Cities plus Myths Cities Plus is a periodic publication. It presents urban issues through multiple and surprising perspectives. Each issue of Cities Plus focuses on a specific theme which is used to explore and analyse cities. Editorial Team Lia Brum Shareen Elnaschie Sahar Faruqui Lina Gast David Kostenwein Daniela SanjinĂŠs Richard W J Shepherd Cover Image David Kostenwein. Proposed mausoleum for the albanian dictator Enver Hoxha, built by his daughter; Tirana. Contact
citiespluscities@gmail.com www.facebook.com/Citiesplus issuu.com/citiespluscities January 2014
Myth noun /mIĂ˜/
Definition
A commonly-held belief that is untrue, or without foundation. (Definition of myth noun from the Chambers Concise Dictionary, Edimburg, Chambers Cambridge, 1988)
SCREW-PEDESTRIAN-BRIDGES by David Kostenwein END TO DELIRIUM by Richard W J Shepherd
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THE PARISIANS BY THEIR KITCHENS by Karolina Sobel
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ROME: BEAUTY FEAST OR FRENZY? by Matthew Sharp
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FADING by Ingrid Lin
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A GLIMPSE BEHIND DUBAI’S GLITTERING FAÇADE by Janet Lau
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LABEL BUILDINGS AND HEAL THE WORLD by Jayce Chen
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AN EXTRACT from Mt.Fugi by Peter Strickland
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EDITORIAL TEAM
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THE LAST PAGE by Lina Gast
THIS ISSUE...
by Richard W J Shepherd
Christmas in Australia is a myth. The axe murderer in the back seat of the car is a myth. The ‘buy-one-get-one-free’ is a hallowed myth we all convince ourselves of. I’ll tell you about myths. They aren’t strictly lies. Or rather, they’re lies we’re comfortable telling in groups, comfortable believing are part of the supple squidginess that supports society – always was, and always will be. I confess when I first heard the theme for this issue, I was skeptical. Lets face it, the topic could lend itself to some very esoteric discussions. It could have devolved into urban legends (we’ve heard them all), sci-fi montages (bad flying car art) or worse: the dreaded dystopian city (conspiracies and technology; like Edward Snowdon hasn’t taught us enough about that). Actually now that I think about it, I’m sure we could have freshened those tropes up; slapped on a dress, called it Susan. Now we’re digressing from the mythical to the farcical (Cities+Farce?). I am pleased to introduce you to: Cities+ Myths. Bridges in Palestine that are: Just. Dead. Wrong. Koolhaas squashed by the weight of his own Manhattanism. 18 Parisian kitchens. The spectre and spectacle of fashion in Rome. Fading Alfama in the Lisbon light. Dubai, the theme park we all built. The sustainability we hold dear, given a report card and found to be an average student. And even the view from a Japanese train, speeding us past Mt Fuji, alone with our thoughts. They are myths we explore, or challenge, or tread lightly around (even if they read like amazing clickbait headlines). You will draw your own conclusions; they are little stories that we have told ourselves, and now we are letting you in on the secret. What else are myths? So roll up, roll up for the magical mythical tour (no copyright infringement) curated by us, the Cities+ team, and created by a host of great contributors. Kick back in your chair and comfort yourself with some modern mythology.
Closed pedestrian bridge at Deheishe camp, Palestine. Photo by David Kostenwein. 6
SCREW-PEDESTRIAN-BRIDGES A Rant by David Kostenwein
From A Nigerian Online Forum: “SUDDENLY!! a group of people make a mad dash across the road - able bodied men, people holding children, even some !d!ot (sic) carrying a goat across his shoulders (what the heck?). They all scramble across the road, leaping over the barrier of the BRT lane and putting their lives and the lives of us motorists in danger! All this directly under a pedestrian bridge where others are crossing safely (no car can climb up the bridge to come and hit you) and enjoying the view. Its like using a screwdiver to clean your ears, while you have cotton buds in front of you. So the question I have for you is this - Why do some Lagosians choose to run across the road when there is a bridge designed and constructed just for them?�
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he answers in the forum give a number of reasons, why pedestrian bridges are inappropriate for users: It is an exhausting climb (“Its like climbing kilimanjaro”), they are perceived as unsafe, they are abandoned dirty places, they cost time,etc. The answer for me is simple: Pedestrian Bridges are dead wrong. I live in Amman, a city that is doing 99% of things wrong when it comes to planning; and so it does with pedestrian bridges. I did a small survey amongst my friends where I asked how many of those bridges they think exist in the city. One answer was: “A thousand”. Well, it actually feels like there are thousands (there are in fact 110 with dozens to be built every year under a “Pedestrian Safety Program”). The thing those 110 bridges have in common: they are lonely, unused and abandoned. And this is the case all over the world. Authorities are wondering why pedestrians don’t use the bridges and struggling for strategies to force them to do so. In Lagos, there are high fines for not using a pedestrian bridge. Still no one does. And this is the first reason why pedestrian bridges are wrong. They are just not working. Seriously, will you ever use such a bridge when you can avoid it? No one likes to use these bridges, and people are even willing to take action. Median barriers (fences) around pedestrian bridges, that are meant to force you to use the bridge, are mostly dismantled over night by annoyed pedestrians.
