Life-cycle gap in architectural services being offered!

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

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A typical house requires to go through not just periodic renovation but also series of remodeling across it's life cycle as a function of household's life events, lifestyle changes and life adjustment requirements. Home remodeling prompted by changes including but not limited to arrival of kids in life, children going to school, children getting married, parents getting old, realisation of yourself getting old and so on. These changes though obvious and imperative but neither being acknowledged nor getting addressed by architects and one time architectural services being offered, while home owners are left on their own to do the required readjustments to house, think of space planning and redefining space usage.

It's worthwhile that architecture fraternity give a serious thought to this challenge and gap that exists in rendering architectural services. Whether one time architectural service being offered can factor in all above requirements or whether architects can handhold their clients for lifetime or something else.

Author: Anoop Jha

#Architect #architecture #design #building #realestate #urbandesign #urbanplanning #townplanning #city #smartcity #future #profession #corporate #business

Skewed and limited perception of project essentials, budget, timeline and professional fees in developing countries!

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The notion of urban development and architecture in a developing country is more or less, civic amenities, public facilities, parks, road, paving, brick and mortar etc and 3D simulation to either publicise welfare achievements or to lure investors. We see in both public and private domain one such project after another lined up, debated, recognised, argued, praised, awarded or dropped and trashed.

While most of such projects get executed anyways even in developing countries and cities, but most of these projects certainly, sometimes purposefully miss one or several or most of following fundamental elements of urban planning and architectural practice which are part and parcel to developed country's usual planning and design practice, including Heat island effect analysis, Shadow analysis, Wind tunnel test, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation, shading analysis, traffic noise simulation, sustainable city/ neighborhood development practice, Low Impact Development (LID) planning, waste heat recovery, building heat load simulation, green building design, solar passive design, and many more.

It's difficult to understand the root cause of same, whether it is lack of knowledge and awareness at city administration and client level or lack of capital or unavailability of technology or lack of technology know how or inertia of decades of mediocre planning or simply ignorance or reluctance to growth. Whatever be the reason it's high time that city administrations, planning professionals and architects increasingly adopt to good essential planning and design practices, advise clients to consider these and projects must allocate additional budget to integrate these while consultants, consulting firms and advisory firms must be paid judiciously to integrate and adopt to above mentioned necessary measures. Accordingly project timelines should also be increased to make room for adopting such good practices.

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbanplanning #architecture #sustainability #simulation #smartcity #design #townplanning #development #projects #technology #consulting #municipal

Historic shift in city planning approach!

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When cities first started getting planned, it was more of a mechanical, analog and hardware approach, i.e. provision of basic minimum urban palpable elements driven by understanding of functional, social and cultural requirements of specific time period in history, configured in either abstract to subtle to articulate manner. City planning outward appeal, urban fabric and urban growth pattern kept getting readjusted as per need of changing time including industrialization, high speed mobility, migration, environmental awareness etc. but the approach of urban planning more or less remained same as always in spite of all the buzz, talk and interpretation by intelligentsia labeling same as new age of urban planning.

Historically only two major, distinct and realistic but mostly invisible shift in planning approach were felt in true sense; one when country administration changed from monarchy to democracy in multiple parts of world and the other when city planning approach shifted from analog to digital - where former shift in approach prompted a whole new set of governance redefining context, perception and necessity of urban planning while impact of later approach is yet to realise it's full potential.

#urbanplanning #townplanning #smartcity #urbandesign #iot #ict #digitaltwin #digital #urban #cityplanning #publictransport

Solving the Age-old Dilemma!

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World has to come to terms with the fact that the panacea to collective misery of missed car pool, missed bus, missed train, missed flight, missed attendance, missed opportunity, missed deadlines and lingering sense of alienation on a remote ground is to always stay connected (on demand) to your collective personal, professional and support ecosystem made of family, friends, peers, financial/medical/ legal/ spiritual advisor, mentor, payment gateway, connected home and so on, through plethora of choices and virtual communication modes like text, audio, video, augmented reality, holographic twin and soon through immersive metaverse.

While there is no substitute to being somewhere in person, still its quite an archaic mindset and primitive notion in this unparalleled technological age, realm and time of history, that if someone is unable be at a designated place in any part of world at a scheduled time for any reason all their opportunities should be systematically ceased and declare them offenders. Instead if world moves to an always connected mode in times to come it opens up a world of unimaginable possibilities!

Author: Anoop Jha

#iot #tech #technology #urbanplanning #city #town #smartcity #connectedhomes #ar #vr #metaverse #transport #transportplanning #mobility #history #future #alterego #hologram 

Democratizing the process of urban planning - crowdsourcing of ideas!

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

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"Too many cooks spoil the Soup" May not be the right connotation when it comes to urban planning, we require as many minds and diversified experiences as possible to do the justice to a city which is either yet to be planned or being redeveloped. Community participation and early brainstorming is the key to a successful city planning, like secret ingredient of an exceptional recipe! 

