City addiction?

A metropolis is life-threatening.

A metropolis is life-enhancing.

These proposals are in opposition but both are true, even when referring to the same place. This is a fascinating contradiction which makes cities both irresistible and objects to hate, or at least to deplore.

Let us stop here! Have you given it a thought, why the idea of a metropolis or a big city at all has survived? The re-vitalisation and regeneration of cities and urban areas are currently and again a hotter topic than ever. Humans have rethought cities since the ancient Maya and later Aztecs cultures abandoned their cities due to overpopulation and ‘poisoning from the inside’. Historic architecture and even urban planning from as far back as antiquity has been ‘upcycled’ in effort to humanise our cities.

Le Corbusier, the master of modernisation, is said to have hated cities. That is probably why his suggested modernisation of for example Paris never happened. It was not human. His and his followers’ ideas still prevail though and have contributed to the de-humanisation of cities, not least there ‘modern’ suburbs.

What is human?

Imagine: Your home. When you first see your new apartment, everything is already laid out: there is no room for a personal touch, to create a space which allows you to dwell. ‘Someone’ has already decided which the answers to all your questions are. ‘Someone’ is showing you the right way to live.

This is a bad dream.

Imagine again: A city. When walking through different areas you realise that there is still room for creation, it kind of waits for you to start dwelling. This is wishful thinking - which sometimes comes true: the sun loungers in a London park. They are there for you to move to a place of your choice – in the shade, in solitude ..... You can create your own temporary space.

Is this what we ought to learn when we now restart the revitalisation of cities: Design for dwelling? When we dwell we have a life, we have moved beyond merely living.

Design for life is thus not solely about improving conditions for living, it is to allow for a life. A human life.

Kristina Borjesson, WorkingPartner, Designboost