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But even when the community advocates the bridges they seem to have the same useless fate. This is the case of the only pedestrian bridge in the West Bank which was erected close to Bethlehem. Despite the fact that it is generally prohibited to build any bridges over streets in the West Bank due to security reasons, the bridge was demanded, designed and financed by the community of the adjacent Palestinian refugee camp of Deheishe, who wanted to provide a safe crossing for students attending the local girl’s school. The bridge became not only an action of concerned parents, but also became a symbol of community union. A community that was willing to break the law and build a bridge to protect and stand up for the wellbeing of their community.
Dismantled median barrier at Deheishe, Palestine. Photo by David Kostenwein.
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However, once the bridge was built its use was not exactly what was intended. It soon was evident that apparently the only users were teenage boys, using the high position to peek over the walls and spy on the girls inside the school. Pedestrians and students continued to cross the street as they did before the bridge was built (the fence was of course dismantled). The community was in a dilemma, the kids were still in danger and a place of ill repute that encouraged inappropriate behavior had been generated. In consequence, the bridge was locked and stands there unused and abandoned until today; a symbol of frustration that may well be an indication that perhaps the only real asset of such bridges is that they can serve as viewpoints. This extraordinary pedestrian overpass is still subject of discussion and the local youth is thinking of alternative uses. See below for the fascinating debate. The point is, footbridges just don’t work. Nowhere. But even if they would, they are a symptom of bad planning. If a city comes to that point where it has to think about building pedestrian bridges, it is already dead wrong. It has surely committed very poorly planning decisions already. It has built streets with multiple lanes and speedy traffic in a spot, where pedestrians need to cross safely. It has built a barrier for city life. It has built a highway in a neighborhood. It has created a car loving and pedestrian hating environment. So, how does it respond to this? It can either be by reducing the speed of cars and enabling a safe signal crossing, or making pedestrians suffer even more and building a pedestrian bridge, extending the walking distance, ignoring people who cannot climb steep stairs, neglecting preferences of pedestrians – making the pedestrian go the extra mile instead of making the cars stop for a little bit. It comes down to a philosophical question really.
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The unused bridge is now a space for street art. Photo by David Kostenwein.
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Pedestrian bridges are just one symptom of this pedestrian hating philosophy. The modernist understanding of a city, the spatial structures that favor cars, the lack of sidewalks, poor public transport; all these things deserve even longer and harsher rants. But this one in particular is about pedestrian bridges. In the end it comes down to a common myth that pedestrian bridges increase pedestrian safety. This is outrageous. It is ignoring the fact that no one is using these bridges anyway. It is undermining the discussion of the real causes of pedestrian unsafety. And it is part of a philosophical standpoint that could bluntly be labeled: Screw Pedestrians!
P.S.: I have been unfair. The unused pedestrian bridge close to my work in Amman provides me with precious shade while waiting for the bus to come.
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Links: The amusing thread in the Nigerian forum; http://www.nairaland. com/1085539/why-dont-lagosians-use-pedestrian (Accessed: September 2013) Elaborate discussion on the pedestrian bridge in Deheishe Camp, Palestine: http://www.campusincamps.ps/en/projects/bridge-to-doha/ (Accessed: September 2013) Stupid approach to pedestrian bridges in Amman: www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/CER/article/view/3868 (Accessed: September 2013) One of many newspaper articles about the non use of pedestrian bridges, this time from Pakistan: http://pakobserver.net/201303/14/detailnews. asp?id=200185 (Accessed: September 2013)
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by Richard W J Shepherd
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he sky fell to the ground, somewhere on 7th, between W34th and W29th, maybe on a street corner, maybe in the middle of the road, maybe at the entrance to Penn Station but definitely out in the open, somewhere where it could land right on someone’s head and shatter their world. They couldn’t tell because it fell so hard and so fast that the lone person it killed was instantly vaporized; particles spreading over Madison Square Garden like a bag of seasoning dropped on a kitchen floor. The security cameras caught it, of course, but with the grainy footage it was more like the old Dutchman was there one second, and gone the next. It was really hot outside that day.
