Part 2

Part 2 Rethinking urban regeneration post-covid

The pandemic and the rules of lockdown has evolved the connection people have with the open spaces around them (Gehl, 2020). The outdoor activities that took place on daily basis due to intercity travel regarding work, study, recreation and retailing have shifted indoors with various online options to achieve them. Life in outdoor public spaces takes place due to three types of activities-necessary activities, optional activities and the occurrence of both resulting in social activities (Gehl, 2011). The rules of lockdown aimed at essential travelling allowed for necessary activities to take place while reducing the chances of optional activities and in turn hampering the social activities due to less frequent outdoor trips and social meeting rules.

In an unprecedented time like a pandemic, public realms supporting safe outdoor interactions and possibility for physical exercise replete the void created by imbalance in the occurrence of outdoor activities. The nature of public spaces in the city has a great influence on the outdoor life. Public spaces that are under managed or over managed (Carmona, 2010) hamper the quality of public spaces and fail to act as democratic public realms. Under managed spaces that are neglected results in uncared, littered and poorly repaired spaces that are overlooked by people for outdoor activities due to their unsafe ambience. Even though such spaces may be well located within a residential or community based neighbourhoods, they are under used and may be a topic of conflict for who should maintain the space and look after its repair (Carmona, 2010).

Over managed public spaces are created due to privatisation. Private organisations that work on international levels fund the designing and maintenance of public spaces without the consideration of the local public (Carmona, 2010). Land and property market are important income producing elements. Private developers and investors along with entrepreneurially inclined government encourage regeneration projects that promote retail, lifestyle and commercial aspects (Taşan-Kok, 2020). Once the element of retail is associated with the functioning of a public space, it is heavily dependent on the working of anchor stores. This shifts the activity focus of the public space and creates a dependence relationship with the retail element rather than the inclusivity of the space (Gibbs, 2011). Commercialisation and consumption spaces also cause segregation between user groups (Carmona, 2010). People who can afford to pay for the services and commercial presence of the public space are segregated from the ones who cannot pay for the experience of using such places.

A democratic public space is always free of charge, inclusive, accessible, unsegregated, unreserved, creates opportunity of engagement and interaction between diverse user groups. Many discussions regarding public space are critiqued in terms of decline or loss (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001). This can be attributed to the priority of urban regeneration projects being largely designed for consumerism. Commercially viable regeneration proposals include public spaces as a useful component to assist in developing a positive image and attractiveness to potential investors (McInroy, 2000). A major observation is the regeneration proposals regarding brownfield projects. The possibility of using the site for public space and democratic usage by the community and neighbourhood is overshadowed by the commercial development proposals. There is a mentality that a space is sacrificed if it is used for public utility rather that commercial utility (Taşan-Kok, 2020). A change in priority and outlook is required after the experience of a pandemic and the strain caused by indoor lifestyle.

Involvement of the local community during planning and execution ensures the sustainable maintenance of public space for a longer duration due to the sense of ownership and responsibility (McInroy, 2000). Though many government guidelines make it necessary to involve the local community in the regeneration process, the agencies of regeneration involve locals to make the process of development smooth by avoiding disputes and hinderance by local communities (McInroy, 2000). Public space serves as an important everyday resource to the local communities and this superficial involvement creates a rift between the locals and their resource hence hampering the quality of everyday life. This is especially evident during a pandemic when the presence of a public space with a sense of belonging is crucial in the places around local residential communities ( see diagram 1).

Proposals of regeneration that are available online, display open parks and amphitheatres in their public space proposals. Are these public spaces really for the utility of the whole city and the local communities beyond the boundaries of the redevelopment project? The retail and consumption spaces attract the users from all over the city due to the presence of anchor stores, brands and the promise of retail experience, but do the open spaces also belong to all the user groups within the city? An intangible line of separation exists in many regeneration proposals where the project is aimed to be a closed domain of facilities for the user group who have invested or are commercially involved in the project. The high demand for housing and the pressure to maximise profits from each project has hampered the balance between the variety of uses of a space (Forrest, 2017).

Diagram 1-Global survey on public space usage during the COVID-19 pandemic (O’Connor,2020)

Diagram 2-Use of spaces during pandemic (O’Connor,2020)

Diagram 3-Motivation to use public space (O’Connor,2020)

Conclusion

The argument presented here is that of rethinking the urban regeneration proposals as a new priority of urban space use has come forth after the pandemic. The presence of democratic public spaces is important when thinking about the city’s visual and functional components. There are many urban regeneration projects aligned to be executed as soon as the nations recover and start the process of rebuilding for the people. Public spaces as a local use function require rethinking, replanning and redesigning.

Questions

Should urban regeneration based designers and investors reorganise their priorities along with local councils to implement a solution for the public needs and social inconvenience faced during the pandemic? • How do we start this discussion about the need for rethinking of the regeneration projects between the public and the stakeholders?

References

(Carmona, 2010) Carmona, M. (2010) “Contemporary public space: Critique and classification, part one: Critique.” Journal of urban design, 15(1) pp. 123–148.

(Forrest, 2017) Forrest, A. (2017) “We need to talk about urban regeneration.” The guardian. [Online] 10th April. [Accessed May 19th, 2021] http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/apr/10/urban-regenerationaffordability-communities-neighbourhoods.

(Gehl, 2011) Gehl, J. (2011) Life between buildings: Using public space. 6th ed., Washington, D.C., DC: Island Press.

(Gibbs, 2011) Gibbs, A. (2011) Principles of urban retail planning and development. John Wiley & Sons.

(Inroy, 2000) Inroy, N. M. (2000) “Urban regeneration and public space: The story of an urban park.” Space and Polity, 4(1) pp. 23–40.

(O’Connor, 2020) O’Connor, E. (2020) Public Space plays vital role in pandemic - Gehl. Gehlpeople.com. [Online] [Accessed May 19th, 2021] https://gehlpeople.com/blog/public-space-plays-vital-role-in-pandemic/.

(Gehl, 2020) Public space & public life during COVID-19 - gehl (2020) Gehlpeople.com. [Online] [Accessed May 21st, 2021] https://gehlpeople.com/announcement/public-space-public-life-during-covid-19/.

(Reijndorp and Hajer, 2001) Reijndorp, A. and Hajer, M. A. (2001) In search of the new public domain. Rotterdam, Netherlands: NAI.

(Taşan-Kok, 2020) Taşan-Kok, T. (2020) How to be truly open: Rethinking public spaces in the post-covid city. Urbanet.info. [Online] [Accessed May 17th, 2021] https://www.urbanet.info/truly-open-rethinking-public-spaces-postcovid-city/.