Remembering the Urban in the Turkish Uprisings

by Alex Schafran

The occupation of Gezi may be over for the moment, but the ongoing impact of what has transpired and continues to transpire in Istanbul and other Turkish cities will be with us for some time. Amidst a hail of images of unrelenting police brutality and anti-democratic state action, there is a tendency for the urban issues that sparked the uprising to fade into the background. But, as Cihan Tuğal argues in his must-read piece for Jadaliyya, understanding both the urban roots of the revolt and the tendency to immediately forget them "sheds much light on what is happening in Turkey and why."

A development on the Asian side of Istanbul. The national housing agency has been building en masse, often by erasing portions of longstanding neighborhoods.

No small part of the power of recent events comes from Istanbul itself — I know few who've spent time there and haven't been enamored. It is a magical place whose centrality from both a historical and contemporary perspective is without question. However, love for Istanbul is quickly tempered by rampant injustice and an authoritarian transformation that shames a glorious city. This transformation ignores basic quality-of-life issues that could positively impact the lives of millions.

Istanbul love (left) and Kanyon shopping center (right), which is one of the most symbolic of the new spaces of wealth in the city.

Central to the tragedy in recent events is that Prime Minister Erdoğan is partly right — urban transformation is critical to the nation's future, and Istanbul must be the center of that transformation. Sadly, the transformation he has in mind is precisely what isn't needed. It goes far beyond Taksim Square and the ecological time bomb known as Turkey's "third bridge." Istanbul's urban development binge calls to mind recent experience in Spain and the United States, where credit- and derivative-fueled building led directly to economic crises followed by political unrest. In Turkey, the primary difference is that the political has come first.

For many of us, the initial takeover of Gezi was a hopeful sign of what Pelin Tan called the "sound of the revival of urban Istanbul," a revival that instead has been transformed into what Mustafa Dikeç calls an "urban stasis." Yet as urban scholars and activists, we must not let the stasis deter us from reminding our fellow citizens of just how important the urban is to this situation, and that it is too quickly forgotten amidst broader issues of government, democracy and religion.

One of the challenges of an urban focus is that Gezi has exposed two separate but related schisms regarding the urban in contemporary society. One is the debate about development, about what gets built where, for whom and at what cost, about how systems are maintained or connected. This is the debate we need to be having, but one that Erdoğan would replace with another urban divide, one that is more pernicious but equally classic — the division of peoples into urban and non-urban. Erdoğan is attempting to rally his rural base with fiery language about urban elites, pinning his hopes on what he claims to be his majority.

The use of "urban" as a geography that divides people from each other has a long and ignominious history, whether dividing city from country or city from suburb. Listening to Erdoğan reminds me of a half-century of demagoguery that used the urban-suburban divide to sow racialized fear in Americans, creating a highly unsustainable and unequal urban system. But, as in the United States, the "urban" in Turkey is no longer what it was demographically, and many of the people being trampled by Erdoğan's urban regime are members of this previously "non-urban" base.

The challenge now is to push against use of the urban as a dividing concept and focus people's attention instead on development. The idea and possibility of urban development must be disentangled from the authoritarianism, inequality and ideology that cause many to question the value of investing in cities. All places need transformation to survive and thrive, just not the kind that Erdoğan and other powerful men and women have been selling around the world.

Credits: Photos by Alex Schafran.

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Who’s First on First Street?

by Melissa García Lamarca


Number One First Street in Manchester, England.

The Number One First Street building in Manchester, England, sits forlornly in a landscape of parking lots, wedged between two busy roads. There are several conflicting signs on the site. One states that the European Regional Development Fund is partially supporting the "Corridor Public Realm Phase 1" project. Yet signs closer to the building — and on the side of a lonely bench — mark the area as private property.


A sign announces funding for the European Regional Development Fund's "corridor public realm."



Also curious is a billboard that proclaims "Putting Sustainability First" (below) on a site surrounded by parking lots and generally free of people. This begs the question, sustainability for whom? And, for that matter, what is actually happening? Why and how is it taking place?




Parking beside the Number One First Street building.

