Design to fix public problems

Of painted walls and clean streets

How do the blue wall designs with Gandabherunda and Ambari on the sides of the roads near Bangalore Palace make one feel? What do murals in walls make a walker think? Is there a science to these designs? Or is it just art?

“A good public design is one that solves the problem. A wall painting is simply a component of the design, but not the complete solution,” says Arun Pai, founder of BangaloreWALKS, who showcases the city streets to visitors. He also volunteers for citizen initiatives working towards clean streets and public spaces.

There are three public problems plaguing the city: Open urination, wall posters and dumping or littering, according to Pai. There is a pattern to their occurrence. A covered corner that provides privacy proves attractive to people seeking some privacy, in the absence of public toilets close by. This is true for dumping and littering as well. Visible signs of abandonment, previous signs of littering and lack of beauty in an area can encourage further dumping and littering.

Poster-free walls

Walls painted in lighter colours, such as the walls of military properties in Bengaluru which used to be painted a cream colour, highlight the paan stains or mud slashes, and make it look ugly.

Posters are illegal in Bengaluru, under the Karnataka Open Places (Prevention of Disfigurement Act), 1981. Dirty and uncared-for walls give out an unwritten cue for those who place posters.

The trick to fixing this is in making the walls look cared for and rendering them unattractive to those who paste posters, by killing the visibility. In the case of military walls, when a group of anonymous volunteers called The Ugly Indians (TUI) took up the task of beautifying it, the bottom two feet were painted with a brick-red band to hide all stains and give a uniform look to the wall.

“Posters are stuck normally at a hand’s height, between 4-7 feet. So we made designs on the walls to cover between 3-8 feet,” explains Pai. He has volunteered with TUI for the last 12 years.

So do wall arts fix the problem of posters? “A lot of wall art can go wrong. Nice artwork with gaps can attract posters,” he says. “A design, where there were gaps, attracted A4 size posters,” he explains.

This meant people were sensitive to design. He adds that later the designs were changed to reduce the visibility of posters. Varied colours and triangular forms made the walls look bright and neat, and also killed visibility for posters.

Enforcement is key

Trees were sometimes painted red, to indicate ownership, which led to behavioural changes. Wherever posters were stuck on a tree or an electric pole, people would call the numbers on posters and warn them of fines, says a volunteer. Public posters have been reduced a lot today also because of zero tolerance and fines.

There are other rules to public art. “Never write anything. when something is written like ‘do not throw garbage’ it can actually attract garbage,” says Pai.

“On the contrary, the icons of our cultural pride - Ambari, logos like Gandabherunda etc can evoke pride and act as a deterrent to littering and posters,” he says. Themes also serve the same purpose. Veeranapalya near Nagawara got a wildlife theme, while the upcoming HAL underpass is getting painted with an aerospace theme.

The key is to paint “what’s right for the city, not what you like,” says Pai. The designs should be standardised and repeatable at scale by anyone, he adds.

Experiments to prevent dumping

Earlier in the late 20th century, the city had cement rings where people would dump their garbage. This proved to be a public health menace. The Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) formed in 1999 piloted door-to-door waste collection and came up with a no-bin policy for the city.

Even today, the city has public garbage dumps, known as ‘blackspots’, formed due to improper waste collection systems. Local cleanliness drives offered a temporary fix, while the garbage always returned.

TUI started beautification work backed with design solutions, with a garbage dump at Church Street in 2008-09. Discussions with stakeholders near the dump, fixing broken footpaths and beautifying the place, and fixing of waste collection system helped solve the issue. Since then, the group has experimented with various formats. Designs and the solutions have evolved too.

Today dumping is avoided using painting places, and putting single green nets on vacant plots — something anyone can do.

“These days if there is a complaint against a blackspot, those who complain are asked to paint the wall white, place a few plant pots, draw rangolis and keep the place clean for three days. Anyone can do it,” says Pai. Once it’s successful, TUI teams go and beautify the space with designs.

This is aimed at making local people take charge of the problems and local accountability. “For a design solution to be successful, everyone should agree to it. Also, all designs are collaborative. No abstract or religious images, no messages, nothing,” he adds.

