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Page 1 M.Arch Thesis synopsis 2015 1 TRANSLATING NEW DEVELOPMENTS AT SRIRANGAM TO ITS OWN ANCIENT URBAN DESIGN DIALECT Gayathri Gopinath Fourth semester in Urban Design, Department of Architecture, College of Engineering, Trivandrum BACKGROUND The historic urban areas in India evolved through processes of ancient town planning and cultural exchanges, leading to a townscape, that in many situations visually attractive, ecologically sustainable and culturally, historically identifiable. (Gopalakrishnan, 2014).Among them, most of the temple towns were designed according to the Vedic Town Planning theories. Vedas - the major in the Indian Traditional knowledge systems are highly accepted worldwide and referred by all fields of Sciences. The need to look into Vedic town planning theories is because they are course-corrected, built upon the human-nature link, human attachment to the spaces of such cities are intense and they are most happening places also, they form part of Indian urbanism and are multidisciplinary. Keywords: Indian urban town planning, Vedas, Indian urbanism CONCERN 1. The current style of building Indian cities Indian cities are now designed either by following foreign models of planning or built up separately matching with the architects connected with each plot- ignoring a holistic view of a city- but this cannot answer Indian urbanism. This would lead to a city where people can no longer relate to the space built around them and where it causes threat to nature. 2. The 'what comes from the west is Science and what comes from the east is superstition' attitude. Even though we have our own deep rooted traditional systems describing city planning - they are not included in pedagogies, very less studies are done and are scarely updated, instead western ideas which came later are followed and taught worldwide. My thesis is a search into Vedas for the town planning and urban design solutions which would answer both the above concerns and understand how can they attend to answer current needs of an Indian city. Figure 2 Following Foreign concepts in Indian context (Chandigarh sector 17) source: www.harshbusservice.com Figure 2 Following Indian concepts of planning (Jaipur) source : www.unp.me

Thesis Synopsis Srirangam

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  • Page 1

    M.Arch Thesis synopsis 2015 1

    T R A N S L A T I N G N E W D E V E L O P M E N T S A T S R I R A N G A M T O I T S O W N A N C I E N T U R B A N D E S I G N D I A L E C T

    Gayathri Gopinath Fourth semester in Urban Design, Department of Architecture, College of Engineering, Trivandrum

    BACKGROUND

    The historic urban areas in India evolved through processes of ancient town planning and cultural exchanges, leading to a townscape, that in many situations visually attractive, ecologically sustainable and culturally, historically identifiable. (Gopalakrishnan, 2014).Among them, most of the temple towns were designed according to the Vedic Town Planning theories. Vedas - the major in the Indian Traditional knowledge systems are highly accepted worldwide and referred by all fields of Sciences. The need to look into Vedic town planning theories is because they are course-corrected, built upon the human-nature link, human attachment to the spaces of such cities are intense and they are most happening places also, they form part of Indian urbanism and are multidisciplinary.

    Keywords: Indian urban town planning, Vedas, Indian urbanism

    CONCERN

    1. The current style of building Indian cities

    Indian cities are now designed either by following foreign models of planning or built up separately matching with the architects connected with each plot- ignoring a holistic view of a city- but this cannot answer Indian urbanism. This would lead to a city where people can no longer relate to the space built around them and where it causes threat to nature.

    2. The 'what comes from the west is Science and what comes from the east is superstition' attitude.

    Even though we have our own deep rooted traditional systems describing city planning - they are not included in pedagogies, very less studies are done and are scarely updated, instead western ideas which came later are followed and taught worldwide.

    My thesis is a search into Vedas for the town planning and urban design solutions which would answer both the above concerns and understand how can they attend to answer current needs of an Indian city.

    Figure 2 Following Foreign concepts in Indian context (Chandigarh sector 17)

    source: www.harshbusservice.com

    Figure 2 Following Indian concepts of planning (Jaipur) source : www.unp.me

  • Page 2

    M.Arch Thesis synopsis 2015 2

    THE SITE

    Srirangam is an island, bounded by Kaveri River and Kolladan river, 8.8 km north of Thiruchirappally city,Tamil Nadu. The core of Srirangam is a fortified temple town which is in Sarvathobhadhra plan, around of which newer city grows.

    THE PROJECT CONCERN

    The old core has seven prakaras, in which first 3 inner prakaras are completely temple area, in which the area except the Sanctum Sanctorum one acts as a public realm more than a purely religious one - people sit and hang around the mandapam in solitude or groups lost in deep thoughts, sleeping, chit-chat, brain storm, chant bajans or preach. There are typologies of such mandapas and they are composed with each other to create spaces within and among them. Play of light from the unexpected skylights prinkles of the mystery to it too. It seems to be a tightly packed happening spaces. A person entering this realm relates to this artistic space so much that he comes out from a religious level to a spiritual one, he tends to meet his SELF. For the same reason this space is the heart of the city around which the lives of the people in Srirangam revolves. The traditions, culture and lifestyle of a Srirangam inmate is always linked with the Ranganathaswami temple and a network of other small 'coils' visiting Lord Ranganathan is in their daily routine. The city with a history of 2000 years still works in this routine because it's built in the way it happens so. Moving out from the 3rd prakara to the outermost, came across three residential streets faced by Agraharams, namely Chitra, Uthira and Adayavalanjar streets which also uninterrupted network of happening space and built enclosing in it is responsible for it. The same street stages variety of activities from walking, driving, sleeping, chatting, drawing colom, procession, festivals (Rathem vali) vending pet spaces - an example of pluralistic space in Indian urbanism.

