Still untapped potential of raw satellite images for city planners!

Urban Planning satellitexted

Satellite view of urban alphabet

Love exploring cities from the eyes of satellites! they tell stories which were never written, imprints of time still visible, you see a city, you see it growing, you see where its going, you learn where it comes from. They say you need to travel if you want to learn, you confront with knowledge and experience while travelling. Some tools like free or else satellite imageries were not available for planners decades back or even recently, by the time it arrived for planners as a tool, GIS and satellite image interpretation etc. also accompanied and hence all the focus shifted towards degitising the whole world including your neighborhood street and front yard, making layers after layers, though they sure help planners in many ways, but you know at times on feels that in this whole process of mechanization and automation and interpretation, the shear beauty of raw, as it is satellite images and views are loosing its significance. 

The naked and raw satellite images of earth like as seen in google earth can tell things and give clues which even high level high resolution satellite image interpretations can't tell, the judgement of human eyes and brain, not just the computer processor, once in a while for sake for fun learning at least. Urban planners, transport planners and so on planners need to see and understand the random behaviors of random cities across the world, travel wont be possible and you don't have enough time to wait for that as well so go explore a city, any city or settlement or villages on google earth or something, every time you will go there you will learn something. Don't get simply spoon-fed by other's version of what that particular city is  all about, go learn yourself through your own version of experience, through satellite images, if you are not familiar with the streets and terraces and vegetation of a city from its aerial or satellite dimension, your all efforts to become a good planner is halfhearted. Explore to understand and share with the world or simply use this learning in you next city planning or development project. There is always more than you can explore there!

It's been done this way since ages doesn’t make it the right way today!!

Rethinking academic research methodology.

So, you are up to research, thesis, dissertation or something, great!! Let’s consider few  things before we move ahead, considering few establish academic research norms, said or unsaid, which you might like to question, which you might like to challenge, but you won't, may be you can’t, because someone else is running the show.

Let’s understand the anatomy and objective of research and what should be the scope of any academic research for purposes, like thesis, PhD and so on and let’s see if there is any loophole in the well established century old research methodology and why it’s high time that research methodology has to reinvent itself.

What usually happens is that you choose a topic of your expertise and interest, narrow or wide and a mentor or guide as well either to guide you throughout or just because its mandatory to have one as per university norms, whether its architecture, planning or sociology or something else, it’s all the same. Then you start collecting supporting evidence and snippets of information first to validate the selection of research subject and then to back your conclusion. 

If you delve deeper you will realise that any chosen research subject or topic no matter how wide or narrow it is, has a very wide possible scope for exploration which we unjustifiably narrow down due to many reasons. You can have all the freedom to narrow down the subject or research topic itself which you choose but how can you narrow down and limit the research domain yourself and how can you decide in the beginning of research that which external influences to choose which might affects the subject, just because scope of research seems unfathomable to you for that particular subject or topic, just because someone told you to do so, just because your curriculum allows you the freedom to do so. If you are limiting your research to the review of few books on the subject,  selected by your guide who can have his or her own biased inclination towards those particular books or those authors,  if you limit your research only to some good books which are remaining  in your library after best books of the lot which has already been lifted by the academicians and professors long ago,  if you limit yourself to handful of primary sample survey which has its own grave issues and which is bound to give inaccurate picture, and if you limit yourself for any other similar innumerable reasons, you  are doing a big injustice to the research subject.

The issue with age old academic research methodology in context of today is that there always has been a strong stress on authenticity and completeness of content, fixed research structure, rigidity of data structuring, stress on literature and book reviews and first hand data gathering, there always has been submission to the authority of few established individuals in the field and imposition of idiosyncrasy and idealism of mentor or guide, ignoring the massive and continuous stream of relevant information which is available today and which is already growing and going to grow exponentially in the future. In the inertia of age old established research methodologies we are knowingly or unknowingly ignoring the possibilities that today’s technology provides us in conducting our research. Ignoring the technology of data mining and data exploration which they are already using ruthlessly in business and corporate domain is almost absolutely missing in academic research.

