Fallacy of Neighborhood Planning

By- Anoop Jha

Isn’t it that urban planners, landscape architects and urban designers have heard “neighborhood planning” and stuffs like that so many times, so many literature and theories revolving around these concepts are floating  everywhere from college library to, store bookshelves, to free internet, to paid ebook, that one feels little repulsive about these concepts. These concepts and theories are quoted in every urban design, landscape and planning lecture and workshop, seminar, government development and area planning proposal and have been repeated so many times, so many standard templates for neighborhood street sections, hardscape details, footpath design, street furniture etc. are available that it no more sounds exciting that someone is planning or designing neighborhood.

It all began few decades ago when people started getting aware of their surrounding environment , became conscious of their rights of healthy urban living and better neighborhood as a citizen, then planners and designers came forward with a better neighborhood concepts, which has been explored for decades now. They need to come out of this hangover or inertia of decades old new urbanism, it’s time for a new refreshing burst of creativity, radically refreshing approach to define emerging livable cities, not just taking individual pockets of city which we call neighborhood and planning and designing them up to the side curb detail but it’s time to perceive a city in totality and not just dealing with individual pockets.

Its time of revolutionary urban thinking which is made possible due to emerging near impossible technologies, amazing breakthroughs either already achieved or likely to happen very soon, Its time when definition of work, living , Landuse,  commuting, communication all are merging together  with boundaries fading, in this dawn of new era how relevant are the decades old planning theories and design philosophies? It’s time to Pause, think and provide a new solution for future urbanism. 

Data mining of local print Media for contextual urban planning

By - Anoop Jha

Analyzing vast database of local and regional newspapers

Media is called the mirror of society and it tells the stories of any region and its people as seen and gathered with continuous efforts.  Imagine the amount of data and information media might have gathered collectively in course of decades of exploration, about any particular region, its people, community and their behavior, their needs and aspirations, their strengths and their opportunities, their social and economic dynamics and potentials. 


[Handpicked Books] 




This huge amount of data can be of tremendous importance for planners and policy makers, if filtered and analysed properly. Let’s take print media for the purpose of data mining since it would be easier to dig from the decades of archive, of national, regional and local newspapers.

Collage of print media

What’s the standard way of research for different planning projects? Planners are generally dependent on secondary data in elementary stage and primary data at later stage to arrive at a conclusion in term of what could be the best suitable plan for a city or region. 


When it comes to secondary data collection, most of the time it’s either published reports or online database which is user uploaded content on which they rely. This relevant information may be authentic, may be half baked, may be partially relevant, may be totally wrong or may not be available even.

Local & regional newspapers

What about local print media? Have we forgot to explore the rich and authentic information which the local newspares have generated across a large time span. Though its little tiresome to filter all those relevant information about the particular region or issue from the thousands of chronological issues of dozens of national and regional newspapers and magazines. But no information can be as authentic, precise and relevant as the collective database of this vast landscape of print media not even primary data. Need is to encourage and formalize a methodology to utilize this untapped knowledge of print media for the planning process.

A different view of Bandra Worli Sea Link (BWSL) Mumbai

By Anoop Jha

Satellite images showing construction stages of Bandra Worli Sea Link

Time-lapse satellite images of BWSL

Bandra-Worli Sea Link (BWSL) connecting western suburbs to main business district of Mumbai, Nariman Point, is a cable stayed 8 lane bridge. The foundation stone was laid in 1999. All the eight lanes were opened to traffic in March 2010.

Need for new strategic intervention to reduce transport accident and casualties

By – Anoop Jha

They need to understand the difference between luxury and necessity!!

Who do you think should feel responsible for those accidents in fog-ridden winter days, Is it fault of drivers, is the fog itself to blame, is it casual traffic monitoring and operation, is it lack of proper signage at critical road locations, is it implementation loophole or is it unequipped vehicle which makes it vulnerable as sitting duck in the low visibility of fog? Though each of these components are crucial in safe and efficient transportation there are some easy fix to curb the traffic accident which transport governing agencies either have failed to understand or have ignored them.  They have failed to understand the difference in the luxury and necessity.  They have also failed to understand the priority in transport planning and management. 

Intervention at production & supply level

Take for example a very small component of transport domain called “vehicle fog light”.  Most of us will agree that fog light of car can be a life saving component in winters, it can help avoid a majority of accidents which occurs on the roads across the India every year though majority of cars and other vehicle miss this vital component. If you think you are a smart guy just because you have already installed fog light in your car, you are wrong. You are not safe till every vehicle on road has this fog light installed, and there is no doubt if every vehicle on road would be equipped with fog-light it will drastically reduce the winter road accident rates. But question is though it sounds good to have fog light in every car on road how would you make that happen? Do you think a stringent rule or policy will help? May be stronger implementation or monitoring? A higher penalty may be? Though it might work in certain pockets, but it will certainly not work throughout the country. Commuters have and will always find a way to avoid these traffic rules no matter it’s for their own safety. They will wait every foggy year to pass thinking that its matter of few days and they will get fog light installed next winter unaware that these few days which they are purposefully ignoring can be vital for their survival and well being of others on road.

