New Architecture and Urbanism

NEW ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM
Development of Indian Traditions
NEW ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM

Development of Indian Traditions
Edited By
Deeependra Prashad
New Architecture and Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions

Editor :
Deependra Prashad
Editorial Team :
Saswati Chetia, Asst. Editor
Sharbani Ghosh
Swati Janu
Academic Committee :
A.G.K.Menon (Architect and Academician), Chair
Robert Adam (Architect and Chair, INTBAU)
S.K.Misra (Chairman, INTACH)
Yaaminey Mubayi (Heritage Consultant, The Nabha Foundation)
Nimish Patel (Architect, Abhikram, Ahmedabad)
Deependra Prashad (Architect & Planner, Delhi)
Jyoti Soni (Architect, Mumbai)
Saswati Chetia (Architect, INTBAU India)
Cover design by :
Nikhil Saxena
This book first published 2010
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright 2010 by International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism (INTBAU India)
All photographs and illustrations are courtesy the respective authors, unless otherwise mentioned.
Disclaimer :
The contents of the book reflect the technical and other features of the initiatives & projects as provided by the
respective authors. INTBAU does not assume any responsibility for the authenticity of the data and any other
information contained in this book. INTBAU or INTBAU India will also not be liable for any consequences
arising out of use of any information or data contained in the book.
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of
the copyright owner.
ISBN (10): 1-4438-1869-0, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-1869-8
The International Network of Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism (INTBAU) is a world wide organisation
dedicated to the support of traditional building, maintenance of local character and the creation of better places to
live in. It is involved in the creation of an active network of individuals and institutions who design, make, maintain,
study or enjoy traditional building, architecture and place making.
The activities of INTBAU are focused on research, professional exchanges, advisory and pilot projects in the field
of Urban revitalisation, Traditional planning and Sustainable design. By education, research and the promotion of
traditional techniques, it encourages people to maintain traditional buildings and to build new buildings and places which
help improve the quality of life in cities and towns around the world. Our Enquiry by Design (EbD) workshops
bring together all stakeholders on a common ground for tackling various urban issues. These include the government,
municipalities, citizen groups, professionals, urban development and heritage related agencies, organisations, developers
and any other affected groups. INTBAU also promotes traditional methods and crafts to promote economic sustainability
for craftspersons and environmental sustainability in the creation of the built environment.
INTBAU India was formed with its inaugural symposium on Emerging Urbanisation Trends at New Delhi in January
2005 which preceded the Mumbai mill lands Revitalisation Design workshop (EbD) held in Mumbai in March 2005.
The Nabha Foundation is building on the philanthropic activities of the Khemka

Family and its roots in Nabha, by taking up issues of integrated and sustainable
rural development, infrastructure upgradation and heritage conservation in
Nabha, Punjab.
With the active engagement of the government and other stakeholders in
Punjab, one of the prime initiatives of the Foundation is the adaptive reuse of
regional historical buildings in support of community development projects. The
foundation aims to create innovative institutions that reflect the local context and
vernacular architecture of Nabha. On a broader view, the Nabha Foundation is
leading a process change in mainstreaming heritage in the developmental process
in Punjab, as part of the Foundations strategic vision for urban regeneration
in this region
As part of our overall strategy of integrated rural development in Nabha, we
are working in the following areas:
Health - Both preventive and curative care
Livelihood - Focusing on sustainable agriculture, includes organic farming
and agriculture diversification; micro credit, with special focus on women; and
livestock development, for enhancing incomes of small and marginal farmers
Education - For both school going and out-of-school children. Our primary
focus is to create model rural schools that will mainstream out-of-school children
and demonstrate ways of imparting quality education at the primary level.
SUPPORTERS
UNESCO India:
UNESCO was founded in 1946 in the aftermath
of the Second World War for the purpose of advancing through the educational, scientific and cultural
relations of the people of the world, the objectives of international peace and the common welfare of
mankind. UNESCOs specific mission is to lay the foundations of lasting peace and equitable development.
UNESCO New Delhi Office, the Organisations first decentralized office in Asia was established in 1948.
At its inception, it dealt with science and technology programmes. In time, it incorporated communication
programmes, and still later expanded to include education and culture
UN-HABITAT:
The United Nations Human Settlements
Programme, UN-HABITAT, is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the
UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal
of providing adequate shelter for all. The main documents outlining the mandate of the organisation are
the Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements, the Habitat Agenda, Istanbul Declaration on Human
Settlements, and the Declaration on Cities and Other Human Settlements in the New Millennium.
INTACH:
INTACH, the Indian National Trust for Art

and Cultural Heritage, is a wholly autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation was set up in 1984 for
the conservation of our natural and man-made environment. It aims, with the active participation of its
members, to create awareness among the public for the preservation of our heritage, by acting as a pressure
group whenever any part of it is threatened by damage or destruction arising out of private acts or public
policy.
HUDCO:
The Housing and Urban Development

Corporation Ltd. (HUDCO) was incorporated on April 25, 1970 under the Companies Act 1956, as a
fully owned enterprise of the Government of India. HUDCO focus on the social aspect of housing and
utility infrastructure provision. It also works on the preferential allocation of resources to the socially
disadvantaged. Inspite of its commercial orientation, it continues to focus on sectors which are more socially
relevant rather than only on commercially viable and profitable sectors. HUDCOs techno-economic focus,
its high caliber human resources, and its financial and project re-engineering capabilities has enabled it to
continue as an institution par excellence in the field of housing and urban development.
School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi:

The School is a deemed university with a
formidable reputation as the nations leading institution for imparting professional education in town and
country planning, architecture and design. It offers programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate
levels. With the opening up of Indian economy and onset of globalisation, the school has entered into
several bilateral collaborations with foreign universities and research organisations in order to pursue
specialised areas of research, organise workshops, seminars, exhibitions, in the new upcoming areas of
architecture, planning and design.
Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur:
The institute offers a five-degree course in
architecture, duly recognised by the Council of Architecture, the premier professional body of the country.
The course is oriented to develop an understanding of both ancient and contemporary architecture. The
department has also taken up MHRD research projects. All the batches that have passed out from the
department are well placed in the architectural profession in India and abroad. The department is also a
major center for the activities of Indian Institute of Architects, Rajasthan Chapter.
TVB School of Habitat Studies, New Delhi:
The TVB School of Habitat Studies (now
the University School of Architecture & Planning) is affiliated to the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha
University, Delhi. It offers a 5-year (10 semesters) full time academic programme leading to a Bachelor of
Architecture Degree. The School understands that there is a shortfall of appropriately trained architects
who can cope with diverse demands and challenges of the developmental process in India. The school
derives its uniqueness from a pedagogic framework that inculcates architecture as a value based and ethical
inquiry and its practice based on various social factors. The school productively combines research and
teaching paradigms for optimum results.
Rachna Sansad School of Architecture, Mumbai:
The Rachna Sansad School of Architecture is
a premier institution for architectural education with an excellent reputation in Mumbai and across the
country. The School faculty and students are engaged in advocacy, research and activism on various local
and national issues. The school is also a centre of various activities related to architecture education and
the profession.
VI
Table of Contents
Preface
xi
Acknowledgements
xii
Messages
HRH The Prince of Wales

Uday Khemka, Managing Trustee & CEO, The Nabha Foundation
Robert Adam, Chair INTBAU
xiii
xiv
xvi
INTBAU - Nabha Declaration
xviii
Introduction: Why Tradition Matters

A.G.K. Menon, Chair, Academic Committee
Tradition and Our Built Environment

Growth: Maturity Or Over-development ?
Leon Krier, Architect & Urbanist, France
Tradition And Innovation

Raj Rewal , Architect, New Delhi
18
Globalisation And Tradition

Robert Adam, Architect, UK
28
New Ways of Looking at Heritage: Processes

Spatial Narratives In Traditional Indian Architecture: An Interpretation For Contemporary Relevance 35
Yatin Pandya, Associate Director
Vastu-Shilpa Foundation for Studies and Research in Environmental Design, Ahmedabad
Sense Of Identity, Continuity And Context
Pranali R. Parikh, Urban Designer, UK
39
Cultural Heritage As A Driver For Integrated Development In Punjab: The Case Of Nabha
Yaaminey Mubayi, The Nabha Foundation, New Delhi
Gurmeet Rai, Cultutal Resource Conservation Initiative, New Delhi
47
Cultural Metamorphosis, Building Tradition And Search For Architectural Identity In Africa:
A Case Study Of South-western Nigeria
Oluseyi Timothy Odeyale, Lecturer and Researcher, Department of Architecture
Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria
54
Jaipur As A Recurring Renaissance

Shikha Jain, Director- Development and Research Organisation for Nature,
Arts and Heritage (DRONAH), Gurgaon
60
Linking Heritage And Development Practices

INTBAU India
69
New Ways of Looking at Heritage: Contextual Frameworks

Heritage- A Key Resource For Sustainable Development: An International Perspective
Minja Yang, Director, UNESCO Office in New Delhi
77
Conceptual Framework Of Vaastu

Sashikala Ananth, Architect-Vadivam, Chennai
83
Heritage As A Living & Evolving Process:

Graphic Transcription And Analytic Study Of Architectural Proportions In Mayamatam
Vinay Mohan Das, Senior Lecturer, Deptt. of Arch. & Plng., MANIT, Bhopal
Evolution Of An Indigenous Planning System
Ranjit Sabikhi, Architect, New Delhi
89
97
Transforming Historic City Centres: Integrated Approach Of Urban Design & Historic Preservation 103
Krupali Uplekar, Assistant Prof., University of Notre Dame, USA
VII
The Raj Versus The Republic: The Legacy Of Lutyens

William Koehler, College of Management, University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA
Madhu C. Dutta, Asst. Prof., Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston, USA
Dismantling Cosmopolitanism: Transformations In The Sacred Heritage Of
The Non-monumental In The Konkan
Smita Dalvi, Assistant Professor, Pillais College of Architecture, Mumbai
Mustansir Dalvi, Professor, Sir JJ College of Architecture, Mumbai
Developing Local Capacities For Conserving Heritage At Heritage Sites In The Asia & The Pacific
(With Special Reference To The Indian Context)
Richard Engelhardt, Senior Advisor to UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture
107
112
118
Sustainable Places and Communities

International Capital, Ngos, Architects & Communities- The Case Of Karachi
Arif Hasan, Architect/Planner, Pakistan
127
Habitat For Humanity International: Partnering With The Poor For Better Housing
Aruna Paul Simittrarachhi, Regional Program Advisor for South Asian countries, HFHI, Nepal
Naresh Karmalker,Programme Advisor, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation,HFHI
134
Infrastructure Development Through Community Consensus: A Strategic Approach

Deependra Prashad, Architect/Planner & Visiting Faculty,
School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi
141
Transformations Occuring Due To Socio-economic Pressures

Amit Bhatt, Architect- IL & FS- IDC, New Delhi
Prerna Mehta, Architect/Town Planner (Housing), New Delhi
Sarika Panda Bhatt, Architect, New Delhi
148
Isolated By Elitism: The Pitfalls Of Recent Heritage Conservation Attempts In Chennai

Pushpa Arabindoo, Lecturer, UCL Urban Laboratory, University College London
155
Urbanization, Farm Land And The Form Of Public Space

Narendra Dengle, Architect/Conservationist, Pune
161
Sustainable Buildings
Earthen Architecture In Auroville: Linking A World Tradition With Modernity
Satprem Maini, Architect & Director, Earth Institute, Auroville
169
Evolving Traditional Practices For Sustainable Construction In The Present

Ashok Lall, Architect & Dean of Studies- TVB School of Habitat Studies, New Delhi
179
Learning Lessons From Traditional Methods For Achieving Sustainability In Building And
Urban Scale In Iranian Arid Cities
Marjan Nematimehr, Ph.D. Scholar, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
184
From Pattern Languages To Generative Codes: A Report On The Work Of Christopher Alexander
And Colleagues And Its Application To The Regeneration Of Traditional Settlements
Michael Mehaffy, Co Founder, Centre for Environmental Structure, Europe
192
Climatic Responsiveness In The Traditional Built Form Of Lucknow

Dr. Mohammad Arif Kamal, Asst. Prof., Deptt. of Architecture,
College of Environmental Design, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
201
Is Tradition Green?
INTBAU India
210
Development Of Indian Traditions: Constructivist Approach In The Design Studio

S. Badrinarayanan, Visiting Faculty- SPA and TVB School of Habitat Studies, New Delhi
214
Tradition And Contextual Relevance For Education In Architecture And Urbanism

INTBAU India
218
Continuing Traditions in New Architecture and Urbanism: Case studies in Form Making
VIII
Building Construction And The Decorative Crafts: The Endangered Traditions

Nimish Patel and Parul Zaveri, Architects- Abhikram, Ahmedabad
223
Reflections On The Narrative Of Place: The Infinite Conversation

Rasem Badran, Architect- Dar Al Omran, Jordan
231
Tradition As An Expression Of Time

K.T. Ravindran, Architect and Dean of Studies, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi
238
Bhadli Village, Gujarat: Rubble To Renewal

Brinda Somaya, Architect- Somaya & Kalappa Consultants Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai
244
The Architecture Of Hotels: The Legacy Of Geoffrey Bawa

Channa Daswatte, Architect- MICD Associates, Sri Lanka
251
Building With Bamboo: Continuing A Tradition In A Modern Context

Prasad Jonathan D.W., Architect- Inspiration, Cochin
258
Evolving A Vocabulary Of Architecture

Gerard da Cunha, Architect- Architecture Autonomous, Goa
266
Continuing Traditions in New Architecture and Urbanism: Case studies in Place Making
Place Making In India: Some Streets In A Small Town, A Historic Precinct And A Haat
Pradeep Sachdeva, Architect & Designer, New Delhi
Evaluation Of The Pedestrian Environment- A Qualitative Approach:
A Case Study Of Thyagaraya Nagar, The Commercial Hub Of Chennai City
Rakesh K.S., Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, Satyabhama University, Chennai
275
281
The Relevance Of New Urbanism

Dhiru Thadani, Principal- Ayers/Saint/Gross Architects + Planners, Washington, USA
289
A Pattern Book Approach

Tariq Yahiaoui, The Princes Foundation, UK
292
Interface Between Traditional Urbanism And The Legislative Framework

A.K. Jain, Commissioner (Planning), Delhi Development Authority, New Delhi
298
Strategies For Continuing Traditions In New Architecture And Urbanism

INTBAU India
304
Illustrated Essays and Studies

Re-thinking Our Present Modus Operandi
Ruturaj Parikh, D. C. Patel School Of Architecture, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat
311
Contemporary Relevance Of Traditional Principles In Architecture And Urbanism

Saptarshi Sanyal, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.
314
Theme based Graphical Slides
318
Academic Committee
332
List of Contributors and Participants
333
IX
Preface
Indias globalised economy is based on the ideals of change and modernism. This evolution into modernism initially came
about on the premise of inclusivity, but has, over time, propagated a mass trans-national culture to the ultimate exclusion
of local identity. This sense of loss, of identity, and of tradition, permeates art, culture, cuisine and lots more, and has led
to a certain endemic cultural loss. All around us, we see symbols of a dislocated rootless global paradigm dominating our
skylines. A rapidly growing population and the needs of the globalized economy have led to the symbols of economic
development concentrating in urban areas and an appreciation of the urban ideal. Concurrently, rural and urban areas are
fast changing with a geometric jump in urbanisation. In this scenario, the built environment has become one of the most
visible manifestations of this change. From Metropolitan suburbs like Gurgaon to urban extensions for traditional cities
like Jaipur, the challenges of globalisation are now facing India like never before.
Our built environment shapes our sense of self, our sense of place, our reverence of our past and our traditions. Building
traditions have modified and evolved with the social, economic and cultural needs of the age. Tradition in building
serves us in creating a balance between nature and society, optimal utilisation of natural resources and of local skills and
craftsmanship. As strong forces currently drive the creation of new architecture and urban design in India, the time is now
or never to instill in this huge process a sense of appropriateness to the local context.
This book on New Architecture and Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions builds on the contributions from
various architects, planners, educationists, decision-makers & others from across the world who gathered together to
create a forum for the promotion of traditional processes and techniques for the creation of the built environment. This
forum was initiated by INTBAU India, The International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism
in India, which was established 4 years back, and was supported by The Nabha Foundation. The Nabha Foundation is
leading a process change in mainstreaming heritage in the developmental process in Punjab, as part of the Foundations
strategic vision for urban and rural regeneration in the region.
The usage of traditional methods is by no means a lost tradition and is very much alive. But to witness the utilisation of
its principles in mainstream new work is a task, made much harder than ever, due to the mushrooming alien typologies.
Culture, Climate & Cost still dictate building as ever, but only the last seems to be making typological impact. Therefore,
this forum is deliberating on this important niche, which forms in between the work areas of preserving traditional
architecture and the techniques of current building. INTBAU Internationals establishment dates back 8 years and its reach
and membership now spreads across many countries and continents. The INTBAU India network now includes a no. of
individuals & organisations who actively deliberate on the issues of appropriate and local building through their work and
professional focus.
This book presents the arguments, axioms and case studies related to Traditional Architecture and Urbanism in a
sequential format. Firstly it examines the New ways of looking at Heritage by separating it from pure history into a
living and evolving process. The book looks at what defines traditional methods and their relevance to the contemporary
context. It also examines the aspects of Continuity and Contextual frameworks in the built environment. The following
section on Sustainable Buildings, Places and Communities explores the many facets of locally driven processes from the
viewpoint of tradition and sustainability. These include many community based planning methods and their applications
in shaping the built environment, aspects of environmental sustainability and on how appropriateness could be ingrained
into current architectural education. Lastly, the book delves into a number of executed examples in architecture seeking to
learn from tradition and examples in place-making urbanism which in turn promotes humane, walkable and connected
neighbourhoods.
The INTBAU-Nabha Declaration, which emerged as an outcome of this forum, very succinctly puts down the aforesaid
objectives. It is desired that this publication shall become an important tool and reference for all aspects of the built
environment which borrow from tradition. In this respect, INTBAU endeavours to promote and support any related
initiatives, besides building an active debate on the pervasive methods of construction today. The organization also
promotes debate through design workshops and public participation tools like Enquiry-by-Design workshops, where
stakeholders, besides being party to discussions, also participate in creating graphic and clear visions towards urban
renewal and revitalisation. These and all other endeavours hope to create a unique agenda for the new built environment
of tomorrow, which shall hopefully form a bridge between the past and the future.
Deependra Prashad
Editor
XI
Acknowledgements
This is an outcome of the efforts of a large number of people who have worked on, written for and supported this
publication. INTBAU India conveys its deep gratitude to the following people for their valuable inputs and suggestions
right through the process of its creation.
The Academic Committee including Prof. A.G.K. Menon, Robert Adam, Nimish Patel, S.K.Misra, Yaaminey Mubayi,
Deependra Prashad & Jyoti Soni for providing a strong thematic focus for the preceding conference and this book.
HRH The Prince of Wales for his support and vision for promoting traditional methods in building and for supporting
the work of INTBAU India.
Uday Khemka, CEO & Managing Trustee of The Nabha Foundation, for sharing his vision and helping create this
very important forum.
Oliver Brind of the Princes Foundation for the Built Environment, formerly Director of Development, The Princes
Charities, for his support and online help right through the process of developing the conference and the book.
Richard Engelhardt, Senior Advisor to UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture for his suggestions regarding
INTBAU Indias initiatives.
Robert Adam, Nimish Patel, Giles Tillotson, Ranjit Mitra and Rajinder Singh for their timely feedback on the submitted
papers.
The Jury of the Student Essay Competition including Prof. A.G.K. Menon, Snehanshu Mukherjee, Ranjit Mitra,
Yaaminey Mubayi, Suneet Paul and Shirish Gupte.
The Jury of the Poster Session including Anil Laul, Narendra Dengle, Dr. Kulwant Singh & Michael Mehaffy.
Amita Kapur, Don Mohanlal and Allison Robertshaw on their valuable feedback on disseminating the ideas to the
wider audience.
The entire Nabha Foundation team including Gen. Chopra, Subhasis Chakrabarti, Major Manko, Neepa Saha, Takahiro
Noguchi, Jeya Kumar, Sachin and J.P.Gupta for their support throughout the conceptualisation of the conference and
all the other parallel initiatives.
Matthew Hardy, Senior Lecturere in Architecture & Urbanism, INTBAU, for his valuable suggestions both for the
INTBAU India website and this book and Aura Neag, General Manager, INTBAU for her support to the initiatives of
INTBAU India.
Krupali Uplekar and Laxmi Arya for their suggestions.
The Editorial team including Saswati Chetia, Sharbani Ghosh & Swati Janu.
Mansi Chaturvedi, Arun Nair, Vaibhav Jain, Bhavna Muttreja and Tanya Sanyal for co-ordinating various parts of the
conference event.
Gaurav Jindal, Pranav Kr. Thakur & Manoj Kumar for the page layout and presentation of the book.
Nikhil Saxena for designing the cover pages and Rini Shrivastava for proof-reading.
Sonal & Kalpana Narain of Result Factory for the transcriptions.
Cambridge Scholars Publishing for their help with publishing this book.
And very importantly all the contributors, authors and illustrators who are listed alongside their works and all members
of the INTBAU and INTBAU India network and The Nabha Foundation, whose suggestions have helped strengthen this
vision.
XII
Message from HRH The Prince of Wales
I am delighted that this publication has resulted from INTBAU Indias inaugural conference, which took place earlier this
year. As Patron of INTBAU, I am most grateful to the Nabha Foundation for everything they have done to make this
event possible.
This forum will, I hope, draw attention to the importance of traditional architecture and urbanism and create greater
awareness of their place in Indias culture and the valuable role they can play in todays India. I also hope that as a result
of both the conference and the book, and indeed, INTBAU Indias wider work, it will be possible to demonstrate how
traditional architecture and urbanism offer practical solutions to todays requirements and aspirations.
At a time of rapid change in India it is important we do not forget how the built environment shapes our sense of place
and self and how it reflects our culture and traditions. If we abandon our traditional understanding and ways of building,
we undoubtedly risk losing much of our identity and culture.
Moreover, I am frequently struck by the fact that by harnessing simple, and often forgotten, techniques and technologies,
coupled with the enthusiasm and enterprise of local people, it is possible to rediscover solutions which have somehow
been abandoned in the march of modernization and globalization. We need to learn from the underlying, and timeless,
principles of the ancient built heritage of India and view the traditional built environment as a vital means of inspiring
and improving living conditions in todays India.
Equally, if the teeming cities of this century are to have any future sustainability, we must rediscover the subtle principles
which underlie the construction of all the great cities of the past. Even huge cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata can be
- indeed, I would argue they must be - formed of small neighbourhood units, just as the body (our divinely inspired model
for all we build) is comprised of small individual cells. They represent, in a very real way, the fundamental building block
of civilized - by which I mean settled - human life.
In particular, it is so very important that we recognize the role of traditional architecture and building practices in creating
buildings which are environmentally sustainable and which, through the ways in which they have been built, can respond
effectively to the challenges of Climate Change. Such considerations are vital if there are to be sustainable improvements
in living conditions for our children and grandchildren.
I commend all who have contributed to both the conference and this publication.
XIII
Message from Uday Khemka
CEO & Managing Trustee, The Nabha Foundation

At the outset, please let me put forth the origins and focus of the Nabha Foundation. It is really a confluence of two
different rivers - the first being the Khemka Foundation representing our desire to create a modern strategic philanthropic
foundation in India that can leverage limited resources to help change the country through a strategic vision. The foundation
is involved in a variety of developmental issues, childrens issues, womens issues, health care, education etc.
The other, The Nabha Foundation is concerned with heritage. It is a foundation focused on rural development and
behind its inception lies a distinguished familys relationship with the town of Nabha. Maharajah Uttam Singh of Nabha,
the only one of the Indian Maharajahs to have joined the Indian freedom struggle, inspired the Foundation. He was also
an important nationalist leader of Punjab and the longest political prisoner during that period. As a result, the Foundation
has an intrinsic idealistic sense of social obligation.
This forum on Traditional Architecture & Urbanism is more important than it first appears, since it is in fact at the heart
of the entire civilisation. When India was born as a free democracy in 1947, the underlying set of values did not represent
the triumph of power or materialism but a set of ideals. For instance, the symbol of the modern Indian state is the symbol
of Emperor Ashoka, the wheel of dharma. Of course, the three lions represent the power of a modern nation. But both
the pillar and the Indian flag carry the circle of dharma representing the fact that this nation is founded on the basis of
deep spiritual values.
The father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi is globally known as someone whose vision for India was rooted in ethics and
spirituality. It is essential to address the continuity between Ashoka and Gandhi. Our countrys heritage is like the rivers
that link generations. The simple word Ahimsa or non-violence transformed Ashoka after the battle of Kalinga. And
Gandhijis Ahimsa, as a great weapon of love in not only liberating our country but also in building the vision for Poorn
Swaraj, the real freedom. Real freedom is not just about governing ourselves; real freedom is about building a civilisation
anchored in spiritual values, anchored in family life, anchored in community, anchored in a harmonious environment. That
was Gandhijis vision; and that vision has long been under threat.
Besides the much talked down status of the vision for the 50s and the 60s, todays liberal capitalism is as much a threat
to the Gandhian vision. India is changing dramatically. From the time of independence to now we have gone from
roughly 350 million people to 1 billion with an attendant massive urbanisation. The middle class has emerged as a huge
strength with 20 million people added every year and today it stands at 253 million. The traditional social structure is
transforming, breaking down and to some extent being recreated but in a much more individualistic manner. This is the
fundamental problem of the model that emerged over the last 300 years in northern Europe, and then spread to the US
and has now come to three billion people in the last 30 years. However there are many benefits of the occurrences over
the last thirty years as tremendous growth engines have raised the standards of living around the planet. While the fiscal
basis for a welfare state has been created, there is the corollary of imbalances and fundamental problems. There has been
a breakdown of communities, social structures, families and spirituality; as well as an increase in loneliness, desolation,
destitution, and the collapse of social capital which has lead to crime, violence and intolerance and an environmental
breakdown of an unprecedented scale.
Today there is a consensus that global warming is the greatest threat to humanity since the nuclear holocaust. For India it
means the potential failure of the monsoons. Just imagine what Nabha would look like if it had no monsoons - wouldnt it
look like Jaisalmer, a desert? What would happen to India if Punjab became like Rajasthan? It would mean de-glaciation; it
would mean the end of our main rivers, the means of fresh water in our country. These are not individual country issues.
What would it mean for Bangladesh, which is very much part of our civilisation, if the Teesta got eroded? 50 million
people would be in immediate threat. Sixty six percent of the problem of carbon footprints comes from our cities and
the rest from energy production. So it is not an exaggeration to say that the way we build our cities is the battleground of
civilisation.
We could have one vision as Gandhi suggested a humane vision. Human beings, their lives, their roots or those things
that make us happy, i.e. family, spirituality etc., have been replaced by an unceasing search for consumer materialism.
It is of significance that the Knight Foundation suggests that there is no correlation beyond a certain point, between
consumption and human happiness.
I believe that the world needs a new model. A more humane, sustainable and humanitarian model. I have an intuition that
perhaps India could provide that model. Of course, we, as every other country in the world today, face the greatest force of
transformation that has ever been encountered. On the other hand, we have a 5000 years old history, we are a billion people,
and we have powerful spiritual and community traditions. Surely this country, more than any other, can absorb the impact
and come up with something transcendent. That is our challenge. It can be a tremendous opportunity to project into the
global domain what is still an integrated civilisation value of family, community, spirituality, and of unity and harmony.
Families and individuals seeking material utilities and getting ahead are not incorrect in their pursuits. However, they should
not pursue these at the cost of the family values, community, spirituality, environment and the sense of identity rooted in
history. It really depends on what we want to project to the world and what India wants to be in 2030. There is little doubt
that the economic growth of this country is sustainable, but the issue is what kind of a country will it be? Will it be a
country of glass facades where hundreds and thousands of people are ghetto-ised in suburbs or the degraded urbanisation
XIV
of crumbling infrastructure? On the other hand will it be an inclusive society where people are interconnected? Will people
here be as they are in certain parts of the world - shattered individual islands or will they be part of living communities?
Will cities serve human beings or will human beings serve cities? Most importantly what would be our environmental
footprint? India is already the fifth most carbon emitting contributor to global warming, with China being the second.
India is catching up fast. Is that the legacy we want to leave to our children? Is it going to be a country of global cultural
modernisation or a country of deep eco-systems of culture and deep traditions?
Before Gandhiji, Indian leaders wore tails and frock coats. He had the courage to assert confidently that this countrys
civilisation should present itself without insecurities, taking the best from the west but living to its own traditions. According
to Gandhiji the way we talk matters and the way we dress matters. The way we build our cities matters very fundamentally
and we need to move it from an individualistic, materialistic vision, to a Gandhian vision based on locality, spirituality and
community.
I believe there are three solutions to contain the huge relocation of rural masses to the urban areas:
Provide as much employment as possible in villages- Dr Kurien of Amul has demonstrated the possibility.
Instead of building cities with millions of people, we should encourage small towns to thrive. This is where Nabha has
relevance. It is a small dusty old town of Punjab with a population of 70,000 people. It may not be particularly significant,
but it is in towns such as Nabha that the battle of the Indian civilisation will be fought.
Finally, to not surrender the concept of the city itself. Huge cities that we see rising around us, that are following the
Chinese model, should be embedded with Gandhian values. This last dimension may actually be the most important.
Today, India has a fairly poor tradition of modern urban philanthropy. But in every community, every village, every religion,
there have been deep traditions of philanthropy. But India lost these, perhaps because people, who come to huge cities,
lose their sense of community. How can we create a vision of a social, inclusive city of connection, of communal harmony
with social capital? Do we embed it in the few cities that will emerge; and can we, in their energy signature, make them
sustainable?
Unfortunately this requires more than just correction at the edges. For instance in Gurgaon, one sees beautiful glass towers
in the middle of the city having no link to our culture and traditions. These are surrounded by appalling low cost housing
blocks where people are deracinated, infrastructure is disintegrating crime, violence, disconnection and a lack of belonging
is all pervasive. Is Gurgaon a model for our cities? There are only twenty million residential units for the middle class
overhanging the market in terms of demand. Delhis population alone has increased by eight million over the last 10 years.
We, like China will unfortunately build huge cities to meet these challenges. The way they will be conceived and built is
what would determine the heart and the soul of Indian civilisation and our contribution to the world.
I would like to put forward four challenges and opportunities in this context:
1. The Nabha Foundation hopes that this forum will be a call for action, a call for a movement; whether it is in
publishing and publicising the issues discussed or the creation of an institution. Many people may have felt marginal
compared to the modernistic center of architecture and intellectual interest. But I believe together we can move
that margin to the center in a unified way and contribute the concept of new urbanism to the world. The first
challenge is it to make this attempt a permanent and a powerful movement underpinned by a declaration or a charter.
2. The opportunity and the challenge exist in small towns such as Nabha. We believe that over the next 10-20 years we can prepare
a case study in Nabha, of what other small towns in India may look like. We plan to do it in three ways. Firstly, by adaptively
reusing old buildings such as the Nabha Quila to serve the community, and by upholding their traditions and their heritage.
This also recognizes that people created the heritage and it should serve them back. Secondly by building new institutions
whose architecture is a modern expression of thousands of years of traditions and community concepts. Finally by developing
a township with a relevant vocabulary. Nabha town is not just what is visible but a sum total of the potential of the place.
3. People in the large cities may seem capitalistic but at the end of the day, they are Indians and care about their cities.
Therefore these cities offer a huge opportunity and resource.
4. Finally, a vision of the cities themselves, so that the Poorna Swaraj that Gandhiji talked about could be completed. Let
us be ambitious and not think about elements of individual crafts, but about how we can apply whole concepts of craft,
community, form, and sociology into cities.
Over the next 20 years, India will see the greatest struggle she has ever had. It wasnt so difficult under the Raj, because
the presence of an opposition meant that we maintained our culture but today that culture is being overwhelmed. It is the
struggle for the soul of our civilisation. Will it be an inclusive and societal model of urban development or an individualistic
and materialistic one? Many people have been struggling and feeling isolated. We hope that all these people will come
together in this great battle. According to Gandhiji when one feels that ones forces are small and the armies of the other
side are bigger, one should take the example of the Bhagvad Gita, of the five Pandavas looking at the array of army much
greater than theirs. But they were protected by a much greater force TRUTH. Today this truth is that of human beings
living and wanting to live in a humane way. I believe that truth can protect us as we challenge the intellectual conception
that is dehumanised. We have the opportunity of paraphrasing a much-overused expression of Gandhiji...
To be the change we would like to see
...a chance to create a movement of such power, that it can unlock our civilisation and project it to make a fundamental
difference to the world.
XV
Message from Robert Adam

Chair INTBAU
INTBAU, The International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism, was founded 8 years ago. It
had started out as a research program, and demonstrated that there was a specific need for such an organisations existence.
It was founded to bring together people from around the world who value tradition in architecture and urban design, and
to counteract, to some extent, a fairly common view that modernity and tradition were polar opposites.
INTBAU is based around the principles of the INTBAU charter which summarizes very aptly the focus of the organization.
This charter was written some time ago and I believe that it is quite relevant to the current situation. It is put down as
follows:
The International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism is an active network of individuals
and institutions dedicated to the creation of humane and harmonious buildings and places that respect local traditions.
Traditions allow us to recognise the lessons of history, enrich our lives and offer our inheritance to the future. Local,
regional and national traditions provide the opportunity for communities to retain their individuality with the advance
of globalisation. Through tradition we can preserve our sense of identity and counteract social alienation. People must
have the freedom to maintain their traditions.
Traditional buildings and places maintain a balance with nature and society that has been developed over many
generations. They enhance our quality of life and are a proper reflection of contemporary society. Traditional buildings
and places can offer a profound modernity beyond novelty and contribute to a better future.
INTBAU brings together those who design, make, maintain, study or enjoy traditional building, architecture and places.
We will gain strength, significance and scholarship by association, action and the dissemination of our principles.
His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales is the patron of the organisation which often works closely with the Prince
of Waless Foundation for the Built Environment. INTBAU is also headquartered at the same premises, with its work
coordinated by Aura Neag and Matthew Hardy. INTBAU began its activities as a small network of people with a conference
in Bologna. Here the idea of the network was initiated, and like all the best things, didnt get off with a bang. But, it has
gradually grown and has now become a burgeoning NGO. The way global governance works presently, the role of NGOs
is becoming increasingly important and INTBAU is fulfilling its role in the field of architecture and urbanism.
From those small beginnings, it has now become a network of chapters- Australia, Canada, Cuba, Germany, Ireland,
India, Iran, Italy, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, UK and the USA. Any group, any country or region can
start a chapter using a fairly simple process, through a group of people who subscribe to the principles of the charter
and have sufficient momentum to create an organisation. The point of this is that tradition is always local- its never
international and while this is an international organisation, tradition must be represented by the communities from where
they come. INTBAU India has quickly become the most successful amongst all the chapters. All due credit must go to
those who established it and worked hard on forwarding its goals. Initiated first by Krupali Uplekar & Jyoti Soni and then
taken forward by Deependra Prashad, there is now an additional base in Mumbai directed by Shirish Gupte, besides the
headquarters at Delhi.
Interestingly, one of the early things INTBAU realised, with particular credit to Matthew Hardy, is the importance of
the internet and the website. It is ironic that a great deal of support for traditions and a great many things to do with
localisation in the globalising world are managed through the global aspects of globalisation itself.
INTBAU has been involved with various activities, including publishing essays, partnering in events, organisation of
design workshops and conferences, the first one being Tradition Today. A recent conference was in Venice in November
2006 to discuss the current application of the Venice Charter. INTBAU has also established training centres in Romania,
partnered for a summer school with the University at Timisoara and University Spiru Haret, Romania. Currently the
Folkeuniversitetet, Norway and the head office are working on a new project with the European Union called the European
School of Urbanism and Architecture which would create a peripatetic university course. In terms of direct action measures,
INTBAU created the very successful Bran Master Plan in Romania, the Fredrikstad Masterplan in Norway and also created
a pressure group for the reconstruction of the Neumarkt in Dresden, Germany, to focus on the traditional architecture
of Dresden in Germany.
The above is a rough sketch of INTBAU as an international organisation. I must thank the team at INTBAU India for
the immense amount of work which has been put in the creation of the organisation and this forum. Of course none of
this would be possible without the Nabha Foundation team and the generosity and enormous support of Uday Khemka. I
would also like to thank the members on the academic committee including Prof. A.G.K.Menon, Nimish Patel, S.K.Misra
and Yaaminey Mubayi, with whom we sat and deliberated on the high quality contributions for this forum. I have made
so many friends here and now in a strange way, India is for me a home away from home. I must thank all the supporters
of INTBAU and INTBAU India and hope that we can proactively take forward the development of Indian traditions in
new architecture and urbanism.
XVI
INTBAU Nabha Declaration
Preamble:
A
Rapid development is overtaking and transforming villages, towns, cities and metropolises in India. The urban
population is set to treble in the next few decades. Social and economic transformation is producing new aspirations in
society. This poses tremendous challenges to professionals and decision-makers to cater to the needs of future growth.
In the past these challenges have been met by undertaking development based on transnational paradigms of architecture
and urbanism, which have generally excluded local construction practices and processes. The new challenges offer the
opportunity to redirect goals and strategies by using new development paradigms which would be more sympathetic to local
needs and aspirations. It should foreground local identity, value social ethos and generate a sense of community through
greater use of traditional skills and knowledge in architecture and building. New developments must therefore be rooted
in local heritage.
B
Evidence of rootless global imagery is beginning to dominate our skylines. This phenomenon is all the more
apparent in smaller towns like Nabha, which lie at the cusp of urban transformations. Nabha, in Punjab, is a former
princely state with a rich cultural heritage, deeply rooted in community consciousness. Concerns for such towns and their
hinterlands need to be brought into the centre of new urbanisation policies and practices. Nabha and other urbanising
areas in the country need appropriate templates for development which would be sensitive to their rich cultural past, but
using state-of-the-art development models and strategies.
C
The INTBAU Nabha declaration therefore forges the imperatives of heritage and development as an appropriate
and sustainable paradigm for mediating future well-being of a transforming society. This belief is underpinned by the
knowledge that traditional architecture and urbanism are evolutionary, incremental and self-correcting, and therefore offers
the most appropriate design resource for meeting the challenges of the transformation taking place in our society.
We therefore declare that the principles enshrined in traditional architecture and urbanism must mediate future urban and
rural development by:
Building on Collective Wisdom
Traditional architecture and urbanism embodies centuries of refined collective intelligence. It consists of traditional
and local techniques of construction, local building materials and indigenous spatial typologies based on climate, culture
and economic issues. The promotion of this knowledge can correct the problems created by the use of transnational
paradigms to cater to local exigencies. This strategy is relevant not just in the rural-vernacular settings but also within the
urban environment.
Strengthening Local Identity
The promotion of traditional building practices and spatial typologies reinforces local distinctiveness and coherence in a
globalising world. This identity has to be derived from local urban morphologies, architectural typologies, local ecology,
landscapes, traditional skills and resources, lifestyles, and would thus respond to local concerns and values.
Furthering Social and Economic Sustainability
Living Heritage and Traditions are a vast source of ideas and contextual references. They offer valuable insights to meet the
challenges of revitalising inner city areas which are under stress on account of urbanisation. They also enhance possibilities
of income generation and employment, utilisation of local skills and resources, and contribute to the creation of a sustainable
local economy. Traditional Architecture and Urbanism also encourages high quality construction and built environments.
Turning Stakeholders into Stockholders
Traditional and local methods allow meaningful participation of citizens in all stages of the development process- from
decision-making, prioritizing initiatives to construction. It helps create robust social systems by promoting decentralized
governance. The Government and Public Sector must therefore actively promote the principles of traditional building
practices through appropriate guidelines, policy and incentives in their projects.
XVIII
Promoting Environmental Sustainability

Traditional building principles are based on reducing embodied energy in buildings. Fossil energy is a depleting resource and
the built environment being its largest consumer should adopt traditional building principles. The usage of local materials,
building methods and crafts skills would ensure the holistic development of the region and promote growth without
compromising environmental sustainability.
Regaining Traditional People-centered Urbanism
Traditional architecture and urbanism creates social capital and interaction. It produces walk-able urban spaces, creating a
rich spatial experience and a vibrant public realm.
Changing Educational focus
Design education must be re-oriented to inculcate an appreciation of traditional knowledge and construction technologies.
Appropriate curricula must be created to respect the Context and also encourage adaptations and development of
traditional techniques to meet new problems. Local and international institutions must also focus on documenting and
disseminating good practices in the field, besides undertaking capacity building in the community and developing both
traditional and upgraded skills.
Declaration:
We call upon the architectural and planning community, professionals, decision makers and the government to acknowledge
the urgent need to study, protect and revive high quality traditional building, architecture and urbanism as an essential and
progressive force to mediate the challenges of future urbanisation.
XIX
Introduction
Introduction: Why Tradition Matters

A.G.Krishna Menon
Chair, Academic Committee
The faith in the utopian promises of the modern
movement evaporated long ago, but as a strategy of formmaking and place-making it continued to dominate the
imagination of architects and urban planners the world
over. In developing societies it became synonymous with
the process of modernization and its products symbolized
the achievements of modernity. But in recent years its aura
and efficacy as a tool for development has been severely
blunted. Its reliance on the economics of unlimited
growth and the unsustainable exploitation of resources it
entailed, has resulted in the discontents of globalization
and environmental problems such as global warming.
Simultaneously, the (re)discovery of the intrinsic benefits
of traditional architecture and urbanscapes has resulted in
the re-examination of the foundational principles of the
modern movement. Among the results of this churning has
been the birth, 8 years ago, of the International Network
for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism
(INTBAU), whose Indian affiliate hosted the conference
on New Architecture and Urbanism: Development of
Indian Traditions. INTBAU spawned the new urbanism
movement in the United States of America (US) and
Europe, with which its Indian counterpart, just two years
old, is trying to come to terms. The conference forum and
this book has therefore twin objectives, namely, facilitating
the process of enquiry already initiated by INTBAU
internationally and to define its meaning in the Indian context.
The ideology of the modern movement was premised on
the cult of newness and the purposeful rejection of the
past. It equated the avant grade with the production of
architecture and urban spaces to be held in critical esteem
and relegated any association with traditional architecture
and urban spaces to history. In most societies this
modernist vision raised profound questions, separating
the ideals of professionals and the expectation of users, but
in developing societies with rich and still fecund building
heritage, the situation was particularly poignant because the
rejection of the past was detrimental to their well being as
well. Thus increasingly, the modern movement was being
confronted with reasoned apostasy, promoting the aesthetics
of continuity and links with the familiar in the production
of new architecture and urban spaces. The new objectives
were to heal the rupture created by the modern movement
and produce an urban environment more sympathetic to
the expectation of society-at-large. This process is gaining
ground.
For example, at a conference convened by INTBAU at
Venice in November 2006, (www.intbau.org/venicecharter.
htm), delegates from all over the world re-evaluated the
principles of conservation enunciated in the Venice Charter
of 1964. This iconic document had categorically prohibited
any attempt at aesthetic continuity in the conservation of
historic buildings and urbanscapes. This is not the occasion
to examine the debates in the discipline of conservation, but
suffice it to say that it reflected the questioning taking place
in architecture and urban planning because the principles
enunciated in the Venice Charter had roots going back to
the beginning of the modern movement. The problem
with the Venice Charter was therefore, pari passu, similar to
those in the disciplines of architecture and urban planning.

INTBAU is at the forefront of both debates, and the issue
that confronted INTBAU India in planning this conference
was whether it should distinguish its concerns from those
of the parent body. I had explored and articulated this
difference in the context of conservation in India at the
Venice Conference, and therefore felt that the conference
in India could be an opportunity to undertake a similar
journey in the context of architecture and urban planning
in India.
The need for such an exercise is palpable. In the process
of globalization it is possible that even reformist agendas
can become hegemonistic and overwhelm and subvert
the formation of local possibilities of form-making
and place-making as it happened with the spread of the
Modern Movement. Notwithstanding the reality of the
nuanced variations of the modern movement (pace Kenneth
Frampton), the fact was that everywhere it was predicated
on a break with the past which established the aesthetics
of difference. Benchmarks developed in Europe and the
US were routinely adopted and internalized by architects
and planners in countries like India, thus foreclosing the
possibilities for developing more appropriate practices
rooted in local building traditions to meet contemporary
needs. The idealization of new urbanism as it developed
in Europe and US can already be seen at work in the
promotion of INTBAU in India. This is adding a new layer
of concern to an otherwise healthy process of questioning
the relevance of the modern movement in India. Thus
a process of enquiry that is natural in the context of
Europe and US can become un-natural in other parts of
the world. It therefore challenges critical local practitioners
to deconstruct the efficacy of international movements
without losing its valuable message. This conference forum
was therefore conceived to redefine and recontextualize the
issues of new architecture and urbanism by focusing on a
specific cultural region as a field of enquiry.
This Forum and book elicited a strong response from all
over the world testifying to the potency and contemporary
relevance of the theme. It obviously struck a rich intellectual
lode which will take a long time to mine and process. In
this essay therefore, rather than go over its contents, I will
explicate the underpinning rationale of the theme in order
to navigate through the message of the conference.
I will begin by constructing the contours of the imagination
of the contemporary Indian architect and urban planner.
In the sixty years since Independence, their imagination
has failed to engage with the basic problems of the built
environment. It is therefore necessary to examine how
were the tools of the profession constructed? Even as the
professional uses these tools to grapple the problems of
the built environment, can an understanding of its genesis
provide new insights to develop more effective strategies?
The argument I am presenting is that such insights are
critical to re-define the characteristics of architecture and
urban planning in the Indian context.
The history of the profession reveals the source of at least
seven characteristics that define current practice. First,
because of the colonial origins of the professions, architects
and urban planners in India accepted the universality of
the British experience and adopted their methods, devices
and legal instruments to create the built environment. These
instruments have moreover not changed significantly even
after Independence, indicating a professional distancing
Introduction
from the problems of contemporary architecture and

urban planning. Thus when we consider the need for new
urbanism in the Indian context, can we use this insight to
challenge the professional indifference to the issues of the
built environment?
Second, professionals in India have shown a marked
proclivity in their work to adopt patterns and images
rather than policies and programmes associated with the
so called universal experience. For example, urban planners
reproduce just a few patterns derived from (a) the Garden
City concept of Ebenezer Howard, and (b) the baroque
city plan of Lutyens plan for New Delhi to make plans for
cities in India. They ignore the social, economic and cultural
imperatives that generated those original patterns. A similar
obsession with image has defined the narrow world of
architectural strategies in India. Can new architecture and
urbanism re-engage with real-life issues and complexities
of the built environment?
Third, urban planners in India have a preponderant bias
towards achieving beauty and order rather than dealing with
the complexities of Indian urbanism. This is based on a
superficial understanding of the City Beautiful Movement.
Consequently they ignore the compelling logic of vernacular
urbanism. Old Delhi, or Shahjahanabad, is therefore defined
a slum because its morphology contradicts their concept of
the beautiful city. This bias creates an intellectual void in
the discipline of urban planning. A similar void is at work
in the delineation of modern architecture in India, where
every international ism is mirrored in local architectural
production as a style ignoring the potential of vernacular
architectural practices. Focusing on the imperatives of
new architecture and urbanism in India could remedy this
situation.
Fourth, urban planners easily absorb bold proposals made
by foreign experts these proposals include (a) poly-nodal
urban districts containing segregated functional-use zones
proposed for the Master Plan of Delhi in 1962, and (b)
neighbourhoods in super-blocks with continuous green
parks proposed by Le Corbusier in his Master Plan for
Chandigarh. Urban Planners propose these typological
models throughout the country. This one size fits all strategy
also characterizes the narrative of modern architecture
in India. The influence of Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn
who built in India and the current international stars of
the architectural media overwhelm the local architectural
imagination. In its current manifestation this genuflection
to foreign experts is seen in the practice of engaging foreign
architects and urban planners for large projects both in the
private and public sector. For example, the government
often makes such collaborations mandatory while inviting
bids for projects like the Commonwealth Games and
other large infrastructure schemes. New architecture and
urbanism could contest this gratuitous practice by focusing
on indigenous models to meet local needs.
Fifth, more complex ideas such as the one represented by
the Structure Plan concept for planning Calcutta in the 70s,
even though it was recommended by foreign experts, and of
course, the recommendations of the National Commission
on Urbanization headed by Charles Correa in 1986, appear
to be beyond the grasp of urban planners. Architects too
have failed to grapple with the complexities of advanced
building technologies and the challenge of housing the
economically weaker sections of our society, even though
such disciplinary issues are routinely taken up by architects
4
abroad. Does the avoidance of disciplinary complexity

have its roots in the colonial origins of the professions?
Sixth, in the context of larger disciplinary issues, the
Indian urban planner may be defined as, anti-urban just
as the architect is anti-architecture. Professionals in both
disciplines have not considered their practice in a selfreflexive manner and thus have continued to pay obeisance
to foreign knowledge and expertise. This is as much a
reflection of the larger culture of society as it is the specific
characteristic of the professions.
And finally, both architects and urban planners have
remained low level functionaries in the decision-making
hierarchy in the bureaucracy and society and so they do
not feel responsible for failures of their plans or designs.
When Delhi went through the trauma of sealings and
demolition because of illegal construction last year,
architects and planners merely pointed fingers at politicians,
bureaucrats and society-at-large. The Indian strategy for
new architecture and urbanism should therefore seek to
eliminate this debilitating characteristics of professional
indifference by making it necessary for architects and urban
planners to dialogue and negotiate with the user/society in
the development of their designs and become answerable
to them for its success or failure.
The causes why these characteristics define professional
work are rooted in its history. This is why history matters:
it reveals the sources and the depths of the problems
afflicting the professions. As in medicine, so in architecture
and urban planning, understanding the origins and nature
of the disease is the first step to find a cure.
This perspective makes a strong case for changing the way
architects and urban planners conceive buildings and the
city. Their imagination needs to be realigned to confront
the problems at hand and not seek conformity with
developments taking place in Europe and US, including
the new urbanism movement. This can begin by revamping
the education curricula. Academic institutions continue to
pass on received knowledge and practical experience for
minimally informed and vocational ends. There has been no
serious studies of Indian architecture and the conditions of
its cities based on conscious hypotheses. The new urbanism
movement offers an opportunity to change the colonized
mindset of architects and urban planners by forcing
professionals to consider ground realities. These ground
realities include the culturally plural, socially evolving and
economically constrained characteristics of Indian society.
Such an academic enterprise has been long overdue and it
was with that expectation that we conceived this conference.
We hope it will stimulate research in the concepts of
new architecture and urbanism in order to de-colonize
architectural and urban planning practice in India.
Our society has widely plural characteristics, temporally,
culturally and economically. Such conditions are rarely seen
in other societies, old or new, and while we may gain insights
through cross-cultural references, it would be futile to
adopt models from other contexts. The complexity of the
situation can be gauged by the fact that in urban planning
terms, not one, but several disparate circumstances need to
be reconciled simultaneously: neat suburban developments
with homogenous population and the persistence of the
heterogeneous chaotic traditional settlements; the city of
the haves and the city of the have-nots, Lutyens baroque
city and Le Corbusiers rational city on the one hand and the
qasba on the other; the automobile and the bicycle; and so

on. There are no models to conceptualize such heterogeneity
anywhere, so Indian architecture and urban planning will
have to become self-referential. This is why the conference
forum highlighted Development of Indian Traditions.
This forum sought to deliberately turn the gaze of enquiry
from the general/universal to the specific local/regional
processes at work. It acknowledged the continued saliency
of regional practices. In the interstices of the modern there
still exists a vibrant world of traditional practices. Even as
architects and urban planners in the West are advocating
the virtues of new urbanism to resurrect links with the past
severed by the modern movement, issues in countries like
India are to reinvigorate what already exists for the same
reasons. This is the logic underpinning INTBAU Indias
initiative on new architecture and urbanism and distinguishes
it from those of its international counterparts.
Secondly, the conference identified three related thematic
areas to focus on the characteristics of Indian Traditions:
(a) New Ways of looking at Heritage, (b) Sustainable Places,
Buildings and Communities, and (c) Continuing Traditions
in New Architecture and Urbanism. This enabled us to
disaggregate the diverse issues into relevant components to
understand, evaluate and deal with its complexities. Once
again, it established the distinction between the international
and Indian concerns for new architecture and urbanism.
I would like to conclude by emphasizing that the objective
of understanding the historical process is not to recreate
or resurrect the architectural styles and spatial patterns
of the past, which is what many associate with the new
urbanism movement in the US and Europe but to adopt
a more pragmatic approach to deal with local issues of
architecture and urban planning. It should put to question
the cult of newness in design by foregrounding the virtues
of continuity. The rediscovery of traditional architectural
and planning practices is a world wide phenomena, but it
has became associated with the gated communities of the
privileged. It is characterized by gratuitous pandering to
nostalgia and the creation of pastiche. This is not to say that
there are no redeeming qualities the INTBAU conference
on the Venice Charter in November 2006 showcased a
variety of compelling examples, like the importance of
reviving high quality crafts and craftsmanship in the building
trade but in India the issues are also tied up with creating
sustainable futures.
Modern architecture and urban planning in India is
creating an unequal society of those who can conform
to its imperatives, and those who cannot and in India
the majority cannot. Thus the Indian perspective on
new architecture and urbanism seeks to define alternate
modernities. Its concerns focus on creating a viable and
sustainable future for all. In this manner, new architecture
and urbanism offers an opportunity to develop diverse local
identities in a globalizing cultural mileau.
Tradition therefore matters; recognizing its importance
is an epiphany which can lead to the transformation of
architecture and urban planning in India. The conference
and the contributions in this publication provide compelling
evidence of its possibilities.
Introduction
Growth:
Maturity Or Over-development ?
Leon Krier
Architect & Urbanist, France
The front cover of a current affairs magazine in India
proudly displays the portraits of four leading businessmen
under the title THE ACCELERATORS. It is my hope
that we may endeavour to instead help to slow down certain
forms of development, to pause a little, to think about long
term development objectives, rather than speeding blindly
into a state of exhaustion.
Having for millennia entertained a building culture of superb
environment and aesthetic quality, it may be a mystery even
to an inquisitive mind, why such an incomparable traditional
culture could not resist the triumph of modernism. For an
extra terrestrial observer such a cataclysmic break in matters
of architecture and urbanism could possibly be explained
by a cosmic catastrophe, an alien invasion, by an enforced
change, an imposed abandonment, maybe by a lethal virus,
or some devastating toxic substance against which there
was no inborn resistance.
PETER PAN SCENARIO
MODERN HYDRA
GROWTH~MATURITY~OVER-DEVELOPMENT
Sustainable
Growth +
Maintenance
Imperial
Perdition
Senility
The mechanism of the vanquished adopting the gods,

manners, language, styles, technology of a foreign invader
are known throughout history and worldwide. The fact the
invaders themselves abandon their own best intelligence,
manners, practices in environmental and architectural
matters, to replace them with inferior surrogates is literally
a world shattering event. It explains also why we are ill
prepared for the sea change demanded by ecological
sustainability.
M A T U R I T Y = S U S TA I N A B L E S U C C E S S
R I S K S
O F
U R B A N
S U C C E S S
3 BASIC MODERN BUILDING TYPES
1) Land-scraper
2) Sprawler
3) Sky-scraper
3 FORMS OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION

Functional Monotony >>>> Architectural Pathologies
1) Land-scraper
2) Sprawler
3) Skyscraper
The Green-Glass-Lipstick-type skyscraper capped

by a grotesque caricature of headwear, which dresses
itself indecently above the vernacular roofscape of a
Gurgaon shanty town is the most poignant symbol of the
unsustainability of modernism I have encountered so far.
The massive realisation of fossil fuel depletion,
overpopulation, water scarcity and global warming are
calling for a dramatic re-evaluation of modernist values and
perceptions, in fact for the whole scale abandonment.
Educational institutions, planning agencies, professionals
and legislation are lagging decades behind. Fundamental
Correct density and composition

= nameable CITY
10
scientific research has lost itself for 200 years in the extremes
of the micro and macro scales, as if only there, salvation
and glory were to be found. For too long it has abandoned
the tangible environment, the water, the soil, the air and
its resources to be processed by barbaric machinery and
incredibly crude planning tools.
That is where INTBAU, CNU, The Prince of Wales
Foundation play an inestimable role. Even though the
question of ecological development and of the planets
carrying capacity are ultimately issues of science, the
global ecological project must of necessity become its
central subject, its necessity has so far only been formulated
too low density
too high density

= so-called CITY
The City
Zoning
Zoning in the city

To m a k e a
NECESSARY
city MIXED USE is a

but not a SUFFICIENT
CONDITION
Typological Order
F u n c t i o n a l = A r c h i t e c t u r a l Va r i e t y
Bureaucratic Order
F u n c t i n a l Va r i e t y X A r c h i t e c t u r a l U n i f o r m i t y
Over development - Manhattanism

F u n c t i o n a l Va r i e t y X A r c h i t e c t u r a l Va r i e t y
by surprisingly few agents. The conference on New

Architecture and Urbanism: Development of Indian
Traditions is only beginning to announce the necessity
of reorienting the priorities of the planning and building
professions. The latter are still hung up on outdated
technological conceptions like, amongst others, the green
skyscraper or eco-suburbia. A common mistake of fossil
fuel age thinking is to distinguish between high and
low technology, failing to wake up to the fact that, before
long there will not be a high-tech future to speak of and
that human technology will be ecological or it wont be.
The worth of traditional architecture and urbanism is
revealed all over the subcontinent in its sheer incredible
versatility, its durability, its enduring validity in ecological
terms, and hence its global applicability in various climates,
altitudes, epochs and in contrasting political and economic
conditions, in short in its sustainability. Equally, an individual
architects or urbanists work and ideas can be truthfully
assessed via their global applicability. What if all towns in
India, old or new, were designed according to the precepts
of Le Corbusier, of Lutyens, Fuller, Eisenman, Shahjahan,
Jefferson etc.,? Are the ideas that guide their designs of a
transcendent value, or are they simply passing fads? The
question of Sustainability tests idea to their viability,
universality, truth.
The term sustainable indicates what is ecological in absolute
terms. All our current notions of progress, globalisation,
11
Mono-centric conurbation vs poly-centric federation approach to planning cities

C I T Y & PA R A S I T E
CITY without SUBURB
SUBURB without CITY
CITY with SUBURB
CITIES within the CITY
economy, industry, creativity, modernism will be reformed

accordingly and probably out of recognition. I am not
interested in making converts to traditional thinking, but
to spread theories and practices, that have proven to work
for centuries, that are sanctioned by application in various
cultures, climates, geographic and political conditions.
Modernisms most lashing damages may well have been
done through its historisation of traditional planning
and building techniques; through the insane outdating of
languages and techniques which are in perfect working
order; through the ideologisation of technology; through
its discarding of low technologies as historical and
therefore outdated.
Sustainability addresses the issue of ultimate purposes and
means when building cities and exploiting natural resources.
What can be our ideals, culturally, socially, politically, in given
limited ecological conditions? What can be the numbers,
patterns, networks, dimensions, geometries, materials,
proportions, typologies, architectures?
Sustainability concerns technology and aesthetics. What
hierarchy, color system, method of designing, building,
inhabiting can be cultivated with controllable outcome?
What principles and methods transcend taste, fashion,
social and political regimes, or the unsoundable varieties
and variations of human tempers and fashions? What is
timeless and what is timely? What is the meaning and status
of the local, the regional, the global? What is modern and
12
Dont forget your GRAVITY check
what is obsolete? A culture of sustainability re-evaluates the

meaning of all our values in ecological terms, foremost of
the traditional, of the vernacular, the classical, of enduring
timeless ideas, techniques and work.
HOW MUCH CLASSICAL & VERNACULAR

IS NEEDED TO MAKE THE GOOD
CITY?
As J.H. Kunstler demonstrates in The Long Emergency,

we will return to traditional forms of settlement, production,
agriculture and building whether we like it or not. With
the aggravating global environmental crisis the notion of
sustainability will evolve from being a political fad to a
principle of existential necessity. That is where its promise
lies but also extreme danger threatens.
Beaux-Arts Utopia
VERNACULAR
BUILDING
CLASSICAL
ARCHITECTURE
Chicago White City 1893

Versailles Castle + Park
Napolean III- Victoriana
Imperialisme
Rome- Campo Marzio
Forbidden City- Beijing
Acropolis
Taj Mahal
Renaissance Ideal Cities
Jaipur
Venice
Rothenburg O.T.
Cesky- Krumlov
Athens Classical Age
Williamsburg
Traditional Villages
Primordial Hamlets
Lascaux
Animal Architecture
13
A RC H I T E C T U R A L T U N I N G O F U R BA N C O M P O S I T I O N - Ve r n a c u l a r & C l a s s i c a l
Vernacularissimus
Austerity Vernacular
Vernacular & Classical

Cultural Apogee
Classicissimus
Imperial Carnival Classicism
PRIVATE & PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
Private Imperialism
APPLYING & SIZING OF CLASSICAL

AND VERNACULAR MODES
Well-applied and well-sized
Good Private / Public Affairs

Mis-applied and mis-sized
Public Imperialism
14
Well-applied and mis-sized
The great strength of India today is the powerful survival

of a vernacular reality despite the massive attempt at its
eradication. I get hope and inspiration not from the
modernist architects works, which are just as unimaginative
and sterile as in other continents, but from the capacity of
common people to build traditional settlements with very
little land and poor material means.
Constructional Monism & Stylistic Pluralism

UNITY OF CONSTRUCTION CULTURE
They are often very successful in their grouping of buildings

and networking of streets and alleys, in their unintended
plasticity, and fail miserably where they are keenest to
succeed, namely in their front elevations. They succeed
when they use natural materials structurally and fail when
they are used decoratively.
Traditional architecture and its aesthetics are bonded to the
processing of natural materials, wood, clay, earth, stone.
Their forms derive from the use of those materials and their
techniques are conditioned by it. They are strictly material
based, so to speak material-logical. Even an untalented
imbecile can not build a tectonic error, using natural
materials without immediate disastrous consequences as to
stability, aspects and use. Instead with the use of synthetic
materials even an abstruse, illogical structure, a tectonic
counter-sense, can be made to stand up.
To realise authentic traditional structures with synthetic
materials and their specific fitting techniques (nailing,
bolting, soldering, riveting, gluing, casting) is not only an
onthological paradox, but it requires extreme design control
and discipline. To build a believable fake today needs great
expertise. The lack of design control and discipline explains
the aura of the fake, the ersatz, the surrogate which is so
characteristic of 99% neo-traditional designs of the past
decades. It is the latter and not modernism, which is the
deadly enemy of traditional architecture today.
Last minute sur prise on the building site
AUTHENTIC
(NAMEABLE)
THINGS
KITSCH
(SO-CALLED)
THINGS
CONTENT = FORM
FORM X CONTENT
15
Not by chance is the production of synthetic construction

materials dependant on the use of fossil fuels. Their days as
banal construction materials are therefore numbered. Before
too long, steel reinforced concretes, stainless metals, plate
glass, glues and nails will become again precious materials,
making the fake more expensive than the authentic.
Meanwhile we are, in advanced industrial countries almost
everywhere, condemned to build, not authentic traditional
building, but full size synthesised models of such designs.
When 30 years ago I stated that I am an architect and I
can make true architecture because I do not build I did not
quite realise how correct that intuition was.
According to J. H Kunstler our civilization is literally drunk
on fossil fuel. Behind us lies a century of environmental
mismanagement of a global scale, of building cities and
landscapes without a possible future of over populating the
planet and as a consequence overexploiting soil, water and
energy resources.
CITY & LANDSCAPE
THE CITYS LIMIT IS A BUILT ONE
A city needs approximately so much land for its

nutrition
THE COLUMBUS FACTOR
X number of cities need X times more land. For whatever

land they are missing they are going to bash in their
own heads and rather than reduce their own numbers,
they are going to invade, conquer and subjgate far lands,
continents and people.
16
THE CITYS LIMIT IS AN ADMINISTRATIVE LINE
RES PUBLICA
Monuments without
streets or squares
RES
ECONOMICA
Streets and squares

without monuments
CIVITAS
The TRUE city
Al Gore says that between ignoring environmental problems

and despairing of them there must be a middle way. In fact
after sleep-walking too long in latitudes of extreme danger,
there can only be a middle way forward.
The global-high-tech-eco-kitsch fictions will soon evaporate
to make place for a global ecological reconstruction project.
Traditional architecture and urbanism, vernacular building
and classical architecture are its operative tools. There is
work ahead and with it hope.
17
Tradition And Innovation

Raj Rewal
Architect, New Delhi
At the outset, one must credit The Nabha Foundation for
the initiatives in the historic city of Nabha in Punjab and
the Nabha Fort. It is always interesting to return to the
roots and learn lessons which have validity for our times.
The typology of the fort based on courtyards and roof
terraces is typical of many similar buildings in Rajasthan. It
shows how traditional buildings solved concerns of climate
and modulated light.
Globalisation is not a new process. These two statues of

Buddha illustrate my point. One from Afghanistan shows
him to be an ethnic, tall Afghan with mustache and the
other from China with slit eyes. Buddha is reinterpreted by
each culture in its own image. They both carry the message
of compassion and peace across Asia in the first century
B.C.
It was also interesting to note that steel girders were

employed in the 18th century fort along with stone masonry
and stone slabs in an innovative manner. This construction
technique was different from the earlier Mughal palace
complexes. Craftsmen and architects have to reinterpret
tradition taking into account the rational structural systems,
the practical realities and the functions to be fulfilled.
Vernacular architecture of a nation or a region can be
compared to its language. The grammar of building and
space-making has a few things in common with the structure
of a language. Architecture like linguistics has taken a long
time to evolve. It is rooted in the cultural traditions, religious
beliefs, moral values and life style of people.
Vernacular architecture in the past had responded to
functional requirements based on climate and community
needs and evolved a method through centuries of
modulating space and light. Building crafts and social
requirements were interwoven with symbolic concerns to
create both temples and simple rural houses.
Building techniques are changing quickly. The pattern of
living is in the process of evolution and a global culture
inspired by media is eroding traditional values. Does this
imply that architectural heritage has no future? Some would
like to equate regionalism with backward fundamentalism
and others would argue that globalization and market
economy would promote a new kind of brutal banalisation.
In fact contemporary societies have to fight on two fronts.
They have to confront fanaticism going back to the medieval
times as well as the mindless attitude inspired by the market
economy that form follows finance.
In terms of architectural language, there is another way
which amalgamates the essence of traditional wisdom
with techno-savvy of our times to create humane, ethical
and sustainable architecture. Passive energy saving systems
learnt through traditional methods can go hand in hand
with smart buildings based on state-of-the-art technology.
Statue of Buddha from Afghanistan
The domes and minarets, visual characteristics of Islamic

architecture, are interpreted in a very different manner
in Istanbul, Summerkand and Agra. These elements of
architecture in Uzbekistan, built with bricks and ceramics,
denote power. In India, they are assimilated with local
culture and marble crafts to symbolise love.
Istanbul
The culture pervading the Indian subcontinent from the

earliest times provided a philosophical basis of unity of
man with nature, where all phenomena in the cosmos, in
the world of nature, are part of one being. In short, the
animate and inanimate coexist in a continuous life system.
This attitude resulted in a rare unity between man, his
natural surroundings, and built form.
The question is whether we can sustain these values in the
age of globalization? We have seen rapid developments in
recent times in Beijing, Dubai and nearby Gurgaon with
disastrous results.
18
Statue of Buddha from China
Taj Mahal, Agra
Summerkand
In this context I would like to show a spectrum of my

offices works fusing traditional wisdom and commitment
to innovative technologies within a regional context which
is open to global currents.
Nehru Pavilion
The Nehru Pavilion was designed in 1972 as a museum to
exhibit objects and photographic panels of Nehrus life and
times designed by Charles Eames. While working on the
design, one had to keep in mind the personality of Nehru,
a sensitive intellectual and democrat who would have hated
any manifestation of pomposity to honour him.
How could a pavilion allow one to symbolize Nehrus life?
There were no relevant contemporary prototypes which
necessitated a search for older models. Inspired by the
Buddhist grass mounds in Nepal that contained relics of
the Buddha, we came upon the idea of grassy embankments
enclosing exhibition space at two levels. The circulation
system for the exhibition was based on parikrama, the
circumambulatory movement around the central shrine of
temples, and the plan began to resemble Tantric yantras.
The audio visual material of the exhibits and the traditional
ethos contributed to the design.
Nehru Pavilion
A street in Jaisalmer: The narrow pedestrian

street, shaded and vitally alive, constitutes an
important feature of the vernacular tradition
Plan of Nehru Pavilion
Asian Games Village

In the realm of practical climatic considerations, the
traditional morphology of the cities of Rajasthan has
important lessons to teach for todays low rise, high density
housing developments, and it directly influenced the design
for the Asian Games Village of five hundred housing units
in New Delhi (1982). The institutional and sterile pattern
of housing favoured by departmental engineers for public
and municipal works, based on an endless repetition of a
design, is rejected here. Instead, an attempt has been made
to create urban norms from a network of pedestrian streets
and squares. The peripheral road provides motor access
from two ends to the parking squares, which in turn give way
to pedestrian paths or to the garages of individual housing
units. The village reinterprets several salient elements of
vernacular design that have stood the test of time.
The Asian Games Village planning is based on similar narrow streets linking a variety of clusters.
The streets are consciously broken up into visually comprehensible units, so there are pauses, points of
rest, and changing vistas.
19
Image of Jaisalmer (above): The alternation between solids and voids in the densely formed city of Jaisalmer is the archetype of the Indian urban fabric. The
entire city is built within very well defined parameters
The Asian Games Village (below): Different types of apartments generate a variety of clusters, avoiding the monotony of large scale public housing schemes.
20
National Institute of Immunology
(Left): The roof terraces of the National Institute of Immunology Housing, New Delhi
(Right): Detail from an Indian miniature painting showing roof terraces
Another project, the National Institute of Immunology

(1984-2006), New Delhi, a campus dedicated to research,
comprising laboratories and housing clusters, is influenced
by the traditional havelis. The manner in which havelis
counter the intense heat of the day by building around
courtyards was carefully studied, and their underlying
principles were incorporated within the framework of
current norms and functional requirements.
The use of community spaces within the campus has
affinities with Indian citadels such as Fatehpur Sikri where
a group of structures built around interlocking courtyards
of varying scales and functions are linked to each other
through gateways and shaded paths across enclosures with
distant vistas and shifting axes.
Each of the clusters retains its identity as their architectural
forms and internal spaces are different. However, the overall
unity of the complex is maintained as all the buildings are
interlinked with paved pathways and the spaces between
them are carefully organized. The framed views from one
cluster to another create a visual link along the pathways.
Plan of National Institute of Immunology
Scientists housing clusters- National Institute of Immunology.
An Afghan village near Kabul illustrates the traditional manner of forming

an assembly of housing units into a cluster
The design for the Institute carries some of the traditional

planning principles but in no way has there been any
attempt to embellish it with false arches, domes, or carvings.
The inspiration from the past is reinterpreted in terms of
rational reinforced concrete frame clad with sandstone grit
to meet the practical functional requirements for scientific
research.
21
The Central Institute of Educational Technology

The idea of blending traditional spatial arrangements with
modern building technique is carried through in another
project for a media school in New Delhi. The Central
Institute of Educational Technology (1988-90) houses a
school for communications which is fully equipped to the
highest professional standards to produce broadcast-quality
programmes as teaching aids in rural communities and
urban centres throughout India.
View of Central Institute of Educational Technology
Central courtyard of Central Institute of Educational Technology
The design concept is based on creating

two interlinked courtyards, one small
near the entrance and the second built
around the existing tree, to function
as an open-air multipurpose television
studio. The bigger courtyard comprises an
open-air stage and amphitheatre and it is
enclosed at the ground floor by entrance
hall, artists room, and canteen with the
existing tree as the focal point of activities.
The courtyards are in fact evocative of
a madrassah, a traditional school, and
surrounded on the upper three levels by
passages linking library, audiovisual, and
administrative activities. The upper two
floors have decreasing floor areas resulting
in roof terraces overlooking the central
courtyard or the surrounding parks.
Plan of Central Institute of Educational Technology
SCOPE
SCOPE is an office complex designed for large autonomous
public sector organizations and was built in 1983-89 in New
Delhi not far from Mughal Emperor Humayuns tomb. The
faade is designed to shield the offices from the suns direct
rays so as to reduce the air conditioning costs.
The complex is divided into eight distinct blocks which
interlock with each other around a central courtyard. The
spatial organization is generated by combining four columns
recalling minerates which act as structural supports, contain
services and culminate on the roof as chatris or parasols.
The form and structures on the roof terraces serve the
role of providing welcome relief from the offices for 7000
workers.
The form of the office complex is inspired by the Datia
Palace with its intricate courtyards and roof terraces which
22
Central courtyard of SCOPE
SCOPE Office Complex (left); Datia palace (right)
are extremely successful in lowering the temperature in

summer months. The harsh sunlight and scorching heat
is countered by the enclosures within the office complex,
lowering the air conditioning cost by thirty percent.
Lisbon Ismaili Cultural Centre

Modern architecture and urban design can achieve greater
richness, variety, and symbolic content if it is informed by
underlying regional historic values rather than superficial
quotations. Precedent and progress are combined in the
design for the Lisbon Ismaili Cultural Centre in Portugal.
Our aim was to draw upon Islamic philosophy and to
assimilate Iberian peninsula building traditions and be
innovative in terms of construction technology. We have
been influenced by the space enclosures perceived in the
Alhambra, Spain.
plants and running water. The aim is to transform the mood

of the visitors from the external stress to internal calm. The
community courtyard functions as an enclosure between
social halls and multipurpose hall. It would provide the
spillover space for cultural and community activities. The
jamaatkhana courtyard is an extension of the prayer hall,
surrounded by a cloister, and would have an ambience of
serenity. It is at the head of the complex but isolated from
it by the change of level and a gateway.
The other important consideration is the utilization of local
stone in terms of the latest building technology. Granite
is used as a structural element in conjunction with epoxy
glues and steel for the design of enclosing walls based on
Fatehpur Sikri jali patterns and computer calculations.
The design is based on three interconnected enclosed

gardens fulfilling distinct functions. The entrance courtyard
is designed to welcome visitors and is based on the
principles of charbagh (quadrite garden) with flowering
The doctrine of cosmic unity where one is part of the

whole is central to Islamic philosophy and spiritual
concerns. Islamic art is essentially a way of depicting
and discovering this unity through geometrical patterns.
The discipline of mathematics and the basis of structure
Generalife garden, Alhambra
Central Court, Lisbon Ismaili Centre

23
have common points in modern science and ancient

civilizations.
The fascinating geometrics of the stone jalis of Fatehpur
Sikri, Agra, and Spain depict a rare combination of the skills
of the craftsmen and mathematicians. These geometric jalis
have a structural potential and we have evolved from them
a concept using new construction technologies for building
walls and roofs true to the contemporary vocabulary of
stone and steel.
View of prayer hall
Prayer Hall lattice shear walls, Lisbon Ismaili Centre
24
View looking up at the church

ceiling Lisbon
Detail of composite structure of granite and steel
Jali pattern, Fatehpour Sikri
Isometric view of Fatehpur Sikri
View of Lisbon Islami Cultural Centre in Portugal
Parliament Library
The Library for the Indian Parliament is located adjoining
the existing Parliament Building and the colonial complex
designed by Lutyens and Baker to house Presidential Palace
(Rashtrapati Bhawan) and the central offices for the Indian
Government.
Lutyens classical European composition forms the focus
of the central vista in New Delhi. He had maintained that
the design was meant to demonstrate the superiority of
western art, science and culture in India. A response to the
urban context of the circular Parliament building as well as
the intellectual challenge posed by Lutyens was important.
The solution was to design a Library complex which
resonates with its surroundings, evokes the traditional spirit
of enlightenment but is based on modern technology and
values of democratic India.
View of Rajpath
Plan of Parliament house and Parliament Library
The analogy of a relationship between a Guru and the King

may not be far fetched while comparing the new library
with the existing Parliament.
Both visually and symbolically the central hall of the
existing Parliament denoting peoples power, concensus
and democracy, is linked to the central core of the new
complex, symbolising knowledge, on a central axis, through
a sequence of spaces culminating in the auditorium.
We have conceived within the Indian Tradition a formal
structure, but built it in a contemporary idiom to capture
Functions and circulations
Adinatha temple Raunakpur
the essence without mimicry of past historical styles. The

symmetrical and balanced composition of the Taj Mahal,
the Raunakpur Temple and the Datia Palace were the
inspiration. The spirit of the library complex is gentler, closer
to the ambience of the inward looking sagacious Raunakpur
Temple complex, where the natural light is filtered through
open spaces between the central block and the surrounding
mass. The central core of the library building comprising
the MPs reading room, the meeting room, the research and
archival areas, are surrounded by courtyards formed by the
outer ring of peripheral activities.
Datia Palace
Development of Taj Mahal

25
View looking up at the dome of Jain temple, Raunakpur
View looking up at the dome of Parliament Library
Instead of creating one anonymous building, separate

blocks were proposed for each main function to give
identity to the individual segments.
The development follows distinct movement patterns.
-VIPs to the complex.
-Scholars to the library.
-Public to the Museum and, auditorium.
Diverse public spaces within the library are roofed with
a variety of steel structural lattice, lifted above the walls
and columns, to provide diffused light below. The dome
for the entrance hall is based on a series of squares and
octagons reminiscent of geometrical patterns and jalis built
with elements of stainless steel tubes. The joints of these
were cast separately at foundries in South India and then
connected to the tubes with bolts. The entire structure
was supported by a ring beam and lifted above the roof
level by supporting columns. The shallow domes on part
of the steel structure are fibre cement shells or bubbles.
Courtyard of Parliament Library
The Focal central dome was conceived entirely in stainless

steel structural members and covered with four petals of
reflective glass in two layers. The diffused light in the middle
of the complex provides daylight to the two basement levels
as well as the surrounding circulation paths.
The light from above the roof level is an important feature
of the design symbolizing the idea of enlightenment in the
library.
Focal central glass dome
Section- Entrance Hall
26
Section- BPST Block
The small domical shells on the roof garden compliment

the classical domes of the surrounding landscape. The
grass and shrubs on the roof are grown on 60cm of earth
which provide excellent insulation for the air conditioned
spaces below.
Sustainability enhanced by technical innovations is an
important consideration for the library design.
We are living in a globalized world of fantastic changes.
Nokia from Finland, Toyota from Japan, computers from
U.S.A. and Airbus from Europe are part of our daily lives.
The use of mobile phone, internet, computer software
and intercontinental travel has revolutionized our world.
The new building materials like structural glass, aluminum
composite panels and tools for cutting stone are changing
the methodology of building.
We have to learn the process of melding traditional
architectural values which respect nature and urban context
with cutting edge technologies to solve the problems of our
developing societies. Historical assimilation of the Buddha
images in Afghanistan and China has a message for the
contemporary globalized world.
27
Globalisation And Tradition

Robert Adam
Architect, UK
I will not attempt to discuss conditions peculiar to India or
the relationship between Indian traditions and globalisation.
I take my warning from the late Edward Sad: a European
or American studying the Orient comes up against the
Orient as a European or American first, as an individual
second (Sad; 1994; p.11). I know from personal experience
that theres something in the traditions of a culture that can
only be understood by those brought up with that culture
or, at the very least, fully immersed in it for a prolonged
period.
in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events

occurring many miles away and vice versa (Giddens; 1991;
p. 64)
This intensification of worldwide social relations has
many facets and these can be individually important.
They are most summarily listed by the German social
philosopher Jrgen Habermas: By globalisation is meant
the cumulative processes of a worldwide expansion of
trade and production, commodity and financial markets,
fashions, the media and computer programs, news and
communications networks, transportation systems and
flows of migration, the risks engendered by large-scale
technology, environmental damage and epidemics, as well
as organised crime and terrorism (Habermas; 2006; p.
175). A formidable list.
I can, however, talk about the phenomena of globalisation

and tradition. Globalisation is global and so anyone on
the globe can discuss it. Tradition is a universal human
phenomenon so can be discussed as a phenomenon by
anyone.
At first sight, it would seem that globalisation and tradition
are on a collision course and that this conference is a record
of that collision. I dont think that this is quite right. To
understand this, we have to try and understand globalisation
not an easy task as its always hard to understand anything
that is in progress.
Any discussion of the modern condition anywhere in
the world must include a discussion of globalisation. As
Anthony Giddens (one of the subjects major theorists)
says: For better or worse, we are being propelled in to a
global order that no one fully understands, but which is
making its effects felt upon all of us (Giddens; 2002; p.
6-7). We must recognise that, as another theorist, Martin
Albrow, tells us: Globalisation is the most significant
development and theme in contemporary life and social
theory to emerge since the collapse of Marxist systems
(Albrow; 1996; p. 98-90).
So what is globalisation?
As a term it seems that it originated quite symbolically as it
turns out in an American Express advertising campaign in
the mid-1970s (Niezen; 2004; p. 47). It was a phenomenon
waiting for a catchword and, once coined, the word spread
quickly to sum up what has become, again according to
Giddens: the intensification of worldwide social relations
What is globalisation? (Wolfgang Ammer)
28
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Image courtesy: UN Photos)
The key initiating events of this process, again significantly,

took place in the middle of the last century under American
tutelage. These were: the Bretton-Woods Agreement of
1944 which led (eventually) to the creation of the World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund; the creation of
the United Nations in 1945; and the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights in 1948.
The Bretton-Woods Agreement, recalling the international
catastrophe of the Great Depression in the 1930s, set up
a global system for regulating international trade based on
the United States and European free-market system. The
United Nations, following the failure of the League of
Nations and the World War that followed, attempted to
establish a system for the avoidance of inter-state conflict.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, after the shock
of the industrial genocide of the Holocaust, put in place an
Anglo-Saxon concept of the right of individuals over and
above their community, nation or state. All three events
significantly modified the nation-state system, created in
Europe by the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, which gave
states - and only states - both the right to wage war and
absolute rights over the lives of their citizens.
The advancement of transnational human rights was
stalled by the Cold War. The record of the UN has been
disappointing and its authority has been further undermined
by the USA in the lead up to the Iraq war. Outside
communist control, however, the internationalisation of
free trade and the establishment of an accelerating series of
international treaty organisations have, from the beginning,
led to a highly successful capitalist global free-market
Libertarianism of the American Revolution (left; Image courtesy: Architect of the Capitol) & the English Industrial Revolution (right)
economic system and a corresponding growth of global

industries. So successful, in fact, that non-communist states
have had to adapt to global industry, rather than the other
way round, and the structural strength of the free-market
global economy contributed to the collapse of the Russian
Empire in 1989 and has been adopted, with reservations, by
China in the last two decades.
primarily by Britain. American domination of the so-called

developed world after the Second World War, led to decolonisation and the creation of an American-dominated
global economic system. This is what we have today except
that, as might be expected in a truly free global system,
the nationality of the corporations becomes less and less
relevant.
Nevertheless, the global economic culture continues to be
based on the North-Atlantic model.
This model is based on the Enlightenment principle that, as
Baron dHolbach said in 1753, reasonable opinions must
take over and the vain chimeras of men must be removed
inconceivable theology, ridiculous fables, impenetrable
mysteries, [and] puerile ceremonies (Good Sense), in other
words, traditions. Reason and rational experiment would
allow us to progress to an ever-improving world. Progress
would involve change and change would be driven by
continual experiment. In the United States, these principles
when combined with the liberty of every individual both
to innovate and consume, created a highly successful and
expanding industrial and capitalist market system. The USA
was historically averse to the colonialism that had allowed
European markets to expand, and so, once American wealth
had overtaken Britain and the other European powers, the
USA managed a progressive expansion of its economy
through an effective imposition of its free-market system on
the rest of the world. Colonialism, which was consciously
repressive and racist, was easily dismissed under the new
doctrine of Human Rights. American market expansion,
however, brought with it a political system which linked
the freedom of markets with its own concept of political
freedom. As early as 1904, Hugo Munsterburg wrote that
Immanuel Kant & the Philosophical Enlightenment
Leading the way in the new global economy were NorthAtlantic and primarily American corporations. These were
the inheritors of the unique combination of rationalist and
scientific philosophies - called The Enlightenment - in
eighteenth-century Europe, the Industrial Revolution and
free-market system in Britain, and the libertarianism of the
American Revolution. These collectively came to be called
simply modernity. At first this led to the domination
and colonisation of much of the non-industrialised world,
American troops marching into Paris: Post World War II American

political & economic domination
29
Symbols of Globalisation
the duty of America is to extend its political system to

every quarter of the globe: other nations will thus be rated
according to their ripeness for this system, and the history
of the world appear one long and happy education of the
human race up to the plane of American conception
(Munsterburg; p. 6). Prophetic words. The usually unstated
combination of the free market and American culture is
harder to dismiss than colonialism. Accept the undoubted
economic benefits of the free market and you tend to get
the culture with it.
age, beyond conventional modernity, of similar significance

to the Enlightenment itself. Does a completely globalised
world lose the momentum of expansion that has driven
capitalism forward? Does the recognition that industrial
innovation has the imminent potential to destroy the
environment, undermine the concept of progress itself ?
These and other questions cannot be answered here. All
commentators are agreed, however, that we are entering a
new age and that, short of a devastating natural catastrophe,
globalisation will not go away.
The early start of the USA and its North-Atlantic satellites

in the global arena allowed industrial brands from these
countries to dominate the global marketplace. Brands
such as Coca Cola, McDonalds, Nike and Starbucks have
become symbols of globalisation. The effects of this
across the world are plain to see. It is summed up by the
cultural ecologist Helena Norberg-Hodge. Western films
and products and, more recently, satellite television all
provide overwhelming images of luxury and power
[and] give the impression that everyone in the West is rich,
beautiful and brave, and leads a life filled with excitement and
glamour. In the commercial mass culture which fuels this
illusion, advertisers make it clear that Westernised fashion
accessories equal sophistication and cool (NorbergHodge; p. 195). Or, in the words of Theodore Levitt in the
Harvard Business Review in 1983, everywhere everything
gets more and more like everything else as the worlds
preference structure is relentlessly homogenised.
All are also agreed that the flip side of commercial and
political globalisation is a growth in localisation.
Now that the successful economies of states comes to
depend on attracting free-floating global commerce and
now that interstate warfare is becoming a thing of the
past, as the sociologist Daniel Bell famously put it in the
1980s, the nation-state has become too small to solve
global problems and too large to deal with local ones. But
nation-states and national identity are largely nineteenthand twentieth-century inventions that themselves attempted
to homogenise varied communities within their borders. In
diminishing the role of the nation-state, globalisation has
The prestige of this system extends to the built environmentthe subject of this book.
In the early twentieth century in Europe and then in the
United States an architectural style emerged that drew
its inspiration from the principles of the Enlightenment.
This style, modernism, made an aesthetic out of the
symbolic representation of rationality, innovation and
anti-traditionalism. It almost completely took over the
architectural and planning professions just after the
founding events of globalisation. Modernism has joined
with other global brands to represent the success of the
global free market. Much as the North-Atlantic economic
system came to dominate global markets, North-Atlantic
modernism has come to dominate global architecture with
the same homogenising effects.
This economic system is for many the sum total of
globalisation not least anti-globalisation demonstrators.
But as Habermass list reveals, there is much more to it than
this.
Opinion is divided as to whether the new globalised world
is the logical extension of the Enlightenment or modernity
or whether we are, in fact, entering a new, quite different
30
Homogenised Architecture
as a contrary to the conservatism of, what are called,

traditional societies. This enquiring, scientific, rational
and liberal outlook continues to be the engine of expanding
globalisation. Is this not a paradox? Where then does
tradition, the old enemy of unrestrained progress, fit into
this new world?
So successful has been the rational global system that there
are very few simply traditional societies left. A society that
can rely on tradition as the sole justification for its actions
without recourse to any logical reasoning is extremely rare.
As Anthony Giddens says, The end of tradition doesnt
mean that tradition disappears, as the Enlightenment
thinkers wanted. On the contrary, it continues to flourish
everywhere. But less and less is it tradition lived in
the traditional way. The traditional way means defending
traditional activities through their own ritual and symbolism
defending tradition through its internal claims to truth
(Giddens; 2002; p. 43). The last bastion of this level of
tradition in any wider social context is religious doctrine,
which is either left well alone in any rational debate or takes
the extreme form of fundamentalism. Otherwise, wholly
Scottish national costumes: The emergence of micro nations

(Image courtesy: Gryphius/Steve)
lifted the lid on local culture and identities. As Jan Aart

Scholte points out, when faced with a seemingly vast,
intangible and uncontrollable globality, many people have
turned away from the state to their local home in hopes
of enhancing their possibilities of community and self
determination (Scholte; 2005; p. 189-90). Indeed, in 1991,
Larry Chartand identified over 5,000 discrete communities
of people - or nations - amongst only 200 states (Chartand;
A New Solidarity among Native Peoples).
Regionalisation and the re-emergence of micro-nations is
a worldwide phenomenon. Examples among a great many
include decentralisation in Argentina, the legal primacy
of the Catalan language in the Catalan region of Spain,
the independence of the central Asian states from the
Russian empire, and the 74th Amendment of the Indian
constitution. The instruments of global communication television and the internet - are used to reinforce the identity
of re-emerging nations. Satellite broadcasts have assisted
the survival of the Inuktituk language; the Cree Indians and
the European arctic circle Sami both have own-languageentry web sites that act as a community focus.
As the linguistic historian Nicholas Ostler says, every living
language is the embodiment of a tradition and any human
language binds together a community (Ostler; 2005; p. xix
& 7). Indeed, traditions more generally are the collective
memory and identity of any community. Many traditions
have been released by the decline of the nation-state and
nurtured through transnational communication media.
And yet, globalisation is based on the power of reason and
acceptance of change brought in by the Enlightenment
Tradition meets Progress ( Image courtesy: International Development

Research Centre, Canada; Photographer: Djibril Sy)
traditional societies are so rare that any such group would

now have its traditions carefully protected as ethnic relics.
Tradition is no longer the enemy of reason and progress.
Almost everywhere traditions are a discretionary or life-style
choice theres always an alternative. To quote Giddens
again, traditions only persist in so far as they are made
available to discursive justification and are prepared to enter
into open dialogue not only with other traditions but with
alternative modes of doing things (Beck; Giddens; Lash;
1994; p. 105).
Traditions and their role in social cohesion are a key
component in the complex world of the new globality. They
are not the self-justifying traditions of the past but rational
or reflexive traditions, open to self-criticism, modernity and
development.
We can and must now examine traditions for what they are
worth. We can find things that we cannot support: female
circumcision, forced child labour or the suppression of
minorities. And we can find a great deal that is of value:
a sense of place in a world where we are, according to
Homi Bhabha, estranged from any immediate access to an
ordinary identity (Bhabha; 1994; p. 1-2), the cohesion of a
community and settlement of individuals within it, a deposit
of accumulated empirical knowledge, or an established
methodology for the use of low energy resources.
31
It is notable that one of the last refuges of rabid anti

traditionalism is aesthetic modernism. And yet it is precisely
here that rationality and free thought have been turned into
symbols that are neither rational nor permit free debate.
Instead, impractical, unsustainable and unpopular forms are
defended with proscription, dogma and slogans. Instead
of examining traditions for what theyre worth theyre
dismissed as irrelevant and nostalgic. On the contrary,
I would suggest that we follow the advice of one of the
most notable and respected supporters of globalisation, the
economist Jagdish Bhagwati, and understand that Nostalgia
is used not to bottle up change but to decide what a
society really wants to remember in the context of change
and then find ways to do so. That is surely the way to go
(Bhagwati; 2004; p. 113).
References:
1. Sad, E. (1994), Orientalism, Vintage.
2. Giddens, A. (2002) (2nd edn), Runaway World: How
globalisation is reshaping our lives, Profile Books.
3. Albrow, M. (1996), The Global Age, Polity Press.
4. Niezen, Ronald (2004), A World Beyond Difference,
Blackwell.
5. Giddens, A. (1991), The Consequences of Modernity,
Polity Press.
6. Habermas, J. (2006), The Divided West, Polity Press.
7. Holbach, Baron dPaul Henri Thiry (first published
1772), Good Sense.
8. Munsterberg, H. (1904), The Americans, McCLure
Phillips.
9. Norberg-Hodge, H. (1999), The March of the
Monoculture, The Ecologist, Vol 29, No 2, May/June.
10. Scholte, Jan Aart (2005), Globalisation: a critical
introduction, Palgrave Macmillan.
11. Chartrand, L., A New Solidarity among Native Peoples,
World Press Review.
12. Ostler, N. (2005), Empires of the Word, Harper
Collins.
13. Beck, Ulrich; Giddens, Anthony; Lash, Scott (1994),
Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics
in the Modern Social Order, Polity Press.
14. Bhabha, H.K. (1994), The Location of Culture,
Routledge.
15. Bhagwati, J. (2004), In Defense of Globalization,
Oxford University Press.
32
New Ways of Looking at Heritage:

Processes
Spatial Narratives In Traditional

Indian Architecture:
An Interpretation For Contemporary
Relevance
Yatin Pandya
Associate Director, Vastu-Shilpa Foundation for
Studies and Research in Environmental Design,
Ahmedabad
India! The land of antiquity. Indias heritage does not confine
to historic accounts of the events and objects frozen in their
own time and space, but rather as cultural and architectural
traditions which have transcended the time and space to
remain alive and appropriate even in the present. In India,
history stays alive as living traditions. History and tradition
both have their roots in the past, but history, for its inadaptability to the changed time and space remains obsolete
as fossilized remains of the bygone era. Tradition, on the
other hand, consistently adapts and suitably transforms to
the changed circumstances. Tradition therefore survives
and remains timeless. It survived the past and promises to
prevail in future as it rests on collective concurrence, shared
values and deep rooted conditioning. The traditions - as
living heritage are as much contemporary. Thus, in India
we simultaneously live in three time zones. Legacies of the
past and aspirations for the future effectively combine with
the realities of present.
Time, in an Indian
psyche, is a cyclic
phenomenon. The faith
in reincarnations, the cycle
of birth-death and rebirth,
the unending chain of
construction-destruction
and reconstruction, all
reaffirm the belief in the
recurrence of time.
Indian
notion
of
existence trades also
on such dualities. Atman
(atom) and Brahman
(universe) are fundamental
basis of any existence. The
India lives in three time zones
schema of dual existence
that simultaneously accepts
part as a whole and whole as a part speaks of world within a
world concept. Each entity is complete in itself at one plane
and yet at the other a part of a larger system. A microcosm
in cosmos. An aspect of counterpoints is also built into
notions of existence. Bipolar existence where opposites
reinforce each other. May it be purush and prakriti, light
and darkness, solid and void, they are the mutually defining
aspects. One shapes the other. That is why apparent
extremes coexist in India. As counterpoints they become
mutual references and integral part of self-balancing system
ensuring the continuum and endurance.
Paradoxes prevail here as to an Indian psyche, notions
rather than physical realities are more critical. Space is
a notional phenomenon which shapes and exists by the
context.
Space making is a sum

total of time and space
combination. Space over
time is not the same.
Similarly
time
over
different space is also
not the same. Therefore,
having invested in time
the space changes. This
constant
juxtaposition
of time over space is
the essential premise
of Indian Architecture.
Movement is the key to
its perception. Traditional
Indian Architecture is
Cyclic Notion of Time
the story of movement
and
pauses
where
kinesthetics of space is fundamental to its experience
and perception.
Architecture is a celebration of life. Manifestation of an
idea, it encodes messages and emotes feelings. Architecture
communicates through spatial tools, may they be the space
sequences and its organization; elements of space making
and their scale and form, or the symbolism of surface
articulation. It is this aspect of encoding and decoding that
sets in an instantaneous dialogue between the user and the
architectural product. The affectivity of the communication
depends on the easy comprehension of the encoded
messages and their appropriate compliances in built form
This communication takes place at three levels: sensorial,
experiential and associational. Sensorial perception refers
primarily to physiological comforts arising out of physical
conditions essentially in response to environmental control.
This bodily perception is humanly universal. Also universal
is the experiential aspect; however it deals critically with the
mind and cradles emotions. The process is spontaneous
and reactionary to the nuances of space configuration and
its dictates. While, the associational is the locale specific
perception requiring pre-conditioning, familiarity or the
acquired information base. It creates spiritual bonds and
succeeds through in-depth understanding of cultural
connotations. The complete communication is through
wholesome balance of all the three.
Architectural spaces can potentially nourish emotionally
and spiritually. A typical Hindu temple best illustrates
this phenomenon. In a temple, the sequence of gopurams,
series of ascending steps and platforms, rising volumes
of domes and shikharas, increasing degree of enclosure
and the transition from the semi-open, multi directional
pavilions to the uni-directional dark sanctum enclosed by
solid walls, all heighten the progression from the corporeal
to the spiritual as one progresses from the gopuram to
garbhagriha. This sense of transcendence from the worldly,
from terrestrial to celestial, is further enhanced by the
culmination of the horizontal planes of the platform into
a vertical axis through tall pointed shikharas symbolically
pointing towards the heavens. In this manner, the elements
of a building, its scale, size, volume, degrees of enclosure,
levels of illumination as well as motifs and decorations
instill, in the observer, ethos appropriate to the place.
Transcending time and space, good architecture remains
communicative and interactive all the while through its spatial
35
qualities. These spaces possess the qualities to establish

rapport with the on-looker and condition its perception,
independent of their cultural background. Timeless, ever
pervading architecture rely on more fundamental attributes
of space-making ranging from approach and movement,
scale and proportion, quality of light and shade or the
relationship of the built with the unbuilt. Such architecture
therefore needs to be understood and interpreted through
perceptual and experiential qualities and not by the
abstractions of the plan geometry or static compositions
of the facade elevations. Dynamics of moving through
the space and sensory perception of it is vital to good
architecture.
hierarchies and territories in terms of personal and

public realms. The conditions of outdoors inherently
not remaining same changes consistently making the
same space appear different and fresh all the time.
This aspect of time over space lends varied meanings to
the same space configuration through its conditioning,
rendering architecture ever fresh, interactive and timeless.
The stepwells of India illustrate the fact.
Stepwell - water well with steps is a typology of building
unique to western India. Essentially a device to contain
water, it exalts to become a socio-religious institution owing largely to its architectural manifestations!
Narratives through Kinesthetic
It is for us to interpret spatial narratives built within the

architectural space resolutions in traditional architecture.
There are innumerable nuances of built-form by
which traditional Indian Architecture manifests moods,
communicates messages and remains relevant after these
many centuries. Some of these are:
(a) non linear organization of spaces through shifting
axis of movement which helps gradually unfold spaces
and introduce element of surprise
(b) the layering of spaces by baffles and thresholds
induces an interactive process by building up the curiosity
and the implicit sense of discovery
(c) the provision of pause points and thresholds help one
reorient and reaffirm bearings in space. It provides clues
and informed choices for individual preferences and
personal pursuits,
(d) element of time overlaid over space through increased
path of movement and indirect approach, help condition
mind and confront same space differently
(e) the visual proportioning of spaces and skilful
arrangement of elements provide ever-changing frames
of visual compositions through perspective effects and
their strategic visual alignments while in movement
(f) creative use of landscaping elements such as water
and vegetation to enhance psychological and metaphoric
overtones of the place and function. For example
reflection of mosque dome in ablution pond revealed
only after bending down for ablution helps remind and
condition mind for further goal
(g) play of light through integration of unbuilt space
become mutual counterpoints helps define space
36
Narratives through Kinesthetic: Rudabai Stepwell, Adalaj, 1499 AD
One such stepwell is located at Adalaj, formerly on a caravan

route from Ahmedabad to Patan, then capital of Gujarat.
Built in 1499 AD by Rudabai, wife of Virsimha Vaghela, it
is an interesting fusion of Hindu and Islamic architectural
styles peculiar to the Sultanate regime in Gujarat which
came to be identified as Indo-Saracenic architecture.
As a subterranean architecture it provides natural insulation
through earth mass, in an otherwise hot dry - desert like
climate. These cool platforms become resting spaces for
the travellers. For women fetching water they become
interactive platforms for socializing. This offered a chance
to chat and relieve stresses and thereby transforming a
mundane routine in to an enjoyable event. With various
other associations such as pataal lok- journey to water
world and fertility - womb of mother earth, these wells also
assume the status of a shrine.
Spatially, however, the stepwell remains one of the most
profound architectural statements. Despite its functional
obsolescence of fetching water in todays context, it
continues to inspire visitors even after six centuries.
Transcending time and space it has rendered timeless,
essentially through its spatial attributes and experience of
moving through the same. These experiences are shared
trans-culturally by all at a basic human plane without any
familiarity with the context or any knowledge of its history.
This also makes it universal where communication between
the subject and the onlooker is inherently decipherable. It

is the journey, the process of moving through the space
which in itself becomes the event.
The clues for movement, inherent to the space are revealed
sequentially. This gradual unfolding of spaces creates a
sense of curiosity within the onlooker and involves him in
the process. A dialogue is established between the subject
and the onlooker through mutual process of encoding and
decoding of messages and thus making the entire process
interactive as well as the discovery very personal and
intuitive.
At Adalaj stepwell, the only visible clue above the ground
is the pair of pilasters flanking a wide flight of steps. They
become the inviting portal to climb the steps leading to
a platform. The plinth platform then leads the descent
through the descending steps and retaining side walls.
points, perspective alignments and the resultant visual

composition all along its depth.
Each step reveals only the next while the subsequent flights
of steps and water remain concealed by platforms from
the cone of vision. Portals created by trabeated column
and beam construction to shore the side walls retaining
the earth are key spatial elements. The stone columns and
beam provide the visual frames which enhance the sense
of depth by providing an intermediate visual reference.
With such changing visual frames the descent of five floors
brings enface the actual water source. As termination of
the journey, steps flank the water on all four sides making
First flight of steps descends to a square platform with an

octagonal frame, what would once have been a dome base.
This becomes the first point of pause. Surrounded on three
sides by the inclined planes of rising steps the node leaves
only one side open to approach. This is perpendicular to
the axis of previous movement and thus involves a shift in
visual as well as movement path. The new axis is marked
by series of descending steps and intermittent platform
located along the visual axis.
Although, a straight linear symmetrical organization of
elements along the horizontal axis, the visual references
continuously change due to inclined movement (through
simultaneous displacement of horizontal and vertical axis)
at every step. While the sight lines extend through its
entire length, the visual frame- composition of elementsconstantly changes with the changing eye levels, vanishing
Rudabai Stepwell Adalaj, 1499 AD
Rudabai Stepwell, Adalaj, 1499 AD
37
the well the notional centre and the focus which connects
vertically up to sky and down to water well.
This journey is enriched by the spatial variations emerging
through sense of enclosure and intensity of light. The
total descent at Adalaj is of five floors. At the first level it
begins with ground and sky as the basic references while as
one descends further, the walls begin to surface changing
the perception of the degree of enclosure. While the first
few levels still have reference to sky through skywardly
aperture, while the subsequent lower levels become more
enclosed with only walls remaining in the cone of vision.
The perception of enclosure is further reinforced by
the decreasing intensity of light. The brightness of light
subdues as one progresses further deeper into space,
making the space progressively vertical, cosier and confined.
The timelessness is attributed to its freshness offered by
the variations of visual frames as well as the integration
of light/nature where the sun is the constant variable as
it changes position and intensity from morning to evening
and from summer to winter. This makes the static object
change with changing outdoor conditions through sun.
The variation of visual frames illuminates the varying

strengths of suns light over time and season. It is to this
dynamics we attribute the stepwells universality. The journey
of descent conditions the mind to an increasing sense of
penetration in ground. The experience of introspection is
further worked upon by the layer of entablature, carvings
and symbols. To a Hindu, step wells have two associations.
One of ablution - purificative cleansing in holy water, and
the associasion of pataal lok one of the three domains of
the world, apart from earth and sky.
These associations are conjured by the water related motifs
recurring in the carved relief. For example at Adalaj the
shoring wall edges have plaques depicting water urns. The
frieze panel over the beam depicts churning of liquid and
the base of the well at water level is carved with the motifs
of fish. As against the statuette of Ganesha, to mark the
beginning of the journey, is located at the top rim level of
the well.
These symbols and details function as constant reminders
of ones presence in the water world and create the mood,
ambiance and the mental frame such that finally reaching
the water is as good as an ablution - a holy dip into the
water. Water reflecting the sky and sun/light brings the
bi-unity of the extremes, the water and fire, as opposites
notionally coexist as counter references.
Another association of the stepwell is of fertility - the
womb of mother earth. These notions are conjured through
plaques depicting goddesses and symbols of feminity.
These are still worshipped and their blessings sought by
newly weds during nuptial ceremonies. Thus through these
notions and conditioning of mind, the well as a utilitarian
object gets elevated to a shrine. Nourishing physically as
well as spiritually, it communicates beyond its functional
and structural dictates. The sum total of the experience is
sensorial as well as spiritual. It touches the senses as well
as the mind. The meaning is in the journey itself and not
necessarily the destination. The destination is not a means
in itself, it is rather an excuse.
This article has been extracted by the author of the book titled Concept of
Space in Traditional Indian Architecture published in 2005 by Mapin
Publishing Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad.. Graphics: Vastu Shilpa Foundation
Rudabai Stepwell, Adalaj, 1499 AD
38
Sense Of Identity,
Continuity And Context
Pranali Parikh
Urban Designer, Birmingham, UK
INTRODUCTION
Mass migration and globalisation have created new cultural
geographies in world cities. This paper examines new
cityscapes created by Indian people both in India and in
Great Britain. It builds up on the premise that the built
environment of any place is a result of its communitys
sense of identity. People create places to reflect their
aspirations and associations. Identity creation is a common
feature of human expression. It is a living and constantly
evolving process. Though common characteristics and ideas
are clear markers of a shared identity, essentially identity
is determined by differences from others. The common
tendency is either to get away from the identity of one
group or to imitate the identity of another.
Post freedom India has experienced mass migration of
communities between internal regions as well as to abroad.
These migrating communities carry with themselves their
associations of home, familiarity and comfort. Migration
from villages to cities, from old cities to suburbia is as
significant as migration from one state to another state or
to another country. Increasingly, contemporary Indian cities
are moving away from anything that is vaguely traditional
in the blind dash towards their own interpretation of the
western world. But the opposite phenomena is observed
when new generation of Indians move to the US or the
UK. It is noticed that Indian settlers transfer their own
particular conceptualisations of space, built forms and
functional requirements to the new context, modifying the
local urban forms to their own designs.
This essay identifies the differences in the two apparently
opposite scenario- one of a contemporary urban city
in India, devoid of any local context; and the other of a
contemporary multicultural city in Britain where cultural
expression of ethnic Indian community are found to be
in denial of local character. The only thing these opposite
situations have in common is the urge of a group of
people to seek their own identity. Though contradictory
in their approaches, both scenarios produce a spatial
expression that well reflects their aspirations and roots.
Studying these differences leads us to an understanding
of the root of the process that may help us to find a
solution for the appropriateness of cultural expression.
The question of identity is really something you can
rhapsodise over and turn inside out, but I think we should
look at it with a different perspective- this essay tries to
answer three questions:
What is identity?
How it is continued beyond time and boundaries?
How does it change with context? Or does it not?
CITY AND CULTURAL IDENTITY
During the last few decades, many bodies of scholarly
knowledge have developed to account for two fundamental
forces shaping contemporary human society: urbanization
and nationalism. Both these are global phenomena and no
society is unaffected by them. Nationalistic fundamentalism

is on the rise in India as well as in Britain. Debates on identity
recur continually on many subjects- dress, behaviour, art,
dance, culture, etc.- and tend to be divisive rather than
adhesive or persuasive. This article focuses on cultural
identity expressed through architecture rather than a search
for national identity.
In recent years a new wave of multiculturalism has begun to
dominate scholarship on cities, increasingly incorporating
issues of economic and cultural globalisation as well as the
ever-quickening movement of capital and immigrants as
key factors in understanding the urban regions of today.
Most of the cities we live in are not manifestations of an
idea like other spatial products such as three-dimensional
architectural space or two-dimensional paintings. Like
architecture, they are not created by a particular designer
or for a people living in one time. A city is a product of the
constant contribution of many unknown designers over a
long period of time to suit to the needs and aspirations of
a multitude of people who vary in skills, nature, behaviour
and so on. A city is a continuously evolving, transforming,
multidimensional living organism, which is essentially
polymorphous in nature. As Shakespeare quoted: What is
the Citie, but the People? True, the People are the Citie.
The city is where communities tend to congregate and
generate intellectual, political, and economic elites. The
city often plays host to key symbolic and cultural resources.
Yiftachel and Haim Yacobi (2001) state that conflicts
between ethnoclasses regularly occur on urban turf, with
major consequences for the shaping of nations and states.
The production of urban habitat has played a key role in
moulding spatio-political relations between ethnic groups.
The city interacts with its citizens by providing a memorable
setting for enacting the episodes of life. It lives in the
memories of its inhabitants by becoming an interactive
stage for innumerable performances of life that are sighted,
cited and recited in the form of ceremonies, rites, festivals
and celebrations. Cities offer their people an identity, an
image, a memory, a point of reference, a symbol. In return
people, by shaping the parts of the city, create an identity
for the city itself. Each city is distinct in character due to the
people living in it.
Identity formation is a universal feature of human
expression. Attaching values and meanings to existence
via cultural practices is a common behavioural pattern in
migrant communities. The forms and objects to which we
are attached help to define who we are, who we were and
who we want to become. These meanings are likely to be
especially relevant to those undergoing identity transitions,
such as immigrant communities. Reconstruction of
familiar forms play an important role in the reconstruction
of immigrant identity. Belk (1988) stated that the role
of possessions in constructing and preserving identity is
powerful and persuasive.
THE INDIAN MIGRANT COMMUNITY IN
BRITAIN
I examine this process of identity creation by comparing
the favourite architectural expressions of Indians in India
and Indians who immigrated outside.
Britain is and has always been a mixed race society. Early
in its history it was invaded by Roman, Saxon, Viking and
39
Norman armies. Later, Africans were brought to Britain by

force in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as slaves or
servants. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of people
have arrived in Britain as refugees from France, Ireland,
Russia, and other countries, escaping from persecution or
famine in their own countries. There was a more recent
influx in the 1950s and 1960s from the Caribbean, India,
Pakistan, Hong Kong and other places. About 8% of the
population of Britain today are people from other cultures
and ethnicities; it is a rich tapestry of diverse cultures.
People moving to Britain have brought their own cultures
with them and try to keep two cultures alive.
Globally almost all communities who are migrants have
the desire to maintain their cultural heritage. From the
combination of acclimatising to the new environment
and adapting it to suit the peculiar cultural needs emerges
a unique identity. All the migrant communities have
created their distinct marks on the national identity of
Britain. The living environments and settlement patterns
reflect the nature of society, interpersonal relations in the
community, belief systems and behavioural patterns. Acute
observations on the adaptations and alterations of house
layouts, decoration, treatment of architectural elements,
open spaces and so on and so forth can offer clues to new
developments.
This essay concentrates on the architectural patterns of
Gujarati and Sikh communities in the UK.
Political unrest in these countries during the 1960s, made

them migrate from there. The main Gujarati centres in
the UK are Leicester, Wembley in London, and the cotton
towns of North west such as Preston and Bolton.
Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs also have a significant presence
in the UK. Sikhs began to come into Britain in the 1950s
and 60s due to the rise of militant groups and terrorism
in Punjab. At first it was only the men that arrived in the
country. They found employment in factories and services
which helped alleviate the labour shortage in Britain.
After saving money and working in the country for many
years, they called their families from Punjab. Birmingham,
Wolverhampton, Coventry and Southall in London are
the main congregation points for the half million Sikh
population in the UK.
CASE STUDIES
Gujarat Hindu Society Mandir, Preston
The GHS building was officially opened on the 25th August
1975 with the installation of Lord Krishnas shrine in the
prayer hall. At this time the Centre was only the third building
in the UK with dedicated facilities for Hindu prayer. This
fact attracted 3000 people from all over the UK to attend
the opening ceremony, which took place over two days. The
building was actually the home of one of the members who
allowed one of the rooms in the house to be used for the
purposes of meetings and receiving correspondence. This
is quite a creative example of combining local architecture
and elements of a traditional Hindu temple. This very
modest expression of Hindu identity, well woven into
the local fabric, is a very good example of adapting local
buildings to create a distinct identity without being loud
or creating conflict.
Swaminarayan Mandir, Neasden
BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir is the first Hindu Mandir in
Europe built in classical tradition of Hindu architecture,
distinct from converted secular buildings. The Mandir is
the focal point of the complex. Designed according to
the ancient Indian Sthapatya-Shastra, it is made from Indian
marble, 2,000 tonnes of Italian Carrara marble and 2,820
tones of Bulgarian limestone. The stone was shipped to
India where it was hand-carved by over 1,500 craftsmen.
Each individually numbered piece was then shipped back to
London and the building was assembled like a giant three
dimensional jigsaw. The temple site was previously occupied
by a large warehouse. The temples congregation first had
their temple in a disused chapel, then in a warehouse, and
then they built this temple.
The BBC news website states that most people in Wembley

today were born abroad - 52% to be precise, more than
anywhere else in Britain. The majority of them are Gujaratis.
Almost a third of the population of Leicester consists of
ethnic minorities. Again a major group among them is
Gujaratis. While most of the Gujaratis are Hindus, there is a
significant Gujarati Muslim presence as well. The peculiarity
of this minority group is that the majority of them have come
to this country via Africa. Their forefathers had settled in
African countries such as Fiji, Uganda, Tanzania, or Kenya.
40
In contrast to the previous example, this temple by the

same community is a bold statement of the strong Gujarati
economy in the UK today. It really is a landmark structure,
fantastically detailed and beautifully proportioned. It is an
achievement of project management and of imitation of
design. A lot of effort has been put into copying carving
details from Gujarati stone and wood carving tradition, to
the last detail. However, there has been severe neglect in
contributions to local character, using local craftsmanship
and materials, and the local economy. This structure could
be standing anywhere in the world and would still speak of
Gujarati identity. But what about the identity of Gujaratis
living in UK? Being part of the both worlds myself, I know
that Gujaratis in the UK do not have the same identity as
The Neasden Temple showing painstakinly executed carving details imitating the temple style of medieval Gujarat
purely for the purpose of worship by the Sikh Community

in the United Kingdom.
The Sikh community from Birmingham first began holding
religious services in a Primary School at Brasshouse Lane,
Smethwick, Birmingham in 1958. This led to larger and
larger congregations of Sikh worshippers and the need
arose to acquire more suitable premises for the Gurdwara.
Plan showing Neasden temple and the surrounding residential areas in

peripheral urban blocks
Gujaratis in Gujarat itself. In an effort to create a replica

of a structure back in Gujarat, a 50 year time span, from
the time when these people left India until today, has been
wiped out.
Gurdwara, Smethwick
Described on their website as Europes First and Biggest
Sikh Temple, this Gurdwara is the first Gurdwara, in the
history of UK and Europe, to be purchased and used
(Above & Below) Images of the Gurudwara on the Smethwick High Street
display the attitude to respect the surrounding architecture
41
A church building in the High Street in Smethwick was

purchased. The present Gurdwara premises is still at the old
church site but was rebuilt recently to gleam majestically.
Being the highest structure in a large area of comparatively
low rise buildings, it provides a visible landmark. However,
this early example of converting unused buildings for
community purpose, with a pronounced Sikh identity, is
modest in comparison with the other Sikh gurdwara in the
same city.
Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewark Jatha and Guru Ravidas
Bhavan
Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewark Jatha on Soho road in
Birmingham was converted from a Polish ex-servicemens
club to a gurdwara in 1978. Adjacent residential property

was acquired along with land to the rear, allowing the
construction of considerable extensions accommodating
educational and social functions. In the early 1990s the
exterior was remodelled to add a grand entrance surmounted
by a dome and other ornamental features.
Today, spread over an entire street block, the Soho Road
gurdwara is an imposing landmark in the urban landscape.
Inspired by the Golden Temple of Amritsar, the structure
suffers from lack of good craftsmanship. No consideration
is given to the surrounding modest brick architecture of the
industrial era and no respect is paid to local flavour either in
selection of material or finishes.
Architecture of Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewa Jatha ignoring the local context
Guru Ravidas Bhavan creates a landmark on the Soho road due to its scale and form
Victorian architecture on the streets around Soho road
42
ANALYSIS
All these four examples are representative of religious
architecture created by Non-Resident Indians (NRI)
in Britain. Religious buildings are more expressive of
the identity of a people than any other buildings. Most
religious buildings belonging to ethnic Indian communities
are conversions from derelict or under-used churches,
warehouses or residential buildings. Combining more than
two blocks together to create a large scale structure is
found to be common in such developments. Nasser (2003)
noted that the conscious act of remodelling elevations with
ornamental features and decorative motifs has been a major
development in the metamorphosis of the British urban
landscape as a means of redefining the presence of the other.
Jharokha, deorhi, carved niches, arches, chhatri and kalasha
are some of the elements of a classical Hindu temple or a
Sikh gurdwara that are repeated in various combinations to
create an assemblage that gives an association with a stone
temple somewhere back home. The elaborate structures
lack traditional English subtlety of expression; on the
contrary, they employ a stylistic vocabulary inspired by the
Indian subcontinent and they over-communicate Sikh or
Hindu identity in the area.
All these examples show an effort to create a distinct
identity for the community. The imposing architecture is
trying to replicate the architecture in the home country
of the migrant community. Magnificent structures though
they are in themselves, how contextual their forms are is
the question I want to raise. Onion domes, white marble
or carved shikhara symbolise everything the community
has left behind. This tendency to cling to clich forms via
superficial imitations is quite common in other migrant
groups as well. An interesting point to note is that the very

forms of expression that are so dear to the immigrant
Indians outside India, are being forgotten or replaced by
so-called aspirational western forms in India itself.
Highly regular and well differentiated layouts of industrial
urban landscapes, with distinct collective identities are
slowly being replaced by architectural forms that are
somewhat strange and unfamiliar in the British context.
Tolerance in the name of multi-culturalism is encouraged
by the government. In the 50s and 60s, at the time of
major migrant inflow, the planning laws were more strict
and restrictive. Migrant communities were given industrial
estates in or near the town centres within which to
establish themselves. The change in the economy and the
political scene, as well as the success of the Indian migrant
community in establishing small businesses, changed the
fate of these estates for ever. These communities made
the most of the liberalisation of the planning system and
the trend of investment in city centres. Another thing that
was changing drastically was social status. Most migrants
had come to Britain as labourers as, at that time, it was hard
to find work in India that paid well. Most of them didnt
belong to a privileged crust of society. After being in Britain
for some time, they could feel the wheel turning. Now not
only were they well off, they were socially recognised and
respected for their NRI status back home as well. The new
found wealth, changing social status and heightened sense
of establishment became expressed in the aspirational
architecture of religious buildings.
Change in planning laws made it easier for ethnic minority
communities to express themselves boldly in architecture,
and their bold expressions have permanently changed the
New shopping mall outside the medieval city walls of Ahmedabad and their aspirational western architecture
One of the 12 gates in the medieval city wall surroundingthe old city of Ahmedabad (left) and the traditional Pol architecture inside (right)
43
British urban landscape. Melton Road in Leicester, Ealing