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The sky fell to the ground, and the death of that old man forced a veil to drop. It turned out that way back before the crash in the late 20s a group of America’s richest men had pooled their resources and bought New York. The whole city. They had bought it from the US Government and intended to run it like a business - kind of like a WalMart that 8 million people call home. Or more accurately - and legally - a theme park that you never left. The New York Experience™. A place which is the happiest and saddest and most schizophrenic place on earth, where people lived and died and switched houses and ate gelato and rode the subway and lay in with their loved ones on Sunday mornings and read the Times. A place, in short, where buckets of cash could be made and no one was any the wiser. And children cried all the time when they dropped their ice-cream. And anyway this guy, this Dutchman who had vanished in the middle of the day, in broad daylight, he was the implacable juror, the last guy holding out, stopping the company that owned New York from publicly listing it (somewhat tongue-in-cheek here) on the NYSE. Ouroboros, I’m telling you. So it was all a lie, and it all unravelled quickly. All these people made a huge fuss about basically their entire lives being owned by some company and there were some pretty nasty protests for a while, but eventually the company made everyone who was a resident of the city an employee and they all got paid to live in Manhattan or Brooklyn or wherever. I think they gave Staten Island to the Federal Government in exchange for the rights to the city. And all those people who used to be elected, like Senators and the Mayor and Councillors, were replaced with famous actors or the Hilton family that rotated the position and got lifetime passes to the shows on Broadway. So you would have this surreal experience where you’d buy a ticket to go see Mamma Mia and be sitting next to Mayor Johnny Depp and just laugh it off. Like he cared that there was graffiti in the alley down behind your house or that your sidewalk had a huge crack in it? He didn’t have to care.
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Even privately, the company had been running the city like one of the parks on Coney Island - even as they fell into disrepair and closed down. I remembered visiting Coney Island a long time ago, that world within a world, where an escape to nature became so intense and electric you’d just wish you were back at home in Manhattan. All the electricity and infrastructure of Coney Island was hidden behind old-world facades, here some Spanish Mission, here some quaint German farmhouse, here some Ionian columns. It was always a bit shabby and you could see what was behind the façade. Well, with this new New York theme park situation we kind of felt like it had all been torn away, that all this New York we had loved was ripped back, just paper over a raw hulking machine, with eyes like torches, that spat out money and famous people and movie backdrops and garbage. The Dutchman had once written that the Hot Dog was invented in Coney Island. What else was invented for the purposes of entertainment as part of the New York Experience™? (A subsidiary of New York World™, trademark Big Apple™ Industries). They made the State change its name, you know. It was part of the agreement with the Federal government. New York State had to be changed to Empire State, and they had all that trouble with Alicia Keys and Jay-Z. But for the most part it was all samey-samey, which is kind of a non sequitur given all the lying and backroom conversations and arch plutocratic wheeling and dealing (I can see them now, fat cats circling each other in the Russian Tea Room). People just go about their ‘lives’ and sometimes blame Wall Street for cracks in the pavement, or how annoying it is that they have to pay all this tax but don’t get represented. And every store you go to is an amusement park gift shop, because they’re all selling part of the New York Experience™. I never thought of Duane Reade as an experience before; I guess I should have paid attention.
