Urban Infrastructure in India: Its challenges, impact and solutions with Sonali Rastogi and Goonmeet Singh Chauhan

India is at the cusp of rapid urbanisation. According to studies, by 2030, India’s urban population will reach 600 million people. The growth trajectory has been unprecedented and often chaotic, and the relentless pace comes with a myriad challenges—environmental degradation, housing shortages in response to waves of distress migration, and a highly incoherent built environment. The role of an architect or an urban planner becomes even more pertinent in this scenario. Architecture, as a critical component of urban development, plays a pivotal role in addressing these challenges, offering innovative solutions that can lead to more sustainable, equitable, and liveable urban environments. In that sense, Architecture as a discipline, has the responsibility of building cities that can mitigate the challenges they’re facing now, and anticipate the challenges they may encounter in future. Architecture is the only profession that can actually make a physical, tangible difference or alleviate the current situation. From environmental sustainability, critical challenges posed by urbanisation to the social dimensions of urbanisation, architects can make a considerable impact.

In this segment of Design Dialogues, we bring together two visionaries from the realm of architecture to discuss and propose a blueprint for the future. Architect and Urban Planner Sonali Rastogi, Founding Partner, Morphogenesis and Architect and Futurist Goonmeet Singh Chauhan, Founding Partner, Design Forum International come together to create a roadmap for the future of urban design in India. Read on, as they discuss the imminent roadblocks on the path to urbanisation and deliberate on the solutions.

Urban Infrastructure in India: The Current Scenario
Goonmeet Singh Chauhan (GC): India is on this path to rapid urbanisation; we see new airports, commercial establishments, condominium projects and all the different facets of urban development across India. But there is a great challenge embedded within this imminent growth, and the role that architects play is extremely vital. As people who are pretty much the vanguards of the habitats, we need to build to fulfill the aspirations of urbanisation, while balancing what we build in a manner that is climate change resilient and minimizes the damage to the environment, and if possible, create a paradigm where we don’t damage at all. I think as architects, we are the ones who need to educate our clients, inform the policy makers, and let our work be informed by the best knowledge available, so there is sustainable urban growth that leaves a positive mark when judged by history.

Sonali Rastogi (SR): I’ve been reading a lot of figures about India’s growth and urbanisation. I believe about 18% of our entire rural population is going to become urban by the end of this decade. What concerns me is that when we were in college and we started to study the process of design, the first thing we were told was to go stay within a community to understand the needs of that community and then design. However, today we are designing for entirely displaced individuals quite often—not families, not communities, and that for me is a big source of concern because like many architects I too am building more condominiums, more retail experiences, hopefully some more cultural experiences, and aviation transport facilities. But in all of this, I’m seeing the fragmentation of the Indian family structure. I am concerned that in this rapid urbanization of India, there is going to be a very imminent loss of Indianness, because Indianness is rooted in family structures and communities.

GC: It’s interesting that you speak of how the family structure is getting disrupted by migration to the city. I think one needs to dissect this issue: Why are people coming to the city? There are essentially two reasons; one is pure economic reason as it is assumed that cities can be the only engines of growth. I think one solution would lie in changing that truth as it were, if we can make the rural setting also an engine of economic growth. Then this mindless migration to the cities may not happen or even if it does, it will be at a more sustainable pace.
The second aspect is the absence of social infrastructure. It is assumed that in the city, you’ll have better infrastructure, better access to health care and even better recreation. If you look at social infrastructure, there is education, health, sports, recreation and then eventually religious infrastructure, which the village offers on an equal measure or possibly more. I think as a nation and as architects we need to see how better social infrastructure can be made available, so that even if the earning members migrate to the city, the family at least gets good education, access to healthcare etc.

And there are some beacons of hope there. As a group of architects and philanthropists, we started a school in a rural setting that is providing education to migrant workers’ children and skill empowerment to the wives. Secondly, for governance infrastructure, I’ve tried to pursue projects that are fairly transformative in Delhi. I found that the governance infrastructure in the city is so fragmented—the urban local bodies and the state government all have different setups. In Delhi, the central government has yet another setup, and then there are many regulatory bodies that are neither centre nor state. So, any positive initiative takes between 2-5 years to come to fruition, by which time the scale of the problem rises. So, I think we need to really dissect this issue of urban infrastructure.

It’s not just roads. It’s social infrastructure, mobility infrastructure, governance infrastructure, IT infrastructure, as well as green infrastructure in the city where they’ve become residual spaces. One of the things we can do is come up with a conscious policy for green infrastructure—how we can have contiguous green spaces in the city and have a correlation between tree count and people. Eventually all cities in India are suffering on AQI, and we can blame the vehicles or forest fires or farm fires, but the real truth is that we have been cutting trees and not planting enough. We’ve to recognise the green spaces and as the size of our population increases, we need to increase the size of the land available to plant trees.

