Is Debate a right model for development process or is it a drain on resources?

By Anoop Jha

Understanding the structure and psychology of debate and its assumed relevance in planning process

They think that debate can solve the planning and development issues!! You must have seen some of the so called “eminent intellectuals” fighting with each other on air, on some news channel, defending their stubborn, idiosyncratic ideologies and opinions towards some development issues or other. Debate has become such an obvious routine event across the span of media that nobody cares for anybody’s opinion anymore. You already know what its likes. It appears that these intellectual guys on air have started taking “on screen debate” as a freelance job option or a tool to be in limelight rather than taking these development issues seriously and really getting involved in it with an intention to bring forth a plan which can solve the given development and planning issue and will help fuel the growth of region and nation.  

On air debate vs dissertation panel 

What is wrong with debate? Let’s try to understand the structure and psychology of debate. The moment we go for a debate our available resources gets split in two visible contradictory parts one “for” and other “against” the issue at discussion, while both groups start investing their time, energy, efforts in collecting evidence to justify their stand, meanwhile issue for which they are fighting starts losing its significance only being replaced by individual’s monumental idiosyncrasies and group’s ego. Ego manifesting at its best and expertise either being channelized in an unconstructive direction or being exhausted, this is what the structure of “debate” has been from time immemorial. They don’t mind debating at all because they have been taught and brought up like this in school. What they teach in school is to take a stand, right or wrong and defend it, in this much celebrated phenomenon called “debate” where more cunning and smarter guy would be awarded, isn’t it? The smarter orator will always win, no matter what side of debate he or she is on, it’s like that most of the time.

Now let’s take another example with a similar discussion platform with similar expert panel, but having a totally different approach towards any given issue. Let’s see ideally what happens in a design, architectural or planning dissertation jury. This jury process involves an identified design, development, planning project or issue which they want to structure and resolve as a final outcome, within a given time frame with a panel of diverse expertise having focused intention to arrive at some solution with consensus. These jury members of dissertation or thesis panel might also have their own idiosyncratic view toward any particular issue or design project which might be totally different from other co panel members like in the case of “those experts, debating on air”, but their approach and efforts towards any particular issue is totally and fundamentally different from those of “on screen debating intellectuals”.  Unlike the experts and politicians in on air group discussion and talk shows, these panel members are here with an intention to make that project work, these experts are here to give feedback, they are here to give a positive direction to the project, they are here to invest their expertise in the success of project and resolving the issues in a constructive way keeping their ego aside, they are here functioning together cohesively in spite of their ideological differences because their intention is to “resolve the issue” and “make this work” .

Of course every development project or planning issue has some externalities associated with it both positive as well as negative; every economic activity has some kind of social and environmental cost to pay. We often tend to forget that there are grey shades as well; it’s not always completely black or white. We don’t always have to take a stand for either black or white. Let’s think collectively without being prejudiced toward a new or old idea, listening to each other, paying attention to every voice, where no one feels excluded, trying to reach at consensus where everyone is a winner.

It takes a group effort, involvement of experts as well as community and stakeholders on same platform to take development work forward and to resolve planning issues; they have to work and think cohesively to arrive at some unanimous decision in spite of varied individual’s opinions. Then only we can create a society were majority of population is satisfied, not like debate which divides society, were even after the resolution of issue half of the segment still feel that there has been injustice because other segment of society has won in debate. It takes constructive criticism not the aggressive debate to build a vibrant society and strengthened nation. 

Artificial Sonic Urban Environment to break the monotony of City!

By - Anoop Jha

Talking city - With endless possibilities

Even in the big vibrant city you live, you go through the same old repeated pattern of daily activities in an outdoor urban environment, same street, same mode, same people, same noise, and same monotony of everyday that a city presents in spite of all its somewhat varying activities. To break the monotony of city some dynamic and catalytic surprise element need to be introduced into the functional and ambient system of city. Let’s take “artificial sonic environment” as that surprise element; it has some inherent characteristics which makes it one of the best possible and commercially viable solutions to be an experimental tool to create rich user experience in the city.

