One fully understands that a preface should be written first but one is now adding this after some fifty copies of this compilation have been set into circulation. Each copy is printed in-house so that one can keep adding or modifying pieces as may be required and so it is-- with the preface afterwards.

Some have read the first copies in a cursory manner and politely praised it and others have gone into it in a considerable amount of detail and felt that this indeed is a fresh manner of looking at Sustainable Human Settlement Design but leaves too much unanswered. But then this, I hope is the beginning and the subsequent intent to further enunciate each aspect and will make for a series on Rationalised manner of looking at Human Settlement Design as a whole. There were those that commented that this compilation is a good exercise in self-propagation and compilation of one's work. Opinions will be varied as one is attempting to examine fundamental issues that we normally take for granted. Some amount of unlearning and relearning is required with an open mind to rationalisation. Having spent more time in Hospital than at home, over the past five months as of the latter half of 2003, one started compilation of this document. Hospitals can be good places for some cool thinking where one does nothing but pop pills and sleep with a few shots in the arms and the bottoms in between.

I was selected to join the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, after schooling and was asked to leave the year after joining (a rare occurrence as only the best were selected through a nationwide entrance examination). Too much was taught as in the textbook and more often nothing learnt. I then worked at site for a very prominent Architect at site for a year, which was my best learning period. Seeing the actual construction I learnt most from the workers, the masons, the carpenters and the site staff.

Having been classified as a rebel student during my five years at the School of Panning and Architecture New Delhi, it had it's up and downs but once again I was caught up in the web of demanding answers rather than going merely by the book. What was to be done was pushed down our throats and questioning the done thing was criminal and could get you all messed up. While in hospital one mulled over the days spent at the School of Planning and Architecture and the processes of learning and unlearning. Introspection was at it's best as the mind rolled along recapitulating the good and the bad days, but all was crystal clear even now.

My learning process actually began when I started teaching Interior Design and Building Construction at the Women's Polytechnic, New Delhi, shortly after graduation from SPA. Exciting, as it may seem it is not the easiest assignment for a bachelor male teacher sporting a French beard to teach a class of girls. Ladies may have been easier to handle but one classifies them as girls as not all were there to learn as for some it was just a pastime pre marriage. Being on the other side of the fence, one was forced into answering difficult queries logically. The devil-may-care attitude and harnessing the energies of these girls was nerve racking. Girls do know how to use their charm and can make life uncomfortable for a male teacher. Many thought I taught well but I learnt better and I have good memories of the experience. One had to think fast and yet answer queries without saying “because I say so or the book says so”. The process of rationalisation had begun, confidence had built up and teaching became a passion. Professional work pressure compelled me to give up teaching as I now had a family.

Years later I was invited to teach at the School of Planning and Architecture. At about the same time I also got involved with HUDCO (Housing and Urban Development, Govt of India) as an advisor in various capacities including the propagation of Appropriate Technologies. The Slum Dept of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi also joined hands and the Building Centre programme took root.

Students at SPA were far more demanding and required rationalised answers. A large number of these students were the third generation of Architects and the backgrounds were fairly solid. Some one or the other in the family was already either an Architect or a Builder, so nothing was taken for granted as taught. They were fully aware that what was being taught to them was that which we had learnt and most of it was obsolete. Teaching them the usual syllabus as well as involving the rationalisation in the Appropriate Technologies made the task even more difficult. More importantly one learnt even more. A few teachers who taught with me backed me and it is credit to them well deserved and one could not have managed without their team spirit.

Last but not the least, are those who worked with me for various lengths of time and trained with me. Some of them who initiated the process of documentation find mention in the credits. Once again I learnt as much as I taught. With the coming of the Internet one launched a website www.anangpur.com, but then even this had it's limitations. There is nothing like the written media and the Internet at best can set up the communication channel later.

The very last that one attributes credit to, are the Bureaucrats and their Baboos (clerical staff) who run all. For all that one tried to shake the system it seemed that this was impossible. The more they resisted the more the resolve to beat the system. After all, the Building Centre programme had been designed to deliver outside the system that had failed to deliver thus far. At every point one was tripped by the same very system and the Bureaucrat could do precious little. He moved on. The anger made the resolve firmer and for this I have the SYSTEM to thank. HUDCO and the BMTPC (Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council) had the clear mandate to document and provide for the acceptance of alternative technologies within the system but then the officers were from within the very system. Much like a dog chasing it's own tail. On the positive side had it not been for this miserable system, I would not be writing this and neither would lateral thinking and rationalisation become necessary. As they say “Every dark cloud has a silver lining”

I attribute the small success of this to all above with the hope that ASHRA (Academy for Sustainable Habitat Research and Action) would one day be realised. In the mean time, it is now time to start learning once again and I shall go back to teaching once a week so as to catch up with what one must have lost out on over the past decade.

Anil Laul