Singing Lines

process: idea- rethink- question and design

The Architecture of Public spaces

What spatialities make open space into public space?

A public place is the identity of the city. Public places are an integral part of city planning and development. Most of the time, public places in the city have tall walls or fences and are designed only for a particular activity. The defined nature of the form/spatiality of these spaces and their edges allows for a certain degree of appropriations and claims. There are large open grounds or places in the cities and people start using it in their own ways. These places are formed or get activated by people’s daily space-making activities like selling things, walking, meeting, playing, etc. With the absence of a defined edge, different activities start overlapping. For instance, in the morning, if vegetable vendors are occupying the place, then in the evening boys are playing football. And these series of activities throughout the day shape that place. I see this happening place as colours on a blank canvas; mixing and forming new shades.

The shape, boundaries of the place expand and contract with changes in events or activities. Edges mutate as the claims, and negotiations start happening by hawkers/ vendors. Edges start getting defined either by the territory of dogs, fully grown trees, temporary shelters by beggars or construction workers, parked vehicles, etc. Here, space and its edges get defined by these various actors on-site and its surrounding context. These are fuzzy and become spaces of social interaction, leisure, escapes as well as economic activities which improves the desirability of a community- in the sense place attracts people to visit and thus these undefined spaces of multiple claims and appropriations become active public spaces. Claims- for example, Migrant construction workers settlement forming beside one of the research sites. Appropriations- for example, food vendors keeping chairs and tables on one part of open ground to set up the stall; reformulation in available resources and spatialities.

Whereas public places which are developed and designed in specific ways do not have many possibilities for overlapping actors-activities at the same time. Public places are designated for certain activities and functions so the shape of the place is less flexible. Walls and compounds give a sense of a privatized space and do not allow other acts of claiming and appropriations to happen like the open maidans with undefined edges. This renders these parks, gardens inaccessible to certain sections of society. That boundary restricts the acts of claiming and the overlapping of activities.

This thesis argues by understanding from the public spaces in Jalgaon, that public places happen when overlapping activities take place. The edge is blurred by actors and activities. The public place need not be designated for activities; it can be a free-flowing space accessible by animals, humans, birds, etc. This thesis intends to smudge the idea of ‘ideal public place’ and make it more relevant to the context.

Research sites

Mehrun lake

This lake is the identity of Jalgaon city. The word ‘Jal’ means water and this lake was the only drinking and irrigation source of the city in earlier years. Later on, the place turned into a waterbody that inhabits various species of birds and animals. Migrant birds and several other animals can be seen in this area which attracted bird watchers and tourists to the city.

Initially, when I started interviewing people about the lake; most of the people replied as there are no other places to meet friends, go for a walk, to do exercise in an open place with nature but they also started saying about possibilities of different activities in that space.

As it is a sweet water lake it has good quality fish so some people from nearby settlements do fishing for their livelihood. New bungalows and housing projects are coming up in the surrounding area, so the open place near the lake edge is occupied with temporary tents of construction workers. Children of these workers swim in the lake, climb on the trees, and pluck fruits. That whole edge is like a playground for them. Some of them sell snacks, candies. There is one lady who lives in a village near to the lake who comes every day with a small tempo and sells snacks, packed food. She is famous for her homemade candies and sometimes people come there just to buy that. One of the accessing roads has had cattle sheds for the last 15 years. The owner of the cattle shed takes cattle every day to the lake. He let them be in the water for 4-5 hours till then he does fishing or swimming. Because of his everyday routine, people started asking if he could sell milk to them. Now he provides milk to the whole neighbourhood and he owns 3 more cattle sheds in that area. So the lake and surrounding area are giving possibilities to expand the livelihood of the nearby settlements.

In the evening, families come there and park the car on the lake edge, take dogs for a walk which most of the time get into a fight with stray dogs. In the strict lockdown, some people used to feed these dogs. The police van always takes a round in the evening for surveillance as many crimes have happened in that area. The road has dense vegetation on both sides that makes it unsafe after sunset. Along the road, farmhouses and event halls make the place very active throughout the day.

While doing site visits almost every alternate day I made a new friend with an old uncle. He started telling me stories of the site from his time. This place used to be a dense forest with wild animals. So it was unsafe even for nearby settlements. Then the municipality started the development of the lake area. Concretization of roads; beautification of lake edge on one side with paved walkways, railings, and seating places. But other than this they have not changed anything which is why the place has held its importance for animals and humans.

This lake edge affords people from all classes, cast, and backgrounds. Of course, if the municipality ever decides to develop it and concretize the whole edge then the negotiations and claims happening subconsciously on site will be cleared out and it will also affect the livelihood of settlement around it. It will be very particular for activities like morning walks. This change will allow only a specific section of society as a user. The present scenario of the site makes it a better version of a public place.

