'Construction industry needs better planning'

Frederic Schwartz, a leading design critic has stressed that the Indian construction industry should focus more on disaster proof, eco-friendly building plans.

He said this was imperative not only to minimises loss on account of disasters, but also to conserve energy.

Schwartz, who is also a professor of architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Harvard University was addressing a seminar on 'Rebuilding cities after natural or man made disasters' last Saturday.

He also advised against the rising exterior use of glass in commercial buildings, which are increasingly coming up in cities like Delhi and Gurgaon.

"Glass should be best avoided as its is not suited to Indian weather. In western countries including US, glass windows are used in buildings to trap heat from the sun as these are mostly cold weather countries. India is a hot weather country and needs to trap cold instead of heat," he said.

Comparing old Indian structures with the new ones he said that none of the old architecture in India had glass-based construction.

"Most of the buildings should have proper walls with ventilation system instead of too many glass windows. They rather had thick brick and mortar walls, which not only made them more safer but also led to energy conservation," Schwartz said.

On the problem of country's infrastructure and traffic problems Schwartz said, the solution to this lies in growing vertically instead of spreading out.