
across cultures and territories. Our conditioning determines our
response to noise, though it is risky to generalize too strongly.
Scandinavians, it is said, prefer less cluttered, quieter sound environ-
ments; the Chinese need some noise to ward off the chasing ghosts
of the dead; and Americans have become too used to fractured
soundscapes typified by the constant advertising interruptions in
their media. People hear, listen to, make and want sounds differ-
ently. A church bell might evoke a warm feeling even if you are not
religious, but it might irk a Muslim. The sound of a police siren may
provoke comfort, fear, anxiety or even excitement, depending on
context. As travel and migration increase, there is greater awareness
of soundscapes, but we accept too passively what we have at home.
As cultures interpret sounds differently, so they also make
sounds differently. North American cites have less vocal sound
unless in a shopping mall; Indian urban sounds reflect a greater
human intricacy they are more expressive; and Japanese cities
have a more focused, hectic feel. Or is that too simple? Everywhere
a low motorized rumble threatens. How many decibels are OK? It
depends; the sound of a baby crying has more decibels in it than a
pneumatic drill. But the baby induces the emotion to help; the drill
you want to destroy. Westerkamp describes bemusement at Delhis
car horns. But she realizes there is an intricate system behind the
seemingly chaotic noise:

I realize quickly that car-horns speak differently here.
They talk. hallo, watch out, I am beside you, leave
me some space, I want to move over to your side,
dont bump into me, hallo, I want to pass. What
seemed like chaos initially starts to feel like an organic
flow, like water. There is an undercurrent of rules.
27
Sounds engender emotions, they have meaning, and they reflect the
cultures from within which they stem.
We could change the soundscape dramatically; it is in our
capacity. Electric cars are already pretty silent. We could challenge
our innovators to invent the silent computer or air conditioner. We
could ask what would a public space sound like.
Did you ask for your soundscape? Is auditory trespassing part
of the landscape of planning? Clearly not. Acoustic sensitivity is
not designed in. It is hardly part of urban planning and develop-
ment. It is an unplanned sideshow. Unsurprisingly, noise is now on
many other agendas, such as those of the right to silence and
sound rights campaigners: The Right to Quiet Society for
Soundscape Awareness and Protection.
28
The World Federation of
Acoustic Ecology, inspired by Murray Schafer, is based in
Vancouver, which perhaps makes British Columbia and Vancouver
the urban sound awareness capital of the world.
Awareness of noise pollution is rising fast. In New York,
London, Delhi and Chennai to name but a few. New Yorks Mayor,
Michael Bloomberg, put forward legislation in 2005 which will
provide the first comprehensive overhaul of the New York City
Noise Code in over 30 years.
29
In New York, noise is the number one complaint to the citys
citizen hotlines, currently averaging nearly 1000 calls a day. The
city is developing a new noise code, focused on construction, music
and other nuisance but not the general din of traffic. This will
augment the successful anti-noise initiative, Operation Silent Night.
Silent Night targeted 24 high-noise neighbourhoods throughout the
city with intensive enforcement measures. From its inception in late
2002 to early 2005, using sound meters, towing of vehicles, seizure
of audio equipment, summonses, fines and arrests, the initiative
issued 3706 noise summonses, 80,056 parking violations, 40,779
moving violations and 33,996 criminal court summonses. The City
Police Department is now identifying new neighbourhoods to be
targeted for noise control.
30

Smellscape
That smell is extremely evocative is evidenced by neuroscience. The
olfactory system has close anatomical affinity with the limbic
system and hippocampus, areas of the brain that have long been
known to be involved in emotion and place memory, respectively.
31
Olfactory information is therefore easily stored in long-term
memory and has strong connections to emotional memory. Smell
can remind us sharply of a precise moment a very long way back.
Perhaps the smell of an old relative or the whiff of perfume that
enveloped you in one of your early kisses. A classic example linking
smell with memory occurs in A la Recherche du Temps Perdu
(Remembrance of Things Past) by Marcel Proust. Early on in the
first book (Swanns Way), the protagonist Charles Swann finds
that the smell from a small piece of madeleine cake soaked in tea
triggers a raft of memories from his childhood.
But powerful as it is, smell is a sense that we have neglected in
cultural terms. And it is the one people are most willing to give up
when asked, Which sense would you be prepared to lose?
32
Yet
without this sense, our sense of taste would be terribly depleted. If
you eat something while holding your nose, it is impossible to
distinguish subtle flavours. Smell leads to heady feelings and trig-
gers emotions: at one extreme we can smell arousal and sexual
excitement; at the other, fear, as the body releases aromatic
substances called pheromones. Smells affect our mood quite easily,
relaxing us or dulling our senses. As we can detect atmospheres,
our sense of smell gives us a strong grasp of place and location.
But, as noted, in contrast to the sound or look of a place, smells are
hard to describe. They defy onomatopoeic encapsulation and visual
metaphor. We therefore resort to their associational relations.
So the smellscape is transient and difficult to capture in words.
As Pier Vroon notes:
Our terminology for describing smells is meagre or
inadequate due to our neural architecture. The parts
of the brain that are closely involved in the use of
language have few direct links with the olfactory
(smell) system. Because consciousness and the use of
language are closely connected, it is understandable
why olfactory information plays a part mainly on an
unconscious level.
33

To make matters worse, although we can measure sound in deci-
bels, colour in frequencies and touch in units of force and pressure,
we have no scale against which the intensity of a scent, smell or
odour can be measured, so we resort to human inspectors, who are
by definition subjective. Perhaps this is a reason for the lack of
campaigning organizations to improve our smell environment.
Nevertheless, classifications of smell go back as far as Plato,
whose simple dividing line was pleasant and unpleasant. Aristotle
and later Linnaeus in the 16th century enlarged these to seven:
aromatic, fragrant, alliaceous (garlic), ambrosial (musky), hirci-
nous (goaty), repulsive and nauseous. Two other smells have since
been added: ethereal, which is fruity, and empyreumatic, the smell
associated with roasted coffee.
Smell exacerbates the differences between urban and rural
experiences. Smells in nature have a purpose to attract or repel.
Honeysuckles smell, intensive yet transitory and fragile, often
attracts a double take. Rotting flesh repulses through smell, and for
good reason. Evolution doesnt favour those who find the poison-
ous, the diseased or the dangerous sweet-smelling or tasty. Smell is
part of the signal world of nature. The smell of cut grass is a famil-
iar one throughout Western culture. Behavioural studies have
shown that this green odour involving cis-3-hexenal and other
compounds has a healing effect on psychological damage caused by
stress. Another familiar smell is that after rain. The wetness and
force of rainfall kicks tiny spores actinomycetes up into the air
where the moisture after rain acts as an aerosol or air freshener.
The spores have a distinctive, earthy smell. There are also other
scents after it rains as the impact of rain stirs up aromatic material
which is carried through the moist air. Most people consider it
pleasant and fresh. It has even been bottled.
In the city after rain, the air feels polished and cleaner as the
rain has pushed down the dust. Dust is a quintessential ingredient
of the urban sensescape. It flattens and makes bland the air. Not so
much a source of smell, it muffles the perception of other smells. If
it has an odour, it will be a composite of the particular urban matter
from which it has arisen.
There are so many subtle smells bumping into each other in
the city. Unfortunately, most are unpleasant, unhealthy and bad
for us, yet the background smell remains predominantly petro-
chemical, so it is difficult to discern the detail. If you are exposed
to it for long enough, the fumes from cars can give you a foggy,

swimmy feel with light-headed giddiness. After a while it feels like
a dulling thwack on the head. To an avid urbanite the fumes may
be intoxicating at the beginning, but then your head starts to swirl.
You can wretch and gag if by mistake you happen take a deep
breath in Norilsk in Siberia or Lagos as a 30-year-old diesel-
powered bus expels its exhaust into your nostrils at the changing
lights. Even with modern buses, the acrid smell and taste can be
sickening. When you get close to the running motors of cars and
lorries, you can smell the chemical activity before particles become
charred and olfactory activity begins to tail off. You can taste
petrochemicals, but this does not excite your taste buds, make you
feel hungry or build up your appetite. It feels empty and disap-
points.
You cannot move an inch without petrochemicals. They are
everywhere in petrol, grease, paint, heated-up engines, white
spirit, turps, plastics, trainers, households cleaners, cosmetics and
glue. They envelope us like a smog. What is the smell of a new car?
It is essentially like sniffing glue. The new car smell emanates from
40 volatile organic compounds primarily alkanes and substituted
benzenes along with a few aldehydes and ketones.
34
You slide into
a new car and see plastics, fabric, and upholstery held together
with adhesives and impregnated with sealants whose gases are
released into the car as it warms. You smell solvents, adhesives,
gasoline, lubricants and vinyl. Perhaps you also smell the treated
leather odour of shoe stores. Tanned leather smells slightly rank so
tanneries add an artificial treated leather fragrance. Some car
makers spray this in their cars.
This is a cross-cultural, homogenizing, globalized smell and it
blankets the intimate smells distinctive to a place. It sits low rather
than rises like gases do; its synthetic feel is almost like a physical
layer. Often heat is involved, and the smell rises in waves and
convection currents. There are petrol-fuelled industrial environ-
ments where the grease on machines leaves a residue and the sparks
on metal create a tighter and more tinny scent. This common fume-
filled urban experience can be debilitating, irritating and have a
degenerating effect.
For a more varied olfactory experience, head to a market.
Markets can be thrilling urban smell experiences when not inun-
dated by endless, odourless variations of T-shirts, jeans and other
cheap clothing or the cheap plastic whiff of shoes and trainers. Its
the scent of food that hits you right up the nose as if it is pushing

your head back. This is most strong in a covered market, where
smells and scents are trapped and can circle in a whirlpool with
their mixed messages: fish and fowl, meat and offal, fruit and
vegetables, beans and pulses, nuts, berries and dried fruits, pastries,
bread, flowers, and most of all the wonderful smell-world of herbs
and spices. Displayed to entice and to make your mouth water, they
play on both your sight and sense of smell. This organic scent-world
conflicts at edge points in the markets when we move to synthetic
household goods, cleaning materials, polishes, the DIY section,
haberdashery, and cane and wicker work.
If you enter a market at the vegetable end, you are hit first by
the overriding smells of a complexity of freshness. There are too
many subtle aromas around to discern individual ones, save
perhaps for bunches of mint, coriander or rosemary. And many
vegetables hold back their aromas until cooking. But overall, there
is the smell of earth, of green. But the smell of individual vegetables
is contributing to the whole, especially when samples have been cut
to release scent. The earthy, moist tones of root vegetables carrots,
parsnips, potatoes, beetroot; the ebullient, fuller, subdued pepperi-
ness of the allium family red and white onions, shallots, scallions,
leeks and garlic; and the clean chlorophyll of greens cabbages,
chard, spinach, lettuces.
Over to the fruit. The zesty citrus of lemons, lime, oranges and
tangerines, as powerful in their scent as they are in their colour.
Ripened summer berries, mangos, guavas, bananas and pineapples
give off aromas that hint at what they will taste like. In East Asian
markets, you might encounter the durian, with its enigmatic to
some, foul stench.
To many, spices release the most evocative of scents, and here
individual smells become distinguishable: the warm, spicy-savoury
tones of ground cumin and coriander; woody powdered ginger; the
penetrating, bittersweet burnt-sugar smell of fenugreek; the arrest-
ing, sweet aromatics of cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and green
cardamom; and the more complex composites of Indian garam
masalas, Jamaican jerk or Moroccan ras-el-hanout.
Far more confrontational to the nose are the smells of meat,
fowl and fish. In many markets, the produce is still alive, along
with the unattractive smell of chicken shit and, by association, fear:
the juxtaposition of live and dead flesh will unnerve the squeamish
as well as the livestock not long for this world. In the meat section
the unavoidable smell of death hangs in the air, leaden, thick, dense,

bloody, congealed, concentrated. Offal might contribute a smell of
urea or bile. There is an urgency about the smell of flesh and blood
in that you might be conscious of the potential transition to the
fetid and therefore repulsive.
The incipient decay of fish is arrested in ice. Some oily fish like
sardines and mackerel are particularly pungent as the digestive
juices in their stomachs begins to digest their own flesh. A tinge of
seaweed, ozone, a bit antiseptic and oddly heavy, static air. The
smell of even fresh fish is unpleasant to some, but the fish water
that runs off the display slabs becomes repulsive to all within a
matter of hours, hence the need to continuously wash the area.
There is not an individual aroma to any individual fish species bar
the fresh shellfish which smell of the sea itself. Overriding every-
thing is the superimposed blanket of coldness.
Contrast the vivid smell sensation of markets with the neutral-
ized, antiseptic scent-world of supermarkets. These cultivate the
smell of nothingness, impenetrable, empty, blank. Creating the
smell of absence is an art in itself the blander the better but
there is a constant background tinge of refrigeration: dry, sickly
and plastic when you get your nose right into it. You are smelling
iced water and air conditioning. The non-smell of food in super-
markets is ironic. It smells not of what you are buying, except for
the bakery, where they pump out the flavours of hot crusty bread,
or the roast turkey smell at Christmas.
Cheaper supermarkets or grocery shops do not succeed in
creating an odourless world. More often there is a stale, sweaty
odour that seems to cling to grease that you cannot see. The typical
shop smell in the old Eastern Europe was old sugar mixed in with
disinfectant and lino, which you can sometimes also encounter in
a hospital setting. Yet even hospitals are seeking to control the
smell environment through herbs, such as the relaxing lavender, as
awareness of the power of aromatherapy becomes more wide-
spread. Aromatherapy is defined as the art and science of utilizing
naturally extracted aromatic essence from plants to balance,
harmonize, and promote the health of the mind, body, and
spirit.
35
Essential oils range from the calming to the stimulating,
such as citrus or peppermint oils. Increasingly shops aware of its
potency are constructing smell environments, often linked to
sound, to seduce people to buy. There is an irony in that we pump
the air with unpleasant petrochemical odours, then neutralize their
smell in controlled settings and try to put back natural smells.

Interior environments are now essentially controlled. The odour
control and creation industry is massive. In the West you wonder
about the origin of the smell, whereas in a less economically devel-
oped context at least you know where it is coming from. The
odours, scents and fragrances have uncalculated effects. For
instance, around 70 per cent of asthmatics report that their asthma
is triggered by fragrance and skin allergies are known to be
common.
36
Department stores are an example where you might be affected.
In colder climates they first hit you with a waft of warm, stale air
and in warmer climes, a draught of cold. Yet from Dubai to Tokyo,
from London to Buenos Aires, the first impression is of a powerful,
heady blast of perfumes and cosmetics. With profit margins high,
the ground floors provide an oversaturated smell environment. The
perfumery hall is full of sales women who have put on body lotion,
piles of foundation, powder, scent and deodorant. The smells are
different and are fighting against each other. Every perfume
company is fighting the fragrance battle, luring and seducing
customers into their smell zones. Chanel, Guerlain, Issy Miyake,
Dior, YSL. The list grows yearly as fashion designers, pop stars and
the odd football player branch into fragrances. The continuous
squirting from tester bottles replenishes this heavy petrochemical
cocktail. Modern perfumes are constructed chemical smells with a
substantial benzene base. The odour industry can create any scent
from chemicals and, just in case we get starry-eyed about
fragrances, lets remind ourselves that perfume-makers use the
odours of urine, sweat and vaginal wetness in their products,
knowing it is a turn-on. Their scents are nearly accurate, yet a good
nose will tell the difference between the real and the fake. Synthetic
fragrances do not linger and have no staying power. Long gone are
the days of real constituents in perfume. Everything is synthetic:
remember the real smell of jasmine, rose, lavender, gardenia, lily of
the valley, violet, cedar wood, sandalwood, frankincense, myrrh or
eucalyptus?
Walking in dining areas of cities, you might hit a row of Indian
or Chinese restaurants whose food smells emanate from their air
conditioning, either by design or inadvertently. The good Chinese
restaurant will exude a blend of ginger, garlic, spring onion and soy
sauce. If it is cheaper this mixture will include a fullish greasiness,
partly inviting but interspersed with the smell of plastic and disin-
fectant. The dominant smell of Italian restaurants is often that of

pesto, the mix of basil, parmesan, garlic, pine nuts and olive oil,
tart but fruity. The Indian restaurants exhaust might smell of
cumin, coriander and turmeric, but pre-made sauces which blur
distinctions between individual spices are beginning to dominate.
The fast-food chains have a smell of their own. McDonalds,
KFC, Wendys, Subway, Burger King. They mush into one. They
are almost sweet, crusty, a slight smell of cardboard, dry. Grease
and ketchup liberates and heightens the papery cardboard smell
from which you eat the chips and chicken nuggets.
Lets move from the crusty smell of fast food to the antiseptic
non-smell of electrical goods. Think of non-smelling computers,
televisions and radio equipment, where only the rubbery connec-
tions exude a tiny whiff. However, changes are on the horizon to
control our smell environment comprehensively. The Japanese
communications ministry is investing large resources in creating the
first 3D virtual reality television by 2020 to change the way we
watch TV. It is proposed to have several thousand smells so as to
create any mood. If that is frightening, consider that Las Vegas
casinos already pump the smell of money on to the gambling floors:
dry, sweaty, sweet.
Cities have their own scent landscapes and often it is an associ-
ation with one small place that determines a smell reputation. We
can rarely smell the city all in one so we can say that a citys smell
makes us happy, aroused, or down and depressed. It depends on
circumstance. There is the smell of production (usually unpleasant)
or consumption which is hedonically rich and enticing. There is
even a smell of poverty. Our home has a smell, but we dont smell
it as much as visitors do. Going home is about presence as well as
absence of smell.
But there is the sulphurous, bad eggs smell of Los Angeles
which grabs you by the throat as this high pressure area holds
everything in. The same is true for tall buildings in narrow valleys,
as in Caracas, that act as a canyon and container so that smells do
not circulate freely. And this equally applies in Broad Street in beau-
tiful Georgian Bath, one of the regions most polluted streets, from
fumes that are trapped as the older buildings bend in. The brew-
eries of Munich throw out a distinct aroma of heavy yeast:
piercingly pungent, acrid, it darts into your nose and catches you
unawares. The tannery in Canterbury, England is just as bad as that
of Fes in Morocco. Left untreated, the hides or skin of animals
quickly begin to rot, putrefy and stink, which is why originally

tanneries were on rivers at the edge of town. The penetrating smell
in Fes is caused by the use of all kinds of animal products (excre-
tions, urine and brains). It makes you look at the leather products
in a different way.
Finally us. What do we smell like? The city smell is that of
people, and the cross-cultural issue is ever-present, with this as with
every other sense. Different countries perceive the same smells and
tastes differently. To the Chinese and Japanese, Europeans appar-
ently smell cheesy or like congealing diary products, unsurprising,
perhaps, given the lack of diary products in their diets. We smell of
what we eat and that is a fact, but in our antiseptic world, talking
of the smell of people is seen as politically incorrect. We prefer to
mask ourselves in deodorant. Personal body smell is affected by
several factors the types of food consumed, the use of scented
products, and even the distribution and abundance of scent-
producing glands in the skin may vary from culture to culture.
37
The interplay of these factors may result in a body odour which is
specific to a culture, a city or a geographic region. With mass mobil-
ity and migration, the variation within a culture or geographic
region is very wide. Equally, within cultures, people interpret smells
differently. For some, petrol fumes are fine while for others they
are sickening. So people and places have their scent DNA related to
trades, industry, diet, landscape and level of development. The
developed West tries to sanitize smell, masking what is bad behind
created odours of pleasantness. Less developed places smell much
more as they are.
The look of the city
When we envisage a city, we are quite likely especially if we
havent been there before to draw on previous, perhaps iconic,
representations of it: postcards, paintings, maps (Londons wonder-
ful though abstracted Tube map), TV programme opening titles
(Eastenders for London, Friends for Manhattan) and news images
(where else, alas, can you see a citys skyline changed live, as in the
9/11 disaster?). We may also recall personal memories of arrival
landing close to Las Vegas Strip or driving into Mumbai from the
airport and catching a particular view, of Rio from Cordovado
Mountain or London from Parliament Hill. Monuments may or
may not be prominent in our picture the Eiffel Tower perhaps, or
the Sydney Opera House. But in all cases, our picture will be just

that a subjective one formed by our experiences and by other
narratives. The look is always gleaned from a particular vantage
point.
The look of the city depends on where you stand and its layout.
A warren of streets is a different experience, from the ground or
from on high, than a grid pattern. In one case it can seem like a
maze; in the other, like an arrow with a purpose. Each vantage
point from which you look tells a different story of the city. Are
you high up or low down? Are you seeing the city from a distance
or close up? Our eyes determine what we see. If you are young,
disabled, old, a woman or a man there is a contrast in focus. For
one the buildings loom overwhelmingly or can appear claustropho-
bic hemming you in, for the other they soar grandly into the sky.
Our jobs, too, shape what we see and what we leave out as we see
selectively. The strategic planner typically sees the city from the air
on large-scale maps, whereas the local planner zooms in to the great
detail. The one sees the city as slightly flat, more like a surface, and
with computer technology its 3D shapes come across with the tilt.
The other needs to walk the streets and nearly touch the surfaces of
bollards, pavements and houses. The engineers might look at struc-
tures and ask do they stand up?. The crime prevention officer is
looking for hidden crannies where the sightlines arent clear; and
the thief wants some confusion in the space.
There is one eye and vantage point that has shaped how we
look and talk about cities: that of the architect/interior designer. It
is but one view, yet it predominates. A raft of glossy magazines
reinforces the message. They are supported by an industry waiting
to sell its product. There is a vast architectural publishing industry
and so far more has been written about the look of places, but in
very restricted terms, than the sounds and the smells of the city, for
which there is no market to sell to. Occasionally you sense the
architect and their critics reflect in each others glory.
Too few architectural critics and urban writers write with the
ease and insight of James Howard Kunstler,
38
who reflects a view
of city life in its full dynamic. Instead, usually the tone is rarefied,
its vocabulary dense, arid, precious or even pompous. The pictures
are beautiful, yet lifeless and rarely peopled. The architectural
object comes across too much as isolated, as if it had landed some-
what disconnectedly in the urban landscape. This is a reason why
the profession stands accused of being self-referential. There is
much left out; you are often not sure that someone is talking about

a city within which people live. The confident tone and self-
understanding reinforces the view that it is the architect who is
really the city-maker.
Let us take some snapshots of the look of cities. The sense of
sheer compacted physicality is what makes the city so distinctive. It
is the first impression. No other structure built by humans is so
complex and extensive. On occasion, the largest steel works have a
similar feel. The bigger the height and size, the more different we
feel. The extent of loomingness is partly perceptual. With a wide
pavement and boulevarded, broken-up street pattern, the fact I am
120 or 60 or 20 times smaller than the building is of little conse-
quence. The same is true when I can view the building from some
distance. There are other compensations too. I sense a certain
grandeur, power and energy. Yet when the public realm does not
work, when streets are too narrow and the road feels like a motor-
way, the difference between how big I am and how big the building
is matters. Too great a difference feels oppressive, interfering and
looming. But a ratio of, say, one to six creates a dramatically differ-
ent feeling. It is more comforting because it is more human in scale.
This is why, apart from the buzz, we like markets.
Angularity is the other predominant feature: straight lines; right
angles; sharp edges, some jutting out; squareness; planes; blank
walls. From above, this angularity comes across as a chaotic range
of heights and right angles. There is hardly a place in nature that
looks like this except, perhaps, the famous Devils Causeway in
County Antrim, Northern Ireland a mass of basalt columns
packed tightly together that resembles a mega-city.
The latest trend in architectural fashion helped by new technol-
ogy and buildings techniques is to break out of the angularity
prison. There are a few more swoops and swerves and rounded
buildings. In London, for instance, there is the Norman Foster-
designed Swiss Re building the gherkin. In Birmingham is Future
Systems Selfridges store the curvy slug. Yet the surface feel of
the city remains hard, ungiving, unbendable, inflexible. More like a
rod than a bendable reed. Nature, by contrast, feels movable, adap-
tive, changeable.
Materials matter. Buildings speak to you in different ways
through their materials. We notice this especially when they are
made just from one material, like the largely unpainted wooden
town of Koprivshtitsa in Bulgaria, the cement-clad towns of the
former Soviet block, the mud buildings of Yemen (as in the aston-

ishing Shibam, called the Manhattan in the desert), the grey lime-
stone of the Cotswold towns, the red bricks of industrial Lowell,
USA, or the sand-coloured buildings in Fez. Then the material
speaks to you in its full glory. Wood ages well; it fades, but does
not crumble; it feels animate, a reminder that it was once a tree.
Cement, by contrast, has a deadening patina; it absorbs light back
into itself, and its deceptive evenness gives a place a musty feel; the
dust is in the air. Think, for instance, of the once grand Shkodra in
Albania. It was given the cement makeover in the Enver Hoxha era.
The red bricks in older towns have blemishes; they felt already
weathered when new. Colour variations seep through the bricks
and there seems to be a story in each one. New brick buildings are
too smooth and mechanical; the up-to-date chemical processes of
brick-making have evened out the surface and given them a lifeless,
impenetrable shine. And they come in non-brick colours: every hue
of yellow, terracotta and red.
We live in the age of glass. Glass and mirror have come into the
frame with new techniques of heating and air conditioning. The
reflective buildings that mirror themselves back at you in a look at
me kind of way seem impertinent and self-imposing. To the
Western eye they now look cheap and garish, but to the post-Soviet
eye they are like modernity par excellence. This has come in phases
as new materials emerged and were tried out. The sturdy sickly
brown and green glass feel; then the reflective golden touch for the
attention seekers; and now the predominant silver that throws back
clear mirror images. They do not invite nor have a conversation
with you, the passer-by. They assert, aggressively, their presence.
The West favours more the transparent look of see-through
glass. At its best it projects a sense of democracy and modernity. It
feels airy, open, cool and uplifting. When done well the steel and
metal buildings combine strength and lightness. The Pompidou
Centre in Paris was one of the first of that generation, followed
shortly afterwards by I. M. Peis Louvre Pyramid. Now the style is
commonplace and the Toronto Eaton Centre stands out as an
example from a cold climate. At night, of course, glass refracts light
differently than a brick building. For how long will glass stay as
the material of choice for malls, museums and city halls?
Colour is everywhere. It is all-embracing and in every culture.
Meaning is attributed to each colour. There is a difference between
the psychological effect of a colour and its symbolism. For instance,
green is symbolically associated with envy, while psychologically it

denotes balance. One does not need to be a specialist to understand
instantly that colour shapes how you feel. Dark colours can
depress, and darkness has become a metaphor for negatives like
evil, ignorance and mental gloom. Light colours lift; again, word
associations reinforce our perceptions light and enlightenment. If
a city were to be black it would be depressing, and the blackened
industrial cities of industrial Britain were depressing in their time
and grey is not too uplifting either. It was always said that Berlin
and Milan were grey cities, which is why their more recent creative
and fashionable associations also change how you think of what
their colour might be.
Until very recently the colour and the palette used was limited
you rarely saw a green, purple, bright yellow or blue building.
The new coloured glasses are changing that, such as Herzog de
Meurons Laban dance centre in London, clad by sheets of multi-
coloured glass. The new Muse du Quai Branly of indigenous art
in Paris by Jean Nouvel is another. It is a kaleidoscopic, anarchic
montage of structures that will annoy those who love Pariss
considered order. It clashes well with the exterior of the adminis-
tration building, which is swallowed up by a vertical carpet of
exotic plants punctured by big windows. The hydroponic green
building feels as if it is alive a sharp contrast to most buildings,
which feel inert.
Clearly the local materials determined the colour of a place in
the past; today this is far less apparent as materials are moved
around with ease, with sheet glass and cement the overriding mate-
rials in use. Think of the granite city of Aberdeen in Scotland; it
wears its sobriquet with pride, but the grey, silvery stone material is
unforgiving. Do its colour, weight and heavy density determine the
character of Aberdonians? The predominant hues in Mediterranean
countries were variations of terracotta going into sandy beiges. It is
pleasing on the eye in that sunny light.
Many Italian cities are an exception in having widespread
colour strategies as part of planning. There are the famous coloured
cities of the world which show how paint has an impact: the pink
city of Marrakech and, nearby, the blue and white town of
Essaouira, or the blue city of Jodphur in India. The vivid colours of
painted houses of Latin America, equally, both shape and respond
to character. The crisp colour combinations on the corrugated iron
buildings in the once seedy La Boca in Buenos Aires has become so
fashionable that it has become the citys design template. Designer

articles, from sheets and pillows to furniture, seem to carry the
imagery. Did the impoverished residents of La Boca ever get a
royalty? I doubt it.
Overriding everything and again we cannot avoid the greys
and blacks is the colour of roads on which the buildings sit as if
bedded in a sea of asphalt. Grey is the canvas on top of which the
city plays itself out. The buildings do not feel independent.
Asphalts homogenizing feel shrouds the city at ground level in a
veil interspersed by signage and yellow and red traffic lines.
Advertising hoardings increasingly shape the look of the city as
they expand in size and impact. Less discreet than a decade ago,
they can be immense the largest billboard in the world, erected in
Manila in 2005, was 50m long and 50m high. Occasionally beauti-
ful and often intrusive, it is Eastern Europe that sets new standards
of garishness, impact and boldness, and the Far East has always
been visually wild to Western eyes. Think of Tokyos electric city,
Hong Kongs Nathan Road or Delhis Chandri Chowk you choke
in colour and sign overload.
The city is increasingly a sign system and a message board. It is
a staging set communicating products and images to you. But it all
depends where you are. The colours and materials used in commer-
cial districts vary. In the upscale parts things are more discreet and
materials obviously better. The hues in modern settings, in part
because of the mass of glass, have a light blue, light yellow translu-
cent overlay. Think here of the new 101 district in Taipei, where
the worlds largest skyscraper stands. The more downmarket places
screech their colours at you.
A business district communicates differently. There is more
black usually shiny black marble as this is the colour of author-
ity and power. It comes across, too, as stylish and timeless, because
black makes things appear thinner and sleeker (a reason for its
popularity in clothing). Increasingly, too, blue is coming in. It is
tranquil and in control, but blue can also be cold and calculating.
Silver has a sharpish clarity, and again it creates a distance between
the viewer and passer-by it reflects back at you. And glass, glass,
glass it is the gloss of corporate openness. Brown is less in
evidence now, unless left over from a former period. It looks murky,
unclear, unfocused.
A housing or apartment block area can be as different as the
country or city it is in, so it is difficult to generalize across cultures
and places even though the homogenizing process continues

unabated. Suffice it to say it depends on land costs and availability.
The denser city will compact building upwards, as in Hong Kong
or Singapore, but where people feel land is limitless as in
Melbourne, for example the city spreads out into endlessness. In
denser places, people spill out into the streets as if pushed out of
their buildings. The rising numbers of the middle classes in places
such as Russia, Turkey or India are creating new, largely gated,
edge-of-town settlements in dinky, post-modern apartments, typi-
cally 1020 stories high. The message here is one of lifestyle.
Buildings will reflect the past, particular regional styles, the
materials available at various times in history, power relations, class,
their function. Often, a principle of city design will inform and order
these buildings into a particular layout that affects our visual expe-
rience of the city, such as the grid systems of America. Regarding
the grid, this tyranny of the shortest distance can have a uniform
beauty. But when combined with architectural monotony, it can be
dull and oppressive. Green spaces contribute to a citys quality of
life, but remember that a green impression of a city can be mislead-
ing much of Londons green is private gardens, for example.
Whatever the colours, materials and layout of a city, the climate
remains a check on our visual experience of it. A blanket of snow
transforms a city; a shroud of mist (or, worse, smog) can hide its
vista; and a serious flood can render the cityscape totally unfamil-
iar to even its own inhabitants. Cities look different depending on
whether it is sunny, gloomy or rainy. And above all, light plays on
the physical structures that make a city.
How different does Helsinki look in winter, when bereft of
natural light, than in summer, when the days are long? Light
changes all, and that includes the man-made. Electricity must be
seen as pivotal in the history of urban spaces. Artificial light illumi-
nates the dark and allows activities that were previously confined
to the day to continue into the night. Light facilitates the 24-hour
city. It can also, unfortunately, dull the pleasure of a starry night
sky as we unwittingly illuminate particles in the air above with light
pollution. More positively, light can make a street look safer at
night and can transform the faades of otherwise dull buildings. It
can allow us to watch a football match in the evening. A well-lit or
sparkling city view can be inspiring.
Lighting has been discovered as a resource to enliven the city.
Some cities (such as Naples) have recognized the power of light
and have specific light strategies. Against the chaotic background

of the changing city, every new public lighting scheme illuminates a
complex clash of priorities and agendas. How can public lighting
create an image for the city as well as support urban renewal? How
can safety and security needs be reconciled with a desire for visual
communication and delight?
A new way of looking at urban lighting, based on a relation-
ship between identification and regeneration on any given site, can
be expressed through three stages: light marketing, light art and
light landscape. Centrepoint and its environs in central London
were adopted as a laboratory from which to evolve and test out a
set of generic strategies and tactics. The research demonstrates the
ability of lighting to transform our urban spaces at different levels
and to generate and communicate powerful new spatial identities
within our nocturnal environments that underpin the urban regen-
eration process.
The visual environment should be public property, but there
are vast differences in how its thought through. Illumination, of
course, is central to advertising and its flashing, bright visual inter-
jections are forced upon us. Japan, notoriously, has a lightscape
dominated by brand and advertising messages. This isnt necessar-
ily a bad thing in itself, but we must be careful in matters of
deregulation that our cities do not lose overall control over their
lighting.
These pages have provided a short treatment of the citys look.
There is much more to explore. For instance, we have concentrated
on the outdoor look of places when there is much to say about the
indoor life of cities, especially in cold climates. We could have
explored the underground world of some cities, their metros and
subways. Nevertheless, the salient point of this entire section on
the senses is that the city is a sensory experience and this should
never be overlooked when thinking about a citys future. Above all
else, we see, hear, smell, touch and taste the city.

3
Unhinged and Unbalanced
THE CITY AS A GUZZLING BEAST
Stark images like those in One Planet Many People: Atlas of our
Changing Environment by the UN Environment Programme can
sear into your mind.
1
Everywhere you look there is cityness. It has
invaded our landscape, so shaping our mindscape. Comprised of
time-series satellite images of the globe over the last few decades,
the images provide powerful visual testimony to our increasing
dominion over the planet. Considered ecologically, these images
should sound alarm bells: industrialization and agriculture sweep-
ing over indigenous flora and fauna, water resources shrinking,
deserts increasing. Most strikingly, they show the irresistible growth
of urban areas.
While half of us now live in cities, this will reach two-thirds of
a 9 billion world population by 2050. While the city can signify a
triumph over nature, urban dwellers exact more of the Earths
resources than their rural counterparts. In fact, there is not enough
planet to support the Western lifestyle.
We will show below the implications for resources of running a
London lifestyle, which requires three Earths to meet its demands.
The Los Angeles population, meanwhile, with their meat-heavy
diets and car-embracing culture is, per capita, even more voracious.
Six billion people living like Los Angelinos would require five
planets. Living like Dubai perhaps ten.
2
Even many rural existences
need more than one planet, and indigenous lifestyles are in the
minority in terms of being sustainable.
The city is a massive logistical endeavour. It as an overwhelm-
ing input/output machine, a voracious beast guzzling in, defecating

out. It stands at the apex of the global nexus of goods distribution.
Like any living organism, the city consumes food and water,
expends energy and produces waste. Cities require bricks, mortar,
cement, lime, steel, glass and plastics to generate and renew their
physical presence. Then manufactured goods fridges, clothes, tele-
visions, washer-driers, books, CDs, cars are used, exhausted and
eventually expelled as carbon dioxide, ash or simply junk to be
buried out of view. Increasingly, too, goods travel greater distances
between their places of origin and consumption end points, using a
complex global distribution system of massive supertankers, lorries,
airplanes, trains, containers, warehouses, cranes, forklift trucks,
pipes and wires, not to mention a workforce coordinated by
increasingly sophisticated and powerful logistics companies.
In the following sections I have used quantitative measures to
get the feel of the urban endeavour across viscerally. Throwing
these figures at you might give you a headache, but please bear with
me. They reveal the folly of our lifestyles, the irrationality of our
production systems and built-in inefficiencies, notwithstanding
ecological impact. They starkly raise the question, Can civilization
continue in this way? And the answer is, No.
Everything we do is implicated in the consumption of resources
reliant on supply chains. Consider a morning routine: (1) having a
cup of tea; (2) morning ablutions; (3) having breakfast; (4) putting
out the rubbish; and (5) taking the metro to work.
The logistics of a cup of tea
We start the day with a cup of tea, and Londoners drink enough
tea or coffee to fill eight Olympic-size swimming pools every day.
The UK drinks 165 million cups per day, or 62 billion cups per year,
which is 23,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. You put the kettle
on. A standard kilowatt kettle uses some 80 (food) calories to come
to the boil, about the same as the potential energy stored in five
teaspoons of sugar. In a year, London consumes some
132,769,103,200,000 calories or 154,400 gigawatt-hours of elec-
tricity, the equivalent of 13,276,000 tonnes of oil. This is more than
Ireland consumes and about the same as Portugal or Greece.
Half the tea consumed in London comes from East Africa, the
rest mostly from the Indian subcontinent, China or Indonesia. It
gets to Britain packed in either foil-lined paper sacks or tea chests,
in containers, by ship, in three to five weeks. In Britain, it is deliv-

ered to blending and packaging centres, and packets of loose leaves
or tea bags are distributed to retail shelves. Ninety-five per cent of
tea is consumed in tea bags. Most likely, milk will be added 25
per cent of the milk consumed in Britain is taken with tea; 674,000
tonnes of milk and cream are consumed in a London year, or
approximately 240 Olympic swimming pools.
3
In the UK there are 2,251,000 dairy cows producing
14,071,000,000 litres of milk a year. This easily makes the UK self-
sufficient in milk. However, because of the idiosyncrasies of
international trade, countries import and export the same product
at the same time. In 1997, the UK imported 126 million litres of
milk and exported 270 million litres. Imports are now less, and
exports greater, but 2002 still saw more than 70 million litres come
into the country.
4
Washing and toilet flushing
Shortage of water is emerging as a global crisis and many predict
that the wars of the future will be fought over control over water.
Water gets to us through a daunting network of pipes to house-
holds and Londoners use approximately 155 litres a day each,
compared to the average for England of 149 litres, a third of which
is used flushing the toilet. An American uses more than treble the
amount, while the average African uses only 50 litres a day.
5
In
taking a 5-minute shower, we use about 35 litres of water, over
twice this amount if we have a bath. Brushing our teeth while
leaving the tap on uses 6 litres, a washing machine cycle 100 litres,
while a tap left dripping for a day sees 4.1 litres of water go down
the plughole. And water waste happens at the infrastructural as
well as the individual level. In 2000 water consumption in London
reached 866 billion litres, of which 50 per cent was delivered to
households. The volume of water lost through leakages (239 billion
litres or 28 per cent) was more than the total amount of water used
by the commercial and industrial sectors (195 billion). In Manila
some 58 per cent of water is lost to leaks or illegal tappings. In
Istanbul vendor water is 10 times as expensive as the public rate; in
Bombay it is 20 times as much. In developed countries an average
of 15,000 litres of treated, safe drinking water is used to flush 35kg
of faeces and 500 litres of urine per person per year.
6
Unhinged and Unbalanced 79

Food and eating
On an average day Londoners might eat over 3 million eggs in one
form or another and the equivalent of about 350,000 large (800g)
loaves of bread. As a nation, Britons eat nearly 10 billion eggs a
year 26 million every day which placed end to end would reach
from the Earth to the moon. Londoners consume 6,900,000 tonnes
of food per annum. A good portion goes through Smithfield, which
sells 85,000 tonnes of meat a year, and Billingsgate, which sells
35,000 tonnes of fish. Between 700 and 750 million broiler chick-
ens (chickens bred for their meat) are reared and slaughtered each
year in the UK. When eating out, Londoners consume 74 per cent
more ethnic food, 41 per cent more fish and 137 per cent more fruit
than the British average.
7
Vast amounts of water are consumed by agriculturists and
horticulturalists to keep their crops alive, healthy and growing, not
to mention fertilizers and pesticides. Animal farming impacts even
more. For cattle raised in feedlots, it takes roughly 7 pounds of
grain to add a pound of live weight to the animal. Seventy per cent
of the grain produced in the US and 40 per cent of the worlds
supply is fed to livestock, largely to satisfy burger demand in fast-
food chains.
8
To produce 1 pound of beef, a cow has produced 0.5
pounds of methane, a very potent greenhouse gas, which is equiva-
lent to 10.5 pounds of CO
2
. The beef eaten by the average
American in a year has produced the methane equivalent of 1.4
tonnes of carbon dioxide.
9
To get on to supermarket and shop shelves, food travels ever
greater distances to sate multicultural and metropolitan tastes. Of
the 7 million tonnes of food consumed by Londoners each year, 80
per cent is imported from outside the UK. Over half of the vegeta-
bles and 95 per cent of the fruit Londoners eat is imported.
10
Each
tonne of food in London has travelled approximately 640km.
Therefore, 3,558,650,000,000 tonne-km of road freight was
required to meet Londons food demands.
11
Even though the UK is
able to grow lettuces throughout the year, imports increased from
21.8 per cent of the total supply in 1987 to 47.1 per cent in 1998.
Nearly a quarter of all lettuces imported into the UK come from
Spain. For every calorie of carrot flown from South Africa, we use
66 calories of fuel. For every calorie of iceberg lettuce flown in from
Los Angeles we use 127 calories of fuel.
12
The food chain, includ-
ing agriculture, processing and transport, contributes at least

22 per cent of the UKs greenhouse gas emissions, according to one
estimate.
14
Conversely, many high-density cities in the developing
world produce up to 30 per cent of food production within their
city boundaries.
Rubbish
Around one third of food grown for human consumption in the
UK ends up in the rubbish bin and Britain throws away 20 billion
worth of unused food every year, equal to five times its spending
on international aid and enough to lift 150 million people out of
starvation.
15
Seventeen million tonnes of food is ploughed into
Britains landfill sites every year.
16
Meanwhile, food is increasingly packaged using plastics, metal
and paper products. A typical London household generates around
34kg of packaging waste per week. It is estimated that London
households produce approximately 663,000 tonnes of packaging
THE LONG-DISTANCE LUNCH
A traditional Sunday lunch could easily have travelled 25,000 miles if a
chicken from Thailand and fresh vegetables from Africa are included in
a supermarket shopping basket. The trend for supermarkets to source
food from overseas that could well be grown in the UK is the problem.
In Britain the distance food is transported increased 50 per cent
between 1978 and 1999.
Chicken from Thailand: 10,691 miles by ship
Runner beans from Zambia: 4912 miles by plane
Carrots from Spain: 1000 miles by lorry
Mangetouts from Zimbabwe: 5130 miles by plane
Potatoes from Italy: 1521 miles by lorry
Sprouts from Britain: 125 miles by lorry
Transport of imported goods from port of entry to distribution
centre: 625 miles
Transport from distribution centres to supermarket: 360 miles
Total: 26,234 miles
However, choosing seasonal products and purchasing them locally at
a farmers market, for instance, could reduce the total distance to 376
miles, 1/66th of the distance of the meal above.
13

waste per annum, of which 67 per cent is food packaging. A quarter
of the overall waste we produce is packaging.
17
For every tonne of
food consumed in York, a quarter of a tonne of packaging is
produced.
18
Londoners consume approximately 94 million litres of
mineral water per annum. Assuming all bottles were 2-litre, this
would give rise to 2260 tonnes of plastic waste. A bottle of Evian,
the top-selling brand, travels approximately 760km from the
French Alps to the UK.
19
In total, the average Londoner throws away more than seven
times their own weight in rubbish every year and a London house-
hold produces a tonne of rubbish in that time, the weight of a
family car. Londoners produce enough waste to fill an Olympic
swimming pool every hour or to fill the Canary Wharf tower every
ten days. Londons waste is transported to 17 main municipal solid
waste transfer stations, 45 civic amenity sites, 2 incinerators, 23
recycling centres, 2 compost centres, 18 landfill sites and 2 energy-
from-waste plants. Of the 17 million tonnes produced by the
capital, 4.4 million is collected by councils. Seventy per cent of this
waste travels more than 120 kilometres. For every million tonnes
of waste generated in London, approximately 100,000 waste
vehicle journeys are required.
20
Developed countries produce as
much as up to six times the amount of waste of developing coun-
tries.
English-speaking cities are almost linguistically predisposed to
treat waste as a nuisance rather than a resource, perhaps thus
adopting an out of sight, out of mind approach to waste. Seventy-
three per cent of Londons waste goes to landfill, 19 per cent is
incinerated, and 8 per cent recycled or composted. Overall the UK
recycles 23 per cent of waste; in the Netherlands the figure is 64
per cent and in Germany 57 per cent.
21
Ninety per cent of all of
Londons landfill goes to areas outside London.
Perhaps the most recognizable landfill site in the world is Fresh
Kills Landfill on Staten Island, New York. The site covers 2200
acres and mounds range in height from 90 to approximately 225
feet. The result of almost 50 years of land filling, primarily of
household waste, it is estimated to contain some 100 million tonnes
of garbage. Now Fresh Kills is permanently closed, New Yorks
rubbish is sent to landfill sites in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and
Virginia, some of them 300 miles away.
Over 333,000 disposable nappies are buried every day in Essex
landfill sites alone.
22
Approximately 1.7 million nappies are used

every day in London, which equates to around 202 tonnes of waste
per day or 74,000 tonnes per annum; 75 per cent (55,000 tonnes)
of this is sewage.
23
The number of live births in London in 2001 was 104,000. This
equates to a total weight of 354 tonnes (assuming the average
weight of a newborn is 3.4kg). The number of deaths in London in
for the same year was 58,600. This equates to a total weight of
4160 tonnes (assuming the average adult weight is 71kg). The dead
are buried in 124 municipal cemeteries, 12 Jewish, 3 Roman
Catholic, 1 Church of England, 1 Muslim cemetery and 9 opera-
tional private cemeteries.
24
Londons cemeteries are running out of
burial space. Central London, Hackney, Camden and Tower
Hamlets will run out of space within five years.
Pollution keeps the death rate up. On the Marylebone Road on
28 July 2005, one of the hottest days of the year, NO
x
levels rose to
1912 micrograms per cubic metre, the equivalent of motorists and
pedestrians breathing in four cigarettes a minute. Normal daily
exposure to Londons air is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes. In
pollution hotspots like the Marylebone Road, daily vehicle emis-
sions are so concentrated that pedestrians and those with offices or
homes on the roadside are exposed to the NO
x
equivalent of more
than 30 cigarettes a day. Other affected areas include Kings Road
(29 cigarettes a day) and Hammersmith Broadway (27.3 ciga-
rettes).
25
Consider Kolkata, where the pollution in cigarette
equivalents is over 40, or the far more polluted Chinese and
Russian cities.
26
Disposal or reuse of waste apart, there is the cosmetic matter of
street cleaning. Fast-food lovers, smokers and gum-chewers keep
council workers employed cleaning up after them. It is estimated
that three-quarters of the British population chew gum regularly.
They buy 980 million packs a year, and spit out more than 3.5
billion pieces most of which they dispose of inappropriately. On
any given day, there are as many as 300,000 pieces of gum stuck to
Oxford Street.
27
Transport
About a billion trips are made on the London Underground each
year, 70 per cent more than in 1980.
28
Four thousand London
Underground carriages whiz around 408km of route (181 in
tunnels), travelling at an average speed of 32km per hour, including

stops. The metro uses 1091 gigawatt-hours of electric power a year
less than 1 per cent of the total for London.
On the surface things move more slowly: inner London traffic
speeds are between 19 and 24km per hour (915 km per hour in
the worst areas) and 30 per cent of a typical peak-time journey is
spent stationary.
29
In the major cities of the European Union the
average speed is 15km per hour. This is no better than 200 years
ago. Of 11 million daily car journeys in London, just under 10 per
cent are of less than one mile. London has the highest concentra-
tion of cars in the UK at ten times the average 1500 cars per km
2
compared with an average of 150 cars per km
2
for the regions.
30`
Each weekday, 6000 buses accommodate 4.5 million passenger
journeys on 600 routes around London. Local bus journeys rose in
London by 25 per cent between 1991/1992 and 2001/2002 a
period that saw bus use in other British metropolitan areas
decline.
31
In central London in 2001, only 12 per cent of people
commuted by car, compared to a figure of 41 per cent for the whole
of the city.
32
More sprawl equals more car use. Seventy-two per
cent of those working in central London used trains, 32 per cent
using the Underground and 40 per cent surface rail. Compaction
and density encourages public transport use. Men travelled 10.3
Cars being the priority, pedestrians have to adapt

miles to work on average in Britain in 1999/2001, 70 per cent
further than women (6.1 miles). The average distance between
home and work in Britain increased by 17 per cent over ten years
from 7.2 miles in 1989/1991 to 8.5 miles in 1999/2001 as cities
spread their tentacles outwards.
33
In the EU as a whole between
1975 and 1995 the daily distance travelled per person doubled and
a further doubling of traffic is predicted by 2025.
34
Two contrary trends are occurring in London with regards to
transport. On the one hand and in keeping with expectations of
urban sprawl people are travelling further to work. On the other,
Londons congestion charge for motor vehicles travelling in central
districts has encouraged overland public transport, with fewer
people commuting by car and more trips taken on local buses.
The British annual motor vehicle increase is running at
800,000. The movement of freight (measured in tonne kilometres)
increased by 42 per cent between 1980 and 2002 and the length of
haul of goods moved by road increased by over 40 per cent between
1990 and 2002. This means more traffic delays, given limited space
resources, and more congestion, and it costs Britain around 20
billion per year.
35
For the EU as a whole, congestion costs 130
billion euros annually and the total external costs of motorized
road traffic are estimated at 270 billion euros per year around
4 per cent of Europes gross national product. Calculating all asso-
ciated car activities into time, the typical American male devotes
more than 1600 hours a year to his car, sitting in it while its moving
or stands idling, parking it and searching for it. Add to this the time
spent earning the money to pay for it, to meet the monthly instal-
ments, and to pay for petrol, tolls, insurance, taxes and tickets and
you arrive at a figure of 66 days or 18.2 per cent of his time.
36
London drivers spend 50 per cent of their time in queues. On
average, Londoners spend nine days a year just sitting in a car and
just three days walking.
37
In 1950 there were an estimated 70 million cars, trucks and
buses on the worlds roads. Towards the end of the century there
were between 600 and 700 million. By 2025 the figure is expected
to pass 1 billion. Around 15 million vehicles are sold every year in
Western Europe alone.
38
When you average the space taken up by
small cars and trucks and buses this equates to about 9500km
2
.
This is as if just under half the size of Wales were a car park. Put
another way, it is the equivalent of back-to-back vehicles stretching
on a 1000-lane highway from London to Rome, a 250-lane

highway from New York to Moscow, a 120-lane highway stretch-
ing from London to Sydney, or a single lane stretching 1.9 million
km into space, five times the distance to the moon.
39
A double-track urban railway can move 30,000 people per hour
in each direction. A two-lane road can only handle 3000 to 6000
people an hour in each direction. A double-decker bus carries the
same number of people as 20 fully laden cars. A double-decker bus
takes up to a seventh of the road space of the equivalent number of
cars. Cars need as much road space as five to eight bicycles and as
much parking space as 20 bicycles. Buses, coaches and trains in
Britain are seven times safer than cars in terms of fatalities per
passenger kilometre.
40
But over the past 20 years the overall cost of
motoring has in real terms remained at or below the 1980 level
while bus fares have risen by 31 per cent and rail fares by 37 per
cent.
41
Materials: Cement, asphalt and steel
In 2000 Londoners consumed 49 million tonnes of materials 6.7
tonnes per person. Some 27.8 million tonnes were consumed by the
construction sector, out of which 26 million tonnes of waste was
generated: 15 million by the construction and demolition sectors,
7.9 million by commerce and industry and 3.4 million by house-
holds.
Buildings consume some 40 per cent of materials in the global
community. And cement is a key component. In 2000 1.56 billion
tonnes of Portland cement was manufactured globally. One third
of this was produced in China alone.
42
And global demand is
expected to double within the next 30 years.
Cement is a noxious, or even obnoxious, substance. Each tonne
requires about two tonnes of raw material (limestone and shale),
consumes about 4 gigajoules of energy in electricity, process heat
and transport (the energy equivalent to 131 m
3
of natural gas),
produces its equivalent weight in CO
2
, about 3kg of NO
x
, a
mixture of nitrogen monoxide and nitrogen dioxide that
contributes to ground-level smog, and about 0.4 kg of PM
10
, an
airborne particulate matter that is harmful to the respiratory tract
when inhaled. Cement manufacturing accounts for approximately
78 per cent of CO
2
globally. Yet twice as much concrete is used in
construction around the world than the total of all other building
materials, including wood, steel, plastic and aluminium.
43
The

annual global production of concrete is about 5 billion cubic yards,
which is the equivalent of a massive block 1000m long, 1000m
wide and 3824m high, a bit higher than Mount Fuji in Japan
(3776m).
More than 65,000 square miles of land have been paved in the
lower 48 states to accommodate Americas 214 million cars; there
are 3.9 million miles of roads, enough to circle the Earth at the
equator 157 times, in that area alone.
44
This amounts to 2.5 per
cent of the total land surface an area more than the size of
Georgia, far, far more if you consider car parks and other areas.
For every five cars added to the US fleet, an area the size of a foot-
ball field is covered with asphalt. Close to half of the land area in
most US cities goes to providing roads, highways and parking lots
for automobiles, close to two-thirds in the case of Los Angeles. Not
many cities calculate their asphalt, but Munich, one of the more
environmental cities in Europe, has only 4 per cent pavement, 15
per cent asphalt and 16 per cent built area, against 59 per cent vege-
tation and 6 per cent bare soils.
45
Of Londons 175,000 hectare
area, 62 per cent is urban buildings, asphalt, and pavement with
30 per cent of Londons area dedicated to parkland.
46
Metropolitan
Tokyo is 82 per cent covered with asphalt or concrete.
47
An area
the size of Leicestershire is now taken up by roads in the UK, with
an additional fifth as much land given over to parking. Once
paved, land is not easily reclaimed, as environmentalist Rupert
Cutler once noted. Asphalt is the lands last crop.
48
In 1973 the tallest building in the US opened its doors. At 1454
feet tall (110 storeys), the Sears Tower took three years to build at
a cost of more than US$150 million. From the Skydeck, on a clear
day, you can see four states Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and
Michigan. The building contains enough steel to build 50,000 cars,
enough telephone wiring to wrap around the world 1.75 times,
enough concrete to build an eight-lane, five-mile-long highway; it
contains more than 43,000 miles of telephone cable, 2000 miles of
electrical wire, 25,000 miles of plumbing and stairways totalling
2232 steps.
49
It took 36,910 tonnes of steel to build the Petronas
Towers. The Empire State Building contains 60,000 tonnes of steel
4500 elephant equivalents and 10 million bricks.
50
A three-
bedroom detached house requires about 10,000 facing bricks. Total
brick production in UK is 2.8 billion a year, which if lined up end
to end would reach to the moon and back.
51

The ecological footprint
The ecological footprint is a concept used to calculate the area of
land required to meet consumption and waste demands. As well as
land and bodies of water required for food, forestry required to
absorb carbon dioxide emissions and land used for waste disposal
are taken into account. Calculations can be made for any unit of
consumption (e.g. the individual) and have been made for the world
as a whole, for individual nations and for towns and cities.
Unfortunately, there are wide discrepancies in methodologies,
making comparisons between cities very difficult: estimates of
Londons ecological footprint range from 125 to 293 times the size
of London itself.
52
Nevertheless, suffice it to say that even at lower
estimates, the footprint of London (and that of most cities) extends
well beyond its geographical area.
That cities footprints are far greater than the cities themselves
is neither surprising nor necessarily problematic. One would expect
an area of dense population to exact disproportionate demands on
the planet in terms of area and less peopled regions produce food
for ones more so. Agriculture is configured in such a way. However,
problems become clear when we look at consumption on a wider
scale. For example, Europes ecological footprint represents an area
more than twice the size of the continent. (Americans needs per
capita are nearly twice those of Europeans). And, as a planet, we
consume more than the Earth can sustain. Since the early 1980s,
we have been living in ecological deficit. In 2001, we used 1.2
times the biocapacity of the Earth.
53
URBAN LOGISTICS
Putting food on supermarket shelves or supplying the high street
with clothes and other consumer durables is no small feat. The
guzzling city presents titanic and complex organizational chal-
lenges. Sating the demands of a city like London requires the
movement of huge ships filled with oil or piled high with minerals
or Lego-like containers, thousands of kilometres of pipeline carry-
ing oil and gas, and just-in-time meetings of different transport
modes. The port infrastructures of Hong Kong or Rotterdam are
small cities in themselves. But since they are usually cut off behind
fencing and customs barriers, we often overlook them. Equally, we

see trucks on motorways with names like Maersk Sealand or CN,
but few of us have much of a grasp of what they are doing.
Logistics is the art and science of coordinating the myriad
movements of goods and information within and between nations.
It involves the process of strategically and profitably managing the
procurement, movement and storage of materials, parts and
finished inventory (and the related information flows). City logis-
tics require an intensely complex coordination of tangible and less
visible things trucks, planes and ships on the one hand, computer
systems and software on the other. When it works it has the grace
of the well-oiled machine, but its resilience is far lower than we
think, its fragility exposed in a computer shutdown or traffic crisis.
All this may sound dry, but logistics constitutes the respiratory and
digestive systems that make cities work; without them cities fall
apart.
Logistics is big business. The logistics sector is worth 55
billion to the UK economy alone. It contributes 1520 per cent of
total product costs. The sector currently spans some 63,000 compa-
nies, employing 1.7 million people in the UK and, although often
neglected, is one of the largest employment sectors in the
economy.
54
The size of the US logistics industry is US$900 billion
almost double the size of the high-tech industry, or more than 10
per cent of US gross domestic product.
55
The global logistics indus-
try is worth US$3.43 trillion.
56
This includes a wide variety of jobs,
from vehicle tracking, cargo securing and protection to customs
brokerage, warehousing, distribution and the associated IT
connected to these activities.
And it is a fast growing business. Food imports and exports
have tripled over 20 years in the UK.
57
Significantly, recent years
have seen the emergence of third party logistics companies (3PLs)
who are solely concerned with organizing these movements.
Theoretically, and historically, there are a number of different
players in the supply chain whose activities have to be coordinated:
road haulers, rail operators, shipping companies, airlines, freight
forwarders, warehousing companies, postal companies, and pack-
aging and distribution companies. Increasingly, however,
sophisticated one-stop companies 3PLs with unfamiliar names
like Christian Salvesen, Wincanton, and Tibbet & Britten offer
solutions over a range of sectors. New software and satellite tech-
nology tracks inventory and movement, allowing suppliers and
importers to locate their shipment at any one time. The newest

trend is radio frequency identification (RFID), which is now being
standardized at a global level, allowing companies to tag all their
goods to provide uninterrupted tracking of goods in transit.
Sea ports are the main hubs of global freight distribution. There
are some 2000 ports worldwide, from single-berth operations
handling a few hundred tonnes a year to multipurpose facilities
handling up to 300 million tonnes a year. The largest include
Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, Houston, Rotterdam,
Hamburg and the ports around Tokyo Bay. Fewer and fewer ports
handle the lions share of world traffic: the top ten container ports
handle close to 40 per cent of world traffic today. You can recog-
nize the containers in any port: Maersk Line (with 18 per cent of
world trade, by far the largest), Mediterranean Shipping Co.,
Evergreen from Taiwan, Cosco (China Ocean Shipping) from
Beijing, Hanjin from Seoul and NYK Line from Tokyo.
Port infrastructures can be massive. For example, Rotterdams
Europort stretches 40km and covers 10,500 hectares (industrial
sites plus water), has 60,600 people in directly port-related employ-
ment and handles some 1 million tonnes of goods every day. In
2005 the equivalent of 8 million 20-foot containers passed through
Rotterdam. The port is now expanding by claiming land from the
sea.
World port traffic surpassed 5 billion tonnes in 1998 and it is
estimated that by 2010 world seaborne freight will approach
7 billion tonnes. Of this, Chinese ports will handle about 4 billion
tonnes of freight throughput, 57 per cent of the total.
58
Forty-five
per cent of sea freight is liquid. Dry bulk goods coal, iron ore, grain,
phosphate make up 23 per cent and general cargo accounts for the
remaining 32 per cent. The transportation of general cargo has
become increasingly containerized. Freight containers are typically
20 feet long, 8 feet wide, and, usually, a little over 8 feet high. Some
are 40 feet long. One twenty foot equivalent unit (TEU) equals about
12 register tonnes or 34m
3
. One TEU can carry 2200 VCRs or 5000
pairs of shoes. There are estimated to be 15.9 million TEU contain-
ers in the world. Container traffic breaks down globally thus: the Far
East 45 per cent, Europe 23 per cent, North America 16 per cent, the
Near and Middle East 6 per cent, Central and South America 4 per
cent and Africa 3 per cent. Movements of empty containers are esti-
mated to make up about 20 per cent of the total. In 2003 sea port
container traffic was 266.3 million TEUs, treble the container traffic
in 1990. Thus more goods are moving around faster.

Ports handle about 26,500 ships of over 500 gross tonnage
criss-crossing the seas. They include 5500 crude oil tankers and oil
product tankers, which between them can carry 175 million tonnes
of oil, 2600 container ships, 4900 bulk carriers carrying loads such
as grains, over 2000 chemical tankers and around 11,500 general
cargo ships sailing around the world. The largest ports handle the
super-sized ships, over 300m long, that can carry up to 9000 20-
foot containers, 13 storeys high and 10 containers wide. One of the
largest, the OOCL Shenzhen, can carry up to 100,000 tonnes of
cargo; it is driven by a single 12-cylinder, 69,439kW (93,120bhp)
engine which turns an 85 tonne propeller. By way of comparison, a
typical family car engine generates around 90kW (120hp), 776
times less. Fuel consumption is measured in tonnes of fuel
consumed per hour, and the rate is around 10 tonnes. On the
drawing board is the MalaccaMax ship, 470m long, 60m high, with
16 storeys, an 18,000 container capacity and a 200,000 tonne
cargo capacity.
59
Has decivilization started?
We live in awkward times. Between now and 2050 world popula-
tion is expected to grow by 50 per cent and, as we have seen, our
per capita consumptive demands on the planet are also growing
fast. In the 1960s the worlds ecological footprint was below the
planets biocapacity; by the end of the 1970s it had risen to about
one planet, where it stayed until about 1983. By the end of the
millennium our footprint had reached 1.2 planets. We have now
been living in ecological deficit for two decades.
60
At the same time,
wealth differentials are getting more extreme. Global inequality is
worse than it has ever been. Such trends gloomily raise the ques-
tion, Has modernity failed us? Has, indeed, decivilization already
begun?
In 1992 Francis Fukuyama buoyantly declared in his book The
End of History and the Last Man that the end of the Cold War
meant the end of the progression of human history with Western
liberal democracy as the triumphant, final form of human govern-
ment and liberal economics as the ultimately prevailing mode of
production. However, this thesis has not been able to withstand
geopolitical Balkanization, Islamic fundamentalism and envi-
ronmental objections. Capitalist ideologies assume inexhaustible
resources which just arent there. The global economy cannot, or

The basic infrastructures of life simply do not exist in many places
across the world such as Shkodra, Albania (above)

plain wont, continue in its present form. We cannot rely on the
market to respond appropriately to environmental, social and
cultural crises in time because environmental, social and cultural
costs are not factored into economic calculations.
Barring manna from heaven or an extraordinary scientific
discovery, it is safe to say that civilization will not survive in its
present form. This is not to make an ideological point. Theres just
not enough planet to maintain culture as we now know it. Our
addiction to the automobile will have to be addressed because even
if or when sustainable energy sources arrive on a widespread, global
scale, we do not have an infinite supply of metal. Tastes will change
as we readjust to agricultures and industries closer to home. Water
will become, as it should be, precious.
Given this material backdrop, ideologies will of course change.
Perhaps the current rhetoric of rational economic man will be seen
retrospectively as rather mad. The cult of individualism may wane
when we realize in full how dependent our individual existences
are on others (since we are all in effect sharing the same pie, having
more means someone else having less). And change will be trau-
matic. Extreme economic crisis has historically precipitated extreme
ideologies.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF MISERY
Light and shade accompany the urban story, and in some places it
is the dark that dominates. Too often, grinding poverty, hopeless-
ness, drug dealing, child prostitution, people-trafficking, petty
crime, street children, AIDS and the fear induced by local gangs
characterize the urban experience. And lets not forget Grozny or
Baghdad. We can take extremes of suffering and well-being as a
given. Columbias murder rate is 100 times that of Copenhagen.
Gloom is fairly unavoidable when you dwell on these thoughts,
and trying to empathize with the citys most afflicted hurts in the
gut.
But misery is exactly where the greater focus of creativity
should be. Forget for the moment the more attractive glamour of
new media industries or the latest icon building in a city centre.
Finding imaginative solutions to day-to-day needs, human distress,
thwarted ambition, and crime and violence is a far more creative
act. The creativity needed has different qualities. Good ideas are

interwoven with courage, the skill of mediation, negotiation,
dialogue and even love.
This chapter and the two that follow approach the concept of
geography in terms of the way feelings and experiences are distrib-
uted over physical space. Further, these chapters explore how
misery, desire or mere blandness can pervade the way a city looks
and feels. Endemic misery among an urban population, for
instance, will impact on the subjective experience of a visitor to
their city. But misery may also be reflected in the physical structure
of the city: crumbling buildings, filthy streets, public spaces no
longer tended by a local authority, no-go areas. And the same
applies to desire and blandness, which can manifest themselves in
advertising clutter or homogenized shopping malls respectively.
Misery exists everywhere, even in our most affluent cities
mundane, everyday miseries of redundancy, not being able to make
ends meet or the alienation that dense but fragmented communities
can induce. However, I concentrate here on extremes of misery to
illustrate more starkly how creativity can be brought to bear on
problems we are all too aware of, if probably not close to.
While sometimes grim, these narratives are intended to empha-
size hope rather than despair. Even for a city in acute distress, those
that live there can still harbour a love. In each of the cities
mentioned in the pages that follow, there are wonderful people
battling against the odds. As we survey misery, consider the NGO
Viva Rios campaign Choose Gun Free! Its Your Weapon or Me,
where women are taking the lead in reducing debilitating levels of
gun violence in the favelas. Consider Viktor Melnikov, the surprise
new mayor of shockingly polluted Norilsk, who is trying to force
the local mining company into safer practices. Consider the project
that Cirque du Soleil, in conjunction with Save the Children, and in
addition to its shelters, has developed to provide circus training as
an alternative to education for the street children who lived in the
sewers and heating pipes beneath the streets of Ulan Bator.
Or consider the reaction without precedent in Japanese
society
61
to the Kobe earthquake of 1995, which killed 6279
people. Although volunteerism is not nearly as widespread in Japan
as in Europe or North America, most search and rescue was under-
taken by community residents. Spontaneous volunteering and
emergent group activity were widespread throughout the emer-
gency period. Residents provided a wide range of goods and
services to their fellow earthquake victims, and large numbers of

people travelled from other parts of the country to offer aid.
Officially designated rescue agencies such as fire departments and
civil defence forces were responsible for recovering at most one
quarter of those trapped in collapsed structures. There was not a
single authenticated case of looting.
62
To focus on misery can depress, yet it provides a broad and rich
context in which to imagine positive, original alternatives. A
reminder of urban difficulties challenges us to imagine deep down
what it is really like to live in such places. It reminds us what the
challenge is to creativity: to build civility, a civic culture and some
sense of fairness, to curtail the corrupt, to generate jobs, and to
create cities that can do more than just serve basic needs.
Organized crime and the rule of fear
For centuries now the Italian Mafia has distorted and impoverished
the South Italian economy, extorting shopkeepers and taking a cut
on any economic activity. Even today it seems it takes a cut on any
big construction project. This is why Rico Cassone, the mayor of
Villa San Giovanni who opposed building the Messina Bridge to
connect Sicily to the mainland, resigned he received the classic
Mafia threat of five bullets through the post. Organized crime is
expected to profit hugely from the bridges construction. But their
tentacles go much further. Building cities is a construction game, so
Mafia involvement in Southern Italian city-making will continue ad
nauseam.
The yakuza in Japan, like other mobster groups, are far more
than gangs of thugs that oversee extortion, gambling, prostitution
and other traditional gangster activities. They have bought up real
estate and have their tentacles in some 900 construction-related
firms. The three largest groups are the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-
gumi and the Sumiyoshi-Rengo-kai and Inagawa-kai, both
headquartered in Tokyo. The National Police Agency indicated that
the Yamaguchi-gumi had 20,826 members and 737 affiliated
groups in the late 1990s.
63
In 1998 the South China Morning Post
reported Japanese police data on mob involvement in the nations
construction industry, showing that Japans mobsters stood to make
about US$9 billion just in the reconstruction needed after the major
earthquake hit the port city of Kobe in 1995. The same story is
repeated with the Chinese triads in Taiwan, Macau and the wider
diaspora. It is evident also in places like Moscow, where older

tenants are brutalized out of their cheap communist tenancies in
desirable areas to make way for new construction and where listed
buildings are burnt down to enable new building at higher plot
ratios. And the US mafias historic involvement in construction is
well documented.
Think of Belfast, where a number of the freedom fighters on
both sides of the religious divide Catholic and Protestant now
hold whole communities to ransom as they slide into drug dealing,
racketeering and violence under the guise of protecting their
communities. Think too of the apartheid on the ground that still
continues in spite of efforts towards peace. Like a poison, it leaches
into the daily fabric of life. For instance, in the Ardoyne district of
Belfast, four out of every five Protestant residents will not use the
nearest shops because they are located in Catholic streets, and a
similar proportion of Catholics will not swim in their nearest swim-
ming pool, which is located in a Protestant street. Most
18-year-olds in Ardoyne have never in their life had a meaningful
conversation, about, say, sport or family, with anybody of their
own age across the peace line and religious divide.
64
The connec-
tion between segregation and deprivation is startling. Virtually all
the most deprived areas are highly segregated and have the most
significant levels of sectarian violence. The link between economic
well-being and prejudice is clear.
65
Rio conjures up a particularly powerful resonance: carnival,
dance, gyrating, big-busted girls, Copacabana beach and the
Sugarloaf. But any party atmosphere is severely compromised by
the threat of gangs. Drug organizations like Red Command control
most of the citys 26 sprawling shanty towns or favelas, whose
population exceeds a couple of million people. The leader of the
Red Command drug organization, Luiz Fernando da Costa, better
known as Fernandinho Beira Mar, has been in a top-security prison
since 2001, but he still exerts power. He is reputed to have negoti-
ated arms deals on his mobile phone there. In 2002 he managed to
torture, murder and burn four of his enemies. To murder his oppo-
nents he needed the connivance of prison staff to be able to move
through six sets of iron gates. Prison staff are threatened if they do
not accept bribes. The repercussions reached Rio. Armed support-
ers of one of Mars victims, Ernaldo Pinto de Medeiros, moved
slowly from street to street ordering shops to close and schools to
send their children home as a mark of respect. Rio, normally
chaotic, fell silent.

Rios largest favela, Rocinha, prone to landslides as it clings to
the hillside above high-class beachside areas which provide easy
access employment for residents, is often held up as an example of
a greatly improved area of squatter housing. However, pitched
battles between the police and drug lords have drawn attention to
its underlying social problems and the challenges that still lie ahead
for city planners. The sheer size, topographical complexity and
social structures of Rios favelas mean that police are reluctant to
intervene unless serious violence or drug-trafficking has been
detected. Rocinha is in fact the largest favela in South America,
with some 127,000 residents. Despite a more violent past, it is now
relatively peaceful thousands of tourists even visit each year, often
on organized tours. Yet Rio is a major transit point for Colombian
cocaine on its way to Europe and represents a big market itself for
the drug. Higher up the hill, in a community that is both socially
and spatially segmented, lie parts of Rocinha that are largely
controlled by drug lords, not the city authorities. But lower down
there is a structure of local government and the community has
developed services for itself, such as crches, and three-quarters of
residents now have access to electricity. The 2002 film City of God
shone a spotlight on favelas, chronicling the cycle of poverty,
violence, and despair in a Rio de Janeiro slum.
Overall the murder rate in metro Rio is declining. It is now 50
per 100,000 inhabitants per annum, down from 78 in 1994,
although in some favelas like Baixada Fluminense the murder rate
is still 76. But it is not only murder that shifts perceptions. Gunmen
rob British coach party in Rio Raiders storm airport bus carrying
33 elderly British tourists cameras and jewellery worth thousands
snatched, read a headline earlier this year.
66
The road that links
Rios international airport to the glitzy South Zone has become
notorious in recent years for carjackings and shootings. In Rio they
speak of the parallel power that traffickers exert while enriching
themselves, or even of a parallel state.
Gary, Indiana, with a population of 120,000, has a murder rate
of 79 per 100,000, the highest in the US. Dominated by drug gangs
fighting for turf, it is a hollowed out, desolated place and has been
so for a couple of decades. The drug dealing is seductive you can
triple your money turning cocaine into crack and if you are very
lucky move on when you have some money. But most end up dead
or in prison. In 1995, when the murder rate was 118, the state
governor ordered in the state troopers amid great fanfare. On

national TV he ordered them to go to war on Garys gangs. The
troopers set up roadblocks in the most dangerous neighbourhoods.
During their three-month stay the murder rate went down by 40
per cent only to go back up again when they left. Once a racially
mixed steel town, a dozen years after the mills began to shrink from
employing 30,000 workers in the 1970s, it became a wretched
black ghetto. Today employment hovers at around 5000.
The story of Garys descent into violence is an extreme version
of one played out in many American cities where white flight is
followed by urban blight. But murder rates are only one indica-
tion of urban distress. Behind these murders lie untold stories of
violence, unpleasantness, paranoia and fear. One may note that the
average murder rate in the US is 5.6 per 100,000 people, with New
Orleans on 53.3, Washington on 45.8 and New York, with its
dramatic reduction in crime, on 7.3. Contrast this with two of the
most multicultural cities in the world, Toronto on 1.80 and
Vancouver on 3.45.
People-trafficking and the sex trade
After drugs and arms trading, the 4 billion global sex trade busi-
ness comes in third in illegal trade. An estimated
600,000800,000 people are trafficked in this way per annum,
according to the US State Department. I witnessed for myself
several instances in Iasi in Romania on the Moldavian border and
then in Moldovas capital Kishinev: burly, blurry-eyed men in
their 40s shacked up in hotels with waif-like 18-year-olds waiting
to be transported on. The contrasts in Kishinev are stark. The
main thoroughfares have some faded class and a mix of garish
bars, clubs and shrill advertising. In the evening, you see hoards
of scantily dressed young women, the target of the traffickers.
Immediately off the main roads there is no street lighting and you
are enveloped in gloom. The European Parliament estimates that
around 4000 women a year are trafficked to Denmark and over
10,000 to the UK. Many come from Eastern Europe but others
increasingly from places like Thailand, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
Often they are sold on to work as prostitutes who can make
several thousand pounds a week for their pimps and are effec-
tively imprisoned in our major cities. The London Metropolitan
Police estimate some are forced to see between 30 and 40 clients
per day. It is estimated that only 19 per cent of prostitutes in

London are British: 25 per cent are Eastern Europeans and 13 per
cent are of Southeast Asian origin.
Pattya, 100 miles east of Bangkok, where the streets are lined
with go-go bars and where English-style pubs display signs declar-
ing lager louts welcome, teems with prostitutes. Of the 200,000
inhabitants, it is estimated that 100,000 have some kind of connec-
tion to sex tourism. Pattyas population virtually doubles during
the winter months, when affluent European and American tourists
many of them well past middle age flee the cold of their own
countries to seek the warm weather and sensual pleasures of Pattya.
Three decades ago, Pattya was an obscure fishing village. With the
advent of the Vietnam War, it became a popular recreation resort
for American marines based at nearby Sattaship; their weekend
escapades sowed the seeds of the sex industry. From that beginning,
prostitution spread like wildfire. Because of the enormous financial
success of sex tourism, thousands of young women and girls barely
into their teens come from the impoverished villages of northern
Thailand to seek the easy money. Even women and girls from neigh-
bouring Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam are brought to work in
the sex shops. And lurking behind the lure of pleasure lies endless
violence.
Cambodia has become a favoured destination for paedophiles
since Thailand, previously the most notorious centre of under-age
sex, began a crackdown on child prostitution two years ago. The
paedophiles come from America, Canada, Australia, Holland and
Germany, as well as Britain. Svay Pak, the infamous brothel area
11km north of central Phnom Penh, is the epicentre. Out here you
can get anything, you do what the fuck you like, girl, boy, two-
year-old baby, whatever you want. Nobody cares.
67
And Pattya
and Svay Pak are just at the apex of many more towns and cities
across the region that rely on sex and have lost their dignity.
The human cost of change
Over the South China Sea to Port Moresby, the capital of Papua
New Guinea. No other country has been wrenched into the modern
world with such brutal swiftness, and it is now on the brink of
social and economic meltdown. For two years running it came out
worst in the Economist Intelligence Units liveability rankings of
130 cities, behind the likes of Lagos, Algiers and Karachi.
68
Crime
is extremely high, armed hold-ups perpetuated by raskols are

common, and expatriates and middle-class locals live behind high
walls and coils of razor wire. Yet grass-roots crime may simply
reflect the corruption of authority: Raskols mimic political leaders
corrupt behaviour at the street level, enriching themselves through
theft and operating with relative impunity. When criminals and
corrupt politicians go unpunished, people lose respect for state laws
and the authority of central government collapses.
69
Back North. While admiring the amazing growth and sparkle
of the new China, let us not forget the grim cost of Chinas
economic miracle, even though in comparison with other recently
developing countries in the region, this immense logistical challenge
has been managed with some sense of planning and order. There
are only a few slums, a significant achievement given that this is the
biggest mass migration in the history of the world, with rural
people move into cities creating a second industrial revolution. A
massive building boom, unparalleled anywhere, is taking place. In
2003 half of the concrete used in construction around the world
was used in Chinas cities. In 1950, 72 million Chinese lived in
cities; in 1997 the figure was 370 million and by 2020 it is predicted
to be 800 million, perhaps 950 million by 2030. The extreme
example is Shenzhen, constructed at breakneck speed by architects
on acid.
70
In the 1970s it was a fishing village. Then the govern-
ment established a special economic zone there and the growth was
non-stop. Recent government estimates put the population at 10
million, well above the 7 million counted in the 2000 census. We
hear little about the industrial and construction accidents of this
expansion. Official estimates are that 11,000 are killed every year,
but it is privately acknowledged to be more than 20,000 a year.
71
China competes on price in the global market and safety measures
add costs to the bottom line. This speed of development means
safety standards do not catch up and compensation is so low there
is little incentive for operators to ensure safety.
Furthermore, in spite of increased awareness of pollution, the
environmental crisis appears in danger of getting out of control.
Chinas spectacular economic growth over the past two decades
has dramatically depleted the countrys natural resources and
produced skyrocketing rates of pollution. Environmental degrada-
tion has also contributed to significant public health problems,
mass migration, economic loss and social unrest. The result is a
patchwork of environmental protection in which a few wealthy
regions with strong leaders and international ties improve their

local conditions, while most of the country continues to deterio-
rate. Elizabeth C. Economy documents in a gripping way the
severely degraded environment where rivers run black, deserts
advance from the north and smoky haze covers the country.
72
Imagine, after a hard days work, being cocooned in small
apartments in endlessly similar 25-storey blocks in ever-burgeoning
cities. Think of the social life, leisure, shopping. And yet It is better
living here than living in my home village in Anhui, comments a
Beijing resident.
73
Grinding poverty and stolen childhood
The suffocation, by surveillance, shadowing, wiretap-
ping and mail interception, is total. Most patients in
hospitals suffer from psychosomatic illnesses, worn
out by compulsory drills, innumerable parades, patri-
otic assemblies at six in the morning and droning
propaganda. They are toil-worn, prostrate, at the end
of their tether. Clinical depression is rampant.
Alcoholism is common because of mind-numbing
rigidities, regimentation and hopelessness. In patients
eyes I saw no life, only lassitude and a constant fear.
74
North Korea represents a prison state where criticism of the state
constitutes treason. Pyongyang recoils from outside intervention,
but recent appeals for aid reveal the desperation of a people shut
off from the rest of the world. In fact, in relative terms, the capital
is a better place to live than the countryside and its residents would
find the idea of Western middle classes wanting to move out of the
city quite bizarre. Pyongyangs restaurants and nightclubs contrast
absolutely with rural North Korea, where citizens face crippling
poverty, with starvation particularly rampant among children. But
repression also takes its toll on childhood:
Children have had the creativity and spontaneity of
childhood taken away from them. The unquestioning
following of the instructions and behaviour of adults
suggest that the children are aware of the conse-
quences of misbehaviour in adulthood and dont wish
to dabble in it. There is a sense of defeat about chil-
drens behaviour that they are subconsciously aware
of the intransigence of the status quo and have decided
to meekly accept it.
75

Meanwhile, in Mongolias capital, Ulan Bator, where temperatures
can fall as low as -52C in winter, more than 3000 children live on
the streets. Many shelter in the sewers for warmth, refuge and to
escape violence in the city. The collapse of communism saw most
factories shutting down, leaving thousands unemployed. The result
was escalating crime, domestic violence and alcoholism. This
poverty forced children out of their homes and now they beg, steal
and wander the ice-covered streets.
76
Filth
Lets explore some of Russias (and the worlds) most polluted cities,
such as Norilsk, 2875km east of Moscow, in Siberia, at the edge of
the Arctic circle, where the temperatures can drop to -60C in
winter, Dzerzhinsk about 380km further east, or Murmansk and
the Kola Peninsula. In Norilsk the snow turns black, and is
discoloured yellow across a 30km radius, and the air tastes sour
from sulphurous fumes. It is a closed city, but one which my
Comedia colleague Phil Wood had the pleasure to visit. Like 90
other towns and cities, it is normally off-limits to foreigners. The
authorities say that this restriction is to protect Norilsk from
Azerbaijani traders flocking to this economic zone. Others argue it
has more to do with hiding highly unpleasant facts. A former Soviet
penal colony, safety was never a concern. Norilsk, with a popula-
tion of 230,000, is home to the worlds biggest nickel mine and
known for industrial pollution so severe it drifts over to Canada.
Evidence of Norilsks activities has also been found on polar ice.
The city itself is a paradise compared to what goes on in the plants,
where workers wear respirators as fumes giddy the senses and
where workers lives have, over several decades, been remorselessly
put upon the sacrificial block.
77
Chimney stacks to the south, east,
north and west mean the city is hit by pollution whatever way the
wind blows. The appalling conditions mean the average life
expectancy is ten years below the Russian average and the men in
the mines live barely beyond 50. Norilsk produces 14.5 per cent of
all factory pollution in Russia,
78
an astonishing fact given Russias
poor pollution record. Each day the stacks blurt out 5000 tonnes
of sulphur dioxides into the sky. The lure, however, is the high
wages.

Prisons and borders
Think of the once-proud Shkodra in Albania, now forgotten at the
edge of Montenegro, where electricity is still intermittent and the
potholes are deep enough to conceal a small child. The population
was transformed after the flight of many of the ambitious to Tirana,
tempted by its glitz and apparent opportunities. The mountain
villagers, who in turn are tempted by Shkodra, have replaced them.
Clannish attitudes linger in the city and family blood feuds persist.
For instance, in December 2000 the nephew of Ndoc Cefa, a
famous Albanian theatre director, assassinated another Albanian in
London. While the assassin is locked up in a psychiatric hospital in
Albania, the blood feud must continue and all males of the Cefa
family in the Shkodra area are targets. Their houses are their
prisons.
Consider the wall separating Israel from the West Bank and
partly running through Palestinian territory. It was built to prevent
Palestinian would-be suicide bombers from entering Israel. It is part
wall, part fence, and most of its 670km length has a concrete base
One of around 600,000 bunkers in Albania:
these are often in the most unlikely urban settings, built
under Enver Hoxhas leadership to control the population

and a 5m-high wire-and-mesh superstructure. Rolls of razor wire
and a 4m-deep ditch are placed on one side. In addition, the struc-
ture is fitted with electronic sensors and it has an earth-covered
trace road beside it where footprints of anyone crossing can be
seen. Parts of the structure consist of an 8m-high solid concrete
wall, complete with massive watchtowers. Many towns are cut off
or cut up by the wall. Imagine living in Qalqilya, where the wall
surrounds the town almost completely. Residents are imprisoned,
cut off from neighbouring Palestinian villages and the rest of the
West Bank. Palestinian property within 35m of the wall, including
homes, farms, agricultural land, greenhouses and water wells, has
been destroyed by the Israeli army. Four entrances to the town have
been blocked, while the only remaining entrance is a military road-
block. It denies locals the means to livelihood and access to natural
resources. Qalqilya was once known as the West Banks bread
basket, but nearly 50 per cent of the citys agricultural land has
been confiscated, as have 19 wells, representing 30 per cent of the
citys water supply, forcing residents to migrate to sustain a liveli-
hood.
79
Border towns, especially between countries where wealth differ-
entials are great, can also be problematic. Cuidad Juarez in Mexico
and El Paso, Texas effectively constitute one city but they are sepa-
rated by the Rio Grande River and the border. More than 320
women have been murdered in Juarez since 1993. Of these deaths,
approximately 100 have been sexual-torture killings of young
women aged between 12 and 19. Several hundred women are
missing and unaccounted for. Nobody takes responsibility for
solving the cases and corrupt police are in cahoots with the public
prosecutors office. The powerful drug cartels and outdated laws
have allowed the perpetrators to go free. Since 1995 police have
jailed more than a dozen killers but the murder spree continues and
has now attracted global attention, with Amnesty International at
the campaigning forefront.
Tourism and its discontents
What about the gleaming tourist spots of Faliraki, Goa or Ibiza?
Thousands of places worldwide are caught up in the tourism mael-
strom, and, while it has clearly done much for many places, it also
has its flip side: the effect on local identity, ecological despoliation,
overdevelopment and more. Fuelled by cheap airlines, charter

flights and media attention, Faliraki, the once sleepy fishing village
on Rhodes, became a modern-day Sodom, according to some,
after a TV series called Club Reps, which followed the activities of
holidaymakers and reps. It rapidly became a destination for British
youngsters and developed into a place of binge drinking orgies,
fighting, vomiting and casual sex, encouraged, it must be said, by
local bar owners. In 2004 it had clubs with names like Sinners,
Excite, Bed, Climax and The Pleasure Rooms. Then the authorities
clamped down after a fatal stabbing of a British boy in a drunken
brawl and introduced a zero tolerance policy. Quickly the action
moved on to Zakynthos. Once exclusive, for the moment it enjoys
the dubious reputation of being the party haven of Europe. But in
the evening a darker side quickly emerges. Barely dressed girls
weave their way drunkenly between guys whose strut has been
reduced to an alcoholic crawl. Flashes of violence and casual sex
skirt the streets and rape is then never far away.
Goa, once a dope-filled, peace-loving haven, has long lost its
innocent, fun-loving reputation, blown away by a spate of drug
deaths as the hippie paradise is taken over by British traffickers.
Ibiza, once a Spanish idyll, is now another party haven invaded by
unshackled tourists. The club names are again appropriate:
Amnesia, Eden, El Divino.
Cultural prosperity among poverty
As I have already suggested, acute misery is not confined to devel-
oping nations. Material poverty exists alongside prosperity.
Nevertheless, culture can be wielded to alleviate poverty by recen-
tring communities and by providing a foundation upon which
tangible, material economies can be built.
Paris Val-Fourre sink estate is Europes largest council estate,
with 28,000 inhabitants, sky-high unemployment and growing
school drop rates inevitably worse for the immigrants, most of
whom are from North Africa. Despite the republican French ideal
of equality, they do not feel treated and respected as French. The
combination no job, no education, no respect is a dangerous
cocktail as the riots in the banlieues all over France in late 2005
showed. But here, as in so many other places, there are bright
sparks such as Radio Droit de Cite, run by 60 local teenagers. The
station gives them a platform on which to shape their identity and
foster self-belief through producing documentaries, phone-ins,

community information, sports and music. More than a dozen
teenagers from the station have moved on to jobs in national broad-
casting.
Finally, back to my home country, Britain, where the Joseph
Rowntree Foundation revealed that 70 per cent of Britains poorest
children are concentrated in just four conurbations: London,
Greater Manchester, Merseyside (which includes Liverpool) and
Glasgow.
80
The Rowntree report points out the huge damage
caused by the persistence of poverty and disadvantage in a gener-
ally prosperous country. The poor areas in these cities, like
Harpurhey in Manchester, Everton in Liverpool, Tower Hamlets in
London or Easterhouse in Glasgow, can feel like desolated places,
but here, as elsewhere, civic leadership can produce innovative
ideas. For example, in Easterhouse a new Cultural Campus, appro-
priately called the Bridge, has opened, incorporating a library, a
lifelong learning centre, a flexible auditorium, rehearsal, photogra-
phy and multimedia studios, a flexible exhibition and performance
space, and an education centre, the John Wheatley College. This
large, multifunctional building also offers office suites, a new swim-
ming pool, water features and a health suite, which will attract
many users. Its goals are to increase opportunities to develop
personal self-confidence, new life skills, such as communication
and team working, and good health and to increase employability.
Most interestingly and counter-intuitively, it is also the base for the
new National Theatre of Scotland. Conceived as a virtual body,
with only a small number of permanent staff, it will research at the
Easterhouse base and create plays for touring. This alone will bring
people into the area who previously had no reason to be there.
In London the new Idea Stores in Tower Hamlets are remodel-
ling the view of libraries, which were previously underused and
unloved. The plan is to create a series of bright, new buildings in
local shopping areas, combining lifelong learning and cultural
attractions with all the services normally associated with libraries,
from classic books to DVDs and CDs. They borrow the best that
can be learnt from the world of retail presentation, use of colour,
sense of welcome while retaining a public service ethos. The first
three in Bow, Chrisp Street and Whitechapel have an airy, transpar-
ent feel, in tune with a democratic spirit and that of valuing users
as citizens. The first Idea Stores have trebled the number of visi-
tors. The dowdiness of the old libraries has been left behind and a
new image has drawn in new users. Acting as a community hub,

the word library has disappeared. We now have Idea Stores,
complete with cafs, crches and multimedia offerings. Whether
the word store reflects the right ethos is another matter.
The Easterhouse Cultural Campus and Tower Hamlets Ideas
Stores projects attempt to build social capital, characterized by
encouraging social trust and mutual interconnectedness, which is
enhanced over time though interaction. The analogy with capital
can be misleading, because unlike traditional forms of capital,
social capital is not depleted by use, but in fact grows by use and is
depleted by non-use. It is accumulated when people interact in a
purposeful manner with each other in families, workplaces, neigh-
bourhoods, local associations and other meeting places.
Learning from Katha
The goal of the art of city-making is to create more liveable places
with decent services, good housing and the possibility of a liveli-
hood. If these are missing, not to mention the basics like shelter,
food, drinkable water and elementary security, there is the danger
of falling back into chaos in spite of the selfless and courageous
acts of individuals.
I want to conclude the geography of misery with the story of
an organization I know well. It stands as an exemplar for all the
other creative projects around the world that attempt to grapple
with ordinary and dramatic misery in cities. It reminds us how the
worst can be turned into something better.
It is called Katha and it works largely in Delhis largest slum,
Govindpuri, where 150,000 people live. Katha is now at the epicen-
tre of activities that are transforming the Govindpuri slum cluster.
Katha supports peoples movements in over 54 communities with
the aim of turning the slums into the gold mines they are the
powerhouses of creativity, entrepreneurship and drive. Its slogan is
uncommon creativities for a common good based on an uncom-
mon education (visit www.katha.org for more information).
The word katha itself means story or narrative. It started with
a simple idea to enhance the joy of reading and to foster story-
telling. India has always been a land of storytellers. It honed over
centuries the fine art of telling the story in epics, mythologies,
folk tales and more recent writings. Stories can transmit values,
morals and culture. Founded in 1988 by Geeta Dharmarajan,
Katha started as a small publishing house translating stories from

the different Indian regions. But the story idea has had greater
impact. The organization then started schools and income genera-
tion projects in Govindpuri.
Its educational ethos is centred on developing a story each term.
There are no discrete topics such as biology or maths. Children
learn these through the story along the way. I was involved when
the theme was Transforming the City, Urban Stories. In its main
school and 12 smaller ones the whole curriculum was focused on
the city and all the rooms had city themes. They surveyed sewage
conditions in their own slum and so learnt about safe water, biolog-
ical processes, bacteria and diseases. In bringing together the results
they grasped proportions, percentages and statistics and so got to
know maths. By interviewing residents and writing up impressions,
they learnt to articulate and craft language and learnt how to create
presentations on computers. By building models of how their slum
can develop, they learn how to design, paint and make models. And
they get to know their community: every day their urban story gets
added to through talking to their parents, friends and neighbours.
Since the Katha schools started in the early 1990s, over 6000
children have benefited and over 1000 have gone on to higher
education, this in an area when illiteracy runs very high. But in
order to get parents interested in sending their children to school,
Katha started a womens entrepreneurship programme, which in
1995 evolved into the Katha School of Entrepreneurship, to
develop leadership, mentoring and work. The idea of [SHE]
2
is at
its core, meaning that any investment in women brings double the
results.
81
Hundreds of women in the last decade have gone out into
the community and entered full-time employment as home helps or
office workers or started businesses as stallholders or tailors
earning up to 20 times what they did before. Many have gone on
to take further education courses. There is an in-house bakery at
Katha that employs some of Kathas beneficiaries. This education
and employment provides women with resources with which to
send their children to Katha schools. Parents pay a small but, for a
slum dweller, significant fee (4 a year) Katha believes this
personal investment increases commitment and motivation. Yet it
is possible to recoup all the fees through results attendance and the
involvement of parents in schooling. Additional costs (50 per year
per pupil) are obtained from grants and sponsorship.
Katha has now added city development to its repertoire. Again,
its ethos here is poor-friendly, taking the ideas and aspirations of

the impoverished into consideration. It asks them how they want
to improve their environment and to bring themselves decent
lifestyles. It seeks equitable growth, with more people involvement,
as only then will growth be viable or sustainable. From 2007
onwards Katha will begin to help redevelop a part of Govindpuri
through a process of co-designing and co-creation with the local
community.
The Katha philosophy has grown organically over the years,
yet at its core is a desire to stimulate an interest in lifelong learning
that will help children grow into confident, self-reliant, responsible
and responsive adults; to build social capital; to empower; to help
break down gender, cultural and social stereotypes; and to encour-
age everyone to foster excellence and expand their creativity.
Kathas 9 Cs slogan, based on what they believe helps form
character, is embellished on a main column in the principal school.
It could stand for what The Art of City-Making is attempting to
promote:
Curiosity Competence Concern
Creativity Confidence Cooperation
Critical Thinking Concentration Citizenship
THE GEOGRAPHY OF DESIRE
Desire is the flip side of misery. Lets look again at Rio de Janeiro,
where desire and misery clash. The city has a powerful resonance:
sexuality, heat, glamour, energy. Our vantage point is the giant
38m-high Christ the Redeemer statue on the Corcovado mountain,
710m above sea level. The citys vista is unrivalled anywhere in the
world, even by Sydney, San Francisco, Hong Kong or Vancouver.
Even the favelas look enticing. But down on the ground, things are
different. The 1950s and 1960s, as nearly everywhere, took their
toll, as rampant redevelopment fractured the tree-lined boulevards
and decorative apartments.
Carnival, beautiful women and men, samba, bossa nova. Even
the once seedy and dangerous Lapa is now a hub of the music scene
and is a regenerators dream: faded 19th century houses and ware-
houses are waiting to be turned into more hip apartments and
offices. It still has an edginess, yet the clubs, bars and restaurants
are opening and beginning to tame the threats.

