Overview
A conventional trademark of any urban fabric. A space that has established its permanence through the course of ever-changing and ever-evolving populations. An embodiment of the achieved utopia of knitting societies, communities, and people from diverse walks of life.
Amidst technological breakthroughs, contemporary influences, diverse urban and architectural interventions, and languages, has the “Chowk” evolved or stayed humble, true to its character, resonating with its intrinsic persona and thus evoking the values and spirits of an ideal urban fabric?
Journey
As a child, he would reminisce passing through the main City Chowk, a memory ingrained in his subconscious, the imagery still vividly resonating with his being. A large public square with a clock tower in the centre, located right outside the street leading to my school. Through the course of his school days, the Chowk became a hotspot of innumerable memories associated with it. It indeed used to be a sight of delight.
Early, mornings, as he’d get off the school bus, at the Chowk, he would witness *chachas, uncles seated on the benches, placed in a circular introverted fashion, eagerly waiting for the hawker as he would come running on the bicycle, flying the newspapers off to them. The Chowk with its plaza would then become a hub of all the discussions, current affairs, and hot gossip, with people joining into this intricate fabric of collective opinions. Meanwhile, a young lad in the corner would set his chai *tapri up, hosting the morning *chai for these overly consumed people. On the opposite end of the Chowk, it would be a sight to witness people jogging and exercising along the parameters lined by lush green trees and shrubs. The Chowk would be a place for all with no boundaries of age, or gender, manifesting the true culture of diversity.
During the day, the space would be transformed dynamically, hosting a milieu of activities ranging from office employees taking their mini-breaks during the day, to people setting up stalls of retail and selling myriad of products. This island of the plaza, located right at the centre of two parallel roads would thus become a locus, from where people had the visual connection to the city premises, the retail shops abutting the parallel roads, people walking along the footpaths and sidewalks, continuing their daily errands.
As he’d be spending my hours in school, he would dream about the ice cream stalls which would open in the Chowk mid-afternoon. A part of his everyday routine would be to run along with his friend post-school hours, just to get in the queue to savor that scoop of ice cream, while seated along the *katte, as the sun would get ready to sublime the world with its golden hour.
Later in the evenings, The Chowk would transform completely, in its spatial exhilarations and functional qualities. A place that would transcend cultural and gender boundaries where people would come, and gather around food stalls, retail kiosks, bustling with night life-A place that would feel at home and give you a sense of identity and a sense of belongingness to a shared inclusive public community pool. The Chowk being a lifeless entity on its own, would, however, spring in the spirit of life and vigour within every entity it encompassed.
Fast forwarding life to the present , he wonders if he is living in the same world! Have spaces around him changed or have people evolved? Well, Change is the only constant. But where did the life from Chowk disappear? Where did the makeshift chai *tapris, ice cream stalls, and retail outlets go?
Did urbanization rob the cities of their urbanity? What effect did contemporary influences have on public spaces and their relatability within the public realm?
These questions all along have elicited emotions in the child, that have fuelled his architectural discoveries, perspectives and explorations. An innate zeal to find answers for the relevant questions drives his architectural pursuit and interest in the field.
Holding rapid urbanization, development, and growth wholly responsible for the degraded nature of public spaces around is not completely rational and logical. It is by virtue of these aspects that the world has progressed enormously over time. However, it is unfortunate that this globalization came at the cost of our public spaces which were nodal in shaping city cultures and lifestyles.
“The lack of resources is no longer an excuse not to act. The idea that action should only be taken after all the answers and the resources have been found is a sure recipe for paralysis. The planning of a city is a process that allows for corrections; it is supremely arrogant to believe that planning can be done only after every possible variable has been controlled.”
– Jaime Lerner Architect, urbanist, former mayor of Curitiba, Brazil
Towards New Age-Tactical Urbanism
With the change in commuting patterns, the relationship with the city and its neighbourhoods also altered radically. In order to reclaim the Chowks of our urban morphologies, there is a need to realise that public spaces begin right outside our front doors, and instead of a public responsibility it should become the object of our individual dedication.
