BORDERS, AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY AND THE REDEFINITION OF THE METROPOLITAN GREEN BELT
By Nicky Holness 17032413
T H E PA R A D O X B E T W E E N T H E E X PA N S I O N A N D T H E R E S T R A I N T
T H E M E T ROPOLI S
[ = ]
THE BORD ER
[ + ]
THE ROBOT
05
Introduction According to Oxford’s dictionary, a border is defined as “the edge or boundary of something, or the part near it” (Oxford University Press 2018). Currently, we move within a society surrounded by delimitations or borders which are difficult to define its reach most of them are progressive and subtle at different scales. As the French philosopher Tristan Garcia (2018) explains, cities and modern life are intense and, according to Phillipe Rahm (2017), landscape is reshaped with a variation of intensities that can be reinterpreted as gradient borders which result from dynamic processes that rarely repeat the same pattern and are not defined by a line but by a range. There are different sprawl control devices that urban planners execute in order to define and shape expansion of cities. The studio is based in the Metropolitan Green Belt, which surrounds Greater London. A green belt is described as “an area of land with fields or parks around a town or city, where people are not allowed to build houses or factories by law” (Collins, 1994, p579). This sprawl control policy is applied in different settlements though England with the main aim of controlling urban sprawl. The Department for Communities and Local Government (2017) states that the green belts represent 13% of UK occupied land in comparison to 8.8% of built on areas of the country. If, according to the United Nations (2014), 60% of the world population will live in urban areas by 2030, then how will the borders we have set to our cities can become porous and admit cities to readjust for the increasing population as well as their fluctuating needs? Are existing city borders such as green belts actually strangling city growth and pulse in an overbearing way? Cities have their own pulse and pace of growth. These, along with other features of cities, make them grow in different directions if we do not set guides. Green belts are an urban planner’s mechanism to control the urban sprawl and assure food, leisure, air filters and other several benefits, for cities. Have the original objectives been applied in a way so as to prevent a cumulative effect in different urban systems? By an analysis of historical and transformation facts of green belts in UK, this thesis report will compare the different postures and facts around them in order to contrast the different objectives they have had through history and also suggest what the future of the green belts might be. The report will take into consideration land use, the density of the city and
07
several environmental impacts, as well as the accelerated population growth London may face in the near future, as the Mayor projected forecast of 13 million inhabitants by 2050 will result in a rise of around 50% on London’s current population of 8.5M. It will be imperative to understand the contemporary identity of the green belts and how the prescribed land uses set a different identity and program for each zone; whilst it is true that there are different land use types within it, most of it is associated with agricultural activities. This rural character with an agricultural identity plays a key role in the transformation and updated of the Metropolitan Green Belt as after more than 60 years, its boundaries need to be adjusted. If the character is mostly agricultural, then how can it be flexible and resilient for the expected growth, as well as efficient and productive to feed the growing population. Furthermore, does this agricultural character mean that the green belt should only serve the city by feeding it or could the ideology be enhanced to include social open greenspace as part of its identity too? Is imperative to state that we set a boundary to the sociological factors associated to the decrease of young population continuing the agricultural activities within the green belt (and other areas). Currently, we are in the Anthropocene epoch, corresponding to the most recent geological period, “ruled and highly influenced by humans�. This means that our existence on this planet is not only shaping the world by the simple matter of existing, but also because of our ability to learn and transforming that knowledge into new things: technology. This lead us to key questions as are we living an era where urban patterns became too intricated for our humanity to perceive them, so we need to help ourselves with technology in to reinterpret our borders? How can we apply technology to agricultural activities in order to help us to redefine the Metropolitan Green Belt looking forward to create a more resilient city, and one that can keep up with expansion related to expected population growth? Furthermore, how can Artificial Intelligence (AI) aid in the task of reaching our geographical aims as a city during this Anthropocene era? And what role can agricultural technology play in the modification of the borders of the green belt from the perspective of resilience? This thesis report is divided into three chapters; the first acts as a fictional narrative to set the tone in which we explain the augmented vision of a problem and we set the environment for the design project. The second explores the historical background of the city borders, how they have changed through time and how these changes have affected the city development as well as evolution. Whilst the final chapter assesses a view of how the agricultural technology is being applied and how this may assist us in the evolution of our growing cities.
