Cities by default or by design?

Cities don’t emerge fully formed. Rather, they accumulate. They collect policies, decisions, improvisations, accidents, and repairs.

- AMIT KAPOOR

They stretch when the economy expands, decay where governance thins, and pulse in accordance with how people use them rather than how they were originally planned. Indian cities are no exception to this rule and most of them have grown at the intersection of ambition and urgency, often faster than the systems that support them. By 2036, Indian cities are estimated to house 600 million and contribute almost 70 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Yet, it is evident that much of this growth has unfolded and continues to unfold without a coherent design or shared intent. That is why after decades of building, reacting, and adjusting, the question finally surfaces with clarity: The design conversation has never been more urgent.

Design is often considered synonymous with beautification, facades, neat diagrams, and emblematic structures. In the context of cities, though, it is not merely cosmetic but also structural. It determines who feels welcome and who feels excluded, who is able to move and who remains stuck. It determines whether public life thrives openly or vanishes behind gated walls and private malls. Rick Griffith’s framing of design as a mechanism of control reveals how seemingly neutral planning decisions can shape power and access. For example, a widened road with no footpath privileges cars. A gated community designed without permeability fragments the neighbourhood ecology. A metro line without last-mile thought is biased against those who do not own vehicles. The built form, therefore, becomes an instruction.