Fusion of Traditional and Modern Principles of Design for Public Spaces of Indian Cities

摘要

The public spaces play a very important role in providing the quality of life to its residents. Quality of life will be determined by the social and economic equity as well the belongingness to the city. The different types of public spaces may fulfill different types of need such as parks for health and recreation, commercial spaces for shopping activities as well social interaction, religious spaces for peace and harmony, exhibition spaces for different types of knowledge, etc. Traditional Indian public spaces were able to cater the need of residents by providing different types of spaces such as temple courtyard; parks, male ground, bazaars, and these spaces were designed for climate, socio-cultural, as well economic factors. The public spaces in India cities were designed for bullock cart, cycle, pedestrian, etc., and were the cost-effective solution. After liberalization of the economy in 1990, the Indian cities have gone through a tremendous transformation at the level of the economy, socio-cultural aspect. India has adopted the western living style based on globalization and the public spaces of cities have been designed as indoor and vehicular centric. These spaces become a gated community for rich people and become inaccessible for poor or middle-class people of a city. These spaces have to lead to loss of social interaction and loss of identity to its resident. There is need to explore the middle path by creating fusion of traditional and modern principles of design for public spaces so that public spaces are able to fulfill the modern needs of people such as vehicular access, technological advancement, and living style, and traditional needs such as access to all, creating identity through traditional principles of design. This paper will explore various definitions of public spaces, the difference between Indian public spaces and western public spaces, case studies of traditional public spaces, issues, and strategies for the design of public spaces, and case example of public spaces by adopting the fusion of modern and traditional principles.