Social Sustainability: Creating Resilient Societies
SR: You’ve touched upon many topics, but I would want to continue thinking a little bit more about this perception of migrants that when they move to the city, there will be better opportunities, better jobs, or better social infrastructure. However, the world’s largest reverse migration during the pandemic showed us otherwise. In fact, it demonstrated the absolute opposite of this and that is where I got thinking as an architect. I’ve been thinking about sustainability so far in terms of energy and environment, but social sustainability has to go hand in hand because if that doesn’t exist, there is no scope to think about any other form of sustainability.

Clearly, it’s a false notion that migrants will find better infrastructure of varying kinds in cities. I would like to propose a new map, besides the state map of India—one that matches the density of usable resources without environmental degradation, overlaid with the density of human population. We need to create a new road map of development, which has many points across the country and allows one to identify the employment centres maybe a couple of hours away. This will require a socialist approach. It requires someone with a vision to create these little seed cities, and we as a country will have to invest in this. Yes, urbanisation is exciting. But this excitement comes with a lot of trepidation for me.

GC: It’s interesting that you speak about social sustainability. The last decade was spent just talking about environmental sustainability and this dimension really is so powerful and relevant. As a collateral damage, it is the children who get left behind without any idea of what the future holds for them. I think the last seven decades of India have completely missed rural development in terms of the built environment in the village. Yes, a lot has happened under Swachh Bharat, but is there a single master planned village or a block and is there an effort to ensure that good quality education is available to them?

The solution may actually lie in fixing the villages and whether we can make good education accessible for them. Not all of them are going to become engineers and doctors, but we can surely make them more future-ready. I think the whole median of skill sets of the society is going to rise if we can actually have a great impetus towards rural infrastructure. That might just be one of the key elements of the vision of the future.

SR: True. For instance, the Forest Essentials building holds a pivotal role in supporting the livelihood of the entire Lodsi hill community. It stands as an off grid building that autonomously manages its energy, does water conservation and waste recycling. This project serves as a testament to the potential of decentralized industrialization, driven by local participation. When we shift our focus to the Surat Diamond Bourse, which operates at a scale several hundred times larger, we again witness a remarkable community-driven effort. In the throes of the pandemic, with disrupted supply chains and transportation systems, the local community banded together and swiftly established one of the largest townships overnight. They channeled this collective energy into constructing the colossal bourse.

In both instances, the choice of locally sourced materials, with a minimal waste-to-landfill approach, was pivotal. The Lakha red granite and Gwalior white sandstone were procured from within a 300 km radius, and the stone-working communities from the Deccan Plateau played a crucial role at every stage of the process, from quarrying to finishing and installation. One of the largest façade manufacturing plants was set up at the site! This approach reflects the concept of decentralized development, symbolizing Surat’s progress, and rapid economic growth. Beyond the bourse’s construction, it generated employment opportunities in the area, with the establishment of local manufacturing units, further contributing to the region’s growth. In case of the Lodsi project, the design didn’t change but the construction methodology did. The materiality changed because nothing was coming across the state border and we created not net zero but energy surplus building, which in the evening is utilised as a tuition centre for children.

GC: That’s interesting. The project led to growth in the local geography, you used local materials, people were upscaled. That’s the vision we need to power India. Because that also keeps unnecessary migration in check.

SR: I agree with you. At this point, what we lack or rather need is a consolidated national growth plan.

The Road Map for the Future: The Growth of Satellite Cities
GC: Talking about growth plans, in Delhi there is a regional master plan that envisions the city expanding to satellite regions like Alwar, Meerut, Sonepat and Panipat, and the implementation of a metro connecting Delhi to Meerut. I think, this development by NCRTC (National Capital Region Transport Corporation) will be pathbreaking because it will allow people living in Meerut and all along the axis to partake of all the opportunities that the entire axis has to offer, and similarly from Delhi to Alwar or Panipat.

To begin with, if we have a mobility master plan that will allow for parallel growth centres to emerge along the axis, there is hope. And if this linear mobility infrastructure is dovetailed with a vision for sustainability, I think that’s what we need to aim for. I remember, in 2005 there was this vision to put a kilometre thick green belt around Delhi, the east west corridor and the north south expressway. For some reason this was not implemented. Imagine if that kind of greening is done along the highways, it would be possible to fulfil the social aspects so people will be able to live in the villages or the suburban areas along this axis. And in the process also create lakes and forests because that is the only way we counter all the damage caused due to urbanisation.

