USING URBAN ACUPUNCTURE TO REIMAGINE THE GLOBAL SOUTH
- andrewgasnolar
- May 28, 2021
- 4 min read
The Global South faces many glaringly difficult challenges, amongst them poor planning. Often, ineffective governance and institutional frameworks that provide the frame for large-scale interventions lack the appropriate frameworks that enable change and regeneration, which is cause for concern. Andrew Ihsaan Gasnolar explores alternative frameworks such as Urban Acupuncture and how it can reclaim, reshape and reimagine the Global South.
Cities and communities across Africa have been shaped extensively by extractive policies initially rooted in slavery, colonialism, institutionalised extraction, exploitation and colonialism in the form of South Africa's apartheid, and these legacy issues required focused attention and effort. Innovative frameworks such as Urban Acupuncture are sorely needed to reimagine the Global South to address these persisting challenges.
THE LINGERING EFFECTS OF COLONIALISM
The scale of the looting is not only focused on resources but also extends to the opportunity lost for young people to access opportunities, women to utilise educational facilities and for our cities and communities to unshackle themselves from the burden of our past. There is, of course, a need within the Global South to confront these issues through the lens of a systemic and structural reform agenda. Still, there is also scope for very focused and pin-prick interventions that can carve out important space for reflection and a broad frame that enables regeneration at a very local level too.
URBAN ACUPUNCTURE: RECLAIM, RESHAPE, REIMAGINE
Andreea Cutieru, a Bucharest-based architect, in 2020, reflected one type of strategy that can be utilised and leveraged to begin the work of regeneration, reimagining and renewal within the cityscape and community landscape. Cutieru frames this under the banner of Urban Acupuncture as "a design tactic promoting urban regeneration at a local level, supporting the idea that interventions in public space don't need to be ample and expensive to have a transformative impact. An alternative to conventional development processes, urban acupuncture represents an adaptable framework for urban renewal, where highly focused and targeted initiatives help regenerate neglected spaces, incrementally deploy urban strategies, or consolidate the social infrastructure of a city."
At its core, urban acupuncture seeks to reimagine the ordinary and routine structuring of both our urban space and the public policy intersection where these issues often play out. This approach is tactical and onboards meaningful participatory processes that amplify the needs of a community while reflecting on how neglected space can be reclaimed, reimagined and then reshaped not simply by large public or private sector players by the people themselves. To some, this imaginative and optimistic outlook may seem misguided due to the context of urban degradation. Urban acupuncture's benefits should outweigh its reliance on the securitisation and militarisation of city centres. Urban Acupuncture, incremental and participatory processes have proven to be already working.
This approach and reimagined outlook has already borne fruit in the city of MedellÃn, the capital of Colombia's mountainous Antioquia province and Colombia's second-largest city. Over the past 20 years, social progress and economic development have put Colombia in a much better state, often epitomised by the stories of MedellÃn. Within this context, MedellÃn was notably ground-zero for drug wars but has shifted over the past 15-20 years with the renewal and renaissance of what is possible. The important lessons from MedellÃn will be to retrofit our urban design tactical interventions that must include urban acupuncture and importantly focus on promoting greater social inclusion, participatory urban development and creating enabling collaboration and partnership.
Urban acupuncture is a blend of theory and approach that seeks to integrate socio-environmental theory, contemporary urban design, and thinking around cities and communities. The concept of traditional Chinese acupuncture results in an urban design tool that seeks to use small-scale or highly focused interventions to transform the sizeable urban context within appropriate typological framing and structuring. Kembali is fortunate to work on a select few projects that seek to leverage the benefits of Urban Acupuncture interventions. The idea is to commit to interventions likely to be a long haul within a structured frame, backed with an appropriate institutional and human capital back-end that will enable this focused yet adaptable framework.
SCALABILITY FOR SUITABILITY
The frame of Urban Acupuncture has immense adaptability and scalability as part of its urban design framework. It serves as a crucial reminder that public policy interventions need not only focus on the bigger picture. The typological structuring and blend of various theoretical and design thinking emphasise once more that there is immense benefit around introducing robust, pragmatic, and tactical interventions across different pressure points. The benefits of our public policy can be made more relevant by introducing scalable, responsive interventions to specific needs and pressure points and forming part of a broader reform agenda.
DOUBLING THE FRUITS OF OUR LABOUR
The scalability of this framework allows for multiple interventions to run across various sectors. But at its heart, this approach is underpinned by urban design framing, thinking and work around how our cities and communities can lean into their quirks. The intervention or conceptual design might be site-agnostic whilst introducing interventions that are far from agnostic. The growing shift in placemaking and urban design must continue to respond meaningfully to the issues that consume our cities and community's opportunities. At the same time, we model "alternative to conventional development processes" and focused interventions that feed into a broader frame, doubling the fruits of our labour.
- Andrew Ihsaan Gasnolar
