The ISOLA conference at IHC started off with the Keynote address by Prof. Ranjit Mitra- Director, SPA, after the Inaugural addresses by the ISOLA President (Mrs. Savita Punde), Vice President (Mr. Rohit Marol) and the lighting of the ‘Samai’ –a brass wick lamp. The conference was structured around four headings: Genesis, Networks, Tomorrow and Images.
Prof Mitra’s concerns of ‘space for public’ and ‘city as public space’ highlighted the progressive disconnect between City form and people oriented Open space as seen in Indian cities. While the various City Improvement Trusts across colonial India simply allocated a percentile of their development area as civic open space- not all of it in judicious juxtaposition, Lutyens’ Delhi incorporated itself as a Garden city on the lines of the City Beautiful Movement –in comparison to its near-contemporaries such as the Art Deco rendered Marine Drive of Mumbai- a disconnected urban spatial experience disregarding the promenade and the maidans between which it is straddled Another similar colonial example cited was of the Kolkata Maidan.
With the example of Delhi, Prof Mitra pointed out the fallacy of looking at City Masterplans as disparate events in time, rather than a genesis. One highlight of this is the scope of realizing activism towards incorporating city level greens with those at the neighbourhood level, and attempting to form a consistent open space structure for public use. He pointed out that Gurgaon’s development plan as a reflection of its physical form- “successful architecture + bad planning”- a developer oriented land use plan with motorized movement networks- a bad example being followed by the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) around the country.
The first session titled Genesis was chaired by Prof. Shaheer who pointed out that places like Gurgaon, and gated enclaves in almost every Indian city, without a face to the streets they are on, are to be examined and re-thought in the vein of ‘Mistakes as a path to future successes’, and that it is possible to structure the city from another point of view- that of its users- the people and of the city as a live organism.
Mr. Dennis Pieprz, President, Sasaki Associates, in his talk on the ‘Urban Design Framework’ questioned the feeble integrity of urban design masterplan examples which had a strong singular design signature where it appears that the architect/ urban designer is saying ‘I will design every building’. Sasaki Associates’ strategy of ‘Long term Build out Plan’ for the Beijing Olympics Masterplan, showcased an opposite approach while preserving the underpinnings of the design throughout its long run such as Open space sequencing and integrative attitude towards History, Cultural layers and Landscape eco-regions in which they occur. This was especially felt in their work for the Abu Dhabi University Park, aimed at the concern that Abu Dhabi should not turn into the next Dubai.- modern but regionally unspecific, and ostentious.
Talking about the vivacity of a highly integrated mixed-use city, Mr. Pieprz contrasted the Tu Theim Masterplan (Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam), against the monoculture commercial landuse of Pudong with its out-of scale buildings and disoriented public realm, which had resulted in the city turning its back to the water- the very reason for its existence as seen in history, while Ho Chi Minh scale and structure of its traditional and active neighbourhood blocks was a strong determinant in Sasaki Associates’ design, thus attempting to provide for the same ethos in the new city. Likewise, the Southworks Lakeside Project, Chicago- discussed Brownfield re-integration with the concept of an urban Arboretum as a landuse as well as a landscape maintenance program, very much in line with the Sasaki approach of providing for long term build out.
Sasaki’s work in Urban Landscape Planning brings in some relevant and key ideas to the Indian audience- Urban Design Vision Plan, Long term buildout, ‘Multicentred, connected, integrated City’, ‘Sense of Place’ environments, Heat island modeling for cities, Arboretum as an urban landuse program and Art and Culture as regenerative boosters for incorporating open space in urban design and a ‘Greens First’ principle which should dictate the City form. These are words which are constantly revisited in academia, especially during thesis. In practice they fall prey to notions of ‘transgression of professional boundaries’ held by other professionals such as architects, conservation architects, planners etc.