In terms of community participation the focus should be scale, hetroginity and intensity of citizen engagement in planning process. In terms of early brainstorming, all concerned citizens - "considering every citizens is a stakeholder and a client" - can be given opportunity to participate in urban planning process, that too very early when the plan is still in nebulous state, not only after draft masterplan is ready. Also, urban planning process should either come out of planning studio amidst community or planning studio should open it's door to welcome community and individual user level ideas.

For example, thinking of people who could not contribute or has limited say in urban planning process till date except some advanced countries, but they do have specific expectations from their city like all the workforce who are involved in navigation (drivers), delivery (courier and food delivery guys) they can contribute in re-strategising ease of navigation and legibility of city; those in healthcare (doctors, first responders) they can help define/ redefine emergency response routes and ease of healthcare access in terms of landuse structuring and PSP facility locations; those in safety and security (police, traffic police) can help in vulnerability and black spot mapping of city and forming corresponding spatial security and surveillance requirements; those in F&B industry (mall owners, retail, restaurant owner, cook, food vendors) can help redefine new age of intensive urban cultivation, shortening farm-to-plate food supply chain, and propose innovative ways of urban organic agriculture for self-reliance and food security; those in science (mathematicians) can help streamline city traffic by running complex mathematical models and deep algorithms; those in creative fields ( artists, designers) can help reboot, reactivate and conserve cultural and artistic heritage of a brownfield city or can lay the foundation of a new vibrant culture for a greenfield city, and so on; all above inputs to be curtated by urban planning professionals.

Additionally, there is need to make use of unfathomable descrete or curated data that already historically exists around specific city and embodiment of empirical data that exists around the world wrt city planning affair in general.

Author: Anoop Jha

#urban #urbanplanning #city #townplanning #syatemthinking #utopia #smartcity #governance #idea #crowdsourcing #architecture #streets #publictransport #bicycle #transportplanning #sustainability #foodsecurity

A-B-C of Design Project Management!

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[Keywords - Urban Planning, Architecture, Engineering Design, Infrastructure Planning]

[A] - Aspiration gives the purpose to a project, do not let it diminish over time.

[B] - Budget is the governing factor, do not consider it as limitation; you have to innovate to incorporate many things, still fitting it into budget

[C] - Clients speak volumes, but they can be good listener as well. Clients show flexibility if advised for betterment of project.

[D] - Design is the core success factor. Spend more time to design it right in first go, allocate substantial brainstorming time into workplan of design project.

[E] - Estimation of all kinds helps avoid surprises

[F] - Follow up on crucial matters

[G] - Gather the best team who are animated with same spirit

[H] - Highlight exclusions and dependencies early

[ I ] - Identify project risk and mitigation measures

[J] - Judgement has a key role to play. Analysis gives you insight but tough and final decisions are based on judgement.

[K] - knowledge has no substitute, but no amount of knowledge is enough, every design project is a learning experience

[L] - Leverage organisational experience, possibly your firm was hired for the job due to it's experience only

[M] - Monitoring is essential for project, monitor and record every aspect

[N] - Negotiations are the integral part of process

[O] - Organised effort is required to run a design project with multidisciplinary team, budget and time constraints

[P] - Performance of work and resources must be measured throughout project life cycle

[Q] - Quality is paramount in terms of design, communication and output

[R] - Resources has to be optimised and is often the most crucial, challenging and thrilling part of the project management

[S] - Stakeholder's need to be met and know that there can be more stakeholders than the obvious

[T] - Technology contributes to success; best is class tech, software and tools are empowering

[U] - Uncertainties has to be factored in, know that you can't foresee everything on day one, exceptional circumstances arises and need to be dealt with

[V] - Vision and credo is the guiding force, stick to same

[W] - Work Plan is to be honoured, it's not as easy as it sounds but there are ways to adhere to same like creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), innovation, resourcefulness, project tracking etc.

[X] - X-REF all design work, adopt a system of

cross-referencing, benchmarking and standardization

[Y] - Yearning for excellence is what differentiates you from others

[Z] - Zero Waste Design to be encouraged. It's no more a luxury but necessity in today's world.

Author: Anoop Jha

#projectmanagement #workplan #Consultancy #designprojectmanagement #design #infrastructure #engineering #consultingengineering #construction #qualitymap #p6 #budget #urbanplanning #projectmanager #multidisciplinary #teamwork 

Predicting future Art Style based on analysis of historic shift and trend in art world!.

