Mapping the concerning impressions of a city’s values and its identities that are etched within the fabric of the urban form.
ABSTRACT
The following text is a manifesto that aims to investigate the effects of top-down shaping of urban identity, and its clash with the variegated reality of urban life. This is done initially through the exercise of mapping these themes to uncover the city’s values. The graphical illustrations will aid in identifying what the city chooses to invest in and what is neglected. The argument will furthermore be built by considering critical perspectives regarding the relationship between socio-economically thriving concentrated parts of a city, and the socially neglected communities through an examination of studied theorists. The discussed themes will be applied to city of Plymouth as precedent study, as a lesson that could be learnt for other developing cities. There are observed tensions between Plymouth’s temporary (student) and permanent (local) residents regarding ownership of space and who the city is subservient to being manifested in its urban values. The topics investigated throughout the text all aim to answer the prompted question; Should there be a concern, if it can be observed that there is no value in diverse urban identities within a city if the top-down shaping of these identities have manifested in spatial disparities within the city?