2.2.1 History of Public Square in India

The cities of India have a traditional settlement as an urban core which is developing since ancient times. In Indian context, the public place has always been the street and square of city or town. But later, when aristocracy came into picture, class differences led to differentiation of spaces.

The Royals would enjoy large open leisure spaces with performances and other ritual activities, which weren’t open to public. While, for the other classes of public, the place of congregation was the temple courtyards, market squares. Muslim rule brought order in spatial planning. Built, Unbuilt spaces were given equal importance. Everything was organised considering the architectural elements, hierarchical organisation of decorative symbols, even the gardens with nuclear elements like statues and fountains.

With the British rule, Indian Public place lost its identity and traditional value. They introduced their own system of Public squares based on length and breadth ratio, with large green spaces and central features. These places had aesthetic and other qualities but they weren’t popular as the people could not connect with the space. The ratio of population to the scale of spaces was one of the major reason behind the failure. So, these square just became meeting places and protest ground for freedom fighters. Later after independence the nature of these

spaces changed. (Perception of Urban Public Squares in India, 2015)

The major difference between Indian Public places and western public spaces were that western places were large scale, geometrical, organized and using principles of urban design since ages while Indian Public spaces were exploring the intimate scale, organic growth, and concept of mixed land use. The Indian Public Spaces were used as part of daily living of the people while the Western Public Spaces were used for specific recreational purposes for a specific time.

2.3Role of Public square

This part of the study focuses on the roles and functions of contemporary urban squares at different scale and context. According to Lewis Mumford, primary function of cities is the acculturation and humanization of its inhabitants and for these purposes public spaces are the essential tools in the city.

Public squares have a diversity of roles and functions since they are the important and necessary forms of public spaces that attract vast number of individuals with a wide assortment of activities. It is a place where people have positive social interactions, meet each other, have lunch, hold a friendly chat, watch the world pass by, read something, rest for a while or shop around. Kostof in his books, A city shaped (1992) defines some basic functions of the urban

squares as;

a) Part of Morphology of city- Squares are open space surrounded by building and other structures within a city. So, it plays an important role in context of mass and void composition of city. b) Part of Transport system- Public square are the intersection, gathering and waiting points for both the pedestrian and vehicular traffic. c) Commercial activities - Markets have been one of the essential elements of the public squares throughout the history where citizen engaged in commercial activities. d) Games and Sports - Games and sports activities have always been a part of public life and there have been many examples in the history where games and sports activities took place in public squares.

In general, similar to the overall public spaces, an urban square has physical, ecological, psychological (including mental health and wellbeing), social (including learning experiences and human communication), and political, economic, symbolic and aesthetic roles (Akkar Ercan,

2007, p.115-119; Shaftoe, 2008, p.12-15; Tavakolian, 1990, p.10-17), (Zeka, 2011).

a) Physical Role- It includes tool and facilities in order to serve for daily needs of people.

Squares provide a pausing space to rest, furniture to sit, a place for convenience facilities and various economic, social, cultural and political activities. b) Social Role- Square is a public place, open to all which plays an important role for

‘coexistence’ with diverse people, gender, culture, caste and religion. By providing such

a connection between the place and the self in relation to others can create a sense of identification as emphasized by Lynch (1960, p.4) with “perceptual identity”.

c) Psychological Roles – Basic motive of the square is for interaction and communication and social interaction, outdoor activities and nature are important element of mental health and well –being of the citizens. d) Political Role- They provide convenient stage or a forum for “political participation” and

“public discussions” in order to voice both ‟solidarity and dissent”.

e) Economic Role –The commercial activities and facilities help to boost the economy. Also,

Variety activities at the square affects the neighbourhood and it’s the land prices. f) Symbolic role - According to Lynch (1960, p.8) identity represents a particularity of an

“object” in the whole context, “with the meaning of individuality or oneness”.

g) Aesthetic Role- Visual elements helps enhance the sensory experience of individual.

Aesthetic experience in this context is combination of different senses.(View, Touch,

Smell, Feel, Hear) h) Ecological Role- Vegetation, green areas contribute to the creation of a healthy environment along with aesthetic and recreational characteristics

To create this concentration of people in a community facilities must be grouped densely round very small Public Square which can function as nodes with all pedestrian movements in the community organised to pass through these nodes such nodes required four properties-

1) Each node must draw together the main paths in surrounding community. The major pedestrian path should convert to a square and minor funnelling to the major ones to create a basic star pattern.

2) To keep the activity concentrated it is essential that the square should be small in size, about 45 to 60 ft. can keep people well concentrated

3) The facility is group around any node must be chosen for their symbolic relationship.

4) Activity nodes should be distributed evenly across the community, so that no house or workplace is more than hundred yards from one. In this way the contrast of busy and quiet can be achieved at small scale and large dead areas can be avoided. (A Pattern Language, 1977)