Mr. C N Raghavendran, Partner, C R Narayana Rao Architects
Concept of Sustainable Urban Development
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Ar. C N Raghavendran, Partner, C R Narayana Rao Architects is one of the few architects in India, who was conferred Padma Shri award. He speaks to Built Expressions about effective way outs to address the issues of urban built environment
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BE: What are the several issues identified for sustainable urban built environment? How do we proactively address them?
CNR: Sustainable urban built environment is much more complex and a larger issue than isolated or individual successes that are being seen in the last decade or so in stand-alone Green buildings. Sustainable communities are not new to India but are ingrained in our Heritage, except that we lost our sensitivities and good practices over a few centuries, under the garb of progress and development and more specifically in trying to equate progress with imported ideas and practices that are incompatible and alien to our climate, culture and ethos.
Urban built environment is one of the most neglected entities that has never entered the ambit of any action plan, investments or planning efforts either at the State or private or PPP modes. Naturally, the rapid urbanization, increased employment opportunities around Urban areas including social benefits which has health care and education have witnessed chaotic growth of all major urban settlements in India without any corresponding and visible interventions either by way of advance planning or even course collection even as the chaotic growth overtook our will and capacity to reverse the process.
In Indian practice, Urban Planning, in official parlance, exists not as a discipline of its own, but as a part of Town Planning or City Planning, in India. Even though the impact of Urban planning affects every individual in the urban area, we are the least consulted and most inconvenienced by an isolated and exclusive control on Urban planning by Public departments. Reasons for this exclusivity are more historic and basically the point of being public service. Private participation or initiatives do not exist, except in rare cases. Hence, in a fast changing urban scenario, solutions and policies through the commonly available instruments such as Master Plan, Development Control Rules, etc. carry with them a disconnect between the perception and the reality. Hence, the situation on the ground, whether it be pressure on Infrastructure such as Transport, Water, Drainage, Waste Management, Social infrastructure etc., is invariably far more complex than the perception among the Planners and thus the solutions have invariably falling short. Funding constraints and deficiencies in the delivery system add to the urban woe. What is clearly required is innovative and "out of the box" thinking, suitably propped by political and administrative support. This calls for a much higher degree of vision and commitment on the part of the political and administrative powers backed by advocacy, participatory approach and an inclusive development.
Concept of Sustainable Urban Development
- Cities have become concentration of Urban environmental degradation & wasteful use of resources - costly to present & future generations.
- Sustainable Urban development means - achieving a balance between the development of urban areas and protection of the environment with emphasis on, Equity in employment, Shelter, Basic services like water, sanitation, hygiene & power, Social infrastructure, health, education & transportation, Waste management, Avoidance of environmental damages, depletion of non-renewable resources &controlling raising levels of pollution.
- Offers opportunity for introducing urban reforms
- Mitigation:
- Minimize depletion of non-renewable resources
- Resort to environmentally sustainable economic development.
- To be dealt with socially, economically & politically acceptable means.
- Factor climate change
- Factor land ownership & land use changes.
- Lead to possible options of urban form ;
- Compact city
- Multi-modal urban region as a city form.
- Smart wired cities, zero net energy buildings
Deficiencies & options for Sustainable Management
- Indian cities characterized by
- high density of population
- deficiency in services &
- air pollution
- challenge is how to overcome deficiencies in services
- how to provide the services in an environment friendly way
- Sustainable city form
- compact city
- high density mixed land use
- efficient public transport
- pedestrian oriented habitation
- treatment of public spaces
- high rise or low rise
- multi modal urban region
- takes care of different urban & economic activities
- land use & transport policies
BE: What are the effects of Urbanisation on environment? How do we mitigate this challenge in urban environment?
CNR: Urbanisation of India is taking place at a faster rate than in the rest of the world.
- By 2030, Urbanisation in India is projected to reach 50 percent.
- Urban poverty & urban slums will also grow despite 62% of GDP generated from towns & cities.
- Poverty in India has become urbanised. Over 25% - some 81m people below poverty line live in urban areas - & increasing.
- Poses distinct challenges for housing, water, sanitation, health, education, social security, lively hoods, child nutrition, air quality, transportation, waste management.
- Also in distress are vulnerable groups such as women, children & the aged and the unemployed/ underemployed.
- India's growth story can be marred in the absence of proper road map on upgrade urban infrastructure strategy plan of ministry of urban development for 2011-2016 lists lack of funds capacity of municipalities to carry out urban reforms inadequate investment for urban infrastructure inadequate empowerment of municipalities' poor monitoring mechanisms.