Dr. Vinod Gupta’s titillatingly titled talk- “The City is NOT a Garden” looked at the traditional city’s physical footprint (Shahjahanabad, Jaipur), and how its dimensions were the result of a direct acknowledgement of human comfort and daily use in moving from end-to end of the city, narrated using evocative vignettes of his own childhood. As a well known advocate of energy sustainable approach to design, Dr Gupta’s framework of the ‘Energy Efficient town’ placed a lot of emphasis on inclusive participation of a landscape architect in city planning and city design processes, while decrying the imagery of ‘fixity’, ‘signature design’ and ‘absolute city form’, as noted by him in examples like Chandigarh-India, ArcoSanti- Arizona, the Bionic Tower-Madrid and the 1 sq mile Ziggurat- UAE. Through examples of student projects and international projects such as Masdar City-UAE, Ras-Al-Khaimah-Riyadh, Eastgate- Harare and Shibam City-Yemen, Dr Gupta showed that it is possible to incorporate ideas of Thermal comfort, pedestrianism, accessible greens, and Cities as models of Energy management and self sufficiency towards energy and food.
The highlight of Prashant Hedao's talk on Water and Regional Landscapes was his work on the Environmental Atlas of Abu Dhabi and the role of GIS a useful tool in assimilating large amounts of data in planning or sensitively rehabilitating a region as seen in his work for the Tsunami rehabilitation in Tamilnadu.
Dr. Dinesh Mohan- well known for his insights on capacity –based transport systems, spoke about the irrationality of the apparent logic of increasing roads to accommodate traffic. With a hard-driven argument for restricting the largest street widths to 25 metres, and incorporating streetside vendors, Dr Mohan’s vision of the resultant street section is indeed food-for-thought. Terming the segregation of vehicular traffic into overhead and on-grade as ‘sheer waste’, Dr Mohan suggested looking at the very problem of limiting cars in the city, and designing the city to make shared/public transport more user oriented instead of the other way around.
However his citation of the data which pegs 44% of Mumbaikars walking to work as against 5% who drive down, might have sounded realistic if the pedestrian statistic was presented as “x % take a train /bus to work, and THEREON y % walk to work”. Makes me wonder about the sample size for such a statistic, and whether it was taken in the monsoon- the one time when most Mumbaikars walk to avoid being struck in floods.
Michael E Arth’s advocacy of pedestrian-oriented urban neighbourhoods, and its direct impact on appreciation of real estate value, in his talk “New Urbanism and New Pedestrianism in the 21st Century”, seems to be an easy thing to adopt in India, given its measured success in the US. This is due to the fact that a large section of Indian society is still immune to the car as THE conveyance, thus bringing in a scope of re-integrating the pedestrian realm into neighbourhood, sectorial and city-level plans. I hope developers and civic bodies discover this logic, insisting on pedestrian oriented design.
Leonard Lynch’s take on the title of his talk- On the Waterfront- the movie starring Marlon Brando as the protagonist and his struggles, in Mr Lynch’s view, was metaphorically similar to those faced by an Urban Designer. The highlight of Mr Lynch’s talk was the evolution of Sydney and the impact on the Paramatta river.
Dr. Suchandra Bardhan’s insights on the Urbanism dictating the evolution of Rajarhat (near Kolkatta) showed the realities of the Indian scenario where dreams of eco-sensitive development soon gives way to the lure of the market. It was evident in Rajarhat’s case, its 80 km proximity to the fragile Sunderbans- a protected Ramsar wetland, has implications beyond the site environs. What emerges is the myopia and the helplessness of the environmental brigade, landscape architects included, in nipping such troubles.
The development outlay for Rajarhat, interestingly, was in contrast to the advocacy of Dr Dinesh Mohan and Michael E Arth. It was a pity that this session did not culminate in a good debate due to every speaker overstepping the allotted time in this session as well.
The Third session titled ‘TOMORROW’ saw some similar trajectories and visuals between the three presenters: Mr Philip Rode (Cities and Climate Change), Mr Sunand Prasad (Tomorrow’s Low Carbon City) and Mr Samir Mathur (Cities and Possibilities), thus stating the inescapability of facing challenges like Climate change, carbon emissions, the role of Landscape as Green infrastructure, the pre-eminence assigned to road networks instead of making cities assimilative in character and the lost wisdom of mixed use urban environments. Mr Prasad aptly summarized the concerns in his rhetoric of the sudden abandoning of sustainable urban forms existing for hundreds of years.
The final session- IMAGES- looked at the role of landscape art in the image of the city. The work of artist Mary Miss used visual metaphor to illustrate the topography and flood susceptibility of Boulder, Colorado in her showcased work- Connect the Dots: Mapping the High Water, Hazards and History of Boulder Creek. Based on data compiled by the city of Boulder, Miss marked where water would reach during a potential 500-year flood all around Boulder, by attaching more than 200 discarded paint can lids, painted blue, to trees and buildings across the city of Boulder: “Connecting the dots” while strolling through town illustrated that hardly any buildings would survive such a scenario. It was great to know that this installation’s comprehension enforced action on various fronts including re-visiting Boulder’s disaster management plan.
