The street experiment featured in this article presents a sociocultural dimension at its heart; it may thus rightly be termed a social experiment, albeit one that identifies key issues concerning the urban life of Nehru Place in New Delhi, India. In late October 2012, a street performance, aptly titled “To Walk or Not to Walk”, was staged on the streets of Nehru Place courtesy of some architecture students from Curtin University, Western Australia, in collaboration with a local theatre group. The experiment was intended to raise public awareness regarding the walkability and safety concerns faced by the pedestrians of Nehru Place. Despite functioning as a major commercial hub with numerous offices and being proximate to a bus terminal and two metro stations, Nehru Place suffers from inadequate pedestrian infrastructure, evidenced by dilapidated bus stops and 60-centimeter-high walkways. Figure 1 (below) indicates the area of study.
Figure 1 – Map of Nehru Place, New Delhi, indicating the area of study.
Source: Generated by Author using Mapbox Studio.
The experiment springboarded off the walkability issues identified in a Street Design Audit by a coalition of NGOs, which found the streets of Nehru Place severely unfit for pedestrian use. The audit involved a pedestrian perception survey that evaluated the walkability of the metro stations within a half-kilometer radius. In addition to inadequate pedestrian infrastructure that rendered metro stations and public transport generally inaccessible to the broader public and the physically challenged, women’s safety past dusk had also historically been a major concern for the locale’s users. According to the Street Design Audit findings, residents of adjacent neighborhoods reported avoiding visits to the Nehru Place complex, despite its apparent proximity to their homes, owing to the area’s poor walkability and difficulties with commuting. It therefore became amply evident that Nehru Place fulfilled its urban function neither as a transit hub nor as a destination. Figure 2 (below) reveals that the parameter scoring the worst in the pedestrian-predisposition survey was, unsurprisingly, motorists’ behavior and the quality of walkways.
Figure 2. Walking path – people perception vs. Field observation.
Source: Perception Survey and Field Survey Results, 2012, cited in Tiwari and Rapur (2017); bar graph generated by Author using Canva.
As highlighted by Tiwari and Rapur (2017), the poor walkability associated with Nehru Place is not solely due to its urban design, but is deeply entrenched in its complex sociocultural factors that significantly influence pedestrians’ decisions to walk. There are numerous observations that one can make to corroborate this hypothesis. For instance, it was evident to the keen observer the overt proclivity of motorists to assume superiority over pedestrians, as evidenced by their repeated encroachments on walkways, possibly as they move at much faster and intimidating speeds with little thought to pedestrian safety. The field observations in this instance aligned uncontestably with the findings of the public perception survey, which cited motorists’ behavior as one of the worst-performing parameters. The helpless pedestrians rendered insignificant by the rash behavior of motorists, in the interest of their safety were forced to relinquish their rightful space to the latter.
Other sociocultural factors influencing people’s decision to walk included their tendency to dispose of garbage on the roadside, due to overflowing garbage bins in the area, exacerbated by Nehru Place’s high population density. People tended to avoid these streets on account of the unpleasant sights and stenches, and yet harbored a general acceptance and normalization of this situation. It was commonplace in the area for the less fortunate to construct ephemeral shelters along the walkways owing to easy access to their modest means of income. This idiosyncratic practice was accepted by users as a state of normalcy. Place-activation was strongly dictated by the mixed-use nature of the streets, with pedestrians enjoying the presence and activities offered by street vendors or peddlers; this consequently incentivized the peddlers to establish their shops proximate to pedestrian-activity corridors, inevitably encroaching on dedicated pedestrian walkways. Another unique sociocultural phenomenon, which was endemic to places such as Nehru Place with a significant Hindu demographic, was the spontaneous formation of transitory temples, due to the common belief that a deity’s presence on walkways will bless the area and protect its users from imminent harm.
In response to these walkability issues identified by the researchers, on October 30, 2012, on a Tuesday afternoon, Market Street of Nehru Place was enlivened by a performative experiment staged by the architecture students of Curtin University, in association with artists of a local theatre group. The experiment involved researchers, students, and artists dressed in black, carrying props such as colored fabric bands, and taking to the streets to perform meticulously scripted acts. The performance intended to induce behavioral changes in pedestrians, encouraging them to reclaim their space by posing the question: ‘Why not walk?’ Body insertions by performers attempted to transform the urban space by metaphorically manifesting critical aspects of walkability previously absent from the area. The performative installations were designed to emphasize pedestrians’ right to reclaim their space, encouraging both users and the (un)concerned authorities to reflect on the identified walkability issues, with the ultimate goal being to inspire the creation of pedestrian-inclusive urban environments.
