GLOBAL URBAN CRISIS: “INTERACTIVE STREET = SAFE-CITIES”

“The social disconnection and lack of contact are how our cities fail today”

Introduction

The urban world is upon us. For the first time in history, more people live in cities than in countryside. Virtually all world population growth for at least the next fifty year will be in cities, and cities of the developing world will absorb most of the increase.The city are the place where a certain
energized crowding of people take place and streets and their sidewalks, are the main public spaces of a city, they are its most vital organ.This are the city’s streets and sidewalk that make a city look interesting or dull. But recently, streets have been reduced to a more restricted role of serving as conduits for the movement of automobiles. This is not the only scenario, with rapid urbanization and globalization, the streets, sidewalk, bordering uses and their users, have become an active participant in the drama of civilization versus barbarism in the cities. Hence giving rise to “Street Crime” in the urban street and sidewalk. I understand street design hold solution to combat crime growth in cities neighborhood and its role to prevent it.

Urban City- Street: An introduction

In an urban city a Street is defined as a paved public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. Streets rank among the most valuable assets in any city, the main public space in a city, are its vital organ. They are defined, as they are the most important and ubiquitous form of public spaces. They occupy approximately 20 percent of the total land area in any typical city. They not only ensure residents’ mobility, allowing them to travel from one place to another, but also are a place for people to meet, interact, do business, and have fun. Streets are the stage upon which the drama of urban life unfolds every day. And this is not a recent phenomenon — streets have played this role since the beginning of town and cities. Hence, we can say that, Streets is what make a city live able. They foster social and economic bonds, bringing people together.

A city sidewalk by itself is nothing. It is an abstraction. It means something only in conjunction with the buildings and other uses that border it. The same might be said of streets, in the sense that they serve other purposes besides carrying wheeled traffic in their middles. Streets and their sidewalks, the main public places of a city, are its most vital organs. Think of a city and what comes to mind? It’s streets. If a city’s streets look interesting, the city looks interesting; if they look dull, the city looks dull.

The street and sidewalk have a tremendous impact on quality of life and on the inhabitant of a city. They are the visual and psychological elements in urban design of a city that provides vital identity or character to a city. Just as Broadway defines New York and just as Market Street defines San Francisco. Chicago and Paris would be very different if Michigan Avenue and Champs– Elyse’s were primarily automobile-oriented roads. Similarly, what would Ahmedabad be without Manek Chowk, or Delhi without the Chandi chowk? Thus, decision about how to allocate and design street and sidewalk opens various fresh line of investigation on matters that have been singularly ignored or misinterpreted by both planners and urban sociologist previously.

Street- types & its relation with the urban city

Streets can be loosely categorized as main streets and side streets. Main streets are usually broad with a relatively high level of activity. Commerce and public interaction are more visible on main streets, and vehicles may use them for longer-distance travel. Side streets are quieter, often residential in use and character, and may be used for vehicular parking.

The cities in 21st century are full of people, most of them that are stranger. The street is one of the places where one people meet another. They are the most interesting and interactive spots in the city. They are one of the most influential and provoking spaces with its poster on the wall, big hoarding and banner board hovering the skyline of cities, urban art installation. They are one of the best platforms to create awareness about any issues. The much why and how are beyond the scope of this study.

1. ROLE IN THE BUILT ENVIORNMENT

They have been a component of the built environment as ancient as human habitation, they sustains a range of activities vital to civilization. Its roles are as numerous and diverse as its ever-changing cast of characters.

There is a strong relationship between the built environment and the street interaction. This has been discussed as follows.

6.1 BUILT ENVIORNMENT AND CITY URBAN STREET

Sections of a building play an important role in the creation of public space along the street edges

Standard traditional street section with pitched roof. Typical pitch house street section. Such section does not create any interest at street level unless it has some projection or spill out area. It could work well if the street is pedestrian. Most of the residential areas have this built to open space relation.

