Review of Urban Conservation Practices in Historic Cities (original) (raw)
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Historic Indian cities have a unique built and cultural heritage which has always attracted millions of tourists and has also been one of the prime sources of economic activities. But the condition of historic core city areas and heritage precincts over the years has been degrading consistently. Not only are the conditions of heritage structures detoriating but the quality of living environment and infrastructure in the core districts have succumbed to rapid urbanization. Today rapidly developing cities hence have a major challenge of building sustainable development practices that integrates their cultural heritage and future aspirations. It is imperative to link cultural heritage, city development planning and local economy development together for inclusive development. The city of Varanasi, located in north India, documenting continuity of settlements and culture since 1000 BCE, is one of the most unique destinations showing exemplary natural, architectural, artistic and religious expressions of traditional Indian culture blended with magnificent public spaces and people. The sacred Ganges, concatenate 6.8 km riverfront Ghats, innumerous temples and inland water bodies (kund) - are all part of the cities heritage glory and form major parts of core city area. These landmarks not only attract lakhs of tourists, but most importantly are an integral part of local community fabric. But uncontrolled growth, coupled with poor governance and lack of awareness has resulted in utter neglect and degradation of the historic sites and core city. Due to detoriating quality of neighborhood there has been a shift of residential preference from core city areas to the periphery. In the process majority of historic precincts have been occupied and encroached by poor communities and older city areas have also turned into hubs of poverty. This article intends to analyze the existing urban fabric in the core city, the use and present state of decay of the historic sites and monuments. Urgent need for conservation and renewal have been impressed upon to foster livability and sustainable community. Keywords: urbanisation, renewal, conservation, livability, sustainability.
2019
From India 37 sites are enlisted in the WH List (as of 12 July 2018; 6 July 2019: 38); however, 'The Riverfront Ghats of Varanasi' has not yet been proposed for inclusion, mostly due to the political complexity and a lack of strong support from the stakeholders. Framing tourism and cultural development for national and international resources within the purview of the ancient roots of heritage properties and traditions of spirituality, sacrality and pilgrimages that have a long tradition and continuity in India, the government of India has recently conceptualised a programme of HRIDAY and PRASAD. The programme aims to strengthen and promote the heritage sites and centres of pilgrimage-tourism in making the environment green and sustainable while taking in view the roots of culture, traditions and society and also the image of the site. This chapter attempts to critically examine the rationales for proposing Varanasi as a heritage city in the WH List and the problems that have been faced in this process since the early 2000s. In this context, the status of Varanasi in the scale of the UNESCO WH List, the implications of the past and ongoing Master Plans and the City Development Plan, governance strategies and issues of public awareness are examined and appraised. Under the modern pace of urban planning, the key issues of heritage values and their conservation are put at the margin. The narrative and stories explained here will help in making conservation strategies for other historic-heritage cities in South Asia.
Urban Conservation of Heritage-Sensitive Zones in India: A Methodological Approach
Conservation of Architectural Heritage, 2022
Most developed nations utilize heritage infrastructure and artefacts as potential resources for their urban growth to showcase their valuable cultural, historical and socioeconomic significance. In India, urban heritage resources are often under-utilized and often remain abandoned or poorly maintained. The historical cities in India along with its network of heritage resources, need to be commensurate with its rapid urban development. In India, current regional Master Plans incorporate a judicious attempt to protect and conserve the architectural character of the region, by delineating a boundary around this area and tag it as ‘heritage zones’, ‘special area zones’ and ‘protected zones’. These heritage-sensitive zones were focal areas of human activities within the cities and are ever-evolving with enormous scope for development. Development of these heritage-sensitive urban areas offers challenges for city planners and heritage conservationists. Heritage-sensitive urban development needs to be inclusive despite the compulsive developments creating a negative impact on the heritage areas. The objective of this paper is to integrate concepts of urban planning with architectural conservation involving heritage assets with concepts of authenticity and integrity, for sensitive urban development. This paper attempts to adopt a methodological approach for urban conservation of historic zones to facilitate sustainable development of cities, incorporating heritage resources. The objective of the study was achieved through literature study and review of case studies with expert opinions concerning urban development in historic urban areas. The approach is broadly divided into two stages which facilitate a step-by-step phasing. The first stage consists of documentation of heritage assets to establish the heritage value by understanding the urban context, identifying the urban heritage assets, establishing the significance by measuring its authenticity and integrity. The second stage mainly deals on how to incorporate it within the urban planning framework. The approach can be further adapted in context-specific heritage areas. It aims at reviewing and understanding the potential for a change in the overall approach in looking at heritage zones/regions/cores and their heritage assets. This study will aid in the betterment of the preparation of development masterplans. It would create a template for policy-making in heritage-sensitive areas and listing of urban heritage resources within a city.
