Urban Design Collective

A very happy New Year from UDC! We’ve had a busy and exciting year in 2017, with several projects that enabled us to engage in impactful work in urban communities. As we roll into the New Year, we also wanted to share with you a significant list of UDC ‘new’s (get it?) that have been … Continue reading →

In the early 1990’s, the cleaning authorities at the Amsterdam airport needed to address a hygiene issue. They were struggling with attempts to reduce urinal spillage and splash-back in the men’s washrooms, but nothing seemed to do the trick until an etched house fly came along. Aad Kieboom, the Amsterdam airport manager, decided to put … Continue reading →

City – the word evokes such dichotomous imagery. As I savour the languorous beauty of William Dalrymple’s City of Djinns, the words speak to me and I learn to see through new perspectives, the city I live in. Feeling every bit the outsider, adjusting to the linguistic differences, the charms of this city have begun … Continue reading →

An old city, a new metropolis. A ‘random halli’, an airport, and a lot of ‘business ’in between. When I saw this image doing the rounds on social media, my first reaction was to laugh as I related to the image. And then, I thought, that is it ? The IT boom and the immigrant … Continue reading →

With every passing decade, we are becoming an increasingly interconnected civilization, and this enables us to race along in our growth trajectory spurred by a rapid flow of information and communication. Technologies as well as trends grow exponentially today, feeding off of this massive potential for making connections between events, processes and thoughts that emerge … Continue reading →

Blast, break, flatten: often the words used to describe the process involved in leveling rocks to make way for urban development. The natural rock formations are an integral (often overlooked) aspect of the narrative of Hyderabad’s rich history which lies on the Deccan Plateau. The age of the rocks date as far back as 2,500,000,000 years … Continue reading →

We have been hearing quite a lot about smart cities. The current definition of what a smart city is seems to be as follows: Cities which use technology, primarily data-driven technology, to manage urban infrastructure and improve governance. In this scenario, the citizens of the city will be both consumers and generators of the data … Continue reading →

I recently read a very well written article about Mumbai’s new Chhatrapati Shivaji airport Terminal [1]. It drew comparisons with the city’s rail terminus with the same name and pointed out how the rail terminus ferries the expected ANNUAL passenger count of the airport in just 11 days. Despite this, the rail terminus must do … Continue reading →

Henri Cartier Bresson’s famous photographs of Mahatma Gandhi’s Funeral A man died recently. My father had known him for many years. The man was one of his mentors and had helped him professionally on occasion. I had met him many times. I liked him. I heard the news from my father over the phone; he … Continue reading →

What do the words ‘Public Space’ really stand for in a city like Chennai? Traditionally, the term ‘Public’ is applied to a sort of egalitarian space, loaded with the principles of democracy and citizenship.  These are spaces available and open to all; open for protests and activism, free speech, information sharing and interaction. The burden … Continue reading →

So I was in Vijayawada last week. Vijayawada is a city laid out along the northern bank of the Krishna river about 60km before it meets the Bay of Bengal. A barrage on the Krishna river called the Prakasham Barrage is one of the city’s iconic landmarks as are the many hills that characterize its … Continue reading →