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PREFACE Cities are always expanding. It can be said that city is an expansion of one village, that may or may not have covered several other adjacent villages under its reign and now it is functioning as one big city. Cities are never saturated, that is they are always expanding thier city limits futher. Each city is different from one another and also different regions within a city will also differ in character, density, infrastructure etc. from each other. This leads me to the main content of the portfolio which is “Understanding the city� through understanding a small part of Ahmedabad city. To understand the evolution, transformation & saturation of Ahmedabad city, one square kilometer area was studied in depth. This one square kilometer lies in the north-western part of Ahmedabad GHATLODIYA. The precinct is the main area of the Ghatlodiya neighborhood having the old gamtal settlements in the center of the precinct. It is about 4.5 kms from CEPT University. It is basically a dense fabric of low-rise to mid-rise built forms, which also has some open pockets within the dense formed precinct. The precinct also has some part of Green belt. Ghatlodiya’s development is considered as the development beyond the limits of green belt, which shows failure of the green belt proposal. The portfolio is to understand how this neighborhood was formed and how it will now take the advantage of the development opportunities in the green belt. The change in precinct can help the neighborhood to improve on certain aspects. The resilence capacity of the neighborhood may become beneficial for the new opportutnites coming in the precinct.
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Acknowledgement I would like to express heart full gratitude towards my guide, Prof. Anil Kumar Roy for invaluable guidance & time as well as for providing necessary information regarding the project. I would like to thank all other professors of the Foundation Stuidio, 2019 for their critical inputs & comments which have led my learning in the studio. I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind support and help of my family, many individuals & organizations. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them.
Disclaimer The information presented in this portfolio has been studied and gathered by the author as a part of “Understanding the City� studio, Faculty of Planning, CEPT University. Any omissions and errors are deeply regretted. 3
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CONTENT
I OVER VIEW OF THE PRECINCT II SUMMARY OF THE TOPIC 1. HISTORY AND EVOLUTION 2. DENSITY OF POPULATION - MEASURING RESIDENTIAL INTENSITY 3. DENSITY OF BUILT FORM - COMPUTING LAND DEVELOPMENT 4. HOUSING CHOICE ARE DEPENDABLE UPON PUBLIC TRANSPORT & PUBLIC OPEN SPACE ACCESSIBILITY 5. STAGNANT LAND RATES – DRAWBACK OF HAVING THE GREEN BELT IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. III CONCLUSION IV REFERENCES
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Overview of the Ghatlodiya precinct
Ghatlodiya is a neighborhood in Ahmedabad city. It is located on the north-western side of Ahmedabad. The Ghatlodiya area was emerged from a gamtal area called Ghatlodiya gam, which is one of the villages surrounding Ahmedabad. It also contains some part of the green belt. It is about 4.5 kms from CEPT University. It is basically a well developed low rise residential precinct, which also has some open pockets within the dense fabric. The Image of the city is that the green belt acts as an edge. The major arterial roads acts as the paths. The landmarks are Prabhat Chowk and the vegetable market. The distrcts are formed by different communities and thus are shown with seperate colours in the map. 6
Overall, The precinct was developed 50 years back so all the built structures that are main localities of the precinct looks old. It feels like a very safe and secure neighborhood. It has a scope of opportunity to develop the green area
Summary As the precinct consists of dense fabric in the major part and also has some portion of Green Belt area, it makes the precinct a paradox in the present condition. It is a kind of paradox to have totally saturated area and also have opportunity to develop the portion of Green Belt area, as now there is an allowance to develop in the Green Belt area, earlier it was a restricted. The opportunity to develop the Green belt area would open gates to so many aspects to evolve upon as a neighborhood, as it could solve many current problems of the neighborhood. This opportunity brings the major resource with it – “land” and it is an incentive to this saturated area. Earlier when this opportunity was not available, development was not possible in the Green Belt, then also this land had consequences on the Ghatlodiya neighborhood in many aspects. Now that we have the opportunity, the future prospect would be to use this opportunity wisely and make proper use of it.
1.
HISTORY AND EVOLUTION
2.
DENSITY OF POPULATION: MEASURING RESIDENTIAL INTENSITY
3.
DENSITY OF BUILT FORM : COMPUTING LAND DEVELOPMENT
4.
HOUSING CHOICE ARE DEPENDABLE UPON PUBLIC TRANSPORT & PUBLIC OPEN SPACE ACCESSIBILITY
The precinct is almost 50 years old and in earlier times it was used to be a village. So after that it has started to develop after coming under the province of Ahmedabad. The major evolvement of the precinct and the people of precinct is considered and highlighted.