Two fundamental truth which majority of academicians today would be highly hesitant to be confronted with, is first that "Billions of half-baked data is much more reliable and contextual than handful of authentic publications when it comes to research and establishing a fact, excluding field of science and mathematics" and second that "Skewed focus towards book reviews and published literature for research purposes tend to glamorizes second hand work and dampen free and creative thinking spirit". There is nothing new and creative in quoting some author on some instance or subject, nothing new in putting someone else's inferences and analogies in your own words in your academic research report. When there is too much focus on structure and format (Thesis, synthesis, analogy, reference, bibliography and all) content starts losing its significance. This prominent conventional research methodology only leads to half baked conclusion at the end of your research span, because of just few numbers of cases studied and fewer perspectives of authors analysed.

Main constraint here is time and it’s up to you how you manage to get optimum exposure in that short span of time to arrive at valid inferences. More intense the exposure more authentic would be the conclusion or outcome. You are given a limited time to conduct and conclude your academic research whether thesis, dissertation or PhD.  You cannot stretch it infinitely. now you zoom in and pick up few published literature on the subject for your research reading pages, first to last, how many of these  books with "authentic" information you would be able to read in that assigned research span of few months or years, five, ten, twenty or fifty? That’s it? Come end of the research span and you are aware of point of view of five or fifty different authors, thinking you have known enough, thinking it’s time to conclude. No matter how very authentic information you have at the end to conclude your research, these are just point of views of handful of published authors out of millions equally talented or more or less out there in the world working, thinking, deliberating on the same subject, who never got the time, inclination, money or right publisher to get their work and thoughts published but who are constantly writing on forums, blogs, constantly tweeting and sharing and so on, may be you also missed out the brilliant thoughts on the subject because it didn’t reach your library shelf, because your guide didn’t recommended it to you, may be you didn’t have enough money to buy that book or eBook or may be because it couldn’t get the attention of the masses due to competition with shear number of literature on the same subject.

It’s high time that students and researchers need to be encouraged to look for unconventional, previously unexplored and untapped streams of data for mainstream academic research by their colleges, universities and most importantly from their mentors and guides in their dissertation and PhD,  sources like massive free and dynamic data from online environment of blogs, discussion forums,  audio-visual data from established or amateur masses, tiny bits of information which individually doesn’t make any sense but which collectively presents fairly recognisable, logical and surprising patterns, and it’s high time that such research methodologies should get mainstream recognition. It’s time that they should shift their fixated attention from literature reviews to data source explorations and analysis, broadening the domain of literature itself.

You see, it would be much more exciting, authentic and wholesome an experience to explore from the dynamic, widespread and crude "sea of knowledge" rather than exploring from few well-maintained but stagnate "resource lakes".

BY- Anoop Jha 

It’s Art if you can prove it…

Beauty lies in the description of subject not in the eyes of beholder!

We all have seen those classical photorealistic portraits, landscapes and still-life paintings, those precisely chiseled anatomical sculptures as well as those scientifically calculated complex structural building forms and the moment we see it we unanimously conclude that it’s a piece of art. We visualize, appreciate and interpret those art subjects as it is. Here we are talking about something different.

Let’s talk about art in the context of contemporary abstract and modern art, symbolic sculptures, concept based product designs, landscape and urban design installations and to some extent architecture. Let’s face the biting truth of contemporary art and design, i.e. “Abstractness” in art and design and other creative fields has become an easy escape for majority of artists, designers and likeminded people in the contemporary world due to its low-labor-low-skill-fast-production nature and high perceived intellectual and monetary value. Though there is psychological interpretation and justifications of “abstract art” as well but let’s focus here on the whole gimmick of art and commercialization surrounding art and design industry in the name of abstractness.

  

Let’s see how it works. Let’s be clear in the beginning that it’s not “Art” which is being sold, it the “Story” which they are buying, story of struggle of that artist and designer, story of making of that art and design work, story behind that abstractness. More the abstractness more the flexibility to weave a convincing story around that art, more the vagueness more they are capable to defending their artwork. So it’s not the art but the descriptive and convincing power of the artists and designers which all matters.

