Urban Design - Question of Cities

Delhi has plans to restore
the Ridge. Ecologists
have questions

Can humans truly build a forest with a few native species and art-themed woodlands has been the lingering question since the first of the 70 lakh saplings were planted this month in the Central Ridge. Restoration plans should have furthered…

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…

The vertical Panopticon: Architectural violence in
rehab towers

The multi-storeyed rehabilitation towers for slum dwellers, by their design, are nothing less than the intensification of the very conditions in slums they seek to mitigate and are so restrictive that residents can be watched all the time by others.…

‘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…

The numb-erred aesthetic of India’s financial capital

Without an aesthetic vision, the visual quality of the built environment deteriorates. Mumbai and Delhi present two approaches to aesthetics. While the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee treats only the past as sacrosanct, the Delhi Urban Arts Commission intervenes in all…

Mumbai’s old textile market is on the edge of a new aesthetic

The Moolji Jaitha Market is a maze of lanes and gullies that culminates in small chowks; a grid of entrances and intersecting lanes at right angles to the main road; open spaces for worship, rest and recreation – a layout…

Influencing change in cities through urban design interventions

Design holds incredible power to influence change in cities, address climate crises, break the prevailing order of exclusion, and renew nature-people relationship. In the re-envisioning of our cities, urban design must dismantle many walls in which it now exists, including…

Tag: Urban Design

Delhi has plans to restore
the Ridge. Ecologists
have questions

Woh kuche, woh galiyaan, mohalle kahan hain?

The vertical Panopticon: Architectural violence in
rehab towers

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

The numb-erred aesthetic of India’s financial capital

Mumbai’s old textile market is on the edge of a new aesthetic

Influencing change in cities through urban design interventions

‘Ecology and landform give rise to urban form. Town planning flattens it to 2-dimension’

‘Cities that care’: A blueprint for feminist cities

How ecologically-sound is Kolkata’s New Town?