Saba Fatima BE 551, The Contemporary Built-Environment
The Tri-City Experience Neighborhood experience in Jeddah, Hyderabad, and Bellevue Introduction Physical environments tend to influence human behavior both inadvertently and intentionally. Within the realm of the environment, people respond to both the physical and social settings of their surroundings. 1 2 This link between the built-environment and human behavior has been of interest to urban designers and planners, and in the field of transportation planning. 3 The purpose of this paper is to explore through personal experience, how each of us identify with certain adjectives and identities regardless of where we are geographically, such as being a woman and age-groups; and a fluid “shifting identity” that changes geographically, like enjoying the privileges of constituting the majority of a region, or the apprehensions of being from a minority group, and understanding how our built-environment accommodates and responds to these identities and corresponding culture- including stereotypes, and cultural bias. As Kevin Lynch writes about changing images of a place in his book, The Image of the City (1960), “The image of a given physical reality may occasionally shift its type with
different circumstances of viewing. Thus, an expressway may be a path for the driver, and edge for the pedestrian. Or the central area may be a district when a city is organized on a medium scale, and a node when the entire metropolitan area is considered. But the categories seem to have a stability for a given observer where he is operating at a given level.” 4
The narrative The paper draws on my experiences living in three different cities from three different geographic regions of the world. It starts with a neighborhood in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where I spent a large portion of my childhood and continues to describe the impacts of changes in my built environment on my life as a child and as an adult after I moved to Hyderabad, India. The paper concludes with my preliminary experience of living in the suburban city of Bellevue, USA where the contrasts between my built environments from previous cities and the built environment in Bellevue is made apparent. Analytical Framework The neighborhood experiences are analyzed largely through my readings of the following three books by urban theorists- (1) The Image of the City (1960) by Kevin 1
(Dick Saarloos, 2009). Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2009, 6, 1724-1743; doi:10.3390/ijerph6061724 (A. V. Moudon, 2003). Moudon, A.V.; Lee, C. Walking and biking: An evaluation of environmental audit instruments. Am. J. Health Promot. 2003, 18, 21-37. 3 (Susal L. Handy, 2002) 4 (Lynch, 1960) 2
1
Saba Fatima BE 551, The Contemporary Built-Environment
Lynch, (2) The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) by Jane Jacobs, and (3) Life Between Buildings (1971) by Jan Gehl. Kevin Lynch (1960) Paths Edges Districts Nodes Landmarks
Urban Design Characteristics Jane Jacobs (1961) Sidewalks- safety, contact, assimilation Neighborhood parks Primary Mixed-Use Small Blocks Old buildings Concentration
Jan Gehl (1971)- Spaces designed for the following basic activities Walking Standing Sitting See Hear Talk
Table 1 Characteristics of Neighborhoods from book readings
While these characteristics are sometimes meant for city-scale, they may also be applicable to neighborhood-scales due to the fractal properties of cities wherein element are repeated in similarity to a degree on all scales. For example, the nodes on a neighborhood level could be a neighborhood park, but on a city-scale, it would be a public square.
The Tri-Experience Across the three cities, walkability, accessibility to clean and safe outdoor spaces, and proximity to grocery stores defined the efficiency and likeability of the public realms. Although variabilities in urban form between the three neighborhoods, their geographies and climate, and cultural norms differ greatly, the unifying factor of comparison remains the human- in this case, me. Often the physical features of the built environment inspire a sense of community in people. Many of these influences are related to the movement of people through the community. 5 It is an indication that the more people interact, the more likely it is for them to foster emotional connections with one another and their residential or work neighborhoods.6 A strong sense of community enables the empowerment of its residents as it gives them control over their direct surroundings and situations, which enables them to make decisions based on information they have and manage their lives as well as participate in their communities. The urban environment significance of this is that it can lead to the resolution of smaller social issues such as local crime. 7
5
(R Cantarero, 2007). Perceptions of quality of life, sense of community and life satisfaction among elderly residents in Schuler and Crete, Nebraska. Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity, Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=arch_facultyschol 6 (Cohrun, 1994). Understanding and enhancing neighborhood sense of community. Journal of Planning Literature, 9(1), 92-99. 7 Ibid.
