Cities + Smoke

Cities plus

Cities plus Smoke July 2012

Editorial Team Christine Betia Lia Brum Sahar Faruqui Lina Gast David Kostenwein Venkata Narayanan Daniela SanjinĂŠs Richard Shepherd Cover Image Teesha Dunn Titel: Chinatown, Philadelphia Contact

citiespluscities@gmail.com July 2012

Smoke noun (GREY GAS) /sməUk/ /smoUk/

Definition[U]

the grey, black or white mixture of gas and very small pieces of carbon that is produced when something burns (Definition of smoke noun (GREY GAS) from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

CITIES IN SMOKE An intervention in Darmstadt’s city center

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

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Айсберг смога по-русски THE SMOKING RUSSIAN ICEBERG

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CITIES = SMOKE

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IF CLOUDS WERE CITIES

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MUMBAI SMOKES

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SMOK(E) IN KRAKOW

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SMOKE THROUGH A LENS

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THREE

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Smoke takes many forms. It’s the diaphanous creature twir-

ling from the end of a cigarette, or the mirage-inducing exhaust from a rapidly accelerating car leaving a newly changed traffic light. And in cities, smoke is destruction, or power generation, or the collective sigh of hundreds of Germans watching their fußball team narrowly miss a goal. It is movement, clouds, icebergs, language and dragons. It follows us, evades our touch, eddies around our feet and brings tears to our eyes.

The inaugural issue of Cities +, Cities Plus or citiesplus, however you would like to increasingly awkwardly stylise it, is an idea executed not in smoke but on paper and computers and with cameras at the ready. It is quick snapshots and considered responses; maths and images and stories and analysis. But enough gushing (and before you’ve even turned the first page!).

Perhaps the most valuable impression brought to this issue is the incredible diversity of backgrounds and destinations, and the global crunch that this suggests is occurring across the world. We have a U.S. American in Haiti, an Indian in Berlin, a South African in Mumbai, a Colombian in Darmstadt, a Catalan and U.S. American in China and an Australian in a place you might know or have visited or seen in pictures. Or, like the Austrian, maybe it’s a trip to places yet to exist. Or even further (and possibly weirder) a Russian exploring (Russian) Icebergs and a Pole unearthing a (Polish) smoke-dragon.

Obviously, no amount of smoke-grabbing could be done without the invaluable help of our editorial team who have worked tirelessly in vetting submissions, editing and compiling the issue. View this issue through their smokescreen of effort for which we are very thankful.

Now step forward, dear traveller. Step into the ether, into the visible currents and unseen words that drift, in smoke, towards the firmament. Here’s to many more successful issues of Cities Plus - and for now, we leave you, always the magician with his bag of tricks, in a puff of smoke.

CITIES IN SMOKE An intervention in Darmstadt’s city center

by David Kostenwein and Daniela Sanjinés Photographs by Matthew Sharp

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n September 11, 1944, Darmstadt witnessed the most destructive of several raids that left 12,300 deaths of the 110,000 total inhabitants. The Allied strategic bombings, intended to weaken the morale of civilians, was targeted towards the medieval city center where wooden houses burnt quickly and aided the expedite destruction of 90% of the old city.

As many other towns in Germany, Darmstadt suffered the need for rapid interventions that cleared away the rubble to make way for new constructions, leaving aside very few signs of the past.

The question of how cities should deal with memory in their urban landscape seems relevant in a time where many German cities look towards construction of replicas of historic buildings in order to mend the mistakes of the recent past.

In an attempt to reflect upon the cities past and the few traces of it, this urban intervention consisted of a projected video of smoke on the blind façade of the Golden Krone, one of the few historic buildings left in Darmstadt city center. It is located in one of the most representative corners of Darmstadt and, as the building next to the Golden Krone has been recently demolished, it is currently the site for a new development and a new generation of urban forms in the old city center. In this context, the projected images intended to evoke the past of a city that was once up in smoke.

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

by Connor Cox

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ort au Prince can be described as a microcosm of all the ills of Haitian society: rampant poverty, endemic unemployment, illiteracy, non-existent public services and unsanitary living conditions. Smoky air often fills the city’s streets, back alleys and residences. Huge heaps of trash are burned wherever they are piled to reduce space. Most city residents cook with bio-mass fuels which emit ultra-fine particles and carcinogens in the smoke that can cause considerable health problems.

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Smoke exhaust rises out of a water truck en route to deliver water to CitĂŠ Soleil, a massive shantytown on the edge of the Haitian capital which is home to over 300,000 people. A small percentage of these trucks deliver free donated water. The majority are distributed at very low cost to the most impoverished communities in Port au Prince. The filling cost for each water truck is approximately $7 USD and they carry roughly 20,000 liters of clean drinking water each. One water truck delivery provides clean drinking water to hundreds of residents in CitĂŠ Soleil and other slums in the city.