Imagine you are waiting at a bus stop to catch the bus to your office like any other working day and suddenly you are greeted by a pleasant light sound of the flute blended with some hilly region tune, emerging from the background which enveloping the ambient environment of that particular bus stop and subsequently every passenger leaving that bus stop with pleasant memory and a bright smile. What a pleasant start of the day.

Imagine a situation where you reached a busy local fruit and vegetable market to buy stuffs. While you are busy negotiating the price with vendor you suddenly pay attention to the light sound of morning chorus of birds and munching buffalos or roaming heard of cows blended with sweet ethnic rural song which is again emerging from background speakers concealed at strategic public urban spaces which encloses the local market. This particular buying experience would be so different and pleasant than any other day that next time you would be inevitably encouraged to walk down the street from your home to re-live that similar experience, only to find out more sonic surprises in terms of changing songs and tunes, listening to morning news right into the middle of vegetable market, you can even listen to your favorite songs and tunes or can dedicate it to whole market or to the entire population of public plaza or square or even to entire city from right there and then through city level network of speakers and stereos installed by governing authorities by paying a token amount which goes into the expansion and maintenance of the sonic infrastructure of city itself and collectively becomes an additional source of income to municipal authorities. Sounds Good, isn’t it??

Untapped potential of Public Infrastructure

By- Anoop Jha

Public Infrastructure – from Liability to Asset

In the majority of cities and towns of developing countries like India, developing and maintaining public infrastructure are perceived responsibility of governing authorities and it is usually a major source of expenditure in municipal finance. Though to make any infrastructure sustainable in the long run, whether public or private it has to be a source of constant or recurring revenue generation to at least partially meet its operation and maintenance expenditure or to reach the breakeven point. Collective public infrastructure in any city should ideally pay for its own operation and maintenance requirement to make it sustainable. There might be varying dynamics of income expenditure for individual public infrastructure but collectively they should take care of themselves in not immediately may be in long term.

Public asset for alternative revenue stream 

It’s high time that public infrastructure should acquire the status of asset rather than liability or a financial burden to state, that does not necessarily mean it has to become private venture or property. Governing authorities like states, municipal corporations and municipalities have to be little aware towards what precious assets they own and have to find out the innovative mechanisms to exploit the previously untapped revenue potential of these assets, for example they own the most precious chunks of properties in the strategic locations which are spatially scattered throughout the city and beyond, with no or negligible income from them.

There are enough resources within any given region, need of the time is to recognize the potential, identify the resources and formulise a mechanism for revenue generation. If governing authorities or anyone else thinks that this is a difficult task or vague assumption, they should approach any random businessman- small or large, any developer, any architectural, planning or consultancy firm, any resource management firm, any thinker or business guru or even any common citizen with that asset and they will find innumerous ideas, proposals, business plans and even willing investors. 

Future-proofing urban planning

By Anoop Jha

Understanding future dynamics of urban environment

Urban planning projects present a multifaceted and dynamics set of challenges over its project lifecycle and during its subsequent operational phase. Due to dynamic behavior, polycentric domain, complex cross-sectoral interaction, varying scale and time of execution and operation within urban environment it is difficult to perceive future problems, constraints and direction of growth.

Only possible solution to understand the future dynamics of urban environment is to extract static elements in terms of quantitative measurements from the array of dynamic qualitative urban environment and actions like climate, social interaction, active transportation, combining them with the static elements of city like urban built form, concealed infrastructure. Each element of this derived quantitative inventory need to be assigned some index based on its weightage, and based on these indexes a comprehensive urban vulnerability matrix need to be prepared.  After a thorough and periodic assessment of vulnerability indictors from evaluation matrix, relevant revitalisation, prevention and recovery strategies against each item of this matrix need to be listed to for future proofing urban development and environment.  