Prof Mitra’s concerns of ‘space for public’ and ‘city as public space’ highlighted the progressive disconnect between City form and people oriented Open space as seen in Indian cities. While the various City Improvement Trusts across colonial India simply allocated a percentile of their development area as civic open space- not all of it in judicious juxtaposition, Lutyens’ Delhi incorporated itself as a Garden city on the lines of the City Beautiful Movement –in comparison to its near-contemporaries such as the Art Deco rendered Marine Drive of Mumbai- a disconnected urban spatial experience disregarding the promenade and the maidans between which it is straddled Another similar colonial example cited was of the Kolkata Maidan.
With the example of Delhi, Prof Mitra pointed out the fallacy of looking at City Masterplans as disparate events in time, rather than a genesis. One highlight of this is the scope of realizing activism towards incorporating city level greens with those at the neighbourhood level, and attempting to form a consistent open space structure for public use. He pointed out that Gurgaon’s development plan as a reflection of its physical form- “successful architecture + bad planning”- a developer oriented land use plan with motorized movement networks- a bad example being followed by the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) around the country.
The first session titled Genesis was chaired by Prof. Shaheer who pointed out that places like Gurgaon, and gated enclaves in almost every Indian city, without a face to the streets they are on, are to be examined and re-thought in the vein of ‘Mistakes as a path to future successes’, and that it is possible to structure the city from another point of view- that of its users- the people and of the city as a live organism.
Mr. Dennis Pieprz, President, Sasaki Associates, in his talk on the ‘Urban Design Framework’ questioned the feeble integrity of urban design masterplan examples which had a strong singular design signature where it appears that the architect/ urban designer is saying ‘I will design every building’. Sasaki Associates’ strategy of ‘Long term Build out Plan’ for the Beijing Olympics Masterplan, showcased an opposite approach while preserving the underpinnings of the design throughout its long run such as Open space sequencing and integrative attitude towards History, Cultural layers and Landscape eco-regions in which they occur. This was especially felt in their work for the Abu Dhabi University Park, aimed at the concern that Abu Dhabi should not turn into the next Dubai.- modern but regionally unspecific, and ostentious.
Talking about the vivacity of a highly integrated mixed-use city, Mr. Pieprz contrasted the Tu Theim Masterplan (Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam), against the monoculture commercial landuse of Pudong with its out-of scale buildings and disoriented public realm, which had resulted in the city turning its back to the water- the very reason for its existence as seen in history, while Ho Chi Minh scale and structure of its traditional and active neighbourhood blocks was a strong determinant in Sasaki Associates’ design, thus attempting to provide for the same ethos in the new city. Likewise, the Southworks Lakeside Project, Chicago- discussed Brownfield re-integration with the concept of an urban Arboretum as a landuse as well as a landscape maintenance program, very much in line with the Sasaki approach of providing for long term build out.
Sasaki’s work in Urban Landscape Planning brings in some relevant and key ideas to the Indian audience- Urban Design Vision Plan, Long term buildout, ‘Multicentred, connected, integrated City’, ‘Sense of Place’ environments, Heat island modeling for cities, Arboretum as an urban landuse program and Art and Culture as regenerative boosters for incorporating open space in urban design and a ‘Greens First’ principle which should dictate the City form. These are words which are constantly revisited in academia, especially during thesis. In practice they fall prey to notions of ‘transgression of professional boundaries’ held by other professionals such as architects, conservation architects, planners etc.
Dr. Vinod Gupta’s titillatingly titled talk- “The City is NOT a Garden” looked at the traditional city’s physical footprint (Shahjahanabad, Jaipur), and how its dimensions were the result of a direct acknowledgement of human comfort and daily use in moving from end-to end of the city, narrated using evocative vignettes of his own childhood. As a well known advocate of energy sustainable approach to design, Dr Gupta’s framework of the ‘Energy Efficient town’ placed a lot of emphasis on inclusive participation of a landscape architect in city planning and city design processes, while decrying the imagery of ‘fixity’, ‘signature design’ and ‘absolute city form’, as noted by him in examples like Chandigarh-India, ArcoSanti- Arizona, the Bionic Tower-Madrid and the 1 sq mile Ziggurat- UAE. Through examples of student projects and international projects such as Masdar City-UAE, Ras-Al-Khaimah-Riyadh, Eastgate- Harare and Shibam City-Yemen, Dr Gupta showed that it is possible to incorporate ideas of Thermal comfort, pedestrianism, accessible greens, and Cities as models of Energy management and self sufficiency towards energy and food.