If you are not convinced yet let’s see few examples, suppose you see a particular piece of modern abstract contemporary art or installation which is beyond your perception, and your first reaction is “what’s the point”!! Then someone comes and tells you that this is a master-work of some renowned artist or sculptor or designer and then you unsuccessfully try to derive some meaning out of that art which was greek and meaningless for you a moment back, because you don’t want to challenge the authority of that renowned someone, because you know he or she will tell you a very convincing story to prove the meaning of their art. And they can do it very well, they are expert story tellers. That piece of art might be a genuine feeling and true expression of that artist or designer but there is an equal probability that it might be a story fabricated by that artist or designer or sculptor or others, around that art work to manipulate and convince you of its greatness and one can do that very easily if needed. And why not, if people are willing to spend fortunes to buy stories, let’s tell them stories, that’s what they are doing.

Still not convinced? Do it yourself then. Take a large white canvas or paper and few bottles of acrylic colors; put the canvas horizontally on ground and pour those colors randomly here and there on the canvas, use your creativity, instinct and any or some of the tools at your disposal, your hand, your old toothbrush or comb, kitchen utensils etc., just anything to roughly spread and partially mix those color on the canvas. Your painting is ready, now let’s weave an interesting story behind the painting subject, whatever comes to your mind first just go for it. 10 minutes and you are ready with an abstract masterpiece; rest up to your descriptive skill, now “if you can prove, it’s an Art, if not it’s a crap”. Best part is that you don’t have to be an artist or designer to do that, if you want to do a reality check, put this just emerged master art work in your living room, let people come and describe it for you or alternatively describe a different theme to different guests, just for fun. You will be surprised to see the positive responses; someone might offer you a good price for that as well!!

By- Anoop Jha

Interior Design - A reflection of self rather than a design platter

By - Anoop Jha

Indian homes tell rich stories of evolution and experience.

What is interior design for an average home in India? What is perceived notion of high end interior design by an average city dweller? Is it an extravagant expression of “new rich” in town or an effort of “not so rich class” to live classy rich life? Whatever it is they usually feel proud showcasing their home interior and décor, no matter whether they are rich or not so rich, no matter whether it’s extravagant or modest.



[Handpicked Books]

     

When it comes to average middle class home interior you will find few similarities, an overwhelmingly stuffed home, because they need and inherit too many things to make their life vibrant and cope with so many rituals, social events, festivals, changing seasons etc.  and they don’t generally discard old household items in India since they have emotional value attached to it like furniture inherited from grandparents, no matter whether they have already bought a pair of PVC chair and an steel wardrobe last festive season on a mega discount offer they will keep the old furniture and items as well. Minimalistic interior is either not their choice or maybe they can’t afford it. You will find multipurpose household items, like the steel or wooden trunk which is used to store many non-seasonal household stuffs along with hardly used inherited and memorial items and which can also be used as TV stand or temporary bed in case of long social visits like couch surfing. You will find same contemporary interior lighting unit or decorative fixture in majority of houses which they all buy from the same neighborhood market. Almost similar finishes, similar wall colors and textures, similar window grill design, similar exposed interior lighting, may be little different furnishing based on little varied choices of occupant. You will sense a fusion of different culture with miniature painting of Rajasthan hanging on the wall to Feng shui wind chime hanging on door. But they seem quite content in their home, that’s what matters! No matter how limited is the space inside home; they have huge space in their heart to welcome you.

                 

What is interior design for rich or even ultra rich in India? They can afford an architect or interior designer. You will find their home lavishly decorated and minimalistic at time, with all those wonderful finishes and concealed lighting, but you know what, story doesn’t end here. When the job or interior design is over now starts the real interior design and decoration process of Indian home. Don’t forget the real architects and Interior designers of Indian households are the lady of the house, who chooses the next big change in the interior layout and furnishing, she decides, where to adjusts, accommodate and place those ever growing inflow of household stuffs and home décor items of which they are very fond of. If the same architect or interior designer who did the interior of home returns after five years to that home he or she will be totally surprised to see how rich and diversified the interior has become in this short span of time, with all those variety of decorative items which have been either received in gift or collected over visit to different parts of country or world. None of which are matching either to each other or to originally perceived interior design. Some of the home décor items are from Japan, some from Singapore or Thailand may be Egypt or south Africa or might have been bought from neighborhood Sunday market, some inherited from generation some preserved from childhood, some ethnic or some space age, though they look wonderful together and presents an ever-changing interior landscape telling story of its evolution and rich experience, its reflection of occupants of the Indian homes.  They don’t just get their interior designed in a go, they create it with their own hand in course of time.     