The evolution of the precinct leads us to the incremental residential density and then further it is connected to the FSI consumed. So, the inter-relation between the increasing density of the precinct and how it sets an example for the coming new opportunities for the development in the green belt. The main argument is about whether the existing built form will be able to handle the resilience from the opportunities coming from the green belt.
With increase in residential density, how the built forms are evolved and that guides us to how the street network is formed. The quality of the streets also evolved by the time and it also tells us what are the needs of the people residing in Ghatlodiya. These streets evolution shows us how the streets became the vibrancy point in the precinct. What are the opportunities that we can get benefit from the green belt development for the precinct?
The knowledge of main preference to choose to stay in the precinct helps us to understand about the future possibilities and majorly apart from the monetary reasons and social reasons, Public transport and the public open spaces are also important for the choice of housing. These two point may be considered as secondary points for selection of housing, but these points are important. The main vibrancy of the precinct comes from the informal markets, which are mainly encroached by the users. This relationship makes us understand that we should have a neighborhood that has these common amenities. 5. STAGNANT LAND RATES – DRAWBACK OF HAVING THE GREEN BELT IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. The Ghatlodiya area was a development beyond the green belt, and no allowance of development in the green belt broke the continuity of the land rates that it should have as moving from the center of Ahmedabad. This non-development period of the green belt brought the market rates and land rates to the lowest possible compared to adjacent neighborhood and is now at a stagnant position in the present scenario.This further is connected to the affordability of the people living in the precinct.
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HISTORY AND EVOLUTION
Journey from origin of the Ghatlodiya village to Ghatlodiya neighborhood. The village evolved to a city, making the people living here adapt the change coming in their way.
Although the village has evolved, farm lands have been converted to built masses, still at some places, it gives a feel of a village.
It portrays an image of a dense fabric of built mass, but has quite a lot of open spaces
Ghatlodiya was formed a village
સને ૧૯૫૭માં ગામ ના વિકાસ માટે ગામનાજનોને ચોવીસ કલાક માટે ઢોર ઢાંખર સાથે ગામ ભાર નિવાસ કરાવી ગામનું નામ બદલી "રામગઢ" રાખી અખાત્રીજના દિવસે સાહવન તથા ઉજવણી કરી ગામને ટોળે નવું તોરણ બંધાવી Cultural વાજતે ગાજતે પુનઃ પ્રવેશ કરાવ્યો. ઘાટલોડિયાને ભાટ, ભવૈયા, તૂરી - તરગાળા History of "સોના ટોકરી" કહી બીરદાવતા હતા.Ghatlodiya
1442
1954 T.P. Scheme was introduced in Ghatlodiya
8 | Ghatlodiya | History and Evolution
1957
Failure of Green Belt was seen in the DP-1987
1965 Green Belt was introduced in the DP -1965
1987
2002 Construction was allowed in Green Belt
STORY OF A VILLAGE TRANSFORMING INTO A NEIGHBORHOOD By looking at the history of the precicnt, we can say that , the precinct is still in its transforming stage. It is trying to cope up with change happening in and around the neighborhood. Till now, it has started to accept people from other community, to reside in their community specific co-operative societies and evolving towards the acceptance of new built typology, “High-rise Apartments�.
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DENSITY OF POPULATION - MEASURING RESIDENTIAL INTENSITY 1. Evolution of the precinct lead us to the present residential population of the precinct. 2. Exisiting residential population guides us about the FSI consumed which futher connects us to the height of the built structures in the precinct. This is helpful to determine how the green belt area should be planned further. 3. Can the exisiting built form handle the resiliance, drawn by the opportunities from the green belt?
9 | Ghatlodiya | History and Evolution
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DENSITY OF POPULATION : MEASURING RESIDENTIAL INTENSITY Increment in the settlement of Ghatlodiya The Patels, The Prajapatis & the Thakors became a pull factor for the similar caste migrants to settle in Ghatlodiya. These communities made their community based societies in Ghatlodiya & Preferred to stay in a homogeneous community based cooperative society.
Ghatlodiya area has the cheapest land rates compared to the areas in its surrounding.
This became a pull factor at that time, that brought many migrants to the fringed area to settle far away from the city center.
Increasing population settling to the fringed areas back then was catalyzed with the development of street network and public transport facility to these areas.
After the T.P. Scheme was introduced in this area, it started to develop and AMTS was also connected to the precinct. All this points of development in this precinct, made the precinct saturated till the present day and the allowance in green belt, brought the opportunities back in the precinct to grow further.
