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

By - Anoop Jha


Actual Mechanical Ambiance Vs Desired Holistic Environment

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

Some signs that you are working in a Containerized Office 

Lighting

Shear ignorance to natural light and view,

Sole dependence on Artificial lighting,

Absolute absence of task lighting concept,

Light glare and  shadow,

No correlation with time of the day 

Same ambiance every working-day/hour 

Climate control

No consideration for individual's temperature requirement

extra hot and cold pockets distributed over floor-space,

No correlation with indoor-outdoor weather

Other interesting Traits

Being watched for work-productivity in the name of security

Feeling isolated from outer world

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

Some Recommendations to design a holistically habitable office complexes-

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

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

Day light linking (Saves energy as well) 

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

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

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

Contemporary Architecture of India in flux

An observation on architectural character, practice, reason of flux, and control instruments     

There used to be a defined boundary of what is called “Contemporary Architecture” in every era since past few centuries, but the boundary of contemporary architecture at present, in the middle of first quarter of 21^st century, has become a multi-domain experience with organic boundaries of different school of thoughts melting into each other. Earlier there used to be some set of rules and inspiration, material and climatic constraint, to govern and guide the aesthetic elements of localised architecture which in turn used to give defined architectural and urban design character to neighborhoods and city, but apparently we are losing that cohesiveness in contemporary urban fabric because there is no virtual or enforced control over the aesthetics of architecture at present In the developing countries like India, which is tissue of urban fabric. That does not imply that we want another Chandigarh, its for sure, we don’t want another Chandigarh by Le Cob., that is an old story, needs and lifestyle of people have changed, so the architecture and planning.

There are guidelines for the construction and execution but no rules or guidelines for architectural aesthetics, and its solely on the mercy and idiosyncrasy of either Clients who have their own idea of what contemporary architecture should be (i.e. they want their house to be either like the house of “Mr. X”, or more lavish and grand than “Mr. Y”, or exactly like the house featured in that architectural magazine “Z”) or it depends on majority of young architects for which its more about pressed necessity of earning bread & butter rather than using and  implementing the hard earned architectural knowledge , most of which are either victim of commercialization, crippled and forced to follow the market trends (which in fact doesn’t have any architectural  trend except copying from other contemporary developments or from history or from google image search results).  

If you inspect deeply you will realize that this apparent chaos of architectural design and aesthetics is actually nobody’s fault , at least not of any individual  because it was bound to happen and its all because of  technological advancement, which makes information and tools abundant. Architects as well as clients are immensely exposed to influences from all across the world due to free and unlimited information, architects  were never so free to  experiment with design and form of buildings due to computer modeling and simulation as well as unlimited possibility that structural design provides at present due to advance technology, equipments, material etc. There is no constraint of material, you have all the construction material at your disposal in any  part of the country, there is no architectural constraint of climate, because architecture has increasingly become active rather than passive,  you have all the equipments to control and maintain the indoor climate. But amidst all this, if the architecture and city planning need design guidelines, development control regulation, urban design guidelines or a separate nodal governing authority to maintain the aesthetic and cohesiveness of city, so be it.

Definition of “Per Capita Consumption” need to be modefied - Water Sector

By- Anoop Jha

Apparently “per capita consumption” figure is used in financials, estimates and projections of every project, and DPRs across the country and across the sectors, but apparently age old definition (Per Capita Demand in litres per day per head) and formula of “per capita consumption” seem to be flawed and vague. Let’s consider Water Sector for example.

