housing | density by martin abbott
water greed resourcefulness aspiration urbanisation
The Architecture of Poverty environmental pressures on New Delhi
Sustainable development, as defined in 1987 by the Brundtland Commission, meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
The first half of 2013 I spent working in New Delhi with Habitat for Humanity India on a range of projects related to housing, advocacy and sanitation in both urban and rural contexts, in partnership with international organisations such as the United Nations and World Vision.
New Delhi : mega city capital of India, an urban agglomeration where the number of inhabitants already exceeds the entire population of Australia and is growing at a rate close to 700,00 people a year. 1 From the outside it may appear chaotic and on the verge of unravelling, which it is for many, however it continues to stumble forward, at times infuriatingly oblivious to its own predicament. This is a city of haves and have-nots, where socio-cultural dynamics as much as any political or economic decisions continue to burden the lives of all Delhiites. It is a city in flux, at the centre of India’s urban transformation, explored here through a comparison of the architectural vernacular of Bawana and the soaring housing towers of Gurgaon: the underside of urbanisation in Delhi. The Bawana JJ Colony, situated a lethargic 25km from the city centre on the north-west edge of Delhi, is home to a growing community of more than 12,000 residents on less than one square kilometre of land. It’s a ramshackle sort of place where goats and chickens roam narrow lanes pressed between two-story red brick houses. There are few toilets, a water supply that flows approximately an hour each day and no organised waste management services, let alone a sewer system. In comparison to other similar colonies in Delhi, this one would earn six points out of ten — on a scale where ten might just be deemed acceptable. 2 Ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Bawana was identified by the Delhi Development Authority as a ‘model’ resettlement colony, a focal point of the city’s then urban beautification plans and resettlement program. 3 This program gave families (who could prove settlement in Delhi before 31st January 1990) an 18 square metre plot of land in a resettlement colony. Those who arrived after January 1990 but before December 1998, received a 12.5 square metre plot. 4 The JJ Colony became the controversial destination for many people evicted from Delhi’s slums and illegal settlements, a disturbing urban narrative all too familiar across the nation.
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above: a roadside chai stand, the nomadic urban condition against the backdrop of new aspirational middle class housing towers. Which is the most sustainable venture?
1 Depending where you look, New Delhi is home to either 16 million or some 23 million residents and counting. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. World Urbanization Prospects, The 2011 Revision. New York: United Nations, 2012. p 7 2 I was told this during a conversation with a photographer following my ‘build’ team around, comparing it to other areas of Delhi and elsewhere in India. 3 Unknown. ‘Beautiful Delhi and the ugly story of Bawana’ in Civil Society , April 11, 2010 4 Eshaan Puri and Tripti Bhatia. ‘Commonwealth Games 2010: Displacement of Persons’, Working Paper: No 213 . Summer Research Internship, Centre for Civil Society, India, 2009. p 18
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