The Colonial architecture of our capital has
been coddled as heritage. But is it just a white washed elephant? Senior
architect Satish Grover says it is high time for some iconoclasm in urban
planning.
Most people would be surprised to learn that
Lutyens himself had not visualised the sterile urban scenario that the Lutyens
Bungalow Zone (LBZ) is today. He
had translated his plan into many sketches, which are lying in the archives of
the CPWD. The avenues had not been envisioned to have such ordinary-looking
bungalows set far back on either side, leaving nothing in view but the trees.
The roads were designed to carry much heavier
traffic than they do now, almost 90 years later. He had obviously planned for a
more dense and lively urban situation.
Lutyens had proposed three or four storeyed
buildings such as the National Museum and National Archives to be built on the
large plots. There was to be a healthy mix of housing, community buildings and
even modest commercial centres. Nature and buildings were to co-exist in an
appropriately pleasing proportion.
But, as it is today, the LBZ might as well be as
designated a forest area - green and pleasing, no doubt, but contrary to the
necessities of an expanding urban ethos.
What exists today and what many want to retain
was a part of a particular historical period and in the nature of a temporary
camp city. It was intended to be replaced by moderately high-rise structures in
the course of time.
If Lutyens is to be honoured, that is the vision
that needs to be realised today. Currently, the area serves politicians and
moribund babus, creating unreal lifestyles while lower-grade officers, clerks
and peons suffer the rigours of long distance commutes.
Urban design is not a pickle to be preserved. It
is an evolving, living entity. Instead of declaring the LBZ a Heritage Area and
giving it a status of a monument, it should be recognised as an organic unit at
the service of the city. The big question is how to do it, given the land price
manipulation and corrupt estate management. Left to government technocrats and
politicians, the area will be reduced to an unholy mess.
The only way out is to hold an international
architectural competition for architects/planners with an international jury to
get the best solutions from the best expertise available in the world.
