We are happy to introduce our newest contributing editor to the Expanded Environment – Amartya Deb. Amartya comes to us from India often writing from locations in Dehli, Calcutta, Bangladesh and elsewhere. He has extensive knowledge of both the built and the informal environments and truly is an emerging voice in the field. Has has been published extensively including his recent book “Introducing Wildlife in Urban Areas.” We are very pleased to show-case his work on ExEn.
On a personal note, in September of 2017 Amartya reached out to me, asking if I would remove a comment he had placed on the site over five years prior while he was a student. He was concerned that the content of his comment was no longer reflective of his current views. I found the comment (it took me a minute), assessed that there was no need for discomfort and offered Amartya a deal. If he truly felt it was no longer an appropriate comment I would remove it, provided that he contribute a more elaborate post. Thus began a 6-month international conversation to arrive his outline of posts which you will receive over the course of the next several weeks. Please welcome Amartya!
More about Amartya:
Amartya is an architect and planner, specialising in cities and global development. The young architect from India has taken up the arguably ambitious challenge of envisioning the wild and urban as one single unit. Deb’s recent co-authored book, Introducing Wildlife in Urban Areas, decodes the characteristics of wildlife and urges re-visualisation of urban areas to encourage wildlife. Observing how a vast number of animals and plants are increasingly making cities their home, Amartya believes that future cities can draw a number of lessons for co-existence from this trend of wildlife migration to urban areas.
A few quotes from the architect:
“I grew up in a village. When I first moved into the city, I was 12. I felt something was missing and for long I could never completely fit in the urban scene. I am sure many others like me who are migrating from rural to urban areas would face the culture shock. But nevertheless, urban is the future. So I am keen on combining the best experiences of both worlds –the natural and the urban. I think the scope is immense.”
“Cities can play an important role in conservation of nature. But to make that happen we need to open the dialogue and sustain it through innovative means. The way people think about cities needs to change. Then we can think of the modes of production that will construct the inclusive cities for–what Ned Dodington has pleasantly worded as–all life forms.”
“Being an architect allows me to imagine the world I want to live in. But to realize the vision of integrating wildlife in cities, architects need to work with zoologists; with botanists – artists, conservationists, engineers, social scientists, manufacturers and politicians at the very least. I think this can be a multidisciplinary field with high community participation; and everybody has a chance to work together. So I dare say – go wild!”
