2. CITIES AND LANGUAGE
Our language always tells about us much more than we would like to tell. 20 years
ago there were no need for someone from Europe to come specially to Russia in
order to understand our local business environment. In order to get a clear idea of
the business “the Russian way” then, it was enough to get acquainted with the
vocabulary that our business papers used. Our current political lexicon describes
the modern civil institutions much better than any civil liberty indices or results
of parliamentary elections. And the language spoken by our engineers will tell
about the effectiveness of the design and construction more than a comparative
analysis of capital and operating costs or used technologies.
And urban planning is of no exception. The language of our urban planning is in
exactly the same state as our cities are – poor and undeveloped. We are just
beginning to master the vocabulary that is usually used in discussions and talks
on the development of cities. When we and our foreign colleagues develop a
strategy or a master plans for Russia, the first barrier, which we have to overcome
at the working site, is the conceptual barrier. We fail to begin the discussion on the
development of any city until we and the city government agree on the common
vocabulary, because it is impossible either to plan or implement the development
of the city using the language, which the city governments are used to.
Therefore, on the one hand, the vocabulary reflects the state of affairs: the poorer
the vocabulary, the worse the situation is. But on the other hand, enlargement of
the vocabulary and improvement of the quality of thinking is the first and the most
significant step towards improvement of the situation. Thus, we decided to present
a short phrase book that includes 30 the most important terms and concepts of
the urban development, which are required for a professional discussion at the
forum and afterwards.
Bulat Stolyarov, IRP Group, General Director
Ivan Kuryachiy, IRP Group, Architect and Urban Planner
4. Aerotropolis
[from Ancient Greek ήρ – air and πολης – city]
Is an urban form whose layout, infrastructure, and economy are centered
on an airport, which offers the businesses the fast connectivity to sup-
pliers, customers, and business partners worldwide. Many of these busi-
nesses are much more dependent on distant suppliers or customers than
to those located nearby. At the core of an aerotropolis is an airport town
surrounded by clusters of air carriage related companies. This structure is
similar in form and function to a traditional metropolis, which contains a
central city core and its commuter-linked suburbs. An aerotropolis encom-
passes a range of commercial facilities supporting both the businesses and
the millions of air travelers who pass through the airport annually. As more
businesses and service providers cluster around airports, an aerotropolis
becomes a major urban destination where air travelers and local residents
can work, sleep, shop, conduct business, be entertained – and all of that
within 15 minutes’ distance from the airport. Airports have evolved as driv-
ers of business and urban development in the 21st century in the same
way as did highways in the 20th century, railroads in the 19th century and
seaports in the 18th century.
3
5. Agglomeration
[from Latin agglomero — mass together]
Is a compact cluster of populated localities, mainly urban ones, in some
places – grown together, united in a complex multi-component dynamic
system with intensive production, transport and cultural links. Agglomera-
tions can be monocentric (formed around one major core city) and polycen-
tric (with several core cities).
See also: Conurbation, Megalopolis, Metropolitan area, Urbanization.
4
6. Brownfield
Are abandoned, inactive or underused industrial areas, which could be re-
used and redeveloped. The territory of such areas may have contaminated
soil, unserviceable buildings, etc., which prevent it from being reused and
redeveloped.
See also: Greenfield.
5
7. Commuter Town (or Bedroom Community,
Bedroom Suburb, Dormitory Town)
Is an urban community that is primarily residential, from which most of the
workforce commutes out to earn their livelihood. Many commuter towns
act as suburbs of a nearby metropolis that workers travel to daily, and many
suburbs are commuter towns. Commuter towns belong to the metropolitan
area of a city, and a ring of commuter towns around an urban area is known
as a commuter belt.
Residents of commuter towns sleep in these neighborhoods, but normally
work elsewhere. These communities have little commercial or industrial ac-
tivity beyond a small amount of retail, oriented toward serving the residents
while out of work.
See also: Commuting.
6
8. Commuting
Is regular travel (daily, as a rule) of citizens between one populated locality
and another: to place of work or study and back.
Commuting also exists between different parts of the same populated lo-
cality (for example, between downtown and outskirts. The emergence of
commuting is connected with the development of modern transport that
allows the citizens to live far away from their places of work. Commuting
has greatly influenced the life style. It has allowed the cities to sprawl up to
previously unreachable sizes, has led to proliferation of suburbs.
