In an old Dutch town located in a river delta where all the housing and residential buildings have been built in the locally available abundant supply of bricks, a new house being constructed with ‘modern’ materials by a creative architect has a facade of stone quarried from thousands of miles away.
In an ancient forest that has covered the hills in the western part of India for centuries, the newest 5G mast for ‘smart communication’ is placed on top of the highest point in the mountain-range. This technical feat is achieved by cutting a road up to the hill.
In the Eastern part of India, deep in the hills near Shillong where, according to local mythology, the mythical tree that reached Heaven stood on the highest point of the hill and from where the seven tribes had descended from Heaven to Earth, a new mast for mobile communication has been erected.
On the hilly outskirts of Pune, a traffic engineer has created new infrastructure for cars to get from point A to point B quickly.
A new metro line is being planned by an infrastructure engineer through a historic part of a city to achieve the shortest possible time of travel. In order to achieve this, many old buildings of historic heritage will be destroyed.
What do these examples, seemingly different, all have in common? Let me try to explain.
In each case the specialist professional charged with doing his duty delivered the best results according to the criteria of his specific profession/speciality.
In the first case, the architect designed a building that was modern and this achievement was published and lauded in an architectural magazine for its ‘modern’ design.
In the second case, the engineer responsible for erecting the 5G mast was commended by his superiors (and probably even got a promotion for his dedication) for placing the mast at the best possible location for telecommunication.
In the third case too, the engineer responsible for erecting the mast at the highest point was commended by his subordinates, peers and professional superiors.
In the fourth and the fifth cases, the traffic engineer and the infrastructure engineer received compliments for their efforts from their coterie of professional associates.
But what is also common in all the cases is this: While creating the seemingly best solution as judged by the narrow criteria of their own disciplines, each of these experts damaged or destroyed something of much greater importance to society. Something that could, in the long term, affect the wellbeing and health of society and its environment.
In the first case, the architect with his ‘creative act’, damaged the ‘sense of identity’, which had been cultivated over decades, if not a couple of centuries, in that little town. Additionally, a project which could have been built using sustainable material from the local area (employing local artisans) was instead being built by outsiders with materials shipped from far away. This resulted in damage to social, economic and environmental sustainability.
While creating the best solution as judged by the narrow criteria of their own disciplines, each expert damaged or destroyed something of much greater importance to society
In the second case, the communication engineer, in his search for the perfect place for his mast, had left a deep gaping wound in a centuries-old-forest and the road leading to the mast had further damaged the area. The silence in the old forest had been shattered by the noise of construction thereby upsetting the habitat of the flora and fauna.
In the third case, the act of erecting a mast on the location of the Holy Tree, which according to folklore connected Heaven to Earth, had happened at the cost of deeply damaging the mythological and cultural beliefs (and thus mental wellbeing and their cherished sense of identity) of the tribals of the area.
In the fourth case, the transportation engineer had destroyed the natural flow of water (and the flora and fauna that accompanied it) by his ‘brilliant’ act of engineering, without providing an alternative for the water run-off that will lead to soil erosion and long-term environmental damage.
Finally, in the fifth case, the new metro line will forever damage the historic character of the urban neighbourhood for which it has been loved.
In each of the five cases there were alternatives available by which the ‘collateral damage’ could have been avoided. And yet in each of the cases these alternatives were not explored and destruction was not prevented, because each of the specialists (and probably their superiors) never even considered their actions to be causing any damage.
These are just five of the hundreds and thousands of such cases every year which, in the name of progress, are destroying our culture and heritage, our landscape and environment and, consequently, our mental and physical health.
While sometimes such wanton acts of specialists are brought to a halt by community action having a broader insight into the wellbeing of their society, mostly the specialist just gets his way in the name of ‘progress and development’. This results in the cities that we have; often experienced as ad hoc and disjointed, increasingly not understood or loved by their citizens.
There is only one way to turn the tide, and that is by educating our specialist engineers so they realise that each specialism, whatever its value, exists only in the larger context of the society it serves and the planet it is located on. That the foremost duty of each specialist is to serve the larger context first, and only thereafter his/her specialist discipline.
If we are to ever achieve this goal, all the disciplines related to the field of Urban Development, be it civil engineering, infrastructure design, transportation engineering, architecture or landscape architecture, must be taught in an institute that has the environment and health of this planet and its occupants as its overriding objective. All these faculties must all be brought under the Institute of Environment and Health.
Only when we do this, will we turn a full circle from the first days of Urban Planning in Europe where planned urban development was seen as a way to grapple with the health issues created by the Industrial Revolution.
Specialists passing out from the Department of Environment and Health will uphold the broader good of society and its environment instead of having a siloed view of achieving ‘excellence’ in their own super-specialism. And that’s when our cities will bloom into healthy centres for everyone on this planet.
Shyam Khandekar is an architect, urban designer and planner by training. He is the Co-Founder and Editorial Director of MyLiveableCity.
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