The highlight of Prashant Hedao's talk on Water and Regional Landscapes was his work on the Environmental Atlas of Abu Dhabi and the role of GIS a useful tool in assimilating large amounts of data in planning or sensitively rehabilitating a region as seen in his work for the Tsunami rehabilitation in Tamilnadu.
Dr. Dinesh Mohan- well known for his insights on capacity –based transport systems, spoke about the irrationality of the apparent logic of increasing roads to accommodate traffic. With a hard-driven argument for restricting the largest street widths to 25 metres, and incorporating streetside vendors, Dr Mohan’s vision of the resultant street section is indeed food-for-thought. Terming the segregation of vehicular traffic into overhead and on-grade as ‘sheer waste’, Dr Mohan suggested looking at the very problem of limiting cars in the city, and designing the city to make shared/public transport more user oriented instead of the other way around.
However his citation of the data which pegs 44% of Mumbaikars walking to work as against 5% who drive down, might have sounded realistic if the pedestrian statistic was presented as “x % take a train /bus to work, and THEREON y % walk to work”. Makes me wonder about the sample size for such a statistic, and whether it was taken in the monsoon- the one time when most Mumbaikars walk to avoid being struck in floods.
Michael E Arth’s advocacy of pedestrian-oriented urban neighbourhoods, and its direct impact on appreciation of real estate value, in his talk “New Urbanism and New Pedestrianism in the 21st Century”, seems to be an easy thing to adopt in India, given its measured success in the US. This is due to the fact that a large section of Indian society is still immune to the car as THE conveyance, thus bringing in a scope of re-integrating the pedestrian realm into neighbourhood, sectorial and city-level plans. I hope developers and civic bodies discover this logic, insisting on pedestrian oriented design.
Leonard Lynch’s take on the title of his talk- On the Waterfront- the movie starring Marlon Brando as the protagonist and his struggles, in Mr Lynch’s view, was metaphorically similar to those faced by an Urban Designer. The highlight of Mr Lynch’s talk was the evolution of Sydney and the impact on the Paramatta river.
Dr. Suchandra Bardhan’s insights on the Urbanism dictating the evolution of Rajarhat (near Kolkatta) showed the realities of the Indian scenario where dreams of eco-sensitive development soon gives way to the lure of the market. It was evident in Rajarhat’s case, its 80 km proximity to the fragile Sunderbans- a protected Ramsar wetland, has implications beyond the site environs. What emerges is the myopia and the helplessness of the environmental brigade, landscape architects included, in nipping such troubles.
The development outlay for Rajarhat, interestingly, was in contrast to the advocacy of Dr Dinesh Mohan and Michael E Arth. It was a pity that this session did not culminate in a good debate due to every speaker overstepping the allotted time in this session as well.
The Third session titled ‘TOMORROW’ saw some similar trajectories and visuals between the three presenters: Mr Philip Rode (Cities and Climate Change), Mr Sunand Prasad (Tomorrow’s Low Carbon City) and Mr Samir Mathur (Cities and Possibilities), thus stating the inescapability of facing challenges like Climate change, carbon emissions, the role of Landscape as Green infrastructure, the pre-eminence assigned to road networks instead of making cities assimilative in character and the lost wisdom of mixed use urban environments. Mr Prasad aptly summarized the concerns in his rhetoric of the sudden abandoning of sustainable urban forms existing for hundreds of years.
The final session- IMAGES- looked at the role of landscape art in the image of the city. The work of artist Mary Miss used visual metaphor to illustrate the topography and flood susceptibility of Boulder, Colorado in her showcased work- Connect the Dots: Mapping the High Water, Hazards and History of Boulder Creek. Based on data compiled by the city of Boulder, Miss marked where water would reach during a potential 500-year flood all around Boulder, by attaching more than 200 discarded paint can lids, painted blue, to trees and buildings across the city of Boulder: “Connecting the dots” while strolling through town illustrated that hardly any buildings would survive such a scenario. It was great to know that this installation’s comprehension enforced action on various fronts including re-visiting Boulder’s disaster management plan.
