Rioting & Urban Planning / 暴亂與城市規劃

'It is a question of building which is at the root of the social unrest of today: architecture or revolution' - Vers une architecture (1923), Le Corbusier

While poverty and culture are undoubtedly amongst the underlying reasons behind the mass rioting earlier this month in the UK, I strongly believe that these events have an intimate relationship with the urban planning of our cities. Britain is not alone in this problem, and historically, cities such as Paris have been reconstructed following the 1848 revolution.

The Haussmann Plan, initiated by Napolean III in the 1860s, encompassed all aspects of urban planning, both in the centre of Paris and in the surrounding districts. Strict regulations were imposed on facades of buildings, public parks, city facilities and public monuments, to create the Paris we know today. The most relevant aspect of the plan was in the widening of streets, constructed to facilitate troop movement and prevent easy blocking of streets with barricades. The straightness of the streets eased firing on rioting crowds and their barricades, while large open street intersections allowed for easy control - obviously influenced by the city's history of street revolutions.

Is a different kind of urban development form needed in Britain's cities? Strict urban strategies have been in place in London to prevent it from sprawling like LA, yet the tensions and ignored dividing lines have been so clearly exposed in the riots.

Of course I do not believe that the Haussmann Plan approach of attempting to make our cities riot-proof is the solution to the problem, we must instead create urban environments that provide young people with more appealing opportunities to build a deep personal sense of attachment and purpose, ie. investing in the prevention of further rioting. As a start, the careful planning of shared daily infrastructures may be able to bridge and integrate lives across the class divides.

Relevant research project: Camanchaca Fog Harvester (2009) - an investigation into infrastructure as a means of bridging social divides in the city of Iquique, Chile.