Designwala recently organized a panel about local people regulating local spaces. The panel was timely given the political unrest in the Middle East and Africa with people standing up to reclaim their rights. The video for the panel will be posted shortly. Our three panelists Jyoti Hosagrahar, Lina Srivastava and John Geraci come from different backgrounds but there was a common thread of ideas that tied everything back to local people and community driven design and activism.

While all the discussion from this monday is still brewing in my head, I came across the slideshow for the redevelopment of the Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad. Urban planner Bimal Patel’s office HCP Design and Project Management has been working on the project for close to 15 years. The long time that the project has taken is primarily because of the various scales of complexities that was involved in the project. One being the resettlement and rehabilitation of the close to 10,000 families living along the riverbank.

Image from HCP site 2007

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) set up the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corportation (SRFDCL) in May 1997 with a mission to revive the city center by reconnecting it to the river. The first phase of the project included a 9 km stretch of the riverfront. In 2003, the project was extended to cover a 20 km stretch.

Bimal Patel’s article in the WSJ about the project talks about a communication strategy that was put in place to communicate the projects vision and its benefits to the public. The primary communication strategy being circulating project reports. One has to take this with a pinch of salt since hiding details in small print is an established methodology to hide the finer details of the project from people. There is also a component of presentation which is a great way of getting the public’s attention and have them react to what is being designed in their city. Through these presentations the designers were able to communicate to the residents how world over waterfronts have been transformed into communal spaces for city residents. All cities are not the same, other governments are probably not uprooting thousands of slum dwellers from their houses either. There is a lot behind the scenes which still needs addressing.The question about rehabilitation looms large as there is no strategy in place for resettlement. Other issues involve environmental problems related to reclaiming land. The project is supposed to be self financing which means that a lot will depend on the sale of the proclaimed land to build a walkway, promenades, gardens, amusement park and water sports and slum rehabilitation.

Recently HCP put on an exhibition of the renderings showing what Ahmedabad’s riverfront would look like after redevelopment. A lot of questions about floods, slums, finances and implementation and traffic etc were addressed using diagrams and drawings. An interactive feature to get feedback on the project would have been really helpful as well. Giving the local people information is important but equally important is the getting their feedback on it.
The exhibition of the renderings of the riverfront were showcased in an art gallery in Ahmedabad in December last year for two weeks. The art gallery is not home to people used to going to community board meetings. Invitations were send across to wide variety of people to come out to see the images. The images were made realistic along with everything that an indian street cannot be seen without, the cows, dung, dogs and the messiness that forms India. The reaction to the renderings from the people who came to see them was positive. We don’t have the statistics on how many people came to see the images.

Working on such projects involve wide range of partners that include NGO’s, the local government, ministers, politicians etc who are are involved from the get go. However it is important to get the local people involved not just to look at the end product but to be a part of the process so that they can proactively get involved in the design discussions and not just the informal approval process. It is one thing to keep the people informed and its quite another to get them involved. Both need to go hand in hand so that the amount of skepticism and suspicion is reduced and people feel like they are part of a project versus mere spectators in a myriad web of bureaucratic policies and decisions.

The project was meant to finish end of December 2010. As everything in India, this is taking its time and we hope its worth the time it has taken. Ahmedabad is home to two premier design institutes – National Institute of Design and Center for Environmental Planning and Technology as well as the world famous business school Indian Institute of Management. It will be a pity if a project from a city with these institutes solely focuses on commercial interests that go with waterfront development without addressing the basic welfare needs for the displaced as well as the value of the waterfront for all city dwellers from all walks of life.

In this interview, Deepa Mehta who is an urban planner living in San Francisco, talks about heritage, modernity, technology and urban design. She explains how the integration of modern tools and technology with traditional arts and crafts will help carry these age old techniques to the next century. Deepa mainly works in cultural heritage planning and sincerely believes that community, culture, and design are catalysts for sustainable development. She likes to test out this hypothesis by engaging in relevant projects.  One such project is Shipyard Community Arts, spearheading the development of a new arts center and cultural district through innovative partnerships at Hunters point in San Fransisco.

