landscape & planning

Narendra Dengle

lanning cities is a process, which often contradicts its own objectives; wasting natural as well as human resources. The process is usually high-jacked by the business-political lobby. Given this situation the role of the architect/planner may be understood to bring the process back on the rail. Space, is given through a plan, rather than selected through a process of critique. On the other hand space outside the municipal limits is sold before any formal plan is made for the region. Hence, we have two processes that are simultaneous to each other, which make a city; one which is a time consuming planning process, while the other the so called illegal process which the government legitimizes post facto. The former always lags behind while the latter which runs ahead of the need and is realized without reference to development rules. Both the processes are simultaneous to, and contemporary of, each other. The former works on the basis of rules and theories that are in vogue, thus idealizing the objectives of city planning while the latter is ruthlessly pragmatic, accommodative

of the aspirations but with no regard for equity of public space or the constraints that a city plan must address. Both the processes lead to forming cities with little or no qualified participation from the common man. The governance and politics of making of cities has a completely different culture, which has nothing to do with romanticized definition of the word. Communities are formed regardless of how housing is designed and for whom. It is a human instinct to live in communities and form habitations. The form of urban communities transforms based on aspirations and survival instinct. The processes that make cities and the sensibilities of people seem at loggerheads all the time. In countries where the form of governance is other than democratic, the processes seem outwardly simple since peoples aspirations are unilaterally surmised as per convenience and priorities of the ruler. In democratic countries one hopes for a better opportunity for providing for needs of all sections of society.

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Dhakta Shaikh Salla, Pune. Space behind a heritage structure being viewed for a major redevelopment

Therefore, when we use the term culture in the context of space creation, we must be aware of the larger umbrella of politics that overshadows its activities. Traditions, performing cultures, ways of life of traditional communities, rural migratory population settling down as squatters in cities, built and natural heritage, flora and fauna, and ecology of place all become seminar and research topics, which do not keep pace with forces of development that make cities. However, their value can never be belittled. The Congress, the BJP, the BSP, the MNS, and the CPM would have their own respective versions and interpretations of what culture means. But what we are concerned with is the culture which effects allocating and planning of space, how equity and sustainability are viewed, and which aspects of such affectations need to be decoded for cultivation or rejection keeping in view the equation between the universal and the individual. The scale of personalized monuments favored by a ruling party, can be grotesque, perpetuating personality cults. Le Grand Paris project invited ten prominent architects, whom president

Sarkozy, told, I dont want a virtual city: I want projects. You have absolute freedom, and means to go with it. In the tradition of the past presidents like Mitterand, who left the neo French national library and the Louvre pyramid in glass, followed by Chirac, who left Muse du Quai Branly, Sarkozy too wants to leave a mark of his political rule through an expression of architecture. Sarkozy wouldn't stop at the city limits. He wants to transform a vast region, larger than the dpartement of Ile de France, into a model city for the 21st century-sustainable, visionary, post-Kyoto, and polycentric. Except that at its center would of course be Paris, le Vrai, le Beau, le Grand - the true, the beautiful, the great. The President used that quote from Victor Hugo's long essay Paris in presenting the work of ten internationally established architects whom he had called on for ideas for these model city-big, high-minded ideas, but not necessarily concrete 1 ones. The socialist opposition has called Sarkozys plan a Trojan Horse to reclaim power in Paris and the surrounding areas mostly run by the left. This confirms the tendency of perpetuating personality cults, using architec-

tural hallmarks to perpetuate legacy, rule etc. The same tendency is visible at the municipal or panchayat level albeit with a cascading downward scale. One would also recall that to demolish religious faith Stalin consequentially went on destroying churches! Gandhis leadership of the freedom struggle indicates that he made a very enlightened effort in bringing together citizens from different cultures to fight the British. In his essay, Talking the political culturally, G P Deshpande concludes, The left and the liberals knew their politics. They came to culture via their political. Gandhi came to political 2 through his culture. If one were to draw a parallel in city planning, one would realize that our planners and politicians have been planning public spaces and monuments with reference to satisfying the market forces rather than by supporting the empowerment of the poor. Space in urban metropolises like Mumbai land is eyed to maximize profit making and remaining politically secure at the cost of equity in public space. The case of the mills 3 lands in Mumbai is an example how some of the useful suggestions made

