Emergent Urbanism

EMERGENT URBANISM

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A Dissertation

“The city seems to have a life of its own, however if we cannot understand how it works, we are not likely to get very far with human society at large”

Joseph M Brown

January 2011

Front Cover Quote(Thomas 1973, cited in Johnson, 2002, p.39)

Emergent Urbanism. Application of Emergent Theory within an Urban Environment

CONTENTS PAGE

Chapter 1_ Introduction

Chapter 2_Current Issues with Urban Growth

Chapter 3_Emergence

Chapter 4_Case Study Markets - Deptford - Strood - Marrakech - Lagos

Chapter 5_Conclusion and References

INTRODUCTION

Chapter One

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Joseph M Brown

08069417

January 2011

U30099

Thinking began for this dissertation towards the end of 2009, whilst car-rying out site analysis for my second year design project on a rainy Deptford High Street. The project involved creating an ¬infrastructural element that would benefit the local community of Deptford, a deprived area in the south-east of London.

The same week, I had attended a Matt Gaskin lecture, very casually he men-tioned an extract from a book, talking of how if you want build a community, you don’t build a community centre, you build a bus stop, a reference from the Nabeel Hamdi book, Small Change. Hamdi discusses the importance of small-scale, local intervention in urban planning in the developing world. I was see-ing this same phenomenon on Deptford High Street, a community connected through a market, working for the needs of the community. This seemed to ignite a small spark of intrigue, an intrigue into the urban planning of emerg-ing cities across the globe, in particular their relation to market dynamics.

This dissertation considers how the practice of urban planning needs to change to address the current shifts in world population as well as the global swing from rural to urban inhabitation. It will discuss the current problems with urban growth and consider an alternative to the current systems in place, trying to accommodate the mass influx of people to cities, systems that at the moment result in sprawling informal slum settlements. In particular looking at the application of a chaotic theory called Emergence.

Emergence is a new stream of thought that covers a broad range of dis-ciplines, from molecular biology to computer programming to neurological impulses. Emergence is the way in which complex structures/organizations/patterns/systems can arise out of seemingly simple or micro interactions (John-son, 2002). Current studies into emergence cover a vast variety of disciplines; emergence underpins many current theories of complexity. “The movement from low-level rules to higher level sophistication is what we call emergence” (Johnson, 2002, p.18)

Emergence, has until recently, been mainly associated with the application of computer programming, however as described in Small Change, emergent thinking can be applied to urban planning. Emergence seems to be able to offer a system that can be applied to many disciplines, more recently it has begun to be considered in terms of architecture.

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As examples of emergence, I will be looking at four case study market en-vironments. A market is a community of individuals that often appears out of need, having traditionally emerged organically without government organiza-tion, the systems of organization often appearing after a market has appeared naturally (Schmiechen, 1999). Looking at a market pragmatically, a market is a city at micro scale, including all the elements a city requires. The elements required, as outlined by Kevin Lynch in The Image of the City are; Paths, Edges, Districts, Nodes and Landmarks, individual stalls are arranged within a space to create a market, negotiating these five elements. Through united aims, a market often promotes an organized, self-supporting community of market traders. A market, at its core is the same throughout the globe, through research it had become apparent trading is a global language, as a humanity we understand the notion of trade.

The world is shrinking, through telecommunications and world media, we can now communicate globally, instantly, within a virtual reality we are becom-ing one, however with the current rate of urbanization we may soon, geo-graphically speaking, become one homogenous urban environment. Sometime during 2011 global population will creep above 7 billion. Our sprawling cities spreading outwards, interconnecting with one another, something Nigel Coates describes as global mergence of cities, as seas of the ocean, mixing of the cur-rents in an oceanic flow. (Coates, 1988 p.32)

It is my belief the role of the architect is changing, or at least the role of an architect who wishes to address the problems of 80% of the current ur-ban growth that currently do not involve an architect (Sanderson, 2009). An architect has to change his or hers approach, we need a system that responds to current needs, that can respond to the massive change in world population that are ahead.

Sometime during 2008 the world’s population shifted. Developing from an almost entirely rural living based on agriculture to an urban reality. Cur-rently, 1.5million people a week move from a rural environment into an urban settlement, which equates to 130 people every minute (Neuwirth, R., 2005). This current transition not only marks a transition from rural to urban living but also a power shift from west to east. Production and manufacturing have moved East, Eastern economies, as well as some African economies are flour-ishing, with the North American territory, the current world leader, proph-esized to decline in power by Jane Jacobs in Dark Age Ahead (2005). Figures show that 95% of urban growth in the next 40 years will be in cities in devel

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Fig. 1_An Example of Slum Settlement in Dharavi, India

oping countries, with Asia making up 63% of the worlds urban population by 2050 (UNHABITAT, 2008).

Films such as Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, television programmes such as Slumming It, featuring Kevin McCloud, and BBC series Welcome to Lagos. As well Mike Davies’ book Planet of Slums, are revealing this potential new world order to the public. Revealing a need of engaging with this develop-ing urban fabric. This current trend in mass media attention is most likely a bi-product of current and on-going academic research; in particular the OMA/Harvard research project into Lagos titled Lagos; How It Works, a project considering how, as urban planners, we can observe the current climate of these new environments, with the long term goal of being able to respond with scheme relevant to place and time.

In a wider respect, the dissertation relates to how we successfully organize people and communities in such a rapidly changing environment. Naturally, we group together; tribal instincts mean we understand the importance of liv-ing in the close proximity of others. We develop and grow as families; it is in our nature to act as a group.

As hunter-gatherers, we lived in small groups. Our survival was dependant on natures produce; the limit of this produce limited the size of our hunter-gather groups. The reliance on natures produce required these groups to move constantly to avoid depleting natures stock in one area, which would ultimately lead to starvation. This way of life changed drastically during the Neolithic Revolution, it represented a the shift from the dependence on hunter gather-ing instincts, towards agriculture and farming, and these simple developments acted as the “necessary precondition to the inception of cities.” (Beall, 2009, p. 36)

As agricultural technology advanced, production increased resulting in surplus food; in particular the cultivation of hard grain (a food that could be stored for long periods) reduced the risk of starvation. Making it possible to support larger communities. An Urban Revolution followed, a phrase coined by Gordon Chilke to describe the change where small, agricultural-based vil-lages became large, “socially complex, urban societies.” (Soja, 1988, p. 20) This transition spawned a continuing development of technological advancements; cities became the sites for social and technological innovation, several sufficient steps where needed to develop these prehistoric cities into the hyper cities of today, such as the specialization in production and the result of long distance

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trade, all of which will be discussed in greater depth later in the dissertation. However these were the beginnings of the cities.

Striping settlements and cities back to their core, settlements appear around needs, human beings are survival-lead. Cities have appeared out of our need to survive, though the form of how we survive has changed throughout the cen-turies. If the land is fertile to produce food, if the shipyard becomes the trading point of a country, if industry moves to a small town providing people with a small wage, people gravitate towards the places where we will best survive.

With population growth, a geographical power shift in world production towards the “third world,” with economic growth in under developed, creating over-urbanized cities. Fuelled by industrial manufacturing and newfound oil, a new way of thinking is required to address these new urban developments. A

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Fig. 2_Expansive real estate, Tokyo, pictured aboveself- organized, hand made homes in Ankara, Turkey.

current thought is that Lagos, Nigeria, within the coming years, has the potential to become the economic capital of Africa, potentially the new centre of the world (Koolhaas, R., 2002). In Shadow Cities, Robert Neuwirth declares these places are the cities of tomorrow, (2004). Currently 1 billion people live in squatter settlements throughout the planet, this anticipated to rise to 2 billion in 2030, to 3 billion in 2050, equating to 1 in 3 people (Neuwirth, N., 2004). These are the cities of the future. A new approach is needed that engages with people at a local level, engaging with the residents of the cities of tomorrow.