Mumbai as a city is expanding with public spaces diminishing. Studies indicate that 2 hectares of quality open space per 1000 residents in dense urban settings is an acceptable benchmark. Mumbai has a severe dearth of parks and playgrounds to cater for it’s rapidly increasing population. The quality of public realm in our cities is essential if we are to make our cities livable and working environments suitable.

A quick assessment of current open spaces indicate that existing parks or maidans (playgrounds) are over-utilized. In addition, a lack of accessible community sports facilities means that parks originally designed for passive recreation now have to cater for active recreational usage. As a result available open public spaces have been degraded and the role of footpaths have been transformed.

In downtown Mumbai some of the significant public spaces are Oval Maidan, Azad Maidan and Cross Maidan. Presently many of the cricket clubs use the maidans to play formal and informal matches throughout the day. Many of the local dailies recently reported that prominent citizens and top bureaucrats met with the chief minister of the state to discuss a proposal to turn these South Mumbai maidans into plush parks on the lines of New York’s Central Park and London’s Hyde Park. The multiple cricket pitches have been an integral part of these maidans and this is where many cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar took their first lessons in cricket.

Shivaji Park another prominent park is often misused for political rallies and facilities around the park are used as political party offices. Byculla houses the Jijamata Udyaan formerly known as Victoria Gardens, a zoo and garden. The zoo has records of poor animal welfare  and zoo authorities are hoping to resolve these issues by proposing a Rs430 crore (approximately US$ 95.7 million) upgradation plan that includes squeezing in 25 new species of animals. Animal welfare organizations believe that Borivili National Park on the outskirts of Mumbai would be a better place for the animals. Byculla zoo happens to be a trove of botanical treasures, which has the potential to be converted into a beautiful park. It also houses the Bhau Daji Lad Museum formerly known as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the oldest museum in the city that showcases the history and culture of Mumbai.

The lack of open public spaces has redefined the role of footpaths, that are no longer used just for movement of pedestrians but form an integral part of the city. A range of informal economic activities now take place on footpaths; from selling homemade products, to hawking household items, vegetables and cooked food. Jane Jacobs in her 1961 book, The Death and Life of Great American cities urges urban researchers to understand streets and sidewalks for how they actually function rather than for their intended use. She believed that streets with the greatest signs of outward chaos – for instance children playing, old people sitting on steps and in the case of Mumbai people drinking chai at the corner chai stall and other street vendors are the people that make the streetscapes – vibrant, safe and livable urban spaces.

With rise in development and high employment in the construction sector, migrant labour constitutes a large segment of workers in the city. Also many migrants move to the city to be a part of the domestic workforce. These migrants in most cases are landless poor people that live in makeshift tents. Research architect and author of publications such as Alice in Buleshwar, Kaiwan Mehta highlights the life of migrants in the city that claim a part of public space in most cases footpaths and make it their own. In his essay titled, ‘Your city of Insatiable Angels’ for the promised city project Mehta states that “sleeping, waiting, looking out, loitering continue to be part of this landscape, construct a space of experience and everyday living.” He illustrates his point by referring to contemporary artist Sudhir Patwardhan’s painting titled, ‘Street Corner.’  In his work Patwardhan encapsulates and showcases how the private lives of many in the city becomes a part of the public realm in Mumbai. Mehta realizes and appreciates the contribution of migrant workers in the city. Often people that belong to a different level in the socioeconomic structure of the city often forget that and consider these workers to be a nuisance. Migrant workers in the city certainly make the landscape vibrant and active but live under unhealthy circumstances.

Street Corner by Sudhir Patwardhan

There is an urgent need to mitigate the decline of public spaces and elevate the quality of these spaces. An evaluation of current existing spaces is required to aid the process of design. The solution needs to be inclusive and integrated that is arrived upon by a democratic process. Active participation of people is needed for the development and management of these public spaces.

Development of private-public spaces in Mumbai so far has been restricted to multiplexes, atriums and malls that is not accessible by all and social development has been neglected by the government. More responsibility needs to be placed on corporate houses and sectors that are benefitting from this one sided growth of Mumbai. Real-estate developers are marketing gated communities with self-sustaining lifestyles that are choosing to look away from this degeneration of public spaces.