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Mahabaleshwar Bazar Traditional public space unexplored in the new context

by Charles Correa committee were brushed aside and along with it the opportunity to prevent use of blanket FSI and carve out public amenity space. Space has come out of the domain of culture as it were and has become the most lucrative mine for exploitation by developer-politician lobby without reference to communities or environment. Correa says, For energy can create a city- but it can also destroy it. The struggle between the polemic of wanting to invent a new future space, by severing links with history and by also desperately forging links with it is a critical one. Science, technology, or image of another city, a new culture of commutations and communications on the one hand, while on the other- looking into history, associations and traditions that anchor our sensibilities to socio-physical context must be seen as two sides of the same coin. That cities have to be the engines of economic activity does not automatically mean eradication of associations and history of the place. The conservation movement in this country has been effective in conserving places of local importance. However, an offshoot of

the conservation struggle also points to recreating past, through the built form and detail. The community of architects is divided in their view of what might be called creative development. Some architects have put the blame on the leading early modernists for ruining the great Indian tradition by imposing a new kind of architecture, which in their opinion was neither traditional nor leading to forming new Indian traditions. In the polemics of modernity and tradition, what is conceived without reference to people and climate becomes destructive in that it is neither friendly with the environment nor with people. Space is not the sole prerogative of physical planners for their vision and intervention. They no more believe that they are the chosen ones, who, in fact, understand what, and how decisions should be made with regard to land equity, culture and space. Some prefer tagging along influential politicians or simply being businessmen in the profession that they have turned into a trade. This culture has damaged the process of conceiving and making quality space. An individuals relation to society is of prime importance in de-

mocracy. The Constitution of India states that the law is same for all, however, regionalism and regional politics twists the sense of freedom quite differently. This too having entered the psyche of the people their intolerance of other faiths and cultures has reached monstrous proportions. The culture of space creation may be recognized in the categories of: 1. Family and neighborhood, 2. Acquisition, promotion and business (of things and ideas), 3. Waste generation & disposal, 4. Recreation & indulgence, 5. Civic codes, governance, and peoples participation, 6. Image and mimesis, 7. Performing and creative aspirations, and 8. Modes of alienation and withdrawal from society. It may be possible to go into these categories in depth in schools of architecture for a deeper understanding of the inner dynamics and develop programs that address studies in cultural theories and humanities. It would be useful to find commonalities among different cultures rather than highlight their differences to understand what a secular or fusion space would promise. This would be a space that everyone would like to belong to. The pillars of

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democracy are said to be its electorate, parliament and judiciary, duly supported by peoples activism. There is no authority outside you and you alone are responsible for good democratic governance should be the forth coming message. No occupation can be without an activist arm that intervenes in the process of decision making. In architecture and planning this would be felt acutely because any decision to do with land-may it be reservation, defining urban-rural boundaries, any hierarchy of public spaces, the increase in FSI, rules like TDR, SEZ, CRZ, SRA, changes in land use, policies to do with land reservations and de -reservations etc. would all directly affect the life in cities. If there is a culture in political decisions about land it would have to address two issues directly which are: 1. equity, and 2. individual freedom. These must apply holistically to space that is meant for transport, recreation, congregation, and cultural practices that are traditionally followed by communities. Existing wadis, urban villages, and illegal squatter colonies pose a major issue, where settlements are organically grown and speak of adjustments and accommodation within the given constraints of land. The entire habitation spills out and uses the streets, courts, and spaces of all shapes and geometry for numerous functions. It challenges all bookish standards. Byelaws about minimum setbacks between buildings are disregarded and balconies and extensions of plinths meet each other. Shirish Patel has welcomed the presidents speech wherein she said that the government would extend financial support to states that are willing to assign property rights to people living in slum areas, and criticized the inequality that has become part of Indian

psyche, supported by the Supreme Court. Patel feels however unlikely that outcome may be, this is a wonderful statement that goes to the heart of the problem of housing the poor in our cities. It also goes to the heart of the problem of drawing the poor into the mainstream of an entrepreneurial society, with all its dreams, rewards and 4 limitless opportunities. It is indeed a welcome trend to find architects tak-

ing the government to task on its comprehension of the problem and bureaucratic procedures that distort and delay some key decisions. The more the pressure on the bureaucracy from the professionals the better it would be so far as equity of space is concerned. Covered space is not a priority for the dweller in slums, who is happy to rent it out and stay in ad hoc shelters with lower performance. The present system