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WORLD FINE ART -

Dominant Theme:-[Expression]

Driving Force:-(Urge to create and capture, inner fulfilment, fame)

Dimention:-(All thing visual and perceptual, any workable media, any expressive mode, any style)

Influenced:-(Reflected contemporary thoughts, mimicking social situation, inner battle, contagious)

Past:-{Revolutionary in a specific sphere, predictable, glorified, threatened twice firstly by photography and secondly by digital media, Plagiarized}

Future:-<Digital, NFT, immersive>

WORLD ART STYLE SHIFT -

Dominant Theme:-[Communicate Message]

Driving Force:-(Drawing Inspiration from contemporary subjects, Banality of existing styles, thrill of presenting something new, search of unknown, advancement in art media tech)

Dimention:-(Cross continental, achieving Immortalisation through digitization)

Influenced:-(Messages continued to be of relevance in spite of changing times, giving historic insight of time)

Past:-{Expression became more important that medium, art style boundaries merged}

Future:-<New tech mediums and dimensions will provide unparalleled way of expressions and radical shift in style>

INDIAN FINE ART-

Dominant Theme:-[Building unified art expression considering rich history and in spite of cultural diversity]

Driving Force:-(Projecting Image of India)

Dimention:-(Digging deeper into traditional roots, ruling kingdoms, mythology, ritual, spirituality and looking inward to explore new creative freedom still in oriental conservatism)

Influenced:-(Inseparable from history, shaped culture, represented range of contradiction from glorious history to oppression to taste of freedom to hopeful future)

Past:-{Essentially oriental and in continued search of identity while absorbing parallel world art influences}

Future:-<Found its niche, selected individuals tasted commercial success, new world of opportunity on horizon, yet to find stable ground in world art and require correct valuation>

INDIAN ART STYLE SHIFT -

Dominant Theme:-[Characterized by constant battle of tradition and freedom]

Driving Force:-(confidence of tradition, Taste of commercial success, tribe of youth with new age values)

Dimention:-(Permeated to all possible spatial dimensions, virtual world)

Influenced:-(Rebooted art and craft tradition, brought art into mainstream)

Past:-{Taste of commercial success validated contemporary take on oriental, tribe of experimentative youth artists reinforced rich vernacular expression, ease and real time access to world art, literature and events constantly shaped the art style to match with world's stylistic expectations}

Future:-<Poised to achieve a unified and mature signature expression representative of Indian cultural tradition, values, and motifs, future technology is bound to reshape yet to mature Indian art style, expression & Market>

Author: Anoop Jha

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

Success or failure of Urban Street Design is based on how you perceive it and what approach you follow!

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

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-Conventional approach of designing of urban road/ urban street is based all around physical "Space provision" i.e. minimum/ optimum Right of Way (ROW) required for vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian earlier a) based on Guidelines b) now based on traffic demand modeling; through these approach one can solve functionality but it still cannot assure to cater to diverse needs of urban street users

-Conventional approach gives a lot of focus on physical safety, but ultimate objective is not just to provide everyone safe passage and commute but its equally important more than ever that road/street users should not feel anxiousness, intimidated and bullied everytime they are on road/ street.

-Streets must be perceived as a conduit which is supposed to carry entities with different built, needs, capabilities, moving at a different pace, for different purposes, with different levels of demands, expectations and engagement as well as varying degree of impact and vulnerability.

-It's all in the name, damage starts from the moment you start designing it as urban roads instead of urban streets- Roads are for Vehicles, Streets are for "People First"

#transportplanning #urbanplanning #road #street #designcode #transport

PUBLIC TRANSPORT - Revisiting fundamentals

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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

CITY SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

 

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

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(Need for clear long-term Vision and policy restructuring)

-Those who are factory producing and mass packaging have no plan, linkage or obligation towards ultimate waste handling and minimization.

-Waste minimization and recycling linked Tax saving incentives at all levels from goods producer to consumer to waste generators can see radical reduction in ultimate waste

-In a Dystopian future scenario city gets consumed in its own waste

-In a Utopian future civilisation scenario, humans have to be out of waste handling, segregation, recycling and landfill process!

#wastemanagement #future #landfill #urbanplanning #waste #solidwaste #municipalsolidwaste #msw #commerce #industry

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 

WATER SUPPLY - Revisiting demand estimation approach

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Flat assumption of Litre Per Capita Per Day (LPCD) water requirement as basis for residential water demand is most likely to give wrong estimate, error compounded by a)Fixed average household size considered b) multiple available choices for base year population like census, property tax records, existing municipal billing records c) randomised selection of population growth rate formula d) no consideration of water saving fixtures and appliances in the equation, e) no consideration of regional lifestyle peculiarity f) no consideration of water demand fluctuation over seasonal weather change cycle g) no consideration for emerging lifestyle changes

You will see why they pay little attention to such fundamental assumptions with this example. Have they revised per capita water requirement after covid Pandemic, hence the revised water demand at city level? Answer is "No", while no one failed to recommend that keep washing your hands frequently for instance. Imagine millions and millions of people suddenly started washing hands several times a day as a newly adopted lifestyle changes, some taking shower everytime they returned home from outside, but no thought given to accommodate likely changes in per capita water consumption due to same.

