The last century has been about the march of the Indian city; by

2030 cities in our nation will be responsible for 70 percent of

employment generation and GDP. Thus cities are an unavoidable
topic in the future of Indian cities.
Flux in urban spaces - fuction
The current Indian city presents itself as an organism
constantly evolving to its ever changing situation, the story of
food grains and fruits and vegetable market in Georgetown is a
testament to this. The significance of the this market dates back
to the 1950s a time when India was dependent on import of food
grains, though with time with the growth of the city and change in
the source of food grains (though pulses are still imported) and
the ultimate shifting of the groceries market (fruits, vegetables,
spices, food grains) the area finds itself in a transition phase,
cultural demographics in the area tell a similar story, with the
area historically seeing the influx and exodus of people of varied
cultures.
Flux in urban spaces - time
The flux in the streets of Sowcarpet can also be experienced in
time. The scene on the street in the morning is an unusual one as
far as cities are concerned, one of cows grazing on fodder
provided by the community, this activity can be attributed to the
religious belief the people who consider cows sacred. The cows
belong to marginal community in the area, the Yadava naidus who
are employed in their hereditary occupation of providing milk to
the surrounding community, though their contributions may be
meager they are supported by the community, the local jain
religious establishments also provide nourishment to the
underprivileged. As the day progresses the commercial

establishments open up and the street bustles with activity of

people and goods being transferred, with activity peaking early in
the evening, as the evening progresses the tempo slows with
those engaged in goods transfer within the area closing up shop
and calling it a day at the tea shops and juice shops located
mostly in at street intersections, lighting up these areas during
this time of the day. Late at night in the early hours of the
morning the trucking agencies spring into action located mainly
on walltax road and the wider Annapillai and Audiappa naiken
street intersections on walltax road.
Much of this metamorphosis happens in an unregulated
fashion with communities forming their own institutions in areas
they newly populate. This leads to rampant violations and
unfinished edges as Rahul mehrotra describes. With commercial
establishments pouring out onto already meager streets and
unplanned street edges.
Policy
Insufficient policy interventions are attributed to the lack of the
role of architects in planning for a structured urban landscape,
leading to ostentatious adherence to policies. Though the root
cause of the problem is the deficiency in the database of patterns
of the Indian city, income distribution maps, transit commuter
diagrams, employment statistics are not enough to explain the
existence of the Indian city. These do not explain the socio
cultural patterns of the people and their imprint on the city in the
form of the institutions they set up, forging a character for the
space they inhabit. The Victorian British attempts at establishing
character with their Indo sarcenic and neo classical infrastructure
were those of representation of power, thus distancing itself from
the people.
Imagability

One approach at looking at cities has its roots in gestalt

perception of visual spaces to form patterns using the
relationships of elements with each other and their surroundings,
this leads to the ordering of elements to form entities that can be
used to make sense of these spaces. The Kevin lynch approach to
public image of a city, observation based on above principles to
create 5 elements of the image of a city the path, edge, node,
district, landmark. Path being the channel through which the
observer moves observes the city, edge the boundary between
two phases, break in continuity, held together by organizing
elements, district medium to large sections of the city that the
observer mentally enters, recognizable for having a common
identifiable character, node strategic spots into which one may
enter. They may be primarily junctions, crossing of paths or
moments of shift of one structure to another. Nodes may become
foci of the district over which their influence radiates the concept
of the node is related to the concept of the path and district since
junctions are typically convergences of paths, and cores behave
as foci of districts. Landmarks external points of reference that
the observer does not enter. The identification of the landmark
relies on the distinction in form of the object in question from its
surrounding and the prominence of spatial location.
In the current context the case of the hidden Jain temples of
Sowcarpet are an interesting case for the above system of
analysis, the Jain temples of Sowcapet do not have the luxury of
inhabiting intersections as compared to some of their Hindu
counterparts in the region. Due to the scale of the streets, the
temples that one would otherwise consider as defining elements
in the precinct of a particular community, are lost in a sea of
continuous wall to wall built forms, the character of Sowcarpet is
defined by the activity taking place on the street, the food the
people eat, the clothes they wear, the language they speak,
rather than the built form of the institutions of the community.

Case for haptics

As seen above a mere occulocentric approach to explaining
the region may turn out to be misleading to the observer. Due to
the fact that rapid motorized transport that detaches our bodies
from the street a factor that has led to the degeneration of our
cities into a series of images is impossible here, the site lends
itself to other modes of observation.
A meaningful architectural experience is not merely a series
of retinal images, rather the nuances of the space becomes an
active ingredient in the bodily interaction with the space. The
experience of home is an example of the above condition, an
experience that is described with verbs describing activities
rather than nouns. The condition in which a space rests in the
memory of the observer; whether mere progression of images or
as a vivid sensory experience determines the quality of the space.
An architectural space condenses space time and matter into a
singular dimension and the space become the very ingredient of
our existence.
The process of design itself is a testament to the invalidity of a
mere ocularcentric approach to the experiencing of a space, the
designer internalizes the landscape, the landscape, context and
the entire functional programme as well as the balance scale and
the conceived journey inside are felt unconsciously. As the
observer moves inside the space and his body interacts with the
space, it mimics the experiences of the architect.
The conception of architectural scale is the measuring of
objects or buildings with our body, the projection of the body into
the space in question.
The task of architecture is to create a space that is an
embodied and lived in metaphor that concretizes and structures

our being in this world. Thus architecture helps us perceive and

understand the given area, the dynamics of change and
permanence and place ourselves in the continuum of time.
Square and street
In such examples of organically developed high dense
settlements evolve their own typologies of public spaces taking
the example of the japanese context where architects have tried
to involve themselves in the process of bringing the plaza into an
asian context, attempts of architects such as kisho kirokawa have
been met with partial success , the japanese context is also
relatable owing to the dependance of activity on the street and
the evolution of semi public spaces on the street. The shinjuku
protests are seen as landmark in the story of evolution of spaces
for public democratic congregations, a case where the shinjuku
railway station became the site of protests, the nature of
congregation must also be seen in an asian context whether it be
japanese festivals or the festival processions of hindu temples
and their maada veedhis, the evolution of the street as a public
space taking into account the kinectic nature of mass
congregations in our cultural context as compared to the more
historically recent static nature of democratic protests.
Having identified the streets as the primary public space
available to the people living here, the users of the public space
seems to have a cultural bias, with the hidden jain temples of
sowcarpet we have established the subservience of the jain
culture to hindu culturein the area in terms of nodal points, a
similar coclusion can be drawn in terms of distribuition of public
spaces, streets accomodate the cultural congregations of the
hindus that are processionary in nature whereas the jains have to
build separate community halls to accomodate their cultural
congregations.

But culture is only one aspect of the use of the street as a

public space, commerce the historically significant activity in the
area uses the street and seems to have a cross cultral unifying
effect, the street in the area decides the occupation regarless of
culture, we see jains participating in different commercial
activities in different streets.