Wednesday, January 6, 2016 5:00 pm
-
5:00 pm
EST (GMT -05:00)
Of
the
thesis
entitled: De-Coding
Urbanity
Learning from
and
for
Old
Delhi | Preserving
Cultural
Urban
Codes
Abstract:
The Walled
City
Of
Old
Delhi
serves
as
the
heart
of
metropolitan
Delhi.
The
city
is a
complex
amalgamation
of
Mughal,
Colonial
and
post
Colonial
architecture.
This overlap
has
resulted
in
a
rich
urban
fabric
and
networked
cultural
urbanism. This
provides
the city
it’s
personality
traits,
which
can
be
defined
as
it’s urbanity.
The
thesis
aims
to
decode
the
microcosm
of
this
urbanity,
which
can be
understood
as
the
result
of
a
morphogenesis
that
is
generated
by
boundary conditions,
a
densely
packed
fabric
and
urban
attractors
and connectors.
This investigation attempts to extract the spatial and cultural codes of Old Delhi using parametric tools to analyze the changing sets of relationships that govern its architectural growth and development. These codes serve as parameters that define the shape of the city’s fabric. The first act in this process is the Database Step-this critical part is simply the recording and translation of the informal types of settlements— into architectural and urban maps and drawings so that they can be analyzed. The recording of acts, processes and their resultant architectures and the urban fabric that they constitute are considered to be invisible as they are not ‘legitimated’ by formal civic processes but rather are embodied in the lives, activities and culture of a community and embodied in the urban fabric that surrounds them.
This narrative description is then supported by the extraction and development of parametric urban codes through Grasshopper scripts and manual design iterations representing a series of algorithmic morphological conditions. These codes can generate typologies and exhibit the relationship between the communal and larger infrastructure to give the user a material sense of the cultural world.
The preservation of historic centers and its embedded urbanism is an important question of urban design. The planning department and organizations pay primary attention to the heritage sites instead of understanding and preserving its embedded spatial codes. Hence, the goal of this thesis is to address the need for a planning model that illustrates the framework of the residential settlements of historic cities that are undergoing rapid transformation or are under process for redevelopment to architects, planners and organizations involved in urban development. This model provides sets of rules and values that anticipate design solutions that can act as a paradigmatic model for Old Delhi and other historic cities thereby facilitating the preservation of its cultural and architectural urbanity.
The examining committee is as follows:
This investigation attempts to extract the spatial and cultural codes of Old Delhi using parametric tools to analyze the changing sets of relationships that govern its architectural growth and development. These codes serve as parameters that define the shape of the city’s fabric. The first act in this process is the Database Step-this critical part is simply the recording and translation of the informal types of settlements— into architectural and urban maps and drawings so that they can be analyzed. The recording of acts, processes and their resultant architectures and the urban fabric that they constitute are considered to be invisible as they are not ‘legitimated’ by formal civic processes but rather are embodied in the lives, activities and culture of a community and embodied in the urban fabric that surrounds them.
This narrative description is then supported by the extraction and development of parametric urban codes through Grasshopper scripts and manual design iterations representing a series of algorithmic morphological conditions. These codes can generate typologies and exhibit the relationship between the communal and larger infrastructure to give the user a material sense of the cultural world.
The preservation of historic centers and its embedded urbanism is an important question of urban design. The planning department and organizations pay primary attention to the heritage sites instead of understanding and preserving its embedded spatial codes. Hence, the goal of this thesis is to address the need for a planning model that illustrates the framework of the residential settlements of historic cities that are undergoing rapid transformation or are under process for redevelopment to architects, planners and organizations involved in urban development. This model provides sets of rules and values that anticipate design solutions that can act as a paradigmatic model for Old Delhi and other historic cities thereby facilitating the preservation of its cultural and architectural urbanity.
The examining committee is as follows:
Co-Supervisors:
Mona
El
Khafif,
University
of
Waterloo
Matthew Spremulli,
University
of
Waterloo
Committee Member:
Ila
Berman,
University
of
Waterloo
External Reader:
Erkin Ozay, University at Buffalo
The
committee
has
been
approved
as
authorized
by
the
Graduate
Studies
Committee.
The
Defence
Examination
will
take
place:
Wednesday
January
6,
2016
5:00PM
ARC
1110
A
copy
of
the
thesis
is
available
for
perusal
in
ARC
2106A.