City Observer- Volume 7 Issue 1- June 2021

Volume 7 | Issue 1| June 2021

CITY OBSERVER A BIANNUAL JOURNAL ON CITIES PUBLISHED BY URBAN DESIGN COLLECTIVE

INSIDE

TOWARDS A PEOPLEFRIENDLY CITY: GHENT

NARRATING THE INDIAN CITY

10 URBAN DESIGN LESSONS FROM LINZ

CITY OBSERVER

Volume 7 | Issue 1 | June 2021 Free Publication City Observer is a biannual journal which aims to create a conversation on cities and to collaboratively interrogate our urban world.

City Observer is published by the Urban Design Collective.

Urban Design Collective (UDC) is a collaborative platform for architects, urban designers and planners to create livable cities through participatory planning. www.urbandesigncollective.org info@urbandesigncollective.org

EDITORIAL TEAM Maanasa Sivasankar Neha Krishnan Shruti Shankar Sunjana Thirumala Sridhar Vidhya Mohankumar

COVER ILLUSTRATION Lynn Azali

LAYOUT DESIGN Vidhya Venkatesan Vidhya Mohankumar

Copyrights of images lie with the person/party mentioned in the image caption.

The opinions expressed in this journal are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of UDC or its members.

This magazine cannot be republished or reproduced without the permission of the publisher.

TO CITIES AND PEOPLE

CONTENTS 8

Editorial Neha Krishnan

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20

Feature Article DECODING KERALA'S URBAN PATTERN

Feature Article INFORMAL SPACES OF DISCOURSE

Anagha Devanarayanan

Aman Amin

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City Trails NARRATING THE INDIAN CITY Shruthi Ramesh

60

38

46

Tyler Middendorf

Siddharth Sivakumar

Mobility and the City NATURAL BRIDGE AVENUE TRAVEL SAFE ZONE: A CASE STUDY

Community Engagement CAN PUBLIC SPACES HELP INTEGRATE AND UPGRADE THE URBAN POOR WITHIN A CITY?

74

Riya Chadha

Minaz Ansari

Learning from Cities 10 URBAN DESIGN LESSONS FROM LINZ

Feature Article CITIES DO NOT MATTER: AN ARGUMENT FOR (NON) CITIES

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Motion Captured PUBLIC SPACES AS A COMMUNITY RESOURCE

Art in the City THE OSLO STORYBIENNALE REDEFINED Nakshi Shah

Agnesa Thaci

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Feature Article THE JOURNEY OF AN ENTREPRENEURIAL CITY Namratha Aroor

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Teaching Urban Design UNIT ECO WARRIORS Mansi Shah & Chandrani Chakrabarti

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On Location TOWARDS A PEOPLEFRIENDLY CITY: GHENT Ranjana Shah

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Closing Scene Gouthaman Ekambaram

CITY OBSERVER

Toronto

NE Ohio

New York City Newark St.Louis Juarez

New Orleans

Oslo Malmö Copenhagen Leipzig Maastricht Amsterdam Belfast Dublin Delft Loire Valley Ghent Porto Madrid Barcelona Linz Kacanik

Kumasi

Rio de Janeiro

CITIES PROFILED THUS FAR...

Current Issue

Past Issues

Helsinki

Moscow

Berlin Dessau Tirana

Bursa Cairo Kisumu

Seoul

Istanbul

Chandigarh Delhi Selçuk Baghdad Gaza Mathura Udaipur Ahmedabad Tehran Surat Sharjah Mumbai Goa Hampi Bangalore Tiruppur Kochi

Khirsu Darjeeling Thimpu

Osaka Guangzhou Hong Kong

Hyderabad Bhubaneswar Hanoi Chennai Singapore Pondicherry Madurai Tirunelveli

Suva

Trivandrum Sydney Johannesburg

Wellington

EDITORIAL

And here we are, 15 months since the first

and high vaccination rates, folks who spent

lockdown. It feels like we entered a cave many

months trapped in tiny apartments following

years ago and evolved into different creatures

social distancing rules are more than ready to

as the world continued to spin on outside.

let their hair down. This narrative as played out

I wonder if living through this experience is

in newspapers though, skims the edge of the

enough to earn us monikers similar to those

truth. Yes, everyone is ready for a break and

applied to past generations that survived

even the luckiest of New Yorkers spent over

events of global trauma or wars. ‘The Greatest

a year in near total isolation. But what about

Generation’ is taken, what does that leave us

those who weren’t able to distance? Those

with? The What-just-hit-me Generation?

minority-heavy communities that saw the most death, and that most essential workers hailed

A draft of this editorial I wrote in early April

from? I’m not sure they are partying.

was titled ‘Caution, compassion, and comedy’, and spoke of cautious optimism and a focus

Even as cases soar in India, pictures show

on humour towards a re-opening world. This of

a disorienting mix of desolation and crowds.

course, was before the current wave of horror

Chennai maybe packed or empty, depending

hit India, and before I knew of the delta variant

on the narrative of the story accompanying

and of black fungus infections. I’m sure I don’t

the image. And perhaps partial occupation is

need to explain to anyone reading, the pit of

the full picture. This is how many of us now

dread in one’s stomach on reading Facebook

experience physical spaces – through pictures

pleas for hospital beds or information on the

and social media posts. ‘The City’ is partially

availability of oxygen. Life had veered rather

occupied, by those who must go in to their place

abruptly off course again – a common theme in

of work. White collar workers are more likely

2020/21.

lucky enough to be able to work from home (which isn’t to say working from home is by any

Meanwhile, in the US where I currently live,

means easy; ask any parent).

life hasn’t (yet) veered off course. Vaccination rates went up nationally, and the CDC issued advisories allowing people to return to socializing and running errands. I reckon with questions of how to ‘go back to normal’, as though that would ever be possible. Normal doesn’t quite mean anything anymore, does it?

On another note, I was reading about how Bill Gates might have been trying to ‘block out the sun’ to ameliorate climate change (a massive oversimplification of course; he backed a project to study the benefits and risks of solar geoengineering). A month later, I was reading about

New York City for one, is coming back with a

his divorce. I also read about how Jeff Bezos is

vengeance – with dining restrictions removed

going to Mars. The gap between the billionaires

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

of the world and the ‘average’ person looking for a hospital bed is probably harder to traverse than that between Earth and Mars.

Living in the States means being intensely and unpleasantly aware that some folks are turning down vaccines to the point that states are giving away college scholarships, cars, and creating weekly million-dollar lotteries in order to boost vaccination numbers. As though you haven’t already won a massive lottery by living in a country that is giving you the opportunity to protect your life and those of your loved ones.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could ship some of these to parts of the world where people actually believe in science, even if they cannot get a vaccine for love or money? This pandemic has done nothing if not lay bare the already apparent inequities in the world. I wonder in what image the world will be recreated postpandemic, and if we may begin to address these inequalities so life doesn’t go ‘back to normal’.

Normal was inadequate in the most obvious ways.

On a lighter note, I do love that hundreds of thousands of people got their own back in the smallest way by signing a petition to stop Bezos from returning to Earth. Every bit of humor helps. And truly enough, comics are what kept me going(ish) this year. In a year when life moved online almost entirely, artists shone like beacons in times of adversity. I related little too much to one comic where the artist transforms into a toad over the course of multiple lockdowns, and is terrified about being unable to connect with the rest of humanity when they emerge; only to come out and find that everyone else is now a toad as well . Gloriously dark humour came in the form of one comic involving aliens with laser guns telling people not to worry because they are fully vaccinated . Or animals boarding Noah’s ark, being unsure how they feel about public transit . It is in art and absurdity, that we find meaning in trying times. Toad people unite!

Neha Krishnan On behalf of the Editorial Team

Image credit:

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FEATURE ARTICLE

DECODING KERALA’S URBAN PATTERN ANAGHA DEVANARAYAN

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

Cities in Kerala have garnered interest for high indicators of social development and a comparatively low economic growth. A visible implication of this combination is houses in individual plots and scattered settlements. This stands in contrast to many of India’s growing metropolitan cities with nucleated builtup cities, that have a strong distinction from the surrounding villages. A peek into understanding this unique character of spatial development presents a conflicting narrative through the lens of its historical, economic, and social identity. They are clues to understand current Kerala cities as a representation of its people and their ideologies

Image credit: Author

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FEATURE ARTICLE

Kerala has historically positioned itself in contrast to the current national sentiments. Its development pattern, defined by success in achieving a high quality of life without much success in economic growth, is also often given the status of a ‘Kerala model’ [1]. In the recent past, we have seen cities in Kerala emerge as platforms to demonstrate contestations and active citizen participation. Cities here, in the conventional sense, are a comparatively recent and reluctant concept. It has often raised eyebrows among intellectuals in development circles, questioning the relation between the dispersed nature of settlements and their residents who lead an urban lifestyle outside the city boundaries.

This peculiar character of development in Kerala defies the typical trend of urban patterns identified by a dominant node.

A gradated urbanization supersedes the contrast between the city core and its periphery. This gradation gives them a ‘neither rural nor urban’ character [2]. To understand this absence of stark rural-urban difference, it calls for an analysis of the broader urban pattern of the state. The marginal changes in the character, as one moves from cities and towns to villages, can not be captured when analyzed individually.

The historical, social, and economic trends of Kerala have, over time, influenced this current gradual transition.

Additionally, the ideals of social justice have been an active agent in its urban transformation.

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

Dispersed urban centres in Kerala, Image credit: Radhika Suresh.

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FEATURE ARTICLE

The beginning of a decentralized pattern of urban development can be traced back to the earliest trade during British rule. With time, “towns” started fuelling the dispersal of settlements.

This masked urbanization was underscored in the 2015-20 forecast by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) when Kerala emerged as a home to three of the world’s fastest-growing cities. Malappuram, which was one of the three cities, also appears in EIU’s

forecast for 2020-2025 [4]. However, the ground reality illustrates that the cities are still rural in how they are operated and managed. Unlike other cities where one can identify the concentration of population and built density, Kerala’s cities and towns are characterized by low built density and individual housing. A relaxed economic growth and a shift in development thinking, focused primarily on the quality of human development, supported the dispersed urban pattern.

Mallapuram, Kollam, and Kozhikode among the world’s fastest growing cities for 2015-2020 forecast. Image credit: The Economist.

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

TRACING THE HISTORY OF KERALA’S RURAL-URBAN CONTINUUM After the British East India Company took over the Dutch factories, the locations of their administrative centres had started growing into towns. Smaller towns later sprang up in their periphery and formed links to the villages. Kerala’s unique spatial dispersal began here and was supported by the natural ports along the coastline. With trade as the primary economic activity earlier, the coastal strips have formed a continuous belt, making the rural-urban distinction difficult. While these ports attracted people and harboured diversity, they did not lead to any agglomeration of population and activities [2]. They only developed multiple small towns along the coast.

A parallel development that gave way to the dispersed pattern was the emergence of inland towns for industries.

However, since the state did not witness large-scale industrialization, it did not foster a concentration of people or capital. These mutually independent threads of development could explain the absence of a central node in Kerala’s urban system today.

MASKED URBANIZATION Recently, Kerala captured everyone’s attention when Malappuram, Kozhikode, and Kollam claimed positions among 10 of the world’s fastest-growing cities for the 2015 to 2020 forecast [5].

Though came as a surprise to many, this sudden growth can be attributed to the largely unacknowledged transformation of Indian villages to towns. Hence, this survey gives a measure of urban agglomerations that are outgrowths of a town or city [6]. It only reinforces the state’s dispersed spatial character, with the areas around municipalities growing denser and people moving to non-farm jobs. Moreover, settlements have developed along the transit routes thereby establishing urban centres along major road intersections.

Due to the proximity of these urban centres, the interim areas have also developed into towns, thus driving a “ribbon development”. While the 200111 census had given hints of Kerala’s fast-growing “census towns”, it is only now that the transformation is raising questions about urban governance [7].

Even though similar towns, and particularly their outgrowths, are classified as urban in the Census of 14 15

FEATURE ARTICLE

The growth of the built-up area in Kozhikode, Kerala (1975- 2020). Image credit: The IDFC Institute Analysis and Urban Expansion Observatory, 2020 [8].

India, they remain rural in how they are governed [9]. It indicates that now a Rural Local Body (RLB) presides over an area that demands an Urban Local Body (ULB) for the infrastructure needs. Items listed for ULBs and not RLBs include town planning, slum improvement, public amenities like street lighting, parking lots, bus stops, solid waste management, building regulations, and fire services [10]. By their inability to access and operate public amenities of this scale, they continue functioning as towns and emphasize the rural-urban continuum.

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

Additionally, the decision-makers and residents rely on State-sponsored grants aimed at rural regions. The very ad-hoc nature of financial assistance in the form of grants is a disadvantage for the growth of cities when compared against an urban system backed by economies of scale.

SPATIAL DISPERSAL AS A PRODUCT OF ECONOMIC CHARACTER It is not uncommon to find individual and luxurious houses, spaced with generous

A human settlement governed by an urban local body (ULB) rather than a rural local body (RLB) is likely to benefit from

Image credit: IDFC Institute/ Hiranandani.

greenery and land for cultivation, as

The ecosystem developed from a higher

one drives through the towns. A clue to

degree of consumption than production

understanding this unique typology of

further explains the absence of a visible

dispersal, even in large towns, is that

‘market’. It presents no incentives

the personal income growth of families is independent of the state’s economic performance. The well-to-do lifestyle, typically unexpected in smaller towns and villages, is demonstrative of a remittance economy [12]. It then allows families in these towns and villages to move away from agriculture and comfortably satisfy

for people to leverage the benefits of settling in clusters and avail services.

Therefore, the avenues for people to use the network of opportunities and ideas that a concentration of people, skills, and institutions provide are missing out in a dispersed settlement pattern.

their consumer needs without significant productive activity.

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FEATURE ARTICLE

CONCLUSION While the three points broadly outline the dispersed urbanization pattern of Kerala, a driving factor for them is the recognition of the urban system as first and foremost a social system. People’s welfare has frequently taken a front seat, empowering the villages and small towns. However, even as an exemplar for fostering a high degree of Human Development Index (HDI), the ‘Kerala model’ is often criticized for its inability to sustain its attainments. This conflict between welfare and development stems from the perception of treating them as substitutes for each other. Instead, if they can complement each other, it can create channels for the needed enterprises to facilitate public welfare and build on the existing strong relationship between the State and the people.

With a growing service sector and an emerging entrepreneur class, Kerala is starting to observe a shift towards an aspirational development on the economic front [1]. This shift could encourage hotspots for future dense and full-grown cities. However, the current discourse largely focuses only on the merits and demerits of the existing system, without recognizing the pivotal CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

role these towns play. Understanding that they are a reflection of its residents, and thus enabling mechanisms for action, allows a responsive route for future urbanization even if it is at the cost of timeliness. It further highlights an alternate definition for urbanization whereby urban thinking precedes economic development.

REFERENCES 1. Centre for Development Studies.

Human Development Report 2005.

Thiruvananthapuram, State Planning Board, Government of Kerala, 2005. UNDP, file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/human_ develop_report_kerala_2005_full_report. pdf. Accessed 22 April 2021.

2. T. T. Sreekumar. “Neither Rural nor Urban: Spatial Formation and Development Process.” Economic & Political Weekly, vol.

25, no. Sept 1-8, 1990, pp. 1982-1990.

3. Radhika Suresh. 2021. “UP4002 - PALAA RURBAN TOWN IN KERALA.” CEPT Portfolio. https://portfolio.cept.ac.in/fp/ understanding-the-city-studio-up4002monsoon-2020-8121/pala-a-rurban-town-inkerala-monsoon-2020-pup20270 4. The Economist. “City living rankings- the world in figures.” The Economist. Accessed May 08, 2021. https://worldinfigures.com/ rankings/index/24.

5. Express Web Desk. “3 of world’s 10 fastest-growing urban areas are in

Kerala: Economist ranking.” The Indian Express [Kochi], 8 January 2020, https:// indianexpress.com/article/india/three-ofworlds-ten-fastest-growing-urban-areasare-in-kerala-6205749/. Accessed 24 April 2021.

6. Nushaiba Iqbal. “Explained: How Malappuram topped the list of world’s ‘fastest growing cities.’” The Indian Express [New Delhi], 14 January 2020, https:// indianexpress.com/article/explained/ how-malappuram-topped-the-list-of-worldsfastest-growing-cities-6215006/. Accessed 04 May 2021.

7. Shamindra Nath Roy and Kanhu Charan Pradhan. Predicting the Future of Census Towns. Review of Urban Affairs, 2018, https://cprindia.org/sites/default/files/ Census%20Towns%20PDF.pdf.

8. Patrick Lamson-Hall, Harshita Agrawal, Harsh Vardhan Pachisia, and Kadambari Shah. 2020. Urban Growth in India: Horizontal, Chaotic, and Informal. N.p.: IDFC Institute. https://www.idfcinstitute.org/site/ assets/files/16100/urban_growth_in_india_ december_2020-1.pdf.

urbanisation.” Financial Chronicle, 29 December 2017, http://www.mydigitalfc. com/deep-dive/impact-subalternurbanisation. Accessed 22 April 2021.

10. Kadambari Shah, Vaidehi Tandel, and Harshita Agrawal. “Why India has the fastest-growing cities?” Mint, 27 January 2020, https://www.livemint.com/news/ india/why-india-has-the-fastest-growingcities-11580053066942.html. Accessed 22 April 2021.