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FACING PAGE | Shrirangam, a unique temple-city struggling to come to terms with the automobile THIS PAGE | Shrirangam Temple Complex, Thousand Pillar Hall being used as a cycle assembling industry

that makes plans for cities does not regard peoples participation with an open mind. The elaborate procedures followed for hearings betrays the intention and its ineffective percolation down to final decision making. Policies with regard to private and public transport inevitably favor individual transport that demands large spaces for commutation and parking. There is no inbuilt scientific process to ensure that the spatial fabric of traditional communities is not torn apart, culturally. The newer need of interfaces between different cultural practices needs a better and more sensitive comprehension so as to arrive at fusion rather than fission in our public life. The process demands a public platform that is creative at drawing insights from our pluralist society, whose recommendations should be mandatory for the development authority to follow. Architects and planers having realized this have become active in the field-many playing an entirely different role than the traditional professional. Schools have to be more aware and proactive to inculcate among the students and faculty that architecture and planning have to be peoplefaced rather than developer-faced.

The other issue is that of the individual in the society. Since culture essentially redefines the associations between individuals and society, individual and government, individual and community, the question of the individuals enlightenment and his/her aspirations of democracy become vital in understanding their cultural dialectic. Cities can not be frozen even though built; but they should rather be flexible and rebuildable like clothes, which are darned. The idea of Fibre City which is being discussed by Maki and others in Japan comes very close to this notion of making a city where carrying out amendments may be possible. A major distortion that occurs in cityscapes is ironically also due to architectural competitions aimed at elevating a citys image. The examples of Pots Damer Platz in Berlin and the space making practiced in the Middle East tell us that fanciful image making disregards traditions, memories and associations rather contemptuously to indulge in form making based on an individual artists fancy. Fanciful image making- needing expansive and expensive technological support-lays claims

to be futuristic form and is much sought after by local municipal corporations. Since some of the star architects are busy with such architecture they have a notion of culture which dissociates rather than associates with visual traditions. Bernard Tschumi discusses this at length and says, we inhabit a fractured space, made of accidents, where figures are disintegrated, dis-integrated. From a sensibility developed during centuries around the appearance of a stable image (balance, equilibrium, harmony), today we favor a disappearance of unstable images: first movies (twenty four images per second), then television. The computer-generated images, and recently (among a few architects) disjunction, dislocations, 5 deconstructions. Deepak Chopra be6 lieves that around 24 % of the worlds population is interested in creative life, 26% in fundamentalism through religion and the rest of it is in pursuit of greed and individual selfish ambitions. Although small in percentage it is the 24 % that is actually engaged in giving positive vision to the world and looks forward to creating a peaceful society.

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Temple, village near Panchgani, perpetual potential for contemporary public space

But, individual visions also take a leap over given situations and can be potentially truly visionary. Unlike in the past these are no more artists individual images but rather a product of brain storming amongst committed and spirited qualified professionals and academics. Individual has many ways at his/her disposal to react and respond to surroundings and happenings, and also to recreate space around. Discussing the perennial question about modernity and tradition, Tschmi says, But are modern versus classical or vernacular images really the issue? Pitched roofs against flat roofs? Is it really a key question? Of course not. I would claim that our contemporary condition affects his7 toricists and modernists alike. Tschumis question takes it for granted that one is discussing the physical form when one talks of tradition rather than the hierarchy of spaces that a tradition creates and reshapes now and then. The confrontation between issues connected with visual traditions and non visual traditions on one hand and the contemporariness on the other is really and essentially about sensibilities. Since the matters of culture can be elusive as these may be attempted to link

