The other day, I came across news about plans to revamp the White House. As much as it’s across the world, it pulled me right back to when Central Vista in Delhi began quietly, without public debate, design proposals, or community input. The construction just started, as though the land belonged not to its citizens, but to those in power.
I’ve been mulling over what that says about architecture. It’s never just bricks and corridors. It’s deeply about who gets to occupy space, how it’s controlled, and why it’s reshaped, always with unseen priorities at play.
Then came the recent Supreme Court order. Authorities in Delhi-NCR must relocate all stray dogs to shelters within eight weeks. No return to the streets. The move, the court said, aims to protect children and public health. But for me, it feels like another thread in the story of power deciding whose presence is allowed, and whose is denied.
Power Decide Presence & Absence
Central Vista spans about 200 acres, enough to fit over 150 football fields. That’s prominence made obvious. Monumental buildings rise, asserting power and power’s permanence.
Meanwhile, stray dogs, the city’s silent inhabitants, are being removed, not recognised. The absence of space for them is a deliberate act, not an oversight. It’s symbolic. Invisible lives made invisible by design.
Response & Allocation
Let’s talk numbers.
Animal welfare standards suggest 36 sq ft per dog as a minimum humane space in a shelter. Now imagine Delhi’s stray population - estimated at 500,000 to 1,000,000 dogs.
500,000 dogs × 36 sq ft = 18 million sq ft (~413 acres).
1,000,000 dogs would need >800 acres for humane sheltering.
Compare that to the 200 acres that the Central Vista claims. These dogs, if treated as deserving of basic shelter space, would require multiple Central Vistas worth of land.
That colossal gap shows not an inability to allocate space, but a choice about who gets counted and who gets displaced.
Identity Shifts
When public space transforms, identity shifts with it. Central Vista rewrites Delhi’s face as a seat of power. What it means to walk Rajpath, to look at Lutyens’ Delhi. It all changes.
But what about the city’s less visible residents? For street dogs, once part of the ecosystem, sharing pavements with children, accompanying late-night pedestrians are now excluded. The city reimagines itself as safe for some, regulated for others.
Power isn’t confined to grand buildings. It’s embedded in zoning maps, in who gets land and who has to leave. Sometimes it’s loud, with cranes, barricades, and restricted vistas. Other times, it’s quiet, like the erasure of a dog from familiar streets.
If we’re serious about justice, we must recognise that space is never neutral. It’s a ledger of who matters and who doesn’t.
Sources & Context
SC Order on Street Dogs (Aug 11, 2025): Authorities in Delhi-NCR have 8 weeks to move stray dogs to shelters, with no return to streets allowed. The ruling ignored sterilisation–release norms. The GuardianThe Economic TimesReuters
Stray dog population estimate: Delhi’s stray dog population is estimated between 500,000 to 1,000,000. The GuardianReuters
Central Vista area: Redevelopment claims for Central Vista cover approximately 200 acres. Yahoo News SingaporeThe Economic Times
https://substack.com/@kiweewaedward/note/p-171000845?r=5sv4uq