Road in Wembley and Soho Road in Birmingham have
taken form of medieval shopping streets in a small Gujarati
town. Diwali, Navratri and Baisakhi celebrations add colour
to the streets and British urban life.
A reverse phenomena is observed in the urban centres of
India today. When Indians outside India are busy building
temples and gurdwara, India is being flooded by multiplexes
and shopping malls.
Traditional markets are being replaced quickly by the mall
culture. The example of a mall just outside the fort wall of
the medieval city of Ahmedabad tells the full story. Highly
westernized architectural form reflects the aspirations of the
contemporary Indians. The historic setting or vernacular of
the slums outside its flashing gates is not taken into account
in architectural style or scale.
Are these traditional markets lost forever? May be not.
They are being brought back to life outside India by the
migrant community. Traditional market streets are being
reborn in the middle of industrial England. Streets in the
Asian areas of Birmingham are replicating the long lost
native market streets in small towns of India, Pakistan or
Bangladesh in an effort by the immigrant Asian community
to keep the spirit of the market alive, across the seven
seas.
This role reversal can be attributed to the basic urge of
human nature- chasing what we do not have. Its a reflection
of the lack of sense of pride in what we have. Its the

celebration of Inheritance of Loss.
Another noticeable difference in the eastern and western
expressions of identity in architecture is apparent in the
design of streets. During my undergraduate dissertation I
noticed a common phenomenon in Indian cities that could
be true for any medieval middle-eastern or Asian city. I
named it individual identity within collective conformity.
I observed that in the old cities of Jaipur, Jaisalmer or
Ahmedabad, each house was different from the others in the
street. Similar but distinctly different. I attributed it to the
nature of Hinduism that has influenced the Indian psyche
for a millennia. Hinduism, being polytheistic, tends to offer
as many different ways of salvation as there are individuals
who seek it. This attitude nurtures multiple expressions. But
this argument didnt sound convincing as it failed to explain
the apparent dichotomy between collective conformity and
individual identity.
On my first visit to the UK, the first thing I noticed about
the cities was the fact that all the houses looked exactly the
same as the others in the street, with minimum individual
expression. One of the reasons for that is that Europeans
have been experimenting with the principles of city
planning and urban design for a long time. The design of
a city as one congruous whole has been at the heart of
the city builders vision. Planning laws are directed towards
preserving the character of a city as a whole, its distinct
quarters as well as its streets. Individual buildings are
treated as part of something larger and radical deviation
Traditional markets in the old city of Ahmedabad
Shops on the Asian streets of Birmingham Shops on the Asian streets of Birmingham
44
from the fabric around is not tolerated. Such architecture

displays fewer contradictions, lots of subtle variations and
a dominating harmony.
effort. To grasp the architecture of cultures that are distant,

historically or geographically, is to begin to understand
those cultures.
I think this contrast of expression in eastern and western

ways can be related to the common human tendency of
expressing the aspirations of the people. Mehta and Belk
(1991) note that the western possessive individualism
thought to underlie American and European concepts of
self is notably absent in India. Western thought, mainly
based on individualism, stands in stark contrast from that of
Eastern or Asian mob mentality. To the eastern mind, the
faith, sect, community or family is structured in a hierarchical
order and an individual is expected to follow the norms of
one of the groups in order to belong to it. Membership
of these groups is above the recognition of individual self.
The suppressed eastern self finds its expression in being
different from the others; architecture is an expression of
individualism. In the western world, strongly individualistic,
there is nevertheless a strong yearning for communal spirit
and group identity, expressed architecturally through the
creation of a harmonious whole. This difference in attitude
provides a context in which to examine the relevance of
expression of identity.
When one culture doesnt consider imported elements

other, or alien or threatening, both foreign cultural
elements and those produced locally are seen as equal
contributions to a common goal. In this case, the local
context is not really considered defective or uninteresting,
but is expected to reach beyond its local identity. This
phenomenon is observed throughout history in all parts
of the world, particularly, in the case of India where many
invading cultures brought in their unique influences and
became assimilated into an indigenous Indianness.
Sometimes a cultural practice may acknowledge that it lacks
the necessary components for renewing itself, for adapting
to a changing social context. When for various economic
or political reasons, it starts losing a sense of pride in its
own history and existence, it turns to other foreign cultures
for inspiration and imports cultural elements from them.
This situation is prevalent in India today. Again, here, I am
not stating that looking towards other cultures and adapting
their elements is wrong, However, I definitely want to
The mural on the wall opposite the Gurdwara on the Smethwick High Street sums up the ideal streetscape of a multi-cultural city in todays Britain.
CONCLUSION
Design is a culturally responsive and a participatory process.
Historically, cultural practices are inherited as traditions that
are reinforced through institutions such as the family, places
of worship, work environments, housing, neighbourhoods
and even cities. These practices are also socially mediated
and negotiated through interpersonal relationships between
individuals and groups. The identity of a community
crosses borders with its members, gets modified according
to the new context and in the process, over time loses its
relevance.
I believe that strong cultural expression leads to the creation
of ghettos, making other communities apprehensive about
a community. Striking a balance between cultural expression
and traditional local character is the key to achieving a
comprehensive, all-encompassing solution. Every culture is
continually forced to determine its position toward outside
influences in order to preserve or redefine its own identity.
The threatening intrusion of a foreign culture is often
characterized as an invasion. This colonization is a threat
to the host society. When this sense of threat is born out
of a frustrated feeling of superiority, it generally leads to
partiality and reactions of hatred. My view is that, this is
exactly what is happening in most western cities which have
significant migrant communities. Hardy (2003) wrote that
the worlds cultural heritage belongs to all of us. Things
that appear alien can become part of you if you make the
raise questions about the way it is happening. Adopting

alien features is one thing, modifying them to suit our
own requirements is another and imitating blindly without
understanding is a different thing altogether. That is as
much an injustice to the donor culture as it is disrespect to
the borrower.
Continuity and change are the major factors which drive the
process of creation and expression of identity. But again, the
idea of continuity and change is quite subjective. Sometimes
something seems to be changing but actually, at the core,
remains the same. For example, Indian peoples wish to
express themselves individually has been in existence from
ancient times up to the present day. Sometimes, something
seems to be continuing but is actually losing its essence,
continuity being only skin deep and not reaching the soul.
For example, in religious architecture of Indians in the UK,
the great Indian architectural tradition is reduced to motifs,
symbols and pastiche patchwork.
After saying all this, I do agree with the idea that adventurous
change is always better than suppressive continuity. Fear of
losing something can never be allowed to overpower the
joy of creating something new. I see meaning in the lonely
temple shikhara in the middle of industrial England as much
as I see hope in south facing glass walls in Ahmedabad. If we
allow ourselves to learn from the mistakes we make today,
cities of tomorrow will seem habitable and the places of
joy. Continuity of identity is as important as its meaningful
45
manifestation. On that positive note, I end with a quote

from Tradition and the Individual Talent by T.S.Eliot:
Yet if the only form of tradition, of handing down, consisted in
following the ways of the immediate generation before us in a blind
or timid adherence to its successes, tradition should be positively be
discouraged. We have seen many such simple currents soon lost in the
sand; and novelty is better than repetition.
Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. It cannot be inherited,
and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour.
It involves, in the first place, the historical sense, which we may call
nearly indispensable to anyone who would continue to be a poet beyond
his twenty-fifth year; the historical sense compels a man to write not
merely with his own generation in his bones, but with a feeling that the
whole of the literature of Europe from Homer and within it the whole
of the literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence and
composes a simultaneous order.
This historical sense, which is a sense of the timeless as well as of
the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal together, is
what makes a writer traditional. And it is at the same time what
makes a writer more acutely conscious of his place in time, of his own
contemporaneity.
References:
1. Fishman, Joshua A. (1973), Language and Nationalism:
Two Integrative Essays, Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Gellner, Ernest (1983), Nations and Nationalism, Oxford:
Basil Blackwell.
2. Sinha-Jordan, Sumita, Can Diversity make a Difference?,
GBER Vol. 2, No. 1, p. 15-18
3. Hardy, Adam (2003), Multi-culturalArchitecture, gber
(Global Built Environment Review) Volume 2 Issue 3
4. Mehta, Raj; Belk, Russell W. (1991), Artifacts, identity,
and transition: Favorite possessions of Indians and Indian
immigrants to the United States, Journal of Consumer
Research, 1991 Mar, v17 (n4), p. 398-411
5. Miller, Barbara D. (1995), Precepts and practices:
Researching identity formation among Indian Hindu
adolescents in the United States, In Cultural practices
as contexts for development. New directions for child
development, No. 67.; Jacqueline J. Goodnow, et al., eds..
Jossey-Bass Inc, Publishers, San Francisco, CA, p. 71-85.
6. Nair, Savita (Fall 1995), Masala in the Melting
Pot: History, Identity and the Indian Diaspora
SAGAR: South Asia Graduate Research Journal, v2:2
7. Nasser Noha (2003), South Asian Ethnoscapes: the
Changing Cultural Landscapes of British Cities, gber
(Global Built Environment Review), Volume 2, Issue 3
8. Puar, Jasbir K. (1995), Re-situating Discourses of
Whiteness and Asianness in Northern England: Second
Generation Sikh Women and Constructions of Identity,
Socialist Review; 24, 1-2, p. 21-53
9. Yiftachel Oren, Haim Yacobu (2001). Urban Ethnocracy:
Ethnicization and the production of space in an Israeli
mixed city, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
21(6), p. 673693
46
Websites:
1. http://www.gngsmethwick.com/
2. http://www.mandir.org/
3. http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php?title=Guru_
Nanak_NSJ%2C_Soho_Road%2C_Birmingham
Cultural Heritage As A Driver For

Integrated Development In Punjab:
The Case Of Nabha
implemental role is assumed by a development agency, that

steers the initiative through consultation with state-marketcivil society, it is argued, is most conducive towards the
sustainability of the development initiative.
Yaaminey Mubayi
The Nabha Foundation, New Delhi
EXPLORING THE SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND

CULTURAL SETTING: THE CASE OF PUNJAB
Gurmeet S. Rai
Cultural Resource Conservation Initiative, New Delhi
Punjab is a state of complex contradictions. Behind the

veneer of a thriving economy, high-income conspicuous
consumption and affluent lifestyle indicators, lies the dark
reality of perilous macro-economic figures, environmental
disaster, alarming unemployment, missing women and
widespread drug abuse. The proverbial self-sufficiency
and resourcefulness of the people, once the subject of
hyperbole, is now in the way of their acquiring their share
of investment, both social, in terms of development aid, as
well as financial and commercial.
Culture is more than just a jewel in the crown of development

UNESCO defends the case of the indivisibility of culture and
development, understood not simply in terms of economic growth, but
also as a means of achieving a satisfactory intellectual, emotional,
moral and spiritual existence. This development may be defined as
that set of capacities that allows groups, communities and nations to
define their futures in an integrated manner.
--The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization
The last century saw a substantial shift in the paradigm of
development, from a technology-centric model evolved
as a result of western industrial advancements, to a more
holistic view taking into account the multi-faceted needs of
Globalization. The end of the Welfare State following the oil
crisis of the 1980s led to a series of structural adjustments
in fiscal economies initiated by the IMF-World Bank. This
had disastrous results in countries which did not have the
financial capital reserves to withstand the pressures of
unemployment and privatization, notably the Third World
countries. It soon became apparent that for these countries
to survive and participate in the global economy, alternative
perspectives of what constitutes wealth, well-being and
development need to be recognized.
Amartya Sens work, particularly his theory of individual
freedom as forming the core of the state of wellbeing, is seminal to the comprehensive analysis of the
i
globalised economy . Individual freedom as a means to
poverty alleviation is one such fundamental approach to
understanding the demands of economic development in
the 21st century. Approaching the state, the market and civil
society from an integrated perspective, Sens theory states
that the quality of life should be measured not by quantum
of wealth, but by the individuals freedom to choose its
application to develop his/her well-being. This highlights
the multi-dimensionality of development, rescuing it from
a linear trajectory. It brings into the spotlight the importance
of difference, of which Culture is the prime signifier.
The following paper seeks to explore the potential role of
cultural heritage in evolving a framework for development
in the north Indian state of Punjab. India as a whole, is rich
in tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Built heritage is
a ubiquitous form in our urban and rural landscapes. Issues
of identity, values, attitudes and aspirations are expressions
of our intangible culture. Thus any development paradigm
must engage with these fundamental values in order to
be appropriate and sustainable over the long term. The
argument negotiates between the three primary sectors of
the state, the private sector and civil society and presents a
case for an integrated approach involving the participation
of multiple stakeholders. Such an approach, in which an
(i) Sen, Amartya (2000), Development as Freedom, Anchor Books, New
York
ii
Punjab is regarded as one of Indias most advanced states.

Being the cradle of the Green Revolution, it acquired a
very high growth rate between the mid-60s and the 80s,
recording an annual compound growth rate of 8.4%
against a national average of 4% in the late 60s. Ranking
first in per capita income in 1964-65, by the 70s, Punjab
was a role model of development for the other states. It
was displaced by Maharashtra in 1993-94, and as a result of
the Insurgency, there was a slowing down of development,
the growth rate having fallen to 3.58% against the national
figure of 5.91% in 1998-99.
The primary sector of Punjabs economy is agriculture and
livestock, which comprise more than 40% of the gross
state domestic product. This sector has shown a decline in
growth since the 1970s, leading to stagnation. This sector
employs the largest share of the workforce, more than
50%, a factor that has remained constant and not shown a
healthy shift into the secondary and tertiary sectors, which
have a higher income potential. This indicates that a large
number of people are trapped in agriculture and need to be
shifted to other sectors. The state cannot therefore, be said
to be industrially advanced since the share of the industrial
sector is less than 20% of the economy.
Unemployment rates are high in Punjab: in the rural sector
2.6% as against the national average of 1.9%. Urban areas are
only marginally better off. The unemployment is primarily
amongst the educated youth, indicating that nearly 20% of
the age group between 15-35 years is unemployed. There
is also a high degree of underemployment, particularly
because of increased mechanization in agriculture. The
Work Participation Rate amongst females is an abysmal
17%, much lower than the least developed states. This is
compounded by an adverse sex ratio and gender indicators,
making Punjab notoriously unfavourable in terms of gender
development. This indicates a potential crisis in the social
and cultural environment as well.
In addition, there is over-exploitation of ground water and
the land due to over-dependence on agriculture, the wheatpaddy cash-cropping cycle being the most destructive. The
current pattern of agriculture is thus non-sustainable, both
demographically/socially, as well as environmentally. A large
scale increase in government as well as private investment
is necessary to pull Punjab out of its downward spiral. The
state government, while acknowledging its responsibility to
(ii) UNDP, Delhi (2004),Punjab Human Development Report
47
the socially and economically disadvantaged sectors, cannot

overlook its role in creating a favourable environment
for the growth of the private sector, which can provide
opportunities and employment on the required scale. The
state needs a massive increase in infrastructure, both urban
and rural, which can come about through a combination of
government and private sectors.
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
POTENTIAL FOR GROWTH
DEVELOPMENT:
Tourism development, involving the mobilization of

multiple sectors ranging across heritage, livelihoods, urban
and rural infrastructure and the environment, has long held
the potential to be a key economic driver. The Charter
for Sustainable Tourism (International Conference on
Sustainable Tourism, Lanzarote, 2003) affirms the need
to develop a tourism that meets economic expectations
and environmental requirements, and respects not only the
social and physical structure of destinations, but also the
local population.
The tourism industry worldwide is a global giant, second
only to the oil industry. According to World Tourism
Organization, international tourist movement generates an
average of US $ 500 billion, which is expected to double
over the next decade. Thus, tourism can be harnessed as
a significant force for poverty alleviation, the protection
of traditional cultures through participatory management,
employment generation as well as foreign exchange earning.
This has important ramifications for the developing world,
as the last decade of the 20th century saw a growth of 154%
in the export value of tourism.
Tourism is one of the major contributors to the Indian
economy as well, and is envisaged to experience a growth
spurt within the next decade. In order for heritage sites to
be marketed from a tourism perspective, it is essential to
have in place a management structure that is rooted in local
development and is sustainable. The first principle of the
International Cultural Tourism Charter (ICTC) adopted by
ICOMOS in October 1999, states that Since domestic and
international tourism is among the foremost vehicles for
cultural exchange, conservation should provide responsible
and well-managed opportunities for members of the host
community and visitors to experience and understand the
communitys heritage and culture at first hand.
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM AS A DRIVER FOR
DEVELOPMENT: A CASE FOR CULTURAL
HERITAGE
Heritage as a thematic area also expresses the peculiar
contradictions inherent in the society and culture of
Punjab. While there is a conspicuous lack of monumental
built structures, there is a multiplicity of sacred buildings,
Hindu, Muslim and Christian, in towns and the countryside.
Apart from the famous pilgrim centre at Amritsar, there are
few massive and ancient temples and shrines of national
consequence. Yet there is no dearth of little heritage, rural
and urban temples, forts and palaces of tremendous local
value. The fierce independence and sense of individualism
displayed by the populace is offset by their strong links of
loyalty and attachment to their past, be it feudal identity or
ties with their land. These are the particular paradoxes of a
frontier land, where the key to deciphering the significance
of the tangible heritage lies in the intangible, in the values
and aspirations of the people.
48
In the state of Punjab, with its complex development issues

such as a high per capita income yet a stagnant economy and
alarmingly low gender and human development indicators,
sustainable tourism development with cultural heritage as its
focus could well be the key for revitalizing the society and
economy at a level that is deep, holistic and sustainable.
For instance, the State Govt of Punjab proposes to evolve
and implement a programme for sustainable tourism
development through two important cultural and symbolic
rubrics: the Freedom Struggle and the notion of Pilgrimage.
The two encapsulate the most significant values and
aspirations of the people of Punjab, and are inextricably
linked across history by a common thread. They represent
a cultural ethos that celebrates the freedom of the spirit and
the fight for human dignity. Thus we see that culture and its
manifestations are a living and vital part of a communitys
consciousness, and can play an important role in the
contemporary development of the region.
CULTURAL
MODELS
HERITAGE
MANAGEMENT
The following arguments illustrate various approaches

adopted for the conservation and management of cultural
heritage in India. The issue of sustainability is examined
both from the perspective of the built heritage/site as
well as its stakeholders, those who have an interest in its
continued existence. The argument focuses on a particular
model where multiple stakeholders interests coalesce to
bring forth a sustainable paradigm for growth, wherein
the interests of heritage dovetail with the interests of the
community and the region.
Scenario 1: The State Model
The first scenario looks at heritage conservation as
a predominantly state-sponsored and state-managed
activity. This is where the inception, implementation
and management are undertaken by the state, and the
communities, those people who physically inhabit the
space in and around the site, lack a sense of ownership.
For example in India, the Archaeological Survey of India
is an agency of the Central Government that possesses the
mandate to conserve and preserve built heritage, and all the
historical monuments under it are owned and managed by
the state. The national legal instrument governing the ASI
and its functioning is the Ancient Monuments Act of 1958,
which functions in conjunction with a number of specific
State laws as well as the State departments of Archaeology.
As we are all aware, all such properties protected under such
laws, whether national or state, are cordoned off, with a fixed
boundary and a blue board outside. The local communities
or the public at large visit such sites to admire them like
artifacts. They do not participate in their management, and,
specifically, derive no share of revenues generated by them
through tourism and other activities.
Scenario 2: Non-governmental initiative
The second scenario is one of non governmental, multiple
agency collaboration to carry out heritage management.
This is where we began our work as conservationists where
we work on historic buildings that are not under the ambit
of the ASI.
An example can be made of a small Krishna temple in Punjab
that was restored under a UNESCO/UNDP initiative
iii
in 1999 . This was a site exemplifying the little heritage

of Punjab, an 18th century historic building situated in a
village whose community functioned as caretakers through
a multiplicity of linkages with the site, links that were not
based on any statutory mechanisms.
of detailed public consultation. Owing to the multiple

stakeholders and the number of technical teams involved
there was a lot of transparency in the system in terms what
was studied, produced and implemented. This multiplicity
reinforced the accountability structure.
This was a small temple in a rural community of village

Kishankot, with a population of about 600 people. The
initial project brief consisted of the restoration of the temple
building and its beautiful wall paintings, over 3000 sq. feet of
mural of the Pahari school. Once the work began, however,
it was soon apparent that this was not a simple process.
There was a whole community structure to be dealt with, a
caste hierarchy that needed to be understood, the political
affiliations within the rural landscape of Punjab. Cultural
heritage was an extremely contested space this was a
clear message. Thus, for the sustainability of the initiative,
people had to be brought onto a common platform, and
this comprised the work culture and principles of labour,
or seva as it is termed in local parlance.
THE NABHA QUILA PROJECT

We now arrive at the Nabha Quila, an 18th century building
situated in a small town in the Punjab countryside, and
a site that is unprotected by state legislation and is in an
advanced stage of dilapidation. The lessons learnt from the
above scenarios clearly indicate that heritage conservation
initiatives require a management structure for sustainability.
However, apart from monumental sites that are directly
under management of the state, and where stakeholders
are held in situations of accountability through statutory
mechanisms, for non-protected sites like Kishankot, a
credible and accountable structure is extremely difficult to
generate and sustain.
What was learnt was that the base of conservation work

had to be different from what the market dictated it had to
be, and sensitive to the comfort level of the community. As
opposed to an external monitoring system it was important
for the project implementors to self evaluate the project
at every step. Flexibility of the programme and its targets
was essential. For instance, when the conservation and
revitalization of the water tank was conceptualized, the
initial targets and terms had to be completely reworked
during implementation.
It was a learning experience for all agencies and personnel
involved. However, the problem with this initiative lay in the
NGO style of working, wherein the project remained a oneoff event. It lacked the scale and the public accountability
structures that are a given in a government initiative, for
instance. The project was conceptualized, implemented,
monitored and evaluated but ultimately there was no public
accountability for the structures and activities.
Scenario 3: State partnership with a professional
agency
The third scenario is one where the state works together
with a technical agency for heritage conservation and
management. For example, in the case of the Red Fort in
Delhi, this is a high-profile site with a huge tourist focus
and is a national symbol for the country. It is protected
by the ASI, which collaborated with a technical agency
in the preparation of its Comprehensive Conservation
Management Plan. This was a transparent and public
process, monitored by the Supreme Court through an
Expert Committee appointed for the purpose. The site was
very definitely in the public eye, with considerable media
attention focused on it. There were multiple stakeholders,
ranging from the numerous departments of the ASI as
well as security and other agencies located in its premises.
There was a large public interaction, with a historic market
within the compound as well as the context of the Walled
City of Shahjahanabad. The tourist element added a
complex dimension to the project. Thus, the systems and
plans recommended were initially generated by technical
agencies of repute, and thereafter vetted through a process
(iii) Cultural Heritage and the Promotion of Understanding in the Punjab,
India, part of the UNESCO Culture of Peace Programme for the year
2000. This project won the UNESCO Asia Pacific Award in 2001.
The Nabha Quila (Credit: Sanjit Das)

The Nabha project is different from the aforementioned
three scenarios, in that there is the catalytic presence of a
privately-funded development agency that has initiated the
project. The effort here is to guide the conservation process
in such a way that the private sector and the government
both are involved and a process is set in place that can
be replicated in other areas. In the absence of protection
of the site through legislation, the development agency
has attempted to create the appropriate dynamic through
interaction with the government, that will eventually lead to
both state recognition of the heritage as well as the private
sector and civil society being involved in its management
through an appropriate programme for reuse.
Nabha- The backdrop of a former princely state
Claiming descent from Jaisal, founder of the State of
Jaisalmer in 1156, the founder of the Sikh dynasty of Phul,
was Chaudhri (Governor) of a country located at the south
east of Delhi. Phuls descendants founded three states:
49
Patiala, Jind and Nabha. Nabha was founded by the greatgrandson of Phul, Hamir Singh, in 1755.
house terrorists in the height of Khalistani movement in

the late 1980s.
Hamir Singhs son Raja Jaswant Singh (1783-1840) became

the ruler. He had two sons namely Raja Devendra Singh
and Ranjit Singh. Raja Devendra Singh had two sons, Raja
Bharpur Singh and Raja Bhagwan Singh. Raja Bharpur
Singh died in 1863 prior to Raja Devendra Singh. Raja
Bhagwan Singh ruled from 1864-1871, he also died without
an heir. According to tradition, Hira Singh, a distant relative
in a neighbouring village was decided upon as the next in
line on the recommendation of the Maharajas of Patiala
and Jind. Raja Hira Singh, who ruled from 1871-1911, was
a wise and stable ruler, and was honoured with G.C.S.I.
and G.C.I.I. titles by the British government. His reign saw
increased prosperity, trade and industry in Nabha. He was
a great patron of building works, and much of the current
built heritage of Nabha, including Ripudaman College and
many other buildings, dates back to his period. His only son
was Maharaja Ripudaman Singh (1911-1923) or Gurcharan
Singh, who became ruler in 1912 after Raja Hira Singh.
Like many other cities of India, Nabha has landmarks called

gates which roughly circumscribe the city. In Nabha, these
are named Patiala Gate, Duladhi Gate, Mehs Gate and Boda
Gate. Apart from these, there are a number of old private
havelis in the walled city area that are of immense heritage
value, with traditional courtyards, jaalis (trellis windows)
and wall paintings in the style of the region.
Maharaja Ripudaman Singh was educated in England

and nominated to the Imperial Legislative Council by the
British Government in 1907. However, far from facilitating
the colonial agenda as anticipated by the rulers, he showed
a strong streak of self determination which resulted
in his getting the Anand Marriage Act passed, thereby
achieving legal status for the Sikh marriage ceremony. In
1911, he assumed the gaddi (throne) of Nabha according
to traditional custom, without obtaining the sanction of
the colonial government. His continued defiance of the
government and his sympathy for the Nationalist cause led
to his forced abdication and exile in 1923.
In 1947, Nabha formed a part of Patiala and East Punjab
States Union (PEPSU). At a subsquent reorganisation, Patiala
was created as a district and Nabha formed a subdivision
in Patiala District. The modern Nabha is a thriving, if
somewhat dusty town, in the heart of the agricultural belt
of the Malwa region of Punjab, about 20 kilometers from
Patiala. It is home to an agricultural ancillary industry on a
small to medium scale, mainly combine harvesters. Nabha
boasts of several institutions and heritage sites which are
somewhat unusual for a town of this size:
1. Punjab Public School (PPS), Nabha is one of the more
well known public schools in India (other notable
schools of this league being YPS Patiala and Mohali,
Scindia School, Gwalior, MNSS, Rai and Sainik School,
Kunjpura.
2. Ripudaman College, an undergraduate institution
situated in a beautiful heritage building complex that
used to be the former Summer Palace of the Maharajas.
3. Hira Mahal, another royal property constructed by
Maharaja Hira Singh
4. Numerous samadhs, or memorials to the former rulers,
the most ornamental being the Jaswant Singh samadh in
the PPS grounds
5. Lal Kothi, an exquisite sandstone structure adjacent to
the grounds of Ripudaman College. Another Lal Kothi
is located in the Bir, the city forest, and was used as a
hunting lodge by the former Maharajas.
6. A factory of Glaxo Smith Kline
7. A historic jail, known to have admitted Jawaharlal
Nehru during the freedom struggle, which was used to
50
Scope and Issues

Nabha is a small town in India, an entity that is at the
vanguard of the new trend of urbanism wherein there is
a much deeper and more basic transformation in values,
lifestyles and urban infrastructure than the metropolitan
development of the past decades. This is truly the marginal
zone where the rural meets the urban, the traditional, the
modern, and the prevailing view of the Indian village
being an untouched island in space and time, unaffected
by global trends, will dissolve forever. The challenge is
to see that the transformation will occur in an inclusive
and supportive environment, where community values,
traditions and cultural forms are not mindlessly sacrificed
under the onslaught of globalization, and simultaneously,
progressive thought and action is not needlessly obstructed
by obscurantist beliefs. The aim is to have a dialogue
between the past and the present, a dialectical approach to
development, wherein programmatic actions are judiciously
selected and implemented from multiple sectors, in the right
balance between the State, Market and Civil Society.
Role of the development institutions
Thus far, the high income indicators in Punjab have prevented
adequate attention being paid to the social infrastructure
by both the government as well as development agencies.
Hence, the traditional patterns of residual social policy,
welfare-driven and aid-based development initiatives have
not been propagated at the grassroots level on any scale.
This can be regarded in a positive light, as there is scope
for an innovative pattern of growth that is focused on local
needs and not a prisoner to the limitations of prevailing
development patterns in a one size fits all manner.
Punjab can generate its own growth trajectory that springs
organically from its particular conditions, and can utilize its
stakeholders in an appropriate manner in synchrony with its
past and present. Nabha, with its manageable scale and size
as an administrative sub-divisional unit, as well as its history
as an individual princely state of considerable repute, can
be a perfect vehicle to showcase this process.
The Nabha Foundation
The Nabha Foundation has been established in response
to a felt need for a holistic pattern of development in
Punjab. It seeks to bring together multiple stakeholders, the
state and union governments, national and international
development agencies, academic and research institutions
and above all, the people on the ground, to engage in a
creative dynamic of action.
Created as a Corporate Social Responsibility unit of a private
sector firm, the foundation demonstrates the dovetailing
of family links with Nabha and a market based motivation
to invest in the growth potential of the region. Here, we
see the coming together of commercial interests with the
sensitivity to ensure that social and cultural infrastructure is

sufficiently upgraded to optimize the development of the
place.
The Nabha Foundation seeks to confront developmental
challenges in Punjab with an integrated, multi-sectoral
approach, recharging traditional skills with market
dynamism. At the same time, it seeks to temper commercial
development with sensitivity to social, environmental
and cultural needs. Above all, it seeks to draw from the
intellectual legacy of the late rulers of Nabha, a strong
development orientation, encouragement of civil society
and democratic institutions, and a reaffirmation of faith in
justice and the rule of law.
Despite its small size, Nabha has a distinct cultural identity,
drawing from its past as a prominent princely state of
Punjab as well as a small-scale center for manufacturing of
crafts, iron work and other skills. There are a number of
prominent families of Nabha, descended from the rulers
and ministers of the former court. These bear a unique local
influence as well as accountability to the public. There are
a number of local civil society groups and NGOs working
on diverse issues pertaining to public welfare. There are
traditional craftsmen and women, carrying on traditions of
metal work, embroidery, and other local handicrafts
Approach
The problems besetting the region are common to the rest
of Punjab, comprising low human development, particularly
gender indicators, dependence on agriculture in a climate
of economic stagnation, widespread unemployment
and underemployment, inadequate health care facilities,
insidious spread of drug and alcohol abuse, and ecological
crisis with soil and groundwater depletion.
Bearing in mind the particular historical and social
background of Nabha, the Nabha Foundation has adopted
an integrated development strategy for the region, one that
is not merely sensitive to cultural particularities, but one
that actively promotes the role of culture as a catalyst for
mainstream development. The relationship between heritage
and its regional context is a symbiotic one. For instance,
built heritage can encourage and sustain the economic
upgradation of the region through appropriately structured
tourism initiatives, as discussed earlier. The sustainability of
built heritage cannot be ascertained without going into the
problems faced by the people and confronting issues of
health, gender, education and livelihoods. Thus, a holistic
view of the development challenges is taken, and a strategy
for development evolved that takes the community, the
state and local administration, the local institutions and the
private sector interests on board as stakeholders.
The Nabha Process
The Nabha Quila is located in what was once the heart of
a square city with a circular dome. The city was founded
in 1755 with the fort as the predetermining element. Most
of the architecture of the period in Punjab has multiple
courtyards, square shape, single entry. The fort was built
over a period of 150 years and one can see three distinct
layers of architectural expression and a wide use of different
materials used over a span of a century and a half.
Post independence the fort was being used as government
offices and the people using it were not interested in the
maintenance of the structure. The building is in a serious

state of structural decay due to water ingress, growth of
vegetation, inappropriate materials used for repairs and loss
of important structural materials due to vandalism.
There are other issues like the loss of cultural association by
the local community due to the absence of any continuous
or appropriate usage of the core historical edifice and lack
of clarity and grandness in access to the fort.
So the key areas that the project wants to address are the
following:
Conservation of the historic fabric.
Socio-economic sustainable reuse plan.
Integrated urban development strategy. Any new reuse
plan has to safeguard the sanctity of the fort.
Implementation through the community.
The project is in partnership with the government of
Punjab through the involvement of multiple agencies such
as the Public Works Department, Punjab Infrastructure
Development Board, Department of Culture, and
Department of Urban Development along with the Nabha
Foundation as the private sector partner. The entire mission
objective of the Nabha Foundation is to promote socioeconomic and cultural development of the people and the
city of Nabha and the surrounding areas.
The Nabha Foundation carried out a feasibility study
and prepared the initial concept of leasing the Quila for
conservation and development as far back as 1996, and
presented it to the Government of Punjab. However, an
appropriate mechanism for carrying forward the initiative
had not yet been evolved, both on the part of the
Foundation as well as the state government. By 2004, the
Nabha Foundation carried out another study and a Detailed
Project Report was generated which was submitted to the
state government as an unsolicited proposal. By then the
Government of Punjab had set up a very interesting system,
which was that the Punjab Infrastructure Development
Board, that was actively promoting public private
partnerships in the development of infrastructure, was
designated as the nodal agency to design and negotiate this
heritage project. Here, we see a mainstreaming of heritage
as a development area at the government level, a trend that
has grown into countrywide initiatives like the Jawaharlal
Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
The Detailed Project Report is not merely a plan of the
city and the site, but a strategic document that elaborates
the interdisciplinary methodology, the phases of planning
and their rationales, opportunities for future development
as well as a strategy and rationale for reuse of the complex
after conservation, as an institution for rural management
education. Therein lies the uniqueness of the proposal,
which lists out the methodology of its sustainability in the
future, and from whose vision the Nabha Foundation draws
its entire programme for integrated development.
The key areas of focus are:
Conservation, history and culture
Socio-economic development across a wide range of
issues
Up gradation of existing institutes
Development of new institutions
51
The two parts of the DPR are, first, the Historic Building
Precinct, i.e. the fort and second, the Zoning and Urban
Development Pilot Projects. The document subsumes the
following methodologies:
1. Architectural documentation of the complex
2. Condition mapping
3. Building materials and techniques survey
4. Historical research
5. Assessment of the significance of the historic
precinct.
6. Structural condition assessment
7. Study of the morphology.
While Part I looked at the precinct of the Quila, the Part II
looked at the designation and development of the guidelines
for the institutional zoning. Most of the educational
institutions of Nabha, and there are quite a few, are all in
the areas surrounding the fort, so it was recommended that
the whole area could be turned into an institutional zone
and guidelines developed for this zone.
The other crucial point was the protection of the natural and
manmade cultural resources of the town and environment
friendly waste and water management. The projects and
programmes of the Nabha Foundation in the areas of
health, livelihood, environment etc. draw from this initial
vision. In brief, the dynamic of development in Nabha
has begun through multiple sectors, and the Quila could
become a spatial focus for the multiple initiatives, as well
a benchmark for best practices in developing a process to
mainstream heritage.
The project team is multi disciplinary comprising
conservation architects, architects, structural engineers,
material scientists, art conservators, urban designers and
planners, landscape and environment planners, social
scientists and historians.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN NABHA
The Foundations initiatives in health, education and
livelihood have already had a substantial impact over the
past two years. In the area of heritage, other sites for
The Nabha festival

52
Hamir Singh Samadh: before restoration (Credit: CRCI)

conservation besides the
fort
were
selected
for
their
strategic
significance in covering
a cross section of issues,
relating to conservation
material and processes,
crafts and skills, regional
and dynastic significance
and community identity.
The order of their
implementation is also
significant in elucidating
the stages in which the
region was impacted, the
Hamir Singh Samadh: after rising comfort levels with
restoration (Credit: Sanjit Das)
the citizenry enabling
the Foundation to take
on bolder and more deep-rooted issues. For instance, the
Foundations work began with the conservation of Hamir
Singh Samadh.
1) Hamir Singh Samadh: This site is dedicated to
the founder of the state. It is located in a congested
neighbourhood adjoining the Quila, and was the site of
a garbage dump prior to conservation. Its restoration
has involved making a statement about the Foundations

commitment to Nabhas heritage, and is aimed at revitalizing
neighbourhood linkages for sustainability
2) Duladhi Gate: One of the original four gates of the city,
it is situated on an arterial road, showing the importance
of linkages, between past and present, between the outside
world and Nabha. This project has involved a number of
interactions with local authorities, municipal bodies, traffic
police, shopkeepers who are stakeholders in the property
and should ensure its sustainability, residents who are
stakeholders and depend on the property in a symbiotic
relationship.
3) Jaswant Singh Samadh: In honour of Raja Jaswant
Singh who defied the British rulers during the first war of
independence in 1857, it is situated in the grounds of PPS.
Its other significance is as an example of a building of great
skill and beauty. The conservation process also involved
local skill-building, with workers voluntarily acquiring skills
in lime carving.
4) Nabha Festival: The Foundation has instituted an annual
festival that celebrates local talent, skills and crafts as well
as gives it visibility to the outside world. It has contributed
in building up an enthusiasm for local culture amongst the
community, particularly in the schools and colleges.
In conclusion, the Nabha process has broadbased the
heritage initiative by contextualising it within the discourse
of mainstream development. Further, by situating it within
the purview of state development mechanisms it has gained
public accountability and transparency of procedure,
while routing it through the public-private partnership, it
has given it the financial viability that can only be gained
through appropriate private sector intervention.
The learning from this process is:
1. It is a participatory process, where situations and their
solutions are viewed from the bottom up. Moreover, the
Foundation has a local base in Nabha, employing local
talent and resources.
2. It is multi stakeholder project, where the state, civil
society and the private sector are in constant interaction
to creatively evolve a new developmental paradigm.
3. Cultural heritage and infrastructure learn to fit together
and adjust. For instance, the designation of PIDB as the
state nodal agency has involved considerable rethinking
of prevailing norms for infrastructure projects, given that
national and international norms for heritage need to be
taken into account and the established formats for BuildOperate-Transfer projects are not appropriate here.
4. The community has been engaged at multiple levels,
their needs, skills, values, attitudes and memories are
called upon to reinforce the development dynamic in the
region.
In this scenario, sustainability is most likely, owing to the
broad base of the initiatives, the combination of statutory
support through state involvement, financial backing by
the private sector and a consultative interaction with the
public.
53
Cultural Metamorphosis, Building

Traditions And Search For
Architectural Identity In Africa:
A Case Study Of South-western
Nigeria
Oluseyi Timothy Odeyale
Department of Architecture,
Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria
INTRODUCTION
Africa is regarded as the oldest continent in the world. The
beginning of modern man as well as the root of western
civilization can be traced back to this continent. Africa
played a significant role in the development of certain
sciences. Such connections can be seen in the Egyptian
civilization around 3000 BC. It has been established that the
Kushite civilization (found in old Ethiopia) had a system of
writing which dated back to the fifth century BC (Martin
and OMeara; 1995). Africa has been regarded as the dark
continent by the European explorers who came circa
fifteen century- this comprised of the Portuguese, Dutch,
English, French and Spanish explorers (Ashun; 2004).
However, it is noteworthy to say that Africa was not dark
before the advent of the Europeans. Africa had been literate
well before the colonial ingress. Such literacy is seen among
the Axum of Ethiopia, as their classical language was
expressed in written form by fourth century AD. Literary
works were recorded in learning centers of Timbuktu
(Mali), and Djenne during the fifteenth century and in the
Swahili city states of the East African coast (Martin and
OMeara; 1995).
PRIMITIVE AFRICA, CULTURE AND DYNAMICS
OF CHANGE
Egenter (1994) commented that anthropologists were
shocked to discover that certain ethnic groups which had
been viewed as primitive also possessed quite complex [e.g.
linguistic or social] systems of order, despite the externally
primitive looking circumstances in which they lived . Cultural
metamorphosis refers to the major and subtle changes that
occur within a society, whether they may be desirous or not.
Culture has to do with the beliefs of the people, which may
be tangible or intangible. Culture and human development
Fig. 1: Mud houses and granaries in West Africa
54
are actively related. The culture of a group of people has

several distinguishing characteristics; it is based on symbol,
it is both shared and learned, and it is usually socially
inherited with far reaching consequences on the way and
manner of living of an individual. Culture also has to do
with the way of life of the people; it may be material or non
material. The material culture has some aspects reflected in
the historical buildings and carved wooden objects, which
form an essential part of the traditional built environment
(see Fig. 1 and 2). Culture is the most important concept
in anthropology (the study of all aspects of human life,
past and present). Anthropologists commonly use the term
culture to refer to a society or group in which many or all
people live and think in the same way. Likewise, any group
of people who share a common cultureand in particular,
common rules of behavior and a basic form of social
organizationconstitute a society. Thus, the terms culture
and society are somewhat interchangeable. However, while
many animals live in societies, such as herds of elk or packs
of wild dogs, only humans have culture (Haralambos; 1991;
Bodley, J; 1994).
Evolution of Culture
Culture developed together with the evolution of the
human species, Homo sapiens, and is closely related to human
biology. These distinctively human physical features began
to develop in African ancestors of humans more than four
million years ago. The earliest physical evidence of culture
includes crude stone tools produced in East Africa over
two million years ago. There is a general consensus among
mainstream anthropologists that humans first emerged
in Africa around that time. Since then men have spread
throughout the world, successfully adapting to varied
conditions and to periodic cataclysmic changes in local and
global climate. This led to the emergence, around the globe,
of remarkably different societies with separate cultures, and
these cultural differences persist to the present time. The
comprehensive process of societal change resulted into
varied development of the physical environment across
the globe (compare Fig. 3-5). These changes are referred
to in this paper as cultural metamorphosis. It is debatable
whether these differences are merely incidental artifacts
arising from patterns of human migrations or whether they
represent an evolutionary trait that offers an explanation to
our success as a species (Gilbert et al; 1994).
By analogy with biodiversity, it could be inferred that the
long term survival of life on earth depends on it. Similarly it
Fig. 2: Huts and village life (Source: Addo; 2006)
Fig 3: Drawings of primitive house forms and symbols across culture. (Source: Egenter; 1994)
can be argued that the conservation of indigenous cultures

may be as important to humankind as the conservation of
species and ecosystems is to life in general.
Characteristics of Culture
Culture has several distinguishing characteristics.
1. It is based on symbolsabstract ways of referring to and
understanding ideas, objects, feelings, or behaviorsand
the ability to communicate with symbols using language.
2. Culture is shared. People in the same society share
common behaviors and ways of thinking through culture.
3. Culture is learned. While people biologically inherit
many physical traits and behavioral instincts, culture is
socially inherited. A person must learn culture from other
people in a society.
4. Culture is adaptive. People use culture to flexibly and
quickly adjust to changes in the world around them.
Westernization,
Metamorphosis
Acculturation
and
Cultural
The intrusion of Europeans in the third world has

sometimes led to the destruction of existing culture. Gilbert
et al (1994) noted that only where urban patterns were long
established, for e.g. in the Sudanic belt and the Yoruba
nation, is European culture less influential. This assertion
should not be over-stressed, for the intrusion of the western
culture (westernization) has led to a considerable erosion
of traditional values. This is not a total destruction, but
more of a subtle change. Westernization and the process
of acculturation are closely related. Westernization is a
process whereby traditional long-established societies come

under the influence of western culture affecting such
matters as industry, local technology, language, politics,
law, government, diet values, lifestyle and religion(www.
wikipedia.com).
Acculturation involves changes that occur within the social
fabric of a group or cultural change that occurs when
two different groups come into direct continuous contact
resulting into evident or marked changes in cultural attitudes
and pattern of either or both groups. Conrad (2005) opined
that different degrees of domination, destruction, resistance,
survival, adaptation and modification of the native culture
follow inter ethnic contact. Such contact often resulted
into a cultural shock. This cultural phase was more
evident during the colonial era. Application of military
force to repress the civil reactions during the colonial era
eventually led to a cultural collapse or ethnocide. This
cultural collapse and subtle change is quite evident in the
built environment. The colonial master brought in building
styles and design, foreign to the tropical condition and the
long established housing layout configuration of the host
communities.
Building Tradition in a Yoruba City-using Akure as
case study
Akintoye (1971) identified the beginning of the nineteenth
century as an era of intense tumultuous and far-reaching
changes in the history of the Yoruba in south western
Nigeria. Marked changes in the socio-cultural and
economic structure were brought about by external factors
such as intensified trade with Europe, spread of Christianity
55
Tables 1: Measure of Factors influencing development of building types in South West Nigeria
Factors
Education
Strong %
Average %
Weak %
Total
84
12
4
100
Capital
City
72
24
4
100
Commercial
Activities
68
24
8
100
Agarian
Industry
32
52
16
100
28
16
56
100
Admin. &
Banking
64
28
8
100
Organised
Society
20
60
20
100
Source : Authors Research (2005)
and western education. Akure is among some of the

Yoruba towns that came under the influence of western
culture through education, colonization and the spread
of Christianity (Akintoye; 1971; Osasona; 2002; Olotuah;
1997).
The area under review involving south-west Nigeria
comprises of mainly the Yoruba speaking group. Akure
is situated in the world map at latitude 715 north of the
equator and longitude 515 east of the Greenwich Meridian.
Situated 250 m above sea level, Akure is the capital city of
Ondo state, Nigeria and has large granite deposits along the
road to Ado-Ekiti. It is regarded as part of the north-eastern
region of Yoruba land. The area is made up of Akures,
Ekiti, Igbominas, and Akokos in the North West. It is 104
kilometer East of Ibadan and 311 kilometer North East of
Lagos (Odeyale; 2005; Akinbamijo et al; 2002). On a recent
survey conducted on some residents in Akure, some factors
were identified as having strong influence on the attendant
changes in culture and the built environment. Such factors
include spread of western education, location as capital city,
commercial activities, administrative role, agrarian activities,
and organized societies (see Table 1).
THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY AND HOUSE
FORM DETERMINANT
Primitive buildings are those produced by societies defined
as primitive by anthropologists. It needs to be mentioned that
the term primitive does not connote the builders intentions
or abilities but rather the society in which they build (Adeyemi;
1994). To a large extent primitive connotes certain level

of technological attainment and societal arrangement. To
the future generation our building today will be primitive.
Vernacular, folk, or traditional houses are those which have
not been designed by architects, but by local builders. Their
design may be influenced by formal architecture, but they
embody cultural traditions which are a regional expression
of the way their builders and users viewed their world
within the constraints of their economic circumstances.
Housing is subjected to such factors as social structure,
climate, economics, technology and culture. Other factors
include defence (giving rise to fortresses and impenetrable
fence walls and gates), accessibility, physiography and
orientation. Khan (1998) asserts that these factors, except
culture, are form moderators, and culture is a determinant
factor. Housing symbolizes the socio-cultural heritage of a
people and culture thus exercises an over-riding influence
on the type and form of houses evolved (Denyer; 1978).
The configuration expressed by the building in a community
is a pointer to its search for cultural identity and self
actualization.
Building Traditions, Climate and the Need for Shelter
Shelter is of supreme importance to man and it has
been identified as a prime factor in mans struggle for
survival. Rapoport (1964) commented that primitive man
developed various dwelling forms alongwith food taboos
and restrictions within several economies of scarcity. The
climatic determinism view in architecture suggested that the
primitive mans concern for shelter is borne out of the need
to protect itself from the harsh weather
and climate. Some building forms in
Africa point to climatic solutions; but
the fact that building form cannot be
explained in terms of climate alone,
needs emphasis as well. However,
the importance of climate in building
forms and types can not be ignored
completely- consider the igloo in the
Artic and the movable structure of the
nomadic Arabs in Sahara Desert.
Fig. 4 & 5 : Tracing the path of Cultural metamorphosis and building tradition in Africa. (Source: Akuffo; 2006)
56
Fig. 6: Traditional materials aptly put to good use in South Africa
Factors shaping the developments of Building form

in Africa
The development of building types and forms is not tied
only to climatic considerations; other factors identified
include related economic activities, critical social activities
(including cooking and childbirth), ceremonial rites,
religious beliefs and restrictions, prestige, owners status and
modernity (Adeyemi; 1994; Rapoport; 1964).
JUXTAPOSITION OF ANCIENT AND MODERN
IN A GROWING CITY
Nigeria is the most populous African country and its urban
population amounts to more than the combined total
urban population of the other West African countries put
together. The urbanization process in Nigeria predates the
arrival of the Europeans. This is a different situation from
that of most parts of Africa, where urban development
was initiated during the colonial period. Nevertheless, the
contemporary urban system of Nigeria is an outcome of
a multitude of forces of which colonialism is a key part.
Before the coming of the British, a well-developed system
of cities had existed in Nigeria. The system of cities,
however, was not integrated but was composed of various
isolated sets of cities which related to existing sociopolitical groups. Colonialism brought a superimposition of
another system on these indigenous sub-systems. Thus, the
contemporary national urban system of Nigeria represents
an amalgamation of these different components.
City centre as a place of Growth and observable
acculturation
Urban centers are usually the hub of commercial activities
in the urban system and they are sometimes referred to as
the heart of the city. Louis Kahn referred to it as the
cathedral of the city. That is, the activities of the city revolve
around the core area, also referred to as the downtown area,
the city center, or the Central Business District (CBD).
Most African cities, exhibit such characteristic of growing
out of a city center. Examples of such African cities are
Cairo, Johannesburg, Accra, Ibadan, Nairobi, Maiduguri,
Kano and Kaduna. Such a centre of the city will have a
concentration of banks, offices, shopping complexes,
post offices, markets and all such activities (Okoko; 1999).
The city core, mostly in Yoruba urban centers, marks the
beginning or source of development of the city with its
well illustrated traditions.
Discussion of Research Findings

According to Scargil (1979), a house type also seems as
a mirror of cultural traditions. Education is seen as the
major organ of change bringing civilization, urbanization
and acculturation of the people, which invariably leads to
development. Urban development can be viewed as changes
brought about through the process of growth, expansion
or urbanization of the rural place, especially the evolution
of a city from its original small settlements to what it is
in the present time. Four prominent factors are identifiededucation, commercial activities, capital city privileges and
banking- in a study conducted in Akure by the author
(Table 1). In the survey conducted on some residents of
Akure, 80% of the respondents believed that education
played a vital role in the development that impacted on the
identities and cultural heritage of Akure. Next in line, were
commercial activities and the capital city privilege of the
city. 32% figured capital city placement as being very high
in its influence and 36% considered it high, a sum of which
yielded 68%. Another 68% believed commercial activities
helped in the transformation of the value of heritage in the
city (refer to Table 1).
The above factors are enough to attract large numbers
of the population from other interior parts of the state,
bringing subtle changes in the beliefs, norms and way of
life due to the intervention and intermingling of diverse
cultures resulting in rapid urbanization. According to Karl
Marx, the urbanization of the country side leads to
city formation. This is particularly true of Akure. Many
Africa settlements came as a result of the coming together
(conglomeration) of small, adjacent settlements, each with
its distinct traditions and mythologies, all having their roots
elsewhere. Some of the factors that contributed to the
urbanization process are:
- Surplus agricultural input coming from the villages. This
was corroborated by Palen (1987) who stated that
before urban revolution can take place, an agricultural
revolution was necessary.
- Population increase which is reinforced by the Akure
large heart of hospitality,
- Education and Civilization,
- Religion Christianity and Islam
- Creation of Ondo State out of the old Western Region
of Nigeria in 1976, making Akure its capital city.
57
The development brought about due to the administrative

role it has been playing as the headquarters of Ondo
province since 1920 during the colonial era, plus the role
played by P.O.E.T (Population, Organization, Environment
and Technology), all contributed to the development which
ubiquitously works on the urban heritage prevalent in Akure
today. The dynamics of change also reflects on the physical
(tangible) aspect of the heritage- structures formerly
constructed of mud have been demolished to give way
to new buildings constructed with modern materials like
sandcrete blocks, roofing sheet etc. Churches in Akure like
the Sacred Hearts Cathedral along Oba Adesida Road have
undergone two reconstructions from what it used to be in
the early part of the century. In 1919 it was a mud building,
later reconstructed in the 1950s. This was later destroyed
in 1962 to make way for the new Sacred Hearts Cathedral,
still standing today. The Muslims also moved their mosque
from the old mud brick at Arakale to the center of the town
opposite the main market or Oja Oba.
Historical Continuity
Historical continuity is a must for a dynamic society which
desires to have memorable legacies. A contrary method
is a certain path to anarchy and confusion. The high
standard of yesteryears within the ambit of morals, ethical
conformity and respect for humanity are the hall marks of
our treasured heritage. It is imperative for us, to preserve
outstanding buildings, monuments and artifacts of the past,
for generations yet unborn.
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
Cultural heritage is widely recognized as the most important
input in defining the national and ethnic cultures in any
nation. Nigeria inherits great cultures of the Benin, Yoruba
and other northern Kingdom of Hausa-Fulani origin,
which bequeathed an impressive body of plastic, music and
literary arts. The Nigerian government, notwithstanding
their political backgrounds and developmental orientations,
proclaimed their intention to preserve the cultural heritage
and allow for its full recognition. The National Archives, the
National Museum, the National Library and all the existing
universities have taken over the task to work on research,
restoration and preservation of the cultural heritage. Both
federal and a few state agencies working in this field are fully
supported from the federal funds. Although, a lot of work
has been done in research, systematization and preservation
of cultural heritage, much still needs to be done. There is
a need for a well established documentation on cultural
heritage, as well as a need for a well organized service for its
restoration and preservation.
The old quarter arrangement has given way to the modern
type. The traditional Yoruba Agbo ile with the adaptation
of Uwa has grossly been lost to urban development. The
influence of Christianity and education has resulted in
many of the young men refusing to participate in fetish
festival and mothers warning their daughters not to partake
in Egungun (masquerade) dances in order to forestall
negative repercussions. Preserving these quarters and
other traditional settlements would mean turning them
into fund generating entities serving as tourist institutions.
The development and proper placement of a high standard
maintenance culture, in all levels of government across the
federation is required for realistic progress. Researchers
should also be encouraged to dig deep into the details of
58
the historical past, to unravel the significance of such past

cultures to our present needs, through the arrangement of
adequate funding. Modern structural materials can be used
to stabilize the structure of the old buildings taking a cue
from the example of the Leaning Tower at Pisa in Italy
built since the 1600s. The Government should take a more
active role in the issues of urban heritage.
References:
1. Adeyemi, E.A. (1994), Alternatives Theories of House
Forms. Unpublished notes in Dept. Of Architecture,
Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria.
2. Addo, J.O. (2006), How vernacular and environment shape
an inno - native contemporary response in architecture.
Cd-rom : Proceeding of the Africa Union of Architects XXXIst
Council Meeting and West African Regional Congress, GIMPA,
Accra, Ghana
3. Akinbanjo, O & Olanrewaju, D. (2002 ), Environmental
Health and Target Audience : A Pragmatic Panacea
Alleviation in Nigeria cities in African Journal of Environmental
Studies volume 3 N0 1 & 3, p. 82-91.
4. Akintoye, S. A. (1971), Revolution and Power Politics in
Yorubaland 1840-1893, London: Longman,
5. Akuffo, S.(2006), Saving African Metropolises: Case
Study of Accra: Growing By Chance Or By Design?.
Cd-rom : Proceeding of the Africa Union of Architects XXXIst
Council Meeting and West African Regional Congress, GIMPA,
Accra, Ghana
6. Ashun, A.T. (2004), Elmina, the Castle and the Slave
trade. Accra: Nyakod Printing.
7. Bodley J. (1994), An Anthropological perspective. From
Cultural Anthropology: Tribes, States and the Global Systems
8. Conrad, P. (2005), Window in Humanity, New York;
McGraw Hill.
9. Denyer, S. (1978), African Traditional Architecture. New
York: Heinemann, p. 160-166.
10. Egenter, N. (1994), Semantic and Symbolic Architecture.
Structural Mundi: Lausanne., p. 6-12.
11. Gilbert, A & Gulger, J. ( 1994 ), Cities, Poverty and
Development: Urbanization on the Third World; Oxford
University Press, Oxford, p. 17-20.
12. Haralambos, M. Holborn, M. Heald, R.(1991)
Sociology Themes and Perspectives. Third Edition, Collins
Educational, London. (Lewis 1982).
13. Martin, A. and OMeara, E. (1995), Africa Indiana:
Indiana University Press.
14. Rapoport, A. (1969), House form and Culture.
Eaglewood Cliff, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
15. Odeyale T.O (2005), Culture and human development
city dynamics and historical development in Akure. A
paper presented at International Conference on Human
Development held at Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria.
16. Okoko, E.E. (1999), Ife Social Sciences Review; Journal
of the Faculty of Social Sciences Obafemi Awolowo
Univeristy, vol 16, No. 1, p. 113-119.
17. Olotuah A. O (1997), The House in Nigeria: The
Phenomenon of Change from the Traditional to the
Contemporary. In The House in Nigeria, Conference Proceedings
Bayo Amole (Ed) O.A.U Ile-Ife, July 23-24, p. 36-39
18. Khan, Hasan-Uddin(1998), International Style:

Modernist Architecture from 1925 to 1965, Taschen
Publishers, New York p. 7-9.
19. Osasona, C.O (2002), Transformation in the Traditional
Yoruba Dwelling: A Case Study of Ile-Ife, Journal of
Environmental Technology Volt 1 p. 1-15.
20. Palen, J.J. (1987), The Urban World. New York: McGraw
Hill, p. 7-9.
21. Scargil, R (1979), The Form of Cities, New York:
McGraw Hill
Website:
22. http://home.worldcom.ch/negenter//16
BooksOnAA_E.html (retrieved on 15 Nov. 2006)
59
Jaipur As A Recurring Renaissance

Dr. Shikha Jain
Director- Development and Research Organisation
for Nature, Arts and Heritage (DRONAH), Gurgaon
and Affiliate- Jaipur Virasat Foundation (JVF)
INTRODUCTION
The article reviews the intentions behind the renowned 18th
century Jaipur city plan and further summarises subsequent
major urban transformations within the walled city in the
19th and 20th centuries. It presents a reinterpretation of
the Jaipur plan based on earlier maps and perceptions of
historic visitors and indicates that the planning of Jaipur
needs to be understood as a process. It informs about the
changing concepts in British period that led to contrasting
approaches of modernisation and museumisation of the
walled city along with loss of certain traditional systems
a trend that continued till the post-independent period.
Finally, it concludes with the present day approach to the
walled city fabric. It describes the recent heritage initiatives
of the government, of international organisations, efforts
of local NGOs and residents participation and reaction
in the remaking of the walled city as the 21st century
Renaissance city. It also explains the process of the making
of a Heritage Plan for the city to achieve this vision.
THE 18TH CENTURY VISION
Beyond the academic debate on application of Mandala
in the grid-iron planning of 18th century Jaipur, lie two
significant facts responsible for the origin of the city and its
subsequent layout. These are: a) the need of a new capital
for Dhoondhar as the earlier one of Amber built on a hill
was getting congested and, b) Jai Singhs vision of the new
capital as a strong political statement at par with Mughal
cities and as a thriving trade and commerce hub for the
region. Subsequently, the sandy site on the plains south of
Amber and an open, clear grid iron planning of the city with
commercial streets of monumental scale can be attributed
more as a pragmatic response to the above factors as opposed
to adherence to the traditional treatise of the Vastu Shastra.
This vision was translated into a city plan that integrated
traditional planning guidelines with contemporary Mughal
architectural vocabulary and showcased a political will to
define new concepts for a trade city that became a norm for
the later towns in the adjoining Shekhawati region. The city
was truly built with extraordinary foresight and futuristic
planning and is probably the only 18th century walled city
in India that can still cater to the present day pressures of
vehicular traffic on roads.
Background - Amber had served as the capital of
Dhoondhar for several centuries and the Kachchwahas
had gained considerable significance during the Mughal
reign. During this period, the city had expanded and by
the beginning of the 18th century, it had become very
congested with no scope for expansion on the existing hilly
terrain Hence, the most obvious site for the new capital
was the valley located south of Amber and the plains
beyond, a terrain that was supposedly the bed of a dried
lake. The physical constraints that informed the building of
Jaipur have been well enumerated a number of times.i To
summarize briefly, these included the hills on the north that
housed the fort of Jaigarh and the Amber palace beyond,
60
and the hills on the east, which contained the sacred spot
of Galtaji. Beyond the depression formed by a low-lying
marshy land on the northeast, there was a slight rise of the
terrain and a ridge running from west to east inclined at
15 degrees towards North, which now exists as the main
road from Chandpol to Surajpol. On the western edge lay
the hills of Nahar Garh while the southern end was again
marked by a low hillock called Shankar Garh, which is
situated beyond the existing road.
Evolution of the Plan - The town planning principles
of Jaipur were not much different from its predecessor
cities in the region. It is its location on a plain that lead
to a practical adoption of the grid-iron pattern with wide
tree lined avenues at Jaipur- a revolutionary pattern in the
light of the earlier Rajput hill towns like Amber. The basic
plan of Jaipur was derived, by marking the loci using the
surrounding topography of the site as explained below:
a) The first step was to demarcate the centre near the
water body of Talkatora in alignment with the sacred
topography of Ganesh Garh (a temple also built by Jai
Singh) on the hills in the north. The centre or nucleus of
the city had already been established at the Jai Niwas with
the installation of the idol of Govinda Deva in 1715 AD
(Nath, R; 1996). The act of installing the Kachchwaha
deity consecrated the centre and a site was then identified
for the Chandra Mahal where Jai Singh would reside as
Lord Govind Devas minister and rule the city on his
behalf.
b) The next step was identifying the main axes of the
city. The sacred Galtaji, an important pilgrimage centre
since the 16th century located on the eastern hillock, was
another locus to be incorporated in the east-west axis.
Incidentally, this axis was aligned with the natural ridge
running at a slight angle of 15 degrees to the northeast.
Stretching in line with the foot of Nahargarh hill on the
west for about 4 km till the sand dunes on the foothill
of Galtaji, this ridge marked the main east-west axis with
Suraj Pol at the eastern end and Chand Pol at the western
end.
c) This was followed by the marking of the north-south
axis in alignment with the highest point in the north
being the Jaigarh fort (with the ancient Rama Harihar and
Kala Bhairav temples in the complex acting as religious
markers) and that in the south being the hillock of
Shankar Garh (marked by an ancient Shiva temple, which
is worshipped by the royal family till today on the day of
Mahashivratri).
The crossing of the two cardinal axes defined the main
public square of the city called the Badi Chaupar or Manak
Chowk. Since Jai Niwas, consecrated by the idol of Govind
Deva, was not just a feature to be accommodated in the
Jaipur plan but the centre for the generation of the city
plan, a road parallel to the north-south axis and situated at
an equal distance from Jai Niwas was located on the west.
This created the second town square i.e. Choti Chaupar or
Amber Chowk and effectively placed the Palace Complex
in the centre of the city. Another parallel road on the
eastern side was marked at an equal distance creating the
(i) See Roy, A K (1978) History of the Jaipur City, New Delhi.
Manohar Publications; Davar, Satish (1977) A Filigree City Spun
Out of Nothingness, Marg 30, No.4; Tillotson, G. H. R. (1999), The
Rajput Palaces, New Delhi Oxford University Press; Sachdev, Vibhuti
and Tillotson, Giles (2002), Building Jaipur: Making of an Indian City,
[1]
Marking the genius loci of the city on the terrain
[3]
Marking the north-south axis and Badi Chaupar
[2]
Marking the east-west axis on the natural ridge
[4]
Marking Govind Dev and Palace as the centre and
sub divisions on the east-west axis
Fig. 1: Evolution of the Jaipur Plan (18th century)
Ram Chowk or Ram Ganj Chaupar as the third square of

the town. Thus the east-west axis of the town was divided
by three perpendicular roads into eight portions with the
central ones of equal size and the outer ones as per the
remaining dimensions till the Chandpol in the west and
Surajpol in the east. These three squares or chaupars worked
as the centres and sub centres for further subdivision and
structuring of the Jaipur city. All important temples and

significant havelis of the leading courtiers and merchants
were marked on these squares or chaupars and along the
axes. The city was divided into seven sectors or chowkries on
either side of the axes with the eighth one in the northeast
falling in a low lying, unusable area.
61
An earlier construction plan of the city (Map No. LS/17

in the Kapad-dwara collection at the City Palace Museum,
Jaipur) shows similar centric demarcations of the chaupars
with reports on the construction progress written on
all sides of the roads and chaupars. Since this is the only
available earlier construction map of Jaipur at present, it had
been earlier assumed that the western sectors or chowkries
i.e. Purani Basti, Topkhana Desh, Visheshvarji and Modi
Khana, shown on this map, came first whereas the eastern
sectors or chowkries i.e. Topkhana Hazuri or Ghat Darwaza,
Ramchandraji and Gangapol, came up later. But LS/17 is
possibly only a part plan of the city as evident from similar
part plans of the eastern sectors or chowkries mentioned in
the Catalogue of Historical Documents in Kapad-dwara, Jaipur,
Maps and Plans specifically Plan No. 113,199, 200, 204 and
Pundrikji, Yajanshala (near Saraswati Kund), Badal Mahal,

Rajamal Ka Talab and Rajamal ki Haveli, Jaleb Chowk, Ram
Chowk, Pahad Ganj, Suraj Pol, Ram Ganj, Badi Chaupar,
Shiv Pol and Chand Pol were complete. The present plan
of the walled city of Jaipur shows seven city gates: Suraj
Pol in the east, Chand Pol in the west, Shiv Pol or Sanganeri
Gate on the north-south axis on the southern end with two
other gates i.e. Kishan Pol or Ajmeri Gate and Ram Pol or
Ghat Gate also on the southern city wall. In the northern
end it shows the Dhruv Pol or Zorawar Singh Gate and the
Ganga Pol on the north-east. Two other existing gates are
the New Gate, which was initially like a chor darwaza and
was later increased in size by Sawai Ram Singh II and, the
Char Dawarza on northeast which was a four-sided gate
built for emergencies. Brahmapuri, the Brahmin colony to
the northwest of the palace was entered through another
gate i.e. the Samrat Pol.
The main markets, shops, havelis and temples on the main
streets were constructed by the state, thus ensuring that a
uniform street facade is maintained in Jaipur. Although there
is no definite data, locals state that around 400 temples were
built in Jaipur during its planning. A K Roy (Roy; 1998)
mentions that there are more than 1000 temples of various
sizes in Jaipur with 606 within the walled city as registered
temples with the Devsthan department in 1973 . A detailed
analysis of the hierarchical layout of main temples with
reference to the city streets provides useful information
about Jaipur planning. Whether the temples were built in
the reign of Sawai Jai Singh or later, is of little relevance
Fig. 2: The Govind Dev temple still acts as the religious nucleus of the city
294. (Singh and Bahura, 1990). Besides this, the entries

in Siaha Huzur about Jai Singhs visits on Chaitra Vadi 10,
s. 1790 (19th March 1733) mention gates and markets in
the eastern sector such as Ram Pol, Ram Chowk, Pahad
Ganj, Ram Ganj, Suraj Chowk and some important havelis
indicating that the main landmarks in the eastern sectors,
at least on the major roads, had also been constructed in
the initial planning of Jaipur.ii Hence it can be inferred that
all the sectors or chowkries of Jaipur had been demarcated
initially along with the placement of major gates and
landmarks, though the infill of eastern sectors was done
much later due to difficult site conditions such as presence
of sand dunes.
Markers in the Plan - The planning of Jaipur is rooted in
the centric Indian philosophy with the temple of Govind
Deva defining the centre that lead to the genesis of the
city plan. Govinda Mahal as the centre further extended
into the political centre with the Chandra Mahal Palace
occupying an equally dominant position, thus symbolizing
the Kachchwaha rulers status as representatives of Govind
Deva. A complete matrix of sub centres was further marked
in the city by locating other temples at strategic points in a
hierarchical arrangement addressing the main deity, Govind
Deva.
In 1729 merchants were invited through despatched letters
and were given special incentives and prime location to
settle in the city. In contrast, the Rajput nobles were also
allocated land in Chowkri Topkhana Desh but they had
to pay a loan from their revenue collections. By 1732, the
construction of Govinda Mahal, Brahmapuri, Haveli of
(ii) See Bhatnagar, V.S. (2002), Life and Times of Sawai Jai Singh,
Jodhpur: Book Treasure, p. 332
62
Fig. 3: City Palace with Chandra Mahal behind
from planning perspective, as all the important temple

sites, specifically on the main commercial streets had been
marked in the Jaipur plan in his reign.iii Even today, the
important temples with shikharas can be observed at four
most important locations in the city along the cardinal axes
i.e. the Laxmi Narayan Temple at Badi Chaupar, the Rama
temple at Choti Chaupar, the Murli Manohar temple at
Ram Ganj Chaupar and the Kalka temple opposite to the
main Sireh Deodhi entrance to the Palace. It is interesting
that in all these temple, the idol is facing towards Govinda
Deva, the main deity of Jaipur. Other important temples
with shikhara are the temples on the surrounding hills such
as Surya temple, Ganesh Garh temple, Vardraja temple,
(iii) This fact was mentioned by Dr. Chandramani Singh in a discussion
and it is also evident in an earlier map of Jaipur published in Susan, Gole.
Indian Maps and Plans. Manohar publishers. New Delhi . 1989. p. 195.
The original map can be seen in the City Palace Museum, Jaipur. An
interpretations of this map has been presented in Fig. 4.
Shankar Garh temple etc. Most of the remaining temples

inside the city were built in the shikhara less, haveli temple
style. A definite hierarchy of temples and wells (both
constituting ritual spaces) can further be observed inside
the chowkries in the layout of the sectors.
Besides locating the temples, it was the land for the houses
of important nobles that was marked on the main streets
and allocated as per caste, rank and financial status. Thus the
main commercial streets of Jaipur had the primary purpose
of trade with series of equal size shops and the urban faade
was further enriched by punctures of entrances to Haveli
temples in between. The havelis ( term used for medieval
north Indian mansions belonging to nobles) of Jaipur range
from a single courtyard house form to an assemblage of
multiple courts. Majority of the havelis have one or two
Fig. 5: Plan of Chaumoo Haveli, Jaipur
Fig. 4: Reinterpretation of a 18th century Jaipur plan
courtyards. However, an increase in the status of the owner

or in the number of family members resulted in an increase
in either the scale of the haveli or the number of courtyards.
In Jaipur, the number of courtyards in a haveli may vary
from one to seven. At times a single haveli had many courts,
such as in the case of the Natani Haveli in Chhoti Chaupar,
or a complex like the Nawab ki Haveli in Tripolia Bazzar.
The location and the type of haveli were determined by the
owners social, political and financial conditions that is, the
caste, occupation and relation with the ruler.
Like the political centre at the city level, which is represented
by the City Palace, the haveli of the most influential aristocrat
is demarcated at the sector level. As in the naming of the
town, the naming of the cluster or the street is associated
with the political or religious centre and is often named
after the most influential aristocrat in the cluster. The scale
of the dwelling in the cluster established the status of
the owner. The association of a particular haveli with the
temple or well in the cluster also emphasized the status of
the owner. The paths and chowks associated with the cluster
were also named after the most influential haveli owner in the
cluster e.g. Pandit Shivdin ka raasta in Chowkri Modikhana,
Uniara Raos raasta etc. A number of dwelling units that
comprised i) caste clusters which consisted of groups of
people of the same caste and occupation, for instance the
Brahmin havelis in Brahmapuri or brass workers houses in
Thateron Ka Raasta ii) fraternal clusters comprising of

families of two or more brothers such as Bhatt Haveli in
Chowkri Modikhana iii) single family clusters consisting
of a single family and its zenana and infrastructure of
servants, for example, the Tatterkhana House in Jaipur iv)
religious clusters formed around a religious cult as in the
case of the Dadupanthi havelis. The smaller houses of the
general public were more as infill in the sectors and initially
of temporary nature as described by several foreign visitors
to the city in that period. The visitors experience in Sawai
Jai Singhs Jaipur is well documented in the narration of
Tieffenthalers visit (Tillotson; 2006) in 1750 that describes
Jaipur as a beautiful, modern open city with wide roads
that can take 6-7 vehicles in a row. He further describes
the unique water system of underground canals that was
specially devised for the water supply in the city and the
square central tanks that were located in the Badi Chaupar
and Choti Chaupar.
Dimensional Norms - In Jaipur city planning, specific
terms for measurements were used. Sawaya , a quarter
extra, is expressed in the complete planning and details of
Jaipur. Even the allotment plans of Jaipur show that the
rectangular plots reserved for special people were one quarter
extra (Singh and Bahura; 1990). Strict building by-laws were
enforced in Jaipur to control the height of building, the height
of ground floor etc. The width of the main roads was 39
gaz, iv secondary roads were half this size while the tertiary
roads were a quarter of this dimension. The width of the
square chaupars was three times that of the main street i.e.
117 gaz. Although A K Roy confirms some of these
measurements (as equivalents in feet), he states that there
were no specific rules for smaller roads. Some maps in the
Kapad-dwara mention rastas of 4 yards and 5 yards,
suggesting that the width of a smaller lane was a possible
outcome of the sites specific context, though as a norm the
sawaya would be added to the whole number. Similar sawaya
terms were used in the measurement of courtyards, plots
and rooms. A traditional mason Kalyan in Jaipur quoted
jaag sawaya kothi puni, a local Dhoondhari phrase for the
construction of a house and a well. Jaag and kothi mean
a house and a well respectively and sawaya and puni are
quantitative terms indicating a quarter extra and a quarter
(iv) Gaz is the traditional unit of measurement in India, In Jaipur planning
1 gaz = 0.838metres
63
less than the whole value. Taken in its entirety, the phrase
means that for the construction of the house, one should
entirely use dimensions that are a quarter more than a
whole number. Another traditional local mason, Lalit from
Govindgarh gave thumb rule formula for the courtyard:
teen-terah, aath-atharah (literally, 3-13 and 8-18), indicating
that the size of the court can vary from a width of 3 gaz-13
gaz and length of 8 gaz 18 gaz depending on the size of the
plot while a third mason gave actual sawaya dimensions of
courtyard for specific plot sizes.
The planning of Jaipur by Sawai Jai Singh was further
developed and monitored by his renowned counsellor
Vidyadhar. It included innovative concepts in traditional
planning guidelines along with an appropriate adaptation
of the terrain itself. This unique city plan has positioned
Jaipur as a must see city for domestic and foreign visitors
right from the 18th century onwards.
19TH CENTURY TRANSFORMATIONS WITHIN
AND BEYOND THE WALLED CITY
Influences of the British and a modern outlook of Sawai Ram
Singh II contributed to significant urban transformations
in the city in 19th century. The city extended beyond the
old city walls, adapted newer modes of transport such as
the railways with a railway station located on the western
outskirts, started using gaslights on the streets and adopted
modernised drainage and piped water supply system. There
were interesting additions in the urban fabric within the
walled city with new buildings constructed in the Indo
Saracenic vocabulary such as the Mubarak Mahal within
the Palace Complex, the Naya Mahal or Vidhan Sabha in
line with the earlier Hawa Mahal and the Rajasthan School
of Arts on the main commercial street. Most of the
construction works were carried out by the newly set up
PWD (Public Works Department). The extension outside
the walled city respected the earlier planning to an extent
and retained the principal southward axis of the Tripolia
Gate, the Palace and the central Govind Dev temple.
This axis extended into magnificent British period garden
immediately outside the walled city i.e. the Ramniwas
Bagh that was later enhanced with the visual focus of the
monumental Albert Hall Museum.
Jaipur Nama (Tillotson; 2006) provides interesting
perceptions of foreign visitors to Jaipur during this period.
A narration of the visit by Jaquemont in 1832 gives a clear
picture of the main commercial streets of Jaipur in the 19th

century.
On each side, under the arcades of the palaces and of the temples and
houses, there are the shops of the artisans, whom one can see working
at their trades almost in the open air: tailors, cobblers, goldsmiths,
armourers, pastry-cooks, confectioners, coppersmiths etc. The grain
merchants occupy quite spacious straw huts, built out of a kind of
crude trellis, which form a sort of lane down the centre of the principal
streets. These stalls are removed whenever the maharaja comes out of
his palace. Their habitual presence greatly impairs the appearance of
the city centre. They obstruct both the squares and the crossroads.
(Tillotson; 2006; p. 96)
This description reveals that temporary structures more
as encroachments existed even in those periods, which were
removed in the presence of the ruling authority. Another
interesting excerpt from Jacquemonts description of the
inner city area is:
The blocks formed by the intersection of the principal streets are
pierced by smaller ones, tortuous alleys that mostly lead to a dead end
and to small houses, the homes of the poor and the middle classes.
There is not a single one where even a bullock-cart could pass. Either
the roofs are thatched or else there are masonry roof terraces, but the
walls are always of stone, and it is this above all that gives Jaipur its
appearance of prosperity beyond any other city in India, and perhaps
even throughout Asia. (Tillotson; 2006; p. 97)
Jacquemont also comments on Jaipur as a thriving city for
trade and commerce forming trade links between north and
south-west India from places like Kashmir to Bombay as
well as between Delhi, Agra, Banaras and western Rajasthan.
Similar comments of Rousselets visit in 1866 are recorded
where he appreciates the unique layout of the city and its
cleanliness (Tillotson; 2006).
Along with the modernisation of Jaipur in terms of
infrastructure and transport, this period saw a parallel
movement of museumisation that is marked by activities
such as the Jeypore Exhibition held in the Naya Mahal
and the making of the Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural
Drawings by Swinton Jacob. Aimed to promote the
traditional arts and crafts of Jaipur, this movement at the
same time also created a distance between the modern and
the traditional. The city was distinctly marked into new and
old areas. A fact that is best described in Rudyard Kiplings
observation in 1887 - The result of the good work is that the old
and the new, the rampantly raw and the sullenly old, stand cheek-byjowl in startling contrast. Thus, the branded bull trips over the rails of
a steel tramway which brings out the citys rubbish, and the painted
bullock cart catches its primitive wheel in the cast-iron gas lamp post.
(Tillotson; 2006; p. 168)
This was the beginning of stark contrasts both in the urban
fabric and in the social lifestyle that has further increased
with time and can be observed in most traditional Indian
cities today. Though technological advancements and
facilities such as piped water supply were inevitable with
the changing times, they did result in a simultaneous loss
of the traditional water network such as the underground
canals and tanks within the city.
20TH CENTURY AND THE POST INDEPENDENCE
SCENARIO JAIPUR AS THE STATE CAPITAL
Fig. 6: Mubarak Mahal in the City Palace Complex with Indo-Saracenic

vocabulary
64
The 20th century observed further modernisation and

urban renovations within the walled city, pioneered by
the famous Mirza Ismail who was appointed as the Prime
Fig. 7: View of Mirza Ismail Road outside the walled city
Fig. 9: A commercial street view
Minister of Jaipur in the early 20th century. A number of

new colonies such as the Bani Park came outside the walled
city. The ritual of closing the city gates at night followed
since the making of the city was stopped in 1923 due to
inconvenience caused to travellers arriving late night from
the Railway station. Living outside the historic city walls
became a fashion, also evidenced in the rulers lifestyle as
Sawai Man Singh II finally moved out of the City Palace
to stay in the Ram Bagh Palace on the southern outskirts
in the 1940s. Nobles emulated this trend and moved from
their havelis into grand British style bungalows such as the
Chaumoo House, Nayla House etc. built outside the walled
city. A number of renovations within the walled city under
Mirza Ismail included the restoration work of the city walls
and gates and, converting the inner temporary houses in the
sectors into more permanent structures. A detailed study
of the inner layout of a chowkri or sector clearly shows
While the local elite adapted western values and lifestyle at

a fast pace, the international visitors continued to glorify
the traditional and historic city. Probably, it is this tourism
potential of Jaipur that has helped the city to maintain both
its urban fabric to an extent and to continue its traditional
arts and crafts. It still functions as a flourishing trade centre
for Rajasthan in gems, jewellery, marble and local crafts
work such as textiles, footwear etc. and the wide commercial
streets of the walled city cater well to the increasing flux
of tourists. However, the inside fabric of the city is slowly
getting lost as the local residents find more economic gains
and comfort in converting their residences to commercial
spaces equipped with modern facilities.
WALLED CITY AS LIVING HERITAGE GLOBAL
APPROACH AND LOCAL CONFLICTS
Since the inception of Jaipur, it has been an international
tourist destination and its unique planning has fascinated
many researchers, academicians and urban planners. These
Fig. 8: Plan of Chaumoo haouse located outside city walls
the urban morphology as more organised in the peripheral

areas facing the commercial streets and informal in the
inside lanes.
Immediately after independence, the unique open planning
of Jaipur city played a crucial role in the selection of Jaipur
as the capital of Rajasthan State. This positioning of the
city further strengthened its earlier potential for trade and
tourism with additions of a number of hotels to cater to
the increasing flux of national and international visitors to
Jaipur. The Rambagh Palace, the then abode of the ruler,
pioneered the concept of heritage hotels in Rajasthan state.
Fig. 10: Condition in the inner sector or chowkri

65
Table 1 Conservation and Urban Renewal Initiatives in Jaipur since 1971

S. No.
Walled City Renewal

Initiatives
Master Plan Proposal

with Specific Heritage
Development Works
Year
Organisation Responsible
1971
JDA (Jaipur Development

Authority)
No enforcement of works listed

in the Master Plan
Identified 300 buildings for

conservation, but due to lack
of legislation, some of them
have totally changed or are
demolished.
Study of Heritage Buildings

within walled city
1985
Ford Foundation and JDA
Conservation and Restoration

works on heritage structures
1995
Avas Vikas Sansthan and

Department of Tourism
1998
JDA
Few works in process
Operation Pink, removal

of encroachments in main
commercial streets of the
walled city
2001
JMC (Jaipur Municipal

Corporation)
Successfully executed at that time
Heritage walk in the Chowkri

Modikhana
2001
INTACH and JVF
The Asian Development

Bank project of infrastructure
- Reuse of wells and repair
work in the walled city/
installation of sewage pipes
2001
ADB & JMC
Multi-storeyed parking
options within walled city
2002
JMC, JDA and CTP

(Country and Town
Planning)
Does not involve conservation

professionals and proposed
design might be a threat to the
historic fabric
Jaipur Heritage International

Festival
2003
JVF
Successfully continuing and now

has UNESCO endorsement
10
A revitalization proposal for

Chowkri Modikhana
2004
Asia Urbs
Well researched and documented

but not executed because of lack
of cooperation from JMC.
Master Plan -2011 addressing

needs of the walled city.
factors have increasingly put pressure for the conservation

and sustenance of this historic city. Moreover, recent trends
in heritage conservation globally, visits of international
celebrities such as President Clinton in 2001 and Prince
Charles in 2006, as well as central urban renewal incentives
such as JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban
Renewal Mission) have revived the local administrations
interest in the conservation of the walled city. A number of
conservation initiatives for the walled city have been taken
by international organisations, NGOs and local government
authorities since Jaipur became the capital of Rajasthan.
These are briefly enumerated in Table 1.
More recent initiatives by Government of Rajasthan since
2005 include conservation of city gates, Amber Palace,
Jaleb Chowk in City Palace and Ghat Ki Guni heritage zone,
lighting of several monuments, making of Heritage Acts
and Laws and Empanelment of Conservation Architects
66
Outcome
Proposals were made but there

was no implementation
Walks are still continued by JVF

but infrastructure conditions in
the walk area have become worse
Some works were executed but
not effectively
to prepare Conservation Proposals for Grade I and Grade

II monuments.
Though several heritage initiatives for the renewal of walled
city have been taken up by the government, NGOs and
private sector but they are piecemeal and uncoordinated.
These initiatives involve multiple agencies participation
with no hierarchical boundaries. Hence, even despite some
commendable initiatives:
There is no authentic Heritage Register of all heritage
properties of Jaipur till date.
The ground conditions have worsened in the walled
city with encroachments, congestion, poor solid waste
management etc.
There is no nodal agency for Heritage Conservation
and Management
The economy of Jaipur today relies heavily on heritage

tourism and cultural industries with at least 30 percent of
Jaipurs population living and working in heritage structures
within the walled city. This historic core spread in an area of
6.7 sq km now has the highest density of 58207 persons/
per sq km. Around 3000 tourists visit the city everyday.
While the residents of the historic cities vie for modern
facilities and architecture and often emulate the newer city
architecture in the confines of their historic setting, the
tourist continues to search for the authentic historic fabric
and traditional setting.
REINTERPRETING JAIPUR AND THE MAKING
OF A HERITAGE PLAN
The increasing tourist and local pressures in historic
Jaipur and the inefficacy of continual conservation
efforts by multiple organisations have finally lead to the
formulation of JHERICO (Jaipur Heritage Committee)
that includes government organisations such as the Jaipur
Municipal Corporation, Jaipur Heritage Development
and Management Authority, Department of Art and
Archaeology and NGOs such as Jaipur Virasat Foundation.
Fig. 12: Building the Heritage Register as per typology
Fig. 13: Building the Heritage Register as per typology
Fig. 11: Craftsmen working in the inner sectors
The committee is in the process of

making a Heritage Plan for Jaipur city
that proposes to review the historic fabric
of the city and integrates the 18th century
unique planning of Sawai Jai Singhs Jaipur
to the 21st Century Renaissance Vision of
the local residents and NGOs. To fulfil this
intention it takes into account not only the
historic city planning but also its adaptation
to the present trends within the walled city
mainly - migration of upper class, changing
landuse from residential to commercial,
deterioration of historic fabric and lack
of infrastructure and management. It
intends to translate the Heritage Vision
for Jaipur into policies for site operations,
suggest strategies at planning level and
project level, identify the priority areas as
per heritage significance and funding and
provide direction to move with a particular
focus.
The plan emphasizes on a people based
approach and relies on feedback of experts,
residents and visitors for finalisation. It also
realises that effective implementation is only
possible with support of interest groups
in the city of Jaipur and devises strategies
where implementation is not totally
dependent on government authorities
but can be initiated by local residents and
NGOs. It is formed as a living document
that will be reviewed regularly and will
be revised every two years. The Heritage
Plan of Jaipur distinctly categorises the
present day heritage resources and heritage
managers for Jaipur city and outlines
the heritage objectives. Besides policies
for data collection and documentation,
conservation
and
urban
renewal,
interpretation and heritage awareness and
heritage valuation, it presents an action
plan that identifies planning level and
67
PLAN PROCESS-DERIVING URBAN CONTROLS
SHIKHARA TYPE
Shikhara Temple at
Chaupar
No permanent
additions in front
facade
Facade to be restored
in its form
HAVELI TYPE 1
Haveli Temples on main
streets-Type 1
Central and side chatris
to be retained and not
allowed to cover except
with jalis as approved
The symmetry of
openings to be retained
with no addtions
HAVELI TYPE 2
streets-Type 2
No permanent additions in front
facade
HAVELI TYPE 3
streets-Type 3
No permanent additions
in front facade
No signage or hoardings will be

permitted on the facade
No signage or hoardings
except name of temple in
specified format will be
permitted on the facade
Facade to be restored in
its original form using
materials as specified in
the conservation toolkit
Facade to be restored in its original

form using materials as specified in
the JHERICO conservation toolkit
Facade to be restored in
its original form using
materials as specified
in the JHERICO
consevation toolkit
Fig. 14: Evolving urban controls for the city
project level activities for the heritage resources namely,

heritage sites outside the walled city, walled city fabric,
cultural heritage, archeological/archival heritage and the
natural heritage of Jaipur. It analyses the relevance of each
within the contextual framework of ownership, heritage
significance and economic potential.
Besides the policy framework and an action plan, it also aims
to build a comprehensive heritage register of all typologies
and evolve heritage guidelines and byelaws for each type.
Whether the plan document will be realized in part or whole
on site is difficult to say but nevertheless, it is an ambitious
attempt to reinterpret the historic core of Jaipur and adapt
it to the present urban pressures. It is a collaborative effort
of the residents, visitors and heritage managers of the city
to rebuild it into a 21st century renaissance city keeping in
mind two basic ingredients that lead to the making of the
18th century Jaipur a great urban vision and flourishing
trade and economy to realize and sustain the vision.
References:
1. Asher, Catherine (2000), Mapping Hindu Muslim
Identities through the Architecture of Shahjahanbad and
Jaipur in Gilmartin et al (eds.), Beyond Turk and Hindu:
Rethinking Religious Identitites in Islamitic South Asia,
University of Florida Press, Gainesville
2. Bahura, G. N. (1978) Ramvilaskavyam, City Palace
Museum, Jaipur
3. Bhatnagar, V. S., (2002), Life and Times of Sawai Jai
Singh, Jodhpur: Book Treasure, p.332
4. Gole, Susan (1989), Maps and Plans of India, Manohar
Publishers, Delhi
68
5. Jain, Shikha, (2004), Havelis: A Living Tradition of

Rajasthan, Shubhi Publications, Gurgaon
6. Jain, Shikha (ed), (2005), Princely Terrain: Amber, Jaipur
and Shekhawati, Shubhi Publications, Gurgaon
7. Nath, Aman (1996) Jaipur, The Last Destination, I B
Tauris & Co. Ltd.
8. Nath, R. (1996), Sri Govindadevas itinerary from
Vrindavana to Jayapura c. 1534-1727 in Case, Margaret (ed),
Govindadeva: a Dialogue in Stone, IGNCA Publications,
New Delhi
9. Roy, A K. (1978) History of the Jaipur City, Manohar
Publications, New Delhi.
10. Parikh, Nandkishore (1984) Rajmahal aur Raniwas
(Hindi), Rajasthan Patrika, Jaipur
11. Sarkar, Jadunath (1984) A History of Jaipur, Manohar
Publications, New Delhi.
12. Singh, Chandramani and Bahura, G. N. (1990), Catalogue
of Historical Documents in Kapad-dwara, Maps and Plans,
City Palace Museum, Jaipur
13. Sachdev, Vibhuti and Giles Tillotson, (2001), Building
Jaipur: Making of an Indian City, Reaktion Books, London
14. Tillotson, Giles (2006), Jaipur Nama: Tales from the Pink
City, Penguin Books, New Delhi
Linking Heritage And Development

Practices
INTBAU India
The following panel discussion, held on 13th January 2007
as part of the sub theme on New Ways of Looking at
Heritage during the International Conference on the
Development of Indian Traditions was an attempt to
anchor ideas with their implementation on policy formation
and linkages with the government. A discussion on how
innovative practices towards both tangible and intangible
heritage contribute to sustainable forms of development was
held. The role of culture as a resource for development of
tourism, arts and crafts was discussed. The role of heritage
as a locus for community participation and empowerment
was also pondered upon. Overall, there was an attempt to
understand who owns heritage- the intellectual property
rights, the means of representation and how a place comes
to be called ones own.
The Panelists
Richard Engelhardt (Chair of the session)
Regional Advisor for Culture in Asia and the Pacific,
UNESCO, Bangkok
Debashish Nayak
Advisor- Heritage Cell,
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation
Gurmeet Rai
Director,
Cultural Resource Conservation Initiative
Shrashtant Patara
The Shelter Group,
Development Alternatives
Aruna Paul Simittrarachhi
Regional Program Advisor for the South Asian Countries,
Habitat for Humanity International
Richard Engelhardt:
We are examining two streams, out of which one is process,
i.e. how do we go about doing things, and how the process
itself becomes the end. There is never an end to culture
because culture is a continuing factor. But we are embedded
in the process all the time, though it needs to move forward
and be amended if on the wrong track. We cannot put our
mind steadfastly on a fixed goal and declare failure if that
goal moves, as culture is a moving target. Therefore, we want
to think about process along with sustainability. These have
been our two tracks, i.e. sustainability and development
and heritages contribution to process.
It seems we are embedded in this paradigm shift or in fact
we are engendering a paradigm shift. We are moving away
from a bi-polar thinking of heritage or development, of
new or traditional. A bi-polar model was something received
from the past but is in fact modernism. A bi-polar way of
viewing the world is a modern philosophical concept. In
fact the post modern era that we are embedded in, or at
the fag end of, is characterised by a reintegration of culture
and environment. In fact, the World Heritage Convention,
which set the framework for global heritage conservation,
was the first international instrument of the post modern
era. And it facilitated this embedding together of culture

and development. This has become the mantra of what
we are doing with heritage as embedded in sustainable
environmental concerns. Thus rose the idea of sustainable
development and heritage being not just a component but an
anchor for sustainable development. So from this perspective,
I would request the panelists to provide some provocative
observations and suggest ways of moving ahead.
Debashish Nayak:
From the beginning we realised that we have beautiful and
fantastic cities. The question is on what we do with them
and how to connect this process to the mainstream, and
secondly on how to get people to accept any such initiative
in a much broader way. Subsequently, 10 years ago, we
decided to empower the municipal corporation, as this
organisation possesses a broader network to reach people,
and is run by democratically elected representatives. This
was one way of connecting with people and involving them
in the decision making process. In a number of places where
we started work, one of the predominant questions among
the community was on the definition of heritage and why a
particular building should not be pulled down. People also have
this very limiting idea that heritage is only built, and the fact
that it goes beyond built form is not generally understood. To
make citizens understand the meaning of heritage and how it
impacts their day to day lives has been a struggle. This starts
from their eating habits, crafts, and lifestyle and eventually how
this reflects on their building practices.
The question of how to link heritage with development
depends on how we lead or upgrade our living status and
situations. Fortunately, for the last few years, the Government
has been advocating the agenda of the JNNURM, which in
fact provides a complete toolkit for heritage conservation
on its website.
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, a progressive body,
appreciated our previous work and invited us to set up a
heritage cell. It was an interesting challenge to create within
the regular municipal structure a special context from where
to initiate heritage related work. While working on this, it was
realized that it isnt important to just make laws- INTACH
was founded in 1984, listing of heritage regulations was
carried out in Bombay, and in Delhi, heritage walks were
initiated. Instead, there was a need to put together the various
components in a way that connected directly with people,
made them conscious of what they have and what they want.
This was because it was realised while working in Ahmedabad
and other cities, that even though people live in their cities,
they dont know their cities. It was thus decided to initiate
a programme of heritage walks, as exists all over the world,
including Delhi. These walks were started to act as catalysts
for the initiative. They were promoted through the municipal
corporation so as to integrate them into the agencys primary
developmental agenda. In Ahmedabad, this project has been
very successful for the last ten years, and every morning, a
group of volunteers take people on walks around the city.
The walk tries to connect the different cultures and forces
existing in the city. For instance, one typical walk would begin
from a temple and end at a mosque. Through this process,
one realized that there were around 60,000 properties worth
looking at, with 15,000 of these having now been listed as
heritage properties.
In the matters of finance, there are various levels of funding.
Possibility of help from HUDCO was difficult, as housing
69
finance companies give loans for repair of buildings that

are only less than 15 years old. But after following up with
HUDCO for 5 years, they were finally convinced to provide
loans for older properties. This was albeit at a higher rate
of interest at 3%. The municipal corporation now provides
free consultation to people on how to get their properties
restored. But this was only one side of the coin, as convincing
people to get their buildings restored was a separate matter.
Ultimately, it was realised that people were actually getting
the interiors renovated, namely the toilets, kitchens and the
bedrooms, thus almost planning the heritage structures anew.
People are also very unsure about conservation as they feel
that the government might snatch away their property if
declared of heritage value. So it took a long time and effort,
but ultimately, the people in the relatively progressive state
of Gujarat, finally realised the benefits of restoring their
heritage properties. By now almost a hundred buildings have
been restored, and many are big projects enlisting community
level fund raising.
Many other cities are also recognising the efforts in
Ahmedabad. Many people are now convinced on and
appreciate the basic benefits of this process. Initially,
heritage wasnt talked about, and no heritage law was
published, leading to politicians not accepting this approach.
But later, special measures like the Municipal Corporation
reducing the floor space index and other incentives like
lower taxes for older buildings were brought in. These were
brought in gradually over a 5-6 year period. Bit by bit, we
introduced different legal procedures and also convinced
people on the need for conserving heritage. The media also
played a very important role in writing about heritage from
time to time. Thus, it is a continuous process and the success
of our effort lies in linking heritage with peoples everyday
needs. It is also very important to link the enhancement of
peoples own prestige with the development of their heritage
building.
Richard Engelhardt:
The challenge emerging from the above description focuses
on how to embed heritage conservation issues in government
policies. Heritage conservation and the continuance of
evolved knowledge as embedded in heritage, traditions and
society cannot be sacrificed if sustainable development is to
be achieved. Countries as diverse as China and Bhutan are
embedding this into their policies. Everyone must be aware
of Bhutans Gross National Happiness Indicators which
make the direct connection that heritage conservation
equals sustainable development equals good governance.
Just last year, China also issued a new set of sustainable
development guidelines as a checklist.
Debashish Nayak:
At the end of the day people need to see concrete, brick
and mortar work to restore buildings or structures. There
is also a need to have community participation in accepting
that effort. In Japan, there exists a governmental process
guiding communities to form a group. They are then given
general guidelines for their evolution and are entitled to hire a
government paid expert to plan for them. In Taiwan as well,
master planning process encourage the community to do the
same thing. The professional thus continuously coordinates
between the day to day activities and their integration in the
main planning process. The integration of these two levels
is vital.
70
In Ahmedabad there are 600 neighbourhoods and it was

realized that 120 of these were clean and well maintained;
while in others the quality of life was deteriorating. The
reason for the maintenance of these neighbourhoods was the
adoption of the old Indian tradition of a Panchayat, where
a group of five people manage and administer the day to day
activities of the community. So we mapped and recreated
this management process in the other neighbourhoods as
well to examine where it works and where it doesnt. The
politicians did not appreciate this though and were scared
of this people-empowerment process. This linking of the
community with planning projects is an important process
helping in developmental efforts.
Shrashtant Patara:
I can offer a contrary view to the whole discussion. As Richard
mentioned, there may already be a paradigm shift taking place
in terms of how we understand issues of conservation of
heritage and how we link them to developmental practice
and good governance.
This example shows what we face on a day to day basis.
Our organisation does a lot of work in the Bundelkhand
region, especially Orchha, which is a historical town lying
somewhere in between Jhansi and Khajuraho. We are a group
of architects, engineers and sociologists, who are trying to
work with the local community to enable them to not only
conserve, but capitalise on their heritage. This was much more
difficult than when we were called upon by the Municipal
Corporation of Orchha, to take up certain initiatives. This
was because, being a municipality, it is much easier for them
to decide, for e.g. on whether theyd like a market or a bus
stop developed in a stylistically linked fashion.
There is a desire in the professional community to do
something with the somewhat interested community, but
with a total lack of resources or empowerment to put those
intentions into practice. In comparison, a municipality can
act much faster. Our work has mainly been to see how 3
simple development goals can be fulfilled in poor and rural
communities. One is the goal for income, not necessarily
from a regular job but only livelihood security. The second is
a desire for a clean and healthy environment and the third is
a desire for social empowerment that gets vocalised through
access to education.
Looking at these three goals and identifying how heritage can
play a role in development practices, we see the following:
Heritage is a real source of ideas, traditional knowledge,
inspiration and references of skills that people have. More
importantly, heritage is also a platform and opportunity
because of the renewed interest in heritage rich areas, to
create the resources that we need to accelerate sustainable
community development. Heritage is a major opportunity for
pushing faster various aspects of community development.
Once the importance of heritage is realised, a few important
questions come to the fore. Are we looking at peoples
strengths or is it a problem? The problem-solution, needresponse paradigm is being questioned. The first thing is
to unearth strengths and identify the kind of initiatives
which can be launched on these strengths. Examples of
these strengths include traditional knowledge and skills
or solidarity of the community which can form the basis
of action. We start with strengthening local institutions like
the womens group or the village as a whole, and look for
the inbuilt solidarity which, once brought on surface, can be
the basis of action.
There is a very strong human dimension to this, as this is

basically about people and what they can do. This leads us
to the question of ownership in launching a sustainable
community development process. Are the people who
embody the heritage being made the shareholders, not stake
holders- which is a soft term and easy to use? If you look
at a typical heritage building being turned into a hotel, then
there will be a desire among the people who are investing
to own the asset. But a distinction can be made between the
asset and what is happening. The question here is, are the
people being made actual shareholders and are they the actual
decision makers? There is an infinite number of possibilities
that open up once you look at these potential strengths and
examine the question of ownership.
interesting thing is that it is focusing on the issue of strengths

and looking at heritage as a knowledge resource. Every
magazine, whether it is the Economist, India Today or Forbes
talks about knowledge and information as the most valuable
commodities for development in the 21st century.
Richard Engelhardt:
We as practitioners only practice from one project to

another and dont find time to examine whether a theoretical
framework informs our work. Heritage and Development are
two processes happening in parallel, one being internal and
the other, external. And as a conservation professional, on
entering a particular situation, the external aspect involves the
measurable output according to which the work is going to
be judged. The internal process is based on peoples culture,
memory and history which is etched in their DNA.
That is exactly what we should be thinking and the directions

that we should be looking at. As architects and urban planners
there are new skills to be learnt as we have a very different
shareholder base than clients who have been trained to be
served.
Aruna Paul Simittrarachhi:
When we talk about development practices, we need to
turn back to ourselves and ask what the assumptions, the
presumptions and the beliefs we have about development.
How appreciative are we of the gifts that each person
possesses, because every person is born with a gift to share.
Are we convinced of this idea, and can we take steps, so that
the skills of the person grow and the community grows along
with him. For e.g. in rural areas, communities like the potter
community are neglected and considered untouchables.
There are other communities under the schedule castes who
are neglected too. These people possess many skills in terms
of construction techniques and traditional practices but they
are still neglected and looked down upon.
On approaching a community who used bamboo extensively,
we realised that they did not appreciate its value and their
own skills. They were not aware that bamboo is strong and
renewable, and is therefore to be appreciated as a building
material. Even in English we use the word tatty for bamboo
walls, which is not an appreciative word, thus creating a bad
mental image. Therefore, we have yet to accept the riches
within the communities and the people. By Heritage, we mean
the values, the beliefs, the richness of a culture, and how we
can tap these resources for development.
Unless the people are involved in the struggle of overcoming
a problem, they will never overcome it. While talking about
growth, development, sustainability, only the true involvement
of people can make things happen. Therefore, process should
concentrate on exploring the talents of each person and on
exposing him to a world of knowledge. All the religions have
talked about vidya and avidya, about ignorance leading to a
persons downfall. In India, as we have so many heritages,
culture and richness of tradition, how far are we going to help
people realise the importance of cultivating and developing
these. Our organisation is trying to work with small groups,
like the micro finance groups and illiterate groups by helping
them understand, read and write, and move forward for their
own development.
Richard Engelhardt:
There is consensus evolving out of this discussion and the
A friend of mine once said that the important thing to

understand about culture as a resource is that it is accessible
to everyone and cultural knowledge is evenly distributed and
cannot be monopolised by any particular group. So when we
are looking at universal development and issues of poverty
eradication, we have to look at the knowledge resources
embedded in our heritage.
Gurmeet Rai:
As Leon Krier mentioned, while working on a particular site,

people come and talk to us about their traditions and feelings
for their heritage. These people who get drawn here are usually
the most vulnerable segment of the society. In our experience
of working at unprotected monuments, it is the youth, people
without jobs, women and children who come and hang around
the site. Therefore, when looked at in this manner, heritage
conservation can actually be a tool for healing in the present
day. How can this internal get institutionalized in the external
process? Initially, it was only the department of archaeology
and the Ministry of Culture that one was interacting with to
make any heritage project happen. But over the years, there
has been a change and there are now, many more resources
for the projects through the tourism ministry.
The next step would be to move towards urban and rural
development with heritage consciousness as part of it and
to put a framework in place to institutionalise the internal
process. We have world heritage cities all over the world
except in India and the reason is because we havent taken
our heritage development and conservation sensitive to our
cultural traditions into the urban framework. So when the
world heritage society turns around and says that we realise
that India has a lot of heritage but how are you going to
manage it we really dont have any answers because we are
still working with tools that are hundred years old, developed
by the colonisers and they really need to be reworked so that
they can be appropriate to the present day context.
I would urge INTBAU, The Nabha Foundation and
practitioners to actually look at one town and Nabha could be
a starting point. Thus, we can actually translate our concerns
of the internal and the external processes within the current
legal framework, and make a plan for Nabha to see how we
can link heritage with development.
Richard Engelhardt:
The Enquiry by Design tool seems an interesting way to
structure this. Many of us who have worked in educational
institutes all our lives, are sometimes at loss at not having a
structure to help us deal with such issues.
71
To follow on with what Gurmeet Rai said about heritage

conservation touching the most vulnerable sections of the
society, this is always a big problem for the developmental
agencies. How does one approach the pockets of vulnerability?
One can develop people who are already developed pretty
easily, but people who have fallen through the holes are
extremely difficulty to get at surgically. In terms of healing,
I would like quote an example from my work at the Security
Council, when we were dealing with the Cambodian peace
process. The four contending factions of the Khmer Rouge
would just not talk to each other and would also not come
to the table. Once, while sitting with the Prince, who later
became king, I expressed my wish to be actually conserving
Angkor Vat. The Prince jumped at the idea and expressed
that this could be made a platform for our dialogue. This
happened and the four factions came to the table and for
the first time a dialogue took place. The ceasefire followed
along with the demobilisation of the troops subsequently.
Most of the men in the country were in the army and after
demobilisation, didnt know what to do. So we provided
them jobs at Angkor, where they did all sorts of work from
gardening, conservation to acting as tourist guides etc. This
resulted into Angkor Vat becoming the driver of Cambodias
economy and it lifted it out of economic disaster. Not only
has Angkor become the biggest conservation work site in
the world, but is also the largest economic spinner as a single
monument in the world. This is an example of up scaling
conservation issues to the national level and the impact they
can possibly have.
OPEN HOUSE
Matthew Hardy:
The Enquiry by Design process, is the trademark of
the Princes Foundation, INTBAUs sister organisation.
INTBAU uses a similar community based approach, terming
it design workshops. Both the methods are very similar to
the Charrette method which is use in the United States.
Therefore, it is something on which a lot of organizations are
working on as a consultative community based approach.
Naresh Karmalker:
Identifying the meaning of heritage beyond the buildings
and structures, and examining community inheritances and
traditions sounds very interesting. This brings me to the area
of work called the Official Level Enquiry. It has been around
for 20 years or more and has been very effective in pushing
urban revival. As Shrashtant Patara mentioned, it is important
to find what gives people pleasure and excitement in the
place they live. What are those heritages that they are proud
of and what do they want to conserve? And the moment
this heritage dialogue is widened from just the structure, it
encompasses everything. And when the community backs
this, it make all the difference.
Currently, this seems to be divided. On one hand are the
government sponsored and backed conservation projects
which look at monuments etc. These end up in a wonderful
state of renovation, but with a huge entry fee where locals
dont have access. On the other hand, in a community
led, community owned and community desired initiative,
it is a completely different story. This is possible despite
the long processes required to work with the community.
For e.g., in Mumbai, when we were working in solid waste
72
management 10 years ago, we came upon this concept of a

street community, called Advanced Locality Management.
While there are thousands of street communities, for the
purpose of conservation, it is still a small group which could
be talked to about heritage. Therefore, besides the elite large
scale conservation projects looking at heritage at that scale,
these small groups could work on heritage along with their
existing concerns of garbage control and street lighting.
There is therefore a need for inclusiveness for all, and
conservation architects and other professionals need to
upgrade their skills in creating an atmosphere where people
can take pride in what they have, their traditions and be
empowered to own these. This is the only sustainable way
we have seen that one can bring about change.
Ashutosh Sohoni:
A couple of issues common to the creation of the heritage
buildings and reflected in the heritage process are Patronage
and Political ideology. None of the architecture of the
cities comes up without being influenced by these. Patronage
and Political ideology have influenced the creation of all
things. How do we explain the role of these factors in the
heritage process? How do we raise patronage, who could
be the patrons and how can we facilitate patronage? Unless
we can find an answer to this question, I dont believe this
process is moving ahead.
Debashish Nayak:
In answering the above, I would remember our bumping into
the term Patronised development. A few months back,
when we went to survey some of the restored buildings in
Ahmedabad, we noticed a drastic improvement in the total
well being of the families. In every family there was a change
for the better, whether in terms of getting a job, being able
to rent out a part of the house, admissions in good schools
or colleges, etc. Another thing that we observed was that
the community had became much stronger. Earlier people
had started leaving the old city of Ahmedabad, having given
up on it. But pursuant to the starting of the restoration and
conservation work, and media attention which accompanied
it, people began to realise their own power. They formed
groups and came to the Heritage cell for technical assistance.
In fact the first community project there was supported by
The World Development Fund. It was a one-to-one project
i.e. the community would put one rupee and one rupee would
be contributed by the organization. This worked quite well,
and interestingly in one instance, on a very dilapidated house.
People were delighted at this possibility of restoring their
houses, and didnt want to leave their old structures anymore.
Currently in fact, the number of people coming to the fore
to get their buildings restored is so huge that it is becoming
quite difficult to reach everyone. But that is a separate issue.
The most important achievement has been the building of
faith which the community achieved within itself, which one
never thought possible earlier.
Even in Calcutta, there are around 400 palaces and originally,
none of the incumbent families knew each other. When the
heritage movement started there, instead of attending political
party meetings, which are very important and well organised
in Calcutta, the people instead chose to attend heritage
meetings. Today, every family in north Calcutta, a heritage
zone, know each other and are doing their own meetings,
working with the municipality, doing restoration and jointly
managing litigation matters. Heritages biggest achievement
can be to bring people together as a community, rebuilding

their faith in themselves and empower themselves.
is taken up, it will take the cause of sustainability, heritage

and responsible development a lot further.
Shrashtant Patara:
Richard Engelhardt:
The issue of patronage is quite challenging, in terms of

what it has brought to the heritage process. According to
me, patrons bring vision and resources to a project, and
help set up a process to get things going. Good patrons also
bring about a measure of accountability to the process. Now
whether this is ultimately a positive or negative influence is
not for me to say, but in my personal opinion, there should
be no need for patronage. There is a way out, particularly in
context with this discussion, where we are linking heritage
with development. In Development, almost by definition,
one has an external change agent coming into the process.
The processes that the external change agent sets up could
ensure that the community develops a vision and generates
resources, although it did not uptil now. But there is no reason
why a community, which is strong and united, could not raise
investment for whatever they wished. An external change
agent could also set up a process that is robust and bring in
accountability. Therefore, in my opinion, we must look at all
the functions that a good patron performs, and see whether
in development practice, those same project functions can
be fulfilled from within the community itself.
This discussion has produced a wonderful convergence of

ideas and has certainly consolidated the past ten years of
a definite paradigm shift in the understanding of heritage,
where it can be found, its uses, culture and the seamless nature
of this heritage from the past into the present. Heritage is
a living resource for future development and this paradigm
shift shows that whereas in the past, heritage was a purview
of the politician, it has now become the responsibility as well
as the prerogative of every person.
Richard Engelhardt:
In a democratic and contemporary society, the government
functions as a patron through the tax structure and
reinvestment in the democratic structure, for e.,g. in the
making of schools, hospitals, concert halls and public parks,
etc. which were privately initiated in earlier times.
Pushpa Arabindoo:
There is a problematic interface between heritage and
development in talking about the issue of encroachments.
There is no way to say that we have to remove encroachments
to make monuments visible or accessible. So the question is
how you deal with encroachments with regards to heritage so
that they dont continue to be problematic to each other?
Richard Engelhardt:
This is reverting to the issue of good governance.
Takahiro Noguchi:
The urban culture has been contesting for space post
modernity. And the notion that culture is a resource for
development is really a big paradigm shift. It has not been
properly thought about, theorised or studied because the
ramifications are still quite new. And it is important for the
all the practitioners to explore the impact of this shift, its
meaning and possibly its pitfalls.
Nimish Patel:
Ashutosh has brought up a very significant point about
patronage. To me, every single one of us is a potential patron.
We need to look at the definition of resources differently.
Patronage of resources does not necessarily mean finances
and each one of us is in a position to support a cause, whether
big or small. Therefore the exchange of money is not the
main point. Patronage has a very large definition and it is the
one tool that we have missed out on. And if such patronage
73
New Ways of Looking at Heritage:

