This blog captivates a brain whacking thought on current conservation practices and a need to recheck the newer developments and intangible assets of medium and small historic towns.
This blog is written by Sonali Singh, Urban Conservationist graduated from Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture. Her research work has addressed the need of modification in the traditional conservation approaches, as they are insufficient in tackling trends of change in the society. She is currently working in the Architectural & Conservation field. She is an artist from heart and loves to try her hands on new things. Photography and gardening are her major interests.
Today, changing perceptions of the city may depend on income, quality of life and expectations, but, it is different for all the age groups in the society. Thus, from one age group to another, values differ. Therefore, before understanding heritage and its value, one must consider the space and its users in different age groups. Apart from the age group, there are a lot of other factors that affects these values.
Majorly, politics, affordability and negative associations are adding up drastically in the world of changing values. Hence, there is a need to understand whose values we are looking for? Whose values are more important? And how to maintain a balance between different meanings of values existing in the society - Author.
To understand the complexity of these values, my research intends to take up the cases of two tier cities, as they are majorly affected by the trends of change in the society. Two tier cities are basically, smaller cities, which comes next to the metropolitan cities in the hierarchy. These are the fastest developing cities where the government, private builders and developers are investing the most. Smart city mission, AMRUT, HRIDAY, Swachh Bharat, etc. are the various schemes that have been in the process of implementation in these two tier cities. Major trends of change are happening in these cities and along with them new problems and issues are emerging that directly affects its resilience factor. The historic areas of two tier cities are at the verge of depletion because they are unable to withstand the drastic changes happening around them. It is directly affecting their identity of the place. It is destroying the uniqueness of these cities. The problem behind it is not these changes, because people, time, societies and cities are bound to change. The real problem is in values. The real problem lies in not understanding the change in values. At this point, only the proper understanding and assessment of values can save these historic areas that have been the uniqueness of two tier cities since ages.
1. CONSERVATION APPROACHES:
The concept of Contemporary Approaches came after “Globalization”. The various aspects that were considered at that point were sustainability, tourism, living heritage and historic urban landscape. These were the modified form of Value based approach in conservation. These approaches were applicable and helpful in many cases or sites, but, somewhere, it also created new issues like alienation of the local community, assessment of vulnerabilities to change were not considered, dominance of values and complexity in stakeholders involvement, etc. were observed.
The below mentioned diagram is an analysis of the major conservation approaches adopted by the world.
Factors affecting the Conservation Approaches:
· Dominance of values: because of the complexity of sites and its different nature, the values and its degree of measures vary for every site, hence maintaining the balance between the values was difficult
· Inequity in stakeholders involvement:
· Lacking in defining values into measurable factors
· Consideration of heritage as a non-renewable resource
· No consideration given to the assessment of vulnerabilities
· New emerging issues are complex and hence need proper assessment.
2. JABALPUR, A TWO TIER CITY:
Jabalpur is a city equipped with colourful culture and rich heritage. Due to its cultural richness, the city is referred as ‘Sanskardhani’. Natural heritage at Jabalpur is more evident and affects the overall landscape of the place since its start. Marble Rocks of Jabalpur are the biggest tourist attraction in the state & plays an important role in the economy generation of the city. Apart from its natural heritage, Jabalpur is also rich in built heritage. Built Heritage of Jabalpur has a great scope and need of emphasis. Several development schemes have been proposed in the city, which apparently, are affecting the built heritage of the city. Areas that developed organically have architecturally important buildings with energy efficient traditional lifestyle and construction technology, which can be conserved.
3. Need Of Defining Contemporary Values:
What are contemporary values?
Contemporary Values are the values associated with heritage, and are bound to change with the change in its context and surroundings. Defining these values, majorly depends on trends of change, associational value, socio-cultural and economic value. These values are complex in nature and understanding the complexity of Values is important because, no society makes an effort to conserve what it does not value. By re-associating and reassigning values to the historic core, we can prove it as an asset in the process of its evolution. Till now, heritage has been considered as non renewable resource, by its experts; hence its conservation process has somewhere treated it as a part of the past. The point of its continuous evolution was missed out. Though the various approaches of conservation were always upgrading, it somewhere lacked in understanding the evolving nature of values within the society.
4. Site Analysis:
Findings:
· Pressure of Urbanization and Re-development
· Depleting open spaces
· Changing aspirations of people
· Disruption in economic activities
· Lack of Conservation efforts
· Lack of awareness about the heritage properties
Issues:
· Compact Urban spaces
· Increased Vehicular traffic, for which the area was not capable
· Depletion of Historic build stock
· Maintenance of historic structures is un-affordable
· Lack of awareness about the heritage properties
· Dislocation of Market activities affected the livelihood of the people
Concerns:
· No recreational spaces, traffic congestion and bottle-neck junctions
· The idea of road widening will eat up the major market street of this area
· Depletion of Historic build stock is leading to the loss of character of this area
· Maintenance of historic structures is un-affordable hence, they are in dilapidated state
· Lack of awareness about the heritage properties
· Dislocation of Market activities is leading to unemployment and encroachment.
5. Strategies:
The overall strategies in this research have been classified into four aspects of looking at the city or an area, Infrastructural services, Built-form, Community and open spaces. These four have been further divided into following three categories, urban level, precinct level and building or component level. Starting from the infrastructural services, waste management, traffic related problems were the major issues, that can be catered by restructuring the major nodes, making policies for their management and controlling them at all the levels, urban, precinct and buildings. Intervention process is a result of properly analyzing each precincts and understanding the character and needs of the place.
It becomes prime importance to understand the built heritage, community associations and city needs in striving to build a balanced and sensitized approach in designing for our cities with unique urban identity as well as befitting the newer socio-cultural and economic arrangements. Do share your views, like and share for more awareness towards understanding contemporary urban practices and relevant research work.
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