TNM SEMESTER -3

KAVIT
BHATIA
3-B

160BARCHI085
Assignment – 1
ARCHITECTURE :HOW TO KILL A CITY – ADA LOUISE HUXTABLE

Ada Louise Huxtable writes a newspaper article about a building Pennsylvania

station which was demolished by the city planning commission. The journalist

shares what might have caused the commission to do so and also through her
article she tells about the explanation which was given still pending.

Any building has a significance and gives a certain identity and character to the

city. Demolishing an architectural marvel is like stealing a city’s identity. The

journalist isn’t in favour of the act of demolishing the station.

The journalist writes about the fact that the increasing population lead to such

a decision. For construction of a garden and keeping in mind the number of

people the planning commission had no solution except demolishing the

building.

The authority plays an important role in this decision. Ada Louise Huxtable also

writes that the authority first of all cannot make such a marvel and secondly

they can’t maintain it. The mention of times tower is made to enlighten the

architecture of the tower. The façade is a mix of renaissance and gothic

architecture.

In the end the journalist states how sad it is that the land is there only for

publicity even though the landmark is not physically present.

Assignment 2
There are few architects who can compare with the stature of Le Corbusier. This highly polemical
designer hailed from obscurity in the Swiss Jura Mountains to become (arguably) the most
influential urban planner and architect of the 20th century. He was one of the key designers who
formulated the ideas behind a truly modern, avant-garde architecture during the interwar period.
Le Corbusier's ideas about immense, rationalized, zoned, and industrially-constructed cities both
shocked and seduced a global audience, and while they never came to fruition as a cohesive
vision, his disciples put many of their pieces into place around the world, both during and after his
lifetime. Over fifty years after his death, Le Corbusier still manages to exercise influence and
arouse hatred for his ideas and buildings. His complex ties to politics and the sociological
dimensions of architecture - along with his voluminous records and archives - mean that he will
continue to be the subject of debates for decades to come.

Le Corbusier was and remains a highly polemical figure in the history of modern architecture.

Widely praised as a visionary whose imaginative plans for urban agglomerations and spaces

dramatically transformed our understanding of what a city should be and could look like, he is

equally reviled for the soulless monotony that his strand of modernism encouraged and the

wanton destruction of the urban fabric that he both championed and prompted among his

followers in urban planning during the latter half of the 20th century.

Le Corbusier is one of the major originators of the international style along with such

contemporaries as Ludwig miles vander rohe and Walter Gropies, with whom he once worked,

among many others. His work was featured especially prominently in the landmark exhibition in

1932 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York - and subsequent book - that gave the

movement its name.

Le Corbusier's role in the birth of modern architecture is magnified because of his ability to

elucidate and disseminate his principles succinctly and forcefully. His Five Points of a New

Architecture, which form the backbone of his architectural thought of the 1920s, constitute some

of the most direct set of ideas in architectural theory, which he successfully demonstrated in his

numerous contemporaneous villas of the interwar period.

Le Corbusier's early writings and buildings glorified modernism and modernity as the key to

bringing society out of the cataclysm of World War I at the beginning of the 1920s, a time when

many others shrank from the embrace of modern life. Indeed, his architecture and faith in

technological progress and heavy industry helped create what many architectural historians would

later call "the machine age."

The universalist problematic in Modern Movement town planning predominantly through the
Indian phase of the career of Otto Koenigsberger (1909–99). Educated in Germany during the
Weimar Republic but subjected to Nazi persecution, Koenigsberger migrated via Egypt to
Bangalore and employment by the Tata Dynasty in 1939. Upon independence, he was appointed
to Director of Housing in charge of New Town Development across India, including the
organization of the Chandigarh commission. Koenigsberger’s architecture and town planning, in
particular for Jamshedpur, mobilized current transatlantic modernist practice. It was predicated on
the potential of abstract aesthetic and functionalist form to embody radical socio‐political change
that surmounted both pre‐colonial and imperial conventions. While accommodating some
features of Indian architectural tradition, Koenigsberger espoused non‐sectarian and standard
solution, especially for housing. This thinking was most evident in his partially realized scheme for
pan‐regional prefabricated dwelling units. The failure of this enterprise and ensuing political
controversy caused him to resign and move to London.

