SHOULD architecture in general, and specifically architecture of cities, follow the dictates of environmental morality? There is now a growing concern among town planners that it should. Keeping this in mind, the proposal is to comprehensively develop India through flexible Environmental Planning Units (EPUs). For this we shall have to consider the needs of the Indians, and go in for integrated and comprehensive planning, giving highest priority to ecological considerations.

During my professional experience as an architect, I feel fully convinced that in the process of development of our nation, we have failed at various levels, specifically in terms of having been unable to provide a healthy environment for our future generations. In fact, we have created urban chaos and slums everywhere,throwing the entire infrastructure out of gear.

The main objective should be to try to provide a healthy environment through integrated and comprehensive planning for both urban and rural areas, because cities cannot exist in isolation; they must have integration and healthy interaction with rural areas and regions. Also, industry needs to be dispersed over a larger area to prevent pollution.

Chandigarh is a good example of fresh urban development in a backward area. The impact of this experiment in the field of architecture was so strong that Punjab was the first state of India to have a full-fledged, independent and permanent department of architecture, town and country planning to take care of its total developmental works. In 1958, both these departments were put under the overall technical control of Pierre Jeanneret as the first Chief Architect, Chief Town and Country Planning Officer of the state development projects.

Having had the opportunity of working with Le Corbusier and P. Jeanneret for many years, both these personalities and the city of Chandigarh became a major inspiration behind these proposals.

In India, Chandigarh is the first example of planning a new city, taking care of the projected needs of the urban community in a systematic manner. It incorporates the principles of the 'three human establishments' as enunciated by Le Corbusier in his book, The Three Human Establishments, in which he advocated development of industrial settlements away from urban areas, which would be surrounded by agricultural greenbelts. Within the last 50 years, this city has grown into a prosperous urban community with good urban infrastructure and civic amenities and an almost pollution-free environment.

This has led to the conviction that we can develop more such towns. If we can identify various areas of infertile land in backward areas in all states which are still undeveloped, and develop them into our new industrial or non-industrial urban centres, providing appropriate infrastructure and protecting them all around with compulsory forestry in all situations, we could surely give our future generations more pollution-free and balanced urban and rural countrysides, and yet produce more wealth.

During my tenure as Chief Architect to the Punjab government, a realisation dawned on me that the development of Punjab was going in the wrong direction. Most of its fertile land was gradually being eaten up by industrial settlements that were growing at a fast rate for example Ludhiana, Jalandhar, and Amritsar. This is what inspired me into developing the first conceptual Environmental Planning Unit EPU-(approx. 50 km x 50 km) in an orientation which could simultaneously take care of urban development, industrial location, forestry and agriculture.

The studies of the existing situation in Punjab indicated the unbalanced growth in the northern, central and southern zones. Both the northern and southern zones were infertile and under-developed, and the central zone, though very fertile, was badly decaying on account of lack of environmental considerations. The study further convinced us that we must lay additional developmental infrastructure in the flexible grid pattern in the northern and southern regions, and have no more industry in the central zone to provide a more balanced development of urban Punjab for the mutual good of future rural and urban population. The advantage was taken of abundant water supply and the availability of power from hydro-electric projects to plant new urban and industrial settlements. The Punjab government has already taken a decision not to place any industry in and around existing cities. Goindwal Sahib is being executed as a new township, based on these concepts. There are a few more proposals to come up in due course of time, the Anandgarh project being one of them.

Le Corbusier's 'three human establishments', namely agricultural, industrial and urban, need to be suitably segregated, and yet integrated in a comprehensive manner for human life anywhere. In the past decades we have gone in for satellite industrial towns around major cities, resulting in excessive pollution and traffic chaos in these cities, making life unhealthy and difficult for the citizens (Delhi being the worst example). Also, this has led to a great disparity between rural and urban lives, which in turn has continually led to more influx of rural population towards urban areas, creating greater imbalance and slums in the existing cities. It is, therefore, desirable to restrict the size of the cities and concentrate on developing new urban centres: industrial and non-industrial.

Each exercise of such city planning needs larger consideration of urban-rural balance, which in turn means careful environmental planning. This could be achieved with the help of the proposed flexible Environmental Planning Units (EPUs) all over India.

Nature's architecture must be understood with the help of the latest science and technology and architecture should be planned accordingly. The proposed EPU is the man-made unit founded on this concept of environmental morality. It is an approximately 50 km x 50 km unit; 50 km. having been found suitable for providing the necessary infrastructure for any human settlement, and for allowing nature's self correcting properties to get rid of any pollution of air, water and land, based on the study in the case of Punjab about 27 years ago. A flexible, integrated and comprehensive hierarchy of nine such EPUs shall further become a mother EPU, providing a higher hierarchy level of infrastructure for the constituent and neighbouring EPUs. However, in this scheme, both industrial and non-industrial parallel urbanisation are to be located only on infertile land in backward areas with their respective appropriate infrastructures. Also, this approximately 150 km grid shall not be applicable to existing cities having a population of two million or above or to specially designed towns like Chandigarh. This basic EPU has been purposely kept at an orientation of 45 degree to the north/south axis keeping in view the sun, breeze and monsoon direction, irrigation and drainage of agricultural land as per studies done in the case of Punjab. Also, Nagpur, being the geographical centre of India, has been taken as the starting point for the proposed infrastructural grids, both industrial (perpendicular to breeze direction) and non-industrial (parallel to breeze direction).

Each unit shall have its own agricultural zone, industrial urban zone, non-industrial urban zone, urban-rural and forestry zones. Each such zone shall have its necessary facilities like residences, shops, schools, hospitals, colleges, playgrounds etc. All new industrial settlements shall be placed perpendicular to the breeze with a thick cover of compulsory forestry and agricultural development. This is proposed, to ensure that

pollution and other side-effects of industrial development do not adversely affect the lives of humanbeings,especially children and senior citizens, in residential areas. Polluted air, smoke, etc., 2from factories would not be allowed to blow over residential complexes and gas tragedies like Bhopal would be avoided. The EPU shall provide moderate and healthy living and working conditions to all its inhabitants in each unit. Each of these 700 or so units shall have an identity of its own, based on their respective constraints, like all of nature's creations. This would be in line with the diversity which is so typical of the vast nation of India.

To start with, the country would be divided into five regions (northern, southern, eastern, western and central) and one such mother EPU developed in each region as a pilot project in the next five years. At present, there are

remote-sensing facilities available throughout India. These can be effectively used for detailed mapping of ecological realities and development of these five regional mother EPUs. The intention is to have this proposed concept, originated entirely in the Indian context, open for a national debate so that the government of India, the state governments and the private sector could be motivated to make suitable investments for making the fresh five mother EPUs in the proposed five regions.

In this debate, each Indian planner could contribute to make India more prosperous, balanced and healthy via man-made architecture in harmony with nature's architecture during the third millennium. Architecture of this millennium should be sustainable and free of slums and filth, both in rural and urban areas. We, as Indians shall have to achieve this objective by finally planning and constructing about 700 EPUs all over India in the next millennium. It calls for hard work and clear thinking by all concerned authorities.

This concept is not only addressed to the authorities concerned, but to the Indian masses at large, both in rural and urban areas to improve their lot, surely, but gradually all around. The bursting population of India is the most problematic challenge the professionals have to face and find affordable solutions within the ecological constraints. Unless we look and plan ahead of times, anticipating at least for the next 100 years, we shall always be in trouble as a nation and as individuals.