Urban Design as a Frame for Site Readings of Heritage Landscapes: A Case Study of Champaner-Pavagadh, Gujarat, India

Abstract

Conservation of heritage sites in South Asia should be guided by a new post-colonial paradigm of thinking about cultural landscape. This paper proposes an urban design approach drawing upon Kevin Lynch's concepts regarding representation of time in place and visual perception of urban form such that cultural heritage landscapes are experienced not as artefacts but as places. Using Champaner-Pavagadh in Gujarat, India as a case study, the paper shows that urban design interventions can provide a framework for thoughtful and imaginative site reading and interpretation. The interventions use a different medium of expression than reproducing historical precedent—the attempt is not to mimic the past but to evoke it through a visual and spatial vocabulary of design.