Bangalore December 07, 2016: Indian cities are getting more and more populated with the estimated figure of new urban citizens likely to touch 400 million in the next 40 years. Are the Indian cities equipped for this kind of growth in population? Do our cities have the right solutions to tackle such a growth?
The IIA NATCON 2016, hosted by the Indian Institute of Architects Karnataka Chapter, had several architects and urban planners from all over the world who deliberated on the future of Indian cities in a three day conference in Bengaluru, keeping with its theme, “Imagining the Indian City.”
“A few solutions are - we need to go vertical now, re-purpose the city, build on existing blocks, plug in new units to existing buildings and giving a whole new fit. We also need to provide more public spaces, release land for other uses, create new mobility systems, electric vehicles, connect our buildings to our neighbourhood and bring in public elevators that connect to these buildings. We can bring in a one mile radius city where we have everything in it, with an anchor building,” suggested architect Alfredo Brillembourg from ETH Zurich.
Most of the population growth in the world (2 billion in the next 30 years) will happen in the slums, and most of this will be in India and Africa. It is not about providing ideal solutions but about providing the right solutions, the right to housing, infrastructure, safe cities and safe homes, added Brillembourg.
“Architecture as a process needs to change to equitable development, social justice where it is not confined to the elite but addresses all. When tourists visit for architecture, the designed projects instead of relating to the local scenario, give a global image. The local scenario is neglected, demolished and considered irrelevant. It is important to see how buildings sit in context of the city,” opined architect Tatjana Schneider from Sheffield University.
On the topic of rethinking public spaces architect Dhiru A Thadani (Urbanist and Board Member of Congress for New Urbanism, Washington DC) said, “Currently most spaces are left unused, open and unusable. Public spaces need to have an entrance that is easily accessible, and the public space should have a wallpaper window so that the insides of the spaces are visible. This monitors the behaviour of the public space, rendering it safe too. Like a park should not be walled, but fenced so the insides are evident from outside. This offers safety for the users of the public space.”
“A street is a public space which is constantly changing, accommodating festivals, protests, celebrations etc, where they morph to offer space for multiple activities. But now 85% of the street spaces are reserved for automobiles and we are shrinking further the space available,” he lamented.
“Using transit spaces in an urban space is great. The new urban transit spaces like the metro can serve as great public spaces. Making them more accessible is also a design challenge. These stations can be made more vibrant, clean, safe, trendy, exclusive,” suggested architect Franz Ziegler, urban designer from Rotterdam
Likewise the underpass spaces can be commercial spaces, the space underneath the metro can be public spaces that can be utilised effectively. If we align the metro with other functions, this would get aligned to the rest automatically, he added.