It’s not about compact cities

Abstract

While the compact city has become a major element for sustainable urban development and one of the most controversially discussed issues in contemporary urban studies, I argue that compactness has been a central element of various models of urban development for over 100 years. When we talk about a ‘renewed agenda’ for the compact city, we need to consider how historic settlement patterns, shaped by specific socio-historical conditions and ideas of compactness are re-structured through the contemporary conception of the compact city. My main argument is that the compact city in its current conception is mainly treating symptoms of unsustainable urban development but does not go deep enough to change existing patterns of uneven social geographies. By integrating the compact city with Henri Lefebvre’s conception of centrality I discuss four socio–material relations to demonstrate how centrality affects the social unevenness of spatial development and can lead us towards an understanding of compact cities as multi-scalar fields of relations today.

Grounding the compact city

“…He illustrates the diversity of contexts in which compact and dense urban spaces are experienced. Similarly, Herburger (2023) reminds us of the diversity of urban forms articulated through, among other examples, the 'Urbanität durch Dichte' model in the German context. His commentary shows how compact urbanism has been an element of many different political projects, not just the currently hegemonic global sustainability agenda.…”

“…In brief, we would argue that human geographers can best contribute to concrete compact city projects by exploring these as situated practices, and offering analyses that can help motivate socially inclusive and justly sustainable interventions (in contrast to an ideological critique of the global hegemonic compact urbanism agenda). So when the commentators propose new conceptual tools, such as Lefebvre's concept of 'centrality' (Herburger, 2023), or the idea of 'air rights' (Chen, 2023), we will counter by asking; how can these concepts help in such grounded and contextual analyses? Will they function as master concepts, leading us to identify sameness and generic processes across different contexts?…”

Coupling Coordination and Spatiotemporal Analysis of Urban Compactness and Land-Use Efficiency in Resource-Based Areas: A Case Study of Shanxi Province, China

“…Characteristics of a compact city include mixed land use [16], high urban density [17], efficient urban operation [18], good quality of life, and convenient road access [19]. This concept can be categorized into three research areas: theoretical connotation [20], measurement of urban compactness [21], and planning practice [22]. The measurement index is an essential aspect of the compact city concept used to determine whether urban development is compact [23,24].…”