I. THE ROBOT:
to the service of humans through architecture “Humans will become as irrelevant as cockroaches� (Marshall Brain, 2015, p.1)
11
“These new urban landscapes have signified new forms of organisation and the decentralisation of services and urban functions and infrastructures, with uneven outcomes in terms of urban and social mobility and social and spatial fragmentation and segregationâ€? (Mendes, Ma M; SĂĄ, T; Cabral, J. 2017. p. XVI)
13
Londinia; the centre of everything but owner of nothing. The city awakes between a dense fog every morning. It was previously known for its tons of inhabitants that ran as small cockroaches to their jobs, but many of them do not need to run anymore. The city breathes evolution within its inhabitants. There are new kids on the block that have set the future scene of Londinia, but they do not have either hands or faces; they have a body and several blades that help them to fly. The evolution started a couple of years ago, as the city became a massive pile of junk, where it was almost impossible to conceive new accommodation for the inhabitants. The quantity of waste was almost unimaginable, huge piles of unused clothes hanging by the roads, plastic bags all over the street lights, construction material piled up in every corner. You could smell the broken system within the city, it was impossible to find a clean space. People started to leave town as they could not stand their own disaster. Years ago, before the catastrophe had taken place, Londinia was a very tidy and settled city. Every centimetre was planned, measured, balanced, integrated, linear - almost over-determined. It was a place where everything was happening and everybody wanted to be there. This necessity lead to its failure. As tons of people started to populate the beautifully tidy spaces the system began to collapse, one after another as a domino effect, until it became the place where no one wanted to be. The city was not quite prepared for expansion, and it started breaking into pieces that made it almost impossible to put back together. The new kids on the block came to rescue this city, as they have done with others. They arrived a morning with the characteristic dense fog having different shapes and sizes, waking up the city with their peculiar noise of a swarm of wasps. The transformation was about to take place. This revolution was intended to eradicate the cause of the catastrophe: the inhabitants. The newbies started to collect the waste with an amazing speed, picking it up and flying it to the disposal centres. No one could believe how quickly the city was being cleaned by these machines, whilst the inhabitants watched on incredulously, filming on their smartphones and unaware of what might happen next.
14
15
The newbies set a strategy to not only dispose of all the waste but to also take advantage of it. On the outskirts of London, mountain-like landforms were being erected by tons of what looked like flying ants, working without any type of break: unstoppable machines. They appeared to be lifting gabions made from construction waste and accommodated them in matter of minutes. In the same repetitive way, they unbuilt the shape to start new landforms, again and again but you could not see humans anywhere within the disposal centres. There was no human life but, without a doubt, intelligence was more present than ever. Everything was automated, from the trucks to the drones passing by the machinery, to those that compacted and drained the soil and terrain. While this happened, one of the remaining Londinars stated: ‘Now, I have realised how irrelevant we have become in our own city, in our own planet. We really have become as irrelevant as cockroaches’. On the floor lay a copy of the Evening Standard’s ‘How to Survive Work in the 21st Century’ (2016) stating that “60% of the jobs for the next generation do not yet exist – 1 job in 5 will disappear in the next 5 years”.
16
17
“Cities (in the past, too, but much more evidently today) are made up at the same time of great variety of “other” elements: technologies (especially those which make long distance interaction possible), images, representations, procedures, organizational frameworks, software […]” (Mendes, Ma M; Sá, T; Cabral, J. 2017. P. 138)
II. THE BORDER: the puzzle between the limit, the growth and the brittle “I’ve decided, if rigidly interpreted, a green belt can be the strangulation of a city. With so many people to house we can’t put them all in new towns thirty miles away on the other side of the green belt… in some cases we shall trespass into the green belts or turn a green belt into four or five green fingers” Crossman. 1975. p.87 (Ward. 2004. P152)
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND “What matters here is that cities emerge as strategic sites for major economic processes and for new types of political actors” (Mendes, Ma M; Sá, T; Cabral, J. 2017. P. 7)
London has a relatively contained and radial shape, not one that might typically suggest the outline of a city with 10+million inhabitants’. This self-contained shape responds to the Metropolitan Green Belt delimitation, that was officially created in the 1950’s when the first green belts were designated. Green belts already had a long history in England. Queen Elizabeth I, imposed a green belt around London and Westminster with the intention to prevent the dissemination of the bubonic plague (Green Belt Politics, 2011). After this, London kept growing at a steady pace until 1890 when Ebenezer Howard, as a founder of the garden city, advised “always preserving a belt of country around our cities” (Howard, 2017, p142). It was not until 1955 that the Ministry of Housing and Local Government officially designated the green belt with three main purposes described in the circular 42/55 as “To check the unrestricted urban sprawl of large built-up areas; to prevent neighbouring towns from merging, and to preserve the special character of historic towns” (Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government. March 2012, paragraph 80). These objectives have been expanded through the years, with ¨safeguarding the surrounding countryside from further encroachment” and “helping the land regenerate by reusing the same land for different purposes” (Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government. March 2012, paragraph 80) being added to the list.
22
23
RESILIENCE Cities are “hubs for ideas, commerce, culture, science, productivity, social development and much more” and “have enabled people to advance socially and economically” (UN Habitat, 2015)
London has a long history which reflects how and why it is considered a lively, resilient and changing city (Bishop, 2018), from the Great Fire of 1666 to the bombing during the World War II and other several circumstances it has overcome over time. Analysing the situation with more detail, suggests the green belt is fulfilling its theoretical purposes, but this can be producing other inconveniences in multiple directions. Because of the use of urban sprawl control devices as the green belts, can cause London to be considered as a closed city, responding to Richard Sennett’s concept of a “closed system” (2015): “formal coherence, equilibrium and integration”. According to Sennett, these characteristics are usually seen as merits or positive features, but for urban purposes is completely different. Cities have their own mechanism of metabolizing its systems at a very own and particular cadence, speed for growth and development, reasons why if a city is incapable of adapting to the increasing and changing population demands, in time its condemned to turn into a brittle city because of its failure to mutate as well as readjust to different situations. The closed city concept responds to the over-determined, balanced, integrated and linear (Sennett, 2015). Conversely, there are examples throughout history of the green belt being used in times of difficulty to great effect. During World War II the city was hardly bombed leaving it into ruins, reason why urban planners saw the green belt as a tool that gave them the opportunity to control urban sprawl and at the same time to protect water supplies, provide food and facilitate recreation (Ward 2004) because of the adversities the city faced to import food and assure places to prepare the population in military skills to defend the country for further attacks. London is and will still keep facing different difficulties and threats after more than 60 years of the green belts policy have been implemented. How can this urban sprawl control policies help the city to become resilient facing the pressure of economic and political changes as a result of the upcoming Brexit? This type of situations can be referred back to the basic aims of the green belts after the World War II when the city had increasing difficulties in the matter of assuring food and goods for the population.