Further, are they going to revise Litre Per Capita Per Day number based on new lifestyle changes post Covid19 as citizens are likely to continue practicing good hygiene in future, adding more pressure on water demand. Likely answer is "No", but correct answer is that "they must revisit" LPCD number, including all other missed criteria as mentioned above.

Multi-criteria demand assessment and Agility are key to stay relevant when it comes to urban infrastructure planning.

Author: Anoop Jha

#watersupply #waterinfrastructure #infrastructure #demand #supply #estimation #smartcity #urbanplanning #cityplanning #townplanning #savewater #waterresource #wtp #municipality #municipalcorporation #ulb 

CITY STORM WATER DRAINAGE SYSTEM -Revisiting fundamentals

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SITUATION

No matter how well you plan Storm Water Drainage System, it often fails as it has so many missed variables, scores of design and operational dependencies, aging infrastructure and multitude of agencies to put blame on, later on.

TREND

Storm water and Urban Flood used to be two different things, but their boundaries have started to get blurred, as rainfall events are getting more unpredictable and severe due to climate change and as normal rainfall events have frequently started causing sticky urban floods that is not easily dissipated.

POSSIBLE MEANS TO DEAL WITH SITUATION

There are only couple of ways you can deal with storm water inundation and urban flood events, i.e. either move the city elsewhere OR tame the nature through uphill dams and artificial mega wetlands at outskirts OR brace the city with flood barriers OR capture and store part of runoff water allowing as much water to percolate if water table permits OR make way for water and allow storm water and floods to pass through city while assuring minimum impact and damage.

CHALLENGES

Temporal rainfall data of whatever time period used in modeling is primarily historic data, there is no consideration for future rainfall event modeling considering climate change, increasingly aggressive weather events being witnessed every passing year.

Historic Flood data doesn't consider cause and effect of flood due to slow or sometimes radical temporal change in built form and landscape of city.

Expanding cities, increasing paved areas, shrinking greens and disappearing urban waterbodies are changing the overall runoff coefficient of city converting normal rainfall event into disastrous situations and unmanaged events.

OPTIMAL SOLUTION

Instead or in addition to regular storm water network if you plan or redevelop your city as well as design buildings to allow periodic Inundation and water retention and absorption, that will be less destructive and less overwhelming then flash floods due to heavy downpour and in case of actual flood events.

It's important to keep reiterating that Multicriteria based assessment, design and scenario modeling is of utmost importance for planning any urban core infrastructure, be it SWD, SWM, Water Supply or Power Distribution.

#urbanplanning #smartcity #stormwatermanagement #sustainability #future #water #flood #swale #LID #zerowaste #urban #cityplanning #townplnaning #municipality #municipalcorporation

Possibly solution to city's space and resource scarcity is within city limits itself!

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

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POPULATION AND DENSITY

How many people can peacefully and respectfully coexist within one Square Kilometer of a city without compromising on functionality and respectable individual social space. You have empirical examples and you can also make a simulation model of maximum density case scenario including residential, working and transitory population. Acknowledging that population density is never a correct indicator of quality of life. Acknowledging that 2 dimensional approach of population density should be revisited to include 3rd dimension as more and more people are being accommodated vertically, and as more and more utilities, mobility, asset, cargo can be accommodated underground in coming times.

CONSTRUCTION

How much Built Up Area (BUA) a City can technically hold within one Sqkm, given the limitation of existing construction technology, available sustainable material of choice and considering requirements of structural stability. You can build and test scenarios and models based on type of landuse including mixeduse case and you can also make digital twin/ BIM/vGIS model to check if model is workable as habitable. Acknowledging that Hong kong style housing was never an ideal architectural concept of creating more built-up area in a city and it was only a technological and financial constraint. Rather imagine constructing a Cubic Km of monolith Real Estate including private and public space like a perforated Swiss Cheese in form of space frame as a maximum BUA case scenarios.

BIODIVERSITY

How much Biotic Diversity in terms of native regional flora, fauna and wild meadows can be accommodated in a Cubic km of City along with humans without overwhelming, compromising or competing for space and other resources considering their growh rate. Acknowledging that way too much of biodiversity in a city was never a good idea, like some exotic species leading to biodiversity nuisance and like beehive on every corporate office and public buildings leading to severe pollination issues.

SUSTAINABILITY AND SELF-RELIANCE

How much self sustainability a Cubic km of city can achieve in terms of it's own

1) Food security,

2) Energy needs

3) Waste load management and

4) Water security, through range of means-

1.a) Urban agricultural, edible landscape, Food forest, community seed bank, school seed bank, vertical farm, rooftop greenhouse, bush food experience, kitchen garden, aquaponic, hydroponics, aeroponic, doomsday vault, extended shelf life solutions-

2.b) Energy education, energy aware lifestyle, energy conservation by design, interventions and appliances, energy load management, IoT and edge devices, building energy load management through solar passive architecture, building insulation/ ventilation, harvesting and storing energy from sun, wind, algae, river, stream, canal, organic waste; biofuels, heat recovery from process and thermal storage, Air Source Heat Pump/ ASHP, open window detection, micro turbine-

3.c) Waste reduction, circular waste economy, recycling, reuse, upcycle, repurpose, near zero construction waste,

4.d) Water conservation, treated sewage effluent, waste water treatment, IOT Sensors, water saving appliances, precision agriculture, mist irrigation, water from air condensation, extracting drinking water from air and others, flood water harvesting, storm water retention basin, cloud seeding,.

