(Alex) After traveling together in a pack with 17 other planners and a tour guide in urban-centered India, I must confess to being ready to head off solo to the more kicked back coast. My destination, the state of Kerala, a tropical backwater known for India's highest literacy rate, Aryuvedic healing centers, diverse religious heritage, houseboats, and leftist governments. To keep it simple, I flew from Mumbai to Kochi and took a long taxi ride straight to Greenwoods Bethlehem, a small home stay (that I learned about from the Lonely Planet guidebook) in the low key, historic Fort Cochin area. My room was surrounded by vegetation and came with a ceiling fan, a cool invigorating shower, and only cost 800 rupees ( about $18) per night. My hosts, Ashley and Sheba couldn't have been nicer or more gracious. They immediately offered tea and steered me to an open air roof deck where several European and Canadian travelers were talking organic teas and exchanging travel tips. I decided to stay there all 4 of my remaining nights in India and just do day trips from there.
The street scene in Fort Cochin was definitely less chaotic and much easier to walk around. Nevertheless, western traffic rules such as respecting travel lanes remained optional. I don't recall ever being approached by any beggars in Kerala, although the sidewalk hawkers were equally if not more aggressive than other parts of India. After trying to politely say no thanks, I found myself telling a few of them them that they were not listening. There was plenty to do between the port, historic buildings (including an old synagogue), shops, museums, restaurants, an Aryuvedic massage, and going to Cherai beach - an engaging ferry and bus ride away. Along with every other tourist in town, one evening I saw a traditional Keralan mime-like Kathakali story play performance - characterized by vivid facial expressions, elaborate make-up and a gender bending male cross dresser. I also took a backwater boat tour and cruised by remote, coconut dominated shorelines and witnessed fisherman tugging at nets and woven baskets along shallow estuaries threatened by invasive water hyacinth. It was plenty interesting but next time I would head further south and check out the even more remote backwaters by overnight house boat excursion.
Upon my return and on the advice of our home stay hosts, I immediately hopped in an auto rickshaw with a delightful, young British couple and attended a Hindi celebration in nearby Ernakulam. Despite the long day, it was especially cool because there were a dozen elephants and only a handful of foreign tourists at the temple grounds. While I often shy away from organized religious events - the live, harmonic singing and drum beats quickly inspired and moved even a novice like me to a realm beyond feeling tired and hungry.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Dubai
(Elaine) We just watched a silly movie on the plane from Dubai to SF about a tour group in Greece called “MY LIFE IN RUINS". The comparisons to Sanjey and our group-the foibles on the bus, the funky hotels etc made me laugh. There was no real comparison, though. Our group was enthusiastically engaged in learning about India- unlike the movie tour group who preferred goofy tourist stuff.
After we left India, Bud and I spent a week in the United Arab Emirates with old friends who work there. The Emirates, especially Dubai, are populated with expatriates from all over the world (40% of the population is Indian) who appear to live harmoniously and comfortably with the local Muslim population. The peacefulness and lack of concern with security were striking, especially after Mumbai.
Most people live in very new, high rise apartment buildings. My friends were very critical of the basic apartment housing provided for people who work in construction. It looked pretty good to Bud and me after our India experience
The Emirates demonstrate that a small country with a massive infusion of oil money and autocratic sheiks who control the land and invest in infrastructure can house and serve a huge in-migration. That was a contrast to India. They face the tough issues of lack of democracy and the environmental issues of housing so many people in air – conditioned high rises in the desert. Overall, environmental issues get cursory attention. For example, they are building more shoreline in Dubai by “reclaiming“ the sea to create several palm shaped peninsulas in the gulf for hotels and luxury housing.
The Emirate economy has suffered during the downturn; so much of the new luxury housing is empty. We left the Emirates with concerns about its long term sustainability and impressed with the experience of seeing so many different cultures living together peacefully in the Middle East
We found our whole trip transformative- an amazing chance to learn about India and the Middle East, places that play such key roles in the global future. And we enjoyed traveling with everyone and trying together to understand India.
After we left India, Bud and I spent a week in the United Arab Emirates with old friends who work there. The Emirates, especially Dubai, are populated with expatriates from all over the world (40% of the population is Indian) who appear to live harmoniously and comfortably with the local Muslim population. The peacefulness and lack of concern with security were striking, especially after Mumbai.
Most people live in very new, high rise apartment buildings. My friends were very critical of the basic apartment housing provided for people who work in construction. It looked pretty good to Bud and me after our India experience
The Emirates demonstrate that a small country with a massive infusion of oil money and autocratic sheiks who control the land and invest in infrastructure can house and serve a huge in-migration. That was a contrast to India. They face the tough issues of lack of democracy and the environmental issues of housing so many people in air – conditioned high rises in the desert. Overall, environmental issues get cursory attention. For example, they are building more shoreline in Dubai by “reclaiming“ the sea to create several palm shaped peninsulas in the gulf for hotels and luxury housing.
The Emirate economy has suffered during the downturn; so much of the new luxury housing is empty. We left the Emirates with concerns about its long term sustainability and impressed with the experience of seeing so many different cultures living together peacefully in the Middle East
We found our whole trip transformative- an amazing chance to learn about India and the Middle East, places that play such key roles in the global future. And we enjoyed traveling with everyone and trying together to understand India.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The Bombay Gymkhana Club
(Alice) Some of our group had been to dinner with slum redevelopment visionary/advisor Mukesh Mehta, and he'd graciously invited those of us who would still be in town on Saturday afternoon to lunch at his club. Pretty much everyone else was already on their way home, but Julie and I were happy to accept. I'd read about the importance of the old social clubs as a venue for the well-connected in Mumbai and was curious to experience it for myself.
Mukesh sent a message saying he'd "fetch us" at 12:30, and he and his driver picked us up at the Trident right on time. We were soon at the Bombay Gymkhana Club, the oldest of the distinguished social/ athletic clubs in town. The Gymkhana was founded by British residents in 1875, and in the earlier years of its existence, Indians could not become members. In fact, the story goes that Lord Willingdon could not even get through the door with an Indian maharajah as his guest. Lady Willingdon was indignant and felt that Indians should not be excluded from club society, and founded her own club in protest. Amazingly, women were only allowed to become members of the Gymkhana in 2000.
In the modern world the old club has remained exclusive in other ways. A membership application requires a recommendation by a member, interviews, and a demonstration of the prospect's athletic prowess in cricket, tennis or one of the other pursuits carried out on the vast green field framing the club, which has been home to some internationally-ranked championship cricket matches. Mukesh, who is an entertaining raconteur, told the story of making a rather dramatic botch of his cricket skills during his evaluation, yet somehow still gaining the member status that he continues to enjoy decades later.
Mukesh's driver pulls up to a long wood-canopied walkway that leads from the curb to a reception area opening to a wide marble-floored verandah overlooking the vast cricket green. We walk past many rows of substantial verandah furniture and go inside to the main clubhouse dining area that also commands a view of the very green green. The dark wood, brass, leather and glass furnishings exude the patina of many years of comfortable, distinguished service. As impressive as the late Victorian ambience is, this is not a place where members go to be stuffy, and the emphasis on this being a sportsmans' club bats away the possibility of pretension. There is, however, a modest display case housing autographed tennis and cricket memorabilia from international notables.
Mukesh asks what kind of food we'd like and we say Indian, hot is ok, and please do feel free to order for us. The waitstaff is attentive yet completely unobtrusive, as one might expect, and all the food is excellent. Toward the end of the meal, when Julie mentioned how great the kulfti (a kind of dense, reduced-milk ice cream) was at the Trishna restaurant the night before, Mukesh ventured that the Gymkhana chef probably does even better, and a minute later we're eating three varieties of wonderful kulfti.
But the real treat of this lunch was to have the opportunity for more conversation with our host. In the group's previous meetings with Mukesh, we'd heard much of his bold plans for rehabilitating and revitalizing the vast Dharavi squatter's area (Mumbai's largest) as well as the squatter areas by the airport and the depressed rural areas which the country poor abandon for the urban slums. We could have easily discussed these things further, but we also got to know more about Mukesh's life history, his family, his years living in Long Island and how his interest in the residents of Dharavi evolved from self-interest to a strong admiration for their resourcefulness and ambition. There is a reason why certain people are more than commonly successful in their life's pursuits: while Mukesh is self-deprecating and attributes many things in his life to "luck", the three-hour lunch allowed some insight into his willingness to go out on a limb and make some bold decisions at the right times for "luck" to occur. We also discovered that today was his birthday, and after being a gracious host to his American guests, he was going home to more feasting with his family. He explained that many Indians have domestic help to do the cooking, so it is a very special honor when his wife and his son decided to cook the birthday meal.
Full of our last Mumbai cuisine and good conversation, we are driven back to the Trident with just enough time to pack and check out. As the car gets the full security inspection before entering the hotel driveway, Mukesh says, "We lost our innocence on the 26th last year."
Even regarding our departure plans, Mukesh is full of good advice. He recommended a service named Mega Cab, which true to its name has cars slightly larger than the usual taxis. He told us: make the driver put the meter on, and take the Sea Link bridge. In spite of some traffic we arrive early and the fare is less than 400 rupees.
Our APA group has been treated very graciously and generously by all our hosts and contacts in India, and I will never forget how welcoming the culture has been to this crew of sometimes clueless but well-meaning Americans. It was fine indeed to have again experienced this kind of hospitality that I can only hope to some day reciprocate; our three-week welcome is fresh in my mind as we drive over the Sea Link with the sun going down on Mumbai.
Mukesh sent a message saying he'd "fetch us" at 12:30, and he and his driver picked us up at the Trident right on time. We were soon at the Bombay Gymkhana Club, the oldest of the distinguished social/ athletic clubs in town. The Gymkhana was founded by British residents in 1875, and in the earlier years of its existence, Indians could not become members. In fact, the story goes that Lord Willingdon could not even get through the door with an Indian maharajah as his guest. Lady Willingdon was indignant and felt that Indians should not be excluded from club society, and founded her own club in protest. Amazingly, women were only allowed to become members of the Gymkhana in 2000.
In the modern world the old club has remained exclusive in other ways. A membership application requires a recommendation by a member, interviews, and a demonstration of the prospect's athletic prowess in cricket, tennis or one of the other pursuits carried out on the vast green field framing the club, which has been home to some internationally-ranked championship cricket matches. Mukesh, who is an entertaining raconteur, told the story of making a rather dramatic botch of his cricket skills during his evaluation, yet somehow still gaining the member status that he continues to enjoy decades later.
Mukesh's driver pulls up to a long wood-canopied walkway that leads from the curb to a reception area opening to a wide marble-floored verandah overlooking the vast cricket green. We walk past many rows of substantial verandah furniture and go inside to the main clubhouse dining area that also commands a view of the very green green. The dark wood, brass, leather and glass furnishings exude the patina of many years of comfortable, distinguished service. As impressive as the late Victorian ambience is, this is not a place where members go to be stuffy, and the emphasis on this being a sportsmans' club bats away the possibility of pretension. There is, however, a modest display case housing autographed tennis and cricket memorabilia from international notables.
Mukesh asks what kind of food we'd like and we say Indian, hot is ok, and please do feel free to order for us. The waitstaff is attentive yet completely unobtrusive, as one might expect, and all the food is excellent. Toward the end of the meal, when Julie mentioned how great the kulfti (a kind of dense, reduced-milk ice cream) was at the Trishna restaurant the night before, Mukesh ventured that the Gymkhana chef probably does even better, and a minute later we're eating three varieties of wonderful kulfti.
But the real treat of this lunch was to have the opportunity for more conversation with our host. In the group's previous meetings with Mukesh, we'd heard much of his bold plans for rehabilitating and revitalizing the vast Dharavi squatter's area (Mumbai's largest) as well as the squatter areas by the airport and the depressed rural areas which the country poor abandon for the urban slums. We could have easily discussed these things further, but we also got to know more about Mukesh's life history, his family, his years living in Long Island and how his interest in the residents of Dharavi evolved from self-interest to a strong admiration for their resourcefulness and ambition. There is a reason why certain people are more than commonly successful in their life's pursuits: while Mukesh is self-deprecating and attributes many things in his life to "luck", the three-hour lunch allowed some insight into his willingness to go out on a limb and make some bold decisions at the right times for "luck" to occur. We also discovered that today was his birthday, and after being a gracious host to his American guests, he was going home to more feasting with his family. He explained that many Indians have domestic help to do the cooking, so it is a very special honor when his wife and his son decided to cook the birthday meal.
Full of our last Mumbai cuisine and good conversation, we are driven back to the Trident with just enough time to pack and check out. As the car gets the full security inspection before entering the hotel driveway, Mukesh says, "We lost our innocence on the 26th last year."
Even regarding our departure plans, Mukesh is full of good advice. He recommended a service named Mega Cab, which true to its name has cars slightly larger than the usual taxis. He told us: make the driver put the meter on, and take the Sea Link bridge. In spite of some traffic we arrive early and the fare is less than 400 rupees.
Our APA group has been treated very graciously and generously by all our hosts and contacts in India, and I will never forget how welcoming the culture has been to this crew of sometimes clueless but well-meaning Americans. It was fine indeed to have again experienced this kind of hospitality that I can only hope to some day reciprocate; our three-week welcome is fresh in my mind as we drive over the Sea Link with the sun going down on Mumbai.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Singapore Redux
On our way back to the States, Jim and Barbara Kautz and I spent a few hours in Singapore. We took the Metro into town (can you believe it, the Airport Metro stop ticket office doesn't open until 11, so we couldn't buy our tourist pass there), and started readjusting to the first world. Within moments of our arrival at the City Hall stop, we were eating crepes at a creperie Hing and I had discovered three weeks ago. We had so few concerns about the cleanliness of the food and water that we drank the tap water set on our table without even thinking about it, and later at a different cafe ordered iced coffees and italian sodas without making them pour the water out of a mineral water bottle at the table.
Exploring Singapore with an architect is a lot of fun. Singapore has a lot of modern buildings, and some preserved older ones too, and Jim was able to tell us the trials and challenges of each building, from materials to maintenance. We discussed the different things you can find on buildings in Singapore, including paint, ivy, eyebrows, and glass, but not mold, graffiti, or chewing gum.
None of us wanted to visit Little India, but we did walk through the district around Arab Street then out to a metro stop in the suburbs. We also saw a series of motorcades from the bigwigs attending the APEC meeting in Singapore, and we know one of those limos could have held our president. We cruised back to Changhi and without any single line or unnecessary security check, got on our plane to come home.
Exploring Singapore with an architect is a lot of fun. Singapore has a lot of modern buildings, and some preserved older ones too, and Jim was able to tell us the trials and challenges of each building, from materials to maintenance. We discussed the different things you can find on buildings in Singapore, including paint, ivy, eyebrows, and glass, but not mold, graffiti, or chewing gum.
None of us wanted to visit Little India, but we did walk through the district around Arab Street then out to a metro stop in the suburbs. We also saw a series of motorcades from the bigwigs attending the APEC meeting in Singapore, and we know one of those limos could have held our president. We cruised back to Changhi and without any single line or unnecessary security check, got on our plane to come home.
Escape From Bombay
(Snake Plisskin) On Friday evening seven of us piled into two taxis and tried to catch our flights out of Bombay's International Airport. Although many had told us to leave plenty of time in advance of our flights, none of us anticipated the magnitude of the obstacles before us.
