Friday, February 13, 2009

ASSIGNMENT: MY STREET MY NEIGHBOURHOOD

AR-309: ARCHITECTURE AND TOWN PLANNING (B)
By

RAVINDAR KUMAR
Assistant Professor
Department of Architecture and Planning
NED University of Engineering and Technology
Karachi

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
TOPIC: ASSIGNMENT: MY STREET MY NEIGHBOURHOOD

1. Introduction:
A Street is a public thoroughfare in the built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A neighbourhood or neighborhood is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town or union council. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members.

2. Objective:
The objective of this assignment is to document the physical, social and economic characteristics and activities of the streets and neighbourhoods of our urban context of Karachi.

3. Reason for this assignment:
Some of the students in class are left alone and not a part of any group. They wanted to do an individual assignment instead of doing group work and feel that they can not clearly spell out their abilities and intellect in the group assignment. Therefore for those students who are not working with any group this individual assignment is designed so as they may individually do it in their own personal capacity.

4. Methodology:
The assignment "My Street My Neighbourhood" is very simple where a student will document the physical, social and economic conditions of his own neighbourhood. The methodology of this assignment is very easy for anyone who can draw a plan i.e. a base map and make its overlays showing physical social and economic activities in his street and neighbourhood through photographs and comments.

Step # 1: At first one has to locate his/her neighbourhood through free online available Google earth map and then save its picture and identify the boundary of his/her neighbourhood.

Step # 2: Draw or trace a base map of your neighbourhood showing all four streets around your house or appartment as well as other buildings surrounding your house. Mark or highlight your house / appartment in Red and all other buildings in light brown colour.

Step # 3: Visit all the four streets and take pictures of your neighbourhood showing the streets and buildings from any corner so as maximum view can be established. The pictures may also be taken to show the physical conditions of streets and problems in it such as water and sewerage overflow, garbage disposal, electricity, telephone, and cable wires etc Similarly document social and economic conditions such as people sitting and interacting in your street or the commercial enterprises shops in the neighbourhood, Fruit and Vegetable carts, beggars, eunuchs etc Thus; a whole day activity may be photographed.

Step # 4: Make maps overlays i.e. first a base map showing the boundary of the neighbourhood and your house / appartment in red highlight with name of streets and neighbourhood. Second map overlay showing the physical conditions and your observed problems with highlighting their location with different colours and legends. Third map overlay showing the social activities in your street with their identified space/location highlighted with different colours and legends. Fourth map overlay showing the economic activities in your street with their identified space/location highlighted with different colours and legends. Map overlay showing the Master Plan of proposed improvements in your neighbourhood.

Step # 5: Make report writing about an Introduction of your neighbourhood; it’s Location with map, observed Problems and identified issues with pictures on A-4 size paper, Reasons for those problems as observed or discussed with any elder of the neighbourhood, and proposed Recommendations for Improvements with a Master Plan. Complete the report with a Title page on A-4 Size paper and Maps maximum on A-3 Size paper. Ring bind the report and submit.

5. Submission and Deadlines:

The deadlines for each step are as follows:

Step 1: 27th February 2010
Step 2: 6th March 2010
Step 3: 20th March 2010
Step 4: 17th April 2010
Step 5: 1st May 2010

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