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"Utter
neglect or shoddy maintenance of public places and civic elements is
totally unacceptable," says Navtej Johar, managing trustee, Abhyas
Trust. As
part of the Urban Design Project (UDP) Navtej and his team of experts
have been making presentations in schools, colleges and non-profit organizations
at regular intervals to draw attention to the general apathy towards
maintenance of public spaces. Bearing
in mind that the human body is central to the practice of yoga, UDP
examines our urban environment from the view point of the human body,
of how it relates to the needs, comfort, convenience and safety of the
human body. We
urge the students and young adults to adopt malfunctioning civic elements
in their immediate neighbourhood and document them to build a case study
over a period of time. The UDP outreach program with school and college
students titled the "Power of Seeing" involves exercises in sustained
observation and aim to instill an eye-for-detail in children and young
adults and make them more proactive and responsible vis-à-vis
their environment. This
would help the Abhyas Trust Urban Design Project to present a strong
case before the concerned authorities, be it the Municipal Corporation
of Delhi, Public Works Department or New Delhi Municipal Corporation,
thus urging them to take effective action to rectify the problem.
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January
28 - February 11, 2008
Bluebells School International students collaborated with Studio
Abhyas to mount "Power of Seeing" exhibition in the school.On display
was photo-documentation and project work that the students have
been doing as part of the urban design project since July 2007.
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December
12, 2007
Abhyas Trust took a step towards extending its Power of Seeing project
to the colleges by making a presentation at Sri Venkateshwara College
on December 12, 2007. The presentation was facilitated by the Social
Service Society of the College. Through the presentation, Navtej
Johar appealed to the students gathered not to turn a blind eye
to the chaos in the cities in terms of the design and maintenance
of the civic elements around. |
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July
18, 2007
As part of the Abhyas Trust's Urban Design Initiative, Navtej Johar
gave a presentation on "Power of Seeing" to initiate a six-month
project with class VIII students of Bluebells International School,
New Delhi . In his talk, Navtej spoke about the need for keeping
an eye on the design and maintenance of civic amenities in and around
us to ensure all of it is user friendly. The Abhyas team will be
meeting with the students twice a month. |
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June
5, 2006
On
the occasion World Environment Day on June 5, Navtej Johar gave
a talk at the India Habitat Centre on urban design or the lack
of it in our cities. The talk was attended by the members of IHC
and others.
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May 2, 2006
Navtej
Johar and the Abhyas Ensemble presented "Power of Seeing",
yoga-dance performance, followed by multi-media Urban Design Project
presentation at a function organized by the Rotary Club, New Delhi.
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April
20, 2006
The
Abhyas Trust presented a Yoga-Dance performance followed by a
multi-media presentation by Navtej Johar on the Urban Design Project
at the Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Center, New Delhi. Union
Minister of State for Urban Development Shri Ajay Maken was the
chief guest.
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March
26, 2006 Navtej Johar made an hour-long presentation on urban
design project before a group of 22 children of domestic help
and residents of the Chirag Enclave area, Delhi, at the local
community centre.
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March
16, 2006
Navtej
Johar made an Urban Design Project presentation before Class IX
and X students of the Vasant Valley, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi.
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January
11, 2006
Navtej
Johar made an Urban Design Project presentation at the Katha Asia
International Utsav 2006 being held at the India Habitat Centre
in the month of January 2006. The two-hour presentation was attended
by a gathering of approximately 70 students and teachers from
all over India, with many of them expressing a desire to start
such projects in their respective cities.
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July
22, 2005
The
first in the series of UDP presentations was made by architects,
Vidya Tongbram and Vishvesh Viswanathan, of Pradeep Sachdev Design
Associates (PSDA), to the children of classes VII and VIII, of
St. Mary's School, Safdarjung Enclave. The presentation titled
"On Streets" methodically introduced the children to
the a various elements that constitute an Indian street, and pointed
to what makes our streets as good or as bad as they are today.
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July
22, 2005
Architect
Pradeep Sachdev, urban designer and architect of Dilli Haat and
the Garden of Five Senses, New Delhi, took the sixty children
from St. Mary's School (part of the Abhyas Studio’s Urban Design
Project) on a field trip to Vikas Sadan, where his team of architects
have modeled a street factoring all aspects that constitute a
street in great detail, i.e. the pavement, parking, signage, bus
shelters, etc, as well as keeping in mind the needs of the varied
users: pedestrians, hawkers, motorists etc.
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July
13, 2005
Abhyas
Trust’s Urban Design Project was formally launched in the schools
in July 2005 by an introduction of the project by Navtej Johar
to the students of St. Mary's School, Safdarjung Enclave, New
Delhi.
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May
31, 2005
Abhyas
Trust in collaboration with the Craft Revival Trust hosted a lecture
by architect Sanjay Prakash, titled "Metabolism of the Future
City: A Case Study from the Goa 2100 Project, at the India International
Centre. With lecture, the Trust launched its Urban Design Initiative.
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