Contextual Framework
Heritage- A Key Resource For

Sustainable Development:
An International Perspective
Minja Yang
Director- UNESCO office in New Delhi
This article explores the meaning behind urban patterns,
natural heritage and the interface between nature and the
culture of the residents through the initiatives taken up
by UNESCO in India. These projects fall in the realm of
urban conservation for development, the first one being
a network established at the initiative of UNESCO with
the support of the Ministry of Urban Development of the
Government of India. The Network of Indian Cities of
Living Heritage was launched in September 2006 with an
inaugural conference at Jaipur, in collaboration with the
Jaipur Virasat Foundation and the Urban Development
Department of Rajasthan.
the States of India refer to urban heritage. This has

made it one of UNESCOs objectives for India, to adopt
a legal definition of heritage that goes beyond monuments
the grand architectural masterworks of religious, royal or
official nature. One also needs to add here, the fact that
buildings of vernacular architecture- of which there are
many in India, given its vast geographical area and varying
physical and climatic features- are not legally protected
as heritage. This amounts to saying that history is only
made of what rulers, soldiers and the religious order have
done, and ignoring the role of the common people like
the farmers, fishermen, the craftspeople, the merchants,
the industrial workers etc. Protection of the built heritage
of India must include what makes India exceptional- or
credibly incredible. UNESCO defines culture in all its form,
as a way of life, and needless to say, the diversity of the
Indian population makes its culture truly incredible. Why
lose it?
The genesis of this network was to seize the opportunity

of the dynamics being created as a result of the Jawaharlal
Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) under
which substantial funds are being made available for sixty
three cities, of which ten are to be heritage cities. Why
designate just ten as heritage cities when heritage exists in
all the cities? All cities should benefit from the upgrading
of urban infrastructure and, at the same time be able to
valorise their heritage through this Mission. The intent
was to meet the challenge of guiding Indian cities into the
21st century by demonstrating, through concrete examples,
how a city can become a vibrant urban centre with all the
modern infrastructure and amenities while maintaining the
wealth of its heritage, the wisdom and memories of its
past. Showing how traditional is modern, and heritage
is contemporary, is UNESCOs aim, by showcasing to the
world that Indian cities, perhaps the earliest in the world,
have evolved into modernity without breaking from their
past.
The JNNURM set up a task force on heritage, chaired
by Charles Correa and UNESCO was asked to become a
member. Prof. A.G.K. Menon led the group for setting the
guidelines that cities should follow in reviewing the City
Development Plans, which all the cities have to prepare in
order to be eligible for the grant from the JNNURM.
This was considered a long awaited opportunity at the
UNESCO World Heritage Centre since, up till then not a
single Indian city had been listed on the World Heritage
List. Of the twenty six sites in India on the List, twenty
are cultural sites, most of which are monuments. Not a
single town or urban area is officially recognized for its
outstanding universal value. This is regrettable, given
the fabulous urban heritage in India depicting the long and
illustrious narrative of the Indian city, forming an integral
part of the global story of humankind.
One of the challenges of working in India is that
whenever one talks of heritage, it is synonymous with
monuments. This may perhaps be attributed to the
fact that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the
Union Governments heritage conservation body has
been mandated primarily to protect monuments and
archaeological sites under the Antiquities Act; and that
none of the Town and Country Planning Acts of any of
Heritage is not just

about monuments (top)Heritage is as diverse as
the cities themselves- the
layout, the pattern, the
planning and growth of
a settlement (above) and
the way a settlement has
evolved in relation to its
natural
surrounding
(left)
New Ways of Looking at Heritage: Contextual Framework
77
A citys heritage is also about its streets (above & right) and the interface
between nature and the culture of its residents (below)
It came to UNESCOs notice that the majority of grants

submitted under the JNNURM were for infrastructure,
which is understandable given the desire of the people for
functioning physical services. Heritage is not just about
street patterns, public space; it also deals with gutters,
sewages and other basic utilities, road upgrading, even
airports and underground metros. It also involves making
sure that the developers and people understand how to deal
with it correctly so as not to ruin the urban morphology,
the street pattern, the skyline of the town, the vistas and the
perspectives of the historic built environment that give the
city a sense of history within contemporary life. It is about
living in the present and doing your daily errands while
walking through centuries of history.
The beauty of the Indian built environment is the spatial
organization of the houses and the link between private
and public spaces- the gradual path leading from the public
street to the semi-private area and into the inner courtyards.
Such a journey leading to the intimacy of the inner private
spaces can be experienced in the Chettinad houses of
Tamil Nadu. UNESCO has recently joined forces with
the Chettinad Heritage Committee and the French NGO,
Arche-S, to safeguard and develop the heritage of these
houses.
In a few cities like Kolkata, the attention is shifting more
and more to the public buildings, but the private houses
are yet to be considered of any heritage value. The State
Governments and Central Services tend to invest more
in their official buildings, such as the State Secretariat
buildings and railway stations, which become a matter of
pride. Donors and international development banks have
now begun providing soft loans for the conservation of
this type of heritage but the conservation of private
property is still not considered to be a priority. UNESCO
78
A citys heritage is about courtyards (above left), gardens, private buildings,

facades (above right), public spaces (below), markets, indoor spaces, detailing,
crafts, festivals and rituals(bottom)
has consistently maintained that the historic houses that

make up the streetscape should be recognized as a part of
the public space and should receive government attention.
Tourism is now recognised as an important economic
sector. This has resulted in development banks like
the Asian Development Bank and the Japan Bank for
International Cooperation providing soft loans in India,
for the conservation of historic water bodies as well as of
major heritage sites, such as Ajanta and Ellora, although,
much of heritage still remains in the non-aid sector
Still, there is a lot that is left to be done, for example in the
rehabilitation of historic markets. In parts of Africa and
the Magreb State, especially Morocco, significant loans have
been provided to safeguard traditional markets, which are
now major tourist attractions. In Senegal and Cambodia,
among other countries, the Agence Francaise de Development,
the French Development Agency has financed the
renovation of fabulous market halls of great architectural
value which have brought heritage to the daily life of the
common people. In the Mediterranean countries there is
a big movement to revive the traditional market but some
have become too gentrified with the boutiques of top
designers, thereby replacing the shops of the craftspeople.
These renovated markets are void of any interest if the
craftspeople are not around to animate it, along with the
vegetable stands and fishmongers, and the pots and pans
of local fabrication.
UNESCO has always equated cultural heritage to peoples
livelihoods and festivals and rituals. The 2003 UNESCO
Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage
was held to highlight the importance of governments
in supporting communities in order to safeguard their
culture while evolving into modernity. Governments, by
seeking international recognition of their representative
intangible heritage which is in need of urgent safeguarding,

can demonstrate to the international community their
commitment to the protection and contemporary value of
not only the masterpieces of this heritage but also the more
modest traditions of their citizens.
In India, more than any other country, there exists such a

rich variety in heritage, both the built and the living, that
every corner of the country is replete with spectacular
heritage. What is distressing is that much of it is not
understood to be heritage. Priceless buildings, villages and
towns of breathtaking beauty and great significance to
the history of this nation are being destroyed and being
replaced by an ocean of chaotic urban growth- buildings
not only devoid of any aesthetics but even those that are
structurally dangerous.
In spite of the fact that 70% of Indias population still
remains rural, the urban pressure is immense. The urban
population of India may only be 30% of the national
total but in terms of numbers, it represents the second
largest urban population of the world; and about the same
Threats- Migration, poverty, ever increasing pressure on the city infrastructure, poor urban development, lack of maintenance & management, real estate
pressure, environmental degradation
79
as the entire population of the USA; or close to 70% of

the entire European Union or the African continent.
There is a continuing infrastructural pressure as well as a
mounting aggravation in the quality of life in the urban
areas. Even in the areas where the government is spending
funds on infrastructure, there exists the same sorry state
of dysfunction due to the lack of maintenance. There is
a lot to be done in terms of training to build capacities in
government public services as well as in building institutions
to meet new needs.
Another grave problem facing the Indian cities is the
pressure on real estate. The scale of the demolitions of
illegally constructed buildings in Delhi over the last one
year is staggering. While it sets a good example in stopping
illegal constructions, not only in the heritage protected area
covering 100 metres surrounding the protected monuments
but even in the 200 metres thereafter of the controlled area,
it is disconcerting to witness the huge loss of resources.
There is a need for investigations on how these illegal
buildings came about. This is not to blame anyone but in
order to ensure that such a ridiculous wastage of valuable
resources is not repeated.
Heritage is a resource for urban regeneration
The bigger question that needs to be addressed is how one

can make modern contemporary living compatible with
heritage conservation. UNESCO is convinced that it is
possible to preserve the historic areas, or at least essential
parts of them, while introducing modern facilities at the
same time. There are examples, primarily in Europe, where
urban regeneration has been possible, thanks to the impetus
given by the existing heritage; and where private sector
investments have been harnessed by the government for
creating an enabling environment. Moreover, due to such
policies and programmes, new employment opportunities
have been created through the revival of traditional skills
and community-based socio-economic development
efforts.
UNESCO is not a funding agency like the World Bank or the
Asian Development Bank, and cannot invest huge sums of
Hampi
80
money in revitalisation and renewal projects. Its work is more

about promoting technical solutions that are appropriate
to the social and economic conditions available in the
communities. It is essentially a solution exchange agency. In
India, urban planning is a concurrent subject and has been
de-centralized. Consequently, a lot of local initiatives that
have led to interesting and successful solutions in urban
renewal, even conservation or monumental conservation,
are not necessarily known to other states. This necessitated
the creation of this network to permit the exchange of
ideas between the Indian cities and the experts, and also
to facilitate international co-operation for urban renewal
through heritage in a more organised manner.
UNESCOS objectives are to address the following issues:
Interpretation
Community awareness
Protection
Capacity-building
Sustainability issues
Linkage of development paradigms with the work

practices
UNESCOs involvement in Hampi, which dates back to
1999, revealed that the urban development department of
Karnataka did not think it necessary to integrate heritage
protection into the Master Plan. Even on the map of
the Master Plan, it was not deemed necessary to plot the
protected heritage monuments, nor to demarcate the 100
metre protected area around the ASI protected monuments,
the riverbank protection area or the protected forest reserve,
despite the existence of the various laws for their protection.
The prevalent view was that the Master Plan is only meant
for development and infrastructure and not conservation, in
spite of all the required laws being applicable. This indicated
serious gaps in the understanding, of the professionals in
charge, on urban and territorial management. Despite
having had well-meaning intentions, there existed a lack of
sensitisation on the issue. The unavailability of maps posed
another problem, the maps being either outdated or only
the revenue map being available.
The legislation and the regulatory framework need to be
addressed and appropriately revised. There are no specific
building regulations or urban design guidelines for the 100metre ASI notified area around monuments and in the
200-metre controlled area, other than the issue of a nonobjection certificate by ASI. This leads to value judgement
by individual ASI officers which might make them the
target of criticism even if they are trying to do an honest
and professional job.
The recognition of the importance of the natural and urban
setting needs particular attention. Highlighting the heritage
in public spaces is also a priority. Even if public space may
not have had a big traditional role in India in the past, this is
going to become important because life styles and the way
of community exchange are changing.
One also needs to take into account the risk factor, bearing
in mind the environmental context. This is where the
Base map of Hampi (above); Vernacular architecture of the region (above

left); Outside one of the many monumnets in Hampi (left)
to thirteen. There are seven French cities which have come

forward to help UNESCO in this initiative as international
partners. Their support is going to be more in terms of
technical advice on methodology, governance issues on
cultural resources management (as conservation is mainly
about governance), and not necessarily financial support.
natural and the heritage conservation plan links with the

master plan. There should be a concerted effort by the
conservationists to work with the town planners. The close
to ten-year effort in Hampi has been worthwhile in this
regard. The town planners of Karnataka are beginning to
understand that the conservation plan is a part of the urban
and regional development plan, and needs to be integrated
in the Master Plan.
There needs to be a holistic approach to territorial planning.
In Luang Prabang, Laos, UNESCO has helped the national
and local authorities in not only developing guidelines for
the World Heritage site, but also for the surrounding area to
ensure a territorial coherence. This will ensure that the future
town extension plan and activities are in harmony with the
core World Heritage protected area. Moreover, efforts are
on for establishing a biosphere reserve in the Khan River
Basin where Luang Prabang is situated, with the help of
the authorities. This will enable the tourism development
in the natural scenic areas near the World Heritage town
of Luang Prabang to complement the cultural heritage
tourism, leading to longer stays and better spread of the
economic benefits to those in the entire region.
The charter for the Cities of Living Heritage Network was
signed by seven Indian cities, which subsequently increased
Various issues need to be addressed:

Awareness of the valuable resources
Questions of ownership; there are multiple owners in
case of most heritage buildings
Rent control act
Access to finances
UNESCO is prepared to serve, for an initial period, as the
secretariat of the Network, facilitating exchange between
cities and in developing city-to-city partnerships, involving
universities and research institutes and imparting skills for
mobilising community participation etc. It is projected that
in the future, the secretariat of the Network would become
self-sustaining and evolve into a veritable network of the
local authorities and the experts.
The French Association of Cities and Regions of Art and
History (ANVPAH) established in 1985 by the French
Ministry of Culture, which now has 130 cities and regions
as its members, has joined the Indian Network as an
international partner. ANVPAH supports its member cities
and regions in creating a heritage cell for the development
of pro-active programmes, to animate and involve the
local communities in heritage protection and promotion
activities. These heritage cells generally have offices in the
heritage area neighbourhood. These heritage houses have
two-three or more full-time professionals and volunteer
animators. They get the inhabitants, schools and various
associations- be they youth or retired peoples associationsto carry out heritage conservation and public awareness
activities. The heritage cells in France are very community
oriented. The ANVPAH is supported and subsidised by
81
both the national government and the local authorities. It

is indeed very encouraging for UNESCO to have them as
international partners for the Indian Cities Network.
The Loire Valley Mission is a good example of such a
joint collaboration. This Mission was created by two
regional governments, four departmental councils and 160
communes of the Loire Valley World Heritage Site. It covers
an area of about 280 linear kilometres along the Loire River
which is protected under the World Heritage Convention,
under the category of cultural landscapes.
All of UNESCOs actions are grounded in the international

cultural conventions adopted by the UNESCO General
Conference which is composed of all the governments of
the world. In addition to the well-known World Heritage
Convention of 1972, there is the 2003 Convention of
the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the
2005 Convention for the Protection and Promotion of the
Diversity of Cultural Expressions, the 1954 Convention
that dealt with protection of cultural properties in armed
conflict, the 1970 convention on illicit trafficking of
cultural properties along with a series of UNESCO
Recommendations that cover the role of museums in
contemporary society, the significance of historic areas in
contemporary life, the impact of public and private works on
heritage etc. These conventions and recommendations have
and are still playing a vital role in setting up international
standards.
Loire Valley World Heritage Site
The Mission of the Loire Valley World Heritage Site is

now cooperating with the Association of the Mayors
of Mali (AMM)s River and Heritage Task Force, which
groups together 120 communes along the 1,400-kilometre
stretch of the Niger River in Mali. Loire Valley Mission is
also partnering with the Khan River Eco-Valley of Luang
Prabang to protect and develop the heritage along the Khan
River, a tributary of the Mekong River. They are ready to
support a project for a river in India as well. UNESCO has
already brokered a partnership between the Varanasi city
authorities and the Rhone River Heritage Mission based in
Lyon, France. More recently, the authorities of Logrono
city and the regional government of La Rioja of Spain have
also agreed to become international partners to the Indian
Cities for Living Heritage Network.
In addition, several universities in India, France, Italy and
Spain have expressed their willingness to join this network.
International professional entities like the International
Union of Architects (UIA) as well as the United Cities
and Local Governments (UCLG), which is a federation of
local authorities based in Barcelona, Spain, are also keen on
supporting the same.
UNESCOs work is not to import systems from
other countries to India but merely to make available
the experiences, both good and bad, of other cities and
countries. There are numerous lessons to be learnt from the
past-solutions to various types of problems which emerged
after a lot of funds and intelligence had been invested. Why
reinvent the wheel and repeat the same errors when there
is much to be learnt from others? This is true especially in
terms of methodologies that can and must be adapted as
well as tested to suit the objective conditions and cultural
specificities of each city and each country.
82
We, at UNESCO, consider it an opportunity and challenge

to support like minded individuals and organizations in
their endeavour to promote a sustainable future for our
cities, by making available its experience as well as of those
from around the world, in India and to the global pool of
knowledge.
Photographs & Illustrations Credit: UNESCO
Conceptual Framework Of Vaastu

Sashikala Ananth
Architect- Vadivam, Chennai
or modular planning, alignment of philosophy and design,

local building materials, relationship with the environment
and finally the aesthetics and symbolism employed in the
design which are culturally relevant.
MOTHER GODDESS/BHOOMI
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Vaastu as it is being called today was known as the Vaastu
Shilpa Shastra until a few decades ago. The principles of
this Shastra (scientific treatise) are contained in written texts
known for their in-depth analysis of all aspects of building
and sculpture. Originally there were 32 texts out of which
sixteen Sanskrit texts have come down to us, and a host of
local texts in different languages. Some of the texts offer
more information on iconography and iconometry, some
also offer information on simple rituals in community life.
Traditional towns and cities have been described in great
detail in the Puranas/mythology and Itihasa/history. The
orderly way in which settlements are designed as well as
the aesthetic sensibility employed in the design have been
eulogized by many historians down the ages which include
Marco Polo, Huen Tsang, Domingo Paes and Fernao
Nuniz. The discipline in the design as well as the dominant
aesthetic metaphor employed in the design has been very
distinct to the Indian sub-continent with multiple styles
differing from region to region. Underlying the differences
there are some unifying principles that have been fostered
by traditional communities for centuries and today, it is
the job of designers like us to put them together in an
appropriate manner for changing times.
The earth nurtures all plant forms and other flora. The
tradition considers the Earth/Bhoomi a primary mother
goddess while the life energy contained in it is considered
a male principle. And since the built space grows out of
the earth organically, exploding into form, it is seen as a
manifestation of the energy of the female principle. The
land/Bhoomi possesses vibrant stillness, which is anchored
in the soil, which is energy of the male principle. Though
the Earth is considered a primary mother goddess, in
the Indian tradition the male and female are inextricably
linked. The movement from stillness to bliss is the secret
of creation. The still centre within the earth is male/Shivam
and the energy that is the energy of creation of manifested
reality is Shakti/female.
PHILOSOPHIES IN VAASTU
Vastu, Vaastu and Prasada Vaastu
The Earth is a primary substance or vastu. The life force
contained within the earth is called Vastu by the tradition.
All objects that occupy the earth and contain this life energy,
in turn is also called Vastu by the tradition. All life forms
such as plants and trees, buildings and sculptures are all
considered alive and part of the whole living subsystem.
The tradition of architecture in this country goes back

a long way, with the existence of planned towns such as
Mohenjo Daro and Harappa, Dwaraka, Kanchi, Ayodhya
and Kashi. The traditional knowledge and expertise is
recorded both in the form of texts (known as Vaastu Shilpa
Shastras) as well as oral knowledge and skills which continue
to be a living practice generally known as the vernacular or
folk idiom of building.
Each substance or Vastu is placed on a plane of support.

This plane is called Vaastu. Vaastu can be further explained
as a living/dwelling space. Vas means to be or to live.
Vaastu is the individual site meant for building as well as
the built form. More specifically the built form is known as
Prasada Vaastu.
Unlike the cerebrally evoked systems of philosophy (which

developed much later) the Vaastu Shastras maintain that
science or vignana, grammar or lakshana, experience or
anubhava and integration or samyoga between the Jivatman
and Paramatman are all part of the total Universal process.
There is no way in which this process can be separated and
compartmentalised.
The energy that lies in its unmanifested state in all universal

space is known as Paramatman. This name denotes the live
energy residing in every particle of universal space. The
energy that exists within the human organism (which is also
Vastu), is Jivatman. The Jivatman has to be in alignment with
the larger collective order, the Paramatman.
THE THEORY OF HOLISM IN VEDANTA, YOGA

AND AYURVEDA
The philosophies of India constantly shape and re-shape the
fundamental belief that the human being is part of a larger
cosmic order which is controlled by a primary intelligence.
This intelligence is called God or Atman or Brahman.
Every action, every thought, form and result is a part of
the Brahman and His plan. Therefore the disturbances in
the mind or the body of an individual can be healed or
harmonised through an orderly intervention into the total
system (soma, psyche, spirit). This is further extended in
Ayurveda, where the controlled use of herbs, oils, massage,
diet and meditation can bring back most problems of
balance to a state of subjective harmony. In Vaastu, this
movement of disorder to order is achieved through the
application of several types of design parameters. They
are namely : Ayadi or beneficial calculation, Pada Vinyasa
Jivatman, Paramatman
Centering Brahmasthana
Experience of centre or centering is spoken about in
the field of dance and music as well as in yoga. Creative
expression/action is brought from the centre or nabhi.
In yoga the centering of the body consciousness is an
important process towards which movement and meditation
are directed.
In the science of Vaastu, the centre of the plot is referred
to as Brahmasthana. In the building it is important to create a
centre, which grows into the total form. For any meaningful
action to emerge, the weight and energy of the form has to
be anchored in the centre.
Siddha
Land, water body, forest, tree, stone and other forms that
are naturally sacred or holy are said to be Siddha. Land,
83
water body, forest, tree, stone and other forms, which are
not auspicious, or endowed with beneficial qualities are,
said to be Asiddha. Just as there is the holy and the sacred
there is that which is not holy and not sacred. How do we
deal with the negative?
In Vaastu, the three Gunas are characterized by the three

shapes of:
Circle (elongated circle or ellipse)- Tamasa
Octagon (elongated octagon, pentagon, polygon)- Rajasa
Square (rectangle) - Satvika
Dvaitam and Advaitam
The energy contained within the square and rectangle is the

most stable, restful and in equilibrium. This is considered
suitable for residences and places of learning.
There are two paths (of devotion/worship) to achieve

the ultimate state of dissolution or the sublimation of
the Jivatman with the Paramatman Dvaitam and Advaitam.
Dvaitam is the path of the I and the Thou, Advaitam is the
path of Thou in the I.
Shakti/Shivam
Shivam is the infinite consciousness suspended in blissful
stillness/Satchit Ananda. It is out of this stillness that the
first desire to be is born. Shivam is without end, infinite
and formless. He is without colour or variety. In the end he
destroys everything and brings it into himself. Shivam is the
male principle.
Shakti is the energy of creation. Shakti during the process
of creation is called Kundalini Shakti and is the movement
of coiled energy from its resting place in the Mooladhara
Chakram at the base of the spine to the Shasrara Chakram
at the top of the head. This is seen as the fusing of Shakti
and Shivam.
Panchaboota
In the process of creation as Shivam manifests into
the glories of Prapancha/universe of forms/physical
manifestation, the energy then moves through the five
elements/Panchaboota fire, air, water, ether and earth. Each
element has its own characteristic and nature. In an act of
creation, the manifested objects become subservient to the
cosmic order of Panchaboota. The five elements play a part
in the emanated form and each has its location and role,
meaning and power.
Triguna
The energy contained in a polygon is in movement. It is

suitable for centers of energetic activities such as offices, as
well as educational institutions.
The energy contained in the circle is very high and is
considered aggressive. It stimulates the occupant to a
very high degree (or the opposite and creates inertia or
immobility). This is suitable for stadia, entertainment
centers, amphitheatres, council chambers, and sometimes
for religious centers such as prayer halls and temples.
THE BASIC PREMISE
The traditional systems of architecture have accepted the
basic principle that the built form is an extension of the
individuals world of sentient experience. This concept has
played an important role in the growth of the various fine
arts, be it dance, music or poetry in our culture.
A person does not inhabit this earth alone. He/she lives
amidst other natural forms and in touch with energies and
elements that are perceptible and beyond perception. He/
she inhabits a space. He/she is also vibrating and alive. The
outer space is also alive and throbbing. The three rhythms
are not always in consonance.
To create consonance between the three and thus create
harmony and well-being, is the attempt of the Vaastu
Shastras. In creating a resonance between the outer space,
inner space and cosmic space, the Shastras have brought into
operation the concept of rhythm and time. The application
of an ordered rhythm in visual space creates a form, which
is capable of evoking a spiritual response in the occupants.
Each physical form is a composition of 3 gunas:

1. Satvika
2. Rajasa
3. Tamasa
When one of these three Gunas are predominant then
the nature of the material object takes on the dominant
character. This balance between the dominant and hidden
potential is a very significant aspect of Vedanta and yoga.
Satvika - pure illumined intelligence of the consciousness,
meditative quality.
Rajasa - vibrant, energetic, active, inner urge to achieve
Tamasa - inertia, aggression, tenacity to hold back for
action outside.
The effort of every individual is to balance the three natures
in such a way as to be functional and capable of acting
sensitively and appropriately in a particular context. Rajasa
being powerful is positive, but when the system demands a
great deal of aggression to get something done Tamasa is
required. When the context needs to be understood with
tranquillity then Satvika must be predominant. Hence all the
Gunas have their relevance and their inherent strengths.
84
Vaastu Purusha Mandala
In the design of buildings or villages there are three main

principles that the designer has to be conscious of. They are
namely Bhogadyam or utilitarian value, Sukha Dharsham
or aesthetics, and Ramyam or psychological well being
(spiritual satisfaction).
The designer has to achieve a harmony between the built
space and the natural environment, as well as create a feeling
of well-being in the user through the employment of Pada
Vinyasa or modular planning and Ayadi Porutham or sacred
measure calculations.
VAASTU PURUSHA MANDALA
VINYASA
AND
PADA
The built space is created according to the impulses of the

earth, in consonance with the waking and slumber of the
earthly energy. Vaastu or Bhoomi is vibrating and alive. This
is the space of the earth or land. This energy resides in the
earth and is called by various names such as Vaastu Nathan,
Boomi Purusha, and Vaastu Purusha. This is the energy of the
material substance
Pada Vinyasa is the method by which a site of land is divided
into a uniform grid. By this method, more manageable units
are created, within which the design may be conveniently
laid out. The planning principle known as Pada Vinyasa has
relevance in the design process for several reasons. One is
its practical application. The other comprises of meanings
and qualities that have been invested into the physical form
of the earth which have a powerful impact on the psyche
and spirit of human beings.
An important axis that runs through the building is the
central axis of the Brahma Sutram. This is usually the
East-West axis. The North-South axis is known at the
Soma Sutram. The central point where the axes cross is an
extremely significant point since this is the place of the
focusing of energies. All inter-sections of the padas or
modular lines(energy rays) are treated as live energy points.
And as such, planning is carried out with great care so
that the lines of energy are not cut or reduced in any way.
The Vaastu Purusha is considered to be awake when he is
oriented towards the cardinal points, and is said to be asleep
when oriented towards the non-cardinal points like the NE,

SW, SE, NW.
During the period of Dhanur (December-January), Mina
(March - April), Mithuna (June-July), Kanya (September October), it is considered inauspicious to begin building
activities.
During the period of Mesha (April - May) Vrishabha (May
- June), Kataka (July - August), Simha (August - September),
Tula (October - November), Vrichika (November December), Makara (January - February), Kumbha (February
- March) it is auspicious to build.
The spin is clockwise and around its own centre. Similar to
the Vaastu Purusha, all living beings are also material in their
origins. Hence, they too are earth substance. It can be said
that we too are earth or Bhoomi and the energy within us
is Vaastu Purusha. When the earth is dormant, the Vaastu
Purusha is considered to be asleep. At this time it is not
beneficial to begin house-building activities. The shastras
state that this wrong time could lead to negative effects on
the residents. One must learn about the cycles of the earth
before beginning auspicious acts. The face of the Vaastu
Purusha is oriented towards the position of the sun, says
the text. On the opposite side will be placed the feet of
the Vaastu Purusha. His left hand will be placed below, the
right hand above.
COSMOLOGY IN VAASTU
Every aspect of each of the directions must be understood
by the designer as well as the occupant so that the built
form blends with the natural environment.
Brahmasthana - This is the centre of the plot. In the
design it is important to create a centre for the building,
which grows into the total form. This growth out of the
centre is comparable to the experience of centre that is
spoken about in the field of traditional dance and music
where creative action is brought out from the centre/Nabhi.
In yoga the centering of the body consciousness is laid
emphasis on. For any meaningful action to emerge, the
weight and energy of the form is anchored in the centre.
The Brahma Pada or Veethi - This is the central area of
the total form, which includes the central point. In the
process of design the Brahma Pada is considered to have very
high concentration of energy of the total form. Therefore
traditionally it was either opened out as the courtyard or
made into a central hall for collective gathering.
The Deivika Padam or Veethi - This is the first concentric
space around the central Brahma Pada. In this space the
energies are considered to be fairly high and so the allocation
of passages and rooms for collective rather than individual
use such as dining, family rooms are recommended here.
The Manusha Padam or Veethi - The second concentric
space, this space is considered to contain energy which
is fairly comfortable for human activity and therefore all
activity rooms such as kitchen, bedrooms, study areas, Puja
and rooms for individual use may be placed in this part of
the layout.
Vithi or Pada Vinyasa:

1) Brahma; 2) Ganesa; 3) Agni; 4) Jala; 5) Naga; 6) Yama; 7) Kubera;
8) Deva; 9) Pisaa
The Paisaacha Padam or Veethi - The final concentric

space which can contain the storage areas, outer verandah,
external walls, outer walkways as also activity areas such
as bedrooms and work rooms. In general Manusha and
85
aesthetics, colour, form, would have to be extrapolated in a

harmonious manner with the shapes that have been chosen
for the design.
Traditionally there were only five colours (Panchavarna),
namely red, yellow, green, blue, white. Black is also used,
but only to enhance the other colours. Shades of colours
were not used until recently. The traditional colours were
made of natural materials and possessed certain properties
that were intrinsic to the material. Therefore today, when
these colours are being made artificially, the characteristics
have to be re-examined.
Padas Tiruvannamalai Temple
Paisaacha may be considered together for all special activity

areas.
In the final built form, the outer peripheral rooms would
contain the specialised activity such as sleeping, cooking,
storing, bathing while the inner areas would be for relaxing
and conversing. This does not mean that a living room
cannot be on the outer side but it certainly means that a
bedroom cannot be in the centre. Even from the practical
aspects of fresh air and sunlight this principle is very
sensible.
PRAKARA BIJAM
In the temple complex the position of the garbhagruha is
considered the most important. This position is seen as
the moolasthanam of the complex. Taking this as the basic
unit the rest of the complex is laid out as multiples of the
module. Hence, if the garbhagruha is taken as x then the
prakaram will be 1x on either side of the sanctum, and in
front there is a projection of the module upto 3x which
forms the mukhayamam of the temple. In this rectangular
form the garbhagruha is like a seed that constantly expands
outwards to form the 1,3,5,7 prakaras.
SHAPES AND COLOURS
The shapes used in the tradition- square, triangle, polygon,
rectangle, circle, ellipse, oval, or free form- have been
analysed according to the suitability for human use. Some
lend themselves better to physical use than others, some
create spiritual well being, others add to the energy levels
and so on.
There is no good or bad shape, only different levels of
usefulness and comfort. For each of these shapes, Ayadi
or beneficial measure calculation can be made, and specific
patterns of interactions built up based on the pattern of
interior. The choice of shape would affect the management
style, lifestyle and activity patterns. The choices of
86
Crimson or Red - The colour of aggression and passion,

celebration and joy.
Maroon/Kaavi - The colour of the earth, and also of
auspiciousness.
White - Traditional paintings used a great deal of white. It
is the colour of the moon, purity and piety though it also
denotes sorrow and widowhood in certain contexts.
Blue - The colour of the sky and the waters. This is an oftused colour to indicate vastness and eternity.
Green - The colour of plants, prosperity and fertility. Green
is used for creating a feeling of aliveness and fulfillment of
earthly pleasures.
Yellow - Yellow ochre are colours denoting birth and
growth. They are associated with spring. Yellow is also
an auspicious colour, and is employed to represent spiritual
awakening.
Black - It is often used to indicate counter religious
symbols such as black magic rites and worship of the lesser
gods. It is also used to represent austerity and penance.
Black in a limited application ensures the containment of
negative vibrations in an entity, hence black thread, beads,
bangles and so on.
SYMBOLS
The lotus is a very significant symbol for explaining form
and aesthetics in the Indian tradition. Take the example of
a pond filled with water, after the rains, with perfect lotus
blooms among the floating green leaves. Undulating dunes
surround the pond, and it is there like a jewel, shimmering
and perfect. This same form, becomes totally different
when the water has dried, and the lotus lies above the
squelching mud; and then there is the other time late in the
night when in the star light the lotuses are tightly closed,
and the surface of the pond is rippling in the darkness. In
all this the pond, the flowers, the water, the environment
are creating different patterns, each unique in its own way,
in the different configuration of rhythms and proportions,
and in varieties of relationships with the space around. It
is not possible to call one better than the other, the entire
process of unfolding from one form into another are
perfectly balanced within and without.
The built form too can perhaps be like this in relationship,
in form, in the way it is expressed inwardly and outwardly.
In every stage of expression and evolution of a home there
are multiple forms that can be achieved. When the form
is a result of an organic growth or movement of the basic
elements then the result is capable of imparting aesthetic
delight and contentment in the occupant.
Symbolism and mythology depicted in traditional buildings
possess both secular and spiritual connotations, which lead
to a significant connection between the residents of the

building and their specific cultural heritage.
AYADI PORUTTAM :
There is a technique of checking the width of a building,
its perimeter, or its module, for benefits which are
recommended by the vaastu texts. There are usually 6 or 11
types of calculations, which are carried out for the benefits,
known as shadasayadi or shodadayadi respectively. Shadasayadi
is the more commonly practised system.
N x 8/27 remainder to be checked against the table for
dinam or star sign.
ayam or income.
N x 9/10 reminder to be checked against the table for
vyaya or expenses
yoni or direction
amsha or characteristic
varam or weekday.
Here N stands for the number to be checked; dinam, ayam,
vyaya, yoni amsha and varam are different types of benefits
recommended by the texts. This calculation has been dealt
with in detail in the authorss book, Penguin Guide to Vaastu.
After making these calculations, a suitable number is chosen
for the width, perimeter or basic module of the building.
It has been found to be very effective in bringing about
positive energies into the building, as well as in creating
well-being among the occupants.
PROFESSIONALISM VS ACCOUNTABILITY
In the last two decades the Indian reality has undergone vast
changes both in the organisational level and in the sociocultural level. Economists and sociologists have written
in serious journals and in popular magazines about this
threshold of flux in a variety of ways. From a mechanical
aping of western values and behavioural patterns the
changing face of India has now come to another threshold
of re-examining its traditions. This is a healthy step and
some of us who have consistently stayed on this edge for
over 12 years welcome the change but with some notes
of caution. Let me clarify this paradox to the best of my
ability.
It is a welcome change to have qualified professionals who
clearly state their task objectives, define job parameters and
deliver the services within stipulated time boundaries. For
example when an architect starts his preliminary dialogues
with a client and with a minimum of fuss goes about his task
of giving a finished building to the client in the envisaged
time, and within the budget allocated, a minor miracle has
taken place. So also with a lawyer who completes a law suit
proceeding or a manufacturer who hands in his product.
But .... there is a major but here. In the entire process
several aspects of the professional services are either
conveniently forgotten or never even considered.
1. Is the client ensured that the final design he has been
offered is actually what he requires and desires or is
he convinced that it is a desirable product because of
imaginary market forces at play such as this is the
fashion I assure you etc.?

2. Has he/she been made to understand his own half
formed needs through democratic processes or is he
being told I am the designer so I know better?
3. In amalgamating the latest products in the design, is
the basic needs of a client (which is to feel at home and
comfortable in home/office) being met?
4. Is the designer holding in his/her mind the commitment
and accountability to the environment, the cultural ethos
and the larger context of human collectives? It is easy
to say that all the professions are corrupt so why the hell
should the architect alone be accountable, but who is
going to take the step?
Is the architect taking steps to ensure the upgrading of
building skills and or the absorption of the skilled craftsman
in his locale?
ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE TRADITION
The idea of accountability or social commitment is not a
new fangled notion which has been taken from the alternate
movements of the west. There has always existed the strong
value of the professional in this country. The vaidya not
only looked after the sick and the ailing but also helped in
maintaining hygiene, sanitation, diet etc. for the healthy. The
architect likewise had the responsibility for the source of
materials, depletion and replanting of forests, well being of
building related craftsmen, education and enlightenment of
the common man/prospective clients, understanding and
extending the frontiers of social metaphors of aesthetics
and so on.
A Sthapati is on who establishes, arranges, and erects structures.
He should be well versed in the texts, concepts and theories. He should
act from a basic commitment, and with compassion. He should have
expertise in mathematics, history, mythology, and painting. He should
be well travelled and hence have extensive exposure. He should be a
truthful person, who is contented within himself and in control of his
desires.
It is also stated that: only the mind of a happy designer can
create forms capable of creating well being and happiness in the user.
The sorrow of the designer gets communicated to the product of his
creativity.
The Shilpi or designer had to be an expert in the following:
1. The Designer had to understand the philosophies and
the beliefs of the people whom he served. His building
designs, be they religious, administrative, residential, civic
or otherwise, should reflect the character and beliefs of
the people.
2. The designer should be widely traveled and well read
so that he would be able to respond to multiple needs
of the client. This does not mean that he would put in
a Spanish courtyard in a house in Mettupalayam. After
having understood the varieties of solutions he/she has
seen the designer would adapt it to the local lifestyle.
3. The designer had to be compassionate and yet
confident, sensitive but with strong convictions, open
and yet committed to the local way of life, with a strong
sense of aesthetics and beauty but not obsessed with the
need to push only his point of view, with a deep love of
the natural environment and hence capable of designing
and building without either laying waste the local systems
or dominating the existing landscape.
87
Ashram at Kollur designed by Sashikala Ananth
4. The designer would take on the responsibility for the

needs of the craftsmen who would work under him/her
and in exchange they would give their best efforts to the
building in hand.
There are many more of these concepts but I will restrict
this article to only these four points.
REDEFINING THE ROLE
The time has come for many of us who take our role as
professionals very seriously, to redefine and extend the
contemporary frontiers of architectural consultancy. In
the face of the terrifying effects on the environment and
the needless celebration of wealth in some of our fancy
buildings, we need to deal with this subject with a certain
amount of seriousness and care. Some of the points I
would like to raise to ponder over and perhaps get together
to institute are as follows:
1. The design of a building is not only an opportunity
for each of us to climb up the mythical ladder of success
and power. It is essentially an expression of the need of
a group of people. We are channels of these aspirations.
The human responsibility would have to be the most
primary one to each of us designers.
2. The building cannot stand alone. It must, in its
very existence, create connections with the existing
environment, be it other buildings, open spaces,
vegetation, animals or people. As designers we have a
responsibility to the entire sub-system.
3. The design of the facade, the use of certain materials,
the impact of the building on the viewer must all be
part of a larger perspective and not a result of personal
needs, to be different and to be featured in magazines.
4. The work force which executes the building is not
a faceless gang but multiple sources of energy and
creativity. As of now we are not tapping the resources
of the artists in our society at all but arriving at the
workability of the task based only on cost/time factors.
Hence the possibility of achieving something skillful
and aesthetic which is a result of a team effort does not
take place and the design ends up as a personal property
of the exalted architect. This process is a leftover of the
colonial practice of exploiting local resources. It is not
88
the orientation of a leader of a community of builders

who serve their own people.
5. New directions and solutions can come up if the present
secretive boundaries of individual offices with their
successes and captive clientele can be broken and greater
interactions between designers, builders, craftsmen,
traditional scholars in the field of vaastu, manufacturers,
and prospective clients (from industry and the general
public) can be instituted. This calls for dedicated
interventions from many of the architects. Perhaps
one of the first steps in fostering this change would be
if seminars can move from endless verbalisations into
actual action, based on meaningful dialogues and field
application.
Heritage As A Living & Evolving

Process:
Graphic Transcription And Analytic
Study Of Architectural Proportions In
Mayamatam
Vinay Mohan Das
Senior Lecturer, Deptt. of Architecture & Planning
Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal
INTRODUCTION
Ancient Indian Architecture Philosophy:
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1877-1947), a pioneer
in the field of traditional philosophy of Indian art stated
in The fundamentals of Indian Art that the design of
buildings, towns etc. suggest and symbolize the Universe; the
site of a temple or town was laid out in relation to astrological
observations; every stone had its place in the cosmic
design, and the very faults of execution represented the
imperfections and shortcomings of the craftsman himself.
In his opinion this holistic approach to design resulted in
a wonderful, beautiful and dignified architecture, and such
conceptions were reflected in the dignity and serenity of
life itself. Under such conditions, the craftsman was not an
individual expressing individual whims, but a part of the
Universe giving expression to the ideals of its own eternal
beauty and unchanging law.1
Therefore, for any architecture to be perfect, it had to satisfy
parameters such as astrological observations, principles of
eternal beauty, laws of nature etc., as defined in the texts of
that age. This could have been done only with detailed project
planning and execution. The existence of ancient monuments
can be taken as an indication of presence of multidisciplinary
and multilateral knowledge2 base of design and managerial
skills. The architect (sthapati) was the central figure in the
entire scenario and with his team of assistants the work
was executed. For any architectural project, perfection in all
aspects was the most sought after goal.
Documenting and Understanding Ancient Indian
Architecture
One of the early pioneers of Indology, and the founder
of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal was Sir William
Jones (1746-94).3 Archaeological and historical pursuits in
India started with his efforts, who put together a group of
antiquarians to form the Asiatick Society on 15th January
1784 in Calcutta (now Kolkata). The publication of a
periodical journal named, Asiatic Researches was started in
1788. In the Researches, surveys carried out by the society
were published to make the public aware of the antiquarian
wealth of India.4
In the same decade, William Hodges, the first of the British
professional landscape artists to visit India, spent over three
years in the country from 1780 to 1783 and painted amongst
other subjects, the architectural heritage.5 He published his
reflections on the countrys architecture partly in the notes
accompanying his series of aquatints, Select Views in India
(1785-88) and then more coherently in his Dissertation on
the Prototypes of Architecture: Hindu, Moorish and Gothic
of 1787. This material was repeated and amplified in his
volume of memoirs, Travels in India of 1793. In all his
works, Hodges clearly perceived that Indian architecture had
its own conventions, which were quite unknown to Europe.

What his work lacked entirely was any reference to the Shilpa
Shastras, the traditional and time-honoured texts in which
the local conventions relating to architecture were clearly
explained.6 The Archaeological Survey of India has been
involved in architectural surveys of monuments till date and
has a very rich collection of architectural documentation.7
The research in this area can be classified into two categories,
namely, Field work and Theoretical work. The above works
can be classified as field work. In the theoretical research
front, the first person who attempted to understand ancient
Indian Architecture was Ram Raz.8 Since 1812, Ram Raz
collected ancient architectural treatises in Sanskrit and toiled
to decipher their mysteries. The result was The Essay on
the Architecture of the Hindus, posthumously published
in London in 1834. Ram Razs book was a path-breaking
work in the field of Hindu architecture. He was the first
Indian scholar to study the principles of Hindu architecture
as reflected in the ancient Hindu architectural treatises. His
work was also quoted by Owen Jones9 in chapter 13 Hindoo
Ornament of his book Grammar of Ornament.
Another researcher in this area, Dr. P.K. Acharya, 10
also selected the Manasara for translation and graphical
transcription. His work is available in a number of volumes
first published from 1934 to 1946. The treatise Samrangana
Sutradhara was selected by Dr. D. N. Shukla11 for his
research on Indian architecture and published in 1960. The
Mayamatam, another architectural text was translated by Dr.
Bruno Dagens which was first published in English in 1984
by lInstitut Francais dIndologie, Pondicherry and Bharatia
Institute, New Delhi. The same work was then published in a
bilingual edition in 1994 and contains critically edited Sanskrit
text which is an improvement over the earlier edition as it
contains explanatory footnotes, analytical table of contents
and a comprehensive glossary.12
Adam Hardy13 researched the Temple Architecture of
Karnata Dravida (North Karnataka). He has been interested
in relationships between architectural history/theory
and practice. He opines that architectural history may
be approached through the eyes of a designer, while
architectural design can be informed by an understanding of
principles and processes underlying traditional architectures.
His work on temple architecture was published in 1995.14
A chronological listing of most of areas of research and
researchers are given in Table 1. However, this list is not an
all inclusive list of areas of research and researchers and their
supporting organizations.
MAYAMATAM
As per Dr. Bruno Dagens, a prominent expert on the
Mayamatam who has edited and translated the book, the
body of Sanskrit literature dealing with architecture and
iconography is voluminous, even scattered and insufficiently
surveyed and it is matched by a vernacular literature, more
scattered and less known. In the extensive and widely
disseminated range of works in this area, the Mayamatam
occupies a fairly well defined place. It is a general treatise,
a vstushstra, written in Sanskrit but originating from
Dravidian India, most probably the Tamil area; it is part of
the Saivite gamic literature without the connection being
underlined by any pronounced sectarianism and its drafting
must have been done during the Chola period, at the time
when the architecture it describes had reached the peak of
its maturity.
89
Table 1 A Chronological List of Research in Indian Architecture and Allied areas

S.No.
Circa
Work
1.
1780..
Architecture field work
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
1780..
1810..
1840..
1890..
1905
1920
1910..
1930..
1930..
1940..
1960..
1960..
1970..
1980..
1990..
1990..
Architecture field work through paintings

Architectural theoretical work
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture
Architectural Documentation
Indian art, architecture, aesthetics
Indian art, temple architecture
The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India
Sculpture analysis and theory
Architectural translation and graphics
Indian Architecture documentation
Hindu Architecture treatise translation and research
Architectural theory and analysis
Indian culture
Architectural translation of Sanskrit Text
Architectural documentation with labeling and analysis
Architectural documentation and analysis
It can thus be assigned a chronological bracket which goes

from the early 9th century to the late 12th century.15
The Mayamatam published by the Indira Gandhi National
Center for the Arts is in two volumes with a total of 36
chapters and an appendix. Volume I has 22 chapters and
the remaining are in volume II. It is a large text comprising
of 3336 verses in all. The chapters can be classified under
areas of town planning, residential architecture, religious
architecture, religious rituals, iconography, interior design,
renovation work, vehicle design. The chapters of architecture
and planning are from 1 to 30 having 2626 verses. However,
the parameters listed above appear in more than one area in
the volumes. For example, rituals are described in: Chapter
4- Taking possession of site; Chapter 8- Offerings; Chapter
9-Village planning; Chapter 12- The foundation deposit;
Chapter 18- Making of roof and completion of works;
Chapter 24- Gateways; Chapter 27- Features of houses for
the 4 classes; Chapter 28- First entry into house.
Persons
William Jones, and
Archaeological Survey of India
William Hodges
Ram Raz
James Fergusson
Bannister Fletcher
Ananda Coomaraswamy
Stella Kramrisch
E.B.Havell
Alice Boner
P K Acharya
Percy Brown
D N Shukla
Madhusudan A Dhaky
Kapila Vatsyayan
Bruno Dagens
Adam Hardy
Pierre Pichard
It was decided to select this book since it is a well structured

book, complete with exhaustive explanatory footnotes. An
added advantage was that it had both the Sanskrit text and
English translation on adjacent pages (Sanskrit on the left
page and English on the right one) so that the words and
their exact meanings could be easily identified.
METHODOLOGY AND SCOPE
The process followed for the exploration of architecture as
described in Mayamatam is given in Table 2 below.
The exercise of tabulation has been very helpful in a more
in-depth understanding of the text as every technical term
has become clear. Doing this on a computer also helps
in finding the same word and its different interpretations
depending on its context in the lok. General words have
not been translated and put into appropriate cells in many
cases by me.
Table 2: Methodology
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Step 6
Step 7
90
Studying a chapter; Reading the Sanskrit text and its English translation.
Tabulating the word to word meaning of the Sanskrit text and English translation.
In this process, adding notes wherever an alternative interpretation is possible, or some additional
translation is to be done.
Based on the understanding, cross referencing and library survey (ASI publications, books by
various authors), making first drafts of the sketches on a square grid sheet along-with comments.
The interpretation is of two types, one is sequential and the other is an integration that is a figure
made from information present in different places in the text.
Making final sketches on a square grid sheet along-with comments and cross-references.
Preparing CAD drawings and Three dimensional CAD models of each sketch.
Presentation of data and findings in the form of sheets, models, tables, images, slides etc.,
depending on the purpose of the presentation.
Table 3: Tabulation and notes for Vedibhadra Socle
Table 4: Alternative interpretation to original translation
Explanation of Process followed with the

help of examples:
Fig.1: Final sketch of vedibhadra socle.
Steps 1 to 3:
In Mayamatam the chapter 13 is titled The
Socle (Upapitha). The Socle is a building part
which is placed beneath the base (adhishthana)
which acts as a supplementary base and makes
the building more high. The verses 6 to 8
describe a socle named vedibhadra type 1. After
studying and understanding the text, the word
to word translation is tabulated. The tabulation
alongwith comments are shown in Table 3. In
chapter 15 Dimensions of Pillars and Choice
of Materials, in verse 29, the translation of one
91
13.6 Vedibhadra socle Type I

Vertical Divisions: 12
Elevation
Fig. 2: CAD drawing showing section and elevation of vedibhadra socle
Section
Thus, in this way, the descriptions are taken up for graphic

transcription and visual interpretation. Though the
Mayamatam has many areas like planning, interior design,
vehicle design, material specifications, technical information
etc., the scope of this study is limited only to architecture
and the visual analysis limited to geometric and proportional
analysis.
The drawings thus prepared can be used to demonstrate the
buildability and visual appeal of the Sanskrit verses.
Fig. 3: View of vedibhadra socle
phrase in the lok offers an alternative interpretation. The

details of the verse and the alternative interpretation are
shown in Table 4.
Steps 4 and 5:
The final sketch of socle vedibhadra drawn on a square grid
sheet is shown in Fig. 1. The various profiles of mouldings
are designed after a study of photographs and drawings of
monuments, Archaeological Survey of India publications
and personal interpretation and inputs.
Steps 6 and 7:
After the sketch, the drawing of the same socle is made
on computer using CAD software. The names of the sub
parts, that is, mouldings are added and the proportional
dimensions are also added as shown in Fig. 2. A perspective
view of the same is shown in Fig. 3.
The above was an example of a drawing being made by

referring a sequence of verses. The following is an example
of a drawing of an architectural example being made by
combination of sequential interpretation and integration of
information appearing at various places in the text.
Making of single storey temple Kesara:
Description: (verse 19.33-34) The Kesara comprises a forepart
in the middle of its faade. There are aediculae at the level
of the roof, some at the corners and others in the middle;
there is a false dormer-window above the forepart. The attic
and roof are circular or square; (the width and the projection
of) the median forepart are respectively three and two fifths,
three and two sixths or three and two sevenths
(the width of the building).
Temple Kesara has been designed with the following cross
references within the Mayamatam as given in table 5.
Table 5: Characteristics of Kesara a single storey Temple

Width
Height
Height base
Height pillar
Height entablature
Height roof
Height attic
Height vedika
Height freize (prati)
As per v 19.1
is Adbhuta mode that is 1:2 as per v 19.2
ht pillar as per v 14.15b,47
2 ht base as per v 15.4
ht pillar as per v 16.48
2 or 3 X attic height as per v 18.2
2 or 1 X its stereobate height (vedika) as per v 18.2, or 2 X vedika height as per v
19.19b
2 X freize (prati) of entablature height, 1 X prati height as per v 16.51
1 module, or , module as per v 16.29b
Note: for all building parts and proportion mentioned above, only one dimension is chosen of the many dimensions prescribed in the above referred verses. The
computer generated stage wise models of the temple Kesara are shown in Fig. 4 to 12.
92
Fig. 4: Stage 1: Base
Fig. 5: Stage 2: Pillars
Fig. 6: Stage 3: Walls
Fig. 7: Stage 4: Handrail
Fig. 8: Stage 5: Entablature
Fig. 9: Stage 6: Roof
Fig. 10: Stage 7: Attic (Griva)
Fig. 11: Stage 8: Shikhara

Fig. 12: Stage 9: Complete View with Kuta & Koshtha
Fig. 13: Width to Length ratios for Pavilions
93
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

This research is in progress as a Ph.D. work by the author.
The following is a presentation of the on-going analysis and
results. These are subject to alterations, if any, as per inputs
of experts and peers.
Plan Proportions
The plans of temples, houses, pavilions etc. were mostly
square or rectangular. The length and widths were defined in
cubits or in parts. The names and corresponding proportions
of total Width: Length for Pavilions, Halls and Houses are
given in Table 6 and proportions for pavilions are shown
in Fig. 13.
Grids in Plan
The plans of houses, pavilions and halls were divided into
number of parts in width and length thus creating a grid.
These grids could be 5 x 5, 4 x 6 etc. These parts were made
into open courts, verandah, gallery, rooms, etc. as per the
prescription. An interesting feature of the grid for pavilions
was that the distances were given as clear distance between
pillars and not the centre to centre distance.
This peculiar grid demarcation was perhaps helpful in having
the right proportion of the void with respect to the mass,
which is not possible if centerline distances are given as then
the width of the pillar would change the void proportion.
An example of divisions of a pavilion described as Mangala
having 10 x 12 parts is shown in Fig. 14.
Table 6a: Names of width to length proportions for

Pavilions:
S. No.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Name
Chhanda
Vikalpa
Abhasa
Jati
W: L
W: (W+1 unit)
W: (W+2 unit)
W: (W+3 unit)
W: (W+4 unit)
Table 6b: Names of width to length proportions for Halls:

S. No.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Name
Chhanda
Vikalpa
Abhasa
Jati
W: L
W: (W+1 unit)
W: (W+2 unit)
W: (W+3 unit)
W: (W+4 unit)
Table 6c: Names of width to length proportions for

Houses:
S. No.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Name
Jati
Chhanda
Vikalpa
Abhasa
W: L
W: (W+2 unit)
W: (W+4 unit)
W: (W+6 unit)
W: (W+8 unit)
Elevation Proportions
Similarly the elevation was designed with certain Width to
Height ratios. The names of these for temples and houses
are given in Table 7 and Fig. 15.
Elevation Sub-Divisions
The elevation was sub-divided into the Socle (up-peetha)
(optional), Base (peetha), Pillars (stambha), Entablature
(prastara), Attic (greeva), Roof (shikhara), and Finial (sthhupi).
The heights of these levels were in proportion to each
other. For example for a two storey temple, the total height
is divided into 28 parts comprising of a Base of 3 parts,
first storey of 6 parts, Entablature of first storey of 3 parts,
second storey of 5 parts, Entablature of second storey
of 2 parts, Stereobate of attic of 1 part, Attic of 2 parts,
Shikhara of 4 parts and Finial of 1 parts. Fig. 16 shows
these subdivisions for a two storey temple in Sarvakarmika
mode.
Fig. 14: Divisions of pavilion Mangala
SHANTIKA
PAUSHTIKA
JAYADA
Fig. 15: Width to Height Ratios for Temples (general)
94
ADBHUTA
SARVAKARMIKA
Table 7a : Names of height to width proportions for

Houses:
S. No.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Fig. 16: Vertical proportions of two storied Temple in Sarvakarmika (1:2)
mode
Name
Shantika
Paushtika
Jayada
Dhanada
Adbhuta
W: H
1: 1
1: 1
1: 1
1: 1
1: 2
Table 7b: Names of height* to width proportions for

Temples (general):
S. No.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Name
Shantika
Paushtika
Jayada
Adbhuta
Sarvakarmika
W: H
7: 10
6: 9
5: 8
4: 7
3: 6
Table 7c: Names of height* to width proportions for

Single storeyed Temples:
S. No.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Fig. 17: Ratios of Pillar Height, bottom diameter and top diameter
Name
Shantika
Paushtika
Jayada
Adbhuta
W: H
7: 10
1: 1
1: 1
1: 2
*The height is defined in two ways: including sthupi and excluding sthupi
(v.11.20)
Numbers
Apart from the proportions, the numbers of various
building elements was also considered important in the
design of buildings. For humans, odd numbers were
prescribed whereas for Gods the numbers could be both
even and odd. The texts prescribe a number of dimensions,
proportions etc. For example, the number of foreparts or
porches (bhadra) in a pavilion could be from one to four
(Refer Fig. 18).
CONCLUSION
Fig. 18: Numbers of foreparts in a pavilion
Building elements
The building elements like pillars could be designed with
a number of interdependent dimensions and proportions.
The bottom diameter of a pillar could be 1/10 to 1/8 of its
height; the top diameter equaled 11/12 to 5/6 of bottom
diameter (Refer Fig. 17). Thus, the proportional relation of
the pillar with other building components was maintained
and in this way the entire building was a set of inter-related
dimensions.
Ancient Indian architecture has a well defined series of

proportions for plan, elevation and building elements.
Proportions are prescribed for micro, meso and macro
levels which are time tested and are still appreciated in this
age.
This is mainly due to the nature of the Mayamatam text
itself and of its subject which allows the specialist to give
an interpretation, whether it be personal or guided by the
fashions of the time and place. The phenomenon is only
possible because inspite of their doctrinaire character, this
treatise, and others of the same group, leave to architects
the right to originality in the exercise of their art; in other
words, tradition is a guide more than it is a restraint.16
95
References:
1. Coomaraswamy, A. K. (1985), - Chapter 1, Aims of
Indian Art, p. 11, in Fundamentals of Indian Art-vol.1, The
Historical Research Documentation Programme, Jaipur.
2. Chhaya, H D (1998), - Vedic Spirit in Architecture,
Architecture + Design, p. 21-25
3. www.kamat.com/kalranga/people/pioneers/w-jones.
htm. (Retrieved August 24, 2004 )
4. http://asi.nic.in/index2.asp?sublinkid=28,
(Retrieved November 2, 2006 )
5. www.kamat.com/database/content/landscapes/
william_hodges.htm, ( retrieved November 2, 2006 )
6. www.newstodaynet.com/2005sud/05dec/ss8.htm,
(retrieved August 23, 2006 )
7. http://asi.nic.in/index2.asp?sublinkid=29, November 2,
2006
8. www.newstodaynet.com/2005sud/05dec/ss8.htm,
(Retrieved August 23, 2006)
9. http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/DLDecArts
GramOrnJones, (Retrieved August 23, 2006)
10. Acharya, P. K., (1934), Architecture of Manasara,
Illustrations of Architectural and Sculptural objects.
(Manasara series vol V), Oriental Books Reprint Corporation,
New Delhi.
11. Shukla, D. N., (1960), Vastu-Shastra Vol. 1, Hindu
Science of Architecture, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers
Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi 110055
12.Dagens, Bruno, (1994), Mayamatam, Vols. I & II, Indira
Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi & Motilal
Banarasidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi.
13. www.cardiff.ac.uk/archi/school/staff/hardya.html,
(retrieved August 24, 2006 )
14. Hardy, Adam, (1995), Indian Temple Architecture:
Form and Transformation, , Indira Gandhi National Centre
for the Arts, New Delhi-110001 & Abhinav Publications,
New Delhi
15. Dagens, Bruno, (1994), Introduction, pg lxiiii, in
Mayamatam, Vols. I & II, Indira Gandhi National Centre
for the Arts, New Delhi & Motllal Banarasidass Publishers
Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi.
16. ibid, - Introduction, p. ci
Acknowledgements:
The author is thankful to the following for their contributions
in this research work:
Prof. H. D. Chhaya, (Ex. HOD Department of
Architectural Conservation, School of Planning and
Architecture, New Delhi).
Akash Trust, Pondicherry
Rishabh Software, Vadodara
Ministry of Human Resource Development,
Government of India.
96
Evolution Of An Indigenous Planning

System
Ranjit Sabikhi
Town planning and urban design have existed in India from

ancient times and there are elaborate treatises testifying to
this fact. Reference has been made to them from time to
time but they have largely been interpreted in superficial
terms. The result has been the arid mechanical layouts that
characterise most of our current development.
The traditional towns and cities of India have certain strong
common characteristics. Sometimes based on geometric
layouts as defined in the ancient classics, they have largely
evolved and developed on an organic pattern of growth.
In fact the form represents a fusion of the geometric
framework with organic growth, and it is through the organic
development that the sequence of eloquent townscape
spaces have emerged, linking and unifying the fabric as it
evolved through the ages. These have found expression in
various historic towns throughout the country. In scale they
range from individual buildings to groups and clusters of
buildings, sometimes extending to the scale of large and
complex urban spaces. Together they bear evidence of the
richness of urban development through history in India.
exquisite examples of a
sophisticated system on
the basis of which light and
air may be brought into the
inner reaches of an intense
development without, in
any way, compromising the
basic needs of privacy. The
richness of the resulting
spatial structure with
its fluid relationship of
spaces on different levels
is a direct expression of a
totally inward looking plan
Datia Palace, Madhya Pradesh
form.
A similar richness and variety of spatial organisation is
available in another single building complex the fort at
Amber near Jaipur. Here within the fort walls is a complex
system of spaces which include a temple, the public and
private spaces of audience for the Maharaja and the series
of courts defining the private quarters of residence. All of
these are organised around spacious courtyards providing
Taking a selection of examples, one would like to draw

attention to this treasury of resources and inspiration
that have largely remained ignored in relation to current
developments in town planning and urban design.
Some of our forts and palaces are excellent examples of
single building urban complexes. One of the most interesting
of these is the palace at Datia. Built essentially as a solid
square fortress with very few openings to the outside it
presents on the inside a marvellous geometric organisation
of space on several levels. The courts on different levels
organised in relation to a strongly defined geometry are
Amber
a sequential relationship from part to part. But the most

interesting part of the complex is the area that consists
of the retainers residences. Small in size and sandwiched
to one side against the fort wall, these one and two storey
units are excellent examples of closely packed residential
development, each with their own courts and terraces at
different levels.
The period of Mughal rule saw the development of
beautiful gardens, palaces, forts, mosques and cities. Spread
Plan of Datia Palace, Madhya Pradesh
Fatehpur Sikri
97
Plan of Fatehpur Sikri
across the country from the Deccan to Kashmir and

beyond, these urban complexes reached their high point
of development under the rule of Akbar and Shahjehan.
Akbars palace complex at Fatehpur Sikri, though occupied
for a relatively short period of time, is the most significant
complex of urban design that has survived from the
Mughal period. Grand yet human in scale the series of inter
linked courtyards that define a hierarchical relationship
culminating in the great mosque and the triumphal gateway
(the Bulund Darwaza) constitute one of the most skilful
and sophisticated exercises in urban design.
Shahjehans contribution to architecture, town planning
and urban design was the most extensive throughout the
period of Mughal rule. Apart from the various individual
Shajahanabad
98
buildings such as the Taj Mahal at Agra, the Jama Masjid

at Delhi, and the Ana Sagar Pavilions at Ajmer, it is the
larger complexes such as the groups of buildings within the
Red Fort at Delhi, and within the Fort at Agra that testify
to considerable urban design skill. The integration of the
courts, gardens and pavilions have created some of the
most memorable historic spaces.
Shajehans tour-de-force, however, was Shahjehanabad
of which the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid and the fabled
Chandni Chowk or
Moonlight Way formed
an integral part. These
major buildings along
with the Fatehpuri
Masjid, on the axis of
which the Chandni
Chowk was aligned,
defined the basic axial
and geometric structure
of the city. Beyond
this framework, the
city developed on
an organic basis and
the rich tapestry of
mohallas and katras
emerged over time as
an expression of the
prevailing social order.
The resulting spaces Shajahanabad plan
defining the sequence of pedestrian movement have

built up a townscape of a high order. A townscape that
however due to lack of maintenance and over intensive
use, is no longer recognised and appreciated, and is fast
falling apart. Despite its unfortunate current condition, the
walled city of Shahjehanabad is a unique example of town
design. Outwardly cramped and congested, it has in fact an
organised network of semi-private and private courtyards
that occupy approximately twenty five percent of the total
space part of an order that is more meaningful both in
climatic and socio-cultural terms.
by the pink colour that was mandatory for the facades of all
its buildings. The spatial variety and richness of the palace
complex is in itself a unique piece of urban design.
Rajasthani towns are essentially settlements in the desert and
reflect very clearly the characteristics of an oasis. The Thar
Desert, except in parts, is not quite the vast sand wastes
that one imagines deserts to be. Nevertheless vegetation is
sparse and the dry climate results in dust laden winds which
scourge the area. Water is scarce, and lakes and natural
reservoirs are few and far between. Towns in Rajasthan are
placed far apart in the desert. Concentration is fostered and
the towns form densely packed settlements turning their
back on the desert. The closely spaced buildings and the
network of narrow streets effectively shelter them from
the worst of the elements, the sun, and the hot dust laden
winds. An enclosed and sheltered environment in the desert
is as much a psychological need as a physical one a haven
of refuge from the vast desert wastes.
This need for concentration, for huddling within the walls
of the city was further accentuated by the requirements
of defence. The isolated outposts in the desert needed
to be guarded and protected. The fort and the city walls
dominated the skyline of Rajasthani towns. From miles
away the forts and the battlements appear on the horizon
as symbols of impregnable cities.
Jaipur
The city of Jaipur is another example of traditional town

planning that has survived intact up to present times. Part
of a pattern with the great towns and cities of Rajasthan, it
is a sophisticated example of a planned grid layout imposed
on the landscape. Following the tenets of a vastu-purusha
mandala, the town has nine squares with the palace complex
dominating the central heart of the city. Despite this rigid
framework the organic development of the different
segments over time created a lively and vibrant city unified
Jaisalmer
This concentration in most of the Rajasthani towns has

resulted in a unique sense of urbanity. No matter how
small the town, the feeling of enclosure is paramount.
Climatological requirements have given form to the
nature of development. Variation between day and night
temperatures is considerable. Even during the day there
is much difference between the temperatures in the shade
and under the sun. It was essential therefore that as much
cool air be trapped as possible within the development at
night and retained during the day. The resulting form is a
series of deep courts, where the cool air is retained at lower
level and the sun does not penetrate very deep. Similarly the
streets are narrow and winding with the buildings on either
side much higher than
the width of the street.
The street itself being
in shade most of the
day, allows comfortable
conditions for movement
throughout the town.
Further the winding
development apart from
the breakdown of the
street into small visual
units, also helps to
enclose and retain the
cool air with only a slight
induced draft suggesting
a continuous flow of air
during the day.
A significant aspect of
Rajasthani planning is
the sequence of spaces
that characterise their
towns. This, in addition
to the sense of urbanity,
is one of the most
important lessons that
can be learned from
99
Rajasthan. The build up

at each level establishes a
clear relationship. In the
same manner as the rooms
around the central court
of each house is related to
it, the court of the house
is in turn related to the
street via the entrance or
chabutra. The street is not a
long indefinite space, but
is broken down into small
visually appreciable units.
A bend in the road, a
turn or a projecting house
defines each unit. Moving
Traditional street in Rajasthan
from space to space is a
pleasant experience, the
scene continually changing as one moves from one part
to another. Much of it has been conceived in terms of
pedestrian movement and everything is scaled down to the
speed at which one would move through the development
on foot. The street spaces also change according to use.
Every now and then an open space with its projecting
platforms serve as a meeting place for the area. Where more
intensive use and crowds are expected the street widens and
becomes comparatively straight. Spaces become wider but
only comparatively, so the sense of scale relating to the
gradual development from one part to another is not lost.
While most Rajasthani towns reflect many of these basic
characteristics, there is nonetheless a definite individuality
about every town. This is defined by the architecture of each
place. A peculiar treatment in each place helps to underline
the continuity of spaces in each town. In Udaipur almost
all the buildings are whitewashed, in Jaipur all are painted
pink and in Jaisalmer every building is built of the yellow
sandstone of the area. Although a certain overall order is
established there is no regimentation. Each unit is different
from the next, yet the basic harmony of relationship is such
that infinite variation is possible within its limitations.
Temple at Srirangam
It is only when one looks at the large numbers of historic

urban spaces and complexes across the country that one
becomes aware of the vast schism that exists between the
urban culture that once conditioned development and
the actual town planning and urban design achievements
in India of more recent times. Somewhere the sequential
chain of indigenous town planning broke down with the
decline of Mughal rule in India, and the pattern of planning
as followed under British colonial rule took an entirely
different course turning its back on most of what had gone
on before. It is the colonial inheritance that still dominates
our thinking in planning and urban design. Apart from
the fact that it was basically an alien imposition, this was
further complicated by the growing technological needs
of the industrial revolution. The railways and the motor
car in the hands of the civil engineer made demands on
a scale and in a fashion that put an end to all thoughts of
graceful urban spaces, pedestrian streets, and their part in
the integrated fabric of the city. Instead of the roads being
the arteries that fed the urban fabric they became vicious
The history of urban development in India will not be

complete without some mention of the temple cities of
South India. The temples at Srirangam, Chidambaram
and also the Meenakshi temple at Madurai are cities in
microcosm. Within the concentric wall enclosures are a
whole variety of gateways, halls and water tanks defining an
intricate organisation of spaces. Within the outer walls are
also a rich complex of dwelling units all forming part of the
vast urban canvas.
Temple at Srirangam- Plan
100
Imperial Delhi- Plan
scalpels that cut across the city dividing it into a series of

unrelated fragments.
Starting with the garrison towns and cantonments the
British went on to develop the civil lines in all the major
towns and cities. Inspired by Ebenezer Howards Garden
City idea and coupled with the need to keep themselves well
removed from the native quarters, these civil lines became
rambling grid layouts with isolated houses on vast areas of
land. They had none of the closeness and security of the
vernacular towns.
The surveyors layout dictated the straight roads and the
houses were set well back in their own haven of privacy.
With such layouts there could be no sense of enclosure or
urban design and the city became a sprawl.
The climax of the Garden City movement in India
was reached with the building of Lutyens plan for the
city of New Delhi. It was a degenerated concept of the
principles so clearly enunciated by Ebenezer Howard.
Howard had sought a balance between town and country
and a symbiotic relationship between the city and the
surrounding farmland that it depended upon, but this was
reduced in the Indian context to the picturesque suburban
sprawls that characterised the British settlements. Lutyens
plan for New Delhi provided two major urban complexes
the grand Central Vista dominated by the Secretariats and
the Viceregal Lodge (now Presidents Palace or Rashtrapati
Bhawan) and the commercial centre of Connaught Place.
Apart from these the city as such for all its splendid avenues
and trees lacked any urban character and was aptly dubbed
as an overgrown village.
Post Independence planning and urban design throughout
India has taken as its model, the surveyors layout and
the transplanted European concept of the city beautiful
as mistakenly interpreted from Ebenezer Howards garden
city idea. As space standards became more stringent the
same model was squeezed tighter and the same concept
of front, rear and side setbacks was reduced to a state of
meaninglessness in social and cultural terms. The whole
concept had been reversed and where previously with
narrow streets and closely built houses designed around
internal courtyards it had been possible to retain a strong
sense of privacy within individual units, now with the
European concept of outward looking houses even with
street widths of two or three times that of the traditional
lanes one had a sense of being on top of one another with
little or no privacy within the dwelling units. This approach
unfortunately permeates all aspects of planning today.
Architects and planners have had several opportunities to
build complexes that could have defined a new trend in urban
design in India. Most of them have sought inspiration from
post war British, American and European examples. These
have sometimes resulted in very pleasant developments,
but have failed to evoke any strong emotional response in
ethnic terms.
Many of the major projects executed in the last thirty years
have been those sponsored or developed by the government
agencies. Some of them have been built as part of the
Master Plans prepared for the growth of major cities. The
Delhi Master Plan which became law in 1962 envisaged the
building of several major urban complexes within the city.
It is of interest, at this point, to draw attention to the fact
that even in Europe at the turn of the century the well
Delhi
known Viennese planner Camillo Sitte had attempted to

remind his colleagues that the planning and design of urban
spaces and the location of major buildings consisted of
recognising the basic close-knit fabric of development and
the placing of important buildings and urban squares and
spaces as an integral part of it. The concept of isolated high
rise tower blocks or a series of separated multi-storeyed
buildings is a direct offshoot of the Modern movement.
As it gained momentum it developed a grammar of town
design and urban development that consisted essentially of
having a series of separate structures sometimes of varying
heights, defining and delineating the urban spaces of the
city. Coupled with this approach came the concept of areas
or buildings zoned for specific uses only.
Post war town planning in Britain and Europe espoused
this concept as a way out of the confused conditions
created in their urban areas by the pressures of the
Industrial Revolution. In the Indian context this had little
or no validity as it merely served to cut across the existing
framework of all traditional towns and cities, where a
close link prevailed between dwelling units and the place
of work- invariably a mixture of use even within the same
building was common. Instead of rationalising the existing
framework and recognising its merits and disadvantages, a
totally new concept of single use zone planning has been
introduced which apart from being unsuitable has been
largely found to be unimplementable.
Although, by and large, few architects and planners outside
government service have had the good fortune to obtain any
sizeable urban design commissions, they have nevertheless
been appointed as planners for several new educational
campuses. These have been spread all over the country
and this is an area where architects have had reasonable
opportunity to build and control a total environment. The
campus for the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur
and the Indian Institute of Management at Bangalore
are two notable attempts at creating unique integrated
environments.
Apart from these few large scale design projects one must
take note of the singular lack of creation of meaningful
spaces in relation to the large areas occupied by housing
in all our towns and cities. This is the fabric that keeps
steadily growing, and constitutes the largest imposition on
the environment. This has been, in almost all instances,
uniformly dull and banal and is the direct result of the
framework of controls imposed by our town planners. It is
the framework itself that now needs urgent re-examination.
101
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
Without a drastic overhaul of our set back regulations

and three dimensional controls we cannot possibly expect
the creation of any comprehensive urban structure.
Related to the subject of set backs and controls is also the
need for urgent re-evaluation of the validity of high rise
development in our context. There is no doubt that with the
growing pressures of urbanisation, greater intensification of
development is inevitable. But it is also clearly established
that considerably higher densities can be achieved with
comparatively low rise structures. This is not possible without
evolving a new framework of controls. A framework that
could also build into it greater consideration for townscape
and the development of a system of urban spaces.
Consideration could also be given to the establishment of
an integrated pedestrian and bicycle network of movement
that would extend over large areas without crossing any
traffic roads. Such a network is an urgent requirement
considering the fact that large numbers of our urban
population cannot afford any other system of transport.
Asiad Village, Delhi- Plan
The development of an indigenous framework for urban

design could, in individual towns and cities, attempt to give
identification to local customs and characteristics suggesting
deeper socio-economic and cultural roots. In this process we
need to assess traditional social and cultural institutions and
re-consider the validity of their re-expression in modern
terms. The katras, the mohallas and the chowks that were the
expression of the extended joint family system and clan
relationships also fostered a strong sense of psychological
and physical security. Some recent housing projects have
attempted to recreate these values in current terms and
these suggest new directions of interest. If the larger mass
of housing that is now being implemented on a colossal
scale by developers across the country were based on clear
concepts of spatial organisation, pedestrian linkages etc.,
it could contribute in a big way to restore some measure
of structure to the massive urban sprawl that characterises
most of our cities.
To build this anew, with the high pressures of urbanisation
that we currently face, constitutes a major professional
challenge. A challenge that can only be met with the total
commitment of available professional and management
expertise to the task of urbanisation. The present influx
of foreign planners being commissioned for several new
townships makes one feel somewhat wary of what the
future holds for us. A lot will depend upon the kind of
direction that our own committed professionals can help
to define.
102
Yamuna Apartment, Delhi
Transforming Historic City Centres:

Integrated Approach Of Urban
Design And Historic Preservation
Krupali Uplekar,
Assistant Professor,
University of Notre Dame, USA
Introduction
The cities we see today are a product of civilization and
urbanization as evolved in the past 400 years or more. Over
time, cities develop a complex form with a multilayered
structure. The numerous micro environments created within
the city affect the way in which it responds to the demands
of its inhabitants. Todays city is made up of many layers
of transformations- transformations that have taken place
due to a change in function, to which the city may have
responded; changes that demand the reconfiguration of city
areas etc. Such changes create an addition to or a reduction
from the citys quality. Every century has made its own
contribution to each city, while deducting and adding to the
its comprehensive growth story. Cities currently are facing
the cumulative effects of these various phases, which in total
could lead to problems in the near future. Some of these
phases would also result in severe and drastic consequences
leading to far reaching transformations.
From the beginning of the 20th century, the density that a
city was planned to carry had already been surpassed. This
resulted in creating sprawl on the outskirts, driven by the
people who wanted to enjoy the twin benefit of both the city
and the fresh and luxurious lifestyle of a rural environment.
(Trancik; 1986). A broad look at some of the major cities
around the world, as well as the studies conducted by various
urbanists, has revealed that the cities are undergoing a change
from being centre based cities to the periphery (Koolhaas;).
The cities are thus also getting fragmented and disturbed in
the process.
What makes a successful city and a positive urban
environment? What is common between Delhi, Kyoto,
Rome, Paris, St. Petersburg, Venice, Dresden, London
and Charleston?
day to day life of the local people, thus generating the right
kind of urban, architectural and preservation mix. The urban
setting is a magnet which pulls many. What brings people to
cities? High living and working standards, better employment
opportunities, entertainment facilities, and most important of
all, a city with its own special identity. But cities today have
changed beyond recognition due to the ever increasing needs
of their population and infrastructure. The need to move
rapidly through the city brought in high speed motorways, the
need to have high quality shopping brought in experimental
concepts like malls, together with shopping zones on the
outskirts of the city. These and other components of
Globalization have left a large impact on new building
construction everywhere, where a hi-tech building aesthetic
presents a culture of sameness everywhere, and cities lose
their special identity and differentiation in the world.
Lost spaces, underused and deteriorating spaces, provide
exceptional opportunities to reshape an urban centre, so that
it attracts people again to the centre and counteracts sprawl
and sub-urbanisation. Designers of the physical environment
possess the unique training needed to address these critical
problems of our day, and can contribute significantly towards
restructuring the outdoor spaces of the urban core.
The meaning of transformation
Knowledge of building materials was handed down from
one generation to the next in the past. These materials were
utilized and their effects and quality were continually assessed
over these years. Materials having the largest possibility of
fulfilling all requirements of the building industry were
the successful candidates and their usage was refined over
time.
But two things changed in the last century:
1) Advances in the use of synthetic products with little
or no research about their after-effects on health and the
environment. As the market changed from being composed
of a small number of people, with money to build large,
monumental constructions, into a situation where more and
more people could build and also consume a varied set of
products related to the building industry, little thought was
given to the after-effects of these materials.
The answer is people. People who

live in these cities, enjoy living here.
When queried, they usually define
these cities as historical in character, with
walk able urban density and a lively urban
core comprising of residences, cafes and small
businesses. Add to that, it is the people
who come from all over the world, to
see these destinations, as tourists. They
also generate considerable income,
assisting the economic growth of
these cities. In making a successful city,
a combination of factors are at work,
which each city strives to fulfill, but
many times struggles to reach.
The successful cities usually have
another thing in common. The
historical component of each of
these cities has been preserved in its
urban setting and integrated in the Parallel of historic city centres (Sketch courtesy: Leon Krier)
103
Traditional City Form
Modern City Form

(Source: Trancik, Roger; 1986)
Rome and the Vatican- City spaces with a flavour of its own
2) Precedence given to faster construction over quality. The

Media today plays a major role in peoples understanding
and acceptance of quality through trends. This was not the
case before. Media, being consumer oriented, now defines
the kind of quality we ask for. We see this not only in the
building industry but in every part of life through usage of
synthetic clothes, fast food products, and the resulting issues
of global warming and personal health etc.
As we enter the 21st century, there exist many pressures
on the younger generation, to work effectively and be a
good producer and to keep up with new developments and
technology. Technology has made life easier, but also difficult
and complex in a way, with fast-growing, user-friendly
appliances like computers, cell phones and other media
communications. Technology and Communication have
developed manifold with the introduction of airplanes flying
at 800km/hr, magnetic trains running at the speed of 300km/
hr and high speed information transfer. As globalization
slowly becomes a part of daily life and technology touches
new boundaries, these mediums also start having a major
imprint on urban planning and architecture. It is thus
that modern cities are losing their special urban structure,
their inherent compact densities and are being replaced by
scattered individualistic built forms. The urban spaces thus
created represents a loss of both quality and character.
Cities of Today
Cities today are in turmoil. This conflict lies between the acts
of clinging to a past and preparing for the future. When one
looks at Asia, one observes that large portions of the rural
population are moving to cities, with the hope of better
living and employment opportunities. This migration of
people causes enormous pressure on these cities, which are
consequently ever expanding. In this process, although old
104
architecture is reused, but new, fast and cheap construction

also finds a quick way into the citys planning system. The
most visible example of this change lies in China. A fast
developing nation, with vast amounts of labour power, China
has become a country that affects the economics of various
businesses around the globe. Shanghai is a developing city
with the potential of soon becoming the economic center
of Asia. The new extension of Shanghai, Pudong, is a fast
growing development on the east coast. Started since 1990,
it has already covered an area more than that of old Shanghai
towards the west coast of the city.
The old city centre has an engaging character with its
traditional architecture, and is popularly known as the
bund; this area represents the essence of Shanghai. New
developments in Pudong are intended to hold the same or
higher density than in old Shanghai. It has been designed with
new infrastructure ratios, new faade to the street ratios and
the FSI (Floor Space Index) which creates high rises, which
do not relate to the street or in any way contribute to the
urban character. A large number of people still frequent the
west coast of the old bund but the new developments fails to
attract large crowds on its fresh new streets.
China is still on a path of development and a timely relook
at current trends could make a difference. On the other
hand, developed nations like America, a land of credit
cards and virtual money, are very strong both economically
and politically. In comparison to the vast histories of other
countries, America is a very new nation, and thus has cities
which have been developed based on experiences of other
places. Although these new cities have been planned for
todays scale and urban fabric, they still show urban areas
like Chicago, New York and San Francisco, which possess a
special character where people flock to live. In these areas,
urban density is extremely high in downtown areas which
in turn are surrounded by residential neighborhoods of
a special or traditional character. On the other hand the
old European cities already have the advantage of a dense
historic urban fabric which can be reused

along with a new fabric which can be
created on the old available built-up space,
thus retaining the compactness of the past
historic city. However some of these cities
are facing a decline of population. Reasons
like unemployment and economic decline
have lead to people moving to other cities
with higher economic potential.
Over the past century, city centers have
transformed. Many cities have been left
with a reduction in both quality and
substance. The compact and dense urban
form of cities is lost in many cases. Most
new buildings are being planned to be
foreground buildings, with less emphasis
to its contribution to the urban and street
character. Therefore, it is urgent that we
Bund area in Shanghai. Shanghai was first developed by Europeans who used the city as a port and
integrate the new with the old, and integrate
business centre for China
the commercial with the residential. This is
important to create both urban character
and to invite pedestrian interest
People are becoming more aware of
these transformations. As they become
visible in every part of our lifestyle, it is
inevitable that people react to them. This
is manifested in the growing awareness for
green buildings and organic food, amongst
others, the starting signs of a movement
which should become a way of life in a
decade or two. Therefore, this age has
the potential of creating positive change
and will be looked at as an era where
people connected back to nature, an era
for the sustainability movement. There
are of course unacceptable undercurrents
also moving ahead under the garb of
sustainability, but this should ultimately
give way to a true connection to the natural
world through appropriate architecture and
usage of building materials. If this is to be Today Pudong, new development on the other side of the Huangpu River, is a place for high-rise
achieved, science and technology could residential and commercial development
prove to be important assets for architecture
and planning.
The role of Historic Preser vation in Urban
Development
Historic Preservation has been seen for a long time as a field
completely separated from architecture, urban planning and
the economic development of a city. It has even been seen in
a negative light as coming from a community of people who
actually intend to obstruct economic growth of an area by
creating dogmatic rules within the process of redevelopment.
But now, even the methodologies of Historic Preservation
are changing and there is an approach to an integrated view
of Preservation and Urban Design. Buildings from the past
are intrinsic to the planning system and need to have an equal
and well integrated place in the present urban fabric
Usage or the Urban Function of a preserved or restored
building is another important issue, which needs to be part
of the planning approach. Many a historic downtown in
major cities turn dead in the evenings, as their restoration
is directed at a Museum usage or to host only public
Sketch describing transformation of a German city centre

(Sketch courtesy: Leon Krier)
105
Balance of urban growth, relation of historic and new buildings

(Sketch courtesy: Leon Krier)
Diagram of Washington D.C showing how roadways and parking lots have
destroyed the consistency of the urban fabric. Without the paved surfaces
buildings have little, if any, relationship to one another
(Source: Trancik, Roger; 1986)
functions, with a lack of a full functional utilization of a

place, including for later working hours. This has led to
many places remaining just reflections or shadows of their
past. The integrated approach including both preserved and
new architecture could create an urban character that would
attract people to use these urban spaces for varying activities
throughout the day. As we integrate traditional architecture in
the contemporary context we need to find ways and means to
integrate preserved old buildings to act and function on a day
to day basis. And this usage must be based on contemporary
need. As, Jaquelin Robertson, the present laureate of the
Richard Driehaus Awards for Architecture and Urban
Planning said In an ideal world, landscape, architecture, urbanism
and Preservation would be practised as one profession.
I would like to conclude with another of Leon Kriers
sketches, indicating the necessity of creating a balance
between preservation and development. In todays
contemporary world we are living two parallel lives, where
we see futuristic architecture completely independent and
segregated from the preservation movement. Realization
of the fact that the historical buildings we treat as our past
are actually our future is extremely important. In fact, the
architecture that is being pursued today is an effect of the
Stockholm syndrome we survived at the beginning of the
industrial revolution.
As a tradition based architect but also as a preservationist, I
hope that more of us can be involved in combining the past
and the future to form a clear identity. We also hope to bring
together traditional new architecture and preservation as a
single entity, which it anyway was, formerly. From compact
106
void and solid spaces formed in classical city form, to the

condition of cities today in their fragmented state; the
outpouring of the city to the suburbs and the periphery; and
large formation of voids in the city centre. What potential do
these empty sites hold for the future and how the utilization
of these sites can help curb the problems of urban expansion
in rural areas to some extent are questions we need to answer
as we approach our near future.
References:
1) Duany, Plater-Zyberk & Co. (1999), The Lexicon of the
New Urbanism
2) Trancik, Roger (1986); Finding Lost Space Theories of
Urban Design; Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York
3) Koolhaas, Rem, Contemporary City
4) Urban Design Compendium (2000); English Partnerships
+ The Housing Corporation
5) Koolhaas, Rem (1995); Delirious New York: A Retroactive
Manifesto for Manhattan; The Monacelli Press, New York
6) Humpert, Klaus; Brenner, Klaus; Becker, Sibylle (eds.)
(2002); Fundamental Principles of Urban Growth; Mller
+ Busmann, Wuppertal
7) Duany, Andres; Plater-Zyberk, Elizabeth and Speck,
Jeff (1999); The Rise of Sprawl Suburban and the Decline
of Nation the American Dream; North Point Press, New
York
8) Krier, Leon; The Reconstruction of the European
City
The Raj Versus The Republic:

The Legacy Of Lutyens
Dr. William Koehler
College of Management
University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA
Asst. Prof. Madhu C. Dutta
Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston, USA
The present-day Indian capital of New Delhi has served
as the seat of rule for a full range of indigenous and
foreign empires, from various Hindu and Muslim dynasties
through the Mughals and the British. Its geographically
and economically strategic location and historic importance
made it the logical choice for the seat of the Republic of
India upon independence in 1947. Based on the plans of the
British architect Lutyens, New Delhis architecture reflects
that imperialistic heritage; as the seat of the Raj from 1911
until independence, Delhi bears a lasting impression of
British imperialist rule and culture. The question of the
appropriate path in Indias post-Independence struggle to
establish a renewed collective national identitya struggle
hampered by Partition, religious strife, linguistic and ethnic
diversity, poverty, and staggering misruleis open to
debate. Several key aspects are nonetheless clear.
The commission for the Indira Gandhi National Center
for the Arts (IGNCA), the most extensive project in
government architecture in the nations history, represented
a powerful opportunity to assert a post-colonial Indian
identity in Lutyens Delhi. American Ralph Lerner was
awarded the prize and commission; Lerners plan, however,
designed in conscious harmony with the overall style of
Lutyens, reinforced the Raj at the expense of the Republic,
and elevated 150 years of foreign hegemony over 5000
years of opulent evolution. A subsequent project of equal
importRaj Rewals Parliament Librarypresents us with
a fascinating counterpoint to Lerners IGNCA. While
Lerners project is embedded in the imposing Western style
of Lutyens and New Delhi, Rewals work speaks to all eight
incarnations of the ever-shifting capital of India, Delhi- old
and new.
Indias identity must be embedded in the legacies of the
rich, broad history of Indian civilizations while paying
homage to the more recent forcesindigenous changes,
conquest and colonizationthat have shaped India.
This identity must also reaffirm Indias freedom from
its colonial shackles, however mixed the view of those
shackles. Cultural production, in all manifestations, inheres
in a people; architecture in particular is a tactile, lasting
expression of national identity, literally rooted in a nations
soil, tying this form of cultural production most closely
to a nations collective sense of self. This paper explores
the implications of Lerners design for the IGNCA in
light of Indian history, culture, and politics, analyzing
the symbolic importance of the IGNCA with respect to
Indian national identity. In comparison with the designs
of other recent public buildings in Delhi, most notably the
Parliament Library of Raj Rewal, Lerners IGNCA design
is conspicuous principally for its reiteration of Britains
cultural stamp on India.
The city of 8 capitals

It would be misleading and even inflammatory to contend
that Delhi somehow represents India writ large; Delhi
is, nonetheless, undeniably Indian. From its birth nearly
three millennia ago as the Indraprastha of the Pandavas to
its 1911 designation as the new seat of the Raj, replacing
Calcutta, to its near-unanimous selection as the capital of
independent India in 1947, Delhi has been a showcase
of power, wealth, and culture. Delhi has served nearly
continuously as the cradle of empires of different stripes,
whether Hindu, Muslim, Christian, or (largely) secular, and
bears the legacy of its pivotal role in world history. Unlike
Washington, D.C., however, built specifically as the symbol
of a newly-independent nation, Delhi traces its history
as a capital to the seven prior royal centers of power that
comprise the city today.
The City of Eight Capitals:

Indraprastha
Quila Rai Pithora
Siri, Tughluqabad
Jahanpanah
Firozabad
Shajahanabad
New Delhi
( Source : www.greatestcities.com )
The Imprimatur of Lutyens

The Qutub Minar, Red Fort, and Humayuns Tomb may be
the most striking elements of Delhis opulent architectural
history, but an eclectic, nonetheless distinctive set of
styles, lending a characteristic feel to the city, has emerged
over time. Available materials certainly shaped design,
but Delhi is characterized by a creative, manifestly Indian
architecture, one partly inspired by forms and aesthetics of
those cultures that have shaped other aspects of Indian life.
The changes broughtand wroughtby the construction
of earlier manifestations of Delhi, such as Ferozabad and
Purana Quila, pale by comparison to those of the New
107
Babur
Humayun
Akbar
Jahangir
Shah Jahan
Aurangzeb Alamgir
Mohammed Ibrahin
Mughal Ascendence: The Red Fort (left) & Humayuns Tomb (right), ( Source : left- www.indianholiday.com; right- www.cs.utah.edu )
Delhi of Lutyens and Baker. The majesty of Lutyens

plan, from the India Gate to the Rajpath, from Connaught
Place to the Viceroys Palace, was one borrowed from Paris
and Versailles, Wrens London, and LEnfants Washington
D.C., from English and Greco-Roman ideals; indigenous
inspiration was slight, perfunctory, and adjunctive. The
orthogonal, Western geometry of the Viceroys Palace,
Secretariat, and Parliament buildings would appear perfectly
congruous in LEnfants Washington Mall, while the radial
streets of Lutyens design evoke the layout of Paris, with
the Rajpath as the Champs Elysee.
That Lutyens considered the splendor of Delhis
monumental architecture more nuisance than inspiration
only lends credence to the argument that New Delhi could
have just as easily been built in any world city. While this
does not detract from the exquisiteness of the Viceroys
house or elegance of the Rajpath, it does raise the question
of whether his design is appropriate for the capital of postcolonial India, and whether subsequent public architecture
in Delhi should buttress the prominence of New Delhi at
the expense of its seven sisters.
Majestic Hegemony
The British Empire arguably represented the prototypical
example of Hegemony as employed by the Italian Marxist
political philosopher Antonio Gramsci. Gramsci developed
a more nuanced, culturally dependent view of the myriad
ways in which a ruling classeither in the sense of direct
political or military rulers (political society) or intellectual
or economic elites (civil society)exerts power and
imposes not only its will, but also its values and worldview,
on subordinate groups or classes. The impossibility of
governing such a huge, poly-linguistic, culturally alien,
and religiously divided population against the will of the
majority meant that the British rule in India could only
succeed to the extent that Western ideals, technology,
economic systems, language, and cultural production held
allure for the Indian people. The British did not desire
(and, of course, could never have achieved) the neartotal extermination or expulsion of an entire indigenous
population, as occurred in Australia and North America,
but rather sought the political, economic, and cultural (read:
racial) subordination of the Indian people. The Indian
Administrative Service, the English medium school, cricket,
Kipling, the Indian Railway Service, and Victorias Jubilee
each did more to further English power in India during
the century preceding the establishment of New Delhi
than did the British armed forces. English colonial rule in
other places, from South Africa to Arabia, from the South
Pacific to the Caribbean, likewise flourished only when the
Empire successfully imposed its cultural hegemonythe
terms irony notwithstandingon subject peoples. Mere
political and military dominance allows for at most an
extractive economic relationship, as largely characterized
the situation of the Spanish Empires South American
colonies or Germanys African colonies. To govern, rather
than merely rule, the British Empire successfully reshaped
Indian culture and society, in no small measure through the
building of New Delhi.
The principal British objectives guiding the design for
New Delhia design that served as so much more than
New Delhi: The new colonial capital ( Image source: left- www.britannica.com; right- www.indiatravelnet.com )
108
Muslim versus Hindu, lighter-skinned Aryans versus darkerskinned Dravidians, higher caste versus lower castethe
British expanded their domination, whether directly or by
proxy, over nearly 500 million people with a markedly small
military presence, an administrative service completely
dependent on indigenous labor, and a somewhat larger
contingent of British merchants, professionals, dependents,
and those who had simply gone native. None of the
innumerable symbols of the subordination of the Indian
people to British colonial rule carries the same psychological
impact as does the towering domination of Lutyens New
Delhi over the sprawl of Indias greatest city.
Lerners Design
( Image source : www.unbf.ca )
simple urban planning, indeed as a manifestation of

British political and cultural hegemony over the Jewel
in the Crown, British Indiawere well-served by the
transformation imposed by this plan. Lutyens intention
was not to imbue the new symbol and administrative
headquarters for British rule of the subcontinent with a
sense of Englishness specifically, but rather to ensconce
India more firmly in the long arms of European culture.
The tangible, practical legacies of the nearly three centuries
of British presence in India span all aspects of life in
the subcontinent, from the Indian Railway Service to its
near-stifling bureaucracy, from its educational system to
the near-ubiquitous basic fluency in the English language
among Indias middle and upper classes. The utility of
many of these borrowings, integral to Indias present-day
burgeoning economic role in the global economy, has not
been lost on the Indian people.
No equivalent ancillary benefits, however, stem from the
majestic yet imposed grandeur of the architecture of Indias
capital. New Delhi serves primarily, enduringly, as a painful,
shameful reminder of Indias protracted subjugation to
the will of a small island nation 13,000 kilometers to the
northwest, the beauty of Lutyens masterwork evoking
the stateliness of a foreign occupying power. From the
time of Job Charnoks establishment of a trading post
in what is now Kolkata in 1690 to the departure of Lord
Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, in 1947, British
policies in India were geared towards the glory and benefit
of the British Empire, with the Indians serving as secondclass adjuncts to that empire at best. English rule was in
fact somewhat more nobly intentioned than that of almost
all other imperial powers, the United States included, if
only because the English displayed a more abiding sense of
long-term interest in development, rather than the simple
resource extraction that characterized, for example, Iberian
rule in South America. Tapping into internal divisions
Ralph Lerner seemed at the time an unlikely choice for

the project, as an Americanrather than an Indian, or
even a British, architectof still-limited reputation. His
winning planorthogonal, commanding, majestic, and
somewhat aloof and uninvitinghas won extensive praise
and heavy criticism. Issues of implementation aside
(Lerner was removed as the architect of record in 1993
for his excessiveeven by Indian standards!delays in
delivering plans and failure to oversee the work), critics
have described the work as derivative, unimaginative, and
unduly conformist, while his defenders have pointed to the
lush gardens he planned for the expansive courtyards, his
creative employment of materials, and his use of natural
light for the interior spaces.
The architectural elements themselves are subordinate to
the cultural, political, and symbolic significance of Lerners
design. Lutyens Delhi, as the ultimate expression of British
domination over India, is too much a part of Delhiand
of Indiato be forsaken, but it cannot function as the
central architectural motif of the new nation. There is
much to like in the plan of Lerners IGNCA; however,
no architectural workthis one far more so than most
exists in a vacuum. Sociocultural, political, and symbolic
concerns are paramount in public architecture; Lerners
design displays a blithe lack of awareness of the broader
issues involved in this project.
The Iconography of Independence
Its victory in the struggle to regain its sovereignty was
the beginning, not the end, of the new nation of Indias
campaign to establish an autonomous, autochthonous
identity. Partition and lingering communal violence,
unchecked population growth (and the ever-concomitant
unchecked poverty), aggressive, hostile neighbors,
mercantilist economic policies, dynastic one-party rule, and
staggering corruption had served until fairly recently to
relegate the Republic of India to second-class status on the
world stage. Indias emergence from the shadows of its long
history of subordination to foreign powers, whether Mughal
or British, has been a laborious process. As numerous
other monumental public construction projects, from the
Pyramids to the Great Wall, from Brasilia to Astana, have
clearly demonstrated, architecture and urban planning not
only reflect, but also define, regimes and civilizations. No
other person has been as thoroughly identified with postcolonial India as has Indira Gandhi Indira is India, India
is Indira was far more than a campaign sloganand no
other architectural undertaking has offered India the same
opportunity for self-representation as has the Indira Gandhi
National Center for the Arts (IGNCA). In the words of the
109
Lerners IGNCA ( Image source : Dutta, 2007 )
architect himself, the site for the IGNCA is quite similar

to the Mall in Washington D.C., in both its spatial character
and national importance (Lerner Associates website). This
opportunity, however, to recast the public face of India was
squandered by the endorsement of the design of American
architect Ralph Lerner.
Scores of architects submitted plans for the massive
undertaking, the largest public building expenditure in
Indias brief history, and the proposals reflected a wide range
of styles and influences. The privileging of Lutyens New
Delhi over the Delhi of seven previous imperial capitals
mirroring the history of India writ largebuttressed the
notion, within and outside the country, that Indias most
recent colonial overlord still dominated the national psyche
and shaped the countrys self-image. Rather than asserting
Indias independent identity, the design of the IGNCA left
the Republic in the long shadow of the Raj, reinforcing
Indias lack of national self-esteem at precisely the point in
time when the Indian people ought to have been embracing
their nations evolving role on the world stage.
The message Rewal conveys, while working under the same

stringent limitations that Lerner followed, is one that differs
markedly from that of Lerner. Rewals design draws upon
the Delhi of Humayun and Shah Jahan, of Victoria and
Indira Gandhi, of Lutyens and Baker, clearly intimating
that India is indeed greater than the sum of its unequalled
architectural, cultural, and political history. Rewals plan does
not deny the reality of the 250 years of British presence and
rule and the Rajs lasting impact on the maddening pastiche
that is India; nor, however, does it reduce India to the simple
status of former colony whose significance derives largely
from its Commonwealth status and whose present-day
achievements stem largely from the civilizing foundation
Rewal for the Republic

The circular, jaggedly rectilinear design of Raj Rewal for the
Parliament Librarya project similar in scope, though not
in architects fees, to the IGNCAdraws its understated
inspiration from the geometry and attention to detail of
Hindu and Muslim architecture of the past millennium,
rather than from the grandiose splendor of the Lutyens
buildings that surround it. Rewals plan draws its stature from
its landscape, while Lerners IGNCA is built commandingly
upon a commanding site. It is nonetheless impossible to
overlook Rewals library. Rewals design demonstrates how
utilizing geography differs from working with it. Internally, the
spaces are warm and inviting despite the buildings scale.
110
Rewals Parliament Library ( Image source : www.architectureweek.com )
laid by benevolent English (read: white) rule. Rewals