Our adventure started when trying to fit seven people and their bags into two mini taxis. How many planners can you fit in a Bombay taxi? Four, with baggage. We were squeezed in like circus clowns. One of the taxis almost drove off with the trunk unlatched - that final bag ended up riding in someone's lap. In the other taxi, the three crammed in the back seat were almost riding on each other's lap. Every 15 minutes on the ride we would choreograph a shifting of positions, so uncomfortable were we.
The trip out started as expected. We were leaving the equivalent of Manhattan on a Friday evening, so the streets were full, horns were honking, and music was blaring. Our 430 air conditioner was struggling to keep us cool. The willingness to drive within lanes, a uniquely Bombay trait, started to break down. Still, we had been warned about this, and the experience seemed within reason. We figured it would clear out once we got out of downtown.
We cleared downtown after about 25 minutes of stoplighted boulevards, and once we passed a construction zone and entered a suburban thoroughfare, we thought we were on our way. Indeed, for about 10 minutes driving along the east shoreline of Mahim Bay, we moved for several minutes at about 35 km/h. But once we got to the area around the Dharavi squatter settlement, traffic slowed down again, and we realized that things had only looked good on that stretch of road because so many other travelers (including our second taxi) had paid the toll to use the SeaLink bridge on the west side of Mahim Bay. Now the two paths merged again, and traffic clogged up again. Creeping past Dharavi, we were tempted to strike up conversations with our neighbors, only 12 inches away.
The next stretch of road was an expressway that we had driven once before at midday earlier in the week, and we were thrilled to recognize landmarks that meant for us progress on the route. But progress was still slow, and instead of stoplights slowing traffic, here we had stalled vehicles causing lanes to merge. To save gas, many drivers turn their engines off when stopped. At stoplights we could understand it, but in the middle of an expressway traffic jam, we thought the risks of not being able to start the engine again were too high. It was at this point that we truly began to appreciate the genius of our driver. While we could hardly get him to turn the radio down, and while trying to explain to him that he should keep the engine running seemed a hopeless task, we appreciated the skill with which he anticipated stalled cars and switched lanes before others noticed, the way he would honk any time someone would encroach in our space, he would cut off other cars that were trying to scoot past us, and could squeeze through gaps like a cockroach. His taxi (and amazingly many others) had no dents. Despite driving for 30 minutes within handshake distance of our fellow travelers, there were no fender benders.
We started to see signs for the airport, thankfully in the direction we were headed. Eventually we left the expressway and got to the surface streets that would take us to the terminal. The streets were still jammed, and we could hardly believe that this many people were going to the airport. We speculated that this was the result of not having light rail to go to the airport, but when we finally got to the terminal roads, the traffic disappeared. As we alighted curbside, there was plenty of parking and no honking cars. I gave the taxi driver a 20% tip, and our only concern at this point was whether one of the stalled taxis we had passed on the way in was the other taxi of our group. Our bags were all split up between the two taxis, so nobody would have been able to travel without both taxis arriving at the airport. However, we quickly found our other group, and we compared notes about the ride in. They had saved 10 minutes by taking the SeaLink, but their driver wasn't as 'skilled' as ours, so they only arrived five minutes ahead of us.
We had covered 18 miles in two hours.
The next challenge was to get onto the plane. We had to show our (e)tickets before we could enter the airport, and we first had to stand in a line to xray screen our checkin luggage before we even approached the checkin counter. They treated Lee like a first class passenger and let him cut in line, and Hing followed and got through, but the rest of us got kicked back to the end of the economy passenger line. Once the checkin bag was screened, it was wrapped with security tape and we stood in line to check in. Check in went normal, so we graduated to the third line, which was to get to the gates. Here they xray screened our carry on luggage, and we got the most thorough patting down of the whole trip (high end hotels here also have xray screening and pat downs with the metal detector wands). They found my money belt that nobody else had found, and the ladies' line (yes, separate lines for Ladies and Gents) was so long that one thought it must be for the restroom. We all did eventually make it through to the gate, and we spent our last rupees on snacks.
After 30 minutes in the lobby at the gate, they began boarding, and we stood in the last lines of our trip. We showed boarding passes at the gate, then in the passage to the plane our carryon luggage was subjected to a hand-search. 10 meters later we had to show our boarding pass stub to the stewards before getting on the plane. I tried to get board without showing it, saying that I knew where my seat was, but they insisted, for 'security' reasons. We finally did make it on the plane and settled comfortably (compared to the taxi, economy class was comfortable) into our seats, dreaming of the drinkable tap water and queueless airport of Singapore.
Our adventure started when trying to fit seven people and their bags into two mini taxis. How many planners can you fit in a Bombay taxi? Four, with baggage. We were squeezed in like circus clowns. One of the taxis almost drove off with the trunk unlatched - that final bag ended up riding in someone's lap. In the other taxi, the three crammed in the back seat were almost riding on each other's lap. Every 15 minutes on the ride we would choreograph a shifting of positions, so uncomfortable were we.
The trip out started as expected. We were leaving the equivalent of Manhattan on a Friday evening, so the streets were full, horns were honking, and music was blaring. Our 430 air conditioner was struggling to keep us cool. The willingness to drive within lanes, a uniquely Bombay trait, started to break down. Still, we had been warned about this, and the experience seemed within reason. We figured it would clear out once we got out of downtown.
We cleared downtown after about 25 minutes of stoplighted boulevards, and once we passed a construction zone and entered a suburban thoroughfare, we thought we were on our way. Indeed, for about 10 minutes driving along the east shoreline of Mahim Bay, we moved for several minutes at about 35 km/h. But once we got to the area around the Dharavi squatter settlement, traffic slowed down again, and we realized that things had only looked good on that stretch of road because so many other travelers (including our second taxi) had paid the toll to use the SeaLink bridge on the west side of Mahim Bay. Now the two paths merged again, and traffic clogged up again. Creeping past Dharavi, we were tempted to strike up conversations with our neighbors, only 12 inches away.
The next stretch of road was an expressway that we had driven once before at midday earlier in the week, and we were thrilled to recognize landmarks that meant for us progress on the route. But progress was still slow, and instead of stoplights slowing traffic, here we had stalled vehicles causing lanes to merge. To save gas, many drivers turn their engines off when stopped. At stoplights we could understand it, but in the middle of an expressway traffic jam, we thought the risks of not being able to start the engine again were too high. It was at this point that we truly began to appreciate the genius of our driver. While we could hardly get him to turn the radio down, and while trying to explain to him that he should keep the engine running seemed a hopeless task, we appreciated the skill with which he anticipated stalled cars and switched lanes before others noticed, the way he would honk any time someone would encroach in our space, he would cut off other cars that were trying to scoot past us, and could squeeze through gaps like a cockroach. His taxi (and amazingly many others) had no dents. Despite driving for 30 minutes within handshake distance of our fellow travelers, there were no fender benders.
We started to see signs for the airport, thankfully in the direction we were headed. Eventually we left the expressway and got to the surface streets that would take us to the terminal. The streets were still jammed, and we could hardly believe that this many people were going to the airport. We speculated that this was the result of not having light rail to go to the airport, but when we finally got to the terminal roads, the traffic disappeared. As we alighted curbside, there was plenty of parking and no honking cars. I gave the taxi driver a 20% tip, and our only concern at this point was whether one of the stalled taxis we had passed on the way in was the other taxi of our group. Our bags were all split up between the two taxis, so nobody would have been able to travel without both taxis arriving at the airport. However, we quickly found our other group, and we compared notes about the ride in. They had saved 10 minutes by taking the SeaLink, but their driver wasn't as 'skilled' as ours, so they only arrived five minutes ahead of us.
We had covered 18 miles in two hours.
The next challenge was to get onto the plane. We had to show our (e)tickets before we could enter the airport, and we first had to stand in a line to xray screen our checkin luggage before we even approached the checkin counter. They treated Lee like a first class passenger and let him cut in line, and Hing followed and got through, but the rest of us got kicked back to the end of the economy passenger line. Once the checkin bag was screened, it was wrapped with security tape and we stood in line to check in. Check in went normal, so we graduated to the third line, which was to get to the gates. Here they xray screened our carry on luggage, and we got the most thorough patting down of the whole trip (high end hotels here also have xray screening and pat downs with the metal detector wands). They found my money belt that nobody else had found, and the ladies' line (yes, separate lines for Ladies and Gents) was so long that one thought it must be for the restroom. We all did eventually make it through to the gate, and we spent our last rupees on snacks.
After 30 minutes in the lobby at the gate, they began boarding, and we stood in the last lines of our trip. We showed boarding passes at the gate, then in the passage to the plane our carryon luggage was subjected to a hand-search. 10 meters later we had to show our boarding pass stub to the stewards before getting on the plane. I tried to get board without showing it, saying that I knew where my seat was, but they insisted, for 'security' reasons. We finally did make it on the plane and settled comfortably (compared to the taxi, economy class was comfortable) into our seats, dreaming of the drinkable tap water and queueless airport of Singapore.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Planning in Bombay
The Sir J. J. College of Architecture in Bombay is the oldest Architecture school in Asia, and they treated us to a three hour seminar on Planning in Bombay. We heard five speakers in the three hours, chosen to give us a good cross section of disciplines and perspectives. We heard from the head of the College, an urban designer, an activist, an architect, and a developer. Together, the speakers gave us an outline of the city history, its architecture, urban challenges, and the policies planned to address them.
Bombay used to be seven islands, and landfill has brought the town's landscape to its present form. Many of the town's grandest buildings were built in the 1800's by the Royal Engineers, so the architects are unknown (or uncredited: This was the second time a host noted the anonymity of the architects of some of India's historic buildings). There are also plenty of Miami-style Art Deco buildings from the 1930s. The 1970s saw Bombay's first regional plan, the airport, and a bridge between Bombay and New Bombay (a new district across the bay from the old Bombay). In 1997 the city changed it's name to Mumbai (though many still refer to it as Bombay). Historically the city's economy has been based on trade and textiles, and more recently film, finance, and some information technology are included in the mix. The city's growth may require the development of a New New Bombay, south of the original Bombay and the existing New Bombay on the east side of the bay.
One policy consideration has been whether or not to break the Mumbai Metropolitan Region into subregions, but so far planners think that the region's problems need more interregional cooperation than they do more local control (though in 2005 they have introduced the idea of Township Zones as an additional planning tool). Plus, there are not enough town planners for every district to have their own planning department. They are also including globalization as a force shaping the city and the needs of districts within the city, identifying different parts of the city as globalized, urban turning global, declining urban re-emerging as global, and unaffected by globalization.
They spoke like so many others on in-migration, noting that in-migration is caused not just by the pull of the city, but also by the push of bad prospects in the villages. In the city, at least there is food, and food is more important than shelter. In the squatter settlements there are more jobs than people, and 68% of employment is in the informal sector.
Another policy consideration is the reduced reliance on bulk land acquisition to manage development. Just as in many other cities we visited, their post-1990 master plan relies less on bulk land acquisition as a planning tool than pre-1990 plans. A contemporary shift to emphasis on creating ownership housing led to a lack of new rental housing, which combined with rent control laws that destroyed the ability of landlords to make a profit from their property, let to a lack of new rental housing being created. This is now changing again, Bombay has purposefully created renter housing, and they intend to change the settlements from horizontal development to vertical development.
There are many projects to redevelop squatter settlements and other housing. 55% of the Bombay population lives in squatter settlements. We heard some fantastic stories of existing conditions of housing, including one building with a tree growing on the 5th floor that cannot be removed because its roots are the only thing holding the building together. One redevelopment project we were told of will convert 70 acres of settlements into several seven-story buildings, with units as small as 225 sf. There are scores of other similar projects, including a pilot project which would provide 150 sf units for a family of 5. They have identified dozens of 40 acre clusters of unsafe buildings which could and should be redeveloped as a cluster (not on a building by building basis). Their goal is to be able to develop 300 sf units.
For the largest squatter settlement, Dharavi, there is an incremental development scheme in place. It involves addressing the settlement piece by piece in townships of 15-20 thousand residents. The developer of the plan took the trouble (inspired by Howard Hughes' tendency to immerse himself in projects) to locate his office in the settlement for several months while developing the plan. He found a bustling economy of diverse industries, and designed his redevelopment plans to preserve the mix of residential, commercial, and light industrial by having the new structures have the first few floors accomodate retail and light industry. He felt he would need 12-14 story towers to accomodate needs for light, air, foot traffic, retail activity, schools, and the desired multifunctionality of his redevelopment areas (though he purposely does not try to mix the rental housing portions of the redevelopment with wealthier ownership housing district. Part of the basis for his confidence in the redevelopment plan is his confidence in the aspirations and work ethic of the squatter settlement residents.
Bombay used to be seven islands, and landfill has brought the town's landscape to its present form. Many of the town's grandest buildings were built in the 1800's by the Royal Engineers, so the architects are unknown (or uncredited: This was the second time a host noted the anonymity of the architects of some of India's historic buildings). There are also plenty of Miami-style Art Deco buildings from the 1930s. The 1970s saw Bombay's first regional plan, the airport, and a bridge between Bombay and New Bombay (a new district across the bay from the old Bombay). In 1997 the city changed it's name to Mumbai (though many still refer to it as Bombay). Historically the city's economy has been based on trade and textiles, and more recently film, finance, and some information technology are included in the mix. The city's growth may require the development of a New New Bombay, south of the original Bombay and the existing New Bombay on the east side of the bay.
One policy consideration has been whether or not to break the Mumbai Metropolitan Region into subregions, but so far planners think that the region's problems need more interregional cooperation than they do more local control (though in 2005 they have introduced the idea of Township Zones as an additional planning tool). Plus, there are not enough town planners for every district to have their own planning department. They are also including globalization as a force shaping the city and the needs of districts within the city, identifying different parts of the city as globalized, urban turning global, declining urban re-emerging as global, and unaffected by globalization.
They spoke like so many others on in-migration, noting that in-migration is caused not just by the pull of the city, but also by the push of bad prospects in the villages. In the city, at least there is food, and food is more important than shelter. In the squatter settlements there are more jobs than people, and 68% of employment is in the informal sector.
Another policy consideration is the reduced reliance on bulk land acquisition to manage development. Just as in many other cities we visited, their post-1990 master plan relies less on bulk land acquisition as a planning tool than pre-1990 plans. A contemporary shift to emphasis on creating ownership housing led to a lack of new rental housing, which combined with rent control laws that destroyed the ability of landlords to make a profit from their property, let to a lack of new rental housing being created. This is now changing again, Bombay has purposefully created renter housing, and they intend to change the settlements from horizontal development to vertical development.
There are many projects to redevelop squatter settlements and other housing. 55% of the Bombay population lives in squatter settlements. We heard some fantastic stories of existing conditions of housing, including one building with a tree growing on the 5th floor that cannot be removed because its roots are the only thing holding the building together. One redevelopment project we were told of will convert 70 acres of settlements into several seven-story buildings, with units as small as 225 sf. There are scores of other similar projects, including a pilot project which would provide 150 sf units for a family of 5. They have identified dozens of 40 acre clusters of unsafe buildings which could and should be redeveloped as a cluster (not on a building by building basis). Their goal is to be able to develop 300 sf units.
