October 2016

TOTAL NUMBER OF PAGES INCLUDING COVER 184 VOL 30 (2)

OCTOBER 2016

` 200

MUMBAI

DENSITY 30th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

CHANNA DASWATTE SOUMITRO GHOSH ASHISH GANJU PETER RICH AND TIM HALL PALINDA KANNANGARA PREM CHANDAVARKAR SONALI RASTOGI YATIN PANDYA NEELKANTH CHHAYA ANNE FEENSTRA ANIKET BHAGWAT SAMIRA RATHOD ARJUN MALIK RAVINDRA PUNDE

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COMPETITION Writing Competition and Photography Competition

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FOCUS Density In Architecture

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The Sustainability Of Dense Architecture

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Shades Of Density

Focuses on a micro scale, at the variations of population and built environment densities.

by Channa Daswatte

by Soumitro Ghosh

70 Density

by Ashish Ganju 76

On Density In Rwanda

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Density in Architecture: Perspective Of a Sri Lankan Architect

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CRITICAL REVEIW The Casa Rio Club House by Aniket Bhagwat and Samira Rathod.

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FOCUS Density In Urbanism

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Density And Anonymity

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Urbanism And Density

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Playing Housie: Massing the Houses or Housing the Masses

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Density In Urbanism

by Peter Rich and Tim Hall

by Palinda Kannangara

Reviewed by Arjun Malik and Ravindra Punde

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Focuses on a macro scale like an urban structure which recognises allocated regions of sparse and dense built environments.

by Prem Chandavarkar

by Sonali Rastogi

by Yatin Pandya

by Neelkanth Chhaya

148 Down?

by Anne Feenstra

PHOTOGRAPHY MARATHON

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ETHOS

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Evolution of City Forms

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Research Technology Housing)

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Density in Architecture T

he density of the built environment is known to have both positive and negative impacts on the natural environment of urban and rural forms alike. To demonstrate this impact, the Anniversary Issue of Indian Architect & Builder aims to analyse the varying fabrics on a micro and macro scale through the two tracks, Architecture and Urbanism. The following section includes articles which address the first track.

Architecture: This track focuses on a micro scale, at the variations of population and built environment densities, to identify multiple ways in which architecture influences our immediate environs or vice versa. Through disparate instances of built environment concentrations, the aim is to put forth various opinions of what Density would mean in Architecture and how that could affect designs and furthermore the fabric of our cities.

In this Section of the issue we have invited eminent architects and academicians to contribute their thoughts on their ideas of Density in Architecture. Each contributor, apart from penning down their views on the theme have also analysed a unique project allotted to them individually.

All the articles by the contributors are divided into two sections, a general viewpoint and a critique. It is our attempt to address the topic in a new light and bring out innovative thoughts through case studies.

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Channa Daswatte graduated from the University of Moratuwa in 1987. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Architecture and a Master of Architecture from the University of London. After graduation he joined the Architectural Consultancy of Geoffrey Bawa from 1991 to 2003 being made a partner in 1997.

Since 1998 has been in Partnership with Murad Ismail in MICD Associates, working on a variety of projects in Sri Lanka, India and Africa. The firm was recognized for conservation work with an Award of Distinction in the UNESCO Asia-pacific Heritage Awards of 2007 for the Conservation of the Galle Fort Hotel He has been a Lecturer and Year Person at the Colombo School of Architecture and a Lecturer at the University of Moratuwa. Contributing author to many magazines, and books, and author of the books “Sri Lanka Style” with Dominic Sansoni (2006) and “Colonial Furniture in the Geoffrey Bawa Collection (2012). Since 1997 has been a Trustee of the Lunuganga Trust and Geoffrey Bawa Trust and since 2016 been the Chairman of the Galle Heritage Foundation.

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© Rishi Singhal

The Sustainability of Dense Architecture

By Channa Daswatte

Photographs: courtesy Nico Saieh Drawing: Extracted from the book Aalto, Alvar.“Alvar Aalto:between humanism and materialism”, Edited by Peter Reed.

