Sustainable Construction of Humane Habitats Prof. Akhtar Chauhan Founder President International Association for Humane Habitat (IAHH)

Learning for nature

Villages and Towns in harmony with nature

• India’s success in the 21st century is going to be defined by manner in which we address the revival of existing cities and the way we plan our new cities. • According to the ‘United Nations World Urbanization Prospects’, the next few decades alone will see 600 million Indians moving into urban areas.

Jaipur (1728 A.D.)

Jaipur Streetscape: Lively bazaars

National Context • Indian cities are marked by their slums. These communities of the urban poor are the result of lack of affordable housing in Indian cities. These are known by various names such as zopadpatties in Mumbai, Jhuggijhopadis in Delhi and Bastas in Kolkatta or zupadawasis in Ahmedabad. • These slums are the grim reality of the failure of our planning process at national, state and urban level to address the issue of poverty and shelter needs of the poor and underprivileged people in rural and urban areas.

• As per the government sources, there were 45.7 million slum dwellers in 1991 accounting for 21.5% of the urban population.

• As per 2001 census we have 40.6 million slum dwellers in the country, living in 607 towns and cities and they account for 22.8% of the urban population.

• However, if we look at the poverty figures, we had 193.2 million rural poor and 67.1 million urban poor i.e. 260.3 million poor people who can not afford a proper shelter because their income is inadequate to support their primary requirements for sustenance.

Urban Issues:

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Plato once observed that “any city, however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich; these are at war with one another; and in either there are many smaller divisions, and you would be altogether beside the mark if you treated them all as a single State.”

Inhuman City: Washing cloths at a busy intersection

The Right To Life: Need for light, ventilation and space ignored

The Right to Life: Granted MHADA Housing Andheri East, Mumbai

Urban Transformation: Choices -High Rise High Density

Urban Transformation: High Rise High Density

Urban Housing: Low Rise High Density

Urban Housing: Walkable Communities

Urban Transportation: Promoting public transportation under JNURM

Urban Transformation: Modern Hotels and Post Moder IIT Hostels

Urban Transfers: Neo-classical High Rise Housing

Urban Transformation: Public Places

Citizen Participation: Transforming waste land into green open spaces

Citizen Participation: Promoting healthy humane habitats

Mumbai Metropolitan Development Plan

Humane Habitats • We, the citizens of the global community, living in

villages, towns, cities and metropolises of different countries are deeply concerned with the present inhuman state of most of the human settlements and deterioration in the quality of life.

• We hereby constitute the International Association for Humane Habitat (IAHH) for ensuring the well being of the present and the future generations of humankind through a global movement for evolution of humane habitat.

• We, therefore, adopt the following goals and objectives in order to evolve a sustainable environment to live in: • To conserve and preserve natural environment • To ensure safety and security in human settlements • To enable a peaceful and harmonious living • To develop the means of sustenance, work, living, social, cultural, economic interactions, education, health care, movement, tourism, communication, leisure, recreation, sports and spiritual activities.

IAHH Goals •

To create an on going movement to evolve a humane habitat through a series of interactions at international, regional, national and local levels.

• To create a societal and global awareness on the issue of humane habitat. • To exchange the theoretical knowledge, research studies and practical experience on issues.

• To develop theoretical tools, techniques and methodologies to understand the complexity of the issues through analytical studies. • To evolve appropriate and sustainable alternative policies, programmes and projects to make global habitat more livable, affordable and humane.

IAHH Objectives • To develop a programme of international interactions, including conferences, workshops and symposia. • To organize competitions and exhibitions on the theme and sub-themes of the conference. • To publish documents, studies and monographs on the subjects and issues.

• To develop a network of institutions, universities, academicians and professionals concerned with the issues. • To raise resources to support and sustain interactions, studies and research programmes on the subject of humane habitat.

IAHH Activities • To develop a programme of international interactions, including conferences, workshops and symposia. • To organize competitions and exhibitions on the subjects, activities, programmes, projects and studies related to humane habitat. • To publish documents, studies and monographs on the subjects and related topics. • To publish newsletters, magazines and journals on the issues.

• To conduct lectures, workshops, research, studies and organize study tours at appropriate levels. • To prepare audio/ visual communication packages on the issues for distribution to people, professionals, institutions, voluntary organizations and government departments or agencies. • To develop a network of institutions, universities, academicians and professionals concerned with the issues.

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To raise and manage financial, technical and human resources to support and sustain studies, research, interactions, actions and communication on subjects related to the field of Humane Habitat.

• To fully or partly support visits by academicians, experts, professionals, activists and other persons connected with the studies and activities related to Humane Habitat.

Invitation • We are pleased to invite interested architects, planners, engineers, builders, constructors, policy makers, administrators, business persons, industrialists, activists, environmentalists, social scientists, technologists, artists and experts in various fields of human endeavour to join this movement for transformation of our human settlements into a global humane habitat.

Humane Habitats: Celebrating Life

• It is up to us, the citizens, voluntary organizations, professionals, educators and administration to take up the issues of conservation, development, regenerating , revitalization and transformation of our towns, cities and metropolises, into sustainable humane habitats • It is our democratic responsibility. For the freedom that we cherish empowers us to take up greater responsibility to care and enrich our living environment; to heal and sustain our habitat.

• It is possible to humanize our habitat through socially relevant, sustainable and appropriate policies, planning, designing, constructing and managing the process with citizen participation. • Tomorrow will be too late. Let us begin today!

Space Debris

Space Farm Research Centre

Space Island Research Centre