25
REINVENTION Green belts have been promoting the reuse as well as the reinterpretation of brownfields (Sinnet et al 2014) which are previously used land areas. It is not only a positive but sustainable approach as it promotes the use of the same land for different purposes through time. Furthermore, this policy aids in the task of a regular urban regeneration process (Deberker 2010). Through analysing the role, the Metropolitan Green Belt plays in London it is noticeable how the urban sprawl control may be pushing against the city by generating increasing economic and social pressure out of an urban planning method (Kynaston 2017). The dilemma increases if components as the real land use in the green belt (Green belts under siege: the NPPF 2015) are added to the equation. This urban sprawl control device can be classified as positive and even healthy for the city because green belts are meant to be open greenspaces that provides leisure, food and work as a filter for city pollution, as stated before. In the way its theoretical objectives are proposed may be beneficial for the city, however, part of the green belt is used for other purposes that are generating abnormal sprawl of urban problems into it (Elledge 2017). It is possible to witness this by satellite images that show the vast quantity of private golf courses, intense industrial plants and some others. Currently, the uncontrolled speculation over the land due to the green belt policy does not equate the objectives the urban sprawl device promises. There is an evident increase of house deficit, uncontrolled increase in land value and time-consuming commutes the population is facing (Moore, 2017). Urban sprawl tools are certainly needed due to the high risk of merging growing towns together as well as increasing the possibilities of urban systems failure, where we must add the human factor of sleep-only areas, long commutes and some other that have an impact in the citizens’ health as well as ther quality of life. Therefore, the importance of developing other areas of the country must be a crucial part of the bigger picture. Big cities are preferred for migration (United Nations 2014), but England only has 8.8% of built on areas, leaving more than 91% undeveloped (Green belts in England: key facts, 2010). Maybe it would be more appropriate to focus on generating more opportunities in other cities, rather than trying to control the natural growth of one (Campaign to protect rural England, 2010).
26
27
SPECULATION Setting a fence or limit for expansion of a settlement, immediately makes the value of the land to increase as there is only a limited space that everyone desires. We can refer to what is stated in Brittanica Encyclopedia (2018), “whenever demand increases and the offer remains the same, the value of the goods (in this case, land) will rise”. By this, there is an increasing issue about the types of borders we have set to the city, where limits may act as the membranes and borders described by Senneth (2015) in his book The Open City. He makes a comparison between how a city works and the composition of the basic unit of life, cells. He states that cities work as cells, because they have membranes and walls that allow elements to be in or out. While the membranes are permeable and permit the exchange or interaction, the walls or borders are stiff, taking as much as they can inside. The greenbelt and the borders described by Senneth (2015), can be clearly related to each other. The “structure” is set to keep the control of what is happening inside, allowing things to get in but not out. Green belts are allowing the density to increase but are to been resilient enough to be reshaped after so many years. Is it that this type of policies is trying to create brittle settlements that can resemble the garden cities described by Peter Batchelor (1969) in the 1960’s that were proposed for a limited quantity of inhabitants, meaning they were not capable of allowing changes because systems may collapse after the top capacity has been reached? Urban sprawl tools are necessary to guide and shape cities development in order to ensure the supply of food, open space and fresh air (Campaign to protect rural England 2010). The biggest issue is set because of the paradox between the increasing housing problem the city is facing and the need of a natural buffer for the city. As these policies represent tireless efforts to control the expansion of the city in order that it can be efficient, they are not evolving at the same speed the city has. There is an increasing need for integrated solutions (Sturzaker and Mell, 2017) that can balance all the affected stems of the problem from a resilient perspective.
28
29
SEMANTICS Probably, the debate the green belt is generating nowadays have been created by a semantics issue. Jonathan Manns, of Colliers International (Moore, 2017a), states how the difference in words can be the cause of the debate, shifting the term from girdle to belt has made it become bigger and stiffer. History shows how in the beginning of this policy it was suggested to be a band of one mile wide, that the became one or two miles in different areas. According to Duncan Sandys proposal, it was conceived as a seven to ten miles wide, but they became up to 35 miles (Foley 1963). After the analysis of how it started as a girdle and then became this massive belt for the city sprawl, the question might be directed to how big our devices must need to be in order to be efficient enough for the objectives to be satisfied. Policies and urban planning tools must be thought to survive through time, always under a profound analysis and reinvention, in order to them to survive and evolve with the cities. As cities are expected to be resilient, so does our policies should be in order to be at the forefront evolution. There are several discrepancies between the theoretical and reality scenarios where several authors have discussed how permeable and open should our systems be considering the growth in wide of the girdle as well as the role it has.
