What About People in Urban Sprawl?
Addressing Accessibility & Social Cohesion Challenges in Residential Urban Sprawl Areas in Vilnius
U.N. Kunigėlytė (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
Rodrigo Viseu Cardoso – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
M.M. Dabrowski – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
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Abstract
Since the 90's, Vilnius region (Lithuania) has been experiencing rapid and poorly managed market-driven development of urban sprawl - a result of institutional, economic and societal shifts in the post-communist European context. This has resulted in extensive car-dependent residential areas which lack infrastructure, services and quality public spaces, creating major accessibility and social cohesion challenges. This thesis explores how and why these accessibility and social cohesion challenges manifest themselves in residential urban sprawl areas in Vilnius region, and how spatial, governance and policy interventions in both dimensions can mutually reinforce each other to create more inclusive and sustainable living environments.
Analysis revealed that a lack of daily amenities and public spaces, as well as a lack (and poor organization) of appropriate mobility infrastructure in urban sprawl areas drives people away from local public spaces through a lack of local meeting places, dependence on the inner city, as well as hostile and car-centric streets. Furthermore, insights showed that urban sprawl and its associated challenges in Vilnius region are the result of a set of systemic failures and dysfunctions, including missing governance scales, flawed financial systems and legal structures, as well as mismatches between formal and real spatial planning tool powers.
This thesis proposes an integrated exploratory framework of spatial, governance and policy interventions which directly responds to these findings. Utilizing SE Vilnius as a case study, the spatial design proposes the development of a network of walkable, mixed-use compact centralities, while the policy and governance interventions directly target the structural fail points. Together, these create a framework to improve accessibility and social cohesion in urban sprawl areas, transforming them towards more sustainable and inclusive living environments.