CHANDIGARH, Jan 8: It is the focus of the conclave of architects that is to start from tomorrow but the enterprising students from various heartlands of research on architecture have already wound up their studies which were the outcome of extensive surveys. And the results are for everyone to see on the studio walls of the Chandigarh College of Architecture.The main contributor in this unique exhibition of charts and research methodology is the Ahmedabad-based Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) whose team led by Balakrishna Doshi (of the Husain-Doshi gufa fame) had come out with an apt study of the city's growing problems and how to tackle them with feasible alternatives.For this study, they had involved all the three schools, Urban Design, Planning and Architecture, of the CEPT as city-planning encompasses all these areas. Titled "In search of India's Future Cities'', the study compared Chandigarh with many other Indian cities like Jaipur, and tried to find out what is lacking in Chandigarh that did not allow its natural expansion not only in size, but in status too. Doshi's team rated the city in terms of infrastructure and from the visitor's point of view, and analysed how the growth of adjacent towns affected its frame."Since this city mainly eats out of the Central government's funds, we also looked at how to sustain the city in the long run,'' explained Rajiv Kathpalia who co-ordinated the various studies at CEPT. The CEPT came out with three main proposals: to make it a global city, to have a market-friendly approach and the proper utilisation of open space. "In the `Global City concept' we looked at both regional level and city level changes. It is high time that the city broke away from this exclusive bureaucratic stature and take the advantage of the information technology wave. Did anybody imagine that Hyderabad would become globally known? Chandigarh has the potential to be developed as an infotech city," Rajiv pointed out. The second was to let many towns in the region grow up to let the pressure off the city. "There should be regional links to the city through a good network of transportation systems." And finally, they focussed on the open spaces in the city."More well-knit planning within the sectors which can be woven together into the original layout can be worked out.'' Besides the CEPT display, there were the studies on low cost housing scheme for Sector 52 conducted by the Studio Housing of Aarhus in Denmark and on slum redevelopment plan by the students of the CCA. The Ideas Competition conducted by the CCA had invited entries from students on two ideas: "Restructuring the V4 Road- the Shopping Street'' and "Conceptual Reuse of the Governor's Palace''. In the former, the entries from the TVB School of Architecture, Delhi bagged both the first and second prizes with the third prize going to the M M College of Architecture, Pune. There was no prize in the latter category.
