UNIT 2 - HISTORIC URBAN FORM

Western:
• Morphology of early cities
• Greek agora
• Roman forum
• Medieval towns
• Renaissance place making
• Industrialization and city growth
• Garnier’s industrial city
• The American grid planning
• Ideal cities
• the picturesque
• cite industrielle
• citte nuovo
• radiant city
Indian:
• Evolution of urbanism in India
• Temple towns
• Mughal city form
• medieval cities
• colonial urbanism
• urban spaces in modernist cities: Chandigarh, Bhuvaneshwar and Gandhi Nagar-
• subsequent directions – case studies.
•
I. TEMPLE TOWN - MADURAI

Madurai , popularly known as the temple city, also called as athens of the east, city of junction,
city of jasmine, city that never sleeps and city of four junctions. Madurai is third major
economic, industrial, commercial, political centre and a major transportation hub for the southern
tamilnadu. The city is renowned for tourism, festivals and vibrant cultural life in general and is
considered to be the states cultural capital. • the rich and vibrant natural and cultural landscape
with different linguistic and cultural groups coexisting together in its unique customs, traditions,
and art forms make it a classical example of an urban environment wherein diversity becomes
the source of strength rather than conflicts.

Location
Madurai is administrative headquarters of Madurai District. The capital of the Pandyan kingdom
was initially Korkai, around 600 BCE and was later moved to Koodal ie, Madurai during the
reign of Nedunj Cheliyan. The district is bounded on the north by Dindigul district on the east by
Sivaganga on the west by Theni district and on the south by Virthunagar District.

History
Madurai has a long and well recorded history. As early as the 3rd century BC, Megasthenes
visited, the city being referred to as "Methora". Madurai has been described as the seat of the
Pandyan Dynasty. The city was home to the third and last Tamil Sangam between 300 BCE and
200 CE.

Traditional planning strategies

The old city of Madurai is considered to be designed according to the Rajdhani plan, described
in Manasara, one of the Shilpasastra, and has the fivefold concentric rectangular formation with
Meenakshi- Sundareshwara Temple at a very centre point. The city was a well planned one with
bazaars and many broad streets with high and luxurious mansions on both sides. The city was
built around the temple complex as the focal point with a combination of a concentric street
pattern.
 Figure 1 Madurai - Town Plan

The streets concentric to the temple complex formed the major streets viz., Chithirai Streets,
Avani Moola Streets and Masi Streets. The next order of streets is perpendicular to the above
streets and lead to the temple entrances. The developments within and beyond these streets are
on an irregular pattern. A definite hierarchy of street pattern was adopted with the width of the
Streets decreasing as they branched out, ending up in stone paved streets and lanes the width of
some being just 0.60 m. The entire city was enclosed within the fort walls and surrounded by a
moat. The fort walls have been razed down and the moat filled up to form the present day Veli
Streets.
Settlement pattern
The settlement pattern of Madurai is planned according to the ancient system of town planning
which is based on caste and occupational hierarchies. The map shows the present settelemnt
pattern and its relavance with the ancient town planning system. Ancient south indian temple
towns are designed by placing the temple complex at the centre with concentric rectangle pattern
of streets around. This can be seen in another southern temple town srirangam also.
 Figure 2 Settlement Pattern

In Madurai, Meenakshi Amman Temple is at the center. Royal Palaces, Brahmins and Priests at
the first concentric rectangle.Traders, Kishatriyas and Vaishnavaites on the second rectangle.
The lower caste Sudras and immigrants zoarashitrains in the third rectangle.

II. MEDIEVAL CITIES- JAIPUR

Reasons
Reasons for Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh to change his capital from Amber to Jaipur

 Military Reasons
  Geographical Reasons

Figure 3 Military and Geographical Reasons

Politcal Reason :

1. The need of a new capital for 18th century

Dhoondhar as the earlier one of Amber built on
a hill was getting congested.
2. Sawai Raja Jai Singh’s vision of the new
capital as a strong political statement at par
with Mughal cities and as a thriving trade and
commerce hub for the region.

