Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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When the economy has to serve its purpose!

🏭When not producing anything is not an answer and when shutting down industries, businesses and operations may not be an option!

Then we need a statutory mechanism, moral pivot, and disruptive but viable business model, where every new and existing industry and business may still continue to function, but upskill themselves at the facility scale (and sectoral level) and devote up to half (not a token) of their capacity, resources, and skills to make things right, neutralizing the externalities that another half of their current business model or establishment generates. To be achieved either through circular procurement, reverse logistics, repurposing production, decarbonization, resource efficiency, or carbon offset.

This is highly important in today’s race of production and overproduction, as by any estimate for example, as on date -

👔There must be enough clothing stacked in the warehouses, stores, wardrobes, second-hand market, and on the way to landfill, that may serve what the entire world population requires for the next month or even a year or more

🏢There must be enough sum total square feet of real estate inventory, to give a respectable unit area of habitation to everyone in the world, considering all the vacant and under-utilized residential stock, all the extravagant properties, and all other land use that sits idle half of the time.

And more.

All of this that is currently being done, to serve inflated demand, and due to lack of a mechanism to recirculate material that is considered waste, and the inability to manage mismatched resources.

A new way of industrial and business operation will be a welcoming change!

Author: Anoop Jha

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[Recent update

Starting 2024, launching urban management, interior design, home decor and commissioned artwork services in the Netherlands, serving local as well as international remote clients.

Please Note, that I am also conducting a FREE 45-minute online individual consultation on your interior design and home decor needs and aspirations if you are in the Netherlands or even internationally. Drop me an email at anoop.jha@gmail.com 

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets 

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional 

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#Circulareconomy #urbanplanning #urbanmanagement #urbandevelopment #economics #finance #industries #comemrce #World #EU #Europe #netherlands #Amsterdam #Rotterdam #Hague #DenHaag #Delft #Lieden #Sustainability #Resislience #Climatechange  

 One of the most important and underrated aspects of material flow.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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The conservation and (re)utilization of embodied energy - from the scale of the product to the built environment.

Yes, materials have been extracted and refined, and the products have been made, and transported for intended use, with all its embodied energy, the product that went through energy-intensive processes, leaving environmental externalities. What next?

It will be unreasonable and illogical to keep producing, while not knowing what to do with the product or refined material after the end of its first functional or fashionable life.  The thing we know and focus on today is to grind and smelt products back to their granular, sometimes molecular constituents, or ship them to grey markets and landfills of less well-off places, after sometimes their deliberately short, designed, perceived, and valued life. Maybe it’s the only choice for some in their given context, maybe it’s a problem of not knowing whose Lifecycle responsibility it is after the product leaves the factory.

In any case, the post-perceived functional life of products, it becomes a problem of “compound” embodied energy associated with refined materials and products at a global supply chain level.

Once a product or refined material enters into local geography through a global supply chain, with all its embodied energy associated with processing, transportation, etc., it is the responsibility of the local economy, regional industry, and governing institutions to create enabling grounds for maximizing the use, reuse, and repurpose of refined materials/components and products at varying scale, be it extension of life, second, third and fourth life or reinvented multi-functionality of such products. Just because we have figured out how to make new products or refined material from scratch, doesn’t make it necessary to discard old and create new at the pace at which it is being done, just because you can.

Be it paper, plastic, cardboard, and glass products, packaging and residues (which hold high circular potential due to their numeric strength), or of course concrete (that holds circular potential due to sheer scale), or discarded EV batteries, chemicals, PV modules, wind turbine components (that holds less explored circular potential in the need of hour).

A product or refined material of any scale, at any historic or contemporary timeline, once produced, with or without thought of the future or post-functional life, becomes immensely valuable due to all the efforts, time, and embodied energy associated with it, and its never too late to reassess the real value of such product, to explore how these can be put to best use tomorrow and in times to come, especially within the local geography.

Author: Anoop Jha

Image: Author

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[Recent update

Starting 2024, launching urban management, interior design, home decor and commissioned artwork services in the Netherlands, serving local as well as international remote clients.

Please Note, that I am also conducting a FREE 45-minute online individual consultation on your interior design and home decor needs and aspirations if you are in the Netherlands or even internationally. Drop me an email at anoop.jha@gmail.com 

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets 

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional 

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#circulareconomy #urbanplanning #resourceeffeciency #materailflowanalysis #LCA #climatechange #systemthinking #designthinking #Amsterdam #Rotterdam #Utrecht #Netherlands #EU #Europe

The dilemma of oversized urban houses.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Yes, they live in oversized houses, as they gradually reached there, as they wanted to, as they needed it, and as they could afford it at one point in time. They still continue to live in oversized houses even if they don’t want to as it becomes unmanageable with age and weakening abilities, even if they don’t need it as they become empty nesters, and even if they can’t afford it at another point in time, with drying wherewithal and acclivitous expenses.