2
Saba Fatima BE 551, The Contemporary Built-Environment
Studies indicate that rather than the true percentage of crime in a community, the fear of crime more strongly deters a resident’s sense of community. 8 Furthermore, it can decrease residents’ activity patterns and frequencies in their neighborhoods by effecting their trips to use local business and services. 9 The fear of crime, and lack of usage of outdoor spaces are two phenomena that feed each other as Schweitzer writes that, “people who did not use local facilities for activities such as grocery shopping, banking, visiting the doctor, working and going to church were more likely to fear crime in their neighborhoods and have fewer social bonds with their neighbors.” 10 According to Jan Gehl, walking, standing, and sitting, as well as seeing hearing and talking are the activities to design a public realm by. In his book chapter, Spaces for walking, places for staying, he recommends that these basic activities be used as starting points as they are part of nearly all other activities.11 Gehl argues that walking is first and foremost, a type of transportation, and that the acceptable walking distances for most people in daily scenarios has been found to be about 400 to 500 m (1300 to 1600ft). 12 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia The residential neighborhood in Jeddah described in this paper is called King Abdul Aziz Medical City (KAAMC). It is a gated community that lies off the new highway (freeway) that connects the cites of Jeddah and Makkah. The suburban gated community sits outside the city limits of Jeddah, encompassed by desert lands on all sides with the old Jeddah-Makkah highway to its north, and the new highway to its south. The residents within the community love claiming that they live literally “in the middle of nowhere” as outside the electric-barbed boundary walls of the community, is no-man’s land, inaccessible by any pedestrian or even a regular automobile due the sand-dune mountains. The community structure itself is rigid, housing only the medical staff employed at the hospital around which the gated community was built. However, while the work diversity in the community is limited, the people themselves come from many different countries, cultures, and languages forming a diverse cultural pool. Their commonalities with work give the residents plenty to share over after every prayer at the local mosque, whereas their diversities are celebrated by hosting cultural parties displaying food and traditions of one cultural group (eg: Arabs, Asians, ‘Desis’, Europeans, Americans, etc.), over one month every year. The 1000 or so residents of this “no-man’s land” form a tight
8
(J.H. Schweitzer, 1999). ). The impact of the built environment on crime and fear of crime in urban neighborhoods. Journal of Urban Technology, 6(3), 59-73 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid. 11 (Gehl, 1971). Spaces for walking, places for staying, p.131 12
Ibid. Spaces for walking, places for staying, p.137
3
Saba Fatima BE 551, The Contemporary Built-Environment
sense of community, with almost no criminal activity in the twenty-five years that I’ve known it, negating any fear of crime in the neighborhood. The absence of the very fear of crime, became the enabler of my experiences as a child and became one of the greater influences on my childhood growth. The physical builtenvironment around me was trusted by the adults through the absence of the crime as well as the fear, and through the knowledge that children in play areas were always monitored by someone- a passerby, residential windows looking out to the open space, caregivers of other children, a police car, folks from the fire department, folks at the grocery store- all forming what Jane Jacobs calls “Eyes on the street,” i.e., human surveillance. The physical built-environment itself was designed to accommodate the needs of working people living “in the middle of nowhere,” and therefore contained a grocery store, play-areas, day-care, a restaurant, a library, a mosque, sporting courts and equipment – all within a 500 m (1,600 ft) radius from each other. The walkability of the neighborhood was further enhanced by its sidewalks lined by an “edge space” that separated them from the narrow road that ran all around the neighborhood. Trees and greenery in the area, created a cooler microclimate than would otherwise be experienced in a desert climate as that of Jeddah’s. The pedestrian was given control over their environment through the ability to form a route through multiple combinations, as short or if they would desire. All these pedestrian routes would then pass through the residential buildings’ ground-floor open-ended parking lots, parks, or public buildings like the mosque, the library, or the grocery store. It created a walking-jogging and even skating culture in an otherwise largely drawn-indoors city.
