Book Review

Sustainable Urbanism

Pallavi Dalal

Tekton
Volume 2, Issue 1, March 2015
pp. 110 – 111

One of the most striking features of urbanisation is its dynamic nature. This is due to varying intermittent phases of the process whereby human society moves from being predominantly rural to being largely urban. Henrik Valeur in his book “India: The Urban Transition – A Case Study of Development Urbanism” talks about the factors affecting this transition citing mainly Chandigarh and Bangalore as examples.

Henrik Valeur is a Danish architect-urbanist based in Copenhagen. He is concerned about ever-increasing consumption leading to exhaustion of natural resources, disruption of eco-systems and reduction of biodiversity, besides the production of hazardous waste and greenhouse gasses contributing to global climate change. Valeur is a selfconfessed Indophile, during his visits to India, he has collaborated with architecture schools, city authorities, planners and NGOs mainly in Chandigarh and Bangalore. He has compiled his experiences and outcomes of studies in a form of this book with fresh perspective towards these two Indian cities.

In his book, Valeur foregrounds his concerns about air pollution, contamination and depletion of freshwater resources, lack of proper housing, environmental and human

India: The Urban Transition A Case Study of Development Urbanism

Author:
Henrik Valeur

Publisher:
The Architectural Publisher B (2014)

Pages:
344

Price:
EUR 30