Rubanisation
Ruban India Foundation
Concept Note
“Cities are symbols of economic power, the arts, military prowess, politics, civic culture, intellectual ferment, creativity and so on. Moreover, urbanity itself is seen as the up-market styling of manners. And so over the past 500 years, first through the Renaissance and the enlightenment, then through the Industrial Revolution, the ascendance of the West became the very definition of progress and power.
..The drive to catch up with the West propels Asian development. This is also reflected in the global dynamics of style, which are reflected locally as the partially digested styles of the globalized upper-classes. These are emulated by the middle-classes and then downwards until the bottom end of the affordability ladder is reached. And so, similarly, “catch-up nations” emulate the styles of their previous colonizing masters as an international pecking order comes about. Not only is style spread this way, but ideas also." (1)
How well has India been at playing catch-up on the URbanisation game?
With a ‘stark warning’, a recent Mckinsey report (2) suggests that "if India continues with its current unplanned urbanisation, it will result in a significant deterioration in the quality of life in cities and will put even today’s economic growth rate at risk. Statistics show the current performance of Indian cities in water supply quantity, sewage treatment, healthcare and public transport is quite poor."
Without getting into the problems of URbanisation in Asia and in India, as can fill up gigabytes of digital space, the thrust of this note is to emphasise how URbanisation is the wrong horse that Asia and India have hopped on to. RUbanisation is presented, in turn, as the right horse that will propel true and meaningful progress in Asia and in India. Rubanisation: An Introduction
Rubanisation is an integrated land-use planning model developed by distinguished architect and thinker Tay Kheng Soon (3) - a
Concept Note
“Cities are symbols of economic power, the arts, military prowess, politics, civic culture, intellectual ferment, creativity and so on. Moreover, urbanity itself is seen as the up-market styling of manners. And so over the past 500 years, first through the Renaissance and the enlightenment, then through the Industrial Revolution, the ascendance of the West became the very definition of progress and power.
..The drive to catch up with the West propels Asian development. This is also reflected in the global dynamics of style, which are reflected locally as the partially digested styles of the globalized upper-classes. These are emulated by the middle-classes and then downwards until the bottom end of the affordability ladder is reached. And so, similarly, “catch-up nations” emulate the styles of their previous colonizing masters as an international pecking order comes about. Not only is style spread this way, but ideas also." (1)
How well has India been at playing catch-up on the URbanisation game?
With a ‘stark warning’, a recent Mckinsey report (2) suggests that "if India continues with its current unplanned urbanisation, it will result in a significant deterioration in the quality of life in cities and will put even today’s economic growth rate at risk. Statistics show the current performance of Indian cities in water supply quantity, sewage treatment, healthcare and public transport is quite poor."
Without getting into the problems of URbanisation in Asia and in India, as can fill up gigabytes of digital space, the thrust of this note is to emphasise how URbanisation is the wrong horse that Asia and India have hopped on to. RUbanisation is presented, in turn, as the right horse that will propel true and meaningful progress in Asia and in India. Rubanisation: An Introduction
Rubanisation is an integrated land-use planning model developed by distinguished architect and thinker Tay Kheng Soon (3) - a
References: Monday, June 21, 2010 Steps in Implementing Rubanisation