Articles by Archita Suryanarayanan

The atmosphere is lively on a summer Friday evening at the Kathipara Urban Square in Chennai. Despite the oppressive heat and humidity of the coastal city, people find relief in the evening breeze. They are milling about at open café tables, grabbing ice cream, browsing a used book store, or watching their children play on the swings. A toy train circles the plaza, while metro trains and cars speed on the lanes above. This multi-use urban square is situated beneath a busy elevated road junction adjacent to a major metro station. Envisaged as a multi-modal transit hub by the Chennai…

Do your bit against climate change: Keep your house cooler Just around six months ago, Chennai was gradually tottering back after the devastating floods. Water levels had just receded, electricity came back on and cars began speeding on the roads again. But even as people shifted back to normalcy in daily life, talks were abuzz about another important shift that was required -- one towards a more sustainable and environmentally conscious way of life. While urban sprawl, shrinking water bodies and unauthorized construction have been widely blamed for the disaster Chennai faced, the broader factor that was discussed was human-induced…