Conserving the Historical Areas through the Roles of the Main Cities Urban Identity in the Era of Globalization
Ahmed Elewa
Associate professor, Arch. Dept. Faculty of Fine Arts, Helwan University
ABSTRACT: Through the last three decades the process of the globalisation has impacted the spatial urban structure of the world main cities, however this impact has negative aspects in the case of the main cities which still have historical hubs and having a local urban and architectural heritage. At the meanwhile the responding to the globalisation urban requirements have been a mandatory option in the current era for economic and politics reasons.Cities which have managed to adapt with the impact of the globalisation and to conserve its urban and architectural heritage, are those cities that having a significant and unique urban identity. Cities like Rome, London and Paris and Istanbul, and many more examples, have introduced good examples of dealing with thisissue.
The study hypothesis that urban identity in the main cities can act multi-functional roles which support the achievement of adaptation between the globalisation urban requirements and the conserving of the historical heritage. This paper is discussing the nexus between globalisation urban requirements, the conserving of urban local heritage, and the urban identity.
The methodology have depended on an analytical comparison study on selected cases, to evaluate the urban experiments of the cases. The results showed that cities which have a significant urban identity have presented successful urban experiments of achieving adaptation between globalisation impacts and the conservation of its local urban heritage.
1. INTRODUCTION
It is the era of globalization,during the recent decades the world is witnessing the results of globalization as a process. Globalization become a commonly known term, particularly in fields of World contemporary economic and culture aspects. Meanwhile there were other parallel processesin addition to globalization that affected the forming of world main cities of today (WMC) through the recent decades, the most significant process was the rapid growth of the urban population, since it is projected that the urban areas in the world will host 70% of the world’s population by2050. According to the United Nations, this future urban population growth is expected to be concentrated in WMCwhich consisting of at least 10 million inhabitance (United Nations, 2014).
Globalization and the rapid growth of urban population as continuous processes are strongly linked to the WMC.A new typehas risen of WMC,this type is what so called the global cities, today WMC compete for global resources, capital, talented human resourcespositioning themselves as a platform for innovations to occur and ideas to grow. Global cities are sharing a global urban identity, which reflects the new spatial urban planas well commonly urban features. The WMC transformation process has its negative impact on the local urban identity and threats the historical areas to be neglected and to lose its importance, thus this is why there is a growing awareness among scholars and decision makers about the necessity of conserving these areas, and not only to preserve buildings but to protect the historical urban context as a physical component of local urban identity in the era of globalization.
While the majority of research that concern the globalization focused on the economic and cultural understanding of globalization, this study illustrate the globalization phenomenon from an urban perspective. The study argues the possibility of using the roles of urban identity as a tool to conserve the historical areas of todayWMC which transformed to be global cities, this hypothesis is based on the practical results extracted from actual cases of global cities that managed to conserve its historical areas, meanwhile to respond to the mandatory urban reforms of globalization.
2. GLOBALIZATION AND URBAN IDENTITY, AN OVERVIEW
The rising of global cities has led to a new type of urban identity that can be observed in today WMC, this new global urban identity has impacted the WMC and has imposed its urban features which has led to reform the urban spatial structure of those cities to be global cities.
This globalized urban identity may be suitable(orideal in some cases) to some of the WMC, such as the cases of Sydney, Rio de Janeiro, and Dubai, this particular type of WMC, which are relatively considered as new cities in comparison to the world historical main cities, such as London, Paris, Vienna, Istanbul, and Cairo,this type of historical WMC already own its local urban identity, however policy makers in these cities have to respond to the mandatory urban requirements of globalization, which may cause a negative impact on its original urban heritage, already there are some good examples of WMC that managed to appropriate between the need to conserve its local urban heritage and its need to be global cities. The study has some specific questions about this nexus between globalization, global cities and its urban identity;
What is the meaning of globalization from an urban perspective?
Is there new types of WMC due to globalization impact?
What is the impact of globalization on the urban identity of the WMC?
2.1. Globalization from an urban perspective
Globalization is a recent term, its current meaning was only being established in the 1970s (James, P. & Steger, M., 2014).Globalization as a phenomenon has impacted all the international anthropogenic activities, this include; international economy, culture, and as a result the daily urban life has changed in the WMC, it lose a lot of its own local taste, this term is an interdisciplinary concept that has not a certain definition due to differences in views and interpretations, and this is why globalization is not always well defined, one of this research main questions is to set a definition of globalization from an urban perspective.
