Holistic urban growth begins with cooperative negotiation between all agents

Regeneration and development in our cities requires a holistic approach and a cultural shift that includes the many actors that constitute and build our cities. Master planning is a remnant of a mechanistic worldview that attempts to prescribe sustainability, but cities are complex systems built on relationships. How could a city rule set foster cooperation and negotiation between the many inhabitants of a city? Relational Urbanism proposes a framework for development where local action and context dictate growth patterns based upon local negotiation and mutual benefit between parties. It does not assume all parties will make sustainable choices, but signifies a shift to a holistic system of city making based on a democratic, collective intelligence and culture of its people. 

Sustainability requires interdependence between buildings, infrastructure, and people

Zoning codes and city bylaws prescribe relationships to prevent conflict between properties and buildings, such as setbacks, height and density, resulting in isolated buildings. Sustainability requires the city to become an ecology: a complex system of interdependent buildings, infrastructure, and nature. Relational Urbanism flips the typical prescriptive rules and encourages negotiation between building owners and unique local typologies. Growth occurs only when neighbors can negotiate the issues of livability (views, height, density, green space), energy (rejected heat, solar exposure), and natural capital. The goal is to increase the interdependency between buildings as a means to organically build complex mutually beneficial relationships for a sustainable city ecology.

Sustainable cities require local decision-making and block-centric planning

Centralized master planning is slow to adapt to changing demographics and technology. It does not account for local natural ecology or local needs. Relational Urbanism is based upon block scale economies for negotiation of unused regulatory assets. Excess assets can be traded or mutual agreements to share resources can be made between neighbors within a block. This localized economy exists on a centrally controlled platform, thus the city’s mandate is not to prescribe development, but manage the framework for it to occur. Decision making over public land such as laneways and street frontages are also given to block residents. This enables locals to find creative solutions to their specific needs. Without stringent land use policies, cities are free to evolve from the bottom-up.