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbanplanning #cityplanning #townplanning #sustainability 

Burden and footprint of Packaging; a fair share of it can be avoided!

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

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Ready to consume edible products packed and collected or delivered to doorstep (burger for instance) still leaving substantial and growing inorganic packaging residual for good, as more and more people placing order online.

Edible products with little shelf life (Juice for instance) consumed or expired soon leaving it's packaging footprint mostly local but forever or for too long. Consumers must be informed that such products don't suddenly gets expired one fine day, give them the range and chart stating how consistency and taste may get compromised over time still in consumable range, also tell them how to increase shelf life.

Non-edible products coming with shelf life and consumed in numbers ( Shampoo for instance), have regional, sometimes national packaging waste footprint. Mostly delivered across regions by e-commerce websites.

Non perishable products having only expiry date wrt trend (shoes for instance) and consumed in bulk witnesses global packaging waste footprint.

Then there are another kind of packaging waste burden i. e. where individual or collective packaging weight and/or volume is rather more or many fold of product/s inside, and having huge market. (Gift hampers, festive gifts etc. for instance). In this category higher you go up towards luxury segment more wastage is witnessed.

Bulk packaging is being excluded from the discussion as they have relatively organised supply-collection chain and higher recycling percentage.

Author:Anoop Jha

#waste #urbanplanning #packagingwaste #landfill #recycling #swm #municipal #msw

Cities within city!

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These metropolitan cities are so big that many inhabitants spend their entire life without the need of visiting few other parts of city for any purpose be it business, socialising or recreation, and when they do visit that other part of same city for the first time, it's sometimes not less than a shocking experience, pleasant or otherwise - experiencing drastic change in built-up scale, a very distinct manifestation of architectural style, a juxtapose density, visible economic stratification, attitudinal and behavioural changes are observed, obvious difference in level of upkeep, city beautification and public services, varying degree of management witnessed, sometimes changes witnesses in regulatory enforcement, citizen compliance and level of citizen engagement; difference in lifestyle, life choices and opportunity landscape is worth noticing as well.

Several forces are at play here making different part of city very different in appeal and experience, like - chronology of development, different developmental vision for different city zones in an effort to create specialised nodes, different economic activity and status.

Silver-lining; Heterogeneity and diversity in a large metropolitan city was never an outdated idea, additionally possibility of intracity excursion and tourism is there. Learning opportunity from each other is also there. A city with multitude of experience is always welcoming anyways.

In all likelihood it can be safely assumed that there is critical mass in terms of a chunk of city with a cluster of habitation and segment of economy which makes it autonomous in many senses, making it a small city within a larger metropolitan, and metropolitan city can be perceived as agglomeration of several such smaller cities, of course huddled together with a symbiotic relationship.

Author:Anoop Jha

#urbanplanning #cityplanning #townplanning #habitat #urban #smartcity #cluster #neighborhood

Notion of good and bad Urban Streets -

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Notion of good and bad Urban Streets -sometimes it's mote than skill or fault of urban planners, urban designers, transport planners, road engineers and landscape architects! 

Broadly, there are only limited known ways a street can be designed from junction to junction, there are only finite ways street facade can be articulated and modelled. (Possibly 80% of street design work machine can do on its own, by running algorithm in near future) 

Then, what is the differentiator between a good and a bad urban Street design and quality of street experience? 

Some variables-

Outcome of Transport modelling

Quality of Development Control Regulations 

Compactness of neighborhood

Permissible adjacent Landuse 

Permissible Floor Area Ratio (FAR) 

Economic status of Neighborhood

Generosity of Landscape elements

Quality and thoughtfulness of Street furniture

Age of city neighborhood

Attractiveness of neighborhood

Locational context of street

Image and significance of city

You can see there more than 50% of variables from above list which are not in control of planners and designers; variables that influences and sometimes decides the ultimate outcome of urban street design exercise, and shapes the notion of street quality and experience. 

Author: Anoop Jha

 #transportplanning #urbanplanning #landscapearchitect #urbandesigner #urbandesign

 #design #transport #smartcity #municipality #municipalcorporation

Revisit existing scale and base assumptions to fix your city!

