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.
Transient space in Indian city, acting as social space
© Rajesh Vora
Transient space in Indian city, during religious festival
© Rajesh Vora
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.
KMC Headquarters, Hyderabad (India): an office building clad in a green wall
© Tina Nandi
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.
KMC Headquarters, Hyderabad (India): space between inner and outer facade, an example of soft boundary
@ Tina Nandi
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.
Hathi Gaon, Jaipur (India): a home to elephants and their keepers, was a project with multiple stakeholders and clients
@ Rajesh Vora
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.