Present Population per building Map
Net Residential Dwelling unit per hectare
67 DU/ha
10 | Ghatlodiya | DENSITY OF POPULATION - Measuring residential intensity
Quantifying consumption of area by the increment in the residential dwelling untis.
Plot FSI (Floor Space Index) Map
Less ground coverage and less FSI consumption leads us to building height and building typology in the precinct. It gives us understanding that the built structures would be of smaller grain size and less height.
Gross FSI (Floor Space Index)
0.96
11 | Ghatlodiya | DENSITY OF POPULATION - Measuring residential intensity
Plot Population Density per hectare (PPH) Map
Low building height becomes the result of the consumed FSI and ground coverage.
Building Height Map
Low population densities,combined with low ground coverage, risks compromising not only functional diversity but also social diversity, as it is apparent in the precinct’s developments. It gives us understanding that the built structures would be of smaller grain size and less height.
12 | Ghatlodiya | DENSITY OF POPULATION - Measuring residential intensity
Low rise and Mid rise structures contribute to 60% of the total population of the precinct. High rise structures contribute to 40% of the total population of the precinct. Less FSI consumption shows that the major residential built typology in the precinct will be Row houses & Semi-detached. Less ground coverage shows us that, there are more number of semi-detached houses in the precinct & less apartments.
DENSITY OF POPULATION - MEASURING RESIDENTIAL INTENSITY 1. The precinct is able to accomodate the existing number of dwelling units efficiently, without causing any hindrance to any public area/ public realm. 2. The precicnt is capable to accomodate the future migrants coming to this precinct. If the migrants increase, they can also contribute to adequate use of the infrastructure property. 3. From the present facts, we can say about the precinct that, “ The precinct is capable to sustain the resiliance that will be caused by the new development opportunities from the green belt.�
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DENSITY OF BUILT FORM : A measure of intensity of development in realtion to available ground level open space 1. How the built form has developed over the years and because of the built form, how the street netowking has taken place. 2. Understanding the quality of street network, and how it affects the choice of transit of the people.
13 | Ghatlodiya | DENSITY OF POPULATION - Measuring residential intensity
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DENSITY OF BUILT FORM : COMPUTING LAND DEVELOPMENT Adaptibility of particular built form, obstruct better street networking
Built v/s Open Map
37% Built 63% Open
The physical state of the Ghatlodiya precinct looks dense made of majorly low-rise to mid-rise built masses. But, the actual numbers shows us the actual built is quite less.
So much of open space, going in vain. As most of those open lands are private
14 | Ghatlodiya | DENSITY OF BUILT FORM - Computing land development
Building Typology Map
The precinct is mainly covered with residential built typology and in this the
48% Semi detached 35% Row house 7% detached 5% apartment 5% gamtal
major residential typology is semi-detached.
As the built typology is mainly semi-detached and row houses, the grain sizes are smaller compared to the grain size of the apartments.
Smaller grain sized structures are arranged in large block sizes.
Street network and it’s quality determines the inappropriate usage of the infrastructure provided.
Distribution of open spaces in the precicnt.
Perimeter block Map
Street Node Density Map
The arterial & sub arterial roads cater to plots on the periphery of blocks, while tertiary roads cater majorly inside these large blocks to every built form. The number & area of the tertiary roads is much higher than the arterial and the sub arterial collectively, but as most of them have a dead ends, they are not catering proper pedestrian connectivity.
Measures of Connectivity The street network to the built structures is such that it every Cooperative society has their tertiary road connecting them to the arterial or sub arterial road but on the other side of the tertiary road, it doesn’t connect to anything, it has a dead end, which increases the number of nodes. The link-node ratio in this precinct is 1.61, which shows good connectivity. But, the precinct lacks behind because of the high number of cul-de-sac (dead ends).
More number of cul-de-sac, there is decreases the pedestrian connectivity.
Footpath width Map 15 | Ghatlodiya | DENSITY OF BUILT FORM - Computing land development
There was a little congestion for pedestrian walking, as the footpaths were encroached with vehicular parking.
Street network infrastructure hindered by encroachments
Type of Encroachment Map
Relative division of Encroachment
The vending and shop frontage encroachments on the road, disturbed the vehicular traffic on the road.
16 | Ghatlodiya | DENSITY OF BUILT FORM - Computing land development
PCU (Passenger car unit) Count of Gaurav path road
DENSITY OF BUILT FORM : Computing land development 1. The built form adapted by the people in the precinct has lead to integration of the needed transport option and also increased variety of street based interactions and activities. 2. The variety of street based activities leads to vibrancy in the precicnt, which will make the precinct safe and secure place. This gives a better idea to start the development of opportunities.
