Project lead : Ar. Mithun TG @mithuntg
Cities are the imprints of a civilization that shapes the livelihoods of its people [1], where their identities are implied. Homogenization has led to standardization where the cities in different continents with different histories have started to look alike, wherein the nature itself is a testimony of diversity and contextualization. Such a kind of cultural rootedness is missing in city building and architecture. History corroborates this diversity in city building and architecture where the structures were built with the local materials, with the then existing technologies, adapting themselves to the changing attitudes of the cities and its dwellers alongside valid efforts of acknowledging the city’s past [2], its soul, its own identity and character. This which formed the city’s global identity and legibility is being hampered by present day disregard to the uniqueness of a place in this age of globalization. On this account, the paper quests the imageable elements of cities in terms of their cultural rootedness and how they have been transformed to the present day, how the streets, nodes, bazaars which were the bustling nodes of activity, life and routine changed to wide open alienated highways skirted by tall building blocks which estrange people from these spaces and from each other. The essay documents these dramatic transformations which has changed the faces of two happening cities and how its people are looking forward to its progression.
The character and integrity of a city is defined by its urban identity, a concept that holds enormous value in the changing context of cities. Though it is vague and the phenomena extremely diverse, there is a prevailing influencing force that has transcended borders which precisely has led the expanse of homogenizing urban identities thus uniform urban images- the cancer invading cities.
CAN YOU TRY TO IDENTIFY THE CITY WHICH THIS SKYLINE PORTRAYS? (*Image 1)
Well if everyone starts to think about a city to which the above skyline to be related to, sorry to say but these are the skylines of two different cities Bombay and Cochin (** Image 2) looking alike in spite of having different social policy, cultural tradition, administrative political arrangements and unique physical identities
Food for thought- There were a closely knit fabric of built and unbuilt, open and closed which never stood as separate entities but united in one whole with its authenticity as planners, designers and city builders, we have to preserve and carry forward these. So that the sense of belongingness which every city had been enjoying is to be protected from this invading cancer of homogeneity
Keywords: #Homogeneity, #CityIdentity, #Thanima, #CalicutNIT#Globalization, #NITcalicut #Architecture #Planning #UrbanDesign#CulturalRootedness.
BOSKY STUDIOS / Tropical Architcture 