THE URBAN WATER COMMONS Ahmedabad and the Sabarmati River SITUATION: URBAN NATURES. NARRATIVES AT SCALE
CONTENTS
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS AHMEDABAD AND THE SABARMATI RIVER PROPOSITIONS STUDIO ARCH 562/UD 722 W2019 Graduate Students: Andrea Marquez, M.Arch. Anhong Li, M.Arch. Austin Kronig, M.Arch. Gwen Gell, M.U.D. + M.U.R.P. Jessica Yelk, M.Arch. + M.UR.P. Yixin Miao, M.U.D. Shourya Jain, M.U.D. Tristan Snyder, M.Arch. Xin Liu, M.Arch. Yanbo Li, M.U.D.
Yiying Tang, M.Arch. Instructor:
María Arquero de Alarcón Associate Professor in Architecture + Urban Planning Director, Master of Urban Design Partners: Vāstu Shilpā Foundation for Studies and Research in Environmental Design Sponsor: A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning Travel Fund and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiative.
TAUBMAN COLLEGE architecture+urban planning
University of Michigan © The Regents of the University of Michigan. All rights reserved
A SITUATION
Urban Natures: Narratives at Scale
Scales of Movement and Urban Textures .................................................................................................................................A-04 Andrea Marquez Water Commons + Citizenship ............................................................................................................................................................. A-20 Anhong Li Sabarmati River as Lifeline ........................................................................................................................................................................ A-42 Austin Kronig The Common Commodity .......................................................................................................................................................................... A-58 Gwen Gell The Water Commons and the Common People .............................................................................................................. A-74 Jessica Yelk The Against and Connect ............................................................................................................................................................................ A-90 Yixin Miao Water Cultures ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... A-108 Shourya Jain Urban Flutations ................................................................................................................................................................................................. A-120 Tristan Snyder From Industrialization to Globalization .................................................................................................................................. A-136 Xin Liu A Seam Reclaiming Nature and Engagement .................................................................................................................. A-154 Yanbo Li Neither Rural nor Urban ............................................................................................................................................................................ A-174 Yiying Tang
B RESEARCH
Liquid Cartographies
Cycle and Structure ............................................................................................................................................................................................ B-04 Gwen Gell, Yanbo Li, Jessica Yelk Bazaar .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. B-20 Andrea Marquez, Austin Kronig Bio[logic] Resultants........................................................................................................................................................................................... B-42 Shourya Jain, Tristan Snyder “Slum Free” City? ................................................................................................................................................................................................... B-58 Xin Liu, Yiying Tang Urban Wall....................................................................................................................................................................................................................... B-74 Anhong Li, Yixin Miao
C FOCUS
D INTEGRATION
Habitat Design Studio, Ahmedabad
Inhabiting the Urban Water Commons
A SITUATION: Urban Natures
Explorations and projections describe the transitory, symbiotic and parasitic relationships between the Indian Sabarmati River and its city, Ahmedabad. This set of visual conversations situate a series of interests that embody histories, geographies, materiality, atmospheres, and cultural context, real or imagined.
A-4
Scales of Movement and Urban Textures
Scales of Movement & Urban Textures The socio-spatial geography of Ahmedabad reveals a dichotomy of disparities between ethnic backgrounds leading to health inequities. Instead of experiencing an outburst of urban growth in the densely packed historic fabric of Ahmedabad, the historic walls act as a barrier and keep the old city tightly segregated. At the same time that this enclave-like condition prevents the integration of a more diverse gradient of socioeconomic communities into this part of the city, it offers sense of stability and protection in the rapidly transforming metropolis. In stark contrast, the low income communities located in the eyesight of rapid, globalizing real estate along the Sabarmati River are threatened by displacement. The reconstruction of the riverfront nature into a recreational amenity aims to transform this feature of division between the prosperous west and the historic east in a place of encounter. These yet to come developments along the recently gained land to the Sabarmati Riverbed, promise to transform the city in the face of a global, liquid modernity. This new layer of development adds thickness to the many recent transformations undergone by Ahmedabad, the three times Shock City assimilating social unrest behind every phase of urban metamorphosis. The resulting urban palimpsest reveals a complex system of fragile networks that will resist or surrender yet another future resulting from its rapid urban growth. However, these challenges fueling political and social tensions throughout the city’s recent history signal the resilient capacity of the urban commons to accommodate change. The cultural nuances of the old city make it mysterious with its decorative intricacies. The historical significance of rich cultural backgrounds is one of the reasons UNESCO seeks to protect the character of the city “pols�. Ornamental material undertones that exist within the neighborhoods SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Navigating the narrow streets of Ahmedabad is a chaotic labyrinth filled with intersectional paths of people at various speeds. The old city can be felt as a living organism despite lacking symmetrical geometries through the recreation of patterns in a localized area.
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Scales of Movement and Urban Textures
main street
The historic walled city and its entry gates provide a static moment of thresholds within a fast moving city structure. The comparison of accessible resources between the old and new city can be felt in the textualization of residential development. These various scales of movement rose out of wanting to
differentiate ethnic tensions to avoid intersectional relationships. Through different degrees of materials and spatial manipulation, thresholds of static and fluid movement were controlled. The gate at the pol served to stop any visitors and monitor those entering and leaving. The street is already starting to become more narrow, which provides shade from the sun during hot summer months. The edges of the pol streets serve as lively moments of activity and interaction. Although people are outside of their homes along their entry platforms plinths, people who are heading towards a different destination can pass by. Nonetheless, these plinths are decorated with intricate details that gate
and sub-neighborhoods create a community-linked labyrinth that maintains social identities and visual hierarchies. And to the west of the walled city, a new river landscape to colonize, the same where Gandhi situated the Ashram, which held a significant turning point in the independence of India.
usually depict the socioeconomic status of the family living inside. Even though homes are closely aligned with each other, each one has its own personality and degree of invitational privacy. etag
teerts niam
On the main streets between pols lie market places and intersections of increased human interaction. These public spaces create a vibrant atmospheres, are constantly in motion, and vary in spatial presence. These small artifacts that are exchanged will act as the smallest scale of study where the tensions between social and political will be negligible, These divided geographies have
created social disparities within a sacred and history city. Therefore, grasping the current urban fabric is essential to formulate a response to adapt to rapid urban growth for the future of the region. The following studies begin with an Urban Lexicon of relevant and unknown terms prior to this project. Then curated images showcase a series of explorations on urban energies, sensory, and cultural points of access within the socio-political context of Ahmedabad.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-7
Ashram
Ethno-Nationalism
Visible Artifact
Urban Lexicon
Pura
Chowk
Chabutaro
Pol
Oatla
Chawls
Shock City
Urbicide
A-8
Scales of Movement and Urban Textures
A Monastic community serving as a place of religious retreat. Gandhi’s first Ashram in 1915 (Sabarmati Ashram) was located on the upper west side of Sabarmati River in the Kochrab area of old Ahmedabad. This institution served as a primary focal point during the time period that brought India independence. A nation that shares a common heritage or ethnicity, such as language, cultural traditions, or ancestry. However, in the city of Ahmedabad, Hindu and Muslim tensions create social disparities making it difficult for India to be united in this regard. Physical demonstrations that support ethnic segregation in the old city of Ahmedabad. These occur often in the form of signage in front of a market or public square to differentiate Muslim or Hindu occupation, which serves as a reminder for religious tensions. Largest scale of community development. It is also defined as a neighborhood with narrow streets leading to pols. The busy streets contain both residential and commercial use properties that are active and open to the public. A courtyard acting as the primary visual element of a house open to the sky. It is typically in the middle of the house surrounded by rooms encompassing light, ventilation, and access to water. The parsal (veranda) around the courtyard is the most occupied space since the inhabitant is protected by the roof but also experiences open air. Ornamental bird feeder in the middle of a choktha (open semi-public square) or within a smaller pol. It is carefully crafted out of wood structural components and is ornamented with intricate carvings (left image). Chabutaros are placed as the focal point of a space. Intermediary scale of community development within an entrance leading to a cluster of homes within a network of small streets. A common territory of interaction. A sub-neighborhood that typically contains a gate entry to monitor access and is often kept closed at night. A point of entry into a pol house acting as an open community space in the form of a plinth. Lively and active street edge where people can find washing / cleaning / water-filling / reading newspapers / drinking tea / wedding decor. Cost-effective housing, in the form of multi-level apartment units, for migrant working families. Although they are known to have little privacy since people live in close proximity to each other, they create supportive and peaceful social networks. Adjective to describe Ahmedabad using three phases. 1- Beginning with Gandhi’s freedom movement and Labor organization in 1915-1930. 2- Economic shifts in the1960’s towards globalization. 3- After the 1980’s, the city experienced a decline in textile industries and employment, which fueled political and religious unrest. An authoritarian response from globalization and urbanization agendas that change the city landscape of low socio-economic communities. The violent removal or restructuring of an urban community causing those displaced to most likely experience a decrease in access to social services. SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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NARMADA MAIN CANAL 458 km (284 mi) IN GUJARAT
SABARMATI RIVER 371 km (231 mi)
SARDAR VALLABHBHAI PATEL INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Nested Scales
AHMEDABAD CITY LIMITS 464 km² (179.2 mi2)
Social Conflict + Contestation GANDHI ASHRAM AT SABARMATI 1917 Established in 1411 by Sultan Ahmed Shah, this aerial map demonstrates the old city in relation to overall Ahmedabad within the State of Gujarat. Converging transit lines, such as the train and airport, are shown in relation to the Narmada Main Canal and Sabarmati River. Ahmedabad is considered the third fastest growing city of the decade (Forbes 2018) and contains a population of 8 million people, which ranks them first in the state and fifth in the country. The city spans nearly 465 square kilometers (180 sq mi). The major language spoken is Gujarati followed closely by Hindi and English.
AHMEDABAD JUNCTION RAILWAY STATION OLD CITY OF AHMEDABAD 937 ha (3.5 mi2) TRAIN RAILWAY ROUTES
sources: Google Earth / Word Population Review 2019
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Scales of Movement and Urban Textures
ADI
AMD
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Cartography of Exclusion
Contrast between New (west) and Old (east) Ahmedabad showing a grain of streets and open gaps of exchange. Outer wall gates reveal entry access points that surround the old city with a perimeter and controlled border. Although theses gates identify moments of thresholds, between historic landscapes, it reinforces segregation between lower socioeconomic families. Because the old city contains a rich history in pol ornamentation, stepwell infrastructure and cultural artifacts, UNESCO has nominated a buffer zone around this historically endangered site for preservation and provide backing support for redevelopment.
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Scales of Movement and Urban Textures
DARYÁP UR GAT
DELHI
GATE
SHÁHÁPUR GATE
E
ATI RIVE R SABARM
ATE
ÁI G
H ÁB
EM
PR
PUR
E
GAT
RAILWAY STATION
U KÁL KHÁNPUR GATE
GE
NEHRU BRID
ATE
AG KUV
BÁRÁDARI GATE
DH PAN BHADRA FORT
TE R GA
GPU
AN SÁR
ELLIS BRIDGE
E
RÁM GAT
RÁYKHAD GATE
PUR
RÁY E
GAT
UNESCO BUFFFER
TE MAHUGHA GA
R GA TE URU JAIN D
KH
ÁN
JAH
ÁN
GA TE
WALLED CITY
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
SULTAN AHMED + FAMILY TOMBS RELIGIOUS INSTITUTION N
OLD AHMEDABAD
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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09:00pm
HAVELI
ROOF TERRACE 07:45am
OATLAS
08:00am
06:30am
FURNITURE POL
maruti decor typ. 08:15am
Use and Program
07:00pm
Time and Process
CLOTHING
gabra dance typ.
The architectural typology of pols and its subparts within the old city are one of the reasons this heritage site is gaining attention. This fast-moving city is given life through its narrow street arteries 12:00pm forming labyrinth-like inhabitation at different times. PeopleM continue AI 08:45am ST to re-define their paths Nby RE day ET and re-inscribe city space by night. The spatial configuration is deconstructed in order to understand the hierarchies taking place from the entry gate to the most private space of a household. This flow can also be compared to the mobility of the river to one of the most sacred places of the city.
