Negotiating cultures : Delhi's architecture and planning from 1912 to 1962

This work is about the city of Delhi and its architectural and urban design styles from 1912, when the British Town Planning Committee for New Delhi was formed, to 1962, when the first Master plan was implemented. It examines, from a historical perspective - the process of hybridisation between cultures, local architecture, and urban planning. The work analyses architectural elements of the city of Delhi, to understand how foreign developmental models were indigenized, the resistance encountered in the process, and finally their adaptation to local architectural contexts. Used as a case study, the city of Delhi enables the author to explore the initial transition period when the mega-city was born and provides a crucial starting point to investigate the processes of globalization and urbanization. The major emphasis of this work is to reveal the underlying social relations emerging from the constant flux in style of architecture and its related elements in an urbanized area. The author deals with the complexities of 'multiple Delhis' with different or simultaneous pasts as well as with the various ways those pasts have been interpreted or contextualised, offering fresh insight into what is now happening in Delhi's built environment. Focusing on one of the largest megacities in the world—Delhi—this volume is a rare peek into the ineluctable process of hybridization between Indian and ‘other’ cultures within its local architecture and urban planning. The book explores a segment of the history of Delhi from 1912 through 1962, when the contemporary megacity was born, making a comparison between pre- and post-Independence, which is relatively neglected in academia. The author traces architectural and urban elements of the city of Delhi to understand how foreign developmental models were indigenized, the resistance encountered in the process, and finally their adaptation to local architectural contexts. Highlighting the complexities of ‘multiple Delhis’ with different or simultaneous cultural influences as well as with the various ways those influences have been interpreted or contextualized, the author offers a fresh insight into what is happening in Delhi’s globalized built environment nowadays. The book aims to unearth the social relations emerging from the constant flux in style of architecture and its related elements in an urbanized area. Negotiating Cultures' focuses on the city of Delhi, one of the largest mega-cities in the world, and examines from a historical perspective, the process of hybridization between cultures within its local architecture and urban planning from 1912 to 1962