What does it take to design, create, and settle a city? Humankind has resolved these questions in varying epochs and geographical contexts, very differently, when looked into the details of — and through all these brilliant ways of becoming, we have shaped our worlds today- in the charming cities and towns we inhabit. 

Human colonies have been an intriguing subject not because the idea is new, but precisely the opposite— making it quite a rare definition of ‘interesting’ in the current day of rapidly growing areas of interest and applications. Hereby, the ideas of civil engineering, city planning, urban planning, traffic control, and pedestrian safety are only some of the ideas that come in the same gamut — the ideas that we were able to discuss with Prof. Geetam Tiwari, a distinguished expert in the field, and currently a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. 

In our conversation with her, we travelled along the curious pathways leading to a fundamental understanding of the shaping of city spaces, in context with the historical pillars of human settlements, as well as the ones that we inhabit currently across different continents, and socio-economic influences among other multifarious factors that make the discipline fascinating beyond measure.

As is largely true with our everyday life this discussion sheds some nurturing rays of revelation on why our everyday cities and towns look the way they do — the details that we forget to notice, and what goes into thinking and making of such a complex organism — a city itself.

Take the plunge and discover more about this fascinating topic here!