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

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WHAT ARE SOME KEY BASE STATISTICAL ASSUMPTIONS TAKEN TILL NOW FOR CITY PLANNING

City commuters:-

A number for algorithm and modelling

Walkability:-

A distance travelled by a healthy individual

Household:-

A demographic number as per census

WHAT IS TO BE CONSIDERED AS BASE ASSUMPTIONS FOR BETTER CITY PLANNING

Typical city commuter profile: -

A mix of individuals with different abilities, different travel needs, different travel purposes, different expectations

Typical walkable distance:-

A comfortable distance to be covered by individuals without the need of vehicle, by individuals with different abilities, at different pace with different ease or difficulty.

Typical household:- 

A family of varying size, with varying needs, varying abilities and health conditions, various liabilities, various expectations

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE ONGOING APPROACH? 

City commuters, households, walkable distance all are reduced to mere numbers for the purpose of planning and projections, while they are dynamic or complex entities. Hence, development plans with conventional numeric approach are easily solved on paper and looks promising in its proposal, but many a times cities in reality are found in mess.

WHY SHIFT IN APPROACH IS REQUIRED?

Few examples-

Recognition of many missed public transport trips by old age people, children, pregnent women who are there in footfall projection sheet but many actually either avoid public transport or postpone trips, given a choice.

500 odd meters of walkable distance that planners often mark on master plan to show how much pedestrian friendly city is or will be, they fail to consider that this 500meter distance is while an easy target for a healthy adult individual but this same distance means different things to children, senior citizens, people with different abilities and special needs, pregnant women, blind, wheelchair bound individual.

In many cases actual household status is very different than abstract idea of household considered in city planning, actual households come with unimaginable complexity and diversity in terms of basic needs, financial and debt status, resource consumption footprint, societal and economic impact. Imagine the complexity of needs and aspirations in terms of complete city population. 

TAKEAWAY

Diversity of citizen needs is no more an exception or luxury, it's prolific, and must be considered this way only in terms of planning.

There is no singular spatial definition in terms of city planning, distance means different things to different people.

Individual and Household is embodiment of exceptions, they are not just numbers.

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbnaplanning #census #transportplanning #urbandesign, 

Legibility of City by design not by labels!

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

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A case of many cities in developing countries and beyond.

Sense of getting lost and directionless in your own city can be a scary experience! More frequent is the phenomenon associated with planned cities compared to those towns and settlements which have evolved organically. Reason being several planned cities tend to get overwhelmingly repetitive in its modular spatial forms, sometimes making it unnerving during commute, while organically evolved cities usually boast multitude of visual cues and anchors to build a memorable streetscape.

Feeling disoriented or experiencing a sense of Déjà vu in a city is so common that people may repeatedly be unsure about correctness of path taken or exit chosen or flyover crossed on a daily basis on a routine path, as familiar as home-work-home.

Feeling of trapped in a maze is quite obvious and frequent a phenomenon in large residential neighbourhoods when it's sometimes difficult to orient yourself and finding an exit route seems a Herculean task, compounded by encountering random access gate closure.

It may take weeks or even months to actually being able to memorise or to get familiar with even frequented route, and then it's easy to forget again. It is clear that Legibility by labels or signage on its own and in all of it's collective forms, types and glory is certainly not being able to make a city legible in one go even for its regular citizens not to speak of visitors of city.

You cannot entirely rely on signage for navigation in a city, signage which are sometimes broken, sometimes vandalised, sometimes wrongly placed, sometimes unreadable by design, sometimes hidden from sight due to tree and plant foliage, sometimes owing to bad or no illumination. There are still only limited segment of citizens who actually or frequently are comfortable with or using or relying on GPS navigation maps and apps, and they who use such tools also encounter challenges like network connectivity, distracted driving.

Also acknowledging that a commuter driving a vehicle and continuously looking for signage and clues for direction is a potential threat on road due to lack of focus.

A careful attention and planning in terms of landscape variation and vegetation arrangement, landscape and urban design elements, lighting arrangements, architectural theme and design, facade articulation and zoning regulations, structural innovation etc. in combination with time tested and some better signage may possibly be the solution and attempt towards better legibility of a city!

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbanplanning #urbandesign #smartcity #landscape #municipality #municipalcorporation #neighbourhood #transportplanning

Solution of urban space constraints may possibly lie within existing spaces itself.

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

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Part of the solution of urban space constraint lies in the shared use of space, infrastructure, amenities and real estate inventory. Problem that is apparently caused by selective temporal and diurnal use of indoor and outdoor spaces and associated opportunity cost of space, and solution that possibly lies in multifunctional use of space.

Decades of inertia in terms of concept of space based on segregation of function, activities and power hierarchy, makes it rather challenging to have a broader discussion on such subject. Only some emerging shared real estate space concepts are being realised here and there.

Starting with space module of residential unit, where there is no universally agreeable standard floor space threshold between the wide range of low income housing to multimillionaire mansions, and if we focus primarily on quality of residential experience instead of floor space area, it is evident that living experience of a compact star category hotel room, possibly having one fourth or one third of typical residential unit floor space area, might be considered far better than average residential unit. (To calibrate, you may think of last time you went on vacation and booked hotel). Which theoretically implies two things, one, that if hotel chains for instance could design and manage residential housing across city, they may offer better living experience in less floor space of residential unit and saved real estate space means better quality of living experience in same or less price; second that they can come up with interoperable residential arrangement and contract, that means while you are away working, travelling or on vacation, someone else can use that space, something in line of timeshare and shared living, but at mass scale, by creating and repurposing residential inventory.

