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Problems of modern cities
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Literature Review “Architecture needs to understand what people’s needs are and incorporate those needs into the home,” In a developing country like Pakistan, the growth of urban poor is increasing rapidly. Consequently, the need for shelter is increasing to accommodate the growing urban poor. The housing provided by the public sector is based on modern conventional zoning practices which do not respond to the housing needs of the lower income group in the third world countries. In the absence of appropriate low income housing, the lower income group are left with no other choice but to live in squatter settlements which are termed as illegal. However, these settlements present ideas that help to develop a sense of community and flexibility that caters to the needs of the lower income group, The book, "The Life and Death of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs talk on similar lines and is an attack on the modern urban planning. Jacob favours the idea of mixed used zoning, higher densities and bottom up planning which involves the residents, leading to a vibrant and lively community. In such an environment, people of different ages and backgrounds use different parts of the city at different times of the day, making the city vital and healthy around the clock, not just during business hours. Generally it is accepted that densely populated neighborhoods lead to crime and squalor, Jacobs believes that diverse and highly concentrated populations of people, including residents, promote visible city life and help to combat the homogeneity that ultimately leads to dullness. The analysis of this book suggests that the presence of people makes a neighbourhood safe. This is one the characteristics that contributes to the sense of place ... ... middle of paper ... ...le to low income groups is either of unsuitable type or is too far from employment areas to be tolerable. Therefore, the concept of user control is important in this case. Where it is suggested that the housing should not be completely open to the users nor authoritarian because otherwise it will be frustrating for a growing family without capital investment. The analysis of this suggests that housing process must be treated as a verbal activity rather than a manufactured and packaged product. The ideal situation would be one in which the users are the principle actors throughout the process of planning and execution. This is to say that the settlements that poor build may lack proper physical infrastructure but the authoritarian systems that are used to house the poor and their limitation do not allow the variety and flexibility needed by the lower income group
The connection between poor living conditions, low income families, and inequality of varying groups go hand in hand when dealing with poverty as discussed in Evicted by Matthew Desmond. These issues are often swept under the rug for those not immersed in the situation and can even be unknown. There is gender inequality which can affect every aspect of life, including dwelling. There is also racial inequality which also renders the quality of life. Both themes have a deeper meaning and are connected at the source of poor education and job discrimination.
look into its planning policies in order to prevent spatial segregation in Toronto. However does not explain what planning instruments are needed to help diversify the socio-economic composition of Toronto’s inner city. The article also suggests that for a more socially progressive city, anti-gentrification policies should be incorporated and adopted into Toronto’s official plan policies but does not explains what can be included as anti-gentrification policy.
“Understanding people who are homeless also plays a very important role – as many poor people who are being provided homes through government schemes are renting their homes to others and they are going back to their previous dwellings (slums/huts). The solution to slums is not to evict people, or to eradicate the dwellings, but to create conditions so that people can improve their own dwellings, with the assistance of the community. One of the best ways to do that is by giving slum-dwellers security of tenure, so they know they are protected against arbitrary, unfair, or illegal eviction. If people know that, even if they only make a couple of hundred dollars a year, which many people do, they'll spend money improving their house that they wouldn't otherwise do if they were afraid of being evicted. If governments acted in partnership with people in this way, many good things could
This paper will be predominantly focusing on public housing within Ontario. Not only will it look at the basics of Ontario but examine more directly on Regent Park within Toronto. It will discuss what public housing is and the explanation for why it exists, the government housing programs that are present with regards to public housing and the results of the government programs. The Purpose of this essay is to argue that the problem of public housing will never
to fund public programs or make general improvements throughout the community. Urban sprawl is expensive not only on people’s wallets, but is taxing on their health, the environment, their relationships. The.. After examining all of the problems associated with urban sprawl it is hard not to question how America lost the genuine communities of old and adopted the new community of
Gentrification In Houston, New York, Chicago, and other major urban cities of the United States, gentrification is becoming a major talking point. Though, gentrification is becoming something big, not that many people who speak about it are clearly aware of the subject, they just know it is going on. In this paper, I will briefly describe gentrification, and will mainly use Immanuel Kant’s theory to analyze why gentrification is wrong, whilst also comparing it to the utilitarian approach to gentrification. Gentrification is a complicated term that gets defined in many ways by people that do not understand it; the term usually ends up being romanticized instead. It often gets defined by various people as the renovation of lower income neighborhoods to make them safer or “cleaner”.
Nevertheless, the previous researches were either focused on the role of affordable housing associating with residential stability or educational improvement for children and employment outcomes for the adults (Manturuk, 2012). Others also emphasized that affordable housing could contribute to community-wide economic development, both for troubled and vibrant communities (Lubell et al., 2007). In addition, even the past researches started to examine the impact difference from various categories ownerships versus; however, the subcate...