ORDO
bedroom
07:00am
SECOND + UPPER FLOORS
FIRST FLOOR 07:45am
entryway platform 07:30am
semi-private hall courtyard
OATLA KHADKI
DINWANKHANA CHOWK
veranda / most used PARSAL room or storage W/C water tank typ.
source for base pol plan: morethangreen.es
A-14
Scales of Movement and Urban Textures
HAVELI 07:45am
OATLAS
08:45am
08:00am
POL
maruti decor ty 08:15am
CHAKLA - public junction at 3 main streets - public space of commerce
12:00pm
CHOKTHA - semi-public junction at 3 subordinate streets near main street - chabutaro centre as focal point
MA
IN
08:45am
ST
RE
ET
PURA
w
base po
l floor pl
an by m
orethang re
en.es
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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PASHMINA PANCHCHULI WEAVE KULLU SHAWLS
PHULKARI
Materials & Atmospheres
JOWAR (sorghum) PANJA WEAVE
A colorful and energetic moment in the bazaar of Monek Chowk can be felt through the sea of vibrant fabrics, accessories, languages, food, and architecture. However, globalization instills a social agenda for future urban renewal. In parallel with ethnic cleansing, the displacement of communities masks the ancestral legacy of families that once fueled the streets with life. The chaotic and bustling atmosphere is no longer formed naturally or longer innocent but has become intentionally composed. In the adjacent images above, the opening thresholds that peer into daily lives are removed. What does it mean to rewrite personal identities?
SHISHA BAJRA (millet) PAITHANI KOSA SILK
BANDHANI
MYSORE SILK POCHAMPALLY IKAT KASAVU
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Scales of Movement and Urban Textures
CHIKANKARI WHEAT KUCHAI SILK BHAGALPURI SILK APATANI ERI SILK JAMDANI PUANS RICE
SAMBALPURI SAREE
CHANDERI
KALAMKARI
KANJEEVARAM SILK (source for base photo: Lost with Purpose via Pinterest)
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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The site of focus will stretch from the west bank of the Sabarmati River, in between Nehru and Ellis Bridge, leading to the Monek Chowk. This converging path will face the effects of redevelopment due to the expansion of the new riverfront project. Since families have already been displaced, those that remain will experience difficulties to maintain or afford their property despite the ties of their ancestral heritage to the old city. Ahmedabad faces a unique type of renewal gentrification. What will the future of this heritage city look like without the remnants of the city’s past? What does it mean for heritage to be reclaimed? What will the voids become?
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Scales of Movement and Urban Textures
GHANDI ROAD main street
FORT
RIVER
Projecting Site
POL HOUSE
POL
CHOKTHA
OATLA
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Activities and water commons in different periods in Ahmedabad
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Water Commons + Citizenship
Water Commons Citizenship
I consider the urban water commons as an open and shared resource with every individual in the urban context. The sense of belonging is different if compared with similar objects in the wilderness or a more natural environment, where people would not take direct responsibility for what they could obtain. However, thinking on the urban water commons presents an opportunity for a collective reflection of citizenship which welcome all the people on an egalitarian platform. By welcoming all social classes, the construct of the water commons offers a moment for reconciliation through a diverse and soft environment. This tolerant softness may not be a panacea to address inner confrontation, but it may be seen as a starting point of explorations to advance the collective right to the city. Going back to the consideration of citizenship, I would like to interrogate what is a fair presentation of citizenship and how much the design of soft boundaries can become a crucial factor in the formulation of a true commons. Taking into consideration the different social ties, lifestyles and values, the aim is to bring together people in a particular group. I am interested in the manifestation of difference and belonging, and how the urban commons can be designed to advance and celebrate diversity. With this in mind, the urban commons will not only represent the interest of the majority or have a profit-driven agenda, it will also be the place for expression and defense of social inclusion. Directed refer to their citizenship in the commons, it be a question that whether there is a proportion about how much citizenship, the claims of rights, of each group could be accomplished. To serve this requirement of egalitarian representation, I wonder how much room for negotiation is essential for a progressive socio-environmental construction of the commons.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
“......even though theses areas were subject to frequent floods during the monsoon season, several thousand people settled in slums along the riverbanks. In this way, the Sabarmati riverbanks became one again the center of activity for many citizens, but public authorities perceived these slums as a barrier to an integrated growth of the city.“ 1 Manjusha Misra. Urbanization, Citizenship and Conflict in India: Ahmedabad 19002000
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Sabarmati River and Kankaria Lake Bird View
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Water Commons + Citizenship
The Binaries
The situation of urban nature and the water commons in Ahmedabad is fragmented and highly contested. If described through binaries, the first set of antonyms would be OPEN and CLOSE. As an essential natural resource critical to human survival, land value, nature’s attraction and spirit of awe, humans pursue the access to water through visual, habitat and mental connection. When this need and desire to connect, to access water is challenged as a result of segregation patterns in society, this impacts the ideals of universal access to the environment and signals exclusion toward oppressed communities. In many places of this city, this sense of exclusion could be felt through the “WALL”, physical or invisible, as a relatively peaceful, no effort and tough “solution”. Another set of antonyms would be CLEAN and POLLUTED. In this context, clean not only refers to the measure of water quality, but the mental construction that guides the human perception of it. People’s attitude and relationships with water are strikingly different. While access to water is a basic human right, some see on this a tool towards profit-making. Privatizing water infrastructures, waterfront real estate operations catering only the elites, or restricting access to water are just a few examples. People consider more of the water when their relationship is closer. Other competing conditions could be found spatially, through notions like upstream or downstream, or temporally, referring to past conditions and anticipating new ones. Mentally, water quality sometimes is also defined by the status of user, socially religious, or by more symbolic or intangible conditions.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Slums
Ghetto
Urban Lexicon
Metropolis
Vernacular Architecture
No-technical solution problems
Citizenship
Informal
Memory
Border
Milieu
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Water Commons + Citizenship
“Slums represented one of the major outcomes of the process of urban development and the most pragmatic solution for the large portions of the city’s population who could not afford to live in other types of accommodation” 2 “A sense of marginalization that was at the same time socio-cultural ( only Muslim community), spatial ( well delimited and geographic peripheral and political ( the public authority excluded Juhapura from infrastructure and redevelopment programs).” 3 “The city is a more highly specialized unit and , as a result, is a part of a wider interrelated area, while the metropolis tends to become a cosmopolitan unit based upon a relatively high degree of development of the means of communication.” 4 A kind of architecture which is born, reflects and responds to the local context in the aspect of location, building form, layout, material and so on. Vernacular architecture can be regarded as a showcase of the true history of social relationships. Different from technical solutions which “ may be defined as one that required a change only in the techniques of the natural sciences, demanding little or nothing in the way of change in human values or ideas of morality.” No-technical solution problems refer to the solution would extend to the consideration of morality. 5 “As a principle of equality, in opposition to the social class division, which be seen as the system of inequality. Citizenship defines the claims of social, human and cultural right made by communities which do not hold state power and which are denied basic rights by those who do”. 6 It refers to traders, street vendors or construction laborers without a formal employment. It includes characteristics like “ease of entry, small scale of operation and unregulated competitive markets.” 7 “People’s accounts reproduce different versions of the past, and the way individual memories agree or disagree regarding certain episodes show how different groups or individuals select certain aspects and discard others, as ‘[memories] vary from place to place or from one group to another and they change over time’. ” 8 “ The re-spatialization of the urban landscape has created a patchwork of Hindu and Muslim localities with the meeting points between these referred to as ‘borders’ .” 9 “Milieu is a French term that means ‘surroundings’, ‘medium’, and ‘middle’; Milieu has neither beginning nor end, but is surrounded by other middles, in a filed of connections, relationships, extensions, and potentials.” 10
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-25
“The wall swelled to assume its maximum identity wherever possible, but along more than half its length, its regularity was compromised in a series of systematic adaptations that accommodate existing urban incidents or dimensional conflicts.” 11 Rem Koolhaas. Field Trip. A(A) Memoir (First and Last…)
Cartography of Exclusion Conflict + Social Contestation The Phenomenon Wall
There are many performance evidences of the “WALL” could be noticed in the city Ahmedabad, physical and metaphysical, like “Walled city”, “border”, “Disturbed Area Act”, “Ghetto” and so on. As a kind of boundary object or “IN BETWEEN”, “WALL” is situated between upper middle class and urban poor, Hindus and Muslims, beautification development and slums, naturally and on purpose, as space keep safety and provoke tensions simultaneously. I personally call them “The Phenomenon Wall” due to my focus are not only the various spatial forms, but more importantly, the social consciousness and complicated city phenomenon as reasons and results be reflected in the objects.
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Water Commons + Citizenship
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Use and Program Shared City and Shared River Although the inner and historical conflict between two religious, Hindus and Muslim, can not be forgot, shared celebration space as the Walled City and Sabarmati River still be used for both religious groups. There are three religious activities be recorded and have been existed for a long time with strong relationship of the city and the river, which are Rathyatra, Genesh Chaturthi of Hindus and Muharram of Muslims. The Walled City has been planed the procession route of Rathyatra and Tajiya procession of Muharram every year and the Sabarmati River is engaged in the beginning ceremony of Rathyatra and ending ceremony of Tajiya and Genesh Chaturthi. As a shared spiritual destination, the Sabarmati River waters are an open world welcoming beliefs and gods from two sides. Meanwhile, the shared places encourage the participation from another group and it in some degree mitigates the tensions underneath. A-28
Water Commons + Citizenship
Procession and Activities of Religious Festivals in the Walled City and Sabarmati Riverfront
Nested Scales Water, Wealth, Waste As an ambitious beautification achievement, the Sabarmati Riverfront Project had a huge impact on different stakeholders and unequally benefited different urban areas. Tracing back the pre-project stage and observing the transformed geography at the beginning and ending point the project’s boundary, there is a clear narrative about what is lost and what is gained in the political decision making process. “Water” as the witness body present different qualities in different areas of Sabarmati River. The water in the core area of riverfront project looks clean and pleasant. However, the downstream area which is located just out of the planning red line is suffered the discharge of untreated sewage. The contradiction between the “dressed up” riverfront investment and lower class area water contamination illustrate the unbalanced and indifferent urban authorities’ attitude. A-30
Water Commons + Citizenship
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Time and Process Everything Will Go Better
In the process of riverfront construction, one issue is the resettlement of slums relocated in the project site. It is hard to find clues about whether the initial goal of resettlement is simply erasing these people to somewhere else or providing a better living condition to these poor people. However, it turns out the lack of negotiation and consideration in the result. These resettlement locations of slums are far away from the city center, where service facilities nearby are not enough. The living habits and past connections are changed for these residents which are hard to be fixed by their ability. The marginalization of these poor people indicates the appropriation of the Sabarmati River Development Plan toward for business and leisure developments for middle and upper class group.
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Water Commons + Citizenship
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Materials and Atmospheres Reality and Memory
The image of Ahmedabad seems be construed in a three dimensional concept, a time scale, reality as well as imagination. In this condition, the material and atmosphere of this city are framed in multiple windows. These contents include different observations from plans, sections, perspectives, through history drawings to future development renderings, touching the reality conditions in different area of the city as well as the imagination paintings by local people. I would like to argue that the true sense of the city could be different for different people who live in or visit the place. But in all cases, there are both good side and bad side in this city.
Upstream
City Imagination
West City Riverfront Project
Walled City Interior
Walled City Slum
Downstream
Past
Low income insurance house proposal
Walled City Painting
Slum
Construction of City Reality and Imagination
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Water Commons + Citizenship
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Projecting Site The Equitable Wall The “WALL” is the result of Ahmedabad segregation in the development process, a mechanism to enable multiple identities through formal separation. The WALL creates in-between safety zones, an inhabited boundary for the people “inside” and also the neutral boarding land be shared by “both sides”. The WALL invites all the people from different class and religious into the equal opportunities for presenting their individual citizenship. In its physical expression, the “WALL” reaches everywhere to allow diverse human activities to happen simultaneously, regardless which community you are, under the organized public social layout and scale. The Equitable Wall
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Water Commons + Citizenship
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Water Bonding
Rathyatra Procession
Water ceremony by the Mahant of the Jagannath temple before procession
Rathyatra / Hindus “Mahant Shree Narsinhdasji Maharaj had introduced the Rathayatra in the year 1878. Rathayatra is observed on ASHADHA SHUKLA DWITIYA every year. Normally, throughout the year devotees come to the temple for the DARSHAN of Lord Jagannath and on this day, Lord Jagannath Himself goes out to see his devotees especially, to disabled who could not visit the temple. The Ahmedabad Rath Yatra is the oldest and largest Rath Yatra festival after the Rath Yatra festival in Puri, and is celebrated on the same day. On this day, The Chief Minister of Gujarat performs the Pahind Vidhi or the symbolic cleaning of the path for chariot of Jagannath for the rath yatra, after which the procession begins. The procession is led by elephants in decorative dress, and then followed by TRUCKS decorated with religious floats and then AKHADAVALA’s, with their trained ATHLETS performing aerobatics to please Lord Jagannath. Next in the procession follows disciples with decorative flags of the temple, BHAJAN
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Water Commons + Citizenship
MANDALI, RAS GARBA, bands and then comes the Holy Trinity on chariots pulled by devotees. The rath yatra entourage passes through different parts of the city of Ahmedabad covering a distance of about 14km. The procession halts at Saraspur, where the local people feed the entire entourage of devotees of Lord Jagannath. In the evening the Rathayatra returns to the main temple.” 12 “This procession normally start at 7:00am and end at 8:30pm on Saturday. The route in the Walled City will also pass some communally sensitive areas like Jamapur, Kaluper, Shahpur and Dariyapur.”13 “For last 122 years, it has been a tradition that the Mahant of the Jagannath temple, along with the congregation carrying Kalash (Pot) on elephants approaches the Sabarmati river and after rituals performed by the pundits, the water of Sabarmati River is piously carried back to the temple to worship Lord Jagannath, before the Rathyatra starts. ”14
Tazias procession during Muharram.