With projection on pedestrian level, in the form of an arcade or a solid structure. This device ‘distances’ pedestrian from real body of building and creates pleasing human scale. It can be perceived in two ways one is lower portion at street edge at one floor or a steep abutting building which give maximum possibility for people to use lower level

difference for sitting. It works if there is no immediate vehicular traffic, best for pedestrian use.

Half way up the building, half its depth reduces the section; this allows for extensive floors Human scale, not much of difference at street level except eye vision. High boundary walls create a barrier between the street and the building. Hence , no interaction is promoted in such space

Building with Ground floor arcade. It works well for shopping area and as an exhibition space. Human scale.

Sloping Section In micro scale With projection on pedestrian level give scope for people to sit, wait, other activities.

Standard section with moat. Gives lot of scope for street activities.

1. URBAN CITYSTREET — PROBLEMS

Streets in our cities should be representation of our lifestyle and culture. Their designs need to respond to the multitude of activities and functions that streets perform. But over time, streets have come to function less as social gathering spaces and market areas, and more as conduits for an ever- increasing volume of traffic. A number of cities around the world have realized, that the street has undermined quality of life and the character of public spaces and there is an urgent need to look at streets as places where people walk, talk, cycle, shop, and perform the multitude of social functions that are critical to the health of cities.

In today’s global age as urban cities struggle to reconcile the competing needs of mobility and live ability. These, streets have been reduced to a more restricted role of serving as conduits for the movement of automobiles. The streets are bottleneck packed with traffic and people. The situation is getting worse every day with the exponential growth in private vehicles and the government attempt to accommodate additional vehicles. Modern streets also carry a number of infrastructure services such as water, sewer, storm water, electrical, and telephone lines. These utilities are provided underground, which has to be coordinated with the surface layout and functioning of a street.

But these are not the only problem; streets today have become a breeding spot for assault and crime. The dark corners and hiding place are where this takes place. Just as Language is not a static entity — it evolves to accommodate and reflect changes in social mores and technology. Thus we have expression like ‘SMS’ and ‘googling’ making their debut into the English lexicon. There is already a word for the fear of open spaces — agoraphobia. This probably came into being during the Roman Times when large plazas and grand streets dwarfed and overpowered some individuals. Soon we may see an addition to the vocabulary to mean something like ’the fear of public space due to the fear of being killed or become a victim of brutalism or vandalism’. How does ‘Agora-terror-phobia’ sound?

It’s the city’s streets that provide a character to the city. If a city’s street is safe from barbarism and fear, the city is thereby tolerably safe from barbarism and fear. When people say that a city, or a part of it, is dangerous or is a jungle what they mean primarily is that they do not feel safe on the sidewalks.

It does not take many incidents of violence on a city street, or in a city district, to make people fear the streets. And as they fear them, they use them less, which makes the streets still more, unsafe. Hence, people think it as a common sense in refusing to venture after dark — or in a few places, by day — into streets where they may well be assaulted, unseen or un rescued until too late.

But sidewalks and those who use them are not passive beneficiaries of safety or helpless victims of danger. Sidewalks, their bordering uses, and their users, are active participants in the drama of civilization versus barbarism in cities. To keep the city safe is a fundamental task of a city’s streets and its sidewalks.

This task is totally unlike any service that sidewalks and streets in little towns or true suburbs are called upon to do. Great cities are not like towns, only larger. They are not like suburbs, only denser. They differ from towns and suburbs in basic ways, and one of these is that cities are, by definition, full of strangers. To anyone person, strangers are far more common in big cities than acquaintances. More common not just in places of public assembly, but more common at a man’s own doorstep. Even residents who live near each other are strangers, and must be, because of the sheer number of people in small geographical compass.

The barbarism and the real, not imagined, insecurity that gives rise to such fears cannot be tagged a problem of the slums. The problem is most serious, in fact, in genteel-looking “quiet residential areas” like Vasant Kunj & South Ex. Both of them, the most posh and prime urban localities of Delhi are said to be reporting most cases of burglary, snatching and murder.

