Ecology crucial to urban planning: Sheila Sri Prakash

Ecology crucial to urban planning: Sheila Sri Prakash

Kerala should sensitively respect its  fabulous ecology in planning the urban landscape, said Sheila Sri Prakash, renowned architect and sustainability expert.

She was inaugurating the first edition of the CREDAI Real Talk on Thursday in Kochi. CREDAI Real talk is the annual lecture given by the most adept and accomplished professionals in the industry organised by the Kochi chapter of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India. She contrasted the history of two famous cities - Shanghai and Venice - and helped the audience understand the key differences in the path for the future of the these two urban centres and the ingredients for longevity in the DNA of these cities.

She opened up the future through her thoughts on how Indo centric design and thinking approaches will draw parallels between these two cities and Kochi. She also emphasised on the fact that the right strategy for Kochi to emerge as a world famous city is by empowering it through its distinctive heritage, unique culture that is complimented by design and architecture. She specifically pointed that city planning in Kochi has to creatively make use of the tremendous network of waterways. “In the name of development, Kochi should not lose the cultural specifics. Developmental activities should not abuse nature. Any kind of urban planning should respect nature. Only by respecting nature we can create a holistically sustainable model of urban development”, she said.

She added that a combination of social, economical and ecological factors play in developing a holistic model of urban development. “A city that is not inclusive of the most downtrodden sections cannot be termed as a holistic development”, she said.  

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