Though many of these reports are published with facts and figures, all the numbers are based on a grim reality; squatter settlements form the majority of urban settlement in these new urban environments. The major concern for architectural practice is how we accommodate this flux of people into urban environments, at a current rate that practice cannot keep up with. This makes me question the role of the architect, is the role of the architect changing? Can we accommodate these new theories into urban planning? Possibly creating a development plan. Should architects become the designers of a system that could simply, successfully manage the current urbanization, instead of a pre-scribing a top down design that doesn’t work for the communities it is trying to serve.

The role of the architect is what is in question, is there a need for a new ap-proach, a new way of thinking, a new approach that could act as a flexible sys-tem, similar to the systems in place in markets, that harnesses emergent theory, resulting in a proposal that can be applied to the most rapidly emerging mega cities and hyper cities throughout the globe, put eloquently; is “the architect neither a passive observer of determined systems nor a determined manipula-tor of passive material, but rather, the manager of an unfolding process?” (Reis-ser, J. and Umemoto, N., 2006, p.104)

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CURRENT ISSUES WITH URBAN GROWTHChapter Two

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Joseph M Brown

08069417

January 2011

U30099

“The city seems to have a life of its own, however if we cannot understand how it works, we are not likely to get very far with human society at large.”

(Thomas 1973, cited in Johnson, 2002, p. 39)

Planning of urban settlements has accrued since the dawn of civilization, it is thought that settlements had been planned and well developed by 6000 BC. The first known planned settlement being Old Jericho, dated at 7000 BC, in what is now known as the West Bank, in the Palestinian Territories. Other examples of settlements in present day Pakistan date back to 3500 BC showing evidence of planned street networks, drainage systems and zoning according to land usage. Early settlements in China were aligned with cosmic forces, and throughout the Aztec and Mayan civilizations, inhabitants developed sophisti-cated systems of urban planning (UNHABITAT, 2009).

However the global transition witnessed during the past fifty years, the phenomenal shift in habitation, has presented urban planners with challenges never faced before. During the period of 1059-1975 global population growth was predominantly spread evenly between urban and rural areas, however since this period in the 1970s, the balance has tipped dramatically towards urban growth (UNHABITAT, 2009) For the first time, over half the world population live in a city, within the next few decades it is predicted many new megacities of 10 million people will emerge, as well as hyper cities of over 20 million inhabitants (Beall 2009).

Capital cities are growing at the most alarming rate, this is due to the cen-tralized concentration of institutional, political and police power encompassed in a capital city. Within smaller countries this is the result of governments wanting to create a impression of greater power and stability than they actually have (Beall, 2009). This centralized approach leads to the over urbanization of already bulging cities, as migrants flock towards the centralized opportunities of work (UNHABITAT, 2009). This is worsened as many of the areas of urbani-zation have been built upon a weak or nonexistent infrastructure; this is due to how most of these countries were brought onto the global market economy (Beall 2009).

Many developing countries entered the global economy after a period of decolonization. The colonizers, countries such as England, Spain and France, extracted any valuable raw material from the country, leaving behind an urban environment that had mainly been used as trading node. Rural dwellers would

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then migrate to these urban areas in search of a better life only to find that the colonizers had not left the country’s economy in a strong enough condition to cope with rapid urbanization. This is a case of over urbanization, where a city has not yet developed enough in terms of infrastructure or affordable housing to cope with the influx of rural migrants leading to what Beall and Fox (2009, p.64) refer to as ‘...the proliferation of slums and an increase in urban poverty’

The current rate of population growth within the past decades is something not witnessed before. Although, some startling similarities can be drawn be-tween the current situation of over-urbanization in mega cities such as Dharavi and Lagos, and the previous expansion of development that occurred during the industrial revolution of 19th century in Europe.

Within the book Emergence (2002) Steven Johnson discusses the emer-gence of Manchester towards the end of the 19th century. Situated in the south-central part of North West England, Manchester experienced a popula-tion explosion due to the growth of the textile trade. This was furthered by industrialization, resulting in Manchester having an influx of migrants looking to fill one of the many textile factories that appeared. In 1773 the population of Manchester was estimated at 24, 000, when the first public census was recorded in 1801, the population noted at 70,000, by the mid point of same the century, population was estimated at 250,000, a tenfold increase over 75 years (Johnson, 2002).

For half a century, Manchester was considered a “manor,” which meant, in the eyes of the government, it was run like a feudal estate, with no local government, no planners, police or health authorities to speak of. Manchester didn’t send representatives to Parliament until 1832, and it wasn’t incorporated for another six years (Johnson, 2002).

By the early 1840s, the newly formed, self-organized borough council finally began to institute public health reforms and urban planning, but the British government didn’t officially recognize Manchester as a city until 1853. The result was arguably the least planned and most chaotic city in the history of urban settlements. Noisy, polluted and massively overcrowded; Major General Charles Napier, British Army’s Commander-in-Chief in India wrote, “Man-chester is the chimney of the world. Rich rascals, poor rogues… What a place! The entrance to hell, realized.” (Cited by Johnson, 2008, Pp 35). De Toqueville, a French politician wrote; “Here humanity attains its most complete develop-ment, and its most brutish; here civilization works in miracles, and civilized


man is turned back almost into a savage.” (Cited by Johnson, 2008, Pp 35).

Though more brutal, these are similar to the comments made by Kevin McCloud in the ‘Slumming it’ documentary on Channel 4. McCloud visits Dharavi, the second largest slum settlement in the world, where he spent a week living with a family experiencing the massive expansive slum (Simpson, 2010). At one point McCloud is quoted as saying ‘a sign should hang above the entrance to the slum quoting “abandon all hope now.”

“…Dharavi represented the origins of a city, not its future, Dharavi tells a much older story, giving us a sense of how most European cities were born.” (Gregory, R., 2010, webpage)

Such conditions were not unique to Manchester, similar squalor could be found across Europe in and even in North America. Political resistance in some areas resulted in a drastic change in public policy, an example being Glas-gow, a city overflowing with ship building labourers.

The labourers organized themselves into labour groups to try and create legislation improving housing conditions, each time the groups were thwarted by powerful landlords. However a grassroots initiative supported by local housewives led to rent strikes on May 1915. By November of the same year, 20,000 residents were participating in the strikes. The following year The Rents and Mortgage Interest Restriction Bill was passed in parliament. Local level resilience by many residents in the community resulted in positive develop-ment in local housing. (Beall, 2008) This type of local grassroots initiatives that trickle slowly up through government systems, often mean the resulting outcome works for the community that wanted it. In contrast to prescribed top down design, when people self organize, the results are much more successful than a top down approach. Top-down approaches lack the understanding of place and need. Could this type of self-initiated organization be implemented in places currently of urban transition, enabling communities to act more of their own accord?

The current problems surrounding this influx of people have been well documented- slums, poverty, unemployment and lack of governance. However we must remember; “Behind the dramatic statistics lie very different visceral realities that link urban form to urban society, shaped by the homogenizing impact of global flows of capital, people and energy” (Burdett, R. and Sudjic, D., 2007, p.7).



“Evidence from around the world suggests that contemporary urban plan-ning has largely failed” (UNHABITAT, 2008, p. 1). The UN argues that, in most parts of the world, current approaches to planning must change and that a new role for urban planning in sustainable urban development needs to be found” (Burdett, R. and Sudjic, D., 2007, p.vii).