This study provides information about the homelessness culture. This source is relevant to the topic of space and culture of homelessness because it provides information about the factors that make homelessness youth choose the street as their space and home and information about the culture of homelessness. This source provides information from the perspective of homeless people.
A sense of place is the ideology that people possess when they feel that they belong to a given surrounding. Therefore, through their existence and a sense of belonging on a given environment, people do tend to have a special connection with their immediate surroundings, and therefore, they will do everything to protect their habitat. This, in a sense, is instrumental in affecting the positionality of people with such belonging to one given
It is often easy to castigate large cities or third world countries as failures in the field of affordable housing, yet the crisis, like an invisible cancer, manifests itself in many forms, plaguing both urban and suburban areas. Reformers have wrestled passionately with the issue for centuries, revealing the severity of the situation in an attempt for change, while politicians have only responded with band aid solutions. Unfortunately, the housing crisis easily fades from our memory, replaced by visions of homeless vets, or starving children. Metropolis magazine explains that “…though billions of dollars are spent each year on housing and development programs worldwide, ? At least 1 billion people lack adequate housing; some 100 million have none at all.? In an attempt to correct this worldwide dilemma, a United Nations conference, Habitat II, was held in Istanbul, Turkey in June of 1996. This conference was open not only to government leaders, but also to community organizers, non governmental organizations, architects and planners. “By the year 2000, half the world’s people will live in cities. By the year 2025, two thirds of the world population will be urban dwellers ? Globally, one million people move from the countryside to the city each week.? Martin Johnson, a community organizer and Princeton professor who attended Habitat II, definitively put into words the focus of the deliberations. Cities, which are currently plagued with several of the severe problems of dis-investment ?crime, violence, lack of jobs and inequality ?and more importantly, a lack of affordable and decent housing, quickly appeared in the forefront of the agenda.
Sense of place is the “development of level of comfort and feelings of safety that are associated with a place” (Kopec, p. 62). These associations often translate into that desired sense of belonging, and allow individuals the ability to “develop feelings of attachment to particular settings based on combinations of use, attractiveness, and emotion” (Stokowski, 2002). Developing these psychological connections with certain places lends itself to the concept of place attachment, or, “a person’s bond with the social and physical environments of a place” (Kopec, p. 62). These places often hold deep meaning for people because their identities were established among their surroundings. This affiliation between a person and their place is often seen through personal connection, comfort, and security (Kopec, p. 131). Many people feel as though the place they are in should have its own “special character”, or an identity that defines it, and distinguishes it from other places (Kopec, p.1). Kopec states, “An environment’s distinct spatial features, how it compares with others, its connections to personal life paths, and its potential for change combine to affect the meanings places have for people”. An establishment of this sense of place identity ...
“What do we mean when we speak of architectural quality? Quality in architecture […] is to me when a building manages to move me. What on earth is it that moves me? How can I get it into my own work? […] How do people design things with such a beautiful, natural presence, things that move me every single time. On word for it is Atmosphere”
Architecture has been known as the product of aesthetics, structure, and function that serves to address social needs, resolve environmental and humanitarian problems through built form. Architecture not only shelters, but also has the ability to consolidate boundaries within our society. It realizes the role by physically defining space and by imposing its symbolic, representative meaning onto our living environment. As Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, “Architecture immortalizes and glorifies something”. Indeed, architecture must be documentary and didac...
In the “Metropolis and the Mental Life”, Georg Simmel aims to explicate the confines and conventions of modern life. Simmel accomplishes this as he compares modern life in a metropolis with that of the countryside, noting the behaviours and characteristics of people in response to external factors. Simmel explains this by explicitly detailing how social structures affect certain personal connections. Several prominent themes of urban living are investigated and considered by Simmel in his article, the main points, harshness of the metropolis, modernity and subjective and objective cultures, are discussed in this essay.
Frank Lloyd Wright was perhaps the most influential American architect of the 20th century and one of the greatest to ever live. What was well known about Wright was that he was deeply ambivalent about cities and metropolis centers. His key criticism of large cities was that the advancing technologies had rendered the cities, which were created industry and immigration in the late 19th and early 20th Century, completely obsolete. He famously quoted that, “ The present city…has nothing to give the citizen…because centralization have no forces of regeneration”. Instead, Wright envisioned decentralized settlements (otherwise known as suburban neighborhoods) that would take advantage of the mobility offered by the automobile, telephones, and telegraphic communication. Because of the rise of the suburban complexes in the post WW2 era, this is where Wright first got the reputation has being a prophet for the architecture world.