Dr Sudhanshu Tripathi
In-fact, City Space is the domain where we get all the required opportunities to realise ourselves. It is a sphere where almost all aspects of sustainable urban development can be fulfilled, not only in environmental and social terms, but also in moral and spiritual terms.
As a matter of fact, history of cities is the history of two structurally correlated systems, one social and one material; and, in fact, the material city and the social city generate each other. At times, one of the two may look more dynamic and carry the other forward, but the evolution of one cannot be separated from the other. Up to now, academics and designers have always focussed on the material city, seeing it as a collection of buildings, products and infrastructure. They did and are still doing so, because they have been convinced that the social city would adapt itself to fit into the material city, regenerating itself alone and without designing in a quasi-natural fashion. In fact, they have always functioned in this way. However, something happened in the last century that forces us to look at cities in a different way: the speed and enormity of the charges which occurred, are still taking place and that broke with an age-old mechanism of quasi-natural adaptations. This has led to an unprecedented crisis in cities themselves and, almost as an indicator of the more general crisis, the catastrophic deterioration of public spaces. Confronted with such a situation, academics and designers are shifting their attention, and issues related to the social city, ie.to the communities and interconnected networks that make-up a city, are attracting increasing interest today. This has led us to observe the social phenomena taking place in cities, and in society at large, more attentively.
City Space:
While defining ‘city space’ may lead toapproaches with respect to its structure,organisation or its goals – whether temporal or spiritual-but the most important thing that is common since the dawn of civilisation is the presence of a genuine ‘comfort level’along with various opportunities for betterment of human lives, which were mostly absent prior to the formation of cities. Obviously, it is the domain where we get all the required opportunities to realise ourselves. It is a sphere where almost all aspects of sustainable urban development can be fulfilled, not only in environmental and social terms, but also in moral and spiritual terms. Evidently, the charm of a more luxurious, self-sustaining, dignified and secure life was the driving force for the people at large living before the advent of culture and consequent civilisation, which paved the way for a comfortable, cultured, self-dependent social communion with genuine protection and security and that had been characterised by Aristotle as the prerequisite of a state, but with greater migrations and consequent heightened interactions and innovations among the residents of the then so forming cities, the resultant conglomerate had to bear various kinds of challenges to their corporal and social existence. They were and so are even today, varying from law and order to severe city congestions causing lack of basic civic amenities; criminalisation of thepolity and politicisation of criminals and rising organised crimes and gang-wars and terrorism and religious fundamentalism;creation of parallel governments; ecological challenges; several dreaded diseasesand epidemics etc., thereby converting the hitherto social whole intothe city of swine’s, as Plato once said. Further, rapid technological development, socio-cultural challenges and environmental issues are severely transforming our present day lives wherein Change is the only constant.
Nevertheless, people throughout history have had similar notions, no matter how these periods were assessed later. What this historically omnipresent notion might reflect is a common human belief in changes as fundamental to human existence.What distinguishes different historical periods and cultures from each other is a focal point where the endeavours for change are most intense because succeeding generations are to face different kinds of challenges from theirpredecessors. In Western society, the industrial Revolution has been understood as the improvement of the material representation of the world to a great extent. It aimed to provide the fundamentals of more pleasant life by producing new and better means to achieve their well-being in all aspects. Also the ever continuing technological improvements allowed production to exceed people’s need overtime, but despite excellent material progress in the West, their society has mostly been lacking the true satisfaction and peace.
Negative effects of consumption-based progress:
Hence, this kind of mechanised-consumption-based progress is being fundamentally questioned. It has many negative effects on the human beings and the environment, social structure and economic relations and it also fails to provide a feeling of happiness or meaningful satisfaction to many of its ‘beneficiaries’.
A shift away from blind production and consumption is being deliberated and alternatives are also being proposed. In this context, though the progress is no longer seen in strictly material terms but, at the same time, mostly under the sway of cut-throat competition, the element of spirituality is still absent, thereby causing havoc in their over-all thinking patterns. The physical environment has been over-exploited, and, as a consequence,the humanity’s role in the ecological system is gaining ground.
Evolving new frameworks:
Also, new theoretical frameworks and practical initiatives are being evolved and formulated, which aim to rethink the foundations of the world, wherein we are living. As the human population of the world is becoming more and more urban, many of these theories and initiatives focus on urban living and also devising ever better means of subsistence in all walks of life.
Further, the existing and new disciplines are approaching the creation of urban environment in a holistic and interdisciplinary way to ensure future development that will balance the environmental, social and economic aspects besides politico-administrativecontent of urban living.In these endeavours, the public space plays an increasingly important role.New patterns of urban living are imposing new demands on cities of which public spaces represent a fundamental part. Urban public spaces are being rethought and reconceptualised, attributed with new texts and contents, formats and, even being dematerialised and set up in a virtual world in order to make them people friendly in the true sense of the term. Also the roles in the creation of urban public spaces are being reconsidered with a view to make them more fruitful towards the real service of the humanity.
Conclusion:
Against this scenario, examining the complexity and contradictory nature of contemporary society, we find that cities are like huge social laboratories where new ideas and new solutions are being invented and experimented within all fields of daily human chores; food networks based on de-intermediated relationships between city and country; modelsof housing with shared facilities and services; and different forms of co-housing; mobility system, appropriate alternate means of transport instead of individual cars; health and disease prevention services based on active, collaborative roles for those concerned; cultural and recreational activities that lead to the generation of new forms of community and new sense of citizenship.Obviously, all these are the essentials of the so-emerging ‘city space’,in our times, which are required to be properly addressed for sake of a truly meaningful human life of substance, perhaps, for all times to come.
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