Literature Review

The social dimension of water has been studied as an aspect of social practice, art, or even architecture (Hegewald 2002; Jain-Neubauer 1981; Mankodi 1991), (Livingston, 2002) (Mehta-Bhatt, 2014) (Strang, 2008). Many academics have also explored water through a technocratic lens of political decision making (Bakker, 2012) (Holt, 2018) (Elhance, 1999). The thesis argues for a crucial understanding of bridging the social and technical paradigms of water, to propose an alternate infrastructural vocabulary. This is pivotal to achieving sustainability and equality, for urban areas of semi-arid India.

Although there is a clear acknowledgement of the sustainable water ecology of stepwells (or traditional harvesting) by various scholars, there has been very little research that juxtaposes spatial and technical paradigms of harvesting with ideals of sustainable urban design practice. This could steer the move towards socially equitable and water sensitive cities in semi-arid regions and help design a framework for urban communities to co-evolve with their fragile environments. Based on a literature review, analysis of policies and precedents, I address the following research questions: ‘What are the lessons offered by traditional water infrastructure in the making of the contemporary city of Ahmedabad?’ ‘What is an alternate mode of urban design that can help move towards more sustainable and resilient habitats?’

Figure 8. Seasonal streams around medieval Ahmedabad