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After the devastating earthquake in January 2010, about 250,000 residences in the city were demolished and 1.3 million people were internally displaced. Some of the homeless victims moved in with family or friends, but the majority moved into temporary ‘tent cities’. These tent cities were assembled on whatever vacant land could be found in the city. They were built with tents and materials donated from international aid organizations. In January 2012, two years after the earthquake, over 500,000 Haitians still live in the tent communities.

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Port-au-Prince has limited waste collection services from the municipal authorities. As a result, waste is often dumped across the city, in rivers and in the sea. The remaining refuse is usually set ablaze and burned wherever it is piled. As seen here in the background, dark billows of smoke rise in the distance from inner-city trash burning.

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Many Haitians do not have access to electric or gas stoves for cooking. Most Port-au-Prince residents cook using biomass fuels that release harmful smoke into the air. They often cook inside their unventilated dwellings or temporary tents where the harmful smoke is trapped. Research has found that using biomass fuel for cooking can lead to cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

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Smoke rises above the streets of Port au Prince. The city’s streets are filled with informal markets that make up a very important part of the local economy. Food, lumber, art work, barbershops, impromptu phone booths, clothing, hardware, discarded batteries, laundry services and much more are found on the streets.

This economic activity goes untaxed because it occurs outside of the bounds of government regulation and control. It gives merchants the benefits of mobility and flexibility, but it lacks stability and does not allow the government to generate much needed tax revenue. According to the Miami Herald, an estimated 80 percent of workers in Port-au-Prince operated in the informal economy before the 2010 earthquake. This percentage likely increased after the earthquake as many Haitians previously employed in the formal sector began looking for informal work to make ends meet.

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Айсберг смога по-русски THE SMOKING RUSSIAN ICEBERG

by Elena Mozgovaya

Ilustration by Polina Koryakina

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oes an average Russian city smoke?

Yes, and as any other living entity it forms or obeys its own habits.

We see the beginnings of a culture of smoking, which makes it inescapably more unpleasant to walk in the city, to open windows facing the streets - to breathe the urban air in general. A system of public transportation, famous for its “marshrutkas” private mini-buses trying to fill in the gaps of municipal transport – is struggling with various problems and can hardly be considered reliable. All in all, it becomes less and less possible to associate the body of the city with any idea of health. But is this the whole problem, or rather only a visible part of a large iceberg? To examine it, we will look at smoking in the city of Voronezh (1 million inhabitants), located in the south of the European part of Russia.

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Who are the smokers in Voronezh?

The first group are cars. Cars are used for the short-distance daily commuting (e.g. for work) as well as for the long-distance trips.

The second is the system of public transportation, which is comprised mainly of buses and trolleybuses. Until 2009 transport in Voronezh included also trams - authorities have since cut the rails to free the road for the cars. A significant share of the bus pool are old buses, leased out and operated by the private transportation companies. At the same time trolleybuses are not a decent alternative, as they have a network of minimal coverage and operate at a significantly slower speed. Overall there is an evident lack of public transport facilities, so that people often need to choose between ‘hanging’ on the walls in the overfilled buses, or arriving late to their destination. The system functions without a schedule, which together with the lack of facilities creates high unpredictability and uncertainty in ability to reach a destination on time. Bikes are not considered as a viable alternative to the car, since there is no bike infrastructure in the city.

It is aggravated by the generally negative attitude of car-drivers towards bikers.

The third main smoker in Voronezh is industry. In particular, “Voronezh Sintezkauchuk” one of the largest synthetic rubber plants in Russia, exporting more than 50% of its production to the international markets and fellow smoking cities in Europe, Asia and the Americas. The plant is located within the city urban area, and thus, smoke and pollution from the plant regularly covers some part of the city, depending on the wind.

The fourth main contributor to smoke in a Russian city is the energy production sector, often represented by conventional coal-fired plants. Voronezh here is not the only case, since it is partly supplied by energy from Novovoronezhskaya AES nuclear plant 20km away.

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Smoking city as a cultural iceberg?

We can attempt to sketch the problems in Voronezh to illustrate the situation and help to identify ways to better approach it. It will also enable us to more easily communicate the problem to actors, that play an essential role in its solving – citizens and politicians. So, now we aware of the main smokers, let’s unpack the smoking culture of Voronezh. What will our smoking culture sketch depict?