Breaking the monotony of planning

By - Anoop jha

Interesting twist to parking plan

Parking Grid

Parking lot circulation showing innovative approach of planning grid which serves two purpose

1)It gives a holistic touch to industrial style rigid  parking grid with main organic collector route

2)It puts a desirable physical limitation on speed of car in parking area due to its curvature and alignment

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.

Role of Managers as Decision Maker

By - Anoop Jha

Planning and Architectural decisions which can save valuable time and resources

The future course of any planning or architectural project is shaped by decisions made at different stages of project by able managers. A manager should have strong organizational capabilities to manage the limited resources in most effective ways, excellent interpersonal skill sets like oratory command, active listening, backed by groomed personality, delegational capabilities, strong sense of intuition, superb management and leadership capacity which reflects in swiftness, smartness and precision of decisions made in the crucial moments. Managers should be capable of perceiving macro level issues which might emerge in course of project as well as should be capable of understanding and analysing minute details of project and process if required.

In planning and architecture every now and then macro level issues demands attention as well as swift and smart decision from managers. A wrong decision can be a toll on already limited and pressing time and resources while a sensible decision which emerges from the wisdom and experience of managers can save a lot of time and hassle.

Now, what is sensible decision and how can one arrive at a sensible strategic decision?  A team leader or manager is like a captain of any dynamic sport, who has to constantly change, modify and revive his or her strategy, negotiating twists and turns of this dynamics and unpredictability of the game, accommodating and absorbing changing situations, while keeping his or her focus on the end result i.e. winning the game.  In the similar way a manager or team leader has to constantly reinvent its strategies meeting the project needs, accommodating dynamism of project with the focus on timely completion of projects with effective utilisation of resources at hand.

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.  

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.

Fueling Smart Growth through intelligent Urban Planning

By - Anoop Jha

Principals and tools of Smart Growth

Integration

        Integrated Infrastructure and services

        Regional integration

        Integration of different strata of society

        Contextual development

        Integrated governance and single window clearance

Slum Integration

Urban growth 

Decentralization

        Decentralized responsibilities for better function

Decentralized risk allocation

Downstream benefits

Modular Planning

       Replicable and Expandable planning 
       modules

        Modular architecture

        Modular construction

Intelligent Management System

        Intelligent Building Management System (IBMS)

Construction Management System

Advanced Transport and Traffic Management System

Intelligent Transport

Parking and Tunnel Management System

Flood Management System

Disaster Management System

Resource Management

Automation

        Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)

        Automated Waste Collection and Treatment

Safety

        Intelligent Urban Surveillance

        Fire and Life Safety

        Post Disaster Recovery Masterplan

Centralized helpline

Green Development

        Renewable energy

        Alternative energy

        Smart grid

        Solar passive architecture

Education

        Optimum utilization of resources

        Better Health and sanitation

Better livelihood opportunities

Exposure to new plans, policies and technology

Public Policy and Governance

        Updating old policies

Participatory planning

        Inclusive planning

Roadmap of future development

Language of City - Study of population flux in a City

By - Anoop Jha

Fluctuating population density of urban public spaces

Urban eco-system comprises of to distinct layers one static built mass, and second, dynamic floating and moving population. This static-dynamic  interface can be an interesting subject of study. Imagin fast pace time laps photography capturing to and fro movement of colony of black ants targting an abandoned sweet candy lying spotless white floor. Now imagine movement of population (ant) in a sprawling city (floor) on any average day.

 

One of the ways to study the intracity population flux can be as follows.

