Re-imagining Public Spaces for Sustainability: Ranchi, India

A city is an agglomeration of activities that exist because of its users and must respond to their needs. The essence of a city lies in its ability to cater to public life and make the interactions between the users and the public spaces worthwhile. Local spaces like streets, markets etc. are the spaces used by the citizens regularly. To make the city a better place to live in, it is important to focus on the details of public spaces more than the designing of iconic structures. The Built Environment of urban areas has been experiencing constant growth as well as change over the years, but the poor ability of the built environment to adapt and sustain itself through the changes is leading to degradation of the cities. An ideal public space must be sustainable and adaptable to the changing environmental, social, cultural and economic patterns. Built environment comprises of various attributes which act as performance indicators for analyzing a chosen area. This paper identifies these indicators, using the literature studies conducted and uses them to study and evaluate a typical Indian market place in the city of Ranchi the capital city of the state of Jharkhand. The study is focused on exploring the ways in which the public spaces of an urban area can be made sustainable socio-culturally, economically and environmentally.


Introduction
Streets are most fundamental public spaces, but they are the most contested and overlooked. [9] In a city the street must be supreme. It is the first institution of the city. The street is a room by agreement, a community room, the walls of which belong to the donors, dedicated to the city for its common use. [1] The importance of reclaiming public space as walkable, livable and community based are some of the founding principles of public. [10] Public space without so much as a right of admission sign is open to anyone. It can reconnect communities and help forge constructive relationships for unity and

Introduction to Ranchi and Public spaces of Ranchi
Ranchi is a city located on the eastern side of the country, now the capital of the newly formed state Jharkhand, on the Chotanagpur plateau. The city of Ranchi was first brought into existence in 1834 during the British Rule as an administrative center, and was known as Kishanpur. Since then it has been growing in all realms to support its administrative base.
The rich mineral wealth of surrounding districts have also facilitated its growth in industrial, educational as well as health care. But this unstoppable growth has greatly affected the natural wealth, art and culture of the region.
The city is experiencing rapid growth, increasing mobility, high travel demand, increasing congestion, delays, accidents, environmental pollution and associated energy costs. An appropriate infrastructure for city's growth and sustainable development is imperative to ensure that the city becomes productive and competitive. Streets of Ranchi form its major public spaces. These are the places where most of the major public activities take place. They are the gathering spaces where people meet and interact with each other, shops/stores that cater to their needs and recreation spaces/food joints etc. where people can take a break from their hectic day and relax. These include the market areas, eateries, food joints, parks, public gardens, religious squares etc. The streets accommodate all the social activities and promote human interaction but they lack good design, facilities, organization and management.
Most of the streets are dominated with retailing and commercial leisure activities but lack serene and green spaces that can provide for rest and are accessible to all kinds of users like the elderly and children. They lack safe environment so that the pedestrians can walk fearlessly on the streets. The detailed study of this public space is illustrated later in this paper to support the above conclusions.

Aim
To understand the existing built environment of public spaces in the City of Ranchi, and suggest strategies to make them user friendly.

Objectives
To study the built environment of the public Spaces of Ranchi.
To understand the existing socio-cultural interactions.
To suggest strategies to make the Built environment of the public spaces user friendly, such that the present sociocultural activities can be sustained.

Limitations
The scope of this study is limited to the evaluation of the exterior built environment, which includes the streets, open spaces, exterior facades, trees, green spaces etc of one and the oldest public space of Ranchi. The research focuses of the urban conditions of the chosen study area. The built environment has been evaluated mainly on the basis of the how it can be perceived by people.

