TOI: Why is providing affordable housing to all still a challenge after 70 years of independence?

Lall: The central cause is that town planning and land policy is not determined by the local government, but by the chief minister. It should be under the mayor, who is directly answerable to his citizens. The second reason can be that government has washed its hands off of its responsibility while our poorest citizens provide for themselves. This ends up in "slums". We have to plan and regulate this process to ensure decent living conditions and a gradual process of up-gradation. The most critical shortfall has been that the prevalent principles and methods of town planning are inappropriate as they are not integrating the poorest citizens into the growing city and failing to protect the environmental infrastructure of clean air, water, natural drainage and greenery.

Should we build new smart cities or revamp the infrastructure of our current cities?

Smart cities are opportunities to test some ideas. The measure of success will be how smart actions produce distribution of wealth, shelter for all, no pollution of air, water or soil, clean drinking water, access to education and health, and prevention of flooding low energy consumption with utilization of solar energy.

Can there be a feasible model of infrastructural growth without damage to the local ecosystem?

Yes. The model is based on a strong public transport network combined with footpaths and cycle paths. Road space can be brought down to seven per cent of city surface.

Decentralized water sourcing and distribution as per the local availability of water, combined with protection of sources and harvesting rainwater, should be the primary determinants of town planning. This makes city life resilient, secure and productive in the long run.

Your views on a core construction material like steel are not coherent with the market-driven global economy. How can such a shift be made in times when steel is so cheap?

Materials like steel, stainless steel, plate glass, aluminum and plastics consume a huge amount of fossil fuel-based energy during production, adding rapidly to climate change. Their market price does not reflect their environmental price. Designers have to use them with discretion and great efficiency. Get more out of less. If we were environmentally responsible, we'd make the market price of materials include their environmental price, too.

Have we learnt enough from our past architectural marvels and are we employing them in constructing our current cities?

No, we are not, as we are constructing high-density highrises over huge parking podiums. This is the surest way of condemning our citizens to an unsustainable city life. Old cities worked and are still working because in them, population densities are limited by the availability of water; neighbourhoods are car-free with surrounding streets for motorized movement and city-level public transport; and places for homes, commerce, recreation, health and education are intermingled.

What are the biggest challenges architects in India are facing today in the face of growing, unplanned urbanization?

The purpose of urban planning is to leverage urban growth and development toward social and economic equity. For that, a policy of reserving land protected from market speculation to enable affordable shelter for all income groups, is required. This is at the root of the successful transformation of society in Singapore and post-war Western Europe. A free market in land and urban development leads to concentration of wealth cornering the services of the city (locked-up investor flats in multi-storey towers) at one end, and at the opposite end, it creates unplanned slums. This is the challenge and the opportunity of urbanization, specially for the medium and small cities.