11. IDFC Institute. Reforming Urban India.

Mumbai, IDFC Institute, 2019, https://www. idfcinstitute.org/site/assets/files/15116/ reforming_urban_india_idfc_institute.pdf?fb clid=IwAR1Ra8yoTtJnR7Fn0prjTr29U3j53MIlP-60k1Opt-qgPbN7Np4q-36I7c. Accessed 29 April 2021.

12. Joseph K V. “Unique constraints to revival of Kerala economy.” The New Indian Express, 12 March 2021, https://www. newindianexpress.com/opinions/2021/ mar/12/unique-constraints-to-revival-ofkerala-economy-2275469.html. Accessed 04 May 2021.

9. Marie-Helen Zerah. “Impact of subaltern

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Anagha Devanarayan is an architect and an aspiring urbanist, with an interest in community development and housing. She is fascinated by cities for their unique culture, language, and people. With an undergraduate degree in architecture, she is always looking to broaden my understanding of cities and communities in a multi-disciplinary manner. Currently, her work with City Collab lets her explore communication as a tool to drive positive change in the urban sector. You can also find her at https://thatcitygirl.medium.com/

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FEATURE ARTICLE

INFORMAL SPACES OF DISCOURSE AMAN AMIN

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

Ahmedabad, like many other Indian cities, experienced significant transformations with the opening up of the country’s economy in 1991. Life under ‘license raj’ was over. Post-liberalization, Ahmedabad, known for its native commercial flair, soon became a hub for large businesses. This led to the rise of a number of prominent industrialists who emerged as its chief beneficiaries.

With trade flood gates wide open, the nexus between politicians and local business barons strengthened; together, they were able to wield considerable control over the economic as well as the socio-cultural climate of the city. Deeply mired in communal riots and divisive politics through the decades following independence, with the Godhra carnage of 2002, it seemed as if the ‘casual’ violence embedded in thought, speech and act had become part and parcel of the city’s character.

Left: The plexus Underlying the Nexus. Image credit: Author

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FEATURE ARTICLE

How does a city rooted in the Gandhian principles of non-violence become a culturally hostile place?

Why does a city, once a Mecca for architects, designers and artists from across the globe, become insular over time?

Since pre-independence, Ahmedabad has been home to visionary business families, among them the Sarabhai’s and the Lalbhai’s, who have contributed not only to its once-thriving textile industry but have also played a pivotal role in the shaping of a modern, vibrant and inclusive discourse. They connected Ahmedabad to the globe, boosting commerce with exemplary business acumen. Simultaneously they were engaged in refining the socio-cultural and educational ethos of the city by building pioneering Institutions [1] of national importance such as Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT University), National Institute of Design (NID) and Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A).

Members from the two illustrious families also took hands-on interest and were CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

involved in establishing the pedagogy and ethics for the Institutions. Their vision wasn’t limited to providing quality education within a formal set-up but also to facilitate critical conversations around the social, cultural, economic and political pluralities of the nation and the world. The Institutions were envisioned as lively ecosystems for students and citizens alike.

By late 1970s, with the flourishing Institutions, a conducive atmosphere for artists, architects, filmmakers and also business entrepreneurs, Ahmedabad became the new cultural hub of the country. Forms of business as well as art, both nurtured by the Institutions, maintained an equilibrium for economical as well as cultural growth of the city. Ahmedabad’s Institutions

became exemplary models for the new vision of the modern India. However, with time, today one can sense a middling degree of rigidity to the framework of these institutional ecosystems. They are growing in size as well as reach, making it difficult to maintain the exchange of thoughts, values and stimulus between the student community and the citizens.

Institutes like CEPT, NID and IIM-A, have over time become rigid, exclusive and introverted spaces; where taking an account of the shifting tides of the city can seem complex. Architecture and design students do find the pol houses intriguing to explore as case studies, and business students are inspired by thriving local entrepreneurs; their engagement with the city is merely superficial and does not allow them to step beyond the romanticised. This raises the question -

Are these institutions genuinely feeding into the cultural landscape of the city?

Are these spaces where one could find, raise

or nurture a voice in?

Perhaps the promise of these institutions isn’t justifiable anymore.

The Institutions of Ahmedabad, may not have been able impact the cultural landscape of the city as much, but over the last few years, Ahmedabad has experienced cultural undercurrents in its environment. These undercurrents are guided by a new, homegrown landscape in the making. With the hope for nonviolence and cultural inclusivity, one can sense a rising of a new wave. From family dining table discussions to the chai stalls; the new wave seems to have penetrated deep. The wave that seamlessly flows along the rhythm of the city, is one with a structure. These begin by honest and unprejudiced conversations in safe environments; the likes of which were envisioned to be in our mighty Institutions but aren’t. These safe environments in Ahmedabad, exist as bodies of level-minded individuals creating a space; permanent, temporal or virtual in nature, to discuss matters of mutual interest and establish a public opinion.

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FEATURE ARTICLE

One such example is Queerabad, an

space, safe. This act acclimatizes the

organization working on-ground prior to

masses to accept the use of public

liberal acts such as the decriminalization

spaces, inculcating and practicing

of section 377 or the passing of the

the values of multiculturalism. Slowly

trans rights bill. With the aim to create

and steadily, Queerabad has not only

safe spaces for the queer community

managed to delve in larger discussions

of Ahmedabad, Queerabad engages

of the politics of a space but also take a

in various intersections of art, culture, education, and politics for Queer and Queer-allies. Along with hosting anonymous awareness sessions, they attempt to reclaim public spaces of the city for the queer and allies through ‘Rakhad-Patti’ (loosely translates to the act of aimlessly roaming around in the city in colloquial Guajarati). Meeting at a public location also allows and encourages individuals identifying as queer to slowly begin being comfortable with oneself and others in public. This

deeper plunge into the individual roles and responsibilities towards a growing community in the city. The temporality of space being key to the nature of their Queerabad’s gatherings allows a rhythm in thoughts and discussions that they aim to focus on. The community gather at different spaces with a focused aim to manifest and then disperse back into their individual lives. These thoughts then seemingly weave into other conversations over time.

bravely challenges and evolves the idea of safe spaces being closed, to ensure

A similar yet differently nuanced example

their safety as physical spaces into the

is of The Nomad Cafe, a culture club

act of making an unsafe, open public

for the city of Ahmedabad. The Nomad

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

Queerabad’s Rakhadpatti Session, Image credit: Queerabad

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FEATURE ARTICLE

Cafe curates independent regional and parallel films from across the subcontinent and hosts screenings and discussions to generate a larger discourse around films. The organizers primarily being architects, create experiences of consuming these films in spaces that would often suit the context of the subject. The spatial curation includes spaces such as museums, architecture studios or old havelis that are primarily not meant for experiencing films; making the set up and experience

of watching a film temporal in nature.

This act of creating a temporary set up for consuming content in an unexpected space allows them to create a conducive atmosphere where the audience can engage with the filmmakers and curators in a larger discourse of the impacts of the visual medium at the scale of the individual, the community or the city at large. Over the last three years, the club has established a space for art to thrive and be consumed by the locals without the pressures of a bureaucratic

Film maker Pushpendra Singh discussing his film ‘Ashwathama’ at Studio 4000 Image credit: The Nomad cafe CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

system, cultural exclusivity or intellectual elitism that exists in gatherings held at formalized institutions.

placing the museum in a context such as Mirzapur, reflects upon the principles of inclusivity that are deeply embedded in the ethos of the organization.

Queerabad and The Nomad Cafe, both have been rigorously in practice for over three years. Their concerns may be different but their structure of engagement with the city run parallel to each other. The temporality and informality of these gatherings allows fluidity in form and in content. An example of a non-temporal yet focused safe space that has now successfully woven itself into the fabric of Ahmedabad is Conflictorium. The museum found its place in a crumbling mansion, The Gool Lodge. The home of a Parsi lady Bachuben Nagarwala was donated to the Center of Social Justice with a wish to ‘do good’ for the society.

Situated in the heart of the old city of Ahmedabad, Conflictorium, is an art and culture museum investigating the idea of conflict. Physically the museum is located in an old yet familiar structure in Mirzapur, an area demographically consisting of a religious mix of marginalized communities. Being placed in a sensitive area, their curated exhibitions are often experienced by their immediate community as well. The act of

As an approach to participatory investigation, Conflictorium has been able to inculcate a sense of belonging for the locals by creating a space for safe conversations for a city that grew around conflict.

At a pace of its own; like a microcosm of the city; the safe space of Conflictorium has given the people of the city a voice.

The German Philosopher, Jurgen Habermas defines the public sphere as a virtual or imaginary community that does not necessarily exist in any identifiable space. Through acts of assembly and dialogue, the public sphere generates opinions and attitudes that guide sociocultural and political movements among the masses. The three safe spaces 26 27

FEATURE ARTICLE

Exhibition on Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression at Conflictorium. Image credit: Conflictorium

in Ahmedabad, when looked through

Today, with a clear and focused structure

this lens, have the potential and can

towards content curation and informality

be imagined to be the future coffee

in their organizational and engagement

houses or salons of 18th century Britain

methodologies, these safe spaces with

and France - as spaces for discursive

several contemporaries in the makes of

interactions that guide organized

it, have been able to impact the cultural

movements. With their disregard for the

landscape and the ethos of Ahmedabad

status quo, respect for inclusivity and

in their own capacities. Gauging from

unity as a result of common concerns,

the rigour, clarity in articulation and the

they fulfil Habermas’ institutional criteria

drive towards inclusivity in these spaces,

of preconditions for the emergence of a

one can assume a much significant

new public sphere; in turn, attempting

and holistic new cultural wave being

to institutionalize multiculturalism at a

born; likes of which were expected from

smaller scale in the city.

Institutions that laid their foundation in

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

the mid-twentieth century Ahmedabad.

Sociologically, an institution is formed with a purpose to influence the behaviour of people and the way they live. Maybe these smaller, informal yet structured discursive spaces are the envisioned Institutions of today’s Ahmedabad.

Perhaps they were born out of need but will thrive with a hope for a better tomorrow.

REFERENCES Institutions - For the purpose of this essay, ‘Institutions’ refers to the three pioneering Institutions of Ahmedabad namely, Center for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) University, National Institute of Design (NID) and Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) .

CITATIONS: • Agarwal, N., 2018. India Before 1991, What Was Pre-Reform India Like?. [online] Qrius.

Available at: <https://qrius.com/indiabefore-1991-what-was-pre-reform-indialike/.> [Accessed 14 April 2021].

• Ali, A., 2001. [online] Available at: <https:// www.jstor.org/stable/4410806> [Accessed 14 April 2021].

• Chowdhury, S., 2017. A shrine to conflict and alternative art and culture: Mirzapur’s Conflictorium. [online] YourStory. com. Available at: <https://yourstory. com/2017/06/mirzapurs-conflictorium> [Accessed 14 April 2021].

• Habermas, J., 2021. [online] Available at: <http://www.media-studies.ca/articles/ habermas.htm.> [Accessed 14 April 2021].

• 2021. [online] Available at: <https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structural_ Transformation_of_the_Public_Sphere.> [Accessed 14 April 2021].

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Aman Amin is an architect graduate from CEPT University; currently exploring and reimagining the relationship between visual cultures and the built environments. With his keen interest towards collaborative practices, he co-founded Compartment S4, an architectural collaborative with a focus towards sensitised bottom up approach to design. His role at Compartment S4 aligns with his interests towards reading and documenting cultural landscapes to further design solution driven spaces for the same. His keen interest towards archiving thoughts, processes and spaces drove him to start an critical self published magazine called Unmute by Compartment S4. Along with this, he co-founded The Nomad Cafe, a culture club for Ahmedabad that curates regional and parallel cinema from across the subcontinent and aims to further investigate the relationship between visual culture and built environments. His current Independent work includes a series of photo stories exploring the emotive relationship between inhabitants and their homes in Ahmedabad.

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CITY TRAILS

NARRATING THE INDIAN CITY: EXPERIENCING THE CITY THROUGH ITS STORIES SHRUTHI RAMESH

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

Can one read the invisible, the intangible, the sequestered, the ephemeral, the loud, the chaotic or the phantasmagoric?

The city is, after all, all of the above and much more.

Michel de Certeau posited that stories are “spatial trajectories” that “traverse and organize spaces”[1] . Stories are, in that sense, the embodiment of cities. Traversing through the river of stories, one can embarks on a journey to unveil and dissect the city. Try visiting Mattanchery after reading Rushdie’s Moor’s Last Sigh, the city of Ahmedabad after reading Spodek [2] or Delhi after reading The City of Djinns. It would be an epiphany with profound implications.

A multitude of puzzles piece together, the cryptic becomes discernible & the background is pushed into the forefront.

Have you ever picked up a book about a city while living in it? What can one achieve by reading a city through its stories? Tracing hidden pasts and invisible geographies, one encounters the good and the bad- beautiful buildings and crumbling edifices, colourful festivities, trysts with nature and abandoned architecture, picturesque settings and monuments of loss. One comes to the understanding that cities are primarily authored by its people – Resident, Migrant or Intruder.

Tower of Silence at Doongerwaadi, Malabar Hill. Image source: https://www. theguardian.com/cities/2015/jan/26/death-city-lack-vultures-threatens-mumbaitowers-of-silence

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CITY TRAILS

THE INDIAN CITY IN LITERATURE

It is curious that in the city Mehta calls

The Indian cityscape, imagined or

“Prims Urbis in Mundis” owing to its

corporeal, is a rich palimpsest embodying

20 million populace [7], the areas

diverse groupings of individuals,

where footpaths maintain function

traditional values and cultural practices,

as pedestrian walkways are typically

modernistic, capitalistic and liberalistic

sanitized enclaves which grant access

modalities and historical and political

exclusively to owners. Through stories,

narratives.

one gets to know how denial of the right to city is inlaid into the workings of

Traversing through a plethora of stories, one encounters Mumbai’s crumbling museographical edifices of IndoSaracenic, Neo-Gothic and Art Deco [3] splendor, sky towers and sky burials [4], metamorphosis from mills to malls, shadow lines of its ‘island’ past [5] and rebirth from the sea, Night rat killers, sin city and the city of dreams. City Adrift describes Mumbai as “the embodiment

Mumbai. The denial of tenants to pay fair rent and the denial of owners to maintain said buildings has created a vast landscape of urban blight. The riots and pogroms of 1992-93 have created an urban fabric of gated communities and ghettos. The changed city a clear indicator of the changed citizenry. The city is also a landscape where million dreams materialise, staking claim.

in steel and curtain glass, blue tarpaulin

To the average traveler to Delhi: tourist,

and corrugated metal, of the inequalities

wanderer, voyeur, migrant or settler,

of the new economic order”. This strange

Nizamuddin (Nizamuddin Railway station)

juxtaposition of polarities remains every

is a key entry point. Alighting there, one

newcomer’s first impression of the

gets served a cacophonic and chaotic

city. This excerpt from Maximum City

slice of a city choking from traffic, people

demonstrates Mumbai’s equation with

and smog – that is present day Delhi.

informality and contestation: “The battle

Nilanjana Roy’s Wildlings [8], serves

over the footpath is a battle over rights:

a different slice of the city. Through

of the pedestrians to walk on it, of the

the perceptions of stray cats (cat’s

homeless to sleep on it, of the hawkers

eye view), one witnesses the complex

to make a living on it, of the vehicle

natural landscapes of Nizamuddin and

owners to park on it” [6].

the crumbling monuments and ruins

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

it houses. Along paths traversed by

congruence of the British-born garden

cats over roof tops, weedy terrain &

city with its Mughal past, a sight best

wilderness, one experiences an entirely

explained by Dalrymple in City of Djinns

different ecosystem of Nizamuddin-a

[9]: “However hard the planners tried

vast expanse of greens and its nocturnal

to create new colonies of gleaming

dwellers.

concrete, crumbling tomb towers, old mosques or ancient Islamic colleges (…)

As one travels from Nizamuddin towards

would intrude, appearing suddenly on

the city through wide tree-lined avenues,

roundabouts or in municipal gardens,

they gets to glimpse the strange

curving the road network and obscuring

City in Blight. Image credit: Author

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CITY TRAILS

the fairways of the golf course. New Delhi was not new at all. Its broad avenues encompassed a groaning necropolis, a graveyard of dynasties.”

Stories grant an innate seductive quality to the city and its beings (djinns & dervishes, wildlings, hijras and others).

In them, cities are retold as multi-sensory experiences exuding from their threedimensional physicality. Mumbai is as much the stench of drying fish, and the taste of Vada Pav & Brun Maska as Chennai is the smell of Jasmine & Prasad.

Kolkata landscapes framed by Jhumpa Lahiri, Amitav Ghosh, Anuradha Roy in their fictional universes personify the city’s Post-colonial identity and changing urban fabric in the aftermath of forced migration. Likewise, the architecture of modern Delhi cannot be talked about without ruminating on the narratives of partition and migration. These are examples of a single cataclysmic event that changed the nature of the built fabric.

As key loci in the city, Monuments are inlaid into the collective memory CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

[10] of all citizenry. They are sites of solidified history and memory .

Depicted as backdrop for key events and transgressions, these places, supersede their identities as relics and forge contemporary personalities. Milk Teeth’s picturisation of “The Wall” breaks the myth that public spaces cannot challenge heteronormative spatial identity. Ministry of Utmost Happiness portrays the vicinity of Jantar Mantar as a transgressional ground –a protest site to voice the needs of the marginalised.

READING THE CITY Stories bring out the romance of living in a place, as opposed to merely dwelling in it. Story trails enable readers to remember the past and further, orient themselves with a “Sense of Place”.

To newcomers, stories fuel their quest for legibility and enforce their sense of belonging through the deed of knowing.

