Architecture and Planning:

Title:           Identities Sighting Appreciation - Why Urban Design initiatives need to be empowered
Authors:        Vikas Kumar Nirmal
Abstract:     The soul and character of the cities is reflected by its identities which creates ‘The Image of City’ as famously crafted by Kevin Lynch. The basic ingredients forming the image have all the five elements that together create its identification on larger front. These identities have often been a part of city’s magnets from domestic to international arena. A large number of these ends up having their share of appreciation whereas some though deserves equal praise but lose their identity in the process of aggressive urbanization and fast changing lifestyles of urbanites. They will always sight that moments of appreciation which they deserve but failed to do so due to lack of elemental relationships with the foreground, the background, the surroundings and the local fabric. These elements may be passive but plays a vital role in enhancing the beauty to be cherished always. Such initiatives of creating the identities- the landmarks, the avenues, the streetscape bring in lot of qualitative essence to the city’s built environment i.e. Urban Design. Urban Design has always been a major focus in academic fronts but has been majorly a neglected field in the practical arenas far as planning of urban areas is considered. These Urban Design strategies are very rarely prevalent and that too only in metropolitans and emphasized upon the cities like Lutyen’s zone of Delhi NCT (National Capital Territory) whereas a large part of towns and cities doesn’t even seen a glimpse of Urban Design initiatives and offer a disturbing trend of offending the Architecture landscape of urban areas. The paper has tried to highlight the examples of various such examples of landmarks which deserves their share of appreciation as regional or national identities but failed to do so due to dearth of Urban Design initiatives to enhance the beauty of built environment.

Keywords:   The Image of City, Kevin Lynch, Elemental relationships, Landmarks, Avenues, Streetscape, Urban Design, Lutyen’s zone, Delhi NCT and Architecture landscape.
Pages:          435-441

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