This blog captures a theoretical concept of ‘post metropolis’, 2000 by Edward Soja from his book Postmetropolis: A critical study of cities and region that synthesizes the important issues of urban theory at century's end. This blog would contextualize such urban theories in the Indian context encompassing dualism into urban spatiality, the division of the metropolis into separate - ‘urban’ and ‘suburban’ worlds or ways of life. Developments in the metropolitan/ urban areas have been dominant in nature, densely filled with heterogeneous cultures, thick layers of social interaction, abundant sources of creativity and entertainment. On contrary, the Suburban mode of development is starkly homogeneous in almost every form - cultural, economic and recreational in its most repetitious rhythms and routines of everyday life. An extension to this phenomenon, Tanvee Dabir, an Architect and graduating Urban designer, showcased an interest in building an urban design framework that focuses on connecting the trajectory of economic evolution at a macro level from a metropolis to a post metropolis urban conditions concerning transactional spaces. The research further analyses micro-level ‘sociability’ within transaction spaces as socio-cultural, economic exchanges, and informal interactions within formal settings. The design measures and framework attempts to enhance the urban life within the emerging post-metropolis fringes considering the case of Pune city.
Tanvee Dabir has completed her undergrad from Dr. Bhanuben Nanavati College of Architecture (2019) and master's in Urban Design from Kamla Raheja College of Architecture and Environmental Studies (2021). Her interests since a young age lie in creating crafts and exploring niche and offbeat realities of the world. Long car rides, bus and train rides across various places enticed her into the art of building cities and places in between. She is currently collaborating to create a platform to disperse the varied knowledge acquired across her seven years of professional education. After living in multiple places during her formative years, She has struggled with the idea of self-identity through place identity and association. The psychological need of ‘belonging’ to or at a place has defined her interest in urban design. In retrospect, through its unique geographies and ideologies, each place has influenced aspects of her being and has defined levels of comfort. Thus the idea of shifting identities of our current metropolises is a subject very close to her worldview.
Identity of cities and globalization of the economy - Defining the 'Post-Metropolis'
The notion of identity is an essential dimension of social and cultural life in cities. It grounds the city for its people to create a continuity of place identity through attachment and sociability. Economic liberalization has allowed the penetration of the image of the global city within globalizing economies. The reflections of integration of the global economy within Indian cities have been observed with the rapid urbanization of the central city and peripheral areas in the last three decades. Thus the attraction of an image of a global city has led to disassociation with place identity.
The current iteration of globalization under capitalist decentralization trends transforms cities into multi-nuclei growth centers connected with large infrastructure networks. Urbanization spreading into the suburban areas has meant the evolution of a concentrated metropolis to a fragmented post-metropolis (Soja, 2000). The reorganization of production worldwide due to Global Capital mobility follows a range of considerations that allow for-profit maximization opportunities. Due to this, the economic systems within globalizing countries go under a homogenization process. The manifestations are in the production of new transactional spaces with the integration of Global Capital. This economic homogenization has led to changes in the perceptions and associations with ‘the city’ as an entity.
The formation of outer city areas resulting from economic restructuring is characterized as a ‘Postmetropolis’ by Edward Soja. He has chronicled the evolution of the city through the lens of changing economic production. The development trajectory and the specific concentrations of the sprawling Indian metropolis are linked to their historical timeline. The patronage and a morality-based system of markets and merchant guilds during the medieval period defined the current cityscape through consumption patterns. The formation of city centers was based on this consumption, where the economic process is intrinsically linked to geography. Cities are the basis for consumption, commodity transactions, and cities are also consumed entities.
Transformation of consumption
The transformation of the modern city into a postmodern is based on the transformation of consumption. Cities have always been places for consumption and are experienced through consumption. Consumption forms spaces of the transaction (urban spaces) that aid in forming associations with the city fabric. The expansion of city fabric from a central concentrated nucleus to a fractal city in globalizing Indian cities has altered the relation of the people with the transaction. The post-metropolis speaks of the evolution of the social, cultural and economic dominance that served as a binding for the central urban form.
