Manifesto for the Spontaneous City

From publication The Spontaneous City

Author: Urhahn Urban Design
Publisher: BIS Publishers, 2010
ISBN 978-90-6369-265-0

We argue that the Spontaneous City should be used as a starting point for urban development in
the 21st century. The Spontaneous City is a marketplace, where supply and demand sculpts urban
form. The city develops at various paces, in all kinds of directions. Whats more, the Spontaneous
City is occupied by producers and limitless future projections. The producers work closely
together with residents and businesses, operating in districts and quarters of the city. Users of the
Spontaneous City are innovative and enterprising. They operate from within the ranks of social
groups where community, custom and tradition are important values.
Urban planning faces new challenges around the world. Cities continue to grow and struggle
with the task of becoming more sustainable, absorbing (im)migration, offering space to engaged
citizens and, with that, remaining attractive places to settle. The economic crisis points up the
risks and deficiencies of the old system and functions, of necessity, as a catalyst for new forms of
city development. Urban planners must reinvent themselves and their vision of the city. It is in
that framework that we present a manifesto for flexible urban planning, grafted onto the power
of private initiatives.
The Spontaneous City is indeed shaped by its occupants, in a never-ending process of
transformation, growth and adaptation. Individuals and groups, comprising both residents
and business people, re-use or re-organise spaces in apartment blocks, workplaces, parks and
streets or on the grounds of wind farms and companies. Urban planning professionals work in
close collaboration with the project initiators. They forge a path between individual choice and
common interest. Government and market work closely together, but with a different focus :
the initiatives, creative energy and investment capital of the end user. The new urban planner
must break through an historical trend of design that is always increasing in scale, involving
collaboration with only the bigger partners. Its the city users time.

Manifesto for the Spontaneous City | Urhahn Urban Design



The city user as city developer

As with so many success stories of the 20th century, utopian post-war urban design has been
largely sent back to the drawing board. Nevertheless, urban planning in past decades has seen
little change in terms of its ambition and scale. To the contrary, one instant city after another
was sprung into being. Ready-made, ready-to-use spaces were developed, tailored to serve one
specific, immutable purpose. The social democratic utopia did indeed allow scope for a consumerorientated approach and increasingly diverse architectural forms, but urban design as a whole
remained large-scale, mono-functional and inflexible. As a result of this, the role of the urban user
was singularly limited to a consumer of everyday products. We believe that it is the city users time
to take control. Every individuals creativity and energy is needed to develop new solutions for the
urban environment. Co-design and coproduction are no longer just fashionable terms, but accepted
design forms in terms of sustainable urban development. These design forms are prevalent in newly
constructed areas where traditional investment logic is being heavily challenged, and in depressed
areas where the endogenous pull of the city dweller has been ignored for many years. In both
cases, the time is right for planning processes that crystallise collective power into a tangible form
involving local residents and entrepreneurs, owners associations and local institutions.

old dutch
Our plea for the Spontaneous City might seem not Dutch. Our point of departure is incidentally a
country with a long tradition of highly developed planning, something we are justifiably proud of.
Since the start of the 20th century, almost all urban design in the Netherlands was rigidly developed
with housing projects and structural plans, district improvement and zoning plans. We have a
certain reputation to uphold when it comes to the design of architectural forms and public spaces.
The design model is one in which buildings, residential zones and neighbourhoods are readyto-use products. There was no room for chance or surprise and these are exactly the elements
that make a city vibrant and sustained. Dutch practice is familiar with other traditions, however.
Such as the freedom of private property, which formed the central canal area in Amsterdam and
the Statenkwartier in The Hague. Within a spatial framework of canals and streets, and a set of
transparent rules, the user can act as the client. One Dutch ruling, called the subsidiarity principle,
stipulates that regulating should not take place at a level what can be managed at a lower level. A
third tradition can be found in pragmatic realities, evident in urban development along the banks
of the IJ waterway in Amsterdam, a planning scheme that was subdivided into more manageable
projects. And finally, theres the rising trend -however slow in developing- of DIY building and
renovation and autonomous organisation. Even in Dutch VINEX residential areas earmarked for
urban development by the government and in several renovated, post-war districts, there is some
room for the creativity of its residents. In short, the tradition of the Spontaneous City already exists,
but only acknowledged as the exception to large-scale planning rule.

