transportation, industry, schools, and clinics. But 

 these elements, although their location may be urban, 

 are rarely conceived in terms of the total life-support 

 systems needed for a decent human existence. The world 

 is only just beginning to approach the concept that 

 complex, interacting physical systems are needed to 

 provide the economic and social conditions for human 

 survival, to contribute to work productivity, and to 

 stimulate economic activity. 



In recent years, however, new institutional 

 arrangements have emerged that treat community-building 

 as a business and provide for the management and 

 financing of whole settlements. Urban development 

 corporations and similar public and private agencies 

 have been building entire new communities or parts of 

 communities, and have been applying the same technigues 

 to the redesign and reconstruction of existing obsolete 

 cities. 



Singapore , for example, has channeled its expanding 

 population into eight satellite cities on the outskirts 

 of the old city, and the latter is being completely 

 modernized through long-term redevelopment of the 

 slums. Singapore has not only provided modern 

 apartments and urban services for all low- income 

 families, but in the process it has employed and 

 trained thousands of workers, created a network of 

 building supply industries, stimulated the construction 

 industry, attracted international industrial 

 establishments, and tripled per capita income. Other 

 pioneering efforts have been undertaken in India, 

 Brazil, Ghana, Japan, Sweden, Malaysia, the 

 Netherlands, the Soviet Union, the Philippines, and 

 many other countries. 



Many of these efforts have been very costly, have 

 ignored the poor, or have created communities that 

 people find unsuited to their needs. Nevertheless, 

 they demonstrate the feasibility of building whole 

 communities through urban development corporations that 

 attempt to lay out workable, physical plans consistent 

 with economic and social goals. Use of the profits 

 from increasing urban land values to finance community 

 facilities has been a major aid to financial 

 feasibility. Spatial arrangements that locate jobs and 

 housing in closer proximity have helped reduce problems 

 of transportation. Improvement of the concepts and 

 methods tried to date can lead to better planned living 

 environments and new opportunities for the fulfillment 

 of human aspirations. 



Planned communities and unplanned cities share the 

 same heritage of obsolete urban technology. Most big 

 cities are using technology first introduced in the 

 late nineteenth century. Major inventions of the 1880s 

 still dominate the urban scene, from elevators and 



186 