Le Corbusier's political and ideological positions remain fraught with complexities and controversy
- at times he could be labeled a capitalist, a communist, or a Fascist - and his copious inspirations
and voluminous records and archival materials provide critics and scholars with a seemingly
endless array of possible interpretations.
Assignment -3
Delhi has a rich history because in the past it has been ruled by some of the most powerful kings.
The city’s history began with the creation of Indraprastha by the Panadavas. It has been said that
this place was nothing more than a barren land, and it was turned into an excellent city by the
Panadavas. As many other kings came into power, there was creation of some other cities like “Lal
Kot, Siri, Dinpanah, Quila Rai Pithora, Ferozabad, Jahanpanah, Tughlakabad and Shahjahanabad.
Over a period of time, these cities merged into one city, which came to be known as Delhi (Delhi
City Guide, 2005, p.10).” Back then, the city became famous for overthrowing the rulers, who ruled
it. After the Mughals rule ended, the Britishers started ruling the city. Edwin Lutyens, a famous
Britisher was responsible for creating a new majestic city in 1911, which later came to be known as
New Delhi (Singh, 2010, p. 4). Subsequently, the Britishers shifted their capital from Calcutta to
New Delhi. It was made the centre of Government of India, after India got its Independence in
1947, and till date it serves as the Centre of Government. Over a period of years, the city has seen
good economic growth. Taking advantage of this, many multinational corporations have set up
their call centres in New Delhi and its neighbouring areas. This has transformed the city into a
global city (u of t book source). Today, the “soaring skyscrapers, posh residential colonies and
bustling commercial complexes add to the city’s metropolitan characteristic (Delhi City Guide,
2005, p.10).”

The first and foremost thing that the games have done is helped New Delhi develop; improve its
sports and urban infrastructure. In preparation for the games, New Delhi had to ensure that the
facilities for the visiting athletes were state of the art. Keeping this in mind, many of the existing
sport venues were renovated and some were newly built. The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, which
hosted the opening and closing ceremonies, was completely renovated to ensure world class
facilities were there for the games. After renovation, the stadium was covered with a roof top and
its seating capacity was increased to 78000 people (DelhiCommonwealth, 2010). The Indira Gandhi
Stadium, which hosted wrestling and cycling games, was equipped with costly HD (high definition)
screens so that the people around the world can follow the action in high definition. The
Thyagaraj Sports Complex was the newly constructed stadium for the Netball games, with a
seating capacity of around 5000 people (DelhiCommonwealth, 2010). In addition to the sports
infrastructure, transportation infrastructure also improved significantly. Before the games, the
traffic jams on the roads and highways, was a common sight and a cause of worry. However, that
was solved by building 25 new flyovers, and by widening the existing roads. An underground
tunnel was also constructed so that athletes can reach the stadium easily. The tunnel connected
the “Athletes Village” (place where the athletes were staying) to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
The main roads of the city also underwent major changes. Important roads leading to the airport
such as Ring Road, Mehrauli-Mahipalpur and Mehrauli-Badarpur, were given a complete
makeover (Uppal, 2009, p. 17). The airport of Delhi, Indira Gandhi International Airport was
revamped, and one of Asia’s longest runway, was also constructed (Malhotra, 2009). Additionally,
the metro network of the city was expanded, and it was termed the Phase II construction. Under
the Phase II construction, the main areas of Delhi were linked to venues used for CWG games.
Furthermore; the historical monuments and ancient buildings of New Delhi were overhauled to
give the city an international look. India spent a large amount of money (approx. US$1.6 Billion) on
the infrastructure, making this event the most expensive in the history of Commonwealth games
(DelhiCommonwealth, 2010). The building of infrastructure for the Commonwealth games have
come at a cost of destruction of slums. As Mike Davis (2006) points out in his article Planet of
Slums, “The Indian capital offers brutal confirmation that the word ‘infrastructure’ is the new code
word for unceremonious clearance of the fragile shelters of the poor” (p. 100). The slums located
on the banks of river Yamuna such as Yamuna Pushtha were completely demolished to build the
Athletes Village. The work on clearing the slums started in 2004, and lasted until June of 2010
(Housing and land rights network, 2010).