Layout and Planning

The layout of the city of Jaipur wonderfully links the Figure 4 Politcal Reason
concept of a Shastric city with the practicalities of the
chosen site. First, the straight line of the ridge suggested itself as the route for one of the main
east-west thorough fares and building a road along its crest makes best possible use of the
topography for the purpose of drainage. What followed then was to regularize the Amber-
Sanganer road as a north-south route at right angles to it. The point of intersection would be one
of the city’s main cross- roads (chaupar)
 The southern boundary of the city had to
lie within the line of the Agra-Ajmer
road. So by extending the NS road as far
as possible southwards gives the first
fixed dimension, the length of a side of a
square and so establishes the size of the
unit or module of the city.• A road
cutting the plain from N to S linking
Amber,the capital to Sanganer, the
principal trading town. This road had to
be preserved and controlled and
therefore had to fall within the city’s
boundaries. A second road ran E to W
between the Mughal cities of Agra and
Ajmer and placing the new city on this
already established communication line
Figure 6 Layout and Planning
would help secure its economic success.
However since this was an imperial road that could not be encroached on, thus the city had to be
contained to the north of this line.
The central axis of the town was laid from East to
West between the gates of the Sun(Suraj pol) and the
moon(Chandpol). This was crossed by two roads at
right angles dividing the town into nine almost square,
almost equally sized blocks, which were further sub
divided by lanes and alleys all at right angles.
The palace building covered two blocks, the town six
and the remaining ninth block was not usable on
account of steep hills. So this North- West ward was
transferred to the South- East corner of the city,
making the shape of the plan as a whole asymmetrical
Figure 5 Major Roads
rather than square.
 The city’s division into nine wards was
also in conformity with the Hindu caste
system, which necessitated the segregation
of people belonging to different
communities and ranks.Following the
directions of the Hindu Shilpa shastra,
width of the main streets & other lanes
were fixed. Thus the main streets of the
city were 111ft. wide, secondary streets 55 ft. wide & the smaller ones 27ft. wide.
South of the main road were four almost equal rectangles. The rectangle opposite the palace has
been broken up into two equal and smaller rectangles by the Chaura Rasta. Thus altogether there
are now five rectangles on the south of the main road called Chowkris. On the North of the main
road from West to East are the Purani Basti, the Palace and Ramchandraji
Jaipur is known as the Pink City, a rather idealized description of the terra-cotta-colored lime
plaster that coats the old part of the citys walls, buildings, and temples.• The reasons for painting
the town pink are unknown, but various theories have been tossed about, from using pink to cut
down glare, to Jai Singh IIs apparent devotion to Lord Shiva (whose favorite color is reputedly
terra cotta).Others believe Singh wanted to imitate the color of the sandstone used in the forts
and palaces of his Mughal emperor- friends. The most popular reason (spread no doubt by
"Britishers" during the Raj era) is that pink is the traditional color of hospitality, and the city was
freshly painted and paved with pink gravel to warmly welcome Edward VII for his visit here in
1876
CONCEPTUAL PLAN – CHAUPAR
CHAUPAR – It’s a square that occurs at the
intersection of east west roads with three north south
roads. Each chaupar is around 100m x 100m. Were
used for public gathering on festive occasions. The
distance between two chaupars is about 700m which is
ideal for pedestrian movement. It has controlled façade
treatment enveloping it
Figure 7 City Plan
 BAZAARS Originally only four bazaars were planned for the city. These were later named as
Johri bazaar, Sireh Deori Bazaar, Kishan pole Bazaar & Gangori Bazaar• On the main streets
strict control was exercised on the street façade, along which were located shops and arcades-
one storey high, but beyond the frontage the buildings could be of any height or any shape, some
built with flat roofs & others with traditional chattris

Figure 1 Section Through Bazar

III. COLONIAL URBANISM

Colonialism is the establishment, exploitation, maintenance, acquisition, and expansion of

relationships between the colonial power and the colony and often between the colonists and the
indigenous population. The legitimacy of colonialism has been a longstanding concern for
political and moral philosophers in the Western tradition.

