People matter in urban design

Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones

During the question hour of a session on Retrofitting Suburbia by Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones who was in the city last weekend, a young architecture student raised a query that possibly resonated with the rest of the audience. Citing the example of the Coastal Road project, and how public opinion­ - from affected parties like the Koli community, and experts like environmentalists and urban planners - were not consulted when the blueprint was created, he was curious to know if things were better in the US.

Professor Dunham-Jones elaborated to a fair extent on the process in her country, and how it depended on whether it was a Federal, State or a local project. People power was quite vocal, thanks to a robust, democratic process, where experts were actively drawn in to implement regional, suburban projects. If these projects weren't people-friendly, cases between the people and the Federal or State governments would drag on in court for years, even decades. It was a bittersweet pill. Only coming generations in this city will be able to pass the verdict on how much our infrastructure projects impacted lives, for better or for worse. For now, we have the answer, based on the disruptive nature of our daily routines as the city and its suburbs get ‘upgraded.' Nobody asked us if we're okay with it.

The session hosted by Urban Design Research Institute in Kalaghoda was attended mostly by aspiring urban planners and architects, and a couple of city worriers, yours truly included. Now, if only stakeholders responsible for drafting and executing projects had occupied the vacant seats. The strapline for the professor's session was aptly titled: The next challenges for the next generation of urban designers. Drawing from her wealth of experience as director of the MS program in Urban Design at the Georgia Institute of Technology, she began her session by highlighting how limited research was available on the suburbanisation of cities, including India.

I must confess that I was a tad unsure when I signed up, if the lecture would lean towards the academic template, with a bombardment of blueprints, plans and phraseology, given the core interests of my fellow audience members. I am glad I was proven wrong. Armed with a bunch of student projects, she decoded how suburban America was coming to terms with the aftermath of rapid development. From explaining how dead malls were being re-greened into affordable senior citizen housing to how the country was solving the increasing need for parking lots. Another wish - if only the folks behind the Patwardhan Park issue - citizens and babus - had attended this session. We were privy to a trove of solution-based, logistic projects. We'll return to her views on parking lots a few paras later. What was remarkable to note was that her students' projects were and continue to be used across the country, often in small-town America; industrial zones that we'd imagine would be closed to radical, modern urban design.

"America doesn't need to cut a single tree for housing or development," she said, adding, "It's about how we manage to correct the mistakes of our past." She spoke about a mall in a small town in Connecticut that was built near a creek. It faced destruction when the tropical storm, Elsa, struck in 2021. The ‘dead' mall got a new lease of life when a plan was accepted by the locals to ensure that storm water from downtown and the surroundings got channelled towards the greening of a park.

About parking lots, her logic was an eye-opener. "While designing a parking lot, imagine it to be a future building site. It could eventually develop into an office or a residential space. Everything can be retrofitted over time." A champion of incorporating design skills in the high-carbon, low-justice sprawling suburbia, the professor spoke of redevelopment of car-oriented areas. Her mantra is that with climate change here, such steps become critical in sprawling suburbs that must take the lead in creating less-polluted neighbourhoods. "If you own a car, buy a home by the main road," pointing towards why the inner, arterial streets ought to be planned as pollution-free.

As we clocked an hour, only the surface had been scratched. For every example that was presented, I could think of at least two similar scenarios right here that could benefit from the solutions that were discussed. "Urban design should be as local as possible," she said, while reminding the young, impressionable future urban designers of the tough path ahead: "…just like steering the Titanic."

After the session, as I walked towards the Kalaghoda traffic island, Esplanade Mansion's ghostly gaze was hard to miss. I wondered, ‘For flexible-minded, aspiring urban planners, the ongoing city projects act as a telling reminder to react and hopefully, attempt to correct them if possible. But what about the inflexible-minded, the powers-that-be who draw out our plans and draft ‘redevelopment' projects without reaching out to their single-biggest advantage - people power?' I hope a day comes when our city can reap the reward of being democratic when it comes to urban design.

mid-day's Features Editor Fiona Fernandez relishes the city's sights, sounds, smells and stones...wherever the ink and the inclination takes her. She tweets @bombayana
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