Urban Form and Economics18th April

Rethinking ‘space’ as ‘place’-Implications of economics on urban form. Guided by Prof. P. V. K. RAMESHWAR

Submitted by PRASANTH C VARUGHESE, URP1710

Rethinking ‘space’ as ‘place’-Implications of economics on urban form.

2 | Urban Form and Space-Term Paper Prasanth URP1710

RETHINKING SPACE AS A PLACE- IMPLICATIONS OF ECONOMICS ON URBAN FORM-CASE OF BHADRA SQUARE TO TEEN DARWAZA

ABSTRACT

City is a complex network of economic activities and interdependencies and hence the urban

spaces associated within. Economic surplus determines the credibility of a city and its making. City runs on the economics of the region, both macro and micro economics. The diversity of urban form and the spatial structure of a city have been evolved over time in respect to urban form determinants of which economics plays a pivotal role. The changing economics of the area entails the script of how city evolves and the shifting use of land, space, urban form and the vitality of the area.

Communities live and work in towns and cities; society changes so does urban form, responding to accommodate change and growth. In today’s pace of economic development, such historic resources ate often perceived as inefficient unproductive and even inconvenient. They are often replaced with buildings that appear contemporary and more efficient. This neglect has led to decay, depressed economic conditions and dilapidation leading to migration of the population to newer areas.

The worldwide financial crisis has sent shock-waves of accelerated economic restructuring, regulatory reorganization and socio-political conflict through cities around the world. It has also given new impetus to the struggles of urban social movements emphasizing the injustice, destructiveness and unsustainability of capitalist forms of urbanization.

INTRODUCTION

‘Rethinking Space as a Place’ in view of competitiveness of economics over urban form is found interesting with the dynamics by which the economics roll over. The matrix of economics in all realms including social stratification and gentrification in urban development in the ever-changing world seems to be a challenge that needs to be dealt holistically. The impact of changing trends resulted in the perpetuation of form and space in urban context organically as well as planned. This research paper tries to comprehend the thread the nexus between the economics and diversification of activities and the emergent structure of an area. This paper will be questioning and analyzing the economic competitiveness of an urban space in generating the urban form and how this could become a place making attempt.

Do Urban Habit Space emerged as a result of the economic restructuring?



ECONOMICS AND URBAN FORM-COMPONENTS

1.Economics Of Cities-Matrix Of Interdependencies

Matrix of Interdependencies can be understood as ‘Spatial biases’ in the circulation and availability of specialized information and their impact on locational decision making. In the conventional planning on systems of cities excessive emphasis is placed on the hierarchical structure of interdependencies. The term systems of cities encompasses all those individual urban units –however defined- in a country or a large region which are economically linked to one or more other individual urban units in the same country or in the same region.

One of the most widespread basic problems stemming from today’s quickly changing economic, technological and political environment is unemployment. The processes that alter the spatial distribution of job opportunities in advanced economies- or post- industrial societies are essentially synonymous with the processes affecting the growth and development of systems of cities. Flows of specialized information are always involved when cities or spaces are interdependent, for the movement of goods, services and capital between places cannot occur without some exchange of information. Considering the interdependencies and interaction, the principal growth determinants of individual urban units within the set can be grossly generalized and be divided into four categories.

Low internal interaction, or interdependence, and high closure in these circumstances the cities of a given territory participate in little or no economic exchange either among themselves or with cities located elsewhere

Low internal interaction, or interdependence and low closure, in these circumstances the cities or extensive region are not bound together by economic flows of any magnitude but are intensely connected by economic linkages to cities located in the outside world.

High internal interaction, or interdependence and low closure, under these conditions most of the urban units of a country or large region possess strong economic linkages with other set members, while several cities simultaneously exchange a considerable volume of goods and services and specialized information with foreign ( or extra regional).

High internal interaction , or interdependence, and high closure, in these cases most of the members of set of cities have important economic ties with several other urban units in the same set, while the system as a whole has relatively weak relationships with places located beyond its borders.

2. Macro And Micro Economies

The very existence of cities depends on the existence of agglomeration economies that can be subdivided into economies of scale, scope and complexity. A further distinction can be made between internal and external economies to the firm. Only external economies result in concentrations of urban economic activity. These include localisation economies such as the access to a pool of labour, availability of a range of auxiliary trades and specialised services. Urbanisation economies, i.e. economies of scope, result from the common location of firms belonging to different and unrelated industries.