A metropolis was the regional morphology of the cityscape described as a result of the continuous interplay of centrifugal and centripetal forces emanating from a dominant ‘central city’ (Soja, 2000). This central city was characterized as a focal point for concurrent processes of clustering and dispersal for the simultaneous and systematic creation of urban and suburban life. (Soja, 2000)
Soja illustrates the evolution of city form broken into stages of growth and transformation of systems
The ‘Fractal City’ is the shift of economic activities towards the peripheries that caused intra-urban inequalities to emerge. 'Exopolis' and 'Fractal city' are phases where the economy shifts towards service provision rather than manufacture affecting the periurban growth. The fragmented nature of post-metropolis starts emerging within this phase with high concentrations of economic activities connected with mobility corridors. These stages underlay with disconnected transaction spaces and absent urban identity. These have to do partly with the distance from the central city and part due to development dependent on private transport networks.
Transaction within post-metropolis
Transactional situations are ephemeral from the moment of encounter to the moment of exchange within a bundling time and space. Transactions refer to the material and immaterial exchange tied to geography. They are different exchanges from monetary within market places, physical within transportation hubs and social within institutions and restaurants. Transactions are integral in creating physical, mental and social elements underpinning the formation of spatialities of consumption. On the one hand, they are driven by everyday life and, on the other, by city formation, connecting the socio-economic relations to the built environment and artifacts. Thus the social space created within this nexus defines the quality of life within cities and the attachment opportunities cities possess.
Changing economic relations within city formation from manufacturing to service provision has changed the spatialities of social consumption. Consumption could be viewed as a balance of material and immaterial; the capitalist economy necessitates the importance of the material over the immaterial. Spaces start catering to only one end of the nexus within the technology-driven peripheral formation. Transaction spaces created become stale and unapproachable to provide for changing relationships of people with city attachment. Places like shopping malls ensure consumption efficiency but lack the everyday aspect integral within urban consumption spaces.
The old, historic marketplaces have managed to adapt to changing nature of consumption while holding onto their associative values. However, new markets within the peripheral developments lack associations through the lack of open, sociable spaces.
The transformation of city fabric through economic development has changed the spaces for transactions. Medieval settlements interlinked transactions with social spaces; the modern and postmodern iterations separate the two spaces.
The maps show the municipal boundaries of some of the largest Indian metropolises. However, their spheres of influence flow well beyond their boundaries and have created smaller agglomerations within their peripheries. Thus, the ‘outer cities’ function as fragmented entities connected to the central city physically but have a sense of homogeneity in identity.
Pune an emergent post-metropolis - demonstration of theoretical understanding.
Globalizing Cities like Pune that have been influential places since medieval times have experienced the effects of the capitalist mode of production. The old city and its suburban outgrowths connected with the people by integrating sociability within transaction situations. Through holistic neighbourhood planning and incorporation of mixed land uses a degree of informality within formal marketplaces aided in the vitality of urban life. Additionally, existing transaction spaces that have gradually transformed by retaining their functions connect the modern city to its history. Places like Mandai, Tulshibaug market, Ravivar Peth bazaar, Appa Balwant Chowk, etc., still serve as transaction spaces that ground the city to its people. Also, suburban outgrowths like Kothrud, Karve Nagar, Deccan, Sahakarnagar, etc., through their gradual pace of growth, have evolved different yet continuous sense of identity.
Urban Design framework and understanding
The ‘pull factors’ charted to understand growth were divided into two board attached values, geographical and associational. Factors like strong historical context, connectivity, land availability attracted growth towards the city. Other factors like historicity, the culture of education, strong military hold, and large cantonments attracted favourable state policies to establish a service economy. The globalization of the economy brought a culture of consumerism, infiltration of global culture and changing patterns of consumption.
Economic development (forms of consumption), transaction spaces (spaces for consumption) and identity (vitality within the urban form) form the basis for dissecting the peripheral growth of the city. Pune offers a unique period where the gradual increase in service-oriented economic production is on the rise. The development of the postmetropolis is at a nascent stage through the development of information technology districts within its periphery. Places like Hinjewadi, Wanwaori, Hadapsar, Ambegaon, Balwadi, Baner, etc., have emerged around industrial districts. Thus we can understand the emerging trends of capitalist consumption and transactional social spaces within this neo-city.
The methodology entailed analyzing transactions through three analytical heads - evolution, spatial and activity. It also included observations on configurations for transactions in various contexts.
