february-2012

new Indian solar city is designed not
around roads, but bus and train lines,
bike paths and footpaths, which pass
through “varied scenery, so travelling
becomes a pleasure.”
Existing cities, meanwhile, are
increasingly being retooled into denser,
less car-dependent places. “Currently,
50% of my work is transforming
suburbs,” explains Toronto-based Ken
Greenberg. “Th ey have seen a huge
population change. In the 1970s, the
poor lived in the inner city and the
affl uent in the suburbs, but that has been
reversed. Th e poor have been pushed out
to the suburbs, where there are few
transport options. So the task now is to
retrofi t the suburbs — make them
denser, more mixed, with more facilities
and more transport links. Th e suburbs
are becoming urbanised.”
History is full of lessons for urban
planners. Fatehpur Sikri in India is one
of the most colourful, a splendid Mughal
city which the Emperor Akbar began to
build in 1570 to honour the holy man
who had predicted his son’s birth. It took
15 years to complete, only to be
abandoned just 14 years later, because it
lacked a suffi cient water supply.
Ashok Bhalotra likes to tell this story
to underline his point that the biggest
challenge facing our growing cities is
equal access to the necessities of life:
water, energy and food.
His Dutch City of the Sun has
containers outside each house to collect
rainwater, while his new urban projects
in India and China integrate agriculture
into the fabric of the city.
“Food production has to be urban,”
he says, “because 35% of food is
currently wasted due to transport and
storage methods.”
Instead of sweeping away the villages
standing in their way, Bhalotra’s new
urban developments will simply
integrate them, and the farmers can stay.
“Th ey will receive training to do
high-tech agriculture in the city,” he
says. “More production on less land. Th e
PLANNING URBAN
“ With more production on
less land, farmers will
become shareholders in
the urban economy ”
farmers will become shareholders in the
urban economy.”
Keeping farmers in the city adds to
the diversity that Bhalotra believes is
vital for cities to work.
“We have social housing next to
exclusive villas. We have to plan for the
slum dwellers too. Th e people who have
nothing, they will also come to the city.
Th ey will need some small shelter too. In
fact, the slums have a wonderful sense of
community and joy — the soul of the
city is the slum.”
This celebration of diversity extends
into the city fabric, where Bhalotra plans
to use diff erent themes and architectural
styles to off er a changing experience,
rather than the rubber-3stamped grid
that featured in 20th-century cities. “Th e
discovery of new things should always
be possible,” he says. “It’s important to
embrace the sensuality of the city. It
should respond not only to our needs,
but our desires too. Th e city should have
1,000 identities.” v
Holland Herald 43