2. INDIAN STREET AND ITS PROBLEM

On Friday 25th JUNE 2011 night, 25-year-old Dheeraj Saini, a small-time transporter, was walking to a salon near his residence in Nathupura area of northwest Delhi when he was shot dead by two unidentified, motorcycle-borne assailants. It may be an isolated incident, but is an addition to the long list of heinous crimes taking place in the Capital these days, almost on a routine basis. Mumbai lead the list of crime followed by Delhi and Bangalore. If we observe than Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore are the major cities of India, and they all-facing acute crime problem in the street. The police has admonished residents not only about hanging outdoors after dark but has urged them not to answer their doors without knowing the caller. Life here has much in common with life for the three little pigs or the seven little kids of the nursery thrillers.

Indian cities are crowded and dense with people. Due to the climatic and social reasons, Indians tend to spend most of the times outdoor. Market streets are crowded because of burgeoning middle class. Our economy is also one in which hawkers flourish as a trade in the streets. Many of our social and religious functions have people using the street, as in a ‘baarat’ or ‘rath yatra’. Political rallies add to the colour and the din of the public street. Indians are the most mobile populations anywhere in the world given the number of festivals spread through the year. Streets are thus more public and extensively peopled than in other culture. These types of activities do add a lot of vibes and contour to the street, which bring life to the street.

But, now day’s Indian streets are designed from the centerline outwards, without taking the needs of all users into account. The median is marked and a carriageway constructed, and the undefined outer area is left for other purposes. After parking eats away a significant share of this area, pedestrians, trees, utilities, street vending, and social activities jostle for whatever space remains. It is no surprise that in most cases the leftover space is not sufficient to safely and comfortably accommodate these essential functions of the street. This dissertation will not go into speculation as how to handle the traffic in the street.

Improper lighting on the street adds up to denial of use of such areas or a fear to use that area. The denial of use adds up to addition of grey area in the residential neighborhood. Most of the people they tend to spend most of their time indoors because of the absence of interactive spots in the neighborhood. The built environment plays an important role in that.

Back in those old times the houses use to have a verandah in front of their house, which use to be a spot for relaxation for the family members. It was a spot for visual interaction. There was always a visual contact of person sitting in the verandah with the street outside. With the advent of 21st century the houses made use to get more and more separated from the street outside by means of high boundary wall or a growth of more and more high rise tower in the Indian cities.

3. ETHICAL ROLE OF AN ARCHITECT & BETTER STREET DESIGN

Architecture is about creating places for people to inhabit physically, socially and interactively. We, as architect are part of larger team of built environment professionals who aim to learn from the past and create environments that will better serve the present and future generations. Faced with complexity of designing that will better serve present and future generations. Faced with the complexities of designing and developing expanding rapidly expanding cities, what ethical responsibilities do we have as an architect? Ethics, as described by oxford dictionary, are ‘the moral principles governing or influencing conduct’.

Architecture courses teach us how to theorize, analyse, and develop conceptual designs and turn them into functional serviced buildings for people to inhibit. They teach us how to create briefs, communicate our ideas to the client and contractors and develop practical and buildable solutions. Once we have ventured into real world of architectural practice we learn how to manage projects, negotiate fees, specify suitable materials and deliver projects within defined budgets and time-scales.

Within the areas of expertise that we develop over time we are constantly faced with ethical decisions. Whether it is the acceptance of a commission to build a nuclear power station, working for clients who form a part of an autocratic government, designing for religious fundamentalist, building substandard and poorly designed housing development or specifying materials that are detrimental to the environment, each decision is laden with ethical choices that have to be addressed.

Ethics are by nature subjective and relative to a person’s viewpoint and relative to a person’s viewpoint and opinion, just as design is. Though the quality of the aesthetics of a building may be debated, its functionality and value for money can be agreed upon without much disparity of opinions. Similarly, ethical decision will vary, but design aimed at creating safer communities cannot be disputed at any level. Do we, as architects, have a professional duty to assist in creating safer communities? Or is this the decision a subjective one, based on the ethics of each individual architect? As cities grow, the need for real and perceived safety also increases. Gated communities are an example of this need to create to create perceived sense of security by physically and socially segregating developments. The need to design safer cities has been identified and analysed through seminal works by Jane Jacobs, Amos Rapport, Elizabeth Wood, Space syntax and Oscar Newman.