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he views on the densities in Urbanism and Architecture has always been seen from various perspectives as either extremely bad for the lifestyle of humans or very good. If one looks at the basis for the creation of urban densities, at first glance it appears as a simple matter of good economics. People like to be as close to each other as possible so that they might share in the wealth and prosperity that is generated by the exchange of goods and ideas. Of course if this alone is true, in this day and age of the Internet, it should be that the

densification of cities should be on the wane and more people ought to be moving out as any exchange of ideas and exchange of goods can happen remotely across the globe. But this we know is not true as by the year 2050, more than 66 per cent (*1) of the globes population will be living in cities and growing.

While the evils of densification are many and the arguments for dispersed settlements often seem plausible and even workable, the Indian Architect & Builder - October 2016

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A

alto originally planned the town Centre of this small industrial town as an open square with a possible town hall on one side.

Eventually, submitting a design in an open competition for this town hall, Aalto won with a idea that the town centre should be more than simply a town hall. The Saynatsalo town hall has more than just an administrative function but a diverse group of activities such as a library, a bank, pharmacy and even some flats and a sauna as well!

Here Aalto shows his debt to the architectural ideals and ideas of the Mediterranean countries, which he visited and was clearly inspired by in his various travels in Southern Europe. Aalto specifically mentions The Palazzo Publico in Siena, which he once compared this work to. Density of activity is one of the most important features of Mediterranean town centres. Many different activities placed alongside each other add to the successful animation of these town centres. There is no concept of zoning of activities, but a consistent lack of it allow its inhabitants to do many things in a single journey from their home to work or any other such movement during the course of the day.

At the Saynatsalo town hall, density of activities has been subtly differentiated between the administrative and the everyday, making it possible for them to co-exist with ease. The street level continues the activities that are very much the part of the market place at one edge of which this building was originally paced. The administrative functions are placed on an inner raised patio, reached from the street either via a grassy outdoor stairs or a staircase within the building itself. This subtle variation in level also allows the town hall itself as an administrative function to be highlighted within the context as a whole. For a small industrial town this was intended to animate its

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Staircase access.

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Š 2016 The Museum of Modern Art

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centre by making a journey to it a more fulfilling experience beyond getting some administrative detail attended to.

While Aalto in his work and approach to design clearly admired and followed the modernist tenets of construction, such as form follows function. His use of brick and concrete seen true to form, a clear eschewing of decoration and simple cube-like volumes filled with light, place this work squarely within the Modern movement. However through this building he begins to question some of the the town planning ideas promoted by Modern Movement, such as the separation of activities as seen in the plans for the Ville Radius for Paris by Le Corbusier. These ideas expected to cleanse and order the new cities being built after the Second World War with its ideas of zoning and control. Originally stemming from the Garden city movement, which was a reaction to the overcrowding brought in by the growth of cities with Industrialisation, these ideas saw density of building and activities as a bad thing. Cities needed to be cleansed and ordered with different areas designated for different activities. The Saynatsalo Town hall was one of the earliest structures, made within the stylistic and constructional ethos of the Modern movement to question these ideas and demonstrate that the other was possible and would make cities more livable and anticipated the ideas contained in the famous critique of modernist planning, “The Death and life of Great America Cities� (1961)by Jane Jacobs

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By studying indigenous tribes, especially the architecture of the Ndebele, Peter Rich’s designs are rooted in Africa and show a profound African understanding. The architecture in the practice is extremely diverse due to each project being specially formulated for the specific site in which it is located. His practice has been awarded many awards like World Architecture Festival in 2009; The Fassa Bortolo International Prize for Sustainable Architecture, Silver Medal, Ferrara, Italy, 2011; The Earth Awards, London, 2010; Holcim Acknowledgment Awards, 2008, etc. His work is intense, sensitive and remarkably responsive to its context.

Tim Hall is one of the founding partners of Light Earth Design LLP together with Peter Rich and Michael Ramage. Tim has been active leading the LED design practice in Rwanda East Africa for the past 5 years. Tim has developed Green City designs for Rwanda and is a former associate of Feilden Clegg and Bradley Studios London and is presently based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

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On Density in Rwanda

By Tim Hall and Peter Rich of Light Earth Design Drawings and Photographs: courtesy the authors

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resources forces a reliance on importation leading to higher build costs and lack of affordability for the majority.