A culture, as Edward Hall suggests, might be seen as an iceberg, with a visible upper-part, and ‘underwater’ or opaque underpart. It implies that if we attempt to explore this ‘smoking’ problem in its entirety, we must essentially consider both the invisible and visible parts of the smoking culture.

Above the water we notice behaviors (or practices), which are easily seen in day-to-day life. The ‘underwater’ part consists of firstly attitudes (unspoken rules) underlying behaviors and at the same time reflecting the core values of the culture; and secondly core values (unconscious rules) embedded in a culture and learned implicitly.

Hence, our sketch of the smoking city culture can look like an iceberg with the common implicit ‘underwater’ part and four different spires, representing the aforementioned city smokers – cars, public transport, industry, energy production sector - interconnected and mutually facilitated. Here we take spires as a technical term to mean parts of the iceberg protruding above the water. Let’s observe more closely the car-spire of the iceberg.

According to official statistics, the rate of car sales in Voronezh region is significantly higher than the Russian average (50,2% and 39% respectively). People usually tend to have oversized high-fuel-consuming cars, which is rooted in the mentality of associating a big car with power, prosperity and significance.

This functions as a signifier of social respectability (or a shield from social stigmatization). Traffic jams are the norm within the city, usually arising twice a day during rush hours. They become especially tough in winter when the situation is worsened by the snow, compounded by the fact it is not cleared regularly. Obviously, such traffic jams cause both a unhealthy waste of time and generates huge pollution from idle engines.

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The above-mentioned and other features can be illustrated on the sketch, structurally grouped according to spires (above-thewater-behavior) and underwater (implicit attitudes and core values) elements of the smoking culture.

Why should we consider smoke in a city as a culture?

Excepting the analytical, what can be further implications of such cultural illustrations in our case?

We can mark the identified behaviors/practices and attitudes in the diagram based on their role (catalyst [+] or an obstacle [-]) in changing the car culture within the city.

We are now able to get an impression of what features should be emphasized while anticipating any outcome - for example, a social marketing campaign. In our case the emphasis might be on the inevitability of traffic jams and constant increases in the price of fuel. This information is very relevant to society at large and can assist the planner in distributing ideas.

Clearly, the picture shown here is generalized and derived mainly from subjective observations and assumptions. Principally, the main value of applying the concept of ‘cultural iceberg’ to Voronezh’s city smoking culture lies in the fact that urban planners – not only in Russia - still tend to consider only the visible spire part of the culture. For instance, they assume that developing a system of public transportation and bike promotion will encourage car mode shift to buses and bikes. However, the more complex, opaque attitudes and values of a culture must be also considered in order to actualize the desired change – physical as well as societal.

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CITIES = SMOKE

by Blanca Calvo and Giselle Hirn-Sebag

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xploring urbanity through mathematics, this project concludes that city = smoke. The “rule of three� links the city to key concepts of urbanism and the second equation connects that same keyword with smoke.

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life=city smoke=life

a=b; c=d a/b=c/d a路c=b路d cities=smoke consumption=city smoke=consumption

faith=city smoke=faith

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comfort=city smoke=comfort

connections=city smoke=connections

addiction=city smoke=addiction

IF CLOUDS WERE CITIES

by David Kostenwein

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ites that look like smoke – or clouds – have always fascinated urban visionaries and innovative designers. Cloud cities have even made their way into popular culture (e.g. Star Wars).

Cities and clouds – there was a connection in our imagination.

This connection has in the past begged the question: What if cities were or looked like clouds? I ask the exact opposite question. What if clouds were cities?

When looking out of the window of a plane just as it hits a layer of cloud, one can anticipate the complex and beautiful spatial structures of cloud systems. Clouds are good urban material, creating organic smoke cities.

A good way to understand the urban design of cities is to look at a figure ground diagram - a map that has all buildings and private areas shown in black and all public spaces of a city indicated in white. Looking at cloud systems from satellites, one finds surprising visual similarities to figure ground diagrams - the clouds being white, public space, and the earth’s surface being black, private space.

So, what if clouds were cities? I will tell the stories of two fictional cities (with the great book “Invisible Cities” by Italo Calvino in mind) inspired by treating two cloud-system configurations as figure ground diagrams. These are two cities that were designed by a strong vision and that both end in disaster: The Stories of Catan and Ikarus.

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The City of Catan, Source: Nasa Visual Earth Clouds over the South Atlantic (Inverted), Edited by David Kostenwein.

Catan , City of Fear The city of Catan was founded on the basis of fear. It was created by people who feared nothing more than natural disasters and who believed Catan could be their last chance to escape a dangerous and fatal future. As a reaction to the threat of rising water levels, it was developed as a modular floating city.

