Download - Delhi Heritage City

Medieval And Colonial Capital Cities Of DelhiDESCRIPTIONplots, and wide areas of park between the public buildings, making Delhi one of the greenest cities in Asia. Arange of avenues from a modest 70 ft to 260 ft, fan out from Rajpath towards the south of the city giving accessto the bungalows. Rotaries and hexagons much like mini‐gardens with frangipani, Asoka trees, and bushes ofbougainvillea in myriad hues. Flowerbeds, seasonal flowering trees and bushes, shrubs and creepers bordered thelawns. Dense hedges that enclose the bungalow properties act not merely to keep away the dust and serve aswind‐breakers but also mellow the noise of the traffic from the street. The road system with its elaborateroadside planting is an important attribute of the planned city of New Delhi and is therefore a valuable part ofDelhi’s heritage.The greenscape of the city is an expression of the much talked about ‘Garden City Concept’. An overwhelmingmajority of the trees species are evergreen or semi‐evergreen. The spacing of the trees along the avenuesprovides much needed shade to counter the extreme heat of north Indian summers. The decidedly Indianambience is because three‐quarters of the species are Indian natives, viz, jamun, tamarind, neem, fig, laburnum,gulmohar, jacaranda,etc.The largest trees, most significant in shape and densest of foliage are along the approaches to the city’s mostimportant buildings (the Jamun is along the central vista) while smaller tree species with lighter foliage and a lessdefined canopy are along roads considered less important.The visual impression of spaciousness that contributes to Delhi’s uniqueness is because a single species is plantedalong the entire length of a particular road . In one instance only, along Willingdon Crescent, there is a changewhere an alternate planting of two tree species is visible.A particular tree species is not confined to a single street but extends to a series of adjoining streets. A journeythrough them has the character of journeying through an integrated planting design. The Jamun trees along theRajpath is accompanied by a converging plantings of jamun trees along Raisina Road and Motilal Nehru Marg. Theview from India Gate up the Rajpath is accompanied by radiating views up Akbar Road and Ashoka Road withmatching plantations of Arjun trees and up Prithviraj Road and Curzon Road with matching plantations of NeemTrees. The planting of Arjun trees along the roads leading into Connaught Circus, continues in the planting ofArjun trees along the Janpath.The mature trees are internal green reserve within a vibrant, swiftly growing metropolis. Perhaps no other city inthe world boasts of such elaborate roadside planting!An integral feature of the city is the housing south of Rajpath for senior bureaucrats set within large treedominatedcompounds that create enduring symbols of power within the planned city. The bungalows arespread across the angled roads that are shaded by avenue plantation. In New Delhi, there was a strict hierarchyof accommodation according to rank or precedence of the British official. The bungalows of the senior officialshad upto seven bedrooms, and those for lesser ranks ranged from three to six bedrooms. What is visible today isa range of sizes and types.Each bungalow is sprawled in its plot of land, in some cases covering several acres. Each bungalow comprises of aseries of rooms and spaces with often little or no connection to the grounds outside. In contrary to the havelihouse form where the gardens and open spaces lay inside the shell of the building, for bungalows, the exactopposite is true.31‐07‐2012 INTACH, Delhi Chapter 16