An Urban Development Strategy for New Aruna Nagar, Majnu Ka Tilla, Delhi
J. Schmitt (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
N.J. Mota – Mentor (TU Delft - Public Building and Housing Design)
R.C. Rocco – Mentor (TU Delft - Spatial Planning and Strategy)
J.A. van de Voort – Mentor (TU Delft - Architectural Engineering)
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Abstract
This project is an architectural reaction on the sociopolitical circumstances, which the Tibetan diasporic community in India is currently exposed to. Based on a profound investigation of the cultural, political and economic situation and an architectural endavour to three places within the Tibetan diaspora in India and two places in Tibet, the architectural intervention presented in this report tries to develop an architectural language that mediates between the different social and thereby spatial conflicts identified.
Designing in this highly sensible cultural context implies a strategy for sensible, historically informed preservation and continuation of Tibetan building culture on the one hand, but on the other hand also an attempt to address the needs of a modernized, cosmopolitical young generation.
The location chosen for the intervention, New Aruna Nagar, Majnu Ka Tilla, Delhi, in interesting in many ways. First and foremost, is the central point of intersection for the Tibetran diasporic community, being spread to the entire world. Furthermore, it is located in the north of Delhi, a modern, vibrant and busy metropolis, which creates a lot of friction considering that traditionally, Tibetans were a largely rural and even nomadic as well as a highly religious people. Third, it is one of the few settlements in the Tibetan diaspora in India that organically grew in confrontation with Indian culture, whereas most of the initial refugee settelments were intentionally meant to keep the Tibetan exile community isolated from the Indian host society. Therefore I believe, many major transformations within the Tibetan diaspora have their roots in New Aruna Nagar.