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Architects Urged to Copy IndiaRenowned Indian architect Charles Correa has said housing designs from his home country offer the key to eco-friendly buildings of the future.
Correa, who is famed for design principles based on low-density, low cost architecture at a reduced environmental cost, wants architects to examine low-rise, high-density urban areas such as Rajasthan as a way of best using natural and local resources.
"The basic principle of housing in a country like India is that you have very limited resources," Correa told BBC World Service's Masterpiece programme.
"Therefore you have to use great ingenuity. That's when you really learn to respect what traditionally is done.
"If you look at a village in Kerala, everything is re-used and recycled. Leaves which fall from palm trees are used again for the roofs.
"There's nothing like poverty to be the mother of invention. As an architect, looking at those solutions, I was absolutely stunned by it."
The explosion of the Indian economy in recent years has triggered massive expansion in the heart of India's major cities.
Correa, who said that Indians use space "extremely intelligently", explained that in India, tower blocks - "going high" - do not attract many people, and therefore better use of space in low-rise buildings has to be achieved.
more: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/35... (105)
September 9, 2004 | Viewed 20,266 time(s)
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