Architecture is a discipline, which lies in this grey zone between design and science, art and utility, physical and cultural i.e. tangible and intangible. Of how much consequence is it as a practice to the urban fabric? After the Z-Axis Conference of 2015, this was a post-event essay I wrote for Kyoorius Magazine.

1. GreatCity…TerriblePlace.
ThinkingonZ-Axis
By Anusha Narayanan
Images courtesy of Z-Axis/ Charles Correa Foundation,
Arnav Saikia and author Architecture is a discipline,which lies in
this greyzone between design and science,
art and utility,physical and cultural i.e.
tangible and intangible.Of howmuch
consequence is it as a practice to the urban
fabric? Ifyou consider one building or one
plaza in isolation,it isn’t much.Perhaps,
one sole building can serve its own purpose
efficiently– to performwell for its users.
If it’s a monument such as the Gatewayof
India,it becomes the identityof the city.But
architecture is also mass housing,hospitals,
school and metro stations –which a citizen
interactswith on a dailybasis.
If you look at a city as a string of
spaces or activities tied together,you
then realize that this dance between
open and closed space,buildings and
plazas,and solids and voids is of a lot of
consequence.Cities,which are built over
centuries and not years,are made of layer
upon layer of such spaces,of architecture
and planning,each one representing
its era – colonial,medieval,renaissance,
art deco,Indian,or vernacular.All these
layers overlap into a complex web.And
the failure of architects to be of much
consequence today in this web,can lead
to the demise of a city – making them
terrible places to live in.
In the real world,architecture
is controlled by politics,economics
and egos more than ideals,virtues and
aesthetic sensibilities.It is not as easy
to solve the problems of cities that are
bursting at the seams and sadly,time is the
In the sultry days of Goan summer
from 20 to 22 March, we attended
the first edition of Z-Axis organised
by the Charles Correa Foundation at
Kala Academy, Panjim. The conference
was themed “Great City, Terrible
Place”; of how there are two images
to the same city — one which is
iconic, which inspires people, and the
other real one which is chaotic, which
we live in everyday. The conference
explored this gap and how even
though design is viewed as “problem
solving” and “a service industry”, this
often doesn’t get translated on an
urban scale to our cities.
Above: Charles Correa, Raj Rewal and
Mahendra Raj in conversation
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2. 55feature
biggest factor.It takes long to resolve the
existing problems of a city,during which
time,newer problems emerge,requiring us
to rethink the plan along the way.
After graduating,the first thing that
one tackles is to choose a city to work in.
Till a few years ago,most cities except for
Delhi paid fresh graduates peanuts,and it
wasn’t much of a choice to be honest.
Next is the task of choosing the kind of
practice to join,based on their philosophy
and type of work.In India,architecture
practices can be broadly categorised into
three-four types:
1. The ‘demand and supply’ practice.
2. The ‘niche clientele’ practice
3. Practices which collaborate
with governments
4. Conservationists: who practice at
another tangent altogether.
The ‘demand and supply’ practices
are the ones which mass-produce
buildings based on a developer’s
minimum requirements.Most Indian
cities are now dominated by developer-
driven projects and practices which supply
objects at the rate at which the demand
arises.As a result these are also the most
profitable.Who is this booming real-
estate industry serving? Most empty
towers today are sold out to NRI’s and
rich businessmen who buy property to
legitimize their dubious treasures or the
upper-middle class – a growing section of
our population,which works hard to fulfil
its aspirations.But it doesn’t cater to the
need for housing for the lower-middle class,
who can’t afford to live in these towers,
driving them further away from the hub
leading to the outward sprawl of a city.This
is unavoidable.Places like Gurgaon where
basic amenities like water are a persisting
problem are a result of this haste and bad
planning.The poor find shelter in the
growing slums.But,because such projects
are executed faster,developers build a
larger chunk of our cities than any other
agency or authority.How their government
approvals are cleared at such speed is a
mystery,but there is no doubt that as a
young architect,it is a lucrative thought,to
choose a fat paycheck over struggle,even if
it means to mass-produce designs.
However,when it comes to individual
practices,many fall in the second category
– working for a niche clientele.A few
clients,big or small,pump in the money
and the project,although “beautiful”,
remains a piece in isolation – a towering
glass-box,a villa in a coffee plantation,
a house in Alibaug,a cottage on a cliff.
Yes,it may be “contextual” or “sensitive
to its surroundings” but it is scary that
architecture is plagued today by this dream
to be iconic.And in such projects,where
there are only that many stakeholders,
decisions aren’t as complicated as they are
in public projects,even easier if the client
and designer have a certain chemistry.