Well planned cities of an appropriate density allow people enjoy better mobility and facilitating better access to services and employment.

With adequate complementary services and infrastructure - people are more healthy, happy and are thus more productive. Higher density can, of course, reduce infrastructure costs and form places that strengthen social cohesion.

In countries, such as Rwanda, where land value is low and construction costs are high it is key that housing density is informed by typologies that offer the best chance of being affordable. Logically, building over a 4/5 stories is, due to engineering and lift access, significantly more expensive than a lower rise solution. Thus higher rise should be limited to the highest land plots in the city centres. It is no surprise that high rise living is, in many cities, for the rich. Of course with careful planning and efficient plot use we know that lower rise does not necessarily mean lower density.

The majority of housing stock needs to be affordable for ordinary working people. In the African context, where we practice, this is challenging. Limited skills capacity and low construction material

The ‘lowering’ of building heights has other advantages. In Rwanda, for instance, the traditional urban fabric is organised around a vernacular of interlocked courts. The people are traditionally deeply

ell functioning cities are critical to economic development and long term reduction in poverty. Cities are places where people live, work and play. The provision of dense, affordable and decent standard housing that is well connected to centers of employment is fundamental.

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Kigali City-a juxtaposition of the new and traditional.

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Soleluna mixed use Development, Kigali.

connected to the land. Thus the careful design of the spaces ‘in between’ is key. This is both inherent in the cherished vernacular and makes sense climatically. External spaces (whether private, semi private or communal) take on more importance. These are important thresholds where the individual interacts though the family to the wider community - where social cohesion is sustained.

The buildings themselves need to be simple and repeatable, after all most housing is built by ‘people’ not large contractors and developers.

Architects should be innovating - leading the way in low cost housing design, using their skills to develop prototypes. Using design and engineering to promote the use of lower cost ‘local’ materials is key so these can be used in the future by ordinary people or small building firms. Given the massive demand for affordable housing in virtually every city in Africa, there is a huge opportunity to use urbanization as a generator of long term sustainable economic growth.

If we are to respect the societies where we work we need to promote neighborhoods of ‘mixed affordability’ with a variety of densities.

Indian Architect & Builder - October 2016

At the same time, how existing communities, in dilapidated and low density stock are re housed requires careful thought. Uprooting communities and removing them from their livelihoods can be avoided though mixed income neighborhood planning, cross subsidy and innovative financing.. Finally we need to complement housing with services, amenity, livelihood opportunities and open spaces where our families can walk and our kids can play.

This all needs to be structured in such a way that balances the human needs with the long term protection of the wider ecosystem. Simply this is the definition of Green Urbanism.

As architects we have a fundamental responsibility to understand the contexts that we are working with and a duty to respect traditions and identity. We must fight the forces of short term financial gain - and start to engage constructively in this critical agenda.

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Trellick Tower.

Pleasure of Use

Trellick Tower, London | Erno Goldfinger

By Peter Rich Drawings: Extracted from the Book, French, Hilary.“Key Urban Housing of the Twentieth Century”.

Photographs: © Wikimedia Commons Indian Architect & Builder - October 2016

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This article is the first of a new column series named ‘Critical Review’. It is known that the idea of criticism holds much importance in the architectural fraternity, however it is largely neglected due to the egos and shyness of acceptance attached to it. We at IA&B, are trying to boldly attempt a start towards making healthy criticism a part of the process of learning within the community of architecture.

Such bold criticism requires bold architects who are self-accepting and in fact welcoming to such commentary. For the first steps, we have received coherence of this idea with two architects of the community. And for this, they have been overwhelmingly generous to lend us their latest project for the review. These are steps to form a mutually appreciable community of combined learning, the process we have long left to the days of architectural school.

Aniket Bhagwat is a third generation landscape architect practising in Ahmedabad with m/s Prabhakar B Bhagwat, a firm started by his father eight decades ago. He studied Architecture from Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT), Ahmedabad and pursued his Masters in Landscape Architecture from School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), New Delhi. Drawing on the depth of his familiarity with the specialisation since childhood, Aniket is known to be an outspoken and stimulating writer, thinker and an academician. He co-edits and writes for SPADE, a chronicle on design research, theory and narrative, the only peer driven design magazine in the country. Through his discourse and practice, he strives to bridge the gap between the profession and academics and evolve design through discussion and criticism.

