‘Modern buildings cannot breathe’
Kolkata-based architect Laurent Fournier tells how ceilings can float and why bamboo-reed-mud make more sense than brick-concrete-steel
An urban puzzle
India’s population and cities are set to double by 2030. Can it cope with the pressures?
A social force called water
The state is struggling to meet the rising water demand. It is time to learn from the days when people arranged their own water. In cities and in …
‘My mentor Laurie Baker’
BENNY KURIAKOSE began his architecture career in 1984. He was one of the privileged few who worked under the tutelage of Laurie Baker which …
Greenest of all
Model building design that helps save energy and money by exploiting the sun’s movement
The great wetland grab
Guwahati allows construction on wetlands, but will not spare poor settlers on hills. A photo narrative by Sayantan Bera
Built to last
A Rajasthan village has cylindrical houses that help people cope with extreme weather events
Fixing old houses on Himalaya
German architect Andre Alexander has been restoring old buildings in the Tibetan capital Lhasa for 15 years now. Over the past few years he has …
Why the cheetah may never come back to India?
The year India became independent it also lost all its cheetahs. In 1947, India's last two Asiatic Cheetahs were shot dead in erstwhile princely …
Meet the Baigas
Baigas are a central Indian tribe who recently received habitat rights under the Forest Rights Act
Islands in the river
The insular but self-sufficient existence of the marine nomads inhabiting the islands that pepper the Brahmaputra river as it winds across …
Project brings cheap cement to the village
Narasimharaju's dream of providing inexpensive cement for rural use will come true when his plant starts production later this year.
The unsustainable city
The debates, diatribes and rhetoric over the concept of sustainable cities have all been met with the resounding illogic of warped priorities: …
City scan
Will the future city, marked by responsible governance and a concerned citizenry, be able to address the problems dogging the world's urban centres?
Land over nature
Cities are expanding indiscriminately across the globe, at the cost of rich biodiversity
Public spaces make cities
Street activities work as ‘eyes on the street’, that keeps cities safe, and Jane Jacobs said create neighbourly environment. Public …
Who messed it up?
Guwahati indicts poor settlers for flash floods, ignores damage on wetlands by construction work
One of the biggest threats to the environment - desertification, explained
At an ongoing global workshop on desertification, the Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said desertification threatens 30% of India’s …
Grow your own herbs: Edible Routes
Edible Routes organised a workshop in New Delhi, where they explained and taught participants how to grow herbs and have your own kitchen garden. …
Official doublespeak stumps Udaipur villagers
An Udaipur NGO has been summoned to court because a community hall it helped the residents of Vasu village set up allegedly encroaches on …
Only males need apply
With an increasing number of joint forest management projects being implemented, it is vital that forest departments become more gender sensitive.…
Who will help her learn?
Merely providing schools is not enough to educate the more than 197.34 million illiterate women in India. Far too often, girls have to drop out …
City blues
THE DYNAMICS OF METROPOLITAN MANAGEMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA·Edited by Jurgen Ruland·Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
Silk route to success
With the launch of a sericulture project in Vidisha, a district in Madhya Pradesh, the lifestyle of the rural women undergoes a metamorphosis
Signal, interrupted
By allowing high-rises around an advanced weather radar in Mumbai, IMD sets a bad example for the rest of the country