Parliament Library may not embody the full grandeur of
Lerners IGNCA, but it does nevertheless embody India.
For such a work of monumental public architecture, the
latter is infinitely more significant.
Metonymy versus Synecdoche
No built environment exists is a vacuum; architecture
cannot be isolated from considerations of physical,
material, or cultural surroundings. Ralph Lerners IGNCA
is a beautiful, elegant complex, conveying simultaneously
the splendor of its geographic milieu, the majesty of nearby
architectural works and the stateliness of its namesake and
purpose. Lerners design remains intrinsically troubling,
though, more for what it is not than for what it is. Lerners
design blends too well with its surrounding early 20thcentury government buildings, thereby identifying the New
Delhi of Lutyens as Indias architecture. One may argue
correctly that the monumental British architecture in Delhi
has become yet another aspect of the unbelievably rich
built environment of India. The metonymy of equating
one aspect of this varied history to the totality of Indian
architecture is in itself a fatal flaw. When that one aspect
happens to be the shining example of British rule in India,
an India still beset by nearly insurmountable difficulties in
establishing a secular, modern character independent of
the long shadow of colonialism, this flaw grows to epic
proportions. Architects designing private construction can
sometimes safely ignore the broader cultural implications
of certain design decisions. Public construction of almost
any type, but especially showcase public spaces such as
the IGNCA, must be planned from the outset with such
considerations at the forefront. Lerners Indira Gandhi
National Center for the Arts conveys a certain message about
the state of Indian architecture and culture: it suggests that
indigenous forms of architectural expression are inferior
to those created by Indias British colonizers, that Indias
national identity derives its significance in large measure
from its colonial past, and that Western cultural production
is inherently superior to that of India. In stark contrast,
Rewals Parliament Library, which suitably complements
the adjoining Parliament Building of Lutyens, is an eclectic
yet coherent work that mirrors the nation itself: proud and
respectful of its history in all eras, but unafraid to embrace
modern developments and sensibilities. The counterpoint
that Rewals Library represents, highlights the ideological
shortcomings of Lerners IGNCA in stark relief. That
Rewal is an Indian architect, while Lerner is an American,
should be immaterial; what matters is that Rewals work
acknowledges, and incorporates elements of the rich
traditions that comprise Indias architectural landscape.
and historically Indian styles. While paying homage to the

strong, if still foreign, British influence on Indian culture and
society, as epitomized in the Viceroys Palace, Government
Square, and Rajpath, Rewals Parliament Library smoothly
blends, and harmonizes with, the architecture of all the
major influences on Indian culture. Rewals design thus
expresses a vision of the Desh that acknowledges, values,
and assimilates the series of cultures that have left their
marks on it. By subordinating each subsequent ruling
culture under the historical umbrella of a mosaic nation,
the message of the design becomes one of complexity, of
continuity and cohesion within change. The problem with
Lerners work may therefore ultimately not be so much that
it privileges the colonial masters over the liberated subject
peoples. Rather, the fault lay in the fact that a country with
as fragile a sense of national patriotism as India can only
establish itself through an expressed ideology, a set of
national myths and symbols, and cultural production that
are as inclusive and pan-cultural as possibleneither
Hindu nor Muslim, neither urban nor rural, neither Tamil
nor Bengali nor Punjabi. Lerners IGNCA does not reflect
the multiplicity that is India and thus serves to detour the
Republic of India from the staggering, Herculean task
of uniting those without a common language, ethnicity,
political history, religion, or lifestyle into one India. Such
is the only path that holds continued promise for a country
still struggling to become a nation.
References:
1. Ganju, Ashish M.N. (1999), Lutyens Bungalow Zone,
Architecture + Design, Nov-Dec.
2. Irving, R.G. (1981), Indian Summer, Yale University
Press- London.
3. Lang, J., Desai, M. and Desai, M. (1997), Architecture and
Independence, the Search for Identity - India 1880-1980.
Oxford University Press- Delhi.
4. Mital, Ranjana. (1999), The Dilemma of Densification,
Architecture + Design, Nov-Dec
5. Niranjana, T., Sudhir P. and Dhareshwar, V. (1993),
Interrogating Modernity, Culture and Colonialism in India.
Seagul Books- Calcutta.
7. Taylor, B. B. (1992), Raj Rewal, Mapin- Ahmedabad
What is India?
Perhaps no nation is as impossible to characterize, to
summarize in a few stock phrases, as is India. Thus,
categorizing a particular architectural workor even an
entire urban schemeas Indian is certainly problematic;
the many streams that have washed across India are all part
of Indian soil. That soil, however, has tended to break
down and assimilate, over time, any foreign architectural
influences. The plan of Lutyens, somewhat understandably,
drew primarily upon Western styles and European tastes;
that Lerners design did so as well is less understandable.
Rewals Library does not clash with Lutyens design, but
is nevertheless far more evocative of more traditionally
111
Dismantling Cosmopolitanism:
Transformations In The Sacred
Heritage Of The Non-Monumental
In The Konkan
Smita Dalvi
Assistant Professor,
Pillais College of Architecture, New Bombay
Mustansir Dalvi
Professor,
Sir JJ College of Architecture, Mumbai
The main findings described in this paper are the result of
a project called
Navi Mumbai (Raigad) Heritage Projecti:
Identification, listing and grading of structures and precincts of
cultural, historical or architectural importance that merit heritage
conservation in Navi Mumbai notified area, which falls under district
Raigad.
This project was completed in April 2006 and submitted to
the MMRDAs (Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development
Authority) Heritage Conservation Committee. The project
set down guidelines for preservation specific to the identified
structures in Panvel, Uran and surrounding villages in
Raigad district in the Konkan. It is from this region that
this paper derives its case studies in transformation of the
sacred heritage of the non-monumental architecture. In
addition several examples from other parts of the Konkan
shall be cited for comparison.
The Konkan
The Konkan includes Thane, Greater Bombay, Raigad, and
Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts. Raigad forms the historic
region of western India, immediately south of Bombay. In
Raigad, Uran and Panvel are the main urban centers, and
Alibag is a district center. Raigad, on the Konkan, established
foreign trading ports with Greece as early as the 3rd century
BC. In the 17th century it became a Maratha stronghold.
With the advent of the Portuguese and British, the port
cities were further developed, yet now have lost their former
importance. In the 70s, New Bombay (Navi Mumbai) was
carved out of existing districts Raigad and Thane. Navi
Mumbai was developed as a complete self-contained new
township across the harbor from the Mumbai Metropolis.
Navi Mumbai
Although popular belief has it that the area was tabula rasa,
the reality is that the areas appropriated to form the new city
are historically significant to the development of Western
Maharashtra. The Towns of Panvel and Uran, within the
Navi Mumbai Notified Area in fact predate Mumbai in
historical vintage. There are several significant sites in the
region dating back from the early eighteenth century at the
peak of the Peshwahi period, and building activity flourished
through to the time of Indian Independence. These reflect
the constructive genius of the original inhabitants.
(i) The Navi Mumbai (Raigad) Heritage Project was funded by the
MMRDA, carried out by Smita Dalvi (Project Supervisor) and her team
from Pillais College of Architecture, Panvel.
112
Panvel and Uran

The historic settlement of Panvel is 300-years old,
developed around trade routes (both land and sea), during
the time of Maratha/Portuguese/British dominance of the
Konkan region. During this time, building activity in these
townships was generated by the affluence due to trade.
This can be seen in the large Wadas and the buildings that
came up during the relative affluence of the Peshwahi and
post-Peshwahi period. Uran is a more contemporary name
given to Karanja, formerly an island, or Bet. Urans unique
context is that of a harbor whose use dates back to the
Mauryas and Silharas. The waters around Uran have been
witness to several sea battles between the Marathas, the
Portuguese and the British.
The Patronage of families- The culture of the common
folk
The social/religious structure in the towns of Panvel and
Uran was/is eclectic. There are large populations of Hindus,
Bohras and Jains who form the trading communities. There
used to be a significant presence of Bene-Israeli Jews, but
these have dwindled over recent times. The impetus of
trade and the social pro-activeness of its trader families
made towns like Panvel and Uran market centers. Several
influential families made important contributions over the
last three hundred years to the creation of an urban image.
These were either merchants or families with administrative
clout.
These affluent families like the Bapats, the Gulves, the
Puraniks, the Banthias, the Parmars, the Munots, the
Bhaijis and the Tungekars seamlessly plugged into the
extant traditions, enhancing them with their wealth and
continuing older values. They became the patrons and
city fathers, building mosques, temples, derasars and water
tanks for public use, not as kings showering largesse, but as
citizens participating in the communal processes of urban
life. In the process they created several cool town centers, for
both sacred and social uses (Heschong; 1990), that still exist, if
only precariously, today. Many of the structures built under
their patronage still carry associations of local history
and collective memory. All urban communities, whether they
have developed gradually over time or have been created deliberately
are an expression of the diversity of societies throughout history
(ICOMOS; 1964). The fact that the larger locations of
Panvel and Uran on this part of the coast did not form
any seat of power, but derived their sustenance from trade
and transport, points to the domestic nature of their sacred
sites. These religious structures are indicative of the public
projects in the towns, of greater patronage from the wealthy
citizens and spaces for community participation.
Sacred Architecture- The monumental and the
domestic
There are two discernable types of sacred architecture
in the Konkan. Certain temples and mosques display a
monumental character, and are significant in their presence
over the city skyline. Monumental temples display the
Peshwahi or Maratha style, which combine the features
of Dravidian and Islamic style in a graceful synthesis,
especially in the stucco articulation of the shikhara and in
the interiors. The Shikharas of these temples tower over the
surrounding landscape forming landmarks in the skyline.
Islamic architecture displays the Deccani style, emphasized
by bulbous masonry domes, either over the prayer halls or
The monumental Ballaleshwar Mandir, Panvel and the domestic Virupaksha Mandir, Panvel
the tomb chamber in Dargahs. Such sites, although located

strategically, are few in number.
Far more ubiquitous and pervasive is the non-monumental
sacred architecture following a domestic scale. It is this second type
that creates the urban fabric of the towns of the Konkan.
This cuts across religious lines. Most part privately built
places of worship display a typical form of construction
associated with the Konkan. This typology has emerged out
of locally available building materials and building/craft
practices, and responds to the climate of the Konkan. The
non-monumental, privately built places of worship display
typical Konkan style timber frame construction with
sloped roofs, detailed with open fronts of teakwood framework
with infill. This typology has emerged out of local
materials, craftsmanship and climate. As such they share
such characteristics with the domestic architecture also
predominant in these towns. The domestic typologies in
the Konkan are
1. Wadas: courtyard houses with timber frame
construction, typifying a particular way of life.
2. Muslim houses with front verandahs and highly ornate
neo-Baroque features on facades, sometimes combined
with vernacular features in timber.
3. Colonial Bungalows adapted to a local lifestyle.
Domestic Architecture- Wadas of Panvel
construction and deep sloping roofs, fitting in neatly within

the residential fabric of the townscape.
A cosmopolitan self-similarity
These buildings are truly non-iconic, giving no overt symbols

of faith and one could be easily mistaken for another. It
is only in the interior spaces that the accoutrements of
religious ritual show the places to be what they really aremosques, temples, derasars, agiarys or synagogues. Sacred
architecture in Navi Mumbai is best read in continuity with
similar sites all over this part of the Konkan in that they
reveal a non monumental, non iconic aspect, that is at once
contemplative, urbane and self similar.
The Domestic scale is significant in the way it is reworked

into the design of the sacred structures. When built,
irrespective of religious denomination, they take from the
building traditions of the domestic houses, built of timber
These modest structures stand as functional objects for

active reverence, not as iconic image builders for a particular
community. This indicates a remarkable cosmopolitanism
seen in the development of Konkan society over the last two
The Jami Masjid, Owe; The Ramdas Maruti Mandir, Panvel and the Beth-El Synagogue, Panvel
113
hundred years, with an interchangeability

of surnames, clothes, food habits
and rituals, and the all-pervasive use
of Konkani-inflected Marathi as the
language of public discourse.
Case Study- Temple
The Podhi Mandir, in Panvel is a timber
frame structure supporting a hipped The Jami Masjid, Uran- exterior aspect and interior aesthetic
timber roof. Typically, the entire temple
front, instead of having a solid wall, is in the form of
timber framework with an infill of vertical MS rod grill.
This very traditional Konkan style open front temple is
organized into a sabha-mandap and a Garbhagriha which
are separated by a grill above the lintel level, and MS rods
below. The sabha-mandap typically is divided into a nave
and two aisles along the supporting posts with very low- The Jami Masjid, Vijaydurg (left), The Jami Masjid, Achra (right)
level wooden railings. It shares all its typological features
of planning and construction with the Virupaksha Mandir.
The temple is elegant and well preserved, a much-loved
place of worship.
Case Study- Precinct
The Deulwadi Precinct in central Uran, has ten temples
strung out in a small area, displaying both a domestic and
a monumental scale. The proximity of these many temples
makes this area sacred both in its extent and its usage, and
is identified by a banyan tree, well, deepa stambhas and open
space. The Ganpati Chowk with Hanuman Mandir, Ganesh
Mandir and Lakshmi Mandir abuts the road on one side and
Ram Mandir at the starting point of the busy Bazaar Peth.
Case Study- Mosque
Mosques in the Konkan are mostly built with private initiative.
Several features on the mosques conform to the domestic
architecture of the Muslim town houses, ornamented with
Islamic elements from Bijapur, as well as Classical elements
like Corinthian pilasters. This mix is representative of
turn of the century Muslim domestic architecture. The
Jami mosque in Uran was built by Hazrat Shaikh Mulla
Husain Tungekar a prominent and wealthy citizen from
Urans Konkani Muslim Community, and represents,
among many other sub-cultures, the contribution of the
Konkani Muslims to its development. On the other hand,
the mosques at Vijaydurg and Achra, although accorded
the status of Friday Mosques, are entirely functional and
domestic in scale reflecting on the everyday qualities of
practised faith in its aspect.
The Deulwadi Precinct, Uran
114
The Umrigar Agiary, Uran and the Jain Derasar, Kapad Galli, Panvel
Case Study- Agiary

The Umrigar Agiary in Uran (1904), a Nhallo aatish (small
fire) was built as a private initiative by Sheth Kuverji Adelji
Umrigar and Sheth Khurshedji Adelji Umrigar. In the
beginning of the 20th centuryii there was a sizable presence
of Parsi community (around 800) in Uran. These families
were mainly in the business of distilleries. Presently, only a
handful remain.
Case Study- Derasar
The Jain Mandir in Panvels Kapad Galli is a nonmonumental, Town Derasar (Jain Temple), built in timber.
The small but influential Jain community mainly consists of
merchant families, their houses and shops being either on
the same street or in nearby areas. The influential Parmar,
Munot, Banthia and Gandhi families came together to
construct the much-needed Derasar.iii
(ii) Plaque on the verandah of the Agiary & conversation with the present
caretaker, Mr. Kersi Sui
(iii) Conversation with Shri Lalchand Parmar, a trustee
Synagogues in Nandgoan, Panvel and Revdanda
An unselfconscious syncretism
The cosmopolitanism seen in Kokani society over the last
three centuries is reflected in the lifestyle and mores of all
Konkanis, whether Brahmin, Koli, Bohra, Dakhani, Parsee,
Jain or Jew. In no one community is this displayed better
than in the Bene Israelis- the native Jews of the Konkan.
The Bene Israelis served variously with the Maratha
Angrias, the Siddhis of Janjira and the East India Company
(Israel, Date NA). Small pockets of these communities still
exist all over the Konkan, although many had migrated to
Israel upon its formation. In the 1971 census, there were
850 Bene Israelis counted in the Kulaba District. Today,
approximately 5,000 live in Bombay and the surrounding
towns and villages of Maharashtra (Schwartz, 2003).
In the erstwhile Kulaba (now Raigad) District the Bene
Israelis are completely integrated with their neighbors.
Even today they have surnames like Penkar, Divekar or
Ashthamkar (identified by place names), men have names
like Bapuji, Abaji and Tanaji, and women are called Sonabai,
Bayna or Ambai. They accepted the traditions and practices
of both the Muslims (specially in the sacred- masheed/masjid
for synagogue and Kazi for Rabbi) and of the Hindus
(weddings rituals include the sakharpuda etc).
In this day-to-day manner, the Bene Israelis practise an
unselfconscious syncretism, which is the hallmark of the
Konkan.
Between 1840 and 1896, the Bene Israelis established 12
synagogues all over the Konkan, from Bombay to Revdanda.
Few of these are extant and in use today. However, they
too display a domestic scale like other sacred spaces in the
Konkan. These synagogues are generic examples of the
non-monumental, community built, Konkan style, place of
worship, in timber construction reflecting the unique generic
pattern of building irrespective of religious affiliations.
Built in timber on brick or laterite masonry, these masheeds
are identifiable as Jewish only in the accoutrements of their
interiors with the Teba, the Hechal and the Tamid.
The Beth-El Synagogue was built in 1849 on Panvels main
street. It is well maintained and still in active use today with
several faithful visiting it from the region and even abroad.
Far less well looked after is the Jewish Burial Ground in
Panvel occupying a small plot with mainly neglected graves.
The presence of this burial ground is an indication of the
presence and the social significance of the members of
the Jewish community in Panvel in the 19th and the first
half of the 20th century. Many tombstones and cenotaphs
bear inscriptions in three languages, Hebrew, English and
Marathi simultaneously. A few older looking tombstones
however bear inscriptions only in Hebrew. The names
suggest that the Jewish people here had adopted Marathi
surnames, like Bension Solomon Bhoparkar or Sasoon M.

Khandalkar. There is a significant epitaph in Marathi on a
tombstone addressed Dear Husband. iv In a poetic vein,
the wife compares her husband with Ek-vachani Ram and
Gangajal and seeks Gods blessing for the same husband
for the next seven births. The inscription is signed by one
Ruby-Bai Benjamin Chincholkar.
The example of the Bene Israelis is replicated in the
traditions of several other communities in the region.
The covert syncretism forms the binding glue that holds
the community together. This is further embedded in the
structures created by these communities, from abodes to
places of worship. Public life and the public aspect of
buildings emerged over several generations of unchanging
existence and got concretized. Change was slow in coming,
but as in the case of Panvel and Uran, when it did, it was
fast, and is irreversible.
The palimpsest of Navi Mumbai
Navi Mumbai came as an external project palimpsest
on this extant situation. A project not of the making of
local inhabitants but that of Bombay, across the pond, as
it were, that kick-started the accretion of knowledge and
urbanization, brought in change at a pace unimagined before
and over thirty years engulfed two municipal councils older
than Bombay. This is not to say that the change has been
negative. This part of the Konkan has been deprived of
development as compared to the other parts of Maharashtra
and the project of New Bombay plugged the Konkan into
the larger process of development of Maharashtra. This
(iv) The entire Chincholkar epitaph (translated from Marathi) reads as
follows:
Benjamin Aaron Chincholkar (mechanic) B. 1910 D. 1983
Beloved husband,
You have made the great leap in the sky
to the other side.
Without you I cannot recognize myself.
You were caring, and steadfast like Rama,
who kept his singular vow,
and all that I have left now
Is the memory of your name.
Whatever you said turned out true
and I can only recollect those experiences.
You loved your children beyond compare,
that love is left with us.
I have never stopped reminiscing,
all that was good about you,
pure as the Ganges,
I ask for you in all my later lives.
This is all the blessing I ask from the almighty.
Your wife
Ruby-bai Benjamin Chincholkar
115
The remains of an earlier townscape, and the challenge of RCC
has brought with it affluence, affordability, an increased

spending power that has changed desires and aspirations.
Sites of contest and revision
The rate of change in municipal towns is unregulated and
largely ad-hoc. This has led to the inevitable proliferation
of RCC framed multi-storey buildings that are, very quickly,
changing such towns that have a composed face to start
with. Scale, construction, technology and aspect are fast
transforming the towns that had hitherto developed slowly.
As in every area surrounding a metropolis like Mumbai,
Panvel and Uran too are pies being subdivided by the
builders lobbies for speculation and profit. In such places
only heritage legislation may stand between the older urban
character and contemporary anonymity. The builders target
plots in the middle of towns and those of the largest size.
Thus the older large and sprawling wadas in these towns
that formed the rich backdrop of community life are now
under threat of being lost forever. The current owners of
the wadas, who face high costs trying to maintain these large
spaces, feel compelled to let go of their estates for the large
sums the builders offer them. The busy roads on which
these wadas abut that are scaled to these G+1 structures,
now become scale-less when G+4 buildings tower over
these narrow streets. The fact that these new constructions
are patronized by the citizens without much resistance is
indicative of upward mobility and a lifestyle based on cities
much larger than Panvel and Uran.
Dismantling
identities
the
cosmopolitan-
Seeking
new
One manifestation of this is to upgrade ones living

condition and environment, at least as perceived by the
Hanuman Mandir, Panvel- before and after Jirnoddhar
community. This has led for the different communities

in the Konkan, which until this point existed in an urban
cohesiveness, to seek an identity in their structures that now
represent individual religious identity and not the social
identity that was for long its hallmark. The influx of wealth
also expresses itself in the desire for the monumental. Thus
sacred sites are now ground zero for these expressions.
The tamir of mosques and the jirnoddhar of temples has
led to the dismantling of several domestic scaled buildings
to be replaced by the monumental shikharas, minarets or
domes all built in the technology of reinforced concrete,
all expressing a larger than life semantic, quite without
aesthetic precedent, where big is big for its own sake.
Mosque on M.G. Road, Panvel- Photo from 1993 (left) and today (right)
Aspirations driving change

The irony here is that this change is emanating from the
community itself. The attitude here is not self-reflexive, but
mainly aspirational. The community is at ease with these
changes. What has become irrevocable is that the image of
the city is being transformed into one where the skyline now
clearly identifies the new changes as religious landmarks
that are visibly different from one another. The dismantling
of the older non-monumental self-similar structures also
signals a de-cosmopolitanization of the small towns of
the Konkan, creating a rip through the fabric of urban
community.
Most of the non-monumental religious structures are
built in a common unselfconscious tradition that is largely
self-similar and cuts across religious lines. It is these
characteristics, now fast disappearing, that need a priority
in preservation.
The case for controlled change
The Virupaksha Mandir, Panvel- then and now
116
One point in the favor of controlled change is that the

models for change may come from the heritage building
themselves. There are clear examples of temples that are
G+1 for functional purposes that do not detract from the
scale consistent with these areas and in fact offer a distinct
typology that can be followed whenever the pressures of
expansion are evident. In the Vinayak Mandir at Kegaon,

a Ganesh temple built with private initiative, is located
non-intrusively in the wadi of Kegaon village. Here a
timber framed Mangalore hipped roof supported on TW
rafters forms an attic level overlooking the main mandapa
below. The attic level is formed with teakwood boarding
on teakwood joists. The front verandah has a lean to roof
in timber. Above the garbagriha rises a domical shikhara on
a drum, but of a scale much smaller than the height of the
mandapa itself, which has the aspect of a typical Konkani
town house.
community at large that change, such as it is, is inevitable,

and the old is constantly under pressure to give way to
the new. This is where the issue of preservation through
legislation comes into direct conflict with its ultimate
beneficiaries.
In the Raigad district, as in the rest of the Konkan, the issues
of continuity and change are confronted, rather awkwardly.
The processes of change depend on whose point of view
is being taken. The several points of view, though legitimate
in themselves, sit side by side uneasily- where the first step
in addressing one point of view would be to the perceived
detriment of the other. Here, the sacred sites reflect both
the need to preserve, as well as for the local community, the
desire to change.
Whereas one cannot make a case for up-gradation to stop
merely by putting these building in a list and legislating,
the heritage gets a much better chance of being conserved
by gaining acceptance as ones own heritage within the
community itself. Any heritage listing will need a sustained
programme of awareness creation in order to be successful
on the ground.
Vinayak Mandir, Kegaon
Guidelines for preservation

As part of the Navi Mumbai (Raigad) Heritage Project
notifications, specific guidelines were proposed for the nonmonumental sacred spaces in terms of possible changes,
repairs, additions, alterations and renovations:
1. Changes, repairs, additions, alterations and renovations
required on religious grounds, mentioned in sacred texts,
or as part of holy practices laid down in religious codes
should be permitted. These are subject to their being in
accordance with the original structure, design, aesthetics
and other special features.
2. Utmost care should be exercised while permitting
jirnoddhar or tamir of the non-monumental, Konkan
style shrines with timber construction and of temples in
Peshwahi style, in order to preserve the few remaining
structures in these styles, their original scale and aesthetics,
in material and detail. The repairs should be carried out, as
far as possible employing the same material, construction
techniques and ornamentation.
3. When balance FSI is available on the plot, additional floor
space, if desired, may be added to a ground storey shrine
by introducing an upper storey. This should be done by
carefully dismantling the existing timber roof and putting
it back on the upper storey. The upper storey should be
constructed in the same construction style, fenestration
design and materials as the lower storey. As far as possible
all existing elements should be reused.
4. Addition or reconstruction involving more than ground
plus one upper storey should not be permitted.
Heritage Conservation and Fast Knowledge
The issue of heritage conservation has developed a keener
resonance in the era of fast knowledge. Heritage legislation
breathes easier in an environmental stasis, when buildings
so identified continue to remain so and only face the natural
structural ravages of time. It is when the buildings are fore
grounded in the identity and aspiration of its users or the
This analysis offers some vital clues whether to conserve such

sacred sites and how to go about doing it. A strong case has
emerged in favor of their conservation. Whether the sacred
sites are large or small, whether they are at the center of the towns, in
the neighborhoods, or in the deepest countryside, establish ordinances
which will protect them absolutely- so that our roots in the visible
surroundings cannot be violated. (Alexander, 1977) Absolute
protection calls for specificity in legislation and notification.
When it comes to places traditionally accepted as sacred by
an entire community, no other method of preservation can
be adopted before ensuring the preservation of such sites
by law. Not doing anything will mean a place falls into ruin
at natures pace. Intervention, if misguided or with malafide
intent can destroy heritage overnight.
References:
1. Heschong, L. (1990), Thermal Delight in Architecture,
the MIT Press.
2. International Charter For The Conservation And
Restoration Of Monuments And Sites (ICOMOS) (1964)
3. Aalekar, Dr. B. (1970) Panvel Shaharatil Mandire.
Navakal(Marathi), Daily Edition, May 11.
4. Alexander, C., et al. (1977), A Pattern Language, Oxford
University Press, N. Y.
5. Centenary Souvenir of the Panvel Municipal Council
(1957)
6. Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Thana dist (1882).
Vol XIII, part I
7. Israel, B. (date NA), The Bene Israel of India, OUP.
8. Schwartz, B. (2003) Indias Bene Israel, Bnai Brith
Magazine, Summer Edition. From < http://bnaibrith.
org/pubs/bnaibrith/2003_sum__india.cfm?india=3 >
(Retrieved December 10, 2007)
9. Uran Municipal Council, Centenary Celebration Volume
(1987)
117
Developing Local Capacities For

Conserving Heritage At Heritage
Sites In The Asia And The Pacific
(With Specific Reference To The
Indian Context)
Richard A Engelhardt
Senior Advisor to UNESCO
Assistant Director-General for Culture
I
THE INTERFACE BETWEEN CULTURE,
CONSERVATION AND TOURISM
DEVELOPMENT
Fig. 1: The cultural patrimony handed down to the present generation presents
a tremendous resource for development particularly in rural areas where a
strategy of urbanization and industrialization is inappropriate.
Over the past three decades, India, like many developing

countries in the Asia-Pacific region, has experienced
unprecedented economic prosperity brought about by
strategies based on capital investment in infrastructure for
industry, agro-business, urban renewal and tourism (Fig.
1). However successful as short-term economic drivers,
these strategies have exacted a heavy toll on the natural
and culture heritage resource base of the region the very
same resource base that these strategies depend upon for
their long-term economic sustainability and, hence, political
viability.
The debate over the environmental sustainability of
development strategies has, in recent years, become wellarticulated and raised to national political platforms. In
India, for example, environmental protection legislation
is among the most rigorous and scientific of any in the
world, and, as a result, the Ministry of Environment has
a powerful voice in national policy-making. This recent
political visibility of the environmental conservation lobby
is probably attributable to the rate at which natural resources
have been depleted within living memory. The obvious
and alarming rate of pollution of all environments from air
and water and the depletion of all natural resources from
forests to the seas has underscored that these resources are
not inexhaustible, as once was thought.
However, cultural resources when they have been
considered at all within the development paradigm are
typically, but incorrectly, still seen as inexhaustible. Hence
cultural resources are erroneously perceived to be impervious
to neglect and invulnerable to over-exploitation. Even
when the sensitivity of cultural resources is acknowledged
Fig. 3: The Golden Temple in Amritsar,

a prominent example of the countrys rich
traditional built heritage, has been proposed as
one of Indias future World Heritage sites.
118
Fig. 2: The Taj Mahal World Heritage site is one of the most popular
destinations in the country. The boom in cultural tourism has created
opportunities for growth as well as challenges for sustainable development.
by policy-makers, as has been the occasional case when the

rapaciousness of the tourism industry has exposed acts
of blatant cultural commodification (Fig. 2). Regulatory
mechanisms have proven to be inadequate in preventing the
continued degradation of the authentic cultural heritage.
When the over-exploitation of a culture heritage resource
becomes so unbearable it cannot be ignored, the most
common response is to blame local inhabitants for their
neglect and to put severe restrictions on their use of the site
and its resources. In extreme cases, local populations have
been relocated out of protected areas altogether often
under the guise of urban renewal. Historic districts have
Fig. 4: Traditional trades, such as exquisite Fig.5: The patterns of everyday life and community
masonry works, are still alive in India but at risk ritual events contribute to maintaining age-old patterns
due to the growing preference for modern building of social cohesion.
materials and techniques.
lost their traditional inhabitants and have been repopulated

with more affluent carpet-baggers or even, tourists. This
strategy, however, only hastens the deterioration of the
heritage through the loss of traditional custodians and
endogenous techniques for sustainable management of the
heritage.
Consider traditional India. Consider the enormous amount
of accrued knowledge and skills held locally in the cultural
heritage -- in the built heritage of homes and shops, in
heritage practices embodied in traditional trades and arts, in
age-old knowledge communicated through rituals, festivals
and even the calendar of everyday life (Fig. 3, 4 & 5). It is
obvious that urgent, strategic and comprehensive action is
needed to protect the communitys and the worlds culture
heritage assets.
Only through community stewardship of the heritage, can
it be ensured that the heritage will be protected everywhere,
and that its protection will be sustained over the long-term.
Sustained, universal stewardship is a pre-requisite for the
survival of cultural heritage.
II
STRUCTURING AN EFFECTIVE COMMUNITY
BASED APPROACH
Sustainable heritage conservation depends upon the
commitment and involvement of local communities.
Conservation policies, if they are to be successful, need
to promote local community stewardship of the heritage
as well as provide socio-economic benefits for local
communities. As such, a direct link must be made between
the safeguarding of the heritage and socio-economic
development.
Therefore, for the past decade UNESCO has focused on
developing the capacity of local government, communitybased institutions and NGOs to successfully manage their
heritage resources for both conservation and development
particularly tourism development.
traditional technologies and know-how.

The methodological approach used for implementation
of this programme involves initiating a variety of
community participatory activities which act as catalysts
for local community interest groups to assess the unique
characteristics, strengths and economic potential of the
elements making up their physical as well as intangible
cultural heritage, and then to design a community action
plan to self-develop these elements in a way which is
both profitable and sustainable. Through the programme,
assistance is provided in the form of practical, technical peer
advice and, if needed, small start-up grants or loans.
The programmes implementation strategy demonstrates
how heritage conservation can be an effective tool for
job-creation, income generation, thus poverty alleviation,
by promoting custodianship over the heritage and by
empowering local communities to develop their heritage in
a responsible, sustainable and profitable manner. Through
this strategy, heritage preservation becomes a development
activity that stimulates economic opportunities by using
traditional skills and indigenous resources available in the
community.
The LEAP programme aims to catalyze an attitudinal
change that will result in universal involvement, individual
commitment and local community stewardship over
the cultural heritage. This is done by demonstrating that
heritage conservation makes good developmental sense
both in economic and in social terms.
The 10-Step Action Programme
Although the specific culture conservation goals of each
community may differ, a common structure has been
developed to guide action to meet these goals. We call this
framework the LEAP 10 Step Action Programme.
STEP 1 The first step in the process is to encourage
In the Asia-Pacific region, a demonstration programme has

been developed called Integrated Community Development and
Cultural Heritage through Local Effort, popularly known as
LEAP. The basic idea behind the programme is to assist
small and medium-sized traditional communities, many of
which are economically stagnant if not impoverished, to
make a successful economic leap into the future using
the conservation and development of the local heritage
as the springboard. In this process local stakeholders are
encouraged to assume an active stewardship over the
heritage and are empowered to develop that heritage in
a responsible, profitable and sustainable manner for
tourism, and other uses.
The basis of the LEAP strategy to empower local
communities in heritage conservation is to ensure
participation of the indigenous populations and local
communities in the conservation and management of their
heritage resources. This can only be done if the end result
of the conservation and management practices provides
economic and social benefits for the community, while
safeguarding and maintaining social and cultural traditions.
This strategy calls for the deliberate designation of heritage
conservation as a development activity that brings economic
opportunities, creates jobs, and generates income based on
Fig. 6: Thorma preparation in Tawang Monastery, Arunachal Pradesh as

part of the UNESCO Cultural Survival and Revival project helps promote
a stewardship ethic and community participation in historic conservation.
119
activities that promote a stewardship ethic and community

participation in historic conservation (Fig. 6).
STEP 2 The next activity involves hands-on training among
local stakeholders to develop management plans for both
preservation and development of their historic site (Fig.
7).
STEP 3 The identification of pilot projects within the
community is the next step. This is done on the basis of
community-based participatory research work to identify
locally significant sites and heritage properties for protection
and possibly, adaptive re-use (Fig. 8).
STEP 4 Research, development and training in low-cost,
traditionally-appropriate and historically-accurate techniques
for building maintenance and restoration (Fig. 9).
STEP 5 Re-invigoration of and economic support for
traditional building and associated trades necessary for the
maintenance of heritage sites in an authentic manner (Fig.
10).
Fig. 8: During the restoration of Krishan Temple in Punjab (UNESCO

Heritage Award of Distinction 2004) initial research showed that the
alleviation of under-employment, improvement of community relations within a
multi-cultural village, promotion of community co-operation, and re-motivating
village leadership, were the means, not just the end, for the eventual restoration
of the temple.
STEP 6 The sixth LEAP action is to promote and provide

training to preserve indigenous artisan skills and other
intangible cultural activities which have potential marketappeal and can be developed into income-generating
professions (Fig. 11).
STEP 7 The next activity is the training and promotion of
Fig. 10: One of the mandates for conservation work at Krishan Temple
(UNESCO Heritage Award of Distinction 2004) was facilitating community
stewardship. Here, villagers were trained in the traditional method of making
lime plaster for walls, floors and roofs, thus helping revive a nearly-lost
building technique.
community-based and controlled tourism industry-related

occupations grounded in the accurate interpretation of the
unique local culture, history and environment (Fig. 12).
Fig. 7: Dadabhai Naoroji Road project (UNESCO Heritage Award of

Merit 2004), has mobilized local shopkeepers and homeowners to revive the
Victorian heritage streetscape by putting into place urban design guidelines for
signage, street furniture and facades.
STEP 8 The eighth LEAP activity assists in curriculum

development for both formal and non-formal education
in local history, heritage conservation and small business
management skills in the culture industries (Fig. 13).
STEP 9 There is also the need to set up revolving loans and
low-interest credit schemes for conservation, maintenance
and business development (Fig. 14).
STEP 10 Finally, in order to learn from one anothers
experiences, a final LEAP action is to link communities and
individuals together through practical seminars, a newsletter,
and an email discussion group for the exchange of technical
and other relevant information (Fig. 15).
The strategy of this programme is to create activities which
are sustainable so that they bring lasting economic benefits
to the communities who engage in them and which do
not, therefore, require continued assistance and financial
support from outside sources.
Fig. 9: Instead of sandblasting, hand tools were used in the careful removal
of cement wash on the brick fabric and limestone decorative ornaments at
DBS House in Mumbai (UNESCO Heritage Award of Merit 2001).
Weathered decorative parts were filled with limestone putty and washed with
lime as a protective coating.
120
The results of these activities must also be replicable. The

aim is to engender strategies and activities which, with
site-specific modifications, can be applied elsewhere.
The strategies and activities developed should result in a
multiplier-effect. It is intended that national authorities will
Fig. 11: A unique intangible Buddhist cultural heritage of the Himalayan

regions is sand mandala preparation. At Sa Ngor Chotshog monastery in
Sikkim, as part of the UNESCO Cultural Survival and Revival project,
this is passed along within the monastic setting from elder lamas to younger
lamas.
Fig. 13: The age-old tradition of manufacturing and conserving manuscripts

in Tawang Monastery, Arunachal Pradesh is being documented to serve as
teaching materials in local heritage conservation training.
Fig. 12: The restoration of a former residence into the boutique Hotel de
lOrient (UNESCO Heritage Awards Outstanding Project, 2000) in
Pondicherry, undertaken with sensitivity to its fusion of Tamil and colonial
architecture, resulted in a viable and commercially successful cultural tourism
Fig. 14: The magnitude of the heritage in India requires the need for innovative
approaches to funding conservation works, including both public and private
involvement.
Fig. 15: Building strong networks between heritage community members,

relevant government agencies and NGOs creates a platform for long-term
exchange.
see the value of promoting community-based activities

with regard to the preservation and safeguarding of their
traditional heritage, and in doing so, embed these strategies
into their national policy.
management tools for all project sites. Among these tools

are the following:
III
DEVELOPMENT OF MANAGEMENT TOOLS
To meet the growing demand for technical and managerial
expertise at the grass-roots level and because communities
share many of the same practical problems in conserving
local heritage, UNESCO has developed some common site
Hoi An Protocols for Best Conservation Practice In

Asia And The Pacific
In the past, conservation rules and guidelines have been
formulated from experiences with structures and materials
specific to the European context. In order that the special
characteristics of Asian building materials and techniques,
as well as uses and cultural meanings, can be coherently
taken into account during conservation, UNESCO regional
experts have developed a set of guidelines outlining best
121
Fig. 16: The Ahhichatragarh fort and palace complex in Rajasthan

(UNESCO Heritage Award of Excellence, 2002) was commended for its
rigorous conservation process combining the application of modern scientific
techniques with the revival of traditional crafts and materials. The removal of
unsympathetic additions and the introduction of new infrastructural services
allow the complex to accommodate modern use while preserving the sense of
place embodied in the exquisite architecture and landscaping.
conservation practices for the region, known as the Hoi An

Protocols to the Nara Documenton Authenticity.
Heritage Homeowners Manuals
Designed as a practical tool to guide homeowners in the
routine maintenance and preventive conservation of their
historic houses, the Heritage Homeowners Manuals return
responsibility for maintaining historic structures back into
the hands of the owners of these buildings themselves.
Asia Pacific Heritage Conservation Awards
Since 2000, the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards
for Culture Heritage Conservation have been bestowed on
individuals and organizations within the private sector, and
public-private initiatives, for the successful restoration and
adaptation for viable re-use of historic structures in the
region. Many awardees and entries have set technical and
social benchmarks for conservation in the region, including
several from India (Fig. 16 & 17).
Fig.17: The Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai (UNESCO Heritage
Award of Excellence, 2005) has been restored to its historical splendor
through a pioneering public-private partnership between the municipality
of Mumbai, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage
(INTACH) and the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation.
This is a regional network of universities and other heritage

training institutions to conduct research and offer training
in the management of culture and heritage resources. This
new virtual academy has a variety of functions, all aimed
at upgrading the professional capacity for culture heritage
conservation and management in the Asia-Pacific region.
Establishment of Information Networks
Fostering, facilitating and strengthening the communication
and lateral links between heritage site managers themselves
and with other professionals in their field is one of the
priority strategies and activities of LEAP. It is a goal of the
programme to provide and foster the means whereby site
managers and communities can learn and share from each
others experiences.
IMPACT Responsible Tourism Series.

Resulting from many requests from LEAP site managers
and tourism industry personnel for guidelines and real-life
examples of sustainable tourism practices, IMPACT is a
series of case studies exploring issues of tourism and cultural
preservation.
SEAL of Excellence for Handicraft Products
In order to encourage the diversification of high-quality
cultural products in a community, UNESCO sponsors
a complementary programme which awards a seal of
excellence to handicraft products that meet standards of
workmanship and authenticity. This SEAL of Excellence
is used as a marketing tool to promote community-based
cultural industries (Fig.18 & 19).
Fig. 18: In South Asia, the SEAL programme has recognized outstanding
crafts products including ceramics, represented here by one of the awardees in
2006.
UNESCO-ICCROM Asian Academy for Culture and

Heritage Management
The most recent initiative has been the establishment in 2002,
under the joint auspices of UNESCO and ICCROM, of
the Asian Academy for Culture and Heritage Management.
122
Fig. 19: The sub-continents intricate metal work has also garnered attention,
with this example of local craftsmanship winning SEAL recognition in
2006.
IV
CONCLUSION
The LEAP Project demonstrates that heritage preservation
is a development activity that can bring socio-economic
benefits to the entire community through a wide range
of employment and income-generating activities. The
project has likewise succeeded in catalyzing a grass-roots
movement for heritage preservation, mainly because the
project has demonstrated to a local audience that heritage
properties have economic values, and that the preservation
of their local culture and heritage can form the very basis
of sustainable development.
The project is stimulating a paradigm shift in heritage
conservation from an elite technical specialization
practised only by a handful of experts into a popular grassroots movement where individuals assume responsibility
for, and local communities take on the stewardship of the
heritage (Fig. 20).
Fig. 20: A new approach combining top down and bottom up conservation
strategies is essential for the long-term sustainability of the heritage.
The preservation of world heritage is such a vast undertaking

that, in the long run, it can only be successful if there is
active participation by local communities everywhere. The
LEAP project has pioneered in developing new approaches
in the areas of conservation and site maintenance, drawing
on local traditions, techniques and knowledge.
Now we must find a way to join forces to expand that
effort to one of universal stewardship over the heritage. By
focusing on local ownership of heritage and local control
over its preservation and future use, we will be assuring the
survival of that heritage, for its position will be secure at the
very centre of human development.
Photographs & Illustrations Credit: UNESCO
123
International Capital, NGOs,

Architects And Communities:
The Case of Karachi
Arif Hasan
Architect/Planner, Karachi, Pakistan
INTRODUCTION
Pakistans urban areas face the same problems as other
urban areas in South and South-East Asia. Two of these
problems have been of immense concern to civil society
organisations in Karachi. One is housing and infrastructure.
This has been a concern for many decades. The other is
more recent and is related to what I call the neo-liberal
urban development paradigm.
Pakistan requires 350,000 new housing units per year for
its urban areas. The formal sector is able to supply only
120,000 housing units per year. The demand-supply gap
is accommodated in katchi abadis (squatter settlements on
government land) or through the Informal Subdivision of
Agricultural Land (ISAL) on the periphery of cities and
towns. It is estimated that nine million people live in katchi
abadis in the urban areas of Pakistan and another 15 million
in ISALs. Both type of settlements are unserviced to begin
with but over a 15 to 20 year period they manage to acquire
water, electricity, gas and some sort of social infrastructure.
However, sewage invariably flows into cesspools or into the
natural drainage system.
Karachi, the countrys largest city (population 13 million)
has an annual housing demand of 80,000 units. In the
last five years the formal sector has been able to provide
26,700 units annually. The demand-supply gap has been
accommodated in katchi abadis whose population is now
over six million. Between 1992 and 2003, 25,438 housing
units have been demolished as a result of mega projects
and to satisfy the land hunger needs of a strong politicianbureaucrat-developer nexus. Almost all the evictees moved
to new katchi abadis far away from the city centre.
Since 1973, the government has been operating a Katchi

Abadi Improvement and Regularisation Programme
funded with loans from the World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank. Through this programme people pay
for land and development and acquire a 99-year lease. The
programme has improved and regularised only 1.5 per
cent of katchi abadis per year. This means that the existing
katchi abadis would be regularised in 75 years. Thus the
programme has not been a success. The major reason for
the poor performance of the programme is that there has
been no proper community participation in it and as such
cost recovery through lease charges has been poor. The
programme has increased Pakistans foreign debt which is
difficult to repay (Hasan, Arif; 2001).
Developing infrastructure in low income settlements in a
conventional manner is far too expensive. The Pakistan
government has been taking loans from IFIs for this purpose.
However, the scale of the problem is so enormous that not
even a fraction of the requirement can be tackled through
the loan process. In addition, loans come with conditionality,
foreign consultants and often with international bidding for
implementation. All this increases costs by more than 300
per cent as compared to normal government projects.
Karachi is also Pakistans industrial and services sector hub.
About 75 per cent of its population works in the informal
sector, 65 per cent belongs to the lower income group
and about 60 per cent are below the age of 25i. Thus, the
problems of the poor and the young have to be addressed
if a just and conflict free city is to be created. The Karachi
Master Plan 1975-85 gave priority to these problems and
to the less privileged citizens of the city. The Karachi
Development Plan 2000 sought to create a monitoring
system related to these issues. It is true that none of the two
plans were able to achieve their objectives but the planning
process gave priority to social issues and their physical
requirements.
However, in the last decade, the whole approach to planning
has undergone a change in Karachi and this change is
reflected in the new under-preparation Master Plan.
The local government is obsessed with making Karachi
beautiful to visitors and investors and is desirous of
making it a world class city. What this actually means has
never been explained but it is one of the objectives of the
Karachi Master Plan 2020ii. In addition to being a world
class city, Karachi has to develop investment friendly
infrastructure. Again, what this means has not been clearly
defined. However, it seems from the programmes of the
local government that this means building flyovers and
elevated expressways as opposed to traffic management
and planning; high-rise apartments as opposed to upgraded
settlements; malls as opposed to traditional markets (which
are being removed); removing poverty from the centre of
the city to the periphery to improve the image of the city so
as to promote direct foreign investment; catering to tourism
rather than supporting local commerce; seeking the support
of the international corporate sector (developers, banks,
suppliers of technologies and the IFIs) for the above.
The above agenda is an expensive one. For this, sizeable
Sanitation- a major issue
(i) Worked out by the author from the data in Karachi Master Plan 2020
draft and the projection of the 1998 Population Census Reports of the
Government of Pakistan.
(ii) This is part of the Mission Statement of the Karachi Master Plan 2020
draft.
127
loans have been negotiated with the IFIs on a scale

unthinkable beforeiii. Projects designed and funded through
previous loans for Karachi have all been failures (ADB-793
PAK; 1996). Given this fact and the fact that local government
institutions are much weaker in technical terms than they
were in previous decadesiv, it is unlikely that the new projects
will be successful. Also, it is quite clear from the nature of
projects being funded that they are not a part of a larger
planning exercise. In addition, they are increasingly being
floated on a BOT process. It is quite obvious that projects
have replaced planning and that the shape of the city is being
determined increasingly by foreign capital and its promoters
and supporters. This project based planning process is also
anti-people and has resulted in increased evictions both of
settlements and hawkers and the creation of conditions which
make it difficult for working class people to access previously
accessible public space. As a result, multi-class public space
for entertainment and recreation is rapidly disappearing
in Karachi. In addition, the power of the national and
international corporate sector has strengthened the already
existing nexus of developers-bureaucrats-politicians and as
such, existing legislations and bylaws and zoning regulations
are being bypassed far more easily than ever before.
This increasing strength of the nexus, backed by foreign
investment, has weakened government institutions and
the democratic political process. As a result, negotiations
between the decision-makers and community and interest
groups are no longer possible. It seems that the government
has become deaf to the concerns of the more vulnerable
sections of society who form the majority and of the
environmental and human rights lobbies. Similar complaints
have been made to the author by academics, professionals
and NGO representatives of other Asian cities such as
Delhi, Bombay, Dhaka and Phnom Penh.
Interaction capital is buying up the beaches of the city for
commercial and recreational purposes. The city government
is also interested in gentrifying them. This process is going
to have a major physical, social and environmental impact
on the city. For example, the city government has built a
park along six kilometres of the beach. Though the park is
most welcome, its development has removed all hawkers,
sea-shell salesmen and performers from this stretch of
beach and replaced them with expensive food outlets as a
matter of policy. As a result, low income families can no
longer enjoy this beach.
Another project called Defence Housing Authority (DHA)
Beachfront Development is under construction. It is a
1,500 million US dollar development along 14 kilometres
of the beach. It is being carried out by investments from
Dubai and Malaysia based companies. Much of this project
is on reclaimed land and restricts public access to the beach.
Multi-storey office blocks; theme parks and expo centres
(experience in Karachi shows that such parks are too
expensive for the poor and expo centres are not used by
(iii) Between 1976 and 1993, the Sindh province in which Karachi is located
borrowed US$ 799.64 milion for urban development. Almost all of this
was for Karachi. Recently, the government has arranged to borrow US$ 800
million for the Karachi Mega City Project. Of this, US$ 5.33 million is
being spent on technical assistance being provided by foreign consultants.
(iv) Budgets of government planning institutions have increased considerably
in the last decade. However, good professionals are no longer attracted to
government jobs because of better opportunities in the private corporate sector,
NGOs and international agencies. In addition, there is a major migration of
professionals to the First World.
128
them); railway tracks along the waters edge (NED University

students research shows that the fare will be Rs 90 per trip
and as such unaffordable by poor and lower middle income
families); condominiums and exclusive clubs (which will
certainly be cordoned off for security reasons); expensive
water sport facilities and most surprisingly, multi-storey car
parks on the waters edge, have been planned. An existing
and potential multi-class recreational and entertainment
asset, visited by the more than 300 thousand Karachiites
every weekend, is being usurped for the exclusive use of the
rich and powerful (www.urckarachi.org).
Similar plans are being developed for another 8 kilometres
of beach which is frequented by Karachiites in a big way
over the weekend. Over here, Sugarland City is building
an elite township which is going to displace old villages,
a wildlife sanctuary (run by the World Wildlife Fund) and
over 300 weekend residences along beach. No consultations
have been held regarding this project and nor have any
detailed plans been made available to the public (www.
youtube.com/watch?v=gzWRhoew2vE).
In another move, the government has sold two islands on
the outlet of the Korangi Creek, an abandoned bed of the
Indus river and a protected IUCN site, to a Dubai based
company for US$ 43 billion for similar developments. These
islands have been used by fishermen from time immemorial
for fishing related and cultural activities. The islands are
ideal for the development of eco-tourism which could have
integrated the biodiversity and the fishing communities and
their activities into a development plan but that did not
happen (www.pf.org.pk).
The developments described above are bound to have serious
ecological repercussions. They are being built by destroying
the mangrove eco-systems and through land reclamation
tampering with the coast line of a region that is subject to violent
cyclones. They are adding to sewage and solid waste problems
of an ecologically sensitive area. They are also adding over 80
thousand vehicle trips per day to an already congested coastal
road network. In addition, these developments are adversely
affecting the biodiversity of the region and the possibility of
developing eco-tourism for the citizens of Karachi. However,
the most serious repercussion is social. Karachis lower, lowermiddle and middle-middle income communities are being
denied access to the beaches of the city. This, coupled with
evictions of formal and informal low income settlements due
to the construction of mega-projectsv and the clearing of low
income housing on valuable land is further dividing the city
into rich and poor areas, both physically and socially, leading to
the exclusion of the poor from civic life.
The investment friendly infrastructure that is being
developed is signal-free roads. These are being created
on existing corridors by building flyovers and underpasses
at important junctions and closing all other entry and access
to these corridors. Although this has facilitated movement,
especially during non-rush hours, it has created enormous
problems for pedestrians wishing to cross the roads. In
addition, public transport cannot stop on these flyovers
and underpasses and has to use the old routes below the
(v) The Lyari Expressway, considered by planners and academics as
unnecessary, is being constructed. It is displacing 25,000 families, over
8,000 businesses and adversely affecting the education of about 26, 000
children. For details see Hasan, Arif (2005), The Political and Institutional
Blockages to Good Governance; The Case of the Lyari Expressway in
Karachi; Environment &Urbanization Volume 17, No. 2, October.
flyovers which have become increasingly congested as a

result of them not being made a part of the signal-free
roads schemes. As such, the commuters and the pedestrians
have not benefited from this enormous expense.
It is not possible to prevent the onslaught of global capital.
However, it is possible to develop some basic principles for
urban planning as a result of which a level of social equity
can be achieved and ecological damage can be contained.
For this to be achieved, it is recommended that for all urban
planning in Karachi four basic principles should be adhered
to. These are: one, planning should respect the ecology and
the natural environment of the region in which Karachi is
located; two, landuse should be determined on the basis
of social and environmental considerations and not on
the basis of land value or potential land value alone; three,
planning should give priority to the needs of the majority
of the population which in the case of Karachi belongs
to the lower income and lower-middle income classes, the
majority of whom are pedestrians, commuters, informal
settlement dwellers and workers in the informal sector; and
four, planning should respect the tangible and intangible
cultural heritage of Karachi and of the communities living
in it.
These principles do not suit international and local capital,
developers and politicians and professionals who serve
them. However, an organised civil society consisting of
professional institutions, concerned citizens and community
organisations can push for this planning agenda and
succeed, if it is properly organised and if its advocacy is
supported by solid research. Civil society and concerned
citizens in Karachi are coming together to challenge this
new agenda.
THE WORK OF THE ORANGI PILOT PROJECTRESEARCH & TRAINING INSTITUTE AND THE
URBAN RESOURCE CENTRE
The work of two organisations, with which the author has
been associated with over the years, deals with the two
issues described in the above Introduction. The first is the
Orangi Pilot Project-Research & Training Institute (OPPRTI) and the second is the Urban Resource Centre (URC)
in Karachi. The OPP-RTI is one of the institutions of the
OPP. The two organisations work closely together and their
work is briefly described below.
The town of Orangi
Programmes have been developed around these four issues.

The sanitation, housing and education programmes are
explained below.
Sanitation Programme
The OPP-RTI divides sanitation into internal and
external development. Internal development consists
of sanitary latrines in the house; underground sewers in
the lane; and neighbourhood collector sewers. External
development consists of trunk sewers and treatment
plants.
The results in Orangi and in 284 other locations in Pakistan
have demonstrated that communities can finance, manage
and build internal development provided they are organised
and are provided with technical support and managerial
guidance. Local governments can support the process by
building external development provided they accept the
internal-external concept and train their staff in the
OPP-RTI methodology and in working with communities.
The technical assistance of the OPP-RTI has consisted
of providing communities with plans, estimates of labour
and material, tools, training for carrying out the work and
supervision of work. OPP-RTIs research has developed
new standards, techniques and tools of construction that
are compatible while being affordable to poor communities
and are compatible with the concept of community
involvement in construction.
The Orangi Pilot Project-Research & Training

Institute
In Orangi 96,994 houses have built their neighbourhood

sanitation systems by investing Rs 94.29 million (US$ 1.57
million). Local government for the same work would have
invested Rs 604.17 million (US$ 10.06 million). All sewage
discharges into the natural drainage system as for over 80
per cent of Karachi (Government of Sindh report; 2005).
Orangi is one of the 18 towns of Karachi and 85 per cent

of its population lives in an agglomeration of katchi abadis.
The town has a population of 1.2 million living in over
100,000 houses built informally. The OPP was established
in Orangi in 1980 with the purpose of overcoming the
constraints faced by the government in regularising and
improving katchi abadis. The objective of the project was
to: i) understand the problems of Orangi and their causes;
ii) through action research, develop solutions that people
can manage, finance and build; iii) provide people with
technical guidance and managerial support to implement
the solutions; iv) in the process overcome constraints that
governments face in the upgrading of katchi abadis.
The process has consisted of mobilising communities.

Meetings were held in the lanes and people were told that if
they form a lane organisation and elect, select or nominate
a lane manager then they could apply to the OPP-RTI for
assistance. Once a lane applied for assistance, the OPP-RTI
sent its team to survey the lane and a map and estimates for
its development were prepared and handed over to the lane
manager or the lane team. They then collected the money
from the residents and organised the work with OPP-RTI
technical supervision and managerial guidance. The OPPRTI did not touch the money of the lane organisations and
confederations. It was the lane managers/committees that
managed the funds and kept accounts.
Participatory research identified four major problems: i)

Sanitation and Housing; ii) Employment; iii) Health; and iv)
Education. Sanitation was considered the most important.
Initially, only those lanes could participate which were near

a natural drainage channel into which they would discharge.
Later, lanes that were far away from the drainage system
129
Lane surveys (left) and Preparation of maps (right)
began to apply. For them to dispose into the natural drains,

collector sewers were required. This led to the creation of a
confederation of lanes that financed and built the collector
sewers. In certain wards where the confederation of lanes
was strong, the elected ward councillors funded this effort.
The lane was chosen as a unit of organisation since a typical
lane in Orangi contains between 20 to 50 houses. It was
thus small enough to be cohesive and since everyone in
the lane knew each other well, there were no problems of
mistrust involved.
It was clear to the OPP-RTI from the very beginning that
the natural drains into which the sewage was being disposed
could eventually be converted into box trunks with treatment
plants where they meet the natural water bodies.
The OPP-RTI sanitation programme has been scaled up
by the local government by building external sanitation in
Orangi. The OPP-RTI supported community sanitation
disposes into the natural drainage system of Orangi. The
local government is now converting these natural drains
into box trunks designed by the OPP-RTI and supervised
by community activists trained at the OPP-RTI. It has also
been scaled up by government agencies and departments
adopting the OPP-RTI concept and methodology with the
OPP-RTI as consultant and trainer.
The scaling up of the programme through NGOs and
CBOs has led to the creation of partnerships between
them and local governments. The OPP-RTI strategy
for supporting NGOs and CBOs wishing to replicate its
programme evolved over time and after many failures. The
strategy is explained in Box 1.
46,821 houses outside of Orangi in 11 Pakistan towns at
284 locations have built their internal sanitation at a cost
of Rs 88.15 million (US$ 1.46 million). The replication
projects have been able to mobilise Rs 146 million (US$
2.43 million) from local government funds for building
external development and sewage disposal systems not
only for their settlement but for large areas of the town
and/or city. In two replication projects water supply systems
have also been laid on an internal-external basis. In three
small towns the replication project has become consultant
to the government for water supply, sanitation and road
paving projects all being built on the internal-external
concept. The OPP-RTI partner CBOs and NGOs have
learnt how to make maps (some use computers for the
purpose and some also use satellite images and GIS) and
develop extension literature. Their activists are constantly
negotiating with local, provincial and federal government
representatives and agencies (OPP quarterly report; 2006).
130
Before
After
A Community Development Network (CDN) has been

established linking up all the partner organisations who meet
every quarter as a different replication project and present
and discuss developments that have taken place in their
programmes. Local government officials of the area are also
invited to the CDN meetings and site visits are arranged.
Some partners are stronger in community participation
and others in technical matters. They contact each other
directly for support and often plan joint negotiations with
government agencies (OPP quarterly report; 2006).
One of the most important initiatives of the OPP-RTI
has been the mapping of Karachi katchi abadis and the
natural drainage system of the city. This mapping has been
done by young community members (supervised by OPPRTI staff) who have undergone a six month to two year
training course at the OPP-RTI in surveying, mapping,
estimating, community mobilisation and in some cases,
architectural design. The programme is known as the Youth
Training Programme (YTP). As a result, 334 katchi abadis
which constitute over 60 per cent of the total katchi abadi
population have been mapped. The mapping documents
existing sanitation and water infrastructure, solid waste
situation, schools and clinics. The survey of the 334 katchi
abadis has shown the extent of peoples work. There are
224,299 houses in 19,463 lanes in the surveyed settlements.
62 per cent of these lanes have sewage disposal facilities
and 50 per cent have water lines, both laid on a self-help
basis. Approximately Rs 334.48 million (US$ 5.6 million)
have been invested by the people in this work. Government
investment has also been made for sanitation and water
supply but most of their work is on main sewers, drains and
water mains. The survey results show that the internalexternal concept of the OPP-RTI has been unwittingly
followed in an unplanned manner by the government
Before
After
and the communities. Furthermore, 1,041 clinics and 773

schools have been set up by entrepreneurs and/or charities
in these settlements as compared to 12 government clinics
and 143 government schools (Rehman, Perween; 2004).
Through the YTP the drainage system of Karachi has also
been documented. 102 nalas have been surveyed along with
their catchment areas and it has been established that over
80 per cent of Karachis sewage is planned to dispose into
the natural drainage system.
The mapping process led the OPP-RTI to propose
alternatives to the various IFI funded and government
projects for Karachi. These alternatives, consisting of
transforming the nalas into box trunks with treatment plants
where they meet perennial water bodies, has now been
accepted by the government agencies and work is being
implemented. This alternative is at a fraction of the cost of
previous government funded IFI projects and requires no
foreign loans. The alternatives proposed by the OPP-RTI
also led to the cancellation of an ADB loan of US$ 70 million
for the Korangi Waste Water Management Project. Finally,
in August 2005 the federal government asked the OPPRTI Chairman to prepare a sanitation policy for Pakistan.
After a number of provincial level workshops, a policy
that promoted the OPP-RTI internal-external concept was
prepared and endorsed by a stakeholder workshop. It was
approved by the federal cabinet in December 2006.
Meanwhile, the persons trained by the YTP with OPP-RTI
support have also established a Technical Training Resource
Centre (TTRC) which is providing assistance to the Orangi
union councils in documenting their infrastructure and
identifying projects. The union councils, which are the lowest
rung of local government, do not have this capacity.
CBO Map making
However, the most important result of the OPP-RTI work

has been the development of CBOs, NGOs, activists and
educated young people who have become involved in the
improvement of their settlements and have developed
skills of collective negotiations with the government on
the basis of sharing development with the state (financing,
building and maintaining) rather than just lobbying for it.
In addition, according to surveys, infant mortality in those
parts of Orangi which acquired a sanitation system in 1983
has fallen from 130 per 1,000 live births in 1982 to 37 per
1,000 in 1991. Most observers and official sources agree
that the most important factor for this is the construction
of underground sewers (Zaidi, Akbar; 2001). Residents
interviewed said that they spent much less on curative
health than they did previously. In the case of Faisalabad,
where the programme has been replicated, private medical
Box 1: OPP-RTI Strategy for Supporting NGOs/CBOs
CBO/NGO or community activists contact the OPP-RTI for support
OPP-RTI invites them for orientation to the OPP-RTI office in Karachi or directs them to one of its partners
After orientation CBO/activists convince their community to adopt the programme
They create a team of a social organiser and a technical person who are trained at the OPP-RTI and/or on-site
in their settlements through visits by the OPP-RTI staff
The training is in surveying, mapping, estimating, construction supervision, documentation and accounts
Training does not have a specific period. It continues throughout the life of the project
OPP-RTI arranges financial support for the team and related expenses through WaterAid or through its own
funds. Initially, this support is about Rs 200,000 (US$ 3,500) per year
Invariably the CBO-NGO comes into contact with local government departments as its work expands
When that happens local government representatives are invited to the OPP-RTI for orientation
If they are convinced they send their staff for training
Neighbourhood settlements contact the CBO-NGO for replicating the programme when they see conditions
change in their neighbouring settlements
131
practitioners have left the settlement because of a decline in

diseases and hence of income (Alimuddin et al; 1999).
Housing Programme
The housing programme is another important initiative of the
OPP-RTI. The programme was initiated in 1986 after a study
of the sociology, economics and technology of housing
in Orangi. Research identified that the local component
manufacturing yards (known as thalas), which provided
concrete blocks and other building components to the house
builders, were the most important players in the housing
drama. In addition, they also provided skilled workmen and
credit for house building. Research also identified that a major
cause of bad housing construction in Orangi was the result of
poor workmanship among skilled workers and/or the house
owners. Problems related to a lack of understanding between
the thala owners, skilled workers and the house owners were
also identified as a major cause of substandard, expensive and
incomplete construction. Therefore, the OPP-RTI decided to
upgrade one thala. Concrete block making was mechanised,
regular curing was initiated, masons at the thala were trained,
pre-cast concrete roof components were introduced and
cheaper and better aggregate sources were identified. House
owners were informed as to what they should expect from
the thala and how they should cost their construction before
beginning it and how they should take care of issues such as
light, ventilation and hygiene.
Today 103 thalas have adopted the OPP-RTI model and
Orangi has become a major exporter of concrete blocks
and pre-cast roofing elements. Annually more than 2500
houses in Orangi benefit from the use of improved building
components and the advice package (OPP quarterly report;
2006).
One of the major concerns of the OPP-RTI was related to
the quality of components being manufactured at the Orangi
thalas. Here the TTRC has been used for providing advice
to house builders. The TTRC designs the houses and/or
extensions and in the process also looks at the quality of the
components purchased by the owners. For this the TTRC
charges a small and affordable fee. A mobile supervisory team
has also been set up that roams around Orangi and provides
advice (if required and solicited) by the house owners who are
building their homes. So far, the TTRC has trained 148 masons
and has also provided design inputs for 99 school projects
(OPP quarterly report; 2006).
Education Programme
The OPP-RTI Education Programme consists of
supporting young educated men and women in establishing
Teachers training
132
schools. As a first step, Rs 15,000 (US$ 250) are provided as

a grant for beginning a school in a house. Once the school
takes shape, a credit of Rs 20,000 to 30,000 is provided
for setting up classrooms. SKAAs support has also been
sought for the provision of land for the schools. With
the passage of time, through accessing government and/
or NGO teachers training programmes and inputs from
local activists and organisations, the schools become stable
formal educational institutions. So far, the OPP-RTI has
arranged for 491 loans for upgrading the schools. 45,527
students, including 21,579 girls, are enrolled in these
schools and 2,604 teachers, of which 1,892 are women, are
employed by them. A school owners association, which
meets regularly, has been established.
Urban Resource Centre
URC is a very different organisation from the OPP-RTI.
It was set up in 1989 by young graduates, teachers of
architecture and planning, NGO activists and community
leaders. The community organisations and networks
developed by the OPP have become an integral part of
it. The basic objective of the URC is to influence the
planning and implementation process in Karachi and to
make it more environment and poor friendly by involving
communities and interest groups in this process. To further
its objectives, the URC collects information regarding the
city and its plans and disseminates it to the media, NGOs,
CBOs, concerned citizens and formal and informal interest
groups. It analyses local and federal government plans for
the city from the point of view of communities (especially
poor ones), interest groups, academia and NGOs. This
analysis is done with the involvement of interest groups
and CBOs through the holding of discussions on the
subject with them. On the basis of these analyses the
URC holds forums in which all interest groups, including
the government agencies and the media, are present so
that a broad consensus may be arrived at. In addition, it
seeks to identify and promote participatory research and
documentation on major issues in Karachi and to monitor
developments and processes related to them (www.
urckarachi.org).
As a result of the URCs process, issues related to landuse,
transport, evictions, hawkers rehabilitation and integration
into planning, inner city environmental and degradation
problems have all become important media and civil society
issues which they were not before. Due to the URCs work,
there is now very little difference of opinion left between
the URCs point of view, the point of view of the print
and electronic media and of different citizens groups
and environmental lobbies including the architecture and
planning academic institutions. On many issues there is
also an understanding between the URC and a number of
government professionals and bureaucrats.
Due to the research, informed questioning, involvement
of interest groups and preparation of alternatives and
modifications to government plans, the URC process has
managed to bring about fundamental changes in the thinking
of government agencies with regard to mass transit, sewage
disposal and certain aspects of housing. It has resulted in
the cancellation of a US$ 70 million ADB loan for a sewage
project and its replacement by a cheaper project which does
not require a loan. It also helped push forward abandoned
Northern Bypass project which is now under construction.
It also contributed to the proposal for revitalizing the
Karachi Circular Railway which earlier had been done away

with. The URC was also involved in the public hearings that
led to the cancellation of the privatisation proposal for the
Karachi Water and Sewerage Board. Recently, it has collected
4,655 signatures from 73 organisations and from 89 low
income settlements of Karachi against the DHAs Beach
Project. It has also initiated a Secure Housing Initiative
(SHI) whereby settlements under threat are documenting
their history, government and community investments in
their infrastructure, issues related to land title, and details
regarding the families living in them. This information is
being used for lobbying against evictions and for developing
support for the SHI.
It was realised by the URC Chairman that elite support was
required for a number of issues that the URC had identified.
As a result, the URC Chairman contacted some prominent
Karachiites who then got together to create the Citizens
Coalition. This is a very different initiative from the OPP or
the URC. It was created by 22 prominent citizens (including
two ex-judges of the Supreme Court) who were very
concerned at the ecological damage and social fragmentation
that was being caused by the Beach Development Projects.
This association was then joined by a large number of
professionals, businessmen, media personalities, journalists
and even executives of the corporate sector.
THE ROLE OF ARCHITECTS AND ACADEMIC
INSTITUTIONS
In both the projects described above, the role of architects
and academic institutions has been very important. There
are a number of reasons for this. One, the Principal
Consultant (now Chairman) to the OPP-RTI, since a year
after its formation, is an architect. He was also a teacher
at the Department of Architecture and Planning (DAP) at
the Dawood College in Karachi. He was able to involve
his students in the work of the OPP-RTI. The current
Director of the OPP-RTI and the Joint Director were both
students at DAP. The Director teaches regularly at DAP,
University of Karachi and also at the National Institute
of Public Administration where government bureaucrats
are trained. Two, in 1980, professors at the DAP, Dawood
College introduced the Comprehensive Environmental
Design (CED) Project for final year students at the undergraduate level. CED consisted of identifying a problem
area in Karachi and making students study it. The class
was divided into four groups. The administrative group
studied the governance systems in the area and identified
their constraints, potential and problems. The physical
group studied the physical conditions and their causes and
repercussions. The economic group studied the economic
activity in the area, its problems and the causes for it. The
social group studied the sociology of the area, identified
community organisations and their linkages. All four
groups were asked to identify who did what and how, in
their respective field of study and to relate their findings
to the larger Karachi context. Workshops and juries during
the process brought the four groups together to create a
synthesis after which the individual students were required
to develop an architectural input which could help overcome
some aspect of the problems that they had identified.
that it were graduates of the CED Project who approached

the professors at Dawood College and complained that as
architects they were not using the knowledge that the CED
had provided. It was due to this that it was decided to set
up the URC with their involvement. It is also important to
note that the majority of persons working on community
driven (as opposed to NGO driven) projects are graduates of
DAP (Ahmed, Mushtaq; 1998). The CED tradition has been
continued at the newly established DAP at NED University
where the majority of teachers are ex-graduates of Dawood
College.In the Citizens Coalition as well, architects have
played an important role and the Institute of Architects,
Pakistan, has recently been very active in questioning the
foreign funded mega projects for Karachi and proposing
alternatives.
The problem of architectural education in Pakistan has been the
absence of its link with social, administrative and environment
related reality. In the absence of this reality, innovation becomes
difficult and teachers tend to teach as they have been taught.
The full potential, that the two projects described above have
in modelling certain aspects of architectural education and in
influencing policy, has not been fully exploited. For this a larger
awareness of the problems that they seek to address needs to
be created. This can only happen if a network of different
NGOs, professional organisations, prominent citizens and
CBOs is created. The URC believes that such a network can
come together on a one point agenda which is no development
without consultation. This is currently being promoted and it
is hoped that it will take shape. If it does then perhaps the
four principles of sustainable urban development which have
been expressed in the text above will form the basis of future
planning for Karachi.
References:
1. Hasan, Arif (2001), Working with Communities, City
Press, Karachi
2. ADB-793 PAK (1996), Evaluation of KUDP and
Peshawar Projects
3. URC website www.urckarachi.org.
4. Karachi Waterfront website http://www. youtube.com/
watch?v=gzWRhoew2vE.
5. Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum website www.pf.org.pk.
6. Government of Sindh (2005), Report on the Task Force
on Municipal Services, February
7. OPP (2006), 108th Quarterly Report; December.
9. Rahman, Perween (2004), Katchi Abadis of Karachi: A
Survey of 334 Katchi Abadis; OPP-RTI.
10. Zaidi, Akbar (2001), From the Lane to the City: The
Impact of the Orangi Pilot Projects Low Cost Sanitation
Model, WaterAid, UK
11. Alimuddin, Salim et al (1999), The Work of the Anjuman
Samaji Behbood and the Larger Faisalabad context; IIED,
UK
15. Ahmed, Mushtaq (1998), From Architecture to
Development and Beyond, ArchiTimes
As a result of the CED, a whole world of katchi abadis, inner

city issues, community organisations and activists, hawkers,
bribe taking government officials, middlemen and problems
related to local commerce surfaced. It is important to note
133
Habitat For Humanity International

Partnering With The Poor For Better
Housing
Regional Program Advisor & Country Representative
(Nepal), Habitat for Humanity International
Naresh Karmalker
Program Advisor
(Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation) Asia Pacific
Habitat for Humanity International
INTRODUCTION
Habitat for Humanity is an international ecumenical
Christian NGO with an aim to eliminate poverty housing
from the face of the earth. Since its inception in 1976,
Habitat for Humanity has built and sold more than 200,000
homes to needy people across the world by way of noprofit loans. Currently operating in a little over 80 countries,
Habitat has succeeded in reaching out to more than a million
people living in conditions of poverty housing across the
urban and rural divide.
In the last 10 years, Habitat for Humanitys traditional
approach of building single homes for individual families
has undergone a radical transformation. From a practice
that was centrally driven with a set approach and design,
Habitat has moved to a more grassroots-led approach
wherein the community of need itself makes decisions
about the type, design and size of its home. Added to this
is a continuous attempt to bring down house-costs through
innovative technology as well as to respect traditional
architecture and forms by increased use of local materials
and practices. This learning process has led to the discovery
of innovative housing practices across the world that are
based on traditional grassroots wisdom and technology that
is sustainable, replicable and affordable to the poor.
This paper will try and shed some light on Habitats
methodology as well as highlight certain innovative peoplefriendly housing solutions from a few of the countries that
Habitat operates in.
THE HABITAT METHODOLOGY
Traditionally, the methodology employed by Habitat is as
follows. When a need for housing in a neighbourhood is
communicated to Habitat by a local individual or agency, a
situational analysis is carried out to ascertain the feasibility
of the project. Once the project is given the green signal,
a local Habitat unit is established in the area. This unit
publicizes the intent of Habitat to provide homes to the
poor in the community through no-profit loans. Applicants
are screened and selected against universal Habitat family
selection criteria. Families whose income falls within the
approved range for the country and who do not have
access to regular credit channels are selected. A mortgage
deed is drawn up for each individual family and once the
formalities are completed, a house is built for the family.
The family commences repayment of their loan once the
house is completed and they have moved into their new
home.
The methodology described above is based on a few core
134
principles that are outlined below and which still hold

good:
i. Simple, Decent Affordable Homes
Habitat promises its home partners a simple, decent
and affordable home. It does not give grants for house
construction since it believes in giving the community a
hand up instead of a handout. Habitat houses are sold to
the community through a no-profit loan repayable in easy
installments. Loan repayment periods vary from a minimum
of 3 years in Asia and up to 20 years in the U.S.A. The
minimum house size meets UN standards of 225 sq. ft. by
area. House sizes and designs vary from country to country
based on the need of the people, the local architectural
environment and keeping within the maximum size limit
decided by Habitat. However, Habitat endeavours to provide
for its home partners in each case a house consisting of at
least two rooms, a safe kitchen and a toilet.
ii. Volunteerism & Sweat Equity
Since inception, Habitat for Humanity has been a volunteerled movement. People from all walks of life can contribute
to the construction of Habitat houses. A key partner in the
house construction process is the home partner herself.
She is expected to provide all the unskilled labour involved
in building her own house as well as to contribute to the
construction of her neighbours house. In this way Habitat
not only tries to build community but also provides an
avenue for the home partner to become an equal contributor
to this endeavour. This principle is termed as sweat equity.
iii. A house for a house
The repayment that comes in from a group of Habitat
home partners is rolled back in the community until
poverty housing is completely eradicated from the area.
Thus, essentially, the repayment of a house contributes
towards providing a house for another member of the same
community. In order to safeguard the cost of the house
over the loan payback period, a small inflation adjustment
is made to the loan repayment amount.
iv. Fostering local leadership & community ownership
Typically Habitat programs are executed through locally
governed structures called affiliates. An affiliate is set up
in the area where a need for housing has been established
and is governed by a board constituting local community
leaders. In recent times, this model has evolved to
partnership programs with other NGOs, local GOs and
other like-minded organizations where Habitat either plays
the implementing role or comes in as a technical advisor. In
all cases, the accent is on allowing the community to take
charge of the program. This principle is also reflected in the
home partner community choosing their design, making
bulk material purchases to lower costs and monitoring and
evaluating the construction process.
NEW APPROACHES
Over the last few years, a number of exciting innovations
have been made to Habitats traditional methodology. A
few of these are described in some detail below:
i. The Savings-led Approach to Housing Save and
Build
Since the sustainability of Habitats revolving fund in the
community depended on the ability of the home partner
to pay back her loan, it was difficult for Habitat to select
families with incomes below a certain level. Thus, a large

majority of the poor were deprived of the opportunity to
own their own secure home. Habitats Save & Build came
to their rescue.
The main objectives of Save & Build were as follows:
a. Enable low income families to own a house.
b. Make repayment affordable through building in stages
and manageable through peer pressure as well as peer
strength
c. Make the program community-owned through its
active involvement.
d. Build more houses with less capital input to make the
program more sustainable.
How does it work?
Save and Build begins with a group of low income families,
typically 12 in a group, coming together to cooperatively
generate cash income, set aside savings and contribute
labor and materials. Saving at the rate of about 16 US
cents per member per day, the group saves enough over
six months to build the first house. At this stage, Habitat
and its collaborative partners provide matching funds for
the construction of two additional houses. These first 3
houses go to the neediest families in the group chosen by
the group itself. At the end of 24 months all families in
the group have had their housing needs met. Thirty-month
loan payback periods are the norm in this methodology.
Save and Build has proved to be an ideal methodology
even for families reliant on seasonal work who otherwise
would not meet conventional income criteria. Groups elect
their own leaders, often women, who manage /monitor
members savings, decide which families are housed in what
order, and provide sweat equity. Repayments are made to
the group account and later forwarded to Habitat. The
Save and Build approach has enabled Habitat to serve more
than 10 times the families it would have served through its
conventional model.
ii. Building in Stages/Incremental Building
While Save & Build succeeded in allowing Habitat to
reach out to a poorer segment of society not served by
its traditional model, this approach still excluded a large
segment of the population that was too poor to save even
US 16 cents a day. Habitats Incremental Building approach
or Building in Stages provided a way out.
How does it work?
In this approach, the family is initially assisted in coming to
a decision as to which part of the house is the first priority
for them to move towards better housing conditions,
Incremental Building
A typical Building in Stages approach
without the loan being a burden to them. In Vietnam, for

example, the families are assisted in water and sanitation
solutions or home improvement first and the journey starts
from there towards a complete house. In Nepal, in the
Lankathari Village Development Council (VDC) where
the community consists of very backward and low caste
untouchables, the first improvement is limited to a good
roof and pillars to hold the roof.
iii. Housing Microfinance
Learning from the experiences gained through the Save
& Build and Building in Stages approaches, Habitat
for Humanity decided to partner with Micro Finance
Institutions (MFIs) who already had a history of forming
and managing savings and credit groups. These MFIs
had huge membership but had hitherto never looked at
including housing in their portfolio. The result has been
that Habitat for Humanity has managed to reach out to
many more families without having to invest in the group
formation and management process which was never its
core competence but was so for the MFIs. Through this,
the poor have truly taken a leading and active role in the
program. For example among the families served through
this approach in Nepal, not only have the most neglected
amongst them been catered to, but 62% of the investment
for the housing has come from the very same members of
the community.
Microfinance offers much better repayment terms than do
informal sources of money lending (loan sharks) and such
a loan (MF) can be a supplement or an alternative to saving
toward shelter improvement. Our experience has gone to
demonstrate the truth of a fundamental expectation of
microfinance that economically active poor people can
finance their housing needs incrementally, affordably, and
under conditions that allow the financial provider to cover
all associated costs. (Daphnis & Ferguson, p 1)
The impact on sustainability is seen when we make a
comparison of the program in Sri Lanka and in Nepal (Table
1 & 2). Our discovery supports what Ferguson explains in
the following the home is the most important asset poor
people ever own. Sometimes it can be a productive asset, for
instance in the case of home-based micro-entrepreneurs.
Even in the cases where the home is not systematically
used as a place of business, microfinance institutions have
long observed that clients use loan proceeds to improve
their living conditions. (Therefore) such a loan can
be a supplement or alternative to saving toward habitat
improvements. This suggests a fundamental expectation of
135
Table 1
With every $ 1000 within 10 years Families served Sri Lanka (statistics from 1997 to 2005)
Prior to Save and Build
With Save and Build
# of families served with every $1000 (In 2002)
32
# of houses constructed in 5 years (Up to 2005)
962
4000
962,000
800,000
External Investment (US$) (Up to 2005)
Table 2
Habitat Nepal, within the first year of operation, was able to reach 630 families through this model as
against 870 in eight years under the conventional method.
1997 -2005
2005-2006
# of families served
870
630
External Investment (US $)
1,740,000
198,702 (38%)
micro finance that economically active poor people can

finance their needs incrementally, affordably (Daphnis &
Ferguson, p 3)
iv. Use of Appropriate Technology
In recent times, Habitat has exceedingly explored the
approach of using local materials and employing traditional
building approaches. As much as this has been due to the
ever-present necessity of lowering the house cost, this
decision has also been influenced to a great deal by the
demands of the community itself.
Bamboo Housing
For example, Habitat Nepal has switched from the traditional
brick and cement block houses to building mostly bamboo
houses. In Nepal, the indigenous bamboo is suitable for
building houses because it is easy to use, environmentally
friendly and durable. The rural community can also turn to
growing and harvesting bamboo as an income generating
activity. Moreover, Habitat provides value addition by
teaching the community to treat bamboo properly and,
on occasion, plaster it with cement or clay, causing these
houses to last longer.
HFH Nepal employs bamboo technology by using woven
bamboo strips plastered with cement or clay for the walls
of a house. Six bamboo pillars support the roof and the
walls, providing added resistance to earthquakes. Building
earthquake-resistant houses is vital as Nepal lies in a
seismically active zone, and major earthquakes in 1934 and
1988 caused thousands of deaths and left hundreds of
thousands homeless. Since the bamboo is treated to prevent
termite or other insect attacks, the bamboo pillars and walls
can last for a good 30 years.
The pictures above show two models of the bamboo
houses built by Habitat for Humanity in Nepal as well as
the bamboo treatment training provided to a group of
architects visiting the program.
In places where bamboo is not available, sun burnt clay
bricks are used and these are made by the community. In
136
Bamboo house in Nepal with concrete pillars and plastered with cement
Bamboo house with bamboo pillars
cases where home partners do not have enough land to

make bricks, other members often offer any surplus land
to do so. The Construction Committees formed by the
members of the MFIs or Village Banks, together with
HFHI, provide support in drawing up estimates and also
delivering materials to the site. The Committee buys the
material in bulk, reducing the cost of material and transport
and further easing the burden on the poor.
Training architects to treat old bamboo (left) and new bamboo (right)
In some countries like Papua New Guinea, timber from

community forests is used for building. Members spend
days cutting and sawing enough timber for the houses to
be built within the community. They themselves come up
with policies on how to protect their forest by replanting
and using less timber.
Steel Frame Construction
One of the challenges encountered by Habitat for
Humanity, especially when working in the urban areas,
has been the difficulty in sourcing raw materials locally
in enough quantity and at a good price. This has led
to other options being sought. One such option is the
Steel Frame Construction technology perfected in New
Zealand that has been adopted in the Philippines for an
urban shelter development initiative. This cutting-edge
technology promises a typhoon and earthquake-protected
structural design. It is volunteer-friendly and cost-efficient

with a typical unit costing Philippine Pesos 50,000-55,000
(US$1,000).
Other characteristics of the methodology:
Uses Galvanized Aluminum for the frames and roofing
offering rust and heat protection
Used extensively for both commercial and residential
use
A Row of 8 Units can be built in 15 days with minimum
paid skilled labor
DISASTER RESPONSE SOLUTIONS
A recent addition to Habitats portfolio is its foray into
disaster response. This endeavour has been a learning
experience for Habitat, given its history of traditional
Different phases in constructing

steel frame houses in the Philippines
137
complete home-building solutions. However, through

diverse experiences with handling disaster programs over
the last few years, right from Hurricane Mitch in the US,
to earthquakes in Gujarat (India) and in East Timor right
through the recent tsunami, Habitat has succeeded in
developing diverse models in keeping with local needs and
resources. For example in the Pakistan earthquake last year,
the response was in the form of temporary shelters as we
see in the pictures below. These kit houses, constructed with
GI sheets, could be assembled within 40 minutes. Besides
this, the materials used in these shelters can be reused for
the permanent shelter. This is in keeping with Habitat for
Humanitys philosophy that keeps a long-term perspective
of providing permanent housing even to those affected by
disasters after the initial emergency solutions have been
provided.
EMPOWERING THE COMMUNITY TO CREATE
BETTER HOUSING
The core of Habitats housing philosophy is the involvement
of the home partner, and virtually anybody who wishes
to get involved, in the housing program. The insistence
on the home partner providing sweat equity, working on
their neighbours houses as well as providing whatever
raw material they can makes them equal partners in the
project and goes a long way towards their empowerment.
Again, every effort is made to source the skilled labour as
well as the raw materials from within the community thus
emphasizing the concept of self-reliance.
In Nepal, the Virtual Habitat Resource Centre takes the

shape of a number of Village Orientation Programs.
Through the Village Orientation Program group committee
members, the selected home partners and the masons drawn
from the local community are informed about their roles in
the housing program as per the Program Implementation
Approach. This details out how the housing micro finance
system will work within the community and the different
roles that will be played by the partners. The designs of the
houses and the technology adopted will also be explained
and training imparted by Habitat to make this design work.
For example, in the eastern part of Nepal, within the period
from 17 Nov 2005 to April 2006 a total of 87 Village
Orientation Programs have been conducted.
As a result
106 masons have been trained within this period.
27 executive members of partner organizations and
60 Construction Committee members have been made
aware of the community housing program.
Installation of corrugated GI sheets
Fixing of Foam Insulation
Family moving into almost complete house
Portable sawmills- Solution for future permanent shelter in remote areas
Bagalkot (Pakistan): Earthquake response
138
The next step is to get entire communities to take

responsibility for and undertake steps towards a better
habitat for everyone in their village. One example of how
Habitat is attempting to empower the community and build
capacity within is that of Virtual Habitat Resource Centres.
Virtual Habitat Resource Centres are mediums of taking
simple house construction and repair methodologies to
the community without the need for a physical structure to
house the effort.
Materials
Quantity
Foundation
Rubble
1 cubes
Sand
cube
Cement
2 bags
Masonry
2 days
Walls
Doorframe
01
Window frames
02 numbers
Bricks/
2000/
Cement Blocks ( 16x4x8)
650
6mm steel bars
03 numbers
metal
11 cubic ft
Masonry
6 days
Shuttering planks
70 feet
Binding wires
250 gr.
Wire nails
250gr.
sand
1 cube
cement
8 bags
Roof
24 coconut Timber (main Beams)
5x12
Asbestos Sheet
12x8 sheets
Tiles (+ then rafters and reefers)
650 +
Ridge tiles
18
L. Hooks 7
20
Nails
01 kg
Carpentry
01 day
Flooring
Rubble for paving
1/4 cube
Cement
3 bags
Sand
cube
Masonry
01 days
Door and window panes with fittings
all
Carpentry
1 day
transport
construction supervisory charge (10% of the cost)
Contribution made by
Me (H/O) Habitat Others Cost
Foundation Details
An extract from the booklet My Dream House
139
10 program staff have gained better knowledge and

skills on the community housing program.
12 Group Promoters, 90 percent of them women
from within the same locality, have been trained. At least
4000 women from 80 womens micro finance and village
bank groups (each M/F Group consists of 50 members)
have been informed about the community housing
program.
The most appropriate design for their houses, based on
the available raw materials and their own saving capacity,
is decided by the members themselves with technical
assistance from Habitat. To facilitate this, a booklet titled
My Dream House has been designed. One of the leading
members of the group or the appointed Group Promoter
within the village assists the home partners to understand
the estimates and the commitment required of each partner
to make the dream house possible. An extract from the
same booklet that shows the Bill of Materials with the
contribution of all partners is shown below.
CONCLUSION
Habitat for Humanity has come a long way since its inception
in 1976 when the thrust was on providing complete houses
to individual families. Today, thirty years down the line,
Habitat is continuously seeking ways of reaching out to
even poorer families, involving entire communities in
decision-making processes and providing technological
solutions that are environmentally friendly and build on
local traditions and resources.
This journey truly promises to be an exciting one and we
invite you along for the ride!
140
Infrastructure Development Through

Community Consensus:
A Strategic Approach
Deependra Prashad
Architect/Planner & Visiting Faculty,
School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi.
City In-migration has always been the bte-noir of planners
and city governments. In-migration has often led to informal
settlements springing up within urban centers or semi-formal
settlements on urban fringes. Under whose responsibility
do these fringe settlements fall for providing infrastructure
and services? These peri urban populations tend to live in a
vacuum, with neither the traditions and social cohesion of
rural life, nor the cosmopolitan & modern lifestyle of the city
providing comfort. Almost always, conventional centralized
planning procedures have been unable to cope up with such
areas needs of revitalization and renewal.
Local Participatory planning, on the other hand, through the
work of individuals and civil society organizations tries to
fill in the gap in such areas. Community based Planning in
current parlance has often been put forward as a solution,
for tackling not just such areas, but almost all planning
evil. In case of Urban Planning & Design, evil could be
defined simply as that kind of urban planning which does
not lead to any outcomes. (with the worst being those which
do not even lead to any actions). But Community based
planning approach has also faced handicaps, when faced
with complete urban chaos. In the peri-urban scenario of a
multitude of urban development issues crying for attention,
is there a single best approach to planning, or many? What
works, and where?
In light of the above questions, we could broadly categorize
the planning approach into the following 3 types:
a) Conventional Master Planning, based on statistics,
figures and colour blobbed landuse maps on paper, which
creates huge plans that are usually unrealizable, either
due to financial constraints or a lack of understanding of
ground realities in cities, in addition to the unclear political
and executive ownership of these documents. Planners
in these situations have more often than not felt shy of
outcome (end state) planning.
b) The Second method, named Strategic Planning is based
on a set of Planned city based programmes which link
with each other and form a full plan, the execution of one
strategically linked to the initiation and success of the second
step. Closer to the ground situation, it has increasingly
coming into planners and the Executives vocabulary and
is replacing master planning, which used to formerly rule
the roost.
c) T he final
and the most
activist method
is Action
Planning,
where the
stakeholders are
galvanized into
action through
an important/
relevant issue, Various Planning Approaches
brought together into a community planning workshop.

The outcomes, in terms of common ground, is realized on
the basis of immediate actions based on the stakeholders
willingness & availability of finances. Action Planning
steps are typically small in scale.
Due to the widespread ineffectiveness of the First method,
applied long since the modern planning paradigms overtook
our urban areas, the third mode has found wide acceptance
in a world bent on quick decisions and actions. The third
method, i.e Action Planning is supposed to have prevented
the creation of unrealizable visions of conventional master
plans. But, it is also true that the immediacy of that tool has
led it to be sometimes used/misused by replacing vision
planning with a set of immediate actions with questionable
efficacy.
The second method has thus been looked at increasingly to
provide a link between various action planning steps, together
with community interaction mechanisms and workshops. But
how does Strategic Planning work in the real world, where
a lot of opposing criterion determine the parts or action
steps. Can there be a beginning-to-end plan with clear links
between the action steps which occur sequentially: a clear
wholistic overview which follows up with its subparts, and
then its details. Our understanding of the complex urban
situation and varying agendas precludes this possibility. Then
what is really the operational effectiveness of the Strategic
Planning Process? This paper tries to examine this question
in light of a project conducted by the author in the peri
urban areas of Delhi. The project is an education based
initiative AANCHdAL with an NGO, CARE Indias and
the authors involvement on Delhis urban fringe and the
surrounding rural areas. In this case, a sequence of varied
initiatives, unusually came together to create a strategic
infrastructure development plan, thus creating a case for an
on-your-feet sequencing.
Context
The Peri-Urban Settlement under question is located on
the north-western fringe of the city of Delhi in Ghaziabad
district, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It faced fairly
common developmental issues including population rise,
influx from the rural areas and the rise of small scale
manufacturing activities. The Project area included a
settlement which came up in the early 80s with (1115 + 1468)
families in 2 adjacent neighbourhoods, and was sanctioned
as a legal settlement by the physical development authorities.
It got built in as a dense locality with single or double storey
Brick/RCC structures built by the residents themselves, now
approximately 3-21 years old. The houses were mostly single
New Delhi: A growing city with rapid peri-urban expansion

141
roomed or bigger and the roofing materials predominantly

included sandstone with iron girders or RCC. A few
neighbourhood segments developed linearly, while some
came up organically. The incumbents were primarily of the
lower income group and worked as constructions workers,
laborers and semi skilled craftsmen.
Decrepit urban character
local politicians lacking any initiative, there was a complete

absence of investment coming into the area to alleviate its
problems.
The AANCHAL Program
With such a wide roster of problems, a strategic input
required a developmental catalyst which could activate on
its own, irrespective of the incumbent government and
developmental agencies. This required the identification and
introduction of certain key actions and interventions which
might make a difference, and link up into a worthwhile overall
scheme. But to extract the best output from the community,
and to build the interventions credentials, an entry point was
needed. This was provided by an education based project
initiated within the community. Named AANCHALi,
this was based on an Area Approach for Nurturing Childs
Holistic Development and Learning. Aanchal promoted the
concept of better preparing pre-schoolers, for the purpose
of ultimately reducing dropouts or out-of school children
The Project Areas polluted open spaces & Overflowing side drains
At the outset, a huge handicap to the settlement was the

absence of municipal services except on the periphery. This
was despite its approved status. This problem exists with most
unauthorized and later-authorized neighborhoods within the
country. Although the Buildings structure were hard pucca,
the streets were mostly unpaved with a few stretches of
khadinja (brick paved) flooring. The unpaved streets thus
had problems of choked, overflowing and polluted side
drains and water logging on the paths, which exacerbated
problems arising from bad hygiene. Environmentally, the
area left a lot to be desired, with problems of solid waste
management, intermittent water supply, and the streetside
mixing of soil and waste water. Garbage disposal in the open
spaces degraded land quality and also created groundwater
pollution. Drinking water was in short supply, and as a good
estimate, the inhabitants wasted 20% of their livelihood time
and good financial resources in procuring water either from
the surrounding colonies, through bottled water or through
municipal tankers. Public and Community infrastructure
even in terms of gathering spaces or open spaces were
generally absent with a deteriorated quality of housing and
building stock. These infrastructural problems existed despite
good land tenure, as 79% of the houses were self owned.
Although the area was predominantly residential, some
commercial and manufacturing usage occured as well. A
greater social handicap was the low levels of education and
commensurate low awareness in health and hygiene. Broadly
speaking, the settlement lacked both social and political clout
to put pressure on urban development agencies. And with
142
The Pre school Centres
in later stages. It empowered certain community women to

offer their services as Pre-School Centre teachers, and offer
their homes as a pre-school centre for 2 hours every day. The
school teachers for their function, got a small honorarium
and in due course a lot of respect from the surrounding
community. The program catered to a dire requirement,
where, in this settlement, the literacy rate was only 50%.
Only 10% of the children were attending pre school. The
program simultaneously provided training to these women in
child hygiene and the usage of innovative Teaching-Learning
Materials for improving their effectiveness.
Simultaneously, other initiatives were proposed for the
holistic urban development of the area. These were linked
to providing a safe, hygienic and healthy environment to the
children. The program was planned both at the:
- Micro level for improving the residential based
educational spaces.
(i) Aanchal literally means a protective piece of cloth. The Programs official
name is AANCHdAL.
- Macro level for community open spaces and infrastructure

upgradation.
This infrastructure upgradation scheme was based on
consultation with the community as expectation from
government structures was practically nil. In the community
planning scenario for urban development the following
generic questions have always emerged...
... Do community discussions build on or confuse ideas?
Do all voices in a community planning workshop count?
For example, a discussion on the fate of the commercial
centre might put the residents and shopkeepers at wrong
with each other, with the residents maybe looking for a
pedestrian comfort zone and the shopkeepers wanting
priority to the well heeled, car based rich gentry.
...Does a mix of tangential agendas put together result in
worthwhile action strategies?
...Are the swathes of writing and paperwork put together
useful in the long-term?
What is the relevance of immediate actions vis--vis
the long term vision?
...Do community planning workshops really help retain
the local flavour, identity and ownership in urban renewal
and place making?
Government, despite understanding the issues, was also

hesitant due to its previous experience with the infrastructure
provided. These had gone unmaintained together with
cases of vandalism, as there was an underlying lack of local
ownership. The absence of both local taxation and a long
term plan also precluded any government endeavor.
Alternative Strategies
But this setback forced the program to reexamine the
hugely narrowed down possibilities for action for physical
infrastructure upgradation. In this scenario, instead of
developing an alternative big plan, we decided to refocus
on smaller things nearer the base of the possible actionspyramid. Utilizing the Bottom-up system as a foundation,
a strategic plan was initiated with smaller action steps.
Current methods invoking the communitys or

private sector involvement
Recent tools, which the government and public
institutions have woken up to, for engaging the
community, include Public Private Partnerships,
Private Investment with add-on tools like Transfer
of Development Rights. Others like Inviting
objections to policy documents, Stakeholders
consultation and promoting local action with Resident
welfare associations under the Bhagidari (partnership)
Scheme in Delhi directly invoke democratic debate.
These vary in terms of their methodology for identifying
stakeholders and the involvement expected of them.
One end of this methodology shows a multiplicity of
voices, often leading to a loss of focus. On the other
hand, too much centralization of the process creates
an ineffective consultation and proposals end up
suffering a lack of substantial ownership. Therefore
development of effective structure for community
consultation is really an ongoing and evolving process.
With all these questions in the horizon, a large scale
community consultation workshop was organized with the
various stakeholders, such as Local NGOs, Social Activists,
Local Educationist and health Workers, Local and State
govt. representatives, Planners and Architects and of course
the local residents and politicians. Various problems and
their solutions were discussed together with the possible
contributions of the local populace in tackling them. A no.
of honourable ideas emerged in the workshop but in due
course, lacked any progress, initiative or follow-up. The
....does Conventional Community Consultation help?...... and how?
Workshop tools for improving interactivity with pre school teachers for the
purposes of improving interior educational spaces
The focus thus shifted to the Aanchal programs primary

contact within the community, i.e. the pre school teacher.
Small workshops were designed to educate these teachers
on creating a better learning environment in their preschool interior space. The workshops included a critique
on the various factors which impeded smooth functioning
of the teaching space, including Light, Ventilation, Space
configuration, display and storage spaces, circulation and the
safety issues with children. This analysis was done utilizing
graphic/ diagrammatic tools which the teachers could relate
to easily.
The workshops by the
author involved both
aspects which they
could self-manage
and others where
extraneous help
was required. Based
on these, a survey
of the 105 centres
was conducted
and sug gestions
for improvements,
repairs and innovative
Booklet detailing Level 1,2 plan suggestions
additions
143
Level 1: Repairs, inoovations

and new additions carried
out in preschool centres
enlisted. This process and its outcomes were documented

and disseminated through a detailed booklet wich listed the
building related concerns and the commensurate solutions in
the local language. The suggestions were ultimately executed
utilizing part funding from the NGO, part from the residents
themselves and a more than welcome input of the residents

own labour. Innovative furniture pieces which could double
up for both display and storage and thus save space were
designed and well accepted by the children. As a follow-up
on this action step, the centre exteriors and open spaces
were also addressed, by the addition of missing parapet
walls, brick jalis, staircase railings, and sunshades outside
windows on the outer envelope. The execution of these
by the communitys workers also helped in generation of
local employment and promoted the usage of familier and
upgraded building methods.
The overall effects of this intervention, which can be referred
to as level 1, were positive and energized the program in a
number of ways:
As this was a group effort put in by civil society, architects
and the community, there was a further expectation of
improved teamwork.
When this program was disseminated in the surrounding
areas, it was noticed, visited and appreciated by the govt.
and there rose an expectation of matching action by the
government.
As the community got energized by small results
from which their children directly benefited, there was
expectation of better cooperation between community
groups themselves.
Level 2: Improvements in the streets surrounding the pre school centres
On the basis of these observed and felt benefits, the program

used this stage as a launchpad for linked community scale
works, which in other words, consisted of the next step in the
Strategic Plan. Community Level Infrastructure as part of Plan
Level 2 included work in the streets outside the centres, which
were unsafe and unhygienic for children. The initiative included
street levelling, cleanliness from garbage, paving and repairing
side drains and edges of handpumps etc. and was carried out
around the centres by the centre teachers, parents in adjoining
and nearby homes and through project funds.
Level 1: Improvements in the building envelope
144
This further provided impetus to take on plan level 3 for the

development of Open spaces catering to all age groups and
genders. This was required in the absence of any maintained
open space due to a lack of preservation of such spaces by
the local. Thus, small community workshops were planned
would complement the educational program and also develop

intra-community interaction and cultural activities.
The workshops showed that although there was a vociferous
need for the better utilization of these spaces, there were
many doubts and counterpoints from the residents living
just adjacent. A redirection of effort was needed towards the
non-controversial segments of the land and therefore, those
components on which consensus existed were prioritized.
The workshops again avoided plain discussions and used
graphic tools, where plans and sketches were drawn out
based on the suggestions of the participants. The plan
included an open air amphitheatre, an exterior classroom
board with a rain cover, a childrens play space, play courts for
young adults and children, platforms for womens activities
and seaters/ walkways for adults. All of the construction
utilized local labour and easy to procure material like brick
and sandstone.
Usage of Graphic Tools in the workshops
Parallel to this effort, the local development authority also

pitched in with matching action and helped create boundary
walls to the parks and greenery, and also committed to help
maintain these spaces. Small scale solid waste management
initiatives, water preservation awareness and garbage bins
helped reduce pollution and bad hygiene in the most
visible spaces. Most importantly, the people had a stronger
commitment to preserve and maintain the infrastructure
created. A more confident program thus moved on to
extrapolating the Area approach to the surrounding rural
areas as well, where 50 pre-school centres were opened and
open space development was carried out. At this level, again,
local labour and materials in the villages were key. These
also raised the profile of the program to enable discussions
with the urban development agencies for wider investment
in these areas.
Level 3: Open space development scheme.
This Strategic Plan was thus developed as a set of linked

objectives, with one developing from the other, and can be
better understood in the following comparison.
Infrastructure additions
carried out in open spaces &
its Design Development
for the design of these, and were attended by edge residents,

political leaders and local NGO workers. A design brief for
these spaces was simultaneously developed, and included in
its criterion the needs of all segment of society, be it men
or women and all age groups from the young to the old.
The brief emphasized creating structures and spaces which
Level 3: The govt. pitches in with boundary walls for the open spaces
Strategic Planning
Usual city planning processes look at the broad plan and
then stepwise go down into the details of the urban plan,
from street layouts and plot development, to service layouts,
followed by the architecture of individual buildings, and
then the building interiors and so on. In this particular case,
the Strategic Plan turned the usual sequence on its head and
reversed the approach. Here, the attempt was to examine
whether a small childcare and literacy program could grow
into and lead to linked actions for urban infrastructure
and environmental upgradation within the scope of
neighbourhood revitalization initiatives. The program did
manage this, by starting small, and following a detail to
whole sequence, as given below.
Initially, the Interior teaching spaces in the Pre school
workers home were looked at, followed by the quality of
the exteriors and the building envelope.
145
Level 4: Plan extrapolated to surrounding rural areras, developing pre-school centres and useful open spaces
Next, Safer play areas for children were examined

together with adequate service availability for children.
Following this, an emphasis on safe and hygienic streets
was developed involving the neighbours, local hospitals
and environmental specialist groups.
Later, the Open spaces were addressed for the purposes
of children and in addition of various community activities.
This involved all the interested community, local schools,
local government and the local community leaders.
Finally the program was extrapolated to the surrounding
rural areas and involved the District Government, NGOs
and district level politicians.
This detail to whole approach presents a viable alternative
to the conventional way. This aids the strategic sequencing
of objectives and could be of assistance in running
programs of a varied nature with a more realistic baseline.
Very interestingly, it also utilizes those same restraining
forces within the community, for. e.g. lack of education,
into a primary driving force which mould the starting action
steps of the plan. The individual action steps create realistic
short term projects on the basis of all available financial
and people resources, and the linking helps all these steps
gel into an overall strategic objective.
Planning is Linking Thinking with Action:
.said John Friedmann setting out a more activist orientation of
planning
Conversely, the output of analytical planning, embodied in
the master plan, lacks the scope for dynamic adjustments,
flexibility, constitutional acceptance and results in either
long delays in implementation or unimplementable projects.
There is a strong need to relook at Comprehensive Master
Plans, and their significant distance from the ground
situation. This distance also occurs due to the time take
taken for them to be prepared. In the time it takes for them
to get ready for implementation, the ground reality has
already changes, making these grand plans irrelevant both
in time and space.
146
Endnote
The strategic plan tried to create new opportunities
and facilitated emergance of position overlaps among
participants (residents, government, commerce, politicians),
i.e, stakeholders, who might otherwise have problems
in working with each other. The strategy tried to restore
urban life by going from discrete smaller initiatives for
preschool children to a larger holistic outcome for the whole
community. The issues of safety and health/hygiene are
important and have needed addressal in the plan.
Very importantly, this paper and case study emphasizes the
usage of physical resources, including open spaces, streets,
water supply, existing built volumes and the residents public
and cultural needs, into an integrated strategic planning
methodology for creating sustainable benefits. Acting
closer to peoples needs, this helps prevent centralized
generalization, and holds vast potential in imparting local
flavour and ownership to urban regeneration efforts. The
plans Key Actions and Interventions are based on the
participatory method, which act as a developmental catalyst.
Community Consultation as part of the scheme has also
helped in the following ways:
Community consultation represents all interests and
promotes debate between all. More importantly it helps
create community ownership towards the plan and
towards the future realized manifestations of the plan,
i.e. the infrastructure created.
Community Consultation through a mediating
organization, helps put all the communication lines
in place, for e.g. in between the residents and the
government. This mediation could be handled by a
civil society organization, community groups and in
some cases a dexterous local government as well. But a
special effort is required at the initiation of community
consultation to understand the true stakeholders, decision
makers, opinion makers and avoid just anyone who walks
into a workshop.
These consultations need to be customized for separate
needs depending on the scale of the discussions, i.e. at

the household level, neighbourhood levels and the overall
city scale.
Initiatives like the National Urban Renewal Mission
are also including preconditions for constituting citizen
advisory panels. Any positive outcomes from these,
not only enthuses the local political leadership to take
credit, but also encourages further such projects since
the initial pessimism has been done away with.
Most importantly focus must to be on those community
planning tools which allow participants to Act, React and
Interact. A huge benefit was seen in utilizing graphic tools
for increased interactivity with the participants. This can
be largely facilitated by architects and hugely contribute
to the process, instead of purely verbal discussions.
Design professionals are thus currently faced with a
dilemma in terms of identifying their own roles. From the
conventional Architect and Urban designer (Team Leader
and Expert) + Client + Contractor relationship, they have
had to move to roles like that of facilitators and enablers
of urban change and transformations. If the profession
responds positively to this challenge, there exist immense
possibilities within the field.
References:
1. Friedmann, Thomas (1988), Planning in the Public
Domain, From Knowledge to Action, Princeton Uinversity
Press, Princeton
2. Baross, Pal (1991), Action Planning, IHS Working Paper
Series, No.2, IHS, Rotterdam
3. Davidson, Forbes, Planning for Performance:
Requirements for Sustainable Development, Habitat
International, Vol 20, No.3, p. 445-462, UK
4. Prashad, Deependra (2002), Participatory Planning for
Large Scale Infrastructure, Architecture + Design, Jul-Aug, p.
72-79.
5. Prashad, Deependra (2002), Cities on the Edge,
Architecture, Time Space and People, Vol 2, Issue 4, p. 10-16
6. Delhi Brotherhood Society (2001), Household Survey,
Rajiv Nagar & Pappu Colony
7. Congress for New Urbanism website : http://www.cnu.
org/
147
Transformations Due To
Socio - Economic Pressures
Amit Bhatt
Architect, IL & FS- IDC, New Delhi
Prerna Mehta
Architect/Town Planner (Housing), New Delhi
Sarika Panda Bhatt
1. BACKGROUND
The world took 1800 years to reach its first billion
population, 130 years to reach the second billion, while it
took just 60 years to cross the five billion mark. Today, more
than 50 per cent of the worlds population is living in urban
areas. According to the United Nations, cities in developing
countries are growing by over one million people a week.
Economists and policy-makers now acknowledge cities as
engines of growth, an indicator of development and a
major contributor to national economy; it is apparent that
it is accompanied by growing disparities as well. The World
Bank estimates that there were some 500 million poor
urban dwellers in the year 2000, based on its one-dollar-aday income-based poverty line; worldwide, 30 per cent of
poor people live in urban areas.
2. STUDY AREA PROFILE
Delhi is located in northern India between the latitudes
of 280-24-17 and 280-53-00 North and longitudes of
7605024 and 770-20-37 East. It shares its border with
Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and has an area of 1483 sq.
km. Its maximum length is 51.90 kms and greatest width
is 48.48 kms. The Yamuna River and terminal part of the
Aravali hill range are the two main geographical features of
the city. The Aravali hill range is covered with forest and
is called the Ridges while the river Yamuna is Delhis main
source of drinking water and a sacred river for most of the
inhabitants.
2.1. Demographic Characteristics
The population of Delhi has grown exponentially over the
years. It was 13.85 millions on 1st March, 2001 as against
9.42 millions as on 1st March, 1991 that reflects a decennial
growth of 47.02% after 1991 census. The annual average
exponential growth rate of population of Delhi was the
highest (6.42%) during 1941-1951 due to large scale
migration from Pakistan to India after partition in 1947.
Since then the annual growth has been recorded 4.22 %
during 1951- 1961, 4.25% during 1961-1971, 4.25% during
1971-1981 and 4.15% during 1981 1991. The corresponding
percentage at All-India level was 21.34% which is almost
double the national average.
2.2. Urbanisation
Urban face of present Delhi relates to 17th Century when
Shahjahanabad was built, which is now called Walled City.
Major change and expansion of Urban Delhi from its original
area and face of Shahjahanabad started in the second decade
of Twentieth Century when Britishers planned New Delhi,
148
the Capital of India. Second major expansion started on

partition of the country in 1947 with the huge number of
refugees coming to settle in Delhi. Subsequently, migration
started to this city of opportunities and availabilities from
adjoining States of UP, Haryana, Rajasthan for employment.
In 1901, 52.76% of the population of Delhi was urban,
it was 93.18% in the year 2001. The urban area in Delhi
territory has increased from 22% in 1961 to 62.5% of the
total area in 2001. Delhi has witnessed a phenomenal and
sustained urbanisation since 1931.
2.3. Migration
It terms of migration trends it can be seen from Table
1 that majority of migrating population in Delhi comes
from the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana,
contributing to almost 50% of the total migrating
population. In fact the neighboring states of Delhi i.e. UP,
Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh account for about
70% of the total migration.
Table 1: Trend in Migration
Sl no.
States
P e r c e n t a g e o f To t a l
Migration (1981-1991)
Uttar Pradesh
49.61%
Haryana
11.82%
Bihar
10.99%
Rajasthan
6.17%
Panjab
5.43%
West Bengal
2.79%
Madhya Pradesh
2.71%
Other States
10.48%
Source: Economic Survey of Delhi 2004-2005
2.4. Population Density