For the largest squatter settlement, Dharavi, there is an incremental development scheme in place. It involves addressing the settlement piece by piece in townships of 15-20 thousand residents. The developer of the plan took the trouble (inspired by Howard Hughes' tendency to immerse himself in projects) to locate his office in the settlement for several months while developing the plan. He found a bustling economy of diverse industries, and designed his redevelopment plans to preserve the mix of residential, commercial, and light industrial by having the new structures have the first few floors accomodate retail and light industry. He felt he would need 12-14 story towers to accomodate needs for light, air, foot traffic, retail activity, schools, and the desired multifunctionality of his redevelopment areas (though he purposely does not try to mix the rental housing portions of the redevelopment with wealthier ownership housing district. Part of the basis for his confidence in the redevelopment plan is his confidence in the aspirations and work ethic of the squatter settlement residents.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Amazing Race
Lost Things: Cheryl & Brandon, the Jims, and Kate & Karen. C&B's bags did not make the connecting flight into Delhi, so they showed up in Delhi on Saturday morning without extra clothes. They get a point because the airline gave them cash to buy a few days worth of clothes, and on that Saturday morning they found the best clothes shop of any of us, and it was just a two minute walk from the hotel. Their bags showed were delivered to the hotel the next day. Karen left a hat on the Chandigahr bus. Its a keepsake hat, so Sanjay called the Chandigahr bus and asked if they had found the hat. They had, and will be shipping it to Mumbai to meet us there. Kate stepped on elevators twice in Delhi without knowing which floor to exit on, and had to call to get directions. Jim Kautz lost his camera before he even got to Delhi, in the security check in Seoul on the way to India. Jim Miller left his camera on a table in the lobby of the Trident hotel, but hotel security (very tight here) picked it up and had it in lost and found for him when he came looking for it an hour later.
Shenanigans: Bud, Cheryl, and Alex, Hing and Alice. Coming up the stairs from an underground bazaar, Bud got swarmed by a flock of gypsies, and within seconds they had their hands in his bag before he even noticed. Only one point for Bud, who apparently has been pickpocketed on every continent he has visited, and because the theft was not consumated. Also one point for Cheryl, who quickly shouted 'watch out! watch out!' and shooed the gypsies away to prevent the theft. Alex bought some batteries at a vendor at Fatepuhr Sikri even though we had been specifically warned that they might sell empties. He tested his new purchase and thought at first that he had been sold empties, but then realized he had just put them in backwards - One point for succeeding with the street vendors. Hing and Alice asked the hotel to arrange for massages, and they got amateurs, barbers, and twins. They got a partial refund.
Delhi Belly: Rob and Barbara. These are the only people that have managed to avoid colds and stomach aches. Several people have taken Cipro.
Assertiveness: Cheryl. She held back a flock of Flemish tourists while the laggards of our group got on to a crowded bus. She several times acted as a relay point when the group was getting spread out while walking from one place to another. She would follow up on the details of a day's schedule with Sanjay, making sure all the options were correctly understood. She also would warn everyone of potential pickpockets.
Gone Native: Alice & Julie. They bought Punjabi suits and have worn them more than once. Alice buys more trinkets than anyone else, and is approached by the locals a lot.
Engagement: Alice & Julie, Rachna, Lee, and Jim. Everybody wants to talk to Jim and get a picture with him, even French people. Same with Alice. Lee had a guy in stitches on the train back from Chandigarh. At the movie theatre, a couple put their baby in Jim's arms for a photo. Alice, Julie, and Rachna crashed a wedding.
Best Travel Arrangements: Kathleen, Lee, Bud & Elaine. Kathleen's travel time was 19 hours, and she had an entertaining seat partner and a view of the Himalayas on her way to Delhi. Lee has an around-the-world ticket. Bud & Elaine will spend a week in Dubai on the way home, making their trip the longest of anyone in the group.
Roadwork: Steve, Bud & Elaine, Alice & Julie, Rob: Steve, Bud and Elaine were in a rickshaw that had a fender bender with a car. Alice & Julie have ridden on the backs of scooters driven by locals (Julie's driver got into a scooter wreck the next day). Rob rented a motor scooter and took a tour of the countryside around Udaipur. Our bus almost got towed for parking in the wrong place in Ahmedabad, but since all of us would have been affected, no special points to anyone.
Shenanigans: Bud, Cheryl, and Alex, Hing and Alice. Coming up the stairs from an underground bazaar, Bud got swarmed by a flock of gypsies, and within seconds they had their hands in his bag before he even noticed. Only one point for Bud, who apparently has been pickpocketed on every continent he has visited, and because the theft was not consumated. Also one point for Cheryl, who quickly shouted 'watch out! watch out!' and shooed the gypsies away to prevent the theft. Alex bought some batteries at a vendor at Fatepuhr Sikri even though we had been specifically warned that they might sell empties. He tested his new purchase and thought at first that he had been sold empties, but then realized he had just put them in backwards - One point for succeeding with the street vendors. Hing and Alice asked the hotel to arrange for massages, and they got amateurs, barbers, and twins. They got a partial refund.
Delhi Belly: Rob and Barbara. These are the only people that have managed to avoid colds and stomach aches. Several people have taken Cipro.
Assertiveness: Cheryl. She held back a flock of Flemish tourists while the laggards of our group got on to a crowded bus. She several times acted as a relay point when the group was getting spread out while walking from one place to another. She would follow up on the details of a day's schedule with Sanjay, making sure all the options were correctly understood. She also would warn everyone of potential pickpockets.
Gone Native: Alice & Julie. They bought Punjabi suits and have worn them more than once. Alice buys more trinkets than anyone else, and is approached by the locals a lot.
Engagement: Alice & Julie, Rachna, Lee, and Jim. Everybody wants to talk to Jim and get a picture with him, even French people. Same with Alice. Lee had a guy in stitches on the train back from Chandigarh. At the movie theatre, a couple put their baby in Jim's arms for a photo. Alice, Julie, and Rachna crashed a wedding.
Best Travel Arrangements: Kathleen, Lee, Bud & Elaine. Kathleen's travel time was 19 hours, and she had an entertaining seat partner and a view of the Himalayas on her way to Delhi. Lee has an around-the-world ticket. Bud & Elaine will spend a week in Dubai on the way home, making their trip the longest of anyone in the group.
Roadwork: Steve, Bud & Elaine, Alice & Julie, Rob: Steve, Bud and Elaine were in a rickshaw that had a fender bender with a car. Alice & Julie have ridden on the backs of scooters driven by locals (Julie's driver got into a scooter wreck the next day). Rob rented a motor scooter and took a tour of the countryside around Udaipur. Our bus almost got towed for parking in the wrong place in Ahmedabad, but since all of us would have been affected, no special points to anyone.
The Trident Hotel
The Trident Hotel was one of the institutions attacked in the Bombay bombings of one year ago. There is no physical evidence anymore of the attack, but all of us were whispering about it, and security was present and very regular in their checks of bags and cars. Radha, who was with us on the trip until Bombay, worked for that hotel chain, and watched the action on the day of the attacks on the New Delhi branch's closed circuit TV. When the attacks occured a year ago, we talked about them during the subsequent trip planning meeting, and considered cancelling the trip or adjusting it to not go to Bombay. We would never imagined on that day that the hotel we would end up booking eight months later would be one that got attacked. I think they were offering good deals.
The hotel itself is nice looking, and is frequented by westerners, businessmen, and what must be Bollywood stars. There are sometimes weddings on the rooftop, and the guests dress fantastically for these events. Sometimes events or busy days make it difficult to catch an elevator. The morning elevator rush hour is 8:30 - to catch a ride down to the lobby you have to first ride an empty elevator up a floor or two, so that you can be the first on the car when it starts back down. Sometimes room service is a little slow too, but the front desk people were helpful and thoughtful. Jim left his camera in the lobby once, and they had it in lost and found for him, and there was a guy at the concierge who did all our early check-ins for the flights out. Their breakfast buffet is extensive as well - better than the Lalit's in Delhi. There was a little trouble checking us in the first day, because one of the floors had some painting or other work done recently and the fumes were still present, and also because they mixed up which of our group needed twins and which could use doubles. It took them two hours to get the last of us in a room. They gave us a room with one bed and a rollaway, and the next night they switched us to a regular twin bed set with a fantastic view of the bay and the Bombay skyline.
The hotel itself is nice looking, and is frequented by westerners, businessmen, and what must be Bollywood stars. There are sometimes weddings on the rooftop, and the guests dress fantastically for these events. Sometimes events or busy days make it difficult to catch an elevator. The morning elevator rush hour is 8:30 - to catch a ride down to the lobby you have to first ride an empty elevator up a floor or two, so that you can be the first on the car when it starts back down. Sometimes room service is a little slow too, but the front desk people were helpful and thoughtful. Jim left his camera in the lobby once, and they had it in lost and found for him, and there was a guy at the concierge who did all our early check-ins for the flights out. Their breakfast buffet is extensive as well - better than the Lalit's in Delhi. There was a little trouble checking us in the first day, because one of the floors had some painting or other work done recently and the fumes were still present, and also because they mixed up which of our group needed twins and which could use doubles. It took them two hours to get the last of us in a room. They gave us a room with one bed and a rollaway, and the next night they switched us to a regular twin bed set with a fantastic view of the bay and the Bombay skyline.
Bombay
Bombay is a young town, with its history as a trading port beginning when in the 1600s the British were looking for a new deep water port for large ships, and decided to develop Bombay. The center of Bombay is on a peninsula that forms protects the harbour. Here are many skyscrapers and important buildings facing west and overlooking the Arabian Sea. In its 400 years of contact with the west it has become India's most populated city, and is 8 times as densely populated as New York City.
It was raining as we got off the train in Bombay. The comparison to New York was easy and immediate. The streets are wider and there are no cows on them. The town was hopping with activity of all sorts even late at night. There were a lot more people wearing western dress. There were more taxis and fewer rickshaws. The buildings have a more classic colonial look to them, like I would expect in an older English town. The local black basalt stone is used in many of the buildings and as paving stones for streets and sidewalks (yes, Bombay has sidewalks). There are skyscrapers, and most importantly, a five-star hotel with a room reserved for me. We stayed in the downtown section of Bombay, where everything looks like Union Square in SF or what I imaging Manhattan looks like. There are lots of shops, every area is very walkable, and there are buildings of every style and age.
The other part of Bombay are the squatter settlements. These are areas where the land was either owned by the government or by absentee landlords, and the poor and in-migrants from rural areas built shops and homes on the land. Bombay hosts the biggest such settlement in Asia, called Dharavi. Dharavi was until recently Asia's largest slum, and with a population between 600,000 to 1,000,000 in approximately 450 acres, it could be the densest community in the world. I had expected a slum where there were a lot of poor, homeless, and unemployed people, but I found a self organizing community of people very busy earning a living. Their housing and retail shops were of poor quality, but they were functional. There are a lot of proposals of different ways to help the residents improve their quality of life, but I think that they could take care of a lot of the improvements themselves if they just got some help with water and sewer infrastructure, and if ownership issues got cleared up. We drove around the outside of it, but our guides would not take us inside, saying that it would take too long to go through it once in.
It was raining as we got off the train in Bombay. The comparison to New York was easy and immediate. The streets are wider and there are no cows on them. The town was hopping with activity of all sorts even late at night. There were a lot more people wearing western dress. There were more taxis and fewer rickshaws. The buildings have a more classic colonial look to them, like I would expect in an older English town. The local black basalt stone is used in many of the buildings and as paving stones for streets and sidewalks (yes, Bombay has sidewalks). There are skyscrapers, and most importantly, a five-star hotel with a room reserved for me. We stayed in the downtown section of Bombay, where everything looks like Union Square in SF or what I imaging Manhattan looks like. There are lots of shops, every area is very walkable, and there are buildings of every style and age.
The other part of Bombay are the squatter settlements. These are areas where the land was either owned by the government or by absentee landlords, and the poor and in-migrants from rural areas built shops and homes on the land. Bombay hosts the biggest such settlement in Asia, called Dharavi. Dharavi was until recently Asia's largest slum, and with a population between 600,000 to 1,000,000 in approximately 450 acres, it could be the densest community in the world. I had expected a slum where there were a lot of poor, homeless, and unemployed people, but I found a self organizing community of people very busy earning a living. Their housing and retail shops were of poor quality, but they were functional. There are a lot of proposals of different ways to help the residents improve their quality of life, but I think that they could take care of a lot of the improvements themselves if they just got some help with water and sewer infrastructure, and if ownership issues got cleared up. We drove around the outside of it, but our guides would not take us inside, saying that it would take too long to go through it once in.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Conservation Revelation
(Alice) I have seen the future of green building, and it is more holistic and less mechanical than the American approach. It is also a uniquley Indian adaptation that would be problematic in some regards if applied in the US.
The American shade of green advocates using locally-sourced materials. But the husband and wife team of Nimish Patel and Paral Zaveri take things up a notch in their unwavering inclusion of local human resources and cultural conservation as part of their scheme.
Patel and Zaveri founded their firm Abhikram (Sanskrit for "initiation") upon their return to India in 1979 after studying in the US at MIT and with Paulo Soleri at Arcosanti. Their design and consultancy empire now includes Paninka Crafts and Technologies for conservation project management, the Virasat Foundation for research into the use of traditional materials and technologies and the Kanineeka Foundation for the development of holistic education. Their attractive office/ studio is a rehabilitated and re-purposed old house in a leafy residential Ahmedabad neighborhood.
Patel wowed the APA visitors with a presentation that included high-end resort and commercial projects and low-cost restorations of heritage buildings using only materials found on the project site. They are deeply involved with sustainable contemporary architecture as well as craft-dominated interior design.
Patel and Zaveri will only work with clients who fully agree to their conditions of local labor, local materials and lime rather than concrete. Patel explains that lime continually breathes and begins its life at 70 years. Finishing an exterior with lime can be done for 1.5 cents per square foot.
They have an unwavering mission statement by which their enterprise has been guided "from day one", according to Mr. Patel. These principals include conservation of every kind, the necessity of innovation and creative input at all levels of project implementation, designs that reflect the continuity of Indian traditions and technologies with a holistic approach to context.
The Torrent Research Center in Ahmedabad is Asia's largest passively-cooled contemporary building. Patel declares that it is a myth to assume that buildings in a hot, arid climate require air-conditioning and large amounts of artificial lighting. They designed the Torrent Research Center to utilize passive downdraft evaporative cooling so effectively that a comfortable interior temperature is maintained with no AC in a climate where the daytime temperatures can top 110 degrees for months. Function informs the design with a roofline of soaring chimney-like structures; it is starkly modern yet evokes a sort of tribal feeling. Since construction a few years ago, the cooling, fresh air exchange and tenant satisfaction (which is high) has been closely monitored. The electrical energy savings will pay for all costs of construction within 13 years.
After 30 years in practice, Patel still has a playful gleam in his eyes. This might be due to to the firm's enthusiasm for exploration into unknown territories and their openess to innovation and possibility at every level. They are explicit about this with clients, who must buy into the notion that mistakes, lessons and unanticipated outcomes are potentially part of the process. One large house was built around multiple trees and tree limbs with nothing removed, and one gets the sense that it was the fun and challenge of doing so as much as concern for tree preservation that drove the project in that direction.