Demarcating zones in the city based on functional characteristics like, offices, residential, commercial, educational, recreational, transit etc, further deviding zones in smallest possible zones to be covered by an individual, lets call it urban pixel , studying each of these pixels for a given sizable period of time using time-laps photographs, vedios and conducting survays, preparing index and assigning rating to each of these small zones in term of population flux, which means assigning a range of rating based on tentative number or quantum of population present at that particular zone or pixal, deriving matrix of population flux for the entire city and further preparing population flux plan for the city.  

Caught in the process: Urban and Regional Planning process requires a fresh approach

By - Anoop Jha

Flawed bottom-up process in Urban and Regional Planning

Too much focus on  process and micro management poses many dangers in planning process and leads to content deficit, blurred vision and ignorance to outcome.

Scale of Urban and regional planning demands a macro level approach to begin with. It requires a top down approach which means, vision of the planning assignment should be stated and crystal  clear and outcome after the whole gimmick of  planning process should be defined, planners need to start from there backwards up to the conceptualizing the project and steps to be taken.

whole process should be oriented towards achieving the goal. but most of the corporations, consultants, planners, governing authorities miss this vital point. for example in a normal routine planning process, at preliminary stages of projects only few senior people are involved but as the project moves towards finalization more and more people chip in and give comments which lead to major re-adjustments in the project at the later stage of project which is not good for any projects health, idea is to urge as many senior planners, authorities and stakeholders in the beginning of the project life cycle for the process of review and feedback. Another example of wastage of time in the process is that some of  the corporate bodies often miss the objective of the project, because they are so much caught n the process of corporatisation, making presentation with fancy jargon words, decorating charts, quoting someone else's statistical inferences etc. Their process is bottom up kind, they are least concerned about the future outcome of the project. they want to en-cash the opportunity of present ignoring the future.

Focus of urban and regional planning should be on analytical inferences of gathered data in terms of trends, regional context, indexing of available social and physical infrastructure, resource mobilization strategies, preparing development matrix and and strategic proposal rather than micro managing the process.

How reliable are socio-economic future projections?

By - Anoop Jha

There are always some uncertainties of projections in planning process.

While preparing vision and development plans, planners heavily depends on socio-economic projections short to medium and long term. Based on such projections development plans are proposed for a region or a city, both strategic as well as physical plan. It is an effort to look into the future and plan according to that. For regional vision plan these projections are based on analyzing voluminous amount of social and economic data of the region collected over long period time and referring to survey data archive, which shed some light on decades of  growth pattern of the region. For urban and regional projects, projections are made based on samples collected over relatively shorter period of time.

There are number of theories, school of thoughts, methods and simulation tools which have evolved in course of time for the socio economic projection. Data gathering process are becoming more and more efficient, Simulation tools are getting faster and efficient as well capable of handling large amount of data in no time, Still there is an uncertainty of projections in current planning projections. Future Projections are as accurate and reliable as its tools are i.e. gathered data, sample questionnaires, size of sample, hetroginicity of sample, inclusiveness of sample, simulation tools- software & Computers,  apart from that there are  other factors like willingness and efficiency of of consultants/ surveying agencies responsible for the outcome, human error, time constraint, political influence. Under so many of environmental influences future projections are bound to be hazy, hence there should be certain provisions of  compensatory flexibility both in terms of tangible and intangible inputs in the planning model, especially in physical planning and development plans, to make plans as realistic and as accommodative and future proof as possible.

Intercity travel congestion - Need for a new regional planning approach

By - Anoop Jha

Too much focus on urban planning and too little regional planning

Intercity Transport

Regional Development Plans in terms of intercity mobility plan are long term planning process which are primarily Policy level decisions and most of the time such projects remain stagnant at strategic level. Very few of these projects gets implemented in time while situation keep becoming increasingly critical, for example- intercity traffic congestion.

Most of the proposed projects are capital intensive and hence undergo long review process and witness relatively less thrust from political arena, while other mounting  large numbers of smaller projects at urban level demands immediate attention at the same time and witness  more political willingness, due to relatively shorter implementation period and medium to small  investment in comparison to regional development project, particularly in Transport sector. 

