Sunday 7 June 2009

The Organic City - Is the Market Enough?

Out of the hundred-or-so pictures my partner and i took of our Bali holiday, this is the only one that shows a street - the rest show us in the hotel swimming pool, us dining at restaurants, us with monkeys in Monkey Forest, etc. It shows a typical street in Legian, Bali, and the back of my head.

The towns and cities of Indonesia and many other south-east Asian countries have been developed organically; there is little input from the government over the subdivision, development or land use. It is exactly the type of environment urban planners encourage, the city that changes according to the needs of its residents, a land-efficient city (land and buildings are free to change use and will do so based on the economic models of rent), a vibrant city with a mix of uses. It is the solution to the dysfunction of the use-segregated cities built across the western world in the post-war period.

The main tourist area of Kuta/Legian was in the 1930s an agricultural area producing rice or other crops for the Dutch colonists, but as the area became known for tourism the fields were developed. The original movement system was retained, and this consisted of rural roads with ditches on each side, and within the blocks narrow alleys provided access to each field. Usually the only improvement to the movement network was the covering of the ditches so that tourists could get access to the shopfronts.

Walking in Kuta/Legian is a bitch - the footpaths are ridiculously narrow (usually less than a metre), are often about 30 centimetres above the road, and are cut across continuously by crossovers. And motorbikes and cars are often parked on the path, not worrying about the shop vendor's displays being in the way. That each building has a different floor level doesn't help either.

It wasn't long before i made an observation - the locals did not walk anywhere, they all rode motorbikes or cars. And neither did they live locally - many of the shop owners and hotel staff we talked to lived half an hour ride away or more, but were willing to make the journey because of the tourist money they could make.

Nor were there any strong "nodes" or focus points that are found i most cities. And large street-blocks make movement within Kuta and Legian difficult, though alleys provide some possibilities for shortcuts for those who know the area well. Basically, the movement network only encourages motorised travel above other modes, and the pedestrian is severely punished.

In our cities, we must loosen the land use restrictions that were put into place post-war. But we need to retain control of the movement networks arising from the subdivision of fringe areas to ensure quality of public spaces. Only this way will our cities function properly.