The Role of an Architect in Inner City Development: COMS1007 Report

This report delves into the crucial role of architects in the development of inner cities, drawing on the perspectives of various researchers and academics. The report emphasizes the architect's significance in urban planning, sustainable development, and the creation of eco-friendly environments. Key arguments include the architect's role in designing efficient and aesthetically pleasing buildings, promoting green spaces, and mitigating the impact of natural disasters. The report also highlights the importance of architects in adapting to changing urban populations, considering the needs of diverse demographics, and incorporating innovative solutions for a better quality of life. The analysis covers various aspects of urban planning, including community mapping, emergency planning, and the integration of historical and traditional urban characters. The report also references case studies such as Hamburg and Medellin to illustrate the practical application of these concepts. Ultimately, the report concludes that architects play a vital role in shaping the future of cities by addressing challenges related to modernization, innovation, culture, and the well-being of urban populations.

English
Academic and Professional Communication

A c a d e m i c a n d p r o f e s s i o n a l c o m m u n i c a t i o n P a g e | 1
Role of an Architect in inner city development.
Ravetz, Alison. Modernizing cities (Routledge revivals) - Complication existing in the
environment of urban cities. Routledge, 2013.
According to Ravetz in 2013, role of an architects is one of the most important role in urban
cities. He argued that:
 Architecture engineering plays a very vital role in the inner development of any city. No
city can be developed in the absence of an architecture.
 The jobs related to architecture in the urban city area is huge in demand. The demand is
high because of the cities being interested in planting greens and those cities believes in
creating an eco-friendly environment.
 The cities also get involved in the renewal of the urban areas and it also aims at
increasing efficiency in the existing spaces.
 Architects are the person who are involved in planning, designing and overseeing the
elements related to landscaping, road routing and transforming urban environment and
buildings.
Fusco Girard, Luigi. "Toward a smart sustainable development of port cities/areas:
The role of the “Historic Urban Landscape” approach." Sustainability 5, no. 10
(2013): 4329-4348.
According to him in 2013, he stated the thought on sustainable development of cities and urban
areas.
He argued that:
 It is quite often that buildings are constructed in the forms of house large numbers in a
way that must be pleasing and attractive, safe based on the functionality and efficient. It
is only the architects who can easily plan all these in a better and advanced.
 Developing an environment which will majorly focus on greens and plantation will help
in minimizing the chances of flood and other natural calamities to occur.
 In addition to this, this will also help to reduce the damage in order to create urban parks
for recreational usage.

A c a d e m i c a n d p r o f e s s i o n a l c o m m u n i c a t i o n P a g e | 2
 On the other hand, the creation of plants, retaining walls and developing shelters for
emergency use plays a vital role for an architects.
Archer, Diane, Chawanad Luansang, and Supawut Boonmahathanakorn. & quot;
facilitating community mapping and planning for citywide upgrading: the role of
community architects. & quot; Environment and Urbanization 24, no. 1. (2012): 115-129.
According to him in 2012, he stated architects must be well qualified and he must have
innovative ideas to deliver the eco-friendly environment to the people living in it.
He argued that:
 For city development, an architect must have qualification such as AutoCAD, 3D
modeling or any different visualization software. An architecture must have license in
order to start any work.
 Urban planning done by an architect is totally different from other various types of
planning. Here, the architects must be attentive enough to the aesthetics similar to the
function. One must also be capable enough to consider historical and traditional urban
character along with the requirements for updated access and efficiency which majorly
focuses on best of the urban planners.
 While thinking of the modern era, the urban planning required for dangerous cases with
high designed evacuation routes and developing an emergency relief location which can
provide help at the times of natural calamities. Initially, the architects used to majorly aim
at visuals while architects today majorly aim on safety i.e. safe form natural disasters,
environmental laws, resource preservation, efficient usage of energy and the historic
background of the particular city they are involved in.
 In addition to this, modern codes should also make sure that each individual must have
access to the code along with all the other amities.
Jenkins, Paul, and Leslie Forsyth. Architecture, participation and society. Routledge, 2009.
According to Jenkin and Leslie in 2009, he stated Those planners who plays the role of an
architects as well as engineers can help in the growth of the cities in a better way by organizing
and planning long term plans which can easily be followed.

A c a d e m i c a n d p r o f e s s i o n a l c o m m u n i c a t i o n P a g e | 3
He argued that:
 The population living in urban place is predicted to be doubled in the next few years
which will compel the cities to adopt a perspective which is holistic and sustainable as
regards forming a model. Martha Thorne (Dean of IF School of Architecture and Design
and Executive Director of Pritzker Architecture Prize) believed that the biggest challenge
of architecture involved the capability of developing denser metropolises which had huge
urban quality and provided inhabitants with a great quality of life.
 It is found that nearly half of world’s total population are situated in urban localities
where huge number of architects unites together in order to contribute high quality
services in the bran location.
 High quality of services includes planning to develop eco-friendly environment and
public spaces as well. This leads to great attention on the transformation of urban areas.
Cities are a major part of the world and play a vital role for the architecture and
urbanization along with focusing on economy and political development.
 There is rapid change in the urban population in the next upcoming years. This will
considerably influence the total operation of the cities. The architects must be aware of
the fact that the cities remain spaces for modernization, innovation, culture and
wellbeing.
Stewart, Sally and Lorraine Farrelly. 2014. “Redesigning Domesticity: Creating Homes for
the Elderly.” Architectural Design. 84 (2): 80-87.
In this text the main point which has been discussed is that the architects should possess the
capability of successfully creating a feeling of home while structuring accommodations related to
the growing population of the independent and well informed elderly generation.
The following points help in supporting the argument:
 Architects should work collaborating with the senior population which will help them to
understand their necessities and thus respond successfully to the demands associated with
the age sensitive accommodations
 As per the author architects should consider their personal future selves while
undertaking projects designed for the senior population