Toponymy and the genealogy of places connect missing spatial linkages.

Madras & Chennai, Mumbai & Bombay, Calcutta & Kolkata are not just multiple names but dichotomic cities within the city. “Stories and legends haunt urban space like superfluous or additional

City in Literature. Image credit: Author

inhabitants” [1]. In that sense, reading the city entails forming alliances with these “inhabitants”.

A city is a platform of contestation.

Histories are written, re-written and over-written. Winners triumph, as the stories of the loosing ends wane into the background. The pursuit of stories bring forward unsung narratives, fashioning amateur histories out of memory. Early settlers in the city rely on oral narratives of the nostalgic past and their lived realities to make sense of its ever changing morphology.

Tourist websites and guide books employ a formalistic narrative, exalting mainstream locations (monuments and landmarks), fitting them with streamlined tales of an idealized past.

Their propaganda-laced versions of the

city grant a superficial understanding at best. Writings on the city – travelogues, memoirs biographies and even fiction– provide a definitive mode of unearthing its layers.

Walking has been long established as a legitimate mode to understanding the city. According to Solnit,“Walkers are ‘practitioners of the city,’ for the city is made to be walked. A city is a language, a repository of possibilities, and walking is the act of speaking that language, of selecting from those possibilities...” [11] The act of walking, stories and the city are interlinked. Taran.R. Khan, for instance, discusses how walking showed her the means to read Kabul and likewise reading guided her walks through the city [12].

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CITY TRAILS

21ST CENTURY ZEITGEIST As city geographies intertwine and transform into personal geographies, each individual’s mental map of the city is formed. Why Loiter points out that physical access to public space (inherently masculine space) is, by default, denied to women as well as people tagged “undesirables” and “unbelongers” [13] . Often, acts of transgression and subversion of preset boundaries of gender, race, class, sexuality etc. are the only means to

“Their swarming mass is an innumerable collection of singularities.

Their intertwined paths give shape to spaces.”

De Certeau, The Practise of Everyday Life.

Sense of Crowdedness. Image source: Book Cover of Maximum City CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

substantiate their claim to the city.

Should the average Indian woman’s mental maps still depicts landscapes of consumption peppered with places of transgression?

As practitioners in the urban realm, we talk about the experientiality of cities in terms of sense of place, sense of belonging, sense of identity & sense of loss. In Maximum City, Suketu Mehta talks about the “Sense of being crowded in an overcrowded city.”

In Indian metropolises bursting at their seams the “sense of crowdedness” is a very real thing. How does one design for crowds in our cities given 46 of them host million plus populace? Literature portray the city as a place harboring complex emotions. It lends backdrop to whirlwind romances, maladies and tragedies. How wonderful it would be if, our cities, just like their fictional multiverses offered its dwellers a good place to cry, to pee & relieve themselves, to hide, to love, to heal, to laugh out loud, to dance, to party; and all in all to belong.

REFERENCE 1. Certeau, Michel de. The practice of everyday life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

2. Spodek, Howard. Ahmedabad: Shock City of Twentieth-century India. United States: Indiana University Press, 2011.

3. Mahale, Amrita. Milk Teeth. India: Westland Publications, 2018.

4. Mistry, Cyrus. Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer.

India: Rupa, 2014.

5. Fernandes, Naresh. City Adrift: A Short Biography of Bombay. India: Aleph Book Company, 2013.

6. Mehta, Suketu. “Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found (Hardcover).” (2004).

7. 2018. the world cities in 2018. [ebook] Available at: <https://www.un.org/en/ events/citiesday/assets/pdf/the_worlds_ cities_in_2018_data_booklet.pdf> 8. Roy, Nilanjana. The Wildings. India: Random House of Canada, 2016.

9. Dalrymple, William. City Of Djinns: A Year In Delhi. India: Penguin Books Limited, 2004.

10. Nora, Pierre. “Between memory and history: Les lieux de mémoire.” representations 26 (1989): 7-24.

11. Solnit, Rebecca. Wanderlust. New York: Viking, 2000.

12. Khan, Taran N. Shadow City: A Woman Walks Kabul. India: Penguin Random House India Private Limited, 2019.

13. Phadke, Shilpa., Khan, Sameera., Ranade, Shilpa. Why Loiter? Women and Risk on Mumbai Streets. India: Penguin Books, 2011.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shruthi Ramesh is an architect and urban designer. She received her undergraduate degree from GEC Thrissur and holds a Masters in Architecture with a major in Urban Design and minor in History, Theory and Criticism from CEPT University. She has previously worked in varying capacities as Architect and Faculty. As an Independent Researcher, she feels strongly about inclusivity in cities and focuses on urban Studies centered around gender, politics and cultural practices. Her penchant for reading is matched by an equal predilection for writing.

She currently runs her independent practice Meander Design Studio based in Kannur, Kerala.

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MOBILITY AND THE CITY

NATURAL BRIDGE AVENUE TRAVEL SAFE ZONE: A CASE STUDY TYLER MIDDENDORF

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

In March 2017, a 55-year-old St. Louis woman was crossing Natural Bridge Avenue to get to her bus stop. As she was crossing the street, she was struck by a vehicle moving so fast that her body was literally torn in half. She was one of 73 pedestrians to be struck on this road between 2012 and 2017, and one of the 13 that were killed. In this same period, there were more than 1,800 total vehicle crashes resulting in 20 fatalities [1][2].

This stretch of paving was deadly, and something needed to be done.

Image Courtesy: AA Roads

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MOBILITY AND THE CITY

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) designs, builds, and maintains public roadways in Missouri [3]. Natural Bridge Avenue, also known as Missouri State Route 115, is classified as a Major Road. In cities, these arterials are designed to move large numbers of vehicles quickly between the central business districts and the outlying suburban residential areas [4]. Natural Bridge Avenue was redesigned in 1950 to essentially its current form with the Standard Specifications for Highway Construction and is still assessed using the Highway Safety Manual [5]. In all ways, it is designed, built, and maintained as a highway.

It follows that MoDOT would utilize a tool for reducing fatalities on other highways, the Travel Safe Zone (TSZ), in their efforts to make Natural Bridge Avenue safer. A TSZ is a designation for a section of highway where the number of fatal or disabling injury crashes exceeds a “predicted safety performance level for comparable roadways”. MoDOT uses TSZs to improve safety by doubling fines for moving violations, including speeding [6]. A clear start and end point of the TSZ must be established, and it CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

is recommended that the segment is between 1 and 5 miles (1.6 km and 8.0 km) and is in effect for a maximum of 2 years [7]. Starting in 2017, MoDOT designated a 4-mile segment of Natural Bridge Avenue a TSZ [8].

The success of any TSZ is difficult to assess given that MoDOT does not publicly share their data or documents.

In general, studies indicate that higher traffic violation fines tend to reduce traffic violations and accidents. However, if the recipient of a citation does not feel that the citation and fine are justified, then the increased fine may have a detrimental compliance effect. Increases in fines greater than 100% are counterintuitively associated with a small increase in the rate of occurrence of violations [9].

The TSZ fines may be perceived as being unfair given the demographics of the area. The neighbourhoods through which this TSZ cuts are 85.6% Black with a Median Household Income just over $29,000 (USD), compared to only 18.3% Black and over $66,000 (USD) for the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area [10]. A 200% traffic fine would present a disproportionate burden to a low-income individual or family.

Protests in Ferguson, Missouri that stemmed from the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown led to discussions about policing in the predominantly black neighbourhoods and suburbs of St. Louis. As a result of these protests, in 2016 Missouri banned the use of ticket quotas and limited the amount of annual general operating revenue received by a city from fines, bond forfeitures, and court costs for minor traffic violations to 20% [11][12]. Some view TSZs as a way to circumvent these changes. Regardless of the efficacy of the increased fines, it is still an imperfect solution, as it is a temporary strategy. It is imperative to investigate and address the underlying root causes of speeding.

The posted speed limit on Natural Bridge Avenue is 35 mph (56 km/h).

Curb-to-curb, the typical roadway is 23.3 meters with 7 lanes total. In the 1950s, common highway engineering references recommended 12-foot (3.7 meter) lanes for heavy volumes of mixed traffic [13].

These same sources recommended designing for traffic moving even faster than the posted speed limit, and this was considered to be a factor of safety [14]. Following this logic, Natural Bridge Avenue was designed with ultra-wide lanes that make it possible to manoeuvre at high speeds—much higher than should be considered for a mixed-use corridor bisecting several dense, urban neighbourhoods.

Sign showing fines doubled.

Image credit: Author

40 41

MOBILITY AND THE CITY

Drivers’ decisions are less logical, rational, and intentional than we might assume and are based on the implied expected behaviour based on a roadway’s physical appearance. “People do not drive the posted speed; they drive the speed that is implied by the street design [15].”

Wider roads will lead to faster speeds, even if there is a lower posted speed limit [16].

Surrounding urban design features also factor into the implied expected driving behaviour. Most of the buildings along this segment of Natural Bridge Avenue are separated by vast swaths of parking, empty lawn, and used car lots, and many structures recoil away from the street. Wide curb cuts for fast food and gas stations further extend the paved surface. There are few street trees, bus shelters, or benches. The overall effect is that the already wide roadway appears to be even wider. With no social aspects of

Final display for the construction project on Natural Bridge Road in St. Louis.

Image source: https://www.modot.org/natural-bridge-resurfacing-and-safety-project CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

the neighbourhoods directly engaging the roadway, it seems that it is intended only for cars. All of this implies that Natural Bridge Avenue is a road on which to drive fast.

There are difficult realities that must be faced to make the needed changes, not least of which is cost. St. Louis is struggling to maintain population, which, downstream, means that there is not enough funding to maintain all areas equally [17]. In St. Louis, much of the city’s resources are concentrated into developing and maintaining several core neighbourhoods—those that tend to attract higher-income, white residents. This strategy has left several neighbourhoods destabilized, while still extracting taxes and fines from their residents.

Why is blame for design deficiencies of the roadway loaded onto the residents that use them, even when these residents continue to be used as funding sources for other areas of improvement in the city?

Instead, tactical incremental urban design approaches could be implemented, where low-cost, short-term design interventions can be designed, built, and eventually replaced with more permanent versions of themselves.

Recent Midblock Crossing Installation. Image source: Author

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MOBILITY AND THE CITY

As a component of this approach, design changes, like sidewalk bulb outs at intersections, narrowing of lanes, and raised medians, can be incorporated into routine maintenance of the roadways with little change in cost.

New development standards should be developed to avoid the current highwayside quick convenience that does not support neighbourhoods or safe travel speeds. Street parking can constrict the view of a roadway and help reduce traffic speeds, but only if it is in use, which this street parking is not. Much of the street parking should be removed and be replaced with features that will define roadway edge MoDOT has begun to plan for some design changes to this stretch, including roundabouts, medians, and crosswalks.

The road will be reduced down to one lane in each direction with left turn lanes at cross streets. MoDOT has identified that these are short-term improvements “that are easy to remove for more permanent solutions [18].”

While it is encouraging that MoDOT has acknowledged that there is a design issue, their approach is not exactly incremental or tactical. A long-term vision is needed to incrementally build towards achieving that vision.

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

REFERENCES 1. KMOV.com. 2020. Changes proposed for Natural Bridge Avenue within St. Louis to improve safety. [online] Available at: <https://www.kmov.com/news/changesproposed-for-natural-bridge-avenue-withinst-louis-to-improve-safety/article_20aee21c3ccd-11ea-880e-03e918ea64ca.html> [Accessed 10 May 2021].

2. Youtube.com. 2017. Before you continue to YouTube. [online] Available at: <https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=r4im4eohjog&t=2s> [Accessed 10 May 2021].

3. Modot.org. 2021. Meet MoDOT. [online] Available at: <https://www.modot.org/sites/ default/files/documents/MeetMoDOT_10. pdf> [Accessed 10 May 2021].

4. epg.MoDOT.org. 2021. Engineering Policy Guide, 822.5 Definitions. [online] Available at: <https://epg.modot.org/index. php/822.5_Definitions> [Accessed 10 May 2021].

5. cityofnormandy.gov. n.d. More History - Bits & Pieces. [online] Available at: <https:// cityofnormandy.gov/DocumentCenter/ View/589/Normandy-Bits-andPieces?bidId=> [Accessed 10 May 2021].

6. Modot.org. 2020. Travel Safe Zones | Missouri Department of Transportation. [online] Available at: <https://www.modot. org/travel-safe-zones> [Accessed 10 May 2021].

7. epg.MoDOT.org. 2021. Engineering Policy Guide, 907.3 Travel Safe Zones. [online] Available at: <https://epg.modot.org/ index.php?title=907.3_Travel_Safe_Zones>

[Accessed 10 May 2021].

8. Modot.org. 2017. Natural Bridge Safety Initiative | Missouri Department of Transportation. [online] Available at: <https://www.modot.org/natural-bridgesafety-initiative> [Accessed 10 May 2021].

9. Goldenbeld, C., 2017. Increasing Traffic Fines. [online] The Hague, Netherlands: SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research.

Available at: <https://www.researchgate. net/publication/322790828_Increasing_ traffic_fines> [Accessed 10 May 2021].

10. U.S. Census Bureau, 2019. Median Income in the Past 12 Months (In 2019 Inflation-Adjusted Dollars). U.S. Census Bureau. Available at: <https://data. census.gov/cedsci/table?t=Income%20 %28Households,%20Families,%20 Individuals%29%3AIncome%20 and%20Poverty&tid=ACSST1Y2019.

S1903&hidePreview=true.> [Accessed 10 May 2021].

11. Senate.mo.gov. 2016. SB765 - Modifies provisions relating to law enforcement officers and political subdivisions. [online] Available at: <http://senate. mo.gov/16info/BTS_Web/Bill. aspx?SessionType=R&BillID=22259793> [Accessed 10 May 2021].

12. Senate.mo.gov. 2021. [online] Available at:

<https://www.senate.mo.gov/15info/pdfbill/tat/SB5.pdf> [Accessed 10 May 2021].

13. Ritter, L. and Paquette, R., 1951. Highway engineering. New York: The Ronald Press Company.

14. Everett, T., 2015. Relationship between Design Speed and Posted Speed - Geometric Design - Design - Federal Highway Administration. [online] Fhwa.dot.gov.

Available at: <https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ design/standards/151007.cfm> [Accessed 10 May 2021].

15. Speck, J., 2018. WALKABLE CITY RULES. Washington, DC: Island Press.

16. Dumbaugh, E., Saha, D. and Merlin, L., 2020. Toward Safe Systems: Traffic Safety, Cognition, and the Built Environment.

Journal of Planning Education and Research,.

17. Team Four Inc. 1976. “Citywide Implementation Strategies: The Draft Comprehensive Plan”. https://nextstl. com/2013/08/team-four-citywideimplementation-strategies-the-draftcomprehensive-plan-1976/.

18. “Natural Bridge Resurfacing And Safety Project | Missouri Department Of Transportation”. 2020. Modot.Org. https:// www.modot.org/natural-bridge-resurfacingand-safety-project.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tyler Middendorf is an Urban Designer and Architect in the Great Lakes Mega Region. He is passionate about understanding cities and making positive change in the region. Tyler is a self-proclaimed unofficial ambassador for his home city of St. Louis, Missouri.

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FEATURE ARTICLE

CITIES DO NOT MATTER: AN ARGUMENT FOR (NON) CITIES SIDDHARTH SIVAKUMAR

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

In 2015, when the Adayar broke its banks [1], 48 year-old Rani knew she had lost her home and few belongings.

She says, in her line of work as a domestic worker and with limited family income, rebuilding was a hard task but the real threat stemmed from the municipality’s renewed opportunity to evict its residents. While relief work for the affluent was heralded, the post flood scenario involved rampant efforts to relocate the city’s poor affecting their livelihood detrimentally as highlighted by social activist Medha Patkar’s protests on slum eviction [2].

Flooding of the Adayar, December 2015 Image source: Economic Times

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FEATURE ARTICLE

Whenever a case for urban action must be built and solutions envisaged, the issues and strengths must be thoroughly researched not only upon its practical feasibility but moral integrity. A city’s problems are well known to all its inhabitants and serve as a constant image of antipathy. Consider these visual mnemonics – Degraded Air Quality (India Gate), Polluted Rivers (Yamuna, Kanpur, Couum), Insufficient transport facilities (Mumbai Local), Lack of affordable housing (Pavement Dwelling), behemoth landfills (Deonar) and slums (Dharavi), Congested Traffic (Pan-

Stark Contrast - Mumbai. Image source: IStockPhoto CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

Indian M.G.Roads), perceived safety, threat to and lack of green cover (Aarey Colony), Seasonal Epidemics (Dengue in Chennai), and inept avenues for social mobilisation and disaster response to name a few. Two factors are particularly compelling in their effect on net social capital, although on either side of the spectrum. The first constitutes the preponderance of slums - a symbol of the inverted relation between economic growth and opportunity. As per the World Bank, 25% of Urban Indians live in poverty [3].

Slum Rehabilitation and Redressal are degenerative concepts, second only to absolute clearance, as it does not signal an inclination to solve the root cause of migration. In the second factor, on the other end of the spectrum, gated residential communities and enclaves promote affluent exclusivity and gentrification.

How can conciliatory tones be struck between these two divisive issues and a median approached? Traditionally, independent India has suffered from a lacuna of an integrated approach and any urban development plan turns out to be a list of projects rather than an incisive strategy. This has continued into the 21st Century.