Catan was cheerfully settled by around 60 000 people, mostly people who felt that natural disasters were a serious threat to their lives and that their home security systems, such as bunkers, would be no longer sufficient to save them from the floods or storms they feared would come.

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Following calculations designed to ensure best safety and provide a defence against natural disaster, the shape of modular urban element was set as a hexagon. This was a form that was seen as suitable, as it was often found in nature. Designers were inspired by honeycombs, snowflakes and the hexagonal organisation of organic molecules. This was a stable form that facilitated the main idea behind the design of Catan - to connect to other modules and allow the formation of big metropolitan areas. Catan was thought to consist of seven modules, each having different settlement structures and housing qualities to meet the diverse demands and financial standing of the new inhabitants. The central module had most of the central services and was supposed to act as meeting point for all the settlers of the different modules.

The fact that the city consists of modules that can eventually be connected does not mean that they actually do so. After the first weeks of a large connected metropolitan area, the modules started to drift apart - physically and socially. The different land prices of each module led to a highly segregated society, instilling a sense of hostility towards other parts of Catan. The fear of natural disasters was soon replaced by the fear of the people living on the other modules. The central island, with the services and meeting places, was soon abandoned - an urban desert inhabited by sea lions and seagulls. The other modules now lack basic infrastructure and the fear of the neighbouring floating islands, or more accurately the people living on them, led most of the inhabitants to build bunkers and armed defence systems. And it seems that these measures are necessary, though now mostly for other reasons: Catan has lately become a prime target of pirates.

The people who settled Catan because their bunkers did not make them feel safe are hiding again in bunkers, now fearing people instead of nature. This time they have at least the fresh sea breeze - and eventually, the howls of sea lions coming from the nearby abandoned main island.

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The City of Ikarus, Source: Nasa Visual Earth, Clouds over Peru, Edited by David Kostenwein

Ikarus, City of Believers The city of Ikarus was founded on the basis of belief. A fundamentalist Christian sect settled the peaks of the Karakoram Range in Pakistan convinced in the belief that only those who are as close as possible to god will survive the soon to come apocalypse.

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Most of the believers lived in the upper storeys of tall skyscrapers before the sects guru announced that these locations, only several hundred meters above sea level, would not be sufficient to save their souls at the arrival of the last judgement. They expected the final day to come soon and started to search for higher possibilities to settle - as high as possible. After two years of preparation, they bought an area of 100 hectares in the Karakoram Range and started building a city that was then, by far, the highest settlement in the world. The 7 000 members of the church settled at an altitude of about 5500 meters, using modern techniques and professional tents. It was a well-planned city with good infrastructure and allocated tents and a huge cathedral that was said to be the place of worship closest to god.

The people of Ikarus spent the days praying and waiting for the apocalypse to come. As the first year passed without any event, rumours started circulating that only 1000 believers would be saved - those who lived closest to heaven. This was the beginning of the end for the planned settlement of Ikarus as its original location was abandoned. Ikarus came more and more to resemble an informal settlement of temporary tents, climbing up the cold and steep slopes of the range.

Tents often only stayed at one position for a day or two, because they were overtaken by other tents and none wanted to be the 1001st believer at the day of the last judgement. This process of settling higher and higher went on, until the settlement reached altitudes that required oxygen masks and caused many deaths due to altitude sickness and the cold. Today, Ikarus has reached peaks of more than 6000 meters, and only about 1500 believers are left in improvised tents, living in inhumane circumstances, fighting for holy meters and waiting for the last day to come.

What started as fancy penthouses in skyscrapers has ended in the most dangerous slum city on the peaks of the Karakoram.

The last day for most of the inhabitants of Ikarus has arrived; the one they are waiting for is yet to come. Until then, prayers under altitude delirium continue in Ikarus, as the city aims for even higher peaks, looking down on the ruin of their cathedral, hundreds of meters beneath.

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MUMBAI SMOKES

by Matthew Sharp

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umbai, India - described by writer Sukethu Mehta as the ‘Maximum City’- is hugely overcrowded, chaotic, hard-edged and vivacious. Like all other megacities of the global South, beset by traffic and industrial pollution, Mumbai is literally a smoky city. But smoke - suggesting confusion and mystery, something that can choke and overwhelm - is also a symbolic motif in Mumbai. I explore some of these connections with reference to a series of photos that I took during a recent three-week trip to the city.

