ISSUES AT VIDHYADHAR NAGAR

· The surface and the inside: The mutation of urban space purely due to aesthetic reasons and for making the new city as a reminiscent of the old has ripped the meaning of the old form from the character. The development guidelines proposed by JDA have provided stipulated elevational characteristics and elements. The guidelines basically enforce copy work from the old city to create the essence of the city. The language that the building talks inside is hardly representative of what is seen on the skin. This juxtaposition between the surface layer and the inside layer has become critical.

· Estrangement between the public and the private realm: While discussing public and private realms we also need to acknowledge two situations of such a happening.

Domestic; b) Commercial

Under both the circumstances the idea of “Free standing units” has been common. Freestanding units- It refers to a structure that has open space around its entire perimeter. The term is not limited to homes but also includes shops offices and apartment buildings. A typical attribute to the free standing units is the stark line rather than a gradual shift from the inside to the outside. In case of the old city of Jaipur this grading of the level of being a public space to a private one is strong. It not only exists in the domestic sections but also in commercial areas. In the architectural expressions in the commercial spine or within the sector of Vidhyadhar Nagar there is lack of graded spaces. Either the space would be domestic or commercial but never both. An overlap of activities induces a complexity by which a space is enriched.

· Frozen entities and process in development: The communicative merit lies in the unconscious thinking among the designers and the people. Unconscious thinking was oriented to common good rather than individual benefit. Today we see a wide difference in what the people think and what the designer and/or builders do. The development today is seen as a one-time act in which a selected expert population is involved- planners, politicians, engineers, architects, designers, builders. This selected group of people have interest in the first step of development- renewals, redevelopment are never under their purview. Development is not seen as a process, the guidelines or policies are not redefined to suit the common needs. They have become prescriptive and do not allow for change.

Transforming the Contemporary Urban Fabric: A Typo-morphological Approach: A case of Vidhyadhar Nagar, Jaipur.

In the past ten years, cities have grown at an unprecedented rate. This fast rate of growth has a considerable effect on the physical aspects of the city. Expansions have taken place in both directions horizontal as well as vertical. The whole energy of building industry has focused on individual units, where each building looks different from the other with an obvious desire to dominate each other. This has overshadowed the other aspects of city building.

Cities have transformed over ages since time immemorial. Most of the cities were transformed without an intention of doing so; they simply transformed by defining and redefining the relationships as per the needs of the society. There was a belief in the innate process of development or transformation of cities-incremental growth and evolutionary process. Owing to technological advances, city expansions and transformations are happening instantly. This has left no scope for interpretation of relationships by users; rather users are given transformed spaces to adapt themselves to. This has induced a gap of procedural evolution between what existed and what is existing.

Considering the old cities and the city extensions, the morphology has transformed to an extent that one finds it difficult to recognize a certain city from its form, street character or urban spaces. Within a certain city the walled area lends a unique, coherent and a united character; whereas all the new developments are similar and are fragmented. It lacks a sense of oneness or unity of urban form. The fabric fails to create a whole, a singular entity. The relationship between the Urban form and the Urban Space constitute the essence of the city. Any modulation in the relationship is reflected and felt in the form and space. A City is hence a set of typologies of relationships.