We must understand the key factors shaping urban settlement in the 21st century. One of the most important being the increasing and excessive depend-ency on the fossil fuel-powered motorcar. As well as the demographic challeng-es of rapid urbanization, rapid growth of small-medium sized towns and an expanding youth population, combined with an aging population and increas-ingly multicultural communities. We must also be aware, in current economic climate, as well as the increasing informality in urban environments. Increasing socio-spatial challenges, especially social and spatial inequalities, urban sprawl and unplanned peri-urbanization, the process of urban settlements develop-ing in the area between suburb and countryside, resulting in a sprawling plan. (UNHABITAT, 2008)

The fundamental concepts of urban planning have stayed unchanged for the past 100 years, where older forms of master planning have persisted. The form of the city has failed to accommodate the ways of life of the majority of every-day inhabitants. In particular within the rapidly growing, poor, informal cities, within these environments poor planning has directly contributed to the social and spatial problems, “formal planning techniques are not adequate to respond to the dynamism that cities display” (Burdett, R. and Sudjic, D., 2007, p.348)

This development doesn’t just present issues regarding quality of life for the inhabitants of these cities, it also presents major environmental concerns, this transition of people is due to an increase of mass production in areas usually associated with agricultural tradition. It is also predicted more people will be-gin to occupy areas susceptible to costal flooding as global warming increases. An example of this can be seen on the coast of Lagos, as documented in the BBC documentary, ‘Welcome to Lagos’, (Searle, 2010).

‘Welcome to Lagos’ documents the development of a costal slum town where seasonal flooding is almost certain. Residents live in poorly erected shanty houses which are easily destroyed when floods strike, extenuating the problems of poor sanitation in the area, indeed 88% of the residents do not have access to piped water in their homes (Beal, 2008). Despite huge damage to property and poor living conditions people continue to inhabit this slum town


in Lagos because situated within ten minutes of a major construction site, offering job opportunities which these people desperately need.

Poor sanitation is one of the greatest problems with slums and shantytowns, normally built on a non-existent infrastructure, that cannot cope with mass amounts of people. Human waste builds up in the neglected areas of the slums; near sewage drainage or into close flowing rivers. Poor sanitation can be seen in Dharavi, the massive slum of 12 million people in the suburbs of Mumbai. Though the city has poor sanitation, in other respects Dharavi works extremely well, for example Dharavi’s waste disposal is a much more effective system than is seen throughout Europe (Simpson, 2010).

Recycling percentages are much higher than European averages, with a staggering 80% of household waste being recycled in contrast to the 24% of UK waste. This is due to the high price placed on unwanted waste; many people can make money from sorting and selling the waste, in particular raw materials that can be reprocessed into new material, such as plastic and metal. The work is hard and dangerous, with poorly managed health and safety regulations in place, for example sorting through waste in bare food and cleaning paint cans by burning off the excess paint (Simpson, 2010).

Anywhere an entrepreneurial opportunity is available, natural instincts lead to making money, survival instinct breeds success. Slum inhabitants work hard to extract any valuable materials to make money and to survive. These again leads us back to the survival instinct of a human being, with single individu-als working tirelessly to earn a wage. This contributes to a much larger picture, resulting in a system of recycling not seen anywhere in the so-called more economically developed of the West.

Shadow Cities; a billion squatters describes the squatter simply as migrant to the city, without being able to afford housing, builds his shelter with his owns hands, on land that doesn’t belong to him, (Neuwirth, 2008). However as was shown in ‘Welcome to Lagos’, squatters often build on land that govern-ments are unwilling to build on themselves, such as Brownfield sites. Squatters almost regenerate an area through their influx, building communities. The mass influx of migrant squatters creates a whole informal system of squatter landlords. Again this is an informal market that has potential for architects to become involved in, “the builders of informal housing are the largest builders of housing in the world – and they are creating the cities of tomorrow” (Bur-dett, R. and Sudjic, D., 2007 p. 348).

This is in contrast to the Slum Redevelopment Programmes; these develop-


ment plans often propose the demolition of existing slums and rebuilding on the same sites at a higher density. These new developments are similar to the westernized apartment blocks made popular through modernist ideals at the start of the 20th century. The apartments are usually medium-rise apartment blocks, a complete contrast to the sprawling slum communities that the inhab-itants build themselves. Redevelopment housing is often built to a poor quality, with corners being cut in both construction and planning.

One example is the slum redevelopment constructed to replace the housing destroyed by an earthquake in Gujarat. The development was a collaboration between a Non-Government Organization and the Indian Chambers of Com-merce, the proposal was to rebuild 23 of the worse affected villages, building 5554 permanent houses. The informally constructed settlements were replaced with concrete housing, an apparent upgrade in construction, however after construction the residents had many complaints; ‘There is not enough mortar to hold the structure together... The roof is no good’. ‘there’ve been 653 trem-ors since 2001 … if my house cracks at a three, then at a seven it will collapse’ (Cited by Sanderson, Lecture, 2009). These are recurring issues seen through-out slum redevelopment programmes.

Another of the main problems with slum redevelopment is they are not re-placing like for like, many people loose space, as well as income. One example from Dharavi was a family that fabricated pots for a living, the younger family members would mix the clay in the bedrooms of the slum, then the older fam-ily members used a makeshift wheel and kiln towards the back of their infor-mal property, in a new development they would lose the kiln as the authori-ties would not allow the kiln in the development, leading to a loss of income. (Simpson, 2010)

Slums achieve successful compact living with a strong sense of community. They result in little use of the car due to tightly compact living which means amenities such as shops appear within walking distance; an environment many western inhabitants would aspire to live in. Slums enable people to move into areas of high production, offering job opportunities, to be part of a full of col-lective intelligence. Prince Charles has recently been the quoted as saying slums of the developing countries maybe poorer in money terms, these communities are far richer in other regards, a conclusion many sources agree with. McCloud discusses safe streets and a strong sense of community (Simpson, 2010).

Within squatter settlements, another major concern is the unregulated ex-change of money to squatter landlords, the untaxed masses usually liv


ing on government owned land. However this also seems an opportunity for governments to possibly work together with slum settlements, taxing a usually untaxed sector, possibly offering an upgrade in slum construction, something that usually happens with time.

We tend to believe if people have a roof, then they have shelter, residents need more than just a roof, you need a roof in a system, a system that provides the potential for the wealth of the poorest people to increase. To hold real estate assets is to be able to obtain surplus value against that property, for ex-ample bank loans etc. Throughout the developing countries it is believed about 85% of the total population hold real estate assets outside the usual legal system (Mau, B. and Leonard, J., 2004).

Is there a way in which governments can work with squatter settlements, or offer a system for squatter settling that is regulated, transforming squatter set-tlements into something that is an expanding, flexible and affordable housing system that welcomes the mass arrival of people? There needs to be an integra-tion of informal processes with the more formal processes of urban planning, the benefits of recognizing these factors will result in more integrated form of design, with laissez-faire regulation of informal activates encourages an infor-mal market instead of restricting it.

Creating a system that offers real estate security would enable slum inhab-itants to work towards investment in their slum settlements. Currently slum inhabitants are cautious to invest in their communities due to the threat of slum redevelopments destroying their investment. Investment in slums could see the results as witnessed by McCloud in one community in central Dharavi, where over time the residents had developed more sophisticated construction methods, resulting in a pleasant living environment, far removed from the stereotypical idea of a slum. (Simpson, 2010)

Since the middle of the twentieth century, the housing policy debate on slums in developing countries has been polarized between two extremes – slum clearance and slum upgrading. Slum redevelopment presented a third, very different approach, (Mukhija, 2003)

Vintit Mukhija discusses one new strategy called slum upgrading. This offers slum dwellers a legal title to their properties that they have been inhabit-ing, governments can also offer the provision of simple amenities, infrastruc-ture and finance housing loans, the premise being that slums, appear poorly


constructed, however this will often improve over time, with residents invest-ing into better materials. The World Bank has been at the forefront of promot-ing slum upgrading.

This has already been documented in many parts of the world, in Mexico city, houses built in districts in Ciudad Neza were considered informal, parasit-ic settlements, however since investing in the urban infrastructure (described earlier as one of the major problems with over urbanization) the traditional settlement of squatters has been transformed into a thriving city of 1.5 million, with a number of upstart businesses providing 65% of the jobs to residents.