Rios resonance is why the Guggenheim wants to be linked with
it. The associational richness of the two brands, Rio and
Guggenheim, seems irresistible; they are a city-marketers dream.
At first, the idea was to help regenerate the Mau Pier area in the
historic centre of Rio de Janeiro. The redevelopment of this site as
a new cultural centre is expected to be a crucial and strategic land-
mark in Rios plans to bring life back to the Cais do Porto region.
Apparently mutually beneficial, the aim of redevelopment is to
strengthen the Guggenheims global brand and turn Rio into a
global city. Visionary architecture was contractually required, and
Jean Nouvel was chosen and has provided the design.
But there has been a stand-off: The plan has stalled politically
and the city cannot get it approved. The battle lines are drawn
between those who believe the Guggenheim will be a regenerator
and those who think it will only gentrify the area and be of little or
no benefit to the poor. The fate of the Rio/Guggenheim connection
is the supreme symbol of The Art of City-Making story and of the
battle of how to deal with misery. Do you create fashionable desire,
whose economic effects are unlikely to trickle down in a positive
way for the poor but which pleases the better off, or do you go
about the less glamorous process of bottom-up economic develop-
ment?
It is only when we see these things from a detached, eagles eye
view that the shape and overall dynamic of things are clear. Those
who move around from place to place can see the full impact of the
dull sameness of the same place everywhere syndrome, which is
why the promise of another Guggenheim icon seems so attractive.
Then the sharp dominance of global brands becomes clear, from
Wal-Mart to Tesco to McDonalds to Gap, whether you are in
California, Milan, Lyon, Moscow, Yokohama or Johannesburg. But
locals instinctively know too that in spite of the glamour of the
brands, they are a double-edged sword, endangering local distinc-
tiveness. Finding an inventive route that balances the local and
global is the challenge.
Which way the creativity of people is focused to make cities
great places is a subtext throughout this book. It is highlighted
more sharply below when we talk of the geography of desire. The
question that lurks in the background is this: What if the immense
energy, resources, creativity and imagination that are used to seduce
us to buy more were used for different aims? Inevitably the text has
a somewhat critical tone, but it is not a personal criticism of the

many shopping centre managers, developers, marketers or policy-
makers I meet daily through my work. They, like me and all of us,
are caught in a maelstrom and a system that pushes us inexorably
towards speeding up, consuming more, with greater focus on indi-
vidual wants than on bigger-picture, communal needs. Many want
to bend the market to more lofty aims. But to stand alone against
the prevailing wind is hard.
Ordinary desire
Yet ordinary desire is a more beautifully mundane thing, a less
thrusting desire, one that is softer. It is the ordinary day-to-day lived
urban experience of people. It is the basic needs that count. Can I
walk from where I live or work to a public space where I can just
be rather than having to buy something? Desirable places fulfil the
need for just being, so enabling us to experience the moment, a
chance for incidental encounter, a space open for coincidence rather
than having to do something specific or continuously having to
consider, What next? The Plaza Nueva in Bilbao fulfils this need,
as does the contained Caracas town hall square or Stavangers
Slvberget Square, where, as so often, the public library, the
Kulturhus, is an anchor. The sensually perfect oval square Piazza
dellAnfiteatro, the shopping street Via Fillungo in Lucca or even
Djemaa el Fna in Marrakech, one of the worlds great squares,
satisfy ordinary desire, as does idling around one of Amsterdams
many markets or even ambling along its canals. Mothers looking at
their kids running around, idle chatter, old guys reading the news-
paper and smoking, a stall to buy a drink or a bun, a market selling
flowers and food one day, second-hand knick-knacks the next. The
community centre or library, a place to browse, let a chance
encounter with books or through the internet take its course, read
a magazine. A city is not only a static thing consisting of its built
form, but also a series of small human interactions that fill a caul-
dron. Ordinary culture in action.
Is the housing well designed, well built, well maintained,
spacious and affordable? Does it meet the varying needs of single
persons and families? Does the urban design meld the interior and
exterior landscapes into an integrated whole? Does it meet the
needs of privacy yet also encourage people to interact? Are uses
mixed so that living, working, shopping is convenient, so that
people have many reasons to cross paths and communicate in the

simple ways that build social capital and make communities work?
Can I go swimming? Is there a gym or a cinema nearby? Are
services doctors surgeries, schools, meeting places local? Is the
rubbish cleared, does the graffiti get cleaned and do potholes get
dealt with? Can I ring a council official and get someone a human
being to answer the phone? Do I have confidence in the volun-
tary bodies or the businesses around me? Ordinary needs well met.
How do you get around? Does the transport system work? Is
the metro clean? Does it operate frequently and without hiccup?
Are suburban train lines efficient? Is the journey itself worth the
experience, so you relax into the journey itself, just travelling, as
you might in Hong Kong? Or is it more unpleasant, like in London,
where you feel crowded in and your body tightens up and where
you think of the next experience to take your mind off the present
one? Does the car traffic flow through the city? Is parking avail-
able? Ordinary facilities working like clockwork.
Are there bright lights in the city core to stimulate aspiration?
Are there places to hang out special shops, cinemas, theatres,
outdoor spaces for gathering, celebrating, demonstrating? Could
Libraries are among the most inclusive cultural institutions
and Vancouvers is one of the best: note how rounded the
building is, which may account for its popularity

you call your city a vibrant hub and a place of flourishing neigh-
bourhoods? Is the gap between the rich and poor leavened? Are
segregations reduced? Do cultures cross boundaries? Is prejudice
minimal? Does it all add up? Does this stage set feel safe? Does it
meld into an overall quality of life? Ordinary equality lived out in
real life.
This picture exists in snatches in many of our cities without
conscious planning or any new ism. It is astonishing how simple
this quiet desire feels, where time is slowed down and with the occa-
sional burst of excitement. This is what makes caf culture so
appealing. Yet economic drivers go against maintaining its
simplicity.
Pumping up desire
Since 1970 the number of consumer products introduced each year
has increased 16-fold.
82
This is the inexorable dynamic that means
retailing must pump up desire and push us to buy more. Yet the
mall and shopping as the metaphor for a good life cannot sustain
the spirit. Filling emptiness with busyness rarely works, however
enticing it may appear at first sight.
In our age of consumption, we buy many things we dont need,
at least not to survive biologically. Increasing purchases take on a
social function, expressing sexuality, status, wealth and power. For
capitalism to keep going, needs must grow and so they must be
manufactured. The free market propels the inexorable dynamic to
get you to spend. Otherwise the system falls apart. Every sensory
means is used and orchestrated to trigger the imagination: sound,
smell, the look and feel, texture, colour and motion. It is enticing,
it has its delights, it projects pleasure, but it is emptier than it
appears. The system could not survive if it was not immensely
seductive, and fashion is its name. Yet it is a hedonistic treadmill
that drains our energy.
Retailing is the engine of this process, fashion the mechanism
and technique, and the manufacture of dissatisfaction the result. It
is a double-edged sword, twisting discontent into urges and the
desire to want. The shift to compulsive consumption changes the
nature of ordinary desire. All-pervasive, it changes the way we
relate, so that everything feels it should be an economic transac-
tion. This is a voracious desire that can never truly be satiated. You
might retort, But you have a choice. But when everyone around

you is wanting, it is hard to go against the grain. In the past we
conceived most things as necessities. Treats were less in evidence.
We had less disposable money. Today many have little too, but the
credit system has expanded to soak up wants, even though it might
ultimately hit you and throw you back on the heap. Now treats,
surprises and the new have become necessities. Think of humble
spectacles or glasses, once bought once and for life. The same for
your umbrella or wristwatch. Now there is Swatch and you need
watches for every occasion: my dress-up watch, my dress-down
watch, my sports watch, my fun watch. Think of functional
Wellington boots, just there to keep out the rain for those in the
countryside, by tradition usually green and on occasion black. Now
they are an urban accessory. They come in bright red, translucent
blue or garish yellow, and you need a different colour for every
occasion. Everything is turned into a fashion item. The life span of
things like clothes once stretched into the horizon. Now they
quickly become disposable. Even your home. Now all too soon
things are perceived to look tired and worn. This feeds the DIY
craze. Even your looks are up for grabs. I need a makeover.
Wrinkles no longer reflect experience they are a cosmetic
nuisance. The idea of the beauty of ageing is disappearing.
Everything must be young, young, young. In the end, life itself
becomes a commodity, but sadly there is only one.
Out has gone the well-worn shirt fraying at the edges chuck it
instead. Or wearing a pair of shoes until you can see your experi-
ence etched into them chuck them. We have lost the sense of small
history, the little pieces of personal experience melding together
into a textured life. And along the way we have lost the art of
repairing and feeling a sense of trajectory and the patina of ages
inscribed into things. Old clothes still look smart if worn with a
quiet confidence. Instead we have to invent shabby chic as a
fashion type, so you have to buy new things made to look old. The
production cost of making jeans look old is more than producing
jeans that look new. Something always needs to make a buck,
otherwise it all falls apart.
In the name of choice there is a continual roll of inventions:
new breads, butters, every variation of milk, chocolates. Who
thought they needed 40 varieties of candles or that 30 styles of
coffee were necessary? Barry Schwartzs The Paradox of Choice:
Why More is Less documents this and the increasing reaction to
wish to simplify things well.
83
Schwartz starts with a story of

trying to buy a pair of jeans in Gap and talks of the 85 brands of
crackers in his local supermarket. He experiences choice overload,
a condition that can make you question your decisions before you
even make them, setting you up for unrealistically high expecta-
tions, where inevitably you fail and blame yourself. This can lead
to decision-making paralysis. A culture of limitless choice that
implies that somewhere there is perfection leads to a sense of
emptiness and possible depression. We are being bred to buy and
to give up on the simple pleasures of creating our own entertain-
ment: singing, dancing, playing games, having fun and making our
own things from clothes to furniture. This is a loss so strong that
it has counter-reactions, which is why activities such as karaoke
are so popular.
Mentally moving on before arriving
Being locked into a pattern of needing to consume forces people
into a lifestyle which they cannot quite afford. And so we are dissat-
isfied. Continually needing makes people needy because they are
permanently being shown the next thing they do not possess. The
retailing dynamic unhinges the anchored self, always under threat
from other causes too, as it focuses on what is missing. It changes
how we perceive existence. Rather than experiencing what is and
concentrating on the here and now and its attendant realities, it
shifts focus to tomorrow and what could be. This means we do not
appreciate the fullness of possibilities or the engagement of daily
life.
Insidiously this logic has crept into other parts of our life.
Everything is becoming a paid-for experience. Like a rash, the
market has eviscerated much of the finer texture of urban living,
the unpaid transactions that build social capital and trust. Many of
these are the invisible threads upon which collaboration was built.
Relationships and interactions that were once free are now set in
the exchange economy; they are now a commodity. Social relations
are being determined by whether you can buy. Even how you meet
people is increasingly arranged, brokered and paid for. And every-
thing has to be fast, thus the rise in speed-dating. There are fewer
free activities or places to hang around, to sit around in public and
not spend money. Some people, especially the elderly, now go to
the doctor simply to have a chat and have human contact rather
than be at home on their own.

Indeed, what does desire look like through the eyes of the
elderly, the poor and those otherwise disenfranchised? They are
already swept up in its maelstrom. The market has already sniffed
out that there is an audience to be captured who are nurturing their
savings when they could be spending them. Make them feel inade-
quate, make them want. Make them understand that just like a
tired shop needs a design makeover or facelift, so too do older
people. The poor are a harder challenge: give them a sense that
everyone can be a winner, keep them wanting too. But this is a
fragile balancing act, because at some point the dream has to come
to fruition or else resistance might grow, endangering the whole
house of cards.
Speed and slowness
The consuming logic that is never fulfilled means people want to
experience more, perhaps 30 hours of experience in a 24-hour day.
There is more on offer, but the same amount of time. In our desire
not to waste time, we are left with even less of it. Speeding things
up means substituting quantity for quality and along the way a
certain depth to life is lost. Travel is faster, communicating elec-
tronically is faster. Eating has become faster fast food is just one
manifestation of this. Lunch breaks are shortening, with little time
for eating, let alone digesting. Getting to know people and relation-
ships are speeded up through speed-dating. With names like
Speeddater or Hurrydate, it is possible to meet 20 people for three
minutes each on an evening and decide who you want to follow
up. The length of time we keep clothes has shortened. Disposability
is key. The shelf-life of buildings is shorter. Room decorations can
be bought off the peg and discarded with each new move. This is
the throwaway city. Caterers with names like On the Run or
Gourmet on the Go! (Providing healthy, delicious meals for busy
people) are proliferating.
84
With everything speeding up, people are trying to adapt; the
high visibility and immediacy of advertising messages becomes
crucial and very fast instant response rates are required. People are
in danger of becoming overloaded. More and more messages are
trying to get through and the urban landscape is increasingly one
large advertising billboard. Eye Contact, a new device, helps calcu-
late the amount of advertising messages we receive in a day. In a
large city like London we see as many images in a day as people

saw in a lifetime in the Middle Ages, around 3500. Yet in a survey
it was discovered that 99 per cent of messages are not consciously
remembered.
85
A reaction to speed is slowness. Now joining the stress consul-
tants, therapists and time-management consultants are slow
coaches to treat rushaholics:
At work they are management freaks, on holiday they
are activity freaks, in the evening their time is jammed
with social functions theyre constantly working on
their wardrobe, darting into shops buying things
between watching a video theyll be phoning friends.
A woman who was cured noted: Ive slowed down, I
live more basically and because I shop less, I want
less Ive replaced quantity with quality.
86
The Slow Cities movement is a reaction to speed based on ethos-
driven development. Slow Cities developed out of the Slow Food
movement, which started in Italy in the 1980s. Slow Food promotes
the protection of local biodiversity, the right to taste through
Speeding up the world allows no space for reflection

preserving local cooking and eating traditions, and highlights the
folly of fast food and fast life. Slow Cities is expanding the concept
to be a way of life. It emphasizes the importance of local identity
through: preserving and maintaining the local natural and built
environments; developing infrastructure in harmony with the
natural landscape and its use; using technology to improve quality
of life and the natural and urban environment; encouraging the use
and production of local foodstuffs using eco-sensitive methods;
supporting production based on cultural traditions in the local area;
and promoting the quality of local hospitality.
The aim of the Slow Cities movement is to implement a
programme of civilized harmony and activity grounded in the
serenity of everyday life by bringing together communities who
share this ideal. The focus is on appreciation of the seasons and
cycles of nature, the cultivation and growing of local produce
through slow, reflective living. Slow Cities is not opposed to
progress but focuses on changes in technology and globalization as
tools to make life better and easier while protecting the uniqueness
of town characters. To be a member of Slow Cities and to be able
to display the movements snail logo, a city must meet a range of
requirements, including increasing pedestrian access, implementing
recycling and reuse policies, and introducing an ecological trans-
port system. Working with the Slow Food network, the Slow Cities
movement is spreading the word about its slow brand of commu-
nity connectedness.
Trendspotting or trainspotting?
Fashion is not just a matter of life and death, it is more it helps
define who we are.
87
Fashion is the cause and retailing the agent
of the change hysteria. Fashion has a glow, yet also a withered
sadness, as what we wear is always on the cusp of going out of
fashion. The industry of fashion trendspotters inexorably forges
the forward path. Trendy they may seem, yet in their own way they
are as obsessive as trainspotters in their raincoats and anoraks.
With their ear to the ground they read the signs and symbols of
changing taste and desire. They not only track change but also
create it, as there are always leaders, early adopters, before the
laggard majority. Being sensitive to trends helps companies stay
ahead of the game, a game that is moving ever faster. Barely a
decade ago there were two fashion cycles in clothing. Now there

are six, requiring the frenzied change of window displays and media
bombast. Car purchasing is moving down to a three-year cycle.
Home makeovers, which did not exist as a concept until recently,
are now on a five-year cycle. Moving house was a once-in-a-gener-
ation thing. It is now down to a seven- to ten-year cycle.
Relationships are shorter and divorce no longer carries a stigma.
Consider some trends from the trendspotters and they will
have already gone by the time you read this (see box overleaf). For
example, branded brands, being spaces and curated consump-
tion are, apparently, just round the corner if not already upon us.
At their core they are about individuality, not solidarity, and they
seek to distinguish the individual from others, making you as the
individual feel you are the most important person in the world. You
become what you are through the brand and your control of it. You
surround yourself with associational richness.
The shopping repertoire
We could divide the shopping world into essentials, such as food,
and inessentials, like fashion accessories, but both are subject to
the same forces. The competition to generate desire spills out into
the landscape of cities and helps shape them. The city then becomes
a desire-inducing machine. It needs to draw attention to itself for
its local, national and international audiences, and a repertoire has
emerged to make this happen. At its core lies shopping and culture.
Property prices are the core driver of this urban development.
Retailing is the main driver of its changing shape and look. Creating
the destination is the goal, generating the experience the means.
The aim is to craft an experience that has rich layers that mean
something. Much as people try to give products or brands depth,
they still have a hollow ring as consuming, in the final analysis, has
limited value. A pair of shoes is just that a pair of shoes. Even
though staying in that special boutique hotel, eating refined food
and going to that seductive lounge bar might be great, in the end
does it give longer-term sustenance? Generating associational rich-
ness is the challenge and the city itself needs to play its part in
keeping the machine speeding along. And there are alternative
strategies here one shouts louder through its sign and symbol
system, another more quietly so as to project class. Yet interwoven
in most strategies are arts institutions and cultural facilities as is
evidenced by every single city-marketing brochure, which highlights

TRENDSPOTTING
Youniversal branding At the core of all consumer trends is the
new consumer, who creates his or her own playground, own
comfort zone, own universe. Its the empowered and better
informed and switched on consumer combined into something
profound, something weve dubbed MASTER OF THE YOUNI-
VERSE. At the core is control: psychologists dont agree on much,
except for the belief that human beings want to be in charge of
their own destiny. Or at least have the illusion of being in charge.
Curated consumption make way for the emerging trend of
CURATED CONSUMPTION: millions of consumers following and
obeying the new curators of style, of taste, of eruditeness, in an
ever-growing number of B2C industries (Martha and home deco-
rating was really just the beginning ;-). And its not just one way: in
this uber-connected world, the new curators enjoy unprecedented
access to broadcasting and publishing channels to reach their
audience, from their own blogs to niche TV channels.
Nouveau niche BusinessWeek called it The Vanishing Mass
Market, Wired Magazine spoke of the Lost Boys and the Long Tail.
Others talk about Niche Mania, Stuck in the Middle, or
Commoditization Chaos. We at TRENDWATCHING.COM dubbed
it NOUVEAU NICHE: the new riches will come from servicing the
new niches! And while all of this may smack of wordplay, the
drivers behind this trend have been building for years.
Branded brands In plain English: BRANDED BRANDS means
you will get a pizza from Pizzeria Uno on an American Airlines
flight. And onboard perks offered by United Airlines include
Starbucks Coffee, Mrs. Fields Cookies and even a McDonalds
Friendly Skies Meal, including the ubiquitous promo-toy. Cars
arent immune either: Lexus proudly promotes their Mark Levinson
audio systems. It all points to consumers on the road increasingly
wanting to find the brands they trust and enjoy at home.
Being spaces With face-to-face communication being rapidly
replaced by email and chat, goods and services being purchased
online, and big city apartments shrinking year by year, urban
dwellers are trading their lonely, cramped living rooms for the real-
life buzz of BEING SPACES: commercial living-room-like settings,
where catering and entertainment arent just the main attraction,
but are there to facilitate small office/living room activities like
watching a movie, reading a book, meeting friends and
colleagues, or doing your admin.
Source: www.trendwatching.com

how vibrant their cultural scene is in terms of these institutions.
For many, still, culture simply equates to museums, galleries and
theatres and not a great deal else. For this reason, mobilizing these
institutions remains central to cultural policy.
Architects, lighting engineers and billboard animators stand in
the centre, seeking to dazzle, amaze and stun their audience. The
level at which this is executed depends on the citys role in the larger
world urban hierarchy. Think of the historic boulevards of dreams
and their resonance. They once played on a larger stage, but many
now live off memories of a past heyday. They tend to attract an
older audience now as their hipness has been drained out of them.
The Champs-Elyses, once a place which fed desires and a synonym
for Parisian chic, has lost some of its lustre and glamour, dominated
as it is by airline offices and car showrooms, though it is still the
site of fashion houses and expensive restaurants. Piccadilly Circus
and Regent Street in London have suffered a similar fate. The
Ramblas in Barcelona is perhaps overrun now by tourists, but at its
best you can still watch the world and not be contained in a fence
of consumption. There is Dsseldorfs Knigsallee, which the locals
avoid when the tourists swarm in, or Berlins Kurfrstendamm,
whose energy is waning. In the Malecon in Havana, the flow of old
classic cars and the music excite, but on the down side you are
aware of the clash between tourists and poor locals. The latter are
tied into an oppressive relationship with the tourist; their relaxed,
laid-back lifestyle contrasts with the need to hassle and compete
for tourists. Ginza in Tokyo is a byword for its department stores,
such as Mitsukoshi or Matsuya, into which are interspersed the
trendsetting shops like Sony or the cool and sleek Apple Store. All
are kept in trim by stylish new architectural insertions.
The louder response is best seen in East Asia, although
Eastern Europe is also making its mark. Adverts become increas-
ingly vertiginous six stories high as in Hsimenting in Taipei,
where to attract the young Taipei hipsters the music also pounds
out so loud that the ground shakes. New Yorks Times Square is
another instance, as is the Strip in Las Vegas. For a sheer blast of
colour, action and head-spinning animated billboards, perhaps
none can rival Dotonbori in Osaka, packed with people at night.
It uses every latest advertising gizmo and its craziness has an
outlandish beauty. To get an idea of what the future may hold in
store, Japan is instructive. Its aesthetics so different from
European sensibilities, it combines the stark crassness of Osakas

Electric Town or Tokyos Akihabara computer district with the
sublime beauty of the perfectly crafted object, shop front or urban
setting. They come together in Kyoto around Kiyamachi-dori and
Kawaramachi-dori, calm yet exalting Zen gardens with buildings
built by architects seemingly inspired by watching Star Wars on
acid. Vegas looks tame and controlled by contrast. China, in fren-
zied growth zones like Shenzhen, is beginning to rival this new
aesthetic. Cities use every trick they have to spectacularize them-
selves: image, media and trophy buildings by star architects are
brought into harness.
Segmentation and area character are key, with property prices
driving the design quality and focus of any area and its distinctive-
ness. Most large cities can be divided into high-end, mainstream,
alternative and grotty. Like a Ginza or Sloane Street in London,
where high-end architecture, design, image and aspiration mix,
strongly fed by media attention and focused on an older, richer
crowd. There are the mainstream, less rich areas like Oxford Street
in London, where most day-to-day shopping takes place. Then
there is the continual search for the new upcoming area. In London
once Notting Hill, then Camden and now Hoxton. It is always on
the move. The next will be an area that today is still relatively
cheap. The very cheapness that makes an area attractive to the
young and inventive is the very thing that raises prices over time.
With trendspotters on the prowl, providing the media oxygen over
time, the edginess is tamed and the gentrification process starts.
This is both good and bad and keeping the balance of shabbiness
and chic or inventiveness and convention is an immensely difficult
trick. Very few places have achieved it. Amsterdam, though, is one
instance. This is largely because mainstream retailers, with the
profit ratios they demand and minimum size requirements for their
stores, cannot impose their templates on to the city. In Amsterdam
the intricate physical patterning and structure dominated by canals
cannot be broken up. In addition it is extremely difficult for corpo-
rations to buy up large areas. The resulting fragmented ownership
means that landlords are not always pumping up rents to their
highest levels. As a consequence, the sheer number of unique shops
is astonishing. Think of the Nine Streets area, the Jordaan and the
myriad other small streets that offer surprise.
But when the market has unfettered leeway, the Amsterdam
scenario is nearly impossible to sustain. Typically the pioneers
discover an area, perhaps an old industrial site such as the

Distillery in Toronto, a set of industrial streets like Tribeca in New
York or streets near a university where many young hang out, such
as Deptford High Street near Goldsmiths College in London,
famous for graduates like artist Damian Hurst. They try out a
shop. It might succeed. The cafs come in. The word spreads.
Alternatively, larger industrial structures are converted into artists
studios or incubator units for young design companies. A gallery
opens; there is a cultural venue which shows fringe material; the
bar there becomes popular; a restaurant opens, then another; and
the gentrification process begins as it spills into the surrounding
area. Gentrification remains a double-edged sword. It is an essen-
tial process through which property values rise to make it
worthwhile for investors to get involved. On the other hand, it can
push out those who make the gentrification process possible in the
first place.
In essence, the fate of cities is determined by property prices.
When a city like London or Berlin is selling its property to a global
market, this will tend to price out less affluent locals. This is why
we are faced with a crisis of finding accommodation for people in
lower paid but crucial employment such as nurses, teachers and
police, without whom a city cannot function. The gentrification of
an area can spell the exclusion of key workers if left unchecked.
The only solution is to contain the market and to find alternative
ways of providing affordable accommodation.
A few places have tried to challenge this logic. Temple Bar in
Dublin is an instance. A finely knitted pattern of streets in the heart
of the city, it was once threatened with demolition to make way for
a transport hub and inevitably declined with this sword of
Damocles hanging over it. Many years later, when the plan was
rescinded, the areas attractiveness was recognized and redevelop-
ment was planned to make it an artistic hub. The development was
controlled by a quasi-public authority which either owned or had
influence on leases and tried to obviate the logic of price spirals
that were inevitable given Temple Bars central location. Its lease
structures guaranteed affordable, longer-term security for the many
arts organizations, such as the Irish Photography Centre, the Irish
Film Institute, the Temple Bar Music Centre, the Arthouse
Multimedia Centre, Temple Bar Gallery and Studio, and the Gaiety
School of Acting. However, the creative vitality that these organiza-
tions represent is being threatened by over-popularity and
consequent growth in tourist fodder restaurants and meat-market

pubs to deal with stag and hen night parties. This has led to TASCQ
(Traders in the Area Supporting the Cultural Quarter) encouraging
people to stay away.
Normality is increasingly the out-of-town suburban mall asso-
ciated with mid-America but now wending its way through Europe
and into Asia. It is even reconfiguring shopping in India, so long a
bastion of thousands of stallholders. At the moment 97 per cent of
Indian retailing is by small independents. The malling of India,
though, has become a recognized phenomenon. When it fully takes
hold millions of Indians will have turned from small entrepreneurs
to wage slaves. But there is resistance to the chain gang. In
Singapore the food hall adjacent to Erskine Road in Chinatown has
140 independent cafs or restaurants, rather than the usual crowd
of multinationals who would fit about a dozen brand names into
the same space.
Asia is catching up just when the homeland of malls, America,
is reconsidering their value. For many, the well-known mass brand
names are enough, cosseted next to the big box retailers. Enclosed
somewhere, essentially in places of no distinction in the middle of
nowhere, the business of shopping can proceed conveniently with
an ocean of parking spaces attached. The architecture imitates
Classical or Art Deco, built to last a shopping generation that is
measured in half-decades. The substance only skin deep, faades
hide false ceilings and the sites can be reconfigured when required.
Making more of the night
The dream of the 24-hour city for groups of all ages has largely
faded, heralding the arrival of an urban drinking environment for
the young only, especially in Northern Europe. The continental
European caf, eating and entertainment culture, with the genera-
tions intermingling, has not happened. With cities increasingly
spread out, travelling downtown is too much of an effort. The
famed Mediterranean passegiata can only occur with vibrancy
where living and shopping are close to each other. This means
urban density with accommodation for single persons as well as
families.
Being able to deal with the night is culturally learnt. A decade
ago the symptom was dead town centres at night in places like
Britain where the tradition of living together and socializing
publicly in the evening had been lost. When the city began to be

revalued and a shift towards an urban renaissance occurred, it led
to an increased awareness of the value of public space and invest-
ment in it.
88
This occurred throughout the country, with some high
quality examples, such as Brindley Place and Broad Street in
Birmingham. But generally, in the early evening, city centres empty,
to be reclaimed at night by mostly young drinkers, bolstered by the
drinks industry with bars competing loudly for attention. The result
is monocultural. Hordes of young drinkers put off other age
groups. The city centres in Britain are usually very lively, yet it is an
exclusionary feeling: less intergenerational, less intercultural.
Children and older people hardly dare venture in. Twenty-four-
hour services are limited to bars, bars, bars, restaurants, clubs and
bars. Facilities to broaden the appeal of night are rare. Libraries,
museums and galleries close early, some even at 5.00pm. In effect,
many such places are open on weekdays when most people have no
time and closed when people have time. Urban management should
have a strong role in assessing the palette of possibilities in each
segment of the day, as it should in the management of public space
to ensure diverse use and users.
The Italians have come up with an innovative solution and are
addressing the democratic deficit of the 24-hour city. At least half a
dozen Italian cities now have an Ufficio Tempi an Office of Time.
These try to reorganize time in more flexible ways to meet new
needs, especially those of women, who often juggle two timetables,
work and home. The Offices of Time try to bring together trans-
port providers, shop-owners, employers, trade unions, the police
and other services to see how their efforts might mesh better to
produce more flexible ways of living and working. They use time
as a resource by staggering opening hours of offices, shops, schools
and services to maximize time and to avoid crushes and rushes.
Shops might open and close later, and police might work more in
the evening when people want to see them, rather than in the
morning.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF BLANDNESS
Fifteen years ago I started to count shops on the high streets of
different cities to see how many names I knew. I was disappointed.
I was already beginning to recognize too many and gave up. Last
year I started the counting again and idly counted the shops in

Cornmarket and Queen Street, the main shopping streets in
Oxford, one of Britains most distinctive cities. I knew the names of
85 out of 94. I experienced a lurching feeling of dullness. In those
15 years, the world of retailing in Britain has changed dramatically,
with the march of malls and global brands sucking the life out of
ordinary high streets. I have travelled too by car, criss-crossing the
suburbs and outer entrances of cities from Europe to North
America, Australia and elsewhere: always the same picture, always
the same names. Thought experiments kept coming into my mind.
What if you lined up all the 30,000 McDonalds in the world next
to each other how long would the McDonalds road strip be? Six
hundred kilometres or so? And then add the 25,000 Subways,
11,000 Burger Kings, 11,000 KFCs, 6800 Wendys and 6500 Taco
Bells? Hey, if we line up the ten top fast-food chains, they will
stretch half the 4504 kilometres from New York to Los Angeles. A
chilling thought. And even Starbucks has over 11,000 outlets with
joint ventures. Then I went though the same exercise with other
shops, like Gap, which has 3050 outlets, before a headache set in
and I stopped. This is the geography of blandness, and the bland-
ing processes are worldwide, as witnessed by counter-activities such
as the Keep Louisville Weird campaign, which, picked up on from
Corporate blandness, anywhereville

bumper stickers from Austin, has been followed by others like
Keep Portland Weird.
The march of the mall
Regional malls initially started without too much of a threat to
diversity. They had foundation stores to anchor an end of the mall,
typically then a department store. In between were several specialty
shops, often smaller local traders relocating from older, declining
shopping areas. But to ensure the highest possible rent, mall
WEIRD = OF STRANGE
OR EXTRAORDINARY CHARACTER
Keep Louisville Weird is a grassroots public awareness
campaign, recently and quietly begun by a small but
growing coalition of independent Louisville business
owners who are concerned with the spreading homoge-
nization of our hometown. Were concerned that the
proliferation of chain stores and restaurants in Louisville
is not only driving the independent business owner out
of business, but is also robbing the city of much of its
unique charm. While we dont discount the need for the
Wal-Marts of the world, were troubled by the current civic
notion that excitement for our town should come from the
courting, establishment and promotion of chain stores
and restaurants that can be found in many other cities
across America.
89
Suddenly large billboards started dotting parts of Louisville with a strik-
ing black and white design and with the simple message Keep
Louisville Weird and then there were T-shirts and bus cards
and stickers. No one knew where they had come from. And the story
behind the Keep Louisville Weird motto did not come out until almost
a year later. By then, the media were raring to cover it.
The billboards were placed by an informal coalition of indepen-
dent Louisville businesses a protest against Starbucksification,
sparked by the sale of Hawley-Cooke, Louisvilles largest independent
bookstore, to Borders in August 2003. They borrowed the Keep My
Town Weird idea from a similar slogan on car bumpers in Austin:
Collaborative fission of coordinated individualism.

operators preferred leasing to stores with proven track records,
especially those with marketing success in malls. Few small, local
stores could match the track records of national specialty retailers,
chains of stores specializing in a single product niche but operating
internationally, such as Gap, Williams-Sonoma (cooking supplies),
Dorothy Perkins and Benetton. As the market became saturated
with malls, specialty retailers thrived even when malling declined.
Malls began homogenizing by the early 1990s. They now break
down into three broad categories, driven by class and income. A
malls cater to upper- and upper-middle-class shoppers. In the US
they include department stores, such as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth
Avenue and Bloomingdales; exclusive national specialty clothing
retailers like Ralph Lauren and Kenneth Cole; household goods
stores like Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel; and national niche
stores that appeal to broader audiences, such as Gap. B malls are
targeted more at middle- and partly upper-middle-class shoppers.
Their department stores have large selections, but not as large or as
exclusive as those in A malls. While the mix of specialty shops in
B malls is similar to those in A malls, retailers like Bulgari, Yves
Saint Laurent and Tiffany & Co. would not locate in B malls.
Others, such as Banana Republic, offer reduced selections of
merchandise. C malls cater to middle- and lower-middle-class
shoppers. Their department stores only target people with lower
incomes. Specialty retailers that seek to attract wealthier shoppers,
such as J. Crew or Abercrombie & Fitch, will not locate stores in
C malls.
This retail mix renting strategy significantly reduced risks for
mall operators but has created a monotonous shopping experience
for consumers, who want a more varied choice. Visitors increas-
ingly feel the convenience of one-stop, climate-controlled shopping
in regional malls is counter-balanced by the inconveniences of
parking, ever-expanding buildings and limited choice heavily
focused on national speciality retail stores.
Two approaches are being offered as an alternative to regional
malls. The first is the big box shopping centre, which is essentially
a strip mall that contains several very large stores. There, outlets
are 1020 times the size of the speciality mall store. Shoppers park
their cars in parking lots directly in front of the store. Depending
on where you are you see Best Buy, Home Depot, Currys, Halfords
or Office Depot. The second is to reinvent the old high street: the
main street mall, combining big box and smaller shops, designed

to resemble the fantasy of a main street in a small American
community at the turn of the 20th century. The storefronts in main
street malls, like those of early malls, face a pedestrian walkway.
Parking is tucked inconspicuously behind the building.
90
The bland processes of malling, shedding and big boxing have
reconfigured cities dramatically. They tore older cities apart by
inserting malls inside their cores, losing the street in the process
and breaking up community patterns, rupturing the historic urban
fabric. Placement on the edge of town or out of town drains the
city of its lifeblood a process well documented. It has led to the
decline of local shopping and the attendant network of relation-
ships. It has made facilities like libraries and other services feel out
of place, because they are now separated from shopping.
91
It has
helped the process by which chains have become ever dominating,
providing the larger templates they require. Yet what irony! Back
in 1956, when the first mall was opened in Minnesota (Southdale
Mall in Edina, a suburb of Minneapolis), the father of the enclosed
mall, Victor Gruen, stated that the mall was the way to replicate
community by providing social interaction and recreation in
pedestrian-friendly environments by incorporating civic and educa-
A good secondary shopping street in Cork, Ireland
the kind that is disappearing very rapidly

tional facilities. It filled rather than created a void, he said. What
irony again to note that the latest retail trend is to recreate commu-
nity precisely along the lines of that which retailing took apart in
the first place, often on the edge of town. The developers made
money taking things apart and now are making it again putting it
back together. Yet what was lost in the process? The walkable place
where living, working and having fun are in close proximity, with
doctors and dentists nearby, schools accessible, a park Precisely
what they are now recreating.
For the aspiring city that wants to project an edge, an imagina-
tion or to play on a world stage, the simplistic, low-textured mall is
RECREATING THE PAST FOR THE FUTURE
As much as malls and shopping centers have morphed in the past few
years, even more changes are coming. The retail cycle is shrinking,
change is accelerating and store sizes and formats are in flux. There
will be some stunning new designs and lots of white-hot technology,
but the biggest changes will be less obvious: redesigned malls with
different kinds of anchors and different tenant mixes, and lots more
space for non-retail uses. Everywhere, there will be a new focus on
convenience, including, perhaps, daycare facilities and a place to
check your coat.
No one can say for certain what the world of 2013 will look like,
and interviews with industry insiders produce some predictable predic-
tions. Developers with a heavy focus on enclosed malls say theyll
remain the big dogs; those whove invested deeply in lifestyle and
power centers think that theyll be on top, and that a lot of the older
enclosed malls will be long gone.
Get beyond those disagreements, though, and a common vision
emerges. The retail center of the future whether it is enclosed or
open-air, big or small, themed or general will be designed to resem-
ble a community, not just a place to shop. That means environments
that place as much emphasis on recreation (everything from skate
parks to jogging paths to entertainment complexes) as they do on
consumption. The developments under way in 2003, as well as various
remalling/demalling, already point to a future in which retail blends with
other functions.
Source: excerpted from The Future by Charles Hazlett, published on the Retail
Traffic website, 1 May 2003, http://retailtrafficmag.com/mag/retail_future/
index.html

not enough. Think of Harajuku in Tokyo. The chains are present
on the traditional gridded streets. Yet whereas most American
teenagers follow the dictates of fashion provided by stores like Gap,
Urban Outfitters, Hot Topic or any large national or international
chain, many teenagers in Harajuku set the trends that are then
taken up by the fashion industry. They are not the followers of
trends dictated from the top of the fashion food chain. Like
peacocks showing their feathers, teens go through an amazing ritual
of preening, creating a visual feast, claiming the area as their own
along the way. Garish colours shout, subverting traditional
Japanese styles and borrowing from Western ones. They create
elaborate shapes and hairstyles and, with their powdered faces, they
are punky and rebellious. They twist perceptions and warp them
into a strong tension of ritualized behaviour and controlled wild-
ness.
Think of restaurant brands. Whether upscale or run-of-the-mill,
they do not register on the desirometer. Thirty thousand
McDonalds or 11,500 Burger Kings do not get the blood racing.
Consider instead Zurichs Blinde Kuh (Blind Cow), set up in 2000,
which has taken the city by storm. (Similar ventures have been set
up in Paris and London.
92
) This combines gastronomy with a social
purpose. These are restaurants where you cant see you eat in
total darkness and the waiters are blind. Only the manager and
the receptionist are sighted. Blinde Kuh is owned by a charity,
Blindlight, set up by Jorge Spielmann, a blind clergyman. The meal
creates a bonding experience between diners and makes sighted
people focus on their senses afresh, which many find profound. For
blind diners it can be liberating and those going blind can show
their partners what life may be like.
The death of diversity and ordinary distinctiveness
Once upon a time, not so long ago, people used to shop on foot in
their local high street. They bought individual products from differ-
ent retailers: screws from the hardware store, bread from the baker,
meat from the butcher, fruit and veg from the greengrocer. This
process developed an invisible web of community. Those days are
gone. Instead, supermarkets reign supreme and they are aggres-
sively expanding their offer of non-food goods.
93
The one-stop
shop only appears beneficial, however, because we think we are
time-pressured and convenience-driven. The high streets, the malls

and big box centres all look similar and to create distinctiveness
they need to spice up the bland with total experiences. There are
gains and losses in this process.
We have lost the option of shopping at small, local, specialist
shops and building relationships with owners. The link with super-
markets check-out staff is minimal. Fifty years ago in Britain,
independents made up half of the market; now the figure is below
15 per cent. Between 1997 and 2002, 13,000 specialized shops
bookshops, hardware stores, butchers, bakers, fishmongers,
chemists, multipurpose corner shops, newsagents, clothes shops,
whatever specialism you care to think of were lost. In 2004 alone,
2157 independents were lost. Overall that is nearly 50 per week.
Add to this the branches of post offices, banks and building soci-
eties and the pubs and the figure doubles. Based on current trends,
33 per cent of local outlets will have shut between 1990 and 2010.
These deep changes sound the death knell for local economies, and
it is happening everywhere. The decline in neighbourhood shops
and services breaks up the social fabric on the way and replaces it
with large-scale, industrialized, corporate landscapes and relation-
ships. Left behind are deserts where communities no longer have
easy access to local shops and services; you get an increasing sense
of multiplying ghost towns.
94
The result is a bland, imitative shop-
ping landscape of multiple retailers, fast-food chains and global
fashion outlets. And the decline of local shops forces many to travel
greater distances to do their shopping, even in the largest cities.
This process has insidious downstream side effects, affecting the
system as a whole. As smaller shops close, the number of suppliers
to small shops dwindles, leading to a Catch 22 situation. Without
local suppliers, local retailers suffer; and when local retailers close,
suppliers suffer as they become increasingly reliant on a handful of
supermarket purchasers. These in turn hold them in a vice-like grip.
Between 1997 and 2002, the number of UK farm workers fell by
100,000 as supply chains globalized. Supermarket chains are not
interested in the real economy and real costs of food miles. And
the popularity of the new local stores emerging under the big super-
market brand banners presents yet another threat to independent
stores.
95
Supermarkets and malls eviscerate the city.
A 2005 report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Small
Shops stated, Small and independent shops may vanish from the
UKs high streets by as early as 2015 The erosion of small shops
is viewed as the erosion of the social glue that binds communities

together.
96
The British Retail Consortium responded that the group
was trying to turn the clock back. And a Tesco spokesperson,
seemingly quoting Britains largest retailers PR manual, delivered
the rather ignorant statement, The consumer is the best regulator
and there is room in a thriving market for anyone who satisfies
customers. How very ironic, then, that the US trade magazine
Retail Traffics issue on future trends in retailing in May 2003 cited
recreating a sense of community as the key trend for the next
decade. The retailing logic that tore quite resilient communities
apart is now trying to put them together again in its own image
and on its own terms.
Governments can only deal with wider issues of social exclu-
sion, disadvantage and poverty if they understand that an economic
system seen as natural favours the large, the distant and the
uniform. It damages diversity, choice, local economies and commu-
nities. Conversely, relocalizing the economy empowers
communities. It requires courage and tenacity to resist the lobbying
capacity and media-savviness of the large retailing giants and to
address the pressures of the wider economic forces head-on to
create a balance between local and global economies. This requires
understanding real economic value flows or local transaction analy-
sis and distinguishing it from surface value.
97
And this in turn
means redefining what we understand and measure as progress and
finding ways to make the invisible value of things social, cultural
and environmental values visible.
The New Economics Foundation proposes measures to restore
local communities and shopping cultures. These include:
Local Communities Sustainability Bills. Based on a bottom-up
philosophy, these bills would create a coherent framework for
pro-local policies by giving local authorities, communities and
citizens a powerful voice in planning their future to guarantee
dynamic and environmentally sustainable local economies. In
2003 such a proposed bill got the support of 33 per cent of
British MPs. The goal is a realignment of power between the
forces driving ghost and clone towns and those seeking to build
more healthy, vibrant and sustainable local economies.
Local competition policy. In France, the Royer and Raffarin
laws have limited the development of new supermarkets over
the past few years, requiring special approval for any proposed
new retail store bigger than 300m
2
. This has guaranteed the

BLANDNESS AND
CITY IDENTITY
Italy and France have so far been able to resist the arguments, blan-
dishments and pressures towards blandification coming from the
large chains in the name of efficiency and progress. Many of their so-
called restrictive planning guidelines are precisely those that are
securing diversity and resisting what the French call la
Londonization.
Paris approved a Local Urbanism Plan in 2005 which seeks to
encourage small shops and key workers to stay in the city. It seeks to
sustain the economic, social and cultural ecology of Paris, not in a
nostalgic way but to strengthen locality and diversity. Central Paris,
with just over 2 million residents, is far livelier because it has a dense
and varied network of shops and people. It wants to sustain the social
balance that makes Paris what it is and not have a place with the rich
on one side and the poor on the other.
It seeks to achieve this goal by influencing the market through
regulation and incentives. To nurture la mixit sociale, a requirement
for developers is to set aside 25 per cent of any project spanning
more than 1000m
2
for social housing apartments in districts where
there is little at present. The majority of these will be reserved for key
workers, such as teachers, nurses, council employees and shop-
keepers, who are rapidly being driven out of a city where many
residents rent their homes, endangering the social fabric.
To enhance a vibrant local retail sector on the streets of Paris and
to sustain its distinctive food culture, half the 71,000 shops in Paris
have restrictions placed on them to prevent inappropriate change of
use when the shopkeeper either sells up or retires. This means that a
small food shop would have to remain a food shop, and it would
prevent, for example, a string of mobile phone chain shops replacing
butchers, bakers or greengrocers. The move follows studies showing
that the number of delicatessens has fallen by 42.8 per cent in the
past decade, with butchers falling by 27.2 per cent, fishmongers by
26 per cent and bakers by 16.2 per cent. At the same time, the
number of mobile telephone shops has risen by 350 per cent, fast-
food restaurants by 310 per cent and gymnasiums by 190 per cent.
Other measures in the plan include a requirement for developers to
set aside 2 per cent of any new building for residents bicycles and
pushchairs. On the other hand it will reduce the number of parking
spaces they are required to create.
98

diversity of French shopping. Poland has also enacted similar
versions of this law.
Using planning law to protect locally owned stores. Planning
gain agreements, such as Section 106 in Britain, which usually
grant planning permits to social housing, should extend to
include locally owned stores.
Introducing a retail takeover moratorium and limit market
share to 10 per cent. Tesco in Britain, for example, currently
has a market share of over 30 per cent; the next three each have
over 10 per cent.
Extending local tax relief to independents, such as newsagents,
and food, beverage and tobacco retailers, particularly those in
villages, town centres and deprived urban neighbourhoods.
Undertaking local money flow analyses. Local authorities,
planning agencies, regeneration bodies and regional develop-
ment agencies need to monitor local money flows to help guide
local retail development.
Setting requirements for economic and community impact
studies.
Holding local referenda on major developments that affect the
identity of localities. Some issues, such as local identity, are so
important that the ordinary democratic process is not enough.
99
The curse of convenience
The blanding process needs to be counteracted by creating the lure
of excitement and massive choice. A brief excursion into the world
of supermarkets reveals that in Britain, the big four control nearly
75 per cent of food retailing, a frightening figure. Tesco has 30.6
per cent, Asda (Wal-Mart) 16.6 per cent, Sainsburys 16.3 per cent
and Morrisons 11.1 per cent.
100
They have drained the life out of
the high street and cleansed it of diversity. The supermarket model
is also space eating and they have wrenched space away from the
edge of town and out of town.
Looking at their activities through a broader food miles and
sustainability perspective, they are far less efficient than they make
out. They have sidled into the imagination of the public as the one-
stop destination for your every need. They have projected
themselves as the only way. They are not stupid and they have a
wealth of expertise and resources at their fingertips to lobby, to
change minds and to get their way. And when the going gets tough,

they adapt, chameleon-like, and pretend to be local in their desire
to please. Many fund local initiatives, as long they can get on with
business as usual. In sum, they pull the wool over our eyes so we
do not understand the underlying dynamics of their operations and
their impact on real life. These guys are professionals, exert
immense power and are in it for the long haul.
Few other shops swallow such a huge chunk of our net income
as supermarkets do. Tesco, for example, takes 1 in every 8
pounds spent in British shops. Do we get the value we are
promised? Comparing the big chains and local, independent shops
on the high street, the result is surprising. Guardian journalist Sarah
Marks conducted an experiment over two weeks. In the first week,
she spent 105.65 at Sainsburys. In week two, a total of 105.20
at local shops was spent on the same groceries. A difference of 45p
is admittedly not an enormous amount and she had to walk around
more.
Nevertheless, local retailers suffer because there is a perception
that the big four are cheaper and because they tell us they are good
value. But they rely on people only knowing the cost of a small
number of goods, referred to as known value items (KVIs). These
are items that supermarkets price check against their supermarket
and independent competitors and keep as low as possible to attract
custom. Other items can be much more expensive. Bananas are one
KVI and the local market cannot match the price. But other fruit,
like seedless white grapes, can be twice as expensive in the super-
markets. There is a hierarchy of value, with extra cheap ranges,
everyday prices and premium brands. Basic sliced white bread cost
Sarah Marks just 19p, but its country style with rye loaf was eight
times more expensive at 1.49. Overall, chemist and grocery items
in the supermarket were cheaper by 11 per cent and 28 per cent
respectively, but fruit and veg, meat and fish were not.
101
What are
the gains and losses in shopping in different ways? In one you
support the local economy and in the other the corporatized
economy with global supply chains.
Supermarkets have maintained their power because of their
convenience and seductive tricks like pumping out smells near the
bread counters. But how else? The planning system is weak in prac-
tically all countries and favours multiple retailers over independent
stores. In Britain, in contrast to France, the governments Planning
Policy Statement 6 (PPS6) is failing to prevent out-of-town devel-
opment, possibly as a result of supermarkets lobbying central

government. Yet PPS6 forms the only formal defence that local
authorities have against retail development that may negatively
impact on the community. On the one hand the policy states it is
facilitating and promoting sustainable and inclusive patterns of
development, including the creation of vital and viable town
centres. On the other, about 60 per cent of development still takes
place out of town, with a rising percentage in edge-of-town loca-
tions. PPS6 also states, Larger stores may deliver benefits for
consumers and local planning authorities should seek to make
provision for them in this context. In such cases, local planning
authorities should seek to identify, designate and assemble larger
sites adjoining the primary shopping area (i.e. in edge-of-centre
locations).
102
But local authorities have no ultimate control.
Supermarkets are beginning to have more power than local coun-
cils, as local decisions are being overturned on appeal by higher
authorities. Councils are also influenced by the very high costs of
appeal and are reluctant to lose. As one councillor, also a shop-
owner, noted:
Tesco has hit the town really badly. My typical daily
turnover went down 50 per cent the day it opened
They are too big and powerful for us. If we try and
deny them, they will appeal, and we cannot afford to
fight a planning appeal and lose. If they won costs, it
could bankrupt us.
103
This is the result of supermarket lobbying and leveraging planning
gain whereby a developer agrees with a planning authority to pay
for community facilities in return for planning approval.
Supermarkets run lobbying and public relations campaigns focused
on local authorities and communities respectively in order to
increase the likelihood that planning applications for their stores
and the stores themselves, once constructed, will be accepted.
The focus on out-of-town and edge-of-town development
reduces creativity because it is geared towards branded, global
chains. A feeling of public space may be propagated but in reality it
is privately owned space that is tightly controlled to foster a
consuming environment. There is little or no room for individual
participation and invention. One could imagine food chains and
other stores rethinking their service delivery so that people can use
city centres without worrying too much about carrying things
about. Internet grocery shopping with home delivery is one

development but as are local pick-up points where shoppers collect
their shopping without worrying about being at home at a certain
time. Such delivery innovations lessen the imperative of supermar-
kets to locate on the edge of town.
Clearly some chains have better track records than others, such
as Waitrose in Britain, which has a good reputation for quality and
is owned by its employees and not shareholders. As one would
expect, this produces a high level of commitment among employees
and a far stronger commitment to locality. In contrast are Wal-Mart
and Tesco.
Wal-Mart is the worlds largest retailer, with more than 3000
stores in the US and almost 1300 international operations, such as
Asda in Britain. It is also the worlds largest corporation. It employs
1.4 million workers worldwide and with over a million in the US it
is the largest private employer there. More than half of Wal-Marts
US employees leave the company each year. They earn an average
hourly wage of US$11.00 for non-management positions, with no
defined benefit pension and inadequate healthcare. Wal-Mart was
sued 4851 times in 2000 or about once every two hours, every
day of the year. Wal-Mart lawyers list about 9400 open cases.
104
They pay below poverty-level wages. At 34 hours per week (full-
time at Wal-Mart), a person makes US$19,000 per year, well below
the poverty level for a family of four. Six hundred and sixty thou-
sand of its employees are without company-provided health
insurance, forcing workers to seek taxpayer-funded public assis-
tance. A US congressional study found that Wal-Mart costs the
American taxpayer up to US$2.5 billion in public assistance to
subsidize its US$10 billion in profits. But the going may be getting
tougher. Wal-Mart won city council approval in May 2004 to build
its first store in Chicago after months of delay and intense lobbying
by the chains foes and supporters. After a raucous debate, the
council voted 32 to 15 to allow Wal-Mart to construct a 150,000-
square-foot store in a poor, largely black and Hispanic
neighbourhood on the citys West Side. In a second vote, however,
the council rejected a huge store that Wal-Mart wanted to build in
a racially diverse, largely middle-class South Side neighbour-
hood.
105
In June 2005 Vancouver city council rejected (by eight
votes to three) Wal-Marts bid to build its first store in the city, a
big-box outlet on Southeast Marine Drive, this in spite of the green
design that Wal-Mart put forward after criticisms of its environ-
mental practices. As councillor Peter Ladner noted, There was a

real undercurrent that wasnt officially part of the councils
debate about Wal-Marts labour practices, its sourcing practices,
the satanic nature of giant multinational corporations.
106
In 2005 producer/director Robert Greenwald made an emblem-
atic film called Wal-Mart: The High Price of Low Cost, which took
the viewer on an extraordinary journey that could change the way
people think, feel and shop.
107
It tracked the conditions of workers
at Wal-Mart, the companys intimidation of employees, its power
over supply chains and the culture of fear it induces. It allowed
these people to tell their story. The film really came alive when it
utilized footage of deserted towns and main streets all across
America, many of which had been affected by Wal-Mart and other
big-box stores moving in and causing destruction. It was released
through an alternative distribution network via thousands of house
parties.
108
Similarly, there is a growing movement of people in towns and
cities across Britain who believe Tesco and other big superstores
threaten to destroy their communities and reduce choice.
Increasingly, local people are joining together to fight new super-
market developments that they believe pose a grave threat to the
health of their local economies and communities. Tesco has driven
down the supply price of meat, vegetables, everything, because they
have such a huge share of the market. Its a monopoly position
they can simply go and find someone else who will supply them at
the price they want.
109
The Tescopoly Alliance documents these
campaigns. Britain is renowned for its apple varieties and quality,
yet surveys by Friends of the Earth show that, at the height of the
British apple season, over 50 per cent of Tescos apples are imported
and that supermarkets reject perfectly good British fruit for no good
reason. Tesco says it has 7000 regional (i.e. Welsh, Scottish, Irish
and English) lines on sale and many promotions related to regional
produce. Yet this figure is less than 20 per cent of the total of
40,000 Tesco lines and many of these regional products are sold
throughout Britain so are simply British produce.
110
Many people choose locally grown produce because of the asso-
ciated environmental and social benefits. Yet ethics are increasingly
marketed as a consumer choice rather than a corporate standard.
Fairness and justice in trading, for example, are niched as fair-trade-
labelled speciality products and not mainstreamed into business
practice as of late 2005. Tesco sells only 91 fair trade product lines,
a tiny amount representing only 0.2 per cent of its lines. In

November 2004 no more than 4.5 per cent of Tescos sales of
bananas were fairly traded.
111
Tesco, like other major chains, claims to create more jobs, but
the figures do not add up. In 2004 small grocery shops in the UK
had a turnover of around 21 billion and employed more than
500,000
112
while Tesco, with a 29 billion turnover, employed just
250,000 people.
113
As retail chains grow, overall jobs are lost. This
might be more efficient in narrow terms, but not when taking into
account downstream impacts. Furthermore, the buying power of
the big chains is considered to be distorting competition to a worry-
ing degree.
114
Londis, the national corner shop brand, has admitted
that it is cheaper to buy brands from Tesco and resell them than to
get them from its wholesalers.
115
Tesco may claim to be a magnet
for market towns, keeping people shopping locally,
116
but the
reality is that local shops close wherever Tesco goes, from Dumfries
in the north to Penzance in the south. The new Tesco in Dumfries
now sells chart music cheaper than me, so people now only come
to me for the rare stuff and the staple 35 per cent of my income
from the chart music has disappeared, says an independent record
retailer.
117
The idea that regeneration can be driven by major chains
needs close and sophisticated examination and appropriate and
robust policy. Friends of the Earth suggest:
a much stricter code of practice to ensure suppliers along the
whole chain are treated fairly and which covers sustainability,
labour and health standards;
a supermarket watchdog to ensure that the grocery market is
operating in the interests of consumers, farmers and small
retailers;
enlargement of competition policy to address impacts on
suppliers (not just consumers) to prevent misuse of buying
power; and
a market study by competition authorities to examine the wider
effects on society of the over-concentrated retail sector with a
view to presenting policies to address market share.
118
Shedland
You come across iconic and representational buildings, new and
old, more often as you drive to the core of the city. Yet the city is
more than icons. Office parks, industrial estates, housing quarters

rich and poor frame the overall urban experience. Perhaps the most
dispiriting areas are shedland. This is the visual experience of most
places when you navigate the ring roads and dual carriageways that
feed into the city: cheap, windowless, large buildings of steel
frames, corrugated iron and pre-cast slabs. They are distribution
hubs or light industrial sites. Their blandness neutralizes the
surrounding landscape. They are lifeless. Occasionally a garish logo
is the only visual relief. Built with a short shelf-life in mind, perhaps
10 or 20 years, they are part of the throwaway, disposable city. Can
you imagine the artist of the mid-21st century suddenly deciding to
move into these as the new live/work space as they have in the solid
brick buildings of the industrial age? What new areas can artists
discover when all the industrial buildings have been used up?

4
Repertoires and Resistance
URBAN REPERTOIRES
From Prado to Prada
1
There is an emerging repertoire, often used thoughtlessly and in an
imitative way, to use culture or arts in city development. The full
repertoire includes galleries, museums, the concert hall, the theatre,
the experience centre of whatever theme, the sports stadium and
finally the aquarium. Indeed, as a perceptive commentator recently
noted, we live in the age of aquaria.
2
Back to Rio, which in 2003 announces with a fanfare the new
Guggenheim, and also a new sports stadium and a new concert hall.
More recently the repertoire has been broadened to include
creative quarters which in fact are usually refurbished old indus-
trial buildings in inner city fringe areas as well as attracting big
events, either sports or festivals. The aim is to enhance image and
prestige and to attract visitors and therefore inward investment.
The attempt is to brand the city and richly associate its name with
cultural sophistication. In the past these institutions mostly carried
the name of the city in their title, like the Birmingham Rep or the
Cleveland Museum of Art. More recently the trend has been to
create more unique and distinctive identifiers such as the
Esplanade in Singapore, The Baltic or The Sage in Gateshead,
and the The Guggenheim in Bilbao, where intense efforts are made
to give the word itself powerful resonance. Taking the name of an
existing cultural institution like the Tate, Hermitage or
Guggenheim, which have spent generations building their reputa-
tions, is an attempt at a short cut. The costs of generating brand

The urban regenerators repertoire:
The concert hall and ferris wheel in Birmingham, UK

recognition through a name from scratch are immense. Not only
must the power of the building the container entice, but the
contents also need to be associated with world-class quality to get
through the noise of information overload in order to become a
must see destination. And very few achieve this.
The primary focus of these recognition strategies is outward-
looking and internationally oriented. This often creates problems
for locals, especially indigenous artistic communities, who may feel
their needs are being neglected. This is why Tate Modern hired a
community regeneration manager while it was being built to ensure
that rich links with and involvement of the community were
fostered. The attempt to generate international attention in a world
of short attention spans has meant architects now have an increas-
ingly powerful role and there is frenzied competition to attract
those with star quality who are able to create iconic buildings, such
as Gehry, Izozaki, Snhetta, Rogers, Foster, Alsop and Calatrava.
There is a tension between the need to continuously provide innov-
ative and technological derring-do, enabled increasingly through
complex computer modelling, and the requirement to make build-
ings work functionally for their purpose. The latter requires a series
of mundane considerations, such as Can I get the lorries to actu-
ally deliver the theatre scenery? or Can I clean the windows so as
not to disturb the building as a work of art?
As branding has become the mantra of the age, so cultural insti-
tutions have increasingly recognized that they can have drawing
power and iconic qualities. Cities seeking to take the short route to
international status now pursue them with vigour. They have recog-
nized value in their brands and have begun to franchise their names,
such as when Bilbao paid US$20 million for the use of the
Guggenheim name for 20 years. The Guggenheims international-
ization strategy includes outlets in Berlin, Las Vegas (built by Rem
Koolhaas, another architectural star) and its oldest outlet in Venice.
The Guggenheim frequently receives offers to establish new opera-
tions, from cities such as Tokyo, Rio and Johannesburg. But one
day the deals are on the map, the next they seem to have fallen
through. Others following this approach include the Hermitage in
St Petersburg, with museums/galleries in Amsterdam and Las Vegas.
The Tate in the UK has also pursued this route, although in a less
commercial way. These outliers make sense given that the vast
majority of their artworks are in storage.
Repertoires and Resistance 145

Urban iconics
In The Creative City I make the distinction between narrative and
iconic forms of communication. Narrative communication is
concerned with creating arguments; it takes time and promotes
reflection. Its bandwidth is wide as its scope is exploratory and
linked to critical thinking. It is low density in the sense of building
understanding piece by piece. It is about creating meaning. Iconic
communication, by contrast, seeks to be instantly recognized. It
has a narrow bandwidth and highly focused purpose; it is high
density because it seeks to squash meaning into a tight time
frame, creating high impact by encouraging symbolic actions that
make what is being projected feel significant.
The challenge of creative urban initiatives is to embed narrative
qualities and deeper, principled understandings within projects
which have iconic power. Emblematic initiatives can leapfrog learn-
ing and avoid lengthy explicatory narratives through the force of
their idea and symbolism. In this context, visionary leaders,
emblematic best practice projects, and the work of campaigners,
radicals and risk-takers are all of paramount importance. The deci-
The Guggenheim in Bilbao, one of the few iconic buildings
that is etched into the worlds imagination

sion to create the first directly elected mayor for London had huge
iconic resonance. It symbolized not just the creation of a leader
committed to the city but a break with tradition and a new start.
The idea of zero tolerance initiated in New York to combat crime
was equally iconic. Everybody immediately knows the power of the
word zero. Zero tolerance was a packed phrase and people knew
what it meant and what was expected without complex explana-
tions. Even though it has an authoritarian feel linked to the word
tolerance, it provides psychological comfort.
Identifying the iconic trigger whether light, a song or even a
word like zero is the most difficult aspect as communication
needs to relate to the place, its traditions and identity. In an age
where attention span is at a premium, identifying projects that
embody principled and fresh ideas yet can be communicated iconi-
cally is the challenge of the creative city. However, iconic
communication, if not leavened by an understanding and accep-
tance of deeper principles, can be dangerous and turn into
manipulation and propaganda.
3
Places of desire need iconic projects. The aim of icons is to grab
attention and profile. And if they fail, you can be stuck with archi-
tecture that you dont like for a very, very long time. At their best,
both good ordinary functional buildings and iconic ones can exude
a deep register of feelings and emotions that can sustain or enrich a
city. To succeed, however, they must reflect a range of triggers, from
the layers of a citys history to the thrill of the new. Calatravas
airport in Bilbao and Liebeskinds Imperial War Museum in Salford
come to mind. What is right depends on context. A choice will be
made as to what extent of stimulation is right and appropriate. In
one instance calmness may be required, as in the de Young art
museum in San Francisco; in another a sense of wildness, as in the
Toronto art school by Will Alsop.
Icons seem to be most accepted when they are part of a head in
the clouds and feet on the ground approach, as in Bilbao, where the
Guggenheim Museum is part of a much wider economic and social
regeneration initiative. Overriding everything, though, is quality.
The discussion of and arguments about what quality is at any given
moment is at the heart of what makes an urban culture. These qual-
ities will not be the same for all types of buildings or hard
infrastructure, although some criteria may be common: utility and
use value, materials used, how it is made or projected, the meaning
generated, craftsmanship, symbolic value or resonance in relation to

the visual forms that inhabit a culture. For example, the Kiasma
gallery in Helsinki, Oslo airport and Amsterdams Borneo
Sporenburg and West 8 housing development all meet these criteria.
Icons are projects or initiatives that are powerfully self-
explanatory, jolt the imagination, surprise, challenge and raise
expectations. In time they become instantly recognizable and
emblematic. The Eiffel Tower is iconic, reflecting the confidence of
Paris role in the industrial age, as is the Sydney Opera House,
causing us to rethink the possibilities of Australia, or the
Guggenheim in Bilbao, emphasizing the courage and determination
of the Basque people. The London Eye is already rapidly becoming
the marketing symbol for London after only five years. Such
projects make us think again, so changing the perception of a place
and expectations of it and for it.
Museums, galleries, theatres and sports stadia in particular can
communicate iconically. Because they often do not have to strictly
apply market criteria in the same way an office building needs to,
they can concentrate more on quality. However, commerce, espe-
cially in fashion, is catching up and risking far higher costs for
downstream image benefits. Witness Koolhaass Prada, minimalist
John Pawsons Calvin Klein flagship stores in New York or Norman
Foster-designed Aspreys in London and New York. Shopping
provides a showcase of what is new in architecture as there are
many new shops but only likely to be a few museums and galleries.
These brand-building retail stores are visible for both the brand
and the architect.
The battle between content and container is key. Rarely do
iconic buildings follow through this iconic approach into the
content of the institution. An exception is New Zealands national
museum Te Papa. The name itself translates as our place,
resonating with symbolic meaning behind which lies a powerful
expression of the bicultural nature of the country:
Recognizing the mana (authority) and significance of
each of the two mainstreams of traditions and cultural
heritage Maoris and Pakehas so providing the
means for each to contribute to the nations identity
A place where truth is no longer taken for granted,
but is understood to be the sum of many histories,
many versions, many voices.
4

This sensibility is built, in part, into the physical fabric. A long,
noble, reflection-inducing staircase proceeds past outward-looking
bays towards the top, where a dramatic promontory projects us
out towards the drama of sea and sky, before we reach the marae
atea (the traditional Maori meeting place), which is a symbolic
home for all New Zealanders. This requires little explanation and
is instinctively understood.
The key objective of big events, festivals and icons is to increase
drawing power. A building, a tradition, a person (such as Nelson
Mandela or Frank Gehry), an event (such as the Love Festival in
Berlin or the Notting Hill Carnival), a festival (such as Edinburgh)
or an atmosphere (such as the liberal, free-for-all of Amsterdam)
can have iconic status yet cities seek to take the apparently easy
and expensive route of a building without sufficiently exploring
other dimensions.
In reality there are very few icons that have world recognition,
although the desire to create new icons is hotting up at a fast pace.
This frenzy has, at the very least, dramatically increased discussion
of standards of design. It raises too the question of whether we can
have icon or big event overload. Anecdotally, I have found through
my own work that only two buildings constructed in the last 40
years are consistently cited as immediately and popularly identifi-
able global icons: the Sydney Opera House and the Guggenheim in
Bilbao. Others vying for iconic status among the cognoscenti
include Richard Meiers new Getty in Los Angeles, the Louvre
Pyramid in Paris and the Miho Museum near Kyoto, both by I. M.
Pei, and Calatravas City of Arts and Science in Valencia.
Most icons built in the UK through its national lottery funds
are of largely regional significance, such as the Life Centre in
Newcastle or the Hull aquarium. This is in part because the cities
themselves are not sufficiently known at an international level. The
UKs new national icons can be counted on one hand, but who
knows them internationally? They are unusual: the London Eye
wheel; Cornwalls Eden Centre (an imaginative use of an old quarry
in the middle of nowhere); and Tate Modern (which had the inher-
itance both of an old building and a name). Some would argue that
the list should also include the Walsall Arts Centre, Peckham
Library and the Millennium Bridge in Gateshead.
Iconic status accrues more easily to those cities that are already
seen as icons, like Paris, for example. Second- and third-tier cities
simply have to try much harder in a hyper-mediated world. It helps
From Repertoires to Resistance 149

when, like in San Francisco, you already have one: the Golden Gate
Bridge on to which you can add another layer like Herzog de
Meurons new de Young museum.
Within this repertoire, festivals and big events seek to provide
the content for the iconic containers. The larger festivals have,
however, an additional value in that they use many other uncon-
ventional locations which allow both locals and visitors to explore
less well-known parts of the city. Sometimes the use of these sites
creates a dynamic for renewal. An example is the use of the massive
Binding-Brauerei for Kassels Documenta 11 in 2001, essentially
the cultural Olympics for the visual arts. This redundant brewery
site became subject to intense local discussion with the idea of
incorporating it into the regeneration of its area rather than tearing
it down. It is now a performance and exhibitions space. Melbourne
is interesting as it is seeking to define the city as a whole as an icon
and stage by holistically using and orchestrating iconic triggers,
from urban design to events, and by increasingly projecting the city
as a style.
Significantly, icons can be negative when they are deemed to
fail, either subjectively or objectively, such as Londons Millennium
Iconic buildings are sprouting everywhere:
Canberras National Museum

Dome. The same media frenzy that helps generate iconic impact is
the same that can work in reverse. There is also a growing worry
that in a world of attention deficit, we are about to suffer icon over-
load. This means that people can only remember a distinct number
of icons. This in turn might create a more intense battle to create
ever more outrageous or innovative structures that can blast
through the miasmic information swamp.
The crisis of meaning and experience
Shoppertainment is the next phase of retailing, where consuming
becomes a greater leisure experience:
5
acrobats in the atrium, fire-
eaters in the parking lots, music bands in record shops, celebrity
chefs rustling up gastronomic feasts in kitchen shops, TV decorat-
ing personalities doing their DIY, Comme de Garon in New York
wooing customers through art exhibitions or chill-out areas.
Bluewater, one of Britains largest shopping complexes, even once
suggested charging customers entrance fees to come to their expe-
rience. When that happens, the distinction between the theme park
and shopping centre will have all but evaporated.
Over to Las Vegas, and what Steve Wynn is up to counts.
When the Wynn Las Vegas opened in April 2005, visitors stormed
the entrance to see if his US$2.7 billion luxury resort would live
up to all the hype. And there they were with dozens of designer
shops tailored to one lifestyle yours: Dior, Cartier, Manolo
Blahnik, Louis Vuitton, Gaultier, Oscar de la Renta, Graaf,
Ferrari Maserati, Chanel you get the picture. The shows like La
Reve? As an exercise in sheer power theyre unbeatable. La Reve
is a new world of dreams that will alter the theatre-goers experi-
ence of theatre forever. Franco Dragone, the artistic director has
presented us with dazzling images that stir the senses and the
soul. The stores in Vegas are not just stores, theyre the backdrop
for shoppertainment. At the Grand Canal Shoppes at the
Venetian, singing gondoliers whisk shoppers down a winding
canal and street performers distract those on foot. The Desert
Passage at the Aladdin has a Moroccan bazaar theme in its mall
and a thunderstorm that explodes every half hour. At the Forum
Caesars Palace you walk past gigantic fountains, statues, colon-
nades, animatronic Bacchus and Venus sculptures, and a
spiral-shaped escalator all to get a sense of the real spectacle:
the stores themselves.
6

Commerce has recognized that consuming on its own increas-
ingly provides insufficient meaning and satisfaction. It has sought to
wrap the transaction of buying and selling into a broader experience
to give it greater purpose. This development, labelled the experi-
ence economy, is a new mantra and a union of everyday
consumption and spectacle.
7
The process is turning retailing into a
part of the entertainment industry, often blurring the boundaries
between shopping, learning and the experience of culture. It involves
creating settings and using every trick in the book, where customers
and visitors participate in all-embracing sensory events, whether for
shopping, visiting a museum, eating at a restaurant, conducting busi-
ness-to-business activities or providing any personalized service from
haircutting to arranging travel. In this process, shops can develop
museum-like features, such as the Discovery Store or Hard Rock
Caf, with its display of original artefacts. Vice versa, museums can
become more like extensions of entertainment venues, such as the
new collection of museum spaces in Las Vegas, where cultural
quality is added to the menu of possible experiences.
Shops are turned into stage sets, installations and artworks,
such as the Future Systems Selfridges store in Birmingham that
looks like a reflective bubble, or Koolhaas Prada stores in Las
Vegas and New York. The latter cost US$40 million for just 23,000
square feet of retail space. The ground floor has little merchandise.
The majority is in the basement. It feels cramped and lacks appro-
priate lighting. Bars are becoming less like your local, which you
could rely on being the same for years on end. Their design can
change as fast as an art gallery. These trends are shaking the foun-
dations of museums, libraries, art galleries, science centres,
shopping malls, cultural centres as well as virtually every aspect of
the business world. Design, multimedia, theatrics and soundscapes
increasingly move centre-stage. Given that we are subject to the
vagaries of fashion, beyond the experience economy is already
being discussed, in which a transformation economy where people
will pay for a life-changing series of experiences is upon us.
8
And
then towards the dream economy?
With greater choices on offer and given our higher expecta-
tions, marketers are competing for customers attention trying to
break through the clutter and sensory overload to capture their
attention and to try to give them a sense of depth. How is this done?
By creating experiences that are so distinctive that they stand out in
a crowded landscape. Suddenly for the mainstream, the power of

Disneyland is seen as salvation and organizations are seeking to
create their own brandlands, which are destinations, both real and
virtual, that deliver a memorable message by telling a compelling
story that reflects magic and wonder. Theme park-style technology,
special effects, and storytelling techniques are applied to projects
like the Sephora and Niketown stores and Volkswagens experience
centre, Autostadt, at its factory in Wolfsburg. Casa Bacardis tells
the story of rum, the Rainforest restaurant creates a plastic jungle
environment. Leading imagineering companies work on corporate
brandlands, cultural discoverylands and learninglands, wrap-
ping everything up in a cohesive narrative, engaging visuals and
soaring musical scores. Everything in order to make a bigger story
out of a mundane product. Everything to charge you more for a
cup of coffee.
In its latest guise, the market economy has recognized other
aspirations in its public beyond consumption alone a desire for
engagement, involvement and participation. Commercial enter-
prises have begun to take on core roles associated with culture and
cultural institutions: The educational experiences of Disney
Worlds Epcot Center, Niketowns museum-like stores, and epic
bookstores such as Borders come to mind.
At the same time, there is a corresponding, defensive appropri-
ation of aspects of the marketplace by cultural institutions. They
may borrow commercial criteria in selection processes, evoke enter-
tainment modes in presentation, create facilities nearly
indistinguishable from shopping experiences, or justify their exis-
tence in terms of marketplace goals.
Borrowings and uneasy graftings are one approach to under-
standing the interconnection of culture and the marketplace.
Another is the response broadly defined as post-modernist, which
views the jumble of modern conditions with ironic detachment,
appropriating stylistic aspects as it suits. In effect, this viewpoint
treats this complexity only whimsically. In examining these condi-
tions, is it possible to identify and assert cultural values and
priorities that are based neither on resistance nor on capitulation,
to feel at ease with markets, but at the same time go against them?
Capturing the final frontier: Ad-creep and beyond
We have allowed marketers to blast our senses with manufactured
smells and sounds to affect our mood. We have been too relaxed

about ad-creep, which has allowed us to be assaulted by adverts in
schools, airport lounges, doctors surgeries, offices, cinemas, hospi-
tals, gas stations, elevators, convenience stores, on trains, on
roundabouts, on park benches, on escalator rails, on the internet,
on fruit, on ATMs, on garbage cans, on beach sand and on toilet
walls. We are compelled to watch and listen to tamper-proof TV
sets in airports, buses and other mass transit. TV programmes in
an innocent guise are packed with embedded advertising. No place
is sacred. The urban environment is a canvas for adverts. Public
space has become advertising space.
9
Will we respond at last to the
assault on the final frontier, the inner workings of our minds?
Neuromarketing charts the neural activity that leads to our
selections in the supermarket and the voting booth. It studies the
subliminal responses of the brain to adverts, brands and other
messages littering the cultural landscape. The aim is to transform
otherwise rational people into consumption-driven robots, so
achieving the complete corporate manipulation of people. The
means are to trigger neural activity in various ways so as to modify
our behaviour. Atlantas Brighthouse Institute for Thought Sciences
claims it is closing the gap between business and science with the
goal of getting us to behave the way corporations want. What it
really does is give unprecedented insight into the consumer mind.
And it will actually result in higher product sales or in brand pref-
erence or in getting customers to behave the way they want them to
behave, notes company executive Adam Koval.
10
Let that quote
linger in your mind, as the organization Commercial Alert
comments acerbically.
11
Those involved in neuromarketing try to make it sound like
nothing special. They simply want, they claim, to help consumers
understand their true desires. Alternatively their research could be
used to shut off a buy button as well as turn it on. Paying for a
technology that makes people buy less? Sounds very unlikely.
12
Gratification over fulfilment
We have speeded up experience, desperate to get more out of each
moment. But the result is we experience less. We rush so fast, it is a
blur. We have learnt to absorb quickly, but have overloaded our
senses with information and have dazzled them. Often there is a
thrill to the spectacles of fast life and it can have a seductive quality.
Yet too often this impact is without meaning. In this mental evolu-

tion, the ability to process vast amounts of information is almost
machine-like and we lose the capacity for reflection. In this world
of bright lights and logos you only look and experience the things
that jump out at you the hype, the shrill, the loud and miss out
on subtler intricacies the enjoyment of lingering, mulling over
things, simply being. Proliferating needs get us on to the treadmill
of consumptive desire. It can create greed that needs to be perma-
nently fed. But induced and perpetuated by the media and retailing
industries, it will never be sated. We are left permanently hungry.
We are in danger of living solely through consumption. To be is to
buy. The effect on the city is dramatic. Places need to be made into
destinations, where you go with the intention of being dazzled and
where, as Rem Koolhaas notes, shopping is arguably the last form
of public activity.
13
URBAN RESONANCE
The city as a fashion item
Cities are now part of the fashion parade. Fashionability is used
by cities as a global positioning tool in their attempt to anchor or
shift their identity. But being fashionable is almost by definition
unsustainable and on its own is incapable of achieving long-term
recognition. Fashion can take on a life of its own that can send
cities on a trajectory on which they do not want to be. Avoiding
this fate is therefore of paramount importance. A citys resilience
needs to reinforced and buttressed by real economic drivers,
such as what wealth it is creating, what it is producing, its
research and development capacity, its generation of employment,
and how open its investment environment is. Nevertheless, image
and fashion is both an industry in its own right that may be signif-
icant for a city and also a means of putting the icing on the cake
to reinforce its attractiveness to other investors in its industries,
from car manufacturing to IT and finance. What cities look for is
to lodge in assets that are difficult to dislodge, such as a stock
exchange or major university. It is unlikely that the New York
exchange will locate elsewhere or that Harvard will move from
greater Boston. Having the right image strengthens the image of a
citys assets. It has a psychological effect on residents too. Being
deemed to be part of a cool city gives people confidence and in

turn makes the city cooler, thus creating greater desirability in a
virtuous circle.
The principle of fashion is changeability, always transforming,
always moving, departing before it arrives. Most of us are living a
step or two behind. Only a few urban fashionistas can stay close to
the pace. Driven by the trend industry and travel market, cities
move in and out of fashion and only a few keep up with the pace
for the long term as, for example, New York, London and
Amsterdam have managed to do. Others, through historical acci-
dent, fall off the radar screen, as happened to Berlin and Vienna in
the Cold War, to Barcelona under Franco and to Shanghai when
China was a more closed society. Yet with their intrinsic substance
and their cultural resources, from heritage and museums to politi-
cal power, they have the assets to re-emerge and create a global
resonance to attract attention. Move over London Berlin is
coming up the slipstream, a headline might read. Shanghai, the
Paris of the East, is coming back with a vengeance. Barcelona, the
designer capital of Europe is the essence of urban chic. Relive
Eastern grandeur in St Petersburg. Vienna is the gateway to the
East; more to the city than waltzing, Lipizzaner horses and Sacher
Torte. These cities were dormant giants whose energies were
suppressed by conflict. When a resolution was found, a burst of
creativity expressed itself in relief.
Visibility comes to capitals of countries or regions as they
inevitably draw the power brokers to themselves: politicians,
investors and cultural types. The interplay of economic opportu-
nity, construction possibilities, a position in the world of arts and
heritage, a reputation for trendsetting, and the lure for tourists
reinforces their position as hubs.
As the world production centre inexorably shifts east, a raft of
places are rediscovered. Once cities reach a certain level of devel-
opment they begin to shift towards service industries and their
capacity to consume, especially of clothes, entertainment and travel,
increases. The international movement of ideas and people goes
with it and the fashion media industries play a strong role. Places
like Hong Kong and Taipei, once seen as low-grade production
centres for textiles, inevitably seek to move up the value chain.
Rather than buying into Western design aesthetics, the large Eastern
production empires hired in-house Western designers. Yet as places
gained confidence, rather than borrowing from elsewhere, they
found their own voice and Eastern designers began to make their

own name: Vivienne Tam, Lu Lu Cheung, Harrison Wong, David
Tang, Sophie Wong. In the process of fostering its own, indigenous
fashion designers, the city itself becomes fashionable because it is
part of the media whirlwind. Behind this lies a mighty economic
infrastructure of market intelligence, major production, finance
houses and, at the apex, catwalks. The aim is to make the city a
world centre of fashion. The association of fashion is partly how
Paris and Milan built a core aspect of their image and reputation.
Already, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou are being advised to
rethink their role and to allow a move of their industrial facilities
to second-tier areas like Hefei, Nanjing and Wuxi. Soon, with this
refocus, the names of Beijing and Shanghai designers will be on
everyones lips. Both already have their Fashion Weeks. As China
Daily noted in 2003, to create Shanghai with an image of world
metropolis, and to promote export and import in the fashionable
fields we are going to organize [the] second Shanghai Fashion
Week.
19
This is part of Shanghais strategy to play on a bigger
stage. It was disappointed it could not get the Olympics, which
went to its main competitor, Beijing, and so took the consolation
prize of the World Expo 2010 instead.
Two decades before, the same process happened in Japan, espe-
cially in Tokyo. Japanese design first made a real impression on the
fashion world back in 1982, when 12 designers showed their collec-
tions in Paris at the ready-to-wear shows. Already known at home,
Issey Miyake, Kenzo, Yoji Yamamoto, Kawakubo Rei of Comme
des Garcons and Hanae Mori shot into world consciousness. Since
then, a few such as Keita Maruyama have been added to this
established list. This shifted focus on to things Japanese, with
Tokyo as its hub. In terms of global awareness, it is street fashion
that leads the way, and the Harajuku crowd in Tokyo are as hip as
their contemporaries anywhere in the world.
The fashion focus shapes the physical environment as the big
bosses of fashion are now competing for high profile architects to
create the ultimate accessory extravagant buildings designed to
impress. The drive to redefine fashion as art, removed from
commerce and something more than mere clothing, is reinforced by
such shopping temples.
20
Fashion and art live together in an odd symbiosis: art
contributes to fashions cutting-edge feel and fashion helps arts
fashionability. Both are part of the repertoire for cities to grab
attention for themselves and project distinction and distinctiveness:

I think its going to happen here Ill be surprised if
in five to ten years Taipei is not considered one of the
great cities of the world for doing contemporary art
Ive been struck by the youthful, vibrant art talent
here. And unlike New York, London and Paris, Taipei
is relatively affordable for young artists from Taiwan
and abroad. Most importantly, Taipei enjoys an
unselfconscious and freewheeling city life that lends
itself to an explosion in the arts.
21
As a citys fashion status increases, the advantages of cheapness
disappear. Taipei, once the ugliest city of the planet,
22
suddenly
becomes a hive for the hip where trends are made; Hong Kong is
the safe starting point to get a glimpse of the Chinese miracle.
Mumbai is the city to experience urban India and Bollywood films
help keep the media profile in view. As the urban fashionistas scour
the world for new hip places, Bollywoods popularity in the West
has grown exponentially, and with that comes Indian music, design
and fashion.
And so it moves around. The new disposable income of the new
middle classes provides the opportunity once a certain stage of
development has been reached. The international executives, with
their demand for international-level services, drive the consump-
tion patterns on and the battle of the brands keeps attention
focused. What will be the next stop on the fashionable city tread-
mill? Anywhere is fair game. Accra briefly appeared for a moment,
linked to an ethnic look and shabby chic: the chic of poverty and
the unknown. It was an ugly, downplayed chic. Then its Western
protagonists out-shabbied themselves and had to back-pedal so that
the clothing could be universally appealing. Having gone out on a
limb, they had to coil back and so Accra was less in the limelight.
Will Lagos make its star turn or Johannesburg? Buenos Aires and
Rio are due for a comeback.
Drawing power and the resonance of cities
The drawing power concept pulls the various aspects of a citys
desirability together. It assesses the dynamics of attraction, reten-
tion and leakage of power, resources and talent. Equally, it looks at
what repels people from a place. It is the blend of elements that
make a city attractive and desirable. And different aspects will
tempt different audiences: power brokers, investors, industrialists,

shoppers, tourists, property developers. The sum of these threads
of attractiveness creates the resonance the city projects. If this is
positive, the results will be shown through economic, social and
others indicators. Many of the components can be quantified, yet
much needs to be evaluated through peer-group assessment and
qualitative judgements. The currently available data on cities,
however, do not allow us to comprehensively assess drawing power.
Sometimes this is because an element is not measured at all, say the
image of a city or its resilience, in other cases because the various
data are not brought together within a broader explanatory concep-
tual framework such as overarching drawing power. Economic,
environmental, social and cultural data are looked at in isolation
and rarely in terms of mutual impacts upon each other.
The Global and World Cities (GaWC) project in
Loughborough
23
reminds us how out of date our measurement
systems for assessing city dynamics are. There is a dominance of
attribute measures over relational measures in social research. We
measure static quantities, such as population or gross domestic
product, usually derived from the census, as distinct from relational
measures of flows, connections, linkages and other less tangible
relations. In this process cities are effectively de-networked, which
is ironic given the mantra about the importance of networking. The
same applies to transnational statistics, which are based on the
nation. For example, the massive concentration of flows of infor-
mation across the North Atlantic and the vast connection networks
linking London and New York are simply not picked up in official
statistics. Lastly, GaWC note:
There is a great temptation to interpret rankings as
hierarchies. Since data can be compiled from official
statistics on cities to provide quantities of attributes
population totals, employment sector totals, head-
quarter totals, etc. cities can be ordered by size in
various ways that may look like an urban hierarchy.
Of course, it is no such thing: hierarchies can only be
defined as relations between objects, mere ranking of
cities says nothing about relations between cities.
The axes of power and relations to be looked at should include
social and cultural power as well as political, administrative and
economic power. But there are other sources of power, especially
within niche sectors. These include heritage or tourism power,

where clearly a Florence or a St Petersburg would score highly. Yet
the judgement of how powerful these assets are would not be exclu-
sively based on high levels of tourism. How exclusive it might be or
how it might attract inward investors would also be considered.
Another source of power is the attractiveness of learning insti-
tutions, especially to post-graduates. This gives a city more
opportunity to be selective and perhaps attract greater talent. That
talent itself, if it clusters in a place, becomes in its own right a
source of pulling power.
24
An effect of being a talent magnet is the
ability of a city to get outsiders to associate with it, to attend events
like conferences, which in turn have spin-off effects as people get to
know the city and become ambassadors by sending out good
messages. Other sources of potential power include research or
industrial specialisms, such as the hardcore disciplines of comput-
ing, engineering or high-tech manufacturing. This was the initial
trigger that made Silicon Valley happen. All power resources need
tracking.
The overall effect of drawing power is the resonance it creates.
And this is made up of tangibles and intangibles it is the multiple
facts, stories, images, memories and associational richness a city
establishes for itself. This might be to do with a historical event, an
image or its role as an industrial engine. People often have strong
views about a place, positive or negative, even if they have not been
there. The phrase black hole of Calcutta will always blight
Kolkatas prospects. It refers to the death of 123 British prisoners
who had perished in an airless dungeon in 1756 after the Nawab
of Bengal incarcerated them but, partly as a result, Kolkata is still
seen as the epitome of urban hell and slum-living and is not attrac-
tive to inward investors. The reality is far away. There are some
dreadful conditions, but the infrastructure, such as the metro, is
very good. Mumbai by contrast, because of its association with
Bollywood, is seen as glamorous, when in fact it has a far greater
proportion of slum dwellers: 5.82 million as against 1.49 million in
Kolkata and 1.82 million in Delhi. With 500,000 inhabitants,
Mumbais Dharavi is the largest slum in the world.
The positive or negative resonance of a city affects its citizens
and they behave accordingly. It is difficult to measure, yet, in my
experience, people in places that have a negative perception of their
city lack confidence and have less motivation and energy. By
contrast, those who know they are coming from a place that is
going somewhere derive energy from that, even though objectively

they may have no more talent than someone from a place lacking
confidence. The collective psychology of a city plays a significant
role in achieving its objectives. It affects its ambition, its chutzpah
and its vision. That is why we can talk of can do or entrepreneur-
ial places, such as Birmingham in the past or present-day Shanghai
or even Hong Kong. Conversely, Taipeis or Osakas current diffi-
culties with the rise of mainland China affects them deeply.
Forms of drawing power
25
Political power implies assessing the number, level and importance
of legislative functions or government institutions based in a city or
region. If these only relate to a city and region, then the position is
weak. The more national and international institutions based in the
city, the better. For example, Leicester and Nottingham in Britain
were equal regional powerhouses in the East Midlands. Over the
last five years, however, the balance has tipped to Nottingham, even
though Leicester is more conveniently placed for London.
Nottingham always had the regional broadcasting authority. This
became a point of leverage to attract the regional strategic
economic authority, the regional arts council and regional head-
quarters of national companies, many of whom moved from
Leicester. This inexorably reinforced Nottinghams power. Perhaps
most irksome to the city of Leicester was the renaming of East
Midlands airport as Nottingham-East Midlands, even though it is
in Leicestershire.
At the global level the stakes are even higher as cities battle to
attract institutions such as the European Central Bank, which
Frankfurt won over London. Getting an institution to base itself in
a city is more sustainable than being only fashionable. Yet being
fashionable plays its part in getting on the radar screen in the first
place and perhaps attracting the key institution. But it can be hit
and miss. As Henry Ford said, 50 per cent of my advertising works
great I just dont know which 50 per cent. The same is true for
intangibles such as image.
There is a symbiotic relationship between the different areas of
power, and political and economic power often reinforce one
another. The economic indicators are well known, such as the
value-added created per employee, companies headquartered in the
city, the presence of key research centres, and international trade
fairs, events and so on.