The units of analysis were broadly divided into three broader heads – Identity, Spatial Configuration and Transaction Nature. Identity entailed the analysis of morphology, function and meanings of cities or areas within the cities. These were used to identify the tangible layers of urban form.
Spatial configurations referred to the qualitative and quantitative aspects of spaces of transaction. The intangible aspects for the experiential value of transaction zones were derived through the analysis of spatial formation.
Finally, transaction nature segregated the typologies of configurations. The network of these zones referred to the range of supply chains within particular areas.
The analysis to explore the changing associations and spatial configurations of transaction entailed selection of three areas stationed within three eras of growth – Peth (the old city centre), Kothrud (suburban expansion) and Hinjewadi (peripheral expansion).
Nature of transaction spaces in Pune
Transaction spaces within specific pockets define active areas. When these pockets are equipped with spaces for socialization, they allow associations through imageability and multiplicity of functions. This was observed within the city’s historical area, where century-old transactions persist due to the strong associations within the mosaic of community living.
The planned town planning neighbourhoods within Kothrud allowed community living through common open spaces and shortened mobility corridors. In addition, the typical transaction zones offered opportunities for the intersection of various population strata.
The peripheral expansions of the contemporary transit-oriented industrial development of Hinjewadi had silos of privatized transaction zones that did not interact with the existing fabric. The restricted access to these spaces and the scale of mobility corridors affected the vitality within this area. Additionally, the segregation of local and global chains of supply and the impacts of globalizing homogenized spaces had created empty urban experiences.
The successes of historic transaction zones lie within a larger percentage of mixed-use in active zones and allowance for small-scale informal interactions at small-scale transaction points that relate to the human scale. However, the new development paradigms do not offer these strategies and instead focus on increasing the efficiency of spaces for economic production. The paradigm includes ribbon development, dependence on private vehicular transport and privatized fragmented urban mass.
Action plan and interventions
Present iterations of hybrid commercial spaces restrict their boundaries from public linkages. Rising urban densities and demands of ‘global city’ imageability, hybrid spaces indicate a way forward to integrate layers of urban realities. This would include historic precincts with hybrid spaces that continue urban character, building hybridized urban character within peripheral developments, enhancing the public realm by allowing a multiplicity of activities and the integration of implicit within explicit public spaces.
Transit-oriented development is a tool for efficient connectivity between industrial districts within the city and outer industrial districts. These linkages are geared towards increasing efficiency by vehicular connections and do not consider the experience for people residing in these areas. The consideration of the distribution of amenities, restrictions for block sizes, implementation of traffic calming measures within public zones and considerations for street design to integrate small transaction zones through walkability would create an equitable urban experience.
Functional zoning has proven effective to segregate incompatible land-uses from each other, like production zones from public zones. Nevertheless, with new developments emerging due to industrial activity, this segregation has increasingly become blurred. Therefore, the strategy integrates form-based zoning like urban codes between these areas and incentive zoning to promote transactional zones. This would aid in the development of the in-between pockets of fragmented growth present in the peripheral geographies.
The hybridization model for the transaction includes the integration of local/traditional economy within global spaces. The basis for the traditional economy is within its production, raw materials and community living. The modern economic paradigm is one based on supply-demand ratios, innovation and brand recognition through innovation. The sustenance of traditional production by integrating modern innovations to streamline production and commodification of traditional styles/life/crafts. Commodification would include the integration of modern demands through traditional production practices.
By categorizing typologies with different needs for production and spaces for commodity exchange, configurations that allow for sociability were imagined. Through spaces for sociability within each typology, as seen within historic areas, the vitality of urban life can be enhanced. Furthermore, pedestrian interaction within each zone was integral by integrating public spaces and private transaction typologies.
Lastly, the theoretical understanding of the 'Post-metropolis' condition is an inevitable condition around our major Metropolis. This research focused on capturing 'transactional spaces' within a 'post metropolis' condition which are exchanges of immaterial and material cultures and ideas. These transaction spaces would serve as an urban design tool for designing for satellite cities and agglomeration to the main city center. Hence a sensitive and people-friendly approach considering the place identity and sociability is a must in order to design our new agglomerate towns.
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