Indian Architect & Builder - October 2016

Samira Rathod graduated from the Sir J J College of Architecture, Mumbai in 1986 and soon after completed her Master in Architecture from the University of Illinois, Urbana – Champaign in 1988. She worked with many architects in the United States and in India for several years before starting her own partnership firm RLC in 1995 and thereafter in 2000, she founded her solo practice Samira Rathod Design Associates, which has grown over the years. She was involved in furniture design under Transforme Designs until 2003. Her passion for writing, theorising and discussing architecture led her to be the editor and creator of SPADE and founder and director of SPADE INDIA RESEARCH CELL which candidly deliberates, investigates and researches the condition and impact of design in India.

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Recognising identity and invoking urban memories.

Drawings and Photographs: courtesy M/s Prabhakar B Bhagwat and SRDA Curated by: Meghna Mehta

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eyond programme, and the ability to house it, architecture today wears various garbs. Some are about creating an illusion, for the user to partake in- and often this dominant need is expressed by recreating an architecture of elsewhere. This architecture is not rooted in any philosophy as such, other than to allow people to associate themselves with another location, or cultural/economic construct.

This ofcourse has led to an immense proliferation of work that could be built anywhere , and the idea of identity is passed off as being global, obliterating all traces of specificity and individual nuances.

To add to this, the limited nature of typologies, means that a sameness cannot be avoided. All this leads to, in actuality, a bland physical environment - its blandness poorly appreciated - so greatly does it dull senses.

The club at Casa Rio attempts to take these positions head on and see how to address them.

To begin with its done in a lighter vein, to bring in an emotion that is rarely seen in the built - humor,and a slight whimsy. It then takes some metaphorical positions. To explain: 1. The verandah is the tying thread.It is seen as a railway platform,

harking to visual language seen at Churchgate. This idea is strengthened through the metal work , the separation in the flooring, that becomes rough ( To actually keep water away- but the line for handicapped), and then the drain that is designed to look like a track.

It alludes to the local trains in Mumbai too- a thread that ties all of Mumbai. Here its the thread that ties all the disparate identities that makes Mumbai. The stencilled letters on the floor tell the story of railways in India.

2. There is the theater, that has art-deco curves around the edges, and refers to the theater district of Mumbai. It uses signage that talks about great films and actors.

3. The badminton hall, that has tall mass walls, that allude to the walls that separate the dock lands from the city, and like those walls have signs that say “no sticking” or “no posters” , this uses a plaster commonly used in many parts of Mumbai to prevent people from sticking bills.

4. The stair well, with its delicate clock tower kind of glass work.

5. The library that alludes to the lovely filigree of metal work that many old /colonial/vernacular buildings in Mumbai are cloaked with.

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This critique by Arjun Malik on the project Casa Rio Clubhouse designed

by Aniket Bhagwat and Samira Rathod is based on a thorough study of the project, first by an analysis of the material sent by the architects and then evaluated by a personal visit to the site.

Arjun Malik obtained his Bachelors in Architecture from the Rachana Sansad Academy of Architecture and went on to receive a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from the Columbia University in New York. He then returned to join his father’s 30 year old firm in 2005.

“There was always a certain inevitability about my decision to be an architect. It was ultimately the paradoxical nature of the profession, and the belief, through constant exposure to my father’s practice, that architecture, like cinema or literature, was a medium for commentary and personal expression, that led me down this path.”

The practice focuses more on generic metaphors rather than specific analogs, relying on the intuitive reading of context, allegory and functional parameters to generate typological shifts. The practice has won many competitions and Awards since its establishment in 1976 and build notable projects across the country.

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Verandah.

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t would be tempting to view the project in purely allegorical terms as an aggregated organic assembly drawing upon the iconography of a layered, pluralist city. The premise is alluring and romantic, and, in the words of Aniket himself, playful. Yet, it hints at fundamental issues that have been the focus of contemporary discourse and critical thinking; at what point does metaphor become mimesis?