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s m o k e d

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For much of the year, a dense smog hangs over Mumbai - an inevitable consequence of having close on 14 million people settle on an insubstantial 600 square kilometres snatch of land bordering the Arabian Sea. Though the Indian government has invested in some major transport infrastructure projects in recent years - including the Bandra-Worli Sea Link - Mumbai’s streets are still clogged with auto-rickshaws, black-and-yellow taxis and an increasing number of luxury sedans. In addition to car fumes, copious pollution is also generated by suburban factories and by the frantic construction work that is being carried out all across the city. While this does nothing for the health of Mumbaikers, it does give the place an interesting (almost cinematographic) aesthetic. Walking around in the late afternoon is sort of like being in a Wes Anderson movie, as if the entire city been subjected to retro yellow colour grading.

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The street markets of Mumbai are an incessant mĂŠlange of tumult and colour, of people and animals pushing past one another in narrow sidewalks and alleys. Everything can be bought here: farm-fresh fruits and veggies, cheap fried snacks, shoes, clothing (including some discarded high-street fashion items) and jewellery, and - best of all - an extraordinary assortment of secondhand and pirated books (from ‘self-help’ to Shakespeare). Sweet aromas from lime juice stalls mingle with the pungent smell of cow pats underfoot, and every so often one passes through a cloud of incense smoke. These markets are the lifeblood of the city and their traders display much resourcefulness, making do with the meagrest amounts of capital and space to conduct their informal businesses.

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I came across this sight on Mumbai’s Marine Drive, a popular boulevard running next to the ocean, which is often the setting for romantic scenes in Bollywood movies. This is the one part of thecity where it is possible to escape all the hustle and bustle, and in the evenings crowds of Mumbaikars rush here like ants out of a burning thicket to get some fresh air and to ‘do some time-pass’ with a view of the sinking sun. From initial appearances, it looks as if this was not enough for some poor fellow, who left behind his work tie and sandals before throwing himself down a manhole. More likely, of course, is that this is just a poignant piece of street art.

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It is not just Mumbai’s people who are affected by the claustrophobia, but its dogs too. And there are an awful lot of them around since neutering pets does not seem to be common practice in India. Previously, I had always thought of the domestic dog as a retiring creature, forever on the lookout for a quiet, comfy spot to sleep. But there is no such thing in Mumbai and dogs are forced out into the open. Yet they seem to have more or less adapted to this situation and are apparently completely oblivious to the world around them: content to sprawl out in rows in the middle of busy pavements or curl up on the bonnets of parked taxis. More worryingly, Mumbai’s dogs are also to be seen casually stepping in front of speeding cars and wandering along the dividing line of downtown streets.

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s m o k e

Mumbai is a city of aspiration and possibility: as one of the world’s major centres of commerce, there is a lot of money circulating within its limits and the prospect of a better livelihood attracts scores of migrants every year. But signs of struggle and hardship, of people succumbing to circumstance, are plenty. As Katherine Boo writes about the residents of a Mumbai slum, ‘for every two people...inching up, there is one in catastrophic plunge’. This photo evokes the latter case: a dejected figure, dressed like almost all adult men in Mumbai in a work-ready collared shirt - but without any shoes - just sitting aimlessly on the sidewalk. I have no idea where the cards at the man’s feet came from, but they do complete the picture: an almost painful metaphor for all those who remain outside of the city’s grand narrative of growth and upward mobility.

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SMOK(E) IN KRAKOW

by Ewa Szymczyk

Long time ago, in the far east of Europe, among hills of Vistula river, lived a creature.

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Smok wawelski , the oldest legend of Poland

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ocals called it “Smok wawelski”, the dragon of the Wawel Hill. Smok spent his days flying around nearby settlements, always going back to his cave under the white, rocky hill - the highest spot in the Vistula Valley, a kingdom of the legendary Krak of Poland. Wary of Smok’s great appetite, citizens of Wawel became experts on meeting his needs: every day, the dragon demanded a portion of cattle with local specialities, such as 50 kg of pierogi z serem (dumplings with cheese) and one tonne of bigos, a type of sour cabbage. Smok was also fed with a weekly dose of virgins, which were well known for preventing overheating and stimulating digestion.

The king Krak was dissatisfied with this situation. Smok was threatening the peace of the kingdom and this was unacceptable. The ruler, thus, made a pledge to give the kingdom to the one who managed to kill the dragon. Knights coming from beyond the valley responded to the call, but their skills were not enough to fight the beast. The one to defy Smok was Skuba, a young and poor shoemaker who prepared a special dish for the dragon. Smok ate the sheep prepared by Skuba so eagerly that he didn’t even notice it was full of sulphur. The bursting monster craved for water and ran immediately to the Vistula river. As the creature soaked up the river, it grew and grew until a sudden “BANG!” resounded throughout the valley. With the annihilation of Smok, not only did young Skuba inherit the kingdom, but also became an admired hero throughout generations.