Urban Heritage Conservation for Sustainable Development: A Case of Kapurthala
Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, 2021
Urban heritage within sustainability means to tie together the past, present and future of the cities that meets the requirements of human in any era [6, 7]. Heritage is what has been handed over to generations by their ancestors [2]. It lies in everything right from the fairy tales told by their grandmothers to the buildings one live in or work in. As being heirs to this legacy, there is need to conserve the heritage in the same way as ancestors did. Even the same message was conveyed by the former president of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, quoted as "we will be remembered only if we give to our younger generation a prosperous and safe India, resulting out of economic prosperity coupled with civilizational heritage" [4]. Kapurthala is one such city in Punjab with rich treasure of cultural heritage in the form of architecture and urban spaces that needs to be conserved in such a way that it becomes the reason for social integrity and economic prosperity for generations to come. But Kapurthala has been neglected and vandalized beyond its limit. Therefore, the paper aims to investigate the existing issues related to the city, and its surroundings and intervene in the form of designing the surrounding areas, recommending the strategies and framework for urban design guidelines. This paper is structured in five sections. Following the introduction (Sect. 1), a focus on Kapurthala for the contextualization of the study is discussed in Sect. 2. Vivek Sehgal and Harsimran Kaur equally contributed.
Kapila D. Silva, (ed.) The Routledge Handbook on Historic Urban Landscapes of the Asia-Pacific. London & New York: Routledge. Hbk ISBN: 9781138598256. , 2020
In this chapter, we explore the relationship between intangible cultural heritage and historic urban landscapes, using the ideas of heritage in the context of India. The basic concept of heritage in Indian context is referred as dharohara that projects and maintains roots and identities of cultural landscapes. This is further explained as ethical code of life. Taking in view UNESCO’s guidelines on the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), the Indian concept of ICH is defined in terms of continuity of tradition, inclusiveness in making people’s social identity, cultural representation, and fellowship of community. Among 470 such ICH as defined by UNESCO, 13 exist in India; two of these – Rāmalīlā and Kuṁbha Melā – are associated with historic-holy cities of India and serves as nexus of the culture and urban space. The performances, activities and ongoing development strategies in these cities are befitting into the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) – the 2030 Agenda/Target 11.4 that emphasizes preservation, protection and conservation of national and cultural heritage, taking in view the local conditions, policies and orientation. We specifically focus on the case studies of two historic-holy cities, Varanasi and Ayodhya (Fig. 16.1), illustrated with Rāmalīlās and pilgrimage circuits and associated rituals, to justify the validity of ICH as resource for development of historical urban landscapes and shaping of sustainable heritage city system. Under the mission of two ‘heritage-development’ programmes of HRIDAY and PRASAD, the government of India has already been operating such measures in historic-heritage cities, with strong vision that such heritage-inclusive development would serve as catalyst for the fulfilment of the SDGs and national strategies of development of historic urban landscape in the purview of making them vibrant and liveable centres of global harmony, spiritual awakening, peace and deeper understanding.