4
Saba Fatima BE 551, The Contemporary Built-Environment
5
Saba Fatima BE 551, The Contemporary Built-Environment
Although the walkability, accessibility to outdoor spaces and sporting facilities, and the safe environment created a quality public realm in the neighborhood, such a controlled environment is impossible to create in city neighborhoods and is therefore not a viable option for the planning of urban neighborhoods. If a city were to comprise of many such exclusive neighborhoods, its social structure would degenerate, and create sharp social divides between citizens. Furthermore, it severely restricts a child’s ability to see the world for what it is and can become a challenge to their adaptability to “outside world” once they leave the community, much like Andres Duany writes, “A child growing up in
such a homogeneous environment is less likely to develop a sense of empathy for people from other walks of life and is ill prepared to live in a diverse society.” 13
Hyderabad, India
Figure 2 King Abdul Aziz Medical City (KAAMC), Jeddah, Saudi Where would I reach, if I walked 500m in any direction from my home? Source: Google Maps
Figure 1 Humayun Nagar, Hyderabad, India Where would I reach, if I walked 500m in any direction from my home? Source: Google Maps
Located in south India, Hyderabad is one of the largest metropolitan cities in India. Home to a population of close to 7 million people, and many IT companies, its urban form is extremely dense and compact. The neighborhood discussed in this paper is 13
(Andres Duany, 2001). Ch 3. The House that Sprawl Built
6
Saba Fatima BE 551, The Contemporary Built-Environment
called Humayun Nagar and is in central Hyderabad. There are no clear distinctions that separate the neighborhood from its surroundings and often, neighborhoods flow into each other, with overcrowded densities and compact construction. Figures 1 and 2 show the gated community in Jeddah and the Urban form in Hyderabad around the neighborhood of Humayun Nagar at the same scale. In the same area, Hyderabad accommodates at least three neighborhoods, many hundreds of thousands of people and a mixed-use agglomeration of buildings serving the daily needs of all those around. As I moved from the controlled environment of KAAMC to Hyderabad, the fear of crime took over in a new and uncontrolled neighborhood development. The physical infrastructure did not feel empowering enough to enable its residents the power of making choices over their decisions around their residential spaces. An environment that does not offer control or promise of safety is deemed unsafe, especially for children. Crime against women in India further exacerbated the issue of unsafe spaces and thus, the public realm was shunned unless necessary for transit or grocery runs. Despite the high density and houses stitched to each other in proximity, people tend to form their own bubbles and a dweller rarely knows their neighbor. In a crowded sea of people and concrete, feelings of isolation, mistrust, and declining mental health are commonplace, and public realms only exist for purposes of shopping and transit. Quite like Rem Koolhaas’s proclamation that “Shopping is arguably the last remaining form of
public activity.” Even a decade after the move, after growing from a child to a young-adult, social problems persisted. The streets remained unsafe, now for me as a woman, and outdoor public spaces remained unheard of. Land was wasted if it did not generate capital. The streets were man’s territory, and the car became mine. The “public realm” was best experienced from the safety of my private vehicle. To be fair, Hyderabad remains one of the safest cities in India, and venturing out as a woman is still a lot safer than most other cities. However, there was no venturing “out” to. A “neighbourhood park” could be only found in elitist neighbourhoods, and public parks from almost a hundred years ago have degenerated due to lack of maintenance and are now exactly the ghetto parks to avoid. Urban life still goes on. Humans adapt to their surroundings. Hyderabad continues to be lively, vibrant, busy, chaotic, festive, and everything else that an Indian city might attract tourists for. But what does the city do for the individual? What about the children who use the roads as their playgrounds- wait for cars and motorbikes to pass to resume their game only to pause it yet again for another automobile to pass? What about me? The woman who goes to the same malls over and over, repeatedly, for the lack of anything else to do. Where are my social spaces? What is the life of people outside of home and work? If residences look out to the outdoor public space, and a higher population always guarantees people on the streets, how does crime persist amid all these “human surveillance”? Can urban form and urban spaces do better for children and women, and for any human regardless of gender and age who wishes to do more than work and retire home? The concern for growing dominance of capital in the 7
Saba Fatima BE 551, The Contemporary Built-Environment
production and experience of urban space is legitimate and needs to be addressed as it promulgates the alienating effects of ‘modernity’ in an era marked by the creeping effects of generalized deregulation. 14 However, in my experience of the cities I have visited and lived in insofar, in Asia, the commonality of mixed-use buildings seems only but natural. Wherein residential neighborhoods are equipped with small-scaled domestic grocery stores, cafes and restaurants, and lively albeit sometimes questionably safe streets. This mixed-land-use incorporates services needed by residents and workers in the area and almost inevitably creates a social environment of people walking purposefully to their intended destinations, people loitering mindlessly, and people waiting in the area, all of which are important for street life and character. Coming from a culture of mix-use, my experience as a resident in Bellevue, a suburban city near Seattle has been vastly different in terms of my accessibility to places on foot. Bellevue, USA
Figure 3 King Abdul Aziz Medical City, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Where would I reach, if I walked 500m in any direction from my home? Source: Google Maps
14
Figure 4 Norwood Village, Bellevue, USA Where would I reach, if I walked 500m in any direction from my home? Source: Google Maps
(Alexandre Asan Frediani, 2020).
