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. 

New Urbanism is quite old

By- Anoop Jha

New Urbanism is the phenomenon of urban awareness and urban restructuring in the 1980s, originated in US and further replicated throughout the world. It was primarily based on holistic concepts of urbanism like Walkable neighborhoods, Landuse restructuring etc. etc.

It’s high time that architects, planners and urban designers should pause for a moment and question themselves that whatever work they are doing since quite some time, is it something new or is it just inertia of decades old “New Urbanism”? Is it “New Urbanism” which current urban era  demands or something else, something new, relevant and refreshing? Isn’t it that New urbanism is quite old a theory now, might be relevant only in few pockets of worlds? 

Urban Planning and Design has to reinvent itself from time to time. This whole idea of time span and speculating direction of urban growth is vague and misleading.  We should be little skeptical about guiding our future urban development plans based on quarter century old theories. 

What is the most important aspect of mall design?

Is it space and freedom to maneuver without feeling forced to buy?

Of course there are competition among mushrooming malls and multiplex across city, but there are some visible differences between some of the highest and lowest footfall malls. Ever wonderer why? Is it location, is it design, is it scale, is it publicity, or is it people themselves who make any mall successful? 



[Handpicked Books]





Why some malls fail to attract footfall in spite of all the hype and facilities. Possibly it’s the architectural language of mall which defines the success of it through its public or private nature. Malls are meant for public and its architectural language should speak out loud about its open and inviting character. The moment malls start assuming private nature people start losing interest. The moment it fortifies itself through built architecture in the race of achieving maximum commercial advantage and built up area, people hesitate even to enter the premises. People hate to be in a position where they feel forced to buy, even if there wallet is stuffed, or bank balance is soaring high. Consumers have to be attracted to the commercial centers passively, without being felt impose for something. Idea is to provide an environment where they feel comfortable enough to walk in and walk out without being forced to buy something, allow them this freedom to maneuver and they will come again and again, and subsequently buy something or other.  

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.     

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.

Thin line between development works, social service and exploitation

By - Anoop Jha

A case of tribal communities and regions

We need to question our own intention of doing right and doing good thing to others. May be what we think is right for someone or some community might not be that good for them as we assume.

Who is to decide what is good for whom? Is it the job of government? or maybe the Highbrow society? Or socially, politically and intellectually established individuals with their idiosyncratic ideology and philosophy having their own idea of utopian society? Is it the job of little advanced segment of society to decide what is good for not so advanced segment of society?


[Handpicked Books]

What could be the hidden intention behind doing good to others or some community or some region, which we call development work or at times social service?  Let’s take the example of tribal community and tribal region. Is it the shear innocent intention of sharing existing wealth and knowledge to unprivileged or unexplored segment of society or is it to exploit the untapped potential of the previously unexplored tribal region for our own advantage, is it a sincere effort to understand and document the needs and social pattern of these tribal communities or is it just to get commercial advantage by exposing these hidden communities to mainstream society, is it to help them learn utilize their own resources more efficiently or the hidden intention to exploit rich tangible and intangible tribal resources.  Is it to provide them better health, better opportunities and better lifestyle or is it  just shear gratification of doing social service.  Has that road been built to connect those hidden tribal communities to the mainstream society and to provide them new age opportunities and facilities or the intention is to extract the tribal wealth of region and exploit the heritage and culture value in form of tourism and all. 

Shy and conservative tribal communities throughout the world need very little for their living; they are an autonomous society in themselves.  They have been adapted to their environment in course of evolution and their local environment usually provides them all they need- food, shelter, social interaction, entertainment, spiritual satisfaction. Now there are few choices to make. One is to let this situation of apparent equilibrium of autonomous tribal community go ahead as usual and second to interfere and change the equilibrium either for their good or for own advantage which seems to be the case most of the time. This is a sensitive and tender issue has to be dealt with much thought and compassion. Social behaviors, norms and needs of tribal communities are mostly way different then the mainstream, so simply imposing the rules of mainstream society on the said communities might not do justice to them. For example the concept of formal education might be something totally alien to many tribal communities, so simply introducing the primary and secondary education system to those communities might not be a good idea just because we want everyone in the country to be literate, may be they simply don’t need a formal education, may be they need a different kind of skill orientated education, may be they need an education system totally different from mainstream society.  There are many such issues to address and subject of discussion.

Until they all arrive at a consensus, role of government in the mean time can be to protect the tribal communities and regions from external commercial invaders,  and provide them the health infrastructure with emergency facilities.