30
III. THE METROPOLIS: the response to an intrinsic character “If we don’t change direction soon, we’ll end up where we’re going” (Irwin Corey)
33
CHARACTER “Cities are machines of making trash, they work as living organisms: they synthesize materials and information to feed the fundamental units that make them alive: people. In each one of these metabolic processes there could be generative or destructive outputs, for the city itself, for people or for the resources they depend upon.” (Diez 2018)
The Metropolitan greenbelt represents an estimated 22% of London’s land area (Mayor of London 2018), serving the multiple objectives stated earlier. Part of this open land serves to mitigate issues related to the increasing high density in London, like “combating the urban heat effect, growing food, and providing space for recreation” (Mayor of London, 2018, 8.2.1). The types of uses within the Metropolitan Greenbelt are directed by the planning designation, where most of the land is registered as agricultural or woodland (CPRE/Natural England 2010, p32). The design research we have conducted within the studio has lead us to conclude that due to the 93% of undeveloped lands in the Metropolitan Green Belt where only a quarter is neither woodland nor agricultural, it has a rural character with a strong agricultural identity (CPRE/Natural England 2010, p32) which is not being fully exploited due to the underuse of land capacity and degradation of the soil (CPRE/Natural England 2010, p50), as well as cross-contamination resulting from the proximity to landfills (active or former), heavy industrial clusters and former mineral workings that compromise the soil quality and use (CPRE/Natural England 2010, p52). Landfills (former and active), golf courses, industrial clusters, mineral workings and some others, are causing abnormal heat spots within the belt (London heat map 2018) which is expected to protect rural and open greenspaces (Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government. March 2012, paragraph 80) from urban sprawl as well as the urban heat island it represents, affecting the quality and quantity of open space available for the belt to feed and serve the city (CPRE/ Natural England 2010, p52). As these uses are permitted among the belt (Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local
35
Government. March 2012, paragraph 90), we see a decrease in the productivity of the land (CPRE/Natural England 2010, p52). The green belt is actually becoming the city’s waste bin (CPRE/Natural England 2010, p64) and the leisure space of only a few (CPRE/Natural England 2010, p44). In identifying the character as agricultural, the Metropolitan Green Belt can be reinterpreted by shifting the threads to opportunities through its enhancement. Rather than becoming the city’s waste bin, there are possibilities of using this increase in waste (OECD 2010 p172) to produce more agricultural spaces that can recover the land from those harmful uses and eventually feed the city.
36
37
TECHNOLOGY Farming has been facing improvements through technology that have the potential to aid us in the issue of producing enough food and energy for our cities (Hsu 2016). Robots and artificial intelligence have been modified to help us face these growing demands. Machines or ‘agbots’ (agricultural robots) built to seed, harvest, maintain and other several agricultural tasks are now working around the world facing the new revolution: the fourth industrial revolution (Dunlop 2017). If we redefine our city border as a resilient girdle aided by the agbots then we can start reshaping this protection from urban sprawl that could lead to the implementation of projects as 100-mile city concept from Peter Barber architects which aims to build a linear development of 200m wide and 4 storeys height around London (which is 100 miles). The project proposes to include small factories, educational centres, residences and shops within terraces in order to have what they describe as “a dense and intense edge to London” that will impulse the “revitalization for a more productive countryside”. Artificial intelligence is a tool that can give us the speed of change and adaptability in the face of iterative uncertain future development (Venkatachalam 2017). Human population is expected to be 60% in urban areas by 2025 (UN 2015), making it evident that the systems we have built for our cities are not evolving at the speed they need to, not only to face this increase in population but also the eventual decrease or stabilization of urban systems (Lead Expert Group, 2016, p14). Artificial intelligence applied to landscape is opening a door of adaptability as well as economic viability of changes in a short period. It has the potential to reduce crop plagues, carry out timely harvesting to preserve products quality, create genetic improvements of seeds, as well as several other tasks that humans are not able to develop with enough speed (Taipale, 2012, p.21). As mentioned previously, urban patterns are becoming too complex for our humanity to understand and decode. Urban technology is not only about landscape automation but about the service of the tools to improve the borders and policies we have already set for our developments. Machines have already replaced us in tasks that have become too complex or long for us, and agriculture is on its way to use this intelligence in order to reinvent the activity to meet the speed of urban areas (Venkatachalam 2017).
39
FUTURE “Without a doubt, we ultimately live under a changing process of global urbanization” (Hervé Le Bras)
The Metropolitan Green Belt is under intense pressure especially because of the housing problem London is currently facing (Mayor of London 2018). There are several attempts and projects proposed within its legal borders that attempt to threaten its integrity (CPRE 2011). There is an increasing need to release part of this belt or to convert it into more of an elastic girdle to allow for housing expansion (Elledge 2017). As previously explored, there are several proposals that focus on the housing problem, analysing the different scenarios the city can adopt to address the increasing issue (Peter Barber Architects 2016). If we state that the Metropolitan Green Belt’s character is rural with an agricultural identity (CPRE/Natural England 2010, p32), then the future of it and its resilience must be approached from that point of view. Agriculture is an activity that has been related to humanity since humans stopped being nomads (Vilar 2016). We have an instinctive need to produce our food and of being close to it. This necessity has been affected by the evolution of our cities, creating huge gaps among the rural farming areas and the urban centres where greater progress opportunities are set (UN 2015). Agriculture should not be addressed only from the traditional perspective of labouring land but by the opportunity artificial intelligence is giving us to manage land from distance (Venkatachalam 2017). What is the future of the Metropolitan Green Belt? Well, it is implausible to give a certain answer to that question, but we can start by the redefinition of the border through the technology we have been developing over the years. In order to feed an expanding city which is about to face growing political issues that can affect their food stability, distribution and secure. Without a doubt, the future of the green belt should be represented by technology that serves the resilient character of the city.