History of colonialism
The historical phenomenon of colonisation is one that stretches around the globe and across time,

colonialism, or imperialism, began in the 15th century with the "Age of Discovery", by
Portuguese and Spanish exploration of the Americas, and the coasts of Africa, the Middle East,

Republic established their own overseas empires, in direct competition with each oth
end of the 18th and early 19th century saw the first era of decolonization, when most of the
European colonies in the Americas gained their independence from their respective metropolis.
Types of colonialism
 Settler colonialism involves large-scale immigration, often motivated by religious,
political, or economic reasons.
 Exploitation colonialism involves fewer colonists and focuses on access to resources for
export, typically to the metropolis. Slaves were often imported to the Americas, first by
the Portuguese Empire, and later by the Spanish, Dutch, French and British.
 Plantation colonies would be considered exploitation colonialism; but colonizing powers
would utilize either type for different territories depending on various social and economic
factors as well as climate and geographic conditions.
 Surrogate colonialism involves a settlement project supported by colonial power, in which
most of the settlers do not come from the mainstream of the ruling power.
 Internal colonialism is a notion of uneven structural power between areas of a nation state.
The source of exploitation comes from within the state.

Colonial Cities in India

Colonial India is the part of the Indian subcontinent which was under the control of European
colonial powers, through trade and conquest. The first European power to arrive in India was the
Macedonian army of Alexander the Great in 327–326 BC.

Colonial Mumbai :
Mumbai or Bombay as it was known then has no precolonial history. It is thus a product of the
colonial period. Historians differ over the extent to which the city is a colonial construct alone or
involved an interplay of colonial processes, indigenous forces and chance. When the East India
company rented and gradually acquired Bombay from the Portuguese in 1661, it was just an
archipelago of seven islands that had the potential of a natural harbour with a vast hinterland.
The creation of Bombay as a viable city over a period of a hundred and fifty years involved
enhancing control over the region, encouraging mercantile communities and laborers from
Gujarat to migrate and expanding opportunities of trade with China. By the end of the nineteenth
century, Bombay didn’t just serve as a commercial and financial junction between a vast
hinterland and the capitalist world economy but also became the locus of a major cotton textile
industry that was founded and dominated by Indian entrepreneurship. The spatial form of the city
was highly divided incorporating the racism of the colonisers with the ‘purity and pollution’
principles prevalent in the spatial organization of Indian society. Even though the initial wall that
divided the colonial planned city from the Native town was broken down, geographical divides
continued with the South and the West of the city with better beaches, hills became the abodes of
the well to do while the laborers were concentrated in the swampy, eastern belt prone to malaria
and close to the docks and the textile mills. Beyond the spatial form, the colonial legacy also
expressed itself in the nature of planning, laws, institution of land ownership and creation of
institutions (Municipal Corporation, university, and courts of law). It is important to note how
the city was created with the exploitation of labor that migrated from the larger hinterlands. This
industrial city that took shape under colonial mentorship actively nurtured indigenous capital,
initially through a collaborative relationship that grew strained around World War II and thus
developed a nationalistic character. It thus became the site where the famous Bombay Plan that
laid out a blueprint for post-independence development of India was laid out. As a city that
developed with migration, Bombay developed a cosmopolitan character that embraced several
ethnicities packed in proximate neighborhoods. The city’s obsession with ‘money’ created a
secularism of sorts that has been portrayed through several films. Protest became a part of the
city’s character during this period as well; it became the site for strong labor and national
freedom struggle.

Colonial Madras
The colonial history of madras follows similar contours as Bombay and yet differs in significant
ways. In 1640s, when the East India Company built a warehouse, and fortified it;
Madras was a collection of fishing villages and agriculture based villages and one of the first
colonial cities (Kosambi and Brush, 1988). As it developed its business, it began to draw in
hundreds of migrants from the region as coolies, labourers and even low level administrators, the
development of Fort St George ie the British Town and the Chennapatanam (named after the
patron who was asked by the British to bring in his men) is a parallel development. The growth
of the city was so rapid that by 1687, it was given the status of ‘Urbs Prima in Indis’ and in 1868,
the first municipal corporation in the British Commonwealth outside of Britain was established
in Madras. More than a century later, Bombay gradually surpassed the growth of Madras with
opium initially and then the growth of textile mills and other manufacturing. Madras, the initial
colonial outpost became the site of experimentation of several systems that became the backbone
of the colonial raj such as the land survey, western style school, banking, church and orphanages
(Muthaiah, 2004). However, it did not obtain the economic dynamic linked to manufacturing in
Bombay or Calcutta and its spatial form retained a semi-rural ambience. (Lewandowski, 1975)
The real difference between Bombay and Chennai however developed in the post-colonial
period.