A New Concept for the Urban-Rural Relationship

I just read an article titled, "Cities First-Rural Development Later", by Jane Jacobs, that has redefined the relationship between the city and it's rural surroundings.  It is commonly perceived that civilization was made possible by the discovery of agriculture, which allowed mankind the opportunity to establish permanent dwellings.  Before this time, we were hunter gatherers, a migratory species that followed the seasons and the herds.  This article argues that the opposite is indeed the true progression of events; that cities, or at least urban centers introduced a venue for the discovery of agriculture.

I have personally believed that the two grew into existence mutually, and it is rare that I have the pleasure of encountering an idea so clear and obvious that I adopt it as my own.  "Because we are so used to thinking of farming as a rural activity, we are especially apt to overlook the fact that new kinds of farming come out of cities." e.g. electricity, mechanized processes, even the use of metals for ploughs and and reapers.  The main insight that is presented at the beginning of the article is that the greatest agricultural communities exist only near the greatest cities.  The United States, a country renowned for its cities and industrial nature, is referred to as 'the breadbasket of the world.'  What Jacobs sheds light onto is that, "The industrial revolution occurred first in cities and later in agriculture.  Electricity is now as necessary to modern farming and farm life as it is to city work and city life."  Under the premise that agriculture is the heart of civilization Jacobs explains the sequence that would play out if this were the case:  "First, there were rural people that  had no electricity, but in time, they developed it and eventually produced a surplus; then cities were possible."  If you replace agriculture with electricity, the misconception is apparent.

Jacobs argues that it was not agriculture that fueled the development of cities, but rather, trade.  She uses the example of obsidian, a highly values material 9,000 years ago (long before the implementation of metals.  Obsidian was the greatest tool for cutting, and for building tools for hunting.  The value of this material would have initiated trade.  All sorts of material were brought to a central location for trade, including grains, which would have spilled and sprouted.  This would have been observed by the townspeople, thus; Agriculture was a discovery made possible by the city, and not the other way around.

Introduction

 For at least the past two centuries, discourse about human settlements has been largely linked to ‘the city’, and more recently the ‘urban’ condition. However the use of the terms ‘urban’ and its perceived opposite – ‘rural’ – have become increasingly suspect, demanding more sound understandings and emphasis on their synergies and interdependencies. An interrogation of these terms has recognized repercussions for political, economic, and social systems, so what about architecture? In this blig we question the rural /urban dichotomy and the very relevance of these terms as they relate to design thinking through weekly reading and writing assignments.   This page intends to critically analyze published text and other forms of related media.

URL, in computational terms, refers to a Uniform Resource Locator which we recognize as an address on the Internet to locate a document. However, OED defines uniform as “of one form, character, or kind”, resource as “Stocks or reserves of money, materials, people, or some other asset, which can be drawn on when necessary” and locator as “a device for indicating the position or direction of something.” The Internet represents an abstract and virtual space where resources are located, their hyperlinks are infinite, and yet the identities of these spaces remain distinct and locatable. In physical space, we can learn from the Internet in its ability to establish coherent links between relevant information. The hyperlink is a tool that allows us to comprehend how seemingly disparate information relates to one other. What is essential is the ability to locate these things in the ‘web’. Collectively, the various locations form a whole, a network, a system. 

We can think of the built environment in similar (but not the same) terms. There are nodes of residence, work, and play. There are nodes of resource extraction, resource reallocation, consumer redistribution, and waste. But it is ultimately the web connecting them that is essential. This web is not only linked to physical interdependencies and connections but also linked to social, cultural, economic, and political influences. Like the internet these factors form virtual ‘places’. As designers engaged with these systems, physical and virtual, architects must strive to better understand them. In this course we are interested in the hyperlinks between what we perceive as rural and urban spaces - our settlement systems - and what can be learned about their links for sustainable architectural practice.