In “The Death and life of Great American Cities” Jane Jacobs argued for the design of safer communities by using what we now consider common sense theories such as natural surveillance (‘eyes on the street’) and mixed-use developments. She showed through examples that high levels of crimes were directly linked to the poor quality of design of housing developments. She also highlighted the need for designers and developers to create opportunities for the community to take ownership of their spaces by clarifying private and public spaces.

Oscar Newman further studied and analysed these theories using detailed statistics and introduced pragmatic design guidelines in “Defensible Space: Crime Prevention through Urban Design”. Through exploring the cultures of folk tradition in ‘House, Form and Culture’, Amos Rapport identified self-expression as a key element in creating sense of pride and ownership, which encourages people to protect their surroundings and thus create a safer community.

Whilst their work did not specifically highlight the ethical responsibilities of the designer, it provided a clear indicator that the real and perceived social security of the community was directly dependent on the built form and its configuration. These theories date back to the 1960s, but how many architects address these responsibilities in their work today?

The Aranya Housing Scheme by B. V. Doshi which commenced in the 1980s was developed as a design framework to re-house squatter settlements. The architect studied the community’s way of life to create space that would provide them with the sense of safety with the means to construct better quality housing. Though this project has suffered from financial drawback, its approach in creating communal and semi-public spaces is noted as a good example of community design.

A more recent example of ethics in action is the UK Stirling prize for 2008. Accordia, a housing development project, was the result of a collaboration of architects (Feilden Clegg Bradley studios, Alison Brooks Architects and Maccreanor Lavington) who envisaged a variety of communal spaces and designs that encouraged interaction. By using elements of natural surveillance and creating opportunities for people to personalize their spaces, this development the architect have demonstrated that volume house builder do not have to compromise on the quality of design to achieve their targets.

Ethical and social responsibility should be an inherent part of an architect’s vocabulary. This does not necessarily translate into providing pro bono services, but implies that we also have an ethical responsibility not to be developer-led or base our decision primarily on the square meter rate of development when it comes to making design decision. The examples above indicate that with design that is driven by ethical and social thinking, design teams can create desirable places without additional funding. If the design community turns its back on this responsibility to win prestigious projects and become accepted by clients, it is the cities and people that will lose out.

The UK police have spearheaded an initiative called ‘Secured by Design’ which enables built environment professional to collaborate with the police to ensure that developments are designed to reduce the opportunity for crime. Whilst collaborations and partnerships across different profession are definitely the way forward in our complex cities, why has it become the responsibility of the police to implement design guidelines to build safer environments?

Why should the government and planning authorities take these issues seriously when we, the trained professionals, do not raise a collective voice against segregated gated communities and haphazardly planned and poorly designed developments?

4. CONCLUSION

Urbanization is fundamental to sustain national economic growth-indeed no country has achieved higher income status without greater urbanization. However, rapid urbanization is often an overwhelming management and financial challenge for developing country government. To sustain urbanization our cities should develop at a rapid pace. And this development should take place by maintaining equilibrium between city urbanization and the need and aspiration of its inhabitant. Achieving the model would be easier if we could understand, analyze and respond to the need, aspiration and problem of a real time city.

While designing a city a designer should respond to the deepest human needs. It should try to strive philosophical quest for harmony between built environment and human sensitivity. The space should be designed to engineer human behavior. As a saying by Winston Churchill that ``the way we shape our buildings afterwards our buildings shape us”. Hence a greater emphasis should be laid down to design a city for people and not try to fit people into the cities.

