Thoughts on Tropical Urbanism
Most architects tend to see water as a
vertical element from which to screen their work and also as to how
to effectively use the screen as a design-delight. Relish it, for it
is a tangible and basic reality which needs to be addressed boldly.
Water also begs to be seen as multiple
and horizontal layers too, especially when viewed through the
prism of Urbanism, as a form of geological sheet on which society has
driven in its tent-pegs. We have settled on a sub-soil mesh of land
and water, where the life giver is water. So, cities when planned or
urban centres when redeveloped need to first recognize this
under-lying system and the pattern of its organization.
Ecological Planning does address this
concern at a very large scale. There are studies, for example, on the
carrying capacity of the Vembanad Backwater system, from which to
deduce the scale and extent of possible urban settlement. However,
while we quantum leap down in scale from that regional level to the
say, "campus plan" scale, the lines and relationships of
water system do not inform the process of site planning beyond the
extents of the "site" in the purview of the architect.
In other words, there exists a deep
disconnect in addressing this primary issue at the intermediate
scales that vary from above large architectural project sites,
to large campuses like the Special
Economic Zones or Techno-parks etc,
to public-place-architecture like
markets, mobility hubs etc,
to city ward level redevelopment
plans like Detailed Town Planning (DTP) Schemes (which are actually
Urban Design or Urban Land Pooling/ Reconstitution Schemes),
to city scale development agenda.
Of these, architects have a compelling
role in at least the first two scales and the power to influence the
remaining scales too. Each of these scales inform the nature and
content of the ones above and below it.
In the realm of
public-place-architecture, there is the need to create a value base,
as a resource for the architect. The two year agenda set by this team
needs to build such a referral base.
In rain-fed tropics, buildings need to
stand apart to be climatically appropriate, but then, they also need
to bridge distances in the extraneous spaces they tend to create
between them, for healthier urban place-making. This pattern of
conflicting energies, that both pull and push the distance between
buildings, need to be tamed. The management of this duality of the
need to come-together while going-apart is to be moulded by a more
studied approach.
Improving walk-ability within our urban
centres is a great challenge and in that regard, some topics that can
be explored may include:
Roof spans in timber for public
walkways, and public forum (how to cover large areas using timber
space-frames)
Free public umbrellas
Tree cover
Stretched canvas (which can be
hooked and unhooked as needed)
Identifying the width of
pedestrian pathways of various scale, when people use open umbrellas
Architects have already invented
some elements as tools of the trade; like the pergola with a sheet
of glass over them. Serious refinement is possible through research.
Clothes form our first layer and
hence, appropriate clothing like knee-length formals
In the tropics, the focus needs to be
on the roof and not the walls. This notion extends and permeates both
architecture and public place design.