Manifesto for the Spontaneous City | Urhahn Urban Design



Four principles
Urban design will make the Spontaneous City a reality in the future, outlined by the following
four principles:
Zoom in
Zooming in, or alternately reducing scale, means embracing a development process
simultaneously at the disposal of many initiators in various locations. It is essential to map out
local needs, relevant players in renovation districts and the prospects or rather obstructions
they face. A thorough examination of both social conditions and urban planning regulations is a
necessary strategy for the urban planner and this demands a sharp eye for detail.

Supervise open developments

Urban functions, architecture, density, and lifestyle are constantly changing factors. Sustained
development means that a city district or quarter must be able to adapt according to these
changes, in terms of housing
and employment functionality.
The non-linear design of a city
ensures its vitality. Simultaneous
supervision of project initiators, in
varying frequencies and directions,
is of paramount importance. The
blueprint must be absolutely in
tune with the map indicating a
wide range of possibilities and
specific opportunities. An urban
plan must inspire a broad range of
participants and, at the same time,
be able to adapt to the rules of the
game as they are being played.

Manifesto for the Spontaneous City | Urhahn Urban Design



Create collective values

Defining shared ambition is an integral part of the game. It is a political process that must be
developed both publicly and expertly. It involves collective investment, for example in innovative
energy infrastructure or water quality, in order to conserve a citys heritage and enhance its public
spaces. Acknowledgement of separate entities and future values is a component of a producers
anticipatory and imaginative power. Nature, water, landscape, accessibility, heritage and
architecture combine to create collective
values and inspire new forms of utilisation.
These are strategically important elements
for an urban planner of the 21st century:
common values make it possible to dare
dream about the environment of tomorrow.
In anticipation of this future vision, the
planner works on developing an areas
quality, unique character and coherence,
confident of the city users resilience and
conflict-resolving nature.

Be user-oriented
Participatory structures must surpass participation itself. The energy, creativity and investment
capacity of all involved parties must be embraced in order to meet future challenges head on.
Fresh approaches and resources are needed, from micro-financing of local projects to digital
visual platforms. Innovations can already be found in abundance, but must be intensified in order
to reach as many potential project initiators possible, from top businesses through to deprived
urban districts. Residents, associations, companies and co-operatives should be given an active
role in urban renewal initiatives.
Boosting of endogenous investment
capacity plays a central role. In
practice, this is already a broken
tradition : urban development driven
by economy instead of by public
housing. The urban planners designs
should be custom-made and tailored
to the resources of the user.

Manifesto for the Spontaneous City | Urhahn Urban Design



What does this mean ?

The greatest challenge for urban design in the 21st century is finding a balance between matters
of common importance and creating freedom whenever possible. That is why planners must
initially focus more upon the form taken by provisos, within which freer forms can be developed.
In urban design, we speak of opening up of spatial structures using open development strategies,
which was precisely the approach taken in Amsterdams ring of canals. The urban planners role,
however, goes beyond the game of building, renovating and transforming functions something
demanding expert guidance of building programmes using simple rules of play. The planner
will have to assume various guises as designer, enticer, mathematician and draughtsman.
But the planner will also have to play the role of negotiator or even contractor, supervising
active collaboration, whilst challenging and engaging various relevant parties. This is how the
Spontaneous City is shaped. In reaction to the current economical crisis, we need to scrutinise our
planning strategies. Instead of just making cut-backs or reducing costs, we should be focussing on
weighing the value of the urban environment and on mobilising smaller budgets on a larger scale.
The Spontaneous City is no longer just a means of opportunity, but has now become a necessary
economic reality.

Manifesto for the Spontaneous City | Urhahn Urban Design