2. Sagar park

It is an open ground owned by the municipal corporation mainly used for marriages, competitions, cricket matches, political rallies or meetings, festivals, etc. This place is situated at the heart of the city and is easy to access from anywhere. The neighbourhood around it has houses of political leaders, lawyers, etc. It is important to look at context while researching as these adjacencies and architecture shape the public spaces in that area.

While interviewing people on-site; an uncle said- “ I never used to come here for a walk but because of the pandemic all gardens are closed so I come here every day and one of the things I loved about this place is to watch the beautiful sunset, to see so many people doing different things.”

The site is a plain large open ground where people come to learn how to drive Among other things. Kids play football or cricket, children get into a bicycle or running races, the gym trainer comes with his group for a workout, old uncle aunties meet their friends every day.

In the evening, the edge of this place became a ‘Khau galli’ (food street). Food street vendors used to set up their stalls with attractive lighting and make them attractive for the customers. Whenever political rallies used to happen there, people would occupy the adjacent streets; standing on dividers, crowding building terraces along with the site. This ground would be used as a helipad when Jalgaon did not have an airport facility. Police would barricade the entire junction as a security measure. Big fat weddings make this place noisy but very attractive to people passing by.

While talking to the uncle, who has owned the street shop for 5 years on the edge of the ground and road; I came to know that there was one shop on the east side of the ground but he started seeing the number of people visiting this place and events happening here so he decided to open the shop. Opening a shop here was an easy option for him as the popularity of the place has increased over time and many people started visiting the place.

Recently the municipality fenced the ground from all four sides with the gate opening to the main road. Now the shop of this uncle is on the adjacent side, so the number of customers has decreased as people have to walk out and then go to the shop. Street food vendors are not allowed to set up their stalls. Now the crowd can not expand till the road or divider. This has resulted in monotony in terms of activities. In the evening people sit, chitchat, walk, jog and play. There is no other possibility to perform activities that will connect the road with the ground. The fence is defining the edge bluntly and not allowing the overlapping of activities, negotiations of claims. The growth of site qualities has been stunted in one sense.

3. Open space along the garden

This chowk is the most crowded place in the Mahabal area. Surrounded by a commercial complex on one side and government housing on the other. Dense vegetation happens on either side of the chowk. This chowk was developed by one food company 7 years ago. That became the first planned and designed chowk in Jalgaon.

It is planned in such a way that on all four sides of the chowk there are seating areas and walkways. These seating areas are wide and comfortable with granite stone. Throughout the day, people sit and take a rest. There are fountains and greenery to enhance the space. Tired vendors sometimes lie down on the grass and take a nap in the afternoon. In the evening the place becomes very crowded. So hawkers selling balloons, candies, and toys set up shop on side walkways. Dogs come there to drink water from the fountain. Sellers from other villages come there to sell pots, vegetables, fruits, clothes, shoes, plants, sometimes even furniture. This place is part of people’s livelihood.

Yuva shakti club has installed a newspaper reading booth. So old uncles visit the place every day; they have also formed their laughter club. Many competitions and programs happen at this place. In the rainy season there will always be a ‘Kille banva’ (castle made from mud) competition, so that passing by people can cheer and encourage children. A lot of other festive activities happen.

The planning of this chowk is allowing many activities to happen without any crowding mishap. This overlapping of activities and burring of claims has made that place a better public place.

4. Ratnavali chowk

This is the planned garden next to the Ratnavali chowk, it is one of the well-planned gardens in Jalgaon. It has a small amphitheatre, art gallery, exercise apparatus, jogging track and public toilet. The garden was recently developed by one company. The land comes under municipality ownership but the company has developed it into a garden. And the company is maintaining the place right now. As the garden is next to the active public square (Ratnavali chowk) there is always a crowd in the morning and evening hours.

The garden opens early in the morning at 5 ‘o’clock. Most of the people come for a morning walk with peaceful Marathi devotional songs. Now they allow only 20-30 people at one time because of a coronavirus outbreak. But it was locked for many months even after lockdown. The garden is particularly planned for walks and a kids play area with tall compound walls.

The whole street turns into ‘Jatra’ mode every evening. Toy, fruit, food vendors start sitting along with the gate and footpath. People from nearby settlements and colonies come with their kids. On the opposite side of the road Chinese, Bhel puri, ice cream vendors set up shop by 7 or 7.30 pm. For the next two hours, it feels like a carnival with bright and colourful lightings, balloons. By 9.30 pm everything closes and people start occupying the sitting areas in the chowk. Now, slowly the crowd moves from garden to chowk.

