Exploring the role of urban aritfact in understanding dynamics of urban change

Abstract

Aldo Rossi (1966) opined that history of a city could be an instrument to study the landscapes and structure of any city. The urban cities are continually growing. The history of the city is not affected by such continual changes. With the mention of history, its monuments too are talked about because history always expresses itself through the urban artifacts and monuments and they over time become the key pieces of a city’s identity. Urban Artifacts are complex bodies; their definition, values, memories attached can be subjective to the surroundings in which they exist. Nonetheless, artifacts can be broadly understood as interactive elements in the city’s canvas that become entangled in their surrounding community, and play an important role. This thesis through its research aims to explore the role of urban artifacts in the urban landscape. It seeks to discover how the long-standing presence of such artifacts can inform the dynamics of urban change and the collective memory and values created by a city’s continually changing environment. To understand how urban artifacts that have long and cultured history are different from today’s large scale urban projects that achieve a status of social spaces . hence, artefact with their context needs to be investigated.The cities with historic core become the most critical environment for urban designers to work and with the urban shrinkage, the urban artifacts are in a state of neglect. It’s imperative to study their persistence and dynamics of urban change. The chosen city to perform thesis is Gwalior, it is one of the ancient heritage cities of India with an eclectic mix of heritage. The aim of thesis is to take in key ideas and theoretical assumption made by Rossi in his book and to test them in the old core of Gwalior, the point of inception of the city which is currently in state of plight. Rapid urbanization and declining economy has left the core of Gwalior in deranged state. The old part of Gwalior offers immense possibility to study the urban change that has happened over the years by studying the urban artifact and its context.