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Housing choice are dependable upon public transport & public open space accessibility 1. Apart from monetary and social reason, public transport accessibility and public open space accessibility are important points to be taken care while making housing choices. 2. Proving the above point with a brief examples will be helpful in understanding the reason for their preference of choosing the housing in a precicnt.
17 | Ghatlodiya | DENSITY OF BUILT FORM - Computing land development
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Housing choice are dependable upon public transport & public open space accessibility
Primary Housing choices relating to the public transport and public open spaces.
Based on the 30 Sample surveys, the annual monthly income of the dwelling units residing in this precinct is in the range of
INR 25,000 - 75,000
People who migrate to this precinct have choice of residential typology on the following two basis: 1. APARTMENTS -
2. ROW HOUSE/ SEMI-DETACHED -
Own a house for 10 – 15 years, then may shift to other place (Without land ownership)
Own a house permanently (Want land ownership)
Their preferred factors to shift to this precicnt:-
First preference was given to Good Neighborhood, as this neighborhood has been a community based neighborhood since it was formed. The communities who formed this village, still continue to stay the same way & with the involvement of AMC, this precinct is developed well, in terms of public places also. There are garden, play parks etc at walkable distance. 18 | Ghatlodiya | Housing Choices are dependent upon Public Transport & Public open space accessibility
The most vibrant & vital part of the Ghatlodiya The Ghatlodiya vegetable market being the most virbant places in the precinct is the main vegetable market. The markets are conducted in the evening hours and it’s quite a great place to gather in the evening. Besides, evening, it is a meeting place for many people, specially old age group. They visit this to meet their friends or to visit the temple.
Due to dead wall on one side of the street, the vendors started settle their markets on that side of the road. Other side has porous edge, so it is kept open for public to pas through that edge of street.
19 | Ghatlodiya | Housing Choices are dependent upon Public Transport & Public open space accessibility
Proper shaded lit seating area near the temple for any time of the day. Although it is very old, it serves present days issues like parking, footpaths, safety etc.
Analysis of the public realm
It has properly developed gathering space having benches and street lights The plinth of the temple area is used for vending, parking and as a gathering place and it has porous edge, which doesn’t restrict anyone to enter the plinth
The Highlighted Opaque edge gives an dead edge to start an activity like vending and parking This benefits the vendors as they get a base to settle their carts in the markets and it won’t affect anyone as it is an opaque edge The major areas that contribute to this public space are Hira nagar, Karmachari nagar, K.K. nagar, C.P. Nagar. All these areas are easily accessible.
Majorly male population uses this Public Space as a leisure gathering space, but female population uses majorly the commercial / religious purpose. 20 | Ghatlodiya | Housing Choices are dependent upon Public Transport & Public open space accessibility
Views of the vibrant place in Ghatlodiya
Zoom in Detail B showing activities of the street
21 | Ghatlodiya | Housing Choices are dependent upon Public Transport & Public open space accessibility
Secondary preferrence for selection of Housing choices.
Spider Map showing distance to Work/ Education
Average trip length to Work : 5.1 kms
Legends Work Trips Educational Trips Spider Map showing distance to Work/ Education
Average trip length to Work/ Edcuation : 4.6 kms
Second and third preference was given to Distance to Work place & Education Insitutions. The people living in this precinct have very less monthly savings and that is the reason that they prefer to stay near by their work place and would want a good educational institution near by.
Spider Map showing distance to Work/ Education
Average trip length to Education : 3.0 kms 22 | Ghatlodiya | Housing Choices are dependent upon Public Transport & Public open space accessibility
Feasibility to transit in private transport From all 30 sample surveys, the were only 2 household units, in which the people used public transport.
Graph showing choice of transit to Work/Education
Graph showing affordability to transit with private vehicle.
The landmarks in the core are connected majorly through single bus route, without interchange and the landmarks in the outer periphery have bus interchanges as the route gets longer.
23 | Ghatlodiya | Housing Choices are dependent upon Public Transport & Public open space accessibility
Parameters for selection of public or private transit choice.
Ghatlodiya is very well connectivity all the landmarks, but there are a few exceptions that may come out as not very well connected through the public transport, when compared with private transport mode. In such cases the time taken is very high. Private transport mode becomes preferable in
such conditions and the cost for private seems cheaper in such conditions. 24 | Ghatlodiya | Housing Choices are dependent upon Public Transport & Public open space accessibility
Housing choice are dependable upon public transport & public open space accessibility 1. As the private transit is a better option than the public transit option, it seems that the investment of govenment in the betterment of the public transit system in the city, is going in vain. 2. The importance of connectivity to the public realm in the precinct also plays a vital role in choosing the household for migrants.
