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Deciphering policy design in the season finale

Designer and architect Dikshu Kukreja unfolds the impact of policies on the design sensibility of a country along with Jay Panda in the episode, ‘Reimagining tomorrow’, on Deciphering Design with Dikshu.

Design is a subject that has limitless possibilities, potential to improve the quality of life of millions, discover and rediscover ways of changing how we walk, sense, and possibly impact everything around us. As we dive into the finale of Dikshu Kukreja’s journey of exploring this diverse space and deciphering the various aspects of design in multiple industries and sectors, we take an insight into the one discipline that has more impact on our mundane routines more than we realise.

Deciphering Design with Dikshu has shared perspectives of varied spheres like interior design, fashion, culinary, handicraft, transportation, heritage, and public spaces. The finale episode captures an intuitive discourse between Dikshu Kukreja and Jay Panda, the National VP of BJP, on the aspects of policy design. Before we dive deeper, let us understand how it really concerns us, shapes us, and how its understanding is essential for expanding our awareness.

A single stroke of a pen, a draft of one legislation hold tremendous power of determining how cities are built, what their residents will be exposed to, and how that will mould your direction in life. Policies can shape the design direction of a nation and have a direct influence on our design sensibilities. We are living in a time where a nation’s overall development is not derived just out of its GDP, but also takes into consideration the quality of life, a new index called the Gross National Happiness that emphasises the paradigm shift of significance of qualitative factors and not just quantitative gains.

In this progressive journey, design in all aspects of different sectors plays a vital role in innovating unique ways of improving the experiences and policies of a particular nation. 

“I am from a business family. I used to complain about the system, and my friends told me to either do something about it or stop complaining, one thing led to another, and that is how I stumbled into politics. It was not something I had planned since my student days,” suggests the ‘Accidental Politician’, a term Panda refers to himself as.

In India, today, we have this window of opportunity where massive public projects are happening, be it the metros, expansion of highways and waterways, and more in scale that has rarely been done in any other nation. We ought to give policy-making the much-needed exposure and that would also be beneficial in understanding the relevance of infrastructure projects impacting our quality of life today, and in the coming years. 

“The moment such a policy is introduced in a city, it means that rather than building an urban sprawl where you keep building limitlessly and the city keeps expanding, you densify nodes in a city where you have an easy public commute, making it easier to go to work and come back home. I think policies in that sense can make a great deal of difference,” elaborates Dikshu as he delves deeper into discussing policy-making’s impact that has been existent in architectural designs’ yesteryears and the opportunities they unfold ahead.

As we come to the end of the episode, Panda eloquently describes how the policies in the coming days are going to shape the new design in India and the world as a whole. Where we come from, and the direction we are headed towards, each step is a conscious decision that needs to be taken thoughtfully and by being inclusive of all the other aspects that surround us. Both Dikshu and Panda have finely articulated the relevance of policies, design, architecture, and nation-building in their conversation.

Design — a word, a journey, a question, and an answer that has been intricately and delicately explored by Dikshu in this breakthrough show, that brought design-inspired facets of various subjects to the fore, is bound to leave us all feeling more aware and equipped to undertake our steps ahead.

Do not miss out on this grand finale of Deciphering Design with Dikshu. Log on to www.designwithdikshu.com to watch the entire episode and join Dikshu Kukreja in his journey of celebrating design by following and subscribing to the show. You can also directly connect with Dikshu Kukreja and find answers to your design-related questions by using the hashtag #designwithdikshu on Instagram or Twitter. For more updates follow @DikshuKukreja on Instagram and Twitter.

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