Land Use | Agricultural, industrial, residential and recreational land in urban areas

Making new cities in climate emergency calls for respecting nature

A city does not exist outside of its natural conditions, no matter how much air conditioning or bottled water we use. As Climate Change continues to increase in intensity and variability, it is necessary to pay attention to building sustainable…

How Navi Mumbai developed into an urban jungle edging out nature

The planned satellite city on the outskirts of the oversaturated Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, was built from scratch. Its landscape was once an…

‘Why Joshimath, Mussoorie and Nainital are also threatened towns’

When Joshimath, a hill town in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, suffered the destruction caused by subsidence in January, the large infrastructure projects…

Battered and forgotten, Joshimath holds a lesson in urbanising at the cost of environment

It’s been more than three months since the subsidence in the hill town of Joshimath, Uttarakhand, made headlines. Deep cracks appeared in…

Vending zones add to Bhubaneswar’s beauty, but many wait for kiosks

Odisha’s capital Bhubaneswar went on an overdrive to look spic and span for the ongoing International World Cup hockey tournament. As part…

Placemaking can reimagine public places, connect people with nature, and strengthen people’s movements

In cities, under-utilised or undesirable places are neglected or captured by private interests but placemaking can convert them into vibrant, accessible, and…

Bansilalpet stepwell restoration: Significant placemaking but questions remain

A six-level stepwell, built in the 1930s, was buried under waste and debris in a congested area in Secunderabad for years. Many…

How cities enlivened places to make them inclusive and comfortable

Public spaces are for the people. This is often overlooked and the spaces are either neglected or languish as they are misused. Some cities across the world have set examples of how to utilise the spaces, transform them to make…

The myths of ‘public trust’ and ‘affordable housing’ in speculative Mumbai

The development story of Mumbai rests on the routine breach of the ‘public trust doctrine’ which benefits the elite. The Maharashtra government,…

Nivara Hakk then and now: The struggle for housing rights

As slums were demolished in massive operations and slum dwellers summarily evicted, often out of Bombay (as it was called till 1995),…