InBetween Work and Live
Spatial shifts in Sakkarsaath
Abstract
This thesis aims to observe into the distinct work / life dynamic that developed across a street in the inner area of Sakkarsaath in the northern part of the city of Amravati. ‘Niche dukaan, upar makaan’ isn’t a new concept in spatial and typological studies of neighborhoods across cities in India. Such mixed use pattern has been merited to counter the high polarisation that functional segregation principles of modern planning brought in Indian cities. While the spatial aspects of such mixed use indicate non-generic results, their effect on social life vary from place to place.
Sakkarsaath followed the 'niche-dukaan upar makaan' typology format, but did not show signs of merging of commerce and domesticity, rather they existed as highly segregated spaces while being within the same unit. Over the years, the street morphing, the commerce began spilling, while the domestic quietly and slowly confined itself. In here, I’ve tried to argue about how this typology, which would be assumed to bridge the gap between work and life, did not work in the specific market of Amravati.
Through conversations with members of several households along the street, I have tried to unpack the ways in which morphing spatial conditions detach them with the environment on one hand while compelling them to reinvent new geographies of sociality on the other. I map the domestic life as it unfolds within the commerciality of the neighborhood while opening up the in-between conversations. In the end, it asks the question about the spatial imagination of the typology, its shortcomings, and the adaptability between the aspect of work and life.
Research Question
How has the typology of ‘niche dukaan, upar makaan’ evolved through its negotiations between domestic, commercial, and neighbourhood needs over time?
Research Aim
This thesis aims to study the change in the typology(work/ live) of a street in Sakkarsaath, Amravati, and to track the transformations and negotiations that occurred across the years in a few of the units on the site. How this change affected the units at an individual level and, in turn, changed the neighborhood itself.
Research Objective
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How people occupy these spaces.
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How does the transformation of space happen across some units?
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Changes in the connections of people in the neighbourhood
Theoretical Framework
Keywords
Home
Work
Typology
Boundaries
Negotiations
To whom is the space serving to?
How does segregation of space occur?
What pushes for these transformations?
Division of space and function
Domestic Constraint
Commercial Expansion
Changing Aspirations
How has the space transformed in the past few years?
Loss of shared space
Commercial logistics reshape the street
Aspect that fuel these negotiations
Elements that are morphed
Intergenerational shifts in values
Modern living
Desire for privacy
Extensions of plinth
Division of space according to function
Loss of neighborhood social cohesion
Diminished sense of home
Site Introduction
Sakkarsaath, Amravati
Amravati is a district in the eastern part of Maharashtra known as Vidarbha. The city lies in the midst of the Mumbai-Kolkata highway, nearly 150 kilometers from Nagpur. Being a mercantile city, nearby tribes constantly attacked it, and thus, the town was surrounded by walls (Old Amravati) on all sides. After the British came to Amravati, they extended the city outside the walls and built several governmental buildings and left space for markets. On the outskirts of the northern part of these walls lies ‘Itwara Bazaar’. Along the north wall and adjacent to ‘Itwara’ lies Sakkarsaath neighbourhood, which used to host the biggest informal market of Amravati. During the 1910s, after the bazaar was set up, all the existing vendors were shifted by the British to Itwara, and the land was vacated for their own expansion.
During this very time, when my great-great-grandfather and his family and friends migrated from Rajasthan and settled here they were allotted the land of Sakkarsaath, for this was the place where most grain merchants settled. Slowly, the Marwadi community in this neighbourhood began settling by developing their shops and subsequently their homes.