Architects, artists, civic authorities, people from all walks of life should participate in this process of decision making to develop strategies for the implementation of programs to enrich public realm. Professionals must be challenged to compete for creative and unprecedented results. Architect and activist P. K. Das in his paper Re-visioning Mumbai attributes the success of Bandstand and carter Road’s success to, ‘the dialogue and understanding between professionals and the active community.’

For Mumbai to be a livable city with sustainable and cohesive neighborhoods public places, a sense of community and a sense of place are desired, in which all people, whether wealthy or not, can live in dignified circumstances. Such neighbourhoods require culturally appropriate and authentic public places that are accessible to all.

Photo courtesy Danish Siddiqui for Reuters

A few years ago who would have imagined that the most expensive house in the world would be in Mumbai. But then India is full of surprises – on one end you have the most expensive house in the world at the same time 42% of India’s population is below the poverty line. In the past few weeks Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, India’s largest private sector enterprise has been in the news for his new billion dollar plus house that he will be moving into soon. He is touted to be the richest man in the world by 2014 as reported in Forbes magazine.

The house which is the world’s first billion dollar house is located on Altamont Road in an upmarket residential neighbourhood of Mumbai. The house which is 27 story’s high and believed to have a floor area larger than that of the Palace of Versailles is designed after consulting design firms Perkins+Will and Hirsch Bendner Associates.

A vertical palace; the first six-levels of which are dedicated for parking and an additional level for car maintenance, three helipads, a health spa, a fifty seat theater, multiple swimming pools, hanging gardens and a ballroom are a few of the included amenities in the building. It has been widely reported that the house will be occupied by Mr. Ambani, his wife and three children but managed by a support staff of six hundred.

Is such lavish display of wealth necessary and sustainable? The Guardian recently reported Indian Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh calling on business leaders to “eschew conspicuous consumption” and “be role models of moderation.” Reactions to the house have been mixed as how much Mr. Ambani spends on his house for himself and his family should not be anyones business as that is truly subjective. But many people also feel that an expensive house like that in a city where millions live in slums without basic ammenities is a criminal offence.

Mr. Ambani is ranked just two ranks below Bill Gates in the Billionaire’s list of Forbes magazine. Many people feel that he should follow in Mr. Gates footsteps of philanthropy. Mr. Ambani has defnitely created jobs and is looking to invest millions in the agricultural sector to help farmers and give them better returns but his investments are not contributions, they are calculated risks with gauranteed returns.

The house is named after Antillia a mythical island located in the Atlantic ocean. The irony here is that the house does not stand alone but instead stands tall overlooking downtown Mumbai. The house is not independant but is just as dependant on Mumbai’s neglected infratructure. I however do appreciate that Mr. Ambani chose a vertical structure over a horizontal one as land in Mumbai is sacred. The house boasts of multiple hanging gardens and it’s walls are covered in folliage – the living walls are intended to increase green space and combat heat island effect.

Photo courtesy Jasem Pirani

A friend of mine that lives in the same neighbourhood feels that the building is an eyesore. The building stands tall and does not relate in scale with it’s surrounding buildings. Another building in the same neighbourhood located on Peddar Road that runs parallel to Altamont Road is Charles Correa’s Kanchanjunga. This building also stands tall and has 32 luxury apartments and boasts of terraced gardens but has been adapted to fit in it’s surroundings. Correa’s Kanchanjunga is by far one of my favourite buildings in the city. In the case of Antillia contextual and cultural relations have been sidelined in the need for an iconic structure.

Antillia definitely puts Mumbai on the map of expensive homes but are we proud of this achievement? Everyone is entitled to luxury and comfort but living sustainably is crucial. A diverse design approach is also appreciated but not when it intervenes with pre-existing patterns within the local framework. Sustainability is not just about green roofs and hanging gardens it is also about integrating responsibly within an existing cultural context.

The second part of the video is titled ‘Indigenous Modernities’ based on the title of Jyoti Hosagrahar’s book with the same title. In this video, she talks about modernity in the context of the developing world. She brings up the perception of ‘Modern’ where it is equaled to western living vs it being understood as sustainable and practical response to day to day problems. To emphasize on that aspect of ‘Modern’, she talks about Old Delhi, Hinglish and FM Radio as examples of practical solutions, interactivity and modern living in the context of the old world. Jyoti Hosagrahar’s recent book Indigenous Modernities: Negotiating Architecture and Urbanism (Routledge 2005) won a 2006-2007 award from the International Planning History Society.

