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Today is World Car Free Day, but India's mobility Today is World Car Free Day, but India's mobility scene has still a long way to go. As we seek security and reliability in cars, how safe is your daily commute in an Indian city?

---Usually when we are in Pune India, my office is right next to our house so travelling to work is not required but today I rode my bicycle 30 kms during morning rush hours for some work, and in the course saw numerous traffic jams, three accidents, implicit indifference and many parents driving their children to school to keep them safe from the traffic. I feel terrible for folks who must commute these distances every day.
 
Speaking of accidents, they were all located at peculiar locations where traffic calming could help before junctions. So, when I returned, I thought I should do a quick map of these locations. Luckily there was a fairly relevant dataset by Ashutosh and Chand (2025). The map results were interesting and showed areas that were more problematic than others and sometimes surprisingly so. Hence, I thought I’d host the map I created for few days so anyone who wants to zoom in to a place can do so and see which are the areas of trouble.
 
You can look at the map to see if these areas fall on your daily commute path and please be careful while driving. As for the parents driving their children to school, the roads are not getting safer by your choice, instead you are making it unsafe cumulatively for all children. I have included another map of accidents involving minors which show some tier three cities being more notorious, which is worth investigating.
 
For all the above problems and many more life problems, of course I suggest sell your car and buy a bicycle, but we leave that discussion for later.

Here is link to use the map:
https://lnkd.in/eBNBKrSJ

Data Citation : Ashutosh and Sai Chand,-Dataset on fatal road traffic crash attributes extracted via natural language processing of online media articles in India, ISSN23523409,https://lnkd.in/eex48RRH).

Although it’s a relativistic dataset and not an absolute one, its fairly good ground for relativist comparative mapping. The code is available on git for anyone who wants to play with it.
Instagram post 18077548921813867 Instagram post 18077548921813867
There has been almost daily news of cloudburst and There has been almost daily news of cloudburst and sudden rain lately, and we are getting used to the frequency of flood events. Climate change is of course changing rainfall patterns, but floods are more of a planning problem than a climatic one. 

Anto used his data analytics skills to scrape and analyse urban data, and this analysis for four Indian metros is drawn on the IMD’s rainfall data from 1901 till date. Here is the link to the code - https://github.com/antoglor/Timeseries-Extraction-of-123-Year-Rainfall-data-for-any-Latitude-Longitude-combination-in-India. 

The code can be deployed for any location in India, rural or urban. It was developed by Anto for personal use in planning but please feel free to use it to find the trajectory of your own location of choice. If you need any help with the code, drop us a message !
Last week our work in Kashmir was featured in the Last week our work in Kashmir was featured in the Indian Express and Sakal. Both articles gave glimpses of our fieldwork and interaction with craftsmen and we're glad to see it reach an audience beyond academia. 

Grateful to the EMKP for trusting us with the project. 

[Kashmir, Srinagar, Dal lake, houseboats, material culture, crafts, heritage]
On why we prefer wood over other materials . . . . On why we prefer wood over other materials
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[Sustainability, local material, building, constructing, design, architecture, timber, wood, craftsmanship]
Did you know that while different varieties of sof Did you know that while different varieties of soft wood, commonly known as SPF, and imported from far-off places like Germany, Russia, New Zealand and Canada have found their way even to Kashmir, hulls of the houseboats are still constructed entirely in local Deodhar, a species known as Cedrus Deodhara (pic 1).

The Indian Forest Act restricts felling of forest wood, so often wood salvaged from old buildings and bridges is used in the construction of the hull, known as the ‘dum’ in Kashmiri. Seen here (pic 2,3) is an old wooden bridge straddling the Jhelum, likes of which become the source of centuries old, seasoned timber, which is cut to appropriate size for boat building in timber yards at the periphery of the Dal (pic 4).
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[Srinagar, Kashmir, timber, wooden construction, woodwork, boat-building, material culture, traditional knowledge]
A short note about our project funded by the Endan A short note about our project funded by the Endangered Material Knowledge Program
A little bit about our research in Kashmir [ Timb A little bit about our research in Kashmir

[ Timber, wood, construction, boat building, material culture, heritage, crafts, craftsmanship, research, Srinagar, dal lake, Kashmir ]
We began fieldwork for our EMKP project 'Documenti We began fieldwork for our EMKP project 'Documenting the craft of creating floating dwellings in the socio-ecological landscape of the Kashmir valley' in October 2024. From only the two of us last year, we have grown into an effective team with a wide spectrum of skills. As we work towards completion of the project, a shout out to our team mates without whom this project wouldn't have been possible ! 

