Manish Chalana (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9789888208333
- eISBN:
- 9789888313471
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208333.001.0001
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural Theory and Criticism
Seemingly messy and chaotic, the landscapes and urban life of cities in Asia possess an order and hierarchy which often challenge understanding and appreciation. With a cross-disciplinary group of ...
More
Seemingly messy and chaotic, the landscapes and urban life of cities in Asia possess an order and hierarchy which often challenge understanding and appreciation. With a cross-disciplinary group of authors, Messy Urbanism: Understanding the “Other” Cities of Asia examines a range of cases in Asia to explore the social and institutional politics of urban formality and the contexts in which this “messiness” emerges or is constructed. The book brings a distinct perspective to the broader patterns of informal urban orders and processes as well as their interplay with formalized systems and mechanisms. It also raises questions about the production of cities, cityscapes, and citizenship. Messy Urbanism will appeal to professionals, students, and scholars in the fields of urban studies, architecture, landscape architecture, planning and policy, as well as Asian studies.Less
Seemingly messy and chaotic, the landscapes and urban life of cities in Asia possess an order and hierarchy which often challenge understanding and appreciation. With a cross-disciplinary group of authors, Messy Urbanism: Understanding the “Other” Cities of Asia examines a range of cases in Asia to explore the social and institutional politics of urban formality and the contexts in which this “messiness” emerges or is constructed. The book brings a distinct perspective to the broader patterns of informal urban orders and processes as well as their interplay with formalized systems and mechanisms. It also raises questions about the production of cities, cityscapes, and citizenship. Messy Urbanism will appeal to professionals, students, and scholars in the fields of urban studies, architecture, landscape architecture, planning and policy, as well as Asian studies.
Manish Chalana and Susmita Rishi
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9789888208333
- eISBN:
- 9789888313471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208333.003.0009
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural Theory and Criticism
Most Indian cities have large pockets of informal settlements that urban planners, policy makers and the middle classes see as disorderly and in need of formalization. This formalization-focused ...
More
Most Indian cities have large pockets of informal settlements that urban planners, policy makers and the middle classes see as disorderly and in need of formalization. This formalization-focused perspective, on the one hand, undervalues the existing, unique patterns of urban development that have evolved in previous centuries and which continue to serve the residents who live and work there. On the other hand, this perspective instills great faith in modernist housing alternatives that have had limited success worldwide. This chapter focuses on Kathputli Colony—a settlement of traditional artists, street performers and other working classes—in Delhi that has been slated for demolition and redevelopment since 2007. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the form of oral interviews, participant and field observation and field reconnaissance, the work presents four vignettes of homes and clusters to demonstrate the uniqueness of these self- and incrementally-built spaces, particularly the connection between spatial ordering and sociocultural and economic practices of the residents. The authors argue that Kathputli Colony’s apparent “disorder” has in fact multiple layers of ordering and the planned modernist resettlement alternative would be highly disruptive to the traditional ways of living and livelihoods of the residents.Less
Most Indian cities have large pockets of informal settlements that urban planners, policy makers and the middle classes see as disorderly and in need of formalization. This formalization-focused perspective, on the one hand, undervalues the existing, unique patterns of urban development that have evolved in previous centuries and which continue to serve the residents who live and work there. On the other hand, this perspective instills great faith in modernist housing alternatives that have had limited success worldwide. This chapter focuses on Kathputli Colony—a settlement of traditional artists, street performers and other working classes—in Delhi that has been slated for demolition and redevelopment since 2007. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the form of oral interviews, participant and field observation and field reconnaissance, the work presents four vignettes of homes and clusters to demonstrate the uniqueness of these self- and incrementally-built spaces, particularly the connection between spatial ordering and sociocultural and economic practices of the residents. The authors argue that Kathputli Colony’s apparent “disorder” has in fact multiple layers of ordering and the planned modernist resettlement alternative would be highly disruptive to the traditional ways of living and livelihoods of the residents.