“Form follows function” the mantra coined by Louis Sullivan has articulated much of the modern and contemporary architecture and built environment. Today at the wake of the Covid- 19 pandemic what is the ‘function’ and ‘form’ our built creations have taken?
A new attribute to function and the forms of human creation has responded, once sky soaring office tower with air conditioned comfortable places to work has gone void, deserted roads, while the people have caved into their homes for longer hours. In social media it is prevalent to find comments like “skies have turned blue again”, “less pollution” and “more time with family”, aren’t these supposed to be ecstatic. In other words, with fierce development and steady urban or rather regional growth, over the century, there have been some deep fundamental emergent problems, often overlooked. Some of these relate to ecological degradation because of pollution while others socially relevant.
Added to these, another aspect which has surfaced again and again, is the safety and security of citizens, be it terrorist attack, violence, disaster or be it spread of pandemic, and the slow killers like SPM, pollution, radiations etc. Along with envisioning cities as consumerist opportunities, global melting pots, fast and busy life prompted with sense of competition and materialistic growth, aided with ‘smart’ features which are certainly energy intensive, it is time to ponder over ‘Healthy, Safe and Happy’ (HSH) places and cities and actually create them. It may sound simple and obvious but certainly the most challenging task for not only the governments, authorities but also for each one of us. How healthy are we and our livings are, do we practice being healthy consciously. Washing hands with soap should certainly not be an agenda for celebrities, but it is today, just to remind us of the fact that we are far from living in HSH places. And it all starts with an individual and his/her house. “Is the place where I live or work, good for my health and wellbeing, is it safe from that aspects which I am bothered about and am I happy, stress free living or working there?” we ourselves need to be concerned and start shaping our places, redefine “function” of places.
It is suspected that following the pandemic there might occur an economic crisis or slow down; the cycle keeps going on almost as a natural process historically, perhaps new reforms and measures would emerge to stabilize, what is important in coming days is to practice and not compromise on ‘HSH’ living. Because a compromise on ‘HSH’ living might host the seeds for bigger problems that might lurk in near future. Experiencing such crisis, what should be our approach to think about the design and planning of our future cities and houses. Public open spaces, recreational and commercial venues, public buildings, transportation all need to be rethought in not just ‘smart’ ways but also in truly ‘safe’ ways encompassing all the phases of design, construction or implementation and operation.
Planners, urban designers, environmentalists have time and again used design of places, cities, rural areas, regions as an instrument of social or economic reforms. The profession of planning always evolved out of series of crises and people’s responses to them such as health crises (epidemics), social crises (riots, strikes) and others (fire, flood, etc.) From literary documentation of Hygeia, City of Health (1876) inspiring ‘Parks Movement’ in nineteenth century, to Edward Bassett’s ‘master plan’ (1935), works of legendary Patrick Geddes (1854-1932), Lewis Mumford (1895- 1990) and many more stressed upon holistic design of settlements and living. Today, the rules, regulations, documentation, legislation has been propounded in accordance with designing for safety and against various hazards in a smart way. They are not to be seen as constraints and barriers but as tools for achieving HSH places. In fact the prevailing situation of pandemic and quarantined or restricted living should be taken as an important input for revisiting some of the existing research, documentation and regulations linked with physical planning of cities.
People have responded and interacted to their outdoor and indoor environments in a very different manner than before. The risks and adverse effects of capitalism, consumerism and globalization could be made viable in long run through meticulous planning and designing. While cities owe to density for its being, perhaps human anthropometry and ergonomics requires rethinking, which in turn start shaping up the bubbles of spaces around each individual forming places. Be it Leonardo De Vinci’s ‘Vitruvian man’ or Le Cobusier’s ‘Modular man’, man has been primordial entity for designing anything for that matter and would continue to be in future, with added responsibility on each one of us to create HSH places to live HSH lives.
This article was written by Madhumita Roy a Professor and Mainak Ghosh an Associate Professor from the Department of Architecture at Jadavpur University and it was first published in The Times of India
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