The document discusses mobile slumization, or the growth of slums and mobility issues within them. It begins by defining slums and their characteristics, noting they often lack formal infrastructure and connections to the larger city. Three case studies are examined - Nezahualcoyotl in Mexico City, Paraisopolis in Sao Paulo, and Gulensu in Istanbul. All have grown rapidly but face mobility challenges due to terrain, infrastructure issues, or lack of integration into the larger public transit network. While private vehicles are increasingly used in slums, sustainable public transit is needed to better connect slums and promote equality and environmental goals in fast-growing cities.
Presentation by Sir Mark Walport at the Foundation for Science and Technology discussion on 'Cities of the future – science, innovation and city management', June 2013
Ch11, Fellman, urban geography, w topics and slides added, classroom use onlyFulton County Schools
AP Human Geography, Northview High School, Fulton County Schools, Classroom Use, Urban Geography, Human Geography, Eleventh Edition, Fellman, Bjelland, Getis, Chapter 11, Urban, Urban-Systems, Urbanization, High School, Advanced-Placement, College-Board
Presentation by Sir Mark Walport at the Foundation for Science and Technology discussion on 'Cities of the future – science, innovation and city management', June 2013
Ch11, Fellman, urban geography, w topics and slides added, classroom use onlyFulton County Schools
AP Human Geography, Northview High School, Fulton County Schools, Classroom Use, Urban Geography, Human Geography, Eleventh Edition, Fellman, Bjelland, Getis, Chapter 11, Urban, Urban-Systems, Urbanization, High School, Advanced-Placement, College-Board
Urban Futures for Architects - presented to Introduction to Architecture class at University of Kansas School of Architecture 22 Sep 2011. Topics covered:
1 How Do You Think About the Future? an overview of futures thinking, the change process
2 Big Urban Futures. demography, limited resources affecting 21st c cities
3 Architecture, Language and You. Places you can see the future today
Пабло Альярд "Городское развитие в условиях нехватки ресурсов. Уроки латиноам...mosurban
Pablo Allard "Making City from ScarCity. Lessons from Latin American cities"
Пабло Альярд "Городское развитие в условиях нехватки ресурсов. Уроки латиноамериканских городов"
The Living Cities : the Human Smart CitiesCarlos Moreno
Inta Hanoi 37 presentation
By Professor Carlos Moreno
Scientific Adviser of the CEO COFELY INEO, GDF SUEZ Group.
Member of the Scientific Council of the French High Council for Strategic Education and Research
EIP Water Action Group City Blueprints September 2013EIP Water
The City Blueprint for Water is a baseline assessment of the sustainability of water management in a city (or other dominantly urban region). The result allows a city to quickly understand how advanced it is in sustainable water management and enables it to compare its status with other leading cities.
This project is one of nine Action Groups selected by the European Commission as an initial EIP Water Action Group.
Sixteen cities/regions have participated so far (August 2013) and many others are being approached. This is an opportunity to take part in a new and innovative programme to help improve city-level water stewardship, in the spirit of smart and sustainable cities.
The basic output is a simple radar chart as shown in the example from Melbourne at the top of this page. The chart provides a quick visual representation of the city’s water stewardship status, and is a tool for easy comparison between cities. It covers 24 key water-related subject areas, such as water footprint, water scarcity, water quality, drinking water availability and wastewater management.
A City Blueprint is just the first step on a journey of communication and cooperation between cities. A key intention is to encourage cities to share their best practices with others, and for all to improve. A website will be developed to facilitate this. All cities are different. Some are advanced in a few or many subject areas. Some have much work to do. The aim is not to highlight failings, but instead to help a city identify areas of focus for improvement, and to learn from the best practices of others, as well as demonstrating and sharing their own best practices.
Urban Futures for Architects - presented to Introduction to Architecture class at University of Kansas School of Architecture 22 Sep 2011. Topics covered:
1 How Do You Think About the Future? an overview of futures thinking, the change process
2 Big Urban Futures. demography, limited resources affecting 21st c cities
3 Architecture, Language and You. Places you can see the future today
Пабло Альярд "Городское развитие в условиях нехватки ресурсов. Уроки латиноам...mosurban
Pablo Allard "Making City from ScarCity. Lessons from Latin American cities"
Пабло Альярд "Городское развитие в условиях нехватки ресурсов. Уроки латиноамериканских городов"
The Living Cities : the Human Smart CitiesCarlos Moreno
Inta Hanoi 37 presentation
By Professor Carlos Moreno
Scientific Adviser of the CEO COFELY INEO, GDF SUEZ Group.
