SMARTER
URBANISATION

Recent project developments

Indian Urban Futures 4

AFFORDABLE AND SUSTAINABLE HOMES:
Where could India and England collaborate?

The fourth in the series of Indian Urban Futures events took place on October 12th 2021, the second day of the Bristol Housing Festival. The expert group of 14 panellists were based in Hong Kong and Mumbai, Tirunelveli and Chennai in Tamilnadu, Southern India, Bristol, London and Newcastle. Click here for more details.

Bristol Housing Festival 2021: Indian Urban Futures

The URBED Trust is delighted to be taking part in the 2021 Bristol Housing Festival. Join us for a webinar on Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 10:00 London time. Indian Urban Futures: What sustainable housing challenges do Bristol and the south of India have in common? Miles apart and with radically different demographics and geographies, these two regions are both faced with the challenge of providing sustainable, affordable homes. In this webinar the URBED Trust and their partners discuss these issues in the context SCAD URBED Eco Home in India, and how our regions might learn from each other.

URBED-SCAD Eco-Home Analysis Report-January 2021

This report includes an introduction by Dr Nicholas Falk and a comprehensive report on the building of the SCAD Eco-Houses by architect Dinesh Jeyachandran. Read the full report here

Earlier project developments

Indian Urban Futures III conference The third conference in the Indian Urban Futures series took place in March 2019, and was composed of two symposiums: one hosted by SCAD in Tirunelveli, and the other by the Urban Design Collective in Chennai. Both were filled with a diverse array of attendees from Regional District Collectors to local students, and contained very exciting and very fruitful discussions through a whole series of workshops. As well as this, we inaugurated and celebrated the first SCAD/URBED Eco-house, and planned the next steps. Find out more in the full report!

The SCAD Eco-House completion - November 2018 Construction began on the first Eco-House in May 2018 and it was completed a few months later. View the SCAD Eco-Houses page to see the methods that were used!

Indian Urban Futures II: Report on the June 2018 symposium The results of the successful second Indian Urban Futures symposium are outlined in this report, which also discusses how to move forward to translate innovative ideas and small-scale initiatives into solutions at the scale of the problems we face. It explores the ideas from our speakers, as well as presenting our Emerging Manifesto built upon the two previous IUF events.

Future Proofing India’s Medium-Sized Cities - June 2017

Dr. Nicholas Falk featured in the June 2017 City Observer journal, produced by Urban Design Collective - a non-profit organisation working as a collaborative platform to promote liveable and sustainable cities through community engagement. The essay iterates his thoughts on the potential of action planning Garden Cities in India.

Indian Urban Futures I: What Future for India’s Urban Areas?
The aim of this symposium in May 2017 was to generate interest in creating new forms of affordable housing in medium sized cities facing rapid growth in the Indian sub continent, and to draw out ideas for future work to connect Indian and British cities. Some 40 people took part, including many urban designers with Indian backgrounds or connections. Follow the link to read the report of the event.

News in the field

Are we running out of water?

As the world’s water needs grow so is concern that we’re rapidly using up supplies. How worried should we be? This Guardian article explores the recent water shortage in Cape Town, and the cities next in line to be hit with crisis.

Researchers receive major grant to help improve the energy efficiency of millions of homes in India

Professor Rajat Gupta of Oxford Brookes University secures a major research grant to help support the improvement of living conditions for millions of citizens in India. The project, entitled Residential building energy demand reduction in India (RESIDE), aims to establish an empirical knowledge base to develop a residential building energy code for high-quality, low-energy housing across all five climatic zones in India.

China partners with World Green Building Council

The World Green Building Council announced a partnership with the China Green Building Council on Monday that could have significant repercussions, considering that China is the largest building construction market in the world with up to 20 billion square meters constructed annually.

Village, a Country and the Discipline: economic development in Palanpur over seven decades.

What can insights from seven decades of research in Palanpur tell us about economic development, inequality and prospects for India? This recording of a lecture at the LSE brings together experts from many LSE departments and centres to bring insights into current cutting edge research into the Indian economy.

With Local 2030, the U.N seeks to turbocharge its engagement with cities

The United Nations leadership in July unveiled a broad and potentially far-reaching new strategy to bolster the ability of cities to implement their own sustainable development priorities. The initiative also may fundamentally reorient how the U.N. system works at the local level. (Citiscope)