This probably first specialized and comprehensive book on open space planning in a developing country is an empirical study. Its interdisciplinary approach embraces planning and sociological perspectives. The open space problem of cities is analysed on the background of the actual situation of urban planning and housing and of its organisational, financial, legal and social frames. Key persons of both the camps of open space suppliers and users are interviewed. A detailed commentary attempts to answer the question of how a satisfactory supply and maintenance of urban open space could be kept in the light of rising costs and decreasing finances, resulting high densities and smaller houses and of the immense needs for basic shelter for at least a 100 million migrants and squatters expected alone for the four largest urban agglomerations within the next decades.
G. Ayyaneth
Originally from Kudamuck, situated in the town of Pathanamthitta on the southern part of Kerala, India, G. Ayyaneth is a licentiate in biblical theology from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He received a diploma in German language (ZOP) from the Goethe Institute in Germany and a doctorate in biblical theology from the University of Fribourg. He is currently the director of Bethany Vedavijnana Peeth (BVP), an extension center of Jnana Deepa Vidayapeeth (JDV) or Pontifical Athenaeum in Pune, India, as well as a Catholic Religious Priest of Order of the Imitation of Christ (Bethany Ashram). Ayyaneth is also a columnist and writes articles in theological journals, along with poems and dramas in his mother tongue ‘Malayalam’.