Understanding the Role of Architectural Elements in Facilitating Social Interaction for a Sustainable Community Living - A Case Study of Walled City of Amritsar, India

Abstract

Sustainability of a community is an intrinsic social process and social interaction plays a key role in this. Due to urbanisation, there is a high demand in the city for housing. However, for people, there is a physical and emotional association to their community they are living in. This is getting lost in the current trend of housing development. In such a development, what gets built loses the fundamental values of living together in terms of social interface and quality of life. This coupled with today’s technologically dependent era, people are busy with their works and barely know their neighbours. The current model of development fails to retain shared spaces and the notion of collective living and further favours individualism. Hence, there is need to understand aimed at understanding how the effect of spatial relationship, the architectural feature and character of the cluster, help sustain co-living.

This paper focuses on understanding community living within the core city of Amritsar. The study was carried out through a survey and documentation of various identified community clusters in the walled city. It includes analysis of a cluster and individual units with respect to their arrangement and building elements that facilitate social interaction.