u Volume 63 u Pages 16u November 2013 www.vaastuyogam.com

stC o n n e c t i n g V a a s t u t o t h e 21 C e n t u r y

VaastuyogamNEWSLETTER

I, along with my entire Vaastuyogam team - wish

you and all your family and friends a very Happy

Diwali and a prosperous New Year. May the coming

year shower you with health, wealth and

knowledge; may it fulfill and even surpass all your

hopes and plans!

As with every year, this Diwali, too, we carry a

special article on a single person from the

Ramayana. This year we focus on Goddess Sita.

I am stunned by the rapidity with which we are

shedding our revered ancient traditions and the

wholesale ignorance about our Vedic way of

thought. The only past we know of, is what has

been told to us by the British. Their education

systems that we follow even today have made us

even more hostile to our culture and ways than the

British themselves! This menace can be

vanquished only by making our younger

generations and ourselves more knowledgeable of

our ancient sciences and ceremonies.

I earnestly hope, that Vaastuyogam shall guide

those amongst us, who wish to understand more

about the Vedic sciences.

And yet, once again! Happy Diwali and a

Prosperous New Year!

And happy reading!

EDITORIAL ARCHITECT’S VOICE

Cities/Towns and their growth.

As I said earlier in the interview (published last

month) urban planning and design regulates uses

of space that focus on the physical form, economic

functions, and social impacts of the urban

environment and on the location of different

activities within it. Because urban planning draws

upon engineering, architectural, and social and

political concerns, it is variously a technical

profession, an endeavor involving political will and

public participation, and an academic discipline.

Urban planning concerns itself with both the

development of open land (“greenfield sites”) and

the revitalization of existing parts of the city.

Proper town planning is needed to absorb the

future growth in vehicle population and expansion

of construction industry stemming from the

growing requirements of a growing population. To

this, I must add that while there is widespread

consensus on this general goal, most of the major

planning decisions involve trade-offs between

subsidiary objectives and thus frequently involve

conflict and its resolution.

continued on page 2

Design: ARM Communication

- Architect’s Voice1Mr. Anand Tatu - Part Two

12- 12 JyotirlingNageshwar Temple, Gujarat.

- Diwali Spacial6Goddess Sita

What is Town Planning?

And where are we headed?

Part Two

Architect Anand Tatu

5- Dr Ravi Rao’s Vaastu tips

Tips before buying a plot, factory,commercial or residential property

Dr. Ravi Rao

Happy DiwaliHappy DiwaliHappy Diwali

u November 2013

ARCHITECT’S VOICE

The discipline’s theoretical core, being

somewhat amorphous, is better defined

by the issues it addresses than by any

dominant paradigm or prescriptive

approach.

Representative issues especially concern

the recognition of a public interest and how

it should be determined, the physical and

social character of the ideal city, the

possibility of achieving change in

accordance with consciously determined

goals, the extent to which consensus on

g o a l s i s a t t a i n a b l e t h r o u g h

communication, the role of citizens versus

public officials and private investors in

shaping the city,

There are three four patterns of how a city

may grow; One is a Radial city an example

of which is Ahmedabad. Another pattern is

a Grid-Iron pattern . This would be in the

case of planned cities. Jaipur is one

example and another is Chandigarh(see

Box on page4). Yet another pattern is

Linear cities. These are guided by the

physical limitations of the place. Mumbai is

an example of a linear city.

As Ahmedabad is Radial city, I discus

Radial Cities below:-

Radial Cities

The general idea of town planning is, that

in order, that the concentration of human

activity, which is the essential feature of

the aggregation of human beings in a city,

should be of the highest efficiency. It is

necessary, therefore, that the lines of

intercommunicat ion between the

buildings and also between them and the

lesser centers of outlying territory, should

be the shortest possible, and also the most

convenient. This is nothing more nor less

than the affirmation that all systems of

roads and streets should provide the

greatest possible number of "short cuts"

from place to place, and thus economize

as far as can be, human effort in the

transaction of business, and in all other

features of city life. The other element of

importance is the appropriate localization

of the various types of industrial and other

activity, so that the necessity for

intercommunication itself, should be

reduced to a minimum. continued on page 4

What is Town Planning? And where are we headed? - Part Two

1

Mr. Anand Tatu is a top ranking Ahmedabad based architect known for his high profile

corporate clients of national and international stature.

Born in 1959, Mr. Anand Tatu did his B. Arch. from CEPT University, A.I.I.A. and his

Masters in Urban & Regional Planning - CEPT in 1984. He has served as Research

Associate with National Institute of Design and CEPT Planning Cell on various projects

and as Planning Consultant to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation on World Bank

Aided Slum up-gradation Projects.

Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city,with an area of 186 km2 with a population of over 2 lakh.

Aberdeen - ariel view showing radial planning

ARCHITECT’S VOICE

Proper town

planning is needed

to absorb the future

growth in vehicle

population and

expansion of

construction

industry stemming

from the growing

requirements of a

growing population.