I was also intrigued by the fact that Manchester City Council is the main tenant of the building and, judging from the signs, the main "partner" in the larger First Street Manchester development. The Number One First Street building is a small piece of a 20-acre, $130 million public-private partnership. It will include a cultural center, a four-star hotel, restaurants, retail space, a 700-spot multi-story parking lot and new public space. Construction will begin early next year, and the site is slated to open in the fall of 2014.


First Street Manchester plan. Source: Townshend Landscape Architects


Cultural center designed by Ian Simpson Architects and Mecanoo. Source: Ian Simpson Architects

As a gateway to the city center from the airport and points south, the now largely abandoned area (besides the One Street building and its parking lots) needs development. But development geared toward "creative class" business and consumption seems out of sync with the city's most pressing needs. A recent article in the Manchester Mule explains that the city council's $30 million investment in First Street comes at a time when the region is in the grip of a housing crisis and undergoing an unprecedented $275 million in service cuts, with further reductions to housing and council tax benefits on the horizon.


A statement from the First Street Manchester masterplan. Source: First Street Manchester

The project aims to "reinvent" the city to attract capital, a common strategy worldwide. To say nothing of its questionable benefits, this strategy is painfully boring. Projects like First Street Manchester sweep a city's problems and unique character under the rug in favor of more attempts to serve a global elite at the expense of many. If we want actual first-rate development, it's time for a new approach.

Credits: Photos by Melissa García Lamarca.

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Revisiting Urban Economics

by Melanie Friedrichs

In writing about cities, I often recall a course I took with Nathaniel Baum-Snow, which drew upon "Lectures in Urban Economics" by Jan Bruekner. The three concepts outlined below are my biggest takeaways from the course. Many principles of urban economics seem like common sense oversimplified, but articulating them has helped me assess their value in illuminating the nature of cities.


Source: Melanie Friedrichs

1. Agglomeration Effects

"Agglomeration effects" is a fancy way of saying "two heads are better than one," or rather "many heads are better than a few." It’s also the primary economic explanation for the existence of cities.

There are two main types of agglomeration effects:

• Pecuniary. Things are cheaper in cities. This is obviously untrue for rent, and many goods and services — like restaurant meals and boutique clothing — that fluctuate with demand. But it probably is true for shared resources like electricity, water and transportation.
• Technological. People are more efficient in cites, possibly because they can learn more from the diversity of people around them or because they are able to find more suitable jobs. In a farm town, there aren’t as many options for employment, and you might not be good at the job that’s available to you, but in a city there are more choices and opportunities to find a good fit.

Barcelona is a classic example of a high-amenity city. Source: Corsi Spagnolo

2. The Indifference Principle

Economists spend a lot of time thinking about why people do what they do. Some employ an overarching framework based on the notion that, when all things are considered, people choose what makes them happier or just as happy as any other available choice. According to Steven Landsburg's indifference principle, individuals are impartial toward choices that yield equal utility. This corresponds with Adam Smith's theory that individuals choose what will make them happiest, and thus what will make society happiest overall, through more or less rational decisions.

Urban economists often refer to the indifference principle in explaining why people live where they live. They generally group the factors involved into three groups:

• Rent. How much does it cost to live in a particular city?
• Income. How much can you earn in a particular city?
• Amenities. What is the city like? Examples of positive amenities include good weather, beautiful architecture, low crime, a waterfront and a lively music scene.

The principle of indifference seems like common sense, but can be a powerful tool of analysis. It implies that changes in any one of the three factors above tend to influence the other two. If jobs decrease, people will move out of the city, and with less demand rent will fall. If the amenity value of a place increases, then people will move into a city, and with more demand rent will rise.


Source: Alexiptoto

3. The Monocentric City Model

The monocentric model is a standard component of urban economics. In the monocentric world, there is one dominant place to work: the central business district (imagine downtown Manhattan).


Source: Melanie Friedrichs

Rent is highest closest to the central business district, decreasing as distance increases and the commute to the central business district gets longer and more annoying (in accordance with the indifference principle). When the amount of rent a central-business-district commuter is willing to pay is the same as the rent farmers are willing to pay for an acre of cropland, the city ends. (This is called the "urban fringe.") Consumers tend to pay higher rents per square foot closer to the central business district and lower rates farther away; that’s why the line for city rent is curved.


