Compact Cities - Teoria e História da Cidade - Home

Part One
urban sprawl and policies of containment, and introduces research into the core of
cities and their metropolitan regions. He suggests a model based on travel time as
a means of comparing the sustainability of different cities. Carmona takes the
regional issues of centralisation and decentralisation a step further, in the context
of Latin American cities. She analyses processes driven by globalisation and
shows how decentralisation can be partly reversed if the global markets favour a
particular urban region.
The rapid spread of urbanisation to absorb peripheral agricultural land is
analysed by Clark and Tsai. Doubts are raised about the effectiveness of policies
for containment, as these do not appear to improve agricultural productivity, or
lead to better urban living conditions. To be effective, strict enforcement to
protect land and high investment to purchase land or development rights would
be needed—at present an unlikely scenario. In a case study of the Pearl River
Delta, Yeh and Li show in detail the consequences of agricultural land loss and
urban sprawl, and why action is necessary. They present a convincing model to
help containment and achieve a measure of sustainability and compaction,
demonstrating significant savings of agricultural land, and reductions in travel
and fuel consumption.
In addition to the key pragmatic and technical dimensions, there is also a
theoretical dimension, often left out of the debate. Brand points to the
significance of the symbolism of environmental and compact city ideas. He shows
how small yet significant interventions, either through the planning discourse or
symbolic development on the ground, can help move public perceptions of
sustainability. Symbolism and meaning can be a two-edged sword, and Lau,
Zaman and Mei show its effect in Asia in a fast-growing economy. The ultra-rapid
development in Shanghai takes a deliberately symbolic form—not one of
environmentalism, but of modernism—attempting to attract foreign investment
and achieve world city status. They demonstrate how state intervention and
incentives can drive development, and point out the lack of any environmental or
sustainability policies. It is a useful warning, as this type of development is a
potential model to which many cities may aspire. Indeed, in a less extreme form,
this type of global modernism is common to many cities. It is a phenomenon
observed by de Schiller and Evans, who raise the issue of climate. While urban
form world-wide may have many similarities, climates vary enormously across the
world. They suggest that urban form and building design should relate to them.
These authors show, for example, that compact urban form may be suitable in
some climates, but not in others.
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