Skip to main content

PARTIAL REVITALIZATION OF HERITAGE, THE DISTORTION OF AN EXISTING ECOSYSTEM:

THE CASE OF BHADRA, AHMEDABAD.

Elizabeth Thomas
Meanings in Built Environment
Dr. Gauri Bharat and Prof. Jigna Desai
20th November, 2015
“Heritage is a significant quality of life issue that directly affects the health and well-being of the community and its citizens.” (Source - Because Heritage Matters, Heritage Toronto, 1997.)
In this Paper the issue is taken that how the precincts of Heritage (Bhadra fort) is being sieved out from Revitalization of the Heritage. The Bhadra fort and surrounds has been a vital site for a recent urban renewal mission, which mainly focused on restoring the pristine glory of the monuments in the precinct. It is an icon in the city’s efforts towards boosting tourism and attaining the world heritage city status.

The local ecosystems around the heritage structure are representative of a certain way of life and reflect communal organization, but unfortunately these living connections and networks are sieved out of the process heritage revamping and restoration. These ecosystems form the undercurrent of the old city centre’s fabric and other similar heritage precincts.
The conflicting territories of influence between the stakeholders and the right holders (the hawkers and other local population) form the realities of such projects. It is really a question of occupations of the right holders versus the imaginations of the stakeholders.

The legacy of the monument seems to overshadow the day to day aspects and working of the fabric, subverting the living and the intangible aspects of heritage.Such a partial revitalization is a consequence of filtered interests and power dynamics.
Urban conservation projects like Bhadra are a symbol of power play, restricted and selected accessibility and constantly developed according to the viewpoints and influences of the strongest stakeholders. The prestigious Bhadra precinct revitalization project in the walled city area of Ahmedabad has won the ‘HUDCO Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment’.The HUDCO committee had gone into the details of the design of the precinct and the AMC’s plans of revitalizing and conserving heritage buildings around the Bhadra square.(Source – HUDCO website.)
It will be among the first Heritage and pedestrianization project  to be assisted under JNNURM.
“The linking of the Bhadra project with the Sabarmati riverfront was an inclusive planning technique “ adds the official.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/18602836.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst Heritage does not merely entail buildings and spaces alone, but also includes people, homes and their livelihoods. Renovation and beautification are just the tangible aspects of the process, reflecting the city’s motives towards boosting heritage tourism.
Intangible cultural heritage includes the ways and means of behavior in a society, and the often formal rules for operating in a particular cultural climate. These include social values and traditions, customs and practices, aesthetic and spiritual beliefs, artistic expression, language and other aspects of human activity.
Coexistence of vendors, suppliers, care takers and shoppers has been disturbed with the recent developments, with cases of mass relocations.Urban renewal and revitalization projects have erased connections and memories and sense of associations.Heritage values are a product of time and cannot be newly generated to produce popular meanings. The underlying concern here is not an individual inheritance of heritage, rather a realization for a collective advocacy effort towards revitalization of the precincts.Developing a framework that provides opportunities to utilize community skills along with participatory volunteer resources, can serve as a significant point of departure from existing conventional heritage conservation models.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hafencity waterfront renewal project, Hamburg, Germany

DATA & FACTS: • Overall size : 157 hectares • Land Area : 123 hectares • More than 2.3 million sq.mt of newly built gross floor space • 6000-7000 apartments for   12000-13000 people • 45000 jobs (including more than 35000 office jobs) • Expansion of Hamburg’s city area by 40% • 10.5 km of publicly accessible quayside promenade • Distance between the centre and town hall : 800 meters INTRODUCTION : • The Development Process of Hafencity : • It witnessed the emergence of three overlapping, tangible and intangible perspectives of thought and action: • Identity, Sustainability and Urbanity. • This multidimensional orientation is linked with the urban spatial dimensions as a “new downtown” and “waterfront” urban development project. TRANSPORT: • Efficient road network leading to the city and motorways • New underground line U4 linking city centre and Hafencity • (extension to the east under construction) • PUBLIC SPACES:
Post a Comment
Read more

EcoVillage at Ithaca, New York

Overview: Initiated in 1991 Location:2.5 miles from downtown Ithaca, NewYork , USA. Total land: 175 acres. 50 acres land for conservation. Two food farms producing food for 1500 inhabitants. 60 homes clustered in 10 acre of land. INTRODUCTION The ultimate goal of EcoVillage at Ithaca is nothing less than to redesign the human habitat. We are creating a model community of some five hundred residents that will exemplify sustainable systems of living - systems that are not only practical in themselves, but replicable by others. The completed project will demonstrate the feasibility of a design that meets basic human needs such as shelter, food production, energy, social interaction, work and recreation while preserving natural ecosystems ( EcoVillage at Ithaca Mission Statement 1994). Demonstrating Best Practices at EcoVillage Ithaca: 1. Green Building, Energy Efficiency, and Renewable Energy: All homes are passive solar, super-insulated, and many have photo
Post a Comment
Read more

EKISTICS (An Understanding as Urban Planner)

• The term Ekistics was coined by Greek architect and urban planner Konstantinos Apostolos Doxiadis in 1942. • Applies to the science of human settlements . • Includes regional, city, community planning and dwelling design. This science, termed Ekistics , will take into consideration • the principles man takes into account when building his settlements , as well • as the evolution of human settlements through history in terms of size and quality . • The target is to build the city of optimum size , that is, a city which respects human dimensions. • Since there is no point in resisting development, we should try to accommodate technological evolution and the needs of man with in the same settlement. • ACCORDING TO DOXIADIS In order to create the cities of the future, we need to systematically develop a science of human settlements. • Ekistics aims to encompass all scales of human habitation and seeks to learn from the archeological and historical record
Post a Comment
Read more