Houzz Forum: What is Sustainability in the Indian Context?
Four of the country's foremost architects express their views on 'sustainability' and Indian approaches to it
This discussion series brings together the country’s top design professionals to voice their opinions and insights on all matters related to architecture & design.
The word ‘sustainability’ has been around for a long time now and we hear opinions and points of view from people and groups attempting to define it in their own way. While there may not be a clear set of rules on what constitutes ‘sustainable design’, it is important to understand its value in the Indian context. With its multiple social, cultural and political aspects affecting our built surroundings and global environment, we ask the country’s top architects: What is your idea of sustainability in the Indian context?
The word ‘sustainability’ has been around for a long time now and we hear opinions and points of view from people and groups attempting to define it in their own way. While there may not be a clear set of rules on what constitutes ‘sustainable design’, it is important to understand its value in the Indian context. With its multiple social, cultural and political aspects affecting our built surroundings and global environment, we ask the country’s top architects: What is your idea of sustainability in the Indian context?
© Malik Architecture
Arjun Malik, Malik Architecture, Mumbai
The sheer complexity of India’s social, cultural, political, and economic dynamics is, perhaps, without precedent and at these unwieldy scales the very definition of the term ‘sustainability’ is made ambiguous. What one can state unequivocally is that in order to achieve even the smallest measure of balance, equitable distribution, a renewed dignity for the individual, and human-centric environments that co-exist harmoniously with nature, we are going to have to develop collaborative instruments that are capable of lateral hybridised thinking with strong advocacy. We must be free from the shackles of bureaucratic red tape to conduct research and initiate broad and specific frameworks for planning and development.
We may lack the specific solutions to instantly restore the large-scale balance but we have ample references in creating the climate and conditions in which the incubation of ideas can happen. We must have active information networks, public-private participation, multi-pronged research cells comprising of professionals, students and academicians and, first and foremost, strong civil and political leadership that is at least marginally insulated from the currently skewed power structures created by private-sector finance.
Today, sustainable design and development is confined to a marginalised resistance. Yet, we have access to unlimited data, a deep accumulated historic intelligence, ample human resource, global networks and solutions. Our challenge today, as a democracy in a rapidly shifting cultural, social and economic landscape, is to create the climate to think and act strategically, to be proactive and predictive in our extrapolations.
One way, perhaps, is to consider imagination as memory, and to educate our youth on the dangers of prioritising the image over the object, in favouring the representation over the real. We need a contextual analysis beyond the physical, to delve into the nuances of social, cultural, spiritual and metaphysical realms, which have traditionally been inseparable from the building tradition. These explorations will ultimately yield generic and specific frameworks, a logic derived through abstract devices that can start to engage with more complex conditions.
Ultimately, we need to rediscover natural processes, find a merger with rapidly evolving computational methods, material technology and digital fabrication, at the same time nurturing collective identity and individual expression, and critically rethink our estrangement from nature.
Arjun Malik, Malik Architecture, Mumbai
The sheer complexity of India’s social, cultural, political, and economic dynamics is, perhaps, without precedent and at these unwieldy scales the very definition of the term ‘sustainability’ is made ambiguous. What one can state unequivocally is that in order to achieve even the smallest measure of balance, equitable distribution, a renewed dignity for the individual, and human-centric environments that co-exist harmoniously with nature, we are going to have to develop collaborative instruments that are capable of lateral hybridised thinking with strong advocacy. We must be free from the shackles of bureaucratic red tape to conduct research and initiate broad and specific frameworks for planning and development.
We may lack the specific solutions to instantly restore the large-scale balance but we have ample references in creating the climate and conditions in which the incubation of ideas can happen. We must have active information networks, public-private participation, multi-pronged research cells comprising of professionals, students and academicians and, first and foremost, strong civil and political leadership that is at least marginally insulated from the currently skewed power structures created by private-sector finance.
Today, sustainable design and development is confined to a marginalised resistance. Yet, we have access to unlimited data, a deep accumulated historic intelligence, ample human resource, global networks and solutions. Our challenge today, as a democracy in a rapidly shifting cultural, social and economic landscape, is to create the climate to think and act strategically, to be proactive and predictive in our extrapolations.