CHALLENGES & CONSIDERATIONS Consider two prominent dates of interest in the last decade. On 25th June 2015, the “Smart Cities Mission [4][5]” was announced - an Urban Retrofitting and Renewal mission program focused on the creation of model areas. Several Metropolitan regions with populations over 10 million were chosen among a total of 100 cities. On the 12th of May 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a vocal pitch for ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ or a self-sustaining India [6][7].

The principle pushed the idea of a nation self-reliant in its energy, infrastructure, technology, vibrant demography and demand. Surely well intentioned, there is logical dissonance in the modus operandi and realpolitik. As per the 2011 Census, there are only 53 urban agglomerations in India and 7935 towns while 68% of India’s population lives in 640,000 villages, a rough 530 million people [8]. This statistic warrants a second reading and then some. How can we aspire to better urban standards without consideration of the spaces that the majority dwells in? Is the governing principle, “bigger the better” or aimed at equitable distribution and the alleviation of rural concerns coalesced with principles of urban growth? Geographic 48 49

FEATURE ARTICLE

Capital Inequities in China. Image credit: Mathew Hartz

inconsistency could engender recipes for regional imbalances and dissent as was the case in Telangana. Even in China, great inequalities have risen between the interior and the wealthy coastal megalopolises, only kept in check by the iron hand of its bureaucracy [9].

As proto-models of the urban village, Indian Industrial Townships such as Jamshedpur and Neyveli have always exemplified the principle of distributed urbanization by being located in noncentral locations and subsequently encouraging waves of surrounding development.

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

The social deluge and urban communal apathy of nodal urbanization was best captured on the 24th of March 2020, when the Government of India ordered a nationwide lockdown [10] and within days thousands of industrial units came to a grinding halt. This event precipitated the migration of millions of workers to their home state from the metros due to the subsequent lack of income, food and shelter. A hardship fraught with death and disenfranchisement, this spawns comparison with city-states of the Middle East and the treatment of the exogenous as children of an ‘expatriate

country’. Despite this systemic halt the technology sector comprising Information Technology (IT) , e-commerce, logistics and the startup ecosystem has driven on with its large workforce scattered but with the ability to contribute remotely by working from home be it the hill or the farm. The technology-inclined services sector contributes to 40% of India’s Gross Development Product (GDP), IT alone employing over 4.36 million employees [11], a globally admired workforce immersed in multi- national work and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). This fact and the ability to operate beyond the constraints of geography enhances its ability to contribute to decentralized urbanization. The age of Information and Communication Technology and remote communication ensures that programs such as the smart city project need not restrict itself to urban nodes but can encompass whole regions and thereby project into consideration the largely invisible spectacle that are the villages of the Indian hinterland to help them create a new identity.

MANIFESTATION & IMPACT The follies of British India aside, how do we reconstruct the post-colonial

narrative? One might agree that much of urbanization today is a product of the hastily liberalized national economy in India in the last three decades. ON example to illustrate this is the city of Bangalore’s famed tree canopy cover that has drastically shrunk from 68% of the area in 1973 to 15% in 2013 [12]. The historic challenge of quick information exchange can now be mitigated efficiently in the data era. This provides us an opportunity to revisit and renegotiate the power structures of the builtscape. The pioneering urban designer, Jan Gehl said, “First life, then spaces, then buildings - the other way around never works”. The isolationist attitude of mere practical consideration should be augmented by endeavour in systemic application of 21st century liberal democratic values that address inequity and not merely inequality.

At perplexing junctures, society holds a mirror to its past, perhaps best captured in Eckhart Toole’s quote ”The past provides identity, the future a promise of salvation”. Historically, there is an incongruity in the need for urban development in India beyond administrative concern. In populist Indian narrative, the past is often the 50 51

FEATURE ARTICLE

Mapping of Green Cover in Bangalore. Image credit: H.A.Bharath, Arati Halbe Facing page: Market Scene in Lahore, Orientalist Painting by Edwin Lord Weeks. Image source: AlamyStockPhoto

subject of the rodomontade of glorious past and the promise of imminent return – a spectacle hardly possible without ready investigation into the how and why. In his “An Era of Darkness’’ [13] Dr.Shashi Tharoor argues on the basis of company accounts of colonialism that British Empire’s unfamiliarity with Indian social structures, and an unflinching rapacity for cheap product led to a devolution of Indian villages into feudal hierarchies serving imperial vehicles of trade, having previously existed as semi self-governing units of economy, administration and jurisprudence. He goes on to note that ‘A society of little societies’ is how historian Jon Wilson CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

had argued this notion of a dynamic order. Bombay, Madras and Kolkata were developed as industrial export centres. In all likelihood, pre-industrial settlements in most parts of the globe evolved within the relative constraints set by the local climate and geography, and the area’s subsequent carrying capacity.

The overthrow of foreign imperial power in India should bolster the equal claims to its geo-anthropological richness.

The scattered abundance of natural resources, fertile soils and water should enhance our commitment to equitable development rather than to another system funneling divisive and unjust building and development practices.

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Tokyo Metropolis. Image source: DreamsTime CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

Compare this to Japan where a little more than threefourths of the country [14] is inhabitable rendering only 13% cultivable and a huge scarcity of resources. Post the Meiji Restoration – this has resulted in imperialism and dense agglomeration – ‘Greater Tokyo’ being the largest metropolitan region by economy and second by size in the world [15].

The principle of Subsidiarity [16], originally intended for Catholic social teaching, is suited for the indian condition and states that decisions must be taken by the smallest, most local, competent authority. While Gram Panchayats and Local Municipal Bodies may be seen to constitute such a definition, there is little onus on the active participation of the citizenry (the smallest competent unit) manifesting itself, in a void of humanist principles. Plans and visions for the future of urbanism must reject delusions of grandiose, in power and numbers and a convoluted hierarchy of administration. The adoption of Subsidiarity can be alternatively interpreted as the rejection of settlement hierarchy - of cities, towns and villages in order to create a new definition empowered by investing power with the local stakeholder. Building on an earlier focus, the advent of Big Data and the rapid proliferation of Internet accessibility in the past decade championed by a strong pool of skilled and young labor in the technology sector can coalesce individual communities into a network of ‘Data Cities/ Urban Villages’. Data serves as the link element, providing the fuel for remote central administrative decisions

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Characteristics of a Data Centric Village. Image credit: Author

while the units themselves are actively and collaboratively run by its occupants addressing key issues of climate change and participation. The idea of the system is best illustrated as a vision.

Interestingly, many of the principles enshrined in the chart were already integral to Gandhi’s vision of the village in Hind Swaraj [17]. The scale and complex form of the Metropolis does not inspire confidence in participatory planning. This ‘dependence on interdependency’ and the deployment of modern solutions in the local arena can foster a competitive spirit between CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

urban villages while most importantly, suffusing citizens with a discernible responsibility to the physical betterment of the community, a character lost in the metropolis.

AFTERMATH & CHALLENGES In its very immediate impact, two clear patterns will clearly emerge from this model - underdeveloped regions can benefit from fresh rules that encompass modern planning and increased scrutiny while congested metros can benefit from the subsequent relief

on population strain through gradual readjustment. On the personal front, it would require an introspection.

What can each individual contribute and what part of the psyche lends itself averse/inclined to collaborate?

One is accustomed to city life and its conveniences but not wedded to it and therefore the shift will only be a gradual self-correction. Policy-wise, recurring application of stopgaps and aggressive analysis must be utilized to prevent foreseeable problems. Communities at nascent stages of development must have policy assurances to ensure the prevention of physical agglomeration and conurbation such as that of the National Capital Region. Additionally special care must be taken to ensure that in the relinquishment of centralized power, urban villages do not end up the victims of vested private interest.

India must establish a consensus between it’s history, geography and the people. The unhealthy obsession with cities as the pinnacled centers of growth in the socio-historical narrative must be shed without further ado as it leads to the marginalisation and categorization of the exogenous. The modern Indian city must redefine itself as an entanglement

of human endeavour to collaborate, assist, engage and democratize society while preserving the inalienable rights of the natural environment to endure.

REFERENCES 1. Jancy Samuels, 12 Dec 2016, Firstpost News Article. https://www.firstpost.com/ india/cyclone-vardah-brings-chennaisvulnerabilities-to-the-fore-reminds-residentsof-2015-floods-3152708.html 2. Special Correspondent, 13 Jan 2018, The Hindu News Article. https://www.thehindu. com/news/cities/chennai/medha-patkarcondemns-evictions/article22432890.ece 3. World Bank. https://povertydata.worldbank. org/poverty/country/IND 4. https://www.india.gov.in/spotlight/ smart-cities-mission-step-towards-smartindia#:~:text=The%20Smart%20Cities%20 Mission%20is,create%20smart%20 outcomes%20for%20citizens.

5. Pretika Khanna, Rihan Najib, Gyan Varma, 19 Jan 2016, Mint News Article. https://www.livemint.com/Politics/ KY8pnCzuu370FchYHcPBgJ/Names-of-first20-smart-cities-in-India-to-be-announcedtoda.html 6. https://aatmanirbharbharat.mygov.in/ 7. Prasanna Mohanty, Nov 14 2020, Business Today News Article. https://www. businesstoday.in/opinion/columns/indianeconomy-what-is-aatmanirbhar-bharat-andwhere-will-it-take-india/story/421952.html 8. Press Trust of India, Jan 20 2013,

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Business Standard News Article. https:// www.business-standard.com/article/ economy-policy/70-indians-live-inrural-areas-census-111071500171_1. html#:~:text=The%20 rural%E2%80%93urban%20distribution%20 is,from%2072.19%25%20to%2068.84%25.

9. Matt Schivenza, Sep 14 2013, “Mapping China’s Inequality”, The Atlantic News Article. https://www.theatlantic.com/china/ archive/2013/09/mapping-chinas-incomeinequality/279637/ 10. Jeffrey Gettleman & Kai Schultz, 24 March 2020, NYTimes News Article. https://www. nytimes.com/2020/03/24/world/asia/ india-coronavirus-lockdown.html 11. India Brand Equity Foundation. Foundation. https://www.ibef.org/industry/services. aspx#:~:text=The%20services%20 sector%20is%20a,580.80%20billion).

12. Arati Halbe, 17 Sep 2017, Research Matters. https://researchmatters.in/article/satelliteimages-show-green-cover-bangalorereducing-alarmingly-fast

Moral Theology, “subsidiarity is a two-sided coin.” https://catholicmoraltheology.com/ subsidiarity-is-a-two-sided-coin/ 17. M.K.Gandhi, 1909, “Indian Home Rule”.

Other References: • William Dalrymple, 2019, “The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company”, Bloomsbury Publishing.

• Sumanth Inukonda, 2019, “ Media, Nationalism and Globalization: The Telangana Movement and Indian Politics.”, Routledge.

• Markus Keck and Patrick Sakdapolrak, 2013, “What is Social Resilience? Lessons learned and ways forward ”.Erdkunde.

• Lok Foundation-Oxford University Surveys, 2019, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) - ‘Percentage of Indian English Speakers’ • Isher Judge Ahluwalia, 2015, “Planning for Urban Development in India”, ICRIER

13. Dr.Shashi Tharoor, 27 Oct 2016, An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India, Aleph Book Company.

• Centre for Liveable Cities and Urban Land Institute, 2013, “Singapore:10 Principles for Liveable High-Density Cities -Lessons from Singapore.”

14. Hari Srinivas, July 2020, GDRC.org. https:// www.gdrc.org/uem/footprints/tokyo-fprint. html#:~:text=The%20total%20land%20 area%20of,%25%20of%20the%20total%20 land).

• Abhay Pethe,Ramakrishna Nallathiga,Sahil Gandhi,Vaidehi Tandel, 2014, “ Re-thinking urban planning in India: Learning from the wedge between the de jure and de facto development in Mumbai”

15. Said Karlsoon, Sept 23 2019, “Just How Big is Tokyo?” https://www.saidkarlsson. com/blog/how-big-is-tokyo

• Enrico Micheluti,Harry C.Smith,2014, “The realpolitik of informal city governance.

The interplay of powers in Mumbai’s un-recognized settlements”, Centre for

16. Meghan Clark, March 8 2012, Catholic CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

Environment and Human Settlements (CEHS), School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK. • Walpole, M.; Karanja, G.G.; Sitati, N.W.; Leader-Williams, 2013, “ Wildlife and People: Conflict and Conservation in Masai Mara, Kenya.”

• Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment and Department of Environment Transport and Regions London’, 2001, The Value of Urban Design.

• Danish Ministry of the Environment, 2007, “ Spatial Planning in Denmark. Copenhagen: Agency for Spatial and Environmental Planning.”

• Tim Marshall, 2015, “Prisoners of Geography”, Elliott & Thompson Limited.

• The Ellen McArthur Foundation, 2020, “The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan - Case Study” • Jan Gehl, 2010, “Cities for People”,Island Press.

• Heidi Tuhkanen, 2020, “What is holding back the promise of nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation?”, Stockholm Environment Institute.

• Sridhar, Kala Seetharam, 2010, “ Impact of Land Use Regulations: Evidence from India’s Cities, Urban Studies.”

• A.G.Krishna Menon, 2019, “When it Comes to Urban Planning, India Suffers From a Poverty of Imagination”, Dashrath Patel Memorial Lecture.

• Ar.Apurva Bose Dutta, 2018, “Architectural voices of India:A blend of Contemporary and Traditional Ethos.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Siddharth Sivakumar is a graduate city planning student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He holds a keen interest in environment-based solutions at the urban level. Prior to graduate study, he worked as an architect in Chennai.

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CAN PUBLIC SPACES HELP INTEGRATE AND UPGRADE THE URBAN POOR WITHIN A CITY? RIYA CHADHA

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Community Engagement Program at Jai Hind Camp, Vasant Kunj.

Image credit:The adda experiment

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Growing up in India has provided me with a set of experiences as unique as the country itself. Having lived in varied environments among people of mixed economic backgrounds, I was often a bystander to the gaping disparity that exists in a country of 1.3 billion.

The common denominator through it all was the confined building complexes I resided in over the years. More often than not, these residential developments had clubhouses, playgrounds, and public amenities accessible by all. I recall playing on the basketball court, learning badminton, and spending hours by the swings and sandpit. But my all-time

Image credit:The adda experiment

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favourite space was the amphitheatre situated at the centre of the seven housing blocks where I played ‘tag’ with all my friends. More importantly, it was a place where all festivals like Republic Day, Lohri, and Holi were celebrated.

These experiences exposed me to a wholesome way of living and made me realize the importance of public spaces at a very young age.

Like me, majority of the urban population today, living in such housing complexes provides an ideal combination of ‘live’ and ‘play’, along with the right blend of ‘learn,’ making it a valuable experience.

However, that is noticeably missing in

the lives of the urban poor. It may seem fundamental to some of us, but it is a huge privilege to have such places at your disposal. The harsh reality is that more than 20% of the Indian population does not have easy access to public spaces and no consideration towards recreational activities. While there is an oversupply of privatized-public space and space-related amenities in the wealthiest neighbourhoods, there is a total lack of public space in the informal settlements where a large part of the urban population often resides.

Informal settlements represent a longrunning deadlock between the occupants and the landowners and are complex yet integral to the urbanization process. In several cities, over 40% of the population lives in a degraded environment, which makes up less than 10% of the city’s area. Like anybody else, they must also be given the opportunity to aspire, to add value to their public and private living spaces, and to assimilate with the city.

However, often, the very marginalized groups do not have a voice and identity, which has implications for the quality of their life and livelihoods and the city at large.

Motilal Nehru Camp. Image credit: The Adda experiment

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Bandhu Camp. Image credit: The Adda experiment

It is debatable that slum upgrading strategies that rely prevalently on shelter might not be looking at the challenges of a slum dweller correctly. Housing is a highly personal solution in several urban slums, whether it consists of incremental additions and improvements on one’s plot or an informal rental arrangement for places of abode where neither the renter nor the owner has any interest in upgrading. Therefore, to improve the lives of slum dwellers, one of the targets of the Declaration of the UN’s Millennium Assembly, is making public spaces available and endowing them with those CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

facilities and services that most slum dwellers cannot create, manage and enjoy on an individual basis: sports areas and playgrounds, water and sanitation, health centers, schools, civic centers and places of worship.

As architects, our interests and subsequent study of spatial design has to lead to the sensitization of the impacts and effects that these are capable of having on the human psyche.

Creating vibrant communities where families can thrive, build, and foster connections is to create something

meaningful. This potential of public spaces to have an actual impact on people’s lives encouraged me to start an initiative called ‘The Adda Experiment’.

As an extension of my Undergraduate Architectural Thesis, I explored the ability of public spaces to act as a catalyst for upgrading and integrating the urban poor within the city. This social project essentially aims to playfully utilize the informal physical spaces of such settlements into spaces that can be constructively used to help bridge the gap between the urban and urban poor living conditions. Its larger goal is to encourage a far-reaching living experience with the resources available.

Although public spaces in such settlements have their limitations and opportunities, space is of the essence and its functionality differs from the public spaces in developed cities. In contrast to clearly developed zones or land uses, they appear to be multilayered, multi-dimensional entities.

