Taj Mahal

During the field trip to Agra, India, I am more convinced that design can and should bring people better living. The Taj Mahul is a famous world heritage, which is so incredible beautiful that nothing but admiration would come up in your mind when you look at it. Beside the aesthetical admiration, the Taj Mahal also provoke my thinking. There is an interesting fact that the landscape in front of Taj Mahal was transform to geometric garden by the British colonists while in the 1600s the Mugal were to have fruit trees planted in a garden 6 feet lower than the present one which enabled the emperor to pick up fruits without much efforts. In this perspective, the Mugal garden provides more interactive experience than the British garden. Also, before the southern gate of Taj Mahul, there is a densely populated area called Taj Ganj of which some parts are identified as slums. The residents inside are living in unbelievable awful conditions-no access to pumping water, no toilet and so on. The self-constructed community shows how the lack of design can lead to a deteriorate living conditions. If the community is planned with municipal water system and public basic facility, the residents can be suffer less even in poverty. Design in the context of Agra become extreme and controversial, yet I believe that a good design is not only valuable in terms of aesthetics but also emotion and physical catering to the wellbeing of every human being.