In Santa Fe, Mexico City, city officials permit the provision of cheap and diverse domestic conveniences. An even greater tolerance is given to Shanghai street vendors. Legislation passed in 2007 allows informal permission to trade without a license on street edges, this has lead to an estimated 50,000 street vendors fuelling an informal market. It is also considered that the presence of street vendors keep streets relatively safe, as cities with a large number of street vendors seem to be safer than those that don’t. (Burdett, R. and Sudjic, D., 2007, p.350)

There are many obvious problems with slum settlements that have been well documented, however in many other respects slum settlements work. Time is needed to give these cities an opportunity to grow and develop naturally, with clever investment in the right areas, some of these potential investment opportunities can encourage entrepreneurial intervention by the slums own residents, instead of prescribing a design that inhibits local intervention, tap-ping into basic survival instincts. Participatory design processes are needed, involving the very communities that live within these settlements, encouraging self-organization whilst also improving infrastructural elements such as sanita-tion and build quality.

EMERGENT THEORY IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENTChapter Three

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Joseph M Brown

08069417

January 2011

U30099

“The movement from low-level rules to higher level sophistication is what

we call emergence” (Johnson, 2002, p.18)

In recent times there have been explorations into the potential of emergent theory when applied to architectural planning. Emergence is the way com-plex patterns or systems arise out of relatively simple interactions. Studies of emergence have added to our understanding of many world disciplines; stock markets depend on emergent theory, the VISA payment depends on emergent theory, as well as our brains depending on emergent theory, emergent studies have contributed to the organization of life, adding to the understanding of the internet, and more recently emergence has contributed to the understanding of urban planning (Johnson, 2002).

Emergence is the act of individual elements interacting and organizing themselves, resulting in a collective intelligence. “Emergence is said to be the properties of a system that cannot be deduced from its components, something more than the sum of its parts”(Weinstock, M., 2004, p.11). Within urban planning, emergence promotes a “bottom-up” approach, producing pragmatic, organic growth of the city.

The theory of emergent urbanism is a relatively new idea that ultimately works towards ridding traditional, dated urban planning from the construc-tion of the urban environment. Complex organisms, such as stock markets, ant colonies and cities successfully regulate many conditions simultaneously and, similar to other complex beings, are capable of naturally self-organizing themselves, acting in the most efficient way (Johnson, 2002). The belief is that the city can simply emerge in a way in which modern planning cannot achieve, through community activism and self-policing a more sustainable way of plan-ning and living can be revealed. (Meckstroth, 2010)

Cities themselves are ultimately built organically and pragmatically around needs of survival, from Egyptians settling on fertile ground, to Londoners populating around the Thames, once one of the busiest trade waterways in the world, to slum settlements arising in developing cities of economic growth of-fering jobs for previously rural residents. In a fast moving world, as architects we need time to reflect on how we practice architecture. Can emergence offer a way of addressing this new urban world?

City planning within these developing countries should be reflective and

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responsive, with the ability to flex, suiting the individual realities and exist-ences that interact in the city. (Hamdi, 2004) Emergence offers informal, self-organizing organization (Johnson, 2002). Allowing seemingly simple decisions in create a complex, overall whole. With a predicted 3 billion future inhabitants of squatter settlements by 2050 (UNHABITAT, 2008), informal settlements are becoming the future urban vernacular for these emerging cities; though vernacular is a term usually used to describe local construction methods spe-cific to place, within an globalised world, construction of slums are of a simple construction using cheap materials, all informal settlements have a similar aesthetic and a practical function. As we move towards an urbanized whole, slum vernacular will become the global vernacular.

Emergence has the potential to address a need for a collectively intelligent community, with positive local level urban implementation of intervention that considers a whole community. For this to be achieved architectural design needs to be combined with participatory design, with feedback from user to architect (Hamdi, 2004). Emergence reintroduces the individual into urban planning. Emergence creates a flexible system that enables entrepreneurial thinking from its inhabitants, emergent planning is the ability to identify these pockets potential energy. (Hamdi, 2004)

In small change, Hamdi describes himself as ‘an architectural acupunc-turist,’ within a given community; Hamdi explores the potential pockets of energies, with the objective of enabling it, acting as a catalyst of growth. ‘... We seek to create an architecture of possibilities...we create the kind of social space where individuals and organizations engage with each other in ways more akin to the behaviour of a living organism rather than any devised systems of plan-ning. We create conditions, in other words, for emergence to take place and, in this respect, search for catalysts.” (Hamdi, 2004, p73)

Hamd talks of one particular example, when asked to create a community centre, Hamdi observed that centres in the surrounding communities went unused. In parallel, Hamdi noted another issue; better access to central markets of the town was required for the community, especially those who worked in the fisheries, needing to sell their produce at the central market. Hamdi real-ized the potential to couple these two problems together, rather than creating a community centre, Hamdi instead installed a new bus stop, re-routing the local bus route to where people gathered to collect water from a water pump. Along with the stop, Hamdi also installed lighting and some trees to provide shade. Having already observed how long people in the area would wait for a bus,

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Hamdi was not surprised when a small market emerged, selling to the peo-ple waiting at the bus stop (Hamdi, 2004).

Once the lights were installed children began to gather there at night to do their homework, traders selling sweets and school stationary were attracted by this new development, again adding to the market economy. The fish sell-ers who originally needed the bus route to reach markets in town to sell fish, started sell fish at the informal market; a reputation began to spread that the impromptu market was a great fish market, bringing buyers of fish to the bus stop. Other small local businesses then began to emerge in the market, real-izing the potential of this new selling environment. One barber, who usually ran a mobile service, started to set up shop in the market, the market provided steady foot flow of customers, meaning he no longer needed to find his cus-tom. Soon the small businesses grouped together, joining the already arranged groups such as the fireman’s committee. These newly organized groups elected a council of community representatives to help secure a new school and to set up a day bank to help encourage more of these small entrepreneurial start ups, as well as supporting the original businesses (Hamdi, 2004).

This small localised intervention is a successful illustration of emergent ideas, by observing the community potential, Hamdi provided something that effected positively on the local community, Hamdi has addressed the short term transport problems, but in doing so has also addressed the issues of poor security and poverty within the area by encouraging small scale organic, de-velopment, with an open plan that didn’t restrict individual intervention of the people. Hamdi planted a seed, which was allowed to grow into a proposal that evolved through the people, “trickling up” from small beginnings through to official organizations and government.

Within the case studies in the next chapters, we see these entrepreneurial initiatives taking place at the local level of a market. Although these are local level decisions and actions, ultimately local decisions work to create the overall whole. Recognizing these architectural opportunities are how architects could implement design proposal into already existing settlements without com-pletely overhauling the communities and structures already in place in squatter communities (Hamdi, 2004).

Slum redevelopments seen in Dharavi show the complete destruction of informal settlements, even the slums that over time have become very sophis-ticated in terms of construction, using materials such as concrete and brick. Arranged in a way that creates pleasant districts within a city, similar to the

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construction seen in the Medina of Marrakech, a city that was enable to grow organically over time (Simpson, 2010), “the richer, subtler, more effective ver-sion of urbanism is the kind that allows cities to mutate and change as time passes, rather than the type that freezes a neighbour hood into a particular form.” (Burdett, R. and Sudjic, D., 2007, p. 11)

Emergent design would be the process of creating a proposal that reenacts how a city organically grows, Alvise Cornaro, a 16th century theorist sug-gests “I won’t tell you how to design a city from scratch as that never happens” (Cornaro, A. Cited in Burdett, R. and Sudjic, D., 2007). This organic, emergent growth is seen throughout a number of different disciplines, including eco-nomics, markets, computer programming and biology.

