The last century has been about the march of the Indian city; by 2030 cities in our nation will be responsible for 70 percent of employment generation and GDP. Thus cities are an unavoidable topic in the future of Indian cities.

Flux in urban spaces - fuction

The current Indian city presents itself as an organism constantly evolving to its ever changing situation, the story of food grains and fruits and vegetable market in Georgetown is a testament to this. The significance of the this market dates back to the 1950s a time when India was dependent on import of food grains, though with time with the growth of the city and change in the source of food grains (though pulses are still imported) and the ultimate shifting of the groceries market (fruits, vegetables, spices, food grains) the area finds itself in a transition phase, cultural demographics in the area tell a similar story, with the area historically seeing the influx and exodus of people of varied cultures.

Flux in urban spaces - time

The flux in the streets of Sowcarpet can also be experienced in time. The scene on the street in the morning is an unusual one as far as cities are concerned, one of cows grazing on fodder provided by the community, this activity can be attributed to the religious belief the people who consider cows sacred. The cows belong to marginal community in the area, the Yadava naidus who are employed in their hereditary occupation of providing milk to the surrounding community, though their contributions may be meager they are supported by the community, the local jain religious establishments also provide nourishment to the underprivileged. As the day progresses the commercial establishments open up and the street bustles with activity of people and goods being transferred, with activity peaking early in the evening, as the evening progresses the tempo slows with those engaged in goods transfer within the area closing up shop and calling it a day at the tea shops and juice shops located mostly in at street intersections, lighting up these areas during this time of the day. Late at night in the early hours

of the morning the trucking agencies spring into action located mainly on walltax road and the wider Annapillai and Audiappa naiken street intersections on walltax road.

Much of this metamorphosis happens in an unregulated fashion with communities forming their own institutions in areas they newly populate. This leads to rampant violations and ‘unfinished edges’ as Rahul mehrotra describes. With commercial establishments pouring out onto already meager streets and unplanned street edges.

Policy

Insufficient policy interventions are attributed to the lack of the role of architects in planning for a structured urban landscape, leading to ostentatious adherence to policies. Though the root cause of the problem is the deficiency in the database of patterns of the Indian city, income distribution maps, transit commuter diagrams, employment statistics are not enough to explain the existence of the Indian city. These do not explain the socio cultural patterns of the people and their imprint on the city in the form of the institutions they set up, forging a character for the space they inhabit. The Victorian British attempts at establishing character with their Indo sarcenic and neo classical infrastructure were those of representation of power, thus distancing itself from the people.

Imagability

One approach at looking at cities has its roots in gestalt perception of visual spaces to form patterns using the relationships of elements with each other and their surroundings, this leads to the ordering of elements to form entities that can be used to make sense of these spaces. The Kevin lynch approach to public image of a city, observation based on above principles to create 5 elements of the image of a city the path, edge, node, district, landmark. Path being the channel through which the observer moves observes the city, edge the boundary between two phases, break in continuity, held together by organizing elements, district medium to large sections of the city that the observer mentally enters, recognizable for having a common identifiable character, node strategic spots into which one may

enter. They may be primarily junctions, crossing of paths or moments of shift of one structure to another. Nodes may become foci of the district over which their influence radiates the concept of the node is related to the concept of the path and district since junctions are typically convergences of paths, and cores behave as foci of districts. Landmarks external points of reference that the observer does not enter. The identification of the landmark relies on the distinction in form of the object in question from its surrounding and the prominence of spatial location.

In the current context the case of the hidden Jain temples of Sowcarpet are an interesting case for the above system of analysis, the Jain temples of Sowcapet do not have the luxury of inhabiting intersections as compared to some of their Hindu counterparts in the region. Due to the scale of the streets, the temples that one would otherwise consider as defining elements in the precinct of a particular community, are lost in a sea of continuous wall to wall built forms, the character of Sowcarpet is defined by the activity taking place on the street, the food the people eat, the clothes they wear, the language they speak, rather than the built form of the institutions of the community.

Case for haptics

As seen above a mere occulocentric approach to explaining the region may turn out to be misleading to the observer. Due to the fact that rapid motorized transport that detaches our bodies from the street – a factor that has led to the degeneration of our cities into a series of images – is impossible here, the site lends itself to other modes of observation.

A meaningful architectural experience is not merely a series of retinal images, rather the nuances of the space becomes an active ingredient in the bodily interaction with the space. The experience of home is an example of the above condition, an experience that is described with verbs describing activities rather than nouns. The condition in which a space rests in the memory of the observer; whether mere progression of images or as a vivid sensory experience determines

the quality of the space. An architectural space condenses space time and matter into a singular dimension and the space become the very ingredient of our existence.

The process of design itself is a testament to the invalidity of a mere ocularcentric approach to the experiencing of a space, the designer internalizes the landscape, the landscape, context and the entire functional programme as well as the balance scale and the conceived journey inside are felt unconsciously. As the observer moves inside the space and his body interacts with the space, it mimics the experiences of the architect.

The conception of architectural scale is the measuring of objects or buildings with our body, the projection of the body into the space in question.

The task of architecture is to create a space that is an embodied and lived in metaphor that concretizes and structures our being in this world. Thus architecture helps us perceive and understand the given area, the dynamics of change and permanence and place ourselves in the continuum of time.

Square and street

In such examples of organically developed high dense settlements evolve their own typologies of public spaces taking the example of the japanese context where architects have tried to involve themselves in the process of bringing the plaza into an asian context, attempts of architects such as kisho kirokawa have been met with partial success , the japanese context is also relatable owing to the dependance of activity on the street and the evolution of semi public spaces on the street. The shinjuku protests are seen as landmark in the story of evolution of spaces for public democratic congregations, a case where the shinjuku railway station became the site of protests, the nature of congregation must also be seen in an asian context whether it be japanese festivals or the festival processions of hindu temples and their maada veedhis, the evolution of the street as a public space taking into account the kinectic nature of mass congregations in our cultural context as compared to the more historically recent static nature of democratic protests.

Having identified the streets as the primary public space available to the people living here, the users of the public space seems to have a cultural bias, with the hidden jain temples of sowcarpet we have established the subservience of the jain culture to hindu culturein the area in terms of nodal points, a similar coclusion can be drawn in terms of distribuition of public spaces, streets accomodate the cultural congregations of the hindus that are processionary in nature whereas the jains have to build separate community halls to accomodate their cultural congregations.

But culture is only one aspect of the use of the street as a public space, commerce the historically significant activity in the area uses the street and seems to have a cross cultral unifying effect, the street in the area decides the occupation regarless of culture, we see jains participating in different commercial activities in different streets.