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Stagnant land rates – drawback of having the Green belt in the neighborhood. 1. The non-development period of the green belt brought the market rates and land rates to the lowest possible compared to adjacent neighborhood and is now at a stagnant position in the present scenario. This further is connected to the affordability of the people living in the precinct.
25 | Ghatlodiya | Housing Choices are dependent upon Public Transport & Public open space accessibility
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Stagnant land rates – drawback of having the Green belt in the neighborhood.
Property values in the wider urban context Market Value in the precinct is also changing according to the Jantri rates, the only difference is the range of the rates. The range of Jantri rates is from 7000 Rs/sq.m. to 9750 Rs/sq.m., while the range of the market value starts from 26 lakh/sq.yard to 50 lakh/ sq. yard.
Average Jantri Rate of the Precinct
8250 Rs/sq.m.
The market rates variations are similar to the Jantri rate variations in the precinct. This has affected the choice of the housing over the past 40 - 50 years & there is not much variation seen in the housing typology when it comes to per capita space consumption. 26 | Ghatlodiya | STAGNANT LAND RATES - Drawback of having the green belt in the neighborhood
Affordability of choosing housing typology according to the market price and vise versa. The Apartments, Gamtal and the semi detached housing typologies have similar per capita space consumption which lies in between 10 - 50 sq. mt. per person.
The households with lowest income group range (25,000 - 49,999 INR) and the highest income group range (1,00,000 & above INR) have almost similar per capita space consumption coming in the range of 30 - 50 sq mt. per person.
We can see from above graph that the current price of the house is more than their annual income. So, the PIR line gives us a rough idea in how many years, the person in that income group will be able to buy the house that he’s currently living in.
The above graph shows us that for the people in income group of 1,00,000 and above can afford to buy their own house in 4-5 years. For other income groups, the gap between affordability of the house and their annual income is quite high, so they may not be able to afford the house that they live in currently.
27 | Ghatlodiya | STAGNANT LAND RATES - Drawback of having the green belt in the neighborhood
CONCLUSION The Ghatlodiya precinct is evolving, but it’s a slow evolution. So taking proper steps would help to get the desired result faster. The development in the green belt will break the barrier between the two neighborhoods of the city. The development in the green belt will lead the Ghatlodiya area with more opportunities. The precinct has now started to adapt the new high rise apartments, people of this precinct have now started to shift to the high rise apartments, as there is no more land is available for development in the precinct. As a result, this is bringing the change to their socio-cultural lifestyle. Now they can’t be a cooperative society anymore. They’ll have to be in a mixed community area and they are adapting this lifestyle slowly. There are many mixed use residential + eduational units in this precinct, this is also a development that the women in this precinct have started to work, they run playschools on the ground level of their houses and they have their residential area from first floor. AMC is also developing this area quite well. They are trying to utilize every part of the land they have available, to be engaged in some or the other pulic activity. They have a new Ghatlodiya ward library, which is maintained by M.J. Library, Ahmedabad. This library complex also have a gymnasium for females. AMC has built another gymansium under the Chanakyapuri Flyover. These are the efforts that are taken care by the AMC for public engagement. They’ve kept the membership fees and other fees quiite low, so people from all income group can come and use this public spaces. Below are some images of the precicnt.
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REFERENCES Dill, Jennifer (2004), “Measuring Network connectivity for bicycling and walking”, School of urban studies and planning, Portland state university, Portland. G. Karteek (2015), “Is FSI Dependent on Land Availability and Densities? A Comparative Review of FSI in Indian Cities” European Journal of Sustainable Development, School of Planning and Architecture-Vijayawada, Vijayawada. Habraken. “Type as Social Agreement”. Retrieved from a paper presented at the Asian Congress of Architects, Seoul (1988). Keeley, Brian (2015), “How does income inequality affect our lives?”, in Income Inequality: The Gap between Rich and Poor, OECD Publishing, Paris. Pradyumna Prasad Karan (1957), “The Pattern of Indian Towns: A Study in Urban Morphology”, Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 23:2, 70-75. Vega, A. and A. Reynolds-Feighan, “A methodological framework for the study of residential location and travel-to-work mode choice under central and suburban employment destination patterns.” Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 2009; 43: 401-419
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