Typology of the neighborhood
'Niche dukaan, upar makaan'
While building, the homes were placed right above the shops, to provide more area for the shops to cover on the ground floor, provoking the ‘Niche dukaan upar makaan’ typology. By the late 90s and the early 2000s, a blend of commerce and domesticity was happening in the neighborhood and the shops. Even after occupying the majority of the floor-to-street connection, it offered a sense of familiarity for all the residents that allowed them, especially women and kids, to get down, roam in the street, and enjoy the neighborhood. People often used to sit in each other’s shops, meander on the streets, and life was formed in the commerciality. Every home used to share a wall, and that allowed the neighbors to be involved in the day-to-day life of every home. Because the neighborhood emerged with a particular group of people, there was no hesitation or sense of the unknown in the shop or the neighborhood itself. Usually, the staircase access was in the back of the shops to avoid hindrance in everyday commerce, and services were shared across the unit. Every home was built with a courtyard, which again was sometimes shared amongst homes, and walls used to have cut-outs on each floor for families to share life.
Analytical Framework
Field plan and methods
The analysis of the household was conducted through a semi-structured interview, with different members of the residence (if they still live in the home or nearby), across 7-8 units. These conversations then served as a medium to list down several incidents that sparked the negotiation and served as key moments for transformations across the units.
The first question is to inquire about “Who are the household members and how did they get here?” This was meant to understand the history of the unit and how it evolved in terms of architecture and the number of people.
The second question, “Since when are you managing this shop, and what does having and managing your own shop mean to you? And how often do you get to climb up?” This was meant to understand the influence of commerce on the people and the neighbourhood, right from when they grew up.
The third question, “What aspirations are something that you hold close from when you were a kid, and how do they translate to your kids?” It centers around understanding the value of different members of the family hold for the space and how it affected their past, present, and future choices.
I approached all of this through 3 different dimensions. First is by looking at the typology, to look at how the individual unit emerged and how it is functioning from when it was first made. I tracked these shifts by examining the changes, morphology, changes in the family itself, and different affordances the space offers.
Next is tracking the negotiations/ conversations that sparked these changes. How did one evolve with the home and shop, and when and what did the need for change occur?
Lastly, the impact of the changes and negotiations that were made over time, and the boundaries they created. Even if the typology was created to merge the aspect of work and life, it was done so through the lens of a patriarchal way, and over time, as people grew, there were changes in aspirations, functionality of the home, organization of a workspace, and certain requirements were generated.
Stories
While on the feild study, I had the chance to go to most of the units which were actively working as shops but were abandoned above. Others though had what few of the people who still reside in the neighborhood.
While talking to people about the negotiations, their values regarding the home and the shop, multiple instances came out that pushed the boundary between these two aspects which resulted in people breaking of their touch with their surrounding.
I recorded these observations and instances and tried to show them across different units in the drawing through sections, these instances then become the case study so as to understand the reason for the aspect of work and life being compromised in this particcular neighbourhood.
Conclusion
The stories reveal how in a neighbourhood which deals with the aspect of work and life after a certain point collapeses upon itself when both of them start to grow. Being situated along a limited, tight street, in this certain typology, and the certain kind of market, it becomes difficult to look after both. The stories serve as small conversations with the building type that in time divide the aspect, the shops increasing and accomodating their plinths for the transport vehicles to safely unload the grains, heavy vehicles being allowed more and more deeper on the street so as to make the transactions easier, the sense of unfamiliarity for new members of the neighbourhood trying to navigate their way through the dense market, how certain affordances inderectly puts up restrictions on certain body in terms of accessing the street, these negotiations are repeated across the neighbourhood almost like a pattern. In this particular case, these pushed the home on the backside of the area and made the shops its main focus and functionality. The land which was once a neighbourhood of gatherings, familiarity, deployed a sense of home, a home which consists of the entire typology, where everything is working in a certain harmony. In time, this harmony then disrupts by expanding the market whilst confinig the homes within itself, which then drove the residents out of the neighbourhood looking for ‘proper homes.’ The changing aspirations, lifestyle and values also play an important role in all of this. The market still flourishes and plays an important role in supplying basic ingrediants in and out of the city so much so that Amravati gets known for providing food grains in a wholesale market.
I try to show all of the negotiations, the boundries they create and the change in the typology itslef that occurs over the years when the commerce of the neighbourhood tends to grow driving the domesticity out.