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Smog wawelski, the contemporary nightmare of Krakow Despite the defeat by Skuba, over thousand years later Smok Wawelski returns to frighten the inhabitants of the city now known as Krakow. In the form of smog, it still flies around the valley, but instead of demanding banquets, it threatens the health of citizens.

Dark and dangerous smog is a significant risk factor for multiple respiratory infections, heart diseases, asthma and lung cancer. Smog is formed out of heavy air pollution, coming mostly from homes heated with coal or rubbish (35% of private houses use theses sources of energy) and from car fumes (car density in Krakow is of 1200 cars/ 1km2).

In the Vistula Valley, where Krakow is located, smog can accumulate for days. Although ventilation is required to remove ambient airborne pollutants in the dense city, the western winds in the urban area of Krakow blow no longer than eight months every year. From the urban planner’s perspective, ventilation corridors can be strategically created in the city structure. In the XIX century, wind corridors were well integrated in Krakow’s urban fabric and improved air circulation. However, nowadays these corridors are not sufficient, or are simply blocked due to uncontrolled urbanization.

While the European Union recommends that cities should not exceed the limit of 50 Âľg/m3 of air pollution particles (PM10) more than 35 times a year, Krakow surpasses it 250 times a 35

year. Heavy air contamination consists of PM10, SO2, NO2 and dioxins. The health effects caused by these elements include difficulty in breathing, wheezing, coughing, aggravation of existing respiratory and cardiac conditions and eventual death.

Every year, 2.4 million people die from causes directly attributable to air pollution. Within Europe, this figure stands at 310,000 deaths annually, surpassing the victims of automobile accidents. Individual reactions to air pollutants depend on the type of pollutant a person is exposed to, the degree of exposure and the individual’s health status. Smog is especially dangerous for the elderly, children and pregnant women.

A few improvement programs to control air pollution were implemented by the municipality of Krakow; nevertheless, they were not expressive enough to tackle the increasing rate of pollutan emissions. Despite its cultural position, effective health care, exceptional education and improved public transport, Krakow still cannot be compared to western European cites in terms of life standards, mostly because of its smog. To fight the contemporary Smok, do we need another brave Skuba or is the answer smart city management?

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SMOKE THROUGH A LENS

by Venkata Narayanan A L

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erspectives of smoke captured during a trip through Germany in the coldest winter days of 2012.

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Three or, Duħħan

by Richard W J Shepherd

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n his first day there, he didn’t really know what to do. The flight had come in late the night before, and he had checked into his little wooden hotel under darkness, so he had no idea what the island looked like. But he remembered the guidebooks, and he had always wanted to go, and he had loved people from there so he thought it must be like slipping on familiar gloves. Or something like that. He wasn’t a very allegorical person.

So he walked alongside the water to the Capital City, which was very close, but his walk took a long time because of promontories, and hills, and meandering roads. And the earth was sandy brown, and the houses and the dusty roads too, and even the people were the same colour. But the sky and the sea were an identical blue, and the sun was so bright, and everywhere he thought he saw reflections and didn’t know if, when he stopped to breathe, he would actually be standing on his head.

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And the Capital City was teeming with shops and people, and horses and cars. And there were walls that loomed like eroded ziggurats out of the sheer azure and into the sheer azure, and straggly trees like boys with long sleeves. And there were also window-boxes of every hue and shape. And people were standing in front of each other in doorways and cafes, and smoking with each other. Everyone could speak his language and smiled when he smiled. The Painted Cathedral was beautiful and sad. He caught a rickety old bus back to his hotel and people were smoking on that too. Sleep came quickly, and he thought of those he had loved who had come from here. He wondered if they had walked the same streets.

On his second day there, he decided to visit the Silent City. He remembered reading about it during his busy life on the other side of the world and people had jubilantly enthused that it was worth a visit. So he dutifully packed up a little lunch and went to where all the buses start and end. The next bus he caught was full and people kept looking at him and smoking while he was sped through the yellow streets. Through the vividly green fields he saw the walls of the Silent City get closer and closer.

The streets of the city were narrow and twisted back on themselves, and not even the wind raised a note. And the silence was like an uncomfortable guest in his head. He wandered alone through noiseless courtyards and gardens, and he saw some people leaning on walls or walking around but they didn’t speak and he padded on. They were all dressed in black. Maybe they were at the ceaseless funeral for sound. They were all smoking and watching the blue silent sky and each other.

There were catacombs under the city and he wandered through them as well, never losing his way but losing his cool in the silence of the ossuary. When he came up for some air and light he could finally hear something. It was a cat mewing.

He followed the sound to a little cemetery garden and found it, although something had attacked the poor thing and it was 41

hurt, crying to itself in the long grass. He thought to himself – even the cat could not hide from something it could not hear, in this city with no noise. It is a stranger here now, just like me.

