AA Housing and Urbanism Peri Urban Group

PERI-URBAN - OVERVIEW As urban expansion increasingly pushes land development towards city peripheries, the peri-urban is a contested site of tremendous planning challenges and opportunities; it becomes a matter of consequence whether thoughtful, intelligent spatial practices and planning policies are in place to accommodate such outward growth. This research thesis investigates three development models that respond to the global challenge of urbanisation of the peri-urban: the aerotropolis, the integrated township, and the knowledge park. Because the peri-urban takes on a different dimension in post-industrialised, developed nations in Europe and industrialising, developing nations in Asia, the thesis focuses on two specific sites and sets of peri-urban contexts: Manchester, UK and Noida, India. Through a critical review and design analysis of the aerotropolis model in Manchester and the integrated township and knowledge park models in Noida, the thesis asks broader questions about the spatial potential of the peri-urban.

1. AEROTROPOLIS – Airport City Manchester, Manchester, UK - Helen Tran Manchester region is a post industrial area with a strong and emergent knowledge and creative sector; as the UK’s northern capital of economic activity, it is a city and urban core that is grappling with intense urbanisation pressures for growth and investment in the greater city region. In one response to this, the city has initiated development of the Airport City Manchester (ACM), and has designated the airport site as a special enterprise zone. ACM will be “an £800m office, logistics and advanced manufacturing development set to become a globally-connected business destination at Manchester Airport”, and will be one of the UK’s largest property development and regeneration schemes since the 2012 Olympics. It will be the UK’s first airport city and will set the precedent for future airport-related urban development.

Manchester is an example of the current trend for cities to adopt the aerotropolis model – John Kasarda’s airport-centred urban development concept – for global competitiveness.

Up to 40 aerotropolises and airport cities are in existence or are in planning phases worldwide. However, criticism of this zeitgeist model remains scant and largely left unchallenged, with the risk that wide-spread adoption may lead to the proliferation of sophisticated variations of a business park.

This thesis will critique how the airport city operates in the context of Manchester’s periurban, investigating: How is the aerotropolis model, in the form of the ACM proposal, appropriate for achieving Manchester’s ambition to transition towards a knowledge-based economy? What are the spatial implications for regional development, considering that Manchester’s PU is a disparate mix of residential clusters and industrial sites? And then through case studies of typology, the thesis proposes strategies for adaptation of the aerotropolis model – outlining design and spatial principles, uses and patterning – that could lead to more intelligent development of Manchester’s peri-urban.

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2. INTEGRATED TOWNSHIPS, Noida, India - Reshma Srinivas Housing as Hybrid Landscapes Cities are burdened with increasing housing demands due to the rapid urbanization, population growth and uncontrolled expansion. The availability of large-scale affordable land in peri-urban areas have made it an ideal testing ground for more efficient models of housing. This thesis is an investigation of the current method of housing delivery in Indian’s peri-urban areas, specifically, Noida.

The Integrated Township Model is an outcome of this exploration and is currently identified as the potential site for the future development of housing in India. This development model aims to provide better living conditions than those available in the urban core. But in reality, it often develops into large mono-functional housing enclaves with little consideration for spatial quality and long-term objectives.

The research investigates the concept of ‘hybrid landscapes’ and its potential for adapting the existing Integrated Township model. Specific areas of research include typological studies of flexible housing, and mixed-use housing, with a focus on better integration with the peri-urban. Main strategies over multiple scales include creation of common ground, and introduction of distinctive urban characters for developing an integrated fabric.

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3. KNOWLEDGE PARKS, Noida, India - Shikha Bhardwaj Enriching Knowledge Environments Today, with economies shifting towards knowledge; many cities are testing different spatial models that could encapsulate the knowledge environments. One could even say that models like science parks; IT, business parks and even university campuses or to sum up ‘knowledge parks’ are the implications of the same investigation. Most of these investments require large-scale affordable land as well as flexible policies in order to reorganise and experiment new ways of exchanging knowledge. These requirements have led to the speculation of the peri-urban settings on various scales.

Noida is an example of where the peri-urban region is speculated on a regional scale with different versions of knowledge parks. Noida Authority, formed by the government in 1976 with other private and public collaborations is proposing to transform the peripheries into knowledge, high-tech and eco-tech parks, for the purpose of attracting universities and companies outside the chaotic urban settings (Figure1). In all of the cases, features like available cheap land, better living conditions, and a better connection with the city become the selling points. Whereas, most of these developments lack the interdisciplinary relations and spatial decisions that are essential for the knowledge to nurture.

This work confronts critical questions about how to enrich the knowledge environments with the additional layers in the peri-urban areas by analysing one of the established parks. As well, the research examines typological and design principles that could set parameters for its interdisciplinary growth in Noida. This work further analyses the impact and scale of these strategies, and proposes that such opportunities shouldn’t be locked with mono-functional approach. Considering the rate of rapid urbanization, one needs to think of these parks as the starting point of new urbanity and not just an isolated inward looking development.

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