Students from Cardiff University-UK to Play a ‘Smart Role’ in ‘Smart City’ Development
Students from Cardiff University-UK /Welsh School of Architecture (WSA) -UK to Play a ‘Smart Role’ in ‘Smart City’ Development,
Mangaluru : In India rapid economic growth has resulted in rapid growth of the cities. Most cities are not planned well resulting to often leading to chaotic development. Even the planned expansions are unsustainable. 100 smart cities initiative by Government of India, is in many case resulting in top down planning process and generic policies that ignores the specificity of India, its unique social structure economics, power of spaces and spatial structure to unite people and community, importance of culture and traditions in bringing sense of belonging. In most Smart Cities, urban development policies and strategies are often centered on infrastructure development for economic development and regularly employ planning policies and standards from the west.
With a few exceptions much of the focus on the smart cities drive in India has been on the infrastructure development or on economic development, relying too much on the trickle-down effects of development to address social issues, to create opportunities for social mobility and improve quality of life or assuming solid waste management system comparable to west alone will make urban environment liveable. Moreover, development strategies and policies often ignored the unique social, spatial, economic and institutional layers of cities as well as the complex relationships within and between these layers.
Need for Research and Development in Smart Cities : While what shapes cities might be governance, finance, technology and leadership there is still a need to define what is that to be governed, what is to be financed and developed and what technology is appropriate and efficient to address the challenges of the cities.
Addressing the media persons during a press meet held at Hotel Ocean Pearl, Mangaluru, Dr Shibu Raman- an architect, urnab designer trained in the UK and India, and Founder-Director of the Research network called ÇityForm speaking on ‘What is ‘Liveable Urbanism Mangaluru?’ said, “In 2017 , I on behalf of Cardiff University-UK had submitted a proposal to the city authorities in Mangaluru to develop a partnership with Cardiff University to achieve its Smart City ambitions. The overall aims of the research proposal were to: Achieve smart and equitable development for the city of Mangaluru; Achieve socially just, environmentally sustainable, economically competitive development for the city of Mangaluru; Improve the quality of life for its half a million citizens through the Smart City funding”
Cardiff University-UK students L-R : Miss Simona Jaraskute; George Morley; and Miss Isabella Castella
“Sustainability beyond four years of funding. Mangalore is a unique opportunity for Cardiff team to develop some of the methodology, toolkit and use them to develop our understanding of smart cities and efficient urban developments. This link could be a very strategic connection with local government and with Government of India, for Cardiff University and could result in forming strategic research and academic partnership with stakeholders, funding bodies and universities in India. The proposal has been awaiting approval. Cardiff University and School of Planning and Architecture conducted a joint design studio for their master’s programme broadly based on the aims and objectives of Smart City” added Dr Raman.
Dr Raman further said, “Myself representing Cardiff and Prof. Arunava Dasgupta (SPA-Delhi) visited Mangaluru with their students in November 2018 and January 2019 and carried out an in-depth research in the city. This was followed by studios developing design proposal to address the challenges identified during their study trip. These research and proposals were intended to complement and feed into the Mangaluru Smart City proposal. This was supported by Mangaluru Smart City Limited (MSCL) and Mangaluru City Corporation. The students of Cardiff University-UK have come up with the findings of their studies and will be presented at the Mini Town Hall Mangaluru on 10-11 September 2019”.
Also speaking during the press meet, Prof. Arunava Dasgupta- an architect and the HoD of the Department of Urban Design at the School of Planning and architecture-New Delhi said, “Since small cities are becoming more vibrant, therefore we decided to collaborate with the Mangaluru Smart City Limited for its development. Also that Mangaluru has diversity, we thought this City would be a right choice to work on its development and infrastructure. Even though Mangaluru has two long rivers, but they are lacking proper access to them; we can add nice walkways around these rivers, so that citizens can have a enjoyable and pleasurable walking spree. We need to make this City more attractive with modern facilities and better opportunities, so that youngsters will stay here rather than move to other big cities or abroad. If approved by MSCL , this would be three years work project pertaining to Smart City development”.
Seen in Pic L -R : Dr Shibu Raman, Miss Simona Jaraskute; George Morley; Miss Isabella Castella; Prof. A Dasgupta; and Ms Divya Hegde (Sr Business Dept Manager-Welsh Govt)
MCC Commissioner Mohammed Nazeer, Former CREDAI Chairman D B Mehta, and Er Vinod Pinto- Secretary CREDAI were present on the dais. Students from Cardiff University-UK/Welsh School of Architecture (UK) namely- Miss Simona Jaraskute, George Morley and Miss Isabella Castella present in the audience interacted with Team Mangalorean, and shared their views on Mangaluru Smart City, and assured to explain more on their plans/ideas during the exhibition planned at Mini Town Hall-Mangaluru, which will be inaugurated tomorrow (10 September) by Dakshina Kannada new DC Ms Sindhu B Rupesh at 3 pm. Exhibition opens at 3 pm on 10th Sept 2019; and on 11 September public viewing from 10 am – 6 pm
This initiative is sponsored by CREDAI and supported by Mangalore Smart City Limited and Welsh Government Website: https://liveableurbanism.wixsite.com/mangalore; Email: livableurbanism@gmail.com Twitter: @LUrbanism Instagram: liveable_urbanism_mangaluru
ABOUT DR SHIBU RAMAN :
Dr Raman is an architect and urban designer trained in the UK and India. He has over 20 years’ experience in teaching, research and practicing architecture and urban design and has a number of completed projects in India and UK and number of peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Dr Raman joined Welsh School of Architecture (WSA), Cardiff University in 2015 as a lecturer in architecture and urban design following a three year in China where is as the Course Director, lead the setting up and RIBA validation of the architecture programme at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo China. He is actively involved in the pedagogic development and in delivering design studio and theory modules in the undergraduate and masters in urban design. He is the Founder-Director of the research network called CityForm (www.city-form.org), which is investigating the relationship of urban form to urban sustainability and quality of life. He has presented his research or delivered keynote address in number of prestigious conferences around the worked including UN Habitat, Space Syntax Symposium and Smart Geometries. He has successfully supervised over 30 masters and PhD students in his area of research interests. In addition to UK, has lecture and taught in India, China, and South Korea. For details log on to : www.city-form.org / www.instagram.com/wsaarch
ABOUT PROF. ARUNAVA DASGUPTA :
Prof. Arunava Dasgupta is an architect and urban designer currently engaged as Head of the Department of Urban Design at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. As founder member and Vice President of the Institute of Urban Designers – India (IUDI), Arunava Dasgupta has been actively promoting the idea of holistic urban design while creating alternative development frameworks using community participation as a central tool for local area design. He has been the co-organizer of the ongoing seminar series on “Smart and Sustainable Cities” across 14 cities in India over the past three years in collaboration with South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University and ORF. Over the last 20 years, through applied research in rural and urban Himalayan settlements. Within the academic arena, Arunava is currently involved in initiating Urban Form Labs within the Center for Urban Design Innovation (CUDi) for developing inter-disciplinary, experimental, research-by-design methodologies that encourage exploration by students as citizen designers while theoretical pursuits revolve around contemporary discourses concerning urban design innovation.
