HUMANITY IN DESIGN: CAN EQUITY BE ACHIEVED THROUGH ARCHITECTURE?

It is said that all people of this planet are equal in God’s eyes and yet humans form divisions in the name of race, caste, creed and what not. Instead of living as communities in unity and harmony we have designed ourselves to live in division.

Majority of the architectural marvel of the past in India is defined by the structures that were dedicated to the gods, the place where citizens of the then kingdoms worshipped their respective gods in or the structures that defined the power of the kings ruling the region. These power defining design of kingdoms have lead the way for caste and creed of the people to be determined based on the communities they belonged to (for example: the kind of jobs they were involved in) and developed their settlements around the religious places ranging from what was considered the highest cadre being closer to the temples to the lowest cadre being away from the religious site.

The wealth and prosperity of the Indian kingdoms were defined by the intricately done enormous places of worship dedicated to each of their gods of interest and the constructions of various typologies of housing of the early settlements that defined the early kingdoms but they were greatly focused on the divisions formed thus going against what was preached. The kings commissioned huge amount of money to be spent on each marvels that still stands today to give the present day dwellers of the planet a glimpse of the world back then.

Today the power of the kings and leaders of the past is relieved through their contribution towards to construction of beautiful structure and their development that doesn’t just paint a picture of the culture and the traditions followed but also tells the painful story of the sthapathi (sculptors) who engraved sculptures that plays a significant role in bringing these structures to a success and keeping the traditions alive till date. These sculptures, also helps us navigate and understand the equality and equity and the distinguished difference among the people of the past.

For ages architecture has been a symbolism of differentiating race, caste and creed rather than designing based on community harmony which was originally intended. In today’s world, we find the traces of such inequality and inequity based on the set hierarchy of communities. In the state of Tamil Nadu in India, agraharam style of housing is a predominant example of separation of communities based on the race, caste and creed where the said highest caste communities who served the temple lived closer to the religious place. Inequity in this is very predominant in such cases.

FIG1: AGRAHARAM STYLE OF HOUSING

But first let us understand, what is the difference between “equality” and “equity”?

While both “Equity” and “Equality” having long been used interchangeably and sounds the same in many circumstances, these terms do not mean the same thing. The focus of Equality is framed with sameness being the end goal whereas Equity may be defined as a state in which all people, regardless of their socioeconomic, racial, or ethnic grouping, have fair and just access to the resources and opportunities necessary to thrive just as the socially privileged. Beyond equity’s newer association with pluralism, it has long been connected to financial capital, as well as to collective ownership, vested interest, and a sense of value or self-worth.

We often find that these words being misused in today’s context but in reality we are still in the process of fighting for equity rather than equality.

The reminiscence of the past still plays a major role in today’s ways of the world. The concept of ‘untouchability’ is still a taboo that exists in modern India. Equity fails to play its role in just cases and yet with hope we have a long way to go.

Keeping this in mind, we can ask ourselves, can design or architecture play a role

in helping humanity move forward to a more equitable future?

As to my understanding, yes, design/architecture does play a role in bringing people together. For instance, a public park gathers people of all social cadres together for a common cause. On an urban scale of designing, in my opinion, people can be brought together as one community because gone are days when people were put down based on literate and illiterate. Because underneath it all humanity still exists, the current pandemic is one such instance where people came together as one community in unity and harmony to help each other out.

When it comes to designing houses for a conservative group of people the traditional taboo that they strongly believe can be predominantly seen and to

persuade such people to move forward towards a more community harmony based living will take a decades to reach the desired goals.

When we study about equity in design on an urban scale, we should focus on various aspects such as commercial, IT sectors, transportations, public spaces etc. as architects we are entitled to design without any sense of division providing spaces that is compatible to all irrespective of their caste, religion, race, age, gender, physical and cognitive ability etc. At its finest, architecture and design creates communities that are holistic, diverse, vibrant, eclectic in nature.

As architects who are made to create town, cities, country and not destroy them stand as a role models against what is now widely known as social injustice. Our designs must speak for themselves and help unite people.

FIG 2: PROVISION OF POCKET SPACES FOR GATHERING

After various incidences of social injustices we have witnessed ever since India had gained its independence 70 years ago, ironically the social aspects of living remains a freedom struggle, many architects have pledged themselves to design such unbiased designs that brings the people together rather than repel them and going back to square one our social development

Solutions to some of these issues that can help bring forth and achieve equity to its fullest:

Urban level of designs must provide solutions to coexist in unity. Solutions that are unbiased, solutions such as :

1. Removal of caste based development that would help demolition of slums and help the growth of the people currently living in slums giving them the access to education, resources etc. this shouldn’t be mistaken as relocation of slums but rather develop the region without disturbing the people’s daily routine and locations of their jobs and its access.

2.Providing pockets of spaces, rather than dense development of industries, commercial or residential, that engages people in communal harmony and gathering and provides easy access to various amenities.

3. Residential designs such as large scale vertical development, community villas etc., must be designed in such a way that coexistence and interaction of various social cadres are possible.

4.On the development of an urban scale, the user group i.e., the people living the area, must be involved in the designing process irrespective of their social identity to make sure the concept of equity is achieved.

In conclusion, Design/ Architecture has the unspoken power to bring the equity in humanity and us architects plays the major role to executing them in such a communal harmony and unity can be achieved and break our age old practices of social division.