One way, perhaps, is to consider imagination as memory, and to educate our youth on the dangers of prioritising the image over the object, in favouring the representation over the real. We need a contextual analysis beyond the physical, to delve into the nuances of social, cultural, spiritual and metaphysical realms, which have traditionally been inseparable from the building tradition. These explorations will ultimately yield generic and specific frameworks, a logic derived through abstract devices that can start to engage with more complex conditions.
Ultimately, we need to rediscover natural processes, find a merger with rapidly evolving computational methods, material technology and digital fabrication, at the same time nurturing collective identity and individual expression, and critically rethink our estrangement from nature.
© SHROFFLEòN
Maria Leòn, SHROFFLEòN, Mumbai
For me, the meaning of the word ‘sustainability’ within the construction industry here in India has connotations that could potentially be wider than its understanding in the developed world.
Sustainability in the west is understood primarily through the singular lens of green materials, construction and best practices. However, here the context forces us to reevaluate the very word ‘sustainability’ itself and to relook at it through new multiple lenses and through many layers of complexity. Just to enumerate a few of them:
Sustainability of Economy: The context in which we find ourselves forces a particular modus operandi upon us while working – protocols of practice are forced to mutate in order to accommodate for and to take advantage of the local jugaad.
Sustainability of Density: Among other pressuring issues, just the very price of real estate and construction in comparison to the general earning capacities, imposes upon the Indian context a density that would elsewhere never be attempted. This situation ensures an incredible efficiency in space management.
Sustainability of Culture: The culture of India is the result of an amalgamation of the various diverse geographies, each of which brings forth a particular building type, construction and internal organisation. To build here in India, one needs to prescribe to and to allow for not only historical precedents but also fusions of protocols of living.
Sustainability of Politics: Working in India you are forced to work with local bodies, independent of the their expertise and skill levels, for political reasons. The consequences of this situation influence the projects at many different levels.
Sustainability of Tradition: Construction technologies in India cannot be understood without the hands of the artisans.
Maria Leòn, SHROFFLEòN, Mumbai
For me, the meaning of the word ‘sustainability’ within the construction industry here in India has connotations that could potentially be wider than its understanding in the developed world.
Sustainability in the west is understood primarily through the singular lens of green materials, construction and best practices. However, here the context forces us to reevaluate the very word ‘sustainability’ itself and to relook at it through new multiple lenses and through many layers of complexity. Just to enumerate a few of them:
Sustainability of Economy: The context in which we find ourselves forces a particular modus operandi upon us while working – protocols of practice are forced to mutate in order to accommodate for and to take advantage of the local jugaad.
Sustainability of Density: Among other pressuring issues, just the very price of real estate and construction in comparison to the general earning capacities, imposes upon the Indian context a density that would elsewhere never be attempted. This situation ensures an incredible efficiency in space management.
Sustainability of Culture: The culture of India is the result of an amalgamation of the various diverse geographies, each of which brings forth a particular building type, construction and internal organisation. To build here in India, one needs to prescribe to and to allow for not only historical precedents but also fusions of protocols of living.
Sustainability of Politics: Working in India you are forced to work with local bodies, independent of the their expertise and skill levels, for political reasons. The consequences of this situation influence the projects at many different levels.
Sustainability of Tradition: Construction technologies in India cannot be understood without the hands of the artisans.
© Design Cell
Ravindra Punde, Design Cell, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai.
Director at School of Environment and Architecture, Mumbai
There is no singular response to the question of development and sustainability. However, there are a few arguments at the forefront of this discourse and the nature of our built environment. Economic model, consumption-led development index, degrading environment and equity are some of them.
Each one of these, amongst others, has its own influence on the present-day design discourse. Various standards, norms and regulations are being formulated by each country, state and region to deal with its own issues.These norms do have a purpose and effect. However, regulations and norms in themselves are clearly not enough and need to be coupled with a deeper understanding of the context.