Johnson talks of the self-organizing nature of ants, ants work collectively in colonies, recent research has shown no one ant has “authority” over another, they have no decision makers, the ants simply work together responding to pheromone traces of neighbouring ants. Through simply decisions they create an ant colony that spatially works well, the layout of the colony is based on survival instincts; the midden, the rubbish tip of the ant colony, is placed as far away from the colony as possible, as is the ant cemetery, which in turn as far away from each other as possible, creating a triangle. No one ant prescribes the shape of he colony (Johnson, 2002). Can we learn from the simple interactions of ants?

The appearance of Manchester is now considered an act of emergence, the population explosion during the second 19th century resulted in a city that simply emerged. The city grew too fast for the authorities to plan any sort of proposal. As discussed in the earlier chapter, there are obvious comparisons with the emergence of Manchester and the current emergence of slum settle-ments through out the developing world. Johnson believes we need to consider the development of these cities “less of a linear narrative and a more intercon-nected web, growing ever more increasingly dense” (Johnson, 2002 p.38).

Mau develops these ideas in his book Massive Change, “In organic urban development, there is no grid; there is only spontaneous juxtaposition and the constant negotiation of boundaries” (Mau, B. and Leonard, J., 2004, p.9). I witnessed these ideas during the case study analysis; markets are examples of flexible, fluctuating urban environments. These communities, have an created an environment for selling and trading, improvising with construction as to what fits best, boundaries are negotiated through communication, understand-ing the variety of needs presented in a market environment.

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Local initiatives, of community based decisions often produces the most effect forms design, however this is often an evolving process, this leads me to believe an enabling long-term participatory design process is needed to address the problems of slums. However it is also important to provide a sustainable architecture that addresses the immediate issues of poverty and vulnerability in poorly designed urban areas, incapable of coping with the mass current influx of people (Hamdi, 2004).

Participatory design will lead to an emerging city form that function to the needs of the inhabitants. The needs of the individual are what usually lack in the prescriptive, dated forms of urban planning, in particular the modernist utopias seen at the beginning of the 20th century. The Le Corbusier modernist ideals are the polar opposite of emergent design.

“The right angle is the essential and sufficient implement of action, because it enables us to determine space with an absolute exactness” (Corbusier, 1971, p.19)

Emergence would create an opposing approach to the “top-down” Modern-ist ideals, in particular Corbusier’s use of the right angle. In complete contrast, emergent theory advocates a “bottom-up” approach to urban planning, which induces unintentional organic design, simply an organization of boundaries (Mau, B. and Leonard, J. 2004.). Emergence revolves around the individual hu-man decision, our individual human decisions are not based on the right angle.

Taking the market as an example, our individual decisions are far from right angled, we take into account an array of variables, product placement, our neighbours needs and the type of product, to take such a sweeping approach simply doesn’t work for the individual, which ultimately doesn’t work for the collective whole.

Even the archetypal architectural drawing, the plan, takes a top down ap-proach. An architectural plan can only arrange the city in a aesthetic shape, loosing the individual interactions (Coates, 2003). We need to take a new perspective on design, based the individual, working outwards. “Plans and even buildings emerge only among other things. Among the tangles of desires and discourse that comprise the human drama, inceptive to what becomes a city.” (Coates, 2003 p. 31) Coates is describing the singular dramas that affect a human life; these are the actions that ultimately shape our cities.

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Some successful schemes (although smaller in scale) have began to appear in Europe, that benefit the existing urban fabric, examples include; YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard), a group based in Stockholm that advocates individual positive intervention in an urban environment. The groups use the Internet to organize themselves, as well as using online forums to communicate. The group also uses blogging as a way of keeping people informed of developments in their local area, keeping a sense of community.

Another interesting group utilizing the collective nature of the Internet is FixMyStreet, a UK based initiative where a mass of individual input creates a large knowledge base of current local issues for the government to take positive action. Looking through the website the problems range from damaged roads to complaints of waste. These simple interventions work extremely well for the communities they serve, the site acts as a forum for people who would usually feel disconnected from their government. These are small interventions that work well, however there seems a problem with scaling up emergent theories to cover a broader scope in urban planning. These are similar to the mass demonstrations in Glasgow, through many individual actions; a message slowly trickles up, through to government organizations to make change.

Emergence in Parametrics

“One of the most interesting, if not the most interesting, questions is how computational work in architecture is directly engaged with ‘life problems’ – not the classical life problems of how to build a pleasant shelter for a body, but the complex problem of how to understand the complexity of the world in which life lives and how to make or remake that world in light of this complex-ity.” (Ingraham, cited by Holloway, 2009 p. 49)

Recently there have been the beginnings of explorations into the poten-tial of emergent theory when applied to architectural planning coupled with computer-based parametrics. The individual dramas of life are missing from the sleek computer render; the individual humanity is absence in the computer imagery. (Delanda, 2009)

Emergence and the use of parametric design programmes are very closely linked. Both are based around micro decisions contributing to the macro whole, however to be successful, emergent design needs to consider the social aspects, not simply act as a prescriptive design, similar to the unsuccessful modernist utopia of the early 20th Century (Hamdi, 2004)

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One example is the Bartlett’s centre for advanced spatial analysis (CASA) directed by Michael Batty, currently Batty is creating a ‘Digital Breeder for de-signing cities’. Using simple computer programs, he designs new urban forms using particles that obey at the least two rules or forces, such as considering scales of economy, and the desire for space. (Batty, 2009)

By manipulating the parameters of the program, by adding in forces that could represent terrain, wind, areas of attraction, Batty claims you can create any city form imaginable. The result being a city model that can be analyzed, enabling you to work towards the best working models. These successful model parameters could be imitated, breeding these cities in real life urban environ-ments (Batty 2009).

However Digital theorist are already recognizing the limits of these sorts of simulations, for instance Neil Leach, an advocate of emergent urbanism cites an e-mail from Manuel DeLanda, Associate Professor at Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University who raises the issue of timescales in simulations; ‘...for the timescale typical of the duration of a construction project (say, a few years) norms and regulations can be modeled as given and unchanging; for longer timescales (say, the evolution of land-use succession in a city over many decades) the norms themselves must be allowed to change’ (2009, p.55).

Jane Jacobs, had already realized the close relationship between individual choice and the city form “…the look of things and the way they work are inextricably bound together” (Jacobs, J., 1961, p.14) For me, this is one of most interesting ideas for urban planning, by creating prescriptive design you are telling people how to live, where more successful urban environments emerge out of people creating homes that work for their individual needs, with the ne-gotiation of boundaries when two differing needs meet, adding to the collective intelligence. (Johnson, 2002)

“…All of nature’s complex systems are at their most creative when they are delicately poised between fixedness and unfixedness - poised at the edge of chaos.” (Zoha, D., 1997, cited in Hamdi, N., 2004, p.17) The problem as realized by Hamdi is‘...how much structure do we design before the structure itself in-terrupts the natural process of emergence?’ (Hamdi, 2004, p. 73) Too much and the residents cannot use the space for their varying needs, the design becomes inhibiting. Not enough and the project slides into chaos failing to address the

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issues it was intended to (Hamdi, 2010).

In particular within an emerging city, can we realistically work with each individual inhabitant? Can we offer a system of self-build, something that is already apparent in slum settlements, although it seems currently self build in developing countries are stipulated by cost, the cheapest way of construction best form of construction. If a slum settlement is destroyed, it is simply rebuilt again. Investment into upgrading slums could be needed, supplying materials of a higher quality as well as educating inhabitants to achieve a higher build quality, this could possibly be the most effective way of coupling emergent theory with urban planning.

Implementation is also a problem with emergence; emergence is almost a reflective act, being able to reflect on a process and calling it emergence, to create emergence seems difficult. Is emergence simply a new means of urban understanding or does it have the potential for complete urban implementa-tion, creating plans and interventions designed to flex, based around micro decisions, creating a working whole? Could these theories be applied to this new urban environment that is growing at an alarming rate?