Member of the Scientific Council of the French High Council for Strategic Education and Research
EIP Water Action Group City Blueprints September 2013EIP Water
The City Blueprint for Water is a baseline assessment of the sustainability of water management in a city (or other dominantly urban region). The result allows a city to quickly understand how advanced it is in sustainable water management and enables it to compare its status with other leading cities.
This project is one of nine Action Groups selected by the European Commission as an initial EIP Water Action Group.
Sixteen cities/regions have participated so far (August 2013) and many others are being approached. This is an opportunity to take part in a new and innovative programme to help improve city-level water stewardship, in the spirit of smart and sustainable cities.
The basic output is a simple radar chart as shown in the example from Melbourne at the top of this page. The chart provides a quick visual representation of the city’s water stewardship status, and is a tool for easy comparison between cities. It covers 24 key water-related subject areas, such as water footprint, water scarcity, water quality, drinking water availability and wastewater management.
A City Blueprint is just the first step on a journey of communication and cooperation between cities. A key intention is to encourage cities to share their best practices with others, and for all to improve. A website will be developed to facilitate this. All cities are different. Some are advanced in a few or many subject areas. Some have much work to do. The aim is not to highlight failings, but instead to help a city identify areas of focus for improvement, and to learn from the best practices of others, as well as demonstrating and sharing their own best practices.
Many of us live in cities, in sprawling, dense and socially diverse places that are the fabric of our work, families and communities. Within our nations, cities form the urban hub linking us with the rural environments that provide the vital food and water systems on which we depend. Across the world, some 600 cities form the backbone of today’s global economy.
Cities have long birthed advances in the sciences, arts, human rights, business and government. Millions of people have moved to cities for better lives or services unavailable elsewhere.
But as cities grow, so are problems stemming from stretched transportation, energy and water infrastructure.
Scanned by CamScannerThe shantytowns in Lagos are heavil.docxkenjordan97598
Scanned by CamScanner
The shantytowns in Lagos are heavily concentrated and highly polluted. Photo by Tamira.
In this unit we finished our studies of urbanism which is a good point to recap and analyzed the transformation of our cities. We can identify three major events of transformation. First, is the industrialization in the late 1800’s. The introduction of new building materials such as iron help build higher structures changing the typology of the cities. The second event occurred after WWII and it's known as suburbanization of the city. The third and actual event is the decentralization of the urban fabric forming megacities.
In this unit we also learn that the actual conditions of our postindustrial society is threatened with globalization and hyper-network environments. Scholars claim that the “post industrial economy” is what defines the urban growth. In order to achieve this task, economies rely upon the distribution of systems that feed a global network of data and exchange. In the 1980’s the urban thinker Manual Castells did an analysis of the complex interaction between technology society and space. In his studies, he explains the importance of space and defines it as an expression of our society. Space becomes super complex to understand in this information era which questions the need for a physical space of congregation.
Many scholars have been studying post modern societies and have created concepts such as “Global city” by Saskia Sassen and “Technopoles” by Allan J. Scott. In order to understand this megacities of our era, Robert Fishman, introduced concepts such as; technoburb to describe the reorganization of urban space. This same idea is defined by Garneau the “Edge city” in which Orange County is one of his study grounds.
Now at days, there are many events happening that are affecting the urban organization. These transformations have taken two faces that are expressed in the megacities. The first one is the decentralization and globalization of cities such as; New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and London. These cities are threatened with placelessness of post modern architecture and the idea of a non-place culture whose identity is not link to any specific society. The other face of the megacities are when the global economy puts you in a bad spot and you become the producer for the consumerist megacities. In George Parker’s article, “Decoding The Chaos Of Lagos,” we have a clear example how this mega city is suffering all the negative aspects of our era where people work only to earn about 2 or 3 dollars per day with poor quality living environment.
Questions:
1. How do you think that globalization and network societies have shaped the urban sprawl of Los Angeles?
2. Taking the place of an urban developer, how would you suggest to fix the differences between the two types of megacities like Lagos Nigeria to Orange County?
Global Capitals and Network Societies
We are just about at the end of our se.