Commuting is the main mechanism of formation of new urban agglomera-
tions, a driving force for territorial sprawl of cities and suburbanization. The
influence of commuting on urban development is directly proportional to its
intensiveness, which, in its turn, is determined by the economic potential of
a city and the level of transport system development.
With the advance development of transport, commuting leads to fast and
extensive growth of cities, building of residential neighbourhoods in the
suburbs and emergence of commuter districts. This polarizes the urban
environment greatly, the contrast between the quality of downtown and the
quality of outskirts gets sharp.
See also: Commuter Town, Urban Spraw.
7
9. Conurbation
[from Latin con (cum) – together and urbs - city]
Is a group of adjoining and closely interconnected independent cities that,
through intensive economic, socio-cultural relations between them and
common major utilities (transport, water supply systems) have merged to
form a single entity.
A conurbation is one of components or types of polycentric agglomeration,
comprising cities or urban areas as its composite cores, that are more or
less equal in size and significance. A conurbation does not have any clearly
dominating city or urban area.
Notable conurbations: Rhine-Ruhr (Germany) – 10,1 mln people, Randstadt
(the Netehrlands) – 7,1 mln people.
See also: Agglomeration, Brownfield, Megalopolis, Metropolitan area.
8
10. Digital Home (or Smart House, Intelligent Building, Smart Home)
Is a modern type automated residential building intended to improve the
living conditions and make it more convenient to live in by means of high-
tech devices. The term “Digital Home” implies a system which is able to
recognize a certain number of situations and respond to them properly.
The main peculiarity of an intelligent building is a combination of separate
subsystems into one controlled complex.
A Digital Home is the most advanced concept of interaction of a person
with the living space, which allows the person to set a certain environment
with one command and the system will track the operation modes of all
utilities and devices in accordance with the internal and external factors.
It eliminates the need to use several remote controllers when watching TV,
dozens of switches for lighting, separate units for air ventilation and heat
supply systems, video surveillance and alarm systems, gates, etc.
9
11. FAR: Floor Area Ratio (or FSI: Floor Space Index)
Is the ratio of the total floor area of buildings on a certain location to the size
of the land of that location. FAR is used as a measure of the intensity of the
site being developed.
Formula: Floor area ratio = (Total covered area on all floors of all buildings
on a certain plot)/(Area of the plot).
The majority of Russian cities are characterised by a comparatively low
floor area ratio.
10
12. Green Transport (or Sustainable Transport)
Is any type of transport with low negative impact on the environment. Green
Transport includes: walking and cycling, eco-friendly vehicles, transit ori-
ented development, vehicles rental, as well as urban transport systems that
are fuel-efficient, space-saving and promote healthy lifestyles.
See also: New Urbanism.
11
13. Greenfield
Undeveloped land in a city or rural area either used for agriculture, land-
scape design, or left to naturally evolve. Urban development from scratch
is called Greenfield Development.
Ideally, in terms of sustainable development principles implementation, it is
important to place the site development priorities to brownfields, but due to
redevelopment complexities those priorities are often disregarded.
12
14. IFC (International Financial Center)
Is a global city that is the center for banks and special credit and financial
institutions involved in international currency trading, credit operations and
financial business, securities and gold transactions.
International Financial Centers is an effective international mechanism for
control and management of the world financial flows.
The development level of an IFC is measured by a number of ratings: Glob-
al Financial Centres Index by Z/Yen, Xinhua-Dow Jones International Finan-
cial Centers Development Index , World’s most economically powerful cit-
ies by Forbes, The Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index by MasterCard
Worldwide.
13
15. Megalopolis (or metroplex, megaregion)
[from Ancient Greek μέγας – large and πολης – city]
Super-agglomeration, the largest type of settlement formed by a chain of
roughly adjacent metropolitan areas.
Megalopolis is an extremely urbanized and, as a rule, spontaneously form-
ing type of urban settlement in a number of super-urbanized countries.
Term is rooted to the Old Greek city Megalopoli (Μεγαλόπολη), created as
the result of merging of 35 Arcadian settlements.
Main features of a megalopolis are: linear spatial structure of the settle-
ment, stretched mainly along the car and railroad infrastructure (sometimes
sea shores or rivers); common polycentric structure determined by interac-
tion of adjacent large core-cities of agglomerations which form the mega-
lopolis; ecological disbalance between the human activity and the natural
environment.