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You wander through Central Park now, and look around you at the skyscrapers that are holding up the clouds; a bubble that we allowed to be made. Even in Strawberry Fields, people are oblivious to the fact that the place where John Lennon’s assassination is commemorated is technically a ride. Well, for tax purposes. They didn’t commemorate the Dutchman, he was just gone and with him the illusion of a delirious New York, a Gotham New York, the place where I’m going to be a part of it, New York, New York! You wander through Times Square, and where it used to be red and blue and shadows, there’s this bright white light shining all the time, clean-and-sterile, Forcing you off the sidewalk and into a matinee of Wicked or something. But maybe that happened before the theme park, before it was really obvious. Its getting harder to remember exactly what was chance, and what was part of the program. The new and old machine of New York had its headquarters at Rockefeller Center, and the nano-decisions and nano-economy of all those thousands of workers and computers and typists and architects made their indelible mark on the city. Half a mile up 5th, Bergdorf ’s and the Plaza continue to laugh down on the Pulitzer Fountain, and ‘clink’ cheers their view over Central Park by upping the price tag. It was either infectious Manhattanism - dangerous and deadly - or it was always like this and was always going to be like this. All part of the New York Experience™. So it turns out I couldn’t give up my job and leave the delirium, even though it’s just a model job for all those other cities with real people doing real things. The act had to be performed; day in day out, one of 8 million shows just off Broadway. My life has become this act, and it was like another kind of dreaming where I walk around and go through the motions every day. Everyone does it now, though. People move here for it, still. It’s like riding the subway all the way from Coney Island, dirty sand between your toes. Just sitting back and rocking back and forwards, people getting on and off and chatting, and reverb from people’s iPods all around you. That’s the New York Experience™. 17
The sky fell to the ground on 7th. Did the Dutchman have a clear thought in his head when he was vaporised by the sky, by the weight of the secret he was carrying? Did New York’s skyscrapers weigh heavily on his mind; did he maybe see the mast at the top of the Empire State Building buckle a little, as it gave in? Was the machine of New York visible to him briefly in the lights of the skyscrapers and the hungry streets? Did he think back wistfully to the low red brick of Amsterdam Centraal, as he strolled past Penn Station and the cube of Madison Square Garden? Even old New York was once New Amsterdam, they say. Of course, it’s not now. And the Dutchman was from Rotterdam, not Amsterdam. With the end of New York came his end and vice versa. He had dreamed up Manhattanism and in its fevered throes the mechanical paradoxes of the city, alive and artificial, had demanded him home. Home to Dreamland, or Luna Park, or somewhere else on Coney Island.
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THE PARISIANS BY THEIR KITCHENS by Karolina Sobel
An artist has no home in Europe except in Paris (Friedrich Nietzche) Be rude. Be arrogant. Don’t smile. Wear black. Ride the metro in your own special way. Go out to this nightclub. Eat at that restaurant. (inspired by “How to Become Parisian in One Hour” performed by Olivier Giraud) After ten years living in Paris, anyone becomes a Parisian.
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All photos by Karolina Sobel.
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ROME: BEAUTY FEAST OR FRENZY? by Matthew Sharp
Mannequins, Re di Roma, Roma. Photo by Matthew Sharp. 34
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mishmash of history and hedonism, of fettuccine and fashion labels. A place of holy pilgrimage for thousands of abstemious Catholic priests and nuns, all dressed in grey and huddled together in groups. But also a showground for locals dolled up in the latest fashion and the nexus of an international beauty industry that continues to expand year after year despite a recessionary downturn. After just completing an eight monthlong stay in Rome, I feel that its defining cultural characteristic is an obsession with appearance – something which I have tried to capture in the series of photos which follows. Worship of beauty is of course not a new thing in Rome. ‘La bella figura’ (‘the beautiful figure’) is a time-honoured philosophy in Italy, in general, emphasising beauty, aesthetics and putting on a good show in public. For centuries, looking good has been encouraged for men and women of all classes (being good: not so much). One could draw lines of continuity between the nudity (usually female) that can be seen on posters and billboards and ancient Roman art and poetry, which praised the naked body. And one could try to explain the normalisation of plastic surgery in Rome today – witness the reports last year of Silvio Berlusconi paying for breast implants and lip-plumping for seven young women in his alleged harem – with reference to the fact that plastic surgery was practiced by the ancient Romans from the first century BC (perhaps prompted by the very public Roman baths). 35
Via Condotti (Piazza Spagna), Roma. Photo by Matthew Sharp. 36
Today, however, buffeted by mass marketing, the obsession with beauty in Rome has reached overwhelming proportions. It’s impressive at first: everyone on the street looking immaculate all the time, all toned and tanned, donning the last fashion, the women tottering around in high heels. But when you live in Rome you come to appreciate the staggering amounts of energy and money that are spent in the pursuit of beauty. You hear stories of poorly paid retail workers saving every last cent to buy a new pair of designer boots. You see hundreds of identical Louis Vuitton handbags (authentic and fake, it’s hard to tell the difference) every day. You watch your flatmate, studying to become a beautician, spend two hours getting ready just to go to the gym. And you begin to wonder if Romans have become
slave to a beauty myth: an idea, perhaps already present in Italian culture but reinforced by advertising campaigns, that superficial appearance is all important.