Density of population is one of the important indicators to
study population concentration. It is defined as number of
persons living in per sq. km. The rapid urbanisation of Delhi
has resulted in a sharp increase in the density of population.
According to Census of India, the density of population
was 274 persons per sq. km. in 1901, this increased to 1176
persons per sq. km. in 1951 and 6352 persons per sq. km.
in 1991. In the year 2001 the said figure was found at 9340
persons per sq. km. The density of population in Delhi is
the highest among all States/UTs in the country.
2.5. Economic Profile
Delhi reports one of the highest per capita incomes among
Indian states. In 200304, per capita income, estimated in
constant prices at Rs. 29,231 was nearly two and a half times
the all-India average of Rs. 11,972 (Fig. 1). Over the years,
Delhi has emerged as a major trading, commercial, banking,
insurance, retail and entertainment centre of India. It has
capitalized well on the new economic opportunities that
arose after 1990. Between 199394 and 200203, Delhi along
with West Bengal, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu recorded the
maximum growth rates in per capita income. Today, 78 per
cent of Delhis State Domestic Product (SDP) comes from
a strong and growing service sector comprising of trade,
hotels and restaurants, transport, communications, financial
and insurance services, real estate, public administration,
About 785 of the households had access to toilet facilities

in 2001 as compared to 64% in 1991. About 75% of the
household has access to piped water supply whereas 68%
of the household had cooking gas as fuel for cooking in
2001 as compared to 46% in the year 1991.
Table 4: Facilities Available to Households in Delhi
Fig. 1: Per Capita Income Details for Delhi and India

and other business services. Of these, banking and finance,

real estate, and insurance account for almost 30 per cent of
Delhis SDP.
2.6. Social Infrastructure
Delhi has a literacy rate of 82, which is much higher
than those of its neighboring states (Table 2). The Socio
Economic Profile of Delhi (2004-2005) reveals that
during the year 2004-05, Delhi had 4879 schools with
93129 teachers involving a total enrollment of 30.22 lakhs
students.
Table 2: Comparative Evaluation of Literacy Rates of
Delhi and Neighboring States
Sl. No.
States
Literacy Rate
(2001)
Delhi
82
Uttar Pradesh
56
Haryana
68
Bihar
47
Rajasthan
60
6
Punjab
70
The health facilities offered in Delhi is much better than

that in the rest of the country, which is clear from the infant
mortality rate which was 30 per thousand population in
2002, while the said figure was 68 per thousand population
at national level (Table 3). The per capita expenditure on
health in Delhi was 484.98 in 2003-04 while the per capita
expenditure on health during the said period at national
level was 214.62.
Table 3: Infant Mortality Rate (Per Thousand) in
Delhi and All India Level
Year
Infant Mortality Rate
Per capita Expenditure

on Health
All India
Delhi
Delhi
All India
2000
68.00
23.29
137.51
409.19
2001
66.00
24.49
150.19
459.27
2002
68.00
30.00
214.62 4
84.98
In terms of facilities available to the household, it is seen

that in 2001, about 93% of the household had electric
connection as compared to 79% in the year 1991 (Table 4).
Sl.
No
Item
Electricity
available
Households
1991
Households
%age 2001
of
H.H.
%age
of
H.H.
1,479,620
79.48
2,371,811
92.86
Toilet
facility
available
1,179,797
63.63
1,991,209
77.96
Piped
water
supply
1,409,730
75.72
1,924,140
75.33
Fuel for
Cooking
865,072
46.47
1,737,730
68.03
3. TRANSFORMATIONS
Over the years, transformations in urban areas have taken
place in varied forms, including those pertaining to size of
form, landuse, encroachments, structure heights, floor area
coverage, in other words, illegal constructions etc. This has
also occurred in the formal developments of the city very
much outside the legal framework. Though, the growth
may not be in accordance with the planning norms of the
city, but its very existence highlights its magnitude. Some of
the key transformations occurring in urban areas in general
and Delhi in particular are summarized in subsequent
paragraphs.
3.1. Types of Transformations
3.1.1. Use affiliation
This is a type of transformation that pertains to extent and
nature of non-residential use in residential areas and of
other uses in areas meant for open spaces. This phenomenon
is very evident along the main transport routes and in the
developments with smaller plot sizes/ dwelling units. In
other words, it can be stated as invasion of stronger land
use over weaker in terms of prevailing demand, which is
acting as an impetus for growth of a particular land use. For
example, at several places in Delhi, the residential buildings
along the road or streets near planned markets or business
areas are converted to commercial spaces and open areas
are being encroached upon for houses, shops etc. The prime
reason of this type of transformation is pressure exerted by
economic forces, where in the importance of economics
prevails over that of habitation.
3.1.2. Built Form
The transformation is in terms of extent of consolidation,
horizontal coverage, encroachments, condition of
structures, streetscapes. To fulfill their need of space people
tend to increase the covered area of the plot. There are
encroachments on the common open spaces or roads to
149
accommodate their things. The dwelling units are converted

to commercial areas for retail shops etc. and the residential
activity is accommodated on the additional floor which
contributes to the height transformations occurring in the
planned developments. This type of informality is seen in
formal settlements having very small dwelling units which,
as time passes, becomes difficult to manage with. Social
pressure is the main reason for this type of transformation
where an increasing population needs to be accommodated
in the limited planned space.
3.1.3. Time Affiliation
This type of transformation pertains to the changes that
happen over a period of time. In terms of time relationship,
the informal growth may be of temporary nature (which
have become permanent over time), permanent nature or
appearing before its envisaged time. For example, increasingly
frequent usage as periodic markets, roadside selling & teh
bazari converts these areas into permanent markets etc. The
permanent nature of informality refers to the developments
fully or partly, those covered under land use or ownership
related informality. Social and economic issues both are
involved in pushing such type of transformations.
3.2. Transformation of Housing Stock in Delhi
3.3. Area Level Transformations

Case studies were undertaken of four distinct type of
settlements in order to appreciate the nature and type
of transformations occurring in Delhi. These include
Pitampura, Rohini, Madipur and Lajpat Nagar. These case
studies have been summarized in subsequent paragraphs.
3.3.1. Pitampura
Sl.
No.
Utilization
for
1991
Number
of Census
Houses
2446143
100
3379956
100
Vacant
Census
Houses
293677
12
377790
11.18
Occupied
Census
Houses
2152466
88
3002166
88.82
Residence
171395
79.63
2316996
77.18
ii
Residencecum-other
use
88386
4.11
135406
4.51
Pitampura has grown over the years from a non-descript

area in northwest Delhi to a potential commercial and
retail centre. The retail sector is the prime focus of all the
major developers in this area. Major brands and outlets
are concentrating on expanding their retail networks in
the area. The shortage of quality space in Delhi has been
fueling prices northwards in northwest Delhi and many
developments are on the anvil in this area. Pitampura
is divided into Uttari Pitampura, Dakshini Pitampura
& Poorvi Pitampura. The present study pocket lies in
Dakshini Pitampura and includes five blocks, each with
different characteristics. When proposed, the landuse of
the neighborhood was predominantly of residential usage
(Table 6) but in last three decades mixed use and commercial
evolved considerably. The commercial or mixed land use is
concentrated along the main road i.e. 45 and 24 m. wide
roads (Fig. 2 and 3). This commercial development is totally
illegal and is distorting the property market.
iii
Shop, office
186864
6.68
319233
10.63
Table 6: Comparative Landuse Distribution of

Dakshini Pitampura
iv
School,
College, etc
2734
0.13
7620
0.25
Hotel,
Lodge,
Guest
house,
86170
4.00
6005
0.20
Hospital,
Dispensary
etc.
3974
Table 5: Utilisation of Houses in Delhi
vi
vii
viii
ix
Factory,
Workshop,
Workshop
Place of
worship
70386
% of
total
0.18
3.27
2001
7661
80165
% of
total
0.26
2.67
Landuse
1981
2004
Residential
50.75
44.74
Commercial
2.74
4.44
Public/ Semi Public
4.61
1.82
Open Spaces & Parks
9.9
12.63
Mixed
4.37
Circulation
32.0
32.0
Total
100
100
Source: DDA and Primary Survey - 2004

-
8249
Other non120831
residential
use
Source: Socio Economic Profile of Delhi, 2004-05
150
The process of transformation in housing areas operates

within a wider socio-economic framework. Also, the
process of transformations results not only in changes in
the built form of the residences but also in the emergence
of various other activities and often reducing thereby
the limitations imposed by the planned mono-functional
residential image. The data for utilization of houses in
Delhi (Table 5) reveals that in 2001, only 77.18% of houses
were used as residences compared to 79.63% in the year
1991. Around 4% of the houses belonged to residence cum
other use category in 1991 and 2001 respectively. The shop
or office use of residences has witnessed a 20% increase
from a value of 8.68% in 1991 to 10.63% in 2001. Apart
from the said uses about 45 of the houses in Delhi were
used for other non residential uses in 2001.
0.27
4.02
The permissible height in Pitampura is 2.5 stories but in

majority cases G +2 and G+3 structures were observed.
The primary surveys revealed that their is extensive violation
of the neighborhood fabric due to commercialisation of
residential premises. The major transformation is in the
land use pattern i.e. from residential to commercial. There
is also encroachment on the public land and people have
Fig. 2: Proposed Landuse along Main Road in Dakshini Pitampura - 1981

Source: DDA
Fig. 3: Existing Landuse along Main Road in Dakshini Pitampura - 2004

Source: Primary Survey
transformed the tenements by covering the balconies

and converting the terraces into rooms in order to
accommodate the growing household size. Despite the fact
that full potential of built-up has not been exploited the
living environment is deteriorating with time due to change
in original character of the area.
Table 7: Temporal Variation in Landuse

Landuse
Proposed
(1980)
Observed
(2004)
Residential
60
39
Residential + Commercial
21
3.3.2. Rohini (Sector 7)
Semi Public/ Institutional
22
22
Rohini scheme was launched in 1980s to provide housing for

the composite society, inclusive of all income groups. It was
planned predominantly as residential area for 0.85 million
population. However major percentage of the housing was
given for EWS and LIG categories. The land use structure of
Rohini when proposed showed residential as the predominant
land use without any mixed land use option, which is a very
evident character of Rohini today. The East Node of Sector
7 in Rohini is one of the first phase developments of the
Rohini Residential Sectoral Development in the mid 80s. Over
a period of time it is observed that mixed landuse (Table 7)
character has witnessed a substantial growth, especially along
the main transport routes.
Open/ Green
Roads
12
12
Total
100
100
Majority of the buildings are G+2, but G+3 structures are

also observed, particularly along the major roads and in
LIG plots. The primary surveys reveal that there is extensive
violation in the colony fabric.
3.3.3. Madipur
Located along NH 10 (Delhi - Rohtak Road), Madipur
resettlement colony was planned in 1966 for 21,400
persons. Total area under Madipur Scheme was 72.03 acres
with 4372 numbers of plots including 92 commercial plots
for shops. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)
allotted the plots in 1968 on basis of Ration Cards @ Re. 1
as license fee that was increased to Rs. 8/- but was neither
paid nor collected. Upon allotment, housing layouts were
provided by the authorities. These layouts formed the basis
for getting loans and building materials for the construction
of houses.
151
Fig. 4: Comparative Evaluation of Proposed and Existing Landuse

Source: DDA and Primary Survey - 2006
Over the years, Madipur resettlement colony has witnessed

tremendous change in the structure. Due to consolidation
and improvement in economic conditions, the allottees
have brought in their families/relatives thereby increasing
the overall household size from 5 in 1981 to 5.85 in 2005.
In the year 2005, 20.54 % of households were observed to
be living as a joint family and 71.12% households living as
nuclear families.
The landuse distribution in Madipur has witnessed
considerable change from those proposed in the development
plan. Area under residential use has increased to 45% from
31.6% in the year 1968, while that under commercial usage
has decreased drastically to 1% from 31.4% due nonutlisation of commercial space (Fig. 4).
3.3.4. Lajpat Nagar
Lajpat Nagar was originally an agricultural land on the
outskirts of Delhi and was one of the resettlement colonies
planned to settle migrants from West Pakistan. The original
allotees were people who were staying in Purana Quila
campus after migration to Delhi from Pakistan. Lajpat
Nagar was initially a suburb in the south of Delhi named
in honor of Lala Lajpat Rai. Lajpat Nagar is divided into
four parts: Lajpat Nagar I, II, III (north of the Ring Road)
and IV (south of the Ring Road). Housing colonies like
Amar Colony, Dayanand Colony, Double Storey (also
known as Nirmal Puri) and Vinobha Puri are also located
in it. Lajpat Nagar was originally planned as a low-rise highdensity residential colony for the refugees by ministry of
rehabilitation in 1951. But over the years it has become a
major non-hierarchical commercial center serving south
Delhi district.
Over the years due to the changing landuse the urban
form has transformed drastically. It was originally designed
to house 45000 populations on 750 acres of land with a
density of 150pph but by 1995 Lajpat Nagar had more
than 4.68 lakh people with a density of 625pph. In 1960s
the economic position of migrants started improving and
hence first transformation started with addition of kitchen,
bathroom and toilet on ground floor. This transformation
152
along with a provision of a front veranda was legalized in

1972.
It was during the 70s when large number of Afghans and
population of Punjab and Kashmir migrated to this place.
However by this time various socio-economic changes took
place and there was need for more space and specialized
areas. Further, the people who had migrated into these areas
were mostly traders with substantial financial resources
which in turn helped them investin properties. Locational
advantage increased with the coming up of Nehru Place
which offered tremendous employment opportunities,
thereby increasing the demand for cheap accommodation in
its vicinity. Hence Lajpat Nagar became an obvious choice.
4.
LANDUSE
TRANSFORMATION
IMPLEMENTATION MASTER PLAN
AND
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is the nodal

agency for implementing the Delhi Master Plan including
development of residential, commercial and other landuses.
A quick look at the situation reveals that the DDA is also
responsible for landuse transformation occurring in the
NCT Delhi due to inadequate demand and supply gap.
DDA through the years virtually abdicated its responsibility
to build commercial space in the city even though it was
the key agency to do so, leading to an acute shortage of
legitimate areas for shops and offices.
Table 8: Comparative Evaluation of Proposed and
Built Commercial Spaces in District Centres (in 1000
sq.m.)
Sl. No.
Zones
Proposed
Built
%age of
total
North
987
97
9.83
East
762
146
19.16
Central
334
327
97.90
West
2132
368
17.26
South
1022
600
58.71
According to Master Plan 2001, drawn up by DDA and

finalised in 1990, the DDA was supposed to build up 64.6
million sq. m. of commercial space in 22 new district centres
by 2001. Instead, it set up only three new district centres with
only 2.43 million sq. m. of additional commercial space,
achieving only 3.8% of the target. In the earlier Master Plan
(1961-81) DDA had a target of constructing 24 million
square metres of commercial space over 15 district centres.
But it delivered only 0.5 million square metres achieving
just 2% of the target (Table 8).
Hope, opportunity and livelihood drove people by the lakhs
to the city which, in turn, created an unprecedented demand
for new shops and office spaces. And as the authorities
failed to react to the citys growth, market forces moved in
and created commercial spaces in residential areas. The total
legitimate commercial space available in the citys district
centres by 2001 was a little over 15 million sq. m., including
spaces in those started under the 1961-81 master plan. This
was against the DDAs own projected requirement of over
96 million sq. m. by 2001. Thus, over a period of 40 years
(1961-2001), the DDA made available only about l6% of
what was needed by its own estimates and promised by the
MPDs. Given that the district centres were supposed to
account for close to three-fourths of all commercial space
in the city with community centres and local shopping
complexes accounting for the rest, this enormous shortfall
meant the city is seriously starved of commercial space and
has adopted its own means for fulfilling it.
5. ISSUES
The foregoing clearly highlights that there is a large scale
transformation occurring in the city both in terms of
landuse as well as usage of premises. The socio-economic
factors are primarily responsible for this transformation.
The increasing population needs the basic amenity of
housing resulting in unauthorized extension, alteration
and construction of residential structures. The pressure
of market forces coupled with lack supply of legitimate
commercial spaces is resulting in transformation of housing
stock into commercial properties. Some of the other key
issues involved in Delhi are summarized below:
At present, Delhi with its population of 13.78 million
is the third largest, fastest growing and most densely
populated city in India that is growing by approximately
1,000 persons per day for a number of years
This increase in population, backed with inadequate
release of land and funds for shelter and infrastructure is
causing rapid landuse transformation and emergence of
sub standard settlements
The inadequate development and implementation of
Master Plan leaves this task into the hands of market
forces causing haphazard development of commercial
spaces and transformation of housing stock into
commercial properties
Delhi is also the most prosperous amongst the states
and union territories of India. The high quality of life
offered by Delhi, compared to its neighboring states
acts as a pull factor for neighboring population which
comes to Delhi not only for employment but also for an
improved quality of life
The failure to develop and implement National Capital
Region Plan is another issue responsible for increasing
the plight of Delhi
6. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

It is clear that transformation is a complex but highly
prevalent problem in Delhi. The solutions like demolition
and / or regularisation that are prevalent at the present
time are nothing but firefighting solutions and do not
address the problem of the city in totality. The key cause
for these transformations is the socio-economic pressure
coupled with a complete failure in planning, developing and
implementing the Master / Development Plans. The need
of the hour is to develop a holistic solution that is based
on the root cause of the problem. The following points
highlight the solution generation process to the said issue.
Delhi, and especially planning for Delhi should not
be seen in isolation, instead a wider perspective of NCR
should be taken into account while planning for the
development of Delhi
Land Use should not to be understood, merely in
the sense of an allocation process, it must be seen in a
wider context of Inclusive Development. It should be
relational space or contextual space, referring not only
to the visible elements of Geographic space i.e. physical
features, landforms and natural resource elements, but
also to the relatively non-visible human values i.e. social
relations, culture, hopes and aspirations of the local
community.
The existing process of planning i.e. Master Plan
approach should be done away with, instead the focus
should be on developing a perspective plan (10 years)
that would guide the process of development. Based on
the perspective plan, Master plans would be made for
a period of 5 years and should be followed by Annual
Plans.
Redensification should be encouraged on the areas
falling in the catchment of mass rapid transit system
(Delhi Metro) and also in other areas those have
comparatively low Density.
The existing building byelaws should be simplified
and made precise to the extent possible in order to make
them understand to the common people and should not
leave any chance for interpretation
All the sanctioned / approved building plans are
to be made available on internet for easy accesses and
download
There should be provision for reporting any violation
/ transformation through internet
A strict and uniform policy on regularisation/
demolition that has been developed scientifically and
practically, needs to be adopted and adhered to.
The concept of existing as per completion drawing
needs to be incorporated where it would be the duty of
the premises owner to submit, once in every five year, an
certificate / affidavit attested by the registered architect
the premises in existing as per the completion drawing
Stress should be laid on Public Private Partnership
(PPP) for planning, developing and implementing the
development plans.
Serious efforts should be made for proper involvement
of RWAs, CBOs, NGOs etc. in formulation of
development strategies.
Any violation / transformation should be dealt with
severely, fines should be imposed on modification/
alteration of land or structures to act as a deterrent.
153
The concept of accountability of officers in local

authority needs to be incorporated in the system in
order to enforce effective implementation of plans and
regulations
References:
Journals:
1. Risbud, Dr.Prof Neelima (1998), Property market and
settlement development A case study of Rohini Project,
Research report, HSMI publication.
2. Singh, Kishore Kumar & Shukla, Shikha (2005), Profiling
Informal City of Delhi, Wateraid India & Delhi Slum
Dwellers Federation
Newspapers:
3. Sharma, Nidhi (2006) , Incomplete survey hits
regularization, Times of India, New Delhi, November 29
4. Times News Network (2006), Delhi sealings make
Noidas commercial space costly, Times of India, New
Delhi, November 29
5. Singh, Mahendra Kumar (2006), Master Plan focus on
mixed land use, Times of India, New Delhi, November 29
6. Singh, Mahendra Kumar (2006), Tony colonies to pay
heavy price for legal status, Times of India, New Delhi,
November 29
7. Satya Prakash (2006), Laws should be implemented:
Sabharwal, Hindustan Times, New Delhi, October 19
8. Verma, Subodh (2006), Too few legal Shops? Blame it on
DDA, Times of India, New Delhi, November 17
9. Verma, Subodh (2006), A massive Plan to resettle entire
city, Times of India, New Delhi, November 20
10. Roy, Dunu, From home to estate, (available on
internet).
Articles:
11. Chakrabarti, P.G Dhar (2001), Delhis Ongoing Debate
on Informal Settlements and Work Places -Issues of
Environmental Jurisprudence, International workshop on
coping with informality and illegality in human settlements
in developing cities, Belgium.
12. Jain, A.K. (2004), Vision for Delhi 2021: A Restructured
City, RITES Journal, September
Reports:
13. Delhi Development Authority (1990), Master Plan of
Delhi-2001.
14. Delhi Development Authority (2005), Draft Master
Plan of Delhi 2021.
15. Socio Economic Profile of Delhi, 2004-05
Thesis:
16. Bhutani, Renu (1995), Trends and transformations in the
central Government employee Housing Delhi, unpublished
thesis, School of Planning and Architecture.
17. Chitra S. (1991), Housing Transformations in
Resettlement colonies case study Delhi, Housing department
thesis, School of Planning and Architecture.
154
18. Arora, Dinesh (1996), Housing Transformations in Low

income housing Lajpat Nagar, Department of Physical
planning, School of Planning and Architecture.
19. Jain, Gaurav (1991), Procedures and Practices in
apartment Building- case study Delhi, Department of
Housing, School of Planning and Architecture.
20. Setya, I.D. (1975), Unintended physical growth in Delhi,
unpublished thesis, School of Planning and Architecture
21. Singh, Khurmi M. (1999), Deviations of building
byelaws in plotted and group housing areas in Rohini Delhi,
unpublished thesis, School of Planning and Architecture.
22.
Sharma,
Kapil,
Transformation
towards
commercialization in Residential pockets of Rohini,
unpublished thesis, School of Planning and Architecture.
23. K. Bharati (1986), Housing Subsystems in Delhi
development and policy interaction, Department of
Housing, School of Planning and Architecture.
24. Bradoo, Mohit (2003), Development code and its
impact on the Planned development, Case study Delhi,
Department of Urban Planning, School of Planning and
Architecture.
25. Khosla, Raman (1995), Impact of unintended growth
on planned development (Lajpat nagar), School of Planning
and Architecture.
26. Marwaha, Shiv (2000), Emerging Dimensions of
Housing neighborhoods in Delhi, Department of Housing,
School of Planning and Architecture.
27. Saha, S.K. (1970), Emerging residential Form and
Structure in Metropolitan areas, Department of Housing,
School of Planning and Architecture.
28. Kumar, Vinod (1995), Impact of regularization of
commercial activities on planned developments, Karol
Bagh, New Delhi, unpublished thesis, School of Planning
and Architecture.
29. Yadav, V.K. (1994), Transformations in Public Housing
Flats Case Study Delhi, Department of Housing, School
of Planning and Architecture
Websites
30. www.delhigovt.nic.in
31. www.ar.delhigovt.nic.in
32. www.socialwelfare.delhigovt.nic.in
33. www.timesofindia.com
34. www.hindustantimes.com
35. www.ddadelhi.com
36. www.ccsindia.org
37. www.bestpractices.org
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39. www.hinduonnet.com
40. www.tribuneindia.com
41. www.nflash.com
Isolated By Elitism: The Pitfalls

Of Recent Heritage Conservation
Attempts In Chennai
Pushpa Arabindoo
Lecturer in Geography & Urban Design
UCL Urban Laboratory, University College London
On 4 April 2003, the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J.
Jayalalithaa informed the State Assembly that the rundown buildings on the 30-acre, 88-year old Queen Marys
College (QMC) on Marina beach in Chennai would be
razed to make way for a brand new secretariat complex.i
Earlier on in January the state government had inked a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Malaysian
Governments Construction Industry Development Board
for several development projects in the state, including the
proposal for an administrative city (housing the secretariat)
on the southern outskirts of Chennai. But when the initial
feasibility study indicated a time span of fifteen years to
realise this proposal, the Chief Minister settled in for an
interim alternative to relocate the Secretariat Complex at
the site of the Queen Marys College.
This was not the first time that the state government had
sought to relocate the Secretariat. Since the 1980s, it has
expressed itself to be inadequately housed in the Fort St.
George Complex, also located on Marina Beach, and has time
and again looked for alternative sites and accommodation
but nothing had come to fruition.ii This time there seemed
to be some urgency to the proposal coming at a juncture
when Chennai was making all-out efforts to place itself on
the network of global cities, with corresponding architecture
projects endorsing its commitment to globalisation and
high-technology development. The new Secretariat complex
complete with state-of-the-art facilities was meant to be an
exemplar, reinforcing the transnational aspirations of the
government. But such intentions proved to be far from
ground reality as the proposal provoked protests from a wide
range of interest groups beyond anyones imagination.
Within hours, an impromptu Save QMC movement was
launched and support snowballed quickly from various
quarters including teachers associations, womens groups,
human rights, environment and heritage activists. All
concerns ranging from womens education to environment
and heritage protection came to a heady mix in this crisis
where nine different Public Interest Litigation (PILs)
petitions were filed from different quarters including the
Tamil Nadu Government Collegiate Teachers Association
and the Students Federation of India, the Citizen, Consumer
and Civil Action Group (CAG), and the Indian National
Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). They all
expressed inter-related concerns as the former argued that
the location prioritised and privileged womens education,
the CAG petition claimed violation of a host of existing
development laws, including the provisions of the Coastal
(i) Shifting Secretariat a farsighted move: Jayalalithaa 2003, The Hindu
[online], 05 April, n.p. [Retrieved March 22, 2005].
(ii) The Fort St. George Complex is under the direct purview of the
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and is strictly regulated in terms
of renovations and constructions that can be undertaken (no construction is
allowed within 200m of the Fort). A 10-storey annexe building was built
in 1975 but is in a dilapidated condition today with poor maintenance and
insufficient offer of facilities.
Regulation Zone (CRZ),iii the Town and Country Planning

Act and the Constitution, while INTACH argued that the
QMC complex was part of the 12 buildings on the Marina
Beach stretch identified as a heritage precinct.
The controversy raged through the month of April expanding
into the political circuit with various parties getting involved
and attempting to arbitrage the crisis to their own advantage.
The issue was finally sealed on 22 April 2003 when the
Union Ministry of Environment and Forests imposed a
blanket ban on demolition or reconstruction of buildings
of archaeological or historical importance, heritage buildings
and public use buildings on coastal stretches. While it was
obvious that the intervention was mainly an act of oneupmanship between rival political parties (the ruling ADMK
at the state level and the opposing DMK which happened to
be a member of the coalition government at the Centre and
whose MP TR Balu held the MEF portfolio), it did little to
dampen the jubilant and celebratory spirit of the different
activist groups in the city involved in the crisis.
It seemed like a truly momentous occasion as interest
groups representing different layers of cultural objectives
came together and collectively stalled an insensitive
development move made by an autocratic state. The QMC
catered to the educational needs of women and children
from socio-economically under privileged groups, and is
historically an edifice of womens emancipation.iv For the
heritage enthusiasts, the complex of 26 buildings is home
to historic structures from the colonial era, seen as a crucial
component of the celebrated Madras skyline worthy of
preservation, and for environmental activists, the concern
revolved around protecting the fragile, coastal environment
threatened by a large footprint legislative complex. It was
thus heartening to note that the response to the crisis
revealed a tacit coming together of multiple sectoral groups
ranging from the elites to the disadvantaged, each drawing
on the resources of the other, and the general debate itself
being able to comfortably accommodate their various
different conceptual frameworks.
Such enthusiasm was unfortunately short-lived; with dust
settling on the crisis the explicit show of support between
the different actors failed to evolve into a long-standing
and institutionalised politics of partnership which could
have been successfully developed to impress upon the
state alternative sustainable development visions for the
city. Instead, the students went back to their classrooms,
opposing political parties disappeared from the crime
scene, and the heritage and environment activists fell
back to the comforts of their armchair activism writing
and whining mostly through the medium of Englishspeaking press about the lack of heritage consciousness in
the city. This paper focuses its attention on this particular
aspect of heritage activists. Given the elite nature of
such participants, a display of superiority and isolationist
tendencies doesnt come as a surprise. But the need for
heritage to break the imposed class boundaries and go
(iii) With four categories of classification from CRZ-I to CRZ-IV to
control the development of land within 500 metres of High Tide Line of the
landward side, and many allowances for exceptions, the CRZ is ambiguously
worded and has been least effective in controlling development, let alone fighting
legal cases with. Yet it is constantly invoked in many Public Interest Litigations
(PILs) to argue against proposed new developments such as the one at Marina
Beach.
(iv) Krishna kumar, A. (2003), The end of a womens college?, Frontline
[online], 20(8), n.p. [Retrieved March 18, 2005].
155
beyond the concerns of one particular class is paramount

if heritage is to take on a comprehensive role and be an
invaluable part of an alternative development blueprint
for the city. It also means, on the part of the elite and
middle class activists, acknowledging and incorporating the
diverse range of class interests which will invariably clash
and collide over competing ideologies and visions of use.
It begins first by elaborating the historical circumstances
under which heritage activism developed as an elite interest
and remained confined to the same for most part of the
postcolonial development era.
space across the road was used by the regional government

for constructing a Tamil identity. In 1968, on the occasion
of the Second International Tamil Conference, the
government erected statues of ten writers and scholars who
contributed to Tamil language and literature (Pandian; 2005).
Thus, the national (or in this instance, the regional) self and
the colonial other stood side-by-side in juxtaposition, with
the latter languishing mostly in neglect, and the former
attempting to successfully reproduce postcolonial spaces
of power and symbolic authority in a manner similar to that
of the colonialists.
Heritage: A Post-colonial Impossibility
Enlightened by History Elite Pursuit of Heritage
Dickenson (1994) explains that Third World urban concerns

are heavily problem-oriented towards the present and the
future, under the pressures of which the past is neglected
with no time or place for the preservation of historic values.
He believes that such protection hardly goes beyond the
recondite interests of urban historians, and even though a
strong case for the significance of the past for the national
identity can be made, he queries the value of the past in
the country of the future. Such an understanding was so
firmly entrenched in planning approaches of most Third
World cities that when the UNESCO Charter of 1975
argued for the conservation of the historic quarters or
cities, counter arguments were effectively produced to the
contrary: conservation takes a disproportionate amount of
time, money and administrative and political negotiation
[and] very clear justification is necessary particularly in
developing countries, where available resources are usually
scarce (Shankland 1975, p. 24 cited in Dickenson 1994, p.
23).
It is against this background that elite involvement in

pursuing issues of heritage and preservation needs to be
understood and explored. While colonialism left heritage
concerns in the postcolonial context unresolved, and in
many cases the colonial past was seen at best as a prelude
to the present and at worst a harbinger of contemporary
woes (Dickenson; 1994), the indigenous elites and Englishspeaking middle classes viewed the urban domain as loaded
with colonial meaning carried immense value in terms of
housing the promises of modernity (Khilnani; 1997). They
had gained a lot materially from colonialism and therefore
sought to encompass the materiality of colonial buildings
and streetscape within the definitions of national heritage
and hoping to assist in repositioning the city as part of a
continuous history which reconnects pre- and post-colonial
national narratives with the colonial experience (Cot;
2002).
In addition to this classic development versus conservation

debate, there is yet another good reason as to why heritage
preservation, particularly in the urban condition, failed
to capture the states attention in the years of postindependence governance. This had a lot to do with the
equivocal nature of the postcolonial historic constructions
that ensued. Mitchell (2001) outlines the situation of such
new nation-states who in order to prove that they were
modern also needed to prove that they were ancient,
and that deciding on a common past was critical to the
process of making a particular mixture of people into a
coherent nation (p. 212). As a result of this process, any
genuine invocation of heritage proved to be awkward
and compromised. Moreover, for nations with colonial
history and an explicit anti-colonial stance of nationalist
historiography such a move instantly negates any attempt
in this direction: how was one going to frame the colonial
structures of the urban landscape that were clearly part of
a past yet denied as tradition?
Alley (1997) explains that heritage activists and professional

elites view heritage not merely from a perspective of political
history but more importantly in terms of recognising the
need to preserve symbolic structures, its aesthetic values
and architectural principles, a position which stipulates that
all architectural heritage are equally important and thus need
to be retained and preserved. Non-governmental bodies
like INTACH engaged in recovering an architectural past
emphasise the need for a national narrative of architectural
development without any bias or discontinuity. For the new
middle classes who had acquired affluence as a result of
successful economic development, participation in heritage
preservation issues was a public status marker as they
sought an alternative to what appeared to be an increasingly
aimless regime-driven development (Cot; 2002). In
addition, for these social groups, heritage preservation was
a system of political protest wherein by expressing interest
in a disappearing urban past they were simultaneously
expressing concern over the burgeoning pace of urban
development and population growth (Jones and Varley;
1994).
But it hasnt been that easy to rid the urban landscape of

the trappings of the colonial past, the refiguring of which
with respect to the positioning of representations of the
postcolonial nation-state has proved to be a double-sided
problem (Alley; 1997). In instances where the colonial
material infrastructure posed a structural obstacle and
restricted the ways in which landscapes could be modified
and redefined in postcolonial India, the nationalist state
projected the new nationalism to the people by repopulating
adjacent public spaces with newer accounts of political
history. For instance, in Chennai, while many of the
government departments and institutions moved into the
stretch of colonial buildings along the Marina, the public
In this position, heritage supporters, professionals and

activists adopted a position contrary to the states gestures
of a similar nature. In Chennai, when the Chief Minister
announced that the new Secretariat would be an exquisite
mix of the facade of the Vidhan Soudha in Bangalore and
the modern interiors of the Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi,
heritage professionals were quick to react with criticism.
Condemning it not only as a personalised, obsessive fantasy
of the powerful, they also slammed it for its inauthenticity.
If the state intended that the mixture of modern
interior and traditional exterior would be the new global,
transnationalised imagery of the cityscape, professionals
criticised the incongruity of such a proposition. They
156
emphasised the inappropriateness of a neo-classical

building amidst a series of Indo-Saracenic buildings dotting
the Marina, criticising the pastiche that was offered as
traditional architecture, one where the skin of the past was
used to allow the present in its pursuit of the future.v Sorkin
(2000) warns against such superficial concessions when he
cautions that space-making could get caught in a matrix of
simulation, and [a]s culture is increasingly globalized and
the architectural forms of authenticity become even more
easy to manipulate and reproduce, we risk a condition of
general architectural mendacity (p. 61). The validity of such
arguments notwithstanding, the efforts of elites and middle
classes in stimulating historic preservation measures hasnt
been free of criticisms and scepticisms, primarily revolving
around their selection bias, of what constitutes heritage and
what is worthy of being preserved.
All That Glitters.....: Limitations of Elite Interest in
Heritage 1
Surrounding the appropriateness of heritage conservation
in the Third World is the looming suspicion that this is yet
another of those First World indulgences and fetishisms
that have been imposed onto the Third World as a dominant
capitalist paradigm by its highly westernised elite (AlSayyad;
2001). At a more specific level are several concerns first
and foremost is the issue of whether heritage is merely a tool
for promoting elite self-interest defined narrowly by their
sense of aesthetics. Often there is an overriding emphasis
on the aesthetic and visual aspects of heritage which is not
sufficient to address larger environmental and development
pressures.vi As Bhattacherjee (2004) quipped, nothing that
is without shine can become heritage, and the choices of
the most lowly stakeholders whose houses were built of
wood or thatch rather than stone are muted or silent, and
those whose lives were blighted by massacre, torture and
discrimination are also less remembered (Harrison; 2005,
pp. 7-8). A good illustration of this can be seen in the
response of heritage activists to yet another crisis over the
transformation of Marina Beach in Chennai.
A few months before the eruption of the April 2003 QMC
crisis, as a part of the state governments MoU with the
Malaysian Government, a proposal for a 1.5 km stretch of
the beach was presented outlining the development of multistoreyed complexes of international standards providing
office administration for multinationals and embassies. The
plan required modifications to the existing Development
Controls Regulations (DCR) which protected the existing
skyline of Marina and prohibited tall structures, and also
openly acknowledged that the fishermen settlements or
kuppams dotting this stretch of the beach would have to be
relocated elsewhere. Environmental activists were quick to
jump into the fray in support of the fisherfolk arguing that in
a context where the livelihood of artisanal fishermen were
already threatened by larger developmentalist interventions
such as mechanisation and industrialisation of fishing
activities, combined with the general effects of pollution
(v) Ahmed, F. (2003), Teachers, architects flay plan to demolish QMC
building, The Hindu [online], 26 March. See also Srivathsan, A (2003),
Art for the power hungry, The Hindu [online], 27 April [Retrieved November
24, 2006]. Shifting Secretariat a farsighted move: Jayalalithaa 2003, The
Hindu[online], 05 April, n.p. [Retrieved March 22, 2005].
(vi) INTACH does repudiate such criticisms insisting that heritage initiatives
in India recognise larger issues and adopt a comprehensive framework in its
approach. See for instance the collection of articles published in Seminar on
Conservation (October 2004, issue 542).
and climate change, the proposed redevelopment of the

Marina and the relocation of the fishing communities would
vii
worsen their already depleted livelihood opportunities .
Interestingly enough, heritage activists participating in this
debate expressed concern over the proposed changes to the
DCR and the impact that multi-storeyed buildings could
have on the unique heritage character of this historically
significant stretch but not more. Preoccupied with protecting
the monuments of stone, not for once did they acknowledge
the heritage value of the fishermen huts dotting the Marina
and whose presence as a community along the seashore
predates the colonial structures. In fact, despite their
historic association with this seashore, the hutment clusters
have been time and again portrayed as slums defacing
the beach, making it less attractive for the visitors and
tourists.viii It is obvious that the heritage vision of the elites
runs the risk of pursuing a kind of monumentalism that
emphasises a few significant structures but tends to ignore
broader concepts of cultural townscape. If conservation
projects are to adequately register the urban memory of
heritage sites, they must first involve the construction of a
social history beyond a history of dominant colonial and
indigenous power structures, not simply putting the native
in the picture, but more generally recognising a broader
everyday urban culture, one where conservation projects
will be embedded in a yet-to-be-written peoples history
(Cot; 2002).
Yet even when there is a gesture to recognise the
vernacular traditions, it is undertaken only with intentions
of promoting its active consumption to the abetment of
which tradition is disassembled and rearranged in order to
recreate a marketable semblance of authenticity. Thus, in
this regard, the so-called heritage site of Dakshinachitra
in Chennai can only be described as an interpretative
heritage centre refit with new symbolic economies
(Robinson; 2001) in what Gregorys (2001) would term as
a space of constructed visibility within which tradition
is seen in particular, partial, and highly powerful ways, some
illuminated, recuperated and privileged, and others dimmed,
marginalised or erased.ix
More importantly, in reference to the preference for the built
form of the urban landscape, Jones and Varley (1994) note
that it is integral to the symbolisation of the elite culture,
a particular configuration of power relations. The most
flamboyant architecture that is chosen for preservation is
often the one that demonstrates the most the symbol of
power and planning in the city with renovation programmes
implying the conservation of an idea or idealised image
of the past as well as the architectural artefact that is then
used to recreate an ideal image in order to symbolically
recapture the city. By employing discourses revolving on
pride and dignity in the built environment, the middle and
upper classes developed heritage preservation as a tensile
(vii) Prominent amongst the supporters was Medha Patkar of the National
Alliance of Peoples Movements, an environmental activist of repute who has
for many years rallied against the Narmada Valley Dam project in India.
(viii) See for instance Vydhianathan, S. (1996), Squalor on the shore, The
Hindu, 16 September, M1.
(ix) See Hancocks (2002) critique of this project. She sees it as one tied
to consumerism and elite perceptions of regional and national heritage, an
aspect also noted by the UN-Habitat (2004) study when it mentions that
the language used at Dakshinachitra is predominantly English, and the
programme of the crafts complex as a whole is directed toward a cosmopolitan
rather than a local audience (p. 42).
157
apparatus of power, knowledge and geography. (Gregory;

2001; p. 115)
Dont Cast Pearls.: Limitations of Elite Interest in
Heritage 2
The marketing of heritage symbols and the conferring
of historic status involves a system of selectivity which
promotes certain value systems over others and can result
in the disinheritance of non-participatory, marginalised
groups (Robinson; 2001). This is mainly constructed by
exuding a sense of respectability, wherein heritage debates
are used successfully to pit the cultured, respected self of
the middle and upper classes against the uncivilised and
dangerous others of the lower classes. Spaces that could be
potentially contested are appropriated through a discourse
and a variety of practices that range from a class-conscious
passion for the arts to performative stagings of heritage
(Guano; 2003).
Addressing this tendency of middle and upper class heritage
activists invoking a superior understanding of history and
heritage is important in the context of Chennai as heritage
activists attend their concerns to historic quarters like
George Town in the northern part of the city spatially
claimed for their heritage value yet at the same time are
home to the poorer sections of the society. This claim needs
to be located within a larger turn of events affecting the
development pattern of the city as a result of which a sociophysical fault line is emerging simultaneously dividing and
connecting two different realms of the city, the geographic
north and south. Both in different ways are being subjected
to an overwhelming bourgeois imagination, a distinction
that has been, oddly enough, cemented strongly since the
anachronistic debate surrounding the historical authenticity
of the citys name, when in 1996, Madras was officially
renamed as Chennai. In a dyadic simultaneous existence,
Chennai and Madras exemplify the tale of two cities, where
the newly developing, globalising South Chennai exhibits
an elegant and ordered bourgeois landscape, replete with
flyovers and expressways, high-rise buildings, and cleanedup public spaces, while an economically stagnant, North
Madras portrays filth and decay, and is condemned as a
slum with poor infrastructure. Given this contrast, heritage
activists are focussing on the colonial fabric of North
Madras whereby the now languishing historic district could
be reinvigorated as vintage Madras through their efforts.
Laudable as such efforts can be there is equally room
for concern in this potential resurrection. Even if one
acknowledges that heritage conservation has come a
long way from its earlier promotion of a much criticised
manicured reconstruction of the past (Baig; 2004), stepping
away from museumisation strategies, current practices
still leave plenty of questions unanswered. Much caution
needs to be exercised if heritage activists are to undertake
efforts at restoring old historic quarters like George Town,
celebrated by heritage connoisseurs as the first planned
native settlement of British Madras complete with buildings
reminiscent of a colonial architecture (Kalpana and Schiffer;
2003). Today, almost universally in every developing city,
historic quarters are receptacles of the poorer and less
privileged sections of the society, who under economic and
social pressures have transformed the urban fabric of these
areas, with such changes rarely meeting the standards of
approval of heritage activists.
158
As heritage activists enter such districts with proposals for

revitalisation projects, they need to do so with the mindset
that the opportunity here is not merely for the preservation
of a few buildings of architectural merit but of an entire
social, cultural and economic landscape and all the activities
traditionally and regularly associated with it. The challenge
that confronts the effort of heritage conservationists is their
ability to reconcile and establish a productive symbiosis
between the historic architecture that they seek to preserve
and the everyday practices of the social classes that inhabit
them, the ecology of the living, particularly when the latter
is seen as the cause of ruin or neglect of the former. This
pressing contentious issue of heritage or historic apathy
is well illustrated by Kaviraj (1997) when he observes that
while the poor find it difficult to participate in these highly
emotive struggles over the past, the middle classes would
not have shared the poor classes indifference or inability to
appreciate the idea of the civic (p. 109).
The fact is that the structures in George Town have been
continuously updated through the post-independence
decades through extensions, renovations and demolitions to
meet the changing functional needs of its inhabitants using
and producing an aesthetic vocabulary completely different
from the ones prescribed by the heritage preservationists.
But as Holston (1991) has emphasised, working-class taste
cannot be reduced to the rack of functional necessity
where it has no aesthetic distinction, but indeed is driven
by a visual calculus of appearances, albeit one that is
constructed differently from that of the distinctive tastes
of the elites and middle classes. But what heritage activists
tend to do is disparage such aesthetics as kitsch, vulgar, and
demeaning to the significance of the historic fabric, failing
to acknowledge the fact that aesthetics is conceived of and
experienced differently according to how it is placed within
the various kinds of interpretations that people bring to it.
Instead of capturing the multiplicity of meanings implicitly
present in such spaces, preservation becomes a means of
imposing just one meaning congruent with an ideologically
defined image of the past, implying the destruction of
present ways of life.
Informality in Heritage: Reconciling Elite-Mass
Conflicts
Ignoring the fact that places are born of practice as well
as discourse, preservationists exhibit a tendency to join the
general bourgeois brigade condemning the presence of
informal traders and street hawkers as encroachments and
calling for their removal from the public spaces. Historic
preservation in this context becomes a special supplement
of value that pathologises such quotidian stewardships and is
presented as an antidote to the popular practices dominating
these spaces. Commenting on the various informal bazaars
lining the Victorian arcades in the Fort Area of Bombay,
Mehrotra (2000) mentions that if the chaotic marketplace
of shops, stalls and hawkers are considered as a symbolic
metaphor for the physical deterioration of the Indian city,
for the elites and conservationists the Victorian core has
acquired an even greater meaning as a crucial symbol of the
citys fast-deteriorating historic image.
Consequently hawking is deemed illegal by city authorities
who constantly attempt to relocate the bazaars. Such
decrees fail to acknowledge that many worlds can inhabit
the same space, relating to it and using it in different ways,
for doing so would imply that we must accommodate and
overlap varying uses, perceptions, and physical forms. A

rehabilitated urban fabric instead subtracts the informal
trading spaces out of the equation removing their livelihood
opportunities, and turning these spaces over to institutions
and groups who are considered worthy of the structures
and their history. The Fort Area in Bombay which is the
largest conservation area with a third of conservationworthy buildings in the city has become the hub of financial
institutions and multinational banks who prefer to be
located in a historic environment, often providing financial
banking for the restoration processes. Overlooked in this
process is the fact that they only do so because such a
move instantly gives them an identity and a connotation of
having been around for a while (Mehrotra; 2000), allowing
in the process global actors to take on a local-friendly look
(AlSayyad; 2001).
For heritage conservation to have a meaningful social
relevance, it is crucial that preservationists clarify and
resolve their position vis--vis informal traders and street
hawkers, particularly in terms of the effect of this economic
group (both perceived and real) on the authenticity and
sustainability of the built environment (in most cases, historic
structures share spaces cheek-by-jowl with the informal
traders and dwellers posing a challenge to preservationists).
In recent years, with increasing embourgeoisement of the
urban debate in Indian cities, the question of illegality of
informal spaces (including squatter settlements and traders)
has become a prime preoccupation requiring immediate
redress. Chandoke (1993) traces the source of this problem
to the state sponsored development projects and policies
where the poor are accommodated in the spaces of
production but not in terms of spaces of reproduction,
thereby forcing them into illegal land occupation. But
more lately, the cognitive mapping of the middle classes
tends to void out the informal spaces, resignifying them as
dangerous areas instead (Guano; 2003). Reflecting on the
growing visual economy of commodity aesthetics in neoliberal India, Rajagopal (2001) focuses on how the hawkers
peddling on the streets have come to symbolise the disorder
of an illicit enterprise and metropolitan space gone out of
control.
The imagined geography and history of heritage
conservationists is cleverly applied to settle the fundamental
contest for spaces. The pragmatism of the street traders
whose hawking activities are framed in terms of economic
survival is illegalised through conservation strategies
that propose disciplining the errant human bodies to a
common economy of order and suggest that hawking
activities be legalised and formalised through licensing
and regulating their spaces of operation (Rajagopal;
2001). This is the general strategy that is being adopted
across major Indian cities and has even been scripted as
a national policy on urban street vendors (2006). But the
creation of such spaces of prescriptions regularising,
standardising and making predictable the cityscape rather
than the spaces of negotiation that is fluid, individual and
improvisational (Gregory; 2001) is superficial as a solution
and doesnt address the structural characteristic of a Third
World economy. Gladstone (2005) explains that in India
where over 90 percent of the businesses are informal and
account for more than 60 percent of the economys value
added, a nexus of dependency runs as a continuum from
the purely informal to formal production. He also clarifies
the issue of informality and illegality stating that because
economies are informal they cannot achieve the economies
of scale necessary for legalisation and because they

remain illegal they continue to be informal. Any attempt
to formalise the informal would only adversely affect this
nexus of dependency. But the tendency of heritage activists
to discipline and marginalise the community of informal
traders and street dwellers reveal the inherent tendency
of culture to bend and blend itself to the fixed nature of
capital as against the informal flows of cash economy.
Conclusions
Both the World Bank (Serageldin and Shluger; 2000) and
the UNESCOs Our Cultural Diversity report (1995) insist
that heritage preservation and poverty reduction are closely
intertwined as the former can establish a sense of solidarity
and empowerment amongst the disenfranchised. While this
paper does not challenge this position, it explores the issues
of incorporating the protection of built heritage into the
general realm of development as a complex iterative process
involving multiple actors and partnerships between them. It
argues that one cannot get too complacent or seek comfort
in the fact that multiplicity of actors automatically ensures
an equally distributive partnership. It instead focuses on class
lines that divide the different interest groups drawn apart by
differing ideologies of heritage and history. The emphasis
here is on the dominance of an elite discourse which fails
to successfully encompass all social groups, using heritage
issues instead to mark the setting of a new order of power
and precedence, and fixing the spatial evolution of the city
through a one-dimensional accounting of history.
Much as there is an emerging concern to link the quality
of life, particularly in historic areas, with its built heritage,
the issue that this paper raises is whether this notion is
defined by a bourgeois normative framework ignoring
alternative possibilities. Even though there is a realisation
that conservation efforts should not affect the daily living
of people who are prominent stakeholders and that they
have to form part of the larger economic and social
planning for the area, the inability of heritage activists
to adopt a reconciliatory position towards the presence
of informal traders and street hawkers, and the everyday
practices of the poor in general (including their sense of
aesthetics) exposes their position to be straitjacketed by very
conventional norms of legality and legitimacy, and history
and geography. One then wonders whether full justice
can be done to the word stakeholder as it is limited to the
networking dynamics of legal residents and businesses to
the exclusion of marginal groups. While conservationists
acknowledge the need for stakeholder participation and
the involvement of local community, in reality the complex
matrix of a diverse range of actors and the contradictions,
paradoxes and biases they bring to the issue problematises
heritage to such an extent that the elites instinctively shift
to a defensive gear, defining and propagating heritage from
a dominant, normative perspective. Through examples of
recent heritage initiatives and examples in Chennai, this
paper draws attention to the still unresolved nature of elitemass linkages underlining these efforts, working at best as a
patronage but never lasting as a partnership.
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statue on Chennai beachfront. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 6,
p. 428-431.
23. Rajagopal, A. (2001), The Violence of Commodity
Aesthetics: Hawkers, Demolition Raids, and a New Regime
of Consumption. Social Text, 19, p. 91-113.
24. Robinson, M. (2001) Tourism Encounters: Inter- and
Intra-Cultural Conflicts and the Worlds Largest Industry.
in Alsayyad, N. (Ed.) (2001), Consuming Tradition,
in the Age of Tourism. London and New York, Routledge.
25. Serageldin, I., Shluger, E. & Martin-brown, J. (Eds.)
(2001) Historic Cities and Sacred Sites: Cultural Roots for
Urban Futures, Washington, D.C., The International Bank
for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank.
26. Sorkin, M. (2001), Protecting Architectural Heritage
in Expanding Metropolises. in Serageldin, I., Shluger, E.
& Martin-brown, J. (Eds.) Historic Cities and Sacred Sites:
Cultural Roots for Urban Futures. Washington, D.C., The
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development /
The World Bank.
27. UNHSP (2004), The State of the Worlds cities 2004/05:
Globalization and Urban Culture, London, Earthscan.
Urbanization, Farm Land And The

Form Of Public Space
Narendra Dengle
Architect/Conservationist, Pune
The process of urbanization in India has had a tremendous
impact on small towns, district places, villages and the
predominantly agrarian society in this country. Although the
rate of urbanization is different in different states, according
to the Census of India it is very high in the states which
were so far underdeveloped, agrarian and mostly tribal.
The previously agrarian communities are being shifted to
new places, transformed into nuclear urban communities,
and generally other avenues are being preferred, by urban
economists, to communities with agrarian traditions. All of
this has a major influence on how we are going to read
into new urban communities and their urban public space.
This paper attempts to examine the phenomenon of the
transformation of rural to urban societies and the quality
of the relevant public space.
Fig. 1: Farms and fields, Mulshi Lake near Pune
Agricultural land (Fig. 1) is now being considered less

important in the wake of the IT industry and other economic
avenues, like outsourcing etc, as an effect of globalization
on smaller towns in their transit to urbanization. Some
economists have been justifying this transformation and are
suggesting ways and means of providing better economic
deal for farmers and also shifting them to different locations.
The four issues that have been discussed by Lavesh Bhandari1
are 1. The fear that has to do with (losing) prime agricultural
land. 2. Productivity of the agricultural land 3. Conversion
of agricultural land to industrial/commercial land, and, 4.
Agriculture as a major contributor to air/water pollution.
Fig. 2: Ghats of Benares
The author has argued that all cities were always located on
the banks of rivers (Fig. 2), which naturally were a prime
land. The yield of the agricultural land being very low it
was possible to enhance productivity in future. Thirdly, the
author argues that the percentage of industrial/commercial
land in big cities is only 5-10% and the big ticket items
really are housing and transport which occupy 50-70% of
land. Adequate compensation to farmers, shifting them to
different locations, is the only answer, according to him.
The entire argument is more of a narration as to what is
happening now rather than any pointers to sustain agrarian
communities. This factor is alarming because it appears
that either agriculture is a waste of time and a lost cause,
or that it must be replaced by other occupations which are
economically more promising. Sadly, there is no pointer
suggested to know how in contemporary times agriculture,
and in turn agrarian societies, would hope for a better deal
in sustenance, both of occupation, as well as culture.
Croce said that knowledge is of two kinds: intuitive and
logical. Traditionally, it is the farmer, and the agrarian
communities, who carried forward the empirical knowledge
of climate, types of soil, water, flora & fauna, construction
techniques, arts & crafts, songs and musical instruments,
costumes and textile and so forth. Urban communities,
founded on logical and scientific base, and formal education,
would need several generations to make their contribution
to this pool of empirical knowledge. The economic benefits,
at least for the time being, seem to be monetarily too
attractive for most, even farmers who have sold their small
farms to industry or other urban developments like housing
and roads. The knowledge of the change of seasons and
their effect on the environment created cultures of places
and communities. It is well reflected and expressed in the
performing cultures of rural and tribal communities. It is
their observation of life and ecology, which made them
realize their interdependence in their own lives. The attitude
to sustainability is a result of this long tradition and culture,
which came about because of the connection to agriculture
all over the world. It has been pointed out by archaeologists,
through their research at some of the places like Jerincho
and Catal Hyk that in fact the urban settlements are as old,
if not older, than agrarian communities. The conventional
sequence of hunting and gathering-agriculture-villages-citiesstates, since then has been challenged by recent discoveries
and critical interpretations by scholars and cultural-urban
theorists like Jane Jacob, Edward W. Soja and others. These
scholars would justifiably argue for Putting Cities First
by saying that culture was not necessarily formed around
161
agrarian societies alone but in fact was created only in

cities. Soja says2 , In the first chapter of The Economy
of Cities, indicatively titled Cities first-Rural development
later, (Jane) Jacob creatively formulates her theory of
city origins of the first agriculture. Here are some of her
conclusions:
If my reasoning is correct, it was not agriculture then,
for all its importance, that was the salient invention, or
occurrence if you will, of the Neolithic Age. Rather it was
the fact sustained, interdependent, creative city economics
that made possible many new kinds of work, agriculture
among them. (1969:34)
Both in the past and today, then, the separation commonly
made, dividing city commerce and industry from rural
agriculture, is artificial and imaginary. The two do not come
down two different lines of descent. Rural work-whether
that work is manufacturing brassieres or growing food-is
city work transplanted. (1969:16; note the impaired critique
of Mumford)
I have often asked anthropologists how they know
agriculture came before cities. After recovering from surprise
that this verity should be questioned, they tell me that the
economists have settled it. I have asked economists the
same thing. They tell me archaeologists and anthropologists
have settled it. It seems that everybody has been relying on
somebody elses say-so. At bottom, I think, they are relying
on a pre-Darwinian source-Adam Smith. (1969:42)
The argument does not, however, belittle the effect that
the agrarian communities have had on our psyche and
particularly on the sensibilities of the urban communities.
Gandhiji was emphatic in his perception of Indian village.
He wrote, I would say that if the village perishes, India
will perish too. It will be no more India. Her own mission
in the world will get lost. The revival of the village is
possible only when it is no more exploited. Industrialization
on a mass scale will necessarily lead to passive or active
exploitation of the villages as the problems of competition
and marketing come in. Therefore, we have to concentrate
on the village being self contained manufacturing mainly
for use. Provided this character of the village industry is
maintained, there would be no objection to villagers using
even the modern machines and tools that they can make
and can afford to use.3
Jane Jacobs view and Gandhijis views would seem to clash
here in perceiving the meaning and relevance of agrarian
communities to contemporary and industrial life of our
urban centers. It appears to me that rather than solving the
problem of who was first-whether the agricultural society
or the city- it is perhaps more important to realize what
shapes our knowledge and what aspects of knowledge do
we consider priceless for our civilizations in future. And,
since both- the scientific as well as the empirical knowledge
matter to us, one needs to see how these are brought closer
to each another and sustained. To integrate the wealth of
the empirical knowledge- minus the blind faith- with the
knowledge/ research that urban societies are capable of
generating, it would be essential to encourage peoples direct
participation in the urban and agricultural environmentsthrough systematic studies and physical participation. This
would not be possible unless these two environments are
considered as part of each other, without being judgmental
about which of the two is superior.
162
The above discussion is aimed at underlining the fact that

all traditional architectural concepts, empirical knowledge
of concepts, material & construction, as well as, sustenance
of life, point towards how we as urbanites resolve for
ourselves the relationship between the urban and the
agrarian societies, not only theoretically but actually,
in addressing the phenomenon of New Urbanization.
Preserving fractions of the culture of a bygone era or
agricultural society, by merely continuing crafts traditions in
architecture, would have the same value as items preserved
in museums. For ensuring that the sustainability embedded
in the culture of agrarian societies continues to provide
pointers into future, it is important to facilitate through
planning the togetherness of agrarian and urban societiesboth in economic and social terms. One would have to
envision how children of urban environment would also
benefit by working on farms during vacations etc and
how the empirical knowledge of agrarian communities is
effectively transmitted to urban, rational, scientific pool of
knowledge. In doing so it would also offer a true choice
that is economically attractive and culturally relevant, to
either be an agriculturist or an urbanite, or both at the same
time. Architecture and performing culture all would then
have a better opportunity not only to survive as interesting
and curious cultural practices but to grow in the times of
globalization with new zeal. Kevin Lynch tells us in Good
City Form, ..A world in which work, residence, and
leisure are integrated has been an important goal for many
social thinkers. To urbanize the countryside and ruralize
the city is settled Marxist doctrine. In Cuba, vacant city
lots are planted with tobacco, city people are pressed to
work on surrounding farms, and isolated rural dwellers are
gathered into small urban settlements. The proponents of
neighborhood in the United States argue for city forms to
produce food and solar panels to make energy just as the
progressive urbanization of farm life is reducing the polarity
of city and country at the opposite scale. The delights of
a landscape in which diverse occupations, residence, and
leisure occur side by side are frequently praised in travel
literature. These tracts are written by strangers, of course,
and we would do well to inquire of the actual inhabitants,
who may have diverse opinions. However, memoirs of
childhood, at least, make it clear that a fine grain of activity
is a beneficial growing medium.4 Indeed, it would be
useful to study these experiments in the erstwhile socialists
block to understand the problems with the objective to find
solutions to them. It means that one needs to imagine and
strengthen plans, which help inter-mingle farm lands and
cities-spaces. With that then as priority, one would look at
growth of cities and the form of Public Space in cities.
The first question, of course, is, who is the public we are
talking about? If it is not the richest of the riches and if it
is the majority of the population then our approach would
naturally express the intention. But as it so happens in a
capitalist society, which has now been looked upon with
great expectations, as a promise of the paradise, even by
the erstwhile socialist countries, both freedom and social
strata of the society have given capitalist overtone to our
interpretation. The society consists of the very rich and
the very poor, as well as, those who are trapped in the
middle of the two. But these are economic categories
and not necessarily social or intellectual. Open and public
space is a need, which must satisfy all people belonging
to different economic and social strata. But it is also true
that if one mechanically targets the social and economic
strata for conceiving open spaces respectively for them,

the share of the social open space goes heavily in favor of
the rich and politically affluent. It is evident from the kind
of public spaces which are being planned, not only in the
industrialized world but also in the fast-developing worldlike Korea and parts of China that these are being thought
of as huge entertainment grounds, golf courses, artificially
landscaped parks and lakes, which are all out side the old
city boundaries, usually measuring in more than hundreds
of acres of land. Landscape architects take up challenges
to plan these new nandanvans or paradises on earth and we
discuss how beautiful these spaces are, or how to emulate
these models for the developing world! In the course of
the development which has global ramifications it would be
necessary to replace the terms developed and developing
by fresh terms which refer to places and people as if their
consciousness and aspirations mattered. The developed
world has almost become a derogatory term in that while it
justifies economic activity, better opportunity, and growth
rate, it also has come to symbolize unsustainable ways
of living and practicing with reference to ecology and
environment. Global warming unanimously declared by
scientists in the Paris conference must sound as the warning
bell in this regard.
Invariably the new public space is planned by amalgamating
all such patches of land that are traditionally used as
agricultural or horticultural fields falling within rural regions
and skirting small towns. Whether for public housing or
transport or for industry, this agricultural land is exploited
for generating economic activity without reference to
agriculture. The process of creating huge chunks of land
for parks of hundreds of acres entails losing fertile soil
or top soil to pave way for roads, golf courses or parks
and entertainment grounds. These large parks, which no
doubt hold promise of a great weekend for a family picnic,
howsoever hectic and expensive, come as a package, which
ignores neighborhood open space hierarchy and public
spaces linked firmly with everyday life. Traditional public
spaces were not looked upon as an escape from life but as a
means to make sense of life, leave alone the gardens planned
by and for the kings and rulers. These large recreation parks
are likely to obliterate forests and wild landscape since they
come as an alternative landscape to forests and farms, hence
safer, clinically manicured, well managed and luxurious
to spend an expensive holiday. This kind of a mega park
therefore proposes an alternative to nature and ecology
and gives a standardized version of joggers path, paved
paths, fountains, vast green land, caged birds and animals,
LRT and restaurants. The process to achieve this goal, it
advocates, is by acquiring farm land, with large private
investment. As any planning gesture would manifest the
vision and environmental values of the planners, such mega
parks offer an epitome of the capitalist idea of how land
could be consolidated, with whose money and for whose
benefit and at what cost to society and ecology. Here one
might re-examine the idea Le Corbusier was exploring. Tall
buildings with large fields between them and traffic elevated
at a different level was the vision Le Corbusier was trying
to develop. He says, .. the skyscraper is too small, and
destroys everything. We will make it bigger, more genuine
and more useful: it will reward us with an immense plot
of city green and make a perfect traffic system possible:
all of the land for pedestrians and parks, strange one-way
viaducts where the 150 km. per hour traffic travelssimply
from one skyscraper to another. ..The greenery and above
all the space, of Central Park should be present throughout

Manhattan, properly distributed and multiplied.5 Although
Le Corbusiers city planning concepts have been much
debated, I am trying to find more meaning in the properly
distributed and multiplied greenery that he has referred to
in his exploration. I wonder whether the pedestrian space
he referred to might be interpreted in locally applicable
terms of bazaars and walkways, or pedestrian streets and
the large open spaces between multi-storeyed structures
as agricultural fields! One might be able to derive a more
sustainable meaning out of Le Corbusiers concept. Urban
public spaces also get created by eyeing dump-yards,
river banks, or neglected but lawfully obtained land from
housing colonies reserved for the purpose. While there is
nothing wrong in putting dump yards to a better public
use, the measure also betrays apathy on the part of the city
administration to create public spaces. City administration
would always be able to counter this criticism by pointing
to the parks and small gardens made by them in different
localities. While whatever gardens and open spaces that we
create would always be handy, what one is pointing out is
the strength of traditional bazaars and weekend markets as
potential contemporary public spaces (Fig. 3 & 4), which
need better and closer attention. Most housing colonies
believe that they must offer their share of public space in
terms of the goodies like recreational clubs with tennis
courts, swimming pools and restaurants. These, we convince
ourselves, are the new urban public spaces. But are they
really that? Playgrounds and indoor courts for sports are
quite another matter than public spaces for the common
man for his daily activities.
Fig. 3: M G Road, Pune being pedestrianized
Public spaces have to either provide for, or suggest, a

community or public activity that society in a given time and
space would desperately need. If recreation is not dragged
out of our day to day life, then one would realize that it is
very much the part of the street, market, chowks and bazaar,
all of which are unguarded, un-monitored and truly social
of our public spaces. Charles Correas recently completed
City Centre (Fig. 5) in Kolkata is a fine example of how
traditional bazaar (Fig. 6) spaces can be reinterpreted and
given contemporary meaning. These spaces by their very
nature are public, as they attract people and engage them
in activities impossible to de-link from life. These are the
spaces that encourage and inspire public contact. It is here
that most of the citizens spend time shopping, eating,
window shopping, getting informed of public opinion on
various issues, etc. These by nature lend themselves to
163
creating a fusion or confluence space in a town. Such space

is not religious, neither communal nor anti-social. The
street is where one experiences the absence of ones entity
or ego. Ones attention is focused on novelty, economy,
and quality of product and space, and in that sense it is a
space that has the capacity to improve, enhance and share
Fig. 4: Ravindra Bhan in association with Narendra Dengle, conservation

of Model Colony Lake, Pune
both the experience and material benefits. Traditionally the

street has been a space for performing artists like vasudev,
kadaklaxmi, dombari, bharadi, garudi, too. Besides being folk
artists themselves, some also performed the function of
social renaissance through story telling and songs. Moving
in a bazaar buying vegetables can be an experience that
would range from being relaxing to extremely tiring,
from rewarding to frustrating but it is also an experience
that makes social and cultural exposure as an access to
comprehending ground reality at once. In democracy it
is inadequate to learn about the happenings in your city
through news papers and TV alone. The street makes you
face the unexpected with the routine. The unexpected
may vary from public demonstrations, protest marches,
accidents, death processions of different communities,
sound of prayers and film music, cultural festivals, street
plays and public sense of rejoice at some success in sports
of political victories. It is as important to participate in the
busiest of our city spaces as it is to cast your vote in the
ballot box in a democracy.
Fig. 7: Ceremonial Lunch at the Ram mandir, Alandi
Fig. 5: Charles Correa, City Centre, Kolkata
Fig. 6: Fish Market, Kudal, Konkan
164
Fig. 8: Narendra Dengle, Vitthal Mandir, N T Wadi, Pune
though associated with a particular faith, too has a peaceful

non egotist atmosphere around it,
Fig. 9: Ahilyabai Holkar Talav, farms near Pune
Public spaces associated with religious centers, (Fig. 7 & 8)

especially in traditional communities and in small towns that
have not yet urbanized, go beyond the narrow agenda of
religious fundamentalism and become centers of arts and
crafts. They not only sponsor the sale of art and craft objects
but also sponsor their very existence. This is also true of
the traditional performing arts as of traditional architecture.
Many a temple town like Madurai, Mahabalipuram or
even Trivandrum, all would still be considered as good
examples of this phenomenon. Water bodies add a very
significant dimension to the public spaces which are closely
associated with religion. Seas, Rivers, ponds, talavs (Fig. 9),
lakes, streams, waterfalls, wells and all natural spots assume
meaning and substance in religious terms and become the
places preferred to locate religious shrines. These are the
places of natural scenic beauty, fresh air and an atmosphere
conducive to meditation and peace, and hence revered by
people and assume mystical and spiritual significance to life.
As opposed to the public bazaars this kind of space, even
But, in reality, Ebenezer Howards Three Magnet Theory

not withstanding, public spaces ought to be seen as those
which help sustain our daily life and provide us with the
much needed relief and fun so that we are energized on
a daily basis. Public spaces may be seen basically as two
kinds of spaces; one, which is closely knit with day to day
life, and second, which may be weekend recreational spaces.
The hierarchy of urban public spaces which must begin
at home, thereby blurring the unnecessary psychological
division between the public and the private, would extend
to work and bring us back home via the spaces of work, to
enthuse us with the wonder of life, on a daily basis! In India,
I find that no other place served well, as the daily urban
public space than the street and the bazaar. The excellent
examples of weekend public space are the ghats (Fig. 10, 11)
on the banks of the rivers throughout India. A corniche
or marine drives along the beaches also serve as weekend
and daily use spaces. These need to be strengthened by
imaginatively exploring their potential. The more we think
of these spaces, more do we realize how much havoc the
private automobile has played with our open spaces. The
automobile demands roads, wider and longer roads, flyovers
and under-passes, complicated clover-leaf junctions and
tunnels through hills and water bodies. The automobile has
also separated man from man and isolated him/her from the
everyday social-political action taking place in the cityscape.
Now, one wants to drive ones own car and also halt, if
possible, to buy coriander leaves, newspaper or cigarettes
wanting best of both the worlds! Our cities unlike in the
developed world have begun to alienate the pedestrian,
the wanderer, the stroller, the flaneur. Cities that lose the
sense of discovery are either dictatorial in governance or
Fig. 10: Ghat at Menavli

Fig. 12: Bazar lane leading to
Tulshibaug, Pune
Fig. 11: Typical lane up to the river and ghat, Alandi
Fig. 13: Inside the complex,

Tulshibaug, Pune
are bankrupt in ideas. It is often wonderful to come to the

place unexpectedly and discover the charming traditional
Tulshibaug (Fig. 12 & 13) of Pune. The uniqueness of
Tulshibaug is that it is a confluence of four kinds of urban
spaces-the residential, the religious, the recreational, and the
commercial. Together these four spaces converge to make
a bazaar without the chaos that a bazaar usually is. In the
street, outside the Tulshibaug courtyard there is the bazaar
atmosphere with its usual chaos and buzz. Considering the
fact that Tulshibaug was conceived and built almost 300 years
ago, albeit in stages, its popularity and continuance should
truly be a pointer for planners and the bureaucracy.
165
In the rapid urbanization of small towns, villages and cities,

the culture, which emerges from being part of the natures
cycle in association with agriculture and horticulture, is
being replaced with the automobile culture. While the life
cycle, which evolved around seasonal changes having direct
influence over agriculture, forged bonds with all aspects of
life and things in nature, the automobile culture does the
exact opposite. It distances people from one another and
uses perfectly cultivable land for its own greed. While one
appreciates the need for commutation and communication
and how vital the same are for a contemporary life, one
also must realize that the least conversion of agricultural
soil into developed roads that we can achieve, would prove
to be a priceless social-cultural asset as discussed above.
It is the natures ecosystems and primarily the agriculture
and horticulture that sustain life and anyone who believes
in sustainability must address these issues, directly and
immediately, rather than beginning straightaway with
traditional crafts. The traditional crafts of a community
come about because of the culture of agriculture and
societies built around natures systems. It therefore follows
that in order that the communities and their crafts and
ways of living are sustained, the soil and water bodies
around which these cultures grew up must be helped and
sustained at all costs. It brings us to the question of how we
would sustain these agricultural lands under the onslaught
of urbanization. Agricultural land is not sustainable
unless its market value gets the same respect as the other
developable land. To achieve this one needs to try out all
possible measure like offering subsidy, incentives and also
favorable economic climate in the cities in the process of
urbanization, which have within their landscape all existing
agricultural lands. The intermingling of the agricultural
lands with the urbanized land has several benefits for the
society. The respect for and the knowledge of farming
community, land, ecosystems and environment will not
remain as seminar topics alone but be translated into real
issues for children, who may be studying any disciplinefrom engineering to management, or computers to fine
arts. We have to sustain the source of knowledge and the
empirical knowledge that are available as much through
oral traditions as other visible traditions, so as to be able to
sustain the spirit that manifested these in life-style, peoples
convictions and pursuits- from the performing cultures to
architecture and crafts. Simply conserving plan-types or
typologies or traditional crafts and techniques seems totally
myopic if not narcissist, hence, absurd and clichd.
The kind of public spaces that are needed really depends
on the above mentioned issues. Depending on how
we address the problem of agricultural land, and with it
the communities and the disappearance of the access to
empirical knowledge in practice, we would know what form
of new urban space to expect in future. Do we need the
weekend spaces, which promise great family picnics and
golf, or Disney Lands, or do we need the everyday urban
recreational space rooted in cultural ethos, open to future
interpretations is what the question is. It goes without saying
that all existing open spaces must be listed and categorized
as forests, wild landscapes, farms, baugs, courtyards.
As suggested by Prof Mohammed Shaheer at the ISOLA
conference on public spaces, held in Pune (February 9, 10
2007), one needs to perhaps bring these existing spaces as
part of citys infrastructure (although these are very much
visible spaces and hardly underground). It is infra-structural
projects, which receive a lot of aid and grants and therefore
166
this would be the most helpful ploy. However, existing open

spaces need a thorough and thoughtful categorization so
that nothing whatsoever is missed out from the existing
hierarchy of open spaces.
The major task before the planners would be to imaginatively
resolve the odds between the automobile space and the
pedestrian space-or even a cyclists space. More we think in
terms of LRTs, BRTs and MRTs the better it is going to be
for our public space. The traditional vocabulary of public
space needs reinterpretation in contemporary times. Local
terms dealing with streets, ghats, chowks, bazaars, lanes, gallies
and so forth need to be interpreted for contemporary society
which has changed gear and operates differently. In the
globalized and plural societies of the future we need spaces
that are fusion spaces which help different ethnic groups
and communities to come together with least friction. This
itself is a very big challenge that would demand a paradigm
shift in our thinking about the urban public space.
For this to be achieved, reframing of the citys bye-laws,
conservation principles and marking of heritage zones
all would have to share the same concerns and vision.
Approaching developers and builders to find solution to
citys planning and urbanization issues is so much limited
in imagination and direction that the same further cripples
the entire process of conceiving better alternatives that
are more holistic and culture oriented. This demands to
encourage a qualified public participation with a strong
agenda of environment and ecology and sustainability to
replace the modernist dated agenda that the administration
seems to be pursuing.
References:
1. Bhadari, Laveesh (2007), Its not Hammer vs. Sickle, The
Indian Express, daily edition-march 16
2. Soja, Edward W. (2000), Postmetropolis-critical studies
of cities and regions, Blackwell publishing ltd; UK, p. 4546.
3. Gandhi, M K, (1936), Harijan, 29.8 , p. 226
4. Lynch, Kevin, Good City Form, (1996), MIT Press, p.
269
5. Boesinger, Willy, (1995), Le Corbusier works and projects,
Gustavo Gili,S.A., Barcelona, p. 182
Earthen Architecture In Auroville:

Linking A World Tradition With
Modernity
Satprem Mani
Architect & Director- Earth Institute, Auroville
The development of earth architecture in Auroville attempts
to link the ancestral tradition of raw earth buildings and
the modern technology of stabilised earth. The R&D
conducted by the Auroville Earth Institute finds its source
of inspiration in the traditional earthen architecture which
is found worldwide. Tradition includes the accumulated
wisdom and knowledge over the ages and it is our duty to
distillate the essence of this genius and use it for todays
development.
Break the moulds of the past, but keep safe its genius and its spirit
or else thou hast no future. - Sri Aurobindo, Thoughts and
Aphorisms
TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE: A SOURCE OF
INSPIRATION
Since ages raw earth has been used all over the world
as a building material to achieve amazingly long lasting
buildings. There is hardly any continent or country which
does not have numerous examples of earth construction
(Fig. 1-6). From the roof of the world in Tibet, or the
Andes Mountains in Peru, to the Niles shore in Egypt or
the fertile valleys of China, many are the examples of earth
as a building material.
The oldest one can be seen in Egypt, near Luxor, built
around 1300 BC: the vaults of the Ramasseum, in the rest
of Thebes. India also shows very old earthen buildings:
Shey palace in Ladakh, built in the 17th century and Tabo
monastery in Spiti Valley Himachal Pradesh, built with
adobe blocks in 996 AD and which has withstood 1010
Himalayan winters.
These world heritage sites show how earthen

architecture has been used for achieving great and long
lasting monuments. But vernacular architecture worldwide
also shows how a local material has been used to create
an endogenous architecture, totally adapted to the local
context social, economical, technical, climatic, etc.
Earth architecture and the skill of earth builders disappeared
for a century: from the end of the 19th century till the latter
half of the 20th century. The Egyptian architect Hassan
Fathy was the precursor for the renaissance of earthen
architecture in the middle of the 20th century.
BUILDING WITH EARTH IN AUROVILLE
The creation of the Auroville Earth Institute in 1989,
and the construction of the Visitors Centre, started a
new era in earthen architecture. Since then, the value of
earth as a building material has been acknowledged for
its economic advantage, as well as its comfort and quality,
which promotes indigenous and sustainable development.
Today, Auroville can show a wide variety of projects: public
buildings, schools, apartments and individual houses.
Most of the projects are built with compressed stabilised
earth blocks (CSEB), as this technology benefits from half a
century of research and development worldwide. Stabilised
rammed earth is slowly getting known and a few projects
have already been implemented with this technique.
MANAGEMENT OF RESOURCES
People in so many different cultures worldwide have used
earth to build their habitat and they managed the resources
in such a way that the buildings were totally integrated in
nature and did not degrade the environment. People were
sensitive to Nature and respected it. The modern world
does not seem to have such sensitivity.
The Auroville Earth Institute (AVEI) lays a lot of emphasis
on the management of resources. If well managed,
earthen buildings can be completely integrated into the
Fig. 1: Ramasseum, Egypt, 1300 BC
Fig.2: Shey Palace, Ladakh, 17th Century
Fig.3: Tabo Monastery, Spiti, 996 AD
Fig. 4: France, Reyrieux, 18th Century

Rammed earth
Fig. 5: Morocco, North Atlas- Rammed earth
Fig. 6: Burkina Faso, Bobodioulasso Mosque
169
Fig. 7: Rainwater harvesting
Fig. 10: Digging a wastewater treatment pit
Fig. 11: Basement floor
Fig. 12: Integrated wastewater treatment
Fig. 13: Wastewater treatment
Fig. 14: Landscaping a wastewater treatment place
Fig. 15: De-silting Tanks
natural environment, as shown in the tradition. But on the

opposite side, a mismanagement of resources can lead to
the degradation of the environment. Auroville shows quite
a few examples of integrated management of soil resources
(Fig. 7-15):
- The earth pits which are deep are used for rainwater
harvesting, wastewater treatment, basement floors, pools
- The Shallow ones are for landscape design, work or play
areas, gardens, etc.
HOUSES
Up to 1990 they were not so many architects and most
of the time houses were built by people themselves. Since
then, architects are designing houses and people often
participate, in one way or another in the building process.
Fig. 17: Cost effective houses
170
Fig. 16: Experimental house
Fig. 18: Cost effective house
Fig. 21: Dana
Fig. 22: Samasti community
Fig. 23: Auromodele
Fig. 24: Moveable house
Fig. 25: Aurobrindavan
Fig. 26: New Creation Field
Fig. 27: Utility
Fig. 28: House at Nalla Farm
Fig. 29: House at the AVEI
Fig. 30: Community hall
APARTMENTS
The construction of apartments started only in the 1990s.
It was not a need earlier, as they werent many residents
in Auroville. The first development started at Djaima
community and after that, the development of Vikas
community showed that earth can be used for building a
progressive and harmonious architecture up to 4 floors
high (Fig. 31-42).
Fig. 32: Djaima community
Fig. 31: Prarthna community
Fig. 33: Staff quarter
171
Fig. 34: Houses at Prayatna
Fig. 35: Kailash youth centre
Fig. 36: Vikas with 4 floors
Fig. 37: Vikas community
Fig. 38: Apartment at Vikas
PUBLIC BUILDINGS
Pitanga Hall, built in 1989, was the first public building.
The Visitors Centre was started just after that. This Visitors
Centre of 1200 m, built by the Auroville Earth Institute,
was granted the Hassan Fathy Award for Architecture
for the Poor in 1992. Since then many projects, such as
schools, workshops and a solar community kitchen were
built (Fig. 43-57).
Fig. 44: Visitors Centre
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Fig. 46: Cultural centre
Fig. 47: Electronic workshop
Fig. 48: Kindergarten
Fig. 49: School at Udavi
Fig. 50: Deepanam School
Fig. 51: School at Pondicherry
Fig. 52: School at Kottakarai
Fig. 53: School at Marakanam
Fig. 54: Kitchen at Vikas
Fig. 55: Solar kitchen
HOLISTIC APPROACH TOWARDS HABITAT

AND GREEN BUILDINGS
Traditionally, people were building green buildings, as
they knew how to use natural resources and integrate their
habitat in the environment. The modern development of
the 20th century lost this link. In Auroville, the attempt is
to integrate various alternative technologies and renewable
energies, so as to promote eco-friendly and sustainable
development. In this field, earth, as a building material,
plays a major role, but other appropriate technologies like
ferrocement, biological wastewater treatment, solar lighting,
wind and solar pumping are also extensively used.
The most comprehensive achievement in this field is Vikas
community, near the centre of Auroville (Fig. 58), which
has been created, designed, and built by the Auroville
Earth Institute. The experiment of Vikas found its roots
in Aurovilles ideals. Nonetheless, its material developments
could be implemented elsewhere in the world. Vikas Project
was a finalist for the 2000 World Habitat Award.
Fig. 58: 3rd building at Vikas: 13 apartments on 4 floors
173
Training courses are a major activity and they started in

1990. Regular courses of 2-week duration are scheduled
in Auroville. Major programmes are also organised at
Auroville or elsewhere in India and various programmes
are also conducted outside India, as has happened in Zaire,
Eritrea, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, France and Israel.
Since the beginning of the training activities in 1990, more
than 4,300 people from 44 countries have been trained:
4,130 trainees in India (Auroville and elsewhere) and 219
abroad in 8 other countries.
APPROPRIATE BUILDING
BASED ON EARTH
Fig. 59: Backside of the Training Centre
THE AUROVILLE EARTH INSTITUTE

The Auroville Earth Institute (Fig. 59) was previously
named the Auroville Building Centre/Earth Unit, which
had been founded by HUDCO in 1989.
The Auroville Earth Institute is researching, developing,
promoting and teaching earth-based technologies that
are cost and energy effective. These technologies are
disseminated through training courses, seminars, workshops,
publications and consultancy within and outside India.
This research aims at making extensive use of stabilised

raw earth as the main building material, thereby using a
local resource to help develop technologies that are energy
saving, eco-friendly and sustainable. The main research and
development is focussed on minimising the use of steel,
cement and reinforced cement concrete. Note that these
technologies are seen only as tools for creating a safe,
comfortable, progressive and aesthetic architecture.
Compressed Stabilised Earth Block (CSEB)
A wide range of equipments for building with earth, including
the Auram equipment, has been researched and developed
One of the aims of the Auroville Earth Institute is

to give people the possibility to create and build their
habitat themselves, using earth techniques. The Auroville
Earth Institute is today the South Asian representative
and Resource Centre for the UNESCO Chair Earthen
Architecture Constructive Cultures and Sustainable
Development.
Over the past decade, the endeavour to promote and
disseminate raw earth as a building material for sustainable
and cost-effective development has brought a series of
12 awards: eleven national awards and one international
award.
Fig. 60: Auram Press 3000
Fig. 61: Wide variety of compressed stabilised earth blocks, by the Auram press 3000
174
TECHNOLOGIES
Table 1 Comparison of building materials in Auroville (September 2006)

ENVIRONMENTAL COST
CSEB and RE are more
eco-friendly than fired bricks
MONETARY COST
CSEB and RE always
cheaper than fired bricks
STRENGTH
CSEB and RE are:
Pollution emission:
2.4 times less than wire cut bricks
7.9 times less than country fired bricks
A finished m3 of CSEB wall is:

19.5 % cheaper than country fired bricks
45.5 % cheaper than wire cut bricks
1.4 times stronger than

country fired bricks
Energy consumption:
4.9 times less than wire cut bricks
15.1 times less than country fired bricks
A finished m3 of RE wall is:

21.9 % cheaper than CSEB wall
37.1 % cheaper than country fired bricks
57.4 % cheaper than wire cut bricks
Note: RE = Rammed earth
0.5 times weaker than

wire cut bricks
from the very onset by the Auroville Earth Institute. It ranges

from a press for compressed stabilised earth blocks, quality
control devices for block making, handling equipment, hand
tools, scaffolding, to rammed earth equipment.
The press 3000 is today being sold worldwide mostly in
South Asia and in Africa. A few machines have also been
sold in Europe, USA, Arabic peninsula and China. The
press 3000 with hollow interlocking moulds was sold in
large quantities to Gujarat-India, for the rehabilitation of
the zones affected by the severe earthquake of January
2001.
Fig. 62: Stabilised rammed earth
Fig. 63: Stabilised rammed earth
The Auram press 3000 is a multi mould manual press which

can fit 16 moulds on it, for producing about 70 different
types of blocks, with various shapes and thicknesses.
CSEB made in Auroville with 5% cement, have an average
dry compressive crushing strength of 50 kg/cm2 (5 Mpa)
and a wet compressive crushing strength of 25 kg/cm2.
The water absorption is around 10%. Country fired bricks
have around 35 kg/cm2 for the dry compressive strength
and 12% water absorption.
Fig. 64: Composite plinth beam Fig. 65: Casting a composite plinth beam
Stabilised Rammed Earth

The soil is mixed with sand and stabilised with an average
of 5% cement. The mix is rammed by hand. Foundations
are rammed directly in the trench. It is the cheapest and
fastest way to do a foundation.
Walls are rammed in between formworks, based on slipping
forms made of plywood reinforced by wooden members.
Composite Basement And Plinth Beam
Basements are made with CSEB blocks with 5% cement.
The plinth beam is cast into a U shaped CSEB. Reinforced
cement concrete is cast in the U shape blocks and this is a
very neat and efficient way to do a plinth beam.
Fig..66: Composite column 240
Fig. 67: Composite column 290
The latter acts also as a damp proof course.

Composite Columns
Round hollow CSEB are reinforced with cement concrete.
Reinforcements vary with the height and load, but the rod
diameter cannot exceed 10 mm for the blocks 290 and 12
mm for the blocks 240.
Fig. 68: Single height beam 240
175
Fig. 69: Double height beam 240
Fig. 70: Triple height beam 240
Fig. 71: 2 m span double height beam 295

1750 Kg/m, 5.54 mm deflection with cracks
Fig. 72: 2.5 m span triple height beam 240

1280 Kg/m, 4 mm deflection without cracks
Composite Beams And

Lintels
Reinforced cement concrete
is cast in U shaped CSEB.
The bottom part of the
beam is precast in a reversed
position on the ground.
Once cured, it is lifted and
the middle and top parts are
built on it.
Fig. 73: Typical sections of

composite beams
The blocks are used as lost

shuttering, but they also help
the compressive strength of
the beam.
Fig. 74: Egyptian shaped catenary vault, 5 m span, 9 m long, built in

12 days
Vaulted Structures
The research on this kind of roofing aims to revive and
integrate in the 21st century, the techniques used in past
centuries and millennia, such as those developed in ancient
Egypt or during the period of Gothic architecture in
Europe.
Fig. 75: Bull eye 80 cm diameter,

built in 2 days
176
Fig. 76: Catenary shaped vault 6 m

span, 3 m Rise
Fig. 77: Starting a lunette
Fig. 78: Lunette, 1.2 span
Fig. 80: Starting the squinch
Fig. 83: Horizontal courses
Fig. 79: Completed lunette

Building a lunette 1.2 m span, 2.20 m rise, built in 3 days with 2 masons
Fig. 81: Starting the segmental vault

Fig. 82: Completed vault
Segmental vault, 10.35 m span, 2.20 m rise, 6 m long, built in 18 days with 4 masons
Fig. 84: Laying keystones
Fig. 85: Completed vault- Equilateral vault
3.60 m span, 8 m long, built in 36 days with 4 masons (raw construction)
This R&D seeks to increase the span of the roof, decrease

its thickness, and create new shapes. Note that all vaults and
domes are normally built with compressed stabilised earth
blocks which are laid in Free spanning mode, meaning
without formwork. This was previously called the Nubian
technique, from Egypt, but the Auroville Earth Institute
developed it and found new ways to build arches and
vaults.
The free spanning technique allows courses to be laid

horizontally, which presents certain advantages compared
to the Nubian technique which has vertical courses.
Depending on the shape of vaults, the structures are
built either with horizontal courses, vertical ones or a
combination of both.
177
Fig. 86: Auram Blocks 295
Fig. 87: Auram Blocks 245
DISASTER RESISTANCE
Since 1995, research has been oriented towards the
development of a cost-effective technology which is
based on reinforced masonry with Hollow Interlocking
Compressed Stabilised Earth Blocks (HI CSEB). Vertical
and horizontal reinforced concrete members reinforce the
masonry so as to create a box type system which can resist
disasters.
Two types of blocks have been developed: the square
hollow interlocking block 245, which allows building up
to 2 storeys high, and the rectangular hollow interlocking
block 295, which is used only for ground floors.
Fig. 88: Emergency House 1996 City Summit Habitat Istanbul, Turkey
Fig. 89: Prototype AUM House Assembled in 66 hours New Delhi,

India
Fig. 90: Improved AUM House Assembled in 62 hours Khavda, Gujarat,

India
In June 1996, at the request of CRATerre and the United

Nations (UNCHS/Habitat), the Auroville Earth Institute
built a prototype demonstration house of 9 m2 the
Minimum Emergency House, at Istanbul, Turkey, during
the 1996 City Summit / HABITAT. This house was
precast in 10 days and assembled in 8 days.
being used in Sri Lanka for the reconstruction of the zones

affected by the 2004 tsunami.
Other demonstration houses of 23 m2 were built in India:

the Aum Houses. They were prefabricated at Auroville and
transported up to New Delhi or Gujarat in trucks. The
superstructure of the house was assembled in 66 hours by
our 18-men team during the 1999 India International Trade
Fair at New Delhi. This demonstration was granted a gold
medal by the India Trade Promotion Organisation for the
excellence of the special display. The second demonstration
house was built in Gujarat, after the 2001 earthquake, in 62
hours with a 20-man team.
This technology has been used extensively in Gujarat for the
rehabilitation after the 2001 earthquake. With a six-month
technical assistance from the Auroville Earth Institute, the
Catholic Relief Services built 2698 houses and community
centres in 39 villages. This technology was also transferred
to Kutch Nav Nirman Abhiyan. This technology is presently
178
Note that this technology has not been tested on a shaking

table but it has government approvals, as it satisfies all
seismic requirements:
- The Government of Gujarat, India, (GSDMA) as a
suitable construction method for the rehabilitation of the
zones affected by the 2001 earthquake in Kutch district. It
is allowed to build up to 2 floors.
- The Government of Iran (Housing Research Centre) as a
suitable construction method for the rehabilitation of the
zones affected by the 2003 earthquake of Bam. It is allowed
to build up to 3 floors (8 m high).
- The Government of Tamil Nadu, India, (Relief and
Rehabilitation) as a suitable construction method for the
rehabilitation of the zones affected by the 2004 tsunami of
Indonesia.
Evolving Traditional Practices For

Sustainable Construction In The
Present
Ashok Lall
Architect & Dean of Studies- TVB School of Habitat Studies,
New Delhi
Abstract
In India we have entered a phase of urban growth and
development which is unprecedented in its scale and impact.
As cities & towns expand and regenerate in response to the
economic engines of transnational trade and finance, we
see a sudden spurt in building construction. This burst of
construction activity spread across a range of city activities
and the socio-economic spectrum. Demand for built space
for colonising new lands as well as for the upgradation and
regeneration of existing built space to higher intensities of use
will grow on all fronts.
This heralds a paradigm shift in the structure of the building
trades, materials of construction and design practice. And,
significantly, the increasing consumption of building materials
such as glass, cements, metals and ceramics, which are energy
intensive in their manufacture, combined with the sheer scale of
construction activity, will cause an explosion of CO2 emissions,
significantly adding to the spectre of global warming.
For this process of accelerated urban development, to be socially
and economically sustainable, while curtailing the impact of
CO2 emissions attributable to buildings, indicates a strategy of
an evolution of traditional building practices in preference to a
shift by default to ready-made global technologies and building
types.
It is argued in this essay that application of the principles of
industrial production to traditionally used construction materials,
skills and trades, and adaptation of traditional principles would
result in several benefits.
In the construction of buildings such a strategy would:
a) Include human resource of the semi-skilled and skilled
personnel in the growth of the construction trade while
enhancing knowledge and skill
b) Ensure a wider participation in economic processes and
promote distribution of wealth.
c) Develop efficient utilisation of natural and low-process energy
materials to meet contemporary demands as an alternative to
the current trend toward high process-energy materials such as
glass and aluminium, thereby limiting the impact of building
production on global warming.
In the design of the built-space planning & configuration
a strategy of adapting climatically suitable models from
traditional practices would:
a) Produce a more habitable public realm of the city
b) Produce an appropriate indoor-outdoor continuum in
built space systems
c) Considerably reduce the impact of extreme weather on
air-conditioning load, thereby curtailing the demand on
energy on account of airconditioning.
These conclusions are derived
demonstrated by case-studies.
theoretically
and
Overview
The imminent acceleration of change and economic growth
here in India brings us to a critical juncture in the evolution
of our towns and cities. While the frenetic increase in
financial investments in urban infrastructure and buildings
occasioned essentially by the opportunities of global trade
has the potential of translating into a better quality of life
for all citizens, it equally has the potential of exacerbating,
by default, our existing economic disparities and their
consequent social tensions and conflicts. Important,
too, though much more insidious, and therefore easily
overlooked, is the impact of CO2 emissions attributable to
buildings and urban systems on climate change. The scale
of construction activity compressed into a short period of
time constitutes an explosion of CO2 emissions which
will undoubtedly hasten the advent of climate change.
Evidently, there is a need for strategic action on both fronts,
socio-economic and environmental. It is in this context that
I wish to discuss the potential of traditional practices of
construction and design of built environments as platforms
from which to construct a beneficial strategy.
Investment in Urban Development
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
estimates investment of Rs. 120,536 crores at a rate of
Rs. 17,219 crores per annum in basic infrastructure and
services of 63 cities across India, spread over a seven year
period. This is for the shift in the national economy toward
urban services which would contribute 65% of the GDP
by 2011 with 40% of the population living in cities by 2021,
compared to 28% today. So we have the two overarching
processes that will determine the development of our urban
environments Globalisation & Urbanisation.
CO2 emissions explosion
If this scale of investment is predicted for urban infrastructure
it may be safely assumed that at least an equivalent amount
would be invested in new built space in the extension of
urban areas as well as in the upgradation and redevelopment
of the existing built space. Or else, if you consider the
increase of urban population by say 30% by 2021, one
can estimate the total area of built space that would be
constructed to provide for it. Through either route you can
convert these into quantities of aluminium, stainless steel,
glass, ceramics, bricks that would be consumed and CO2
emissions that would result from the production of such
materials. Just considering the sheer scale of anticipated
construction compressed within the coming decade,
without going into calculations and numbers, I surmise that
this phenomenon constitutes an explosion of CO2 into the
atmosphere on account of embodied energy consumed in
the production of buildings.
This aspect of embodied energy does not find mention
in developed countries perhaps because for a stable or
diminishing population there is not so much new building
to be done. But in our case here in India this must be a
central concern.
Strategy to limit the impact of CO2 emissions
explosion
The strategy to limit or curtail the scale of this explosion
would call, first, for efficiency in the utilisation of material
179
resource (good engineering) and then, a preference for

materials & systems that incur low processing energy, over
those that are energy profligate. In other words grasses,
timbers, stones, earthen blocks, flyash blocks are to be
preferred over stainless steel, aluminium, plate glass and
ceramics. And, importantly, the technique of using the
preferred materials must progressively rise to higher levels
of productivity and performance efficiency.
The existing base of traditional materials and skills provides
a ready platform to develop this strategy. The development
of new production methods and building materials or
components toward greater efficiency and performance can
be achieved at relatively low capital investments, in a short
time. This process is already underway, as evidenced by the
small and medium scale industrial operation for production
of masonary blocks, cladding stones, timber boards and
prefab-doors and windows.
Construction using masonary blocks
Cladding stones
Pre-Fab flooring systems
Pre- fab ferro cement cladding
180
Compressed stabilized soil blocks
Flooring: Zero wastage Patterns
Pre- fab ferro cement structure
Treated timbers from managed forestspre-fab doors and windows
Significant social/economic advantage

The most significant advantage of this approach, as against
a switch-over to new technologies, is that it achieves
economic and technical progress without displacing or
dispossessing employment, skills and knowledge. On the
contrary, it would ensure a wider distribution of wealth
while adding value to skill & knowledge of the building
crafts.
Small span structures
All needs of construction for small span structures of upto
4 storeys can be met in these ways if the professions of
architecture and engineering actively promote them.
Embodied energy distribution in short span buildings
Tall or large structures

Even for tall or large-span structures which may necessarily
require RCC frame construction, there are innovative
possibilities to reduce the embodied energy of the structural
system. A careful consideration of spatial requirements
to limit structural spans controls the consumption of
steel in the structural frame. Multi storey buildings using
compressive spanning systems for floors- shallow domes,
funicular shells, vaulted channels etc.,- are known methods.
These practically eliminate the use of steel in floor spans.
In any case for infill & finishes both internal and external,
which would typically constitute 30% of the total embodied
energy of the building I would argue that techniques that
utilise the wealth of natural stones, timber, flyash and mud
block etc. can serve as effective substitutes for burnt brick
and concrete block. Stones and timber systems particularly
can counter the current preference for modern methods
of aluminium & curtain glazing. Here is a potential, to be
creatively tapped for innovations by local industries, to
meet the new needs of quicker construction and higher
thermal performance of the building envelope. Fiscal
incentives to promote these materials and innovation are
urgently needed.
The substitution or reduction of high embodied energy
materials- aluminium, stainless steel, glass, mildsteel,
ceramic & vitrified tiles, Portland cement, burnt bricksin that order of importance, needs to become a design
objective. We are currently calculating the reduction
achieved in CO2 emissions per unit area of built space in
two modern office building projects. When compared to
business-as-usual, our rough estimate is that the reduction
is in the order of 10 to 15% ; when compared with MNC
style business-as-usual, it is in the order of 20 to 25%.
Compressive spanning systems: Shell
Embodied energy distribution in tall / large span buildings
SECTION
F C CHANNELS
MASONARY DOMES
PL AN
Drawings showing usage of domes as spanning systems
Compressive spanning systems: Shallow dome
181
Bush fire of CO2 emissions

due to operational energy
demand- Airconditioning
If the making of buildings
for the urbanising & growing
economy causes an explosion
of CO2 emissions, then a
veritable bush fire ensues due
to the energy demands for the
operation of buildings. Here, I
wish to focus on the single most
energy profligate operational
requirement of modern urban
life
air-conditioning.
In
commercial buildings 60 to
70% of the energy bill is on
account of air-conditioning. As
this need becomes a widespread norm it will be the most
significant contributor to CO2
emissions in the operation of Air conditioning trends: Old buildings (above) & New buildings (below)
buildings.
With an increase in disposable incomes and availability
of cheap systems, air-conditioned comfort is becoming
the norm for middle class life. This is creeping over the
existing building stock, and will be expected in almost all
new buildings.
In Delhis climate, for example, where once we managed
with the ceiling fans & the evaporative coolers, the transition
to air-conditioning causes an eight to ten fold increase in the
demand for electricity for an equivalent level of comfort
Building envelop design
Models have been tried for various functions and at different

scales based on this principle. This practice needs deliberate
promotion in city planning, urban design and in framing
building bye-laws. Many of the current city-planning
systems and building bye-laws foreclose this potential and
therefore need urgent revision.
These potentials must be seen in opposition to the current
dangerous practice gaining ground buildings that reach
out for the sun as monuments to design, first constructed
as solar cookers and then modified, at enormous energy
and financial costs, into refrigerators! Intelligent evolution
New state-of-the-art and hugely expensive western

technologies for comfort conditioning that aim at increasing
the efficiencies of electromechanical systems, though
relevant, are not being looked at here. What is pertinent
is the design of the built structures themselves to reduce
the impact of extreme climates, and thereby effect a direct
reduction in air-conditioning loads.
Studies show that by careful design of the external envelope
of building preferring small apertures and shading as
was traditional common sense makes a difference of
15% in air-conditioning load. And by design of appropriate
building envelopes that incorporate insulation it is seen that
air-conditioning loads can be reduced by 30% compared to
a business-as-usual. It is possible, at little additional costs
to design the building fabric to give a service of 25 sq.mt.
of conditioned area served by ITR of air-conditioning as
compared to the industry norm of 15 sq.mt. per ITR.
Urban fabric design
At the scale of the urban fabric this calls for a pattern of
building that is derived from traditional practice. Speaking
of this part of the country, for example, this means lowrise, high-density patterns producing a sheltered external
space. From the traditional form of the desert city, one
would evolve to a modified form that integrates vegetation
as a climate modifier, and finds the balance of open to builtspace to obtain daylighting & ventilation, while achieving a
sheltered open space. The modified microclimate around
buildings, in turn, reduces air conditioning loads.
182
Control window area: 18% of external wall is glazed, rest is opaque

Venetian blinds in sandwich windows & external glass is tinted
Self-shading for small windows: Deep reveal provides shade
Support framework for shading screens: Retract / remove in winter, stretch
in summer
Forecourt
Fountain court
Garden terrace
Trees and plants: Shade external walls, early morning and late afternoon
of traditional design principles for shelter from climatic

extremes for building envelopes and spatial design
extended to the scale of the urban fabric needs to be the
first strategy toward reducing CO2 emissions on account of
air-conditioning.
In summary,
The threat of global warming is real. It will grow
dramatically with urbanisation and globalisation of the
Indian economy.
Low rise high density patterns

to produce:
Habitable continuum of
indoor-outdoor spaces
Favourable micro-climate
The evolution of traditional building construction &

design practices offers a platform that can help mitigate
this threat.
c) It ensures participation with higher
economic status of the building crafts
and trades in economic processes
of construction leading to a wider
distribution of wealth.
This evolutionary strategy has two fronts:

In the construction of buildings:
a) It develops efficient utilisation of traditionally understood
natural and low-process energy materials to meet
contemporary demands as an alternative to the current
trend toward high process-energy materials such as glass
and aluminium thereby limiting the impact of building
production on global warming.
b) It includes existing human resource of skilled personnel
in the construction trade, enhancing their knowledge, skill,
productivity.
In the design of built-space:

a) It adapts principles of climatically
appropriate building & urban fabric
design to reduce the impact of
climatic extremes on the built-space.
b)It produces a more habitable
indoor-outdoor continuum in the urban fabric.
c) It reduces the demand and dependence on air-conditioning
a leading cause of the CO2 bushfire.
Strategy to limit CO2 explosion and the ensuing bush fire

183
Learning Lessons From Traditional

Methods For Achieving Sustainability
In Building And Urban Scale In Iranian
Arid Cities
Marjan Nematimehr
Ph.D. Scholar (Urban Design)
Shahid Beheshti University, Iran
SYNOPSIS
This article aims to review the theoretical underpinnings
of the concept of Sustainable Urban Design and
subsequently Sustainable Architecture as one of the
shaping principles in architecture and urban design in
Iranian arid old cities. The paper suggests that through
application of the principles of sustainability and through
learning lessons from the traditional architectural heritage
of the communities involved, one can guide the design
toward a more harmonious relationship with its natural
settings.
The paper consists of two major parts. Firstly sustainable
design in general has been discussed with suggestions for the
theoretical frame work. Secondly, as a special view, the case
study of Yazd old citys intelligent buildings & the context
has been presented as per the theoretical framework.
INTRODUCTION
Eco-Design as a Concept of Sustainability in Urban
Design & Architecture
Interest in the urban challenges raised by the growing debates
on sustainable development and global environmental
change has increased very rapidly in recent years. In this
situation any discussion of urban design and architecture
which does not address environmental issues has little
meaning at a time of declining natural resources. Architecture
and its sister art, urban design, are often said to consist of
Commodotie, Firmness and Delight (Wotton, 1969, Mougtin,
1992). One aspect of Commodotie in urban development
is sustainability, that is non-damaging to the environment
and which contributes to the citys ability to sustain its
social and economic structure. The pursuit of sustainable
city structures presupposes also the development of a built
environment of quality: one that Delights in all scales. By
considering the city as a whole including parts and also part
of a whole, it is necessary to pay attention to architectural
Fig. 1: Yazd, New developments, (Source: Nematimehr; 2005; p. 154)
184
elements and details, the design of architectural units

(single building), complexes and urban space, the texture
of the city (grid, mass and space), the city as a whole with
its functional areas, and the urban region, all have to be
dealt with in a simultaneous and harmonious manner with
the idea of sustainable design in mind.
Problem & Goal
Contemporarily, much of the design projects for arid
zones do not address the particular challenges of the
stressed climate. Most of the arid-zone urban patterns
throughout the world, especially the modern ones, are
products of imported concepts from non-arid regions,
which tend to ignore the native historical lessons in design,
building materials, housing patterns and energy-saving
considerations.
The goal of this essay is to introduce and analyze the native
and ancient architecture and urbanization in Iranian arid
regions, to introduce the way of adaptation and adjustment
with circumferential conditions, to discover solutions for
architectural design in the future, and finally to revive the
native identity.
Urban Design and Sustainable Development
The object for a framework of urban design in a regime
of sustainable development would be to emphasize
conservation of both the natural and built environments.
First, principles of sustainable urban design would place
priority on the adaptation and reuse of existing buildings,
infrastructure and roads together with the use of recycled
materials and components. A conservation based approach
would enjoy preference: the onus of proof of the need
for development would be placed squarely upon the
developer.
Secondly, sustainable development places a premium
on the conservation of natural resources, wildlife and
landscape. Any new materials for building purposes should
be obtained from sustainable sources (Moughtin; 1996; p.
11-13).
Thirdly, sustainable urban design is concerned with
reduced consumption of energy. This objective can be
achieved through the application of appropriate urban
form, construction type, spatial distribution of land use
and optimal density. In other words, energy can be saved
by creating closer links amongst different urban functions,
and taking account of the utility of energy consumption
(Owens; 1991; cited by Golkar; 2000; p. 76-77).
Goals of Design in Arid Regions

In particular, these goals will reflect the need to respond to
the problems created by climatic stress:
1. Reduce strong, harmful and dusty winds;
2. Reduce (or possibly eliminate) direct sun radiation;
3. Provide plenty of shadowed public and private spaces
where necessary;
4. Establish social proximity within the stressed climate;
5. Create a pleasing outdoor environment within the
stressed climate;
6. Plan proximate land uses in neighborhoods so that
there is easy pedestrian access to them all (Gollany; 1983;
p. 8).
Indeed, while we are accomplishing all of the above goals,
we shall be emphasizing energy conservation principles
throughout.
LEARNING LESSONS FROM THE

TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE
Arid cities in Iran
Desert-fringe cities constitute a considerable number of
the Iranian settlements. In this region, confrontation and
combat against heat and dryness of air and soil has a vital
role, so providing shade and finally mitigating the effect of
the extreme climate is critical. The central part of Iran is
covered by a vast desert measuring thousands of square
kilometers in area, with an altitude varying between 500 to
1500 meters above sea level. The central desert is one of
the most arid and in summer, one of the hottest places on
the planet. Despite this, through the ages, a considerable
number of large and important Iranian cities such as Sialk
(5000 B.C), Kerman, Yazd, Kashan etc., have developed
and thrived on the fringes of this great desert (Beazley and
Harverson; 1982:1; cited by Golkar; 2000; p. 76).
Fig. 2: Yazd. Part of Old city, (Source: Nematimehr; 2005; p. 144)
Fig. 3: Yazd. Part of Old city, (Source: Nematimehr; 2005; p. 142)
185
Top, Fig. 4: The old city of Yazd: Part A of

Main structure, between Masjid-I Jami (Friday
mosque) and Mehridjerd Gateway
When looking at the main structure of the walled
city of Yazd, one sees a main passage extending
through the heart of the Friday Mosque and the
various elements that have grown up around it.
Fahhadan Complex, Detail of Neighbourhood Centre
Below, Fig. 5: Part B of Main structure,

Yoozdaran Pathway.
(Source: Nematimehr; 2005; p. 179)
186
Human settlement in the desert could not have been made

possible except through the intelligent exploitation of
natural resources, and improvement in the harsh climate
of the region. Some of the problems that have induced
local people in the hot and arid regions to seek inventive
remedies are: intense sun and heat at daytime (with a high
in summer of 40C), wide temperature difference between
day and night, extremely hot summers and cold winters,
dryness of the air, scanty rainfall, a shortage of water, and
hot dust and sand storms. In most of this part, the yearly
rainfall is less than 100mm; relative humidity exceeds 20
percent (Golkar; 2000; p. 78).
First principle: Recycling- adaptation and reuse of existing

buildings
Old traditional cities go through a process of evolution and
change which gives their morphology a durable character.
For instance, after Islam came to Iran, religious building,
such as fire- temples were not torn down, rather, they
were maintained and used for mosques. Indeed, one of
the virtuous traditions of traditional architecture is that
of preserving existing building to be used again and again
(Golkar; 2000; p. 80) (See Fig. 6).
As the early urban centers evolved throughout history, the

natives learned to understand the nature of the climatic
stress imposed by the region, they dealt with the limitation
of resources, and they were concerned about conservation
of the environmental characteristics. This early urban
design experience emphasized site selection considerations,
use of slope placement, adaptation of the compact urban
form, and development of a special street and alley patternall of which had already evolved in meeting the needs of
living in a stressed climate.
Case study, Yazd
Yazd is one of the outstanding desert cities exhibiting the
traits of traditional arid zone adaptation. High radiation
and temperature in the summer; diurnal fluctuations of
temperature (daily fluctuation of 20C in summer); the
seasonal fluctuations from the hot, dry summer to the
cold, dry winter (yearly difference of 5-9C); low humidity
(average about 60mm); limited water supplies; and dusty,
sandy winds, are the main character of the Yazd climate.
The general circulation pattern of the oldest part of Yazd
consists of a series of perpendicular narrow passage defined
by the sections of the old city walls which still exist. This
old section of the historic city of Yazd has experienced few
changes (See Fig. 3).
After introducing sustainable design in general and
suggestions of theoretical frame work, here, a case study
of Iranian old city intelligent buildings & contexts has
been presented regarding the theoretical framework. In
the hot, arid climate of the indigenous settlements of Iran,
particularly interesting design solutions are found. As
already noted, a sustainable urban design is one that can
respond to three basic requirements: recycling the existing
buildings, fabric and infrastructure, protection of natural
resources and energy efficiency.
Fig. 7: The demolished condition of the Friday mosque shown with its context
Second principle: Protection of natural resources

