At the micro level of a shelter programme, space is the most important commodity, which needs to be optimally used not only for upgrading the immediate and overall environment but also for reasons of the economics, finance, life style, tradition and culture of the people who are expected to live there. The author, one of the leading architects and planners in India today, brings out the futility of a cosmetic approach to planning ideas, where significant resources are ignored and which remain untapped and unutilized but which could make our living environment more congenial and desirable. This paper highlights the most intimate relationship of man with the immediate environment in our settlements. The author has made suggestions which can integrate and transform the space we are wasting as an invaluable resource for upgrading the quality of life in human settlements. (Ed.)1

• 1. Reprinted from The New Landscape by Charles Correa (1989), published by MIMAR Publications, Concept Media Ltd., London.