In the case of countries like India, the desired rate of growth and, therefore, the need for resource consumption is alarming. If we carry on with business as usual it will almost certainly call for over-exploitation of our resources, which leads to destruction of ecology and biodiversity, resulting in the damaging consequences of climate change. With access to development opportunities being skewed to benefit a few, it adversely affects the poor the most.
Architects, designers and planners will have to understand the significance of these issues and the design responsibility thereof. How and what we build, its energy and ecological footprint are key questions on resource consumption. It is also important to find the right place for emerging technologies to draw benefits that help distribute development in a more equitable manner. Our choices of technologies and their appropriateness in application play an important role in how the benefits of making use of resources transmit to a larger community.
There are several questions similar to the ones mentioned above that we, as designers, have to address. Some can be understood through numbers; some cannot. Compassion is one of them. The question of sustainability may not be a number game as it seems to be playing out today. It may ultimately seek its solution in the values and ethics of communities and people.
Read more Houzz debates and forums:
Houzz Forum: State of Indian Architecture Today and Tomorrow
Tell us:
What do you think about the concept of sustainability in India?Give your opinion in Comments below.
Ravindra Punde, Design Cell, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai.
Director at School of Environment and Architecture, Mumbai
There is no singular response to the question of development and sustainability. However, there are a few arguments at the forefront of this discourse and the nature of our built environment. Economic model, consumption-led development index, degrading environment and equity are some of them.
Each one of these, amongst others, has its own influence on the present-day design discourse. Various standards, norms and regulations are being formulated by each country, state and region to deal with its own issues.These norms do have a purpose and effect. However, regulations and norms in themselves are clearly not enough and need to be coupled with a deeper understanding of the context.
In the case of countries like India, the desired rate of growth and, therefore, the need for resource consumption is alarming. If we carry on with business as usual it will almost certainly call for over-exploitation of our resources, which leads to destruction of ecology and biodiversity, resulting in the damaging consequences of climate change. With access to development opportunities being skewed to benefit a few, it adversely affects the poor the most.
Architects, designers and planners will have to understand the significance of these issues and the design responsibility thereof. How and what we build, its energy and ecological footprint are key questions on resource consumption. It is also important to find the right place for emerging technologies to draw benefits that help distribute development in a more equitable manner. Our choices of technologies and their appropriateness in application play an important role in how the benefits of making use of resources transmit to a larger community.
There are several questions similar to the ones mentioned above that we, as designers, have to address. Some can be understood through numbers; some cannot. Compassion is one of them. The question of sustainability may not be a number game as it seems to be playing out today. It may ultimately seek its solution in the values and ethics of communities and people.
Read more Houzz debates and forums:
Houzz Forum: State of Indian Architecture Today and Tomorrow
Tell us:
What do you think about the concept of sustainability in India?Give your opinion in Comments below.
Shirish Beri, Shirish Beri and Associates, Kolhapur, Maharashtra
Sustainability has become such an overused, misused, fad word that we seem to feel that sustainable features can be added on to a design just like any tapestry or upholstery. But the deeper we delve into the true meaning of sustainability, the more we realise that it is not an add-on design gimmick but is a way of life itself, as it was in India long back.
True sustainable design happens as a result of unified, holistic and compassionate attitudes to life:
- An attitude that does not equate good life with the number of goods that we have; where happiness happens to be our natural state, independent of external gratifications and when our designs spontaneously embody and celebrate voluntary simplicity.
- A caring attitude towards Mother Nature and our fellow humans.
- An attitude that breeds empathy between man and nature, between living and non-living components of design.
- An attitude that understands and recognises the importance of the immeasurable spirit dimension in the design of any space.
This kind of sustainability was ingrained in our Indian culture and ethos to such an extent that our architecture spontaneously became genuinely sustainable … without anybody rating it as green.Today, as these intrinsic attitudes no longer exist, one tries to achieve sustainability through superficial trappings and ratings. I always wonder how a five star hotel, a fully air-conditioned luxury mall or a 25-storeyed family residence can get a gold or platinum sustainability rating.