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AN EXOTIC NEW CONCEPT OF                       CITY PLANNING & ARCHITECTURE

ART & ARCHITECTURE OF SPACES

A solution of Man’s all habitation woes

Cities -Symbols of Civilization

With first showers of rain, thousand and thousands of big and small creatures, go scurrying for shelters and abandon their summer time habitats. Human need is similar. He needs shelter to protect him not only from rain, sun and cold but also to continue his activities for livelihood. Thus shelter is one of the primary needs of human beings. But, alas, despite all modern technological and scientific advancements more than half of the human race remains without proper shelter. Many still live in caves or primitive type of huts. They can not dream of a house. They are condemned to live in make-shift shelter and among unhealthy settlements. Through the centuries various types of shelters- from huts to mud houses to houses of baked brick, wood, stone and modern sky scrapers from cement mortar and steel have been constructed. All great civilizations in the past have seen development of big cities, where the administrators and big merchant classes resided and carried on their daily business in relative security from wild creatures and from aggression. They lived in big comfortable and generally wooden or clay houses.

City architecture, as we witness from ancient to modern times, has seen many phases of development. Story of development of cities has been the story of civilizations. The city represented to the masses an ideal and comfortable living culture, business and employment and an upward social movement. The trend continues to this day with greater speed as the masses are gravitating towards the cities for higher education, gainful employment and to enjoy latest trends of entertainment. They congregate towards the cities for imbibing or propagating the latest political, religious or secular ideas, for the people in the cities are more tolerant towards new ideas and are liberal in ways of living and thinking. This all is leading towards more and more urbanization. POPULATION DELUGE  IN CITIES

For the aforementioned reasons the cities are witnessing a population deluge. Even in the comparatively less populous countries, cities are bursting at their seams. The problems of populating greater numbers, parking and traffic are major headaches of the city planners and administrators. Bigger unplanned settlements and slums have become dens of drugs and crime. It is all due to lack of available space in the cities for proper housing. Competing claims of housing and green areas are putting pressure on agricultural lands and availability of land is shrinking even for industry.The situation particularly in the cities in developing countries is of total chaos due to the population deluge.

As per a recent UN report, “state of world population 2007”, by the next year more than half the population of the world will be living in the cities. The report also states that in the next 13 years, Bombay will be the second largest populated city in the world. The figures published on World Population Day Suggest that by 2050, the world will need 825 million new but where will be the land to build so many houses and where shall we construct so many roads for estimated 1.17 million vehicles that will be needed at that time. Add to this the problem of parking of vehicles which has already assumes serious proportions.From the above facts, we can easily imagine that the situation which is already acute in big cities, how many times it will become critical in the days to come.Cities, nowadays are reeling under the triple woes of population, parking and traffic jams.

SOLUTIONS SUGGESTED  AND  TRIED

There is a world wide search for possible solutions to the above mentioned problems of future human settlements and in particular, to find a way out of the woes of city life as experienced in overcrowding, frequent and annoying traffic hazards and parking woes. There is a search for space not only for population, but also for finding alternate modes for the commuting. Easy transportation from one place to another is the life-line of the modern civilization. Alternate spaces for providing transportation are being searched. One solution was digging the earth for underground transport system like metro underground trains. Earth is also being dug for basements. Such underground spaces provide limited solutions.

SKY SCRAPERS

Another solution being adopted in large measures is building towards the sky. Multi-storey buildings, sky scrapers and high rising towers have already changed the skyline of big cities of the world. These sky scrapers are considered a signature of wealth, riches and the importance of the city concerned. The glittering towers are an invitation for people to come and enjoy this glamorous world. But ultimately they only add to the problems of cities. They create the illusion of solving the problem of space. But in fact this movement towards the sky is half baked since all the population settled in multi storey buildings ultimately pour on the roads and existing infrastructure on the ground. This has led to frequent and annoying traffic jams and parking woes.

EXOTIC NEW SOLUTIONS

The scientists are dreaming of colonizing the moon and the stars for finding space for burgeoning population and to end other woes. Another suggested solution is to build cities on the seas. These solutions may be theoretically possible. But they are still in the realm of speculation, much inspired by scientific fiction. Human settlements on planets are not practicable or feasible in the foreseeable future. There are obvious hurdles as there is no gravitational force, air or water on the planets, having been discovered so far in the neighborhood of earth. Great problems of adjustment of human behavior providing food, shelter, water and travelling, will have to be solved and these factors do not make the dream feasible for large scale settlement of populations. So far as populating the seas are concerned which cover about two-third of the earth, there are obvious problems not only of very large investment but also the conditions of frequent typhoons, hurricanes and high waves in the seas will have to be constantly faced.

THE CONCEPT –ART & ARCHITECTURE OF SPACES -MAIN CONCERNS- . Finding Space for Human Habitation . Saving Land from Expanding Human Settlements . Meeting the Challenges of Infrastructural Chaos like Traffic Jams and Parking etc. etc. LAND, POPULATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE WOES.

THE EXOTIC NEW CONCEPT IS WAITING TO BE GRABBED! viren_56002@yahoo.com