The beauty industry in Rome is clearly booming. Within a hundred metres of my apartment in Rome, for instance, there were no less than four hairdressers, three beauty parlours, two cosmetics stores and a ‘school’ where people could learn how to dress mannequins. Pharmacies in Rome typically do not advertise medical products, but self-tanning lotions, exfoliating gels, firming serums and DIY botox kits. People seem to spend an inordinate amount of time getting their hair done and shopping for new clothes. 37
Termini, Roma. Photo by Matthew Sharp. 38
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As a newcomer to the city you are not immune to the pressures to dress up and look fancy. You might arrive thinking your moth-eaten corduroy pants and jersey outfit has some bohemian appeal, but you quickly learn otherwise. Heavenly Italian girls in the tube pay you no attention. Service staff in downtown bars and restaurants adopt a dismissive manner. Soon you find yourself researching men’s fashion stores and forking out for flashy jackets. You get excited when there is a sale on a certain label and you pay attention to the socks you purchase. This sort of manic consumption is no doubt good for the ailing Italian economy. There is also a nice symmetry between the elegance of the architecture in Rome and that of its people. But an overemphasis on physical beauty does become a bit tiresome. If people were not always so anxious about the way they looked maybe Roman life could be even sweeter.
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Downtown , Roma. Photo by Matthew Sharp. 41
FADING
by Ingrid Lin
The forgotten neighbourhood The inhabited shell The surviving ruins
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The colour, the sound, the smell The transforming path The shifting memory
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A GLIMPSE BEHIND DUBAI’S GLITTERING FAÇADE by Janet Lau
The Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world. Photo by Janet Lau.
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eople all around the world recognise Dubai as a place of iconic buildings, a city that beckons visitors to its array of luxury establishments and relatively tolerant social climate. Dubai is an oasis in the desert, well packaged for investment, consumption and tourism. The notion that Dubai is an adult Disneyland is widespread, one which favorably propels tourism. The truth(s) of Dubai are more elusive however, but with the help of some current Dubai residents and a deeper digging into existing academic literature, I present two dimensions of the emirate that have been overlooked by prominent marketing programs and travel guides: first, quality of life for the foreignmajority population and lack of access to formal citizenship; second, the effects of a hyper built environment on its residents. These dimensions can contribute to a better understanding of the real lived experiences of Dubai’s city dwellers, and indicate what personal notions of identity and belonging have to do with one’s physical and social environment. 45
“A recurring scene: an army of almost invisible cleaners maintains the showcase immaculate at all times” (Acuto, 2010, pp. 281) Photo by © Dr Michele Acuto.
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Citizenship and Hierarchies of Power Foreigners can experience life in Dubai very differently as nationality and ethnicity determine job opportunities and class membership, resulting in socially hierarchical attributions that influence how foreigners conceive of their own positions in society, how they perceive each other, and how they live in and interact with the state (Walsh, 2011). Foreigners constitute about 90% of Dubai’s total population. Of that foreign-born population, 76% are Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi migrants and many are unskilled and low-income laborers (Elsheshtawy, 2008). While all expatriates in Dubai must negotiate racial and cultural boundaries, the inequities of racial discrimination fall mostly upon South and Southeast Asian migrants (non-Western, non-Arab). They earn lower wages, live in poor housing conditions, face restricted mobility options, and cannot afford to host their families in Dubai. Perceptions of culture and ethnicity determine material opportunities, especially in terms of employment. For example, Dubai’s laws prescribe that only women from India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Ehtiopia, Bangladesh, and Indonesia can be sponsored as domestic help, which reinforces the binding between race and an occupation socially considered inferior. Within the low-wage sector, Filipinos get higher salaries than other nationalities like Sri Lankans since Filipinos are associated with “modernity and fluency in English;” however Filipinos receive lower salaries than their Arab colleagues for the same work, even if those colleagues have less educational training (Christ, 2012)
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To protect the native Emirate minority, it is prohibited for migrants to establish political capacity to advocate for better rights. Foreigners can only come to Dubai based on their productive value: their ability to work. The title ‘citizen’ and its accompanying welfare benefits are almost strictly limited to UAE natives. Thus, foreign workers are ‘perpetual visitors’ (Elsheshtawy, 2008). A foreigners’ ability to live and work in Dubai is dependent on a work visa. Even if one is born in Dubai, one does not necessarily have security of Emirati citizenship. Therefore, fear of losing permission to stay in Dubai is significant (Haines, 2011). Knowing that gaining official citizenship is near impossible, foreign residents live in a state of transience or limbo in a place that is inherently temporary (Walsh, 2012). Dubai’s citizenship and immigration policies reify the space of the city as a controlled space, creating a permanent “Other.” Consequentially, foreigners can have conflicted notions of belonging in a country they can never truly (officially) belong to.