In America, the domains of green building and historic preservation are not mutually exclusive, but do not necessarily converge. But at Abhikram, even their projects of modern design incorporate elements of traditional craftsmanship as a material statement of committment toward the sustainability of the traditional "genetic" knowledge handed down through generations of artisans and builders. Preservation is not only about restoring heritage structures and sites, but also about enabling the continuity of traditional skills and methods "so as to conserve centuries of knowledge". To further quote from Patel and Zaveri's promotional brochure, "We also attempt to acheive a balance between a continuity with the past without fossilizing it, and a change for the future without making it incongruent with its contextual surroundings". In his presentation to our group, Patel made it clear that they were comfortable with allowing traditional craftsmen and builders to carry out most of the decisions for the construction phase of a project, relying on their specific knowledge. It appears that they view their own role as empowering and learning from the workers to an extent that may be rather unique within the ego-driven world of architects. As an example of what they value in this approach, Patel speaks of how when a truckload of stone is delivered to a site, a worker taps each slab with a hammer, puts his ear to the stone and listens to determine its suitability. He says "you can only learn this when it is passed from father to son."
Implementation by craftsmen doesn't just introduce the aesthetics of tradition into a new structure, but it is also Patel and Zaveri's belief that the traditional methodologies get the job done less expensively, are energy efficient and create structures that will last. So indeed it is an approach that is sustainable of heritage and site context along with the conservation of energy and materials.
While there are highly skilled traditional crafts workers and builders in the US, it is hard to imagine this approach working as well and acheiving the same level of quality as would happen in India. There are fewer long generational links to the same body of skills and aesthetics, more egos and more bureaucracy to get in the way. Would any client really let the construction workers make key decisions? Still, it is thrilling to see such a comprehensive view of conservation and sustainability, so creatively employed.
The American shade of green advocates using locally-sourced materials. But the husband and wife team of Nimish Patel and Paral Zaveri take things up a notch in their unwavering inclusion of local human resources and cultural conservation as part of their scheme.
Patel and Zaveri founded their firm Abhikram (Sanskrit for "initiation") upon their return to India in 1979 after studying in the US at MIT and with Paulo Soleri at Arcosanti. Their design and consultancy empire now includes Paninka Crafts and Technologies for conservation project management, the Virasat Foundation for research into the use of traditional materials and technologies and the Kanineeka Foundation for the development of holistic education. Their attractive office/ studio is a rehabilitated and re-purposed old house in a leafy residential Ahmedabad neighborhood.
Patel wowed the APA visitors with a presentation that included high-end resort and commercial projects and low-cost restorations of heritage buildings using only materials found on the project site. They are deeply involved with sustainable contemporary architecture as well as craft-dominated interior design.
Patel and Zaveri will only work with clients who fully agree to their conditions of local labor, local materials and lime rather than concrete. Patel explains that lime continually breathes and begins its life at 70 years. Finishing an exterior with lime can be done for 1.5 cents per square foot.
They have an unwavering mission statement by which their enterprise has been guided "from day one", according to Mr. Patel. These principals include conservation of every kind, the necessity of innovation and creative input at all levels of project implementation, designs that reflect the continuity of Indian traditions and technologies with a holistic approach to context.
The Torrent Research Center in Ahmedabad is Asia's largest passively-cooled contemporary building. Patel declares that it is a myth to assume that buildings in a hot, arid climate require air-conditioning and large amounts of artificial lighting. They designed the Torrent Research Center to utilize passive downdraft evaporative cooling so effectively that a comfortable interior temperature is maintained with no AC in a climate where the daytime temperatures can top 110 degrees for months. Function informs the design with a roofline of soaring chimney-like structures; it is starkly modern yet evokes a sort of tribal feeling. Since construction a few years ago, the cooling, fresh air exchange and tenant satisfaction (which is high) has been closely monitored. The electrical energy savings will pay for all costs of construction within 13 years.
After 30 years in practice, Patel still has a playful gleam in his eyes. This might be due to to the firm's enthusiasm for exploration into unknown territories and their openess to innovation and possibility at every level. They are explicit about this with clients, who must buy into the notion that mistakes, lessons and unanticipated outcomes are potentially part of the process. One large house was built around multiple trees and tree limbs with nothing removed, and one gets the sense that it was the fun and challenge of doing so as much as concern for tree preservation that drove the project in that direction.
In America, the domains of green building and historic preservation are not mutually exclusive, but do not necessarily converge. But at Abhikram, even their projects of modern design incorporate elements of traditional craftsmanship as a material statement of committment toward the sustainability of the traditional "genetic" knowledge handed down through generations of artisans and builders. Preservation is not only about restoring heritage structures and sites, but also about enabling the continuity of traditional skills and methods "so as to conserve centuries of knowledge". To further quote from Patel and Zaveri's promotional brochure, "We also attempt to acheive a balance between a continuity with the past without fossilizing it, and a change for the future without making it incongruent with its contextual surroundings". In his presentation to our group, Patel made it clear that they were comfortable with allowing traditional craftsmen and builders to carry out most of the decisions for the construction phase of a project, relying on their specific knowledge. It appears that they view their own role as empowering and learning from the workers to an extent that may be rather unique within the ego-driven world of architects. As an example of what they value in this approach, Patel speaks of how when a truckload of stone is delivered to a site, a worker taps each slab with a hammer, puts his ear to the stone and listens to determine its suitability. He says "you can only learn this when it is passed from father to son."
Implementation by craftsmen doesn't just introduce the aesthetics of tradition into a new structure, but it is also Patel and Zaveri's belief that the traditional methodologies get the job done less expensively, are energy efficient and create structures that will last. So indeed it is an approach that is sustainable of heritage and site context along with the conservation of energy and materials.
While there are highly skilled traditional crafts workers and builders in the US, it is hard to imagine this approach working as well and acheiving the same level of quality as would happen in India. There are fewer long generational links to the same body of skills and aesthetics, more egos and more bureaucracy to get in the way. Would any client really let the construction workers make key decisions? Still, it is thrilling to see such a comprehensive view of conservation and sustainability, so creatively employed.
The Wedding Crashers
(Alice) Many glamorous bejeweled beautiful people of Mumbai strutted through the hotel lobby before out group went out for the evening. Someone had heard that there was a pre-wedding party happening that night in the rooftop function room.
One of my goals for this trip was to crash an Indian wedding, and the night-before party seemed close enough. When we returned from dinner, I inquired whether anyone wanted to go up and at least gawk from the doorway, and Rachna was game. We got to the rooftop, and edged our way into a room filled with gorgeous people sweating into their most exquisite jeweled saris and sparkly long Nehru jackets to loud bhangra music. There were low satiny divans along one wall with a 40th-floor view of the Arabian sea and the city lights. A woman in a glistening ensemble semi-reclined on one divan with her arms oustretched to either side while two women applied henna art to both of her hands simultaneously. Other recently-hennaed hands waved to the music all across the room. Waiters circulated offering wine and finger food, but we just wanted to dance and take in the scene. At one end was a low stage, and the beautiful bride and her girlfriends, boy friends and family members writhed and snaked their wrists through the air under swooping colored lights and a barrage of photographers. The men as well as the women looked so perfect that I wondered whether-- this being Mumbai-- any of the group were Bollywood celebrities. Hadn't I seen some of these faces on movie posters or in commercials? Even if they were all private citizens, this was clearly the expensively-groomed upper crust of Mumbai society.
Though I happened to be wearing a long embroidered skirt, never have I felt so plain and under-dressed in my life. But the music and atmosphere were so festive that Rachna and I moved closer to the stage and danced. One by one, the photographers began snapping us. Will the bride and groom laugh and wonder who the hell are these people, or will they feel glad that some strangers wanted to join their celebration?
Rachna and I briefly debated going out to a dance club, or whether to return to our rooms, dress up a bit and come back for more pre-wedding. As we began walking out the door, a very old but dressed-to-the-nines woman (maybe the bride's grandmother?) urged us back into the party and even pushed us deeper into the room. This was our first explicit invitation to take part in the event we'd crashed, so we danced a bit more. We then decided to glam up as best we could and persuade a few more of our group to join us. Steve and Hing could not be budged, but Julie was willing to come out of her cozy bathrobed comfort to join us in the experience. The three of us returned and danced a bit more before the music got lower and the lights higher as things wound down. I hope the beautiful couple is very happy.
One of my goals for this trip was to crash an Indian wedding, and the night-before party seemed close enough. When we returned from dinner, I inquired whether anyone wanted to go up and at least gawk from the doorway, and Rachna was game. We got to the rooftop, and edged our way into a room filled with gorgeous people sweating into their most exquisite jeweled saris and sparkly long Nehru jackets to loud bhangra music. There were low satiny divans along one wall with a 40th-floor view of the Arabian sea and the city lights. A woman in a glistening ensemble semi-reclined on one divan with her arms oustretched to either side while two women applied henna art to both of her hands simultaneously. Other recently-hennaed hands waved to the music all across the room. Waiters circulated offering wine and finger food, but we just wanted to dance and take in the scene. At one end was a low stage, and the beautiful bride and her girlfriends, boy friends and family members writhed and snaked their wrists through the air under swooping colored lights and a barrage of photographers. The men as well as the women looked so perfect that I wondered whether-- this being Mumbai-- any of the group were Bollywood celebrities. Hadn't I seen some of these faces on movie posters or in commercials? Even if they were all private citizens, this was clearly the expensively-groomed upper crust of Mumbai society.
Though I happened to be wearing a long embroidered skirt, never have I felt so plain and under-dressed in my life. But the music and atmosphere were so festive that Rachna and I moved closer to the stage and danced. One by one, the photographers began snapping us. Will the bride and groom laugh and wonder who the hell are these people, or will they feel glad that some strangers wanted to join their celebration?
Rachna and I briefly debated going out to a dance club, or whether to return to our rooms, dress up a bit and come back for more pre-wedding. As we began walking out the door, a very old but dressed-to-the-nines woman (maybe the bride's grandmother?) urged us back into the party and even pushed us deeper into the room. This was our first explicit invitation to take part in the event we'd crashed, so we danced a bit more. We then decided to glam up as best we could and persuade a few more of our group to join us. Steve and Hing could not be budged, but Julie was willing to come out of her cozy bathrobed comfort to join us in the experience. The three of us returned and danced a bit more before the music got lower and the lights higher as things wound down. I hope the beautiful couple is very happy.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Octopussy
(Hing) Part of our group ventured out for movie night at one of the rooftop restaurants overlooking the lake that was showing James Bond's Octopussy. The premise has 007 uncovering an international jewel smuggling operation by using a fake Fabergé egg which led him to India. Udaipur is the main location where the 1983 movie was shot.
The female lead, Octopussy, is a resourceful woman (as most Bond women are) living with her stupendous sexy female acrobats on a floating palace while developing a talent for illegal activities. The floating palace is situated in the center of Lake Pichola and is now a five-star luxury hotel.
There were many funny and silly moments throughout the movie. One was when the bad guys are chasing Bond and Vijay (an Indian agent), and 007 said "Vijay, we've got company." Vijay's response was "No problem, this is a company car." Another scene had 007 looking at the tattoo on Magda's back and asked "What is that?" Magda said "That's my little octopussy", and hence the name for the movie.
After watching the movie, Elaine said that the scene in which Bond had to traverse through the streets of Udaipur was probably even too tame for what foreigners, like ourselves, have to experience in India -- meaning dodging traffic from vehicles (including auto rickshaws), bikes, vendors, and animals.
The movie brought personal memories as 007 used the same Seiko watch that I had purchased for myself six months prior to the release of the movie.
The female lead, Octopussy, is a resourceful woman (as most Bond women are) living with her stupendous sexy female acrobats on a floating palace while developing a talent for illegal activities. The floating palace is situated in the center of Lake Pichola and is now a five-star luxury hotel.
There were many funny and silly moments throughout the movie. One was when the bad guys are chasing Bond and Vijay (an Indian agent), and 007 said "Vijay, we've got company." Vijay's response was "No problem, this is a company car." Another scene had 007 looking at the tattoo on Magda's back and asked "What is that?" Magda said "That's my little octopussy", and hence the name for the movie.
After watching the movie, Elaine said that the scene in which Bond had to traverse through the streets of Udaipur was probably even too tame for what foreigners, like ourselves, have to experience in India -- meaning dodging traffic from vehicles (including auto rickshaws), bikes, vendors, and animals.
The movie brought personal memories as 007 used the same Seiko watch that I had purchased for myself six months prior to the release of the movie.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Lecture on Urban Management
A contact of Alex's, a former professor of Planning at Cal Poly, invited us to attend his first-of-the-semester planning class. It was a nice change of pace, to be able to just sit and watch the presentation being given to someone else, instead of giving or receiving the presentation ourselves. It was also nice to have an academic perspective to add to the government and private sector perspectives we have seen so far. This lecture outlined the main topics to be covered in the next 14 weeks of the course.
The main points to be covered are the challenges of small and medium sized cities (large city problems already get enough attention), rural-urban issues (including once again the issue of in-migration), and at the end of the semester, sustainability (which he says must include social justice as much as infrastructure planning). He had an interesting take on in-migration. We are used to hearing that in-migration is something that must be stopped or reversed, but he said it must be accomodated. Cities depend on in-migrants for growth, and countries depend on cities for the type of growth that is needed for developing countries in the 21st century. He also mentioned that mobility of economic inputs, including labor. The in-migrants are not jobless, they are just poor enough to not be able to afford transportation, so they must live near their jobs. He also showed some respect for the expanding informal sector that operates not just in slums.
At the end he listed some of the factors he felt would improve city planning in India. Those factors were decentralization (of land use decision-making power to the local governments), and transparency and the introduction of public hearing processes.
The main points to be covered are the challenges of small and medium sized cities (large city problems already get enough attention), rural-urban issues (including once again the issue of in-migration), and at the end of the semester, sustainability (which he says must include social justice as much as infrastructure planning). He had an interesting take on in-migration. We are used to hearing that in-migration is something that must be stopped or reversed, but he said it must be accomodated. Cities depend on in-migrants for growth, and countries depend on cities for the type of growth that is needed for developing countries in the 21st century. He also mentioned that mobility of economic inputs, including labor. The in-migrants are not jobless, they are just poor enough to not be able to afford transportation, so they must live near their jobs. He also showed some respect for the expanding informal sector that operates not just in slums.
At the end he listed some of the factors he felt would improve city planning in India. Those factors were decentralization (of land use decision-making power to the local governments), and transparency and the introduction of public hearing processes.
Center for Environmental Planning and Technology
We met with the planners of the Ahmedabad Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), and they told us of their strategies in planning and implementing the project. They concentrated on connecting busy places, rather than traveling along busy roads. They wanted networks, not corridors. They invested a lot of time and money in station design, to make the stations useful and easy to use. They decided on level-entry stations, with pay-in-advance cards. They chose BRT over fixed rail because the Bus is cheaper, more flexible, they could have more stations closer to each other, and have a higher frequency of buses.
They started planning for the project in 2005, and might be finished by 2011. They used Bogota and Curitiba as examples. They did not connect the airport to their system because the passenger numbers did not justify it (its a small airport, and those who can afford and use air travel do not afterwards use transit to get home).
They took us on a ride on the first line established, and there was an entire media setup there. We were photographed and interviewed our entire 15 minute test trip, and our photo was on page 2 of the Ahmedabad edition of the India Times.
They started planning for the project in 2005, and might be finished by 2011. They used Bogota and Curitiba as examples. They did not connect the airport to their system because the passenger numbers did not justify it (its a small airport, and those who can afford and use air travel do not afterwards use transit to get home).
They took us on a ride on the first line established, and there was an entire media setup there. We were photographed and interviewed our entire 15 minute test trip, and our photo was on page 2 of the Ahmedabad edition of the India Times.
