Millennials in the City

Like a lot of Millennials, the prospect of leaving the rural countryside and finding my way in the big city seems the most likely option of employment. Strangely enough, I also find myself increasingly drawn to the idea, having resolutely defended the countryside as the best place to live through my teenage years.

I became fascinated with differences between quiet rural settlements and the busy inner working of large cities. I used to enjoy trips into London as a small child and couldn’t understand how the world could feel so different just by being in a different place. When I first read Phillip Reeve’s ‘Mortal Engines’ aged about 9, I began to understand the consumerist nature cities go through in order to survive, they have to take from other, less developed places to support themselves and survive. If you’ve seen the recent Peter Jackson directed adaption of the book, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

Source: IMDB: Mortal Engines

In the real world, Architects constantly have to consider the evolvement of city landscapes worldwide to evaluate and discover new ways of re-interpreting what is possible. They understand that architecture is a discipline drawing upon foundations of understanding and translating that into the thoughtful making of space. This language of creativity extends across architecture, design and culture and it is important not to separate them. The art of place-making comes from a desire to create shelter and today manifests itself in everything from the smallest rural hamlet to the sprawling suburbs of Tokyo.

Out of interest, I therefore decided to research in more depth to try and find out whether my curiosity stems from the exuberance of youth, millennial cultural criterion or simply a desire to expand my architectural understanding through urban living. Is there a need for the architect to feel attached to a certain place, culture or era? Or is it something else? My starting point was a willingness to understand modern urbanization, and whether it was convenience or ambition driving young people towards urban centres.

The State of Global Urbanization

The balance of the world is shifting. More and more people are living in cities that house greater numbers of people than ever before. More cities are being built and cities are getting larger across the globe. This global phenomenon extends right across the international spectrum, from the developed to the developing and demonstrates that we are all part of an increasingly urban landscape.

Source: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision-Population

Of course, not all cities are developing at the same rate and the global population migrates to each urban area in different ways. In the U.S for example, the generalised trend is towards downtown suburbs and the urban sprawl surrounding industry specific hubs and dominant business patterns. The two U.S star cities of San Francisco and New York has evolved infrastructures to support their respective industries of technology and finance. Contrastingly, shifting major automobile production away from Detroit has caused the city to decline massively in both wealth and population, as the city has found itself without a large primary industry network. Generally, prepared cities are thriving and creating environments for targeted business to grow and support urbanization within their suburbs and creation of new identities for city centres. The world has clearly been urbanizing for some time and predictions suggest the trend is set to continue into the foreseeable future.

The data is staggering to say the least. In 2009 the United Nations predicted around 3 million people are moving to cities every week and 2015 data from the International Organization for Migration showed similar results. The rise in global urban population has risen 30% since 1950, with 54% of people now living in urban areas. Sources estimate that this could rise to 2/3 of world population in the next 15-30 years, meaning there is an estimated global population rise of 2 billion within urban areas. There are 1,022 cities with populations greater than 500,000 and 29 megacities with populations exceeding 10 million which is predicted to rise to between 41 and 53 megacities by 2030. A Yale research group projects that 463,000 square miles of land will be converted into urban environments, just under 10% of the planets land and the equivalent of 20,000 football fields concreted over every day.

Drivers of Urbanization

Urbanization results from a number of global factors and is constantly being analysed to determine extemporaneous migration and correlations between urbanization drivers and population forecasts. Although drivers differ depending according to unique factors relating to culture, geography and regional subtlety for each urban area, as well as stages of development and economic maturity. Despite these differences, world urbanization is increasing and many common drivers are prevalent in a number of regions and levels of development.

The clearest and most widespread driver is innovation within the agricultural sector. Mechanization and automation have replaced the need for large manual work forces and don’t require interspersed rural communities to provide labour. Though currently seen today in modern developing countries, all developed countries will have gone through similar transitions to more efficient and mechanized techniques. This allows them to implement changes in the training and education of their populations towards producing highly skilled tertiary workforces, in industries such as technology and engineering and represents a change in lifestyle for large majorities of a regions working population. It is worth mentioning that developed countries have started and progressed the development of artificial intelligence and drones in the agricultural sector, which could trigger another shift in efficiency and subsequent pattern of urban migration.

Another driving factor if the net flow of concentrated wealth within modern economies worldwide, especially as the modern workforces become more specialized in nature. Populations are drawn by these urban centres, that gradually specify towards products and services that expand the centre of wealth. The specialized nature of jobs in the economy encourages urbanization by facilitating the hyper-specialization of an interconnected network of specialists that furthers industrial globalization. However beneficial the Internet and worldwide communications are in reducing the amount of industry specific urban centres through digital connectivity, successful interpersonal networking remains predominantly based upon physical co-location.