This presentation is one of several topics for an Urban Renewal Introductory Course implemented by the Executive Education Program of the Ateneo School of Government, with its tie-up with the DILG -- given to DILG, House of Representatives, and representatives from the various 17 local city governments of Metro Manila assigned to Urban Development and Planning. The end objective is to be able to identify, plan, and implement an Urban Renewal Project in each city, taking into account lessons and principles learned from the overall course.
Paper looks at the current status of cities and urbanization, issues faced by urban sector and suggest strategies to make cities more smart and sustainable.
MULTIFUNCTIONAL AND MULTILAYER DIMENSIONS OF EVOLVING CITIES FOR A SUSTAINAB...Sai Bhaskar Reddy Nakka
Cities are growing at a rapid phase, due to exponential growth of populations all over the world. The world population might stabilize by 2070 after reaching the peak population levels of about 9 billion. Already the urban population, living mostly in cities has reached 50% of the world population. Cities in the last few centuries have evolved coping with changes in social, economic, cultural, aesthetics, utility, historical, political, natural and environmental factors. There is always an interface between the interests of old and new generations of people sharing the same space. The buildings have more life than the people living in them. Each building is at least able to provide space for at least two generations. The comfort levels of one generation and the next are different in same space. There are often changes brought with time in any building. Similarly the infrastructure is also changing at a rapid phase as the transportation means and systems are changing. The access to power, drinking water, and open spaces for cultural and social events, educational institutions, markets, etc. also impacts the living space. The security and basic amenities are the main factors of consideration for not moving away from the congested cities. There is always an overlap of old and new adaptation factors, creating resilience for coexistence. The remembrance of a space and events in once own life time impact the people, and they love to continue in similar space. There is a kind of energy that one gets, while returning to the same space, it is often seen that the old people prefer living in the space they are used to and they often live longer too. There are emotions too acting up on the life of the people. Considering all the above factors, each city can be considered a single organism, having its own identity and also there are various diverse spaces within it. It is like a human body single living things, but various parts of the human body function for the happiness of the whole. There is a need to understand multifunctional and multilayer dimensions of the cities, for making a sustainable living in the cities.
Transportation Technology for the 21st CenturyIBM Government
Learn about an innovative approach to improving transportation technology by marrying information with global air, rail, road, and water transportation networks. The result is true globalization, and the first step is streamlining transportation logistics.
2. MOBILE SLUMIZATION
ATILLA VREDENBURG
Introduction
The rapidly growing megacities due to migration from rural to urban areas show a fast
development. The sprawling city became a phenomenon. It shows a fast and cheap way to
accommodate a rapidly growing population. This extraordinary growth creates large slums,
that are car depended and are insufficiently connected to the formal city. This unplanned,
emerging urbanism shows a lack of design and control by not looking at the bigger scale by
considering the environment and the future. We could describe it as a kind of “Unsustainable
Urbanism”. This kind of unplanned urbanization makes the connections/distances between
slums and the formal city vague. While the population is still growing in the cheaper
unplanned areas, like slums, large investments for infrastructure/mobilization are usually
made in the city centre, where the global financial market dominates the developments.
Our urban planning system is based on the automobile, business and real-estate, but it is
never enough to keep up with the population that keeps on growing. Sustainable public
mobility systems are the future to make cities an equal and environmental friendly place.
Chris Borroni-Bird the director of Advanced Technology Vehicle Concepts of GM gives an
interesting example about thinking in a other way than what we are used too.
“In the past 100 years, the automobile has shaped the city rather than cities shaping the
automobile. In the future the opposite will be the case: cities will start to shape mobility.”
(Chris Borroni-Bird, Director of Advanced Technology Vehicle Concepts, GM”)
This quotation not only shows a kind of awareness about the existing planning system, but it
also makes a starting point for a subject that should be researched. The kind of transportation
systems determines our behavior. We take the car because the city is built on automobiles.
Slums are spontaneously created urban areas where regular mobility systems do not fit
in. Mobility problems are a part of daily life in these areas of the city, but which aspects
determines these problems? Is it only, because the slum is built on an steep slope? Or are local
authorities dismissing the existence of slums? What if a innovative sustainable public transport
systems would connect the slums with the formal city? Will this give the slum an equal status
and will this change the behavior of the population? What kind of an effect will this have
on further developments in the slums? To get a picture about how slums are organized and
placed in the Megacity[1], I will research three settlements in three different cities, which all
of them have a long history and had a different kind of growth (Mexico City, Sao Paulo and
Istanbul).