Cultural power involves the assessment of the status of various
institutions in the city, such as museums, theatres and art galleries,
and where they fall in the national and international hierarchy. Of
most importance is the content of these containers for culture. The
container itself, even if it is an iconic building, is not enough. In
addition there is a trendiness or hipness factor, where quality of
restaurants, nightlife and overall design should be assessed. This is
largely judged by peer-group assessments, food writing, for
example, or through the views of the streetwise.
Cities can accrue power and desirability by capturing a terri-
tory that others also want to occupy. This is where quality of life
and environmental and sustainability power come in. Yet to gain
from such an asset, it needs to be known about tangible, self-
evident and transparent. A range of cities have built reputations on
these that create downstream spin-offs. These softer issues are now
central to the quality of life and competitiveness surveys of organi-
zations such as Mercers, the Economist Intelligence Unit or Jones,
Lang, and Lasalles World Winning Cities programme. They help
companies assess where to locate. Usually many Nordic cities as
well as places like Zurich and Geneva come top. The city of
Freiburg is instructive. Its strong environmental profile car use
has remained stable over the last two decades, despite growth in
the population has attracted major eco-research institutes, so the
city is an attractor of resources and talent in this sphere. This
reinforces its position, as do initiatives such as the solar region
project or Vauban environmental district, where local job creation
and local sourcing are important.
Measuring the performance and competitiveness of a city across
various dimensions is problematic because good performance
according to one indicator may mean poor performance in another.
A good economic indicator may cause a cultural, social or environ-
mental problem. Economic vitality causes large movements of
people. So the relevant cultural indicator may be levels of tolerance
or interaction between differing groups. A social indicator such as
levels of crime may require an assessment of the costs of crime to
be set against an economic growth figure. The same is true for envi-
ronmental damage.
Within an overall assessment, competitiveness is a key criterion
because it creates the resilience a city needs. Being competitive is
essentially about doing something well and better than somewhere
else. Its significance is growing because of the increasing interna-

tional mobility of investment and skills. Gifted and talented people
are attracted to such places, because they have vitality and they
help individuals achieve more. Statistically, if a place has more
talented people than somewhere else, it will perform better across
all dimensions. Therefore the talent agenda is rising to the fore and
a primary indicator for a city should be its talent churn, which is
the balance between talented people moving in and out (who or
what is talent will be subject to debate and is context-driven). If it
is positive, a city is doing well. For example, one expects and wants
clever locals to leave their city, to broaden horizons and learn about
the wider world, but a city also wants them to return or, if not
them, then talented people from elsewhere. Part of talent is the
capacity for creative thinking which harnesses and maximizes
competitive advantages. Economically, competitiveness is expressed
in terms of profitability, levels of investment, technological innova-
tion, access to venture capital, the quality and skills of the
workforce, how well the city is networked at a human and techno-
logical level, and the rank and status of local firms as well as their
products and services locally, nationally and internationally.
Socially, it concerns the quality of the relationships between social
groups (including race relations) as well as the achievements of a
citys voluntary sector. Environmentally, it is a citys sustainability
agenda. Culturally, it concerns the rank and status of educational
and cultural institutions and activities, and particularly how they
are seen by peer groups.
Cities on the radar screen
Cities are now a media event and city-branding is the process by
which media attention is secured. Like a voracious beast, the media
needs feeding, and cities are part of the feeding frenzy. There is a
persistent tendency for place-marketing literature to focus on
clichs, to represent places as culturally homogeneous and not to
show their diversity or distinctiveness, promoting a similar, bland
mix of facilities and attractions for every area. Cities are now being
treated like any other product, such as a car, computer or breakfast
cereal, and similar techniques are applied to their marketing.
Something as complex as a place cannot be marketed in one-
dimensional terms like an insurance policy. The identities of cities
being peddled, especially in tourism literature, are at best partial
and at worst fictitious, usually only accentuating hypothetical posi-

tives rather than reflecting better realities. The very creativity that
has made places vital is lacking in the practice and literature being
used to promote places. Further, promotional messages from
different agencies are rarely aligned. There is often a conflict
between the inward-investment promotional literature, which
usually projects a breezy forward-looking tone, official tourism
material, which can be backward-looking, and streetwise maga-
zines, which project being at the cutting edge of style. For instance,
a survey of 77 brochures of British cities showed the pages of
brochures to be crowded with images of the past. Eighty-five per
cent of the sample had a heritage theme for the cover people in
historic costume, knights in armour, gentle country peasants and
local fisherfolk enjoying a pipe at dusk with their dog on the quay-
side.
26
This precisely at the moment when Britain is seeking to
project itself as cool, creative and innovative and when cities such
as Glasgow, Manchester and Bristol have an underground gutsiness
that defines their identity. This would not be a problem if the
images had been balanced with others, but generally they are not.
Clearly a city is an amalgam of personalities, but brochures lack a
sense of authenticity or reality. The underlying criticism is that they
depict a truncated, often sanitized experience. It is a short cut,
perhaps telling an artificial story that creates an unfulfillable desire.
The globalization process is a daily reality for large cities to
deal with and, with competitive intensity increasing, it is hard for
cities to create a sharp focus for themselves. In a crowded media
landscape, branding a place is about claiming territory in peoples
imagination. It needs to be sharp, memorable and work on differ-
ent registers of consciousness at the same time. It has to be alive, it
needs energy and it has to play the fashion game. The difficulty is
making the old seem relevant, new and vital. An article on the sexi-
ness of cities felt that Paris or Venice were such well-worn names
that they did not trigger the imagination to the same degree as
before and that Stockholm exuded now a stronger sexy feel.
27
To
create brand symbols of desirability, every aspect from manufactur-
ing vigour and research capacity to architecture and sex is used in
city-branding.
Cities are continually trying to broaden their appeal and change
perceived images they consider false. Frankfurt once had the unde-
sirable image of being a city of Marxists, murderers and
millionaires, which led to a long-term campaign to invest heavily
in cultural facilities to project the city as more sophisticated and

build a series of high-profile museums including Richard Meiers
Museum of Decorative Arts and Hans Holleins Museum of
Modern Art. Dubai is intensely trying to broaden its appeal, beyond
shopping, as a leisure and knowledge centre. Amsterdam seeks to
reflect its creativity to make the city part of the life choice of
creative people around the world. The trendspotters are on the
look-out for which city is high on the hip register. The hippest clubs
and street scenes in the world are in continual flux. One day Miami,
the next Ibiza, then London, Hong Kong, Cape Town, Berlin, New
York. Even Singapore emerged briefly as Asias gay hub. Then for
the aficionados there is the I heard it through the grapevine
tendency: Moscow, Beirut, Warsaw and Tel Aviv. The challenge for
city-marketers is to reflect the associational richness of a city and
to find simple ways of playing on these registers and layers of inter-
est.
Selling urban identity and the individuals within a city as a
commodity is problematic given the differences between outsider
and insider perceptions. When people do not participate in the story
that is being sold about them, it creates resistance. A more cultur-
ally attuned approach to city-marketing takes a far broader
perspective. It reflects and looks at the good and bad, it has honesty,
it acknowledges conflict in cities. There is a danger of always falling
into the fashion trap. For instance, behind the rise of favela chic in
Brazil was a counter-branding strategy alluding to the gangs, graf-
fiti and poverty as something truly authentic.
I was personally involved in a strategic set of meetings with
government officials in Johannesburg in autumn 2000 when South
Africa was discussing its branding as a tourism destination. The
meeting began with old-style marketing messages: sun, sand, lions.
Stepping back from these core brands, the group realized that
South Africas history of conflict was perhaps its best-known
feature and that the countrys journey of self-discovery could be
reflected in tourism by inviting the visitor to take part in their own
self-discovery.
These alternative approaches seek to pick up on local flavour
and look at a bigger palette. Rather than seeing city-marketing as a
narrow discipline, more integrated and multidisciplinary
approaches should be used, cutting across the public and private
sectors and involving a wider variety of insights, such as those of
artists, historians, environmentalists, community representatives,
urban geographers and psychologists. Most importantly, involve

too a wider range of people who actually live in places to help form
the marketing messages.
BORROWING THE LANDSCAPE
Tourism is vast and has transformed thousands of cities, for good
and for bad. Many cities are drowned by tourists and have had
their lifeblood drained out of them, their identity squashed by the
sheer mass of human bodies crowding into sites. Think of Agra and
the route to the Taj Mahal, Barcelonas Sagrada Famiglia, Niagara
Falls, Venice, and now Keralan beaches and Mayan temples. It is
often better to look at a picture or watch a film than visit them
because it is difficult to see them in the flesh, let alone sense their
awe. With so many people there is little respect as chatter, flashing
cameras, smelly food and sticky drinks impinge on the experience.
It is one reason, money aside, why armchair tourism and virtual
tourism have become popular, where you do not travel physically
but explore the world through the internet, books or TV.
Tourists mostly borrow someone elses landscape for their own
personal pleasures and needs. It may be an urban buzz or a beach.
As tourists we treat those landscapes or cities as commodities
used one moment, thrown away the next, rather like we treat
clothes. Tourists rarely converse deeply with the place, meet a local
or go to their home, even though most of us want to pretend we
are travellers. In the hierarchy of travel, tourists are seen as mere
consumers, whereas travellers are to themselves, at least of a
better class: amateur anthropologists.
Frenzied tourism has transformed the way we treat places. One
day Prague, the next Hong Kong an endless list of the next
thing. We see the cities briefly, we engage little with them, we use
them (and abuse them). We give nothing back except a bit of
money and rarely do we speak the language. How under those
conditions can we find the true soul of a place that seems to be
authentically itself: resilient enough through inner strength to take
on the blemishes, to absorb outside influence without being too
absorbed?
In the resilient city, such as New York, Hong Kong or Tokyo,
the strength and sheer scale of activity, business and the industry
means the tourist is a bit player. Their impact is minimized. The
insider (the resident) rather than the outsider (the tourist) defines

the citys self-perception. In between there are those on their way to
becoming insiders or temporary insiders and they are necessary to
give the city new blood. But it is important to appreciate that they
are committed to the city by living there. They give something back
by providing their ideas and labour. Yet cities become a stage set
when the balance is wrong and the outsider overwhelms. Think of
the French Quarter in New Orleans, old Venice or even the strong
city of Barcelona with Las Ramblas and new city beach. Tourism
has recently opened in China and already the beautiful Lijiang is
complaining about losing its identity. A city with too many tourists
is like a home that receives too many guests; there is little time to
be yourself and get on with your life.
The contradictory effects of tourism come from its mixed
motives, which represent two kinds of yearning. It is about trans-
gressing and escaping from everyday reality. At the same time, by
getting out of yourself you can reflect on and affirm who you are.
You let go of yourself and at best you enrich yourself. Or, in
complete contrast, you search for a home from home and that is
truly borrowing the landscape. For the English abroad it can mean
the clichs: fish and chips, lukewarm beer and a cup of tea. Where
does this leave the city visited?
The history of European tourism originated with the medieval
pilgrimage. The purpose was religious; there was a humility and a
respect for place, but the pilgrims already saw the experience as a
holiday. The word derives from the holy day, where religious
activities and fun and games are mixed. Pilgrimages created the
souvenir business, helped banking to develop and, inventively, used
all forms of transport, such as catching a lift on boats bound for
ports near religious sites.
From the 16th century onwards it became fashionable for sons
of the nobility to take an extended Grand Tour of Europe as an
educational experience. The equivalent today is perhaps the back-
packer trip. Health tourism, such as visiting spas to take the waters,
developed early and became popular by the 18th century. They
helped create cities like Bath, Karlsbad or Baden Baden, which
provided an active social life for their fashionable visitors, such as
balls and tournaments.
The tourism industry as we know it can be dated back to 5
July 1841 when Thomas Cook, a Baptist minister, organized trans-
portation and entertainment for 570 people travelling from
Leicester to Loughborough to attend a temperance rally. He

thought that the new power of the railways could help the cause
of temperance. Cook argued that the lower and middle classes
would be better off if they saved their money for trips rather than
spending it on booze.
Cooks big break came with arranged package tours for the
Great Exhibition in London that took place in 1851, prefiguring
big-event tourism. For five shillings, a person could travel to the
exhibition, eat and sleep in London. 165,000 tickets were sold in
the county of Yorkshire alone. Cook arranged similar tours to the
Paris Exhibition and developed many of the services we know
today, such as help getting passports, language guides, transporta-
tion, food, lodging and travellers cheques.
28
What a supreme irony that the temperance movements fight
against alcohol shares a history with tourism! We have now turned
full circle as cities and holiday spots around the world, from Prague
and Dublin to Goa and Balis Kuta Bay, fight to control binge drink-
ing and drink-induced bad behaviour by tourists. For instance, the
traditional English habit of a stag night or a hen night before a
wedding has taken on international dimensions. In Dublins Temple
Bar area an association called TASCQ (Traders in the Area
Supporting the Cultural Quarter) is actively discouraging such visi-
tors and block bookings of hotels.
Tour operators tout attractions such as Prague Pissup,
(www.praguepissup.com) an all-in package for all-in drinkers.
Stand on Wenceslas Square on any Saturday evening and you will
see lots of British stag groups. And they openly admit theyve come
to Prague for the cheap booze and cheap sex:
Theres fifteen of us in various places, all doing the
same thing all in strip clubs. Beautiful women
culture, beautiful blonde-haired culture. We like all
that.
Listen, its a beautiful city, and the architecture is
fantastic. But what were saying is, its built up a
culture now thats a stag weekend and people
enjoying themselves. Cheap beer, its easy to get to
two hours from the UK. Fantastic, fantastic.
29
As Peter Hall noted, Theres a haunting sense that maybe Prague
could become an urban Torremolinos, following the curve from
charming discovery to mass tourism hell to tourist slum in one

generation.
30
And expansion is on the way as the lure of Prague
wears off: The cheap, beautiful East European cities like Tallinn,
Budapest, Ljubljana and Krakow are next on the list of the Prague
Pissup organizers. As they say, The groups pump money into local
businesses hotels, bars, restaurants, taxis and so on. These blokes
spend a lot more than the average tourist.
31
Tourism exploded from tiny beginnings into the worlds largest
industry with finance.
32
The Lonely Planet is not lonely anymore
reads a headline in the Guardian.
33
Tourism employed 235 million
people in 2006, which is one in every 15 jobs, and this is projected
to reach 280 million (one in 11 jobs) by 2016.
34
Its economic value
was US$6.5 trillion (US$6,500,000,000,000) in 2006 and is
expected to double between 2007 and 2016, 4.2 per cent annual
growth in real terms. It represented 3.6 per cent of global GDP in
2006.
35
Yet when considering both direct and indirect contribu-
tions to the world economy such as the growth in tourism-related
businesses (cleaning companies, caterers, and so on), the industry is
estimated at 10.3 per cent of gross domestic product.
36
In 1950 there were 25 million international tourists. By 2005 it
had risen to an estimated 800 million an astonishing 24-fold
growth. This was aided by the rise of low-budget airlines and cheap
airfares, whose prices are cheap because there is no tax on their
fuel. It is the environment that is paying the consequences. Of these
tourists two-thirds are European, the equivalent of one trip per
European. In 2004, just over half of all international tourists trav-
elled for leisure and recreation, business travel accounted for 16
per cent and around a quarter had other motives like visiting friends
and relatives, religious purposes and health treatments. Together,
they spent US$623 billion on souvenirs, hotels, restaurant meals,
museum tickets and the like. The World Trade Organization reports
that the worlds 6.5 billion people produced US$8.9 trillion worth
of merchandise exports in 2004 and international tourism repre-
sented 7 per cent of this total. This is a bit less than the total world
agricultural exports of US$780 billion for that year; about two-
thirds of the US$990 billion in energy exports; more than twice the
value of global steel trade; 40 per cent above the US$450 billion
textiles and clothing trade; and 20 times the US$30 billion in
annual arms exports.
37
Tourism is growing at a faster rate than trade as a whole. In
1950, 25 million international tourists spent US$2.1 billion equiva-
lent against a world export total of US$125 billion. The ratio of

tourist spending to export revenue was 1 to 60. In 2005 it was 1 to
13.
38
And just wait for China and India to take off. For instance, in
2005 31 million Chinese flew abroad, admittedly most to Macau
and Hong Kong, and by 2020 it is estimated it will be 100 million
39
and how many to Europe? 10 million? To Britain, perhaps 1
million? And the Chinese go to quirky places. In Germany, the
second most visited place by Chinese tourists after Berlin is
Metzingen, a small town in the Black Forest unknown to most
Germans, but home to a giant Hugo Boss discount store since
joined by another 20-odd factory outlets for designer labels. The
Chinese already account for 11 per cent of the annual US$121
billion luxury goods industry and this is projected to rise to 24 per
cent by 2009, surpassing the Americans, Japanese and Europeans.
40
But tourism is a two-way process and more will go to China, espe-
cially with the Olympic hype, and India. In 2006 alone China is
building 48 new airports. There are also 120 million middle-class
Indians longing to travel.
People travel for bizarre reasons. Everything is now a potential
tourism resource. Take any topic, theme or purpose and it has
tourism potential. Does this show endless human curiosity or is it
simply boredom that needs satiating? Obvious niche tourism
includes: cultural tourism, like visiting museums and galleries;
heritage tourism, such as visiting old canals and railways; eco-
tourism, which is responsible tourism that includes programmes
that minimize the adverse effects of traditional tourism on the
natural environment and enhances the cultural integrity of local
people; sports tourism, which follows teams; adventure tourism;
and gambling tourism. The raison dtre of places like Atlantic City,
Las Vegas, Macau or Monte Carlo is gambling, and others are
increasingly getting in on the act. And sex tourism is often
connected. In spite of the gloss, there is a seediness.
The more unusual tourist pursuits include: disaster tourism,
not to help out but to be a voyeur; dark tourism, to visit places
associated with death; pop-culture tourism, where you visit a
particular location after reading about it or seeing it in a film;
perpetual tourism, where wealthy individuals are always on vaca-
tion to avoid being resident in any country where they might be
liable for tax. Not forgetting vacilando where the process of trav-
elling is more important than the destination and the quirky
experimental tourism.
41
In this latter form of tourism destinations

are chosen not on standard tourism merits but on the basis of an
idea or experiment. For instance, try the bureaucratic odyssey,
which recommends that you:
Take a tour of the following places known for their
administrative function (rather than their tourist
value): waiting rooms, social services offices, town
halls, police stations. Use the facilities and resources,
such as the photocopier, brochures, magazines, and
sample the gastronomic delights on offer like the
canteen, coffee machine, sandwich shop.
42
Another is by-night travel: Arrange to visit a place and arrive at
night. Spend the night exploring the town and return home at dawn
the next day.
43
Experimental tourism reminds us that the ordinary and
mundane can be strange places. By making strange what is familiar
to us, we do not have to travel to far-flung clichs to escape the
everyday or to explore our identities. Indeed, we do not need to
leave our bedrooms. An atlas and a pair of dice may be all that are
required for a journey.
Experimental tourism cannot, by its very nature, become a
growth industry. However, its ethos is not to be sniffed at. At
present, much tourism represents a tired rehearsal of a song we do
not understand the words to. We visit monuments, museums and
churches because this is what tourists do, but vary rarely to explore
the history, culture or spirituality of a place. This is not to deny the
potential resonance of such places but to question the tourist
destination relationship itself. As it is currently configured, the
tourist gaze brings no new life to places. Experimental tourism
suggests that we look afresh at things, start from scratch. By so
questioning the received wisdom of heritage and travel brochure
narratives, new ideas about ourselves and others are generated,
lending a new dynamic to tourism which isnt just about taking but
also giving.
Further, the ordinary day-to-day facilities of a place can often
offer the most rewarding experiences. Hong Kongs transport
system is a case in point. It has great diversity and is affordable,
frequent, always on time and a joy to use. For instance, the mid-
level escalators are, at 800m, the longest escalator system in the
world. It is free. First thing in the morning they take people down

the steep Hong Kong island hill to work. Then at 10am they switch
directions and take people up the incline. The escalator floats past
the ever-inventive shops that advertise themselves on the higher
floors of buildings, creating a strip of high-level shops. The areas it
passes below have regenerated, affirming the truism that transport
is the maker and breaker of cities. The Peak Tram funicular railway
is a more typical tourist pull but it is still heavily used by locals
because it gives an astonishing view of the city. The Star Ferry that
runs continuously between Hong Kong island and Kowloon gives
you a glimpse of the city from sea level for practically nothing.
Hundred-year-old double-decker trams trundle around Hong Kong
Island at a leisurely pace. The MTR underground system is clean,
fast and very frequent and the Airport Express Link speeds you to
and from the airport while you watch the personal TV that is in the
back of every seat. When even transport is pleasurable in its finest
detail, theres no need to fetishize obscure historical relics in order
to create an experience for the tourist. The everyday becomes as
central to the tourism experience as more rarefied cultural attrac-
tions on offer.
In fact, getting a visa extension, reporting a lost camera to the
police or washing your clothes in a local launderette are, one could
argue, somewhat more authentic experiences than eating ice-cream
on a gondola, drinking beer in lederhosen or watching the
Changing of the Guard in London. So why is it that the tourist
industry peddles such invented traditions in the name of authentic-
ity? Travel literature is fixed on ideas like real food, local culture
and history while simultaneously propagating cultural antiquities.
Why? Because both travel and destination are commodities which
are subject to the imperatives of marketing and competition.
Selling places
There is a gigantic global infrastructure of hotels, travel agents,
transport providers and marketers driving the industry forward in
search of ever more exotic, unusual places creating must see desti-
nations. Tourism is the coalface of branding: out there, garish, and,
at its worst, prostituting the city. Everything is on the move to keep
the frenzy of tourism going: Bangkok transforms itself from Asias
bargain basement into the coolest city on the planet; Ich bin ein
Berliner how the city learnt to party; Tel Aviv has the edge of
Belfast, the spirit of Rio and the 24 hour attitude of New York;

Mumbais the word get to grips with one of the worlds most
extreme and now most fashionable cities; Cest chic you bet
for the US, Montreal is Paris without the jetlag. Montreal can do
that version of itself in its sleep; [Shanghai is] the most exciting
city on Earth. Theres a boom-town exuberance to Shanghai with
its outlandish skyscrapers, designer shops, hip bars and world-class
restaurants.
44
Favourite destinations change by the season: one
day it is Reykjavik, the next Ljubljana; and then the lure of the
tango in Buenos Aires. You even hear, Move over New York, bring
on Bratislava. There are the perennial favourites, usually prefaced
by the phrase the irresistible charms of (Paris, Venice, Brazils
most vibrant city, etc.).
And everything has to be cool, hip or hot. UK Cool: Why
we are hip again. There are the cool capitals Amsterdam, Berlin
and Vienna and mid-sized cities get hip. The elemental, primal
and visceral is a strong theme and the cold: try the untamed
North.
By contrast it may be themes such as glimpses into Russias
repressive past, gay tours, firing kalashnikovs or tracking wolves.
Or ever dreamt of taking the kids to the beach in Europe, but find
the logistics daunting? Stay at the pretend beach at Centre Parcs, a
controlled indoor setting whose signature feature is a large dome
that houses a landscaped waterpark and tropical pools, play zones,
restaurants, shops and a spa and other novelty features. Or you
want something more exclusive? How about the private world of
Mustique in the Caribbean, where even the locals arent allowed
to go. Is that too dull? Try Stalin World in Grutas Park, Lithuania,
which mixes humour and history. An imitation Soviet prison camp
interspersed with old communist statues may not sound like the
ideal place for a good time, but in the search for the exotic
anything goes. Or try the more sedate Statue Park in Budapest
where another collection of old Marxes, Stalins and Lenins looks
down on you.
Excitement is promised and stimulation provided. The reality is
that most of the experience is pre-digested and manipulated. And,
on return, the tourist hunters bring back their trophies. Instead of
brandishing rifles or shooting animals they shoot pictures and bring
back souvenirs, memories and a passport stamp. It is still a
conquest. It is collecting experiences, collecting places, collecting
things. What is left for the city? It has to clear up.

The limits to tourism
The scale and growth of development is unsustainable, especially if
the growing numbers of middle class around the world want the
same experience. For instance, if not Dublin why not Serbia and
Montenegro? Its all the same. The Vega City theme park project
that United Entertainment Partners (UEP) originally planned for
north Dublin is now likely to be built in Serbia and Montenegro.
Fingal County Council voted by a 19 to 1 margin to reject the
scheme for the US$7 billion theme park on 2500 acres, describing
it as enormous, and unlike any proposal put forward in this
country before, and contrary to proper planning and sustainable
development of Fingal.
45
Instead UEP is in talks with Belgrade. UEP
had hoped to attract 37 million visitors a year to Ireland (nine times
the Irish population) with its three theme parks, golf courses, shop-
ping centres, 14 hotels, conference centre, equestrian centre, ice
rink and 10,000 apartments for short-term lets.
Carl Hiaasen, a newspaper columnist with the Miami Herald
who has written extensively on the impact of large theme parks on
his home state, says it sickens him to think a plan such as Vega City
is even being considered by the people of Dublin. As a warning to
Fingal, Hiaasen described the area around Orlando, where Disney
World is based, as an ugly, congested, sprawling hellhole.
46
Consider too the latest ideas for Venice. It is likely to become
the first major living city to charge an entrance fee, to offset the
damage done by hordes of tourists. Often over 50,000 people a day
traipse through the city and this will increase dramatically when
Chinese and Indian tourists begin to travel en masse. If Eurodisney
charges visitors 50 euros a visit, surely Venice is worth much more?
And the sums collected will help save the city.
Implementing the ideas behind the eco-tourism movement is
one way forward to overcome the contradictory dilemmas. It seeks
to conserve cultural and biological diversity and to adopt an ecosys-
tems approach to thinking through tourism. It involves being aware
of the cultural sustainability of the places tourists go to and encour-
aging them to develop cultural knowledge and self-awareness. It
focuses on providing local populations with jobs, sharing socio-
economic benefits with local communities and getting their
informed consent in the management of enterprises, rather than
encouraging foreign ownership of the majority of resources. In this
way resilience can grow.

The ideas behind the City Safari project in Rotterdam may be a
model. They have invented a new sustainable approach to tourism
development. The brand name City Safari has been stolen or
copied by many, but not the core idea. The project has a list of over
300 people or organizations that are willing to be visited. The
visitor chooses the kind of people they want to meet which could
range from priests to imams, from urban planners and gardening
enthusiasts to unusual shopkeepers, tattooists, and collectors of the
bizarre like a man who owns over a thousand koi carp kept in tanks
in a collective garden of a series of apartment blocks and places
to go to, from delicatessens to sex shops to a caf employing recov-
ering heroin addicts. The visitor gets an address and has to find
their target by exploring and navigating the city. They encounter
people a normal tourist would never meet. They hand over paid-
for vouchers and in return they get a service primarily a
conversation about their life and what they do. In addition,
perhaps, a glass of wine, a tour of a building or a meal. Its power is
that the tourist and the locals connect and the benefits go directly
to the local rather than an intermediary. City Safari was started as
an economic development project by Kees de Gruiter and is now
owned by Marjolijn Masselink to bring more resources to local
people rather than intermediaries.
47
The problem for less-developed countries is that tourism is
often presented as one of the only routes to development. But
tourism can in fact be a terrible burden on the economy of the desti-
nation. There are a number of reasons for this. One is leakage: not
much tourist expenditure stays in the economy after taxes, profits
and wages are paid outside the area and after imports are
purchased. Indeed, of each US$100 spent by a tourist in a devel-
oped country, only around US$5 actually stays in that countrys
economy. A second reason is the phenomenon of enclave tourism:
many tourist packages are all-inclusive wherein tourists do not
leave their resort or cruise ship. Third, infrastructure improvements
in roads and airports, for example can cost the government at
the expense of local health and education, especially if there is pres-
sure from developers for tax breaks. Fourth, with an increase in the
spending power of tourists, prices can rise faster than indigenous
wages can accommodate them. Finally, an area can become depen-
dent on tourism and therefore subject to tourisms vagaries. Other
parts of the economy are neglected and the area lacks a healthy
diversity. Also, a local tourist industry may be seasonal, meaning

instabilities in employment and leaving the economy as a whole
vulnerable to climatic instabilities.
48
Tourism can be configured to help the areas it affects. Pro-Poor
Tourism, for example, is an organization that promotes the local
expansion of employment and businesses and the active inclusion
of the poor. Eco-tourism as a movement is intended to encourage
tourism that is responsible and environmentally and culturally
sensitive. However, as with any industry, tourism must be under-
stood as an extensive system of which no particular facet can be
seen in isolation. Air traffic is increasing and, as an abundance of
new wealth enters the tourism industry, this will continue. But at
what cost? Clearly flying to the other side of the world to see the
famous dyers in Fez market or to watch pandas chew bamboo
shoots is not eco-tourism. Responsible tourism may in fact be trav-
elling less far from home. Cities could do worse than look to
Rotterdams City Safari as a model of how tourism can be incorpo-
rated into self-discovery. In fact, why not turn your own citizens
into tourists of their own city?
URBAN RITUALS
Making the most of resources
Urban rituals provide one measure of resistance to the never-ending
consumer journey. But even they are subject to becomming more
commerical. Day-to-day rituals abound. The evening passegiata in
the Mediterranean, where you look and are looked at, you have an
idle chatter and you check out who you fancy. Coffee in the caf
with a newspaper. Going to a pub in Ireland or a beer garden in
Germany. Sunday dim sum in Hong Kong. A Sunday stroll in the
park anywhere urban. The weekly supermarket visit or better
browsing the markets. The Saturday football or baseball match. In
addition, a raft of new rituals has emerged: urban fun runs,
marathons, heaving Friday night pub crawls, karaoke. In warmer
climes, this urbanity is easier to experience in the open. In the
damper, colder north, however, it is more difficult to get that sense
of alfresco urbanity; activity tends to be indoors (though places like
Copenhagen manage with outdoor heaters and blankets).
Rituals serve a purpose. Rituals anchor individuals in time and
place, they bond groups together, and they create an occasion and
regularity. Even in an ordinary activity like drinking tea or coffee

there can be ceremony which establishes, affirms or reaffirms social
roles.
In fact, every aspect of life and every resource is or can be ritu-
alized and can thus be turned into an asset. Think of any food,
animal, flower, art form, sport, religious occasion, major historical
battle or topic and there is likely to be a festival or ritualized event
surrounding it. Rituals mark the calendar. They identify seasons
and create formalized activities that mean something to those in
the know. They assert the tribe, personal and place identity, awe,
and submission to a higher authority. In religion, ritual is geared
toward union with the divine; otherwise rituals can celebrate
achievement or are just fun.
Celebrations after harvest or anniversaries of significant
events are part of human history. Usually local in scale, in the
past they helped form local identity and distinguished one city
from the next. If anything was important to local life, it would
be celebrated.
Think of the Italian sagre or feste, where there is simply
acknowledging and indulging: chestnuts, mushroom, artichokes,
olives and wine; pigs, sheep and fish. And the same is true for other
cultures. The snail is celebrated in Lleida, Spain, Belfort, France
and Pianello, Italy. The donkey in Otumba, Mexico, and Aleria,
Spain. Sheep in the US in Cummington and Bighorn. The cat festi-
val in Ypres, Belgium, broadens the scope to consider myths around
that animal. More recently, as festivals have come into vogue,
places have consciously fostered the bizarre to get name recogni-
tion, such as Keppel, Queensland with its crab leg-tying event. Or
Gilroy in California, branded the worlds garlic capital, which has
been celebrating garlic since 1979 and whose festival attracts
125,000 people. The only problem is that now more and more of
its garlic is imported from China.
Religious processions have formed part of the social fabric since
the first human settlements were formed. Many early settlements,
like Nineveh or Antioch in the Middle East or Teotihuacn in
Mexico, were dominated by ritual. The Christian celebration of
Easter in Rome or the famous New Orleans Easter Parade;
Christmas celebrations nearly everywhere, even in non-Christian
places (another opportunity to shop); feasts before fasting such as
the Fasching carnival in German-speaking countries in the period
before Lent; the Haj to Mecca; and the Hindu Diwali festival of
light in many places. The Ganesh Chaturthi in Mumbai is a ten-

day festival of the elephant god where, on the last day, Ganeshs
image is taken through the streets in a procession and immersed in
water. The Esala Perahera in Kandy, Sri Lanka, celebrates Buddhas
tooth being brought to the country. The main elephant is preceded
by a slowly prancing parade of dozens of elephants and a frenzied
cast of thousands of Kandyan dancers and drummers. A bright
white linen carpet is unfurled before him so that his feet do not
touch the bare ground.
Other festivals had and have a different purpose. Carnivals
often represented the few moments in the calendar where rank
could be forgotten, rules broken, barriers overcome and norms
transgressed. It was a way of creating social equilibrium and letting
off steam. Carnivals in Port of Spain and Rio and the New Orleans
Mardi Gras are prime examples, as is the modern gay incarnation
of the Mardi Gras in Sydney.
Arts festivals are the most common form of festival today and
they come in every conceivable form, from the specialist to the
general. In Germany alone there over 100 music festivals in the
summer, showcasing a range of genres from opera and jazz to elec-
tronic music. Then there is the raft of theatre, ballet, literature and
book events. Within these, any theme can be explored, from hope
and sex to urban utopia.
The broader-scale festival and events culture which seeks to
attract visitors as well as indigenous participation only took off in
the post-war period. The Edinburgh, and later Adelaide, festivals
were early prototypes. Since their inception, possibly tens of thou-
sands have been conceived. The Notting Hill Carnival, now one of
the biggest festival events in the world, seems to have been with us
forever, but was only founded in 1964 on a small scale. It projects
itself as multicultural, but in reality it is showcase for quite a
narrow band of cultures. Its active participants are largely African-
Caribbean. Today festivals are part of the urban regenerators
armoury. In the process, many of the traditional events are in
danger of losing their qualities of authenticity as the balance of
participants to tourists tips against the former.
Imagine anything and it can be turned into an event, ranging
from Coventrys The virtual fringe: A festival of possibility that
you only know is in Coventry if you are on the net; the short film-
makers frenzy in Newcastle, Australia, where people race through
the night to finish a 24-hour shoot; Vancouvers Dancing on the
Edge; Marseilles Festival of the Wind; the more sedate open-air

painting festival in Geneva; to the surprisingly hectic Slow Food
Festival in Turin.
A story, a person, an accident, a victory, a local resource, a skill,
a bizarre idea cities scour their cultural resources and ideas bank
to turn anything into something bigger, from the very local to the
globally significant. At its apex stands the super league of big
one-offs: Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup. In the next divi-
sion are the World Expos and European City of Culture
celebrations. Below that are the cities of festivals that build their
reputations and city-marketing on putting on events, such as
Cannes, Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Salzburg and Istanbul.
They have different cycles, scales and purposes, but now the
danger is that festivals are subservient to the overarching goal of
marketing, of getting on the radar screen and breaking through the
information clutter to create recognition. The regeneration agenda
is another new objective, especially as cities which hold bigger
events like the Olympics can use the prestige to do things that other-
wise would be impossible. Typically this might be to renew the
sporting or cultural infrastructure, extend a metro line, open out
old port areas, reclaim derelict land, or extend the city. The special
circumstances, the deadline and tight timetables make it possible to
break through political obstacles, local resistance to development
and red tape. It is possible to raise additional financial resources
and to set up innovative, experimental delivery mechanisms, usually
based on partnerships and a task force-based approach, which may
then later become part of the mainstream.
Two cities which have used big events to good effect are
Barcelona and Glasgow. The 1992 Barcelona Olympics and
Glasgows European City of Culture celebrations throughout 1990
pioneered a regeneration approach to big events. In Barcelona the
Olympics was used to open out the port area and renew the sports
infrastructure as well as to reposition the city globally. Equally, in
Glasgow the building of the Royal Concert Hall was a by-product
of the cultural year. Contrast this with the disposable Olympics
approach of Atlanta, tearing down the stadium as soon as the
Games had finished.
With major events, especially arts initiatives, a series of
conundrums and strategic dilemmas occur that require reflec-
tion. How do you combine political ambition and external
marketing goals with, say, cultural or artistic objectives? How
can projects and events balance celebrating a citys existing

cultural status and its past history with seeking to reflect more
deeply on how a citys culture could develop in the future? What
is the respective importance of local residents involvement and
attracting visitors and tourists? How do you follow up and main-
tain momentum in the wake of events and projects? What level
of commercialization or sponsorship do you invoke? Indeed, ever
more frequently fringe festivals and rituals are created in
response to commercial aims.
We learn too little about how these dilemmas are solved
because evaluations are usually disappointing. They tend, with
notable exceptions, not to go into depth and focus on a narrow
range of issues, such as economic impacts.
14
They are largely quan-
titatively driven, focusing on tourism figures and levels of
participation rather than on the quality of the experience, its trans-
formational effects on individuals or the social impacts of events,
let alone the quality of the art or the nature of culture change and
its meaning for the city in question. For the realists these concep-
tual or philosophical evaluations appear too soft. But significant
questions are not assessed: Who defines what culture is? Is the
emphasis on city regeneration or the cultural development of art,
creativity and identity? Is the priority to work with mainstream
institutions or less formal entities?
Meaningful experiences
Leaving aside fun, celebration, creating a spectacular and having a
good time, what makes a festival significant in a wider sense? The
best rituals respond to a deep yearning to be part of a bigger thing.
You can take any theme as long as it is given meaning. Here are
some ways of doing so in an urban context:
Bonding individuals and the group. Collectively and self-
consciously sharing experience. Normally it is national events
that do this, such as Anzac Day in Australia or National Day in
Singapore. In terms of creating urban belonging and identity,
the Mardi Gras in New Orleans is an example. It provides a
forum for the sense of imagined community to be played out
people feel connected through a collective identity.
Active not passive. To express self by being an actor on the festi-
val stage. The carnival season in Christian countries is the party
before the abstinence of Lent and its variations, like Fasching,

Italys Carnevale or Mardi Gras, encourage the participation of
the many. Such participation consolidates community solidar-
ity.
Ritualizing and reconciling conflict. The Palio in Siena is a
famous horse race where the local contrade (districts) fight it
out for supremacy. While it is very competitive, they are at least
not cutting each others throats. The same is true for Trinidads
Carnival. The gang warfare of the 1950s and 1960s was tamed
and the energies were turned into making music, masquerading
and parading. The names of the main mas camps (groups allied
to a particular band) indicate the gang legacy: Invaders,
Desperados, Renegades.
Community self-reflection. The teatro povero (poor theatre)
and its festival started in 1967 and is like a community drama.
It has taken on an important meaning in the life of
Monticchiello, Tuscany, when it was realized it could help the
village to overcome the threat of isolation and social break-
down in its transformation from peasant to modern life. Run
by a co-operative and developed in an atmosphere of commu-
nity solidarity and intellectual purpose, the whole community
and surrounding areas are involved as actors and helpers. The
theatre has become an important element in raising the villages
consciousness in its efforts to understand itself and achieve an
identity. They developed the concept of autodramma (perform-
ing oneself). Relevant themes about the place itself act as a
trigger for self-reflection. The theatre is centred on the Piazza
San Martino. The square is the centre of the community from
every point of view: the space for social encounter, confession,
decision-making and self-analysis. As the natural meeting place
for the whole community over the centuries, it is the ideal place
to stage autodrammi and is transformed every summer into a
stage.
15
The city as a stage. The urban theatre festival in Rome claims
the territory of the city, transforming city spaces into stages. It
invades random streets and surprises the public, not counte-
nancing indifference. It is preceded by the Estate Romana, from
July to September, with nightly outdoor cinema in the best spots
in the city, such as Tiberina island, with two giant screens over-
looking the River Tiber and St Peters Cathedral in the
background. The Estate Romana was initiated in the 1970s by
the politician then in charge of cultural affairs, Renato Nicolini,

who pioneered an annual summer arts festival to liven up the
city and, to use the feminist campaign slogan of the time, to
Reclaim the Night. He argued this was best achieved by
designing cultural policies which would encourage people to
use the city at night in large numbers, thus providing safety
through the natural surveillance of crowds.
Eliciting primal instincts. The basic elements, air, water, fire
and earth, are deep themes of ritual. They have an authentic
quality that harks back to origins. All major religions use light:
Eid in the Muslim world, Diwali for Hindus, Chinese lantern
festivals, Chanukah for Jews and Advent for Christians.
Bonding across cultures and groups. Invented by Barnaby
Evans, WaterFire in Providence, Rhode Island is one of the
strongest new urban rituals.
16
More than 20 times a year, a fire
sculpture installation on the three downtown rivers becomes a
moving symbol of Providences renaissance. It centres on a
series of 100 bonfires that blaze just above the surface of the
waters. They illuminate nearly two-thirds of a mile of urban
public spaces and parks, and residents and visitors gather to
stroll along the river while listening to an eclectic selection of
classical and world music that serves as a melodic accompani-
ment to the normal sounds of urban life. The fires are tended
from sunset to past midnight by black-clad performers in boats
who pass quietly before the flames. There is no admission
charge. The experience surrounds viewers on all sides and
impacts all five senses. The crackling flames, the fragrant scent
of blazing cedar and pine, the flickering firelight on the arched
bridges, the silhouettes of the firetenders floating by in their
torch-lit vessels, and the music from around the world engage
the senses and evoke emotions in the many thousands who
come to stroll along the river walks. It has a reflective quality,
and people who have never met talk. Children, parents, the
happy and the sad open out.
Common experiences in open space. The Cow Parade has
become the worlds largest public urban art event cows
painted in a maze of colours line the streets. It is a fundraiser
for charitable activities and started in 1999 in Chicago, the US
centre of cattle trading. At the conclusion of each event, the
cows are herded up and many are auctioned, with a substantial
portion of the proceeds benefiting charity. The initial Chicago
auction raised US$3 million for charity. The average bid price

on each of the 140 cows was nearly US$25,000. Over 40 cities
have now held the event, from New York, London, Moscow,
Telemark in Northern Norway and Boston to Buenos Aires. For
those that travel a lot, it creates a thread of common experi-
ence that is different from a McDonalds or a Hilton. A similar
global event, though with no charitable aim, is Yann Arthus-
Bertrands powerful The Earth from Above outdoor
photography show, whose core message is sustainable develop-
ment. It has around 120 photos on sixty 21.5m panels aligned
in various configurations in public spaces and has been
displayed in places as varied as Dushanbe in Tajikistan,
Helsinki, Ljubljana in Slovenia, Seoul, Taipei and Qatar. Since
2001, Berlin has had its Buddy Bears, who represent under-
standing among cultures and a peaceful coexistence. The event
has now gone global, with artists making bears in Shanghai,
Sydney and St Gallen, Switzerland. Twenty 6-foot Buddy Bears
kicked the ball on the pitch of the worlds largest table football
table to help launch the FIFA World Cup in Germany. The bears
raise money for UNICEF and similar charities and had by 2005
raised over a million euros. At a more local level, Hamelin, the
famous city of the Brothers Grimm Pied Piper story, has a
Rattenfestival (Festival of Rats), last held in 2004. This public
art event brings rats back into the streets of Hamelin in the
form of 70 individually decorated five-foot rats. In their own
way these shows are an indicator of a citys presence in global
consciousness.
Social statement. Piobbico, Italy The World Capital of Ugly
People holds the annual Festival of the Ugly. Ugliness is a
virtue, beauty is slavery. Telesforo Iacobelli, its chair, has spent
his life fighting for the recognition of the ugly in a society that
places a high value on physical beauty. Iacobelli is considered
ugly as he has a small nose in a culture where large noses are
considered beautiful. The festival is a reaction against the forces
of fashion, design and aesthetics and was relaunched 40 years
ago with a new focus on a marriage agency for the towns single
women, who claimed they could not find attractive husbands.
17
Today the Ugly Club, started in 1879, has 20,000 members
around the world.
Protest and protest within protest. The Love Parade was
founded in 1989 in Berlin when 150 ravers protested for the
right to party in a city just still divided. It claimed to be a polit-

ical demonstration for peace and international understanding
through music. Now a mass of DJs perform on their trucks,
turning Berlin into one big club. At it highpoint, in 1999, 1.5
million people attended and it was copied from Santiago to
San Francisco. When it lost its reputation as a political demon-
stration in 2001 and began to be seen as a mere commercial
event, it entered financial difficulties but re-emerged again in
2006. Since 1997 there has been an alternative techno demon-
stration, Fuckparade, that protests against the Love Parades
commercialization. Zrichs Street Parade is similar to the
Love Parade and since 1996 has similarly spawned a counter-
parade called the Antiparade. It fights for a vital subculture
and sees itself as an antidote to the commercialization of the
main event. The EXIT event in Novi Sad, Serbia, now simply a
music event, started in 2000 as a response to student demon-
strations against the political regime. For a hundred days, the
EXIT organization coordinated a continuous programme of
cultural and academic events, beach parties, live concerts and
performances with a very powerful social dimension. It had
one goal: to motivate all social groups, but especially young
people, to vote at the presidential elections and remove
Milosevic from power. Two hundred thousand people came to
Novi Sad during this period to join the demonstration. Two
days after the closing night of EXIT 2000, participants went
to the polls and many ended up as part of the final 500,000-
strong demonstration that physically removed Milosevic from
power two weeks later.
Getting intellectual. Adelaide was one of the first places to have
a Festival of Ideas. Started in 1999, its aim has been to cele-
brate ideas and innovation as central to South Australias values
and identity. Rarely are there public opportunities to be part of
a city that explicitly conceives of itself as a thinking city. In
addition, Adelaide also has a Thinkers in Residence
programme, which invites two or three thinkers to Adelaide
each year to live and work. (I was fortunate to be one of these
in 2003). The Thinkers undertake residencies of between two
and six months, during which they assist South Australia to
build on its climate of creativity and excellence. The Thinkers
provide the state with strategies for future development in the
arts and sciences, social policy, environmental sustainability
and economic development. As the competition for ideas is so

intense, the Ideas Festival was immediately copied by Brisbane
and Bristol.
A shared humanity. It is perhaps only sports events like the
Olympics where for a time we reach across cultures and back-
grounds and where a collective consciousness is created with a
bigger message such as peace. Or the FIFA World Cup, where
you know that you are just one person in a mass of humanity
glued to the TV. At a national level, England regaining the
Ashes against the Australians in their national sport, cricket, in
2005 provided a mass sense of unity that was positive. During
that time, everyone was England, whatever misgivings they
might have had about nationalism or cricket. Such occasions
provide an excuse to participate in festivities and talk to
strangers. Normally if a stranger talks to you, you might
consider them as a weirdo. There is almost a tribal group
consciousness that is also found in war when people say our
boys are out there. Globally transmitted mega-events, which
have charitable purposes, like Live Aid or Live 8, recreate a
similar feel, because two pleasurable thoughts merge: enjoying
yourself is helping others. The same was true for the Pavarotti
and Friends concert, Together for the Children of Bosnia, with
the song Miss Sarajevo acting as a communal hymn. When
mega-events are created on a simple commercial basis, such as
the mega-operas like Turandot at the Munich Olympic stadium,
they lack this quality. Other branded events like Expos find it
difficult to tap into emotion in a similar way, although the
European Cities of Culture programme on occasion has.
Alternative views of life. Burning Man is a radical arts festival
based in Black Rock, Nevada. You belong here and you partic-
ipate. Youre not the weirdest kid in the classroom theres
always somebody there whos thought up something you never
even considered. Burning Man is a temporary town largely
made up of art installations that exists only for one week a year.
At its maximum it has 35,000 occupants with temporary facili-
ties, from emergency services, a post office, bars, clubs and
restaurants to hundreds of art installations and participatory
theme camps. The city is then taken apart and mostly burnt,
leaving the desert as it was beforehand. Each year there is a
theme. 2006s theme was Hope and Fear: The Future and the
Road to U(Dys)topia. Along the road to a utopia, the science
fiction fantasies of the past gave way to traffic jams. The future,

it begins to seem, has ran out of gas. The ten Burning Man
principles include radical inclusion, so anyone can be involved
(you cannot just be an observer); decommodification, so there
is no sponsorship, advertising or commercial transaction (we
resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experi-
ence); radical self-reliance, encouraging people to rely on
their inner resources; self-expression; communal effort;
civic responsibility; leaving no trace; and participation and
immediacy.
18
Release of tension and the bizarre. The out-of-the-ordinary has
become ordinary as cities search to make themselves known.
When it is gratuitous, such as the crab leg-tying event, it has
little resonance. But when it has a local meaning, it takes on a
different colour. As ever, local resources are key. At the
Tomatina in Buol near Valencia there is a mass release of
tension when around 30,000 people throw tomatoes at one
another 110,000 kilos are used in the biggest food fight in the
world. It is a free-for-all and anybody is able to throw a ripe or
over-ripe fruit at anyone else. Its origin is disputed. One story is
that it was a political response in 1945 to the continuing influ-
ence of Franco. A less lofty explanation is that it happened by
chance after a lorry-load of tomatoes spilled on to the streets of
Buol around the same time. A similar event is Haro in Spains
War of the Wines, which lasts for three hours and which began
in 1906. In 2005, 4000 people were involved. It commemorates
a tenth century property dispute between Haro and the neigh-
bouring village of Miranda. Today anything goes, from
squirting red wine on to the obligatory white shirts to pump-
action pistols capable of shooting half a litre in five seconds,
water pistols, fire extinguishers, buckets and pesticide sprayers.
Or consider the Moose Shit Festival in Talkeetna in Alaska.
When the snow melts at the end of winter, there are fields full
of moose shit. The inhabitants arm themselves with what is at
hand for the annual festival. Whatever is left over is used to
make jewellery!
A CODA: URBAN RESISTANCES
Like the proclamations of millenarian religions or ideologies of
certainty, global capital projects an air of inevitability, even suggest-

ing its forces are common sense. To question its unimpeded march
is to invite ridicule. Yet conformity and resistance to the main-
stream continually coexist. The winners and losers live side by side
and inevitably they will fight.
Creating the alternatives and building counter-arguments about
how life can be lived are, in fact, what keep society moving and
alive; it regenerates the culture. The issue is whether the alternative
is absorbed into the mainstream simply as a new idea as part of a
general innovation process that strengthens its potency or
whether it has the power and resilience to change the system and
its inner workings.
Wherever you look, projects, groupings and movements batter
against the implications of a narrow, self-interested globalization.
As even George Soros notes:
Unless self-interest is tempered by the recognition of a
common interest that ought to take precedence over
particular interests, our present system is liable to
break down Unsure of what they stand for, people
increasingly rely on money as the criterion of value
What used to be a medium of exchange has usurped
the place of fundamental values.
49

5
The Complicated and
the Complex
THE FORCES OF CHANGE:
UNSCRAMBLING COMPLEXITY
Escalating change is in evidence. The shift of the global axis
towards the East is one example, changing global terms of trade
another and growing global disparities a third. Not to mention
climate change, pollution and the growth of fear culture.
With so much happening quickly and simultaneously, the world
feels complex and disturbing. The changes feel dramatic, like a
paradigm shift unfolding. How do you unscramble the complexity
to see clearly and disentangle the different layers and levels of
problem? It is more than unpeeling an onion or an orange, because
the elements interweave, interlock and reinforce.
If you look at the world within the mindset that created the
problems we worry about, you will only replicate those problems:
the mind that created the problem is unlikely to be the mind that
solves it, to approximate Einsteins words. An underlying theme is
that our mental toolkit may not be appropriate for current circum-
stances. Our intellectual architecture was constructed for the age of
industrialism and has sedimented itself into our minds like a
cityscape of familiar streets and buildings which we simply take for
granted. Since such mental architecture gets out of date, it causes a
particular set of conundrums and strategic dilemmas when we try
to apply it to the emerging world. And we attribute incomprehen-
sion to complexity rather than revisiting and questioning the

appropriateness of that mental architecture. Yet each generation
says its age is more complex. What we really mean is this is a
pattern of events that I do not understand.
The distinction between complicated and complex is useful.
Brenda Zimmerman has noted that:
Complicated is essentially mechanical. Complex is
essentially relational. Complicated is about acting
on. Complex is about acting with. Complicated is
appropriate in a world of predictable outcomes.
Complex must acknowledge and respond to uncer-
tainty. Putting a rocket on the moon is complicated
where an enormous number of detailed steps have to
be taken into account from engineering to navigation.
Theres lots of room for error. But we know how to
do it if we stick to the plan and execute with diligence.
Complex is raising a child. We learn and adapt from
day-to-day experience. And we co-evolve in relation-
ship to one another.
1
Source: Richard Brecknock
Anish Kapoors beautiful and popular sculpture in Chicagos
Millennium Park embodies physically the idea of thinking in
the round, holistically and from multiple perspectives

A conceptual framework is proposed through which it may be
easier to focus on the significant and strategic, to unravel the trivial
from the profound, and to understand timelines and connections.
Taking an eagles eye view of the 20-year horizon requires us to
look at existing trends to assess their depth or superficiality, their
characteristics, their differential rates, and their impact.
In spite of all the unpredictables, you can interrogate and assess
the changing dynamics which shape possibilities and determine the
direction of change and its possible routes. Even deep trends can be
charted, although not with precision since they evolve gradually.
Trends can be linear or cyclical, they can gain or lose momentum,
and they can create cleavages and occasionally flip into entirely
new trends in a paradigm shift. They can coalesce, so gaining in
force, speed and power, or they can operate independently without
affecting the broader environment. Thus understanding the differ-
ence between a trend and a fad is crucial.
Some deeper trends and drivers are now easy to see because we
have lived with them for a while and their impacts are unfolding
with increased force. For example, the nexus of emancipation built
around individuality, choice and independence spilling out from
the Enlightenment has been with us for some 250 years. Some feel
this particular driver of change is at the edge of exhaustion: its self-
focused energy is causing more negatives than positives. Yet
evidently it still has enough energy to shape everything, from how
politics appeals to its constituents to how we customize products
and services, how we appeal to individual desires, whether housing
choice or the types of cheeses on offer. Business creates the increas-
ing wants: Who would have thought ten years ago that we deeply
needed iPods?
There is little doubt that a realignment between individual
desires and a broader public purpose is in the offing. The environ-
ment is just one example. With an incentives framework in place,
thousands of products and services wait to be invented at the right
cost to wrench our habits and behaviour in a more sustainable
direction. We now know that individuals pursuing personal wants
do not add up to a harmonious whole.
Another trend is the renewed vigour and degree of globaliza-
tion enabled by IT, which both makes operating across boundaries
easier and helps shift global terms of trade. In the context of cities,
it makes operating globally an imperative for success.
The Complicated and the Complex 191

Just because we are so acquainted with such deeply embedded
trends does not mean they will not have considerable further
effects. They will continue to affect urban lifestyles, social and
economic structures, policies and choices. The significant issue is
where the continuities and, especially, discontinuities are likely to
fall, who and what configuration of forces will make that happen,
and when it will happen.
Most importantly, it is necessary to go below the surface to
discover the undercurrents and tectonic shifts in the socio-political
substrata that shape trends and drivers in the first place. By under-
taking this exercise we can see they have been underpinned by ideas
and motivations about how life should be lived.
An analogy is to think of change like an ocean. Ripples on the
surface are less important than waves of increasing significance
which are themselves formed by tides, currents, climatic changes
and geological events which shape the movement and dynamics of
the whole and which might throw up the occasional tsunami.
A conceptual framework
The central dilemma of our age is how we live together. Peaceful
coexistence is the goal of civilization and avoiding the clash of civi-
lizations
2
should be the overarching intent of politics. But in trying
to achieve these goals we are to a lesser or greater extent prisoners
of circumstance of old habits, assumptions, battles and animosi-
ties, struggling with the physical and mental worlds. History
circumscribes possible future trajectories. However, we can at least
partially transcend this imprisonment through understanding and
analysing the world, and, crucially, acting on our reflections. Self-
reflection should focus us on considering boundaries, barriers and
borders within cities, such as ghettoes, voluntary or imposed, and
between cities and countries. This draws attention to our tribal
tendencies and our insider/outsider instincts, as well as how we
claim territory, as when gangs physically occupy an area or when
we distinguish ourselves from others through lifestyle choices or
making people like the homeless feel like outsiders. These are ques-
tions of identity and belonging. It challenges us to ask how porous
we are while still feeling confident about who we are.
As the world comes closer together virtually and in real time
and space, how we gather, communicate and understand each other
rises in importance. Then it becomes crucial to assess more what

we share as common citizens of the world rather than what divides
us. This is not to claim that some cosy togetherness should occur,
but rather to stress how we negotiate conflicts and be together in
difference. If being global in every sense is the tenor of the age, then
the notion of the intercultural moves centre-stage. This means the
ability to look at the world through an intercultural lens, which
implies a cultural literacy, an understanding of how different
cultures think and see the world.
From this premise of the aim of civilization I propose a concep-
tual framework. Think of faultlines, battlegrounds, paradoxes,
drivers and strategic dilemmas and navigate your mind around
them. It may help decipher what is happening and what might be
done. You will find gaps that you can fill in. To do this adequately
requires a kind of thinking that is holistic and sees the connection
between things rather than the fragmented parts. Indeed, the battle
between these two ways of thinking may be the biggest faultline of
all.
Faultlines
Faultlines are change processes that are so deep-seated, intractable
and contentious that they shape our entire worldview. They deter-
mine our landscape of thinking and decisions across multiple
dimensions and can be global in scope, affecting our broadest
purposes and ends. They may create insoluble problems and perma-
nent ideological battlefields. Even if they eventually solve
themselves, such problems are likely to take a very long time to
resolve: 50 years, 100 years or more. It is then more a question of
mediating and managing conflict.
The five most important faultlines are the battles between faith-
based and secular worldviews, between the rational, irrational and
arational, between environmental ethics and economic rationality
in running countries or cities, between the artificial and the organic,
and of realigning individualism with collective good. These affect a
mass of downstream decisions.
Taking the first, the most obvious aspects at a global level are
the varieties of religious fundamentalism. Fundamentalists are
responding to disappointments with a material progress that neither
makes us happy nor answers genuinely fundamental questions such
as What is life for? What in this context are the agreements that
bond and anchor communities when fundamental views of the

world are so different and people with diametrically opposing views
now live in the same place a city, a neighbourhood, a street? The
search for greater meaning and releasing the spiritual realm beyond
consuming lies at its core. What, if anything, can city leaders do to
both balance differences yet also provide citizens with greater suste-
nance beyond material wants?
The second faultline is between the rational, irrational and
arational. A big put-down is when the logical rationalist claims
someone they dont agree with is irrational or arational. Being
arational is not to be irrational (that is, to act without reason). It
implies instead acknowledging that a narrow rationalist, linear
approach is not the answer to inextricably interwoven issues
where to untangle the threads involves thousands of variables.
The result of trying to isolate each thread or system of threads is
logical entanglement. It is rather like the cat that starts pulling a
thread of a ball of wool and entangles itself as its claws get stuck.
The result is confusion. The bigger picture made up of flows and
dynamics disappears from view. Being arational is being full of
reason and openness, because it implies the belief that an imagi-
native leap in thought can occur; that very deep instinct exists;
that there are higher registers of understanding, knowledge and
insight, some of which will remain intuitive for a very long time.
It sees things less as a machine or defined structure and more as
an organism that evolves and is emergent as things unfold, where
the seeming randomness is not mindless. It can be intuited from
within a higher pitch. The arational person understands the prin-
ciples of connections and processes and is not scared of emotion.
They believe emotion is a source of great value and that it enriches
understanding. The narrow rationalist eschews emotion and so
misses out, and makes decisions without sufficient knowledge and
insight.
The third faultline is the conflict between environmental ethics
and economic rationality. The rise of environmental ethics is a
sustained challenge to an economic rationality increasingly
regarded as an impoverished theory of choice-making. This ration-
ality implies a value set and resulting behaviours and states that the
sum of profit-maximizing individual choices and self-interest-driven
behaviour through the invisible hand in the longer run equates to
public good. A central fault is that it assumes that the environment
is a free exploitable resource. Rational choice and its associated
economic system have led to environmental degradation and

massive pollution. Eco-efficiency on its own is only a small part of
a richer web of ideas and solutions that requires a fundamental
rethinking of the structure and reward system of commerce. This
implies developing a regulatory and incentives regime attuned to
encouraging resource efficiency by combining innovations in busi-
ness practice and public policy. It implies a different taxation system
which in essence makes what is considered good for us tax-free and
taxes heavily what is bad. This might relate to encouraging recy-
cling, creating local energy-efficient building standards or the public
sector acting as a role model in using alternative sources of energy.
To what extent have cities got the independence and power to
operate in this way?
The more urban we become, the more we hanker after the wild,
the untamed and unexplored. We want to touch nature and the
undisturbed. This mirrors the divide between culture and nature,
or that made by humans and that which pre-exists. It mirrors too
the urban/rural split. In other words it is the clash between the arti-
ficial and the organic. This is the fourth faultline. The urban stands
for the rational, the logical, the instrumental, the constructed,
however little the results speak for its rationality. Thinking driven
by the urban mindset appears to those on the opposite side of the
fence as lifeless, lacking in understanding of natural cycles, seasons,
forces and rhythms. The divide typically is with the eco-view and
expresses itself in many manifestations contrasting the fast and the
frenzied with the simple and the slow. The growth in organic foods
or farmers markets are instances of the latter.
The fifth faultline is the struggle to realign the individual and
the collective in 21st century terms. Many feel individualism has
gone too far. Expressed differently it is about how much we take or
how much we give. How far we are going to remain egocentric or
understand that being egotistical is a blind alley. The trumpeted
choice of individuals has largely reduced people to consumers with
a parallel loss of what it might mean to be a citizen. Instead the
battle is to reframe day-to-day individuality so it embeds a concern
for the larger whole, be this a local community, a city or an activist
campaign. The default position of a new common sense, however
disputed the term, is to consider individual and collective needs
simultaneously.
In The Malaise of Modernity, Charles Taylor (1991) suggests
that the source of our malaise can be largely summed up as individ-
ualism and instrumental reason. Individualism has resulted in the

growth of human rights, perhaps the finest achievement of modern
civilization. However, in its debased forms, individualism comes
with a centring on the self, which both flattens and narrows our
lives, it makes them poorer in meaning and less concerned with
others or with society. Instrumental reason is the kind of rationality
we draw on when we calculate the most economical means to a
given end, the maximum efficiency.
The combination makes people feel a lack of meaning in their
lives, an emptiness that is filled often materialistically, but does not
provide satisfaction. Private life becomes more important, civic life
atrophies and when life is moving fast it spins out to a rationaliza-
tion that the average citizen is accomplishing a great deal simply by
coping with or even surviving in this modern milieu, never mind
being expected to assume responsibility for civic engagement and
concern.
3
And remember the Ancient Greek origins of the word
idiot: meaning self-centred, private, separate and only concerned
with self-interest rather than the public or common good.
There are also human attributes that feel like faultlines as they
rarely seem to solve themselves and are constantly present. It is
perhaps better to describe them simply as part of the human condi-
tion. These determine how we feel, what motivates us, our patterns
of behaviour and how we act. Often they oscillate from one extreme
to the next. One is the striving for fullness and avoidance of void.
There is a yearning for completion, being at one, having a sense of
wholeness that might result in fulfilment. The desire to fill the
absence leads to a striving and the void is filled in various ways
religion, ritual, spirituality, internal mediation. Ultimately these
seemingly abstract things are expressed in the city. It might be a
place of worship, an urban festival or the way a public space is laid
out.
Another example is the human tendency to flip between
needing anchorage and wanting exploration. Seemingly contradic-
tory, but still sensible, this highlights the desire for stability and
familiarity while constantly striving to experience the new, which
often merely means consuming something different. Resolving the
contest between new experience and the familiar and fixed creates
cultural identity. It explains why tourism is so appealing. The
dilemma today is that swaying between the two is happening more
quickly and so absorbing what it means is difficult. The great cities,
in passing, are those that manage to make you feel you know them,
but that you can still explore.

Finally, those with power often want to project the inevitability
of things as they are. They do not quibble, for instance, at the
commodification of everything our time, social interaction, every
transaction. They argue that this is economic reality. Yet a counter
group will always resist and create a backlash, arguing these trends
are merely self-serving. Alternatives are always available.
Battlegrounds
Discussions and policy debates around faultlines often become
battlegrounds because the nature of debate is intense and contested.
Yet there are other battlegrounds less concerned with ultimate
purposes, although at times touching on them. They are usually
about significant policy choices and thus more concerned with prag-
matics. Each battleground has implications on the future of cities.
To elaborate briefly on a few:
Multiculturalism versus interculturalism. In the multicultural
city we acknowledge and ideally celebrate our differing cultures
and entrenched differences. In the intercultural city we move
one step beyond and focus on what we can do together as
diverse cultures sharing space. The contention is, as history
tends to prove, that the latter leads to greater well-being and
prosperity. Yet funding structures are usually predicated on the
first.
Environment matters versus the technology fix. Will the regu-
latory and incentives regime at differing levels (city, state,
nation) be constructed to encourage recycling, renewable
energy resources, energy efficiency and behaviour change in
general or will it just be left to the market to produce new tech-
nologies?
Social equity versus disparity. The inclusion and empowerment
agenda will remain with us as the dynamic of capital tends to
produce excluding effects which impact more strongly on the
disadvantaged, who have the least capacity to respond. What
power do cities have to bend markets to broader social needs?
Sharing responsibility versus exporting problems to neighbour-
ing jurisdictions. The compact cores of major cities have
widespread assets. Some of these, ranging from transport
networks to cultural infrastructure, need to be maintained by
the public purse. Outlying suburbs which jump over jurisdic-

tions seek to avoid paying appropriate contributions for their
use by their residents.
Central versus local. The battle between central and more local-
ized power is ever present, yet the trend is towards the local. If
cities accrue greater powers, do they in aggregate have broader
responsibilities for their countries? How do they activate this?
Compaction versus dispersal. It is said that density creates a
better urban fabric since it results in viable activities born of
the increased vitality and economic efficiency that sprawl dissi-
pates. Can cities counteract decades of city-building and habits
that encourage sprawl? Can cities built with the car in mind be
reconfigured to a pedestrian focus and to public transport? This
is easier for highly textured European cities or dense Asian
cities.
Fear versus trust and openness. The pervasiveness of risk
consciousness and fear come from deeper anxieties about life,
from fears for personal safety and of crime to those of
out-of-control technology, of the speed and scope of globaliza-
tion and its unintended effects, and of unconstrained pollution.
This has coincided with the decline of traditional ties, based on
trust, whose value bases anchored people. We need to be open
to compete and operate and not draw ourselves into voluntary
ghettoes.
Authenticity versus global markets. The contrast between the
real, the virtual and the fake will move into a new gear. The
search for the authentic, distinctive and the unique has become
pervasive as our sense of the real and the local is dislocated by
virtual or constructed worlds such as those of cyberspace and
theme parks and standardized, global mass products with little
link to a particular place. Related to this is the battle between
chain-store power and its homogeneity and locally distinctive
shopping. Once basic facilities exist, it is difference not same-
ness that contributes the most.
Holism versus specialisms. There is a battle between those who
see issues such as urban decline or how cities as a whole operate
as being composed of interacting wholes that are more than
simply the sum of the parts and those who look at the frag-
ments within narrow specialisms. Increasingly, we know we
need to see the parts and the whole simultaneously.
Hard versus soft indicators. What indicators are the most
important in measuring the success or failure of organiza-

tions and cities? If competitiveness combines the hard and
the soft, will hard indicators such as levels of employment,
growth, income or GDP suffice? Soft factors of competitive-
ness are people-related, for example a citys networking
strengths, governance capacity, cultural depth and creative
milieus. How do we know where a city stands when these are
not measured?
Speed versus reflection. Competitive pressure with IT as an
enabler speeds up life and makes it shrill to the extent that the
slow is increasingly desirable, and not just for the old and
infirm. From the Slow Cities movement to the clock of the long
now that will chime only once every 1000 years people are
trying to avoid existence becoming a whistle-stop tour through
life and then you are dead. This connects to another battle line
between always emphasizing the next or the past, with the
futurists fighting the nostalgics and rarely anyone living in the
present.
Forgetting versus remembering. The residue that remains from
the past is a selection of what could have been remembered.
For instance, the feminist movement helpfully reminds us of the
women urbanists well beyond the remarkable Jane Jacobs.
4
Equally, philosophical and psychological traditions get side-
tracked. These are often more than mere battles of history
they reflect power struggles. What we choose to forget and
remember reflects a societys priorities.
Paradoxes
A paradox is an incongruity that seems to be contradictory or an
outcome that is different from that envisaged. There are seven
worth highlighting in the context of cities. The first and overarch-
ing paradox is the conflict between risk and creativity that will be
elaborated upon below. The other six are:
Calculating tangibles in a world of intangibles. We live in a
weightless economy, or an economy of ideas, where 80 per
cent of wealth is created through intangibles. We talk too of
the importance of people. Yet our systems of measurement and
the calculation of value are out of step and lag behind realities.
For instance, accountancy systems invented in a mercantilist
age and developed under industrialism remain largely focused

on measuring assets as material entities. People, who as ideas-
generators create most value, are by contrast treated as an
accounting cost even though in the sale of a company they are
part of its goodwill.
As mentioned earlier, too much of our data gathering is
based on nations and static measures when it is cities that are
the driving forces of national economies and it is relations and
flows that reveal more about urban dynamics than quantities
of attributes such as population.
Accessibility and isolation. Can there be too much access? Being
swamped with cascades of uncontrolled information impossi-
ble to filter is a well-known problem. Reflection often thrives
more on being under-stimulated. Accessibility is deemed an
unquestioned good, yet too much accessibility can destroy what
it sets out to do. Unfettered access can make things too popular
or bring things into reach too easily. The isolated settlement
that thrives on being distant can suddenly find the outside
world too close for comfort. It can be overwhelmed by popu-
larity fired by a new accessibility and mass mobility. The critical
mass tips from being just right to being out of control. A
heritage setting can inspire and generate welcome tourism. Yet
if too many visitors appear, they can drain the lifeblood of and
drown local identity. The result may be that a citys future is
determined by the nostalgic past that visitors want to see, but
which residents do not need, with knick-knack shops, souvenir
outlets and interpretative centres that gel the past into aspic.
Porousness and identity. People need to be porous to new influ-
ences as well as to retain their identities. We need to be both
local and global to survive in the current world, selectively open
and closed at the same time. We need boundaries and borders
to ground and anchor identity as well as bridges to connect us
to the outside. Although identity is shaped by a variety of
factors, from upbringing and friendship networks to work,
crucially it is also rooted in geography and place. In spite of
increased mobility, a sense of place remains a core value and
often acts as the pivot point around which a person acts. This
tends to mean that cities need to balance being parochial and
cosmopolitan.
Space and density. People want space and density at the same
time. Some will want both, others one or the other. Space is at
a premium and will become the benchmark of luxury. Perceived

lack of space will drive location decisions, lifestyle choices,
densities and technological development. Systems to optimize
space, such as roads, will develop by making journeys more
efficient through autonomous vehicle control devices involving
smart card technology so that a greater number of cars can
travel at far higher speeds in convoys on existing roads or by
car sharing. Simultaneously, and in a seemingly contradictory
way, densities will increase as the number of households rises
and urban vitality is deemed to come from close-knit mixed
uses, so shaping the look and feel of cities.
City and country. The more we move to the country, the less
like countryside it will become. According to a recent UK RICS
survey, only 4 per cent of people want to live in urban areas, a
figure constant since similar surveys were first conducted in the
mid-1990s.
14
The overwhelming majority want to live in the
countryside. This will exacerbate the intense pull out of urban
areas, putting pressure on market towns and villages whose
formal integrity will be blown apart by in-fill, edge develop-
ments and rises in population. It will all merge into a built-up
mass. The overall feeling will be of many highways connecting
some settlements rather than many settlements connected by
some roads. The battle between perceived urban and rural
values will surely get worse.
Age and technology. The capacity to handle technology is a
form of power, and the young feel more comfortable with it
than older generations. As technological change drives the
economy, it could thus transform power relationships between
generations. We already know that children teach parents how
to use videos, email and the internet: they have become the
translators of the modern world. In a global culture where age
has engendered respect, what will technology do to social rela-
tions when older people feel increasingly disenfranchised? For
some older people there is a growing sense of being an immi-
grant in their own technological country.
Risk and creativity
The landscape of risk
5
We are caught between a rock and a hard place. The simultaneous
rise of the risk and creativity agenda is one of the great paradoxes
of our time, with risk avoidance strategies often cancelling out

inventiveness. Creativity, openness and risk-taking are demanded
of us to be competitive in a globalized world and to be inventive to
adapt to 21st century needs. At the same time creativity is denied.
The evaluation of everything from a perspective of risk is a defin-
ing characteristic of contemporary society. Risk is the managerial
paradigm and default mechanism that has embedded itself into how
companies, community organizations, the public sector and most
cities operate. Risk is a prism through which any activity is judged.
Risk has its experts, consultants, interest groups, specialist litera-
ture, an associational structure and lobbying bodies. A risk industry
has formalized itself.
It subtly encourages us to constrain aspirations, act with over-
caution, avoid challenges and be sceptical about innovation. It
narrows our world into a defensive shell. The life of a community
self-consciously concerned with risk and safety is different from
one focused on discovery and exploration.
Risk consciousness is a growth industry: hardly a day passes
without some new risk being noted. It is as if risk hovers over indi-
viduals like an independent force waiting to strike the unsuspecting
citizen. This might concern personal safety or a health scare. In
1994 Factiva noted 2037 mentions of the term at risk in UK news-
papers; this rose to over 25,000 by 2003.
6
The notion of accident seems to have gone from our vocabu-
lary. Cleansing the world of accidents means scouring the world for
someone to blame. Bad luck gets retrospectively reinterpreted as
carelessness. Risk-taking, a positive activity, is viewed negatively
through a prism of negligence.
This drives a tendency never to blame oneself or to take respon-
sibility. Instead many litigate, leading to claims of a compensation
culture, yet that culture feeds on deeper fears. The opportunity
side of risk-taking begins to disappear. There seem to be no more
good risks; all risks appear bad. The mood of the times is averting
the worst rather than creating the good. Guidelines are drawn up
on worst-case scenarios. Many say this culture of fear and litiga-
tion started in the US and developing from there has been exported
to other societies, where the idea of reasonable endeavour had a
much stronger hold.
The media shapes perceptions of risk, creating a climate which
disposes us to expect bad outcomes. It heightens dangers, it spec-
tacularizes issues and even creates panics. Which risk factor
emerges within the media or political battlefield can seem arbitrary.

The risk of food poisoning, constantly highlighted, is far less than
risks caused by sedentary lifestyles encouraged by urban planning
that reduces walkability in our cities and makes people obese.
Consciousness of risk comes in myriad forms. Some have been
with us for a long time, such as assessing the financial viability of
projects. Others concerned with safety, health, epidemics or bully-
ing are more recent and grabbing most headlines are safety
concerns about personal injury in the public realm, such as tripping
over a tree trunk, stepping off the road into an oncoming car or
tearing your trousers on the edge of a park bench. Undoubtedly a
perception exists that the public have a greater tendency to seek
redress if they suffer an injustice or injury. People look for someone
else to blame for their misfortune.
The rise of claims management companies help; they advertise
on TV, radio, the press, through direct marketing, street canvass-
ing or tele-sales with slogans such as No win, no fee or Where
theres blame, theres a claim. One group in Britain alone gener-
ated 15,000 claims per month, selling them on to solicitors, some
of whom have up to 10,000 personal injury claims running, with
dedicated departments acting like production lines. An environ-
ment emerges where suing is seen as an entitlement as when a
leading practice was asked, Who can I sue when nobody is to
blame?
The major categories of claims affecting our living environment
are fourfold. Occupiers liability affects the design of buildings and
their aesthetic, for instance what railings or banisters are accept-
able to ensure no injuries. Liability under the Highways Act affects
the look of the streetscape, junctions or interchanges. Protecting
against road accidents results in an increased clutter of barriers,
guard rails and excessive signage and signalling. The only defence
for local authorities is to have a reasonable system of inspection,
with everything hinging on the word reasonable. The basis of
arguments concerns whether it was reasonably foreseeable that an
accident could occur. The boundaries of foreseeable are continu-
ally being tested and stretched.
7
The rise in claims has forced local authorities to enhance their
inspection and maintenance regimes. In Britain Leeds, Cardiff and
Liverpool are often cited as having good procedures. For example,
when claims clusters occur in specific areas, Leeds targets these for
attention. This has affected the culture of maintenance, so mainte-
nance is now conducted specifically with the avoidance of claims in

mind rather than seeing the urban environment in terms of criteria
such as Is it pleasing? or Does it feel attractive?
Concerns about construction industry safety have been wide-
spread and involve employers liability; there is little criticism of their
safety improvements, embodied in Britain in the Construction,
Design and Management (CDM) regulations which have created new
professions such as planning supervisors. The process, though, has
affected urban professionals in pursuing innovations. There is a pref-
erence to go for tried and tested technology, materials or procedures.
Ironically there is one area within this where people have
become blind to risk megaprojects
8
because human frailties
come into play. Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition
provides a detailed examination of how promoters of multibillion-
dollar megaprojects systematically and self-servingly misinform
parliaments, the public and the media in order to get projects
approved and built. It shows, in unusual depth, that the
Machiavellian formula for approval is underestimated costs, over-
estimated revenues, undervalued environmental impacts and
overvalued economic development effects. This results, the authors
argue, in projects that are extremely risky, but where the risk is
concealed from MPs, taxpayers and investors.
Yet we need to take measured risks as new agendas challenge
us think how the built environment is put together. The
sustainability agenda demands new ways of building and some-
times using novel materials; new architecture can push at the
boundaries of the tried and tested within construction; the desire
for more walkable places can tip the balance between pedestrians
and cars. Achieving these aims involves good risks. They confront
the legacy of how things have been managed in the past, yet, aligned
to a culture of risk aversion, moving forward becomes doubly diffi-
cult.
The result of this thinking would be a reframed approach to
risk management. A first emblematic step would be to rename the
current risk statements as risk and opportunity policy, where each
side of the coin is equally validated. Most risk statements currently
focus on problems rather than possibilities.
A trajectory of risk consciousness
What social and political conditions have encouraged a risk
perspective on life? The question does not denigrate the contribu-
tion risk consciousness makes to addressing legitimate concerns.

The pervasiveness of risk consciousness and aversion comes
from deeper anxieties about life. They are part of broader histori-
cal forces impacting on our sense of self and how we view the
world. From the early 1990s onwards a series of books highlighted
a profound shift in our view of the modern world and notion of
progress embedded in the Enlightenment ethos.
9
The increasing
disenchantment targets the Enlightenments limitless optimism, the
arrogance and over confidence of science and industrialism, the
fear that technology is out of control, the speed and scope of glob-
alization and its unintended effects, or unconstrained pollution.
This has coincided with the decline of traditional ties that provided
values and models for action and readily understandable identities
for individuals, whether through religion, ideology or a fixed
community setting. Those value bases anchored people, giving them
a purpose and direction allowing them to negotiate lifes travails.
The erosion of tradition and taken-for-granted relationships and
responsibilities breaks continuities and establishes uncertainty
within which individuals have to assess lifestyle options them-
selves.
10
The paradox is that the freedom of choice projected as libera-
tion, especially in the commercial world, is then experienced as
frightening. When little can be taken for granted, like ties of
community, ideology or other forms of solidarity, it is difficult to
know which information to trust and what to predict. This loosen-
ing of ties feels like swimming in the rapids with free-floating
anxieties.
Periods of transformation and transition can involve a mix of
heady expectation and worry as the foundations are reassessed
before they move to a more settled pattern. Within this setting, trust
in oneself and others erodes. Everything is uncertain. Francis
Fukuyama defines trust as the expectation that arises within a
community of regular, honest and cooperative behaviour, based on
commonly shared norms, on the part of other members of the
community.
11
An absence of trust in humanity shapes our percep-
tion of risk. It is a symptom of the cleavages which have made us
fearful and risk aware. Misfortune cannot be blamed on acts of
God so the blame must lie elsewhere.
Risk consciousness rises when conditions of uncertainty and
the perception of powerlessness increase. Unable to control press-
ing issues, from environmental degradation, crime and health
hazards to the imbalances created by globalization, the system is

to blame for what is wrong. This affects public perceptions and the
emotional frame which guides perceptions independent of the
reality of risk, so negating objective risk calculations. The sense of
powerlessness, vulnerability and impotence begins to shape self-
identity. The responsible individual as potential maker, shaper and
creator of the environment becomes a passive individual, always on
the receiving end. The world is negotiated as a dangerous jungle
with risks lurking in the undergrowth beyond the control of
humanity. The author of circumstance becomes the victim of
circumstance. Resilience, alertness and self-responsibility lose sway
and by making claims we assert our authority and identity.
How responsibility and accountability is defined is determined
by social and political norms. If we focus on the fragility of people
it shapes norms of accountability. People who believe they cannot
cope will find it difficult to be responsible for their behaviour.
Blame is credited to an external force and the sense of responsi-
bility is distanced from ourselves. It legitimates the growth of
litigation and shifts individualism defined as self-sufficiency and
personal responsibility to a rights-oriented individualism. The
expansion of the right to compensation is proportional to the
shrinking of individual autonomy.
12
Ironically this raises a further paradox, as the science that now
allows us to assess and calculate risk is the science that we blame
for causing risk in the first place. The capacity to absorb the speed
of change is difficult, which is why the notion of the precautionary
principle has gained currency. That principle suggests we are not
merely concerned about risk but are also suspicious of finding solu-
tions. It is best not to take a new risk unless all outcomes can be
understood in advance. Judgement remains the key in deciding
where to act with caution and where to give leeway for experiment.
Risk and the urban professions
Thirty leading urban professionals, including engineers, architects,
project managers, valuers, quantity surveyors, estate agents and
property developers, were interviewed to assess how their work
and perspectives are shaped by risk consciousness. They concluded:
Risk has moved into the core of what we do. Increased risk
process tends to focus on managing the downside rather than
considering potential. The consensus is of a clear increase in
the awareness of risk, especially with the development of CDM

regulations. A number noted that risk has sharpened up their
practices, yet felt it constrained their capacity to innovate and
provide certain design features. There is now little intelligent
interpretation of the rules.
The risk industry has a vested interest in a climate of risk.
None of the design professionals is against design review
processes, but there is a hardening view that risk assessment
professionals want an increasing climate of risk as it justifies
their existence.
The new planning supervisory and risk assessment roles reduce
the risk for themselves. Those with responsibility for design
tend to believe those attracted to risk assessment are not people
with imagination. Acerbically, someone noted, They are from
the lower end of the gene pool most of them want the ordi-
nary because they can manage the ordinary. The notion of
undertaking work on the basis of reasonable endeavour is
declining.
Do risk assessors understand design? Lack of understanding
by risk assessors or safety auditors often makes assessments
inadequate, especially in relation to environmentally sustain-
able design. Criticisms centre on a desire for design to be looked
at from a broader, long-term perspective.
Increased resources are being spent on risk assessment.
Practically every practice is spending more resources on risk
than five years ago. This ranges from employing people with
legal experience or risk assessors as part of instituting new
management procedures. Insurance cover for all professions
has increased beyond the level of inflation.
The rise of intermediaries cramps our style. In the past engi-
neers dealt with a single client, who might take the whole risk
of an innovative project. Now more projects are undertaken
through intermediaries such as projects managers and contrac-
tors. This fragmentation tends to increase risk aversion.
Passing the parcel on risk. In a world of multiple contracting
and intermediaries, where is risk located? There is a merry-go-
round with people trying to pass on and export their risk to
someone else. Risk should reside with those best able to manage
a specific risk was the consensus. The price we pay if you create
pressures on various consultants to manage their own risk by
building in too many safeguards is that engineers will over-
design and build in self-preservation and waste.