Lifestyle preferences and societal impressions matter too, as the general documented trend suggests many baby boomers have moved back into suburbs or commuter belts within the UK. Facilities and opportunities are also important, as cities generate wealth on scale via network affects and productivity and gains in efficiency across the board. These have been realized in recent years, with a generalised trend of developing urban centres into more efficient hubs rather than concentrating on expanding the urban area in size helping to accelerate the growth and identity of cities. Technology and infrastructure play key roles in the speed of this development.

Source: Townshend Landscape: Kings Cross Regeneration Project

Direct and Secondary Effects

Urbanization has created more cities, and cities that are getting larger. These large cities create new systems of transportation, living arrangements and infrastructure requirements that challenge the way in which the world views and understands urban dwelling. New processes and products arise from advancements in lifestyle, engineering and technology that constantly creates new issues and solutions for the population to address. The unprecedented scale of urbanization is constantly accelerating this process.

Urbanization primarily falls into 3 categories. The first being infrastructure, where public officials and city planners build infrastructure to support the growth of sustainable populations, which private companies will eventually build and manage. The private development sector is the second main category, who invest in the development and construction of large venues and facilities that people live, work and play in. Consumer products companies are the third category, as they sell goods and services to people and hence develop considerable social influence.

City planners and related urban influencers tackle substantial challenges accommodating appropriate sustainable growth. They have to successfully navigate the introduction of new technology in a cost efficient and environmentally sustainable manner. Some cities will fail to plan accordingly, which often results in cases like Detroit, which was previously mentioned, that become deteriorated and dangerous.

To summarise, urbanization is a core theme for exploration, as it symbolizes a key structural change to the global system, one where both companies and public institutions will spend money to plan for and be successful in achieving. The convenience of this expansion race leaves cities vulnerable to change and eager to assert themselves as a well-connected urban hub.

Urbanization in the UK

In the UK, there are no forecasts that suggest the likelihood of a megacity even though the majority of our cities are expanding. Many cities here owe much of their development to post-war era industry and many of these buildings are now nearing or have reached the end of their lifespan. Areas of housing and former industrial land are being repurposed into smarter urban collectives, with planners favouring commercial space with housing and facilities appropriately incorporated into the larger schemes.

In cities such as Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham you will see shiny new high-rise apartments, office blocks and cranes upon the skyline. The streets play host to new generations of bars, cafes and restaurants. Increasingly, they are often serving affluent young professionals who occupy the new accommodation, who have rejected living in the late 19th and 20th century houses favoured by previous generations. Here the cities are not only urbanizing but are doing so in a way that transforms the identity of cities.

Warehouses along the canals and rivers in these cities are often being remodelled as gentrified marketplaces, technology hubs and communal business centres. They are repurposing the land they currently occupy and that allows new age industry to flourish and establish itself in an expanding global market. Young professionals are flocking towards these mixed use developments, attracted by the idea of living and working in close proximity. Only 30 years ago many residents had moved out of city centres in favour of living in suburbs and housing developments away from urban centres. The reversal of this demonstrates a dramatic shift in the way people want to live.

Source: BBC News: The UK’s rapid return to city centre living

The growth in city centre living is down to young people, who are predominantly responsible for the increasing population in city centres. Older generations are generally not returning from the suburbs.

It is worth mentioning that some of this rise will be down to University students. The UK has more universities than ever before, with some newer Universities comprising of multiple sites occupying attractive city centre locations within one collective campus. Older Universities such as Liverpool and Sheffield have also expanded and students have gradually started to reside in houses once occupied by the generations that have moved away.

By far however, the popularity of city centre living is most heavily favoured among young working professionals. Among cities that contain 500,000 or more people, the amount of 20-29 year olds living within the city centre has tripled in the first decade of the 21st century. They now occupy over half the population and the creation of new infrastructure from investors and developers has created new facilities for young people to enjoy and start to create a cultural identity of their own. This expansion has coincided with the professional job market growing rapidly, with Manchester showing an 84% increase in city centre jobs from 1998.

This has in turn made city centre more attractive and appealing, with facilities such as gyms, restaurants and shops all choosing to locate themselves within mixed use urban centres. Projects such as the regeneration of Albert Dock in Liverpool, Kings Cross in London, and Castlefield and Salford in Manchester. Young professionals are thriving in their new lifestyles and many of them are avoiding the commutes traditionally undertaken by those living in commuter belts. 32% of city residents now walk to work. For the most successful of these reinvented urban centres, increased demand from businesses and the changing population will raise important questions about the purpose and reasons why these cities expand further in the future.

In the UK at least, we are starting to see the points at which cities have redeveloped almost all land that needed updating but continue planning large scale infrastructure projects. Space is starting to become tight again in places light Birmingham and Manchester, where they previously reinvigorated the land responsible for their post-industrial decline.

For the time being however, many millennials within the UK enjoy the benefits of these new facilities and are thriving in mixed use city centres.

So for me personally, perhaps it is an eagerness to feel a part of the modern regeneration, perhaps partly my desire to be there and to experience the here and now.

Until next time,

RK