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CHAPTER 1
Cities/Slums and increasing population
According to the United Nations study, more than one billion people in third world countries
now live in slums. The future developments estimate an increase of almost four billion
inhabitants till 2030. Slums will get larger and more important for the existing growing cities.
The term “Slum” is used a lot in researches, but what does this word mean? Where does the
term come from and what are the characteristics? To define the term ‘slum’ we have to go
back to the 18th century. The origin of the word slum is thought to be a Irish phrase ‘Slomé ‘,
a destitute place. It referred to the dark side of town, where a cluster of poor people and
frequently criminals and prostitutes were living in a densely populated area. The English
described the physical characteristics, like poorly constructed informal dwellings, areas
of gloomy narrow streets and alleyways. Forty years later the US Department of Labor
came with its first scientific researched definition about the slum. After a research on four
large cities in America, the conclusion was ‘’an area of dirty back streets, especially when
inhabited by an squalid and criminal population.’’ Now almost 100 years later the United
Nation characterized a slum as overcrowded, poor or informal housing, inadequate access
to safe water and sanitation and insecurity of tenure in peri-urban shantytowns and inner-
city tenements. From 1800 till now the term and the classic characteristics did not change:
slums are still overcrowded destitute informal areas in cities, which exist out of a poor
population, poor accessibility and mobility. By lack of political will borders between the
formal and informal city arise, slum dwellers set up their own communities. Slums can actually
be described as innovative places where the poorer population tries to set up a life without
help from the local authorities. Slums are cities within cities, but in which both of them, formal
and informal city, are getting more dependent of each other. Unfortunately that after two
decades this phenomenon is still on the globe where big differences and separations between
population classes are still strongly visible.
Besides the classic characteristics of slums, a large difference in scale is visible. Today’s urban
growth in some slums is so high, that local authorities began to change their behavior opposed
to unregulated urban settlements. The economical and residential importance of existing
Megaslums[2] is growing, which interests the authorities and vanishes the separation between
informal and formal city. The population rate per slum or the slum population per country
varies a lot. There are more than 200.000 slums on the globe, which vary in population but
also in mobility systems and location. Slums can exist from a few hundred to a couple of
million people. The differences in population rate are caused by the kind of development. In
the large cities of South Asia (Mumbai, Karachi and Kolkata) a total of 15.000 small squatter
settlements, obviously shows a lower population rate per slum than in Mexico City with a
contiguously belt of linked slums, which households a couple of million people.
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CHAPTER 2
Mobility issues and politics
What if private car use would be excluded in the three cities discussed in this paper and in
replacement sustainable public transportation would be the new mobility system, what kind of
new values besides only its functional could this bring to the cities? In the beginning phase of
the population growth, public transportation was not the priority of developing cities. Cities
were dominated by private cars and still are. Sao Paulo and Mexico City are cities with one
of the highest private car ownership (368 and 360 per 1000 residents). Istanbul for instance
has a low car ownership compared with the other two, an estimated 139 per 1000 residents.
This does not mean that the public transportation system in Istanbul is more developed.
Actually out of these three cities, Istanbul has the poorest public transportation system, leaving
many areas of the city inaccessible. Especially areas with poor people who cannot afford
a car are suffering. The separator in society in this story is the car. You have a group of the
society who can afford a car and the rest of the society who cannot. Sao Paulo and Mexico
City has a poor public transport system also. Inhabitants are forced to use the car, because
the cities are built on car lanes. The politicians, urban planners and architects are the ones
that can be blamed for this behavior and urban design. A nice example of a ‘wrong’ project
is “Secundo Pisto” of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (mayor Mexico City 2000-2005). He
introduced an elevated highway through the middle of the city, so that only a small part of
the inhabitants could use this highway to drive to the rich suburbs. For the largest group of
inhabitants nothing changed, but forty percent of the city’s total budget was spent.
Fig. 1. ‘Private car ownership per 1000 Fig. 2. ‘System length (km) metro/railway’’.
residents’. Source: Urban Age: Istanbul city Source: Urban Age: Istanbul city of
of intersections. 2009 intersections. 2009
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The opposite was done in Bogota, Columbia. Bogota was one of the worst case scenario of
poverty: pollution, criminality and corruption were all part of a city in urban decay. After
1990, the two mayors, Enrique Penalosa and Antanas Mockus arise with a clear vision. Their
vision was “equality by urban design’, as separation between rich and poor was dominating.