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    M.Arch Thesis synopsis 2015 3

    Moving from the centre to the outermost prakara, one can see varied happening spaces one tends to place themselves as one among the natives and totally connect to the close-knit temple town. But, the beyond the 7th prakara, stepping out of the Raja gopuram, the link with what was just experienced is lost and get pushed to the 'vehicle dominant' - global pattern. Even the spaces adjacent to the temple town don't show connection with the Architectural marvel one gets out off. The concerns like pedestrian conflicts, accessibility, permeability, imageability, safety etc which wasn't an issue till the Rajagopuram starts rising. The immediate surrounding at least has a backdrop of the temple town gopuram further which even that is lost, spaces loose the Srirangam signature - its context, and gets unfamiliar, less safe etc.The massiveness of the Temple town urban form has a strong influence over Srirangam inmates much to make them create 'koils' where they stay, say it be the luxurious Shankar Abode or gated communities like Banker's colony. Otherwise there is no significant influences from the Temple town architecturally or planning wise. Expected outcome of this thesis is to create solutions to the above mentioned differences among the old and new settlements in Srirangam.

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    M.Arch Thesis synopsis 2015 4

    AIM To understand and adapt the ancient town planning principle and the new developments at Srirangam.

    OBJECTIVES 1. To study the Vedic the town planning theories. 2. To understand the urban design component of the ancient temple town of Srirangam. 3. To apply the Vedic town planning principles in the new developments at Srirangam.

    LIMITATIONS AND SCOPE City Planning principle in Vedas are a region where constant studies and updates are not made unlike in Ayurveda etc. The Vedic city planning principles are scattered in different sections. The Vedic planning was done based on the social classification then existed, translation of which into present scenario is confusing one because now classifications are mainly economic and social. Being a democratic country, improving a holistic idea to a city is not possible as in Jaipur, done during the reign of Raja Jai Singh.

    DESCRIPTION OF RESEARCH WORK An in depth study is needed to find out the vedic city planning principles. Since this thesis is done in Srirangam, the Mayamata and Mansara are considered for the study. From the principles understood from it, cities like Srirangam, Madurai and Jaipur are studied. Jaipur and Madurai are case studies because they are also vedically designed. From these UD components of a vedic city will be considered. In parallel, a city study on Srirangam will be done where the city will be understood in its historical, ecologicalm, morphological dimensions. Analysis of which would give the issues and potentials from which project site would be identified and detail study will be done. A vision will be formulated from the understanding of the project. Vision will be detailed out by cutting it down to aim and objectives, through which the project will be carried out.

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    M.Arch Thesis synopsis 2015 5

    METHODOLOGY

    LIST OF CASESTUDIES 1. Jaipur 2. Madurai.

    IDENTIFICATION OF PROJECT SITE _______Not yet fixed________

    CONCLUSION Expected outcome of the of the work would be design demonstrations of a particular new development area at Srirangam developed with Vedic Urban Design components.

    LIST OF REFERENCES

    Behari Dutt Binode (1984), "Town Planning In Ancient India", New Asian Publishers, Delhi Bubber D K (2005), "The Spirit Of Indian Architecture", Rupa Publishers,New Delhi.

    Sachdev, V., & Tillotson, G. (2002). Building Jaipur: The making of an Indian city. London: Reaktion. P, Gopalakrishnan, and Dr.Srinivas T (2014). Study of views and visual relationship of sacred monuments, settings

    and people: a case of srirangam.Thiruchirapally. Second semester students, (2013-2014 Batch). College of Engineering. Trivandrum [Urban design studio work]. Second semester students, (2013-2014 Batch). NIT, Trichy [Urban design studio work].

    MAYAMATA

    &

    MANASARA

    VEDIC CITY PLANNING PRINCIPLES

    CITY STUDIES

    SRIRANGAM

    CASESTUDIES

    VEDIC PLANNING AT JAIPUR & MADURAI

    VEDIC PLANNING

    PRINCIPLES AT SRIRANGAM

    PRESENT CONDITIONS OF SRIRANGAM

    ISSUES AND POTENTIALS

    VISION aim &

    objectives

    URBAN DESIGN COMPONENTS OF VEDIC

    CITY

    URBAN DESIGN COMPONENTS OF VEDIC

    CITY

    DESIGN