Ganesh statue immersion
Muharram / Muslims
Ganesh Chaturthi / Hindus
“Muharram is the first month of the Islamic calendar and it`s also a month of mourning. Both Shias and Sunnis observe the month, though the precessions are a part of the Shia tradition. Muharram in Ahmedabad is also a large event which starts late afternoon (4-5pm) and goes on till late in the night until about 11pm. The procession starts from the Relief Road and ends on the banks of river Sabarmati. Tazias are the most important part of the Muharram procession and there are hundreds these which are taken through the streets one after the other. A Tazia is a representation of the Tomb of Imam Hissain ibn Ali and it`s made in different shapes and sizes based on the group which is making them. At Ahmedabad, there are also prizes for the best Tazia during the procession itself. The making of Tazia starts months in advance and often lots of money is spent on them. At the river banks a tradition called `Tazia khan karna` takes place, where the Tazias are either immersed in water or water, is sprinkled on them. In many other parts of the world, the Tazias are not immersed but buried in the ground.”15
“Ganesha is worshiped for 10 days from Bhadrapada (August–September) Shudha Chaturthi to the Ananta Chaturdashi, On the 11th day, the statue is taken through the streets in a procession accompanied with dancing, singing, and fanfare to be immersed in a river or the sea symbolizing a ritual see-off of the Lord in his journey towards his abode in Kailash while taking away with him the misfortunes of his devotees. Ganesh Festival also provides a stage for budding artists to present their art to the public. In Ahmedabad not only Hindus but many other religions also participate in the celebration like Muslims, Jains, Christian and others. ”16
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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References
1. Misra, Manjusha. 2018. “Urbanisation, Citizenship and Conflict in India: Ahmedabad 1900-2000.” International Journal of Environmental Studies 75 (4): 692–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/002 07233.2017.1392770. p154 2. Misra, Manjusha. 2018. “Urbanisation, Citizenship and Conflict in India: Ahmedabad 1900-2000.” International Journal of Environmental Studies 75 (4): 692–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/002 07233.2017.1392770. p113 3. Misra, Manjusha. 2018. “Urbanisation, Citizenship and Conflict in India: Ahmedabad 1900-2000.” International Journal of Environmental Studies 75 (4): 692–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/002 07233.2017.1392770. p143 4. Park, Robert Ezra, 1864-1944, Robert Ezra Park 1864-1944., Robert Ezra Park 1864-1944., E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess 1886-1966., E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess 1886-1966., Roderick Duncan McKenzie 1885-1940, joint author., and Roderick Duncan McKenzie 1885-1940,. 1970. The City [by] Robert E. Park, Ernest W. Burgess [and] Roderick D. McKenzie. With an Introd. by Morris Janowitz. Chicago,: University of Chicago Press. p180 5. Garrett Hardin. 1998. “Extensions of ‘The Tragedy of the Commons.’” Science 280 (5364): 682–83. p1 6. Misra, Manjusha. 2018. “Urbanisation, Citizenship and Conflict in India: Ahmedabad 1900-2000.” International Journal of Environmental Studies 75 (4): 692–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/002 07233.2017.1392770. p1
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Water Commons + Citizenship
7. Liz Ogbu (2012) Reframing Practice: Identifying a Framework for Social Impact Design, Journal of Urban Design, 17:4, 573-589, DOI: 10.1080/13574809.2012.706364. p574 8. Misra, Manjusha. 2018. “Urbanisation, Citizenship and Conflict in India: Ahmedabad 1900-2000.” International Journal of Environmental Studies 75 (4): 692–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/002 07233.2017.1392770. p13 9. Desai, Renu B. 2008. “The Globalizing City in the Time of Hindutva: The Politics of Urban Development and Citizenship in Ahmedabad, India.” ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. U-M Articles Search. p54 10. Corner, James, and Alison Bick Hirsch. 2014. Landscape Imagination : Collected Essays of James Corner 1990-2010. Princeton Architectural Press. http://umich.summon.serialssolutions. co m / 2 . 0 . 0 / l i n k / 0 /e Lv H C X M w r V 1 N a 8 M w D B W j u Y w N 9 s 2 8 R 9 I i W M n T n Y Z b Z e w j e 4 2 d i 1 x b I _ CmkGbHvbvJ7vOWtbDLrsYQoJBSpBerPckgPhXPJC2j_S0DWl_ OVMfuPhDtJAjmBZhTF0TxodxPCiT55IVazaUqxd6kmK_ p2208 11. Koolhaas, Rem, Rem. Koolhaas, Rem. Koolhaas, Bruce. Mau, Bruce. Mau, Jennifer. Sigler, Jennifer. Sigler, et al. 1995. Small, Medium, Large, Extra-Large / Office for Metropolitan Architecture ; Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau ; Edited by Jennifer Sigler ; Photography by Hans Werlemann. Rotterdam : New York : 010 Publishers ; p220 12. World Heritage City Ahmedabad. Accessed January 25, 2019. http://heritage.ahmedabadcity.gov.in/placeDeteil.php?id_place=5
13. Pti. “Jagannath Rath Yatra Begins in Ahmedabad.” The Hindu. July 14, 2018. Accessed January 25, 2019. https://www.thehindu. com/news/national/other-states/jagannath-rath-yatra-begins-inahmedabad/article24418571.ece. 14. Sabarmati Riverfront, Socializing a River & Inclusive Development, by Sabarmati River Front Development Corporation Limited & AMC, p12 15. World Heritage City Ahmedabad. Accessed January 25, 2019. http://heritage.ahmedabadcity.gov.in/placeDeteil.php?id_place=12. 16. “AHMEDABAD CITY GUIDE.” Ganesh Chaturthi - Ahmedabad City Guide. Accessed January 25, 2019. http://www.ahmedabadguide. com/GaneshChaturthi.aspx.W
Images: -- Activities and water commons in different periods in Ahmedabad. Top lift: https://www.flickr.com/photos/20951416@ N04/29391190358/ ; Top right: https://www.flickr.com/ photos/34468569@N03/43025373245/; Bottom lift: http:// sabarmatiriverfront.com/event/boating-on-the-river-sabarmati; Bottom right: https://mastersofphotography.wordpress. com/2014/12/20/2014-year-in-pictures/ -- Robert Stephens, From the skies, an architect retraces a century-old survey of Ahmedabad’s City Walls, https://scroll.in/ magazine/900418/from-the-skies-an-architect-retraces-a-centuryold-survey-of-ahmedabads-city-walls -- Design and Photoshop by Author -- World Heritage City Ahmedabad. Accessed January 25, 2019. http://heritage.ahmedabadcity.gov.in/placeDeteil.php?id_place=5. -- Tnn. “Countdown Begins for Rath Yatra - Times of India.” The Times of India. June 10, 2017. Accessed January 25, 2019. https:// timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/countdown-beginsfor-rath-yatra/articleshow/59082127.cms. -- http://www.gujaratheadline.com/beta/muharram-procession-inahmedabad-traffic-redirected-on-many-routes/ -- “Ganesh Visarjan: Notes on Leadership and Life from Ganapati Celebrations.” Firstpost. September 15, 2016. Accessed January 25, 2019. https://www.firstpost.com/business/ganesh-visarjan-noteson-leadership-and-life-from-ganapati-celebrations-3005484.html.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Sabarmati River as Lifeline
Ahmedabad sits on the banks of the Sabarmati River. The Sabarmati originates in the Aravalli ranges of Udaipur, Rajasthan, and flows through Ahmedabad into the Arabian Sea. The history of the city, founded in 1411, is closely tied and organized around the Sabarmati River. Situated along major trade routes and channels, Ahmedabad served as a prosperous place for trade, manufacturing, and textiles, once deemed the “Manchester of India.” In 1917, Mahatma Gandhi established an ashram near the Sabarmati River, elevating public consciousness and spiritual associations with the River. The celebrated Gujarati architect Balkrishna Doshi’s defines sustainability as “long-lasting development without becoming unduly centralised.” To apply this definition to the development of the Sabarmati River leads to more questions than answers. For the city of Ahmedabad, the relationship to water is critical, especially in terms of collection and conservation. Historically, the people of Ahmedabad have discovered and devised brilliant and elegant solutions to this problem, tracing back to the design of stepwells and vaavs. Today, with threats of industrial pollution, resource planning, and severe weather, how does Ahmedabad address these pressing problems? Models surely exist, locally and globally, like microfinancing and cooperatives that fit within Doshi’s concept of “appropriateness” that relates to the transformation of scarce resources into multiple alternative uses as a means of survival.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
Image at left by Henri Cartier-Bresson
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Improving Infrastructure. Improving Lives?
The Sabarmati River serves as an vital source of water for daily life, farming, and recreation. Over the last five decades, the river has been dammed in multiple areas, most notably the Dhaori dam. And amid growing urbanization, beginning in 1998, efforts to create a riverfront were underway to reconnect the city to the river. While these projects are enacted with the intentions of producing a common good, there are adverse environmental impacts. The Sabarmati riverbed is now a primary site for city’s wastewater discharge, not to mention watershed degradation. It is argued that the people of Ahmedabad have an equal shared interest in the Sabarmati River. However, there exists a disproportionate power structure in terms of who influencing the development of the Sabarmati River, which can be understood in terms of access and quality. In an era of smart cities and rapid urbanization/globalization, Is it the case that Ahmedabad privileges the cities at the expense of the region? Where is there opportunity to introduce notions of collective ownership, responsibility, and equity? A-44
Sabarmati River as Lifeline
In 2017, Ahmedabad became the first Indian city to be declared a World Heritage City. While the nomination was later deferred, this development nonetheless spurs a new debate in how to rethink how investments are made. Clearly targeted toward the historic or “walled city,� that border the Sabarmati River and runs adjacent to the riverfront. When the Sabarmati River transitioned from a seasonal river to a perennial one, part of the excuse was to prevent flooding and lack of basic infrastructure. Deemed inaccessible, the Sabarmati created a divide between the two parts of the city. As a primarily dry river bed, In constructing the Sabarmati riverfront and engineering stunts, reclaiming lands and diverting water from other sources, namely the Narmada. Settlements along the riverbanks are prone to flood and lack basic infrastructure. Deemed inaccessible and creating a divide between two parts of the city.
Image at right: Lower riverfront promenade
Image at right: Sabarmati river before riverfront development
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-45
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) Appropriateness
Urban Lexicon
Barrage
Borewells
Commons
Sewerage Treatment Plants (STP) Sustainability
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Urban Ecology
1974 Water Act
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Sabarmati River as Lifeline
Governing body responsible for the civic infrastructure and administration of the city of Ambedabad.
Transformation of scare resources into multiple alternative uses.
A type of low-head diversion dam that regulates water levels, producing ponding and releasing water downstream during periods of flooding. A deep, narrow water well with a pump drawing water to the surface.
Resource or things that has a shared interest.
Facility that processes and removes effluents from wastewater, producing safe water.
Considered long-lasting development without becoming unduly centralized.
A designated landmark or area selected by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization as having cultural, historical, scientific or other form of significance, and is protected by international treaties. The study of ecosystems that include humans living in cities and urbanizing landscapes.
