What is the Spontaneous City?

ANOTHER PRACTICE

This is a plea for another Urban Design practice, parallel and complementary to traditional area development strategies, and with a different investment logic. The Spontaneous City is a concept open to interpretation, but firm in its aim: re-shaping the contemporary city according to a distinctive set of priorities. The modernistic emphasis on urban coherence and safety should be replaced, to accommodate the contemporary culture that demands change in time, broad understanding of sustainability, collective and individual concern, and surprise!

The Spontaneous City is dealt by its inhabitants, in a never ending process of transformation and adaptation. Individuals and groups, including both residents and business people, re-use or re-organize spaces in apartment blocks, work places, parks and streets. The potential of city dwellers has too long been ignored.

Co-design, Co-production, Co-property and Co-responsibility are no longer just fashionable terms, but accepted design forms in terms of sustainable urban development, which have to be implemented and applied more and more in a larger scope in collaboration with local authorities

The framework of The Spontaneous City has been developed over more than 20 years, according also to older principles, and is still under development. However, today’s conditions – the failure of neo-liberalism, and the consequent definitive economical crisis – has made evident the negative aspects of fixed masterplans and strategies.

HOW IT STARTED
The reflection on The Spontaneous City started by empirical observation: struggling by practicing in the local Dutch context and getting to know it from closer and closer. In the Netherlands there is a long tradition in highly developed planning, something which was, and still is, very useful in the struggle against the sea, organizing the necessary flood protection and water control system. The same attitude is recognizable in the way the Dutch have built up and organized their post war housing reconstruction. Another typical Dutch phenomenon, especially in the recent years towards the crisis, are some remarkable scale jumps. Scale jumps in size of companies such as developers and housing associations, as well as scale jumps of area development plans stimulated by the central government. Progress and development in the Netherlands are strictly planned and there is no room left for chance. The outcome is that precisely those elements which make a city alive: continuous transformation and influence exercised by the users, are lost. Our plea for The Spontaneous City might seem “un-Dutch”. Nevertheless, Dutch practice is also familiar with other traditions, such as the freedom within the private property of 5000 individual parcels that form the Canal Belt in Amsterdam. Given a clear framework of canals and streets, and a set of transparent rules, the user can act as client.

PRINCIPLES
The Spontaneous City is based on four leading principles:

+ Zoom in
To alternatively shift from one scale to the other means embracing a development process that is simultaneously at the disposal of many initiators. It is essential to map out local needs, relevant players in renovation areas, and the prospects – or rather obstructions – that they face. A thorough examination of both social conditions and urban planning regulations is a necessary strategy for the urban planner and this demands a sharp eye for detail.

+ Supervise open development
Urban functions, architecture, density and lifestyle are constantly changing factors. Sustained development means that a city district or quarter must be able to adapt according to these changes, in terms of housing and employment functionality. Non-linear design of a city ensures its vitality. Simultaneous supervision of project initiators, in varying frequencies and directions, is of paramount importance. The blueprint must be absolutely in tune with the map indicating a wide range of possibilities and specific opportunities. An urban plan must inspire a broad range of participants and, at the same time, be able to adapt to the rules of the game as they are being played.

+ Create collective value
Defining shared ambition is an integral part of the game. It is a political process that must be developed both publicly and expertly. It involves collective investment, for example in innovative energy infrastructure or water quality, in order to preserve a city’s heritage and enhance its public spaces. Acknowledgement of separate entities and future values is a component of a producer’s forward-thinking and imaginative power.

Nature, water, landscape, accessibility, heritage and architecture combine to create collective values and inspire new forms of utilisation. These are strategically important elements for an urban planner of the 21st century: common values make it possible to dare dream about the environment of tomorrow. In anticipation of this future vision, the planner works on developing an area’s quality, unique character and coherence, confident of the city user’s resilience and conflict-resolving nature.

+ Be user oriented
Participatory structures must surpass participation itself. The energy, creativity and investment capacity of all involved parties must be embraced in order to meet future challenges head on. Fresh approaches and resources are needed, from micro-financing of local projects to digital visual platforms. Innovations can already be found in abundance, but must be intensified in order to reach as many potential project initiators possible, from top businesses through to deprived urban districts.

Residents, associations, companies and co-operatives should be given an active role in urban renewal initiatives. Boosting endogenous investment capacity plays a central role. In practice, this is already a broken tradition: urban development driven by the economy instead of by public housing. The urban planner’s designs should be custom-made and tailored to the resources of the user.

From Urhahn Urban Design - The Spontaneous City Manifesto - 2010

POTENTIALS
The Spontaneous City depends on the local context. That is because the Spontaneous City deals with local specificity: the people, the culture, the economy and politics, the features of the place. We are looking forward to finding out the Spontaneous City’s specific expressions and challenges in different parts of the world. Some first place-specific examples and corresponding issues that come to mind include the following:

Netherlands – here it is important to strengthen the dialogue about enabling the spontaneous city. In reaction to the current economic crisis, we need to re–invent our planning strategies. Instead of waiting for large scale investment to start up again, instead of just making cut-backs or reducing costs, we should be focusing on weighing the value of the urban environment and on mobilising smaller budgets on a larger scale through the civic economy.

Brazil - perhaps the discussion is about how to harness what already is spontaneous development and give it some more meaning and acknowledgment. This is where a discussion about the role of government/governance could be very interesting: how to combine vital investments for the transformation and improvement of the existing city.

China – discussion could be focused on how to combine high speed development driven by economic dynamics with sustainability. How to stimulate more active relationships between citizens and their city? Another topic to be discussed could be the transformation of existing development as a more sustainable alternative to large-scale city extensions.   

Realizing that we need to be much more specific, we ask you to participate and help us to identify the real challenges.