Archives - Question of Cities

‘Ecology is a city’s natural buffer. We don’t see its tipping point, its warning.’

As large swathes of natural ecology in our cities are sacrificed for development and construction, not only do we lose the trees and rivers and lakes, but also the imagination of cities defined by its natural elements. Land use does…

The Himalayan disasters point to reckless construction, not merely climate change

As Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab struggle to recover from the widespread devastation this monsoon, it is futile to only blame climate change. The ground situation and studies point to reckless construction – even over-construction – in the…

Dehradun: Infrastructure development or the
ghost of greed?

The aggressive push for infrastructure projects – specifically the Char Dham Yatra road, Dehradun’s airport expansion, and an elevated corridor to Mussoorie – threaten the fragile ecology of the Himalayan region. Despite studies advising caution, the government pushes ahead with…

Will nature send an invoice to booming Goa?

Eco-sensitive zones, private forests, paddy fields, orchards, natural greens, sacred groves, khazan lands, kulaghars, plateaus – all of Goa’s undulating land and rich ecology have been under assault for ‘development’. Almost every village has land deals and land conversions aided…

Why are we pushed into unsustainable high-density living?

While not negating the benefits of density such as higher productivity, shorter commutes, and lower carbon footprint, the downsides of the high density approach have rarely been critically examined. Among them are how the high density doctrine has been weaponised…

The anatomy of density in our cities: A storyboard, a way of seeing

Density, in urban planning, is often reduced to a simple metric: the number of people within a given land area.[1] But it is more than just bodies per square kilometre. It is also the concentration of housing units, the total…

A kilometre in South Delhi, two starkly different densities

The building and people densities across the upscale Sainik Farms and the poorer Sangam Vihar are too stark to ignore – languid life in a low density neighbourhood in one, constant struggle amidst high density in the other. Both are…

‘Infrastructure and design of buildings matter, not only density’

Density is not the only factor in people in Mumbai’s slum rehabilitation colonies getting tuberculosis; a multi-disciplinary study showed that the built form mattered including light and ventilation, distance between buildings and open spaces. Mumbai’s norms for slum rehabilitation buildings…

Density as urban good: A critical compendium

Density in India’s cities was not accidental. It was a part of an urban development approach and policy greatly influenced by the World Bank and other multilateral institutions since the 1990s. If the argument is that high density is good…

Private space and public interest in the Indian city

How we choose to imagine the city fundamentally affects whether democratic urban governance serves public interest or gets compromised by increasing privatisation. We tend to imagine it as a conceptual model translatable into technical frameworks such as a master plan.…