They support transport, water supply, electricity, drainage, street lighting, sites for informal trade, centers of religious and cultural exchange, recreation, and social interaction. Due to the absence of space that meets residents’ economic, communal, and recreational needs, slum conditions worsen, leading to illegal encroachment into privatized

Use of streets as playful public spaces by children. Image credit: The Adda experiment

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Kusumpur Camp, Vasant Kunj. Image credit: The Adda experiment

Bandhu Camp. Image credit: The Adda experiment CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

spaces.1 Therefore, as part of the project, we decided to visit various slums around Vasant Kunj, Delhi, and conduct community engagement programs to help aid our design process. For that, we designed a game called, ‘Spin the Wheels’ hopeful to learn more about the daily lives of children and adults through its medium. The outer wheel comprised of categories like Act it out (Nautanki baazi), educative (Kya aap pachvi pass se tez hai?), Pictionary (Lakeer ke fakeer), physical games (Dum lagake haisha) and Talent show (Chupa Rustom) whereas 1 Cantada, I. C. (2015, July 24). Public Spaces as Catalyst for Slum Upgrading. World Bank Blogs. https://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/ public-spaces-catalyst-slum-upgrading#:~:text=Public%20 spaces%20in%20developing%20countries,defined%20 zones%20or%20land%20uses.&text=Over%20time%2C%20slums%20should%20be,streets%2C%20services%20and%20public%20spaces

the inner wheel posed questions about their friends and family (Yari-dosti), nearby neighbourhoods (Ados pados) and their own lives (Mann ki baat). The interactive survey intended to make sure the children and adults were comfortable sharing information about their living experiences. These exchanges reinforced the importance of public spaces to life in dense environments such as these.

We realized that such places act as an extension of various household activities such as washing, cooking, and sleeping allowing for informal encounters. While speaking to the community, we learned about the absence of child-friendly spaces, the hardships of living in a 10ftby-10ft room leaving no space to unwind.

Some also confirmed about the growing garbage dumps around their living zones

Community Engagement Program at Jai Hind Camp, Vasant Kunj. Image credit: The Adda experiment

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Understanding the urban poor living conditions through their eyes. Image credit: The Adda experiment

making it unsafe for their children to play outside. Throughout our interactions, we realized that more ‘play’ for all age groups happens in the streets and informal open spaces of the community than in the homes or formal parks, which reinforced the need to create new, more imaginative public space solutions for all age groups.2 [2] Taking our association forward with the community of Bandhu Camp, Vasant Kunj, we went through various iterations combined with several rounds of approval from DDA (Delhi 2 United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). (2014). The “Global Public Space Toolkit.” https://urbangateway.org/sites/default/ugfiles/Global_Toolkit_for_Public_Space.pdf

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Development Authority) and DUSIB (Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board) to design our intervention. We focused on understanding the site in detail to make the required adjustments to their unused open spaces. We developed two zones to provide short-term action for a long-term change. Our central structure, made of bamboo is longstanding and involves diverse seating for all age groups of the settlement. It consists of playful elements like monkey bars, slide and canopy to encourage all people to use the space. The other uses tactical urbanism to incorporate colourful public art consisting of enjoyable games, mazes, and educative play on the paved regions of the slum area.

While our design process and execution of our project have gone through various bumps and delays due to COVID-19 and the rising cases in India, the thought and idea remain the same. We hope to redefine and amalgamate the concept of play spaces and public spaces and breathe much-needed life into everyday physical spaces and daily routines by reclaiming forgotten, blighted or avoided spaces. While we predict the completion of our project in the coming months, we hope and pray the situation gets better in our country and we are all able to beat the virus together.

To conclude, public space policies in fast-growing and resource-scarce cities should prioritise pursuing public space’s inequity-reduction potential by concentrating on the city’s leastequipped communities. Well-designed public spaces will improve the quality of life in a community by supporting a higher density of events, uses, and users.

They have the potential to become a powerful symbol of public participation and citizenship, as well as a significant anchor for upgrading interventions.

UN-Habitat Executive Director Joan Clos rightfully said, “When we think of great cities, we invariably think of their public

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Proposed interventions for public space in Bandhu camp, Vasant Kunj. Image credit: The Adda experiment

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spaces: avenues, boulevards, streets, bridges, rivers, squares, parks, gardens, playgrounds, public buildings. Aside from notable visual landmarks, the quality of spaces surrounding a city’s less celebrated built environment can make the difference between drudgery and attractiveness. Cities are not born great, nor have greatness thrust upon them.

They become great when they develop a great public space system.”3 REFERENCE • HABITAT.:. home: NEWS: UN-HABITAT and Nairobi City county launch PILOT public space project. (2014). Retrieved May 03, 2021, from https://mirror.unhabitat.org/ content.asp?cid=12920&catid=9&typeid=6 • United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). (2014). The “Global Public Space Toolkit.” https:// urbangateway.org/sites/default/ugfiles/ Global_Toolkit_for_Public_Space.pdf • https://thecityfix.com/blog/public-spaces10-principles-for-connecting-people-and-thestreets-priscila-pacheco/ • Cantada, I. C. (2015, July 24). Public Spaces 3 HABITAT.:. home: NEWS: UN-HABITAT and Nairobi City county launch PILOT public space project. (2014). Retrieved May 03, 2021, from https://mirror.unhabitat.org/ content.asp?cid=12920&catid=9&typeid=6

as Catalyst for Slum Upgrading. World Bank Blogs. https://blogs.worldbank.org/ endpovertyinsouthasia/public-spacescatalyst-slum-upgrading#:~:text=Public%20 spaces%20in%20developing%20 countries,defined%20zones%20or%20 land%20uses.&text=Over%20time%2C%20 slums%20should%20be,streets%2C%20 services%20and%20public%20spaces • UN Habitat, Public space programme, & The centre for the Future of places. (2020, January). City-Wide Public Space Strategies: a Guidebook for City Leaders. https:// unhabitat.org/sites/default/files/2020/03/ cwpss_guidebook_20200116.pdf • https://tradingeconomics.com/ india/population-living-in-slumspercent-of-urban-population-wb-data. html#:~:text=Population%20living%20in%20 slums%20(%25,compiled%20from%20 officially%20recognized%20sources • Brookings. (2021, May 6). Re-emerging from COVID-19: Why children and cities need play now more than ever [Video]. Youtube. https://www.brookings.edu/events/reemerging-from-covid-19-why-children-andcities-need-play-now-more-than-ever/ • Bratel, J. B. (2011, March 10). Why do slums need open spaces? CoLab Radio. http:// colabradio.mit.edu/why-do-slums-needopen-spaces/

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Proposed interventions for public space in Bandhu camp, Vasant Kunj. Image credit: The Adda experiment

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Riya Chadha graduated from Sushant School of Art and Architecture, Gurgaon with a Bachelors in Architecture in 2019 and worked at Pk Das and associates, Mumbai for 2 years. She is currently pursuing her Masters of Science in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University. The conversation around urban design has always intrigued her. Through her undergraduate dissertation on People & Social Urban spaces & then thesis study on how ‘Public spaces act as a catalyst for upgrading and integrating the Urban Poor within the city‘, she became more conscious of the effect architecture & design have on humanity and the need to use it to make a positive change. ‘The Adda Experiment’, is an initiative founded by her, which focuses on the importance of play in public spaces and equal opportunity and accessibility of such spaces to all citizens.

The team includes Kamya Khandelwal, Chakshu Chopra, Yash Rathore and Ragavi, who have been an active part of the project from the beginning. Being a young initiative, they are motivated and dedicated to the cause and are constantly learning new things every day. All images’ credits to author.

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LEARNING FROM CITIES

10 URBAN DESIGN LESSONS FROM LINZ MINAZ ANSARI

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LEARNING FROM CITIES

Linz, a city in Upper Austria, huddles along the sinuous curves of the Danube River, just 180 km from the capital city of Vienna. However, despite its status as the third-largest city in Austria and the Capital of Upper Austria, Linz still deals with the weight that its political history has thrown on its delicate shoulders.

A city that the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler grew up in, Linz is said to be the place he most closely associated as his hometown until the end of his life. During the Nazi regime and WW2, Hitler transformed this small town into an industrial city.

He visualised grand architectural plans for Linz including a Fuhrermuseum to house his collection of looted art. Though this dream was never realised, Linz carries with it the taint of its Nazi past which includes the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp 20 km east of Linz.

After the end of WW2 and the defeat of the Nazi regime, Linz struggled to move on to a more inclusive identity. In 1945, Linz renamed 39 streets in an attempt to erase its Nazi history. But would these notional changes be enough? Or did Linz need something more meaningful to be able to move on from being a hostage to its history…

Let’s find out the ten ways in which the city coped, transformed, and embraced a new, inclusive identity and yet stayed connected to its local ethos.

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1

DEALING WITH THE PAST HONESTLY

A city cannot write away its past.

Remnants of a time gone by exist in the city of Linz in the form of fragments of its urban form. They take the shape of architectural landmarks, roads, bridges, and other urban infrastructure and continue to carry memories of a bygone era. The policymakers of Linz however, have dealt with this issue rather openly, rather than, as they say, “sweeping Hitler

under the carpet.” Visitors can explore various traces of its Nazi past through exhibitions, visits to symbolic buildings including the former underground aircraft factory that was part of the Mauthausen /Gusen concentration camp complex.

Every year, a new aspect of this history is highlighted through its cultural events.

So, instead of covering up its past, Linz has learned to deal with it honestly.

Nordico, one of the museums that host exhibitions on Nazi history. Image credit: Author

New Cathedral played a role in the Nazi history of Linz.

Image credit: Author

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2

BUILDING IDENTITY THROUGH ART AND CULTURE

In addition to its historic image, Linz also deals with the cliché of being an industrial town and exists in the shadow of Vienna and Salzburg, the quintessential tourist destinations of Austria, with their picture-perfect mountain glades, Mozart, Freud, et al.

To tackle these issues, in the year 2000, the Cultural Development Plan for Linz stated a clear intention of transforming it from an industrial city to a futureoriented cultural and technological city.

The more profound rationale behind this was to promote political democracy, humanity, peace, freedom from violence,

and tolerance as a precondition for the freedom of art. This paved way for new open spaces, cultural infrastructure, new businesses, and a cultural calendar that included three major events: the International Street Artist Festival, the Ars Electronica Festival, and the Linz Cloud of Sound. In 2009, Linz was declared the cultural capital of Europe.

As American Scholar Robert Hahn mentions in a memoir, “We are not the past, Linz says, we are the present and the future.”

Facing page, Top: The Clouds of Sound music festival playing out at the Brucknerhaus Concert Hall along the Danube. Image source: Wikicommons Facing page, Bottom: The Street Art Festival Pflasterspektakel (German for pavement spectacle) Image source: Wikicommons CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

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3

EVERYDAY ART

In the 1970s, the Linz Art University invited internationally renowned artists from all over to participate in designing art installations made out of industrial scrap metal sourced from the factories of Linz. This exhibition titled Forum Mettal set up installations along the banks of the Danube. Though the exhibition was originally planned to stay for two years, these metal sculptures became a permanent part of the city’s everyday

art, completing their 40th year in the city recently.

Today, ranging from sculptural drinking water fountains to pop art on public booths, art has seeped into the public spaces of the city. Parks, promenades, and even a cathedral interiors serve as pop-up exhibition venues. The new identity of Linz has unabashedly lent itself as a canvas for everyday art.

Top left: A drinking water fountain in a plaza. Image credit: Author.

Top right: Pop Art on a streetside kiosk Image credit: Author Facing page, top: Sculptures from the Forum Mettal exhibition along the banks of the Danube. Image credit: Author.

Facing page, bottom: Fabric Art installation at OÖ Kulturquartier. Image credit: Author.

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Art on a bus. Image credit: Author

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4

REDUNDANCY AS A STAGE FOR BUILDING A CREATIVE ECONOMY

Not far from the cultural life along the

privatised ownership. However, in the

Danube lays a unique work cum social

year 2009, the heritage-listed factory

space with an equally unique story of its

was repurchased by the public sector

origin that starts with the manufacturing

and revitalised as a hub for creative

of cigarettes and evolves into kindling

businesses, contemporary technology,

creative sparks.

design and innovation, start-ups, and

Tabakfabrik, (or tobacco factory) was built in the years 1929-1935. It was designed by Peter Behrens and Alexander Popp in the New Objectivity style; the first steel frame building in Austria, thus making it a site of international architectural significance.

environmental solutions.

This initiative has not only opened economic opportunities for creative businesses in the city - a new-age factory churning out design ideas, but also an interdisciplinary public space for participation, exchange of viewpoints, and creative collaboration. Tabakfabrik is today the pulsating heartbeat of

Tabakfabrik started as a public

Linz’s emerging creative economy

initiative, but when tobacco factories

and an endearing tribute to a radical

were privatised at the turn of the

architectural masterpiece through

century, it went through a phase of

adaptive reuse.

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TabakFabrik building façade in the New Objectivity style. Image credit: Author

Interior spaces modified to suit new age co-working space. Image credit: Author

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5

INVEST IN SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE

For a long time, the mental imagery that Linz conjured in one’s mind was that of industrial sheds and a series of chimney stacks. But the Cultural Development Plan, 2000 brought a completely new image for Linz. Though this was set into motion through its cultural policy to bring into focus culture and technology, it was actualised through the new design vocabulary that emerged from the dynamic, even rakish forms of the new social infrastructure that sprung up around the city.

The Ars Electronica which began as a festival for art, technology, and society in 1979, today is the most talked-about contemporary landmark in Linz as a museum for media art. It is responsible for giving the city a new identity as

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the UNESCO Centre for Media Arts in its Creative Cities Network. Located along the banks of the Danube, it has the perfect foreground to show off its bold, dynamic form that lights up like a celestial fantasy every night. To balance its daring appearance, we have on the other side of the river, the sleek new building of the Lentos Kunstmuseum of Modern Art, reflecting the waters of the Danube in its glazed façade. Put together with The University of Design and Art, and the Brucknerhaus Concert Hall, along the length of the Danube, the Musiktheater and over a dozen other museums, 43 galleries and exhibit rooms, 13 cultural centers, it is obvious how the social infrastructure in the city has helped define its skyline and its new identity.

Lentos Kunstmuseum opened in 2003 on the south bank of the Danube exhibits works of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele amongst others. Image credit: Author.

Musiktheater, a modern opera house opened in 2013 Image credit: Author.

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LEARNING FROM CITIES

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

Ars Electronica Center, located along the Danube, opened in the current form in 2009, defining the new skyline for Linz. Image credit: Wikicommons

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6

ENGAGE WITH RIVERS

The city of Linz is poised at a point

Donaulände – on the river edge bring

where the River Danube takes a sudden

together people from Linz and beyond.

bend to change its route. This unique

A popular public space for the city

juxtaposition is geographically intriguing

at other times as well, the river edge

as it makes its interface with the river

is frequented by lovers and friends;

edge longer and the journey meandering.

the reflection of the colourful lights of the museums setting the vibe and

The cultural channels of the city pour

creating their artwork in the waters. The

themselves to this river edge through

Forum Mettal sculptures that originally

the numerous events that take place

spearheaded this cultural movement

along the banks throughout the summer

along the Danube, continue to attract

months. The Ars Electronica festival

visitors, as do the boat rides, the cruises,

and the events along the ‘Kulturmile’ or

the hiking, and bicycle trails.

Pedestrian trails, Forum Mettal sculptures, and verdant slopes to relax along the Danube. Image credit: Author

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

Soaking in the skyline across the Danube. Image credit: Nitin Mandhan

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7

EQUAL STREETS

For a traveller eager to explore on foot,

uninterrupted sidewalks and an easy

Linz is a fairly easy city to navigate

connection to the tram system which

around. A linear circulation spine cuts

suffices the needs for mass public

through Linz, crossing the Danube and connecting both sides of the city. The best part is that this route is dominated by a tram system from end to end, and flanked by generous pedestrian priority streets on either side. Benches, art

transport here. Linz’s sightseeing tram or ‘Yellow tram’ as it is called by many and the charming Postlingberg tram that connects to the Postlingberg heritage sites are popular tourist attractions and

installations, signages, and bursts of

a great way to drink in the beauty of its

seasonal flowers make walking down

streetscapes.

this stretch a total pleasure. The street culminates at the historic plaza of Hauptplatz at the edge of the Danube.

The river edge itself provides a great

The quaint streets of Linz are experienced in different modes of public

opportunity to walk, cycle, skate or even

and private transport that peacefully co-

try inline walking poles.

exist, making it easy for commuters from different age groups and having different

E-scooters are available on hire at

needs to navigate through the city with

various points providing another eco-

ease and also to reduce the collective

friendly mode of public transport.

carbon footprint by providing ample

Internal streets are also provided with

options for non-motorised transport.

Facing page, top: Tramways as an efficient public transport system. Image credit: Author, Bottom left: Dedicated cycle tracks on arterial roads. Image credit: Author. Bottom right: Shared routes for cyclists, pedestrians, and light motorised traffic on inner streets. Image credit: Author.

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

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LEARNING FROM CITIES

Equal streets for different modes of public transport, cyclists and pedestrians. Image credit: Author

8

CELEBRATE MARKETPLACES

Linz is known today for its focus on technology, futuristic design, and media art. And yet in many ways, some traditional community practices keep its local flavours alive. At heart, Linz continues to be a small town and this is best seen in the various markets that pop up around the city.

At any point in time, eleven farmer’s markets operate around the city, giving a boost to the local economy and bringing CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

fresh produce to its people. The weekly flea market livens up the plazas and brings people together to enjoy public squares in the mornings. The annual Christmas and New Year markets are the highlights of the festive season. A visit to a marketplace is a sensory experience; tantalising one’s sense of sight, sound, and smell alike through the variety of produce, its spontaneous display, and the entire experience of strolling through the assortment of activity that a marketplace brings.

Top left: Fresh produce at the Saturday market. Image credit: Author, Top right: Exploring a variety of products from small scale industries. Image credit: Author. Bottom: Mobile food carts are a big winner in marketplaces. Image credit: Author.

