Designing for People: The Livable City

Canadian anthropologist, Phillip H. Gulliver, was ahead of his time when in 1955 he dismissed the popular theory that people moved to cities mainly because of their attractiveness, what he called the “bright lights theory.” This concept had been long peddled, especially when explaining urbanization in Africa, the previously-called "dark" continent. 

Gulliver instead proposed that rural-urban migration was the mere effect of economic forces. If one chooses to agree with Gulliver, then, it is important to be sympathetic to human needs when designing cities. Most people live in cities not because they love them so much, but because their jobs and businesses are there. I believe there is a way to enable people to enjoy cities just as much as they love seeing their financial prospects grow there. And the solution, I think, lies in design.

Why Human Needs?

From Constantinople to Vancouver and from Meroe to Mumbai, cities have from time immemorial flowed with people originating far and wide. I happen to live in a city myself and can attest to its global nature. Just a walk through the main train station and I can hear Tagalog, Pidgin, Swedish, and Mandarin flowing seamlessly in the air. 

Therefore, I believe that the cities of today need to prioritize universal human needs because ultimately, there is more that connects us than divides us. We all need to eat, move from point A to point B, and breathe crisp fresh air. These, among other people-friendly components, are needed in every city, regardless of whether it is closer to the South or North Pole. 

The Livable City

For a city to be considered “livable” I think it ought to be developed out of a long tradition of respect for human rights. What most successful cities do, in my opinion, is picking essential aspects of urban design and try to do those very well before setting more goals. The four main aspects I personally identify to feature in a successful anthropocentric city are scale, transportation, and waste management.

Scale

One should not underestimate the importance of the size of buildings and the width of streets. If they are tailored to humans, they need to be at levels that do not shrink down or squeeze people as they move about.

Creating interest points on the human eye level allows people to enjoy their surroundings. A human-scaled city thus prevents people from feeling alienated in their environment. This is why it is often the old town section of most cities, that are easy to enjoy when visiting, as they were built long before the sophisticated, height-scaling technology of skyscrapers.

Another important aspect of scale is horizontal land use. By this, I refer to how the city street is layered, particularly the division of space between buildings. Celebrated architect Jan Gehl's book, Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space, is a canonical text when it comes to describing how human-centric cities should be.

Drawing from this book, I suggest that a realistically-scaled city street would include, for example, a building with ground-floor public spaces like shops or cafés which spill over to a wide sidewalk enough for wheelchairs or two pedestrians.

Separating the sidewalk from the bike path can be a green strip of bushes or trees after which a bike lane is placed, then public transport lane, and finally the road for cars is situated. And this arrangement can be mirrored on the opposite side of the street. I have tried my best to represent this horizontal scale division below. It is a model that has been adopted in successful cities around the world.

Transportation

Whoever is prioritized in a city greatly impacts whether a city is considered livable. Where the car is king, wide stroads (roads that also serve as streets, equally dangerous as they are unsightly) are a strong feature. Where pedestrians are respected, there are often good public transport connections and walking streets while in places where cyclists are thought of, one can notice more elaborate bike lanes. In this realm, I caution against only looking to the west for answers, as there are many solutions the world over for creating human-centered city transports. Cable cars have popped up in various South American cities to ease the congestion in an attempt to help salvage the car-centric planning of many post-colonial cities like Bogota and Rio de Janeiro. 

Waste Management

How household waste is collected and disposed of is another feature that makes a city comfortable to live in. Ask yourself, is there a recycling system where you live? If not, can you imagine the ways having one would reduce landfill waste and protect the environment? For cities with industrial production, the location of factories and their production helps prevent the poisoning of water bodies, the air, or greenery. Finally, are there enough public toilets in the city? Accessibility of these toilets is also important. Can people with mobility challenges use them?

This blog post does not exhaust the key elements of what makes a city livable for all city-zens. It is but a conversation starter. Keep an eye out for more discussion about design under the 2023 series Designing for People here on Flamingo Papaya Blog.