For some comparative research on intra-urban inequality, I started looking at Mumbai’s urban governance structure, and, wow, it’s complicated. While in Tokyo you had and have a fairly clear-cut division between central government, TMG and wards, the Indian megacity appears to have many more layers and parallel structures. Some notes to get my head around this below.
By the dictates of closing browser tabs, I just wanted to jot down a very small number of reading notes on this gem of a PDF I found when researching post-independence South Asian New Town designs. Continue reading
For the lack of better photography, but in need of some color on this page, this tree from Bangkok photographed during a nightly stroll
I am trying to put together a comparative paper on slums in Mumbai and Bangkok, which draws some inspiration from my work on Tokyo. It is basically about comparing the spatial distribution of slum populations across the cities. Some thoughts following the jump. Continue reading
Using Rana Dasgupta’s Capital: A Portrait of Twenty-First Century Delhi for my Global Cities class is a double-edged sword. I wonder whether it offers a “fair” representation of life in the city.
Delhi, 2014
I stumbled upon an interesting blog post on Market Urbanism from a few years ago that talks about Tokyo’s surprising lack of density. I would disagree somewhat with that statement. More below the jump.
Tokyo towards the West as seen from Shinjuku
Our Yangon Architectural Guide features six thematic chapters on various topics to do with the built environment. Upon reflection and with some time passing since we worked on the manuscript, there could definitely be a few more, in particular one on slums.
Man in Dala – not your typical slum (yet?) — (c) Manuel Oka
During the research for our Yangon Architectural Guide, we came across this American architect. He built the Tripitaka Library (Pitaka Taik), also known as the Great Buddhist Library in Yangon. Some scribbles below the jump.
Tripitaka Library, photo by Manuel Oka
Much time has passed without any update. I hope the blog will resume normal operations now that the move to Washington, D.C. is fully completed. In lieu of a proper travelogue from Chennai (where I spent time in August this year), I post this photo of a bookshop taken in the beautiful T Nagar neighborhood.
Long overdue here are some notes from a walk we took through Dharavi last month. Dharavi is often referred to as Asia’s quintessential slum. What reminded me to put up this post was an article in the Architectural Review entitled “Enough Slum Porn: The Global North’s Fetishisation of Poverty Architecture Must End”.
Cross-posted from the GFI blog: I am back from a month traveling in India, visiting Delhi, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. It was an opportune moment to assess the first 100 days of the new BJP government under prime minister Modi.
The Secretariat’s South Block in Delhi