Global Cities

The below post relates to an exhibition I went to visit at the Tate Modern back in London. The exhibition, entitled Global Cities, was displayed and raised the question: Can Cities Be Improved By Design?

“More than 50% of us now live in cities and, according to the United Nations, this number is set to rise to 75% by 2050. A century ago only 10% of the planet’s population lived in cities.”

It is vital that we understand the impact of this urban growth on people and the environment, as the links between architecture and society become both more complex and more fragile. How we – as architects and citizens, artists and policy- makers – choose to shape our cities, buildings and public spaces will determine how we respond to a range of problems. These include environmental challenges such as the escalating effects of climate change, as well as addressing the human rights, justice and dignity of the billions of people who are moving to cities in search of work and opportunity.

Global Cities encourages us to take account of the scale and pace of this change and consider its consequences on the way we live and the decisions we take. It examines the social and spatial conditions in ten large, dynamic cities spread across the globe: Cairo, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mumbai, San Paulo, Shanghai, and Tokyo. The exhibition explores these cities through five thematic lenses: size, speed, form, density, and diversity. In addition, it aims to raise awareness of issues such as sustainability, public space, and social inclusion, at the global and human scale. By exploring the resonances between our individual experiences of everyday life and our physical environment, Global Cities challenges us to think again about the connections between art, architecture and society at the heart of the contemporary city. The shape of our cities will determine the future of the planet.*

The three diagrams above show the partial layout of the cities of London, Mumbai, and Shanghai. The black spaces show the amount of area used in the city, while the white represents unoccupied space. Notice the stark different between the three cities; Mumbai very crowded, Shanghai the opposite, and London in between. If Venice were to be added to the above diagrams, I think it would compete with Mumbai, by the looks of the image from the previous post.

*introduction from the exhibition’s pamphlet.