The first thing to understand is that the public peace — the sidewalk and street peace — of cities is not kept primarily by the police. It is kept primarily by an intricate, almost unconscious, network of voluntary controls and standards among the people themselves, and enforced by the people themselves. In some city areas — like Bharthi Nagar, in Vijayawada where the neighborhood is set on street which hit on to the main street. The street has a Gurudwara which attract a lot of stranger in the wee hours from 4 in the morning till late midnight. The main street to which it hit has a fair amount of people coming to the street and promoting economic exchange and social interaction. Those people provide an ‘eye on the street’.

Stores, bars, cafés and restaurants are necessary to attract people at night. The mixture of workplaces, recreational, commercial and residences generally assures that there are always people around keeping the streets safe with their presence. The “eyes on the street” is one of the several phrases that Jacobs coined and entered into the terminology of urban planning.

The second thing to understand is that the problem of insecurity cannot be solved by spreading people out more thinly, trading the characteristics of cities for the characteristics of suburbs. If this could solve danger on the city streets, then DWARKA and PALAM VIHAR in Gurgaon should be a safe city because superficially is almost like suburban. It has virtually no sector compact enough to qualify as dense city areas. Yet IT cannot, any more than any other great city, evade the truth that, being a city, it is composed of strangers not all of who are nice. But of this we can be sure: thinning out a city does not insure safety from crime and fear of crime. This is one of the conclusions that can be drawn within individual cities too, where pseudo suburbs or superannuated suburbs are ideally suited to rape, muggings, beatings, holdups and the like.

All streets that aim to maximize mobility also need separate slow zones. The slow space is for livability — for people to walk, talk, and interact, for doing business, for children to play. The provision of an adequate slow zone makes it possible for the mobility zone of a street to provide for safe, relatively uninterrupted mobility at moderate speeds. The result is a safer and more pleasant street environment for everyone.

Streets can and must be more than just a place for the movement and storage of private motor vehicles. It’s easy to forget that our streets are alterable. They weren’t set down by God on the eighth day; they were designed by human beings designing our streets were traffic engineers. For the most part, they viewed the city from behind a windshield and saw the street as a problem to be solved for automobiles. The result is the city that most of us know today: sprawling, traffic choked, hostile to pedestrians and cyclists, depending on a vast, never ending flow of costly oil and deeply unsustainable.

Streets can and must be more than just a place for the movement and storage of motor vehicles. The urban street of the 21st century will be a “ complete street,” accommodating pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders alike. We should support livable streets initiative and help citizen’s re-envision streets as a great public space. Take, for example the busy intersection of Amsterdam Avenue and west 76th street in Manhattan.

Figure 11. Amsterdam Avenue Proposal, Source: liveablestreetsinatiative.org

5. RECOMMENDATION

11.1 Create opportunities for people to stop and stare, to interact and congregate.

We experience these formal and informal spaces in cities the small seating layout in and around as everywhere like the staircase where people they like to sit and talk or a small plinth seat around the boundary. Informal seating and roadside stall create an opportunities for people to stop, stare and interact.

11.2 Create a real and perceived sense of security

Physical barriers such as high walls or fences only create boundaries and enhance a feeling of insecurity and segregation. We need to design pedestrian-friendly routes and spaces to encourage interaction and activity on the streets.

11.3 ‘Eyes on the street’

Jane Jacobs’ theory of designing homes that have a visual link with the street is just as valid today as it was over 40 years ago. This aims to discourage potential thefts and vandalism and create a sense of security.

11.4 Opportunity to personalize spaces

Through Rapport’s studies we understand the link between the opportunity to personalize spaces and the community taking ownerships and pride in their environment.

11.5 Architects Ethical Responsibility

Architects need to take an ethical stand and start designing safer communities — ultimately it is not just an issue of ethic, it is also an issue of professionalism and common sense.

11.6 Religious places in a neighbourhood

Religious place hold an important place in Indian tradition. Such places attract a lot of stranger and become a spot for social interaction for the elderly people.

11.7 Proper infrastructure

There should be proper lighting on the streets and proper signage’s showing the way. The landscape should be done such that the trees shouldn’t block the light source or the pedestrian path.

11.8 Mix Land use

There should be a mix activities of residential and commercial together which prompt the mix use of spaces providing safety to each other.