Author | Henrik Valeur |
---|---|
Language | English |
Subject | Urban planning |
Genre | Monograph |
Publisher | The Architectural Publisher B (Copenhagen) |
Publication date | 1 July 2014 |
Media type | Print (paperback) |
Pages | 344 |
ISBN | 978-87-92700-09-4 |
OCLC | 893406601 |
India: the Urban Transition is a book by the Danish architect-urbanist Henrik Valeur, curator of an award-winning exhibition about the urban transition of China. [1] The book is based on the author's collaboration with activists, bureaucrats, developers, entrepreneurs, researchers and students in India between 2010 and 2014. [2] With experiences from both China and India, Henrik Valeur asks whether India can "use urbanization as a driver of economic, human and social development like China has done?" [3]
The author discusses some of the problems related to the urban transition of India. These problems include air pollution, the contamination and depletion of fresh water resources, the precarious food situation, the lack of proper housing, and various environmental and human health problems related to motorized transportation. [4] He also proposes some possible solutions using the cities of Bangalore in South India and Chandigarh in North India as his primary cases. [5]
India: the Urban Transition is subtitled A Case Study of Development Urbanism. Development urbanism is described as a multidisciplinary field focusing on urban development as a possible means to combat poverty and protect the environment in the so-called "developing world". [6] The concept of development urbanism can be seen as an alternative to the concept of "smart city". [7] [8] Said Henrik Valeur: "There are obviously too many unresolved problems in our cities today, but my point is that many of these problems can be solved by very simple and inexpensive means. Smart technologies are rarely necessary and may, in fact, create more problems than they solve". [9]
The book is made up of travel essays, opinion pieces and interviews, research papers and project proposals including many photos, diagrams, maps, plan drawings and renderings. The content is structured into four parts: 1. An introduction consisting of two chapters; one about urbanization as a driver of change, including historical references from the first civilizations to modern-day China, and one about some of the challenges and opportunities India faces with regard to urbanization. 2. Two essays about the author's experiences working in the cities of Chandigarh [10] [11] and Bangalore, told with text and photos. 3. The central part of the book consists of five chapters about five basic concerns of human existence and well-being in urban settings: air, water, food, housing and mobility. Each chapter discusses one of these concerns and provides a proposal to address it. The proposals include the use of plants and natural ventilation to create clean indoor air in an office building, the revitalization of an existing system of water canals, the creation of vertical kitchen gardens in a so-called rehabilitation colony, a design for self-build, low-cost housing for slum dwellers [12] and a strategy for making an entire neighborhood car-free. [13] [14] 4. The epilogue is an interview with Ashwin Mahesh, a scientist who turned environmental activist, development worker and technology entrepreneur before becoming a political candidate for a newly formed political party in India. In addition, the book contains a preface, acknowledgement, references, index and credits. [15]
The Indian architect Rahul Mehrotra, Professor and Chair of Urban Planning and Design at Harvard University, called the book "an important contribution" because of its "fine grain reading of issues in the Indian city" and its "attempt to connect so many dots to make sense of the moving targets we encounter in Urbanism in India". [16]
In a review in Urban India, published by the National Institute of Urban Affairs, the book was seen as "a commentary on the liveability of cities from the perspective of human health and safety over the long term" with observations that "appear valuable in repositioning important questions and seeking opportunities for creative solutions." The review went on to say that the book "could be criticised for leaving aside academic rigour (though parts of it are meticulous cross-referenced), but in doing so it brings to the table the value of a close-to-the-ground, interconnected way of looking at our urban fabric. It celebrates the contributions of people in a way academic literature rarely does. [...] The book contextualises city making as a complex highly political process and contends that it is the Indian city that can truly be the landscape on which the idea of India, with its diversity, flourishes. The author's use of humour and his complete honesty while describing the struggles of Indian cities with development urbanism is worthy of appreciation". [4]
In a review on H-Net it was noted that: "In an age when star architects dominate our attention, the Danish architect-urbanist Henrik Valeur's book on India's urban transition is an important reminder to us of a longstanding parallel history of architecture and urbanism, one where architects tackle social problems through practical engagement with the built environment." The review also pointed out that although the book is "not intended as a scholarly book, [it] is well grounded in data, and supported with relevant statistics, footnotes, references, and graphs that prove the great challenges that India is facing" but "[w]hile the statistics make one confront an overwhelming urban crisis in India, through case studies, his intimate narrative orients us toward realistic solutions that can make a difference to improving people's lives in cities"."His visions for the city are inclusive of all social classes rather than schemes for gentrification" and "he encourages the reader to rethink his or her surroundings and imagine futures that would improve the neighborhood and city for all sections of society". [15]
The book was shortlisted for the Best Bookwork of the year 2015 by the Danish Book Craft Society because it "is endowed with a refreshing contemporary graphic expression, which serves to facilitate the presentation of the drier end of the material. […] The contents' different qualities of paper – uncoated, glazed and gray recycled-twig paper – impart a most interesting and varying expression to the book. The cover has been printed on a wonderful piece of uncalendered nutmeg-stained chipboard; this fashions an exquisite organic frame around the clean and matter-of-fact typesetting." [17]
Urbanization is the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It can also mean population growth in urban areas instead of rural ones. It is predominantly the process by which towns and cities are formed and become larger as more people begin living and working in central areas.
New Urbanism is an urban design movement that promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually influenced many aspects of real estate development, urban planning, and municipal land-use strategies. New Urbanism attempts to address the ills associated with urban sprawl and post-Second World War suburban development.