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9

GO SOLAR

An extension to Linz was planned in 1995-96 to accommodate the growing population of the city. This led to the design and construction of Solar City Linz, 12 km from the main city. The master plan designed by DREISEITL Consulting in collaboration with Thomas Herzog, Sir Norman Foster, and Richard Rogers, was planned as an energy-saving design using solar energy and other passive techniques.

Solar City, other than its comprehensive use of solar energy through design, the orientation of buildings and solar panels, also focuses on maintaining

original groundwater balance, through rainwater drains, bioswales, ponds, and brooks that lead the rainwater into the washlands. Decentralised water purification systems and non-motorised transport systems are other features that help maintain a low carbon footprint and promote the health and safety of residents.

Designed to house 25000 people eventually, Solar City currently houses around 4o00 inhabitants and has become a global example for the design of sustainable cities for the future.

An aerial view of the Solar City. Image source: www.dreiseitlconsulting.com CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

A sustainable neighbourhood. Image source: www.dreiseitlconsulting.com

10

DESIGN PLAYFUL CITIES

Whilst strolling down the streets and

such delightful, playful space that offers

public spaces in Linz, one can sense

interactive exhibits, spaces to explore

a playful vibe to the city. This emerges

your senses and to bring out the child in

from little things like splashes of graphic

you through some interesting activities.

art, quirky signage or two, interactive

Other than this, the most evident proof of

installations, an abundance of space

its playfulness is the many children one

for free play, and fun pop-up activities in

can find safely exploring the city.

parks and marketplaces. The fact that a cathedral can serve as a venue for

As the Mayor of Bogota, Enrique

a peculiar suitcase exhibition speaks

Penelosa has rightly said, “Children are a

volumes about the sense of humour the

kind of indicator species. If we can build

city displays. In the heart of the city, the

a successful city for children, we will have

cultural space, OÖ Kulturquartier, is one

a successful city for all people.”

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LEARNING FROM CITIES

Top: Interactive installation for all ages at the OÖ Kulturquartier. Image credit: Author, Bottom left: The Kunst Koffer Exhibition inside a cathedral. Image credit: Author. Bottom right: Water as an element of play. Image credit: Author.

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REFERENCE • The Ambiguous Image of Linz: Linz09 – European Capital of Culture Elitza Iordanova-Krastevai Eugenia Wickensii Ali Bakirii Buckinghamshire New University (United Kingdom) http://www. pasosonline.org/ 67-77. 2010 • UNDERSTANDING DESTINATION IMAGE: THE CASE OF LINZ, EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE 2009 A Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Elitza Iordanova-Krasteva Department of Design, Media and Management Buckinghamshire New University Brunel University April 2013 • https://theamericanscholar.org/what-occurred-at-linz-a-memoir-offorgetting/ • https://www.linz.at/images/Cultural_Development_Plan_2000.pdf • https://ars.electronica.art/aeblog/en/2018/04/20/steel-city-withculture/ • https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2002/aug/02/ guardianletters3 • https://www.dw.com/en/as-europes-cultural-capital-2009-linz-facesnazi-past/a-3912142

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Architect and dreamer, teacher and traveller, art and history nerd, book and nature lover, Minaz Ansari designs, teaches, and writes. Minaz holds a post-graduate degree in Construction Management and a Master’s in Urban Design. She runs a research-based practice under the title The Dreamers Collective with like-minded partners and is currently a professor at Rizvi College of Architecture, Mumbai. She is a published author, having written for various publications, and has also authored a book NESTING IN NATURE - SANJAY PATIL. Minaz is a budding eco-warrior and attempts to lead a zero-waste life. A lover of all forms of art, she lives by the mantra ‘Art is Oxygen.’ An incurable optimist, she looks at the various interests that she indulges in as a means to spread love and make the world a kinder place.

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MOTION CAPTURED

PUBLIC SPACES AS A COMMUNITY RESOURCE AGNESA THAÇI

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MOTION CAPTURED

This photo essay attempts to capture the activities and patterns of the urban area of Kaçanik; a southern border city of Kosova, on a rainy “bazaar” day.

From trading goods alongside the streets to green areas with historic buildings and statues, the photographs try to draw attention and show co-existing different periods and realities.

The public spaces serve the people who use them as a vital community resource in the social, economic, and even spiritual aspects. Despite that the social and physical dimensions of the urban area seem to lack balance, these places exist with a unique sense of identity.

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MOTION CAPTURED

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MOTION CAPTURED

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MOTION CAPTURED

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ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER Agnesa Thaçi is a Kosovan-based architect with a love for photography and storytelling. She currently works for an architectural office that is focused on sustainable architecture. She is interested in how environments shape people’s everyday life and how the local community’s assets are used to create meaningful and useful public spaces that add value to their lives. In a party full of people, you will probably find her standing around awkwardly, wondering when it would be the right time to go home.

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ART AND THE CITY

THE OSLO STORY: BIENNALE REDEFINED

NAKSHI SHAH

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

Art biennales have exploded over the last two decades, bringing the contemporary art world to multiple cities and making them international cultural centres.

With more than 300 biennales [1], they have expanded in size and scope, amalgamating different mediums, cultures and schools of thought.

Furthermore, these art microcosms have shifted their Western foundation and moved towards the South and the East, bringing art to more milieus and enhancing communication through new network centres.

The Viewers at the Opera House. Photo: Niklas Hart / Hartwork Image credit: Oslo Biennalen

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ART AND THE CITY

The model of the Venice Biennale which started in 1895 has served as a template for years and has been vital in negotiating art with the city yet their exhibition grounds remain condensed to two venues, catering more to tourists than local audiences. Though the biennale framework has allowed art to be placed in new contexts (facilitating for an exchange of ideas, thoughts and cultures), its highly specific formalised characteristics have made them replicable and homogenised global models. The idea of the biennale was to move away from the static of art institutions and at the same time support and introduce local regional art to global audiences. Today’s biennale structure has put local art into the backseat and is relatively controlled by contemporary art that is internationally showcased, famed and relevant. With traditional venues being destination cities, they do attract more specific audiences artists, curators and collectors - on an international level. However, it often overlooks the engagement and collaboration of resident audiences.

This complex engagement of global-

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

local forces has forced many cities and foundations to reimagine the biennale framework and reinvent novel curatorial strategies.

The Oslo Biennale model, introduced in 2019 seeks to broaden the artistic sphere from the existing formal eventbased approach into something that is more evolutionary and diverse. The proposed five-year pilot model, which is now shortened to two is curated by Eva González-Sancho Bodero and Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk [2]. Their proposal was defined with a pilot research project from 2015-2017 that investigated temporality in the urban public sphere. The project spoke about the reactivation, periodicity and disappearance of art [3]. Their ideas could be the panacea the biennale model needs. Time is an integral factor in the search for this solution.

The Oslo Biennale as it attempts to challenge existing exhibition paradigms by dismissing the idea of timelines or venues and operates within the shifting contexts of the city takes a step in that direction.

Prologue Symposium Booklet Cover. Image credit: Copyright of Oslo Biennalen

Oslo Biennale Curators. Image credit: Niklas R Lello

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Oslo Pilot’s four areas of research. Image credit: Copyright of OsloPilot

The new framework of the Oslo biennale

public space and introduce new ideas as

promotes artwork and interventions to

well as forms of production that creates

be temporary, permanent or durational.

an urgency to engage within the people.

Artworks operate as disruptions in the

This model will be crucial for testing

public domain, bringing attention to

artistic gestures within the public sphere

precarious spaces and localities while at the same time encouraging the public to participate and review intersectionality, diversity and collaboration. They disrupt but also promote participation. It aims to move the art out of the box and into the public space so it can act like a social artefact that could adopt multitudinous

that can help increase urban encounters, shared experiences and develop a sense of curiosity among the passers-by, the non-art audiences. Further, the integral factor of time helps construct memories that persist for a long time even after the art’s disappearance.

meanings, histories and functions in the city. Permanent art is replaced by a more

Art projects commissioned for the Oslo

dynamic equivalent that helps reorganize

Biennale will go through transformations

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

The first episode of Oslo, Work, at Løren metro station. Photo by Peder Blümlein. Below-Nothing is big Nothing is small. Image credit: Niklas R Lello

and will remain in flux, existing in-

and urban wandering. Moreover, this

between time, constantly adapting,

subversive approach of defamiliarization

refining, redefining and even relocating

or “making things strange and different”

over its duration. These very qualities

creates a shock value that allows the

of the biennale reflect upon urban

space to take up new potentialities and

concepts like Defamiliarization by

disrupt existing habitual rhythms and

Victor Shklovsky and Psychogeography

tempos. Consequently, the Oslo Biennale

by the Situationists. These concepts

uses these strategies to reconfigure

demonstrate a sense of exploration and

spaces with art, create new spatial

playfulness within the city where citizens

dimensions that remain open-ended -

are actively pushed to explore their

empowering random audiences to be

surroundings by driving them to take on

participants that can accept diversity

unexpected routes that can lead to new

and differentiation. These divergent

experiences. This “Derivè” or drifting

projects, with their life cycles, let the

fosters spatial actions that become

viewers create their own narratives while

opportunities for new encounters

at the same time helps them question 114 115

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Benjamin Bardinet’s A Map to Get Lost. Image credit: Oslo Biennalen

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ART AND THE CITY

the relationship between their familiar

they can educate non-art audiences

roles and routines to their surroundings.

and disseminate knowledge for their

The Biennale’s active curatorial outlook

future negotiations and participation

ensures an overlap of a critical and

with art [4]. By not institutionalising,

participative approach with inclusive

the framework ensures informality

artistic practices that are produced with

and unpredictability that account for

social ideals to uplift communities and

an experience that is usually more

neighbourhoods. Though the model

spontaneous, fun and easily accessible.

seems ambitious and complex, their

The Kochi Biennale can be another

bottom-up policies, as well as sustainable

precedent that while preserving the

production of artworks, include local

formal exhibition timeline and structure

participants and active audiences,

has shown tremendous commitment to

blurring the demarcations of the internal

art and its community [4]. Furthermore,

and the external. Furthermore, having a

even with glocal complexities and

global-local ideology initiates essential

pressures, the Biennale has been

discourse and makes every intervention

brave enough to move away from

unique, contextual and historically

homogenization familiar to the global

rooted within the city. It becomes really

format and successfully democratising

important for these institutions that

art by engaging communities, Chapter 1 of Prologue Symposium Booklet. Image credit: Oslo Biennalen

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

reconditioning the fabric of the city and

the course of the biennale. With longer

revisiting its histories. These situationist

durations that a re project dependent,

art productions commissioned by Oslo

the artists can bring in specificities

include performances and installations

of new localities and actively build

from artists like Benjamin Bardinet,

inclusive narratives of co-existence and

Ed D’Souza, Carole Doullard and

citizenship. Though, this might seem

Rose Hammer among others. These

a little utopian and does not conform

projects are highly interlinked to local

with the conventional biennale structure

multicultural realities that project the

- it pushes the envelope further with

“every day” and develop freely over

contemporary exhibition practices.

Migrant Car by Ed D’Souza Image credit: Oslo Biennalen

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ART AND THE CITY

With the ongoing pandemic, the flexibility and layered approach of this biennale has enabled them to operate within multiple public domains spatially and virtually - spaces, newspapers, publications, radio and the internet. They expanded into other formats fairly quickly by assimilating and adapting to different curatorial practices and mediums.

Notably, It has been a reference of all things ephemeral, blurring the demarcations of the process and the outcome of an artwork. The biennale has been able to thrive within multiple definitions of space - persistently reimagining and reconfiguring flows and rhythms in the city. Moreover, this line of

investigation helps us understand what structures and frameworks could work within our own cities and how could we then implement art in our public spaces to make them more interactive and collaborative. We do understand that artistic practices are dissimilar when isolated in museums compared to urban environments, and I believe that such an approach could be really helpful for showcasing art in cities. To illustrate, by surprising and challenging citizens with interventions that could confound their existing realities, they would be compelled to engage with art and transform their every day while elevating socio temporal rhythms and experiences

Facing page: OSV. Oslo Collected Works. Image credit: Carl Fredrik Melle and Tor Simen Ullstein, Copyright of Oslo Biennalen, Top: Another Grammar for Oslo - An online drawing workshop by Monica Nador and Bruno Oliveira. Image credit: Oslo Biennalen CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

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ART AND THE CITY

of the urban places. Amidst the ongoing

localities and build a foundation within

pandemic, we see how crucial it has

the local society. Thus, a structure that

become to investigate the existing

promotes artist and community-led

frameworks with changing times. With

curations would invoke a great variety of

art institutions shut down and biennales

creative expression, as well as diverse

cancelled; public spaces and art brought

and dynamic programming.

great respite to the residents of the city [5]. It safely brought people together

The bigger idea behind all these art

and helped enliven the atmosphere of

events, (whether they are at a local

respective neighbourhoods. By attracting

or a global scale) is to celebrate art’s

smaller yet relevant audiences, such

capacity to create atmospheres that

a framework could help curators and

are fluid, accessible and open to

artists preserve the particularities of

pluralities. With constant changes in

Oslo Pilot’s Investigation into Art within the Public Realm Image credit: Oslo Biennalen CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

the rhythms/ forces of the city, these cultural interactive artworks can prescribe changes in the fabric of the city and affect new behaviours and expectancies. I believe the best way is to beta test and prototype different test cases and put such theories to practice.

It would allow people to discover the art and make it their own. Such testing and analysis generate feedback loops that could further establish social networks within the city. All things considered, we need to recognize the importance of art within the public sphere and further ascertain strategies that can account for essential dialogue. A dialogue between simultaneous far-ranging views of objects, images and situations as well as consequently build a space for active deliberation and reflection.

REFERENCES 1. “Directory Of Biennials - Biennial Foundation”. 2021. Biennial Foundation. https://www.biennialfoundation.org/ network/biennial-map/.

2. “About The Biennial - Oslobiennalen”. 2021.

Oslobiennalen. https://www.oslobiennalen. no/an-evolving-five-year-programme-of-art-inpublic-space/.

3. “Investigations: OSLO PILOT ARCHIVE”.

2021. Archive.Oslopilot.No. http://archive. oslopilot.no/category/research/.

4. Space, Project. 2021. “Before, During, After Biennale - ONCURATING”. On-Curating.

Org. https://www.on-curating.org/issue-46reader/before-during-after-biennale.html#.

YJOE5LUzZ3g.

5. “Why We Need Arts In Times Of Crisis”.

2021. Artwork Archive. https://www. artworkarchive.com/blog/why-we-need-artsin-times-of-crisis

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Nakshi Shah is an architect with a keen interest in urban and exhibition design. She completed her architecture degree in 2020 from NMIMS Balwant Sheth School Of Architecture where she doubled as the editorial head for their monthly newsletter. Nakshi’s interest in art and architecture was demonstrated in her dissertation. With it, she aimed to explore how architecture can interface with art in a multitude of settings and create environments suitable for the urban sphere. Nakshi previously worked at Architecture BRIOfurther developing her design sensibilities. Post BRIO, she worked as an editorial assistant at RTF where she contributed multiple articles ranging from critical analysis to narratives about her experiences in Architecture. She is currently practising at untitled_, which she also co-founded. Untitled_ is a young design studio that delves into architecture, graphic and social design. Nakshi, along with her team at untitled_, loves to create designs that are responsive, sensitive and contextual. Born and raised in Mumbai, she is often found scrolling through random newsletters or searching for vinyls and erasers to add to her collection.

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FEATURE ARTICLE

THE JOURNEY OF AN ENTREPRENEURIAL CITY – CASE OF TIRUPUR NAMRATHA AROOR

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

Tirupur, located in Tamil Nadu, has established itself as a successful Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise (MSME) knitwear manufacturing cluster. The unique feature of the city is that, from small households, where men and women work on support facilities such as knitting, printing, packing to multistoried companies, the city is bustling as one large organization with the motive to produce world-class garments.

This success can be credited to its entrepreneurialism which is a dominant factor in the economic development of Tirupur and its spatial distribution.

To substantiate this, the article has four segments – the growth of the entrepreneurial city, the functioning of the knitwear manufacturing cluster, its spatial distribution and finally, the role of associations in urban development.

Image credit: Author

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People, city and its activities. Image credit: Author Data source: Census of India, 2011 and TEA website

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THE ENTREPRENEURIAL CITY - ITS GROWTH FROM PAST TO PRESENT Since its inception, Tirupur has been community-centric. From a predominantly agrarian society, the region has transformed itself into a promising knitwear manufacturing cluster. The city has created a niche attracting buyers from 35 countries, mainly the US and European markets. The production range includes T-shirts, kids wear, inner wears, which are supplied to both domestic markets and to top international brands like Marks & Spencer, C&A, H&M. [1] The journey of Tirupur dates back to 1925 when the first knitwear unit was set up and by the 1940s, 34 units were engaged in the production of knitwear [2]. The low investment required for hand-operated knitting machines, the easy availability of raw materials and cotton sourcing from the neighbouring region helped entrepreneurs set up their manufacturing base.

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Until the 1960s, this industry mainly produced gray bleached vests and undergarments. It is said that the industrial unrest in West Bengal saw the shift to Tirupur to sustain the demands of northern markets [3]. This shift boosted the growth of industries and by the 1970s, Tirupur was known as a prominent center of knitwear in South India, catering only to the domestic market.

The first export of knitted garments which started during the 1970s was to the US and Ghana through merchant exporters in Mumbai. However, during the 1980s, the visit of an Italian garment manufacturer and later a major retail chain C&A to Tirupur initiated direct exports [4]. Foreseeing this potential, the knitwear industry diversified to include other outer garment manufacturing.

exporter of cotton knitwear from the country, with exports worth 15 crores. In a short span by 1990, Tirupur touched 300 crores in exports and since then it has not looked back [5].