Design for risk rather than against it. There should be an
assumption, especially in public space projects, that risky activ-
ities might occur, such as skateboarding. Rather than designing
street furniture to repel skateboarders it should be designed to
withstand it.
More safety rather than health conscious. The risk agenda
from the perspective of urban professionals focuses too exclu-
sively on safety and not health. This stunts debate on creating
urban environments and developing a regulations and incen-
tives regime that fosters healthy lifestyles. This ranges from
encouraging public transport use to creating walkable urban
settings or cycling-friendly environments.
Keeping the client close and consultation. The way forward
proffered was to develop risk mitigation strategies by keeping
close to clients and other contractors in a collaborative process
of systematic risk assessment. Closeness to clients will help
avoid litigation.
The biggest risk is not to take the risk. The risk of not going
against the grain of perceived rules was the far greater one of
creating depressing cities that do not work emotionally so
generating spin-off problems from crime to vandalism. Our
palette of possibilities is shrinking.
13
Drivers of change
We are used to discussing futures by using drivers for change as
the template, and the basic drivers are known which determine
much of what will happen. This is fine as far as it goes, but tends
to tell us little about the depth or severity of a change process and
its possible timeline. For this reason faultlines, battlegrounds and
paradoxes were discussed first.
The core drivers include: demographics, and especially an ageing
population in the West, with inward migration balancing out
expected skills and job shortages; globalization, which will move
forward unabated; global terms of trade, which will shift inexorably
to favour the East; technology transfer periods, which will reduce
dramatically; and climate change, which will hasten the end of the
oil economy and speed up the search for energy alternatives.
New issues will rise to the fore and shape urban decision-
making. These include:

The health and urban design agenda, which will push debate
on city-making more towards the New Urbanism agenda.
Public health and urban design will come together. Health-
promoting urban design will emerge as a central planning issue
over the next decades, underpinned by arguments for contain-
ing the car, increasing pedestrian-friendly environments,
controlling out-of-town shopping, creating local facilities
within walking distance, making cities more compact and
investing in public transport.
Safety, surveillance and a public realm. Safety and responses to
terror will determine how cities are built and managed. The
watchful eye of surveillance will be with us wherever we go in
cities. People will choose to live in voluntary physical ghettoes
and gated communities will proliferate which parallel the
mental ghettoes they create to block out a seemingly uncon-
tainable world. This is why the fake experience is easier for
many to cope with than reality. The question is, What types of
gated enclaves are created from the urban design point of view?
Crime and fear of crime, which regularly come at the top of
peoples concerns, affect the way the built environment is
constructed. Troublesome trade-offs will need to be negotiated,
such as those between convenience, cost and profitability;
privacy, freedom and creating sustainable environments; and
legal and ethical norms. Design tactics will become more
sophisticated in anticipating and blocking criminal activity.
Variations of gated enclaves have always existed, kitted out
with a diversity of surveillance devices. How will arguments
for public realm investment be made in a context where no one
feels public space has anything to offer? Will urbanity
completely disappear in the newer gated communities which
tend to be severed from the local community, with everything
sealed within a fortress?
Time and the spectacular. People increasingly perceive them-
selves to be time poor and yet dream of being time and
experience rich. The commercial sector will respond and
increasingly seek to make all experiences, especially leisure
activities, more intense and spectacular in an attempt to give
them greater impact and meaning. This will affect design, espe-
cially for shopping, culture and education facilities. The same
is true for public authorities, who will increasing feel they need
to play the game of urban iconics, throwing up ever more

spectacular buildings to catch attention. Additionally, new,
more invasive spectacularizing technologies will emerge as
knowledge from brain research cascades down into commercial
applications, giving rise to neuromarketing whereby the indi-
vidual at a conscious level does not realize they are being sold
something. One effect may be the increasingly animated adver-
tising hoardings that both lull soporifically and excite. The
pressure to maximize every moment, and increased globaliza-
tion, will encourage the development of truly 24-hour cities.
Compressing time may increase the speed of events to a point
where people cannot, or will not, make the necessary psycho-
logical adaptation. This is likely to generate a counter-reaction
towards slowing things down again. The Slow Cities movement
is an example of such an ethos-driven development.
Crucially, pre-existing decisions and dominant ideas and mindsets
are the forgotten drivers. What shapes present decisions more than
the decisions that have preceded them and the intellectual architec-
ture of those that make them? But precedent and ideology are
rarely, if ever, mentioned in terms of the future. Pre-existing deci-
sions, such as those which have resulted in the houses, shopping
malls, roads and industrial sheds already built, are significant deter-
minants of the future look and feel of the city, narrowing the range
of alternative choices, for good and for bad. The future, longer-
term plans of cities, such as the expansion of airports, land-use
decisions and tourism developments, also tell us now what cities
will be. The shape, style and form of the future city is in essence
embedded in the laws, regulation, codes and guidelines of the
present. A simple way to assess whether such decisions were right
is to ask some simple questions: Does this building or structure say
yes or no? Does it feel right emotionally? Is it good enough for
my city? Once standards are raised in these kinds of ways, it is
possible to bring in a language of city-making long lost. Beauty can
be demanded from a shed, a mall or an industrial estate, let alone a
residential apartment block.
How dominant ideas and mindsets affect what we do is forgot-
ten. The central idea of our civilization is the notion of business logic
and efficiency and economic rationality. It has significant merits, but
does not tap the complexities of human behaviour. Its ideas provide
the warp on which the patterns of our behaviour are encouraged to
be woven. It affects the language we use and the discourse of public

affairs. It entraps us, however much we talk of thinking outside the
box. So there are often surprises when people do not behave logi-
cally. Cold economic logic is coupled with the rise of
managerialism, with its colourless, grey, neutralized language of
process that has little flavour or energy. Not surprisingly, civic
engagement and connection is in decline. The managerial logic spills
over into other domains that traditionally worked on different prin-
ciples, such as ethics, morality, justice, voluntary work and the idea
of the public. Yet discussion of such concepts is now shaped by the
language of efficiency. Because efficiency, when narrowly defined,
seems to work by definition, it is a given. But it favours means over
ends and process over broader ambitions. When efficiency is itself
the end, it strips out other life values, creating as many problems as
it solves by promoting short-term thinking.
Some will say, So what? The logic of efficiency affects how
issues like public transport, waste management or service provision
are addressed since it conditions deeper, wider mindsets. It becomes
difficult to ask questions like, What is transport for? because the
efficiency criterion makes it difficult to calculate soft benefits.
ALIGNING PROFESSIONAL MINDSETS
15
The cities we have disappoint. Too many do not work as a fine,
webbed whole, although there are urban delights in parts the
well-crafted building, an occasional housing estate, an uplifting
icon, a buzzy retail centre or a comforting, small park. Too often
we turn to the past to look for urban features we like: in Britain
this might be the sweeping crescents of Bath, the streets of York,
the lanes of Brighton, Londons Regency squares, a village neigh-
bourhood like Hampstead, the market hub of Norwich or the
gardens of once grand houses. Think of Italian cities, which in our
surveys of cities people like usually come on top. Again people
usually refer to the older fabric and not the new. There are too few
examples from today. What went wrong? Have we all lost the art
of city-making? Is it to do with us, our addiction to cars, our love
of asphalt and our blindness to pollution? Or is it down to forces
beyond our control, such as the overwhelming needs of global
companies? The fact is that when you try to replicate the princi-
ples of those places we like the rules usually forbid it. For instance,
the intimacy we might try to create is seen as a safety problem,

because a fire engine cannot drive down as it needs at least twice
its own width or a turning circle needs to be extra wide just in case
an articulated lorry comes your way, so making a physical setting
lose its sense of place.
We have increasing expertise in the technical aspects that make
up the city, a neighbourhood or a building: the qualities of materials,
heating and ducting systems, air circulation, sound- and damp-proof-
ing, road-building methods, the carrying capacity of new engineering
structures, demographic prediction, spatial modelling. We can speed-
build with new techniques. Scientific studies on every conceivable
microscopic aspect multiply and proliferate. We go down narrow
funnels, increasingly separating the parts from the whole. We
consider feasibilities, we cost, we predict, we project plan, project
manage, review, assess, monitor, evaluate. Yet we still seemed to have
lost the plot. We regenerate one kind of area former light industrial
zones, say and no sooner than we have done this, another type like
inter-war housing estates raises its ugly head. But somehow it does
not hang together and we seem no closer to better cities.
Escaping the silo
What aspects of city-making get left out in the gaps between the
professions and who is responsible? Often the physical spaces in
between the public realm. It is simply undervalued. And secondly
since a city is made up of both hard and soft infrastructures
social, cultural, psychological and sometimes even economic
domains get overlooked.
Professionals can become entrenched in silos. Being a profes-
sional shapes a persons self-identity and, allied to the natural
tendency to act tribally, are the traditional views of more hierarchi-
cally based management. Knowledge and specialism silos can ossify
without proper communication to outside learning and develop-
ment communities as there is little discussion and challenge of
assumptions. Such silos see the world from their own point of view.
It becomes difficult to make bigger-picture strategies. Criticizing
silos does not mean we should all know a little about many things
without deep knowledge of a particular subject. Instead it implies
that more important, higher-order forms of thinking, understand-
ing, knowledge, interpretation and behaving exist that should shape
how the silo works. This will make silos more porous and perme-
able and give them the lifeblood they need to develop and expand.

The play of similarities and differences between insights is central
to good city-making and the differences should be exploited as they
enlarge the whole. The best professionals know the other silos well
and allow themselves to be influenced by other insights.
Some solutions have been proffered in response to a series of
crises of confidence in the main built environment professions.
These have been attacked from various quarters about what they
have done to cities over the last 30 years. Urban design emerged as
a discipline and profession and sought to put the fragments together
again as a means of giving coherence and continuity to urban devel-
opments. Urban design highlights the need for collaborative
working too, but still remains largely a physical discipline.
There is a new wave of change occurring in Europe, North
America and Australia. In Britain is was initiated by the Richard
Rogers Urban Renaissance report and the development of Regional
Centres of Excellence as well as the Office of the Deputy Prime
Ministers sustainable communities agenda and the Egan Review
of New Skills for Sustainable Communities. They all have been
helpful in shifting the debate and setting out its new terms. The
Egan Review
16
reminds us usefully that nearly all of us are part of
making sustainable places, from the core professions whose full-
time job it is, through associated professionals whose impact is also
great, to the wider public. It outlines a set of generic skills, behav-
iours and ways of thinking that are requirements for moving
forward, such as inclusive visioning, team-working, leadership
and the ability to manage processes and change. Crucially, they are
not discipline specific. The review lists over 100 jobs cutting across
several dozen professions. The first group includes those whose
primary concern is planning, delivering and maintaining sustain-
able communities, including the elected and appointed
decision-making classes, from politicians, members of regeneration
partnerships and agency leaders to infrastructure providers. The
second group consists of those whose contribution is very impor-
tant, such as the police or health professionals. The third wider
public group includes those whose active engagement is important,
such as local residents, the media and school children.
This agenda has also begun to impact on the more enlightened
parts of the development community and professions, because
seeing the world through a sustainable communities prism reshapes
not only goals and priorities, but also how to get there. The tide is
turning positively even though there is much to be done.

Whole connections and specialist parts
We now have a greater understanding of the connections between
things. For centuries we have been splitting knowledge and insight
into fragments, boxes and segregations. From this have grown
many inventions and innovations, albeit moving along a narrow
furrow. The evaluation of everything from a perspective of special-
ism and narrowness is a defining characteristic of contemporary
society. Narrowness is the paradigm and default position that has
embedded itself into how companies, community organizations
and the public sector operate, even while partnership building is a
mantra of the age. Others prefer to call this narrowness focus.
For the majority, narrowness is the prism through which any activ-
ity is judged. Narrowness also has its experts, advocates
consultants, interest groups, specialist literature, associational
structure and lobbying bodies. It has formalized itself. This has
made us lose the art of holistic thinking.
Holism is a scientific theory with a proud history of over 100
years, but its insights were battered into submission in the race to
understand ever smaller bits of the puzzle, whether this was how
cities work or nuclear physics. Yet we should remember that native
or aboriginal people have been thinking holistically for millennia.
Holism as a theory emphasizes the whole and connections over the
parts. In the context of the city, it stresses the relationships between
elements such as transport, social life and the economy. It argues that
you cannot understand a system such as a city by merely looking at
parts, like traffic, in isolation from its effects. Ecological awareness
and environmental distress have revived an interest in holism. It has
refocused us on chains, loops, cycles and feedback mechanisms.
Transferred to cities it has made us see connections between the
different domains: the environmental, social, economic and, at last,
also the fourth pillar of sustainability, the cultural. For far too long,
the cultural has been neglected, yet it is cultural literacy that in fact
helps us understand where a place has come from and what is impor-
tant to it and has meaning. It helps us understand the present and
thus possible futures too. If we are culturally confident rather than
self-effacing, we are much more likely to take the necessary risks to
move ahead. (In fact the cultural should be seen as overarching, as it
determines how other areas are conceived and perceived.)
Thinking through the issues a city throws up, the city needs
many experts. Since most opportunities or problems are inextrica-

bly interwoven, experts need to take account of each other. Yet
ordinary citizens are also experts they are certainly the expert of
their own concerns and what they want. Taking account of should
not be seen as a marginal add-on once the basic decisions have been
made. The list of urban issues is well known and extensive: choices
of shelter at varying standards and sizes; comfort; warmth; making
services from rubbish and waste removal to maintaining roads
and walkways work; the capacity to move around in cars, bikes
or public transport; the ability to earn money in varying places of
work, from offices to factories; the ability to shop in differing types
of outlets; to have fun; to be artistically challenged; the availability
of facilities for health or social care; spaces to relax and reflect,
meet people and interact; spaces to avoid noise, to escape into
natural surroundings, to feel safe; to be free of vandalism; to reduce
fear and crime; and to be part of decision-making.
Which of these factors are more important? Clearly the built
fabric is key: it sets the frame and provides the setting within which
the city conducts its business and goes about its life. Not every
structure works. If it is ugly and projects itself as if it were saying
no, leaves out consideration of how people use space, uses cheap
materials, impedes the pedestrian through a clutter of obstacles and
signs, or is insufficiently accessible, it affects the rest of the urban
system negatively. For the city to work well requires more than the
simply utilitarian, although the practical and functional remains
key, as inspiration is required to motivate. That motivation has
manifold downstream impacts, from the ability to get a job to aspir-
ing to learn and do better for oneself. This reintroduces the idea of
beauty, a word long lost from our urban lexicon. A simple device
may be for cities to ask themselves, Is this beautiful (and practical)
enough for us? Addressing how people feel about their city is not
just another burden we have to bear but tangibly affects the value
of property, how long it will last and reduces maintenance costs. To
make the varied urban factors mesh well means assessing mutual
interdependencies and impacts.
The life of the city shaped by a community of professionals self-
consciously concerned with niches or specialisms is different from
one focused on connecting and integrating their knowledge with
others. This specialist focus has shaped the growth of urban profes-
sions, usually seen as those concerned with the physical: engineers,
planners, surveyors, architects. They have associational structures
that mirror the shafts of light they throw on to city-making. Their

list of abbreviations exemplifies the profusion of organizations and
divisions. In Britain they include APS, CIBSE, CIOB, CIH, CILT, ICE,
IHIE, IHT, ILT, IMECHE, IstructE, LI, RIBA, RICS, RTPI and TCPA.
However open-minded the professions are, it is in their inter-
ests to claim special knowledge and specialist knowledge is needed.
Often this is translated into technical codes, standards, guidelines
and directives. This is not to decry the specialist, but to avert the
tendency for particular professions to feel they are the top dog of
city-making. Architects, it is argued, feel they have the monopoly
on three-dimensional design because they can draw. Planners might
see themselves as the kings of the process because they know the
steps to the agreed plan. And surveyors might consider themselves
the arbiters of every kind of value, even though there are broader
definitions as to what value is.
In arguing for integrated thinking and cross-cutting team work,
a sustainable response to the challenge must be a cultural one
arising from the heart of the professions values and purpose, rather
than an add-on approach which mimics a changed mindset.
Integration is about mutual respect and the ability of the various
team members to be full and equal members of a project. Integrated
working implies allowing others to comment on or even rewrite the
script or rules of a project. This does not displace the architect,
engineer, planner or other professional: it invites them to rethink
how their gifts and experience can be opened to genuine partner-
ship within an honest, reflexive conversation. It means working
towards professional institutions whose interpretation of city-
making is dynamic, aware of the tensions between perspectives
within contemporary society and more instrumental as a result. It
means forging new hybrid and evolving practices which secure our
shared values and goals.
17
There remains a misalignment between the challenges and tasks
of city-making and the types of thinking, intelligences and skills we
apply to it or give legitimacy to. This is a faultline of major propor-
tions. The primary aspect of this is between the dominance of hard
infrastructure professionals, from engineers and architects over
those concerned with soft infrastructure, those who understand
social, psychological, cultural and economic dynamics. In the hier-
archy, the built environment professions are deemed to be on top.
Perhaps at the beginning of the process others are consulted, but
once the real project starts, the regen lads take over as the more
exciting activity of getting things on the ground takes hold.

There is a need for more cross-connections between planners
and historians, developers and sociologists, and surveyors and
health professionals. A useful technique is to consider outcome
swaps in implementing a city vision. Here a planner might be
charged with gearing plans to the goals of health professionals,
thereby considering, say, obesity issues in thinking through urban
design. The same notion might work with transport planners
taking on the mantle of the person concerned with social inclusion
or the head of environment taking on the mantle of transport plan-
ning.
Each profession has its value, but none fosters key elements of
the combined qualities of thinking required for city-making: holis-
tic, interdisciplinary, lateral; innovative, original, experimental;
critical, challenging, questioning; people-centred, humanistic, non-
deterministic; cultured, knowledgeable, critically aware of the
past; and strategic.
18
Stereotypes and the professions
Urban transformation lives with the legacy of stereotypes as each
profession and their associated institution finds ways of justifying
its primacy or dominance. In interviewing the professions in the
Future London survey I asked each what they thought of the other,
what they thought others thought of them, and whom they admired
and for what qualities. I was attempting to get a 360-degree
perspective. The aim was to explore their frustrations in finding
ways of working across disciplines with mutual respect, including
the soft disciplines, and in addition how new knowledge could be
embedded into the common sense of city-making. Rather than
getting the developer or engineer to say, And now I also have to
learn about this facilitation and consultation stuff, the goal was to
reach an understanding that a broader perspective helps achieve
their personal, professional objectives better as well as those of city-
making as a whole.
We live in a world of clichs and stereotypes. By using these the
aim is not to complain about any particular profession or add
another layer of prejudice. Stereotypes are revealing about percep-
tions or prejudices and useful in helping to assess and overcome
obstacles. Like all caricatures, stereotypes are grotesque, yet they
retain a grain of truth and can be amusing, even though the images
often linger long after realities on the ground have moved on.

A difficulty is that each profession is taken as a catch-all, when in
fact there are great distinctions within each profession. For
example, there are many types of surveyor, such as building, quan-
tity or planning surveyors, and many types of planner, such as
spatial, development-control or more process-oriented planners.
Linked to stereotyping is scapegoating. Yet who gets the blame
changes over time: the spatial planner today, the highway engineer
tomorrow. I offer the following composite sketches based on verba-
tim remarks from these interviews, strung together to form a
narrative. These are by no means scientific, but there is merit in
highlighting prevailing assumptions and incomprehensions. The
conclusions do not constitute the whole truth, but they will contain
elements of it.
The planner
Planning is about fairness and sorting out the muddle. They plan,
they project into the future. Planning attracts people who want to
make a difference. They have a social conscience, but are depressed
at being worn down. They have become grey-haired, especially
those in planning control. Spatial planners are less grey because they
feel they are shaping the city. But the way the system now works is
that increasingly the private consultants are doing the creative stuff,
leaving the public sector planners to deal with the drudgery. The
clich of the planner is that they are bearded, a bit left-wing and have
a social agenda. They are worthy and their origins compared to an
architect are more likely to be working-class. They are downtrod-
den, spending their time holding back the floodgates; but they
generate quite a lot of sympathy since they are treated quite badly,
and more and more of them are thinking, Ive had enough, I can
barely cope. And there is a lot of exasperation that the government
is not making their life easier, the whole system is under-resourced
so the system cant work. There is a huge gulf between the best and
worst of planners, and the outside world cant understand why plan-
ning procedures can not be business-driven. I understand the
accountability issues, but why are the processes so slow? Planners
are quite defensive, they stand between a rock and a hard place the
local community says that you dont listen, and the developers say
that you dont act. Architects see planners as dull, dowdy, bureau-
cratic, nit-picking, with a lack of imagination. Planners and
architects are in an adversarial position. The planner decides what
the architect cant do. Planners are very processy, they go step by

step. They have a tidy mind and tidy, unflashy dress. In fact they are
a bit anal. The surveyor sees the planner as bureaucratic, with a
lack of a sense of realities, a bit self-serving and focused on commit-
tees. Planning in itself tends to rely on analysis and objectively seeing
what the problem is; there is a particular twist in developmental
control it is reactive; it has not got a huge amount of creativity;
there is too much emphasis on rules, looking at others. Its not
instinctive. Theres less trust in terms of planners trusting their own
judgement. These planners dont speculate, they like to assess others.
Actually, most of the time it is not the planners who are to blame
but the local politicians who hide behind them. Politicians see plan-
ners as servants, as servile staff, handling the brunt end of complaints
and consultation. Planners try to read the politicians mind so dont
dare step out of line and so take less risks. Planners should free
themselves. They do have a mindset to some extent. Planners like
to locate in space they have this in common with geographers and
architects. They are not comfortable unless they can see things in
two-dimensional form, and they like to think longer term. In the past,
say 40 years ago, they connected with social planners, with people
like Norman Dennis or Michael Young. You can date-stamp plan-
ners: first there is the 60s mindset this was their high water mark;
then in the 80s they were clamped down upon they were seen as
interventionists and intervention was a bad word. I dont think they
have quite recovered yet. Planners feel disempowered. They were
more confident some while back. They used to be about big-picture
vision now less so. Thirty years ago they had big thoughts. Who
thinks the big thoughts about cities now? Some architects, less the
planners. There has been a certain loss of status. This affects who
comes into the profession, their quality is less than good enough.
Planners used to be creators of development, rather than controllers
of process. The 60s crowd had a statist attitude; planners were civil
servants in all but name, but were pursuing a public agenda for the
public good. Now there is a much more open situation and a recog-
nition that the private and voluntary sectors have a role. Now the
profession is very porous. They move around more between sectors.
In getting a broader approach going, planners have a slight advan-
tage. More of them have recognized that a team approach is
necessary it is part of their role to search for consensus. Yet plan-
ners feel they are everybodys scapegoat, they cause delays, they take
forever, they feel under siege. The word planning is tarnished. The
only TV programme with them in it is Blot on the Landscape. This

makes the profession attract a certain type of person the ones that
service the mud worms. At times they are people who cant be both-
ered to move on. They have some visual knowledge, but werent
good at art, so they like to fall back on rules they are a like civil
bureaucrats.
The surveyor
Surveyors theyre straight down the line; they deal in facts not
fancy, theyre realistic, theyre not interested in sensibilities. They
look at whats there they survey. They basically measure things,
they know how to count, how to cost. They cant draw. Theyve
got lots of sub-heads, there are various families like quantity, build-
ing, or planning surveyors basically they are land economists.
They understand values, they compare prices, they say, This sold
for that then, so that could sell for this now. They see the world
through a rear-view mirror. The trend is their friend, theyre not
too good at speculating. Surveyors are concerned with values and
value for money. A good building, surveyors think, must be well-
costed. Its always about defining things and values in a monetary
sense. Surveyors share with the economist the idea that the
numeraire is really important, but they are more commercially
focused. The dominant group are now estate agents. They are
knowledgeable about transactions, prices, rents, broking [but] a
smaller number are knowledgeable about buildings. They know
the price, but do not ask, Why is it this price? They are market-
aware, they spot opportunities. The building surveyor is more
modest they are more like technicians than transactors.
Surveyors are not thoughtful, but theyre not stupid [either]. The
best will build networks to understand prices. They have to
connect to gain market knowledge, so they are quite worldly in a
jovial sense. They see themselves as good-hearted people.
Surveyors are more adaptable than some other professions, as they
tend to be realists. They are materialists and pragmatists they are
not into imagining or that stuff about social values. Surveyors are
not thinking about place but the market. Weve got to get the
figures right, they say. These are the facts, right or wrong. Few
surveyors have gone down the thoughtful route thats not where
the money is, surveyors are quite into money. I was recently intro-
duced as an unusual, thoughtful surveyor, as if that were odd.

The engineer
I am not a person who says engineers are a curse on you: the most
exciting structures are combinations of architects and engineers;
structural engineers are nearly always creative, as are civil engineers.
But traffic engineers they have become the bogeyman their strict
adherence to codes and rules without thinking of their consequences
is the problem. Think of Calatrava today or Brunel, Eiffel, Roebling,
Strauss or Khan.
19
Ah, did you know that in the past a mild form
of autism was called engineers disease? As far as anyone can be
blamed for the urban mess it is the highway engineer. They dont
understand how people, roads and places work. Engineers are
bound by performance measures, codes, standards, criteria, guide-
lines. Their explicit codes contain an implicit culture. The civil
engineer will ask, Will the forces operate correctly? They will as
long as we have laid down the proper criteria. They tend to have
a belief in an optimum there is the perfectly functioning system.
There cannot be a mistake. For example, the bridge has to stand.
Usually this works according to a theoretical design. Thus when
theyre looking at transport they see it as a flow problem its all
about hydraulics. They insist on huge splays or wide turning circles
so there is no accident, messing up the feel of the city along the way.
The ideal is a congestion-free environment. Theyre not very inter-
ested in counterposing considerations or arguments. The code of
engineers is by default designing the urban fabric. Their guidelines
affect everything we see, and if there is no conscious place-making
and not many engineers are into that we go by default patterns.
Ooh The highwaymen, I call them. Ive had trouble with them,
they have a smug certainty that right is on their side, theyre on the
side of God. Their arguments are always scientific they could
demonstrate through reason how things worked and the conse-
quences when they dont work. They operate in a pseudo-scientific
environment trying to find a way through to scientific certainty.
Now when you ignore everything else, this is of course easy.
Basically they cant handle the emotional. You cant have emotions
coming into this. You could feel them thinking, This is rational.
You cant beat them on their own ground. They always had the
models or the data to back them up. In the end it was about blud-
geoning them and winning over the politicians by appealing to a
different side of their brain and with new kinds of arguments about
what makes a good place. Christmas lights are done by the high-
ways people just see the results.

The architect
They always look neat, the rimmed glasses, a controlled stylishness,
tidy, sharpened pencils, ideally 2B. Theyre really unhappy not being
able to implement. Architects claim they can see in three dimen-
sions, so they think they have a monopoly on building cities. They
draw and create designs and underneath this there is the assumption
that if these are thrilling then thats fine as they judge things aesthet-
ically they are not very concerned about how things work. One
manifestation of architects is their desire to be different. They like
to make statements about themselves. People often moan about
architects they say they go off on their own. Part of the problem is
understanding that you need to keep up with them and make more
demands. Architects creativity needs to be harnessed they need
to understand the overall vision of the place, to see the bigger picture
beyond just their building. We need better briefing and control.
Too often people think you need a showman, but for many jobs
you need the basics [for example] the mending of places. Thus,
more architects need to be into small-scale interventions. Architects
see themselves as artists, they think the visual thing is the most
powerful tool, although some are very into the technical aspects.
That may be true, but many others can also draw, or a person with
a fine feel for cities could ask someone to draw something on their
behalf. If drawing is seen as the main skill for building a city, this
means that anyone with a social feel for how cities work has nothing
to say or no power. The slightly overblown sense that architects
have of themselves is that historically they were so often the overall
impresario, especially when the notion of planning permission came
into being. Whose know-how now is actually building the build-
ing? Large parts are invented by companies doing all the component
bits, which you buy off the shelf. In the past the architects did more.
You dont design anymore you choose the doors or windows, even
though the architect tries to put it all together. Architects tend to
think of themselves as having a godlike power. They have the moral
high ground. They believe they understand everything, like how
cities work. They have solutions to understand things, like master-
planning, innately. How much harder is it for the community
development worker with no understanding of planning and archi-
tecture to get their oar in? They think they should be dominant
at present they are, but it is not axiomatic that they should be. You
need hybrids of knowledge to make places geographers, planners
and so on. You can see the dominance thing in terms of urban

design this is fought over. Architects claim only they should be
doing it its implicit in what they know, but in fact a battle is going
on. Architects say they are good at lateral thinking, but now they
also need to learn to be finishers and to listen to others. But I fret
that my own profession is extremely narrow. In terms of public
sector architects, you feel they feel frustrated, that they ought to be
in private practice. In part this is driven by the image others put on
you you are here because you arent good enough for the private
sector. People think that a stronger personality and flair is necessary
for that. The best public architects have had to create a different
narrative along the lines of I may not have that much flair but I do
know how to do functional buildings well, to budget and on time.
Landscape architects are really a derivation of the architects, but
they also have an environmental interest they are more ecological,
more modest, less showy, and more sensitive.
The property developer
Cigar-chomping is the stereotype. This is true but untrue when
you work in a quasi-public realm, as we inevitably do, you cant just
chomp cigars. The other [stereotype] is fat cat developer, brash,
knock up stuff quickly. They do not pay attention. They want to
make money as quickly as possible. They do make money when it
works but many fail property development is vulnerable. Many
people working in the public sector think they are non-elected inter-
lopers without a mandate who want to introduce hamburger joints.
Theyre rapacious capitalists who would concrete over the city. And
in reverse developers think planners are overly bureaucratic, hinder-
ing development, unable to make a decision The community
sector is seen [by property developers] as wanting handouts and not
understanding the needs of business; they have a halo, sitting there
cross-legged with a begging bowl. The development industry has
many layers. There are the traditionals the PLCs. They make a
point that they care, they genuinely want to do their best. They see
themselves as having a duty to shareholders, they take trouble to
build an environment that is as good and creative as possible. But
whether property developers are using property for the social good
thats nearly incomprehensible. Whether their public spirit extends
or whether they would do loss leaders that depends. They might as
long as it was consistent with making a profit. The same goes for
sustainability, you have to take it seriously as part of managing risk.
Developers are not trying to save the world, but take it into account

in order to run their business well. Urban Catalyst or Urban Splash,
they are another category who have managed to combine various
goals. Theyre not doing philanthropy. Theyre clever at spotting
an opportunity. Genuine care is not enough you have to under-
stand how you can play in these complicated markets. There
remains a strong element where property is just a financial play, a
commodity. Someone I know makes a point of never looking at the
property he pays for: these folks do our image no good. The
essence of property development is about supply and demand, where
the product is an office or housing. Youre only successful in prop-
erty if people use your building. It has to be customer-focused.
Property developers are like manufacturing shopkeepers. You
respond to what goes off the shelf. Theyre not intrinsically inter-
ested in cities thats why we need to get them to appreciate cities,
because in the longer run its to their benefit. Developers are a
derivation from a surveyor where you really need to understand
values and how to create values. Your penalty for failing to under-
stand economic value is bankruptcy. In a way, property
development is not a profession like surveying. Its about respond-
ing to and suiting the moment. Whilst they are seen as
money-grabbing, vulgar and exploiting, many developers see them-
selves as saving the world. Some are trying to reconsider what they
do, less as builders of development and more as facilitators of oppor-
tunity. This means they have to learn new skills like getting
stakeholders together or consulting people. In any case, the big
developments are very complex; you have to bring together teams
where the economic development people play a key role. To make
our developments work and bring people together, our community
wants a good, strong, transparent and fair planning system.
And many others
The above are thumbnail sketches of the predominant building-
focused professions. There are many other professions of relevance,
and hackneyed (and sometimes pertinent) descriptive short cuts to
match:
The economist
Economists, the clich goes, say, It looks as if it will work in prac-
tice, but will it work in theory? They have an automatic response
that the market will work, even though it can create negative exter-
nalities, and although economists invented externalities, they tend

to think disturbances should take care of themselves as the remedy
is worse than the cure.
The project manager
The project manager in essence derives from quantity surveying
you have to ensure the job is closely specified throughout to avoid
deviations from the bill of quantity so no cost overruns occur and
to ensure youre not held up in terms of critical path management.
Time is money, so specifications are everything just think of the
penalties. They are not a creative breed, you cant let good ideas
get in the way of a tight time and budget schedule.
The social worker
Theyre a fire-fighting occupation. They gaze over the abyss so
much that they become depressed they are socialized into where
their clients are, they have total empathy with the group they are
looking after. The environment is so powerful on them and gets in
the way.
The community developer
These people from community development backgrounds also hold
stereotypes about other people, such as the council is the enemy
of the state or the private sector by definition has it in for you,
and they are very process-oriented. Its still very threatening for
them when a non-professional comes in with a mission, say linking
the arts to a social goal. Who is this loose cannon? they think.
Theyre just as much into silos as any other profession.
The cultural developer
The cultural people, they are marginalized. If you want culture in
the mainstream of city development you have to understand other
languages. Id be in a far weaker position had I not been able to
speak the language of education, or had not worked with the prop-
erty division and got into the priorities of engineers or surveyors.
If you dont understand where they are coming from, you get
nowhere. Its like going to France with no French. We need more
people who can translate across professions, and people with a
cultural background are good at this. Actually for most profes-
sions, you look to a bible, like for planners or engineers. There is no
rule book in culture. Culture is about assessing whats important in
a place and this is different from place to place. Most rules are there

so you follow them for good reason but it squeezes out flexibil-
ity. Take the cinema complex, for example. Its worth 2 million and
we want to spend 4 million to refurbish it. To the cultural sector
this is not an issue as value is also cultural, not only financial.
When we talk of culture in this way were seen as oddballs, and
when we break rules to empower people this is a big challenge. But
being a maverick has its limits. If youre seen as a nutter, youre not
taken seriously, which is why we must mainstream.
The civil servant
And then as an overlay on this you have the civil servants, who
feel themselves to be good they are risk-averse, you mustnt rock
the boat, accountability is key; they start off as being honest and
right and then become distorted. They then [become] so much
involved in managing risk, they stop doing the best for life as life is
not risk-free.
Balancing skills
Stereotypes become less and less applicable as professions learn to
work across boundaries. Further, new groupings such as regenera-
tion specialists are emerging. They are slightly broader and at their
best they are multidisciplinary, multiskilled multitaskers, but they
still do not sufficiently incorporate the softer insights into their
practice.
We still remain in a period where everyone thinks they have
reasons to be dominant and everyone feels justified in their own
terms to justify this. Yet silos dont matter if people have a vision
beyond their specialism and can see how their specialism fits in. If
you want to know a law, you want a lawyer, you want to be
absolutely sure it is safe or if you want the sum, you want
someone to add up. The problem is they think they are in charge.
With leadership and especially strong local leaders, alliances can
be built and then the architects, planners, engineers fall into place
and then can deliver. Without leadership silos cement. This is
perhaps the reason for Shaws pithy remark that the professions
are a conspiracy against the laity. Leaders overcome the barriers.
There is nothing wrong with the skill set around, its about using
them better. Most professionals are good people who want to
deliver. The starting point in the leadership process should be what
makes a good city rather than lets do the roads first and everybody
has to fit around it.

Too frequently, professions tend to return to their core assump-
tions. As a cost-accountant-turned-estate-agent noted, I was so
analytical that I analysed the potential out of the challenge, I
analysed things to death. Furthermore, their minds are governed
by the environment in which they work and influenced above all
by their peer group.
20
Every profession has a gestalt a shape, form and configura-
tion. Planners project, surveyors cost, engineers calculate, architects
visualize. In addition, professions work on different scales the
architect focuses on the block, the engineer within the block and the
planner at a wider geographical setting. Yet the regulatory mindset
is still prominent. There remains much too strong an emphasis on
control. Bringing these together is manageable if you have the right
culture around them. The key issue is that the differences should
be exploited rather than seen as getting in the way. It is more about
allowing people to feel relaxed about who they are and using them
well. You dont want every planner to be long term you want the
system to pick the right people for the right task. This may be more
important than saying everyone should have an MBA. What you
need is a balance of skills, professional creativity, analysis skills and
the ability to finish. The best way forward is to mix groups as long
as the social, the political and the built professions understand the
economic. Each person should acquire a bit of the other. This is
especially true for urban design, which by its nature is interdiscipli-
nary. There is a desire to get beyond the stereotype: You should get
away from the blame culture and generate leadership and manage-
ment within a broader and more aspirational alliance. An alliance
that challenges each of us in a mature way, based on experience; too
much challenge is actually infantile.
21
OPENING MINDSETS AND THE PROFESSIONS
To get at the core of the problem of city-making and of our inca-
pacity to see things in the round or to see both the trees and the
forest together, we need to explore conceptually.
The professional gestalt
According to gestalt psychology, people naturally organize their
perceptions according to certain patterns. Perception is the process

of acquiring, interpreting, selecting and organizing sensory infor-
mation and a pattern is a form, template or model or, more
abstractly, a set of rules which can be used to make or to generate
things or parts of a thing in a certain way. (Remember a rule in
mathematics is something which is always true, which is why some
professions project such certainty.) As each profession perceives the
world in a certain way a planner projects ahead or sees spatially,
a surveyor surveys, costs and values, and an architect designs and
draws there is an underlying patterning to how they go about
their work. The word gestalt refers to a way a thing has been
gestellt: placed or put together, formed, shaped. It is an orga-
nized structure. It is a configuration. Gestalt theorists follow the
basic principle that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In
other words, the whole (a picture, a car or the engineering disci-
pline) carries a different and altogether greater meaning than its
individual components (paint, canvas, brush; tyre, paint, metal;
brick, pane of glass, tensile structure element).
The idea of gestalt proposes a series of laws that can be applied
to how professions operate. The most important is the law of praeg-
nanz, which says we try to experience things in as good a gestalt
way as possible in our terms. In this sense, good can mean several
things, such as regular, orderly, simplistic or symmetrical. Other
laws point to a certain volition in the way that we think: the law of
closure if something is missing, our mind adds it; the law of simi-
larity our mind groups similar things together; the law of
proximity things that are close together are seen as belonging
together; the law of symmetry symmetrical images are seen as
belonging together regardless of distance; and the law of continuity
our mind continues a pattern even after it stops. The mind
completes the missing pieces through extrapolation. These compo-
nents of grouping and perception influence our thinking and
problem-solving skills by appropriate substantive organization,
restructuring, and centring of the given (insight) in the direction
of the desired solution.
22
To some extent, in laymans terms, we
see what we want to see.
Mindflow and mindset
From the above we can say that every professional practice
coalesces around a mindflow and a resulting default pattern in
looking at the world a mindset. Clearly other personal character-
istics come into play, such as the qualities of being humorous and

confident, willing to listen or being pleasant. For this reason it is
not possible to say every engineer or doctor is like this. It is possi-
ble, though, to argue that each profession has a tendency, proclivity
or bias to look at issues in a certain way. From these ways of
looking, processes, procedures, techniques and practices, specific
technologies or traditions emerge and develop. Indeed it is this
focus that generates the advances in each discipline that we would
not want to do without. Once a set pattern has emerged this
becomes reinforced.
Mindflow is the mind in operation. The mind is locked into
certain patterns for good reason. It uses familiar thought processes,
concepts, connections and interpretations as a means of filtering
and coping with the world. The environment or context determines
what is seen, what is interpreted and what meaning is implied. For
example, when someone asks in English, What does S-I-L-K spell?
the answer given is, Silk. When one then asks, What do cows
drink? people will often respond, Milk.
A mindset is the order within which people structure their
worlds and how they make choices, both practical and idealistic,
All professions have a
shape, a form, a mindset,
a gestalt that follows
them like a shadow

based on values, philosophy, traditions and aspirations. The
mindset is our accustomed, convenient way of thinking and guide
to decision-making. It not only determines how we act in our
small local world, but also how we think and act on an ever-
increasingly encompassing stage. The mindset is the settled
summary of our prejudices and priorities and the rationalizations
we give them.
A changed mindset is a rerationalization of a persons behav-
iour; people like their behaviour to be coherent at least to
themselves. The crucial issue is how to get the urban professions to
change their approach systematically but not piece by piece.
A mindshift is the process whereby the way one thinks of ones
position, function and core ideas is dramatically reassessed and
changed. At its best it is based on the capacity to be open-minded
enough to allow this change to occur. At times this happens through
reflective observation of the world around. At others, possibly more
often, it occurs through external circumstance and is forced upon
individuals and groups through crisis.
23
It is not only individuals, professions or collectives like compa-
nies that have a mindset, but also societies and periods of history.
For example, an era shaped by certain religious or ethical values is
affected by the dominant thinking; an era is also shaped by predom-
inant views of how right and wrong is established or by scientific
theories. Science is a method in the quest for truth, yet itself is a
particular approach. Within each period specific scientific para-
digms dominate over others. For example, the long-established idea
of holism, the idea that things are connected, was until recently
sidetracked and reductionism was in the ascendancy. The increased
awareness of complexity has challenged this primacy, which is why
in the political domain there is increased talk of joined-up, inte-
grated and holistic thinking. Yet governments aim to foster
joined-up thinking will only succeed if they forcefully challenge
certain entrenched scientific hierarchies. The power of reduction-
ism nevertheless lingers on as those at the height of their profession
and with power were probably educated 20 or 30 years ago and so
have had the reductionist mindset etched into them. We now know
we need to look both at the parts and the whole together.
Regretfully we always seem to be behind the times in realizing what
is necessary.

The blight of reductionism
Reductionism is an approach to building descriptions of systems,
such as places or cities, out of the descriptions of the subsystems
that a system is composed of, such as architecture, spatial planning
and social issues. But in doing so, I would argue, it ignores the rela-
tionships between the subsystems. The reductionist perspective
thinks about parts in isolation. Many argue this approach is not
practical, citing the notion of strong emergence, that there is more
to a system than the specification of parts and their relationships.
The power of reductionism is that it can appear self-evident
when we look, for example, at simpler things like mathematical
formulae. The sum of two and two is four in all but the most total-
itarian circumstances! However, there is a danger of simplification
if we extrapolate this attractive simplicity to complex living organ-
isms like cities.
Emergence is a useful concept because it can describe the flux,
flow and evolution of things like places. It asks what parts of a
system like a city do together that they would not do by themselves.
Collective behaviour, for instance, could not be described as
anything but collective. Clearly, a wave of panic, spontaneous
applause or the rise of fascism is not comprehended by looking only
at individuals. Emergence is about understanding how collective
properties, issues or questions arise from the properties of parts,
such as a house, a shop or an office.
In this view, when we think about what emerges, we are
moving between different vantage points. We see the trees and the
forest simultaneously. We see the way the trees and the forest are
related to each other. To see in both these ways we have to be able
to see details and ignore details. The trick is to know which of the
many details we see in the trees are important to know when
considering the forest. Conventionally, people consider either the
trees or the forest. When one can shift back and forth between
seeing the trees and the forest, one also sees which aspects of the
trees are relevant to the description of the forest. An urban example
would be to see the house and street or the street and city simulta-
neously.
A useful example is a door key. A key has a particular struc-
ture. But describing its structure is not enough to tell someone that
it can open a door. We have to know the structure of both the key
and the lock, and we have to know that doors exist.

A final crucial point: when we look at things in isolation, we
seek truth. In assessing things like places, however, the notion of
approximation or partial-truth is more appropriate, indeed is
essential for the study of complex systems.
24
Professions and identity
How does this discussion relate to the professions?
Part of the human condition is wanting to belong and feel
attached to a broader whole, whether this be the tribe, group,
family, community, city or profession. Professions create an iden-
tity by setting out to distinguish themselves from others to create
that belonging. This can only occur by differentiation, through a
set of technical skills, rules, codes and accepted behaviours. Thus
tribalism asserts itself: I am a planner so I am not an architect or a
social worker. Some might argue that distinctions and differences
between professions are a function of precision and efficiency, but
in reality we have created professional jealousies. Once in a profes-
sion, it is safer to keep to the rules of a profession rather than blur
the boundaries. Boundary-blurring threatens identity and gets all
kinds of defensive system mechanisms going. Some say this is a
Faustian pact, where we limit some freedom of creativity in return
for being part of a brotherhood of mutual respect and support. So
even if we think some of ours are none too good, we still support
them.
This process is witnessed in the relationship of traditional
doctors vis--vis complementary medicine. The initial response to
the latters popularity was along the lines of Im a trained doctor
so I know the effect of complementary medicine is likely to be a
placebo effect; the double blind trials dont seem to work. This
was a way of getting rid of the threat. To this the alternative practi-
tioner responded, This is not the appropriate method to check my
work in any case. And, given the sustained interest in alternative
medicine, the conventional doctors are now having to say, I better
find out more about this.
Most professions want to identify something, put it in a box,
give it a name, strip out the uncertainty and measure it. Life is not
like that there is a need to live with uncertainty and complexity,
and the fact that many things are never completely true.
This changes the professional landscape, and the traditional
professional view does not fit into the new world. This is the world

of city-making, place-making, sustainable communities and urban-
ism all terms seeking to describe a broader way of doing things
other than mere road-building, house-building or land-use plan-
ning. A world in which highway engineers have a specialism in
keeping things moving is different from one in which there is a job
called making places. In fact, when given the opportunity to work
together and be part of a place- or city-making process, specialists
tend to find this stimulating and more rewarding. Making cities is
more exciting than making a road. In this shift, no one is criticizing
the technical capacities of the professions, but rather the lack of
cooperation between them and with others currently not seen as
part of the city-making circuit. What matters is that professionals
are excellent at what they do and willing to participate in a related
exercise. Current professional arrangements can appear dysfunc-
tional in making this happen. Others are sharper in their criticism:
The professional bodies are wretched, so much of what they do is
seen through the narrow prism of their perspective. They are
deeply unchallenging, there is little that suggests that they are
taking the new agenda on board. Few have a bigger-picture frame
within their profession. I have stopped reading the housing and
other specialist press; it is precious and self-referential.
Regeneration and Renewal is a good digest. It is not representing a
professional body and thus not self-interested. We need profes-
sions beyond self-interest. The professions are not about solving
problems of the professions, which is why so many outsiders are
the innovators.
25
Performance culture
Many of the encrustations referred to above are exacerbated by
governments focus on a performance-driven culture with its focus
on specific targets and outputs. In such a culture, the only safe test
is a standard which works against the joined-up, integrated think-
ing simultaneously proposed. The moment the emphasis is too
strongly on a standard, you lose the unique capacity to be adap-
tive. Over the longer term this can lead to a culture that gradually
begins to destroy itself, because it keeps shooting for agreed stan-
dards with little ability for change. With built-in specifications,
nobody can be blamed. This reinforces the sense of the professional
as someone who keeps to the rules. Instead of seeing rules as a
background or supportive guide for action, they become the

method of progressing. A performance-driven culture also dimin-
ishes the capacity to make judgements. A target such as cost per
square foot has no wider reference except itself and so, for example,
can say nothing about warmth or comfort. This focus increases risk
aversion and reduces the possibilities of boundary-blurring and
coherent joint working.
Stretching boundaries
Interestingly, urban design, a discipline that binds built environ-
ment people together, has no professional institute in Britain. There
is, though, the Urban Design Alliance (UDA), perhaps a threat to
professional institutes identity, which was welcomed by govern-
ment when it was set up eight years ago. It seeks to think of
professionalism in a new way within a broader urban vision,
although it still seen as physical place-making. It argues professions
should work together more, for example in training. In Britain the
Academy for Sustainable Communities addresses some of these
issues and will give credits for topics such as regeneration or urban-
ism rather than for planning. There is also the National Planning
Forum (NPF), set up by the government, with a similar objective to
broaden perspectives. Both have rotating chairs different profes-
sions take it in turn. Planners, architects and others moving
between the public, private and community sectors are likely to
foster the breakdown of compartmentalization. Ironically, the
respect for individual disciplines is likely to increase when they
open out and communicate as more people will know what they
do. Being perceived as a secret brotherhood fosters prejudice.
The openness implied connects well with the literature on lead-
ership. For example in Good to Great, Jim Collins
26
argues that
there are five levels of leadership. Fifth-level leaders channel their
ego away from themselves towards the bigger picture of building a
great company. As Harry S. Truman once observed, You can
accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who
gets the credit. The equivalences here are the objectives of the UDA
or NPF. Thus the post-modern profession is the profession that is
not purely for the professions.
27
A critical factor in city-making is values. They cannot be
avoided as these are embedded consciously or subconsciously in
any place-making project. For example, opening structures out to
the street reflects our views of transparency; the fact that the Dutch

do not draw their curtains at night reflects an originally Calvinist
view that we have nothing to hide; by contrast the repelling, reflec-
tive glass on office buildings exudes a sense of power and lack of
approachability.
Britain, it is argued, is currently good at exhortations and
producing good practice guidance. It is also effective in setting up
alliances such as the UDA. Apart from creating useful noise, such
alliances do not implement defined projects through which you can
measure success and failure. They are thus not transformational.
They represent advocacy. Raymond Unwin and his implementation
of the garden cities is cited as a counter-example. Unwin and his
followers built cities which were supposed to act as role models for
future living such as Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth. Here
there was a clear statement of aspiration, values and the means of
providing technical know-how.
The Congress of New Urbanism (CNU)
28
is given as a contem-
porary example. Some say its focus is narrow, but it remains an
interesting example of a group coming together with a clear charter
of values and principles which can be argued against. They have
tried to extend their understanding of how to go forward by being
value-driven and asking how to work across professions and how
to challenge codes. The CNU is a movement which took as its
model the Congres Internationaux dArchitecture Moderne (CIAM)
statement, which, whatever your views, is an aspirational charter
of principle and practice. Another example noted is the Urban Land
Institute, which has a strong track record in providing cross-
sectoral learning models and training, although its background is
as part of the development community.
The British government wanted a similar charter for the
Academy of Sustainable Communities, one which is not just about
good practice or aspirations but is clear about what is expected so
it is possible to hold people to account.
Planning is about to be different from what it used to be it is
set to be a more holistic process. Soon the idea of planning as
merely land-use planning will probably feel defunct, as will the
reliance on technical code-based work. We are likely to incorporate
new insights, such as psychological and cultural literacy, and new
people will be brought in and consulted. We are moving from
simply asking to actively involving. This paradigm shift in the
worlds of planning will take time to unfold in its fullness. It will
not happen in a smooth, soothing, business-as-usual way. There

will be arguments and resistance, battles of will and occasional rage
as well as pleasant surprise. Obstacles will appear, although some
in the longer run could be seen as opportunities. The shift from
participation in planning where you merely consult to participa-
tory planning where you involve will get us beyond the knee-jerk
consultation processes so common and yet unempowering. The
planning professions should see this moment as an opportunity for
them.
This shift emphasizes the democratic imperative. Democracy
will cause problems, things will take more time, some kinds of
vision might be curtailed or professionals will need to be more
persuasive in leadership. But we must have it, especially locally, as
the results on the ground are likely to be more sustaining if we use
our creative capacities to do it in ways that tap imagination.
Boundaries are stretching from many directions to break down
silos. A variety of initiatives and terms express this. Each has
strengths and weaknesses as it tries to capture a sense of integra-
tion and connectedness.
The way it is used by the British government narrowly focuses
on housing. Contrast this with Barcelonas approach (see later) with
public space. Nor is it concerned with the global competition of
cities, the role of core cities in Britain and their regions, or the
economic foundations of cities; a similar class of problem exists
elsewhere in Europe.
Place-making seeks to move us away from focusing on sites,
locations and transport as if these in isolation could create a place.
The word place resonates and is emotionally laden in a positive
sense. A sense of place encapsulates a variety of factors, physical,
atmospheric and activity-based. It centres itself on peoples percep-
tion and experience of places. It highlights quality, good design and
appropriateness to purpose and the jointly shared public realm as
the connective tissue within which the buildings, forecourts and
streets form a pattern or mosaic. It focuses on collective skills and
techniques, including cultural and social priorities, that need to
work together to make a space a place. Although it has a design
focus, it asks itself the question, How will social or economic inter-
actions be fostered by the design and layout? Rather like urban
design, it seeks to orchestrate the elements into a workable whole,
so highlighting a concern with the lived life of the city as distinct
from its mere structures.

Urbanism uses an even broader canvas. It is the discipline
which helps understand the dynamics, resources and potential of
the city in a richer way. And urban literacy, developed by learning
about urbanism, is the ability and skill to read the city and under-
stand how cities work. Urbanism, it is argued, can become the
meta-urban discipline and urban literacy a linked generic and over-
arching skill. A full understanding of urbanism only occurs by
looking at the city from different perspectives. By reconfiguring and
tying together a number of disciplines, penetrative insights, percep-
tions and ways of interpreting an understanding of urban life
emerge. By seeing the city through diverse eyes, potential and
hidden possibilities, from business ideas to improving the mundane,
are revealed. Traditionally, however, the conversation on urbanism
has been led by architects and urban designers. Urbanism provides
the raw materials for creating urban strategies and decision-
making. It requires a set of lateral, critical and integrated thinking
qualities as well as core competencies. These draw on the insights
of cultural geography; urban economics and social affairs; urban
planning; history and anthropology; design, aesthetics and archi-
tecture; ecology and cultural studies; as well as knowledge of power
configurations.
Each discipline contributes its unique quality, traditions and
focus necessary to comprehend urban complexities. For example,
cultural studies and anthropology bring an understanding and
interpretation of the inherited ideas, beliefs, values and forms of
knowledge which constitute the shared bases of social action. This
is enriched by interrogating and decoding the world of signs (in
language, narratives, film, music, and so on). The sociological focus
helps reveal group dynamics and the processes of social and
community development, while economics identifies the financial
and commercial determinants driving urban transition processes.
Cultural geography helps clarify the spatial, locational and topo-
graphical patterning of cities and design and aesthetics focuses on
look and feel. Completely underestimated in the context of the city,
psychology brings in emotional factors in urban development and
how people feel about their environments. Finally, planning and
the other built environment professions contribute the techniques
and technology and sets of rules, codes and conventions to carry
out the insights gained from these varied forms of knowledge.

Insights and crossovers
The real power of notions such as sustainable communities,
place-making and urbanism comes from emphatically integrat-
ing disciplines and the extra insight and knowledge gained through
synergy. Much of this will derive from new perceptions, such as
cultural insights into economics, spatial planning insights into
transport or psychological insights into geography. Alternatively,
combinations might be created that could link telecoms and trans-
port or land use with social networking strategies. This might then
justifiably be called communications planning. Policy handshakes
between diverse areas of expertise are central to the art of city-
making. Valuing diverse disciplines, as noted, might lead to
interesting appointments in running cities an environmentalist
becoming head of transport, an economist heading up social affairs,
a historian physical planning or a social development specialist
cultural affairs.
Over the years I have asked countless people who they respect
or admire as city-makers in terms of their attitudes, qualities and
characteristics. There is an astonishing alignment in terms of
professional qualities now being highlighted for city-making. These
can be summarized as follows:
An ability to cross boundaries and think laterally.
The ability to pick out the essence of a profes-
sional position and to see how it relates to other
aspects.
Practical and open to new ideas.
An openness of thinking and willingness to hear
other things.
To be able to listen and to hear.
Open to suggestion and challenge.
To be able to bring out the best in others, to facil-
itate, to draw together arguments and attitudes.
People who know their place, have walked its
streets, can feel what it is like.
A sense of vision combined with realism, a
patience garnered from having experience, a mix
of drive and focus on the nitty-gritty, a tenacity to
see things through.
29
These skills are not profession specific. Some architects have
them; so do some planners or engineers and others outside the

urban professions. What is noticeable is the focus on openness
and others. This chimes well with emerging notions of leader-
ship such as those expounded in Good to Great by Jim Collins.
Noticeably, the role models had broad experience starting right
from the beginning. Their education was not narrow. Often they
had taken baccalaureate-style exams with many subjects stretching
from the natural to social sciences and languages. Those with
specialist undergraduate training then expanded their repertoire,
combining subjects like English with social administration and then
planning, or politics with economics and then engineering. Those
role models that had specialized early often got into areas like
development not through the professional route but through differ-
ent experiences, bringing these to the task of city-making. It is the
lateral, connecting skills that people seem to admire.
In looking to individuals who made breakthroughs in thinking
about cities, it is noteworthy how many are not urban professionals.
Brunelleschi, who devised the model for the cupola in Florence, was
a goldsmith and sculptor. Christopher Wren was a scientist and then
became a professor of astronomy before going into building.
Ebenezer Howard was a stenographer. Lewis Mumford was a jour-
nalist, as was Jane Jacobs, and both were fantastic observers and
describers of the real place and how you understand it. What this
shows is that deep insight comes from a visceral sense of, emotional
engagement with and love of the city. So many people already under-
stand and apply place, sustainable communities and urbanistic
thinking instinctively, being able to draw threads from different
domains of their experience. There are also many counter cases, such
as David Burnham, who was an architect before he became a planner.
What are the conditions within which it is more possible to
become a thought and action leader? There is a need to allow for a
degree of romanticism and passion allied to prosaic common sense
and a strong value set. Ideally leadership is rooted to place and
community; it needs to be organically grown. Yet a raft of new
niche developers, and some of the mainstream too, even as
outsiders, have managed to bend their goals to local aspiration, so
enlarging the sense of local leadership.
Today we have allowed too much responsibility, creative think-
ing and planning to be subcontracted to consultants. The world
over, municipalities have hollowed out. This creates a form of
subcontracted leadership that can feel imposed. Consultants should
be more like critical friends and less answer providers.

BLINDSPOTS IN CITY-MAKING
There are a series of blindspots in the comprehensive art of city-
making. Their effect causes people to lose insight and
understanding of what makes cities work. In the longer run, this
will cause economic and social damage, and negative spin-offs.
We have already extensively covered the lack of sensory appre-
ciation. The five other most important domains of missing
knowledge are:
the emotions;
environmental psychology;
cultural literacy;
artistic thinking; and
diversity.
They all require a deep understanding of people and social dynam-
ics. Critics will complain, Oh not another thing to consider. Weve
only just absorbed sustainable communities, diversity and gender
issues. Yet these concepts are merely enlightened common sense.
There are two basic approaches: first, embedding this knowledge
as a consideration within existing disciplines through adapting
training programmes or the help of experts and, second, specifi-
cally bringing in experts as part of a team.
The emotions
Emotions drive our life. They shape our possibilities, determine our
reactions to situations and our outlook on the future. Yet have you
ever read a city plan that starts with the emotions or even refers to
them? Our aim is to make citizens happy. We want to create a
sense of joy and passion in our city, to engender a feeling of love for
your place. We want to encourage a feeling of inspiration and
beauty. It is rare to find such sentiments in the context of urban
discourse. Yet it is odd that emotions, a defining feature of human
existence, are absent in discussions of city-making. Instead the
prevalent, interchangeable words and concepts proliferating involve
a barren, unemotional language that is performance-driven strat-
egy, development, policy, outcomes, framework, targets and feels
hollow and without a reference point. A challenge for city leaders is
to describe the aims for their city without using any of those words.

In 1995 Daniel Goleman published Emotional Intelligence,
30
which pulled together the huge amount of work in developing areas
of brain research, where extraordinary advances have been made in
understanding how people function. Goleman stressed the central-
ity of emotions. While most people already knew this intuitively,
now this notion was given experimental testimony. This book, and
other writings by authors such as Jack Mayer, Peter Salovey and
David Caruso, have advanced our understanding of the role of
emotions in dealing with life.
Emotional Intelligence focuses on two broad areas. First,
human competencies like self-awareness, self-discipline, motiva-
tion, persistence, empathy and social skills are of greater
consequence than IQ or technical skills in much of life. (And these
forms of intelligence can be taught.) Second, there seem to be eight
fundamental emotions. Five are connected to survival: fear, guilt,
anger, sadness and shame. The three others excitement, joy and
love make us bond and attach and are not about survival. A ninth
crucial element is surprise the startled emotion that can translate
into either fear or excitement, depending on context. Within this
emotional interplay there is a balance between safety and a sense of
anchoring and exploration. Just as unfettered fear is unsustainable,
so is continuous excitement. Emotions and feelings are different,
although the words are used interchangeably. All feelings are a
compound of the emotions a palette of colours. The evidence
suggests that these emotions are not only cross-cultural but that
they apply to the whole mammalian realm.
How does this connect to city-making? Just as we can test a
persons feelings system, any place-making project should start with
How does it feel? rather than Does it meet a particular specifica-
tion? The latter is not about the human condition. If one can tap
into emotions, places can become more sustaining and sustainable.
For example, darkness engenders fear, but stark sodium lights
which seek to solve fear also make us fearful as the light sharpens
the contours between dark and light. It feels cold and external. Soft
light that feels welcoming is a better solution. High-rise blocks can
make people feel diminished as overwhelming structures can feel
outside a persons control, thus engendering fear and again a cold
and external feeling. It makes a person feel less powerful. It takes
away the sense of identity with which we manage the world. Thus
a high-rise block that works would tend to balance the excitement
of a view or a sense of awe with comforting features. These might,

for example, be soft textures created through greening or planting.
Interestingly, the theme park seeks to balance the emotions in a
controlled way by triggering excitement while diminishing fear.
Contrast a theme park with a cathedral. Even for the non-
religious, a medieval cathedral or mosque can uplift as the experi-
ence of a sense of awe and dignity balances the possible
overwhelming feeling with a feeling of order and structure. On the
other hand, a modern church can often feel like a social workers
gathering place when it does not lift the person into a different
state of being, belonging and wanting to feel attached. Attachment
is a fundamental human cue. The brain, it appears, is hard-wired
to need a dimension we can call the spiritual some high-order
symmetry. Yet we do not have the same level of evidence as to
where to locate it. It is a common cross-cultural response which
triggers a sense of possibility and wholeness. Much of this knowl-
edge is intuitive. Intuition, although decried as unscientific, in fact
requires a highly developed sensibility, which comes from reflect-
ing on a range of experiences. Intuitively, people seem to know
what kind of places work and they vote with their feet as these
become popular. They might not be able to explain why, as their
intuition is insufficiently self-conscious and thus untutored. Again,
intuition has zero status in city-making, so people have to school
themselves in accepting physical environments that conflict with
their own instincts rather than trusting their own judgements. By
neglecting the capacity for people fundamentally to trust their own
judgements we infantilize them.
The emotional intelligence debate also highlights the fact that
competencies based on emotional intelligence play a far greater role
in leadership and general performance than do intellect or technical
skill, and that both individuals and organizations benefit from culti-
vating these capabilities. In Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power
of Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman, Annie McKee and
Richard E. Boyatzis outline five components: Self-awareness, the
ability to recognize and understand ones moods, emotions and drives
as well as their effect on others, which leads to accurate self-assess-
ment, and self-confidence; self-regulation, the ability to control or
redirect disruptive impulses or moods as well as the propensity to
suspend judgement, which leads to self-control and adaptability;
motivation, a passion for something, such as the city, that goes
beyond money or status as well as a propensity to pursue goals with
energy and persistence; empathy, the capacity to understand the

emotional make-up of others and the skill of treating people accord-
ing to their emotional reactions; and social skill, the ability to manage
relationships and build networks as well as find common ground and
build rapport.
31
At the core of the latter two is empathetic listening.
Environmental psychology
Environmental psychology measures the effect of the physical and
social environment on the health and well-being of individuals and
communities. The discipline has a rich history stretching back over
50 years. The vast evidence it has gathered includes:
the harmful effects of ugliness this could be a building, cheap
materials, bad urban design or townscape planning;
the restorative effects of beauty, even though what beauty is in
a context will be subject to debate;
the impact on people of a clutter of signs and information over-
load;
the disorienting effects of confusion in the urban environment
in terms of feeling safe;
the influence of height on the senses, feeling overwhelmed by
the townscape, especially when the pavements are too narrow;
the impact of heaviness or clunkiness of buildings;
The consequences of seas of endless asphalt, wide roads and
turning circles or sprawl;
how mental geography determines a sense of well-being; thus
the effect of people feeling cut off by roads, barriers and obsta-
cles;
the effect of motorway gateways, such as spaghetti junction in
Birmingham, or looming overpasses;
feelings about dirt and rubbish and the subsequent lack of care
people have for their environment; and
the repercussions of noise and car dominance.
Clearly both beauty and ugliness are relative terms, yet there is a
surprising coalescence in agreeing their scope. It is often highlighted
that more traditional designs are favoured over the modern. This is
often seen as a consequence of the failure of many new housing
designs in the 1960s,
32
but in fact there is a complex of reasons.
One is the impact of the speed of change, which leads to a perva-
siveness of risk consciousness and anything modern is risky. It

feeds deeper anxieties about our notion of progress and the arro-
gance and overconfidence of science and technology that it can
solve any problem. In this context, the past and nostalgia seem like
a safe, comforting place. Experimenting with new designs for living
that might work better seems frightening.
Depending on age, class, life position and income, concepts of
aesthetics and good design vary, while what is deemed ugly tends
to cut across divisions. Unsurprisingly, the net effect of beautiful,
well-designed, high quality physical environments is that they feel
restorative, more care is taken of them, feelings of stress and fear of
crime is reduced, and social mixing increases, as does hope, moti-
vation and confidence in the future and thus well-being. Natural
environments have similar restorative effects.
By contrast, ugly environments increase crime and fear of crime
and lead to stress, vandalism, untidiness, feelings of depression,
isolation, loneliness, worthlessness, a lack of aspiration and a
drained will. The consequence is a self-reinforcing negative cycle,
the likelihood of less employment, reduced social capital and less
social bonding, although community spirit can occasionally be
intensely strong in places of such disadvantage. A core question to
any architect is then, How does your structure help build social
capital?
Similar evidence exists for other phenomena, such as how levels
of noise cause people to shut off and become uncommunicative,
how a lack of quality space makes people feel impoverished, how
too many cars overwhelm, or how wide open asphalt or concrete
can lead to depression.
Within each of these, there are the thresholds of change that
people can psychologically bear. People are affected by, but cope
with, say, a pub changing its name three times in a few years.
Anchoring either in physical space, through the community or with
peers is key. Interestingly, change and variability are more accepted
when decisions go with the flow and grain of a local culture, and
culture thus becomes a backbone rather than a defensive shield. So
working with and uncovering this cultural stuff through consulta-
tion processes is far more central than we think.
This brings us to the third large domain missing in city-making
cultural literacy.

Cultural literacy
33
Cultural literacy is the ability to read, understand, find significance
in, evaluate, compare and decode the local cultures in a place. This
allows one to work out what is meaningful and significant to people
who live there. We understand better the life cycle of the city in
motion. We understand more what we see, feel, smell and hear. We
grasp better the shapes of urban landscapes and why they came
about. We sense history in how the city goes about its business,
who the historic names of places refer to and what their purpose
was and how that resource might be used for the future of the city.
We recognize how perhaps the placement of facilities like markets,
often seemingly chaotic at first sight, are thought through at root.
We feel the citys economy viscerally, both through obvious signs
like a steel plant and through signs of its going up or down shab-
biness or For sale signs, for example. We identify the social
consequences of urban economies in transition, as when lower
value uses (for example, cheap incubation units and artists
studios) get supplanted by higher value uses (for example, retail
units). Here we are given very clear visual clues as to economic
direction. We appreciate aesthetic codes, so understand the mean-
ings of colours, the style of buildings and their presentation.
Subconsciously trained in advertising symbolism, the culturally
literate intuits and interprets the manifold urban distinctions and
identifiers to whom a shop is targeted, what draws people in and
what repels.
Culture is who we are, the sum of our beliefs, attitudes and
habits. It is seen in customary ways of behaving making a living,
eating, expressing affection, getting ahead or, in the urban context,
behaving in public places. Some cultural rites have evolved over
generations, such as the passegiata, the evening stroll in Italy or
Spain. Each culture has codes or assumptions by which it lives, and
there are expectations underlying those customary behaviours, for
example what kinds of acts of intimacy or affection are deemed
appropriate in public space. This may condition how we organize
space or the iconography of our road signs, which, while interna-
tionalizing, still have local distinctiveness. Cultures create artefacts
things people make or have made that have meaning for them.
These punctuate the city, typically monuments to past leaders or
heroes in the main square or in front of a government building.
34
Religious monuments to saints or gods also have pride of place,

especially those representing the dominant religion. In most modern
cities the artefact might equally be a Henry Moore or Alexander
Calder sculpture sited in front of downtown office towers, symbol-
izing the wealth and power of corporate capital. The meanings of
artefacts change over time as new interpretations of history evolve.
Cultures need economic, political, religious and social institu-
tions to provide and enforce regular, predictable patterns of
behaviour so that the culture is reinforced and replicated. In cities
these are strategically placed to induce awe or respect. Think of
Sienas Piazza del Campo. From medieval times onwards in Europe
the layout of a towns civic centre or market square has been domi-
nated by the key civic institutions, the town hall, the guild house,
the cathedral and perhaps a learning institution. These represent
the four powers: political, economic, religious and that of knowl-
edge. These power concentrations are now also more spread
throughout the city. Cultures pattern how they behave and relate.
This becomes the social structure how we behave in crowds, make
eye contact, how much personal space we need or whether we
queue for a bus or just go for it.
35
Our culture shapes how we create and make our places, from
the physical level from the design of street furniture to icon
buildings to how we feel about ourselves and the place. So the
scope, possibilities, style and tenor of social and economic develop-
ment in a city is culturally determined. If as a culture we are more
closed-minded or strongly hierarchical and focus on traditional
values, it can make our culture inflexible and might make adjusting
to major transformation more difficult. It might make communi-
cating with different groups difficult. It might hold back
international trade or tourism because obstacles will be created to
the free flow of exchange and ideas. It might deter creating mixed
partnerships to solve problems now recognized as a major way
forward for communities. It might hold back developing a vibrant,
empowered small business sector.
By contrast, if our traditions value tolerance and openness,
those adjustments to the new world may be easier. Those places
that share ideas and have the capacity to absorb bring differences
together more effectively. This does not mean their culture becomes
subsumed identity is still shaped by where you came from. There
is, however, sufficient mutual influence and counter-influence,
coalescing and mixing over time to create a special fused and
dynamic identity, not one hardened into an ossified shell.

These views about how life is managed do not happen by acci-
dent they are a response to history and circumstance. If the culture
esteems hard work and the taking of responsibility, the outcome
will be different than if it assumes others will take decisions for
you. If a culture has an ethos that assumes no one is to be trusted,
collaboration and partnership is hard to achieve and bureaucracy
likely to be extensive; by contrast, where trust is high, regulation
tends to have a lighter touch. Societies that have transitioned from
arbitrary rule, which may have lasted for decades or centuries, will
not with ease move into liberal democracy overnight. As the democ-
racy of democratic countries itself took substantial time to take
hold.
These transitions take generations to unfold in their fullness,
and in the meantime corruption is usually rife before uncertainties
are settled with more ordered rules and common guidelines for
civility. Cities are places where varied publics can come together to
co-create a civic realm a precondition for a confident civic society
to uphold rules and justice. This is where citizenship is more impor-
tant than ethnic group, clan, tribe, religion, party or cadre
allegiance. Cultures and societies which place such an emphasis on
citizenship are likely to be more resilient, flexible and ultimately
prosperous than those that are divided along lines of blood or
traditional allegiances.
What we call the culture of a place, whether a village, a city, a
region or a country, is the residue of what has stood the test of time.
It is what is left and deemed important after the ebb and flow of
argument, the fickleness of fashion and negotiation about what is
valuable has passed. Culture is the response to circumstance, loca-
tion, history and landscape. Thus a region of regular warfare about
boundaries is one where people are more suspicious than a more
settled one, port cities tend to be open-minded because of the
influxes of people over time, and a place that is fortunate and
strikes luck with its resources might come across as more generous.
The specific circumstances of place and the problems and
opportunities they present inspire a culture to find its own unique
solutions, such as how to save water, how to gain sustaining food
from the environment, how to ensure food remains healthy, how to
build machines that work in the context and with the materials
available, how to maintain machinery, how to recycle waste, how
to build to protect themselves against the ravages of and changes in
weather, how to heal the ill, how to appease the unknown forces in

the ether, how to celebrate good fortune and be sad about distress.
This is what we also call local distinctiveness. It is an asset and a
resource with power. It locks up within it social and economic
capital.
All this leaves people in a specific place with intangible things
like views and opinions about their world and the worlds outside;
passions about certain things and rituals; the role and importance
of higher beings and the spirit; moral codes and ethical positions
about what is right and wrong; value judgements about what we
think is good, beautiful and desirable or ugly and bad; and atti-
tudes about how we approach problems, conduct our affairs,
organize ourselves and manage business.
The values of a culture leave tangible marks: the buildings
respond to weather and wealth and the spirit of their times; their
quality, design, style or grandeur reflects the values and foibles of
the powerful; how good the buildings of the poor are depends
largely on how well they are empowered; places of power, ritual
and worship reflect the role of politics and religion; places for
culture like museums, libraries, theatres or galleries from more
reverential times demand obedience through their appearance
they seem to say come to our hallowed ground whereas more
modern and democratic buildings invite and entice, they are more
transparent in style. This is reflected in the materials used, perhaps
granite in one and glass in the other.
The industrial landscape too shapes and is shaped by culture.
The best factories of the industrial age project the pride of manu-
facture and production, the worst the exploitation of their workers.
Grime and filth live often side by side with the raw beauty of gleam-
ing machinery. Culture spreads its tentacles into every crevice of
our lives: how we shop and the look of shops, markets and retail;
how we spend leisure time and how the parks, boulevards and
places of refuge are set out; how we move around and whether we
prefer public or private transport; and, most importantly, how and
where we give birth to our children and how we bury our dead.
The list is endless.
When we look at places culturally and are culturally literate, we
see at once whether care, pride and love is present or whether there is
disenchantment, disinterest or disengagement. We see, too, without
needing to know the details, whether corruption or subterfuge are
the order of the day. Being culturally literate means understanding
the weft and wove of a place, what matters to a people and how they

have expressed it. Without such understanding one walks blind. And
this can all be learnt by paying attention, watching, learning to look
closely, finding out how and why things work as they do, assessing
the past to know how it shapes the present.
Appreciating culture is even more crucial in periods of dramatic
transformation, because it is then that the culture needs to absorb,
digest and adjust. Culture, when acknowledged, gives strength in
moving forward, even if its culture itself that has to change. It then
becomes a backbone that can create the resilience that makes
change and transformation easier. Confidence is key for creativity,
innovation and renewal. When cultures feel threatened or weak or
that another culture is superimposing itself upon them, they go into
their shell. Culture then becomes a defensive shield not open to
change, imagination and creativity.
Artistic thinking
36
The values and attributes that dominate and are responsible for the
malaise of the modern world narrow conceptions of efficiency
and rationality are almost diametrically opposed to the values
promoted by artistic creativity.
The former worldview is summed up by words such as goal,
objective, focus, strategy, outcome, calculation, measur-
able, quantifiable, logical, solution, efficient, effective,
economic sense, profitable, rational and linear. In contrast,
the artistic worldview is powerful for the very reason that its not
hostage to such a rigid vocabulary.
While culture is broad, a significant core consists of the arts,
and the quintessence of the arts is artistic creativity. Human beings
in all societies throughout history have expressed artistic creativity.
What is unique about artistic creativity? What are its distinct attrib-
utes? What human values does it embody and share with others, so
that it is capable of having deep significance for individuals,
communities, and even, over time, for history? Can the arts re-
anchor humankind, knit together what has been rent apart?
At its best artistic creativity involves a journey which artists are
impelled to undertake, not knowing where it will lead or if and
how they will arrive; it involves truth-searching and embodies a
quest for the profound and true; it has no calculated purpose, it is
not goal-oriented, nor measurable in easy ways, nor fully explica-
ble rationally its outcome can be mysterious; it has no quick or

easy solutions; it denies instant gratification; it accepts ambiguity,
uncertainty and paradox; it calls upon humility and endurance; it
endures the tedious and repetitious so as to reach mastery; it
contains loneliness and the potential for failure; it recognizes that
something beyond the rational such as a soul exists; it can offer
glimpses of the (non-supernatural) sacred; it gives the spirit a
connection outside itself; it originates in the self but aims to create
work which enters the common space of humanity; it proclaims
that humans have the right to pursue freedom and urges confidence
in exercising that right; it inspires others to be brave and to risk
failure; it champions originality and authenticity but opposes
vanity; it accepts the potential for epiphany and exaltation and for
fun and delight; it generates openness to new ideas and new ways
of doing; it lives in the now it takes place in the moment; it is
transgressive and disruptive of the existing order (not as a pose or
to flaunt difference but as a necessary reality); it is often uncom-
fortable, even frightening.
Artistic creativity is expression. What is special about the artis-
tic activities singing, acting, writing, dancing, performing music,
sculpting, painting, designing or drawing especially in relation to
developing cities? Participating in the arts uses the imaginary realm
to a degree that other disciplines, such as sports or most of science,
do not. Those are more rule-bound and precise. The distinction
between involvement in arts and writing a computer programme,
engineering or sports is that the latter are ends in themselves, they
do not, or very rarely, change the way you perceive society; they
tend to teach you something specific. The arts can have wider
impacts by focusing on reflection and original thought; they pose
challenges and want to communicate (mostly). If the goal of cities
is to have self-motivated, creative places, they need engaged indi-
viduals who think. Turning imagination into reality or something
tangible is a creative act, so the arts, more than most activities, are
concerned with creativity, invention and innovation. Reinventing a
city or nursing it through transition is a creative act, so an engage-
ment with or through the arts helps.
This engagement with the arts combines stretching oneself and
focusing, feeling the senses, expressing emotion and self-reflecting.
Essential to it is mastering the craft through technical skill, on top
of which is layered interpretation that sums up something mean-
ingful to the listener or viewer. The result can be to broaden
horizons, to convey meaning, with immediacy and/or depth, to

communicate iconically so you grasp things in one without needing
to understand step by step, to help nurture memory, to symbolize
complex ideas and emotions, to see the previously unseen, to learn,
to uplift, to encapsulate previously scattered thoughts, to anchor
identity and to bond people to their community or, by contrast, to
stun, to shock by depicting terrible images for social, moral or
thought-provoking reasons, to criticize or to create joy, to enter-
tain, to be beautiful; and the arts can even soothe the soul and
promote popular morale. More broadly, expression through the
arts is a way of passing ideas and concepts on to later generations
in a (somewhat) universal language. To have these effects, the arts
have to be communicated.
Not all art creates all these responses all of the time. The best
art, though, works at a number of these levels simultaneously. Art,
and especially the making of art rather than just consuming, trig-
gers activity in the mind and agitates it (and even the body) it
arouses the senses and these form into emotion and then thought.
It is not a linear process, but as it happens associations and seem-
ingly random intuitions and connections come forth. It is more
unstructured, less step-by-step than scientific or technological
procedure; it looks more for intuition, it is freer flowing. It
resonates at a deeper level. At their best the arts on occasion can
lift you beyond the day-to-day on to a higher plane that some
people call spiritual.
Humans are largely driven by their sensory and emotional land-
scape, in spite of centuries of developing scientific knowledge and
logical, analytical, abstract and technical thought. They are not
rational in a scientific sense, which does not mean they are irra-
tional, rather arational. This is why all cultures develop the arts. As
the arts can speak the language of the senses and feelings, they have
immense power that the scientifically minded should understand
and use as it can help them achieve their aims. There are hardly
any other ways of tapping into this knowledge. Perhaps meditation
or sex. Thus participating in or consuming art helps interpret reality
and can provide leadership and vision.
This highlights the role of the arts in tapping potential. The
assumption is that everyone can in principle be more creative,
involved, engaged, informed and that this is significant in creating
citizenship in transition countries. The out-of-the-box, lateral
thinking and use of imagination present in the arts are perhaps the
most valuable things the arts can offer other disciplines such as

planning, engineering, social services or to the business community,
especially if allied to other emphases like a focus on local distinc-
tiveness.
The arts help cities in a variety of ways. First, with their
aesthetic focus they draw attention to quality and beauty.
Unfortunately this is expressed in a limited way typically a piece
of public sculpture in front of an ugly or ordinary building. Yet in
principle they challenge us to ask: Is this beautiful? This should
affect how urban design and architecture evolve. Second, the arts
challenge us to ask questions about ourselves as a place. This
should lead us to ask: What kind of place do we want to be and
how should we get there? Arts programmes can challenge
decision-makers by undertaking uncomfortable projects that force
leaders to debate and take a stand. For example, an arts project
about or with migrants might make us look at our prejudices. Arts
projects can empower people who have previously not expressed
their views, so artists working with communities can in effect help
consult people. For example, a community play devised with a local
group can tell us much more than a typical political process. Finally,
arts projects can simply create enjoyment. A useful question to ask
is: What is the problem and can a cultural approach help; can the
arts help? For intergenerational communication or mixing cultures,
for example, clearly the arts are more effective than many other
initiatives.
Seen in this light the arts can help create an open-minded culture
that is more resilient and adaptable to the changes brought about by
political ructions and globalization. Think of any problem or oppor-
tunity and the arts might help. What other activity can better deal
with dialogue between cultures or ethnic conflicts or allow individu-
als to discover talents, to gain confidence, to become motivated, to
change the mindset, to involve themselves in community?
The lesson learnt is that perhaps it is artistic thinking that is the
strongest message from the arts. Planners, engineers, business
people and social workers could all benefit from seeing their worlds
through the eyes of artists
All of this has left out the fact that the best of our past arts ends
up in museums, and so the arts also contribute to creating destina-
tions visitor attractions and help foster a citys image as well as
generating an economic impact, as do the best of the contemporary
arts, which are found in galleries, theatres, performance venues or
bookshops. Furthermore, it ignores that increasingly it is the

marriage between scientific and artistic creativity that is driving the
development of new products and services. Only a few cities have
grasped these possibilities (one being San Jos).
Diversity
37
We cannot consider the future of cities without considering diver-
sity. Ethnic and cultural diversity are a driver and a symptom of
change. There are few parts of the world which are entirely homo-
geneous, while an increasing number of urban communities
routinely comprise dozens of different groups in visible numbers.
Major cities such as New York, London or Singapore are now
world cities, microcosms of the world in all its teeming diversity.
This diversity plays itself out differentially as developmental
processes vary around the globe: a pride in diversity in some places;
the rise of ethnic cleansing in others, such as in the Balkans or
between Shias and Sunnis in Iraq.
Diversity in its many forms is the primary element of a vibrant
place, diversity of business, diversity of activities and diversity of
built form creating visual stimulation.
Most places are very diverse when you look deeply enough and
the diversity of cities is perhaps the central urban question of the
21st century, as mobility increases and reactions to it too.
For example, Britain has always been a far more diverse and
heterogeneous nation than that imagined to comprise simply the
English, Scots, Irish and Welsh: from the North Africans that
patrolled Hadrians Wall on behalf of the Romans and the interplay
of Celtic civilizations with successive waves of medieval invaders
and settlers, such as the Vikings and Normans, to the deep-seated
communities of Jewish and Huguenot origin, even Yemenis in the
Northeast, the post-colonial immigrants such as the African-
Caribbeans, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Chinese, and also
Europeans, from Germans, Italians and Portuguese to
Scandinavians, Poles and Russians, Australasians, Arabs, Nigerians,
South Africans, Moroccans, Somalis, South and North Americans.
London is now one of the most diverse cities that has ever
existed and its diversity played a role in it getting the 2012
Olympics. Altogether, more than 300 languages are spoken by the
people of London and the city has at least 50 non-indigenous
communities with populations of 10,000 or more. Virtually every
race, nation, culture and religion in the world can claim at least a

handful of Londoners. Londons Muslim population of 607,083
people is probably the most diverse anywhere in the world, besides
Mecca. Only 59.8 per cent of Londoners consider themselves to be
White British, while 3.2 per cent consider themselves to be of mixed
race.
38
New York and Toronto are equally diverse.
The rest of Britain too is changing. There are foreign-born people
in large and smaller British cities you may not have heard of and the
same is true all over Europe, America and Australasia. There are now
over 1000 French people living in Bristol and Brighton, 650 Greeks in
Colchester, 600 Portuguese in Bournemouth and Poole, 800 Poles in
Bradford, 1300 Somalis in Sheffield, 770 Zimbabweans in Luton, 370
Iranians in Newcastle and 400 in Stockport and 240 Malaysians in
Southsea. And these figures only represent those who are foreign-born
and not the much larger numbers of second generation and beyond,
of people whose nationality and identity will be hyphenated.
The fundamental question is whether increased interaction
between ethnic cultures will produce social and economic innova-
tions which will drive the prosperity and quality of life of our cities;
whether intercultural mixing is a source of dynamism for cities.
Historically the great cities of the world, from Gangzhu (formerly
Canton) to Delhi, Constantinople/Istanbul, Rome, Amsterdam or
New York, have been hubs of ethnicity where the interplay helped
achieve their prosperity, innovativeness and stature, although people
often lived parallel lives.
The notion of cultural mixing shifts the perspective on diversity
away from multiculturalism. In the multicultural city we acknowl-
edge and ideally celebrate our differing cultures. In the intercultural
city we move one step beyond and focus on what we can do
together as diverse cultures in a shared space.
Without undermining the achievements of multiculturalism, the
charge levelled at it is that it has created a false sense of harmony,
which worked for a while yet imperceptibly moved from being part
of the solution to part of the problem. Particularly at the local level,
the system in Britain, for example encouraged the creation of
culturally and spatially distinct communities, even ghettoes, fronted
by community leaders and that difference became the very
currency by which importance was judged and progress made. This
has proved challenging for second and third generation members of
such communities, who find it difficult to find a place which
acknowledges or rewards their new, often hybrid senses of identity,
so alienation often ensues.

Multiculturalism spoke only for the minorities, it has been
argued, hindering a two-way conversation with British culture. It is
also accused of having devalued and alienated the culture of the
white working class, driving them further away from the goal of
tolerance and into the arms of extremists.
39
This is not the way diversity is perceived everywhere. In soci-
eties in which immigration lies at the heart of national identity, such
as the US, Canada and Australia, diversity has been far more widely
regarded as a source of potential opportunity and advantage. The
private sector evolved the idea that there was a business case for
diversity where diverse teams of people brought new skills and
aptitudes, which broadened a companys business offer and which
in combination might produce new process and product innova-
tions which would advance competitiveness.
40
The idea emerged that a more heterogeneous city or nation is
better equipped than homogeneous ones to weather the storms of
the global economy and adapt to change. Such a charge, for
example, has been levelled against Japan and Germany as they have
fallen behind the economic performance of more diverse G8
member states. It is argued too that success at the level of local and
regional economics will also be influenced by the extent to which
cities can offer an open, tolerant and diverse milieu to attract and
hold mobile wealth creators.
41
Such thinking has made fewer
inroads into many European countries, especially those where even
ethnic cleansing emerged after the break-up of the communist bloc,
such as the former Yugoslavia.
In Europe there are five distinctive policy frameworks for immi-
gration, integration and citizenship: corporate multiculturalism;
civic republicanism; ethnic nationalism and the Gastarbeiter (guest-
worker) system; the southern Mediterranean unregulated and then
restrictive regime; and the minority nation idea.
42
These differences
shape the sense of belonging and identity urban citizens can achieve
in different countries.
While change on the ground has been relatively speedy, the
public discourse around diversity was slow. Since the turn of this
century debate has become a bubbling ferment. It is not just a re-
emergence of old questions and arguments but something
qualitatively different. It is no longer a question of how many
foreigners a country can accept but rather what it means to be
German, Norwegian, Chinese or British in a very different world.

Many argue that the future lies not in finding better ways of
integrating outsiders into, say, British society but in fundamentally
reappraising what we understand British society to be. British (or
German, Italian or Finnish) culture and values cannot be reduced
to a set of unchanging principles, but is an evolving and transform-
ing entity which responds to the ongoing process of hybridization
that accelerating change is bringing about. What will hold coun-
tries together is not the social glue of shared values but the social
bridge of shared futures.
The intercultural city idea, without denying that there are great
problems of economic disadvantage and racism, switches the focus.
Instead of discussing diversity largely as a dilemma it asks: What is
the diversity advantage for cities which can be achieved through
intercultural exchange and innovation. To unlock this advantage
requires new skills and aptitudes on the part of professionals such
as cultural literacy and competence. To assess the preparedness of a
city achieving diversity advantage there need to be indicators of
openness and there is an intercultural lens through which profes-
sionals can re-evaluate their work.
Openness is key. It is connected to curiosity: the desire to know
what lies beyond ones spatial, cultural or intellectual boundaries
and the capacity to pursue the interest. Multiculturalism was
founded upon the belief in tolerance between cultures but it is not
always the case that multicultural places are open places.
Interculturalism, on the other hand, requires openness as a pre-
requisite, and while openness in itself is not the guarantee of
interculturalism, it provides the setting for interculturalism to
develop.
Economic structures and legal systems play a fundamental role
in determining the openness of a society. Openness, in the context
of the intercultural city, means the degree to which differences and
diversities between individuals and groups are acknowledged,
respected and encouraged in law. The ideal of this city Sandercock
calls cosmopolis. It requires a fundamental reappraisal of the city
and how it must respond, root and branch, to the changing world.
43
Cosmopolis is the new model hybrid city or the mongrel city. A
place of a thousand daily encounters, interactions, negotiations,
accommodations and reformulations. Within a cosmopolis inter-
culturalism is key. The term emerged in the Netherlands and
Germany in the educational field and was concerned primarily with
communication between different nationalities in border regions,

while across the Atlantic it responds to the growing needs of
American government and business to sell their message and their
goods overseas.
44
Comedias take on interculturalism moves on from this. It is
not a tool for communication but a process of mutual learning and
joint growth.
45
This implies a process of acquiring particular skills
and competences which will enable one to interact functionally
with anyone different from oneself, regardless of origins. It implies
a different way of reading situations, signs and symbols and of
communicating, which is cultural literacy. Intercultural competence
in a diverse society becomes as important as basic numeracy and
literacy.
It allows us to re-envision our world or profession through an
intercultural lens. Cities are increasingly driven by the need to inno-
vate economically, socially, culturally to solve the problems that
they as cities create.
46
There are significant differences between the community cohe-
sion model and interculturalism. Foremost is the attitude towards
harmony and disagreement. The aim of the former may be harmony
at all costs and the avoidance of disagreement or dispute, even
though this may require the imposition of a blanket set of commu-
nal values and viewpoints upon an increasingly diverse and
hybridizing community. Disagreement and dispute should be
embraced rather than swept under the carpet and should be
accepted as a vital component of a healthy and vibrant community.
Interculturalism requires rules of engagement to negotiate and
actively resolve difference. By way of a concise definition of inter-
culturalism, we have argued in the past that:
The intercultural approach goes beyond equal oppor-
tunities and respect for existing cultural differences to
the pluralist transformation of public space, institu-
tions and civic culture. It does not recognize cultural
boundaries as fixed but in a state of flux and remak-
ing. An intercultural approach aims to facilitate
dialogue, exchange and reciprocal understanding
between people of different backgrounds.
47
Interculturalism is not a monolithic creed, but a process and inter-
active approach.
We can measure how ethnically diverse a city is. It is harder to
measure how intercultural it is. There are shortcomings with exist-

ing data in most places. In Britain, the standard 18-class ethnic cate-
gorization used is essentially a Commonwealth classification which
distinguishes Black African, Black Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani and
Bangladeshi but treats all non-British Whites as one and anybody
else as other. Second, data is usually not available at a low enough
level to produce reliable statistics for individual cities. So the stan-
dard data only tells us the degree to which a place is ethnically
diverse or multicultural, but cannot take us much further.
One measure that does go further is the index of isolation. The
formula produces a statistic that can be interpreted as the ratio of
two probabilities that your neighbour is BME (black and minor-
ity ethic) if you are BME yourself and that your neighbour is BME
if you are white.
The ratio is a measure of how isolated the two groups are from
one another. The higher the ratio, the greater is the isolation. In
Bristol, a BME Bristolian is 2.6 times as likely as a white Bristolian
to live next door to someone who is BME. By contrast, Burnley,
whose BME population is the same as Bristols, has an equivalent
ratio of 8.7. This may be one important contributor to the latters
relative disharmony.
48
Getting beyond the physical proximity of ethnicities the
Comedia research identified four principal spheres of influence, the
openness of:
1 the institutional framework;
2 the business environment;
3 civil society; and
4 public space.
49
The openness of the institutional framework is determined princi-
pally by the regulatory and legislative framework within national
or local government. Easy access to citizenship is an indicator, and
the means of measurement would include the naturalization rate,
provision of language classes to learn the new language, or access
to health and social welfare for refugees.
In policy areas such as education, the presence of an intercul-
tural/multicultural citizenship curriculum is an indicator. At a city
level an indicator and measure would be the existence of an inter-
cultural strategy.
The openness of the business environment refers to trade and
industry, the job market and training. Indicators might be drawn

from commitments of businesses on recruitment and training.
A means of measuring this at a city level might be the ethnic
composition of staff and leadership positions and cultural aware-
ness training in major companies.
In terms of employment, one might assess the percentage of
jobs requiring minority languages, interpreters in hospitals or
community settings or intercultural mediators, people who help
translate across cultures. Alternatively one could ask how many
ethnic minority firms are winning tenders from the city.
The openness of civil society is the extent to which the social
fabric of a place is more or less intercultural. Nationally one could
measure the incidence of mixed marriages via the census or the
index of isolation mentioned above. At the city-level indicators
might include the inter-ethnic and interfaith representation on
health, welfare and education boards or management and commu-
nity forums. The ethnic mix of top management tiers in the 20 top
public, voluntary and private sector organizations could tell a
story.
Cross-cultural economic, social, cultural and civic networks
could be measured from observation and interviews to establish
whether there are any ethnically and culturally mixed business asso-
ciations, social clubs, religious groups, political parties and
movements. In addition it is useful to look at projects that involve
different ethnic groups.
Much of the openness in public attitudes is seed-bedded in
schools, and aside from assessing the overall curriculum, relevant
indicators could include the number of school children learning
foreign languages or the percentage of overseas or minority ethnic
students in universities. Looking at a citys internal and external
place marketing one could assess how it has decided to project itself
into the world.
The openness of public space focuses on the extent to which
people feel they have the freedom of the city or whether there are
spaces or whole neighbourhoods which feel closed or even hostile
to one or more groups within the city. The indicators would
measure the degree of mixing in housing and neighbourhoods;
safety and mobility of ethnic minorities in all areas of the city;
participation in public facilities such as libraries and cultural venues
in the city centre; perceptions of cultural inclusiveness in public
space; and views on which city institutions or events and festivals
are welcoming and which are forbidding.