While we dream of being icons,the
fact that most of the works of Correa,
Somaya and Rewal and others didn’t aim
to be “iconic” goes amiss; these were just
honest pieces of design which responded
to a brief in the best possible manner the
architect could.There was always this
sense of balance and honesty,irrespective
of scale.We don’t need only those buildings
that make us go ‘wow’.“Architecture is
not just about icons and egos.It can’t
be reduced to this notion of bombastic
David Adjaye presenting his work
The slums of Caracas, Venezuela
We don’t need only those buildings
that make us go ‘wow’. “Architecture
is not just about icons and egos.
It can’t be reduced to this notion
of bombastic dressmaking.”

3. 56 feature
dressmaking,” David Adjaye rightly said at
the conference,“But we have lost a sense of
the pulse of a city and the teaching of that
to generations to come”.The sluggishness
of the profession to move away from the
tangent of working for a select few is where
many of the problems lie.
Summing the debate up,Adjaye,in
reply to a question about icons raised
during a Q&A session,said,“Sometimes
you need a cathedral or a palace – these
are important moments or pinnacles that
define the grandiose of a city.If the city was
generic we would all be relentlessly bored,
so there is the ordinariness and there is
the emancipatory.[But] It is like music – it
needs to have a pulse,a rise and a fall.Sure,
sometimes it goes wrong and sometimes
the wrong people get the commissions and
do BAD symphonies,but a lot of people get
it right.We have learnt this,and we need
to grow from it and not be simplistic in
attacking it,but learn how to tune it and
organise it.Sometimes,we need to say ‘Cool
that down’ and sometimes we need to say,
‘This is a moment of specialness.’”
Do architects have any CONTROL
over cities?
Quite evidently,no.In India,even more so.
Peter Bishop,the first Director of Design for
London (2006) who also spoke at Z-Axis,put
it perfectly that,“Catch and Steer” is all a
designer can do.The city happens around
us,at a pace that exceeds our imagination,
and all we can do is perhaps catch one
moment,space or event,and steer it in the
direction we want.For this to manifest
itself,Planning more than Architecture,
is the need of the hour.Planners set the
guidelines in which designers work.
You can throw brickbats at architects
and planners for being “stupid” and “dumb
people trying to make smart cities”,but
planning involves civic administration,
politics and bureaucracy.Very few privately
practising designers deal with this on a
day-to-day basis.
This brings us to the third kind of
practice that exists within this country –
those that work with civic authorities on
public projects.Most cringe at the thought
of having to work with the government,
and the few who do are heavily criticised
for gaps in “what should be”,“what could
be” and “what is”.Dr.Bimal Patel,an urban
planner who heads a 50-year-old practice
(HCPDPM),and perhaps one of the very few
who spoke on planning,said,“Instead of
waiting for someone to solve the problem,
isn’t it the duty of the architect to approach
the government and do what he must to be
of use?” To change a system,it is necessary
to be part of it first.
Planning is about tough decisions; it is
not the domain of idealists.Do you let one
man suffer so that a hundred can benefit,
or do we urge all of them to shift a bit and
carve a large area out for say,a plaza or a
loop road that the city badly needs? Such
projects involve multiple stakeholders
and arriving at a decision requires a lot
of deliberation.Making sure that budgets
aren’t exceeded,resources are managed,
people are evacuated and relocated,day-
to-day lives aren’t disrupted,and the
project finishes in good time for people
to benefit from it,is tough.It seems quite
impossible to be fair to everyone involved.
Compromises are made along the way and
knowing which ones to make and when
is easier said than done.“And if you can’t
answer questions like this,you are in the
wrong profession”,said Dr.Patel.
Dr. Bimal Patel
Peter Bishop's work for Design for
London - temporary playscapes
The Sabarmati Riverfront,
Ahmedabad
Peter Bishop
“Instead of waiting for someone to
solve the problem, isn’t it the duty
of the architect to approach the
government and do what he must to
be of use?” To change a system, it is
necessary to be part of it first.