Water Prevention and Control of Pollution Act intended to provide prevention, control, and abatement of water pollution and the maintenance or restoration of wholesoleness.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-47
Cartography of Exclusion
Convergence
Conflict + Social Contestation
Since 2006, the surface waters flowing through the city of Ahmedabad are fed from the Narmada River and not the Sabarmati. The Narmada Canal, which crosses Sabarmati just upstream from the city, is part of a complex canal network connected to the Sardar Sarovar Dam. The canal diverts excess water to the river and maintains the level of water in the river. This is part of the larger and more contentious story of the real source of water flowing through Ahmedabad.
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Sabarmati River as Lifeline
Ahmedabad
Narmada River Canal System
Narmada Canal
Narmada River Diversion
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-49
Use and Program
As a seasonal Monsoonfed waterbody, the Sabarmati River served a Ahmedabad’s primary source of water for agricultural, domestic, and other uses which many communities have depended on it for centuries. Over the last five decades, the river has been dammed in several places, transforming the very physical characteristics, movement, and cultural associations with the river.
Image at top by Henri Cartier-Bresson Image at bottom: Sunday market
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Sabarmati River as Lifeline
1996
2006 SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
2016 THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Nested Scales Dharoi Dam
Water levels in the Sabarmati River are retained through Vasna Barrage, while water is replenished by the Narmada Canal. Constructed in 1976, the Dharoi Dam is located upstream of Ahmedabad and controls water and prevents from flooding. The Vasna Barrage downstream was built in 1976 by the Gujarat government to retain water in the river along the city banks and divert it through Fatehwadi canal for irrigation to villages and towns south of Ahmedabad.
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Sabarmati River as Lifeline
built 1978 Sabarmati Irrigation Project Length 3960 m
built 1976 Moti Fewaadi Irrigation Project Length 610 m
Vasna Barrage
Rajasthan
Gujarat
Sabarmati River Ahmedebad
Dams
Gulf of Khambhat
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Time and Process
As a backdrop to cultural life, the Sabarmati Riverfront Development (SRFD) Project was formed in 1996 in an effort to reorient public and recreational life towards the riverfront. A separate company called the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation was created to implement the project. The project has led to a transformation and reclamation of the surrounding territory.
Then 1961 Architect Bernard Kohn proposes redeveloping riverfront
A-54
Sabarmati River as Lifeline
Under Construction
Now
1998
2012
Sabarmati Riverfront Development
Riverfront promenade
Project (SRDP) undertaken
opened to the public
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Projecting Site
The southern part of the Sabarmati River offers a glimpse into the infrastructural processes and capacities of wastewater discharge in the city. The primary purpose of the Vasna Barrage is to produce controlled irrigation and “ponding� so that the city of Ahmedabad can enjoy the socalled beauty and benefits of the riverfront. The Pirana STP is one the major sewerage treatment plants, however there exists evidence that excess sewerage and industrial effluents are finding their way downstream near the Gyaspur Bridge.
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Sabarmati River as Lifeline
08 Fatehwadi Canal
07 Gyaspur Bridge
06
05
03
01
Riverfront Development
02 Pirana Sewerage Treatment Plant 05 Vasana Barrage
04 Pirana LandďŹ ll Site
06 Farmlands
03
02
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
01
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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The Common Commodity
The Common Commodity
Accessibility to water has been a catalyst for the development of settlements around the world. Whether the water manifests as a lake, river, ocean, bay, delta, or estuary, human civilization has been drawn to these places. Overtime, the relationship between water and human civilization has become intimately intertwined In diverse facets of daily life. The relationship with rivers, in particular, has developed from a fresh water source and transportation conduit to feeding irrigation canals, generating power, and providing aesthetically appealing views. The uses beg the question of the “right to water” and by extension the “right to the city”. This spatial analysis of this complicated relationship looks at one city and one river in particular. The city of Ahmedabad and the Sabarmati River in Gujarat, India. The Urban Water Commons evokes strong images of collective individual access, health, recreation, spirituality, nourishment, movement, and life. Today, proximity to water in cities is seen as an economic asset to leverage capital, often at the expense of the individual city dweller. This is the case in Ahmedabad, where development has commodified the parts of the urban water commons. This piece explores the urban water commons as it exists today both in Ahmedabad and the surrounding hinterlands. The Sabarmati reveals manifestations of conflict and community overtime. The water divides while simultaneously unites the city. Five characteristics, inclusion and exclusion, use and program, time and process, nested scales, and materials and atmosphere, represent specific aspects of the urban water commons.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-59
Chawals
Barrage
Urban Lexicon
Shock City
Pol
Talav
Talavadi
Teko
Havelis
Stepwells
Chowk
A-60
The Common Commodity
A type of residential building found in the Norther part of India. Typically, housing units in chawals are workingclass families. A dam or concentrated barrier
Contains a center of problems, particularly ethnic and social problems, and provoked sharply different reactions from visitors A housing cluster which comprises many families of a particular group, linked by caste, profession, or religion. Pols are typical of urban centers in Gujarat. Depressions of land where water gets collected to form small lakes
Depressions of land where water gets collected to form a small pond
The higher ground or mound where people live
Traditional townhouse or mansion in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, usually with historical and architectural significance Wells or ponds in which the water is reached by descending a set of steps originating from the Indian subcontinent. They may be multi-storied with a bullock turning a water when to raise the well water to the first or second floor. An intersection or roundabout, where tracks or roads cross; a market place open area in a city or village
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Nilkanth Manaudau Mandir Gayatri Temple Bhimnath Mahadau Temple
Shree Swaminaraiyan Mandier Narayanghat Chinunath Mahadev
Conflict + Social Contestation
Si Bab Temple
Riverfront East
The new development of the riverfront has created elite and egalitarian public spaces. In some places the river is accessible to the public and in other places the public is discouraged to interact with the riverwalk. Various barriers, walls and highways, flank the river in certain areas while others provide direct public access, ghats, which take people directly to the river. Additionally, areas slated for future development remain difficult for the public to traverse. This map calls out the many religious institutions and public spaces along the riverfront in the context of accessibility.
Subhash Bridge
Rishi Dadhichi Bridge
Kashmira Temple Sabarmati Ashram
Riverside Ga
Dadhichi Rushi Temple Jai Remeshar Mahadeu
Jadesh Mahade
Dashama Temple
Bala Hahuaman Mand Mahalarmi Temple
Torrent Power
The Common Commodity
Bazme Raza Ellahi Masjid
Bahucher Mindi Temple
Cartography of Exclusion
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Jogni Mata Templ
Mounuddin Christi Dargan
ata Temple Hanuman Temple
Siddhi Vinayak Ganesh Temple
Shah Abbas Mosque & Tomb
Khan Jahan Masijid
Gandhi Bridge
Nehru Bridge
Swami Vivekananda Bridge
sh Mahadev Mandir
Sardar Bridge
Dr. Ambedkar Bridge
Sanyas Ashram Gurukul Vidhyavihar English School
Riverfront Flower Park
verside Garden
man Mandir
Bhikan Shah Sarkar Jognimata Mandir
Shree Kashi Vishwantha mahandu Mandir
Tejal Water Supply
Utility Hindu Temple
Sabamarti River
Mosque
Public greenspace
Bridge Riverfront Road
Planned Development
Riverwalk
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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‘We are removing red tape and laying the red carpet’ - Modi Use & Program
The development of the riverfront was championed by the present day Prime Minister Modi. He saw the development of the riverfront as a way to globalize Ahmedabad to attract foreign investors to the area. He envisioned Ahmedabad with a riverfront like the one found in Singapore. However, as Ahmedabad invests into the riverfront to attract global investors, what is the opportunity cost? Is globalization the solution to uplift this post-industrial city?
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The Common Commodity
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Nested Scales
On many levels, the Sabarmati river influences many scales. From the microbial to the watershed, it is a current of life through Gujarat. It soaks soils which provide food to the region, it provides humans and animals drinking water to sustain life, and it pressures dams to create electricity. The Sabarmati river is one of many powerful rivers within the watershed, Gujarat, and India.
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The Common Commodity
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Time & Process
Prior to the installation of the riverfront, the Sabarmati River ebbed and flowed with the seasons. During the dry season, many parts of the river were reduced to a small stream while during the monsoon, the river would swell to become a wide rushing current. As the riverfront was developed, the river was engineered to remain at capacity, removing it from the natural cycle of the seasons, causing informal settlements nesting at the edge of the river to be displaced. This depicts one informal settlement transforming as the riverfront developed and subsequent highway were built. Yet, the informal settlement remains.
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The Common Commodity
2000
2002
2008
2010
2014
2017 [jan]
2003
2006
2007
2011
2012
2013
2017 [nov]
2018[march]
2018 [sept]
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Materials and Atmospheres
The materials which exist along the riverfront range from natural to found to manufactured materials. Water is the first material along and within the river. Water is used for many things as an urban commons. Specifically water provides irrigation and a place for people to gather and sell goods. Found materials, such as corrugated iron are found in informal settlements. Light fixtures and reinforced concrete are found along the developed sections of the riverfront. Each of these materials evokes a different feeling, a feeling of inclusion, exclusion, security, comfort, etc.
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The Common Commodity
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Projecting
In an effort to connect people back to the monsoon and dry seasons in tandem with a nod to historical water harvesting and containing techniques. This projection proposes future infrastructure which swallows some of the monsoon river water as the Sabarmati river floods. With the force generated from the river’s current, the water is pumped to locations distant from the river within the city. At these locations, a fountain or a forgotten step well are repurposed to harvest water which is released during the dry season to extend the urban water commons.
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The Common Commodity
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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The Water Commons and the Common People
The Water Commons and the Common People Ahmedabad was built upon its access to the Sabarmati River, a historically seasonal river fed largely by monsoons. A recent “urban beautification” project has added a bowl, so to speak, for the river to flow through controlled by dams. Rejecting the river’s natural seasonality, the project creates a constant full river for the community’s enjoyment. The redevelopment created a city-wide water commons by reclaiming the waterfront as public space. However, with this displacement, the people now have a different relationship with the water. The redevelopment creates a literal wall between the water the walled city that was built around it. While the city’s hope for the river was to become more accessible by all citizens, its design creates a quite literal divide. Informal settlements previously located along the bank had a very intimate relationship with the river and its seasonality. Homes were built right to the water’s edge, farming occupied the riverbed during the dry seasons, laundry operations relied on water access, religious processions lead to the water, the river literally flowed in and out of the community. People inhabited and used the river as needed, while with fewer access points for the public, those directly along the river used it extensively. The new development along the river has brought full public access to the entire waterfront (in theory) and a new sewer system keeping the river clean. But at a cost. Those previously living along the river were displaced, some given public housing in specified areas, some rendered homeless. While there is now full public access to the river, this is really tailored to the urban elite, development, and tourism with a literal wall separating the water from the city creating a hard relationship with the two compared to its natural historic relationship.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Riverfront before revitilization project. https://www.hcp.co.in/project/sabarmati-riverfront-development
Multi-Disciplinary Context The urban water commons is a multi-faceted and complex word association. It operates at a city scale, involving planners, landscape architects, designers, architects, environmentalists, politicians, corporate companies, and most importantly, people. More than these parties of multi-disciplinary actors are also those defined by less-concrete terms. These are the disciplines of the community members that begin to play a large role in not only shaping the water
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The Water Commons and the Common People
commons, but also defining who will benefit from it: the religious celebrations with processions to the water, farms that use the river and its tributaries as sources of irrigation, the view and experience from the river as a promenade, launderers at its peripheries, and many more. The commons are for the people, and represent an equal opportunity to share the wealth
Riverfront after development project. https://www.hcp.co.in/project/sabarmati-riverfront-development
of the water in its many contexts and uses. Easier said than done, it is the range of disciplines involved that begins to complicate the theory. The many actors at play with the water commons have the power to change and shape the waterfront and influence which other disciplines have a role in its context.
and the water never looks the same. In many ways, a city acts the same; the waterfront redevelopment brought change, and characteristic to the urban fabric will remain ready for more change. While transitional events are often filled with conflict, they also come with opportunity.
What is beautiful about a river and its water, is its transitional nature. The river is always changing,
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-77
Rehabilitation
Reclaimed
Relocation
Urban Lexicon
The water commons is both a physical feature made up of multiple components and a construct the people interact with in direct and indirect ways. Its meaning has shifted in recent years and has been a topic of focus for the city of Ahmedabad on their track to becoming a global city. The following terms represent the water commons, its history, its current state and what it can come to be.
