abilities you encounter throughout the city. Every day in Brooklyn, we would pass a group of adults with special needs heading to the local park – something I have never experienced in South Africa.
Whether we acknowledge it or not, South Africans are segregated. Too often, our social groups and interactions are limited to a few friends, family and work colleagues, and seldom do we even think of engaging outside our relative economic circles. This is reinforced by our lack of places and opportunities to engage with one another. Even shopping centres are actively not accessible to everyone.
We need to embrace our diversity, and work at democratising our spaces – both public and private.
5. Higher Density New York City has the highest population density in the United States, with more than 10,500 people per square kilometre(* NYC, 2017). Johannesburg by comparison, has a density of approximately 2,900 people per square kilometre(* JHB, 2017), but is sprawled out over an area nearly twice as large as New York.
In these major metropolitan centres, population density becomes critical from a servicing and infrastructure point of view. As Johannesburg continues to expand, the ability of the city to lay down new services and infrastructure becomes increasingly more costly, less efficient and requires an exponential increase in supplementary resources to sustain the expanding city form. This continued expansion is not only expensive, but unsustainable and greater e f f o r t s must
be made to densify the city with an emphasis on infill housing and smarter infrastructure layouts.
6. A Global Architecture? New York offers a remarkable collection of buildings, from its grand and elegant skyscrapers to the smaller, more intimate museums like the Morgan Library. Like a piece of living art, the city provides a culturally rich collection of architecture from around the world.
Yet many of the newer buildings look and feel eerily familiar. With the rise of internet and smart communication over the past two decades, information transfer has become readily accessible. The free availability of information has had an interesting effect on architecture and design, with global influences leaning towards a more common style of aesthetics.
While it could be argued that this has equalised the architectural playing field, many new buildings in Johannesburg, London or New York are becoming increasingly interchangeable. Worryingly, this stylistic approach often negates a rational and considered environmental response, and frequently ignores the local urban context.
Architecture in the digital age is skirting a fine line between monotony and superstardom, and while information provides an opportunity to learn, the concerns and critical solutions towards local place making cannot be ignored. Our focus should be on a more critical and regional architecture, rather than a global aesthetic style. Tell your clients.
7. Integrated Shopping Centres For a city with more than 8.5 million residents(* NYC, 2017), the number of big block shopping centres in New York was surprisingly rare. This isn’ t because there weren’ t any malls, but rather that they are built in and around the city, and are fully integrated into the urban block framework.
Erky Wood of GAPP Architects and Urban Designers put it very succinctly:“ Shopping Centres suck when they should blow”. In South Africa, our retail developments often act as end destinations rather than being incidental. Surrounded by large parking lots that are only accessible via car, these centres are purposefully isolated and exclude all other forms of transport including pedestrians, cyclists, and especially taxis.
We need to dramatically overhaul our thinking of retail spaces and how they currently impact the future city. This can only start with a more considered approach to public transportation, pedestrian accessibility and buildings that front onto the street. Developers, traffic engineers and parking requirements should never be urban generators.
8. Plan for the Future New York has gone through several dark periods in its history, from outbreaks of disease and raging fires, to the infamous attacks on the World Trade Centre. But cities are remarkably resilient. South Africa has an opportunity to learn from these failures and successes. Key to this is an understanding that comprehensive urban transformation is planned years in advance.
We need to anticipate new technological developments and the impact this will have on the transportation, infrastructure and services, as well as anticipated growth and levels of urbanisation. What will the impact of electric cars and driverless vehicles have on the city? Will car ownership decrease over time with the rise of Uber? What impact would this have on parking ratios and roadway infrastructure? How can we efficiently provide energy, services and easily accessible public transportation?
At present our strategy is reactionary rather than visionary. We rely on out-dated principles and designs standards that are dictated by traffic planning and parking ratios. These retroactive strategies are not only costly, but ultimately inhibit growth.
Our problems are not unique however, and whether we choose to learn from cities like New York or pioneer our own solutions, the objective remains the same – we can do better.
* NYC, 2017- NYC Population Facts. [ online ] Available at: https:// www1. nyc. gov / site / planning / data-maps / nyc-population / population-facts. page [ Accessed 08 Nov. 2017 ]
* JHB, 2017- World Population Review [ online ] Available at: http:// worldpopulationreview. com / world-cities / johannesburg-population / [ Accessed 12 Nov. 2017 ]
20 Learning from New York