Urban Ruralisation
-A Manifestation For Future Models of Societies
Urbanism is a complex phenomenon, and is a synchronisation of a series of phenomena that adds to the plurality of any settlement – be it small or large. Urbanism then can be perceived as a time and space bound vector that constantly evolves. Therefore the term “urban design” becomes fairly ambiguous1.
!Post industrial revolution urbanists have constantly made an attempt to revive and relook at developing models of urbanisms. The transformation from rural to urban has been constant, growth of cities is inevitable; and today we are attempting to prototype our cities – as if almost like mocking (and in some cases literally)2. If urbanisation is to be believed as an outcome of harmonious existence of physical and non-physical influences, if it is as complex and cohesive as any living organism then our attempts, in most of the cases, have been generic rather than understanding its genetic. Naively – we have always been prejudiced by the form than the essence.
Considering the primary case as Asia (and other rapid growing areas in the world) as testing grounds, I‘d like to examine the budding urban centres and their trajectory of evolution. Why Asia (or other rapid growing areas) as test beds? These are the areas which let us go a step back (if required), and probably provide an opportunity to either accept or reject the established models. In these setups, rurality is relatively intact in its pragmatic essence. These setups would free us from the existing norms, and would let establish new ground rules; also as they experience an intense flux the results examined could be of an on-going urban condition.
To continue on the based hypothesis, “urban ruralisation” is a concept I’d like to delve into more thoroughly. And by “urban ruralisation” I do not intend to mean either clustering of existing or upcoming urban, or retrofitting rural into an urban context – a stance that new urbanists took.
“Urban Ruralisation” to me is an inquiry into understanding strong manifestation, and role a “rural” plays in making the dynamics of developing economies by underplaying its presence; and yet is getting diluted in the ever-changing urban instability. And hence I term it as “a manifestation for future models of societies”, wherein the word ‘societies’ I interpret as an understanding of the cumulative solution from nonphysical aspects – society, culture; to more formal or tangible aspects – ecology, economy and technology. The intent, in short, is inclusive understanding of the past (and some present) successful evolutionary processes through to derive a cognitive processual3 model for future.
1 – “Urban design” as a term becomes ambiguous as the phenomenon is evolutionary, and cannot be designed in its literal sense. To design is to control every aspect of it – the extent of design is subjective
2 – With reference to China’s obsession to imitate European cities (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093067/How-Chinese-building-exact-replicas-Austrian-village–houses-sold.html)
3 – “Processual” in this context means evolutionary, the word is coined merely to stress the significance on “an outcome of the process”