This performative model of inquiry developed by Tiwari (2010) builds upon Henri Lefebvre’s theory of rhythmanalysis, which entails participants becoming immersed in a local environment to apprehend the various means by which their bodily rhythms align with those of everyday activities transpiring in an urban setting. Moreover, the methodology serves to highlight the similarities and differences of the performers’ experiences with those of everyday users of the space. As such, these body insertions (literal or symbolic) of the performers into the local urban context can propel the audience to challenge their preconceived notions about the urban issues in question. Figure 3 (below) of the act titled ‘Reclaiming the pedestrian space from the motorists’ depicts a choreography designed to relay to the audience the ostensible arrogance of motorists on the streets.
Figure 3: Act one: Reclaiming the pedestrian space from the motorists.
Source: Tiwari and Curtis (2012), cited in Tiwari and Rapur (2017).
Responding to the perceived superiority of motorists over pedestrians, the installation sought to reverse this power dynamic by enlarging the pedestrian figures to appear dominant, while motorists were portrayed as docile, silently navigating between the pedestrians. At one critical juncture of the performance, motorists were forced to stop by advancing pedestrians crossing the road, with a white fabric trailing behind them to represent their rightful ownership of pedestrian crossings. In what may be perceived as a critique of the dominant patriarchal society historically embedded in the culture of the place, female performers were positioned on top of male performers to symbolize a role reversal, both on the streets as well as in society at large.
The impacts of this experiment were manifold across various levels. The most apparent was the impact on the immediate audience, whose reactions were recorded via photographs, observations, and informal chats. It should come as little surprise, given its metaphorical medium of communication, that less than a third of the audience wholly grasped the core issues being presented. The audience tended to interpret the performances with marked equivocation; yet the experiment inevitably highlighted issues not previously captured in perception surveys, presumably because users had become desensitized, considering many such issues a routine part of their lives and not warranting much thought until now. At the next hierarchical level was the impact on the wider community, with the street experiment conjuring media interest and serving to raise general awareness concerning the urban issues highlighted.
This interest generated via the media and wider community subsequently alerted authorities at the decision-making level, culminating in the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) teaming up with various organizations to propose urban design solutions to some of the highlighted issues. Moreover, the local authority requested access to the project report to investigate the potential of aligning their policies to the recommendations laid out in the report. The favorable responses on account of the audience, media, and decision-makers are a testament to the demonstrated efficacy of the performative street experiment in generating much-needed awareness around the issues of walkability prevalent in Nehru Place. By exposing the users of Nehru Place to key urban issues they had so far taken for granted, the street experiment encouraged contemplation and helped reconnect them to their local urban environment. It would be fascinating to investigate, as future research directions, what tangible real-world impacts can be triggered by such a philosophical model of inquiry related to performative street experiments, and how that may be replicated across dissimilar urban environments on a global scale.
References
Basu, Indrani / TNN / Updated: Oct 30, 2012. 2024. “Nehru Place Pedestrian Paths Score Low on Quality, Accessibility: Delhi News – Times of India.” The Times of India. TOI. Accessed April 8. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/nehru-place-pedestrian-paths-score-low-on-quality-accessibility/articleshow/17013919.cms.
Lefebvre, Henri. Rhythmanalysis: Space, time and everyday life. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013.
Tiwari, Reena. Space-body-ritual: Performativity in the city. Plymouth: Lexington Books, 2010.
Tiwari, Reena, and Carey Curtis. “A three-pronged approach to urban arterial design: A functional+ physical+ social classification.” Urban Design International 17 (2012): 129-143.
Tiwari, Reena and Smith, Dianne. Urban Rhythmanalysis: Tool for reflection and change. 2012.
Tiwari, Reena, and Sneha Rapur. “Walkable Streets ‘FOR the PEOPLE’ ‘BY the PEOPLE.’” Applied Mobilities 4, no. 1 (2017): 87–105. doi:10.1080/23800127.2017.1397418.