Dilemma of Technology: Resistance to adoption of emerging Urban Infrastructure Technology

By- Anoop Jha

Choice between proven technologies of past & tempting future technology

Lifespan of any particular technology is so short that people tend to miss many steps of development. Take for example, cell phones - by the time people know that a new sophisticated technology has arrived in market and they make up their mind to go for it, they realize that a more advanced version of similar technology is waiting around the corner, which is going to make the present technology outdated very soon. This ever-changing flux of development makes it harder to make a choice. Though the pace of change varies across the sectors and scale of operation, but is an inevitable phenomenon of 21^st century. And its acceleratingly fast.

Can we match the pace of planning with the fast pace of technological changes? Can we afford replacing urban infrastructure at the pace we replace our cell phone or laptop? So when we plan an urban infrastructure today with age old technological components there is always a fear that very soon this infrastructure and technology is going to be obsolete, and some new method, technology, or component will be in market, and by that time it would be too late and expensive to replace the installed infrastructure, take example of any emerging technology which is going to take over old one like – Faster building Lifts, Gas insulated Switchgears, Online UV Treatment of Water, Vacuum based waste disposal, District Cooling, SCADA, Automated MLP, ever growing sophisticated Surveillance technology, etc.

The challenge for planners is to choose between the age old proven infrastructure technology and latest or upcoming advanced technology. The problem here is the additional cost of new technology as well as unproven lifespan and performance of technology during its lifespan.

Role of an Urban Planner in the light of technological advancement is to plan a flexible, scalable, and modular state of art sustainable infrastructure, which further allows a smooth transition to the next functional technology in course of time with the minimum intervention, effort, time and cost. 

Barrier-free Environment: A long way to go

By- Anoop Jha

Contemporary fragmented Barrier-free planning calls for integration

Accessible Urban Planning

In the developing countries like India very little attention has been given to the planning of barrier free environment for Differently abled and old age population of any existing city. Though many of new cities and township projects consider and incorporate the design elements of barrier-free environment in actual implementation of such principals following the prescribe guidelines are doubtful and need a comprehensive survey and documentation as part of post occupancy evaluation both at building level as well as master-plan level. In most parts of the existing cities there are not sufficient facilities even for normal pedestrians like, continuous footpaths, not to speak of facilities for differently-abled and old age people. Though there are “Guidelines and Space Standards for Barrier Free Built Environment for Disabled and Elderly Persons” but there are also loopholes in term of final outcome of implementation and functionality at building and city level for creating integrated barrier free environment. These guidelines need to be mandatorily integrated with the comprehensive Transport Masterplan, Zonal Plans, masterplans, local area plans, township and housing plans. Considering the importance and urgency of issue these guidelines and standards need to be implemented as widely and as strictly as possible for the well being of citizens.

Changing Scale of Innovation – from Architecture to Urban Planning

By- Anoop Jha

Next generation of Urban Planning inspired by Architecture Evolution

Evolution of Construction Technology and new construction Materials inspired the Architects in past to experiment with the form, scale and aesthetics of buildings, technology fueled the growth of architectural innovation and the broadened vista of modern architecture. Complex and sophisticated simulation tools and software, advanced construction equipments, advanced structural engineering and emergence of new stronger and flexible construction materials combined with creativity of Architects made this architectural revolution possible. Urban planning was of relatively much larger and complex nature, incorporating architecture as one of the element. For the long period of time technology was of little importance in urban planning except the transportation revolution of Mass Rapid transit systems and emergence of steel as high-rise construction material which shaped the development of urban planning to some extent.