Urban conservation has been a subject of academic and professional discourse for over three decades. Conservation in this paper is seen as an umbrella term that covers a wide spectrum of issues that can be classified under three categories: socio-physical, socio-cultural, and environmental concerns. It is also manifested as a process of evolutionary development which involves preserving, restoring, and adapting old structures, while introducing new ones; a process that respects the continuity of history and tradition, the needs of inhabitants and their cultural aspirations. This understanding indicates that urban conservation is a process of continuous yet controlled interventions in the environment. The extent and the degree of such an intervention is dependent upon crucial factors that include the value system adopted by the society, the resources available, and the cultural and environmental context within which such an intervention takes place. With an ultimate goal to discern lessons from urban conservation practices, urban rehabilitation and adaptive re-use is discussed with reference to a number of non-western case studies. The paper aims at exploring the merits of six conservation and rehabilitation projects which have received considerable coverage and recognition on a national and international level while they have not been put into contextual comparison with others. Merits of these projects are analyzed and highlighted in this article to work as an archetype for similar projects around the world. The paper concludes that to maintain sustainability of the revitalisation and urban conservation approaches, the typical urban tissue and essential qualities of the historic areas and of the life of the communities residing there should be maintained, while adapting the physical structures and activities to some of today's requirements.
MA Dissertation: Urban Regeneration and Heritage Tourism with Respect to Sites in Delhi, India
UCL Institute of Archaeology, 2022
The dissertation attempts to investigate the concepts of urban regeneration and historic urban landscape with respect to managing urban archaeological sites in Delhi, India. The concept of multivocality underpins this dissertation, and, hence, the research utilizes various theoretical concepts to arrive at a participatory, community-led management and renewal model for the region of Mehrauli in Delhi. It attempts to reevaluate the discussions on conservation and urban planning in a non-western, post-colonial context. Thus, the dissertation attempts to move beyond the solely socio-economic development justification that is provided to include the community in the conservation process, and, rather, seeks to highlight the impacts that the heritage sites, urban transformations, and the public have on each other. The chapters in this dissertation focus on aspects such as public perspective and stakeholder analysis, and analysis of the legislative policies on conservation and management of urban heritage with respect to the cultural landscape of Mehrauli. As the dissertation will show, management of urban archaeological sites becomes complicated when viewed within a context of governmentality, nationalist politics, and a colonial, bureaucratic legacy as is the case in India. The dissertation concludes by proposing a preliminary framework for a bottom-up management approach that seeks to include the stakeholders, especially the marginalized sections, at each step of the heritage conservation and urban planning process.
Kapila D. Silva, (ed.) 2019, The Routledge Handbook on Historic Urban Landscapes of the Asia-Pacific. London & New York: Routledge., 2019
In this chapter, we explore the relationship between intangible cultural heritage and historic urban landscapes, using the ideas of heritage in the context of India. The basic concept of heritage in Indian context is referred as dharohara that projects and maintains roots and identities of cultural landscapes. This is further explained as ethical code of life. Taking in view UNESCO’s guidelines on the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), the Indian concept of ICH is defined in terms of continuity of tradition, inclusiveness in making people’s social identity, cultural representation, and fellowship of community. Among 470 such ICH as defined by UNESCO, 13 exist in India; two of these - Rāmalīlā and Kuṁbha Melā - are associated with historic-holy cities of India and serves as nexus of the culture and urban space. The performances, activities and ongoing development strategies in these cities are befitting into the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) - the 2030 Agenda/Target 11.4 that emphasises preservation, protection and conservation of national and cultural heritage, taking in view the local conditions, policies and orientation. We specifically focus on the case studies of two historic-holy cities, Varanasi and Ayodhya, illustrated with Rāmalīlās and pilgrimage circuits and associated rituals, to justify the validity of ICH as resource for development of historical urban landscapes and shaping of sustainable heritage city system. Under the mission of two ‘heritage-development’ programmes of HRIDAY and PRASAD, the government of India has already been operating such measures in historic-heritage cities, with strong vision that such heritage-inclusive development would serve as catalyst for the fulfilment of the SDGs and national strategies of development of historic urban landscape in the purview of making them vibrant and liveable centres of global harmony, spiritual awakening, peace and deeper understanding.