Source: Melanie Friedrichs

The monocentric model is a little out of date, however, as many cities have multiple centers and the Internet makes centralization of employment less important. But there are important lessons to be drawn from this model:

• Cities are denser at the center. Did you need a model to tell you that? Probably not.
• Transportation increases sprawl. Or, rather, faster transportation increases the convenience of commuting, increasing rent that central-business-district commuters are willing to pay, and thus increasing the area of developed land without a corresponding increase in population. For this one, at least for me, the model helped.

These three concepts are some of the basic building blocks of urban economics. Together they are meant to shed light on why cities exist, what drives up rent in some areas and down in others, and why transportation fuels sprawl. Of course, all of these principles are substantially distorted by power relations, asymmetric information and other contingencies, so cities rarely, if ever, reflect an idealized urban economy. I think of them more as the structural beams of a skyscraper, which determine the basic shape of the building without determining the texture of daily life inside.

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Placing Social Sustainability on the Design Agenda

by Melissa García Lamarca


Source: The Young Foundation

The U.K.-based Young Foundation recently published research highlighting the successes and failures of neighborhood developments around the world by unpacking the under-explored concept of social sustainability. Authored by Saffron Woodcraft with Tricia Hackett and Lucia Caistor-Arendar, the report proposes a framework for policymakers that emphasizes the importance of consciously designing integrated social services to build healthy, thriving communities. It defines socially oriented policies and design measures needed to support long-term sustainable urban development based on six years of the Young Foundation’s work with communities and housing in regeneration projects.


Source: The Young Foundation

As we enter another decade buzzing with debates about sustainability, the social aspect of the three-pillared concept (environmental, economic and social) is largely neglected in mainstream debates. In defining “social sustainability,” the authors demonstrate its public value as well as its under-representation in neighborhood development. Amid rising inequalities and cuts to social services, a guide for practical action to foster social sustainability could not be more timely. Designing new housing within existing urban contexts, and developing new communities with a goal of holistic sustainability, is extremely complex. The pressing housing crisis, including a vast backlog of those in need of adequate, affordable housing in the U.K., requires new planning and construction. This report aims to ensure that strengthening social infrastructure is part of the agenda.


An alternative definition of social sustainability. Source: The Young Foundation

Many new developments happen as mega-projects during the “boom” periods of the capitalist cycle. Since the priority with such projects is private housing over local facilities and “affordable” housing (and one must ask, affordable for whom), building social infrastructure is low on the agenda.

Another challenge in planning new developments is the time-lag between finishing construction of the physical product and building community cohesion. For example, the report notes it takes up to 15 years for social networks to fully develop, according to research. When discussion turns to a sense of identity and belonging, it becomes exceedingly difficult to answer the question: “How do we design for this?” The report’s main author, Saffron Woodcraft, provided an example of how thinking through "feedback circuits" with local authorities helped identify appropriate actions to improve social sustainability in housing projects. The specific case illustrated below identified "feedback circuits" that either fostered a sense of belonging or made individuals feel excluded from a place.


Ten "feedback circuits" that reinforce a sense of belonging or make individuals feel excluded. Source: The Young Foundation


Illustration of Design for Social Sustainability Framework, Young Foundation (2011). Source: The Young Foundation

Distilling research on cases from around the world, the four elements illustrated in the diagram above were extracted as key considerations for long-term success. One challenge of integrating this framework into policy is that contextual understanding and local interpretation are fundamental. It demands that qualitative guidelines take form in specific projects, shaping the spaces that are created and the uses they facilitate. A serious consideration of longer-term support services – such as where and how individuals meet and interact, how they move from place to place, and how childcare facilities can connect into new developments – are as important as the buildings and spaces in which they take place.

After decades of discussion on participatory design, action planning and socially oriented design, it may seem that new debates on social sustainability are an unnecessary distraction en route to meeting housing shortages through the provision of new buildings. Unpacking the concept, however, can serve to expand conceptions and research on sustainable design that tends to focus more exclusively on environmental and economic issues.