Technology in recent past has made tremendous development like satellite images and advanced mapping technology, Geographical Information System (GIS), sophisticated analytical tools and software, new resource management techniques, modeling prediction tools, automation, integrated infrastructure systems etc. and it is growing exponentially, which is giving tremendous possibilities for urban planners to experiment in the field of urban habitation, buildings of near impossible height and scale, urban transit systems, environment, and core urban infrastructure, utilizing resources, use of previously untapped potential of region and inaccessible terrains, and planning in extreme climate. We can see the impact of state of art technology manifesting itself in the new planned cities, future urban development proposals, emerging revolutionary thoughts on next generation of cities. The kind of innovation which was only visible in architectural domain till recent past is now have become a regular feature of urban planning processes an proposals.  

Acknowledging the need of Flexible Norms and Innovation Support for short-to-medium term housing needs of Urban Poor and Underprivileged segment

By Anoop Jha

Cities and towns of India are living in a perpetual dilemma of “need to provide decent housing to urban poor as per standard norms” Vs “apparent inability to provide even a minimum standard living in growing squatter settlements or slums”. This phenomenon seems inevitable and city authorities seem to be helpless in dealing with this issue, blaming to financial resource constraints, unless they understand the need to review the standard housing norm and make it more flexible to find out whether there is any intermediate solution to fill the gap of this vast disparity even between poor (Lower / lowest Income Group) and poor (Slum dweller, beggars etc.). 

[Handpicked Books]

There is an urgent need to discuss definition of what we call “Standard” in terms of housing or dwelling needs, and the significance and validity of this “standard norms” if we have always failed to provide even a minimum need of safe and respectable shelter to a major segment of urban poor living in slum. We are caught in the illusion of utopia that we will fulfill the housing needs of all as per standards fixed by governments and planners, and fail to see and admit that the fact that under such acute resource constraint, and ever-growing influx of population from rural to urban areas, poor people are finding their own ways to fulfill their housing needs, constructing houses out of junk materials- tin, plastic sheets, cardboards, thermocol, any object or material they find rejected by the city, living in an unsafe and unhygienic conditions. Do planners feel responsible to them, at all? There are buzz words “Slum Networking” “integrated slum” etc., but those are for streamlining existing slums and squatter settlements, what about the slum being built today, what about tomorrow?

City administration will have to increasingly play a role of facilitator and inventor rather than just provider to fulfill short to medium term housing needs, they have the resources and skill sets, thsy have the talented architect and planners and financial brains, to provide a better shelter; they can help and facilitate those poorest of poor people to build their own home with those same materials which is considered junk, providing much decent homes which are structurally sound, planned with proper infrastructure. Some R&D is urgently needed on the similar line of thought.

Following is the abstract from pib.nic.in - (along with comments)

"There are various reasons for creation of slums of which the most important are as follows

(i)    Increased urbanization leading to pressure on the available land and infrastructure, especially for the poor.

(ii) Natural increase in the population of urban poor and migration from rural areas and small towns to larger 

     cities. 

(iii) Inappropriate system of urban planning which does not provide adequate space for the urban poor in the       City Master Plans. (This is what planners and policy makers need to acknowledge. City Master planning has to be an inclusive process, and adequate provisions have to be made for urban poor for a sustainable city plan)

(iv) Sky-rocketing land prices due to increasing demand for land and constraints on supply of land.

(v) Absence of programmes of affordable housing for the urban poor in most States. (The definition of affordable housing itself has to be changed..innovative construction techniques, new materials, check on wastage of material during construction, mass production, low cost housing techniques are some of the key ingredients which might change the definition and cost of affordable housing)

(vi)  Lack of availability of credit for low income housing. (Finance has to be generated partially from Government & Aid and rest from the financial resources mobilised from the community itself, no matter how poor is the individual or a family, collectively a poor community can mobilise a considerable amount of resources in terms of finance and labor)

(vii)  Increasing cost of construction."  (This is where innovation comes into picture, housing with innovative use and reuse of materials, pool of bright talented architects and planners should come forward with innovative ideas for the same, in the guidance of Govt.)

Anoop Jha is an Architect Planner with specialization in Urban and Regional Planning