A way of applying the intercultural logic to the city is to look
at potential and assess things through an intercultural lens. Cultural
literacy is the precondition to decode the varied cultures that are
interwoven in a place. It is a form of cultural capital which enables
us to act sensitively and effectively in a world of differences. It is
crucial for survival. The intercultural lens makes it possible to take
an apparently familiar issue or discipline and to look at it afresh.
It is difficult for individual urban professionals to accumulate
an in-depth cultural knowledge of every group represented in their
city. With more intercultural dialogue, knowledge about and
between cultures can occur more seamlessly on a day-to-day basis.
This involves having questions in mind such as: Are our expecta-
tions different?, Are my assumptions valid in this different
context? or Are people interpreting what I say differently than I
think?
From this comes the awareness that in all forms of human
communication, the information is making a journey through
several filters. As Hall reminds us in The Hidden Dimension,
People from different cultures not only speak different languages
but, what is possibly more important, inhabit different sensory
worlds.
50
In making a place you can take any topic and see it through an
intercultural lens: public consultation and engagement, urban plan-
ning and development, how cities are attracting migrants, housing
planning, business and entrepreneurship, education, the arts or
sports development. Lets briefly look at master-planning.
Master-planning
Cultural preferences and priorities are etched into the mindscape of
the professional urban experts who determine what the physical
fabric of our cities looks like: the engineers, surveyors, master-
planners, architects, urban designers, cost accountants, project
managers and developers do not make decisions that are value free
and neutral. What at first sight looks like merely technique and
technical processes concerned with issues Will the building stand
up? Can traffic flow through? What uses should we bring together?
is shaped by value judgements. The look, feel and structure of the
places planners encourage, help design and promote reflects our
assumptions about what we think is right and appropriate. This is
etched into codes, rules and guidelines. It sets the physical stage
upon which social and economic life plays itself out. Even the

aesthetic priorities people choose themselves have their cultural
histories.
What happens then when different cultures meet and coexist in
the same space? There have always been borrowings and graftings,
they have been there so long we cannot see them. For centuries
building styles and fashions criss-crossed Europe: there is English
baroque just as there is French, or German and English gothic.
Exceptions apart, the architectures of Arabia, India and China are
not visible in exterior design in Europe they have had much more
influence on the interior. One only sees the mosque, the gurdwara,
and Chinese gateway arches in Chinatowns. Should we learn from
the great traditions of Arab and Indian architecture and their
aesthetics?
Should the basic building blocks of the city be the same when
looked at through intercultural eyes? Think of street frontages,
building heights, setbacks, pavement widths, turning circles, the
number of windows and their size, how we deal with enclosure,
privacy or sight lines. Think too of the materials we use, colour,
light or water. At its simplest, would streets or the colour palette
used be different seen interculturally? One thinks here of the vivid
colours of housing in Latin America or the use of water in Moorish
culture. Should we structure space to reflect different cultures as
they might see and use spaces in varied ways? Or should we create
open-ended spaces that others can adapt, such as the Kurds who
gather around the steps in Birminghams Chamberlain Square?
Lets touch on a few other areas; for instance, consultation.
Citizens cannot easily be ascribed to one homogeneous group. Thus
consultation cannot simply be a one-off and standardized exercise
but must be a continuous process of informal discussion and
engagement. The orthodox, multiculturalist approach to public
consultation requires that communities are defined by their ethnic-
ity and consulted in isolation (e.g. the African-Caribbean
community, the Asian community) as if ethnicity is the only
factor influencing the way in which people lead their lives in the
city. This limited perspective recognizes the views of the white
population as the cultural norm and the views of ethnic minorities
as inevitably different or aberrant while hybrid identities and
complex intercultural views are not anticipated.
What would intercultural education look like? All ethnic
groups, including the majority white groups, of whatever social
class, would be encouraged to feel that their background, history

and narrative are valued in the school context. An intercultural
education would instil the following six competences in young
people:
1 cultural competence the ability to reflect upon ones own
culture and the culture of others;
2 emotional and spiritual competence the ability to be self-
reflective, handle ones own emotions, empathize with others;
3 linguistic and communicative competence;
4 civic competence the ability to understand and act upon rights
and responsibilities and be socially and morally responsible;
5 creative competence; and
6 sporting competence.
By their very nature the arts are predisposed to being intercultural.
Being interested in what lies beyond the horizon or across a bound-
ary is often what inspires people to make a career in the arts. Being
awkward, rule-questioning, transgressive even, are common char-
acteristics that emerge from the lives of artists, and, more often
than not, this leads to the curiosity to want to explore cultures
other than their own. It might be added that addressing conflict,
fusing opposites and resolving incompatibility are all processes
reported by some artists as triggers in their search for a creative
breakthrough.
Often working on a project-by-project basis, artists are
constantly thrust into new situations with unfamiliar teams and
surroundings, thrown back on their technique to survive. The secret
is to create third spaces, unfamiliar to both [sides], in which differ-
ent groups can share a similar experience of discovery. Sometimes
such spaces allow people to detach aspects of their own identity
(cultural, vocational, sexual) from what they have hitherto regarded
as its essential and dominating character. It is in such spaces youth
groups, drama workshops, sports teams that some of the most
imaginative and successful forms of community healing have taken
place.
51
Other shared spaces do not necessarily have to be located in
buildings. Melbournes mighty Dancing in the Streets in
Federation Square for its international arts festival in 2003 was one
of the most successful ways of bringing communities together, as
each taught the others their dances.

Towards a common agenda
Cities are made by people but rarely do people who know about
people sit around the decision-making table. The exception is
perhaps the market researcher. This might be a person with a back-
ground in anthropology, history or a social science like sociology.
Understanding social dynamics, behaviours, desires and aspirations
is key to how a city works. Investing in this skill can save resources
down the line, given the expense of the built form.
How do you shift the thinking so that an individuals default
mechanism does not lock in initially into the professionally condi-
tioned mindset?
There are a variety of ways to change behaviour and mindset:
to threaten or coerce through force or regulation; to explain more
strongly and convince through argument and training; to reconcep-
tualize; to induce through payment or incentives; to generate
awareness by creating and publicizing aspirational models; or even
by generating a crisis. Often what leads people to change their
minds is a combination of the above.
The issues discussed in this section are unlikely to be shifted by
coercion. They are too subtle and embedded in peoples minds.
Incentives are being created to change the thinking by, for example,
the sustainable communities agenda, which has a touch of coer-
cion in it since many of the big urban regeneration projects have
public resources behind them. Thus, if a developer were against
sustainability, they would be unlikely to be selected. Showing and
publicizing best practice models is a well-trodden path and has
some merit. Reconceptualizing a task can be powerful. For
example, talking of city- or place-making as distinct from urban
development makes a difference. There is an aspirational, holistic
quality to the former and a technical hollowness to the latter. So a
highway engineer is likely to respond completely differently to the
place-making rather than road-making challenge. Yet the best and
most complicated method is through explanation, discussion, argu-
ment and training. The problem is it takes time.
The new thinking should impact on policy at three levels the
conceptual, the discipline-based and the implementational. The first
is aimed at reconceptualizing how we view cities as a whole. It is
concerned with reassessing the concepts and ideas that inform
action and is much the most important as it determines how prob-
lems are conceived and handled at other levels. The idea of

conceiving the city as an organism rather than a machine is an
example. It shifts policy from concentration on physical infrastruc-
ture towards urban and social dynamics and the overall well-being
and health of people, implying a systemic approach to urban prob-
lems. Absorbing the full impact of this shift can be difficult. Second,
thinking about policy at discipline level involves reviewing existing
policies in known fields transport, the environment, economic
development and social services and considering the efficacy of
existing models and ways of addressing problems. For example, in
transport there may have been an emphasis on car transport, which
might need to shift to a hybrid model combining the benefits of
public and private transport. This shift might be easier to achieve
as it is largely a matter of shifting priorities. Third, thinking afresh
about policy implementation involves reviewing the detailed mech-
anisms to expedite policy, such as the financial arrangements or
planning codes to encourage and direct development in certain
directions. This might be how grant regimes are set up and targeted;
what incentive structures, such as tax rebates or fiscal encourage-
ments, are created; or how local plans and the priorities are
highlighted. In principle this is easy to understand and to do, but
not necessarily easy to implement.
Too many people think of the city as simply bricks and mortar

The new generalist
Getting to the point where generic city-making skills are primary
rather than an add-on requires the conceptual shifts highlighted
and deeper reflection on why they are necessary and not optional.
And crisis is a helpful mechanism to generate the urgency to
reassess. Seen clearly there is a sufficient urban crisis to reconsider,
reconceive and to react.
There are two processes involved: new skills that are a core part
of city-making and other skills or dispositions that aid effectiveness
and leadership that apply to any domain.
In getting across the changing landscape of planning and asso-
ciated disciplines it is useful to reconceptualize the new
requirements. For example, to create good cities we need good
observers, explorers, galvanizers, visualizers, interpreters, contex-
tualizers, storytellers, revealers, information-gatherers, strategists,
inspirers, critics, agenda-setters, processors, facilitators, consulters,
translators, analysts, problem-solvers, decision-makers, procurers,
managers, makers, constructors, builders, brokers, mediators,
conciliators, educators, arbitrators, implementers, evaluators,
appraisers and presenters. And then, in addition, the classic disci-
plines associated with urban development like design, planning,
valuing and engineering come into play. The terrain is large many
people will have a combination of these skills and not everyone will
have all to the same degree of intensiveness.
The core point is to understand the essence of what the other
attributes bring. All these attributes have existed for a long time,
but their relative importance has grown. The challenge is to create
an idea of the new generalist or cultured person or professional
where it is assumed that understanding, as distinct from deep
knowledge, of these other skills forms the basic knowledge. The
new generalist knows how to think conceptually, spatially and visu-
ally and is attuned to their multiple intelligences. This more
rounded person is not the jack of all trades or gifted amateur of
older times, but broader based in their appreciation of others.
Overlaid on that are general personal qualities such as open-
ness, listening and empathy as well as the capacity to judge the
timing and appropriateness to move into their near opposites of
decisiveness, implementing, making, shaping and creating.
The above has a substantial training implication, which the
Academy for Sustainable Communities in Britain, for example, is

beginning to address. Yet it needs to go further. Thinking skills are
beginning to be taught in some schools, often using Edward de
Bono-style methods focusing on lateral thinking or, more frequently
cognitive acceleration, especially in the natural sciences.
52
However, there is no school programme nor barely an undergradu-
ate programme that teaches the integrated thinking modern
city-making requires. Indeed, as educationalist Tim Brighouse once
said to me, This would be anathema to the way schools are run.
The implication for urban planning training is to start with a
broad-based urbanism course, perhaps even three years, with
components such as geography, basic architecture, culture, social
dynamics, psychology and planning, then coupled with a one-year
specialist qualification and on-the-job learning.

6
The City as a Living Work of Art
This chapter of The Art of City-Making begins to draw conclusions
together and approaches the questions Where next? and What to
do? Many of the ideas raised here were first developed in Adelaide,
where I was employed as Thinker in Residence.
1
Adelaide has great
qualities, from wine to engineering to its lifestyle, and any passing
criticisms made of the city should be put in the context of the open-
ness which Adelaide displayed to me. The city was courageous in
allowing itself to be used as an exploration ground and my obser-
vations were only possible given the free access I was given. Flaws
would be found in any city under similar scrutiny.
Throughout the following pages you will notice that I use the
prefix re- rather a lot. This is deliberate. It is a prefix of our age.
Both intellectual and material pursuits are increasingly iterative and
retrospective. Contemporary art, architecture, music and literature
consciously borrow from that which has preceded them. The afflu-
ent spend more money on the past, for example, through buying
antiques or researching their family trees. We are always in the
throes of some revival or other, haunted by flares, mullets and
adults wearing school uniforms. In such ways Western culture can
be very self-reflexive. But I am also aware that the past, imagined
or otherwise, can constitute an escape from the present and that
re- can be a superfluous adjunct. Why re-energize when we can
energize? Lets live, rather than relive. Nevertheless, I persist with
re- because I want to emphasize as strongly as possible the fact
that tackling urban challenges requires visiting first principles again
and beginning afresh. Re- implies a process of standing back,
considering again, taking time to think. It suggests doing things
differently. Most of all, it is active as opposed to passive.

Re-enchanting the city
In imagining what the city could be, enchantment lies at the heart.
2
The reimaginings of the city required are far more than physical
improvement, although that matters too. Enchantment asks us to
rediscover and reanimate social tissues and repair the severances
between us. The desire to reconnect lurks everywhere, bursting to
get out given the chance. It expresses itself best in small acts of daily
and ordinary consideration. These seek to resolve any fissure
between being me, the individual, and being us, the collective.
This feeling of urban solidarity enchants. At its core this means
letting the city enrapture, enthral and enamour us and to cast a
spell, because we are surprised by an open response. Within it lies
chant, a slow, repetitive, monotonous melody, persistent yet rhyth-
mic. It builds over time, encompassing its environs. Enchanting is a
metaphor for the repetitive acts of kindness which form the texture
and glue from which social capital grows. This is the only form of
capital that grows by frequent use, rather than depleting. It is the
nervous system of the lived city. Ash Amin calls this the habit of
solidarity towards the stranger or the urban solidarity of related-
ness. He redefines the good city as an expanding habit of
solidarity, as a practical but unsettled achievement, constantly
building on experiments through which difference and multiplicity
can be mobilized for common gain and against harm and want.
He focuses on the ethic of care, incorporating the principles of
social justice, equality and mutuality and resists the notion of
imagined socially cohesive communities.
3
Differences, diversities
and conflicts remain in continuous negotiation.
The trajectory followed so far has taken us through a descrip-
tion of the sensory city and the materially unhinged and
unsustainable dynamics of urban life and through a conceptual
framework that seeks to simplify complexity. This should allow us
to stand back and review how cities might be put back together
again and reassembled differently.
Re-establishing your playing field
Cities should pitch at the right aspirational level and identify a place
in the urban hierarchy of their region or country or globally that
reflects strong ambition and works with the grain of their cultural
resources. Many cities are unrealistically ambitious and others hold
back too much. An assessment of the citys drawing power will

reveal the territory in which it is competing. It can then with calm
urgency develop strategies to strengthen itself and capture territory
in the imagination of others and for itself. The central question is:
Can you get to the next level, adapt to change or be energized
within existing frameworks, budgets and skill sets?
Cities across the globe face complex opportunities that are
distinctive to each place. For Perth in Australia it may be to invest
resources sustainably for the next generation while they are going
through their boom period, or for Port of Spain in Trinidad to build
on the manifold skills involved in Carnival to ensure livelihoods
throughout the year. Possibilities cannot be grasped by a business-
as-usual approach. The stakes are high and cannot be harnessed
solely by traditional means. A shift in aspiration, courage and will
is usually required. And it will not happen overnight. A closer look
at cities which have succeeded, such as Curitiba, Barcelona or
Copenhagen,
4
shows startling differences between what they are
doing now and what they did before: Copenhagens considered,
long-term plan to create a walkable city; Curitibas approach to
efficient bus transport; Barcelonas capacity to remodel its new
urban areas.
The unfolding storm of globalization will affect the operating
system of cities worldwide. We could cope with these changes at
every level if they happened slowly and one by one. But they do
not. They are happening at speed and simultaneously, and their
deeper impacts have not emerged in their entirety. Cities can ride
the wave of global trends and possibilities easily, but do they end
up where they want to? To avert the dynamics that harm them, they
need clarity of purpose and an ethical vision to direct dynamics so
their own goals are met. Superficially cities might look and feel the
same in the future. There will be places in which to live, offices and
factories in which to work and places in which we can shop and
have fun, but the underlying operating system the software will
be different.
Choosing when to resist or go with the flow of turbo-
capitalism will be pivotal for cities wishing to move forward. As
Dee Hock, the founder of Visa Card, notes, Change is not about
reorganizing, re-engineering, reinventing, recapitalizing. Its about
reconceiving! When you reconceive something a thought, a situa-
tion, a corporation, a product, [a city] you create a whole new
order. Do that and creativity floods your mind.
5
Given fuller rein,
the impact of change and creativity on organizational culture is far
The City as a Living Work of Art 269

more than people wish to admit or are willing to let happen. Yet
change is necessary as old material factors raw materials, market
access diminish in significance. Cities then have two crucial
resources. First, they can mobilize their people their cleverness,
ingenuity, aspirations, motivations, ambition, imagination and
creativity. Second, they can harness new resources by seeking differ-
ent ways of collaborating and connecting better connections
between people, varying groups, different decision-making bodies,
various parts of the city, the old story of the city and an emerging
new one, and, crucially, their city and the wider world.
Reassessing creativity
What being creative is should be redefined, as well as its emphasis.
We should move away from an obsession with the creativity in
entertainment, of media celebrities and fashion, although invention
in these areas is often impressive. There is a creative divide. Some
activities are deemed to be creative and others not, such as social
work, and the latter become disenfranchised by the fashionability
of creativity in narrower fields. But creative heroines and heroes
can be found in any sphere, from social entrepreneurs to scientists,
business people, public administrators and artists.
A reassessment of creativity implies rethinking its ambit and
applications. Marketing, media and technological innovations will
still be significant, but creativity should also be applied to the chal-
lenges of misery, to nurturing our environment, and in political and
social innovation. How democracy can be renewed, how our
behaviours might change, how hierarchies can be realigned, how
prisons and punishment can be reformed, what social care might
look like, how young people can feel engaged, how community and
mass creativity can be triggered these are exactly the areas that
require most of our cerebral endeavour and cannot be exempt from
creative approaches.
In a study assessing the characteristics of 20 creative projects in
Helsinki, including cutting-edge digital media, homelessness
campaigns, business entrepreneurs, physical regeneration, social
enterprise and scientific research, I concluded that the personal
characteristics of project initiators and key staff are similar across
completely different disciplines.
6
They share an exploratory open-
mindedness, deep focus, a lateral, flexible mind. The challenge is to
value and link different forms of creativity together in the environ-

mental, political, economic, social and cultural spheres. This is the
creative milieu.
We should value creativity as a form of capital. Creativity is
multifaceted resourcefulness. It is applied imagination using quali-
ties such as intelligence, inventiveness and learning along the way.
It is dynamic and context-driven: what is creative in one period or
situation is not necessarily so in another. Crucially, creativity is a
journey not a destination, a process not a status. Every creative
output has a life cycle and, as time and experience of the innova-
tion in action unfolds, it will itself need to be adapted and
reinvented again. Creativity involves divergent or generative think-
ing and is linked to innovation, which demands a convergent,
critical and analytical approach and ways of thinking that will
adapt as a project develops. Being creative is an attitude of mind
and a way of approaching problems that opens out possibilities. It
is a frame of mind which questions rather than criticizes, which
asks Why is this so? and is not content to hear It always has been
like this. Creativity challenges not just what has already become a
problem, but many things that seemingly work well. It has an
element of foresight and involves a willingness to take measured
risks, to stand back and not to pre-judge things.
Yet precisely at the moment when the world acknowledges
creativity, decisions are made that operate in the opposite direc-
tion. For example, the arts, a key area within which creativity is
fostered, remain relatively undervalued in the school curriculum
and by parents.
The expression of creativity in an individual, an organization
or a city are different, but the essential attributes and operating
principles are the same. Every city should ask itself very honestly,
How creative am I? What specific forms of creativity am I espe-
cially proficient in? Where is this creativity to be found? It is
very difficult to assess how creative a city is. There must be no
self-delusion, and the desire to find out how good other cities are
must be repressed. For instance, merely holding festivals does not
mean a city is creative; it may mean it is good at attracting creative
people from the outside to perform in the city. On the other hand,
I concluded after my work there that Adelaide is perhaps very
creative in fashioning warm welcomes. Festivals and events feel
good in this city. Adelaides strengths may therefore lie in organiz-
ing and generating the setting. These attributes have great financial
potential and the fact that Adelaide punches above its national

weight in conferencing and conventions is evidence of this
capacity.
Being creative implies individuals, organizations and the city as
a whole set the preconditions within which it is possible for people
to think, plan and act with imagination. This is what being a Yes
rather than a Maybe or No city is about. This means making
people feel it is possible to take imaginative leaps or measured risks.
When this happens there are dramatic implications for organiza-
tional culture and structure. Creativity is not the easy option.
Creative organizations are unusual; they tend to break down hier-
archies and find new ways of organizing; they are driven by an
ethos; and they balance rigidity and flexibility. As David Perkins
aptly notes, Creative people work at the edge of their competency,
not at the centre of it.
7
This idea can sit uncomfortably within large
organizational structures, especially public organizations, whose
attitudes to risk are tempered by accountability issues. Risk assess-
ment can be a cover for avoiding action. Risk, creativity, failure
and bureaucracy are uneasy bedfellows. People rarely acknowledge
failure as a learning device.
The more successful creatives tend to cluster in places of distinc-
tiveness
8
and so the geography of creativity is lopsided. Many areas,
especially in the outer suburbs, suffer as there are not enough possi-
bilities and stimulation is lacking. The danger is that if we focus
too strongly on places that are already strong, a creative divide
might develop, rather like the divide between the information rich
and poor, or income rich and poor, or the poorly networked and
highly networked. For this reason any overarching talent strategy
should be targeted at groupings in all locations. This should include
a networking strategy for the poor, because if they know only each
other, they might have too few or inappropriate role models to
emulate.
Revaluing hidden assets:
A creativity and obstacle audit
Every place has more assets than first meets the eye, hidden in the
undergrowth, invisible, unacknowledged or under-acknowledged.
The challenge is to dig deeper and to undertake a creativity and
obstacle audit. For the first time in history, knowledge creation in
itself is becoming the primary source of economic productivity. We
are evolving from a world where prosperity depended on natural

advantage (arising from access to more plentiful and cheap natural
resources and labour) to a world where prosperity depends on
creative advantage, arising from being able to use and mobilize
creativity to innovate in areas of specialized capability more effec-
tively than other places. Thus in the 21st century the engine for
growth is the process through which an economy creates, applies
and extracts value from knowledge.
The recent focus on creativity has been technocratic, leading to
a focus on IT-driven innovations or business clusters. The crucial
recognition of todays creativity movement is that developing a
creative economy also requires a social and organizational environ-
ment that enables creativity to occur. This means creativity needs to
imbue the whole system. This is witnessed, for example, through the
interest in creativity shown in many countries by a diversity of
government departments, ranging from trade and industry to educa-
tion and culture. Creativity then becomes a general problem-solving
and opportunity-creating capacity. This means we need to be alert
to creativity in social, political, organizational and cultural fields as
well as in technological and economic ones. The focus should be on
how it generates opportunities as well as solves problems.
Creativity is therefore both general a way of thinking, a
mindset and specific task-oriented in relation to applications in
particular fields. A creativity audit assesses creativity across a
number of dimensions:
spatial from the city base to its regional and national
surrounds;
sector private-, public- and community-oriented;
industry from advanced manufacturing to services;
demography assessing the creativity of different age groups,
from the young to the elderly; and
diversity and ethnicity.
The audit needs to look at creativity across the spectrum, including
individuals, firms, industry sectors and clusters, networks in the
city, the city itself as an amalgam of different organizational
cultures, and the region. It needs to assess the relevance of creativ-
ity in the private, community and public sectors and in relation to
areas like education, specific industry sectors, science and organiza-
tions in helping the prosperity and well-being of a region.

First, in relation to the private sector, while it should assess
the creativity of the new economy, such as in the creative indus-
tries, it must also assess the creativity potential of traditional
industries. Anecdotally, Gore-Tex, the traditional fabric manufac-
turer, was voted the most creative company in the US by the bible
of the new economy, Fast Company, in its December 2004
Creativity issue.
A second area of investigation should be social entrepreneur-
ship often a means of empowering people in local communities to
take responsibility and to develop entrepreneurship and solve social
problems at the same time. Typically this might involve
community-owned recycling companies, care for the elderly services
provided by a co-operative or a food trading company.
The third is exploring the creativity of public sector organiza-
tions in terms of delivering routine services, enabling their
communities to flourish through innovation in managing the urban
change process and applying imaginative problem-solving to public
good objectives.
Fourth is the need to assess levels of creativity in working across
sectors and inter-organizational networking. This seeks to explore
the extent to which value-added is created through inventive part-
nering and networking.
The fifth focus should be boundary-busting creativity. For
example, at the beginning of the 21st century a rapprochement has
begun between the two great ways of exploring, understanding and
knowing, science and art. This collaborative activity has generated
considerable momentum and become a powerful force for change
and innovation in the development of new products, processes and
services.
A sixth area of exploration is assessing how the conditions for
creativity are created. This focuses especially on programmes in
education and learning. Yet this should not be restricted to schools
and institutions of higher learning but should also include profes-
sional development and informal learning.
A seventh element is an audit of obstacles to creativity, as it is
increasingly recognized that highlighting obstacles, which them-
selves become targets for creative action, is at least as important as
highlighting best practices.
The final area of the audit would be to look at how the physi-
cal context needs to develop to encourage creatives to stay in the
region or be attracted to it. Seen in this light, every crevice in the

city has a hidden story or undiscovered potential that can be reused
for a positive urban purpose.
Reassigning the value of unconnected resources
Creative potential is often revealed when one connects things others
see as unrelated. Each element might be small but brought together
the whole is large. This is how the creative or cultural industries
concept initially developed. The individual music, film, graphics,
theatre, dance and visual arts sectors were relatively small and
usually assessed in isolation, yet when the interconnections between
sectors were identified and their overall scope and scale assessed, it
was realized they made up roughly 4 per cent of most developed
economies and in major cities like London more than 10 per cent.
9
All major cities in the world have now cottoned on to their poten-
tial.
10
Rather like water, electricity or IT, they are now seen as part
of the physiology that makes any economy work. Apart from
providing products in their own right, such as music or film, they
can add symbolic value to any product or service. Encouraging
these industries is one of the most powerful means of enhancing
the citys identity and distinctiveness, while simultaneously creating
employment and generating social capital. In a world where every
place is beginning to feel and look the same, cultural products and
activities mark one place from the next. And tangible difference
creates competitive advantage.
Debates and insights from within cultural studies and economic
theory have played a part in understanding cultures invigorated
role in society. Developing a culture is a process of meaning-making
and identity-creation, and within that all products play a part
because they embody symbolic value and trigger experiences.
Increasingly consumers buy products not for their practical purpose
or technical qualities but for the experience and meaning they hope
they will engender. Thus design and aesthetics take on a completely
new and more significant role as the value of styling increasingly
predominates. This means that the economy is progressively a
cultural one as it is determined and driven by cultural priorities.
The economic transformation has required innovation to
reinvent older industries, invent new products and services, and to
create completely new economic sectors. Creative professional
services in particular, such as design and advertising, have helped
create innovative concepts and ideas for other branches of industry,

ranging from food and clothing to automotive and telecommunica-
tions services, which can add value to functional products. In this
way they contribute to product development and the positioning of
goods and services in the market by increasing their experiential
register.
11
Significantly, products and services arising from and
geared to popular culture and the media and entertainment indus-
tries are themselves drivers of innovation. For instance advances in
computer gaming find applications in areas as diverse as mining
safety or healthcare.
There are neglected industry sectors, such as healthcare, that
can give quiet, unremarkable cities a leading edge. In fact, these
more public sectors are not often regarded as industries as such and
this can engender a trust often withheld from other sectors. Further,
their remit is perceived to extend beyond a particular specialism
and they can connect previously disconnected economic endeav-
ours. Exploring health possibilities, for example, we can see how
seemingly disparate economic activities can be brought together,
such as holiday and convalescing resources, nutrition and organic
food, projecting a city as a place to recharge batteries, a capacity to
provide medical operations perhaps at a lower cost, or specific
medical research strengths. In this way, a calm, seemingly dull city
could become a hospital and recovery space. Equally, the discipline
of design might map disease processes, of the heart, for example,
and thus might lead to medical innovations. Interestingly, in recon-
ceiving sectors like health, it is unlikely that such a sector would be
invented by the medical profession or health ministry alone, and
for it to flourish should probably not be controlled by them. More
likely an outsider to the profession would see the potential.
Cities with a narrow resource base and smaller size should be
able to focus on smart linkages more easily, since different players
are more likely to know each other. An example is Sci-Art.
12
Sci-
Art brings artists and scientists of all kinds together to work in a
structured environment on projects of mutual discovery and
benefit. The Sci-Art concept is based on the premise that the most
fruitful developments in human thinking frequently take place at
points where different lines of creativity meet. Over the years the
Sci-Art competition in Britain, funded initially by Glaxo-
Wellcome, brought together more than 2000 artists and scientists,
breaking down the widespread mutual incomprehension between
the disciplines; working in partnership combined insights to solve
common problems and generate ideas. Powerful new concepts

being developed by artists and scientists working together are
potentially as ground-breaking as those that launched the indus-
trial revolution.
Can ideas in themselves become tradable services? Is there a
way of reconceiving the value and outcomes of events and confer-
encing, such as Adelaides Festival of Ideas, in terms of selling on
conclusions or acting as an experimentation zone. This could be
for trialing and testing commercial products. The goal would be to
drag more out of opportunities. The change in focus suggests
moving from creating value chains to creating self-reinforcing value
loops.
Recycling and greening
That the green agenda needs to rise up the priority list is obvious,
but words and action remain kilometres apart. Statements of policy
too rarely translate into imaginative incentives and innovative regu-
lations to drive the green economy. Stringent guidelines for waste
recycling, energy efficiency and green transport have been a start,
but would create more impact if linked to incentives, such as central
government giving a city a massive financial bonus for matching a
green target.
There are endless products waiting to be invented, with several
markets still open; these are so diverse that most places will be able
to play to their strengths, so aligning with traditional skills and
talents as well as new research-based activities. These include
applications as varied as pollution-monitoring devices, waste
pelletization techniques, the development of new insulation materi-
als and new environmentally targeted software, component
manufacture or sub-assembly for wind and wave energy, as well as
maintenance work on large renewable structures or plants.
Cities should signal enthusiastically that they are in the green
field too few do at the moment. For example, the public sector
owns thousands of vehicles. Think of the impact of hordes of green
electric cars and perhaps even green taxis suitably moving around.
The subliminal message would be strong. Many cities already have
environmental initiatives and incentives. How about pulling them
together into a designated area identified as an environmental zone,
where clustering would make their impact stronger than spreading
them out? One might even consider innovative branding devices
such as clustering different subsidies, for recycling, say, or the use

of renewable energy, into sub-areas by street, for example and
marketing them as recycling street or zero energy road.
Alternatively, what about more green industrial parks, modelled on
Hamm, in Emscher Park in the Ruhr, where eco-business, retailing
and conferencing facilities intermesh?
In spite of the energetic attempts to get green issues more widely
accepted, a survey of innovative eco-communities around the world
revealed very disappointing results, though not for lack of trying.
13
There are an alarmingly small number of projects of real scale that
have been completed. The small number of successes is a sad reflec-
tion of where we are. One survey, for example, studied hundreds of
eco-village or neighbourhood projects worldwide often with
impressive websites and high reputations in their networks but
discovered that most were purely at the conceptual stage. Barton
and Kleiners survey analysed 55 projects showing a rich vein of
different kinds and forms of innovative communities that bill them-
selves as eco-neighbourhoods and with great diversity in their scale,
locations, focus and means of implementing. These included rural
eco-villages, like Crystal Waters in Queensland, Australia; tele-
villages, such as Little River near Christchurch in New Zealand;
urban demonstration projects, such as Kolding in Denmark, a high
density block with courtyards of 150 dwellings; urban eco-commu-
nities, such as Ithaca Eco-Village in New York State; New
Urbanism developments, such as Poundbury, initiated by Prince
Charles in the UK, or Waitakere in Auckland, New Zealand; and
ecological townships, such as Auroville in South India or Davis in
California. But over 50 per cent of these 55 projects had fewer than
300 people. A tiny proportion were really comprehensively innova-
tive projects at the neighbourhood level. Many had a number of
impressive buildings and high environmental standards within
these, but very few also combined this with new sustainable
economic activity or new political or social arrangements.
14
And in
spite of the public pro-sustainability stance of national and local
government, sustainable development is in its infancy; sustainabil-
ity is a term more talked about than practised. It is often used with
casual abandon as if mere repetition delivers green probity.
15
Recapturing centrality
For the first time in history size and scale does not matter any more.
Large cities no longer have the automatic advantage. Size, indeed,

can now be a disadvantage. The sheer cityness becomes invasive,
transactions are too cumbersome, you fight against the traffic, ease
of movement is constrained, and open space is too far away. In
short, quality of life is not good enough.
This is why in surveys of worlds best cities places like
Copenhagen, Zurich, Stockholm and Vancouver always come out
top. Most have less than 2 million inhabitants. They are walkable
and accessible. Even Frankfurt has less than 1 million. They are
small enough to be intimate yet large enough to be cosmopolitan.
Any place anywhere can become the centre of a universe,
whether a tiny niche or something more substantial, as long as it is
tenacious, connects adroitly and thinks long term. Even those out
of the urban maelstrom. This is the big opportunity for less-known
cities at a time when edge places and peripheries can become hubs
and even small towns can get on the radar screen. Think of
Helsinki, Geneva or Antwerp.
But it can also be in the smaller or more peripheral towns and
cities where people with a high level of ambition find it hard to
realize their potential. The pool of risk-takers and thinking people
feels too small to stimulate people to achieve more and this can
lead to a leakage of talent and wealth-creating possibilities. A way
to overcome leakage is to develop and promote very strong niches
where localized critical mass can be attained. Within these niches,
thick labour markets can be achieved. Adelaide, for instance,
achieves deep strength in the wine industry. Wine research, produc-
tion (and consumption!), distribution and representative bodies
agglomerate there. Only large cities can generally create across-the-
board strengths, niches and the associational richness that can be
heard among the din of global information overload. Within the
globalized market industries do not need to be large, but they must
be competitive to operate globally.
A city can accrue power by capturing imaginative territory in
the imagination of the world. It can become the central location for
an activity, the headquarters of an important entity or be associ-
ated with an area that others aspire to. These niches can act as
powerful levers.
Corporations capture markets by selling products, much as
colonial powers captured territories to secure trade routes or raw
materials. If cities have few tangible, productive resources, they can
still capture ideas and networks and get ownership of them. The
choices they make and resonances they create can reflect more

distinctively the values a city wishes to reflect. This can have
downstream benefits in terms of economics and culture and should
be part of a citys foreign diplomacy. For example, Freiburg in
Germany, with a population of just over 230,000, is renowned as
an innovator. Car use has remained stable over 30 years and eco-
housing, recycling and the use of alternative energy sources are an
everyday part of life. This has attracted a cluster of high-level envi-
ronmental research institutes and networks, such as ICLEI,
16
whose
innovations reinforce the towns position. The broader region,
including wealthy northern Switzerland, acts as an innovation hub,
rather like a Silicon Valley with a sustainability twist, with cities
competing with each other on the environmental front. This alter-
native view of city development acts as its drawing power and is
the regions source of competitiveness. It is the regions eco-aware,
IT-savvy, anti-guzzling perspective and alternative Silicon Valley
idea that resonates.
Another example: I proposed the concept of Adelaide as
Google,
17
whose aim was to make Adelaide a strategic nodal point
for various activities, thus reinforcing its presence on global radar
screens and enabling it to work strategically to capture downstream
economic and other impacts. The core idea was that when key
words were searched on Google, links returned to Adelaide. The
city has niche specialisms and holds key events in areas that may
seem insignificant at first glance but which are in fact potentially
powerful, such as prison reform. It is also a hub in the educating
cities network. It has some leading cluster specialists. Its wine tech-
nology research is world class. The list is extensive and possibilities
are very wide. By assessing the networks in which a city can take a
prime position, a city can reflect back to the world some sense of
centrality. This can be achieved by a concerted effort to join in and
participate in relevant international organizations, providing inter-
national presentations and making the city the focus for meetings.
The aim is to capture space in the worlds imagination. This
approach allows a city to cascade into niche audiences, so creating
ambassadors for the city. Three thousand targeted international
friends of the city are better than a generalized scattershot
approach. Deepening a niche requires long-term commitment, so
their worth can reveal itself. This then begins to generate associa-
tions, and for these to have power they need time to mature rather
than jumping from one idea to the next. The danger is that many
places copy good ideas before they have had time to settle, as

happened with Adelaides Festival of Ideas, which was more or less
immediately copied by Brisbane.
The fact that so few cities have developed these strategies is
astonishing. It reveals a lack of understanding of how soft infra-
structure works, its role in urban dynamics and what its value is.
The continued knee-jerk reaction to focus on hard infrastructure
blights exploring these soft possibilities and eats up budgets.
Revisualizing soft and hard infrastructures
Many assets are hidden or invisible. One such is soft infrastructure
the enabling and connective tissue that makes a creative milieu or
clusters work. Soft infrastructures are the atmosphere, ambiance
and milieu which the hard infrastructures enable. They are
expressed in the capacity of people to connect, inter-relate and
generate ideas that turn into products and services. They include
too the talent of people, measured not only by educational level
but also by imaginative capacity. But soft infrastructure is often
neglected, as some feel it is difficult to quantify the precise
economic value of a system of associative structures, networks,
connections and human interactions that underpin and encourage
the flow of ideas between individuals and institutions to generate
the products and services for wealth creation.
The network idea is an emblem of the age of the new
economy. The paradox is that we know the networks make things
happen, but do not value or sufficiently invest in them because they
are not tangible. The tools we have, such as industrial codes for
measuring such activities, do not track in a sufficiently fine-grained
way how the trade in services and ideas operates or how network-
ing might add value.
The notion of infrastructure needs rethinking. The hard is the
container within which the soft contents (the value-added) are
created. Hard and soft are mutually interdependent. Yet the physi-
cal is usually privileged. The milieu is people and place together, a
physical setting in which a critical mass of entrepreneurs, intellec-
tuals, knowledge creators, administrators and power brokers can
operate in an open-minded, collaborative context, and where face-
to-face interaction creates new ideas, artefacts, products, services
and institutions.
The network capacity that lies at the heart of the creative milieu
requires flexible individuals and organizations working with a high

degree of trust, self-responsibility and strong, often unwritten, prin-
ciples. The success of networks is based on very traditional
qualities, such as involving people or organizations you like and
who like each other, having a core of active people sharing respon-
sibility, and having a sufficient budget, so that not all activity is
based on voluntary input. Most successful networks combine an
informal atmosphere with focus. They feel spontaneous, creative,
and stimulating to their participants and are conducted with a spirit
that does not drain the lifeblood through rigid procedures.
Networks that survive longest are adaptable and assume each
member has valuable knowledge and a contribution to make, other-
wise they fall into simple information sharing. This generates a
willingness to share and to contribute to the success of the network
for the greater good.
At times this means submerging self-interest for the greater
good, for instance the Italian clusters in the smaller towns that are
part of the Third Italy, such as Carpi and Prato in textiles, Arzignano
in leather, Sassuolo in ceramic tiles or Manzano in furniture. There
is customized public support for a wide spectrum of business devel-
opment, which involves companies in collaborative competition
joint promotion, the organization of fairs, access to information on
the evolution of markets or technology, the bulk purchase of input
ingredients, consultancy and training. This can generate dynamic
competitiveness, which helps accumulate technical know-how. It
implies manifold relationships and interaction which favours spon-
taneous mechanisms of specialization, incremental innovation and
the creation of enterprises and in the process pushes up quality.
Intermediate public structures play a vital role by encouraging a high
degree of involvement of firms in common initiatives through which
firms have a sense of being part of a larger system. This often leads
to collaboration and the pooling of resources.
The health and prosperity of the creative network largely deter-
mines the prosperity of each individual company or creative
initiative and even the geographical area in which it operates.
Unless the milieu thrives, the inspirational flow that comes from
being part of it dries up. Pure self-interest causes the milieu to
atrophy. Trust is a central feature of the way a creative milieu oper-
ates. A culture of collaborative competition is a precondition for
such an environment to work.
We are entering a world of potentially almost limitless connec-
tion between people, organizations and cities, where constraints of

time and place are evaporating. How do you make this potential
connectivity effective without becoming overloaded? It involves
selectively shutting off and selectively opening out. Saying no to
network opportunities as well as saying yes. Strategic intelligence
is key. It is a combination of the analytic, practical and creative; an
attitude of horizon scanning that helps in the creation of foresight,
understanding the dynamic implications embodied in the present,
seeing the whole as an organic system and seeing how parts inter-
act and relate to each other to serve the citys aims.
18
Networking capacity occurs at various levels: between individ-
uals or organizations, city-wide and between cities. The challenge
is to translate the known, even clichd, generic skills of personal
networking to the city level. These qualities range from the quali-
ties associated with creativity, such as curiosity, to others like gift
of the gab, energy, listening capacity, understanding others view-
points, relationship skills, interest in others, and the ability to
inspire or empathize. The networking capacity of the organizations
of a creative milieu is more than the urban equivalent of an eleva-
tor speech. Typically these summarize what you do in 30 seconds
or hook your listener to being interested in you, because you ask
good questions and are interested in them. For organizations, the
networking type and attributes depend on purpose this deter-
mines its form, which ranges from the open to the closed. For
instance, an open network might simply disseminate information.
An example here would be the Active Living Network, which
requires little if anything from recipients and where connections
between the parts are minimal. By contrast, the London Voluntary
Service Council or an inter-city EU network on best practice in
publicprivate partnership would be more closed and should
involve real engagement of participants, mutual site visits and the
writing up of projects. When such networks are well run, those
involved might become friends and unpredictable, often positive,
spin-offs occur.
For this networking to benefit a city, other dimensions come
into play beyond well-communicating individuals, groups and orga-
nizations. These include not only involving firms in industry
initiatives, but also promoting an area to its citizens and the outside
world, creating a sense of engagement through more consultative-
based planning approaches, or marketing and events strategies to
enhance a sense of belonging and identity. For instance, the
Northern Quarter in Manchester has a special development vision

which seeks to maintain its attractiveness to the alternative types
who made it popular in the first place, given the pressures of gentri-
fication. Another example is Glasgows Merchant City initiative.
Since 2002 this has included a Merchant City festival, tied in with
the European car-free day, as part of a wider marketing campaign
to raise the areas profile as the hub of Glasgows creative economy.
The words networks and networking have already become a
mantra, imbued largely with positive connotations as we perceive
networking to be about connecting in an open way. Yet networks
can have a flip side if they are too tight, closed in or self-referential,
only benefiting those who are part of the group. This reduces
creative capacity. This is a point that comes through in assessments
of Japanese and Chinese creative potential
19
and may emerge more
strongly as intercultural creativities which require connections
across cultural axes and networks become more relevant.
A battle is raging within the inward-investment community
about the relative weightings of soft or hard infrastructure. The
developing consensus emerging is that both hard and soft now
provide the base conditions for inward investment, whereas before
only hard factors counted. Richard Floridas work on the rise of
the creative class and the urban settings that encourage creativity
has given new credibility to soft infrastructure arguments.
20
An
indication of the shift is that more research is currently under way
on soft factors. In the traditional list of 11 inward investment
factors, most soft issues are subsumed under quality of life, a
relatively low-scoring factor. The eleven are: economic profile,
market prospects, taxes, regulatory framework, labour climate,
suppliers and know-how, utilities, incentives, quality of life, logis-
tics and sites. Yet there is growing coverage in the local economic
development and business location communities about the increas-
ing importance of quality-of-life factors in attracting and retaining
inward investment. A major review of 30 separate studies of factors
which influence local economic development again identified
11 factors which were cited on a regular basis:
1 location;
2 physical characteristics;
3 infrastructure;
4 human resources;
5 finance and capital;
6 knowledge and technology;

7 industrial structure;
8 quality of life;
9 institutional capacity;
10 business culture; and
11 community identity and image.
21
It is notable that the factor cited most consistently (in 25 out of the
30) was quality of life, closely followed by human resources and
infrastructure. But while it was most frequently mentioned, its
weighting was lower.
Our own review of the influence of culture and creativity on
the location decision-making of inward investors revealed that:
22
Soft infrastructure considerations, such as quality of life or
culture, are growing in significance.
Culture is a soft location factor, yet hard, cost-related factors
still dominate the location decision process even in todays
knowledge economy.
Soft considerations are more important for particular types of
inward investment projects, where the attraction and retention
of high-skilled people is important.
The soft considerations are not the central driver in location
selection per se. Except, and this is crucial, when the project is
a creative industries or new economy project, when it affects
the decision after the hard factors have been addressed.
In a tie-breaker situation where there is little to choose between
several locations, soft considerations become a must-have
factor for locations aiming to attract and retain highly skilled
personnel (when quality of life/quality of place is an issue).
With the emphasis on hard facts in the current environment,
it is unlikely that a decision-maker is ever going to admit to
being influenced by soft factors such as culture, as they cannot
quantify this to other decision-makers and stakeholders.
Redefining competitiveness
City competitiveness is usually defined as economic at core. But the
competitiveness debate is becoming more sophisticated.
Increasingly, new ideas are coming into play, such as an innovative
business and cultural environment. Is the city a cradle of creativity
with high rates of innovation within commerce, science and/or the

arts? Does the city have clusters of cutting-edge niche specialisms
requiring specialized networks of professionals? Has the city got a
strategic virtual location through intense connectivity? Does insti-
tutional capacity exist to get beyond bunker thinking? Is the
leadership willing to trade its direct power for a greater creative
influence, so unleashing more leadership potential in the city? Is
there good governance and management, involving transparency,
trust and lack of corruption, a precondition for seamless trade to
be conducted? Is there ability to work in partnerships to maximize
the benefits of combining public and private sector approaches? Is
there capacity to network globally and to keep abreast of the best?
And, significantly, is there cultural depth and richness, which might
mean heritage or the availability of contemporary artistic facilities?
Is strategic thinking so embedded across key actors in the city that
the idea of learning infuses every tissue of its being? Does this make
the city a place where individuals and organizations are encour-
aged to learn about the dynamics of where they live and how it is
changing? Does this in turn feed into the quality of municipal
services, including transportation and, most importantly, educa-
tion? These competitiveness issues are just as important as costs
and productivity or a piece of technology.
Increasingly significant in understanding the new competitive
environment is the play of urban iconics, through which the inten-
tion of physical structures or events that project a story, an idea or
ambition can be grasped all at once. Iconic communication is dense,
packed and experience rich. But finding the triggers that do this is
difficult. A building that does succeed is the Guggenheim in Bilbao,
while Chicagos Cloud Gate, San Franciscos Golden Gate Bridge
and the Rio Carnival are examples of public art, utilities and events
that achieve iconic communication. These are more than just well
known each tells a deeper story. These iconic triggers then need
orchestrating in order to generate critical mass and momentum.
They involve design awareness, another competitive tool, and often
eco-awareness, which might speak to higher ideals of healing the
environment. In sum, what this does is help create and reinforce
the resonance of the city. And resonance generates drawing power,
which in turn can override underlying real economic potential. This
is why some places do better than they should do, as resonance
represents a form of capital.
Finally, does the city have an ethical framework of action that
inspires people to give more, to care more and to have more social

solidarity? The crucial step is to be able to define and communicate
a bigger role and purpose for the city by defining a common goal
based on an integrated emotional, technological, environmental,
social, economic, cultural and imaginative story. It should feel like
an unfolding drama where the citizens know their roles because
they are gripped into engagement. It needs to tap into peoples sense
of who they are and where they might go, hinting at their role. City
goals need to be delivered through a wider skills set, beyond that of
planning professionals.
Rethinking calculations of worth:
The asphalt currency
Translate the cost of every initiative into its asphalt equivalent.
Revitalizing the atmosphere of an area might only be 300m of
asphalt equivalent and a youth project 30m. Do a thought experi-
ment. What would the comparative impact be of reinvesting 1km
of road equivalent into strategically targeted network capturing?
What investment would have greater economic, image and cultural
impact? We are uncritical and rigid in reassessing value in terms of
a money numeraire as well as the budget proportions different
departments, whether education, social services or transport,
receive. Their positions in the budget hierarchy remain immutable.
If you take a medium-sized city, dozens of kilometres of road will
be asphalted annually. And this represents a stark choice. One kilo-
metre of a standard two-lane road in the Western world costs about
1.2 million, a kilometre of motorway 3.8 million. That is if you
are lucky. More often it is higher and relatively modest roads can
cost up to 2.7 million per kilometre. Consider the effectiveness of
investing these resources in an alternative and what its impact
would be. Public transport is the obvious choice, but the interesting
speculations occur when you broaden the possibilities.
Rebalancing the scorecard:
The complexities of capital
The complexity of city competitiveness and reinvention means
urban leaders should better understand, integrate and orchestrate
the many forms of capital in their city. Not only financial capital,
but also:

human capital the skills, talents and special knowledge of the
people;
social capital the complex web of relationships between orga-
nizations, communities and interest groups which make up civil
society;
cultural capital the sense of belonging in and understanding
of the unique identity of a place expressed in tangible and intan-
gible form, such as heritage, memories, creative activities,
dreams and aspirations; also Bourdieus sense of the cultural
capital of family background, social class and acquired educa-
tion that give a person greater confidence and higher status;
intellectual capital the ideas and innovative potential of a
community;
creativity capital the capacity to stand back, to connect the
seemingly disconnected, to relax into ambiguity, to be original
and inventive;
leadership capital the motivation, will, energy and capacity to
take responsibility and lead; and
environmental capital the built and natural landscape and
ecological diversity of an area.
23
These forms of capital are urban assets and a lack of them urban
deficits. And like all assets they need managing. Thinking of these
forms of capital as the urban currencies should reveal how all
dimensions of city-making are inextricably interwoven. There is a
need to realign the weighting given to different activities. The social
domain, for example, is then not just seen as a problem-solving
arena, dealing with the consequences of unresolved dilemmas else-
where, an add-on we have to deal with later. Instead, creating social
capital assets is a self-conscious strategic activity that builds this
capital from the ground upwards, as the more we develop and,
importantly, use it, the more it grows. Thus in education, an arena
in which social capital is developed, courses like history or even
geography then become both aids and exemplars to develop it. The
same prism should affect police training and that of taxi drivers,
how shopkeepers are encouraged to behave, and so on. We know
there is a link between high levels of social capital and low levels of
crime. But which cities have strategic social capital development
programmes, as opposed to a series of usually disconnected social
projects? If social capital includes networking capacity, which cities
are getting their citizens to network across barriers? In deprived

communities, the under-networked network with the equally under-
networked so creating an enclosing, isolating, downward spiral of
communication and possibilities.
Again, though, as with networking, we must be aware of
double-edged qualities. There can be too much social capital, when
it crowds people in, when tradition is too strong, when it curtails
being open.
What cities have an intellectual capital development pro-
gramme as distinct from an education programme? We know
attracting and having access to knowledge and imagination is the
key to urban success. Important as formal education is, much of
this talent will be nurtured in settings that have nothing to do with
education. Thus our perspective on how talent is generated should
go well beyond educational institutions. Furthermore, what are the
language capacities of your citizens? How many speak a second or
third language and use these in trade and business?
Equally, what cities self-consciously try to develop their
cultural capital, as distinct from building cultural facilities?
Culture determines how we shape, create and make our societies.
So the scope, possibilities, style and tenor of social and economic
development is largely culturally determined. If our city culture is
more closed-minded, strongly hierarchical and focuses on tradi-
tion, it can make adjusting to major transformation more
difficult. It might limit communicating across different groups. It
might hold back international trade or tourism because obstacles
will be created to the free flow of exchange and ideas. It might
deter creating mixed partnerships, which are now recognized as a
major way forward for communities to solve problems. It might
stifle developing a vibrant, empowered small business sector. By
contrast, if our traditions value tolerance and openness, those
adjustments to the new world may be easier. Places that share
ideas and have the capacity to absorb bring differences together
more effectively.
By giving full weight to the various forms of capital, a new
urban assessment and measurement tool emerges that combines the
economic with other factors city leaders are concerned about.
PricewaterhouseCoopers recently published their Cities of the
Future report
24
which offers a similar framework, focusing on:
intellectual and social capital which focuses on skills and
capabilities;

democratic capital which suggests city administrations need
to be accountable and transparent in their dialogue with citi-
zens;
culture and leisure capital which proposes strong city-
branding for visibility to compete for residents, business reloca-
tions, tourism and international events;
environmental capital which draws attention to urban
consumption and the need to provide a clean, green and safe
environment;
technical capital technology must be able to support the
changing needs of citizens, from broadband to transport; and
financial capital how resources are garnered to pay for
services.
Regaining confidence and a sense of self
The first step in getting a city back on its feet is to regain a sense of
self, and psychological factors play an important role. Change
processes initially cause places to lose their self-confidence as those
things that are distinctive about them and the tried and tested ways
of doing things are shown not to work. This might range from
industrial decline, the loss of services or the brain drain of the more
gifted leaving town. Gijon in Spain took two decades to regain
some confidence after the loss of its shipyards, coal industry and
role as a port city; Glasgows re-emergence from its slow decline
stretched many decades, as did that of Pittsburgh.
Unless cities have that rare can do attitude or have re-
established a new position, they will tend to suffer from a culture of
constraint. This is because the public and private bureaucracies, the
organizational form that changes most slowly, will be holding things
back. A sense of needing to ask for permission to do things will
prevail over an attitude that says go for it, which means accepting
some mistakes and being aware of the distinction between compe-
tent failure (good, trying hard, learning from mistakes) and
incompetent failure. Normally, unconfident places focus too
intensely on the detail rather than the bigger picture. Effecting the
necessary psychological change can happen through shock, seduc-
tion or vision. Shock, such as a major employer going under, can
stun and deflate. Clearly, preventative approaches, such as having a
vision or taking global dynamics into account, are better. A vision
needs to touch people individually and viscerally. The strategies that

hang off this vision need to ensure a city has a 21st-century soft and
hard infrastructure. The hard concerns airports, rail, roads and IT
and the soft the collaborations and connective tissue that makes
a city work, as well as atmosphere must both be in place, but
building confidence is key. This requires a strategy of smaller, well-
judged risks and the occasional imaginative leap with investment to
match, so that momentum is built by achieving step-by-step
successes.
Renewing leadership capacity
Leadership ideas change with history. Each era requires its own
specific form of leadership and a governance system to match
prevailing conditions. Each city will assess whether it is in consoli-
dation or change mode. In moments of dramatic change,
transformational leadership is required rather than the skills of the
coordinator or manager. Local leaders will need to move from being
merely strategists to being visionaries. While strategists command
and demand, visionaries excite and entice. They will need to move
from being commanders of their cities, businesses, institutions or
cultural bodies to being able to tell a story about the bigger picture
and where their entity fits in, so moving from being institutional
engineers to change agents.
These leaders should provide answers for people in their city
concerning their personal, work, social and moral choices. The
story they tell interweaves what their own institution could be,
what role others can play and how to get there.
25
There are ordi-
nary, innovative and visionary leaders. The first simply reflect the
desires or needs of the group they lead. An innovative leader ques-
tions circumstances to draw out latent needs, bringing fresh insight
to new areas. Visionary leaders, by contrast, harness the power of
completely new ideas and get beyond the ding-dong of day-to-day
debate. They retell a compelling story so that everyone feels they
have a role to play, however small or large.
Most importantly, leadership requires the courage to act deci-
sively in the knowledge that some will disagree; to acknowledge
that what is required goes well beyond a single political cycle; and
to dare to be creative and inspirational. Lastly, great courage is
required to acknowledge that the transformation and regeneration
of a city takes a generation, with initiatives building on each other
and harnessing across vested interests. Only a few places, like

Barcelona, Bilbao or Valencia, where, importantly, the autonomy
of their local leaderships has played a significant role, have
reinvented themselves in such a way.
Existing leaders need to trade their power for creative influ-
ence, which means giving away power in order to increase influence
over a wider sphere. Leadership is a civic capacity as important as
hard infrastructure. It should be a renewable resource. The cultural
attributes and attitudes or mindsets that have made places success-
ful in the past, such as being an industrial production hub, are those
that could constrain them in the future if, say, they need to become
a services centre. Industrial and service economies work in different
ways. Today communities and companies all over the world are
replacing hierarchies with networks, authority with empowerment,
order with flexibility, and creativity and paternalism with self-
responsibility.
How many leaders does a city of a million need? 1, 10, 100,
1000, 10,000? Indeed, 10,000 still represents only 1 per cent of the
population. A city of a million should have a football stadium worth
of leaders, as the good and successful city is made up of thousands of
acts of tenacity, solidarity and creativity. The challenge is to unlock
this potential. It is not enough to demand leadership only from
government. Leaders come in many forms and from unusual places:
communities, business, the cultural arena, the environment people,
activists of many colours. Most cities have many undiscovered
leaders and those that exist often do not work across boundaries.
The new reality of power is that to share power is not an abdi-
cation of responsibility but the only feasible and responsible means
by which leaders can possibly achieve everything they want for their
communities. By sharing power, cities can achieve far more for their
citizens. Having influence over a more powerful, larger patch is
better than having a lot of power in a smaller patch that has no
influence. Cities need leaders at different levels and spheres, as
urban success depends on the successful results of a myriad set of
initiatives. As long as there is a sense of a clear unfolding urban
story, based on a set of explicit principles, self-activated leaders can
funnel and focus energy so complexity is reduced.
Realigning rules to work for vision
There is a misalignment between ambition and rules. Too
frequently, rules determine policy, strategy and vision rather than

vision, policy and strategy determining the rules. Many rules are
incredibly petty, cluttering up the urban system and obscuring the
bigger picture possibilities of any city. We have become regulators
rather than facilitators. In times of dramatic change, the rules
system must be reassessed. If rules only constrain, they have a
corrosive effect on imagination. With a risk and opportunity policy
we begin to think differently, do things differently and, ultimately,
do different things. This is a glass half full rather than glass half
empty approach.
Each rule-based hurdle is a response to some disaster in
history,
26
and too often rules are based on worst-case rather than
likely scenarios. This is entrenched by indemnity and personal
liability legislation which encourage individuals to export their risk,
usually to cautious public authorities.
Each discipline has its rules or legislation to safeguard special
interests. Consider a highway. Highway engineers have rules, as do
environmental services or planning. Disability legislation, too,
effects what can be done. Yet each discipline applying their rules
does not make a good city. This highlights the need for rule-makers
to collaborate to create the best solution possible by bending and
adapting their rules with the overall goal of good city-making.
Another example: Adelaide City Council wanted to be walking-
and cycling-friendly. It suggested providing free bikes, an emblem-
atic initiative that projects greenness imaginatively. It was blocked
for legal reasons concerning who had responsibility for accidents
and the need to provide certification that users could ride a bike.
How could they if the bikes were free to be picked up anywhere?
The idea had to be aborted. Many countries have advanced stop
lanes which give bikes at traffic signals an area in front of cars,
making the cyclist highly visible to motorists and giving them a
head start. It improves cyclist safety. The design is not covered by
Australias AusRoads Guide to Traffic Engineering Practice. Part
14 Bicycles. Few councils Melbourne is an example are
willing to take the risk of implementing a design not covered by
AusRoads. Similar blockages happen in encouraging pedestrian
priority. Zebra crossings, thick black and white stripes adopted in
many countries, give pedestrians the right to cross the road without
pushing a stop button, with the onus on the motorist to stop. But
current ministerial regulations prohibit their installation in South
Australia in all circumstances. It shows how difficult it was for
Adelaide to reflect its then slogan, audacity, capacity and vivacity.

This all has a corrosive effect on imagination, affecting every-
thing we do, whether in the public, private or community sectors:
the plastic gloves that need to be put on when you buy food; the
sausage sizzles put on by a voluntary group to raise money that
were threatened because someone got food poisoning once; the
cooking students who cannot watch a famous cook at work in case
they slip in the kitchen.
This generates a culture of constraint, where common sense is
squeezed out. Two forces are working in parallel. One is a litigious,
suspicious climate that can generate a level of paranoia and leads
to a loss of human interaction. The other is that, while occupa-
tional health and safety committees rightly focus on risk at work,
there is no equivalent committee that looks at creative possibilities
at work. As a result we focus on danger and not opportunity. Many
rules are small yet cumulatively they erode initiative. Governments
and cities should play a central role by thinking through imagina-
tive regulation. Attitude and perspective are key: Yes. How can we
achieve this? rather than, But there might be a problem here. We
need to be less legalistic and more concerned with problem-solving.
We need to understand that saying open up rules does not equate
to deregulation but rather to finding the right rules for the right
circumstances.
A lively session with several hundred public servants at an
Institute of Public Administration Australia seminar threw out a
cascade of interesting ideas that are easy to implement, including a
disposition to strike a redundant regulation off the books each time
a new one comes on; allocating, say, 0.5 or 1 per cent of budgets to
known risky projects; new recruiting criteria that assess the innova-
tive capacity of the individual; a creativity index as part of annual
performance assessment; and placing an innovation item on
agendas, like the one for occupational health and safety. There may
even be a programme like Huddersfields Creative Town Initiative,
where a business leader gave 750,000 to a programme the sum
was matched by the city to come up with 2000 innovative ideas
by the end of the year 2000. These could be in any field from
running a crche in a new way to developing a business idea.
A semantic shift can be applied to regulation by rethinking it as
a source of creating added value. Normally we think of incentives
as the driver, yet adroit, creative regulation can also be a driver to
sustained economic growth rather than a constraint. One again
thinks here of Emscher Park, which used high environmental stan-

dards and first mover advantage to drive forward the growth of
its export-driven environment-healing industries. The long-term
studies of how green regulations have encouraged company inno-
vation is further evidence of the possibilities.
27
By refocusing
attention to resource productivity rather than labour productivity,
any city could copy this approach to generate, say, hypercars
affordable, fuel efficient, ultralight, hybrid-electric vehicles and
much more.
Renaming risk management policy
Precisely at the moment of change, when cities need to be inven-
tive, the rise of a risk culture limits potential. Every risk
management policy should be renamed risk and opportunity
policy to ensure both sides of risk are explored. This means moving
from a climate of no, because to one of yes, if. Allied to this move
should be incentives to encourage and validate imaginative think-
ing. For instance embedding criteria for innovation and creative
capacity as part of annual job performance assessments and as a
requirement in job applications. Moving forward requires a focus
on the spirit of most guidelines, rules or laws and not on the letter
of the law, which usually constrains. This requires leadership from
the top, from the bottom and right through the middle. Top leaders
need to symbolically give permission so that the trapped potential
of others lower down the hierarchy and of the city is unleashed.
There are many potential leaders waiting in the wings.
Reconceiving the city
Reconsider what the city is. Cities in the 21st century are smartly
connected cities, ones that can marshal the energy of their entire
community. The legal, physical, economic and perceptual
constructs of the city will differ, as will images. Most big cities
are city or metropolitan regions but are governed as smaller enti-
ties, at times even as if they were only towns. This set-up can
create fierce parochialisms and turf wars which make it hard to
deal coherently with issues like public transport, housing or
inward investment strategy. This is why there are city amalgama-
tions worldwide. For instance Toronto moved to
metro-governance in 1998 and the major British cities are defin-
ing themselves as city regions. Town thinking and city thinking
are different. The balance between locality and wider areas needs

to be continually renegotiated; there is no iron law. Over time,
cities reshuffle boundaries to maximize overview with the need
for very local detail: to make decisions of international impor-
tance or to cut down a tree.
The core communication challenge is to be close to the voter
and to find a means by which there is enough involvement of the
individual citizen, through a variety of participative means within a
structure that allows the bigger picture issues to be dealt with. Yet,
in the end, the decision must be a judgement on what sustains both
wealth creation capacity and social harmonies.
Consider a common worldwide phenomenon. Take Memphis,
where independently incorporated cities in the outer suburban belt
like Germantown and Bartlett leapfrog over the core and suburbs,
demanding infrastructure so they connect with the city. Physically
it shatters Memphis integrity and shape, creating wide funnels
along which strip stores proliferate. Built to attract the better paid,
it drains Memphis of its tax base. This is a triple whammy.
Memphis has to maintain its services on a lower income base, the
city loses its mix of rich and poor, and the outer suburbanites
exploit the bits of Memphis they like, such as using the cultural
facilities, while making little or no financial contribution to its
maintenance. Only a metropolitan approach can solve this.
Take Espoo as an instance of strategic planning difficulties.
Espoo is a high-tech area where the original headquarters of Nokia
were based and is, to all intents, part of Helsinki. When Helsinki
completed its metro in 1982 it wanted to extend to Espoo. Espoo
resisted, essentially for power reasons, and this created traffic prob-
lems in Helsinki. For 20 years they argued and only recently has
Espoo relented.
Finding the resolution, the will to operate well, is key. Bristol in
Britain is an important city of 400,000 and has a metropolitan
catchment area of around 600,000. When metropolitan councils
first arrived in the early 1970s, the change did not touch Bristol,
although it was an obvious candidate. Instead, in 1974 it became a
district within an even larger region, Avon, thus reducing its status,
even though it was the driver of the city region. Bristol then oper-
ated like a doughnut, with pockets of extreme disadvantage within
a larger, richer conurbation. Organizationally, it took a long time
to get Avon to work; but then it was taken apart again in 1997 and
Bristol was boxed into too narrow boundaries as part of a network
of four local authorities, Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset,

North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. Indeed some bound-
aries run right through the city of Bristol. This creates tension and
bad decision-making and led to the recent tramway proposal being
aborted.
Birmingham is the largest city in Europe without a metro. It
drives the West Midlands region of Britain a region of about 5.5
million people. But the proud cities of Wolverhampton, Walsall,
Coventry and a mass of smaller ones fear its power. If they worked
together they could probably persuade central government to
release resources. Perhaps more importantly, the centralized,
controlling British system does not allow Birmingham to borrow
resources from international financial markets to create a metro on
its own. This means that Birmingham remains stuck in traffic jams;
that its poorer populations are locked into specific areas; and that
the city remains under-connected, disadvantaging areas like the
ethnically diverse Handsworth or Sparkbrook. These would be far
more vibrant hubs otherwise.
The British regeneration success stories appear to happen in
spite of obstacles and lack of power. The current level of centraliza-
tion is holding cities back. Without revenue-raising powers, how
can a city have a vision? Within Europe, Britain has one of the
lowest levels of locally raised taxation.
28
Contrast this with the
astonishing revival of Spanish cities like Valencia, Bilbao,
Barcelona, Malaga and Seville. Their local control over resources
and the ability to raise their own taxes is one of the highest in
Europe and is acknowledged as a driver of their vision for them-
selves.
Metropolitan areas should be viewed as an interlocking asset
where the centre feeds north, south, east and west and they, in
turn, feed the centre. When you look at the supply chains and
economic dynamics, the mutual interdependences are crystal clear,
as are the flows of services. It is important, too, to overcome stereo-
types that affect investment potential. Stereotypes do not help good
strategy. For example, one of the largest concentrations of PhD
graduates in Australia work in north Adelaide, around Playford.
Yet because of image issues, that area is perceived as part of the
problem rather than home to some of the nations most dynamic
knowledge-intensive industries.
Taking an eagles eye view of most cities as a governance struc-
ture, we see a decision-making spaghetti as you overlay one
jurisdiction over the next: local, regional, national or federal politics

and water, education and health boards. They do not align. Decision-
making is not geared to seeing metropolitan areas as integrated
wholes. But the fates of the centres matter to outer-lying areas. They
are bound together like Siamese twins. Having local councils is
crucial as long as there is a mechanism which ensures that the wider
picture is considered. Take Adelaide again: What is Walkerville, a
council with 8000 voters, to a Parisian, Burnside to a Roman or
Marion to someone from Shanghai? They are just Adelaide. On the
international stage Adelaide is the overarching identifier.
A metropolitan governance arrangement makes sense despite
the downsides. Many cities struggle with the dilemma. Dublin is
too big for Ireland, so the government resists the creation of a
Greater Dublin authority, but Dublin is too small for Europe to
operate effectively as a major European city.
Yet the city needs a boundary. Cities work well when they have
boundaries, barriers and borders. Too few cities address the ques-
tion When will it ever end? and take a stand on the boundary. The
assumption should be for a boundary that only on rare occasions is
redefined. The justification to move ever outwards, from Istanbul
to Canberra, often comes from the development industry, which
claims none of our children will ever be able to buy their own
house as the cheap land has historically been on the edges.
Boundaries, as distinct from endless sprawl, help define and give
places stronger identity; this is why in our own surveys of the ideal
city, the classic bounded cities of Italy usually come on top. It also
forces cities to compact in selectively, so creating the critical mass
for public transport hubs or more lively activity to occur. This in
turn has a beneficial downstream effect.
Reimagining planning
The word planning is confusing, because it both describes a generic
attribute that applies to all activities and simultaneously has been
taken over as the core term for city-making and become synony-
mous with it. Broadly it means to anticipate futures and problems,
to explore their possible impact, to describe what is wanted and
how to get there in solving problems and to select strategies from
among alternative courses of action, as well as a set of steps in
reaching a goal. A plan is like a map. When following a plan, you
can always see how much you have progressed towards your
project goal and how far you are from your destination.
29

With the pace of urban development so fast and the attempts
of planners to create orderly development, planning has increas-
ingly come under criticism. Planning has two core conundrums to
deal with: What is planning? and What is planning for? The
American Planning Association shows no lack of confidence and
deftly says:
Planning is city building The goal of city and regional
planning is to further the welfare of people and their
communities by creating convenient, equitable, health-
ful, efficient, and attractive environments for present
and future generations It is a highly collaborative
process. Through this collaborative process they help
to define the communitys vision for itself In the
analytical planning process, planners consider the phys-
ical, social and economic aspects of communities and
examine the connections between them.
30
As to the scope of planning activity, the British government now
defines planning as the creation of sustainable communities. So
planning is moving away from its land-use focus towards being
more about mediation and the negotiation of differences. This
requires new skills. For others, it veers between being solely
concerned with the physical and the planning of land uses to being
a generalist activity covering an understanding of economic dynam-
ics, the social, the environmental and, increasingly, the cultural as
well as the process of engaging communities in visioning where they
live. In the former case the skills base is clear and circumscribed. It
sees the city as essentially an engineering artefact and helps focus
on orchestrating the built environment professions. As conductor
of the plan its self-understanding is that of the leader.
In the latter case its role is less clear either it acquires higher-
order understanding of a variety of disciplines to justify its
leadership role or it acknowledges it is merely part of the city-
making team. Or alternatively it makes a special claim that its form
of knowledge is more significant in creating cities. These status
battles have raged for a long time. At points it was the architect
who claimed primacy; now it is the urban design grouping who
claim that their overlapping concerns, touching the morphologi-
cal, perceptual, social, visual, functional and temporal,
31
put it in
the central role. These dimensions cover connectivity, movement
patterns, street layout, sense of place and image, environmental

design, social use and management of space, and the functioning of
the public realm.
32
It should be noted that all the disciplines
discussed, including urban design, are physically oriented and
inspired. It is as if only organizing the space is important rather
than creating a habitat. The knowledge of people who glue the city
together seems incidental.
My view is that city-making is the overarching activity that
draws on a wide variety of disciplines, soft and hard, one of which
is planning and another urban design, but only as two among many.
Mostly people will need to work in interdisciplinary teams, as only
occasionally is one individual able to grasp the overarching picture.
It is an exercise in telling a possible story about the city and how to
get there. It energizes and provides direction. It is both normative
and prescriptive. It is not value free at this point, as city-making is
a process of exerting power. In being normative the city-makers
will have critically analysed how they reached their conclusions,
why things work and why they dont. It is not mere speculation.
The skills of the storytellers need to include an understanding of
the various dynamics that make cities work. It needs to be both
hard-nosed and sensitive. This aspect of city-making should avoid
the dull, lifeless language of traditional planning and explain why
what it is suggesting could work.
It will address in its action plan the classic planning dilemmas,
such as to plan or not to plan, and the guidelines and levels of
rigidity it proposes will be context-driven. In this scenario, who is
leading the process will depend, and by no means will it always be
a physical specialist. It may in one instance be a historian, in
another someone knowledgeable about social dimensions and in a
third a culturally literate person.
There are then the mechanics of implementing and evaluating
agreements, guidelines, regulations, rules or laws in fields as varied
as development control and creating economic incentives. These
are, however, essentially routine processes and should not be
confused with the process of developing the bigger picture oppor-
tunities.
Remapping the city
By reconceiving cities a different picture emerges. This needs
mapping if policy priorities are to be set and the right investment
undertaken. The best mappers are usually the planners. Their focus

is largely on land-use patterns and socio-demographic trends. Many
maps exist, such as of the value contours of the city, but these do
not appear to be looked at from a holistic perspective in which
planners, economic strategists and the social or culturally minded
interpret together what the policy implications are. So far, interpre-
tation has been too firmly viewed within isolated disciplines. This
is fine as far as it goes. Yet when other dimensions are also mapped,
further insight occurs. In short, maps stimulate insight when looked
at through collective eyes, and we could be more creative about the
kinds of maps we develop.
Maps rarely track emerging issues such as the flows of creativ-
ity, innovations, decision-making, participation, use of space and
potential. Nor are maps made of industrial dynamics, showing how
a place interconnects internally and with the wider world. But what
can emerge from these are interdependencies, mutual reliances and
often counter-intuitive conclusions. In Adelaide we undertook
extensive remapping and discovered, for instance, the Playford PhD
cluster. Remapping revealed an extensive decision-making spaghetti
as one map was layered on to the next. The maps showing where
creatives live confirmed intuition. Creatives move to areas of char-
acter and distinctiveness, but also to places in the process of
transformation, where an element of edginess remains. Also there
is a strong correlation between places on the heritage register and
where they live, often in accommodation where they both live and
work. The maps were also helpful in predicting areas of future
potential or possible decline.
Redelineating urban roles
The bureaucracies that run cities have two core tasks which
require completely different outlooks, attitudes and skill sets. Yet
often they are done by the same organization with attendant
stresses. The first task is the routine delivery of services, which are
largely repetitive, such as street cleaning, road maintenance, and
the management of schools and transport systems. This is essen-
tially rule-driven and mechanical. The second task is managing
urban change, which is developmental. This focuses on identifying
future needs, such as the soft and hard infrastructure requirements
for 50 years hence. This might be as bold as shifting the city centre,
as Taipei has done by building Taipei 101, the Taipei financial
centre in the new Xinyi District. At the time of writing, this

508m skyscraper is the worlds tallest building. Around it now
cluster department stores and Eslite, one of the worlds largest
bookstores, selling 3000 different magazines and newspapers.
Promoted as a cultural arena for the people of Taiwan, Eslites
eight storeys include a childrens discovery museum, seminar
rooms, and a design and living floor. Managing urban change
might involve investing in new education, shifting the industrial
base to services, getting into a new economic sector, recabling a
city or opening out new housing zones.
Vehicles to push the urban change agenda forward need a value
base to guide thinking and decision-making; they need to be set up
democratically while being able to act entrepreneurially within
accountability principles. This means giving leeway to act with the
requisite public monitoring. Rotterdam Development Corporation
is one model of an arms-length local authority entity with the
leeway to act entrepreneurially and to partner with the private
sector. Importantly, it has an income stream from a large number
of ground rents in the city. Thus it can put resources into the pot
when enticing the private sector to get involved but can also reduce
risk, so encouraging innovation or more expansive or interesting
follow-through. Another model is Bilbaos Metropoli-30 (described
in Chapter 7). It was set up as a driving mechanism and vision
holder. It does not confuse vision-making with implementing. Its
road map has led from a focus on civic infrastructure to a change
in cultural values in the region. It has said to itself, You only have
a once in a lifetime opportunity to change the civic infrastructure,
and at a minimum it should be international class, at a maximum
world class.
Metropoli-30 was particularly effective in the early years of
Bilbaos regeneration, when it helped launch the city on to the
global stage. However, it is now struggling somewhat to maintain
its position and, while its current theme of changing the cultural
values of the city to be more open and tolerant is immensely impor-
tant, it does not have the same urgent ring as building a new
physical infrastructure. Again the invisible infrastructure never
seems as exciting as the visible.
In parallel, the company Bilbao Ra 2000 plays a significant
role within the city itself and has grown in importance. Created in
1993, it is a joint stock company with public capital a status
chosen to give its organizational ethos flexibility. At the beginning
it had few financial resources and had to face the overcautiousness

of private investors. It received land a crucial point from the
port and the railway company at a nominal cost in return for devel-
oping new infrastructures. This enabled it to resell parts for housing
units. These first receipts were reinvested in high quality public
realm works in the Abandoibarra area near the Guggenheim. As
the real estate market took off after the Guggenheim effect, and
while other resources were leveraged from the EU and public insti-
tutions, the initial caution of the private sector stopped and the
market dynamic gained full flow. The danger now, however, is that
it excludes the less wealthy.
In surveying regeneration economics the following conclusions
can be drawn. Public and private relations need to be in balance so
mutual benefit is clear and not dominated by one party. It is nave
to think complicated developments involving public-good values
and goals can be achieved by a few enlightened developers working
on their own. However enlightened they are, their economics do
not stack up in truly blighted areas. The private realm is more often
than not interested in the shorter term and in minimizing risk. The
public sector needs to help reduce that risk, but also needs the tools
to do so. An income stream to help the private sector is required.
The ownership of and ability to trade in land is the key lever as it
enables borrowing against increased land values. But bear in mind
that the window of opportunity within regeneration to capture land
value is short.
An income stream enables local, publicly accountable bodies to
take a lead and not just be passive implementers of what a national
government imposes or be completely driven by private market
interests. Cities in continental Europe have a better understanding
of the need to plan for their financial future and it allows them to
develop more imaginative strategies than those in, say, North
America, Australasia or Britain.
Some of the value-added created through good public strategy
should go back to the public purse. This revenue can help finance
public realm initiatives. A completely private sector approach tends
to privatize public space, so you to tend to end up with mall-like
developments and lose the street in the process. The difference in
feeling between private public space and public public space is
subtle but significant. However well done, the former has a
commercial edge as it is geared to consuming, which allows for
some excitement but is essentially barren. The latter done well, as
in Abandoibarra, can exude public values like conviviality, the

ability to hang around or the ability to reflect. When done badly,
however, it also has an emptiness.
Reasserting principles of development
The speed of deep regeneration is slow; it takes a generation. It
requires value holders who can stick it out for 20 years.
Regeneration is too important to be left to the vagaries of the polit-
ical cycle. Typically, the trajectory of development or renewal in an
area starts with a philosophy and then a story a story of what
could be. Often this is prefigured by some temporary actions, such
as a market, a bizarre arts event, an old building being brought
back to life or a new type of project. Often these are led by urban
missionaries, two examples in Britain being Eric Reynolds, whose
long track record includes Camden Lock Market, Gabriels Wharf
and Container City in London,
33
and Bill Dunster, the eco-
architect. They in turn create settings that the pioneers occupy,
examples being Dunsters Bed-Zed Factory,
34
a zero emissions
development with 82 residential units in Merton, London, or Ken
Yeangs bioclimatic skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur. The next group
codify, replicate and make the innovations into a formula as the
mainstreaming begins. Finally, there are those who benefit from the
hard work of the innovators. The challenge is to ensure they do not
take all the value out of the development.
The goal is to get a system that reinforces key actors taking a
long-term perspective and encourages ordinary people to create the
good ordinary and the great surprising. Good ordinary buildings
build up like a mosaic, yet the debate about housing or public build-
ings tends to be dominated by architectural comment focused on
loud buildings. To encourage the good ordinary requires principles.
The New Urbanism charter addresses three levels: the region,
metropolis, city and town; the neighbourhood, district and corridor;
and the block, street and building. Within each there are nine princi-
ples. For example, at the regional level: The metropolitan region is a
fundamental economic unit of the contemporary world.
Governmental cooperation, public policy, physical planning and
economic strategies must reflect this new reality. At the neighbour-
hood level: Neighbourhoods should be compact, pedestrian-friendly,
and mixed-use. Or at the block level: Individual architectural
projects should be seamlessly linked to their surroundings. This issue
transcends style. The core aims are difficult to disagree with:

The Congress for the New Urbanism views disinvest-
ment in central cities, the spread of placeless sprawl,
increasing separation by race and income, environ-
mental deterioration, loss of agricultural lands and
wilderness, and the erosion of societys built heritage
as one interrelated community-building challenge.
We stand for the restoration of existing urban
centres and towns within coherent metropolitan
regions, the reconfiguration of sprawling suburbs into
communities of real neighbourhoods and diverse
districts, the conservation of natural environments,
and the preservation of our built legacy.
We recognize that physical solutions by them-
selves will not solve social and economic problems,
but neither can economic vitality, community stability
and environmental health be sustained without a
coherent and supportive physical framework.
35
The charter for New Urbanism is a useful mechanism. But it should
be judged by its intention, aims and values, not only by what has
hit the ground in its name. Many New Urbanism developments can
have a cloying feel without the edge of surprise, overemphasizing,
as they often do, historic references and context and giving little
space for rethinking the new or making dramatic interventions.
Reconnecting difficult partners:
New Urbanism and Le Corbusier
While their intentions to create better cities were similar, Le
Corbusier and New Urbanism seem miles apart. Their conceptions
started from very different premises. For the first the image is
rational and mechanical: the house as a dwelling machine, where
the car is king. For the second, the image is organic, where commu-
nity is at the centre.
In the US more than elsewhere, towns and cities have been
pulled apart by putting the needs of the car centre-stage. Hence the
appeal of New Urbanism whose tentacles are now spreading. It has
a view, a manifesto and set of principles, of how life should be lived,
seeking to establish a link between the physical design of cities and
social aims like a sense of community providing an alternative to
automobile-oriented planning that has torn and fractured most
places apart, less so those whose historic cores have remained. It is
a reaction against sprawl and wants to create human-scale walka-

ble places. Its major principles are to create compact, walkable
neighbourhoods or districts with clearly defined centres and edges
with a public space, a square or a green at its heart, surrounded by
public buildings, such as a library, church or community centre as
well as major retail businesses. There should be a focus on diverse,
mixed activities in close proximity: living, shopping, schools, work-
places and parks. Neighbourhoods and districts should encourage
walking without excluding automobiles. Streets should be
reclaimed with building entrances fronting the street rather than
parking spaces. Streets should form an interconnected network and
public transit should connect neighbourhoods to each other, and
the surrounding region. Also, a wide spectrum of housing options
should enable people of a broad range of incomes, ages, and family
types to live within a single area. By contrast hulky, large develop-
ments featuring a single use or serving a single market segment
should be avoided. Civic buildings, such as government offices,
churches and libraries, should be sited in prominent locations. New
Urbanists think areas with large office, light industrial, and even
big box retail buildings can be made walkable with the dominant
parking lots flipped to the side and the rear so avoiding setbacks.
More than 600 new developments are planned or under construc-
tion in the US, using the principles. Additionally, hundreds of
small-scale new urban infill projects are restoring the urban fabric
by re-establishing walkable streets and blocks.
Some design fashionistas hate New Urbanism; they detest what
they see as its cloying feel; its ornamentation, its dinky town imita-
tion of a nostalgic past. Celebration, near Orlando Disneys private
5000-acre town, built on those principles and using their designers
has eclipsed Seaside as the best-known New Urbanist community.
Disney has given New Urbanism both a good and bad name. While
Disney has avoided the label, it is a juicy target especially given its
strict rules and management. Its town hall, perhaps its least attrac-
tive building, with forbidding columns, accentuates that reputation.
Celebrations roads, apart from the ubiquitous use of Celebration,
have names like Acacia, Mulberry and Hawthorn alluding to a
natural, arcadian landscape. Celebrations conventional urban
design is generally of high quality; for instance all houses front the
street and cars are hidden from view. It is mostly liked by those
who live there. The area feels safe. As one person noted, The entire
focus of our lives has changed. Instead of doing everything some
place other than close to home, we now can eat, do errands, cele-

brate special occasions and just hang out near our own home. The
changes are most dramatic for our children, who now have a
freedom they never had in our old neighbourhood.
Le Corbusier equally had intentions to find better ways of
living, seeking to deal efficiently with the urban housing crisis and
squalor of the slums. As a founding member of the Congres
Internationaux dArchitecture Moderne (CIAM) he realized early
on how cars would change cities. Fascinated by the logical rigour
of Taylorist and Fordist production strategies he applied this
rational, some would say desiccated, spirit to city building and
decreed that the house is a machine for living in. It was to be
designed with great clarity and a focus on function using modern
materials, technologies and architectural forms so providing a new
solution to urban living and simultaneously raising the quality of
life of poorer people.
His core ideas are embodied in his scheme for a Contemporary
City of Three Million Inhabitants (1922). Its centrepiece is a group
of 60-storey glass-encased, steel-framed cruciform skyscrapers with
offices and apartments for wealthier people. Set back in smaller
towers were to live poorer people. Many buildings were on thin
stilts. His notion of towers in parks as the ideal city plan became
the dominant model for low- and mid-priced housing on the
outskirts of major cities in Europe and elsewhere. The hub was a
transportation centre with buses and trains on different levels with
road intersections and even an airport on the top. Pedestrians were
separated from the road, and cars were venerated. Ornamentation
was sparse and buildings spartan and by law all buildings should
be white. Brasilia is the prime example of its logic to full effect, yet
his influence seeped throughout urban planning, still applied but
increasingly criticized as creating cities enslaved to cars on wide,
congested roads, banked with dull repetitive towers. Le Corbusier
became a bte noir for critics who hated his insistence on a rational
efficiency that to them diminished people.
So do we, as Rem Koolhaas suggests, fuck context?
36
Have
Koolhaas followers been able to create spaces people love? Indeed,
the question needs to be raised: Do architects like people? Some
do. Take Will Alsops extension to the Ontario College of Design in
Toronto. He rejected the solution to build an extension on a cleared
site as too conventional. He suggested leaving the site open, land-
scaping it and linking it to the public park behind. He boldly put
the extension high in the air on stilts, so doubling its space use.

