The Way we Shape Cities, Shapes us
Currently, the global population of people living in cities outnumbers the global rural population, with experts predicting that these numbers will continue to rise in the coming decades. In light of this trend, it is important to understand what these places are, how we influence them, and how they influence us — as we have become an urban species.
A city is defined as “a large human settlement”, where almost every aspect of our lives takes place within a built, human-made environment. When we were a nomadic species, we had no fixed location due to the scarcity of resources and were relocating because of changing seasons and food availability.
Now that we have settled in cities, thanks to agricultural advancements, we have developed systems for sharing resources and living collectively. This process of city-building has been refined over centuries, but that doesn’t mean the cities of today are the product of continuous improvements. We must question the process of design, who it was intended for, and how it has impacted people and the environment.
Source: Arch Daily. City Street in Montreal, Canada, Redeveloping Space to Serve Pedestrians, Greenery, and Cyclists.
How we Shaped our Cities
Although cities are home to millions of people, the central subject of urban planning 50+ years ago, wasn’t to serve the public. Rather, it was capitalistic interests that have manifested into tall office buildings and car-centric infrastructure, outweighing human interests.
This reflected a specific lifestyle, mainly the male “breadwinner” who commutes to their nine to five office job and back. While cities were developing, they did not prioritize the lifestyles of mothers or children, making the way they move in a city complicated, unsafe, and undesirable.
How our Cities have Shaped us
The error in building cities around the interests of capital and the working man rather than everyone has shaped our lifestyle, mental and physical health, social life, and even our identity. This demonstrates that cities have a people-to-place relationship, with many Canadian cities having shaped people to be isolated, broke, and unwell.
As such, the way our homes were placed has determined how we live, the streets that were built have affected how we move, and the available green spaces have influenced how we socialize and play.
Isolated and Broke.
Suburban sprawl — the rapid expansion of low-dense housing, commercial development, and roads over large areas of land — increases our reliance on private transportation by car.
The consequence of the uncontrolled growth of Canadian suburbs sees the average Canadian spending 800 hours a year in their car. This increases a sense of social isolation because of lost time and distance to people and activities.
The effects of sprawled cities don’t just cost us our mental health, but also our pockets. It’s estimated the average Canadian spends about $740 a month on one vehicle, including fuel, maintenance, and insurance, totaling approximately $8,880 a year.
For example, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the population has grown by 30% since 1970. Though, the built area has grown more than double that. This means Winnipeggers are spending more time in their cars, more money on maintenance, and experiencing more social isolation.
Source: Winnipeg Free Press. Winnipeg in 1970 in yellow, compared to Winnipeg in 2015.
Unwell and Unleisurely.
Accessible green space in both large and medium-sized Canadian cities has decreased by 77% between 2001 and 2019. This is mainly because of increases in urban populations resulting in the sprawls building of single-family housing and road infrastructure to accommodate these rises.
While green spaces turn into parking lots, so do opportunities to increase our physical activity, improve our mental health, and decrease stress. Additionally, we are losing accessible spaces that encourage positive social interactions and social cohesions that could help solve isolation caused by suburban sprawl.
The Parkland Strategy Preliminary Report says Toronto has approximately 28 m² of green space per person, which is about the width of a mid-sized tree. Due to population growth, this number is expected to decrease to 21 m² per person if the city continues to under-prioritize green spaces.
How we can Shape Cities, for the Better
The examples above are just surface-level cases that demonstrate the ways in which the built environment shapes those who live there. Joseph Rykwert, author of The Seduction of the Place reflects this in his work, writing “we cannot tinker with our cities without making some adjustment to society as well — or vice versa”.
Rykwert’s work suggests that we can repair the social problems faced by Canadians in urban cities by adjusting the places that they live. In good news, this adjustment process has already begun in Canada, with a number of municipalities showing leadership in active transportation, placemaking, and urban density.
Vancouver’s Bike Network Improves Health and Business.
The City of Vancouver launched the Separated Bicycle Lanes (SBL) Program in 2009, starting with constructing the Burrard Bridge cycle lane — a high-traffic city bridge.
By 2010, three additional separated bike lanes opened on major routes, connecting the city’s west end to downtown and east Vancouver, increasing the number of bike trips by 40% and resulting in:
Decrease of collision rates between cyclists and vehicles at 17%
Increased local business revenue and attracting new international markets
Decreased load on the healthcare system due to increased physical activity and positive mental health.
Source: Vancouver Bike Guide. Cyclists and pedestrians commuting in the Burrard Bridge cycle lane.
Montreal “Makes Room” for Neighbourhood Interaction and Mental Well-Being.
In recent years, Montreal has created mini-urban projects in underused or abandoned public spaces, in an attempt to foster a sense of place and belonging for residents.
This is also known as placemaking, which creates “places” in public spaces to transform and strengthen the connection between people and the environment. It usually focuses on community-specific needs and heavily relies on public participation.
The overall aim is to help rehumanize the city by attracting people to a low-traffic area using interventions, such as installations, art, lights, colour, and outdoor furniture.
Local non-profit La Pépinière, who “create[s] and manage unifying places at the heart of neighbourhood life” developed an interdisciplinary team of researchers to confirm what emerges from these vibrant sites.
When asked, words like “conviviality, warmth, good, space, relaxation, joy, sharing, family, pleasure, and community” were most common amongst the 252 surveyed respondents. La Pépinière has disclosed that the participants did not explicitly mention mental health in their survey, though their responses are “all the factors that protect our mental health.”
As such, their study indicates that placemaking leads people to interact and take an interest in one another and their environment.
Source: La Pépinière. Children playing in The Winter Laboratory, a placemaking project that aims to break winter isolation and promote physical activity and local shopping.
As civilization continues to develop in urban spaces, it will both influence and be influenced by our cities.
To create more positive influence, decision-makers must incorporate human interests and needs into the built environment - with equal consideration for everyone.
It’s in all of our powers to transform cities, so let’s keep shaping them for the better.
We’ll all be better for it.