He gave it some ham from his packed lunch, and it limped off under a fence.

The only words he heard came from an old woman outside a little church, when he dropped a few coins into her lap.

She thanked him, and told him that ‘words can be written on the wind’. It was only when he was leaving the Silent City that he looked at the people noiselessly standing around. The smoke that came from their noses, and pipes, and black cigarettes made strange shapes in the air around their eyes. A gust of wind blew up but still smoke eddied like flags draped from their mouths.

He took the next rickety bus that stopped outside the city walls, and watched the Silent City descend behind cosmicomic green layers as he was pulled back to his hotel. He could not believe that the people he loved from this island had been so loud and embracing back home. And they smoked too but he had not watched them closely. He remembered only vines over stone and lots of white wine and starched linen flapping in the breeze against cool smooth stone, and laughing. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow and didn’t dream.

On his third day there, he took off to the Citadel City on another island, wanting to be away from the smoke and the memories of injured cats. And the bus all the way to the ferry, and the ferry all the way to the port, was full of people speaking his language. Or other languages he could imagine being spoken in dark bars under stairs, or in high temples searching through the stars, or in bold hot countries with angry mosquitoes.

But once he got to the other island, and took another bus to the Citadel City, he found himself in a haze of smoke and silence, locals watching him disinterestedly as he looked out the window. And in the Citadel City there was a high cathedral 42

of gold that was full of weeping statues. He saw the same old woman outside the cathedral and gave her another coin. She smiled and told him to look where the smoke rises.

So he walked back out into the Citadel City and climbed to the highest point, from where he could see the entire island stretched out below him like a rug littered with toy blocks.

Little buses whizzed from town to town, village to village, and the citadel’s arms stretched out to the sea and the other islands and beyond, to his home and the tug he had felt when he thought of this place and the people he loved from here.

On these islands people spoke to each other through smoke; unfathomable ideas about the colour of scents on the wind, the feeling of missing things that had never existed and nostalgia for an unknown ending.

The people he had known from here, he hadn’t really known. They had been talking to him through cigarettes and telling him secrets, but he had waited for clumsy words to fall from their mouths, darts shy of the bullseye. He was leaving with new memories to cement. The smoke was going to follow him, tugging at him like an idea. How much lighter than language and pregnant with potential is smoke, drifting over the cities and islands of this world, he thought. Now he had gloves of smoke. Or something like that. He wasn’t a very allegorical person.

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Venkata Narayanan A L, India

CONTRIBUTORS

Completing a bachelor’s degree in Architecture and Master of Urban and Rural Planning in India, Venkat has since worked on planning and architectural projects, with research experience as a Project Associate with the Ministry of Urban Development as part of the Government of India. Venkat is also known within Mundus Urbano for his amazing taste in sweaters.

Blanca Calvo, Catalunya Blanca grew up in Barcelona, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in Architecture and has since undertaken volunteer work in an NGO. She believes bringing a social dimension to architecture will be a key component of her future career and can usually be identified within Mundus Urbano by her Catalan pride and amazing aptitude for Australian English (you reckon?).

Connor Cox, USA Connor grew up in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan region of Minnesota, USA, and attended Arizona State University, studying sustainability with an emphasis on architecture and urban development. This has left him with a passion for healthier, more efficient, and more sustainable cities. Connor will forever be known as ‘the Captain’ in Mundus Urbano.

David Kostenwein, Austria Born in Austria, David studied urban and regional planning in Vienna and Brisbane and has a special interest in social aspects of planning. He is currently working on projects aiming to use local potential and engagement to improve urban areas with social and economic problems. Apart from a dedicated knowledge of Austrian celebrities, one can recognize David from behind by the sheer amount of visible boxer shorts.

Elena Mozgovaya, Russia Elena recently received her master degree in Management with specialization in general and strategic management. She was a founder and the first president of a local department of the European Students’ Forum (AEGEE) in her city in Russia and has studied in Sweden. Within Mundus Urbano, Elena has shamed us all by becoming virtually fluent in German in less than a year.

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Daniela Sanjinés, Colombia Daniela is from Bogotá and holds a degree in architecture from the Universidad de Los Andes. For the past four years she has worked as a consultant for the city of Bogotá and the Colombian government in the field of urban planning and land development, focusing on housing and urban renewal. Daniela is extraordinarily articulate, an amazing flatmate and a repository of truly outdated expression (oh man! Jeepers! Nuts!).