SR: Unfortunately, that’s not what happens. On the last count, I know that 198 lakes have disappeared from the city. So my concern is that in the notion of development and mobility connection, and the fact that we don’t have an overall master plan, this is inevitable. We talk about corridors where growth will happen, but will the green belt be implemented? Unfortunately, no! With development in infrastructure, especially roads and metros, comes retail development. Where are the trees?

GC: I agree. We need a lot of clarity in government policies. There should be a legislation where a certain percentage has to be set aside for green forests. I’m writing a book called “The Future of Cities” where I recommend and advocate 20% green space. The book also talks about a legislation called restoration of urban lands to forests instead of land acquisition to build an industry. We need a hydrological master plan at a regional level; we need a tree infrastructure master plan at a regional level, and we needa legislation saying that for every million people you need
100,000 trees of a certain biomass.

We recently did a project in Chanakyapuri, Delhi where on an acre of land we had five bhargat trees and the option was to get permission to cut them and plant 50 or to give up some buildable space or to build above the trees. So, we built above the five trees. And when you stand in that space under the building, the microclimate created by the canopy of the trees is astonishingly different. I feel we need a legislation that can actually compute how much carbon a tree is sequestering and how many people it can support. And if that number is enshrined somewhere then you are automatically forced to put trees. That is the kind of urban infrastructure story that can actually save the city in 2050.

Chasing the Net Zero Dream: Is Decentralisation the Answer?
SR: Absolutely! As India aims to achieve net zero by 2070, we must reconsider how construction takes place in the country and how it affects our environment. As stakeholders of the built environment, architects and designers must explore the possibilities of a closed-loop typology of architecture that positively contributes to the environment at all stages, from the design process to construction and demolition. I believe that a combination of passive and active design strategies, along with the use of renewable energy sources, is crucial to be employed to achieve this.
But the current scenario is different. We are building more, and not all buildings are net zero. I don’t understand the mathematics though! If we continue to build the way we are building, we will have to first find ways to get surplus energy and then become a net zero. So, how exactly do we become net zero in 2070?

GC: We are nowhere close, unless we decentralise growth and move from being a consumerist society to actually building the very basic minimum that we need. As a society, we have lost the sense of calibration. We consume everything to the point of debauchery. I think it is an ontological question: are we net zero as human beings? Unless we cause a shift there, it’s impossible.

SR: There should be a two-pronged approach—an overall vision of where we need to get, and then there’s the architectural vision. I feel that is missing. Post-Independence, when we embarked on nation building, many cities followed an architectural vision, for instance Chandigarh and Vishakapatnam. Today, that inspiration or vision is lacking. We both agree on the absence of a consolidated decentralised master plan, but I also feel the need for an architectural inspiration for growth.

The Need for an Architectural Vision
GC: I do agree with that. Architects are uniquely blessed to be able to synthesize into physical form the real solution to a problem, and that if some bright architect or team of bright architects were to create a vision in terms of guidelines as well as the physical shapes of it, then it can be used as a guiding light whenever a new city is planned, for instance Raipur has been planned in the last few years and many other cities are bound to come up. I think we need to fundamentally build less and create multi-use, versatile spaces. Just like the project you spoke about which transforms into a centre of education in the evening. I think as society is becoming more and more individualistic, we are building more and more walls. The village model was always based on sharing. I think the future therefore would require us to build a lot more sensibly and that’s the only way we can achieve net zero ambition.

We recently designed a district court and we initially decided against air-conditioning the entire space. The idea instead was to plant trees all around so that the natural microclimate is pleasant, and to design the space in a way that it maximises cross ventilation, and insulate the building through building techniques. But the much-spoken about green building movement does not do that. Instead, it will tell you to air condition the space, and then use technology to reduce energy consumption. Essentially, create a problem, and then solve it. This whole methodology needs to be replaced with a more conscientious model.

GC: Ours is a profession where whatever you create is going to be physically manifested. It is like you have this indelible ink that is a physical reality, which is going to exist for the next 50 or more years. It has a big impact on its occupants, on people who even may not occupy it but see it. The environmental impact, the social impact, the economic impact of your work is far beyond your current imagination. So what do you need to do since you are the custodian of all the impact that you are going to make on the built environment is what you must learn. And then use that to inform your work equally. You also need to learn about contextuality, so that through your work you can actually empower the people who may be engaged in that construction process. Many skills are dying out and as architects, you’re also a patron to those vernacular construction styles and how you may make an impact in that domain.

Since the field is so diverse, you’ll discover your own calling during the first decade of practice, and whether you lean more towards sustainability or just creating chic interiors. I think the opportunity that our country offers and is going to offer in the next few decades is huge. You must seize the moment, and perhaps from your generation we may see a new paradigm for Indian architecture, which is rooted in Indianness and yet truly international. So, along with that advice, I’m also putting a lot of responsibility on the future generation of architects.