40
41
CONCLUSION The paradox between the limit, the growth and the brittle may not be yet solved. As we stated, there are several postures can be adopted to understand the Metropolitan Green Belt aim and actual role. London have found a tool to guide and control the urban sprawl, which have been effective but turns to not be resilient enough for the development and growth the city has had. The character of this valuable fence to the city is mostly agricultural, as we have explained before. The identity is clear but is not fully being exploited to feed the growing city and the evolution of this belt is not related to the improvement of those agricultural activities. All the pointers go to which is the future of the Metropolitan Green Belt, is it to “abolish� the limit of the city growth, or to develop other areas, or to split it into fingers to allow connection with other cities, or many other proposals that have been made through time. The reality is that there is no accurate answer to that question as there are many actors involved. The metropolitan greenbelt has objectives that, in big or small scale, are being addressed. Certainly, there are several revisions to be made to the legal political designation of its borders as the pressure is continuously growing for new housing developments. As cities grow bigger and denser, the systems built to feed and serve them must be reciprocal. Humanity have been able to set new tools in order to simplify our existence that have not been directly applied to our complete environment. As we know, we live surrounded by that technological advancement. From the computers, to ipads, tv, cellphones, etc, everything is fast speed evolving, but we haven’t stop to really meditate how have our urban systems adapt to that.
42
43
We are currently living in the Anthropocene epoch, and trying to grasp the extent of (and probably we still cannot know the complete reach) the impact or footprint we have had on planet Earth. As the world population is expected to grow at a steady pace for the upcoming years, we need to set trace of that impact and develop technologies that may help us deal with the exponential necessities. Artificial intelligence is already starting to influence the built environment profession, mainly through the use of drones as this tool is having a key role in architectural design, as explored in the short film Elevation (2018). Drones are not only used to deliver objects or to take amazing pictures, but they have the potential to be real game changers, not only for architects but for society as a whole. They can be used to paint facades, build structures, transport through the city and several more tasks that will shift the way we perceive, live and experience spaces as well as life itself. Urban systems are designed to last for generations as well as cities evolve at natural slow pace, yes this was probable acceptable or accurate before this fourth industrial revolution took place. We live in an era of the speed, where currently we like to see changes in a matter of minutes but unfortunately nature cannot keep that pace. If we apply the knowledge in technology developed through these years allowing us to design agbots that aid us in the agricultural activities or further experiments with artificial intelligence drones that can enhance those same agricultural tasks, then our urban systems and the borders we have set to them can evolve at the same speed our societies are. This evolution then may guide us to resilient systems that can allow us to shape our surroundings in a more immediate and effective way.
44
45
EPILOGUE It was winter of 2200, Londinia woke up within its characteristic dense fog accompanied by the now familiar noise of wasps’ swarm. Time have passed since the first generation saw the evolution of this town, from a bin to an aided metropolis. Now Londiniars are used to the new kids on the block, which are now considered the saviors. Londinia has a new face and an evolving delimitation. It is resilient and it changes according to the necessities of the city. Anything is written, each and every time the city “improvises� a new arrangement and solution for each upcoming issue. The newbies are now part of most tasks, aiding inhabitants to have the city they always requested. Those mountain alike landforms have been erected and dismantled several times and each of them have been in different ways. They evolved into generative landscapes that feed Londinia with biofuels and food, is an urban poetry of the rebirth of a society from its own devastation. The landforms had different mutation processes until they became part of open greenspaces where Londiniars enjoy the nature and openness that defined the limit of the city. Londinia survived the changes, as a dynamic, resilient and changing city it has always been.
