URBIZEN

The Government is making massive efforts to set the ball rolling on the Smart Cities program in India. ULBs are gearing up and creating SPVs and hiring consultants to make their pitch, and access the funds. Much seems to be happening in the background. Self-proclaimed "Smart City Gurus" seem to have sprung out of nowhere, and others are clamoring to get into the scene. International consultants, IT companies and Management wallahs have all jumped onto the bandwagon to make Indian cities "Smart". But if you ask the man on the street about "Smart Cities", he will either give you a blank stare or utter something which is merely an aspect of the concept of Smart Cities. And you will experience the same reaction when conversing with a qualified Architect, Urban Planner or Urban Designer. That, or you might end up in an endless, pointless debate. The point is, in all this brouhaha where does the common-man-on-the-street fit in? Is he a part of this wav...

Urban transformation may not always be "effort-time-money-intensive". Eric Reynolds (of Urban Space Management) mentions about the "Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper" solutions that can be applied to urban spaces. This signals a bottom-up approach to urban issues rather than the top-down traditional approach. Even small urban interventions carried out with minimum resources can improve the livability and image of an urban space and transform it into a "place". Most of these interventions are small-scale, temporary and address an immediate issue at a neighborhood level. More often than not, these are community initiatives for the sole aim of improving their immediate environments. 'Parklets', street painting, wall murals, "happy streets" etc. are all examples of these "Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper" interventions which fall under the umbrella term of "Tactical Urbanism". It is also referred to as guerilla urbanism, po...

Affordable Housing is one of the most important issues for Mumbai's development. due to its complex and dynamic nature it is a big challenge for the Government, urban planner and all stakeholders. In Mumbai, approximately 42% of the people live in slums and about 57% households live in one-room tenements, with 9 out of 24 wards with more than 50% slum population. (Census 2011) Affordability is a relative concept. It means different things to different people. But then how do we define Affordability? A high-level Task Force on Affordable Housing for All, set up by the Government of India in 2008, and headed by Deepak Parekh, has put forth the following definition of affordable housing: (http://www.naredco.in/pdfs/report-high-level-task.pdf) For EWS/ LIG: ≤ 4 years of income or EMI/ Rent ≤ 30% of gross monthly income For MIG: ≤ 5 years income or EMI/ Rent ≤ 40% of gross monthly income Currently the two approaches being adopted to address the issue of affordable housi...

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...