The long-term success and overall sustainability of housing projects, infrastructure and buildings demands environmental and economic responsibility, but it hinges on strategically planned social infrastructure toward building communities that nurture a sense of place and belonging. Without policies that direct attention to this overlooked and complex issue, we will continue to bear the social and financial burdens of our mistakes. Let’s hope that “Design for Social Sustainability” reignites a much-needed discussion and aids policymakers, planners and designers in defining a pressing problem while arming them with a basic framework with which to approach it.

The Young Foundation is a center for social innovation based in London. They work across the U.K. and internationally, carrying out research, influencing policy, creating new organizations and supporting others to do the same, often with imaginative uses of new technology. This year they have created “Social Life” – an independent social enterprise supporting innovation in place-making. The “Design for Social Sustainability” report can be downloaded here, and you can read more about its primary author here.

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Mexico’s Construction Spree, in Pictures

by Melissa García Lamarca



Livia Corona, a photographer from Ensenada in Baja California, spent four years exploring former Mexican President Vicente Fox’s electoral promise of building two million homes for low-income families across the country. During Fox’s six-year presidency, which ended in 2006, more than 2.3 million homes were built at a mind-boggling rate of 2,500 homes per day. Most of these developments lack public amenities such as schools, parks and transportation systems, and there are few commercial establishments, such as banks and grocery stores.



Corona's photos illustrate the rapid-fire transformations of social and ecological landscapes across Mexico, making visible this country’s urban development on a massive and daunting scale. She has a remarkable ability to capture the effects of this transformation upon individuals, exploring what happens in homes nestled in a uniform expanse of development.



More of the "Two Million Homes for Mexico" project can be viewed at Culture Hall. Learn more about Corona's other photography projects on her website. She will also be exhibiting her work at the Valencia Institute of Modern Art's "Ciudad Total" exhibition from May to July 2012.

Credits: Photos from Culture Hall.

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Andrei Goncharov on ‘Crowdsourced Moscow’

by Peter Sigrist


Andrei Goncharov presenting at the Strelka Institute last July. Source: Strelka

In a post on modeling open source cities, Polis featured a video about "Crowdsourced Moscow 2012: A Public Space Game" by Andrei Goncharov. However, we didn't include much detail on the project and its creator. A recent article in Planning and Technology Today looks at Crowdsourced Moscow more closely, and we've conducted a brief interview with Andrei on his work, related initiatives, Vladimir Putin's plan to build a park in the center of Moscow, and ideas for implementing technology-enabled approaches to participatory urban development.


Video introduction to Crowdsourced Moscow.


Former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov. Source: Urban Christian

Andrei, how did you come up with the idea for Crowdsourced Moscow?

I was interested in participatory planning after growing up during the era of former mayor Yury Luzhkov, who majorly transformed the city through top-down and nontransparent measures. The idea crystallized through the collective work of a research team at the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design last year. We intended to find a way to spread information about possible mechanisms for governing public space, using data on existing practices in Moscow and abroad.


Based on this experience, what initiatives have you found most inspiring?

Many new developments in urban planning and citizen engagement have appeared here in the last year [including the reconstruction of Gorky Park and the Moscow Urban Forum]. The fact that they're not only private enterprises, but also government initiatives, makes me think that we're at a turning point. However, enticing visions of the future are still rare. Projects like NYC's Road Map for the Digital City and Urbanflow Helsinki, for example, allow people outside professional circles to participate in the discussion and develop new ideas.


News report on the history, removal and projected future of the Rossiya Hotel.

In light of Putin's recent decision to turn the site of the demolished Rossiya Hotel into a park, do you have any recommendations for approaching this project?

For me the most interesting question is not what the park should look like, but how to build something in the center of the city that is accepted by local citizens — how to set up a dialogue with the city. The park could be an opportunity to find a format for this dialogue. It might be easier to do this if the dialogue is not about a master plan that is defined once and forever, but rather a flexible set of rules that allow for continuous update of the territory based on citizens' feedback.


Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin. Source: БГ

What are some of the most important steps that municipal governments can take to approach the kind of civic engagement that you envision in Crowdsourced Moscow?