A revolution in the whole corrupt political system took place, with a mission, which was
changing the behavior of the citizens and politicians of the city, by giving them high quality
public space. To accomplish this mission the cities mobility system had to change, car lanes
transformed into fast and cleaner bus lanes (Transmilenio) accessible for every citizen. By
expending public transportation systems and restricting private car use, equality was partly
created. Rich and poor began to use public transportation and simultaneously by decreasing
car lanes pollution decreased and public space was created for social activities. In the
three cities discussed in this paper projects such as in Bogota are getting slowly shape. The
Metrobus in Istanbul and the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) in Mexico City and Sao Paulo are arising.
These are large scale public transportation projects on the metropolitan scale. Governments
are making responsible decisions, towards the environment and citizens, but still most of the
poorer parts (slums) of the cities are still suffering.
CHAPTER 3
Mexico City, Sao Paulo and Istanbul
According to the research of the “London School of Economics,” the population growth in
Mexico City, Sao Paulo and Istanbul had a relatively slow growth in the first half of the
20th century. After 1950 an abrupt acceleration of population growth began. Due to lack
of a good planning systems, massive rural poverty brought unregulated urban settlements.
The Megaslums in Mexico City with more than one million inhabitants are getting important
business centers for low and middle income groups. Because of the size of such a slum
governments are taking slowly more care of these areas. The smaller settlements in Istanbul
and Sao Paulo (10.000-100.000 inhabitants) as compared to Mexico City are not considered
as important, because of their size. They do not have such an important economical value for
Fig. 3. ‘Population growth urban
age cities’. Source: Urban Age:
Istanbul city of intersections. 2009
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Fig. 4. ‘Large slum Paraisopolis next to wealthy district” . Source: Urban Age conference Sao
the city. But when all these little settlement are added to each other a couple of million slum
dwellers are getting part of the economical interest of the cities. It should not matter what size
a slum is, actually every citizen or area of a city has a economical importance. We have to
look at the total number of inhabitants and consider the whole city, slum or wealthy suburb as
equal.
In Mexico City the flat and dry plateaus on the north and the hills on the east side are the
poor parts of the city, which are located outside the administrative city. Large chemical
companies and open air dumps just like in Santa Cruz Mege Hualco were perfect locations
for this kind of settlements. Because of the enormous growth of Mexico City from 2.9 million
inhabitants in 1950 to 20 million in 2010, the city had to expand. First older settlements
in the inner-city became slums, but to accommodate the larger group, enormous peripheral
slums arose. Over a million people now live in places where only 10,000 people used to
live before. Some developers saw big opportunities in this explosive growth of the poor
population. On cheap land mass production of informal settlements outside the administrative
city were built up for the poorer population. These settlements arose next to chemical
companies with limited or no resources, no means of public transportation, no electricity and
with poor water resources.
Sao Paulo with its 2.4 million inhabitants in 1950 has a different story when it comes to the
slums. The first large population growth after 1950 brought peripheral slums on floodplains
and along railways outside the administrative city. After 1970 the growth accelerated.
Informal housing began to move in to the inner-city. The distances between wealthy and
poor districts began to get smaller. Unprotected empty urban lots inside the inner-city where
building was difficult were immediately occupied by slum dwellers. Limited interest of the
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formal market for this lots brought rich and poor next to each other, but strong separations by
large concrete walls were made. A large amount of empty lots resulted in small settlements
all over the city. Now the city has a total population of 20 million inhabitants, which is still
increasing. The inner-city slums are full and expansion is impossible, so peripheral slums are
growing again.
Istanbul has a large amount of small settlements on the Asian side of the city. The European
side had a fast economic growth, but the Asian side had arrears and was more planned
for industrial use. Along the motorways from Istanbul to Ankara, publicly owned lots in the
periphery of the city were designated and used for industrial purposes. Since 1950, these
industrial zones are being slowly surrounded by slums. Although this part was within the
borders of the administrative city, local authorities had no supervision. Informal construction of
housing was allowed to develop, in exchange of the votes that were cast for the supporting
politicians. That is why most of the slums compared with slums in Mexico City and Sao Paulo
have sewage systems and sometimes even have paved roads. Now 60 years later, Istanbul’s
population is still growing. The expanding city to the east side is changing the location of
the slums on the city map. Peripheral slums are now becoming the inner-city slums, and the
local authorities are continuing to fail to address the problem and offer solutions to this
unauthorized and unplanned substandard construction.
