- Webinar 5
- Adaptive reuse, Architecture
In resource-constrained places, small can be powerful. How can a building, acting strategically as an acupunctural node, transform its neighbourhood socially, economically, and ecologically?
Cities are evolving, living systems. Why then do we design them as fixed and permanent? Is it time for a new theory of urbanism, better suited to the developing world, where urban space is often used in transient ways?
The episode features Rahul Mehrotra, founder principal of RMA Architects, India, and professor at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.
The 2021 book by Rahul Mehrotra, The Kinetic City and Other Essays, presents his writings over the last thirty years and illustrates his long-term engagement with and analysis of urbanism in India.
00:07:55 | The kinetic city in India |
00:10:27 | “So really, the real urban theory should be coming out of Africa, out of Asia, out of India or South Asia, because this is where the action is on the ground, and I would argue even the Middle East, right? Because these are taking new forms of urbanism in a sense, not only in terms of its architectural articulation but also how people occupy space.” |
00:19:00 | “So conservative estimates say that about 30 million people walked back to their villages because of the lockdown, which tells you how not very permanently they are invested in the city, right? Home was elsewhere.” |
00:21:52 | Urbanism in India |
00:23:20 | “Cities take two or three generations to form, to be appreciated, to become functioning entities… the idea of the instant city was a provocation. I don’t think it can happen.” |
00:23:56 | “Unfortunately in India, the paradigms have become arrière-garde action. It’s not avant-garde. We are not ahead of the curve. Planning is not anticipating growth, it’s following and reacting to growth, and this is a huge problem in India.” |
00:33:30 | “Singapore, Dubai, Shanghai… were autocracies (that) were becoming around the world emblems of competency. That means emblems of being able to attract capital, realise that capital very quickly, and create very efficient infrastructure that people could benefit from. And that’s why India took this sort of route in a democracy, and therefore, what resulted was very uneven development.” |
00:36:29 | “Now for a democracy, in deep democracy, to survive and to function, it needs civil society. And I think, unfortunately, India today, what is being stifled the most is civil society. And if we don’t have a robust civil society we’ll never have deep democracy, we’ll slip into autocracy.” |
00:38:39 | Soft boundaries in architecture |
00:48:31 | “The architect, as part of civil society in these more complex projects like Hathi Gaon, has to play the role of the bridge between these different constituent members of the client. And I think if you can get these clients, or these different aspects of the clients to come to the same table, then you get a good project. It’s often not all frictionless.” |
00:52:04 | Becoming Rahul |
The Kinetic City is a term coined by Rahul Mehrotra to counter the prevailing view of cities as agglomerations of static and permanent objects, defined by their architecture.
He argues that a city should be perceived, read, and mapped in terms of patterns of occupation and associative values attributed to space which is in flux and contingent on time, day, season, and festival. These informal spaces and their impermanence are equally, if not more, important than the buildings that make up the city.
The transient nature of Indian urbanism came into sharp relief during COVID lockdowns when more than 30 million people walked back to villages. This was evidence, says Rahul, that settlements are more complex and dynamic than we are led to believe.
The implications of kinetic urbanism are discussed. Rahul talks of planning as an act of balancing fixed and loosely defined spaces or elements, accommodating groups and programmes that are often overlooked.
Rahul postulates ‘soft boundaries’ in buildings and neighbourhoods that work with the ebb and flow of people, and offer edge conditions in which different groups can interact.
The pursuit of kinetic, soft-edged architecture and urbanism leads to a different view of professional practice, wherein the designer becomes a mediator of sorts, balancing the needs of one group against another.
The planning of Indian cities, says Rahul, must start by acknowledging actual conditions on the ground and the forces that shape them. This demands a new theory of urbanism for the developing world, one that embraces bottom-up emergence of the transient, alongside top-down placement of the fixed and permanent.
This episode is brought to you by:
The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction The Holcim Foundation helps drive systemic change towards a more sustainable built environment. It was founded in 2003 to define and promote the key principles of sustainability for the construction sector and is committed to accelerating the sector’s transformation so that people and the planet can thrive. The Foundation has investigated various aspects of sustainable construction via a series of roundtables and conferences with international experts. It has also recognised excellent contributions to this field with the Holcim Awards which are considered the world’s most significant competition for sustainable design. Committed to a holistic approach that recognises the equal importance and interdependence of four key goals, the Foundation combines the collective knowledge, ideas, and solutions of our global community of experts with our recognised platform of international competitions to democratise thought leadership for the entire sector. Today, the Holcim Foundation is proud to accompany Ecogradia’s new podcast and its host, Nirmal Kishnani, with whom we share a common goal: contribute to a just, equitable, and sustainable future via sustainable construction and design. |
This episode is brought to you by:
The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction
The Holcim Foundation helps drive systemic change towards a more sustainable built environment. It was founded in 2003 to define and promote the key principles of sustainability for the construction sector and is committed to accelerating the sector’s transformation so that people and the planet can thrive.