At national and regional scale government has so many pressing priorities in terms of public welfare and social infrastructure like, health, education, water and sanitation etc. that they tend to push  back some elements of physical infrastructure projects like upgradation, widening of existing intercity roads, crucial regional transport junctions, new bypasses, and expressways link roads.  In regional transport plan another reason of choked intercity transport corridors and delayed project implementation is that regional plan are placed lower in terms of prioritized projects, because their immediate priorities are close to core of the city and as we go further from center of the city nature of project starts changing from urban to regional, and projects in regional category are part of later phases of the projects and mostly strategic in nature with some physical planning proposals. 

Need is to identify and prepare  exhaustive list of planning indexes like, demography, revenue, technology,  covering large spectrum of subjects and society, and based on those index a blanket matrix should be created to arrive at more realistic priority list of project.

Pedestrian Vehicular conflict : why can’t we seem to find a solution?

By - Anoop Kumar Jha

Missing Human Behavioral Analysis aspect in Transport Simulation Model

No matter how functional and mathematically sound a transportation plan and related infrastructure design for any city or stretch appear before implementation, there is always a conflict between vehicular and pedestrian circulation which appears only once the transport plan is in place and functional, it’s the story of every city and every stretch. Blogs and forums are filled with discussions and captured photographs of such pedestrian vehicular conflicts.

It’s a conflict between pedestrians desire to take easiest and shortest route and transport planners age old scientific approach planning with modern simulation tools. Its conflict between “human desire” and “scientific approach”.  

In a country like India, apart from education and enforcement there is one missing crucial aspect which leads to pedestrian vehicular conflict in urban setting, that is understanding of human behavior and learning from past and other projects mistakes. It appears that common man collectively always appear smarter than the panel of planners, designers and implementation and enforcement agencies, because no matter how sound they make any system or transport plan people always find out loopholes in it. People are willing to take the dangerous shortcuts, break the law and even risk their life to reach the destination quickly. There is almost similar pattern and language of such human behavior across the cities and towns of India when it comes to intra city travel, but transport planners do not seem to observe and learn from such cases. Its high time that they should observe, document and incorporate human behavioral analysis in the transport simulation model to arrive at a successful transport plan for a city. 

Transport plan, systems and tools also need to be regionalized or localized, because what works in Bogota  or America or Europe might not work in Delhi or Surat or Jaisalmer  if replicated in-toto. 

Containerized office buildings – how we have accepted it as a part of daily life!!

By - Anoop Jha


Actual Mechanical Ambiance Vs Desired Holistic Environment

Majority of contemporary so called modern office buildings and towers where people as employees spend almost half of their life lack a healthy ambiance, environment and micro-climate, though it might have cleared all the statutory requirements, might have followed all the guidelines, might have amazing interior finishes, decorated with beautiful and almost real plastic plants.

Some signs that you are working in a Containerized Office 

Lighting

Shear ignorance to natural light and view,

Sole dependence on Artificial lighting,

Absolute absence of task lighting concept,

Light glare and  shadow,

No correlation with time of the day 

Same ambiance every working-day/hour 

Climate control

No consideration for individual's temperature requirement

extra hot and cold pockets distributed over floor-space,

No correlation with indoor-outdoor weather

Other interesting Traits

Being watched for work-productivity in the name of security

Feeling isolated from outer world

There is urgent need to analyse and assess the existing office complexes across the region on different qualitative and quantitative parameters and come up with an exhaustive list of recommendations  can further be consolidated in a set of mandatory Architectural guidelines.

Some Recommendations to design a holistically habitable office complexes-

Breathing building skin and building envelop (Ideally like Human Skin)

Visually connected to outside world (gives pleasant view, correlate to weather or at least gives sense of time)

Day light linking (Saves energy as well) 

Task lighting as per sitting arrangement / furniture layout (prevents Light Glare and Shadow, and gives a sense of personal space) 

Accessible pleasant weather (let the pleasant light breeze come in, let them touch and hear the falling raindrops) 

Sensible Cooling & Heating with ability to personalize (increased productivity, less medical leaves)