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UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date: November 26th 2007 I, S h a r a n y a I y e r, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: Master of Architecture in: Architecture It is entitled: Hybrid Space for Engaging with the Living Past A Community Center for Tourists & Locals at Hyderabad India This work and its defense approved by: Chair: Elizabeth Riorden, First Chair Jay Chatterjee Second Chair Hybrid Space for Engaging with the Living Past: Community Center for Tourists and Locals at Hyderabad India A thesis submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE in the School of Architecture and Interior design of the College of Design,Architecture, Art, and Planning 2007 By S H A R A N Y A I Y E R Bachelor of Architecture, SPA JNTU Hyderabad, India 2004 Committee Chair: Elizabeth Riorden Second Chair: Jay Chattejee A B S T R A C T Contextual situations lend architecture unique sensibilities and distinctive character. The advent of globalization has obscured the notion of a context and its architectural manifestation lending identity to people and place. This thesis seeks to assimilate the ever-transforming relationships of people, place and buildings that create notions of identity. Contemporary socio-cultural and temporal constructs are hybrid amalgamations of past, present and dreams of a distant future; they evade simple definition and direct translation into built forms. The challenge of addressing the dualities of local and global, past and present, the everyday and festive would be explored through the design of a community center for locals and tourists in the Walled City of Hyderabad India. The aim being to evolve an appropriate contemporary architecture to experience the living past, by imbibing territorial, temporal, behavioral, psychosocial and ideological dimensions of the context, creating design that contemplates the dynamics of constantly changing identity structures. i ii A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S Understanding the nuances of the locale I grew up in, afresh, as a researcher in a distant completely different context has been a challenge. The distances couldn’t have been bridged without the help of Dr. Lalitha Iyer, Ms Gowri Iyer , Prof. Ravi Anand Kamal, Prof. Suryanarayana, Mr. Shorey and Jagadeesh Taluri . I am very grateful to my thesis chair Elizabeth Riorden for her efforts in understanding and situating herself in my thesis context as well as motivating and advocating design conceptualization. I would also like to thank my second chair Prof. Jay Chattejee for his support and critical inputs. Last but not the least; I would like to Manmadh Rebba for his continued emotional support & love and Bharati, Kiran, Yash, Anu and Sushmita for their help in the process. iii C O N T E N T S C H A P T E R O N E Thematic Background Thematic introduction 2 The theme in context 6 C H A P T E R T W O Design outline 9 Thesis Proposal The Bazaar as a design driver 12 Design investigation 19 C H A P T E R T H R E E Aspects of identity 23 Thematic, Site and Design Studies The typo-morphological perspective 29 Contextual Analysis 34 Design Precedent studies 35 Design vocabulary & palette studies 36 Research Summary 40 iv C H A P T E R F O U R Design Explorations Design solution 44 Delineating user groups and activities 48 Program details 50 Architectural proposals 51 Concluding statements 52 Bibliography 54 Glossary of terms 56 v I L L U S T R A T I O N S 1.1 Hybrid culture at Mumbai : Coexistence of Traditional Colonial & Modern. C H A P T E R O N E 1.2 The Traditional Hyderabad and Cyberabad, its Hi-Tech counterpart. 1.3 Modern voice to the local – the architectural explorations of B.V.Doshi 1.4 Vernacular modern – architecture of Hassan Fathy 1.5 Identity structures : dialogues between people, place & time C H A P T E R T W O 2.1 Location of Hyderabad at the confluence of trade routes. 2.2 Iconic center of the historic core of Hyderabad: The Charminar 2.3 Oriental fantasies of Bazaars 2.4 Old Hyderabad to the south of the new, separated by the river. The shifting commercial core of Hyderabad with time : the decay of old Bazaars. 