city and culture
A CANVAS OF POSSIBILITIES | Review by Geeta Wahi Dua
LA 66 |
|
| Radical City explores the dynamics of Indian cities, while looking at contexts from their histories and expands their understanding beyond the conventional narratives of design and planning. On the way it brings to forefront lessons which can enlighten their growth stories in future.
|
|
 |
|
The subject of Indian cities, especially in the 21st century, has occupied the minds of academia and professionals for a long time. Many belonging to different disciplines have contributed to the complex subject — — Delirious City: Polity and Vanity in Urban India [Gautam Bhatia, 2019], Looking Away [Harsh Mandar 2015], Transforming our Cities [Ishar Judge Ahluwalia, 2014], Contesting the Indian City: Global Visions and the Politics of the Local [Gavin Shatkin, 2013], Indian Cities in Transition [Anupama Shaw, 2007], and many others. There is commonality in the kind of concerns – physical, social, ecological, and economic issues – that are being raised, mainly related to the pace and scale of urbanization, in the decades after the economic boom of the 90s. Some of these include over-reliance on technology, noncontextual models of urbanization, exclusive public space, gated communities, widening gap between economic classes of society, and so on. A significant revelation that comes to the forefront is that the urban planning and design discourse in India needs to be much more informed and enriched by socio-cultural and economic concerns and aesthetic and philosophical imaginations for the city as a collective society. At present, it is lopsided with over-attention towards the physical aspect of the space which negates all other important aspects.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
