Towards an Urbanized World
This presentation deals with the global urbanization process and its regional characteristics in an industrial, industrializing and post-industrial world. It is shown that African and Asian cities are growing very fast, whereas in Europe, North America and Latin America urbanization has almost reached its saturation point, with approximately 75% of people living in cities.
Urbanization in the developing world is not a uniform process, but has produced a large variety of urban forms and patterns, including high-tech, low-tech and no-tech. However, it is not yet clear which urban typologies will be produced in the future. Will cities in Asia, Africa and Latin America be well adapted to climatic, economic and cultural conditions, or will they be uniform and detached from regional and local traditions, due to globalization, commercialization and speculation?
Some large cities can be called world cities or global cities, acting as control centers of the international flow of capital and goods. Other megacities are suffering from a weak economy, so that a large informal sector or street economy helps millions of people to survive. Both booming megacities like Shanghai as well as newly industrializing cities like Addis Ababa are confronted with enormous challenges in urban development, land use and infrastructure and both are subjected to environmental and other risks, which may threaten the progress reached so far.
Taking the new UN-Habitat report on cities as a reference, there is no doubt that new efforts have to be made to bridge the widening gap between rich and poor countries, rich and poor cities, rich and poor urban areas, in order to shape sustainable cities, with an expected population of 5 billion in 2030.
Profile of Speaker – Prof. Dr. Eckhart Ribbeck
1991 to date:
Professor at the University of Stuttgart, Institute of Urban Planning and Design
Head of the Research and Design Unit
SIAAL (Urban Planning and Design in Asia, Africa, Latin America)
Current research projects in Mexico, Oman, Uzbekistan, Palestine
Sponsors: DFG (German Research Society), VW-Foundation, UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency)
1989-91 Invited Professor at UNAM (National University of Mexico), Mexico City
1980-82 Urban Planner c/o GTZ in Brasilia, Brazil
1976-80 Urban and Regional Planner c/o UNDP, Georgetown, Guyana
1973-76 Research Fellow at University of Darmstadt, Institute for Tropical Building and Planning
1972-73 Architect/Town planner c/o Faller & Schröder, Architects (Stuttgart)
1971 Dipl.-Ing. Architect, University of Stuttgart
Publications (selection)
Ribbeck, E.: La modernidad informal: colonias populares en la Ciudad de México, in: Megalópolis, la modernización de la ciudad de México, UNAM, 2006
Ribbeck, E. : Die Welt wird Stadt, jovis-Verlag Berlin, 2005
Ribbeck, E.: Schöner Wohnen – Investoren-Städtebau in Peking, in: db 8/04, S. 52-57
Ribbeck/Gross/Huo: Schöner Wohnen – Investoren-Städtebau in Peking, in: deutsche bauzeitung db 8/04, S. 52-57
Ribbeck, E.: Informelles Bauen in Mexiko-Stadt – ein Lehrstück für Architekten?, in: HIER ENTSTEHT –Strategien partizipativer Architektur und räumlicher Aneignung (J. Fezer/M.Heyden Hg.), S. 35-43, b_books, Berlin 2004