46
Bibliography 1. (1994). Collins English dictionary. Glasgow, HarperCollins Publishers. (18) 2. Abrahamson, M. 2014. Urban sociology, a global introduction. United States of America: Cambridge University Press. 3. Amati, M; Yokohari, M. 2007. The establishment of the London Greenbelt: reaching a consensus over purchasing land. Journal of planning history. [online] Available from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1068/b31171 4. Aurigi, A; De Cindio, F. 2008. Augmented urban spaces: articulating the physical and electronic city. Aldershot: Ashgate. 5. Batchelor, P. 1969. The origin of the garden city, concept of urban form. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 28(3), pp. 184-200. 6. Bengston, D; Youn, Y. 2006. Urban containment policies and the protection of natural areas: the case of Seoul’s greenbelt. Ecology and Society 11 (1). [online] Available from: https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss1/art3/main.html Bishop, P. January 2018. London Open City. Lecture series. 7. 8. Brain, M. 2015. The second intelligent species, how humans will become as irrelevant as cockroaches. Kindle first edition. BYG Publishing Inc. 9. Calvino, I. 1974. Invisible cities. [online] Available from: http://www.away-is-a-place.de/AIPpdf/AIPInvisibCities.pdf 10. Campaign to protect rural England & Natural England. 2010. Green Belts: a greener future. [online] available from: http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/ file/92020 11. Campaign to protect rural England. January 2010. Green belts in England: key facts. [online] Available from: http://www.cpre.org.uk/resources/housing-and-planning/green-belts/item/1957-green-belts-in-england-key-facts 12. Campaign to protect rural England. March 2015. Green belts under siege: the NPPF. [online] Available from: http://www.cpre.org.uk/resources/housing-and-planning/green-belts/item/3894-green-belt-under-siege-the-nppf-three-years-on 13. Cinar, A; Bender, T. 2007. Urban imaginaries: locating the modern city. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 14. De Berker, A. 2010. Greenfield, brownfield and the green belt. [online]. Available from: http://www.deberker.com/deberker/Geography_files/Greenfield,%20 brownfield%20and%20greenbelt.pdf 15. Di Palma, V. Aug 2014. Wasteland: A history. United States of America: Yale University press 16. Diez, T. July 2018. How the digital revolution will make cities produce everything they consume… again. ArchDaily. [online]. Available from: https://www. archdaily.com/897842/how-the-digital-revolution-will-make-cities-produce-everything-they-consumeagain?utm_medium=email&utm_source=ArchDaily%20 List&kth=1,723,291 17. Domínguez, GM. 2016. Abel Cahen’s Open city, a theoretical inquiry into urban complexity and the limits of control. Journal of Architectural Education, 70(2), pp. 223-235. 18. Dunlop, T. May 2017. Agbots, next gen farming and how they can teach us about the future of work. The Guardian. [online] Available from: https://www. theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/may/09/agbots-next-gen-farming-and-how-they-can-teach-us-about-the-future-of-work
19. Egan, L. May 2016. What are the rules regarding building on green belt land?. [online] Available from: https://www.purecommercialfinance.co.uk/news/whatare-the-rules-regarding-building-on-green-belt-land/ 20. Elledge, J. 2017. Loosen Britain’s green belt. Is it stunning our young people. The Guardian. [online]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/22/green-belt-housing-crisis-planning-policy. 21. Fairs, M and Manzi, O. (2018). Elevation. Dezeen. [online short film] Available from https://www.dezeen.com/2018/05/29/dezeens-new-documentary-elevation-chosen-to-be-screened-at-events-worldwide/ 22. Fletcher, S. March 2013. Yes, robots are coming for our jobs – now what? Scientific American. [online] Available from: https://www.scientificamerican.com/ article/yes-robots-are-coming-for-our-jobs-now-what/ Foley, D. 1963. Controlling London’s Growth, Planning the Great Wen 1940 -1960. 23. 24. Forsyth, J. December 16, 2017. The Age of volatility. The spectator. [online] Available from: https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/12/the-age-of-volatility/ 25. Fraser, I. 2017. Mayor of London pledges to protect Green Belt as developers nervously await new rules on affordable homes. The Telegraph. [online] Available from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/11/26/mayor-london-pledges-protect-green-belt-developers-nervously/ 26. Gallent, N et al. June 1, 2006. Planning on the Edge: England’s rural – urban fringe and the spatial planning agenda. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design. [online] Available from https://doi.org/10.1068/b31171 27. Geyh, P. 2009. Cities, citizens, and technologies: urban life and postmodernity. New York: Routledge. 28. Government Office for Science. 2017. From waste to resource productivity – evidence and case studies. [online] Available from: https://circulareconomy.europa. eu/platform/sites/default/files/knowledge_-_from-waste-to-resource-productivity-evidence-case-studies.pdf 29. Green belt politics. 2011. History of green belt in UK. [online] Available from: http://politics-greenbelt.org.uk/history-of-green-belt-in-the-uk.html 30. Hilton, A. October 2016. How to survive work in the 21st century. Evening Standard. [online] Available from: https://www.standard.co.uk/business/anthonyhilton-how-to-survive-work-in-the-21st-century-a3372291.html 31. Holt, W G. 2014. From sustainable to resilient cities: global concerns and urban efforts. Bingley: Emerald 2016. 32. Howard, E. 2007. Garden cities of to-morrow. UK: Routledge. 33. Hsu, J. July 2016. Rise of the Ag-bots will not sow seeds of unemployment. Scientific American. [online] Available from: https://www.scientificamerican.com/ article/rise-of-the-ag-bots-will-not-sow-seeds-of-unemployment/ 34. Kuhn, M. June 15, 2003. Greenbelt and green heart: separating and integrating landscapes in European city regions. Elsevier. [online] Available from: http://www. sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204602001986 35. Kynaston, D. 2017. Is London’s Green Belt responsible for the housing crisis? The Spectator. [online] Available from https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/06/is-londons-green-belt-responsible-for-its-housing-crisis/
