Reimagining the urban village interface: the case of Gurugram/ Vishek Yadav; Under the guidance of Gayatri Nanda

Abstract

After the introduction of economic globalisation policies in early 90s, a lot of capital influx and investment impetus started pouring in India. Economic activities reached new scales owing to international trade networks. The investment then started to find places with resources to pour in. The influx was so high in potential that it had certain areas and regions grow exponentially at a rate which could never have been achieved through the local economies. As huge capital was available, some cities started expanding rapidly and those who could not grow further, started pouring development impetus to the nearing towns and settlements. A situation consequential to this huge change in economy can be seen in those areas developed with this international influx of investment, more specifically in areas within big cities and around the smaller towns lying in proximity to a bigger metro city. The economic globalization introduced a new urban form through various developments for fulfilling new demands. Soon, these new patterns started taking over the existing activities and areas and spread to isolate the indigenous fabric. In the wake of vast investments, the public agencies responsible for urban development started ignoring this cause and instead only thought of settling more global trade centres in cities. Citing the example of Gurugram, a city known for housing centres of more than half of Fortune 500 companies of the world, developed in a similar manner. The city isolates various villages as it sprawls continuously, simultaneously leaving wide gaps of conflict between the villages and the urban areas. Since the local development authority acquired the agricultural lands for urbanisation, the village Abadi’s were left untouched. Looking at the degrading conditions of the physical as well as social relations of the Abadis with the surrounding region, this study is an account of how through finding spatial interventions on the scale of villages, we can create platforms for achievement of certain goals. The first one would be to form a place for negotiation between diverse communities and secondly to strengthen the communities in themselves through supporting their livelihoods and economies and providing spaces of good social value. This is done by studying various characteristics of the built and social fabric of the Urban Village and then carefully planning out zones of intervention for maximum impact