Urban renewal theory and practice

Urban areas are never static, they are constantly changing: either expanding, contracting or undergoing internal restructuring in response to economic and social pressures. In the developed economies of Western Europe the pattern of urbanization and the structure of towns and cities has been laid down over many centuries. Population growth no longer exerts the pressures it did during the Industrial Revolution or following the great shifts of peoples that occurred after the two world wars. In this context much of the
change that affects urban areas results from the gradual spatial and sectoral adjustments to economic activity and the movement of population between or within existing urban areas. These spatial and sectoral changes in demand for land and buildings lead to the intensification of use in some areas, a reduction of density in others, in some cases to refurbishment and perhaps a change in the use of
a building, in another case to demolition and reconstruction, and in a few cases to the abandonment of buildings, vacancy and dereliction. Furthermore, there will be public utilities, transportation infrastructure and social facilities to be provided, adapted, expanded, contracted or replaced in response to these changing demands. Inasmuch as these changes affect the physical structure and fabric of urban areas it is regarded here as a process which we shall call ‘urban renewal’. In other words, for our purposes, urban renewal is seen as the physical change, or change in the use or intensity of use of land and buildings, that is the inevitable outcome of the action of economic and social forces upon urban areas.

Through the historical development of urban areas since the Industrial Revolution it is possible to detect a number of types or categories of urban renewal. The Industrial Revolution itself led to a reorganization and expansion of many urban areas. As towns and cities expanded, so competition for the best locations increased; land and buildings changed use and densities of development and occupancy increased. A comparison of land use and density in any major British city between say, the end of the eighteenth century and the middle of the nineteenth century, will show considerable evidence of this restucturing or urban renewal. One of the features of this kind of renewal which, of course, continues right up to the present day, is that it is a very powerful force for urban change and predominantly a market-led process.

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