URBIZEN

I recently received this email. It seems to be an interesting assignment for a young aspiring researcher, and some of the readers might be interested.  NYU Stern Urbanization Project ( urbanizationproject.org ) is seeking  a researcher from/ in Belgaum who can work with us on a short term assignment there. The details can be found here .  Please feel free to forward this to your colleagues.

Holding ponds in Navi Mumbai (photo: NMMC) Navi Mumbai, a planned sister city of Greater Mumbai was planned by conceived by Charles Correa, Pravina Mehta and Shirish Patel, and planned and executed by CIDCO. Navi Mumbai has a unique geography and topography. It is bound by Parsik hill, Sahyadri range on one side and Thane creek on the other side. The relative ground level at Parsik hill range is between 30 to 65 m RL and it drops down to sea level at Thane creek. The planners of Navi Mumbai have shown commendable foresight and environmental sensitivity by preserving the original lay of the land and working within the constraints of the natural topography, with minimum damage to the natural environment.  The land between the creek and the mountain forms the developable land for the city. Navi Mumbai consists of 29 villages (source: Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, NMMC). These villages are located on higher ground on the hillocks. The lower levels were subject to high ...

(Image source: Steven Holl Architects) The planned extension to the Bhau Daji Lad Museum   (BDLM) in Mumbai is generating active discussion and debate within all groups. The most controversial was the opposition from MNS (Maharashtra Navanirman Sena), whose stand is that the city needs open space more than art museums.  The international design competition for the museum extension was won by Steven Holl Architects , competing against some very famous and well-known international star architects like Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid. In a lecture delivered by Steven Holl on March 10th at the museum, the architect presented some of his works in China and also presented his concept for the museum extension . Holl's talk focused on large urban projects in China, presented in a crisp and interesting manner. He stressed the need to integrate the project with the larger urban context, and the idea of generating active public spaces defined by the built form. His projects tie the ...

I got introduced to Dieter Rams (Braun designer) first at one of the lectures at IIT Bombay. He has had immense influence on modern industrial/ product design. Rams came up with his own 10 Commandments of Design.  Architecture and interior design has much in common with industrial design, and the principles can be applied to architectural design also. Today, when the boundaries between disciplines is merging, it makes even more sense for the inter-disciplinary approach between various design disciplines. " Dieter Rams’ 10 Design Commandments 1. Good Design is innovative It does not copy existing product forms, nor does it produce any kind of novelty for the sake of it. The essence of innovation must be clearly seen in all functions of a product. The possibilities in this respect are by no means exhausted. Technological development keeps offering new chances for innovative solutions. 2. Good Design makes a product useful A product is bought in order to be used...

On May 09, 2014 The Collaborating Chambers, EMBARQ, IITB, Nagar, TISS, UDRI, WeSchool and Mumbai First jointly organised a talk by Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia titled "Transforming Our Cities". The talk was held at the BSE International Convention Hall in Mumbai. Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia is a well known economist and Chairperson, Board of Governors, the Indian Council for Research on international Economic Relations (ICRIER), heading its research programme on urbanization. She was also Chairperson of the High Powered Expert Committee on Urban Infrastructure and Services (HPECUIS) during 2008-2011. The Report on Indian Infrastructure and Services by the HPECUIS addresses the issues of urban governance and suggests ways to bring about urban reform. Dr. Ahluwalia is Member of National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council and is on the Boards of a number of premier research institutes in India. She was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the President of India in the year 20...

Urban areas hold a central position in the search for feasible climate change mitigation opportunities as a significant share of all the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is closely related to urban structures. This paper reviews the various methods and approaches to establish and quantify the relationship between urban morphology and energy consumption. The methods mainly use energy modelling, simulation, empirical data, geo-spatial mapping and 3D visualization techniques, or a combination of two or more of these. The results indicate that there is a direct correlation between urban form and energy consumption. Though there is substantial body of research on the subject, there is no definite and precise methods available to objectively establish the relationship. This is true especially for Indian cities.  To read the full paper (unpublished) .....

Colonial cities are classically dual cities, and Indian cities are no exception. Indian cities have always been dichotomous in nature – traditional & modern, formal & informal, organised & unorganised, etc. And since the political and economic system is biased towards the formal, organised and rich sections of the society, the informal, unorganised and poor sections are left to fend for their own. They occupy the interstitial spaces of the urban environment and based on their limited resources and create environments that mimic their original rural backgrounds and social structures. The informal settlements are basically user-generated models of human settlements employing ingenious use of materials and resources, sometimes self-generated, and sometimes tapped from the city “outside”. The formal city and the user-generated city share a complex symbiotic relationship, and together they form the complex ecosystem of the contemporary Indian City. These two models, running...

Housing and shelter remains the most important of human needs, and a majority of the urban population in developing countries is in desperate need for this very fundamental of human needs. Despite this we do not see significant advancement in technologies that address this critical issue. Recently, a friend shared this video about this new technology that could be the beginning of an answer. 3D printing is fast gaining popularity in the field of product prototyping. Now, we can print an entire 2,500 sqft house in 20 hours. In manufacturing we use a process called CAD/CAM (computer-aided design / computer-aided manufacturing). 3D models are designed on a computer and then manufactured using CNC Machines or 3D printers. The design is manufactured into a physical object automatically, with instruction from 3D computer model to physical object without human interface. Automated construction basically scales up this process. The size of the 3D printer is large enough to construct ...

Sexual violence and crime against women has been creating headlines and an atmosphere of fear, mistrust and apprehension. Though crime and sexual violence against women is a problem that is prevalent across the urban-rural divide, the nature and forms of violence differ, and more often than not, are influenced by the physical environment as much as the social environment. Cities (the word traces its origins to the Latin word Civic, meaning Civilized), bear the responsibility of projecting a civilized, urbane and humane sides of its citizens. Our physical environment plays an important role in our behaviour and conduct, and therefore is one of the tools to curb this violent behaviour.  “Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design” (CPTED), an approach developed by architect Oscar Newman in the United states is a step towards creating “defensible space” and making safer urban environments. (source: hromedia.com) A recent Blog on India Ink at New York Times by Neyaz Faroo...

(click here for a better quality video) This video is an attempt to showcase the fast pace of urbanization in India in the past ten years (2003 - 2013). I have created the video using historical imagery from Google Earth. The selected location is at the outskirts of Mumbai on the Mumbai-Nasik highway. This region has seen the fastest and most intense development in the last ten years, mostly high-rise residential towers. Rapid and un-checked development has also resulted in massive destruction of forest cover, mangroves and conversion of fertile agricultural land to build-able land. You can clearly see the drastic change between the years 2009 and 2011, when the residential development market peaked before the slowdown. This stretch of highway between Mumbai and Nasik is undergoing massive urbanization with well-known developers on the scene now. The next phase of urban development is already taking place on these fringes and reminds me of the phenomenon of "Edge Citie...

Photographs taken from the 20th floor of a high-rise tower in Bhendi Bazar, Mumbai, showing the contrast of the past and present urban form and a study of urban morphology. Looking West towards Tardeo and Babulnath Looking South towards Fort Area. Bhendi Bazar streets in the foreground. Looking South-East, with the Docks in the background and the J.J. flyover in the foreground. Looking South-West towards Girgaon Chowpatty