Building sensibly

In India, with its economic and social diversity and challenges, the reference to and debate about frugality in the use of public monies and resources for planning public buildings and infrastructure works should occupy a significant place in public discourse. The prevailing liberal frameworks for producing expensive designs and plans for new public buildings, even new cities, need to be corrected. It should be guided and grounded in social needs, the frugal use of public monies and natural resources, and the commons

- VENUGOPAL PULIPAKA

The idea of achieving novelty through frugality in design and planning does not seem to be guiding recent architectural designs of significant public and civic buildings in India. In recent years, unlike in early independent India, the architectural designs of some new public and civic buildings reported in the news media, such as Secretariats or High courts undertaken by State governments, airport terminals, or railway stations, seem lavish and luxurious, reportedly involving substantial, and sometimes astronomical, sums of public money.

It is pertinent, therefore, to enquire if the designs of such public buildings are apt, responsible and frugal in consumption of monetary, land and environmental resources. This question also applies to planning new cities. It is also pertinent to examine some aspects of the current framework governing the production of architectural designs for public buildings and projects.

While various State governments ~ for constructing public structures ~ may conduct the contract award processes in accordance with stipulated government rates through competitive bidding and audit compliance procedures, there is often little or no debate about the need to use up a given extent of land or large expanses of building space or areas in sprawling concrete structures beyond what is needed.

There is also much less debate about the cost of the often-expensive materials used, or about energy and maintenance costs borne throughout the life cycle of buildings. Further, present audit procedures often examine whether public structures are built at the estimated price.

However, the standard government annual rates for building the structures which guide these estimates, usually fixed by government committees or boards of chief engineers, also remain an internal matter and are not widely known, critically reviewed, or debated in the public realm.