Notable megalopolises: BosWash: Boston-Washington (USA) – 44,8 mln
people; Tokaido corridor (Taiheiyō Belt): Tokyo-Osaka-Kobe (Japan) – 82,9
mln people; London-Liverpool (Great Britain) – 30 mln people; Sansan:
San-Francisco-San-Diego (USA) – 40 mln people.
See also: Agglomeration, Conurbation, Metropolitan area, Urbanization.
14
16. Metropolitan area (or metropolis)
[from Ancient Greek μητρόπολις – mother city]
A region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-popu-
lated surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing.
A metropolitan area usually encompasses multiple jurisdictions and mu-
nicipalities: neighbourhoods, townships, cities, exurbs, counties, and even
states. As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metro-
politan areas have become key economic and political regions.
A metropolitan area combines an urban agglomeration (the contiguous,
built-up area) with zones not necessarily urban in character, but closely
bound to the center by employment or other commerce. These outlying
zones are sometimes known as a commuter belt, and may extend well be-
yond the urban zone, to other political entities.
Metropolitan area with population over 10 mln people is defined as megacity.
Metropolization is transformation of a settlement into a network-connected
metropolis. Metropolization is defined as a sequence of actions and events
causing a so far network-absent settlement (specifically – a regional town)
to enter the global space of flows and become a new node in a world city
interlocking network.
See also: Agglomeration, Conurbation, Megalopolis, Urbanization.
15
17. Mono-Town
Is a town or city in which the majority of population works at one or several
(few in number) city-forming enterprises. Such enterprises are, as a rule,
involved in one business.
According to the Russian legislation, city-forming enterprises are legal enti-
ties, staff headcount of which constitutes at least twenty five percent of the
working population of the relevant populated locality.
See also: Shrinking Cities.
16
18. New urbanism
Is an urban design movement, which promotes revival of a small space ef-
fective “pedestrian” city (or a district) as opposed to “automobile” suburbs.
The main principles of New Urbanism is rejection of “suburban” life style.
Cities and districts built under the principles of New Urbanism are small
and space effective, where all the services required by citizens are located
within a walking distance. New Urbanism gives preference to bicycles and
walking, not cars.
New Urbanism 10 key principles are: walking accessibility, interconnect-
ed streets, multitasking functionality of buildings and diversity of social
groups, diversified housing, high quality of architecture and urban planning,
traditional neighbourhood structure, high density of buildings in order to
facilitate walking accessibility, green transport, sustainable development,
high quality of life.
See also: Green Transport, Quality of Life.
17
19. Place Branding or Destination Branding (including Place
Marketing and Place Promotion)
There is a competition between the territories just like between compa-
nies and organizations. Therefore they require marketing and branding to
the same extent the business ventures do. Branding may relate to a city,
region, country or separate tourist destinations, which compete for tour-
ists, investors and residents. Destination branding is based on a strategic
approach to the public relations, which implies that a change of image is
a continuous, integral, systematic, consistent and large-scale process that
requires continuous efforts – much more profound than a simple change of
logo or tagline.
18
20. PPP: Public–Private Partnership (P3 or P3)
Is a constructive cooperation between government and business not only
in terms of economy, but also in terms of politics, culture, science, etc.
The main attributes of Public-Private Partnerships in the narrow (economic)
sense are:
parties to a PPP are a government and a private sector company;
mutual relationships and cooperation of the parties are fixed on official
and legal basis;
cooperation of the parties is equal;
PPP has a clear socially oriented character;
during implementation of projects based on PPP the resources and in-
vestments of the parties are consolidated;
financial risks and costs, as well as the results obtained, are distributed
between the parties in a previously agreed ratio.
As a rule, PPP implies that it is not the government that shall get involved in
projects of a business, but otherwise – the government invites the business
to participate in implementation of socially relevant projects.
See also: Public Goods, Public Space.
19
21. Public Goods
Are goods with the following criteria:
nonexcludability criterion: it is almost impossible to exclude one person
from the circle of consumers of a certain good;
nonrivalrous consumption: consumption of a good by one person does
not limit the possibility of using it by another person;
indivisibility criterion: a good cannot be divided into separate compo-
nents.
