100 IA&B - MAY 2009 1
CITY FOR THE PEOPLE Debashish Nayak and P V Nair introduce us to the efforts that have been taken in Ahmedabad to sensitise the city towards their heritage including educational trails and awareness programmes by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation as well as international collaborations. Photographs: Courtesy the authors
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NTRODUCTION Familiarity breeds contempt. Citizens get accustomed to their environment and gradually become less aware of it. The city becomes a habit. Herein lies the need to make the citizens aware of the importance of their built environment and to help them develop a harmonious and contemporary relationship with it. In a sense, urban renewal does not just rebuild the city; it rebuilds people’s relationship with the city. There lies a need that the old buildings and older areas of the city be looked upon as assets rather than as liabilities because they represent the history of communities, embodying their tradition, heritage and culture through architecture and the urban form. BACKGROUND Ahmedabad, a city with more than 600 years of continuous history and culture was founded by Sultan Ahmedshah-I on the ancient sites of Ashaval
1. Arts Reverie before and after conservation. 2. Binaben Bhrambhatt’s house before and after conservation.