Giselle Sebag, USA Giselle Sebag is originally from Atlanta, USA, and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BA in Government and a BS in Architecture. She has gained expertise in green building and sustainable development through work in both private architectural practice and non-profit organizations. Within Mundus Urbano, she is dedicated to having the last word which, thankfully, is always for the good of the environment Matthew Sharp, South Africa Matthew grew up in South Africa and completed a bachelor’s degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics in 2009, and an Honours degree in Social Anthropology in 2010 – both from the University of Cape Town (UCT). His own research has focused on urban migration and the informal economy and he has published on urban exclusion/inclusion. He also has a truly amazing head of hair.

Richard Shepherd, Australia Richard hails from Sydney, and had a ‘normal’ suburban upbringing in a peri-urban town called Camden. He studied architecture and planning at the University of New South Wales and since worked for NSW Government in transport planning. His obsession for planning also makes him the perfect travel mate – you will never get lost in a foreign city with him.

Ewa Szymczyk, Poland Ewa was born in Poland and graduated from CUT (Cracow University of Technology) with a degree in Architecture and Urban planning (Msc), and also completed further study at Manchester University (BA Hons). She has also taken part in international workshops and been published in her home country. Ewa can always be counted on to promote Krakow.

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Christine Joyce Betia, Philippines

EDITORS

Born in Calamba City, Kit finished her bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics with Honors from the University of the Philippines Los Baños. Her involvement in the Philippines lead planning and development agency honed her technical skills and interest in addressing rural and urban demands and concerns. Because of her enthusiasm, Mundus Urbano will always ‘Choose Phillipines!’.

Lia Brum, Brazil Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, following her completion of undergraduate studies in Journalism and International Relations, Lia used to work with biodiversity conservation and the facilitation of environmental finance networks.

Globalization and its impacts on the way people live, behave and transform the planet, especially in cities, have always inspired her. There is no better spellchecker alive (right, Monica?).

Sahar Faruqui, Pakistan Sahar was born and raised in the city of Lahore. Her study and subsequent work has seen her involved with several non profit social organizations in Pakistan. With over 8 years experience as a social worker, she is driven by working to better other people’s lives. As well as being a welcome volunteer for Cities+, Sahar is busy raising the next Prime Minister of Pakistan (or socialite extraordinaire – take your pick, Ishbel!).

Lina Gast, Colombia Lina was born in Medellin, but considers Bogotá to be her hometown. Raised in an environment that stimulated a thirst for knowledge, she enrolled at the Universidad de los Andes and graduated as an Architect and Anthropologist.

She also has experience in working within communities with very limited resources in Bogotá. Her drawing skills and ability to cook have proved most advantageous in Mundus Urbano.

Venkata Narayanan A L, India – see previous page David Kostenwein, Austria – see previous page Daniela Sanjinés, Colombia – see previous page Richard Shepherd, Australia – see previous page 46

ABOUT MUNDUS URBANO

Mundus Urbano is an interdisciplinary Master of Science programme specialising in International Cooperation and Urban Development, jointly offered by four European universities. It addresses the dynamic challenges faced throughout the world due to rapid urbanisation processes.

Interdisciplinary approach. Conventional academic approaches to urban planning, architecture and development have proven inadequate in dealing with the constantly evolving, contemporary urban challenges. Mundus Urbano provides approaches that incorporate elements from a diverse selection of disciplines that include physical, economic, social and managerial aspects. It provides students with the highest quality academic resources and teaching staff and affords them insight into current development planning theories and practices, instigating them to propose architecturally, socially, economically and ecologically sustainable urban development solutions.

Diversity as an asset. The multi-faceted composition of both the Mundus Urbano student groups and teaching staff fosters a diverse learning environment and allows for the development of a global professional network.

Lecturers and students have backgrounds that range from Engineering, Architecture and Design to Social and Political Sciences, coming from different parts of the world.

International double degree. Mundus Urbano produces advanced graduates who can innovatively address the complexities of the phenomena facing the world’s urban populations, mostly in developing countries. The consortium structure of the program allows students to pursue a double degree in International Cooperation and Urban Development with specialisations in Development Economics (Rome), Sustainable Emergency Architecture (Barcelona) or Social Challenges and Approaches to Urban Development and Design for all (Grenoble).

Vast working field. Professionals are increasingly required to undertake projects internationally in the urban development field. Mundus Urbano builds the capacity to meet the challenges that this type of work presents and prepares both professionals and academics for critically analysing and assessing the growing problems in urban areas internationally. Internship opportunities arise during the course and Mundus Urbano alumni are skilled to work in institutions as international cooperation agencies, municipal planning offices, research institutes and consultancy firms, involved in international finance, foreign aid, human settlements, slum improvement and infrastructure development, among other areas.

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