First they can facilitate input from local communities in planning decisions via online and offline platforms. Social media can be used to make activity transparent and create opportunities for public participation. I would also like to see high-quality data shared openly so that citizens can make informed decisions on the establishment and improvement of public amenities. People are calling for more democratic governance, and this is a good starting point.


Pro-democracy demonstration in Moscow on Dec. 24, 2011. Source: The Australian

For more information, you can visit Crowdsourced Moscow on Facebook or contact Andrei directly at goncharov at strelkainstitute dot com.

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Assorted Links #48

by Ali Madad

• The Unofficial View of Tirana (33)
• What if the NY Grid Took Over the World?
• Manhole Covers of Willow Street
• In Arabic and in Hebrew, a Name is More Than Just a Name
• Into Eternity (Nuclear Waste)
• Urban Development Legends: Grand Theories Do Little to Revive Cities

Credits: Photo of Snow Blind by Matthias Heiderich.

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Right to the City in Brazil

by Melissa García Lamarca


Comunidade Campo Grande Jurubatuba, an informal settlement in Santo Amaro subprefecture, São Paulo. Magic Condominium Resort tower in the background.

The right to the city is a concept employed by a variety of actors at different scales. Its use ranges from being nestled within the status quo to staunchly anti-capitalist. Although present in many declarations and charters, the one place where binding legislation on the right to the city actually exists – along with inevitable, significant tensions inherent in its implementation – is Brazil.

Thanks to decades of struggle by an alliance of social housing movements, professionals, squatters, NGOs and academics, legislation ensuring the right to the city was enshrined in the 2001 City Statute, a development law regulating the chapter on urban policy, specifically articles 182 and 183, in Brazil’s 1988 Constitution.

The City Statute defines the general guidelines that must be observed by federal, state and local governments to ensure democratic city management and the recognition of the "social function" of urban property and the city. "Social function" refers to the prioritization of use value over exchange value — collective interest over individual ownership rights — while democratic city management involves a path to plan, produce, operate and govern cities subject to social control and participation of civil society. It thus seeks to establish a new social ethic, condemning the city as a source of profits for a few in exchange for poverty for the many. It is institutionalized through various tools and forums, such as mandatory public participation in master planning processes in cities and the creation of the Ministry of Cities and the National Council of Cities, to name a few.


Comunidade Campo Grande Jurubatuba next to Magic Condominium Resort.

Yet with the entrepreneurial turn in cities in Brazil and around the world in the past decade, where the exchange value of property trumps use value, significant tensions result in attempts to implement the legislation, as values prioritizing people and social justice clash with market realities. This was highlighted for me during an IHP Cities visit to Jurubatuba in São Paul. In December 2007, Gafisa, one of the leading residential and real estate companies in Brazil, illegally offered the city's Santo Amaro sub-prefecture around $14,000 to "clean" an area in which it wanted to build a luxury housing project, the Magic Condominium Resort. The area to be "cleaned" was on the edge of the developer’s desired construction site, where around 120 people were living in 37 houses in a settlement founded over 25 years ago on what was then a dumping ground for old construction materials.


Meeting and tour with Sr. Luiz, President of the Comunidade Campo Grande Jurubatuba Association (right) and Julia Moretti, lawyer with the Escritório Modelo.

Although this settlement had been consolidated over time, obtaining electricity and water connections in 2004, on Christmas Eve of 2007, local government representatives offered residents $8,500 and gave them four days to leave the site. Sr. Luiz, our contact at the Jurubatuba settlement, went to the Public Defenders Office, who sent him to the Escritório Modelo at the Pontific Catholic University of São Paulo, a popular legal clinic that offers free services to vulnerable populations. Their case is still under way, and they have joined the larger housing movement struggle that is reigniting São Paulo, as their situation is by no means unique.



One key challenge facing settlements wishing to claim their right to the city through the City Statute legislation is a more conservative São Paulo city government, whose interests are illustrated in the cartoon above. Mayor Kessab is driving a bulldozer reading “Project Sanitize” over people claiming, “We want housing,” backed up by private interests stating, “We want real estate speculation.” The Mayor selects the heads of the 19 sub-prefectures of the city of São Paulo, almost all of whom are former military generals who were put in place largely because they knew how to take orders.

