This book discusses the importance of socio-spatial patterns in cities that are embedded in the cultural heritage and self-understanding of a society, showing that Indian cities follow different urban concepts. In nine episodes (nine is a sacred figure), it highlights the principal influences and social impacts on cities from ancient times to contemporary city developments. As such, it provides planners and architects with insights that can easily be applied in contemporary cities and towns and help foster India's cultural heritage-a much-needed, but little-discussed approach. Indian cities are the result of various factors, some imposed, others following local traditions that shaped them. They were founded around social needs, landscape conditions and production routines, as well as the religious influences of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity and animism. However, Western town-planning models are often implemented, blurring the traditional way of life in cities. For sustainable town development, it is of key importance to find solutions that deal with Indian city models.

Autorentext

Renate Bornberg is the founder of buTa | bornberg urban theory and application. She is a lecturer at the TU Wien, Austria, and the editor-in-chief of the interdisciplinary Journal of Comparative Cultural Studies in Architecture (jccs-a). She is member of the board ICOMOS Austria and monitor for the World Hertage Site " Wachau/ Austria", as well as AAV of ICOMOS International. Renate Bornberg received her diploma in architecture and her PhD from the TU Wien, Austria. After working as an architect, she was lecturer at the University of Liverpool, and locum professor at the Leibniz University of Hanover, before she became a lecturer at the TU Wien. Her research focuses on comparative settlement structures in both, primitive and so called high cultures, including European and Non-European cities, villages and compounds. Of particular interest are the social implications that are embedded in the built environment.