familiar
faces NEIGHBOURLY THINKING
COMMUNITY BY DESIGN
One way to find out is to ask the communities. Birmingham City University has been working closely with Atkins on the subject of community-led design since 2008 as part of a new government-funded initiative through a knowledge-transfer partnership (KTP) linking academia and business. Working with Delhi’s School of Planning
“BY GIVING LOCAL PEOPLE A VOICE IN THE DESIGN AND PLANNING OF THEIR COMMUNITY, DEVELOPERS AND CITY PLANNERS HOPE TO FORGE A CLOSER BOND BETWEEN PEOPLE AND THE PLACES IN WHICH THEY LIVE”
and Architecture, 40 residents of different ages came together through the KTP in 2009 to take part in design workshops devised by the university and Atkins. With the help of attending engineers and after-education to aid understanding and engagement, the residents undertook the design of appealing new neighbourhoods for their capital city. Working in teams, they formulated design briefs and concepts for detailed block layouts, providing real insights into what was actually required from their living arrangements and the surrounding infrastructure. Sanjay Tanwani, senior urban designer
with Atkins, says the aim of working with communities in this way is to “eschew a formulaic approach to urban design and to tailor the work to specific circumstances, while incorporating cultural traditions wherever this is appropriate.”
The rise of India’s urban middle class means that by 2030 the number of people needing homes that match their aspirations and incomes will quadruple – leaving India with the significant challenge of meeting this demand in less than two decades. How can rapidly developing cities create neighbourhoods that are suited to these new lifestyles while incorporating the sustainable and economic demands of the modern world?
“Community is often considered only at a later stage of the process,” says Tanwani. “We bring in the community first, involving it from the word ‘go’. We design, based on what the people need, and then analyse the structure, putting aesthetics and concepts behind it. You could say it’s a hyper-rational approach.” India was chosen not simply to help
address the growth challenge – Atkins has an office there already. Another key reason was the cultural synergy with south Asian communities in the UK – a focus of the KTP later in 2009.
“Neighbourhoods in India are already quite successful in terms of social capital and cohesion,” says Tanwani. “We wanted to take inspiration from that. India’s vernacular neighbourhoods have hardly been designed at all. They have mostly evolved over the years and we wanted to understand how. Now we’re transferring these design principles to multicultural communities in the UK. There are striking similarities between what people want in the two.” British lifestyles are generally not very neighbourly, according to Tanwani. “These days, in many parts of the UK at least, we hardly know each other. We don’t
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