Yes, it’s not that easy to reconfigure something made of brick and mortar, at the unit scale and at the neighborhood scale. It’s difficult with architectural rigidity that doesn’t consider modularity in its inception.  It’s harder still with binding urban design regulations that don’t consider such future reconfiguration requirements and possibilities in the first place. Even more difficult with land use restrictions, that don’t consider real-time land-usage convertibility, and are nearly impossible amidst stringent building bylaws that are dictated by the idea of dimensions.

Having a choice is fundamental. We are discussing reconfiguration, from a house to a neighborhood scale, not with the conventional idea of accommodating more people per unit or per acre, not with the sole idea of co-location or sharing; but to offer inhabitants a choice that they deserve, the choice to sequester their operations in the humble Sqft of area, carved out of their own house, that is still respectable for a home, that is manageable, and affordable with growing age. If we end up gaining room for more inhabitants per acre through the reconfiguration of houses and neighborhoods that is a byproduct.

In any part of the world, it’s counterintuitive even from a policy perspective, surrounding this phenomenon of living in oversized houses at a growing age, with household size considerably reduced, when many of them may not require it or want it but still live there in the absence of choices. Counterintuitive, as administrations may choose to offer money as a social welfare gesture only to take some of it back unintentionally in the form of higher energy bills generated and associated higher property taxes due to those additional sqft of area which many residents might not require.

While the discussion around retrofitting and circular built environments is gaining traction, we should further move beyond the idea of material trade-offs, and, design, plan, and strategies to consider the matter of mutating requirements and choices and focus on this much-ignored immutable fact that human spatial needs drastically change with time. Technologically, reconfiguration and retraction of the buildings and larger built environment is not impossible, possibly focus has to be on statutory reconfiguration and policy reengineering.

Author: Anoop Jha

Image: Author

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[Recent update

Starting 2024, launching urban management, interior design, home decor and commissioned artwork services in the Netherlands, serving local as well as international remote clients.

Please Note, that I am also conducting a FREE 45-minute online individual consultation on your interior design and home decor needs and aspirations if you are in the Netherlands or even internationally. Drop me an email at anoop.jha@gmail.com 

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets 

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional 

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#urbanmanagement #urbanplanning #urbandesign #smartcities #circulareconomy #Rotterdam #Amsterdam #Utrecht #Netherlands #EU #Europe

 What makes a great city?
 

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Luck, inheritance, coincidence, distinct leadership, resourcefulness, and experimentation

LUCK

·      Geographic positioning – less susceptible to seasonal and weather extremities, and diurnal variations

·      Environmentally guarded geography – less vulnerability to climate change catastrophe

·      Regional positioning (sea coast, river bank, hills, valley) - economic and ecological potential

·      Natural resources (minerals, ecological assets)

COINCIDENCE

·      On a trade route – economic edge

·      Twin city or polycentric regional setting – symbiotic advantage

INHERITANCE

·      Heritage – something to nurture and to build on

·      Legacy institutions (industries/ businesses/ hub of public and private institutions)

DISTINCTIVE LEADERSHIP

·      Transformative vision (planned spatial growth and development blueprint, policy formulation, sectoral roadmap, city branding)

·      Creating economic and knowledge ecosystems (anchor industries and MSME, commerce, startups, universities)

·      Tackling socio-economic challenges (poverty, inequality, crime)

·      Controlling demographic indicators (education, gender ratio, vocation, etc)

·      Mitigating environmental impact

·      Preparing for climate resilience

RESOURCEFULNESS

·      Finding means of revenue generation

·      Attracting investments

·      Assuring funding

·      Attracting human capital

·      Attracting footfall

·      Creating a network of global and regional partnerships and a support system

EXPERIMENTATION

·      Living labs

·      Districts of experimentation

The above factors and possibly a few others, dictate the present and future of metropolitans, cities, towns, and “would-be cities”; these are interdependent factors. While luck, inheritance, and coincidence have their own place, and sometimes cities have no choice; going beyond, theoretically and technically any city can be a great city if it decides to be one, if it focuses on leveraging what is coincidental, building on what has been inherited, finding right leadership, being resourceful and experimentative!

Author: Anoop Jha

Image: Author

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[Recent update

Starting 2024, launching urban management, interior design, home decor and commissioned artwork services in the Netherlands, serving local as well as international remote clients.