An architectural proposal based on emergence would simply be a minimal plan, with only a few small designed proposals. With the rest of the plan empty, enabling space for local intervention. A blend of the forward thinking planning combined with emergent theory could be much successful, this would mean a participatory designprocess. Leading to a much more tangible form of emer-gent design, involving the individuals who are going to directly effect the urban environment that is being created for them.

In the future as seen in the examples from Mexico in the chapter before, this could lead to the emergence of a new breed of cities, built on a network of intentionally designed self-organizing systems, where change and adaptation are welcomed and common place. This type of combination design practice has been seen in such forms in the case study markets.

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CASE STUDY MARKETSChapter Four

_______________________________________________________________

Joseph M Brown

08069417

January 2011

U30099

Through my research of emergence, it became apparent one of the main examples of emergent theory is the stock market, through micro interactions and decisions, an up-to-date, accurate market value is given to product, this accurate evaluation is only achieved once many people (the micro decisions) have decided the value (Mau, B. and Leonard, J. 2004).

This led me to consider how the individual actions within a traditional mar-ket might contribute to the overall market whole. In particular how traditional markets are a tangible example of emergence. Unlike any theoretical studies of emergence or any large-scale urban studies of emergence, where it is difficult to comprehend the overall whole, especially at city scale, a market offers an in-habitable environment based around the ideas of emergence. This intrigue was furthered after reading Hamdi’s experiences of inventive, local uses of spaces, discussed in the earlier chapter, this type of practical, functional intelligence are abundant in a market environment.

Market environments are also discussed in “Massive Change,” markets are described as existing in the “zone between chaos and order, where living sys-tems thrive” (Mau, B. and Leonard, J. 2004). “The public spaces of the city are the sites for exchange of goods and transactions that sustain urban economies throughout the world” (Burdett, R. and Sudjic, D., 2007, p.348). For me, the most interesting markets are the “informal” markets, however this is normally an imposed definition, these markets are called informal as they are not part of any pre arranged scheme or plan, they normally appear in spaces that are traditional designed for public circulation. Innovate; entrepreneurial thinking develops void spaces into bustling environments.

“The public spaces of the city are the sites for exchange of goods and trans-actions that sustain urban economies throughout the world” (Burdett, R. and Sudjic, D., 2007, p.348). Markets offer a system in which individual actions can take place, each combining to create an overall whole, the market. Each market trader is allocated a specific plot within a flexible grid; market traders arrive, set up and sell goods. The market is only created once all individual parts are assembled. A market offers a system of fluctuating conditions, able to shift and distort itself based on the interactions of traders, sellers and place.

The market acts much like a micro city, using Kevin Lynchs (1959) four elements of the city Paths, Edges, Districts, Nodes and Landmarks, can be described in The Image of a City, I wanted to demonstrate how the market and the city act in surprisingly similar ways. The purpose to take markets as a prec-

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edent for urban planning, are their ways in which markets are planned that. Markets can be held as an example for urban planning, an example of emergent actions, addressing the current needs for urban growth.

Paths, one of the more obvious comparisons, are the routes that appear between market stalls, Lynch talks of “major access route” (Lynch, 1959, p.50) a characteristic found in most markets, which spatially most smaller tributaries run off.

Edges, “the linear elements not considered as paths, they are usually, but not always, the boundaries between areas” (Lynch, 1959, p.62). Within a market the edges are often the boundary between stalls, of the boundary of the market itself.

Districts become the zones in which markets can be divided into, food or clothes or brick-a-brack. Described by Lynch, as large “areas that the observer can enter into, normally with a consistent, similar character” (Lynch, 1959, p.65) again within a market this character could be the aesthetic of the stall, or the products on sale.

Nodes are typically junctions in paths, or concentrations of people at one given point, within a city, these can become large communal squares, or junc-tions of commuter routes, when this is scaled down to a market size, these become the junctions of routes and paths within the market stalls. It is also possible to identity these slightly more expansive areas within a market, almost void space which can often become a point of potential interaction of people, some examples can be seen in the case studies to follow (Lynch, 1959).

Landmarks, we use landmarks to orientate ourselves within a city, typically within a city these are objects that differ in scale to the urban fabric, or our unique to the city. The key physical characteristic of a landmark is it singular-ity; it needs to be memorable, unique in its environment. Within a market, this is the most difficult element to indentify, however it can take the shape in number of different ways, usually it is part of the existing landscape or urban fabric, such as a statue or entrance way (Lynch, 1959).

Using this array of elements I will analyze how several case study markets work, or do not work, in relation to emergent behavior. This will lead to a larger comparison of how this may be implemented within urban planning in areas of high urbanization.


DEPTFORDCase Study Market 1

Fig. 3_Deptford Market Location

The first case study market is Deptford Market, oddly is where the thinking for this dissertation began. Deptford itself is situated in Sout-East London, a ten-minute train journey from The City, the financial capital of the UK. Dept-ford is the 11th most deprived district of London, with only 3% of its inhabit-ants employed within the Deptford borough (TfL, 2009). What this leads to is an area that during the day is depleted, as commuters leave for work, though this leads to a contrasting, thriving weekend.

Deptford Market, is held Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, however on Wednesday the amount and variety of stalls is much smaller, with Saturday being the busiest day of trading, traders realize Saturday is the best opportunity to sell goods. The market as a whole sells a large variety of items, ranging from small goods, such as small garments and small items of crockery, through to much larger items such as wardrobes and chests.

During market days, Deptford market almost acts as an extension to Deptford’s existing High Street, many shops simply extend their products onto pavement directly in front of the permanent street stores. This creates some interesting negotiation of boundaries, with some market stalls set up in front of shop, this is one aspect of Deptford market that doesn’t work spatially. As you leave one shop you are faced with the back of the market stalls, this creates a narrow alley between shop front and market stall. This is a result of the foreign markets invading the high street, this doesn’t create conflict though, as all trad-ers, both market and shop realize the economic benefits the market brings.

The two market squares accommodate a whole new set of stalls, not obvi-ously affiliated with any high street shop, spatially this works much more suc-cessfully, transforming two usually void spaces into bustling, lively districts of trade.

The Landmark of the market is the mural painted on the far wall of the market as well as the Albany centre, a centre of community-based theatre, which sits next to the market. The Albany centre works in conjunction with the market, during dry periods, on none market days, it takes advantage of the open space the market leaves behind. The Albany produce outdoor plays, this is a creative, unplanned use of space, again highlighting the advantages of pro-ducing flexible design, teamed with creative, community led initiatives.

Mainly self-regulated, apart form a single passive market inspector who


takes a laissez-faire attitude towards enforcing any kind of market rules, it is almost entirely self-organized, this became more apparent after several visits to the market.

Before visiting the market itself, I visited Deptford on a “none market day”. The market square was an odd place, simply two void spaces, straddling the main Deptford high street, absent of people, apart from the odd passerby, mainly walking from the high street to the car. However there were several signs that this was a market square, a grid was painted on the floor in yellow paint, every other market stall space had a electric outlet, in the shape of a heavy duty bollard, every other market space was divided by a tall lamppost. It seemed obvious what form the market might during market days.

However on my first visit to Deptford Market, I realized this was not how the market in reality worked, the pre-conceived grid was unseen when the market was installed, through simple boundary negotiation traders had self organized the whole market plan, traders with larger items were given more space, with traders of small items given smaller spaces, in more prominent sell-ing places.

What has emerged is self organized districts, divided into produce and products. The larger items are placed towards the sides of the market where space is available, whereas the smaller items occupy the centre of the market, enabling people to move around the smaller tables. The layout is self-regulated, not conforming to the prescriptive market grid, this type of self-serving adapt-ability acts towards the markets advantage. The open system created paths and districts of the market dynamics change day to day, depending on the stalls and their needs.