Similarly interoperability of other land use functions can be devised like offices, malls and retail spaces which remains unused for two third to one third of the day. Something like creating or repurposing land use and built-up area for shared working and shared commercial purpose.

Likewise there is immense possibility of multi-functionality in city in terms of shared infrastructure, shared amenities and facilities, which can still also make social, environmental and commercial sense.

We need to slowly move towards thinking of 24x7x365 usage of entire land use categories, making most of every square feet of precious real estate and outdoor spaces in city. This may mean regulatory changes, a new architectural and urban planning approach, real estate business model innovation, lifestyle and societal changes.

Author: Anoop Jha

#realestate #architecture #hotel #circulareconomy #timeshare #coliving #coworking #architecture #smartcity #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #Delft #Denbosch #Alkmaar #Noordholland #Northholland #Tilburg #Eindhoven #Rotterdam #Netherlands

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

What it would mean to live in a Smart City 2035, for instance?

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

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Thinking of a future time when basic efficiency has already been achieved through several rounds of smart interventions.   

So, what comes to mind, when one thinks of living in a true smart city on a future time, is possibly the ease, efficiency, on-demand, quality life, that is there for inhabitants; while for institutions of all kinds, both public and private, it may mean better information, management and rate of return. 

Will it be more flat or more hierarchical? Top down or bottom-up? Uniform or asymmetric? Need to deliberate more on “what would be?” Vs “what should be?”

Are there any trade-offs? Possibly yes, as it may have to do with “choices” Vs “(new) obligations”, “ease” Vs “dependency”, “security” Vs “infringement”, “carefree” Vs “competency”, “fragile” vs “fittest”; where each trade-off requires deep inspection, logical adjustment and subtle handling.   

Thinking of belongingness; does that mean “those inside the smart city” Vs “those outside”, “those deserving to be inside” Vs “those better left outside”? Further to brainstorm, how do we assure its equitable and widely acceptable. 

Will it reinstate the concept and need of city boundary, may be virtual geofencing, like a regression in time; boundary which took past several decades to get blurred on the contrary. 

Subject like this which touches so many lives including several facets of life, requires a visionary introspection, lengthy collaborative thinking and sympathetic approach; a true smart city cannot simply be achieved through big data, disruptive technology and linear institutional thinking. 

There seems to be a lot of room for debate, before we conclude on idea of smart city.  

Author: Anoop Jha

#smartcity  #urbanmanagement #urbanplanning #systemthinking #institution #smartsolutions #futuretech #design #future #technology #equility #sustainability #resilience #Rotterdam #bigdata #community #Netherlands #India #Delhi #iot #AI #5G #sensorfusion #connectedinfrastructure #autonomus #machinelearning

Cities as overlapping layers of supply chain networks.

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

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Cities can be looked at as an overlapping layers of supply chain networks where city function is characterised by transfer and exchange of resources and commodities sometimes physical and sometimes virtual. Where physical supply chain network comprises of resource and commodity distribution namely supply of distributed labour to centres of production (work place) as well as from food supply chain to e-commerce delivery network, to retail supply chain to hierarchy of logistics distribution. Virtual supply chain network may be understood as communication supply chain where information is being transferred and exchanged as knowledge commodity through a complex network of embedded channels like social, professional and educational media. Hybrid nature of network is also witnessed like in form of print media, which still essentially deals with transfer and communication of knowledge, again a commodity.

 

That being said, there is immense untapped potential of these network of supply chain which can be harnessed in a city or region, in a business as usual scenario (though some innovative use of such network is witnessed in times of crisis). Two clear advantages are there, first if each of these network could do some improvement in its existing network configuration, making network suitable for repurpose to serve additional objectives without much expenditure. Second, if these networks (like a conduit) could leverage each others network strength in some part of its supply chain, it may immediately yield in optimisation, and better rate of return for businesses.

To leave with some thoughts, in a hypothetical scenario, WHETHER, businesses of similar nature and trade, widely distributed in a metropolis (with their individual labour supply network) will collaborate, brainstorm and swap/ exchange with each other, some of their employees who commute from a very long distance every work day, with those employees (with comparable qualification) who live in neighbourhood of these businesses; in a way that both set of employees swapped get to live and work in its original neighbourhood. It may be a win-win situation for both businesses and individuals.

Likewise for instance global aid networks (like those dealing in emergency food and nutrition), who have reach to remotest parts of world, can use their existing distribution network to support and exchange other noble global causes by joining hands - like supply of frugal innovation test kits, knowledge and awareness OR documentation of native cultural traditions and craft OR linking native art and craft to global market using its existing food supply network for instance.