Please Note, that I am also conducting a FREE 45-minute online individual consultation on your interior design and home decor needs and aspirations if you are in the Netherlands or even internationally. Drop me an email at anoop.jha@gmail.com 

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets 

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional 

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#urbanmanagement #urbanplanning #smartcities #urbandesign #landscape #ecology #economy #heritage #tourism #municipality #Amsterdam #Utrecht #Rotterdam #Netherlands #EU #Europe

 Revisiting the impact of mega infrastructure development.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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The nature of mega infrastructure projects is such that their impact goes beyond its physical dimensions and boundaries. The impact goes even beyond its defined catchment, described objective, perceived externalities, and statutory confine.

When a mega infrastructure of any kind is introduced in a geographic system, the morphology of the immediate and distant built environment is either going to be evolved, shaped or redefined, ecological and bio-diversity reconfigurations may just get triggered, microclimate are going to undergo changes, socio-economic and demographic equilibriums are bound to change, power dynamics are bound to shift, a period of destabilisation and adjustments are sure to be witnessed, the upheaval of opinions, emotions and aspirations are mostly assured, the opportunity-scape are obviously to be developed and redefined, and vested interests are bound to surface, and of course, few consequences beyond human grasp may also surface.

Build a ring road, make an airport, build a dam, or channelize a river, and all or most of the above phenomenon gets activated and rarely gets acknowledged or addressed in their impact assessment in the totality, complexity, and subtlety of it.

There are certainly positive externalities, but currently, any (negative) impact of mega infrastructure that comes as a surprise, we tend to label them as unintended or link them to external factors or define them as non-linear and characteristics of wicked problems.

The possible reason for the shortsightedness of impacts and events followed by the advent of mega infrastructure are the practical limitations of prescriptive statutory compliance. That is understood, as one has to stop somewhere and define the boundary of impact, contours of liability, and exactness of liability. But it is still wise to consider and assess the impacts beyond the statutory confine and unresolved interests, for the common larger good.

Thankfully, today or anytime soon, most of the impacts of mega infrastructure can be defined and visualised based on historical observations and near-infinite scenario modelling, can be predicted, forecasted and modelled accurately with modern tools, and can be empirically constructed, or imagined beforehand by logic, wisdom and diverse consultation.

Author: Anoop Kumar Jha

Image: Author

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[Recent update

Starting 2024, launching urban management, interior design, home decor and commissioned artwork services in the Netherlands, serving local as well as international remote clients.

Please Note, that I am also conducting a FREE 45-minute online individual consultation on your interior design and home decor needs and aspirations if you are in the Netherlands or even internationally. Drop me an email at anoop.jha@gmail.com 

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets 

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional 

************************************************

#megastructure #infrastructure #urbanmanagement #urbanplanning #smartcities #urbandesign #landscape #ecology #economy #heritage #tourism #municipality #Amsterdam #Utrecht #Rotterdam #Netherlands #EU #Europe #Asia

An organism called City!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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A narrative.

While cities can easily be misunderstood as an efficient functional object or synchronised complex machinery, they are certainly worth more than there physical dimensions and material attributes. Cities born out of necessity, forged by time and sustained by human endeavor yet intricate and unfathomable enough to be comprehended in totality and measured by mind. With time cities assume a personified, organic and withering quality. Ever growing, pulsating and engulfed in its own nostalgic scent, familiar white noise and mirage of visuals; qualities which make image of a city. True cities are made of metaphysical qualities rather than just physical attributes. One has to have a right vision not just right tools to make a city of essence!

Missing piece of energy puzzle!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Declaring a city or region as power surplus without meeting the actual thermal comfort needs of inhabitants may not be a correct estimate especially if the city or territory is experiencing distinct cycle of seasonal variations from severe cold to extreme heat and specially if per capita income in the region is low and especially if any country spans over multiple temperature zones from tropical to temperate. May be part of country's subregion needs ventilated homes and other part needs completely insulated homes, or may be the case that for part of the season residential homes require natural ventilation while in summer and winter central heating or cooling is required with completely insulated homes.

Just because through decades 24X7 residential thermal comfort was never considered a necessity in specific region, just because residents can't afford the luxury of centralised heating/ cooling infrastructure system of their home and associated energy bills, just because part of population do not have access to hot water for bath and kitchen in chilling winter and many not having access to cold drinking water in summer, just because majority of architects are not used to or trained for designing completely insulated residential housing or individual homes as required for central heating/ cooling it may be unfair to assume that they deserve to continue to live like this, shivering and sweating in uncomfort of their home.

It's logical point to ponder, that if a person requires & feels comfortable year-round in the centrally air-conditioned mall, office, public transport and private car while in same city in same season rather throughout the year, why he or she should not deserve similar thermal comfort in their home as well, in same city, in same season, rather throughout the year. Why some countries and cities falling in same temperature zone across the world have access to thermal comfort of central heating and cooling and continuous hot water tap but majority of population in other cities in same temperature zone are destined to live in thermal discomfort in the name of architectural tradition and sometimes inconsiderate and outdated bylaws. Certainly one or more or all of the above resons discussed above are accountable.