Inferences from Literature Reviews
As a part of place making tradition, a few design theorists and practitioners such as Lynch, Jacobs, Appleyard etc. worked to derive desirable qualities of effective urban design. [13] Well designed and well maintained details that are visually and aesthetically appropriate because in an urban setting people cannot go far away to see the entirety of the structures instead they tend to notice spaces between buildings, segments of architecture like entrances, thresholds, windows, facades etc. Inviting public open spaces like pedestrian pathways, open walkways, courtyard for gathering, covered arcades etc., to make people get involved in social activities and generate a sense of place in the users. [15] Interactive edges so that the gap between the physical space and social fabric can be bridged. [17] Transition zones between public and private with the help of architectural element like lively thresholds to blur the line between inside and outside. [15] Greater reliance on non-motorized for local travel. Mobile work places, ones that can be used by different types of people to perform a variety of activities. Wellconnected services and wide range of facilities and services. [16] Flexibility in arrangement of building blocks, short building blocks so that there are frequent opportunities to turn, overlapping of functions so that required services are within reachable limit, balanced envelop enclosing the street (not too claustrophobic and not to open), availability of wide range of transport modes well connected to the environment, adequate personal connections of the users with the city by signage, lighting, installations, wide range of experiences to keep the users engaged, physical and visual connectivity/accessibility of the market with the street making it less stressful and more safe, small installations of urban agriculture encouraging hybrid lifestyle, skyline should incorporate visual variations in form of building features and landscapes, established safety in the city by ensuring surveillance of public and semipublic spaces. [19] Creating a well-defined urban edge, maintaining similarity in building heights, building lines, roof slopes, widow types etc. can give a distinct character to the city. [20] The character of skyline depends upon massing of blocks, shape of roofs, and height of buildings etc. which decide the prominence of the buildings and define the skyline. [17] Streets, squares, parks and other open spaces should be enclosed by buildings that relate to the width and importance of the space. The quality of the public realm which include streets, parks, squares, and arcades, public depends on the arrangement of its parking, planting, lighting, orientation, shelter, signage, street furniture, the way it is overlooked and the routes which pass through it. [19] Well-designed public spaces should be functional parts of the pedestrian network and accessible to all types of users (elderly, children and handicapped). If streets and junctions act as public spaces rather than just traffic routes, they become more convenient. The type and amount of lighting on streets can define its importance. Biodiversity areas, plantings etc. can act as the central focus of a public space. [18] Facades can have features like colonnades, windows and other facade details that can generate interests in passers-by. Works of art and welldesigned street furniture integrated into of public spaces give identity and enhance sense of place. Street scape design should take account of the need for maintenance, resistance to vandalism and access to underground services. [18] A network of wellconnected spaces and routes for pedestrians as well as vehicles. Established footpaths, shortcuts and minor roads can become the basis of enduring linkages. Short linked-up streets can make places more accessible and encourage walking and cycling. Physical traffic calming measures along with proper arrangement of building and spaces should be considered as integral part of design. The layout and density of development can help increase accessibility to public transport. Public transport systems should be designed as an integral part of the public realm. It also helps create safe and secure pedestrian environments. [21] Pedestrian routes can be emphasized using planting. Main entrances should be easily identifiable so that it contributes to the ease of understanding of the space. Corner buildings provide identity and points of orientation, making them higher than surrounding buildings will emphasize their importance. Locating public uses shops on the corners of busy streets enhances activity and local identity. Roads should be built within the adaptable standards to cater to a greater variety of uses to be developed over time. [20] Memorability, legibility, Imageability and readability are the 4 qualities that define a user friendly city. Legibility can be defined as the mental image of the city held by its citizens and the ease with which the citizens move around in the space and recognize it. Readability is the ease with which the citizens can easily operate within the city limits. The ease with which the users understand the city and are able to use it. Imageability is the quality of a physical object which gives it high probability of evoking a strong image in any given observer. A highly imageable city is well formed, distinct remarkable and invites the human senses to greater participation and attention. [14] Some of the characteristics of a sustainable public space are accessibility for all kinds of users hence promoting equity, accommodation of multiple uses, fascinating vistas and pleasing visual experiences, safe and welcoming, encourage interaction among diverse cross-sections of society, reflects local culture and history, protects and enhances the environment and natural features, create a sense of place among the users by being legible and memorable, visually appealing and interesting and economically valuable to the rest of the Built Environment. [8] Development of urban environment has serious effects on the quality of global environment. It is an established fact that the process of urbanization produces radical changes in the environment of the region. Different layouts result in different microclimates with greater or lesser comfort. The livability of open spaces is significantly affected by environmental factors, all these factors directly affect the potential for comfort in urban spaces. [12] Methodology for the assessment of public spaces.
The above literatures have been used to understand the importance of environmental, social, cultural sustainability in the design of any urban space and identify a set of design parameters that are critical while assessing the sustainability quotient of any public space. These urban parameters are the various aspects of the urban built environment that collectively form its integral part and help determine its condition.
Visual observation, surveys, photography, videography and interview methods are used to study the area. The observations are represented in form of maps, tables and graphs. Each performance indicator has performance criterion on the basis of which a particular aspect is analyzed. The noted observations are compared with the performance criteria for measuring the condition of the existing public space. Once the existing condition is assessed strategies for the improvisation are proposed. The following flow chart elaborates the process followed in the research:

The oldest public space of Ranchi -Illustrated
The four major junctions in the CBD known as Firayalal chowk, Sarjana Chowk, Shaheed Chowk and Gandhi Chowk connect the street which is the oldest public space of Ranchi. This forms the center of the municipal area of Ranchi. These together form one of the oldest and till date the major commercial space in Ranchi. Two major roads; Mahatma Gandhi road and Hazaribagh highway intersect here with 3 other connector roads. It consists of retail stores, wholesale shops as well as mixed use buildings (with residences on the higher floors) at the periphery of the blocks. Institutional buildings (Ranchi University, St Xavier's College, Zillah School and Sadar Hospital) and public semipublic buildings like banks and telephone offices form the interiors of these blocks. All the other activities that include vehicular movement, pedestrian movement, movement of non-motorized vehicles, hawking, waiting, social interactions as well as parking take place on the road.  Most buildings are old and have been built using locally made bricks or concrete blocks.

Municipal limit of Ranchi city Major junction in the CBD
The materials used for façade improvizations are usually modern materials like alumunium cladded panels, exterior glass panels etc that are imported from other cities.

ECOLOGY AND GREENERY
 Incorporation of urban or vertical farms  Green buffers  Trees for shading purpose  Green facades and terrace gardens No trees or green spaces are present on the street. All green spaces/trees located within institutional campuses.
There is no space on the street that can be used as buffer zone between the buildings and the carriage way, where trees can be planted to cut out the vehicular noise from the pedestrian and private realam.
Trees are found haphazardly placed in the area. Most of the time blocking the natural light fron entering the buildings.
None of the public areas have been shaded using trees or any other form of plant material.  There are many nurseries in the interiors but these are not used as social spaces and are known to very few people.
There are two lakes located within a radius of a kilometer from this commercial area. None of these lakes have been developed in a way that they can act as social public spaces.
All the shops open directly on the street. Blank institutional boundries are also outlined by hawkers.
Scarce street furniture. People usually sit on their bikes, in their cars or on road sides while waiting for others, eating from the roadside food stalls or even shopping from hawkers. At many places hawkers place a plank across the drains to lay their carts.
No provision of dustbins on the street. (when questioned people said they throw garbage in the corners and in the drain because that's where they are supposed to throw and it will be picked up from there) Only few tall buildings provide some shade on the road in some parts of the street. Very few trees haphazardly located between the buildings.  Major areas are well lit but pleanty of dark unused spaces also exist.
Lighting on streets has not been creatively used to seggregate activities and highlight some areas.
Memorable because of the presence of very old institutions and one of the first few fashion stores. These buildings have become the identity of the space.
Most of the corner buildings are in the background. Foreground is occupied by hawkers and street vendors. These generate a lot of activity on the street but their unorganised placement leads to chaos.
All institution buildings and the old stores act as landmarks. Most of them also act as major activity nodes.
A number of pathways exist but lack of edges decreases legibility and equity. Unorganized streets lead to unsafe environment.
No distinguished architectural character. The architectural character of the old buildings are either hidden behind the huge hoarding or are too dilapidated to appreciate.  A combination of institutuionl, commercial and offfice buildings.
General use stores, food stalls, banks, hawkers etc. are at a walkable distance from institurional buildings and offices. This leades to a large amout of interaction between the activities and uses.  Adequate open spaces available but due to poor organization they become congested and are misused. These spaces are sometimes encroached by parking and sometimes used as a dump yard.
The main street caters to various kinds of traffic. The shoppers, students, workers, professionals, servicemen and also the passersby. Some of them are the users of the activities located there while some just use the road as a connector. The commercial and institutional buildings are directly seen from the street and the residential buildings are located towards the interiors.
Most of the landmark buildings have huge footprint and height but most of them are used as a land mark because of their age and not their built form.
The roof shape and other architectural details that dominate the visual appearance of the skyline are mostly hidden behind hoardings.
Most of the structures are huge in size. The old ones were previously used as residences with shops on the ground floor.
Most of the old structures that were residences have been converted into shops or warehouses.
Most of these old structures are unrestored and in dilapidated conditions. New uses have been applied to many old buildings but without any restoration of the existing. Higher floors have also been built on top of these dilapidated structures.