It is also impossible to discount the inherent desire for upward mobility and ‘aspirational’ value when dealing with the subject of residential complexes removed from the “old” city, and this is often acutely represented in the common spaces like the clubhouse.

Subjective opinion aside, upon approach, the west facing collage of fragmented structures alleviates the monotony of the earthtoned residential buildings across the street; the heterogeneity of its dispersed aesthetic acting as a counterpoint to the mundane structures it faces.

The analogy of the railway tracks is perhaps the most successful device within the overall construct; the deep “verandah” as a space is a fundamental part of tropical architecture. It is also indelibly etched into our collective memory, alluding to the colonial bungalow

and when it is layered within the structural and visual vocabulary of the railway lines and stations, it becomes a wonderful connector to the ostensibly disparate elements within the project. It is within this space then that the abstraction of scale, detail and material really evoke memories without any mimetic overtures.

The approach to the planning appears to be sound in terms of where the blank spaces have been located and the manner in which the courtyard has been formed. There are some concerns regarding the privacy of the pool but perhaps with time, and once the landscape has matured, these will be resolved. The one gesture that perplexed me was the location of the library as an island within the landscape where it interferes with the natural progression of the courtyard to the open space of the playground to the north and to the hills beyond.

It is to the north that the site for this project opens up, surrounded as it is on three sides by structures of varying heights, and, with the visual impediments to the west, south and the east, this northern vista seems to have been underutilized.

The rest of the spaces are attempting to achieve the levels of material and spatial authenticity of the verandah and they descend to varying levels of literalism that often subvert what could have Indian Architect & Builder - October 2016

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This critique by Ravindra Punde on the project Casa Rio Clubhouse by Aniket Bhagwat and Samira Rathod is based on a thorough study of the project, first by an analysis of the material sent by the architects and then evaluated by a personal visit to the site.

Ravindra Punde graduated from Academy of Architecture, Mumbai and holds a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning, SPA New Delhi.

He co-founded Design Cell along with Savita Punde in 1987 which focuses on environmental planning and landscape architecture. The practice has an international presence with offices in Gurgaon, Bengaluru and Mumbai. He was the Principal of Academy of Architecture from 2010 to 2012. He is also one of the founder trustees of Society for Environment and Architecture that focuses on Advocacy, Research and Education. He is, currently, the Director of the School of Environment and Architecture (SEA), Borivali, Mumbai.

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View from the courtyard towards the Library.

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he club Rio is a recently completed project. It draws its form and design through a considered understanding of the city of Mumbai and its diversity.

The architects raise a question – “Can immediate urbanity be a source of inspiration to address a design solution?” They raise this question to counter what they term as ‘schizoid blandness’ that has emerged as our urban environment due to various influences and conditions over time and space. The question is not new. However, it is important to discuss how the designers have chosen to address it. The project attempts to answer this question through the use of history, nostalgia and collective memory. An attempt that “assimilates diversities to create a new.”

This raises two important questions: 1. How do you define, see and represent ‘immediate urbanity’?

2. Does the approach chosen by the designers generate a ‘new’ through the process of ‘assimilating diversity’?

The designer is critical in a studied way of the processes that have led to our current urban form. Their counter to this, is to weave in memories of the city in a lighter vein, responding to a larger context. It is important to understand that the designers have made a clear choice of replicating forms to various degrees, rather than to engage with any interpretations or extracting any fundamental principles of the essence it wishes to capture.

The resulting built form is playful in its use of volumes, forms, colors and textures, - a set of separated blocks whose functions or volumes determine the typology it borrows from. The Verandah thus borrows from

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Book shelves and staircase in the Library.

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the railway platform in Mumbai, the theatre borrows from an art-deco theatre and so on. This approach does to an extent make the individual components larger than themselves. The theatre evokes memories of the cities art deco theatres and so at some level establishes familiarity thus an instant connect.

These blocks are strung along the verandah almost entirely independent of each other. As you approach the club building from the main gate of the complex, you see a miniaturized streetscape of varying facets.

However as you move along the verandah (railway Platform) this clarity is somewhat lost as your reading of separation and the variation in blocks is limited due to their close proximity. The forms themselves are extremely diverse - from a solid large volume (badminton court) to a colonial building typology (Banquet hall) - creating a rather strange mix.

