The Philippines is a country of almost 100 million people spread out over 7,100 islands. Traditionally, our economy was viewed as mainly agricultural and much of the business and investment focus was on three key cities : Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao. In reality, however, the Philippines has become more urbanized over time; 63% of our population live in urban areas (including small urban areas), according to the 2012 World Population Data Sheet. Cities are typically centers of consumption, resource use, and waste. But they are also key growth drivers of regional economies, particularly when a number of cities and municipalities are clustered.

But today’s City is facing a new challenge. Aside from congestion, the need for mass transit, water resources, power, better law enforcement and public services, the City now faces the challenge of a climate-defined future. In recent years, climate change and natural disasters have become the  unpredictable variables which have affected our cities.  Typhoons, monsoon rains, floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have placed more of our cities under greater risk and disruption.

A Design Competition

Looking at both the risks and potentials of our cities, a group of us from the National Competitiveness Council, APEC National Organizing Council, Urban Land Institute, World Wildlife Fund, Asia Society, Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Reconstruction (ASSURE) have teamed up to create the Liveable Cities Design Challenge. Our goal was to create a planning and design competition whose objective is to get city planners across the Philippines to better plan their respective cities for a climate-defined future and for disaster-risk reduction. At the same time, city planners will be encouraged to design Liveable Cities that offer safety, convenience, livelihood, lifestyle, and sustainability that attract people to live, work, and play so their cities can be competitive.

Twenty cities have been invited and selected to join the competition, inlcuding those cities who will be hosting  APEC Meetings in 2015 and others that are vulnerable or have been affected by disasters in the past.

Competition Categories

We have broken down the competition into two categories, with both requiring a Strategic Vision and Plan for a Liveable and Resilient City that will begin with an assessment of the existing situation and a strategy for disaster risk reduction and preparedness. The plan should include spatial, transport, and infrastructure planning, urban design strategies and also involve the community in the process.  At the end of the day, we want cities which are attractive for people to live, work, and play; be affordable, accessible, socially-acceptable, environmentally-friendly, economically-viable and climate-resilient. The process and the plan should be well documented, including phased development and how the public sector, private sector and the community will work together to make the city more liveable, walkable, and resilient -- ensuring its competitiveness.

The first category is called “Government Center” : a complex of government buildings which are designed to be disaster-resistant (e.g., able to withstand designated limits of wind velocity, floods, and earthquakes, etc.) coupled with an awareness and education program to make people better prepared for disasters.  These buildings must be located over an area that is hazard-free and must be designed to serve the public in pre- and post-disaster phases. They must serve a primary purpose as a public service facility (say, a school or hospital or office building) and a secondary purpose during disasters (say, an evacuation shelter or command post). They must be designed to be the last remaining building in operation, with full back-up power, water, telecommunications, and other capabilities when all other buildings are down. This Government Center may be in contiguous area or may be scattered over different pockets or zones within city limits and accessible to a majority of the city’s population.

The second category is known as an “APEC Meeting Venue” : a plan covering a meeting site for one of the APEC meetings which the Philippines will host in 2015. The site need not cover an entire city but must at least cover an area surrounding an APEC meeting venue plus access and routes to other events and functions and to the airport. The plan must include amenities which make attendance at an APEC meeting enjoyable for both delegate and city residents, without causing inconvenience to local residents. It should capture the soul and spirit of a city and be designed to be a permanent fixture of the city, thus creating a core capable of transforming that city into a Liveable City in the next several years. Additionally, the design must encompass disaster-risk reduction principles.  

The competition will be run with a team of architects provided by ASSURE who will act as mentors or as coaches for each of the cities. After site visits and workshops, cities will come together for a presentation as well as public display of their plans. The competition has received support from USAID, through Project INVEST, and Microsoft. While no formal awards will be given, winners will be under consideration for multi-year technical assistance support from USAID under its SURGE project. We look forward to starting a trend for better urban design and the creation of Liveable Cities in the Philippines.

By Guillermo M. Luz

 As published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer 

To learn more about The Liveable Cities Design Challenge, download the Pacific Cities Sustainability Forum Report here