For Jyoti’s video on sustainability, click here.

Jyoti Hosagrahar is faculty at Columbia University, New York and Director of Sustainable Urbanism International at Columbia University, and Bangalore, India. Architect, planner, and historian, she advises on urban development, historic conservation, and sustainability issues in Asia. Her research interests include urban heritage, cultural and environmental sustainability of cities focusing on the intersections of nature, culture, and the built environment, and postcolonial perspectives in design and planning. She serves as an expert for UNESCO on historic cities.

Hosagrahar is the author of Indigenous Modernities: Negotiating Architecture and Urbanism (Architext Series, Routledge, 2005) awarded a 2006 book prize by the International Planning History Society. At Columbia she teaches courses on urban sustainability and postcolonial perspectives on non-Western architecture and urbanism. Recently, Hosagrahar has been extensively involved in the conservation and sustainable development of historic cities in India in partnership with UNESCO. She is directing the preparation of an integrated site management plan for the conservation and sustainable development of the heritage of the Hoysala towns in Karnataka.

Sustainable Urbanism International’s minimalist design and planning interventions aim to enhance local economic development, while enabling local populations to express their historically derived placed-based identities. SUI is involved in a range of studies, policies, and design interventions for historic townships through extensive community and stakeholder consultations. With Sustainable Urbanism International in partnership with The Energy Resource Institute, India, Hosagrahar has coauthored, ‘An Exploration of Sustainability in the Provision of Basic Urban Services in Indian Cities’. (TERI, 2009).

Stay tuned for Part -2 of Jyoti’s video where she discusses Indigenous Modernities. We will release that shortly.

A Grand Idea -Inhabit Section competition culminated on June 17th. A lot of  interesting entries came pouring in from all round the world. The ones published are a few that stood out. Our judges Raul Smith Correa from FAISCAS and Soo-in Yang from The Living are going over the entries and plan to pick a winner soon. The winner gets to develop a prototype of their design using $1000.

Vid de Gleria & Ziga Kresevic – Urban Rebagers

Robin Liu – Popup Bookstore

Haruka Horiuchi & Frank Hebbert – Mobile Activation Station

Jirawit Yamkleeb – Double Take

Marco Antonio Castro – Bus Roots

Hiroyuki Ichihara – The benches of Tsuchibokasi

Robyne Kassen – Monkey Bar Bike Racks

Jurriaan de Brujin – Metro

Yusuke Sakuma & Akihito Matsushita – Forest Bath

Dominik Chung – Park Hill, Sheffield

Daniel Ebuehi – Construction Cones

If you would like to see more than one design to come to life, please make a donation. The donations are tax deductible.

If you would like to see more than one design to come to life, please make a donation. The donations are tax deductible.

Tired of the sensationalized reports and negative journalism of Indian newspapers and magazines, Bangalore based husband and wife duo – Anuradha and Dhimant Parekh decided to set up a platform that focuses only on happy stories. Thus The Better India was born.

It was an honest attempt to celebrate and bring together those unsung heroes and heroines, the small deeds that were making a difference and filtering out stories of scandals, gossip, murders and other such morbid doing that made their way to mainstream news. The Better India consolidates material relating to the incremental progress being made by industrious people of the country who actually care about change. Focusing on developments being made on the social and economic front, and hoping to inspire people to create an impact, The Better India does something quite simple – it makes one believe that not all hope is lost.

The Better India began as a blog because of its low cost of delivery and easy accessibility. Acting as a filterblog, by posting relevant links of stories, after scanning through loads of materials from newspapers, magazines and other blogs; it started primarily via reader contributions and soon gained traction through individuals and social networks. While it is currently a self-funded initiative, Dhimant hopes to make The Better India a commercial, for-profit venture.

Nearly two years old – The Better India now publishes original content. With a new post every week – Dhimant and Anuradha are on a constant look out for stories. Each article is well researched, people interviewed and facts verified. They even recently began an internship program and currently have two interns working at The Better India. The interns are very involved with the news coverage and reporting and publish their own articles on the blog. The main objective still remains in letting people know of the good things happening around them, and connecting like- minded people. It also hopes to be a good resource base for people wanting to make an impact but not knowing what or how to go about doing it. Providing the readers with real life examples helps in illustrating the possibilities of various acts – however small, to create a larger impact.