Before the place went under development, it was an open space with dense trees, one temple and a city water tank. After the development, it has given many facilities to the neighbourhood but it has a tall compound wall. It opens for a specific time and crowding happens. The beautification of the place attracts many people but that subconsciously restricts lower class people from visiting. The tall compound wall acts as a catalyst for not entering the garden. So even if the garden is well planned in terms of amenities, it is not able to afford all sorts of people from society. More than the garden, the street along the garden involves many transactional activities. The edge of this garden is very hard and rigid which is perceived differently (highly maintained and prohibited area) by common lower-class people.

Conclusions

From the research, comparison of all sites concludes -

The edge of the Mehran lake smudges the activities and claims on-site. It is organically formed by people and affords all types of practices. Adding a fence in Sagar park made that place monotonous in terms of activities. It restricts the free-flowing nature of activities. Whereas in Ratnavali chowk, the planning of the space allows all sorts of activities to happen. So the planning plays a crucial role in the workability of the space. ‘Bhaunche udyan’ is the planned garden but the edge condition fails the space to serve its function.

This research aimed at understanding the relationship between publicness and space. Many arguments have emerged in the research that talks about this relationship.

1. Publicness can be generated in a place by several factors, few of the factors that are highlighted in this study are that of:

Claim and clarity
Accessibility
Size and shape
Architecture and adjacencies
Edge condition
Activities and practices
Security and safety

2. The spatialities that increase the publicness of the space have been analysed through site studies.

1. Edge conditions- Edges of the open space holds a connection with the adjacencies, streets, space. The defined edge with a fence or compound wall resists the flexibility of the space which leads to monotonous activities. Hardening of the edge differentiates the spaces whereas soft edges let activities merge with surrounding and keep the flexibility of space. This increases interactions and the publicness of the space.

2. Proportion- The publicness of the space depends on the proportion of the adjacent built forms with respect to the open space. The width of the open space and the heights of the built form around it defines the user experience of the space. If the open space is huge and buildings are far away then interactions happen mostly on the edges. The central part of the ground does not get used as such. Also, these huge open spaces communities use for marriage or other cultural events leaves space littered thus edges become active.

Whereas if built forms are too close to each other then open space becomes less ventilated and a few times it turns into garbage spots for the buildings. The narrow dark, dingy open space between the buildings are not favourable for any activities to happen.

Thus the height of the built form and width of the space proportion must be within 1:5.

3. Neighbourhood type- If the open space is in the commercial area then most of the time it is used as a parking plot or informal market (bazaar) space. The open space loses its identity in market areas. Whereas in residential areas people use it in multiple ways like daily routine activities, independent sellers (thela valas), smaller events, etc. so neighbourhood around open space plays a crucial role in increasing its publicness.

4. Scale- The width of accessing or adjacent streets defines the usability of the open space. If the street is narrow then open space becomes part of the streets. Street starts overlapping with the open space. Vehicles and pedestrian movements increase but decrease the publicness. If the street is too wide then the total area of open space does not get used and transactional activities happen only on edge or street sideways. Thus the publicness of the open space increases with the moderate scale of open space with the street.

5. The functions within space- Most of the planned public spaces do not consider activities currently happening on site which also pushes away the transactional capacity of the space and also limits the activities to very specific. Whereas open spaces developed by people’s daily routine practices have higher publicness. Public space must involve all sorts of activities, practices, routines of the context and people. This will help the public space to work much better and increase the publicness.

3. Publicness does inform the spatial character of a place in several ways, few of the characteristics of publicness that were established in the study are as follows:

Overlapping of activities- Single-use or purpose spaces reduces in number with the increase in publicness. Spaces start affording many functions at the same time. The transactional capacity of the affordance of spaces, for different kinds of functions, increases with the increase in publicness. Space becomes multifunctional. The spaces begin to lend themselves for leisure, markets, waiting, respite, work, etc.

Smudgeness of the form- The above factors like edge condition, adjacencies, scale and proportions, helps in smudging the actual form of the space. The space starts shaping and building with these factors. The resultant reactions in the process of shaping- includes and excludes some part of the surroundings that change the shape-size of the form constantly. The messily smeared patterns and activities become an everyday part of the public space.

Blurring of claims- Different actors and bodies claim different spaces in public areas, where the blur between the private, semi-public, public keeps increasing. Even the spaces are carved for semi-public purposes through various kinds of claims and appropriations. This results in blurring the sense of ownership and privacy in a place.

To conclude, the publicness of space increases with the increase in smudgeness of form, blurring of claims and overlapping of activities in the open space.

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