Ganapathy St, West Mambalam, Chennai and Scripps Ranch, San Diego — I have family living in both neighborhoods. .., they ought to have something in common. For starters they both have their fair share of faux pediments supported by Corinthian capitals. Both San Diego and Chennai are short on fresh water [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Urban Design’
March 2, 2009
Street Trees & Home Values
After all, those multitudes of green circles that populate a site plan do more than merely satisfying the cosmetic needs of the two-dimensional graphic. A federal study completed by the Pacific Northwest Research Station, National Institute of Standards and the US Department of Commerce has established a direct link between the value of homes and the [...]
November 14, 2008
China Outta Control
A not-too-idyllic crystal ball projections on China’s growth in the next twenty some years. Link to the business week article by Dexter Roberts that heavily relies on projection numbers from McKinsey’s recent study.
Some Key Projection Stats from the article - China 2025
350 million rural residents(entire US population) will leave the farm and move to cities
Chinese urban [...]
November 9, 2008
When God lies in Stucco…
“Thoonilum Irrupaar, Thurumbilum Irrupaar” – “He is in a formidable pillar, and he is in a speck of rust”…proclaims Hiranyakashipu’s son Prahlada in answer to his raging dad’s rhetorical question on Vishnu’s omnipresence. When the confounded Hiranyakashipu smashes the pillar with his mace, the lion-head, human-bodied, hyper-avatar of Narasimha (think the exact opposite of the [...]
September 25, 2008
The courtyard marketplace – Old wine in a new bottle
And finally the outdoor mall arrives in a country with a long tradition of open air markets. And it had wait for Charles Correa and Ambujas to work together. A well written article by Himanshu Burte in livemint expounds the merits of Correa’s foray in creating a decent quasi-public domain for upwardly mobile Indian middle [...]
September 7, 2008
When Good Fences make Good Public Places
How about having a 6′ tall cast iron fence with a gate along the perimeter the oldest square in a beautiful city? That might be a sure remedy for a number of north american urbanist to throw a fit, might even trigger a medical emergency for a form-based code afficinado. My walk through the oldest [...]
July 26, 2008
Courting the Median
I’ll leave you with images of pedestrian uses in two radically different pedestrian realm within a streetscape. One driven by desperation and other a conscious work of street design. The first one is of 11th Avenue in Ashok Nagar, Chennai and the other from the boulevard adjacent to Bibotheque Francois Mitterand in Paris. [...]
June 21, 2008
Green Washing the Glass Guzzler
The news piece in Architectural Record will make you roll your eyes looking at the title ” Chennai Airport to become India’s Greenest”…yet again. .’Green Washing’ the energy guzzler in a glass box. Not sure what these guys from Frederic Schwartz Architects, Hargreaves Associates, Gensler are smoking when talking about ‘lush’ 2-acre gardens [...]
June 13, 2008
Madras Blues in Miami
, originally uploaded by purpleganesh.
Until my trip to Miami in late 2007, my relationship to Art Deco was distantly academic. It was just one more style..something I was more amused with when my ex-boss toiled over the minutiae in elevation design recreating his inner art deco in twenty first century bay area streetscape. The theatres [...]
March 19, 2008
HITEC City & Fortress Urbanism
I would rather call it HITEC Enclave. HITEC City – Hyderabad Information Technology Engineering Consultancy City is located in Madapur suburb of Hyderabad, is one of the prototypical low points of Tech-Park urbanism, which is nothing but a cluster of giant footplate, gated, air-conditioned building complexes hermetically sealed and ceremonially cordoned off from rest of [...]
