Urban[sch]isms

3. General objectives of the project

3.2. Formation of a new urbanity

The urbanization and development of peri-urban areas is largely perceived on a big scale [Img. 01]. This is in part due to the fact, that industry and agriculture as production sectors require big areas to operate. Consequentially, planning of such areas follows the same logic. One of direct repercussions is formation of big, monofunctional areas that are not particularly suited for small scale - urban living.

Further problem with this kind of planning and urbanization is that the in-between spaces - stitches between these vast areas - stay unresolved. These are the spaces that are the most hybrid, varied and mixed, that spawn hierarchy and differentiation. Similar spaces in the city environment take the most prominent role as generators of public, urban space, but in the peri-urban condition are overlooked, largely because of the scale at which these areas operate.

City 'construction' and definition is derived from a much smaller scale [Img. 02]. This is in part possible due to the fact that the tertiary sector elements that usually create urban space (bank, post office, church, shop, cinema,...) are not so space demanding, hence generating a lot of activity on a very limited area, in turn creating 'urbanity', nodality, hierarchy...

To create a better structured and denser peri-urban environment, it should be structured and defined more like a city. The important parts of the peri-urban fabric should be resolved on a smaller scale with finer detail.

Industry and agriculture, being spatially demanding, is hard to envision to be broken down into smaller areas. Instead, we must look into processes within the sectors that could be taken out of these areas and put together into tighter spatial relation. We should start to understand industrial and agricultural processes that are spatially undemanding and flexible as parts that generate dense experience space - a new kind of urbanity, something similar to the urban spaces in the city.
4. Local material intelligence
If a new urban and design strategy is taking into account local material intelligence it is more likely to be adopted and useful in a specific instance.

It is necessary to recognize current pattern of urbanization and define characteristic elements that drive current growth and urbanization.

By recognizing and understanding the key growth and formation processes we should be able to reformulate them in a way that they would be still autochthonous but would generate much better defined and structured fabric.

The first task therefore is to recognize key spatial elements; enhance and redeploy them as an integral part of a new urban strategy.

On the basis of current growth model we can begin to understand what kind of processes are at play in these peri-urban areas.