3. Economics And Social Structure.

Division of holdings into small, separated, plots or units was a resultant of market demand. Our three fold division of Indian markets is based on their spatial and functional features from the point of view of commercial methods and techniques. The generalization of this threefold system in market can be seen from the higher hierarchy to the lower, from trade ports to single product areas. The three types of markets are a purely local market serving the needs of the resident population, a wholesale spot market which supplied both the retail trade, the bazaar and the inter regional commerce and finally.

Camagni et al (1998) for example propose three types of 'environment' in the city - physical, economic and the social. The sustainability outcome from the social environment is equity and welfare. From the physical environment the outcome is pure ecological and aesthetic principles while from the economic environment comes profitability and economic growth.

ELEMENTS OF URBAN FORM

The principal elements of urban form –

1. Land use patterns.

2. Position of transport infrastructure.

3. Density,

4. Built environment.

An additional micro-element is layout.

From this base we should consider the underlying urban economic forces that shape these elements and their impact in turn on the urban economy. The economic development/ environment relationship at the local urban space level is fundamental to whether or not sustainable development is achievable. Given that cities are primary spatial economic units and contribute significantly to environmental impacts, they play a key role in the path to sustainable development. Productive efficiency is seen to be affected by the access and fit dimensions of spatial city form.

The argument for the most sustainable urban form has two principal alternatives. One side advocates a high density, mixed use centralised urban form. The other side advocates a low density, dispersed urban form. A further argument is that by having many types of land use in one development area there is a

“critical mass and level of activity (created) which is greater than the sum of individual users, thereby making a critical contribution to location and character”

1. Land Use Patterns-Mixed Use And Its Degree.

The dominant land use is residential but a functional urban area requires industrial, retail, offices etc. and some of these uses will be located together in one building, i.e. mixed land use (as distinct from an area with a mix of uses).Specific spatial distributions of land use are crucial to the arguments about potential 'sustainable' urban forms.



There are two underlying substantive land use demand factors. The first of these is the spatial pattern of revenues/ costs. The demand for different land uses will depend on the relevant cost of using certain locations, and the revenues it will provide. What is deemed to be desirable may vary from occupier to occupier. Residential location preferences are different to industrial demands, and these will be different to retail demands etc. Second, there are agglomeration factors.

There will be impact of agglomeration economies on the demand for various land uses. The idea behind this is the potential possibility of office/ retail occupiers to choose locations that are close to other office/ retail occupiers undertaking similar or complementary activities. Public-sector investment can play a key role in the development of localities. The decision to develop is ultimately based on profitability that in turn can be decomposed into a range of revenue and cost variables. These encompass construction costs, such as materials, land and labor.

Finally, the scale of land availability offers opportunities/constraints to the adaptation of the land use pattern. This last factor can be seen to have a direct link with urban form but the others are more indirect with the exception of the revenue component of development appraisals. This is determined by prevailing rents and demand. In terms of intermediate outcomes the interaction of supply and demand determines simultaneously spatial land use patterns and land prices/ rents (ignoring planning).The pattern of land uses influences travel patterns through for example commuting and shopping. Mixed use areas arguably encourage more travel by foot/ public transport and less travel by private car.

2. Transport And Economics.

Transport Infrastructure enables the ease by which people can reach buildings, spaces, and places. It provides a set of accessibility relationships within the urban area that can be seen in terms of the distances or travel costs. Infrastructure in the form of transport networks has a direct impact on the scale of local market areas. For example the spatial extent of retail and other services' catchment areas is partly a function of the costs of travel by customers.

Accessibility cost is a fundamental demand factor underlying the spatial location decisions. In as much as accessibility can influence profitability then this is reflected in land prices / rents.

.

3. Density

Density can be seen as an outcome of the competition between land uses within a given urban transport infrastructure and its associated pattern of accessibility. In a competitive land market the higher the price the greater the density of utilisation.

There are three main aspects to density; gross population density, net housing density, population density, and commercial and industrial employment density. High land use densities have a number of implications for demand for and cost of services provision. The greater concentration of demand, e.g. consumer spending, associated with high land use density, ceteris paribus, reduces the spatial extent of viable social and private services' catchment areas (including business services). The real estate market has therefore become a key determinant of urban form including its spatial dimension.



This element encompasses building types, heights, and intensity of land use. Intensity is distinguished from density here because it refers just to the footprint of the building(s). For example, high rise flats would be considered high intensity even if they are surrounded by green space.

4. Characteristics Of The Built Environment.

Characteristics of the built environment, is a concept encompassing various features of an urban area such as building type, building height and intensity of land use.

4a.Layout.

Layout is an integral element of urban form and includes such phenomena as street type, road layout, degree of sprawl, which are primarily concerned with function and adaptability. We can split layout into two levels: urban structure and urban grain.

