City structure and how to analyse it

A grand municipal building behind a barbed wire fence

As the majority of youth lives in cities – and the number is only predicted to grow – it is important that we have a basic understanding of how to analyse the city. There are far too many aspects that can be analysed, and we can probably only specialise in several, but the aspects mentioned below are the basis on which you can build your assumptions and develop the analysis in the direction you are interested in. A city can be imagined as a layered pie consisting of the following layers:

Let’s explore each in depth.

Physical space

Physical space includes landscape, flora and fauna and all the human-built environment: roads, buildings, parks, street furniture and decorations. There are specifics we would like you to notice, as they tend to be spread across Eastern Europe as a common trait.

Fences

Creating barriers like fences is an attempt to territorialise an area, to mark private and governmental structures. It also affects pedestrian and transport infrastructure, as it blocks space for mobility. Fencing leads to ineffectively used territory across many cities and towns. Sometimes these are abandoned buildings – such as factories, sports fields or similar – located in the city centre. In such cases, city governments should open space for re-thinking the use of those territories. New types of housing or other functions could take over the buildings and bring down the fences.

A large municipal building with a modern facade and rectangular windows, partially obscured by a barbed wire fence. — Source: Michael Chow

Can cities get rid of advertisements?

Commercial advertising appears all around cities, and it is often disconnected from the cultural code of the place. Within the global movement to ban urban billboards, many wonder what European policy will look like in the coming years. We are only just beginning to understand how advertisements shape the perception of a city’s image. If we removed all the ads, cities would look entirely different. Getting rid of advertisements should not – and will not – happen overnight. Cities can set taxes for ads in particular places, as well as use the space to communicate city decisions to the wider public or promote social campaigns rather than consumerism.

A city street corner with a mix of old and modern-style buildings and a large billboard. — Budapest. Source: Ceyda Çiftci

Flora and fauna

Unfortunately, parks, squares and alleys are changing their functions at the physical level. Even the greenest cities have been affected by commercial structures. People still visit parks to relax and stroll, but due to a lack of green areas, social conflicts arise between cyclists, dog owners, parents with children and those who simply want to sit in a park. Of course, there can and should be some commercial activity in parks – someone selling ice cream or balloons – but not hotels or restaurants. Here the facts are plain and simple: the relationship with city fauna is the last issue governments consider before investing in new residential areas. The absence of consultation with ecologists and soil scientists affects species that used to live in a given area. It goes without saying that parks matter in the city, but we should also remember that parks are home to fauna, which has the right to the city just as we humans do. It is also worth considering the interrelations between the more or less indigenous fauna of the city – birds, rodents and others – the pets we walk in parks (mostly dogs), and how human activities affect urban fauna (fireworks, for example).

A circular diagram showing interconnected urban wildlife species and their roles in ecosystems. — The circle of city/fauna interconnections

How does your city smell?

Noise and smell shape the boundaries of territory in a city. Noise levels in poorly planned cities are constantly growing. Cities smell because of insufficient waste separation and other issues. According to the Centre for Conscious Design, smell triggers highly emotive reactions and connections with space and place. The smell of a city should therefore be considered not only for immediate enjoyment, but also for emotionally positive experiences and a sense of place – and it can be effectively built into future planning strategies. Waste management and recycling are the first steps, alongside ensuring that industries switch to renewable energy sources that produce no fumes. Public, clean, accessible and free toilets are the next step.

A visual schematic discussing the role of waste management and clean energy in reducing city odors. — Source: The Centre for Conscious Design

The last steps would be to ensure a more or less equal distribution of bakeries and parks. Some smells a city can do nothing about – if there is a sulphur spring in the neighbourhood, it will smell of sulphur.

The spatial distribution of social groups in the city has been a central issue of urban studies and planning since the 1920s. The social structure of the city comprises various patterns of social groupings characterised by common features such as socio-economic status, age, life stage, ethnic background, lifestyle and sexuality. Large cities have always exhibited diversity. They have always been more than just densely built sites, centres of economic power or concentrations of population. They have also been marketplaces that attract flows of diverse people who have traditionally exchanged goods and ideas. These inflows of people have driven cities to become centres for the arts, creativity, science and innovation. Transnational links between people – and therefore between cities – are growing. The collapse of the “socialist” bloc is the most striking illustration of this, having led to new patterns of social and spatial inequalities.

Cultural codes

City culture is our common values and behaviours. When we think about the uniqueness of Eastern European culture, what comes to mind first? It is not memorable monuments or famous people. To better understand city culture, methods such as key-wording, mind-mapping and – most importantly – observation can be used. City culture also contains city toponyms, legends, outstanding personalities, historical facts, inventions, rumours, cultural events and so on. Everything that exists in this intangible space of the city, we call cultural codes, because each of these codes is the result of the work of either an author or a team of authors. And all these cultural codes are closely related to each other. You can always, if you wish, trace a cultural code – who inspired whom, why something happened, what its effect and cause were, and so on. Cultural codes do not exist on their own; they are part of a larger “chain.” These chains will, of course, be unique to each city. Starting from the history of a city’s emergence, there will be several famous names, historical events and local legends – all engraved in its cultural chains. Cultural chains are closely tied to physical space and the people who lived in those locations. Every public space in the city therefore carries its own cultural code, directly connected to that place. Knowing all this and observing the different layers of the pie in your city allows us to broaden our understanding of cities as living organisms.