With adequate press coverage and tie up’s with NGO’s, The Better India has gained large visibility in the city of Bangalore and throughout the country. Dhimant was even invited by IIM – Ahmedabad to give a talk on Positive Journalism.

Aside from spending most of his time with The Better India, Dhimant is also a writer. His foray into writing began when he was introduced to a friend’s blog, which led him to start him own. He began writing short stories as part of his blog. When his stories were well received by his readers, he decided to take ten favorite stories and put them together in a self – published book. His collection of short stories called “Neumonia and Other Sketch Stories” is also available as an e-book, can be downloaded at – http://www.sketchstories.com/

One can read more of Dhimant at – http://www.dhimantparekh.com/

The Better India at – http://www.thebetterindia.com/

]]> http://www.designwala.org/2010/04/the-better-india-positive-news-happy-stories-unsung-heroes/feed/ 1 http://www.designwala.org/2010/04/mapunity-social-technology-at-work/ http://www.designwala.org/2010/04/mapunity-social-technology-at-work/#comments Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:51:00 +0000 Ria http://www.designwala.org/?p=713

Mapunity uses and develops technology to tackle social problems and development challenges in India.  They provide map based services and design geographical information systems along with mobile technologies mostly for government departments and civil society organisations. They are also extend their services to R&D initiatives of commercial ventures.

Of all the various project Mapunity is involved with , the one that caught my fancy is their Urban Traffic and Transport Information Systems, with particular reference to the city of Bangalore. (check http://btis.in/) Bangalore is India’s third most populous city and fifth-most populous urban agglomeration. As a resident of this city, I fully understand the need for a well designed and defined transport information system.

Thanks to Sean @ Babajobs.com, I was lucky to to engage in conversation with Ashwin Mahesh – CEO and Founding Member of Mapunity. Truth be told, Ashwin is a very busy man. Along with acting like an evangelist, who helps government departments gain the benefit of emerging new capabilities in technology; he co- edits a public affairs magazine – India Together, and is an urban affairs researcher at IIM Bangalore and with the Government of Karnataka. He is also part of the ABIDe – Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa’s Agenda for Bangalore Infrastructure and Development task force . I managed to weasel a precious 15 minutes of his time.

Ashwin patiently explained to me how Mapunity went about to provide beautiful and intelligent solutions to Bangalores urban chaos. (Needless to say, he was able to intervene the above mentioned space, not without having friends in higher places. Governments are skeptical of outsiders and so it helps being an advisor to the BMTC – Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation).

Bangalore follows a circular  transport system.The city’s road follow two concentric circles with outer radial lines. In order to create and redefine a system, one had to conceptually redesign the map in peoples minds. The massive shift was made from a destination based system to a direction based one. This is how Big 10 was born. It is a bus service that connects 10 major roads to the outer ring road of the city.The main goal was to achieve a situation where people would be able to identify from the bus board, where the bus goes. People need not keep wondering where to get a bus from, to reach a particular location. If one knows where the bus is going and where to get it from, it is bound to bring in more commuters.The main objective was to make public transport a better system. In order to achieve this, Ashwin suggested that one made these buses recognizable and make them stand apart. Essentially brand the whole bus. Lime green in colour and bearing the Big 10 logo in a large bold fashion, these buses can be spotted from a distance. Designed by Dig Design Studio (www.digdesignstudio.com), the logo reads as Big 10 in both English and Kanadda. Operated at high frequency, the Big 10 buses address three key elements of : predictability,  understandability and reliability .

The Big 10 took seven months of planning and execution, and is India’s first direction based system. This system also allows for more accurate tracking of the mobility patterns of people. Mapunity, has prepared and is maintaining a database for the BMTC. Ashwin and his team hold consultations, surveys and regular meetings with BMTC officials to update the database which has details about how many people travel per day, on which route and how much is the public transport system helping the public.  The data is self reveling. These buses are a favoured choice amongst frequent commuters and their popularity is only growing. 1/10th of the BMTC buses are run on this module.Currently there are 187 buses on the road and it estimated to go upto 400 buses by the end of the year.