Private Sector Planning in India
We visited two private sector offices while in Amhedabad. Bimal Patel focuses on planning and urban design projects, including the redevelopment of the Sabamarti riverfront. Nimish Patel and his partner are architects whose work focuses on green building and use of local materials and craftsmen. Both are very comprehensive in their approach to planning and architecture, just as the public sector is, including social and economic considerations into all their work. Both are also concerned that public sector planning system is too bureaucratic, despite the trend towards liberalism and free market mechanisms in the last 20 years.
Bimal Patel runs a private architecture firm, HCD Architects, and does both architecture and urban planning in Ahmedabad. He has a fairly international group, including a young German with experience in several countries, a Historian from Temple University, and himself having a degree from Berkeley. Our meeting with him was our first in Ahmedabad, and it began with a bit of historical context, including that the nationalist movement began here with Gandhi, that the Business of Ahmedabad is Business (sounds familiar), and that the city prides itself on progress. It was built by those who call it home, and its main industries have been textiles, soap, and jewelry. It is also famous for its NGOs, including SEWA, which is a program to develop textile-based entrepreneurship and cottage industries among women. The architects Louis Kahn and Le Corbusier both came here to do buildings, and the Indian Space industry started here in a garage.
As the city and country became more communist and isolationist, the city was less productive, but India liberalized in the '90s and central planning was abandoned. Before then plans and master plans were very directive (do this, do that), and the plans didn't work and were not followed. The considered Delhi a mess, and mentioned how many illegal structures there are. Now the national and state governments understand that economic growth will come from businesses that operate in cities. City infrastructure has become a target for government spending only in the last few years.
When we asked about in-migration, the HCD team compared India today to the West in the 1800s, and suggested that we only need to look at that history to understand what India is facing. In the West back then, city institutions could not keep up - social learning takes time. Problems are compounded by increased wealth - wealthy people demand more space. Should you concentrate on in-migrants in the slums, or on preventing in-migration in the first place?
They mentioned some priorities for Indian cities. They need growth management on the periphery with infrastructure (roads, water, and drainage), with sewer being the most important. Affordable housing had not been a priority but is now getting attention. Spread the costs and benefits of development around, and don't use eminent domain so much. To get past arguments that density favors some but not others, require those asking for density to pay for its infrastructure costs, as well as some 'infrastructure that benefits all'.
We finally talked about sustainability. We praised India for its low carbon footprint, but our hosts mentioned the downside of the low footprint, including the psychology of living in such conditions, and that all western models of successful city development require high energy consumption. Hong Kong is the only example of development with low energy use, and Bombay could dream of becoming a Hong Kong.
Nimish Patel is an Architect whose practice concentrates on Green Building and use of local materials and skills. Their flagship example of a modern building is the Torrent building, a laboratory that uses evaporative cooling instead of air conditioning. Their heritage work includes rehabilitation of dilapidated mansions using lime masonry instead of cement, and using the materials found near the ruins, all done without drawings, for $1 per s.f.. Their design philosophy is in part inspired by Christopher Alexander's books, including A Pattern Language.
One useful aspect of the use of lime or brick instead of cement is that lime and brick are easier to re-use should needs change or repairs need to be made. Natural and traditional building methods work and are sufficient. Their reliance on local skills and knowledge allows them to tap the example of the Amber fort, which was designed so sustainably that it could withstand a two year siege, and allows them to build a rural school for 250 kids for 66 cents / s.f., equal to the cost of 6 waterless toilets. One of their goals is to help the crafts survive because they can build sustainably.
They complain about codes getting in the way of effective building, and about not being able to get LEED compliance because LEED focuses on measures of intent rather than performance.
Regarding in-migration, they want the local people to be trained in place, so that they don't migrate. Regarding model cities for Bombay, they state that unless examples like Shanghai have solved their urban problems, they should not be used as examples of solutions for Shanghai.
Bimal Patel runs a private architecture firm, HCD Architects, and does both architecture and urban planning in Ahmedabad. He has a fairly international group, including a young German with experience in several countries, a Historian from Temple University, and himself having a degree from Berkeley. Our meeting with him was our first in Ahmedabad, and it began with a bit of historical context, including that the nationalist movement began here with Gandhi, that the Business of Ahmedabad is Business (sounds familiar), and that the city prides itself on progress. It was built by those who call it home, and its main industries have been textiles, soap, and jewelry. It is also famous for its NGOs, including SEWA, which is a program to develop textile-based entrepreneurship and cottage industries among women. The architects Louis Kahn and Le Corbusier both came here to do buildings, and the Indian Space industry started here in a garage.
As the city and country became more communist and isolationist, the city was less productive, but India liberalized in the '90s and central planning was abandoned. Before then plans and master plans were very directive (do this, do that), and the plans didn't work and were not followed. The considered Delhi a mess, and mentioned how many illegal structures there are. Now the national and state governments understand that economic growth will come from businesses that operate in cities. City infrastructure has become a target for government spending only in the last few years.
When we asked about in-migration, the HCD team compared India today to the West in the 1800s, and suggested that we only need to look at that history to understand what India is facing. In the West back then, city institutions could not keep up - social learning takes time. Problems are compounded by increased wealth - wealthy people demand more space. Should you concentrate on in-migrants in the slums, or on preventing in-migration in the first place?
They mentioned some priorities for Indian cities. They need growth management on the periphery with infrastructure (roads, water, and drainage), with sewer being the most important. Affordable housing had not been a priority but is now getting attention. Spread the costs and benefits of development around, and don't use eminent domain so much. To get past arguments that density favors some but not others, require those asking for density to pay for its infrastructure costs, as well as some 'infrastructure that benefits all'.
We finally talked about sustainability. We praised India for its low carbon footprint, but our hosts mentioned the downside of the low footprint, including the psychology of living in such conditions, and that all western models of successful city development require high energy consumption. Hong Kong is the only example of development with low energy use, and Bombay could dream of becoming a Hong Kong.
Nimish Patel is an Architect whose practice concentrates on Green Building and use of local materials and skills. Their flagship example of a modern building is the Torrent building, a laboratory that uses evaporative cooling instead of air conditioning. Their heritage work includes rehabilitation of dilapidated mansions using lime masonry instead of cement, and using the materials found near the ruins, all done without drawings, for $1 per s.f.. Their design philosophy is in part inspired by Christopher Alexander's books, including A Pattern Language.
One useful aspect of the use of lime or brick instead of cement is that lime and brick are easier to re-use should needs change or repairs need to be made. Natural and traditional building methods work and are sufficient. Their reliance on local skills and knowledge allows them to tap the example of the Amber fort, which was designed so sustainably that it could withstand a two year siege, and allows them to build a rural school for 250 kids for 66 cents / s.f., equal to the cost of 6 waterless toilets. One of their goals is to help the crafts survive because they can build sustainably.
They complain about codes getting in the way of effective building, and about not being able to get LEED compliance because LEED focuses on measures of intent rather than performance.
Regarding in-migration, they want the local people to be trained in place, so that they don't migrate. Regarding model cities for Bombay, they state that unless examples like Shanghai have solved their urban problems, they should not be used as examples of solutions for Shanghai.
Ahmedabad
On our way into Ahmedabad we got lost and ended up driving past a squatter's settlement (slum) under the flight path to the Ahmedabad airport. It was the first time I had seen up close the poverty that everyone had been preparing me to find. Families are living in 15 ft x 15 foot rooms made out of 8 ft brick walls and 250 sf of tin. This slum did not extend for miles like I expect Mumbai or Rio slums to reach, but even the 300 meters or so at the airport probably housed 1,000 people. A bigger slum in the flood plain of Ahmedabad's Sabarmati river may have housed 10,000 people. Living conditions in these slums looked as poor as slums are supposed to look, but I haven't walked through one yet to get a sense of how the people living in them feel about their situation. From afar, the people look like they are getting by. Its the people living in the streets that look miserable. Ahmedabad has homeless who are obviously sleeping in the streets and in the parks in the middle of traffic circles. We had homeless living right outside our haveli, and inside the 24 hours we were there we got to recognize them.
Our haveli/hotel was more like a palace, with rooms bigger and nicer than ones in Jodhpur. It had three restaurants serving 15 rooms. The locals come here to have the lunch served in the terrace, and we managed to have three lunches at this spot. On our second lunch here we even saw Bimal Patel also having lunch here - we had been a guest at Mr. Patel's planning practice the previous evening.
Between our three lunches at the MG, we took a walking tour of the Ahmedabad old town, and saw streets turn to paths turn to secret passages. The districts formally only connect to the main streets, but if you know your way around, you can find the passages that connect the districts at their most remote and confusing ends. The secret passages look like hallways in someone's house, and have doors that suggest private property, but thats how the residents get around.
Ahmedabad and Gujarat are also famous for their association with Gandhi. Gandhi was Gujerati, and stayed in Ahmedabad in an ashram for several years practicing what he preached to others - live simply, serve the state, develop cottage industries. He also further developed and refined his political philosophy here, and began his Salt March from here.
Our haveli/hotel was more like a palace, with rooms bigger and nicer than ones in Jodhpur. It had three restaurants serving 15 rooms. The locals come here to have the lunch served in the terrace, and we managed to have three lunches at this spot. On our second lunch here we even saw Bimal Patel also having lunch here - we had been a guest at Mr. Patel's planning practice the previous evening.
Between our three lunches at the MG, we took a walking tour of the Ahmedabad old town, and saw streets turn to paths turn to secret passages. The districts formally only connect to the main streets, but if you know your way around, you can find the passages that connect the districts at their most remote and confusing ends. The secret passages look like hallways in someone's house, and have doors that suggest private property, but thats how the residents get around.
Ahmedabad and Gujarat are also famous for their association with Gandhi. Gandhi was Gujerati, and stayed in Ahmedabad in an ashram for several years practicing what he preached to others - live simply, serve the state, develop cottage industries. He also further developed and refined his political philosophy here, and began his Salt March from here.
Monday, November 9, 2009
A Ride Through the Old City
(Julie) Transportation in India is always interesting, chaotic, and somehow oddly fluid. I tasted a new flavor of Indian transportation on a trip through the Old City of Udaipur in search of a pharmacist.
Arriving in Udaipur on 2nd November, I had a tremendous head cold and no cold medicine. Upon checking in to our historic haveli hotel, I asked if someone could show me the way to a pharmacy. A young man at the inn said if I could wait a few minutes he would be happy to take me there. This being an Indian old city and made up of a maze of narrow twisting streets, I thought we would simply walk for a few minutes. But when a I followed him out the door, I found he had jumped on a motorcycle and expected me to get on behind him. Sans helmet.
Streets within the old cities of any town in India are extremely narrow affairs, most too narrow for cars and some just barely wide enough but with open gutters that can quickly entrap an errant wheel. The streets mostly handle foot traffic, auto rickshaws, hand carts, the occassional auto with a driver crazy enough to try getting through, and the ubiquitous motor bike.
With a quick prayer to Ganesh, the remover of obstacles, I climbed on back and we sped off through the twisting maze of streets dodging pedestrians, auto rickshaws, other motor bikes, the odd car and many placid cows. Our route took us past the Jagdish Mandir, a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu, where I was delivered to a pharmacist who spoke English. The pharmacist sat me down and proceeded to practice medicine without a license. We went over my cold symptoms and he showed me his recommendations including a "sort of but not really" antibiotic that all the doctors are currently prescribing. After making my purchases it was back on the motor bike retracing our path through the maze and a safe arrival back at the hotel. I'm much better now.
Epilogue: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
One night in Udaipur the entire group took auto rickshaws to a very nice restaurant overlooking Lake Picchola, forming a conga line. My rickshaw was in the lead and every twist and turn of the narrow streets brought forth new obstacles to dodge, especially the impassive cows. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Need I say more?
Arriving in Udaipur on 2nd November, I had a tremendous head cold and no cold medicine. Upon checking in to our historic haveli hotel, I asked if someone could show me the way to a pharmacy. A young man at the inn said if I could wait a few minutes he would be happy to take me there. This being an Indian old city and made up of a maze of narrow twisting streets, I thought we would simply walk for a few minutes. But when a I followed him out the door, I found he had jumped on a motorcycle and expected me to get on behind him. Sans helmet.
Streets within the old cities of any town in India are extremely narrow affairs, most too narrow for cars and some just barely wide enough but with open gutters that can quickly entrap an errant wheel. The streets mostly handle foot traffic, auto rickshaws, hand carts, the occassional auto with a driver crazy enough to try getting through, and the ubiquitous motor bike.
With a quick prayer to Ganesh, the remover of obstacles, I climbed on back and we sped off through the twisting maze of streets dodging pedestrians, auto rickshaws, other motor bikes, the odd car and many placid cows. Our route took us past the Jagdish Mandir, a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu, where I was delivered to a pharmacist who spoke English. The pharmacist sat me down and proceeded to practice medicine without a license. We went over my cold symptoms and he showed me his recommendations including a "sort of but not really" antibiotic that all the doctors are currently prescribing. After making my purchases it was back on the motor bike retracing our path through the maze and a safe arrival back at the hotel. I'm much better now.
Epilogue: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
One night in Udaipur the entire group took auto rickshaws to a very nice restaurant overlooking Lake Picchola, forming a conga line. My rickshaw was in the lead and every twist and turn of the narrow streets brought forth new obstacles to dodge, especially the impassive cows. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Need I say more?
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Udaipur
This town is famous for its lakeside location. There are several hills in the area with forts or palaces at their crest, and over the centuries the rulers have made several lakes. The best lake is the one at the foot of the palace. It has a few tiny islands in it, and two are (just) large enough for ultra-luxury resorts. Both rise straight up out of the water and rest on marble seawalls. One has a garden that tourists can visit, and it provides a great lakes-eye view of the rich part of the city, the part that has views of the lake. The second in-lake resort, the Lake Palace, is painted all white, like so much of the city itself, whose penchant for using lime for paint earned it the nickname 'The White City'. Visitors are not allowed into the Lake Palace without either a room reservation or a dinner reservation. We sailed around it, however, on our boat tour.
We toured the palace as well, caught a glimpse of the crown prince and his posse (the royal family still lives in one wing of the palace), and then began our Free Time. The point of our coming to Udaipur was to have a break from traveling, lecturing, and scheduling for a few days. Free Time means sleeping in, setting your own schedule, finding places to eat on your own, optional tours with Sanjay outside the city gates, doing laundry, and not having to pack or unpack for three full days.
I spent part of my Free Time figuring out my way around old town. The streets are not marked, and they are winding and confusing, but each day I would venture a little further from the hotel, and finally found my way to the main commercial districts bordering the old town. This is where the real action in Udaipur is. The streets were wide but still crowded with two, three, and four-wheeled vehicles. Pedestrians abounded. There were non-stop shops the whole 90 minute walk. The shops seemed to appear in industrial clusters - here a few auto repair shops, there some tailors.
Back at the heart of old town, just behind the temple, I found the German cafe (great apple crumble) and one of the rooftop restaurants that show the movie Octopussy every night at 7 PM. Half of the movie was filmed in this town, and it was great to be able to recognize both the locations and the people and objects portrayed in the film. They use the three-wheeled scooters then and now, and the people really do dress as colorfully as shown in the film.
The best place in Udaipur was the Tibeten (Aapano) bazaar at the foot of the lakeside road to the City Palace. The bazaar included an Indian saree and silk store with a well-displayed selection, including prices, that made it easy for me to pick from among the different items. I found great cloth and clothes, and recommended the place to the rest of the group. Several of us visited his shop over the three days we were there. The shopkeeper Rakesh was patient, easy to work with, and not pushy. He appreciated our creativity and worked with us and his tailors to get us our items quickly and well fitted.
