A colourful lesson from comfort town

The words 'comfort' and 'Ukraine' decidedly don't go well together since the outbreak of war. But even in that dire glumness, a township is serving not just as an oasis of everyday happiness for its residents near Kyiv, but can also be an inspiration for the extremes of chaotic griminess and sterile cementland that makes for most of India's urbanscape. Named rather aptly, if a bit unimaginatively, Comfort Town, it uses the block development principle in an eye-catching way (photo).

Inspired by Lego blocks, the 2020-completed 40-hectare, 180 low-rise apartment buildings and 8,500 apartments self-contained township sings in colour. Apart from the greenery of trees and parks, houses bear colours that aren't garish, but soothing and playful. The fact that the drabness of the Soviet architectural landscape led to this wonderful contrast gives us hope and inspiration to turn our own towns into pretty urbanscapes. India celebrates its colours. And, yet, our towns are, at best, a grey hotchpotch, or, at worst, a 'mind your step' nightmare. Ukraine's Comfort Town can provide the answer. It even sounds like an NCR township.