Exporting Suburbanism
Developing countries have begun importing Western-style pro-sprawl urban planning policies, often to their detriment. Kuala Lumpur and cities across the communist world are examined.
Market Urbanist Stephen Smith looks at "the tendency among developing nations to adopt Western styles wholesale," and Kuala Lumpur specifically:
"Unlike in the West, where dense, built-up urban cores relegated Garden City developments to small new towns and the outskirts of large cities, Kuala Lumpur offered an opportunity to build a metropolis from scratch as a Garden City. Charles Reade eagerly set to work building sprawling, low-density housing estates alongside wide roads which anticipated widespread private vehicle ownership. Residential, commercial, and industrial areas were segregated and separated by grassy, undeveloped parkbelts, characteristic of the Garden City style."
Thanks to Stephen Smith
Published on Saturday, September 4, 2010 in
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