with languages, regions, faiths and so forth, it may be useful to diagrammatize ones study of culture. As architects we are converting functions and programs into diagrams, it would be useful to explore if our perceptions of culture, living habits and patterns can at all be diagrammatized. It would seem futile to carry on with programs that are devoid of cultural understanding. Usually the living patterns, and community space are studied and analyzed but rarely translated into synthetic diagrams before a design is crystallized. Such synthetic diagrams may not repeat and reproduce spaces as they exist. Nature manifests in the mutations that occur in the phenomena. Many builders, I am told, have guidelines for their architects, which control perimeters, lobby sizes, in economic proportion of the BHK vocabulary that is in vogue. It has very little to do with affordability as is geared to enhance profitability of the capitalist builder-developer. The culture diagram, which may be a subjective decision, arrived at as much objectively as possible, would address the hitherto unknown area of culture synthetically and creatively. Such cul-

tural diagrams, if at all they can be called that, would deal with memories, associations with environments of the emigrant and migrant populations, history, conservation etc; all of which sit on the fringes of architecture and yet remain elusive to architecture, and thus would have a better opportunity to mutate, rather than repeat. Peter Eisenman discusses anteriority and interiority of spaces in his book Diagram 8 Diaries. But one wonders if such diagrams can be evoked to comprehend cultural polarity in society, and resolve spaces for the masses in particular- may this be in terms of transport systems, ownership of public spaces, properties for slum dwellers, recognizing zones of heritage sites, and rivers and sea faces that sustain traditional communities and marine life-whatever. After all, we are concerned with a design that looks on to future- conceived in present- often dealing with past, and hence need to be armed with creative perceptions consisting of layers of reality. Traditional examples would point a way-especially when it comes to how housing is conceived and built by people. Can this be a viable option to an aspirant in a metropolis? The slum colonies show that

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Waghatore, Goa. Coastal Zone Regulation (CRZ) limit ensures conservation of 20 km belt inland

it is possible. We have been conditioned to identify cultures with regional characteristics. While that may well be valid, it would be useful to think of common and overlapping areas of sensibilities that connect rather than isolate cultures of regions. One knows of movements in the north, which separated the Urdu, from the Hindi and the Hindustani. While a uniform language is wholly impossible to conceive neither is it needed, one has also to discover common aspects that bring people together. Communication takes place when sensibilities resonate with one another. An abstract painter may gain from looking at traditional crafts. The so called classical style music has to be understood as that with a long tradition. A folk song is as classical as something that is urban: this is a fact that we must begin to appreciate. The notion of classical is owed to Hegel when he discussed a history of literature and arts. In planning and architecture our understanding needs to be free of the notion that architecture is and only for cities. Design programs conceived without the cultural and physical context and con-

fined only to plots must now be expanded to understand contextual urban issues that consider people along with the physical topography. In a democracy social disparities are replaced by disparities between ruling classes and the ruled but it offers us a self rectifying mechanism, capable of putting breaks to oppressive and self indulgent rules. An architect needs to transcend his personal social-cultural background by a creative participation in the planning process and with a paradigm shift in favour of people and environment. He/she also needs to realize that going back to or repeating tradition is certainly no way of facing contemporary reality. We needs to challenge the norms which anyway seem to be alien or imported, and discover the form of new space by recognizing emerging new urban communities.

References
1. Wells Walter, Big Plans for Grand Paris, France Today, June 2009 2. Deshpande G P, Talking the Political Culturally, page 12, Thema Kolkata, 2009 3. Correa Charles, Recycling Urban Land, Mills for Salethe way ahead, edited by Darryl DMonte, Marg Publications, 2006 4. Patel Shirish, This Land is Your Land, The Indian Express, June 18, 2009 5. Tschumi Bernard, Architecture and Disjunction, page 217, MIT Press 1996 6. Chopra Deepak, a recent TV interview 7. Tschumi Bernard, Architecture and Disjunction, page 231, MIT Press 1996 8. Eisenman Peter, Diagram Diaries Thames & Hudson, 1999

All images courtesy the author.

Narendra Dengle (born48) is a practicing architect and academic. His works, since 1974 include rural and urban
projects addressing contemporary cultural, environmental and aesthetic issues. He is Design Chair at Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture and Environmental Studies, Mumbai and member the Urban Conservation Committees for Pune and Mahabaleshwar. His book Jharoka, on critical issues in architecture was released in 2007. He has made films on Architectural Appreciation. E-mail: narendraden@gmail.com

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