Designing mega delta interactions

Abstract

Indian and Chinese urbanization is rich with possibility for global urban design theory and practice because the village city systems in India and China offer a reevaluation of what we consider a city to be and how design is to be engaged within it. The mix of urban and rural has very different definitions in India and China, which again are different than those in the United States and Europe. This chapter, which is paired with a drawing set, is a study of this urban form in order to support better India-China interactions and to question the reproduction of unsustainable heterogeneous mixes globally. In the context of the rapid urban transition of today it is important to imagine ways that an inclusive, but not totalizing, regional outlook can support action against environmental unsustainability. This chapter is a contribution toward this goal.