The so-called citizen urbanism or tactical urbanism is one of the most well-liked efforts today in terms of public spaces, participatory design, and action in the city. The strategy advocated for short term action against long term change in the public realm using sparse and inexpensive interventions
In order to avoid partial solutions that do not adequately address the complexity of the urban context, an urban design that aims to reclaim public spaces on a local scale requires a global perspective that takes into account the various elements that impact the quality of life in the city. Therefore, even while the interventions may be little and may only be implemented in stages or in small doses, it is crucial that they react to a bigger plan and projection. Increasing the liability of our cities and towns typically begins at the scale of the street, block, or building. Smaller-scale, incremental improvements are increasingly thought of as a method to prepare larger expenditures, yet larger-scale efforts certainly have their place.
This strategy enables a wide range of local players to test novel ideas before making significant political and financial commitments. These activities are known as “guerrilla urbanism,” “pop-up urbanism,” “city repair,” or “D.I.Y. urbanism,” depending on whether they are authorised or not. The following five criteria define “tactical urbanism”:
- A planned method of city building that has multiple overlapping traits
- Short-term commitment and realistic expectations, a deliberate, phased approach to bringing about change
- The offering of local solutions to local planning issues,
- Low risks with a potentially high reward, the growth of social capital among citizens, and the
- Development of organisational capacity between stakeholders, public and commercial organisations, non-profits and NGOs, and their supporters.
Integrating landscape as an essential part of public space language also becomes imperative on our part. One cannot negate the psychological benefits, aesthetical qualities and innumerable principles of general health and well-being that are passively achieved through incorporation of greens within our spaces.
Chair Bombing- Boston USA
Chair bombing is the act of removing salvageable material from the local waste stream, and using it to build public seating. It was carried in Brooklyn’s regional streets. The purpose was to improve the social well-being of neighbourhoods by salvaging waste materials and activating the public realm. It was conducted by Community Activists, Local Property Owners, Small Businesses .By taking discarded shipping pallets and converting them into quality public seating, the urban waste stream can be reduced, and streets made more welcoming.
Food Trucks – Portland USA
The purpose was to provide low-cost food, incubate small businesses, and activate under-utilized sites. It was conducted by Entrepreneurs, Municipalities at the block level scale in Portland. Portland’s food carts are regulated as normal restaurants, including semi-annual inspections. They also pay rent for the off-street parking spots they occupy. From construction sites to industrial parks, hospitals to local neighbourhood centres, cities large and small continue to witness a surge in street food vending activity. In Portland, Oregon, food carts take on a unique character. Typically housed in stationary trailers, RVs, or self-made shacks, the city encourages vendors to cluster their fare. With each new arrival, each food vendor’s prosperity often increases. And because they mask surface parking lots, they activate otherwise harsh street edges that repel human activity.
The concept of Katte’s- with seating organically placed under the shade of large trees has its inception in rural morphologies. These spaces would foster community gatherings, recreational qualities and functioned as rural nodal points. Inclusion of such typologies within urban contexts can be abstracted and employed where the cities are not robbed off their existing vegetation in wake of urbanisation but rather developed around these hotspots of vegetation. This will promote urban fabrics enriched with natural vegetation and landscaping features, which are in turn climate responsive and sustainable in the long run.
“…in order to do something big, to think globally and act globally, one starts with something small and one starts where it counts. Practice, then, is about making the ordinary special and the special more widely accessible — expanding the boundaries of understanding and possibility with vision and common sense. It is about building densely interconnected networks, crafting linkages between unlikely partners and organizations, and making plans without the usual preponderance of planning. It is about getting it right for now and at the same time being tactical and strategic about later. This is not about forecasting, nor about making decisions about the future. But it is about the long range, about making sure that one plus one equals two or three, about being politically connected and grounded, and about disturbing the order of things in the interests of change.”
– Nabeel Hamdi Author, Small Change: About the Art of Practice and the Limits of Planning in Cities
*Mela: Mela in its original connotation refers to a fair where people gather for
variety of reasons.
*Chowk: A public square; A junction of roads culminating into a public circle
*Chachas- old people
*Tapri- a small makeshift kiosk
*Katte- a seating or elevated plinth around the bark of the tree
Citation:
Mike Lydon (2012) Tactical urbanism, Issuu. Edited by Dan Bartman. The Street Plans Collaborative Follow this publisher – current follower count:1272. Available at: https://issuu.com/streetplanscollaborative/docs/tactical_urbanism_vol_2_final (Accessed: November 19, 2022).
