Rx Design Capsule !!!

By - Anoop Jha

For  better Product and Project Health

Design Architecture Planning

[Handpicked Books]

Seems they love to waste fuel

By - Anoop Jha

Road junctions need smarter user interactive signal system..

And people need education!! When they know it’s going to be at least 3 to 6 minutes wait at road junction of their busy city and when it’s not extreme summer then why don’t they turn off the engine of their car for a while? This little act of saving petrol or diesel might not save them a lot of money today but if counted over a year the sum of this effort might add few thousand additional bucks in their bank balance. Imagine the gallons of fuel saved over the period by the collective efforts of citizens in a city.

Let’s dig into the psychology of car owners and possible reasons to waste the fuel at road junctions which could have been avoided. Is it because they are ultra rich people and don’t mind burning some fuel at junction, is it that car owners never thought about this as an option, is it that they are so much in hurry and preoccupied that they don’t want to think about it, is it that they want to avoid those beggars and casual vendors selling toys at junctions hence depending on air-conditioning system of car rather than opening window for few moments, is it that there is no one to educate them about how much fuel can be saved over the year by such practices, does it even really save some fuel or just a vague assumption? May be, may be not? But may be traffic signal itself has to play an important role in this regard.


[Handpicked Books]

 

Current traffic signals are not smart enough to cope with the growing vehicle population and complexity. Need some proof? It can’t be called smart if signals are out of sight for majority of vehicles of quarter mile long queue. It can’t be smart if one doesn’t really know that how long they have to wait which is the case for majority of junctions. It can’t be smart if traffic signals of adjacent road junctions are not synchronized with each other for most efficiency, and it they are not flexible enough to adjust its signal timing as per fluctuating traffic volume at different hours of the day. It can’t be smart if it fails to convince or persuade people to follow the rule or to remind them the cost to neglecting the traffic rules.

Smart signals need to communicate with commuters in every possible way. They have to be more informative, strategically placed, built on flexible software platform, logic based traffic signals which should appear to have presence of mind, and they should be integrated with the installed cameras to gather information, derive inferences and act accordingly. They should be able to convey to commuters, what is the best time to turn off and on the vehicle engine for maximum fuel efficiency on a junction. What about an intricate pattern of parking size grid marked on roads approaching junction, assigning a dedicated waiting space for vehicles for maximum efficiency, safety and visibility? And so on!!

We plan new transportation systems, but with old tools!! We need to sharpen the old tools to make than smarter and to make the whole system efficient. 

McCormick Place to showcase 2012 AHR Expo

McCormick Place, Chicago

McCormick Place is one of the largest convention complexes in the world, located close to downtown Chicago, Illinois. It attracts around 3 million visitors every year.

AHR EXPO 2012, which showcases HVAC and ancillary industry products and services is scheduled in January (23 -25) and poised to be the largest AHR Expo ever. 


[Handpicked Books] 

Walkability demands flexibility : new approach to neighborhood planning

By - Anoop Jha

Number of available choices defines quality of urban environment and experience

Walking and jogging  trail

Image shows actual walking trail around a lagoon in some part of Santa Barbara, with different route options for people to choose from, one shorter complete loop around waterbody and other longer route which also includes dotted segment. Close view  of lagoon is an incentive to walk extra length of dotted route otherwise people can take shorter route if they are in hurry or tiered. There has be different available exit choices for people, to make any pedestrian or walkable plan successful whether its planning of park or commercial complex or mega exhibition pavilion.

[Handpicked Books]

Why city forms are like the way they are?

By - Anoop Jha

Inspecting reasons of changing development patterns from core city to contemporary development.

Morphological Differences in old & new development

While issue of changing city morphology across time is being discussed its imperative to ask what difference does a time span induces which alters the physiology and psychology of urban development?

After analyzing several old and new city developments patterns, some catalysts which emerge as possible reasons of change since Old Town to New City Era can be as follows - 

Rise of Multi-nuclei development

Multiple developer entities

Multiple governing agencies

Rapid mass housing requirement

Stringent Fire Norms

Increased Building Height

New construction materials & technologies

Changed mode of private & public transportation

Landuse classification restructuring


[Handpicked Books]

Utility distribution requirement

Landscape requirements and norms

New active climate control tools for buildings

Easy exposure to international benchmarks

Increased requirements of privacy

Changed Living style and  social interaction  pattern

New trend of concept based development

Targeted development to please stakeholders

Feeling pressed against time for getting products or services of daily use?

By – Anoop Jha

You need a better landuse plan and new typology of neighborhood hubs

Specialized service and commercial hubs have advantage in case of volume trade and optimized choices with better shopping and services experience due to many options available to choose from while mixed Landuse development has advantage of convenience shopping and saved time.  Taking time off to visit a specialized market hub to get a small product or service of daily use which you cannot get in neighborhood shop due to its little specialized nature might be stressful for many, due to lack of time in busy city life.

There are two distinct categories of people in city one who will go anywhere and to any extent to save a single penny on any product or service, these are the people apart from wholesale marketers who go to specialized hubs so that they can negotiate on product or service pricing due to available market competition in such hubs, other kind of people are those who are ready to pay any amount in lieu of convenience and due to shear lack of time and motivation as long as price is in the acceptable limit and surprisingly it has nothing to do with laziness, it’s just because they don’t have enough time from their packed daily routine, it’s simply not worth sending time to go to some specialized market like electronic or electrical market or hub of mechanical goods or big car service hub located far away from your home just to buy a new exhaust fan for your kitchen or a new tap knob, or to get a minor repair work of your car’s fm radio set done.


[Handpicked Books]

The number of second type of people who value convenience over pricing in City is exponentially growing. There is an urgent need to consider requirements of this segment of people in Landuse planning; it has become necessity of time. They need to create small integrated specialized product and service hubs in neighborhood where one can go and buy variety of products and services in one place, products and services which are little specialized in nature and which you don’t generally get in neighborhood shopping centre or mall. An electrician or plumber provided to you by resident welfare association (RWA) of your society is of no good unless you have required basic electrical or plumbing products at hand which need  to be replaced.

How about creating a small “integrated specialized product and service hub” in every neighborhood of city which keeps all the basic household and daily use items similar to convenient shopping and those items which are specialized in nature like medicine and first aid materials, emergency products and tools, electrical and mechanical goods, and in term of manpower it can comprise of at least one doctor, one counselor, one security personal, one pet care specialist, one electrician, one plumber, one car and bike mechanic etc. etc.

Breaking the monotony of planning

By - Anoop jha

Interesting twist to parking plan

Parking Grid

Parking lot circulation showing innovative approach of planning grid which serves two purpose

1)It gives a holistic touch to industrial style rigid  parking grid with main organic collector route

2)It puts a desirable physical limitation on speed of car in parking area due to its curvature and alignment