A c a d e m i c a n d p r o f e s s i o n a l c o m m u n i c a t i o n P a g e | 4
 Home is not just the place for residing but it describes the person staying in it and his
personality; it is considered a place of happiness, memories and security. Architects
should introduce new ideas that cater to these emotional aspects while structuring homes
for the senior citizens
 The necessities of the urban senior generation related to healthcare and services,
infrastructure and housing is not known to the architects.
There are huge number of key factor that will permit cities to accept and adjust the changing
upcoming. Architectural and financial facets are equally significant but expect these two aspects,
all the challenged and problems must be addressed and identified properly. They must be
analyzed holistically based on the criteria of new city model. Minimizing the role of inequality
and gaining sustainability are the two main areas to be focused. The challenges are not stable.
They keep on varying and are totally dependent on city to city and degree of advancement and
development.
It is found that in most of the European metropolises, the situation is far different as compared to
that of situations in emerging and developing countries. This can easily result in the changes in
huge number of factors such as aging of population, the people who suffered in war and natural
calamities, unemployment and many more. For such reason, the prime emphasis in Europe is
making sure that the larger cities become sub elements of sustainable economic development
where particular category of population i.e. new individual can easily search jobs while the aim
of developing nations should be delivering accommodation and other day to day necessities for
every social class (Fusco Girard, Luigi, 2013). Developing countries include Brazil, Colombia
and India. This ideology is quite vital not for the housing methodology but also important for the
ideal governance and city strategy. An individual city or country must be looked after in order to
identify and address the actual pressure they are facing. In the developing nations like Latin
America, the population growth is enormous due to high birth rate (Gunder, 2011). On the
contrary, it might be seen that the pressure created by the emigration of individual in severe
conditions are majorly raised because of disasters. There are individuals who had to abscond
their counties in order to gain safety. This condition takes place when the citizen under harsh
circumstances plans to shift base in search of improved prospect. An additional example can be
seen in China; here the management policy gives emphasis to urbanization since it is the main

A c a d e m i c a n d p r o f e s s i o n a l c o m m u n i c a t i o n P a g e | 5
factor related to economic growth and funding which helps in the creation of large and better
new cities (Buys, Laurie, Evonne Miller, 2012).
In China again government strategy inspires suburbanization which is a factor of financial
progress, subsidizing the formation of bigger and newer cities. In all cities, it is easy to
determine the service quality offered by the cities as well as compactness of the city-dwelling
populace. It also includes the total number of employed people in the city and different
medium of transportation used by them, infrastructure of development used by the citizens
and many more. On the other hand, there is a limitation for all these assessments because the
history of every particular changes based on case to case (Barton et al., 2013). There must be
specific reason behind the rapid growth in the population and the reason behind the migration
of people form one city to other. Evaluation of demographics must be done in order to find out
if the population is young or old (Watson, 2014).
It is a common belief that the quality of life of an individual living in city is better than those
living in urban areas but the fact is totally different from an assumption. If the data is drilled
down, few segments in the urban areas are thrilling and they need huge attention. Cities such
as Hamburg and Germany majorly focuses on recycling process. They believe in recycling more
waste rather than generating more wastage (Balducci et al., 2013).
Another example can be of Medellin, Colombia. Colombia applied innovative models of local
participation in order to identify a difficult circumstance which dealt with criminal and informal
population in urban location. Medellin developed aerial tramways and trolley buses were
implemented. Huge building with eco-friendly environment was constructed.
Thus, from all the above information mentioned, it can be concluded that the role of an
architects in inner city development is very vital. Today, every city needs a well-qualified
architects to construct a building. Planning and implementing those plans is very difficult task
and especially when it comes to planning a city and creating eco-friendly environment, an
architect must be attentive enough on various small challenges and factors.

A c a d e m i c a n d p r o f e s s i o n a l c o m m u n i c a t i o n P a g e | 6

A c a d e m i c a n d p r o f e s s i o n a l c o m m u n i c a t i o n P a g e | 7
References
Balducci, Alessandro, and RaineMäntysalo, eds. Urban planning as a trading zone. Dordrecht:
Springer, 2013.
Barton, Hugh, and Catherine Tsourou. Healthy urban planning. Routledge, 2013.
Buys, Laurie, and Evonne Miller. "Residential satisfaction in inner urban higher-density
Brisbane, Australia: role of dwelling design, neighbourhood and neighbours." Journal of
Environmental Planning and Management 55, no. 3 (2012): 319-338.
Gunder, Michael. "Commentary: Is urban design still urban planning? An exploration and
response." Journal of Planning Education and Research 31, no. 2 (2011): 184-195.
Watson, Vanessa. "Co-production and collaboration in planning–The difference." Planning
Theory & Practice 15, no. 1 (2014): 62-76.
Archer, Diane, ChawanadLuansang, and SupawutBoonmahathanakorn. "Facilitating community
mapping and planning for citywide upgrading: the role of community architects." Environment
and Urbanization 24, no. 1. (2012): 115-129.
Stewart, Sally and Lorraine Farrelly. 2014. “Redesigning Domesticity: Creating Homes for the
Elderly.” Architectural Design. 84 (2): 80-87. Doi:10.1002/ad.1732
Jenkins, Paul, and Leslie Forsyth. Architecture, participation and society. Routledge, 2009.
Fusco Girard, Luigi. "Toward a smart sustainable development of port cities/areas: The role of
the “Historic Urban Landscape” approach." Sustainability 5, no. 10 (2013): 4329-4348.
Ravetz, Alison. Modernizing cities (Routledge revivals) - Complication existing in the
environment of urban cities. Routledge, 2013.