Chennai Architecture Foundation (CAF) is organising a talk – 60 years of city planning in Chennai: What went wrong and how to go forward? by A.Srivathsan
Chennai explored innovative building and planning ideas in 19th and early part of 20th centuries. Going by where it stands and how the city functions now, it appears that was not the case in recent times. What went wrong? There was no dearth of plans, big ideas, and schemes.
Over the past 60 years, starting from 1957 when the first comprehensive scheme was prepared for Chennai, city agencies have drawn many plans. To name a few: the 1960 master plan, Interim plan in 1967, first statutory plan in 1975, Alan Turner proposal in 1980, draft plan in 1995 , and Second Master Plan in 2008. All of them promised a well-designed city with adequate housing, easy mobility and `civic design with aesthetic effects.’ If they have not delivered, what was the problem? Did the ideas fail or the implementation flounder?
Chennai is set to expand its size and cover a vast region of 8,878 sq.km. A new plan is on the anvil. It is time to ask whether planning should continue as business as usual or radically alter course.
Venue: Spaces, 1, Elliot’s Beach Road, Besant Nagar.
Time: 6.30 p.m.
Open to all.