In 2011, Tirupur faced a short decline due to the Tamil Nadu High court’s closure order to all dyeing houses in order to abide by the environmental norms. With technical assistance, the city began to recover with momentum, and the scale of growth reached an everincreasing rate. A significant increase in the registration of manufacturing units is observed around 2016 due to various

After 1985 the export market expanded, and subsequently, Tirupur emerged as the largest CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

subsidies and loans for small businesses by the Government of India [6]. In the year 2019-20, the total sales turnover of the Tirupur knitwear business was Rs. 42,750 Crores with export business of Rs. 24,750 Crores [7].

Stages of the knitwear manufacturing process. Image credit: Author Data source: Fair Wear Foundation 2004 [8]

THE FUNCTIONING OF THE KNITWEAR MANUFACTURING CLUSTER The unique feature of Tirupur is its highly decentralized and interdependent manufacturing process. Each unit limits its production to one specific stage of the entire cycle as shown in image 2. Therefore, creating a network of workplaces throughout the city, who efficiently collaborate to produce

the final garment. The urban fabric of Tirupur is shaped by a number of smallscale entrepreneurs with simple setup employing a few people, to ambitious exporters managing large manufacturing units. To understand the city’s development is it is essential to know the various players of the knitwear industry and the way they operate, a detailed cluster map is shown in image 3.

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Tirupur Knitwear Cluster Map. Image credit: Author Data source: Arun, T., Bhalla, S., Fraser, J. & Nicholson, K., Tirupur knitwear cluster [9] and Sustainable Land Use Zones for Tirupur District, SPA Bhopal [10] CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

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Tirupur is a job working center and not a brand exporter, this means exporters do not sell their own brands whereas take up the task for brand marketers.

Exporters and domestic manufactures are the main players who procure orders from buyers or agents. They execute the orders by outsourcing the production to subcontracting units or in some cases, manufacture in their own factory. Subcontracting units and ancillary players form the major part of the manufacturing

cluster and a large number of these units are distributed throughout the city.

They work for either export or domestic market or both. More than 70% of these units are small and perform a particular process of work like knitting, dyeing, printing, embroidery or labeling [11].

Image 4 shows the number of subcontracting units, their function, the operational scale, and the number of employees.

Type and scale of Knitwear Manufacturing Industries. Image credit: Author Data source: Sustainable Land Use Zones for Tirupur District, SPA Bhopal [12] CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

Suppliers and agents are the support entities of the manufacturing cluster.

Suppliers include those selling accessory, yarn, packing material, chemicals, and agents include those providing services such as logistics, machinery imports, human resources, and buying agents. Another interesting aspect of Tirupur’s manufacturing cluster are the dealers who specialize in selling the rejected goods and export surplus garments [11]. These dealers along with local wholesalers and retailers cater to the domestic market. Suppliers and dealers are primarily located in the central part of the city with a few streets dedicated to a specific activity such as accessory suppliers or export surplus dealers. Institutes enable the capacity building of the manufacturing cluster, technical institutions providing training, management, and designing skills are a part of the city’s fabric. Also, several financial institutions like banks or lending agencies have also set their base in Tirupur. It is interesting to note that most of the people living in Tirupur are either directly or indirectly involved in the garment manufacturing industry.

The most notable feature of Tirupur is the association of each of the manufacturing

processes. There are around 16 associations representing different group such as The South Indian Hosiery Manufacturers’ Association (SIHMA), Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) Knit Cloth Manufacturer’s Association (KNITMA), Tirupur Dyers Association (TDA), Tirupur Screen Printing Association (TSPA), Tirupur Merchants Association (TMA) [13]. They are typically community dominant and have a strong governance role in the city’s development.

SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF INDUSTRIES Tirupur has very few manufacturing units with all processes integrated in a single unit due to the Government’s policy for promoting SME clusters. Almost every household in this city is involved in activities linked to the knitwear industry.

Hence, there is no clear segregation of industrial and residential zones in the city. The urban fabric of the knitwear city can be predominately classified into three typologies: 1. Small industry or household-type units spread throughout the city.

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cotton into yarns or cutting and stitching garments, working on the finishing stage or simply segregating the scrap fabrics back for reprocessing. These units run with one or two machines installed at home or in small rented premises. In some cases, the subcontracting units catering to export manufacturing work on a bigger premise with imported machinery. The city is bustling with the constant movement of unfinished goods between these units to be processed for different stages.

A few sub-clusters can be distinctly identified within the city, for example, most of the bleaching and dyeing units that are water resource-intensive are located along the banks of the River Noyyal. Another subcluster is the busy Khadharpet situated on the southern side of the railway station, occupied by wholesalers and retailers. They also sell rejected or export surplus garments

CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

which are procured from the export manufacturing units and marketed to local retailers across the country.

Similarly, to the north of the railway station, Lakshmi Nagar is occupied by accessory suppliers selling zips, buttons, hangers, or packaging material.

2. Multistoried or stacked factories are commonly located along the main roads A few vertically integrated units include the knitting, processing, and finishing stages all under one roof. Only 5% of the units constitute of firms having more than 50 machines. These units mainly work for exporters.

3. Large industrial parks lie outside the city limits There are 10 Special Industrial Parks in Tirupur, initiated by the government or in most cases jointly with the associations.

These parks are situated outside Tirupur

Schematic image showing the spatial distribution of industries. Image credit: Author Data source: Author and partially adopted from Business Plan - Tirupur Municipality,2007 [14]

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city and occupied by units requiring larger space to operate. One of the industrial parks promoted by the Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) is the Nethaji Apparel Park, the 166 acres park which

Industries typology in Tirupur. Image credit: Author Data source: Author CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

opened in 2005 includes 52 knitwear units, with a total built-up area of 2.0 million sq. ft, employing around 15,000 persons with an annual knitwear export turnover of about Rs.1500 Crores [15].

ROLE OF ASSOCIATIONS IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT Associations play a significant role in the economic and urban development of Tirupur. They help resolve disputes within firms such as payment clearance, acquiring registration certificates or export-import licenses, organizing fairs and promotion events, lobbying with the government, and facilitating infrastructure initiatives.

Tirupur Exports Association (TEA), formed by the export manufacturers is one of the most forefront associations in the city.

Some of their noteworthy initiates are • Promoting industrial parks such as the 100-acres Tirupur Export Knitwear Industrial Complex and the 166-acres Nethaji Apparel Park, • Setting up the inland container terminal depot used for loading unloading of export-import cargo which enables completing the customs formalities in Tirupur itself thus easing the process, • Establishing institutes such as TEA Public School, NIFT – TEA knitwear fashion institute, TEA E- readiness center an MoU with Microsoft Corporation India,

• The New Tirupur area development corporation limited, a Public Limited Company promoted to supply water from Cauvery River for industrial and domestic use of Tirupur and surrounding 30 villages.

• India Knit fair, trade complex with convention center located 12kms from Tirupur [15].

Some initiatives by other association include women entrepreneurship training

by South India Hosiery Manufacturers Association (SIHMA) and Tirupur D`Plants and 150 individual plants to comply with the order of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board’s zero discharge of effluent [16]. Thus, Tirupur’s success can be attributed to its community strength and participation.

CONCLUSION – POTENTIAL, AND DRAWBACKS Tirupur has established its prowess as an excellent manufacturing center with its efficiency of the industrial setup and conjunctive location of units. India currently has a 7% market share in knitted fabrics second to China and this is expected to grow in the coming years [17].

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However, Tirupur faces challenges with the rapid unplanned expansion of the textile industry, which has put immense pressure on society and the environment.

For instance, the groundwater quality is polluted to such a level that it is unfit for agricultural, domestic, and even industrial activities. This has impacts in the areas of health, agriculture, livestock, and drinking water [18]. Issues such as long working hours with low wages, lack of open recreational spaces and pollution is also affecting the quality of people’s life.

The business community and their unity are the forte of Tirupur’s growth. The city has benefited from the traditional pool of entrepreneurs in the knitting segment. Still, to ensure the constancy of Tirupur, the associations formed should focus more on holistic development with attention to its environment and people, not just the economics of it.

REFERENCE 1. N. Elangovan, Cluster Institutional Isomorphic Pressures: A case of Tirupur knitwear cluster (The International Journal’s - Research Journal of Social Science & Management, Volume: 02 – Number: 04, August-2012), 98. Available at https://www.

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researchgate.net/publication/259287872_ Cluster_Institutional_Isomorphic_ Pressures_A_case_of_Tirupur_knitwear_ cluster 2. Chronological growth of Tirupur, About TEA, Tirupur Exporters’ Association (Online) Available - http://www.tea-india.org/abouttea [Accessed on 14.04.2021] 3. Sampath Srinivas, “Case of Public Interventions, Industrialization and Urbanization: Tirupur in Tamil Nadu, India”, (The World Bank, Urban Development, April 2000), 5. Available at http:// documents1.worldbank.org/curated/ en/329211468771703656/pdf/multi-page. pdf 4. Elangovan, Cluster Institutional Isomorphic Pressures, 98 5. Commencement of Exports, About TEA, Tirupur Exporters’ Association (Online) [Accessed on 14.04.2021] 6. Sustainable Land Use Zones for Tirupur District, Coimbatore Regional Plan-2038 Volume:1 Tirupur Sub Region, (School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, 2019), 96 & 40. Available at http://lupm. urbanindustrial.in/live/hrdpmp/hrdpmaster/ igep/content/e65513/e65664/e69432/ e69444/Tiruppurreport_Final.pdf 7. History of TEA, About TEA, Tirupur Exporters’ Association (Online) [Accessed on 14.04.2021] 8. Fair Wear Foundation, Background Study Tirupur (Fair Wear Foundation, Amsterdam, June 2004), 8. Available at http://fairwear. org/images/2010-01/india_tirupur_fwf_

country_study. pdf, 2004.

9. Trivikram Arun, Sumeet Bhalla, Joe Fraser, & Kevin Nicholson, Tirupur knitwear cluster, Tamil Nadu, India, (Harvard Business School, 2011), 18. Available at https://www.isc.hbs. edu/Documents/resources/courses/moccourse-at-harvard/pdf/student-projects/ India_%28Tirupur%29_Knitwear_2011.pdf.

10. Sustainable Land Use Zones for Tirupur District, SPA Bhopal, 102 11. Apex Cluster Development Services, Tirupur Knitwear and Apparel Cluster (Small Industries Development Bank of India, 2009), 33-38.

12. Sustainable Land Use Zones for Tirupur District, SPA Bhopal, 83-86 13. Rangarajan, Case Study of Tirupur, (UNIDO, 2005), Available at http://www.unido.org/ fileadmin/import/41692_DynamicCity_doc_ CaseStudyTirupur_Rangarajan.pdf.

14. Wilbur Smith Associates Private Limited,

Business Plan - Tirupur Municipality (Tamil Nadu Urban Development Fund, 2007) ,12 15. TEA achievements, About TEA, Tirupur Exporters’ Association (Online) Available - http://www.tea-india.org/about-tea/ tea-achievements#9-netaji-apparel-park [Accessed on 14.04.2021] 16. Apex, Tirupur Knitwear and Apparel Cluster, 24.

17. Sustainable Land Use Zones for Tirupur District, SPA Bhopal, 126 18. Govindarajalu, Dr. K. “Industrial Effluent and Health Status - A Case Study of Noyyal River Basin” in Martin J. Bunch, V. Madha Suresh and T. Vasantha Kumaran, eds., Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Environment and Health, Chennai, India, December, 2003. Chennai Department of Geography, University of Madras and Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University.

Pages 150 – 157.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Namratha Aroor is a practicing urban designer and academician. She has a master’s in urban design from the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology - CEPT University, Ahmedabad, and a Bachelors in architecture from Thiagaraja College of Engineering, Madurai.

She has urban planning and research experience in leading multinational firms, start-ups, and academia. This study is part of her thesis project, where she focused on developing urban design parameters for happy cities. She believes that a healthy - happy community is key to a progressive city, and by strengthening community participation, the quality of life can be highly improved.

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UNIT ECO WARRIORS MANSI SHAH & CHANDRANI CHAKRABARTI

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Image credit: Dharan Kumar

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The unit Eco Warriors was taught in the Bachelor of Urban Design at CEPT University. It pivots on the link between city, food and ecology with an attempt to spatially integrate open, decadent or traditional public spaces into potentially productive landscapes.

In the light of global environmental issues and climate change, this topic has received tremendous attention in the last few years. Moreover, the convenience of doorstep food delivery and complete disregard to nutrition has immensely increased the ecological footprint of urban food consumption systems and the spatial connection to food is mostly disconnected. Particularly in cities, the challenges are compounded with pollution, lack of open space, and design of ecologically insensitive and cosmetic public realm. So, the studio focused on this relationship that might be critical in the coming years to show how there can be synergies between productive diversity and urban development.

To demonstrate, the studio took the case of Gandhinagar city in Gujarat and identified three different largely underdeveloped spaces for intervention. The outcomes produced, celebrate productivity at its core where each project strived to conceive and generate innovative designs centred around the themes of improved agricultural productivity, enhancement of biodiversity, and ecologically sensitive urban designs. The paper will show the pedagogy and the design interventions produced in 3 months by students through strategic plans, views and landscape details at different scales.

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INTRODUCTION TO STUDIO PREMISE Considering the unprecedented growth in developing countries like India, the ecological infrastructure and environment in most cities are stressed or already severely damaged.

Driven by the need to grow, urban areas are constantly facing the burden of ecosystem disservices. In response to such uncontrolled decay of ecosystems, over the last two decades, different theories of urbanism have come forward that try to embrace ecology at the forefront of urban design. However, many of such theories, though true for developed nations, have not been explored in the context of developing cities where the urban grain is constantly evolving and challenges are more pressing.

Particularly in context to Gandhinagar, the newly developing urban areas witness a low density and horizontally spread outgrowth which leaves behind pockets of fragmented landscapes. As the city lies in waiting to reach its desired density, these underutilized spaces should be tapped for productive use. The leftover, forgotten landscapes of today are potential productive commons for tomorrows.

To find alternative solutions to such urban growth, we looked at several notable works in relation to design possibilities that included Carolyn Steel’s ‘Hungry City’ (Steel, 2008), to more contemporary ideas of CJ Lim’s ‘Smartcities’ (Lim CJ and Liu Ed, 2010).

And we were particularly interested in the strategy CPUL (Continuous Productive Urban Landscape) defined by A. Viljoen and K. Bohn which is a “design concept for the coherent integration of urban agriculture into urban space planning.

Their framework makes a case for “considering urban agriculture as an essential element of sustainable infrastructure”. The studio took these different ideas and went beyond conventional agriculture to incorporate a range of complementary systems that can lead to diverse productive space to support the built environment- e.g. network of urban forests for carbon sequestration, public spaces integrated with community farms, bio-treatment systems to filter stormwater with native plants, production of healthy soils from compost within the city, etc.

These involve complex programs and vindications to maximise the ecological restoration as well as the social and economic health of the land.

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An example of such productive space is farming along the train tracks in Mumbai, an ingenious solution for decadent land that works outside the legal framework.

People converted barren lands to grow food as well as created employment potential. However, such uses don’t receive attention and are seen as temporal that will eventually disappear to pave way for ‘real development’. But as these solutions arise from a need, it informs about acceptable land use plans that can engage the community, supplement the economy, and create regenerative environmental solutions.

So, we invited students to reimagine these leftover networks of spaces through a productive lens that can be defined as productive urbanism - a development that synthesises environmentally conscious design through a whole systems approach integrating food, biodiversity, sustainable land use within the grain of the city.

The value of a system based design is that instead of relying on external factors, it feeds in all the externalities or challenges that may arise to creating novel solutions. The dilemma however is how to embed the ‘productive’ idea in a CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

practical way within difficult, resistant or urbanised public spaces.

With this in mind, students had to generate speculative design solutions that will lead to long term resilient solutions rather than only creating aesthetically pleasing landscapes or urban artefacts. Through the process of the studio, each project tried to become aware of various dynamic relationships in landscapes like native and endemic plants, planting design, visible and invisible ecosystem services. In order to encourage system based thinking across multiple scales in the city, the unit asked students to think from whole to parts, and then again from parts to whole to address the implications of their decisions on the larger terrain.

The studio primarily explored two questions – 1. How can we creatively colonise underperforming or vacant spaces in the city with productive typologies in the grain of the urban fabric?

2. How can the new typologies or models be coherently tied within the framework of everyday elements, needs, and functions by becoming a part of city infrastructure?

Crop patch + Image credit: Sakshi Sharma

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Three sites for design and productive intensification in Gandhinagar city. It includes the city centre- central vista, residential sector and a riverside space. Image credit: Authors.

STUDIO SITE AND CONTEXT The studio took the city of Gandhinagar as a lab to test out the ideas of productive urbanism through three sites.

1. Central Vista, which is the largest centrally located public space in the city, has huge potential to emerge as a new vibrant productive centre. It is currently dominated by vast monotonous manicured lawn cover that not only requires intense CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

management and demands excessive water but is also partly inaccessible to people.

2. The residential sector that makes the bulk of the fabric is characterised by vacancy, low density, and loose urban grain. Additionally, city-level inflows and outflows exert significant pressure on the environment and city systems.

These challenges of a growing sector make it a potential site for developing

a productive and self-sustaining model integrated with residential land uses. And lastly, 3. The riverside is also partially impassable and cut off from the city.

