"People" for whom & from where urban planning
should start and where all the benefits of planning should culminate.
Community, being a considerably large, heterogeneous and
multicultural entity
is too big to be considered the smallest unit of urban
planning; while Individual, having a limited set of attributes and prolific in
numbers is rather too small & cumbersome an entity for base unit.
"Household" with its autonomous demographic,
cultural & socioeconomic quality, gender mix, age range, embodiment of
community ethos & manageable scale should be the most logical & obvious
choice of smallest unit & assessment tool of urban planning. Household's
data attributes should go beyond economic, demographic & census checklist
& must factor in parameters of it's social and ecological footprint,
commute profile, debt & liabilities, pursuits and aspirations etc.
Author: Anoop Jha