Like an architectural installation it hovers above the existing college
with its pixelated black and white cladding and coloured stilts. It
completely transforms an unremarkable street. It is pragmatic and
visionary, albeit seemingly devoid of contextual considerations.
Some have criticized the internal spaces that students work in, but
the exterior leaves a strong mark.
Reshaping behaviour
Incentives and regulations condition and bend our behaviours. The
same is true for norms and values, let alone laws. The market choices
offered determine what we do. Technology shapes what we do and
how we do it. Many of these behaviour shapers are etched into oper-
ating manuals, codes or guidelines. We are never as free as we think.
The knee-jerk reaction that changing behaviour equates to
social engineering is ill-considered. Thousands of ways to effect
behavioural outcomes are employed to make civilization work. For
example, red traffic lights tell us what to do, as do road markings
or safety codes, yet we do not dismiss these measures as social engi-
neering. Reforms in an incentive system, like congestion charging
in London, change behaviour. In the case of congestion charges, it
has encouraged walking and cycling and discouraged car use.
It is better to encourage behaviours through incentives rather
than invoking stipulatory regulations, but sometimes things are not
moving fast enough. Living sustainably is one area: we guzzle far
too much. Most people are not aware of the deeper implications of
their consumption. This requires either more dramatic incentives,
for example tax rebates on sustainable fuels, or creative regulation.
Emscher Park has one of the most stringent and developed systems
of environmental regulation in the European Community, and, in
contrast to several other countries in the community with strict
environmental laws, the regulations are also actively enforced.
37
Emscher, once the mining centre of the Ruhr, used its environmen-
tal degradation as a spur to reinventing its economy. It applied very
high standards which local industry had to meet, and in meeting
these standards industry developed innovations. This contributed
to creating the environment-healing industries cluster centred
around Dortmund Technology Park, a sector within which it is esti-
mated that 50,000 people work. By the time the rest of the world
caught up with these standards, the region had already benefited
from its first mover advantage.
38

Ironically, Emscher cities such as Dortmund, Bochum,
Gelsenkirchen, Essen and Unna are twinned with their once indus-
trial mining Yorkshire counterparts in Britain Leeds, Sheffield,
Bradford. The contrast could not be more striking. Emscher, a
powerhouse of structural renewal, sought to create culture change
without erasing memory. Witness the transformation of the
Duisburg-Meiderich steel works. A torch-lit guided tour at night
through the gargantuan installations of the former works only dimly
lit by Jonathan Parks coloured light installation bends the percep-
tion. Emscher Park has attempted to innovate, while maintaining
consensus, and to adopt an incrementalism with perspective
approach to ensure that eco-thinking was deeply embedded. The
10-year IBA Emscher Park project regenerated the river system,
created a chain of 22 science and technology parks, refurbished or
built 6000 new properties according to high ecological and aesthetic
standards, and found radical new uses for former mines.
39
Its story
was simple turn a mining area into a landscape park. Conceptually,
the Yorkshire region was simply not at the same level, partly because
it did not have the levers to generate a vision beyond the mundane.
Some British politicians understand what is at stake but have
lost the moral high ground and have not delivered this level of
quality. In Britain one senses that we still need to convince the man
at the treasury that there are other ways of using resources better.
Their concern is with productivity and they find it difficult to think
in feedback loops and spin-offs. This treasury approach stops smart
thinking about investment and, with its particular form of risk aver-
sion, makes it difficult for public bodies to behave in long-term
ways. Often there seems a confusion between investing and spend-
ing. The fact that investment in social fabric has a financial payback
later is forgotten.
To make matters worse, the system of incentives and rewards
promoted by government in Britain until recently fostered a begging
bowl mentality. Grant processes encouraged those who could claim
they were in the worst situations, who were thus rewarded at the
expense of those who could say they had improved the most.
What is required is a revolution in taxation. In relation to
creative finance we can learn from the US, with its bond systems,
tax increment financing, business improvement districts (BIDs) and
land value tax.
40
Crucially, these measures can be instigated by the
city. The reason the US is able to innovate is that, as a federal struc-
ture, not everything is controlled from the centre. These

mechanisms essentially allow future value increases of property to
justify current borrowing by public authorities to create public
realm improvements, ranging from new trams to public space,
which will be repaid by increased taxes in the future. And with
BIDs, contributions from the private sector are repaid by higher
property values or increases in turnover in shops. For instance,
bond systems are underwritten by expected increases in land values
once the infrastructure has been improved. They are attractive to
private investors as they provide an inflation-proof form of invest-
ment. Bonds have the great appeal of being evaluated in terms of
the project and the capacity of the borrower by the investor, rather
than relying on the judgement of politicians. Importantly, the
requirement in the US to secure prior approval for issuing a bond
in a ballot secures greater accountability. These institutional mech-
anisms remind us that while what the individual can do is worthy
and important, it is limited compared to institutional change and
systemic creativity.
While the US has been financially innovative in its urban devel-
opment model, however, it is flawed in other ways: sprawl
continues, cars dominate, and segregation and inequalities are
endemic. It is more a warning than an inspiration. Many countries,
including Britain, that look to the States perhaps could do worse
than to look to continental European countries such as Holland,
Germany and Spain, or to places like Hong Kong.
Reconsidering the learning city
There are many slogans that now declare the aspirations of cities:
the good city, the knowledge city, the intelligent city. For me,
the notion of the learning city has most meaning. A creative, learn-
ing city is more than a city of education. A learning city is a clever
city that reflects upon itself, learns from failure and is strategic; the
city is a learning field. The dumb city, on the other hand, repeats
past mistakes.
Learning resources are everywhere, from the obvious, like
schools, to the less obvious, like the urban streetscape, or the
surprising, like prisons or malls. As the educating cities network
notes:
The city is, therefore, educative per se: there is no
question that urban planning, culture, schools, sport,
environmental and health, economic and budget

issues, and matters related to transport and traffic,
safety and services, and the media include and gener-
ate forms of citizen education. The city is educative
when it imprints this intention on the way it presents
itself to its citizens, aware that its proposals have
attitude-related consequences and generate new
values, knowledge and skills.
41
Most large cities produce a surplus of graduates as they suck in
talent from surrounding regions. So by definition they are educa-
tion cities. This is fine as far it goes. However, a more worthwhile
and exciting prospect is to be a learning city a city that encour-
ages people to be educated. What does this mean? We know
learning and education need to move centre-stage to secure our
future well-being. Only if learning is placed at the centre of our
daily experience can individuals continue to develop their skills and
capacities; can organizations and institutions harness the potential
of their workforce; can people or cities be self-reflective and so
respond flexibly and imaginatively to opportunities, difficulties and
emerging needs; can the diversity and differences between commu-
nities become a source of enrichment, understanding and potential.
The challenge for policy-makers is to promote the conditions in
which a learning city or community can unfold. This goes well
beyond learning in the classroom. It is a place where the idea of learn-
ing infuses every tissue of its being and is projected imaginatively; a
place where individuals and organizations are encouraged to learn
about the dynamics of where they live and how it is changing; a place
which on that basis changes the way it learns, whether through
schools or any other institution that can help foster understanding
and knowledge; a place in which all its members are encouraged to
learn; and, finally, and perhaps most importantly, a place that can
learn to change the conditions of its learning democratically.
A true learning city develops by learning from its experiences
and those of others. It is a place that understands itself and reflects
upon that understanding it is a reflexive city. Thus the key
characteristic of the learning city is its ability to develop success-
fully in a rapidly changing socio-economic environment. Where the
dumb city flounders by trying to repeat past success, the learning
city is creative in its understanding of its own situation and wider
relationships, developing new solutions to new problems. The
essential point here is that any city can be a learning city. It is not a
factor of size, geography, resources, economic infrastructure or

even educational investment. The learning city merely requires
strategy, creativity, imagination and intelligence. It looks at its
potential resources in a far more comprehensive way. It sees
competitive edge in the seemingly insignificant. It turns weakness
into strength. It makes something out of nothing.
How is this promoted? Leaving aside the wealth of educational
opportunities one would expect from a learning city, there is a need
to find ways of using the city itself as a learning field. Urban learn-
ing resources are everywhere, from the obvious to the less obvious
to the surprising. Pre-school groups, schools, colleges, universities,
adult learning centres, libraries, television and the internet are
obvious. Businesses, community centres, arts centres, museums and
attractions, health centres, post offices, citizens advice bureaux,
the urban streetscape, nature reserves, the outdoors and bookshops
are less obvious. Old peoples homes, homeless shelters, refuges,
prisons, shopping malls, hospitals, churches, trains, stations, foot-
ball stadia, service stations, restaurants, hotels, cafs, nightclubs
and local parks are surprising.
The challenge is to create more self-conscious communication
devices that allow the city fabric to become a learning experience.
Learning messages must confront the clutter of advertising. This
might mean that, on occasion, the football stadium uses its screens
to explain how the screen itself works, the train station becomes a
kind of classroom on transport or communications, or public signs
explain the origins of street names: Why is Brixtons Electric Avenue
so called? Who lived in Bloomsbury? Anywhere, anyhow, can
become a site of learning.
Indicators to measure an educated or learning city are differ-
ent. The former includes government school inspection records,
school student attainment, proportion of students enrolled in
higher education, impact of research produced by the university
sector and the proportion of the workforce receiving training.
Evaluating the learning city notion requires a different order of
indicators: the number and reach of formal cross-sectoral partner-
ships, the proportion of major businesses and institutions which
use non-hierarchical management processes or the number of
mentoring schemes supported by business, the vitality of local
democracy as expressed in voting patterns or responses to consul-
tation processes or the numbers of people involved in local
campaigns, and voluntary groups dedicated to bringing about
change and improvement.
42

Reigniting the passion for learning
Advances in knowledge about how effective learning works should
drive educational policy, strategy and institution-building; such
advances cannot be guided by views that are etched into current
institutional practices that come from a former era. Learning needs
to focus on and be seen through the eyes of those wishing to learn.
This implies a major conceptual shift in how schools work, what
they look like, the role of teachers, who should be regarded as a
teacher and what the curriculum should offer. Students should
acquire higher-order skills such as learning how to learn, create,
discover, innovate, problem-solve and self-assess. This would
trigger and activate wider ranges of intelligences. It would foster
openness, exploration and adaptability and allow the transfer of
knowledge between different contexts as students learnt how to
understand the essence of arguments rather than recall out-of-
context facts.
Creative learning environments have characteristics including
exuding trust; freedom of action; variety where you can transfer
knowledge across contexts and disciplines; a balance between the
skills people have; challenge a context where ideas are bounced
back and forth with continual feedback and evaluation; direct rele-
vance to the outside world; and an organizational leadership
culture that is open-minded and boundary-crossing.
43
Meaningful learning is reflective, constructive and self-
regulated. It is more effective to present kids with problems, chal-
lenging them to devise their own solutions. By putting the young
person at the centre, passion can be reignited, the passion required
for citizenship. This is especially so if learning plans and learning
agendas in school and outside school are co-created and co-
financed with a variety of outside stakeholders.
There are many educationalists thinking afresh, but their views
have not reached critical mass. There are many teachers with good
ideas and nearly every school has extremely interesting projects,
but too often these are the naughty stuff on the side. Teachers say
it is simply too hard to work against the system. This system
looms everywhere and is difficult to pin down a rule here, a habit
of doing things there. When teachers push innovative approaches,
they hit a wall of legislation and resistance from concerned parents.
Those things now seen as obstacles often emerged initially for good
reason, such as duty of care, safety issues or accountability frame-

works. But now those same issues are creating constriction,
restraint and even an element of infantilization, taking away
responsibility from and underestimating the capacity for people to
find their own ways to solutions. A climate should be encouraged
that gives permission to work around obstacles. The failures we
often discuss are more often not to do with the pupils but the way
they are taught and how their success is measured.
Education cannot solve the problems of education on its own.
After all, school occupies only 5 to 7 hours a day, even though we
sometimes behave as if it were 24. People could still be learning in
the other 19 hours. Some of the most effective learning outcomes
happen outside school. We know many miss this opportunity and
do things we prefer they would not. The role of cultural institu-
tions, from botanical gardens and zoos to museums, libraries and
galleries, should increase as their style of learning is seen as partic-
ularly effective in new learning theory. The same is true for
participation in the arts. Evidence shows that astonishing results in
overall performance can are achieved with increased participa-
tion.
44
Young people say their disinterest is triggered by the lack of
connection schools make with real life or young enthusiasms.
45
This overall refocus could be the circuit breaker in the system that
unleashes passion.
To shift the agenda to learning how we learn will be difficult
given the weight of history, institutional inertia, union rules and
surrounding bureaucracies more used to a controlling mode rather
than an enabling mode.
Reinventing teachers means their self-conception should change
from being knowledge experts to facilitators and enablers of learn-
ing. It means communicating to parents that the way they learnt in
the past is not necessarily the way we should learn in the future. It
is often parents, with their desire to give their kids the best, who
reinforce unhelpful patterns, assuming often that how they learnt
was right.
When teachers are brought up in an environment of constraint
they provide a role model for pupils of passivity and powerlessness
an unfortunate set of attitudes for young people to endure in their
rites of passage which affects those kids for life. Passion is the
key. When passion is tapped in learners and teachers there is a way
forward, and then schools can be reconceived as centres of curios-
ity and imagination and communities of enquiry rather than
factories to drill in knowledge.

Revaluing and reinvesting in people and
home-grown talent
It is a clich to talk of valuing people. Cities need to find ways of
identifying, harnessing, nurturing, sustaining, attracting and
promoting talent wherever it is. The talent of its people are the
citys main asset. Capitalizing and harnessing the creative potential
of local people has to be the defining core of any citys reinvigora-
tion. Their applied creativity generates the wealth and solutions
that will drive the city on. Every department, whether public or
private, should have a talent strategy. Every person can express
their talent better. At one extreme a long-term unemployed person
can become employable. Someone coasting in their job can become
enterprising, so doing their job better. That person over time may
become entrepreneurial and set up a business. Ideally they then
become creatively entrepreneurial and develop innovations or
become leadership figures.
Every city and region wants to attract more gifted and ambi-
tious people. Some call this the war for talent. Singapores talent
strategy to attract outsiders stands as an example of what many
cities, regions and countries are trying to do.
46
New Zealand
47
and
Memphis
48
are two other examples; they also have a strong agenda
to develop their domestic knowledge base. In essence they buy
talent, perhaps a leading researcher and his or her team, or encour-
age a company to relocate. Singapore has also developed a notion
of the creative city, whereby they seek to foster an environment
where people want to come. They note that:
The future will nonetheless be very different from the
past. In the knowledge age, our success will depend
on our ability to absorb, process and synthesize
knowledge through constant value innovation.
Creativity will move into the centre of our economic
life because it is a critical component of a nations
ability to remain competitive. Economic prosperity for
advanced, developed nations will depend not so much
on the ability to make things, but more on the ability
to generate ideas that can then be sold to the world.
This means that originality and entrepreneurship will
be increasingly prized.
49

Cities can attract outside talent to refresh their inner gills and
they have to but most of all they need to achieve endogenous
growth. I have no problem with migration, but simply want to
refocus on tapping home grown talent as a parallel strategy. In my
experience, in any city you investigate, there are many projects to
tap hidden talent, but they tend to be one-off, short-term and unco-
ordinated.
In Adelaide, for instance, we calculated that, of its population
of just over a million, perhaps 250,000 a quarter were under-
achieving. This is likely to be similar elsewhere. Some are
desperately leading a life that drains both them and their city.
Others may have merely missed out, and yet others dont quite
reach the next step of aspiration or are just waiting for the right
challenge to achieve more. If just 1 per cent of these people became
transformed, they would represent the equivalent of 2500 qualified
migrants in the Adelaide case; in London it would be 20,000. And
if 1 per cent, why not 2 or 3? If all of us achieved 5 per cent more
than we do already, this would equate to a hugely enlarged talent
pool. Think of any large city or ghetto, from the US and Brazil to
South Africa. The stark fact is that millions of younger people have
basically dropped out or not recognized what they can offer. It
reminds us of wasted talent.
Richard Floridas The Rise of the Creative Class asks, What
do talented people look for in a place? According to conventional
economic theory, workers settle in those cities that offer the highest
paying jobs in their fields. However, Florida argues that people in
the creative class, given their mobility and international demand
for their talent, base their choices on wider considerations. They
choose cities for their tolerant environments and diverse popula-
tions as well as good jobs. They want the critical mass of job
opportunities in their field but look for places that suit their
lifestyle interests, with attributes well beyond the standard
quality-of-life amenities. They seek an environment open to
differences places where newcomers are accepted quickly into all
sorts of social and economic arrangements. They want interesting
kinds of music, food, venues, art galleries, performance spaces and
theatres. A vibrant, varied nightlife, indigenous street culture, a
teeming blend of cafs, sidewalk musicians, small galleries, bistros
and so on.
50
What is true in attracting external talent also holds for inspir-
ing and keeping local talent they also want environments

conducive to inspiration. There is a danger that if importing of
talent is not combined with a home-grown talent strategy, disaffec-
tion and disenchantment could grow. Importing and overlaying
ambitious newcomers into a setting where existing inhabitants have
low expectations and aspirations can cause tension, as differences
in achievement can create a have and have not divide.
To tap talent might mean being unconventional, reimagining,
say, schools as different kinds of places, as centres of curiosity and
imagination that are co-conceived in an equal partnership by kids,
their parents, the teaching profession and architects. With these
broader links to the community, a different spirit could emerge. It
might mean reconceiving what a school is less a factory for learn-
ing and more interwoven with daily urban life. It could mean that a
travel agent might have a role in the geography class, a well-being
centre acting as the biology class, or that kids teach asylum seekers
language skills. This means rethinking who our teachers are and
what the role of traditional teachers should become. Not everyone
is equally talented, but everyone can tap into and express their
talent more than they do. Some people, especially those with low
expectations, often do not know they have talent simply because,
for a variety of reasons, it has not been discovered.
A talent strategy seeks to address this problem. A useful device
is to divide the talent-generating process into 6 components in
terms of helping policy-making and defining projects. Each has
different requirements and targets:
1 projects to help people become curious and interested this is a
precondition without which talent cannot be discovered;
2 initiatives to help people become work ready or employable;
clearly the role of cultural initiatives or arts programmes can
help and has so far been underplayed;
3 programmes to help people become enterprising the enter-
prise education agenda;
4 schemes to help people be entrepreneurial, such as by setting
up a business;
5 projects to help people to self-actualize, from which unex-
pected potential may emerge and where cultural institutions or
sports can again play a key role; and
6 creatively entrepreneurial initiatives that might lead to innova-
tions and inventions.

Importantly, the talent agenda is not a strategy for education,
although education should play a central role. It is integrated and
should also involve an assessment of how economic or arts devel-
opment and the programmes and activities of cultural institutions
foster talent and how social affairs can connect to the agenda. The
focus should not only be on statutory provision, but should also
involve the activities of the private sector and voluntary bodies.
The talent agenda is not only about youth, but also adults and
members of the third age.
These processes will rekindle enterprise and the entrepre-
neurial these are positive words, but we tend to regard what
they mean in a narrow way, assuming too often they only apply
to business people. There is a need to improve the image of being
an entrepreneur, getting schools to bring in outsiders to teach
these skills, getting the public sector itself to appreciate the
virtues of entrepreneurial thinking, both in its own domain and
elsewhere, and developing a range of affirmative devices, from
competitions to prizes. Being entrepreneurial goes beyond being
a business entrepreneur and applies equally to those working in
social, cultural, administrative and political fields. It is a mindset
driven by the ability to focus on creating opportunities and over-
coming obstacles. Each city needs to remind itself of its
enterprising history, for founding a city is a supreme act of entre-
preneurship.
Repairing health through the built environment
Following their combined efforts to improve living conditions in
the overcrowded and disease-ridden cities of the 19th century, the
disciplines of public health and urban planning went their own
ways. Only recently, after many decades, have they come together
again, with growing concerns about inactivity and subsequent
obesity and other chronic diseases, from hypertension to diabetes.
The US leads the race to be fat. It has the highest percentage of
overweight people (64.5 per cent), of whom 30.5 per cent are obese;
Mexico has 62.3 per cent overweight and 24 per cent obese, Britain
(61 per cent overweight, 21 per cent obese) and Australia (58.4 per
cent overweight) following close behind. Mainland European coun-
tries hover around the high thirties. The lowest percentages are
recorded in Japan (25.8 per cent) and Korea (30.6 per cent); obesity
is probably also lower in Chad or Eritrea, but the figures arent

available.
51
Being obese means that someone of 1.77 metres weighs
over 95kg.
In September 2003 the two leading American public health
journals, The American Journal of Public Health and The
American Journal of Health Promotion, had special issues on the
effects of the built environment on health, and how the design of
cities can foster health-inducing behaviour. Their argument can be
summarized thus: car-dominated, sprawling and pedestrian-
unfriendly cities make you fat and unhealthy. And it is time to
shift to communities intentionally designed to facilitate physical
and mental health. The situation is stark. In the US only 2.9 per
cent of trips are made by walking, down from 10.3 per cent in
1960. Walking and cycling now accounts for 6.3 per cent of trips.
In continental Europe, by contrast, figures range from 35 per cent
to 45 per cent. And this is impacting on life expectancy. A battery
of evidence from around the world is suggesting that cities that
encourage incidental walking and cycling have higher levels of
health. The relationship between built form and weight is clear
those areas with more sprawl and fewer sidewalks, thus encourag-
ing greater car use, have higher levels of obesity. Additionally,
those of greater isolation have higher levels of depression. The
results point ideally to forms of settlement that are more dense
and compact, where facilities from public transport to shopping
are nearby.
The challenge for all professions concerned with the city, from
the social worker to the architect, is to look at the city through the
prism of health. The topic is too important to be left only to health
specialists. This should involve outcome swaps. This means a
planner, regeneration expert or economic development professional
should ask, How do my plans help citizens become healthy?
Reversing decline
Cities rise and fall and rarely stay on top for a very long time.
Excepted, perhaps, are national capitals such as London, Paris or
Madrid, as they tend to accrue political, economic and cultural
power. But there are many counter-examples. Berlin lost its status
and may catch up again. Kyoto lost out when Tokyo took over as
capital. Rome had 1.5 million people in the first century AD; 300
years later, the population had fallen to 30,000, before resurging to
3 million in the 1970s. British cities like Liverpool, Sheffield and

Glasgow have seen their relative positions decline, not forgetting
hundreds of smaller ones, from Burnley and Rochdale to
Blackburn. Whole streets can still be bought in some northern
English towns for under 100,000. If there were no subsidies for
these places, there would be mayhem. Shored up by welfare
payments, decline is managed. In parts, life is quite pleasant, but
the young, gifted and talented are leaving. Side by side there are
areas of affluence some of them even the richest parishes in Britain
and poverty. A new class of quite well-paid urban therapists and
regeneration experts keeps them afloat. Statistically there are more
social workers, more housing experts and more economic develop-
ment specialists than elsewhere. This welfare industry makes life
bearable for those who find it difficult to succeed economically.
They try to manage decline gracefully.
Consider, too, East Germany, where most big cities have shrunk,
let alone the smaller ones. Or Detroit. Or production hubs in Russia
like Ivanovo. Or the mining towns in Australia like Broken Hill or
Whyalla. Cities rise up and achieve moments of glory and then fade
into insignificance. Their resources run out see Burra in South
Australia; they are now in the wrong place see Liverpool or
Calcutta. For some, war contrives to make them lose power, as
happened to Berlin and Vienna. Some miss strategic opportunities,
some are badly managed and led. Some, such as Venice or Florence,
manage to exploit the residues of their past glories by becoming
tourist destinations, but their real dynamic has long gone. Decline
mostly takes time and happens almost imperceptibly. Each small
movement of decline in itself does not seem to matter, but collec-
tively the movements constitute something dramatic.
Decline is often out of the control of cities but at times it is
exacerbated by a tendency to operate within a comfort zone. This
generates inertia, and then changing existing procedures and atti-
tudes is like raising the Titanic. At times, the decline is not visible,
and can be masked by comfortable lifestyles. Good weather, good
food and wine can be blinding and the nostalgia of all good things
past takes over.
The shrinking cities project has monitored such decline.
52
Significantly, it is assessing the opportunities that decline may
provide. Suddenly the growth paradigm is thrown out of the
window. Decline may be bliss, with a premium on space, telecom-
muting a possibility, and far more room for experimentation and
creating models for the future, such as eco-towns.

Remeasuring assets
Daniel Yankelovich, the renowned American pollster, helpfully
reminds us:
The first step is to measure whatever can be easily
measured. This is OK as far as it goes. The second step
is to disregard that which cant be measured or give it
an arbitrary value. This is artificial and misleading.
The third step is to presume what cant be measured
isnt really important. This is blindness. The fourth
step is to say that what cant be easily measured really
doesnt exist. This is suicide!
53
On some basics like value-added created per employee or the
number of unemployed, a city may be lagging. These basic
comparisons are useful, but there is a bigger story. The rethinking
process requires places to remeasure themselves according to their
self-defined strengths. For example, when I assessed indicators in
Adelaide, I found that predominant measures of success and failure
underplay its strengths or often push the city into the wrong prior-
ities. With indicators such as GDP growth, we see relative decline.
However, while these need to be taken seriously, they do not tell
the whole story. A traffic jam in Los Angeles increases GDP, as does
the resulting pollution that causes ill health. Crime rates jack up
sales of security devices. GDP signals can thus guide us into wrong
policy and investment. Or consider the value of time gained by
living in Adelaide, the 20 minute city, as compared to a Sydney.
What are the benefits of proximity? How much time is saved,
perhaps an hour a day by 100,000 people? I calculated this at
around 250 million working days a year. What is this worth?
Perhaps some 25 billion.
If people and their capacity to contribute to a citys future are
the key, why do we not measure the costs of not investing in people?
For example, the lifetime cost of an unemployed person is roughly
AUD1 million, while the lifetime benefit of a plumber is perhaps
AUD1.8 million or that of an accountant roughly AUD4 million.
The taxes paid might amount to from AUD600,000 to AUD1.4
million, the cost of an educational programme is perhaps
AUD100,000. The cost of only asphalting 1km of an existing two-
lane highway is AUD1 million. What ultimately contributes more
to GDP? A newly laid kilometre of road or 10 transformed people

contributing to the local economy whose lifetime taxes would more
than pay for the road in any case?
Benchmarking, when it emerged two decades ago as a means of
fostering improvement in business and elsewhere, had positive
impacts. Cities took to the idea with vigour, constantly comparing
themselves with others, copying what worked and pushing best
practices. This is fine, but increasing negative impacts are emerg-
ing. Most importantly, it can stop creativity and innovation as, by
definition, benchmarking is a strategy of following, not an exercise
in leading. Often it avoids defining strategy appropriate to local
needs and can distract from identifying unique local resources.
If nurturing and attracting talent is central to most cities
futures and we are worried about the brain drain, are we tracking
leakage of talent? This might be done by tracking not only gradu-
ates that leave, but also mid-career professionals, or through
peer-group assessment within fields such as the arts. In turn, are we
tracking the talent coming in? The indicator of indicators may be
the talent churn, because we know there is a correlation between
talent and generating wealth, solving problems of social cohesion,
or coming up with inventions and innovations. Even if creativity
seems too complex to measure, there is a wealth of proxy indica-
tors both quantitative and qualitative. These include those cited
by Richard Florida
54
that, while contentious, draw on a body of
data to develop a number of indices which he then uses to develop
correlation matrices and rankings of cities. These include:
the creative class index the percentage of creative workers in
the labour force;
the high-tech index the size of software, electronics and engi-
neering sectors;
the innovation index the number of patents per capita;
the talent index the percentage of college-educated people in
the population;
the gay index the concentration of gay couples in the popula-
tion (a proxy or lead indicator for diversity); and
the bohemian index the concentration of artistically creative
people (artists, writers and performers) in the population.
These are a good beginning, yet they do not highlight (nor do they
claim to) the fine detail. This needs to be elaborated more specifi-
cally, including measuring international connectivity or density of

communications assessed by telephone calls and internet uptake, or
levels of organizational networking. In the end, international peer-
group assessments of various fields are the most dependable.
More comprehensively, creativity might be assessed through a
biannual creativity audit to assess the citys creativity potential.
Such an audit provides a confidence-building foundational stone,
as literally hundreds, if not thousands, of people emerge as the real
drivers of an invigorated place. It is likely that they will represent
clusters of achievement and potential. It is likely, too, that some do
not know each other and operate in silos.
Re-presenting and repositioning
Arrival to and departure from a city matters. First and last impres-
sions configure overall impressions and negative experiences impact
more than positive ones. Airports, stations and entry roads are vital
in telling the urban story. They communicate how the city sees and
values itself. Philadelphia, a city with a strong identity, memorably
welcomes you after arriving at its airport with a major rubbish
disposal site. Singapore was one of the first cities to grasp and
follow through every aspect of the experience of arrival. Friendly
assistants help you to your taxi and a lush, green, tree-lined corri-
dor with boulevarded streets make the ride into the city centre calm,
so taking away the insecurities any traveller feels on arrival.
Shanghais elevated maglev (magnetic elevation) train, the worlds
only commercial maglev, connects the international airport to near
the citys financial centre in Pudong district, a run of 30km. Passing
similar tree-lined approaches, it creates a similar calming effect.
Both send out messages such as we care for you, we are well orga-
nized, you are safe, we are modern. Even though neither city is
renowned for its sustainability agenda, the arrival experience also
says we are green.
Hong Kong airport is also in this top league, with a public
transport system that is a delight and with porters for your luggage.
Noticeably, it is easier to achieve complicated goals, such as a 10km
entrance to the city, when an enlightened public sector is in the lead
and in essence can overcome resistances along the way. Here the
Nordic cities work too. Oslo airport is an intelligent building
alternative-energy-powered shutters open and close according to
the weather. You feel the eco-awareness through the design too;
there is practically no visual clutter and commercial aspects are

downplayed. Civic values, such as consideration, safety and respect,
imbue the atmosphere. Getting into the city is seamless. Contrast
this with the Washington Dulles airport experience and the
messages it sends out: no metro system to the centre, just a herd of
taxis waiting for arrivals. This is sad because Washingtons metro is
renowned as one of the best in North America.
Train stations send out the messages too. Euralille in Lille
projects modernity and the future open heaters compensate for
the cold chill that sweeps through it and that was perhaps a design
fault. The grime of Bucharest, the chaos of Odessa or the human
mass in Kolkata elicit other feelings. Adelaide is the only city in the
world where two of the worlds great railways stop the Indian
Pacific and the Ghan. This symbolic resonance is immense.
Unfortunately they arrive at a shunting yard in Keswick. Adelaide
is now changing that.
Getting these arrival termini right is key. This makes the Bilbao
comment above on once in a generation opportunities pertinent.
Get this wrong, as, for example, Terminal Four at Heathrow, and
we have to live with a bad building for a generation or more.
Importantly, this is the opportunity to send out visible iconic trig-
gers and not merely advertising hoardings. There is a huge
opportunity to make statements that show visitors what is different
about the city. The key themes should be embodied and reflected
from the terminal or station or motorway entrances onwards to tell
an unfolding story that links with the story in other parts of the
city.
But using the city as a communications device to drive vision
and aspiration remains under-explored and goes well beyond
arrival and departure. The panoply of visual clues and activities
promoted, from urban design, public art and signage to the tempo-
rary and whimsical, is there to be further explored. For instance,
green buildings should be known to be green, perhaps employing a
temporary sign that reminds people that the building next door
uses, say, double the energy and costs more.
Cities often downplay their possibilities and self-perception is
often the cause. The following may appear trivial, but has down-
stream effects on self-perception. In Adelaide we proposed that
instead of thinking of itself as the smallest of the big (Brisbane,
Melbourne, Perth and Sydney all being bigger) and losing out
against them, why not think of itself as the biggest of the small?
We advised Helsinki that, instead of worrying about being on the

periphery and on the edge, it might think of itself as at the cutting
edge. One sounds dull, the other more interesting. This changes
the narrative a place tells about itself and can generate confidence.
These switches have real life impacts.
The media is key to urban reinvention. Most city media disap-
point. They are geared to complaining rather than helping to create.
Cities are often projected as clichs, with little sense of their depth
or richness. There is much about problems, but little about achieve-
ment and aspiration. You hear above all about fears, crime,
vandalism and disorder (important though these are). You hear
about the effects but little about addressing causes. Places where
courts are based always have a disadvantage. In Adelaide there are
courts in the district of Elizabeth which deal with cases from a
wider area than that of the district itself. Yet reports of these cases
in the media refer solely to Elizabeth, so weakening the image of
this area dramatically. How about dropping the references to the
physical location of courts?
Just as it is good for any larger city to have alternative hubs
where different lifestyles express themselves, so the media land-
scape for a mature city should be one of diversity. In contrast to
Adelaide, which had one dominant paper, Melbournes or Sydneys
media provides a richer, more sophisticated story that reflects
broader views. Without more media competition, the story of a
place like Adelaide will be a narrow one. Most urban turnaround
stories work in part because they have this diversity of media or
especially when they are small a supportive local media that
encourages the city to move forward. The British town of
Huddersfield got lift-off as the creative town only when the local
press firmly helped create an environment in which citizens felt they
could become part of the solution. Obviously in a hyper-mediated
age, urban politics increasingly responds to media messages. And
this can also have a corrosive effect on politics as it begins to play
more to the media than to the other big picture issues concerning
the future. The media claim they are only responding to views
rather than creating views, but these are large arguments about the
role of the fourth estate.
Only a few cities, perhaps 30 in the world, have enough
drawing power and recognition across a range of domains. Most
people will know which these are. The list starts with places like
New York, Tokyo, Shanghai and London. The mass of others need
to increase their reputation and positioning in niche areas to sustain

wealth creation over time. The strong niches a city decides to high-
light are important, because if they inspire citizens they will want
to stay and contribute, and outsiders will be enticed to come.
Building a reputation is not merely a marketing exercise but a
process of creating rich associations around these niche areas.
In projecting itself as having desirable attributes, such as
creativity, dynamism or greenness, a city should not brand itself as
Creative Anywhere or give itself a similar accolade. It should
simply demonstrate through imaginative action that it is creative
and let others say of it you are creative. As ever, there is the danger
of sloganeering or vainly and desperately attempting to be famous
for something.
Yet positioning is about creating the conditions whereby the
wealth-creating capacity of a place can be sustained over time. For
the mass of smaller cities, which can mean any of those not at the
top of the urban hierarchy, the switch being attempted is to move
them from being places to leave to being destinations to come to.
This means increasing drawing power to various audiences.
Foremost, this is targeted at the citys own citizens by providing an
environment where they want to stay. In this way they become
stronger ambassadors for their city.
Retelling the story
Every city has many stories. Every story a city tells itself anchors its
sense of self and possibilities. Stories describe where a city has come
from, how it sees itself now, where it might go, its personality and
its perspective on life. Take Adelaides stories:
The land and its peoples before European settlement.
The city of free settlers and no convicts, and thus respect for
the law.
The city of ideals and perfect planning, exemplified by the
world-famous Light plan for the city. This engenders pride and
a certain high-mindedness, as well as a feeling of order and defi-
nition.
The city of stone and substance, reflecting a deeply embedded
solidity and long-term legacy.
The city of churches, highlighting its loftiness, spirituality and
otherworldliness. Yet this image on closer examination may not
be that pure, because the Bible and booze always went closely

together. Indeed, the number of churches may reflect a certain
fractiousness rather than unity of purpose.
The city of bold, state-led intervention, as exemplified by the
creation of the new town of Elizabeth and the attraction of the
car industry into the state. Perhaps it felt controlling and some-
what restrictive.
The city of the arts: a way of saying Adelaide is open, experi-
mental, vibrant and creative. This connects to the Adelaide
Festival.
The city that overextends and loses judgement, that is overam-
bitious and bites off more than it can chew. The State Bank
collapse or failure of the Multifunction Polis (MFP), a vision-
ary Japanese idea for the future of the city.
The boring city that is overcautious, avoids risk and that talks
the talk well but does not feel it can deliver.
Niche stories, such as Adelaide as the Detroit or Athens of the
South. Perhaps a marriage between the two is what Adelaide
really is. Then there is the murder capital label and, on a more
positive note, the city within which women can flourish and
where possible utopias can happen.
Seen in this sequence and the stories do follow chronologically
we can see why one followed the other. For example, the opening
out in the 1970s under Premier Don Dunstan, with his interest in
the arts, and the closing in after the State Bank saga and the ensuing
reputation for inaction.
Its goal now is to write a new chapter as the city of creative
imagination. It seeks to build on the vision that you can make it
here, you can achieve your dreams and we will help you. The signal
is you have permission to get on with it. Permission to have
insight, to imagine, to improvise, to invest and to implement. This
is the operating system of the new story.
Take Memphis as another example. Named after the ancient
Egyptian capital on the Nile, its stories include being the birthplace
of the blues and musical invention. Another predominantly 1950s
story is that Memphis is the quietest, cleanest and safest city in the
States. Then the Elvis Presley movement adds to its musical rich-
ness. Martin Luther Kings assassination is a story that blighted the
city for 35 years, but one that also highlights a concern with civil
rights. Fed Ex, the massive logistics company, is reshaping the story
again. Most interestingly, the University of Memphis is repeatedly

being referred to as the University of Second Chances.
55
This
certainly sends out the message, You can make here. You can fulfil
your dreams, and we will help you. And this is an adroit narrative
for the city as a whole, given its high entrepreneurial start-up rate
(and given that most entrepreneurs fail at least once), the popula-
tion mix (many on low incomes who desperately need second
chances to finally succeed) and plain old human frailty. If a city
takes on board the idea of second chances and inserts it into its
genetic code, this changes behaviour. Imagine a place that is posi-
tive about second chances, where the assumption is that you will
not be blamed for a failure or missing an opportunity.
Retelling the urban story is not about eradicating the past, but
about building on it and using the elements of past stories to help
us move forward. In so doing we should examine honestly the
myths that sustain us and give us our identity. There is nothing
wrong with myths as long as we challenge them regularly. We also
must invent, and then live out in our daily lives, new stories about
ourselves. If the watchwords are to be the place that encourages
imagination and being creative, what that means needs to be phys-
ically seen as well as allowing people to improvise. Rules and
regulations should facilitate and enable development rather than
control it.
My conclusion is that while industrial structure, business devel-
opment, natural resources and location are vital, what is even more
important is the culture of the place, its psychology and its history.
This shapes the attitudes of its people and its sense of self, the story
it tells itself and the myths about itself that it clings on to. This is
the genetic code of the city. While there is a certain path depen-
dency, this dependency can change because, whereas an individual
is locked into their attributes, in a city the people constantly change.
New generations come in unencumbered by the past, new outsiders
with fresh views arrive, and leadership with new priorities can
emerge. Leadership is central to the urban change agenda, and lead-
ership is more than just administering or managing.
How will we know these processes of imagination, improvisa-
tion and implementation are happening? This will require
communicating strategically and putting some things on the ground
that may, at first sight, seem superficial and irrelevant to the purists.
Yet their psychological power can be great. If you want to signal
that your city, Adelaide, for example, is ecologically savvy, putting
vineyards around an airport terminal communicates green inten-

tion (and wine) without wordy explanations, as would greening
blank walls, where foliage could hang majestically down from city
roofs like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Green buildings could
have imaginative signage explaining how much energy is saved and
how much more the neighbouring building costs to run. Having a
long-term plan to solar panel a city would have immense power to
communicate ambition, as would plans to waterproof the city. It
involves being a bit subversive or surprising and working at a
subliminal level to get a message across, while at the same time
doing the hard work of deeper greening.
Knitting the threads together
To drive a city forward there need to be a few powerful ideas
around which disparate communities of interest can gather and
coalesce. These should capture the imagination by tapping into
deeply felt desires and widely acknowledged assets, or even prob-
lems, but only if solutions are also proffered. They need to be
simply, but not simplistically, expressed in order to communicate
well.
The results need to be communicated not as a clutter of facts,
but as visible achievements that can be seen and felt in the way the
city goes about its business and in its urban landscape. That is why
we need to integrate attitudinal change with activities, programmes
and initiatives as well as physical manifestations such as in urban
design and infrastructure. Together these have a psychological
impact. To do this well requires whole of government approaches
and not scatter-gun initiatives.
Resources to achieve transformation will not magic themselves
out of nowhere. They will be harnessed by doing things better
largely within the same resource base. Much of this does not cost
money, or at least very little. But this can happen only by rethink-
ing through what capital, collaboration, connections and
communications are available. An under-explored form of capital
is confidence. When we tap this energy, motivation and will follow.
If we focus only on one without attention to the others, the city is
managing itself badly. Leading a city is about managing all its forms
of capital together.
Additional resources come from collaboration because, if
people and organizations follow jointly agreed ends, more value
can be created and greater impact achieved without wasting time

and resources by contradicting each other. This is why the need to
think through new governance arrangements for the city and to see
it as an interconnected asset is highlighted.
Connections, linkages and networks are a key resource. They
are the software system of the city, society and economy. Getting
people and sectors to talk together and finding ways to broker that
talking does not cost much and can have great impact in terms of
understanding, strategic decision-making, the generation of projects
and, ultimately, wealth creation. Yet nobody takes this on as their
role. Connections are not valued because the focus is on tangible
deliverables. But they are the invisible assets that make the
networking-driven economy work. And this should be the joint
responsibility of both business and various levels of government.
There should be two foci for connections, both internally and to
the outside world. This is what we have called capturing territory.
Communicating with strategic intent and sophistication
through iconic triggers generates resources because, when done
well, it engenders response, energy and will.
While every city needs to be imaginative, some need to be
doubly so. They must self-create through inventiveness, but to
begin the process they must overcome the culture of constraint.
This means a subtle shift in mindset, which is the order within
which people structure their worlds and how they make choices,
both practical and idealistic, based on values, philosophy, tradi-
tions and aspirations. Mindset is our accustomed, convenient way
of thinking and our guide to decision-making. Mindset is the
settled summary of our prejudices and priorities and the rational-
izations we give them.
A changed mindset is a rerationalization of a persons behav-
iour, because people like their behaviour to be coherent, at least to
themselves. The crucial issue is how people at every level can
change their approach systematically, not piece by piece.
The challenge is to find a story or narrative and linked struc-
ture that forces a change in perception. The notion of the
metropolis as an interconnected asset and the idea of learning to
be a city and revaluing hidden assets could do the trick.
Strong ideas or themes have a significant impact on how things
are conceived, the role of discipline, and collaboration and imple-
mentation. For example, conceiving a place as a metropolis, or
shifting the policy on education to centre around the child rather
than the professional, or changing the name of risk policy.

What is a creative idea?
What is a good, catalytic idea that can drive a process, that becomes
the roadmap to move forward? A great idea needs to be simple but
complex in its potential. A good idea is instantly understandable,
resonates and communicates iconically you grasp it in one. A
good idea needs to have layers, depth and be able to be interpreted
and expressed creatively in many ways and involve many people
who each feel they have something to offer. A good idea connects
and suggests linkages. It is dynamic. It breathes and implies multi-
ple possibilities. With a good idea creativity and practicality come
together. A good idea solves economic problems as well as others.
It has to embody issues beyond the economic. If it is just economic
it can become mechanistic. Ideally it should touch the identity of a
place and so feel culturally relevant. Indeed it should support, build
on and create it. In this way it should speak to deeper values and
ambitions. It is significantly powerful and can be implemented in
many ways.
Lets look at some ideas. Many cities around the world say they
are going to become the education city. This idea is narrow; it
implies and feels as if it is only the education sector that is involved.
It excludes everyone else. A talent strategy for idea would be
better: it is easy to understand; clearly many people would need to
be engaged; and they can see their involvement from the arts to
education to business providing professional development. It can
be layered to focus on identifying, harnessing, attracting, sustain-
ing or exploiting talent. Or it can focus on the stages of talent from
getting people to be curious, enterprising, entrepreneurial or innov-
ative. Its weakness it that it could apply anywhere. To say, as
Memphis is beginning to say, that it is the city of second chances
is quite strong. It projects a positive ethos; openness, the willing-
ness to listen, tolerance. It recognizes that the city is disadvantaged
without over-egging the pudding. It acknowledges business start-up
records are not too good. It opens out to the future and ideally in a
decade the slogan will be less relevant, because enough second
chancers will have succeeded. To say that Adelaide would water-
proof the city was a strong idea of theirs, but it has not yet
happened. It had an implied economic agenda and spoke power-
fully to green issues. The same is true if any other city were to claim
it would become the worlds first zero emissions city or solar city,
and really mean it. It would provide a mass of business opportuni-

ties and put that city on the global radar screen. It would seem
interestingly counter-intuitive for a known mining centre or indus-
trial centre to do it as the gut instinct is to see those kinds of city as
macho.
Another example of broadening an idea or making more out
of less is if someone wanted to light a set of buildings or a bridge.
Such a lighting scheme, with associated activities and linked public-
ity, would have to be about more than just lighting some buildings
perhaps it should be about enlightening a place, and Perth being
enlightened. In short, lighting a building needs to work harder.
A final coda: Reconsidering jargon
Language is important it is intrinsically linked to thinking and
behaviour. A survey by the Centre for Local Economic Strategy
(CLES), a British association for city development, quizzed 38
voluntary agencies in Oxford on their understanding of commonly
used urban regeneration terms like capacity-building, community
empowerment, project outcomes, strategic objective, synergy,
joined-up thinking and exit strategy.
56
In almost 90 per cent of
cases, more respondents had heard of a term than understood it.
This indicates a high frequency of overused but misunderstood
phraseology. The worst were capacity-building, synergy and
community empowerment. As many of the activists did not
understand the jargon, they did not know what many urban regen-
eration projects were seeking to achieve. Jargon detaches and
disengages us from the core of what we are trying to do.
Local people talk of taking their kids on holiday, profession-
als give them a residential experience; having a good time is now
learning new skills.
Other jargon often reflects an atmosphere of political correct-
ness. For instance, in Britain, multiculturalism has come under
criticism for segregating communities and not encouraging
crossovers between cultures. However, anything to do with race is
seen as a minefield, as it presents so many opportunities to put your
foot in your mouth and trip yourself up because you do not under-
stand the cultural nuances of the latest words and dare not use
them. This can especially be the case for council officers in plan-
ning or engineering services rather than in social and community
development. They therefore stay away from these important
issues, reinforcing the problems that need addressing.

Or how about the Councils commitment to delivering a
comprehensive parks service is key to developing a sustainable
parks service with a broad remit to deliver a full range of parks
related services? Or the final report recognizes that local govern-
ment is key to the current and future success of cultural provision
and development and suggests that local authorities should take
the lead in establishing and servicing Cultural Planning
Partnerships to achieve outcomes within the policy framework?
57
Jargon can mask a lack of content and substance.
The private sector is no better: Clear Channel Spectacolors
thrilling outdoor signage will add significant value to our property.
This project will bring the excitement and energy that are the hall-
marks of Times Square to this region. With this extraordinary
volume of signage, the equivalent of three entire buildings in Times
Square, this is a high-profile project that will allow us to embed
clients into a truly unique marketing environment in a burgeoning
marketplace. Insipid hogwash.
Any professional field coins a technical language that justifies its
existence and operations and gives the impression of specialization
and exclusivity. But such language can act as a smokescreen to hide
the fact that nothing is there or that something very insubstantial is.
If you translated some jargon into plain English, it would come out
as mundane truisms. It is often tautological or plain banal.
Clearly when you have new problems and want to conceptual-
ize them, you create new language but was it worth getting rid
of poverty in favour of social exclusion, when no-one really under-
stood what it was and why get rid of social justice?
58

7
Creative Cities for the World
Ethics and creativity
To be a creative city for the world or to be creative for your city
highlights how a city can (or should) project a value base or an
ethical foundation in encouraging its citizens, businesses and public
institutions to act. By acting in this manner the way a city operates
and the results it achieves act as role models to inspire others.
Creativity in itself is not necessarily a good, especially when it limits
itself to mere self-expression. Linking creativity to bigger picture
aims, however, gives it special power and resonance. These values
might range from a concern with greater equity or care in all its
guises to balancing policy goals such as increasing the quality of
life for all citizens, being globally competitive or linking economic,
social and environmental agendas. Thousands of cities claim to be
concerned about sustainable development; how many have radi-
cally applied such policies and gone against our inherent laziness or
the interests of the car lobbies and others? The strength to go
against the grain today must now be counted as an act of creative
endeavour.
Creativity for the world or for your city gives something back;
it is a creativity that generates civic values and civility. Every city,
for instance, has special public spaces, often given in perpetuity by
philanthropists. These are a gift to a community. Alternatively
public spaces in disrepair have been reconquered by citizen groups
for the city. One of the best examples is the transformation of
Bryant Park in New York from a fearful no-go zone, nicknamed
Needle Park, dominated by drug dealers, prostitutes and the

homeless in the 1970s, to an urban haven with a Parisian feel by
the 1980s. Initiated by a group of prominent New Yorkers, the park
is now managed by the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation.
Restored and redesigned, a coordinated programme of activities
and facilities made it a spectacular success, immediately attracting
locals and visitors. Since the summer of 2002 the park has had a
free wireless internet network, sponsored by Google. You see
people of all ages beavering away at their work or their novels.
Overall this feels like a gift from somewhere to the city and its
citizens, rather like a random act of kindness.
1
These acts of civility
encourage social capital.
Creativity for the world or your city can mean many other
things, ranging from encouraging social entrepreneurship to provid-
ing ladders of opportunity to start-up companies or rethinking
education, like the Katha example described earlier.
When you think of great creative cities, Paris, New York,
Amsterdam and London spring to mind, but, of course, there are
thousands of other places that have degrees of creativity. You
usually think of the city as a composite whole, with many images
racing around, rather than an individual building or a part. Paris
may have the Eiffel Tower and New York the Empire State
Building, but they do not encapsulate the city.
To be creative means being alive with possibility and not ossi-
fying and resting on the laurels of former greatness or a single
building. Paris and London achieve being both old and somewhat
young. Through their imperial pasts they have extracted wealth
and resources from their former dominions. Their museums the
Louvre or the British Museum exemplify this. Abundant with
treasures taken in from the world they exude power and help
reinforce that power today as an element of their global pull.
Political power linked to economic power often force-feeds creativ-
ity as these cities became poles of attractiveness for the ambitious,
the talented or those wanting or needing to be near the centres of
power.
They have drawn in the peoples from their former colonies and
now well beyond too. And those people in turn are now part of
what makes London and Paris alive. Paris was for much of the 20th
century regarded by many as the artistically creative centre of the
world. Anyone who wanted to make a name for themselves had to
have been there, from Picasso to Stravinsky. It attracted not only
the makers but also the buyers, auctioneers and collectors. Overall

they created a milieu of both challenge and support. Yet today
Paris, in spite of its glories and its attempts to foster the modern, is
chided for its somewhat dirigiste, topdown, somewhat closed
approach. London by contrast was for decades seen as the stuffy,
unimaginative counterpart until it burst open in the 1960s in a
number of fields, from irreverent comedy, to fashion and music. It
has retained a reputation since then, attracting the young the world
over. Its degree-level art education of world renown, for instance, is
regarded as being a foundation. It is far less rigid and formulaic
than its continental or American counterparts. This support for
flexibility and focus on self-reliance both challenges and underpins
creativity. It has resulted in comments such as those of Giorgio
Armani, who is showcasing his 2007 collection in London rather
than Milan or Paris: London is in many ways the worlds most
cosmopolitan and influential city, as it has become a crossroads for
so many cultural references, including contemporary art, architec-
ture, the performing arts, literature, food, music, film and fashion.
Clearly, for London to regard itself as creative it needs to fire on
more cylinders than this. Its congestion charge will in time be seen
as brave and imaginative.
New York must be mentioned as one of the creative cities of
the last 150 years. Inevitably, as the traditional port of entry for
European immigrations, and later many others, it represented the
new horizon and attracted the ambitious or those wanting to make
a fresh start the world over. The tough competitiveness and need to
survive generated an intense energy and, as the clich notes, a do
or die attitude that ultimately expressed itself in New Yorks domi-
nance in myriad fields, from finance to the media and even hip-hop,
generated in the Bronx, which builds both on African roots and the
contemporary possibilities of technology. Even the beggars have
inventive scams to draw the money out of you. It expressed itself
too in New Yorks urban fabric, with Manhattan standing as the
modern city icon par excellence. The AIDS crisis dampened possi-
bilities, with the fear of crime and an edginess that was too stark
playing their part too, but the subsequent turnaround in its safety
record is admired, and this in turn attracted more financiers and
business people, who helped increase the tax base in order to pay
for public services that make New York feel safer and cleaner. This
is a virtuous cycle. Yet the average financier, developer or business
person, while good at what they do, is not renowned for their
creativity. There is a fine balance between needing to focus on the
Creative Cities for the World 337

quality of life agenda, including safety, good housing or being a
family-friendly city, and creativity. Some say too that since 9/11
New York feels a different place it has shown its resilience and
has come back. Yet in a place with so much agglomerated power it
is difficult to conclude the big debates, such as the memorial for the
9/11 victims, with the array of vested interests neighbourhood
groups, politicians, developers and landowners. So the site as of
summer 2006 lies there like an open wound.
People are allergic or addicted, perhaps in equal measure, to
these great creative places. These hubs of intensity and invention
can feel too much. The quality of life traffic jams, pollution, dirt,
wealth and squalor living side by side can overwhelm. Yet the
notion of creativity for the city begins to bridge that gap.
Civic creativity
In all great cities public-spirited generosity to the city is evident.
Yet the question now for acknowledged creative cities such as New
York, Paris, London and many others is whether they are creative
enough or could they be more creative. There are many smaller
cities coming up and challenging the formerly great centres, from
Hong Kong to Singapore, from Vancouver to Zurich, from San
Francisco to Melbourne and smaller still. And lets not forget the
newly fashionable cities like Shanghai, where there is immense
energy (although is it really creative, given the constraints citizens
operate under?). When businesses can be run from anywhere, they
should make no assumption that their position is indelible. Just
remember that of the great cities from 1000 years ago only
Canton/Guangzhou is again in the primary league. Furthermore, is
their imagination focused on a just for me creativity or is it
contributing to making the city a better place. I call this type of
creativity civic creativity. The concept puts two words together that
do not seem to fit. Creativity that seems to be loose and potentially
wild and civic that comes across as curtailed and contained. There
is a tension between them. The ability to generate civic creativity is
where the public sector learns to be more entrepreneurial and the
private sector more socially responsible in pursuing joint aims and
the willingness to share power, with a goal of having greater influ-
ence over an enlarged more successful whole.
Anywhere you go, from a tiny place in the far north like
Longyearbyen in Svalbard to a giant metropolis like Tokyo, you

will find creative individuals and organizations bucking the trend,
exploring the boundaries of what they know, inventing useful and
less useful things. Some use their energy and imagination to keep
the system going as it is and to reinforce existing trends. This might
be an advertising agency devising ways, at times very stimulating
but often dull, of trying to seduce us to buy while making it appear
they are not doing so. This requires creativity of a sort, but is it
creativity for the world? The garishness can excite, the technologi-
cal wizardry can create wonder, and the irony can amuse. But to
what larger purpose? To make you consume more or feel you are
more unique and distinctive than you perhaps really are and there-
fore need that special brand. The city itself is increasingly seen as a
branded retail experience that integrates the brands into an urban
superbrandscape that becomes the must-see destination. Or so
many would hope. In this process retail/leisure developers become
the true city-makers.
The city of creativity has different qualities. It goes with and
against the branded experience. It subverts the readily accepted. It
tests convention. It seeks to be its own author of experience rather
than have experience imposed in a pre-absorbed way. Experiences
are too often contained within a preordained template or theme
that leaves little space for ones own imagination. Instead, the city
of creativity wants to shape its own spaces. It relaxes into ambigu-
ity, uncertainty and unpredictability. It is ready to adapt.
Not all creatives display these qualities in their lives, but the
more creative city has an overall atmosphere that projects vistas of
chance encounter, possibility, can-do, surprise, the unexpected, the
challenging and the clash of the ugly and the beautiful. The more
creative city also attends to the quintessentially ordinary (though
increasingly extraordinary): affordable housing and ranges of
housing choices at different prices; convenience stores selling basic
products like bread and tea near to the urban core; flourishing
neighbourhoods with strong identities; fast and frequent public
transport; and gathering places and walkability. To make these
possibilities come true requires civic creativity, because it involves
using the regulations and incentives regime to bend the market logic
to bigger goals. The vast number of small shops in Paris only exist
because they have been encouraged through various regulations
over time.
We may care for our cities, but that care is often misplaced.
And given a world of growing complexity we can often forget the

basics. We suffer from a collective amnesia when it comes to urban
lore. Thus we deem ordinary, traditional applications of city-
making, like creating a good public space or restructuring public
transport, as creative, when in fact we are merely revisiting first
principles. The willingness to insist on the basics of good city-
making we increasingly must call civic creativity too.
Creative people come in different shapes and forms, but too
frequently we conflate stylishness and creativity. Though many are
undeniably imaginative, we overemphasize media creatives and
artists. And while, say, the socially creative may indeed be very
unstylish, they may understand social bonding in important new
ways and be invaluable to some city-making contexts. Techno
creatives and engineers may have a laser-sharp focus on some obscure
electronic problem or building dilemma. The same is true for the
researchers in organizations, such as chemists, biologists or software
engineers, beavering away quietly, unseen and usually unknown, with
a concentrated focus on some minutiae or other. Disparagingly, many
are written off as nerds: single-minded enthusiasts or people exces-
sively interested in subjects or activities that are regarded as too
technical or scientific. The creatives can be architects some of whose
dizzying buildings can shock you into awe or built environment
professionals, painters, musicians, business entrepreneurs, restaura-
teurs, generators of public experiences and even bureaucrats.
These groups have differing characteristics, although some core
qualities cluster, such as a relative degree of openness, tenacity and
focus. Many may be smart in their subject but socially quite dull
and limited. Indeed many work in the corporate world, with its
many restrictions, formulae and group mindsets that may be effec-
tive in a narrow, econometric sense but are not necessarily creative.
Creative urbanity, good conversation and wit are not inevitable
partners of the research or corporate mind. Many of the so-called
creatives in fact possibly want urban settings that are familiar, that
have a contained edginess or a degree of reassuring predictability,
and have lifestyles that are defined by the brands they associate
with rather than what they create themselves. They breach bound-
aries in limited ways. So does this curbed boundary-breaking in
one place make up a creative city? Probably not.
The creative city needs the spark of the alternative; the sense of
place, of non-branded space; the imagination of the what could
be displayed in action; younger and older people challenging
conventions in behaviour, attitudes and even dress.

I have said already that the creative city is more like a free jazz
session than a structured symphony.
2
Jazz is a democratic form
everyone can be in charge at some point, yet when done well the
individual performances seamlessly fit together. The creative city
needs tens of thousands of creative acts to fit into a mosaic-like
whole. There is not one conductor guiding everything from above,
although leadership, hopefully widespread, sends out signals of the
principles and values that are deemed right. Too often cities resem-
ble karaoke, quite enjoyable yet scripted.
3
You read the text from
the screen and feel as if you are a creative performer, but in reality
you are an imitator.
The following sections look at urban creativity in a few select
cities; hopefully the examples and dilemmas they pose will stand
for the many others claiming they are exemplars of imagination.
Readers can make up their own minds as to whether they are
creative at all and what other cities they would have put in their
place.
I start with lengthier discussions of Dubai (an extreme of sorts),
Singapore, the more familiar territory of the Spanish cities
Barcelona and Bilbao, and Curitiba in Brazil. This gives a spread of
attempts at urban creativity. There are other strongly creative places
like Amsterdam, Vancouver, Yokohama, Freiburg and others,
which will be briefly surveyed.
4
When reading this through I hope
there is sufficient food for thought for you to decide what is creative
and what is not.
Is Dubai creative?
Having encouraged open-mindedness on your part, I must
acknowledge that when it comes to Dubai, my own views arent
particularly charitable and it shows. By way of a justification for
this polemic, while Dubais modern history has a lot in it to be
admired determination and boldness, for example I wish to
provide a cautionary account of how great productive endeavour
and transformation does not always equate to creativity. Remember
that its productive endeavours contribute to the worlds largest
ecological footprint.
Dubai has blasted itself on to the world map. It has followed
what it considers best practice with a Dubai twist. Courageous,
strategic, a place of visions, determined, motivated and focused are
words one might use, but creative? That is doubtful. Clearly devel-

oping The Palm, a palm tree-shaped set of islands off the Dubai
coast, is a bold endeavour, as is creating The World, a set of man-
made islands representing every nation on the globe, or the Dubai
Waterfront, part of an attempt to increase Dubais shoreline from
60km to 800km in length. Dubai has scoured the world for best
practices and has learnt the lessons of US business schools by heart
and gone beyond those lessons.
Dubai provides lessons in ambition, boldness, branding, hype,
centralized resourcing, potential ecological disaster, human unsus-
tainability and implosion. The city state is one of seven that make
up the United Arab Emirates and is governed by the ruling
Maktoum family, so it has no need to consider the vagaries of
democratic time wasting. It can take decisions, stick to them and
not worry about dissent. Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin
Rashid al-Maktoum wanted to put Dubai on the map with some-
thing really sensational and to transform Dubai into a
knowledge-based society and economy.
5
The vision of Dubai to
diversify away from oil, which now represents only 7 per cent of its
income, was clear-sighted. Dubai was always a trading entrept
and recognized early that the world was turning eastwards and that
it could become a global hub between Europe and the East a hub
both logistically and, more importantly, in the knowledge- and
media-based industries.
The Middle East sends out mixed messages. To many it is a zone
of instability and religious zealotry, seemingly detached from the
West. However, the Gulf is a sub-region that lures the West and
projects calmness, certainty and safety. As the worlds key oil
producer, the region needs a transparent financial centre and transac-
tional hub. Thirty years ago that centre was Beirut. Famed for its
cosmopolitan outlook, atmosphere and diversity, it attracted bankers
and tourists from the Middle East and Europe. Yet Lebanons 16-
year civil war from 1975 to 1991 destroyed both physical and
networking infrastructures. Dubai had a short window of opportu-
nity to step into the vacuum and usurp the role of Beirut, which has
a far better climate, much more dramatic setting and much heritage
to boot. As its advertising notes, Beirut is simply a melting place
combining culture, history, commerce and modern life.
6
As the civil
war subsided and urban regeneration initiatives like Solidaire were
completed, entrepreneurs were scrambling to re-establish Beirut as
the transparent hub of the Middle East. And this is where Dubai had
to move fast and launched its ambitious physical programme.

The elements of Dubais launch on to the world stage are
increasingly well known and trumpeted in travel brochures and in-
flight magazines. Developing the Emirates airline, with Dubai
airport as its hub, is the core precondition of the overall strategy.
The Jebel Ali airport currently under construction seeks to handle
some 120 million passengers per annum by 2025, making it the
worlds largest airport and overtaking Atlanta, currently the worlds
busiest airport, which handled 88.4 million passengers in 2005.
The Dubai Metro project due for completion in 2009 is another
element. The Festival of Shopping started in 1996; it has changed
the preconceived concept of summer in the UAE and the region
from sluggish to an exciting season of fun and entertainment for all
under the directives of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al
Maktoum, UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister and Ruler of
Dubai.
7
The land reclamation projects such as The Palm, The
World archipelago and the Dubai Waterfront are the largest man-
made offshore structures in the world, housing villas, hotels, shops
and holiday resorts. The last on its own will consist of 440km
2
of
water and land developments, an area seven times the size of
Manhattan. Dubai Logistics City is the worlds first integrated
logistics and multi-modal transport platform under a single
customs-bonded and free-zone area. Spread over 25km
2
it is the
first phase of the huge World Central project, which will eventually
combine all required transport modes with a logistics zone with
ample space for warehousing and other logistics services. Nature
helps here: a flat unremarkable landscape assists efficiency.
The list continues. The Burj al-Arab is the worlds tallest hotel.
Dubais Media City, built by the Dubai government to boost the
UAEs media foothold. Dubai Internet City. Dubai Knowledge
Village, Dubaitech. All are attempts to build clusters of expertise
by getting companies to relocate. These are free economic zones
which allow companies a number of ownership, taxation and
customs-related benefits such as 100 per cent foreign ownership
and zero tax on sales, profits and personal income guaranteed by
law for a period of 50 years. The goal was to become the logical
place to do business in the Middle East, providing investors with
an advanced business infrastructure and comprehensive platform
to create value.
Everything in Dubai has to be the biggest. The Burj Dubai is
intended to be the worlds tallest building with the worlds fastest
elevator, at 18m/s (40 mph) overtaking Taipeis 101 office tower at

16.83m/s (37.5 mph). Part of the complex is co-branded with
Armani to reinforce the fashion statement and Dubai Mall is
about to be the worlds largest mall. The Earth has a new centre,
claims one of its slogans.
8
Dubailand is a central plank in attracting 15 million visitors by
2010 and 40 million by 2015 a dramatic rise from the projected 6
million in 2006. It is a vast entertainment complex growing out of
the desert and claimed to be a destination of extraordinary vision
with an endless mix of day and night activities that would appeal
to the worlds widest tourism segments, across genders, age groups,
world regions and activity preference.
9
It is twice the size of
Disneyworld and its Great Dubai Wheel will be the worlds largest
observation wheel. This Gulf version of Las Vegas and Orlando will
have six themed areas: a themed leisure and vacation world, an
attractions and experience world, a retail and entertainment world,
a sports city, an eco-tourism world, and a downtown. It will include
replicas of the Eiffel Tower (70 feet taller than the original) and the
Taj Mahal (one-and-a-half times bigger than the original). Aqua
Dubai will boast 60 water features. This taps into the increased
tendency for people to be more attracted to the simulated than to
the real thing reality appears to be too much to cope with.
The residential developments mirror the imaginary worlds,
being created as a collection of idyllic communities: The Lakes, The
Meadows, The Springs, Emirate Hills. One development is The
Villa, described as:
a totally unique concept which offers you the oppor-
tunity to design your ultimate Spanish home You
can combine a relaxed and serene lifestyle with the
Spanish countryside experience Just imagine the
view from your terrace stretching over a lush green
landscape and glistening water features reflective of
the Mediterranean letting you experience the beauty
and tranquillity of Spanish living Wherever you
decide to build your unique villa The Haciendas,
The Ponderosa, The Aldea you can rest assured you
are becoming part of a unique community.
Furthermore you can live next door to Julio Iglesias! Julio felt that
The Villa will help spread Spanish culture in the region, and we
hope that it will.
10
Other developments allude to the virtues of
Tuscany in Dubai, that is.

Yet Dubai is ready for the ultimate lifestyle and encourages
you, the globalized corporate worker, to be part of a vibrant
community of like-minded people who share the same hunger for
success. Lest anyone doubts the intentions, an indication of that
chilling striving for success can be detected in Dubai developer
EMAARs annual report of 2004:
Competition is a companion of success The possi-
bility and probability of others replicating EMAARs
success is a foregone conclusion Competition has
intensified and short-term advantages are no longer
sufficient to ensure the survival of our company. In
the ferocious war for profits, winning requires relent-
less strategic execution, which focuses on turning
merely competitive advantages into decisive advan-
tages that will neutralize, marginalize and even punish
rivals The challenge is not what we know, but how
fast we can learn, such as to change our focus from
the speed of expansion to the speed of our response to
customer service. We need capabilities to become
different as well as better. Branding is an important
way of ensuring that the extra value that has been
created is perceived by customers. Impossible is a
word we live with and defy every day at EMAAR and
actualize into the word possible We constantly
strive for perfection. Compromise is not a word in our
vocabulary We believe that our greatest achieve-
ment is not the tallest towers or largest malls we
create, but the close-knit communities we develop
We searched the world and put together the very best
in their fields.
11
If this is the best the world can offer it is interesting they end up
with a controlled theme park.
Lets look at the flip side. Where will this lead to in 20 years
time? Of Dubais population of just over 1 million, only 18 per cent
are locals, with 65 per cent Asians, mostly low-paid workers from
India and Pakistan who keep the country going, 13 per cent ex-pat
Arabs and 4 per cent ex-pat Europeans. Dubai leads global cities in
the proportion of foreign- to native-born population. Many Asians
have lived in the city for more than a generation but have no citi-
zenship rights. Indeed the Dubai-style underclass of
disenfranchised immigrants
12
will do the UAE no good. Seventy-

one per cent of the population are men. Unsurprisingly there are
hordes of prostitutes coming from Eastern Europe
Tourists could spend weeks in Dubai without ever meeting a
native of the city. You will be served and driven around by immi-
grants and the physical fabric is being built primarily by
immigrants, with massive imports of low-wage workers from
South Asia and the Philippines. Press reports in 2006 indicate
that skilled carpenters earn 4.34 (US$7.60) a day and labourers
2.84 (US$4.00) and trade unions are forbidden in the United
Arab Emirates. This has sparked rioting at the Burj Araq site in
2006 and at the new airport site, where five workers were
recently killed in an accident. Indeed rioting is spreading to the
whole region, from Qatar and Oman to Kuwait. Millions of
foreign workers have flooded Gulf nations, outweighing indige-
nous populations. Most of these workers are forced to give up
their passports upon entering Dubai and elsewhere, making it
very difficult to return home. Reports suggest workers typically
live eight to a room, sending home a portion of their salary to
their families, whom they dont see for years at a time.
13
Others
report that their salaries have been withheld to pay back loans,
making them little more than indentured servants. Theres a good
chance they live in Sonapur, a collection of run-down, dirty tene-
ments housing more than 150,000 workers. Therein lies another
story beyond Dubais shimmering skyscrapers. As Dubai has
wittingly transposed Spain on to its land, Sonapur is an unwit-
ting importation of a rather less glamorous, subcontinental
urban life. And a story that is growing concerns rumours that
the whole edifice is in part financed by money-laundering.
Consider too that the UAEs ecological footprint is the worst
of all countries in the world. Using data from 2001, the UAE has
the biggest ecological footprint, at 9.9 global hectares per person,
which means that five-and-a-half planets would be needed to
sustain a UAE lifestyle applied globally. If Dubai were isolated from
the UAE and 2006 data were used, its lifestyle is likely to require
ten planets equivalent.
14
This ecological overshoot can go unno-
ticed since there seem to be no apparent shortages. Water flows
from taps, food appears in supermarkets, garbage disappears from
streets, restaurants are overflowing with delicacies and new prod-
ucts materialize all around us as we are induced into buying more
and still more. Yet consumption does not mean there are no limits.
The limits are simply masked by not seeing the wider picture.

Behind the UAE, Kuwait, the US and Australia are the major foot-
print makers.
One can see why when Dubais new US$275 million Ski Dome
is a monument to ecological folly and has perfect conditions every
day, in a city where temperatures can reach can reach 50C. The
Ski Dubai centre expends thousands of watts on keeping its indoor
climate at -1.4C all year round. More than 6000 tonnes of snow
cover an area the size of three football fields and 30 tonnes of fresh
supplies will be added nightly to maintain a depth of 70cm.
15
Equally the Burj al-Arabs self-characterization as a 7-star
hotel is considered by travel professionals to be hyperbole and an
attempt to outdo a number of other hotels which claim 6-star
status. All major travel guides and hotel rating systems have a 5-
star maximum.
What has been achieved? Dubai, a trading port and backwater
pearl-diving village until the late 1950s, has found innovative new
ways of reinventing its role as middleman. Leadership has been
clever in using every trick in the urban revitalizers book, from tax
incentives, the 2002 decree allowing foreigners to buy homes and
apartments to branding. For instance, firststeps@DIC is a facility
within Dubai Internet City that allows companies to lease short-
term office space while exploring business and market
opportunities. Dubai attracted the International Cricket Council to
recreate their headquarters in Dubai, parting from Lords in
London, the emblematic home of cricket which had hosted the ICC
for 95 years. Some initiatives, such as creating 800km of new
waterfront, can be considered inspiring in logistical terms, albeit
devastating to the environment.
Crucially Dubai has understood the inherent insecurity and
conservatism of the corporate executives they are trying to attract
and their desire for safety and certainty, with a contained sense of
buzz the familiar in the apparently unfamiliar.
Yet in the terms in which I define creativity in the Art of City-
Making, namely creativity for the world with an ethical foundation
that harnesses widespread talent, Dubai is not creative. Given its
leaders proven track record of boldness and willingness to be
inventive and visionary, Dubais financial resources, the unequalled
power of its rulers, the free sunshine beaming down on them, why
did Dubai not try to become the most ecologically sustainable city
in the world, rather than the least? Why did it not become a model
of what city-making could be like in the use of innovative new

energy-saving materials, building techniques and new eco-design?
Why did they not follow the lead of eco-skyscraper builders like
Ken Yeung to reduce air-conditioning needs and to create natural
ventilation? Why does constructing a city mean treating the work-
force as if they were second-class citizens? Why does Dubai think
that striving for 15 million visitors has to be central to its posi-
tioning? Could they not have soft-pedalled on that and still
achieved the objective of being a hub? How come that by consult-
ing the best experts in the world in their field Dubai ends up with
extensive theme park experiences and residential quarters that
barely have anything to do with Arabia and hardly reflect or build
upon the historic inventiveness of Arabs at all? Perhaps Dubai is
being advised by experts with little sense of larger, globally sustain-
ing values, notions of local distinctiveness and what it means to
establish creative environments, where difference means innova-
tion, not rarefied gated communities. Why has Dubai fallen for
the fake experience rather than the real? How come it was not
confident or courageous enough to seduce the corporate class it is
attracting to its hub with something bordering on the authentic
where locals and incomers could co-create a new Dubai identity
not merely based on brand names? Indeed some locals privately
wonder how long Maktoums miracle can continue and whether
his unique society would survive a major political or economic
shock. This shock could come from many places from religious,
reactionary zeal, democratic pressures unleashed by needing to
maintain openness to the world or ecological disaster to a global
downturn in tourism.
Let us not forget that an age of creativity requires conversa-
tion, debate, consensus, disagreement and inevitable dissent that is
leavened by democratic processes where all people, women and
men, have a chance to participate fully. Is dissent allowed in Dubai?
Can women be equal in Dubai? Only then can one begin to discuss
the comprehensive creativity of a place.
Imitating the Dubai approach
Dubai has inspired others to follow who will build on its experi-
ence and take it further. Qatar is one, where the Pearl-Qatar
will be a secure, family oriented environment. It will
be like no other destination in the Middle East.
Modelled on the best of the Mediterranean, it will be

the Arabian Riviera (Riviera Arabia) and will offer a
lifestyle reminiscent of France and Italy in the heart of
the Arabian Gulf. The Pearl-Qatar will have 40 kilo-
metres of reclaimed coastline and 20 kilometres of
pristine beaches. Porto Arabia is a continental marina
with a heart which beats to the rhythm of Arabia
It captures the vibrant sophistication of the Riviera.
Colourful, refined and conducive to the highest stan-
dards of living, Piazza Arabia, the dynamic hub of
Porto Arabia, is an exciting retail, dining and cultural
experience of incredible sophistication. Nowhere is
the Riviera more aptly captured than in this Arabian
Piazza a blend of cosmopolitan chic and refined
good taste a place to meet and watch the world go
by or to browse some of the worlds most revered
brands.
16
The City of Silk in Kuwait will, it is hoped, be located on the north-
ern shore of Kuwait Bay. It will take 25 years to complete and will
house 700,000 people and cost US$85 billion. The city will have
four main districts. The Financial District, with its centrepiece
tower, the 1001m-high Mubarak Tower, inspired by the 1001
nights story and the desert plant life. The tower will be composed
of 7 vertical villages which will consist of hotels, offices, residences
and entertainment facilities. The Entertainment District will
contain resorts, hotels and entertainment villages. The Cultural
District will be located on a peninsula with a centre for research on
ancient artefacts, a historical museum and an arts centre. The
Environmental District will be located at the heart of the city as
part of the Bird Reserve for birds migrating from Africa to Central
Asia. It will include an Environmental Research Centre and an
extended network of universities and a health resort. The entire
city will be surrounded by an emerald belt which will contain
ponds, lakes and parks which will ensure that no one is more than
a couple of steps away from the emerald belt.
17
The Dubai model is self-replicating. Dubais EMAAR is build-
ing King Abdullah Economic City (!) near Jeddah along the Red
Sea in Saudi Arabia, which at US$26 billion is considered relatively
small scale. It is divided into six zones, with huge skyscrapers,
including a seaport, a resort zone, an industrial zone for manufac-
turing and logistics, an education zone, a financial island and a
residential area.

Can the city boom continue? One is reminded of the Japanese
mega-projects in the 1980s, such as Osakas Minatu-ku, which
attempted to lodge Japan on to the global map. Yet projects can
fail, although when swept along their success can seem inevitable.
Is Singapore creative?
Singapore has a reputation for cleanliness, clockwork efficiency
and a well-behaved citizenry. Your baggage has arrived on the
airport belt before you have cleared immigration. The route into
the city was the first in the world to be completely tree-lined and
boulevarded and it exudes a contagious calmness. Shanghai has
followed the example. These constitute positive first and last
impressions. Things work: the metro is on time, wireless internet
connections are nearly ubiquitous, electronic sensors in cars seam-
lessly monitor when you enter the charging zone or car parks and
the city is clean and safe. The West sneers at its apparent conser-
vatism: haircuts for long-haired male arrivals, the ban on chewing
gum. You still hear much about fines for jaywalking, littering and
spitting. But the day-to-day reality is that you dont feel a heavy-
handed government presence. Often the same people that sneer
hanker after the sense of security Singapore offers. Yet there are
dilemmas for a city brought up and built up with a culture of
nation-building, national security and social discipline, even though
Singapore is so far the most extraordinary case of economic devel-
opment in the history of the world, which launched itself by a
deliberate strategy out of abject post-colonial poverty into first-
world affluence within one generation. That in itself is an act of
creation, intellect, determination, strategy and focus. Singapore, so
far, has experienced no real crisis, no fundamental break in its
remarkable economic progress the government, conscious that
this is a city-state completely dependent on its global trading func-
tion, has sought to keep ahead of the action, moving the economy
out of basic manufacturing into high-technology production and
finally into advanced services.
18
Yet how will Singapore cope
moving into the creative age?
Singapore, like Dubai or Hong Kong, is an exceptional case. A
country-island-city-nation-state, a port-city and regional hub, it has
no hinterland or, rather, the world is its hinterland. There is a rela-
tive absence of an overarching ancestral culture and traditions. It
has a dominant one-party government that is interventionist and a
strong emphasis on political stability and economic development.
19

Historical background
We have reached a stage in our economic and national
development when we should devote greater attention
and resources to culture and the arts in Singapore.
Culture and the arts add to the vitality of a nation and
enhance the quality of life.
So responded PM Goh Chok Tong then first Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister for Defence to the Report of the Advisory
Council on Culture and the Arts in April 1989. That report was
widely regarded as a watershed in the development of the arts,
heritage and cultural scene in Singapore. Its main thrust affirmed
that culture and the arts mould the way of life, the customs and
the psyche of a people as they give the nation a unique character,
broaden our mind and deepen our sensitivities, improve the general
quality of life, strengthen the social bond and contribute to our
tourist and entertainment sectors.
20
In the Singapore way this vision of a culturally vibrant society
whose people are well-informed, creative, sensitive and gracious
was to be achieved by 1999. Note here the tone, in contrast to
Dubai: the word gracious appears, whereas in Dubai decisive
advantages will neutralize, marginalize and even punish rivals.
It highlighted that Singapores multicultural heritage, whose excel-
lence in multi-lingual and multi-cultural art forms should be
promoted made it unique. Indeed, as the world has switched
emphasis to the East, its ChineseEnglish bilingualism may become
its key advantage.
In moving away from advanced manufacturing, Singapore iden-
tified international gatherings and linked performance and
exhibition spaces as key to projecting an image of world-class style
and attractiveness. The most visible accomplishments since 1989
have been the Singapore Art Museum (1996), which is now about
to move, the Asian Civilizations Museum (1997), the Singapore
Film Commission (1998) and the Esplanade (2002) a multipur-
pose performance centre.
The Esplanade is seen as the star in the firmament and was
intended to be an icon comparable to the Sydney Opera House. The
reality is that it probably has regional rather than global drawing
power. After 30 years of planning and 6 years of construction, it
seeks to entertain, engage, educate, and inspire. Only five concert

halls in the world possess its state-of-the-art acoustic features. The
Esplanades two outer shells resemble durians, a prickly fruit loved
by Singaporeans. In the evening, its two lanterns of light sparkle
upon Singapores marina. It houses Singapores first performing arts
library and an arts-centric shopping centre. It claims to herald the
entrance of a cultural renaissance.
21
This phase of cultural development focused on traditional
cultural institutions and approaches without linking them to the
underlying economic and social dynamics that could project
Singapore as a creative, innovative city. Containers on their own do
not guarantee creative content, especially if they are institutionally
focused and without links to the informal sectors where much
creativity starts. Furthermore, big structures swallow resources at
an exorbitant rate. One could ask: How about 50 more small
projects instead of one big structure? Which would generate more
creativity potential?
The Renaissance City project
22
By 1999 many commentators argued that the emphasis should shift
from hardware to software or what they called heartware. A
potentially enhanced role for culture and the arts in the future
development of Singapores society and economy was foreseen.
Various government agencies had already mapped out plans to
ensure that the strategic concerns of Singapore in areas such as
education, urban planning and technology were being addressed.
But there was not a holistic, comprehensive re-examination in
Singapore of how the arts and cultural scene would fit in.
The Renaissance City project sought to fill that gap. It began
by undertaking an audit of facilities, activities and arts groups and
assessed audience profiles. It noted a general burgeoning of activ-
ity. Whereas Singapore was generally written off as a sterile cultural
desert, the New York Times on 25 July 1999 described the
Singapore arts scene as having gone from invisible to explosive.
Time Magazines cover story for the week of 19 July 1999 featured
the loosening up of Singapore Singapore Lightens Up. It noted
Singapore was getting creative and even funky, with its society
transformed in ways that until recently seemed impossible. Today,
in-flight magazines extol the virtues of Singapores bohemian
edge.
23
The city state began a vigorous benchmarking process, target-
ing world cities London, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong

Kong, Barcelona, Austin and Melbourne. This process highlighted
the war for talent, the notion of buzz and vibrancy in creating
the intangible value of fashionability that needs to be backed up by
real substance. This might be the presence of world-class institutes
of higher learning and research laboratories, productivity and
industry if the goal is to get beyond hype. The benchmarking indi-
cators used tended to define talent in narrower and more
quantitative terms, such as numbers of arts organizations or
creative class professionals, rather than including social innova-
tion and creativity in terms of organizational culture. It noted
instead that London had double the amount and New York three
times as many arts facilities, activities, performances and expendi-
ture. While we are in the top league of cities in terms of economic
indicators, we are not in terms of culture.
Culture was seen as the next step and competitive tool in urban
growth. Drawing on thinkers around the world, the Renaissance
City report concluded:
In the knowledge age, our success will depend on our
ability to absorb, process and synthesize knowledge
through constant value innovation. Creativity will
move into the centre of our economic life Prosperity
for advanced, developed nations will depend on
creativity, more on the ability to generate ideas that
can then be sold to the world. This means that origi-
nality and entrepreneurship will be increasingly
prized.
Singapore had recognized this encroaching reality relatively early.
The 1991 Strategic Economic Plan singled out the need to nurture
creativity and innovation in Singapores education system as a key
strategy to realize its vision. Yet the link to developing the citys
cultural capital only happened at the end of that decade. As Deputy
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong noted in 1996, Creativity cannot
be confined to a small elite group of Singaporeans In todays
rapidly changing world, the whole workforce needs problem-
solving skills, so that every worker can continuously add value
through his efforts. Later the Renaissance City Report noted:
We will need this culture of creativity to permeate the
lives of every Singaporean This will have to take
place in our schools and in our everyday living envi-

ronment We have to be wary that we do not merely
equate creativity with a narrow form of problem-
solving. The arts, especially where there is an
emphasis on students producing their own work as
well as appreciating the work of others, can be a
dynamic means of facilitating creative abilities.
Such an approach would encourage virtuous circles of arts devel-
opment and business formation loops that improve both the
economic and artistic environment. Business-friendly administra-
tion and facilities are necessary but not sole guarantees of attracting
talent. For this, a cultural buzz is also needed: By calling for a
Renaissance Singapore, this is not an attempt to replicate the condi-
tions of post-medieval Europe. Rather, it is the spirit of creativity,
innovation, multi-disciplinary learning, socio-economic and
cultural vibrancy that we are trying to capture.
The vision was a projection of the type of Singapore person,
society and nation that Singapore could aspire to. This is a society
where people are at ease with their identity and one which encour-
ages experimentation and innovation, whether it be in culture and
the arts or in technology, the sciences and education.
From rhetoric to reality
The Renaissance City concept was theoretically strong and many
subscribed to its intentions. The Renaissance City strategy implied
a completely different way of operating, but this has not yet
occurred. The historical mindset that worked so well for the past
has not adjusted. The notion of a creative city implies a level of
openness that potentially threatens Singapores traditions of more
topdown action. Nevertheless, this issue is at least being openly
discussed. As an instance of how Singapores traditions are etched
into its mindset, the deputy prime minister, in approving the initia-
tive to set up creative quarters, stated precisely where these might
go. The local artistic community is especially critical of the empha-
sis on importing world stars to perform in Singapore without a
parallel focus on developing indigenous cultural creativity. They
believe their scope for action remains contained.
It now appears that the idea of a creative culture and creative
capital is being taken seriously, even to the extent of examining
fundamental issues such as censorship laws. Yet the cultural
community remains worried that creative capital will be driven by
a purely economically driven model. Their focus is on how the

cultural ecology of Singapore can develop more deeply an
approach that takes time rather than the sledgehammer approach
that solely addresses hard infrastructure. Notions of soft infra-
structure are being taken more seriously. Singapore has applied the
recognized repertoire of culture and renewal icon structures,
global branding and the talent agenda and its effective focus is
within the Asia-Pacific region. It continues to scan world trends,
seeking to be a global nodal point, and currently aims not to slip
behind Shanghai, whose global resonance grows daily, and stay on
a par with Hong Kong, which is aiming to be the events capital of
Asia. It is aware too of Seouls ambitions to create a digital media
city and the intentions of Dubai.
Singapore has always been strong on developing physical infra-
structure. In seeking to reach the next level of strategic global
positioning, its latest initiative is One-North, a more than US$1
billion investment. This project seeks to learn the global lessons of
how to establish a creative milieu by combining hard and soft
components and applying this to a series of clusters in a park-like
environment. Coordinated by the Agency for Science, Technology
and Research, this 200-hectare zone has two focal points: Biopolis
and Fusionopolis/Media Hub. In addition there is an incubator
zone called Phase Z.Ro, which focuses on eight clusters:
electronics, chemicals, engineering, infocoms, pharmaceuticals,
biotechnology, medical devices and healthcare services all with
shared research facilities where upwards of 10,000 people will
work. A strong residential component is interwoven and from the
more assertive new developments a long meander, or short car
journey, takes you past 42 older, smaller buildings and heritage
sites. The area, 20 minutes from the centre, is well connected by
the metro and other public transport.
Green spaces, mature trees and winding roads have been
preserved to allow pause for thought and quiet contemplation in
the midst of technology and commerce. The aim is to give contrast,
character and a sense of continuity. Between the high-rise office
spaces sit hotels, conference facilities, corporate retreat areas and
dining and entertainment facilities. They call this a DoBe (live-
work) and play lifestyle and an exceptional place for exceptional
people to live and work, relax and learn. Where you can inspire
and be inspired to push the boundaries of knowledge and turn ideas
into groundbreaking innovations. It is conceived as a place where
imagination turns into action:

Imagine an environment bounded only by imagina-
tion itself. Where you can live, work and be inspired
by leading scientists, researchers and technopreneurs
from around the world. Where groundbreaking ideas
are born from a stroll in the park and conventions
challenged over coffee at a sidewalk cafe. Where
anything is possible. Welcome to One-North a
vibrant place and a lifestyle choice for the most
creative minds of the new economy.
24
Biopolis aims to be a centre for biomedical sciences in Asia and
the world, combining public and private research institutes and
commercial lettings, such as the Bioinformatics and Genome
Institutes or GlaxoSmithKline, Molecular Acupuncture Ltd or
John Hopkins Division of Biomedical Sciences. It includes the
worlds first facility for large-scale production of stem cells. It lies
close to the National University of Singapore, National University
Hospital and the Singapore Science Parks. The names of the build-
ings indicate the interests with their ancient Greek associations
Nanos, Proteos, Genome, Helios, Matrix and Centros. It also has
an arts programme, which bills itself as soft art meets hard
sciences.
Fusionopolis, by contrast, aims at an uptown vibrancy:
Embark on a pilgrimage of learning and discovery at
the Fusionopolis@one-north Fusionopolis will be a
vibrant and exciting place for infocom and media
industries to come together, bringing talents, expertise
and organizations to create innovations and break-
throughs that are in a class of their own.
25
Here there are institutes for micro electronics, high performance
computing, a data storage institute and digital media research
centres. This is part of an attempt to transform Singapore into a
global media city and exchange and financing nodal point with the
help of a Media Development Agency.
Phase Z.Ro, the cheaply priced incubator and company start-
up zone, with 60 office areas, has a far more zany feel. Bright
yellow Lego-like container constructions are clustered around a
gathering space. Contrasted to the corporate structures of Biopolis
around it, Z.Ro has an imperfect, human feel, where you the tenant
feel you can shape its future. An interesting growing signage collec-

tion of past tenants stands tall like a piece of public art. Sadly,
though, the space will disappear. Land prices in Singapore are far
too valuable for structures like Z.Ro to proliferate, though these
buildings more handmade, organic feel will be missed as some-
what lifeless corporate structures take their place.
Yet a unique design palate could be instigated at this juncture
which combines the need to build high with opportunities to indi-
vidualize and continually transform living and working spaces and
which also projects an eco-design concern.
Key to Singapores success is the talent attraction strategy
whereby bright younger individuals and established experts are
lured through scholarships and financial inducements as well as a
conducive regulatory and business environment and hopefully a
buzz. For instance, scholarships are available to more than 500 of
Singapores best and brightest to fund their PhDs at top US and
European universities. The investment can run to SGD600,000
(210,000) per person in return for a guarantee of six years service
to public institutions. Others schemes exist to attract foreigners to
Singapore:
We foster and nurture world-class scientific talent
and aspiring scientists who dare to race with the
worlds best towards the very limits of modern science.
Together with scientists we will build up our intellec-
tual capital and our scientific capabilities. That will
boost the economic competitiveness of Singapore.
26
They see this as happening in real space the physical location
and resources of One-North; virtual space the communities of
interest linked through state-of-the-art connectivity; and imagina-
tive space the limitless possibilities and opportunities of the
human imagination and endeavour.
Dilemmas for Singapore
The strengths of Singapore are known: strong supporting factors
such as good IT and telecommunications infrastructure, being a
multicultural society with a bilingual policy, having a cosmopolitan
and well-educated population, a well-developed arts and cultural
infrastructure, its closeness to the huge Asian market and its new
focus on translational research which stimulates collaboration
across disciplines. Its problem areas are its small local market, high
costs of land, the relative weakness of soft infrastructure invest-

ment and the perception that Singapore is a highly regulated place
which is not very tolerant of divergent views. The latter may have
an effect on attracting certain types of talent.
Lets use attitudes towards gays as a weathervane for
Singapores tolerance dilemma. For four years from 2001,
Singapore consented to a more liberal policy towards gay
lifestyles, stirred by research, such as that of Richard Florida,
showing that cities with an active gay community had more
creative and productive societies. The attractions of the pink
dollar should also not be underestimated. The annual public gay
Nation Party held on Nation Day on 8 August was emblematic of
that change. The events were sponsored by Fortune 100 compa-
nies like Motorola and Subaru. Yet the gay community was
shocked when in early December 2004 the licence to hold an
event called Snowball 04 was rejected:
Observations at a previous Ball showed that
patrons of the same gender were seen openly kissing
and intimately touching each other. Some of the
revellers were cross-dressed, for example, males
wearing skirts. Patrons were also seen using the toilets
of the opposite sex. The behaviour of these patrons
suggested that most of them were probably
gays/lesbians and this was thus an event almost exclu-
sively for gays/lesbians Several letters of complaint
were received from some patrons about the openly gay
acts at the Ball The police recognize that there are
some Singaporeans with gay tendencies. While police
do not discriminate against them the police also
recognize that Singapore is still, by and large, a
conservative and traditional society. Hence, the police
cannot approve any application for an event which
goes against the moral values of a large majority of
Singaporeans.
In April 2005, the licensing division faxed a rejection of the appli-
cation to hold Nation 05 the Nation Party had become Asias
most acclaimed gay and lesbian party citing the event to be
contrary to public interest.
27
Some associate the decision by Britains Warwick University to
abandon plans for a Singapore campus with worries about acade-
mic freedom and Singapores stance against the gay community.

