SPACES Sept issue 2017

URBAN PLANNING
W
hat connects, can also divide; and roads probably
exemplify this the best. Many streets in the old
neighborhoods of Kathmandu Valley, where locals
used to socialize or children used to play, have changed to
become roads that divide neighborhoods like a knife cutting
a cake into pieces. The two sides of the road are no longer
the same single neighborhood that locals have known for
generations. Roads have partitioned communities with
vehicles dominating every possible inch of the space.
Our cities have been losing open spaces. Public lands have
been encroached – even by public authorities at times.
Buildings and shopping malls are dominating the urban
landscape in every imaginable way, creating their own traffic
and putting pressure on government to make space for more
vehicles by building roads or widening streets. And unlike
in old days, roads are not public space any more – they are
“exclusive” space for vehicles, whether moving or parked.
Pedestrians have been reduced to secondary users of roads
– a minority vulnerable to the verbal abuse from motorists.
STREETS AS PUBLIC SPACE
Old streets and pathways in the Valley served many functions
besides the obvious use of walking. Streets acted as an
extension of residential space where locals could socialize,
children could play, elders could sunbathe or farmers could
sun-dry grains. Houses were built without compound walls
– a rarity these days – and streets formed part of the built
environment linking houses with temples, bahabahi (Buddhist
monastries), chowk (courtyards), paati (resthouse), dhwakha
(town gates), ponds, and dhunge dhara (stone spouts). The
place belonged to everyone, and everyone belonged to the
place.
Streets also connected communities by providing space for
or rather by taking part in jatra (festivals), ritual processions,
and other socio-cultural and religious functions. Each of these
functions would have historically defined routes and thereby
streets or pathways.
36 / SPACES SEPTEMBER 2017