Research on sustainable urban design and architecture, such
as Golanys investigation (1995) , suggests that the indigenous
urban architecture in the Middle East has been centered
on harmony and adaptation to the local environmental
characteristics. Building and urban fabrics within arid
traditional cities have developed in a manner as to impose
the least damage on valuable natural recourses, such as land,
vegetation and water. In the urban scale, compactness of
the city absorbs large populations in relatively small surface
areas. Use of local building materials, like the earth obtained
from digging foundations, landscaping with native plants
and integrating in the different scales and levels of the
design with the natural environment have been developed
in these cities (Golkar, 2000).
Third principle: Energy efficiency- reduce consumption
of energy
The city is an immense artificial project which penetrates
Fig. 6: Yazd. Masjid-I Jami (Friday mosque)- Evolution over the centuries, as the renewal of creation at every instant (here form and space). For renewal of
creation see Aziz Nasafi; L.V.J Ridgeon; Curzon; 1993; p. 34
187
Fig. 8: Compactness in Iranian Arid Old cities. From left: Kashan, Birjand, Kerman. (Source: Nematimehr; 2005; p. 62)
its environment and its configuration has an effect on its

internal climate as well. However, we can state that in the
hot/dry climate, the urban design and architecture can
moderate the climate within the city through increasing
heat loss during the day but encouraging heat gain at nightespecially in the residential sections. In these cities energy is
saved through the application of various methods which can
be broadly classified into energy efficiency through City
Morphology & Configuration and Passive Energy.
1. City Morphology & Configuration
1.1. Compactness
The definition of compactness refers to a city form
that is concentrated and firmly unified in its buildings.
Compactness and close or dense configuration is the
technique of minimizing the amount of building surface
exposed to the direct radiation of the sun. Compactness
can be specified in many ways, but it is most clearly evident
by the ratio of exposed building surface to the enclosed
living volume. This concept is in sharp contrast to the
contemporary sprawl and diffused cities. A compact city can
be large nonetheless, formed of multiples of compact units
interrelated with each other. More than any other pattern,
the compact city has the promising potential to ease the
effects of a stressed climate. It minimizes heat gain and
heat loss and therefore consumes less energy for cooling
or heating. Also it allows a very noticeable shortening of
all infrastructure network and transportation system. Land
saving, accessibility, and social cohesiveness are the other
advantages of a compact city. The overall structure of the
Yazd old city is compressed and compact. Buildings are
very close together, sometimes becoming so much a part of
one another that walls are shared and boundaries between
them become unrecognizable.
1.2. Mixed land use and neighborhood divisions
The concept of mixed use is related directly to the concept
of compactness; both are desirable ways of achieving the
same goal. In these regions land uses are integrated and
yet separated in the same urban fabric- an integrated land
use pattern for the residential area where shopping, offices,
educational and cultural activities, social services, and
restaurants will intermingle with residential land uses.
The distribution of the complexes within the town was based
on neighborhood division. Mixed use neighborhoods, in the
traditional cities of Iran are very closely defined. Towns and
cities were usually divided into different religious groups,
and different handcraft producers. Each neighborhood
was an economic component or administrative part of the
188
Fig.9: Yazd, Kushk- E- Now, Detail of Neighborhood Center

(Source: Tavassoli; 2003; p. 102)
city. Each neighborhood also has one center, architecturally

designed according to the social status of the dwellers.
For example, in traditional neighborhoods such as KushkE-Now, the center of the neighborhood embodies a
combination of residential, commercial and cultural
functions. These integrated land uses support proximity,
climatic comfort, social interaction, and convenience. (See
Fig. 9)
1.3. Ordering Mass & Space
One of the main problems in designing single units
(buildings) and building complexes in architecture is
organizing the mass and space according to the ecological
conditions. In order to create better conditions, the concept
of the space surrounded by mass has been used in the
ordering of mass & space in a single unit and, on a larger
scale, in public places. In such an ordering, cool night air is
retained in the deep basements and deep court yards and it
can be used during the first hours of the day.
1.4. City Network, Street Pattern and Orientation
Because of the severity of the climate, orientation of all
structures must be carefully determined. Streets, roads
and alleys all of which form tunnels of air movement
and heat exchange, play a significant role in establishing
the city climate. A grid pattern of streets, usually
designed east- west and north-south, shades one side of
the street only and leaves the other exposed all day. It
seems that northeast to southwest direction for the grid
will establish an interchange of shadows and radiation
along the citys network. Narrow and winding streets
produce minimal heat exchange, and therefore they are
normally shadowed and cooled in the daytime and are
warm at night. They also reduce the effect of stormy and
Fig.10: From left: Ordering Mass& Space in Houses, Shazdeh School and Vaght O Saat Square (Source: Nematimehr; 2005; p. 52)
Fig.11: Yazd. Narrow and shaded street crossed by mud buttresses or domes. (Source: Nematimehr; 2003; p. 116)
Winter Area:
Sunny 5-door room
Summer
Area
Talar
& Sardab
Fig.12: Yazd, Mortaz house, from left: First & under-ground level plan and 3-D view
dusty winds. Narrow streets may retain humidity within

their spaces and decrease ambient temperature throughout
the day. (See Fig. 11)
2. Passive System
2.1. Creating a Micro Climate
Creating micro-climate to decrease the stress of the climate
is one of the significant solutions in these regions. The
traditional houses of this zone, have a courtyard around
which various closed or semi closed space are situated. The
two main areas of the house are the summer area, facing
away from the hot afternoon sun, and the winter area. The
orientation, by chance, has the summer area facing the
i
ghibleh .
(i) The ghibleh wall faces Mecca, the holy Muslim city.
The main constituents of the summer area are Talar, a semi

closed space that faces the courtyard; Badgir, a ventilation
wind tower; and Sardab, a deep basement. The Talar
and Sardab are generally common in all types of houses
although there are more complex types. One of the most
conspicuous features in arid-zone cities like Yazd, is the
wind tower. The structure is a solid and usually square shaft,
8 to 15m high, with an open colonnade top which carries
air down in to the underground chamber.
Favorable prevailing winds enter one side of the vents
of the wind tower, and are then channeled down into the
Talar and Sardab. Here the stream of air combines with
the water vapor given off to increase humidity and create a
cooler environment. Because of the difference of pressure
between the vents of the badgir facing the prevailing wind
and the vents facing away from the wind, the air is drawn up
from the spaces below and expelled from the tower to rejoin
189
Badgir:
Summer Area:
Talar
4-sided
wind tower
Winter Area:
Sunny 5-door
room
Basement:
Sardab
Fig.13: Yazd, Traditional house- Section, (Source: Nematimehr; 2003; p. 64)
the ambient air stream. In the hot summer afternoons when

the external temperatures are high, the inhabitants retire to
the Sardab.
In the courtyard, there are usually small gardens and a pool
to aid summer comfort. Trees often prevent penetration of
excess radiation, and a second deeper courtyard may enable
underground water to be brought to the surface. The added
depth of these courtyards help retain the night coolness for
longer periods of time (Tavassoli; 1983).
The winter areas of the houses are usually simple. The main
elements of the house, the wind tower and deep basement,
are climatically useful in the hot, arid zone and are generally
located in the summer area. In the winter area, a seven, five

or two-door room is the main element. This area is opposite
the summer quarter and takes advantage of the favorable
winter sun. The whole spatial structure of the house looks
inward to a central space, with parapets built well above the
roof lines in order to create shade and preserve privacyall helping residents to adapt to the severe environmental
problems.
2.2. Building Materials & Structure
Buildings are traditionally built of mud, so they have a low
rate of heat absorption and also reflect the sunlight. The
partiality, availability, and relatively low cost, as well as the
Fig.14: Yazd, Cityscape of Mud domes, the most common means of covering spaces, and Wind towers
skill and experience of craftsmen in working quickly and

efficiently with the material has made mud the primary
building materials. Mud domes are the most common
means of roofing. The form of the dome allows the wind
to cool its surface easily, and ensure minimal frequency of
intense radiation at any one point. The double dome is an
excellent solution to the problem of intense radiation. For
more protection, walls and roofs are usually thick so that
they can protect the interiors from external heat.
Fig.15: Yazd, Traditional house; minimum of openings and divided glass
surfaces in windows help in controlling direct sunlight; (Source: Nematimehr; 2002; 64)
190
2.3. Openings and Fenestration

In these regions, buildings are constructed with a minimum
of openings so that the amount of direct sunlight entering
can be controlled. Dividing glass surfaces in windows, which

also acts as ornamentation, helps in controlling ingress of
direct sunlight.
CONCLUSION
This article is aimed at a critical analysis of the physical
statutes of Iranian desert cities from a sustainable design
perspective. The discourse began with clarifying the
concept of sustainability that can respond to three basic
requirements: recycling the existing buildings, fabric and
infrastructure, protection of natural resources and energy
efficiency. These principles have been broadly used in the
architecture and urban design of Iranian arid old cities. The
paper suggests that through application of the principles of
sustainability and by learning lessons from the traditional
architectural heritage of the communities involved, one can
guide the design toward a more harmonious relationship
with its natural settings.
References:
1. Breazley, E. & Haveson M, (1982) Living with Desert.
Aris& Philips.
2. Givoni, B. (1988), Guidelines for Urban Design in
Different Climate, Graduate School of Architecture,
University of California, LA, USA.
3. Gollany, G. (1983), Urban Form Design for Arid Regions
in Golany G. ed. Design for Arid Regions, Van Nostrand
Reihold, New York, USA.
4. Gollany, G. (1995), Ethics& Urban Design, John Wiley &
Sons, New York, USA.
5. Golkar, K. (2000), Sustainable urban design within
desert- fringe cities, Sustainable Development of Desert
Communities, UNDP- Iran Technical papers#2.
6. Kriken J.L (1983), Town Planning and Cultural and
Climatic Responsiveness in the Middle East in Golany, G.
(ed.), Design for Arid Regions, Van Nostrand Reihold, New
York, USA.
7. Moughtin, C. (1996), Urban Design: Green Dimension,
oxford, Butterworth Architecture.
8. Nematimehr, M. (2005) Urban Design in the Inner Core
of the Arid Cities, Case study, Yazd, un published master
thesis, Faculty of Urban Design, University of Tehran,
Iran.
9. Nematimehr, M. (2002) Piecemeal growth Case study,
Yazd, un published master thesis, Faculty of Architecture,
Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
10. Owens, S. (1991) Energy Conscious Planning. CPRE.
London.
11. Tavassoli, M (1983), City Planning in the Hot Dry
Climate of Iran in Golany, G. (ed.), Design for Arid Regions,
Van Nostrand Reihold, New York, USA.
12. Tavassoli, M (1993), Urban Space Design2,Urban
Planning and Architecture Research Center of Iran,
Tehran.
13. Tavassoli, M (2003), Urban Structure & Architecture in
the Hot Arid Zone of Iran, Payam, Tehran, Iran.
191
From Pattern Languages To Generative

Codes: A Report On The Work Of
Christopher Alexander And Colleagues
& Its Application To The Regeneration
Of Traditional Settlements
Michael W. Mehaffy
Centre for Environmental Structure-Europe
INTRODUCTION
Indian citizens, like American citizens, are all well aware
perhaps sometimes painfully aware that their country is
growing at a remarkably rapid rate today. This growth is
economic, and of course also physical: new structures
are being built, and in many cases old structures are being
destroyed to make way for them. Sometimes natural
structures are being destroyed too: wetland vegetation,
riparian ecosystems and the like. Some aspects of this
growth are clearly very positive, offering benefits of
sanitation, education, quality of life, and new opportunities
for people who have lacked them for too long. Some aspects
are less positive, and are even worrisome contributors to
unhealthy processes that may soon become catastrophic
climate change, resource depletion and other grave threats
to the welfare of the human species.
We talk about growth as if it were one undifferentiated
thing, but we are learning today that this is not at all the
case. In the natural world, there are highly variable forms
of sustainable growth, which create dynamic equilibrium;
and there are also variable forms of runaway growth that
cause decay or collapse for example, metastatic cancer,
or runaway infections, or the collapse of underlying
resources.
Christopher Alexander, a Cambridge-educated mathematician
and physicist who became an architect and builder, has spent
some four decades thinking about this question of the
nature of growth, our understanding of it from a scientific
point of view, and our ability to shape it in more desirable
and more humane ways. From the beginning of his career
Alexander has been preoccupied with the problem of
morphogenesis: how forms are created, how parts create
wholes, and how this happens in nature and also in human
constructions. Importantly, he has sought to understand
the difference between the two, and the lessons this may
offer us for our current challenges.
At heart Alexander asks: how can we develop a healthier
kind of growth the kind that repairs and heals and
improves, that makes places qualitatively better, instead of
worse? How can we preserve and build upon the gifts of
the centuries handed down by tradition not as dead relics,
but as a living force that infuses our own time with a greater
vitality and robustness?
Alexander is not an anti-modernist, but rather a modernist
reformer. He wants to know, how can we find a more
intelligent kind of technology, more adaptive, more
integrative of the wisdom gained over centuries, more
enduring and sustainable? What are the rules of the game,
so to speak, and how do we change those rules to create a
more intelligent and wiser human future? Apparently quite
a lot is riding on these questions.
192
This essay will report on reasons to be hopeful about

the answers, particularly those beginning to emerge from
the new sciences of complexity. It seems many of the
answers are indeed to be found in nature, including human
nature. Some surprisingly modern lessons are to be found
in the rich collective intelligence of human traditions, of
the very sort that we are presently discussing.
THE CHANGING SCIENCE OF URBANISM
Over four decades ago, the urban and economic scholar
Jane Jacobs famously described the profound revolution
then under way in the sciences of complexity, and its
intriguing implications for the structure of settlements. In
the marvellously prescient final chapter of her 1961 book,
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, she argued that
the then-emerging new science of organized complexity
was beginning to revolutionize our understanding of what
she called the kind of problem a city is, and our methods
of managing and planning urban environments.
Much has happened since that time to deepen our
understanding of the processes of organized complexity:
the phenomena of morphogenesis and genetic coding in
biology; the behaviour of cellular automata, individual
elements following simple local rules to produce emergent
global complexity; and the self-organizing processes of
markets and human cultural activities, which have produced,
for example, the rich complexities of traditional settlements
through history.
In this story the work of Christopher Alexander, by all
accounts, plays a highly influential role. Here I will briefly
describe his work up to the present day, and the most recent
stage in its fruitful evolution. It is heavy on theoretical
insights, but rooted in the realities of construction and
culture, and in particular traditional culture. In fact it is not
a coincidence that Alexanders first project, as a student,
was a village in India, and I can convey his keen interest in
collaborating on the challenges presently under discussion
at the INTBAU India conference. It would be a nice
resonance indeed if his career brought him full-circle to
such a beautiful part of the world, facing its own set of
challenges with growth and tradition.
Alexander has always been concerned above all with the
process of creating form, and the way that qualitative
characteristics emerge from such a process. He was
part of a group of cybernetic theorists in the late 1950s
and early 1960s that included Herbert Simon, author of
the Architecture of Complexity, and George A. Miller,
originator of the influential concept of chunks in
information theory. The overriding challenge at that time
was to understand the essential structure of information,
and its relation to the corresponding reality that the
information is intended to model, in what is presumably an
accurate and useful way.
It is fair to say that Alexanders first book in 1964, Notes
on the Synthesis of Form, had a profound effect upon the
next generation, not only in planning but also in cybernetics,
information theory and other fields. And although he has
since moved far beyond many of its precepts and even
disowned some of them, the foundations of all of his later
work up to the present day were laid here.
Like Simon and others, Alexander argued that things go
together, roughly speaking, in hierarchies like the fingers
on a hand, or the limbs of the body. But the roughly

speaking is the interesting part. For in fact the hierarchies
tend to overlap, and interesting and important things happen
in those overlaps, and those networked inter-connections.
But the problem, as his classic 1965 paper A City is Not A
Tree showed, is that humans tend to think in hierarchies,
and tend to design in hierarchies with results that can be
disastrous for a natural structure like a city. The enforced
hierarchical order tends to limit and to sever the essential
interconnectivities of the structure, and to destroy the
complexity and the life of it.
This was not so much an empirical argument, as Jacobs and
other critics of the master-planned cities then in fashion
employed to good effect. It was rather an elegant and
devastating mathematical and geometric analysis, which
put the discussion on a refreshingly discussable, sharable
scientific basis. It established a simple structural dimension
to the problem.
THE EVOLUTION OF PATTERN LANGUAGES
For Alexander, the obvious challenge that remained was,
what methods can we use to overcome this problem?
How do we develop tools to successfully manage these
overlapping, interactive, web-like structures? That was the
basis of the next major piece of work the development
of pattern languages, and the particular library of 253
environmental patterns included in the 1977 book, A
Pattern Language.
Patterns in this sense may be thought of as recombinable
fragments of geometric configurations, which obey a kind
of grammar much as a natural language does. Just as a
natural language uses a fairly limited set of elements to
be recombined into endless possible configurations, so a
pattern language is intended to be recombined in a much
more flexible, networked kind of way. In this way, the
mistakes of an earlier and more rigidly hierarchical approach
could be corrected.
Alexander offered, in effect, a method by which designers
could overcome the limitations of hierarchical thinking,
by inter-relating elements of the human environment
into an adaptive network. And he noted that traditional
cultures have been doing something much like this already
for millennia, and that this traditional practice does in fact
function as a sophisticated and powerful kind of language
for creating the built environment.
More than that, it is an expression of the actual structure of
things, the way things go together in space. Just as a natural
language can describe the endless ways that things can in
reality go together, and thereby serve as a useful tool to
discover and plan new combinations, so a pattern language
can model and guide the assembly of elements of the built
environment into new networked configurations. In that
sense, such a language is useful because it is open-ended, in
just the way that life itself is open-ended.
The new pattern language proved itself immensely useful
in other fields, including software programming which
itself functions as a kind of language. The breakthrough
spawned a new class of object-oriented software, design
patterns, leading to familiar innovations like The Sims and
Wikipedia, and many other less familiar innovations.
The book A Pattern Language had of course an enormous
influence on architecture and planning as well, and in fact is

said to be the best-selling treatise of architecture in history;
a quarter-century later, it is still a perennial strong seller. It
was a major influence on the US New Urbanism movement
and related movements elsewhere.
But for Alexander that wasnt enough; merely having the
letters clustered into some beautiful words was hardly
sufficient to show you how they should go together into
sentences and essays and poems how, in the case of
architecture, one could get to the formation of coherent
and beautiful structures. It is one thing to put nice words
together in rudimentary form, like an elementary reader. It
is quite another thing to produce Shakespeare. In effect this
was the enormous qualitative gap that Alexander sought to
close or to take the first important steps toward closing.
EXPLOITING
THE
MORPHOGENESIS
PROCESS
OF
Hence Alexander believed his work had to deal more

directly with the problem of process. What is the process
by which this language is actually used effectively to create
form? What are the steps one must go through? Whereas
pattern languages were about the structure of things,
offering a kind of library of recombinable fragments of
that structure, perhaps this new work would be about the
process of creating that structure. The library this time
might be of recombinable fragments of steps, rather like
the steps in a recipe, that tell you how to get from one stage
of form to the next.
Alexanders insight came again from traditional cultures,
as it so often did. He observed that building traditions
guided individuals in specific steps of building, and in how
those steps should respond to their context. Often very
sophisticated ancient codes functioned to do this. Often
more direct linguistic concepts and rules of thumb
guided individuals and groups the guidance refined and
handed down in tradition.
But in the technology of the last several centuries, this
delicate contextual structure was swept away, replaced by a
more powerful but at the same time cruder, anti-contextual
system, that tended to ignore or even to destroy the
contextual structure - often with disastrous results.
The effort to sort out this structural question, and to offer
not just simulacra of the past, but new methods based upon
the ancient insights and useful for a modern context, would
take him on a surprising 30-year odyssey. He would have to
confront fundamental scientific and metaphysical questions
about the nature of order itself.
My aim here is to give you an overview of this odyssey,
and its parallels with the larger changes in scientific thinking
about the structure and processes of nature. I will bring
this discussion back home to the present day, and the search
for useful new tools that can revive and sustain our cities
through a daunting new age. We can then assess Alexanders
contribution to it, and next steps to be taken.
Alexander took his odyssey beyond human traditions, to ask
basic questions about the processes of growth in nature.
He made a simple, even obvious observation: nature
regularly and almost effortlessly, it seems, creates a vast
range of successful living forms, from astonishingly simple
ingredients. These structures are exquisitely well-adapted,
beautiful, sustainable. What are the processes it uses to do
193
this? And what can we learn from those processes for our
own human applications?
To answer that question, he drew on insights from many
fields, including embryology, physics and others. And he
came to one central conclusion: nature does not use a
plan in the usual sense, but rather, it acts to transform an
existing whole into a new whole. In doing so, it preserves
the structure of the earlier whole, but it often amplifies,
articulates and deepens it in some important way. We can see
that process of transformation very clearly in the biological
patterns of evolution. Alexander noted, intriguingly, that
we can also see it in our own built history in the structurepreserving transformations of the Piazza San Marco in
Venice over 1,000 years, for example, where at every step,
the whole was maintained. At no point was the piazza
entirely bulldozed and rebuilt according to some architects
bold new vision. It was rather a continuous evolution, with
human plans playing a disciplined role within what could be
seen as a kind of dance of the centuries.
But the steps of such a dance can appear deceptively
simple and humble much as a mere 26 letters cluster into
words, sentences and soliloquies and create the complex
beauty of Shakespeare. When presented with the 26 letters
alone we might wonder how we could possibly create
something so rich from such modest parts; but Shakespeare
clearly did.
So, too, in the process of creating form, as we see all over in
nature, the steps can seem exceedingly simple and modest.
But the key is in how they combine, how they multiply in
repetition-- much like the way two colours of putty will mix
surprisingly quickly after just a few repeated folds, or the
way a marvellous animal shape can result from just a few
relatively simple steps of folding paper in Origami. There is
an exponentially multiplying interaction between the parts,
which manifests over repeated steps.
It turns out that this is very much how forms develop in
embryology, through a very similar kind of unfolding
process. This occurs not only in the DNA and RNA
molecules, but also in the protein structures that they then
form, that subsequently bend, fold and interact, and form
various products, including tissues. These tissues then
divide, fold, differentiate and articulate into new structures.
In addition to the simple parts just four molecules in
the genetic code all of this rich complexity comes from
relatively simple steps too: combine, divide, fold, merge,
and so on.
This complexity out of simplicity is a key to understanding
the processes that create richly articulated, differentiated,
living structure. It is at the heart of what biologists call
adaptive morphogenesis underlying the creation of
thriving, stable ecosystems.
fully-developed models of reality. They produce powerful

economies of scale because they allow for standardised
repetition. But they also tend to impose rigid artificial
aspects on the reality, instead of adapting to it to the very
fine degree that nature requires.
Nature too uses templates, on occasion, or something like
them. One might think of DNA as a kind of blueprint.
But nature is much more subtle than current human
technology: there is no little model of a finger encapsulated
in the DNA molecule; it uses a strategy that is at once far
simpler than that, and far more complex and sophisticated
in its output. For every finger produced is a marvel of
uniqueness, sophistication and complexity. The human
version of a template, though it has been enormously
effective in conventional technology, is a far cruder and less
elegant device. The implications of that are significant.
THE NEED FOR
TECHNOLOGY
MORE
ADAPTIVE
Perhaps an even more sophisticated, more modern

approach, would re-integrate these other powerful
processes into human methods including the powerful if
often unconscious processes of human tradition. Perhaps
nothing less would be required to create the kind of welladapted, sustainable, balanced structure that nature had
done, and that was beginning to look like an essential
requirement for a prosperous human future.
Alexander came to see that even his pattern language was
guilty of the template limitation. If people used the
language to come up with a design, planned in advance,
without a careful generative process for adapting the form,
then the form simply wouldnt have that living quality that
was needed, and that was achieved by previous generations
across so many cultures. The reform of our unsustainable
modern processes of morphogenesis was still incomplete.
ALEXANDERS OBSERVATIONS
NATURE OF ORDER
ON
THE
Alexander asked himself, what were the methods that

people could use to apply these kinds of processes to acts
of building (and other form-making) in a modern age?
What insights would they be built upon, and how would
they function? And over the last several years, Alexander
has released his four-volume work, The Nature of Order,
which lays out his answers or at least the first part of
his answers. As I will discuss shortly, there is still a major
element of work to be done.
Here I will outline several of the key concepts of this
work.
Centers
This was a major revelation for Alexander. It was not lost

on him that age-old human processes share some aspects of
this structure. He observed the way traditional craftspeople
took relatively simple steps to gradually weave stunningly
beautiful patterns in carpets, or the way traditional citybuilders took small steps to position their houses and the
spaces around them, gradually building up a marvellous
urban structure with exquisite traits.
One needs a useful diagrammatic model of the structure

of things that is undergoing a pattern of growth an
analytic understanding of the essence of what is going
on geometrically. For Alexander, that model is a system
of centers. Every form can be understood as a system
of centers in some relation to one another one inside
another, one forming part of a boundary around another,
and so on.
Our modern methods, he noted, are based on a very

different, radical approach: creating templates and
blueprints ahead of time, which can be thought of as little
A system of centers can have a hierarchical relationship, a

networked or semi-lattice relationship, or some combination.
It can have all of the kinds of relationship that Alexander
194
Fig. 1: The Nolli Plan of Rome, which can be analyzed as a

series of nested (hierarchical) and overlapping (networked)
centers.
and other theorists described, in critiquing the limitations

of modern design methods.
Thus the model offers a powerful way of modelling the
structure of form, and the transformations it undergoes
and also its limitations. There are echoes of Alfred North
Whiteheads Categoreal Scheme, and echoes too with
theoretical physics. There is also an echo in the work of
Herbert Simon and The Architecture of Complexity. But
there are also unique insights that have gone on to prove
themselves useful foundations for the rest of the work.
Fifteen Properties
Alexander then made an interesting observation: in spite of
the endless variety of configurations in which centers can
be found in nature, he found that one can distil them down
to just 15 different classes of organization, or geometric
properties. Every form of structure that he was able to
observe could be grouped into one of these classes. This
scheme of classes turns out to be very useful in analysis
and, Alexander believes, in aiding as a design tool. I will
outline the 15 classes here briefly.
1. LEVELS OF SCALE: Structures of centers occur in
similar configurations at different scales, often spanning
a vast range of scales. This is similar to the familiar
concept of fractal structure.
2. STRONG CENTERS: Certain centers will have greater
prominence than other, and may attract sub-structures
around them.
3. BOUNDARIES: Centers may form linked structures
that wrap around other centers, forming a boundary.
4. ALTERNATING REPETITION: Centers may form
alternating pairs that are then repeated in chain-like
structures around other structures.
5. POSITIVE SPACE: Where structures of centers
wrap around and enclose space, that space also forms an
efficient structure of centers, without crowded, wasted
or asymmetrical regions.
6. GOOD SHAPE: This is in effect the inverse of the

above: where structures of centers form larger clusters of
centers, these larger structures are also efficient, without
crowded, wasted or otherwise disordered areas.
7. LOCAL SYMMETRIES: While the configuration of
centers at larger scales can be highly asymmetrical, local
areas often tend to form highly symmetrical clusters.
The Nolli Plan of Rome (see Fig. 1) is a particularly clear
example of this.
8. DEEP INTERLOCK AND AMBIGUITY: Adjacent
regions may interlock in a mutually dependent way, to
the point that there is ambiguity of one form in relation
to another. An obvious example is the optical illusion
of a vase-face shape, in which each shape has its own
coherent relation to some external structure, or can be
seen ambiguously as the profile of a radically different
form.
9. CONTRAST: Adjacent regions may be abruptly
discontinuous.
10. GRADIENTS: Adjacent regions may exhibit a
gradual gradation between them.
11. ROUGHNESS: A region may have a complex
structure at finer scales that appears chaotic or rough; it
is in fact a form of transformed structure at finer scales.
12. ECHOES: A region may exhibit partial symmetries
with other entities (symmetries in the most general sense,
i.e. isometric configurations).
13. THE VOID: A region may have no centers within
it.
14. SIMPLICITY AND INNER CALM: A region may
have deceptively few centers within it, with a surprisingly
strong effect upon a viewer.
15. NOT-SEPARATENESS: Every region is linked
ultimately to all other regions, including the viewer and
their world, and ultimately the cosmos. The property
of not-separateness exhibits this linkage to the viewer,
which can evoke a profound feeling in response.
Alexander observed and reported the 15 properties
phenomenologically, but then began to seek clues to their
underlying formation and arrangement. He came to
understand that they arose naturally as a result of the natural
transformations in the processes of morphogenesis. That is,
the process of structural development leads to these classes
of order, through the workings of the transformations.
(There is more detailed discussion of this in The Nature of
Order, but I will not go into it here.)
Alexander pointed out that the 15 properties can be seen
all over the natural world. Interestingly, he noted that
many contemporary structures lack one or more of the
properties almost entirely. This is because, he argues,
current processes of morphogenesis are highly limited and
artificial, as they are affected by the limitations of human
thinking, and the segregation of planning and design
as an abstract function, from the rest of the process of
morphogenesis. Once again, the template approach is
showing its drawbacks as well as its advantages.
Structure-Preserving Transformations
We mentioned the notion of transformation earlier. This
is a more complete description of the general process. It is
best illustrated with the following example.
195
Fig. 2: The 15 Properties of Natural Morphology in which centers may be structured.
The series shows a drop of milk hitting a thin layer of milk

covering a hard surface. Note the initial sphere, a simple
center in the middle with no articulated centers around it. It
strikes the surface, and its symmetry is immediately broken.
The result is not chaos, but a new kind of organization.
The displaced milk rises up and forms a ring, a boundary
around the original drop. The ring expands, and as it does
so it too becomes unstable the equilibrium between gravity
and velocity is exceeded and its symmetry is broken as
well. But again, the result is not chaos but the articulation
of new structures arm-like appendages, and at their ends,
like exclamation points, new baby spheres (Fig. 3).
The overall structure exhibits the features of organization,
not unlike an organism. There is a unity of form without
the overall composition. There is a hierarchy between the
center, the ring, the appendages and the small spheres.
There are interconnections between the different arms,
which can be seen to slightly perturb each other. There
is an irregularity too, which is intricate, varied and unique
not exactly like any other milk drop. It is not a perfectly
repeated pattern, but it is a well-organized one all the
same.
What is significant is that this structure has arisen as a direct
result of the steps in the transformation. The structure
of the original sphere transformed into the ring, which
transformed into the appendages, and finally to the little
spheres. It did not simply disappear, to be replaced with
a new structure inserted into the environment, assembled
from parts according to a template. That is the exceptional,
limited and extreme method that is unique to contemporary
human beings.
Nature of course is full of far more complex examples
perhaps nowhere more than in embryology.
196
Fig. 3: The structure-preserving transformation of a simple

milk drop.
Unfolding
We are learning a great deal about the processes that occur
in the morphogenesis of organisms. Again, we see that
there is no simple blueprint within DNA that contains a
little image of the structure to be built. Rather, DNA is a
code that functions more like a recipe that drives sequential
mixing, dividing, folding, separating and articulating of new
structures, from the protein structures to the structure of
cells to the structure of tissues and body parts. There is
a process of unfolding, not unlike the sequential folding
patterns of Origami, which creates various symmetries and
transformations of parts.
Fig. 4: Morphogenesis in biological processes - Development of an angiosperm seed: Shepherd Purse
What is interesting for our purposes is that the DNA in

some way guides the process, like a recipe, with instructions
for the various steps. A similar process can be observed
in human processes, including cooking recipes and
medical procedures. The steps are very simple, but their
effect becomes sequentially more profound, resulting in a
delicious meal, or a process of complex healing. Urban
environments, too, reveal a similar kind of process.
A similar process can be observed in the function of
traditional urban codes. Relatively simple rules guide
builders through various steps of construction, specifying
contextual responses, such as position of windows relative
to previously built windows, and so on. The result is an
emergent, contextual form. Alexander has found that
traditional building processes used a similar kind of stepwise
guidance, or rules of thumb.
THE
RE-INTEGRATION
QUALITATIVE
OF
THE
Alexander is hardly the first to note that methodologies

since about 1600 have discounted the qualitative aspects
of experience, regarding them as mere psychological
phenomena. This was an extremely useful tool to dispense
with highly variable and unreliable phenomena. But
modern science has come up against the limits of this
tool, which is in fact a kind of trick what the philosopher
and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead memorably
called an omission of part of the truth. In fields as
diverse as neuroscience, anthropology and medicine, the
qualitative experience of value has made an insistent return
to the scientific purview. Perhaps nowhere does this reintegration seem more necessary than in the fields of the
human environment, where quality of life and the
quality of a natural environment are hardly trivial aspects
of what is going on. Indeed, they are increasingly being
seen as the very essence.
The realm of medicine is already largely sympathetic to this
point of view, for in fact it has no alternative. The first
thing that a doctor does with an ill patient is not to run

a battery of quantitative tests and analyses, which would
quickly turn into a kind of medical snipe hunt. Instead
the doctor knows to ask the simple qualitative question,
how do you feel? In effect, practitioners in the built
environment must do likewise.
For Alexander, the qualitative is not some trivial psychological
side-effect, nor is it some mysterious unseen realm. It
is quite literally right before our eyes, in the structure of
things. What we call matter is matter precisely because
it matters it has a qualitative experiential effect upon
us, and only then becomes a fact. As Alfred North
Whitehead observed, this is the actual order of things, and
the customary inversion of it is a trick, an abstraction
nothing other than an omission of part of the truth.
Thus, Alexander sees quality as an emergent phenomenon
in the structure of the world, no less than life itself. Living
structure inherently incorporates, or has aspects of, the
qualitative as well as the quantitative, in equal measure. We
cannot separate them, except in the most temporary and
provisional way, if we really want to understand what is
actually going on in our world.
This is not inconsistent with a view emerging among many
complexity scientists, who have concluded that significant
further scientific progress is not possible without such a reintegration of the qualitative. The biologist Brian Goodwin
in particular, a former Board member of the Santa Fe
Institute, has written eloquently about the emerging science
of qualities, tracing its roots back to Whitehead and
beyond. Alexander fits well within that emerging tradition.
GENERATIVE CODES
Alexander has proposed that steps of unfolding similar
to those in nature could be established today in a modern
technological context. Such steps would amount to a modern
generative code, very different from the parameter-based
or use-based codes of conventional practice. A generative
197
EACH STEP IS ALWAYS HELPING TO ENHANCE THE WHOLE
Fig. 5: Structure-preserving Transformations in Piazza San Marco in Venice over several centuries.
198
code could be thought of as a new kind of design-build

operating system.
In such a generative code, the design phase would no
longer be a distinct segment from the construction phase;
instead, a stepwise process would guide designer/builders
through the sequence of construction, and indeed, on to
maintenance and repair.
Because the process is a transformation of existing
conditions, and not an insertion of a radically new
template-based design, there will be a particular emphasis
on diagnosis of the existing conditions and the changes
needed. This process is necessarily qualitative. Moreover,
it must involve not only expert practitioners with a range
of areas of expertise, but local residents, who can serve as
canaries in the coal mine to detect important qualitative
and contextual issues.
In design-build systems, cost management frequently arises

as a major concern. Many items require ordering in advance
to be cost-effective. Many items cannot be changed during
construction except at significant cost. There is always the
grave danger that the process will paint itself into a corner,
and changes will be highly wasteful and cause delay.
But there are methods that manage costs and capture
efficiencies comparable to more conventional processes.
First, while the process is stepwise, it is not reversible. A
decision that is made at one stage is not revisited later only
the finer articulations follow. An organism that has formed,
say, an arm, goes on to form hands and fingers; it does not
go back and change the arm.
Second, technologies are already evolving rapidly toward
design-build and adaptive methodologies. A century ago
Henry Ford stated that a buyer could have any color as
Fig. 6: Examples of Alexanders projects using generative methodologies. The individual forms may appear simple and even
humble, but the complexity arises from their interconnections rather than from extravagant attempts to create novel forms. The
result provides ample creative novelty, but at more subtle experiential scales.
199
long as it was black. Today a buyer can virtually create

a custom car from the showroom. Just-in-time delivery
is making it unnecessary to order and stockpile materials
in advance to capture economies. One-off processes and
niche marketing are moving the economy toward much
more adaptive processes.
But much more work remains to be done to develop
functional generative codes and a number of pilot projects
are already under way. For example, the form-based code
of Andres Duany and others, called a SmartCode, is
being supplemented with generative steps for diagnosis and
layout. One of the most hopeful efforts in now under way
in New Orleans and on the US Gulf Coast in the wake
of Hurricane Katrina, where Neighborhood Rebuilding
Centers are being developed with generative tools for
the rebuilding of neighbourhoods. We do hope that there
might be opportunities here in India for a project.
What are the elements of such a generative code? We can
broadly summarise them here:
1. The code, in some way, specifies a step-wise, generative
process.
2. It specifies that in that process, human beings will take
certain rule-based actions, in combination with evaluations
based upon feeling, and in adaptation to what came
before.
3. At each step, it acts upon the then-existing condition as
a whole.
4. At each step, it identifies the weakest parts of the structure
and acts to improve and amplify them.
5. At each step, it may apply previously-coded solutions and
patterns, and adapt them to the novel conditions.
6. At each step, it differentiates the space by specifying new
centres
7. The centres are differentiated via 15 structure preserving
transformations
8. Infrastructure follows. As with the morphogenesis of
organisms, where the tissues come first, and the veins and
ducts follow, the human patterns and human spaces come
first, and then transport, sewers and the like follow not
the reverse.
9. Similarly, visual expression follows. The human patterns
come first, and then the visual ideas and signifiers follow
not the reverse. Otherwise we are simply making people
live in disconnected sculptures, however worthy as such.
10. At the end of each cycle, the result is evaluated and the
cycle is repeated.
THE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE REGENERATION
OF TRADITIONAL SETTLEMENTS
Clearly it will not be enough to consign a few traditional
structures to fossil-like preservation in museums, while
the rest of the world is continually swept away and reinvented in a shiny new form. As I think this discussion
begins to show, such a tabula rasa approach, which once
seemed so modern, is a relic of the science that underlay
an earlier industrial age. We now see that it is inconsistent
with the evolutionary processes that produce adaptive
morphogenesis, and achieve the sustainable equilibrium
we seek. It is unsustainable, and it threatens our very
survival.
200
The evidence is increasing that we must re-assess and

reform our methods of producing environmental structure.
We must create a more sophisticated, more evolutionary
kind of operating system for growth.
Nor, this discussion suggests, will it be enough to merely
copy the traditional structures from another time, including
urban structures or urban patterns. As we see, there is
always a transformation going on in any living process, and
to keep traditions alive we must also revive the evolutionary
processes that produced them. Tradition, as Goethe
observed, is the tending of the fire, not the worship of the
ashes.
Much remains to be done, and we are keen to discuss
opportunities for further development. But Alexanders
hopeful message is that the patterns of a more healing kind
of growth are already all around us. We can find them in the
structures of nature, and the processes that produce them.
We can find them in the collective intelligence of traditional
structures and traditional knowledge, ready to be revived
and regenerated, as part of the living tissue of our globe.
The writer Jorge Luis Borges put it best, that between the
traditional and the new, or between order and adventure,
there is no real opposition; and what we call tradition today
is a knitwork of centuries of tradition.
Let us only resume that knitwork, and discover the
renaissance that nature offers us.
References:
1. Alexander, Christopher (1964) Notes on the Synthesis of
Form, Oxford University Press, New York
2. Alexander, Christopher (1965) A City is Not A Tree,
Website of Resource for Urban Design Information,
http://www.rudi.net/pages/8755 (retrieved December 11,
2006)
3. Alexander, Christopher et al. (1977) A Pattern Language:
Towns, Buildings, Construction, Oxford University Press,
New York
4. Alexander, Christopher (2004) The Nature of Order,
CES Publishing, Berkeley, California
5. Goodwin, Brian (1994) A Science of Qualities, in
How the Leopard Changed its Spots: The Evolution of
Complexity, Charles Scribners Sons, New York
6. Jacobs, Jane (1961) The Death and Life of Great
American Cities, Viking Press, New York
7. Whitehead, Alfred North (1938) Modes of Thought,
MacMillan Publishing, New York
Website:
1. www.livingneighborhoods.org (Centre for Environmental
Structure - Europe is a knitwork of centuries of tradition)
Climatic Responsiveness In
Traditional Built Form Of Lucknow
Dr. Mohammad Arif Kamal
Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture
College of Environmental Design
King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
INTRODUCTION
Today we live in an energy intensive built environment with
the hope for a better quality of life. Architecture developed
in this industrial age is highly dependant on mechanical
controls resulting in high level of energy consumption.
Buildings, as they are designed and used today, contribute
to serious environmental problems because of excessive
consumption of energy and other natural resources. The
close connection between energy use in buildings and
environmental damage arises because energy intensive
solutions sought to construct a building and meet its
demands for heating, cooling, ventilation, and lighting,
which causes severe depletion of invaluable environmental
resources.
Modern technologies are adopted without studying their
suitability with regard to culture and climate. In the past,
people built their houses in harmony with the environment
as well as with optimal utilization of the available local
building materials. The use of natural and passive means
in traditional houses was very effective in providing a
thermally comfortable space, which was warm in winter
and cool in summer. This was the result due to repeated
cycles of trial and error and the experience of generations
of builders. The indigenous architecture evolved through
the entire spectrum from individual building to settlement
pattern, responds through form, thermal mass, spatial
hierarchy, activity pattern, material and construction. An
architectural heritage that survived for centuries because of
geometric, technical and constructive principles that worked
for the society, is being sadly destroyed under the guise of
modernization. Traditional buildings are being abandoned,
as it is perceived that they reflect underdevelopment and
poverty.
temperature and relative humidity were measured outside

the building
and in different indoor spaces for every
two hours for a complete one-day cycle for each building
with the help of digital thermo hygrometer.
3. Comparative analysis of the thermal performance of
the buildings.
NATURAL
AND
PASSIVE
TECHNIQUES
EMPLOYED IN TRADITIONAL BUILT FORM
OF LUCKNOW
The traditional buildings in Lucknow have employed some
ingenious natural and passive features and techniques in
order to maintain thermal comfort within the building. The
various passive design features that have been employed
in the traditional residential buildings in old settlement of
Lucknow have been identified and explained in terms of its
climatic implication, the conceptual understanding thereof
and its effect on the building design.
Town Layout
The layout of the old town is the first defense against the
harsh climate of Lucknow. The buildings are joined close
to each other to form a dense cluster. The houses, share
walls and this minimize the surface exposed to the sun. The
house plan and design is characterized by a courtyard type
house, sometimes with an underground level. The house
opens on to narrow streets through a hierarchy of spaces
that become the interface between the street and the house.
This helped the buildings to shade one another as well as to
shade the streets by the balcony and sunshade projections
or by the buildings opposite. With fairly high buildings and
width of streets rarely more than three meters, one can
move around the town in cool shade (Fig.1). A study of
street section design in response to solar geometry reveals
a sophisticated relationship between street width, building
height and projections to create a cool shaded environment
in hot summers by mutual shading. The major streets are
oriented almost E-W and minor streets at right angles to
these and are in the direction of the prevailing wind, which
creates a low-pressure area in the open space thus moving
the air from the streets into the living spaces.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The present study hypothises that the traditionally
constructed and designed houses are considered to be more
climate responsive as compared to the houses designed to
modern constructional designs. The research methodology
involves identification of various natural and passive
design features that have been employed in the traditional
residential buildings in old settlement of Lucknow. The
research also involves the study of thermal performance
through on-site monitoring of two traditional houses and
one modern dwelling unit of Lucknow. Both quantitative
and qualitative methods of gathering data were used. These
included:
1. Recording of the physical form and construction
systems of the buildings and settlements.
2. Recording the thermal performance in all the three
buildings during the period of climatic extremes. The
experiments were conducted during the third week
of January 2004 and first week of June 2004. The
Fig.1: Narrow streets providing

a cool shaded environment
201
Orientation
Water Body
The houses generally open on the major streets (E-W

orientation) and onto the minor street (N-S) orientation.
Considering (for simplicity) an E-W street orientation, in
summer the sun would be shining on the south facade
from 9.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. The corresponding solar
altitudes during this time are 54o to 86o and even small
horizontal projections are sufficient to shade the south
facing buildings. The north face of the building receives
solar radiation before 8 a.m. and after 4 p.m. with solar
altitude being less than 35o. At this time the building
opposite shades the northern facade even if the street is
relatively wide. For streets oriented N-S, the summer sun
shines on the east facade till 11.30 a.m. and the west facade
after 12.30 p.m. The solar altitude during these periods
varies from 0o to 79o. With a narrow street, the building
facades would be shaded before 10.30 a.m. and after 1.30
p.m. Thus, solar radiation would be incident on the E-W
facades for no more than an hour each which is taken care
of by the massive wall construction.
Water body, fountains and water cascades can be found in

the palatial buildings of Nawabs. Water bodies have been
provided in front of the building, within the building or
on the terraces. Baolis or underground step-wells have been
provided in few of the bigger buildings or kothis. The
smaller residential houses generally do not have any water
body, but in few buildings water fountains can be found
which are located in the central courtyard. Evaporative
cooling takes place due to the presence of water that
makes the environment cool.
Vegetation
The bigger traditional houses or kothis of Lucknow have
bigger gardens and baradaries. A baradari is a pavilion
having twelve doors or arched openings for the purpose
of airing while it shelters the inmates from the sun and
rain. The smaller traditional houses have a few small
trees and shrubs planted mostly in the courtyard. The
vegetation near the vicinity of the building helps in creating
comfortable environmental. Plants and grassy covers
reduce temperatures by absorption of solar radiation and
cool by evaporation. Sometimes the trees also shade the
building as well as the nearby spaces, which reduces the
heat gain (Fig. 2)
Fig. 3: Evaporative cooling due to water fountain
Verandah
Verandahs are found widely in the traditional buildings
of Lucknow. The verandahs are generally located at the
entrance or around the courtyard, shading the peripheral
rooms. They function as a transitional space between
enclosed rooms and outdoor spaces. Verandah provides
shade to the walls to reduce heat gain. Verandah on the
southern face is the most effective building element, which
allows the sun to reach the interiors in winters, and prevents
it in summers. Thus, verandahs screen interior space from
the penetrating rays of the subtropical sun and prevent
wind-blown rain from entering living space.
Fig. 2: Vegetation giving cooling effect due to evapo-transpiration
202
Fig. 4: Verandah acting as a buffer space Courtyards
Courtyards
The courtyards can be found in most of the traditional
buildings of Lucknow. They are mostly centrally located and
are completely opened to the clear sky or partially shaded
with overhangs. This also provides shaded spaces which
results in reducing heat gain. Such spaces are commonly
referred to as microclimate modifiers. The centrally placed
courtyard provides light to all the spaces and also provides
air movement due to induced ventilation through the
openings on the walls facing the courtyard. The functioning
of the courtyard during the 24-hour cycle can be subdivided
into three phases. In the first phase, cool night air descends
into the courtyard and into the surrounding rooms. The
structure and the furniture are cooled and remain so until
late afternoon. In addition the courtyard loses heat rapidly
by radiation to the clear night sky. Therefore, the courtyard
is often used for sleeping during summer nights. During the
second phase, at midday, the sun strikes the courtyard floor
directly. The warm air begins to rise and also leaks out of
the surrounding rooms. This induces convective currents,
which may provide further comfort. At this phase the
courtyard acts as a chimney and the outside air is at its peak
temperature. The massive walls do not allow the external
heat to penetrate immediately. During the last phase, by
late afternoon, the courtyard floor and the interior rooms
become warmer. Most of the trapped cool air spills out
by sunset. After sunset the air temperature falls rapidly as
the courtyard begins to radiate rapidly to the clear night
sky. Cool night air begins to descend into the courtyard,
completing the cycle.
Fig. 6 High ceilings increase the volume of air space to heat up.
The bigger palatial houses or kothis have a greater ceiling

height, which varies from 16 to 18 feet whereas the ceiling
height in smaller traditional houses varies from 12 to 14 feet.
Greater ceiling heights improve environmental conditions
in summer time by permitting warm air to rise. Greater
ceiling height increases the volume of the enclosed space,
thus it takes more time for the internal air to get heated up
as compared to the buildings of low height ceilings.
Massive Walls
The walls of traditional buildings are massive with a
thickness varying from 45 cm to 60 cm. The thick walls are
constructed with lakhauri bricks and mortar of lime and
surkhi. The walls are sometimes pointed or mostly finished
with lime and stucco plaster. Thermally heavyweight
construction is part of the climate responsive strategy for
both the cool and the warm period. Buildings with high
mass structure utilize their thermal storage capabilities to
achieve cooling in different ways: (i) Damping out interior
daily temperature swings (ii) Delaying daily temperature
extremes (iii) Ventilating, flushing the building at night.
Furthermore the thick walls, in addition to their insulating
properties, act as a heat reservoir. During the hot day, the
heat flow from exterior (due to solar radiation) to the inside
is retarded and during cooler hours a part of the stored
heat in the walls is released to the interior. This results in
a minimization of temperature change inside the building.
On the other hand, in winter, heating requirements are
reduced due to the heat stored in the walls and which is
radiated during the night.
Fig. 5: Courtyard inducing air movement
High Ceilings
One of the features associated with most of the traditional
buildings of Lucknow is a high ceiling. The height of ceiling
in traditional buildings depends on the building typology.
Fig. 7: Massive walls increases time lag
203
the room to take its place. Thus it creates a stack effect.

A typical vent near the ceiling increases the velocity of air
entering into the building and hence resulting in lowering
of the pressure at the ceiling level, thereby inducing the
hot air under the roof to flow out through the vent. In this
way air is kept circulating through the room under the roof.
Ventilators also function as clerestory windows to light the
interior spaces, which do not have any exposed surface to
admit light through window openings.
Fig. 8: Heavy roofs provide insulation.
Heavy Roofs
As walls have been protected from solar radiation due to
orientation and mutual shading, the main area of solar
heat gain in buildings becomes the roof. The thickness
of roof varies from 30 cm to 45 cm. Basically two types
of construction techniques are used for roofs and floors.
One method used is by laying closely spaced timber beams
covered with reed or grass matting and a thick layer of lime
concrete on top. The second type of roof construction
comprises of Jack Arch Roof with lakhauri bricks on
steel girders covered with thick lime concrete with brick
ballasts and surkhi. In both cases the roofs and floors are
finished with lime and cement plaster. The massive roof
construction of thickness ensures a very small decrement
factor and a large time lag.
Openings
At higher temperatures, ensuring air movement in the built
space through openings provides human thermal comfort
in traditional buildings. When buildings are tightly clustered
together, it is generally difficult to let winds into the house
and air movement due to temperature differentials is usually
too sluggish to cause any comfort unless special design
features augment it. Hence the windows in traditional houses
of Lucknow are bigger in size to facilitate ventilation. They
are efficiently shaded from direct solar radiation. However,
in winter when there is no special need for air movement,
window apertures are opened during the day to store the
thermal radiation and are kept shut at night. Windows also
provide sufficient daylight into the interiors of the buildings.
More window openings can be found on the north and east
side of most of the traditional buildings which facilitates
natural light and air movement to reach indoors without
increasing heat gain. Small or less openings are provided on
the south and southwest side to prevent heat gain.
Fig. 10: Ventilators expelling warm air
Jharokhas
Jharokhas are another characteristic feature of traditional
buildings of Lucknow. In tune with the need for privacy for
women, facades are characterized by small openings often
in the form of jharokhas, elements essentially generated by
social customs of allowing women to peep out without
being seen. These are infact, small size openings that can
be found on the outer surface of the building facade. They
create suction effect to facilitate forced air movement from
the exterior environment into the interiors of the building.
In most of the buildings Jharokhas are provided on the
upper floors. Sometimes they are projected in the form of
small bay windows and are richly carved.
Fig. 11: Jharokhas induce forced air
Skylight
Skylights can be found in some of the traditional buildings
of Lucknow, especially in the bigger residential buildings
such as kothis and havelis. The skylight above the central
space lights the interior space naturally. Skylights provide
satisfactory lighting for activities that can tolerate large
variations in illumination level. They are mostly located on
the North side of the building and even allow these areas to
gain some heat. Openings in the skylight create stack effect
or induced ventilation in the surrounding spaces. They are
sometimes fixed with tinted glass for decorative effect.
Overhangs and Balconies
Fig. 9: Shaded Windows as openings
Ventilators
Ventilators are prominent features that are found in almost
all the traditional buildings. They are manually operated
and provided just below the ceiling. The warmer air rises
and leaves the space and cooler air from the court enters
204
Balconies and building projections are another characteristic

features of traditional buildings in Lucknow. The advantage
of the structural projections is to shade the building from
direct solar radiation, which results in the reduction of
heat gain. The depth of balconies and overhangs has been
judiciously provided so as to cut off the solar radiations
in summer and allow the winter sun to come into the
building.
Surface Texture and Colour

In Lucknow textured surfaces are used in the exterior finish
of the building facades, which are likely to be exposed to
sun. The walls are sometimes pointed or mostly finished with
lime and stucco plaster. The elevation of a typical traditional
house is treated with stucco on motifs and floral patterns
made up of lime plaster. Obviously the use of decorative
carved surfaces is not governed by the need for sun control
only but also used for its decorative effect. The external
surfaces of traditional buildings in Lucknow are generally
painted with light colours that reflect solar radiation (in
order to have minimum absorption). Whitewashing reduces
the absorptivity of the wall surface, minimizing the effect
of solar radiation on internal climate and tends to stabilize
the internal temperature.
Fig. 12: Overhangs and projections shading the building from direct solar
radiation
Balconies have been projected in front of large openings

to prevent direct solar radiation to enter the rooms through
these openings.
Jaali
If the courtyards are the largest
holes in a traditional house of
Lucknow then on the other end of
the scale are the intricately carved
stone jaali. The advantage of a jaali
is that it blocks the direct rays of
the sun and yet permits air to enter
the room and is designed to grant
privacy. Jaalis and screens not only
have the advantage of interrupting
solar gain, but also to reduce glare,
Fig.13 (a) : Jaalis
facilitate cross ventilation, filter
facilitate ventilation and
light, allow controlled view, and cast
screening effect
intricate and playful shadow pattern
sthat continually change.
Fig. 14: Textured exterior surfaces for less absorption of solar radiations
THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF TRADITIONAL

HOUSES
After a careful archival survey of the traditional and
modern day buildings, two traditional residential houses
were selected for conducting experiments and analyzing the
thermal performance of each building. The two traditional
houses are of the courtyard type having different floor area
but of same building form. The criteria for the selecting
the traditional residential buildings were based on: (1) being
moderate in size, (2) containing traditional architectural
elements, and (3) could be accessible to the investigator.
Both the two traditional buildings are located in chowk, an
old settlement of Lucknow.
Fig.13 (b) : Jaalis facilitate ventilation and screening effect
Case Study 1: Rizvi House

This is a traditional courtyard house in Chowk at Lucknow,
built around 1915 basically to serve the purpose of Janana
205
Fig.15: Ground floor (left) & First floor (right) plan of Rizvi House
Imambara or ladies mourning place (Fig.16). The mourning

still takes place at the time of Moharram (first month of
Islamic calendar) in the Majlisi or the mourning hall and
for the rest of the time of the year the Majlisi is used as
a living room. It is a double storey building with a small
central courtyard of dimension 7.05m X 6.4m surrounded
by living rooms on three sides and entrance on the north
side of the courtyard (Fig.17). The Majlisi is a double height
hall, which opens to three imambaras in the front and two
mosques at both level on its right and a room on its left
(Fig. 18).
Features of Rizvi House
The building is slightly shifted towards west maintaining the
NE-SW orientation (Fig.15). The maximum openings and
the entrance are on the NE side i.e. the windward direction.
There are few openings on south east side and no openings
on southwest side. The absence of the openings on exterior
surfaces helps in reducing heat gains. The main entrance
opens into the narrow shaded street, which induces cool air
from the street into the building. The courtyard facilitates
shaded spaces and facilitates ventilation in the interiors
through the openings facing the courtyard. The projection
of eaves in the courtyard provides shade from direct solar
radiation into the rooms, which opens into the courtyard.
Fig.16: View of Rizvi House
Fig 17: View of Courtyard
Fig.19: Summer temperature profile (left) and winter temperature profile (right) of Rizvi House.
206
Fig.18: Double Height Majlisi
The jharokhas on the northern face of the building catch

prevailing wind and hence provides air circulation into
the rooms on first floor. The masonry walls are 18 thick
constructed with lakhauri bricks and finished with lime
plaster. The roof is 14 thick constructed of jack arch
with lakhauri bricks on steel girders and finished with lime
concrete. The massive walls and heavy roofs offer greater
thermal resistance and hence increase the time lag. The
exterior and interior of the building is white washed which
helps in reflecting solar radiation.
Case Study 2: Qaiser Jahan House
This is a courtyard house of late Mrs. Qaiser Jahan Begum
in Nakkhas at Lucknow, which is around 125 years old. The
entrance of the house opens into a narrow street (Fig.20).
There is an entrance lobby, which opens directly into the
courtyard. The square shaped courtyard of dimensions
10.75m X 10.0m is centrally located, enclosed by rooms on
three sides and an entrance on the west side. The eastern
side of the courtyard has a double height hall (Fig.21)
and on the other three side of the court are single height
structures. The double height hall opens into an Imambara
and two bedrooms. This double height hall is also used as a
majlisi or mourning place during Moharram. On the north
side of courtyard is the kitchen, a bathroom and a toilet
and on the southern side of the courtyard are two living
rooms.
Features of Qaiser Jahan House
The house opens into the narrow street, which is shaded
by the balconies and projections of the buildings on both
sides. The entrance to the house is through a lobby, which
opens into a central courtyard. As the courtyard gets heated
up during the day the hotter air rises and denser, cooler air,
which is drawn from the shaded streets, rushes into the
courtyard and hence induces ventilation in the interiors of
the surrounding rooms. (Fig. 22)
The absence of the openings on exterior surfaces helps in
reducing heat gains. The double height entrance on the south
west side provides shade to the building from the afternoon
sun. The thickness of the wall is 24 and constructed of
lakhauri bricks finished with lime surkhi plaster. The roof is
18 thick constructed of brick ballast mixed with lime surkhi
mortar laid on timber sheets supported by timber beams. The
massive walls, heavy roof and timber ceiling offer greater
thermal insulation and hence increase the time lag. The
ventilators near the ceiling facilitate stack effect and extract
the warm air from the rooms. There is also evaporative
Fig.20 Entrance opening in a

narrow street
Fig. 22: View of Courtyard
Fig.21 Double Height hall

with timber ceiling
Fig.23: East Side Elevation
cooling due to vegetation in the surroundings (fig.23). The

exterior of the building is plastered with lime mortar and
whitewashed, which reflects the solar radiation to some
extent. There is also a reduction of heat gain by providing
textural shading due to ornamentation and stucco work on
the building facade.
THERMAL
HOUSE
PERFORMANCE
OF
MODERN
Case Study 3: LDA. House

This building is a M.I.G. residence, which was built by the
Lucknow Development Authority in Aishbagh, around 40
years back. (Fig. 25). It is a double storeyed building with
living room, kitchen, toilet and one bedroom on the ground
floor and one bedroom and toilet on the upper floor (fig.26).
The construction consists of 9 thick load bearing brick
masonry walls and 6 thick roof. The heights of the rooms
are 3.0m and openings are of dimensions 0.9m X 1.2m
Features of L.D.A. House
This building is a part of semi detached row housing and
it is compactly planned residence with a small front and
Fig.24: Summer temperature profile (left) and winter temperature profile (right) of Qaiser Jahan House.
207
rear yard. There are only few openings, which open into
the front and rear yard, which obstruct the free movement
of the air and do not provide cross ventilation. The living
room is located on the western side without proper shading,
which causes discomfort in summers. The roof of the first
floor is 4 thick R.C.C. construction finished with small
brick ballast and cement sand mortar. The roof is a major
source of heat gain for the upper floor due to absence of
appropriate terracing. There is no proper projection over
openings and on the terrace level on south and west side
to shade the walls on first floor. This causes the walls to
heat up and hence permits the heat into the rooms through
conduction. The plastered exterior surface with whitewash
reflects solar radiation to some extent.
INFERENCES
1. The data collected shows that the indoor air temperature
in the two traditional buildings is 2- 3o C lower in summers
and 2-3o C higher in winters as compared to the indoor
temperatures in L.D.A house.
2. The difference between the sky and indoor temperature
in traditional buildings is greater than the indoor
temperature in L.D.A. house suggesting more comfort
level in traditional buildings.
3. In traditional houses, the amplitude of indoor air
temperature was not more than 4-5C while the outdoor
temperature fluctuation was of the order of 18-20C.
4. In summer the mean maximum indoor temperature
of different rooms of the traditional house was 1012C lower and mean minimum temperature was 3-4C
higher than the outdoor minimum temperature whereas
in L.D.A. house the mean maximum indoor temperature
was 5-6C lower and mean minimum temperature was 78C higher than the outdoor minimum temperature.
5. In winter, in traditional houses there was 4-5C
temperature difference between mean maximum indoor
temperature of different rooms and maximum outdoor
temperature and 5-6C temperature difference between
mean minimum indoor temperature and the minimum
outdoor temperature whereas in L.D.A. house there was
difference of 8-9C between mean maximum indoor
temperature of different rooms and maximum outdoor
temperature and 4-5C temperature difference between
mean minimum indoor temperature and minimum
outdoor temperature.
6. The indoor peak temperatures occurs at about the
same time as the outdoor peak temperature in traditional
Fig.25: View of L.D.A. House
Fig.26: Ground and First Floor Plan of L.D.A. House
buildings i.e. the time lag is around 24 hours due to

massive thickness of walls whereas in L.D.A. house the
indoor peak temperature is around 6 p.m. in the evening
as the outdoor peak temperature is around 2 in the
afternoon.
7. The courtyard system in traditional buildings ensured
ventilation through the building even during the periods
when the outdoor conditions were calm. The courtyard
temperature was 1-2o C higher in late afternoons and 23o C lower in early morning as compared to the indoor
temperatures of the rooms.
8. The areas of the building directly exposed to the
Fig.27: Summer temperature profile (left) and winter temperature profile (right) of L.D.A. House.
208
sun were 2-3o C higher in traditional buildings due to

thick massive walls whereas in L.D.A. house it was at
times 7-9C higher than the corresponding ambient air
temperature.
9. Building elements such as shading devices, buffer spaces
like courts, verandahs etc. wind catchers screens, recessed
openings, water body, vegetation helps in lowering the
day temperature in traditional buildings whereas there are
hardly any or few features which can be found in modern
day houses.
CONCLUSIONS
In Lucknow, the layout of town is the first control
mechanism against the climate. The buildings clustered
together, separated only by narrow shaded streets. The
street orientation ensures that the building facades are
either shaded by overhangs, balconies, jharokhas, chajjas
,projections, or by the opposite building. Due to the shadow
patterns, the building receives minimum radiation from
direct solar exposure, which results in reducing peak heat
flux into the building. The greater ceiling height increases
the volume of the enclosed space, taking more time for the
internal air to get heated up. The verandah served as a buffer
space between the interiors and the outside environment.
There is a time lag due to thick masonry wall and heavy
roof construction system found in traditional houses of
Lucknow. The courtyard system ensures ventilation through
the building even during the calm outdoor conditions. The
openings such as windows, ventilators and skylight provided
cross ventilation, by creating stack effect. The ventilation
apertures such as jharokhas, jaalis induce forced ventilation
into the interiors of the buildings. The vegetation near the
vicinity of the building reduces the heat gain by shading the
building from direct solar radiation and cooled the interiors
by evapotranspiration. The other landscape elements such
as fountain, baoli (an underground step well or water tank)
provided thermal comfort by lowering the air temperature
due to evaporative cooling.
The analysis of the experiments infer that the traditional
building form, structure and materials were selected to
suit the climatic conditions to ensure optimal comfort
from climatic factors invading indoors, without mechanical
means, i.e., heaters, fans, coolers, air conditioners etc.
The principles of good thermal design used in traditional
buildings are still valid today and it would still be possible
for modern designers and architects to incorporate these
design principles in buildings, which are suitable for
modern day living to conserve energy and provide better
thermal comfort. The solution perhaps lies in rediscovering
the features and techniques used in the traditional buildings
in recreating the contemporary architectural form. It is
important for an architect to understand how to blend
lessons from traditional heritage with modern technology
in building design. Hence, it is essential to take the wisdom
of the past and evolve a built form, which will be more
humane more climate responsive and more environmental
friendly.
Reference:
1. Ali Sayigh, A. Hamid Marafia (1998) Vernacular and
contemporary buildings in Qatar, Renewable and Sustainable
Energy Reviews, Volume 2, Issues 1-2.
209
Is Tradition Green ?
INTBAU India
This Panel Discussion, held on 14th January 2007 during
the International Conference on New Architecture and
Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions, dealt with the
sub theme on Continuing Traditions in New Architecture
and Urbanism in order to the address the increasingly
pertinent query, Whether green should be a paradigmatic
model to architecture and urbanism in modernizing India.
The primary issues raised were whether modern functionality
in architecture overrides tradition, and whether the Green
approach in building just helps objectivise a traditional
approach, which might otherwise be based on subjective
criteria like collective memory. There was an attempt to
understand the gap between upgraded traditional methods
and modern hi-tech technology. The Discussion sought
to answer whether modern technology and materials
ensure true green or just a green label as compared to a
traditional approach in construction, materials and details.
It also debated whether embodied energy or lifespan costs
should be considered the criterion for understanding the
green approach, and which of the two approaches worked
towards a truly environmentally sustainable outcome in
building.
The Panelists
Ashok B.Lall (Chair of the session)
Architect & Dean of studies,
TVB School of Habitat Studies, New Delhi
Gerard da Cunha
Architect,
Goa
P.C.Jain
Delhi Head,
CII Green Building Centre
Arvind Krishan
Professor,
Nimish Patel
Architect,
Abhikram, Ahmedabad
V.Suresh
Head,
Good Governance India Foundation and Former
CMD, HUDCO
Ashok B.Lall:
In order to view the subject of this panel over a broader
frame work, an interpretation of the question, Is Tradition
Green in different words is required. Rasem Badrans work,
steeped in tradition, began as being gentle and inclusive. Over
a period of time, it became more exclusive, grand as well
as brutal, the reason being the enormous concentration of
wealth in certain places, a pattern which is spreading across
the globe. On the other hand, in the works of Geoffrey
Bawa, K.T. Ravindran, Gerard da Cunha and Nimish Patel,
another pattern emerges through a distribution of initiative
and wealth. It manages to retain the gentleness and the
inclusiveness and still pursue development.
210
The current state of ongoing large scale development is

bound to have major repercussions. This form of building
is exacerbating the release of carbon dioxide due to energy
over consumption, causing global warming, hastening
the imminent melting of ice caps and the consequent
inundation of islands. Within a period of 20 50 years,
the inhabitants of such islands would have to move out.
Therefore, the question that this forum intends to take up
needs to be posed from a broader perspective.
Nimish Patel:
Tradition is construed as something which has lasted for
centuries and has not been affected by passing phases.
Traditional materials like lime, which have lasted for ages
but have been forgotten over the last 60 years, need to
be revived because they add to the life of buildings at a
very low cost. It creates temperature differences from the
outside to the inside, generates work for the craftsmen and
allows multiple uses of that material in a variety of shapes,
forms and textures. A traditional approach is definitely
green, all the more because it is not governed by a market
driven economy and the consequent usage of market driven
materials..
V. Suresh:
Green is not just a colour; but it reflects all that is embodied
in nature with respect to land, water, air and the foliage all
around. If traditional building construction has been able to
stand the test of time, it is because it respects the changing
seasons of nature in terms of heat, rain, snow and dust,
which are the features of the external environment.
For instance, in the ikora (a kind of bamboo) wall housing
of the buildings on the hilly terrain of the north-east, the
mast is built as low as possible with clay on either side,
making these earthquake resistant. The latest technologies
being discussed in that region are bringing to fore the same
traditional methods, of building framed structures with
plinth, lintel and extra beams to withstand the forces of
nature. Another example is the bunga walls of the Kutch
region, which have been shown to withstand earthquakes.
These are simple yet effective structures. According to
Laurie Baker, traditional building related constraints like
sloping roofs or verandahs to keep out extreme rain in the
hot and humid environment act as a hat and boots to a
building. Similarly, the havelis of Rajasthan are built to cope
up with the dry arid weather of the desert.
This approach is all about observing nature and responding
to it. It is also about using natural resources that have rich
potential, be it stone, bamboo, timber, lime or earth. Very
high levels of energy are required to manufacture materials
used in contemporary buildings. On the other hand the
traditional construction materials have the least amount
of energy utilization because they are natures formations
created over a span of time. These materials should be
given precedence over processed materials like glass, steel,
aluminium, plastics, etc. that are manufactured using very
high levels of energy. Processing also converts Limestone
into a high-energy intensity form like cement with the usage
of other materials. And, similarly, plain earth is converted
into bricks.
Traditional systems primarily utilize compression structures,
be it the arch, the dome or the corbel and not tension
based structures. Therefore, one experiences a feeling of
peace, tranquillity and a sense of beauty in these buildings.

They also possess the right amount of space, externally
and internally, for the various activities. Most importantly,
their charm has not diminished over the ages. On the other
hand, contemporary architecture with its reinforcements
and embodiment of enormous energy adds a streak of
arrogance to the landscape.
Green is not just a colour, but epitomises all the aspects
of making a sustainable building with environment friendly,
ecologically appropriate and energy saving methods. The
new vocabulary of green building is coming to the fore
not only in terms of the materials used and their production
but its subsequent usage, whether residential, commercial or
institutional. Energy is an important concern and traditional
buildings have been able to provide required environment
and design for this. This comparison will arise continually
as modern buildings use high amounts of energy for their
continuous sustenance unlike traditional buildings which
are low on energy consumption. At time of the evolution
of these traditional building techniques, the available energy
forms were few and therefore these methods automatically
gained widespread usage
P.C.Jain:
I would like to present a slightly different viewpoint.
Traditional buildings have always been green without any
doubt. This was due to their usage of natural ventilation,
evaporation cooling, etc. For e.g., how did they keep cool
during Shahjahans time? The forts were made of thick walls,
and there were small windward openings along with large
leeward openings where the wet curtains would cool the
hot air coming from outside. Similar methods were used in
Jaisalmer and other places in Rajasthan. But tradition being
green does not answer our contemporary needs. We are
now living in the computer age and most of us work from
9 to 5 or sometimes even 9 to 9. As a result, todays lifestyle
demands that we use some sort of artificial methods for
comfort. Though comfort is really a state of mind, we still
need to provide some physiological comfort in buildings.
In case of schools, residences, clinics, etc., one can provide
natural methods of cooling, for e.g. utilization of water to
bring the temperature up to a comfort level. But what does
one do about modern buildings with curtain walls, glazed
structures, glass houses, etc. which are totally alien to our
environment?
The idea of bringing the Green Building movement to
the country is to minimize on energy consumption, though
we cannot do away with additional energy completely. But,
one need not waste 15 watts per square foot when one can
do with 7 and one need not have 200 square feet per ton
when one can do with 400. This is the essential premise of
the Green Building movement.
Arvind Krishan:
Its been largely assumed that tradition is green. But, the crux
of this argument lies in the definition of green and more
importantly, on its overall sustainability. Is it sustainable in
its ecological context, in the function that it has to perform
and most importantly, is it sustainable for tomorrow? Does
it respond to the future generations for whom this legacy in
being built? Is Tradition Green and is it always green? It has
been largely assumed that it is always green but I would like
to put forth a slightly different viewpoint.
We have researched and worked on contemporary buildings

using various traditional techniques. There is a certain
romantic notion behind the assumption that tradition is
always green, which needs examination in its totality.
When one says that tradition is green, it is important to
understand the processes that go behind it - the process of
design, building and the usage of the traditional platform.
The inevitability of the situation is that the maximum
numbers of buildings are being built for the sector which
demands artificial controls. For example, the so-called IT
Parks are buildings that have become very prevalent and
these are contained buildings. On the other hand, a building
as a form is also situated in a certain time and place, and
is always interactive with its surroundings. How does one
respond to these opposite ends of the spectrum? One of the
important tasks is to find a method of interpreting tradition
and translating it in the modern context. Otherwise, it is a
little misjudged to suggest that building the way we have
been doing over the centuries is the only right solution.
The learning principles to be derived from tradition are
the lessons that nature bestows on us. But how do we
define nature, which is complex in terms of the site that
the building sits upon, and in the way the building has to
respond to climate. When a road is constructed or a building
is built, we degrade land. Tradition responds to this kind of
responsibility by using natural materials and by the manner
in which the built forms are generated wherein the materials
used would bring in the elements of nature.
The other lesson concerning tradition is based on the
parameters on which it works. Tradition works on the
principles of natural ventilation and natural lighting and
by providing the required thermal conditions through an
interface between nature and built form. Can these lessons
be translated into the modern context, into for instance an
IT Park or a five star hotel? If we dont find an answer
to this, we will ourselves be overwhelmed by the present
systems of looking at or defining green, such as LEED or
other star rating systems that are now coming up in India. If
we do not find a way of explaining, processing or evaluating
a design, there wont be any suitable alternative.
Therefore, the way about is to translate the traditional
process into the modern context in the most holistic way.
One of the scientific processes that has been developed and
is now being used extensively is the Ecological Footprint,
wherein every design, every building and settlement,
regardless of its location would have an ecological footprint
which can be controlled and evaluated.
Gerard da Cunha:
I will discuss the question of Is Tradition Green based
on the issues one faces while designing in Goa, utilizing
the traditional Goan house as an example. The first issue
is that of the material used in building. Local stone, which
has been used traditionally, and is quarried nearby, is viable
even today instead of cement blocks which are currently
becoming prevalent in modern day houses. On the other
hand, the traditional Mangalore tile or wooden roofs arent
feasible anymore due to the depleting forest resources and
the rising prices of wood. People also prefer a permanent
roof which affords better security as well as negligible
maintenance. The same can be said for the wooden doors
and windows. The lavish and formal design of these houses
were meant for large families where privacy was not an
211
issue. In todays changed time, this kind of house is not in

preference anymore.
building designs are created, a lack of appropriate byelaws

supporting sustainable design comes in the way.
But in terms of climatic design, many lessons abound here.

For example, the Goan house had a courtyard, which drew
the hot air out and created a draught. Conversely, the older
houses were built on much larger plots which dont exist
anymore and a courtyard now becomes quite difficult to
incorporate in the design. The windows in Goan houses
started from the floor level since in a hot and humid
climate, it is very important to have air passing over the
body. Another important climatic feature was a specific tile
on the roof, which took the hot air out without trapping it
in the living space. In addition, at the top of the wall, an
opening would pull the hot air out. These are some of the
aspects that need to be imbibed from tradition. Therefore,
certain practices can be borrowed from tradition, but
without direct replication. In fact, if one were to build a
traditional Goan house today, it would be a waste of money
and resources.
S. Badrinarayanan:
While designing a house today, the most important thing

is to make the least impact on the resources of this fragile
earth, and that depends on the choice of materials. For
instance, instead of Jodhpur sandstone or Italian marble
for a house in Goa, one might try and utilize locally
available materials. Sensitivity to the site, whether in terms
of following the contours, instead of cutting, or in terms of
saving a tree, is quite important. This sensitivity is not just
traditional, but is important in general for professionals,
who need to play a proactive role in such decision making.
Recycling in also important, for instance in using old bottles
as fillers in old walls and roofs. It can play an important role
in todays context because older areas are being renewed
and broken down, creating a large potential for usage of
this recycled material. All of this needs to work together
with new scientific principles, for e.g. that of a shaded wall,
as important environment friendly design criteria.
Ashok B.Lall:
Summing up all the presented thoughts, the most pressing
issue for the environment, at a global level, seems to be the
issue of reducing the consumption of fossil fuel energy in
the built environment. This critical and central issue can be
addressed in two ways - one is the type of materials used and
the way in which it is used in buildings to provide for todays
needs. The other is the configuration of the usage of these
materials to minimize the need for conditioned comfort
inside buildings. At the same time, there is also the issue of
defining need itself. The necessity of an IT Park or a five
star hotel cannot be disputed, but within these, there may
be some variations that can be expressed . And with some
imagination, the IT scenario can be created at home and
the necessity for artificial comfort and central conditioning
done away with. Therefore need as a definition of the
issue, while dealing with the energy consumption of
materials or preservation of the environment, should also
be subject to questioning.
OPEN HOUSE
Arun Bhandari:
Nowhere in the entire National Building Code is the idea of
sustainability discussed. Why is this the case and when and
how will this issue be raised? Moreover, even though good
212
The need of defining the kind of architecture we produce

is relevant. Does the architect also, sometimes, need to take
on the role of educating the client? It would be useful if
the nature of this need to interact with the client could be
illustrated.
Delegate:
There is a need to communicate to the public at large that
Tradition is Green and disseminate the need to adopt
traditional practices in the present day scenario. There is
also a need to teach our architects that it is their job to
educate their clients in this regard. It would be important
to create suggestions, which can go on to be implemented
at a later stage not by the corporate sector but also, by the
people who are building small buildings, whether residential,
commercial or industrial.
Anjali Krishan Sharma:
Gerard talked about incorporating selective traditional
practices as he is doing in his buildings. If on one hand we
associate continuity and tradition as synonyms and on the
other, one continues with this selective process, then over
a period of time one would be, in some way, rewriting the
whole essence of the idea of tradition.
Gerard da Cunha:
It is the sensible thing to do. Tradition offers us a lot of
wisdom and we must sensibly make use of what is applicable
today and change that which isnt. For instance, it is useless
borrowing historical faade details from the west. But if
one needs to use GI sheeting then one should use it and let
it form its own language. We must move forward with our
traditions even if we need to change it sometimes.
Arvind Krishan:
Tradition is not something to be fossilized. It does not have
to be replicated the way it was employed a hundred years
ago. When we talk about tradition going forward, we are
talking about adopting the design principles incorporated in
the tradition. They are to be respected and they must also
evolve. Blindly using traditional materials would be a futile
exercise. For.e.g., Goa is in the lower latitude of the country
and there exists a huge amount of radiation. To cut this
radiation, traditional materials can be substituted with those
which use less resources and energy and are more effective
for this purpose.
Regarding the NBCC, after a huge discussion on the issue
of whether one can have a chapter on energy efficiency,
it was decided that certain elements that were required- in
terms of lighting, the way of building- would embed issues
of sustainability and reduction of energy consumption.
There is also a parallel exercise that is almost completed
now, called the ECBC, the Energy Code for Building
Construction in the Country. The draft has already been
circulated and once it has been formally notified, it will be
in force.
The central question is whether legislation is the only answer.
The answer really is the initiative, and the imaginative,
innovative aspect of design which has to come inherently

from the architect and not from outside. If the assumption
is that the law courts will enforce sustainability, then we are
making a big mistake. Regarding the issue of bringing all
this into the public realm, we have already been trying to do
our best for the past thirty years. This discussion is, in a way,
a reflection of what has been happening over that period.
Ashok Lall:
For environment sustainability and energy conservation
issues, the engineering as well as the architectural disciplines
must integrate and view the problems in perspective. Apart
from that, all the other disciplines should be associated as
well.
P.C. Jain:
Besides energy, water is also an important conservation
issue. Water is precious and is running out. The objective
of zero discharge is important, which means that the
water received at a site during rains should be harvested
and recharged with zero discharge to the outside. Recently,
a green building has been designed in NOIDA with 146
work stations, zero artificial lighting and an air conditioning
load of just 400 square feet/ton, half the normal amount.
Therefore, it is possible to design a building while conserving
energy and still creating comfortable conditions, together
with harnessing of daylight and minimum usage of water.
V.Suresh:
We dont have to swing like a pendulum between one
extreme of using traditional forms and the other extreme
of modern, high-energy, glitzy box like structures. What we
need is balance, and options which can combine the merits
of design, planning and materials of both traditional and
modern forms. The need is for intermediate, appropriate
and sustainable options.
There is a lot of misinformation, or lack of information
regarding the building code. There exists substantial amount
of information and coverage on sustainable development
in the approximately 1233 pages of the National Building
Code. Secondly, Legislation and building regulations do
help to some extent, for e.g., solar energy, which is being
tapped in a large way and water harvesting; but cannot be
the only criteria. The creativity of the designer should bring
forth sustainable options with legislation providing the
enabling framework.
213
Development Of Indian Traditions:

Constructivist Approach In The
Design Studio
S Badrinarayanan
Visiting Faculty
School of Planning & Architecture
Before we embark on the rather ambitious task of addressing
the issue of tradition and culture in architectural education
in India, it would be pertinent to clarify ones stand on the
issue. The most natural questions to follow would be:
A. What traditions and whose cultures?
B. Should one take a conservative or a progressive stance?
C. What is our authority as educators to decide on the
above?
At any given time in history these choices have been faced
time and again by individuals and civilizations. The essential
question is not of traditions but whether the choice to follow
them be left to individuals or be usurped by the authority
of institutions--be it family, community, school, college or
state. It is this very fundamental question that will have far
reaching implications on both the choice of our educational
material and the appropriate teaching methodology.
As far as the first question of what tradition and whose
culture-- Can we start by understanding what confronts us
on a daily basis; i.e. our selves and our immediate context?
The reality is that each of us has many simultaneous layers
of identities and selves. In India, some of these are
chronological, sedimentary layers of feudal culture, colonial
culture, consumer culture and now the most fashionable,
eco-culture. While the older layers lie half-erased and
dormant, depending on the situation one or the other might
suddenly (and embarrassingly!) reveal itself in our behavior,
institutions and cultural expression. The difficulty is that
one cannot isolate one layer in place and time, a mythical
golden period, to claim that is our true, authentic tradition.
We have to start by seeing what we are simultaneously at
present, warts and all. This also naturally includes all that
surrounds us in its present heterogeneous, hybrid glory.
To address the second question of conservative or
progressive, one can look to nature for inspiration. Analogies
have been drawn between genes (genetic information that
replicates itself) and memes (bits of cultural know-how
passed on from one generation to the next by imitation)).
Just as genes compete for selection, so do memes for
survival (Csiksenzentmihalyi 1996). Just as species evolve
through selection and genetic mutation, so do cultures
evolve through selection and innovation. Without getting
caught in the moral debate of whether survival of the
fittest applies in the case of cultural selection, one can
instead learn from the fact that nature does not entirely wipe
out less evolved life forms in favor of more evolved ones.
If that was the case, the planet would have been overrun by
the apes. In other words, monopoly, whether in life-forms,
ideas or practices does not seem to be sustainable in the
long run. The real miracle of nature is in spite of ceaseless
competition, there exists a dynamic web of co-existence
and interdependence where complex life forms depend on
relatively simpler life forms and vice versa.
214
In nature, life forms constantly adapt themselves to

changing contexts to survive and if these changes occur too
rapidly, they perish and so it is with cultures which cannot
adapt to changing conditions. As in nature, in culture too
pure strains are vulnerable to attack by disease and hybrid
ones are more robust. In history, very often the search
for collective cultural authenticity and purity has been
driven by anxiety about self-identity and has led to denial,
stagnation, and violent acts of cleansing.
What sets human beings apart is that we are blessed (or
cursed) with a conscious awareness of the choice of our
memes while other life forms (at least so we think) merely
follow the genetic program. In fact here is where education
plays a critical role. An ideal education would be that which
passes on the relevant memes to the learner, while making
the individual acutely conscious and aware of that inherent
sense of choice. It would foster criticality (Crysler 1995)
about what to stop, what to start and what to continue
from tradition and the norm. It would encourage self reflection, awareness and compassion for the other. Real
education would be a transaction of empowerment, not
enslavement.
There have been debates on the nature of knowledge
and knowing and that has led to many philosophies and
theories. The primary debate has been whether knowledge
exists outside the self (objectivist) and is passively
absorbed by the self or is it actively constructed by the self
(constructivist). The following table (Fig.1) explains the two
radically different approaches further.
If the above table is reminiscent of the classic binary division
of left brain Vs right brain, and therefore an either-or
argument, it isnt. The objectivist idea of knowledge
corresponded to our earlier understanding of the human
brain as a processor of random, independent bits of
information. This mechanistic model has been replaced by
our present understanding which indicates that the brain
is a creator and sustainer of patterns which are based on
a sequence of our lived experience. It has been found that
we can only know something through something that
we know already. The most recent neurological research
has established that the anatomy of the human brain
does correspond to a large extent as postulated by the
constructivists (Zull 2002).
If all learning indeed involves this subjectivity of the self ,
does it mean that objectivist approach is better suited to
science subjects? How are we to transfer existing canons
and theories that have developed and evolved over centuries
of human experience and thought? Interestingly, research
indicates that even scientific principles are ultimately
internalized and assimilated by learners though a process
of active construction (Zull 2002).
This fundamental breakthrough in the understanding of
how humans learn begs a corresponding paradigm shift in
the educational process; from that of instruction to that of
facilitating knowledge construction; pedagogy that helps
learners relate to an existing body of knowledge through
their personal experience while nurturing their innate sense
of enquiry, intelligence and imagination. Constructivist
approach therefore seems to be more appropriate to
fulfilling the true purpose of education mentioned earlier.
In the objectivist approach, the equation of power and
authority is heavily tilted in the teachers favor. It does not
OBJECTIVIST
CONSTRUCTIVIST
One correct way to structure world in terms of

properties, entities and relations
Many ways to structure the world, determined by

experience and interpretations of the learner
No prior knowledge or experience required. Prior

knowledge might cloud understanding
New knowledge is built on prior knowledge and

experience
Meaning is external to the learner and is independent

of the understanding of the learner
Meaning is imposed on the world by us and is indexed

by experience
Knowledge can be fragmented into specialized

categories
Knowledge is integrated and proceeds from simple

wholes to complex wholes
UNIVERSAL: Regardless of self, time or place
CONTEXTUAL: Rooted in self, time and place
TEACHER CENTERED
LEARNER CENTERED
Fig. 1 (source: http://www.personal.psu.edu/txl166/kb/theory/obj_con.html)
encourage multiple perspectives, and neither does it foster

self- reflection; in fact it neutralizes the learners. For the
purposes of critically examining self, culture or tradition,
the objectivist approach to education has been found to be
too canonical, universalized and therefore clumsy.
All discussion on education within the objectivist frame of
reference is naturally restricted to syllabus and curriculum,
implying that merely restructuring the content automatically
translates into effective education. With new developments
in knowledge or techniques, more and more subjects
simply get added without ever bothering to know how is it
all to be integrated in the learner. It is hoped of course that
it would all happen automatically. Perhaps we need to pay
more attention to how we teach what we teach i.e., worry
less about defining the ideal knowledge of architecture and
worry more about architecture of knowledge; the process
of how is architectural knowledge acquired, assimilated,
integrated and applied in the real world. The best knowledge
would be how to learn so that it remains a self-sustained,
life-long project for the learner.
Unfortunately, Architectural Education in India, like
all other education for that matter, seems to be cast and
continues to function ostrich like in the objectivist mode.
It treats all learners as empty vessels (Crysler 1995) and
does not seek to engage with the learners selves and
lived experience. Instead culture, tradition and history are
projected as exotic, external, fixed concepts, represented by
important dates and iconic monuments. This distancing of
our daily lived experience and the educational process has
created a catastrophic chasm between our academic nevernever world and the real world.
In order to understand this remoteness it is important
here to subject the culture of architectural education
in the country to some scrutiny. The first fundamental
issue is our attitude to knowledge itself. The Brahminical
notion of knowledge as exclusively accessible to a select
few, and learning as repeating rituals mechanically after
the master without asking questions bestows enormous,
unilateral power to the teacher (Eck 83). This equation is
one of learners absolute reverence and prostration to the

unquestioned authority of knowledge, which is met by a
stoical aloofness by the Guru. The atelier model is useful
for learning by observation and imitation of the master
but does not systemically encourage self-enquiry, criticality
or reflexivity.
Secondly, this pattern of supplication and aloofness is played
out again in the administration of architectural education
(Menon 2001); from the lower most rungs of hierarchy of
our over-bureaucratized colleges and universities, right up
to the regulatory authorities and ministries. This mindless
recourse to endless set of blanket rules and procedures in
the face of diverse ground realities has been ascribed to
imperial British rule and the postcolonial aftermath (Nair
2002).
The third layer to this pattern of authority and aloofness has
to do with the idea of the profession as a technocracy. With
the import of modernism soon after independence and the
many foreign or foreign-trained architects being patronized
by the government and the private sector (Chatterjee 1985),
the all round message seemed to be to forget the past and
listen to the new experts. Bauhaus stood for the promise
of Nehruvian socialistic ideals but came with its own
problems. The architect was seen as a creative, individual
genius, totally self-absorbed, aloof, and speaking an abstract
language that only other architects could understand.
The movement of Modernism treats histories and cultures
as blank slates on which anything new could be written
(Hurtt 2002). This alienation from culture in the garb of
objectivity continues to be all pervasive in contemporary
architectural education in India (Mazumdar 1993). The
aloofness reflects in the manner in which architectural
problems are framed in the design studio (as self-referential
puzzle- solving exercises involving only a site plan and a
building program, without reference to contexts), transacted
between tutors and learners (over the shoulder, tacit,
instructional desk-crits) and evaluated (browbeating juries
that destroy self-esteem of learners (Doidge et als 2000).
215
To sum up, the three Bs that come in the way of our critical
immersion and intelligent response to tradition seem to be
the Brahminical notion of esoteric knowledge, aloofness of
Babudom and Bauhaus induced cultural amnesia. All three
assume a universal authority that undermines the learners,
their lived experience and their diverse learning contexts.
Each of these three syndromes is damaging enough by
itself, but in combination they seem to reinforce and feed
each other in a self-stoking manner.
If the issue of diverse traditions and cultures is to be
addressed in our architectural education, it is essential
that these assumptions of power be first dismantled and
devolved from our system and that we actually start engaging
with the learners as though they mattered. They are not
empty vessels but living repositories of our diverse culture
who are struggling to construct meaningful lives in a fast
changing world. However, one has to tread with caution
that in our eagerness to overthrow existing institutions
and introduce sweeping reforms as it only replaces one
authority with another, as all earlier failed revolutions have
shown in history. Instead it would be wise as educators to
become aware of these layers of authority and aloofness
that lie within our own psyches and first address them at a
personal, individual level.
To conclude on a constructive- (ist ?) note, it is suggested
for discussion and dialogue that the above ideas, when
translated in to actual practice and policies in architectural
education, could mean that we stop, start and continue
the following from the present:
Stop !
Projecting culture and history only as static concepts
represented by iconic monuments, but also demonstrate
them as continuities in contemporary practice
Following linear process of case study + analysis +
synthesis = design in the design studio
Relying on disconnected episodic learning experiences
that do not add up
Underestimating learners ability to handle complexity
Concentrating only on geniuses. Instead reform
pedagogy to improve overall average competence levels
Exclusive access to architectural education, only to
English-science-math-urban backgrounds
Imposing centralized, all sweeping bureaucratic norms
on educational policies based on culture of mistrust
Start !
Making content and skills more relevant to the learner,
based on contemporary realities
Using authentic rather than hypothetical situations for
learning
Becoming critically aware of architectural memes that
are being passed on and their contemporary relevance
Making learning process more experiential, reflexive,
cyclical, and sequentially coherent
Adopting explicit, transparent and transformative
teaching methods
Routing understanding of culture and history through
the selves of learners, involving personal speculation
and imagination
Exploring better methodological tools to understanding
216
culture at undergraduate level

Communicating to the learners the joy of making aha
connections between specialized knowledge categories
Restoring learners trust in everyday lived experience as
valid source of learning and production of new theories
Making the evaluative process transparent to inform
further learning rather than as judgment
Continue
To present contemporary architectural problems in all
their complexity of contexts; physical, personal, social,
historical, economic, environmental
To engage consistently with the question of tradition,
modernity and transformation throughout education
To actively encourage multiple perspectives and peer
dialogue amongst learners
To provoke individual introspection, enquiry and
encourage independent judgment; Make learners self
motivated, self aware and self regulatory
To proactively encourage diversity of approaches in
various institutions in their definition of educational
contexts and pursuit of quality
To document and share such diverse teaching-learning
experiences
To have more forums of dialogue like this
References:
Journals and papers:
1. Crysler, C, G. (1995), Critical Pedagogy and Architectural
Education, Journal of Architectural Education, Vol. 48,
No. 4, p. 208-217
2. Doidge, C. et al. (2000), The Crit, Oxford: Architectural
Press
3. Mazumdar, S. (1993), Cultural Values in Architectural
Education: An Example from India, Journal of Architectural
Education, Vol.46, No.4, p. 230-238
4. Menon, A.G.K. (2001), Reforming Architectural
Education: The Role of Experimentation, Seminar on
Architectural Education in India, Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi
Institute of Architecture and Environmental Studies,
January 4, 5, Mumbai
5. Salama, A, M. (2005), Skill based/ Knowledge based
Architectural Pedagogies: An argument for creating Humane
Environments, 7th Intl. Conference on Humane HabiateICHH-05- The International Association of Humane
Habitat IAHH, Rizvi College of Architecture, Mumbai
Books:
6. Chatterjee, M. (1985), The Evolution of Contemporary
Indian Architecture, Architecture in India: Festival of India
exhibition publication, Electa, Paris, p. 124-126
7. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996), Creativity; Flow and the
Psychology of discovery and invention,
8. Eck, D.L (1983), Banaras: City of Light, Penguin Books,
New Delhi
9. Hurtt S.W. (2002), Seven Myths of Modern Architecture,
Windsor Forum on Design Education, Windsor, Florida,
p. 25
10. Nair, R.B, (2002), Lying on the Postcolonial Couch:

The Idea of Indifference, Introduction, Oxford University
Press, New Delhi
11. Zull, J. (2002), The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching
the Practice of Teaching by Exploring the Biology of
Learning, Stylus Publishing, LLC
Websites:
12. http://www.personal.psu.edu/txl166/kb/theory/obj_
con.html), ( Retrieved on June 12, 2005 )
217
Tradition And Contextual Relevance

For Education In Architecture And
Urbanism
INTBAU India
This Panel Discussion was held as part of the sub theme
on Sustainable Buildings on 13th January 2007 during
the International Conference on New Architecture and
Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions. It was a
dialogue on the modernist bend of current architectural
education and studio tools, while attempting to formulate
possible alternatives to ensure the simultaneous
understanding of Context, Continuity and Construction.
It sought to bridge the gap between Romantic notions in
teaching traditional approaches and the realities of current
professional practice, and understand the implications of
standardisation in architectural education to bring about
order and quality assurance. It was also an attempt to facilitate
a link between Architectural and Planning education and
community participation in place-making to help create true
community leaders rather than just sculptor architects.
The Panelists
Kulbhushan Jain (Chair of the session)
Architect and Faculty,
Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology,
Ahmedabad
Narendra Dengle
Architect,
Pune
M.N. Joglekar
Director,
Vastukala Academy, New Delhi
Suneet Paul
Editor,
Architecture + Design magazine, New Delhi
K.T. Ravindran
Dean of Studies & Professor, Urban Design,
While we do not want tradition to become a heavy baggage

that we have to carry, we also cannot close our eyes to it.
This discussion would, hopefully, be able to address this
issue from a perspective which is acceptable, logical and
which does not curb todays aspirations either. It would
perhaps also make it more relevant to the context in which
we are working without becoming stylistically retrograde.
Narendra Dengle:
Tradition has to be understood under three heads, namely philosophical, crafts and visual. If we look at the architecture
of any civilization it would have all the above mentioned
traditions. To develop these three traditions one would have
to work on each of them individually without losing the
perspective of how they link with each other. We cannot
simply say that only a certain crafts tradition is to be revived,
as this process needs to incorporate the other two as well.
Secondly, while talking about the styles, the crafts or the
techniques of construction, a particular art form or artifact
is associated with a particular religion or faith. We need to
see how we can traverse from a culture of religions to a
culture of sensibilities. This approach would bring us to the
geography of sensibilities. When we discuss regionalism
or critical regionalism, what is the kind of region that
we are talking about- is it still a political region, a wider
political region or a region made up of the neighboring
countries? Perhaps we need to understand and decode
the region of sensibilities, the geography of sensibilities.
And thirdly, in a pluralistic society that we are talking
about, we have to encourage different ways of looking
at architecture. We have to have plural ways of
looking at architecture and develop suitable new ideas.
Prof. M.N. Joglekar:
Rather than exclusively dwelling on the philosophical aspect
and concentrating on just how to teach in the design studios,
we have to look at it from a much wider perspective. But,
the approach isnt necessarily just by means of a syllabus
review etc. Looking into the context of our subject of
discussion, well also have to address the issue of what
else and not just how to teach it in the design studio.
Suneet Paul:
Prof. Kulbhushan Jain:

In the field of architectural education, a lot of work is
carried out by institutions particularly on field trips which
are primarily to historical sites. The Louis Kahn Trophy is
an award presented for historic studies being conducted
by various schools. This is an enormous work which has
been going on for the last twenty years. Approximately
50-60 presentations are created every year and we need
to see how these can be better integrated into the overall
educational fabric. These studies need not turn into a
basis for design work by students and is not an effort to
revert back to the method of designing as was prevalent
during historic times. In architectural education, one is
not pushing to create replicas of traditional elements like
the Rajput chhatris- an element which Lutyens describes
as ridiculous while discussing the Indian Traditional
Factor. Instead, we have been part of a large pluralistic
system where the approach is free and unconstrained.
Therefore, to revert to a system which would just take
us back in time is not the idea in architectural education.
218
In looking at reviving traditional practices in construction

and design process, it needs appreciation that in spite
of us being a developing nation and having absorbed so
many foreign influences, Indian architecture has been able
to retain some kind of a balance between modernity and
traditional beliefs. India is still more than 60% rural and
we have not yet felt the pangs of urbanization, leave alone
the pangs of globalization. This is because one cannot
interpret globalization simply as just glass boxes developing
all around, but as a process also connected to the fast pace
of urbanization. India being a developing nation now
also absorbs and appreciates that pace of development.
It is another matter that the developed nations have
already gone through this process and currently, their
concern is primarily the gigantic energy over consumption
issue, an issue which has become global to some extent.
But contextualizing the situation in India, we have
been able to strike a kind of a balance, the credit for
which goes to our system and its influences, like the
madrassas, the pathshalas and the colonial universities. This

emulates how in summers we wear light T-shirts but in
winters we have to clad ourselves in warmer clothing,
and is a continual process of contextualizing oneself.
In terms of architectural education, there exists plenty of
reading material in our libraries on western and modern
architecture but not on traditional Indian architecture.
The process of Documentation is of prime importance
if we are genuinely concerned about reviving traditional
methodologies of construction. Currently, there is hardly any
documentation available on traditional methodologies except
for a few stray books on the science of Vaastu. Besides that,
neither any genuine construction method nor any design
approach exists as a document which can be referenced.
The second issue points to the awareness of and discussions
on reviving traditional methodologies. It is not just students,
but the faculty in architecture schools as well, who need
sensitization. Only if they themselves believe in traditional
sensibilities, will they percolate through to the students.
The faculty in schools can also make a vast difference at
their own personal level. For the purpose of academic
improvements, though we usually talk about big changes
in the curriculum , individual faculty effort is as important.
For e.g. places like the Anangpur Building Centre where
cost efficient traditional design systems are taught could
be taken up for generating appropriate lessons. And there
are many others but lesser known centres. This is one way
in which students can be attuned to looking at appropriate
alternative methodologies for construction. It is important
to also note that while there may be architects like Hafeez
Contractor, who can be said to perpetuate glass boxes,
there are other architects like Gerard da Cunha, Brinda
Somaya and others who maintain a balance with tradition
and showcase important lessons for future practitioners.
as to make it more culturally oriented. Basic Design was

originally developed in the west, to bring arts & crafts
closer to industrial technology. This exercise, since the
Bauhaus, primarily addresses this factor and continues to
do so even today in most institutions of architecture. The
skills of observation of the society, nature and culture can
be brought into this. These skills of interpretation and
decoding perception are very critical to basic design studies.
S. Badrinarayanan:
There is an anxiety of identity in society which also
reflects in our architects. We need to find various
ways and innovative means for the transformation
and translation of our local identities to global. At
the same time, we need to understand and appreciate
our regional individuality from a global point of view.
Shashi Mesapam:
Students aspirations for design are synonymous with
doses of self expression. This is a significant issue that
needs to be addressed as well, in order to understand
the psyche of the student and guide him towards
being a more responsible and conscientious architect.
Prof. Kulbhushan Jain:
Though, it is undisputedly a must to address the philosophical
aspect of the issue, we need to also take an activist approach
to bring an understanding and appreciation of the tradition
to the students. This does not mean that tradition is
something that we need to chain ourselves to. With a deep
rooted understanding of the same, we also need to imbibe
models of architectural education followed elsewhere.
This is the age of information and to face such problems
one needs to be prepared for a variety of influences.
Prof. K.T. Ravindran:

At one level it seems that tradition is something which is
dead, or has been left behind and something needs to be
done to revive it from its comatose state. This is hardly
the case. Tradition is alive in this very moment, in every
pulse of every individual and we are the continuity of that
tradition. In fact, it is in our response that it is vested. With
this underlying idea of tradition, we can examine how
architectural education in our country has continuously
eroded that vibrant quality which is present in our traditions.
This quality perhaps cannot be compartmentalized or
counter pointed with modernity as modernity is not the
monopoly of any particular line of thinking or culture.
In fact, modernity is a very natural phenomena and a
natural expression of life which is continuously changing.
Basic Design is a fundamentally skewed approach in
our education. Architectural education currently has
a strong design bias within a modernist frame, with
too much emphasis on form making. It is a pity that
we are not learning from the city, which is the biggest
laboratory for architects and planners. This education
seems to be trapped in morphological structuralism.
Commercialism is rampant all around us, the society
is in disjunction with nature and the profession seems
to have been taken over by the manufacturing lobby.
Narendra Dengle:
Basic Design, as is being taught, needs different inputs so
219
Continuing Traditions in
New Architecture and Urbanism:
Case studies in Form Making
Building Construction And Decorative

Crafts: The Endangered Traditions
concentrate on bringing to fore the Processes that made

these Products, worthy of being a part of Indias cultural
heritage.
Nimish Patel & Parul Zaveri

Architects- Abhikram, Ahmedabad
The above premise, in understanding the underlying

principles of the architecture of our historic settlements,
is based on the inferences drawn by the authors, over past
27 years of their design practice, with work concentration
in Rajasthan.
The Case and the Premise:

We believe that the continuity of all our relevant cultural
traditions is a responsibility every Indian has to live up to.
Some of these traditions are reflected in the wide range
of decorative as well as construction crafts, demonstrated
amply in our built heritage.
In fact, a large number of our traditional craftspersons,
with their vast and immense wealth of knowledge, about
the understanding and use of traditional materials, crafts
and technologies, remain one of the most valuable, and yet
the most under utilised, resources of India.
In the past decade or so, the directions of contemporary
Indian architecture, and those of the living & continuing
traditions of architecture have been questioned, by many
design practices in the country. They have raised the
general awareness levels about our built heritage, amongst
the professionals of architecture and its related fields, as
well as amongst the people at large.
We believe it is extremely important to take this
understanding, a step forward in the practice, as well as in
the resultant actions. So far, the professionals in the field
have been able to project the Products as a significant
part of our heritage. Now it is essential to support and also
Traditional details blended with contemporary processes
The paper attempts to present one of the perspectives of

the contemporary Indian architecture movement, which
recognises the importance of the cultural heritage, accepts
its role & relevance in the present context, supports the
need for its continuity, and discusses the issues involved as
well as the possible directions of efforts.
Indias rich built heritage
Continuing Traditions in New Architecture and Urbanism: Case Studies in Form Making
223
Before (above) and after (right) images of Conservation work in Amber, Rajasthan
The Contention:
Universally, most of the efforts to conserve the Architectural
Heritage have focused extensively on the protection of the
Products, and has ignored the Processes which made
the Products worthy of being a part of the Heritage. This
disproportionate attention has resulted in the near extinction
of the Processes. Many such Processes, still surviving in
India, are also heading for extinction, more a result of the
lack of their use than of any other reason. They embody
as well as represent the wealth of a body of knowledge,
which is neither fully documented, nor documentable &
will disappear as a result of lack of its use. This knowledge
is as much part of our Heritage, as its Products that we
call Heritage.
There is an urgent and an important need to recognize
that there exists and continues to exist even today:
A vast body of knowledge encompassing the
understanding of the wide range of construction
materials and technologies evolved and developed over
centuries, and carried from one generation to the next
one, through the capabilities and skills of the traditional
craftspersons.
Communities, which specialized in, and developed,
the crafts that covered all aspects of the design and the
implementation of the Built Environment.
This invaluable asset is rapidly disappearing and warrants
immediate attention. The responsibility primarily rests
with all of us, who are connected with the processes of the
Built Environment. Unless we focus our attention towards
generating employment for the skills of these traditional
craftspersons, through our design projects, the craft is likely
to disappear soon. Its time we woke up to the needs of the
craftspersons to find employment, only then will the vast
body of knowledge and our cultural heritage survive.
224
The Process (below) is as much a part of our Heritage as the Product

(above)
An Understanding:
As an active practice, we have attempted to achieve these
objectives through a varied range of craft dominated
projects. Towards this cause we have tried to develop an
understanding of crafts, and realised that:
Crafts were integral to and integrated with the design
and construction processes.
Crafts enhanced the value of the products.
The use of crafts increased the options of creating
greater variations in design.
Crafts are highly developed skills, through centuries
of understanding of the long term behaviour of the
materials, the environment and the methods of using
them judiciously for all our needs.
These skills are genetically inherited and developed
from a very early age. They cannot be learnt through
present education processes.
Crafts were integral to Architecture almost till the end
of the Art Deco period, and have begun to disappear
more rapidly from the Modern Movement period.
They have resurfaced recently, but more as articulation
and fashion rather than integral to the design processes
of architecture.
The Attempts and its Processes:
As Indians, we felt it was our responsibility to work
towards ensuring the continuity of this wealth, this body of
knowledge, and the continuity can only be ensured through
the increased use of the crafts and skills in the contemporary
context. We therefore felt that all our actions must lead to
increased use of the traditional crafts and skills resulting
in employment generation of traditional craftsmen. We
were unable to do this because we were the products of
our education system which does very little to increase
our familiarity with our materials and our craftsmen. We
needed a change in approach because there is a difference in
the sequences of thoughts, decision making and execution,
between the traditional and contemporary processes. Our
present understanding of these sequences did not work
if we wanted to increase and integrate the use of crafts
in design. We needed to change our perspective and our
mindset.
225
From our learning and experiences we drew a few inferences

or decisions that were inevitable to this process. They were:
We removed the hat of an architect we were wearing,
and became human beings again, so as to develop a better
understanding of architecture.
We understood that the strength of architecture of India
was in the anonymity of its architect. All our buildings must
reflect the personality/aspirations of the owner, not ours.
We must bury our ego deep in the ground and work
with greater humility to promote the notion of collective
responsibility, as against individual freedom.
We accepted that the craftspersons had more knowledge
than we did, about the use of traditional materials in
contemporary context.
We understood that for the knowledge to flow from
the giver to the receiver, the giver has to be on a higher
plateau than the receiver, both literally and figuratively.
We did not need to train the craftspersons, they were
already trained. But we needed to retrain and re-educate
ourselves.
As seen in traditions, we also decided to offer opportunity
for creative inputs at all levels of implementation and not
restrict it to the design studios of our office only.
We insisted on going to the craftspersons, not the
reverse, to accord them the respect they deserve and
command.
The above inferences and decisions have remained with us
since, and constitute the basis of most of our designs and
decision making processes. They also reflect in the case
study.
226
The Case study: The Oberoi Udaivilas, a traditional

crafts dominated contemporary resort at Udaipur.
The Oberoi Udaivilas, a newly built heritage resort at
Udaipur, demonstrates the beliefs and convictions of
our design practice, in attempting to find for the new
developments in historic settlements, an appropriate balance
between continuity with the past without fossilising it and
a change for the future without making it incongruent with
its contextual surroundings.
227
228
The project generated through its design and implementation

processes, employment for more than 300 traditional
craftspersons, with specialised skills covering numerous
traditional crafts, for a period exceeding 3 years. This has
been achieved without compromising with the needs and
conveniences of the 21st century, with blending the use of
State of the Art technologies, and by maximising the use of
local traditional materials, technologies and crafts.
229
The project, recently voted as the 3rd best hotel in the

world by Travel + Leisure, represents one of the possible
emerging directions for contemporary Indian architecture,
in and around our historic settlements.
230
Reflections On The Narrative Of

