Biourbanism And The Indian City
The city as a sustainable Urban Organism A model paradigm in Urban Design and Planning has been bought in by the concept of BIOURBANISM, which combines the new sciences and technologies with the existing environmental and traditional ways of building design. The Seminar looks at the features which the Indian City already has but lacks the relevance which the concepts talk about. The inherent energy level and its flow patterns already exist and have to be bought into prominence for revitalising the city. This also helps in guiding the value system which is closely related to being more nature and peoplecentric and hence lead to a more sustainable Urban Morphology.
ASHVEEN KAUR | MICHAEL VIVIAN EKKA | SONAM TSHERING | SUMEDHA DUA 5TH YEAR SECTION A CHAIRPERSON: MR. KANU AGRAWAL GUIDE: MS. DIVYA CHOPRA
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Inherent Characteristics of a city: Levels of Scale, Strong Centres, Boundaries, Alternating repetition, Positive Space, Shape, Local Symmetry, Deep Interlock, Contrast, Graded Variation, Echoes, Voids, Inner Calm and Nonseperation. Source: A Pattern Language, Christopher Alexander
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he city of Delhi is a fertile ground of layers, on which have grown several cities, each of them having their own identities and set of principles of development and ‘evolution’ in terms of building and settlement. With the onset of modernism and revolutionary technologies, the design of buildings and settlements has changed over the years. From the indigenous and traditional ways of building and designing, urban patterns have come a long way, with impacts on our quality and way of life. Architecture needs change. It needs a reminder to let it know there is more to it than just man making changes in the environment which is conducive to his luxury and not well-being. A model paradigm lies in the concept of Biourbanism, the new science of combining technical aspects of our modern age whilst being aware of human and environmental well-being. Considering the city and its architecture as living organisms, many new and exciting developments (fractals, complexity theory, bio architecture etc.) get interrelated with each other to form a constant stimuli between man and his environment. Biourbanism was acknowledged as a discipline officially in 2010, when it was decided to establish the International Society of Biourbanism in order to link together professionals and scholars from different disciplines, who are interested in building a new way urban design, which is highly sensitised towards building a human-oriented environment. In its manifesto, Biourbanism focusses on the urban organism, considering it as a hyper complex system, according to its internal and external dynamics and their mutual interactions. This helps the phenomena deal with issues related to a city by thinking of it as an urban organism, especially cases of selforganized societies and urban design and planning. This concept works on the realisation that certain technologies and man-made changes have had harmful effects on human beings. The aim of biourbanism is to introduce ‘new conceptual and planning models for a new kind of city’ which will help in enhancing the quality and health of life and social sustainability. (Tracada, 2013). Cities today need to incorporate and accommodate qualities of the natural environment. Authors like Geddes or Ruskin have been interested in such an idea, not to forget the works of Arata Isozaki and Kenzo Tange who refer to biology after the relevant Japanese school of Metabolism.
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Biomimicry is also an approach that refer to biological model nowadays, and tries to imitate the engineering solutions found in nature. This arises from the concern not only for the metropolis, but also for the natural environment itself. Therefore, this needs human co-operation, or in other words, participation, when dealing with urban development of parts of the city. Efforts such as to reduce the number of cars on the roads and pedestrianizing the city are indicative of the need to have regenerative design strategies. In a statement typical of this approach, the architect Jose Luis Sert, one of the key spokesmen for the Congrés Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM) in 1942, said: ‘Cities [are] living organisms; [they] are born and … develop, disintegrate and die … In its academic and traditional sense, city planning has become obsolete. In its place must be substituted urban biology’ (quoted in Time magazine, 30/11/1942). A significant difference between biourbanism and other approaches that refer to the living world relies in the very concept of life that we refer to. Almost everyone sees nature and life as a mere linear physical mechanism, and fails to grab the essential complexity of auto-poetic phenomena of the natural world, while we see life as a complex system with special emerging proprieties that cannot be explained with the linear physics of two centuries ago. Complexity in life sciences produces very interesting features, but it is not the trivial imitation of them that can produce a real life-enhancing design. One must rather focus on the logics that is behind those features, “If you can tell a and that produce them. Biourbanism, as a concept, works towards economic and social regeneration and urban revitalisation, where the city is seen as a living organism, derived from nature. (Caperna, n.d.) Instead of treating the city like a machine, the city is understood as a biological model, and treated as a function of the human beings. Also, because the city represents a living environment of human species, the inhabitants are entitled to participate and engage not only in feedbacks and but also in designing and planning. Their participation and reactions help verify the results of this concept, along with objective and experimental measures of social, economic and physiological reactions. As an inhabitant-oriented concept, biourbanism aims to re-establish the city and settlements by enhancing the ‘organic interaction’ between the physical and cultural factors in urban reality. According to the needs of human beings and also of the ecosystem that they live in, it identifies and actualises the environmental enhancement. Biourbanism is not about theory per-Se only. It primarily involves an epistemological foundation, a methodology, theoretical research and theory’s instantiation in practical design and activities. (Caperna, n.d.). Biourbanism also deepens the organic interaction between cultural and physical factors in urban reality (for example, the geometry of social action, fluxes and networks study, etc.). It also aims to achieve one of the objectives to manage a transition from a fossil fuel economy to a new organizational model of civilization. (Caperna, 2013) Where does its importance lie? It deals with the urban fabric by calling it as tree of energy, where, creation ad evolution of new boundaries and interfaces follows the theory of a never-ending pattern of growth, which would result in an optimum systemic efficiency for the quality of life for the people in the cities.
man by his shoes, you can tell a city by its pavements, Delhi’s indicate a fractured, shambling, careless body politic.”
