Sustainable urbanisation need of hour: Swiss expert

Suggests highest qualified professionals at government housing wings

Achieving equitable urbanisation in Bangalore still remains a concern. Rapidly growing cities across the globe evoke similar sentiments.

Encrusting his suggestions in the context of development of Bangalore, Alfredo Brillembourg, professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the Department of Architecture,  Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, gave pointers to the government and builders in the City to achieve sustainable development.

Delivering a lecture on ‘Last Round Ecology: Building a more Equitable City’, here on Tuesday, Prof Brillembourg opined that builders in Bangalore have to look at new approaches involving suburban spaces around massive housing projects.

Socio-cultural spaces

“When I look at the City, I see multi-storey apartments are surrounded by smaller settlements that are villages, slums or suburbs. What the builders now need to do is think of connecting these smaller suburbs to these projects. These spaces are the ones that have the potential to serve as socio-cultural spaces,” said Brillembourg.

This, Brillembourg pointed out, was not wishful thinking, but was already implemented in places such as Sao Paolo in  Brazil or Caracas in Venezuela for instance.

He emphasised on the vertical development of urban spaces. Rooftops and terraces can serve as public utility spaces such as restaurants, music clubs, gymnasium or football grounds, he said, giving examples of the existing models in some parts of the globe.

He gave the example of how an orphanage in Venezuela was built under a highway and the roof of the building connecting to the base of the highway serving as a football ground for children.

Observing the trend of development in Bangalore, he suggested that the government develop the space below the Metro line as social and cultural spaces.

He laid emphasis on the importance of strong governance in implementing sustainable urbanisation. The government housing wings should have the highest qualified professionals, he said.

Inappropriate structures

Speaking about the existing housing projects in the City, Brillembourg observed that Bangalore faced the danger of indiscriminate imitation of structures elsewhere in the world.

“We think we are going global but we are moving away from urbanisation. Structures that are not appropriate to specific geographies of regions can only hamper progress,” he added.

The talk was part of a lecture series organised by the Indian Institute of Human Settlements to spearhead equitable construction of cities. The series will go on for a year till February next.