DIRTY DESIGNS ON DELHI
“With its design facing criticism, the 47-metre Police Memorial at the Shantipath-Panchsheel Marg junction could well be demolished. Who then approves the design of public strcutures? Why isn’t Delhi an aesthetically-designed city? What can be done to ensure that eyesores have no place in this metro? Delhi times brings you the lowdown on the who and howdunnit of the Capital’s architecture.
If you pass by it, you must have turned up your nose at it — the huge steel girders coming up with no sense of design and aesthetics are ostensibly the Police Memorial. But Delhi’s aesthetes are already crying foul over its inappropriate structure and it might soon be pulled down.
OP Jain of INTACH “plans to move court against the Police Memorial.” Earlier, the design of the structure came for approval to the Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC), whose three-member advisory panel comprises architects Sumit Ghosh, AG Krishna Menon and SK Das. According to Ghosh, all three “discussed and rejected” the design in writing. “But the DUAC gave in to political pressure and the structure was built. Now, with the change of government, we have forwarded a proposal to dismantle the Police Memorial.”
OBJECTIONS TO THE DESIGN
According to Jain, the following incongruencies make the Police Memorial an eyesore:
(a) It is constructed at the Shantipath-Panchsheel Marg intersection, which is symbolic of peace.
(b) The concept of this Lutyen’s heritage area is that buildings shouldn’t be higher than trees.
(c) It is out of proportion, out of context, and out of scale with its surroundings.
(d) It has an awkward axial relation to Shantipath, which offers a view of Rashtrapati Bhawan.
What’s wrong with Delhi’s design?
• OFFICIAL APATHY: “Designs fail to live up to their utility because of lack of civic sense. District centres/commercial complexes built by the DDA lack maintenance,” says architect Suchitra Ghosh.
• LACK OF LANDSCAPING : “Public spaces aren’t seen as design sites. We need landscaping,” says KT Ravindran, head, urban design, SPA.
• NO ROAD-NETWORKING: “Road-networking is important to conveyance. Residential gates have become a nuisance as colonies close them in the name of security,” says Suchitra Ghosh.
•TOO MANY ENCROACHMENTS : “Shopping centres, hospitals etc. aren’t developed simultaneously with residential colonies,” says SPA dean Subir Saha, “The vague areas left for such structures are taken over by encroachers.”
• NO UNFORMITY IN DESIGN ELEMENTS: Says architect Vishakha Saxena, “See individual facades. Somewhere, it’s Corinthian columns, at other places it’s Roman pediments or Greek facades.”
Who Designs Delhi?
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A PUBLIC UTILITY STRUCTURE HAS TO BE CONSTRUCTED?
According to BK Jain, director of planning, DDA: “The starting point for such structures is the DDA, whose plans are drafted by a technical committee with a member-mix decided by the body’s constitution. While plans are made by this in-house panel, the committee can ask for the help of architects and designers outside its authority. Plans are then sent for sanction to the DDA chairman. Once a master plan is passed, it is sent to the Union ministry for Urban Development for its okay. Finally public buildings are constructed by the CPWD in areas under the MCD or NDMC as the case may be.
WHO ADVISES THE DDA, CIVIC AGENCIES?
The DUAC is the advisory body for the DDA, NDMC and MCD. “We tell them the pros and cons of a certain design or construction. We have a penal of over 100 independent architects, landscape designers, town planners and artists. They pass or reject designs,” says DUAC secretary Dinanath.
WHAT AILS THE DUAC ?
According to a senior member, “The DUAC is headless; it has had no chairman for some time now. The last government used political pressure to get certain plans passed.” Says Ghosh, “Theoretically, all designs have to be approved by the DUAC. But practically, it is difficult to do justice to all projects.”
What’s the way out ?
Is there a solution to this bureaucratic tangle? “The DUAC has been relegated to only passing ideas. It needs to play a more proactive role and set guidelines for architects/planners. In Singapore, if someone puts up an obnoxious hoarding, one can approach the town council,” says Subir Saha.
Suggests Ghosh, “Elsewhere in the world, design approval panels comprise senior members of residential areas who can decide for themselves if a certain design is compatible with their neighbourhood or not.” Santosh Kumar Sharma, senior advisor, Development Alternatives, says the hierarchy must be broken to penetrate micro-levels. “For this, every public body – from the municipality to the panchayat – needs to be empowered to take action.”
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