Pedestrian-unfriendly highways characterise Dubai’s urban landscape. Photo by Janet Lau.
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Perceptions of the Built Environment While some people are fond of Dubai’s unique skyline and mega projects, and feel proud to be living in a fast-paced, quickly changing city of buildings that break world records – symbols of modernity that they can claim by affiliation – others do not appreciate the skyscrapers and hypermodernism. Some interviewed residents described the built environment as “fake” and “planned and forced.” Some have also recognised that building at such a large scale, with highways and towers, does not create a people-friendly environment. Interviewees pointed out that there are only pockets of pedestrian-friendly public spaces amid urban sprawl and highways. When the built environment is not built at the pedestrian scale, people are made to feel small and insignificant, in a world where automobiles are the main mode of transportation. Low-waged residents who cannot afford to own cars or ride in taxis must endure long commutes by bus. These observations bring us to the question, for whom is the city built? Grand towers and massive highways suggest that the physical milieu is not built for the residents. Mega building attracts tourism and investment that may generate positive economic activity to benefit residents, but iconic buildings are not actually useful for the average resident in her daily, lived experience. Dubai’s urban space and architectural symbols are effectively used as a tool through which the city is claiming global status. Economic incentives justify iconic mega development. There is no other place like this place, no other tallest building in the world or man-made islands in the shapes of palm trees. Dubai’s special environmental characteristics, including the built, social and cultural environments, can be traded upon through the marketing practices of the tourist industry (Harvey, 2002).
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Dubai- the adult Disneyland- manipulated and manifested from fragments of realities. Real stories are obscured behind a glittering façade of easily digestible, idealised narratives. If a global city whose objectives are supposedly more democratic and progressive than Dubai’s, it must design for collective memory and action. If not, we will continue to create divisive spaces, inequitable conditions, and conflicted and conflicting conceptions of space and belonging among its diverse citizens.
Between October 2012 and April 2013, I conducted phone interviews with 20 female non-Emirati residents of Dubai, of various nationalities. The participants were chosen based on snowball sampling and chain referral. I wanted to learn how expatriate women feel about space and belonging in a city they will never officially belong to (no access to formal citizenship), in a space that is dominated by men (women make up less the 25% of the population).
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References Acuto, M. (2010). High-rise Dubai urban entrepreneurialism and the technology of symbolic power. Cities, 27(4), (pp 272-284). Elsevier. Christ, S. (2012). Agency and Everyday Knowledge of Filipina Migrants in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Netherlands: Springer Elsheshtawy, Y. (2008). Transitory Sites: Mapping Dubai’s ‘Forgotten’ Urban Spaces. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 32(4), 968988. Haines, C. (2011). Cracks in the Façade: Landscapes of Hope and Desire in Dubai. In A. Roy & A. Ong (Eds.), Worlding Cities, (pp. 160-181). Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. Harvey, D. (2002). The Art of Rent: Globalisation, Monopoly and the Commodification of Culture. Socialist Register, 38. Walsh, K. (2011) Migrant masculinities and domestic space: British homemaking practices in Dubai. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 36(4), 516-529. Walsh, K. (2012). Emotion and migration: British transnationals in Dubai. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 30(1), 43-59.