Reflective
Transitional
Conflict
Promenade
Generative
Cultural
[Waterfront] Re-development
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The Water Commons and the Common People
The waterfront in recent years has undergone a process of rehabilitation to create a public amenity. While the high levels of pollution and waste in the river are being tackled, whether or not the waterfront is actually more public is unclear. The river reclamation waterfront project led by the city aim to make the river beautiful (clean and aesthetic), functional and accessible year-round. This land was previously occupied predominantly by informal settlements and farms amongst other seasonal programs. As a naturally seasonal river, the amount of land at the water’s edge varied through the year. The city encroached upon this land and created a concrete infrastructure to hold the water of the river, forcing it to stay at a constant flow. Relocation of the water and the people alike. The water of the river is no longer seasonal, it has been manipulated to sit in the new bowled riverbank. The occupants of the previous informal settlements along the water have been displaced, some to social housing away from the river, some rendered homeless. Water is reflective; moves light and shadow and mirrors back. The water commons is also reflective of the people to whom it serves both literally and programmatically. As an infrastructure, it should serve the needs of the people and the environment in a well-balanced way. Water itself as an element is transitional, in constant movement and change. The river brings water from one source to another, and acts as a path, not a home. The water that people interact with is never the same. The riverfront is also transitional in its urban context. A blend of concrete and landscaping, the new promenade is a transitional space from the natural water to the urban environment. The success of this transition is controversial. The water commons is a source of conflict, unsurprisingly so, as water throughout history has shown to be a friction point of conflict and often a border of it. In Ahmedabad, there is political, religious, socio-economic, and developmental conflict in the city, surrounding and permeating the water. Between the water itself and the city, sits a promenade that attempts to bridge the two. This promenade attempts to be a blend between the natural element on one side and the built environment on the other, with a mix of landscape and hardscape. It acts as the physical connection piece to the river water within the city. As such it has control over the way in which the people are able to interact with the water. The river acts as a generative piece to the city and its urban complex, capable of production on a variety of levels. It generates development, tourism, program, conflict, competition, ambiance, aesthetic, electricity, etc. Water itself is also generative by nature, as quite literally a life source for all that lives and grows. The water commons is cultural, it acts as an artery that the city and people have grown around throughout history. As such, it brings many people from all over the city together. It is the focal point of religious celebrations, and the source of livelihood for many of the community. As an urban water source, it is no surprise that development follows the river. Historically the city began at the river, and centers to it today. Further growth continues to be a city goal along the water and is a point of contention. It is the water that brought the development, how and what kind of development occurs is reliant on the people of the commons and those in power among them. SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-79
sewage treatment plant
vasna barrage
law garden vendor evictions
slum resettlement solid waste dumpsite
Cartography of Exclusion
+
Conflict + Social Contestation
Points of conflict and social contestation mark the river, ranging from evictions, religious riots, to projects in the name of globalization, all with manifold consequences. In the making of the global and smart city, the development and beautification projects come at a price that impacts citizens very differently accordingly to class and other distinctions.
+
. +
. 1m
i.
A-80
The Water Commons and the Common People
+
ons
historic gujari bazaar
gulbarg society riots
end of riverfront project naroda pitaya riots
kankaria lake vendor evictions
+ +
+
+
+
+ SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-81
Use and Program
A variety of programs punctuate the riverfront, providing different relationships between the user and the water. Though it should be noted that most interactions with the water are limited to a visual connection. The graph shows a breakdown of the land use distribution along the riverfront, with a large portion (roads + lower promenade) made of concrete.
land use distribution of riverfront development
central business public utilities 2.77% 0.41% sports 3.29%
other 0.05%
roads 19.69%
lower promenade 13.37%
open space 18.38% garden 13.4%
Graph data from: http://www.icrier.org/ Urbanisation/events/Dr_Vatsal_Patel_ Ahmedabad.pdf
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public purpose 13.75%
The Water Commons and the Common People
multi-use (land for sale) 14.5%
space %
ale)
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-83
Nested Scales
The Sabarmati River acts as a lifeline for Ahmedabad, fed from a northern lake, flowing into the sea, the river is a part of a large network of rivers, canals, tributaries, and lakes. This river is also naturally a seasonal river, which grows and shrinks with the monsoon season, in this sense, the river exists at a larger geographic and hydrological scale. The same water that comes from the skies to fill the water also becomes the water of the river the people live from, holding in their hands something from the heavens. The water is used for everything from acting as the final destination of religious processions to the chore of washing dirty laundry.
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The Water Commons and the Common People
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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2001
Time and Process “I think one of the underlying aspects of traveling by water is experiencing a different velocity of time… In many ways, it’s like going back in time.” – Peter Hutton, Traveling by Water
When a person is in water, they experience time in a different way. Movements become slower, gravity seems to not exist, there is a pull on the muscles, and it takes effort and energy to stay afloat. On an individual level, water creates a new relationship with time. The Sabarmati river is also a subject to time in its own growth as a seasonal river. Here you can see the dry season over the years, where the river used to be dry and provide additional farm acreage, now after the redevelopment project, the river remains full, no longer changing with the seasons.
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The Water Commons and the Common People
2017
2004
2008 SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Materials and Atmospheres
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The urban river water commons is very much so defined by concrete. It acts as the only access point to the river. Literal miles of concrete that spans from the edge of the water through upper and lower promenades, sidewalks and streets, defining the water’s edge and claiming acres of land that the water used to expand into. The people’s interaction and access to the waterfront is completely controlled by these miles of concrete.
The Water Commons and the Common People
All about water interventions, bringing water to the people of the city, and bringing the people of the city to the water. A slide into the river is meant to depict a fun and exciting activity directly with the river; here the water from the river literally flows into the city, captures the people, and propels them into the water. Other interventions such as cuts of waterfalls through the concrete promenade, aim to expand what is thought of as the water’s edge, allowing it to percolate further into the city while breaking up the large expanses of concrete. This move is meant to be reminiscent of the small canals and tributaries that used to flow from the water edges before the concrete barrier. Fountains throughout the city, again aiming to challenge the edge of the river, and bring the water to the people.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
Projecting Site
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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The Against and Connect
Urban Water Commons: the Against and Connect Standing as antagonistic environmental qualities, when written together “Urban Nature” offers an invitation to rethink our relationship with the territory we inhabit. While the urban condition consumes or destroys nature, and it is the people who execute the doom, it is also through urban culture that we have learned to appreciate the value of environmental protection and nature conservation. The urban waterfront has been the frontier of the exchanges of energy, resource and waste between nature and all creatures, including humans and our artificial creation of cities as a whole. The noticeable word choice of “commons” instead of “public” reveals the shared interest despite the ownership being private or public. The stewardship of the urban water is crucial as a marker of common interest not only the ones of those adjacent to it, but also on a larger territorial perspective, as the river waters serve the livelihoods of many residents in the watershed. What’s more, defined as “commons”, the urban waterfront creates a new identity shared by a given dominant group. Emotions and thoughts are also poured into the water when people come to meditate alone or create a memory with others. Cultural and religious activities, or even the fact that some commit suicide build the relation between people and water to a spiritual extend much beyond material.
Inspiration: The Important Difference Between a Public Space and a ‘Common’ by Kaid Benfield Jul 15, 2013, source: https://www.citylab.com/equity/2013/07/ sustainability-and-urban-commons/6200/
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Images sources: http://sabarmatiriverfront.com/file_manager/gallery/61/657105.IMG_8567.jpg https://sandrp.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/sabarmati-riverfront-5.jpg
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The Against and Connect
The “urban water commons ” marks the shared human interface between urban and nature, an ongoing struggle to have a healthy relationship and equal right to water access. The discussion involves social conflicts between different classes, religions and identities, all historical issues. Possible focus can be both the important area already reconstructed and left-out regions that still holds a possibility of better choice for the common good. Analysis on the previous project impact through multidisciplinary perspectives on the aftermath of both the created and still existing problems is needed. Ecological problems of seasonal water flow might guide the possible design strategy for landscape. Sociology interrogates the human interactions and their relationship with the river. Challenging the sole political and economic motivations of the project, design can offer a renewed imagination that recovers the broken fluid relationship of the river and its city, challenges restricted access, and invites new actors in the reconstruction process. What’s more, the role of water in the relationship between spirit and materiality also offers a philosophical connection that inspires creative outcomes. More specifically, by observing the interactions between people and the environment, the opportunity is to reestablish the connection at the Sabarmati Riverfront.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Eviction
Rehabilitation
Urban Lexicon
Gentrification
Segregation
Globalization
Riverbank
Bazaar
Slum
Ashram
Historic City Wall
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The Against and Connect
The process of forcing someone to leave their home. Eviction affected thousands of informal settlers along Sabarmati River during the Riverfront Project. The process of helping someone to return to a healthy, independent, and useful life after displacement or any other negative impact due to the Sabarmati Riverfront Project. The process by which an area of a city where poor people live becomes an area where middle-class people live, as they buy the houses and repair them. People grouping themselves in homogeneous groups, to avoid other from different races, religions, or class.
The world, developing a single economy and culture as a result of improved technology and communications and the influence of very large multinational corporations. The land at the side of a river.
A sale place, especially of used goods, to raise money for a particular project or organization in South Asia.
A poor area of a town where the houses are in very bad condition and self-built by low income citizens.
A religious retreat or a secluded dwelling of a Hindu sage. Mostly built along water.
An architectural structure built in the past to protect the urban area from invasion.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Cartography of Exclusion Conflict + Social Contestation
The Sabarmati River embodies the conflicts happening in the city of Ahmedabad. The river segregates the rich and poor by its physical existence, acting as a boundary. The spiritual connection to the water of the two main religions, Hinduism and Islam, makes the access to the river and the representation of the diverse identities a complex and controversial element. And yet, the recent Riverfront Program has added another layer of conflict by evicting the urban poor that used to inhabit the river margins for the construction of a sanitized landscape, an image of modernity.
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The Against and Connect
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Use and Program
The people of Ahmedabad are connected by the Sabarmati River in many ways. As the ending site for both Hindu and Muslim festivals, the Sabarmati riverbank has always been the place that people cherish and respect. Also, lots of markets that are held for hundreds of years happen along the river. The Sabarmati is also the place for livelihood, for people to gather and enjoy.
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The Against and Connect
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Nested Scales
The Bridges on the Sabarmati River mark the most important physical connections between the two sides of the city. At citywide scale, the bridges complete the road system with vital east to west connections. Zoomed in to the scale of a single bridge, one can clearly identify different neighborhoods with urban textures of strong contrast. On one side, the informal settlement, on the other, a delicately constructed institution. Meanwhile, the bridge is diversely used at the human scale, with people selling flowers and vegetables, or just resting in the shades.
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The Against and Connect
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Time and Process
The old city wall, almost completely demolished with only some of the gates remaining still has its impact on the city and its people. From static scenery to the rush of everyday life, the city wall witnesses the changes and remains stable. It is in the wall that the permanent meets the ephemeral.
Inspiration: The stopmotion video by Patrick Geddes. https://scroll.in/magazine/900418/fromthe-skies-an-architect-retraces-a-centuryold-survey-of-ahmedabads-city-walls
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The Against and Connect
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Materials and Atmospheres
Mandir, Derasar, Church and Mosque, they all claim a distinctive zone in the urban environment in Ahmedabad. The spiritual power gathers its believers and drives out others. The distribution of this religious architecture reveals the intricate zoning of the city and the unique intangible values assigned to its landscapes.
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The Against and Connect
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Projecting Site
The concept of the wall plus the bridge serves as a provocation. Using simple inserts, this exercise tests the way people react to a changing urban condition. Insert 1 are structures to support the informal settlements and provide basic sanitation so the urban poor can also claim a place near the river. Insert 2 is focused on the segregation between Hindus and Muslims, and uses the bridge to provide festival routes to the riverfront but across at the plaza that they share. The plaza is designed with limited interaction so that people might think about the possibility to share other urban spaces in a more egalitarian way.