Singapores loss has been Thailands gain. Fridae.com, an event
organizer, transplanted the annual Nation Party, now stylishly
renamed Nation.V, to Phuket, Thailand. Singapore has a way to
go in maturing as a society, where Thailand has a long history
culturally of accepting gay lifestyles, noted Stuart Koe, who runs
Fridae.com.
28
Some are concerned that the issue might set back efforts by the
city state to attract top Western universities in its quest to become a
global schoolhouse and ideas of Singapore becoming the Boston
of the East, with a cluster of top universities like Harvard and MIT
and a regional hub for higher education. The government wants
education services to account for 5 per cent of gross domestic
product, up from 3.6 per cent, within the next decade.
Further evidence of relaxation was extended licensing hours,
allowing bar-top dancing, the setting up of a Crazy Horse from
Paris and creating the Clark Quay development where tacky, sexist
outfits like 1NiteStand Bar or Hooters go about their business
unquestioned and especially attract the ex-pat crowd.
Another dimension of the easy money over substance debate
was the decision to develop two integrated resorts in Marina
South and Sentosa, which combine casinos within a leisure resort.
Aimed at attracting tourists, especially from China, and increasing
tax revenues, there are, however, restrictions. The Singapore lead-
ership acknowledged the downsides and promised there would be
safeguards to limit the social impact of casino gambling, such as
restrictions on admitting the local population into the casinos. For
example, family members of a patron may block them from enter-
ing and gambling. The very high entrance fee of SGD100 per entry
or SGD2000 every year are prohibitive. A system of exclusions
includes not being allowed to extend credit to the local population.
As the large US casino and retail developers hover over Singapore,
they promise:
the creation of an experientially compelling entertain-
ment destination at Singapores Marina Bay a
unique opportunity to extend our popular media
brands and assets into a whole different realm The
development presents us with an unprecedented
opportunity to create multiple flagship stores housing
the worlds top luxury fashion brands within one
unified shopping and entertainment environment.
29

In the process, other cultural brands like the Centre Pompidou are
being brought into play to project an element of class.
Does an integrated resort contribute to the creativity potential
of Singapore? The pre-digested brand experiences proposed offer
little if anything to Singaporeans to shape and create things
authored by them rather than a foreign corporation. Do integrated
resorts (IRs) attract the creatives? Probably not. Indeed they might
repel them. The IR concept may indeed decrease the city states
creativity potential as the creative cutting edge looks elsewhere for
places to explore and discover. In fact it would have probably been
creative for Singapore to have said no to IRs, as it would have
been for Hong Kong to have said no to Disneyland or Osaka to
have rejected Universal Studios. The latter both increasingly disap-
pointed with the results and effects. Singapore stands at a cusp.
Does it want to be a tourist city, a fantasy city or a creative city?
While not completely mutually exclusive, they are stark choices as
the trajectories for each development path are different.
Singapores strengths embody its weaknesses. The advanced
industrial model it excels in implies instrumental rationality, linear
and convergent thinking. It aims at replicability and clear process.
This makes the city state good at urban hardware, metros, build-
ings and the technology to match. It is better at creating the
containers rather than the contents, the hardware rather than the
software. And it is more than competent at replicating already
existing innovations. However, the trick is to continually explore
new possibilities rather than reproduce that which has been done
before. Such divergent exploration will, of course, be held in check
by physical, logistic capabilities. It will either be possible to repli-
cate new ideas and projects or not. But the virtue of a creative idea
can only be measured if it is realized. The creative mind is open or
closed as appropriate to context. Uncertainty in this context is posi-
tive but is stifled in a risk-averse culture.
Singapore therefore oscillates between constraint and creativ-
ity. It is more relaxed to operate in comfort zones and with more
control than in unknown territory. It has a desire to plan creativity
as against creating the conditions within which creativity can occur.
It accepts its multifarious diversity, yet does it also engage with
difference? Its wish to pre-empt the consequences of risk and focus
on security and predictability can curtail its possibilities. Perhaps
there is a sense of angst, even a fear of insight, which makes being
a happy robot more appealing. The citys pragmatism may lead to

a narrow economic calculus, such as in the IR debate, so losing out
on the broader accounting Singapores values and ideals imply.
Are Barcelona and Bilbao creative?
Barcelona
Spanish cities like Barcelona, Bilbao, Malaga, Seville and Valencia
have perhaps more to teach us about creative physical urban
reinvention than cities in any other country in Europe or elsewhere.
The pent-up energy contained during the Franco dictatorship
period burst forth from the 1980s onwards as cities and regions
sought to reassert their identity and presence and become part of
the heart of Europe again rather than pariahs at the edge. Barcelona
and Bilbao have inspired each other. For these two in particular, a
distinctive approach that was culturally their own was a matter of
pride. Being port cities helped traditionally the necessary open-
ness of ports fosters ideas exchange and mutual influence, although
often ports can be open to the world and closed to their hinterland.
As part of Catalonia or the Basque country, its major cities can
bring together diverging interests in the wider area and unite them
for larger, regional goals. Yet it does not guarantee a strategic,
imaginative response. History helps understand creativity potential
and can help provide the backbone, energy and motivation. But
history can hold a city back if it rests on its laurels and focuses on
the past. The break from the Franco era, under which Spanish
society had been extremely conservative, in 1975 led to a transition
period, the completion of which was marked with the victory of
the socialist Partido Socialista Obrero Espaol in October 1982.
The liberation from Franco and transition to democracy began a
liberalization of values, of ideas and of potential. Significantly,
being regions that wanted to assert their identity against the domi-
nace of Castilia was key. Being unique and distinctive was a survival
issue.
In the context of re-found freedoms, the recognition of global-
izations power and the need to restructure their economies,
reshaping the city to 21st-century needs became urgent. There was
much to catch up on. Franco had despised Barcelona and
Catalonia, so there was a massive backlog of required investments.
In both cases this was done with strategic verve and long-term
thinking. Both Barcelona and Bilbao had history to fall back on.
Most obviously in terms of city-making, design was significant.

Why is Barcelona considered part of the creative pantheon?
Lets remember that to discuss Barcelona globally in terms of style
30 years ago would have seemed very odd. The city landscape for
foreigners was more dominated by images such as those from Jean
Genets A Thiefs Journal, which describes how he scraped a living
as a rent boy and thief in the streets of Barrio Chino in the 1920s
and 1930s, living side by side with prostitutes, transvestites, pimps,
drug dealers, gypsies and thieves. Few tourists would have consid-
ered visiting this once rather run-down industrial centre. A seismic
change indeed.
In Barcelona I want to highlight three elements: design, public
space and its link to place-making and cultural management.
It has been to Barcelonas advantage that the aesthetic experi-
ence of daily life is now wanted by everyone in every sphere of life,
and that capitalism needs this design experience to sell its ongoing
dreams of a better life. Some say we live in the age of design and
style. Few places are design centres and even fewer exude a sense of
difference and therefore the seemingly authentic. Barcelona is one.
In Barcelona and Catalonia design is not a recent fad. Design has
deeply etched roots growing from the needs of the industrial revo-
lution applied to products and services and the cultural influences
stemming from Barcelonas port status. From that it is a short step
to architectural design. Antoni Gaudi, who invented an original
architectural palette, stands as the best known example. Others
include Domenech i Montaner and Josep Puig. The important fact
is that the city has been able to reassert its design standing today to
the extent that the city itself is synonymous with design, as in
Barcelona design (Mies van der Rohes Barcelona chair being the
most well known). All this reinforces Barcelonas resonance.
Catalan distinctiveness is key. As an instance, the 1992 Olympics
mascot symbol was a sheepdog called Cobi, whose design aesthetic
was far removed from Mickey Mouse imagery. Equally, the opening
ceremony set a different benchmark for the public spectacle, begin-
ning with the lighting of the Olympic Flame with a flaming arrow
fired by paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo. The spectacle included
a staging of the mythical birth of Barcelona from the sea, complete
with ocean battles between sea monsters and humans. These
approaches have since been copied by other major openings.
The difference between Barcelona as a design capital and others
such as Milan and Montreal is that the former more strongly seeks
to create its identity as a designed work of art, from its architec-

ture, street furniture and interior design to shops, bars and restau-
rants. Barcelona has become a cultural icon in itself one of the
few places where the city is a living work of art as distinct from a
dead one. This is what many feel about cities such as Venice and
Florence, in spite of their beauty. An essentially dead city is one
where the past overwhelms the present, and the present merely
serves to maintain the past for groups like tourists. They may bask
in their beauty and inspire, but not much more. In the living city
current creativity is the dominant feature.
The convergence of the design ecosystem, starting from the
presence of designers across the disciplines of environmental,
product, interior, graphic, digital and fashion design, strengthens
the citys echo. It includes public and private research centres,
design in schools and tertiary institutions, events and festivals,
awards, museums and associations. It stretches across transport
design Volvo and Volkswagen have a strong design presence to
household goods and urban design. Yet worries are on the horizon.
Some say the city is too concerned with design: Everything has to
be specially designed, even the notepaper or the invites to an event.
They cant leave anything un-designed and ordinary perhaps
Valencia is the place to watch.
30
Barcelonas urban design standing nevertheless has strong
historical roots to draw on. The Eixample by Cerda, an example of
ideal urban planning, although not universally liked by everyone
because of its rigour and monotony, still provides a frame for
Barcelonas urban life on which its diversity can play itself out.
Many people agree that Barcelona has one of the best street
lives of any larger city. This is not a coincidence. Catalonian (and
Mediterranean) culture and the climate all play a part. Yet although
a city is rarely made by individuals on their own, two personalities
also shaped our current view of the city strongly. The first was
Pasqual Maragall, mayor from 1982 to 1997, who helped kick-
start Barcelonas international re-emergence. The Olympics came in
1992 (to Madrids great annoyance), putting Barcelona on the inter-
national map. The preparation for the games from 1984 onwards
and the resources they brought to bear became a tool to reshape his
city. The strategy was in essence urban physical transformation
driven by big events. The city was reconnected with its waterfront
by submerging a highway; new beaches and neighbourhoods were
created, as were a series of pocket parks. Oriol Bohigas was a
second important figure. From 1980 to 1984 he was responsible

for urban services and was a leading spirit in caring for and re-
conquering the city for its citizens. As he noted, I had my first
meeting with Barcelonas first democratic mayor. We decided that
we had to invent the democratic urbanity in Barcelona. They
agreed: The public space, whether open or built-up, is really the
city and is based on the conviction that citizenship is closely
related to participation in the public space and the rhythms of the
city. They felt quality of life depends on attaining four conditions:
density, collective life, identity and communication.
31
The priority was therefore to reconstruct the city starting from
public space rather than, say, housing, roads or office projects. Thus
Bohigas launched a phased programme of new pocket parks and
small plazas, concentrating on derelict spaces and the hidden
historic areas of the city. Artists were seen as an essential compo-
nent of the new design teams charged with assessing and developing
the citys public spaces in consultation with residents. These new
spaces used modern art in day-to-day neighbourhood contexts as
well as the old core quarters such as Raval, where the Museum of
Modern Art of Barcelona (MACBA) is based. The latter was
contentious. It partly cleansed the area of its more shady drug
peddling and criminal fringe and some called this sanitizing, an
equivalent perhaps of what happened to 42nd Street in New York,
where the corporates moved in and low life moved out. Yet always
expect the unexpected. In front of MACBA, within the dense
surrounds of Raval, there has been a new takeover of the public
space by skateboarders. This day-long daily show, watched by
many, is perhaps one of the best urban sport spectacles of its type.
The Spanish tradition of placas provided an important cultural
context for a long-term plan, which developed organically into a
master plan for the whole city, rather than there being a master
plan in advance:
From the point of view of planning this was impor-
tant, because we were absolutely against the idea of
master plans. The master plan is a way of factoring in
the globalization of the city but without considering
the individual identities of each quarter. For that
reason we decided not to do a master plan for
Barcelona but to complete small architectural projects
and to understand that the master plan was just the
culmination of all of these small solutions.
32

This is principled, strategic incrementalism, in other words incre-
mentalism with a clear goal.
Creating spaces of communication and gathering in order to
foster conviviality and to stage performances was key, as was
attempting to find an equilibrium between the natural and built
environment. The goal, said Bohigas, was to create the conditions
for an element of randomness: the capacity to find something
without searching for it. Such random information is not possible
in a technological system where everything is logically defined.
With information technology we search but in the city we find.
Note here the comparison with Dubai or Singapore. To be a citizen
of Barcelona is to walk its streets, to be part of the ebb and flow of
public life.
33
Not only has public space been reinvented, but so have public
events such as La Merce, whose origins date back to 1218 and is
based on a vision of the virgin Mary dressed in white, surrounded
by brilliant lights and celestial spirits. Yet as Jordi Pablo noted in
1984:
At the end of the 70s, as a consequence of the substan-
tial changes in public life, a profound renovation of
the Festa Major of Barcelona was initiated. The city
tried to construct a different model of festival, one
that maintained an equilibrium between tradition and
a strong sense of modernity, between activities avail-
able to only a few and a modern sense of the use of
the public spaces of the city, between a high quality
programme of spectacles and the possibility of free
participation in nearly all the activities.
34
La Merce became a celebration of living afresh, with citizens of
Barcelona pouring into the streets for a mass of participatory
events. La Merce is a new conception of what a festa is, how it can
become part of the urban fabric as well as retain traditional Catalan
elements:
The parade and dance of giant papier mch figures
from within Barcelona and the surrounds, a competi-
tion of castellers, groups of people building human
castles, a parade of stilt walkers, and the correfoc
(literally running fire), a mass gathering in which
groups of young people dressed as devils parade

through the streets carrying various papier mch
beasts and firing off fireworks over the heads of the
massed crowd.
35
To make these conditions work themselves through, another
element is required: recognition of the primacy of culture and deep
pride in ones own locality, with the cultural thinking and manage-
ment skills to match. The Institute of Culture, the citys cultural
division, is more influential than equivalent departments in other
cities where, in the hierarchy of power, the finance and engineering
divisions tend to have the highest status. It is a publicprivate part-
nership which provides more flexibility. Its goal is to increase the
influence of culture on development strategies in the city and to
make culture a key element for social cohesion. This means that
any major development will tend to be assessed through a cultural
prism. Mirroring this interest, Barcelona has, unusually, over a
dozen cultural planning courses, such as that started in 1989 by the
University of Barcelona or that of the Pompeu Fabra University.
Barcelonas 20-year trajectory from the early 1980s was paced
and purposeful. It was focused on a combination of urban design
and big events, such as the Olympics or the Universal Forum of
Cultures in 2004. The Forum was perhaps one step too far. The
new logic of driving urban development the world over through
the private sector that emerged in the early 1990s had exclusionary
effects with few social benefits apart from the parks and open
space. The Forums goal was to launch a new kind of Olympics of
Culture, sponsored by UNESCO and based on discussions and
intercultural exchange, and at the same time enhance the quality of
life of La Catalana and La Mina, two of the most marginalized
areas of Barcelonas metropolitan core. However, the Forums aims
lacked clarity and resonance and as a consequence the visitor
numbers were widely overestimated. More importantly, the
redevelopment of the city east towards the Bess river became a
property speculators dream. How the initial local communities
benefited is less clear. This leaves the two main buildings of the
Forums legacy the jagged, unforgiving Forum Building designed
by Herzog de Meuron is not the citys best and the Barcelona
International Congress Centre by Josep Lluis Mateo is, well, just a
congress centre. Time will tell how the reclaimed land and new
beaches will play themselves out. Yet now the thought that lingers
is a sense of gentrification.

Barcelona has a thinking brain on the future of the city called
the Metropolitan Strategic Plan of Barcelona, founded in 1988,
which is important in seeking to highlight future priorities.
Barcelona monitors itself in five so-called strategic blocks. These
are a knowledge block; an innovation and creativity block; a terri-
torial and mobility block; a sustainability and quality-of-life block;
and a social cohesion block. In scanning the citys comparative
prospects, a report by Xavier Vives
36
pointed out that by traditional
innovation criteria Barcelona is not in the top league in Europe,
which is led by Helsinki, Stockholm, Munich and Stuttgart. These
criteria include patents per 100,000 citizens and levels of R&D
expenditure. This was a shock to a city which has a self-under-
standing that it is innovative and creative. In fact, though,
traditional innovation indicators may be bad for creativity, because
patenting can foreclose creative possibilities which open-source
applications encourage.
The innovation and creativity block includes assessing the
dynamics of company creation in strategic sectors; what is happen-
ing to different classes of business; technology transfer between
universities, society and companies; the amount of European high-
tech patents applied for; and levels of use of information and
communication technologies. In keeping abreast of strategic urban
development, Barcelona has now focused on the quinary sector.
(See below for a description of primary to quinary sectors based on
distance from natural resources.) Quinary activities emphasize the
creation, rearrangement and interpretation of new and old ideas
and information, innovation of methods in knowledge gathering
and data interpretation, as well as the reconceptualization of think-
ing at different levels. At its core lies creativity. Some regard it as
encompassing research, culture, health and education.
The overall effect of Barcelonas transformation speaks in surveys
and statistics. Since 1990, Cushman & Wakefields European City
Monitor has annually assessed the most desirable and highly rated
European cities for basing a business in through interviews with 500
top companies.
37
Barcelona is the most improved city in their rating,
moving from 11th in 1990 to 5th in 2005 it is closing the gap on the
leaders. Given that London, Paris, Brussels and Frankfurt are the top
four, the competition is clear. It is ahead of cities such as Berlin,
Madrid and Amsterdam.
38
It comes out on top in the overall quality
of life for employees category, even though it is the leader in access
to markets, which is the top priority for business. It is the most

improved city for the third year running; business leaders expect
Barcelona to be in third position in five years time; and it is the third
most familiar city, though still some way behind London and Paris.
Barcelona has solidified its position as a major regional economic
power, strategically close to the French border and the European
heartlands. The economy of Barcelona, with only 4 per cent of the
Spanish population, contributes 14.29 per cent of the countrys GDP.
Its key industries include manufacture, textiles, electronics and
tourism. In 2003 Catalonia received 14,540,000 visitors from a total
of over 50 million throughout Spain and since the Olympics there
has been an almost 100 per cent increase in hotel capacity, number
of tourists and number of overnight stays. Cheap air travel has made
Barcelona one of Europes most popular short break destinations,
popular as it is for romantic weekends and hen and stag parties.
Whether these add anything to the citys creativity potential, however,
is an open question. Indeed growing tourist numbers are seen by
many as the greatest threat to the citys quality of life and future
prospects, as any person who goes to the iconic Gaudi sites or new
public beaches can see for themselves. What do they give back apart
from a bit of money? What do they take from the city? The citys
challenge is to reduce tourists imaginatively.
Bilbao
Like Barcelona, Bilbao draws on its sense of history and a self-
understanding of having a unique and unusual culture to give it
strength and motivation. Added to which it is entrepreneurial. It
fears the danger of being trampled upon. It is thus fiercely indepen-
dent. Just in case we forget, it reminds us of its famous people:
Elkano, who completed the first circumnavigation of the globe after
Magellan was killed in the Philippines, Ignatius of Loyola, who
founded the Jesuits, Maurice Ravel, whose mother was Basque, the
cyclist Miguel Indurain, the golfer Jos Mara Olazabal, the tennis-
players Jean Borotra and Nathalie Tauziat, the politician Dolores
Ibarruri, and many more.
The city provides three useful lessons in creativity: long-term
thinking and staying strategically principled and tactically flexible;
standards of design; and the need to shift values towards openness.
From strategy to implementation: A historical trajectory
Bilbao has become an international focus for lessons in urban
regeneration largely because of the Guggenheim effect. Yet the

Guggenheim is merely one initiative in a much longer-term process
of Bilbaos renewal, whose history is far longer. I highlight this
trajectory to show that at its core the changes in the city are
concerned with changing mindsets, developing leadership, gover-
nance and entrepreneurial capacity, aspiration, will and motivation,
a consequence of which is the focus on very long-term, strategic
thinking and high quality design. In turn this has enabled projects
such as the Guggenheim to happen. The regeneration did not start
with the Guggenheim, although a large cultural facility was always
part of the game plan.
Lying somewhat forlorn at the western edge of Europe, out on
the Atlantic coast when the action was happening further east in
Europe and in Asia, Bilbao and the Basque region had already
recognized in the early 1980s the restructuring of the world
economy and its potentially damaging effects on the local economy.
They predicted that this would affect its traditional port and steel-
making industries, with vast areas along the river Nervion
redundant and in need of renewal. Bilbao then began to scan devel-
opments of relevance to its situation, especially good practice
examples, from around the world. These included Pittsburgh
(which famously had reinvented itself after the decline of its coal
industry), the Ruhr area in Germany, Glasgow, Newcastle and a
wide variety of cities in the Ibero-American regions. In particular,
Bilbao wished to learn how renewal could be effectively imple-
mented and noted especially how a driving visioning mechanism
was required to turn aspiration into reality. The publicprivate
partnership model initiated from the 1940s onwards through the
Allegheny Conference for Community Development in Pittsburgh
provided key lessons. Indeed, Bilbao is twinned with Pittsburgh.
Inspiration also came from the International Bauaustellung (IBA)
model whose history of ten-year initiatives goes back 100 years,
including Emscher Park (19901999), Berlin (19801987) and
further back to Darmstadt (19011914).
This led in 1989 to the Perspectiva del 2005, a strategic plan
for the city whose objective was to develop Bilbao as a world-class
metropolitan centre and to make the city ready for the new
economy. The process of developing the plan and its subsequent
implementation was assisted by a series of critical friends and
advisers of renown, including Phillip Kotler, one of the inventors of
the concept of city-marketing; Charles Handy, management scholar
and social philosopher; James Baughman, the corporate director of

General Electric; Gary S. Becker, the economics Nobel Prize winner;
David Bendaniel, from the Johnson Graduate School of
Management; and the architects I. M. Pei and Cesar Pelli. Of special
importance to the city was the work of Anderson Consulting, which
highlighted the urbanistic chaos of the city.
To meet its challenge Bilbao sought over time to develop a
social architecture of innovation based on people and strengthen-
ing their capacity to identify new opportunities, and to have vision
and ideals. To create an environment that attracts people who love
ideas. To turn dreams into reality.
39
A guideline for Bilbao notes
epigrammatically: We only have the chance once in a lifetime to
create anew the civic fabric. At a minimum it should represent inter-
national class, at its best world-class. Taking this seriously
established a design quality benchmark.
Driving the vision: Metropoli-30
Like Barcelona, Bilbao wanted a thinking brain for the city and in
1991 Metropoli-30 was set up as a driving mechanism and vision
holder as well as a means of institutionalizing the strategic conver-
sation about the city. The figure implies thinking 30 years ahead.
Five values currently lie at its heart: innovation to move ahead of
change; professionalism to do things right and at a high quality
level; identity to answer the question of who we are; community
to share a long-term vision; and openness to be open to differ-
ence, not only to distinctiveness.
40
Principally, this association
drives the Strategic Plan for the Revitalization of Metropolitan
Bilbao, whose latest version is Bilbao 2010: The Strategy. Its core
focus concerns developing leaders and professionals, providing the
infrastructure and support activities for high-value business activi-
ties and ensuring the city is a vital space, an inhabited space a
liveable place.
41
It does not confuse vision-making with implementation. The
latter is left to Bilbao Ra 2000, the key agency for physical
renewal. Metropoli-30s remit covers municipalities in the metro-
politan area. It has a membership of 128 paid-up stakeholders,
ranging from public bodies, leading industry and university figures
to major community bodies. Its role is to push aspiration and to
think ahead, to enhance the metropolitan areas leadership capacity
and ability to think strategically, to connect the metropolitan region
with the best specialists in their fields and to promote a new vision
for metropolitan Bilbao. It organizes courses, on strategic manage-

ment of cities, for example, and its latest initiative is City and
Values concerned with 21st-century values of urbanity. Early on,
Metropoli-30 was involved in a series of staging posts connected to
the overall vision, such as setting up the 1993 Basque Council for
Technology and getting the European Agency for Safety and Health
at Work and the European Software Institute to base themselves in
the city.
Other roles include improving the external and internal image
of the region and carrying out research related to both metropoli-
tan Bilbao and other metropolises that are cutting-edge and from
which Bilbao can learn. This requires an intense networking strat-
egy. It is, for example, a founding member of the Benchmarking
Clearinghouse Association and an active participant of the World
Future Society. Overriding everything, the association fosters
cooperation between the public and private sectors with the aim of
finding joint solutions to problems of mutual interest that affect
metropolitan Bilbao.
From civic infrastructure to a change in cultural values
The strategic plans can be seen as having had three primary foci.
The first is concerned with physical infrastructure development, so
creating the physical preconditions to move forward; the second
more on issues of attractiveness and broad quality of life concerns;
and the third the current phase on changing cultural values of
the metropolitan area. Within the initial plan, key aspects of the
civic infrastructure were addressed: a metro system, designed by
Norman Foster, opened in 1995; a new airport, designed by
Santiago Calatrava, in 1999; the Abando passenger interchange,
designed by James Stirling and being carried out by Michael
Wilford; a major internationally oriented cultural facility that
turned out to be the Guggenheim Frank Gehry, opened in 1997; a
new tram system; the enlargement of the port; the Zubi Zuri pedes-
trian bridge by Calatrava; the Euskalduna Music and Congress
Centre by Federico Soriano and Dolores Palacios; the extension to
the Fine Arts Museum; the Alhondiga building refurbishment into
cultural and sports facilities to create a new social space for the
city; and the Bilbao International Exhibition Centre.
Implementation involved attracting world-renowned architec-
tural stars who could help create a new centrality for Bilbao,
which was initially seen as establishing Bilbao as El Nuevo Porto
Atlantico de Europa. However, the emergence of the East and

European enlargement now figures strongly in their thinking in
attempting to redefine what Bilbaos new centrality in a future
Europe could be.
The levers to create this centrality include high quality design
standards, iconic architecture, cultural facilities, advanced
eco-friendly design and sustainability, attracting the headquarters
of European-level organizations and developing global events.
In parallel there is a focus on projects that help mature the soft
infrastructure of the metropolitan region, and key terms used
include enhancing the capacity for multiple creativity; developing
the spirit of entrepreneurship, with post-graduate studies in entre-
preneurship focused on the needs of the region 30 years hence, for
example; developing leadership cadres in the region; increasing
aspiration and desire, as with the idea of having a Nobel Prize
winner from Bilbao; and, appropriately, renewing the regions
cultural values in tune with what a future metropolis requires, such
as the need for a cosmopolitan outlook, flexibility but also an ethos
that marries wealth creation and social equality.
The focus on cultural values of openness embraces the broader
notion of culture as an expression and combination of shared
values, shared ambition and shared vision based on common
assumptions, norms and habits of mind the way we do things
around here. The aim of these combined hard and soft initiatives
is to involve an ever-widening circle in seeing the development of
the metropolis as a common social project and to increase the
dynamism of the region within a recognition of the new rules of
urban competition, focusing on cultural richness, network dynam-
ics and reinvigorated concepts of the idea of leadership.
The mission for the coming decade is to identify and attract
people who are willing to lead and to help their ideas get expressed
and transformed into projects and real innovative experiences, so
spinning off into Bilbaos social and economic wealth while respect-
ing the citys values, history and idiosyncrasy.
42
Seemingly trite
slogans, such as Bring your dreams to Bilbao. We can make them
come true, seek to reinforce this message. The World Forum on
Values and City Development, held in May 2006 and to be regu-
larly held henceforth, is a vehicle to project these aims.
Some commentators feel that Metropoli-30s highpoint was in
the early stages of its existence, when it framed the conversation
about Bilbaos future, and that now those lessons have been
absorbed. However, the issues Metropoli-30 is now dealing with,

concerned with the software of the city, such as changing the values
of citizens and leaders, are far more subtle. Its less easy to get
excited about having to change yourself and to get overall momen-
tum behind such ideas than about building interesting physical
projects. This leaves aside the question of whether Metropoli-30 is
being effective or not. The fact is that not many urban regeneration
mechanisms are focused on value change.
From thinking to doing
Metropoli-30 thinks and Bilbao Ra 2000 acts. The latter is an
entrepreneurial public-spirited publicprivate partnership created
with an endowment of port land it was given cheaply. Since then it
has required hardly any public funds as it has traded land and
generated sales to developers in the gentrifying Abandoibarra area
near the Guggenheim. These capital gains have been invested in
extensive city projects where social needs are greatest, such as the
Southern Connection, Bilbao La Vieja and the Barakaldo Urban
project. Its work has included the Abandoibarra renewal, the
former industrial city and port, now the symbol and centre of new
Bilbao; Ametzola, formerly three goods railway stations, which is
now a residential area with a modern park; the renewal of Bilbao
La Vieja, the old town; and Urban-Galindo in Barakaldo, an ambi-
tious urban plan to recover the waterfront for use by local people
and psychologically linking it to the heart of Bilbao.
Broader impacts
Has this investment in structure, iconics and big events paid off?
The overall investment over the last 15 years has been in the order
of 4.2 billion euros. Its effectiveness is measured in a variety of
ways. Metropoli-30 annually assesses a series of benchmarks, such
as the quality of human resources, including education, training
and labour market dynamics, the internationalization of the
economy in terms of commerce, transport connections, tourism,
trade fairs, levels of internet usage, economic growth indicators,
environmental quality (there are now fish in the river Nervion),
personal quality of life, the sense of safety, cultural facilities, energy
consumption, and so on.
Foreign direct inward investment data has been hard to come
by. Anecdotally this increased, especially in the ETA ceasefire
period (the ETA issue was key in terms of business relocation). The
level of new business start-ups increased substantially in the decade

from 1991 onwards, from roughly 1700 to 2850 per annum. The
largest percentage increases were in services (20.4 per cent)
followed by construction (15.4 per cent). Property price levels have
increased a great deal indeed Bilbao is the city with the most
expensive prices per square metre in Spain, followed by Barcelona
and Madrid. This is a double-edged sword. The most expensive
areas, Ensanche and Abandoibarra, are close to the Guggenheim
Museum. Yet the price of new housing in the periphery is rising
even faster than in Bilbao, especially in Getxo on the coast. The
prices on the outskirts are also rising sharply with the extension of
the metro system there.
While Bilbao is not in the top 30 European cities for business
location, it hovers around 35, in the company of Turin, Valencia,
Rotterdam and Birmingham. This is an achievement in itself when
you consider the central location of the others.
The Guggenheim effect
Many urban specialists now say they are bored of hearing about
Bilbao, but the reality is that getting the Guggenheim was Bilbaos
master stroke, added to which a special building added lustre.
Many cities, such as Valencia, have tried to follow Bilbaos pattern
of development, but very few have succeeded in sustaining the levels
of quality and bending the gentrification process triggered by public
investments to the citys advantage.
A brief reminder. Salzburg had previously been in discussion
for the Guggenheim but the bold design by Hans Hollein for a
subterranean museum carved directly into the rock of the
Monchsberg was too much for the city fathers. Once Spain was
identified as the location for the European hub there was a compe-
tition between Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Badajoz, Bilbao and the
northern coastal resort of Santander, which was an early favourite
until the well-funded Basque redevelopment consortium won out.
Since then, the Guggenheim effect has become an urban renova-
tors clich, but in truth it can rarely be repeated, in spite of the
icon-building mania that has subsequently ensued. While the
Guggenheim sheen might be fading as it becomes positively promis-
cuous, pursuing relationships with governments, cities and
corporations around the world, there is only one Bilbao.
Metropoli-30 claimed that it was able to attract the museum
because the preconditions open-mindedness, ambition and willing-
ness to take financial risks had been set in the decade before the

actual decision was made. As they noted, Luck goes to those who
make it.
43
An international design competition was held with a
three-strong shortlist of architects Izozaki, Buro Himmelblau and
Frank Gehry which Gehry won in 1991. The Guggenheim opened
in 1997 and is owned by Bilbao. It cost approximately US$100
million, with an additional US$20 million paid to the Guggenheim
for the use of the name for a 20-year period. Within this contract,
Guggenheim makes its exhibitions and stock of art available to
Bilbao. This direct investment by the Basque authorities repaid itself
via increased tax revenues after three years and the current contribu-
tions by the region to the museum are covered by the yearly increases
in tax revenue averaging, around 28 million euros per annum. By
2005 the Basque treasury had benefited from the Guggenheim by
over 200 million euros and 4500 jobs in the hospitality industries.
Estimates of visitor numbers were originally 500,000, but in the first
year visitors numbered 1.2 million. This began to decline after 11
September 2001 and is currently running at 900,000 per annum, with
the proportion of foreigners increasingly annually (59 per cent in
2003). The impact on other cultural facilities has been substantial
for example, the Museum of Fine Art has doubled its attendance.
44
The arrival of the Guggenheim effectively developed the local
tourism industry, although business tourism was already well devel-
oped given the economic strength of the region. Eighty-two per cent
of visitors state that they specifically visited Bilbao only because of
the museum. There is an estimated additional bed occupancy of
approaching 1 million, with global hotel and shop brands cluster-
ing into the city.
The building of the Guggenheim was not uncontentious,
however. The idea to build an icon structure in the face of the high
unemployment levels of the early 1990s caused alarm in a number
of quarters, with some feeling it would be better to build new facto-
ries rather than pursue an internationalization strategy involving
city-marketing and cultural facilities. The artistic community were
initially the most vociferous opponents, as they believed the
Guggenheim offered little to the local artistic community. Indeed a
number of arts programmes were initially cut and there was a fear
of its impact on existing facilities. Local sculptor Jorge Oteiza, who
had nurtured the project of an arts centre in another site in the heart
of Bilbao, became the leader of a lobby opposing this museum,
which was seen by many local artists and intellectuals as an instru-
ment of cultural colonialism.
45

While some segments remain suspicious, a larger section has
become more enthusiastic, given the now increased investment in
traditional cultural facilities, such as the extension of the Museum
of Fine Arts as well as other amenities, such as the auditorium and
conference centre. As a consequence it appears there has also been
a burgeoning of artist-run and grass-roots movements, with outlets
such as the alternative theatre and dance centre, La Fundici, the
Mediaz association and the Urazurrutia centre.
Creativity when culture matters
Barcelona and Bilbao (and Montreal
46
) believe their threatened
identity was a spur to cultural creativity and originality. But another
primary reason for their success has been budgetary control and
local autonomy to perceive and trust the long-term vision without
having to dilute it through external negotiation with national
government. This can be contrasted to the relative lack of
budgetary authority British cities have. Imagine what they might
have achieved if they had not been treated like infants by the British
government. For instance, the Basque region keeps 90 per cent of
regionally generated taxes and pays 6.2 per cent towards the state
budget for external affairs and defence. The Barcelona and Bilbao
models have also been taken up by Valencia, Seville and Malaga.
While Madrid, as the nations capital, increasingly draws talent,
skills and headquarters to it, there is a strong countervailing force.
For instance, in the music industry Barcelona was historically the
centre, but with the re-emergence of Spain after Franco, many key
players felt they had to relocate to Madrid as the global players
such as AOL/Time/Warner had based themselves in the national
political capital. However, each of the main regional cities, like
Barcelona and Valencia, is now seeking to reinforce its strengths
internationally in an attempt to bypass Madrid, for instance as
centres of design. The battles of relative urban power continue,
with Madrid trying to accrue as much power and resources as
possible. This is also the case in other federal countries, like
Germany, where cities such as Munich, Hamburg and Frankfurt
try to create a counterforce to the newly re-emerging Berlin.
Urban acupuncture and Curitibas creativity
Brazils Curitiba, a city of 1.7 million, has tripled in population
over the last 35 years. It is a byword for urban creativity and eco-

urbanity. Curitiba, with Freiburg in Germany, is a forerunner in its
concern for ecological urban development. Curitibas public trans-
port and park system and creative ways of turning weaknesses into
strengths are its trademarks. Emblematic is its Open University of
the Environment, the first of its kind in the world, set up in 1992
and located in a reclaimed quarry. It carries out projects relating to
a sustainable economy, conservation of the ecosystem and environ-
mental education. Deep in a native forest covering 37,000m
2
, its
researchers are influencing the growth of the city, whose economy
is based on trade, services and processing industries.
In the mid-1960s a group of activist architecture and design
students began making the case to improve the citys quality of life;
this prompted a revolution in Curitibas development. City officials
recognized the possibilities, which led to a master plan. A key
element was that mobility and land use could not be disassociated
from each other. Therefore counteracting random sprawl through
directing development along transport corridors was central. Jaime
Lerner was one of the students and was later appointed mayor three
times between 1971 and 1992, when he twice became elected
governor of Parana, the region within which Curitiba falls. Lerner
was responsible for creating and setting up an urban think tank,
the Institute of Urban Planning and Research of Curitiba (IPPUC)
in 1965, one of the plans recommendations. Like in Barcelona and
Bilbao, this was a forward-looking thinking brain for the city.
Nearly 40 years later Lerner wrote Urban Acupuncture to
describe his approach to the revitalization of cities, which depends
on the relative agility of local policy-makers and counter-intuitive
thinking.
47
Urban acupuncture involves identifying pinpointed
interventions that by being accomplished quickly can be catalytic
by releasing energy and creating a positive ripple effect. Lerner
notes:
Keep in mind that the city is a scenario for encoun-
ters. Gregarious by definition, the city is the centre
around which relationship codes are created. The
great ideological conflict in todays world is globaliza-
tion versus solidarity. It is necessary to globalize
solidarity, in Mario Soares words.
The city is also the last solidarity retreat. The city
is not the problem, it is the solution.
48

The aim of city-making and acupuncture is to create this solidarity.
Usually this is achieved by acts of what Lerner calls urban kind-
ness, which act like acupuncture. Examples can be either small and
seemingly trivial or large. They can be the acts of individuals, the
municipality or a business. For instance, after finishing his daily
work, a Curitiba dentist used to go to his offices window and play
the trumpet for anyone walking past. It can be the planting by the
city of the first tranche of what later became a million trees in less
than two decades. In the beginning it was a true gesture of urban
kindness. To ensure that all the seedlings planted in the streets
would be watered regularly, Curitiba asked people to help. The
local authorities rolled out a campaign: The City provides the
shade and you the fresh water. And they water them. It can be
Lerners innovative recycling programme, where the city exchanged
recycled materials collected by citizens, especially the poor, for food
and bus tickets. Street children were given free food, but in order to
get it they had to take a class to learn something. Similarly he got
industry, shops and institutions to adopt a few orphaned or aban-
doned street children, providing them with a daily meal and small
wage for doing simple maintenance gardening or office tasks. Much
of this might sound chaotic, and some insiders critize it, but the
process builds social capital.
The fast acupuncture approaches had a purpose: preventing
the inertia of complexity sellers, of pettiness and of politics from
stifling critical opportunities and public projects.
49
The first pedes-
trian street in Brazil was created in 1972 over a weekend to avoid
any opposition by merchants. Once it was successful they clam-
oured for more. Children involved in mural-drawing sessions have
been a feature of Saturday mornings on the mall ever since. In 2002
the Oscar Niemeyer Museum was finished in five months. The
complexities are easy to imagine, but there was an opportunity to
recycle an old building designed by Oscar Niemeyer, a bold project
from the 1960s, that had been used to house state government
agencies. Refurbishing a bureaucratic space to be used as a space
dedicated to creativity, identity, art, design, architecture, and cities
was important. But once again, it had to be done fast.
50
Smart incentives act as acupuncture, fostering effective busi-
nessgovernment partnerships. In this way positive action is
reinforced by civic practice. For example, developers and builders
receive a tax break when their projects include green areas. The
historic preservation of a commercial district near the downtown

was achieved by transferring development rights. The abandon-
ment of heritage buildings had been a problem as developers
wanted their deterioration and eventual demolition. Under the
regulations, you can build in the rear or in another part of the city
if you restore the old building in front. Tax discounts were also
given for restoration. Owners are therefore compensated and
historic structures are preserved. In designated areas of the city,
businesses can buy up to two extra floors beyond the normal, legal
limit and can pay in cash or land, the receipts of which the city uses
for low-income housing. Land-use legislation encourages high-
density growth along the arterials, and a social fare mass transit
fare system was employed with the fare the same for close-in resi-
dents and lower-income users living on the periphery.
On a larger scale, Curitibas bus system is so frequent that, as
Lerner says, you never need a timetable. It has articulated buses
that can carry up to 300 people and trademark clear tubes for
boarding, where people pay before entry and get on and off so
speedily that it is like a metro. It is efficient, affordable, and solvent.
Eighty cities around the world are using similar rapid bus transit
systems, which can be constructed 20 to 100 times more cheaply
than light rail or subway systems.
In the end long-term urban kindness pays back. It engenders
social capital. The city government has demonstrated its commit-
ment to the constant maintenance of green, pedestrian and
landscaped areas, and now citizens, who once took the flowers and
URBAN ACUPUNCTURE AND SOCIAL CAPITAL
In Calgary, if you ride a bike without a bell you get fined CAD57. It costs
CAD100 to administer the fine and if you are caught it leaves a sour
taste in your mouth. You are cross and hate the municipality (and prob-
ably the next person you meet). The citys director of bylaws thought
there must a better way. He decided to buy 100 bells and 10 screw-
drivers for his patrollers at a cost of CAD500. Now when someone is
found without a bell, the patroller cautions them and tells them how
lucky they are since they have a bell and a screwdriver and will give
them a present. The net effect is they ride with a glow and are probably
pleasant to the next person they meet. That kindness reverberates. It is
how social capital is created and, counter-intuitively, the more you use
it the more it grows.

committed vandalism, have become responsible partners, protec-
tive of these public spaces.
Several guiding principles govern decision-making at city and
community levels. Priority is given to people and public transport,
design should keep nature in mind and technology should be
appropriate to the situation. Three components guide Curitibas
regional planning: the idea, the viability and the operation.
Planning, execution, and administration are handled separately by
Curitibas government. The three interface constantly, with weekly
meetings among the mayor and key players in each area of respon-
sibility, who define and set weekly targets. The ethos of city
managers is that good systems and incentives are better than good
plans. Awareness of environmental sustainability and each individ-
uals quality of life is part of the education of every person in
Curitiba. All school students participate in environmental surveys.
Forty-seven school libraries have been brought outside schools to
allow public access. They each have a lighthouse tower and guard-
house based on the ancient Library of Alexandria. Seventy-five per
cent of commuters take the bus, although Curitiba has the second
highest per capita car ownership in Brazil. This has resulted in one
of the lowest air pollution levels in Brazil. Because of the integrated
transportation system, Curitibanos spend only 10 per cent of their
income on transport. During a period of startling population
growth, Curitiba expanded its green space more than a hundred-
fold from 0.5m
2
of serviced green space per person to 52m
2
per
person 21 million m
2
in total. Free green-coloured buses and
bicycle paths fully integrate these public spaces into their local and
larger communities.
Curitiba shows that cities do not necessarily require expensive
mechanical garbage separation facilities. Residents recycle two-
thirds of their garbage in a programme that costs no more than the
old landfill. The Garbage that is not Garbage and Garbage
Purchase programmes involve kerbside pick-up and disposal of
recyclables sorted by households and, in less accessible areas, the
exchange of food and transit tickets for garbage collected by low-
income residents. The All Clean programme temporarily hires
retired or unemployed persons, who concentrate on areas where
litter has accumulated. Trash is separated into only two categories,
organic and inorganic, picked up by two different types of trucks.
Poor residents in areas unreachable by truck bring their waste to
neighbourhood centres, where they exchange it for bus tickets or

eggs and milk bought from outlying farms. Trash is separated at a
plant built of recycled materials, sorted by workers who are handi-
capped, recent immigrants and alcoholics. Recovered materials are
sold to local industries. Styrofoam is shredded and used as stuffing
for quilts. Since its 1989 start-up, the recyclable waste programme
has separated 419,000 tonnes enough to fill 1200 twenty-storey
buildings. Inorganic waste (plastic, glass, paper, aluminium) totals
13 per cent of garbage collected.
51
and there are many more
creative places both today and from yesterday. Let us remind
ourselves of one from the past. Ragusa, now Dubrovnik, in
Croatia was a classic example of a creative, knowledge-based
city.
52
Perhaps in its historical context it was a creative city for the
world. For instance Ragusas slogan was oblivi privatorum,
publica curate (forget the private issues and tend to the public
ones). The government of the Ragusa Republic was liberal and
early showed its concern for justice and humanitarian principles.
With no resources apart from a fleet it had to live on its wits, be a
broker, a diplomat and intermediary. It traded knowledge and had
a sophisticated network of spies; it based its ethos on dialogue
rather than conflict. Always sit down with your worst enemy they
still say in Dubrovnik or keep your friends close and your enemies
even closer. It had no army of its own. As early as 1272 the
Republic had its own statute and codified Roman practice with
local customs. The statute included town planning guidelines. It
was very inventive regarding laws and institutions: a medical
service was introduced in 1301; the first pharmacy (still working)
was opened in 1317; a refuge for old people was opened in 1347;
the first quarantine hospital (Lazarete) was opened in 1377; slave
trading was abolished in 1418; an orphanage was opened in 1432;
the water supply system (20km of it) was constructed in 1436.
From its establishment in the first half of the seventh century
Ragusa has been under the protection of the Byzantine Empire,
Venice, the HungarianCroatian Kingdom and the Ottoman
Empire. But it always managed to negotiate its relative independence
and made itself useful to others with far greater power, who in turn
protected Ragusa from invasion. As a free state it reached its peak
in the 15th and 16th centuries. But a crisis of shipping and a cata-
strophic earthquake in 1667 killed over 5000 citizens and levelled

most public buildings. It ruined the well-being of the Republic and,
while it fought back, it never reached the same heights and the final
straw was when Napoleon conquered the city in 1806.
Although all effective power was concentrated in the hands of
the nobility, Ragusa was governed in a radical way. The head of the
state was the Duke or Rector, elected for a term of office for one
month and eligible for re-election after two years. Every noble took
their seat in the Grand Council. The Senate was a consultative body
and consisted of 45 invited members (over 40 years of age). The
rectors lived and worked in the Rectors Palace but their families
remained living in their own homes.
The pride in Dubrovnik, an urban gem, is pervasive and citi-
zens today speak of it as if it were a person etched into their inner
being and not as a detached thing. When asked where they come
from, in Zagreb, say, they simply say from the city.
And what has become of this jewel today that until recently
had a fine balance of trade and visitors? It is overwhelmed by
tourists with little chance of maintaining its identity; at times over
20003000 tourists are flushed from cruise liners into this very
small city. They take a two-hour walk, leave practically nothing
behind and move on. As Vido Bodanovic, the mayor of Dubrovnik
from 1998 to 2001 noted: Tourism is essentially a form of prosti-
tution. Some visitors attracted by its beauty buy houses, which
they rarely go to, and as a consequence the permanent population
in the city has declined from 10,000 to 5000 over the last decade,
and there are more souvenirs than you want to see.
Amsterdam is another city of creative power that has had to
reinvent its primary purposes again and again in acts of imagina-
tion. Interestingly, Amsterdam City Hall is billing the city as a
creative city par excellence and supporting conferences such as
Creativity and the City and Creative Capital.
53
It is a cruel irony
of sorts that Amsterdam, historically a centre of creativity, has to
proclaim its creativity in a mundane way to be heard among the
hubbub of other cities now branding themselves as creative.
A helpful guide, Amsterdam Index 2006: A shortcut to creative
Amsterdam,
54
provides a contemporary overview. Like a personal
guide, the index gives tips and escorts you to the citys special
places and invites you to get to know the people who make up this
innovative capital.
The question always lurking is not whether Amsterdam will
become a creative city or not, but above all whom that city is aimed

at: a creative city for the highly educated and prosperous upper
class or a creative city for all the citys inhabitants.
55
A port and hub for centuries, its openness has attracted
outsiders, many of them edgy. The multilingual capacities of the
Dutch reinforce its accessibility. Lets consider the old, the new and
the alternative as three elements. Many are beguiled by
Amsterdams dense urban fabric and the canals dissecting the city.
Some find its olde worlde beauty too cutesy. Yet it is precisely the
planning restrictions in the older, intimate core that allow small,
often fashionably designed outlets to survive and intense interac-
tion and stimulation to occur, as witnessed in areas like Nine
Streets. There is a relief at not seeing a McDonalds, Burger King or
Subway.
Can the city recreate this sense of place that triggers imagina-
tive responses in its new development areas like the Zuidas (South
Axis) area, a Dutch version of La Defense in Paris, Potsdamer Platz
in Berlin or Canary Wharf in London? This business hub, with its
increased residential buildings, currently has a global style, like
many places that attract bankers and accountants. Will its aim to
insert a repertoire of city-making cultural activity, greening and
public squares create a feeling of compelling and urgent vitality?
They say, Culture plays an important role all over Zuidas. One
area in particular, the Museum Quarter, is almost entirely dedicated
to culture.
56
Can one area be dedicated to culture? Although
amusing, will naming areas Gershwin, Mahler 4 or Vivaldi create
vitality? Zuidplein at the bottom of the World Trade Centre (how
many are there of these in the world?) has street life at lunchtime,
but is this creative? Some of the architecture, like Meyer en van
Shootens Ing House, has a playfulness seen from a distance, but
how lively is it at street level?
Amsterdams underground breeding ground of inventiveness
was inextricably linked to its squatter movement, as activists and
artists occupied abandoned structures and buildings. With names
like Silo or Vrieshuis Amerika, these often acted as experimenta-
tion zones. Crucially, in contrast to most cities in the world,
Amsterdam recognized the importance of these alternatives. In
1999 it set up the Breeding Places Fund, whose aim is to provide
affordable small-scale infrastructure for artists and cultural entre-
preneurs in response to dramatic changes in the cultural landscape
of Amsterdam. Amsterdams popularity and gentrification had
threatened the citys cultural ecology, but since then, around 1000

spaces have been provided in 35 projects, ranging from the
dramatic old shipyard, NDSM, to Plantage Doklaan and
Elektronstraat. Other spaces include the Westergasfabriek, a
modern park and a cultural complex etched out of an old gas
landscape, which balances well the need for innovation with
economic sustainability and has been one of the more successful
examples of balancing innovation and economic sustainability.
57
As an example to remind ourselves of the fragility of these places,
however, take the OT301, an artist studio and performance
complex:
At the end of the month, the lease runs out for the
OT301, and looming in the air are potentially big rent
hikes, smells of third-party investors and questions
over the subcultures future So take a quick walk
through the OT it may not be there much longer.
58
There are many other cities which have recaptured their public
space, such as Copenhagen, Portland, Vancouver and Melbourne.
Each has a dimension of creativity to offer. Many of these are well
documented in Jan Gehl and Lars Gemzes New City Spaces.
59
The authors describe Copenhagens ten-step programme to human-
ize the city: convert key main streets into pedestrian thoroughfares;
reduce traffic and parking gradually; turn parking lots into public
squares; keep scale dense and low; honour the human scale; popu-
late the core; encourage student living; adapt the cityscape to
changing seasons; promote cycling as a major mode of transporta-
tion; and make free bicycles available.
Then there is Vancouver, one of the North American cities cited
as most liveable. Greater Vancouver has gained an international
reputation for various innovative planning initiatives over the
years. A healthy economy, employment opportunities, rapid popu-
lation increases and the desirability of a West Coast lifestyle have
contributed to the regions urban design, the architectural character
of its neighbourhoods and its general prosperity. The limited land
base of the region, surrounded by mountains, the US border and
the sea, increased development pressure and created challenges for
both the public and private sectors. Successful planning initiatives
include the rejection of extensive freeway systems, the redevelop-
ment of the south shore of False Creek and the transformation of
former industrial lands into town houses and apartments in the

mid-1970s and the creation of eight regional town centres, such as
Metrotown in Burnaby, Lonsdale in North Vancouver and Haney
Town Centre in Maple Ridge. These town centres provide a focal
point for higher-density residential neighbourhoods combined with
business and commercial opportunities easily accessible via the
regional transit system. They serve as an alternative to the familiar
suburban commute into downtown Vancouver and as an effective
way to accommodate urban growth and decentralize employment
opportunities within the region.
60
The emphasis on neighbourhood planning began in the 1970s
with the creation of citizens planning committees. Different
approaches were needed in each neighbourhood. Vancouver led the
way with plans involving citizens, resulting in specific policies for a
diversity of communities Strathcona, the West End, Grandview
and Shaughnessy, for example. The emphasis from the outset was
on a two-way planning process with community participation.
John Punter argues
61
that since the early 1970s Vancouver has
devised and implemented a distinctive, clear-sighted approach to its
urban planning and design which has provided a frame within
which the city could build itself out, focusing on making the urban
core mixed-use residential, offices and shopping. This gives the
city its vitality. It was based upon discretionary zoning, cooperative
megaproject schemes, development levies, managed neighbourhood
change and building intensification. The success of these strategies
has created Vancouvers outstanding reputation in international
planning circles.
THE MANAGEMENT OF FRAGILITY:
CREATIVITY AND THE CITY
Creative ecology
The aim, for me, of creative city-making is to think of your city as
if it were a living work of art where citizens can involve and engage
themselves in the creation of a transformed place. This will require
different creativities: the creativity of the engineer, the social
worker, the planner, the business person, the events organizer, the
architect, the housing specialist, IT specialists, psychologists, histo-
rians, anthropologists, natural scientists, environmentalists, artists
of all kinds and, most importantly, ordinary people living their lives

as citizens. This is comprehensive creativeness. It involves differing
forms, not only the thrusting creativity of discovering a new techni-
cal invention, but also the soft creativity of making interaction in
the city flow. To make creativitys diversity work involves the
management of fragility.
Every period of history requires its own form of creativity.
Todays will be different from yesterdays and tomorrows. Now we
need to focus our creativity on being creative for the world. To do
this we need to work across disciplines in an interconnected whole
so we can see issues and solutions in the round. We need to think
both horizontally and vertically, to see strategy and detail, the parts
and whole and the woods and the trees simultaneously. We need to
care for our world. For instance, rather than focusing on sustain-
able development we should think of restorative development: how
our cities can help restore the environment, how can they give
something back to it. A few housing developments already give
electricity back to the grid.
Creativity is not the answer to all our urban problems but it
creates the preconditions upon which it is possible to open out
opportunities to find solutions. Urban creativity requires an ethical
framework to drive the city forward, and not in a prescriptive sense.
At its core this ethic is about something life-giving, sustaining,
opening out rather than curtailing. This requires us to focus on soft
creativity, which is the ability to nurture our cities and their cultural
ecology.
The creative rash
Creativity is like a rash; it is all-pervasive. Everyone is in the creativ-
ity game. Creativity is a mantra of our age, whether we are referring
to creative individuals, companies, cities, countries or even creative
streets, buildings and projects.
At my last count 60 cities worldwide claimed to be creative
cities. Twenty were in Britain, from Creative Manchester, Bristol,
Plymouth and Norwich to, of course, Creative London. And ditto
Canada: Toronto, with its Culture Plan for the Creative City;
Vancouver and its Creative City Task Force; London, Ontarios
similar task force; and Ottawas plan to be a creative city. In the US
there is Creative Cincinnati, Creative Tampa Bay and the welter of
creative regions such as Creative New England. Partners for
Liveable Communities in Washington DC launched a Creative

Cities Initiative in 2001. In Australia we find the Brisbane Creative
City strategy and there is Creative Auckland. Osaka set up a
Graduate School for Creative Cities in 2003 and launched the
Japanese Creative Cities Network in 2005. Even the somewhat
lumbering UNESCO, through its Global Alliance for Cultural
Diversity, launched its Creative Cities Network in 2004, anointing
Edinburgh as the first for its literary creativity. On closer examina-
tion most of the strategies and plans are in fact concerned with
strengthening the arts and cultural fabric, such as support for the
arts and artists and the institutional infrastructure to match. In
addition they focus on fostering the creative industries, comprising
those that have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent
and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the
generation and exploitation of intellectual property.
62
An idea or a movement
Today we can even talk of a Creative City Movement,
63
but back
in the late 1980s, when most of the constituent ideas were being
developed, the key terms discussed were culture, the arts, cultural
planning, cultural resources and the cultural industries. Creativity
as a broad-based attribute only came into common, as distinct from
specialist, currency in the mid-1990s. Earlier Australias Creative
Nation, instigated in 1992 by Prime Minister Paul Keating, spelt
out the countrys cultural policy with a focus on creativity. In the
UK, by contrast, the first short version of the Creative City
published in 1995 had little resonance beyond niche audiences.
64
Instead it was the publication of Ken Robinsons national commis-
sion on creativity, education and the economy for the UK
Government, All Our Future: Creativity, Culture and Education,
that a couple of years after its publication in 1999 put creativity
more firmly on to the political agenda.
65
Later some of the phrase-
ology changed, but what people referred to was usually a narrowly
focused creativity, essentially the cultural industries, which became
the creative industries and the creative economy. The notion of the
creative class then emerged in 2002. The publication of Richard
Floridas book, The rise of the Creative Class, gave the movement
a dramatic lift with the danger of hyping the concept out of
favour.
66
Why do cities want to be creative? Where did the obsession
with creativity come from? A central point is that creativity was

always present in cities, it is just that we called it by another name:
ingenuity, skill or inventiveness. Venice did not emerge in its time
through a business-as-usual approach, nor did Constantinople or
Dubrovnik. It became a link between the Latin and Slavonic civi-
lizations and a powerful merchant republic. It maintained its
independence by successively becoming a protectorate and by
brokering knowledge, acting as a haven and refuge and inventing
services. It required intense cleverness and astute positioning.
Perhaps, today, Singapore is striving to be an equivalent.
Further, from the late 1980s onwards a recognition that the
world was changing dramatically was increasingly widespread.
Industries in the developed world already had to restructure from
the mid-1970s onwards. The movement took time to unfold in full,
but its momentum moved apace with the shift in global terms of
trade now apparent. Its effects were eased in the West by the
internet-based new economy, with the move from a focus on
brawn to brain and a recognition that added value is generated by
ideas turned into innovations, inventions and copyrights.
Yet these processes left many countries and cities flailing as they
searched for new answers to create a purpose and role for them-
selves, while cities were physically locked into their past. This led
to soul searching and many concluded that the old way of doing
things did not work sufficiently well. Education did not seem to
prepare students for the demands of the new world. Organization,
management and leadership, with a control ethos and hierarchical
focus, did not provide the flexibility, adaptability and resilience to
cope in the emerging competitive environment. Cities atmosphere,
look and feel were seen as coming from the industrialized factory
age where quality of design was viewed as an add-on rather than as
the core of what makes a city attractive and competitive.
Coping with these changes required a reassessment of cities
resources and potential and a process of necessary reinvention on
all fronts. This required an act of imagination and creation. Cities
felt creativity could provide answers to their problems and oppor-
tunities and would get them out of being locked into their past,
either because of physical infrastructure or because of their
mindset. These adjustments require changes in attitudes and in how
organizations are run. Yet while many organizations claim to have
changed through de-layering, decentralizing or decoupling, in
reality they have remained the same. Nevertheless, different people
for different reasons felt creativity had something in it for them it

seemed like the answer. First, the educational system, with its then
more rigid curriculum and tendency to rote-like learning, did not
sufficiently prepare young people, who were being asked to learn
more subjects and perhaps understood them less. Critics instead
SYNCHRONICITY AND ORIGINS
The first detailed study of the creative city concept was called
Glasgow: The creative city and its cultural economy, which I wrote in
1990. This was followed in 1994 by a meeting in Glasgow of represen-
tatives from five German and five British cities (Cologne, Dresden,
Unna, Essen, Karlsruhe and Bristol, Glasgow, Huddersfield, Leicester
and Milton Keynes) to explore urban creativity, resulting in The Creative
City in Britain and Germany,
67
followed up by a short version of The
Creative City in 1995 and a far longer one called The Creative City: A
Toolkit for Urban Innovators in 2000, which popularized the concept.
Unknown to the author at the time, in fact the first mention of the
creative city as a concept was in a seminar of that title organized by
the Australia Council, the City of Melbourne, the Ministry of Planning
and Environment of Victoria and many other partners, held between
the 5 and 7 September 1988. Its focus was on how arts and cultural
concerns could be better integrated into the planning process for city
development. While several speakers were arts practitioners, the
spread was broader, including planners and architects. Yet a keynote
speech by David Yencken, former Secretary for Planning and
Environment for Victoria, spelt out a broader agenda, stating that while
we give firm attention to the efficiency of cities and some focus on
equity, we should stress that the city is more. It should be emotionally
satisfying and stimulate creativity amongst its citizens.
68
The city can
trigger this, given its complexity and variety, especially when seen as
an interconnected whole and viewed holistically. This ecological
perspective is reflected in Yenckens later appointment as chairman of
the Australian Conservation Foundation. This prefigured some of the
key themes of The Creative City and how cities can make the most of
their possibilities. The latter noted, Creative planning is based on the
idea of cultural resources and the holistic notion that every problem is
merely an opportunity in disguise; every weakness has a potential
strength and that even the seemingly invisible can be made into
something positive that is something can be made out of nothing.
These phrases might sound like trite sloganeering, but when full-
heartedly believed can be powerful planning and ideas generating
tools.
69

argued that students should acquire higher-order skills, such as
learning how to learn, create, discover, innovate, problem-solve and
self-assess. This would trigger and activate wider ranges of intelli-
gences, foster openness, exploration and adaptability, and allow
the transfer of knowledge between different contexts as students
would learn how to understand the essence of arguments rather
than recall out of context facts. Secondly, harnessing motivation,
talent and skills increasingly could not happen in topdown orga-
nizational structures. Interesting people, often mavericks, were
increasingly not willing to work within traditional structures. This
led to new forms of managing and governance, with titles such as
matrix management and stakeholder democracy, whose purpose
was to unleash creativity and bring greater fulfilment. The drive for
innovations required working environments where people wanted
to share and collaborate to mutual advantage. This was necessary
outside the workplace and increasingly the notion of the creative
milieu, a physical urban setting where people feel encouraged to
engage, communicate and share, came into play. Often these milieus
were centred on redundant warehouses which had been turned into
incubators for new companies.
Creativity: Components
Creativity and resilience
An overarching goal of being creative is to generate urban resilience
and build overall urban capacity. It is not about being fanciful.
Resilience is the capacity to absorb change, ruptures and shocks
and to be supple enough to adjust. Resilience is strong adaptability.
It means a city has the right attributes of inventiveness and open-
ness to bounce back if its industrial base has been eroded or a new
competitor, say India or China, has taken its markets. This requires
the city to evolve a spirit of expectation, of being alert to change
and of not assuming given advantages are timeless. This helps the
city avoid being downcast, a psychological frame of mind not
attuned to understanding and then grappling with change. Urban
shocks can leave cities depressed just as they can individuals. Lifting
a city out of this state is difficult as it needs to nurture itself back
its self-confidence. One area to develop resilience is the learning
infrastructure, which should be fashioned to combine the teaching
of focused disciplines, such as engineering or crime prevention, with
the ability to see the core of disciplines and then across and beyond

them. The capacity of a company to think from a conceptual and
not a product point of view opens out possibilities. For instance,
Camper shoes developed the hotel Casa Camper in Barcelona
because, as they note, they are into comfort, not shoes. The comfort
platform gives Camper a far wider range of possibilities to invent
products well beyond shoes (clearly having a brand name helps).
The most innovative companies then align their skills with others
without wishing to control the complete chain. The same should
apply to cities when assessing their production possibilities. Like
Camper, they may ask themselves, What is the essence of what we
know? rather than focusing on the particular application they
have, which could be mining or textiles. For instance, mining could
be seen less as a mineral extraction sector and more as an opportu-
nity to develop software for accessing hard to reach places.
Fear of creativity
Quite rightly people argue, Why should people want to be creative,
as being so involves adjustment and change? It is painful. Better to
leave things as they are. The desire to be open and inventive
depends on what we do. For the artist exploration is a raison dtre,
for many scientists too. For the traffic engineer continuity and
predictability are at a premium, as they are for the property devel-
oper. Ideally even certainty. The lawyer thrives within a plethora of
rules to be nit-picked to achieve clarity. Planners can project a
future only with clear guidelines; they would prefer less instability.
In fact most people and professions prefer order. Individually,
though, we may wish to explore, to find ourselves and to make our
life more interesting. We may want stimulation.
Being creative is not the sine qua non of life. The reason it is so
widely discussed is our period of transition and lack of settledness.
Too many problems are not being solved. Until a new settlement
emerges, where for instance individual values and economic
purposes are aligned, things will remain up for grabs. Then the
capacity to create, recreate and reimagine will remain at a premium.
Seen thus, creativity is in essence the capacity to stand back and
reassess.
Driven by competitiveness
Creativity has risen because people have realized that the sources
of competitiveness now happen on a different plane and they need
to learn afresh how to compete beyond merely low cost and high

productivity. It includes a citys cultural depth and richness, which
might mean heritage or the availability of contemporary artistic
facilities; the capacity to network globally and to keep abreast of
the best; the ability to create imaginative partnerships so that the
impact of projects can generate the equation 1 + 1 = 3; seeing design
awareness and quality not just as an add-on but an intrinsic part of
development; understanding how urban imagery works through
the media; the need for eco-awareness to tap into peoples aspira-
tional desires; developing language capacity to ease com-
munication; and unblocking obstacles to interaction, whether this
be concerned with bureaucracy or by creating gathering and
meeting places.
Creativity and the quinary domain
Economies are divided into sectors depending on distance from the
natural environment. The first extracts resources, the second manu-
factures finished goods, the third, or tertiary, provides services,
often using those produced goods, and the fourth, or quaternary,
consists of intellectual activities associated with government,
culture, scientific research, education and information technology.
Some consider the fifth, or quinary, sector as a branch of the fourth,
including the highest levels of decision-making in a society or
economy. This sector would include the top executives or strategic
officials in such fields as government, science, universities, busi-
ness, the non-profit world, healthcare, culture and the media.
Others disaggregate the service sector, especially business services
which are information-oriented, into quaternary activities and refer
to activities involving the collection, recoding, arranging, storage,
retrieval, exchange and dissemination of information. Quinary
activities emphasize the creation, rearrangement and interpretation
of new and old ideas and information as well as innovation of
methods in the knowing, gathering and interpretation of data. They
are thus concerned with the reconceptualization of thinking,
concepts, products and services at different levels. This is the strate-
gic realm of the creative city thinking.
Quality of life, competitiveness and creativity
Creativity, it is said, thrives on messiness, a touch of disorder or
even an element of chaos. The unfinished waiting to be finished. But
too much untidiness does not attract all types. Not the lawyers, the
bankers, the property developers, most media types or their fami-

lies. It is these people who in many contexts can drive the urban
transformation agenda and create the confidence and positive invest-
ment climate. They are not renowned for their creativity and its
uncertainties. In fact they probably want nearly the opposite.
Messiness is also uncomfortable for many others: ordinary hospital
workers, teachers and shopkeepers, to name a few. They want live-
ability or quality of life, two catchphrases of the moment. That
agenda focuses on safety, cleanliness and good transport. Within the
new competitiveness paradigm both the creativity and liveability
agendas need to be aligned. And they can be. Thinking about
unusual crime reduction schemes is an example, as is creating urban
hubs that act as havens, like Bryant Park in New York, or coming
up with the idea of the mid-level escalators as a form of public trans-
port in Hong Kong. Overall urban competitiveness cannot survive
today only on refurbished warehouses with their creative economy
types and office parks in idealized green settings. It needs the public
spaces in between, the good transport links and a sense of relative
safety only with a slight touch of edginess.
Creating open conditions
The goal of cities which try to be creative is to create conditions
which are open enough so that urban decision-makers can rethink
potential, for example turning waste into a commercial resource;
revalue hidden assets, for example discovering historic traditions
that can be turned into a new product; reconceive and remeasure
assets, for example understanding that developing social capital
also generates wealth; reignite passion for the city by, for example,
developing programmes so people can learn to love their city;
rekindle the desire for learning and entrepreneurship by, for
example, creating learning modules much more in tune with young
peoples desires; reinvest in your talent by not only importing
outside talent but by fostering local talent; reassess what creativity
for your city actually is by being honest about your obstacles and
looking at your cultural resources afresh; realign rules and incen-
tives to your new vision, rather than seeing your vision as being
determined by existing rules; and reconfigure, reposition and
represent where your city stands by knitting the threads together
to retell your urban story, galvanizing citizens to act. To elaborate
on learning, it might mean reconfiguring curricula to teach higher-
order skills, like learning to learn and to think, rather than more
topics, or alternatively to think across disciplines beyond the silos

rather than learning facts. The resilience to survive requires new
educational curricula. The Australian curriculum is an example of
moving in this direction.
The creative milieu
Given that people now have more choice and mobility about where
they want to be, the physical setting, ambience and atmosphere is
of upmost importance. This is the stage, the container or platform
within which activity takes place and develops. It generates the
milieu or environment. The milieu mixes hard and soft infrastruc-
ture. The hard consists of roads, buildings and physical things, the
soft the interactions between people, the intangible feelings people
have about the place.
A creative milieu can be a room, an office, a building, a set of
buildings, a refurbished warehouse, a campus, a street, an area, a
neighbourhood or occasionally a city. These places can equally be
completely uncreative. What makes a milieu creative is that it gives
the user the sense that they can shape, create and make the place
they are in, that they are an active participant rather than a passive
consumer, and that they are an agent of change rather than a victim.
These environments are open, but they do have unspoken rules of
engagement. They are not wild for the sake of wildness, so that
things dissolve in chaos, but they accept the need to be stretched.
Things are being tried out and there are experiments. It might mean
someone hidden away in an office is experimenting with new soft-
ware and in the public realm it might mean a new type of restaurant
either in terms of food or decor and style. It is likely to mean that
the products and services of the local area are sold and used there.
There is likely to be a focus on being authentic, though what this
means will always differ depending on context.
A cautionary proviso: such an environment will also attract
outsiders who may only consume and give nothing back. They
borrow the landscape, chew it, digest it and spit it out. We should
be mindful that tourists can drain the identity of places if their
numbers overwhelm the locals.
Mass creativity
An extension of the creative milieu notion is how you encourage
groups of people to be imaginative en masse. Open-source amend-
ments to software is a version of this in a more restricted area.
What is a city variety? Perhaps it does not need to be so dramatic;

if thousands of people were creative perhaps it could be too much.
Incremental creativity might be the answer, whereby the open
mindset is legitimated by leadership groupings or the media. For
instance the change of Copenhagen from a car-dominated city to a
walking and cycling city must in its initial stages have involved
1000s of cyclists going against the grain of then current thinking.
The same is true for recycling schemes. It is the atmosphere that
creates the context for innumerable smaller things to occur which
in themselves display only a tiny speck of creativity.
Democracy and creativity
Creativity relies on openness and its political counterpart is democ-
racy that is when it actually works. Yet creativity is also the
capacity to squeeze through imagination whatever the circum-
stances; so creativity will also exist in places such as Beijing or
Dubai that are undemocratic. Yet it will be circumscribed. A boom
town booms. The sheer hype, buzz and activity gives the allure of
creativity, but speediness, a building boom and hysteria are no guar-
antee that it is actually happening. In both the above cities
entrepreneurs are seizing opportunities and making money, but
again that does not ensure imaginative solutions or products are
being created. Inevitably there will be responses reflecting on the
feverish development, especially from within the artistic field or
environmentalists, and with our global gaze we will take these more
seriously. But will they stand the test of time? And, more impor-
tantly, in Dubai we have no idea what women could contribute to
making the city state a better place. In Shanghai we do not know
what could happen if there was far more open debate about the
citys development.
Yet they get things done. Quickly. Impressively. It makes
democracies feel slow paced, ponderous and lacking in verve. So
there is not a simple relationship that says democracy = creativity.
Yet equally we know that squeezing liberty too tight leaves little
room for imaginative manoeuvre. Totalitarian places are not
creative milieux.
The hard and the soft
To make a milieu happen requires infrastructures beyond the
hardware the buildings, roads and sewerage systems. Soft infra-
structure includes the mental, the attitudes of mind, and even
spiritual infrastructure, the aspirational core. It is the informal and

formal intellectual infrastructure. The soft also includes the atmos-
phere which is allowed to exist by giving vent to the emotional
realm of experiences and which is more visceral. We need to
remember that essentially no city plans start with words like
happy or beauty. There are technically driven and conceived. No
wonder there is little interest from the broader public. The soft
milieu needs to allow space for the maverick, the boundary breaker,
as this person is often is one that looks at a problem or opportunity
in a new light. The environment also fosters linkages within itself
and with the outside world, as otherwise it does not sufficiently
learn from the best of what others are doing. Collectively these
attributes create a culture of entrepreneurship.
But creative places are not comfortable places.
70
Those pushing
at the edges continuously bump into vested interests, whether those
be in their own organizations or outside in the wider city, as the
new collides with the old. In these moments the purposes of good
city-making get lost in power struggles at both micro and macro
levels. It can be extraordinary petty things that kill off good ideas:
a person in charge who doesnt like an intelligent upstart and wants
to protect their sphere of power or influence or a regulation that
makes no sense in the current context, but which someone insists
upon. One only needs to remember cities in transition, from
Florence way back and Berlin in the Weimar Republic to Shanghai
today, to appreciate that being creative involves power struggles.
Creative places have a creative rub, they often live in a tense but
dynamic equilibrium.
Diversity as a driver of creativity
Just as biodiversity guarantees the well-being and resilience of the
natural environment, so cultural diversity strengthens the city.
Creative places seem to need an influx of outsiders to bring in new
ideas, products and services to challenge existing arrangements and
bring together new combinations where insiders and outsiders
meet. But there is a level at which a city can absorb the new if it
is too much it can overwhelm. What constitutes too much depends
on circumstance. The history of successful cities in the past, from
Constantinople and Hangchow to Florence, suggests the capacity
to absorb and bring together different cultures was a contributing
factor to that success. This did not mean that cultures were
subsumed identity was still shaped by where you came from.
There was, however, sufficient mutual influence and counter-

influence, coalescing and mixing over time to create a special, fused
identity as older and newer citizens changed. The same is true today
in the large multicultural cities of London (which bills itself as the
world in one city), New York, Sydney and Toronto.
The creative challenge, as noted, is to move from the multicul-
tural city, where we acknowledge and ideally celebrate our differing
cultures, towards the intercultural city. Here we move one step
beyond and focus on what we can do together as diverse cultures
in a shared space. The latter probably leads to greater well-being
and prosperity.
Planners and urban designers play a critical role in building city
culture and creating conditions for creativity. Their decisions can
have a profound impact on the way we lead our lives and express
our collective and individual cultural values. Diversity in public
space is key, as Jane Jacobs reminds us.
71
Jacobs identifies four
significant conditions: diversity of activities, a fine grain of urban
form, diversity of building stock and the all-important critical mass
of people. To which we should add a fifth, the length of history of
a building, where the diversity of experiences is etched into the
patina of the fabric. This intricate web of diversity is rather like
environmental diversity. As with ecological conditions, if a city or
district becomes too homogeneous, it becomes vulnerable. If, for
instance, one form of activity or business is dominant, and it no
longer works in the new environment, the entire area may be at
risk. Therefore, very new mega developments rarely encourage
inventiveness.
Cities often get carried away with the physical form of public
places, placing great responsibility on the urban designer to trans-
form a place through new paving, elegant street furniture and
improved lighting. The reality is that many places are dead or
decaying for reasons other than poor public realm design, such as
failing business or traffic domination. Too often, major city or
dockland redevelopments focus on iconic buildings as a drawcard
but fail to build in the finer grain of diversity and urban life.
72
Diversity in its many forms is the primary element of a vibrant
place a diversity of business, a diversity of activities and a diver-
sity of built form creating visual stimulation. Think of street
markets. The most successful are those with a great diversity of
products every stall has a different range and somewhere there is
treasure to be found. They also provide the setting for intercultural
interaction as people from many cultures go about their business.

The task of contemporary planners, architects and urban
designers is to help build rich textures that draw from the past but
are living expressions of contemporary life. Yet it is not always city
planners and designers who have primary influence over the look
and feel of the built environment. Increasingly it is those that frame
regulations and standards who affect the way a city infrastructure
is delivered. In addition, a large proportion of public realm infra-
structure is created not by the city but by private sector developers.
This presents a challenge to city officials, who must establish a clear
vision for the city and evolve strong planning criteria to influence
the work of others.
Modernity has brought with it professional classifications and
boundaries between professions and responsibility. Ideally a built
environment professional should be deeply engaged with his or her
local culture, given the dramatic impact their professional practice
has. They should be culturally literate. There is a need to gain
knowledge prior to the formulation of a brief for master-planning
from as many different sources as possible: a mosaic of knowledge
gathered from people of different ages, cultures and associations
with place.
Creativity is culturally and contextually determined
The capacity to be creative is culturally determined. If the culture
of a city, region or country is autocratic or corrupt, it is difficult for
ideas to emerge, potential to be harnessed and the free flow of
possibilities to be turned into inventions. Rigid hierarchy also
makes creativity more difficult as creativity relies on tolerance,
listening and a strong degree of equality. Clearly, though, creativity
can also happen in controlled situations. For example, the inven-
tion of weapons and advances in aerospace in wartime happened in
secret, tightly controlled environments and even today new devel-
opments in computing in Silicon Valley occur in enclosed campuses
within which there is a free flow of ideas among colleagues. The
same is true for scientific discoveries, especially when intellectual
copyright is at stake. Even here, though, there is openness in the
confined setting in order to harness individuals imagination.
However, many innovations are concerned with services, trading
and presentation and these require the free flow of movement up
and down hierarchies and across disciplines and institutions. A
culture which is democratic and where questioning is cherished
favours the development of imagination.

Creativity means different things in different cultures. For
instance, within certain cultures good imitation is deemed to be the
apex of creativity. The imagination is then steered to producing
with perfection. And again perfection is also a relative term. To the
Japanese eye, a lack of symmetry is what creates perfection. For the
West, symmetry is associated with harmony and has a high value.
In Western culture there is also an obsession with the new. As global
culture is swept up with a similar obsession, so the Western percep-
tion of creativity tends to dominate, especially given that the
overriding capitalist economy itself is driven by the need for contin-
uous innovation. The challenge is to create a working definition of
creativity that addresses both tradition and the future as well as a
quality of nurturing the existing and pushes the boundaries into the
new.
In Japan, for instance, one would need to ask, What is
Japanese creativity? What is the same as in other Asian places,
Europe or the Americas? What is specific and unique about it and
what is different? The same would be true for Norway, Chile or
indeed any country. The answer should be beyond trivial concerns
such as differences in cuisine, clothes or heritage. Does Japanese,
Chilean and Norwegian creativity work on different principles? Are
these then visible in the urban landscape?
Creativity is context-driven. What was creative in a period long
past is not creative now, although it may still be necessary, such as
the public health advances in the 19th century. What is creative in
Britain may not be creative for Malaysia and, in turn, what is
deemed creative in Malaysia may appear ordinary in Britain.
Creative property development
Property prices are central to developing a creativity strategy.
Young innovators and start-up companies need low prices to get
going. The constant search for low rents or property values is
what drives the movement of people around a city. Artists in
particular need larger spaces to work that now equally attract
creative industry sector workers. Inevitably this pushes them to
explore older factories whose future is not yet determined yet
which afford generous working space. However, over the last 25
years it is precisely these places that are attracting non-artists in
search of a hip lifestyle. Whether they like it or not, these creative
types act as the vanguard of gentrification, making areas safe
for others who are less adventurous to follow. Practically all of

these buildings have been reused in the more central areas of the
major cities. The equivalent industrial buildings today are short-
life industrial sheds. As I mentioned earlier, it is difficult to
imagine trendsetters in 20 years time searching out a shed
lifestyle. These processes of gentrification are a double-edged
sword, pushing up prices, which makes upscale development
possible, yet also pushing out those who gave a place an interest-
ing flavour in the first place. Artists then move to discover new
areas. Perhaps the outer urban estates unloved by most will be
their next target?
Individual creativity and urban creativity
We understand what creativity can mean in the context of individ-
uals, for example the capacity to think across boundaries, to roam
across disciplines, ideas and concepts, to grasp the essence of an
issue, and to connect the seemingly unconnected; or in the context
of teams or organizations, which is the capacity to draw out indi-
viduals diverse talents, open out the barriers between individuals,
reduce obstacles and procedures so as to allow many people to
contribute, and meld potential into a cohesive whole. But to think
through and implement a creative city agenda is of a different order
of magnitude as it involves conjoining the interests and power of
different groups, who may be diametrically opposed and whose
goals may contradict each other. It involves certain qualities: the
capacity to bring interest groups around the table within a
commonly agreed agenda, to learn to work in partnership between
different sectors that share mutual respect, and, most importantly,
to develop civic creativity.
Creativity and the past
So if the overall culture of a city is central to establishing creative
potential, what about cultural heritage? The triggers for creativity
can be contradictory. For example, heritage can inspire because of
past achievements, it can give energy because deep thought has
gone into its creation, it can save time because much has already
been thought through, it can trigger the desire to emulate, and it
can give insight and generate pride because it has withstood the test
of time it is still there. But, equally, heritage and tradition can put
a weight on peoples shoulders, it can constrain and contain, it can
overwhelm, it can force the mind to go along familiar patterns and
furrows of thinking and so make people less open and less flexible.

Which side of the coin overrides the situation depends on circum-
stance.
If the new generation perceives its role as only safeguarding a
past to which it had no input, it might mean heritage and tradition
is drowning a vibrant emerging identity. Heritage works best when
we perceive ourselves to be part of its continual creation. This is
why museums and galleries that encourage the audience to ask new
questions and do more than just let the viewer admire are often
more successful. They engage their audiences in an act of co-
creation and co-interpretation of the past. Contrast this with the
failure of those who just present things as a given, immutable
canon. When heritage and its interpretation are allowed to ossify,
the past and the present disengage from one another.
Culture inevitably involves a past, as a places culture is the
residue deemed to be important after the ebb and flow of argument,
fashion and negotiation about what is valuable has passed. Culture
when acknowledged and this might also mean the ability to reject
it gives strength in moving forward. It becomes a backbone that
can create the resilience that makes change and transformation
easier. Confidence is key for creativity. When cultures feel threat-
ened or weak or when other cultures are superimposing themselves
upon them, they go into their shell. Culture then becomes a defen-
sive shield not open to change, imagination and creativity.
Cultural institutions, anchoring and creativity
Museums, galleries and libraries can provide confidence, often
giving the city its identity. Indeed, when you ask people to identify
a city, it is often a cultural facility or icons they refer to.
At their best these tell us who we are, where we have come from
and where we might be going. In so doing they show us the routes
that reconnect us to our roots. They do this through storytelling,
with stories that fit us, our community, our city, our country, our
cultures and even our worlds into a bigger human and natural
history, showing us connections, bridges and threads that can
enrich our understanding. Museums and galleries confront us with
some things that are familiar and comforting while at other times
challenge us to look afresh, to see the world in a new way or to
experience things that require imagination to grasp.
Some museums also allow us to contribute our personal stories
in an act of co-creation. By triggering imagination, museums entice
us to explore, so providing opportunities for testing out, for chance

encounter, for discovery and for inventing things afresh. At their
core, museums and galleries are involved in an exchange of ideas
where we as the visitors come to grips with displays. In effect we
converse either with ourselves or more publicly about what our
culture is, or what those of others are, so we think about what we
value and what our values are. There are thousands of examples,
such as Madame de Pompadour Images of Mistress exhibition at
the National Gallery in London or the Bodyworks exhibition,
which uses human body parts presented in a non-museum space.
By placing us, the visitors, at the crossroads of what has gone
before, with what could be and what others have thought,
museums, libraries and galleries become platforms for dialogue,
discourse and debate, revealing the multilayered textures that make
up any society. In these processes of creating, questioning and
anchoring identity, of imagining and reimagining and of discovery,
the object or artefact, ideally real, is the catalyst.
In fact the cultural institutions communicate with every fibre of
their being not only their artefacts, but also their setting and the
way they project to the outside world. What they feel like and look
like sends out innumerable messages and their values are especially
etched into their physical fabric as well as into their programming.
Thus our older museums often speak more to a former age an age
of deference where the expert told the inexpert what to know and
how to know it and where you the humble citizen were to be
elevated by the museum experience. And the physical elevations
themselves spoke in a more grandiose style, often going back to a
classical age with their Corinthian columns, reflecting a different
kind of confidence and attitude. Yet good contemporary design has
often helped museums to combine old structure with new ways of
engaging an audience. Today we attempt to live in a more transpar-
ent and democratic age. Consequently, more buildings reflect a
greater lightness of touch in the materials they use glass, light-
weight steel or tented structures or in the way audiences are
invited in. Again the best of the old and the new can communicate
iconically so that we grasp the totality of what a cultural institu-
tion is about in an instant.
When we take an eagles eye view, we see there is a special
museumness about museums or a librariness about libraries. They
are:

places of anchorage, which is why so often in a world that
speeds ahead of us we see museums as refuges or places of
reflection;
places of connection, so enabling understanding of our pasts
and possible futures;
places of possibility, letting us scour the resources of the past
and memories to stimulate us to twist them to the contempo-
rary condition;
places of inspiration, to remind us of the visions, ideals and
aspirations we have made for ourselves and continue to make;
and
places of learning.
And when these things come together we know more about
ourselves, our surroundings, what things work or dont work and
how things could be made better.
Arts and sciences, and the creativity of cities
Most of the literature on creativity concerns the arts and sciences.
The question is whether there is anything special about the categories
of arts, such as singing, acting, writing, dancing, performing music
and drawing, in relation to the development of the city. Equally, what
is special about biology, chemistry, physics? Science and technology
are immensely important. For example, our awareness of climate
change, ecological balance, pollution and the ways to overcome these
problems would not be possible without science.
Importantly a lively city needs both old arts and new arts.
Juxtaposing the two creates dialogue, argument and at times even
conflict. The negotiation as to what is significant is the process of
making a dynamic culture. A static urban culture just focuses on
what has been achieved in the past. This has happened to many
beautiful places, like Florence, whose beauty has become a prison.
The arts help cities with their aesthetic focus and then challenge
us to ask questions about ourselves as a city and our hopes, fears
and prejudices. And arts create enjoyment.
Artists can be interpreters of reality, leaders and visionaries.
Perhaps most of all it is the outside-the-box, lateral thinking and
use of imagination present in the arts that is the most valuable thing
they can offer other disciplines like planning, engineering and social
services, especially if allied to other emphases, such as a focus on
local distinctiveness.

On closer examination, most city strategies and plans that call
themselves creative are in fact only concerned with strengthening
the arts and cultural fabric, important as these are. In addition they
focus on fostering the creative industries, such as advertising, archi-
tecture, art, crafts, design, designer fashion, television, radio, film
and video, interactive leisure software, music, the performing arts,
publishing, and software creation.
This is fine as far as it goes. However, this is not what the
creative city agenda should be exclusively concerned with it is
merely an important aspect. Indeed it would be great if artistic
thinking fused itself into how traffic engineers, planners and others
thought about their city. Clearly artistic creativity has its own
special form, as has already been noted.
Creativity is legitimized in the arts and assumed to be a core
attribute of what being an artist is about, and the artistic commu-
nity has been astute in putting itself at the centre of that debate.
Think of all the books on creativity. A large proportion over the
last decades have focused on artistic creativity (and this includes
much of what is covered within the creative industries) and neglect
most other forms, such as social, public sector or bureaucratic
creativity. There is also a wealth of work on business creativity.
There is little work on the creativity of solving urban problems or
urban development or on the creative approaches to thinking about
science and technology.
The creative city idea is all-embracing
This is a pity, as the creative city concept is all-embracing. It is a
clarion call to encourage open-mindedness and imagination from
whatever source. It implies, too, a regard for tolerance, a precondi-
tion for cities to foster inventiveness. Its assumption and philosophy
is that there is always more potential in a city than we imagine at
first. It posits that conditions should be created in places for people
to think, plan and act with imagination. This implies a massive
opening out process and has a dramatic impact on a citys organi-
zational culture. The style and ethos of such a place is one where a
yes rather than a no attitude is likely to prevail, so giving people
the sense that there is opportunity. It is possible to put the highway
underground. It is possible to fund an innovation incubator out of
public funds. It is possible to develop a passionate participatory
culture.

The creative city idea claims that if conditions are right, ordi-
nary people can make the extraordinary happen, given the chance.
Here a glance at the inventiveness of social workers, business
people, scientists, social entrepreneurs or public servants in solving
problems highlights the potential and many of these activities are
deemed to be dull. I focus on this type of inventiveness because it is
perhaps more significant than the creativity we usually focus on,
such as new music, graphics or fashion trends.
These other creatives harness opportunities and address seem-
ingly intractable urban problems like homelessness, traffic jams,
pollution and enhancing the visual environment. The principle that
underlies so much creativity is giving power to those affected by
what you do.
Creativity, authorship and local distinctiveness
Underlying much of the creative city debate is local distinctiveness,
as most creativity is a response to local circumstance. The creativ-
ity debate itself emerged against the backdrop of reinvigorated
globalization and the tendency towards homogeneity. This takes
the emphasis away from a continual concern with the new. It asks
instead what is unique, special or different about a place. Who is
the author of a citys experience? A corporation headquartered far
away that has decided a theme will work in your city, because you
have the right demographics? Authentic remains a difficult term,
yet whatever its definitional vagaries it is more about controlling
the creation of your experiences than the reverse. These, then, are
some of the main resources a city can use to project its identity and
to position itself in the wider world. These resources might include
an idea we have that reworks a tradition, it could be an old indus-
trial sector, such as textile or ceramics, that can be reinvented anew.
It might include a tradition of learning expressed in a university, or
a type of technology which themselves might be the basis of a new
creative industry.
Enemies of the creative city
Being creative is a fragile affair. It requires seemingly contradictory
conditions such as stimulation and calm. Great cities can provide
opportunities for the breadth of human emotion. Vitality and
vibrancy help creativity, but only up to a point. Too much can end
up as noise and whirr and there is no chance for focus and reflec-
tion. Information overload is another problem for being a creative

city; a fragmented clutter of out-of-context facts leads to confusion
rather than clarity of thought and the hyper-mediated world does
not help, with its usual blast of unconnected information where
one rarely comprehends a story in its completeness. Compare the
visual landscape of cities today with 30 years ago. Physical space,
airwaves, sport, cultural events and performances: all are on the
advertisers easel. Ad-creep is everywhere. It is hard to think of any
area of urban space which isnt in some way sponsored, branded or
otherwise earmarked for corporate use. These are also some of the
superficial ways in which society values creativity as style, as
fashion, as edgy, as controversial for its own sake: attributes
without substance. Speed is another problem. Being continuously
fast works against reflection and things simply become a blur. The
capacity to reflect is central to imagining and innovation.
Is creativity positive?
The word creativity is imbued almost exclusively with positive
connotations. But should this be so? The creative impulse can be
negative. It can produce weapons that kill as well as medicines that
cure. The purpose and goal of creativity is as important as the
process of being creative. Importantly, too, both the trivial and the
profound are equally called creative. An imitative, formulaic design
might be called creative, just because it appears funky, as can a deep
new insight about human personality.
Creative as a word, a concept, as a desirable state or aspiration
has taken over from the word cultured. Cultured appears to have
an old-fashioned ring and backward look. This need not be so. The
best cultured people seek to understand the present and are focused
on the future too. Being creative has a forward ring and it appears
to be about the new and inventive, about being on the pace it
seems to be glamorous. And business too is tripping over itself to
attract creativity in the war for talent. Companies frequently claim
how creative they are.
With so much creativity cities should be exciting, but this is not
what we see in most streets, downtowns or neighbourhoods. Too
often there is a blandness and sameness masquerading as difference
and excitement: 30,000 McDonalds with their 50 million
customers daily,
73
5000 Wal-Marts with a total occupied retail
space of over 50km
2
, a third of the size of Amsterdam,
74
ad
nauseum.

