🏢 When we see the map of India, we realise a unique characteristic - there is a hierarchical network of dots of varied sizes with names of large metropolises, cities, and towns. They appear like 'urban galaxies' -with naturally developed scales between entities, interconnected and located within easy reach

Q.) Planning is not merely physical growth, but also spiritual and cultural growth. Explain this in context with town planning and sustainable development goals.

🔵 GS-3 // MAINS//

🅾️ NOTE::: Do mention the World Green building Council and Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) in this Mains Answer✅️

🅾️ We need to 'miniaturise' our cities, make them more compact. One of the ways is to think of them as ' walkable cities' 🚶🚶‍♀️👣

🅾️ Concept of smaller towns as growth centres and develop them as 'magnets'.

🅾️Gandhiji's charkha:local to global connect with 'aatamnirbhar bharat 'at its base and growth of person at individual level👆

🔵Nothing important for UPSC..... just read for knowledge

🅾️ One point we can take out from here is this that 'Central Vista' is a symbol of our victory over British Imperalism.The Indian Constitution was written here, we adopted imperial Council House as the Parliament of India, Viceroy 's House was adopted as Rashtrapati Bhavan, India Gate became a national monument........ and so one... (Read above)

🅾️CentraVista is a national icon for India

👆 Read why unlike most public spaces in Indian cities, Central Vista is a brownfield site ✅️

🅾️ Focus points 👆

•• Ganesha idol; Parivara-Alayattu Palliyar; Diety:Murugan or Subhramanya with his consorts Valli and Devasena; Chandikeshwara and about the inscription where various temple related activities have been documented in detail by the king himself.

••• Who is Brihannayaki?

•• Sri Vimana, shikhara and kalasam

🅾️ What is ' sookhmalinga'?

🅾️ Why the topography of Kailasa has been recreated as a stone bas- relief on the eastern facade of the temple?

🅾️ Sanctum Sanctorum: narrow circumambulatory path called 'sandharaarai'✅️

•• Bharathanatyakaranas: poses performed by shiva. Some 81 poses out of 108 poses have been have been installed on the temple circumference ✅️

🅾️ The mukha-mandapam is a later -time addition of this temple

🅾️Read an interesting story related to a majestic Nandi (bull) that stands to guard the temple. This is the second largest Nandi in India. What had happened to Chola Nandi and where it is now?

🅾️ The niches of wall are ornamented with 'makaratorana'.

🅾️Various forms of shiva are there which include Nataraja, Lingodhbawa, Gangadhara, Ardhanareeshwara, Kala Samhara, Harihara, to name a few.

🅾️At the end read about engineering challenges which have been tried and tested on the UNESCO WORLD Heritage Site : Brihadeeshwara Temple🙏

✅️Important one with good narrative

⭕️ In a heterogenous society, the goal of every state is to provide equal access to its citizens. When it comes to physical-public domain design, infrastructure for persons with disability assumes another dimension of architecture

⭕️The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) inspires and focuses on universal designs.

👆 Basis of Universal Designs

👆 1997 principles for a universal design

👆Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan

🅾️ 'We shape our buildings, and afterwards, our building shape us'--Winston Churchill ✅️

🔵Important article 🎯

🅾️ Read about All India Sanitary Conference that was held in Lucknow in 1914 which laid the foundation of the current paradigm of building and city planning, by including the concepts of health and well-being