- India’s per capita spending on urban infrastructure is reported to be less than Rs.800, which is just 14% that of China’s Rs.5400.
Way forward
- Debates & advocacy
- Leadership & policy facilitation & legally backed empowerment
- Education, research & dissemination
- Low carbon economy
- Renewable energy
- Zero net energy buildings
- Smart cities & wired cities
- Innovative governance, funding & delivery
BE: As an architect, how do you visualize a future Eco-friendly city? What important parameters of built environment this city shall address?
CNR:The President's address to the joint session of Parliament on June 9 2014 augurs well for the economy. The pronouncements contained therein covered almost all policy planks of the new government. While tackling of inflation and price rise have found top priority, subsequent statements of leaders indicate that tough decisions will be forced on the nation. Increase in production and productivity in all sectors of the economy need to be brought on the fast track. The emerging new policy appears to place healthy urban / Rural-urban development as an important element in the holistic development plan.
- Development of 100 cities
- Massive infrastructure in Transport, Water, Power, Health care, Education, Housing, Waste Management to kick start the creation of employment opportunities, economic revival, wealth creation on inclusive basis etc.
- Roads and highways
- High speed rail
- Waterways along the coastline
Eventually, the future vision should keep the common man or the common family as the focus of all development activities and should focus on the unit level wellbeing rather than statistics on achievements.
Cities should pollute less, waste less and conserve more. The future eco-friendly city shall eliminate the stressful experience of city living today and bring back clean water, clean air, clean public places and water waste, well connected by Multimodal Public Transport that reduce the necessity for automobile transport and overall reliability of infrastructure at an affordable rate. Bringing within reach on an all-inclusive basis the social benefits such as health care, education under an efficient and a responsive city management is a must. Surely, this will pave way for the Smart Cities and Livable City concepts to be our next target.
The moot question is this: are the last decade's efforts worth continuing or should we charter a context-specific path for the future that recognizes and responds to climate, socio-cultural lifestyle nuances, changing aspirations of society, and so on?
The driving force has to include governmental policies, mandates, incentives and directions - not as fragmental and uncoordinated efforts between different ministries, but as a national goal-setting exercise with a supportive framework. Also to be made inclusive in a holistic manner are the roles of architects, planners and designers, as well as the engineering professionals involved in building design and implementation.
Contribution to sustainable design is in the domain of all stakeholders, but perhaps architects occupy a vital role even at the start of project conception. Preparation of an architect through academic training for building this role needs to be studied and enhanced. Architects, through better understanding of the multi-disciplinary contributions from other professionals, are ideally placed to be thought leaders who could push this movement to the next meaningful level."
BE: What are the energy efficiency options that should be made mandatory in a building at the time of plan approval? Are there any steps initiated by the concerned authorities in this direction?
CNR: The governing principles shall be to reduce, to reuse and recycle. We must do more with less. We should put back into the ecosystem more than what we consume. These are the fundamental driver for the propagation of Green buildings.
Green Building, also known as green construction or sustainable building, is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource - efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from sitting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and deconstruction. This practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort.
Although new technologies are constantly being developed to complement current practices in creating greener structures, the common objective is that green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment by:
- Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources
- Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity
- Reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation
- Increasing the Health quotient in Urban Living and working environment.
The trend of incorporating sustainable and Environment friendly principles to Architecture is gaining a momentum in the last decade or two. What started of as a sporadic examples of focused design and construction of sustainable buildings in the late last century has now become a movement in itself. The catalysts have been the realization on the buildings designed and built in a manner that was common in recent times, which were environmentally unsustainable and were also affecting the environment in a harmful manner. Awareness of CO2 emissions, global warming increasing embedded energy in products & services commonly used have become more widespread. The consequence of such phenomenon have also been dramatically and graphically presented to the society at large and in particular, to the Architects and building community through widespread public and private discussion & dissemination including media and a few high profile campaigns. Added to this, is the high cost and shortage of energy, acute water supply situations, increasing land, water and air pollution have come into the radar of the Architect community's efforts to design communities design and buildings that obviate such negative features. The high embedded energy in transporting materials over long distance, as well as the high embedded energy in bringing up all the manufacturing building products are also factors that influenced the design decisions. Moreover, initiatives like Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) and its propagation on Green Building Design strategies including the Rating systems by which the design and building performance can be calibrated on a pre-determined and scientific scale of performance based on globally tested, accepted and robust set of parameters have really catalysed the movement towards Green Design. In addition, similar efforts in the form of GRIHA Rating system, introduction of Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) in India are mandating high performance buildings towards energy efficiency.