Public goods are not like private goods – it is almost impossible to sell or
purchase them. Individual consumers use the effects of public goods with
pleasure, but avoid paying for them; in this case they become “free-riders”–
a subject of a separate economic theory.
Examples of public goods: a lighthouse, showing the way to the sailors
during the night time, which gives light to everyone who can see it; internal
and external security of a country is accessible to all within the territory of
that country; public spaces accessible to all residents and visitors of a city.
Pure public goods are few in number, and the mixed ones, including the
attributes of both the public and the private goods, can be seen more fre-
quently. An example of a pure public good is common resources like pure
water and fish in the sea.
See also: Public-Private Partnership, Public Spaces.
20
22. Public Space
Is an open and undeveloped urban space, equally accessible to all residents
and visitors, regardless of their political, socio-economic background, eth-
nicity or other restrictions. Thus, a public space in a city is a public good.
Public spaces include streets and roads, city parks and public gardens,
green areas. This term can relate both to public spaces and private areas, in
respect of which public easement applies. In the latter case a public space
becomes a subject of Public-Private Partnership.
See also: Public-Private Partnership, Public Goods.
21
23. Quality of life
Is evaluation of the general well-being of individuals and societies. It is a
much wider notion than material security; it implies involvement in evalua-
tion of not only such objective factors as quality of air and water, remote-
ness of resorts or availability of cultural facilities, but also the deeply subjec-
tive factors, such as happiness, for example. Quality of life directly depends
on the state of contacts and communications in the society, adherence to
rights and liberties, diversity of sports and cultural leisure, level of educa-
tion and healthcare, possibilities for social growth and many other factors.
Transition to post-industrial society is accompanied by increasing attention
to non-material aspects of life quality.
Quality of life is measured by a number of indexes: Human Development In-
dex (HDI) used by the United Nations Development Programme; Economist
Intelligence Unit’s Quality-of-life index; Mercer’s Quality of Living Reports.
22
24. Shrinking Cities
Are cities that are experiencing population loss, caused by various fac-
tors – from macroeconomic processes and demographic trends to the level
of housing availability, environmental problems, changes in the state or ad-
ministrative structure, etc.
Decrease of population is the main indicator of urban shrinking, but those
two notions are not similar in every way as shrinking has a wider range of
manifestations.
Post-industrial shrinking cities, which used to be manufacturing and pro-
duction centers, have to sustain a large-scale infrastructure – the legacy
of the industrial period. With the decreasing population it becomes much
harder for a city to sustain extra infrastructures.
See also: Mono-town.
23
25. Smart Growth (or Urban Intensification, Compact City)
Is an urban planning theory for development of an appropriate model of
sustainable urban development, which is aimed at avoiding urban sprawl
(see Urban Sprawl).
It is opposed to the paradigm of urban extensification which prevailed dur-
ing the stage of industrial development of cities and settlement systems.
The new model is aimed at preservation and cultivation of the regional
specifics and peculiarities of cities and their certain parts (urban planning
units); expansion of freedom of movement, particularly by means of alter-
native transport systems; diversification of residential and industrial com-
plexes, service sector and social infrastructure. Application of this theory’s
principles is based on efficient balance between the costs and the develop-
ment priorities. Designers of transport systems and public spaces started
to offer the idea of compact cities and settlements in the early 1970’s. With
the expansion of movement for preservation and economically efficient use
of natural resources the number of supporters of the urban intensification
theory is constantly growing.
See also: Green Transport, New Urbanism, Urban Sprawl.
24
26. Software/ Hardware
Software – organizational solutions, measures and institutions, allowing
to effectively use infrastructural assets within the urban area (for example,
educational program for a university, marketing services for a resort, reper-
tory for a theater).
Hardware – capital construction projects (buildings, infrastructures, ser-
vice facilities).
Sustainable development is connected with the imperative of the synergy
between functioning of software and hardware in a city. For that purpose
owners of “soft” solutions act as customers and/or consultants in develop-
ment of the required projects of capital construction. The opposite policy
implies a significant risk of creating White Elephants.
See also: Top-Down and Bottom-Up, White Elephant.
25
27. Stakeholders
Are legal entities or individuals, on whose decisions, opinions and actions
the process of implementation of a project depends, and which directly or
indirectly influence it.
