Reinvigorating urban cultural identity: a case of Kathmandu city

Abstract

Culture get manifested in urban life in the form of traditions, rituals, artefacts etc., which is predominantly dependent on the locals as well as regional context of an area in terms of topography, ethnicity, urban habitat and practices. Cultural glocalization is a phenomenon by which the experience of urban life is influenced in a city and local culture is a system of living which connects to places, values and rituals. Public spaces are an expression of culture which gives the place its realistic identity and network is an assembly of elements connected with an enduring presence of periodic paths in space. The thesis is about designing collective cultural experience and cultural public spaces in the dichotomous positioning of old city and promoting different functions and different demand of public space with differentiated access to spaces and contestation of public spaces. The urban design concern is to make the experience better for attending these festivals or events as a tourist or local and to promote interface design between the cultural infrastructures and the indeterminate spaces around. And also rediscovering the local culture from the existing hybrid practices and strengthening the cultural layers. The aim is to arrive at an urban design framework for regeneration of urban identity overlapping the socio-cultural layers. The objectives are to analyse the effects of glocalization and grobalization on the identity of the precinct and stitch urban culture to the local as an integrated system protecting the authenticity also understand the spatial transformation of cultural form of the city over time due to various inserts. The city under the lens, Kathmandu entered the modern era after centuries of medieval culture, completely bypassing the industrial era. Its culture has been inspired by the congruence of Hindu and Buddhist culture in traditional customs, festivals, art, and literature. It is the centre for several major craft industries such as wood and metal, carpets, garments, finance and tourism and cultural industries including festivals and events. Space bound aspect of culture is very strong and open spaces have specific purposes like space for social interaction, festivities and recreation; as evacuation spaces in times of disaster and as lungs into the urban tissue. All the areas identified as Character Zones with particular features make them unique within the city. Like, cultural markers refer to the physical and behavioural characteristics that distinguish a space highlight its identity, such as temples and chaityas, plazas and global inserts are very exclusive in nature with different agencies and stakeholders involved in development of these inserts. It is causing rapid transformation of the urban culture hence changing the traditional socio-spatial layers of the core. The strategies suggested to reach the desired objectives are strengthening cultural markers, decentralize global inserts, integrate social nodes, revitalize ecological nodes, connect street networks and regulate the urban form. The intention of the thesis is to reinvigorate the aboriginal cultural identity of the city, by making people understand and live the local culture, bringing decaying structures to be used for creative purposes and hence connecting ecology to the culture, street networks to be made legible, accessible and comfortable, redefining the core area into a cultural hub of local arts and crafts and a transformative space during festivals and facilitating the increase in the experiential quality of events and jatras for locals as well as tourists.