VISUAL
The materials used and the historic architecture styles in some cases are hidden behind hoardings .The local construction materials are bricks , cement , sand, mud etc. but some materials like stone, granite, marble and other cladding materials are being imported for new buildings.

PATTERNS OF PEDESTRIANS AND VEHICLES
 Culturally induced movements add a sense of tradition to the place and make the people feel more comfortable  Well seggregated movements make the space comfortable, accessible and safe  Spaces where movements collide must be well designed for safety and ease Most of the movements in these areas are culturally induced. Thee have developed over time due to the activities located there.
Neither are the activities nor the movements are well seggregated. This threatens the safety and accessibility of the space.
Major strategies that need to be implemented to boost the sustainability of the space For a complete walking experience it is important to have good vistas. Half built structures in combination with finished facades look ugly. It is necessary to maintain a uniformity to make the area visually appealing. Exposed brick and concrete structures decorated with painted ornaments gall fenestrations etc. can help to make the space look beautiful. The shapes of the roofs and heights of the buildings must go well with the surroundings. Policies on restriction of heights and types of roof can help in maintaining the uniformity of the area.
Improvisation in infrastructure will improve the safety, accessibility and aesthetics of the area. This will help in boasting the economic growth of the area. Poor awareness among the users can fail all the policies and planning strategies, hence it is important to spread awareness among the users about the importance of enhancing the infrastructure and how they can contribute towards it.
The byelaws of Ranchi provide for rain water harvesting to be made compulsory for all new constructions. A policy to incorporate it into the existing structures should also be included into the byelaws. Solar harvesting should also be made compulsory for all institutional and commercial buildings. Solar street light system should be used to aid solar heat harvesting. Lights must planned creatively so that they highlight important nodes, segregate different activities and do not leave out dark and hidden areas.
Most of the new buildings have blank facades with no operable fenestrations, this has led to increase in use of AC and artificial lights. Providing windows and balconies will reduce the use of artificial ventilation to bare minimum. This option will be energy saving and economical.
Garbage collection should be regularized. Provision for segregation of waste at the source must be provided. To enforce such policies efficiently, it is important to make people aware about the importance and methods of waste segregation. Drains must be covers and properly planned in order to avoid overflow. The slopes of streets and sidewalks must be well designed for easy flow of water towards the drain.
The old buildings that now house new uses should be made visually appealing and enhanced structurally. Such buildings display the traditional architectural details existing in their era and help the people to relate and connect to their history. To make the space legible, entrances and thresholds must be highlighted. Appropriate use of hoardings and ornamentation can be used to highlight the entrance and planters can be used to highlight the thresholds.