The sustainability of the solution matters a lot. “We have public space designs that are 6-7 years old which are perfectly working,” he says. Sometimes visual designs on walls or pillars don’t last during monsoons if the structures are leaky. Designs in such places should last for three monsoons, he says.

Efforts were done to fix the problem of open urination in some places by constructing cement slopes in the corners and beautification, which is called ‘killing the corner’. However, the final solution to fixing open urination is in having proper toilets, feel activists.

‘Public art alone not a deterrent’

“Bengaluru has taken a lead with regard to public space design, for clean public spaces and user-friendliness. The first example is the TenderSURE roads where pedestrian walkways are clearly demarcated. This has helped the city at a scale as more and more localities adopted the model,” says Aniruddha Abhyankar, a design consultant who has worked on many public space transformation projects.

“Orderly and neat features of footpath command descent behaviour. The line of plants enhances the look and feel of walkways,” he adds.

However, he thinks public wall art alone cannot be a deterrent to littering. “Painting walls definitely reduces public surface defacement, but not littering and urination. I see fewer public dustbins than what is required. I also see less number of urinals and toilets than what is required,” says Abhyankar emphasising their importance in solving the issues.

Also, the problem can re-occur or shift elsewhere if the root cause is not fixed. Every second streetlight pole should have some kind of receivable for garbage, he says.

“There are corporate campuses where dustbins say wet, dry and ‘I don’t know’ to put the waste the category of which you don’t know, which is a very humane way to treat people,” he adds.

'Include residents in decisions'

Geechugulu Collective was a part of painting conservancy lanes in Malleshwaram, as part of a walkability project in Malleshwaram funded by the Directorate of Urban Land Transport. Pourakarmikas, walkers, people going to temples, and women selling coffee — all have found places in the murals of Malleswaram.

“We attempt to create meaning for the audience, but what we portray comes out of research and conversations with the people who are there, the primary audience and users, or the story we as the artists want to communicate to the rest of the city through murals,” says Yash Bhandari, a member of Geechugalu, explaining how they work.

Inclusivity in projects

Suchitra Deep, a co-founder of Malleswaram Social, whose idea of repurposing conservancies as pedestrian walkways formed the core of the Walkable Malleswaram Project, says most of the public spaces are not democratic or equally accessible to all.

“People should feel involved in the project. Sometimes there are apprehensions that beggars or lovers will come and use public spaces. So what? They’re also public. How can one say only certain kinds of people can use a space?” she asks.

“Collaboration is very important. Even though I had worked on this idea independently, I couldn’t make it happen as an individual. It takes the efforts of many collaborators to make things happen, especially in the public arena,” says Suchitra.

The active involvement of members of Malleswaram Social, experts from Sensing Local, residents, various NGOs, BBMP and the MLA’s office, helped the Walkable Malleswaram Project move forward.

However, there is one small problem. “BBMP is not convinced about such projects generally. People in every locality will come up with lovely ideas if BBMP supports them,” says Suchitra.

“The process of redesigning a public space has to take into account a local sense of what is beautiful and what is acceptable to people who use or inhabit that particular space. If you design an aesthetic by excluding those whose everyday lives are tied to it, you can end up creating something that makes people feel excluded,” says Usha Rao, an anthropologist and media-maker working in and on Bengaluru for over a decade.

“One has to be conscious of whether the design invites rather than restricts use, movement and ownership. Sometimes a re-designed space can end up excluding a section of ‘the public’ that previously ‘owned’ the space. And this can be discriminatory,” she adds.

Making spaces really public

“Public spaces are many— not just footpaths, walls or parks — it is the markets, spaces outside government schools and buildings and more. Solutions can be designed, based on the requirement and demands of each space. There can be single-cabin or multiple-cabin toilets or increasing the number of urinals may help a lot. The designs should be customised, this is how the government can fix the issues,” says Aniruddha Abhyankar.

The urban voids — the empty, unused areas in public spaces — can be used in a better way, he adds, giving the examples of Suvidha Cabins constructed in such areas of the city to help pourakarmikas change and relax.

Space is at a premium in cities. “Legal and extra-legal commercial interests can take up such spaces quickly, but they can use urban voids for public purposes if the government conducts surveys and plans the usage,” he says.