Built environment - Question of Cities

A reality-based, sustainable urban planning order

The abysmal living conditions and perpetual stress for millions in cities like Mumbai are not accidental but the intended outcome of planning that’s increasingly skewed towards exclusive city-making and profiteering. The prevailing approach to planning has manufactured social and ecological…

Woh kuche, woh galiyaan, mohalle kahan hain?

The narrow streets, winding lanes, and intimate localities were once the social spaces at the threshold of public and private life. Beyond nostalgia, their rapid erasure or deliberate destruction must be reflected upon. The aangan (courtyard) and kotha (terrace), for…

Planning does not make space for women, children, and
the informal

The way cities are planned and built reveals a disconnect and inequity in how they treat the marginalised, the informal workers, women and children, many of whom bear the brunt of the extreme weather conditions. “When a city doesn’t plan…

Built form worsens unbearable heat in Mumbai’s SRA buildings

Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) buildings in Mumbai’s Goregaon East record higher temperature than surrounding areas because of the built form – tiny windows, lack of cross ventilation and open spaces. Residents are forced to cope in buildings not designed for…

Clean air and water in Thrissur. Breaking barriers in Chennai

Drawing a circle from Thrissur to Chennai, Mumbai, and back to Thrissur, this multi-city letter weighs in to reminisce what used to make them ‘home’ earlier, and what has changed over the decades and what has not. It then re-imagines,…

‘Aesthetics not an after-thought or beautification, it’s harmony of city spaces and environment’

Cities become beautiful not only because of the quality of architecture but how it intermingles with nature, other life forms, and visual expressions of different communities. Advanced engineering and technology seen in flyovers, underpasses, and skyscrapers do not regard the…

‘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…

Want to invent leisure from leftovers? Laggere shows the way

Pushed into congested homes in the city’s margins, the children of the resettlement colony in Bengaluru’s Laggere have evolved their own ways to play. Narrow streets are play spaces, play is crafted from waste, and toys bought with borrowed coins…

Play spaces for adolescents: The missing link in our cities

Urban spaces are currently spaces of adult hegemony designed for their work and mobility. Even when play spaces are built, they are for children but adolescents – at the threshold of childhood and adulthood – are usually left out. India…

Climate’s sizzling frontier: Northeast heats up, must plan with nature

Summer temperatures have risen to record highs and, importantly, nights have become warmer in Guwahati with the rapid urbanisation. People have taken to air conditioners and cold drinking water. Guwahati is not alone. From Shillong’s hills to Aizawl’s ridges to…