In contrast the standalone library block has a strong independent identity. The relationship of the staircase and the book stack, the furniture elements, its visual connections to the surrounding, bring delight and quite to this space.

Overall the club assembly has a collection of many interesting details that are elegant simple and consistent.

A noticeable disconnect is the disengagement of the building with its open space. The poolside feels removed from the ideas that drive this project. While privacy could be one of the concerns that may have resulted in its separation, the absence of a framework of ideas here, is striking.

Interestingly the club building takes very little note of the immediate context that it sits in. The club is a part of a larger configuration of open space central to the complex. Some of Mumbai’s most memorable spaces are the clubs by the maidans with cricket pitches. Though the project shares a common boundary with a cricket ground, it makes no significant attempt to acknowledge this relationship.

This brings us to the question of how one chooses to interpret immediate urbanity. Is it good enough to be selective about forms and forms alone?

Is this selection based on individual expressionism? Something that the designers themselves question? The questions the design seeks to answer are important. This project certainly takes a bold step to move away from the known path. It is exploratory in nature and does attempt to demonstrate one of the possible ways to answer a set of important questions. However the route the project takes to address these questions is limiting and clearly leaves the debate of creating a cohesive ‘New’ open.

As the discussion gets more engaging over time it will explore more ways to address some of the key issues that have been raised by the designers. How do we define immediate urbanity? Is it rooted in the question of identity? How does it engage with craft? These explorations need to be taken forward.

Finally, this project has opened the door to the important practice of critic and discussion, through projects by different Architects, something very essential for the growth of the profession.

We, at IA&B, invite architects to be a part of this community of ‘Critical Review’ and to put forth their projects for genuine opinions to show us support towards content rich journalism. Please write to us if you wish to participate or give your suggestions to meghna_mehta@jasubhai.com and contribute to the larger architectural discourse.

Indian Architect & Builder - October 2016

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Density in Urbanism T

he density of the built environment is known to have both positive and negative impacts on the natural environment of urban and rural forms alike. To demonstrate this impact, the Anniversary Issue of Indian Architect & Builder aims to analyse the varying fabrics on a micro and macro scale through the two tracks, Architecture and Urbanism. The following section includes articles which address the second track.

Urbanism: At a macro scale, an urban structure recognises allocated regions of sparse and dense built environments due to factors like economy, context and climate. While the former generally comes about as a reaction to organised planning, the latter is a cause of economic scarcity. An enquiry into the diversity of urban forms aims to raise questions of quality of life, open space versus built space ratios and sustainability.

In this Section of the issue we have invited eminent architects and academicians to contribute their thoughts on their ideas of Density in Urbanism. Each contributor, apart from penning down their views on the theme, have also analysed a unique project allotted to them individually.

All the articles by the contributors are divided into two sections, a general viewpoint and a critique. It is our attempt to address the topic in a new light and bring out innovative thoughts through case studies.

Indian Architect & Builder - October 2016

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Evolution of City Forms

With an aim to discover the Evolution of City Forms, this feature of Ethos traverses through the history of Urban Design and Planning across different regions and styles in the world. From the origins of agriculture based Neolithic, pre-classical settlements, to the contemporary, “sustainable” cities of New Urbanism, the study seeks to analyse the determinants, types of city forms and components in each case.

“Beyond the first question of Whence?-Whence have things come? and the second, of How?How do they live and work?- the evolutionist must ask a third. Not, as of old at best, What next?as if anything might come; but rather Wither?- Wither away? For it is surely of the essence of the evolution concept- hard though it be to realise it, more difficult still to apply it- that it should not only enquire how this of to-day may have come out of that of yesterday, but be foreseeing and preparing for what the morrow is even now in its turn bringing towards birth.”

- Patrick Geddes Indian Architect & Builder - October 2016

Present Globalisation

For me, a journey to Damascus is an amazing hunt from beginning to end, a slice through layers of history in search of treasure.

- Tahir Shah

Syria

With the outset of the Neolithic Revolution, permanent settlements came into being.

Although the earliest settlements arose around 10000 BCE, historians have recognised the origins of the first cities much later, around 3000 BCE, when the first civilisations surfaced.

