Typomorphological Analysis Of Shahjahanabad

Content
Introduction: Typomorphological study
Shahjahanabad, Walled city, New Delhi, India as an Example
Methods of analysis reviewed
1. SAR Method : N.J.Habraken
Shahjahanabad as example

2. Image of the city : Kevin Lynch
Shahjahanabad as example

Conclusion
References

Introduction: The City A city can be defined as a juxtaposition of different layers, relationships developed over a period of time between the living inhabitants, the physical structure and social aspects of their life. In past years, cities have grown at an unexpected rate. Cities have immensely transformed due to different kinds of global forces and continue to do so.
Typomorphological study
Typomorphology is the study of
The dense fabric of Shahjahanabad consists of many historical monuments and world heritage sites approved by UNESCO. It also acts as a zone of high trading and economic activities for the capital city of India, New Delhi. Despite the political and social upheavals, sudden changes in its urban fabric every now and then, the precinct continues to have strong association with the religious traditions of the city. SAR (Stichting Architecten Research) approach: N.J.Habraken
John Habraken is a Dutch architect. For 10 years, he was the director of SAR (Foundation for Architects Research) in Holland. The main agenda of SAR was to research, develop methods and build housing structure on the basis of systematic conceptualization of design decisions by way of ‘agreements’. This approach analyses the environment on the basis of systematic rules with the incorporation of ‘theme’, which can be analysed by the observer. It also suggests that an urban environment can be defined as a system composite of specific elements which are related to each other by specific rules:
1. A dwelling environment can be defined by composition of different kind of elements. A single dwelling is a smallest unit as an element of that composition.
2. These elements are reliable, because once the location and a particular dimension is given, it stays the same for
Landmark: Jama Masjid

5. District : Shahjahanabad as whole district

Limitation of the Kevin Lynch approach of analysis
1. Since this method is based on the observer’s mental image or the overlapping of several mental images, it mostly depends on the observer’s subjectivity. It may not give the real image of the city.
2. The famous five elements path, edge, nodes, landmark and district are too generic to define the urban environment.
3. This theory mainly focuses on the physical aspects of the urban environment; but city is not something that can be limited to the physical domain, there are many other domains and parameters which all together define a city.
4. Analysis of a city as one whole entity is missing, it gets broken up into various elements and the meaning of totality is lost in the bargain.

Conclusion
After going through the two approaches with an example of the Walled city of Shahjahanabad, I have realized that a set rule cannot define the city or its parts because it is a much more complex fabric, from its physical structure to socioeconomic aspects, it has various facets; and to be able to analyse the city in entirety a interweaving matrix may have to be developed. Although all the above approaches have their own interpretation and limitations, one can also come up with his own method, with his own elements, which might explain it in a better