Jaime Lerner is an architect and the ex-mayor of Curitiba, Brazil. He has an innate understanding of how cities work. He is also a member of the board at the World Resource Institute, something I never heard of until 2021 and it has been around for 39 years trying to figure out ‘resources’.
I first heard of Lerner when he gave a talk about his time as Mayor of Curitiba at the British Film Institute, London. He discussed his methods of reinvigorating his city with a number of fast policies, too quick for complaints and efficient enough for the benefits to be felt immediately. He emphasised speed in change. Incidentally, speed is how most invasions are successful.
Curitiba, like most organically built-up cities, had a traffic problem. Lerner’s team worked over a weekend to turn roads into pavements in the centre. A huge project that required speed, 24-hour continuous labour, and good planning. When Monday came around, shops saw a greater influx of customers on foot. There was no opportunity to complain about the vanishing roads because the benefits were immediate.
Curitiba’s introduction of a ‘speedy bus’ system, and elongating the centre from the usual circular nucleus to a line of centres revitalised Curitiba by reaching the wider community.
Cars and roads used to be a bridge for commerce. However, the more cars in built-up areas, the more this mode of transport becomes a blockage, either creating a barrier for pedestrians or slowing down and isolating each individual that sits alone in their car. Cars have become the regressive element in flourishing cities.
But what of those areas that are losing their population altogether?
The problem is not occupied spaces for Lerner but unoccupied spaces. In ‘Urban Acupuncture’ an empty building threatens to break the continuity of city life. The break in this continuity can become much more troublesome to restore if it’s left abandoned and neglected. Lerner argues these spaces should be filled immediately with temporary markets, and pop-up stores to continue the life of the city.
I think about this when I live in Dundee. I am aware of the empty buildings and the damage they are doing to this city every day they are left vacant. I think about the H&S issues stopping any action to make these buildings part of society again. Bureaucracy is money, health and safety become paperwork and someone, somewhere is getting paid. If they don’t get money, nothing happens and a hole appears in the neighbourhood, leeching outward.
To keep a community’s vitality is to keep buildings occupied, using different methods to promote social interaction. A colleague commented on a local marketplace in Dundee that had been shut down years ago, as we drove past the complex with a roof caving in. He felt saddened by the loss of community he felt in that market.
The Tay River is the most breathtaking site in Dundee. Building works have begun to create spaces for people to spend time at the waterfront. The introduction of the V&A museum and a larger garden and cafe layout provides the space for people, not just in the pursuit of consumerism (as a busy shopping street might provide) but just to be with each other.
However, the 4-lane motorway offramp cuts off direct pedestrian access to the water. The large body of water is further dissected by a stone wall, with no pier or effort to engage dynamically the Tay. These become invisible barriers, creating a feeling of being locked off and contained. Despite this criticism, the gardens have come a long way from the derelict vacant plots that were keeping pedestrians away from the sight of water altogether.
There is hope that post-pandemic will make these areas so socially buzzing spaces that the old market had been. Since Covid, people have become starved of each other’s company. Perhaps when lockdown ends people will find more attraction in spending time with each other, outside, instead of jumping in their cars to reach some far off ‘business park’ to buy endless things.
‘Urban Acupuncture” Jaime Lerner https://www.amazon.co.uk/Urban-Acupuncture-Jaime-Lerner/dp/1610917278