Agriculture and the subsequent domestication of animals brought about possibilities of denser populations of sedentary humans, who were evolving from the hunter/gatherer Palaeolithic humans. The development and evolution of these civilisations can therefore be attributed to this act of farming and cultivation of crops, which led humans to settle and form permanent spaces for habitation.

19th Century CE End of World War II

18th Century CE French Revolution/ Industrial Revolution

15th Century CE Decline of Constantinople/ Age of Discovery, Rise of Nation States

[1]

Europe

Silk Route Mediterranean Sea

Mesopotamia Damascus

Euphrates

Tigris

Parthia

Jerusalem Babylon Persian Gulf

Egypt

Although the definition for the term “city” is not unequivocal, the population, density, taxation, existence of specialisations and guilds, a system of writing, development of art, trade, and monumental public buildings are some determinants of the status of a permanent settlement as a city. However, while these aspects are abstract commonalities across most cities of the ancient world, the physical manifestations are quite different in each case, be it their writing styles, materials or city forms.

Aram Damascus

[2]

Caspian Sea Assyria

Medieval Period

Early Modern Period

Late Modern Period

Contemporary Period

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6th Century CE Decline of Roman Empire

Ancient Period

Classical Antiquity

[4]

6th Century BCE Rise of Greek Empire

Perhaps the most essential means for the survival of a city is the surplus attained by its natural and manufactured resources. It is due to this reason that cities are important centres of trade and production. Creating a diversity of urban forms, cities become markets of exchange of goods and services. Intersecting trade routes thus become significant criterions in the planning of cities, such that they enhance easy exchanges with other cities.

River Barada

[3]

Pre-Classical

Temple of Hadad

[1] – In the arid and semi-arid regions between West Asia and the Nile valley and Nile Delta, is a bountiful area, called the Fertile Crescent. Considered the site of the origin of Agriculture, this “Cradle of Civilisation” is home to the oldest world civilisations, with complex societies.

Damascus | 11 Century BCE th

40th Century BCE Invention of Writing Indian Architect & Builder - October 2016

EURASIA-DAMASCUS

OLD WORLD

[2], [3] – Roman Damascus overlaid on the older Aram Damascus.

[4] – Built on the site of an ancient Aramaean temple dedicated to Hadad, the temple of Jupiter was built by the Romans as they associated Jupiter with Hadad.

AFRICA

ANDES & MESOAMERICA

AUSTRALIA

NEW WORLD

OCEANIA

Present Globalisation

No city should be too large for a man to walk out of in a morning.

- Cyril Connolly

Netherlands

19th Century CE End of World War II

[ 70 ]

[ 71 ]

18th Century CE French Revolution/ Industrial Revolution

15th Century CE Decline of Constantinople/ Age of Discovery, Rise of Nation States

[ 72 ]

Medieval Period

Early Modern Period

Late Modern Period

Contemporary Period

180

N 6th Century BCE Rise of Greek Empire [ 73 ]

[ 74 ]

Pre-Classical

Ancient Period

Classical Antiquity

6th Century CE Decline of Roman Empire

Amsterdam | 20th Century CE 40th Century BCE Invention of Writing

Throughout the history of human civilization, cities have seen varying forms, across a diversity of places and time-periods. The evolution of city forms goes hand in hand with the evolution of human beings and technologies. It implicitly relays the Ethos of its inhabitants and regulates its form around this cultural development. While the models of the earliest cities are barely a shadow of the new overlaid forms, architects and planners are always taking clues from them. Urban renewal schemes are aiming at traditional neighbourhood structures, with walkability and easy access to green transportation systems. In order to resolve the problems faced by over-population, high density and mixed-use structures are adapted. The glaring need for a sustainable development has resulted in forms, which are borrowing from ideas of the past and evolving them to adapt to the requisite of the modern world. History, as they say, repeats itself!

ASIA

Indian Architect & Builder - October 2016

EUROPE- AMSTERDAM

OLD WORLD

[70], [71], [72], [73], [74] – Like many cities affected by the Second World War, Amsterdam went through a period of Urban Renewal during the second half of the 19th century. The citycentre was left in disrepair and the rise of the automobile called for a widening of roads.

