The idea of achieving novelty through frugality in design and planning does not seem to be guiding recent architectural designs of significant public and civic buildings in India. In recent years, unlike in early independent India, the architectural designs of some new public and civic buildings reported in the news media, such as Secretariats or High courts undertaken by State governments, airport terminals, or railway stations, seem lavish and luxurious, reportedly involving substantial, and sometimes astronomical, sums of public money. It is pertinent, therefore, to enquire if the designs of such public buildings are apt, responsible and frugal in consumption of monetary, land and environmental resources. This question also applies to planning new cities.

It is also pertinent to examine some aspects of the current framework governing the production of architectural designs for public buildings and projects. While various State governments ~ for constructing public structures ~ may conduct the contract award processes in accordance with stipulated government rates through competitive bidding and audit compliance procedures, there is often little or no debate about the need to use up a given extent of land or large expanses of building space or areas in sprawling concrete structures beyond what is needed. There is also much less debate about the cost of the often-expensive materials used, or about energy and maintenance costs borne throughout the life cycle of buildings.

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Further, present audit procedures often examine whether public structures are built at the estimated price. However, the standard government annual rates for building the structures which guide these estimates, usually fixed by government committees or boards of chief engineers, also remain an internal matter and are not widely known, critically reviewed, or debated in the public realm. While value engineering of structures can optimise the cost of public structures, there are no audits or other mechanisms to rigorously assess the appropriateness, qualitative aspects, and resource footprint........

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