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LABEL BUILDINGS AND HEAL THE WORLD by Jayce Chen
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uildings are a crucial component of urban (re)formation. In most of the urban areas of the world, the leading role of the construction industry is undeniable: quickly changing landscapes and generating millions of jobs, the creation of new buildings, despite of financial crises, keeps injecting significant amounts of capital in real estate markets. However, not only the construction sector turns up the heat on the economy, but also on global temperatures. Employing the massive consumption of natural resources and generating waste just as a few industries, construction accounts for significant impacts on global climate change. As a result of the emission of greenhouse gases in a level which was never so high in the history of this planet, global climate change demands urgent measures to tackle its desastrous consequences in a very near future. Linked to its noticeable responsibility, not surprinsingly the construction sector led the adoption of some so called “sustainable approaches” or “environmental friendly” techniques. Architectural and engineering firms then rushed to equip themselves with building design and construction skills to accomplish healthy, durable, and environmentally sound buildings. Therefore, such firms opened the emerging market of building certifications, which promise a better future on their own merits. 53
Labels such as BREEAM and LEED, just to mention the most recognized certifications worldwide, rate buildings in terms of their environmental impacts (positive and negative) on a myriad of factors. Among the main aspects checked by such building certification systems, we can mention, besides the direct emission of greenhouse gases, the ones coming from consumption and generation of power, rational use of space, water and waste management, among others. Nevertheless, the reliance on such certification standards, although presenting tools to quantify the sustainability of the built environment and even to rank it, does not ensure sustainability in the future. The promise of sustainable labels for building, thus, is still far from being spotless. To determine one building as sustainable is still very difficult, as the concept of sustainability itself seems to be more and more vulgarized, at the same time it becomes less understood. Then, the awarding systems proposed by building certification can only reassure half of the story. Certifications’ sustainable ratings reflect each building’s environmental measures from the design to the initial occupancy stages, but hardly predict their future sustainable competency at best. In other words, these standards ensure that buildings are capable of performing within a reasonable environmental guideline, but uncertain of these buildings’ real environmental performance. Since building performances are highly dependent on the occupants’ living habits, truly sustainable buildings require the proper human care in their operation. Therefore, the inconsistency between the anticipate and actual building performance, known as the performance gap, is observed with strong evidential support (Carbon Trust, 2011; CIBSE Energy Performance Group, 2012).
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The often neglected half of the story is what makes the significant difference in creating a sustainable future. Although building certifications are a legitimate gesture in providing sustainable buildings, the awarding system may be exploited as a commercial trend to market buildings without guaranteeing their actual performance. With the reinforced sustainable propaganda, potential buyers are often led to high environmental performance expectations from projects marketed as sustainable projects, which don’t have, though, a minimal occupant effort. People fall short to understand that the sustainably certified buildings are the foundation of sustainable living, however the occupants need to adapt to these buildings to realise their full potential. Although eye-popping, architectural and engineering designs for sustainable living are still short of meeting really sustainable performance. Simply dwelling in a sustainable-certified building is nothing more than a start to make a greener, brighter and better tomorrow. Making changes in the occupancy behaviour will be key to accomplish sustainable living in the future.
References: Carbon Trust. (2011). Closing the Gap: Lessons learned on realising the potential of low carbon building design. Retrieved from http://www.carbontrust. com/media/81361/ctg047-closing-the-gap-low-carbon-building-design.pdf CIBSE Energy Performance Group. (2012). The Performance Gap. Retrieved from http://cibse-epg.org/downloadable/groupOutput/carbon_bites/cb11. pdf
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AN EXTRACT from Mt.Fuji by Peter Stickland
I won’t bottle you up, I won’t intrude Or live in your crown for days on end. I’m not the neighbour with designs to Obscure your view or steel your sight. But I want to flatten these dull buildings; Their meagre claim on life, a chilling fake. It’s warmth I need and your true strength, Your grit, your guts and your fiery core. You, the enduring champion, Scatter deposits of devotion Over the roof tops and drift on, Your wrinkled crown confident. Like the ocean steering a poised Wave onto an enthusiastic beach, Confirming I have something More ahead of me than I thought.
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I’ll make paper boats with letters of love And send them on streams to the sea. Distant sailors might now be shocked To learn that such devotion still exists. The city dwellers, forced to leave, will never Open their windows wide to greet you and like So many workers, their heads down, they’ll Forget what it’s like to talk to your summit. Beneath your smooth skirt so many are Squeezed between walls that ignore delight, Their bleached ambitions exploding on the street, Their anguish paraded as a new type of motivation. These captive passengers live in the past, Forgetting this liner is not really here, while A thin vague lifeline whizzes overhead, Passed funnels that rise and pipes that fall.
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Daniela SanjinĂŠs
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David Kostenwein
Shareen Elnaschie
EDITORIAL TEAM Ilustrations by Polina Koriakina
Sahar Faruqui
Richard W J Shepherd Lia Brum
Lina Gast
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Ilustrations by Lina Gast