The Foundation has investigated various aspects of sustainable construction via a series of roundtables and conferences with international experts. It has also recognised excellent contributions to this field with the Holcim Awards which are considered the world’s most significant competition for sustainable design.
Committed to a holistic approach that recognises the equal importance and interdependence of four key goals, the Foundation combines the collective knowledge, ideas, and solutions of our global community of experts with our recognised platform of international competitions to democratise thought leadership for the entire sector.
Today, the Holcim Foundation is proud to accompany Ecogradia’s new podcast and its host, Nirmal Kishnani, with whom we share a common goal: contribute to a just, equitable, and sustainable future via sustainable construction and design.
Rahul Mehrotra is the founder principal of RMA Architects. He divides his time between working in Mumbai and Boston and teaching at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University where he is Professor of Urban Design and Planning and the John T. Dunlop Professor in Housing and Urbanisation.
RMA Architects was founded in 1990 and has designed and executed projects including government and private institutions, corporate workplaces, private homes, and unsolicited projects driven by the firm’s commitment to advocacy in the city of Mumbai.
Amongst the many his firm is credited are the Library for the School of Architecture at CEPT (Ahmedabad); the School of Arts and Sciences at Ahmedabad University (Ahmedabad); the TATA Institute of Social Sciences Rural Campus (Tuljapur); a campus for Magic Bus, an NGO that works with poor children (Panvel); the restoration of Chowmahalla Palace (Hyderabad); a conservation master plan for the Taj Mahal with the Taj Mahal Conservation Collaborative.
The firm also recently designed and built Hathi Gaon, a social housing project for 100 elephants and their caretakers in Jaipur as well as a corporate office in Hyderabad.
Mehrotra has written and lectured extensively on issues to do with architecture, conservation, urban planning and design in Mumbai and India. The list of books he has authored or co-authored includes “Bombay: The Cities Within”, which covers the city’s urban history from the 1600s to 1990; “Banganga: Sacred Tank on Malabar Hill”; and “Public Places: Bombay”.
He also co-authored “The Fort Precinct in Bombay: Conserving an Image Center”. Based on this study and its recommendations, the historic Fort District in Mumbai was declared a conservation precinct in 1995 – a first such designation in India.
Mehrotra’s most recent books are titled “Working in Mumbai” (2020) and “The Kinetic City and Other Essays” (2021). The former is a reflection on his practice evolved through its association with the city of Bombay/Mumbai. The latter presents Mehrotra’s writings over the last thirty years and illustrates his long-term engagement with and analysis of urbanism in India. This work has given rise to a new conceptualisation of the city which Mehrotra calls the ‘kinetic city’.
RMA Architects
43, V B Gandhi Marg
Fort, Mumbai 400 023
India
T | +91 22 35131907
E | rma@RMAarchitects.com
W | rmaarchitects.com
If you heard it in this episode, we likely have a link for it right here. Click on any topics, people, buildings, places, products and/or technologies listed below to learn more about each of them.