There are few reasons for this apparently flawed 

First, this formula invariably assumes that all the water is being consumed at household, institutional or community level for some useful purpose, but that is not the fact. The fact is “the collective water losses at household and institutional level are huge in any given community, settlement, or housing society”, leaking taps, pipes due to “lack of maintenance and willingness to maintain” and water wastage related to casual behavior of users “due to lack of education and sense of responsibility”  are a regular phenomenon of almost every household. Planning bodies and Policy makers have to understand that unless they stop these water losses or unless they change the definition from  “Per capita Consumption” incorporating the water losses, there demand estimates, future projections, projects cost estimates, will inevitably  be vague and skewed,

Some interesting extract from the discussion on “India Water Portal” (indiawaterportal.org) on the similar subject are as follows-

Link: http://www.indiawaterportal.org/ask/5409

“ When the norm for a large city is 250 lpcd, it doesn’t mean the residents actually get or use 250 lpcd. A large city has many other water needs such as public use in offices, railways stations, commercial places, for fire fighting, public horticulture, etc. All these are distributed over the population and indicated as per capita use” - Chetan Pandit

“The norms do not take in to account the climate. No distinction is made between Delhi that has a huge water requirement for desert coolers in summer and a bath twice a day is not a luxury; Pune that uses some coolers but not as common as Delhi and usually bath once a day is enough; and Copenhagen where the maximum summer temperature in 17 C and most of the time it is below 10 C” -Chetan Pandit

“Water consumption is affected by various factors which are variable and hence it is difficult to precisely assess the demand of public. There are empirical formulas available for estimating a fair value of domestic consumption for design of water supply systems. However, Indian Standard (BIS):1172-1993 is the basis of 135 litres/capita/day. This 135 litres/capita/person includes drinking (5 litres/capita/day), Cooking (5), Bathing (55), Washing of clothes (20), Washing of Utensils (10), Washing & Cleaning of house (10) and flushing of toilets (30 litres/capita/day)” - J.Harsha

Second, basis, thumbrules, lifestyle, requirement and related values for arriving at “standard per capita water consumption” in different urban areas changes in courses of time and cahnge as per seasonal variation which need to be accounted for calculation per standard water consumption” Standards need to be revised after a certain time interval.

“Details of present norms for water consumption are available in CPHEEO Manual on Water Supply and Treatment and Per capita water supply in selected urban centers of India is available at Water Supply, Sanitation and Solid Waste Management in Urban Areas by National Institute of Urban Affairs, 2005”

Third, accuracy of standard per capita water consumption figure is directly proportional to the size of sample (no. of household) surveyed, which may vary from agency to agency which prepares the report. Larger the sample more realistic the results would be. There should be Policy norms for minimum size of sample to be surveyed and heterogeneity of the sample.