8
Saba Fatima BE 551, The Contemporary Built-Environment
Norwood Village is a classic American suburban-sprawl neighborhood that I began living in, after moving to the United States for the first time. Like the vast desert landscape surrounding the gated community in Jeddah, or the sea of densely packed concrete buildings in Hyderabad, the neighborhood in Bellevue appears to be encompasses by house after house of single-family detached housing for many miles. It is a neighborhood built with the automobile-resident in mind, perhaps forming its own “rigid community” like the health-care workers in Jeddah. However, there is no noticeable diversity to compensate for this rigidity, nor are there public buildings in the vicinity to engage the residents of the neighborhood with each other. Figures 3 & 4 compare the spatial extents of the neighborhoods in Jeddah and Bellevue. As a city, Jeddah has a slightly higher population density than Bellevue, accommodating 6,400 residents per square meter compared to Bellevue’s 4,335 people per square meter. 15 16 However, the difference in spatial expanse of urban form between the two suburban neighborhoods is massive, with the entire community of KAAMC housed along with their amenities in the same space as a few residences in Norwood village. As a pedestrian and mass-transit user, this neighborhood does not resonate with me. Walkability within the neighborhood itself for physical exercise is excellent. However, walking as a mode of transit to daily-needs services is made impossible due to the surrounding sprawl development. The nearest grocery store (a Walmart) is at least one mile away, tracing the path of a wide arterial road, several traffic-light junctions, a bridge underpass, and nowhere to run to in case of a safety risk. When people sense a safety risk, they tend to enter adjacent shops, cafes, or integrate themselves with the larger public to be “seen” and “watched over” by the people around. “The fact that it is tiring to walk makes pedestrians naturally very conscious of routes…” 17 The distance to any store or public space is well over Jan Gehl’s prescribed 400 to 500m or 1300 to 1600 ft. The prescribed distance is further less for children, old people, and disabled people. So, we must ask ourselves if our neighborhoods are also excluding them as residents as they too can not drive an automobile in most cases. Or do we expect them to depend entirely on others for their transit? While it can be easy to say “Well, choose the right neighborhood to stay,” our physical environments need to be designed for resilience, to accommodate the changes in an individual’s life. Not everyone can afford to change neighborhoods due to old-age or the onset of disabilities.