36. Ladd, B. 2014. The Closed Versus the Open Cityscape: Rival Traditions from Nineteenth-Century Europe. Change Over Time 4(1), 58-74. University of Pennsylvania Press. Retrieved January 4, 2018, from Project MUSE database [online] http://muse.jhu.edu/article/544300 37. Lally, S. Feb 2017. EP. 016_Phillippe Rahm_’The Gradient’. Night white skies podcasts [online] Available from: https://player.fm/series/night-white-skies/ep016-philippe-rahm-the-gradient 38. Lead Expert Group. 2016. Future of Cities: the science of cities and future research priorities. Government Office for Science. [online] Available from: www.gov.uk/ go-science 39. Mace, A; Blanc, F; Gordon, I; Scanlon, K. 2016. A 21st century metropolitan green belt. London School of Economics. [online] Available from: http://eprints.lse. ac.uk/68012/1/Gordon_Green_Belt_author.pdf 40. Marsden, T K; Munton, R J C. May 1, 1991. The Farmed Landscape and the Occupancy change process. Environment and planning A: economy and space. [online] Available from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1068/a230663 41. Marvin, S; Luque-Ayala, A; McFarlane, C. 2015. Smart urbanism: utopian vision or false dawn? London: Routledge. 42. Matthew, T. 2014. Nature by design: technology as the human evolution prosthetic. ProQuest dissertations and theses. 43. Mayor of London. 2016. The London Plan: the spatial development strategy for London, consolidated with alterations since 2011. 44. Mayor of London.2018. Draft new London plan - Chapter 8, green infrastructure and natural environment – Policy G2 London’s Green Belt. [online] Available from https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/planning/london-plan/new-london-plan/draft-new-london-plan/chapter-8-green-infrastructure-and-natural-environment/ policy-g2-londons-green 45. Mendes, Ma M; Sá, T; Cabral, J. 2017. Architecture and the social sciences: inter – and multidisciplinary approaches between society and space. Switzerland: Springer international publishing. 46. Ministry of Housing and Local Government Whitehall, London, SW1. 1955. Green Belts. [online] Available from: http://londongreenbeltcouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/1955-Circular.pdf 47. Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government. March 2012. National planning policy framework. [online] Available from: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-planning-policy-framework/9-protecting-green-belt-land 48. Minkenberg, M. 2014. Power and architecture: the construction of capitals and the politics of space. New York: Berghahn books. 49. Moor, M; Rowland, J. 2006. Urban design futures. London; New York: Routledge. 50. Moore, R. 19 October 2017. Is it time to rethink Britain’s green belt? The Guardian. [online]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/19/ is-it-time-to-rethink-the-green-belt 51. Moore, R. February 5, 2017. Government plan to open up green belt has to be just the start. The Guardian. [online]. Available from: https://www.theguardian. com/commentisfree/2017/feb/05/housing-white-paper-green-belt-solution-to-housing-crisis 52. Moore, R. October 2014. Is it time to rethink Britain´s green belt?. The Observer. [online] Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/19/ is-it-time-to-rethink-the-green-belt
53. Natural England campaign to protect rural England. January 2010. Greenbelts: a greener future. [online] Available from: http://www.cpre.org.uk/resources/ housing-and-planning/green-belts/item/1955-green-belts-a-greener-future-summary 54. Newton Dunn, T. 2017. Home Target “Doomed” Theresa May must build on the Green Belt to meet her 300,000 new homes pledge. The Sun [online]. Available from: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4988199/theresa-may-green-belt-homes-pledge/ 55. OECD. 2010. OECD Factbook – economic, environmental and social statistics. [online] Available from: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/factbook-2010en.pdf?expires=1531588553&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=766EF0460802E0A73E8522166FF44E2A 56. Peter Barber Architects. 2016. Hundred-mile city. [online] Available from: http://www.peterbarberarchitects.com/hundred-mile-city-1/ 57. Quilty-Harper, C. Nov 2012. Interactive map: England’s greenbelt. [online] Available from: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/greenpolitics/planning/9708387/Interactive-map-Englands-green-belt.html 58. Rundle, M. January 2014. 47% of all jobs will be automated by 2034, and “no government is prepared” says economist. Huffington Post UK. [online] Available from: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/01/17/rise-of-the-machines-economist_n_4616931.html 59. Seager, C. October 2016. Will jobs exist in 2050?. The Guardian. [online] Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/careers/2016/oct/13/will-jobs-existin-2050 60. Sennett, R. 2006. The open city. [online] Available from: https://www.richardsennett.com/site/senn/UploadedResources/The%20Open%20City.pdf 61. Sennett, R. Cambridge Law Faculty. 10 March 2015. The Edge: borders and boundaries. [online]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VM9wqovghE 62. Sinnet, D; Carmichael, L; Williams, K; Miner, P. November 2014. From wasted space to living spaces.: the availability of brownfield land for housing development. University of West England. [online] Available from: http://www.cpre.org.uk/resources/housing-and-planning/housing/item/3785-from-wasted-space-to-living-spaces 63. Sinnett, D et al. November 2014. From wasted space to living spaces: the availability of brownfield land for housing development in England. [online]. Available from: https://londongreenbeltcouncil.org.uk/useful-external-links/ 64. Srnicek, N; Williams, A. 2015. Inventing the future: post capitalism and a world without work. London: Verso 2016. 65. Sturzaker, J and Mell, I. 2017. Green Belts – Past; present; future? London, United Kingdom and New York City, USA. Routledge. 66. Surrey county council and the Surrey planning officers’ association (SPOA). April 2015. Surrey landscape character assessment: Reigate and Banstead borough. 67. Taipale, K. 2012. Challenges and way forward in the urban sector. Sustainable development in the 21st century project. United Nations department of economic and social affairs. [online] Available from: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/challenges_and_way_forward_in_the_urban_sector_web.pdf 68. Tegmark, M. 2017. Life 3.0, Being human in the age of artificial intelligence. Great Britain: Allen Lane. 69. Teixeira de Andrade, L; Baptista, L V. 2016. Public spaces: interactions, appropriations and conflicts. Public Spaces: Times of Crisis and Change (Research in Urban Sociology, Volume 15). Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp. 19-34. 70. The Building Centre. [online] Available from: https://www.buildingcentre.co.uk/page/beyond-the-green-belt-past-the-last-80-years 71. Tornaghi, C. Aug 2014. Critical geography of urban agriculture. Progress in human geography. Vol. 38(4), pp. 551-567.
72. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. 2014. World Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 revision. 73. United Nations. 2015. UN sustainable development goals (SDG: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable). [online] Available from: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg11 74. Venkatachalam, S. May 2017. 3 ways artificial intelligence will change the world for the better. World Economic Forum. [online] Available from: https://www. weforum.org/agenda/2017/05/artificial-intelligence-will-change-the-world-heres-how/ 75. Vilar, M. 2016. The genographic project – the development of agriculture. National Geographic. [online] Available from: https://genographic.nationalgeographic. com/development-of-agriculture/ 76. Vincent, J. November 2017. Automation threatens 800 million jobs, but technology could still save us, says report. The Verge. [online] Available from: https:// www.theverge.com/2017/11/30/16719092/automation-robots-jobs-global-800-million-forecast 77. Ward, S. 2004. Planning and Urban Change. Second edition. Great Britain: Sage Publications. 78. Yang, J; Jinxing, Z. November 15, 2007. The failure and success of greenbelt program in Beijing. Elsevier. [online] Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/ science/article/pii/S1618866707000179
LIST OF FIGURES (in order of appearance through the report) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
Image from Hubert Blanz for the New York Times [online] Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/magazine/19Urban_West-t.html Image from The Evening Standard UK [online] Available from: https://www.standard.co.uk/topic/tube-strike Image from http://pictures-and-images.com/content/rural-landscape-wallpaper-1920x1080.html Drawing by Welcomia from Go Graph. Drones invasion. [online] Available from: https://www.gograph.com/illustration/drones-invasion-gg69734950.html Image from Hubert Blanz for the New York Times [online] Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/magazine/19Urban_West-t.html Image from The Evening Standard UK [online] Available from: https://www.standard.co.uk/topic/tube-strike Image from http://pictures-and-images.com/content/rural-landscape-wallpaper-1920x1080.html Drawing by Welcomia from Go Graph. Drones invasion. [online] Available from: https://www.gograph.com/illustration/drones-invasion-gg69734950.html Illustration by Benjamin Sack. 2017. Mapa Mundi. [online] Available from: https://www.bensackart.com/2017/8/14/mappa-mundi-1 Illustration by Benjamin Sack. 2017. Chronoglyph. [online] Available from: https://www.bensackart.com/2017/8/14/chronoglyph Illustration by Nicky Holness 2018
12. Photo by Bikeworldtravel/Shutterstock from Mother Nature Network. [online] Available from: https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/climate-weather/blogs/ science-behind-killer-fog-paralyzed-london-1952 13. Image from The Business Insider. [online] Available from: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/15-emerging-agriculture-technologies-2014-4 14. Image from AIR 2015 Arena Amsterdam Drone Entertainment Show. [online] Available from: http://www.coolthings.com/world-of-air/ 15. Illustration by Jason Peters. The plague. [online] Available from: http://www.medicreferat.com/black-plague-powerpoint/the-plague/ 16. Illustration of the great fire of London on National Geographic magazine. [online] Available from http://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/australia/the-plagueaustralia-and-the-great-fire-of-london.aspx 17. Satellite image from google maps – Surrey, England. 18. Diagram by Cornell University. Garden cities. [online] Available from: https://micechat.com/14655-epcot-origins-part-1-the-garden-city-of-to-morrow/howard_1-2/ 19. Graphic by Nicky Holness. London and the Metropolitan Greenbelt. Base map from google maps. 20. Image from http://pictures-and-images.com/content/rural-landscape-wallpaper-1920x1080.html 21. Graphic by Juan Pablo Della Maggiora and Nicky Holness. 2018. London Heat Map. Information based on the National Heat Map, Centre for Sustainable Energy 22. Image from Diario El Despertador. Especializacion en pilotaje de drones. [online] Available from: https://diarioeldespertador.com.ar/noticia/2528/especializacion-en-pilotaje-de-drones 23. Image from Rotor Drone Magazine. Multirotors give agriculture a boost. [online] Available from: https://www.rotordronemag.com/green-drones/ 24. Illustration by Benjamin Sack. 2017. Infinitum. [online] Available from: https://www.bensackart.com/yufgagj6181rqrtqgygyxcyu98frqi 25. Illustration by Benjamin Sack. 2017. Dies Irae. [online] Available from: https://www.bensackart.com/2017/12/18/dies-irae 26. Drawing by Welcomia from Go Graph. Drones invasion. [online] Available from: https://www.gograph.com/illustration/drones-invasion-gg69734950.html
BORDERS, AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY AND THE REDEFINITION OF THE METROPOLITAN GREEN BELT: T H E
P A R A D O X
B E T W E E N
T H E
E X P A N S I O N
A N D
T H E
R E S T R A I N T
NICKY HOLNESS 17032413 RC11: Athropogenic Morphologies Tutor Rae Whittow-Williams JUL 2018