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The Against and Connect
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Water Cultures
Water Cultures
India’s history is the story of its rivers. From the Indus in the West to Ganga and Brahmaputra in the East, from Narmada in Central India to Kaveri in the South, the sub-continent developed its languages, trade routes and culture along the banks of these mighty rivers. The Indic civilization has always been one with nature and the populace’s interactions with the riverfront have always been transactional, with not many permanent structures built to block or direct the flow. The Sabarmati Riverfront breaks that tradition. Aping development models that are destructive towards nature and disturb the natural ecology might not be the best way ahead. The Urban Water Commons in Ahmedabad raises important questions about the relationship between social and environmental justice in the context of rapid urbanization. The Urban Water Commons in Ahmedabad calls to understand urban growth and development by understanding its history and the importance of keeping the ‘spirit’ of the city alive. The Sabarmati river has had a historic significance in the city’s culture, even before the British invasion. During the British times, the riverfront inspired Mahatma Gandhi to establish his home there and lead the freedom struggle from its banks. Development of the riverfront might be detrimental to the balance between nature and urbanization that the locals had achieved. Instead of being a source of inspiration and cultural growth, the riverfront might become a source of division and stagnation.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Water Cultures
The culture of Ahmedabad is a boisterous blend of diverse backgrounds, religion, caste and language. Thus, caste, color, creed and social difference also start playing an important role in defining the city and its urban growth. Ahmedabad’s growth also came from the ‘Pols’ or the community housing projects. These sprung up near the river and created a culture of openness and dependability. A visit to a Pol will make one witness doors that remain open throughout the day, neighbors who visit each other’s’ houses every few minutes and kids playing in a common area, supervised by the collective body of the elderly. This culture of mixing obviates religious and caste boundaries and has been a central character of the city’s history. Being a walled-city, communities were forced to live in close proximity, due to which they developed the tolerant attitudes towards each other. With the development of the waterfront and removal of the city walls, communities are moving away. Some go away due to the increase in cost of living while some exchange their heritage for better facilities far away from the city. Consequently, slowly, the original inhabitants of the city (old town) are being replaced by the Nouveau riche, the consumer age citizens for whom the newly constructed riverfront is just another ‘pretty sight’ bereft of any historical significance.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Ghettos
Communalism
Urban Lexicon
Bazaar
Urbicide
Milieu
Pols
Neo-liberalism
Wall City
Globalization
Vaav
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Water Cultures
a quarter of a city in which members of a minority group live especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure. In Ahmedabad, most of the minority and low-income groups live in ghettos or slums next to the river or settlements starts mushrooming next to “naalas” - to make use of infrastructural services like sewage disposal. Social organization on a communal basis based on religious or ethnic affiliation.
The Persian word bāzār refers to a permanently enclosed marketplace or street where goods and services are exchanged or sold. Indian bazaars are the best sensory guides to the country’s diversity. The smells, colors, the sense of organized chaos, the new vying for attention with the old . It all makes India’s bazaars enthralling and overwhelming experiences. Latin – ‘urbs’: city, cide: ‘killing’ - Urbicide translates as “violence against the city”. First coined by the author Michael Moorcock in 1963, it was later used by critics of 1960s urban renewal in the United States. The city of Ahmedabad was a victim of urbicide as multiple riots due to social conflicts led to physical destruction of city and it’s infrastructure. Physical or social setting in which something occurs or develops, environment. All the factors from city’s past and politics play a major role in shaping city’s social and physical environment. Housing cluster found in old city of Ahmedabad which comprises many families of a particular group, linked by caste, profession, or religion. Pols are small dead-end streets with compact housing clusters on both sides which form a small residential unit. Pols are protected by a large entrance gate and governed by community identity which forms distinct residential patterns throughout the old city. Policies like cutting trade tariffs and other barriers. It describes the liberalization of the international movement of capital, and decreasing power of trade unions. It’s broken up state-owned enterprises, sold off public assets and generally opened up our lives to dominance by market thinking. A wall 10 km in circumference was built to encircle the city and protect it from invasion. Eventually, most of the walls were removed, and today only the gates still stand, as well as a short section of the wall along the riverfront. The area within the boundary of the old wall is known today as the “old city” of Ahmedabad. Interconnectedness as a result of increased trade and cultural exchange. Some large cities are perfect for globalization’s imperatives, and their built environment and resources attract international investment. In this game, large metropolises are being born - and older ones are revitalized - while smaller cities with less to offer find themselves marginalized. the vertical well shaft (also in ordinary draw wells) is approached on one side by a long-stepped corridor which leads one from the ground level down to the water. This stepped corridor is engulfed between two parallel linear walls. At the surface of the earth, which defines the ground level. Through a humble entrance pavilion, as one descends, the increasing complexity of its architecture unfolds.
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Sewage Disposal | Industrial waste disposal Industrial | Commercial
1441
Territorialising water Historical | Religious | Cultural
Water Types | Ahmedabad
Sarkhej Roza
WaterConict Cultures
Use | Program Nested Scales
Industries
Lack of proper infrastructure | Services - Naalas Informal Settlements | Slum
Slum Settlements
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
1847
Aslali Lake
Urban water supply limited to developed areas City water supply system Overhead Water Tanks
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Sanathal Lake
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Community Settlements | Villages
Water Cultures
2008 Mini Kankaria Lake
Chandola Lake
1892
Kankaria Lake
Bridging East to West | Urban Expansion Connecting two edges
Isanpur Lake
2004
Disrupting natural flow of river Riverfront | Water Channel Barrier Wall
High Real Estate | Displacement of poor To create ‘world-class image’ | Globalisation
1847
Territorialising water | Communalising water Community | Village settlements
Projecting Site
Bridges
Riverfront
Ellis Bridge 1892 Nehru Bridge 1962
Sardar Bridge 1939
Dr Ambedkar Bridge
Malav Talav
Barrier Wall Built for Riverfront Project 2004
Auda Lake Garden
Makarba Tank
Sarkhej Pond
Sarkhej Village Lake
Malek Saban Lake
“Pols” | Underground Water Tank
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
1451
Naroda Lake
Sajpur Lake
Displacement of people |Nikol Disrupted natural surface depression Lake Recreational | Infrastructural | Commercial
1738
Lost significance Water Conservation | Storage | Historical significance
Dada Harir Vav
Asarwa Lake
Gandhi Bridge 1940
Motera Lake
Subhash Bridge 1973
2011
Rishi Dhadhichi Bridge
Projected Site
Kankaria Lake
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Water Cultures Aslali Lake
Mahakali Mandir Lake
Limited availability of water | Polluted water Agricultural Farming
1485
Disfunctional due to drying of ground water Historical Monumnets | Cultural | Religious
2008
Limited water in canals for agriculture due to creation of riverfront Agricultural | Infrastructural
Narmada Canal Stepwells | Vav
Irrigat
Koba Lake
Narmada Canal 2008
Agricultural Farming
Displacement of urban poor for creation of riverfront | Flooding zone Informal Settlements | Community Settlements
Irrigational Canals
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Vavoi Lake
Nai Sarovar Bird Sanctuary
Ahmedabad
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Urban Fluctuations
Urban Fluctuations Seasonality in the Globalizing City The proximity of a variable body, water, against an equally metamorphic culture of people creates a chaotic relationship of dynamic natures. The canyon carved from limestone over millions of years creates balance, but it is the desire to artificially create equilibrium that tilts the scales of such a systematic process. Ahmedabad, like every urban environment, becomes an exponential variable to this existing water mechanism of Gujarat, India. Water becomes physically built into the city, alternating relationships with the body based on infinite variables (cultural affinity, purity, poverty, quantity, content, etc.). The urban experience of water varies widely. For informal settlements, developed around temporary water bodies or nallahs, the structured housing around an artificial lake, the farmer pulling water from irrigation canals, the treatment tanks used to filter the water’s contents, or the water bottled and consumed by the tourist walking along the city streets. How these relationships are negotiated is constantly in flux, and in many cases these highly dynamic phenomena are mediated by infrastructure, architecture, and design projects.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Darwaza,Ahmedabad: Wikimedia Commons
https://www.udaipurrides.com/ tourpackage/book-udaipur-toahmedabad-taxi
Credit: Nathan Winder
www.dnaindia.com
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Urban Fluctuations
Located in Northwest India, the Sabarmati River originates in the folded Aravalli Mountains carving through metamorphic rock towards the Dharoi Reservoir (artificial reservoir created to control the seasonal extremes of the river and irrigate northern cropland). The river opens into the fertile lands near Ahmedabad and final discharges into the Gulf of Khambhat. The river is seasonal fueled by the monsoons of the Summer. The swelling often displaces the banks and causes flooding depositing mineral rich sediment. During the dry season the river can nearly disappear, revealing fertile deltas ideal for agriculture, and allowing safe passage of livestock across the bed. Thousands of farmers along the river rely on the seasonality of the river as a means of extra income. The dried river bed holds a monumental historic presence in world history, when Mahatma Gandhi spoke to thousands.
The monsoon season of Gujarat generally falls between July and September. During this three month period North India receives over 80% of its annual rainfall.
The city of Ahmedabad, with a population of 5.57 million people, grew with the river’s dynamic force. In the early 21st century, since the collapse of the textile industry, many people have located at the banks of the river in chawls and use the water as a source of utility and income. In 2005 the government began implementing a plan to improve the image of the city and “socialize” the riverfront to encourage global interest and investment. The riverfront project involved the “re-habitation” and relocation of these “slums” from the water to create a perennial river. The once social bank of the river, vital to the culture of the residents and religions of the city, has become a concrete canyon. The term ‘river’ has become typified by traditional ideals; water that is constantly supplied and moves steady through the year. The glorified vision of what a river should be has created an unrealistic need to recreate this definition regardless of geographic, climatic, or cultural context. The leadership of Ahmedabad has fallen for the generic image of what a river ‘should’ be without regard for how the system functions. Today water in the city serves as a definition would determine it should. This regimented standardization does not leave enough room for regional flexibility, and projects, inevitably, manifest themselves into unsubstantiated claims of “cultural sensitivity”. SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
The Sabarmati Riverfront project was orchestrated by Narendra Modi as a means of globalizing the city. The project was design by Bimal Patel to resemble the Seine River in Paris.
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Nallah
Ghat
Urban Lexicon Pucca
Pole
Chawl
Arcology
Ecology
Informal Settlement
Kholis
Urban Ecology
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Urban Fluctuations
[Hindi - nālā]: referring to a ravine or gully. A nallah may be referring to a man-made or natural valley/ditch, this ditch may be used for irrigation, sewage disposal, runoff collection.
A series of steps leading down to a body of water, particularly a holy river. The steps may be natural or man made. Refers to dwellings that are designed to be solid and permanent (solid).
A neighborhood or community.
[Marathi - ch]: a type of residential building found in Northern part of India. Typically, housing units in chawls are availed of by relatively poor but gainfully employed working-class families. A portmanteau of “architecture” and “ecology”, is a field of creating architectural design principles for very densely populated, ecologically low-impact human habitats. The impact of an environment on a biological organism.
Region not designated or zoned by the city as residential area. Often these residents construct their own dwellings in an auto-organized system. ‘Rooms’
The relationship between natural organisms and dense human organizations.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Time and Process
From migmatite mountains to silt valleys the Sabarmati has carved itself out of the heart of Gujarat. The river seasonally deposits rich sediment in the valley creating fertile crop land along the banks of the river.
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Urban Fluctuations
Lat. 24°47'23.4"N Long. 73°31'10.4"E
Obra Khurd Elev. - 805m
Lat. 24°01'14.0"N Long. 72°53'04.6"E
Dharoi Reservoir Elev. - 174m
Lat. 23°01'44.5"N Long. 72°35'06.9"E
Ahmedabad Elev. - 48m
Sabarmati River
Gulf of Khambhat Elev. - 0m Lat. 22°19'00.9"N Long. 72°23'22.5"E
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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walls stepwe inform walls
5
Use and Program
Solemn steps attending a procession of reality into refracted dimensions. Concrete canyons ushering the slicked liquid from view. Driven land amongst sleeping streams. Pavement promenades, like blinders, slips us from any somatosensory connection. Instead, this ĂŠlan vital is leashed and domesticated to fulfill its purpose to a newfangled metropolis. bridge seasonal infrastructure infrastructur dam intake stepwell walls informal water A-128
Urban Fluctuations
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THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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February - May Rain Avg. Jan - 0.2” Feb - 0.1” Mar - 0.0” Apr - 0.1” May - 0.2” Temp Avg. Jan - 82 °F Feb - 88 °F Mar - 97 °F Apr - 103 °F May - 107 °F
June - September Rain Avg. Jun - 4.2” Jul - 8.9” Aug - 9.3” Sep - 3.9” Temp Avg. Jun - 101 °F Jul - 92°F Aug - 90 °F Sep - 93 °F
October - December Rain Avg. Oct - 0.6” Nov - 0.3” Dec - 0.1” Temp Avg. Oct - 96 °F Nov - 91 °F Dec - 85 °F
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Urban Fluctuations
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THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Materials and Atmospheres
Solid and invariable, the prodigious conductors of a once unfettered river insulate the city from its nature. Concrete in place of earth, asphalt in place of grass, paint in place of cracked clay, steel in place of smooth stone, a rail in place of a bank, smoke in place of mist. A once dynamic body, now a stagnant lake to be viewed.