What is important is that the impetus to design Green is not only coming out of Architects' initiative but is also being driven by Client expectation on owning or living in a Green endowed building and neighbourhood or campus.
There is a growing awareness not only amongst big corporate or Builders towards Sustainable Architecture but a common house builder has also become conscious of the push towards Sustainable Design & Construction. Their awareness and use of BEE’s (Bureau of Energy Efficiency) Star Rated consumer appliances, can impact lowering of energy bills significantly!
It is also heartening to note that many Governmental bodies are also beginning to appreciate the benefits of Sustainable design. But this awareness has not reached the level of priority it deserves. There are voluntary movements towards recognition and rating of Green buildings through a robust and measurable scale of performance under various parameters such as the Green Building Rating System under the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). Likewise, mandatory measures through Energy Efficiency in Building Code will also be dictating the Design norms for different climatic zones in the Country. Many Local Governments are not only setting examples for sustainable building being built for Govt. use but also integrating the Green building concepts in the bye laws and Development Control Rules. It is understood that National Building Code is also bringing out Guidelines for Sustainable Building Design. Building materials and systems that are environmentally friendly are also being developed and introduced into the market at an affordable cost. These are encouraging signs but needs a bigger push.
BE: What is the impact of embodied energy of construction materials in the construction of High Performance buildings for sustainable future?
The impact is not and cannot be assessed in any quantitative measure at the moment in India. You are all aware of high energy consuming materials during the production and transportation stage but other than a nagging alarm bell in the mind of a few conscious Designers, Developers and Builders, this parameter takes the back seat at best or completely ignore the worst cases.
At the moment, in India, we have no matrix to determine the embodied energy of construction materials in any form of construction, neither high nor low performance buildings. The concept of embodied energy should extend on a cradle to cradle basis. Life cost analysis should become the most important parameter in the design and construction process.
The lack of above practices leaves behind tremendous negative impact in the sustainability towards the future. The first step will be to make available a transparent database to the potential user or specifier of construction materials through which every marketed building product shall carry a self-declared data sheet, suitably certified by third party agencies for authenticity, containing the product composition, materials and processes used, the base products used and net embodied energy up to the point of production and distribution. If this practice has become widely adopted in the Processed Food industry, it should surely become possible in the Construction industry. It should also become necessary to establish a database which benchmarks buildings of different types, uses and magnitude as to standard maximum embodied energy levels. At building approval stage, the planning permission application shall demand a better performance than the maximum standard benchmark. Subsequently, during the building use, the operation and maintenance as well as the occupancy conditions shall match the initially estimated levels of high performance and should be co-related to the quantum of Property tax or such in order to ensure implementation of what was promised and also to ensure giving up or become casual about the good initially stated intentions and performance levels once the occupancy certificate is obtained.
That is why reduction of embodied energy is an important Sustainable practice in the current and future Green buildings.
If one compares across Industries that have substantial impact on environmental degradation, it is not at all heartening to see that the Building Industry lags behind in innovativeness and technology, as compared to the R&D and application of R&D that one sees in other sectors, such as Aeronautical, Automotive and renewable energy areas.
Boeing is producing large capacity Aircrafts that are super fuel efficient and quieter than any known powered flying object earlier. It is heartening to see the R&D efforts in Automotive Industry that sees electric and hybrid cars. Recently, Mahindra have introduced a Hydrogen driven engine for three wheelers. All these product manufacturers have stringent performance testing measures to substantiate their claims. Do we have such practice in the Building Industry?
In the UK for instance where 42 percent of all carbon emissions come from buildings, Owners must produce Energy Performance Certificates for their properties put up for sale or rent. This helps buyers or tenants to choose efficient properties which in turn ensure that Building design and construction are environmentally responsible.
In Hamburg, to achieve an unambiguous goal to reduce Co2 emissions by 40% by 2020 from its 1990 base level and by 80% by 2050, 1700 Km of bicycle tracks within the city, mandatory energy saving ordinance binding on its buildings, designed a public transport network to most of citizens with access within 300m of their place of stay.
In many of the European cities and particularly in Scandinavian area, the emphasis of cycling as a means of transport in urban areas has highly evolved not only as a practice to cut down automobile use but also as a means for healthier living. The urban planning gives high importance to cycle paths and safety of cycles. Also at a national level, Public transport is organized so that no one has to go up more than 300m to reach a reliable and consistent Public transportation.
Hence, High Performance Buildings are not just jargons to mislead or for a few but are fast becoming a way for future design process to be embraced by all stakeholders - Architects, Designers, MEP Consultants, Builders, Owners and Government.