Place: The Infinite Conversation
Rasem Badran
Architect- Dar Al Omran, Amman, Jordan
This essay focuses on three topics. First, the pre-architecture
process explaining the stages which shaped my compatibility
and understanding of my surroundings. Second, the
paradigm of the design process and finally, actual examples
of the work done by Dar Al Omran in the past few years.
PRE ARCHITECTURE:
Growing up in an environment which encouraged great
respect for any expression of art, especially the Islamic,
helped develop an understanding of rural culture. It helped
widen my perspective towards understanding the difference
between rural culture, with its complete untouchable sense
of definition, and the urban civil environment, with its
details within the refined elements. The many cities I lived
in shaped my lifestyle pattern and guided me towards the
infinite area of design. Beethovens music was the reason
behind studying in Germany where I initially dabbled in
aeronautics. Later I decided to move from the aerial context
to the earthly context of buildings.
As my study period in Europe coincided with the students
reformation movement there, we rebelled against the
long incumbent academic concepts and learnt the value
of freedom of speech and the need for activism. In my
analysis and vision opposition to the set systems by defying
the boundaries was important in creating unencumbered
design.
Nevertheless, academic life in Germany helped develop
new frontiers in terms of ideas and models for designing
man-made environments and also in fact, in art and music.
Direct contact with prominent practitioners like Yona
Freedman, Stockhausen and others helped in a big way and
put my thoughts in direct contradiction to the prevalent
thought processes of the time. I was also involved, at
that time, in the well recognized architectural complex at
Munichs Olympic Stadium.
1. Time:
Architecture as an evidence of time reveals the hidden
aspects of any culture. Our understanding of time is not
necessarily static (numeric-constant) but also dynamic
(cosmic-variable). It constitutes the Modes, by which we
define the continuity of space accordingly (the memory).
2. Place:
Our understanding of architectural space, in its spatial
definition is organic and vital (human) and not only
geometric (mechanical repetitive). It earns its significance
through mans intervention. It brings un-programmed
events to surface, which evokes human awareness through
activating what is called The Social Urban Fabric.
3. Man:
Man, being a composer and receiver, has the ability to
compose new meanings and create events, by producing
an intimate zone within the Urban Fabric, generating a
dynamic Human Urbanism (vitality).
Space creation- in a field by a marriage procession
PARADIGM:
The Narrative of place is initiated with an understanding
of its characteristics which leads to the formulation
of a Narrative of events related to it. It is a product of
coexistence between man and place, which is constantly
changing over time.
Space creation- by the man by just being there
Through this tripartite interrelationship (Time, Place and

Man), the places coexistence can be perceived by the
continuous dialogue between what is called symbiosis and
suggestive narratives which is provoked through intuition.
1) Symbiosis:
Being in Symbiosis, evokes the understanding of the space
of probability, which is initiated through the coexistence
of opposites and different phenomenon and time spans. It
generates the continuum of human urban events.
2) Suggestive Narrative:
Change over time: Stadium converted to a praying ground in Riyadh
It is the ambiguity that leads to continuous accumulative

creativity. It is exposed to all probabilities and readings. It is
the non-linear/indefinite, which produces the chaotic
231
behavior of the fractal. It differs from the linear order

(Euclidian definite). The outcome, therefore, reflects
harmony in non-homogeneous diversity, generating a
continuous changing field condition, which provokes
human curiosity and participation.
3) Intuition:
Intuition is the ability to visualize a places hidden qualities,
and to predict through a serial narrative within the culture.
It is a method of thinking which leads to the understanding
of Symbiosis in relationship with the Suggestive Narrative.
This can be comprehended through questions like who
are we, where are we and how we behave etc.
WHO, - is the spiritual and psychological content which is
embraced by the culture of the place, through the following
visions:
It is the collective mind, which transcends the physical
domain of the sacred in space and time.
Values, which are enhanced by the spiritual relationship
between man and his creator (production constitutes an
act of worshipping).
These spiritual values produce levels of contemplation
about the MACRO COSMOS and MICRO COSMOS
(The Instinct)
It is achievable through the Third Eye which contrasts
between Az-Zaher (The Manifest) and Al-Batin (The
Hidden). (Metaphorical)
It is a level of comprehension in which the macro and
the micro act harmoniously together. (Enrichment)
It is the mind, which transforms the simple abstract
image to a volumetric one; it is the Dialogue between the
surface and the spatial. (Creation)
It is the mind which interprets living phenomenon into
an abstract expression, which links beauty, meaning and
clarity together. (Abstraction)
This produces celebrative expression, which transforms
reality into abstractions. (Transformations)
It is envisioning the universal nature, which adds a
sense of variability to the nearby physical, and to the far
removed metaphysical. (Contemplation)
It is the energy that stimulates and activates human
intelligence (Innovations)
It is the energy (light) with which man and all living
beings engage in a dialogue. (Intuition)
The dialogue between traditional and contemporary,

the tangible and intangible, reality and fantasy
The shifting from rural to urban and the co-existence
of both
Craftsmanship juxtaposed to technology.
This dialogue evokes human creation to generate the living
space.
HOW, - is materialized through the interaction between
WHO, WHERE and WHEN, which leads us to continuous
events and addition. It is acknowledged through the inherited
accumulative values, visions and perceptions in achieving
a physical statement of the man made environment in
the MICRO as well as in the MACRO scale through the
following categorization of the living space and fabric:
In the Macro scale:
Street pattern (the urban fabric) (the Social Tissues)
Urban morphologies (Cosmic Skin)
Urban elements
Transformations (spaces of sequential orders Humanizing the experience of open spaces)
Gates (sense of privacy which maintains the social
bonds)
Al Amin Mosque, Beirut- initial sketches analysing the contextual, social,

sacred and cosmic aspects
WHERE, - searches for the spirit of the place and its

behavioral patterns, through the following observations:
The sunny and the shaded
The humid and the arid
The coast and the plain
High and Low
Cool and Warm
WHEN, - is the question of time and its evolution, which
is dominated by what and how
WHAT, - is the act of consciousness and predetermination,
which defines an approach to the universal phenomena. It
is:
The tendency towards the communal versus the
cellular.
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Harmony between the urban tissue and the built structure- sketch juxtoping
the King Abdul Aziz Historic Centre with its surroundings
Building (left) or train? (right) - The industrialization of Living
In the Micro Scale:

To sense the place (the enclosure of the introverted)
and the living wall (art of the surface) (Visible)
The spherical roof (the art of natural light)
Science in building - sound waves (the art of sound)
Technology (the art of Weight)
- Domes (metaphysical) - the cosmic approach
- Walls (physical) - logic of the material
- Ecology (the art of natural wind) (invisible)
- Human intervention (climatic treatment wind
towers ventilation towers)
- Breathing skin + garden
The creation of a memorable and valuable space is

an outcome of the cultural, environmental and social
interactions in the Micro scale, with its sensitivity and
spirituality. This is in symbiosis with the Macro scale with
its cosmic knowledge (context). This is what the Islamic
civilization seeks by considering the Whole without denying
the Particular.
Looking back at what has occurred in the past 50 years, it is

annoying to discover that we are living in meaningless cities
built as temporary seasonal fairs replaced by other new
structures, to fulfill the demands of the consumers. This
has come at the expense of human coexistence and moral
values and his/her memories of the living space.
The Grand Mosque, Justice Palace, And Old City

Centre Redevelopment, Riyadh
The objective of presenting the following projects is to

bring to the surface the Urban Morphology developed in
any part of the work which represents the micro whole,
which in turn creates a balanced and homogeneous Macro
living fabric.
DESCRIPTION OF PROJECTS:
Acknowledged more for its role in urban development

than for its architectural quality, this project addressed
the problem of urban space in the centre of a modern
metropolis.
The Grand Mosque, Riyadh
233
The Grand Mosque- six years ago
People in the mosque square
The project intended to revitalize the centre of Riyadh in

addition to creating a contextual feeling within the buildings
in order to restore the energy present, devising a livable
human space that carries a defined history and awakens the
values and memories of an important historical place with
rich cultural, economic, social and political legacies. This
is articulated in the introduction of commercial use into
its program, where the variety of functions in the mosque
within represents a typical pattern in Muslim societies. The
objective was to integrate the mosque with the surroundings
in such a way that it becomes an active social place.
The project is composed of the Grand Mosque and
the Justice Palace, surrounded by an urban infill, which
constitutes of all kinds of retail functions and shops on
the lines of the traditional mosques in cities like Fas and
Marakesh. The complex demands of a new program on an
old site was met with a solution that responds to the local
lifestyle, climate, and physical surroundings, maintaining
the permanence of this sacred historic place in addition
to reaching harmony and balance between the spiritual,
intellectual, and material needs of the Muslim.
The spatial character and iconography of the project
provide a sense of continuity with the historical context,
and the reinterpretation of the language of traditional Najdi
architecture demonstrates a mastery of building techniques
and a deep understanding of the local culture. This is well
portrayed in the sensitive sequence of courtyards where a
modern urban complex is created while still retaining the
essence of its traditional frame.
References to the old mosque & the new interpretations
Interplay of light and shade, typical Usage defining the spaces in the
of Islamic architecture
mosque
The use of modern materials and technology, such as air

conditioning, is unobtrusive and does not detract from the
quiet sense of fluid sacredness penetrating the orderly
pillared grid of a mosque.
Justice Palace
234
It was awarded the Aga Khan award in 1995 for its great
impact in changing the social behavioral pattern of the
downtown city of Riyadh.
King Abdul Aziz Historic Centre, Riyadh
King Abdul Aziz Historic Centre, Riyadh (left), with its surroundings (right)
Conceptualised as a living museum which enhances the

cultural and the social value of the old fabric of the city
of Riyadh, this is one of the biggest buildings in the city.
A master plan was done after which architects from Saudi
Arabia, Canada and Japan shared the work. It consisted
of conservation works as well as the construction of
new buildings aiming to preserve the main historical
characteristics and features of the old buildings.
The project consists of three main parts clustered into a

traditional urban fabric of courtyards and narrow alleys.
1) The new Al-Darat building, consisting of the
administration building and museum, which responded to
the demolished old fabric of the city.
2) The second part: the renovated Al-Murabba Palace, and
the Treasury, which was housed in the renovated old mud
structure, revealing the tissue of the old mud quarters.
3) King Abdul Aziz Mosque which was reconstructed and
remodeled.
The project image was inspired by the architectural heritage
of Najd blended with a sensitive use of modern technology.
The design encourages a pedestrian culture within the
complex. The Remembrance of the place has been created
with an attempt to revoke the spirit of the place.
Remembrance of the place- the place (left) & its interpretation (right)
The art of shading- with natural and built elements
235
King Abdul Aziz Mosque, Al Kharj

This rural mosque represents the oasis morphology from
an environmental and spatial point of view. It illustrates
the simplicity and humble relationship between the mosque
and the surrounding community. It includes a retail area
and a vegetable market.
Interiors of the mosque
Interpreting the surrounding morphology: King Abdul Aziz Mosque, Al

Kharj (below)
Yarmouk University Central Library

It is one of the prominent buildings in Jordan. The concept
was built on the library as a micro-city, having different layers
of enclosures which interacts with the cosmic changes (light
and shade). In addition, it breaks the stereotypical image of
conventional library enclosures
Yarmouk University Central Library (above); view (left)
Souq Abu Dhabi

Interestingly, this market is also called the Indian market.
This was an attempt to create a city within a city resulting in
a climatically oriented fabric that uses the passive energy and
technology supported by the concept of the tent structure.
The whole faade as well as the roof have been climatically
designed to suit the traditional climate.
236
Design sketch- View of the traditional market at Abu Dhabi
Design sketch- Interior view
View showing the climatically designed facade and roof
Design sketch analysing the ecological and climatic order of the traditional buildings (left) & its interpretation in the market complex (right)
The aim was to provide an architecture that reflects the

rich heritage of souks and marketplaces in this part of the
world, honours the culture of the people and becomes a
focus for them.
237
Tradition As An Expression Of Time

K.T. Ravindran
Architect & Dean of Studies- SPA, Delhi
Architecture is as much a continuum of time as the
manifestation of time as space and form. Tradition is not
merely the fossilized remains of a previous time which need
to be revived or used in a formalistic way. Tradition exists as
fragments of the memory of a land; it is in the psyche of
every individual. Our country has always been in a sandstorm
of these memories, each particle having encapsulated within
it generations of knowledge and culture. The act of design,
in terms of tradition, is a collision of these elements and
their consequent coalescence to create something new.
A new thing means something that is not resistant to
change- which is, in fact, defined by time. However much
one may try to freeze time in the forms that one creates,
time moves through the inner spaces, into the psyche of
the user. The act of design involves creating spaces that
are not resistant to change; which are willing to move with
time; which are, in fact defined by time. The form is just
an envelope that modulates the experiential flow. The
following two projects talk about such architecture. They
Fig 1: Lakshadweep
238
are the result of the cumulative consciousness of a group

of people working on them for years and therefore, defined
by their ideas and psyche.
Jawaharlal Nehru
Lakshadweep
Junior
College,
Kadmat,
Located in the Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep is a group of 36

islands half a kilometre wide and about 10-11 kilometres
long. The people of these islands have been living here
for almost 1200-1300 years. Ninety four percent of
the population is Islamic and exists in groups of close
communities.
The islands are surrounded by the sea and the lagoons
with no fresh water sources. The only source of water
is the rain and the sweet water lens that is formed below
the white sandstone layer below the sand, with a greater
concentration at the northern tips of the island (Fig. 2). If
too much water is extracted at a time, the sweet water lens
would be permanently mixed with the sea water.
The extremely fragile physical environment and the tradition
bound ancient Islamic society of the islands has generated
an equally delicate architecture. The traditional language of
the islands is a direct response to the immediate environment
and the Islamic building traditions of coastal Kerala.
In response to the fragile balance of nature, the following

10 significant design decisions were incorporated:
Water intensive in-situ concreting is minimized.
Materials brought in from the mainland
Paving and hard-surfacing minimized
Two parallel water systems. Salt water provided for
toilets. Organised water harvesting systems
Treated sewage not permitted to go into sub-soil strata
Building located to save every tree
Buildings located behind tree cover, with roof heights
below tree cover
No roads and paved paths- open sand access to
buildings
Compound walls are avoided wherever possible
To resist high wind velocity, 33 to 35 degrees slope for
tile roofs
The architectural expression of the project is that of a
cultural specific design which blends into the existing social
fabric of the place and its people. Traditional form as
configuration links the campus to the settlement. Traditional
form enhances the sense of belonging in a society and, at
the same time is instrumental in negotiating change.
Water Table
Ocean
Fresh Water
Lagoon
Zone of Mixture
Salt Water
Fig 2: Water table situation in Lakshadweep
Fig 3: Traditional form holds hand with the foliage in a collective dance
Fig 4: Traditional form as configuration links the campus to the settlement
Fig 5: Traditional form defines interiority and movement of light
239
The buildings are organized randomly, without paved paths,

to protect the contiguous visual character of the land and
extend the visual experience of the settlement. Tightly
designed individual buildings are scattered in the landscape,
unconnected by pathways or roads, merging with the
landscape. The campus consists of two separate clusters,
seamlessly connected to the adjoining land and water. To
conserve scarce land, most buildings are two-storied though
their rooflines are well below the tree canopy. The buildings
are set back behind the tree cover from both the lagoon
and the sea edge so as not to mar the visual integrity of the
islands view for the approaching boats.
1. Principals Residence
2. Pavilion
3. Games
4. Curved Wall
5. Common Room
6. Dining
7. Kitchen
8. Girls Hostel
9. Dormitory
10. Admn./Library
11. Classroom/Lab
Fig 7: Site Plan- Cluster 1
Fig 9: Section
Fig 10: Traditional form connects the inner and the outer
240
1. Kitchen
2. Dining
3. Common Room
4. Reading Room
5. Table Tennis
6. Gymnasium
7. Wardens Residence
8. Boys Hostel
9. Dormitory
10. Veranda
Fig 6: Site Plan- Cluster 2
Fig 8: Traditional form modulates experiential flow
Antarbharati Sanskriti Kendra, Banabhatta Parisar,

Rewa, Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh, being surrounded by seven states has
cultural influences pouring in from all sides. Rewa is
located on a plateau that descends from the stone
hillocks called Suhaag Hills. The abundance of
sandstone in the region gives the project its expression
of materials, very different from that of the previous
one. The land still holds the ruins of stupas, which form
the major source of form. The rocks have on them,
rock paintings dating back thousands of years
Fig 11: Collective memory- Rock painting from the Suhaag hills
Fig 12: Sources of form- the land
The collective inheritance of five thousand years of history

informs the position on culture from a contemporary
standpoint. Inter communal equity is a central value in the
contemporary progressive mindset. The spontaneous power
of tribal art, and the studied intensity of the classical, both
have been brought together in an interactive relationship in
the form. It is this shared tradition that is evident through
American writer John G. Neihardts quote,
Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all and around
about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood
there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw:
for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the
spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one
being.
Fig. 13 captures the primarily colonial architecture of Rewa,
the erstwhile capital of the royal state of Rewa. Some of
the structures date back from the Buddhist era. The region
is very poor, the literacy rate is only around 36% and the
population is largely tribal; nevertheless, there exists a
strong culture of dance and performances.
The entry point to the site is based around a tree, which is
revered by the tribal people of the region. Fig. 14 shows
the ritualistic threads they have tied around it. The site has
a huge rock formation on which a part of the project is
located (Fig. 15). The first visit made to a site is significant.
It is a communion with the site, where one is not analysing
anything or coming up with ideas for the building. The time
that one spends at the initial stages at the site enters ones
psyche directly and it is through this that one is able to
relate to the place emotionally.
The project covers an area of ten acres, and like the
previous project, is government funded and built by the
PWDs. A multi-dimensional cultural centre spells diversity
in content, activity and form, telescoped into each other,
in that order. Architecture encompasses all three into a
mutually interactive whole.The plan is derived from the
Fig 13: Sources of form- architecture of the town
circular dance formation shown (Fig. 16). There are many

allusions to Buddhist and various dance forms in the design
of the complex. Fig. 18 depicts the direct interpretation of
the dance mudras into a plan. The limbs of the dancer turn
into inter-connecting corridors, the forms of the square
components acting as the bodies of the various functions.
The experiential flow of these spaces is a derivative of
the continuity of the intersecting corridors as well as the
stillness of the forms.
The dancer and actor define space by movement and sound
while being absolutely centred in the emotion. Repose
and vibrancy are simultaneously present in the act of
performing. The dancer/actor is communicating with the
self and the Other at the same time. Communication is the
key intent that informs the act; reaching out and stimulating
is the result of the act; multiplying rhythms of movements,
its modes.
The profile of the buildings is low and earth hugging,
but modulated as a skyline that is reminiscent of the rock
paintings and mountains that characterise the Bundelkhand
241
Fig 14: Sources of form- the site: the tree with ritualistic threads tied around
Fig 16: The circular dance formation
Fig 15: Sources of form- the site: the rock formation on the site
landscape (Fig. 19). The buildings are strung linearly, with

an external finish that is evocative of the nature of the site
and the locale. Beaten metal craft of the Agharia tribes
substitutes industrialised metalwork to create cast iron
colonial elements surrounding the building blocks and their
capitals. The spaces between the squares, each with a side
of eleven metres, are used for seating.
Fig 17: Site Plan

6 main components of the brief:
PARAMPARA: a museum of arts and crafts

PREKSHA: a professional repertory with indoor and outdoor
theatres and auxilliary facilities
242
VEEKSHA: an audio and video research centre

DEEKSHA: a central training facility
SAMVAD: a modern conference hall facility
MANEESHA: a central library facilit
Fig 18: Interpretation of dance mudras into the plan of PREKSHA (right)
Fig 19: The low, earth hugging profile of the buildings reminiscent of the rock paintings and mountains of Bundelkhand
Fig 20: The two coloured rocks strewn over the region were juxtaposed in the
texturing of the building
Fig 21: Cast iron colonial elements transformed into the beaten metal craft
of the Agharia tribes
Tradition is manifest at every moment as response to

an inner rhythm that is space, form and structure.
That same rhythm resides in our speech, our music,
our movement, our relationships, our dance, our
performing arts, our spirituality, our architecture, and
our relevance. The time is then embodied tradition.
243
Bhadli Village, Gujarat:

Rubble To Renewal
Brinda Somaya
Architect- Somaya & Kalappa Consultants Pvt. Ltd,
Mumbai
FOREWORD
There is no doubt that today, for various reasons, our
influence on society as architects is diminishing. We have
to broaden our role to affect positive change. Today, we
architects have a vital role in shaping our environment &
should go beyond the design of individual buildings. We
have to establish systems & principles for the growth &
organization of our cities & our environment.
Architecture must arouse, inspire and feed the human spirit.
The need is for professional concern with the environment
and an improved quality of human life for all people. Hence
the need is to train a new kind of professional who can
intervene and be effective both in our poorer villages and
our wealthier urban areas. We need designers who can
plan, design and implement new developments working
interactively with the community at large. If we follow the
role of the traditional architect, we cannot meet this need.
We have to go beyond buildings and work with programmes
that transform society. Design has to be a process. I believe
this can be done without compromising on creativity,
innovation or quality of design.
That is perhaps true of many of the nations of this region,
but the demolition man is busy at work in many of our
cities wiping away the past at a frenetic pace. I believe that
if we want the future generations to feel a link with their
cultural and historic roots, it is imperative that we preserve
the physical heritage of the past. If that link is lost, people
will loose their sense of identity, their national pride and
finally their self-esteem.
RUBBLE TO RENEWAL: AN ARCHITECTURE
OF HOPE
The earthquake-January 26th 2001 It was a Friday. As it
was our republic Day it was a holiday. I had moved into a
high-rise apartment in Mumbai (Bombay) just a few months
earlier. I was sitting at the dining table having a leisurely
breakfast when I felt the floor below me shake. I first
thought I was having a giddy spell and stood up, but then
I notice the ceiling lights were swaying from side to side. It
was an earthquake. It was several hours later that we found

out that the epicenter of this earthquake was in Kutch in
Gujarat. It measure 7.9 on the Richter scale and took place
at 8.50 am with its epicenter near Bhuj in Kutch district. I
had been to Bhuj many years earlier. The erstwhile Maharaja
was a client of mine and I had gone with my family to his
`Raj Tilak or Coronation. We had wined and dined at this
place and it had been two full days of celebration. My next
trip to Bhuj was going to be very different.
Shortly thereafter I received a telephone call from Sunil
Dalal. Sunil Dalal, is one of those rare people, who believes
he has been sent to earth to do seva or service for the poor
and needy. A young man, he runs the Jasoda Narottam
Charitable Trust (The Pentagon Trust), a family charitable
trust. His lovely wife Swati was connected to one of the
most respected NGO groups in Kutch, Shrujan. I had
just completed designing an emergency trauma centre in
a Municipal Public Hospital in Bombay for Sunil and we
had got to know each other. Sunil said he wanted to do
something for the earthquake relief and would I be willing
to help? Naturally the answer was yes.
Children of the Village
The important next step was to locate a village that needed

help the most. We soon realized that all did, but the most
important aspect of reconstruction was that we had to find
a village that wanted us to help them where the villagers
could be part of the process. Sunil and his family finally
located Bhadli, an hours drive west of Bhuj. Bhadli was
unusual, in that it had a large number of Hindu and Muslim
families. It was 60% Hindu and 40% Muslim. (The % in
India as a whole is approximately 80% Hindu and 18%
Muslim). Bhadli Village is approximately 40 kms west of
Bhuj. It is a village of 1500 people and there are about
325 houses. There are two tube wells and one surface well
and the village has electricity. There are approximately 30
telephones in the village.
The village consists of farmers, handicraft workers, poultry
farmers and agricultural workers. There is an 11 member
village panchayat that takes decisions for the village. There
was a school that taught children from grade one to seven
with seven teachers.
When our team reached Bhadli soon after the earthquake
244
There was also a small

dispensary in the
village. For further
education and hospital
treatment the villages
have to go to the
adjoining village which
is 8 kms away.
Secular Nature of the Village
The villagers wanted us to help.

Sunil took a decision not to wait for
government aid so as to eliminate
government red tape. He told me
whether the government aid comes
or not, we would go ahead anyway!
Swati and I then visited Bhadli in
early June. It had been five months
since the earthquake, but the
scenario hit me hard. There was
rubble everywhere. People were
living in the open. School had not
reopened. In our village of Bhadli
we met a couple whose three sons
were all lawyers in Baroda. The
sons had offered to pay for the
reconstruction of their home so
New School Building Complex
Old Well
Opening day of the School Complex
they proudly told me they did not need government money.

This old man kept following me as I walked around the
village and said he wanted to show me his house. When
I went, there was nothing but open land and a shed on
one side where his wife was cooking in the open. They
had also neatly stacked their old doors and windows for
reuse. Other villagers came up to us to hurry and rebuild
the school. They said once the children started working and
earning, their parents would not send them back to school.
The principal was almost crying when he told us this. The
school and community centre is now constructed. The
most important Muslim villager was the one who took us
around. He did tie and dye work and was quite well off. He
had already begun on the reconstruction of his house with
his own money, but was very sympathetic to the plight of
the rest of the villagers. We then went round to the harijan
part of the village, where the poorest of the poor lived. As

fourteen of them never had pucca houses, the irony was
that they would not be entitled to government aid because
they had not lost their homes. When I told Damu, my
architect friend in NYC, he took on this mission and has
been collecting money for us for these fourteen harijan
homes and of course Sunil will always fill in the deficit!
We learned from Sunil that a village panchayat had been
formed with Hindus (patels and banias and harijans),
Muslims and a woman representative. Three cheers! We
went and met the committee at the home of the woman
representative and sat in her courtyard and discussed our
plans. They gave us ideas and subsequently we presented
the school plans to them as well where we received a lot of
valuable input.
Completed Village
245
Money from the government had started flowing and this

helped the Jasoda Narottam Charitable Trust to achieve some
of their goals for this village. These include water harvesting,
improving the sanitation and water supply conditions, building
a community centre, a crche and a womens working area in
addition to the school. Apart from the school none of these
facilities existed earlier.
Kutch is the home to the highest density of craftsmen and
women in India. The fabrics are world famous and include tie
and dye work, embroidery, printed and woven pieces of cloth.
These bright and colourful textiles are known all over India
and in many parts of the world as well. It is a major source of
income especially for the women
On my way back from Bhadli I went to Bhuj and visited the
palace. The earthquake had spared no one. The palace was
severely damaged. We had sat, during the Raj Tilak in the
Maharajas garden amongst Italian marble statues enjoying
the evening celebrations. Today I saw only broken pieces of
marble.
The palace needed reconstruction as well. Where does one
begin? Kutch is rich in art and architecture and one cannot even
imagine when the repair of the wonderful old buildings will
take place. At that time we were more concerned with ensuring
that everyone had a roof over their heads and we began with
Bhadli.
The construction work on the houses began in August 2001.
The total number of houses reconstructed in Bhadli village
were 124. The homeowners have then added extensions to
their houses depending on future needs.
A school and community centre has also been constructed. A
new community centre created a meeting place for villagers
which did not exist before. It consists of a Balvadi (a childrens
playschool), primary school, Womens activity centre and a
community hall. A creation of these public places resulted in
Bhadli becoming a magnet for the surrounding villages which
do not have these facilities.
The Dargah and temples have been built by the villagers
themselves. The Muslims have helped build the temple and
Hindus helped build the Dargah. Different cultures and
Religions co-exist in perfect harmony and work collectively for
the uplifltment of their village.
The Bhadli project has been nominated for the 2007 Aga Khan
Award for Architecture.
KUTCH: AN OVERVIEW
Geography of the region:
Covering an area of 45,612 sq.km, Kutch lies in the state of
Gujarat, on the West Coast of India. Topographically, Kutch
is divided into 5 distinct regions: (1) The Great Rann, or
uninhabited wasteland in the north, (ii) The Grasslands of
Banni, (iii) Mainland, consisting of planes, hills and dry river
beds, (iv) The Coastline along the Arabian Sea in the north,
and (v) Creeks and mangroves in the west. More loosely, the
southern portion of the Rann is considered an island, with
seawater inundating the land for most of the year. The mainland
is generally plane, but has some hill ranges and isolated hills.
followed by Muslims who form 9% and Jains who make up

1% of the total population. The region is sparsely populated
in comparison to the large area of land, but the settlements
are densely populated.
Seismic History:
The earliest earthquake recorded in Kutch dates back to
16th June 1819. Since then, over 90 earthquakes of varying
intensity have struck the region, but none as severe as the
most recent one.
Climate:
Kutch has a tropical monsoon climate with an average annual
rainfall of approximately 14 inches. The temperature ranges
from 2 degrees Celsius in the winter to 45 degrees Celsius
in the summer. The three main seasons are: (i) Summer,
from February to June, (ii) Monsoon season from July to
September, and (iii) Winter, from October to January.
Government Efforts:
The Government of Gujarat has negotiated a loan of $
500 million from the Asian Development Bank for the
rehabilitation project that is estimated to cost $ 625 million.
The main concerns of this project will be reconstruction of
housing facilities and improvement of basic infrastructure.
The government also approached NGOs and private
organizations for assistance in rebuilding damaged villages
where the damage sustained exceeded 70%. In most cases,
the government also provided certain guidelines.
NGO Efforts:
The concerted efforts of NGOs from across the country
and the globe ensured that immediate relief was provided
to the villagers, in the form of temporary housing, medical
supplies, food and clothing. The main concern that
followed was the repair and reconstruction of the villages
to enable the villagers to return back to normal as soon
as possible. The Pentagon Charitable Foundation is one
such organization that has collaborated with the Shrujan
Trust, an NGO known for its commitment to the people
of Kutch, to rehabilitate Bhadli Village, 45 km from Bhuj,
which suffered 90% overall damage.
Occupation:
Bhadli village is predominantly an agricultural village
with about 50% of the population engaged in cultivation.
However, due to the scarcity and salinity of ground water,
and lack of a major market, handicrafts soon became the
occupation of choice.
Demographic distribution:
Kutch has approximately 950 villages inhabited by a diverse
population. Hindus constitute 89% of the population,
246
The Villagers lived in the open after the earthquake
Damage sustained:
The earthquake destroyed 90% of the village. Nearly all the
old houses, which constituted 75% of the village collapsed or
developed major cracks. A major school was also destroyed
and is no longer functional. The villagers have managed to
recover 80% of their belongings from the rubble.
School:
A co-ed primary school with strength of 222 students and
7 teachers was fully functional before the earthquake. The
school had from classes I to VII, with children of ages
ranging from 5 to 14 years. Morning or afternoon sessions
were held, depending on the season. In addition, a small
kindergarten with 52 students was taught by 3 teachers, and
functioned for 7 months of the year. The primary school
needs to be rebuilt, and the possibility of the addition of a
secondary school needed exploration.
Medical Centre:
The previous medical centre was mainly a small dispensary,
with 3 doctors who are currently incapacitated. For major
medical problems, villagers depend on a hospital 8 km away
from the village. A better medical centre equipped to handle
more complex medical problems could be added, provided
there is enough demand and there are qualified doctors and
nurses to staff it.
Internal Roads:
School Building after the earthquake
Some areas in the village

have tar or stone roads, laid
by the villagers. Circulation
within the village is adequate
during the winter, but the
road becomes hot during
the summer and muddy
during the rains. A better
system of paved/tar roads
would serve to connect
the village more efficiently.
Road connections to
neighbouring towns and
villages would help the
villagers trade their goods
in a larger market.
Village Lane
Electricity:
Only 75% of the houses have electricity connections, but
face problems with voltage fluctuation. Also, there is no
street lighting in the village apart from in the main square.
With the rehabilitation process, provisions could be made
to add street lighting and also make electricity connections
available to the houses that did not previously have them.
On the 26th of January 2001, a devastating earthquake
of magnitude 6.9 (7.7 according to US sources) on the
Richter Scale struck the state of Gujarat. The epicenter
of the earthquake was situated around Bachau and Lodai
on the main land fault and the thrust movement along
this fault is considered to be the cause of the earthquake.
According to the Gujarat Government, the earthquake
affected 7,904 villages and a number of urban centres,
School Wall with the Map of India, after the earthquake
taking approximately 18,000 lives and causing over Rs.

2500 Crore in property damage. In addition, power stations
were damaged and water and sanitation services across the
region were rendered virtually useless. A disaster of this
magnitude necessitated a massive rehabilitation program
requiring both government and private aid.
247
FACILITIES THAT REQUIRE REPAIR AND

UPGRADATION:
Housing:
With almost the whole village in ruins, the immediate need
was the reconstruction of houses with sensitivity to the
inhabitants specifications and requirements. Above all, the
situation that occurred after the Latur earthquake wherein a
large number of new houses remain uninhabited due to lack
of consideration for the villagers needs had to be avoided.
Majority of the houses in the village were two or three
room houses with a kitchen, and a toilet outside the house.
Other features included courtyards, cowsheds, looms or
grain storage depending on the profession of the resident
and verandas. Special attention was needed towards features
typical of Kutch, such as niches in the walls for storage and
decoration and embellishment of walls. The other type of
housing consists of Bhungas, which are essentially circular
mud huts constructed on a low platform with a deep
overhanging thatched roof. Additionally, housing needs
to be designed, using appropriate materials, to withstand
earthquakes of large magnitude and extreme temperature
fluctuations throughout the year. Caste/religious sensitivity
and proximity to the fields should be incorporated into the
village plan. Approximately 50% of the raw material for
reconstruction is recoverable, including most of the doors
and windows. The debris may be used in the aggregate for
the roads or pavements, barring those for which appropriate
disposal sites will have to be identified.
Water Supply:
Given the arid conditions and dependence on agriculture
in Kutch, the water tables have been falling over the years
and high levels of salinity in the ground water further
compound this problem. Of the three original wells, only
one bore-well was functional and was located 1.5 km outside
the village. However, this well had almost been exhausted
and there was a need for a new source of water, for which
the villagers were going ahead with another bore well. The
entire village has been crossed with PVC pipelines for water
circulation along with the internal pathways, but as such
there is not steady water supply to the houses. The main
source of drinking was the well and there was no water
treatment or purification system in place. The village had
two rivers that were almost dry. All these factors pointed to
a dire requirement for watershed management.
New House under Construction
New House under Construction
doors and windows on the top and bottom always end with
an r.c.c. member, thus avoiding cracks during movement
of the base. Shear keys at the base of the plinth, above the
r.c.c. and in between the plinth beam and wall will be added
to avoid displacement.
Climate Resistant Features:
Proper sewage and sanitation systems:
The roof should continue on the sides till the ridge,

forming an r.c.c. gable, which in turn supports the roof.
Generally, Mangalore tiles are placed on purlins rafters and
battens made of wood, which is now replaced by minimal
steel angle or pipes. This system is inadequate because the
tiles are not anchored and any strong wind will lift them
off. No cantilever or overhanging should be provided on
the gable side of the roof so as to avoid capture of wind
during storms. However, on the other 2 sides, the roof can
project beyond the walls to have effective drainage and also
to protect the wall. The last row of Mangalore tiles of the
roof overhang should be screwed down to the batons to
avoid uplift by wind.
The new houses needed to include toilets and there was

a need for adequate provision for drainage and sewage
disposal. The previous sewage and sanitation systems were
outdated and not very effective. New, efficient systems
were needed to be added, or the existing systems could be
modified.
Openings for ventilation in toilets and store-rooms should

be of the minimum size required so as to avoid dust and the
intense heat conditions prevalent in the area. The villagers
prefer to have the openings higher up on the wall using
r.c.c. jalis, which allow the exchange of air through small
openings and also keep out birds and rodents.
Seismic Resistant Structures:
Proposed housing units:
The basic criterion for making a house seismic proof is to

make it a homogeneous unit. The plinth is made of random
rubble available in the village and is lined with an r.c.c. plinth
beam, 16 above ground level. Similar to this, three other
r.c.c. beams occur at the sill, lintel and roof base. The r.c.c.
members are interconnected with vertical steel rods encased
in concrete at every T and L junction. The openings for
The three main housing types are designed with 250 sq.ft,
350 sq.ft, 450 sq.ft as the maximum built up area. The first
two modules have a living room and a kitchen, whereas
the last module has two living rooms and a kitchen. Each
housing unit will have a verandah. If an individual owns a
larger plot of land, these units can be combined to form a
large unit.
248
Individual needs:
Along with agriculture, bandhni making and handicrafts
are the main professions of the villagers and adequate
provisions need to be made to accommodate the materials
and tools used, either within the house or outside. The
villagers require space in the courtyard to store the material,
work, dry the cloth, mix dyes and other activities. They
prefer not to carry out these activities inside the house
because of space constraints. In case the house does not
have a courtyard, storage lofts should also be provided
inside the house.
As the villagers cook on wood fire chulhas rather than
gas stoves, the kitchens need to be well ventilated and a
non-mechanical system for removal of smoke needs to be
devised. An alternative design solution is to replace outer
walls of the kitchen with bamboo or MS jalis that will allow
the smoke to escape and will keep out animals. Sufficient
storage and seating area should be provided in the kitchen.
Need to revise plans provided by the Government:
Although the modules supplied by the government
were adequate and functional, they were not designed in
accordance with the specific needs of the people. Certain
key features were not given importance and the underlying
character of the village was not incorporated into the design.
Hence the existing plan had to be modified. The five basic
criteria that governed the basis of design for the new housing
plan were (i) the character of the village, (ii) the needs and
necessities of the villagers, (iii) the available space and cost
of construction, (iv) need for structure resistant to seismic
activity and climatic extremes and (v) the use of indigenous
materials and the re-use of recovered material.
A rebuilt house
Artwork in the house
using available rubble. These areas can be used to carry

daily activities and will also serve as a proper pathway in the
rainy season. This rubble can also be used to make raised
seating around trees.
Maintaining the character of the village:

A verandah is essential for the houses because it forms a
covered outdoor seating area and is used for a variety of
activities. Houses that have courtyards can be oriented
in such a way so as to avoid direct sunlight, as per site
conditions. In houses that face the street, the verandahs
form otlas or raised seating.
Reuse of material:
A large number of doors and windows are still in a fairly
good condition and can be used with some repairs so as
to lower costs. These will also help maintain the character
of the village. Certain areas of the courtyard can be paved
Old doors repaired & reused
Decorated window of a new house

in Bhadli
Rebuilt house near completion
The construction work for the new houses began in August

2001. Over 60 houses were complete and were being used.
After the completion of these houses the villagers, on their
own, did not start any type of embellishment on them.
The embellishment of homes takes place in various parts of
Kutch, but somehow due to the trauma of the earthquake
that was not happening.
As architects, we wanted to bring that cheer and colour and
the sense of identity back into their homes. We first thought
we would motivate them with the idea of a competition, but
that did not get any response. There was one Muslim family
who were staying in their Bunga while their home was
being built. The Bunga had patterns and this family showed
keen interest in wanting to bring in colour to their home.
We brought in the paint and soon other villagers collected
to see what this homeowner was doing to his house
Soon, a Hindu homeowner got enthused and brought in his
friend who was an artist in the adjoining village. His house
soon got worked on the many faces and the process had
thus begun. The colours and designs were the homeowners
choice. These two homes had worked as catalysts for the
rest of the village. Slowly but steadily, other villagers began
the creative process in their own ways on their homes.
Doors, windows, interior walls, floors all got decorated.
Some created the tulsi platform outside their home thus
249
Watershed Management
recreating the individual identity of their home. Our job

was now complete and the villagers could take over. We
could now proceed with the construction of the school
and community centre. The villagers would take care
of their homes themselves. By rebuilding their homes in
their original location, we preserved the identity of the
homeowners and the village itself.
Watershed Management:
In addition, watershed management and renewable energy
sources are also being addressed in Bhadli Village. The
Sajjanand Charitable Trust and Vivekanand Research and
Training Institute are jointly working in these two areas.
Monthly meetings in the village motivate the villagers and
help project implementation as well as an exchange of ideas.
The V.RT.I. has photovoltaic cell lamps, solar cookers etc.,
which are made available to the villagers with subsidized
loans. The goal is to enable Bhadli to have renewable
energy sources in every home and an adequate watershed
management programme within the next two years.
CONCLUSION
There is more to conservation than looking after individual
buildings of architectural and historical importance. The
idea of group value and area conservation have come in
due to a combination of the poor quality of many new
buildings and the loss of familiar landmarks. Surrounded
by accelerating change both in technology and society,
people find comfort in familiar surroundings. Hence the
importance of ensuring that earthquake devastated families
returned to their original parcels of land was paramount.
Here lies the success of Bhadli Village.
250
The Architecture Of Hotels:

The Legacy Of Geoffrey Bawa
Channa Daswatte
Architect- MICD Associates,
Madiwela, Sri Lanka
Introduction
The architecture of the modern Asian Hotel is now taken
for granted. But this was not always the case. The earliest
hotels built for organized tourism was mostly built in the
tropical modern style related to the international style then
prevalent in architecture.
Tourism, the worlds largest industry has played a major role
in the economies of south and South-East Asia now for
well over 40 years. Although the notion of travel to exotic
locations is not a new thing Thomas Cook took his first
travel groups to Egypt in the late 19th C its transformation
of the Asian landscape is relatively recent. Organized
tourism as we see to today came to Sri Lanka for instance
in the 1960s when the then government saw the potential
it offered for creating employment in an economy that
was hitherto dependent on the export of tea, rubber and
coconut. With changes in the world markets for these items,
new avenues of industry were explored and a ministry of
tourism and a tourist Board was set up for its promotion.
Until the 1960s the only places that people could stay if
they travelled around Sri Lanka were the government circuit
houses also know as rest houses a legacy of the Dutch and
British Colonial government. Situated in Prime locations
these rest houses provided simple fare in terms of food, a
clean bed and bathrooms for the few people who traveled
for pleasure in that time. In addition to these, there were the
Grand Colonial hotels and clubs in the main centers such
as Colombo where the Galle Face Hotel (Fig. 1) opened
its doors in 1865 and the Grand Oriental a little later, the
Queens Hotel in Kandy, The Grand in Nuwara Eliya,
the New Oriental Hotel in Galle and the Grand Hotel in
Fig.1: The Galle Face Hotel
Anuradhapura so few they can all be named.

With tourism promotion taking and active role in the
economy it was felt that the places that people could stay
should be made attractive to visitors and have more facilities.
Initailly the old rest houses were refurbished to provide
a more overtly cultural experience to the tourists. The
Bentota Beach rest house on a spectacular site on an old
fort where the Bentota River met the sea was refurbished
and redecorated by a local bon vivant Bevis Bawa with help
from an Australian artist staying with him, Donald Friend.i
This redecoration was one of the first attempts to add a
flavor of the contemporary local scene of handicrafts and
art to a tourism establishment in Sri Lanka.
Bevis Bawa was already well known in local and even
amongst some foreign travelers through the beautiful garden
he had created for
himself at Kalawila
about 5 Kilometers
from Aluthgama on
the western Coast
of Sri Lanka. The
garden was created
from a tropical
landscape into a
personal fantasy in Fig.2: The Hunas Falls Hotel
which Bawa Lived.
This early attitude of needing to provide a cultural
experience to the visitors was not always the generator
of buildings as the industry began to grow fueled by the
holiday package markets of the 1970s and the demand for
rooms became greater. The hotel is a building type, which
provides experiences that allow people to escape from the
drudgery of everyday existence. It suggests that the hotel
as a morphological /genotype is consistent with being a
sanatorium for the tired soul, and many a resort had been
built in many parts of the world such as Hawaii, Rio de
Janeiro and even Bali based on the international style of
architecture that was in vogue at the time and looking just
that- sanatoria. The Pegasus Reef Hotel, the Hunas Falls
hotel (Fig 2) and the Tangalle Bay Beach seek to provide
(i) See Donald Friend diaries, the National Gallery of Australia, 2005
251
accommodation in modernist inspired architecture in

stunning tropical locations. In fact the sanatorium model
is hard to escape in some cases where the building simply
provides accommodation from which one moves out to
experience the landscape and the culture around. These
buildings many of which, particularly the Tangalle Bay Beach
hotel were interesting and inspiring buildings in themselves,
they did not provide an experience that was rooted in the
particular place, but a different more conceptual experience
rooted in the architecture alone. The Bay Beach hotel for
instance provides a fabulous experience of the possibilities
of concrete and its malleability and attempts to capture the
essence of living on a ship.
Explorations in Traditional Construction in the
contemporary practice of Architecture
For sometime however architects and other interested
individuals in Sri Lanka had been looking back at their own
building traditions for inspiration. Minette de Silva, in 1950
recently returned from AA .Very much a part of the modernist
debate on tradition and modernity, she was inspired by the
local techniques of construction and local arts and crafts,
ii
to make them a part of the buildings she designed (Fig.3).
She was even involved in the creation of a small tourist
development close to the now world heritage site of
Sigiriya using local materials and technology with a view
to sustainability long before its time. Barbara Sansoni,
a designer of textiles and founder of the Sri Lankan
Handloom house Barefoot for her part wrote an
article for the local newspapers in praise of traditional
buildings and there simplicity. Earlier an article by a
British architect Andrew Boyd appeared in the Ceylon
Observer Pictorial of 1939 titled Houses by the Road
which appreciated local buildings and techniques.
Geoffrey Bawa who had trained to be a lawyer came to
The first of the houses that displays this is the ASH de

Silva house in Galle which he built for a doctor on a sloping
suburban site (Fig. 4). The planning is clearly modern and
rooted in the tradition of Mies van der Rohe and others.
However in its actual manifestation as a house it is clearly
rooted in Sri Lanka with a small courtyard replacing what in
the van der Rohe house would have been a fireplace. A further
opportunity to continue with these explorations came with
a commission that was given to him by Ena de Silva (Fig
5). This lady, a scion of an old Sri Lankan family wanted a
house that suited a modern lifestyle in terms of space and
convenience, but rooted in the local traditions of building
and history. One request was that there should be no glass.
The house is now a classic of Bawas work and very cleverly
integrates the advantages of a concrete column and beam
construction with local building traditions. The modernist
flowing plan breaks from the traditional Sri Lankan house
which is a series of cells arranged around a courtyard, yet
is very much in a local idiom that it is hard to believe it is
a modern house. Here imported steel and concrete is used
minimally with traditional building materials of lime, wood
and terracotta tiles combined with river stones and cut granite.
This emphasis on sustainable local material and skills use
in construction is further seen in the estate bungalow in
Polontalawa built in 1965, where Bawa and his partner Ulrik
Plesner built a house by literally plotting it on the site full
Fig.4: The ASH de Silve house
Fig.3
architecture through a clearly modernist education at the

AA. Whilst this was clearly reflected in his early work and
iii
he continued to use it in many buildings , in the houses he
did he began to develop a new vocabulary that was rooted in
the local traditions of construction. Bawa strongly believed
that while an architect was essentially a manipulator of
space and spatial experiences, the construction was best
left to those who knew best about it. His relationship with
a master crafts man Shahabdeen in many of his early works
in legendary in the Bawa circle of friends and assistants.
(ii) See de Vos, Asley; de Silva, Minette; Sirivardena, Susil (Eds.) (1998),
Minnette de Silva Life and work of an Asian Woman Architect, Ed.
Minette de Silva (Pvt.) Ltd.
(iii) See Robson David (2002), Geoffrey Bawa: the complete works, Thames
and Hudson
252
Fig.5: The Ena de Silve house
of boulders and rocks using sticks and stones! Here in a

remote part of the north western province concrete is
used very minimally in effect one large beam spanning
two boulders - to create a modern house of extraordinary
elegance using materials that were found well within the area.
The use of sustainable and affordable materials for
construction was also brought about by the sheer lack
of funds. At the farm School for orphaned girls run by
the Good Shepherd congregation in Hanwella (Fig 6)
constructed in 1967 the organization simply had no spare

money to indulge and architect. The materials for the
construction of this elegant group of buildings come
from within a kilometer radius of the site, with most
from within the site. Traditional building techniques used
once again for a modern need and use. This restriction
of materials of foreign origin is not only because it was
a conscious architectural decision, but also that they were
simply hard to come by. In the 1960s the then socialist
government followed a policy of self-reliance that not
only restricted the import of many goods from abroad,
but also imposed heavy duties and taxation on those few
things that were brought in. This made it more profitable
to use as little of these as possible with more emphasis on
the use of local materials and methods of construction.
This renewal of interest in traditional building techniques
for contemporary architecture led to a resurgence of
the industry that produced these materials. The main
components were still much a part of the building tradition
of Sri Lanka, such as brick and mortar. These were then
used to construct modernist inspired houses with smooth
plastered walls made of brick standing in for the clean
concrete walls of modernism with sloped corrugated sheet
roofs hidden behind brick parapets to visually simulate
flat roofs. But other finishing materials such as terracotta
floor tiles, half round terracotta roof tiles and the use of
materials such as coconut and other timbers for exposed
roof construction and even fenestration gained a revival.
Fig.6: School at Hanwella
a town square. The simple vocabulary of white lime

washed brick walls, and terracotta half round tile covered
roofs mixed with an extensive planting of frangipani
trees (plumeria rubra) make it very definitely connected
to the place in which it is built where most of the local
construction that survived had half round tile covered roofs.
The Development of a Tourism Style

All this interest in the use of local building techniques
in the constructions of buildings was first synthesized
for a building for tourism when in 1965, the architect
Geoffrey Bawas many schemes for building hotels
came true with the construction of the Blue Lagoon
Hoteliv(Fig.7). This is built like a traditional rest house with
a main reception building connected to a dining pavilion
with the accommodation placed in villas set around the
grounds. Here for the first time Geoffrey Bawa brings to
the design of a hotel certain aspects of his work rooted
in the local traditions of building, on the development
of which he had been working with for a few years.
Fig.8: The Bentota Beach Hotel
Connected to this development are perhaps the seminal

works of Asian tourism architecture. Bawa built the
Bentota Beach Hotel and the Serendib hotel for different
tourism markets. They represent two completely different
spatial experiences but use the same local materials and
techniques. The Bentota Beach Hotel replaced the old
rest house that stood on the site and was to become the
centerpiece of the tourist resort, while the Serendib was to
replace the functions of the rest house on an adjacent site.
In these two projects were initiated two very important
aspects of the architecture of Asian tourism. They were
the need for a clearly articulated sequence of arrival, and
the suggestion of a story that roots the building to its place.
This had to be done using space and the available materials.
Fig.7: The Blue Lagoon Hotel
After the Blue Lagoon Hotel, Bawa was commissioned

to design the tourist resort for Bentota which he master
planned. One of the commissions he had was to create
a tourist village.This he designed as a series of terracotta
tile covered walkways around a series of courtyards and
(iv) See Robson David (2002), Geoffrey Bawa: the complete works, Thames
and Hudson
Fig.9: The Serendib Hotel
253
At the Bentota beach (Fig.8) the traveler is confronted

with an almost forbidding arched stone entranceway with
allusions to the Old Dutch fort that had stood here in the
16th C. The visitor is then drawn up stone stairway by the
brilliant colors of a cloth batik ceiling to the reception
pavilion which in turn opens into a water filled courtyard
and from there through another open pavilion to a view
of palm trees and sea. Space and materials are here used
to provide a sense of ease at the point of arrival for a
guest. The bedrooms themselves area arranged in two
levels above with private balconies looking out to sea and
again uses timber for its external structure, the whole
alluding to the timber super structures of south Asian
buildings such as the Palace at Padmanabhapuram in India.
Fig.10
Fig.11: The Triton Hotel
At the Serendib Hotel (Fig. 9) the arrival is less protracted,

but equally memorable. The visitor alights under a soaring
porte cochre and proceeds down a passage with a distant
view of the sea to a small courtyard with a bubbling pool
that is overlooked by the reception area. The dining room
and lounge beyond open directly to the lawns that lead
to the beach and the sea. The rooms themselves are
housed on either side of this arrival and dinning area
on the ground and the floor above and very cleverly
tucked into what appears at first glance an old colonial
warehouse such as that may have been used by the Dutch
in the 17th C. But by cleverly cutting out parts of the roof
as light wells that open into gardens inside the building,
lining the walkways to the rooms, this simple structure
is transformed into a modern building for tourism.
allowing ventilation and openings on opposite walls provided

for cross ventilation. Furniture was mostly built in with brick
and terracotta including the cupboards and dressing tables.
Locally manufactured modern handloom materials provided
the soft furnishings and added color to the whole ensemble.
The white-washed brick walls, polished terracotta tiles with
roofs with open frameworks and covered in corrugated sheets
laid over with the half round terracotta tiles amidst groves of
Frangipani trees became to be identified as a clearly modern
Sri Lankan style of architecture. The simple vocabulary Bawa
had used in the Bentota tourist village to build a series of
building including a police station, Bank and railway station
in addition to the shopping areas was an accessible language
that began to be copied and filtered down to the general
population when it came to building for tourism.
In both cases the original rooms were designed to be used

without air-conditioning, then a very expensive luxury.
Small louvered timber shutters provided privacy while
Bawa repeated this approach in his projects for his old

friend, the Australian artist Donald Friend, now settled
in Bali. Bawa took what were essentially traditional forms
Fig.12: The Lighthouse Hotel
254
and materials of Balinese construction and readapted

them to allow for the lifestyles of the modern jet setter.
A traditional bataran base of a Bale Agung with its huge
solid brick base was adapted as a building with private and
therefore less open bedrooms at the bottom and an open
sided sitting room on top (Fig 10). The many pavilions of a
Balinese home compound was easily adapted as a series for
entertaining and sleeping pavilions, thus creating a Balinese
architecture suited to a different lifestyle other than Balinese.
In his later works for hotel companies in Sri Lanka,
Bawa developed a contemporary vernacular vocabulary
that married beautifully the advantages of modern
materials available to architects in the changing technical
and economic scenario around him. At the Triton Hotel
(Fig 11) for instance a simple concrete frame structure
is married with a traditional tiled roof with long eaves
to create an impression of a series of garden pavilions
connected by courtyards in this otherwise massive 185roomed hotel. At the Lighthouse hotel (Fig 12) more
massive brick construction technology is used to make a
series of massive warehouse like structures placed on an
undulating site by the sea and interconnecting them with
open loggias and verandahs that use a concrete frame.
benefited directly from it rather than through a trickle

down effect if only the local tour companies handled
it. This transformation is something that will have
happened inevitably. But in Sri Lanka at least it has been
something that has been part of the industry for a long
time leading to very interesting holiday experiences such
as Unawatuna and Hikkaduwa Beaches in the South coast .
Fig.13: The Four Seasons Hotel
Fig.15: Readaption of traditional building
This architecture was certainly not straightforward traditional

building. It was traditional building methods and techniques
used in conjunction with some modern materials to create
an ambience clearly rooted in the place. It celebrated the
simple pleasures of life such as a breeze blowing through a
verandah lounge and moonlight streaming in through lattice
covered windows. This approach has been repeated now in
many parts of the world where the vernacular and traditional
methods have been adopted to build for tourism giving the
visitor a stylish contemporary lifestyle they are used to but
close enough to an authentic experience of the environment,
culture and art of the place they are visiting (Fig.13)
cultural
Another effect of this choice of materials and architecture

was that there emerged an interest in the conservation
and modification of old buildings that many of these
ideas emerged from for the use of buildings in tourism.
The Club Villa or Mohotti Wallauwe ( Fig.14) as it is now
known was originally bought by Bawa as a seaside cottage
for his country residence, but soon saw its potential as a
tourist hideout. He conserved and added to this small 19th
C house to recreate and ambience of the place if not a
replica of it to make this one of the first small boutique
hotels in Sri Lanka. Many such have followed and today
Sri Lanka and Asia have a plethora of these beautiful
and creative re-adaptations of traditional buildings
leading to their conservation and protection (Fig.15).
This approach to using traditional methods of construction

had a significant effect on the putting the tourism industry
in Sri Lanka at least on an egalitarian footing - a tourist hotel
need not be a place that is something far removed from the
everyday experience of Sri Lanka and its buildings. This
served to take the industry to the grass roots communities
in the areas with tourists living very closely with the local
population. The social repercussions of this have been
many, and in democratic societies almost unavoidable, trade
in sex and drugs being the most talked about examples.
Economically however it allowed for a greater distribution
of the Tourist Dollar amongst the communities that then
Another beneficiary of the local approach to buildings in

the tourist industry has been local artists, arts and crafts.
Bawa strongly believed that an architect while catering
to the functional and technical aspects of architecture,
Vitruviuss commodity and firmness, had to also dwell into
an emotional aspect of architecture, the delight. This, Bawas
work has plenty of, where the buildings not only delight the
user, but the delight that was part of the creation of the
structure is seen in it. His architecture did not restrict itself
to simply being an arrangement of space for functions but
be engaged with all aspects of the space including furniture
and decoration. To this end many artists who eventually
became friends were engaged to provide various materials.
The effect
development
on
Socio-economic
and
Fig.14: The Club Villa
255
Fig.16: Sculpture by Laki Senanayake at Lighthouse Hotel
Fig.17: Ceiling at the Bentota Beach Hotel
The sculptor Laki Senanayake has almost invariably a place

in many a Bawa project where he uses art as a focus in
many places in his buildings. At the Serendib hotel a sea
queen greets visitors near the entrance, a peacock dances
to delight the diners at the Bentota Beach Hotel and a
palm tree is the focus of the main lounge at the Neptune
hotel. In later works a large hand painted mural engages
the users of the main stair taking them through a botanical
drawing of a rain forest, and at the Light house hotel a scene of
battle between the Portuguese invaders and local inhabitants
distracts the arriving visitor until they have climbed a full
fifteen feet into the main level of the hotel to be confronted
with a stunning view of crashing waves (Fig. 16). All this used
traditional metal working techniques and local craftsmen
to produce them. The local metal workers were made to
experiment and use the traditional techniques to come out
with new forms and aesthetic experiences to their trade.
invented a particularly Sri Lankan style of Batik through

the work she did for the Bawa hotels and other projects.
Her first major commission was for the ceiling at the
reception of the Bentota beach hotel (Fig.17), with later
works emerging at the triton Dining room, the suites
at the Kandalama hotel and bar at the Lighthouse hotel.
Ena de Silva, Bawas client and friend was also an

artist in her own right who used traditional regional
techniques in her work. She almost single handedly
The other local industry to benefit and perhaps find its own
due to this transformation in the design for tourism was
the Sri Lankan handloom industry. Bawa worked almost
exclusively with the local handloom house called Barefoot
started by Barbara Sansoni. Barbara took the local weaving
techniques and came out with her own unique style of
cloth that was modern yet rooted in traditional technique.
Brilliant color combinations inspired by the in environment
around her, Bawa regularly used her work in his buildings
for the tourist industry as curtains or bedspreads and
sometimes, ceiling fabric and even in uniforms (Fig.18)
This work, originally experimental has now led to a revival
of some of these traditional crafts and they have developed
a unique modern Sri Lankan identity, ensuring their future
survival.
Conclusion
It seems than that the work of Geoffrey Bawa in his
work on tourist hotels managed to synthesize a style that
somehow rooted the building in its place and related it
to the landscape. Each building integrated to the context
and culture within which it was built and as all great works
of art also managed to show some aspect of the place
and culture that would not have been otherwise obvious.
Fig.18: Use of modern fabrics with traditional techniques
256
The use of traditional building methods was not something

that was pursued for its own sake, but because it was
economically, environmentally and socially acceptable and
mostly necessary. In todays practice however traditional
building is often taken to symbolize a particular experience
rather than to experience a place and culture. Bali may
be experienced in Bangalore and Ubud in Unawatuna.

This globalization of so-called traditional building seems
to take much away from the origins and meaning of
using traditional building techniques for tourism in our
Asian cultures. Architectural culture at least, somehow
seems to be an interchangeable commodity to be
experienced wherever one feels like it, devoid of the actual
people and language and scenery that spawned it. This
particular approach certainly takes away from any idea of
sustainability and appropriateness that traditional building
may have brought to the tourism industry in the beginning.
In a radical departure from his usual oeuvre, in building
perhaps the most beautiful hotel he ever built, Bawa
appears to abandon all that is traditional. In the Kandalama
Hotel (Fig.19) built late in his practice Bawa opted for a
less obviously traditional palette of materials. In the
middle of a forest in North Central Sri Lanka the 160
bedroom hotel had to make as minimum a mark on the
ground as possible to abide by the conservation guidelines
that were imposed on it. On the fifty acres of monsoon
forest allocated for the project any traditional construction
method would have meant a large area of vegetation to
be cleared. Bawa instead chose a concrete frame structure
that was seen as scaffolding that the jungle might take
over with a concrete flat roof planted over with grass and
wilderness to reduce the thermal loads that may effect
the atmosphere in this area. The simple structure also
sits above the ground leaving the original profile of land
to flow beneath it with the rain into the magnificent 4th C
artificial lake that it looks onto. The jungle has now part
reclaimed the building, the wild vegetation of the tropical
monsoon forest, all but covers the entire building with
monkeys wandering its highest terraces and birds nesting
outside the toilet windows, and at night the guests share
there corridors with bats lizards, huge moths and fireflies.
architecture - and there never has been that is in conflict with

the human purpose behind it. ..Unless whatever life it set out to
serve is lived fully in it, a building fails as architecture, and when
I say fully, I mean both physical and spiritual contentment. This
is a large territory to conquer, but anything less cannot be enough.
We here in Ceylon, in the past decade or two, have been forced to look
more closely at ourselves, to rely on our own thoughts and efforts. In
architecture this means we have to look again at our country its
lush beauty, rains and sun, dramatic sky and fertile land. Perhaps
from this follows the second fundamental rule: that a building in
Ceylon must be in accordance and sympathy with this ambience.
These two rules take us a long way. To me they seem inviolable.
But there is one more, a technical rule: there must be a
knowledgeable and true use of the materials with which you build.
Geoffrey Bawa, A way of Building, Ceylon Times Annual
1968, AJ 1969
Fig.19: Kandalama Hotel
In abandoning traditional building techniques however, Bawa

has not abandoned the value of a traditional building. One
that is made to suit the land that it rises out of and become
one with the context it is in and makes the user mindful and
respect that environment and context. For in the end, not
all the traditional techniques used in building can disguise
an architecture that lives outside and desecrates its context.
Bawas attitude to architecture seems to point the way.
There is no easy way, full of intellectual signposts, leading to good
and satisfactory architecture. But there are rules. Not new ones, but
some old and strong ones, and though obvious, sometimes ignored.
First and most important, a building must, at the very least,
completely satisfy the needs that gave it birth. There is no good
257
Building With Bamboo: Continuing A

Tradition In A Modern Context
Prasad Jonathan D. W.,
Architect- Inspiration, Cochin
Introduction:
India has a rich tradition of building with Bamboo. With
about 125 species spread across eighteen genera, the
availability of bamboo resources in India is the second
largest in the world ranking only behind China. There are
about 1,500 documented traditional uses from cradle to
grave of bamboo, inclusive of construction.
With the backing of over 20 years of research done in
structural application of bamboo by Shri K.R. Datye and
Shri V.N. Gore of Geo-Science Services, Mumbai, together
with in-house inputs in architectural design, structural
RCC and ferro-cement design and inputs from our expert
craftpersons and whole construction management team, we
at Inspiration have attempted to make use of this highly
renewable and versatile material in todays context. One
of our earliest usage of bamboo constitutes a bamboo
reinforced road-base, covering an area of 6000 sq.m., at a
site with marine clay soil and surrounded by backwaters.
Our other non-building but structural uses of bamboo
include a water tank of capacity up to 20,000 liters, culvert
of length 14 m and width 4m and a retaining walls 3m high

for over 25 m length.
Our own office premises in Cochin, Kerala, covering
an area of 2750 sq.ft, is a first of its kind structure and
an experiment where we have attempted to develop a
technology (bamboo and reinforced plaster) for using
bamboo in floors, walls and roofs in ways that meet our
contemporary needs - an effort for which we have been
honoured with the National award by HUDCO. A Resort at
Kumarakom, for Abad Group of Hotels, is the place where
we have attempted to take the afore mentioned technology
to a higher degree of perfection prefabrication - where it
caters to the high end clients of the tourism industry. Our
next step is in improvising on the prefabrication of wall,
floor and roof bamboo panels, optimizing the properties
of the various components constituting it, to help in our
attempt to bring it into mainstream architecture. This paper
outlines in detail the design and construction of our office
in Ernakulam, Kerala - our first step in the direction of
bringing about a paradigm shift in the use of materials - and
the future prospects in front of us.
About Inspiration
Inspiration creatively combines a group of architects,
planners, infrastructure engineers, structural and
construction management personnel, interior and
product designers, administration and finance personnel,
horticulturists, trained artisans and technicians all under
one roof.
With over 18 years of experience in
the field of nature friendly designs and
constructions, Inspiration today enjoys a
niche clientele in the field - ranging from
individuals, business houses / corporates,
Government departments and NGOs who aspire for environmentally sensitive
habitats/ development.
Our primary objectives as an
organization, an eco-sensitive design
group are to
disseminate regional planning concepts
to limit urban sprawl; and at same time
preserve and regenerate built and natural
heritage.
pioneer design and development of
Walkers townships, Eco villages, nature
friendly institutions, communities,
resorts and residences.
initiate extensive rain water harvesting
and biomass regeneration projects
design and commission decentralized
solid waste, decentralized sewage and
waste water management systems.
bring in viable renewable energy
applications.
optimize bio climatic design of
buildings and use of low energy local
materials.
anchor investments in high value
nature friendly projects.
The administration and design studio block of the office.
258
Solar power for Mitradam Energy centre, Ernakulam.
Planted gravel filter at Hotel Sarovaram, Ernakulam.
Residence of Mr. Gopinath, Ernakulam.
Office premises of Kerala Horticulture Development Prog.
Swaswara resort at Gokarna, near Goa.
adopt internationally accepted design and construction

standards.
give high priority in observing social commitment
guidelines with respect to eco-ratings, disaster preventives,
care towards elderly, disabled and the under privileged.
evolve and inspire aesthetic standards integrating and
balancing all of the above.
set up a design and construction team which can deliver

site and need specific nature friendly developments as a
customized product.
We as a team have been involved in the design and

construction of over 400 projects, over the last 18 years,
including individual residences, institutions, hotels and
resorts, community housing, conservation of heritage
buildings, water management projects and walker townships.
A significant aspect of our work has been our effort to
It was in this context that when the time came to build our
own office we felt the need to take a step or join in the
direction of bringing about a paradigm shift in the use of
materials from the centrally produced, energy intensive to
the locally available, renewable, non-energy intensive and
sustainable. The search brought us to bamboo.
Our in-house team helps in translating a holistic space

design integrating infrastructure systems, landscape and
interiors, with optimum structural systems and be managed
and built within budgets and time lines.
259
Shri.KR Datye and Shri.Vilas N Gore are structural and

geo-technical engineers based in Mumbai, who have done
over 20 years of research and field tests in application of
bamboo as a structural material. Their inputs together with
in-house inputs in architectural design, structural RCC and
Ferro cement design, and inputs from our expert craftspersons and whole construction management team, helped us
in our attempt to make use of this highly renewable and
versatile material in todays context.
What we wanted was. . .
to be able to accommodate the whole of our multifaceted staff team.
to retain all the trees in the premises.
to have optimum natural lighting in every corner
during daytime, and good natural ventilation and
thermal comfort.
we were clear that what we are trying to achieve is a
modern building, in the sense that it would have to have
all the conveniences, facilities and requirements that a
conventional building of this nature would have.
We of course had to take a lot of other factors into
consideration. . .
the building had to resist 200 kmph cyclonic winds
and earth quake of intensity that can occur in the
region.
weak soil.
high water table - ground dampness.
insect, termite and rodent attacks were also to be
prevented.
to satisfactorily meet all of the above requirements
at less than market costs prevalent in our area for a
building having so many features.
The deck and directors cabin.
The Design
The building planning concept is woven around openness
in plan that keeps the communication flowing yet maintains
privacy. The orientation of the building is such that the
north east morning winds blowing over the pond gets
cooled and flows into office areas. Passages act as buffer
zones stopping the rain and harsh light from entering
workspaces.
The layout can be broadly classified into the following
spaces:
Public spaces: Reception area acts as a public space
linking the entrance and the workspaces.
Semi private spaces: The deck, pantry and conference
act as semi private spaces. These are places such that they
do not disturb the private and executive zones.
Private spaces: They form a link between semi-private
and executive spaces. And yet maintain a level of privacy.
It consists of the Administration and Design office.
Executive spaces: This is constituted by the architects
cabins. They form their own entity yet get a view of the
work spaces.
Plan of the ground floor of the office accommodating the reception, a meeting
room, the deck, administration wing and the pantry.
The first floor houses the engineering and the design studio connected by a corridor. At the center of this corridor
is a directors work space. The staircase part also acts as an
entrance space below.
The first floor plan of the office
260
Sectional view through (from left to right and bottom to top) the administration wing, design studio, the deck and directors cabins.
Birds eye view of the whole office complex.
The Structure
Covering an area of 2750 Sft, our office is probably the first
and largest of its kind and an experiment where we have
attempted to develop a technology (bamboo and reinforced
plaster) for using bamboo in floors, walls and roofs in ways
that meet our contemporary needs.
Bamboo is used in combination with RCC (columns), ferrocement (beams), and a limited quantity of reinforced plaster
so as to arrive at an attractive functional and replicable
combination of technologies.
The deck with the directors cabin above overlooking the RWH pond.
It is noteworthy that almost 25% of the bamboo used in

the building was cut from the immediate premises of the
building.
The Foundation
Considering the weak soil and the high water table the
structure stands on column footings about 3 feet deep.
Standing the structure on stilts helped prevent the dampness
from seeping in and also safeguarded the bamboo from
termite, insect and rodent attacks.
The maximum load on a column is 30 KN and an isolated
footing is provided for the foundation.
The foundation
261
The Floors, Walls and Roofs
by one column is 30 KN and an isolated footing of size

1m x 1m is provided to take the load.
The infill floor, walls and

roof of the building are
constructed using microsteel reinforced mortar
bamboo composite.
The building was monitored for two years on a weekly

basis. Observations were made in the X, Y and Z axis for
displacement and no displacement was observed.
Large glazed windows

are given all along the
inward looking walls
which
give
ample
protected lighting and
ventilation.
The
temperature
difference between the
exterior and the interior
averages 4-5 degrees on
a hot summer day.
Micro-steel-reinforced mortar-bamboo
composite wall panels.
The slender frame of the building.
Preservative Treatment
All bamboo used on the building has been given preservative
treatment. At the time of construction water based CCA
treatment was given. A pressure of 3.5 Kg/cm for one hour
was found to be sufficient to achieve a retention of more
than 8 Kg/m3 (dry salt) in split bamboo.
Presently we are into Liquid Organic Solvent Preservative
(LOSP) cold dip treatment for in-situ bamboo. It is a nonhazardous trichlorophenol formulation which can be used to
replace water soluble preservatives.
Other Features
Glazing along inward looking walls.
Apart from the bamboo structure other features of the office

complex include
Finishes
While we have gone in for a predominantly red-oxide finish
with stone slab inlays in certain places for the floor, putty
finish over the plastered side of the composite panel for
the walls and mangalore tiles for the roof, this kind of
construction technology allows for almost any kind of
finish desired.
Loading
The dead load of the composite is 1500 N/m2 and the live
load is taken as 4000 N/m2. The building is also analyzed
for wind and earthquake loads. The maximum load taken
Red-oxide floor finish
262
An Anaerobic treatment plant (DEWATS) treats the sewage

and waste water generated in the office. The system consists
of an anaerobic baffled reactor, planted gravel filter and
polishing pond. The treated water is recycled for gardening.
Rain water is harvested and the pond acts as a beautiful
landscape element. Here it is worth mentioning the method
of water proofing for the pond: local clay forms impermeable
lining in wet condition. An LDPE geo-fabric liner protects
the clay from drying, cracking and leaking.
In an attempt to minimize river sand mining and its
consequences, manufactured sand was used instead.
Interior walls finished with putty;
Mangalore tiles over bamboo roof.
Split bamboo being stacked for drying in covered space after LOSP cold dip.
The LOSP cold dip tank.
The polishing pond with the planted gravel filter in

the background.
Significant Achievements
We found that. . .
Bamboo replaces almost 80% of
structural cement and steel, without
compromising on any of the qualities
that make use of RCC popular.
The self weight of the building is
reduced by around 50% in comparison
to a conventional building of the same
nature, which can be very advantageous
when used for a multi-storied building
as the basic building frame can be
made much lighter.
This technology can, with some
more effort, be easily adapted
for standardization and assembly
line production of prefabricated
components.
Our other projects in Bamboo
The rain-water-harvesting pond as seen from the viewing deck.
Pre-cast ferro-cement beams have been used as an

alternative to RCC. This reduces both the quantity of steel
used and the cost.
This office building of ours is fortunately

the first structure in bamboo that we
managed to construct. Having the
advantage of an in-house construction and crafts team we
were able to design and execute several other structures
in bamboo. Given in the following pages are some of the
structures. . .
263
Whispering Palms Holiday resort for Abad group of Hotels at Kumarakom.
Pathway leading to the standard cottages
A pool villa
The interior of a standard cottage
Pathway leading to the standard cottages
The outdoor toilet of a standard cottage
Demonstration buildings for Kerala Forest Research Institute, Nilambur, Kerala.
View of the complex showing three bamboo

buildings each highlighting a different category of
application residential, office and medium rise.
All components floors, walls and roofs -are of
bamboo
264
Administration Building for Socio Economic Unit Foundation, Alleppey.
Conclusion
I would like to conclude giving an example which illustrates
the Potential of Bamboo.
Bamboo grows very fast and is highly renewable. To build
1000 houses of bamboo annually, material may be taken
from a 60-hectare bamboo plantation, which can be
replaced in 5-7 years. If an equivalent project used timber,
it would require 500 hectares of forest cover and it would
take decades to replace.
Bamboo, unlike cement and steel, helps in decentralizing
the construction process which has both economic and
more importantly ecological advantages.
SEUF is an NGO working in the field of water and sanitation and this
was out first structure in bamboo having a circular form.
Our upcoming projects in Bamboo and our Dream

project.
Our upcoming bamboo projects include
Back Packer Resorts, Alleppey, Kerala. Accomodation
for approx 240 back packers
River Valley, Trivandrum, Kerala. An IT office complex,
approximately 40,000 sft in area.
We of course are dreaming of the day when we would be
commencing the construction of a 15 storeyed high rise
building in bamboo.
265
Evolving A Vocabulary Of
Architecture
brief of the project and also handle the potential of the

site. I explain my thesis here with specific examples as an
exploratory journey.
Gerard da Cunha,
Architect, Goa
While working in a particular region, research about the
place on how the inhabitants traditionally solved their
basic problems of shelter, is essential. This might be the
choice of materials, the techniques deployed due to the
limitations of the material and how they tackled challenges
posed by the climate in the form of rains, the storms and
the variations of temperatures. Next, we look at the local
genius, the aesthetics being created in terms of the craft
employed in the building, how they enclosed space and how
they presented their buildings to the Gods.
Trying to adopt an evolutionist ideology in my design
process, my belief is that the only way to design effectively
is to let the design evolve during the act of building. It is
impossible to decide everything in advance, and the site
provides the best position from which key decisions can
be made. Therefore, it is important that the architect is also
the builder. And when he lets the workers participate in the
process of building, thats when it is possible to recover
craftsmanship. The starting points of the design are the
clues provided by the site and the regional vernacular. From
there on, the language of design is provided by materials in
terms of structure, texture and colour. The T- Square and
the computer are shackles on creativity.
In the beginning of any design effort, I use my research as
a loose starting point. Like vernacular examples, I try and
use a holistic system of construction, which automatically
creates its aesthetic. It is important to me that the system or
language I evolve should be capable of solving the complex
The hotel now owned by the Taj Group of Hotels
266
Nrityagram
Nrityagram Dance Village Bangalore.

This was an idealistic project for the famous Indian Classical
dancer Protima Bedi. She wanted to recreate a village which
would nurture Indian Classical dance, which was otherwise
on a decline. Her dance village would teach according to the
ancient Guru Shishya Parampara where the Teacher and the
student would live in close proximity so that the art would get
passed on. It also included an adjoining site for a resort.
The site was a rather poor one, 400 mts x 100 mts of slightly
undulating land with small mango trees. Subsequently, another
seven acres were bought. The basic planning was of a village
which was to grow spontaneously along a pedestrian spine. A
service road was planned along the periphery. I moved from
Goa to Bangalore and lived in this place in a tent for over a
year as I studied how local village buildings were constructed
and how local craftsmen worked.
The local system of construction- a framework of rough granite columns,

beams, lintels and slabs
The first building under construction
The building had a foundation of

random rubble of granite, in mud
mortar, and a slab was introduced
at plinth level to handle settlement.
The workers used random local
stones in mud mortar and made
the plinth beam in granite. There
was also plentiful usage of a
particular brown stone found on
the site.
Another
local
system
of
construction was the use of a
framework of rough granite
columns, beams, lintels and slabs,
where they used granite posts a
foot by 8 inches and put beams on
top and slabs across. It was very
cheap and came from a distance The Nubian dome
of a few kilometers around. The
system however meant that the design of building had
to be rather simple. Something, which I was not used to
doing as I was more inclined towards curvesd forms. I
therefore decided to use the Nubian dome. I married the
Nubian dome into the plans creating a varied plan. In this
structure the larger spaces such as the living and bedrooms
are placed under the domes while the service areas such as
the kitchen, toilets are placed under slabs. The system thus
evolved could take on a more complex brief as seen in
this Kathak Gurukul i.e. the teachers house, with separate
living areas of the girl students, the boy students and a
Model of the Kathak Gurukul
practice hall. The structure of columns was in the middle

and on the exterior I used walls and on the grid I kept
openings which could be used as doors, or windows or
any other use I could put it to.
The Nubian dome was very simple to build and the village
masons perfected it in a few days. Soon, they could build a
dome of four meter span within a day. As I was living on
the site, my approach to working drawings was very basic.
I only used a scale. It was a crazy method of design where
I drew up detailed plans at 1:50 before I started building
One of the architects drawings used for the construction of Nrityagram
267
and made sure it worked. I then drew the foundation plans

and then threw my drawings away. I started my building
using the foundation as a drawing board, after which
I detailed down the various aspects on small pieces of
paper at 1:1 or 1:5. It was a completely psyched approach
to build. When one lives on the site one spends a lot of
time doing strange things like these.
A depression on the site became the water body of the
hotel project. The slabs and domes, along with a creative
use of material resulted in a rather interesting architectural
landscape. The whole thing was a combination of
various things like a column and beam construction
along with domes. Various interesting things have been
attempted without deviating from the structural systems.
The buildings were made in only mud and stone and
therefore were allowed to develop their own shapes.
The cob web block which houses the suites came out
the way the structure dictated. The partition walls in
the hotel rooms were rendered with mud plaster with
mythological scenes painted on the same. The stones
within the insides of the building were not dressed. This
place is now owned by the Taj Group of Hotels.
The Gateway of the dance village was inspired by a
Torana, the sacred vedic and Buddhist entrance. Grass
thatch became the roofing material is the large span Yoga
centre. The buildings were a product of the construction
systems and had repetitive external wall systems with
Masonry and then an Arch. The Arch could be bricked
in, include a door or a window inserted or could be just
left open.
The Gateway of the dance village inspired by the Torana
Vidyanagar Karnataka.
The project is in the Hot Arid region of South India close
to the World Heritage site at Hampi. It is a company town
attached to a large steel factory. There were many constraints
related to the remoteness of the location, urgency in
completion and a low budget. I visited numerous company
towns and realized that it had been a badly handled subject,
with a master planner making a land use plan and individual
designers later placing a school, market, or housing complex
within. No account was taken of the spatial aspect of the
town and there was no discernable network for the services.
I therefore decided to create a township that was:
Unique in its identity
Comfortable in this hot climate
Safe for children
268
The cobweb block which is a part of the hotel
The Yoga Centre
The hotel
Where houses are homes and have individuality (not

identified by mere numbers) and are built largely with
prefabricated systems.
Flexible in its planning to cater for expansion and
change.
Modern and uses state of the art technology.
Visually interesting with wonderful streetscapes,
unfolding views, surprises and vistas.
Urban in character.
A result of the lie of the land and inspired by the
region.
Meant primarily for people, with services and traffic
being secondary. Services must be put in a network to
cater to expansion and change.
Vidyanagar township
We felt the need to go down and do something very interesting

but realized that it was more of a management problem
than purely a design issue. One had to co-ordinate various
consultants, for e.g. in plumbing and electrical work etc., who
had their own issues. The client wanted 600 houses in 300 days
and no delays. He wanted to avoid deviations in the design of
the house, with every general manager having the same number
of windows and therfore it was quite difficult at that point to
marry all conflicts.
We began with the cluster design, wherein the various units
formed building blocks which could be joined together in
various ways thus creating interesting streetscapes. The unit had
to be capable of adjusting to the varied slope of the land. In this
idealistic layout, 4 clusters of 18 houses each overlook an open
space which is connected to the neighborhood park. The whole
area is free from vehicular traffic. The masterplan of the site
which has about 10000 people living here includes all expected
facilities such as the market, a club, hotel, schools, temples and
the areas airport.
The cluster
The type IV units were used as corner units. Each unit was
designed permitting the roof of one to be used as the terrace
of another. Local stone was used at the lower levels and a
system of concrete joists was present to support a stone slab
roof. The open space within each cluster was landscaped in a
different manner. The major open spaces accommodate the
public gardens. Each unit had a different plinth level and each
home has either a garden or a terrace which is used extensively
for sleeping and external living.
A typical house in the township
The type IV corner unit (above) & type V unit (below)
269
A clock tower at one of the nodal intersections
The main open space with the larger playground
Many of the streets have an interesting geometry. There exists

an alternative pedestrian system of pathways as well. It is in
the form of a pedestrian spine, going through the town, where
one can go from the club to the shopping center, from there
to the playground or the theater. The entire pathway system
was shaded by trees. Important vistas have buildings as focal
points and public buildings are designed around courtyard
spaces. The market place also has a park in the centre where
stone pergolas have been used as shading devices for buildings.
Important buildings such as the temple have gateways providing
them importance. The gateway to the temple is a large pagoda
all done in stone. All these various touches add a great deal in
contributing to the overall feel of the place.
Pergolas are used as shading devices
The shopping centre with a central garden
The shaded streets of the township
Gerardia- Museum of Houses of Goa

This is a personal project where I built a centre for my
little kingdom. The site is located about 7 kms from Panjim
and is in a beautiful valley. I bought this triangle to create a
roundabout as I possess a number of buildings all around.
It had to help sort out the traffic problem to my wifes
school and also house a little Museum on the traditional
Goan House.
Nishas playschool
Museum
To spring
llage
i
To v
Architects house
city
To
Architects office
The site for Gerardia
270
View of the building at night
Gallery
Toilet
Gallery
Kitchen
Gallery/Theatre
Reception
Plans of (from left to right) the ground floor, levels I, II and III
I placed the building like a traffic island along with parking.

The building envelope was trianglular and an acute
triangular plan was used with a little spiral staircase placed
in the centre. I cut off the corners so that traffic could flow
around easily and corbelled out to complete the triangle
above. The reception, toilet and caf are at the ground level.
At the first level is Gallery 1 with two little balconies at
the two ends. At the second level is Gallery 2 with little
cut outs at the ends. The third level is theatre is Gallery 3
which also houses a theatre where people can sit and watch
a film. From the road it looks like a ship and from the left it
resembles a fish. Giant grinding stones are used as columns
at the ends.
Level II with details of Goan Architecture: doors, windows etc.
Gallery 3/Theatre
Gallery 2
Gallery 1
Ground Floor
Section
Level III with the theatre (with a screen that can be pulled down)
Giant grinding stones are used as columns at the ends
In conclusion, it must be emphasised that the process is

very important in realizing the design. The next important
thing is your response to the site. The last thing is the usage
of the local element in terms of the structural system, the
materials and the local genius of the place.
271
Continuing Traditions in
New Architecture and Urbanism:
Case studies in Place Making
Place Making In India Some Streets

In A Small Town, A Historic Precinct
And A Haat
Pradeep Sachdeva
Architect & Designer, New Delhi
These examples of completed and ongoing urban projects
depict the process of Place-Making from conceptualization
to completion. These projects in the urban realm examine
the synergies between our urban, cultural and architectural
heritage. The intention is not to produce architectural
objects or urban intrusions, but to create a place, which is
rendered meaningful by the people for whom it is meant.
This involves a deep understanding of the traditions and the
values of the place and its people and it is on these subtle
and simplistic sensibilities that these projects are based.
design of the project began by creating a central open place

for the public with the crafts shops and the food stalls on
either side of it. The intention was not to have too many
shops and to provide a lot of space for people to walk
around. The crafts shops are towards the front and the food
stalls at the back, keeping in mind how fond the people of
Delhi are of eating. If the arrangement had been otherwise
it is quite possible that one would not even have made it to
the crafts shops!
The Haat always has a festive air about it. It is meant to be a
platform for craftsmen from all over the country. They are
given the shops for a period of two weeks at a time and this
way no one has permanent occupancy. This is the reason for
its changing moods; every fortnight the place is different.
Furthermore, the place is always animated by people and
ongoing activities, which lend to Dilli Haat its effervescent
character. The Haat was visualized as a place that would
be democratic in character, such that the rich and the poor
Dilli Haat- Food and Crafts Bazaar,

New Delhi
The project, which was completed 15
years ago, has established itself as a
benchmark, and is one of Indias most
successful public spaces built in recent
times. This place acts as a hub for the
people of Delhi to come and spend
their leisure time, and has become a
popular tourist destination as well. The
project is an urban renewal project built
on top of a concrete slab, wherein the
site has been reclaimed over a storm
water drain.
The brief given was for a crafts market
but subsequently it became a food and
crafts market. The conception and View towards Dilli Haat from entrance forecourt
1. Entry Plaza
2. Craft Area
3. Food Courts
4. Aurobindo Road
5. Tickets and Offices
6. Nallah (drain)
7. Line of original Nallah
8. Concrete slab
Dilli Haat: Plan (above) and Section
Continuing Traditions in New Architecture and Urbanism: Case Studies in Place Making
275
The Haat always has a festive air about it
Dilli Haat: Entrance forecourt
could both feel comfortable here. It is in achieving this that

the project can be considered the most successful.
mud phuska terracing done

on the top. If one were
to drive around western
UP or Haryana one
would come across the
traditional jaalis which
formed the inspiration
for a series of jaali designs
on the buildings and the
boundary wall etc. of the
Haat.
A distance of about 25 meters towards the front acts as

a buffer between the busy Aurobindo Marg and the Haat.
This entry plaza is accessed from the side, which ensures
that people do not spill out straight on to the road. The
sequel of spaces as one moves along came to be somewhat
dictated by the existing nullah slab that the Haat is situated
on, since it is not possible to build on top of it. When the
project began, this natural drain leading into the Yamuna had
already been boxed in over a stretch of about a kilometer or
so, of which the Haat was to cover about 600 meters. As a
result, the structures built in the Haat lie either on the edge
of the retaining walls or beyond because of the mud filled
in the nullah. The site was actually a dumping ground when
the construction started and therefore, it was a couple of
years before it became popular.
In 2003, Dilli Haat was made completely accessible and
was the first tourist complex in New Delhi. Though the
place may not be completely visually disabled friendly, the
physically disabled find it quite user friendly.
Yet, it is not a traditional

vernacular
vocabulary
that the project draws
from. It has adopted
the regional language of
local, simple materials
in an attempt to create a Traditional materials and elements used
language that the people in the construction of Delhi
who visit and especially
the crafts people coming here can identify with.
37mm thk. sandstone coping
brick parapet
Roofing detail for shops
Disabled friendly architecture
The various materials used are from the surrounding

regions but have been interpreted in a way unique to the
project. Brick, which is commonly available in the region,
has been employed along with slate from Himachal Pradesh.
Sandstone slabs, traditionally used in Rajasthan, have been
used for the shop roofs with pre-cast concrete beams.
Earthen or clay pots have been used for insulation and
276
There was another project across the road, which was taken
up five years back and was to connect to Dilli Haat. It was
to be a flower market but it has been on hold for the last
three years since the New Delhi Municipal Corporation has
decided not to go ahead with it for the moment. The idea
was to create the same mood here and connect the two
bazaars through a pedestrian subway since, at the present a
huge interchange exists between the two making it difficult
for pedestrians to cross. It was also proposed to provide
some shops in the subway so that people would feel safe
while using it. The parking problem at Dilli Haat would also
have been solved, by adding a large parking section near the
flower market. This market too, was supposed to be built
on the nullah(drain). It was conceived to have a large roof.
Streetscaping in Nanded, Maharashtra

This project is under development and the construction is
about to begin. It comes under the Government of Indias
National Urban Renewal Program. The streets in Nanded
face problems similar to that of most Indian towns and
cities. The streets seem to be designed only for cars and do
not provide for the movement of all the users of a street.
The picture depicts
what a typical street
in an average small
town looks like,
with a wide variety
of users Pedestrians
Cyclists
Cars
Buses
Auto rickshaws
Cycle rickshaws
Two wheelers
Pushcarts
Hawkers
Beggars
A typical street view
Animals
Plan of the project area
vendors being an integral part. They are very different from

the streets in Europe, America or even South East Asia and
may be said to have a parlance similar only to that of South
Asia.
Indian streets are not even car oriented except in the

metropolitan cities. The pictures illustrate the present
scenario wherein the issues of around 80% of the users are
not addressed.
The project covers 50 kilometers of the key streets of this
historic town of Maharashtra, which inter-connect the entry
points to the core city area. The project operates on the
premise that public spaces in the city are primarily meant
for the people and not only cars. People need space to walk,
public transport and safety. The architect needs to make it
a safe, friendly and pleasant experience. The designing of a
street section should be carried out by an urban designer or
an architect and not engineers, as has traditionally been the
case. It is an essential design job and engineers really do not
have any idea about how these things work.
A sustainable road infrastructure needs to be developed
that caters to all the users by allocating appropriate spaces
for various functions and requirements. The streets and
pavements in India are multifunctional, hawkers and
Dilli Haat: Plan (above) and Section
The various components of a street design would be

Motor Vehicles lanes
Non Motor Vehicle Lanes
Pedestrian Footpaths
Bus Stops
Cycle Rickshaw Stands
Auto Rickshaw Stands
Tree Positions
Planters
Hawker Platform Space
Street Lighting
Raised safer pedestrian crossings cum traffic calmers
Pedestrian Refuges
Tactile Warning Blocks
Toilets
Urban Utilities
An Accessible Environment for all users
These pictures in the following page show the proposed
street plan and section for an existing precinct of Nanded
incorporating all the components listed above. Instead of
the bicycle lanes provided in many countries, a Non Motor
Vehicle lane has been provided which is meant for cycles,
cycle rickshaws and pushcarts. Swinging this lane across
creates zones for hawkers, auto rickshaw stands and on
street parking for two wheelers. Space for urban utilities like
transformers etc. has also been provided along with toilet
blocks by combining two multi-utility zones. The proposed
multi-utility strip would take care of the problem of people
jostling against each other due to overcrowding, and also
provide for street lighting and other related activities. All
this has been done within the framework of the existing
street sections.
Nanded has a very well known Sikh Gurudwara and a whole
pedestrian precinct has been created around that. Plans to
have completely pedestrian areas are underway based on the
277
Proposed general street plan with the various street components

discussions with the users. As a designer one should also take
care not to take an overtly rigid stance on making sections
completely pedestrian. The street plan for this area shows the
bio-filtering swales, the Non Motor Vehicle lane, space for
hawkers, cycle and cycle rickshaw stands, and a 6 meter wide
pedestrian walkway for emergency vehicles to move across.
The photomontages present the proposed look of the
streets. The project demands an understanding of the
Photomontages of the proposed look of the streets

usage patterns of the spaces to enable sensitive design
response and intervention. The focus of the design process
is to understand traditional usage of the public domain
and organize as well as distribute the spaces according to
the current activity patterns. This process of design draws
upon resources provided by a large number of experts and
organizations with expertise in issues related to hawkers,
non motorized modes of transport, pedestrian behavior,
traffic calming, barrier free movement etc.
18 m Right of Way
Road no: 3
Location: Gurudwara gate no. 1- Keli Market
Total length: 0.72 km
Road no: 4
Location: Keli Market - Barki Chowk
Total length: 0.32 km
Proposed street plan and section of one of the streets
278
Master plan for the Redevelopment of the Jama Masjid

Precinct, Delhi
The Jama Masjid
Location of the site
The project calls for a

contextual response to
the surrounding urban
fabric and the historic
setting. The walled city
of Shahjahanabad has
been an active urban
settlement for the last
300 years. Within this
dense urban precinct,
the Jama Masjid acts
as an urban magnet
around
which
a
bustling economy has
established itself.
The area at present is in poor condition and needs urgent

intervention. There exists a lot of disjointed area; the
people are crammed in here and the open spaces cannot
be used. Sporadic and ad-hoc infrastructure improvements
and planning interventions in the area have been inadequate
Jama Masjid is locaed within the dense city of Shahjehanabad

in catering to the needs of the growing number of users
and their changing requirements.
A draft plan of this historic precinct has been completed.
The areas of intervention are the disjointed spaces around
the mosque and the surrounding roads. The plan shows the
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Jama Masjid Building

Jama Masjid Grounds
Erstwhile Edward Park Area
Peripheral Road Network
Arterial Road Network
The Areas in and around Jama Masjid taken up for redevelopment

279
peripheral road and the supporting arterial road network

around which the master plan is situated. Detailed studies
of the day and the night-time usage of this area were
carried out. The Master Plan has been prepared on the
basis of such surveys of the area as well as inputs from
the Civic Agencies, Service Infrastructure providers and the
Government of Delhi.
The master plan proposes the central area to be a
pedestrian zone along with consolidation of the open
spaces followed by their development into plazas and green
spaces. Motorized traffic is to be separated from the nonmotorized traffic by providing bi-directional cycle lanes on
both sides of Subhash Marg and on the inner side of the
peripheral street network. The Jama Masjid grounds are to
be extended to increase the holding capacity of the mosque.
Historical routes to the Red Fort and the circumambulatory
route around Jama Masjid are to be re-established. Multiple
pedestrian routes are to be created to increase permeability
and connectivity across the precinct. Meena Bazaar is to
be relocated and a large underground parking, that would
accommodate tourist buses and connect to the pedestrian
spine linking Jama Masjid and Red Fort, is to be created. A
Tourist Interpretation Centre would also be located off the
pedestrian spine. The plan also envisages redevelopment of
the Mazaars and the Dargahs of the area.
Road Section
The final plan shows the proposed reorganization with

clearly defined movement networks, for pedestrians,
cyclists, buses and motor vehicles, and consolidation of the
unutilized open spaces. The idea is to cover all the users
and to do it in an empathetic way, which ought to be an
essential approach in our country. For example, hawkers
need not be relocated; instead an informal space should
be created for them and not an overtly structured one.
Apart from the provision of facilitates for the tourists and
pilgrims, the project also envisages the creation of open
plazas for informal entertainment theaters keeping in mind
the strong tradition of poetry, mushairas and theatres etc. of
Old Delhi.
The road sections are similar to the ones discussed for
Nanded with the exception of introducing state of the art
common utility ducts since the peripheral roads feed the
major parts of the city.
The redevelopment plan not only involves a beautification
process of the area, it also aims for a complete upgradation
of the urban infrastructure. The project provides an
opportunity to revitalize a place of outstanding heritage
value to the city.
280
Jama
Masjid
Red
Fort
Proposed re-organization
Evaluation Of The Pedestrian

Environment A Qualitative
Approach: A Case Study Of
Thyagaraya Nagar, The Commercial
Hub Of Chennai City
Rakesh K.S.,
Assistant Professor, Deptt. of Architecture
Sathyabama University, Chennai
1. BACKGROUND
Its on foot that you see peoples faces and that you meet and experience
them. That is how public socializing and community enjoyment in
daily life can most easily occur. And its on foot that one can be most
intimately involved with the urban environment: with stores, houses,
the natural environment, and with people. (Jacobs, Allen 1993)
Pedestrian spaces are becoming increasingly rare nowadays.
The explosive increase in vehicular traffic has relegated the
pedestrian to subways and over bridges. A pedestrian is not
taken into account in the planning and design of traffic and
transportation systems with the importance imparted to
vehicular modes of travel.
What is frequently overlooked is the fact that at some point
or the other, every person is a pedestrian. So, serious thought
should be given to the various issues relevant to pedestrians
such as pedestrian safety, convenience and amenities.
Pedestrian spaces have a long history. Most of the older
towns in India as well as abroad, display a degree of respect
towards the pedestrian which is higher than modern day
cities. One of the obvious reasons is that walking was a
significant mode of traffic in those days.
The Industrial era and the advent of the automobile signaled
the decline of walking and its associated spaces. Indian cities
have not yet reached the level of western cities in terms of
vehicular volume, but they are growing very rapidly. With
a major percentage of trips performed by walking, logic
dictates that pedestrians deserve more respect in the overall
urban scheme.
Various studies have demonstrated the benefits that could
accrue to a city by the creation of proper pedestrian spaces
improvement in circulation of people, better areas for
shopping, attraction for tourists, higher rental values,
increased opportunities for leisure, better environment
for residential areas, helps in environmental protection,
increased scope for conservation, helps in promoting
intellectual social relations and in projecting a better image
of the town and its administration.( Shelley, Anne; 1976)
As Jane Jacobs said Streets and their sidewalks, the main public
places of a city, are its most vital organs. Think of a city and what
comes to mind? Its streets. (Jacobs, Jane; 1961)
Streets function as:
Utilitarian equipment,
Cultural manifestation, and
Local focal points. ( Kroll, J.; 2001)
As utilitarian equipment, streets must provide safe,
comfortable, multimodal mobility and direct and equitable
access to commerce, culture and recreation.
As cultural manifestation, major streets and plazas can

provide a forum for the celebration of public events and
common purposes. Such public spaces then become stages
for the expression of larger social and political concerns.
Parades, protests, and revolutions are temporary guests of
grand streets and plazas which make them possible.
As local focal points, streets are unique grounds for
individual and community growth. Even in a fast-pace
world, such a pedestrian realm affords belonging and love
of place.
These three principal street functions provide various
stages for the personal experience of walking. This
personal experience takes place in a physical, social, and
cultural milieu. Any method that attempts to evaluate this
multifaceted personal experience should be equally rich in
analytical rigor and insight.
Currently available methodologies of assessing service levels
for pedestrians are unable to analyze the entire spectrum of
the walking experience.
Encouragement provided to walking creates a better
awareness of a street or an area. People tend to become
conscious of the character of a street, its buildings, their
detailing and the small open spaces abutting the street.
Walking is the ideal way by which a person can appreciate
the urban environment. A person needs to walk leisurely,
absorb the sights and sounds, experience the smells wafting
through the breeze and jostle with fellow shoppers and
pedestrians in crowded markets for space.
As Colin Buchanan points out: Walking is also an integral part
of many other matters, such as looking at shop windows, admiring the
scene, or talking to people. In all, it does not seem to be far from the
truth that the freedom with which a person can walk about and look
around is a useful guide to the civilized quality of an urban area.
(Buchanan, C; 1963)
Pedestrian networks encourage people to stand and talk to
each other, to simply stand and observe any activity going
on, to listen to street musicians, etc.
Thus, the street becomes an extension of the home. Safety
and security of children and elderly people are no longer
issues of importance.
Street hawkers, food vendors and sales kiosks lend interest
and diversity to the street scene. Therefore, it is not just
from the point of tourists or shoppers that pedestrian
facilities should be looked at. The entire gamut of street
life should be covered, from shopping corridors, parks,
residential front gardens, squares for ceremonies, meeting
points, parade grounds, spaces for street entertainment and
much more.
2. OBJECTIVES
To highlight issues relating to pedestrian facility
planning
To look at alternative approaches to pedestrian space
standards vis--vis IRC guidelines.
A report of the existing status of pedestrian facilities in
the area under consideration.
Analysis of the existing facilities from a qualitative
viewpoint.
281
3. ISSUES
These are a few fundamental questions which could be
categorized as various issues relating to pedestrian spaces:
1. Issues relating to visual and sensory perception,
imageability and aesthetic impact.
How does one evaluate the quality of a pedestrian
environment?
Does the introduction of a pedestrian area help to
improve the imageability and quality of life of an urban
area?
Does the Architectural environment influence the
quality and success of a pedestrian area?
2. Issues relating to climate, vegetation and topography.
How does climate and vegetation exert an impact on
the usage of pedestrian areas?
How does topography of an area influence the usage of
a pedestrian area?
3. Issues relating to design parameters and standards.
What are the problems afflicting existing pedestrian
areas?
Are they being effectively used?
Does the size and function of a city matter with respect
to its pedestrian areas?
How do Land use patterns influence usage of pedestrian
areas?
Should the context (location, land use) determine
standards for pedestrian areas and facilities?
4. Issues relating to user-friendliness and pedestrian
convenience and satisfaction.
Can user perception be utilized to frame context specific
standards?
Can user perception be harnessed to evolve a tool to
document the contribution of pedestrian areas to the
quality of life of an urban area?
5. Issues relating to social (culture, lifestyle), economic and
religious aspects.
How do we provide the pedestrian his due share of the
street?
How do our culture and lifestyle exert an impact on the
usage of pedestrian areas?
How does the economic condition of an area affect
usage of pedestrian areas?
4. GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS
4.1 IRC
The Indian Roads Congress (IRC) has stipulated standards
for pedestrian facilities like Sidewalks, Guard Rails and
Pedestrian Crossings both at-grade and grade-separated
(Indian Roads Congress, 1998).
But these lack the human element like aesthetics, scale,
form and proportion.
Pedestrian amenities and street furniture do not find a place
in these standards. Context-specific standards according to
the location in the city, hierarchy of streets and functions of
streets have not been thought of.
282
There have been no comprehensive standards developed

for the Indian context especially in metropolitan cities as far
as accessibility criteria and pedestrian spaces is concerned.
The IRC guidelines for pedestrian facilities provides details
of sidewalks, guard-rails and crossings at-grade and gradeseparated.
Sidewalks:
Sidewalks should be provided on both sides of the
road.
The width of sidewalks depends upon the expected
pedestrian flows, subject to a minimum of 1.5 metres.
Table 1
Width of
sidewalk(m)
Capacity in no. of persons per

hour
All in one
direction
In both
directions
1.50
1,200
800
2.00
2,400
1,600
2.50
3,600
2,400
3.00
4,800
3,200
4.00
6,000
4,000
In shopping areas, the width should be increased by 1

metre which is treated as dead width. Where sidewalks
abut buildings and fences, the dead with can be taken as
0.5 metres. For areas of heavy pedestrian activity such as
bus stops, railway stations and recreational areas, the width
of sidewalks should be suitably increased to account for
accumulation of pedestrians.
Guard-rails:
Guard-rails could be considered at hazardous locations
along straight stretches, at junctions / intersections, near
schools, bus stops, stations, subways, over bridges and in
central reserves.
Crossings:
Cross-walks of width 2.0 to 4.0 metres should be
provided at all important intersections and such locations
where substantial conflict exists between vehicular and
pedestrian movements. They should be at right angles to
the carriageway and properly marked.
Grade-separated crossings are warranted when the
volumes of pedestrian and vehicular traffic are very large,
vehicular traffic demands uninterrupted flow and at-grade
crossings fail to mitigate the problems of pedestrian-vehicle
collision.
4.2 HCM and LOS
The HCM 2000 defines Level of Service as follows: A
qualitative measure describing operational conditions within
a traffic stream, based on service measures such as speed
and travel time, freedom to maneuver, traffic interruptions,
comfort, and convenience (HCM 2000, p. 5-8.). This
definition of level of service applies to all transportation
modes, motorized or non-motorized. Walking is treated as

a variation of motorized traffic, the transportation modes
being separated only by space and time.
The qualitative measures of pedestrian flow are similar to those used
for vehicular flow, such as the freedom to choose desired speeds and to
bypass others (HCM 2000, p. 11-1).
The HCM attempts to make walking an equal among all
transport modes, but it does so only on its terms of service
measures. The LOS system is remarkable for its lack of
relevance to the personal experience of walking. LOS is
based on chronological time. The quality of walking is,
however, determined to large degree by psychological or
perceived time.
For instance, a lively and vibrant sidewalk tends to make
slow speeds acceptable, even enjoyable. But, according
to the HCM methodology - a high crime area, where
pedestrians are hardly seen for obvious reasons, provides
good LOS.
Fig.2 Typical pedestrian spacing
Thus a pedestrian facility provides a high LOS if few pedestrians are

present, and the best possible pedestrian LOS is achieved with one
pedestrian present, or none!
A logical conclusion since pedestrian LOS is operationally
defined as freedom to maneuver. This pedestrian perspective
is unsettling and grotesque, however, when we want to
understand and improve the pedestrian realm from a social,
cultural and economic point of view.
Fig.3 Waiting at curbs at an intersection
4.3 Aranya An example of Indian standards.
Fig.4 Gazing at the wares displayed by street vendors
Fig.1: Aranya Levels of Accessibility.

Architect B.V. Doshi in the Aga Khan Award winning project
Aranya a housing project at Indore had developed a
Levels of Accessibility scale for various facilities, but it
was purely restricted to a residential layout. (Vastu-Shilpa
Foundation. 1990)
4.4 Edward Hall & Robert Sommer
Edward Hall (Hall, Edward T. 1990) in Hidden Dimension
and Robert Sommer(Sommer, Robert. 1969) in Personal
Space have developed standards for typical pedestrian
spacing (Fig.2), waiting at curbs at an intersection (Fig.3),
stopping and gazing at the wares displayed by street
Fig.5 Listening to street musicians perform
(Desirable moving space bubble 4-6 long by 2-2.5wide)
283
Fig.6 Personal Standard
vendors (Fig.4), street

musicians (Fig.5) and
typical densities in public
spaces (Fig.6, Fig.7, Fig.8
and Fig.9). These are
graphical representations
of the basic terminology
developed by Robert
Sommer in Personal
space for determining
the amount of space
people want or need.
5. DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY AREA
Fig.7 Personal (Close Phase)
Thyagaraya Nagar (T.Nagar) is an important sub-centre of

Chennai city which is located in the southern part of India.
(Fig.10)
The study area is bounded by Kodambakkam High road
on the north, Mount road on the east, Mount road on the
south and the suburban railway line on the west, comprising
an area of 6.94 square kilometers. (Fig.11)
Its growth in the commercial sector has been phenomenal
over the recent years. It has transformed itself into a centre
of intense commercial activity from its original residential
nature over a period of time.
As a result of this, there is a remarkable change in the
overall land use pattern and subsequent development of
commercial establishments without any comprehensive
planning, which has resulted in the overburdening on
sectors like land use, services and traffic and transportation
network.
Fig.8 Average 6-8 sft. /person

(Crowded subway)
Fig.9 Average 10 sft/Person

(Crowded sidewalk )
It attracts many people from different parts of the city and

its suburbs, owing to its location and transportation links.
T.Nagar has the highest commercial catchment population
when compared with other commercial centers of the city
like Adyar, Nungambakkam, Purusawakkam, etc.
Commercial activity has spread over the years on all the

major roads, in a linear pattern. Now it is slowly encroaching
on the by lanes of the major commercial streets. Single
storey shops have given way to multi storey shopping
malls, but with little change in the infrastructure available.
Figure 12 and 13 illustrate the cramped nature of the street,
packed with shoppers and the feeling is accentuated by the
architecture and the wares on display.
Fig.10: The southern peninsula of India
Fig.11 Detailed layout of T.Nagar area in Chennai
284
Fig.12 Ranganathan Street
Fig.13 Ranganathan Street
Fig.14 South Usman road
Fig.15 South Usman road
Ranganathan Street and South Usman road are two of

the most crowded streets, with a wide variety of shops
beckoning people from all corners of the metropolis. But,
they present a dismal picture as far as pedestrian facilities
and amenities are concerned. Sidewalks are encroached
upon, pedestrian amenities are non-existent and there
is practically no segregation of vehicular and pedestrian
traffic. (Fig 14 and Fig 15)
Devi theatre complex and consequently the large number of

pedestrians all contribute to the morphology of informal
and unauthorized shops. The entire sidewalk is taken up
by hawkers. Unauthorized parking of two-wheelers and
auto rickshaws also push the pedestrian farther out into the
vehicular carriageway.
Figure 16 uses the same graphical representation for

Ranganathan Street, employing the personal space bubble
and the moving space bubble. There are no sidewalks.
Vehicular movement is restricted so the entire stretch is
used by pedestrians. Maintaining the same space standards
26 by 46, this representation reveals the disorderly
movement of pedestrians and the resultant congestion on
the road.
Pedestrian spaces need to be architecturally designed

and properly fitted out. People want to be able to avail
themselves of all kinds of amenities in pedestrian spaces.
The aim of introducing amenities is to create external spaces
in which a pedestrian can feel at ease. According to Anne
Shelley, street furnishings are distinctive characteristics and
psychologically the design has the effect of a symbol of
recognition.
Figure 17 uses the same standard for another location

Mount Road. Here, the trees shade, the subway, G.P.O.,
Furniture, varied architectural features, play equipment,

lighting fixtures, landscaping, fountains and works of art
Fig.16: Ranganathan Street, T.Nagar
Fig.17: Mount Road area in Chennai
Amenities
285
these elements could visually integrate the entire space.

Provision of resting places simple sitting areas with
chairs, benches or steps where one can have a break is an
important element of pedestrian spaces.
The list of architectural features is extensive and includes
public conveniences, shoe-shine stands, traffic control
booths, sand bins, litter bins, road signs, signboards,
information kiosks, town map boards, time tables, calendars
of local events, loudspeaker systems, clocks, letter boxes,
telephone booths, etc.
Corners for playing and games equipment such as lines
for games on the floor surfaces, patterned tiles for games,
climbing equipment, chess boards, roller-skating rinks, folkdance floors and pram parks constantly increase the range
of play and leisure-time equipment in pedestrian spaces.
Lighting apart from being a source of illumination is an
important design element. The shape of fixtures, type of
light (direct, diffused or dimmed), the quantum and colour
of lighting characterizes the visual quality of a pedestrian
space.
The types of elements used in architectural landscaping
include flower boxes, tubs, borders, shrubs, potted trees,
etc. and could provide much needed visual relief.
Fountains and gargoyles, water channels, bird baths, etc.
would cleanse the air, cool the microclimate and become
meeting points.
Works of art like statues, coloured surfaces, mosaics,
frescoes, etc. would enliven an otherwise drab environment
and would help people to feel at home in them.
abundant. A pedestrian also has to constantly duck beneath

or avoid products which are hung up for display.
The sidewalk is actually very wide on an average about
two metres but due to the encroachment by the hawkers
and other impediments like lamp posts, electricity junction
boxes, telephone pillar boxes, the actual space available
varies from two feet to three feet.
The canvas sheets put up by the hawkers serve to shade
the sidewalk to an extent. This side of the street is also
benefited by the abundant tree cover, which is strangely
lacking on the opposite side.
Most of the pedestrians tend to walk on the carriageway
to avoid the obstacles on the sidewalk. Goods are dumped
by shopkeepers on the sidewalk. Lamp posts are put up
on sidewalks by shops to illuminate their signboards. Two
wheelers are parked on any free stretch of sidewalks.
(Fig.20)
Regulation is equally bad. The entire stretch follows a oneway traffic system but nevertheless due to the enormous
number of pedestrians, there are numerous conflict points
between vehicles and pedestrians. (Fig.21)
Crossings are non-existent except for the two ends of the
stretch which are served by traffic signals. Consequently
pedestrians tend to cross over wherever they wish, leading
to traffic snarls and frayed tempers.
Cleanliness is at a premium here in spite of the street being
the premier shopping destination for Chennai and the
meticulous cleaning of garbage undertaken every morning.
In T. Nagar, pedestrian amenities are virtually non-existent.