Urban planners, architects, environmentalists, economist & administrators need to take cognizance of this fact & situation for future habitation planning, design & during policy revisions.

Random exemplary questions are there like, who is accountable & what is the solution for mounting energy losses in cities & regions where window AC or split AC is being widely used for residential units, where ~100% residences having ~0% consideration for thermal insulation requirements. Is it that energy demand estimation and projection for cities and countries and world is rather wrong if we factor in justified need of thermal comfort of all citizens.

Author: Anoop Jha

climatechange, urbanplanning, architecture, urbanplanning, energy, B2B, energypositivedistrict, energypositive, energytransition, renewableenergy, energybills, climateagenda, smartcities, smartcity

PUBLIC TRANSPORT - Revisiting fundamentals

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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- There is no such thing as over creation of public transport infrastructure as where it is actually needed no amount of infrastructure is enough; still if you witness a ghost metro anywhere know that it's just bad planning.

- Know that not everyone rides a public transport out of choice or environmental awareness; for some there is no other choice

- Lack of last mile seamless, quality and safe connectivity to doorstep is single most deterrent towards use of public transport

-They might not disclose, but they should reach break-even much before projected time, and why not, as crowd keeps overwhelming the public transport system, pusing frequently the boundaries of design safety. Their perplexity, they can't show in their financial modeling sheet that design safety compromise of public transport system will be a frequent and regular phenomenon.

#publictransport #transportplanning #urbanplanning

Architecture as it has been and as it is today, is only capable to offer geometric solution to your organic needs, with exceptions!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Case of Residential Architecture.

Theoretically "Form follows function" Makes sense, but in actuality "Building/ unit Form" first follows budget, building bylaws, construction practice, construction technology, modular product specifications being used in building and interior and real estate trend; dependency of form on "Function" comes last, rather it's a vague idea i.e., considering each individual or collectively as a household having a specific spatial bubble requirement based on their height, size, no. of family members, type of work, hobby, habit, health condition, cultural preferences etc. Still, irrespective of whatever form and anthropometric spatial dimensions that suits you and your family collectively, you will still have to settle for whatever real estate developer has to offer, unless you are filthy rich, uness you are getting your home designed at a remote location beyond municipal jurisdiction, and unless your architect is actually sensitive and considerate for your known and latent needs, and unless he or she knows how to beat the bylaws while staying within statutory confinements.

Idea of correct typology, dimensions and hierarchy of architectural spaces in your home, is not your own, it has been imposed on you for other's convenience. Three fold challenges are seens in architectural practice i. e. one, most of the input criteria of architectural design is already pre-defined leaving little room for creativity and accommodating client specific needs, secondly most clients themselves are not aware about their own needs and they stick to their superficial requirements as architectural brief, lastly most architects seldomly play a role of client's counselor to understand their needs more comprehensively and deeply.

Author: Anoop Jha

#architecture #urbanplanning #architect #buildingbylaws #bylaws #municipal #design #cityplanning #smartcity #interiordesign 

Why to make smart cities?

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Thinking other way round, do we have choice not to make smart cities?

Thinking of all the inexhaustible technological breakthrough that is happening, the unimaginable pace of it and the ever-disruptive potential of technology; do we have purpose, choice or even capabilities to stop that?

Thinking of intellectual quest of minds, uncompromising force of commerce and vested business interests, that drives and support technological innovations, do we have intention, choice or even capacity to stop that?

Are there prolific examples in history, where forces of technological progress and commerce were challenged, disrupted or tamed, or weren’t they possibly the very latent or obvious force which throughout shaped the world in general and cities in specific?

So, as, innovations, backed by powerful businesses and capable investors are anyway going to exponentially continue, irrespective; then the question remains is that, where will they apply such novel concepts and emerging technology; the obvious prime choice in this case remains “cities”; cities of specific minimum threshold size, with optimum density and known economic stability, cities that provide ultimate testing ground for smart technology, a vast “living laboratory”!

Acknowledging the inevitability of proliferation of smart interventions in cities, even if in bits and pieces, even if in uncoordinated and scattered manners, that too without choice; it is apt and thoughtful to increasingly align our aptitude, our values and institutions to embrace such unstoppable changes, so that at least those technological efforts could be coordinated and channelised in a desired direction in any given urban environment, may be collectively labelling it "smart city".

If we already labelled them as smart city, that only shows awareness, proactiveness and receptiveness to this idea that smart city may not be a mere choice! 

Author: Anoop Jha

#smartcities #smartcity #future #startup #university #sustainability #business #commerce #history #amsterdam #rotterdam #delhi #india #netherlands #urbanplanning #urbandevelopment #urbanmanagement