[ Houseboats, craftwork, timber, woodwork, Srinagar, dal lake, material culture, heritage ]
Cities are established along waterbodies acting as Cities are established along waterbodies acting as their spine. But as the city grows, through techno-social changes it manages to turn its back on the very river that sustains it. All that the city disposes is carried by the river.  But rivers are not linear systems. Connected through the moisture, the winds, and the ocean currents, the water recirculates. It is the same water that has been recirculating through our bodies and these oceans since 4.5 billion years. 

This mapping introduces this concept of the circulation and recirculation of waters, and traces the flow of pollutants through two rivers in the East and the West, in the global north and the global south, to demonstrate how the waters and eventually every living body is connected through ocean currents and global winds and through common histories and futures. 

Hand drawing and presenting this complex data in an almost artistic method is an attempt to make it more accessible. If you'd like to trace through a large scale image of the mapping to be able to read the details, DM us.

Link to the working paper in the bio

#punecity #mulamutha #berlincity #spree #riverrevival
We're looking to hire a social media intern ! Get We're looking to hire a social media intern ! Get in touch with us if you think it could be you 

#hiring #socialmedia #internship
From our beginning in 2009 as an architectural pra From our beginning in 2009 as an architectural practice by Anto, to turnkey projects in 2017 after Sayali joined in, we are now diversifying into spatial research. Over the last two years we've been working at the intersection of urban design, heritage building practices and environmental concerns. 

This has meant a lot of travel and field work, and as we continue along this path, we hope to be consistent with our social media and bring regular updates from the field and office :)
Questioning the reductive approach to architecture Questioning the reductive approach to architecture in the field and always interested in history and culture, Sayali enrolled for a master's in Heritage Studies. Two years of engagement with the social sciences have however given her more questions than answers.
Hello, we're back after a long break. Troubled b Hello, we're back after a long break. 

Troubled by climate change and Covid, some people reverted to a new normal after a while. We took some decisions that meant we could not revert to anything. 

The last three years have been simultaneously exhilarating and exhausting. For Anto they were about studying Urban Design at the Technical University Berlin, and Data Analytics and AI through a distance course at IIT Madras, while running a few projects in Pune.

Three years of education, although he says he learnt more about himself than about the world :)
We are looking for teammates to be part of an ongo We are looking for teammates to be part of an ongoing research project funded by the Endangered Material Knowledge Program (EMKP). Two project based positions are to be filled. 

The research enquires the socio-ecological embeddings of floating dwellings in the Kashmir Valley. While no prior research experience is mandatory, we are looking for individuals with a keen interest in architectural heritage and urban waterscapes. This role does not involve travelling to the site in Kashmir but is limited to the post-production and secondary research required to support the on-field researchers.
Due academic credit will be given to the researchers on publications where the material produced by them is to be used.

Please find out more about the researchers and the research at:
https://www.emkp.org/documenting-the-craft-of-creating-floating-dwellings-in-the-socio-ecological-landscape-of-kashmir-valley-india/

Please reach out to me or send in your resume to info@designequate.com

#research #kashmir #heritage
Wood has been our most preferred material for cons Wood has been our most preferred material for construction for several years, for several reasons -  renewability, structural strength, potential for impeccable craftsmanship and its wide spectrum of use. While the western building industry is coming full circle to returning to wood as the future of urban construction, we are at the Forest Research Institute at Dehradun this week, doing our own research on the potential of wood as the future of the Indian building industry. 
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#woodwork #woodenstructures #renewable #sustainable #design #build #deq #designequate #punearchitects #woodbuilding
Hello! We haven't posted here in a while now. Whil Hello! We haven't posted here in a while now. While we continue with our commercial projects we are consciously shifting our focus towards our non profit projects and towards the potential in architecture and the building process to bring systemic good. 

This is one such project in rural Belgavi, a school. The project is a constant negotiation between us pushing the larger good of 'no concrete' while the parents and the stakeholders see brick as unsafe.

Sometimes we take a few steps back, and this filler slab which replaces about 30% concrete with local low cost bricks makes the slab and our environmental conscience a little lighter :) 
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#designandbuild #deq #designequate #architecture #vernacular #sustainableliving #sustainabledesign #sustainablebuilding #brick #arch
The geometry of this set of planters, along with t The geometry of this set of planters, along with the lighting, makes it an interesting element in the double height stairwell.⠀
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#green #interiors #office# #workspaces #plants #designequate #deq
A set of suspended planters in a corporate office A set of suspended planters in a corporate office in Pune, used to create a partition between 2 differently used spaces.
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#plants #greenwall #green #officeinteriors #workspaceinteriors #workspace #design #architecture #pune #designequate #deq #planters #office #officedesign
The importance of plants in interior spaces is oft The importance of plants in interior spaces is often overlooked. Seen here, our attempt at greening an office space in a high rise glass clad building. 
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#green #plants #greeninteriors #interiordesign #architecture #design #build #deq #designequate #officeinteriors #officespace #workspacedesign #workspace #greenworkspace
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