CHAPTER 4
Nezahualcoyotl / Paraisopolis/ Gulensu
With a population rate of 1.3 million, Netzahualcoyotl is located on the border of the
administrative city of Mexico City (see Appx 1.). The first settlements came around 1950, a
decentralized place was getting urbanized without any connection to the inner-city. People
used to walk or take a bike for their daily needs. After 1973, the government began to put in
place drainage systems and paved roads in a new orthogonal urban structure. This changed
the behavior of the inhabitants, and people began to use the car. Private car ownership
increased and the district began to attract more people with low income, with or without
a car. The metro system of Mexico City is situated within the borders of the administrative
city. The only metro system that connects Netzahualcoyotl with the inner-city is located on the
southern border. This leaves the biggest section of the district unconnected to the city center
with a sustainable transportation system.
Paraisopolis (Sao Paulo: see Appx 2.) is a smaller slum with an estimated inhabitants of
80.000. It had a fast growth after 1970 and is surrounded by a well served wealthy area.
The problem of this area is different, because of its high density and narrow roadways.
Having a car is almost impossible. Actually this is good; people are not used to cars. Public
transportation is very important for this area but creating a sustainable public transportation
system in such a difficult place is not easy to accomplish . The most important kind of public
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transport at this moment is the bus system. Some streets have been redesigned making the
demolition of existing dwellings necessary.
Gulensu (Istanbul: see Appx 3.) is actually a slum that kept its original form since 1945. A
regional motorway from Istanbul to Ankara crosses through Gulensu. The south side is densely
urbanized and a new metro system is being developed. The northern part of the area is
connected to a green zone, which is free from further development. Gulense with its 60.000
inhabitants follows the organic form of the hill, where it is built on. Winding steep but paved
roads in between the dwellings make accessibility almost impossible to implement a standard
public transportation solution. Therefore, private car ownership is considered as an attractive
alternative to public transportation.
CHAPTER 5
Conclusion / new concept for mobile slumization
In this paper I tried to show the lack of interest towards slums. Unfortunately most large cities
in the developing countries have slums. The second topic in this paper is about mobility issues.
At one side there is an increase of the poorer population and simultaneously the city that
is built on a expensive and polluting automobile. Urban planners, architects and politicians
are designing cities where business or automobile is more important than the quality of life.
The high income groups always have access to high quality private and public spaces and
parks, but the poor have no alternative. The neighborhood where the poor live in is the
most important place for leisure. The kind of citizens who are living in the city determines
the development of a place. Due to the estimations of the United Nations the increase of
the poorer population will bring larger areas of cheap housing in cities. This is reality and
all professionals who deal with city planning have to change their behavior. Every design,
decision and development has to correspondent with its surroundings and society.
To establish the new poor population by migration, professionals and politicians in the
developing cities have to make decisions. In some cities wrong decisions are made. Slums are
getting demolished and different squatter social housing projects in the peripheries are the
solution of the governments. Private developers are seeing a chance to build in a cheap and
profitable way. They do not really think about the quality of live and the kind of mobility
system. A car road is putted in to connect with the inner-city. The largest part of the poorer
population cannot afford a car, so people have to commute for a longer time. A vision
about mobility and environment is dismissed. Actually this phenomenon is nowadays visible
in Istanbul. The problem you get is the same as in Mexico City, which started years ago.
Growing cities have to learn and think together. Exchange of knowledge is valuable for all
of us. New settlements only for housing purpose are a waste of money. Why build new when
there are already slums which can be upgraded. Governments are choosing for the easy way.
If new settlements could be more than only housing like a mix of new parks, business centers a
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self-sufficient place, than it would be an improvement on the scale of the city.
When comparing the physical differences between the slums in three cities similarities
between the slums in Mexico City and Istanbul become visible. In some parts of the city,
governments took initiative to built paved roads with different purposes, but still without a
well connected public transportation system. Sao Paulo’s slums are built with narrow, winding
alleys, almost only accessible by pedestrians. There are physical, historical and economical
differences between the cities, but all of them deal with similar kinds of problems. One
of the biggest problem is mobility. Connecting different areas of the cities by developing
sustainable transportation systems should be the highest priority. The average projected
growth till 2025 per hour is estimated on 15 people, of which most will live in the poorer
unconnected districts like slums.
