Catalyst05: Technology

 The Disruptive City: Delhi

The Corona Virus Pandemic of 2019, revealed to us not only the vulnerability of the Human Species but are Cities as well. The Pandemic stretched out and exposed the limits of our City Spaces and Infrastructure. Cities Globally were underequipped to handle their own Human population. What would the point of statistics and Data be if we are going to ignore them. Cities were turned into mass scale prisons where our Homes became our confinement quarters. I can not help but think or relate this to be a nightmare version of Rem Koolhaas's Exodus or better known as Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture. However this wasn't Voluntary. 

We were held hostage by nature, whilst it repaired the damage the human species has caused to it. Our movements halted while the Skies and rivers cleared themselves just by bringing Man and his/her way of life to a standstill. Our urban lives rendered disrupted. Our cities helpless and staggering in our support.  However, nature was demonstrating its capacity to heal itself. We were able to see the mountains again through our polluted skies from our cities. Our polluted rivers, which we poured not only our waste, but also decades of Billions of Dollars in trying to then clean up our mess, were crystal clear in a matter of few weeks to a few months. 

We are the problem. 

Man is the only species that operates in ways alien to our natural environment and habitat. We are at a point in history where our Cities, Planning Strategies and Policies are rendered obsolete- either by technology or by nature. 

So what is the City? Can we truly imagine the City and its spaces of the Future? 

In our quest of discovery of the resilient City of  Tomorrow we have selected 7 catalysts that we perceive will lead to impact and change of the city. Through the course of our experiments we will be engaging and testing the city through these Catalysts of Disruption. We hope to document our research through this blog.

The Urban Form Lab at the Urban Design Department at School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi along with Amit Talwar Associates research wing Office of Blurred Edges have aligned themselves together to discover the Resilient City and its Spaces of the Future.

Welcome to The Disruptive City : Delhi !