Category: Architecture|Design

  • More on Mumbai Floor Area Regulations

    The post from September 2nd on Mumbai’s floor area regulations which was largely based on Alain Bertaud’s  (AB) report very succinctly identified major issues that limit supply of housing in Mumbai. A contrasting viewpoint was recently presented by Shirish B. Patel in a national daily newspaper in India. This post complements the earlier post and…

  • Creative Little Garden – East Village, NY

    Recently I was in the East Village and stumbled upon this beautiful little garden, tucked away between two five story buildings on East 6th Street (530 East 6 Street).  This little slice of paradise is aptly named Creative Little Garden.  The garden is planted with ornamental trees and shrubs with several small alcoves where people were sitting…

  • The National Mall Design Competition

    The National Mall is a mile long stretch of open space between the Lincoln Memorial and the US Capital building in Washington DC.   The Mall is flanked by museums and other monuments and is the most popular tourist destination in the United States. More than 24 million people visited the Mall last year. The Trust for…

  • Are Mumbai’s floor area regulations restricting its development? Some lessons from New York City.

    Mumbai is undergoing a crisis in optimal allocation of its restricted land resources to improve the health, safety, and quality of life of its 12 million residents. In a paper titled “Mumbai FAR/FSI Conundrum, The perfect storm: the four factors restricting the construction of new floor space in Mumbai”, Alain Bertaud examines the existing housing…

  • Public Art

    The phenomena of art being created and displayed in public places like airports, train stations, entrances to public buildings whose sole purpose is for people to enjoy is quite new. Art in the public sphere has always existed; for more than three millennia obelisks or triumphal arches were built in public squares as monuments to the rulers. In the Middle Ages, temples and churches were…

  • What does a library say about its community?

    WRITTEN BY ALINE FADER In a previous post I wrote about an upcoming book and event series that discusses open spaces and what the Occupy Wall Street Movement has taught us about the utilization of spaces during times of protest. Whether one agrees with the politics of the movement or not, there are many potential…