Sushain Gupta
Each and every place has physical, functional and emotional values attached to it. Identity of a place is well rooted in the multiple narratives of the people and their associations. The image and memories play a significant role in defining the identity of the place. The city design can be considered as a temporal work of art and architecture which has temporal variations of sequences reflected by different people. However, the place is identified by the built environment including landmarks, nodes, edges, paths or boundaries but all the moving elements such as vehicles, people and their behavioral pattern are equally important in the identification of a place. So it is the resultant of the millions of people who are experiencing a particular place. Image is never a static one but dynamic in details. For example; if there is a chunk of empty land in your vicinity where no trees, no built mass or vegetation are present, then that land becomes quite neglected and even unidentifiable to people living near to it but if a tree with nice wide canopy is planted in that particular area you will notice that the shady area will become the point of interaction to the people residing near to that area. You might even notice some children of your locality playing under that shady canopy or even some of the homeless resting or preventing themselves from the harsh weather conditions. So with the presence of a single tree on that empty chunk of land, people can identify themselves in that urban space or can relate themselves with that tree. Suppose, if anyone of you have placed a piece of rock with ’tilak or tikka’, some flowers, and few money in front of it then eventually with the passage of time you will notice some of the people will start coming to the area(out of superstitions), worshipping under that tree giving a sacred feeling to the particular spot and thereby producing a distinct image to the locality.
According to Kevin Lynch, the process of building an image is a two way process where the environment provides a set of distinctions & relations and the observer’s perception determine the meanings as per their needs and experiences. Therefore an image to a city or a urban space can be analyzed based on three components- identity( uniqueness of an object), structure(relation of object to observer) and meaning( how the observer experiences the space). There are individual images, group of images or images perceived by the people’s description which are stitched together to form the overall identity (image) of the city. The observer automatically develops an attachment to a particular space by relating the image perceived that may be by listening to the stories of that space, reading about the place or his prior knowledge about the place, with the actual experience gained at that particular space. This can be understood with the example of home and the family. No doubt; home is where the family members are but the four walls, its furniture arrangement and the interior details recalls the memory of our family and friends whom we often see in the background. Each aspect and details of a place communicates some meaning to the inhabitants. Due to the permanence of the physical elements in a city, these images evolve memories of events in the past. Therefore, every urban artifact whether it is buildings, streets, trees, landscaping, cultural complexes etc. contribute to the collective memory of the people. It is clear that “the loss of identity of the city is also the loss of collective memory.”
The identity of a city is a reflection of its uniqueness, and it is the source of the quality by which we recognize a particular urban space in all its integrity and continuity. The urban space is not only determined by the form, drawings, preserved facades or various regulations about keeping the city as the whole and its ambience, but primarily the urban lifestyle that can not be planned because it is layered and complex and it gives rise to integrity in the unexpected, new and diverse human life. People experience urban space in the active communicative relationships and in constant change and action. The urban space is changing alongside us, guiding us, fascinates, or saddens us, accepts or rejects us, but it remains unfinished and ever changing as life itself. The overall experience of local environments in the city, corresponds to an atmosphere of the city as an element of the mental character. Therefore, the preservation of the urban identity, especially the spatial aspect and its memory, the social consciousness of its users- is of particular importance and significance for the preservation of the tradition and authenticity, and maintaining continuity in the inevitable process of development. But the changes that occurring today must respect all the layers and the memory that a particular place has . The values that we use and that we prolong in city management or the way we approach its use and conservation, are also testimonies’ to how much are we willing to preserve our and their urban identity. The customization of the changes, both at local and global levels, the variability of the physical, social and cultural structure of the city, in relation to the dynamics of the process of urban development is a good indicator of its urban and spiritual level and development. Today, there are many methods and models that can adopt the cities to these changes, some of which depend largely on how a city can resist the general global trends and be prepared to preserve its urban identity. The measure of ability, willingness and responsibility of the city to endure those changes and adapt to the dynamic social processes is a good indicator of the value of the urban identity of the city.
(The author is M.Arch (Urban design)
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