To this I must add

that while there is

widespread

consensus on this

general goal, most

of the major

planning decisions

involve trade-offs

between subsidiary

objectives and thus

frequently involve

conflict and its

resolution.

u November 2013 3

Varachha Flyover, Surat, Gujarat.

Surat, India’s Fastest Growing City

In 1994, Surat , in Gujarat, saw an exodus as the fear of a plague outbreak led people to

flee the city in droves. Today, things have come full circle - Surat is witnessing a migrant

influx from across India. In terms of living standards, it is ahead of other cities. Indeed, in

2010, Business Today pointed out that Surat was ahead of most cities on three key

parameters that make a city liveable: water supply, sanitation and roads. And that has led

it to be cited as a model for other cities seeking to urbanise in an orderly fashion.

Ironically, India's ninth-largest city may have to thank the epidemic fears of 1994 for its

resurgence. That incident, says Manoj Kumar Das, Surat's municipal commissioner, was

a wake-up call. But, he adds, the city did not function by a different set of rules to transform

itself. It simply did the same things better. The sanitation system was overhauled. Basic

health care has been made available to every section of society.

The city is developing commercially viable and environmentally sustainable

infrastructure. "The citizens are ready to support and experiment," says Das. For

instance, piped water is not subsidised, but slum dwellers pay less. A waste water

treatment project will be completed by the end of this financial year. The corporation is

working to generate 40 per cent - 35 megawatts(MW) - of its power needs through

renewable energy. Some 15 MW is already being generated.

Diamonds, textiles and engineering are the city's main industries. These, along with

quality of life, are attracting investment. Paresh Patel, who heads the local industry

chamber, says a 15 sq km area around Surat now has an investment of Rs 1.2 trillion (a

trillion is 100,000 crore).

The city has dealt well with the influx of migrant workers, says Das, a computer engineer

from IIT Kharagpur. For instance, government schools offer instruction in seven

languages, including Oriya and Marathi.

Openness to migrants and the positive attitude of both the government and populace

bode well for Surat's future.

u November 2013

Chandigarh - Morden India’s First Planed City

4

health centers and places of recreations and worship. The population of a sector varies between 3000 and 20000 depending upon the sizes of plots and the topography of the area.

The city plan was conceived as post war ‘Garden City’ wherein vertical and high rise buildings were ruled out, keeping in view the living habits of the people. Le Corbusier conceived the master plan of Chandigarh as analogous to human body, with a clearly defined

Head ( the Capi to l Complex, Sector 1),

Heart (the City Centre Sector-17),

Lungs ( t h e l e i s u r e v a l l e y , innumerable open spaces and sector greens),

Intellect (the cultural and educational institutions),

Circulatory (the network of roads, system the 7Vs) and

Viscera (the Industrial Area).

Chandigarh is a city in Northern India that serves as the capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana. The city of Chandigarh was the first planned city in India post independence in 1947 and is known internationally for its architecture and urban design. Chandigarh has projects designed by architects such as Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry.

Whilst giving the mandate to Le Corbusier to plan Chandigarh, Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, Said, “The site chosen is free from the existing encumbrances of old towns and old traditions. Let it be the first expression of our creative genius flowing on our newly earned freedom. Let it be a new town symbolic of the freedom of India unfettered by the traditions of the past and expression of the nation's faith in the future.”

BASIC PLANNING CONCEPTS

The primary module of city’s design is a Sector, a neighborhood unit of size 800 meters x 1200 meters. Each SECTOR is a self-sufficient unit having shops, school,

These two elements, viz., the street

arrangement, and the determination of the

purposes for which the blocks so formed

shall be available, are the most

fundamental in the development of a city -

design. It must be understood, of course,

that both are greatly influenced by the

topography of the site. A general

disposition of streets and buildings that

might be most suitable for one site, might

be wholly unsuitable for another with

different topographical features: any

discussion of principles therefore can lead

only to general results: these must - in any

application - be taken as a general guide,

to be modified as occasion demands.

However, it is never possible to produce in

detail, an ideal design applicable to every

site.

Please name one city that you rank above

Ahmedabad?

From the town planning angle, I would

rank Surat above Ahmedabad. I don’t

know how they did it, but Surat is a case of

exemplary revitalization of an existing city.

Perhaps one of the correctives that have

revitalized Surat is the influx of numerous

flyovers.

Where would place Mumbai on the

ranking list?

The less said about Mumbai, the better. I

rank living in Mumbai as a punishment.

Conclusion

Planners always must accept ground

reality and plan / re-plan to rise to the

occasion.

I conclude with a favorite extended-

couplet:-

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}¢¢ÝHïÝ¢ „æSÜëç¼ ãñJ

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|¢éH „é{¢Ú HñÝ¢ Ðíx¢ç¼

ãñ

Bhool Karna Prakruti hai

Maanlena Sanskruti hai

Aur Bhool Sudar Lena Pragati hai

To make mistakes is natural

To accept mistakes is culture

2

ARCHITECT’S VOICE