My vision for ‘’mobile slumization’’ is that large paved roads and cars do not fit in the image
of a slum. An overcrowded area with a poor population needs a cheap and a compact
sustainable mobility system. What I already showed before is that the public space in the
poorer areas are important for daily activities, but the public space in some slums are paved
roads (Netzahualcoyotl ), as solution to bring down traffic jams of the city. Here governments
did not think about the needs of the slum dwellers itself. Because the public space where slum
dwellers live in is so important, governments should give priority to a compact sustainable
mobility system and to the needs of the slum dwellers. With this way of thinking the quality of
live could improve substantially. It should not matter if the slum is built on a slope or along a
floodplain. Recent projects like in Caracas show how a cable system on a steep slope connects
the slum with the city. Innovation and behavior change towards slums inside the government
and urban planners are necessary to accomplish such a kind of project. Putting the cars out
means less pollution, streets can get another function (urban gardening – self-sufficient) and
quality of live will increase. This will also change the image of a slum. It will get a kind of
commercial value ‘’the most environmentally friendly place of the city”. This can attract new
people and even green companies, who want to show that the environment is important for
the globe. Just like in Bogota this has to begin on a little scale to change the behavior of the
people and governments slowly on.
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APPENDIX 1
Fig. 5. ‘structure Nezahualcoyotl’. Source: Google earth Pro. 2011
Nezahualcoyotl - Mexico City
Inhabitants: 1.300.000
Fig. 6. ‘Mexico city build-up area’. Source: Urban Age: Istanbul city of intersections. 2009
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APPENDIX 2
Fig. 7. ‘structure Paraisopolis’. Source: Google earth Pro. 2011
Paraisopolis - Sao Paulo
Inhabitants: 80.000
Fig. 8. ‘Sao Paulo build-up area’. Source: Urban Age: Istanbul city of intersections. 2009
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APPENDIX 3
Fig. 9. ‘structure Gulensu’. Source: Google earth Pro. 2011
Gulensu - Istanbul
Inhabitants: 60.000
Fig. 10. ‘Istanbul build-up area’. Source: Urban Age: Istanbul city of intersections. 2009
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NOTES
1. see - Forum for the Future: Megacities on the move. 2010, (pp 6)
2. see - Davis, Mike: Planet of Slums. London: Vero, 2006, (pp 26-27)
Example Megaslum: In the district of Neza/Chalco/Izta in Mexico City almost a quart of the cities total
population (20 million) lives in informal constructed houses.
REFERENCES
Books:
Boelens, Luuk: The urban connection an actor relational approach to urban planning. Rotterdam: 010
Publishers, 2010.
Buijs, Steef. Tan, Wendy. Devisari, Tunas: Megacities exploring a sustainable future. Rotterdam: 010
Publishers, 2010.
Burdett, Ricky. Sudjic, Dejan: The endless city: The Urban Age Project by the London School of Economics.
London: Phaidon Press, 2008.
Davis, Mike: Planet of Slums. London: Vero, 2006.
Neuwirth, Robert: Shadow cities: A Billion Squatters, a New Urban World. New York: Routledge, 2005.
van Susteren, Arjen: Metropolitan World Atlas. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 2005.
Wright, Herbert: Instant cities. London: Black dog publishing, 2009.
Articles:
Forum for the Future: Megacities on the move. 2010: [http://www.embarq.org/]. 2011-02
Forum for the Future: Sustainable Cities Index. 2010: [http://www.embarq.org/]. 2011-02
UN Habitat: The challenge of Slums. 2003: [http://www.unhabitat.org/]. 2011-03
UN Habitat: Slums of the Word. 2003: [http://www.unhabitat.org/]. 2011-03
Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Azcapotzalco: The case of Mexico city. 2003 [http://www.azc.
uam.mx/]. 2011-03
Urban Age: Istanbul city of intersections. 2009: [http://www.urban-age.net/]. 2011-04
Urban Age: South American cities. 2008: [http://www.urban-age.net/]. 2011-04
Websites:
http://www.azc.uam.mx/
http://dirt.asla.org/2010/09/20/tackling-beijings-rapidly-expanding-sprawl/
http://www.embarq.org/
http://www.favelissues.com/category/sao-paulo/
http://www.forumforthefuture.org/
http://www.unhabitat.org/
http://www.urban-age.net/
Movies:
Møl Dalsgaard, Andreas. Cities on speed Bogota Change. Denmark, 2009.
Schröder, Rob. The informal city Caracas. Netherlands , 2007
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