Demolitions, Gentrification and restructuring of entire areas was commonplace. By the 21st century, the restoration of the city-centre was in place and Amsterdam became an important tourist destination.

AFRICA

AMERICAS

AUSTRALIA

NEW WORLD

OCEANIA

[ 75 ]

19th Century CE End of World War II

18th Century CE French Revolution/ Industrial Revolution

Medieval Period

15th Century CE Decline of Constantinople/ Age of Discovery, Rise of Nation States

Late Modern Period

A border--the perimeter of a single massive or stretched-out use of territory-forms the edge of an area of ‘ordinary’ city. Often borders are thought of as passive objects, or matter-of-factly just as edges. However, a border exerts an active influence.

- Jane Jacobs

Present Globalisation

Early Modern Period

USA

Contemporary Period

181

N 0

[ 76 ]

500

1000

2000 Feet

6th Century CE Decline of Roman Empire

6th Century BCE Rise of Greek Empire [ 78 ]

Ancient Period

Classical Antiquity

[ 77 ]

[75], [76], [77], [78], [79] – The turn of the century has seen various attempts towards creating smart cities in the world. With an aim to integrate information technologies in the form of urban informatics, the smart city model aims to improve the quality of life for its citizens in the most efficient manner. The presence of multiple universities in its premises has rendered Boston the status of the technological, political and intellectual centre. The amalgamation of these urban flows allows the cities to manage its urban flows and providing real time responses to the challenges faced by the citizens.

AUSTRALIA

AMERICAS- BOSTON

OCEANIA

NEW WORLD

AFRICA

Pre-Classical

[ 79 ]

Boston | 20th Century CE EUROPE

OLD WORLD

ASIA

40th Century BCE Invention of Writing

Indian Architect & Builder - October 2016

Present Globalisation

Australia

A great city tends to spread out and lay bare to the public view in a massive manner all the characters and traits which are ordinarily obscured and suppressed in smaller communities. The city, in short, shows the good and evil in human nature in excess. It is this fact, more than any other which justifies the view that would make of the city a laboratory or clinic in which human nature and social processes may be most conveniently and profitably studied.

- Robert E. Park

19th Century CE End of World War II

18th Century CE French Revolution/ Industrial Revolution

15th Century CE Decline of Constantinople/ Age of Discovery, Rise of Nation States

[ 80 ]

[ 81 ]

[ 82 ]

Medieval Period

Early Modern Period

Late Modern Period

Contemporary Period

182

[ 83 ]

Classical Antiquity

6th Century CE Decline of Roman Empire

Present city limits

Ancient Period

Proposed city limits 6th Century BCE Rise of Greek Empire

Author: Dhwani Shanghvi Drawing Reproductions & Research Contribution: Simran Arora, Akanksha Kala, Rewa Phansalkar and Aishwarya Parab [ 84 ]

References (Data & Drawings): The evolution of cities: Geddes, Abercrombie and the new physicalism (Michael Batty and Stephen Marshall), From Darwinism to Planning- through Geddes and back (Michael Batty and Stephen Marshall), History Of Cities And City Planning (Cliff Ellis), Good City Form (Kevin Lynch), The Urban Revolution (Gordon Childe), and The Genealogy of Cities: The Study of Urban History and Urban Design (Charles Graves) Photographs: IA&B Archives, Various Contributors, and Wikimedia Commons.

Pre-Classical

The images, drawings and references in this column are representational only. All drawings are proportional, not to scale (unless mentioned) and conceptual representations only. The timeline along the side of the page is classified as per period, is only approximate, and may have overlaps.

[80], [81], [82], [83], [84] – Due to unchecked rise in population, Melbourne, like any 21st century city has gone through a period of urban renewal, with a construction boom leading to building of skyscrapers. Suburban growth, with low-density trends, is countered with high density public housing in the inner city.

Melbourne | 20th Century CE 40th Century BCE Invention of Writing

ASIA

Indian Architect & Builder - October 2016

EUROPE

OLD WORLD

AFRICA

AMERICAS

AUSTRALIA- MELBOURNE

NEW WORLD

OCEANIA