Behind the Scenes
In an Indian context, design is largely perceived as a linear process between company and consumer; a means to enhance the economic value of a product or service via form and function. In light of the pandemic though, it’s imperative to relook at the entire ecosystem of unorganised workpeople that facilitates design. Reviewing the migrant worker crisis, AGK Menon, a Delhi-based architect, urban planner and conservation consultant, explains how the capital’s long-standing slum problem is part of a wider urban design and financial planning issue. “We only designed the planned part of the city. The people who built it live in the unplanned part, creating slums,” he says, emphasizing a need to include aspects beyond material costs — like fair wages, labour housing support and financial insurance — in a project’s overall budget.
A World, Revised and Updated
At an individual level, the lockdown has spurred a period of introspection. While the concept of slow living isn’t new, we’re realising that it is indeed possible. What’s more, we’re seeing its positive impact on our work-life balance and the external environment at large. India’s Central Pollution Control Board notes that the Ganga’s water quality is improving in industrial towns and that Delhi’s PM10 air pollution levels reduced by up to 44 per cent on day 01 of the curfew. In Jalandhar, Punjab, snow-capped Himalayan views have been spotted after decades. These reports offer immense promise. “It goes both ways — the gains that we’ve made in this period are equally reversible in a matter of days. But if we know this damage is reversible, that optimism can make us do great things,” says Ayush Chauhan, co-founder of Quicksand, a design research and innovation studio. He highlights the urgency for macro institutions, like national governments and intergovernmental bodies, to re-examine societal goals and the state of the economy under the lens of a clean energy future.
A Way Forward
The closing of international borders and a slowing down of world economies raises questions on how we do business. Could the pandemic be an opportunity to understand our capabilities as a self-sufficient state? “This crisis provides the tailwind for some form of deglobalisation,” says Chauhan. “We’ve been washing our hands off the kind of negative externalities that global trade has created. It nudges us to make our internal economics and systems stronger.” Menon adds that post-pandemic policies must tow the fine line between economic nationalism and global cooperation. While more authoritarian controls are in the offing, he says, “The challenge for designers and policy makers of the built environment, at least, [is to] simultaneously ensure that these initiatives are democratic and promote the social values of our society.”
