The Smart City initiative of the Government of India is one of the first of its kind in the country’s history.

Successful implementation of this programme will undoubtedly go a long way in transforming India into one of the most powerful, prosperous and respected countries of the world.  However, its success will be directly proportionate to the smartness of the buildings, infrastructure and that of the citizens inhabiting the cities.

The International Conference on FUTURISTIC TRENDS IN ARCHITECTURE, was organised yesterday by the School of Architecture and Planning, Sharda University, Greater Noida is the first initiative in NCR to identify the ways and means to ensure that India’s architecture and architects would measure up to the challenge of building a smart urban India.

More and more Architects seem to trade off their creativity against the compulsive universal conditions such as climate change, resource constraints, affinity for traditions, mechanization of skills & processes to name a few. The award of Pritzker Prize 2017 to three Catalan architects, brought home the increasing validity of “shared creativity” in an era which expects to walk into a heavily urbanized world, much of which may be impoverished and yet indomitable in their determination to be partners of joy on an ailing planet, the Earth.   

The causative conditions resulting in the character of the determinants must be appreciated to be able to tame them (or otherwise).  Among the plethora of determinants, architects would need to skilfully scrutinize to recognize the relative importance and visualize the sum result of their various combinations that would sufficiently fulfil the requirements of functional efficiency, sustainability and aesthetic sensibility.  

Through architecture, identities are created and sustained.  Both culture and environment are expressions of highly complex and sensitive ecological processes that evolve at varying speeds.  Their dynamics  are only partially understood or seen like the proverbial ‘tip of the iceberg’.  Architects need to be skilful not only in capturing the essence of a futuristic context but also in visualizing the consequences of their assumptions and assessments.  Thus the contribution of an architect’s intuition thus continues to play a pivotal role by responding appropriately to a context, including its dynamism.   

As countries are racing to push forward the frontiers of science, awareness of new technologies and management systems, Architects have access to a huge and growing storehouse of materials and technologies to choose from.  They have demonstrated their power of creativity by innovative use of materials and technologies without discriminating between the old and the new.