Many areas designated as Special Zones of Social Interest (ZEIS) in previous master plans – low-income areas targeted for state intervention to create low-income housing and protect them from real estate speculation – are now being re-classified as areas for development with no public consultation. These dynamics, as illustrated in the cartoon above, are being further magnified by 2014 World Cup development pressure.

These dynamics around governance and urban development in São Paulo show that having legislation to secure social rights and the right to the city is absolutely not enough. To truly transform institutions and the systems of which they are a part requires constant pressure and struggle to ensure that rights are continuously claimed and maintained.

Credits: Photos by Melissa García Lamarca. Cartoon from "Favelas in Action" protest flyer.

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Exhibiting Urban Development

by Peter Sigrist



As part of a growing collection of features (from artists to quotes) contributed by Polis readers and writers, today we introduce one on places. This can include any location that makes you want to share the experience of being there with others. Simply upload a photo, multiple photos or video to the group pool on Flickr. Relevant submissions are then geotagged, briefly described and published on Polis. We hope this collection will be useful for designers, residents, planners and travelers in search of extraordinary places.

Today's feature is the "Permanent Exhibition on City Planning in Moscow" by the Moscow Government Committee on Architecture and Planning. It is located in the "Building on Brestskaya" at 6 Vtoraya Brestskaya Street, a few blocks from the stunning Mayakovskaya Metro Station.



The exhibit fills a gigantic room, and its centerpiece is a continuously updated wooden model of the city (above). It can be viewed at floor level or from a mezzanine. The quality is remarkable, and it shows that beautiful models and plans don't necessarily correspond with experience on the ground.



More-detailed models of buildings and neighborhoods surround the central display, along with high-resolution photos, maps and diagrams. The exhibit is a "meta" place, in that it comprises depictions of every place in the city. The experience is fascinating and highly informative.



A hand-drawn map of Moscow (above) greets visitors at the entrance. It has a key that identifies different forms of land use, including green space, industry and housing. I'd like to find out more about the production of this map. Could it possibly be updated consistently like the model? If not, I wonder how it differs from current maps, especially in light of the plan to vastly expand Moscow's borders.



Despite incredible quality, central location and (as far as I know) free admission, I don't think many people visit this exhibit. I highly recommend going if you're interested in urban development, architecture, planning, information design or cartography.

Credits: Photos by Peter Sigrist.

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The Tolbiac Settlement in Dakar, Senegal

by Melissa García Lamarca



Tolbiac is an informal settlement (known as a barak in Wolof) quite different from most others in Dakar, Senegal. Located in the Plateau district, relatively close to the port, this area was of strategic importance to the city when French imperialism began in 1857. During this period urbanisation was driven by the need to build Dakar as the city connecting the new colonial power and their other French West African colonies, at both political and economic levels. Thus all urban development focused on the Plateau.

While Dakar’s first city plan created at the end of the nineteenth century accepted the native Lébu fisherman population on the Plateau, the 1914 plague epidemic gave the French the perfect excuse to segregate and separate themselves from the natives, whose ‘dirtiness’ was blamed for spreading disease. As the Lebús were pushed northwards on the Cap Vert peninsula, into Medina, the Plateau and port area became fully controlled by Europeans. The Lebús had to receive authorisation to cross the 50 metre no man’s land dividing Medina from the Plateau to enter the latter space.

The city has transformed greatly through subsequent plans and especially since Senegal’s independence in 1960. Although certainly no longer exclusively European, a lot of their architectural heritage remains particularly in the Plateau. Due to rapid urban growth pressures on a limited peninsular space, the land values in this area are quite high by Dakar standards.




Recycling in Tolbiac.

Considering this history, and the general absence of informal settlements on the Plateau, encountering Tolbiac in this location was a surprise. It is nestled between two busy streets – Rue de Liban and Rue Félix Eboué – with hints of Dakar’s nearby Grande Mosquée poking into the sky in the northwest (when one is able to get a glimpse of the horizon over corrugated iron roofs and walls). Unless one knows where to find it this barak it would easily go unseen; its labyrinthic streets (e.g. photo at left) exist in an enclosed, walled off space virtually invisible from the surrounding streets, although people living there have a recycling collection and storage space, provide laundry, tailoring and other services to the wealthier residents surrounding them (images below).