2.5 Bazaars of the old city of Hyderabad 2.6 Bazaars of the old city of Hyderabad 2.7 Colonial Patherghatti : Arcade Bazaars from the early 1900’s. 2.8 Medieval Laad Bazaar : Eaves of the Laad Bazaar from the 1500’s. 2.9 Contemporary extensions of the traditional 2.10 Festivals on the Bazaar Axis: Chandini Raat & Ramadan 2.11 Social Nuances of the Locale : Distinctive ethnic and cultural group 2.12 Symbolic significance of the Iconic center of Hyderabad vi 2.13 Tourism proposals for the core of Hyderabad 2.14 Diagrammatic design Analysis : Mixing of users tourist & Local 2.15 Diagrammatic design Analysis : Contextual Assimilation of built forms 2.16 Assimilation of local vocabulary and scale 2.17 ‘Gendered Space’ and notions of ‘Parda’ in the locale. C H A P T E R T H R E E 3.1 Spaces and socio-cultural practices that create 3.2 Everyday environments and life-worlds of people 3.3 Built Environment : Figure ground 3.4 Built Environment : socio-economic structures – Landuse 3.5 Built Environment : Centrality, Axis & Segregation of public and private 3.6 Built Environment : Tourist and Local landmarks 3.7 Built Environment : Bazaars along the axis 3.8 The old city fabric: Axial nodes 3.9 Character of the Core 3.10 Activities along the core 3.11 Movement through the core 3.12 Citra Niaga development, Samarinda, Indonesia 3.13 Niamey Grand Market Niamey Niger. vii 3.14 Al Mashrabia tourist and local center, Giza Egypt. 3.15 Auroville Visitor Center, Pondicherry India 3.16 Compilation of Thematic elements 3.17 Compilation of Climatic elements 3.18 Compilation of Stylistic elements C H A P T E R F O U R 4.1 Assimilating site lines and movement patterns 4.2 Minarets to visually link and guide visitors through the core 4.3 Tourist and Local crowds mixed in the precinct 4.4 Natural shading, lighting and ventilation considerations. 4.5 Islamic and modern stylistic Vocabulary 4.6 Narrative sequence : Section AA 4.7 Visual experiences along the building : Views 4.8 Schematic Layout plan 4.9 Building A : Community Node 4.10 Building B: Tourist Orientation Center 4.11 Building Vocabulary : Details viii C H A P T E R O N E Thematic Background 1 T H E M A T I C I N T R O D U C T I O N The shrunk global world is a surreal architectural setting, with its myriad of condensed identities, of the past, present and the distant future; evading straightforward definition, objective analysis and simplistic architectural interpretation. The interplay and blending of a variety of cultures globally and locally is an integral part of the contemporary milieu. Juxtaposition of symbols, meanings, images and activities from a spectrum of cultures, perceived through media-induced knowledge contributes to the dream-like obscurity of today’s environments. Culture and Identity are in the process of rapid flux, being itself, ‘emerges from the process of becoming and disappearing’ according to Walter Benjamin (Buck-Morss 1989). This juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated objects stimulates a variety of fleeting, ever changing experiences characterizing the surreal identity structures of our times. Identity is a fundamental character of our being, pieced together from our active engagement with physical settings and passive reconstructions of people and place through memories and associative meanings. An objective, descriptive discourse on place, people, landscape and identity is incomplete as experience is an integral indeterminate aspect of this whole which is subjective. Identity is in the eye of the beholder as much as it is in the setting. The experience of a place is determined by a number of other factors such as our inherent notions, expectations and prior experiences, emotional state, receptiveness and responsiveness and our control to manipulate / customize the 2 settings we are engaged in. Reciprocity and the interplay between people and their These reciprocal relationships of people, place and buildings create notions of belonging, environments create bonds of belonging. Settings mould peoples and people in turn mold that are embedded in the life-worlds of people and place in the form of communal their settings. People are in constant dialogue with the places that engage them in the histories, social practices, cultural attributes and collective memory or experience’ everyday realm. This exchange between humans and their physical settings is at the (Rapoport 1981) physical, physiological, psychological and the symbolic planes. ‘ This thesis seeks to examine the shifting notions of belonging in the age of globalization, wherein the boundaries of place and time have disappeared and hybrid cultures have emerged. As Bausman (Neill 2004) said, ‘One only thinks of identity, whenever one is not sure of where one belongs’. The study would be applied to the context of tourism in the historic core of Hyderabad, that brings to the foreground identity issues and the balancing of the traditional and modern demands, global and local images and tourist and resident needs. The design of an entrance feature to the Walled city of Hyderabad would provide for the architectural exploration of multilayered identity by the juxtaposition of local and tourist needs containing an interpretation and for tourists that coexists with a traditional social interaction place for locals.