What about those lives lost on road due to lack of life saving devices and equipments which should be part and parcel of every car including lowest segment cars,  though it was absent at the time of accident which would have saved those precious lives otherwise, just because government and lobby of car manufacturers thought that these are luxury items and this choice should be left at the will of  end users who are either totally unaware of these vital life saving devices and equipments or they already  have other immediate financial priorities which makes is easy to forget the relevance of it.

Here, the definition of luxury and necessity is not clear. What government thinks as a luxury item like fog light and life saving car devices is actually necessity to curb the road accident and to save life.  If government will leave these vital choices at the consumer end or at the will of end user, they will certainly fail to implement it across the system or proposed region due to sheer number of users. Though it is much easier for government to control and implement policies at the manufacturer or service providers end, like car manufacturers and suppliers.  How can a government or transport regulatory body allow a single car without equipped with these life saving devices, extreme weather lighting like fog-light, emergency communication devices, first aid kits, etc. to enter into the country or market? 


All that a government or transport regulatory body has to do is to add a simple rule into the rule book of car and vehicle trade at manufacturer’s end that “No manufacturer will be allowed to launch any car or vehicle model of any segment in market without these life saving devices”. If these devices are mandatory part of the car package and capital cost consumer will definitely buy them but if left to their choice majority of them will definitely won’t care to install them. Some kind of acceptable pricing arrangements can always be done, but there should not be any compromise on quality of product which can prove vital for life.Old transport strategies need to be reviewed time to time as well as new and innovative strategies need to be formulated for sustainable urban transport and for a safer future.  

Oh, those few awkward moments in an elevator!!

By – Anoop Jha

Built architecture also demands user interaction, engagement, privacy.

Need for user engagement 

You must have frequently faced those few awkward moments while running up and down in an elevator in a multistory office or apartment building which makes a hundred meter vertical race of few seconds look like never-ending marathon. There are innumerous possible scenarios which make you feel awkward and uncomfortable in an elevator, like standing next to your boss in an elevator after missing a crucial deadline today, close encounter with some colleague whom you don’t appreciate much because of many reasons, travelling with someone you just had argument with on some issue, thought of someone monitoring your every move through elevator camera making you conscious of your dress, your gesture and your conversation, if that’s not enough, what about a familiar security guard in the elevator who keeps track of your movement inside out of building and gaze you with vigilant eyes every time you ride the elevator, may be a crowded silence of office elevator can scare you a little in rush-hour of the day if you are a claustrophobic fellow or may be a vacant apartment elevator with flickering tube light and grungy noise of faulty machine at late hours of night reminding of the horror movie you saw last Friday  with your friends would possibly scare you to death if you are little weak at heart.







Those old school theories of elevator speech and elevator story preached by every business mentor also doesn’t seem to take away that awkwardness of elevator ride because such conversations seems so fake and plastic, because everyone knows the trick of trade now and hidden intention of those momentary utilitarian ice breaker speeches and it also becomes annoying for those uninterested or unintended fellows around. 

A user environment demands useful interactions, purposeful engagement and privacy of spatial and virtual domain in addition to convenience and safety. Musical intervention, audio visual inputs in architectural or urban environment, interactive surfaces, sculptures and landscape elements are some of the tools to provide such user experience and we need to explore more in this direction. It’s high time that architects, user interface designers, mechanical engineers, sound and light engineers, psychologists,  behavioral experts and other interested  individuals and groups should come and work together to provide a complete architectural experience to user whether inside elevator or across the span of architectural features spaces.

Terrace Garden on Every Roof !!

Did they say their city is green? Don’t believe them unless you see that green yourself. Seeing is believing! Common man does not understand the intricacy of complex statistics that is produced to position a city as a “Green City”. 

Lay men do not understand the matrix, criteria and assumptions that goes into judging a city on environmental benchmark. They don’t know and even don’t care how much eco friendly materials has been used in construction of their skyscraper office building, they also don’t care whether hot water supply in their luxurious bathroom of a high star grade hotel is from solar water heater or conventional power heater, star rating of their home appliances have only become a thing to be shown off. Green criteria of common urban dwellers are very simple in nature, if they been able to breathe fresh air, if they see lush green surrounding their home and their streets, from the window of their workplace, if their children can run and play in sprawling green fields, if their children know what it is called an ecosystem from their own living experience in city not learned from the text books, if they look above in the sky and see glittering bright stars on a clear night and if they look down below into a satellite imagery and see City as Green patch of land then they should definitely approve that city is green.

Series of Terrace Garden in a City

Let’s start with our own home or apartments, wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing to enjoy a garden of your own which you can’t afford in your front lawn because you have to park 2 to 3 cars  there, larger the lawn larger the car and larger the paved area.  Community park of your housing society you anyway don’t want to use after long working and  travel hours, you lake time and energy, also you don’t feel motivated enough to use community or public park unless a doctor has gives you a good dose of advice recently.


How about climbing few steps in your own villa or taking a lift from your own apartment floor which leads to terrace where you would have found a lush green terrace garden where you would have done your daily meditation or Yoga and exercise while breathing in fresh air, spending quality time with family, only if they would have planned it properly as an approachable and inviting terrace garden, which is currently either not used at all or used as storage of discarded household stuffs in the midst of complexity of installed utilities and storage. So why not make terrace garden on every roof of the city. If governments across the cities shall make it either mandatory to have a terrace garden in every building with certain assistance or if incentivize this feature for being integrated in the architecture of building, that would be a great leap forward towards sustainable and greener urban future.