15
www.worldpopulationreview.com Population | City of Bellevue (bellevuewa.gov) 17 (Gehl, 1971) 16
9
Saba Fatima BE 551, The Contemporary Built-Environment
Figure 6 Walking route to grocery store in KAAMC, Jeddah CC: Author
Figure 5 Walking route to grocery store in Norwood, Bellevue CC: Author
Jane Jacobs calls such residential areas ‘gray areas.’ She writes that “The hardest city
districts to deal with will be residential gray areas that lack infusions of work to build upon, and that also lack high densities of dwellings. Failing or failed city areas are in trouble not so much because of what they have, but because of what they lack. Gray areas with the most severe and the most difficult-to-supply lacks can hardly be helped toward vigour unless other grey-area districts that do have at least a start toward primary mixture are nurtured,, and unless downtowns are reinvigorated with better spread of people through time of day. The more successfully a city generates diversity and vitality in any of its parts, of course, the better becomes its chances for building success, ultimately, in still other parts- including, eventually, the most discouraging to begin with.” 18 She goes on to denounce massive single uses in cities as they form borders which ususally contibute to the destruction of neighborhoods over time. Jacobs suggects that to counter that border-effects in cities, as many city elements as possible must be icnorporated in city design, to build lively, mixed-territory regions in the city. Despite the single-use zoning in residential areas, Bellevue is planning for a more pedestrian-oriented city with changes already being seen in the Downtown Bellevue region which has transformed in the last two decades from a singe-use commercial Central Business District to a mixed-use, pedestrian friendly development which accommodates work-spaces, towers of offices, as well as towers of residential mixed-use buildings- all enlivened by streets lined with commercial acitvity, two malls and a pedestrian street transversing through a large urban block to connect to the Bellevue
18
(Jacobs, 1961). Ch.6 The Need for Primary Mixed-Use, p.176-177
10
Saba Fatima BE 551, The Contemporary Built-Environment
transit center. However, the walkability of the city reduces as the distance from the downtown center increases. Additionally, Bellevue boasts numerous public parks, including neighborhood parks that are well-used by the residents of the neighborhoods and the city. It also has several trails that penetrate the dense streteches of natural vegetation that form “edges” or “boundaries” between neighborhoods of the city. Howver, the sprawl that takes up the large spatial section of the suburb is a waste of resources. As Jonathan F. P. Rose writes in his book, ‘The WellTempered City’, “And in an increasingly
resource-constrained world whose people yearn for more equitable distribution of Figure 7 patterns of neighborhood boundaries created prosperity, the form is no longer working due to natural vegetation or built form well. Urban areas use resources more Source: Google maps, Bellevue, USA efficiently than suburbs because they are denser. A typical city block will contain between thirty and one hundred times more homes per acre than a typical suburban block.”
Conclusion: The following assessment is conducted on the basis of the walkable radius, i.e. 300m or 1,000 feet from residence. Characteristic
Fear of crime
Neighborhood nodes Neighborhood paths/sidewalks Walkability (Leisure) Walkability/Accessebility to services Edges (b/w pathways and roads) Neighborhood lanmarks
KAAMC, Jeddah Low/Negligible Present Presnt
Hyderabad, India High Absent Absent
Bellevue, USA Medium Absent Present
Present
Present
Present
Uncomfortable/unsa fe Present
Present
Absent
Largely absent
Absent Absent
Not present within walking distance, but outside Present
Functional only
Leisure only
Present (Parks, pool, sporting complex) Outdoor public space Present Design for basic activities (Jan Gehl): Walking Leisure and functional
Absent
11
Saba Fatima BE 551, The Contemporary Built-Environment Sitting Standing Seeing, hearing, talking
Leisure and functional Leisure and functional Leisure paths, vegetation, pool, seating spaces
None
None
Funcrional only
Functional only
Infrastructure absent , no natural landscapes
Natural landscapes
Table 2 Assessment of neighborhoods on the framework of readings Note: “Leisure” implies scope for unintentional or absentminded behavior; “functional” implies activity is restricted to certainty of waiting for someone, or walking for a purpose etc.
References A. V. Moudon, C. L. (2003). Walking and biking: An evaluation of environmetnal audit instruments. American Journal of Health Promotion, 21-37. Alexandre Asan Frediani, B. L. (2020). Reflections: Multiple visions of the "Right to the City'. In M. B. Julian Walker, Urban Claims and the Right to the City (pp. 106-111). UCL Press. Andres Duany, E. P.-Z. (2001). Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. New York: North Point Press. Cohrun, S. E. (1994). Understanding and enhancing neighbourhood dense of community. Journal of Planning Literature, 9(1), 92-99. Dick Saarloos, J.-E. K. (2009). The Built Environment and Health: Introducing Individual Space-TIme Behavior. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 1724-1743. Gehl, J. (1971). Life Between Buildings. Washington, Covelo, London: The Island Press. J.H. Schweitzer, J. K. (1999). The impact of the built environment on crime and fear of crime in urban neighborhoods. Journal of Urban Technology, 6(3), 59-73. Jacobs, J. (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage Books. Lynch, K. (1960). The Image of the City. Boston: The MIT Press. R Cantarero, C. L. (2007). Perceptions of quality of life, sense of community and life satisfaction among elderly residents in schuyler and crete, Nebraska. Retrieved from digital commons: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=arch_facultyschol Susal L. Handy, M. G. (2002). How the Built Environment Affects Physical Activity: Views from Urban Planning . American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 64-73.
12