5/19/2021 High-rise buildings, metro not a panacea for Kochi: Corrrea - The Hindu

KOCHI

High-rise buildings, metro not a panacea for Kochi:

Corrrea
S. Anandan
KOCH I:, FEBRU ARY 15, 20 12 12:45 IST
U PDATED: FEBRU ARY 16, 20 12 11:44 IST

Eminent architect calls for buses and pedestrian-only streets

Eminent architect and urban designer Charles Correa takes exception to the line of thinking
that advocates high-rise structures and metro rail as the panacea for a third world city that is
bursting at its seams.
An admirer of Kerala and its traditional architecture, Mr. Correa says the State and Kochi city
would do well to reclaim low rise high density housing, water transport along the State's
verdant waterways and create walkers' streets and bus rapid transit systems. “Those are the
images of modernity. In olden times, our cities were pedestrian-friendly,” the master architect
told The Hindu in an exclusive interview at Fort Kochi on Sunday.
Bus rapid transit
Quoting Jaime Lerner, the architect-turned-Mayor and Governor of Brazil's iconic Curitiba
city, Mr. Correa says the cities of the third world are at a crunch today, but unfortunately there
are people going around selling two kinds of images and technology to them: high-rise
buildings and metro rail. “Both are unaffordable but irresistible because the Mayor is a kind
of person who thinks, ‘I need it to show that I'm modern'. Ideally, bus-only roads and
pedestrian streets should be the images of modernity,” he says. Jaime's three-wagon trailer
buses capable of shipping 240 passengers and their ramp-like station platforms have been an
eye-opener to many cities, Mr. Correa says. All South American cities are on a grid, as they
were designed by the Spanish.

“They had something called the law of the indies. The main square was to be empty and
around it were the most important and sacred buildings. It was like a mandala,” Mr. Correa
connects it to the Indian context to demonstrate the significance of open public spaces in
urban design.

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5/19/2021 High-rise buildings, metro not a panacea for Kochi: Corrrea - The Hindu

No to Metro
While underground metro costs ten times that of the bus system, an overhead metro would
be plain ugly like a ‘big concrete skull'. Commuting by buses costs only one-sixtieth the cost
of metro per passenger per mile, as demonstrated by Jaime Lerner and the model is now
being replicated in many cities the world over.

Besides laying dedicated bus roads, Kochi should also ‘pedestrianise' its principal streets, a la
London's Oxford Street, letting only public transport and taxies ply along those routes, with
private-vehicle parking allowed on the cross-streets. “This will decongest the city,” he says.
Skycity
Asked about the proposed skycity project to have a flyover along the Chilavannur backwaters,
Mr. Correa laughs off the idea as ‘foolish' as ‘it is not going to solve the city's traffic problem'.
Revive water transport, he suggests instead, saying it would be cool and romantic to have it.

When you add people in a crowded area, you are not counting the number of schools,
hospitals and open spaces that those people will need, he says. The per capita open space
shrinks drastically as the height of an apartment complex grows, terribly skewing the balance
as it ‘aggressively' goes beyond five or six storeys.

If you cannot even provide at least a five-metre open space per person, you are condemning
people to an underprivileged life, however rich or poor they are, he says.

Further, those who occupy the top storeys of skyscrapers feel a disconnect with the ground
below. Citing Jane Jacobs, author of ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities', Mr. Correa
says such feeling of deprivation triggers an escalation in hostility and crimes.
Save the cities
The British had realised long ago that open space was the real luxury to have.

“Our villages are full of iniquities and the only thing we have is our cities. And if they fail us,
we are through,” he cautions.

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5/19/2021 High-rise buildings, metro not a panacea for Kochi: Corrrea - The Hindu

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