Assessing Urban Morphology and Spatial Histories Through Space Syntax: Case of Varanasi, India

Abstract

In an urban fabric, the physical manifestation of urban form, which is perceived on the ground, has manifold layers of evolutionary decisions behind it. These layers may include the conditions of the physical terrain, the social relationships of people, the cultural practices, the economic conditions, or the community’s position in the urban ecosystem. With the advent of globalization, the communities that have evolved through localized traditions that include the built environment get exposed. There is a massive diversity of urban forms within and among the different urban traditions of the historical and traditional cities. While investigating the case of traditional cities, it is necessary to take a deeper look at the urban form and associated contextual data to understand the various formal and informal logics that inform the city’s urban form. There are two conceptual ways to study it: Spatial histories and the history of places. Where narratives by indwelling communities can play a key role in understanding the history of places, the idea of understanding spatial histories is still under exploration. Here, the space syntax technique is useful for understanding the spatial evolution of the urban fabric over a significant period. The present study uses space syntax to understand the urban morphology of the built fabric and study it through two different sets of maps (1928 and 2018) to develop a morphological understanding of the city. The study correlates it with the narratives observed on the ground. Varanasi is explored as a case study in the present paper. The study concludes that the morphology of a place is like a history written in the urban grain itself and hence may provide a plethora of information that would otherwise be lost, altered, or completely skipped from the collective historical narratives.