World Urbanism Day has been celebrated since 1949, having been decreed by the International Organisation of World Urbanism Day in Buenos Aires, Argentina [i] , with the aim of bringing communities closer to urbanism, awakening them to the social and environmental impacts of development on cities and the territory and to the importance of urban planning.
Urban planning, as a technique, science and public policy [ii] , has the essential function of contributing to a better society with a better quality of life.
It has historically been applied with these meanings, in contexts that result from it as a social fact, namely the exponential growth of the city, associated with periods of great industrial progress.
Let’s go back to the beginning of the 20th century and the Athens Charter of 1933, which expressed the principles of modern urbanism (and the functionalist city) based on an in-depth diagnosis of the state of existing cities. The Charter set out the guidelines for the exercise and role of urbanism in society, presenting solutions at the time that were intended to respond to the weaknesses and problems caused by the rapid growth of urban centres, to which industrialisation and new means of transport contributed, among other things. “Chaos has entered the cities,” it was declared. The perception of cities was one of disorder, decay, disease and revolt. The mechanisation of means of transport was not seen as a substantial gain in time. On the contrary, it would introduce several factors into city life that were detrimental to health, taking the home away from work and condemning people to gruelling hours in traffic, instead of encouraging them to take healthy walks, for example. The Charter was an apologist for the planned city, which was to replace the disorganised city and change was to take place with the enlightenment of the population and the conviction of political power. It was mandatory for every individual to have access to the well-being and beauty of the city in the areas of housing, work, leisure and movement – the four functions of man in the city. And it was up to the architect-urban planner to fulfil this role [iii].
The New Athens Charter of 1998, looking at the cities of the 20th century, which, despite everything, have fortunately not reached the catastrophic levels projected by the 1933 Charter, affirms the indispensability of urban planning in guaranteeing sustainable urban development, bringing Man – the citizen – to the centre of the process, which is made possible by information technologies and new forms of communication. It is up to the urban planner, in collaboration with other professionals from different fields, to interpret and coordinate development [i].
Urban planning also plays a crucial role in the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda, as sustainable cities and communities are one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Urban planning can and should contribute to widespread access to decent housing, quality basic services, green public spaces and safe, inclusive and sustainable transport systems, as well as participatory planning and management, protecting and safeguarding cultural heritage, increasing resource efficiency, improving air quality, mitigating and adapting to climate change or reducing the risk of natural disasters, among others [iv].
Seven decades on from the first celebration of World Urban Planning Day and nine years on from the Athens Charter, the concerns are structurally no different. A balance must be struck between the anthropic and natural environments, in cities and in the countryside.
According to the World Cities Report 2022, the world population living in cities will be 68 per cent in 2050 (an increase of 12 per cent compared to 2021) [v] . Characterising the phenomenon of exponential urbanisation highlights the scale and complexity of the challenges facing urbanism and planning.
Today’s challenges for urban planning (along with architecture) are not very different from those that have arisen over the decades. The necessary well-being of people can only be achieved if cities are designed for people and with people. Whether by inevitably adapting the existing city, or by adopting new urban models and ways of living. We must continue to give the city back to pedestrians and make it easier for them to commute (those that are strictly necessary), substantially reinforcing and expanding public transport networks and continuing to encourage the uptake of soft mobility. Responses to the challenges that cities pose cannot result in precarious solutions or those devoid of human values, but rather in solutions that, while responding adequately to the changing needs of populations, result in the least possible impact on the planet and are preferably reversible in a future that we don’t know.
According to the World Cities Report 2022, the world population living in cities will be 68 per cent by 2050 (an increase of 12 per cent compared to 2021) [vi] . Characterising the phenomenon of exponential urbanisation highlights the scale and complexity of the challenges facing urbanism and planning.
Today’s challenges for urban planning (along with architecture) are not very different from those that have arisen over the decades. The necessary well-being of people can only be achieved if cities are designed for people and with people.Whether by inevitably adapting the existing city, or by adopting new urban models and ways of living.We must continue to give the city back to pedestrians and make it easier for them to commute (those that are strictly necessary), substantially reinforcing and expanding public transport networks and continuing to encourage the uptake of soft mobility.Responses to the challenges that cities pose cannot result in precarious solutions or those devoid of human values, but rather in solutions that, while responding adequately to the changing needs of populations, result in the least possible impact on the planet and are preferably reversible in a future that we don’t know.
Do it for people. Let’s do it with urbanism.
Bibliographic sources:
[i] Centro de Documentación – Biblioteca “Prof. Arq. Manuel Ignacio Net”, Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo, Universidad de Buenos Aires, em linha (www.biblioteca.fadu.uba.ar/)
[ii] Correia, Fernando Alves e Correia, Jorge Alves, 2021. Regime Jurídico dos Programas e dos Planos Territoriais. 1ª ed. Coimbra : Almedina.
[iii] LE CORBUSIER. A Carta de Atenas, trad. Rebeca Scherer. São Paulo: HUCITEC: EDUSP, 1993.
[iv] Conselho Europeu de Urbanistas, 2003. A Nova Carta de Atenas 2003 – A Visão do Conselho Europeu de Urbanistas sobre as Cidades do séc. XXI.
[v] Nações Unidas – Centro Regional de Informação para a Europa Ocidental, em linha (www.unric.org/).
[vi] United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), 2022. World Cities Report 2022. Envisaging the Future of Cities. Em linha (www.unhabitat.org).
Opinion article by Sónia Ildefonso, Architect – Urban Planning at Worx, published in Vida Imobiliária on 8th November 2023.