There are no resting places, no coherent signage system, no
unified design language adopted for street furniture, no play
equipment, no landscaping or works of art.
Thus, a qualitative assessment needs to be conducted which

could highlight factors, such as Safety, Security, Comfort,
Convenience, and Attractiveness etc. These environmental
factors can greatly influence the pedestrians perceptions of
the overall quality of the street environment.
The sidewalks the only area allocated for the pedestrians

are dilapidated and encroached upon by government and
illegal structures.
These factors can be analyzed in finer detail and an

evaluation and grading method can be devised to assess the
street. (Sarkar, S. 2002)
Most of the sidewalk is covered with hawkers stalls. This

is a unique feature of South Usman road where the formal
shops co-exist with the informal hawkers. The stalls are very
well patronized by shoppers. Consequently the remaining
space is barely adequate for one person to walk. (Fig.18 and
Fig.19)
6. EVALUATION
The condition of the sidewalk is poor and in dire need

of maintenance. Pot-holes and missing pavement tiles are
Fig.18 A view of the hawkers stalls.
286
A checklist could be drawn up, containing a list of

preferred facilities and amenities.
Ratings for each of these facilities could be given.
The street could be evaluated against this checklist.
A checklist of preferred qualities/characteristics could
be framed with ratings.
Fig.19 A view of the reduced sidewalk
Fig.20 The impediments faced by a pedestrian
Fig.21 Lack of regulation
The street could be evaluated against this checklist.

A simple ratings scale can be used. A scale of 1 to 5 is
sufficient to accurately cover the range of performance:
5 =excellent; 4 = good; 3 = average; 2 = poor; 1 = very
poor.
6.1 Facilities and Amenities
Sidewalks of adequate width,
Continuous sidewalks,
Crossings,
Curb-cuts,
Surface design,
Seating,
Informal shopping vending machines, show cases,
books & grocery carts,
Minor architectural features public conveniences,
traffic & police control booths, stands for bicycles & twowheelers, sand bins, litter bins, road signs, sign boards,
information boards/kiosks, area maps, advertisement
boards, clocks, post boxes, telephone booths, flag poles,
etc.,
Recreational equipment patterned tiles for board
games, climbing equipment, roadside parks, spaces for
traditional/folk performances,
Lighting decorative, flood lighting, illuminated signs,
tree top lighting,
Landscaping Trees, flower boxes, shrubs, potted
plants, etc.,
Fountains/water bodies small water bodies,
ornamental fountains,
Art & Artifacts Sculpture, Paintings, etc.
6.2 Qualities (Allan Jacob)
enclosure/definition,
complexity of path network,
building articulation,
complexity of spaces,
transparency,
buffer,
shade trees,
overhangs/awnings/varied roof lines, and
physical components/condition.
6.3 Evaluation
Ranganathan Street
S.No.
Facility / Amenity
Rating
Sidewalks of adequate width
Continuous sidewalks
Crossings
Curb-cuts
Surface design
Seating
7
8
Informal shopping
Minor architectural features
2
1
9
10
11
12
Recreational equipment
Lighting
Landscaping
Fountains
0
2
0
0
13
Art / Artifacts
South Usman Road

S.No.
Facility/Amenity
Rating
Sidewalks of adequate width
Continuous sidewalks
Crossings
Curb-cuts
Surface design
6
7
Seating
Informal shopping
0
4
Minor architectural features
Recreational equipment
10
Lighting
11
Landscaping
12
Fountains
13
Art / Artifacts
287
Ranganathan Street
S.No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Quality attribute
Enclosure/Definition
Complexity of path network
Building articulation
Complexity of spaces
Transparency
Buffer
Shade trees
Overhangs/Awnings/Varied roof
lines
Physical components/condition
Rating
5
2
2
1
2
0
1
2
South Usman Road

S.No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Quality attribute
Enclosure/Definition
Complexity of path network
Building articulation
Complexity of spaces
Transparency
Buffer
Shade trees
Overhangs/Awnings/Varied roof
lines
Physical components/condition
Rating
3
3
3
2
2
4
2
4
1
References:
1. Buchanan, C. (1963), Traffic in Towns, The Specially
Shortened Edition of the Buchanan Report, Penguin,
Harmondsworth, p.56-57
2. Burden, Dan (1996), Walkable and Bicycle-Friendly
Communities, Florida Dept. of Transportation.
3. C. Alexander, S. Ishikawa, M. Silverstein, M. Jacobson,
I. Fiksdahl-King and S. Angel.(1977), A Pattern Language,
Oxford University Press, New York .
4. Fruin, J.J. (1971), Pedestrian: planning and design,
Metropolitan Association of Urban Designers and
Environmental Planners, Inc., New York.
5. Guidelines for Pedestrian Facilities IRC : 103 (1998),
The Indian Roads Congress, New Delhi.
6. Hall, Edward T.(1990), The hidden dimension, Anchor
Books (Doubleday), New York.
7. Jacobs, Allen. (1993), Great Streets, MIT Press, Boston.
8. Jacobs, Jane.(1961), The Death and Life of Great
American Cities, Random House, New York, p. 39.
9. Khisty, C.J.(1994), Evaluation of pedestrian facilities:
beyond the level-of-service concept. Transportation
Research Record 1438.
10. Kroll, J. (2001), Moving About in a Technological
World: A Hermeneutic-Phenomenological Inquiry of
288
Urban Streets and Freeways as Public Architecture, Ph.D.

dissertation, Department of Architecture, University of
California, Berkeley.
11. Lynch, Kevin.(1960), Image of the city, MIT Press, p. 9
12. Norberg-Schulz, C. (1971), Existence, Space and
Architecture, Studio Vista, London, p. 18
13. Sarkar, S. (1995), Macro level and micro level evaluation
of pedestrian networks. Transportation Research Record
1502, 105-118.
14. Sarkar, S.(2002), Qualitative Evaluation of Comfort
Needs in Urban Walkways in Major Activity Centres,
November .
15. Shafer, C.Scott.(1999), Evaluation of bicycle and
pedestrian facilities: user satisfaction and perceptions on
three shared uses trails in Texas, Texas A&M University.
16. Shelley, Anne. (1976), Pedestrian areas From malls to
complete networks, Academy Editions, London,
17. Sommer, Robert.(1969), Personal space (The behavioural
basis of design), Prentice:Hall, Inc., New Jersey .
18. Transportation Research Board (2000), Highway
Capacity Manual, National Research Council, Washington,
DC.
19. Vastu-Shilpa Foundation (1990), Aranya An approach to
settlement design, Vastu-Shilpa Foundation, Ahmedabad.
The Relevance Of New Urbanism

Dhiru A. Thadani
Principal- Ayers/Saint/Gross Architects+Planners,
Washington DC, USA
Cities are changing the world over. Most are becoming worse
places to live. There are many intersecting forces causing
this decline: increase in population, failing infrastructure,
automobile dependency, outward sprawling development, and
an inability to provide adequate housing for lower- and middleincome residents.
Are there any solutions to alleviate this accelerating decline?
Why are some cities experiencing a renaissance and an
improvement in the quality of life for its residents, while other
cities experience a noticeable decline?
Cities are the largest and most complex thing that we humans
make. Despite evidence to the contrary, knowledge exists on
how to make cities well and how to reverse the decline. For the
past 15 years the Congress for the New Urbanism has been
aiding both the private and public sectors by employing the
following techniques to improve the quality of life in cities.
1. Streets are for People

What makes a city memorable? For the most part, it is a
well-defined public realm public spaces defined by the
buildings which front them and peopled by a vibrant street
life. A successful public realm is one that people can inhabit
comfortably on foot.
Unfortunately, most cities emphasize automobile movement
while disregarding the pedestrian. Sidewalks are non-existent
or permanently in disrepair, often having been dug up for
utility upgrading. Today, being a pedestrian in most Indian
cities is akin to being a soldier on a battlefield navigating
through land mines strewn in ones path of travel.
Traffic engineers often ignore the real needs of pedestrians.
For example, parallel parking, essential to protecting and
comforting people on the sidewalk, is often eliminated to
speed traffic. Every aspect of the streetscape, including lane

widths, curbs, sidewalks, trees, and lighting can be designed
to fulfill the needs of both cars and pedestrians equitably.
With the growing increase in car ownership, the emphasis
seems to be focused only on moving vehicles.
Additionally, fence barriers along the edges of streets
that enclose pedestrians like cattle should be removed.
Pedestrians should be permitted to cross streets at grade at
all intersections. Whoever designed an elevated pedestrian
crosswalk must have been in an automobile. They do not
work. And you only have to walk through a below-grade
street crossing once to realize that it is a bad idea.
2. Overrule the Specialists
The city, by definition, is a general enterprise, and the
specialist is the enemy of the city. Engineers are not alone
in their quest to shape the city around specialized needs.
The modern world is full of experts who are paid to ignore
any criteria that is beyond their profession. Cities need
generalists to weigh the advice of specialists against the
common good. The traffic engineers in their quest to move
traffic propose building flyovers above ground without
consideration for what this decision does to the quality-oflife for the local residents who have to look and live with
this ugly, noisy monstrosity.
Imagine for a moment if someone was to build a concrete

bridge 15 feet from your bedroom window just so that the
privileged few could save a few minutes of time driving
through your neighborhood in the comfort of their airconditioned capsule.
While cities such as San Francisco, Milwaukee, and
Washington, DC are demolishing inner-city highways in
the interest of quality of life for their residents, cities such
as Mumbai have embarked on a ludicrous and expensive
endeavor to build new inner-city highways.
The department of transportation continues to propose
widening existing roads to ease traffic generated by the
very sprawl they cause. Each of these approaches may be
correct in a vacuum, but are wrong in a city. It is a proven
fact that expanding street width and capacity on existing
streets only leads to more traffic. This in turn leads to an
289
increase in accidents, which causes further delays, nullifying

the investments goal. The money earmarked for flyovers
and inner city highways should be diverted to improving
the train and bus network. As all world-class cities have
come to realize, investment in public transportation is the
only solution to alleviate congestion. Imagine ten years into
the future - what will be on these streets when the price of
petrol doubles or triples? Buses, not cars.
3. Mix the Uses
Another key to active street life is creating a city that pulsates
at all times of the day, with neighborhoods so diverse in use
that they are occupied around the clock. Eating, shopping,
working, socializing, and recreation these activities are
mutually reinforcing and flourish in each others presence.
The best parts of all cities have this diverse mix of uses.
Neighborhoods are alive during the day when residents are
away at work, because workplace and retail are active. Viceversa in the evening - when the offices and shops are closed,
the residences keep the neighborhood vibrant and safe.
Moreover, many businesses such as restaurants, general
stores, and health clubs rely on both daytime and evening
traffic to cover their rent. The key is to stop building single
use zones, such as Nariman Point and Bandra-Kurla, which
are predominantly workplaces. These places are unsafe in the
evening due to a lack of activity. Similarly, stop approving
gated residential enclaves, which are mono-cultures and
eventually become residential ghettos.
4. Hide the Parking Lots
In most Indian cities the vast majority (90%) of the
population are pedestrians. The city is obligated to make
the pedestrians feel safe, comfortable and entertained. As
the infatuation with automobiles increases in India, so too
will the need to house these machines. There is nothing
more boring than walking past a parking lot. Whether they
are open-air or six-stories tall, parking lots must be banished
along any street that is inhabited by pedestrians.
In the hands of a skilled designer, parking lots are easy to
hide. It only takes a 25-foot deep wrapper of housing or
offices to block an unsightly parking lot or garage from view.
New parking structures can easily be built above street-level
shops. Enlightened cities all over the world are putting this
requirement into law.
5. Small is Beautiful
People are small when compared to automobiles, and most
world-class walkable cities acknowledge this fact with small
blocks, small streets, small buildings, and small increments
of investment.
The Fort District in Mumbai owes much of its success
to its tiny blocks and fine grain that creates an incredibly
porous network of streets. Pedestrians like to criss-cross
through the fabric, intelligently looking for the shortest
routes between two points.
Unfortunately, government planners propose development
roads that create obscenely large blocks that make the city
impenetrable. For example, in southern Mumbai there is
only one east-west connection between the two coastlines.
This problem also exists in the northern part of the city.
Land for street rights-of-way needs to be acquired to help
create a true network of streets.
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Although 25% of Indias population resides in urban cities

- and this number is rapidly growing - building height is
another place for smallness. Todays building codes prevent
the making of Marine Drive, one of the most memorable
parts of Mumbai. Imagine Marine Drive as illegal.
Tall buildings place undue stress on a small land parcel. By
concentrating population in a single point within the city,
all systems are pressured, including accessibility, parking,
garbage removal, water and utility supply, to name a few.
In the long run, this creates an unhealthy, unsustainable
living condition. A healthy real-estate development
community is one that encourages incremental growth,
not mega-structures.
6. Save That Building. And, by the way, Remove that
Billboard.
How many buildings need to be torn down before a city
learns the lesson? Every city deeply regrets and laments
the destruction of its heritage. As a society that pays
homage to its elders, historic preservation may be the
best way to respect our ancestors. But, it is also justified
on economic terms. Market economies suggest that the
differentiated product is one that commands a monetary
premium. This is why cities like Savannah, Georgia and
Miami Beach, Florida can point to historic preservation
as the key ingredient in recent booms. It isnt always easy
to find a productive use for an empty old building, but
tearing it down makes that outcome impossible.
Additionally, billboards and hoardings illegally installed on
buildings and along the highway must be removed. Cities
should rise beyond crass commercialism and the visual
assault on the human senses.
7. Build Normal (Affordable) Housing
Affordable housing remains a crisis in all cities, and the
solution is not to build housing projects in the suburbs,
which taxes the poor resident with the longest commute.
Rather, to be successful, affordable housing must do two
things: be integrated with market rate housing, and look
like market-rate housing.
Despite the best-intentioned efforts to provide affordable
housing, architects should not be permitted to experiment
on the poor or pioneer new design styles in the name
of the poor. Most housing projects that have been built
in recent years play geometric games that only their
designers can understand and appreciate. Experiment on
the rich; they can always move out. The poor do not have
a choice. Housing for the poor should provide smallerthan-standard apartments, but they should be stylistically
compatible with their neighbors and the context. There
should be no visible stigma attached to living in subsidized
housing.
8 Build Green / Grow Green
People have been talking about sustainable architecture
for decades. However, given the burgeoning population
of Indian cities, they cannot afford to be anything but
sustainable. History shows us that as a country becomes
more affluent, it becomes dumber by being more wasteful
of its resources, recycling less, creating more solid waste, and
increasing its dependency on artificial cooling and lighting.
This is absolutely true for Indian cities. As the city increases
in wealth the less it seems to care about sustainability.
Architects and developers get lazier when it comes to

designing buildings that truly respond to the environmental
conditions of a place. As children we never relied on air
conditioning for comfort because the buildings we occupied
passively kept us comfortable. Ceilings were higher, transom
windows above doorways permitted air circulation, and
windows had deep overhangs that shaded interior spaces
as well as provided protection from the heavy monsoon
rains.
The city needs to mandate that all new buildings be smart
by using less energy than their predecessors. As an example,
every residential dwelling in Israel obtains its hot water from
roof mounted solar panels. This is a viable technology that
can easily be adapted to the Indian context.
There is also a strong correlation between green tree cover
and real estate value. Greener environments translate to
higher the real estate values. The new development at Powai
in Mumbai is a perfect case study proving this theory. All
cities should plant more trees.
9. Question your Codes
The existing building codes that govern new development
within the city are made up of incomprehensible statistics
like floor area ratios (fsi), setbacks and open space
requirements that ignore the differences between pleasant
and unbearable urbanism. They make the citys traditional
urban form, the most loved places within the city, illegal to
emulate.
Codes must be based on a picture of what is desired to
be built, not statistical manipulations. Close your eyes and
imagine what you want the city to be, and then write a code
to achieve it. Around the world, a new generation of design
ordinances is gaining favor among city planning officials.
Referred to as form-based codes, these ordinances regulate
what really matters: a buildings height, disposition, location,
relationship to the street, and where to place parking. Cities
including Arlington, Virginia, and Miami, Florida are
adopting form-based codes for their neighborhoods.
10. Dont Forget Beauty
Joe Riley, Charleston, South Carolinas Mayor since 1968,
reminds us that cities should be places that make the heart
sing. For many citizens, especially those too poor or infirm
to travel, the city is an entire world. For this reason, the
city should, not only be proudly maintained, and function
properly, but also afford moments of beauty.
Yet the city routinely builds to the lowest denominator,
when it comes to building public schools, parks, and
government buildings the only investments that belong
to all the citizens of the city. In the interest of short-term
frugality, the city cheats itself out of an honorable public
realm and a noble legacy. This was not always the case, and
it need not continue.
Building great cities is civilizations greatest achievement.
This legacy can and must be continued.
291
A Pattern Book Approach

Tariq Yahiaoui
The Princes Foundation
INTRODUCTION to The Princes Foundation

The Princes Foundation for the Built Environment is
an educational charity founded by HRH The Prince of
Wales to improve the quality of peoples lives by teaching
and practising timeless and ecological ways of designing,
planning and building.
retail outlets were located in separate locations in a very

distinct pattern of growth that relied mainly on the use
of the locomotive to reach out to community facilities
and to daily needs. Whereas, the traditional model had all
these components integrated into a whole where every day
needs were within easy reach from all the residents of a
neighbourhood, and where there is a permeable network of
streets that were safer to walk and providing easy access and
a choice of destinations to community facilities.
We are one of 16 charities for which the Prince of Wales

is President, together we comprise the largest multi-cause
charitable enterprise in the United Kingdom.
The Foundation comprises different departments, which
include an Education Department and the Projects
Team. The work that is carried out in each one of these
departments, whether education, research or practice,
informs the work of the other departments.
We also reach out to the wider network of practitioners and
professionals and some of our senior fellows include: Leon
Krier, Andres Duany and Robert Adam.
WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT THE BUILT
ENVIRONMENT?
In the 20th century and in many areas of the world
including the UK, new patterns of urban growth have
emerged, which translated in the fact that we started
building all the components of towns but somehow we
forgot how to put them together. For instance, Housing
estates, education compounds, business centres, and
Unsustainable vs. Sustainable Growth

In many cases, the post-war housing model with its cul-desac pattern was developed next to traditional settlements
without even the necessary community facilities, very much
like a dormitory estate, adding yet more strain upon the
traditional core and upon its movement network.
NEW TOOLS TO TACKLE THE PROBLEMS OF
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
In the face of characterless car dependent developments
that discourage walkability and social interaction, The
Princes Foundation employs a number of planning tools
to deal with these problems, which include: Pattern Books,
Enquiry by Design and Design Codes.
Fundamental Change in Twentieth Century
Projects
292
Education
Pattern Books: A pattern book is an inventory of urban

and architectural forms that identify the characteristics
or DNA of a place. Pattern books inform the complex
make up of a whole set of urban and architectural patterns
hence the title pattern book. These patterns seek to record
transformations of the key components of the urban form
ranging from the scale and character of the various street
and block typologies down to details of buildings including
massing, scale, proportions and style. The aim of a pattern
Research and Guidance
Outreach and Networks
book study is to provide a useful framework and a set of

design tools that subsequent planning and design processes
can incorporate with the aim of strengthening the character
of a town or in the case of green field development to make
a project deeply rooted in its regional urban context
Enquiry by Design: The Enquiry by Design process
brings together the key stakeholders in an intensive
workshop for a proposed project to collaborate in creating
a vision for the site through drawing and testing multiple
solutions to produce a consensus master plan. An Enquiry
by Design is a proactive process rather than a reactive one.
Once a collective vision has been agreed for a place it is
important to capture this in a set of regulations namely
a design code.
A TEMPLATE OF A PATTERN BOOK EVOLVING

INTO A CODE
In order to explain the issue of pattern books and codes and
more precisely how they can be used to guide developments,
the analogy to a recipe seemed quite relevant.
The Town Wide Regulations may be compared to
quantities
The Lexicon of Types or the patterns of urban form
to ingredients
And The Code to the instructions of how to put it
together
In practice, the above defined the basis for the structure
of a design code document including an inventory of local
types and how they can be combined together to define
the urban and architectural character of a locality in the
UK. The document was submitted as part of an outline
planning application for an urban extension of 5500 homes
with a high street and the necessary community facilities in
November 2006.
Enquiry by Design
Design Codes: A town code is a design tool that translates
the design vision embodied in the town plan into practical
instructions for building the town itself. It effectively sets
out the design language of a place. This agreed set of
rules and guidelines increases the certainty that the vision
for the community will be realised, with benefits for all
concerned. A town code spans town-wide issues such as
street design, landscape structure, building height and land
use, through to more architectural elements such as the
design of individual buildings, their relationship to the street
and the way in which buildings are grouped in blocks.
In our built work we aim to:
Engender Social Interaction
Make Places
Allow Movement Logically and Legibly
Sustain Land Value
Build Sustainably and Beautifully
Building sustainably and beautifully
Design Coding
The Town wide regulations are the rules that apply to the
development as a whole such as land uses, massing, landscape
structure and building materials. Broadly speaking, they
include the brief for the development in terms of
overall urban structure and movement patterns, uses and
their locations, the landscape features to be retained and
enhanced, as well as sustainability criteria that need to be
responded to.
293
The Lexicon of Types consists of the urban and

architectural types that, when assembled together, make up
the urban fabric. The lexicon of types is generated through
a thorough study of local settlements so as to identify the
sub components of each one of the components of the
urban fabric, i.e. Thoroughfare Types Private Frontages
Building Types and Block Types.
Town wide regulations: Land use
THE PUBLIC THOROUGHFARES LEXICON deals

with the types of movement corridors (such as main streets,
avenues and streets) in terms of right of way, pavement
width, street layout, and on street parking relating to each
one of these types and their sub-categories as developing
from formal to informal.
THE PRIVATE FRONTAGES LEXICON deals with the
area between the plot boundary line and building line, the
importance of which is emphasized by the fact that this is
the area that affects the pedestrian the most. The variables
within private frontages include the extent of the setback of
the building line and combination of architectural elements
and boundaries encroaching onto or delimiting this area.
THE BUILDING TYPES LEXICON lists all the range of
buildings types that would be appropriate for this particular
development drawing from the study of precedents from
local settlements. Variables within building types include
the number of storeys, plot width and depth, and opening
arrangements (access & window allingments etc.)
Town wide regulations: Landscape standards
The Lexicon of Types: A - D
Lexicon of Types: Public Thoroughfares
294
THE BLOCK TYPES LEXICON deals with the areas of

developable land that are made available after a street pattern
is imposed and is largely concerned with servicing the plots.
This lexicon may focus on how blocks are internally arranged
Putting It All Together: This part of the pattern book may

be defined as the section that evolves the document into an
operational tool describing how the different ingredients
from the lexicon can be combined to create meaningful
places. A compositional matrix may be generated to show
how avenues streets lanes mews etc. are composed in
relation to not only their ingredients in the lexicon but also
in relation to other compositional rules such as regularity
of plot width, floor/eaves heights, consistency of building
line- and variety of material/colour.
This section may also include regulating plans for areas to
be developed in relation to a masterplan. Instructions for
preparing such plans may be summarised as follows:
Understand the principles behind the structure of the
overall masterplan
Identify the area for which a regulating plan is to be
prepared and how it relates to the site
Identify how the town wide regulations relate to that
portion of development
Study the range of spatial types that are part of the
lexicon and the ingredients from which the development
is to be made
Review the compositional matrix, which shows how the
different street scenes can be composed
Allocate the relevant ingredients from the lexicon to
their related sections within the area to be developed.
Lexicon of Types: Block Types
because the other components that make up blocks such

as buildings and their frontages would already have been
tackled in the above lexicons. Internal arrangements of
blocks may include internal courtyards, lanes, mews, or else
depending on the context of study. Needless to say that
these different arrangements need to be tackled in terms of
access, rear boundary treatment, parking arrangements and
ancillary accommodations if applicable, utilities servicing
and refuse and so on.
Lexicon of Types: Building Types

With regard to the fixes in terms of land use, open space
and materials, etc., pertinent to the regulating plans portion
of development, these would already have been referred to
in the town wide regulations. In this respect, the regulating
plans are to be read in conjunction with the town wide
regulations.
THE PATTERN BOOK APPROACH APPLIED TO
DIFFERENT CONTEXTS
Lexicon of Types: Frontages
As explained before, pattern books list the ingredients

from which a town is to be made. They contain the
295
Lexicon of Types: Building Types
Transforming home building
Regulating Plan
Built evidence
296
Northants
Streetscape with open areas
Streetscape with covered front porches
vocabulary required to compose a town as set out in

the lexicon. In order to evolve into an operational tool, they
need to include the syntax that manages how the different
components of the urban fabric are put together to create
places in relation to a context.
Indeed, pattern books relate to specific contexts and in
that sense are not generic. More precisely, the content of
a pattern book will need to relate to be a characterisation
study of the region/area for which the document is to be
prepared in order to identify the lexicon of types or the
urban and architectural ingredients that are appropriate
for the location. Types may be imported if absent from a
locality as agreed with local people.
However, it is worth pointing out that the structure of the
document and the way it can be applied to generate regulating
plans may be utilised as a generic template for different
projects. The template is modified to relate to the local
patterns and planning processes found in a particular place.
297
Interface Between Traditional

Urbanism And Legislative Framework
A.K. Jain
Commissioner (Planning),
Delhi Development Authority
control process, legal and enforcement inadequacies and

deficiencies in implementation and maintenance. The fall
out of cut throat business competition and political rivalries
are exhibited by indiscriminate pasting of the posters, ugly
hoardings, signages and outdoor advertisements which
deface and damage the Indian cities across the board.
ANTECEDENTS
India as a repository of traditional urbanism is unique.

The variety of its built environment settlements, villages,
heritage structures, artifacts, streets, parks, water bodies
and precincts of historic, aesthetic, cultural and religious
significance is amazing. Unfortunately in the recent decades,
in a zeal to develop the modern cities and property oriented
approach of development, the treasure of our traditional
urbanism has often been trampled upon. Borrowed concepts
of urban aesthetics have overlooked the historic, cultural
and symbiotic contents of the traditional urbanism. The
consequence is evident in overall decay of the traditional
settlements. The explanation for this state of affairs is beyond
the hackneyed reasons of population growth, changing life
styles, urbanization and the forces of economic growth.
The malaise is much deeper which includes the lack of
awareness, sensitivity and concern for the traditional values,
incapacity of institutional framework, non-responsive
organisations, flaws in planning, design and development,
Although there is not much legislative history of urban

conservation in India, the initial efforts can be attributed
to Patrick Geddes, who promoted the cause of urban
improvement by Conservative Surgery about a century
ago. As a result of his efforts urban improvement
schemes were prepared for more than 30 cities in India,
Urban Improvement Acts were enacted in various States/
Cities and number of Urban Improvement Trusts were
constituted by the Government. However, subsequent
conservation efforts focused more upon the buildings and
monuments. In 1904, the Central government enacted for
the first time, the Ancient Monument Preservation Act,
1904, which was intended to provide for the preservation
of ancient monuments and objects of archaeological,
historical or artistic interest and to prevent the excavation
by unauthorised persons of sites of historic interest and
value. The Act was applied to ancient monuments which
were declared as protected monuments and invested the
BOX-1
Acts relating to preservation of Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains in India:
1.
The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.
2.
The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Rules, 1959.
3.
The Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972.
4.
A.P. Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1960.
5.
Assam Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1959.
6.
Gujarat Ancient Monuments & Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1965.
7.
Jammu and Kashmir Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1977.
8.
Jallianwalla Bagh National Memorial Act, 1951.
9.
Madras Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1966.
10.
M.P. Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1964.
11.
Maharashtra Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1961.
12.
Mysore Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Acts, 1962.
13.
Orissa Ancient Monuments and Preservation Act, 1956.
14.
Punjab Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1964.
15.
Rajasthan Monuments, Archaeological Sites and Antiquities Act, 1961.
16.
Rajghat Samadhi Act, 1951 (of Central Govt.).
17.
U.P. Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Preservation Act, 1957.
18.
Victoria Memorial Act, 1903.
19.
West Bengal Preservation of Historical Monuments and Objects and Excavation of Archaeological sites Act,
1957.
20.
Museums Act, 1961.
21.
Salar Jung Museum Act, 1961.
Other related Acts
i)
Town and Country Planning Acts
ii)
Delhi Development Act, 1957 and other Development Authority Acts.
iii)
Delhi Urban Art Commission Act, 1973
iv)
Urban Improvement Acts
v)
Environment (Protection) Act, 1986
vi)
Various Municipal Acts
vii)
The West Bengal Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 1976 (extended to Union Territory of Delhi in
1982).
viii)
Various DCR (Development Control Rules), Building Bye-laws and Regulations.
ix)
Delhi Municipal Corporation (Tax on Advertisements other than Advertisements published in Newspapers)
Bye-laws, 1996.
x)
New Delhi Municipal Council (Pasting of Bills & Advertisement) Bye-laws, 1995.
298
executive with sufficient legal authority in regard to the

monuments in private ownership and the Archaeological
Survey of India came into being.
The concept of a monument of national importance was
introduced by the Ancient and Historical Monuments and
Archaeological Sites and Remains (Declaration of National
Importance) Act, 1951. About 450 monuments and sites in
Part B States were included in the national list. Thereafter,
the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and
Remains Act, 1958, which was broadly modeled on the lines
of the Act of 1904, repealed the Acts of 1904 and 1951.
This Act in the interests of uniformity and integral policy,
proposed to transfer some of the powers conferred on the
District collectors to the Director-General of Archaeology.
In India several state and Central Acts on conservation of
monuments had been framed from time to time (Box-1):
Often it is argued that there can be no preservation without
legislation and regulations. The restoration could preserve
only a few sites, while legislation may preserve thousands.
Legislation does not restore buildings but it stops the
free run of bulldozers. The prevailing understanding of
legislation is a hierarchy of laws (i) the Constitution (ii)
The Acts (Central and State), (iii) Regulations, bye-laws,
rules and mandatory administrative/government orders
and (iv) Statutory Plans, Zoning, development Controls
and architectural controls. No doubt, these can be effective
in conservation of traditional urbanism and heritage, but
in a democratic context where people are involved, the
legislation is to be seen in a broader context, beyond its
punitive aspect. There are various examples of para-legal
measures, which have been and can be successfully adopted
for conservation of the heritage/urbanism by way of a
participatory process. These are often in the form of :
Listing and Identification of Heritage precincts
Policy Planning and Design Guidelines
Charter (e.g. The Athens Charter, 1937)
Code of Conduct and Ethics (Social/Community,
professional and religious)
Incentives (such as Transferable Development Rights,
waive of Building Bye-laws, such as set backs, Land use
and FAR flexibility through urban design and architectural

controls).
Standards, norms and specifications
Empowerment Zone Partnership and Community Enterprise Promotion
Listing and Identification of Historic Urban areas/
buildings
Heritage precincts areas and places should be listed with
following details:
Building, complexes, open maidan/areas including
public or private.
Gardens
Natural land area Mountain, hills, reservoir, riverbanks,
seashores, forest area, open area, etc.
After listing the administration/municipalities should
declare such areas as heritage area where demolition or
changes or construction should be regulated/prohibited
for control. The lists and records of these heritage areas
should be widely disseminated to the public, on web sites
and to all concerned departments.
Policy Planning and Design Guidelines (PPDGs)
The PPDGs should be evolved for historical areas, which
would not only conserve such areas but also help to revitalize,
and maintain them. Saving of ancient monuments, built
heritage sites and natural heritage is not sufficient. It would
be imperative for city administration to evolve policy for
conservation and planning framework. They should
involve guidelines for achieving an environment which is
hygienic, beautiful and free of pollution. The regulation
and control over hoardings, signages, advertisements and
street furniture, should also be framed.
For the revitalization of historic centres the policy can be
the key guidelines:
High-quality refurbishment standards for the
restoration of areas and buildings of historic and cultural
significance.
Box-2 Some Important Policy Planning Guidelines in U.K.

PPG1 General Policy and Principles
This sets out the general principles for the operation of the
planning system, including the determination of planning applications.
PPG-2
National planning policy in the green belts.
PPG-3 Housing
General policies in relation to housing, affordable housing,
housing land availability and new settlements.
PPG-4 Industrial and Commercial Development and
The role of the planning system in relation to industrial and
Small Firms
commercial development.
PPG-5- Simplified Planning Zones
PPG-6 Town Centres and Retail Developments
PPG-12 Development Plans and Regional Planning

Guidance
PPG-15 Planning and the Historic Environment
PPG-16 Archaeology and Planning
PPG-23 Planning and Pollution Control
The general nature and role of SPZs.

Including the sequential approach to selecting sites for development for retail employment leisure and other key town
centre uses.
Government Policy in relation to the Development Plan process.
Comprehensive advice on controls for the protection of historic buildings and conservation areas.
Policy on archaeological remains on land
Including advice on issues relating to contaminated land and
waste.
299
The Athens Charter, 1931

The Athens conference of 21-30 October 1931 concluded with an exhaustive Charter for the protection of monuments.
I.
Doctrines, General Principles
When as a result of decay or destruction restoration appears to be indispensable, and when the occupation of buildings ensures the continuity
of their life, the historic and artistic character of the past should be respected, without excluding the style of any given period.
II.
Administrative and Legal Measures
The differences existing between various legislative measures adopted by different countries for the protection of monuments of artistic, historical
or scientific interest are due to the difficulty of reconciling public law with the rights of individuals. Legal and administrative measures should
be keeping with local circumstances and with the trend of public opinion so that the least possible opposition is encountered, with due allowance
made for the sacrifices owners of property may be called upon to make in the general interest. Public authorities in each country should be
empowered to take conservation measures in case of emergency.
III.
Artistic Enhancement of Ancient Monuments
In the construction of buildings, the character and external aspect of cities should be respected, with special consideration given in the
neighbourhood of ancient monuments. All forms of publicity, erection of unsightly telegraph poles, tall shafts and noisy factories should be
suppressed. Certain groupings and particular picturesque perspective treatment should be preserved. A study should also be made of the
ornamental vegetation for preserving their ancient character.
IV.
Restoration Materials
All the resources at the disposal of modern technique and reinforced concrete should be judiciously used, particularly in cases where their use
makes it possible to avoid and dangers of dismantling and reinstating the portions to be preserved.
V.
Deterioration of Ancient Monuments
In each country, the architects and curator of monuments threatened by atmospheric agents should collaborate with specialists in the physical,
chemical and natural sciences to determine the methods to be adopted in specific cases. The International Museums Office should keep itself
informed of the work being done in each country and mention should be made of it in its publications. The removal of works of art from
the surroundings for which they were designed should be discouraged in principle. By way of precaution, original models should be preserved or
casts should be taken wherever they do not exist.
VI.
Technique of Conservation
In the case of ruins, scrupulous conservation is necessary, and steps should be taken to reinstate any original fragments (anastylosis) whenever
possible: the new materials used should in all cases be recognizable. When it is not possible to preserve excavated ruins, accurate records should
be compiled before filling-in operations are undertaken. With regard to consolidation or partial restoration of other monuments, a thorough
analysis should be made of the defects and nature of decay as each case needs to be treated individually. Technical work undertaken in
excavations and preservations of ancient monuments calls for close collaboration between the archaeologist and the architect.
VII.
Conservation of Monuments and International Collaboration
The question of conservation of the artistic and archeological property of mankind interests the community of the States, as wardens of
civilization they should closely collaborate with each other. Qualified institutions and associations should also be given the opportunity of
manifesting their interest without any manner prejudicing international public law.
The best guarantee in the matter of preservation of monuments and works of art derives from the respect and attachment of people themselves.
People should be taught to abstain from disfiguring monuments, and take pride in the concrete testimonies of all ages of civilization.
Each country or the institution created for this purpose should publish an inventory of monuments, with photographs and explanatory notes.
They should maintain records of preservation work nd feature them in their publications, with copies deposited with the International Museum
Office.
Resolution of the International Committee on Intellectual Co-operation, July 23, 1932
The International Committee on Intellectual Co-operation requests the Assembly to address the following recommendations to Member
States:
That States acting in accordance with the League of nations Covenant should establish closer and more concrete cooperation with each other for
purposes of ensuring the conservation of monuments and works of art;
That member States should ask educationists to teach children and young people to respect monuments, whatever the civilization or period to
which they belong and that this educative action should also be extended to the general public with a view to associating the latter in the protection
of the records of any civilization.
Recommendations of the Assembly of the League of Nations, October 10th, 1932
The Assembly, approving the resolution adopted by the International Committee on Intellectual Co-operation and acceding to the latters request
that it should communicate to the members of the league the recommendations drawn up by the Athens Conference concerning the conservation
of historical monuments and works of art,
Entrusts to the Intellectual Co-operation Organisation the task of transmitting the said recommendations to the Governments on its behalf.
300
Restoration work to adapt a building to new demands.

Traffic improvements and pedestrianisation to increase
public use and improve business opportunities.
Reintegration of historic centres into mainstream
city activity involves the clear definition of functional
requirements.
Improved environmental standards.
Tourism and cultural opportunities aimed at the
attraction of business.
All towns, cities and regions display a particular blend of
problems and potentials this blend is the manifestation
of both external influences and internal characteristics. The
style of approach to regeneration has evolved over the years,
and policy and practice reflect dominant socio-political
attitude. The regeneration of urban areas can be seen as an
important element of regional and national success.
Urban regeneration is a comprehensive and integrated
vision and action which leads to the resolution of urban
problems and which seeks to bring about lasting change in
the economic, physical, social and environmental condition
of an area that has been subject to change.
Code of Conduct and Ethics
To make conservation and urban regeneration a sustainable
proposition, it has to be self-supporting and self-starting.
For this, a code of conduct has to be evolved which should
promote:
(i) Investment of the Community/NGOs and their
accountability
(ii) Incentives
(iii) Bankable project approach
(iv) Mobilising private sector investments
(v) Minimum intervention of controlling authority
(vi) Leverage strategy to trigger the process of urban
renewal by private/community investment.
It is pertinent to create partnerships and commitments
among the stakeholders and actors who have an interest in
the conservation areas. Private investments can be attracted
through tax incentives, and financial and economic viability
can be ensured by taking up bankable projects and financial
institutions. Technical assistance to heritage conservation
projects can be provided by the local bodies/NGOs.
Procedures and Code of Conduct will have to be evolved
for effective participation of the NGOs, the Cooperative,
Community and the private sector. The Code of Conduct
should also cover the following:
Dissemination of information, public awareness,
documentation related to conservation/ heritage
Training and capacity building for craftsmen,
professionals and local bodies
Implementation, monitoring and awards for projects of
Conservation of heritage
Restoration, urban renewal and rehabilitation
Repair and maintenance of heritage buildings
Traditional crafts/craft person
Professional ethics (including for the
cooperatives, RWAs, NGOs and the community)
Incentives and Waivers

Incentives and encouragement should be given to the
owners and occupants of heritage buildings/zones and
to help in matters concerning listing, preparation of
interventions and implementation. Such incentives may
comprise the following:
(i) Adaptive reuse projects with the involvement of
private/public sector investment;
(ii) Land-based remunerative projects and other nonconservative conservation/rehabilitation projects;
(iii) Tourism development projects which generate
profits;
(iv) Home improvement loans for home owners/renters
through formation of cooperatives as has been tried in
Mumbai for repair of chawls;
(v) Infrastructure and upgradation schemes for Inner
city/heritage zones and financial resources geared
towards urban heritage zones;
(vi) Area-based transformational urban renewal of
dilapidated old areas and public housing, and
(vii) Enveloping of selected Inner City areas by community
initiative through minimum controls and incentive
zoning (realization of FAR incentive and mixed land use)
Often the Plans provide for FARs, which are generally
much less than the existing. This is a major disincentive
for urban renewal, and as a result massive unauthorised
reconstruction and conversions of land use take place.
It is necessary not only to allow minimum existing FAR
and ground coverage, but also give an incentive FAR and
adopt mixed land use zoning.
In Mumbai the Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) is
being applied to privately held/owned premises which are
listed monuments, located in prime locations,. To encourage
owners of such monuments to invest in the conservation
and renovation of such monuments and discourage them
to aim only at the demolition of these buildings, they shall
be offered alternative plots of land for development to
compensate for the loss of development potentials in the
plots occupied by the monuments, and to cover renovation
costs of these. An indispensable pre-condition is of course
the availability of government owned land that can be
bartered for the TDR arrangement. Waivers of building
bye-laws for protection of heritage include set back,
marginal open spaces, height, etc. The waiver of master
plan reservations if they affect heritage sites should also be
considered. These demand a framework of comprehensive
development plans for heritage zones and definition of
clear goals of the conservation policy emerging from
ground level experience.
Standards, Norms and Specifications
For conservation of traditional urban centres and heritage,
the standards, norms and specifications often prove to be
quite effective. Some of these can be mandatory, while
many others can be semi-legal by way of administrative/
government orders or by way of approved of plans and
schemes. The pertinent areas of the standards, norms and
specifications can be the following:
Urban Design Guidelines
Architectural Controls (height, regulated zone,
prohibited zone, elevation, style, openings, building bulk,
301
FAR, ground coverage - inclusive buildings, landscape,

utilities, public toilets etc.).
Development specifications (roads, footpaths, solid
waste disposal, drainage, electricity, water bodies, rain
water harvesting etc.).
Structure/Building Standards (safety, retrofitting,
specification for building materials and quality of
construction, adoption of National Building Code, etc.).
Maintenance Guidelines/Code.
Hoardings, advertisement boards, signages, outdoor
display structures, dish antennae, communication towers
etc.
A major para legal provision can be Empowerment Zone
Partnerships and Community Enterprise Promotion for
urban regeneration. Various types of partnerships prevail
in urban sector, such as given in Table 1.
For greater success of the partnerships it is necessary to
further the concept of Empowerment Zone Partnership,
which requires deregulation, devolution and decentralisation
together with coordination, allocations and leveraging at all
the levels Government, Local Authority and Community

(Table 2).
CONCLUSION
In a zeal to develop the modern cities and property
oriented approach of development, the treasure of our
traditional urbanism has often been trampled upon. Beyond
the hackneyed reasons of population growth, changing life
styles, urbanization and the forces of economic growth, the
malaise is much deeper. It includes the lack of awareness,
sensitivity and concern for the traditional values, incapacity
of institutional framework, non-responsive organisations,
flaws in planning, design and development control process,
legal and enforcement inadequacies and deficiencies in
implementation and maintenance.
In a democratic context where people are involved,
thelegislation is to be seen in a broader context, beyond
its punitive aspects.There are various examples of paralegal measures, which have been successfully adopted
for conservation of the heritage/urbanism by way of a
participatory process. These require concerted actions by
the government, local bodies and the community.
Table 1
Types of Partnerships
Type
Area of coverage
Development
partnership joint
venture
Development trust
Informal
arrangement
Single site of small area e.g.

town centre.
Clearly defined area
for regeneration e.g.
neighbourhood or estate
District or city-wide.
Agency
Urban / sub-regional.
Strategic
Sub-regional / metropolitan
Range of partners
Activities
Private developer,
housing association, local
authority
Community based
organisation with aid
from local authorities.
Private sector-led.
Sponsored by chamber
of commerce/
development agency.
Terms of reference
from sponsoring agency
through an agency /
development company
independent of the
partners.
All sectors
Commercial/non profit
development for mutual benefit.
Community based regeneration,
concerned with creating community
benefits.
Place-marketing, promotion of
growth and investment.
Multiple task orientation, usually

within a designated time-frame.
Broad strategy for development, as

a catalyst / guide. Implementation
is often through third party vehicles,
including development companies.
Table 2
Government Level
Local Authority
Community Level
Remove regulatory barriers Invest state resources/funds
Involve the entire community
Simplify programme rules
Decentralise
Plan comprehensively.
Co-ordinate programme
Devolve & Decontrol
Leverage private resources
Invest broad resources
Co-ordinate programme and agencies
Streamline planning, monitoring,

implementation processes and ensure
accountability
Simplify procedures and approvals
302
References:
1. Cantacuzino, Sherban (1987), Blueprint for conservation
in the Third World, Mimar 24.
2. Cantacuzino, Sherban (1985), A Policy for Area
Conservation in India, FRAC.
3. Delhi Development Authority (1990), Master Plan for
Delhi-2001.
4. Delhi Development Authority (2005), Draft Master Plan
for Delhi-2021.
5. Doctor, Rob (1996), Integrated Conservation of Urban
Heritage.
6. Govt. of Maharashtra (1995), Heritage Regulations / List
of Greater Bombay,
7. Richard, Groves (1991), Development of Urban Renewal
Programme in India. University of Birmingham.
8. Hyderbad Urban Development Authority(1997),
Conservation of Heritage in Hyderabad-Regulations and
List.
9. HUDCO (1996), Shelter. Spl. Issue on Indo-Dutch
Workshop on Urban Heritage, June.
10. ICOMOS (1991), Guidelines for Training and
Conservation. December.
11. INTACH & CSD (1993), Mehrauli Urban Heritage
Project.
12. INTACH (1997), Listing of Heritage buildings in
Delhi.
13. Jain, A.K. (1994), The Cities of Delhi, Man. Pub. Co.,
New Delhi.
14. Jain, A.K. (1995), Planning Approach for Conservation
of Heritage, ITPI, Journal, March-June.
15. Jain, A.K. (1998), Delhi 50 years of Triumph & Tragedy,
ITPI, Journal, Dec.
16. McCallum D. & Steinberg,F (1987), Approaches to
Housing Renewal, Urban India. Vol.XVIII, No.2, New
Delhi, p. 20-26.
17. MOUAE (1996), Report of the Steering Committee on
Review of MPD-2001, reprinted by DDA (1997)
18. Naidu, Ratna (1994), A Conceptual Framework for
Renewal of Walled Cities in India, Ekistics, Sept.-Dec.
19. Ribeiro, E.F.N. (1992), The Listing of Buildings and
Sites and Archaeological Historical and Architectural
Significance in the Context of the Bombay, Seminar Paper,
Max Mueller Bhawan, Mumbai, October.
20. Peter, Roberts & Sykes, Hugh (Ed), Urban Regeneration
A Handbook, Sage, London.
21. Rao, G.B.K. (1977), Legislation for Conservation and
Management of Ancient Monuments and Archaeological
Sites and Ruins, July-Sept. URP Thought.
22.Steinberg, Florian (1996), Conservation and
Rehabilitation of Urban Heritage in Developing Countries,
Habitat International, June.
303
Strategies For Continuing Traditions

In New Architecture And Urbanism
INTBAU India
The Panel discussion was held as part of the plenary session
of The International Conference on the development of
Indian building Traditions held on 14th of January 2007.
This was an attempt at taking a sustainable direction towards
retaining and reinforcing belief in the strength and vitality
of traditional concepts, typologies and methodologies. The
Panel discussion and the conference itself brought together
voices representing all corners of India and the world in
an effort to create a suitable action strategy for promoting
these traditional methods.
This forum and this publication has aimed at the ultimate
creation of a context specific framework and guidelines to
help mainstream traditional methods into new architectural
and urban design endeavors all across the country. This
could be brought about by creating appropriate examples
and general and statutory guidelines to help change the
mind set of the people commissioning buildings, urban
projects and space creation. In this endeavor, the output
of the forum in terms of the INTBAU-Nabha Declaration
endeavors to formulate a clear path to lead forward towards
this goal. The Discussion also puts the Declaration into
perspective for the future.
The Panelists
A.G.K. Menon (Chair of the session)
Architect, New Delhi & Chair,
Academic Committee
Robert Adam
Architect, UK & Chair,
INTBAU
Rasem Badran
Architect,
Dar Al Omran, Jordan
Nimish Patel
Architect,
Abhikram, Ahmedabad
Gurmeet Rai
Director,
Cultural Resource Conservation Initiative, New Delhi
Richard Engelhardt
Regional Advisor for Culture in Asia and the Pacific,
UNESCO, Bangkok
A.G.K. Menon:
This forum has come up with quite a remarkable and
compelling INTBAU Nabha Declaration, which could serve
as an apt starting point for this discussion. The features
of the Declaration might help generate policies which
might be utilized by all the interested stakeholders of this
process. The aim of this Declaration to lead to a new kind
of architecture and urbanism which would be ensconced
in the traditional values which have been put forward by
the forum.
304
Gurmeet Rai:
As a practitioner who has been engaged with the Nabha
project, I consider this Declaration as an interesting paper
and my main concern would be to figure out how the same
could create a lasting impact.
It would be useful here, to reflect on the words of Patrick
Geddes; who came to India and spoke on conservation
surgery in Indian towns and the need to improve the
condition of our old cities. Interestingly, he held that one
needed to think global, but act local. Today, the kinds of
projects being taken up under the National Urban Renewal
Mission are neglecting the small and medium towns. As a
result, it is the metropolises and other big cities that are
compelled to absorb the expanding urban population.
The small and medium towns need to be immediately
focused on, wherein Nabha can provide the opportunity
to develop a model, which can be replicated. Unfortunately
in the planning process, the urban planner or designer is
usually hardly ever involved. The technocrat is generally
completely ignored in discussions, with the spotlight being
on the bureaucrat or the politician. In order to make an
overall impact on policy, the designer ought to be involved
in the planning process, which can then be forwarded to
the government. Many more demonstration projects like
Nabha are needed as well. In fact, Nabha would provide
a very interesting laboratory to test whether our enabling
tools need to be just reinterpreted or altered.
Robert Adam:
On a slightly different note, the effects of this Declaration
could be made visible through a demonstration project. If it
works, this Declaration can have a far-reaching impact. The
structure of this document can make it very effective and a
great deal can be drawn from the various ideas, views and
examples contributed during this forum. This document
would not only be useful for usage and implementation
purposes, but also provide assistance in the communication
of the ingrained ideas to various stakeholders, such as
bureaucrats. As it develops authority and credence, the
document could help develop an action plan consisting
of step-by-step guidelines. Once it does that, it can have a
destination, a purpose, an impact, and would thereby help
Nabha in emerging as an example.
Richard Engelhardt:
Whatever we see, document and live through is undergoing
a paradigm shift, wherein heritage and tradition are not
mere elite resources to be fossilized. They form a universal
resource for development and hence are significant for the
vitalization of the community, whether traditional or newly
emerging urban communities. There is a direct link between
heritage conservation and the continuation of traditional
practices, particularly in the built environment. This
relation underpins sustainable development, which in turn
is essential for good governance. It is a sort of virtual circle,
wherein the role of INTBAU India needs to be analyzed
The INTBAU Nabha declaration should be taken up as a
real blueprint for action. Moreover, it ought to establish a
professional code of practice for INTBAU practitioners to
follow, and go on to become a powerful way of interacting
at the governance level. For this, the Indian membership
needs to obtain the tools required to put this framework

into practice. For example:
INTBAU could become a knowledge hub for
information on the traditional built environment
practices, which could be used by both practitioners and
academicians.
A directory of traditional practitioners could be created
along with licensing or registration for these people.
Structural models need to be devised for stakeholder
consultations, if we really want to convert stakeholders
into stockholders.
INTBAU could look at creating a compendium of best
practices with an analysis of their success and the things
that could be learnt from them.
Finally, the role of various professional groups (doctors,
architects or engineers) should be acknowledged in
suggesting changes to the framework of regulations,
guidelines or legislation, in order to ensure the best
standards of practice, at the local, state or national level.
This is where the declaration should make a difference.
Rasem Badran:
As practitioners, the dilemma that most of us are facing is
in the way we look at the past. There are times when we
need to understand the economic, political and geographical
circumstances. In addition, working on a new project with
cultural values also necessitates dealing with the local
community. It becomes like a cultural agenda wherein
one deploys tools to delve into childhood memories and
interpret the written agenda of the past.
There are two domains, the constant and the variable- the
variable being the tool to implement or transform mental
ideas into a physical form, and the constant being that
which does not change with time. If one could use these to
understand the value of heritage, then even contemporary
designs could be approached in a manner, which creates
continuity between the past and the present, giving a
direction to the future.
Within every ancient city, one can find a huge gap in the
sensibilities. A vacuum exists between the past and the
present. In order to bridge this gap between the physical and
the metaphysical, the material and the spiritual, tools need
to be invented to create a time scenario that is harmonious
with regard to man, time and the place.
Nimish Patel:
The INTBAU Nabha Declaration is very important because
the work in Nabha dates back to the time before heritage
conservation became a separate field on its own. INTBAU
should promote many of its local chapters all over India
and the whole issue can become a movement if INTBAU
facilitates this spread in small and medium towns.
Focusing on the possible strategies for continuing traditions
in New Architecture and Urbanism, we notice that our built
environment is based on three things-building materials,
building technology and the human skills. In order to make
a strategy we must increase our familiarity with all of the
above- both contemporary and traditional- that we have at
our disposal.
Giving it an economic perspective, the Government of

India spends approximately 0.1 Million Indian Rupees on
producing a graduate in this country. Applying this figure
to the approximately 3 million building or decorative crafts
people in the country, having a training of a number of
years. Multiplying these figures, we come to a figure of
300 Billion Rupees, which is the minimum asset value of
the knowledge and skill of our crafts people. This is freely
available to the government, but we are still just debating on
whether and how to disseminate this resource. On the other
hand, if some outsider were to invest this amount in India,
the treatment would be quite different. It is now urgent that
we endorse and promote the vast range of materials, range
of technologies and human skills that we have gathered
over thousands of years.
A.G.K. Menon:
The major points which have emerged from the discussion
are as follows:
To carry forward the agenda of the INTBAU Nabha
Declaration and this forum, it is important to create
demonstration projects rooted in the ground reality. The
Declaration would also help in building communication with
the government for the promotion of traditional methods
in building. There must be many such declarations, to help
expose the peculiarities in each local situation. Within this,
INTBAU Indias role would include providing a blueprint
for action with the possibility of the organization becoming
a knowledge hub for people to carry this message forward.
The professionals must make themselves familiar with the
various local processes available within the country and
utilize traditional knowledge as a valuable resource for
their work. Similarly, community based methods must be
given importance with a view to turning stockholders into
stakeholders. It is the intimate relationship between culture
and its complexities which might provide the answers.
Therefore, it is important to raise the literacy about the role
of heritage in developing the future.
OPEN HOUSE
V. Suresh:
Nabha could be the starting point to define the way forward.
There could be a declaration for every city over a period
of time. The first step could be to identify 4-5 deliverables
of a sustainable city, for e.g., housing, water management,
waste management, which could be concentrated on. A
time frame for action could then be set: Immediate (2007
end), Short term (by 2010), Medium term (by 2015) and
Long term (by 2020).
Secondly, while there are concerns that the existing schemes
ignore the small and medium towns, there are parallel
schemes for such towns. It is possible to get project reports
and funding for such projects, though not necessarily under
the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
which is targeted towards 63 cities. The Bangalore Agenda
Task Force is an example worth examining in this regard.
In specific places, one has to work within the framework
of the city area. Herein, agencies such as HUDCO, Punjab
Urban Development Authority, Punjab Water Supply and
305
Sewage etc. might be important for the work in Nabha. In

Punjab, the focal points in the neighbouring villages need
to have improved connectivity to reduce migration to the
bigger cities.
The INTBAU Nabha Declaration should engender a
clear-cut agenda for improving the living standards of the
marginalized sections of the society, in terms of housing,
water, sanitation, etc., as well as the social and spatial
development of Nabha. If this pilot project can demonstrate
measurable results, it can be forwarded at the government
level and be replicated in different parts of India.
Debashish Nayak:
A support system needs to be built for these suggested
changes to the current approach. This must be based on
an appropriate strategy for generating policies, besides the
good intentions of working with traditions. For example
in Ahmedabad, under the previous tax policy, an unused
building was taxed only one third of the actual amount
which led to owners closing up their heritage properties,
sometimes causing their collapse. The policy has now been
revised and a used house invites only half the taxed amount
leading to more people using these properties. There is a
need to consider such policy changes to encourage people
to look at heritage conservation as an important issue.
Also the unspent money in the local municipalities and the
MLA, MP funds can be put to good use by creating detailed
project reports with the required groundwork. These can be
later brought forward on the ground. Another suggestion
is for urban labor to be segregated according to their skills.
Therefore, a lot needs to be done by policy makers and
strategists to address all such intentions adequately.
Secondly, best practices also need to be documented, and
the following example is of the City Managers Association,
which has branches in over 90 cities with their head office
at Ahmedabad. They have compiled a book, Best Practices
of the Municipalities of India. To quote an example from
the book, a municipality has put a timer on streetlights for
switching them on and off. The timer costs Rs.600 but saves
on the huge electricity bills, which are otherwise generated.
The idea was so successful, that many municipalities have
replicated it, making such an exchange of best practices, a
highly helpful strategy.
regulation zone where it is extremely difficult to get

permission for the conservation effort of any heritage
building due to a lack of government initiative.
Ashok B. Lall:
There still seems to be a divide between those who are
going to do things- the designers, the experts etc.- and the
ones for whom things will get done. But if one can turn this
relationship into a potential osmotic relationship, then the
process of getting things done would become simpler. To
enable that, schools, training centers or other communitybased institutions need to be introduced where the
knowledge of design along with the advantage of heritage
can be transferred effectively to the local populace. They
should then be able to take on the work as they used to, in
the past, so that there is no need for an outsider to come in
and do it. This should be the central objective in the setting
up a project.
Matthew Hardy:
In all of these projects, there is an exchange between people
with technical knowledge, architects, planners, sociologists
and the people who live there. The local populace has all
the expertise in its local area; it knows the problems, the
issues, the climate and the history. Exchange between the
two is important so that both the parties learn from each
other.
Navin Piplani:
The INTACH India Charter for Conservation can be read
in conjunction with the INTBAU Nabha declaration since
a lot of similar points, like new developments in historical
areas and the meaning of heritage, were touched in both.
Reading them together would help in coming up with more
solutions.
Michael Mehaffy:
Based on the experience of the Venice Declaration which
took place last year, it is important for the INTBAU
Nabha Declaration to stay more focused on an action
based approach and constantly work out steps towards
improvement.
Merle Kindred:
Maliha Sultan Chaudhry:
The financial considerations to make INTBAU survive and

grow are very real. One possible source of funds might
be to tap into the Indian Diaspora who may be interested
in investing in the maintenance of the traditions of their
country.
There has been criticism of the wrong practices that

are taking place currently, for instance, the skyscrapers
of Gurgaon. Could there be a strategy to stop such
wrongdoings?
Kiran S. Kalamdani:
There is no way to stop a certain process of globalization

taking place. The objective instead is that more and more
of us should try and do things that we believe in, which
would not include building skyscrapers. This lies in the
force of ones conviction and ones ability to convince
the community on this count. The point of partnerships
with other organizations or charters is also significant and
another useful document is the Heritage Tool Kit. This talks
about how heritage could be used to improve the social
and economic conditions of cities. It is a very simplistic
document that attempts to give a step-by-step action plan.
An organization called the Intermediate Cities and World

Organization networks between approximately 90 small
cities across the world. The success stories of these cities
are available on their website and they could act as a useful
reference point. In India itself, there are many initiatives on
heritage conservation already underway, and their websites
too could provide a more concrete body of knowledge in
order to avoid the repetition of mistakes. Such examples
include Matheran, which is a part of the eco-sensitive
306
A.G.K. Menon:
Naresh Karmalker:
There is room in this declaration for partnerships beyond
that between architects and the urban planners. As it is a
holistic kind of an idea, more players and stakeholders need
to be involved. The idea of setting up centers to transfer
the technology and the learning skills has already been put
to action by many organizations. INTBAU needs to get into
partnerships with such organizations.
Arunava Das Gupta:
The INTBAU Nabha declaration has to be more inclusive
of expertise beyond just the architectural community, by
others that have as much stake in, as well as an understanding
of, the development of tradition, specifically with respect
to anthropology and economics.
Ashutosh Sohoni:
We have a strategy for heritage and conservation. The
objective should be to take these thoughts and ideas beyond
the community of designers and architects. One of the ways
to bring about this shift in thinking is to educate children
who are at an impressionable age so that over a period of
time there will be total change in the way society looks at
heritage.
A.G.K. Menon:
Hopefully, many events would be planned in various places
so that the message can be disseminated to a wider audience
and in many other ways. For instance, the exercise INTBAU
started the year before last was a wonderful strategy on how
heritage could be used in city development and renewal. We
can proceed with our agenda through such exercises with
support from schools, professionals and officials.
307
Essays and Illustrations on

Contemporary Relevance of
Traditional Principles in
Architecture & Urbanism
Re-thinking Our Present

Modus Operandi
Ruturaj. F . Parikh,
D.C.Patel School Of Architecture,
Vallabh Vidyanagar
Contemporary architectural scenario has given rise to a level
of ambiguity unlike any other design field. The present urban
landscapes have drastically modified the unilateral design
approaches that were once in practice. The post-modern
scenario has repeatedly tried to intervene and bifurcate the
attitudes towards design thus creating a plethora of options
and approaches. Thus the contemporary architectural
practice is presented with multilateral challenges to pursue
a unidirectional aim. Do we stand at the end of a tradition
or at the beginning of one?
Le Corbusier once famously quoted that the streets are no
more than a means to get the trucks to the construction site.
The strength of the statement is an example of an attitude
wherein the architect completely ejects himself from the
strongholds of the contextual forces. The question is
whether the attitude of an architect to be committed only
to his project is responsible to have given rise to the present
sterile urban environ?
Previously, the art of building was a part of strong social

setup and was passed on from generation to generation as
a part of tradition. It was an organization which celebrated
the eventful topography, adopted to the principles of
communal living and thus giving rise to a distinct architectural
pattern innate to that region. Any settlement thus became
identifiable to the place where it stood. Factors like socioeconomic hierarchies, power structures and functionality
were always prevalent.
They were a part of the understated building patterns
which in turn regulated the process of building even in
a spontaneous system of growth. Issues like proximity,
security and religious beliefs were regularly addressed
and incorporated in the process. From brilliant edifices,
breathtaking squares and photogenic streets to meticulously
planned fort walls, effective storage and drainage systems and
well placed institutions have been built by our unanimous
past. The streets of Siddhpur, the squares of Jesalmeir and
the houses of Chettenad had no single architect behind
them.
The world we live in is a heterogeneous web of cultures,

religions and schools of thought. The need of the hour
in this rapidly developing era is to come up with fast and
effective developmental schemes. There is a requisite
to break away from the old silhouettes and create new
skylines. But how far in the bargain should the principles of
traditional approaches be neglected? How detached should
the present architectural practice be from the social, cultural
and economic roots of the context? Are there lines required
to be drawn or have we already crossed all of them and
declared ourselves free from our roots. Are regional forces
behind any project addressed as challenges or discarded as
hurdles in modern design approaches? The question is how
to practice the modern and address the rooted. Is there a
possible approach wherein both the schools of thought can
come up with an in-between approach and implement it for
cohesive development?
We still have to learn a lot from our own architectural
heritage. Take a walk on any street of your old or fortified
city. Ask if what you see does reflect principles of cohesive
development. Ask also if it has variety and diversity to offer
enough to arouse interest. Do the things that catch your
eye present themselves as uncanny fragments of a built
environment or do they belong to the place where they
stand?
The old fortified town of Mumbai, India is a unique example of how the
original settlements of any city are foresighted enough to still be vital in
functioning of the town.
Built environments of our past were seldom planned and

developed with the benefit of designers and master plans.
Instead they were a result of spontaneous development by
the passage of time, lay of land and daily life of the people.
Still they did reflect a sense of being rooted and a sense of
belonging to the place. Still they did respond to the sun,
the wind and the rain. Still they had a sense of order in
the organic spontaneity of their development. Still they
had elements that signified social, political and economic
hierarchies.
Essays and Illustrations on Contemporary Relevance of Traditional Principles in Architecture & Urbanism
311
The fortified town old of Baroda houses most of the government institutions
and administrative establishments around a lake precinct.
Structures like EllisBridge, Ahmedabad,

India, have served
their cities for more
than a century and
are still their integral
parts.
Streets of old planned or organic towns like these in Siddhpur, India, still
preserve the essence of the once upon a time street markets that played major
roles in the development of the town.
Most of the settlements that now form a part of the old towns
are losing their race against time. They form an unchanging
part of dynamic developments in their surroundings and
are reduced to being merely silent spectators to the surge
of spectacular and aggressive growth in the surrounding
areas. These older parts of towns or cities have been built
by exploiting the skills of local craftsmen and conscious
use of locally available materials. The present lifestyles in
and around these built fabrics are condensed continuities
of the original ways of life of the people. We still see a
photograph of a corner house of an anonymous street of
some part of an anonymous town and identify the place
where it stands with accuracy. The sense of identity was
never lost in the process.
As time went by, the Builder transcended from being a
mere craftsman to a visualizer. From comic book instances
of Asterix and Obelix being ordered by queen Cleopetra to
build a pyramid to realisition of Le Corbusiers urbanism in
the town of Chandigarh. Projects got driven from a vision
of a single creative mind and the effort was now to realize
those visions. The architect slowly became a single creative
312
driving force behind any project. Thus the occupation

of space-making transcended from a collective local
phenomenon to a commodity of hiring a creative mind.
Architecture, since this transition metamorphosed into a
profession and the old settlements lost their evolutionary
significance. The local craftsmen were reduced to mere
laborers and their skills were exploited. There was a drastic
change in the way we looked at buildings. Architecture slowly
became a field driven by global economic, developmental
and technological forces instead of being driven by the
forces of local landscapes. What was once a human
occupation of space-making was now a commercially
available commodity. In the bargain, the basic principles of
human need of space-making were lost.
Cities lost their inherent identities to become global urban

spaces. The change was positive if weighed in terms of
developmental attitudes but negative if weighed in terms
of experiential, emotional and sensory qualities of a built
environment. This drastic change brought in global trends
and seldom respected the forces of regional landscapes.
This short-sighted and aggressive development gave rise to
well developed but sterile urban built environs. The inherent
knowledge of building was replaced by modern and global
ideologies and approaches towards the built environment.
Architecture like every other field was subject to change.
The old was replaced by the new. But the change was
supposed to be a part of the condensed continuities
wherein at every step, we borrow some, modify some and
discard some rooted approaches towards the built environ
rather than completely replacing them with new design and
development approaches.
This transition of architecture from being socially driven
to economically driven gave rise to two distinct attitudes.
These two distinct attitudes namely the developmental and
the conservationist failed to strike a balance in order to
achieve a cohesive development. In this economically driven
development frenzy, the traditional principles of creating
a built environ like proximity, built vs open ratios, facade
proportions, street width vs height ratios, local centers and
focuses, institutional placements, prevalent social hierarchies
etc. were replaced by commercial, residential, institutional
and industrial zones. The traditionally carried forward
patterns of building were replaced by utilitarian building
by-laws.
The ruins of the historic towns like these of Mandu, India, are examples of
the immense wealth of inherent knowledge of building that was lost in time.
The need of the hour for the governing bylaws is to imbibe

the traditional developmental patterns in modern day town
planning. The developmental attitude to look forward and
act and the conservationist attitude to look back to protect
and preserve, have to come up with an in-between attitude
for a far-sighted master plan. The requirement right now is
not to preserve the architectural relics of our heritage but
to unearth, understand and carry forward those traditional
principles which gave birth to those vibrant environs of
our past.
We should not stand at the beginning or the end of a
tradition. We should be a part of the condensed and
continues change in the traditional ways that the future
generations will find its roots in. We should put forward
conscious effort to develop a new modus operandi.
313
Contemporary Relevance Of
Traditional Principles In Architecture
And Urbanism
Saptarishi Sanyal
School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi
Today, there is a definite lack of satisfaction with human
habitats, which is what makes one evaluate these with
respect to the traditional environments that they have
replaced or are in the process of replacing with a global
paradigm of development. These forces are usually related
to the assigning of myopic and superficial goals of ease
and betterment of lifestyle and living conditions in regions
that are understood to be underprivileged by the modern
world. Jyoti Hosagrahars book Indigenous Modernities
discusses how global politics and asymmetries of power
relations have influenced a societys understanding of and
subsequent engagement with modernity. Thus, the global
monster continues to envelope most of the eastern world
and threaten the identity of places by diluting the rootedness
of these areas.
BACKGROUND
The history of the present conditions of architecture and
urbanism may be traced back to the modern movement and its
propagation of industry and machine driven and functional
internationalist aesthetic that knows no cultures or places.
This can be attributed to any industrial product, whether
steel or the automobile to Moshe Safdies prefabricated
dwelling units. The ideals of the modern movement were
replaced by the post-modern movements embrace of the
complexity and contradiction in architecture and cities.
However, even this can be considered as big a pathogen
advocating dislocation as the modern movement with its
internationalist goals. These pasts have today brought us
to a situation that is undesirably eclectic yet placeless, still
pushed by industrial roots, and lopsided in addressing the
end-users as part of their context, who have been stratified
as modern or primitive based on these foreign notions of the
same.
Plate 1: Las Vegas, USA and ITO , Delhi, India: Globalization???

(Source: www.away.com, www.thehindu.com, 2006)
314
Today, THIS is what the global paradigm is essentially

manifesting itself as in places with a definite cultural
and traditional background, and in the light of THIS
contemporary situation, the validity of it shall be critically
evaluated against what its replacing.
APPLICABILITY OF TRADITIONAL
PRINCIPLES TODAY
The term traditional may be understood to be distinct
from the vernacular in design or planning because the
vernacular method, specific to a place, through continued
practice, becomes a tradition in building. Thus, it can be
acknowledged that the ultimate traditional principles
in architecture or urbanism at a given place and time is
like a knowledge system and has, temporally speaking,
maintained a continuity with the changing parameters of
its practitioning. Thus, the notion of appropriateness has
been addressed in traditional building by an information
base of the local parameters under which the design
and development is taking place. Thus, by looking at the
traditional architectural and city-building principles, I am
advancing what can be referred to as convergence in design
and development action. It is also possible to identify a
participatory approach that involves the end-users as they
contribute to the process through the traditional knowledge
they have imbibed over time. Lastly, looking at the final
product of this kind of informed approach, either as
architecture or as cities, it is possible to identify a high level
of sustainability in it that can adapt to change easily.
The convergent approach
Architecture or urbanism today is largely solipsistic. This
is because they take insufficient parameters into account
for determination of quality in development. One of the
biggest evidences for this is the fact that boundaries of
local governance (municipal wards) are not convergent
with the boundaries of local development (sub-zone) in
most cities in India. A model that exemplifies convergence
in governance and development in planning is the Mughal
city of Shahjahanabad, which as far back as 1639, when
it was conceived took this parameter into account. Thanas
(or wards) were given to different noblemen whose
responsibility was to develop, physically also, these areas
Fig. 1: Convergent urbanism in Shahjahanabad

(Source: Base maps: Thomas Krafft & Eckart Ehlers,1993; Jyoti Hosagrahar, 2004; Diagrams: Author, base: Atilio Petruccioli, Marg vol. XXXIX,
No.1; Inset plates: www.columbia.edu)
under their purview. Shahjahanabad also incorporates a lot

of other principles of convergence that shall be discussed
below. These, apart from the immediately visible needs of
the people, address the latent needs like :
1. SPATIAL QUALITY (comfort and liveability), as
demonstrated in the dense dwellings that induce a sense of
community and security. That brings us to the social needs.
2. SOCIAL NEEDS (interfaces between public and private
domains, apart from the ones mentioned above). This is
also demonstrated in traditional housing in other parts of
the country like the Brahmin houses in the south called
agraharams. Security and convenience in communities are
also achieved by traditional mixed-use development as
opposed to the conventional land-use one that is heavily
dependent on transport networks. Another social need
addressed by traditional development is of legibility and
familiarity that fosters security and belonging to a place.
3. Examples of the agraharams and other traditional housing

also demonstrate the imbibed knowledge about climate
(incorporating courtyards in a humid climate) and the use
of locally available material. This aspect can be called the
TECHNOLOGICAL one.
4. ECONOMIC CONCERNS about affordability and
sustainability is practiced not only through the construction
with local material but also seen in traditional institutions
like the waqf associated with mosques that leases lands to
commercial establishments to generate revenue for the
upkeep of the mosque.
5. ENVIRONMENTAL. As discussed under the aspect
of technology, the materials used in construction have
low embodied energy due to their local availability and
the buildings are climatologically designed. This makes
them environmentally benign. At an urban level also,
Bhopal makes us question the modern anthropocentric
Fig. 2: Agraharams in Kerala (Source: Sketches: author, Krishna Chandran , 2004; Inset plate: author; Inset text: author)
315
Fig. 3: Do-it-Yourself (D-I-Y) models developed for rural common-services-centre that is participatory and adaptable to local materials
(Sources: Community Services center, author)
site planning as opposed to a traditional environmentally

receptive one because rejection of the natural drainage
system of the lakes there has led to a rise in the number of
mosquitoes because of increase in stagnant water.
Thus, to address all problems faced by contemporary
development, a traditional convergent approach that is
receptive to data from all these dimensions addressing the
quality of architecture or cities would have to be adopted
to deliver a wholesome living environment that is people
centric without compromising the natural environmental
factors.
Empowerment: Reinforcing local capacities and a
participatory approach
The existence of local traditional knowledge systems
has already been discussed. These are either in the form
of local crafts or skill sets imbibed by the people or
information about the historical background of a place. To
take local knowledge systems into account significantly in
development involves the people of a place, which is a bottomup approach to development rather than a centralized topdown one that is detached from local peoples. This is one
of the ways in which an informed approach to change
or development in an area, region or city can take place.
Further, this participatory approach would induce a sense
of pride and belonging among the people in concern. And
since along with the built and natural environment, people
are integral to the identity of a place, this mode of bottomup/ participatory/ decentralized working is one of the
most valid methods available for eliminating placelessness
and preventing dilution of the cultural capital from a place.
The LIFE (Literacy Initiative For Empowerment) under
UNESCO also follows this approach and goes to the extent
of redefining literacy, respecting local knowledge systems.
The loss of cultural capital and knowledge systems is
attributed to the dependence of the current consumer
market on industry and this leads to the craftsmen of an
area migrating to the city as unskilled workers. This may
also be one of the valid causes for the urban-immigration
problem.
Sustainability through change
Change being unavoidable, any built product or city can
be sustainable only if it allows change through minimal
consumption of resources and compromise of the
embedded values and quality. This, at an urban level has
again been demonstrated by the city of Shahjahanabad
that receives densification successfully over a period of
316
over 200 years till injected with modern western paradigms of

development that are disrespectful to its embedded values.
Through architectural endeavours in rural and urban areas,
architect Laurie Baker has demonstrated a way of working
with local skills and knowledge of building to re-invent
architecture in Kerala and in rural areas in the Himachal.
This is an attempt at identifying some of the main
principles that are embedded in traditional architecture and
city-building. Thus, instead of rejecting traditional urban
space and architecture, these would need to be conserved
so as to act as a reference and provide lessons for future
developments. This would be the first step to attaining
human habitats that are sustainable in all respects. I shall not
even make any allusions to a conclusion in this discussion
about the relevance of traditional principles in architecture
and urbanism. The objective of writing this material is to
look differently at what we consider primitive. Ironically,
we have imbibed more of global ideas because of our
overexposure to them coupled with ignorance about our
local knowledge systems - which is why the dissemination
of knowledge about these is a critical step to acknowledging
their presence and relevance.
References:
1. Bhatia, Gautam (1991), Laurie Baker: Life, Work and
Writings.
2. Blake, Stephen P. (1986), Shahjahanabad: Sovereign City
3. Greffe, Xavier (2001), Managing our cultural heritage
4.Grover, Satish (1995), Building beyond borders
5. Hosagrahar, Jyoti (2004), Indigenous Modernities
6. Khan, Hasan-Uddin (2001), International Style
7. Krafft, Thomas & Ehlers, Eckhart (1993), Shahjahanabad:
Tradition & Colonial Change
8. Rykwert, Joseph (2002), The Seduction of Place
9. Taecker, Matthew (2000), Urban revitalization and rural
restoration
.and many others
Websites:
1. Laura Wallace interviews of Amartya Sen, September
2004,www.google.com
2. www.unesco.org/life
3. en.wikipedia.org
319
Ways of Seeing:
Interpreting Heritage and Tradition for Design Education
Ashutosh Sohoni
Bowling Green State University, Ohio, USA
321
Redefining Architecture based on Cultural Evolution
Maliha Sultan Chaudhry

323
Framework for Heritage: A Case Study of Architectural Lighting

Design in Chandigarh & Promoting Tourism through Illumination
Pradeep Bhagat
Chandigarh College of Architecture
325
Role of a Historic Precinct in City Image
Sanjay S. Jado
MITS, Gwalior
327
Mountains- The Spiritual Magnets for the Adventurer:

Continuity, Context and Construction in the Himalayan Region
Sarosh Pradhan
Architect, Kathmandu, Nepal
329
Cairos European Quarter

19th Century and Early 20th Century Architectural Heritage
Wael Fahmi
Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt
331
Lime Panel
Nimish Patel & Parul Zaveri

Architects- Abhikram, Ahmedabad
ACADEMIC COMMITTEE
A.G.K. Menon (Chair)
is an Architect and Academician, and a Founder member of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage
(INTACH) and director of the TVB School, New Delhi. He has lectured, taught and written extensively all over the world
and is associated as advisor/chairperson with Delhi Urban Arts Comission(DUAC), Delhi Development Authority(DDA) &
National Capital Region Planning Board. He has been the Chairperson of Urban Renewal and Urban Heritage Committee
for formulation of Delhi Master Plan 2001-2021. He is based in New Delhi, India
Robert Adam
His contribution to the classical tradition is internationally acknowledged, both as a scholar and as a designer of traditional
and progressive classical architecture. Working in the USA, UK and Europe, he has chaired various bodies including the
International Network for Traditional Builing, Architecture and Urbanism (INTBAU). He is a Royal Institute of British
Architects Councillor and has been an advisor to the Commission for Architecture & the Built Environment (CABE) and
English Heritage. He is based in Winchester in the United Kingdom.
S.K. Misra
is the Chairman of INTACH, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. INTACH has grown from strength
to strength under his keen supervision and guidance. There are currently around 117 chapters within the country. INTACH
has also taken a lead in organizing craft training programmes, art and craft festivals and heritage walks throughout the
country. He is based at the INTACH head office in New Delhi, India
Yaaminey Mubayi
is a Consultant for Cultural Heritage at The Nabha Foundation, where she is providing inputs in both heritage conservation
together with socio-cultural parameters. She has worked formerly with UNESCO and various community development
organisations and is involved with various heritage initiatives all over India. She also teaches Conservation Management at
the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. She is based in New Delhi, India
Nimish Patel
has established the widely regarded and awarded Abhikram which has been working in the field of traditional, contextual
and sustainable architecture. He has been involved in heritage conservation projects and research in climatically appropriate
design in various parts of India. He has published and lectured extensively and has also established the Virasat Foundation to
establish the relevance towards traditional decision making processes in the built environment. He is based in Ahmedabad,
India
Deependra Prashad (Editor)
is an Architect & Planner who has been involoved in Research and Construction Projects in the field of sustainable and low
energy architecture. He has published on and has provided consultation to both the government and NGOs like CARE,
Development Alternatives & UN-Habitat on issues of appropriate building materials, water management, community
planning methods & educational infrastructure development. He teaches Sustainable Design at the Dept. of Architecture
and Urban Design at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. He is based in New Delhi, India
Jyoti Soni
is an architect and has worked on a range of architectural and developmental projects in Mumbai, UK & the Middle East.
She has worked is Dresden on the usage of traditional materials in construction and participated in community planning
workshops & NGO lobbies to the government in India. She is currently based in London in the United Kingdom.
Saswati Chetia (Asst. Editor & Architect INTBAU India)
is an Architect. She has graduated from Maulana Azad National In Bhopal and worked in Ahmedabad and New Delhi on
various architectural and research projects primarily based in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana & Rajasthan. She is working
as an Architect & Program Manager with INTBAU India and is based in New Delhi, India.
332
List of Contributors
Name
Designation & Organization
E-mail
A.G.K.Menon
Architect & Director, TVB School, New Delhi
menon.agk@gmail.com
A.K.Jain
Commissioner (Planning), Delhi Development Authority
akjain@del3vsnl.net.in
Amit Bhatt
Architect-Town Planner (Housing), New Delhi
prernamehta25@gmail.com
Arif Hasan
Architect/Planner, Pakistan
arifhasan@cyber.net.pk
Arif Kamal Mohammad
Asst. Prof., Deptt. Of Arch, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia arif_iitr@rediffmail.com
Regional Program Adviser, Habitat for Humanity

International (HFHI), Nepal
Ashok Lall
Architect & Dean of Studies, TVB School, New Delhi
ablarch@gmail.com
Ashutosh Sohoni
Assit. Professor of Design, Bowling Green State University,

Ohio, USA
assohoni@rediffmail.com
Brinda Somaya
Somaya & Kalappa Consultants Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai
bsomaya@bom4.vsnl.net.in
Channa Daswatte
Architect-MICD Associates, Madiwela , Sri Lanka
channadas@gmail.com
Deependra Prashad
Architect-Planner & Visiting Faculty, School of Planning &

Architecture, New Delhi
deependra@intbau.in
Dhiru Thadani
Principal, Ayers / Saint / Gross Architects + Planners,

Washington, USA
DThadani@asg-architects.com
Gerard da Cunha
Architect, Architecture Autonomous, Goa
archauto@gmail.com
arunapaul@gmail.com
Gurmeet Rai
Director, CRCI, New Delhi
raidelhi@gmail.com
K.T. Ravindran
Dean of Studies, Prof of Urban Design, School of Planning

and Architecture, New Delhi
ktravindran1@gmail.com
Krupali Uplekar
Architect, Asst. Professor,Notre Dame Universty, USA
uplekar.1@nd.edu
Leon Krier
Architect and Urban Planner, France
Madhu C.Dutta
Asst. Professor, Network Institute of Technology, Boston,

USA
Maliha Sultan Chaudhry
malihasultan@gmail.com
Marjan Sadat Nematimehr Phd Scholar, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
mnematimehr@yahoo.com
Michael Mehaffy
Co Founder, Centre for Environmental Structure, Europe
michael.mehaffy@gmail.com
Minja Yang
Director, UNESCO Office in New Delhi
newdelhi@unesco.org
Mustansir Dalvi
Professor-Sir JJ College of Architecture, Mumbai
mustansirdalvi@gmail.com
Narendra Dengle
Architect, Conservationist, Pune
narendraden@gmail.com
Naresh Karmalker
Habitat for Humanity India, Habitat Resource Centre - New

Delhi
nareshk@hfhisa.net
Nimish Patel
Architect, Abhikram, Ahmedabad
abhikram@abhikram.com
Lecturer and Researcher, Dept. of Architecture, Federal

University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria
odeyaleoluseyi@yahoo.com
Parul Zaveri
Pradeep Kumar Bhagat
Asst. Professor, Chandigarh College of Architecture,

Chandigarh
pradeepbhagat45@yahoo.com
Pradeep Sachdeva
pradeep@ayanagar.com
Pranali R. Parikh
Urban Designer, Birmingham, UK
pranali.parikh@gmail.com
Prasad Jonathan D.W.
Architect, Inspiration, Kerala
prasadjdw@gmail.com
Prerna Mehta
Architect - Town Planner (Housing), New Delhi
Pushpa Arabindoo
Lecturer, UCL Urban Laboratory, University College London
p.arabindoo@ucl.ac.uk
Raj Rewal
Raj Rewal Associates, New Delhi
rajrewal@del2.vsnl.net.in
Rakesh K.S.
Asst. Professor, Dept. of Architecture,Satyabhama University, bapi_72@yahoo.com

Chennai
Ranjit Sabikhi
ranjit@sabikhi.com
Rasem Badran
Dar Al Omran, Amman, Jordan
daralomran@daralomran.com
Richard Engelhardt
Senior Advisor to UNESCO Assistant Director-General for

Culture
r.engelhardt@unescobkk.org
Robert Adam
Chair- INTBAU & Architect- Robert Adam Architects,

Winchester, UK
robert,adam@robertadamarchitects.
com
333
334
Ruturaj Parikh
D.C.Patel School Of Architecture, Vallabh Vidyanagar,

Anand, Gujarat
ruturaj.parikh@gmail.com
S.Badrinarayanan
Visiting Faculty, SPA and TVB School of Habitat Studies,

New Delhi
narayan.badri@gmail.com
Sanjay S. Jadon
Reader, Department of Architecture, M.I.T.S., Gwalior
jadon100@hotmail.com
Saptarshi Sanyal
School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.
spacearts.studio@gmail.com
Sarika Panda Bhatt
Architect-Planner, Operation Research Group Pvt, Ltd, New

Delhi
sarikapanda@yahoo.com
Sarosh Pradhan
Architect, Kathmandu, Nepal
sarosh@wlink.com.np
Sashikala Ananth
Architect-Vadivam, Chennai
vaastuhealing@vsnl.net
Satprem Maini
ArchitectDirector, Earth Institute, Auroville
earthinstitute@auroville.org.in
Shikha Jain
Director, Development and Research Organisation for

Nature Arts & Heritage (DRONAH), Gurgaon
dronah@rediffmail.com
Smita Dalvi
Assistant Professor-Pillais College of Architecture, Mumbai
smita.dalvi@gmail.com
Tariq Yahiaoni
The Princes Foundation for the Built Environment, UK
enquiry@princes-foundation.org
Uday Khemka
Managing Trustee & CEO, The Nabha Foundation
ukhemka@sun-capital.com
Vinay Mohan Das
Lecturer, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology,

Bhopal
dasvm@manit.ac.in
Wael Fahmi
Associate Professor of Urbanism, Helwan University, Cairo,

Egypt
uders2004@yahoo.co.uk
William Koehler
Graduate Program Director, College of Management,

University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA
william.koehler@umb.edu
Yaaminey Mubayi
Heritage Consultant, The Nabha Foundation
yaaminey@gmail.com
Yatin Pandya
Associate Director, Vastu-Shilpa Foundation for Studies &

Research in Environmental Design, Ahmedabad
pandyatin@gmail.com
Participants of The International Conference on New Architecture & Urbanism:

Development of Indian Traditions held in January 07 in New Delhi
Name
Designation & Organization
email
A.G.K. Menon
Architect & Director, TVB School, New Delhi
agkrishnamenon@gmail.com
A.K. Jain
Planning Commissioner, Delhi Development Authority
ashokkumarjain@bol.net.in
A.Vishal Chand
S.S.S.Ms College of Architecture, Solapur
gravitydistance@yahoo.com
Abhijit Kondhalkar
Dept. of Urban Design, School of Planning & Architecture,

New Delhi
ar_udabhi@yahoo.co.in
Abhijit Ray
a_ray25c@hotmail.com
Adriana Duran
Architect, Columbia.
adriana_duran@hotmail.com
Ajay Kalsi
Noida
Ajit Seshadri
Head - Environmental Wing, Vijay Vigyan Foundation, New

Delhi
ajit.seshadri@vigyanvijay.org
Alessandro Iacovuzzi
Architect, Politecnico of Bari, Italy
a.iacovzzi@hotmail.com
Ameeta Sane
Architect, Mumbai
ameeta.sane@gmail.com
Amita Baig
World Monuments Fund, New Delhi
amitabaig@vsnl.com
Amruta Deshpande
Dr. B. N College of Arch., Ganesh Nagar, Pune.
amruta13feb@yahoo.co.in
Anil Laul
CEO & principal architect, Anangpur Building Centre
anillaul@vsnl.com
Anita Bakshi
CEKUL, Foundation for the Promotion and Protection of

Environmental and Cultural Heritage, Turkey
bakshiesh@googlemail.com
Anjali Krishan Sharma
Asst. Prof., Phd Scholar,School of Plannning & Architecture,

New Delhi
anjali_gijre@gmail.com
Anu Singh
Lecturer, Indo Global College of Architecture, Chandigarh
sans1_anu@yahoo.com
Anuj Kathuria
Sushant School of Art & Architecture, Gurgaon
anuj.kt@gmail.com
Anuradha Chaturvedi
Asst. Professor, Architectural Conservation, School of

Planning and Architecture, New Delhi
anuradhachaturvedi@yahoo.com
Anurag Roy
Architect & Dean, Vastukala Academy, College of

Architecutre, New Delhi
royanurag@gmail.com
Archana Khanna Gupta
Visiting Faculty, School of Planning & Architecture, New

Delhi
archana@firstprinciple.org
Arif Kamal Mohammad
Asst. Prof., Deptt. Of Arch, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
arif_iitr@rediffmail.com
Arun Bhandari
Graduate Scholar, VNIT, Nagpur
arynum@yahoo.co.in
Regional Program Adviser for the South Asian Countries,

Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), Nepal
arunapaul_123@yahoo.com
Aruna Sharma
Hindustan Times, New Delhi
aruna_psharma@yahoo.co.in
Arunava Das Gupta
Urban Designer & Faculty, TVB School of Habitat Studies,

New Delhi
arunavd998@yahoo.co.in
Arvind Krishan
Professor, School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi
Krishan@del2.vsnl.net.in
Ashok B. Lall
Architect & Dean of Studies, TVB school of Habitat Studies
ablarch@gmail.com
Ashtosh Dhar
Urban Planner, Gujarat Urban Development Company,

Gujarat
ashtoshdhar@yahoo.com
Ashutosh Sohoni
Asst. Prof., Design, Bowling Green State Univ, USA
assohoni@rediffmail.com
Ashwini Kumar
UN Habitat (UNESCO Chronicle), New Delhi
akumar@vsnl.com
Asmita Divakar
B.N.College of Architecture, Pune
asmita_divekar@bnca.ac.in
Atish Mandal
Heritage Worldwide, New Delhi
atishmandal2003@yahoo.co.in
Avni Malhotra
Prog. Officer, Swiss Agency for Development and Co-op.

Delhi
avni.malhotra@sdc.net
Ayodh Kamath
Architect, Kamath Design Studio, New Delhi
ayodhkamath@gmail.com
Azhar Tyabji
Art historian & community planner, Pune
azhartyabji@gmail.com
B.K. Jain
Director of Planning, Delhi Development Authority
jainbk@hotmail.com
Balbir Verma
Balbir Verma & Associates, New Delhi
balv@bol.net.in
Bashabi Das Gupta
Bhavna Muttreja
bhavnamuttreja@hotmail.com
Binayak Rath
Professor, IIT, Kanpur
brath@iitk.ac.in
Brinda Somaya
Somaya & Kalappa Consultants Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai
snk@bom8.vsnl.net.in
335
Channa Daswatte
336
Architect, MICD Associates, Madiwala, Sri Lanka
channadas@gmail.com
Charu Chadha
charu.chandha@gmail.com
Chitra Chandra Shekhar
School of Plannning and Architect, New Delhi
chitra_1up@rediffmail.com
Christiane Brusius
South Asia Institute, Kailash Colony New Delhi.
cbrosius@hotmail.com
Commander I.L. Syal
Head Master, The Punjab Public School, Nabha
hmppsnabha@yahoo.com
Czaee Malpani
czaee.malpani@gmail.com
Debashish Nayak
Advisor, Heritage Programme, Municipal Corporation,

Ahmedabad
debashishnayak@rediffmail.com
Debashree Pal
hi_munmun13@yahoo.co.in
Deependra Prashad
Architect & Secretary, INTBAU India, New Delhi
deependra@intbau.in
Deepika Saxena
deepika_dinesh_1983@yahoo.co.uk
Devendra Kumar
Dwivedi
Lecturer- Economics, Allahabad University
devkr_2006@rediffmail.com
Dhiru Thadani
Principal, Ayers / Saint / Gross, Architects + Planners, USA
DThadani@asg-architects.com
Dhruva Kalra
dhruva.kalra@gmail.com
Dhwani Iyer
Allana College of Architecture, Pune
dhwani2710@gmail.com
Diksha Agarwal
agarwal.diksha@gmail.com
Divya Chopra
divyac_26@yahoo.co.in
Divya Kush
Architect & Chair, Northern Chapter Indian Inst. Of

Architects, New Delhi
divyakush@flashmail.com
Faith Singh
Founder Trustee, Jaipur Virasat Foundation, Jaipur
faithsingh@anokhi.com
G.S. Gill
The Nabha Foundation, Nabha
majmanko@gmail.com
Gayatri Ratnam Rajesh
Faculty- Building Technology, HSMI, New Delhi
gayatriratnam@yahoo.com
Gerard da Cunha
Architecture Autonomous, Goa
archauto@goa1.dot.net.in
Giles Tillotson
Author & Conservationist, Gurgaon
reachview@yahoo.com
Gurmeet S. Rai
Conservation Architect, Director, CRCI, New Delhi
raidelhi@gmail.com
Himanshu Shard
enlbent2003@yahoo.com
J.N. Somya
j.n.somaya@gmail.com
Jayashree Deshpande
Faculty of Eng. Member, Academic Council, Pune University jddeshpande@gmail.com
Jigna Desai
Architect, JMA Design Co. Pvt. Ltd., Gujarat
jignades@gmail.com
Jyoti Soni
Architect, Mumbai
j_soni@intbau.in
K.T.Gurumukhi
Ex Chief Planner,Practicing Architect/Planner, New Delhi
kt_guru@yahoo.co.in
K.T.Ravindran
Dean of Studies, Prof of Urban Design, School of Planning

& Architecture, New Delhi
ktravindran1@gmail.com
Kamal Chawla
kamal.chawla@gmail.com
Kapil Arora
Vice Principal, RIMT College of Architecture, Punjab
ar_kaps@yahoo.com
Kapil Gauba
kapilgauba@gmail.com
Karan Grover
Architect, Varodara, Gujarat
kga@icenet.net
Kiran S. Kalamdani
Practising architect, urban designer and conservationist, Pune
kimaya1404@rediffmail.com
Kriti Aggarwal
kriti0212@gmail.com
Kulbhushan Jain
Architect & Faculty, CEPT University, Ahmedabad
kbj81@hotmail.com
Kulwant Singh
Chief Technical Advisor, UN-HABITAT, New Delhi
kulwant2002@gmail.com
Laxmi Arya
Architect, Mumbai
laxmi@intbau.in
Leon Krier
Architect and Urbanist, France
Lipika Swarup
lipika_swarup@hotmail.com
M.N.Joglekar
Director/Principal, Vastukala Academy, New Delhi
mnjoglekar@hotmail.com
Madhu C. Dutta
Asst. Professor, Wentworth Institute of Technology, USA
madhucdutta@yahoo.com
Madhu Pandit
Architect, Neeraj Manchanda Architects, New Delhi
madhupandit@gmail.com
Madhushri Gadgil
Dr. B.N. College of Architecture for Women, Pune
bnca@vsnl.com
Major T.S. Manko
The Nabha Foundation, Nabha
majmanko@gmail.com
Mala Seshagiri
Chennai
mseshagiri@yahoo.com
Maliha Sultan Choudhry
malihasultan@gmail.com
Manan Ahuja
Sushant School of Art & Architecture, New Delhi
m_n_ndel@hotmail.com
Man Singh Rana
Founder- Sushant School of Art and Architecture, New Delhi

& Patron- Lutyens Trust, UK
sushant@nde.vsnl.net.in
Manoj Kumar
Asstt. Professor, Patna, Bihar
manojkr_nitp@yahoo.co.in
Mansi Chaturvedi
Development specialist, Uttaranchal, INTBAU
mansi_c@intbau.in
Maria Rundqvist
Architect, Sweden
maria_rundqvist@yahoo.se
Marjan Nematimehr
Phd. Scholar, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
mnematimehr@yahoo.com
Matthew Hardy
Architect, Urban Designer & Secretary, INTBAU UK
Matthew.Hardy@PrincesFoundation.org
Meera Soni
meerasoni@gmail.com
Merle Kindred
Michigan Tech/Scholar at COSTFORD
mekindre@mtu.edu
Michael Gorzynski
Havard Business School, Boston, USA
mike@mba2007.hse.edu
Michael W Mehaffy
Centre for Environmental Structure - Europe, USA
michael.mehaffy@gmail.com
Mikael Backman
Urban Planning Unit, Municip. Of Karlshamn, Sweden
mikael.backman@karlshamn.se
Miki Desai
Cept University Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
mmdesai2@yahoo.co.in
Minja Yang
Director, UNESCO, Office in Delhi
newdelhi@unesco.org
Mitra Mitra
Architect & Visiting Faculty, School of Planning and

mitramitra22@gmail.com
Mrinal S.Ram Mohan
mrinal.rammohan@gmail.com
Mrs. Badran
DAR AL OMRAN, Jordan
Mustansir Dalvi
Architect, Professor, Pillais College of Architecture, New

Bombay
mustansirdalvi@gmail.com
Namita Goel
Indian Architecture & Builder, Nehru Place, New Delhi
namita_goel@jasubhai.com
Narendra Dengle
Architect & Conservationinst, Narendra Dengle & Associates,

Pune
shankav@vsnl.com
Naresh Karmalker
Programme Advicer- Asia Pacific, Habitat for Humanity

International, New Delhi
nareshk@hfhisa.net
Natesan Seshagiri
Architect, member of the steering committee of Hindu

Community and Cultural Center in California, USA
mseshagiri@yahoo.com
Navin Piplani
Conservation Architect, TVB School of Habitat Studies, New

Delhi
npiplani@hotmail.com
Neepa Saha
Program Coordinator, The Nabha Foundation
neepa@thenabhafoundation.org
Neeraj Manchanda
Architect, Neeraj Manchanda Architects, New Delhi
neeraj@nma-design.com
Nidhi Aggarwal
Nidhi Batra
School of Planning & Architecture
nidhi_b_5@yahoo.com
Nilanjan Bhowal
Architect- Design Consortium, New Delhi
nilanjan@descon.in
Nimish Patel
Architect, Abhikram
Nupur Saran
School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal
nups.s@yahoo.com
Lecturer and researcher, Department of Architecture, Federal

University of Technology, Akure Nigeria
odeyaleoluseyi@yahoo.com
P.C. Jain
Head, CII- Green Building Centre, New Delhi
cmd@spectralservices.net
P.K. Jain
Director, Rajasthan Institute for Conservation of Culture

Properties, Jaipur
pkjain5883@yahoo.co.in
P.S. Mathur
Secretary, Citifoundation, New Delhi
psmathur214@yahoo.com
Parul Zaveri
Payal Kapoor
kapoorpayal@gmail.com
Poonam Verma
Mascarenhas
Architect, HECAR/ARCHINOVA, Goa
pvmas@yahoo.com
Pradeep Bhagat
Asst. Professor, Chandigarh College of Architecture
pradeepbhagat45@yahoo.com
Pradeep Sachdeva
design@ayanagar.com
Pranali R Parikh
Architecture & Urban Designer, Birmingham, UK
pranali.parikh@gmail.com
Prasad Jonathan D.W.
Architect, Inspiration, Kerala
inspire@vsnl.com
Preeti Harit
INTACH, Architectural Heritage Division, New Delhi
preetiharit@gmail.com
Prerna Mehta
Architect - Town Planner (Housing), Delhi
Priya Sasidharan
Lecturer, Measi Academy of Architecture, Chennai
priya.sasidharan@gmail.com
Priyaleen Singh
Professor, Deptt. Of Conservation, SPA, Delhi
prsingh@ndf.vsnl.net.in
Priyank Jain
priyankjain127@yahoo.com
337
Priyanka Dave
338
JMA Design Co. Pvt. Ltd, Gujarat
priyadave@yahoo.com
Priyanka Kochhar
The Energy & Researches Institute(TERI), New Delhi
priyanka@teri.res.in
Pushpa Arabindoo
Lecturer, UCL Urban Laboratory, University College London
p.arabindoo@ucl.ac.uk
Raghav Kaushik
kaushik.raghav@gmail.com
Raj Rewal
Architect, Raj Rewal Associates, New Delhi
mail@rajrewal.org
Rajeev Sethi
Founder & CMD, Asian Heritage Foundation
Rakesh K.S
Asst. Professor, Satyabhama University, Chennai
bapi_72@yahoo.com
Ram Sharma
Architect HOD, Sushant School of Art & Architecture, Gurgaon
sushant_school@vsnl.com
Raman Vig
Architect & Visiting Faculty School of Planning & Architecture,

New Delhi
ramanvig@hotmail.com
Ranjana Mital
Faculty, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi
ranjanamital@hotmail.com
Ranjit Mitra
HOD, Department of Urban Design, School of Planning &

ranjitmitra13@gmail.com
Ranjit Sabikhi
Architect- Ranjit Sabikhi Architects, New Delhi
ranjit@sabikhi.com
Rasem Badran
Architect- DAR AL OMRAN, Amman, Jordan
Ratish Nanda
Aga Khan Trust for Culture, New Delhi
ratishn@gmail.com
Ravindra Bhan
Ravindra Bhan & Associates, New Delhi
ravindrabhan@gmail.com
Reena Surana
HOD, Dept. of Architecture, MNIT, Jaipur
rina.surana@rediffmail.com
Revathi Kamath
Kamath Design Studio, New Delhi
rukamatch@vsnl.net
Richard Engelhardt
Senior Advisor to UNESCO Assistant Director-General for

Culture
r.engelhardt@unescobkk.org
Riddhi Vijay Parakh
Dr. B.N College of Architecture, Pune.
myriddhs@yahoo.ca
Robert Adam
Chair- INTBAU & Architect- Robert Adam Architects,

Winchester, UK
robert.adam@robertadamarchitects.
com
Robert Patzschke
Patlschke Architecture & Urban Design, Germany
r.patlschke@gmx.de
Rohini Shaurya
shauryarohini@hotmail.com
Rohini Srivastava
rohini05@yahoo.com
Ruchita Gupta
TVB School of Habitat Studeis, New Delhi
ruchita_garg@yahoo.com
Rupal Shukla
South Florida Regional Planning Council, USA
rupalshukla@gmail.com
Ruturaj F. Parikh
D.C.Patel School Of Architecture, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat
ruturaj.parikh@gmail.com
S. Badrinarayanan
Visiting Faculty, TVB School of Habitat Studies & SPA, Delhi
narayan.badri@gmail.com
S.C. Mahagaonkar
Director (Town Planning), Jaipur Development Authority
dir_tp@jaipurjda.org
Sachin Kapoor
sachin@thenabhafoundation@org
Sanjay S. Jadon
Reader, Department of Architecture, MITS, Gwalior
jadon100@hotmail.com
Saptarshi Sanyal
spacearts.studio@gmail.com
Sarah Adam
Robert Adam Architects, UK
smbancroft@gmail.com
Sarah Bancroft
South Asia Correspondent- Corner Stone, SPAB, UK
smbancroft@gmail.com
Sarika Panda Bhatt
Architect/Planner, New Delhi
sarikapanda@yahoo.com
Sarosh Pradhan
Architect, Nepal
sarosh@wlink.com.np
Sashikala Ananth
Architect- Vadivam, Chennai
vaastuhealing@vsnl.net
Saswati Chetia
Architect & Program Manager, INTBAU India, New Delhi
saswati@intbau.in
Satish Khanna
HOD, Dept. of Arch, School of Planning & Architecture, New

Delhi
contactskhanna@yahoo.com
Satprem Mani
Architect & Director- Earth Institute, Auroville
earth-institute@auroville.org.in
Saurabh Tewari
Sushant School of Art & Architecture
think_school@vsnl.com
Sharat C.Das
dassharat@gmail.com
Shashi Mesapam
Research Scholar, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
mes-shashi@rediffmail.com
Shikha Jain
Director, Development and Research Organisation for Nature Arts dronah@rediffmail.com

& Heritage, (DRONAH), Gurgaon & Affiliate- JVF, Jaipur
Shirish Gupte
Architect & Director- Intbau Mumbai
sgaarch@bom8.vsnl.net.in
Shivdular Dhillon
The Benediction, Patiala, Punjab
shivdular@yahoo.com
Shrashtant Patara
The Shelter Group, Development Alternatives, New Delhi.
spatara_da@yahoo.org
Shruti Joshi
Asstt. Professor, B.N.College of Architecture, Pune
shrutichitra@yahoo.com,
Shubhada
Kamlapurkar
Professor, Dr. B.N College of Architecture, Pune
bnca@vsnl.com
Siddharth Soni
siddharthsays@gmail.com
Smita Dalvi
Asst. Professor, Pillais College of Architecture, Bombay
smita.dalvi@gmail.com
Smita Datta Mukhija
Architecture, AVESANA, New Delhi
ziasmita@bol.net.in
Sneha Gurjar
sneha.gurjar@gmail.com
Snigdha Saumya
The PRactice, New Delhi
snigdha@the-practice.net
Subhasis Chakrabarti
Chief Operating Officer, The Nabha Foundation
subhasis_chakrabarti@yahoo.com
Sudha Nadar
Indian Architect & Builder Magezine, Chiranjeev Tower,New

Delhi.
s_sudha@jasubhai.com
Sumandeep Singh
singh.sumandeep@gmail.com
Sumit Ghosh
Architect, S. Ghosh & Associates, New Delhi
info@sghosh.com
Suneet Paul
Editor, Architecture + Design Magazine, New Delhi
paul@mediatransasiaindia.com
Sunil David
Director, Habitat Resource Center, HFHI, New Delhi
sunild@hfhisa.net
Sweena Berry
Design & Conservation Consultant, Gurgaon
sweena.berry@gmail.com
Takahiro Noguchi
takahiro.noguchi@gmail.com
Tanya Sanyal
taniya.sinyal@gmail.com
Tariq Yahiaoui
The Princes Founation for The Built Environment, UK
enquiry@princes-foundation.org
Thiruvengadam R.B.
Architect, Mandala Design Forum, New Delhi
r_b_thiru@rediffmail.com
Tushar Bhor
Aga Khan Planning & Building Service, Mumbai
tushar_bhor@yahoo.com
Tushar Gaur
BBDN Institute of Technology & Management, Lucknow
ar.tushar@gmail.com
Udayan Kumar
Design A
udayankumar@hotmail.com
V. Suresh
Head Good Governance India Froundation, Former CMD,

HUDCO, New Delhi
vsuresh30@yahoo.com
Vaibhav Bakhshi
Government College of Architecture, Lucknow
vaibhavbakhshi@gmail.com
Vaibhav Jain
decamanus@gmail.com
Vanya Jain
vanya_savageconjunction@yahoo.
co.in
Varun Airy
Sr. Manager, Lloyd Insultations India Ltd., New Delhi
varun_airy2005@yahoo.com
Vas Dev Dewan
Chief Architect, Delhi Development Authority
chiefarchitecture@dda.org.in
Vasant Kamath
Kamath Design Studio, New Delhi
rukamatch@vsnl.net
Vasudha Gokhale
Dr. B.N. College of Architecture, Pune
anshuma@rediffmail.com
Veena Mahadevan
UN Habitat, New Delhi
Vijay Garg
Architect & Hon. Secretary, Indian Institute of Architects, New

Delhi
gargvijay31@gmail.com
Vijay Xalxo
Habitat for Humanity India
vijayx@hthisa.net
Vikas Sharma
Design Plus, Gurgaon, Haryana
archvikassharma@gmail.com
Vinay Mohan Das
Sr. Lecturer, Department of Architecture and Planning, MANIT,

Bhopal
dasvm@manit.ac.in
Viraj Kataria
Centre for Environment Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad
kataria.viraj@gmail.com
Vivek Nanda
Director- Alan Baxter & Associates, UK
vnanda@alanbaxter.co.uk
Wael Fahmi
Principal, Urban Design Experimental Research Studies, CairoEgypt
uders2004@yahoo.co.uk
William Koehler
Graduate Program Director, College of Management, University

of Massachusetts
william.koehler@umb.edu
Yaaminey Mubayi
Heritage Consultant, The Nabha Foundation
yaaminey@gmail.com
Yash Pathak
pathak_school@vsnl.com
Yatin Pandya
Associate Director, Vastu-Shilpa Foundation for Studies &

Research in Environmental Design, Ahmedabad
pandyatin@gmail.com
339
INTBAU
Aura Neag (UK)
Matthew Hardy (UK)
Deependra Prashad (New Delhi, India)
Saswati Chetia (New Delhi, India)
Shirish Gupte (Mumbai, India)
Jyoti Soni (India)
+91-11-40502162 (India), +44-(0)-20-76138520 (UK)

aura.woodward@intbau.org
matthew.hardy@intbau.org
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saswati@intbau.in
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Don Mohanlal
Amita Kapur
Subhasis Chakrabarti
Yaaminey Mubayi
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NEW ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM

Development of Indian Traditions

NEW ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM

New Architecture and Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions

The Nabha Foundation is building on the philanthropic activities of the Khemka

New Architecture and Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions

INTACH, the Indian National Trust for Art

The Housing and Urban Development

School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi:

New Architecture and Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions

HRH The Prince of Wales

INTBAU - Nabha Declaration

Introduction: Why Tradition Matters

Tradition and Our Built Environment

Tradition And Innovation

Globalisation And Tradition

New Ways of Looking at Heritage: Processes

Jaipur As A Recurring Renaissance

Linking Heritage And Development Practices

New Ways of Looking at Heritage: Contextual Frameworks

Conceptual Framework Of Vaastu

Heritage As A Living & Evolving Process:

New Architecture and Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions

The Raj Versus The Republic: The Legacy Of Lutyens

Sustainable Places and Communities

Infrastructure Development Through Community Consensus: A Strategic Approach

Transformations Occuring Due To Socio-economic Pressures

Isolated By Elitism: The Pitfalls Of Recent Heritage Conservation Attempts In Chennai

Urbanization, Farm Land And The Form Of Public Space

Evolving Traditional Practices For Sustainable Construction In The Present

Climatic Responsiveness In The Traditional Built Form Of Lucknow

Development Of Indian Traditions: Constructivist Approach In The Design Studio

Tradition And Contextual Relevance For Education In Architecture And Urbanism

Building Construction And The Decorative Crafts: The Endangered Traditions

Reflections On The Narrative Of Place: The Infinite Conversation

New Architecture and Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions

Tradition As An Expression Of Time

Bhadli Village, Gujarat: Rubble To Renewal

The Architecture Of Hotels: The Legacy Of Geoffrey Bawa

Building With Bamboo: Continuing A Tradition In A Modern Context

Evolving A Vocabulary Of Architecture

The Relevance Of New Urbanism

A Pattern Book Approach

Interface Between Traditional Urbanism And The Legislative Framework

Strategies For Continuing Traditions In New Architecture And Urbanism

Illustrated Essays and Studies

Contemporary Relevance Of Traditional Principles In Architecture And Urbanism

Theme based Graphical Slides

List of Contributors and Participants

New Architecture and Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions

New Architecture and Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions

New Architecture and Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions

Message from HRH The Prince of Wales

New Architecture and Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions

Message from Uday Khemka

CEO & Managing Trustee, The Nabha Foundation

New Architecture and Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions

Message from Robert Adam

New Architecture and Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions

INTBAU Nabha Declaration

New Architecture and Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions

Promoting Environmental Sustainability

New Architecture and Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions

Introduction: Why Tradition Matters