I had purchased my house in Indira Nagar, Lucknow, quarter of a century ago. My sector in the huge residential colony has three types of houses - High Income Group (HIG), MIG and LIG. All houses used to have a front yard, a backyard, parking for 3, 2 or 1 cars, and a side setback along the entire depth of the plot on one side. The houses have a common wall on the other side along the depth. The open spaces are quite adequate and provide lots of natural lighting and ventilation and keep you from feeling claustrophobic.
At the time these houses were built, false ceilings providing diffused lighting in the rooms and airconditioning that positively discourages ventilation, were not very common. Thus these open spaces and the windows opening into those spaces were a necessity too. To be fair, even at that time there was a group that felt that open spaces were sheer waste and attempted to minimize them by expanding out the structure using ingenious architectural tricks.
25 years is a long period. Children have grown up and moved out of Lucknow and some the original occupants too are migrating to live with their sons and daughters or in flats. The houses are being sold off. When a sale takes place this is what typically happens. The old structure is pulled down and a new house built with the maximum number of floors permitted in the area. Currently rules permit three floors. This would be considered a normal development but for what I am going to narrate now.
The new structures blatantly do away with all requirements of open spaces in the form of a side setback on one side, back and front yards, and parking withing the plot. These structures are almost B2B (boundary to boundary!) Backyard, if there is one, is just an air shaft for ventilating the kitchen and toilets. I understand that the building bylaws have not changed in any significant way and yet these violation are either not noticed by the local development authority or deliberately overlooked (for a consideration?) Rooms are liberally airconditioned and windows are merely decorative and seldom opened.
A major problem arises for the neighbor who still has a side setback. The new structure next door, as described above, extends right up to the boundary. These new kids on the block then cleverly have a opening into the side setback of the poor old neighbor. They use the neighbor's setback for lighting and ventilation while they use all their space in the B2B manner.
Complaining to authorities can have one and only one result, that is, dangerously inimical neighbor relations for all times to come. If you choose to have a level headed talk, you get just one response. It goes like this - you may also construct B2B if you wish! And if you do that out of desperation what is the result? Both the neighbor and you have houses that extend into each other and / or total darkness and lack of ventilation for both.
Now that everybody is convinced that the neighbor will go for B2B in any case, those who have the advantage of constructing first try to preempt the neighbor by going B2B without even waiting to talk to the neighbor in the matter.
In the meantime authorities are planning a tax on vehicles which are parked alongside streets overnight. Thus B2B has become a revenue earner for both the authorities and their officials.
B2B has become the new architectural norm in my city. How about yours?
At the time these houses were built, false ceilings providing diffused lighting in the rooms and airconditioning that positively discourages ventilation, were not very common. Thus these open spaces and the windows opening into those spaces were a necessity too. To be fair, even at that time there was a group that felt that open spaces were sheer waste and attempted to minimize them by expanding out the structure using ingenious architectural tricks.
25 years is a long period. Children have grown up and moved out of Lucknow and some the original occupants too are migrating to live with their sons and daughters or in flats. The houses are being sold off. When a sale takes place this is what typically happens. The old structure is pulled down and a new house built with the maximum number of floors permitted in the area. Currently rules permit three floors. This would be considered a normal development but for what I am going to narrate now.
The new structures blatantly do away with all requirements of open spaces in the form of a side setback on one side, back and front yards, and parking withing the plot. These structures are almost B2B (boundary to boundary!) Backyard, if there is one, is just an air shaft for ventilating the kitchen and toilets. I understand that the building bylaws have not changed in any significant way and yet these violation are either not noticed by the local development authority or deliberately overlooked (for a consideration?) Rooms are liberally airconditioned and windows are merely decorative and seldom opened.
A major problem arises for the neighbor who still has a side setback. The new structure next door, as described above, extends right up to the boundary. These new kids on the block then cleverly have a opening into the side setback of the poor old neighbor. They use the neighbor's setback for lighting and ventilation while they use all their space in the B2B manner.
Complaining to authorities can have one and only one result, that is, dangerously inimical neighbor relations for all times to come. If you choose to have a level headed talk, you get just one response. It goes like this - you may also construct B2B if you wish! And if you do that out of desperation what is the result? Both the neighbor and you have houses that extend into each other and / or total darkness and lack of ventilation for both.
Now that everybody is convinced that the neighbor will go for B2B in any case, those who have the advantage of constructing first try to preempt the neighbor by going B2B without even waiting to talk to the neighbor in the matter.
In the meantime authorities are planning a tax on vehicles which are parked alongside streets overnight. Thus B2B has become a revenue earner for both the authorities and their officials.
B2B has become the new architectural norm in my city. How about yours?
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