We toured the palace as well, caught a glimpse of the crown prince and his posse (the royal family still lives in one wing of the palace), and then began our Free Time. The point of our coming to Udaipur was to have a break from traveling, lecturing, and scheduling for a few days. Free Time means sleeping in, setting your own schedule, finding places to eat on your own, optional tours with Sanjay outside the city gates, doing laundry, and not having to pack or unpack for three full days.
I spent part of my Free Time figuring out my way around old town. The streets are not marked, and they are winding and confusing, but each day I would venture a little further from the hotel, and finally found my way to the main commercial districts bordering the old town. This is where the real action in Udaipur is. The streets were wide but still crowded with two, three, and four-wheeled vehicles. Pedestrians abounded. There were non-stop shops the whole 90 minute walk. The shops seemed to appear in industrial clusters - here a few auto repair shops, there some tailors.
Back at the heart of old town, just behind the temple, I found the German cafe (great apple crumble) and one of the rooftop restaurants that show the movie Octopussy every night at 7 PM. Half of the movie was filmed in this town, and it was great to be able to recognize both the locations and the people and objects portrayed in the film. They use the three-wheeled scooters then and now, and the people really do dress as colorfully as shown in the film.
The best place in Udaipur was the Tibeten (Aapano) bazaar at the foot of the lakeside road to the City Palace. The bazaar included an Indian saree and silk store with a well-displayed selection, including prices, that made it easy for me to pick from among the different items. I found great cloth and clothes, and recommended the place to the rest of the group. Several of us visited his shop over the three days we were there. The shopkeeper Rakesh was patient, easy to work with, and not pushy. He appreciated our creativity and worked with us and his tailors to get us our items quickly and well fitted.
Shree Jagdish Mahal
(Hing) The 250 year-old Nagar Seth Ri Haveli, a unique heritage hotel in Udaipur, has historical wall paintings in Italian fresco called Boono fresco. A large painting of Ganesh faced the entrance of the lobby which welcomed all guests and visitors. The hotel is close to the Clock Tower, Jagdish Temple, and City Palace.
Our group stayed four nights at this location, mostly so we can be rejuvenated during our three-week tour since it was basically at the midway point. The owner welcomed us each with a flower lei and a bindi (red dot) on the forehead.
During the course of our stay, we learn a heart-warming story regarding one of the young staff members. Fifteen year old Nahander knew very little English, but always had a great smile to welcome us. Nahander became an orphan when both parents passed away (one from cancer) and his aunt started to take care of him for a few years. For whatever reason (which wasn't revealed), she threw him out and he was homeless at the age of 12. The hotel manager, Rakesh Soni, spotted him three years ago near the hotel full of tears. Nahander is paid very little (even for India standards), but he has a roof over his head and food on the table. We took good care of him and are glad he has some support from the hotel.
Our group stayed four nights at this location, mostly so we can be rejuvenated during our three-week tour since it was basically at the midway point. The owner welcomed us each with a flower lei and a bindi (red dot) on the forehead.
During the course of our stay, we learn a heart-warming story regarding one of the young staff members. Fifteen year old Nahander knew very little English, but always had a great smile to welcome us. Nahander became an orphan when both parents passed away (one from cancer) and his aunt started to take care of him for a few years. For whatever reason (which wasn't revealed), she threw him out and he was homeless at the age of 12. The hotel manager, Rakesh Soni, spotted him three years ago near the hotel full of tears. Nahander is paid very little (even for India standards), but he has a roof over his head and food on the table. We took good care of him and are glad he has some support from the hotel.
Friday, November 6, 2009
The City of Sunrise
(Alice) The Ranas of Mewar trace their ancestry back to the sun, and after ruling from nearby Chittaugarh they founded Udaipur in 1559. Portraits and lineage charts of the Maharanas going back to the 7th century are on display in the City Palace.
The Mewars weren't networking types, remaining mostly independent from the Mughuls and other neighbors, and managed to even avoid most British influence after coming under Crown control in the early 1800s. The equestrian Mewars mixed it up with the elephant-mounted Mughals in many bloody battles. Maharana Pratap Singh devised a fake elephant trunk to attach to his faithful steed Chewak. This was a game-changer, as the Mughal mounts would not charge what appeared to be a baby elephant.
Udaipur is bordered by gates, moats and Pichola Lake, on which sits the beautiful Lake Palace of Octopussy fame. There has evolved a local cottage industry of roof terrace restaurants that show Octopussy while you eat and drink and laugh at Roger Moore's 80s-era take on James Bond in an exotic but santized India, all while you overlook the actual scenery.
The architecture is a bricolage of Rajput, Mughal, Hindu and Islamic influences, with bold folk-art murals splashed onto walls indoors and out. Rythms of colored glass, tiles, mirrors and ornately painted trim are tempered by walls of austere white, pale blues and yellows. Abundant archways, gates and contrasting wood shutters visually invite your passage into other places.
Jewelrysmiths and tailors operate out of tiny shops completely open to the edge of the winding streets, and as you walk by you can almost peer over their shoulders as they work. You are aware of constant passage through private and public spaces, but differently felt than western concepts of indoors/ outdoors.
The winding streets are jammed with every activity of gods, humans and animals. Tuesday is Hanauman's day, and our first evening stroll brings us to a well-visited shrine to the monkey-god. Devotees light fires and drape marigold garlands next to an idol that looks like a giant gold-leafed Mr. Potato Head. Two dozen men sit in the alley across from the shrine, playing instruments and chanting feverishly for hours.
Wednesday is Ganesha's day, the remover of obstacles and god of planners. The interior courtyard of our hotel has a large Ganesha shrine, visited by some locals as well as guests. A large tree in front of our hotel also has its devotees, with burnt candles and incense surrounding its base: our hotel owner says that Vishnu and Lakshmi live there, and bring prosperity.
Thursday is Sai Baba day, and on our way to Octopussy, there are lights, music and religious frenzy in progress at his shrine next to the spice factory.
One unexpected image or activity after another barrages the visiting pedestrian to the point where I begin to experience camera fatigue. My head can barely contain it all, much less my memory card.
The Mewars weren't networking types, remaining mostly independent from the Mughuls and other neighbors, and managed to even avoid most British influence after coming under Crown control in the early 1800s. The equestrian Mewars mixed it up with the elephant-mounted Mughals in many bloody battles. Maharana Pratap Singh devised a fake elephant trunk to attach to his faithful steed Chewak. This was a game-changer, as the Mughal mounts would not charge what appeared to be a baby elephant.
Udaipur is bordered by gates, moats and Pichola Lake, on which sits the beautiful Lake Palace of Octopussy fame. There has evolved a local cottage industry of roof terrace restaurants that show Octopussy while you eat and drink and laugh at Roger Moore's 80s-era take on James Bond in an exotic but santized India, all while you overlook the actual scenery.
The architecture is a bricolage of Rajput, Mughal, Hindu and Islamic influences, with bold folk-art murals splashed onto walls indoors and out. Rythms of colored glass, tiles, mirrors and ornately painted trim are tempered by walls of austere white, pale blues and yellows. Abundant archways, gates and contrasting wood shutters visually invite your passage into other places.
Jewelrysmiths and tailors operate out of tiny shops completely open to the edge of the winding streets, and as you walk by you can almost peer over their shoulders as they work. You are aware of constant passage through private and public spaces, but differently felt than western concepts of indoors/ outdoors.
The winding streets are jammed with every activity of gods, humans and animals. Tuesday is Hanauman's day, and our first evening stroll brings us to a well-visited shrine to the monkey-god. Devotees light fires and drape marigold garlands next to an idol that looks like a giant gold-leafed Mr. Potato Head. Two dozen men sit in the alley across from the shrine, playing instruments and chanting feverishly for hours.
Wednesday is Ganesha's day, the remover of obstacles and god of planners. The interior courtyard of our hotel has a large Ganesha shrine, visited by some locals as well as guests. A large tree in front of our hotel also has its devotees, with burnt candles and incense surrounding its base: our hotel owner says that Vishnu and Lakshmi live there, and bring prosperity.
Thursday is Sai Baba day, and on our way to Octopussy, there are lights, music and religious frenzy in progress at his shrine next to the spice factory.
One unexpected image or activity after another barrages the visiting pedestrian to the point where I begin to experience camera fatigue. My head can barely contain it all, much less my memory card.
Wednesday before sunset, we take a boat ride on Lake Pichola, turning gold-orange along with our surroundings as the sun goes down and Lake Palace torches light up. We dine outdoors lakeside, a tabla player on a low stage nearby,sinking into our seats. Are we imagining all this? To deepen that thought, a full moon dreamily rises over a palace spire. Is anythingthis perfect? The question shimmers on the water as fireworks-- yes,really-- explode over Lake Palace.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Jodhpur
Our train from Jaipur to Jodhpur was cancelled because of the oil refinery fire near the route. So, we ended up taking our bus to Jodhpur instead. It was an eight hour ride, which reminded us of why we wanted to take the train in the first place. When we pulled in to Jodhpur, it was obvious even at 2 AM that we had lucked into a great place. The nice hotel was a foreshadowing of the fantastic tomb and fort combination we were to see the next morning. The hotel buildings were new, done in sandstone, with courtyards separating the several buildings in the complex. Each courtyard had a peaceful nook to hide in and drink tea, and the swimming pool was set into the patio almost perfectly level with the pool deck, as if the pool were part of the patio. The rooms were grand, the bathrooms included a walk-in closet, and there was a broadband connection in each room. The hotel was built by the royal family on a disused polo grounds. Polo is big here. One member of the local ruling family from 100 years ago led the India Polo team to several international victories, all along wearing a style of pants that bears the city's name.
The next morning we visited the tomb and fort complex. The tomb was build by the widow of the deceased king. The tomb itself was decent sized, but the real attraction was the setting. The tomb was at the top of an outcropping perhaps 1,000 feet above the Blue City. In one direction you could see the most massive fort in India, with walls 100 feet high and looking as if it had been carved right out of the stone it rests on. In the other direction, you could see the whole city filling in the valleys between outcroppings, and you could see that certain neighborhoods have been painted Periwinkle Blue.
It was impossible to tell where rock ended and the fort began. The wall extended straight up out of the stone, and only about half way up did you begin to see signs of living space behind the walls, mostly windows and terraces that extend out over the walls. There were no arrow slits or other trivial defenses, only pockmarks left by Jaipurian cannonballs. At one point the ramp into the castle split in two, with the main road leading back down to the city, and the a hairpin left turn that would be hard to notice at ramming speed leading further to the castle.
Jodhpur fort had the best knickknack shops we have seen so far. I found nice playing cards and a copy of the Bhagavad Gita written in English on one side and Sanskrit on the other. A couple others bought cards or miniature paintings.
We walked down from the fort through the old town to our bus. The Jodhpur old town was busy and crowded, but not that bug. Our local guide (Sanjay was still with the Jaipur group) did take us to a local rug merchant, where we listened to a 20 minute sales pitch,the only hard sell we have received on the tour so far. We had lunch then scooted to the airport, where we rode Kingfisher Airlines (probably owned by the same group that makes Kingfisher beer, but hopefully not fueled by Kingfisher). On the aiplane we met the six of us that had stayed the extra day in Jaipur and were taking the same flight to Udaipur (through Jodhpur) as we were. Both local airports were nice, clean and peaceful, not at all like Delhi airport or any of the train stations we have passed through.
The next morning we visited the tomb and fort complex. The tomb was build by the widow of the deceased king. The tomb itself was decent sized, but the real attraction was the setting. The tomb was at the top of an outcropping perhaps 1,000 feet above the Blue City. In one direction you could see the most massive fort in India, with walls 100 feet high and looking as if it had been carved right out of the stone it rests on. In the other direction, you could see the whole city filling in the valleys between outcroppings, and you could see that certain neighborhoods have been painted Periwinkle Blue.
It was impossible to tell where rock ended and the fort began. The wall extended straight up out of the stone, and only about half way up did you begin to see signs of living space behind the walls, mostly windows and terraces that extend out over the walls. There were no arrow slits or other trivial defenses, only pockmarks left by Jaipurian cannonballs. At one point the ramp into the castle split in two, with the main road leading back down to the city, and the a hairpin left turn that would be hard to notice at ramming speed leading further to the castle.
Jodhpur fort had the best knickknack shops we have seen so far. I found nice playing cards and a copy of the Bhagavad Gita written in English on one side and Sanskrit on the other. A couple others bought cards or miniature paintings.
We walked down from the fort through the old town to our bus. The Jodhpur old town was busy and crowded, but not that bug. Our local guide (Sanjay was still with the Jaipur group) did take us to a local rug merchant, where we listened to a 20 minute sales pitch,the only hard sell we have received on the tour so far. We had lunch then scooted to the airport, where we rode Kingfisher Airlines (probably owned by the same group that makes Kingfisher beer, but hopefully not fueled by Kingfisher). On the aiplane we met the six of us that had stayed the extra day in Jaipur and were taking the same flight to Udaipur (through Jodhpur) as we were. Both local airports were nice, clean and peaceful, not at all like Delhi airport or any of the train stations we have passed through.
The Taj Mahal
There is one main sight to see here, and that is the Taj Mahal building itself. It is massive, and stunningly beautiful with its symetrical design and 100% marble cladding. It looks like a cloud floating in the blue sky. There is enough but not too much carving and bas-relief, mostly of geometric patters or Arabic text, nor is there too much use of any other stone to use in inlaying designs in the marble. The tomb itself is also not so fantastic, compared to the view of the building from the outside, because there is not a lot of open space inside. A building this big needs a lot of foundation, and thick bearing walls and columns, so there is not a lot of open space left inside the building.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Bollywood Nights
(Alice) Our tour facilitator, Sanjay, escorted us to a large movie palace called the Raj Mandir for a showing of the Bollywood blockbuster “Blue”. The theatre has very luxe lighting and décor, and moviegoers hung around the vast lobby until just before the show, chatting with friends and snapping cell phone portraits in front of elaborate floral displays. Family groups were abundant.
Sanjay hooked us up with the best “Diamond” seats in the house, in a center balcony which gave the full effect of the wave-like lighting and swirled ceiling relief work framing a very large screen. The “Ruby” and “Emerald” seating areas cost about $2 US for a ticket, and our top-of-the-line seating was about $4. A cute square box of fresh popcorn was 50 cents. The large auditorium was at near capacity, with a palpably festive atmosphere. Indians rarely miss a chance to chat up strange foreigners and each other.
The show began with coming attractions, all emphasizing the Bollywood penchant for action, comedy, quick cuts and hot-looking young actors. The main attraction starred a number of well-known players, including a former Miss India as the love interest of the toughest guy. An inexplicable cameo appearance by Kylie Minogue in one of the dance numbers emphasized the global aspiratons of Indian film.
“Blue” was both formulaic and yet unusual for Bollywood, in that much of the action footage was shot underwater, first with the macho heroes beating up a great white shark, and later inflicting mayhem on the human bad guys. There were land-based chase scenes on Ducati motorcycles, and of course lots of music and dance and gyrating women in skimpy clothes. The film was shot mainly in the Bahamas and Thailand, and as is the case in the US, the main characters were all fabulously rich and cool and beautiful. And the Bahamas now have a railroad line surrounded with non-Bahamas vegetation, just because it was oh so excellent for a motorcycle chase scene to end with our hero landing his Ducati on top of a moving train.