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(Tracada, 2008) proved that, patterns of energetic lines, such as preference paths, flowing and exploding in very ancient landscapes, had kept quite intact their evolving energy for many years and also acted as generators of further expansion and development until recent times, which in turn managed to influence and inform human behaviours and life in cities. As an inhabitant-oriented concept, biourbanism aims to re-establish the city and settlements by enhancing the ‘organic interaction’ between the physical and cultural factors in urban reality. According to the needs of human beings and also of the ecosystem that they live in, it identifies and actualises the environmental enhancement. (Caperna, n.d.) The seminar aims to look at different components which supplement this concept, and thereby, understanding the principles and values that can be derived from the idea of biourbanism. This provides insight to making future urban development more inhabitant-friendly, and aspires to achieve sustainable survival of the city.
“Biourbanism = Universal Urban Principles Divided into three main parts, the seminar introduces biourbanism in brief, Calibrated Locally.” and describes its aims and objectives for research and application at the city and architectural level.
This can be achieved through an intensive practice and consummation of scientific developments such as fractals, biomimicry, complexity theory, morphogenesis, peer-to-peer urbanism, evolutionary biology and artificial intelligence. This is an approach to link the basic ideology of biourbanism to Life Sciences and Integrated Systems Sciences. (Caperna, n.d.) This approach helps to recognise physiological and ecological scales of optimal forms, to enhance the quality of life of the users of the built environment. To have a focus, four of these practices have been studied – Biomimicry, Fractals, P2P Urbanism and Urban Acupuncture. The relationships between these are multi-dimensional, and will be analysed through examples and secondary case studies. The research concludes with the key findings and tries to relate these concepts to the Indian context. It also tries to look at understanding the energy levels and inherent patterns existing in the city of Delhi, and why they should be brought into prominence for revitalisation of the city. The seminar is set in a belief that a designer’s value system can be guided through this concept, to achieve a more people and nature-centric approach towards architecture and urban design. As biourbanism covers some of the advanced methods of city and architectural design under its wings, it is imperative to get a grasp on how far it can lead to our understanding of a sustainable city. The paper aims to study new phenomena and concepts to understand Biourbanism, and how it can add value to the current urban scenario. Also, it looks at different components which supplement this, and seeks to answer why this concept is needed. Further, it enquires about its merits in the urban design of the complex Indian city.
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Fig A: URBAN BY NATURE aims to redefine the city and urbanity, to analyze the relationship between city and nature, and see the city as a natural ecology, analyze its structure and metabolism, and understand and use the process of its material flows, to make the city more resilient and thus act to contribute to a more sustainable future world. Source: http://www. biourbanism.org/iabr-2014urban-by-nature/
The aims and objectives of this Seminar include; understanding a new phenomenon and concept to see what is it all about and why is it necessary or of value in the urban scenario today, looking at different components which supplement the concept and understanding their principles and values. Also ANSWERING WHAT is the need for this concept and what its merits are in the urban design of the complex Indian City? Western technological concepts are hard to be sustained in the Indian City due to it being in a primal state and has few or no connections to an Indian Metropolitan idea – it becomes viable to understand what part in its necessity from the concept can be a driving guide for future design and hence understanding energy levels and inherent patterns within the city and why should they be brought into prominence for urbanisation. Therefore, Biourbanism has the potential v to positively transform the environmental performance of the built environment. This presumes that a holistic approach to architectural design that incorporates an understanding of ecosystems could become a vehicle for creating a built environment that goes far beyond simply sustaining to the current conditions, to a restorative practice where the built environment becomes a vital component in the integration with and regeneration of natural ecosystems.
This leads to this paper’s argument, how values already present in the Indian culture are subject to our acceptance only after recognition on the western radar. It also becomes relevant to understand from this paper the underlying principles it talks about and its significance to the modern Indian City, whose complex layers are what driving it to the future.
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Fig B: The process undertaken to understand the concept and its aspects. The graphic also explains the level of detail of research undertaken for the paper, the layers explored and also how the connections were made. Source: Author
FRACTALS THEORY OF PLANNING Fractals theory speaks of a structure that follows a similar pattern of planning, functioning or complexity at any level of magnification. (Salingaros, 2001) A detailed study into the fractals theory shows how, whether a building or a city, are subject to same organisational laws as a biological organism. This theory believes that modern planning principles encourage strict alignment and straight roads, and have no links between different scales of planning. Instead, older cities, that were planned organically, have an organised interweaving and an architectural interface for exchange, which was strongly connected through a specific process at every scale, which made them come alive. (Salingaros, 2001).
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Fig C: Indian temples are like 3-dimensional structure based on fractal geometry. Source: http:// fractalenlightenment. com/14556/fractals/thefractal-structure-of-hindutemples
The different levels of scale where a particular observable rich connective structure can be found, are strongly linked by the design. These ‘fractals’ are found to have perforated edges, which allow interchange between an edge and its adjoining space. Such fractal interfaces are found in traditional villages between the building fronts and the streets. Hence, one can understand that physical forms of planning can determine the social and economic functioning and the quality of life in a settlement or a city. The fractals theory also establishes the fact that fractals on a human scale are more engaging. Non-fractal structures suppress human scale and alienate the user. (Salingaros, 2001) Fractal qualities of structures, which are also found in nature and structural organisation of living forms, help connect the humans to their environment. Fractal cities can also be seen as cities that have grown organically over centuries. Cities that grow naturally are formed through individual decisions, fit in the natural landscape, and address more intense concerns at the local level. These cities are more workable, more equitable and more efficient. (Batty & Longley, 1994) These cities that grow slowly over time, develop a certain pattern of growth which is permeable, allows exchange, and is also observed to follow the same pattern on a larger scale. This pattern does not necessarily need to be geometrical or visibly or aesthetically similar looking, this pattern can be understood as a concept of growth. The idea or intent in which a house has been designed, can be very similar to the planning of the neighbourhood and therefore, the precinct and the settlement or the city.
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Fig D: The above image – called Substrate – is only one stage in a long algorithmic process. The various versions morph through different, oddly city-like fractal patterns, forming boulevards, squares, medinas. Source: http://bldgblog. blogspot.in/2006/03/ algorithmic-urbanist.html
It has been repeatedly established by various noted authors that living cities have intrinsically fractal properties and, which have been erased, primarily to accommodate automobile and population growth. This has led the urban fabric to face disastrous consequences, one of which is to impose antifractal geometrical typologies over a well-laid fractal planning. Modernism has been seen to eliminate fractal structures, and replace them with non-fractal built structures. This has led to psychological, philosophical and physical separation of human beings from the natural and built environment. The deliberate destruction of comfortable and emotionally nourishing human environments has transformed the city into places that are hostile to natural human activities. (Salingaros, 2001) Fractal analysis and theory in bio-urbanism intends to undo or override this damage through methods of connecting and repairing urban space. Within an effective way to overlay pedestrian, automotive and public transport, the intricate connectivity of the living urban fabric also needs to be reincorporated. Fig E: Modular para-city for habitat in Helsinki; 0based on development contrary to typical urban growth. Rather than existing in its finalized state upon initial occupation, the city gradually grows by infilling the open framework. The model utilizes designbuild and ‘do-it-yourself’ approaches to architecture, where the users dictate their environments’ functionality and makeup. Source: http:// www.designboom. com/architecture/ marco-casagrandeparacity-habitarehelsinki-08-31-2014/
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Also, it aims to integrate the physical connections with the modern-day electronic connections. The bottom-up component of regeneration encouragement at small scale will help regenerate urban forces that will help bring the city ‘back to life’. PEER TO PEER URBANISM P2P urbanism follows a philosophy similar to that of ‘new’ and ‘traditional’ urbanism which promote walkable communities where people can socialize, live and work without being dependant on cars and which allows non-rigid zoning with well-proportioned buildings that are inspired and built with traditional forms and techniques. Further, it stresses on the ‘open source movement’ which is basically sharing knowledge equally amongst all citizens so as to educate them and make them aware of experiences of other users all over the world. P2P urbanism allows active users to freely adapt and modify theories, research, and practices following proven experience and based upon their specific needs and intuitions (Salingros, 2010). This helps in adjusting the complex needs that otherwise may be overseen by the designer, through involving end users as an important part of the design and decision making of a project. The end users therefore receive power, since they understand the real life problems better. It takes ‘power’ out of the hands of the ‘starchitects’ as the sole creator of places. It instead advocates for people being allowed to modify their environment to suit their needs, instead of relying exclusively on a designer who does not even live there. (Salingros & Mena-Quintero, October 2010) “It is important to establish communication between users, builders, designers and everyone who is involved with a particular environment.” (Salingros & Mena-Quintero, October 2010). P2P-Urbanism and Biourbanism both dwell on the concept of participatory methods. P2PU is all about letting people design and build their own environments using information and techniques that are shared freely. Through these processes of redistributing knowledge and initiating group discussions among interested individuals, results that may be appropriate for the city’s growth can be produced. For example – the DZP (Duany Plater-Zyberk) smart code provides with a set of instructions that can be broadly followed to achieve and implement the concept of P2PU. However this requires an input through discussions from a set of individuals to make these set of instructions more applicable and calibrate to the local conditions. The most important point is the commonality of design methods in both P2PU and Biourbanism that revolves around humancentred architecture and urban design P2PU would aid in spreading knowledge to its end users to make them more informed and hence taking appropriate decisions through group discussions and peer to peer to interactions to attain the common goal of making a more habitable, sustainable and vibrant urban environment. This idea can be better exemplified by taking few examples from around the world,
“The physical characteristics of walls are not decisive as to their meaning. Rather, the key question is: Who is on which side of the wall? Does the wall perpetuate power, or defend against it? Does it reinforce domination, or shield vulnerability? Does it strengthen hierarchical relationships among people, or does it pave the way towards greater equality?” -Peter Marcuse
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(i) J.F.C Turner on self-built housing in South America (De sign, n.d.) (ii) DZP’s project in Kennewick, Washington, USA – A former municipal airport redeveloped in a market connecting three existing neighbourhoods. (Company, n.d.) (iii) DZP’s project in Atlanta, Georgia, USA – Building of ‘Live work unit’ comprising of commercial and residential in the same unit. (Company, n.d.)
“It is the adaptable, not the well-adapted who survive.” -Ken Boulding
Back in the Indian context, Gandhi’s vision that stated ‘The future of India lies in its village’ was reinterpreted by Dhiru Thadani in one of his articles. He talks about Gandhi being inclined more towards the villages and rural areas as opposed to Nehru’s vision of creating independent India through industrialization and big cities. (Tadhani, 2011) Gandhi saw a strong connect and respect of the people with their land. The human scale houses and the agricultural occupation seemed more indigenous than machines and industries. The village/rural areas can be looked up for inspiration for building better neighbourhoods in the cities. A cohesive pattern in decision making for building of neighbourhoods and common spaces can be learned from this. P2PU leads to certain acknowledged principles of not only taking an ecologically sensitive approach towards the construction of an appropriate urban model. It also encourages and aids contact and discussions among the designers and end users of a model to produce satisfying results. This strategy also helps to make knowledge regarding urban issues more attainable and ‘free source’, hence empowering citizens with the tools to make informed choices (Salingros & Mena-Quintero, October 2010). URBAN ACUPUNCTURE Urban Acupuncture is an urban environmentalism theory which combines urban design with traditional Chinese medical theory of acupuncture. This process uses small-scale interventions to transform the larger urban context. By analysing social, ecological and economic factors, sites are selected and developed through a dialogue between designers and the community. Just as acupuncture relieves stress in the body, urban acupuncture relieves stress in the environment. Urban acupuncture produces small-scale but socially catalytic interventions into the urban fabric. This phenomenon looks at the city as a living organisms and concentrates on the areas that have to be repaired. It views cities as complex energy organisms in which different overlapping layers of energy flows are determining the actions of the citizens as well as the development of the city. By mixing environmentalism and urban design it develops methods of punctual manipulation of the urban energy flows in order to create an ecologically sustainable urban development towards the so-called 3rd Generation City (post-industrial city). With this focus, urban acupuncture is used as a design tool to contribute in creation of a sustainable urban framework, such as community gardens and urban farms.
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Any social interaction includes a fundamental part of the human person: the body. There it always occurs in a place. Space becomes places when intentionality is at stake, and landscapes, nature, buildings, and forms in space have a meaningful interaction with life. Urban Acupuncture is a strategy where each citizen is involved. The whole idea is to open doors for freedom and creativity. Everyone is allowed to join the creative participatory planning process, feel free to use city space for any purpose and develop his environment according to his will. The citizens are sensitised to move towards a sustainable co-operation with the rest of the nature.
Fig F: URBAN ACUPUNCTURE BY DANIEL SACRISTĂ N CONTRERAS FROM SPAIN The strategy is acupuncture where punctual developments will change the overall living outline. Source: http://www. designboom.com/project/ urban-acupuncture/
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They are aware of the destruction that the insensitive modem machine is causing to nature including human nature. In a larger context a site of urban acupuncture can be viewed as communicating to the city outside like a natural sign of life in a city programmed to subsume it. Urban acupuncture works with a bottom-up approach, rather than topdown. Urban space is all of the fundamental process that generates itself. It is understanding and fixing the minute details so as to fix the larger problem in the city. It focuses on local resources rather than capital-intensive municipal programs and promotes the idea of citizens installing and caring for interventions. These small changes, proponents claim, will boost community morale
“Think of the last and catalyse revitalization. Boiled down to a simple statement, “urban time you chose to acupuncture” means focusing on small, subtle, bottom-up interventions harness and direct community energy in positive ways to heal urban visit a great urban that blight and improve the cityscape. It is meant as an alternative to large, neighborhood, to top-down, mega-interventions that typically require heavy investments eat or walk in the of municipal funds (which many cities at the moment simply don’t have) and the navigation of yards of bureaucratic red tape. The micro-scale park or on the targeted by “urban acupuncture” appeal to both citizenstreet. Now, how interventions activists and cash-strapped communities. many times have you decided to Jaime Lerner, the former mayor of Curitiba, suggests urban acupuncture go visit someone as the future solution for contemporary urban issues; by focusing on very else’s conventional narrow pressure points in cities, we can initiate positive ripple effects for the society. Urban acupuncture reclaims the ownership of land to the subdivision if you greater public and emphasizes the importance of community development through didn’t have to be small interventions in design of cities. It involves pinpointed interventions that can be accomplished quickly to release energy and create a positive there?” -Andres Duany
ripple effect.
BIOMIMICRY IN ARCHITECTURE Energy and its flow is imperative to the growth of cities as it has all its inhabitants’ intentions, attitudes and ambitions towards the built and the un-built environment. This energy is defined by the active path lines in the urban fabric (consider the view of Taj Mahal while entering through the doorway). A delineation occurs when this flow is interrupted by man-made changes to his previous stable and healthy areas, which have apparently gone in decline and are examples of an unhealthy urban fabric. The nature of man is always to come back to nature. It is the perfect example of harmony and health within its beings, in its own art and architecture and in its own science. Biomimicry becomes the major driving force for architecture in the search for sustainability. Organisms refined and developed by natural selection over a billion yearlong research and development by nature, can be seen as embodying technologies, functions and systems that can help bridge architecture and nature, as nature has always been ahead in what it knows is important and will last on earth.
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Fig G: Soma Architecture’s Solar-Powered One Ocean Pavilion in South Korea, designed to keep visitors cool during humid summers, One Ocean is also a nod to biomimicry with its gill-like facade that overlooks the harbour. The soaring glass fibre gills are designed to function like lamellas, the papery ribs under a mushroom’s cap. Source: http://inhabitat. com/soma-architecturessolar-powered-one-oceanpavilion-in-south-koreaopens-tomorrow/
It’s no secret that, what surrounds us, is the secret to survival. Biomimcry studies nature’s models, and then emulates these forms, processes, systems and strategies to provide a new perspective of living – sustainably. It thus introduces an era based not what we can extract from the natural world, but what we can learn from it. The most ecological way to cut down the energy footprint of urbanism, is to follow nature’s footpath; create “living” structures and spaces that operate close to being alive themselves. It thus makes sure that our perceived view of the urban fabric is a dynamic and ever-evolving ecosystem. This gives us an added advantage of an arsenal of a more considerate approach to architecture of the city. It gives a potential for true shifts in the way humans design and what is focused on as a solution to a problem, paves the way for a potentially novel and unique architectural promontory. There is also a certain framework to work out the application of biomimicry and increase regenerative qualities of the built environment. It is also often termed as the new tool towards sustainability. Although the built environment now is held accountable for global environmental and social problems, with vast proportions of waste, material and energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions, attributed to the habitats the humans have created for themselves. Mimicking life, including the complex interactions between living organisms that make up the ecosystem, is both a readily available example for humans to learn from and an exciting prospect for the future human habitats that may be able to be entwined with the habitats of other species in a mutually beneficial way. Talking about the connections it has with design and architecture, a closer look is necessary to understand why this approach is becoming popular. What more can it not relate to in architecture? Pattern, aesthetics, energy, ethics, efficiency, shape, structure,
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Fig H: Biomimicry used as a guiding force to design Lavasa Township; HOK International has worked on the township planning with biomimicry as their guiding principle to design this wide-spread development, by an extensive study of the local ecosystem, coming up with strategies that work in harmony with local biome as well as climatology. Source: http://blog. worldarchitecturenews. com/wp-content/ uploads/2013/02/hokindia1. jpg
symmetry and symbolism are all little parts of huge world we know around us as the environment. Everything that we could ever need to sustain and survive is right around us and has been for many years. It is curious why now we are more than ever realising this fact, knowing the fact that our ancestors had already seen this as a the best way for a good and healthy mutual interaction between man and nature. Nature’s bounty is thus filled with all the required ingredients for a sound design which will not delineate the environment. But modern era has brought huge developments in lifestyle and settlements and thus have been able to cast aside existing natural cycles like weather and surrounding conditions to become independent of their environment, and have been able to create lifestyles, including urban developments, which have little or nothing to do with life in the natural habitat. Nevertheless, barring the sceptic who still refuses to see the impact that our development is having on the planet -and for us as a species- most people are aware of the issues every time a new page of the book of reality turned (Salvador, 2014). Many would say that Nature had it right, and that she’d be much better off environmentally speaking, without human interference. However, since we’ve now burned through the industrial revolution and now find ourselves struggling for solutions to house a human population boasting 7-10 billion by 2050, architects, and scientists alike are asking, “Should design imitate nature?” “If you were to actually make a city that functioned like the native ecosystem next door, it would produce ecosystem services,” Benyus said. Ecosystem services may include the purification of water and air, sequestering of carbon, and cooling of local temperatures. Those services, Benyus said, will also make a city more resilient to climate change (Benyus, 2010).
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Questions will be raised about the ability to distinguish between simply a ‘beautification’ vs. ‘biodiversity’-enhancing project; but for the most part, the approach of Biomimicry in design is well recognised as the next big step. We as humans have been more demanding than nature itself, and that the positive messaging of biomimicry and ideas of nature for enhancing life is the type of powerful point that will sow seeds for the fundamental will to change. Our current world is dangerously unsustainable. Greenhouse gas levels are reaching dangerous tipping points, climate change is a reality, freshwater shortages are likely to become an issue in the near future, large vortexes of plastic waste are spinning around in the ocean, mass species extinction is a serious encroaching threat, materials are being over consumed and forests are being over harvested (leading to soil erosion and loss of topsoil), all while the world’s population continues to grow and is expected to break the 7 billion mark sometime this year. Sustainability needs to become the theme of our discussions on development. Humans are not separate from nature, we are part of it. Nature has been around much longer than us, and in it we can find wisdom far greater than anything humans have thought up in the past couple thousand years. The goal shouldn’t be to overcome nature; we’ll never win that battle. Our goal should be to work in cooperation with nature, learning from it as we go along. Nowhere is this more applicable than in our cities (Benyus, 2010). Cities can be very sustainable places to live when built in accordance with nature rather than in defiance of it. Biomimicry can be applied on a much larger scale than just individual buildings. City planning needs to include biomimetic concepts in order for the urban landscape to become a truly sustainable place. This means understanding metrics like how much rainfall should be absorbed into the ground and how many tons of carbon should be there. “We need cities to perform like ecosystems, not just look like them,” says Janine Benyus. A city that reprocesses all its waste, doesn’t damage the land or pollute its waters or air, understands its limits, is powered by local sources of energy, and works in cooperation with nature–now that is a sustainable idea. Just as humans are part of nature, so are buildings and cities. Everything comes from the Earth, and once it is understood that all of our man-made creations came from somewhere in the ground we can begin to truly see the potential of the sustainable, biomimetic city (Suave, 2011).
“Cultural evolution is intertwined with genetic evolution, but neither can be neatly mapped onto the other”
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Fig I: Matrix of connections between the subparts of Biourbanism - interrelations and cross-linkages have been analysed. A singular connection is looked at and analysed at a city level.
UNDERSTANDING THE MULTI-DIMENSIONAL CONNECTIONS
Source: Author
It is self-explanatory from the diagram above about how these dependencies function. As an example, when looking at how Fractal Urbanism and P2P Urbanism are related, the forms as suggested by Fractals are used and citizens get empowered to apply them through legal channels as seen in P2PU. There exist a common functionality between them based on pattern, structure and involvement of the people to suggestions laid by the idea and how to implement it as per required in the given context.
The above given matrix of connections help us to understand how the aspects of Biourbanism relate to each other. Some parts can be understood as being just concepts, while some can be seen as strategies to get those ideas implemented.
Understanding these connections hence become vital to formulate how each of them can be applied and therefore, give an overview of the principles behind each. This can be further developed and implemented as per need in the context that it needs to sustain. Although the connections can be interpreted in whichever possible manner to suit the needs, the wholesome nature of this approach will lead to a more sustainable approach towards designing.
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The theory of biourbanism suggests that no being or building exists in isolation. They are interdependent, functioning according to each other’s needs. The four concepts of biourbanism in the scope of study of the seminar are also inter-connected. Each concept has an association with the other, and exist in coherence. These inter-connections are strong catalysts for the efficient functioning of these concepts in the city. The ideas of fractal urbanism and bio-mimicry are based on natural forms and patterns, and implementation of these to planning or designing either a building or a city follows inherent principles of nature. Bio-mimicry, when applied to design in terms of mimicking the function or process, can be evolved to have similar patterns of function or process being implemented in the city planning. The other two processes, urban acupuncture and peer to peer urbanism have a common ground of being able to function at the neighbourhood level. Both the processes heal or work on a small part of the city, and may be applied similarly or differently in different parts of the city. Such a connection is viable in the Indian context where such different layers of cross-cultural connectivity happens and the involvement of the public becomes paramount. While the two concepts have much in common, the ideas share common ground even with the processes. While peer to peer urbanism engages with neighbourhood to create systems followed by nature, which is also seen in bio-mimicry, it also engages the residents of these neighbourhoods to design for themselves. Similar to fractal urbanism, P2P also follows a structure at every level of application. Akin to this connection, urban acupuncture follows at a smaller scale what fractal urbanism follows at a larger scale. It associates with a neighbourhood to heal it, and follows similar patterns of healing at every scale. This becomes a system of design throughout the city, at every level, therefore making these two strongly interwoven. This phenomena is investigated in this Seminar. The patterns of the urban morphology and its inherent energy flow and the spread of axes are pretty much have been in the city since long. Their importance has not been recognised till the Western theories pretty much started to adopt them as their own. There are many examples that suggest returning to our roots and understand why they had worked and are still going strong after all these decades of existence. These phenomena can be seen to be used in times of a financial or social crisis, when one needs to avoid traditional large scale projects yet find a means to improve the urban landscape. One of the examples where this idea can be observed, was for reconstruction in times of financial crisis after nuclear bomb attacks of WW2 on the city of Tokyo. The citizens rebuilt the city, healing neighbourhood by neighbourhood, eventually having similar organisational laws on all levels. This regeneration of the city grew on lines of an inherent pattern of the old city, which was followed to rebuild the city.
“Convivial towns can offer solace in disaster, solidarity in protest, and a quiet everyday delight in urban life…Creating and revitalizing places that foster conviviality is essential to the good life.” -Mark C. Childs
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Another example where both fractal urbanism as an idea and urban acupuncture as a process is seen, is in the Pilot Project, to be implemented in a slum in Pune. The aim is to repair small scale projects of problem areas to transform the larger urban context. It puts the needle in the right place, so as to drain out the tension from the entire body. The team who worked on the project wanted to achieve a similar function by preserving the organic and fractal urban fabric of the slum. A strategy was formed to develop informal slums into permanent urban districts through a process of gradual improvement to existing dwellings instead of demolition and rebuilding. The strategy could be appropriate in any country with similar urban conditions (Balestra, 2009).
“Urbanization, one The strategy strengthens the informal and aims to accelerate the of humankind’s legalisation of the homes of the urban poor. Communities are asked to with the construction process to customize each house and to most successful engage understand which prototype is the best for the family. The architects hence and ambitious developed three house typologies consisting of simple frames that allow for programs, is the future expansion. They developed 3 basic prototypes for the slum dwellers to choose from; House A was a two storey home, structured like a 3 storey triumph of the to ensure safety in future vertical extension; House B had incremental unnatural over the home ground floor, which was left open for either parking or for the family to turn natural, the grid this open space into a shop. House C had an incremental middle floor, to over the organic… hang clothes or to be used like a living room (Balestra, 2009). These patterns may or may not be geometrical or visibly or aesthetically similar looking. Underway on a scale never before These can be understood as a concept of growth. The idea or intent in which a house has been designed, can be very similar to the planning of the witnessed, one neighbourhood and therefore, the precinct and the settlement or the city. side effect of THE ANALYSIS OF THE FOCUSSED CONNECTION - DELHI AND ITS urbanization is the liberation of REVITALIZATION (CROSS FRACTAL URBANISM AND ACUPUNCTURE) vast depopulated Delhi is understandably one of the most complex cities in the world. It’s territories for dense, complexly layered cultural, traditional and lifestyle components have the efficient led it to become a city known for its inherent energies, patterns, flux and multi-nodal axes. Evident is then the discrepancy caused in the way it got production of planned for the future where now it seems cut into two different pieces. This ‘nature’.” causes a break in the flow of its aura. -Bruce Mau
These connections mainly are analogies of how the aspects under study connect together and these connections are vital to the long-term survival of the city in the long run and how far its inhabitants would want to go to see that happen. This analytical connection shows how the patterns of growth and energy levels in the following parts, give an overview of a deeply layered structure of a city. This layering is never to be disrupted by abrupt changes but needs to retain the certain level of simplistic congeniality the whole city has thrived on since the yesteryears. Fractal patterns are subjective to be read differently, owing to their randomness. Yet, it is vital that people accept, flow and function around these, and maintain them as the main connectors and flux for the city and its users. Such patterns have also been studied in the drainage and storm water sewer lines running throughout the city (done by Morphogenesis Studio) and now have become vital to the upkeep and sustainable growth of the city.
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The part where Urban Acupuncture becomes important is that it’s applications help revitalize these existent characteristics of the city.
Fig K : Delhi lines of energy - the image shows the inherent different axes which serve well for the different The post-independence Indian state, took up the administrative responsibility to unify and develop the diverse nation by taking the path of parts they deal with, but as planning its economic, social and cultural resources. While it avows using a whole have divided Delhi into two.
arts and culture and community participation in it’s architecture and Urban Planning as tools for social inclusion, in reality they are typically utilized for strategies of development such as diplomacy and tourism. Hence, revitalization is a necessity to the upkeep of the city and its sustainable survival.
Inherent patterns can also be seen in the way the built and un-built interact (can be seen as fractal imagery) and are also reflective of the flux in the city.
As Delhi becomes a venue for creation, learning and presentation of the efforts of sensitive people, this will help introduce and encourage Source: Author participation in the practice of culture to people in and around the space. This becomes one node which creates a vibrant microclimate of interaction within a given radius. The proposition is to create more catalytic nodes which then cause a ripple effect through the entire city facilitating an urbanlevel re-generation process. All these ideas can only take shape when there is an active collaboration with and between the various stakeholders, including architects, urban designers, policy makers, cultural managers, government agencies, responsible citizens till the last beggar on the street. All have to come together as active catalytic factions of the society to realize the revival of the city. Such a progress can be generated by the proper implementation of technologies and traditional methods with the proactive backing and judicial transparency, which the Seminar focusses on. The values imbibed for the city in its inhabitant should reflect in keeping the city as close to a smooth and unhindered system as possible.
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The following graphics underline the flow of one type of process which helps in implementing such catalysts for change. These also give the layman a major understanding in the awareness he has to attain to be of service to his own habitat. To being one with the ecosystem of Delhi, to be one with the flux of the city, is the epitome where the city becomes a living organism itself. Urban Planning and design appraisals do not remain then as islands of difference, stratification and cultural discontinuity, but behave as support factions to the city. Fig L : The Revitalization Process - the image shows how the existing infrastructure can be revitalized by Urban Acupuncture at different levels, turning the city in to nodes of activity at many points, and finally when the nodes connect, transforms the city, and gives it a new layer for sustainable future Urban Developments. Source: Author
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ARGUMENTS ` What finally arises are questions which will enhance the understanding of these concepts and how they react to the Indian context. One of the major challenges this theory and its sub-parts face are the bureaucratic control over policy making and approval which allows delayed or no participation from the public of a concerned area or community. Also, the acceptance of these theories in very basic sense; like aesthetics for biomimicry, random algorithmic patterns for urban form and façade generation etc. inhibit the designers to think beyond the obvious. People tend to be resistant to accept new upcoming technologies which have not been tested for their potential, and as a result, newer and better technologies and concepts, although derived from the most basic characteristics in our environment, find it hard to gain acceptance, and as a result, implementation of such technologies face huge challenges. Although these theories may seem Western in nature, their roots can be traced back to Indian traditional ways of building and planning. These existing built forms and the strategies and passive technologies that they use, which have sustained through the ages, need to be recognized. Further, the theme has subparts which in themselves can become another topic altogether, studying them under one phenomena gives the chance to understand much better the complexity of a layered city (in this case, Indian cities are viable for scrutiny as they are quite densely complicated and intricately layered), hence it can be understood that their importance lie in the way the Indian city is planned for the future.
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.� -Isaac Asimov
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CONCLUSION It is evident that Biourbanism can play a significant role in garnering the natural sciences in architecture and planning for a more environment centric approach which will sustain for a longer time without being a burden on the already famished supplies of resources. This has been established by experts through intensive critiques on the nature of modern urban planning principles. These principles have dealt with the city landscape as isolated development plots rather than a holistic ecosystem where elements exist cohesively. These elements, which have a sense of an overall energy and a flow which is unbroken throughout the city, have been delineated to a degree where urbanism is just bespoke with the modern landscape and is boastful of its own statement, rather than being unified with nature and inhabitants. A number of values and teachings emerge from the concepts studied under Biourbanism. Understanding the city is paramount; how the city has evolved and what it aspires to be. Why people would want to be in that city, what inspires them and keeps them rooted. Cropped urbanism here and there has generally degraded the level of energy and the undertones of the urban fabric, which feel fatigued and pushed. Although population and resource management play an important role as well in governing the extent of impact by urbanism, the concepts of Biourbanism, when realized, show that there is a way where one can associate intricate inherent natural play of systemic approach to a dilemma and not be blind to the context which circumscribes it. It is also apparent that these concepts are not solutions to the problems faced by the cities today, but merely observational tools to make sure future developments are more sustainable. They are to be understood as methods and values which have a practical and time-proven background and not just gimmicks for individual success. Through this research, it is found that these different aspects exist in the “…vital, too, are those architects traditional Indian city, such as inherent energy flow, passive architecture, materials, axes of movements and pattern in the urban who are close to vernacular morphology. Despite the awareness towards these aspects and their human reality thanimportance, they remain unnoticed and to an extent, alienated by urban occupied with the designers. It is only when Western theories start to acknowledge and kind of advanced converge on these as basics that need to be revisited, the Indian architect comes to realize the importance of these aspects. It is ludicrous how the architectural planning principles are forgotten, and overridden by whatever the forms that serve Indian Western theory has to offer, without testing it against the Indian traditional to separate from and indigenous principles. each the very people that they should help… ”
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This leads to a controversy where it becomes important to choose between either following a certain specified theory, or to reflect back on the Indian value system, and apply the stated concepts and theory only after completely understanding it. These theories may need to be analysed so as to test their ability to be able to adapt to a certain context or requirement of an area. In the present day discourse of smart cities, where we continue to look up to western cities for inspiration. Here, we may need to pause and reflect back on our indigenous concepts of planning and the inherent principles, and look at what the traditional Indian cities have to offer. The nature of the paper sheds light on the theme of Biourbanism and its concepts. It does not intend to proclaim these as ideal tools for design, but to bring forward the idea of a new theory in design. It is essential for upcoming architects to be able to respect and acknowledge the fact there are multiple suggestive as well as detailed theories. One should be able to have an informed grasp on them.
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