Architecture is a central character in everything that is happening. It exerts control over the actions and interactions of the human body by structuring the space in which these bodies move. By closely analysing the document that lays down some rules for building and constructing spaces, the National Building Code (2016), this essay attempts to highlight how this control and power are exerted and to what effect.
The National Building Code (2016)
The National Building Code is published by the Bureau of Indian Standards and has seen approximately three revised editions since being published in 1978. These revisions are owed to newer technological developments, the need for safer and fairer practices, and an increased focus on sustainability and accessibility. The document is a comprehensive and exhaustive list of tasks that should be completed and actions that must be taken. It envisions a future world, its needs and demands, and makes plans to tackle them. It acknowledges the issue of overpopulation, saying “in the years to come…the urban population of India will continue to increase with such pace as to maintain the pressure on demand of accommodation for them” (BIS, 2016). At the same time, it offers itself as a solution that prioritises “speed of construction” while maintaining “architectural control in the development of our cities and towns, if creation of ugliness and slum-like conditions in our urban areas is to be avoided” (BIS, 2016).
The phrasing of this particular sentence reveals not just the code’s underlying ideology, but also that of the urban city buildings it seems to endorse. By linking the disgust associated with ugliness to slums, and at the same time framing urban as its opposite, the code envisions a future that includes only those who fit its urban aesthetic. These often are the select few who hold the class, caste, and gender privilege. It mobilises aesthetics for conformity and exclusion, and it does so through architecture and urban planning.
Paradox of the NBC (2016)
The language reveals the paradox at the heart of the NBC. It is the squatter and the slum-dweller that is the problem and not the socio-economic practices that create the slums. While the document does acknowledge the importance of planning for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Low Income Groups (LIG), it does so by providing a list of “requirements on planning, design of layout/ shelter” (BIS, 2016). Affordability is discussed in terms of layout patterns and incorporating minimum requirements, rather than the structural conditions that render housing inaccessible to large segments of the population.
The Human and Land Rights Network estimates that “at least one percent of the population of urban India is homeless [and] that the population of the urban homeless is at least 3 million” (Homelessness, HLRN). Additionally, resettlement projects have consistently failed and caused further harm to the people staying in slums. They have, with the help of the police, conducted “massive evictions” despite resistance, projects have been left incomplete (Damle, 2025). The seemingly harmless regulations reveal the social, economic, and political biases in how buildings are constructed. The purpose is to control who has access to a particular space and who doesn’t.
The Politics of Design
Architecture, thus, is not just symbolic. It does not stand apart from the complex aspects of society. It is very much political, and its political nature is evident in the way it enforces hierarchies and ideologies into the material fabric of society. It can be seen in how residential areas are often gated communities, and how public housing and informal settlements have limited access to clean water and electricity. The former becomes a contained space of privilege, while the latter does not meet the minimum requirements of human life. At the same time, the existence of the gated community relies on the existence of the latter. Another example would be the inclusion of a service elevator within these gated communities. It becomes another way of controlling who is seen, by whom, and what is considered desirable, and it reveals the caste, class, and gender biases held in society.
Architecture as a Director
Design cannot be neutral. It is, as the National Building Code states, “interwoven in a large measure in all sectors of development, be it housing, transport, industry, irrigation, power, agriculture, education or health” (BIS, 2016). Architecture is designed with a specific function in mind, allowing for only certain actions to happen within a designated space. Thus, not only are design and architecture reflections of society’s values, but they actively shape it, acting as the container for all of society’s activities. John Archer, in his essay, points this out in the shift within the theoretical field of Architectural History, where “there has been a growing recognition of the instrumentality of built space (buildings, cities, landscapes) in such diverse facets of human life as cognition, selfhood, social and ideological relations, economy, politics, and power” (Archer, 2005).
Architecture, then, is not just a character in the unfolding drama of urban life but is also the director. It cues movement, controls the script, and sets the stage for what can be seen, done, or imagined.
References:
Archer, J. (2005) ‘Social Theory of Space: Architecture and the Production of Self, Culture, and Society’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 64(4), pp. 430–433. doi:10.2307/25068197.
Bureau of Indian Standards (2016) National building code of India 2016 (volume 1), Internet Archive. Available at: https://archive.org/details/nationalbuilding01/in.gov.nbc.2016.vol1.digital/page/n158/mode/1up (Accessed: 22 June 2025).
Damle, S. (2025) The Redevelopment of Dharavi will Destroy the Livelihoods of Those Who Work in Small Businesses, The Wire. Available at: https://thewire.in/urban/the-redevelopment-of-dharavi-will-destroy-the-livelihoods-of-those-who-work-in-small-businesses (Accessed: 22 June 2025).
Homelessness (no date) Housing and Land Rights Network. Available at: https://hlrn.org.in/homelessness (Accessed: 22 June 2025).