Stakeholders may have interest in financial, political, social and other types
of results of the project implementation.
See also: Strategic Urban Planning, Top-Down and Bottom-Up.
26
28. Strategic Urban Planning
Is a combination of strategic and spatial planning based on principles of
sustainable development. Elaboration of the strategy (for a region, city, dis-
trict) is the basic component of strategic planning as it implies determina-
tion of a preliminarily scheduled sequence of objectives implementation,
projects execution and carrying out of measures.
The fundamental attributes of strategic planning are both the analysis of
internal capabilities of the object under review and the work with external
factors.
Strategic planning is not only a means of combining the efforts of authori-
ties, business and citizens in order to find solutions of the most pressing
development problems, but also a mechanism of structuring and consoli-
dation of local communities, assistance to formation of open-to-dialogue
bottom structures with involvement of the population and business, which,
in representing the interests of the main parties concerned, shall take part
in the development and implementation of the strategic plan.
See also: Stakeholder, Top-Down and Bottom-Up.
27
29. Top-Down and Bottom-Up
[from Latin agglomero — mass together]
Top-Down Planning is an urban planning model mainly focused on keep-
ing the decision making process at the level of government authorities. The
main goals are determined by government authorities with minimal partici-
pation of other parties concerned. The main attributes of the model: long-
term nature of planning, clear determination of development directions, es-
tablishment of standards, control. The main goals also include protection
of public interests and determination of obligations to the citizens of a city.
Bottom-Up Planning is an urban planning model implying large-scale in-
volvement of various concerned groups in the process of solutions elabo-
ration and decision-making. The model has a number of advantages: as a
rule, it secures insignificant, but rapid results; it is easier to recognize the
expectations of the public and the market; the projects are accompanied
by a high level of loyalty of the parties concerned.
See also: Stakeholders.
28
30. Urban Sprawl
Is a spontaneous spreading of a city due to poor control of housing devel-
opment of the adjoining areas.
It is a rapid sprawl of territories of large cities in the process of construction
of housing, shopping centers and other facilities far from downtown. Quite
often it occurs spontaneously, without making land-use plans and city ad-
ministration involvement.
It is a peculiar phenomenon in developing countries with high rate or urban-
ization, which particularly occurs due to that process.
Urban sprawl results in the loss of agricultural lands and natural sites, often
leading to aggravation of sanitary conditions in cities and hinders planning
of their further development.
See also: Commuting, Commuter Town.
29
31. Urbanization (or Urbanisation, Urban Drift)
[from Latin urbanus – belonging to city]
Is a historical process of increasing the role of cities in the development
of society. Urbanization is preconditioned by the development of indus-
try in cities, their cultural and political functions, extension of the territorial
division of labour. It is characterized by the inflow of rural population and
the increasing commuting of population from rural areas and the adjacent
small towns to large cities (to the places of work, for cultural and household
needs, etc.). The opposite process is called ruralization.
Urbanization process is driven by:
inclusion of rural settlements into the city area;
transformation of rural settlement to urban ones;
creation of widespread suburban areas;
migration from rural to urban areas.
30
32. White Elephant
Is the term for a pseudo-valuable possession, maintenance cost of which
significantly exceeds its usefulness. A “White Elephant” can denote an ob-
ject, scheme, business venture, etc.
The term derives from Ancient Siam: the king would present to one of its
courtiers a white elephant as a gift, and the courtier had had to keep and
maintain the animal, as a result of which he got ruined. Thus, the monarch
would get rid of the courtier.
31
33. 4D BIM (Building Information Modeling)
[from Latin agglomero — mass together]
Iuses 3D CAD (computer aided design) or 3D modeling and links the indi-
vidual 3D parts or assemblies with the project delivery timeline to add time,
the fourth dimension, to the BIM.
4D BIM provides construction project visualization, CPM scheduling, sup-
ply chain management, cost management, risk management, interoperabil-
ity with 3D CAD and industry standard project management software all
focused on virtual construction engineering simulation.
The aim of 4D BIM is to deliver a technological support to the companies,
involved in project implementation; it meets the dynamics and the demands
of the construction industry. 4D BIM software is the tool of choice enabling
users to explore the options, manage the solutions and meet the current
construction challenges based on the analysis of alternative options.
32
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