There is a strong nexus between globalization as a process and WMC of today or what is so called global cities. Those cities are threatened by the process of globalization, in particular that type of cities in which there is a unique local urban identity, for example the main historical cities of Europe, such as London, Paris, and Rome, they are threatened by shifts in the global economy, this process has started early in the last three decades of the 20th century, the shift in the global economy has impacted the WMC, lead to a physical changes in the urban spatial plan of those cities, these citieswere and still the arena for the processes of globalization. So the definition of globalization from an urban perspective can be extracted from the understanding of its influences on urban spatial plan of the global cities, globalization has the same effects over the cities. Citiesthat getting shaped according to the new world order are tending to show similarities between themselves within globalization(Hergül, O., 2014).
Globalization from an urban perspective also can be understood as the phenomenon by which today WMC have been reformed through its urban spatial plan to be able to act there key role as the arenas for the various anthropogenic activities that occurred due to the globalization process. This definition illustrate the strong nexus between globalization as a process and WMC (global cities) as the urban space in which the sub processes of globalization take place.
2.1. The rise of global cities (the main cities of the world today)
Through the recent decades, and under the impact of globalization the WMC transformed into global cities, the new millennium witnessed the rise of the global cities, which can be seen as the buildings blocks of globalization (Charnock, G., 2013).
In this study it is important to determine a specific definition of global cities from an urban perspective, this will be necessary to understand the influences of globalization on WMC, and how they transformed into global cites, as well to recognize its new urban spatial features that form its globalized urban identity.
2.1.1. The definition of global cities
The definition of global cities in this study is based on the understanding of globalization from an urban perspective, in the light of this context global cities represent the physical part of globalization. Global cities are the urban production of the globalization. However there is abroad agreement on defining global cities from an economic perspective, for example the definition of (Sassen, S. 1991);global city is a significant production point of specialized financial and producer services that make the globalized economy run, as well the definition of (Charnock, G., 2013);Global city,an urban center that enjoys significant competitive advantages and that serves as a hub within a globalized economic system.
Actually this thought about defining global cities from an economic point of view is not in conflict with its definition from an urban perspective, on the contrary, I can say that both points of view are investigating the integratedrelationship between globalization as a process and global cities as the urban nodes where the operations of global economic system take place, this is in line with Keildefinition of global cities;"they are exactly the interplay between globalization and urban development"(Keil, R. & Brenner, N. 2006)
2.2. Urban identity of the world main cities (global cities)
Urban identity, place identity or what is called urban character are terms that refers to same concept which concerning the recognizing of urban areas through its significant urban features,which reflect its socio-economic and cultural functions, this term wasidentified by many authors of urban studies background, Lynch defined place identity as the simplest form of sense of place. Identity is the extent to which a person can recognize or recall a place as being distinct from other places-as having a vivid, or unique, or at least a particular, character of its own. (Lynch, K. 1984), this definition is in the same line with the views of (Proshansky, H. M., et al.1983) and (Hague, C. Jenkins, P., 2005) which identify urban identity as a term which concerns the meaning and significance of urban places for their inhabitance and users.Urban identity has become a significant urban issue during the last three decades, as a result of the specialists and local authority's awareness of the necessity to protect the local urban heritage, notably under the impact of globalization and the arisen fears about the loss of individuality and distinctiveness between urban areas, see figure 1."There has been a growing concern that local communities, towns, cities, and regions are losing their identity in the midst of rapid globalization and urbanization" (Kim, J. 2000).
Global cities represent those cities which responded to the globalization requirements, and as a result, their urban spatial plan have already changed to a new one, with new urban characteristics which can be summarized as:
An active central business district (CBD) or more (in some cases) that offers a variety of international financial services, these include; finance, banking, insurance, real estate, and other related activities (logistic services) such as hotels, conferences halls.
An advanced infrastructure system, notably the communication sector.
An advanced transportation system that offers multiple modes of transportations and serve a large mass transit networks.
A major international airport or morewhichmake the city globally well connected.
A livable downtown area that offers multi socio-economic, recreation and cultural activitieswhich attract global tourism.