Another installation ‘Roshanara’s Net’, at the Roshanara Bagh, Delhi, simulated a herb garden and explored temporary, meaning-based transformation of existing community spaces. Her colourful installations were labeled and arranged in a symmetrical pattern reminiscent of Mughal geometries and textiles. Through such communicative art-works the artist aims at a public consciousness and possibly a public consensus regarding derelict community spheres and neglected environmental issues and tries to reintroduce neglected spaces and forgotten practices to the city-dweller.
Artist Ghulam Mohammed Shaikh spoke of the influence of Baroda- his place of birth- in his art works. Shaikh saab’s romance with his city saw representations in his various paintings as a personal space, a landscape and even as sanctuary. A great revelation by him was about Jain painting scrolls- detailed maps of a journey accompanying a letter and its use as a tool of landscape cognition and orientation. Undoubtedly, this has had a profound effect on the artist, by his own admission, and this making art which connects to this journey (physical, emotional, metaphorical) and the city, was an evident underpinning of Shaikh saab’s work. It was very apt on the part of the organizers to have one of his canvases as the front cover of the conference booklet.
Prof. Christopher Vernon’s talk “Canberra: the Unsustainable city”, began on an evocative note towards the romantic yet environmentally grounded design of Canberra by the Griffins. The talk barely touched the actual topic due to overstepping of allotted time, and was briefly re-visited in the Q &A session to illustrate the dichotomy between the executed Capital (Guirgola) and its concept (WB Griffin). Amusingly, the last two ISOLA conferences showcased Canberra as examples where some serious work in Landscape urbanism was underway. It would have been good to hear Prof. Vernon’s point of view, had there been time at hand.
In his talk titled ‘Perspectives’, Pune based landscape architect Jayant Dharap took the audience through the fundamentals of design found in art, painting and sculpture namely points, lines, planes, surfaces, and motion. The content of his talk was simple enough to extrapolate into the urban realm, and the result was strikingly synchronous. It was like sitting for a class of “Basic Design in Urban Design”.
In the Panel Discussion at the end of the event, Prof. Shaheer collectively summarized the need to introspect on the “finite visions of glamorous forward-looking models” whose reality was an out-dated model and idea of the city. While admitting that such conferences cannot and need not come out with a 5-point agenda or Manifesto, Prof Shaheer drew attention to walking the “tenuous path between apparent chaos and apparent order” exemplified by the seemingly organic old cities and the urge of man to instill a sense of order on his surroundings in an attempt to comprehend it better.
Prof KT Ravindran- the Valedictorian Guest of Honour felt that the theme of this conference was such that there should have been more participation by Urban Designers. He looked forward to a joint conference between ISOLA and the Indian Institute of Urban Designers on the lines of ‘Landscape Urbanism’.
Sound bytes in this conference:
“We have gone away from the patterns of development that followed a certain norm- orienting towards the city” – Prof. Ranjit Mitra on ‘new city’ attributes
“Nothing in the Plan shows what belongs to the people” – Prof. Ranjit Mitra on Gurgaon
“It is time we put back Gardens in Buildings as against Buildings in Gardens”- Dr Vinod Gupta
“We need to plan our talks as we intend planning our towns” - Prof Shaheer, on overstepping of allocated time for speakers.
“If you are planning cities- forget the Car”- Dr. Dinesh Mohan
“Public spaces show whether we are a democracy or not”- Dr. Dinesh Mohan
“Design safer streets for women…put street vendors”- Dr. Dinesh Mohan
“Vehicles are responsible fro a dreaded urban disease- CONGESTIONITIS” - Dr. Dinesh Mohan
“Any place you can get to by a jet plane is unlikely to be any different from the place you just left”- Leonard Lynch on the ubiquity of present day urban environments.
“At the end of the day, it is an exercise in roads”- Samir Mathur on developer Masterplans
“I call it ICONITIS”- Dr Sunand Prasad on the current global fascination with iconic and unsustainable approach to building cities.
“Thank you! Thank you everyone!!” Mr Mahesh Paliwal’s self edited ‘5 page closing speech’- a witty take on the overstepping of allotted time by almost all speakers.
