Urban acupuncture: Cities need revitalizing

Article for Urban Zen. Featured in Construction World. According to the WHO, nearly 3.4 billion people around the world live in rural areas. In the coming decade, this number may go down to 1.5 billion. With such a large population around the world moving from rural to urban or changing the environment of their locality through development, urban designers have to re-evaluate their larger scope at work along with its equivalent responsibilities. With the existing urban labyrinth, we have all come to terms with the contrasting variations in the cities’ planning and their influence on the lifestyle. It will be wrong to state that the ‘new’ cities that are yet to be developed or planned are the only scope for better planning and designing. A city no matter how old or the number of times refurbished, only adds to the chances of creating a better story within it. Restoring or rehabilitating an existing urban space is just as important and impactful as designing a new city from scratch. The large number of people residing within the cities is alarming when they do not have a direction to go in, no benefits to achieve nor any positive output to produce. With urban designing beginning to take shape within the problems, it not only gives a sound solution to the issues but also subconsciously changes the habitual activity of the crowd. With a developed city, the economy develops through various acumen like urban branding. Urban branding is the result of good urban design. Apart from attracting the non-residents into the city, it is important to keep the residents well entertained to keep the economic growth and development on the rise for a better quality of life. This process not only makes the city resilient but will also endure the environment we thrive in for longer.

Urban designing as we all know is one such design process that is not only time consuming but also devours a huge sum of funds. Ironically it is also one of the design typologies that requires immediate action. In some parts of the country, it takes longer to get approval on the design intent than to construct the design. And on other occasions with minimal interference of design, the execution process of the intent takes years to get done.

Urban acupuncture is a lesser-known concept that acts as a boon to designers. It involves conceptualising a space with minimal approval procedures, immediate effect and consuming fewer resources. Very much like what the name suggests this process helps to revitalise areas of the town that are in much need of attention and don't get enough. Surprisingly, urban acupuncture whenever executed has had a positive and drastic change in the locality. With precise control over the functionality of a given small space, it can intricately trigger the points that need to be addressed.

Urban acupuncture is one method of addressing the experience of the users in such a way that it changes the perception of the given area by itself. It is more about a design that speaks for itself while serving the very need and purpose of the situation. It may vary depending upon the locality, the community that resides and the user types of the area. Just like the process of acupuncture works, this too takes charge over the issues and does not expand beyond that. This being said, we shall understand that every situation and locality has a face of its own that needs to be reflected on an urban scale.

We pass through beautiful and ugly, tiny and large, functional and form-based buildings every day. We subconsciously experience them and become their audience that listens to what the buildings have to speak. Imagining this on a macro level of cities, cities joining suburbs to expand the scale only keeps growing. If what we see, what we reside in and work in can make us believe in a certain perception, it is astounding to even imagine the effect urban design can cause in our lives without us noticing. It has the power to mould our routine, restrict our views to something as basic as nature and definitely can cause us to believe a story of an entire locality that lingers on for a long time.

With the addition of a petite park within a backward setting of the city, one can instantly imagine the positive outcome the addition will provide. As Mies Van Der Rohe famously quoted, 'less is more' it is understood that the simpler the solution, the better the outcome. Similarly, making use of the negative spaces in the neighbourhood- areas that have been neglected from development can be smartly converted into activity spaces that make them more indulgent. One quite lane can bustle up with a few vertical seating arranged interestingly. Understanding the need for the settlement and working out an easy to execute the apt solution is a jigsaw puzzle that can be solved by working it out multiple times.

Urban design is theoretically designed from the time a locality is born, but putting thought behind every lane, settlement, recreational spot, the path turns and junctions occur as and when the locality develops and grows over time. We don't just have to design for the future, as cities reflect culture it is primarily due to capture the roots of the same culture to survive in the future. Every evolving city and each town that will one day be a city, will speak for themselves and that will be the language of the architecture of that city.