2017 synopsis pankti

Deriving open spaces system in a developing urban fringe.

Deriving open spaces system in a developing urban fringe: Ahmedabad city.

Pankti Gajjar Guided byProf. Deepa Maheshwari Co-guided by Ar. Divya Shah

Masters of Landscape Design Faculty of Architecture

April,2017

Landscape Dissertation 2017, Synopsis

Pankti PA201715

Deriving open spaces system in a developing urban fringe.

A city’s image is always identified through the kind of open spaces it offers to its dwellers and outsiders. In a city, it is very important to have breathing spaces within its dense urban fabric. A variety of open spaces of varying scales is highly essential in a city, as it does not only facilitate in building its image or provide health benefits but also helps in increasing the footprint of green systems of the world. The open spaces serve as a breathing space for humans as well as ecological systems comprising of flora and fauna.

‘Does it need a system?’…An open space system creates a platform for people to express themselves culturally and socially. It adds an aesthetic value, which indirectly demonstrates the overall integrity of the city. The psychological value of green open spaces is an added asset through designed spaces or just through wilderness offered amidst the development fabric.

‘Make a city which touches people’s hearts’…As a city keeps expanding, it starts making its way through the nearby layer of rural landscapes making them vulnerable. The immediate surrounding lands adjacent to a city limits are called Urban Fringe. These fringes are critical to be called rural or urban as we see their land uses are a mix of both. It is very important to plan them out in a manner that does not involve disturbing the existing landscape systems.

‘Do they actually get what they pay for?’…With an upcoming trend of buying a piece of land in the sub-urban areas. People shift to fringes for the exotic and pastoral views of the landscape which provides a break from the lifeless views of building densities of metropolitan cities. Once development takes over these views they no longer serve the purpose of what they actually came for. Thus a city’s fringes undergo a development pressures from both the ends- rural and urban.

‘Today’s Urban fringe is tomorrow’s city’… The proposal is looking towards an open space system, which acts as a binder between the rural as well as urban pressures by creating an interactive dialogue between both through languages of landscape, the urban and the rural.The study aims at understanding how to deal with the urban fringes. When a new development is coming in an existing land use, and to provide accurate design approaches for interventions in these areas as the fringes are organically developed on their own, sufficing the immediate needs.

‘In a given fabric where does one allocate open spaces?’...Identifying appropriate spaces for everyone and letting them experience the spatial quality as a sensitive designer is the objective of the study. Taking the case of Ahmedabad city, the study analyses the expansion at two levels-Developments Plan which looks at city level open spaces and Town Planning Scheme which looks at a very neighborhood level open space. As both the scales are poles apart, the natural aspects of a given region maybe overlooked. There are few steps in

Landscape Dissertation 2017, Synopsis

Pankti PA201715

Deriving open spaces system in a developing urban fringe.

between these two scales which are missed, trying to identify them through studying a parcel of land near a developing fringe in Science city area of Ahmedabad.

‘What are the critical issues on site?’… The idea is to not resolve the issues conventionally, instead be more site specific and cater to the precise demand. As landscape architecture has different set of yardsticks to design, use those parameters to identify the ideal locations of different hierarchy of open spaces. As a result when in future it gets integrated into the city and it has a better distribution of the same. Also when fringe becomes part of the city and goes through transformation of infrastructure or densification the system remains intact and still serves and accommodates the necessities. Instead of designing these spaces, the interest researches on how to evolve a system through which it can be achieved.

‘Scales of open spaces should be specific to the norms?’... Open spaces acts as a cultural phenomena and not only a visual phenomena. The volume of such spaces solves the constraints and heals the environment in a very natural way. Understanding the details of landscapes in parcel helps derive a system at a broader prospect. As Development Plan of Ahmedabad says it should have 2% and Town Planning schemes 5% of open spaces, but it may not follow similar specifications when it comes to a parcel of land; which is a mix of 5 to 6 number of Town Planning Schemes.

‘Help the dynamic shift to conserve site potentials’…  Identifying the existing resources on site and finding potentials of the same.  Conserving them through an open spaces system before the layer of infrastructure commences.  Studying the city transects of open spaces- city center to Thol Bird Sanctuary through different parameters. Adding more values to same parameters, studying the site transects to understand the existing landscape values and characters.  Understanding the nature of development and keeping the constants of site as they are; derive new parameters.  According to the potential sites and area calculations,arrive at categories and set a program.

The layer of landscape being at priority while planning any city expansion as it already gives a well prepared vein which is very fundamental for the end user. So the 3 layers of parameters of landscape set to identify the potentials of open spaces helps form a continuous system.

Landscape Dissertation 2017, Synopsis

Pankti PA201715

Deriving open spaces system in a developing urban fringe.

Existing land use of site…

Bhadej village

Towards Thol Lake

TPS 40 Sola village TPS 41 Science City Park Canal

TPS 42

S.P. ring road Hebatpur village

TPS 43 S.G. highway

Shilaj village

Thaltej village

Railway track

       

Site is located on the western side of Ahmedabad.

It is adjacent to Sardar Patel ring road and it is well connected with the city and can be accessed through Sarkhej-Gandhinagar Highway.

It falls under the AMC limit.

It falls around the vicinity of Science City Park and Hebatpur village.

It is also towards the direction of Thol Bird Sanctuary which is 12kms away.

Thol lake acts as corridors for lots of animals and is also part of habitat for many species of birds like Nil guy, Sarus crane, etc. which is the scrubland and agricultural land.

Rapid growth is in the ribbon form along the Sarkhej‐ Gandhinagar and it will intensify in coming decades.

The site area is 12.3sq. Km. i.e. 800 Ha. It has more than 6 water bodies and has residential land use throughout.

Landscape Dissertation 2017, Synopsis

Pankti PA201715

Deriving open spaces system in a developing urban fringe.

Distance over powers the needs…direction of proposal:  As cities get bigger, the rural land is further and further away.  Greens need to be uniformly scattered.  They should be accessible easily and cater to all kinds of people and cultural events.  Understanding the existing site values of landscape and then incorporating planning prospects to it through area matrix and program according to land use.

Town Planning Schemes caters to individual demand of that particular area which stays isolated by infrastructure.

From a Neighborhood level to a Community level and then reaching at a City level open spaces to get a flow of system.

Landscape Dissertation 2017, Synopsis

Pankti PA201715