Creativity defined
Creativity is applied imagination using intelligence and all kinds of
mental attributes along the way in order to foster continuous learn-
ing. This implies a more open attitude to failure and distinguishing
between competent and incompetent failure. In the first, when
someone tries hard to succeed but fails, there is substantial learning
going on which creates the foundations for possible success in the
future.
It is thinking at the edge of ones competence, rather than the
centre of it. In complex urban problems, solutions are often discov-
ered at the boundaries of what we know and when each specialist
discipline works at its boundaries. The reason is that the shaft-like
focus of a narrow discipline tends to reveal less and less and give
less insight as we become clearer that things are inextricably inter-
connected. This is not to put down the specialist, but it asks them
to operate in a different way.
The creative city idea is an ongoing process and way of going
about things, not an end result. It is dynamic, not static, and it is
concerned with the mindset predominant in a city. It suggests that a
culture of creativity should be embedded into the texture of how
the city operates, that is into its community members, its organiza-
tions and its power structures.
Legitimizing the use of imagination in the way the city operates
generates an ideas bank of possibilities. This process of allowing
divergent thinking to occur within the worlds of specialists and
those who find this approach more natural generates multiple
options, choices and a pool of ideas. It needs aligning to conver-
gent thinking, which narrows down possibilities from which
innovations emerge once they have gone through the reality
checker.
Where are the creative places?
Many places considered creative, like New York, London, Hong
Kong and Sydney, are port cities. They remain hubs even in the age
of air transit as they have maintained their status as communica-
tion nodal points. Today many cities we consider interesting are
city states like Hong Kong and Singapore. Perhaps being a small
nation allows a place to generate more impact, as it is not
concerned with a vast hinterland. But what about landlocked cities
around the world that feature as innovative hubs, like Munich,

Berlin, Austin, Madrid and Curitiba? Soon, however, those cities
which can make the most of their airport hubs will become the
exchange centres of the 21st century.
Within cities we often think of city centres as cores of creativ-
ity, yet increasingly the reality is different. The city core may simply
be a lifeless institutional zone. Instead it may be an inner city living
area, a light industrial rim, a science park or a village within a city
that has reputation for inventiveness. Think of New Yorks
Greenwich Village, once a very creative place, or Schwabing in
Munich.
Suburban creativity?
Can the suburbs be creative? Suburbs are normally seen as dull,
deflating and boring. The environment does not stimulate inven-
tiveness, it is said, but instead suits families bringing up children.
However, while the suburban physical setting may be focused on
comfort and convenience rather than being inspiring, reactions to it
often spark inventiveness. One example is the number of pop stars
that were born in very ordinary places. John Lennon lived with his
Aunt Mimi for almost 20 years at Mendips, 251 Menlove Avenue,
Liverpool, Mick Jagger in Dartford and Bruce Springsteen in
Freehold, New Jersey. Punks origin as an outgrowth of suburbia is
well documented. Indeed the film Suburbia in which Penelope
Spheeris explored the world of alienated suburban teenagers, is
regarded as the punk rock movie.
Comprehensive creativity
Very few places are comprehensively creative, but every city can be
more creative than it is. Those with a global reputation over a long
time period, say 150 or 200 years, and where the sheer weight of
creatives dominates the urban scene in a sustained way, can be
counted on the fingers of one hand. They may include, currently,
New York, London, Amsterdam and Tokyo. Over the next decades
they may be joined by others such as Mumbai, Shanghai and
Buenos Aires. At a slightly lower level there are places strong in
niches that can be sustained over periods of, say, 50 to 100 years.
For example Milan and fashion, Los Angeles and the media indus-
try, Stockholm and public infrastructure, and Zurich and banking.
All these places are attractors and to sustain their creative power
they need economic, technological, cultural and even political status
and pull. It is the combination of these factors that drives their

drawing power, acting as a reinforcing agent to bring in talent and
to generate talent endogenously. To sustain their positions they need
to attract or develop leading research institutes, often built on the
back of existing universities or cutting-edge companies. They need,
too, today, a public sector setting and organizations that think long
term, are focused on the key drivers of future wealth creation, and
can assess honestly and strategically their citys relative positioning
and potential assets in a broad-minded way.
Today a citys creativity is usually judged by its arts and cultural
sector scene, such as music or film, or that of its alternative scene,
rather than its creative capacities in science, engineering or technol-
ogy and other spheres where reputations take a longer time to
evolve. These rely on infrastructure in education, research and busi-
ness and their results appear less glamorous. The cultural scene
appears in its media incarnation as exciting, yet it is fickle and is
subject to fads and fashions, even though a substantial museum
and educational infrastructure helps in generating future innova-
tive capacity. For example, the tens of thousands of textile samples
in the Victorian and Albert museum in London have for decades
provided inspiration to young designers. The faddish nature of the
media plays a significant role as to which cities we believe to be
creative, and cities move in and out of the news at a dizzying speed.
At one moment Mumbai is the creative hub, the next it is Taipei
that is suddenly creative, followed by Seoul or Buenos Aires or
Accra and now Moscow. In Europe Barcelona was the city for a
long moment, then Prague and Budapest, then Helsinki and
Ljubljana. This is the fashion roundabout and obscures a deeper
assessment of the true nature of potential in any given city.
Bursts of creativity
Looking back through history, cities have creative bursts, possibly
only for a short period, whose resonance remains in the public
imagination. Take San Francisco. Its long drawn out creativity since
the 1906 earthquake reached a certain apex in the summer of love
of 1967, whose embodiment was found in Haight Ashbury. Long
enjoying a bohemian reputation, the city became a magnet for
counter-cultures in the second half of the 20th century. During the
1950s, City Lights was an important publisher of beat generation
literature. San Francisco was the centre of hippie and other alterna-
tive culture. The San Francisco sound emerged as an influential
force in rock music, associated with acts such as Jefferson Airplane

and the Grateful Dead. They blurred the boundaries between folk,
rock and jazz and enhanced rocks lyrical content. During the 1980s
and 1990s San Francisco became a major focal point in the North
American and international punk, thrash metal and rave scenes.
Already known as a gay mecca at the beginning of the 20th century,
this was reinforced during World War II, when thousands of gay
male soldiers spent time in the city. The late 1960s brought a new
wave of more radical lesbians and gays to the city, attracted by its
reputation as a radical, left-wing centre. These were the prime
movers of gay liberation and they made the Castro neighbourhood
the gay mecca of the world. But in the 1980s the AIDS virus
wreaked havoc on the gay male community. In the 1990s San
Francisco was also a centre of the dot.com boom and growth of
the internet. These movements shaped the world and pushed at the
edge, creating innovations in lifestyles, products and services along
the way. Yet much of the creativity disappeared as the dot.com
crash hollowed out much of the industry that had grown up in
SoMa (South of the Market). Many of those funky, ex-industrial
warehouses are turning from hubs of invention to upscale apart-
ments. In effect, the internet pioneers made the area safe for the
next wave of gentrifiers.
Haight Ashbury lives awkwardly with its memories and is now
merely a souvenir shadow. The hippie shops sit oddly in an increas-
ingly middle-class, gentrified area. The remaining old and
occasional new hippies look bereft of purpose. Castro inevitably
declined, its self-confidence dented. Ghiardelli Square, considered
the first successful adaptive reuse of an industrial building in 1964,
is now a tourist mecca with little creative energy. True, new areas
emerged, such as SoMa, but the new media epicentre has shifted
elsewhere, to Los Angeles and beyond. Without economic, political
or cultural centrality which retains endogenous talent and attracts
external talent, it is difficult to maintain a global position of
creative power. In spite of everything, the city has immense drawing
power and creative initiatives and projects still abound, although
there is a danger of tourism taking from the city rather than giving
any creative force back. So the city increasingly resonates in its
beauty, its memories and its past.
Ebb and flow
The San Francisco story is repeated a thousandfold elsewhere. The
creative impulses ebb and flow and depend on fortunate coinci-

dences of circumstance where creative individuals, an open institu-
tional setting and various power brokers are in good alignment.
Individual acts of creativity naturally occur without propitious situ-
ations, but for creativity to build upon itself and become
self-reinforcing it needs a milieu where people, resources and
encouragement can come together. Usually cities are open in parts
and closed in others, which change over time, but it is rarer for all
aspects of openness to come together so that the city feels full of
possibility. There is always a lead and lag situation. At one moment
the university may turn its back on its city, while the municipality
is opening out, or else the business sector is neutral and little
concerned about the strategic future of the city. In another phase
the roles may be reversed. On occasion, too, a set of individuals
may burst through, setting the tone for the city, reaching far beyond
their area of expertise, as did the zany group Leningrad Cowboys
for Helsinki. The joke from the outset was that they were the worst
rock n roll band in the world who, with their striking unicorn
hairstyles and long pointed shoes, offered a naff Eastern European
interpretation of Western rock n roll. Playing on the irony of
Finlands past Russian connection, they performed with the Red
Army Choir in the famous Total Balalaika Show in Helsinkis
Senate Square in 1993 in a breakthrough concert in front of 70,000
people, sponsored by Nokia, so linking to the citys technological
innovativeness. They later extended their activities to films, restau-
rants and megastores. Their initial joke, while increasingly unfunny
as they themselves recognized, was self-effacing yet confident, so
projecting a sense that Helsinki could just be what it wanted to be.
Power and creativity
When political, economic and cultural power agglomerates in one
place, it can act as an incapacitator and a means of reducing poten-
tial for certain kinds of creativity. This is because power battles can
drown out the ability to innovate, as can high property prices,
which make it difficult for people to get on to the first ladder of
opportunity. The existing mainstream will be powerful in whatever
sphere and will tend to encourage a creativity it can nurture and
control and that feels tried and tested. The media is also, perhaps,
too attentive, endangering the fragile equilibrium of innovation.
On the other hand, in such power centres some of the newest ideas
will be found in the largest museums, galleries, shopping centres,
entertainment centres, universities and company headquarters,

because the power brokers and the ambitious will feel it is their
right to have them there. These in turn attract the most aspiring,
successful and wealthy people, thereby sucking in the talent from
surrounding areas and draining the identity and potential of those
places. Crucially, capital cities have the greatest capacity to insert
themselves into global arenas, most obviously initially through
political structures like embassies, trade missions and other repre-
sentative structures. When allied to the citys economic and foreign
policy it is a potent mix.
Once launched, the agglomeration of resources, talent and
power accelerates and reaches a critical mass, which makes it diffi-
cult for other cities to break in, especially in smaller countries,
where the core city might have 25 per cent of the population. Once
a tipping point is reached whereby a city gets its dominant posi-
tion, this tends to escalate. Seoul, for example, has just over 20 per
cent of South Koreas population and to a large extent determines
the global identity of the nation. This makes it doubly difficult for
Busan, Daegu, Inchon and Gwangju, let alone Jeonju or
Pyeongtaek, to insert themselves into international circuits and gain
recognition. Nationally and regionally they may be significant, but
if international recognition is important, something unique yet
internationally recognized or a strong niche area is vital.
Away from the spotlight
Yet being away from the spotlight can have its advantages. Indeed,
as Peter Hall points out,
75
many historically innovative cities, such
as Los Angeles (at least initially), Memphis and Glasgow, nurtured
their talents and experiments away from the central hub. The first
contemporary art galleries in the sense we understand them today
were in Lodz in Poland and later Hannover in Germany, rather
than in Warsaw or Berlin. Smaller cities can try out things a central
city may find unimportant. Furthermore, the core city will find it
difficult to operate in every sphere. The difficulty for the smaller,
upstart city is inserting itself into international circuits and meeting
the aspirations for their creatives once initial success has been
achieved.
The point is that every city can be more creative than it
currently is and the task for the city wanting to be creative is to
identify, nurture, harness, promote, attract and sustain talent and
to mobilize ideas, resources and organizations.

Qualities of creative places
Creative places are able to overcome many obstacles as resilience is
one of their key qualities. They know where they are going and
have a vision that in broad terms is agreed by key players. They
take measured risks and push boundaries. They acknowledge that
a creative place needs many leaders. There may be a few superlead-
ers, but their essential role is to pave the way for others to achieve
things and to trade their power for influence.
Creative cities, in my definition, should have an ethical purpose
that guides and directs the mass of energies present in most places.
These ethical goals might be to both generate wealth and reduce
inequalities, to grow economically but to focus on sustainability, or
to focus on local distinctiveness. The ethical code is more likely to
be based on secular principles which guarantee freedom of enquiry
and tolerance and where the state and religion are separated.
Fundamentalism does not help develop the imagination because
everything has already been imagined.
This implies bending the market to public good objectives. Places
can develop creative initiatives without such a framework, but I
would not call places like that creative cities. For example, Silicon
Valley has intense creativity in a series of narrow engineering-based
fields and this has transformed how the world works; however, the
physical environment they have created out of Silicon Valley is quite
unappealing and soulless, which is why nearby San Francisco is so
important as a playground to stimulate the senses.
Soft creativity
Soft creativity is perhaps the next wave to think about. It is the tai
chi of creativity. It bends like the reed and moves with the wind and
is not rigid like the rod. It understands the flow of human personal-
ity, psychology and nature. It is an imagination that works with
cultures and natures resources and not against them. It does not see
technology as the knee-jerk solution to any intractable problem. It is
a mindset that holds back at first, listens, reflects and examines. It
tries to find solutions that go with the grain of a local culture and its
attitudes. For instance, if there are unique local transport schemes
such as the dolmus in Turkey, a cross between a taxi and a bus oper-
ating on fixed routes, you would not superimpose another system
on this national institution. Equally, if there is a tradition of care for
the elderly such as that in Mediterranean countries, the city would
support it and make it easier to work within existing habits rather
than subcontract care to private companies.

Indicators of creativity
We live in an age of measurement, yet being creative is often about
bending rules, doing things differently or rethinking possibilities. It
has strong unpredictability. Therefore it is better to assess the char-
acteristics and preconditions that allow places in principle to be
creative. These are necessary, if not sufficient indicators. It may be
a chimera to look for the sufficient conditions. The central features
of creative places are their openness and their vitality, which leads
to their viability. Vitality is measured by assessing a range of factors
across the economic, social, cultural and environmental spheres.
These include critical mass, diversity, accessibility, security, identity
and distinctiveness, innovativeness, linkage and synergy, competi-
tiveness, and organizational capacity.
76
The openness indicators
were reviewed in Chapter 5, including assessments of the institu-
tional framework, the business environment, civil society and
public space.
77
The creative commons and open source
We need to be watchful of merging indicators of innovativeness and
creativity. Creativity is an input to innovation and makes innovations
more likely to happen. Creativity is a divergent, exploratory, opening
out process and innovation results from a process of closing down
and narrowing in, considering, making things work in reality.
Importantly, though, innovations need the tenacity and spark of the
initial creative work. A place cannot be innovative without first being
creative. Traditional indicators of innovative strength may in fact
hinder creativity.
78
These include the percentage of patent registra-
tions developed in a city insisting on copyrights and intellectual
property or registering too many minor patents, for example in a tech-
nological field, can reduce options and possibilities for others. This is
why the creative commons and open-source movements
79
argue
there should be flexible copyright licences for creative works or access
to source codes in software to allow for multiple developments. This
would enable communities of people or interests to flexibly develop
ideas or products that in a proprietary world are guarded. Creative
commons licences allow copyright holders to grant some of their
rights to the public while retaining others. The intent is to avoid the
problems current copyright laws create for sharing information.
The idea behind open source is that when programmers can
read, redistribute and modify the source code for a piece of soft-
ware, the software evolves, because people improve it, adapt it and

fix bugs. This develops software much faster than the conventional
closed models and methods, in which only a few programmers can
see the source.
Countries that show more evidence of innovation are richer
and grow faster. Companies that show more evidence of innova-
tion post better financial performance results and have higher share
prices. But:
In a knowledge-based economy, the primary competi-
tion is competition to innovate first, not competition
to cut prices as standard economics posits. Because
sole ownership of an innovation bestows monopoly
power, the economic laws of perfect competition do
not govern innovators. Their monopolies reward their
investment in innovation. But unlike monopolies in
standard economic theory, innovation-based monopo-
lies are temporary, for they last only until another
innovator makes yesterdays innovation obsolete.
Intellectual property rights prolong innovators
monopolies.
80
In the past economists have assumed that intellectual property
rights encourage more innovation by increasing economic rewards;
now there is the view that they slow things down. So high patent
counts do not necessarily mean a high level of innovation.
Where next?
The creative city has now become a catch-all phrase in danger of
losing its bite and obliterating the reasons why the idea emerged in
the first place. Cities tend to restrict its meaning. Overuse, hype
and the tendency for cities to adopt the term without thinking
through its real consequences could mean that the notion becomes
hollowed out, chewed up and thrown out until the next big slogan
comes along. The creative city notion is about a journey of becom-
ing, not a fixed state of affairs. When taken seriously it is a
challenge to existing organizational structures, power configura-
tions and habitual ways of doing things. The creativity of the
creative city is about lateral and horizontal thinking, the capacity
to see parts and the whole simultaneously.
Below I describe a possible agenda for getting the creative show
on the road. I supply this section with some trepidation, since much

of this book has talked about breaking away from bureaucratic
procedure and challenging outdated modes of thinking.
Nevertheless, regard the following as a proposal upon which you
can ponder and, wholly or partially, accept or reject.
Possible first steps
To get a creative platform going requires a group of influential part-
ners in the city to recognize its importance. A preliminary audit
with those partners would discover that a number of creative initia-
tives, institutions and individuals already operate in the region.
Clarify what creativity means for the city by:
coming to a consensus on what creativity is;
summarizing its importance to the main city players; and
identifying some role models from other places to act as inspi-
ration.
Undertake a creativity and obstacles audit to:
describe the nature and extent of creative activity within public,
private and not-for-profit entities in the city region; this might
be established companies, research organizations, specific
courses within an educational establishment or an initiative
undertaken by an individual;
identify potential sources of future creative action;
assess honestly the obstacles to developing creativity in the
region; and
spell out the shift from natural advantage (arising from access
to more plentiful and cheap natural resources and labour) to a
world where prosperity depends on creative advantage, arising
from being able to use and mobilize creativity and extract value
from knowledge.
The recent focus on creativity has been on the arts and the techno-
cratic, leading to a focus on IT-driven innovations and business
clusters. The crucial recognition of todays movement is that evolv-
ing a creative economy also requires a social and organizational
creativity that enables imagination to occur and which should
imbue the whole system. As such, creativity then becomes a general
problem-solving and opportunity-creating capacity. Its essence is a
multifaceted resourcefulness. Creativity is both generic a way of

thinking, a mindset and specific and task-oriented in relation to
applications in particular fields. A creativity audit would assess
creativity across a number of dimensions:
spatially from the local outwards;
sector style, from private and public to community-oriented;
industrial sectors, from advanced manufacturing to services;
demographically, assessing the creativity of different age groups
from the young to the elderly; and
diversity and ethnicity.
An audit would need to look at creativity across the spectrum, from
the individual, the firm, industry sectors and clusters to networks
in the city, the city itself as an amalgam of different organizational
cultures and the region. It needs to assess the relevance of creativity
in the private, community and public sectors and in relation to
areas like education, specific industry sectors, science and organiza-
tions in helping the prosperity and well-being of a region.
The results of the audit will then help:
Identify organizations and individuals to become creativity
ambassadors and to work with these and other identified enti-
ties on projects.
Develop synergies between interesting projects from completely
different areas. For instance, a homeless peoples project and a
digital media initiative might find much in common by sharing
their learning about creativity.
Create spaces, places and venues that in terms of image projec-
tion signal the regions ambition and stimulate creativity.
Build an environment where being creative is seen as desirable
and something to aspire to.
Provide opportunities to experiment and explore new ideas as
well as to access appropriate resources, whether encourage-
ment, mentoring, training or finance.
Assess how changes in teaching approaches can occur and
provide dedicated training courses, development programmes
and mentoring on creative thinking targeted at people across
the age range. These should cover the spectrum, to include
creativity not only in business, but also in administration and
social economy activities.

Develop support programmes for creativity in people and orga-
nizations involving toolkits to support learning and
development, bearing in mind the need to avoid formulaic
training and to allow for flexibility and openness.
Assess how ladders of opportunity to incubate ideas in specific
sectors can be created so that ideas can become development
opportunities.
Identify niches where the city can make a significant impact.
The audit will provide indications of strategic opportunities.
These should be followed up by assessing how a creative twist
can add additional value to both new and traditional sectors of
the economy.
Identify start-up resources to fund activities within the creativ-
ity platform as well as help lobby existing investors and funders
to apply creativity criteria to their investments.
Establish criteria for investing. These should be for projects that
demonstrate impact and the capacity to push boundaries of
technology, technique, procedure, process, implementation
mechanism, problem redefinition, target audience, behavioural
impact and professional context as well as create a new end-
product.
Once the audit has been digested and a programme set up, an eval-
uation framework should be built which:
Establishes an agreed base-line starting point so as to be able to
assess the dynamics of creativity of the city and to track its
movement.
Develops a solid evaluation architecture and supporting
methodology to assess success and failure by quantitative and
qualitative methods. This is likely to develop new measures,
such as talent tracking and talent churn and monitoring creative
products and services, creative people in the region, creative
processes that are being adopted, and how creative environ-
ments within organizations or the region are being developed.
Publishes an annual creativity report on the city that is not
based on boosterism that is, hype without substance and
links this to a series of public events to discuss its conclusions.
Orchestrating momentum, developing critical mass and communi-
cating the citys creative aims:

The creativity platform is itself an orchestration device. To this
should be added a communications platform to speak both to
the city itself and to the wider world as a centre of imagination.
Identify devices such as exhibitions, showcasing and travelling
roadshows to foster discussion about creativity and celebrate
achievements.
Develop a key series of different events involving the creativity
theme some high profile and concerned with strategies of
influence, others appealing to smaller audiences or a more
general public. This is important for mutual learning and criti-
cal comment.
Build up and mobilize networks of creative people to become
ambassadors for the creativity platform and the city.
A paced and purposeful, timetabled project plan will involve an
overall visioning project that should have a mix of easy, short-term,
low-cost projects and more difficult and expensive long-term ones.
This makes it easier to create achievable staging posts along the
way and to establish early winners that build confidence and
momentum as well as generating the energy to do more difficult
tasks. A creativity audit will reveal a number of projects that
already exist but which are not yet well communicated. This means
it is already possible at the outset to project a city as creatively
active by promoting the interesting examples to show the initiative
has already started. The ultimate aim is to retell the story of the
city so that residents and outsiders feel they can relate to it and
want to be part of it.
The overall aim of the first year is to develop collective under-
standing of the creativity agenda by promoting the results of the
creativity audit and working with key individuals and organizations
who emerged as models and partners within it; initiating promo-
tional activity related to the importance of creativity and the
probable need to change educational programmes; identifying
coaches, mentors and courses to begin training initiatives; and,
towards the end of the first year, to create a high-profile launch event
that imaginatively shows creative achievements. In the end the
creativity agenda needs to be created bottomup and topdown
together. The steps in involving people in the agenda need to move
from a core group to a wider stakeholders group totalling over 100
people who will largely be identified through the creativity audit.

From there the dynamic should then cascade out, involve and inspire
perhaps a 1000, and from then on even much further out.
To start such a project requires dedicated creativity platform
coordination responsible for driving the agenda forward, coordi-
nating the research and instigating programmes, organizing
communications and networking.
Fine judgement and the formula
But being a creative city does not involve picking a formula off the
shelf. It is not a science that can be learnt from a textbook. It is an
art. Art in its broadest sense connotes a sense of doing something
well, having ability and pursuing a skill by study and practice.
There are some core principles that apply across cultures and to
most situations for creative city-making: a willingness to listen and
learn; the capacity to be open-minded; encouraging enquiry; reduc-
ing ego; concern more with influence than power; grasping the
essence of different disciplines; thinking across disciplines; imagin-
ing the implications of the present for the long term; and
understanding the dynamics of change at both trivial and deeper
levels.
The art of creative city-making involves fine judgement based
on experience and the ability to know when to push for innovation
and when to hold back. City-makers are artists of the highest order
because they have a grasp of all the arts concerned with complex
city-making.
Urgency and creativity
How do you create a sense of urgency, of needing to be alert to
changing circumstances, in places that are doing well and where a
potential problem seems a distance away or is not yet felt? For
instance, Perth and Calgary are both blossoming because of an oil
boom, but they also have a looming crisis of attracting talented
people to stay in their cities. In part this is because people feel the
quality of their urban environment could be better. In many places
there is warm sun, good wine and relaxed living, which can dent
ambition, so taking away focus from considering what really
matters and what the underlying drivers of change or lurking
dangers might be.
Generating a crisis of aspiration is one strategy. Typically this
is created by appealing to peoples higher ideals, which comes from

looking at bigger picture issues like the future of the world or what
legacy you are going to leave for the next generation. This might
occur within a strategic body like a city committee or a
publicprivate partnership.
Generating a crisis of aspiration
I often start work within a city by asking stakeholder groups,
from public leaders and local shopkeepers to residents, to
describe places they love elsewhere. I then ask them about places
they love in their towns. Wherever the research, similar places
re-emerge as favourites and these are often the places that come
up high on quality-of-life rankings like Mercers: Vancouver,
Seattle, Portland, Montreal, San Francisco, Boston, San Antonio
or smaller places like Charleston and Salem. In Europe it is Paris,
London, then Barcelona and the great Italian cities like Siena,
Verona and Florence. Then there are Hong Kong, Melbourne or
Sydney that get a mention. Further probing will bring out Nice,
Munich, Berlin, Amsterdam and smaller Dutch places like Delft,
and further East, Krakow, Ljubljana and Prague. The places
mentioned elsewhere and in their cities are typically places with
varied housing and distinctive shopping, and few brands, where
the street life is lively and chance encounter possible. This is not
scientific, but a decade of asking similar questions to differing
people has a value.
Following on I apply a simple yes or no analysis. We gather
images of places and ask whether the building or setting evokes a
yes or a no feeling. This quite quickly clarifies what people are
after. Within the instinctive yes and no, deep knowledge is
embedded which is often implicit. Some can describe the emotional
triggers precisely. This leads to the central question; What are the
actions required to get into yes? The great urbanists and the
general public agree on the main urban qualities, which are seem-
ingly contradictory as they pull in differing directions. Yet the great
city is a container where extremes can coexist, where the calm
moment can be as enjoyable as the wild. The lovable, liveable,
lively, joyful, dynamic, vital, edgy, easy, accessible, walkable, tran-
quil, peaceful city. Places where you can explore, discover, create
and be entrepreneurial. Places that are memorable, distinctive,
unique, iconic, well designed. Safe, secure, fearless, resilient.
The next step is to contrast their reality with their ideal, and
usually stakeholders lead the way in showing what is undesirable.

Another trick is to ask stakeholders to always preface a new devel-
opment with the question: Is it good enough for? Or, within the
new aspiration, for them to dare to say: Its not good enough for
Or even: Could you fall in love with the development or your city?
Then I generate a discussion on how the places people love have
been achieved. This involves discussions of planning and who
controls its agenda, such as the development, road-building and
engineering fraternities. This leads to questions of principles, such
as whether a place should be determined by the needs of cars or
environmental issues and what urban design guidelines, such as
giving primacy to the street, are appropriate. This grounds a debate
about contradictions and paradoxes, such as how asking for more
roads and convenience is precisely destroying the things people say
they love. By spelling out those implications it opens out conversa-
tion about how the texture of communities is built up. This usually
leaves stark choices. For instance, the car-focused choice, which
leads to a certain type of community where everything is based on
needing to go to a destination, versus the public transport option,
which at its best creates accessible city centres. This is based on
faster, more efficient, low-fares-based systems with extended hours.
The analysis of how alternatives are achieved begins to generate a
crisis between what is and what could be.
Ten ideas to start the creative city process
If a city wanted to focus on being a creative city what would it do?
1 Precipitate a culture of crisis. A crisis in this context does not
need to be negative. A crisis helps because it opens the oppor-
tunity to rethink and reassess. It can be precipitated by a
declining industry, but it can also be pushed ahead by creating
very high expectations for a city, so generating a crisis of aspi-
ration. Then the gap between existing realities and what you
want to achieve creates a self-generated crisis that can be a spur
to action.
2 Identify a largish group of project champions from different
sectors who are interested in the broader creativity agenda. If
this is not possible, pursue some of the work listed below with
a narrower grouping, but constantly with a view to building
wider alliances.

3 Undertake an audit of creative potential and obstacles. This
would assess creative projects across the whole spectrum in
your city as well as the incentives and regulatory regime. Are
there any incentives or policy initiatives that foster creativity?
Who or what is creating the obstacles?
4 Identify some key projects in your own city that stand as exam-
ples of good practice. Visit these with mixed teams and
investigate how they work. Similarly, identify key projects else-
where in other cities and, ideally, visit them. This is recognized
as creating one of the most transformative effects.
5 Develop the evidence that proves your arguments about the
value and impact of the nexus of culture, broadly defined
creativity, the arts and imaginative uses of technology.
Highlight examples from different parts of the world and espe-
cially those you perceive to be your competitors.
6 Seek to influence the citys master strategy. This is usually
spatially or economically driven. Try to insert a cultural
and creativity agenda within it. If this fails, develop a well-
publicized alternative strategy. Show an appreciation of all the
issues a traditional plan would have but go well beyond it.
Show by example the power of working across boundaries in
interdisciplinary teams.
7 Create a series of pilot projects that can be seen as experiments,
perhaps under the cover of a major event, such as an Expo, a
festival or large physical regeneration project.
8 Assess how the story of your city is told internally and exter-
nally. Is the story still true and relevant to what you want to
achieve? Generate a new story, if necessary.
9 Create an advocacy lobby group that embodies, in the way it
acts, holds meetings or arranges seminars, the creativity you
are aspiring to.
10 Do not call yourself a creative city let others do that by
respecting what you have achieved. Ironically, cities which look
for tick-box solutions to creativity branding are in fact doing
the inverse of what is required.
This tenth point is in some ways the most important. Branding your
own city as creative when everybody else is doing so is like declar-
ing yourself a member of Homo sapiens somewhat unoriginal.
But if others recognize your creativity, people take note. This is not

to discourage city-branding per se. Indeed, original, pertinent
branding may well be creative in its own right. But a positive repu-
tation built by others is the litmus test of your own endeavours.
Thus the focus should at first be introspective, attending to
changing, if necessary, the intellectual infrastructure in which ideas
are generated, facilitating a learning culture in both attitudinal and
institutional terms, being ultra-aware of the conditions in which
creativity flourishes or flounders, and aiming high.
Think entrepreneurially in social arenas and socially in entre-
preneurial ones. Valorize opportunities over risks. Swap roles with
others. And, in perhaps the greatest test of your leadership, spot
and share power with others with talent and leadership qualities.
In terms of urban experience, no citizen is more or less impor-
tant than any other, so harnessing the potential of the many has far
more clout than inspired topdown direction. In such a way, wide-
spread, passionate participation in a vision which is shared by the
participants gains its own, self-fuelling momentum because, bluntly,
people tend not to piss in their own backyard.
I have already prescribed a more tangible creative plan in terms
of audit, consensus, creative platform, and so on. But such prescrip-
tion may amount to an already restrictive framework within which
to operate. This is your call. Just as Barcelona spurned the idea of a
master plan, so should a city organically follow a path to becoming
a better, happier place.

Endpiece
The Art of City-Making is a clarion call to usher in a new spirit of
the times, a new Zeitgeist, one which sees the wood and the trees
simultaneously and which sees things in the round. It understands
the dialectical dynamics of our creative and imaginative ecology as
individuals, organizations and cities. It grasps its implications on
the culture of a place. It understands what drives motivation, aspi-
ration and will. It seeks to re-enchant the city and give it an altered
resonance, where the word urban is not always seen as negative
(urban crime somehow feels worse than crime).
It is a world with a new ethical foundation where valuing things
differently and thinking differently means doing things differently
and doing different things; it sets priorities in a changed way,
because it sees the fuller picture. It grasps the interconnections. It
costs the environment comprehensively, for example, and does not
let the economy take a free ride. So it costs resources fully and
focuses on resource productivity.
1
It changes the image of what being creative is and seeks to re-
address its focus. It moves away from seeing the self-focused
entertainment industry as its driver to looking to the vast raft of
inventions waiting to happen to nurture our cities, our countryside
and more. Or to the combination of creativity and courage needed
to curtail crime and twist those distorted energies, talents and aspi-
rations to more worthy aims as well as to cultivate a civic culture.
It rethinks its assets in broader terms, considering the full regis-
ter of perception, emotion, insight and understanding and its effect
on individual or group psychology. It can therefore see the power
of intangibles like yearning, history, identity, desire, happiness, fear,
confidence and much more. It is not blinded by thinking that only
what you see is important, so it is not obsessed by the hardware. It
values too the soft, the slow and the reflective. It flips the balance

of importance between the hardware and software of cities and
gives those who understand how people tick greater status. It
invites the hardware folk, from traffic engineers to architects and
property developers, to rethink and enrich their skills in this light.
As it revalues importance, it shifts the regulations and incen-
tives regime to bend the market to new priorities. Then the power
of markets can do what they do best: seek opportunities and fill
gaps, but in the name of urban healing, knitting the fabric of cities
together again. They are guided and nudged in directions that fit
the values. There is no invisible hand that knows best. What a
bizarre thought that such could ever have been the case? Markets
have no values, but they have incredible energy. The other invisible
hand of values is the motor of development.
In this world there are new heroines and heroes. They may be
boxers, planners, musicians, house-builders, talent scouts, intellec-
tuals or local historians. What celebrity means, or being cool, hip
or whatever the latest phrase, is changed. Less media people talking
in a dervish spin about themselves. These new role models are not
boring and dull just because they see the excitement of using an
ethical foundation to act.
WHY I THINK WHAT I THINK
The opinions you have read and the judgements made have come
from working with cities since 1978 and thinking about their
dynamics, their successes and failures, and how they can reach their
aims. It has involved trying to answer questions cities have posed,
often about their future: How can we be more creative? What
does the future hold for a city like ours? How can our cultural
sector be strengthened? How do we get on the radar screen?
How can we rethink our assets? How can we compete? Most
importantly, people in an advisory role want urgent answers to
specific problems: How can Calgarys Olympic Plaza become more
vibrant and be inclusively used? Can Adelaide move up the urban
hierarchy and if so how? How can we make the most of the diver-
sity advantage?
This means connecting with decision-makers at various levels,
from those at the centre of power to those more at the periphery
trying to change priorities. Often the latter work in the cultural
world and want their cities to develop with a cultural perspective

in mind. Others may be scientists who know that our guzzling
priorities must change. Often, my views have come from reflecting
on failures as exploring the boundaries between precedent and
what is possible can be risky.
Many of the cities I have worked with are big: London,
Toronto, Osaka, Adelaide, the Govindpuri slum settlement in
Delhi, Lille, Leicester, Glasgow and Iasi in Romania. Others are
smaller, like Shkodra in Albania or Andover. There has been work
with networks of cities, such as the EU Urbact project on cultural
activities, the creative industries and regeneration,
2
involving places
like Naples, Gijon, Amsterdam, Maribor, Birmingham and
Budapest. There have been many talks, perhaps 250 keynote
addresses in many places, on a diversity of topics such as risk and
creativity, the creative city and beyond, complexity and city-
making or the diversity advantage and creativity. There have been
residencies in cities like Adelaide, Canberra, Salem or Worcester in
Massachusetts, acting as a critical friend of the city. There has been
commissioned research. Of particular relevance to The Art of City-
Making has been work with the Commission on Architecture and
the Built Environment (CABE) to interview 30 key built environ-
ment professionals on their attitudes towards risk. This appeared
in What are We Scared of?
3
Second, with Future London, part of
the London Development Agency, I interviewed 40 partners of
major firms on how professional mindsets can be aligned, how they
perceive other urban professions and how they think they are
perceived themselves. This 360-degree analysis led to a series of
stereotypes and a publication called Aligning Professional
Mindsets.
4
Finally, for the Urban Futures group, interviewed 25
leading thinkers on what they believed the key issues affecting
urban life would be. This is published as Riding the Rapids: Urban
Life in an Age of Complexity.
5
Evaluating 12 initiatives in
Southeastern Europe for the Swiss government in using culture for
development in places as diverse as Odessa, Sarajevo and Skopje
was especially useful. This is published as Culture at the Heart of
Transformation.
6
Over the years I have interviewed perhaps 2000 people in
various guises. All this leaves a particular form of knowledge, based
on watching close-up as people try to make change, be part of
teams involved in that process, and use the experience as the basis
for the reflections you have hopefully just read.
Endpiece 427

Notes
CHAPTER ONE:
OVERTURE
1 Thanks to Uffe Elbaek from Kaos Pilots, who made the point about for and
in in relation to his organizations goals in education.
2 At the end of the book, under Why I think what I think, involvements with
cities and background research undertaken are described; or see www.charles
landry.com or www.comedia.org.uk.
3 For a review of these arguments see Amin (2007).
4 See www.mercerhr.com/pressrelease/details.jhtml?idContent=1173105.
5 These conclusions are drawn from a series of research projects speaking to
urban leaders, key professionals, etc. Lengthier exposs of the conclusions are
published in Landry (2004b).
6 John Maynard Keynes famously originated this preference.
7 Capra (1982).
8 Gesunder Menschenverstand.
9 German Wikipedia.
10 Adams (2005).
11 See also Ray and Anderson (2000).
12 Landry (2000).
13 See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population.
14 Global Urban Observatory and Statistics Unit.
15 Adams (2005).
16 See www.eci.ox.ac.uk/pdfdownload/energy/40house/chapter03.pdf.
17 EIU Autopolis.
18 From www.env.leeds.ac.uk/~hubacek/leeds04/6.5final-gdb-march%20
conference.pdf.
19 Statistics from various sources.
20 From www.freightonrail.org.uk/PDF/GoodsBooklet.pdf.
21 From www.transport2000.org.uk/factsandfigures/Facts.asp.
22 OMeara (1999).
23 Kenworthy and Laube (2001).
24 Invented in 1849 by Joseph Monier and patented in 1867.
25 Kotkin, J. Building up the burbs, Newsweek, 310 July 2006.
26 Wascher (2006).

29 See American Journal of Public Health (2003).
30 See www.newurbanism.org.
31 David Bleicher, www.urbanity.50megs.com/Author.htm.
CHAPTER TWO:
THE SENSORY LANDSCAPE OF CITIES
1 The technical term is nociception.
2 Equilibrioception.
3 Our metaphysical senses include clairsentience, the ability to feel energy
and non-physical matter; clairaudience, which is psychic hearing and occurs
when one is able to hear vibrations that are outside the range of the human
ear; and telepathy, which is communication between minds by some means
other than sensory perception.
4 See www.powerwatch.org.uk/.
5 Gardner (1983).
6 Lyons and Helsinki, for example, have renowned light strategies.
7 A number of Italian cities have colour strategies, including Naples, Bologna
and Genoa (Lancaster, 1996).
8 See www.gbarto.com/languages/animasounds.html.
9 See www.eveilauxlangues.be/expressions.php.
10 Appadurai (1996).
11 Useful sources are the The Atlas of Cyberspace and Mappa Mundi magazine,
with maps visualizing and charting communication flows or telegeography,
the topology of the internet and the geography of cyberspace, by the presence
of domain names. See www.cybergeography.org/atlas/atlas.html and
www.personal.umich.edu/~mejn/networks/ or http://mappa.mundi.net/.
12 See www.defra.gov.uk/environment/noise/research/crtn/index.htm.
13 Thanks to Martin Evans, a leading film sound engineer, for the conversation
that helped write this section.
14 See, for example, www.deanclough.com.
15 Vroon (1997).
16 Vitruvius (c. 2723BC).
17 This unpleasant reaction is described in a US government booklet on the
bodys response to excessive or unexpected noise, cited at
www.tenant.net/Rights/Noise/noise1.html.
18 Cited at www.tenant.net/Rights/Noise/noise1.html.
19 From www.sfu.ca/~westerka/writings/bauhaus.html.
20 Schafer (1984).
21 Schafer (1976).
24 Schaeffer(1966); Chion(1983).
25 Rivenburg , R. Familiar sounds go by the way of dinosaurs, Japan Times, 4
January 2005.

28 See www.sfu.ca/~westerka/writings/bauhaus.html.
29 See www.citymayors.com/environment/nyc_noise.html.
30 See www.citymayors.com/environment/nyc_noise.html.
31 See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olfactory.
32 Vroon(1997).
33 Vroon(1997).
34 Ritter (2002).
35 From www.aroma54.com.
36 See www.fpinva.org/Education/beyond_the_scent.htm.
37 See Sharon Lynns Do members of different cultures have characteristic body
odors? at www.zebra.biol.sc.edu/smell/ann/myth6.html.
38 James Howard Kunstler is author of The Geography of Nowhere (1993),
among many other books.
CHAPTER THREE:
UNHINGED AND UNBALANCED
1 United Nations Environment Programme (2005).
2 Girardet (2004, p115).
3 Dairy Council (2003).
4 Dairy Council (2003).
5 An American needs on average 500 litres a day, a Western European 150
litres and an African only 50 litres www.lenntech.com/domestic-water-
consumption.htm.
6 See www.thewaterpage.com/ecosan_main.htm.
7 From www.igd.com.
8 See Biodiversity to go: The hidden costs of beef consumption by Dave
Tilford, at www.newdream.org.
9 See http://risingtide.org.uk/pages/resources/lifestyl.htm.
10 Jones (2001).
11 Best Foot Forward (2002).
12 See www.sustainweb.org/pdf/eatoil_sumary.pdf.
13 Jones (2001).
14 Transport 2000s Wise Moves project, 2003.
15 Milmo, C. What a waste!, The Independent, 15 April 2005.
16 See www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/yorkslincs/series7/supermarket_
landfills.shtml.
17 INCPEN (2001).
18 From www.york.ac.uk.
19 Data from Brita Water.
20 Data from Recycle for London.
21 Defra news release, 14 September 2005.
22 Visit www.Londonremade.com for further details.
23 Best Foot Forward (2002).
24 Dolphin (2001).
Notes 431

25 Williams, D. Breathing Londons air is as bad as smoking, Evening
Standard, 10 November 2003.
26 Data from www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/chinaenv.html.
27 Benedictus, L. Gum crime The Guardian, 23 February 2005.
28 Department for Transport (2004).
29 Traffic speeds in Inner London, 1998. Note that this was before the introduc-
tion of the congestion charge.
30 Data from www.london.gov.uk/view_press_release.jsp?releaseid=402.
31 Confederation of Passenger Transport (2003).
32 Data from www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_transstats/documents/page/
dft_transstats_508290.pdf.
33 Data from www.udrzatelnemesta.sk/uploads/streets_people.pdf.
34 Data from www.urtp.ro/engl/proiecte/tapestry.html.
35 Figure from the Confederation of British Industry.
36 Data from www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/~ira/ illich/facts/social_effects.html.
37 Greater London Authority data.
38 Data from www.alternet.org/story/27948/.
39 Association of European Auto Manufacturers (2004).
40 Data from www.transport2000.org.uk/factsandfigures/Facts.asp.
41 Data from www.transport2000.org.uk/news/maintainNewsArticles.asp?
NewsArticleID=168.
42 Data from www.ecosmartconcrete.com/enviro_statistics.cfm.
43 According to Cement Association of Canada figures.
44 Data from www.populationconnection.org/Factoids/.
45 Data from www.map21ltd.com/COSTC11/sb-mun.htm.
46 Data from www.citylimitslondon.com/downloads/Complete%20report.pdf.
47 Data from www.swedetrack.com/eflwa22.htm.
48 Data from www.newcolonist.com/paveplanet.html.
49 Data from www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/wonder/structure/sears_
tower.html.
50 Data from www.creativille.org/groundfloor/geometry/skyscraper/
intermstudent.htm.
51 Data from www.brick.org.uk/publications/PDFs/reclaimed_clay_
bricks.pdf
52 125 times is Herbert Girardets estimate (see http://makingthe
modernworld.org/learning_modules/geography/04.TU.01/?section=4);
293 times is City Limit reports estimate (see Note 46).
53 See www.worldchanging.com/archives/002924.html
54 Data from www.careersinlogistics.co.uk/industry/1090318577.html.
55 US Department of Commerce figures.
56 According to Donald Bowersox and Roger Calantone at Michigan State
University.
57 From www.transport2000.org.uk.
58 Peoples Daily Online (http://english.people.com.cn/), accessed 18 May 2004.
59 Data from www.proinversion.gob.pe/oportunidades/SIT/docs/Puertos/PNDP
%20Final.pdf.
60 See www.kansas.sierraclub.org/Planet/Planet-03-1011.pdf
61 Tierney and Goltz (1997).

62 According to E. L. Quarantelli, a co-founder of the Disaster Research Center
at the University of Delaware and one of the pioneers of disaster research.
63 National Police Agency (1989).
64 OFarrell, J. New Statesman, 28 November 2005.
65 NI Statistics and Research Agency (2005).
66 See www.guardian.co.uk/brazil/story/0,,1692752,00.html.
67 American customer cited on www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.
jhtml?xml=/travel/2003/09/13/etsextr.xml&sSheet=/travel/2003/09/16/ixtrvh
ome.html.
68 Economist Intelligence Unit hardship rating, annual survey.
69 Windybank, S. and Manning, M. The Australian, 12 March 2003 .
70 Lonely Planet (2005a) guide to China.
71 Goff, P. Sunday Telegraph, 20 February 2005.
72 Economy (2004).
73 Cited on http://english.people.com.cn/200509/09/eng20050909_207472.
html.
74 Vollertsen (2001). Norbert Vollertsen was a German doctor who lived in
Pyongyang in 19992000 before being expelled for complaining about human
rights abuses.
75 See www.ariontheweb.blogspot.com.
76 Badamkhand, L. The Independent, 16 December 2003.
77 See www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press900.html.
78 Walsh, N.P. Hell on Earth, The Guardian, 18 April 2003.
79 Information from www.aljazeerah.info.
80 Hirsch (2004).
81 From the Katha website (www.katha.org/CommunityMatters/she2.htm):
[SHE]
2
stands for:
Safe water and Sanitation/hygiene
Housing and Health, especially reproductive health
Education and Economic resurgence
Double woman power!
82 Bryan, L. Fortune, 28 November 2005. Lowell Bryan is a senior partner at
McKinsey & Co.
83 Schwartz (2004).
84 See www.ontherun.cc/aboutus.asp and http://gourmetonthego.net/.
85 Gibson, O. The Guardian, 19 November 2005. For more about Eye
Contact, see www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1646240,00.html#article_
continue.
86 Kelly, D. Curse of the rushaholics, Evening Standard, 30 April 2002.
87 Grant, L. The Guardian, 21 September 2004.
88 Rogers (1999).
89 Quotation from homepage of www.keeplouisvilleweird.com.
90 Saul Carliner, Big boxes and shoppertainment: More lessons for web design
from mall and retail design, www.boxesandarrows.com/view/.
91 See NEF Ghost Town Britain at www.neweconomics.org/gen/
local_ghost.aspx.
92 Both Dans le Noir, set up in 2004 in Paris and in 2006 in London.
93 Rosselson (2005).
94 Oram et al (2003).
Notes 433

95 Blythman (2005).
96 All Party Parliamentary Committees High Street Britain report (2005).
97 See real world economic outlook from the New Economics Foundation,
www.neweconomics.org/.
98 Simms et al (2005).
99 Sage (2005); Simms et al (2005).
100 Figures from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4694974.stm.
101 Marks, S. The Guardian, 30 April 2005.
102 From www.odpm.gov.uk/pub/821/PlanningPolicyStatement6
PlanningforTownCentresPDF342Kb_id1143821.pdf.
103 From www.rural-shops-alliance.co.uk/stalham.htm.
104 See www.ufcw.org/issues_and_actions/walmart_workers_campaign_info/
facts_and_figures/walmartgeneralinfo.cfm.
105 See www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5069992.
106 See www.cbc.ca/bc/story/bc_walmart20050629.html.
107 Released by Brave New Films.
108 Visit reclaimdemocracy.org/walmart/links.php.
109 See www.tescopoly.org/.
110 See http://community.foe.co.uk/resource/marketing_material/tesco_
takeover_leaflet.pdf.
111 See www.tescopoly.org/.
112 The Grocer, 15 May 2004.
113 See www.libdems.org.uk/story.html?id=6271.
114 Association of Convenience Stores (2005).
115 Shabi, S. The price isnt right: Supermarkets dont sell cheap food, we just
think they do, The Guardian, 26 January 2004.
116 From www.bitc.org.uk/docs/Market_Towns_2004.pdf.
117 From www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=2369.
118 See www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/good_neighbours_community.pdf.
CHAPTER FOUR:
REPERTOIRES AND RESISTANCE
1 I have borrowed this title from Evans (2003).
2 Bob McNulty of Partners for Liveable Communities in conversation.
3 I am grateful to Tom Burke for highlighting these distinctions.
4 From www.tepapa.govt.nz/.
5 See, for example, www.whitehutchinson.com/news/lenews/2003_03.shtml.
6 See www.wynnlasvegas.com/.
7 Gilmore and Pine (1999).
8 See, for example, www.hobartcorp.com/hobartg6/sa/sage.nsf/articles/f12_
c?opendocument&s=1.
9 See www.commercialalert.org/index.php/category_id/1/subcategory_id/14/
article_id/99.
10 From www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/money/science_shopping/.
11 From lists.essential.org/pipermail/commercialalert/2004/000165.html.
12 Visit www.commercialalert.org.

13 From Koolhaas et al (2001).
14 Palmer/Rae Associates, European Cities/Capitals of Culture and Cultural
Months from 1995 to 2004, downloadable via www.palmer-rae.com/.
15 See www.teatropovero.it/english/ Poor_Theatre/poor_theatre.html.
16 See www.waterfire.org/.
17 See www.montefeltro.info/CMDirector.aspx?id=2153.
18 Visit www.burningman.com.
19 From www.cnfashion.net/english/famous09.htm.
20 Menkes, S. Orient Express Magazine, vol 9, no 4, 2001.
21 Jeffrey Martin, The Coming Art Renaissance in Taipei (?) at
http://en.pots.com.tw/article.pl?sid=05/6/10/1458200&mode=thread.
22 Lonely Planet (2001) guide to Taiwan.
23 See www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/.
24 Florida (2002).
25 This subsection is a reworking of ideas already covered in Landry (2000).
26 Murray (2001).
27 Scanorama (Scandinavian Airlines in-flight magazine), April 2005.
28 See the Christian History Institute website, www.chi.gospelcom.net.
29 From Prague: A cheap paradise for British stag tourists by Ian Willoughby, 7
September 2005, available at www.radio.cz/en/article/70388.
30 The Peter Hall column, Regeneration and Renewal, 20 June 2003.
31 From www.praguepissup.com/v2/stag/1_holidays/9_press_coverage/press_
coverage2.asp?story=27.
32 World Travel and Tourism Council, www.wttc.org.
33 The Guardian, 3 June 2006 (article by Rory Maclean).
34 Data from www.wttc.org.
35 Data from www.wttc.org.
36 See www.wttc.org.
37 Data from www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecID=
900003&contentID=253904.
38 Data from www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecID=
900003&contentID=253904.
39 Quoted in Mark MacKenzies The Oriental Express, The Independent on
Sunday, 11 June 2006.
40 From www.economist.com, 22 June 2006.
41 See www.latourex.org/latourex_en.html and The Lonely Planet Guide to
Experimental Tourism (Lonely Planet, 2005b).
42 From www.latourex.org/latourex_en.html.
43 From www.latourex.org/latourex_en.html.
44 All quotes from pages on http://travel.guardian.co.uk.
45 See www.fingalcoco.ie/minutes/2003/ff/1124/FF20030570.htm.
46 Taken from http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2003/11/25/story855140
507.asp.
47 See www.citysafari.nl.
48 This paragraph draws on information from www.uneptie.org/pc/tourism/
sust-tourism/economic.htm.
49 Soros (1997).
Notes 435

CHAPTER FIVE:
THE COMPLICATED AND THE COMPLEX
1 Thanks to Colin Jackson for pointing out Eric Youngs speech at Policy learn-
ing and distributed governance: Lessons from Canada and the UK, 5 June
2003, quoting Brenda Zimmerman.
2 Huntington (1998).
3 Personal communication from Joy Roberts of the Musagetes Foundation.
4 Jane Jacobs (4 May 191625 April 2006) was an American-born Canadian
writer and activist. She is best known for The Death and Life of Great
American Cities (1961), a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of
the 1950s in the United States (information from http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Jane_Jacobs).
5 This section draws on research undertaken for the Commission of
Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) in 2004. Thirty high-level
built-environment professionals in public and private practice were inter-
viewed to discuss how risk was affecting their professional life. See CABE
(2005).
6 See www.wfcs.org.uk/BulletinApril05.PDF.
7 Landry (2005a).
8 Flyvbjerg, Bruzelius and Rothengatter (2003).
9 Beck (1992); Giddens (1991); Luhmann (1993).
10 This section on the trajectory of risk consciousness draws on Furedi (1997).
11 Fukuyama (1995).
12 Furedi (1997).
13 Landry (2005a).
14 Visit www.rics.org.
15 This section was initially written for Future London, part of the London
Development Agency. It is based on a survey of 38 leading professionals in
the built environment sector. Thanks to Honor Chapman and Greg Clark for
making this possible.
16 See www.odpm.gov.uk/index.
17 Based on conversations with Francois Matarasso.
18 This list emerged based on discussions with Franco Bianchini.
19 John Augustus Roebling (with his son, Washington): engineer/builder of the
Brooklyn Bridge; Joseph Strauss: the structural engineer who built the Golden
Gate Bridge; William le Barron Jenney: structural engineer and the father of
the modern skyscraper; Fazlur Rahman Khan: structural engineer and devel-
oper of the tube-framing concept for skyscrapers which heralded the rebirth
of tall buildings in the 1960s and 1970s.
20 See Harris (1998).
21 All quotes from personal interviews for the Future London survey.
22 Quotation from http://gestalttheory.net/gtax1.html.
23 Mindset, mindflow and mindshift were discussed more fully in The Creative
City (Landry, 2000).
24 Thanks to Yaneer Bar Yam for his description of reductionism.
25 Quotes from professions survey.
26 Collins (2001).

28 See www.cnu.com. The CNU was founded in 1993 in the US by a group of
architects. It has since expanded to over 2300 members internationally. They
say that they stand for the reconfiguration of sprawling suburbs into commu-
nities of real neighborhoods and diverse districts, the conservation of natural
environments, and the preservation of our built legacy. About 200 New
Urbanist developments are under construction or completed in the US.
30 Goleman (1995).
31 Goleman et al (2002).
32 For evidence that currently more traditional designs are favoured over the
more modern, see CABE survey undertaken by MORI at www.mori.com/
polls/2002/cabe2.shtml.
33 This section draws on Landry (2006b).
34 Consider the German etymology: Denkmal (monument) reminds us of think-
ing about or reflecting upon as its root comes from denken (thinking).
35 This paragraph draws on Brecknock (2006) and Ogbu (1995).
36 This section comes from a meeting with the Musagetes Foundation.
37 This section draws on an extensive two-year international study Comedia has
undertaken (Wood et al, 2006). The research involved city-based case studies
in four UK settings as well as in Australia, New Zealand, Norway and the
US. Thematic studies subjecting 12 areas of public and urban policy to analy-
sis through an intercultural lens. Studies were undertaken of 33 individual
intercultural innovators in 8 cities. A more extensive version is to be published
as The Intercultural City by Earthscan, London in 2007. See www.inter
culturalcity.com for an extensive list of publications.
38 Statistics from www.guardian.co.uk/britain/article/0,,1395548,00.html.
39 Alibhai-Brown (2001).
40 See Wood (2004).
41 See Wood (2004).
42 This segment draws on Bloomfield and Bianchini (2004).
43 Sandercock (1998, 2004).
44 Rogers and Steinfatt (1999).
45 Antal and Friedman (2003).
46 Hall (1998).
47 Bloomfield and Bianchini (2004).
48 See www.interculturalcity.com.
49 For further details see The intercultural city: Making the most of diversity at
the www.interculturalcity.com website.
50 Hall (1969).
51 Edgar, D. My fight with the Front, The Guardian, 14 September 2005.
52 Cognition being how we perceive, think and remember, and the awareness of
how knowledge is acquired.
Notes 437

CHAPTER SIX:
THE CITY AS A LIVING WORK OF ART
1 This chapter is based on work undertaken in Adelaide as Thinker in Residence
(Landry, 2004a). My thanks to Mike Rann, the Premier of South Australia,
for appointing me, allowing me to be a friend of the city and for his courage
in opening out to a critical external view that Adelaide publicly discussed.
Thanks also to the team in Adelaide, especially Margie Caust, Rodin Genoff,
Richard Brecknock, Terry Tysoe and Ann Clancy.
2 Thanks to Jean Hurstel of Banlieues dEurope for focusing me on to re-
enchantment, see www.banlieues-europe.com.
3 Amin (2006).
4 Gehl and Gemze (2000).
5 See The art of smart at www.fastcompany.com/magazine/26/one.html.
6 Landry (1998).
7 Quoted in Fryer (1996).
8 Mapping analysis of creative professionals in Adelaide as part of the Thinkers
in Residence programme.
9 Office of National Statistics data for 2005.
10 See www.nycfuture.org/content/home/index.cfm?CFID=23040787&
CFTOKEN=79757806.
11 Rutten (2006).
12 See www.sciart.org/site/.
13 Landry (2006a).
14 Barton and Kleiner (2000).
15 Barton (2000).
16 International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.
17 This idea emerged in conversation with Margie Caust.
18 Maccoby (2004).
19 See for instance the conclusions of Desmond Hui in Baseline study on Hong
Kongs creative industries, www.info.gov.hk/cpu.
20 Florida (2002).
21 Wong (1998).
22 Landry and Wood (2003).
23 These ideas were first elaborated in Landry and Wood (2002).
24 PricewaterhouseCoopers (2006); or see Cities of the Future at www.
pwc.com.
25 See Gardner (1995) for general discussion on leadership, from which some of
the thinking presented here is drawn.
26 Interview with planner in Adelaide.
27 Porter and Linde (1995).
28 Institute for Public Policy Research (2006).
29 From www.time-management-guide.com.
30 From www.planning.org/careers.
31 Carmona et al (2003).
32 Kozlowski (2006).
33 See www.containercity.com/ and www.urbanspace.com/index.asp.
34 Visit www.zedfactory.com.

35 From www.newurbanism.org/pages/532096/.
36 See Koolhaas and Mau (1995).
37 See www.epa.gov/brownfields/partners/emscher.html.
38 For a longer case study of Emscher by the author see Innovation in a non-
innovative Setting: Emscher Park, available under free downloads at www.
comedia.org.uk.
39 This project was one of Germanys Internationale Bauausstellung (hence IBA
literally International Building Exhibition) projects in which local and
regional government and publicprivate partnerships plan and promote struc-
tural change for former industrial and mining areas. See
www.eaue.de/winuwd/137.htm for more details of IBA Emscher Park.
40 Falk (2005). Thanks to Nick also for a discussion of broader urban issues.
41 From www.bcn.es/edcities/aice/estatiques/angles/sec_tematiques.html.
42 Landry and Matarasso (2001).
43 Jupp, Fairly and Bentley (2001).
44 See Champions of change at www.aep-arts.org/PDF%20Files/Champs
Report.pdf
45 For example Adelaide Thinkers in Residence survey with young people.
46 For details on the New Zealand Talent Initiative, see www.executive.
govt.nz/MINISTER/clark/innovate/lek.pdf
47 See www.mica.gov.sg/renaissance/FinalRen.pdf.
48 Visit www.memphismanifesto.com.
49 From www.a-star.edu.sg/astar/attach/speech/ASTAR_Scholarship_Awards_
(22_Jul_2005)_-_V2.pdf. See also www.mica.gov.sg/renaissance/Final
Ren.pdf.
50 See Florida (2002) for treatment of creative environments.
51 See www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/ publications/facts/obesity/en/.
52 See www.shrinkingcities.com/, www-iurd.ced.berkeley.edu/scg/case-study-
summaries.htm and www.bauhaus-dessau.de/de/projects.asp?p=iba.
53 Cited in Gray (1993).
54 By Geoff Calkins, the sports columnist for The Commercial Appeal.
55 Florida (2002).
56 McInroy (2002); visit www.cles.org.uk.
57 I am going to be too polite to name this source.
58 McInroy (2002).
CHAPTER SEVEN:
CREATIVE CITIES FOR THE WORLD
1 For the general notion see, for instance, www.actsofkindness.org/.
2 Landry and Bianchini (1995) (the first version of The Creative City).
3 Thanks to Professor Kian Woon Kwok for the karaoke comparison.
4 Landry (2000) includes case studies of Emscher Park and Helsinki.
5 See www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-dubai13oct
13,0,5107518.story?page=2&coll=la-home-headlines.
6 See www.libanmall.com/main/beirut.htm.
7 From www.mydsf.com/dsf/eng/dsf_pressrelease.asp?pressid=4392.
Notes 439

8 See www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-dubai13oct13,0,5107
518.story?coll=la-home-headlines.
9 See www.tijanre.ae/dubai_land.html.
10 See http://skyscrapercity.com/archive/index.php/t-178639.html.
11 EMAAR is a major Dubai developer responsible for initiatives such as the
Burj al-Arab and increasingly operating globally. The government has a 32
per cent stake in the company and thus effective control.
12 From Mother Jones at www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2006/
04/should_immigran.html.
13 Ivan Watson, NPR (National Public Radio), 8 March 2006.
14 The Living Planet Report at www.panda.org.
15 Frith, M. In the middle of the desert: A monument to ecological folly, The
Independent, 3 December 2005.
16 From www.thepearlqatar.com/SubTemplate1.aspx?ID=165&MID=115.
17 See www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?referrerid=39159&t=339039.
18 Personal conversation with Sir Peter Hall, 1999.
19 Lecture by Kian Woon Kwok, The age of the city, Osaka, 11 December
2005.
20 From www.mica.gov.sg/renaissance/FinalRen.pdf.
23 For example, British Airways magazine for June 2006.
24 From www.phasez.ro/Default.asp?SID=42.
25 From www.a-star.edu.sg/astar/fusionopolis/index.do.
26 From www.firefly.gov.sg/html/EtsHome.html.
27 All quotations in this paragraph are from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Singapore_public_gay_parties.
28 See www.smh.com.au/news/world/thailand-wins-as-singapores-brief-gay-
fling-grinds-to-a-halt/2005/11/03/1130823343452.html.
29 From www.taubman.com/pressrelease/163.html.
30 Private conversations with city representatives of the Urbact culture network,
May 2006.
31 Cited at www.boston.com/beyond_bigdig/cases/barcelona/index.shtml.
32 Oriol Bohigas, Designing urban regeneration, lecture given at London
School of Economics, 30 November 2002.
33 Campbell, R. Barcelona, Boston Globe, 2002; and visit www.boston.com.
34 Quoted in Schuster (1995).
35 Schuster (1995).
36 See www.bcn2000.es/en/2_plan_estrategico/antecedentes.aspx.
37 See, for example, the 2005 report, available at www.cushmanwakefield.
com/cwglobal/docviewer/European%20Cities%20Monitor.pdf?id=ca150000
6&repositoryKey=CoreRepository&itemDesc=document.
38 Glasgow commentators claim that the citys high ranking was in part due to
the halo effect generated by its European City of Culture tenure in 1990 and
that as that receded so did its international status, the city falling from 10th
to 22th place on the Cushman & Wakefield European City Monitor.
39 From http://bilbao.bm30.es/plan/Bilbao2010-StrategicReflection.pdf.
40 Conversation with Alfonso Martinez Cearra, director of Metropoli-30.
41 See www.bm30.es/plan/estrategia_uk.html.

42 Alfonso Cearra, director of Metropoli-30, in conversation (2005).
43 Alfonso Cearra in conversation (2005).
44 See, for example, KPMG surveys at www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/ingles/
home.htm.
45 See www.comedia.org.uk/downloads/Cultural%20Policy%20Melbourne.doc.
46 Montreals Frenchness in the island of Quebec was threatened by an ocean of
Englishness and feels its cultural creativity stems from maintaining its identity.
47 Lerner (2003). I was privileged to spend four days with Lerner, in Adelaide in
2003, observing his sharp, lateral thinking at close quarters.
48 Lerner (2003).
49 Lerner (2003). See also www.brazilmax.com/news1.cfm/tborigem/pl_south/
id/10 and www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=1700.
50 Lerner (2003).
51 For more information on Curitiba, go to www.curitiba.pr.gov.br.
52 Thanks to Leif Edvinsson for pointing Ragusa out. See www.entovation.
com/entovatn/edvinsson.htm.
53 See www.creatievestad.nl or creativecapital.nl/programme.php.
54 Krabbendam (2006).
55 Eric Duivenvoorden and Floris de Graad; see www.precairforum.nl/Library/
MakewayENG.rtf.
56 See www.zuidas.nl/smartsite.dws?id=179&curindex=1.
57 See www.westergasfabriek.com/./ engels_routebeschrijving_kopie.php.
58 See http://squat.net/overtoom301/pages/home.html.
59 Gehl and Gemze (2000).
60 Oberlander (1996).
61 Punter (2004).
62 As defined by the UK Department of Media, Culture and Sports.
63 For a history of the creative city idea see Landry (2005b).
64 Landry and Bianchini (1995).
65 Robinson (1999).
66 Florida (2002).
67 Landry et al (1996).
68 Record of the conference published in Yencken (1988).
69 Landry (2000).
70 Hall (1998).
71 See Jacobs (1961).
72 Drawing on Richard Brecknock Lewisham study on intercultural master-plan-
ning. See Comedias Intercultural City project at www.interculturalcity.com.
73 See www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/post200/2005/MACD.html.
74 See http://irogaland.no/ir/file_public/download/Noku/Final%20Creativity%
20and%20the%20city.pdf.
75 Hall (1998).
76 For a lengthy description of indicators of vitality see Franco Bianchini and
Charles Landrys Working Paper 3: Indicators of a creative city: A methodol-
ogy for assessing urban viability and vitality (1994), downloadable from the
Comedia website, www.comedia.org.uk. For a briefer elaboration see Landry
(2000), pp221229.
77 For greater detail on indicators of openness see Comedia Intercultural City
final report at www.interculturalcity.com.
Notes 441

78 Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (2003). See also
www.charleslandry.com for further suggestions.
79 Visit www.creativecommons.org.
80 Morck and Yeung (2001).
ENDPIECE
1 Hawken et al (1999). All these materials are available from www.charles
landry.com.
2 See www.urbact.eu.
3 Landry (2005a).
4 Landry (2005c).
5 Landry (2004b).
6 Landry (2006b).

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Aberdeen 72
Academy for Sustainable Communities
234, 235, 265
accessibility 200
Accra 158159
acoustic ecology 5354
Adelaide 267, 298, 301, 331
creative qualities 271272, 277
developing centrality 279, 280281
festivals 178, 184
indicators 321
media 325
presentation 324
rules and regulations 293294
stories 326327
talent 297, 316
advertisements 116117, 121,
153154
Eastern Europe 35, 73
hoardings 73, 210
lighting 75
Agra 166
Ahmadabad 22
airports 323324, 343
Akihabara 57
Algiers 99
Alicante 21
Almeria 21
Alsop, Will 147, 307
alternative culture 409410
Burning Man festival 185
alternative energy 280, 323
Amin, Ash 268
Amsterdam 111, 122, 148, 156
creative city 382384, 408
cultural institutions 145
diversity 254
tourism 165, 173
Anderson Consulting 369
Antwerp 279
Appadurai, Arjun 45
arational approaches 194, 251
architects 222223
architecture
iconic buildings 145, 147149
and language 51, 69
and the look of the city 6970, 210
and soundscape 5253
arrival at the city 2629, 323324,
350
arts and artists 158, 249252, 262
role in city making 44, 252253,
364, 375376, 403404, 420
Sci-Art 276
Arzignano 282
asphalt currency 287
aspiration 268269, 420422
Atlanta 179
Atlantic City 170
audit of current creative activity
416418, 419
Auroville 278
Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change
report 17
Baden Baden 167
Bangkok 173
Banja Luka 35
Barcelona 21, 121, 156, 361368,
376
cultural management 365366
design 362363
Index

regeneration 179, 269, 292, 297
tourism 166, 167
basic needs 111113
Bath 67, 167, 211
Baughman, James 369
beauty 215, 243, 244, 252
Becker, Gary S. 369
behaviour, changing 263, 308310,
330
Beijing 101, 157
Beirut 165, 342
Belfast, organized crime 96
Belgrade 34
benchmarking 322, 352353, 373
Bendaniel, David 369
Berlin 145, 156, 369
decline 319, 320
festivals 183184
sensory landscape 43, 58, 72
tourism 121, 165, 173
Berne 5
Bilbao 111, 292, 368376
iconic architecture 143, 147, 148,
149, 286
regeneration 297, 302303, 361,
368
Bilbao Ria 2000 302303, 370, 373
binge-drinking 105, 168169
bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Sheikh
Mohammed 342, 343
Birmingham 161, 297
architecture 34, 70, 152
public space 125, 261
Bitola 35
Blackburn 320
Bloomberg, Michael 60
Bochum 309
Bohigas, Oriol 363365
Bologna 43
Bombay see Mumbai
borders 103104
Boston 21
boundaries of cities 296, 298
Bournemouth 254
Bradford 254, 309
branding the city 143145, 163166,
172173, 326, 339, 423424
Brasilia 58, 307
Brighton 211, 254
Bristol 34, 254, 258, 296
Broadway, Gloucestershire 33
Broken Hill 320
Brunelleschi 239
Bucharest 34, 35, 324
Budapest 34, 169, 173
Buenos Aires 7273, 408
building materials 3536, 7071,
8688
burials 83
Burning Man festival 185186
Burnley 258, 320
Burra 320
bus travel 2324, 84, 86
Cairo 5
Calatrava, Santiago 147, 149, 371
Calcutta see Kolkata
Calgary 420
Cannes 179
Canterbury, England 67
Canton see Guangzhou (Canton)
Cape Town 165
capital
forms of 287290
see also social capital
Capra, Fritz 16
Caracas 67, 111
Cardiff 203
carnivals 178, 180181
Carpi 282
cars
and architecture 305, 307
dependency on 2324, 31, 84,
8586, 319
electric 277
and the senses 4647
Casablanca 43
Cassone, Rico 95
catchment areas 1920
see also drawing power
Celebration 306307
celebrations see festivals
centrality 278281, 371372
changing world
battlefields 197199
complexity 189190
and creativity 388, 390
cultural adjustment 246247

drivers of change 208211, 253
faultlines 193197, 216
paradoxes 199208, 244
speed and slowness 116118,
154155, 195, 199, 210
trends 191192
Cheltenham 179
Chennai 60
Chicago 49, 138, 182, 286
children 101102
China, urbanization 21, 24, 100
Chungking 22
Cirque du Soleil 94
citizenship 247, 258
cityness 1920, 2123, 77, 278279
feeling of 2324, 2629
city-regions 11, 295, 296
city-states 5, 408
civic creativity 2, 338341
civic institutions 246, 306
civil servants 226
climate 74, 208
Colchester 254
Collins, Jim, From Good to Great
234, 239
colour 35, 43, 7173
Columbia 93
common sense 1718, 195
community
attracting talent 316317
festivals 180186
neighbourhood shops 131133
community cohesion 257
community developers 225
compensation culture 202, 203204
competitiveness 100, 285287,
391392, 393
Dubai 345
indicators 162163
see also centrality
concrete 28, 8687
confidence 290291, 329
Congress of New Urbanism (CNU)
235
Constantinople see Istanbul
(Constantinople)
construction industry, risk 204,
206208
consultation 261
consumption 7778, 113116, 155
building materials 8688
domestic 7883
shoppertainment 151153
transport 8386
controlled environments 6566, 67
Cook, Thomas 167168
Copenhagen 93, 176, 269, 279, 384,
394
Cortona 33
cosmopolis 256
counter-urbanization 21
creative cities 335341, 381385,
386387, 408413, 413
agenda for 415425
Barcelona 361368
Bilbao 368376
Curitiba 376381
Dubai 341348
Singapore 350360
creative industries 275277
creativity 45, 385386
artistic 249253, 403404
civic 2, 338341
concept 387390, 404405,
406407
conditions for and against
392396, 405406, 410411,
412, 414
and culture 249, 398399, 400403
and diversity 396398
fear of 391
ideas 331332
and innovation 414415
reassessing 270274
and resilience 390391
and risk 201202, 295
soft 413
talent 315318, 322, 389390
to address misery 9495
see also creative cities
creativity platform search 419, 420
crime 95100, 209
Crystal Waters, Queensland 278
Cuidad Juarez/El Paso 104
cultural capital 288, 289
cultural developers 225226
cultural institutions 120121,
143145, 148149, 152, 248
Index 453

and creativity 252, 401403
and education 314
Singapore 351352
see also Guggenheim
cultural literacy 3, 20, 193, 214,
244245, 248249
see also intercultural cities
culture 14, 245249, 398399,
400403
arts festivals 178, 179, 185
and the market economy 153,
275276
of place 326328
response to poverty 105109
and sensory landscapes 42, 5960,
68
see also arts and artists; ethnic
diversity
Curitiba 26, 269, 376381, 379, 380
Darmstadt 369
Dartford 408
Datong 22
Davao 22
Davis, California 278
decivilization 9193
decline 319320
Delft 33
Delhi 5, 73, 254
Katha 107109, 336
sounds 5960
democracy 236, 395
demographics 208
design quality 244
desire
basic needs 111113
and consumption 113116
Detroit 320
disposability 114, 116
distribution systems 78, 80
see also logistics
diversity see ethnic diversity
Dortmund 309
drawing power 158163, 268269,
286, 325326, 408409
drivers of change 208211, 253
drugs trade 97
Dubai 77, 165, 341349, 395
Dublin 174, 298
Temple Bar 123124, 168
Dubrovnik 381382
Dumfries 140
Dunster, Bill 304
Durres 35
Dusseldorf 121
Dzerzhinsk 102
Easterhouse Cultural Campus 106,
107
Eastern European cities 3436
ecological footprints 88, 91
United Arab Emirates 341,
346347
ecological urban development
376377
economics of regeneration 303
economists 224225, 415
eco-tourism 170, 174176
eco-villages 278
Edinburgh 178, 179
education 265, 311, 312314,
388389
cultural response to poverty
106108
interculturalism 258, 259, 261262
neglect of the senses 41, 44, 271
tapping into talent 317, 318
Egan Review 213
Elbasan 35, 56
electricity 40, 74, 78
electroperception 40
emergence 231
emotions 240, 268
and the arts 251
emotional intelligence 241242
and leadership 242243
employment 258259
Emscher Park 278, 294295, 308309
engineers 221222
Enlightenment 15, 45, 191, 205
environmental psychology 243245
environment issues
and economic rationality 194, 197
initiatives and incentives 277278
rapid development 100101
transport 11, 18
see also greenhouse gas emissions;
recycling; sustainability

Essaouira 72
Essen 309
ethical values 12, 335, 425
environment v. economic rationality
194
framework for action 286287, 413
shopping 139140
ethnic diversity 253260, 396398
Dubai 345346
evaluation framework 418419
experience economy 152153, 209
experimental tourism 170172
factories 49
Faliraki 104105
fashion 114, 118120, 131
cities 186159, 409
fear 198
festivals 150, 177180, 180186, 262,
271, 365
Fez 6768, 71
Florence 5, 160, 239, 320, 396, 403
Florida, Richard 284, 316, 322, 358,
387
food and drink
consumption 7879, 8081
retailing 135136, 139140
smells 6365, 6667
waste 8182
Foster, Norman 70, 148, 371
Frankfurt 164, 279, 367, 376
free economic zones 343
Freiburg 26, 162, 280, 376
Fukuyama, Francis 91
Future Systems 70
galleries see cultural institutions
Gardner, Howard, Theory of Multiple
Intelligences 4142
Gary, Indiana 9798
Gateshead, branding 143
gay communities
San Francisco 410
Singapore 357358
Gaziantep 22
Gdansk 56
Gehry, Frank 371, 374
Gelsenkirchen 309
Geneva 14, 162, 178, 279
Genoa 21
gentrification 110, 122, 123, 410
Gestalt theory, and the professions
227228
Gijon 290
Glasgow 34, 290, 320, 412
cultural response to poverty 106
festivals 179, 284
globalization 176187, 208
and the arts 252
brands 110, 126, 137
effect on cities 269270
and IT 191
v. authenticity 198
global network of cities 3637
global property market 123
Global and World Cities (GaWC)
project 159
Goa 104, 105
Goleman, Daniel, Emotional
Intelligence 241
governance 295298, 390
budgetary control 376
managing urban change 301304,
309310
Graz 33
green economy 277278, 280, 295
greenhouse gas emissions
food chain 8081
see also cars, dependency on;
sustainability
Guangzhou (Canton) 5, 157, 254, 338
Guggenheim 143, 148, 149, 286,
374376
Hamburg 90, 376
Hamelin 183
Handy, Charles 369
Hannover 412
Harbin 22
Havana 121
health
effects of noise 52
and repression 101
and smells 6263
and urban design 208, 209,
318319
healthcare 276
Hefei 157
Index 455

Heidelberg 33
Helsinki 270, 279, 296, 367
culture and image 74, 183,
324325, 409, 411
iconic architecture 148
Herzog de Meuron 72, 366
historic cities 3334, 74, 211212,
400401
holism 214217, 230
Hong Kong 74, 161
advertising 73
fashion 156, 158
noise levels 57
port 88, 90
tourism 165, 166, 170, 172, 360
transport 112, 171172, 323, 393
Honolulu 14
Houston 14, 90
Howard, Ebenezer 239
Huddersfield 294, 325
Hull 149
human attributes, effect on cities 196
Hurricane Katrina 17
Iasi 34, 56, 98
Ibiza 104, 105, 165
iconic communication 146151,
286287
see also Guggenheim
ideas, dominant 210, 329, 330,
331332
identity
cities 298, 331
personal 200
professional 232233
image see drawing power; fashion;
iconic communication
imaginative territory 279281
immigration and integration
European policy 255
see also ethnic diversity
incentives 308, 309, 339, 378379
individualism 15, 45, 191, 195196
infrastructure 6, 281285, 301, 394,
395396
and professionals 212, 216
Singapore 355
sprawl 32
innovation, and creativity 414416
integrated resorts 359360
intellectual capital see talent
intellectual property 387, 414415
intercultural cities 254, 256260,
396397
interdisciplinary approach 89, 16
see also professions, specialism and
integration
international trade 7879, 80, 208
see also logistics
intuition 242
inward investment, and soft infrastruc-
ture 284285
Isfahan 5
isolation index 258
Israel 103104
Istanbul (Constantinople) 5, 79, 179,
254, 396
Italian cities 3334
Ithaca Eco-Village, New York State
278
Ivanovo 320
Izamal 43
Jacobs, Jane 239, 397
Japan, urbanization 21
jargon 5051, 332333
Jodphur 43, 58, 72
Johannesburg 145, 165166
Joseph Rowntree Foundation 106
journeys to work 8485
Kampala 23
Kandy, festivals 178
Karachi 99
Karlsbad 167
Katha 107109, 336
Katowice 34
Kiev 34
King Abdullah Economic City 349
Kishinev 34, 98
knowledge creation 272273
Kobe 94, 95
Kolding 278
Kolkata 160, 320, 324
Koolhaas, Rem 145, 148, 152
Koprivshtitsa 70
Kosice 35
Kotkin, Joel 30

Kotler, Phillip 369
Krakow 34, 56, 169
Kraljevo 35
Kuala Lumpur 304
Kunstler, James Howard 69
Kuwait, City of Silk 349
Kyoto 5, 122, 149, 319
Lagos 23, 63, 99
land reclamation projects 341342,
343
language
of efficiency 211, 240, 249
jargon 332333
of the senses 5051
Las Vegas 68, 121, 145, 170
shoppertainment 151, 152
leadership 67, 234, 239240,
291292, 424
and emotions 242243
and resources 330
learning cities 310312
Le Corbusier 305, 307
Leeds 203, 309
Leicester 8, 161
Lerner, Jaime, Urban Acupuncture
377
Letchworth 235
Liebeskind, Daniel 147
lighting 7475, 332
Lijiang 167
Lille 324
Little River, Christchurch 278
Liverpool 106, 203, 319, 320, 408
Ljubljana 34, 169
local distinctiveness 110, 248,
326328, 405
Lodz 412
logistics 8891, 343
London 20, 22, 147, 304, 319, 367
consumption 7882, 86, 87, 88
creativity 336, 337, 409
cultural response to poverty
106107
diversity 253254, 396
gentrification 123
historic city 48, 211
iconic architecture 148, 150151
image 156, 165
logistics 88
look of the city 43, 68, 70, 72, 75
people-trafficking 9899
pollution 60, 83
shopping 121, 122
transport 8385, 112
waste disposal 8283
look of the city 43, 6875, 210, 244,
260261
Los Angeles 22, 408, 412
consumption 77
roads 32, 87
sensescape 58, 67
Lucca 33, 111
Luton 254
Lvov 34
Lyons 33
Macau 170
Madrid 319, 376
Mafia 95
Malaga 21, 297, 361, 376
Manchester 34, 106, 283284
Manila 73, 79
Manzano 282
mapping the city 46, 300301
Maragall, Pasqual 363
market economy
and cultural choice 14
limitations 3, 37, 93
v. environmental ethics 194
see also retailing
marketing the city
tourism 172174
see also branding the city; fashion;
festivals; iconic communication
Marrakech 43, 72, 111
Marseille 21, 178
measurement and calculation
159160, 162, 198, 290
assets 321323
diversity and interculturalism
257259
and intangibles 206
media
and branding 163164
and risk consciousness 202203
and self-perception 325
Index 457

megacities 23
megaprojects 174, 204
Melbourne 74, 150, 262, 293, 325,
384
Melnikov, Victor 94
Memphis 296, 315, 327328, 331,
413
Mercer, quality of life rankings 14,
162
Merseyside 106
Metropoli-30 302, 370371,
372373, 374
Metzingen 170
Mexico City 58
Miami 165
Middle East 342
migration to cities 2123
Milan 43, 72, 157, 408
mindflow and mindset 228230, 330
mindscapes 41
misery 9395
crime 9598
cultural responses 9394, 105109
people trafficking and the sex trade
9899
prisons and borders 103104
and rapid change 99101
and repression 101102
mobility, car dependency 2324, 31,
84, 8586
Monte Carlo 170
Monticchiello 181
Montreal 173, 376
monuments 245246
Moscow 34, 57, 9596, 165
multiculturalism 197, 254255, 256,
261, 332
Mumbai 79, 173, 408
festivals 177178
image 68, 158, 160
Mumford, Lewis 239
Munich 33, 67, 87, 367, 376, 407,
408
murder rates 93, 9798
Murmansk 56, 102
museums see cultural institutions
music 5354
myths 328
Nampo 22
Nanjing 157
Naples 74
narrative communication 146
National Planning Forum (NPF) 234
networks 259, 281284, 289, 330
neuromarketing 154, 210
Newcastle upon Tyne 149, 254
New Economics Foundation 133135
New Jersey 408
New Orleans 98, 167, 177, 178, 180
New Urbanism 31, 302308
New York 5, 22, 121, 156, 407
creativity 335336, 337338, 393,
408
crime 98, 147
diversity 253, 254, 396
gentrification 123
noise control 60
past sensescapes 49
port 90
reach and impact 20
rubbish 82
shopping 152
tourism 165, 166
Nice 33
niches and drawing power 279,
325326
Nickel 35
night life 124125
9/11 17, 337338
noise 5160, 244
Noise Mapping England project 46
Norilsk 63, 94, 102
Northern Ireland Statistics and
Research Agency 2005 report 17
Norwich 211
Nottingham 161
Nouvel, Jean 72, 110
Novi Sad 184
Odessa 34, 35, 57, 324
Olympic Games 179, 253, 362, 363
Oman 43
One-North, Singapore 355356
openness 239, 256, 258259, 372
organic v. artificial 195
organized crime 9598

Orlando 174
Orvieto 33
Osaka 21, 121, 161, 360
Oslo 148, 324
Oxford 125126
Palacios, Dolores 371
Paris 164, 319, 336337, 367
fashion 157
retailing 121, 134, 339
Val-Fourre estate 105106
Parma 33
Pattya 99
peaceful coexistence 192193
Pearl River Delta 21
Pei, I.M. 71, 149, 369
Pelli, Cesar 369
people-trafficking 9899
perceptual geography 4143
performance-driven culture 233234
performance indicators 162163
perfumes 66
personal living space 2324
Perth, Australia 269, 420
petrochemicals 6263, 66
Philadelphia 49, 323
Phnom Penh 99
Piobbico 183
Pittsburgh 290, 369
place-making 236, 238, 252, 263
planners 218219
planning 134, 136137, 235236,
298301, 397, 422
Bilboa 369370, 371372
Curitiba 377, 380
master-planning 260262
Vancouver 384385
policy making 263264
risk and opportunity 292295
politics 14, 103104
pollution 83, 86, 102, 194195
in China 100101
noise 60
Poole 254
population growth 2324
see also urban populations
Portland 384
Port Moresby 99100
ports 9091, 247, 361, 362, 407
Port of Spain 269
postmodernism 15, 153
Potosi 22
Poundbury 278
poverty 93, 101102
cultural responses 105107
power 14, 411412
centrality 278281
centralized v. localized 198
drawing power 159163, 268269,
294.326327
and leadership 292293
powerlessness, perception of 205206
Prague 34, 168169
Prato 282
professions 7, 9, 44, 263264, 319
creative 275276
Gestalt theory 227228
and the intercultural city 260, 398
and risk 206208
specialism and integration 9,
212217, 232239, 264265
stereotypes 217227
project managers 225
property developers 223224
property value
driving urban development 120,
122, 123, 373374, 399
financing regeneration 303, 310
Providence, Rhode Island 182
psychological landscapes 40
public space 111, 212, 259, 303304,
335336, 384
Barcelona 363365
Birmingham 125
Pyongyang 101
Qalqilya 104
Qatar, Pearl-Qatar 348349
quality of life 14, 162, 284285,
392393
quinary domain 392
Ragusa (Dubrovnik) 381382
railways 2526, 84, 86, 324
Rama, Edi 35
Ranchi 22
rational and arational approaches 194
Index 459

recycling 82, 277278, 280, 378, 380
reductionism 230, 231232
regeneration 31, 301304
in Britain 309310
in Britain and Spain 297
Emscher Park 309
Rio de Janeiro 110
through festivals 179180
Reims 33
religion
festivals 177178
fundamentalism 193
resonance 279, 286287
see also branding the city; drawing
power; fashion
responsibility
for cities 67
and perception of powerlessness
206
restaurants 6667, 131
retailing 113115, 118
corporate blandness 125127
decline of small specialist shops
131132
impact on cities 120125, 129,
132133
relocalizing the economy 133135
shoppertainment 151153
shopping malls 124, 127131
supermarkets 131, 132, 135140
Reynolds, Eric 304
Rio de Janeiro 9697, 110
image 68, 109110, 143, 287
risk 197, 272
consciousness 198, 202206, 244
and creativity 201202
management 203204, 295
and urban professions 206208
see also rules and regulations
rituals 176178, 180
roads 25, 32, 86, 87
Rochdale 320
Rogers, Richard, Towards a Strong
Urban Renaissance 213
role models 238239, 426
Rome 5, 48, 56, 254, 319
festivals 177, 181
Rothenberg 33
Rotterdam 88, 90, 175, 302
rubbish 8183, 380
rules and regulations 292295, 339,
397
see also risk
rural areas, movement to 21, 201
St Petersburg 34, 48
Salford 147
Salzburg 58, 179
San Francisco 5, 14, 147, 150, 286,
409410
San Luis 22
Sao Paulo 22
Sarajevo 58
Sassuolo 282
Schafer, R. Murray 53, 60
schools see education
Sci-Art 276
scientific approach 8
seaborne freight 9091
secular humanism 1314
segregation 96
sensescapes 4546
cars 4647
linguistic shortcomings 5051
look of the city 6875
in the past 4850
smells 6168
sounds 5160
sensory intelligences 4142
sensory landscapes 23, 2629,
4344, 251
and culture 42, 4445, 260
mapping 46
perceptual geography 4143
unrecognized 3940, 4243
see also sensescapes
Seoul 412
Seville 297, 361, 376
sex trade 9899, 170
Shanghai 5, 90, 323
creativity 395, 408
fashion 157, 338
resonance 156, 161, 173
shedland 140141
Sheffield 254, 309, 319
Shenzhen 22, 100, 122
Shibam 5, 70
Shkodra 103

Sholapur 22
shopping malls 124, 127131
shops 6566, 131, 132
see also retailing
Siena 180
silence 57
Singapore 74, 90, 124, 323
branding 143
creativity 315, 350360, 388
diversity 165, 253
Renaissance City project 352355
single person households 23, 24
Skopje 34
Slow Cities movement 117118, 199
slums
complex social structure of 2122
Delhi 107109
Rio de Janeiro 9697
smellscapes 6168
social capital 107
Curitiba 377379
developing 112, 275, 288289
social equity 197
social workers 225
Sofia 34
soft creativity 413
soft infrastructure 6, 281285, 394,
395396
Bilbao 372
and professionals 212, 216
Soriano, Federico 371
sound classification 5457
soundscapes 5160
Southsea 254
space and density 200
specialism and integration, professions
9, 212217, 232239
speed and slowness 116118,
154155, 195, 199, 210
spirituality 196
sports events 179, 184185
Olympic Games 179, 362, 363
sprawl 3032, 198
Stavanger 111
stereotypes 217227
Stirling, James 371
Stockholm 164, 279, 367, 408
Stockport 254
stories 326327, 330, 401
street markets 6364, 397
Stuttgart 371
suburbia 3032, 408
supermarkets 131, 132, 135140
surveillance 209
surveyors 220221
sustainability 11, 18, 204
changing behaviour 308
see also greenhouse gas emissions;
recycling
sustainable communities 278, 280
professions 213, 238, 263
Sydney 148, 149, 325, 396
Taipei 73, 121, 161, 301302
fashion and art 156, 158
noise levels 57
talent 289, 301, 315318, 322, 357,
389390
Tallinn 169
Tanjungkarang 22
taxation systems 195, 297, 309, 376
Taylor, Charles, The Malaise of
Modernity 195196
technology and age 200201
Tel Aviv 43, 165, 173
Tetovo 35
theme parks 153, 174, 242, 344345
Timisoara 34
Tirana 35, 57
Tokyo 87, 90, 121, 145, 408
advertising 73
fashion 131, 157158
noise levels 57
organized crime 95
reach and impact 20, 21
tourism 166
Toronto 71, 123, 295
diversity 396
murder rate 98
tourism 33, 166172, 174176
Barcelona 368
Bilbao 375
Dubai 344
marketing 172174
negative effects 104105, 121,
166167, 168169, 175176,
382, 394
Index 461

Tower Hamlets 106107
traditions
collective memory 199
see also culture
traffic congestion 85
transport 2526, 8586, 264,
323324, 422
basic needs 112
Curitiba 11, 26, 269, 379, 380
Dubai 343
Hong Kong 172, 323
hypercars 295
London 8385
sustainability 11, 18
see also cars
Trinidad 181
Turin 178
24-hour city 124125, 210
Ucize 35
ugliness 243, 244
Ulan Bator 94, 102
UNESCO 386387
United States (US), urbanization 21
Unna 309
Unwin, Raymond 235
urban acupuncture 377379
urban change see regeneration
urban design 51, 213, 234, 299300,
397
Urban Design Alliance (UDA) 234,
235
urbanism 20, 237
urbanization
extent of 21, 2223, 77
nature of 2325
Urban Land Institute 235
urban literacy 20, 237
urban populations 19, 2123
Urumqi 22
Utrecht 33
Vaasa 33
Valencia 21, 149
Buol 186
regeneration 292, 297, 361, 376
values 12, 234235, 248, 260, 335
Vancouver 5, 98, 138, 178
quality of life 14, 60, 279, 384385
Varanesi 5
Venice 48, 145, 320
tourism 164, 166, 167
Vienna 14, 156, 173, 320
Viva Rio 94
Vroon, Pier 61
Waitakere, Auckland 278
Wal-Mart 138139
Warsaw 34, 165
Washington 21, 98, 324
waste see disposability; rubbish
water consumption 79, 80
Welwyn Garden City 235
Westerkamp, Hildegard 5354, 58,
5960
Whyalla 320
Wren, Christopher 239
Wuhan 22
Wuxi 157
Wynn, Steve 151
Yankelovich, Daniel 321
Yeang, Ken 304
York 82, 211
Zagreb 34
Zakynthos 105
zeitgeist
contemporary 910
shifting 1519
zoning laws 31
Zurich 14, 131, 162, 184, 279, 408

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