Sharing an informal talk over a coffee often brings out some of the best ideas and reflection on one’s life experiences that may get lost in a formal structured setting of conferences or meetings. I had one such amazing opportunity to talk with William McPherson on his podcast show Rock Bottom: Building your Health and Happiness from the ground on up! The theme is spot on focusing on urbanism and the everyday life of people. I absolutely enjoyed sharing some of my experiences of living in different cities and some unformalized musing. Please take a listen at the podcast link!

A few tidbits of my talk include the importance of connection between transportation and the transitional spaces that exist between public spaces and private domains. The opportunity of “chance interaction” that happens in transitional spaces and the need to create a built environment that supports more social interaction. Transit as public space and the need to think holistically about all modes of transportation including biking and walking to make communities healthy and happy. I touch upon a subjective view of density and why people view it differently based on their individual perspective and experiences. Coining a term called “comfortable density” to describe one’s comfort level of a certain threshold of a density of spaces and the related type of transportation supporting it which could help understand the concept beyond an objective measure. Lastly, I talk about the human emotions shaping the built environment and the built environment in turn shaping the emotions, and my role as a planner-architect in the cycle of creation and recreation of urbanism for all.

In fact, this felt like an emotional talk about cities! Thanks, William, for inviting me to speak at your show and giving me an opportunity to talk about things from my heart. You did a brilliant job of asking me the right questions and striking a wonderful conversation!