Urban structure is more concerned with how routes, developments, areas etc relate to each other. Urban grain is more concerned with the layout of street patterns, housing patterns, and other building layout patterns. The layouts of today’s cities are largely artifacts’ of their historical development and planning and building regulations.

MAKING SPACES FOR THE CREATIVE ECONOMY

Urban spaciality

The idea of city as a universal public asset, conformed by a public/private relationship, place of a heterogeneous conviviality, is being questioned. Transferring civical activities to private spaces, a different sense of urbanity transforms the public/private relationship and generates new spatialities and sociabilities in the so-called ‘new public spaces’ - in fact, they are no-places of human alienation. In this scenario, to investigate different approaches to promote new urban landscapes that reflect the creative economy is only possible if we also consider that the contemporary urban space results from a different sense of urbanity that transforms the public / private relationship. New urbanization processes are present in the cities to produce new urban spatialities, caused by the trend to globalize the economy and information technology in societies.

To think about the spatiality of the contemporary urban space - from the review of the notion of place as an existential space -we must take into account mediatic spaces and, eventually, the (i) immateriality of the physical spaces (virtual space), in relation to other cultures of urban space. As well as, we must consider Augé´s no-places, which are related to the counter-opposition between ephemerality and permanence in architecture, between cultural identity and the notion of place. The opposition between place and no-place shows that not only has the boundary between public and private changed - and has even been erased -, but it has also transformed the ‘space of the public’ into a space for consumption.

Far from assuming the failure of the public space, its degradation in a diversity of intermediate situations, we argue for the change, multiplicity and contestation that form its real nature: an understanding that is based not on loss, but on the possibility of constantly reinventing the urban place. If it is true that any investigation about the spatiality of the contemporary city must come to terms with new aspects of its configuration (to a certain extent result of new social and technical realities of a strongly mediatic society), it is also true that public spaces must be representative of public and social aspects - the urban locus of a new neo-existential approach.



CASE STUDY 1-OLD CITY AHMEDABAD, BHADRA SQUARE TO TEEN DARWAZA.

Bhadra Precinct

Located on the western edge of the old city of Ahmedabad, Bhadra square once represented the most important civic space of ahmedabad-The meaning of a space as place existed.

Through time immemorial the Bhadra fort to the Panchkuang gate has formed the most significant axis to the city of ahmedabad-It was the main civic domain throughout history.

The Square infront of the Bhadra fort was a part of an axially planned Scheme, With the Jumma Masjid along with Raja and Rani no haziro on the eastern side of this square and Bhadra fort on the west.

THE TRIPLE GATEWAY: TEEN DARWAZA

Originally it was constructed as a stately gateway to the enclosure leading to the royal buildings in the Bhadra Citadel. Within the city the citadel of Bhadra had the royal palace, around which the various residential quarters grew, segregated by castes, functions and religion into a number of localities named after the principal founder by the castes and communities which inhabited them.

The commercial area has developed on the Gandhi marg from Bhadra road to the Railway station with sub bazaars branching off into Pankore naka, Manek chowk and Ratan pol.etc.

It’s on this main thorough fare that the modern banking institutions and insurance companies.etc have their offices.

METHODOLOGY FOR UNDERSTANDING THE URBAN SPACE NEAR BHADRA FORT.

1. Historical evolution and urban space structuring.

2. Macroeconomic policies implication on built form.

3. Heritage economics-Place making.



1.Bhadra Through The Timeline-Economics As A Generator (History)

From 1411, the city’s foundation is laid from Bhadra citadel to Jami mosque and the subsequent growth along the spine-Central Axis. Axis of the structure remained the same, but the density of figure ground changed with time. The fort precinct being royal property, it is always open and continued as an open space.

By 1500 the axis was laid and it determined the subsequent structuring and imageability of the urban square.

By 1600, along the axis and across sub axes the commerce started generating with Friday market as centre. Thus the Bhadra precinct area becomes the major area for trade and commerce in addition to the religious and administration centre.

By 1700, the economic impetus of the region grew and pressure on landholdings increased as well as the ceremonial nature of the square reduced resulting in the fracturing of the land holdings into individual plotting and commerce flourished.

By 1800, with the colonial rule the economics of the land changed, provision for amalgamating the land came and linear stretches of shops arose and got up in the Bhadra square area which looses it shape and rigidity and gave in for the organicity of development relative to the economic and land needs.

By 1900s plot amalgamate and F.S.I increase giving away land for big instituitional buildings like banks and theatres of which theatres which are of recreational value becomes defunct due to the high land prices and commercial demand.