4. 57feature
At the conference,Dr.Patel presented
the Sabarmati Riverfront Development
project,which his firm HCPDPM
executed with the Ahmedabad Municipal
Corporation.It involved the relocation
of squatters from the banks of Sabarmati
river to make space for parks,gardens and
public spaces – a subject which triggered
much debate.Today,the riverfront is,like
it or not,a space enjoyed by the rich and
the poor of Ahmedabad alike.While on
one hand,valid questions were raised on
the methods and material employed,on
the other hand is the fact that the project
reclaims an entire stretch of land that
was privately owned earlier.Collaborating
with and consulting designers who had
a stronger premise in the subject,could
have been a better option or could have
delayed the process more – all that is
speculation.On the other hand,it would
have been wonderful to know HOW this
private firm bid for the project,won it and
worked with the municipal corporation.
Knowing how twisted and murky bidding
for public projects is,that is the more
interesting albeit hidden story here.
“Working with the government
requires infinite patience,” as Brinda
Somaya said, talking of the Mumbai
Esplanade proposal which HECAR
foundation (founded by Dr.Somaya)
was working on.The proposal was to
reconfigure the area around Victoria
Terminus into an open plaza that
pedestrians could navigate easily,by taking
the traffic underground; this was because
a large number of commuters from the
VT local station are thrown out everyday
upon exiting into traffic-congested roads,
and the condition of pedestrian subways
is deplorable.The project hangs midway as
the Eastern Express Highway opened up,
connecting more vehicles to the area,and
city authorities decided to “observe the
flow of traffic for some time” before they
could discuss this proposal further.And
thus the wait continues.
Some architects approach their work
with a strong individual philosophy and
do their bit in addressing problems in their
own communities for instance,Alfredo
Brillembourg and Kunlé Adeyemi,while
there are others like Santiago who rebel.
Alfredo is one half of the partnership
Urban-Think Tank,which has worked
extensively in the slums of Caracas.Caracas
has an alarming crime rate and its slum
covers the hills that surround it.In Caracas,
Urban-Think Tank retrofitted the slum
with cable cars creating an alternate public
transport system for citizens from one end
to the other,reducing the time taken to
make this journey by three-quarters.His
projects are “acupuncture interventions”,
mixed-use buildings in the thick of the
slum that aim to better people’s lives.
Although he says,“urbanisation is frozen
politics”,Alfredo’s work is proactive.
Left: Alfredo Brillembourg whose firm Urban-Think Tank is based in Venezuela
Retrofitting Caracas with cable-cars

5. 58 feature
Santiago Cirugeda is rather rebellious
and uses activism as a tool to inform and
empower people to have a say in matters
of the city.Santi hails from Seville where
politics and mainstream architecture
run hand-in-hand.His practice,Recetas
Urbanas or 'Urban Prescriptions',is born
from the frustration that citizens don’t
have the means to control their own cities
as compared to designers and artists.So
when he got bored of ‘beautiful’ buildings,
he decided to build the so-called ‘illegal’
and fight legislatively to get it legalised.
Activism works perhaps in the
context of Spain,but in India,it is quite
hard to relate to.Why would an average,
hardworking Indian,who struggles from
morning till night to make a decent
living and support his or her family,want
to become an activist to make “better
cities”? Most would first want to have a
good life and support those who depend
on them,before turning into a radical.
Empowering people to fight legislatively,in
a judiciary system such as ours,can mean
anything from a year to a decade of court
appearances,and paying for advocates.
Leave alone citizens,even architects would
be skeptical of entering such situations.
It also raised the question of who
exactly is working for the people,for the
“informal housings” (slums) and the
poor? There are many non-government
or independent agencies that have
been working in Khirki (urban village)
or Dharavi (slum) to “improve” the
quality of life of the people but they have
achieved quite little considering the rate
of urbanisation or the growth of these
slums.There are practices such as URBZ
(Geeta Mehta,Rahul Srivastava and Matias
Echanove) or RMA (Rahul Mehrotra
and Associates),which execute projects
to retrofit slums with civic amenities.
However,Dharavi still remains one of the
largest slums and is also a contributor to
the state’s economy.
There is also the question of whether
people even want to be relocated from
slums.Relocation of squatters and slum-
dwellers deals with disrupting people’s
livelihoods.Informal settlements are
usually built nearer to their sources of
income.Rehabilitation increases the
distance of commute,disrupting people’s
daily lives.The construction and spatial
quality in rehabilitation or low-cost
housing projects is also questionable.
Unless what lies on the other end of the
tunnel is significantly better,informal
housing isn’t going anywhere too soon.In
such a scenario,what does one expect an
architect to do in the first place? That’s a
chicken-and-egg problem.
