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 [...]

Usual Suspects and Missed Opportunities

“An Anthology of Contemporary Indian Architecture” by Jagan Shah moderately succeeds at the ambitious task of having to navigate and represent the uneven, unwieldy and often ungainly panorama of contemporary Indian architecture. After going through the well-summarized introduction and a diverse compilation of built and unbuilt work, I am left confounded – Is this as [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]