Secondly, the games have helped New Delhi in solving unemployment problems significantly. The
plans were “formulated in such a way that more and more employment opportunities were
created for jobless people with small capital (Maurya, 1989, p.68).” Around two million jobs were
created due to the games in both private as well as public sector. The jobs ranged from “village
development staff to support staff, from security to waste management, and from catering to
accommodation. Also, the government departments of Delhi like Delhi Municipal Corporation
(DMC), Delhi Jal Board (DJB), and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (DMRC) started hiring
people in large numbers, and contributed vastly in generating employment (Hudson, 2010, p. 5).”
Even though the games benefitted most people by offering them employment, some were at the
receiving end. The people like street vendors, who worked on the streets, lost their livelihoods as
they were totally removed from the streets (Shah, 2010). This was done in order to show a clean
image of New Delhi to the world. Moreover, some of the jobs offered to the poor workers who
migrated from other states, were only temporary. As soon as the games got over, their jobs were
lost and they were left in the lurch (Jackson, 2009).

Thirdly, New Delhi was able to address some of its environmental problems by hosting the ‘green’
Commonwealth games. New Delhi which was not considered clean some time ago is now a much
clean and a green city, thanks to the government of Delhi and organizers of CWG. The organizers
worked closely with UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) and the government of
Delhi, to implement various ecological codes, which not only made the games green, but also
helped the city in becoming cleaner than before (Sriparna, 2010, p.87). The air pollution was
significantly reduced by the introduction of buses that ran on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). The
CNG being the cleanest of all fuels reduced carbon emissions as well as guaranteed sustainable
transportation (Sriparna, 2010, p. 87). The city was also able to reduce its water pollution through
the cleaning of river Yamuna. Many sewage treatments plants were built so that the water flowing
to river Yamuna could be treated and cleaned beforehand (IANS, 2009). The management of
municipal solid waste was a big environmental issue before the games (Hust & Mann, 2005, p. 41).
However, the government established number of schemes (Bhagidari being one), which helped
the city effectively, regulate the solid waste. Most importantly, India built its first environmental
friendly stadium, the Thyagaraj. During the construction of this stadium, all the environmental
considerations were kept in mind. The considerations ranged from using eco- friendly fly ash
bricks to conserving water through recycling (Sriparna, 2010, p.87). In some scenarios, the
environmental concerns were also raised. The chances of city experiencing the floods increased
dramatically because of the demolition of floodplains (piece of land controlling floods) of river
Yamuna (Sharma, 2010). In addition to this, many trees were cut down (deforestation), which also
caused irreparable damage to the environment (Singh, 2008).

Last but not the least; New Delhi’s economy received a major boost due to games as many
tourists came to the city. New Delhi received “2 million foreign tourists and 3.5 million tourists
from different parts of India (Arzoo, 2010).” The biggest beneficiary of rise in tourism was the
hospitality industry. Large numbers of hotels were built in the city to accommodate incoming
tourists, and that helped in generating significant amount of revenue, thus contributing vastly to
the city’s economy (Awasthi, 2005).