Markets are made up of a collect of people who are working together towards one goal, to sell their products. This uniting goal means a support-ive community is created. During my visits to Deptford market, I constantly witnessed market traders informing others, for example, one market trader warned another of fake money. Traders worked together, changing money between them cashing large notes for smaller change.

The stalls themselves are an example of creative thinking, a simple metal frame is clad in a water proof fabric, mainly tarpaulin, however some traders had substituted tarpaulin for more colour fabric, which is then simply pulled and clipped. This system could be adapted to changing weather too, during dry



Fig. 4_Deptford Market acting as an extension to the High Street

periods the tarpaulin would wrap around the back of the markets, creating a make shift back drop to the products, whereas during rain, the material could be stretched across the top of the stall protecting products from the rain. I noticed the same clips in Deptford, Strood and Marrakech. The make up of the stalls is in itself an emergent process, the simple construction, based on indi-vidual needs can product a stall adequate for a vast number of traders, all from a simple base set of materials, a metal frame, tarpaulin and durable metal clips.


Fig. 5_Variety of goods in Dept-


STROODCase Study Market 2


Fig. 6_Strood Market Location

Strood, a small town in the south east of the UK, Strood is one of six towns that form to create the unitary authority called The Medway Towns. Strood Market it located approximately 200 metres away from Rochester town centre, a town with a rich history and a strong tourist pull due to the link between Rochester and Charles Dickens. Strood and Rochester sit well together, each gaining custom from the other, with many visitors to Rochester often visiting the Strood Market.

In aesthetic terms, Strood market is very similar to Deptford market, if somewhat more regulated and slightly less self organized. Generally, the stalls sell branded or hand made products that carry a higher price tag than the Deptford products.

The stalls are set out in a strict grid, based on the car park markings that the market sits on. In contrast to the other markets, Strood market is easy to navi-gate. The stalls are regimented in their layout, with only one large butcher van occupying a larger selling area. Due to the clear navigation of Strood market, it lacks any form of nodes of activity where people congregate; the distribution of people is spread evenly throughout the market.

The Strood stalls are of a similar size and same simple construction to the market stalls seen in Deptford, made of steel frames, with a tarpaulin cover attached with metal clips. The stalls are not divided into districts, each trader is given a prearranged amount of space, and this has lead to a slightly stale feel to the market with each stall with a similar aesthetic and size, unlike the juxtapos-ing stalls seen in Deptford.

Through conversation it is revealed the market often changes, only being held monthly the traders who arrive to trade can often change, this is why the grid system had been created, traders arrive on the market day and are given a pre determined plot, this had resulted in a lack of community spirit that was seen in the other case study markets, this due to the fact time had not been given for relationships to grow, when time is allowed trust begin as seen in Deptford, breeding a self regulating based on the needs of traders.

In relation to the other case study markets, Strood market is the youngest, only being held for the past 5 years. The market was part of a redevelopment scheme created by Medway council in an attempt to increase community spirit. The fact that Strood market was implemented, instead of emerged, also places it in complete contrast to the other case study markets that have been allowed


to evolve other time.

Strood Market lacks the flexible system seen in the other market case stud-ies, which has led to a lack of entrepreneurial instinct as the system inhibits the traders, this is the type of other designed self-system that Hamdi talks of (Hamdi, 2004).


Fig. 7_Strood Market grid form

MARRAKECHCase Study Market 3

Fig. 8_Marrakech Medina Location

The main trading district within Marrakech are the traditional Souks, souks are traditional markets native to North Africa, souks are comparative to the traditional English market or high street serving both the inhabitants of Mar-rakech and the many visiting tourists, supplying both day to day amenities as well as more high end purchases such as robes and carpets. The souks are lo-cated within the old part of the city; the old part of the city is easily identifiable by the tall city wall that encompasses the old fortified city, more commonly known as the Medina. The city wall forms the edge of the market environment.

The centralized Medina of Marrakech operates much like an amplified market; the districts of trade become obvious within a few attempts of navigat-ing the narrow alleyways. The districts are divided into produce areas; Souk Zarbia selling Tapis (Carpets), Souk Sebbaghine selling Teinturiers (Dyers), Souk Hadadine selling Fer (Iron work), Souk Kassabine selling Epices (Spices), Souk Cherratine, Tannuers (where leather tanning takes place), Souk el Kebir selling Cuir (Leather), Souk Smarine selling Textiles (Cloth), Souk Laghzal sell-ing Laine (Wool).

In the Medina traders improvise as to what is best, a corrugated steel sheet-

ing for roofing, hanging items they wish to sell in limited space, being proac-tive and creative in their use of space. Any space is a space to sell from, an example found, is what appears to be a make-shift door of a subterranean store cupboard. When opened, reveals itself to be in fact a well-established grocery vendor, selling a variety of modern amenities, such as toiletries and branded food items.

For the vendor, this is a system that works well, people arrive at the open door (the open door itself acts as a marker to the stores entrance) and simply ask for the groceries they need, similar to how grocery stores began in the UK. Stores that are inaccessible to browse (self-service) save drastically on floor space, in an area of very high density. The type of store also reduces the possi-bility of theft considerably, in a thriving area where there is a heavy foot flow.

As well as making the store easy to manage, it also means the vendor cre-ates a rapport with his customers, adding to the community atmosphere that is obvious within the Medina. Market traders interact constantly with their neighbours, at any given opportunity, such as a slow down in trade, after talk-ing to one kiosk owner it became obvious why the traders had such a good relationship.



Fig. 9_Improvised selling locations

Fig. 10_Jamaa El Fna, market “square”


Within the Medina, at another node of activity, a square where children play ball games, an older child had begun to sell sweets from a cardboard box. It became apparent that the boy sells sweets for the owner of the subterranean kiosk.

One trader of leather goods (bags, shoes etc), has a market space with a minute floor plan, almost the size of an alcove, however his leather goods are displayed high above our heads. A small hatch, leads to where any surplus stock is kept. The trader uses a long stick with a hook of the end to quickly and efficiently pulls down any items that buyers might be interested in.

The trader describes how the kiosks are family run businesses that are often passed down through generation. He reminisces of how he grew up in and around the kiosk itself, he tells me his father passed the shop on to him after his father was no longer able to work. The trader explains; “we all work togeth-er, we understand that a pleasant environment to browse goods might make people more willing to buy, this is our livelihood, and whether my family eats depends on successful trade.”

As with all markets, the negotiation of boundaries is crucial, especially in areas where no real boundary infrastructure is provided. This is apparent in the Souk Cherratine or the Souk Laine, where the produce is simply arranged on the floor, similar to what was seen in Deptford. These markets are even more self-regulated and self-organized than the Deptford Market, no market inspec-tor is employed to check trading or enforce laws, the only market authority provides information and tour guides for visitors, this is located at an easy to reach point, just off of Djemaa El Fna, the main node of interaction.

Interestingly, as the Marrakech Medina has become more tourist led, the Souk Cherratine has moved further and further from the central tourist souks. This is due to the pungent smell that is emitted when tanning leather. This is an example of the market adapting to suit the needs of the market whole.

Due to the severe lack of landmarks within the souks, most tourists become lost or simply amble their way through until where arrive at an open space within the outer Medina. The Market traders realize the most populated routes, selling on these paths; where as the more residential routes are left empty.

The busiest node in the Medina is Jamaa El Fna, an irregular space towards the heart of the Medina. This space is an example of an adaptable space that

enables individuals to sell a variety of goods, dependent on time. During the day, the square is populated with informal traders, mainly selling water, as well as the professional storytellers selling their stories. At night the square trans-forms and reminds me of Strood Market, a regular grid appears where out door eateries appear.

