About 05-gospodini- european cities in competition

1. Urban Design presentation – Sanne Kassenberg
European Cities in Competition and
the new ‘Uses’ of Urban Design
Aspa Gospodini 1

2. Introduction
Globalisation causes the cities to
be incapable of directing their economies and interaction with other economies.
This causes a rearranging of the distribution of opportunities and income.
“Europe is becoming a community of cities
rather than a community of nations and/or countries.”
- Simioforidis, 1998, p. 114
Cities form a overlapping and flexible hierarchie.
This means a competition between cities is starting about who has the most influence.
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3. Potential of Urban Design
for economic development of cities
Wealthy cities used to get better urban design after becoming wealthy.
Currently the cities get economical growth by good use of urban design.
There is a fight for capital investments because cities are
interchangeable, location and physical infrastructure
have no influence anymore.
Urban governments need to makke cities attractive to possible firms and cities need to
make inducements to secure development.
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4. Potential of Urban Design
for economic development of cities
A lot of cities use urban regeneration to change the appearance of their city.
Flexibility is the most important part to stay on top of the hierarchy.
To win the constant battle you either have to:
1) Be fast with response to the market
(short gains by acting on the needs)
2) Masterminding the market shifts
(long gains by manipulating the market)
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5. Classes and groups of european cities
There are 3 major groups according to CEC, divided by their population
Metropolitan cities
Larger cities
old core/expanded new core
periphery
Smaller cities
old core/expanded new core
periphery
special characteristics
without indigenous resources for development
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6. Metropolitan cities
1980 – 1990 was the economic renaissance for metropolitan cities.
Economic sectors moved and that caused reurbanisation.
Metropolitan cities constantly attract
corporates because of their prodominance
Either manipulating the market or reacting to the market very quick works for these cities.
Prestigious and symbolic urban landscape are the fitting urban design.
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7. Larger cities
1950 – 1960 Growth in concentrated economy and extensive urbanisation
1970 – 1980 All went downhill because of spacial disadventages and diseconomies
This made the larger cities less attractive, so the environment
had to be updated
Regenerating the local economy had been done by producing new space for economy
and lively uses by redevelopment, renewal, reconstruction and urban space
Larger cities make an effort to accomodate major international
events, such as the olympic games.
This is a catalyst for improving environment
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8. Smaller cities
1970 – 1980 Due to the counter urbanization the smaller cities flourished and grew rapidly.
The diseconomies the larger cities have were not there in the smaller cities, this caused
a decentralization of some economic sectors.
Thanks to improvement in transport, telecommunication and computer technology there
was easier access to high-order services and the companies could spread
Maintenance and enhancement of the quality of urban space are keyfactors for smaller cities
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9. Future of specific smaller cities
Old core / expanded new core smaller cities
They will be integrated in the urban system succesfully because of the location,
the maintenance of the quality is the most important to protect against
the possible danger of rapid development.
Smaller cities with special characteristics
These will continue to grow succesfully, the selling product is the environment so
the quality of the urban environment is key
Acting to the market is good when it does not change the characteristics.
Smaller cities in the periphery
Because of the structural weaknesses these have constraints for integration
With the right recourses a small city in the periphery can compete,
but there are a lot of difficulties for these cities.
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10. Conclusion
Urban design has a significant impact on economic development of european cities in all classes
The key factor for most of these cities is avant-garde design
and large scale inventions to control the cities future
Metropolitan cities can create ingenious landscapes and small peripherical cities can change into
tourism resources to handle the problems
This brings up some issues such as how does this design fit with the ‘locale’ of the city and
does it destroy the identity of the place
Visual artifacts and social structure represent a city and create new space for public
structure, which could reinforce identity
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11. Conclusion
Reinforcing the identity creates strong images. This gives a
strong place identity for a city and a
new space in public culture
Metroplitan cities should produce spaces for cultural hegemony and internationalize the city.
Small peripheral cities should transform urban space morphology into a tourist attraction
This could lead to an identity crisis because of the immigration of
new people with their own cultures
But if everybody works on the reurbanization of a city it could work out in solidarity,
pride and loyalty to the city.
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