Skyscrapers lead to sustainable housing

Skyscrapers lead to sustainable housing
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Urbanisation should take place without affecting the agricultural area, and this is possible only by allowing skyscrapers built without violating the rules, according to Dr G Viswanathan, Founder and Chancellor of VIT University, Vellore.

​Hyderabad: Urbanisation should take place without affecting the agricultural area, and this is possible only by allowing skyscrapers built without violating the rules, according to Dr G Viswanathan, Founder and Chancellor of VIT University, Vellore.

He was inaugurating a programme on ‘A Career in Architecture -The Way Forward’, a panel discussion on `The Future of Architecture Trends and Opportunities’ organised by the VIT-School of Planning and Architecture (V-SPARC) in Chennai on Saturday.

In the presidential address, Dr G Viswanathan said that the LIC building in Chennai, which was the tallest building in Chennai 60 years ago, continues to be the tallest building in the city even today.

Despite the urbanisation that is taking place in the developing countries such as India, there is shortage of housing. There would be a shortage of 13 crore houses by 1922, while in the rural areas, the shortage would be of the order of 4.4 crore houses, he said.

“Every year, we are losing agricultural land on account of housing projects. Between 2001 and 2010, Tamil Nadu has lost 45,000 hectares of agricultural land. This is a major problem. We need agriculture as well as urbanisation. Therefore there need for going in for skyscrapers”, he said.

In his keynote address, Ar Madhav Raman of Anagram Architects called upon architects to encourage sustainable life styles considering the importance of preserving the natural environment, and to design houses and buildings keeping in mind the need for social expression, preserving the family bonding, other cultural practices, neighborhood and neighborliness, hygienic toilets and waste management.

He explained how he designed ‘kindred homes’ in Delhi which were a midway between nuclear families and joint families by allowing common private spaces for the families of the siblings. He also explained how he built office buildings which allowed natural lighting inside the building.

Later there was a panel discussion in which Ar Madhav Raman, Ar Sriram Ganapathi, Managing Director of KSM Architecture, Ar K Senthil Kumar, Chairman, The Indian Institute of Architects, Tamil Nadu Chapter, Ar Manoharan Jayaraman, Chairperson of The Indian Institute of Interior Design, Chennai Chapter and Ar Devi Prasad participated.

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