In the late 1990’s building byelaw committee has decided to stop further plot amalgamations, in the old city to avoid or reduce the gigantic aliens built in the heritage precincts. Many of the residential plots were getting amalgamated and converted to office use. In this way the character of the region was getting into a mechanized revenue generator.

2. Macro Economic Policies Implication On Built Form.

• Rent Control Act

• Octroi.

Macroeconomic policies are seen as general guidelines under which the trade and commerce works. These policies have an impact at the urban space level in building use and layout and density.

Introduction: What is rent control?

The practice of imposing a legal maximum (rent ceiling) upon the rent in a particular housing market, below the equilibrium rent is called rent control. If this maximum is above that market’s equilibrium rent (different rental housing markets may have different equilibrium rents), then the control is null and void. But if the rent is set at a level below the equilibrium rent, it will necessarily lead to a situation of excess demand or shortage. In a free market, prices (here, rents) would rise automatically filling the gap between the demand and the supply. But rent controls prevent prices from rising up to the equilibrium level and thus, alternative rationing mechanisms such as black and uncontrolled markets evolve.



Rent control act prohibits increase in returns from land and buildings. The effect of such legislation is twofold.

It freezes the rent and thus allows the owner to keep pace with increase in return from other alternative sources of investment. It discourages the potential investors from investing in house building activities unless it is badly required for self occupation only.

Rent control is at best a palliative and temporary measure and cannot remedy the central problem of shortage of accommodation. Rent control has contributed to the premature deterioration of housing stock. Since the rental system falls to take into the account the appreciated value of land, it does not encourage the land owner to develop the land to its most economical use by building as intensively as is permissible under the building bye-laws.

The built form in the urban space near Bhadra has been highly articulated to the market demand of the stretch from Bhadra square to teen Darwaza. The shop sizes were so determined by the demand for space which resulted in the fragmentation of the spaces into smaller units and renting out. The form has been articulated by additional temporary spaces outside the built form which resulted from the economic demand and interdependencies and black market .

The Deteriorating condition of the built form is attributed to certain factors

• Heritage economics

• Rent Control Act

Being in the heritage precinct new developments other than renovation is not possible which refrains the owner from newly developing the plots unless it is badly needed. Most of the first floors of the shops were left unused or used as godowns for their own requirement.

In several areas Building blocks of residual shops emerged due to the new roads due to the division of plots into irregular size.

How economics playing part in determining the existential foothold for the built form?

The core economic and trading backdrop rules over the built form and structuring of the streets in all possible ways of accessibility and affordability and profitability.

This factor of agglomeration economies structures the specialized streets and bazaars ,and in fact the interdependencies comes out also in undesirable forms as informal possessions along the sidelines of the formal market and form their signature giving a totally different identity and adds to the economic vibrancy of the region.

The relation of the description of the physical form to activity and significance can be restated in the following way. The physical environment, as it exists at any point in time, is the potential environment. It is characterized by limits of activity and significance even if these can rarely be given an unalterable description. The influential environment is the actually observed pattern of use and meaning.



A dominantly commercial street defines most of the adapted built use as an accessible part of the structure of the street, contrasting sharply with the privacy of the parallel residential streets. This contrast is more startling when one adds the information that many of the commercial spaces are in converted residential buildings of the same type as those on the parallel streets.

CONCLUSION

Factors of economics are complexity and articulation that allow for multiple and changing uses and meanings while also having the specificity to encourage and sustain them. The economics found to be the generator and anchor of development of urban habit space. It is found to be the most determinant tool substituted by the physical and social aspects over ages.

Rethinking the ‘space’ as a ‘place’ at this juncture raises certain questions which can lead to the formation of creative economies in this modern world which would help identify the ‘space’ as a ‘place’ with nurtured identity and responding to the present needs of the people rather

• How to address the informal nature of activities in a positive way?

• How the publicness of space can be brought which will be enhancing the economy ?

• How to reconstruct the ‘space’ as a ‘place’ rethinking all these economic possibilities the urban space has undergone and structured-Is it creation of pedestrian friendly environment and creation of hybrid spaces leading to creative economies?

“Urban design has become an art of optimizing the resources and extracting maximum benefits as possible.”

The emergent urban form out of economics is driven by usability and accessibility.

The economic mix of the activities of the area leads to different degrees of mixed land uses which is determined by the dependencies network.

The informal activity is a new phenomenon dated two decades back mushroomed in the lieu of the economic boom of the region-It acts as an externality to the system of urban space.



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Urban Form and Economics18th April

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