The low footfall has allowed nature to grow, thrive and organize itself in its own way and harbours many native plant and animal communities.

However, it is also abundantly filled with invasive species spreading into other habitats posing as an urban eyesore. Flanked by a living river edge, this site can have the most potential to become an ecological reservoir for the city.

Each of these sites were chosen on three defining characteristics- 1.

Underperforming spaces, 2. importance of that space in the city and 3. optimum juxtaposition of mix, scale, and density of the built fabric. These particularities along with the potential and opportunity to be remodelled into new productive sites became prime reasons for selection.

FRAMING THE STUDIO STRUCTURE The studio was structured in 3 modules.

The first module built an understanding

of the site, of what productive landscapes mean, and each student developed a strategy along with a framework at XL scale. The second module is a practical exploration that located and represented the strategy through plan, section and detail axonometric view on one of the chosen sites, and lastly, the third module constructed clear architectural drawings, views, policies and landscape details to complete the project.

Module 1: Cultivate: XL scale Starting with the first module, it looked at the city as a system. Each student had to produce a strategy map at XL scale that looked at network, landscape or city corridors to meaningfully connect the site to the rest of the city. The idea was to be mindful that the final solution is not atomistic but weaved within the city fabric. With the first module, there were two main components: 1. Understand and investigate the meaning of “productivity” beyond food in the public realm through readings and case-studies 2. Each student had to produce a vision map at XL or city scale in context to the site and narrate it through a plan and a catalogue.

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The vision at XL identifies sectors that can be developed to create new typologies of productive living. The project is called ‘Eco-SimCity- norms for resilience, diversity and spontaneity. Image credit: Siddhi Soni

The overall strategy at XL identifies future locations for bio-follies within dense neighbourhoods along the key streets leading to the riverside park. The project in further modules explore the design of the park and follies with ecological, social and functional programs. Image credit: Parth Patel CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

Three landscape corridors (edible, forest and riparian) are weaved together from a more rural edge into the urban areas to create a continuous productive corridor. Image credit: Aditi Thakur

Module 2: Propagate: L,M scale

The three main components were:

In the second module, students developed intervention in their chosen site, keeping the larger idea intact that they ideated at XL scale. The process involved getting acquainted with the site and its spatial dimensions, while simultaneously developing a radical idea to support productive infill. In order to make pertinent decisions, students worked through iterations at two different scales to achieve structural and ecological connectivity.

1. Develop a design brief based on the productive landscape theme.

2. Position the productive theme as a conceptual design on the chosen site 3. Develop a design with a set of drawings- plan, sections, elevations and detailed axonometric maps (in proper scale and dimensions) to communicate the strategy and project. The more technically resolved the drawing, the more persuasive will be the design proposition.

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This project at the sector level proposes a continuous network of productive spaces that incorporate social, edible and ecological infrastructure in unoccupied vacant areas and linking them through a pedestrian network. To realise it, the project develops a toolkit for public land, street design and existing typologies. Image credit: Harsh Gupta CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

Project ‘Grow Collage’ creates forest and edible patches in the central vista with an undulating landscape and a range of light infrastructures to support social functions. Image credit: Nisarg Shah

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Top: Project E-corridor develops a public space with a network of trails (elevated, on-ground and seasonal) that run and weave through different landscapes of forests, farms and aqua farming. Image credit: Aditi Thakur Facing page: ‘Ukiyo: End of anthropocentric interventions’ is a project that caters to biodiversity. The master plan shows carefully designed trails following topography and the forest cover with the potential sites for interventions that support habitat spaces for other life forms.These architectures incorporate wild vegetation and seasonal water bodies sitting within different ground conditions. Image credit: Parth Mehta

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Module 3: Demonstrate: S, XS scale In the last and third module, students had to resolve their designs at a smaller scale. And, depending on the project they were required to produce either a detailed planting palette or a phasing strategy to show how their project will materialise and transform over time. They also had to be mindful of synthesising their entire proposal where processes at various scales (XL, L, M, S, XS) come coherently together. Finally, the visualisation had to communicate the complexity of the project through clear graphics and show the entire scheme

convincingly with well-organised sheet compositions. This module involved 3 components: 1. Develop and formulate a detailed planting palette that demonstrates the seasonal quality of space.

2. Synthesize a conceptual policy framework for implementation, and evaluate it through phasing strategies 3. Construct detailed drawings across all domains (architecture/landscape/ policy) depending on the type of project to communicate the design with clarity.

Project Sva: A vision of self-sufficiency in food, waste, and energy creates a multilevel approach to achieve productive spaces within a sector in Gandhinagar. It develops a cradle to cradle design strategy for plot, sector and city level through a kit of parts that collectively contribute to resilience. Image credit: Dharan Kumar CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

As seen in the image, in this module, the student formulated planting palette, phasing and detail drawings at different scales to show how the landscape, the urban edge and interventions will cohesively stitch. This project ‘Eco-adhocism’ is on the riverside where it attempts to design a park with bio-follies that activate social, ecological and functional programs. Image credit: Parth Patel

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CONCLUSIONS

as a part of the learning process in

The urban design practice is to some

the studio. Simultaneously, we also

extent myopic and is primarily concerned

questioned the simplistic rhetoric

with the physicality of the city and

of ‘environmental’ design or ‘eco’

often-times fall short in implementing

design. The objective was to answer

a multidisciplinary approach to design.

how such multidisciplinary projects

And, in order to regenerate our cities

can go beyond the notion of ‘eco’ and

addressing complex systems, a

truly emerge as ‘productive’ that also

multidisciplinary approach to design

addresses the dynamics and challenges

should be considered at the core of

of contemporary cities. To address this,

success. Therefore, the unit tried to

exercises touched upon a variety of

blur the boundaries of architecture,

topics ranging from landscape ecology to

landscape, and urban design by

sustainable planting palette, typologies

integrating knowledge and techniques

of built form in the public realm, and

Foodista Central. This project reimagines the central vista from a food-centric vision. By growing and consuming in the heart of the city, the design creates different programs to activate the relationship productively and integrally.

Image credit: Harsh Shah Facing page: Eco Simcity creates new norms for a sector with a focus on diversity, ecology and productivity. An individual who owns a plot in this sector will also have to develop a part of the lot for any productive use (such as farming, soil building, for sequestration etc.) As the sector evolves it will create a mosaic of productive spaces benefiting every resident. Image credit: Siddhi Soni

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Facing page: While the design was primarily done for the chosen site at the ‘L’ scale, the methodology ensured multi-scalar thinking where students had to be mindful of the larger landscape and how their site would fit in, as well as smaller details of the interventions. Image credit from left to right: Nisarg S., Aparnaa, Atal C.; L,M: Madhav J., Sakshi S., Dharan K.; S,XS: Aditi T., Madhav J., Atal C. Atal C., Aditi T., Parth M., Sakshi S., Atal C., Madhav J. CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

urban design regulations. Students

and addressing the productive theme

independently chose one or more such

simultaneously at different scales from

themes based on their design idea

a larger terrain to the smallest detail

and felt capable of making decisions

and second- drawing communication-

while being mindful of the multi-scalar consequences of it.

articulation of both problem and solution in compelling visualisation, where the proposal can talk by itself. This entire process we believe helped in creating

And lastly, the key to a strong and

emancipatory solutions that attempted to

successful design demonstration

respond to specific conditions as well as

was achieved through one- testing

go beyond traditionalistic outcomes.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Mansi Shah is an architect-urban-designer. She is currently based in Ahmedabad and is teaching in Bachelor of Urban Design, as Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Planning at CEPT University. With teaching, she works on her independent research projects on different subjects under ‘Ahmedabad Mapping Project’, ‘City Water Walks’, and ‘Productive urbanism’.

She has a keen interest in pedagogy and research and has carried out several publications, workshops to explore innovative ways to support her research and learning for students. She has also co-authored a book ‘Prathaa: Kath-khuni architecture of Himachal Pradesh’.

Chandrani Chakrabarti is a landscape architect based in Ahmedabad. She worked as a Senior Associate at Jerde Partnership Inc. in Los Angeles for several years and continues to practice as a landscape consultant. She works primarily in commercial mixed use development projects in the US, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. Chandrani is an Adjunct Faculty and the Program Coordinator for the Master of Landscape Architecture Program in the Faculty of Architecture at CEPT University. Her teaching and research interests include urban ecology, productive landscapes and landscape urbanism. She has a Master in Landscape Architecture degree from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Jadavpur University.

The work in the paper was produced by students (at L3 level), in Monsoon semester 2020 in Bachelor of Urban Design, Faculty of planning at CEPT University. The studio unit was also awarded by CEPT Excellence Awards. To view all the outcomes in detail- visit: productiveurbanism.com Students: Aditi Thakur, Atal Chadha, Aparnaa C., Dharan Kumar, Harsh Gupta, Harsh Shah, Madhav Joshi, Nisarg Shah, Parth Patel, Parth Mehta, Sakshi Sharma, Siddhi Soni, Shaurya Anand

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TOWARDS A PEOPLEFRIENDLY CITY: GHENT RANJANA SHAH

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Image credit: Author

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Antiquated brick buildings, cobble-stoned alleys, large market squares, and public plazas outline Ghent as a quaint medieval town. While all of that is true, Ghent is also a student town bustling with ecstatic youthfulness and spontaneity. With its Belgian charm highlighted by the famous chocolates, waffles, fries, and beer, Ghent is also the veggie capital of Europe, promoting a plant-based diet on Thursdays. It now also boasts of a pedestrian-only city centre and being a bike-friendly city.

When I decided to pursue my higher education in architecture at Ghent, it was because the university coursework appealed to me. After spending two years in the city, I understand the academics were a minor component; the real learnings came from the town itself.

When I first arrived in Ghent in September 2018, I was amazed by the architectural and urban fabric of the city. The centre was a maze of streets opening into festive squares, which consecutively led to alleys and canals. These were brimming with shops, cafes, bars, and restaurants. A bevvy of students and tourists enjoy the water and weather.

Uninterrupted walking through the historic city centre was possible because one did not need to look out for cars.

The integrated public centre and free movement that I experienced would have been entirely different had the vehicles still been trawling the roads. Automobiles would have replaced jubilant shoppers and parking lots would have taken the over the social spaces. The conscious decision of making the city people-friendly did not happen overnight but was a series of strategies implemented over the past two decades and continuing.

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An ancillary square host to outdoor cafés and pop-ups. At the moment it is modified with bike parking in the centre to avoid gatherings owing to the pandemic. Image credit: Author

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TRANSFORMATION INTO A CAR-FREE CENTRE Ghent lies on the confluence of two rivers – the Scheldt and the Leie. These rivers were economically valuable for trade. In the 1960s, after automobiles took precedence, authorities built roads and parking lots over these canals. The inner city of Ghent was not designed to support excessive cars. In the early nineties, the place was distressed with a growing number of vehicles, traffic jams, bad air quality, and the lack of safety for pedestrians and cyclists.

These conditions led to the beginning

of the implementation of a cycling policy in 1993. Between 1996-97, Ghent converted the city centre into a car-free space and rolled out its first mobility plan for bike-friendly zones [1].

This transformation presented multiple opportunities for the pedestrian-friendly reconstruction of the historic centre.

One of these was the derelict parking lot between the three distinguished gothic towers of Ghent. The city sought ideas for the rejuvenation of the area through two consecutive competitions in 1996 and 2005. Robbrecht en Daem architecten

the sunken garden and the market hall. Image credit: Author CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

and M José Van Hee architects proposed a market hall, an urban interior space to blend the adjoining buildings [2].

They also integrated a sunken garden, brasserie, bike parking, and toilets along with the structure. This garden harmonised a much-needed green buffer amidst the dense urban fabric. It broke away from the hierarchy of streets and squares to incorporate lush lawns.

Although the structure received flak by the citizens, the spaces are utilised by all the citizens in diverse ways.

Despite the policy efforts and implementation of the car-free zone, mobility research in 2012 showed that car journeys made up half the share of trips. Walking, cycling and public transport accounted for a minority portion [3]. The administration realised a need for a new, sustainable, and farreaching vision on mobility.

In 2016, the City of Ghent enforced a new, people-friendly approach to combatting traffic congestion and facilitating a healthy and liveable environment. The new mobility plan consisted of two major components: a parking plan and a traffic circulation plan. The parking tariff policy provided free parking on the outskirts of the city.

The charges increased as one got closer to the city centre. The circulation plan launched in 2017 extended the city centre (now 35 hectares) and divided the zones around into six sections.

The strategy restricted inter-sectional traffic; a car had to travel via the outer ring road to cross into another part. The scheme discouraged the use of vehicles due to the longer routes. The proposal also introduced extensive measures to promote biking as the principal means of transportation through tactical urbanism.

Bike lanes were introduced in more than 700 one-way streets. Other streets were made into bicycle lanes where cars could not overtake bikes. This overall mobilitydriven planning led to a modal shift in adopting bicycles, increasing to 35% in 2018 from just 22% in 2012 [1].

With fewer cars in the inner city, spare parking spaces were allocated for green-blue areas. In 2019, the Reep parking lot, which used to be a canal, was converted back to its original form. This restoration allowed for the continuous flow of the river Leie into the Scheldt. It also allowed a refreshed tranquil canal front, a simple design dotted with a few trees. In 2020, the town revamped another parking space 164 165

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35 hectares of car-free zone, circulation plan of Ghent city centre. Image source: https:// stad.gent/en

called Maaseikplein, abutting the main cathedral into a small-scale green pocket for families. With hammocks on the lawn and picnic tables, it is a perfect setting for a sunny afternoon. A few CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

residential neighbourhoods have living streets: slow movement and plants invite people to use their streets as extended living rooms, talking, eating and playing together.

Reep Canal-transformed back to its original form. Image credit:

streets of Ghent- in the city centre. Image credit:

streets of Ghent-outside city centre. Image credit:

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EXPERIENCING THE CITY CENTRE The walkability of the area ensures a large footfall of people throughout the year. As students, we were fortunate to have our university architectural studio building located in the inner city and thus experienced the entire city centre as our campus. We would venture out in lunch breaks and eat in the lawns of the market hall. The lunch hours saw several high school and university students as well as young professionals eating and relaxing in the sun. Students would spend their evenings hanging out at Graslei, the picturesque canal front.

On days with good weather, the outdoor extensions of cafes and restaurants would be exuberant, as would every nook and corner of the centre. Some squares and streets are home to weekly markets: Vrijdagmarkt (Friday market square) sees an offbeat pop-up, Ajuinlei hosts a weekly book market, and Kouter presents a flower and plant sale occasionally.

The city centre transforms over seasons, festivals and events. Every October, a music fest takes place in various

locations over the city. The canal-front translates into an open-air concert arena.

A piano placed in the market hall is free to be played by passersby. The main square is adorned with skilled bubble makers entertaining the kids and parents alike. During December the whole city centre modifies into a Christmas market with kiosks selling gifts, food and wine.

A Ferris wheel sits next to the main cathedral; the Market Hall converts into an ice rink. The fun and frolic continue into the early hours of dawn. The Market Hall has also witnessed festival celebrations, climate change protests and food truck fests. The flexibility of the squares and the enthusiasm of people allow for the communal use of these spaces.

IN CONCLUSION The heritage city centre is an exceptional example of how cities designed for people will attract people. Distinct urban spaces amalgamate into each other to form one vibrant fluid space. The remodelling of the city has benefited in the following themes:

The Market Hall is an important space to host various events and wears a different look with each event. Facing page, Top: market hall-on a normal day. Image credit: Author Bottom: Market hall-during the Christmas market. Image credit: Author CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

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Market hall-during a pop-up fair and festival. Image credit: Author

Graslei. Image credit: Author CITY OBSERVER | June 2021

Social: Dynamic places to meet

REFERENCES

Economic: Increased shoppers and business for cafes and restaurants

1. Civitas, Gent, making cycling the new normal. Retreived from: https://civitas.eu/ sites/default/files/ghent_making_cycling_ the_new_normal_pd.pdf

Ecological: Less noise, better air quality, lower energy use Safety: Conflict-free walking and biking routes Health: Promoting cycling and walking Comfort: Including repair points for bikes, safe storage, and bike hire.

However, increased biking has led to frequent bike theft, accidents due to tram lines and parking issues in peak hours. The city centre is also densely packed with minimal softscape and trees. Ghent is ambitious and wants to increase the infrastructure for biking further. It has inspired other cities, including Birmingham, UK and Auckland, New Zealand to follow suit. A chain of cities encouraging one another could lead to a movement in making happy liveable cities for all.

2. Market Hall in Ghent / Marie-José Van Hee + Robbrecht & Daem: https://www.archdaily. com/365260/market-hall-in-ghent-mariejose-van-hee-robbrecht-and-daem 3. Kati Van de Velde & Dirk Holemans (2020), Ciities as Places of Hope: Ghent.

Retreived from: https://gef.eu/wp-content/ uploads/2020/02/GEF_Oikos_Article_ Ghent-2.pdf 4. https://stad.gent/en/mobility-ghent/ mobility-plan 5. Streetfilms,The Innovative Way Ghent Removed Cars From The City. https://vimeo. com/379854529

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ranjana Shah is an architect who is passionate about environmental and social sustainability.

She graduated with a Masters’ degree in Architecture from KU Leuven, Belgium (2020). She is interested in people-oriented design, public use of urban spaces and alternative materials.

She works in India with an NGO in grassroots level initiatives focusing on rainwater harvesting and bio-based sanitation. She is also working on design projects related to eco-tourism and education. She enjoys travelling, observing and photographing life in different places.

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CLOSING SCENE

Image credit: Gouthaman Ekambaram

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