Urbanism and Environment

Whether they call themselves communist, capitalist or socialist, all of the Asian countries have embraced some variant of capitalism with the only real variation being who does the work and who gets the rewards.

Unfortunately, the "enlightened" developed countries aren't all that enlightened and the way each has dealt with urbanism and the environment is a product of their history and geography more than from any conscious decision to become this or that kind of a society.

Trying to transplant one set of solutions into another environment may or may not work. Clearly the "edifice complex" that characterizes much of Western architecture is no more sustainable in Asia than in the West.

An example of a transportation fix that can fail is the Bus Rapid Transit developed in Bogota. It worked miracles there and in a few other cities in the area. However, when applied to Mexico City it became a complete flop because the city fathers were reluctant to provide sufficient busses to make it work while the populace jammed on board the existing ones in far greater numbers than ever imagined. Meanwhile, the same system in Las Vegas is starving for lack of passengers.

What is probably needed is a combination of the best in neo-urbanist thought combined with the best in local thinking to develop something that will work in each country. Cookie-cutter approaches are doomed to failure.

Contributed by fgbouman