In conclusion, it can be said that the games left behind their legacy in terms of infrastructure, and
also played an important role in generating thousands of jobs. New Delhi will retain its status of
global city if it keeps on building and developing the infrastructure. The government has already
proposed some of the future projects. The city’s metro, which is now considered to be its lifeline,
is set to expand in the coming decades. The Phase III and Phase IV construction projects are
planned to be completed by 2025. After the conclusion of Commonwealth games, the tourism
industry of New Delhi is set to grow by 5-10% approximately in future. Currently, the economy of
New Delhi is booming, and it is predicted that this growth rate will continue in the next few
decades (Singh, 2010). On the other hand; the population of national capital is growing day by
day, and is expected to touch the 28.6 million mark by 2025 (WUP, 2009). In view of the increasing
population, many new vehicles will be introduced. New Delhi is already one of the most polluted
cities of India, and with its current patterns of urbanization, the pollution problem will only get
worse in future. New Delhi will also see high levels of inflation in future, because with rapid
increase in population, the resources will deplete and it will be hard to meet the increasing
demands of people.
Assignment – 4

Charles Correa started the article by explaining the title of the article which is

‘Blessing of the sky’. He compares the built form in a warmer weather and a

built form in the colder weather. Mr. Sherban Cantacusino suggests him to

keep the title as Place in the shade keeping in mind the climatic conditions in

the warmer places but Correa has a reason behind keeping the title as a place

in the sun which he explains in the article.

Climate makes a difference to our perception & need of a built form. According

to Correa in northern regions cold is severe and thus the design is insulated

and in hot climate the built form is divided into various zones such as an open

verandah or a courtyard then a a closed space and then a terrace.

Few of Correa’s buildings in India are Sabarmati ashram in Ahmedabad , Crafts

museum in Delhi and Portuguese Church in Mumbai. The three places have

different climatic conditions even though they are situated in the same

country. Sabarmati Ashram has small built forms which have courtyards

provided. So Correa’s style of architecture is clearly evident in Sabarmati

Ashram. Crafts museum in Delhi has numerous built forms & have courtyard

and verandas as the spatial features. Portuguese church Mumbai is a typical

church form with 1 staircase on either side of the building. There is no

courtyard, courtyard or terrace. So the architectural style of Correa isn’t clearly

depicted in the church.

There is spatial division is of prime importance and there are 3 issues faced
they are:-

a) Relationship with built form

b) Energy-passive architecture

c) Housing the urban poor

Correa through these points talks about how the climate of a place affecting

the built form of the place and what could be the possible materials could

be used in the building and how the migration has led to increase in

demand of the built form.

So I believe that the weather plays a very important role in the built form

and Correa has designed his buildings according to the weather. He has also

taken care of the different weather conditions in the different regions as we

can see the different buildings having different features even though the

spatial division is almost similar.

Assignment – 5

“Take a U-turn from ahead as the roundabout is currently not in use” although

our google maps say something else, how many times we have to face things

like this when we travel by two wheelers or four wheelers in Gurgaon, that’s the

trade mark that says welcome to Gurgaon. It’s very amazing to see traffic every

time we travel in a such a big city, as if the place cannot survive without it.

Having such big buildings and such well maintained roads is a boon, but till

some point.

Most of the roundabouts are temporarily closed during the office hours due to

traffic and I thought roundabouts are made to overcome the problem of traffic,

but at this place anything can happen. Walk into Cyber City, we have such big

and maintained roads but then why do we face traffic there moreover there is no

way to even change the side, like if you want to go in the exact opposite

direction then you have to travel at least four to five kilometres and then reach

to a stage that makes you realise that what’s the point of going back now.

People who travel on a daily basis must be really annoyed to make traffic their

travel partner that too on a daily basis. As we move from cyber city towards

Golf Course Extension Road, we travel through three underpasses, that are
really a boon and people drive so fast in there because they know that traffic is

waiting for them ahead so let’s get ahead of as many cars as possible. When you

don’t have to use those underpasses then you definitely have to face traffic due

to the gradual decrease in width of roads at some points, for example below the

Sikanderpur Metro Station, AIT Chowk (roundabout). There is another reason

of traffic on those roads is the inadequate number of U-Turns with insufficient

space for cars to move in smoothly. First of all, we have less U-Turns then there

is less space where the U-Turns are, this city wants people to suffer from traffic.