1 _ h t t p: / /g u j a ra t d e v e l o p m e n t g u i d e . blogspot.com/2011/10/latest-pictures-ofsabarmati-riverfront.html
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Urban Fluctuations
asphalt concrete steel rail
Walled City Informal Settlement New River Edge Old River Edge Old Seasonal Ag. Gandhi Bridge
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Projecting Site
~20,000 m² Agriculture Land
~25,000 m² Agriculture Land
The seasonality of the river created a complex interaction with the city that has been simplified since the riverfront project. Political stages, religious ceremonies, agriculture, live stock herding, laundry, and leisure once filled the banks of the dried bed, but today there is a prescribed program of the river bank. I propose a system of spaces focused at the riverfront and, like a web, stretches into the city. The space is to become a new local for the informal uses that once populated the valley.
Reengaging the river’s seasonal economy. Floating surfaces introduced to reclaim the lost banks of the Sabarmati.
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Urban Fluctuations
~45,000 m² Agriculture Land
~121,000 m² Agriculture Land
Sites selected in response to their historic use based on satellite imagery.
~200km of Seasonal paths crossing the Sabarmati to be reintroduced as floating bridges.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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From Industrialization to Globalization
From Industrialization to Globalization Ahmedabad’s recent history is tied to industrial development. In the mid-1960s, 10 percent of the city’s population, an one-third of the adult male population, were textile workers. About an equal number worked in ancillary industries. The Ahmedabad Textile Labor Association and Mill Owners play an important role in the city’s government. TLA negotiate and arbitrate the communist labor movement while most of Ahmedabad’s civic leaders drawn from the families of the mill owners. When new economy come to this city, the downgrading of labor bring this city a lot of problems. Ahmedabad is shaped by industry and will be changed by globalization. The city’s development is determined by the process from industrialization to globalization. Water is the reason why the city locates in this place. The old walled city also situated near river. How the city use the water for production, recreation and celebration is essential to Ahmedabad people. For example, Industry need water in every procedure, as a result of it, this city experience a rapid development when the cotton mills are introduce to this city. Ahmedabad expanded very quickly from 1860s to 2000s and become the sixth city in India. The accessibility of water is significant in this process. Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project improve the riverfront infrastructure. But it doesn’t fully consider the history and culture. In my opinion, We should take industrialization as the former part of globalization. In this way, we can solve the problem of the city.
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THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Industrialization started in late 19th after the industrialization revolution happens in the United Kingdom. Due to the location of the city, Ahmedabad became a cotton production center in North India. After nearly 150 years’ development, industrialization changes many aspects of the society in Ahmedabad, including politics, economy and culture. As civic leaders, mills owners had the power to influence making and implement of government’s decision. Mills workers were a main forces who support Mahatma Gandhi’s freedom movement and finally achieve the independence of the whole country. In the freedom movement, the reason of why Ahmedabad is the first chosen by Gandhi is he can receive financial support from mills owners. Moreover, the Ahmedabad Textile Labor Association is also the first association in India who negotiate with people to solve the problem between people and government.
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From Industrialization to Globalization
https://www.asian-voice.com/Opinion/Columnists/Ahmedabad%27s-Textile-Industry-and-its-booming-past.
In terms of economy, mills were a very important income source for most people in Ahmedabad. People in the city can make a living in many positions related to mills, such as raising cotton, transporting cotton, working in mills, working individually, selling clothes, washing clothes and so on. Cotton industry accounts for a great proportion in Ahmedabad’s economy in 19th century to 20th century. Although the city’s economy are transforming to be suitable for global competition, the cotton industry cannot be neglect. Politics and economy shape the city’s culture. Industry changed the way of education and the time when people can communicate. People always communicate to each other in the process of washing the clothes.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Industrialization
Globalization
Urban Lexicon
Colonial
Economic Restructuring
Mills Labor Association
Political Ideology
Religion and Buildings
Slum
Water Commons
Landscape Rehabilitation
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From Industrialization to Globalization
The main character of Ahmedabad society from 1860s to 1980s. The development of industry bring rapid economic development to the city and attract people to live in the city. The aim Ahmedabad government make for 21st century development. It also means Ahmedabad need to suit itself for global competition and make the city environment attractive to international investors. Colonial bring technology to Ahmedabad and it is the precondition for industrialization. Ahmedabad also play an important role in the process of India Freedom Movement. To be suitable for global competition, Ahmedabad should restructure its economy from single source to variety. Apart from mills industry, Service industry, commerce should be developed in this city. Organization that played a significant role in Ahmedabad’s history. Mahatma Gandhi was an instrumental figure in its formation and would go to support the society of Ahmedabad in the freedom movement. Capitalism is essential for Ahmedabad society. Government don’t have enough money to prompt the establishment of infrastructure. They should find a way to attract investors and get money. Religion influence all aspects of Ahmedabad culture. People accumulate when there is a religious festival and people should go to religious building for worship regularly. Slum accommodate a large amount of people in Ahmedabad. The poor living condition of slums is the problem government should solve. Fully comprehending the history of slum can help them deal with this problem. Water is present in every aspect of Indian life. Some Indian traditional festivals happen in the places near to the water. The riverfront and stepwells always connect surrounding Ahmedabad families. Sold as one of the objectives of the Sabarmati riverfront development project, this idea should be promoted to the whole city.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Time and Process
Ahmedabad expanded very quickly in 19th and 20th century, gaining the surname of the shock city of India. Industry not only develop its economy and attracted population but also gave the city power to influence the whole country. In the 1980s, the city’s mills started to decline and only a few remain stable in 21st century. Political leaders in Ahmedabad work now to address the postindustrialization of the city and the reintroduction of other economies embracing the global city model.
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From Industrialization to Globalization
Ahmedabad Textile Industrial Reports Ahmedabad Workers & Urban Textile PopulationIndustrial Reports Number of Ahmedabad Mills Workers & Urban Population Number of Ahmedabad Mills Textile Mills Workers Population Urban Population Urban Population
Narendra Modi
Textile Mills Workers Population
CHARACTERS
Mahatma Gandhi
Jawaharlal Nehru
Mahatma Gandhi
Jawaharlal Nehru
Narendra Modi
6,000,000 5,000,000 6,000,000 4,000,000 5,000,000
CHARACTERS
3,000,000 4,000,000
AHMEDABAD AS SHOCK CITY AHMEDABAD AS SHOCK CITY
Salt Satyagraha
New Economy
Salt Satyagraha
New Economy
3,000,000 2,000,000 2,000,000
Gandhi Ashram
“Manchester of India”
Religious Conflict
Gandhi Ashram
“Manchester of India”
Religious Conflict
1,000,000 1,000,000 500,000 250,000 500,000 250,000
1860
1880
1900
1920
1940
1960
1860
1880
1900 Colonial
1920
1940
1960 1980 Post Colonial
2000 21st Century
Post Colonial
21st Century
HISTROY
Colonial
Ahmedabad TLA Ahmedabad TLA
Textile Collapse Textile Industry Triving
5 10 5 10
20
Textile Collapse
30
Textile Industry Triving Arvind Mills Arvind Mills
30 40
Ashima group Before Before
SARBARMATI RIVER SARBARMATI RIVER
2000
20
HISTROY
TEXTILE INDUSTRY TEXTILE INDUSTRY
1980
50 40
Ashima group
60 50
Now
70 60
Now
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
Source: Reports, Sohool of Planning, Ahmedabad, 1973 Street Development: Case of Ahmedabad, India, Vinday Shah, 1978
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
70
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Cartography of Exclusion Conflict + Social Contestation
The conflict between residential and industrial areas shows very different intensities in different areas in the city. If the central area prioritizes the residential over the industrial, the situation is the opposite far from downtown. Despite the different intensities of each use, residential and industrial areas have grown intertwined. This pattern are basic for Ahmedabad development.
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From Industrialization to Globalization
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Nested Scales
Ahmedabad’s history and future are intertwined in the built environment, the legacies of key figures, big events and society scene. For instance, Ahmedabad develop form feudal society to capital society, drastically altering the structure of the city and the relation with its hinterland. In the late 20th century and beginning of the 21st century, the city experienced a rapider change in short time. Society adapt to this change not without struggling internally to follow the pace of contemporary times.
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From Industrialization to Globalization
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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INDUSTRY
INDIVIDUAL
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Carding
Warping Sizing
COMMERCIAL
Crop Area
Source: Desai, Renu B. Thesis, 2008
From Industrialization to Globalization
INDUSTRIALIZATION
WEA
Blow Room
Cotton Transportation
GLOBALIZATION
Neddle-felt
In the industrialization process, the productive land is used for agriculture and industrial processes. Those include spinning, weaving, processing and fabric production, all very labor intensive and negatively impact water quality. At the same time, globalization introduces other practices of labor and land exploitation as land changes its value and use.. Commercial and residential uses help to improve life quality of neighborhoods. Large industrial areas block the city’s redevelopment for new age.
Dyeing
Use and Program
Frame
Crop Area
SPINNING
Winding
AGRICULTURE
Knitting Turfting
Printing Bleaching
Dyeing
Warping Sizing
FABRIC PRODUCTION
Weaving
PROCESSING
Winding
WEAVING
RESIDENTIAL
Development A Development B Development C
Shopping Plaza
Exterior
Restaurant Cinema
Exterior
Nutan Mill - City Gold and Fun City Ahmedabad New Cotton Mill - 10-Acres
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Materials and Atmospheres
The comparison between the before and after of the riverfront project offers a glimpse in the mechanisms of contemporary urban development. The influence of industrialization and globalization are obvious from their unique patterns of material consumption and the transportation patterns they impose. They are all apparent at the riverfront area. In this way, the Sabarmati River remains a marker, the living memory for the city of how to work for more inclusive and sustainable development patterns in the future.
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From Industrialization to Globalization
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Projecting Site
The old mills area alongside Sabarmati River is a place for experimentation. Designated a mid-use area, religious and traditional life comes together with modern life there. The influence of industrialization and globalization can both be seen at the Sabarmati Riverfront. These areas follow the river and are open spaces with grass, warehouses, and high-rise buildings which are diversified by its surrounding area.
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From Industrialization to Globalization
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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A Seam Reclaiming Nature and Engagement
A Seam Reclaiming Nature and Engagement “Urban Nature” reflects into contrasting meanings of “Nature”-in the intrinsic sense of urbanity and the ecological context. On one hand, I recognize urbanity as a common ground for geographically concentrated and physiologically diversified presence of human population. The basic quality of commons is inherited in the urban context. On the other, constructing “Nature” within the urban context calls for the liberation of compromised urbanized territories through an ecological functioning. As for the Water Commons, I consider it being a natural separation while at the same time being a potential arena, or bridge for public engagement and interaction. I am interested in discovering possibilities of an Urban Water Commons seaming the segregation of the artificial-natural relation and privileged-underprivileged urban context, as ecological landscape naturally bears both geographical and social functions to the city. The Urban Water Commons should offer opportunities for people to engage water in an intimate sense--rather than stop by and appreciate the view from a distance. More importantly, it should advocate the significance of nature reclamation. This action will preserve urban livability, and in Ahmedabad’s case, will continue to build a collective memory and local pride in the city’s long water-based history. The image themed as “Nature Reclaims” makes an inspiration of the idea. Urban Water Commons act like the boat, being inclusive to human activities while preserving the natural resources.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Sabarmati River as the symbolizing element of Ahmedabad City, has so far been carrying the public concern as well as hope of the Ahmedabadis.
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A Seam Reclaiming Nature and Engagement
Urban water commons as a natural urban seam involves engagement from different actors and disciplinary realms. Riverfront dwellers, city residents, city planners, religious communities, etc. are playing significant but unbalanced roles when shaping waterfronts. In terms of history, rivers are historically the water source for cities, connecting the phases of social change and urban development. Disciplinary speaking, engaging the urban waters involves various conditions of urban nature, including urban forestry, river plains, wetlands, seasonal agricultural lands,etc. The study of Urban Nature employs multi-disciplinary lenses addressing sociological recognition (motivation), urbanism ideology (model), stimulus (social events or interactive installation of public engagement), and sensory environment (landscape connecting sight, touch, sound, etc.) These lenses help shaping the general idea of Urban Nature to a potential integration of the urban context and an enhanced social influence. By understanding the indigenous graphical condition of the waters, and visioning the current status together with future possibilities of public use, we may adapt design to local geography, local urban features, and local culture.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Ghat
Pol
Urban Lexicon
Promenade
Urban Forestry
Dohbi
Hutments Palaeochannel
Vaav(Stepwell)
Milieu
Alluvial Plain
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A Seam Reclaiming Nature and Engagement
A flight of steps leading down to a river.
