Abstract:
This thesis is an attempt in understanding the interrelationship between social and spatial
systems, between communities and the geographical landscape of hilly regions of northern
India in order to enhance social resilience. The level of urbanization through which these hill
towns and cities are going through has had an adverse effect on the physical environment
and has led to various calamities. Due to urbanization tremendous development has taken
place in these environmentally fragile areas, which has drastically transformed the physical
environment and urban form in and around hill towns and cities. Therefore, there is a strong
need to facilitate actions in order to maintain the urban form of hill settlements.
At present, the traditional urban structure of the hill towns is going through the development
crisis in terms of encroachment of newer forms on hilly terrains and enforcement of new
regulation guidelines, which are not resilient. Which has impacted the city in terms
transformation of urban form due to scattered and unplanned development, loss of identity
and scenic beauty due to increase in disaster; and disconnection with social environment. In
order to address these development issues in hilly regions, the literature related to urban
structure of Himalayan cities (shankar, 2014) and theories of typo-morphology (Rob
Krier,1975; Spiro Kostof,1991; Leon Krier,1984; Anne Vernez Moudon,1994) and Sociospatial resilience (Holling, 1973) have been studied along with various case examples in order
to understand the existing condition of hill towns and how to make the urban structure of hill
towns more resilient. Hence, the urban design domain will include design framework for spatial
morphology and its functional diversity within the urban form and space, in a resilient urban
system contributing to the adaptive response, offering qualitative strategies for the design of
sensitive socio-spatial resilient communities in hill towns and cities.
The hill town of Shimla has been considered as the site for exploration, where the urban
structure of the town has already transformed in the fragile environment because of the
immense human development pressure and it is the need of the hour to design an
environment which develops a cohesive relationship between the people and nature.