Chandigarh is a union territory and planned city in northern India, serving as the shared capital of the surrounding states, namely Punjab to the north, west and the south, and Haryana to the east. Chandigarh constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which also includes the adjacent satellite cities of Panchkula in Haryana and Mohali in Punjab. It is situated near the foothills of the Himalayas, 260 km north of New Delhi and 229 km southeast of Amritsar.
The Gateway of India is an arch-monument completed in 1924 on the waterfront of Mumbai (Bombay), India. It was erected to commemorate the landing of George V for his coronation as the Emperor of India in December 1911 at Strand Road near Wellington Fountain. He was the first British monarch to visit India.
India is a country in South Asia.
Landscape urbanism is a theory of urban design arguing that the city is constructed of interconnected and ecologically rich horizontal field conditions, rather than the arrangement of objects and buildings. Landscape Urbanism, like Infrastructural Urbanism and Ecological Urbanism, emphasizes performance over pure aesthetics and utilizes systems-based thinking and design strategies. The phrase 'landscape urbanism' first appeared in the mid 1990s. Since this time, the phrase 'landscape urbanism' has taken on many different uses, but is most often cited as a postmodernist or post-postmodernist response to the "failings" of New Urbanism and the shift away from the comprehensive visions, and demands, for modern architecture and urban planning.
Sharada Dwivedi ,(c. 1942 – 6 February 2012) was an Indian author, historian and researcher. She wrote several books on the history and culture of both India and Mumbai. She was on the panel on the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee. Among her most famous work was Bombay, the Cities Within (1995). She had great fascination for Victorian-era Mumbai and later in her life, she developed a great affection for the city's art deco stylings.
Jaquelin Taylor Robertson, FAIA, FAICP, informally known as "Jaque," was an American architect and urban designer, working at Cooper Robertson. He was a representative of New Urbanism and New Classical Architecture.
Prathima Manohar is a social entrepreneur and the founder of The Urban Vision, a think tank on cities. She was a contributing columnist on architecture, urban development and design for The Times of India. She had previously been a contributing correspondent with France24 and TF1 on the Indian economy, developmental and cultural issues.
Rahul Mehrotra is Founder Principal of architecture firm RMA Architects of Mumbai + Boston, and is Professor of Urban Design and Planning and Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Urban China Initiative (UCI) is a new initiative with the aim to establish a think-tank with the express mission of finding and implementing effective solutions to China's urbanization challenge. It is a joint initiative led by Columbia University, the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University, and McKinsey & Company. UCI was launched in November 2010.
Kunlé Adeyemi was born on the 7 April 1976 and is a Nigerian architect, urbanist and creative researcher. Adeyemi is founder and principal of NLÉ, an architecture, design and urbanism practice, based in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. Adeyemi studied at the University of Lagos in Nigeria and Princeton University in New Jersey, the United States. Before starting his office in the Netherlands, he worked nearly a decade at Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA).
Albert Mayer was an American planner and architect. He is well known for his contribution to American new town development and his innovative planning work in India, including the master plan of Chandigarh, the new capital of the Indian Punjab. Mayer practiced as an architect in New York City post-1935, as an engineer stationed in India for the U.S. Army during World War II, and a planner and consultant after the war.
Aditya Prakash, was an architect, painter, academic and published author. He belonged to the first generation of Indian Modernists closely associated with Chandigarh and the developmentalist practices of postcolonial India under Jawaharlal Nehru. He designed over 60 buildings all in north India. His paintings are held in private collections worldwide. His architecture and art adhered strictly to modernist principles. As an academic, he was one of the earliest Indian champions of sustainable urbanism. He published two books and several papers on this topic. His archives are held at the Canadian Centre for Architecture at Montreal, Canada.
Bimal Hasmukh Patel is an architect from Ahmedabad, India, with over 35 years of professional, research and teaching experience in architecture, urban design and urban planning. He was the President of CEPT University in Ahmedabad from July 2012 to January 2024. He leads HCP Design Planning and Management Private Limited, an architecture, planning and project management firm. He also founded Environmental Planning Collaborative, a not-for-profit, planning research and advocacy organization.
Henrik Bjørn Valeur is a Danish architect-urbanist, founder and creative director of UiD (Denmark) and UiD Shanghai Co., Ltd (China), curator of CO-EVOLUTION: Danish/Chinese Collaboration on Sustainable Urban Development in China, which was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2006, and author of the book India: the Urban Transition - a Case Study of Development Urbanism (2014), which is based on his experiences teaching, researching and practicing in India.
Urmila Eulie Chowdhury was an Indian architect who worked during the mid-to-late 20th century. She worked in the fields of general architecture, landscape architecture and design, and was also a teacher and writer. She was a pioneer woman architect working in India. Some sources state that she was also the first female architect in Asia. After her education she worked in close collaboration with Le Corbusier in the planning design and construction of the city of Chandigarh.
Felipe Correa is a New York-based architect, urbanist, and author. He is the founder and managing partner of the design practice Somatic Collaborative.
Abha Narain Lambah is an Indian conservation architect whose eponymous architectural practice has restored several of India's UNESCO World Heritage Sites like the Ajanta Caves, Golconda Fort and Mahabodhi Temple, and Mumbai's Victorian buildings like the Crawford Market, Royal Opera House, Asiatic Society of Mumbai Town Hall and Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue.
The OBEL AWARD is a global award presented annually to honour "recent and outstanding architectural contributions to human development all over the world."