Green Zones - Question of Cities

Linear parks: Adding value to urban landscape

Seamless stretches of green space and blue water courses, opening up possibilities and amenities for the public, are significant characteristics of a healthy and liveable city. The green stretches may well be linear parks threading various neighbourhoods, creating accessible and…

From nature in cities to imagining cities in nature, for our future

Nature shapes and defines cities, but the prevailing model of city-making equates development with construction at the cost of ecology, purely for…

Ladakh: The meltdown in the cold desert as people fast for nature

The 21-day fast by engineer, educator and activist Sonam Wangchuk in March drew attention to the fragile ecology of Leh-Ladakh and the…

What Shimla’s construction in defiance of its mountain ecology means

Over half of Shimla, the hill station from the British era that is still popular among tourists, has been officially classified as…

How adopting green measures made air more breathable

As all major cities across the world grapple with poor air quality, it becomes imperative to take responsibility and translate plans into…

‘I need to provide for my family, the air doesn’t matter’

The face masks are back in Mumbai – not because of COVID but poor air quality. Over the past two months, Mumbai’s…

Clearing the air on Mumbai’s smoggy atmosphere

When Mumbai’s air quality deteriorated and overtook Delhi to make the financial capital the most polluted city in the country, the alarm…

Patrick Geddes: Urban planning for social and cultural renewal

Scotsman Sir Patrick Geddes has been considered as the father of city planning in modern times. He brought his belief that town planning was not mere ‘place’ planning but essentially ‘people’ planning, to the nearly 50 plans he drew up…

Walking in the footsteps of Patrick Geddes in the crucible of his ideas

Edinburgh was both the inspiration and the workshop for the Scotsman who defied easy categorisation during his lifetime and later. Though the…

By leaves we live: Finding Patrick Geddes in Mumbai’s Aarey

As trees are cut and trimmed in the lush green expanse of the Aarey forest for the Metro car shed paving the…