A housing cluster which comprises many families of a particular group, linked by caste, profession, or religion. Pols are typical of urban centers in Gujarat especially of Old Ahmedabad. A paved public walk, typically one along a waterfront at a resort. a leisurely walk, or sometimes a ride or drive, taken in a public place so as to meet or be seen by others. The care and management of single trees and tree populations in urban settings for the purpose of improving the urban environment. A caste group of India. Their traditional occupation was washing clothes, i.e. laundry. A hut or group of huts(small, simple, single-storey house or shelter).
A remnant of an inactive river or stream channel that has been filled or buried by younger sediment. The sediments that the ancient channel is cut into or buried by can be unconsolidated, semi-consolidated, consolidated or lithified. Wells or ponds in which the water is reached by descending a set of steps originating from the Indian subcontinent. They may be multi-storied with a bullock turning a water wheel to raise the well water to the first or second floor. The people and the physical and social conditions and events that provide a background in which someone acts or lives A largely flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A floodplain is part of the process, being the smaller area over which the rivers flood at a particular period of time. SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-159
Cartography of Exclusion Conflict + Social Contestation
The horning train of globalization keeps moving forward and carries the grand visions of future, leaving behind its base of underprivileged people. Under BJP’s totalitarian leadership Ahmedabad is striding “forward”, to achieve the status of “global city”. Rapid urban development is replacing informal settlements on the Sabarmati riverfront, taking away the areas accessible to the underprivileged. The Sabarmati Riverfront Project led by Modi has staged another conflict where it conceals the lopsided situation between west bank (new city) and east bank (old city) under the disguise of a renovated river scene.
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A Seam Reclaiming Nature and Engagement
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Before Riverfront Project SEASONAL
Time and Process
The seasonal flow of the Sabarmati River rendered different temporalities, influencing how people lived with water. These cycles have been lost after the “urbanization” of the river bank. According to the lunisolar Hindu calendar, there are six seasons or ritus in a year. Since Vedic times, Hindus across India and South Asia have used this calendar to structure their lives around the year. The faithful still use it today for important Hindu festivals and religious occasions. Ritus signify time and process of people’s annual life, which is shared by the seasonality of the river. Time is memorized this way.
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Shishir Ritu: Winter Jan.
After Riverfront Project CONSTANT
A Seam Reclaiming Nature and Engagement
Vasanta Ritu: Spring Feb.
Mar.
Apr.
ing
Grishma Ritu: Summer Apr.
May
Varsha Ritu: Monsoon June
July
Sharad Ritu: Autumn Aug.
Sept.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
Hemant Ritu: Prewinter Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-163
Use and Program
The use of the alluvial plain for urban activities shows great diversity As addressed above in Time and Process, the Sabarmati River land patterns along river used to change through the different seasons. A little over a decade ago, the Sabarmati was nothing but a parched riverbed, with puddles of industrial effluents and sewage. It was a hotbed of water-borne diseases, with slums mushrooming along the banks. Over the recent decade, the river has been channeled to a uniform pathway, with parts of the riverbed reclaimed and a waterfront developed along both banks.
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A Seam Reclaiming Nature and Engagement
RIVER AGRICULTURE 2001
In the dry season, the Sabarmati River had a patched riverbed, which was used for agricultural programs. By harnessing the main river and those tiny streams, farmers made full use of water and land.
INFORMAL SETTLEMENT
PUBLIC EVENTS
WATER SUPPLY
2003
2010
2006
The patched riverbed accommodated huts for Dohbis, who are cloth washers highly dependent on water. These temporary shelters stretched to the very end of the dry land edge in the rain season, in order to seek ultimate living space.
The Kite Festival has become one of the annual features on the riverfront, marking a gentrified urban commons. The reclaimed, beautified land is rented out for festivals, exhibitions, trade fairs and religious gatherings.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
Urban water infrastructures are an inalienable part of water use: dams, pumps, water treatment plants, etc. Distribution of these infrastructures helps understanding the evolving urban form of Ahmedabad.
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Nested Scales RIVER
Human actions shape urban waters--or in a reverse way, the geography of water shapes people and the city. Different scales and water processes indicate use, and the urban image of the region. Water bodies in Ahmedabad city and suburbs have nested scales: River, Canal, and Stream. The Sabarmati, River has a wide water surface while relatively narrow paths and limited access. The canals allow more engagement into water. Streams, generally in the suburbs near agriculture lands, work as direct irrigation supply, at a more intimate scale.
CANAL
STREAM
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A Seam Reclaiming Nature and Engagement
RIVER
CANAL
STREAM
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-167
Materials and Atmospheres
Ahmedabad contains greatly distinctive atmospheres on the two sides of Sabarmati River. The urban fabric reveals the concentric structure in which forests and farmlands sprawl toward the outskirts; and again, showcases the discrepancy between the west and east bank. The transect through the river displays materials and atmospheres and allows the abstraction and simplification of the complex urban context, showing the gradients of fabric from riverfront to suburbs.
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A Seam Reclaiming Nature and Engagement
Ahmedabad enjoys a woven texture of urban and natural features. Material conditions in building facades and ground surfaces create unique atmospheres in different city areas.
The west bank shows a concentric structure with delicate buildings in the city center and farmlands and little forests on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.
The long history of the east bank shares old brick and concrete building materials and encloses natural spots for religious celebrations..
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-169
Projecting Site
Urbanization
Nature Preservation
New City
Old City
Delicate Waterfront
Engaging Waterfront
The continuity of the “urban” and “nature” conditions place questions regarding the tradeoffs in the urbanization process and the shaping of urban waters. This project reclaims nature and mediates the segregation between the west and east banks of the river. Situated in the middle part of the Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad, where conflicts concentrate, the intervention reclaims the seasonal river plain. People get accessible water nature, memory-recalling landscape, and an urban commons with enhanced connectivity.
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A Seam Reclaiming Nature and Engagement
Park-Bazaar Extension
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A Seam Reclaiming Nature and Engagement
Forestry + R
orestry + Resort
Water Infrastructure + Settlement
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Subhash Bridge Dudheshvar Bridge Gandhi Bridge
Nehru Bridge Ellis Bridge Sardar Bridge Dr Ambedkar River
A-174
Neither Rural nor Urban
Neither Rural nor Urban
The challenge in Ahmedabad is not the binary urban versus nature, but the indistinguishable transition between them. Through the speech given by Sardar Patel, which said “Our cities are neither cities, nor villages. Though living in cities, many of our urban people behave as they would amidst rural conditions. Half the buildings have no latrines, and there is no place even to throw the garbage from the houses. Although they live in houses in narrow streets and in thickly populated areas, they do not hesitate to keep cattle.� It is not difficult to understand that the recent migrants were still trapped in their old living habits and manners and would like to follow their instinct rather than the expectations of their newly obtained urban citizenship.
The speech quoted was given by Sardar Patel in 1927 when he addressed the conference on Local Self-Government in Surat as president of the Ahmedabad Municipality.
Tracing their current situation, the living conditions in slums remain challenging. Are their water storage problems due to the imbalance of water infrastructure between the two sides of Sabarmati river? What is the difference between the construction of water infrastructure and what is the work flow of water purification distribution and utilization of water in slums? How to provide more educational capacities for slum dwellers to steward their built environment and advocate by themselves? By doing these analysis, we might imagine a better future.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Bird-view of Sabarmati Riverfront and the slum near it.
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Neither Rural nor Urban
The development of textile industry from 1960s attracted residents from the countryside to Ahmedabad for employment. Policies such as private land ownership and the non-household registration system amplified this phenomenon and expedited urbanization. In order to be accommodated in the city, these rural migrants self-built their homes in slums and had to cope with poor living conditions and lack of access to infrastructures. Apart from structural inefficiency and material poverty, slum dwellers have to fight for the right to the city and full citizenship recognition. At present, the situation of the slum dwellers is still not optimistic. Their existence, especially at central areas, is seen as problematic as they impact the surrounding land values and cause a poor impression in the making of Ahmedabad, the global metropolis.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Neither Urban nor Rural
Slum
Urban Lexicon
Self-consciousness
Water Infrastructure
Educational Institute
Common Space
Typology
Constitution
Industrialization
City Expansion
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Neither Rural nor Urban
Description given to slums areas in Ahmedabad. Slum dwellers live in the city, but their living habits and self cognition resemble those of dwellers in rural areas. Highly populated urban residential area consisting mostly of closely packed, decrepit housing units with deteriorated or incomplete infrastructure, inhabited primarily by impoverished persons. Aware of oneself as an individual or of one’s own being, actions, or thoughts. Lacking self-consciousness of citizenship, slum dwellers are faced with dilemma of their representation and urban identity. Term including systems of water supply, treatment, storage, water resource management, flood prevention and hydro power. Place where people access education: preschools, primary schools, secondary schools, and further and higher education. They provide a large variety of learning environments and learning spaces. Those that are available for common use by all, groups of tenants and their invitees.
Study of or analysis or classification based on types or categories.
A body of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is acknowledged to be governed. The development of industries and an industrial economy.
The spreading of urban developments on undeveloped land near a city.
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-179
Cartography of Exclusion Conflict + Social Contestation
The slums in Ahmedabad follow the water areas, crossroads and main arterials with water systems. Even with equal distribution of water supply, sewage and drainage systems, slums dwellers lack access to clean water and proper waste management.
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Neither Rural nor Urban
Water Supply System Water Sewage System Water Drainage System Distribution of Slums
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-181
Gujarat Vidyapith, 1920
Use and Program
Ahmedabad is a city with relatively higher educational standard comparing with other Indian cities. With many universities and colleges in this city, there is an important academic culture. However, all these historic higher education institutes are at the west side of Sabarmati River, making the poor living at the east side have no access to experience the cultural atmosphere.
Gujarat University, 1949
Blind People's Association, 1950
National Institute of Design, 1961
Indian Institute of Management, 1961
CPET University, 1994
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Neither Rural nor Urban
Nirma University, 1994
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Nested Scales
At city scale, it is easy to recognize the slums according to their shapes - random, along with the water or roads. A representative slum at Khanja Gate, on the east riverside of Sabarmati River, is located at an excellent position with convenient access to the Sabarmati Riverfront garden, and higher educational and cultural institutions. When looking at the slum structure, we recognize its unplanned nature and very simply organization - only residences and streets, without any common spaces for gathering, communicating and recreating. Worse still, residents lack access to water supply, which cause great inconvenience and potential safety risks.
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Neither Rural nor Urban
VS Hospital
Sanskar Kendra (Museum)
National Institute of Design
Slum at Khanja Gate
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-185
1411 1857 1874 1894 1899
Time and Process
Recalling a different time. Ahmedabad is a city with a long history and different periods of city expansion. From 1411 to 1899, the city was founded and the Walled City witnessed the prosperity of the Mughal Empire. Industry blossomed. From 1900 to 1939, migrants from rural areas powered the mills, and conflicts emerged between mill owners and mill workers as poor living conditions flourished. From 1951 to 1960, the east - west division of the city started to shape. The Sabarmati River became a natural boundary between rich and poor. From 1971 to 1996, the development of the city put the slums dwellers in the teeth of storm again as they faced eviction.
1951 1956 1958 1959 1960
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Neither Rural nor Urban
1900 1911 1920 1928
1972 1975 1982 1989 1996
1931 1936 1939
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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Materials and Atmospheres
With the development of Ahmedabad and transformation of Sabarmati River, traditional activities for slums dwellers disappear- ritual activities, Bazaars, water recreation, and daily routines such as laundry. Is the elimination of this kind of urban context to create a city without distinction a wise decision? Why couldn’t we reserve the ecological diversity as well as people’s memories? This picture imagines keeping some of the characteristics of slums and bring contrast into past and present to deepen the impression that slums are an important part of the city.
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Neither Rural nor Urban
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
A-189
Projecting Site
The site displays strong contrasts, with the Sabarmati Riverfront garden surrounded by slums at both sides of the river, creating an intense visual narrative of difference. At present the government is inclined to remove the slums along the riverside to the urban fringe and redevelop the land in order to generate a surplus. This project mitigates the conflicts between the government and the slum dwellers, improving their living standard and reducing the visual impact of slums in a metropolis. Bearing the same human rights as other citizens, slums dwellers should also have access to better living conditions, recreational and educational opportunities.
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Neither Rural nor Urban
Residence
Recreation
Education
SITUATION: URBAN NATURES
THE URBAN WATER COMMONS
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