Different Hats that Planners Wear

list of diverse roles and responsibilities of a Planner

 Acquisitions and Development
 Associate Airport Facilities Planning Consultant
 Airport Planner
 Analyst
 Architect Planner
 Assistant Appraisal Officer
 Assistant Manager
 Assistant Planner
 Assistant Planning Officer
 Assistant Professor
 Assistant Town Planner
 Assistant Vice President
 Associate
 Associate Director
 Associate Manager
 Associate Planner
 Commercial Manager
 Community Energy Program Manager
 Community Relations Specialist
 Community Tourism Planner
 Consultant
 Consultant in urban and facilities planning
 Consultant Government Advisory Services
 Cost Estimator
 Country General Manager
 Creative Community Planner
 Damage Assessor
 Deputy General Manager (DGM) Planning
 Deputy Planner
 Deputy Project Director
 Deputy Town Planner
 Development Manager
 Director of Planning
 Disaster Preparedness Specialist
 Economic Development and Planning Consultant
 Economist Planner
 EIA Specialist
 Energy Analyst
 Engineer Planner
 Environment Planner
 Environment Specialist
 Executive Coordinator
 Executive Research Officer
 Executive Search Consultant
 Expert in Urban Management and Development
 Faculty
 Financial Planner Freelancer
 GIS Analyst
 GIS and Spatial Analysis
 GIS Consultant
 Green Technologist
 Head - Property Services
 Independent Planning Professional
 Infrastructure Planner
 Intergovernmental Planner
 Intern Planning
 Jr. Planner
 Land Use and Environmental Planner
 Lead blogger
 Lead Innovation Specialist
 Lecturer
 Local Economic Development Planner
 Manager Urban Planning
 Managing Director
 Managing Partner
 Master Planner
 Operations Manager
 Planner
 Planning Advisor
 Planning Assistant
 Planning Consultant
 Policy advisor
 Policy Analyst 
 Policy and Planning Manager
 Principal Consultant
 Principal Planner
 Professor
 Program Manager
 Project Associate
 Project Coordinator
 Project Manager
 Project Planner
 proprietor
 Public Policy
 Researcher
 Real Estate Development Professional
 Regional Planner
 Regional Programme Specialist
 Research Associate
 Research Officer
 Senior Advisor
 Senior Associate 
 Senior Executive
 Senior Industrial Area Planner
 Senior Investment Professional
 Senior Officer
 Senior Policy Adviser
 Senior Regional Planner
 Senior Research Fellow
 Senior Urban Planner
 Spatial Planning Manager
 Strategy Executive and Growth Consultant 
 Studio Head
 Sustainable Development
 Executive Systems Analyst
 Team Lead
 Town Planner
 Trade Advisor
 Transport Economist
 Transport Planner
 Transportation Analyst
 Transportation Funding Expert
 Transportation Planner
 Tunnel Designer
 Urban and Regional Planner
 Urban Planner
 Urban Planning Researcher
 Urban Reforms Specialist
 Urban Researcher
 Vice President
 Visiting Faculty
 Waste Advisor
 Watershed Planner


Post by Anoop Jha

Ever - Shrinking Living space in Urban Area

By- Anoop Jha


Pigeonhole like housing clusters

Constant influx of population to urban areas leads to shortage of living space in city, and developers and governments are trying to find the ways to accommodate this ever-growing population into already populated city, they collectively come up with some economic housing solution with ever-shrinking living footprint and decreasing level of lifestyle, which almost resemble pigeonholes (dovecote).

Conservation Projects: From Liability to Asset

By : Anoop Jha

Architectural conservation has traditionally been considered as public or state responsibility and very few private entities are interested in taking up such projects, though state like Orissa is having Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model for conservation projects. A country with rich history and centuries of traditions like India has also rich Architectural assets which are often neglected and difficult to conserve due to its sheer abundance, Though national and international agencies like “Archeological Survey of India (ASI), UNESCO, etc. are taking active measures to conserve the heritage of India, but it seems that it’s time that private entities and investors should come forward to conserve the architectural heritage of Nation. I think it can prove to be quite a lucrative option for private investors if government acts as a facilitator and if some relaxation is given in heritage conservation planning process along with some incentives. It would prove to be a win-win situation for both public and private entities.

This is how it will work. Architectural conservation projects have few elements in common –

●      TECHNIQUES – its technical aspects of conservations projects, there are technical guidelines, policy norms, etc. it’s simply art of engineering.

●      HERITAGE VALUE – every historic architectural asset has a heritage value attached to it, and if methodically and convincingly approached by private agencies, government or public agency will certainly come forward to facilitate the conservation project of any nature, because conserved and maintained heritage is an asset for any state, which they often fail to take care of because of other pressing welfare responsibilities and limited financial resources.

●      EMOTIONAL VALUE – It has high perceived emotional value for, a Nation, a State, a certain group, or certain individuals, this high emotional value can be translated into monetary value with certain effort and proper strategy

●  UTILITARIAN VALUE – This is the most important aspect of any conservation project because this is what makes it as a commercial viable project, to make this model viable government will need to act as a facilitator and will have to draft special policy considering the special and sensitive status of such projects, policy also have to incorporate privet participation and related relaxation in terms of some norms and subsidies etc. to attract the investment from private investors.

Commercial Development Cost: PPP Projects

Cost Comparision of Commercial PPP projects 
(Cost in Rs. Cr.)

Post by: Anoop Jha