For more information, please visit – http://www.mapunity.in/

Bruce Sterling’s short story The Interoperation , featured in the Technology Review published by MIT, (Massachusett’s Institute of Technology) can be briefly summarized as a tale of a future where robots build and tear down buildings based on pre-set programs and a future where people ride bamboo bicycles.

In present times, this story is not too far from the truth. Well, at least, the latter. Today I had the opportunity to talk to Vijay Sharma – creator of Bambike- India’s first bicycle made of Bamboo. After accidently being enrolled at the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad, Vijay’s foray into manufacturing bamboo bicycles began nearly two years ago, when his wife Niyatee bought herself a cycle to commute to work. Currently located in Bangalore, He began researching cycles online and came across the trike design. A trike (abbreviation for tricycle) is a three-wheeled vehicle, different from our very own cycle rickshaws in its placement of two wheels in the front and one at the back. While tricycles are often associated with the small three-wheeled vehicles used by pre-school children, adults also use them for a variety of purposes. In Asia and Africa, tricycles are used primarily for commercial transportation, either of passengers in pedicabs or of freight and deliveries.

The idea of trikes were far too irresistible for Vijay and soon he began to design his own. After a brief stint at a furniture design company, since he always wanted to have a workshop of his own, Vijay began his own workshop called ‘6mm Designs and Furniture’ along with two friends. It was in a rundown garage in a small alley of one of the crowded areas in Bangalore. Slowly they expanded and reached out to a bigger clientele, mass-producing furniture for them. The workshop provided Vijay with the space to continue his experiments with bicycles. The trike took 6 months to come to life – from the drawing board to execution.  Last year, a friend suggested he design a bicycle using bamboo. Armed with months of research, and with a few ideas of his own, Vijay made his very first Bambike in 3 days.  The first prototype was made with raw bamboo with metal sleeves on junctions. This resulted in a little fishtail wobbliness at high speeds. The second prototype was made using thicker bamboo sections and this time with a jig to hold all members and important junctions like bottom brackets, rear drop out, head tube and seat tube.  Here the parts were glued together without metal sleeves and using hemp fiber. A more streamlined and ergonomically superior one followed. After making the first prototype of the Bambike, Vijay met Arun Katiyar. Arun is involved with the Ride-A-Cycle Foundation that promotes biking and going green – a small way to give back to the environment. He was instrumental in encouraging Vijay to develop his bamboo bike further. While Vijay made more prototypes, Arun tested them out and gave him relevant feedback to improvise on the designs.

Bambike then went on to associate itself with TFN – Tour of the Nilgiris. The TFN is a challenging mountain bike event and would be a great avenue to test out the endurance of the bamboo bicycles as well as get it more endorsements. Vijay decided to create a bambike for the event, that would be awarded to the most sporting participant of the 8-day 900km cycling rally.

At 12 kgs, it weighs 3 kgs less than the first prototype and does not compromise on features, functionality or aesthetics. Bamboo serves as an apt material given its tensile strength and tubular structure. The fact that it is eco friendly doesn’t hurt one bit. Using Bamboo also cuts down the energy consumption as compared to steel, aluminum, titanium and carbon fiber. Bamboo has better shock- absorbing power for rough roads, and Vijay is working on a stiffer version for smooth roads.

Given the story so far, one would think that Bambike would have more buyers. This query led us to a discussion about the notion that most people have about Bamboo being a poor man’s timber. This notion tends to result in an expectation that given the material replacement, the cost of the bicycle should be tremendously cheaper. However what people seem to forget is the amount of effort that goes into the creation of a single handcrafted Bambike. While the idea of the bamboo bicycle has gained popularity in the country, it has had very few buyers. This doesn’t seem to deter Vijay’s spirit. He believes that he has achieved what he set out to, when he decided to design and create Bambike. While an increase in the sales of Bambike would definitely be a plus, he hopes for more people to start cycling for its health benefits and as an attempt by people to reduce their carbon footprints. It’s a hope for more environmental consciousness in an age of mass consumption.

For more information visit – http://handcraftedbikes.blogspot.com