Rahul Mehrotra: The architectural wonder of impermanent cities
راؤول مهروترا: الأعجوبة المعمارية للمدن غير الثابتة
Rahul Mehrotra is an architect working in India who focuses on institutional buildings and conservation of historic places. He is also a professor at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
that are larger than five million people.
the story of one such city,
an ephemeral megacity.
for a Hindu religious festival
من أجل مهرجان ديني هندوسي
in smaller editions every four years,
وبنسخات أصغر كل ٤ سنوات،
the Yamuna rivers in India.
that during the festival,
of these two great rivers
is built to house them.
live there for the 55 days,
begin to recede
to 15th of January,
of a real megacity:
or if the river changes course,
غير موسمي أو إذا غيّر النهر مجراه،
which can be volatile.
التضاريس التي يمكن أن تكون سريعة الزوال.
as well as social, infrastructure.
البنية التحتية المادية والاجتماعية.
that are used for security
كاميرا مراقبة من أجل الحماية
like any real megacity would do.
are employed by the city.
a Mela Adhikari,
all works efficiently.
الحركة وجميعها تعمل بكفاءة.
and the most efficient Indian city
in comparison to Manhattan,
or a pop-up city.
رسمية أو مدينة تظهر فجأة.
this is a state enterprise,
of neoliberalism and capitalism,
والرأس مالية الذي نعيش به اليوم
complete responsibility
intentional city, a formal city.
on the ground very lightly.
that are used to build this settlement
a fabric or plastic.
come together and aggregate.
from a small tent,
five or six people, or a family,
خمسة أو ستة أشخاص، أو عائلة،
sometimes 1,000 people.
٥٠٠ وأحياناً ١٠٠٠ شخص.
and this imagination of the city,
of the festival, within a week,
is offered back to the river,
the water swells again.
الموسمية ترتفع المياه مجدداً.
as a kit of parts
go to little villages in the hinterland,
القرى الصغيرة في المناطق النائية،
are used in small towns,
these Hindu beliefs or not.
المعتقدات الهندوسية أو لا.
amount of energy and imagination
كبيرة من الطاقة والخيال
الدروس العميقة لتعلمنا إياها.
the ground lightly,
obsessed with permanence.
the only constant in our lives.
الوحيد الثابت في حياتنا.
from these sorts of settlements?
من هذا النوع من المستوطنات؟
for transaction,
this one in Mexico,
أفريقيا، وهذه في المكسيك
on the weekends, about 50,000 vendors,
في عطلات نهاية الأسبوع بحوالي ٥٠٠٠٠ بائع،
creates new chemistries,
like parking lots, for example.
بالطريقة الأمثل كمواقف السيارات مثلاً.
as an architect and a planner,
it's not static.
of temporary settlements.
the favelas of Latin America.
في مومباي وأمريكا اللاتينية.
is becoming the new permanent.
تصبح المساكن الدائمة الجديدة.
during the Ganesh festival,
for dinners and celebration.
and plaster of Paris.
we call them maidans.
الرائعة التي نسميها الميادين.
incredibly nuanced and complicated,
the cricket pitch --
is not touched, it's sacred ground.
الكريكيت، إنه أرض مقدسة.
and the wedding party
about these questions,
for temporary problems?
will be relevant in a decade?
that arises from this research.
shopping malls in North America,
التسوق في أمريكا الشمالية،
that in the next decade,
التجزئة أنه بحلول العقد التالي،
capturing resources,
with massive resources,
get absorbed into the city.
هذه الموارد ضمن المدينة.
nomadic structures, deflatable,
around the world or in those countries,
حول العالم أو في تلك البلدان،
for the next Olympics?
الألعاب الأولمبية القادمة؟
like the circus,
that used to camp in cities,
التي كانت تخيم في المدن،
with the static city.
من الحوار البصري في المدن الثابتة.
become suddenly aware of each other,
مختلفة بعضهم البعض فجأة،
من خلفيات اقتصادية وثقافية وعرقية
of the ring with animals and performers.
people become aware of things,
ويعون أشياء من حولهم،
climate change,
can we be more accommodating?
هل يمكننا أن نكون أكثر استيعاباً؟
nature continuously
unsuccessfully?
our cities like a circus,
must be completely temporary.
يجب أن تكون مؤقتة تماماً.
in our imagination about cities,
our resources efficiently,
مواردنا بشكل أكثر فعالية،
urban design cultures,
it might have on our lives.
my students and I studied,
where the city had been disassembled.
to be covered over by the water,
through our research
how much we had learned
the efficiency of the city,
that made the city.
الخمسة التي صنعت المدينة.
for a few days."
architecture will come and go,
for us as citizens and architects.
كمواطنين ومهندسين معماريين.
is bigger than permanence
الثبات أكبر من الاستمرارية
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Rahul Mehrotra - Architect, urbanistRahul Mehrotra is an architect working in India who focuses on institutional buildings and conservation of historic places. He is also a professor at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.
Why you should listen
Rahul Mehrotra is an architect working from Mumbai and Boston, where he also teaches at Harvard University. His work covers a range of buildings, from houses to institutional to office buildings. A recent project was a housing estate for 100 elephants and their caretakers in Jaipur, India.
Mehrotra is passionate about writing. He's written several books on the history and architecture of Mumbai, including Architecture In India Since 1990. He's also written on urbanism in India and is currently working on a book on his experiences as a practitioner in India.
Rahul Mehrotra | Speaker | TED.com