This is very unlike the rest of the trading within the medina. After investiga-tion it becomes apparent that the reason for this grid is the high price placed on the space. Traders can make a sizable income from tourist trade; this led to an unwritten understanding that all stalls would be of a similar size. A self-organizing committee arranges the space that will only change when a space within the grid becomes available, a good example of emergent practice.


Fig. 11_Corrugated steel used as shelter

LAGOSCase Study Market 4

Fig. 12_Lagos Market Sprawl

Unlike the other case study markets, this is the only market I did not experience, first hand, basing most of my findings on the BBC documentary, “Welcome to Lagos” (Searle, 2010).

In contrast the other case study markets, in Lagos, the edge between market and city is very blurred. Opportunities for selling have cropped up in the most unlikely of places; the city has become so overcrowded any empty space seems to have been converted into an opportunity to sell. The districts, paths and landmarks have become so entwined, nodes have become so tightly packed to-gether, they have become vast expanses of activity, it is difficult to piece togeth-er an overall idea of space, there are no market preconceived market spaces, the city is a homogenous organ.

The slums and the market have merged to become one entity. The Slum has grown organically due to simple rules; any new inhabitants pay an £80 fee to have a shelter fabricated from scrap wood and tarpaulin. The shelters are named “little tents’ and are adaptable, purpose built structures changing to the needs of individual families. The shelters can be easily added to or changed due to the simple construction method (Searle, 2010).

The slum town contains shops for families on a budget, a cinema (showing recent releases), a small Christian church as well as a sports centre. A young woman who recently moved into a slum, due to her husband finding work at the construction site, sells phone cards for the public pay phone located at the end of the beach (Searle, 2010). Selling phone cards is a very successful as many people in the slums use the public pay phones, as more people arrive in the shanty town, more people need access to the public phone near the shanty town, thus the young woman’s business expands as the community expands. She is now at a point where she can finance a small extension to her house that now acts as a shop to sell her phone cards from (Searle, 2010), an example of clever entrepreneurial thinking.

Another particular example of entrepreneurial survival instinct, featured in “Welcome to Lagos”, is the Oluwainshola cattle market and slaughter yard. The location of Lagos made it a suitable location cattle selling, catering for herd-ers from the surrounding towns and areas; the market grew rapidly as Lagos expanded, with herders coming from Cameroon, South Sudan, Chad, as well as the rest of Western Africa. People began to gather in the area around the cattle market, seeing an opportunity to earn a living. The cattle industry has now



Fig. 13_Butcher working at the Lagos Cattle Market

Fig. 14_The Lagos Bus Markets


become one of Lagos’ main forms of employment, with cow wranglers and cattle brokers supplementing the already strong job opportunities of construc-tion (Searle, 2010).

The cattle market itself sits parasitically on the underside of the “Third mainland bridge,” one of Lagos most impressive engineering feats (Searle, 2010). The overhanging structure of the bridge acts as a rain or sun cover, the smooth concrete foundations act as washable surface for the slaughter of meat, that can easily be washed, but can also act as a selling area once the meat has been processed. Once the cows have been sold, they are taken straight to the slaughter slab, adjacent to the market, to be sold on as meat. The meat is sold as it is cut, with nothing going to waste; the stomach contents are used as ferti-lizer, the hooves are sold to shoe makers, the horns are used in the manufacture of TV aerials, the blood in the manufacture of chicken feed, processed only metres away from the market, everything makes money for someone (Searle, 2010).

The documentary introduces Gabriel, the man who makes money from left over blood, Gabriel’s realization of this opportunity is an example of creative and cunning survival instinct. On first coming to the market he realized that all the blood was becoming waste, washing into the drains. Having studied ag-riculture school he knew cow’s blood could be used as fertilizer or as a supple-ment to chicken feed. Gabriel now collects blood from the concrete slaughter slabs and processes it in large oil drums over burning tyres (both found within the dump) to produce the product, sold on for a relatively high price (Searle, 2010).

Whilst the market and slaughterhouse operates under the Third mainland bridge, above, at peak times, the yellow buses of Nigeria swamp the roads; a 12-mile queue can form along the bridge, one of the main routes into the busi-ness district of Lagos. To the opportunist people of Lagos this is an opportunity to make money. Vendors walk the traffic queue, selling a variety of goods, the traffic has become their trading area, the sitting traffic are potential custom-ers. This is self-organizing market, however it is not the usual market we have seen so far in the case studies, the paths and districts are constantly changing, varying with the traffic flow, this is a truly adaptable, emergent system (Hamdi, 2004).

CONCLUSION

Chapter Five_______________________________________________________________

Joseph M Brown

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January 2011

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From researching these case studies, in most examples, such as Deptford and Marrakech, it has been revealed the entrepreneurial spirit drives the self-organizing potential; the potential that Hamdi believes breeds strong commu-nities (2004). Within Deptford and Marrakech, these entrepreneurial interven-tions have been given time to adapt in a flexible system.

In most cases trust between market traders is needed to self regulate the market system. Trust can only be built up over time, this is a reoccurring fac-tor that has become apparent when researching both slums and markets. Time is crucial to allow these environments to develop; however in such a rapidly developing environment it makes it difficult to build up trust.

Through this process of reviewing emergent theory in relation to market dynamics, I have begun to question the limitations of emergent theory, as well as the emerging role of the architect.

Architects are constantly looking for theoretical ideas or theoretical ideals to substantiate their design process; we constantly look for reassurance, in an industry based on speculation, we need this reassurance to convince others our designs are relevant or practical. Emergence dictates such an open system it removes the need for an architect, or at least an architect in the traditional sense. It almost advocates the architect becoming a sort of design consultant, to enable existing communities to develop, adding wealth to their communities that could ultimately change their own urban environments with investment into the right aspects.

In relation to urban planning, I still find markets an interesting precedent, however it is difficult to apply the ideas of such a temporary environment to such a permanent structure such as a city. A market successfully produces an architecture that is specific to individual needs as well as being adaptable to changing variables.

With time, problems with architectural design become apparent. Meaning an architecture that has been given time to adapt will work more successfully than a prescribed design based on speculative changes. This evolving process is the contradiction of architecture, leading me to believe the role of the archi-tect is changing.

conclusion_40

What the architect is becoming is difficult to specify, however it is my belief architects need to engage themselves more. Taking some responsibil-ity from current wealth of town planners, development theorists, economists, anthropologists and various Non Government Organizations and charities that currently engage with this emerging urban environment. Perhaps the role of the architect is hybrid of all these requirements, a manager of these processes.

Emergence needs to produce architecture of substance, not superficial ideologies that fail in practice, similar to the results of other theories such as modernism. Emergence does seem to offer a system that avoids removing slum communities, which in practical terms is not feasible, but also produces many quality of life problems in the upheaval of the millions of people already enduring hardships in slum communities. Further evolving these slum settle-ments instead of removing them would add value to their environments.

To me, it seems the slum is the future vernacular, I question whether as a profession we can keep up with the urban growth that is predicted for the next 50 years. Architects may have to become simply the manager of an already unfolding process. We need to understand that cities at a raw level are predominantly pragmatically built around needs, emergent theory seems to have potential to address these issues. Application of emergent theory has the potential to create a system for cities to expand organically and sustainably. Encouraging the survival instincts.

However to materialize these ideas into an architectural plan or proposal is the difficulty, through this study I have realized the term emergence is almost always applied to past consequences, emergence is a label for what has gone before or current processes. To plant the seed of emergence is a much more illusive.

This again leads me back to the organization of markets, all markets oper-ate on a flexible system specific to place and individual, can we take some precedent from these systems? Instead of designing a city form, can we design a city system that encourages entrepreneurial individuality, promoting com-munity spirit? Though market dynamics will not solve the problems of over urbanization it shows an ability for us to practically manage an already unfold-ing process.

conclusion_41

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Emergent Urbanism

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