Tackling some of the developingworld
issues is an architect from Lagos,Kunlé
Adeyemi.Kunlé used towork at OMA,a firm
partnered byRem Koolhaas,and led manyof
its international projects before starting his
own practice in Lagos.Here he created the
Floating School of Makoko,which shot him
to fame.Makokowas a fishingvillage in the
beginning,which grewinto a slum but isn’t
governed byanycivic authorities.In 2012,the
government of Lagos destroyed manyhouses
here,in a bid to developwhat is considered ‘a
primewaterfront’.Kunlé considers Makoko as
a “newform of civilisation”where the people
have not lived on land and are comfortable
with this kind of alternate living.Building
a floating school out ofwood and plastic,
without anysolid anchoring into the seabed
is quite special.
Architects like Kunlé and Simone
Sfriso run commercial practices,and
working in marginalised communities or
“for the poor” does not make the entirety
of practice.But they handle these projects
with as much sensitivity and care as the
more commercial ones.There is also a
sense of realisation that people of such
communities have as much of a right to
avail design as city-dwellers.
Kunlé Adeyemi from Lagos
Santiago Cirugeda from
Seville, Spain
Prótesis Institucional by
Santiago Cirugeda – an
addition to an arts centre
Faculty of Fine Arts in Malaga by
Santiago Cirugeda

6. 59feature
Dr.Somaya recounted a story at the
end of her talk about a forest fire where all
the creatures were running away.There
was a small bird that was instead flying
towards the forest.The lion looked up at
it and laughed saying,“what will you do,
you little bird,you are so tiny.How can you
stop this fire?” and the bird replied,“at
least,I am doing my part.” Giving back to
society comes as a part of the profession.
As individual practices or architects of
smaller realms it is hard to give back to the
urban fabric significantly,while working
alone.Collaboration and a balance between
commercial and social work,as shown by
Adeyemi and Sfriso,helps raise the right
questions and get diverse perspectives to
create work of value.
Attending the conference,five years
after graduating from architecture school,
I observed during the Q&A sessions that
students today talk more architecture than
I can comprehend.In the past few years,
the number of architecture schools in India
has increased from 20-30 to more than 340.
Most teachers in these institutes are young
or middle-aged architects who perhaps
find the assurance of a paycheck at the end
of every month better than the stresses of
practising architecture independently.Are
they to blame? Not really,because salaries
in architecture firms are quite excruciating
and private practice is unpredictable,
making it hard to survive in cities on
measly or fluctuating pay.Therefore they
lack the kind of practical insights and
understanding of the nuances of the
profession,which comes with years of
experience.The knowledge they transfer
is mostly theory and jargon,which
students latch on to,unable to speak or
think originally.It is a familiar situation,
but it doesn’t take too long to realise,that
jargon doesn't solve anything.It only
reinstates that our education needs to
encourage original thought.As I saw it,
the forum brought many real-world
challenges to the fore,giving a realistic
image of the profession to ponder over.
This leaves us with one last debate
that was raised towards the end of the
conference – of “Urban Design as an
intoxicant”.Madhura Prematilleke of Sri
Lanka spoke of how his country is governed
by a military regime and although it looks
‘organised’ and ‘impressive’ from the
outside,this show of order is a form of
intoxication for the citizens,projecting
that this is what progress looks like.
Where there is an absence of freedom
and right to expression,this façade keeps
people from raising their voice,telling
them that everything is under control and
in order.With more than a 100 smart cities
being proposed,eventful times lie ahead for
urban design in India.
Think about it – 100 smart cities.
Perhaps it’s an opportunity to do better
design and planning.Given the economic
benefits involved,the government seems
willing to work uncharacteristically faster
this time.But in all this talk about good
design,bad design,politics,icons,rebels,
jargon etc.– where are the people? Where’s
culture? Talking about the “smartness” of
smart cities,Usman Haque quotes Adam
Greenfield from an interaction they had,
that “Online,we tend to surround ourselves
with people just like ourselves,in a series
of concentric circles organised by affinity
and selective propinquity.But this isn’t
how urban socialisation has worked,
historically,and in my view it isn’t what
cities are for.” Creativity thrives on diverse,
contradicting opinions,not sameness.That
makes for cultural richness.Practising any
form of design in India is between a rock
and a hard place but as a young architect
who aspires to work here in future,I hope
urban design is not just an intoxicant and
people’s participation matters.
Makoko Floating School by NLE/Kunlé Adeyemi
Madhura Prematilleke
of Sri Lanka
Creativity thrives on diverse,
contradicting opinions, not
sameness. That makes for
cultural richness.