Public spaces - Question of Cities

‘No spatial planning instrument designed for people’s decisions of public space’

Designing sustainable and liveable spaces, conserving and expanding open spaces, drafting and implementing policies for inclusiveness, involving people across class and geography in the design of their living and working environments can make cities where people live comfortably and ecology…

City looks: Not facades and boulevards, but people’s lives and creative expressions

Urban aesthetics has been either historically inspired or drawn from the post-industrial city’s grand geometry of imperial worlds, mercantile splendour, and cruising pathways. But the way a city looks is shaped by people in the everyday rituals of living, cultural…

Lighting, shadows, and cognitive dissonance in
urban spaces

This essay presents an emerging concern about how urban environments should be understood and designed in terms of lighting, and shows how people experience cognitive dissonance when exposed to fragmented lighting, uncoordinated shadows, and over-illumination in cities such as Mumbai…

‘In India, play is a luxury…parents and teachers should understand its importance’

As cities expand, the number of open spaces and in-between spaces for play are shrinking. Playgrounds and gardens are an afterthought. Mumbai has seen creative ways to resist the erasure of spontaneous play emerge despite the incessant construction, congestion, and…

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…

Placing platform workers in the city’s urban imagination

The city is the place of work for millions of platform or gig workers in India who number an astounding 7.7 million in official records but could well be three times that. Yet, the relationship between them and the city…

If lakes are built over, where will water go, ask Bengaluru kids

What it means to see a city through young eyes and reflect on questions that adults bypass, consciously or unconsciously, came through in a social experiment. The ‘Walk on Bangalore’ exploration, led by the Mod Foundation, found that the questions…

Air pollution hits women informal workers hard and different

Like other aspects of cities, air pollution too affects women and men differently. Besides the usual respiratory ailments associated with poor quality air, women’s reproductive health, mental health, even anaemia levels show adverse impacts. This is particularly acute for women…

How festival celebrations define, and redefine, public spaces

Diwali celebrations are a public affair, so are celebrations of other festivals across communities. The festivalisation of public spaces -- streets, squares, markets, footpaths – is welcome and binds people in cities but it also lends these spaces political colours…

The spectacular failure of planning cities, as we know it. What next?

The widely-prevalent conventional urban planning framework in India, focused on land use, zoning and building regulations, is out of step with the demands of the time we live in, especially climate change events. Development Plans or Master Plans approach natural…

Tag: Public spaces

‘No spatial planning instrument designed for people’s decisions of public space’

City looks: Not facades and boulevards, but people’s lives and creative expressions

Lighting, shadows, and cognitive dissonance in
urban spaces

‘In India, play is a luxury…parents and teachers should understand its importance’

Play spaces for adolescents: The missing link in our cities

Placing platform workers in the city’s urban imagination

If lakes are built over, where will water go, ask Bengaluru kids

Air pollution hits women informal workers hard and different

How festival celebrations define, and redefine, public spaces

The spectacular failure of planning cities, as we know it. What next?

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