Laundry services.

A meeting and tour with Amoul Yakar Mbaye, the founder of the Ecole de la Rue (School of the Street) that works with many children and adults living in Tolbiac, uncovered a lot of the activities in and functioning of this fascinating space. While many details still remain unclear – and unfortunately there is a surprising absence of information on the topic online, in French or English and the time spent in the community was limited – the international NGO ENDA-Tiers Monde, headquartered in Dakar, came into Tolbiac in the past decade to help people obtain some level of (more) secure tenure, connect to surrounding electricity and water infrastructure and build skills in the community. Tolbiac’s residents now have a right to settlement in the space they presently occupy for the coming 25 years, there is a free toilet block (image left) and water available for an accessible fee and training centres exist for metal workers and carpenters who construct beautiful pieces as well as housing for Tolbiac’s residents.


Head carpenter with Amoul Yakar Mbaye.


Carpentry work.

While the NGO has played an important role establishing these skills and services, many newly trained (and now highly skilled) metal workers and carpenters are struggling to find clients. Not enough financial support exists at present to move these projects forward, as unemployment is rife in Dakar and indeed across Senegal, with deep structural roots. How can such capacities be built and maintained in this context? And what will Tolbiac’s future hold as the 25 year lease giving a right to settle expires? Any Polis readers with more information, please share your thoughts and knowledge.

Credits: Map adapted from Mbow et al., 2008, Urban Sprawl Development and Flooding at Yeumbeul Suburb (Dakar, Senegal), Figure 1. Photos by Melissa García Lamarca.

Gurgaon: India’s ‘Millennium City’

by Melissa García Lamarca


The pedestrian-unfriendly streets of Gurgaon.

Gurgaon, located 30 km southwest of Delhi in the state of Haryana, is viewed by many as the model for India’s global cities of the future. Identified in 1962 as a satellite city in Delhi’s Master Plan, Gurgaon began to be urbanised in earnest when the Maruti Suzuki car factory opened shop in the early 1980s. Land speculation began during this period as the Land Acquisition Act was amended to allow this resource to be purchased by private builders/companies for ‘any public purpose’, with Delhi Land and Finance (DLF) – a powerful developer in Gurgaon and across India – buying up a large amount of land.

Yet it was with the liberalisation of the Indian economy in 1991 that Gurgaon’s growth really took off, as the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), in pure urban entrepreneurial management style, loosened all controls on the area’s development. Dozens upon dozens of foreign companies began opening offices or locating their outsourcing operations – especially BPOs – in Gurgaon with a vengeance from the late 1990s onwards; indeed the city is now one of India’s biggest outsourcing hubs.


DLF’s Cyber City.

Under rapid transformation from a small-scale agriculture-based settlement to an exclusive hyper urban one, this ‘millennium city’ is characterised by unbridled urbanisation driven by the growth of commerce and industry. Uncontrolled developer driven construction abounds, of exclusive residential areas and flashy business venues ‘worthy’ of any global city. Furthermore, there are over fifty (yes, 50) malls in Gurgaon, concentrated largely in an area known as Mall Mile, where people regularly come from Delhi and even as far as Chandigarh on the weekends to go “malling.”


Residential development.


Advertisement for “space age homes” in Gurgaon.


Another new housing development.

The recently released Gurgaon 2021 Master Plan is in essence a template for further facilitating endless urban growth, for the benefit of those who can pay for it. All despite the reality of limited water sources, an unreliable energy supply and insufficient infrastructure provision, not even to mention Gurgaon’s location in the ecologically sensitive Aravalis hills nor in an earthquake prone area. The popular sentiment seems to be that technological fixes will solve all Gurgaon’s potential future problems. As imaginaries of both the collapse and success of the city abound, only time will tell which tale is true.

Special thanks to students and professors at the Sushant School of Art and Architecture, Kalyani Menon-Sen and IHP Cities students for their valuable information and insights on Gurgaon.

Credits: Photos by Melissa García Lamarca.