Associate professor: Baku is real example of developing Global South city

Baku is a real example of transformation from a post-Soviet or post-communist city into one of the developing cities of the Global South.

Report informs that Anar Valiyev, associate professor at ADA University, said this at an event titled "Azerbaijan: The Pulse of Healthy Homes," held as part of the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku.

"Azerbaijan"s experience over the past 30 years has shown that we have always tried to find some kind of example. So, when we gained independence, we tried to look at certain development models. One of these models of imitation was often Dubai. Why Dubai? Because Dubai was one of the fastest-growing cities. In 30 years, it became one of the world"s largest, I would say, global cities.

"That is why the Dubai model was attractive not only for us, especially for Baku, but also for many cities of former Soviet republics. However, it later became clear that the Dubai model, or any other model we tried to imitate - London, Prague, Warsaw or others - does not work in our environment. This is not because we cannot do it, but because local characteristics are completely different.

"So, after many years of trying to imitate the development of these magnificent buildings, image-driven buildings, huge structures and facilities, we turned to finding some kind of identity within the city. We began to think more about something original and different.

"That is why, when you look at the city now, you can see a variety of buildings. You can see skyscrapers and such truly magnificent buildings, but at the same time, in the city center, you can see that the approach to development is more original and different. Instead of trying to imitate those magnificent buildings we see in many developed countries, there is an effort to bring something based on national identity into development," he said.

According to Valiyev, the main problem with public spaces in Azerbaijan is that there is architecture, but no urbanism: "The approach to construction in the country, especially in public spaces and certain types of spaces intended for the younger generation, is somewhat different. Many of the architects who design public spaces are either men or representatives of the older generation from the Soviet period. And most of them are architects, not urbanists.

"I always argue with architects about this, because I always say that architects can perfectly design a certain type of building or some main part of it. But to make that place lively, an urbanist is needed.

"The biggest challenge for us is that we still do not understand what urbanism is, who an urbanist is, and we entrust the design of everything - whether construction, parking, a building or anything else - to architects. Architects can perfectly carry out certain types of construction and engineering work. By the way, most architects in Azerbaijan are civil engineers. So, from an engineering point of view, they can do this perfectly. But if we approach the issue from a social perspective - in terms of sociology or anthropology - this is exactly what we need to bring a space to life."

"In many cases, if you look at parks or public spaces, you will see that we have only recently begun to take the needs of the younger generation into account. In other words, instead of building parks or special spaces only for elderly people, we are creating spaces for entertainment, picnics and other activities.

"Because in our approach, parks were supposed to be intended only for mothers with children or the older generation, not for young people. I think this approach is slowly changing, and I think COVID also pushed this forward to some extent; people decided to go outside instead of sitting at home, they wanted to go out, and for this reason, we are now seeing some progress," he said.