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To change life, we must first change space”
 - Henri Lefebvre, French writer
Ever since Ancient Egypt, civilizations have attempted to plan
cities in order to make them work better. Planners seek to
organize a city so that it benefits all its inhabitants. They do
things such as build housing, construct infrastructure like roads
and plumbing, provide public services like electricity and
garbage collection, coordinate commerce, provide recreational
facilities such as parks, stadiums and museums, and facilitate
transport.
These days, planning is not a simple job suited for one
department or group. More and more, the cooperation of a number
of government departments, local organizations and private
citizens is needed to make a city, even a neighborhood, function
healthily. Nevertheless, a coherent vision of what is necessary,
what is good and what works is needed if cities are going to
survive in the future. The students’ job is to construct that
vision.
In groups or as a class, students should form an “Ideal
City” committee. Over the course of several weeks
student committees will be designing their ideal city. Each
week’s activity helps students build up their knowledge of cities
and the things necessary to have a healthy, successful city. At
the end, they will be ready to design their ideal city. The ideal
city can be drawn, built (3-D model) or written up—the teacher
will help decide which approach to take.
Before getting started, or as you go along, you may want to
consult the “Doing Good” folder, which lists some of
the cities that have made great improvements in one or more
respects.
Good luck and make sure you enjoy your city—that’s
essential for its health and yours.
Note: The teacher should keep in mind that, while the first
two activities are simple and essential, the later ones become
more difficult. Teachers of lower grades might think about (i)
collapsing activities 3 and 4 into a single activity; (ii)
simplifying activity 6 by asking students to design the city
without considering the final suggestions and discussing those
concerns (advantages and disadvantages, correlation with goals)
at a later date.
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