00:05:31 | “…his famous speech which, you know, resonated Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream”…” “Read Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech in its entirety” | NPR |
00:07:55 | “…a critic of the modernist industrial paradigm…” “Competing Models” | Britannica |
00:08:01 | “…the phrase that is most associated with you is the kinetic city…” “Excerpt from The Kinetic City & Other Essays: The Permanent and Ephemeral by Rahul Mehrotra” | Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) |
00:15:34 | “…in America, for example, now there are over 2000 shopping malls in the suburbs that are abandoned…” “Inside America’s eerie abandoned malls” | CNN Style |
00:17:47 | “…we call it energy transitions because you have to go into other modes that make the disruptions very minimal…” “What is the Energy Transition and why does it matter?” | Spectra |
00:19:00 | “…30 million people walked back to their villages because of the lockdown…” “In India, the world’s biggest lockdown has forced migrants to walk hundreds of miles home” | The Washington Post |
00:22:17 | “…models of Indian urbanism…” “A Conversation With: Urban Planner Rahul Mehrotra” | The New York Times |
00:22:28 | “…the critiques of Chandigarh were immense as a city…” “Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh: an Indian city unlike any other” | Financial Times |
00:25:48 | “…too close to fully critique right now is the Smart Cities mission…” “About Smart Cities Mission” | Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Urban Development |
00:28:49 | “…the liberalization of the Indian economy in the nineties…” “Twenty Years of India’s Liberalization: Experiences and Lessons” | United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) |
00:35:45 | “…coined the term ‘deep democracy‘…” “Deep democracy: urban governmentality and the horizon of politics” | UCL (University College London) |
00:37:05 | “…fantastic model of how the state, civil society, the academy…” “Social Urbanism: From the Medellín Model to a New Global Movement” | ArchDaily |
00:41:51 | “…a really excellent example of soft thresholds…” “Soft Thresholds: Projects of RMA Architects, Mumbai” | Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) |
00:44:24 | “…he said “you’ve created true green jobs”…” “Green jobs: good for you, for the environment and for the economy” | Iberdrola |
00:49:20 | “…the green building movement who’s become a new kind of civil society…” “Moving the Goalposts: The History of Green Building and Performance” | GRESB |
00:49:53 | “…at least the LEED certificate…” “LEED rating system” | USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council) |
00:50:50 | “…so it creates passive cooling…” “What are Passive Design Strategies?” | Rethinking The Future |
00:51:13 | “…now with GRIHA…” GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment) |
00:03:48 | “…to CEPT in Ahmedabad…” CEPT University |
00:04:38 | “…you met Rajiv Gandhi…” “Rajiv Gandhi” | Britannica |
00:06:11 | “…before you set up RMA…” RMA Architects |
00:07:06 | “…your role at the Harvard GSD…” Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) |
00:17:27 | “…when Manmohan Singh was our prime minister…” “Manmohan Singh” | Britannica |
00:25:24 | “…which was the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission, the JNURM…” “Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM)” | Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) |
00:29:31 | “…with our Prime Minister Narasimha Rao…” “P.V. Narasimha Rao” | Britannica |
00:35:34 | “…the famous anthropologist Arjun Appadurai…” “Bio” | Arjun Appadurai |
00:44:10 | “…Sanjay Prakash, who is a well-known energy expert and architect and in India…” “Ar. Sanjay Prakash Studio For Habitat Futures (SHiFt)” | MGS Architecture (Modern Green Structure Architecture) |
00:45:28 | “…Mahouts are people who look after elephants…” “Mahout” | Britannica |
00:02:16 | “…largely in the city of Mumbai…” “Mumbai” (Maharashtra, India) | Britannica |
00:02:19 | “…I was born in Delhi…” “Delhi” (Delhi, India) | Britannica |
00:02:21 | “…in the city of Lucknow…” “Lucknow” (Uttar Pradesh, India) | Britannica |
00:03:43 | “…at the age of 17 to Ahmedabad…” “Ahmedabad” (Gujarat, India) | Britannica |
00:05:06 | “…visited Boston and he spoke at Memorial Hall…” “Boston” (Massachusetts, United States) | Britannica |
00:09:33 | “…In the classic Singapore shophouse…” “Singapore” | Britannica |
00:13:52 | “…is how the maidans…” “Maidan” | Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries |
00:22:08 | “…has it changed much since Chandigarh…” “Chandigarh” (Chandigarh, India) | Britannica |
00:26:44 | “…money on biking path in Bhubaneshwar…” “Bhubaneshwar” (Odisha, India) | Britannica |
00:32:40 | “…politicians use cities like Dubai…” “Dubai” (Dubai, United Arab Emirates) | Britannica |
00:32:40 | “…politicians use cities like […] Shanghai…” “Shanghai” (Shanghai, China) | Britannica |
00:37:02 | “…Medellín in Colombia…” “Medellín” (Antioquia, Colombia) | Britannica |
00:37:52 | “…Whether it’s Rio…” “Rio de Janeiro” (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) | Britannica |
00:37:54 | “…the highlands have the favelas…” “Favela” | Britannica |
00:41:48 | “…The KMC corporate office is a really excellent example…” “KMC Corporate Office” | RMA Architects |
00:45:07 | “…take the example of Hathi Gaon…” “Hathi Gaon” | RMA Architects |
00:45:47 | “…in a desert climate of Rajasthan…” “Rajasthan” (India) | Britannica |
00:45:47 | “…in a desert climate […] outside Jaipur…” “Jaipur” (Rajasthan, India) | Britannica |
00:42:07 | “…double-skin facade that has…” “How Do Double-Skin Façades Work?” | ArchDaily |
00:42:08 | “…that has a vegetated external screen…” “Green Facades” | Urban Green-Blue Grids |
There are no products and technologies mentioned in this episode.
Host
Nirmal Kishnani
Producer
Maxime Flores
Editorial assistants
Amulya Dhulipala
Ann Mathew
Sound technician & Editor
Kelvin Brown | Phlogiston
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