Artist Ghulam Mohammed Shaikh spoke of the influence of Baroda- his place of birth- in his art works. Shaikh saab’s romance with his city saw representations in his various paintings as a personal space, a landscape and even as sanctuary. A great revelation by him was about Jain painting scrolls- detailed maps of a journey accompanying a letter and its use as a tool of landscape cognition and orientation. Undoubtedly, this has had a profound effect on the artist, by his own admission, and this making art which connects to this journey (physical, emotional, metaphorical) and the city, was an evident underpinning of Shaikh saab’s work. It was very apt on the part of the organizers to have one of his canvases as the front cover of the conference booklet.
Prof. Christopher Vernon’s talk “Canberra: the Unsustainable city”, began on an evocative note towards the romantic yet environmentally grounded design of Canberra by the Griffins. The talk barely touched the actual topic due to overstepping of allotted time, and was briefly re-visited in the Q &A session to illustrate the dichotomy between the executed Capital (Guirgola) and its concept (WB Griffin). Amusingly, the last two ISOLA conferences showcased Canberra as examples where some serious work in Landscape urbanism was underway. It would have been good to hear Prof. Vernon’s point of view, had there been time at hand.
In his talk titled ‘Perspectives’, Pune based landscape architect Jayant Dharap took the audience through the fundamentals of design found in art, painting and sculpture namely points, lines, planes, surfaces, and motion. The content of his talk was simple enough to extrapolate into the urban realm, and the result was strikingly synchronous. It was like sitting for a class of “Basic Design in Urban Design”.
In the Panel Discussion at the end of the event, Prof. Shaheer collectively summarized the need to introspect on the “finite visions of glamorous forward-looking models” whose reality was an out-dated model and idea of the city. While admitting that such conferences cannot and need not come out with a 5-point agenda or Manifesto, Prof Shaheer drew attention to walking the “tenuous path between apparent chaos and apparent order” exemplified by the seemingly organic old cities and the urge of man to instill a sense of order on his surroundings in an attempt to comprehend it better.
Prof KT Ravindran- the Valedictorian Guest of Honour felt that the theme of this conference was such that there should have been more participation by Urban Designers. He looked forward to a joint conference between ISOLA and the Indian Institute of Urban Designers on the lines of ‘Landscape Urbanism’.
Sound bytes in this conference:
“We have gone away from the patterns of development that followed a certain norm- orienting towards the city” – Prof. Ranjit Mitra on ‘new city’ attributes
“Nothing in the Plan shows what belongs to the people” – Prof. Ranjit Mitra on Gurgaon
“It is time we put back Gardens in Buildings as against Buildings in Gardens”- Dr Vinod Gupta
“We need to plan our talks as we intend planning our towns” - Prof Shaheer, on overstepping of allocated time for speakers.
“If you are planning cities- forget the Car”- Dr. Dinesh Mohan
“Public spaces show whether we are a democracy or not”- Dr. Dinesh Mohan
“Design safer streets for women…put street vendors”- Dr. Dinesh Mohan
“Vehicles are responsible fro a dreaded urban disease- CONGESTIONITIS” - Dr. Dinesh Mohan
“Any place you can get to by a jet plane is unlikely to be any different from the place you just left”- Leonard Lynch on the ubiquity of present day urban environments.
“At the end of the day, it is an exercise in roads”- Samir Mathur on developer Masterplans
“I call it ICONITIS”- Dr Sunand Prasad on the current global fascination with iconic and unsustainable approach to building cities.
“Thank you! Thank you everyone!!” Mr Mahesh Paliwal’s self edited ‘5 page closing speech’- a witty take on the overstepping of allotted time by almost all speakers.
Thank you Sriganesh. A summary of your viewpoints would have been apt. Was wondering, why should one forget the cars while planning cities and that too when they are "Instant". Is it that most of us as planners/designers are taught to desist the advent of technology?
ReplyDeletewith reference to ur last bit on "sound bytes" (last byte on sound bits)
ReplyDeleteu forgot--
".... and as everyone knows - a camel is a horse designed by a committee"
- prof vernon on Mr. griffin's decision to drop out of the canberra planning committee.
nice piece
Thanks Arjun! Yep that line slipped out of my notes somewhere.
ReplyDeleteIt is so symptomatic of the various things that committees 'want to do', and end up doing.
Thanks for bringing that line back into focus.