An Unwanted City

Tacloban, an involuntary linear city

A hunger for progress, delivered in bulk in the form of new town* development, is not exclusive to China. The humble Philippine city of Tacloban, levelled by a devastating typhoon, set the stage for a play in urbanism of urgency*. Expanding as explosively as any Chinese city, global relief efforts split the city in two, growing a remote and scattered core from scratch. These ingredients set the path for a perfect storm as urban theory and a pressured planning practice, unable to keep pace with the reality on the ground, collide head on.

Although challenging, Tacloban’s collaborative mindset made mediating these opposing constructs feasible. Theoretical models, imperfect but neutral, proved invaluable to navigating a rapidly shifting landscape. Working under the neutral flag of UN-Habitat enabled implementation of an agile yet powerful format for global-local partnerships that can operate essentially outside of common political bias. In Tacloban, réalplanning*—an ability to mitigate the inherent shortcomings of applying theory to practice—comes within reach.