While plot development is secondary to evoking exhilarating music-video emotion, “Blue” had a convoluted story for which Sanjay’s explanations were quite helpful. It was about retrieving long-lost treasure in a shipwreck, and solving a few romantic and money issues along the way. It was interesting that all the characters spoke random lines in English before switching back to Hindi. Sanjay says this was not the case ten years ago, but has been typical in the last few years as a ploy for wider global distribution of Bollywood product. And yes, it would have been possible to enjoy the film and follow the “plot” without additional translated context.
Another aspect of Indian films is, while they have become quite blatantly sexy in recent years, onscreen kisses or nudity are still not allowed. And yet Bollywood directors have become extraordinarily skilled in concocting highly erotic sequences with wet clothes, writhing postures and selective editing that are almost more highly sexual by virtue of the creativity required to just barely circumvent what is forbidden.
With all the emotion expended on exploding cars and dance-floor throwdowns, an intermission is required. More time to chat up your neighbors, order samosas at the refreshment stand or take pictures of American visitors.
Back when I taught cultural anthropology to undergrads, some were amazed to hear that India has by far the world’s largest film industry. Thousands of films a year are cranked out for distribution; many are low-budget and cranked out in a few weeks, but they have a huge and enthusiastic audience. Bollywood has become more sophisticated in recent years, and with the global success of “Slumdog Millionaire”, there is greater general awareness that India is the world’s biggest producer of mass fantasy. Bollywood fashion and music have become more international. Soundtracks have gone from Indian pop to bhangra to full-on hiphop. And yet there is a distinct escapist style of hyper-fantasy and exhuberance that remains pure Bollywood.
Sanjay hooked us up with the best “Diamond” seats in the house, in a center balcony which gave the full effect of the wave-like lighting and swirled ceiling relief work framing a very large screen. The “Ruby” and “Emerald” seating areas cost about $2 US for a ticket, and our top-of-the-line seating was about $4. A cute square box of fresh popcorn was 50 cents. The large auditorium was at near capacity, with a palpably festive atmosphere. Indians rarely miss a chance to chat up strange foreigners and each other.
The show began with coming attractions, all emphasizing the Bollywood penchant for action, comedy, quick cuts and hot-looking young actors. The main attraction starred a number of well-known players, including a former Miss India as the love interest of the toughest guy. An inexplicable cameo appearance by Kylie Minogue in one of the dance numbers emphasized the global aspiratons of Indian film.
“Blue” was both formulaic and yet unusual for Bollywood, in that much of the action footage was shot underwater, first with the macho heroes beating up a great white shark, and later inflicting mayhem on the human bad guys. There were land-based chase scenes on Ducati motorcycles, and of course lots of music and dance and gyrating women in skimpy clothes. The film was shot mainly in the Bahamas and Thailand, and as is the case in the US, the main characters were all fabulously rich and cool and beautiful. And the Bahamas now have a railroad line surrounded with non-Bahamas vegetation, just because it was oh so excellent for a motorcycle chase scene to end with our hero landing his Ducati on top of a moving train.
While plot development is secondary to evoking exhilarating music-video emotion, “Blue” had a convoluted story for which Sanjay’s explanations were quite helpful. It was about retrieving long-lost treasure in a shipwreck, and solving a few romantic and money issues along the way. It was interesting that all the characters spoke random lines in English before switching back to Hindi. Sanjay says this was not the case ten years ago, but has been typical in the last few years as a ploy for wider global distribution of Bollywood product. And yes, it would have been possible to enjoy the film and follow the “plot” without additional translated context.
Another aspect of Indian films is, while they have become quite blatantly sexy in recent years, onscreen kisses or nudity are still not allowed. And yet Bollywood directors have become extraordinarily skilled in concocting highly erotic sequences with wet clothes, writhing postures and selective editing that are almost more highly sexual by virtue of the creativity required to just barely circumvent what is forbidden.
With all the emotion expended on exploding cars and dance-floor throwdowns, an intermission is required. More time to chat up your neighbors, order samosas at the refreshment stand or take pictures of American visitors.
Back when I taught cultural anthropology to undergrads, some were amazed to hear that India has by far the world’s largest film industry. Thousands of films a year are cranked out for distribution; many are low-budget and cranked out in a few weeks, but they have a huge and enthusiastic audience. Bollywood has become more sophisticated in recent years, and with the global success of “Slumdog Millionaire”, there is greater general awareness that India is the world’s biggest producer of mass fantasy. Bollywood fashion and music have become more international. Soundtracks have gone from Indian pop to bhangra to full-on hiphop. And yet there is a distinct escapist style of hyper-fantasy and exhuberance that remains pure Bollywood.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Animal Control
Dogs (all the same breed, and if you took one home and cleaned him up, you would have a smart, loyal, tough, and disease resistant servant), cows, elephants, camels, peacocks, water buffalos, monkeys (rhesus macaques at old forts, including some masquerading as bonobos, and common languors with cute black faces all around Udaipur and along the highway), pigs, goats, cobras and pythons, two cats, beehives and small bats in castles and flying foxes in Udaipur, burros, chickens and a rooster, palm squirrels the size of chipmunks seen everywhere but in a palm tree, a turtle and several geckos in breakfast rooms, cooking schools, and a museum.
Jaipur
Jaipur is a new and planned city, less than 300 years old. It was layed out in a 9x9 grid, with one of the grids displaced by a fort on a ridge and relocated to the opposite side of the city. Although three million people live here, it does not seem crowded like Delhi. The grid pattern of streets in the old town might have something to do with this feel, and it could also be that the streets are simply wider and there is more off-street parking available.
The buildings in and around the palace are beautiful and well preserved. All the streets are residential over retail, and there are arcades over the sidewalks in front of the shops that both shade the shoppers and support a 2nd story terrace that runs the length of the roads and serve as a urban front yard for the residents of the homes on the upper stories.
We saw beautiful, clean, and well maintained chandeliers in the palace. Its too bad that the handicraft trade is so important to the local culture, because while they help preserve traditions and are beautiful, the trade may distract the entrepreneurs, and draws resources away from, from other trades or educational opportunities that would also help preserve and promote Rajasthan culture. The lunch was fabulous - it was a restaurant with a long history in Jaipur, it all-veg, they had one great room with rows of tables that felt like a German beer-garden, and they had great treats for sale next to the cashier.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
From A Bus Named TOURIST
(Alice) Thoughts roll along with the landscape as we motor into Rajasthan, caught in bumpy road-notes:
Potential road kill now includes monkeys, peacocks, camels and water buffalo. So far our extraordinary driver has negotiated all traffic, human and otherwise without sending anything into its next incarnation. Along with a small "American Planning Association" sign, the front of the bus is decorated with a Ganesh decal, two small strands of chili peppers and lime whose significance has yet to be revealed, and a monkey-demon image.
Vernacular architecture is good for the planner soul, especially when you can’t even guess the function of a particular structure.
The long-haul truckers drive rolling works of art, message fused to image, to be further discussed in another blog entry. Meanwhile, HORN PLEASE, and USE DIPPER AT NIGHT.
Planners everywhere are constructing thoughtful and current master plans, but none of us on either side of the globe has any novel or better ideas about implementation.
Regarding Chandigarh: a planned area always draws a line and the periphery will always become a question and a problem: infill? Go higher? Change the boundaries?
Not all superblocks are created equal. While we all want to walk to everything we need, we will drive across town if the shops or schools are perceived to be better elsewhere.
And yes, 8 or more people can get into an autorickshaw, even if they’re not going to a better superblock.
A busload of planners, architects and attorneys on the same journey begin to feel like family even after just a few days. Especially when we’re all nerdy about the same or similar interests. It was cool to see the Indian highways through Cheryl’s transportation planner eyes. She snapped photos from the front aisle and kept a running commentary on tollbooths, bus stops and signage.
Ganesh, one of the more beloved Hindu deities, is the remover of obstacles and the deva of intellect and wisdom, and is thus (I declare) the God of Planning.
Way back in Delhi, a sign displayed the motto of the Indian Coast Guard: "We are swift, professional and humane." Wouldn’t that be a great slogan for a planning department?
Being at the Taj Mahal is a walking, waking dream state. Ecstasy by design, bliss shared with strangers, smiles exchanged.
Friday, October 30, 2009
The Rock Garden
The Rock Garden is like Caddilac Ranch or one of those other eccentric labors of love. The Rock Garden's creator spent 40 years collecting reusable building materials and constructing a winding path lined with mosaics, statues, walls, arches, waterfalls, pavilions, and bridges. It took an hour to walk through his forty years of work. I burned out my camera's batteries trying to capture the wonders of this place. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a Rock Garden is worth a thousand pictures:
Transported in Delhi
(Alice) The tomb of Iman Zamin at the Qutb Minar site in Delhi resolves its square base into a circular dome by virtue of the architectural device known as the squinch.
And a moveable feat of spatial resolution occurs in the relentless honking momentum of the Delhi traffic. A fragile autorickshaw will wedge into the rapidly disappearing space between two merging trucks, somehow assuming that it can move forward before it is annihilated. A car veers into oncoming traffic, confident that the impending head-on collision with a rapidly approaching bus will be avoided as both vehicles play chicken before swerving to within a few millimeters of other moving metal at the last possible moment. Every day in Delhi, carnage and dismemberment are routinely and skillfully avoided by timely fractions of an inch.
And what cannot be found along the streets of Delhi? Goats, chickens, cows, sheep and monkeys are there, along with beautifully-dressed women and all the rest of humanity. Near Indira Gandhi’s tomb, an elephant piled high with landscape trimmings lumbers down the road. Above, crazy tangled mazes of utility lines display a stratigraphy of what had worked then and now, with officially strung wires woven among the efforts of power pirates and dish wallas. Every situation is accommodated as needed, when needed, with the evidence of past accommodations not hidden or corrected. The traffic is a dynamic depiction of this Delhi skill for accommodation, as the stutter and flow of each vehicle organically weaves forward as a compliant whole.
Twelve years ago, the Delhi roads were populated with fleets of humpy old Ambassadors and diesel-spew from autorickshaws and long-haul trucks. The same roads are now plied by “clean fuel” buses and autorickshaws powered by CNG. The evidence of India’s exploding middle class is in the form of many more shiny late-model private cars. All the planning entities we met with in Delhi mentioned the need to build underground and multi-level parking facilities, currently in short supply. On the regional level, five integrated freight complexes and wholesale hubs are being developed beyond Delhi’s periphery so that long-haul truckers won’t come into Delhi in the first place: currently, many goods are trucked in from hundreds of miles out, not for consumption here, but to be re-packed and sent again on their way. “There is no need to bring the apples to Delhi to sort them out”, said one of our contacts at the School of Architecture and Planning.
Mr.Shreedarharan, Director of Delhi Metro, is a rock star among transportation administrators. We meet with him in the world’s most palatial public agency building, a glass and stainless high-rise palace designed by Stein, Doshi and Bhalla. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is a joint venture of the Government of India and the Delhi Government, with heavy financial backing from Japan. The Metro Master Plan involves 12 lines and 420 km of passenger rail to be completed in 4 phases. The astonishing miracle this agency has pulled off is that Phase I was completed within budget ($2.1 billion) and 2 years ahead of schedule, with no operational subsidies. Ridership today is 900,000 passengers a day, which translates to 60,000 fewer vehicles playing chicken on the Delhi streets. Why has Metro been so successful? They are a young and lean independent agency with flexibility, good organizational values and a charismatic leader who knows his stuff and views contractors as partners. To cope with the pressures of timely performance, employees meditate and do yoga as part of the work day.
The next day, we ride the clean efficient product of their labors. It is a world-class subway line, with the only oddity being the hyper-security regime. Riders are electronically scanned and bags searched, and signs everywhere educate the Delhi citizenry in mass-transit protocol, which is hardly of the squinchy nature.
Meanwhile, above ground on the roads, the good people of the capital carry on with their talent for squinching square vehicles into tiny gaps and managing chaos with a flair. Redevelopment plans for the Old City include a proposed street redesign that would put traffic dividers between vehicular lanes and pedestrian lanes and create a separate bus lane. Having seen traffic routinely go the wrong way down the divided highway to Agra, I suspect that folks will continue to use the roads in whatever manner is expeditious at the time. There is exuberance and creativity to spare in this culture, but order does not appear to be the strongest of motivating factors. But you have to admire an urban street system that accommodates the occasional water buffalo or donkey-powered vehicle as well as behemoth luxury tourist buses; the organic forward motion of the traffic beast rumbles on. As befits a former British colony, the streets are also sometimes populated by those drinkers with a running problem, the Hash House Harriers. I may chase their rabbit in Mumbai…
And a moveable feat of spatial resolution occurs in the relentless honking momentum of the Delhi traffic. A fragile autorickshaw will wedge into the rapidly disappearing space between two merging trucks, somehow assuming that it can move forward before it is annihilated. A car veers into oncoming traffic, confident that the impending head-on collision with a rapidly approaching bus will be avoided as both vehicles play chicken before swerving to within a few millimeters of other moving metal at the last possible moment. Every day in Delhi, carnage and dismemberment are routinely and skillfully avoided by timely fractions of an inch.
And what cannot be found along the streets of Delhi? Goats, chickens, cows, sheep and monkeys are there, along with beautifully-dressed women and all the rest of humanity. Near Indira Gandhi’s tomb, an elephant piled high with landscape trimmings lumbers down the road. Above, crazy tangled mazes of utility lines display a stratigraphy of what had worked then and now, with officially strung wires woven among the efforts of power pirates and dish wallas. Every situation is accommodated as needed, when needed, with the evidence of past accommodations not hidden or corrected. The traffic is a dynamic depiction of this Delhi skill for accommodation, as the stutter and flow of each vehicle organically weaves forward as a compliant whole.
Twelve years ago, the Delhi roads were populated with fleets of humpy old Ambassadors and diesel-spew from autorickshaws and long-haul trucks. The same roads are now plied by “clean fuel” buses and autorickshaws powered by CNG. The evidence of India’s exploding middle class is in the form of many more shiny late-model private cars. All the planning entities we met with in Delhi mentioned the need to build underground and multi-level parking facilities, currently in short supply. On the regional level, five integrated freight complexes and wholesale hubs are being developed beyond Delhi’s periphery so that long-haul truckers won’t come into Delhi in the first place: currently, many goods are trucked in from hundreds of miles out, not for consumption here, but to be re-packed and sent again on their way. “There is no need to bring the apples to Delhi to sort them out”, said one of our contacts at the School of Architecture and Planning.
Mr.Shreedarharan, Director of Delhi Metro, is a rock star among transportation administrators. We meet with him in the world’s most palatial public agency building, a glass and stainless high-rise palace designed by Stein, Doshi and Bhalla. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is a joint venture of the Government of India and the Delhi Government, with heavy financial backing from Japan. The Metro Master Plan involves 12 lines and 420 km of passenger rail to be completed in 4 phases. The astonishing miracle this agency has pulled off is that Phase I was completed within budget ($2.1 billion) and 2 years ahead of schedule, with no operational subsidies. Ridership today is 900,000 passengers a day, which translates to 60,000 fewer vehicles playing chicken on the Delhi streets. Why has Metro been so successful? They are a young and lean independent agency with flexibility, good organizational values and a charismatic leader who knows his stuff and views contractors as partners. To cope with the pressures of timely performance, employees meditate and do yoga as part of the work day.
