Why world cities must embrace inclusive development

It’s no surprise that the world’s most influential global cities are among its most diverse. The factors that define a successful global city – economic competitiveness, growth opportunities, democratic freedom and quality of life – are the ones that have long attracted people from all over the world. London, New York, Paris, Singapore and Sydney all have significant immigrant and ethnic minority populations who have brought their cultures, religions and identities to add to the richness of these cities. [caption id="attachment_943894" align="alignright" width="150"] Priya Shah[/caption] Yet, global cities never stand still. To stay competitive there must be constant growth and urban transformation. But how are global cities considering the different cultural and religious needs of their populations in their growth plans? Are they creating places without including all of their people? The history and patterns of immigration globally are well documented. Immigrants have been settling and shaping their new countries for centuries. From the French Huguenot refugees who fled to London in the 1650s and established Spitalfields’ successful weaving industry to the first Chinese immigrants in New York in 1858 who paved the way for what is now the largest Chinese community outside Asia, and perhaps most extreme, the South African Indian population of Durban who were forced to live in isolation under apartheid and are now earning the highest GDP per capita in the country. All of these communities settled and established their infrastructure and social fabric organically, often in extreme conditions and without help from the host country. Remembering their roots Priya Shah, founder of London-based forum BAME in Property, says city planners and developers can learn much from such communities. Shah, who spent two months researching the Indian community in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, says its religion and culture has played a key part in its success. “When forced out of their homes, what did they have to hold on to? Their culture and their identity – with those they can overcome and conquer anything,” she says. Shah says the importance of home ownership, which is the “Indian’s hallmark of success”, is rooted within the population’s religious doctrines. This has been one of the driving forces behind the community “doing it for themselves” and building their own housing, temples and education to preserve their culture and lift themselves out of poverty. Indeed, studies around the world have found that cultural foundations shape the way communities choose to live in other countries. Researchers in San Francisco have found that new Chinese and Filipino immigrants also place a high value on home ownership. This has resulted in these communities being much less transitory and staying within their original “ethnic clusters”, rather than following expected dispersal patterns. This has major implications for the city’s housing. Shah says a lack of understanding of these factors can have a major impact, both at the macro and micro levels of city development. She points to a recent retirement development in Harrow, north-west London, 70% of whose population is of South Indian ethnicity. “The developer got the market completely wrong and it wasn’t successful,” she says, adding that although London is one of the better world cities at acknowledging its diverse populations, “there’s still a long way to go”. Determining needs Yolande Barnes, chair of the Bartlett Real Estate Institute at University College London, agrees that more attention needs to be paid to people’s culture and religious needs. However, she says that determining these needs is highly complex and can often change between generations. [caption id="attachment_964824" align="alignright" width="150"] Yolande Barnes[/caption] She points to a study that looked at the housing requirements of the dominant South Asian population in Southall, west London. She says the assumption was that the families would want larger housing to accommodate intergenerational living but, in fact, the younger residents wanted traditional Western housing. “The Southall experience shows that you have to include all of the community in the design and development process, regardless of their religious and cultural background,” says Barnes. “If people need anything special then it will come out, if you include them properly. There is a real danger that people are seen as XYZ so people think they need XYZ.” Citizen engagement For many, community engagement is the real crux of cultural development. Tom Perry, head of the cities programme at the Design Council, says we need wider community engagement in order to foster cohesion. He says it’s about creating “inclusive design” and understanding how different groups will use a building or space. “It’s not necessarily a focus on race or culture, but how people live their day-to-day lives,” he says. “Public spaces are where people meet and socially interact. From that perspective, you can’t prioritise one user over another – places like London are multi-cultural and multi-faceted.” In Berlin, the state government has made citizen engagement a key policy. This was tested after vociferous protests against its plans to demolish a state building, the Haus der Statistik. Groups in the city presented alternative plans to use the 1960s office block largely to house refugees fleeing conflict, and the government agreed to redevelop it as a model project. It is still ongoing, but significantly the project has included citizen delegates working formally with the architects and institutions on the plans, along with weekly informal workshops and public meetings for people to come in and bring ideas. Built environment researchers are looking at it as a possible model for engagement. Strength in diversity Shah believes that part of the lack of cultural understanding would be alleviated by more diversity within the built environment professions. Perry concurs that this a problem area and that to have meaningful engagement there has to be diverse input into a scheme. Figures from the Royal Town Planning Institute show that just 7% of its 25,000 members globally are from BAME backgrounds. Last year, it launched an action plan to help people from more diverse backgrounds into the planning professions. Shah adds that there should be more diversity on the boards of these companies. “You need different perspectives from different cultures,” she says. “If you don’t have that around your boardroom table, there’s a tendency to say ‘let’s go and build’ without thinking about the demographics.” Part of the issue in London, says Dominic Grace, head of London residential development at Savills, is the city’s archaic planning laws. “Our planning system is very much rooted in the 1950s expectation of how people live – either in a council house or as an owner-occupier in a three-bed house,” he says. “People now live much more flexible lifestyles. No one has torn that up yet and looked at how we are going to live in the future.” He adds that cities tend to emulate each other in a quest for success, leading to cookie-cutter masterplanning and urban renewal that fails to consider the quintessential nature and cultures of those cities. “How many times have you gone to some part of the world and thought: this could be anywhere?” And in this race to the top, perhaps we are forgetting the contribution of these myriad cultures to our major cities. The older generation A group also under-represented in city development are older people. Japan has the fastest-ageing population on the globe and has already implemented a building programme to house its elderly, although estimates suggest it will fall far short. In London, housing for the elderly has been included in the draft London Plan for the first time. Developers have been slow to catch on, however, with just 8,000 units built annually. Yolande Barnes, chair of the Bartlett Real Estate Institute at University College London, warns that there is already a backlash against the US model of retirement complex. “Older people want just as much diversity and to live in the city centre as the average millennial,” she says. In the US, Barnes points to the rise of NORCs – naturally occurring retirement communities – which have sprung up, rather like ethnic enclaves, around the country. These are buildings or groups of houses for the over-60s to which people have gravitated naturally.