ABSTRACT
In many old north Indian cities one can see evidence of two distinct paradigms of urban fabric. One could be called ‘traditional’ and the other ‘modern’, or one ‘Indian’ and the other ‘Western’. This and similar conditions in cities in the Middle East and North Africa—for example the ‘casbah’ versus the colonial settlement—have often been remarked on in terms of the contrasting figure ground relationship of space and built form. It is now commonplace for architects, urbanists and critics to remark on the virtues of the traditional paradigm but the reality is that it has a vanishingly small status in determining the shape of the rapid urbanisation currently in progress. It would be useful to understand the precise reasons for the change of paradigms and to assess what role the two paradigms should play and are likely to play in future development of cities. This chapter tries to clear some ground in the pursuit of these goals.
