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Living Street : aspects of public space in Jethabhai ni Pol & Aranya

University of British Columbia

The focus of this thesis is on urbanity. It identifies and projects six aspects that appear to affect urbanity onto two case-studies - using perspective projection to do so. The use of perspectival diagrams to project these aspects onto examples of public space indicates the two main concerns of this study - the first one being about a way of looking and its representation, the other about the aspects that affect urbanity. As a hypothesis, this study suggests "immersed perspective" as a way of looking and representing aspects of urban space. The above-mentioned two concerns are reflected in the fact that the thesis has two parts, the first one developing the theme of a way of looking, the other one applying this to two urban case-studies. The two case-studies are residential settlements in India: Jethabhai ni Pol and Aranya. The first settlement - Jethabhai ni Pol has grown organically and has matured over time. The other - Aranya, though visualized and designed at one go, aspires to some qualities of the first, specifically to achieve richness of spaces for the public settings. Jethabhai ni Pol belongs to the traditions of Mohenjodaro of the Indus valley civilization and the old cities in other parts of India such as Old Delhi also known as Shahjhanabad. Aranya, designed at the Vastu-Shilpa Foundation under the guidance of architect B.V. Doshi represents an evolution of the ideas of modern architecture that have strong roots in the works of Corbusier and Kahn as well as in the studies of traditional architecture of the old cities of the sub-continent. Aranya is especially interesting because it is a sites and services project and so allowed to grow and evolve in a fashion reflecting that of traditional urban settlements. The thesis seeks conclusions on two counts - regarding the appropriateness of the proposed method for understanding urban space as well as about urbanity of public space as revealed by the proposed aspects of analysis.

Text

2009-12-11

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/16378

Architecture

University of British Columbia

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