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbanmanagement #urbanplanning #supplychain #network #smartcity #sustainability #resilience #future #innovation

What with (typical) agenda of bicycle, why it captures popular imagination and what is the missing piece of puzzle!

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

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Why people support and promote bicycle agenda? Some support considering it is environmentally sustainable, promotes healthy life and community; some, reconsidering their values, choices and transportation means due to new enlightenment on subject, emerging from social, professional and commercial media. Social media in a sense that captures bicycle in all its action and glory all the time; professional media in a sense every alternate post talking about subject of new mobility beyond fossil fuel; and commercial media in a sense those promoted by scores of new businesses emerging almost everyday around idea of bicycle, bicycle infrastructure, MaaS etc. 

A lot is happening in this space of bicycle, micromobility and at its periphery, as its still easier for an individual or a group of people to think of building a business around the subject of bicycle,  e-bicycle, e-scooters etc. So we see lot of buzz and momentum around the bicycle agenda.

Why even some of those people support bicycle agenda even if they don’t own a bicycle. Possibly they relate more bicycles with safer streets, so good for them irrespective.

There are those who own car but still support bicycle agenda, either they use less car and more bicycle and public transport OR simply to go with the popular opinion OR to distinguish themselves from other (bad?) car owners, considering themselves good car owners. This including cars of all shape, size and fuel types.

Then from a panoramic world view-

There are those who support and want to use bicycle but they don’t have access to bicycle tracks and bicycle infrastructure in their city. (They are many)

There are those individuals and dual income household who / at least one of them cannot bicycle to work due to long distance of work place. (They are many too)

Lets just not talk about role of weather here, as there are always both examples to quote.

There are those individuals and those households who can't even afford  the bicycle, whether for individual or for whole family. (There are way to many)

Lets also not forget those, who cannot manage without car, or cannot manage only with bicycle, considering the kind of personal, household or professional situation they are in. (Health, ability, old dependent members, household members with special needs etc.) (There are still many)

So, contrary to the popular notion, bicycle agenda is a complex subject, its not always about either “for” or “against” if you assess subject at global level, going beyond city and neighbourhood. Typical bicycle agenda has certainly lot to do with reducing dependency on fossil fuel, health and safer streets, but researchers, planners and policy makers must consider that individual, household and community choices are not always obvious or easy.

#bicycle #bike
[Views and observations are personal]

Author: Anoop Jha

How to inculcate transparent practices in planning and product development.

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

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We see packaged food products with a label on the back displaying what constituents, what proportions, of how much calories, what all vitamins and minerals, also sometimes seen, how ethically raw materials were sourced and from which regions, how sustainably product was made; and we start to see consumers making and mending their choices accordingly, and in turn businesses starting to revisit and reinvent their product line to match up with the emerging expectations of new age customers, those who are increasingly aware of the impact that their purchase choices are going to make on world, on environment and on generations to come. 

May be, its time that “buildings”, (may be by choice of developers and with help of architects or by statutory provision), start displaying their constituents, rationale of material choices, ethical sourcing of material, direct and indirect jobs created during construction and afterwards, mechanism planned and adopted to assure fair treatment and due payments to labour involved, building’s embodied energy in total and per household or per occupant, projected operational energy usage per household, building's carbon offsetting programme and period (if at all); in turn allowing investors and buyers to make reasonable and responsible real estate decisions; that may also prompt occupants to make further responsible operational choices and adjustments in their lifestyle, on realising their material footprints, on visualising their energy consumption and more. 

Its not about putting someone in difficult spot but about keeping pace with time, being more and more aware and responsible, possibly to drive change away from decades of inertia. 

Author: Anoop Jha

Knowing what you are dealing with is the first step of planning –A typical case of island research and development

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

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A typical island, having a strong contained geographic and resource connotation, with a peculiarity of inside-outside, what is there and what in not, been there or not, whether to be disturbed or not

Close-knit native, historical and vernacular communities, having a symbiotic relationship with outside world

Embedded vulnerability due to delicate equilibrium of ecology, microclimate, demography and economy

Higher susceptibility to climate change effects, hazards, communication and supply chain blockage, energy shortage

Embodiment of contradictions – island’s opportunity is its threat, its remoteness is its attractiveness, its abundance is cause of its exhaustion, its beauty and tranquility are its curse, though a place of rejuvenation it also needs a period of uninterrupted rejuvenation

Our time-tested universal success models from planning to business to governance may still fall short of meeting the distinct needs, context and expectations of island geography, community and its biosphere 

Changes we intend to do there and in surroundings might have a nonlinear impact and may me irreversible

Success here may mean different things to different stakeholders. 

Author: Anoop Jha

#island #islandplanning #communityplanning #urbanplanning #islandmanagement #biodiversity #climatechange #travel #tourism #destination #Rotterdam #Netherlands #oceancommunities