The story of Narasimha, a Vishnu avatar, is a story of intellect and wit. To defeat Hiranakashipu, who was invincible, Narasimha had to conquer him over the threshold between day and night, ground and sky. While mythological stories remain totem poles in the urban context, it’s undoubtedly a fight to tackle compelling issues of our cities. Be it the redevelopment of government housing in Delhi, the reimagining of the Buckingham Canal in Chennai, or improving liveability of affordable houses across the country — architectural competitions seem to be the only thresholds at which such battles can be led.

Over the past few months, professional bodies of architecture in India have been announcing competitions, to open up ideas, dialogue and alternatives to present urban scenarios. The Institute of Urban Designers India (IUDI) — a national level association of urban design professionals, academicians and practitioners — called for a design challenge for the “Redevelopment of Sarojini Nagar”.

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Ahmedabad-based architect Kirtee Shah, Founder President, Habitat Forum (INHAF), has challenged professionals to make low-income housing projects more people-centric through the competition “Improving Liveability of Small Houses”. “It’s not a conventional competition. We are not asking them to design something new. A participant has to propose an existing housing project, done either by private builders or the state, and redesign it. The other aspect is that they get to change the building bye-laws of the project. This is something no competition has done before. I believe building bye-laws kill creativity. Lastly, the competition expects that participants present two live case studies and document the innovations in them. Go see how people live in small apartments and the kind of challenges they face,” says Shah.

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