The next day, we ride the clean efficient product of their labors. It is a world-class subway line, with the only oddity being the hyper-security regime. Riders are electronically scanned and bags searched, and signs everywhere educate the Delhi citizenry in mass-transit protocol, which is hardly of the squinchy nature.
Meanwhile, above ground on the roads, the good people of the capital carry on with their talent for squinching square vehicles into tiny gaps and managing chaos with a flair. Redevelopment plans for the Old City include a proposed street redesign that would put traffic dividers between vehicular lanes and pedestrian lanes and create a separate bus lane. Having seen traffic routinely go the wrong way down the divided highway to Agra, I suspect that folks will continue to use the roads in whatever manner is expeditious at the time. There is exuberance and creativity to spare in this culture, but order does not appear to be the strongest of motivating factors. But you have to admire an urban street system that accommodates the occasional water buffalo or donkey-powered vehicle as well as behemoth luxury tourist buses; the organic forward motion of the traffic beast rumbles on. As befits a former British colony, the streets are also sometimes populated by those drinkers with a running problem, the Hash House Harriers. I may chase their rabbit in Mumbai…
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Old Delhi
We took the Metro to the Delhi Old Town. It was just as dense as we expected, and just as crowded and messy as we expected. There were miles of electricity cables hanging from the buildings, garbage swept into reasonably neat piles on the side of the street, and zero cars. We walked through a mile of winding urban canyons ten feet wide and thirty feet tall, passing homes stores, and temples all along the way. The first floors were consistently retail - I have not seen such a dense concentration of retail except in San Francisco's Chinatown, and this urbanity comprised an entire town, not just a district. Only once we made it to Chandni Chowk, the main street of Old Town, did the area begin to look the least bit familiar. At least here the storefronts were at least as wide as they were tall, the street had two lanes and cars and buses to fill them, there were usable (and well used) sidewalks.
While on the main street of Old Town, we got two surprise invititations. One was from the owner of a Hawali. It was beautiful. It was full of antiques, had 12 foot ceilings, was three stories tall, had several courtyards, and had a usable roof that connected to the neighboring rooftops. Once in the Hawali, everthing seemed peaceful, even though we were still only 50 feet from the hustle and bustle of Chandni Chowk. The owner has been fighting the town, his family, and pressure to convert to commercial space for decades.
Our second invitation was from the Redevelopment Agency of Old Town. They want redevelopment without damaging the character of the area. They want to expand the pedestrian walks, and have an open tram that people can just hop on and off of. They want it to still feel like Chandni Chowk. They wants to avoid gentrification, and avoid moving wholesale trade outside of town (as the Master Plan would like) because that would reduce the type of activity that is a central feature of and purpose for Old Town. The acknowledge that goods movement in Old Town is difficult, even thought they are only using hand carts, and would like to try solving the difficulties through introducing one-way streets, public transportation, the tramway, and creating parking within walking distance of but just outside the core area. Tradition should play a role in which uses "belong" in old town and which can be comfortably moved out of town. The traditional balance of residential and commercial has been lost (since the indroduction of the two nearby railway stations in the mid 1800's), and that has caused some of today's problems. The Redevelopment Agency might support moving warehousing uses.
To support their redevelopment plans, they did a survey on the uses of every plot of land in old town. They are trying to identify the activities that should stay in Old Town, and which could be moved. They know it will be difficult to convince people and communities to relocate, so they are trying a two-pronged approach. First, they will try to move entire business clusters at once, so that related businesses and existing relationships can be maintained. Second, they are trying to demonstrate the benefits of relocation to those that might benefit from relocation, highlighting how better and newer infrastructure, and less traffic, might help them earn more money.
Old Town itself will get an upgrade, with possible undergrounding of utilities, and repair and upgrading of existing dilapidated buildings. The mentioned rent control as a reason for their being so many dilapidated buildings: Owners can't charge enough rent to cover repair costs, and tenants can't recover the benefit in the form of rent for any repairs they make. The result is that the owner's best strategy is to let the building deteriorate until the tenant moves out, at which time the owner can then build a new structure.
While on the main street of Old Town, we got two surprise invititations. One was from the owner of a Hawali. It was beautiful. It was full of antiques, had 12 foot ceilings, was three stories tall, had several courtyards, and had a usable roof that connected to the neighboring rooftops. Once in the Hawali, everthing seemed peaceful, even though we were still only 50 feet from the hustle and bustle of Chandni Chowk. The owner has been fighting the town, his family, and pressure to convert to commercial space for decades.
Our second invitation was from the Redevelopment Agency of Old Town. They want redevelopment without damaging the character of the area. They want to expand the pedestrian walks, and have an open tram that people can just hop on and off of. They want it to still feel like Chandni Chowk. They wants to avoid gentrification, and avoid moving wholesale trade outside of town (as the Master Plan would like) because that would reduce the type of activity that is a central feature of and purpose for Old Town. The acknowledge that goods movement in Old Town is difficult, even thought they are only using hand carts, and would like to try solving the difficulties through introducing one-way streets, public transportation, the tramway, and creating parking within walking distance of but just outside the core area. Tradition should play a role in which uses "belong" in old town and which can be comfortably moved out of town. The traditional balance of residential and commercial has been lost (since the indroduction of the two nearby railway stations in the mid 1800's), and that has caused some of today's problems. The Redevelopment Agency might support moving warehousing uses.
To support their redevelopment plans, they did a survey on the uses of every plot of land in old town. They are trying to identify the activities that should stay in Old Town, and which could be moved. They know it will be difficult to convince people and communities to relocate, so they are trying a two-pronged approach. First, they will try to move entire business clusters at once, so that related businesses and existing relationships can be maintained. Second, they are trying to demonstrate the benefits of relocation to those that might benefit from relocation, highlighting how better and newer infrastructure, and less traffic, might help them earn more money.
Old Town itself will get an upgrade, with possible undergrounding of utilities, and repair and upgrading of existing dilapidated buildings. The mentioned rent control as a reason for their being so many dilapidated buildings: Owners can't charge enough rent to cover repair costs, and tenants can't recover the benefit in the form of rent for any repairs they make. The result is that the owner's best strategy is to let the building deteriorate until the tenant moves out, at which time the owner can then build a new structure.
The School of Architecture and Planning
Immediately after our meeting with the Delhi Development Authority, we walked just a few minutes down the street to the School of Architecture and Planning. They worked with the DDA on the recent Master Plan. Some issues they were interested in addressing through the Master Plan were related to in-migration and homelessness, the focus of transportation infrastructure on Delhi, and on transitioning the lead on development from the public sector to the private sector.
The School professors were the only group we have spoken to that included what I would call political economy into their analyses. They were the ones who saw the value of "informal monetary transaction systems", where even large assets (like houses) are bought and sold with cash and trust instead of contracts. I spoke to one of the professors afterward and we both agreed that such high-trust systems are more efficient than systems that ultimately require lawyers. We were both concerned that if the fabric of the old city were ripped apart, it would destroy the face-to-face and regular personal contacts that allow informal and high-trust economies to exist.
The School professors were also the ones who suggested a connection between low carbon citites and low stress cities, pointing out that high carbon uses, like driving instead of walking, contribute to rather than relieve stress, and the higher densities that would reduce a town's carbon footrprint would also lead to more interpersonal interactions in towns, which would reduce stress.
They noted that the Master Plan is becoming more and more a policy document, but that Climate Change policies have not yet been fully integrated into it, or into Indian Planning more generally.
The School professors were the only group we have spoken to that included what I would call political economy into their analyses. They were the ones who saw the value of "informal monetary transaction systems", where even large assets (like houses) are bought and sold with cash and trust instead of contracts. I spoke to one of the professors afterward and we both agreed that such high-trust systems are more efficient than systems that ultimately require lawyers. We were both concerned that if the fabric of the old city were ripped apart, it would destroy the face-to-face and regular personal contacts that allow informal and high-trust economies to exist.
The School professors were also the ones who suggested a connection between low carbon citites and low stress cities, pointing out that high carbon uses, like driving instead of walking, contribute to rather than relieve stress, and the higher densities that would reduce a town's carbon footrprint would also lead to more interpersonal interactions in towns, which would reduce stress.
They noted that the Master Plan is becoming more and more a policy document, but that Climate Change policies have not yet been fully integrated into it, or into Indian Planning more generally.
The Delhi Master Plan
The Plan has been mentioned by every other entity we visited. It is a fully integrated Master Plan that includes social and economic goals as well as classic land use designations. Parking gets its own section, and also included is social infrastructure, disaster management (for every zone), sports, water supply, and power and energy. The current 2021 Plan is based on two previous plans from 1990 and 1962. The 1962 Plan in turn was influenced by the London Plan and London planners. The current Delhi Master Plan won an international award for the ISOCA.
Much of the Plan revolves around redevelopment (up to 40%). They need and will try to get the private sector to help finance the infrastructure improvements, similar to what happened with the new Dublin BART station.
Other aspects of their Plan have to do with concern about the ability of the city infrastructure to handle new growth. If they can influence growth in some sectors of the society and economy, the Plan tries to do it. One example is that they intend to have no new government offices in Delhi. Government offices should be created outside the city core that is already overburdened with activity. Another idea is that new industry should be high-tech. They didn't mention whether this was a goal because they thought high tech industries were less demanding on city infrastructure than other industries, or because they thought a stronger high-tech sector would help them economically (which it would any city), but I guess it is the former, with the latter being a pleasant side benefit. They also recently tried to restrict commercial activites in residential areas, but that was strongly resisted by the public. A similar mechanism is proposed for logistics and wholesale trade. The Plan plans for five new centers on the outskirts of Delhi for transfers and distribution of goods, so that this activity does not need to occur in the city's old town anymore.
A lot of the talk about the Plan during our meeting was about housing for the Economically Weak Sector (EWS), as well as other considerations for the EWS population. 35% of all housing created is supposed to be for the EWS, who are those who can afford nothing. Another 20% is for those who can only afford a little. Related to EWS issues is in-migration, where people from rural areas come to the city to try to make a better living. The Plan addresses in-migration in part through regional planning that would promote economic development in the hinterland, giving in-migrants a place to seek opportunity that is outside of Delhi center.
There was less talk about planned land uses than I had expected. The Plan expects to grow all the way out to the State boundaries (Delhi is a State as well as a City), accommodating an expected growth in population from 14 Million to 23 Million by 2020. The physical boundaries are a river to the west and a ridge to the south. They plan for a greenbelt to act as boundaries in the North and West, at the State border.
Learn more about the Delhi Master Plan online at www.dda.org.in and www.urbanindia.nic.in.
Much of the Plan revolves around redevelopment (up to 40%). They need and will try to get the private sector to help finance the infrastructure improvements, similar to what happened with the new Dublin BART station.
Other aspects of their Plan have to do with concern about the ability of the city infrastructure to handle new growth. If they can influence growth in some sectors of the society and economy, the Plan tries to do it. One example is that they intend to have no new government offices in Delhi. Government offices should be created outside the city core that is already overburdened with activity. Another idea is that new industry should be high-tech. They didn't mention whether this was a goal because they thought high tech industries were less demanding on city infrastructure than other industries, or because they thought a stronger high-tech sector would help them economically (which it would any city), but I guess it is the former, with the latter being a pleasant side benefit. They also recently tried to restrict commercial activites in residential areas, but that was strongly resisted by the public. A similar mechanism is proposed for logistics and wholesale trade. The Plan plans for five new centers on the outskirts of Delhi for transfers and distribution of goods, so that this activity does not need to occur in the city's old town anymore.
A lot of the talk about the Plan during our meeting was about housing for the Economically Weak Sector (EWS), as well as other considerations for the EWS population. 35% of all housing created is supposed to be for the EWS, who are those who can afford nothing. Another 20% is for those who can only afford a little. Related to EWS issues is in-migration, where people from rural areas come to the city to try to make a better living. The Plan addresses in-migration in part through regional planning that would promote economic development in the hinterland, giving in-migrants a place to seek opportunity that is outside of Delhi center.
There was less talk about planned land uses than I had expected. The Plan expects to grow all the way out to the State boundaries (Delhi is a State as well as a City), accommodating an expected growth in population from 14 Million to 23 Million by 2020. The physical boundaries are a river to the west and a ridge to the south. They plan for a greenbelt to act as boundaries in the North and West, at the State border.
Learn more about the Delhi Master Plan online at www.dda.org.in and www.urbanindia.nic.in.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Coffee Day
Our hotel in Chandigarh is right next to a Coffee Day. Since Coffee Day is on my todo list, I made sure to stop in last night for some Masala Tea. There I saw five young teenagers playing Pictionary. I was curious right away to see how the game translated into Indian, so I went over to look and listen. They did not blink for a moment as I showed an interest in their game, they simply and quickly invited me to play. I sat down with them and watched them finish their game (I became their impartial judge for tough calls). They were playing in English with an English language set, so it was easy enough to follow.
About the only aspect that was exactly the same as when I have played Pictionary in the U.S. was that the team that was a couple was quicker, 'because of their connection'. All of the kids were extremely quick witted, teasing each other constantly, and of course as soon as I sat down I too was fair game for jokes. They had developed some code symbols that meant 'one word', 'two words', or other often used symbols, and they had also developed a pattern of guessing a theme and throwing out all kinds of words related to the theme, in order to maximize feedback opportunities from the sketcher. They were very fast, both in sketching and in proposing words. There was no moment wasted on thought or reflection on what would be the best sketch. They would also strategize which way to approach describing a word, based on what they knew of the guesser's habits and strengths. Of 10 or so rounds I observed, I was only able to guess one of them before they did.
We then played one round of Boggle. I joined in, and really thought I would do well, because I read and write a lot. When I suggested that I might also have a native language advantage, they quickly shot that down and started the game. After the two minutes of trying to find words in the eight assigned letters, we compared answers and scores. I had perhaps found the fewest words of all of them. The one guy with the quickest wit also had the longest list of words, though I think he got the list just by mixing letters and writing them down without even thinking about it.
Watching and listening to these quickwitted, friendly, and unflappable teenagers, immediately after having experienced the hospitality and sophistication of the professionals at the press club, makes me understand why so many think that India is going to dominate 21st century culture and economy, China notwithstandin.
About the only aspect that was exactly the same as when I have played Pictionary in the U.S. was that the team that was a couple was quicker, 'because of their connection'. All of the kids were extremely quick witted, teasing each other constantly, and of course as soon as I sat down I too was fair game for jokes. They had developed some code symbols that meant 'one word', 'two words', or other often used symbols, and they had also developed a pattern of guessing a theme and throwing out all kinds of words related to the theme, in order to maximize feedback opportunities from the sketcher. They were very fast, both in sketching and in proposing words. There was no moment wasted on thought or reflection on what would be the best sketch. They would also strategize which way to approach describing a word, based on what they knew of the guesser's habits and strengths. Of 10 or so rounds I observed, I was only able to guess one of them before they did.
We then played one round of Boggle. I joined in, and really thought I would do well, because I read and write a lot. When I suggested that I might also have a native language advantage, they quickly shot that down and started the game. After the two minutes of trying to find words in the eight assigned letters, we compared answers and scores. I had perhaps found the fewest words of all of them. The one guy with the quickest wit also had the longest list of words, though I think he got the list just by mixing letters and writing them down without even thinking about it.
Watching and listening to these quickwitted, friendly, and unflappable teenagers, immediately after having experienced the hospitality and sophistication of the professionals at the press club, makes me understand why so many think that India is going to dominate 21st century culture and economy, China notwithstandin.
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