This leads to very difficult situation most of times as we have to travel a lot just

to reach to a U-Turn where we can take it easily.

We all know about the traffic jams that thousands of people face everyday on

the Delhi-Jaipur Highway, though at some point the road is 16 lanes at one side,

but the reason is same, gradual decrease of the road width, first the roads want

people to enjoy and then bring them back a city suffering from traffic like in the

case of underpasses. Talking about the Gurgaon that is on the other side of the

Delhi-Jaipur Highway, that place should be considered as a different city, to be

very honest one can reach Manesar earlier than that part of Gurgaon. Lack of U-

Turn, Entries and Exists. The U-Turns provided there are in itself around 1

kilometre long but my question is why?

Traffic has become a very big issue in such a big city of Gurgaon. Someone

once said “there is no traffic on the extra mile”, but who is going to take the

extra mile these days and there is traffic on the extra mile also in here. There is

no way to keep yourself away from the problem. Let’s just wait for the time

when there is no traffic in Gurgaon after 1730 hours and till then have fun in

your cars with some music because there is nothing you can do.
Assignment -6
Bringing dreams into reality

Thought was Architecture all about

Before entering the college,

And now not just building structures and buildings

But homes and living spaces for people,

Soon it changed from just being someone’s dream

To the art and ideas of an architect

His technicality for fantasy

His passion for creativity

Eventually leading to someone’s and his own reality

Their requirements put forth,

Sleepless nights of an architect

For understanding their needs

Making it all worth

Eventually turns into an artist

Visually conceiving it all

All that he can possibly see

Working on it from functionality

Leading it to an emotional and visual treat

For whoever’s dream it was one day

To the day it becomes their reality

His vision of an empty barren surrounding

To it’s existence into a comfortable ambience

Drafting a design again

Plotting for the never-ending end

Reworking redesigning

Months days weeks years

Time passed ideas changed

Crits received

Shaped and reshaped the structures

Keeping up with the clients’ demands

Putting the structure on the site and the sand

Catering to the land, to the man and his own vision of act,

Is finally an architect…

A chapter that brings happiness in someone’s life

A smile on someone’s face

Self-satisfaction to someone’s heart

And a good night’s sleep…

Assignment – 7
Assignment – 8
Louis Kahn was one of the leading American architects who gave shape to the modern

architecture. ‘My architect’ is a film on Louis Kahn. The film highlights his son’s perspective

who did not know much about his father Louis Kahn because the family was separated. In

order to know his father, Louis Kahn’s son chose to visit and study his buildings as his father

was the one of the architects to shape the modern architecture.

The film starts by describing the death and family of Louis Kahn and his death is a mystery to

his son. In order to know Louis Kahn, his son found a method to know him that was a tour of

the buildings. The buildings changed the course of architecture and were also classified as

modern architecture. Louis Kahn’s son visited a lot of his father’s colleagues in order to have

a better understanding of the buildings. In the beginning, one of the architects Louis Kahn’s

son met. He mentioned how Kahn’s approach towards architecture was different from him.

Kahn worked like an artist whereas Johnson worked for the public fame. Kahn’s approach

was also free. His colleague also stated the fact that Kahn attempted to make everything

perfect. Different buildings that Kahn designed were Yale Art Gallery, British Art Centre,

Kimbell art museum, Salk institute in California. All these buildings were visited by his son

and there was a common feature in the buildings that there was a geometric clarity and colour

combination was also there.

Kahn’s colleagues made a conception about Louis Kahn that he was impractical and

irresponsible for the kind of approach he had for his buildings. His son also read books about

him to know more about his style of architecture.

The film ends in Ahmedabad where his son travels and experiences the excitement his father

has when he visited Ahmedabad. Kahn was invited to Ahmedabad by B.V.Doshi. Doshi and

Kahn designed the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and also his son visits the

building in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The film ends in way which summarizes the architectural

style of IIM Ahmedabad and the building in Dhaka.