Having a prominent skyline that characterize its CBD area and summarize its economic power as a global city.
Globalization have impacted the urban spatial plan of the WMC to be transformed into global cities, see figure 1 ,which shows a model of the urban spatial plan of global cities.
Figure 1. Global city model and the globalized urban identity. Source; Author
2.3. Urban identity of historical main cities of the world (historical global cities)
WMC have transformed into global cities with a new urban spatial plan which include some significant urban features that form its global urban identity, this urban identity symbolizes the impact of globalization on our today WMC through a dominant identity that characterized all the global cities. This new globalized urban identity was not a problem in the case of global cities which have no significant local urban identity, such as Dubai (there is a consensus on considering it as a global city),(global cities index, 2016)which has no deep history, however it is a real challenge in the case of WMC which have a significant local urban heritage(due to its historic legacy) to appropriate between the globalization requirements and the conservation of its local urban identity.Obviously there are two types of WMC(global cities) regarding the urban identity issue:
First type; Contemporary global cities such as Singapore, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi,
Second type; Historical global cities such as London, Paris, Berlin, and Rome.
2.3.1. The intended meaning of conserving historical areas in this study
In this study the intended meaning of conserving historical areas is broaden, it is not only about the preservation of the buildings and the urban context as they represent the physical aspect of the historical areas, but to protect thehistorical scenic views of both historical areas, and historical vistas of individual valuable buildings, this understanding of conservation meansto protect the view of a specific place or historic building from another location.
3. URBAN IDENTITY AS A CONSERVATION TOOL
Based on the definition that has been reached for urban identity,the using of urban identity as a tool to conserve historical areas is a logical concept, there is a strong nexus between urban identity of a city and its local urban heritage, as urban identity concerns the meaning and significance of urban places, which form the local urban heritage and give each city its own urban identity.In other words the existence of urban identity require the existence of significant urban features such as the historical urban areas, thus this is why any strategy that aim to maintain a good urban identity will take in consideration the conservation of the historical areas.
3.1. The roles of urban identity in historical main cities of the world (Historical global cities)
The discussion about urban identity explains the main role that urban identity play in WMC, which is to protect the local identity. As well it actsmultiple other roles that support the conservation of the historical areas, in both directly and indirectly ways, as following:
A remarkable urban identity relies on the existence of historical areas as a physical criteria, according to lynch, 1981"Design scholars also focus on physical aspects of local identity of place in their theoretical studies", thus this is why there is an important role of urban identity in tackling with undesired effects of modern urbanization which impacted by globalization, and as a result this urbanism is almost meaningless and without any unique identity (Tavakoli, N, 2010).
Urban identity serve as a reference point, both in terms of conserving a sustainable urban image and the wishes of the society. Notably that the recognition of the value of an urban area is a fundamental component in urban studies. "The sustainability of a place depends on a series of factors, which contribute to the quality of life, sense of place and recognition of identity"(Sepe, 2006).
Urban identity acts as an index for the quality of urbanlife and the socio-economic conditions of each city, moreover a unique urban identity can be a source of community pride and satisfaction of their city (Ghavampour, E. et al.2008).
Urban identityis the reflection of the historical context of the city as a part of both, its physical components, and cultural spirit, cities urban identity grows from the continuous relationship between the place and its residents, through forming the inhabitants’ collective memory and at the same time a mean of making the community awareness of the conservation of the historical context (Oktay, 2002).
Urban identity can be anhonest indicator of the development rate of a city, according to (Torabi, Z. Sima, Y., 2013), it is a measure of growth for the city’s identity as a factor for the development and promotion of environmental quality.
A significant unique urban identity also can act as an economic tool, which boost the city branding among the other competitive global cities, this mean more foreign investments, and to attract the talents, "A strong sense of identity can be an attractor, bringing new investment and talent into an area" (Watson, G.B., 2007).
4. STUDY CASES
Two cases of European cities were selected to represent examples of historical WMC (historical global cities) that still have historical areas (this include historical buildings and urban context from different ancient ages up to the 19th century). An analytical comparative study were done to clarify how the decision maker managed to use the roles of urban identity in the era of globalization to conserve the historical areas. The criteria of the analytical comparison study include the following aspects: