TUR 4, Place People Relationships

The Urban Rhetoric

Issue 4_September 2021

September 2021

Issue 4

People Place Relationships

R Sketch © Swapnil Chaudhari 1

PEOPLE RELATIO

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PLACE ONSHIPS

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IRDS

About IRDS Innovature Research and Design Studio (IRDS) is an interdisciplinary creative practice, trying to weave diverse realms such as architecture, urban fabric and user aspirations into a distinctive pattern of thoughtful design.

Publisher Innovature Research and Design Studio #272, 3rd Floor, 5th main, Jayanagar 4th block, Bangalore - 560078 Contact - 080-41210040 Website - www.innovatureindia.com

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THE URBAN RHETORIC About TUR

Team TUR “The Urban Rhetoric” is a bi-annual initiative by Innovature Research and Design Studio [IRDS] to create a platform for discussion and act as a catalyst in recreating the future of urbanism and urban development in India.

We aim to do so with the help of an academic magazine with essays that inspire the agenda for future urbanism.

A city is not just defined by the planners and architects that build it, but also by the users that occupy it. Thus, through this initiative we strive to make these parallels meet by reinforcing the interactions between decision makers and users. This magazine crusading towards the agenda for future urbanism aims to provide a platform for dialogue and discussions on growth and development in Indian cities.

Ar. Vaidehi Raipat Co-Founder, Editor Ar. Maria Akhtar Co-Founder, Editor Ar. Ahefaz Panjwani Graphics Designer Bharat Singh Editor Charu Khowala Editor Dr. Bharati Singh Raipat Advisor, Editor Dr. Priya Choudhary Advisor 5

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Foreword

By Maria Akhtar

The Urban Rhetoric is a biannual magazine, a platform to discuss the recent trends in urbanism in India. It has been serving resourceful by encouraging versatile narratives in the form of articles, art pieces, photographs, and illustrations from creative people across the world. TUR-Issue1 titled ‘Future of Urbanism’ voiced opinions of renowned architects and designers, discussing their ideas, theories and work in the urban domain. Whereas, the second issue, ‘The Urban People’ was an attempt to voice the unheard stories of people engaged in the informal sector in India.

Issue 3 titled ‘Spatial Chronicles’ united the reaction of urban enthusiasts on the underlying dynamics and the effect of the COVID 19 on the urban culture.

This issue of TUR titled ‘Place People Relationships’ attempts to explore the unique relationship between the people(user) and the built space(environment) around them. This mutual relationship between people and place is multi-layered and complex, with understandings woven in various disciplines like architecture, urban design, environmental psychology, social science and anthropology. The articles published in this issue explore the domain of urban design, user experience and space syntax, and are intended to set a ground for discussions in the area of architectural experience and space-making.

Ching(2015) explores the physical and visual properties of elements of form, and principles of spatial organisation to articulate specific spatial qualities. He explores how various configurations of elements of the form(vertical and horizontal elements), openings, light, views etc defines the quality of space and articulate architectural experience. The bodily

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experience of architecture is a product of the interaction of these physical elements(tangible) with the sensory response of the users(intangible) generated in the setting. Hence the design of the space not only defines its physical qualities but also stimulates specific emotional responses amongst its’ users.

“I confront the city with my body; my legs measure the length of the arcade and the width of the square; my gaze unconsciously projects my body onto the facade of the cathedral, where it roams over the mouldings and contours, sensing the size of recesses and projections; my bodyweight meets the mass of the cathedral door, and my hand grasps the door pull as I enter the dark void behind. I experience myself in the city, and the city exists through my embodied experience. The city and my body supplement and define each other. I dwell in the city and the city dwells in me.” (Pallasmaa,2012).Hence the city or the built is experienced holistically through all bodily senses. The built environment is grasped by feeling and deciphering its length, size, mass, texture through all the senses, each interacting with one another. Its spatial quality determines the perception, response, and hence the nature of the interaction between the user and the space. Such versatile interactions generate memorable experiences and have the power to evoke emotions of joy, grief, confidence, they have the power to strengthen the sense of self, connecting with the cosmos and situating an individual in the realm of the world.

The city acts as a stage for its people to perform, live and play, as they form series of connections and memories with its streets, parks, gardens and homes. Such earliest associations or the

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first impression of a place can be credited to its spatial quality, physical design and visual characteristics, however as the user dwells deeper, analysing the environment through subjective values of culture and beliefs, such early impressions are replaced by meaningful associations. Hence apart from the form of the built environment, the mutual relationship between man and environment is governed by mechanisms like symbolism, human perception and cognition, socio-cultural values and subjective world view. In an attempt to study this relationship between man and environment Rapaport(1977) states ”This implies that the built environment provides cues for behaviour and that environment can, therefore, be seen as a form of non-verbal communication…People then act according to their reading of the environmental cues and thus the ‘language’ must be understood.

If the design of the environment is seen as a process of encoding information, then the users can be seen as decoding it. If the code is not shared, not understood or inappropriate, the environment does not communicate.”

‘Place people relationships’ explores the various possibilities of people-place relationships and their relevance in understanding the urban form through articles, photo essay and illustrations.

This relevance is of three kinds. First is theoretical, where the authors draw from the existing literature to understand the mutual relationship between users and the city. The second is critical, which aims to analyse and reflect on the design of the urban through the lens of spatial order and spatial empathy. And third is practical which proposes design ideas and solutions to stimulate specific spatial relationships between people and their places, hence providing cues for inclusive urbanism. I sincerely

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hope that this issue triggers fruitful discussions on the design and relevance of spatial order in urban form, and its potential to define human behaviour, shape lives and revolutionize change.

References K., Ching Francis D. Architecture: Form, Space, and Order.

Wiley et Sons, 2015.

Rapoport, Amos. Human Aspects of Urban Form: Towards a Man-Environment Approach to Urban Form and Design, n.d.

Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Eyes of the Skin. Wiley, n.d.

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Contents

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Theory and Concept

2_

Design and Implementation

3_

Perception and Criticism

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Articles, Photos, Poems, Illustrations

-- Role of Spatial Empathy in creating Places - Chaitanyaa Agarwal -- The Dilemma of Public Spaces: Are they still needed? - Deepashree Choudhury -- Cinemas, Transformative Public Spaces and Parallel Reality - Jaidev Tripathy -- Humans and the spaces: The impact of spatial qualities on humans - Guruprasath RG -- Impact of spatial order on Human behaviour and interpersonal relationships Vidushi Sharma -- Ironic Urban Advancement - Srushti Panchal

--The relationship between human emotions and interior design - Bhupendra Kumar & Priya Boby -- Gender Rich Public Space: The Missing Dimension - Alisha Jammal & Pooja Kumar -- New Delhi and the Planning of Carcerality - Samriddhi Khare -- Reviving Koliwada - Swapnil Chaudhari

-- Conquering the Streets - Sofia Ghigliazza L -- Pandemics - A natural revival of architectural space - Mustapha Elmoussaoui -- The Lonely City - Jaidev Tripathy -- India-Architecture of Intangible Spaces - Shreyasee Shinde -- Piecing it together again - Alefiya Vali -- The Politics of Leisure - Smriti Bhaya -- Akalbodhan: Memoir of a visit to Kolkata - Vinod Chovvayil Panengal -- A Voluntary Prison - Vaidehi Raipat

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Theory and

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Role of Spatial Empathy in creating Places - Chaitanyaa Agarwal

page 14

The Dilemma of Public Spaces: Are they still needed?

- Deepashree Choudhury

page 18

Cinemas, Transformative Public Spaces and Parallel Reality - Jaidev Tripathy

page 24

Humans and the spaces: The impact of spatial qualities on humans - Guruprasath RG

page 26

Impact of spatial order on Human behaviour and interpersonal relationships - Vidushi Sharma

page 30

Ironic Urban Advancement - Srushti Panchal

page 34

d Concept 13

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Role of Spatial Empathy in creating Places Chaitanyaa Agrawal Chaitanyaa Agrawal is a 4th year architecture student, pursuing her Bachelor’s degree from Rachana Sansad’s Academy of Architecture.

Her interests lie in arcitecture theory and research, and the philosophies associated with it. Exuberantly curious and a literary enthusiast, she is an avid reader and a creative writer. Her poem has been published in a poetry anthology book titled “ A moment in time”, by Paper Towns publication.

T

he surroundings of any living or a nonliving entity are marked by everything that is encompassed in its physical domain.

It is the immediate environment in which an object sits or interacts. Space is nothing but the interaction between these entities, embodied in the mathematical form of dimensions. The way these interactions are perceived by a living being becomes the identity of that space. We identify a place by its physical attributes like name and location, while space exists as the metaphysical identity (Schumacher, 2008). A crossroad junction is just space unless someone identifies its existence and perhaps recalls where the road leads. The addition of signage on that junction is evidence of its identity as a place.

Thus, the transition of a space into a place can be understood as a spatial experience. All sentient beings have an understanding and connection, often interdependent, with their surroundings;

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the ‘human space’ is our surroundings. Everyday experiences in an environment develop into a cognitive identity and affect and alter the way living beings react or behave.

Behavior is governed by a complex network of stimuli and is a multifaceted discipline of responses. Understanding human psychology in architecture is inherently necessary, architecture being the art of designing ‘human space’.

The concept of empathy in psychology, as we understand it, is trying to imagine ourselves in the shoes of the other, without losing our own identity. According to Marleau-Ponty, the world is a connection between ‘me’ and the ‘other’, the bond which emerges upon acknowledging that we are surrounded by the same atmosphere.

(Duarte & Pinheiro, 2016). As we experience space, considering it as the ‘other’, we trigger intangible reactions based on memory. Even though it is impossible to ever truly be in someone else’s

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Source:http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_things_to_do/facilities/images/Brooklyn_Queens_GreenwayGuide.pdf .

shoes, it instills a sense of responsibility in the way we affect and are affected in space. We thus start associating feelings to spaces; climbing up a floating staircase might be fearful or adventurous, the meditation center with its pagoda form might instill curiosity or calmness. Adaptiveness, along with the idea of ‘spatial empathy’ could become grounds for creative innovations in the field of architecture. Adaptiveness allows us to explore beyond our present understandings of the world, whereas spatial empathy resonates with our understandings and experiences.

Spatial empathy is closely linked with spatial order. Spatial order is the pattern in which objects are arranged and observed, and can be pleasant or unpleasant, recognizable or alien. Architects generally aim to create an aesthetically appealing, consciously or subconsciously noticeable spatial order, which directs a behavioral pattern. Spatial

order could thus be considered as a unit of spatial empathy. Identifying and recognizing patterns that evoke certain feelings might become the architect’s cue into understanding the behavior the architectural work will lead to and certain established spatial orders can be challenged through it. The design of a parliament building could be seen beyond establishing an authoritative regime into becoming a place of servitude, a redevelopment project could take a step further from ‘form follows function’ into inculcating a sense of belonging in its residents.

Identifying patterns in behavioral responses to certain spaces and situations is essential for the creation of ‘empathetic spaces’.

The human brain acknowledges space as more than just a means of survival, thus developing the notion of an ‘atmosphere’ or ‘ambience.’ It evokes sensory responses, and paves way for a certain

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type of reaction. Although feelings are unique and seldom predictable, the act of sensorial interactions is more objective. The volume of spaces or patterns on the facade of a structure is just a part and not the whole experience of an architectural place. The emphasis lies on the movement within the space, the experiences generated through the movement, and the interactions it promotes. A pathway connecting two major lakeside promenades in the city, through pedestrian and cycle tracks, fenced by flowers and shrubs, having urban spaces transitioning from lakeview to hustle of underbridge spaces (for example the BrooklynQueens-Greenway system)- all relating and reminding us of our identity in our surroundings.

The idea of spatial empathy or empathy itself is crucial to the existence of the ‘other’. The way we interact with space, as well as other humans within it, is often the result of the spatial order it follows; a footpath along a highway with hotels and resorts versus the crowded streets of a flea market. The sensorial understandings of spatial empathy could be applied to understand the kind of interactions and interpersonal relationships that built spaces develop. This becomes especially crucial in today’s context, where our physical boundaries are being altered due to the pandemic. A simple park bench where strangers would often greet each other with pleasantries and handshakes is now being separated by a planter in the middle. Although the pandemic is only temporary, it has certainly brought a change in our ‘normal’.

An architectural entity or space is not limited to serving its function or as a means of comfort or pleasure, but also forms emotional associations and instills a sense of belonging. Spatial empathy with its sensorial tools explores the interpersonal relationships- among various user groups and the user with space itself. Thus it can be concluded spatial empathy is the key that converts a ‘house’ into a ‘home’, enabling the multisensory interactions to play to their full potential. This could potentially be a way forward

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into developing sensitive ambient spaces as designers, with a background of historical and psychological research.

Bibliography

Duarte, C. R., & Pinheiro, E. (2016, September). Spatial empathy and urban experience: a case study in a public space from Rio de Janeiro. Ambiances, tomorrow.

Proceedings of 3rd International Congress on Ambiances, 3(Volos, Greece), 611 - 616.

Ffhal-01414016

GAINES, E. (2006). Communication and the Semiotics of Space. SAGE PUBLICATIONSNew Delhi /Thousand Oaks/ London.

10.1177/097325860600100203

Grosz, E. A. (2001). Architecture from the outside : essays on virtual and real space. The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England. NA2500 .G76 2001

Popple, A. V., & Levi, D. M. (2005). The perception of spatial order at a glance (Issue 9 ed., Vol. Volume 45). Vision Research. 10.1016

Schumacher, P. (2008). The Concept of Space in Architecture : Emergence, Hegemony and Transcendence. Editrice Compositori, O.P.4(Bologna, Italy). http://www. patrikschumacher.com/Texts/Space.htm

Simonnot, N., Balaÿ, O., & Frioux, S. (2013). Ambience and the history of architecture: the experience and the sensitive imagination of the built environment. Ambiances, 1, 3. https://journals.openedition.org/ ambiances/483?lang=en

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People make cities, and it is to them, not buildings that we must fit our plans – Jane Jacobs

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The Dilemma of Public Spaces: Are they still needed?

Deepashree Choudhury Deepashree Choudhury is an urban designer with wide experience in architectural practice and teaching. Her passion lies in educating young minds and sensitizing the fraternity towards devising wholesome knowledge innovation and sharing platforms. She has published numerous quality papers relating to city discourses and varied spatial dimensions of contemporary cities remain as her main research interest.

Introduction

The term ‘Public Space’ has achieved unparallel importance in the discourse of architecture and city design. Despite being in limelight; often it is seen that public spaces are not designed consciously, but they appear as afterthoughts in the process of designing cities. It is a common practice to design buildings, place them on the site and then term the area left vacant between the buildings as ‘public space’; space which the public can use to move around. But the questions regarding their effectiveness and suitability to be used for public functions often remain unanswered.

The first question to ask while probing ‘Public Spaces’ is” What makes a space public?”

The qualities which first come to mind are;

-Accessibility: democratic entrance

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-Usability: democratic use

-Freedom: democratic existence To quote some other opinions, Kevin lynch, an urbanist has associated successful public spaces with the qualities of vitality, sensation, adequacy, accessibility, and control (Lynch, 1961). Jane Jacobs, another urbanist highlighted the social functions of such places and claimed that the vitality and safety of neighborhoods are intimately connected to spatial configurations of public spaces around which they are organized and density and diversity are the two most desirable qualities in public spaces (Jacobs, 1961).

The Golden Days of Public Spaces

Looking into history, Public Spaces were inherent characteristics of cities since the inception of

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acted as the stage on which citizens’ public life was played out (Figure 2). Apart from being used for commercial, religious functions, political gatherings, and traffic nodes, these public squares became places for congregation and relaxation. They greatly infused vitality into cities by the way of encouragement they provided to social interaction and aiding image development of cities. In traditional cities, all these diverse functions were accommodated side by side in the same spaces in a fine balance.

Figure 1 Piazza Navona, Italy: Urban Room of the City (Memluk, 2013)

civilization. In Medieval cities, narrow winding lanes opened up either in market squares or church squares and played a functional role as well as provided a wonderful view of the landscape. Roman Forum and Greek Agora firmly established the public realm in the urban landscape. Renaissance and the Baroque period saw public spaces in the form of open squares and streets which determined the location of important buildings (Figure 1).

The changing paradigm

From the onset of the 19th century, a wave of industrialization teamed up with capitalist philosophy to win over the city spaces. Public spaces were reshaped and their use shifted from

Landmark buildings were designed to give the desired enclosure to open spaces and were placed at the end of broad avenues which acted as the grand axis to bring people into the common space. Public spaces were supreme, Figure 3 Plan Voisin, Le Corbusier 1925: Towers in Park syndrome (Rowe & Koetter, 1978).

‘public use’ to those of ‘revenue generation.

Population explosion and infrastructural crunch led to engulfment of public spaces for private benefit and thus started the trend of commoditization of public spaces which continues till date with vigor in maximum parts of the world. With commoditization, public space no longer remained public. They excluded the ones who could not pay for accessing it.

Figure 2 Old Town Square, Prague, Czech Republic: Stage for Public Life (Khandelwal, n.d.)

In the 20th century, the existence of public spaces was challenged further by the modernist masters who dreamt of remedying the ills of industrial cities by treating them like machines

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that would address functional problems like light, ventilation, occupants’ health; Le Corbusier’s utopian visions represented in plans like Ville Contemporaine(1922), Plan Voisin( 1925 )and Radiant City( 1933), F.L. Wright’s Broadacre City concept (1932), Linear city ideas of Arturo Soria y Mata (J.R.Curtis, 1986) are notable examples illustrating these principles. They separated functions, celebrated the car by crisscrossing the urban landscape with roads and highways.

The city became a collection of ‘towers in park’ syndrome i.e., tall buildings set in vast undefined open spaces connected by highways (Figure 3).

The open spaces though were forced upon the public, they were no more the revered public spaces of the past. They lacked human scale and being surrounded by traffic all around was no more treated as the ideal place for socialization.

These spaces became inaccessible to the public especially pedestrians and lost their spatial definition due to inadequate or absent enclosure.

At the same time, they were sapped of their place-making and image generating capacity as they became secondary to the buildings which garnered all attention from architects and urban designers. Simply put, public spaces were no more designed for public use, but spaces that were left between the buildings were retrofitted and programmed to accommodate public function, that too for them who could pay.

The suburbanization push characteristic of the 20th-century city planning idioms whereby one could relocate away from core cities and settle down in planned suburbs further accelerated deterioration of public spaces in city cores. Other factors that led to the slow demise of public spaces were the emergence of new building typologies (e.g., public markets were replaced by shopping malls) and improved communication and technology which made it possible for people to keep in touch virtually without physical meet-ups. The advent of the 21st century saw security concerns as an additional threat to public spaces. Under these gloomy circumstances, the question hovers,” Do public spaces still hold the right to exist, or should they turn themselves in for remodeling so they can be of monetary benefits

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Figure 4 Central Park, Connaught Place, New Delhi, India (MattHartzell, 2007):A place for collective culture and social exchange

Figure 5 Victoria Memorial, Kolkata, India: Image of the City (Author)

to the city they belong?”

The Dilemma: To be or not to be

According to many, physical public spaces are no longer required as the virtual world has overtaken the world, people have become too busy to devote time for social and recreational pursuits and instantaneous communication with each other is possible while at distance. Many cities themselves prohibit the congregation of large numbers of citizens at public spaces due to safety and security issues. But we must realize that though there have been tremendous scientific and technological discoveries in the past

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Figure 6 A local chess club under a Flyover; Kolkata, India: Response to local context (LBB, 2017)

Figure 8 A Street corner for daily Meet- ups, Kolkata, India: SmallScale Everyday Public Place (Ghosh, 2018)

decades, human nature and the human brain have changed very little. The human being still longs for societal connection and public space provides a container for the same (Figure 4).

various persons and groups, as acts as a stage where citizens take their turns to act. Public spaces teach the art of conflict resolution, tolerance, and solidarity and have huge social, political, and economic value. Public spaces in addition to being physical settings for everyday experiences possess a host of subjective meanings that accumulate over time.

Public spaces are also the ones where the collective culture is nurtured which creates the much-needed social cohesion to counteract the widespread feeling of insecurity in today’s world. Public spaces are the image of the city and foremost instruments of urban branding which has many benefits for the city (Figure 5).

Public spaces anchor the citizens to the city and conjoin ‘place attachment ‘by permitting and encouraging, the greatest possible number of meetings, encounters, challenges, between

Figure 7 A Local Shop: Everyday Public Space in its Own Right.

(Ganguly, 2017)

So, the solution to the dilemma lies not in lengthy discussions and resource-consuming designs but in developing small-scale everyday public places, receptive of the urban context in local scale considering social aspects (Figure 6, Figure 8). Architects design buildings but conveniently forget about the spaces outside their buildings which are the settings from which buildings are viewed. This practice must be reversed and public spaces must command the same if not more respect as the individual buildings.

Public spaces must promote new needs and new spaces and must be shaped by multidisciplinary understanding. They must be allowed to grow and exist in their own right as they are the only spaces where human unpredictability, chaos, and coincidence are celebrated (Figure 7, Figure 8). Good public space is a relative place, its references to the urban whole are more important than its own identity and it has supreme value as the nurturer of a vital, just, and prudent urban society.

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Bibliography

Ganguly, B. (2017). Wikimedia commons.

Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia. org/wiki/File:Adda_-_Madhyamgram_-_ Kolkata_20170527133538.jpg

hosh, S. (2018). in-street.com. Retrieved from in-street.com: http://in-street.com/ portfolios/spirit-of-kolkata/

J.R.Curtis, W. (1986). Le Corbusier:Ideas and Forms. Phaidon Press Limited.

Jacobs, J. (1961). The Death and Life of American Cities. New Year: Vintage Book.

Retrieved from http://www.petkovstudio.com/ bg/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/The-Deathand-Life-of-Great-American-Cities_Jane-JacobsComplete-book.pdf

Khandelwal, M. (n.d.). 15 Famous and culturally important public squares in Europe.

Retrieved from Rethinking the Future: https:// www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/designing-fortypologies/a2972-15-famous-and-culturallyimportant-public-squares-in-europe/

LBB. (2017). Love Chess? Play A Game At This 3-Decade-Old Chess Club Under A Flyover.

Retrieved May 10, 2021, from https://lbb.in/ kolkata/gariahat-chess-club/

Lynch, K. (1961). Image of the city. MIT Press.

MattHartzell. (2007). Connaught Place, Delhi’s commercial hub. Retrieved from https://www. flickr.com/photos/matthartzell/810824591/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/ index.php?curid=3381870

Memluk, M. Z. (2013). Designing Urban Squares. In M. Özyavuz, Advances in Landscape Architecture. IntechOpen. doi:10.5772/55826 Rowe, C., & Koetter, F. (1978). Collage City.

Cambridge: MIT Press.

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They can print count the popu hundreds of th each man a cit no more than few houses, a fe –

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t statistics and ulations in housands, but to ty consists of a few streets, a ew people.

– Graham Green 23

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Cinemas, Transformative Public Spaces and Parallel Reality Jaidev Tripathy Jaidev is a fresh architecture graduate and artist based in Gurgaon. His body of work involves the depiction of spaces, places, perspectives, and human behaviour through narratives, all within the urban context. He defines himself as grey, also viewing the world and his position within it through the same lens - one with layers of profound nuances.

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y architecture thesis, titled ‘Look the Door is Open’ (Sushant School of Art and Architecture, 2021), involves looking at cinemas as potentially transformative public spaces, where spatial order plays a role in allowing people to depart from their everyday urban lifestyles. The idea was to morph the typical and standardized entry, and the box office area into a redefined spatial experience, allowing a shift in public behaviour. This illustration is a view of the redesigned box office. As one enters the space, one feels as if stepping into a different world; a parallel reality. The vibrant materials, structural frames, open spaces, and film posters together characterise the Indian cinemas as public spaces thriving with excitement and anticipation of entering newer narratives.

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Humans and the Spaces_The impact of spatial qualities on humans Guruprasath RG Guruprasath has just completed his graduate course in Architecture, at the School of Architecture and Planning, Anna University, Chennai. He believes in a conscious approach towards architecture, which fulfills the intentions of the people towards the built spaces and vice-versa. He is more interested in understanding architecture, which made him incline towards writing on architecture. He also enjoys reading and writing other stuff.

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umans ‘do not have any mental record of who we are until storytelling is present as a kind of armature, giving shape to that record’(H. Porter Abbot- The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative). Our very definition as human beings, as Peter Brooks says, ‘is very much bound up with the stories we tell about our own lives and the world in which we live. We cannot, in our dreams, our daydreams, our ambitious fantasies, avoid the imaginative imposition of form on life.’

Recording through human history and the social transformation, architecture is evolving with human accomplishments. As an artefact created by humans, architecture is closely connected with humans, and simultaneously, as a shelter occupied by humans at some time, in some places, architecture is closely associated with the world. Human beings design architecture as spatial storytelling to mediate human knowledge

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of the world, humans and architecture.

In no way, we exist in separation from a spacedesigned or shaped in some way, that surrounds us. In an urban setting, we move through a continuum of exceedingly diverse areas- the buildings, the streets, the squares. As we walk through the urban streets, we randomly perceive different facades of different heights. The shells of the buildings act as filters between within and without, serving to bind us or separate us from the (hidden) interiors of incredibly different characters and impacts.

Paul Ricover (French Philosopher) states, ‘Life World is a world that humans are willing to engage with and provide various possibilities for human lives to become real.’ In ‘life-world, the world that humans experience every day is not static and unchanging, but an alive and dynamic world for humans to perceive, engage with,

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some places create a sense of identity, offering a point of reference to our cultural roots. But, whatever the different social, political and cultural characteristics that influence human perception, it is clear that built spaces generate substantial, individually perceived sensory impressions on all human beings, forming the ‘human space’.

and experience at any time; in which humans transform from a ‘nonparticipating spectator, surveyor of the world’ to a lively participant, constantly and actively discovering and experiencing the world.

For Roland Barthes (Theorist), architecture is more than a collection and composition of constructive structural elements- the walls, floors, windows and ceilings. These serve the functional purposes of architecture. However, they also isolate architectural spaces from human beings and the world. He says, “In addition to structural, functional meanings, for human beings, architecture is also, ‘a psychological need, a social prerequisite, and even a spiritual attribute’, which could signify endless, possible meanings.”

In this relationship between the humans and the built environment, the role of the architect is to recognize and read the spatial potential as well as to understand the societal needs of the people.

For instance, research proves that the high ceiling evokes a sense of creative thinking and the low ceiling evokes logical thinking in people. There are findings that the color ‘pink’ calms down people in rage or anger. Thus, built environment does make these sensory impressions on humans with their form, color, and texture to which human brains can respond. These impressions form the spatial empathy, determining the spatial potential for the architects to respond.

Erving Goffman’s (Sociologist) reading, ‘Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life’ presents the unconscious behaviors of humans in everyday life. He describes the three steps happening

‘The world is not a collection of raw materials as opposed to constructed material goods, but rather a complex continuity of material relationships running from our bodies across the world, which are variously constructed into meanings of different kinds, of which nature is one and culture is another’, (Dudley.H.S.Museum Materialities: Objects, Engagements, Interpretation.) Architectural spaces are a part of this world, having these relationships with nature and culture. Places are formed with different characteristics: some places would invite us to linger merely functioning as transit areas whereas

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while two strangers cross a sidewalk. He says that ‘first, at a certain distance, each protagonist has a “quick but open glance” at the other, then looks down (to his phone or the emptiness in front of him). Then, quickly, the glances are raised a second time, right before crossing each other, generally not exchanging eye contact but in a pattern that means “I am not a threat, I wish you are not one either but I do not want to interact”.

Finally, the glances are lowered right at the instant of crossing.’ This involves two dimensions: the dimensions of bodies and the dimensions of gaze. Following his theory, an architectural concept known as ‘Passerelles’ was developed.

This project aims to demonstrate the aspects of cognition and sociology in architecture. It is the composition of narrow staircases facing different directions offering an open view. Walking up or downstairs is a challenging locomotor task.

When crossing a stranger in a staircase, people need to gaze at each other for a longer time than on the sidewalk, thus increasing the chance of eye contact. Even when the gazes are lowered they are still projected four steps ahead of their location instead of right in front of the protagonist which also calls for more proximity in the gaze dimension. It proved to play a role in the positive bias towards strangers, establishing the interpersonal relationships between them.

Architecture is often not interpreted or used in the ways it was originally intended. The fact necessitates the need to be open to every new task. It is important to craft the right intention of the building, specific to their humans and the space than crafting the building itself. As an architect, our job is to discover the impact of spaces on humans, detecting the qualities of the different spaces and understanding the interactions between humans and the spaces.

If we, as architects, are to develop new ways of reading spaces, we have to explore those that already exist and apply those to new design questions. There lies the reconsideration of the relationships between the people and the places.

Regardless of the particular architectural

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language, it is about the ability to gain the acceptance of the people who interact with it, the empathy that it creates in human beings. It is humans, who occupy these spaces, experience the ambience and are drawn to them. Simply emphasizing and elucidating the spatial qualities and potentials is often enough for the architects to design for the future urban spaces for the people to communicate and identify with.

References:

Barbara Holser, Architectural Interface: Space- Architect- Humans

Fangqing Lyu, Architecture as spatial storytelling: Mediating human knowledge of the world, humans and architecture

Rébecca Kleinberger - A Language for Empathy based design

Dudley.H.S.- Museum materialities: Objects, Engagements, Interpretation.

Ricoeur, P., Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences: Essays on Language, Action, and Interpretation

Goffman, Erving, ‘Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life’

Abbott, H.P., The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative

Barthes, R., Elements of Semiology

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Cultures and climates differ all over the world, but people are the same. They’ll gather in public if you give them a good place to do it.

– Jan Gehl

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Ironic Urban Advancement Vidushi Sharma I’m a student of architecture in Sushant School of Art and Architecture, Gurgaon. I have an insatiable passion of learning new things and expressing myself through words in the form of art and literature. I often indulge myself in cooking, dance and reading. I believe that words can change the world.

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pace is both neutral and subjective; the philosopher’s space seems to be different from the architect’s space which is also different from many people’s space. However, in reality (of our everyday life) we conceive space in similar ways especially when spaces are designed for specific purposes (Suvanajata, 2001) . It is never in isolation but relative. A space also attracts experiences, creating an intersection of such unique occurrences and social encounters.

Thus these interactions form another incidence, which bonds the people with the memory of the spatial experience. It is the creation and sharing of the experiences that create (communication and bonds) a community. In a community or a group of individuals, many factors determine a person’s experience in a space. Thus, irrespective of its function, a space can make people think and form attachments to fragments of built and unbuilt spaces like a home or a neighborhood

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park or a national monument.

Spatial order tends to embed the experiences and associates itself with the relationship the individual shares with strangers, acquaintances, and relatives.

Spatial cognition involves the active interpretation of symbols and events happening in the space around us. This cognitive relationship can be at various levels- starting from the scale of a dwelling, to a neighborhood, to a city, and even the burgeoning urban context. (Raipat, 2021) Spatial order can be inviting or intimidating, comfortable or uncomfortable, pleasing or apprehensive, and this is responsible for determining how users interact with their fellow users in the given spatial order. Spatial organization is responsible for transforming cultural patterns, which induce meaning to the

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space that eventually responds to users’ needs and fancies. User behavior and beliefs, in turn, impose onto the space around them a specific order which reformulates the spatial organization in such a way that space becomes more user friendly and dynamic. (Raipat, 2021)

People and behavior

For memory, architecture symbolizes a point of reference in time - a proscenium against which experience can be recalled; in architecture, memory reveals the essence of form which allows the built environment to lend itself to human spatial comprehension. (Hopkins, 1996) The built environment of a place significantly impacts human behavior and, most importantly, it affects the ‘ human to human ‘ interaction. It signifies that the relationships that people can establish on streets and any other private, public, or semi-public space are greatly influenced by the specific spatial order that exists in that place.

The spatial order of a space alters the perception of the user and provides them with a sensory impulse. It also governs the type of interaction people encounter, the number of people who use the space at a time, the function of the space, and incorporates various elements that can significantly impact people’s behavior like green spaces, enclosed spaces, a central courtyard space, etc. It can also be seen in jail cells and rehabilitation centers where the spaces are made to feel like enclosures with barbed wires and alter people’s behavior into a more disciplinarian one.

Proximity and interpersonal relationships

The proximity of spaces and the design strategies incorporated to create a space wherein people are in certain propinquity affect the relationships people form during their interactions in that space which can be further understood by proxemics. It discusses the distance of people from each other and the objects around them. It

also considers the nature of things that influence the emotion and experience of a place and space.

Spatial empathy emerges, which forms the basis of interpersonal relationships formed or encouraged in a space. It identifies the individual with the ambiance of the place. The architecture of a space, even the planning of a city, can urge the users and residents to look at the people around them. “As we roam through the city, the input from our sensations triggers emotional responses, which are referenced by our emotional memories. These experiences make it possible for us to align with others. The research shows that the sensorial experience of the body is the foundation for the development of a feeling of ‘spatial empathy.’”

(Cristiane Rose Duarte, 2016) It happens that as time passes, the relationship with people changes too. And the circle of our emotional proximity is reflected in our physical proximity as well. “Intimate space has been classified as that ranging from close physical contact to 18 inches, personal space from 18 inches to 4 feet, social space from 4 feet to 12 feet, and public space from 12 feet and beyond.”

(E.Rakel, 2012) Thus when strangers become friends, the relationship strengthens, and the distance shortens. With the outbreak of the COVID-19, the spaces have been put up to a test of re-evaluation. At the same time, social distancing (with at least 2m distance) has become a norm, and people have restricted access to public spaces. It has created a sense of enclosure for people within their houses and emphasized the importance of the living areas and terraces in homes.

Thus the spatial order has a consequential impact on the way people react and interact with each other. It can also significantly impact the relationships between the people and the place.

A place can also be significant if it has a memory attached to it, like a childhood playground or grandmother’s backyard. Thus it is the space and the elements in it that can make a place inviting

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or intimidating. It propagates how designers and planners with slight sensitivity to the space can change its overall experience and memory and how a non-functional structure can become a landmark. Therefore sensitivity to culture, heritage, and experience should be among the key factors molding a space and a city. It is for the users and the designers to form a healthy bond. The spatial order envelops the houses, the streets, the neighborhood, the shops, the roads, transport, the educational structures, the prisons, the playgrounds, the heritage structures, and most importantly, the people. Thus it is the responsibility of the designers to shape and structure the relationships of the people and the city.

Reference

Baldassare, M. (1978). Human Spatial Behavior. Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 4 , 2956.

Cristiane Rose Duarte, E. P. (2016). Spatial empathy and urban experience: a case study in a public space from Rio de Janeiro. (pp. 611 - 616).

Volos: HAL.

E.Rakel, R. (2012). Chapter 12 - Establishing Rapport. In R. E.Rakel, Textbook of Family Medicine (eighth edition) (pp. 146-159). Chapter 12 - Establishing Rapport.

Gunnar Olsson, S. G. (1968). SPATIAL THEORY AND HUMAN BEHAVIOUR. Regional Science Association International, Vol. 21 , 229242.

Hopkins, S. (1996). On Memory and Architecture. Retrieved June 28, 2021, from Syracuse University Libraries Surface website: https://surface.syr.edu/cgi/viewcontent. cgi?article=1158&context=architecture_tpreps

Raipat, V. (2021, April 14). IntechOpen.

Retrieved June 28, 2021, from intechopen.com: https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/ human-behaviour-induced-by-spatial-order

Suvanajata, R. (2001). Relations in Architectural Space. London: The Bartlett, University College.

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As an artificia city should be sense: made by human purpose –

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al world, the so in the best y art, shaped for es.

– Graham Green

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The urban rhetoric_People Place Relationship

Ironic Urban Advancement Srushti Panchal We are all a part of this vast universe and yet the universe itself, things we have only recently started to realise. As an individual Srushti feels responsible to express herself and her understanding of things, for everyone in here, through art, writing, architecture and other forms of expression. She believes that this reaffirms our humanness and brings us all together.

As a part of nature, and as an artist she aspires to bring balance to all forms of nature, in every way she can. According to her, the purpose of her life here is to love and spread love to all forms of nature that exist amongst us.

Like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said “Dust thou art, to dust thou returnest”.

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s humans, we are more than physical appearance. Our physical appearance being the very essence, but the mental state being the basis of it all. Conscious or subconscious, the mind gets impacted by the environment around.

Not only in behavioral patterns, but on a deeper personal belief level, where implementations can be seen. The mind and body are so deeply related that physical wellness can improve mental health. Physically spending time in nature or with people you love can release oxytocin in the brain, implementing a good mood and raising levels of happiness.

Right from birth, we are in an environment, the immediate external parameter that can negatively or positively influence the growth of our minds.

Certainly, as architects, we want to design comfortable spaces. But the idea of comfort varies from one individual to another. Most of

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the difference is the environmental influence at tender ages.

Yes, comfort is different from region to region, home to home, space to space, human to human, and emotion to emotion as well. Our immediate

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emotions dictate our very perception of comfort in the spaces around us. This makes us want to get into the deeper sensations of emotions and beliefs of the living race. An emotionally drained person will look out for comfort in all the places they perceive, whereas an energized person will not need to be stimulated by external comfort, due to their state of mind. A room can be our comfort zone while in a disturbed state we would want to get away from there too.

We can never truly make all humanity comfortable in one space itself, but we can give them space to make each other comfortable. That freedom to make each other comfortable is the emotion that adds the feel into the space.

A design can be created using varied perceptions, trying to eradicate any emotion of discomfort, thus when several humans become a part of the space, they are actively involved as the soul of the space. The objective of the space becomes their own, in the moments they are within it and among the other users of the space.

The emotional connection can be stimulated by architecture and spaces, but the urban perspective to the space and its meaning is impacted by each and every being who is a part of it.

Once a person is positively stimulated, the whole space is energized and one by one a little bond starts to form. One can never imagine that an uncomfortable space would prompt bonding, if

only in rare cases.

Spaces that inspire quality are a mindful blend of carefully chosen elements. These elements are some of the very basic ones- light, air, nature, openness, material comfort, and other less perceived but highly impactful elements.

Once carefully observed, these elements each stimulate our human senses. Every sense needs the satisfaction to feel free in a space. Uneasiness in the smallest part of our body will drastically decline the comfort of the space.

When so many individuals of varied backgrounds, perceptions, and beliefs come together, there is certainly going to be a slight discomfort of one’s needs to incorporate another’s. Why should there

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fellow beings with whom we are blessed to share and feel spaces and emotions.

Humans tend to have a comfort space around them, which they cannot bear being intruded.

Territoriality can close out parts of a community, resulting in divisions of sectors. Unique spaces are formed with this comfort, allowing only certain beings to be a part of it. Certain openness and perceptive comfort can work wonders in designing a space.

The advancement of society has prompted the evolution of the human mind in a way that encourages awareness and much more interaction than previously observed. Interactive housing, open public spaces, and community spaces have encouraged an interaction that was

be a compromise at all? It is a necessity, that everyone’s needs be of utmost priority. Designing spaces of an inclusive nature broadens the egoistic perspectives to more humane horizons.

Is that a necessity? Certainly. One individuals’ perspective cannot be the reason for another’s freedom being lost.

As a conscious community, we at this stage are capable of being sensitive to various things and most of all to fellow living beings. Everyone has been imparted the breath and the senses to be alive at this moment, and who are we to take that away from anyone. Understanding various perspectives and indulging in this buffet of beliefs and thoughts, imparts us with an emotion called empathy. It brings out our love and care for the

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previously not dominant. No one dominates and no one should dominate in a space that unites minds on a common platform. Each individual is entitled to a fair share of the space and its utilization. The rise of awareness of equality and the importance of having independent ideologies are the characteristics that resonate with the common contemporary perception right now, which saw its nascent stage in a postmodern era.

As a perceptive writer, I feel the need for spaces to be more merged, rather than loud.

The designing of space need not speak loudly through the material or the form aspect of it but through its organization of spaces which encourage blending in of minds. The forms and materials certainly are the later part of a thoughtful design. The space needn’t have to call out its purpose. The purpose will call itself out, as the interaction increases and the purpose gets realized. The realization of space is what architecture and spatial organization should be. When the feeling and emotion behind the design of space resonates with the emotions of the person experiencing it, then the design has been realized. The design will then have fulfilled its purpose and will continue to do the same in different aspects and scales. The space is no longer merely physical now but is a metaphor of the emotion felt. This evoked emotion shared among the preceptors brings out the soul of the space.

The realization, many times, is not related to the purpose of the space alone, but also the smaller part of a space, that is us. It is a chance, to get beyond our previous awareness of the society.

The stage should encourage interlinkage for much more adaptive lifestyles and perceptions while being an essential foundation in holding the society and its beings together.

interlinking one to another. The realization in humans that everyone has a unique perception that can better the world, is taking a centre stage.

With this aim in mind, community spaces are encouraging gatherings, talks, and lectures where people express and understand each other. A growth that seems very minute, but on a personal level is changing the lives of people.

This is where the spatial order will play an essential part in rooting the society and its units to one another. The growth and care we look for around can be found in architecture. The spaces will further the involvement with one another and encourage concern towards our fellow humans. With this awareness and empathy, one can move towards a better understanding of the surroundings and the parts of it. This could be personal or professional relationships, all brought down to the level of human concern and a much sensitive perspective incorporated with a comfortable approach.

The human consciousness, the material perceptions, and the amalgamation of greener spaces are ready to transform the external and internal world through architecture. The focus of architecture and spaces is the betterment of the lives which humans lead. This has been clear in all respects of development and has only been losing its touch in recent urbanism. We ought to drive it back to its purpose and make the society sensitive to itself over all sorts of mishaps that it has gone through. This is the time to grow through, together.

An evolutionary mindset that is blooming, is rising to a state of understanding, and thus empathy for fellow beings. This is what the minds are adopting in the presence of an interactive environment.

A nurturing aura is expanding the growth and

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2

Design and

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The relationship between human emotions and interior design - Bhupendra Kumar & Priya Boby

page 40

Gender Rich Public Space: The Missing Dimension - Alisha Jammal & Pooja Kumar

page 44

New Delhi and the Planning of Carcerality - Samriddhi Khare

page 48

Reviving Koliwada - Swapnil Chaudhari

page 54

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The urban rhetoric_People Place Relationship

The relationship between human emotions and interior design Bhupendra Kumar Bhupendra Kumar is an Architect and Interior designer. He is the Founding Director of Aeiforia Architects. He has completed his B. Arch and M.Arch(gold medalist, JMI).

Priya Boby Priya Rachel Boby is an M.Arch graduate from UK and LEED AP BD+C. Currently working as an architect at Aeiforia Architects.

Aeiforia Architects Aeiforia Architects was registered in 2012 by Ar. Bhupendra and Ar. Pragya.

The name is a fusion of two Greek terms AEI & FORIA to make “Aeiforia.”

Aei is sustainable while Foria means forum. Aeiforia Architects is mainly focused to provide a solution to the corporate interior requirement of their clients. Aeiforia is committed to make all its designs green. All their works are ‘swift, sharp and reliable.’

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nterior design is often confused with decoration; in actuality, interior design goes beyond the selection of finishes or making a good impression. Interior spaces are sensed through their positive vibes, sense of belonging, look and feel, emerging set of various hues, light and textures. Zeng et Al. (2017) define emotion as a series of cognitive experiences, a plethora of feelings, thoughts and behaviour of comprehensive psychological reaction and physiological state, is a form of human response. The correlation between the design of interior spaces and human psychology is often unnoticed.

This article reviews how the elements: colour,

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light and texture must be nominated to create different perceptions beyond aesthetics to entice all human senses.

Colour

Colour has remained a crucial part of our existence with its manifestation in everything we see (Kaya, 2004).Ballast(2002) associates the hue red with excitement, orange invokes feelings of distress, purple as stately, yellow as cheerful and blue with comfort. The association between colour and emotion is closely tied to colour preferences, but some research has revealed that the perception of colour may

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FIGURE 1 CO-WORKING SPACE EXECUTED BY AEIFORIA ARCHITECTS, GURUGRAM

FIGURE 2 WORKSTATION AREA DESIGNED AND BUILT BY AEIFORIA ARCHITECTS, BANGALORE

Pink is calming, alleviating feelings of anger, aggression, resentment, abandonment and neglect.

Wooden finishes create biophilic link.

The wooden texture is smooth reflecting light.

Grey is cherished for fitting into any interior style, elevating the space to feel more relaxed, sophisticated and current all at once.

White light improves productivity.

White finish reflects light.

White is bright and can create a sense of space or add highlights.

The colour white makes rooms seem larger and more spacious.

Wooden floor finish creates a biophilic link.

vary amongst cultures (Kaya, 2002). In India, Navarasa represents the nine moods of people in different colours. Also, Vaastu shastra is based on astrology, and the Hindu system of design is based on the four bearings, which are assigned different colours with their implications (Reddy et al., 2012). Colour may be explained based on its temperature, for instance, “warm” or “cool”, dictated by the dominant wavelength of colour.

Cool colours like blue and green are usually perceived as restful and quiet, while warm colours like yellow and red induce active and stimulating emotions (Ballast, 2002). The weather also becomes a primary factor in the perception of colour; cool colours like blue and green are preferred in summer to make occupants feel more relaxed. The opposite applies in colder climates, where warm hues like red and orange are preferred (Chen, 2016). Individuals are prone to experience discomfort from the dissonance of colour and may even elevate to the emotion of being distraught. Hence, the selection of colours must be made with the utmost care (Reddy et al., 2012).

Lighting

Lighting is one of the essential elements of interior design; it creates a feeling of safety, comfort, and enjoyment, but each room has its requirement for lighting (Reddy et al., 2012). The reason why daylighting should be preferred over artificial lighting is obvious; individuals exposed to daylight experience fewer mental health issues and are more relaxed (Chen, 2016). Daylight controls the circadian rhythm of hormone secretion and body temperature, impacting our sleep, alertness, mood etc.(Reddy et al., 2012).

However, light in the morning is different from that in the evening, and yellow lights are proven to help people feel more relaxed compared to white light. Hence yellow lights may be used in homes, while white light can be used in office spaces (Chen, 2016).

Texture

Texture is a tactile character of a material; it is often used to add interest to space which has a dull monochrome colour (Reddy et al.,2012).“Dynamic textures are repetitive, time-

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varying patterns that tend to repeat (Weeks, unknown).” This variety of textures stimulate visual imagery creating a soothing sensation in the mind (Juslin & Vasrfjall, 2008). To induce feelings of calm; textures mimicking water movement and natural plant patterns may be used(Juslin & Vasrfjall, 2008). The ideal way to achieve this is introducing plants, pattern fabric to upholstery and using wood and granite for tables and countertops (Weeks, unknown). In addition, the textures that are rougher and coarser also make people feel heavier. When comparing stone with wood, the stone is colder while wood is more natural. Interior designers should assist clients find the most suitable textures for their homes.

Chen(2016) asserts that people feel more at ease with natural textures like wood over cold stone textures. Also, rough and coarse texture conveys a perception of heaviness. However, it is up to designers to decide textures based on the climatic conditions on the site. The texture is related to size, scale, proportion, pattern and the most to weight. While rough, coarse textures make an object feel heavier a smooth texture will be perceived as lighter (Reddy et al,2012). For instance, a polished marble floor will be perceived to be lighter than hardwood panelling despite being heavier (Reddy et al,2012).

A designer must also have an understanding of the correlation of absorption/reflection of light with texture. Smooth textures reflect light while rough textures absorb light. Excess light may flatten a texture and cast shadows causing a surface to lose its definition(Reddy et al, 2012).

Interior must go beyond aesthetics to address senses like smell, hearing and touch. The sound of water falling or soft music in a space will mask noise pollution from the outdoors. The fragrance of plants will impart a relaxing effect. The play of textures will encourage interaction; a soft spongey texture may induce relaxation(Finisa, 2020).

Perception of the elements of an interior varies among individuals. However, designers ought to be aware of how elements like light, colour and texture may manipulate a person. Certain aspects like the need for daylight are a generic need of the populace. These elements must be applied

after comprehending the function of the space.

For example, a room has to be relaxing and the office space must enhance alertness.

Reference

Ballast, D. K. (2002). Interior design reference manual. Professional Pub. Inc.: Belmont, CA.

Chen, C.(2016) Magical Interior Design Affects Your moods.

Churchill, W. (2013). The selection, creation, and perception of interior spaces: An environmental psychology approach. The handbook of interior architecture and design. https://www.archdaily.com/935869/what-isinterior-design-and-why-can-it-really-make-youfeel-better

Finisa(2020) Emotional design: How to make your audience fall in love. Available at: connectionsbyfinsa.com/emotionaldesign/?lang=en

Jalil, N. A., Yunus, R. M., & Said, N. S. (2012). Environmental colour impact upon human behaviour: A review. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 35, 54-62.

Juslin, P., & Vastfjall, D. (2008). Emotional responses to music: the need to consider underlying mechanisms. Behavioral and Brain Science, 31, 559-575.

Kaya, N., & Epps, H. H. (2004). Relationship between color and emotion: A study of college students. College student journal, 38(3), 396-405.

Reddy, S. M., Chakrabarti, D., & Karmakar, S. (2012). Emotion and interior space design: an ergonomic perspective. Work, 41(Supplement 1), 1072-1078.

Toet, A., Henselmans, M., Lucassen, M. P., & Gevers, T. (2011). Emotional effects of dynamic textures. i-Perception, 2(9), 969-991.

Weeks, T.(unknown) AESTHETICS AND INTERIOR DESIGN: EFFECTS ON OVERALL MENTAL HEALTH.

Zeng, J., & Duan, K. (2017, July). The Personality Emotional Structure In Interior Design. In 2017 3rd International Conference on Economics, Social Science, Arts, Education and Management Engineering (ESSAEME 2017).

Atlantis Press.

NOTE: All figures are copyright of Aeiforia Architects

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First life, then spaces, then buildings – the other way around never works.

– Jan Gehl

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Gender Rich Public space: the missing dimension Alisha Alisha is an Interior Architect who has recently completed her masters in Interior architecture from Sushant School of Art and Architecture.

She strongly believes that “our spaces have the ability to bring change in society that can contribute more in bringing diverse communities together, creating a harmonious- interactive and learning environment.”

She aims to design spaces that make the user feel invited and part of the built environment, irrespective of who they are:- A Space that achieves total inclusivity.

Pooja Lalit Kumar Pooja Lalit Kumar is a graduate of Sushant School of Art and Architecture batch 2000. She is a recipient of a gold medal for her masters in Ekistics from Jamia Millia Islamia. Pooja has more than 17 years of professional experience in conceptualising, designing and developing ideas into built form before venturing into academics. Spatial interior planning for Tilda rice, India care are a few of her prestigious projects. Her research interests being Impact Assessment, Sustainability, Community Resilience, Disaster risk Assessment to name a few. She is presently the Programme Director for M.arch Interior architecture in Sushant school of art and architecture

The glory of modern public space is that it can pull together all the different sorts of people who are there. It can both compel and empower all these people to see each other, not through a glass darkly, but face to face.” - Berman -1986 Open-Minded Public Space – Marshall Berman -Taking it to the streets: Conflict and community in Public Space

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he politics of power between the genders has always been the topic of discussion, especially when it comes to architecture.

If we look back over the past decades, the women and the LGBTQ+ section have tirelessly fought for their rights, acceptance in society, freedom of speech and expression and much more.

Architecturally, the wall of Gender difference

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between the ‘typology of spaces’, ‘representation of genders’ can still be witnessed in the pages of history.

But as we enter the new era of “ embracing the differences”, people have become more tolerant and acceptable, especially for the LGBTQ+ community. The real question that arises here is: -

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Have our spaces evolved with time, accepting the role and requirements of different genders? If so?

Why don’t we see more women and the LGBTQ+ communities hanging out freely, interacting, expressing, loitering in the streets, as we see our men do?

As much as we hate to accept the depth of gender biases in our society, we also fail to acknowledge that it is also the responsibility of an architect to understand “user -as Gender being”.

Humans not only make connections with other humans but also with the built environment.

Our interaction with the spaces around us plays a dominant role, knowingly or unknowingly, affecting our consciousness - Creating what we call a “sense of a place”.

This interplay of architectural design elements makes the user feel invited and wanted in a space. Thus, it is imperative for an architect to design inclusively, understanding the nuanced gender history, emotional connections and concerns, needs and requirements etc. But our failed acknowledgement of the topic has led to the visible gender imbalance on streets & public spaces.

Public spaces play an integral role in human life. These are the spaces that allow us to blend in with the outer world. Some public spaces allow leisure time, for example, parks, public squares, malls etc. And the other public spaces are categorized as ‘Important public spaces’ like streets, metro stations, bus stops, etc., connecting built to the built, communities to communities and communities to the built. These public spaces hold the most potential of becoming flexible eventful spaces and fulfilling the missing requirements of basic amenities that add to the required inclusive environment needed, yet these spaces are the most neglected ones facing various concerns related to Gender-gatherings.

The reason why most of the public space failed to achieve Gender inclusivity is because of our -Lack of understanding of physical as well as the psychological needs and requirements of

genders.

Men, women, gender minorities, and people of different abilities tend to use the public space in different ways. We all have different needs and requirements, routines when it comes to access to the city. The way our cities and our built spaces are structured – there are near to none, non-accessible amenities for women and other gender minorities, which is the major reason why cities work best for men ((Sameh Wahba, World Bank Global Director for Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience, and Land,2020). Spaces vividly show the lack of agility to welcome any new changes contributing to physical and social inclusivity in the public realm, and the so-called labelled spaces add to the taboo: calls for the failure of space and thus the failure of a society.

Gender Richness Inclusivity Framework

Bringing diverse people, whether it be communities, race, different age people, genders etc., is a challenging task. And so is, making them interact with each other and built an environment, harmoniously, without the question of who is more superior or powerful. “ Commonality is the Super Glue of Human Bonding”- Wouter Corduwener.

No matter what race, gender or country the person belongs to, it is always the common interest, opinions or issues that have the power to unite diverse crowds. Proceeding with “commonality” as a step forward- a structural framework is designed to create a Gender rich space. The parameters mentioned are based on the understanding of the common issues and concerns of all genders and are discussed in three categories: Firstly, the physical parameter is responsible for creating an accessible mobile and safer environment, which would allow more aged people, physically challenged, children and mother’s or father’s caring of a baby to access the space comfortably. As a result, space

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will create an image of familiarity, creating an essence of safety, comfort and warmth in a built environment. Secondly, the psychological parameter takes a phenomenological approach, creating a “sense of a place”. It focuses on various factors that would affect the consciousness and letting the users connect to the built environment psychologically. And last but not least the programmatic or social parameter would depend on the social construct of the built-up space, allowing space to become more flexible accordingly as per the needs and requirements of the user w.r.t time. This parameter will help in the upliftment of the individual, communities, different genders etc., allowing them to interact, learn, earn express and grow.

These parameters collectively fall under the “ Common concerns” like safety, comfort, hygienic spaces, climatically responsive space, privacy etc., of every gender. Each and every parameter is interconnected to each other playing, back and forth relations affecting the inclusivity of a space.

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Apart from Physical and Psychological parameters, space programs must attract diverse crowds, especially aged people and kids, as they help in instigating the ‘feeling of safety and comfort’ adding the emotional essence in space.

To bring a change in a society, the programs must instigate learning, communicating and expressing. And with a logical approach and design interventions, small gathering spaces can be designed for activities like theatre, dance, music, outdoor games, small libraries etc. (creating pauses and events). These spaces can be built anywhere, ranging from plazas to parks to streets.

It is also important to understand that every user in a public space doesn’t want to interact. Some need space and privacy for meditation, reading or even as a necessary activity like breastfeeding.

So as an architect, it becomes our responsibility that it should not be the space that reshapes the users, but it should be the user who reshapes the space moulding safely- as per the need.

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The missing dimension of inclusivity

“Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable environment “-Sustainable Development Goals The parameters discussed are the small efforts towards evaluating and designing a space that can be close to being Gender Rich. Each and every parameter in itself opens a larger possibility towards psychological and physical requirements of different genders, allowing the elements of architecture to control actions, consciousness and other activities that could lead to possible design outcomes for inclusivity. Our small actions as an architect can invite a huge possibility of a positive change. It becomes our duty to spread awareness among the clients, users, students etc. and find more significant ways for creating Gender rich spaces.

References:

Bondi, L., & Domosh, M. (1998). Bondi_et_ al-1998-Antipode, 270–289.

Kaul..G(2014). Design Thesis.School of Architecture, CEPT.

Berman, M., 1986, Taking it to the streets: Conflict and community in Public Space ,476-485.

LGBT + Placemaking Toolkit. (2019), (July).

Mestdagh.R(1981).Manhattan: People and their space. Thames and Hudson.

Milota Sidorova. (2016). How to Design a Fair Shared City?, 38.

Shilpa.P, Sameera.K, & Shilpa.R(2011). Why Loiter?: Women and Risk on Mumbai Streets.

Penguin Books India.

Steventon, G. (2012). Crime prevention through environmental design. In International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home (pp. 280– 284). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08047163-1.00559-2

World bank group. (2020). GenderInclusive Urban Planning Design, 209.

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New Delhi and the Planning of Carcerality Samriddhi Khare Samriddhi is a student of architecture, activist, and aspiring urbanist. She is a passionate individual motivated by the need for equitable design, social justice and participatory planning. She is determined to bring design activism and sustainability to the forefront in all her professional endeavours.

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ndia is one of the youngest democracies in the world. Our patterns of judiciary, legislation and their relationship to the built environment remain relatively obscure. But in 2021, with the abolitionist movement gaining traction all over the world, and prison reform and safety being the foci of city design, we must evaluate this issue through the lens of Indian urbanism. India reports the lowest conviction rates and yet our prisons and judiciary are constantly overburdened and justice is often not only delayed but denied.

Overcrowding, prolonged detention of undertrial prisoners, unsatisfactory living conditions, custodial deaths, lack of treatment programmes and allegations of indifferent and even inhuman approach of prison staff have repeatedly attracted the attention of the critics over the years. [2]

so it is given that most people entering the system of incarceration will re-enter society. Our current prisons in no way prepare our inmates for a life of normalcy post-incarceration. Prisons or jails in India, are statistically more susceptible

Life sentences make up only 1-2% of convictions,

Image A. Condition of Tihar Jail

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to instances of venality and corruption.

Moreover, these establishments often replicate the narratives of discrimination that exist in society. Prisons become hotbeds for communal, gendered, sexual and caste-based violence.

These situations are harmful to not just inmates but also the personnel working within these structures. We as a society have more than enough proof that the Indian prison system has failed the citizens, convicts, victims and humanity at large; and while it is important to note that this issue is much larger than architecture and planning, we as designers of the built environment have the ability to impact a part of this change.

It is impossible to think of incarceration in India without thinking of the massive Tihar Jail Complex in New Delhi. Despite a sanctioned capacity of 10,026, Tihar was home to 17,534 inmates as of 2018. These numbers have continued to grow at an annual rate of nearly 12%. As reported by the Human Rights Watch, prison barracks are so overcrowded that inmates have to sleep in shifts. Tihar also reports a disproportionately high fraction of HIV positive inmates and diseases

Image B. Police Stations in New Delhi Source: Author

caused by poor sanitation. (Image A) Hundreds of inmates tested positive for covid-19 within Tihar, with about a dozen fatalities, a few of which were under trial. Inmates’ access to vaccines still remains a contested issue.

Our nation’s capital consistently reports the highest rates of heinous crime. Many authors have explored the reasons for the astounding statistics. The answer lies largely in the demography of the city. Delhi is one of the most populated cities in the country, people migrate from all over the country to Delhi in the hopes of a better future. Often unable to achieve this future due to the broken systems of employment and excess population, these citizens end up taking to a life of criminal activity simply to make ends meet. Another major proponent of crime has been identified as the literacy rate.

The inability to qualify for skilled work often also leads to life within the judicial system. But it is important to ask ourselves, as planners, what role the city plays, when it comes to criminal activity.

Does it encourage it? Does it allow violence to perpetuate? If so, what can we do?

Image C. Voronoi Cells Source: Author

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Image D. Frequency of crime per jurisdiction Source: Author

Image E. Isochrones of 4 possible sites of intervention Source: Author

The first step of proposing a solution to this issue is analyzing the existing circumstances. The basis for this research is data collected from 167 police stations all over New Delhi regarding the total number of crimes reported to the stations over the course of one year, the specific nature of these crimes, the number of police personnel stationed and deployed and the area of the jurisdiction. Using this data we can determine the sites where intervention is most required, and where it would be most effective. The illustrations are a result of processing this data through different Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and mapping the results. GIS can also help us determine the proponents of crime specific to a region, such as the demographic composition and mobility.

the accessibility to a site of criminal activity or response time determines which station is to respond or be approached. Hence, we need to analyse the data according to the time taken by each police station to reach the site. We can do this using the Voronoi tessellation in the second illustration (Image C). In mathematics, a Voronoi diagram is a partition of a plane into regions close to each of a given set of objects.

This means that all points located within an individual cell in New Delhi, are closer to the police station associated with that cell than they are to any other police station. Further, using the data associated with each police station we can classify these cells according to the frequency of crime reported at each station (Image D).

The lowest crime reports came from the Vasant Kunj/Vasant Vihar regions of New Delhi (62-79 incidents reported annually) whereas the Western regions of Delhi reported far higher cases (11801433 incidents reported annually), in districts like Punjabi Bagh and Uttam Nagar.

(Image B) illustrates the locations of police stations distributed all over the wards of New Delhi. Using the data collected we can determine the jurisdictions of these stations (Central, Eastern, New Delhi, Northern, South-Eastern and South-Western). However, in times of crisis,

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On further inspection, we can understand that

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Image F. Statistical Information Source: Census 2011, Diagrams by Author

these districts most susceptible to crime are also the ones that would be the most responsive to intervention. (Image E) shows the connectivity of these four regions to each other, as well as over Delhi. The drive-time polygons with catchments areas of 15, 30 and 60 minutes demonstrate how these sites are some of the most accessible locations in Delhi, well integrated into the existing road and metro networks, making them optimum

locations. Their demographic compositions are also illustrated, and the commonalities observed are further testament to the fact that these districts can serve as precedents for interventions all over Delhi if developed successfully.

These findings can be examined in two parts by urban planners - first, by establishing a contextual frame of reference for understanding the specific

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Image G. Restorative Justice Center in Oakland

Image H. Nyaay Panchayat in Uttar Pradesh

proponents of crime plaguing these 4 districts in particular, and the second, proposing a solution that would not only bring about a new architectural typology but alter the urban fabric of these localities in a way that would result in the reduction of the projected crime risk, as well as current propensity.

the reduction of crime rate and risk, and not just retributive justice. There is evidence to support the benefits of a “hyperlocal” decentralised reform network, vis-a-vis a large, central prison complex. These new models of justice can be embedded into the already existing schools, communities and neighbourhoods.

The first solution is to understand the global proponents of crime in the region. Obvious factors include the lack of basic infrastructure such as adequate space, lighting and facilities to report the crime. In terms of physical infrastructure, well-lit streets, footpaths, free and safe to use toilets play an integral role in making a city safer. Compounding this issue is a lack of safe social infrastructure: no housing, homes, public childcare facilities or opportunities for education and skill development. And finally, the lack of access to institutional infrastructure, public hospitals and reproductive health facilities, legal aid centres and one-stop crisis centres. These problems just reiterate the fact that the problem of unsustainable carcerality is not limited to, but certainly deeply entrenched in the issues of the built environment.

The physical attributes of this structure can facilitate the process of reintegration into society of the convict. While there are examples of similar Restorative Justice Centres in the West, (Image F) no such systems exist in urban India. Rural India, on the other hand, has been demonstrating the concept of restorative justice through Nyay Panchayats. Through these Nyaay Panchayats or Gram Nyaayalays, community-based mediations often lead to solutions that uphold the civil liberties of all parties involved. (Image G) Our cities do not have any such domestic legal framework, which is both the cause and the consequence of our lack of infrastructure to support this intervention. The actualization of the architecture of such a model needs to go hand in hand with strides in policy, public participation and human rights advocacy. Starting with smaller community-level interventions can not only reduce the burden on the justice system, reserving the larger mechanisms for more serious offences but can also expedite the process of convict societal reintegration. To some, this idea

The second of this two-part solution to crime in Delhi is thinking of an alternative to the current system of prisons. There is a need for a new typology to be realized - one that focuses on

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may seem utopian, but our collective faith and efforts towards a better world are what makes change possible.

Bibliography 1.

Correspondent, D. (2017, December 01).

Tihar inmate abuse case: HC tells cops to register FIR against staff. Retrieved from https://www. dnaindia.com/delhi/report-tihar-inmate-abusecase-hc-tells-cops-to-register-fir-against-staff2563797Owen 2.

B., Wells, J., & Pollock, J. (2017). Prison Community, Prison Conditions, and Gendered Harm. In Search of Safety. doi:10.1525/ california/9780520288713.003.000 3.

Seventh Tihar prisoner succumbs to Covid-19. (2021, May 25). Retrieved from https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/ others/seventh-tihar-prisoner-succumbs-tocovid19-101621969930936.html 4.

TheHarvardGSD. (2019, November 06).

Black in Design. Retrieved from https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=uPlZK-Ymn3A&list=PLqxr4 aBubkPZV0QhospahIbxwFiIWJdCb&index=7 5.

Tihar Jail. (2021, June 13). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tihar_Jail#cite_ note-dept-1 �ायालयों का��रत बोझ कम लाखों कोह� ��रत लोगों को �ायकरने दे ने म�और नजीर बन लोगों सकती �ाय �ाय दे ने म� नजीर बन सकती ह� � 6. 6. �ायालयों का बोझ कम करने और6.लाखों खों लोगों को ��रत �ाय दे ने म� नजीर बन सकती ह� �ाय पंचायत� पंचायत� (2018, March 15). Retrieved from https://gshindi. com/indian-polity/nayay-panchayat-and-justice 7. https://parthakhare.carto.com/tables/ delhi_crime_meta/public

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Reviving Koliwada Swapnil Chaudhari Swapnil Chaudhari is currently partner at Chaudhari Panjwani Building Workshop, a new generation design firm engaging in practice of architecture, urban design, landscape and interior with offices in Mumbai and Nagpur. He graduated from VNIT, Nagpur and went on to work with award winning architect SP+A in Mumbai. He worked on residential and commercial projects. He developed a keen interest in using computational methods for development of environmentally sustainable design. To reinforce his interest he later went on to work with DADA Partners, Gurgaon. There he provided his expertise on residential township master plan, farmhouses, private residence along with interior.

He went on to do his post graduation at Manchester School of Architecture, UK specializing in Spatial Agency.

The following project was part of Master thesis conducted at Manchester School of Architecture.

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he architecture in the Worli koliwada urban village changed as per the needs of the community. However, the change resulted into poor living conditions. The residents protested against the proposal of the government to redevelop and showed interest in developing the area in group.

The vision of the master plan is to improve their quality of life by intensifying the use of shared space. Providing communal areas around the residential unit creating a communal spine throughout is the main land use strategy used.

Shared living is the essential part of the residents where their private life is extended towards the public areas due to lack of space. Existing scenarios exhibits that these activities that increases the community ties are lacking due to dense figure ground relationship of the area.

Shared living can release the pressure from the

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built to open space ratio leaving more open communal areas where activities like celebrating festivals, performing fishing rituals, working in fish allied activities like maintaining the fishing net are performed. The master plan will be a catalyst in not only improving the living conditions but also for strengthening the local economy, where the community can grow and cope up with the fast growing city.

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Existing Situation

Proposed Common Space

Existing Situation

Proposed Common Space

Existing Situation

Proposed Common Space

* All the sketches are sketched by Author - Swapnil Chaudhari

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Street View

Street View

Street Elevation

Street View

* All the sketches are sketched by Author - Swapnil Chaudhari

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Temple and Street Relation * All the sketches are sketched by Author - Swapnil Chaudhari

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3

Percpetion

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Conquering the Streets - Sofia Ghigliazza L

page 60

Pandemics - A natural revival of architectural space - Mustapha Elmoussaoui

page 62

The Lonely City - Jaidev Tripathy

page 66

India-Architecture of Intangible Spaces - Shreyasee Shinde

page 68

Piecing it together again - Alefiya Vali

page 72

The Politics of Leisure - Smriti Bhaya

page 74

Akalbodhan: Memoir of a visit to Kolkata - Vinod Chovvayil Panengal

page 78

A Voluntary Prison - Vaidehi Raipat

page 84

and Criticism 59

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Conquering the Streets Sofia Ghigliazza L Sofía Ghigliazza is an architect from Mexico City. She has a graduate degree in architecture from the Ibero-American University and a master’s degree on Housing from Centro. She has participated as a designer in various prominent Mexican firms and is currently studying History and Critical Thinking in the Architectural Association.

F

lâneuse: French name. Feminine form of flâneur; the one who roams aimlessly, observing, through the city.

According to Virginia Woolf in her essay: Street Haunting: A London Adventure (Woolf, 1930), to escape is the greatest of pleasures. There are few essays like this one that refer to the experiences of women in the city, to the inner peace that can be found by letting go of the objectual relations found inside one’s home, and the rest from daily existence that observation and distant contact with other people can produce.

The flâneur is he who approaches the city having suspended all his knowledge about it, in order to have a bodily experience of the places he visits.

The act of walking disinterestedly through the city’s streets is the main process of appropriation, however there is not enough literature to portray

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women’s full experience.

For some male theorists like Walter Benjamin or Georg Simmel, imagining the figure of the flâneuse is almost impossible, possibly due to preconceived beliefs inherited from the bourgeois Victorian views on a woman’s behavior.

The female body and the Victorian city were deeply intertwined through the shared condition of interiority. Women’s morality and their role as wives and mothers were important components to maintain the domestic sphere as a reflection of the public sphere. Both streets and taverns belonged to men. Therefore, the more respectable a woman’s status was, the further apart she remained from public life which was considered an immoral domain for most. For women, the streets represented a place where they ran the risk of losing their virtue, getting dirty, being dragged away…

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If Benjamin’s boulevards correspond to the male flaneur par excellence, for women they represent a place that endangers their integrity. Despite architects’ best efforts, urban design still does not consider binary relations and therefore excludes the possibility of the cohabitation from both sexes indistinctly.

Violence in cities toward women is mainly caused by the fact that the “spaces of appearance” still exclude and are not yet designed to inhabit, the female body.

The constant state of alert in which a woman has to remain in the city modifies completely the experience from that of a man’s whose existence and determination has always been deemed as public.

Lauren Elkin in her book Flâneuse (Elkin, 2016) points out the double condition of visibility and invisibility that women face on the streets; Always observed and at the same time omitted in any account of urban life. Even the way women walk is modified in the city. Since they must pick up their pace in order to reach their destination as soon as possible, it is impossible for them to get lost aimlessly as the street represents an unsafe space.

Inhabiting the city from a female perspective would imply modifying the mobility vs. time relationship as it was thought to suit the 20th century man. Baudelaire himself refers to the speed of a woman’s walk in poem no. 39 of Les Fleurs du mal (1857) dedicated to a woman who was thought to be a prostitute.

Spurn with light foot and with serenest gaze The stupid mortals who have grudged you praise, O jade-eyed statue, angel browed with brass!

mainly within the interior of the house. She who dared walk the streets alone risked being thought as a “streetwalker” in other words, a prostitute.

Still nowadays women cannot get lost in the crowd freely because their gender “condition” has historically marked them as objects of desire before the male gaze. The different norms of behavior imposed on them represent invisible limits, from the way they’re supposed to dress, the words they use and their body language, even the way they express feelings, are under constant scrutiny. It is only until these set of conditions have been met that women are considered appropriate to share the city with men.

Despite all their contradictions, cities of the 21st century are the places for women to develop to the full extent of their potential. The only space where it is possible for them to grow at the expense of men. Women in cities can embody the figure of the flâneuse, maintain a distant yet attentive posture. It is there where the possibilities of redesigning the dynamics of control and surveillance, to which most women have been subjected, are presented.

The way we build not only reflects, but also determines who we are and who we will be.

Reference

1. Virgina Woolf, Street Haunting: a London Adventure (Symonds Press, 2013), 20.

2. Jean-Louis Déotte, Walter Benjamin et la forme plastique: Architecture, technique, lieux (L’Harmattan, 2012), 44.

3.Richard Sennet, The Fall of Public Man (Penguin Press, 2003), 34.

4.Leslie Kern, Feminist City (Verso, 2020), 38.

5.Lauren Elkin, Flaneuse; Women walk the city (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017), 33.

The condition of staticity implied by staying within the physical limits of the home relegated women to the constraints of the domestic. Like Baudelaire’s corpse they were meshed with the permanent bourgeoise condition which existed

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Pandemics - A natural revival of architectural space Mustapha El Moussaoui Mustapha El Moussaoui is an architect, urbanist, and a philosopher, based in Valencia. A Doctoral graduate from the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, with over 7 years of professional practice, and projects built in several countries all over the world. Having studied both architecture and philosophy, the focus of his research is understanding the socio-cultural dynamics of the city and the existential well-being of its inhabitants.

P

andemics have always been associated with a catastrophic event that fuels fear and act as an existential threat. However, throughout history, we have seen the human adaptable extinct at stake when needed in such situations.

Nonetheless, these events required a unique, adaptable behaviour to overcome and adjust to the new situation so that benefits arise from the ashes of a tragedy. With that said, through pandemics, we have seen the revival of events or elements that reshaped our living habits. Revived elements are components that grew passive in the routine of daily habits.

In its existential function, architecture had a primary role and unique character to perform as a safe refuge from the dangers of the outside world.

Besides, it is a space where individuals associated it with their primal need to exist “a sacred shelter”.

Some philosophers correlated dwelling space

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as a refuge from existential turbulences, such as the 20th-century German philosopher Martin Heidegger. Heidegger etymologically related the word dwelling to existing by working as an etymological archaeologist. Briefly, he corelated “Ich-bin” (the German word for I am) to Bauen, or (I dwell). To Heidegger, dwelling and existing are interchangeable phrases that reflect an existential need; hence, a dwelling space becomes an existential need that protects us from our existential thoroughness into the world (Geoworfenheit).

“Bauen originally means to dwell. Where the word bauen still speaks in its original sense. It also says how far the essence of dwelling reaches.

That is bauen, buan, bhu, beo are our word bin in the versions: ich bin, I am, du bist you are, the imperative form bis, be. What then does ich bin mean? The old word bauen to which the bin

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belongs, answers: ich bin, du bist mean I dwell, you dwell. The way in which you are, and I am, the manner in which we humans are on the earth, is buan..” (p. 147) As far as we are concerned, what if we have a real external unseen existential threat? How is this reflected in our relation with architecture and space?

In early 2020, we saw the breakout of a new global pandemic, COVID-19, in which quarantines were obliged by states due to the virus’s fastspreading – and somehow lethal – specificities (NHC, 2020). As a result, the revival of the house role as a safe space from the outside world became actively conscious in the users’ experience. Accordingly, we saw a massive interaction flow between dwellers and their dwelling spaces. With the long daily hours in their “sacred havens”, humans started modifying their space to accommodate their most comfortable habits, and new functional necessities, such as home sports, online schooling, remote work, etc.

However, others decided to continuously change the space arrangement to halt the constant routine (Song et al., 2021).

Nonetheless, we observed a revival of certain architectural elements that their functional properties were deemed useless in the 21st century, such as the balcony. Dwellers started

using these spaces that their existential functional character had been long abandoned due to the neo-living habits of the contemporary world. For example, before the pandemic, some used the balconies as storage space, while others used them to plant some flowers, however, rarely as a physical interactive architectural element to the external world, a peak to the other. However, after the pandemic’s breakout and the obliged quarantines, we saw a recovery of the existential function of these architectural elements.

Balconies became spaces where dwellers can interact with other fellow humans - and the natural surroundings - without the existential threat of being contaminated by the outside world (Poon, 2020).

Additionally, it is not only balconies that witnessed their characteristic revival, other spaces and architectural elements started regaining their conscious qualities – or active presence – such as the door, or the knob, as a fundamental element that separates us from them. Moreover, inhabitants started reclaiming the meaning of their dwelling space by being more conscious of the orientation of their habitats, the number of natural light hours (and its reach), the ventilative mechanism, and their energy consumption.

Hence, some started adopting more sustainable energy resources to help control their bills.

Moreover, some residents started growing their fruitful trees and plantations.

It is definite that through this pandemic, we saw a change in the interaction between dwellers and their architectural space. Moreover, it is certain that some urban dwellers lack basic amenities for a comfortable space in their urban context, which must raise the attention for states to undertake new construction policies, and regional planning methods to combat similar events.

As a young man, I always had difficulties understanding the ancient Chinese concept of dualism or Yin-yang. As an adult, several circumstances transpired that clarified the most profound concepts most simply, with no need

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for further abstractions. Not all dark episodes are entirely negative; it is definite that dots of contradictions are observed in the darkest of all events, but that means a brighter future is on the verge of emergence (with some black dots).

Reference

Heidegger, M. (2001). Poetry, Language, Thought. HarperCollins.

Poon, L. 2020, A Lesson from Social Distancing: Build Better Balconies. Bloomberg, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/ articles/2020-04-20/lesson-from-coronavirusbuild-better-balconies

NHC (National Health Commission) (2020). The General Office of the National Health Commission Issued Guidelines on the Prevention and Control of Infection by Novel Coronavirus Isolation at Home Under Medical Observation. [online]www.gov.cn. Available online at: http:// www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2020-02/05/ content_5474688.htm (accessed July 30, 2021)

Song X, Cao M, Zhai K, Gao X, Wu M and Yang T (2021) The Effects of Spatial Planning, Well-Being, and Behavioural Changes During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic.Front. Sustain. Cities p.4. https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2021.686706

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A room should the eye to settle It should smile create fantasy.

–

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d never allow e in one place. e at you and .

– Juan Montoya

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The Lonely City by Jaidev Tripathy

Slow down, and you will observe the isolated souls under the illuminated blues of this city.

A set of images; a result of lingering around the streets of Delhi before returning home. I observe the mundane isolation which sweeps past me like a distant breeze, under the neon-lit frantic-ness of urban life. I think public spaces have a way to remind you of your loneliness.

* All the images are copyright of the Author - Jaidev Tripathy

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India-Architecture of Intangible Spaces Shreyasee S. Shinde Shreyasee S. Shinde is an architect and an Assistant Professor at P.C.E.T’s S. B. Patil College of Architecture and Design, Pune. She has received her Bachelor’s in Architecture from Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University’s College of Architecture, Pune. She is interested in heritage and cultural landscapes, Maharashtrian architecture, and adaptive reuse

1. Introduction

Right from the Stone Age era, man has often found anchors – points in a landscape that helped him give a sense of space, a sense to hold onto something. Humans have always been able to sustain, survive, and flourish on Earth even in the most challenging circumstances. They’ve learned to live and make the best of their surrounding landscape, sometimes traveling thousands of miles for food, water, and shelter. This tendency, this resilience, is innate. Homo sapiens means “one who knows”, which was deemed true as they could then hunt for themselves, make a homea shelter, understand the landscape that we dwelled in. This understanding of the space, to master distances, to gauge surroundings- is what made us who we are today.

As we evolved, our spaces evolved with us. Mud,

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stone, and wood were the building materials of earlier houses all across the world. In the Stone Age era man received shelter in rock caves.

Eventually, dwellings were made of thatch and coated with mud. The Egyptians used sun-baked mud bricks to build Mastaba tombs and houses.

Houses which primarily were built as shelters became more elaborate and extensive with open spaces built not only for social interaction but also providing light and ventilation.

To take an example of India, vernacular (regional) architecture took roots with the use of these very materials. For instance, the unique “kathkuni” construction technique used in seismic regions in North India. This region is home to tall deodar trees and high mountains of slate stone. The locals, therefore, build houses of these naturally available materials constructed by alternate courses of deodar beams and slate stones. This

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interlock of alternate bands makes the house stable and earthquake resistant. The houses have intimate spaces-small openings to let in the light and to ward off cold winds. The cattle are housed on the ground floor and the living spaces are on the first floor. The heat emanating from the cattle keeps the upper levels warm and comfortable throughout the day. Vernacular (regional) architecture- was hence not created by architects but by locals residing in that particular area. Spaces thus created were not only defined by their function, but also by the social setting of that region.

Many structures emerged from religious and institutional to residential all following a specific geometry. The creation of sacred spaces like temples was also defined by a set of rules. The concept of Vāstu Purush Mandala was on these lines-where the house was treated like a cosmic, sacred space, divided into 9 squares and spaces designed accordingly. Every room in the house was oriented keeping in mind its purpose.

2.1 State of Maharashtra-Spatial Experience The Maharashtrian Wada (dwelling) developed and flourished during the reign of the Peshwas.

A typical wada is rectangular in plan, with courtyards in the centre surrounded by rooms on the periphery. The first courtyard (pahila chowk) was a public chowk where guests were entertained. The second courtyard (dusra chowk) was a private one, usually restricted to the use of house members. This courtyard has a passage running around it called an Osari. An osari was a space between the open courtyard and the closed rooms. This transitional space creates a fascinating realm. It is neither inside nor outside.

This space is known as the fold [1]. This fold is an in-between space where the linearity of the boundaries is interrupted. There is no strong anchor point that ties this boundary together.

This space challenges all that is real and physical.

It challenges the notion of borders, privacy. It is the space of transformation and passages, where a multitude of things intermingle and events

This article will elaborate on a few examples of vernacular architecture techniques throughout India to understand and infer from the spaces and their way of living.

2. Vernacular Architecture in various parts of India

Fig. 1. Image showing the play of light and shadow in a transition space- Osari (Sardar Purandare Wada)

[3] Fig. 2 and 3. A step-well from Gujarat. The levels acted as social spaces in summers.

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[3] Fig. 2 and 3. A step-well from Gujarat. The levels acted as social spaces in summers.

unfold.

Venturi notes that designing from the outside in, as well as the inside out, creates necessary tensions, which help make architecture. [2] 2.2 State of Gujarat and Rajasthan-Climate Responsive Spaces Step-wells in Gujarat and Rajasthan were a successful example of climate-responsive thriving social spaces. A typical step-well has 2 access points- one a circular well that is accessed from the ground level to draw water. The other point acts as an entrance with steps that go underground to the lower levels.

During extreme heat, it is impossible to stay in the streets for a long time. These step-wells thus acted as social pavilions where women would collect water, rest, and socialize. Kids would play, passer-byes would sit enjoying the cool breeze that the water from the well provided. This space provides a fascinating example of the play of levels and contrasts - of light and shadow, of above and below, of movement and stillness.

The numerous intricate carvings, and the echoes of laughter ricochet in these spaces. This was the place where women could enjoy their private time, be free from the chains of household duties

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[4] Fig. 4 shows a traditional jaali screen in Delhi. [5] Fig. 5. Shows a modern jaali screen in Rajasthan.

and responsibilities.

3. Spaces that speak

Another fascinating example of an element, which challenges the notion of tangible/ intangible is the use of jaalis. Jaalis are perforated stone / latticed screens that have a geometric or organic pattern. During the reign of Mughals in India, many monuments- tombs, cenotaphs, gardens, and cities were constructed. These structures mark the epitome of jaali screens in Indian architecture. Right from carving in red sandstone

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to marble- jaali making was contracted to the finest artisans and this skill was passed down through the generations.

One might question the significance of an intricately carved screen, but it was much more than that. In the extreme climate of Delhi and Rajasthan, where the average temperature in summer is 40 degrees Celsius, you needed proper air circulation within the built spaces. Spaces that could bring in the wind yet cut off the harsh sunlight. The jaalis were thus constructed on the facades, acting as windows, bringing in ample light internally. When the wind passed through these latticed screens, it created a funnel effect, and thus the hot wind when passed through the screens, cools down.

in Architecture,” London. The Architectural Press, 1966.

[3] G. Vinod, “Indigenous Architecture and Natural Cooling”, Energy and Habitat, 2015.

[4] https://in.pinterest.com/ pin/427349452143964503/ Jaali patterns by Soumyabrata Sarkar.

[5] https://www.raashotels.com/jodhpur/ home/

An added advantage was privacy. Where a person standing outside in the heat could not peep through the jaali, but the person inside could see what was going on outside.

4. Conclusion

Based on these successful spatial characteristics across India, it is evident that they work and can relate to any climate setting. We can go back and learn a great deal from them, modifying them to cater to the needs of the present and the future.

The use of vernacular elements has moulded us into what we are, how we think, and act today.

The motto of everything in moderation is aptly applied in today’s scenario where we have all that we need but still crave for more- where our social stories portray a different reality.

Our past has taught us to learn and adapt to our natural settings- to be one with nature. Ultimately what we aim for is adaptability, integrity, sensitivity to surroundings, and timelessness.

References [1] K. Martin and C. Stewart, “The Architecture of Complexity,” Culture and Organization, Vol. 9 (2), June, pp. 75-91, 2003.

[2] V. Robert, “Complexity and Contradiction

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Piecing it together again Alefiya Vali Alefiya Vali is an Interior Designer by profession who has been awarded ‘The Best Student Allrounder award’ by III D in 2017, and a literature enthusiast . She is an avid reader and creative writer who expresses herself through her poetry. A sensitive soul she likes to live every moment to the fullest.

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My hands felt clammy and my tears mingled with sweat, in the hot humid Mumbai air, as I clasped the pen in my hand, my palm shaking as I sketched out my signature on that god damned paper. The deed was done. He had gone and now, with the house my last connection with him would also be lost. I sighed in gloom and frustration, as I listened to the nonsensical small talk between my grandmother and the now, new home owners. I turned my face to the seafacing window. The sea had always calmed him and me, it was where, he sat with me in his lap as we gazed out at the enormous waves crashing on the shore. Right beside the window was a sea-shell, which he pressed to my ear and I heard that same beautiful cadence of the waves. It was a punch of nostalgia which I was not capable of processing right now, so I quickly turned my head back to the conversation.

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My father! Every inch of this place was vested with his memories, suddenly I could not hold back my sobs and I dashed out of the room as my throat choked up. I ran through the dining room and through the lobby eager to get out as fast as I could.

My world felt bleak, it was as if I had lost him all over again. This decision to sell was just as sudden as his demise. His death had been shocking, who could have thought he would have died so young. Now with the house gone nothing would be the same ever again.

As I crossed the large building compound, my phone slipped from my trembling hands and I bent to retrieve it, suddenly I saw her, a little girl sitting on her father’s lap, in the verandah and solving a jigsaw puzzle. My feet stilled as I watched her

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poring over it in deep thought, as she searched for the next piece. Suddenly it struck me, in this moment this little girl and I shared a similar predicament. Another wave of nostalgia rolled over me. I missed him so much! It had been 24 years of constantly trying to hold on to his memories to keep him intact, but it was a losing battle, it was a puzzle I could never piece together, a puzzle whose fragments-my memories of him- kept fading into nothingness with the waves of time washing over them. But in that flat I could still feel his presence. The flat!

My head churned and I fumbled across the lawn as I made my way to the taxi stand outside the building compound. How could I live without it, without him? The same question kept haunting me until the cab driver asked me where I wanted to go. I asked him to take me to Charni road- the graveyard where my dad was buried. The taxi crawled in the traffic, the humidity shaking me out of my reverie as I soaked in the sights of my childhood, Kemps corner where our parents took us to the most wondrous toy shop, where they smiled at us serenely as we jumped in delight.

Shemaroo library, where we borrowed books which he would read to us at night. A little smile tugged at my lips. They were amazing days indeed! I hopped out of the cab and visited his grave, I placed some flowers and cried my heart out. I left there feeling lighter- both mind and soul. I felt his presence so strongly as if he were still watching over me with that serene smile. I wiped a lone tear from my eye as I ambled over to Marine drive, past the Taraporewala aquarium which housed so many delightful moments with my parents, the fun times we would have here and the horse carriage rides at Nariman point!

I sat down there and watched the pigeons, the hawkers and the waves that crashed on the shore, reminding me of the time we had gone fishing in this very sea. I had lagged behind, as my brother effortlessly followed him and I ended up falling

into a small pool of water in a huge rock by the sea, he rushed to me and once he had ensured I was not hurt he burst into peals of laughter. Oh that rich baritone! I wish I could capture it. I wish I could hear it again.

Even though it was getting a little late, I decided I would go to City Bakery, near the Bandra-Worli sea link. It was a little far off, but who cares, I was hungry and sad and I needed that sugar-carb boost. I enjoyed the beautiful sky and the skyline of the city I was traversing through. The cab finally came to a halt and I slipped into the bakery, where even before I saw the goodies, that familiar aroma of baked goods, hit my nostrils. The owner smiled at me, “The usual to go little girl?” he asked as I perused through several rows of deliciousness. I whipped up my head in surprise, he still remembered?! After all these years! Of course, he remembered that wonderful man who brought me here. “Yes, please” I replied ! And he parcelled out lemon tarts and a couple of butter croissants for me, our staple whenever we visited the bakery. I left the bakery smiling.

On my ride back I felt happier and more cheerful than I had felt for a very long time (i.e. the moment I came to know the house was to be sold).He would be there, every part of this city held a different piece of him as a father, doctor, teacher, friend and the best human ever. And though he was a puzzle, an enigma that I could never completely figure out, yet I knew that the city would link me to him forever. I did not need to hold on to the house to find him I just needed to broaden my horizons and I literally could find him anywhere and everywhere! My puzzle although far from complete seemed to suddenly afford me unimaginable calm, because even if I could not piece it together I knew that the pieces would always remain in the heart of this city just like he would remain in ours forever.

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The Politics of Leisure Smriti Bhaya Smriti Bhaya is a young architect, who graduated from Kamla Raheja Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies (KRVIA) in 2019.

She has interned at Mathew and Ghosh Architects in Bangalore and has worked as a junior architect at JDAP, Mumbai, and as a teaching assistant at her alma mater. Presently she’s working with Parallax Design Studio.

Her thesis titled ‘Every day X Governance’ has been presented at CEPT’s KVD Forum, AOA, IES College of Architecture, and has recently been a part of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. She is passionate about promoting and designing equitable and resilient public domains and wishes to engage with placemaking design in the future. She also recently completed the Young Leaders for Active Citizenship Fellowship.

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city is a heterogeneous entity - it is a mix of people of all ages, genders, social and occupational backgrounds. A city like Mumbai is almost an amoeboid entity, constantly growing and multiplying and diversifying. Being one of the most urbanized cities in the country, the urban fabric of the city creates and regulates the cognitive relationship that people have with the built environment. How people live, commute, and recreate are all connected and dependent on this urban fabric. While there is a lot of literature on the live and work socio-spatial relationships in the city, this article primarily throws light on the possibilities of play and leisure in the city.

While a city like Mumbai is being planned and designed to improve on the efficiency of housing and transportation (arguably in a capitalist manner), the spaces in which one can amble about in their idle hours, are often ignored. How

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does the way in which our public recreational spaces are manifested and designed (not just in the architectural sense of the word, but also the policies and planning of them) affect how and who occupies them? What messages does the spatial order send out to its users? What are these politics of leisure?

This essay primarily tries to grapple with these important questions listing certain examples throughout the city of Mumbai.

Take for example the gated manicured gardens in the suburb of Mumbai, where there is only one prescribed route to walk, with restricted timings of occupation, and where one cannot idle about without any purpose. What makes this so different from Shivaji Park, or Chowpatty?

Public spaces in neighbourhoods that are

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designed or used by the upper-middle class and upper class of the income bracket tend to be more exclusionary in their planning and design.

In Gardens there are minimal seating areas, manicured lawns that cannot be accessed, high boundary walls, which essentially make them a private commodity only to be enjoyed by the residents of the area.

Leisure spaces, when imposed with excessive order in their planning, tend to exclude a greater percentage of the population, simply because they don’t confine to the image of how that space should function. It creates an outsider vs an insider roleplay.

The surrounding that the open space exists in, creates as much an impact on how a person feels and thus occupies that space.

What makes one feel completely at ease in the open, is not the absence of surveillance, Mumbai beaches have them, rather it is the absence of the elitist gaze. The gaze of a ‘citizen’ who will look at you - the person who is not conforming to the prescribed activities of the public space; the prescribed activities being walking or jogging.

This gaze would also follow you if you were an ‘outsider’ perhaps. In the case of smaller public recreational spaces, people tend to develop a territorial attachment to them - thereby accentuating the ‘insider-outsider dichotomy. This gaze restricts and hinders the purpose of using that public space for leisure.

This is what makes it more important for public spaces such as beaches to retain their quality of space. Beaches in Mumbai work well as leisure spaces as they are open to all, at all times, have hawking zones, which ensures there are eyes on the streets. People feel free to play, walk, run, or even pause and sit down.

The upcoming coastal road project boasts of improving the open space in the city with almost 70 acres of green space which will include parks,

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gardens, amphitheatres, cycling tracks, and walkways. Barring the environmental concerns of such a mammoth project, these open spaces, as understood by the various renders , are largely cut off from the hinterland by the coastal road.

The promenade walkway, which is the first lane adjacent to the sea, will perhaps fail to garner the footfall that the Bandra promenade receives because it is detached from the hinterland by a six-lane driveway and acres of green space at junctions The Bandra Carter Road promenade functions well because it’s just adjacent to a two-way road, which is then flanked by residential apartments, shops, and eateries. In other words, there are ‘eyes on the street’ making it a safer, and more active public space. The potential to sit, walk, stroll, grab food, play, and easy accessibility from both private and public transportation is what makes this an eventful space.

Moreover, the open green spaces of the coastal road are mostly going to be in the shadow cast by the overhead roads - thereby being isolated, dark, and dingy. None of which are going to aid leisure and recreation. Largely unrestricted tracts of green spaces, clear of activity of any kind, without any hawker permissible zones, or shops will be under or ill-used.

It may seem that open and unhindered green spaces have the most potential in terms of being a tabula rasa that allows for any and every activity to take space. However, the spaces that see the most traction are often sheltered by an almost intangible and undefined boundary. It follows the same principle as ‘Too much of a good thing is not a good thing.’

A recent article mentioned the reduction of open spaces in the 2034 DP of the K/E ward to 10 percent of the previously allotted space available for public use. The 20 reserved open spaces are parts of hotels in the area. The current plan permits them to retain 90 percent of these plots (50% as commercial and 40% as private parks)

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It’s important as citizens of this city, that we pause to reflect on what kind of development we are permitting and advocating for - or rather lack of advocating for.

The above-stated examples engender a series of questions we must raise - What is the kind of leisure you are promoting? More importantly, what is the kind of leisure you are permitting and curating? Who are you allowing and thereby excluding to use these leisure spaces? Will we have any outdoor spaces left to loiter - to simply exist?

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Space has always been the spiritual dimension of architecture. It is not the physical statement of the structure so much as what it contains that moves us.

– Arthur Erickson

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Akalbodhan: Memoir of a festive city Vinod Chovvayil Panengal Vinod is an architect / urban designer and educator with over 10 years of working experience in master planning, urban design, architecture and interior designing and 7 years in academics. An alumni of SPA Delhi, he has worked with various masters, including Ar. Tony Joseph and Ar. Ranjeet Sabikhi, and travelled extensively across the country. His primary interests are photography, sketching and travel, and always try to connect with society, culture and urban form. He currently associated with School of Planning and Architecture- Bhopal as assistant Professor. you can check more of his works from www.pura.org.in / www.tripsandscribble.wordpress.com

“The spring breeze with its magic breath May well set your heart on fire And resurrect with in your breast Slumbering desires”.

(The amatory conversation of young Bengali couple.)

Sri Rabindranath Tagore “Those places where sadness and misery abound are favoured settings for stories of ghosts and apparitions. Calcutta has countless such stories hidden in its darkness, stories that nobody wants to admit they believe but which nevertheless survive in the memory of generations as the only chronicle of the past. It is as if the people who inhabit the streets, inspired by some mysterious wisdom, realise that the true history of Calcutta has always been written in the invisible tales of its spirits and unspoken curses.”

- Carlos Ruiz Zafón (The Midnight Palace)

* All the images are copyright of the Author - Vinod Chovvayil Panengal

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The City of Joy always poses an element of surprise at every turn and the moment you unmask it, another one poses leading to another story to get enchanted. Every person, every moment you encounter in the streets of Kolkata will turn into a new story. For a story, the city sets up a stage where it happens. They are playing for those around it. Through these plays, where each citizen will be an actor, the informal city is formed. Though the built city forms the backdrop of this play–the stage, people define the time; a moment in the daily chores of the city and its citizens, this is rather spontaneous and unintentional.

Each person, who is a part of this strange and rather frequent connection of stage and moment, will interpret the same differently. The memory that they carry from each of these plays or stories will be the key element that helps them to identify the city, place, and people.

In my encounters with Kolkata (in 2013) I cherish the night, the busy roads, small gullies lit by dols and dances, faces of joy and hope. I seldom felt the city was celebrating the goddess Durga, her victory over demon Narakasura. Those are mere reasons for people to come together, and that’s what I feel it was celebratingtogetherness.

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A Voluntary Prison Vaidehi Raipat Vaidehi Raipat, an Urban Designer, Researcher and an Architect is the Founder and Principal of Innovature Research and Design Studio [IRDS], Bangalore. She has worked with distinguished firms and institutions before she founded IRDS in 2017. Along with being a passionate architect, her interests in the field of Temporal, Social and cultural research also drive the agenda of IRDS. She has written, presented and published many papers in National as well as International Journals. She as a writing and research enthusiast has also published a few articles in newspapers/ magazines of National Repute.

This Prose was inspired by an essay by Sam Jacob, entitled “Machines of Loving Grace”. Here the author talks about the endangered humanity in the human settlements because of the overtaking technological innovations. He calls this “The robotic menagere” that could be a not so futuristic view of our cities. Elaborating on a visualization of the networked battlefields of Afghanistan, manned by satellites, drones, helicopters, aerotates and planes.

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A Dream, of a smart city.

Constantly connected, bundled into Codes.

A robotic future, not so far away.

Manned by satellites and drones, the networked land.

Continuously scrutinized, This is smart urbanism.

A time when surveillance was meant for war land and prisons, is now the dream for a futuristic(not so much)city.

Embedded with intelligent robots, gathering data of how the city unfolds.

Algorithms read, as cities breathe.

A choreographed governance, hopes of positive development.

Easing lives, and automated lifestyles.

A smart dream, where robots labour.

But the labour watches, with model idealistic intelligence.

With scrutinizing eyes, and a doubtful vision.

Burying the democracy of space, as the mechanical future unfolds.

The dislocated hopes of freedom, promises a regulated lifestyle, promises of autonomy through technology, an intelligent network that is everywhere, and a bot that is everything.

A panopticon of this digital life, will we “The humans of earth” thus stand liberated.

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Way Forward

By Vaidehi Raipat

The City in Delima Gentrification Far away from the hustle bustle of the city, where the less privileged, native residents of the city move, are the underdeveloped urban fringe zones, which have no access to the city’s municipal infrastructure such as water supply, electricity or communication network. This displacement of the residential population, due to various reasons that mainly circle around urban development, is the major ‘urban conundrum’ that remains unanswered. A home is no longer a “home”; it’s a “property”. Worse yet, an “investment opportunity”. This capitalist dialect is spoken only by those with purchasing power, leaving those who don’t, trapped in an unstable rental market. But it wasn’t always this way. Madrid No Frills (2019) Neighborhoods experience gentrification when an influx of investment and changes to the built environment leads to rising home values, family incomes and educational levels of residents.

Cultural displacement occurs when minority areas see a rapid decline in their numbers as affluent, white gentrifiers replace the incumbent residents.Richardson, Mitchell, Franco (2019) One of many such examples is Mahul, a former fishing village near Mumbai which is now home to 30,000 people rehabilitated after their slum homes were demolished to make way for 45 million USD infrastructure projects. Their 50 year old slum homes were located around a water pipeline which is now being converted into a large bike lane for the daily commuters. Today, “They live in 72 sevenstorey buildings jammed together in the shadow of oil refineries,

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power stations and fertiliser plants. The air is pungent with the strong smell of chemicals. Sewage overflows into narrow streets.

With the nearest government hospital seven miles away, masked patients stand in obedient lines outside homeopathy clinics, coughing.” - Puja Changoiwala, The Guardian Stanford sociologist Jackelyn Hwang looked at the city of Philadelphia and determined that the negative effects of gentrification are felt disproportionately by minority communities, whose residents have fewer options of neighborhoods they can move to compared to their white counterparts. The issue of how gentrification affects different racial groups is particularly relevant right now in light of the increased instability people are facing due to the pandemic and incidents bringing attention to the unnecessary use of policing against people of color in the United States, Hwang said. Feder (2020) Madrid has been fighting this dilemma since the 1970’s with no concrete solution as yet. The earlier root cause of gentrification ‘Tourism’ now sees a drastic change. Tourism is a changing market.

Recent trends have shaped a new tourist archetype in Madrid.

Culture is no longer the main reason to visit the city; instead, it is gastronomy. More bread, less culture. More calamari and fewer churros. Tourists used to go to museums. Visitors go to restaurants.

Cantis (2021) Lavapiés are changing one of Madrid’s most popular areas, the neighborhood is undergoing a gentrification process, forcing out many Asian and African immigrants who have made their home here. Increased rentals are changing the neighbourhood’s shops from small local businesses to franchised outlets. This process paced up in 2018 displacing thousands of residents. Even ethnic businesses serving clients across the board are watching their customer base dwindle. A month ago, the popular Senegalese

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restaurant Baobab closed down and the building next to Nelson Mandela Square was snapped up by an investor. And soon the Prinoy hostel will also close, the first port of call in Madrid for many Senegalese immigrants. Peindo (2020) Displacement of residential population, leading to gentrification have various debatable reasons such as re-articulation of urban spaces, social evolution, geopolitical changes and economic transformations. Still, the inadequate understanding of the extent of displacement and lack of empirical evidence has made gentrification a widely discussed yet inadequately understood topic. Qualitative methods such as oral history techniques and quantitative methods such as statistical and mapping techniques have been used widely by researchers to measure displacement.

Most of these researches lack spatial and temporal documentation and understanding about the cause and effect of gentrification.

Displacement as an issue governs the morphological as well as psychological quotient of the urban fabric of our cities today.

Among others, gentrification discourses shape a broader criticism of the spatial and social consequences of contemporary urban policies such as segregation, classism, inequalities and displacement especially as the term has not been depoliticised or naturalised as a non critical concept this far. Sequera, Jorge. (2015) Upgradation of Urban infrastructure is not just inevitable, but essential.

But, must we do that on account of displacing people from their homes?

Is this the ‘collateral damage’ that all cities have to bear or can “Development” be achieved without crushing the city’s poor?

As a discussion platform for the future of urbanism, Issue 5 of The Urban Rhetoric shall aim to develop a dialogue on how

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urban development and planning, in terms of both design and policies have played a role in the cause and effect conundrum of gentrification.

Do we have a way around or is this the natural fate of all cities that aim towards a developed future?

References

Sequera, Jorge. (2015). Gentrification dispositifs in the historic centre of Madrid: a reconsideration of urban governmentality and state-led urban reconfiguration.

Madrid No Frills. (2029, August 30). Spain’s struggle with gentrification, tourism and globalization. Madrid No Frills. https:// madridnofrills.com/gentrification/

Richardson, Mitchell, Franco (2019, March 19). NCRC. Shifting NeighbourhoodsGentrification and cultural displacement in American cities. https://ncrc.org/gentrification/

Feder (2020, December 1). Stanford News. Stanford professor’s study finds gentrification disproportionately affects minorities. https://news.stanford.edu/2020/12/01/gentrificationdisproportionately-affects-minorities/

Cantis (2021). Touristification: How Tourism and Gentrification are Changing the Cities around the World. https://urbannext.net/ touristification-how-tourism-and-gentrification-are-changing-thecities-around-the-world/

Peindo (2020, March 10). El Pais. Society. Gentrification. How price hikes in Lavapiés are changing one of Madrid’s most popular ‘barrios’. https://english.elpais.com/society/2020-03-10/how-pricehikes-in-lavapies-are-changing-one-of-madrids-most-popularbarrios.html

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THE URBAN RHETORIC

CITY IN DILEMMA ISSUE 5, MARCH 2022

Far away from the hustle bustle of the city, where the less privileged, native residents of the city move, are the underdeveloped urban fringe zones, which have no access to the city’s municipal infrastructure such as water supply, electricity or communication network.

Displacement of residential population, leading to gentrification have various debatable reasons such as re-articulation of urban spaces, social evolution, geopolitical changes and economic transformations.

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Upgradation of Urban infrastructure is not just inevitable, but essential.

But, must we do that on account of displacing people from their homes?

Submission Format-

Is this the ‘collateral damage’ that all cities have to bear or can “Development” be achieved without crushing the city’s poor?

Photographs/ Illustrations/

Articles: 750 – 1500 words, word document(.doc format)

Artpieces/ Sketches: JPEG format – 600 DPI Price-

As a discussion platform for the future of urbanism, Issue 5 of The Urban Rhetoric shall aim to develop a dialogue on how urban development and planning, in terms of both design and policies have played a role in the cause and effect conundrum of gentrification.

Articles: INR 1500/Photographs/ Illustrations/ Artpieces/ Sketches: INR 500/(Participation is free, publicaton fee to be paid only after your work is selected) Submission Deadline-

Do we have a way around or is this the natural fate of all cities that aim towards a developed future?

30 November 2021 Send us your submission at info@ theurbanrhetoric.com

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The Urban Rhetoric R

http://irds-india.com/urbanrhetoric.html

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