The Challenges of Planning for the Everyday
Master Class at Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS)
October 2023
In India, urban spaces are continually transformed by social, cultural, religious, economic and political practices. The formal plan finds it difficult to account for these practices due to their changing nature and because they have not been sufficiently documented or analysed. In this session, we looked at two initiatives of the Lab: one, a research project that looks at how people generate and sustain neighbourhood community spaces through the everyday act of tree worship; and two, the process of building a citizen science portal Decoding Everyday for streets and public spaces. The question we asked was: How can citizen participation models influence policy and planning in the Indian city?
The ashwath katte as a small, public urban space
Talk + Panel discussion at RV college of architecture, Bangalore
October 2023
The talk focused on the journey of our research on how through the act of tree worship, people both generate and sustain ashwath kattes as neighbourhood community spaces. Our emphasis has been on the relevance of these tree shrine spaces as the much-needed 'small, public space' accessible to women and elderly groups in every neighbourhood, spaces that contribute to physical and mental well-being being open-to-sky spaces for social interaction. In the panel discussion after the talk, questions of collective memory and ashwath kattes, community participation and social layer of cities were discussed. The students participated actively sharing their own tree stories and ideas about how one might rethink small, public spaces.
The City as Encounter : Panel discussion
Encounter Eclectic Launch Event – at Bangalore International Centre
January 2022
The discussion began with Arshia Sattar speaking about the 3 cities of the Ramayana - Kishkinda, Ayodhya and Lanka. She described visually the 3 cities and talked about how the code of behaviour differed in them. We spoke about how the architecture of our cities today might have changed, but if one saw it as a 'backdrop' to the everyday life of the city, there was much that was the same. Purnendu Kavoori spoke about how order and disorder seemed to coexist in our present-day cities. Shreelata Rao Seshadri shared that as much as people shape the city, the city shapes us. You can listen to this here
Informal Urbanism Symposium : Panel on Public Space
Faculty of Architecture, Building & Planning, University of Melbourne
October 2020
This work was presented at a conference on ‘The Resilience of Vernacular Heritage in Asian Cities’ organised by the Asian Urbanism Cluster at the ARI, Singapore. The conference focused on the interplay between cultural practices and the production of urban space and place-making. Our research on peepul tree shrines (ashwath kattes) was part of the panel on ‘Faith and Vernacular heritage’ with co-panelists Vineeta Sinha from NUS; Jeffrey Hou & Chiao-Yen Yang from University of Washington, U.S. and Shubhi Sonal from MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore. Read the full paper here.
Ideas you like, Ideas that work
BUD Input Lecture, CEPT University, Ahmedabad
February 2020
The talk was about how the Everyday City Lab came into being after a 20 year practice where we had done architectural and urban design projects both in India and abroad. It was a gradual process that had started with teaching courses on ‘The Everyday City’ and sharing reflections and thoughts through blogs as well as academic writing in International journals on Urban Design. It was necessary to understand how the everyday life of the city could begin to be incorporated in the formal planning processes and influence both public policy and neighbourhood planning.
The Unwritten Rules of The Indian Street
MBRDI Daimler Benz, Bangalore
August 2018
In India, as in several emerging economies, there are informal ways that different stakeholder groups follow as they walk the footpath, drive on the roads or engage in socio-cultural activities in the streets. This talk looked at some of the unwritten rules of the Indian street to discuss how they might impact our cities in the future. The participants included members from some of the divisions of the Research and Development (R&D) centre of Daimler Benz.
The logic of design: its role in understanding the antecedents of urban informality
Faculty Seminar Series, Azim Premji University in Bangalore
March 2018
This research proposes a theoretical framework that can help understand the antecedents of urban informality in order to address the everyday nature of urbanization. Specifically, it looks at how spatial informality works in the context of a market precinct in Bangalore. It draws upon the work of Herbert Simon who proposes that the interconnectedness of logic, decision and action can be referred to as the Logic of Design. The paper is published in the Journal of Urban Design (2018) and can be accessed here.
The practice of tree worship and the production of urban space in the Indian neighbourhood
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore(NUS)
November 2014
This work was presented at a conference on ‘The Resilience of Vernacular Heritage in Asian Cities’ organised by the Asian Urbanism Cluster at the ARI, Singapore. The conference focused on the interplay between cultural practices and the production of urban space and place-making that creates living vernacular heritages of neighbourhoods and communities of the city. Our research on peepul tree shrines (ashwath kattes) was part of the panel on ‘Faith and Vernacular heritage’ with co-panelists Vineeta Sinha from NUS; Jeffrey Hou & Chiao-Yen Yang from University of Washington, US; Shubhi Sonal from MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore. Read the full paper here.
Territoriality in the Indian Bazaar
Urban Visualities Seminar, Dakshinachitra, Chennai
January 2011
This paper explored the territoriality within street bazaars, drawing upon Mattias Kärrholm’s paper ‘Territorial Complexity in Public Places’. It focused on the footpath or sidewalk which is often territorialized by vendors selling fruits, vegetables, flowers and household goods. It looked at how street vendors mark, defend and personalise their territories and the ways in which they visually and spatially influence urban spaces. It was part of the panel on ‘Sites & Sights of the City’ moderated by Shivaji Panikkar with co-panelists Roos Gerritsen, Vishal Rawley and David Blamey.
Mapping the Everyday Life
Bypass Lab, Indo-German Centre for Sustainability, IIT Chennai
June 2016
In this presentation, the negotiations that take place between different stakeholders in informal public spaces were discussed. The outcomes from a CEPT winter school on ‘The Everyday City’ held in 2015 were shared. These included mapping exercises that explored how religion influences the everyday space; looking at the symbiotic relationship between humans and cows in the city; understanding how a child behaves and moves within an informal market environment; the social and spatial impact of chai on the everyday practices in a market precinct and how gender influences places of rest within the everyday city.
The Ordinary City and the Extraordinary City
Seminar at University of Tokyo, Kashiwa campus
November 2019
At the Seminar on ‘Contact Point of Planning and Informal & Intangible Elements in Urban Space. The Co-panelists were Saori Kashihara, Project Researcher, and Faridah Siti, Natural Environmental Studies and Yehan Wu, Graduate Program of Sustainability Science-Global Leadership Initiative from the Univ.of Tokyo. This research on the Ordinary & Extraordinary city draws upon the work of scholars who suggest that urban informality may have an organizing logic. It focuses on understanding the everyday negotiations that result from the economic and social needs of people to transform the urban space.
